Now that I have a contract with data plan again I want to use my iPhone. One month without it showed me that there are many things I am missing. For example Facebook notifications about new messages. So 6 to 8 weeks are not acceptable.

Jailbreaking

Not being an early adopter and sticking to your stuff can sometimes be a win. I can jailbreak my 3G any time

Using redsn0w 0.9.5b_5 and an old iOS 4.0 image, it took me 20 minutes to jailbreak my iPhone and install ultrasnow to unlock it. Right after the jailbreak I checked some basic settings like my APN and everything else. Looked good.

Problems inc.

Restoring my backup caused some trouble. I could not change my APN anymore. Searching Google showed 3 ways to fix this. It seems to be a known problem after restoring a backup.

1. run your jailbreak again – didn’t work
2. install a new mobile config using benm.at – doesn’t seem to be an option since I don’t have 3.1.3 installed
3. use the iPhone configuration utility from Apple

The Apple App works great. Create a new Configuration Profile, go to Advanced, enter your APN, select your connected iPhone, click on Configuration Profile and install your profile. That’s it.

You can do a lot more stuff with this little App and I believe it is really useful for smaller companies that want to make sure employees iPhones are safe and a bit restricted.

New features

The first time I flashed it I enabled multi tasking and wallpaper support. The funny thing is that my jail broken 3g with multitasking support is nearly as fast as before. Without those features my 3g feels faster.

Multitasking

Now that I had it I can say for sure that I don’t need it and that I don’t like it on my iPhone.

The way applications are managed are okay compared to everything else you can currently get but it just doesn’t feel really good. I didn’t like using it.

Keep it broken?

No. After my iPhone is officially unlocked I’ll install an unmodified firmware. I just prefer to update my iPhone when there is a new iOS release without panic that nothing will work. Also I don’t really use (read: don’t need) 3rd party software that is not available in the AppStore.

So beside unlocking my iPhone there is still no reason why I should jailbreak it.

#update 06-16-2010

Ich hasse Trackbacks – die Dinger funktionieren nie wenn es drauf ankommt.

#update 2

fail! 56 von 55 -.-

#update 3

never ever play with your SQL table and time settings – besonders nicht, wenn in deinen URLs auch das Datum der Posts auftaucht

Ausgehend vom Updates des Posts und des Kommentars des Admins haben Sie die 55 Leute. Aber es gibt noch eine Chance zu gewinnen, also brav weiter machen

#update 4

w00d! hat doch noch gereicht! win!

New toys for me

I ordered a SpeedPort W920V, 3 WirelessBridges W101B and 3 SpeedPhones 300. A lot of new stuff to play around with. But the best thing is the SpeedPort. You can easily flash a original firmware from AVM and you get a working FritzBox 7570. Only thing that doesn’t work are the LEDs. They changed the layout. Really,… intelligent.

Why should you flash your brand new router?

That’s pretty easy. The original T-Com firmware sucks and is cut down in functionality. After flashing your FritzBox you get a lot of nice things like fax support, VPN, IPv6,… you name it.

If you are German you can use the same application I used. It’s called ruSpeedPortUploader. The author is working on a new tool so I don’t know how long it will be available.

When I find some spare time I’ll provide a English guide how to use the tool.

Magic?

No, no magic. I’m pretty sure it is only a simple put with $ftp application while the router is booting up and listening on the Eve IP (192.168.178.1) for incoming connections uploading a firmware.

It is important to use 192.168.178.1. T-Com changed the LED layout. They changed the default IP address. They didn’t change the Eve IP. You won’t laugh after half an hour trying to upload your firmware to a not existing IP.

What currently stops me from say “hey just use a ftp application and upload the firmware” is that you can do a initial configuration if you use ruSpeedPortUploader. I didn’t investigate if you need to configure everything or if you get some default settings.

Some warnings

Some random stuff I noticed while flashing the router (I’ve read some boards to know how I can recover the system if I brake it)

• read the documentation
• follow each step
• don’t mess around with default IPs. Someone knew why the initial configuration suggests 192.168.178.1
• extract the kernel.image from the firmware file you downloaded. do not upload the whole firmware
• you can always upload a firmware as long as you don’t touch the MTD2
• read the documentation

Flashing your W920V with a AVM firmware does not require some deep knowledge in black magic. Just some reading.

How does my setup look like

I have the W920V in my basement and 3 wireless bridges connected. Two offices with one desktop and one printer in each office. And my private office with one desktop one notebook and two servers.

Three phones with 3 different numbers are connected. Every phone has its own number and an own answering machine.

I configured two fax devices sending new faxes to two different mail addresses (one fax = one mail address).

Everything works fine

except the bridges. From time to time (5-7 days) the bridge will just lose the connection to the W920V. No big problem, you just have to restart it. But it sucks.

I don’t know why and I have no idea where I should start my troubleshooting.

I have to admit that a FritBox is an impressive piece of hardware. I remembered AVM for their great ISDN cards but since I got DSL I was not interested in AVM. Looks like they managed to survive and still deliver great products.

Random notes

Some random stuff about the hardware

• wifi signals are very strong
• Speedphones seem to be build by Siemens
• wifi bridges suck
• WDS is a nice idea but I want to know what my hardware is doing
• you can easily attach a switch to a bridge and connect more than two systems. (T-Com tells you you can only connect two)
• 300MBit wifi =~ 100MBit cable network IF you have a good reception.
• no matter what logic suggests: wifi reception has its own laws
• you don’t have to set your router to wireless a/n. You can also use b/g/n. It doesn’t matter.

The hardware is really okay. Especially if you look at the price.

What’s next?

I won’t change much. I’ll take a look at the new firmware supporting IPv6 and wait for the iPhone App to arrive.

In the meantime I’ll wait for the Navigon select Telekom edition download to finish and give mobile navigation on my iPhone a try. I am not really a fan and I believe I won’t become one. But since it’s free why shouldn’t I take a look?

Oh did I mention that I took some time and worked on a theme? Should be up next week. Need a logo and convert my layout in a WordPress theme.

10 inch is okay for me – exactly in my specifications what I’d love to see.

Now it is time to wait… and wait… and wait… and spread some rumors till it is available. I hope that they don’t have a start as bad as the one with those 27″ iMacs. (if I’d knew that my screen would not be broken and it would work correctly I’d already have one of those cute iMacs on my table…)

Currently I use my iPhone a lot at home. Some Skype calls checking sky.de or tvtv.de to know what’s on TV, sending some tweets, reading some RSS feeds,… I could use my notebook, but my iPhone is just more comfortable and easier to carry around, but sadly the iPhone is a bit limiting. And this is the niche that I’d fill with a tablet.

It’s pretty easy what I want. A iPhone with a8-11″ screen without GSM. And maybe a iSight

iPhone OS

I enjoy using the iPhone. You download a application and in 9 / 10 cases the application works without problems. Thanks to the SDK all control elements look alike and you can control every application using the touchscreen. No small buttons you cannot hit, no unnecessary scrolling, it just works.

That’s the part Apple always gets right. It just works.

And this is the reason why I’d love to see the iPhone OS on a tablet. You have all features you need. Video / Audio player, a browser, a mail client, calendaring,… everything is already there, plus the thousands of applications in the Appstore that are already optimized for touch input.

Small changes are required

Multitasking is a must. Having 2 or 3 windows open is nothing uncommon. A browser, a Instant Messenger and a calendar for example.

Flash. I don’t know why but some people seem to like it. There is no Flash on the iPhone and I think the reasons given are okay. A Lite version always sucks and a full features version needs to much resources. But CPU power and RAM shouldn’t be a problem on a tablet, so I think we would see a full featured version.

A new bluetooth implementation would also be nice. While it is okay to only connect headsets to a phone it would be too limiting on another system. Even if it is a tablet, connecting a small keyboard and mouse while sitting in my office, charging the tablet in a dock, would be really sweet.

Handwriting

Support for handwriting would be great. Not this creepy stuff that tries to recognize my writing and turns it into something totally wrong. Just writing like, you know, on paper. What you write is what you get. And if I want to draw a picture I just start drawing. No lines I have to stick to or other limiting stuff.

This would take a tablet beyond chatting and surfing for me. I could finally get rid of all those college blocks I use for notes. And I use them quiet a lot. No paper, no searching, well yes searching but using spotlight, no clutter no lost notes.

Tablet > college blog is what they should aim for. I know it is hard but I trust Apple.

Synchronization

A way to synchronize the tablet with other systems is a must have. If I take some notes I want to manage and archive them on my server using my regular notebook. A tight integration with OSX Server would be nice.

If you take notes they are automatically synchronized with your wiki. If you add a new contact it is pushed to your iPhone. If you want to watch a movie you just click on your media icon and access all the files on your server is already streaming to your AppleTV and iTunes.

2003

According to some rumors Apple is working on a tablet since 2003 when they used IBM CPUs. Rumors say that they finished it and will release it 7 years later.

Let’s hope that we’ll be able to buy a great product in 2010. I’ll move some money to my “play time bank account” and do the only thing I can do – wait for 2010.