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Thought I would put up this blog post before “The Age changes its mind an modifies the article

The article is here

“The release of the Pwnage 2.0.1 hack is likely to spark a surge of developer interest in the device. Already an emulator for the archaic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games console has been released, allowing users to play NES games on their iPhone.

Other unofficial applications developed for the iPhone include Navizon (improves the built-in GPS by updating the user’s location very 10 seconds, not just when the “locate me” button is pushed), iSMS (send text messages to multiple recipients) and Native VNC (control your Mac or PC from the iPhone).

The hack can only be installed from a Mac computer but step-by-step instructions for Windows users can be found here.”

Now what is most interesting here is not that someone has found at least a partial way to Jailbreak the IPhone 2.0 nor the fact that The Age is covering the story as the story is valid.  It is both that they point out the benefits and LINK to the software and instructions.

The Age is telling you why and how to do something that is illegal! Hacking your IPhone, whilst I agree is a damned good idea is one thing, main stream media telling you how to do it is a seismic shift in the market.

What Apples reaction to a big corporation with lots of money they could sue could be interesting.  Both if they do and if they don’t do anything!  Tacit approval for hacking your Iphone comes from Apple doing or saying nothing about this article.  Which of course adds more fuel to fire for the case for Apple to really open up the device to the average user not just those brave enough to follow a hacking link in The Age!

Tags: apple by Me
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So yesterday one of the worst kept secrets in the world finally came out and Telstra announced they are going to carry the Iphone.  Big deal…

Anyway they also announced pricing… (according to news.com.au)

you are looking at anywhere from $999 to $2400 depending on phone and data plan. One sting has to be that on the $30p/m plan the initial cost is $279 not $210 which is should be given the dollar.  But if Telstra want to make a few more bucks cause people are going to buy this phone in the bucket load so be it.  Oh yeah and when Apple release another Iphone in 12 months time you are screwed… why because it is a 24 Month contract.

Telstra do have a MAJOR marketing edge over all the other carriers in Australia.  The Iphone works on the 850Mhz band and so does NextG.  Still there is no talk of just how much data you are going to get on your $30p/m plan but at a guess I am going to say not much!

There is also a lot of discussion floating around about how Telstra will pitch “Big Pond Movies/Music” when the Iphone is going to point people to Itunes.  That is going to be an interesting space to watch.

So now people can compare the Iphone as a $1000 phone to all other $1000 phones out in the market.  That is things like the n95-8gb, the HTC Diamond e.t.c.  Which of course will start to show the phone in a very different light.  The 2mg camera starts to look a bit crap when you are paying $1000 for the phone for example.

A good kicker also for Telstra is opening up the telstra wi-fi hot spots to Iphone users.  Think McDonald’s, Starbucks, most capital cities cbd’s e.t.c  That is an impressive amount of free data that you will be able to access at a lot of very convient locations.  I think that the creation of these “free” hot spots will help to start a cascade of free wifi hotspots, which will not be device specific.

This is not limited of course to the Iphone.  I for one am looking forward to the fudges that will come out so I can spoof the wi-fi to say that my Nokia is an Iphone, my R2H is an Iphone and any other device I want is an Iphone just to get free wifi.

So instead of paying 20cents per minute to access Telstra wi-fi hotspots in the future I will be on an Iphone.

Tags: apple by Me
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(update  — AllaboutSymbian have a great over view.. well worth the read here)

Well its been a busy few hours in the press release world for both Symbian and Nokia.

Nokia are going to purchase around 52 percent of Symbian shares it does not already own.   And then with that purchase they have also announced….

http://symbianfoundation.org/

“Open software is the basic building block for delivering this future.
With this in mind, industry leaders are coming together to establish Symbian Foundation, to bring to life a shared vision and to create the most proven, open and complete mobile software platform - available for free. To achieve this, the foundation will unify Symbian, S60, UIQ and
MOAP(S) software to create an unparalleled open software platform for converged mobile devices, enabling the whole mobile ecosystem to accelerate innovation.”

Now this is a big heads up to the following players, Apple with their SDK, MS with the Windows Mobile and Google with Android.  Consider the companies that the new Symbian Foundation has on board already…

docomo, ericsson, fujituse, lg, mororola, saumsung, sony plus telcos such as at&t (taking each way money with IPhone as well as Nokia) vodaphone, orange and others.

Now with a unified development application environment in play over the next year or so leveraging off the large market share that Symbian already has and then shifting development into the OS Community Nokia have managed to pull of what I think is a very clever and long term strategic development.

Watch this space kiddies… mobile is going to get much more interesting yet.

Tags: Mobile, apple, nokia by Me
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Oh where to start… there have been oh so many dumb comments about the iphone in the last week. Most of which have made me go from various shades of slightly grumpy to totally incredulous.

But I thought I would put two of my favs up now (I may come back and edit this page later :-))

http://digg.com/apple/First_iPhone_Hands_On?t=15971646

How many HTC Touch versions of ANY websites are there? None
How many cars offer full integration with your Samsung Instinct? None

Oh my god didily dang…

two little observations about these points….

All websites can work with HTC touch if they are coded correctly(that is they are properly compliant to web standards and have a mobile css) and oh yeah the play flash as well!

and the second point… firstly any phone that offers bluetooth can be integrated and oh yes in stereo as well. This person seriously thinks about spending say 1k on an Iphone which is what it will cost at least, and then bases say a 30k car on this. The phone will be obsolete come next year (if not earlier) and the car? I can just see the car for sale adds in the future.

Good car, low km’s (sorry doesn’t support Iphone2.2, ready for quick sale)

People it is a phone, it is obsolete before it lefts the shop, you will drop it loose and scratch it. That happens. Get used to it and stop thinking that it is the best thing since sliced bread. The best thing since sliced bread was spreadable butter, that way your bread did not get mangled. (and whilst bread and butter both have a used by date, they are not obsolete!)

edit– this sums it up the best

“Apple Is to Geeks What Breasts Are to Men”

contains such great lines as

“It’s like watching a group of teenage boys who have never seen a pair of breasts lining up to get a peek at their first Playboy.”

and

“At the end of the day, as much as I love breasts, I won’t pay money for them and I certainly won’t wait in line for them.”

go and read it….

Tags: Annoyances, Funny, apple by Me
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This time from All About Symbian, who put the Iphone 3g and the n95 8gb head to head.

“it’s clear that the iPhone 3G, despite the 2008 refresh, is still rather outgunned by the N95 8GB, but there are wins for the high profile device from Apple. It’s cleaner, more elegant, has a larger screen, a great text input method and more foolproof desktop connectivity. And that shortlist of wins is probably enough for a lot of purchasers, especially those with lesser ambitions and a deep lust for shiny Apple hardware.

But the Nokia N95 8GB, as with the original N95 (on latest v21 firmware) and now also the N82, is simply awesome as a piece of technology, winning on overall data connectivity, multitasking, camera, video camera and in general as a smartphone tool for anyone with a smattering of technological knowledge. Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, the N95 8GB can, for short periods, replace phone, camera, camcorder, music player, navigation device, laptop, games console and Blackberry, among others.”

Firstly the above article gets the price points correct. Not the $199 garbage that media organisations around the world have swallowed.

There are a lot of features that are missing. My 16y/0 nephew uses bluetooth on his phone to transfer files (namely mp3’s) between friends all the time. Not going to happen with the Iphone is it.
Not running background apps is not going to work as well, no GPS logging like sports tracker are going to be possible unless of course Apple release something

Take the wikipedia info for example..

”

• Color: Black or white (16GB model only)
• Size: 115.5×62.1×12.3 mm (4.5×2.4×0.48 in)
• Weight: 133 g (4.7 oz)
• Tri band UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• Assisted GPS, with fallback to location based on Wi-Fi or cell towers
• 2 Megapixel Camera features geotagging (producing geocoded photograph)
• Battery has up to 10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 5 (3G) or 6 (Wi-Fi) hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 300 hours on standby.^[20]“

That is it… that is all that is really new in the Iphone, the rest is software (which apple are going to control to the nth degree). Sure it looks nice. But the phone added 3g and is being sold in some new places and that is it.  Nothing new to see here people… get over it.

I could go on… and I most probably will… but not now, it is bed time.

Tags: Annoyances, apple, nokia by Me
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