As a proud CREDO subscriber, I have a Blackberry — a very introspective one that likes to “think” a lot, a.k.a. display an hourglass icon while not doing what I’m asking it to do. While at M Cafe over the weekend, I met Julian, a.k.a. DJ Jewelz, a local food blogger who happens to work for a telecom company. He let me know the type of Blackberry I have is known to have this overthinking problem — and can’t be forced to become more extroverted.

Of course, being anti e-waste — and also having signed a 2-year contract — I’ll continue to use this Blackberry until it dies of thought. Thus, an iPhone envy clicklist:

>> Fix Santa Monica with the city’s GORequest app, which lets iPhone users report “potholes that need filling, trees that need maintenance, and graffiti that needs removing.”

In the press release about that app, City Chief Information Officer Jory Wolf says “Santa Monica is known to be a leader in the use of technology for providing information and services to the public” — to which I’d like to respond with a question: When is the Big Blue Bus going to get on Google Maps, for reals? Last promise was by the beginning of April, the promise before that by the end of 2009.

>> Eric Garcetti’s “Garcetti 311″ app lets Angelenos fix their city by reporting “graffiti, bulky items, overgrown plants, abandoned shopping cars and more.”

>> LAist’s put together a list of iPhone apps to keep you safe and happy. Selections include local public transit apps (no, none from the Big Blue Bus), eco-foodie apps, and more. Happiness not guaranteed.

>> Zach Behrens at LAist also points out that you can pay $60 a year for a service to remind you to move your car for street cleaning — or just set Google Calendar alarms on your iPhone to do pretty much the same thing for free.

>> Jason Kottke notes that iPhone 4 includes a feature called FaceTime, which offers wifi videophone functionality — and sounds eerily similar to the videophones David Foster Wallace writes about in Infinite Jest. In that novel, the videophones were briefly popular — then quickly fell out of favor as people realized they didn’t want other people seeing what they looked like or what they were up to while chatting on the phone.

Callers now found they had to compose the same sort of earnest, slightly overintense listener’s expression they had to compose for in-person exchanges. Those caller who out of unconscious habit succumbed to fuguelike doodling or pants-crease-adjustment now came off looking extra rude, absentminded, or childishly self-absorbed. Callers who even more unconsciously blemish-scanned or nostril explored looked up to find horrified expressions on the video-faces at the other end. All of which resulted in videophonic stress.

What do you do while talking on the phone — or reading this blog?!

>> By the way, if you haven’t read Infinite Jest yet or want to read it again, Infinite Summer’s put together an index to help you get through the tome next season.

Image via itunes

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