Recently in Computers Category

So I took a leap of faith a few days ago...thanks to George, who hacked two-to-three (at least) iPhones for use in Switzerland by him and his friends.  The software is iLiberty+ and is offered for Mac and the rest <wink> of you.  Now when he did it, he just bought phones and never registered with AT&T, using the "jailbreak" software in order to use the SIM of his choice.  This was especially important for the Swiss folk as its not even offered there, yet.

Now, Sybille and I already have iPhones and a family plan with AT&T, so hacking it wasn't really all that important to me -- until I looked at the software when chatting it up with the unofficial iPhone importer.  He kept talking about all these apps he had installed.

So I took a look.  Sure enough, there are basically three "cracks".  The second and third ones allow you to bypass iTunes and AT&T.  But it is the first one that unlocks the phone so that you can install 3rd party apps.  That was the one that concerned me.  And if you do it, I highly recommend using the 3 sets of recommended applications that are included in the install program.  As you can see in the photo below, I have many new offerings - and this is just the stuff on page two.  Plus new offerings are out on a fairly regular basis from what I can tell.  That said, I would like to bring your attention to the bottom-right app: Chat.  Its what the iPhone should have had from the beginning instead of SMS.  SMS costs as it is the way carriers rake you over the coals for something that doesn't cost them a dime to actually do.  Why on Earth am I on an unlimited data plan and paying for SMS texts?  Well, not anymore.  And it works like a charm.

Now, some might be concerned about the "brick" theory.  Forget it - especially if you have a iPhone that is legitimately registered with AT&T.  The next software update (most likely to be in June) will simply require that you reset your phone via iTunes.  This is not a big deal.  Sure, you'll erase all the sexy applications that iLiberty+ has provided -- but, "Hey!  You can just run the installer again.  It only takes about 45 seconds."  Duh!  Think about it.

Humm, while considering the "non-bricking" I played: Get Back from the album "1" by The Beatles.  Thanks for blazing the trail, George.

I really like the SOHO Notes application.  But I can't stand the way Organizer keeps screwing with my address book and calendar.  And I keep forgetting that it does - or hoping that "this time" it won't when an upgrade comes out.  Dutifully, I pay in full without bothering to run the trial period and in about 6 minutes I wish I had just ordered the Notes application and not the whole suite.  Argh!

In the end, Ecto works best for blogging.  Notes works best for saving ideas, webclips, passwords and receipts.  And while I'm at it:  Journler make a great daily (or whenever journal) that's currently free-ish - but consider the paid upgrade when 2.6 comes out; NetNewsWire makes for the best rss reader and AppZapper is used often on my machine when I'm trying new things out.

And oh, yeah, while writing this I was jamming to: I Will Follow (Live at Point Depot, Dublin, 31 Dec '89) from the album "The Complete U2 - Live From the Point Depot" by U2, baby!

Will this work? And if it does, am I actually going to use it? Doubtful. But who knows.

I have, like most I guess, too many projects or areas of interest.  I have more computers than any one man actually needs and one of my daily tasks is keeping the data among them in sync - a task that is not simply accomplished by pushing a button, despite Apple's claim.  Its a project.  Then I have photography, which kind of applies to the previous project as it is often associated with the next of maintaining weblogs and/or pages that said photos end up on.  Thus project 3, 2 and 1 are intertwined, like it or not.  

I can't stand Apple stores in the mall.  Stand alone ones seem to be OK.  But the ones you see in the mall are not computer stores.  They're iPod stores.  They're the modern version of the movie theater in the mall.  Every teen wants to work there.  The only problem is that most teens who work in mall Apple stores know nothing about macs, except that they're cool.  What they do know is that they work in the store that all the other teens want to visit in order to touch and play with the new iPods.  Its a status job.