linkstate.org

I have recently upgraded from an original 2g iphone (purchased in New York days after them first being released) to a 3g version. And I’m pretty confident that it’s the best phone in the world.

I’ve been a Mac user for many years; one of the first PowerPC models saw me through university in the late 90s, and I was writing code using Codewarrior on a Mac II in high school. My current workhorse is a Macbook Pro, and while I also use Vista on it, I can honestly say that I’m a hug fan of Apple products, both software and hardware. The iphone though is one of the few pieces of technology that I’ve used, from Apple or anyone else, that can constantly surprise me with its sheer brilliance.

There were two reasons in particular why I upgraded, and neither of them are the 3g support. I only really used the data capabilities of my old one for Exchange syncing (version 2.0, despite the bugs, was still a huge improvement on 1.x in that regard and worth the pain, as far as I was concerned) and the occasional use of Google Maps. Both of which generally worked fine with 2g. Nope, the two main reasons for the upgrade were:

- GPS.

- The extra storage (this was a distant second; the main need here was because I’m learning Mandarin at the moment and I have a large number of audio tracks which I listen to in the car and when I’m on the move. By the way, if you’re learning Mandarin too then I strongly suggest checking out chinesepod.com).

I still feel a sense of childlike awe whenever I fire up one of the various apps I have installed that utilizes GPS. Quite apart from the basics of being able to find your way around a new neighbourhood with ease using Maps, some of the tools that people have written are simply amazing. Some example of cool things that I’ve been doing lately:

- Geotagging photos. As you can probably see from some of my other posts, I’m a bit of a shutterbug. I now keep my iphone running and recording waypoint data every time I’m out taking photos of stuff. I can then download the data at the end of the day, and using a variety of freely available apps, match the waypoint timestamps with the photo timestamps and embed exact GPS co-ordinates in each photos EXIF data. Then it’s a simple matter to drop them into Google Maps/Earth, or Flickr can plot the coordinates on its mapping tools.

- Running/cycling. There are a number of apps out there which will record your path, speed, elevation, and bearing while you’re off cycling the Waitakeres or running up and down the waterfront. This again can be synced with Google Maps for keeping track of training.

- Racing. This is a doozy - I found an app which will interface an iphone with the OBD2 interface of your car. It’ll record forward and lateral g-force and location using the accelerometer and GPS, and then from the car itself, track and record speed, engine revs, oil pressure and temperature, fuel consumption, throttle position, air intake temperature, engine load, and a whole set of other metrics - full telemetry data! Makes me wish I still had my WRX….

Anyhoo. As I said, the GPS is pretty much the main reason I upgraded. I’m heading off to China in a few weeks and the Europe after that - and I’ll have my iphone with me on the way to help record it all…

Rev (telemetry on your iphone) http://www.devtoaster.com/index.html

Geotagging tools:

http://craig.stanton.net.nz/

http://appstorefeed.com/apps/iMarkMySpot/

http://www.earlyinnovations.com/gpsphotolinker/tips-tricks-and-questions.html

http://lightroom-news.com/2007/03/23/gps-metadata-in-lightroom-and-google-maps/