Took the plunge - bought an iPhone!

[disneysteve]

After months of research and debate, I finally decided it was time to upgrade to an iPhone. I headed over to the AT&T store today and I'm now the proud owner of an 8GB 3G iPhone. It was $100. Since we are already AT&T customers, this will add $30/month to our bill. HOWEVER, I discovered while at the store that my wife's employer actually qualifies her for a discount on our account - 24%!!! The guy helping me just casually asked where she worked (the account is in her name). All we have to do is have her sign a form and fax it with a copy of her ID badge or pay stub. The discount will pretty much equal the added cost of my iPhone which is great. It is also good because my wife is pretty sure that she wants to get one, too, but was hesitant for us to spend an extra $60/month. This way, it won't be that much. We're going to both play with my phone for a week or so and she can see if she likes it before making her final decision.

I've got it connected right now installing the current software version. After that, I'll start searching through apps. I know I want to get the one from my bank and a few others. My daughter has some fun games on her iPod touch that I may get.

If you have any favorite "must-have" apps, tell me about them.

[rob62521]

Congrats, Disney Steve!

[JanH]

Congrats! The kids have the iphones. They have all kinds of wonderful apps including music information and chords for those who teach/play music. All at the push of a button. DD has gotten a waterproof/shockproof case because of hard usage. DIL had an issue with battery running down quickly, but DS told me today that it was apps running in the background like those that scan for emails constantly or something because of work stuff. She had to switch some things to manual instead of automatic. If I ever get one, I'm definitely going to have to get a tutorial from those kids! Enjoy the phone!

[Like2Plan]

Congrats!

Some of my favorite APs: (free ones. )

Flixster--tells you what's playing at the nearest movie theaters

Big Day Lite--it is a countdown (in my case, it tells me how many days 'til I retire )

Photobucket-use it to upload pictures.

Around Me--tells me about shops and restaurants nearby

Woot Watch--(Woot sales.)

Shazam (can tag songs and find out the song titles)

Tune Wiki (displays the lyrics of songs being played)

3 APs that download books--(though, I'm not sure that I like reading off the little iPhone screen.)
B&N Reader
Ereader
Kindle

Flashlight (turns iPhone screen into a "flashlight")

There are lots of News APs Here are a few:
USA Today
MSNBC
ABCNews
APmobile
NewYork Times
TimeMobile
ESPN Score Center
College FB

iheartradio (plays your favorite radio station)

iAmerica (pocket guide to United States History and the Presidency)
Constitution
Declaration of Independence
Dictionary!

AppMiner--find out about new APs (and sale prices on APs)

[kri$ten]

Welcome to the club. I LOVE my iPhone! Have fun with yours.

[disneysteve]

DIL had an issue with battery running down quickly, but DS told me today that it was apps running in the background like those that scan for emails constantly

My partner just told me the same thing. How often the phone refreshes the e-mail affects battery life.

Some of my favorite APs: (free ones. )

Thanks for the list.

[ktmarvels]

DIL had an issue with battery running down quickly, but DS told me today that it was apps running in the background like those that scan for emails constantly or something because of work stuff.

Can't quite help cause I have a droid, but we have apps that will find apps that are running and you can select to turn them off. Our version is called "task manager" or something like that. It would surprise me if the iPhone didn't have one.

[am_vanquish]

Congrats, DS! We're in almost the exact same situation as you. Just found out I get a 20% discount on AT&T services, so DW got an iPhone for her b-day in January. I've been playing with hers & I'll probably wind up getting one next month for my b-day.

As far as apps go, here's the ones I remember (I'll check with her to see if which ones I'm forgetting):
(1) The Weather Channel - MUCH better than the standard weather program provided by Apple
(2) Yelp - Gives reviews/ratings of just about everything - restaurants, theatres, hotels, etc.

They also have a LOT of profession-related apps. She's in nursing school and purchased app-versions of a few reference manuals (pharmacology, drug/dosage calculations, etc) as well as note-cards for classes like med-surg. These tend to be a bit more pricy, but she claims it's worth it to have everything at her fingertips without carrying around all the books.

[Ronin]

Congrats on the iPhone purchase, now all you need to do is Jailbreak it to make it really valuable

[disneysteve]

Congrats on the iPhone purchase, now all you need to do is Jailbreak it to make it really valuable

I'm generally one of those boringly honest people so I probably won't be doing this (at least not during the warranty period ).

[Ronin]

I'm generally one of those boringly honest people so I probably won't be doing this (at least not during the warranty period ).

Haha I don't blame you, after the one year warranty its not a bad idea , lots of useful free apps available (they are not pirated apps). You'll enjoy the iphone and you'll learn you can't live without it!!!

[disneysteve]

Right now, I'm exploring the world of podcasts. I always used to listen to books on tape in the car but haven't done that for years. Now, I can download and listen to all kinds of things. Yesterday, I got Saturday's Suze Orman show and listened to that. I'm also getting the Freakonomics show which sounds really interesting.

I have an old adapter from a portable CD player that lets me play the iPhone through the car stereo. I tried it this morning and it worked great. I discovered last night that the iPhone doesn't get loud enough to hear it well on it's own when I'm on the highway. Now that I can play it through the stereo, I'm all set.

[JoshuaHeckathorn]

Welcome to the world of crazy iPhone users...my wife and I sometimes have to agree to put them away so we can actually have a nice conversation at dinner from time to time.

If you're a Podcast lover, check out NPR Addict. It's free, and there's more good stuff than you could ever listen to.

[FrugalTexan75]

Steve.

If I remember correctly, you are on Facebook. Be sure to check out the FB app (free).

Congrats and welcome!

[disneysteve]

Steve.

If I remember correctly, you are on Facebook. Be sure to check out the FB app (free).

Congrats and welcome!

Already took care of that, though honestly, I've drifted away from Facebook lately. It was fun at first, getting in touch with all these people I haven't heard from for so long, but the novelty has worn off so I hardly visit the site anymore.