Interesting post from Lifehacker outlining the unlocked Iphone apps that are available for the Iphone 2.0 OS via Cydia, that are not currently available in the App Store.

If you have an unlocked iPhone (and there are plenty kicking about on EBay) then you are probably still locked into the O2 network in the UK as I have not seen an unlocker that actually unlocks the carrier for the UK phone yet.  If you buy and O2 pay and go card you are going to be disappointed when you find that you still cannot access the internet.  An ordinary Pay and Go will not work alone - you need the specific O2 Iphone Web and Wi Fi add-on. This costs £10 for a month and you get unlimited Internet surfing on their 3G network and also unlimited Wi Fi access via the Cloud. For your username and password you need to change the settings under Settings->Network->Cellular Data Network. Change the APN to 'payandgo.o2.co.uk' and the username needs to be 'vertigo' and the password is 'password'. Happy surfing !

So I finally got my hands on an iPhone 3G but am currently still favouring my iPhone 2.5G - why ?

 - The signal seems better

- 3G signal is patchy at best and forget receiving calls when you have 3G on - horrible...

- The battery life is **much** better on the original iPhone than on the 3G iPhone

- All my accessories such as Power Monkey fit the original iPhone but not the new 3g iPhone as Apple in their wisdom changed the connector.

- GPS is slow and actually I find that the triangulation using Skyhook on the original phone works good enough 

Next, suprisingly, I cannot find the applications I really would like on the App Store. What would I miss or give up if I used the 3G iPhone full time ?

 Fring:  Fring is the only messenger that aggregates all the IM clients I use - MSN, AOL, Yahoo, Skype, IRQ - the closest on the App store is Palringo, but there is  no Skype. Instead you have to rely on IM+ for Skype via the web (which is excellent)

Terminal - No Terminal for iPhone 3G, even if you unlock it.  The closest you can get is Mocha Telnet for VT100 emulation but there is no SSH access.

iSisk - Nothing like iSisk for the iPhone although this may turn up on Cydia (unlocked app')

MCleaner - Nothing like MCleaner (SMS and phone firewall) which is an unlocked app'. 

SmartRSS - Still prefer this unlocked app to all the RSS apps I have seen on the App Store so far

 VideoRecorder - This unlocked Video application is superb and there is nothing like it yet on the app store for the iPhone 3G.

Blogging - I'm really disappointed with all the native blogging apps - both WordPress and Typepad will not work on my phone.  In the case of WordPress as soon as I enter the endpoint it just crashes.  I'm still using BlogSME, a web app' which caters for lots of different blogs including blog-city where this blog is hosted, but it would have been nice to have a native app' that can hook into the photo's. 

Also MobileME has been a disaster.  Half the time it does not work.  I'm still using SMEScheduler to manage appointments and the iPhone version of SMEStorage to get my files on the move (and to be honest irrespective of MobileME working would continue to use these two apps as they really work great, particularly the Storage app which now supports  offline files using Data URl's and also provides support now for viewing Powerpoint files for the 3G iPhone.)

So all in all, not quite ready to to swap my old iPhone for the new one quite yet...... 

Nokia have issued a new version of their Blackberry Killer app' Mail for Exchange. What is Mail for Exchange.  It is the name of Nokia's email client built on top of  Microsoft's ActiveSync technonology. It provides push synchronization of email and other data between Microsoft Exchange and Nokia devices. It also now supports MIcrosoft Exchange 2007.

 

Around December 2007 timeframe Nokia acquired Avvenu. Avvenu had an online service that let users access and share files from their desktop.  Nokia is now offering in beta the ability to host files on Ovi. This works by having a desktop client to sit on your PC and  a mobile client that can then access the files. They also offer an "anywhere" option in which you do not have to have a client on your dekstop but can access your files from the cloud.

 I can see more and more of these services popping up.  I've blogged before about a service I use call SMEStorage that does something similar and allows me to access my files through my iPhone . In this instance the files are stored on the Amazon S3 infrastructure and the concentration is on the channels to access and the functionality of what I can do with the files.  I'm already testing a Facebook Widget and a MS Office plug-in that in the former's case allows files I designate to be pulbic to be accessed from facebook, and in the latters case allows me to instantly upload and download files from the cloud when using MS Office.  From what I understand TheSMESpace also intend to open up their platfrom to allow an Amazon S3 account to be used in the coming months, of course also allowing you to move any files you host with them to your own Amazon S3 account or vice-versa. Personally I like this model. I know my files are hosted on world class infrastructure and I love to see innovative ways in which I can use and work with my data. No doubt about it though, cloud services and their use is going to go through the roof in the comings months and years.

BlogSME, the iPhone Blogging application by TheSMESpace has been updated. It now supports Twitter as well as adding a "Tagger" for HTML submissions. It also supports Blogger, WordPress and Movable Type, and of course Blog City, and in fact I am using this now to post this entry.

 

 

Sybase is ready with iAnywhere which will offer Enterprise Grade security to continue the revamped iPhone's march into the corporate fold.

This will give the iPhone the same level of security as Rim Blackberry and Palm Treo according to Sybase CEO John Chen.

 Nokia, already a stakeholder in Symbian, is to buy the remaining assets and form a new platform called the Symbian foundation. This will unite all the different versions of Symbian into a common platform

This has the backing of companies such as Motorola, Vodafone, NTT and DoCoMo to name but a few. Check out Om Malik's post for more detailed information

One of the initial frustrating things I had with the iPhone is that it was not possible to Blog via the web admin - Mobile Safari did not like the editing tool. However I found a nice Blog tool from the chaps at TheSMESpace whose other applications Mobile SMEStorage and SMEScheduler for the iPhone I already use.

They have released a Blogging tool called BlogSME that supports Blog City, WordPress, Movable Type, and Blogger.  Pretty handy if you use the hosted versions of these platforms and need to blog on the move.



You can use the application from here .

Well, after living with the Iphone for a little while now I am able to offer some thoughts and a whole host of other advice on this wonderful technology device. I'm currently using firmware 1.14. Even Gartner now seems to be onboard  describing the Iphone as a viable corporate device based on the 2.0 software.  Believe me, even with the sub 2.0 software, it is.

I won't go into details on the device itself, there are plenty of resources on the web that have done this, suffice to say that in the UK it officially works on the O2 network, and in the US it officially works on AT&T. 

As we all know by now the device itself can be "jailbreak'd" so that it can work on  other networks, something I did for this review, using the Vodafone network.  This is all pretty smooth with one of the various unlockers that are available freely on the internet.  One of the issues I had after unlocking was the getting the voicemail button to work.  Note this is not visual voicemail, as this only works with AT&T, but actually getting the phone to dial Voicemail when the button was touched. The easy way to fix this is to input the following code *5005*86*xxx# into your keypad. Here xxx would be your voicemail number. In the case of Vodafone this is '242'. After entering the code tap call and then the voicemail button to be set.

 The phone works on WiFi or the slower Edge network rather than 3G.  To be honest I did not find this a huge bind although obviously 3G support would be better. Whilst on Edge when I am out and about, to keep data costs down and also for speed for certain applications I use iPhoneiquity . This compresses any website, allows me to choose whether to display images or not, and formats it for the iPhone, giving me a unique url to bookmarks, which I do under and Edge folder - works great. Check out the video .

The Iphone has a 2 MegaPixel camera and has the most amazing email, Browser and YouTube support.  This is best seen rather than talked about so check out the video here .  The Phone also has Bluetooth but to be honest this only seems to be useful for a bluetooth headset as even pairing this with a Mac, whilst it works, does not allow you to share files or use Bluetooth in any meaningful way.  The headset I use is the Aliph Jawbone , which it has to be said really compliments the IPhone. To find out why this is such an amazing headset, watch the video .

 

The only issue I have found with this is that when you reboot the phone, even though the headset appear paired when turned on, it isn't, and you have to delete the pairing and re-pair - it's painless but a pain.

Email on the phone is fine under Wi-Fi but a little slow under Edge. One of the issues is that once email is downloaded it does not stay on the device.  The Email client is but a browser window to email, and whether it stays or whether it goes does not seem to have any rhyme or reason to it, and this is potentially a big issue for those users who would want to use an IPhone as a corporate device.  Initially the instinctive reaction is to setup email manually on the phone but it is better to sync it via ITunes (Check the 'Sync these mail accounts' option and then choose the mail accounts you want on the phone). One issue I did find is that for a couple of the email accounts they would not send.  In my case this was because they had been installed with SSL on for send.  Go to setting, email, and edit the account and take SSL off an you should be fine.

Another way to use email, if you have a corporate Exchange account, is to use Outlook Webmail directly within the browser.  This is really snappy, even under edge - I use email like this all the time whilst on the road. You can change the email "Sent from Iphone" Signature under the mail settings, but if you want to add a custom signature (with photo) check out the article here .

Ringtones is another bone of contention, and how to get them onto the phone.  On firmware 1.14 you can use GarageBand 8 on the Mac to create a ringtone and send it straight to ITunes for use on the IPhone (under the Share setting on Garage Band 8). Another way of doing this is to create the ringtone using this service  which will give you a ringtone AMR file. 

You cannot use the Phone to connect to the Internet from our laptop by default, but if you use a Mac there is a good article  that outlines that how to do just that. 

The battery life is actually OK but as with most mobiles, heavy use will leave you running low.  I recommend Power Monkey - a really great way to top up your phone.  If I go on trips abroad now I just take this and I've managed to go almost a full week with just one Power Monkey charge.  To see more on Power Monkey check out this video.

 One of the great things about the iPhone is that if you travel you can genuinely get bye and leave your laptop at home.  The one bugbear I did find was that a lot of hotel rooms still have ethernet only connections and of course the iPhone is Wi Fi only. No problem !  Use the Linksys Wireless-G travel router - converts anyt Ethernet connection to Wi Fi on the fly - absolute must if you have an iPhone.

 IPhone 1.14 has some nice new functionality including the ability to have web clips directly on your phone.  Effectively this means storing icons for websites you regularly visit on your home screen.  You can do this from the plus icon on Safari.  To remove these icons, hold them down on the home screen for a second or so and then click the 'x' that appears.  to stop the phone wobble effect tap the Iphone's home button. To get really amazing images try HSIcon.

If you ever need to reset your IPhone hold down the power button and the home screen for about 5 seconds and it will reboot.  To exit an application that is not responding just hold down the phone button for about 5 seconds. If the app does not close you will need to reset as described. 

 There are many IPhone native applications now and with the launch of the IPhone SDK no doubt many more - some of my essential business applications are below:

 SmartRSS: Amazing native RSS reader application, very slick and needs to be used to be appreciated - not always easy to find, so to install from the installer application from your unlocked phone then add the repository to the installers app sources (http://rep.sosiphone.com) and then you will find a new category in in the installer categories - SOSIphone - from here choose SmartRSS (don't worry about the French) and install. Watch the video .

 

 SMEScheduler: SMEScheduler is a Very smart business web application in which you can organise meetings via your Iphone and have the whole process automated.  The meeting participants vote as to what is the best time/date to have meeting and the whole things is automated, right down to the emails and calendar invites everyone receives.

 

Beejive:  Beejive is a multi-IM web application that handles AIM, MSN and MSN - essential for your mobile office ! Watch the video

  

 SMEStorage - SMEStorage Allows you to access your documents (PDF's, HTML, E-Books, Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc) stored on the SMEStorage service on your phone.  It's a web application that also integrated with Zoho Office online so your documents can be loaded directly into the Zoho platform from your phone.  It also allows me to shared documents either via collaboration groups or over email, again directly from my phone which is useful. Watch the video .

 

 Fring:  Fring is a native application that aggregates all the various IM services including those that provide VOIP and allows you to use the VOIP parts of the services as well as the IM parts (as well as providing connectivity to other VOIP services such as Skype ) - its very slick and I'm glad they finally released a native version for the Iphone.

 

 

 Terminal App: Terminal is actually Terminal for the Iphone which is installed using the Installer app.  Using the installer you can also install SSH, DNS, WGet etc etc.  If you need to be able to remotely administer systems then this is more than useful.

 

WildEyes: WildEyes is a document image viewer for the iPhone.  It can be installed using the Installer App.  It basically works in conjunction with the LightHTTP web server to serve up documents from your local drive. You can use an FTP program to FTP into your iPhone to upload documents

 WeTool:  WeTool is installed from the installer app and addresss some of the inefficiencies that will no doubt be addressed in the second generation version of the iPhone. It enables you to delete individual SMS's, search SMS's and also to forward SMS's and forward contact details.

  Search:  Search is installed from the installer app and it allows you to search contact and calendar items - it works very well and is very useful

 

 

VNotes: Vnotes as the name suggest is a Voice Notes application.  It is a native application so has to be installed from the installer and is very solid.

Telekinesis:  Telekenisis is a really great open source project that allows you to access your files and PC/Mac from your iPhone - amazing !

 

 On the development side there are so many initiatives / open source / development tools that its hard to know where to start.  A nice site to keep up to date with iPhone Dev stuff is the TheIphone DevPlace which of course has an iPhone site !

Also you should check out the iUi web development framework by Joe Hewitt, and the Wordpress iPhone Theme.  There is also an iPhone admin plugin as well as the iPhone App Builder which allows you to enter your RSS or Atom feeds and will generate an iPhone application from this and give you a unique url you can use in your own site.  Here is the one for Vehera.

The iPhone is an amazing piece of kit and has completely re-defined what a mobile device should be and how you should interact with it - you don't have to wait until iPhone v 2.0 to get the best out of it though !

According to Forrester research wider handset availability, improved network coverage and new pricing models are going to foster rapid adoption of mobile internet services in Europe.

By 2013 they predict that the number of people using the Internet via mobile phone will be 125 million - three times today's figure.  Some countries, such as the UK, will adopt even faster.

 Improved handset devices, such as the Iphone 2.0, improved networks, such as 3.5G, better network coverage, and flat data tariffs are expected to drive the adoption rate. The report predicts that the mobile web has finally reached a tipping point in terms of its widespread use. 

A recent forecast issued by market analysis firm ABI Research suggests the potential for mobile location-based services is huge, anticipating annual global revenues of $13.3 billion by 2013 !  The Iphone has probably done a lot to bring the idea of Location based services forward, particularly the Google Maps integration - if you haven't seen this yet check out this video.

 

So, all you developers out there get your killer ideas of the ground now !

If your Iphone won't restore and you get the error "Unable to restore Iphone Unknown error (6)" update to the latest version of ITunes. and try again.  If this does not work then the likely cause is that one or more of the .ipsw files located in your  user  folder/Library/iTunes/iPhoneSoftwareUpdates is damaged. Delete the files and try the restore again - you should find that new copies of the files will download and the process should start again and works as expected.

In Q4 2007 Apple became the 10th largest phone manufacturer. According to Gartner Apple holds a 0.6% share of the market compared to RIM in 6th place that has a 1.2% share. Nokia continues to dominate with a 40.4% share of the market.

Microsoft has struck a deal with Nokia to bring a version of Silverlight to the Nokia Series 60 mobile phones. The software is also feted to run on Nokia's Tablet devices.  Silverlight is a rich media technology   that competes with Flash and Shockwave.  Microsoft is already producing a version of Silverlight for its own Mobile platform later this year.  Microsoft is obviously aiming to play catch up quickly to the lead that Flash, as a technology, has on Silverlight.  Microsoft already has a Windows and Mac version and on the cusp of creating a linux version with Novell.

Danger Inc has been purchased by Microsoft for an undisclosed price.  Danger produce the Sidekick which is popular in the US and growing in popularity in the UK.  Microsoft seems to have made a strategic purchase to ensure that it can compete with the growing Apple Iphone and Android OS.  And what of the Danger founders ?  well Andy Rubin has an interesting new position - he has  new job at Google running their mobile division....watch this space !

Google Gears is now available for Windows Mobile devices. Of course the Gears paradigm fits well with mobile devices as they can be disconnected quite often and local storage then becomes a necessity.  Zoho are on of the showcase sites using it, and although the features for the mobile edition are still limited, this looks to be compelling as a model for developing mobile apps.

I've finally got around to releasing the source for the J2ME MIDP Amazon Explorer.  You can get it at the ThinletMobile website.  If you use the source for any nice Thinlet mobile apps then drop me an email and I'll feature them.

Apple is among 23 companies that are being sued by Autotext technologies for the unlawful deployment of predictive text technology.  The suit was file in an Ohio court asserting that the named companies infringed a "computer based transcript" patent it files in 1994.

Apple's co-defendants include companies such as HP, Nokia, Motorola, Palm, RIM as well as IBM and AT&T.