News tagged ‘3G’

DevTeam finally released iPhone 4 unlock software. The new version 1.0-1 of ultrasn0w now works for:

• iPhone4 baseband 01.59
• iPhone 3G/3GS basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04

To install run Cydia and add the repo:  repo666.ultrasn0w.com

Today ChangeWave Research revealed the results of its survey on iPhone 4. 213 new handset owners were questioned in a few weeks after the launch of the latest Apple's smartphone, between July 19 and 28. Here is a list of facts that were revealed:

• In June 6.3% of iPhone 3GS owners experienced dropped calls, in July only 5.2% of those who use iPhone 4 had dropped a call at least once. ChangeWave Research's vice president Paul Carton says that means that iPhone 4 is quiet better at making calls:

"Despite all of the issues surrounding the antenna, in actuality iPhone 4 owners reported experiencing fewer dropped calls on the average than iPhone 3GS owners".


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Yesterday Apple released iOS 4.1 beta 3 for developers. Build number is 8B5097d for the firmware and 10M2308 for the SDK. Here is what's new in beta 3:

• A revised API that allows applications to have an access to contact thumbnail pics;
• Media playback enhancements, which include new classes in AV Foundation, related to batched playback, writing/reading and file compression;
• New features of Game Center: now players can track their in-game achievements and game scores on leaderboards and find teams for group play. But it was also found that Game Center is no longer supported for iPod touch 2G and iPhone 3G, though it is unknown whether it is a permanent change or not.

Final release of iOS 4.1 is expected to be shipped in September or October.

Guys from 9to5mac decided to count how much data FaceTime uses over 3G. They made a 5 minute test call, and concluded that FaceTime takes 3 Mb every minute. Not much at all!

Here are the screenshots before and after the call.

FaceTime feature gives users the possibility to make  voice calls. Apple restricted this feature to Wi-Fi only. Today it became possible to use it over 3G!

Setup Instructions:

1. Jailbreak your iPhone 4 via www.jailbreakme.com.
2. Download and upgrade to the latest Cydia package.
3. Open Cydia, Go to Manage then Sources.
4. Click Sources, Edit then add: http://apt.modmyi.com
5. Search for "My3G" -- download, and install it. It costs $2.79. My3G makes Apps believe that they are on WiFi instead of 3G.
6. Go through the Rock setup process with a username and password. Open My3G and leave all settings on the default.
7. FaceTime should now work over 3G! -- Make sure to "Forget" the WiFi network you are on (via iOS settings) if you want to test it.

We haven't seen any difference between the 3G FaceTime call and a WiFi FaceTime call. The quality is very good.

Here's a video demo:

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Here is the video of recently released universal safari jailbreak called JailBreakMe working on an iPhone 3G:

Recently tech journalist Stephen Fenech wrote an interesting iPhone 4 review for Australian Daily Telegraph. Besides saying that iPhone 4 is "a massive jump" in the smartphone industry, Fenech also tried to reproduce the antenna issue. To make sure his results are correct he used his phone on 6 different Australian carriers - Optus, Telstra, Vodafone and 3 other networks in different parts of Sydney. Here is his conclusion:

"I tried the 'death grip' on the bottom left while making test calls in areas I knew to have weaker reception and the times I did manage to reduce the signal bars... my calls were still not affected. The worst thing that happened was a web page I was loading timed out but after refreshing it came up fine. I even managed to watch a YouTube video over 3G while in the 'death grip.'"

Fenech also added that the "death grip" is unnatural and iPhone 4 call quality was significantly improved in comparison to iPhone 3GS.

After using two iPhones 4 for six weeks Wall Mossberg finally reviewed the newest Apple’s handset.

So, one phone was obtained by Mossberg personally, while the second was provided by Apple. Walt found that iPhone 4 works better than iPhone 3GS in those areas where there is a "strong AT&T coverage", but when it comes to weak coverage areas iPhone 3GS performs better, because it drops less calls and 'no service' status can be seen rarer. That became a reason for Mossberg to not recommend iPhone 4 with its limited AT&T data plans to people who "live, work or travel" in areas with poor reception signal.

Walt also found that the 'death-grip' issue is not a problem as it causes signal bars to fluctuate only and even to rise in some cases.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple started to investigate the compatibility problems of iOS4 and iPhone 3G. The company's spokesman explained that such a decision was made because of numerous user reports, which reveal that after installing iOS4 on iPhone 3G the latter started to work more slowly, became overheated and its battery life had significantly decreased.

Some people are annoyed and disappointed because of the situation:

“This phone has gone from being a dream to constantly annoying me. Not a way to make friends. I would upgrade to an iPhone4, but I’m feeling pretty angry that Apple has forced my hand by making my 3G unusable”.

iOS4 version for iPhone 3G does not support multitasking and Bluetooth keyboards, which was disabled because of RAM requirements, according to Apple.

iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G work a bit slow with iOS 4. The video below shows a nice trick that will put the speed back in your device. You need to go do Settings and deselect Spotlight.

On iPod Touch 2G go to Settings - General - Home Button - Spotlight Search. On iPhone 3G go to Settings - General - Spotlight Search. Then uncheck all the searches that you don't use. This will increase the speed of your device.

This also works on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, however the speed increase is very small there.

Watch the video:

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MuscleNerd tweeted today that the recent redsn0w utility is able to jailbreak the iOS 4.1 beta2 on iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G. This is useful for developers only, however good news for everyone.

Here's some info from the DevTeam wiki page:

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Apple’s iPhone 4 handset is scheduled to hit Canadian stores this Friday. According to a recent report by CBC, Canadian customers will have the option of buying the phone unlocked, directly from Apple:

Unlocked iPhone 4 is not going to be cheap.

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This Friday iPhone 4 will become available in 17 more countries, but South Korea will not be among them. Steve Jobs explained why:

"It's going to take us a little longer to get government approval there".

Korean government and people were discomfited by these words. According to The Wall Street journal, there is nothing to approve yet.

"The main communications regulator said last week that neither Apple nor KT [local iPhone carrier] had yet submitted the iPhone 4 for approval here".

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Here is an interesting video demonstrating an iPhone speed test across all four generations of the smartphone (iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4).

It’s fantastic to see how far the speed of the iPhone has advanced. As you’d expect, the iPhone 4 is obviously the fastest, closely followed by the iPhone 3GS. Interestingly, the difference between the 3GS and 3G is pretty big, as is the difference between the iPhone 3G and the first-gen handset.

Watch the video:

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This week developers started receiving Microsoft’s test units, which will allow them to test the performance of their apps for WP7 instead of using an emulator. The test smartphones are produced by Samsung and LG and have a Technical Preview version of Windows Phone 7, and guys at NewsGeek decided to compare its browser speed with iPhone 3GS' that runs on iOS 4.

Since the difference in speed is so huge it is noted that both of the phones used 3G network (not Wi-Fi) and iPhone 3GS is a completely finished product, while Samsung's test unit is a prototype with an unfinished OS that is still in development.

Newsgeek also found Internet Explorer in the Windows Phone 7 to be "surprisingly competent and quick" though it was mostly built off of IE7's desktop version.