Well it's been almost a month, and the iPhone is still by far the best mobile phone I've ever owned. One of the things that people chastised Apple for originally was that they did not open the device up for 3rd party applications. Apple responded by saying there was no need, developers could simply create applications targeting the phone's internet browser, Safari. When I first heard this was the answer to 3rd party applications, I kind of thought that Apple was looking for an easy out, and that it was a cheezy response. I've changed my mind. Here are just a a handful of applications I'm using on a daily basis, and why they're so great on the iPhone.

JiveTalk (Alpha)
iPhone Link
Alpha? Alpha? This thing is amazing. JiveTalk is a web-based instant messaging client, that aggregates almost every popular IM service. It works with AIM/iChat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Chat, Google Talk, ICQ, and Jabber. I have three IM accounts, so putting all my instant messaging contacts in one place, and being able to carry on multiple conversations is great.

The user interface is amazing. You're able to have IM conversations with as many people as you want to. In the conversation screen, they even make it look like Apple's SMS threaded message view, complete with speech bubbles. The user interface is polished and slick. I had three IM threads going last night, and it was seamless to switch between each one, know when someone had said something, and manage them all as a whole.

I encourage you to check out this free (so far) IM client.

Scenario Poker
iPhone Link
Shuffle up and deal! This is another 'application' that I find myself frequently loading. I love poker, I love Texas Hold 'Em to be specific. Scenario poker allows you to play against 8 people in portrait mode, or choose the landscape mode and turn your iPhone on it's side to play against 10! The players all appear to be imaginary, as there is no lag or delay while playing.

The play is good. Animations for cards going to each player are smooth, I have yet to encounter a bug in this poker application. It's free, but purchasing a license via Pay Pal will allow you to upload your picture, give you statistics while playing, and they'll even mail you a poker odds card to keep in your wallet.

I have not paid to use this program at this point.

Showtimes
iPhone Link
Not that I get to go to the movies that much any more with two kids, this application is pretty cool. It beats loading Fandango and zooming around in the iPhone screen. You simply type your zip code into the search box, and you're presented with a list of theaters. Choose a theater, and you get a list of movies. Simple and slick.

Choose a movie and you get a image of the movie poster, a synopsis, rating, reviews, theater addresses and movie times. I would love to see a 'buy tickets' link, I can only guess if that's a future enhancement or not. Showtimes does a good job of delivering a plethora of information formatted just for the iPhone.

iPhone Network Test
iPhone Link
Let's bash the EDGE network and complain about how slow it is! Well, it's not a slow as you may have thought. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is not room for improvement, but this little gem will tell you what network connectivity speeds you're getting over EDGE or WiFi. Clicking on the Start Test button, a graphic is downloaded to your device, and the resulting speed in KBS is displayed above it. They even give you a link to click (or tap I guess) that lets you specify which connection you're using.

Ok, numbers. Most of the time on EDGE, I'm getting upwards of 200+ KBS. Sure it's not DSL or Cable, but it's not that slow!

Seeqpod
iPhone Link
Let me start by saying, use this site at your own risk. The legality of it seems a bit sketchy at this point. The site allows you to type in a song title, or artist and search the internet for instances of MP3 files that match your search criteria. Clicking search results stream music right to your iPhone. It's really amazing. I searched for some really obscure stuff and was able to listen to the entire song.

I've only tried this application on WiFi. My guess is that on edge, it would depend on signal strength and download speeds.

While you can't save files to your device, it's almost like On Demand Radio. You want to hear a song? Type the title in and listen! Very cool stuff here, but I bet we see this shut down in the next six months.

Do you have an application you'd like to see on your iPhone? Leave a comment, I've been trying to come up with an application to build, but I don't have any good ideas yet.