The iSrael app has a nice interface, and includes information about hotels and special events. Currently, there are a number of blank sections in the database, such as lists of restaurants, recommended tours outside the center of the country, and other details, but one can assume they will be filled in over the coming days and sent on to those who downloaded the app. Currently, you can click on a phone number or email address to make a call or send a message to a hotel, organization, or other group featured in the listing you’ve been reading; hopefully the app will in the future provide maps and driving directions to the sites included in the app, taking advantage of the tight integration of the iPhone platform.

Unfortunately, I don’t have such high hopes for most of the other Israel-oriented apps in the App Store; most of them are very basic, lacking the useful information their publishers claim for them, while other apps that look promising are very buggy, and tend to crash.

Indeed, many of the apps could have been so much better, so much more useful: The app put out by a large Israeli supermarket chain could have, for example, let you see prices on products by using the iPhone’s video camera to upload UPC codes, like some supermarket apps in the U.S. do, but in its current form, the only thing you can do is make a basic shopping list – very basic, since you can’t even choose between competing brands, like Tara and Tnuva, when you click on “add milk” to your cart! There’s the Hasbara app that in its App Store description that claims to include all of Israel’s most important documents, symbols, and biographies – but falls far short, basically swiping Wikipedia’s pages on the subject. And then there’s the the business directory put out by one of the largest dispensers of information in the country whose app crashed nine out of ten times on my device. Pathetic!

But there are some standout Israel-oriented apps for the iPhone, many of which are very popular, practically guaranteeing they will be made available for other platforms in the future. One of the reasons you got a smart phone was so you could have information at your fingertips – and these apps, which you can download in the iPhone App Store, will hopefully make that information a lot more accessible and usable.

Visit-TLV: If the Tourism Ministry is looking for pointers on how to build a successful tourist app, they  ought to set up a meeting with the folks from the Association for Tel Aviv-Jaffa Tourism, the geniuses behind the free Visit-TLV iPhone app (there are Hebrew and English versions). Heavy on easy-on-the-eye graphics, the app tells visitors all about the things you really want to know when visiting the “Big Orange” – where the cafes, restaurants, pubs, museums, and activities are, and how to get to them. The app includes all the hotels in the city, a list of free guided or unguided walking tours, photos and descriptions of public art in the city – and phone numbers, web sites, and integrated iPhone maps and directions to make sure you get where you want to go. Visit-TLV is the kind of tourist application the iPhone was made for!

Sherut.Net (Hebrew): One of the ways large corporations defend themselves from nudniks is through the “phone tree.” Of course, they would say that a drill-down phone menu that you use to make selections that will eventually get you to the person you need to speak to is just a matter of efficiency, but we know better; it’s a tactic to wear us down, to make us compliant so we won’t complain about poor service or high prices.

That’s why Sherut.net, an iPhone app based on a website of the same name, is so useful. Let’s say your YES remote control doesn’t work; who do you call? Well, YES, of course, but negotiating that phone tree is such a hassle! With Sherut.net, though, you know exactly how to get to the appropriate representative: Dial *2080 (the YES phone number), then press 1, 2, 3, 2, 1 on the menu, in that order.  Sherut.net’s got the contact info and “phone tree formula” for nearly every large company or service in the country.

Food: There are a number of Israeli restaurant apps in the App Store, the most comprehensive of which is the free app from Rest.co.il, based on the website of the same address. Just like on the website, you can choose a location (region, city, town), type of food (Italian, Chinese, coffee shop), specify whether you’re looking for a kosher place – and the app will fetch all the restaurants meeting your criteria, with details, phone numbers, and maps (no driving directions, though). The Rest.co.il app has everything you need to know if you want to dine out anywhere in Israel, and the app’s interface is easy enough to use, but some of its “features” – for example, the app doesn’t “remember” well; you have to do a new search of the database every time you leave it, like when you click on a phone number in order to speak with the restaurant – could use some work.

For sheer fun, though, the Fiddme app can’t be beat. Fiddme is a restaurant/meal review site, where you can upload photos and reviews of memorable dishes you’ve had while dining out. As a result of all the reviews, the app (many of its features are now available on the site as well) now has a solid database of restaurants, mostly in the Tel Aviv area. Fiddme gives you the facts, but it also gives you editorial opinion, based on what its users think of dining establishments and the dinners they serve, saving you from the heartbreak – and heartburn – of making a poor dining choice!

Tweet Your Prayer: Alon Nil started taking “tweeted” prayers to the Western Wall last year, letting people send in their 140 character or less requests, blessings and pleas via Twitter; he then printed out the prayers and put them in the Kotel. Now, Alon has a free iPhone app, downloadable from the App Store or from his site, where the “iPhone challenged” can also tweet prayers from. In the iPhone app, you just type in your prayer, click on the “Amen” button, and you’re set. Imagine – being able to “pray” at the Kotel anytime, from anywhere. Talk about a useful app!

Related articles

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• Guide to the iPhone App Store (brighthub.com)
• Record Breaking Weekend: FreeAppADay.com Lands Eight In iPhone App Store Top 25 While dedicated iPhone Application Nears 1M Install Mark (eon.businesswire.com)
• Israel’s tourism now at the touch of an iPhone (jta.org)

On paper, many of these devices really are better than the iPhone, feature for feature. The Samsung Omnia II/Jet (S8000) has a faster processor and a better screen than the iPhone, the Sony Ericsson C905 with a better (far better) camera than the iPhone could even dream of (ditto the LG Arena). And then there’s the Palm Pre, the first of the new generation of “killer” devices that are trying to wrest the title of coolest phone from Apple. The latest attempt to take the crown comes from Nokia, which recently released the N97, and its somewhat older little brother, the 5800 XpressMusic, which I recently acquired.

There’s a lot to be said for the Nokia phones (which I will say below). But before I am accused of shilling for the Finns, let me say it clearly: The N97 (which I spent some time with) and the 5800XM (which I use) are not iPhone killers, simply because they are not iPhones. The two cameras, the video recording capacity, the mini flip-out keyboard (on the N97), the extreme memory capacity on the N97 (32 GB built in, expandable to 48 GB), and so on, will never be enough, simply because they’re not made by Apple.

Why? Can a brand name really trump features to such an extent? The only thing I can think of is that the 1984 Apple commercial introducing the Macintosh, with the jogger smashing the “Big Brother” screen controlling all the automatons, has really sunk deep into the Western psyche, forever branding Apple as the counter-culture, rebellious upstart that always knows better than its “elders” (As the owner of no fewer than five Macs – two Macbooks, two Mac Minis, and an iMac), I’m just as susceptible to this mind-melding (note that I didn’t say the Macs weren’t better than anything anyone else is offering – but as a “Machead” I am very familiar with this mindset. Is a $1,600 Macbook Air really so much better than a $400 netbook?). The only devices I see as having a chance of really “killing” the iPhone are perhaps the phones built on Google’s Android, because Google has that cool counterrevolutionary cachet as well.

But I digress. As much as I and you would like a “real” iPhone, we don’t want to shell out the huge sums they can be expected to cost here in Israel (even if they are offered at a subsidized price, you are going to end up paying a goodly – perhaps a princely – sum). With the arrival and the clamoring for the iPhone, however, prices on other wannabe killers have dropped somewhat (the N97 is too new, but a number of other touchscreen etc. devices were on sale at Orange when I paid them a recent visit). They may not be iPhone “killers,” but they are good enough to compete in the same space, allowing them to maybe beat up and “injure” the iPhone, at least on some features.

Always on the lookout for a bargain (or, always cheaping out, depending on how you look at it), I picked up a Nokia 5800XM at Orange recently for NIS 499, far less than the $299 I was prepared to spend on an unlocked version of the phone at Amazon. According to Nokia, some 7 million of the things have been shipped since it was introduced in late 2008, so I guess I was in good company.

I mentioned earlier that “perceived coolness” is one of the major reasons for the iPhone’s success, but there is also one thing the iPhone has over any other device sold by any other manufacturer – and that’s is the iPhone Appstore and the iTunes store for iPhones. Having perfected the touchscreen/accelerometer etc. device first, Apple was able to get many developers to write applications for the iPhone – and there are currently over 65,000 applications in the App Store’s bevy. By now, every phone maker has an app store for its platform – but according to this handy chart, the Apple version has far more – far, far more – applications than any other version.

If the App Store is the real secret behind the iPhone’s continued appeal, despite the its relative feature deprivation compared to the other “killers,” both Google and Nokia intend to remedy that situation. The Android Market (as the store is called) already has thousands of apps, and Nokia just recently opened its app store, Nokia Ovi (which is supposed to mean “door” in Finnish). The applications in the store are specifically for Nokia’s higher end N-series and touchscreen phones, with the major in app development and sales to come as Nokia moves more N97s. Fortunately for me, the N97 and the 5800XM share operating systems (Symbian OS 9.4 + S60 platform 5th Edition), so the majority of the upcoming N97 apps will work on the 5800XM as well.

Browsing the Ovi store, I came across a couple of great titles. JoikuSpot is a nice Symbian app that lets you share your phone’s 3G connection as a modem for a laptop when you’re away from a wifi hotspot. Even though the official Nokia internet radio application for the N97/5800XM is still under development, I found a great application called Tunin.FM, which lists hundreds of stations that can be accessed with my phone, including some of my favorites. And then there’s Fring, the be-all communication program that lets you use Skype (including Skypeout), Twitter, Facebook, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and a slew of others. And of course, there’s the built in GPS, location finder, voice-driven driving directions (in Hebrew or English!), etc.

My favorite app, though, is one of the few I actually opened up my wallet to purchase. Called Myphone, it lets you turn your Symbian device into an “iPhone,” at least in look and feel. From the “slide to unlock” to the little iPhone-like icons for your favorite applications, Myphone (from a site with the unlikely name MMMOOO.com), is enough iPhone for me – considering the 5800XM didn’t cost me the thousands a “real” iPhone would!