I took the plunge over the weekend and bought an iPhone 3G. Your station or newspaper needs to be on this. Yes, it has network issues. It is still selling like crazy.

This is not a phone. This is a computer, and a powerful one at that. It is a communications device so remarkable that even science fiction underestimated what we’d have in our hands. (Captain Kirk had, at best, a flip-phone Nextel.)

I will not go into an iPhone sales pitch. You’ve heard all that. Instead, I will tell you about three free iPhone programs and why you need to be on the device’s “desktop.” (Palmtop? Phonetop? iTop?)

The first is the AP’s Mobile News application. You get the local, state, national and world wires through this simple application. You also get AP video, the quality of which is first-rate. What should make this so worrisome to you is that the iPhone - and therefore the Mobile News application - knows where you are, so local news really is local news. It asks permission to use your current location, and if you give permission, it triangulates your position and you’ve got local news. I don’t understand why local media outlets - which, you know - contribute to the AP - aren’t more concerned about this.

Next is WeatherBug, a longtime player in the weather space, which has put together an excellent application. It’s considerably better than the weather app that comes with the iPhone. That one just shows you highs, lows and a “sun/clouds/rain” graphic. The WeatherBug has the conditions at your location (and I mean your location - my weather station is at the nearby middle school). It also has a customizable Google Maps weather radar mashup, which came in handy over the weekend when we were caught up in a thunderstorm downtown. I could tell by the radar it was passing, and kept my family inside a store for about 20 minutes rather than making a mad dash for the car, five blocks away.

Last, I want to recommend Sportacular, produced by StreamingScores.com, a live, refreshed-every-30-seconds sports site that constantly updates scores, stats, standings and sports news. Simple.

If you’ll note - those three cover what we promote on TV: Local news, weather and sports. I have them, on demand, in my pocket, with video and, in the case of weather, animated maps.

Folks: we need to be in this business.

An iApp is a tiny piece of software. It takes your feeds and makes them mobile. (And I mean really, really mobile.) Consider that the iPhone had a 20% share of the mobile phone market in the U.S. before the launch of the new 3G, and that was just in its first year.

This isn’t to say you should ignore the rest of the mobile world. Far from it. We need to be mobile, more than ever, with mobile-friendly pages for those visiting from many different platforms. We need content that is mobile-driven (and community content that is mobile-contributed). Your podcasts should be easily accessible via phone.

But what about sales? Again, the iPhone is location-aware. So how’s this for a pitch? Every time the user is looking up the news on your site, the advertiser who is nearest has a coupon show up as a link-through. All the user has to do is show the screen at that store. Or, if you want to be really smart, build local search around this. When the user is looking for a place to eat/shop/be entertained, the nearest advertisers show up first, with incentives.

At the very least, there can be a click-through link to the advertiser’s page. Remember: the iPhone comes with Safari, a standard browser. Unlike most other mobile phones, with this one, you can see real, full Web pages.

Be at the forefront in your city. This is truly a case of where being the first matters most. iPhone users are the sweet spot of your Web audience. Build an iApp with your content. If you’re not sure how, ask us.

The iPhone is a micro-local device calling out for local content. Be there.