iTunes App Store completes iPhone

We all pretty much know that the iPhone is an amazing cell phone with abilities not found in any other competing product. There was a lot of media attention with the recent launch of its next 3G generation iteration. But for me, I get good enough Edge reception where I live so I can see Web pages fairly quickly. And while it’s true that you can talk on the phone while surfing only with the 3G model, I only needed to do that maybe twice in the year I’ve owned mine. Plus I have a Garmin navigator in my car.

Besides, the 2.0 OS upgrade makes me feel like I have a whole new phone anyway. So for now, I’m sticking with my current model. Perhaps when its Safari browser supports more multimedia elements such as Flash, I may feel the need for more speed to accommodate the larger downloads they require. However, I really think the biggest deal with all of Apple’s upgrades was not the iPhone itself nor the 2.0 OS release but rather the new iTunes App Store.

The iTunes App Store is a repository of software applications that run on the iPhone. Many are free and others range in price from 99 cents on up. The idea is that you can use your copy of iTunes on your computer as well as your iPhone running the iTunes App Store application to access and browse through a wide and growing variety of applications that are available to you at any time.

You can browse via categories such as Games, Entertainment, Utilities and Finance or by categories such as Top Paid Apps, Free Applications and many more.

When I accessed the App Store for the first time, I was impressed with the layout. It’s easy to understand so you’re not overwhelmed by the volume of available applications. I suspect that most newcomers will first check out all of the free applications and I say that’s a good idea for a number of reasons. You can try downloading free apps without any worries about buyer’s remorse. Selecting a few of these will both familiarize you with the actual acquisition process as well as giving you a good feel about what to expect when it comes to the quality of these programs. You will also experience the variety of ways you can interact with them using the iPhone interface.

From there, it’s just a matter of searching through and determining what applications appeal to you which is pretty much how you’ve been doing things when choosing software for your computer. So far, my personal favorite is a little free application that turns my iPhone into a “Star Wars” light saber. When you turn it on, you hear the saber extend. The iPhone’s accelerometer senses your motions and produces the corresponding sizzling and slashing sounds as you wave your iPhone around and over your head. It’s great.

I find myself waxing nostalgic when I think of how I used to buy software on floppy discs at the store. Then the cases of floppies gave way to a few boxes of CDs. Now I can’t remember the last time I bought software on any type of media. I download what I want from the Internet. Updates and upgrades are all automatically downloaded as well. The iTunes App store has learned from this computer model as it too automatically notifies when newer versions of your software become available and it’s downloaded right into your iPhone.

The iTunes App store truly and finally completes the iPhone. Because it’s not really a phone at all. It’s a tiny hand-held mobile computer that just happens to be able to make and receive phone calls. Let the fun and productivity begin.

XCraig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. For more information, visit his Web site at www.computeramerica.com.

2008 McClatchy Tribune