It's just so damned shiny.

I have a real gadget crush on the Iphone, I really like the design, the UI is great, and this time around with the 3G, I really thought this might be my Iphone. While last year's Iphone was pretty but vacant, with the features list of a phone from 2002, this year's had all the right headlines - broadband speed data! Exchange email! GPS! Affordable price!

Coming from my current Windows Mobile phone, the Iphone is like a Ferrari next to my Windows Mobile people carrier - it's slicker, faster, better looking, and just sexier all round.

What is it about Apple product launches? When Nokia launch a new phone it's front page in the Carphone Warehouse brochure, but when Apple do the same it's front page of the FT. Anyway.

So they finally announced the 3G Iphone yesterday, and it's pretty much what everyone expected - more of the same, only its 3G and has GPS. The biggest surprise there is that it's only 3G, and not using the superfast "broadband speed" HSDPA that a number of other phones have been packing since before the original Iphone was released. It should benefit from some of the other improvements that are also coming the way of the first Iphone in a software update - exchange email support for example - but video calling is still out, since there's no front camera, and there's no word on picture messaging either.

I was looking for some software to sync my Google Calendar to my N73 phone. I'm going to try out GCalSync and let you know how it goes.

I thought I'd ask the collective what, if any, third party apps they have on their phone.

I use:
Autolock
Gmail
Google Maps

I occasionally use:
Opera mini (In case a site is too big for main browser)
S60SpotOn (use the camera flash as a torch)

I rarely use:
mIRGGI (IRC client)
PuTTY

Well now that some of the hype has died down, I actually went to an Apple shop and had a good poke around at the Iphone the other day.

Now, I'm a bit of a phone geek. I've had a succession of "giant" smartphones with touchscreens, real web browsing, email, video, music etc since 2003, and maybe that explains it a bit. But at the end of the day, I was massively underwhelmed by the Iphone.

So come on then, now that the o2 deal's been announced, who's going to be queuing on 9th November to get one?

In the UK they'll be costing £269 to buy, subject to a £35pm contract, that gets you (blah blah) minutes and (blah blah) texts (who cares) and a whole lot of unlimited internet, including free wifi access from Cloud-owned hotspots.

The prospect of a completely free mobile telephone network has become possible with the development of a peer to peer phone system, using mobile phones to route calls through other phones in the network - without the need for the usual base stations.

The adapted phones automatically connect to every other phone in the immediate (one kilometre) vicinity, forming a dispersed network that can carry voice calls independently, for as far as there are other phones in use - and since the network is entirely collaborative between the users themselves, the calls are completely free.

Just as the queues are forming in America to be the first customers of Apple's Iphone, the news is breaking in Europe that we're close to seeing a new and improved model released here.

One of the principle complaints about the original Iphone, now launching exclusively in the US, is the lack of any 3G support for the fastest data networks. For such a data-centric device, making a big selling point of internet and streaming video, this was a pretty major omission - but is just about excusable in America, where 3G coverage is still very limited.

Us sophisticated Europeans were a lot more concerned about this seemingly backward aspect of the Iphone, but our complaints are about to answered - on Monday Apple will be announcing the launch of a new Iphone for the European market which includes 3G support. It won't be available till the tail end of this year, but unlike the American version it will be available on more than one network, as both Vodafone and T-Mobile look set to be launch partners.

Well after having the very nice M600i as my current giant phone since November, I've naturally been planning my next upgrade. I thought Sony Ericsson had made it easy for me when they announced the P1i.

P1iThe P1i is a new P series phone carrying on the legacy of the old P800, P910 etc but in an M600i-styled form, complete with the brilliant qwerty keyboard - it differs from the M600i with the addition of a 3.2mp camera (the M had none), Wifi, and more memory to run applications. Very nice, I thought.

Apple IphoneAll the speculation and ever more imaginative photoshopping is over - Apple have finally revealed the very real Iphone, their first in-house mobile phone and Ipod combo.

Looking nothing like any of the many fake designs that have been peppering the internet for the last few years, the genuine Iphone is pretty well stacked - 2mp camera, wifi, bluetooth, 4GB or 8GB storage, and a brand new UI based on multitasking OS X - it's first appearance in a mobile device. The most interesting aspect of the UI is the fact that it's completely touchscreen orientated - there are very few buttons on the device - and rather than expect you to whip out a stylus, it's designed entirely for finger use, and is supposedly able to tell the difference between accidental and intentional presses. It even has a proximity sensor to disable the screen when you hold the phone to your ear.

I stumbled across an interesting article on the Guardian here (free registration required) on the possibility of Apple entering the mobile phone market shortly.

The mythical "iPhone" - an Apple designed combination of iPod and phone - has been rumoured for years, and most recently came to an apparently disappointing head with the release of Motorola's ROKR phone - a slightly chubby, bog standard Motorola design with iPod software and iTunes compatibility, but with a software-imposed 100 song limit. This weak attempt to enter the phone market without damaging iPod sales was met with some disdain, and with rivals like Sony Ericsson launching phones that can easily take a thousand songs, it seemed like far too little too late. Now however, there are increasingly firm reports that Apple have taken the design and concept into their own hands and begun the manufacture of a new Apple branded phone. What's even more interesting is the possibility that they won't be selling these phones through the conventional networks, allowing giants like Vodafone and Cingular (in the US) to call the shots, but retailing directly to customers with an emphasis on building in their own products and services.

Details on the iPhone itself are still scant, although it's fair to assume it'll have a good music player and reasonable storage, and a 2mp camera has also been touted.