We’ve been all over the jailbreak/unlock situation for both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G updated to 2.0, and here’s the latest.
The iphone-dev team’s pwnage hasn’t been released yet, but will be soon. According to their blog, Apple’s firmware update slowed them down a little, as has the 3G baseband, so what you’ll get short term is:
iPhone (1st Gen) with 2.0 – Activated, Unlocked & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPod Touch with 2.0 – Activated & Jailbroken, (with support for third party applications). iPhone (3G) with 2.0 – Activated, Jailbroken (with support for third party applications).
Can’t wait? Willing to risk mail order? Engadget Mobile says you can order a $1000 worth of unlocked iPhone 3G now:
According to the [Alibaba.com] wholesale goods supply site, you can just order up the “original” Apple device direct from a company called Union Camera and have them sent to whatever poorly lit dock, abandoned warehouse, or suburban safe-house you desire. The best part? They’re network unlocked.
MobileMe Messaging Update
MobileMe messaging is being updated effective immediately. In order to set appropriate expectations with our customers, focus your sales discussion on “automatic sync” rather than “push.” Additionally, we will no longer describe MobileMe as “Exchange for the rest of us.”
When discussing the sync features of MobileMe, you may tell a customer that:
Updates between me.com and iPhone or iPod touch will occur in a matter of seconds.
Updates between me.com and Macs running Mac OS X Leopard and Windows PCs may take up to 15 minutes when MobileMe is set to sync automatically (Macs running Mac OS X Tiger may experience longer sync times).
Is Thurrott justified given Apple’s painful and still botched MobileMe roll-out? Or is he upset the mass-media is still dissing on Vista and wants to throw some fire Apple’s way? Little of both?
I thought AT&T and the iPhone were living happily ever after? I mean what with Apple making some concessions with the activation process and data plans plus selling a gazillion iPhone 3Gs (more like a million), AT&T should be happy right? Nope!
An AT&T Kiosk at the Moorestown Mall in New Jersey has decidedly gone anti-iPhone 3G. When a customer approached asking about iPhone insurance she was answered with evil laughter and was told by the employees to get a…hide the women and children…Blackberry! (gasp). I guess not AT&T stores don’t show a united front. To make matters worse, they gave her anti-iPhone 3G pamphlets using articles from Pocket PC Magazine and Crackberry.com.
You may or may not know, but Crackberry.com is like family to us at TiPb. It’s a little more than heartbreaking to see their articles being used against our. most. beautiful. and. fastest. gadget. ever. But hey, family squabbles happen, we get that, but it won’t stop us from fighting back!
As gaming developers grow more familiar with the iPhone platform and learning its capabilities, many are doling out their opinions across the interweb. Compared to the DS and the PSP, an EA developer put the iPhone in terms of power closer to the PSP than the DS. That’s nothing new for us at TiPb but now Sega is claiming that the iPhone is more powerful than their last console, the Dreamcast! To remind you: the Dreamcast was home to Soul Caliber, Shenmue, & Virtua Tennis and the console was a competitor of the PS2 and Xbox.
And. the. iPhone. is. more. powerful. than. that.
But powerful as it is, as proven by the current console war, the iPhone is going to need FUN games to succeed as a gaming platform. Let’s give developers some time to see what they can come up with. With such power under the hood, they’ll have no excuse!
I got to my local Rogers (corporate owned) store way early, and was immediately nervous upon seeing tons of cars. They were filled with senior citizens — strange iPhone demographic, I thought. When the doors to the mall opened at 7am, the seniors raced in. Near jog, no joke. I thought I’d end up behind a ton of angry, eager iPhone golden oldies, but a funny thing happened: they raced right on past Rogers. Turns out they jog/power walk/amble about there every morning. Who knew?
One week later, and how are things now? I just got my first bill (wow, that was faster than 3G!). $30/6GB data, $35 Mega My 5, $15 Visual Voice Mail Value Pack, $35 activation fee, plus crazy Canadian taxes. $124. (Plus the initial $299 for the 16GB handset…)
But what else is going on in my home and native land? Read on to find out!
If you’ve not heard; Apple released iPhone 2.0 today which includes a software update to the existing iPhones in the market (yes, we mentioned it when it was announced as well). We’re thrilled to add them to the family of Exchange ActiveSync licensees that enable all sorts of devices to connect to Exchange Server. For those of you that manage Exchange Servers this means you may see some new devices connecting and we wanted to give you a few notes about what to expect.
Following their welcome are some nifty pointers (with screenshots) of what the iPhone looks like to an Exchange Admin, and a couple of related FAQs. If you’re just that kind of ITer, give them a look-see…
Yeah, we know that Apple has its own iPhone 3G finder but that one doesn’t work during store business hours. Plus this iPhone finder searches the Apple Stores closest to your location via Google Maps and is a little bit cooler than Apple’s. Location Based Services are all the rage right?
Some interesting tidbits on iPhone 3G availability as of July 16th is that it’s sold out in 23 of the 38 states that Apple has retail stores in. And the most difficult model to find is the 16 GB Black version which is only available in 12 of Apple’s 188 stores. Apple desperately needs to re-stock those puppies!
So if you didn’t get your hands on an iPhone 3G yet, feel free to use the tool to plan your purchase!
Okay, while I may personally still be waiting for my Battlefront Touch, and accelerometer X-Wing dogfights, Star Wars: the Force Unleashed from THQ brings plenty of lightsaber and force-powered goodness:
the battles can grow enjoyably hectic as you block fire and toss your enemies aside. And it’s all promised to be backed by the same soundtrack we’ll hear in the Xbox/PS3 versions of the Force Unleashed (we just heard placeholder music during our hands-on). Oh, and something really cool. You can rotate the game between portrait and landscape mode. Neither gave the characters the stretched look.
A few posts back we got into a few App Store early growing pains/gripes, including that some less-scrupulous — or more marketing-savvy, depending on your point of view — developers were prepending spaces and symbols to their App names in order to get them to sort higher in the alphabetical listings. Well according to MacUser (via Ars), seems like Apple called shenanigans on that one and has put an end to the practice.
Visiting the App Store now, I see that Jirbo’s titles, as well as quite a few others, still have a space in front of them, but are simply alphabetized by the following letter.
Nicely done. Would that all App Store problems were so easily solved…
Pardon us while we forget how civilized, non-misogynistic, and enlightened owning an iPhone has made us. The iPhone gets to our caveman brain — we’re as helpless staring at the iPhone as a neanderthal staring at fire. Other things that get us in that same primitive gadget zone: Star Wars and that recent Transformers move (which, except for that Shia guy, was good times).
