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.

I was looking forward to the announcement and keynote for one reason. To know if I’ll stay with T-Mobile or get a carrier that also sucks but costs less. If I’d be interested in the iPhone 4 I think I’d stay with T-Mobile just to get my hands on one first.

iPhone 4

I love new toys. Hell I am a geek, how couldn’t I love new, shiny stuff? The iPhone 4 focuses on video calls, multitasking and improved media support. Do you remember what I said what I don’t need on a phone? Right. Everything the iPhone 4 has.

It is okay for me. I see the advantages of the great display and I love the new design. But this isn’t enough for me to get one. My 3g works fine and with iOS4 I get all features I want.

I also understand why Apple put so much effort in video calls and better camera support. Because it is what nearly everyone wants. It was a wise decision and I believe they did a awesome job. iMovie for iPhone really has potential.

iOS4

PDF support! WIN!oneELEVEN!

The global Inbox also is pretty cool

What will I do?

As I said. I’ll get a new contract from another provider that also sucks but costs less. On 12 July I’ll be able to unlock my iPhone “the legal way”.

I want a 3g flat and I want unlimited talk time to all carriers. Currently I pay nearly 110€ a month for my contract. (a little company discount included)

With our company contract and o2 I’ll pay 30.50€ a month for the same features. Plus I can use tethering without an additional fee and – this is an important and – I get a free second SIM card I can use in my notebook or iPad the same time – yes I do not have to turn my iPhone off! – to surf the web.

I save 80€ / month. This makes 960€ / year. Buying an unlocked iPhone 4.x will be something around 1000€ -1200€. Talking about a 2 year contract I’ll save a lot of money if I see the need to upgrade to a current model. Maybe the 2011 iPhone will have something new I like or the next generation iPhone OS will just not work on my 3g. This is what I’d consider a reason to upgrade my iPhone.

So time to say good bye to T-Mobile. We didn’t have a great run and I’ll never miss you.

More posts please

Yes I know. My posting schedule is far away from regular. But the last year was crazy. I moved in a new apartment, I moved my office and I had a lot of work. Running a company is nothing you do between two blog posts in 4 hours a day.

The good news are that things are back to normal. Now I can keep up with a regular posting schedule and even get some projects done.

Theme / URL changes

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

I tried running my own blog software and content management system written in Django. Writing a CMS and seeing how it goes in production and powering my site was great. But there were two things I didn’t think of.

1. Maintaining software that depends on a third party framework can really suck
2. If there is a error or bug you should be able to fix it in time

One pissed me of, two broke my neck. That’s the whole story.

I just didn’t have the time to maintain my CMS. And through software changes my themes changed a lot.

I tried to keep my URLs working. It looks like it didn’t always work. Again. Mea culpa. I try to fix it so you won’t see many broken links from external sites.

You will see a new theme in near future. I’m working on it but due to non existing Photoshop skills development slowed down.

You’ll also get my old posting with comments back. Even if I’m not sure how I’ll do it, I’ll find a way

More reviews

I don’t really like writing reviews. First of I have a strict rule in buying gadgets.

Only buy them if you really want and need them

I don’t know how much stuff I had in my basement or just gave it away as present because I never used it. Most gadgets are not worth the money. And since I really feel tired of playing with useless stuff (hardware, software – you name it. Nearly everything related to computers) I won’t write reviews in near future.

If you really want me to review a gadget send it to me. Don’t expect to get it back if I like it. Send it on your own risk!

iPhone OS 4 / iPad

I didn’t write much about the iPhone OS 4 because I am not interested.

It doesn’t provide any features I’m looking forward to. I don’t need multitasking on my iPhone. Maybe on the iPad. But not on the iPhone. And that’s it.

As long as my 3g runs well, as long as I can Twitter, call people and write mails I have nearly everything I need. As I said in my previous post I’m sick of all that 2.0 stuff and I won’t upgrade my hardware just to run more IM clients and Twitter in background.

Maybe I’ll get the new iPhone because I can extend my contract. It would be pretty dumb not getting the new iPhone for free.

iPad? Yeah. Got one. Nice little toy. Only got it because I’ll get some work related applications and because I think it is a nice presentation device while in a client meeting.

I am still not used to writing on the iPad, even if it isn’t troublesome I prefer a real keyboard. Beside that it integrates well in my day. Reading news, writing one or two emails while not on my computer,… no big deal. It saves some time, it gets out of your way but it doesn’t replace a computer, laptop or iPhone. You have decide on your own if it fits in your day or not.

Really sick of 2.0?

Yes.

I think I answered everything that was asked several times and wasn’t private.

As I said: if you have suggestions or comments just drop me a line.

2004

I think we all remember this time. It was in 2004 when everyone started writing a blog. YouTube became famous, flickr spread and everyone started publishing content. Wasn’t it a great time? You finally were able to see kittens doing funny stuff. Hilarious.

2006

Let’s be honest. 2006. Year of Twitter. No discussion. Since 2006 you know when your friends and strangers go to the toilet.

Twitter changed everything. You got live updates from events you were interested in but couldn’t participate, news sites were nearly useless since everything was on Twitter if you followed the right people.

I think Twitter is one of the sites that had the biggest impact on me.

EMails

I think it was around 2006 when I stopped writing EMails. You could reach everyone using ICQ, Jabber and other IM services. It was fast. It was web 2.0. You could do that before. My ICQ accout was created 2001 I think. But as always it took some years till the last non tech people adopted the “new stuff”.

Most of my friends went to school or university. They always had time to check IMs and they always had a Internet connection at home or university. So it worked out fine.

2008

Facebook or “when your private data started to spread around the net without you knowing it“. Wasn’t it great. You could present yourself to all your friends. And even people you didn’t know became your friends. A girl I met once at a party – 3 years ago – added me as friend so I could see her full contact details, photos and everything about her life.

I mean we met 3 years ago. That means something, doesn’t it?

My opinion about Facebook

Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with your friends and people you know. But you should really be careful with your private data.

Sometimes I don’t understand people. They publish interests, photos and other stuff on a platform that is supposed to make profit and they are surprised that they use their informations.

If you really have a problem with Facebook and care about your informations so much: Don’t publish them! No one forces you to enter every last detail about you. No one forces you to play Farmville. No one forces you to click those “get a larger ***** in 3 hours” links.

If you are too dumb to take responsibility for your actions and informations you published stop using the web.

Please don’t get me wrong. I know that there are many older people that just don’t see the big picture because they lack background knowledge. This was just a wake up call to those who know the web but use services blindly and start crying if something goes wrong.

IM

It was 2008 when I stopped using IM. It was easier to send my friends a message on Facebook. They could check it from everywhere and they could instantly reply.

IM just didn’t work anymore since we all left school. We started working, earning money, having less time to sit in front of a computer and click every link on Google to look if there is something on the Internet we didn’t already see. We grew up and we don’t work in professions allowing us to use the computer the whole day.

Time in front of  your computer

I believe that there are actually two camps of people.

1. Those who work in front of a computer all day and can run every software they want as long as they get their job done
2. Those who don’t or cannot.

I believe that instant messaging as a communication replacement is only viable for camp one. IM using your mobile phone was never great. No matter what phone we talk about.

IRC and bulletin boards

Did you notice that IRC and bulletin boards are dead? Well at least kind of? Back in 2008 it was when most tech discussion was moved from BBS and IRC to blogs and wikis. Of course there are developer channels and BBS but looking at how they are used is nothing compared to 2000 – 2008.

Mailling lists, blogs and wikis just have one big advantage. You can always look back at a discussion. It is persistent.

Last time I checked some IRC channels I liked – channels with many competent people – I nearly started crying. Back in 2006 someone asking how to install Linux 9.1 would have been kicked and discussion went on. Today the same people became Ubuntu users. Explaining everything, solving nothing being boring and not innovative. A discussion about a Perl script? “lol what’s perl? Use Flash.” “this doesn’t fit here anymore.” “who cares? did you see Lindsay Lohan last night?! Aweeeeeesooooommmmeeeeeeee”

Don’t get me started on bulletin boards. In 2004 you could already answer every second thread with “turn your monitor on“. It didn’t become better.

EMails

It was 2008 when I started writing EMails again. You know – they are great. You send someone a message and when the other person has some time he or she sends a reply. And so on. It’s like IM only that you don’t have to run strange clients and you don’t need to sign in different services.

Thanks to Push and IMAP it is instant and usable from everywhere. Great stuff right?

It was great

I had a lot of fun. Discovering new services like Plurk – seeing new services fail like Plurk – discovering new services that actually made it. Let’s be honest for one moment. Every geek, every hacker, every IT dude is a kid that likes to play with new shiny stuff. And we got a lot of it since 2004.

No matter what service I tried it was fun and I met a lot of great people. And that’s what web 2.0 is about right? Publishing stuff and meeting people.

There is one rule that – sadly – works: the more you publish the more people you’ll meet. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter what you publish.

Participate

Look at what you have to stay in touch with people and how you can participate. Let’s take a ordinary iPhone. You always have the web with you.

• You can tweet form everywhere
• You can tell people where you are so they can break into your house
• You can upload photos from everywhere
• You can upload videos from everywhere
• You can instantly reply to comments on your news or updates on 14 services
• You can read news all the time with your feed reader

And that is only a small selection of stuff I did.

My problem with it is that I don’t feel to get something back. It is just a duty to update everything so people that “care” know what’s going on in my life.

If I am honest – I don’t care if everyone always knows what I am doing. My friends don’t need a instant update and pictures form my last trip. I can also just show them the pictures when we meet next time.

There is no point in using 2 or 3 sites like Facebook. One is enough to stay in touch with people – especially since I don’t care about most of them. I am in touch with those people I really like. I don’t need Facebook.

I don’t always have to know about the last news. It doesn’t matter if I read my news sites in the morning or all day. Informations like “Patch 3.3.5 is released” and “VirtualBox 3.2.0 is finally stable but you are not allowed to run OSX on Windows” are good to have. But it is not important to have them 3 minutes after they are published.

What will I use in future?

only a hand full services / sites

• Twitter. I like it. News I care about and updates from interesting people.
• Emails. They just work. I can write and answer them whenever and wherever I want.
• Blogs. Informations I care about. No matter if I publish them or someone else. And if I want to look something up it is there (most of the time)

What I wont use anymore?

• Flickr. I am not photographer. I have some pictures of birthdays, vacations and other stuff and I nearly never look at it. I sometimes search flickr for inspiration but that’s it.
• YouTube. See Flickr.
• Everything but Facebook.

Facebook is a special case. I am not sure if I continue using it. On the one hand I like it on the other hand it is meh.

iPhone?!

I have an iPhone. And without all that social stuff it is just a phone, a calendar, a address book, a Twitter client, a browser and a Battle.net authenticator.

I have a paper calendar – great stuff. Works always. No synchronization needed.

A phone? It has some great features. I have to admit it.

Twitter client? Runs on nearly every phone I’d consider buying (iPhone / BlackBerry / Nokia maybe an Android if I start drinking)

Browser? It was fun but I stopped browsing the web while on the road. I do it one or two times a month.

I currently have some trouble with T-Mobile (that’s another story). There are two options.

1. I need / want my iPhone <- I have to find an arrangement with them
2. I just buy another phone from a provider with cheaper contracts and service that also sucks <- I save money and have no disadvantage beside no iPhone

My decision to say goodbye to web 2.0 is maybe one of the most important factors to consider option two. Why should I pay a lot of money for a great device that I don’t use in a way that it justifies the price? Style? No thanks.

It was a great  time

but it is over. Farewell web 2.0. We had a lot of fun. We did awesome stuff. But everything has to come to an end.

Appendix: reading this article a second time I feel old. Sucks. I’m 23. I got a great job. Shouldn’t I be one of those pink polo wearing hipsters that are too cool for this world using everything they get from Apple because it has style, even if they have no idea what they are doing and publishing everything they have?

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.

I just drove 2 hours on a freeway. I had to change directions 5 times. In those 2 hours I was talking nearly 80 minutes with 3 people using my iPhone.

If I would use my iPhone for navigation tasks I would still be driving and likely in the wrong direction,…

Repeat after me: “no navigation while using your phone is bad”

If this works I’ll add a mobile post section in my blog. This will result in more updates and maybe some interesting stuff – there are many strange things happening out there :>