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Although I get most of my news from an aggregated set of sources (via Fluent News), one news app I still use occasionally is USA Today. I like their creative snapshot polls, and the ability to see the results overall, for your state, and for your city.

WordPress for iPhone enables you to draft, schedule and post blog entries, including photos. You can also manage comments and create/edit new pages. Not super feature-filled at this point, but I hope they improve it over time. Personally, I’d like to be able to float a photo within text, but I’m weird like that. Oh, and if you tell me to just use HTML, I will indeed have to slap you upside the head.

Well, in a moment of weakness, I broke down and purchased the TomTom application for my iPhone. It’s on sale for $69.99 until December 28th. So far it seems even more wonderful than my previous TomTom device, that I used with my (now ancient) Palm Treo — and I LOVED it! The one thing that makes or breaks a GPS system for me is the quality of the voice (not surprising to those of you who know my audial sensitivity). TomTom is the only system that even comes CLOSE to having a human-sounding voice. “Mandy” is currently my navigator, but as soon as they make “Homer” available, I’ll be downloading him. Doh!

Recently, a few people have asked me if it’s worth it to get an iPhone. It’s a personal decision for sure, but here’s an idea of how I use my iPhone in any given day. See if you can tell what the answer is for ME! I’ve listed in parentheses the iPhone applications I use.

5:30am - I awake to the sound of soft harps. (Clock)

5:35am – I do a quick check of my personal email (Mail), work email (iNotes), news (USA Today), and check the weather to see what I should wear and if I should bring an umbrella ella ella (WeatherBug).

6:15am - I listen to podcasts on the way to work. If it’s a Monday, you can be sure I’m listening to This American Life with Ira Glass (iPod).

7:00am - Once I get to work, I listen to a personalized music selection online while I get set up and plan my workday. (Pandora)

10:00am – During a meeting I might hear about a new technology so I check out the latest tech news. (CNET)

11:00am – While in the break room, someone asks a question I don’t know the answer to. While others sit and speculate, I pop out my iPhone and find the answer lickity-split. (Google)

11:30am – I might get a new client on my Meals on Wheels route, so I plug in their address and have my iPhone give me turn by turn directions to their house. (Maps)

12:30pm – Upon return to the office, I notice something weird that I must take a picture of. (Camera)

12:32pm – I upload said picture to twitpic via my iPhone Twitter client. (TwitterFon)

1:00pm – I receive a message via the Facebook iPhone app that my colleague/friend finally gets to bring her baby home from the hospital after being in ICU for several weeks! (Facebook)

2:00pm - I connect with several former colleagues who are looking for jobs. (LinkedIn)

5:00pm - As I leave the office parking lot, I hear a song on the stereo, and I can’t for the life of me remember the artist. I let my iPhone listen to the song and after 10 seconds of listening, it tells me who the artist is, what album, etc. (Shazam)

5:30pm – I call my husband to see if he needs me to pick up anything on the way home from work. (Phone) Yes, it’s true. The iPhone can actually be used as a telephone.

5:45pm - I get home and pull out the fixins’ for dinner. I follow the recipe using my iPhone. (BigOven)

7:00pm – I decide to practice my flute for a few minutes, and I make sure I’m in tune. (StayInTune)

7:30pm – I get totally grossed out by my flute cleaning rag which is dirty, so I pull out my iPhone and purchase a new one online. (Amazon)

7:45pm – I help my kids with their homework, and rather than look stupid by admitting I don’t know the answer to their questions, I discreetly look up answers on my iPhone. (Wikipanion)

8:00pm – I go on a walk around the neighborhood, and since it’s dark (and we can’t seem to keep a working flashlight in the house), I use my iPhone. (myLite)

8:45pm - I check to see if tonight’s episode of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” is a repeat. (i.TV)

10:30pm - I read a chapter of the latest book I’ve downloaded from Amazon.com. (Kindle)

11:00pm – I listen to “Rain with Thunder” as I drift off to sleep and dream about how I will use my iPhone tomorrow. (Ambiance)

I’ve run across some pretty interesting iPhone web apps over the last several months, so I thought I’d recommend some on my blog in case any of my fellow iPhone addicts want to try them out. Here are a few to get started…

hiHome – This is a cool way to see how much your neighbor’s house is worth! Oh, I suppose there are other more honorable ways to use this tool, but I’ve had fun being nosy. The site is an iPhone optimized version of Zillow, a real estate site that gives valuations for properties all over the US.

Stitcher – Ever get in the car in the morning only to realize you forgot to sync your iPhone. No need to miss the latest news podcasts. Stitcher lets you listen to streaming news and entertainment from your iPhone. I listen to the Silicon Valley Professional station which reads me the headlines to blogs like TechCrunch, WSJ Tech news, and CNET daily tech news. It’s a real person reading too…not an electronic voice.

iSkyGaze – Although I haven’t used this much yet, it’s an awesome idea. This application provides information on where and when constellations, planets, galaxies and other objects will be viewable from your location, as well as offering other cool facts about what you’re seeing.

iRuler – Super useful! I don’t need a ruler often, but when I do, I never have one handy. Now I do! iRuler turns my iPhone into a ruler, albeit a pretty short one — 2.5 in (or 6.5 cm) to be exact!

Many more to come!!

Today I had some fun creating my own font using http://www.fontifier.com. It was really easy. I just printed out a template. Wrote all the letters and symbols on the template. Scanned it and uploaded it and voila! Next, I downloaded the font file to my hard drive and dragged it into my c:\windows\fonts folder (which installs it). Then I just loaded OpenOffice Write and clicked the down arrow to select a new font and there mine was! “Joyce’s Handwriting.”  Below is a sample.  I think I’ve managed to include a good number of characters.

Once upon a time, there was a blonde* girl who wanted a simple way to create and edit web pages. She was trying to get her Christmas newsletter online for those to whom she did not send a snail mail photo card. She conducted her customary research on CNET to see what the experts thought, and to read comments from users. She tried a little, free program called Kompozer which was nice, but didn’t offer the drag and drop features she was looking for. Then she decided to experiment with a big, $49 program called CoffeeCup which had loads of bells and whistles, but believe it or not, didn’t allow easy wrapping of text around an image. “Humph,” she said in disgust. Then she had a crazy idea. “What if I just used OpenOffice Writer?! I could format the page however I wanted, as if to print it out, but then simply save it as html!” She rushed back to her computer and quickly created a page in Writer. She typed in some text, plopped in her family Christmas photo, and formatted it so that text would wrap around the image. “Voila!” she exclaimed. She finally found a program that was JUST RIGHT! And best of all, it was not software developed by the “big, bad wolf” (Bill Gates). Her family and friends viewed her 2007 Christmas page and everyone lived happily ever after.

*blonde hair courtesy of her hair stylist

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It’s been 10 days since I declared e-mail bankruptcy and rather than having that “clean slate” feeling I SHOULD be having, I’m stressed beyond belief.  Somehow my mail file became corrupt to the point where I’m now receiving approximately 40% of e-mail sent to me (based on tests).  I’ve stumped the help desk.  The problem is compounded by the fact that all traces indicate e-mail is being received by the server, just not making it to my personal mail file.

The technical issue will be resolved in due time…a new technote or Software Problem Report will be logged, and we’ll all move on.  But for now, the psychological toll is worse than I would have expected.  I live in fear of who I’m irritating today by not responding to their mail, not answering their question, not addressing whatever request they’ve made of me.  It would be different if I wasn’t getting ALL my mail.  Since I’m responding to SOME mail (the ~40% I receive), I’m sure it’s hard for people to believe that I just didn’t get specific messages.  I can hear it in their voice, “Well, I sent it to you.  And you got my other e-mail.”  Yesterday it got personal when my sister-in-law called me on my cell phone wondering why I hadn’t responded to her e-mail about what the kids want for Christmas.

This certainly makes me empathize with customers who may experience e-mail problems like this.  E-mail issues cause more than productivity loss, they can damage relationships.

Santa, scratch off “TIVO” from your list and please….oh please, just bring me my e-mail.

Well, it sure seemed like a good idea at the time, but apparently my strategy for starting fresh with a new inbox was not without cost. All of the swizzling I did with my old mail, coupled with the fact that I had entirely too many emails in my inbox, resulted in file corruption and an extended period of time (3 hrs) with the help desk. I’m not out of the woods yet and I only hope that tomorrow I can get back to being productive by at least midday.

I LOVE Jott! It allows you to send e-mail by voice. You call the number, it transcribes what you say, and sends an e-mail to whomever you choose. It’s a great way to get that spontaneous idea to someone when you’re not in a convenient place to send them an e-mail, but the idea isn’t urgent enough for you to call them. I’ve even been using this service to send reminders to myself and it’s been great.

One downside is that it will transcribe EXACTLY what you say….all your speaking imperfections, splayed out on the screen in all their glory. Below is one example of a message I sent to my husband last night. I knew he was coaching our son’s basketball game, so I didn’t want to bother him, but I did want to get the message to him.

Like, oh my gosh! Like, that’s so…like…embarrassing!