It's all about the apps

The Mac Developer Conference is happening just a few miles away from me, and yet I'm not important enough to get my foot in the door (rumor has it that Al Gore's in attendance), so I must get my iPhone fix from MacRumors like everyone else. It's kind of like sipping a milkshake through a ten thousand foot straw...lots of anticipation, but not much substance.

I am still hoping that there's a big, tasty chunk of cookie dough or something (like the much anticipated 3G network) waiting at the end of the line, but here's all the news that has trickled in so far:

-they're opening the doors for developers to create new apps and user interfaces
-Loopt, the location-aware social network, will be an integrated app that works with the phone's GPS
-an eBay integrated app will allow users to participate in auctions (and spend money we don't have)
-there will be lots of new games and a 3-D fantasy adventure app (for all that free time we don't have)
-lots of web 2.0 apps to synch calendars, mail, transfer docs, and do pretty much everything you would normally do through a .mac account (too bad I use Google for all that)

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for:

(drum roll)
11:32 am - Introducing the iPhone 3G.

Yes, coming in at speeds 2.8 times faster than the EDGE network, the 3G is still slightly slower than a WiFi connection...but not much. The biggest development is in battery life (which had inhibited the introduction of 3G on the first iPhone release), which is a whopping 300 hours of standby and 5 hours of continual talk time.

Well, it turns out that my anticipation for something delicious was not in vain. Though I wasn't there to actually see the demo, the pictures on MacRumors tell me it was probably pretty cool. But ultimately, until they decide to unlock it and rid themselves of AT&T once and for all, there's nothing here to make me feel like my iPhone version 1.0 is approaching obsolescence.

It is, however, getting rather beat up after many months in my pocket. So while it may not be time to replace the phone, it's definitely time to get myself some gelaskins.