Apple is now selling its iPhone 3G unlocked via its on-line Apple Store in Hong Kong. The 8GB model is HK$5,500 (about US$694) and 16GB is HK$6,200 (about $797). It is available since July 11th with a local Hutchison Telecommunications contract, but this is the first time that Apple has sold its device unlocked in Hong Kong.
"iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G and connect to iTunes 8 to complete activation."
Unfortunately for the 1 billion mainland Chinese, the terms and conditions limit sales to those in Hong Kong only.. But the gray market usually doesn't care about t&c's.
iFunBox is an iPhone file browser for MS Windows. It is quite useful. I use iPhoneBrowser tool, and this one I like very much. It is free, download iFunBox V0.6.199.35.
iPhone File Manager
> Navigation, Upload and Download
> Quick Preview, Drag&Drop
> Delete, Rename and Move
> Asian / Long Filename Support
iPhone Portable Disk
> Realtime Progress Indicator
> High Speed Data Transmission
> Scheduled Data Transferring
> Recursive Copy Subfolders
Jamesisbored published a guide, that shows how to block ads, that show up in Safari browser during web surfing.
MobileSafari has one major drawback. Up until now, there was no way to block ads. Ads increase the load time of a webpage, and especially on EDGE cause the internet to crawl. Blocking them will give you a lot of extra speed. This is one of the simplest hacks available for your iPhone. You will need to be Jailbroken and have the 2.0 Update, or later.
Connect to your iPhone through SSH, iPhoneBrowser, or some other tool.
Navigate to /etc/.
Now download this replacement hosts file. Replace iPhone's file with this one.
Restart your iPhone!
This hack has been tested and confirmed to be working on the iPhone 2.1 Update.
It is recommended that you all hold off jailbreaking 2.1. There are many issues that dev team is working through. A jailbreak isn’t quite enough.
Many apps are not yet stable. Categories will not work because we cannot launch one app from another at this time. Cydia is not yet stable. I recommend you wait a day or two still.
The iPhone 2.1 is out. It contains the following updates as listed by Apple:
- decrease in call set-up failures andcall drops
- significantly improve battery life for most users
- dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- improve email reliability, notable fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
- faster installation of 3rd party applications
- fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
- improved performance of text messaging
- faster loading and searching of contacts
- improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
- repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
- option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
- Genius playlist creation
The 2.1 firmware is build 5F136 (weighing in at 237.8MB) and can be directly downloaded through iTunes. The new firmware also contains a number of security fixes including the well publicized passcode flaw.
Snapture is an enhanced camera application. It costs $8, but trial version is also avaliable. Among the features there are zoom 3х, timer, special effects, multi snapshots and others.
You probable know, that some time ago software developers have found a line of code buried in the iPhone's operating system that could enable Apple to remotely delete applications stored on the device that it no longer approves of. This is known as "Apple's kill switch".
Now you can turn this OFF using BossPrefs 2.12b. This is a major feature in 2.12b version. Avaliable for download from Cydia Installer.
MSNBC recently spoke with several GPS manufacturers about their plans to develop a turn-by-turn GPS solution for the iPhone. Such a program is likely some months away. Several of the 'bigs' in the business — TomTom, Garmin and Magellan — are interested.
"We have made our navigation system run on the iPhone; it looks good and works very well," said Dutch-based company TomTom, in a statement to MSNBC.com. "We will have to look more closely to Apple’s strategy before we can say more about what kind of opportunities this will bring us,:".
"We’re always looking at new phone platforms to expand into for Garmin Mobile, but we don’t have any announcements regarding the iPhone at this time," said Jessica Myers of Garmin International. Magellan spokesman Raphel Finelli said the company does "not have immediate plans for this, but we are looking into it."
There was a post about Qik:Broadcast video live from iPhone. At that time only users of old iPhones with firmware 1.1.4 could use it. Now there is a new version for 2.0 users.
You can get Qik with the iPhone 3G and old iPhone with firmware 2.0 by doing the following:
If you have not already, you'll need to sign up at http://qik.com/sign_up and receive an SMS from us to activate the application.
Launch Cydia.
Go to the "Sections" tab at the bottom and scroll down to "Multimedia."
Under Multimedia, you will find Qik. Tap on it then select "Install" at the top right, then in the same spot tap "Confirm."
Now you will see Qik get installed. You may hit the "Return to Cydia" button at the bottom or just quit Cydia when it is done installing.
You'll now notice a "Qik" icon on your home screen - Go ahead and launch it.
As long as your initial signup SMS/text message is still in your inbox for the first launch, your account will be linked to your device.
Make sure you have 3G service or are on WiFi (edge is not sufficient enough to stream video) before you begin broadcasting.
Digital Daily notes that Apple's market capitalization at $159.37 billion is now worth more than Google's which is at $157.56 billion. Apple's market cap first exceeded $100 billion in May of 2007. Apple was included into the S&P 100 index at that time. For interest, MacDailyNews compiled a list of the market values of other notable companies:
iLightr is a virtual cigarette lighter for iPhone and iPod touch that is available in the App Store now. It's only US$0.99 and is an amazingly good simulation of a lighter. Next time you're at a concert and just gotta have an encore, don't pull out a cigarette lighter. Instead, launch iLightr!