It's been five days since the official release of the iPhone 3G, and the version 2.0 firmware for all iPhones. I have no plans to get the new model, despite its minor perks like faster data access and a GPS chip. Not after what I went through to get the one I have. It does slightly peeve me that they lowered the price so much, murdering the resale value of the old model in the process. I can only get $149 for it from Second Rotation, which means it would still cost me another $50 out of my pocket to get this new, "cheaper" model, and I'd have to pay $10 more a month for service? Yeah, no thanks. Not to mention that the 3G network in this area is rather shoddy, with most people reporting weaker signal than before, and jumping right back to the EDGE network in some places.
But Chris and I did both upgrade to the new firmware. Would you believe I waited until a full day after it was released? Contrary to imacdavey's assumptions, it wasn't patience. It just so happened that we had a rather full schedule on Friday, and when I did try the upgrade after work before we left for Mohegan Sun, iTunes kept telling me the version I had was the most current (apparently a common problem that day). Chris updated his when we got home that night (or Saturday morning, more accurately), but I was too tired to stay up for the ninety or so minutes it would take, so I waited until I'd had a good night's sleep.
The most awaited feature of the iPhone 2.0 software was of course the App Store. I spent the weekend browsing the free applications and downloaded my share. There is of course Twitterrific, the new Twitter client. I was skeptical as to the necessity of such an app since in my opinion the mobile web site in Safari worked perfectly well. But there's something to be said for having a separate app for something one accesses so frequently, instead of constantly having extra Safari windows open which inevitably lose their cache just as you're switching back to them. And then when I found out I could upload photos directly to TwitPic instead of e-mailing them, I was sold. But I didn't need to be sold, because Twitterrific is free! 
Aside from Twitterrific, the most useful free application I've downloaded is midomi. Midomi is a music recognition and search app, and holy crap is it useful! There are four ways you can search for a song: you can sing or hum it into the iPhone, hold the iPhone near a speaker that is playing it, say the name of the song and artist, or do the old fashioned thing and just type it in. I've already found it useful several times to identify songs that were stuck in my head or playing in a movie or TV show. It has been 100% accurate so far. I haven't used the speech method yet, but I can imagine it will just be much easier and more convenient than typing. No matter how you search, midomi will take you right to the song in iTunes so you can purchase and download it on the spot.
As far as the paid applications, I haven't really looked at them yet. I just don't have money to spend right now. Oh sure, I've stumbled across a few completely stupid apps that people are actually trying to get money for... like ones that turn your screen white and call it a flashlight (there are many free versions of this concept as well, which makes it even more ridiculous that people are charging for it). There is one though that I have my eye on: SplashMoney. This is the personal finance software that I have used with my Palm handheld for several years. I no longer use the Palm since I got my iPhone, and have just been using the desktop companion once a week to balance our accounts. Once SplashData gets their bug fixes and the new desktop companion for the iPhone version online, it will be great to be able to track our spending on the go again, and that is something I am more than willing to pay $10 for.
A couple of other noteworthy surprises in 2.0: a caps lock function for the on-screen keyboard (thank you!), and the ability to take screen captures and save them to the camera roll. Screenshots are achieved by pressing and holding both the sleep/wake button and the home button for about one second, and then letting go (before you reset your iPhone). The screen will flash, and a perfect copy of it will appear in the camera roll. However, I'm not sure if this is by design or a bug, but when I imported my photos from the phone with Picasa, it imported only the actual photos and not the screenshots.
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