iSigh

It's a wonder I didn't get smeared all across Delaware on the way home from NYC this morning.

It's all I can do not to fiddle with my new iPhone. I'd downloaded the Pandora application and I can report that it works nicely. I'm a longtime fan of Pandora since a friend turned me on to it. (Check out Pandora.com now if you'd like an online "radio" station that plays music similar to a song or band you suggest - takes a few seconds to get going after you register).

I assumed it would need WiFi access in order to stream the songs, but as I hurtled along strictly within the speed limit of each of the 4 (?) states I passed through, it managed to play the music I wanted. It even paused when I got a phone call and started up again once I hung up. Radio that waits while you're on the phone is a fancy luxury. The only downside was that as I pulled into Maryland, it started wondering if perhaps by "Gnarls Barkley" I'd meant Dru Hill and some horrifying freestyle crap I most certainly didn't want to hear.

So, Pandora was a success, but now I'm getting frustrated. I'm used to being able to tinker with technology and the iPhone sort of sells on this premise. I'll withhold judgment for a while, but I'd really like to be able to choose on an application-by-application (or even instance-by-instance of an application) basis whether or not the screen was going to lock up after a minute. I guess for drives I could turn that function off entirely.

I'd also like a way to grab a phone number out of an email and turn it into a contact. I can dial it, so the phone knows it's a number. Why can't it let me create a contact? Does anyone know offhand of an app that allows that? While we're at it, is there an app for messing with the camera - which blows. I'd like to affect shutter speed and so forth.

I've got a couple of other wishes on my list - like a good IM client and a way around the stupid texting fees - so I'll probably be jailbreaking my phone eventually. Have to look into that a bit more. Oh, and iTunes makes me just furious.