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The cat and mouse game continues between Apple and the Dev Team, a group of guys who are passionate about freeing Apple handheld devices from the company's short leash. The Dev Team has been jailbreaking new Apple firmware for years, and it just did so again--though this time around it seems Apple is still taking the decisive lead.
The team announced Friday the availability of PwnageTool 3.13, which allows for jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone 3GS running the latest firmware, version 3.1. Currently only a Mac version of the tool is available, but the Windows version will be out soon. (Keep in mind, however, that you download and use the PwnageTool at your own risk.)
A jailbroken iPhone can do a lot more than what Apple wants it to do.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)The tool creates a custom firmware from the version 3.1 firmware released by Apple. To install it, you put the phone into recovery mode (turn it off, then plug it in while holding down the Home button) and use iTunes to restore the phone with the custom firmware (hold down the Option key while clicking on the Restore button).
The custom firmware, apart from jailbreaking, will not upgrade the baseband--the chip that connects the phone to a service provider--and therefore still allows the phone to be unlocked.
But there's a catch here. The tool only works with the iPhone 3GS that has been jailbroken with the firmware version 3.0 or 3.0.1. This means if you buy a new iPhone 3GS that already has version 3.1 on it or you have updated to version 3.1 using iTunes, there's still no way to have your phone jailbroken. There's even a rumor that there might never be one, unless a new exploit is found.
If this is true, it seems Apple has finally been able to gain significant ground in stopping the practice it claims could pose a threat to national security. And for thousands, if not millions of iPhone 3GS users who rely on jailbreaking and unlocking to use their phones with the service of their choice, this is sad news.
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The Gorillamobile securely attaches the iPhone to a cycle's driving bar.
(Credit: Joby)Are you an avid cyclist who wants to use the iPhone as your GPS navigator? Joby has something for you.
The maker of the recently introduced Gorillatorch announced Thursday its newest iteration of something that can stay really well on something else: the Gorillamobile for the iPhone 3G(S).
This is basically a tripod docking station for the phone which, apart from keeping the phone on any surfaces, can help securely attach the phone to object of different shapes, such as the driving bar of a bicycle.
The key to making the tripod work the way Joby claims it does is the ball-and-socket construction that allows for fully articulated movement of the flexible, wrappable legs.
The accessory comes with four interchangeable quick-release adapters for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and other mobile devices. It also has a custom-engineered, slim-line iPhone case.
In addition to the flexible tripod and iPhone case, the Gorillamobile for 3G/3GS package also includes two removable 3M adhesive clips and a universal camera adapter. This means apart that from the iPhones, the accessory can also be used with other mobile devices, such as mobile game consoles or video players, when you need to keep your hands free for other things.
Though the Gorillamobile weighs just 4.5 ounces and is only 8 inches tall, it carries a rather hefty price tag of around $40. It's available for purchase now.
Navigon shows an image to help you pick the right freeway, which is helpful but can be annoying, as the image takes up the whole screen for a few seconds.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET)I'm a big fan of GPS navigation devices. Actually, I depend on them. It's therefore natural that on my iPhone 3GS you'll find both the newest turn-by-turn GPS navigation applications, the $70 Navigon and the $80 iGo My Way. Both have just recently been released to the App Store. (In my car I also have the Tom Tom One XL.)
After about a week of using the iPhone apps in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in a few other states, here are my impressions.
First of all, both Navigon and the iGo can turn your iPhone (3G or 3GS) into a decently dependable GPS navigator. They both take about 15 seconds to load on my iPhone 3GS and about the same time to lock in with a GPS signal when outdoors. This is much faster than the Tom Tom, which can take up to a minute or two. Overall, the iGo My Way seems to pick up the signal faster than the Navigon, but it also loses the signal more easily, especially when in a big city with lots of high-rise buildings.
My biggest disappointment with both is that they don't offer real-time traffic updates, which you can get anywhere in the States with Google Maps.
Both apps offer beautifully rendered 3G maps that can be viewed vertically or horizontally, and a very convenient way to enter a new address or find a point of interest (POI). They come with good databases of POIs, too. I was in a few rather remote areas and was able to find what I needed. However, the database is not very updated--twice, both apps took me to restaurants and bars in La Cross, Wis., that were no longer there. Unfortunately, you can't tab on the listed POI to call its phone number, which defeats the main purpose of the iPhone, which is, after all, a phone.
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The iPhone 3GS during a talk time test. The "Watchmen" DVD is merely there to simulate a user holding the phone to their ear, thereby shutting off the screen. Music from the Zune is being played through both phone mics.
(Credit: Eric Franklin/CNET)Last year I had a bone to pick with Apple for not including a call duration feature on the iPhone. Not a big deal to most people I'm sure; however, when it comes to testing talk time here in CNET Labs, I can't think of a more useful feature.
With last year's iPhone 3G, I was able to circumvent this inconvenience by tracking the phone's "Time since last full charge" duration. This number, as you might have guessed, tells you the amount of time that's passed since the phone was last fully charged. So, all I had to do was charge the phone fully, start the test, wait until the battery died, plug it back in, and check that number.
This worked fine last year, but with the current round of iPhone 3G and 3GS testing, I'm getting extremely varied results--so varied, in fact, that I can no longer trust this method.
No matter, though, since the latest iPhone OS 3.0 added a call duration feature. I figured I'd just set up the talk time test--which involves taping earbuds from a MP3 player to the mic of the iPhone and a landline phone, calling the landline phone, and waiting for the battery to die. Then I'd come back several hours later and have delicious results waiting for me (kind of like an iPhone-testing-results Crock-Pot).
Once again, I'm slapped back to reality as, unfortunately, the couple of times I've tried using the call duration feature on the 3G and 3GS I've had little luck. Apparently, if the phone's battery dies in the middle of a call, the duration of that call isn't saved on the phone.--yet another roadblock.
... Read moreIf you're a fan of dystopian humor, like in the movie "Idiocracy," this may be the game for you.
Introduced Monday by Jetson Creative, Ow My Balls! is a funny game that brings some unusual humor to the iPhone (and iPod Touch).
(Credit:
Dong Ngo/CNET)
The game incorporates gravity simulation, funny sound effects, and a very peculiar method of directional acceleration.
I was a little dispirited by the name and the nature of the joke but I tried it anyway. After all, the game made it through the parental vetting process for Apple's App Store.
In the game, you're supposed to kick Joe the Juggler off the top of a building. While this sounds mean, Joe has some very special abilities up his sleeve to keep himself afloat, and you therefore can guide him, by tilting the phone, to hit and land on certain objects.
The distance and the amount of objects that you make Joe hit before he lands will determine the points you get for each fall. A certain amount of points will earn Joe the ability to stay afloat longer.
Each time Joe hits an object (a flag pole, a DirectTV antenna, a bird, a fence, a trash can), the game produces a realistic and funny sound. You can even record your own sound affects.
You'll very likely laugh each time poor Joe lands and will immediately want to make him do it again. For some strange reason, it doesn't seem like Joe minds being kicked off the building at all.
The game is available now at the App Store for 99 cents and I think it's totally worth it. However, depending your type of humor, it might not be for you at all. Consider yourself warned.
You love your puppies, but maybe hanging out with them at home just isn't enough for you and you want to peek at others' puppies, too. Now you can indulge this puppy love whenever you want, wherever you want, with the potential of seeing an unlimited number of puppies, as long as you have an iPhone.
Here's looking at you, kid!
(Credit: TheDailyPuppy)TheDailyPuppy.com, a Web site that dog enthusiasts have no doubt been using as their home page, announced Wednesday the availability of its application for the iPhone. Now you can get puppies delivered to you via just a few touches of the finger--and you can shake the phone to get even more puppy pictures.
The Daily Puppy app features a new puppy every day, fully stocked with biographies and additional images. Users then can add the puppy to their favorites library and share them with friends, family, and fellow puppyphiles via e-mail and Facebook.
More serious dog lovers can resort to a tool that allows for browsing past featured puppies and accessing a complete library of breeds ranging from Basset Hounds to Labradors to Terriers.
And in what I believe will be the most frequently used feature of the app: you can also post pictures of your own puppies. The app doesn't even limit how many pictures you can post, so basically this can be your perpetual weekend project.
Personally, I think this app is great for dog lovers and was a little shocked by the fact that it costs 99 cents. However, I found out later that 10 percent of the app's proceedings will be donated to nonprofit animal rescue organizations.
Now that somewhat makes sense and it's really too bad that you can't buy multiple copies of the app for one iPhone, as for each copy, those organizations will get less than 10 cents.
Following a long wait after my first blog, I finally got my hands on Mophie's Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 3G. The company announced the availability of the accessory Tuesday with a price tag of $79.95.
If you own an iPhone 3G, you know how bad the device's battery life is, especially when you have 3G, GPS, and Wi-Fi turned on. For this reason, extended batteries, such as the original Juice Pack from Mophie are a must. However, this juice pack is rather bulky and doesn't cover the top of the phone. This is where the Juice Pack Air comes into play.
The new Juice Pack Air is thinner, though not by much, and has a top part to make it a complete protective case for the iPhone 3G while doubling the phone's battery life.
Unfortunately, the Juice Pack Air comes with a Micro-USB port, instead of the Mini-USB port that's used in many handheld devices, including the original Juice Pack. This makes it a little inconvenient to use. Other than that I liked it.
Before making the purchase, make sure you read the full review of the unit here.
The SoliCharger comes in two colors to fit with the colors of your iPhone 3G.
(Credit: SoliLight)If you own an iPhone 3G, you know how the 3G and GPS features eat battery life. The Mophie juice pack is the first accessory I got for mine. I liked it, but like all juice packs, you'll have to plug it in at some point--unless you get the SoliCharger from SoliLight.
This new juice pack for the iPhone (both versions) and iPod is probably the most versatile in terms of how it gets recharged.
The SoliCharger can be charged in any one of four ways: via Apple's USB charging cord, an Apple compatible car charger, a computer's USB port, or directly from the sun.
When plugged in, the SoliCharger takes about two hours to fully charge, and when left under the sun, it takes about four hours. It can also be charged with the phone is attached.
The SoliCharger weighs only 1.4 ounces and features a lithium ion battery pack that can provide another 50 percent iPhone charge (about a few hours of use).
The accessory is available now for about $40.
(Credit:
Ten One Design)
Ever since the hands-free calling legislation went into effect in California, I've often found myself using the cell phone's speaker phone while driving. While my iPhone 3G's speaker phone works relatively well, it sounds a little distorted when turned all the way up and yet still not loud enough.
That might now change with the SoundClip, a new little accessory Ten One Design introduced this week that amplifies the iPhone 3G's external audio by 10dB between 5kH and 20kHz.
As the name suggests, the device is a clip that fits securely in the 30-pin dock connector to guide the sound from the iPhone speaker directly toward the user. This offers a more concentrated sound quality that may otherwise be lost without it.
This add-on is especially cool during gaming as it prevents the hand from blocking the iPhone speaker. The only inconvenience is you will need to detach it to be able to charge or sync the phone, and it can't be used with any of the iPhone's extended batteries.
To make up for this, the SoundClip can be had for only $7.95. It works best with the iPhone 3G only.
The Platinum i-Series from iHarmonix produces better sounds than the headset Apple includes with the iPhone.
(Credit: Dong Ngo/CBS Interactive)Once in a while you get something and like it so much you wonder why you hadn't gotten it a long time ago. Or, as in my case, why you didn't use it.
This happened back during CES. I was given a headset from iHarmonix, the Platinum i-Series, as a freebie. I didn't have a chance to really use it until just now and asked myself why I waited so long.
The headset's sound is much better than that of Apple's OEM included with the iPhone. For the first time, I can enjoy the bass and really control the multifunction button (that ends calls as well as controls music playback), thanks to its round shape and larger size. The iPhone's included headset has a very tiny button that's hard to press on. It was almost impossible for me to make a successful jump to a previous track.
What I like best, however, is the fact that the Platinum i-Series is black instead of having the same white color as Apple's headset. Now I can blend in without people looking at me and thinking, "Oh I know, you got an iPhone, all right."
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Eric Franklin's colleagues once had the following to say to him: "Eric, you've been doing this performance testing thing for over 10 years now. How about you try something different?" To which Eric responded, "How about you shut the #%$@! up?" This candid attitude
allows him to go toe-to-toe with the most extreme of personalities, including that of Dong Ngo. This bio was written by Eric Franklin.
Dong Ngo is a knowledgeable, opinionated individual who wants to convince the world that he's just a normal person; but he hasn't had much success. According to him, this is because the world itself is abnormal. Dong loves traveling and is well-versed in several languages. He, unfortunately, is not so well-versed in English. Still, it's best to ask him questions. From networking and how to optimize your system, to turning a strange place into home or what the meaning of life is…most of the time, he has the answers. The question is: Will he make himself understood? Subscribe and find out!
