iPhone in stasis – Nokia breathes a huge sigh of relief
So Apple’s last ever keynote at MacWorld has come and gone. And, contrary to the tease mentions by some case sites, there was no iPhone Nano announced. Nor indeed any significant iPhone announcements, rather strangely.
As I can illustrate from a chart I drew up for an AAS feature (reproduced below the break), the Apple iPhone is supremely functional in many areas but is let down in others (all well known). In the areas of photo/video and navigation, Apple could have knocked the ball out of the park and really, really rattled the cages of the likes of Nokia.
Happy New Unlock!
Happy New Year from everyone at All About iPhone!
The big news this morning is that the iPhone 3G software unlock has been released via Cydia. So if you have a jailbroken iPhone and want to be able to use a different SIM, the unlock will be in the repository shortly.
More information is available on the iPhone Dev-Team blog.
Best wishes for 2009.
The App Store on every page
Forgive this beginner’s tip if you’re a hardened iPhone user and thought about this many months ago… BUT….
As we all know, the App Store is just about the best thing since sliced bread. In fact, it’s probably the best thing since bread, full stop. But its icon is on the first applications page only, meaning that you’ve got to get back to this in order to have your weekly/daily/hourly addict’s fix of App Store goodness.
OK, so with the v2.2 firmware update, Apple gave us a single keypress on the Home button to get back to the first applications page easily, but what if you were really enjoying the apps on your 9th page? You’ve then got to laboriously scroll back again, page by page.
Now this isn’t another rant about the flatness of Apple’s application menus, but a tip about increasing the visibility of the App Store.
How to download BBC iPlayer shows on your iPhone
The BBC recently announced that iPlayer Desktop is available for Mac and Linux. This allows downloading of shows, rather than just streaming. The BBC is broadening its distribution to more platforms, as a publicly-funded body should. This is great, whatever your thoughts on DRM.
But what about the iPhone? Certain Nokia N-Series phones have a client that enables streaming and downloading. The iPhone-specific iPlayer website is superb, but it only allows streaming. What if you’re out and about, haven’t had time to use Beeb Downloader to grab a show? You can’t stream programmes over 3G.
Wardriving for Wi-Fi – on the iPod Touch!
I’ve got an admission to make. Actually, you’ll have realised already if you’ve been paying attention to some of my screenshots. I don’t own an iPhone. [FX: readers faint with shock]
Actually, I own an iPod Touch. No, it wasn’t that I didn’t want an iPhone, it’s just that, being a phone journalist, I already have about 20 phones and numerous pay-as-you-go SIMs knocking around the office and just couldn’t justify a particular device that mandated an expensive longterm contract. Because, for the purposes of enjoying all the multimedia and application goodness of the iPhone, the much slimmer and cheaper iPod Touch was absolutely perfect. Apart from the few extra iPhone-only apps and slightly different behaviour in Google Maps, the two platforms are identical.
With all that in mind, what can I do about connectivity? More and more applications these days either want to ‘phone home’, to load data from a server or to communicate with others across the Internet. iPhone owners have unlimited EDGE or 3G data in most world markets, but what about us poor iPod Touch relatives?
How secure is your iPhone?
Since I bought my first smartphone – the Nokia 7650 – it has become my key digital device. I store absolutely everything I can on it – who I know, all the details about them, and all the other information that enables me to run my life. This dependency has increased alongside the expanding capacities of the iPhone, supplanting even my computer. So it’s fair to say that my phone contains a lot of information that I consider quite sensitive.
But what happens if someone steals my iPhone? How easy is it for that person to get access to the phone? And even if they do, how can I prevent them finding out the most sensitive information?
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Mac Users: OS X 10.5.6 update prevents jailbreaking
I don’t usually repost news that’s covered elsewhere, but I thought I should let people know. Specifically this applies to Mac users with jailbroken iPhones. The latest OS X upgrade (10.5.6) does not recognise DFU mode on the iPhone.
What’s DFU? Device Firmware Upgrade is the iPhone’s “last resort” restore mode. It also means you can put the phone into DFU mode, then use a tool such as Pwnage to load custom firmware. End result? A jailbroken iPhone.
But not if you’re running the newest update from Apple.
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The Apple iPhone 2 and firmware 2.3
[Wharamurrrrrr……] The flux capacitor hisses, the time disk whirrs and I’m standing in the auditorium at the Moscone Centre on January 5th 2009. Now THAT’s fortuitous. Ooh, Steve Jobs is on stage. Let’s listen in.
Peering into MacWorld 2009
iPhone 3G vs Nokia N96 and HTC Touch HD
Please forgive a link across to another haunt of mine, but yesterday I wrote this head to head between the iPhone 3G and two of its ‘flagship’ smartphone competitors in the marketplace: Nokia N96 and HTC Touch HD.
iPhone 3G vs HTC Touch HD vs Nokia N96
[and yes, I know that I’ve cheated here and used an iPod Touch in the photo – sorry, I didn’t have a physical iPhone to hand]
The article/table’s quite long, but hopefully of interest. Summing up, I said that “The iPhone 3G will appeal to anyone looking for heavy media consumption and gaming – and it’s relatively cheap, SIM-free, especially considering the all-in data bundle”. I’m still staggered that O2 can offer it with unlimited data at £380 all-in, with no monthly contract or further commitments.
The HTC Touch HD is probably the best for Microsoft-centric businesses, despite its truly awful TouchFLO mashup, while the Nokia N96 is the best voice phone and has the best camera. But it’s fair to say that with its value and AppStore and elegant UI, the iPhone wins on most other counts.
iPhone, the cat among the pigeons
Every time I fire up Trains, TV Plus, Wikipanion, Twitterrific, Apple’s YouTube app or even Sunrise, I am reminded of just how quickly iPhone apps are changing my usage of the Internet.
Take Trains as an example. Before Trains if I wanted to check on the progress of my ride home I would fire up the South West Trains website and navigate to the ‘How’s My Train Running’ page. With Trains on the iPhone, just one click plus a five second delay and I can clearly see what time my train is due in, the time at which it left every station along the route and an expected time of arrival at my final destination.
Another example? Try TV Plus. Before TV plus I would open up the Sky homepage, navigate to the ‘My Sky’ page, wait for the remote record section to load up, complete with four adverts for other Sky services and then eventually find and select the show I wanted to record. Now just two or three clicks, a couple of swipes and I’m good to go.
It’s not hard to imagine how this non-Web widgetised version of the Internet could become far more useful than the current Web-centric model, especially on mobile platforms.