I work at home. I have no daily commute (unless you count the stroll along the hallway from my bedroom to my office). Maybe I’m a stick-in-the-mud, or maybe it’s just that I am fortunate to live in one of the best locations in the country (the San Francisco Bay area), but I rarely travel far from home.

As a result, while I use my iPhone every day, I don’t usually get to test what it is like to depend on it for an extended time, without access to the technological “comforts” of home.

I got that chance earlier this month when I went on a two-week trip that took me to North Carolina and Michigan (which is also the reason for the recent interlude in my blog postings). I brought my MacBook Pro along as well. But, as a test of the power of the iPhone, I kept my use of the laptop to an absolute minimum, depending exclusively on the iPhone as much as possible.

While I had made a few such trips before, this was my first one since the release of the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. As such, it gave me an opportunity to assess the added value of third-party apps.

The iPhone did very well. Surprisingly well in some cases. Indeed, I found that, for certain tasks, I preferred using the iPhone over a laptop, even when in my hotel room with both devices easily available.

Here, in no particular order, are the highlights of my iPhone journey:

• Because I keep my iPhone synced to my desktop Mac, I did not want to sync the iPhone to my laptop while on the trip. This restriction gave me a different take on the value of MobileMe’s “push” features. For example, I could add an appointment to iCal on my laptop and, within minutes, it would appear on my iPhone as well. No need to connect the iPhone to the computer, run iTunes, perform a sync and wait for it to complete. I didn’t do this often (as I was trying to use only the iPhone), but I found it very convenient on the few times I did do it.

• With my excessive junk email now under control (see this previous entry), I used the iPhone as my primary tool for keeping up with my email. I checked my laptop only at the end of each day. This worked quite well. I confess that I even got a kick out of using the iPhone’s Push/Fetch feature, automatically alerting me to new email even when the iPhone was in my pocket. In several cases, I was able to check messages and send time-sensitive replies, replies that might have been delayed by a day or more if I did not have my iPhone. Yes, there were times when it might have been preferable not to get “pinged” with email alerts, interrupting whatever else I was doing at the time. Still, I could always turn the checking off when I really did not want to be disturbed.

• I am a news junkie. That’s why my most frequently accessed App Store software were the New York Times and AP Mobile News. These apps gave me access to a list of headlines (and the full stories if I wanted) faster and more conveniently than if I had used Safari instead. They were especially great for a quick check of breaking news. Again, I was probably not the model of social etiquette here, sneaking off to some corner to check the news whenever I was bored at a social gathering. But I absolutely loved being able to do this. I wound up preferring the iPhone for checking news, even when I had access to my laptop.

• I found Jott to be a superb To-Do list tool. All I had to do was speak into the iPhone, describing whatever I wanted to “jot down.” A few minutes later, my spoken words appeared as a text item in the Jott app. With the iPhone variation of Jott, you don’t have to call a phone number to make the transfer; it’s all automatic. Very cool. And the accuracy of the speech-to-text conversion was much better than I had expected.

• The Showtimes app was my preferred tool for checking movie times. Just launch the application and it automatically detects your current location and provides the current day’s start times for all near-by theaters. No other App Store competitor is faster or more convenient.

• And of course, there were the games. I most preferred the ones that I could pick up at a moment’s notice and just as easily drop again if I was interrupted. I spent the most time with Apple’s Texas Hold’em, where I eventually worked my way up to the Dubai sky casino.

• The iPhone’s built-in apps got their share of a workout as well.

Maps proved to be invaluable on several occasions, quickly charting the route from our current location to some unfamiliar destination. It worked best when I was riding shotgun in the car, providing the driver with turn-by-turn instructions as needed.

The Weather app helped us avoid outdoor activities on days when rain was in the forecast.

On a few occasions, when I forgot to take my digital camera on an outing, the iPhone served as a adequate substitute for capturing a few “memory” shots that otherwise would have been missed altogether.

Oh, and I almost forgot. I sometimes used the iPhone as, of all things — a phone! Imagine that.

A couple of quick notes about today’s release of an iPhone (and iPod touch) 2.0.1 bug-fix update:

• Updating a jailbroken device. I applied the update to my jailbroken iPod touch. It updated the device without any glitches. The presence of the jailbreak software/firmware did not cause the update to fail. Nor did installing the update result in a bricked touch. I didn’t even have to Restore the touch. The update just worked. The only problem (not surprisingly) is that all trace of the jailbreak software is now gone. I am back to a stock iPod touch.

Will the same Pwnage Tool jailbreak software that worked for 2.0 still work for 2.0.1? I doubt it, as it appeared to be firmware specific. But I cannot yet say for certain, as I haven’t yet tried.

Will an update to the jailbreak software be released for 2.0.1? I am confident it will be. In the meantime, I will be monitoring the various iPhone jailbreak-related blogs to see what’s happening.

• Updates and backups. The update of my (not jailbroken) iPhone 3G also went well…except that the increasingly long time it takes to backup my iPhone is getting to be really irritating. When doing a sync, I can always choose to cancel the backup (the rest of the sync then proceeds as usual). With an update, however, there is no option to do this. So I just had to wait over 45 minutes for the backup to complete. Sheesh! I hope this is one of the “bugs” that is fixed in the 2.0.1 update.

You’ve gotten up before sunrise, waited in line at the Apple Store, and have finally been rewarded. You are now the proud owner of a new iPhone 3G. You also happen to be the owner of an original iPhone that you now no longer need. What do you do with it?

If you’re like me, you pass it on to a family member (my wife, in my case), adding yet another member to the International Order of iPhone Owners. If that doesn’t suit you, you can sell your iPhone — and do quite well.

I recently checked eBay and found that 8GB original iPhones were selling for anywhere from about $200 to $350. 16GB iPhones were going for as much as $430. In other words, you can sell a used original iPhone for almost what it cost to buy a new one back in June.

If you’ve never used eBay and don’t want to bother setting up an account, or if you just have a reluctance to use sites such as eBay or craigslist, you have another alternative. You can sell it to a company such as Rapid Repair. Rapid Repair will pay you $100 (for a 4GB original iPhone) all the up to to $200 (for a 16GB iPhone).

Clearly, Rapid Repair would not be a top choice if your goal is to make the maximum possible on your sale. The Rapid Repair price will likely work out to be around $100 or so less than you would make from a similar sale on eBay. In addition, you have to pay your own shipping costs to Rapid Repair [Correction: Rapid Repair does pays shipping for your iPhone; however, if they decline to accept your phone (because it turns out to be defective), you'll have to pay to have it sent back to you]; with eBay you can pass on shipping costs to the buyer. Finally, with Rapid Repair, you have to send them your iPhone before you get paid; with eBay, you get paid (such as via PayPal) before you ship out your iPhone.

Still, by all accounts, Rapid Repair is a reliable outfit. And they informed me that you can expect to have your check within less than a week from when the iPhone arrives at their doorstep.

The main advantage of RapidRepair is simplicity. You know exactly what you are going to get and when you are going to get it — all with a minimum of fuss. Plus, you know where to find the company if something doesn’t work out as expected.

What does Rapid Repair do with the iPhones it buys? It turns around and sells them. In fact, they often sell them on eBay, making the extra bucks that you turned down by selling your phone to them instead.

Who’s buying these phones?

Who exactly are buying these iPhones? Why would anyone pay $400 for used original 16GB iPhone when they can get a new iPhone 3G for $300? Even considering the added cost of an AT&T contract for a 3G iPhone vs. an original iPhone, it doesn’t really seem worth it.

One obvious answer is that people want the original iPhone because they intend to unlock it and use it with a carrier other than the ones sanctioned by Apple (in the U.S., this would mean a carrier other than AT&T). Currently, unlocking a 3G iPhone is much more difficult (some may say nearly impossible) to do. For such users, the original iPhone is an attractive alternative.

Aaron Vronko, of Rapid Repair, suggested another alternative: With a jailbroken original iPhone and fring, you can make phone calls without signing up for any phone contract. Instead, using your Skype account, you can call landlines or other mobile phones via VoIP — from EDGE or WiFi. A Macworld review of this setup suggests it still leaves a lot to be desired, but it works. To the extent that it does work, it makes an original iPhone much like an iPod touch with the bonus of phone capability.

Sell an iPhone 3G?

When I was checking eBay for original iPhones sales, I noticed that iPhone 3Gs were also for sale. In my most recent check, I found them going for as much as $880 (for a 16GB 3G)! The average price across all 3Gs, however, seemed closer to around $600. This is the same price ($599) as getting an 8GB iPhone 3G from AT&T without a contract (it’s $699 for a 16GB 3G). So where is the money to be made in this exchange? Aaron Vronko again had the potential answer:

Some users may buy the iPhone with the two year AT&T contract and cancel the contract after 30 days. Let’s add up the cost here: $199 for an 8GB 3G, $69 for one month of phone minutes, $30 for the data plan, $175 for the early termination fee. Total cost = $473 plus taxes. If you can sell the phone for $625, you are probably making about $100 on the phone. Personally, I can’t see going through all this hassle just to make $100. But if you somehow manage to do this repeatedly, I can see where it would add up. I guess some people are always looking for a way to game the system.