Craigslist Hits the iPhone

The popular U.S. online classifieds site where you can find just about anything imaginable for sale is now available on the iPhone via the Craigsphone app (iTunes link) from Next Mobile Web.

The currently free app makes the popular online classified service available on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The app allows you to browse and post listings on Craigslist sites across the globe. You can also upload photos and share your location information with the app. However, the best feature of the app is that it allows you to direct dial numbers posted in the classified ads. If you see an item that you are interested in learning more about and there is a phone number in the ad simply click it and the app launches the Phone app dialing the number for you. The app also keeps a history of ads you've viewed in case you need to take a look at an ad again.

Another major feature of the app which isn't perfect yet is it's "Nearby" feature that lets you browse ads closest to you. Unfortunately this feature only works if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area or Manhattan. The vendor's website indicated that this is only temporary so one can expect this feature to be expanded, but no timeline for this was given.

The app was initially released this past Friday and has already seen some substantial updates. We noted in our tests that the app performs some tasks better with a Wi-Fi connection especially when we changed our location and the app went to gather up the required city and state information for the US. The app would consistently time out trying to get the same information over a 3G connection. Hopefully a future update will resolve this issue.