I live and work in central London, where you would expect a good mobile signal. Yet there are holes in the service all over the place.

We’ve got the devices that can make the mobile web a reality. We’ve got the online services like RSS readers, Twitter and Facebook that make it sticky- something you can dip into when you’ve got five minutes, and will come back to again.

Provided it works.

The weakest link is the networks. All we need them to do is provide network coverage and carry the data. But they seem to be too busy trying to differentiating themselves with services that are tangential to what we pay our bills for.

So right now, while I would like to say that I am my network of Twitterers, my Facebook friends and my favourite RSS feeds, I’m actually just a bloke on a bus playing with an electronic notepad.

How about someone differentiate themselves by providing the best coverage, the most consistent 3G data connection, or the greatest consumer satisfaction? Stop trying to differentiate your service by providing extras, and just provide the basic service that you promised; an Internet connection that’s always on, and 3G that actually has coverage?

Give me the mobile Internet coverage that I’m already paying for- then start worrying about how you’re going to sell all my web-surfing data on to the GSMA. Otherwise, an iPod Touch for a quarter of the total cost of an iPhone will do the job just as well.

(Oh, and while you’re at it, can you get the BT Openzone wifi hotspots to recognize my phone again? After all, that was a part of the deal too. Ta.)

Posted from my home wifi connection which- I believe- is not being recorded for the data to be sold on without my consent.

Right now, that’s not terribly interesting in and of itself. The Linux kernel is something that sits between the software and hardware; without drivers for the touch screen etc. it doesn’t actually do anything of any use. (For example, right now it requires a USB keyboard to control it- obviously not very practical for a mobile phone…)

However, this is one small step towards getting Android running on the iPhone. Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big fan of my iphone, but I’d like to have the choice of how it works. I’m a fan of open source and open platforms, and if I want functionality like the ability to download podcasts straight to my phone, or to copy and paste chunks of text, I don’t want to wait for Apple’s approval before I can use it.

There are already some interesting things being done with “Jailbroken” iPhones (that’s phones that have been unlocked so that they can run software other than what’s available through iTunes), so having the choice and being able to switch between the iPhone operating system for day-to-day use and Android for more PC-like functionality would be a very interesting possibility.

Apart from anything else, it would mean I wouldn’t be tied to my home PC and iTunes every time I wanted to move my music on and off my phone.

I’m not expecting anything significant to be released any time soon , but it’s definitely a story I’ll be keeping an eye on.

Firstly; MyRail Lite- a great application for anyone in the UK who ever uses the train; it looks up the live train timetables by station, including a GPS lookup to find your nearest station. Very useful, and very well designed.

On the other hand is the Ocarina application. It turns your iPhone into an ocarina- blow into the microphone to play, and use the touch screen to “cover” the holes and play different notes. It also lets you connect to a network of Ocarina users (who have opted to make their melodies available) and listen to them play. A nice and innovative use of all the available hardware.

At 59p, you could argue that it’s a complete waste of time and money, but having wasted a couple of hours over the weekend on figuring out how to play it, figuring out how to play a few tunes I like and listening to what other people all over the world are playing on it, I’m not sure whether that’s necessarily a bad thing…

So my advice is to download them both, then when you’ve got time to kill before going out to catch your train, you can play the Legend of Zelda theme tune while you wait.

NetNewsWire

I’ve already talked about this is some detail; it uses the Newsgator RSS reader to deliver news headlines to your iPhone. Very handy, but nothing too special- or at least it wouldn’t be if it weren’t for the fact that it stores them on the handset, so you can read your choice of headlines on the underground, and also let’s you tag interesting articles as “clippings” to read at your leisure.

I’ve been playing around with RSS readers for a while, and haven’t yet found one for the desktop that really works the way I want it to. So I find it quite odd that I’ve found one that works on the mobile almost exactly as I want it to. If I was only allowed one application on my iPhone, this would be the one.

Last.fm

Most useful over a wifi connection, this streams music from the last.fm website to your iPhone. The more you use it, the better it knows what music you like and the better the service becomes, but my favourite way of using it is just putting a tag and listening to music that fits my mood. Great for discovering new music.

Google

Another must-have; universal search- searches the web, as you’d expect (as you would at google.com), but also searches your contacts list, and gives the option for a local search- enter “florist”, click on “find a florist near me”, and then jump to a Google Map that shows you what’s nearby and how to get there.

Facebook

Jump straight into Facebook- no need to enter your email address and password. Pretty much all the functions you would want, optimised for the iPhone. Stalking your friends has never been easier…

Units

Converts units- km to miles, acres to square miles, centigrade to farenheit and anything else you can think of. Doesn’t sound like much- until you find you need it. Then it becomes brilliant.

Enigmo

A great little game- and the only app on this list that isn’t free. Basically a puzzle game; you direct a stream of drips into holders by moving around things for them to bounce off, flow down and so on. If you liked Lemmings, you’ll probably like this.

RjDj

The strangest application that I’ve seen.. Or rather, heard. It turns the sound that your microphone picks up and turns it into a bizarre audio collage. Sounds odd, because it is. More of an art experiment than anything else- if you think it sounds interesting, then you’ll like it. If not, don’t bother.

Phonesaber

Wave your phone around, and it makes lightsaber sound effects. This one never gets old. (For me, anyway. Your mileage may vary…)

Remote

When you’re connected to the same wifi zone as your PC, this turns your iPhone into a remote control for iTunes-browse through and control your music library in the same way that you browse through the tracks on your phone. Definitely a must-have if you use iTunes (which, as you’ve got an iPhone, you probably do…)

ICanHasCheezburger

A complete waste of time and another one that you’ll know if you’ll like it straight away; connects to the sites on the icanhascheezburger network. (Lolcats, Loldogs, Failblog, Graphjam and a few others.) If you’ve not seen the sites, then you’ve probably been emailled the pictures by someone; photos with silly captions along a number of different themes. A pointless waste of time, no doubt, but might well bring a smile to your face.

Honourable mention:

WordPress

Most people aren’t interested in blogging, but if you are then a) WordPress is a good blogging system to use, and b) the WordPress iPhone application makes it as easy as you could hope for. Still has the same old iPhone problems (ie. no copy/paste) but if you want to blog from an iPhone, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is the best way to do it.

As I’ve got a PC connected to my TV, this is ideal for me; my iPhone has now become my remote control. Rather than a bulky media centre keyboard or an expensive air mouse (for around £100, last time I looked- the Logitech DiNovo Mini looked like the best option), my phone now controls my computer. No more need for a bulky keyboard or a surface to use a mouse on- I can use my computer from the comfort of the sofa. One handed, too. A problem that I’ve been trying to solve for about six months has now been solved by a £3.49 application.

Combined with Apple’s own Remote application (which let’s you control iTunes from the iPhone, using an interface almost identical to the iPod control system) this is a step closer to my PC being a real media centre.

In short, if you have a computer connected to your TV, you dont just want it- you need this application. If you don’t have/want an iphone, then get an iPod touch.

It’s not perfect- multitouch drag and drop would be a great addition, and a hidden keyboard that would let you use the whole screen as a trackpad is a feature on it’s way that I like the look of. But it’s early days, and it’s already one of the few apps that I can see is going to really change the way I’ll use my phone and PC.

This is probably more of a wish list than a prediction, but these are the things I expect to see. Note that I’m not going to talk about obvious upgrades- Webkit in Safari being upgraded as the desktop version carries on being developed, for example- I expect that kind of thing to come with the incremental updates- 2.2, 2.3 etc.

More Mac-like.

The Windows mobile platform always felt to me like it was the Windows concept in a mobile form. The Apple mobile platform feels like it’s been built from scratch. However, the underlying technology is apparently identical to the Mac- even Safari seems to be identical in terms of how it renders pages and it’s ability to run Javascript (although not necessarily to trigger it- more about that later.) So I expect to see more features from Mac development making their way across to the iPhone. While other platforms work to catch up to the iPhone, the ability to eventually bring Mac applications would turn it into a real pocket Mac. I figure that must be the eventual goal- but a big jump in one step. So I expect to see movement in that direction.

• Overhauled user interface

  Safari is a great browser, but it has one problem; you can’t do drag-and-drop-type actions in web pages that use that kind of functionality. It’s actually more related to the user interface in general; because the touch-and-drag action is used to deal with the problem of moving around a page, it can’t be used to select blocks of text the way you would by clicking and dragging with a mouse.
  Another consequence of this is that selecting (and therefore copy/pasting) would be possible…
  The most obvious way to enable this would be to use the multitouch screen; a tap with a second finger could become the ‘right click.’ a second finger touch could either activate the drag/select functionality (deactivated when you let go, or maybe when you tap a second time- that would get around the restriction of the screen space.)

• New home screen

  The iPhone has the same problem that Facebook did; a clean, good design that became cluttered when it was opened up to third parties. When you’ve got a few dozen applications, it’s awkward to move around between them.
  The obvious solution would be to have folders to put your home screen icons into. Simple, easy to understand.

Something I don’t expect to see- but would like- is a greater degree of personalisation. Again, it’s the Facebook-like nature of the iPhone; while MySpace allows it’s users total freedom to personalize their pages, Facebook keeps a strict control over the page design (and the platform itself as a kind of gatekeeper.) While Android users will be able to completely redesign their homescreen becausenof the open source nature of the project, there will be some bad homescreens. It’s inevitable that, like MySpace pages, some will be ugly, have accesibility problems, and the platform will suffer as a result; people will associate the ugly homescreens with Android. This is a competetive advantage that Apple will be keen to capitalize on.

I’d expect it to be released along with more upgraded hardware (like the 2.0 release), although I’m not sure what road that would go down; I’m guessing a choice of colours, more storage space and battery life in the same size and shaped device (to keep confirmity for all the cases and docks etc.) No doubt an improved camera- probably adding video capabilities in the software. The software will probably be a free upgrade again, while the phone will probably be the same price.

Timing? My bet is An announcement in January, and a release soon afterwards.

Can’t wait.