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Victory: The Fight to Unlock iPhone Services for All

November 7th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

With the release of Apple’s iPhone, the basic cell phone has become obsolete. Cell phones are no longer reserved for making phone calls; now, they are mp3 players, movie screens, internet browsers, address books and video game systems all built into one. The iPhone is no exception. In fact, it challenges every other cell phone manufacturer to turn up the technology. However, the release of the iPhone was not without complaints. While most consumers love their iPods and want nothing more than to be able to join the power of an iPod with the practicality of a cell phone, the original iPhone package included a little extra baggage.

Aside from additional charges and hidden requirements, the iPhone was locked to a single provider. AT&T owned the exclusive rights to the iPhone, meaning it could only operate on AT&T networks. Purchasing an iPhone was meaningless unless the consumer also signed a contract with AT&T, a contract which included multiple years and multiple clauses. However, with the release of the iPhone came the fight to unlock iPhone services for all. Hackers around the world worked day and night to free the iPhone from AT&T; to unlock iPhone capabilities for other providers meant to give the consumer choice in who he or she contracted with. Thanks to these hackers, the popularity of the iPhone soared where otherwise it would have faltered.

Fun without Boundaries

While the iPhone sold out of most stores the first day of release, many buyers were unaware of AT&T’s exclusive rights. They were oblivious to their own inability to use their new media devices with any cell phone company. They were also unaware of exactly how expensive monthly charges would be when AT&T could charge whatever they wanted. In a sense, AT&T held a monopoly on iPhone usage, until hackers decided to take matters into their own hands and unlock iPhone usage. Interestingly enough, when they succeeded, the iPhone’s popularity increased; many apprehensive consumers were swayed to purchase the device once they realized their hands were no longer tied. Consumers desire freedom, and the freedom to choose a cell phone company became the deciding factor in a lot of later iPhone purchases.

To unlock iPhone usage meant for some people the ability to actually use the iPhone; individuals already signed up with a multiple year contract with another cell phone provider would be unable to use an iPhone unless they broke their contracts. When the iPhone was unlocked, anyone could use it with their current contracts without having to pay penalties or take out secondary agreements. Interestingly enough, the race to unlock iPhone capabilities could have been finished sooner if hackers did not compete against each other; however, each hacker wanted the fame, and competition ended up delaying the completion of the project.

Be Careful With iPhone Music Downloads

November 5th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Although part of the fun of having an iPhone is being able to play your favorite music from MP3 files, you do have to keep yourself safe withy iPhone music downloads. Cyber criminals target music downloads in order to break into your electronics and get a hold of your personal data. They also can send you really annoying adware – although you don’t get your identity stolen, you do have to waste time and battery power dealing with constant advertisements.

What Not To Do

You definitely should never click on a link for iPhone music downloads from an unsolicited email, unsolicited fax or from a pop-up ad. This is one of the favorite ways cyber criminals load spyware onto your iPhone and then your computer. They set up what are called Trojan horses (after the one in the Greek myth). Like the magical wooden horse that actually houses Greek soldiers, a modern day Trojan horse is a data file like free iPhone music downloads that hide spyware.

You also never want to download iPhone music downloads from anyone sending them to you when you are on a peer to peer (P2P) network like Usenet. Although the instant communication is neat, there is a distinct lack of security to P2P networks. This is why cyber criminals love to hang out on P2P networks – they can’t be detected. Even if your friend sends you free iPhone music downloads, delete the files immediately, and then delete your Delete files.

What You Should Do

Although it sounds like a drag, the only completely safe way of getting iPhone music downloads is to pay Apple iTunes for them. There are a few other legitimate low cost MP3 services such as Rhapsody and Napster. You need to download their software and sometimes a monthly fee in order to get access to thousands of iPhone music downloads from all kinds of music categories. These places often come with a free trial so you can see if your computer and iPhone get along with the service.

Or, you can just buy the CDs of your favorite artists and make MP3 files yourself. That’s one of the safest ways to build up a music library. And if your iPhone crashes or breaks, then you don’t have to loose your entire music library, too. Buying CDs also helps supports your favorite artists, who really don’t see much money for their hard work. Not unless they have a deal with iTunes, that is.

IPhone Movie Download Sources

November 2nd, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

The iPhone craze has spread amongst our society because of all of the amazing features that it has. Now, iPhone movie downloads are getting increasingly popular as well. You can find rare and unique movie downloads for your iPhone. Sometimes you can even get movies that you cannot find at the local stores. Once they’re downloaded, you can watch your movies anywhere. Say you’re on a long road trip, being able to watch a movie via iPhone is very convenient. Movies that are downloaded from the official iPhone movie sites are optimized for the image quality and file size of the phone.

IPhone Movie Downloads to Own

There are certain websites, specifically ones that are affiliated with Apple, that offer iPhone movie download packages. You can buy a movie to own it without further restrictions. You can move them to other devices and store them in your files. Once you buy the movie, it will never stop being playable. There’s no time limit and no movie limit. Not to mention, these websites are completely legal. MovieiPhone.com, in particular, offers these services for $0.99 a movie. That’s all you have to pay and the movie is yours forever, it isn’t a rental, it isn’t a registration, it is one fee whenever you rent.

More Sources for IPhone Movie Downloads

ITunes is another place for iPhone movie downloads. With all of the competition, their prices can run as high as $10 or more, depending on the agreement. There are other services like iTunes that people can buy a membership for iPhone movie downloads. These services run on a subscription basis that usually costs $49.99 or less. However, you can download as many movies as you wish. They have mostly the same types of movies that Blockbuster has and you can download 10 dvds to your iPhone for the one time subscription fee. You never pay per download.

Illegal Sources for IPhone Movie Downloads

If you don’t want to pay for a service, there is always the illegal way to go about it. If you find one of these websites, you’ll see that the movies are free but not only might you download a virus but you may also get caught by the police. Not to mention, during these types of downloads, secret malware sneaks onto your phone and infects it.

Analyzing the Choices

There are a few different sources for iPhone movie downloads and you just have to examine them and decide which one is best for you. Search the net and check out a couple of different ones before you choose.

Second Generation Iphone: It Is Better To Reserve Judgment Till Facts Become Clearer

November 1st, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

According to latest information released with regard to the iPhone, it is believed that this year (2008) there should be two new releases of the iPhone seen with one being a major release while the other would be of a minor nature. However, though these new releases will hit the market in the year 2008, none of them will have the same import as the original iPhone, though of course one of these new releases will certainly have something to do with the second generation iPhone.

In fact, the second generation iPhone that everyone is so taken up by is in fact in its final stages as far as design goes and though the form of the new product would be similar to existing iPhones, there may actually be a radically changed look in the new product, and it will also have some third generation capability as well.

Rumors Abound

Still, rumors abound with regard to the release of the second generation iPhone and one of the rumors that is currently doing the rounds relates to Commercial Times that informs us that a company from Taiwan named Wintek has in fact been chosen to make touch screen panels for the second generation iPhone. Furthermore, the same newspaper informs us that the second generation iPhone will in fact be shipped in September 2008 and the cost of such second generation iPhone would range from between two hundred forty-nine dollars to a shade under three hundred dollars.

There is in fact enough reason to believe these reports and in fact one should even expect that around five million second generation iPhones will be shipped in the month of September though such products will sport differences in outer design.

Another piece of news with regard to the second generation iPhone is that Apple is planning to offer such versions in the markets other than in the United States. The same Commercial Times as too the Economic Daily News informs us that a company known as Quanta Computer will be the major manufacturer who will in fact, be producing the expected five million second generation iPhones.

In fact, according to Quanta Computer’s own press release, the company confirms that such an order has indeed been placed by Apple though it fell short of terming their product as second generation iPhone. However, rather than have too high expectations with regard to this new offering from Apple, it pays to remember that there is not much difference in this new generation iPhone from its earlier predecessor other than the change in outer design.

What’s more, there is even reason to believe that in fact this whole story actually alludes to the production of a second version rather than second generation product and so, it would be wise to reserve your judgment till such time as more concrete news becomes available.

Tutorial To IPhone Hacks

October 30th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

As can be expected, with the appearance of the first iPhones, the first iPhone hacks came into existence and have been around, spreading since then. DVD Jon, notorious for various reverse engineering projects (which means getting details of systems one is not supposed to know) was the first to write a software program to hack his iPhone just five days after the original release date. And though he was not yet able to hack his iPhone in such a way as to be able to get activated on another carrier, other than AT&T, he could use all the other functions of his iPhone. Many have followed in his footsteps in iPhone hacks since then, with a varied set of intentions and methods.

Types Of Iphone Hacks

It could quite simply be asserted that the two basic kinds of hacks are the good and the bad hacks. There are the ones that help you unlock your phone, so that you should be able to use another carrier apart from AT&T, whether you need this option to use your phone outside the United States or becasue you are not comfortable with AT&T’s pricing. Some want to hack their iPhones not even to choose another carrier, but just to be able to use third-party applications, which is not normally supported by Apple. Then there are the so-called bad hacks, when some hackers try to hack iPhones and Apple’s system to get details of other iPhone users and thus be able to get passwords, personal and private information.

Brick, Firmware, Jailbreaking

There are some basic terms you should be familiar with, which you could have already encountered but are not sure about their meaning.

The term brick refers to a hardware which becomes unusable for one reason or another. Hacking your iPhone can basically render it inoperable, or it can become unuseable if you update your iPhone and Apple has something new built in to make your hacked iPhone useless. Some hackers though are constantly working on writing newer and newer hacks, which can possibly recover your iPhone.

The firmware is basically the operating system and programming, the basic and in-depth specifics, which are not available to the everyday user. Apple periodically releases updates that fix former bugs and offers new features, and will possibly work on and stop iPhone hacks. Firmware version 1.1.1. is quite famous for rendering many iPhones useless, turning them into bricks, although a fix was released some weeks later.

IPhones are naturally built in such a way that users are unable to modify the operating system and basic software. Jailbreak is a type of iPhone hack in which the user can gain access to the inner structure and thus modify it, either to unlock the iPhone or install and run third-party applications not approved by Apple.

GPS On Iphone

October 27th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Of course, you will expect your new iPhone to have a GPS, as most of the smartphones on the market do have one, and you can ask yourself why Apple didn’t want to add this feature when designing the iPhone. You might think that it’s actually a requirement for some cellphones to have a GPS, but you’re quite mistaken. The only requirement is that it should be possible to locate you somehow, with the help of calling 911 for example, but a GPS in itself is not a requirement. And there’s no use in meditating on Apple’s possible reasons for not incorporating this otherwise quite essential featue of GPS on their iPhone.

How Can You Get GPS?

Before the original release of iPhone, a GPS was obviously expected by at least the close community following Apple’s moves. As it was clear that iPhone had a bluetooth connectivity, one can fantasize about getting a GPS bluetooth receiver and connecting this to the iPhone, then getting the suitable GPS software, and all the problems will be solved. However, as it turned out, a GPS bluetooth receiver cannot be connected to the iPhone, moreover there is no suitable and working software. Apple products are not traditionally compatible with just any products. Without the additional lack of support from Apple for third party-application, solving the problem of GPS on an iPhone seemed to be and can still seem an insurmounatble problem.

Of course, there is GoogleMaps you can use to a limited extent only where you can find wireless internet, so obviously not everywhere.

Navizon GPS On Iphone

In 2007 September, Navizon eventually released a virtual GPS navigation system on iPhones, which, relies on Wi-fi and cellular tower triangulation, and is basically a peer to peer system in which users in possession of the software can contribute data. Although some assert that this kind of localization cannot be as accurate as a real GPS receiver, this is as good as it can get under such circumstances. Navizon also allows for an initial 15-day trial period, during which users can experiment with the software and if they find it useful they can get GPS for their iPhones for less than $25. The firmware version 1.1.1. update reportedly rendered the software useless. However, a new version was released, and users can also get a scaled down version of this iPhone GPS for free.

Apple is reportedly planning to include GPS in their second generation of iPhones to be released sometime in 2008, having realized that they should have incldued this in the first version as well or having designed a suitable software by now. By all means, we should just hope that the long-awaited 3G iPhones will really have GPS.

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