Ever since getting my iPhone, I’ve been almost exclusively reading my RSS feeds on it with the well designed iPhone version of Google Reader. Typically, I’m reading during my commute to and from work (ever since the rains, I haven’t been able to bike as frequently). I usually finish scanning my river of news by the time my homeward bound commute is over.

The information geek in me also loves the cool but not very useful trends feature of Google Reader. Below are some of my daily reading trends.

A few observations:

• My biggest reading day is Friday. I don’t feel like I read for longer periods of time on Friday, but perhaps there’s just more news.
• You can tell I typically roll into the office somewhere around 9-10am.
• I had major issues with Edge on my prepaid AT&T account 1.5 weeks ago (thus, the flat weekly graph). I barely caught up with the news.

Effectively, my iPhone is creating time for me to catch up with my daily RSS feeds. It’s place shifted my reading, which is one of the biggest reasons why I bought a mobile internet device.

Like many other people, I’m just barely holding back from switching over to the iPhone. But, alas, I’m still on a two-year contract with Verizon. I know that there are plenty of ways to get out of the contract. So, I decided to call them to ask how much the early termination fee would be, and what other options I have.

Almost immediately after I said I was considering other options, the Verizon rep jumped to attention. Here’s how it went:

Verizon rep: So why are you considering leaving? Any problems with the service?
Me: No, I’m just considering some other options.
Verizon rep: Are you consider moving to AT&T and that.. iPod.. iPod phone?
Me: Umm.. yes, actually, I’m considering that.
Verizon rep: Oh, really? I just got training on that today. And I was so surprised by how limited the iPhone is.
Me: Oh, please do tell. (thinking to myself: this is gonna be good)
Verizon rep: Yes, well, there are a few phones coming out that just so much better. They’re AWESOME!
Me: Okay..
Verizon rep: Yeah, well, there’s that new Blackberry that we have. I’ll send you the info.

The rest of the call was basically me waiting patiently for her to compile the desperate marketing email. From the way she was talking, it was apparent that she had never touched an iPhone. And, even if she did, she probably had no idea why its features are compelling.

The fact that Verizon reps are getting specific training to battle against the iPhone shows that Verizon is at least a little scared of Apple, contrary to what the CEO has said before. In my case, I’m going to be thinking hard about the price of getting out of a contract along with the sky high price of the iPhone before I make my purchase.

Or, I could just wait until the hackers successfully unlock the iPhones from the AT&T network. That would probably make me switch in a pinch.

By now, I’m sure all of you are sick of hearing about the report from the iPhone lines, the reviews, and all the other general hype about the second coming of the cell phone. Virtually every technology blog is covering the iPhone in one capacity or another on this glorious date of its release.

But, besides Apple, there are a bunch of people trying to make money by developing iPhone applications. Ever since the announcement that iPhone applications will simply be web widgets running in Safari, developers have been scrambling to get iPhone applications up on the web. And of course, you have to have some place to list all of them. Say hello to the iPhone directories. The following is a list of the ones I was able to find:

Application Lists

ModMyPhone iPhone Application List (Wordpress)
iPhone Application List (Wordpress)
Everything iPhone’s Application List
PhoneLauncher.com
List of iPhone Apps on Ma.gnolia
iPhoneApp.de
Kudit - they are a developer of iPhone applications

Blog Listings

Techlogg’s List
Lifehacker’s Top 10 iPhone Apps
Stuff.tv’s List

If anyone has a list that I’ve missed, please comment below.