Numerous readers have reported that Apple’s iPhone 3G commercial has begun appearing on a wide variety of U.S. television stations. The commercial, entitled Hallway, debuted during Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9th and was posted to Apple’s site soon after. However, the commercial has remained conspicuously absent from television broadcasts until now.

The iPhone 3G launches this Friday in approximately 20 countries, with an additional 50 countries scheduled to begin offering the new iPhone later this year

via http://www.macrumors.com/iphone/2008/07/07/iphone-3g-commercial-airing-on-u-s-television/

Posted on July 8th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun, 3G iPhone | No Comments »

If you’re big on iPhone themes and changing them round often, MMiThemer is a great app to look at.  It’s not brand new - I’ve been meaning to post about it for a little while now.

MMiThemer gives you access to a large number of iPhone themes from the ModMyiFone forums site’s repository.  Most or all of these will not show up in Installer, so you need this app in order to see them.

ModMyiFone’s members have been a rich source of a large number of iPhone themes for quite a while now - and of many of the most creative and new sort of themes as well, things like Leaf and Vista Perfection, just to name two quick examples.

Before this app came along, I had a habit of checking the New Themes and Skins forum section at MMi quite regularly to see what new stuff was around - now it is much quicker to check things out via MMiThemer on the iPhone.

The app shows you Latest and Popular theme sections (Featured section does not work for me) and refreshes those each time you launch them.  Once you install a theme via MMiThemer, you still need to use Summerboard to manage and select your theme.

MMiThemer is available now on Installer

via http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/06/29/mmithemer-great-source-for-lots-more-iphone-themes/

Posted on June 30th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun, iPhone Tips | No Comments »

Seems like it’s been a little quieter on the iPhone themes front lately, just as it has been on jailbreak apps generally - but here is one that caught my eye today - the new Blacklight iPhone theme.

Quite different and striking looking I think.  Blacklight is an iPhone Summerboard theme, created by Allen from Planet-iPhones.

The theme works best with the Hide Icon Labels and Hide Dock Labels turned on within SMBPrefs.

Blacklight is available now in Installer an should not require any additional sources be added in order to see it …

via http://justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress/2008/06/25/featured-iphone-theme-blacklight/

Posted on June 26th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

Apple’s new iPhone promises to be 4.7 ounces of awesome.

It will do everything the iPhone does well–surfing the Web, serving up music and movies, and letting you flick through your voicemail messages with a fingertip–only faster and cheaper.

Yet imperfections still lurk, in spite of Chairman Steve Jobs’ maniacal attention to detail. Even before its release, there are some niggling issues–some minor, others major–that make the iPhone a mere gadget, just like any other. Just ask those pesky bloggers:

The Cost
Those crafty phone companies! Yes, at $199, the new iPhone is cheaper up-front than the original, which first went on sale starting at $499 last year. It is not, however, less expensive to own. Do the math and you find out the iPhone will cost $160 more over two years than the original iPhone because AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) put together a pricier data plan for the phone to help it subsidize the up-front cost of the handset. The gadget fiends at Gizmodo called that “a small price to play,” but Bits, the technology blog at The New York Times, called it “a step backwards for consumers.”

No Flash
The iPhone is a surprisingly capable Web browser. Its wide, high-resolution screen and the ability to bop around the Web by tapping links with a fingertip has turned mobile Web surfing from a chore into a pleasure. The biggest hitch: the iPhone still doesn’t support Adobe’s (nasdaq: ADBE - news - people ) Flash technology, which means many multimedia-rich sites remain off limits. While Adobe is working hard to make its technology iPhone-friendly, don’t hold your breath.

No Replaceable Batteries
Hardcore road warriors don’t have time to stop and recharge their phones. Instead they carry their batteries with them, clicking them into their BlackBerrys in the backs of cabs, or, if they’re lucky, in a coffee shop. By contrast, there’s no easy way to crack open the new iPhone’s sleek case to pop in a battery, disappointing bloggers. And while kits are available for do-it-yourselfers, we wouldn’t recommend trying it in between bites of your bagel.

Video Recording
Apple’s (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) computers come preloaded with iMovie, a slick little application that makes video editing easy and fun. Apple’s iPods, with the exception of the Shuffle, have evolved into snappy little video viewing machines. But if you want to record video, you’d better talk to Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ). Despite its built-in two-megapixel camera, Apple isn’t building the ability to take video into its new phone, a feature even many low-end so-called “feature phones” include.

No Cut-And-Paste
The inability to copy a chunk of text and paste it into another application has baffled geeks since the iPhone’s introduction last year. It’s a simple tool that would make blogging and zapping bits of text to friends via e-mail a breeze. And, yes, it can be done without screwing up the phone’s interface.

No Multimedia Messaging Service
This might be the most interesting example of what makes the iPhone quirky: There are some things dirt-cheap phones cranked out by the tens of millions can do that the vaunted iPhone cannot. Forbes.com’s David Ewalt sees the lack of support for Multimedia Messaging Service as one of the most maddening. Want to open an image sent to you via MMS by a friend from her (dirt-cheap) mobile phone? No dice.

Bonus: No Voice Dialing
No blogger we’ve seen has complained about this yet. Maybe that’s because all the geeks who might whine about how tough it is to dial the iPhone died in fiery auto wrecks first, seeing as the iPhone doesn’t have the voice-recognition smarts to let users dial verbally–the one feature makes the BlackBerry, with its nubby little plastic keyboard, usable on the road.

via http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2008/06/20/iphone-disappointment-features-tech-wireless08-cx_bc_0620iphone.html?feed=rss_popstories

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

Posted on June 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Videos, iPhone Fun | No Comments »

Many of you indirectly know Zibri as the creator of ZiPhone, the tool that you probably used to unlock your iPhone if you did so in the past few months. Now, Zibri has claimed that the existing ZiPhone software can unlock the 3G iPhone without a hiccup. Although Zibri probably is correct, we can’t help but wonder how he was able to prove this. Chances are, he figured out a way to do a “test unlock” with the beta 2.0 firmware update. Check out his website for more details on how he successfully unlocked the 3G baseband.

via http://www.iphonematters.com/article/the_3g_iphone_has_been_unlocked_893/

Posted on June 17th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

One thing that I’ve noticed over the past couple of months is that the iPhone is not just for us younger generation. Lots of older people have iPhones too.
I’ve met a guy who is over 50 who has an iPhone and I asked him a few things about it. He said he loves his iPhone and that it is the best phone he has ever had. He also said that his son who is only 10 taught him how to use everything on it. He also said that he had bought a lot of Apple products like a mac and Apple TV and his son set it all up too. He said that he loves the technology of the iPhone and is glad he got it. His son unlocked it for him.

About two ago I saw a lady in her 40’s who had an iPhone. I also asked her about it. She too said it was the best phone she’s ever had, maybe even the best thing she’s ever owned. A couple weeks ago I also saw an older man taking photos with his iPhone. Today even, I heard the signature Apple iPhone ringtone, I knew it was an iPhone, but guess who answered, a man who is at least 50, maybe even 60.

This just goes to show that anyone can get excited about the iPhone and cool gadgets in particular. The iPhone really bridges the generation gap. Once the iPhone is available in Canada, I’m sure I will see ever more older folks using an iPhone. I bet not all older people know the ins and outs of unlocking and hacking some of the younger tech savvy generation. Do you know anyone over the age of 40 with an iPhone? Do your parents have one? Let me know!

via http://www.iphoneuser.ca/2008/06/old-people-use-iphone-too.html

Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

If you are one of the countless people that condemn the iPhone for its inability to emulate the Palm OS, then it may be time for you to take another look at Apple’s wonder device. StyleTap has announced that they plan to bring this capability to the iPhone in the near future, whats more the iPhone runs the Palm OS better than most Palm devices, so this is a very interesting feature to add to the long list of things that the iPhone already excels at.

You will be able to grab the software needed starting in July, when more information is released by StyleTap. When the information comes forward, they will also announce price points, how to get it, and how the software will be marketed. StyleTap also said that they will have members from their team attending WWDC. They will be available for interview, and hopefully a demo.

The question really though is how well does the device’s capacitive touch screen work for the resistive touch driven OS? After all, Palm’s OS was designed for a stylus. Though the smallest parts of the interface may be a little hard to use with your finger, the answer is surprisingly well. Check out the demo video to see the software in action.

via http://www.iphonebuzz.com/styletap-announces-palm-os-emulator-for-iphone-312622.php

Posted on June 2nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun, iphone applications | No Comments »

This is an interesting story sent to us by one of our viewers. It is about a gentleman (David) who ordered a refurbished iPhone through AT&T and received a bag…yep, that’s it, nothing but the bag. The only reason this concerns me is because I know a few of you bought refurbished iPhone’s from AT&T during the last sale. Below is a just snippit from David’s blog.

I am a developer for Pegasus News. My team has been working on an application for the iPhone and was in need of hardware for testing, so when my brother mentioned that AT&T had refurbished iPhones on their site, I jumped on the deal knowing that stock at all local Apple stores was nonexistent. I place my order, everything goes through just fine, I’m a happy customer. I try to pull up my order status on AT&T’s site and get an error message telling that it might take 24 hours for information to be available in their system. This seems like a common enough requirement, so I wait patiently.

ONE WEEK AND FOUR BLOG POSTS LATER…

My wife calls to tell me she found the DHL delivery, but it’s not a box. It’s a shipping envelope. She asks if she should open it. I tell her please do.

“It’s just a bag.”
“It’s a what?”
“It’s a bag. It’s an empty plastic bag.”
“Well, um, er, is there anything else in the package at all? A note or anything?”
“There’s a shipping label. But this is just a bag like you’d get if you bought something in their store.”

(pause)

(sigh)

“I’ll call AT&T again.”

Read the entire blog entry HERE.

I am curious to know if anyone else is having this problem.

via http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2008/05/29/where-are-the-refurbished-iphones/

Posted on May 30th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »

So you’ve set a passcode for your iPhone, and you’re feeling smug and secure. You can leave the device unattended on your desk, or worse, have it stolen or lost without fear of prying eyes accessing your private data — right?

As discovered by Jonathan Zdziarski, who has established himself as something of an iPhone forensics expert, the iPhone’s passcode mechanism should leave you feeling neither smug nor secure, and represents little more than a mild deterrent for would-be viewers of your private data.

Zdziarski has outlined a three-step process for cracking the iPhone’s passcode, as follows:

1. Prepare a custom iPhone RAM disk. There are numerous How-To’s out there to do this. Your custom RAM disk will need to mount /dev/rdisk0s2 (say, /mnt) and simply delete the file /mnt/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist. This is the config file that tells springboard “passcode: on”
2. Use the iPhone Utility Client to place the device into recovery mode and then boot the RAM disk using something like:
   • (iPHUC Recovery) #: filecopytophone Bypass_Passcode.bin
   • filecopytophone: 0
   • (iPHUC Recovery) #: cmd setenv\ boot-args\ rd=md0\ -x\ -s\ pmd0=0×9340000.0xA00000
   • (iPHUC Recovery) #: cmd saveenv
   • (iPHUC Recovery) #: cmd bootx
3. After your custom RAM disk blows away the springboard config, reboot the phone and the passcode will be circumvented, because SpringBoard’s default is “no passcode”As you can see, it’s a process that requires some diligence and familiarity with iPhone hacking tools, but one that can be accomplished in mere minutes by anyone who has physical access to an iPhone.

   Zdziarski writes:

   “What a shame, that Apple went to the trouble of storing the passcode in the keychain, and yet the switch to turn it on and off is sitting in a little property list. You can test this on your own iPhone without all the trouble by simply ssh’ing into it and deleting this file by hand, then reboot.”

via http://www.iphoneatlas.com/2008/05/22/iphone-passcode-can-be-easily-bypassed/

Posted on May 23rd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: iPhone Fun | No Comments »