iPhone Unlock firmware 2008 BRAND NEW 1-7-08

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IPhone and GPS

by Thomas Ricker


locoGPS hacks into the iPhone barrio

O sweet jeebus, could it be? Why yes, that's the "stylish plastic enclosure" promised for the partfoundry GPS module iPhone hack. At least, it's the first rendered appearance. Initially peeped over at Engadget Mobile on Friday, the newly named locoGPS module requires a Jail Broken iPhone to work. A new video shows the SiRF Star III chip doing its positional thing in support of Google Maps. The $89 hack remains on track for a February 2008 release -- you know, around the time when the official SDK launches and presumably... hopefully, an official iPhone GPS module is announced. Video after the break.

Nokia Tube vs Apple iPhone vs Android G1

The iPhone's camera is well-documented, just about adequate, and pretty old. The less said about it, the better.

The G1's camera is also a 3.2 (ish) MP camera is also a pretty neat option, but no video recording is a crime in this day and age.

The verdict Nokia plays it safe with this one, ticking all the boxes with a decent snapper. Well done.

Maps

"Where am I?" seems to be a question everyone is asking less and less thanks to GPS on handsets. But how well do these three actually help you stop wandering aimlessly to B when you've just left A?

GPS on all three handsets was impossible with the hands on tests we had... so only the iPhone has really had a decent run... and that has been sketchy at best to be honest.

The G1 and the iPhone both pack Google Maps, and the Nokia... well, it goes with Nokia maps, obviously.

The Tube's mapping function is decent, and as intuitive as Google... touch devices are made for scrolling through maps, and if the GPS is decent on the G1 and the Tube, then it's all much of a muchness, though the G1 and the iPhone have Streetview options as well to keep things interesting.

The verdict A big old tie... all tick the right boxes without impressing exactly, though a fair dishing of benefit of the doubt is present (we're in a generous mood).

Texting and E-mail

Touchscreens rock. But at text input they often suck. So which of our line-up actually gets round that problem of ditching the physical keyboard?

The Tube's variety of input options, including the handwriting mode, mean it will appeal to a lot of people: the two QWERTY modes are rather nice, and the fullscreen version is nice and accurate. The keypad input method is large and comfortable too, so newbies to the touchscreen world will feel right at home thanks to the haptics.

The G1 has a physical QWERTY keyboard, so kind of cheats on this one. But it's a good keyboard, and has had to sacrifice some thinness to incorporate the sliding section.

The iPhone's QWERTY works wickedly well in portrait mode, helped by the large screen. But no haptics, despite the supernaturally predictive way it works out what word you want, isn't enough for many.

The verdict The G1 has a physical keyboard on a touch device. It just makes the most sense...

Conclusion

Well, which one do we like the most? The iPhone is complete in most areas, the Nokia Tube has some nice touches and decent features, especially in the media and camera section, yet the G1's Android interface is super-smashing-great.

It's surprising, but it's a tie between the G1 and the iPhone at three wins each, and that's with the G1 not even being nearly at full potential just yet.

The Nokia Tube is good in most areas, but doesn't quite cut the mustard, especially when it comes to the S60 interface.

So well done to the iPhone and the G1... if you get either of these in your stocking, you should feel pretty smug with yourself.

Nokia Tube vs Apple iPhone vs Android G1

The G1's internet is as sluggish as the Tube's, and even less intuitive to move around and navigate through. A bit more development or perhaps some new applications will help this no end, but the G1 just isn't the device you'd buy for internet alone.

The verdict The iPhone doesn't just win this category - it owns it, leases it back to the competitors, and then wins it again.

Gaming

Though the DS and PSP are holding their own as standalone portable gaming units, phones are making huge strides in this area too. So what options do you have, and the main thing: do they look rubbish?

The G1 we used seemed to have very few games, and the main draw seems to be Pacman... we agree it's a great game, but it doesn't really do justice or show off the handset in any way.

The iPhone's motion-based games, combined with some brilliant rendering and graphics, as well as a huge selection of titles to choose from, make it a very nice gaming device on its own.

Anyone that's played Kroll will see what the phone can do, and while the DS and PSP are still a lot better, for a quick 15 minute gaming session here and there it's great.

The Tube's games were, frankly, poor in comparison. Sketchy graphics and an over-exuberant accelerometer were a bit pointless... though you'd think that would improve over time as new titles were released.

The verdict The iPhone is a great mobile gaming device, so takes it. But only just, given the other two haven't really had the chance to see what could be developed for them... but the handset power doesn't give users a lot of hope.

Camera

Like it or loathe it, every phone has a camera these days. It needs to be easy enough to use so you can whip it out wherever and whenever, and thanks to the kids of today, YouTube uploading is a bonus too, for when you want to show everyone that hilarious moment when you ate a snail.

The Tube's 3.2MP Carl Zeiss-ed lens is a great little snapper... the phone takes great pictures, and is a cinch to use as well.

Video recording with one-touch upload of both photos and vids is a great feature as well, so Nokia should be pleased with what they've packed on what is essentially a mid-range phone.

Nokia Tube vs Apple iPhone vs Android G1

The Tube is a great media device too, with the media bar accessible at all times. The Comes with Music functionality will open the handset up to a wealth of tunes, video looks crisp and nice, and photos, while slow to load, are OK to whizz through.

The verdict Unfortunately for the others, the iPhone lords it over all kinds of media, and we haven't even covered the YouTube ability of the handset...

OS

It might LOOK fancy, but how does it actually work in real life? A dodgy OS will make you want to cry every time you open a new menu screen... a slick interface might make you forget you're even using a phone.

The G1's interface is nothing short of breathtaking, even if it is more about the potential of Android rather than the way it works now.

It's slick, changes windows quickly and allows you to move in and out of applications with ease, thanks to the pull down menu.

The Tube's interface is a little cluttered throughout, and the simplistic menu system of old is starting to look a bit dated.

S60 is an ageing system, and although it's been re-designed for touch, it still creaks under multiple applications.

The media bar gives decent access to the important applications on the phone, but it still is slow when switching.

The iPhone's interface is the same as its home screen: it's slick, pretty and does the jobs, with easy application adding.

The verdict Android would probably win it based on the performance in the G1 alone... you add in the potential on other handsets and it's awe-inspiring.

Internet

It's not called a phone anymore according to Nokia - it's a multimedia terminal. With that in mind, if you can't browse the web is full whizz-bang fashion, then you'll feel sorely deprived.

The Tube's full HTML browser is slick and easy to use... however although it ran Flash it was still very slow to load pages (which may just be the 3G connection in the venue and the fact it's still a pre-production model) but seemed a bit sluggish overall... something common to the Nokia browser over the years.

The iPhone's internet experience, even sans Flash, is still the best mobile internet to date, and the multi-touch aspect with pinch-zooming is a veritable joy to use.

Nokia Tube vs Apple iPhone vs Android G1

Phone and communications

Nokia Tube vs Apple iPhone vs Android G1

The ultimate battle of the touchscreens

The Nokia 5300 XpressMusic

Well, it's been coming for centuries. Byzantine monks prophesised the battle between three phones, with each looking for touchscreen supremacy... and now we bring you that battle. We hope the edge of your seat is comfortable...

Home screen

The place where it always all begins: the home screen needs to look good, or else you'll just get lost in a sea of options.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (we'll be calling it the Tube for simplicity) has an innovative four-photo option on the front screen - each person's details are updated with Facebook status, photos from Flickr or texts and calls. The menu key gives easy access to the normal grid Nokia lovers will be familiar with.

The iPhone's home screen just makes sense. No innovation, just simple icons all in front of you. No space for more? Well, just slide the screen along and see the next set.

The G1's Android home screen is innovative too, but incorporates the smart ideas of the iPhone. Icons can be moved around; open applications can be pulled down from the top of the screen, and a swipe to the right gets you into Google search. It also just makes sense, but in a more complex way.

The verdict The G1's interface is nice and simple with some good bells and whistles, and the swishing and swooshing means it edges the iPhone's simplicity and the Tube's innovation.

Media

Every handset worth its salt these days (how much is salt worth exactly?) can do all manner of tricks and features... if it can't play tunes, show movies and showcase your photos, what's the point eh?

The iPhone is a handset for media, given that it's an iPod touch plus (or the iPod is an iPhone lite). Movies are a dream to watch, photos are easy to flick through thanks to the touch screen and music uses Apple's great cover flow system.

The G1 doesn't even come with a video player in the box - photo viewing is average at best and music playback is a bit bog-standard compared to its peers. Must do better for Android... but the development community will probably be on the case quick-smart.

iPhone vs Nokia N95, BlackBerry Curve, Treo, Samsung BlackJack

iPhone vs Nokia N95, BlackBerry Curve, Treo, Samsung BlackJack

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Just ten days ahead of the much-hyped iPhone launch, Apple has released a smartphone matrix comparing the physical dimensions, talk time and battery life of some of the most popular smartphones that are available in the market today.

As per the matrix, Apple iPhone is the thinnest smartphone (half the thickness of N95 or Treo 750) with the largest screensize and Wi-Fi capabilities. [pdf]

apple iphone nokia n95 treo blackberry curve

While there's no option to swap the drained battery of an iPhone with a full recharged one, the promised eight hours of talktime and 250 hours of standby time should bring enough cheers to those who are planning to queue up outside the Apple stores at 0600 hours June 29, 2007.

In related news, a new report has suggest that 19 million Americans have strong interest in buying the iPhone, 67% of who are subscribers on other carrier networks.

Update: Nokia N95 is a Wi-Fi enabled phone and Apple has now updated the phone comparison chart.

Apple iPhone vs Nokia N95

Will Apple's iPhone reshape the mobile phone market? Are there better devices actually available already? We put the iPhone head-to-head with its competition to see how it stacks up.

Gadget aficionados will no doubt have heard that Apple is launching the iPhone, its first mobile phone, in the US on 29 June. Here in Australia, though, we'll have to wait until next year to get our grubby mitts on the sleek multimedia device. Apple recently published information comparing its hot little handset with the already available Nokia N95, Samsung BlackJack, Palm Treo 750 and the Blackberry Curve 8300.

Apple also recently upped the stated battery life of the iPhone from five to eight hours of talk time, 250 hours of standby, five hours of Internet browsing, seven hours of video playback and 24 hours of audio playback -- 10 hours longer than Apple's hard-disk based iPods.

Image credit: Apple

But why is the iPhone generating so much hype? It's just a phone after all, isn't it? While it does have an elegant design and attractive interface, what could be in this device that's revolutionary? We compare it side-by-side with the N95, the top-of-the line handset from the world's No. 1 phone maker, at the moment, Nokia. We've also colour coded our table to indicate in green which device's feature, in our opinion, comes out on top.

	Apple iPhone	Nokia N95
Operating system	Mac OS X	Symbian S60
3G	No	Yes (HSDPA-enhanced)
Camera resolution	2 megapixels	5 megapixels
Browser	Safari	Nokia Web Browser with Mini map
E-mail	Displays HTML-rich; Push IMAP (Yahoo); IMAP/POP3	POP3/SMTP/IMAP
Music player	iTunes	RealPlayer / Nokia Media Player
GPS	No	Yes
Touchscreen	Yes (multi-touch sensors)	No
Screen	8.9cm (320x480 pixels)	6.4cm (240x320 pixels)
Weight	136g	120g
Memory	4GB/8GB	160MB
Processor speed	Unknown	330MHz
Expansion slot	None	microSD
Replaceable battery	No	Yes
MMS (for sending pictures and video)	No	Yes
IM (instant messaging)	No	Yes
Video calling	No	Yes
Video capture	Unknown	640 x 480 (30 frames per second)
VoIP	No	Yes
YouTube	Yes	Yes
User can install 3rd-party apps	No	Yes
Accelerometer changes screen orientation when rotated	Yes	No*
Spell checker	Yes	No
Ambient light sensor (dims screen in low light)	Yes	Yes
Proximity sensor (turns screen off when put up to your ear)	Yes	No
Video output to TV	No	Yes
Visual voicemail	Yes	No
Threaded SMS	Yes	No
Browse music by album covers	Yes	No
Flickr integration	No	Yes
Supports stereo Bluetooth (A2DP)	Unknown	Yes
Locked to carrier	Yes	No
Availability	2008	Now
Price	US$499 - 4GB, US$599 8GB (~AU$590, AU$708) - 2 year contract	AU$1379 outright

* The Nokia N95 has an accelerometer built-in, which can be used for applications including Activity Monitor and MovingBall.

Both Nokia and Apple offer guided tours of their super-dooper devices on their respective Web sites.

IPhone disavantage

Recently there is quite a number of mixed good and bad news on Apple’s iPhone product. The official launch of the gadget had received an overwhelming response from all levels of peoples back in June. Not long after the launching, Steve Jobs announced the price slash of $200 to both of its 4GB and 8GB version selling at $499 and $599 originally. This has upset most of the customers that queued up overnight to just get his/her first hand on the products. Fortunately, the emotion was able to be cooled down by a follow on announcement of $100 rebate for those that purchased the iPhone earlier.

Nokia Open to Anything

Some rumors spreading and finally confirmed that the iPhone can be hacked and unlocked by free software downloaded online. This has delighted most of the enthusiasts that keen to own a unit especially for those that out of US regions. However, the good news didn’t last long after Apple Inc. released a new firmware upgrade that was said to be able to detect the illegal unlocked iPhone and disable it permanently.

One drawback of the iPhone product is that the consumers cannot switch to their own preferred service providers. They have no choice but to stick with AT&T in US market.

All these bad publicity have been observed by its rivals in mobile phone world.

Nokia, the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world has recently taken this opportunity to come out with a new advertising campaign that intentionally to remind the consumers on iPhone’s weaknesses so it will gain advantages over Apple’s product. The recent campaign wording posted in New York city quoted “Phones should be open to anything” and “The best devices have no limits” sound to be the “best phrase of the year” for Nokia in tackling its rival’s famous iPhone for the first time.

iPhone 3G has problem with wireless networks

Hardware, software, firmware, or networks. No one really knows what’s going on with the iPhone 3G that’s causing all these network problems, but new data points to the problems being rooted in the wireless network itself.

At this point, we can rule out the iPhone’s antenna as causing the network issues. And, Apple has announced that their iPhone 2.0.2 OS should help alleviate some 3G connectivity woes.

Wired’s iPhone 3G data speed survey shows wireless networks as weak point
The latest data from Wired’s global iPhone 3G data speed survey allows for some interesting interpretation. The data shows that the iPhone 3G sees the highest wireless data speeds in countries with fully-mature 3G infrastructure capable of serving up 3G data at faster-than-US speeds. On the downside, the data also shows that the US wireless infrastructure is likely to blame for our iPhone 3G’s data sluggishness.

So, what’s the deal? AT&T hasn’t had the extra three years worth of 3G development that our European friends enjoy. And, as such, Yankees have to suffer with an immature 3G network to use with our iPhone 3Gs. But, it’s not like we didn’t already know about the US’s woefully lagging wireless networks.

iPhone is not the good phone as expected

For those of you following along at home, you may remember that I was the lucky recipient of an iPhone courtesy of our CEO, Benjamin Sayers (hence why it is the worst phone I never bought). Honestly, I was shocked to get one and was extremely grateful to be one of the first to have it. It was love at first sight. Sleek, stylish and sophisticated (just like it’s new owner), I was the focal point of crowds and every party I attended. Everyone want to touch, feel and play with my iPhone.

Boy was it cool.

Then I used it for a week. Then another month went by and I started to realize that the iPhone has to be the worse cellphone I have ever used. I tried to fight it. I mean the iPhone was “cool”, but so are mopeds and you don’t see me driving one around. Fortunately for me, I didn’t shell out $599 for it, but that is not the case for most of the folks who are currently using the most over-rated cellphone ever. I am not being harsh. I have legitimate gripes. Take a look at the 11 reasons why the iPhone is the worse cell phone ever.

1. No useful applications. If I want to add anything useful to this phone, I have to hack it. I am not a hacker and I’m not really interested in bricking the phone should a new firmware come out that actually contain something useful.
2. You can’t send or receive MMS messages. That’s revolutionary. Nice thinking Steve!
3. iCalendar sucks. I use Outlook. Outlook and iCalendar don’t play nice. It is always fun to be on the go without a calendar that works right.
4. The battery life is awful. If I want to have a long conversation, I need to use my office or home phone. Otherwise…
5. It gets hotter than hell. Well, I don’t really know how hot hell is, but I am going to use my imagination. Talk on the iPhone for more than 10 minutes and you can cook breakfast on it.
6. Touch screen is cool, but only for the first day. The touch screen is great for web browsing, but I use my phone to make calls and send text messages and for these purposes, “keyboard” performance is sub-par.
7. No camera zoom or flash. What is this 2001? The iPhone has the worst camera I have ever used and forget about using it to take pictures if you don’t have photo shoot quality lighting.
8. Why do they say it has a speaker phone? My BlackBerry was louder than the iPhone’s speaker phone when I wasn’t using the speaker-phone.
9. It took over two months to add bulk SMS functionality. Trying text messaging “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” 200 times. See how happy you are.
10. My screen stopped responding. After only eight weeks, half of the screen stopped responding. I touch, nothing happens. Try using a touch screen phone when the touch screen does not work.
11. Worst. Support. Ever. Please get me in touch with someone who speaks English as a first language and don’t charge me $30 USD for a loaner phone. I didn’t break it, it stopped working.

Are you a disappointed iPhone user too? Let’s hear how much you loath your $599 paper weight. Leave a comment below!