Here are my thought about alternate uses for an iPhone.
The iPhone is an amazing piece of hardware, but it's limited by it's software. So far all of the iPhone's official software has been produced in-house by Apple. But all that's about to change.
Before the end of February Apple will open up both the iPhone and the iPod Touch to third party developers with the an SDK (Software Development Kit). Apple CEO Steve Jobs is, "excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users."
That means that any application you can think of can, and probably will, be put on the iPhone. Why has it taken so long? Steve Jobs again; "We're trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once - provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc."
The iPhone can already be used as a low tech GPS replacement, a basic note-pad or the hands down best pocket web browser there is. But with virtually unlimited possibilities soon to be unleashed, let's see what you can do with an unlocked iPhone.
Spirit level
Thanks to the advanced inbuilt sensors, Apple may have designed the most expensive and feature rich spirit level on the market. The iPhone normally uses these sensors to tell which way up it is and rotate pages accordingly, but there's nothing stopping developers from using them in other ways; from a basic spirit level, to some pretty trippy games. Not the sexiest of uses to start with I know.
The Ultimate Wireless Media Device
With a constant internet connection it won't be long before someone works out how to wirelessly link your iPhone to iTunes on your computer. They've already done it on hacked iPhones. Soon you'll be able to access your entire iTunes music collection from anywhere in the world. The BBC will also make content accessible on the iPhone through a mobile version of it's iPlayer application.
A Wireless Hard Drive
Unlike most iPods, the iPhone and iPod touch can't be used as USB storage devices yet. At the moment the iPhone's maximum size is 16 gigabytes, with the iPod Touch maxing out at 32. Both would make respectable storage devices (which could even be accessed over wi-fi). It won't be long before they double in storage space again and again, and again, and again. It wasn't that long ago that the flagship iPod had just 5Gb (and was the size of a small brick)
The Ultimate Skype Phone
Putting Skype on the iPhone is definitely possible, but odds are Apple and AT&T will try their best to stop it. If they don't (or can't) then the iPhone, with it's unlimited data plan, will be the hottest Skype phone there is.
A Boredom Buster
Tetris and Connect Four clones are already available on hacked iPhones so expect these, and a wave of new games. As with the iPod Classic, it's likely that major game developers such as EA and Sega will build iPhone versions of their classic games (if they haven't already).
Advanced MSN, AOL and SMS Device
A much complained about quirk in the iPhone is it's limited SMS capabilities. While the user interface for SMS is second to none, it lacks some basic abilities such as message forwarding. The problem's been solved in hacked iPhones, through which you can also access MSN, AOL and many other instant message services.
By opening up the iPhone and iPod Touch Apple is truly unleashing the power of its hardware and addressing the only issue most people have with the device - it's software. Apple hasn't yet released the full details of the SDK, but expect an announcement in the next few weeks.
