November 2008: Monthly Archive

Ok, I will admit I have never heard of Emoji (“Picture Characters”) until it was announced that iPhone firmware 2.2 would support them. As it turns out, however, the only iPhones that were blessed with this feature were on Japan’s SoftBank network. Until now that is…

Important Note: If you are not familiar with editing code we here at TiPb do not recommended that you try this.

No matter what carrier you are with, you can now apply a hack that was found on Gizmodo that will enable Emoji emoticons. Keep in mind any iPhone will be able to display the icons hacked or not, while “other” phones out there need to support Emoji in order to display them.

You need to edit the file /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist on the device -> whether you use a jailbreak to achieve this or merely some iTunes backup editor is up to you. Add the following boolean key as ‘true’: KeyboardEmojiEverywhere. Then merely go to the Keyboards section of the Settings app, hit Japanese, and turn on Emoji. Will work for any text field/view in the OS, including on websites, AND including the titles of items on SpringBoard (e.g. if you save a bookmark to the home screen).

The easiest way to do this would be to Jailbreak and run your iPhone as a SFTP server for editing the config file. Again TiPb does not recommend you try this if you are not familiar with editing code.

[Via Gizmodo]

We’ve covered why the BlackBerry can’t compare the iPhone, why the BlackBerry compares worse than ever to the iPhone 3G, and even what the iPhone could learn from the Blackberry.

So, okay, fair enough. We’ve beaten the BlackBerry horse so far past death even it’s ghost shows bruises. But here’s the thing — the second biggest story of the week (after iPhone OS 2.2, naturally) is the release of the Blackberry Storm, a direct response to Apple’s revolutionary iPhone and its unprecedented sales, business, and reliability success.

How could we ignore that, and how could we ignore iPhone owners who are daring to think different(ly) about jumping to the Storm, or have stuck with Verizon this long hoping the Storm would give them reason not to switch to the iPhone AT&T.

The answer is, we can’t, and we won’t. So after the break, our Top 5 reasons why the BlackBerry Storm STILL doesn’t compare to the iPhone!

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On other mobile platforms (hi Windows Mobile!) we often spend quite a bit of time comparing the processors of different models, seeing which one is faster and seeing what happens when you set the clock speed of a given phone to a higher number. It’s “fun,” see, because not only can clock speed be radically different from phone to phone, but so can performance even on devices with similar clock speeds.

The nice thing about the iPhone: not doing that. Well, until now. MacRumors reports that the 2nd gen iPod Touch, though it sports the same processor as its siblings, actually has a clock speed of 532MHz compared to the rest at 412MHz. The result is that certain apps like TouchSports Tennis run much better on the iPod Touch 2nd Gen. Which ultimately meant that the developer had to optimize their app for the iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPod Touch 1st Gen. All three actually perform differently with the game, with the original iPod touch falling furthest behind.

It’s a bummer, because as apps become more powerful and get closer to testing the limits of the platform, developers will discover that the ’single target’ advantage of the iPhone/iPod Touch platform may go away. We’re not talking about having to code for as many devices as you do with Windows Mobile or BlackBerry, of course, but it’s still worth noting.

Why not clock up the iPhone 3G. In a couple of words: “battery life.” In a lot of words, well, battery life plus when you have WiFi, bluetooth, Quad-band edge and Tri-band WDCMA (that’s GSM 3G to you) all packed together, they have to be finely tuned. Just changing the clock speed could be enough to ruin a whole raft of things beyond battery life. With smartphones, we live in a world where the choice of paint can radically alter signal strength, so it’s no stretch to say the changes in heat, radiation, etc. associated with a faster clock speed could potentially cause problems. Plus, again, battery life people.

It probably wouldn’t completely screw with everything if Apple upped the clock speed — people change clock speeds all the time on WinMo — but it can happen and it’s a bigger deal as they get packed more tightly together. These radios are packed pretty tightly in the iPhone 3G.

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Let’s get started, after the break!

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! Full contest rules here!]

You had Google Android G1 questions, we’ll try to provide answers. Unfortunately, we already shipped the Android G1 off to TreoCentral’s Jennifer and we’re moving on to the Palm Treo Pro, so we won’t be able to answer anything we didn’t already find out last week, but for the most part, we’ll try our best to give you an iPhone look at Google handset.

See our answers, after the jump!

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Let me just start off by saying that the iPhone 3G unlock feature is not yet available in the latest Dev Team software, QuickPwn and the PwnageTool, but you are now able to jailbreak the 2.2 firmware!

It is important to note: Things have gotten a bit more complicated compared to previous releases. If you are users of first generation iPod Touches, 2G/EDGE (first generation) iPhones, factory unlocked iPhone 3G’s (the kind you can buy in places like Hong Kong) or you just have no interest in software unlocking your iPhone 3G – you can use the QuickPwn tool. If you are an iPhone 3G user that is interested in unlocking, Apple has tossed a monkey wrench in the mix for you. The 2.2 firmware upgraded the baseband. This forces you to use PwnageTool (available to Mac users only at the moment) to create a custom .ipsw file that keeps the 2.1 baseband but adds in the software functionality of the 2.2 update.

Please read the official post from the Dev Team for the all of the details, instructions, and downloads. And be sure to hit our Jailbreak Central Forum more news and help.

Good luck to you all!

[Via blog-iphone-dev.org]

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This week: we can’t stop talking about the App Store and what it means for developers. We recorded before 2.2 came out, but expect it to be the topic du jour next week for iPhone Live!

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[This is an official Smartphone Experts Round Robin post! Every day you reply here, you're automatically entered for a chance to win an iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset! More below!]

So, was Android Casey turned to the Apple iPhone side of the Round Robin, or will the Google G1 from T-Mobile forever control his destiny? Jump on over to his full, final iPhone 3G review to see what he loved, what he hated, and how he treated our beloved iPhone. (And every day you tell him just what you think of his review, you get a chance to win AC’s signature device, the G1 itself).

Since round 2 is now about to start, and Casey’s shipped the iPhone off to WinMo Dieter while Crackberry Kevin has thrown the Palm Treo Pro in my general direction, that’s the end of my incredibly strained Star Wars metaphors (for now!) as well.

Wonder what Dieter will have to say about the iPhone? Can’t imagine what I’ll come up with for the Treo Pro, but remember you can post everyday below to increase your odds of winning an iPhone, and on all the Smartphone Experts sites — we’re giving away 5 different handsets, and accessory packs, this year!

iPhone OS 2.2 build 2.2 5G77, at 246.4MB, is the second major point release to Apple’s second generation mobile operating system. Following on release 2.0 (full review) on July 11, and 2.1 (full review) on September 15. Interestingly, while 2.0 had 8 betas, 2.1 only had 4 and 2.2 but 2. Is Apple really getting twice as efficient, or only spending half as much effort getting feedback?

Like 2.1, this update is also available FREE for the iPod Touch. Unlike 2.1, however, Apple is not providing the same functionality to Touch, with the Google Maps update notably missing. Since these updates don’t seem dependent on either the cell radio or GPS, it’s difficult to imagine why Apple chose to — we’ll say it — shaft the Touch. Perhaps they’ll blame their subscription accounting model again? iSigh.

Remarkable also by it’s absence — again — is the much ballyhooed Push Notification Service (announced during WWDC 2008), intended to provide the semblance of multi-tasking to 3rd party apps by sending badges, sounds, and pop-ups through a central Apple server to alert users of, for example, new IMs or tweets. (Should we even bother to mention the continued, and continually unexplained, absence of cut and paste, MMS, unified inbox, video recording, etc.)

Note: We updated just fine using iTunes 8.0.1, but you may want to consider grabbing yesterday’s 8.0.2 release first.

But enough dwelling on the didn’t gets. Read on after the jump for the we gots!

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I noticed 3 messages stuck in my Gmail outbox post-OS 2.2 upgrade. Just sitting there. Mocking me. “Sending” but never getting “sent”. Following a comment by Matt, I re-typed my password and voila, the intertubes they were cleared.

Not sure if this will work for everyone, either by itself or with a reset, but give it a try and let us know.

UPDATE: scottb helps out earnie in the comments with a Google link for unlocking display Captcha to overcome an invalid sender address problem. Our readers rock!

Any other trouble-shooting tips? Keep ‘em coming!