Tag Archives: iPhone

digital pity

How To Transfer Your Angry Birds Game Data

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AngryBirdsNest: How to Transfer Angry Birds Data to Another iPhone or Mac

One of the various flaws in the iPhone ecosystem is actually a rather large feature hole. The folks at iPhoneExplorer give me the tool to help fill this hole while the guys at AngryBirdsNest helped me by giving you a solid case study.

While personally thrilled I don’t have to re-three star a bunch of stuff in Angry Birds, I think that there’s a huge exploit hole here.
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GeekStuff

Is iPhone 3.0 Software SIM Unlocked?

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Before you answer “no” have you actually tried it on either an already activated phone or a non-activated iPhone with the 3.0 software (meaning 3GS, out of the box.)

Jolene has a non-3G, non-iPhone SIM that is with AT&T that previously didn’t work in:

– 2G iPhone with 1.x or 2.x software

– 3G iPhone with 2.x software

Tonight on a whim, I popped her non-3G, non-iPhone SIM into my 3G iPhone which has the 3.0 software and it worked. Made calls, received calls, called into VM fine (since it’s not enabled for Visual Voicemail.) I then put her SIM into my 3GS and it worked there too. On a further whim, I put in an old non-connected T-Mobile SIM… the iPhone did not reject it. Obviously I couldn’t place a call but in the past I had gotten a “this is an unauthorized SIM” message. I even went ahead and wiped the 3G iPhone clean and put the SIM in: worked there as well.

And so the questions in my head are:

– Does this only work on purpose or is this a bug in the 3.0 firmware?

– Has anyone activated a 3GS with a non-AT&T SIM?

– If not, does this only work on activated phones?

Or is this breaking news and I was the first guy to stumble into it?

GeekStuff

iPhone: Supported by T-Mobile

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I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since 2000. Before that I was with VoiceStream, so basically I’ve been on a GSM based phone for almost a decade. A bunch of months ago, I bought a v1 iPhone from Apple and used it on T-Mobile’s network. The only feature I lost was support for the Visual Voicemail – everything else worked with T-Mo’s network.

When the 3G iPhone came out, I bought a subsidized handset from the local Apple store and moved my number from T-Mobile to AT&T. That got me 3G support, unlimited mobile-to-mobile for a different set of a friends – offsets losing T-Mo based friends – a much higher price per month, one less phone number (as I had a dual line on T-Mo,) and slightly less coverage. It also got me a $200 charge from T-Mo when my number moved because I had another couple months on a contract for one of the numbers.

I called T-Mo to address the $200 charge by re-activating a line to complete the contract – what I learned from them was more than worth it’s weight in gold…

By law, AT&T is required to SIM unlock your iPhone if you pay full price for it because it’s a subsidized handset.
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digital pity

To The Day!

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True, it’s just a rumor. Yes, nothing is “known for certain” about the next generation iPhone. But 16 days after making a purchase, exactly two days after my window of return closes, I see this:

Fortune: When the 3G iPhone is introduced this summer, AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone sales partner with Apple, will cut the price by as much as $200, according to a person familiar with the strategy.

Which is exactly what I said would happen – just makes this rumor 100% true. *g*

digital pity

iPhone: Concession #1

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As with all new technologies in my life, there’s always a period of transition. A chunk of time when you have to unlearn what you’re used to and re-learn things with new devices that are expected to be better than the original. I mentioned some of what I expected to have to give up – and new things that popped up that were unexpected – in my last iPhone post so the Concessions list has a foundation already… but this is different.

This is a bug: there’s a cap to how big a Calendar item’s body can be yet you’d never know about it until you hit the problem.

I have a Calendar item in Outlook that has 6903 characters. I didn’t create it but it’s in my Calendar just the same. Not an unreasonable size anyway. The bug here is what happens when this item is Sync’d to the iPhone: nothing. iTunes completely ignores it and your Calendar on the iPhone has open time for this slot. It doesn’t put in a stub or truncated item for you. It doesn’t tell you there was a problem. No error, no warning, no sync log file to investigate. And what’s maddening: no choice on how to handle it. Ideally there would be a “Sync items larger than blah” option. Apple didn’t include it and odds are it would be explained as “that’s a feature! Who likes error messages? It just works!”

Enter Concession #1: watching Calendar items sync and make sure the items are smaller than at least 6K of text or else I miss meetings.

Update #1 – Seems I’m not the first to have this problem either: http://timheuer.com
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digital pity

Warning: iPhone Update Coming

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Don’t buy an iPhone for another 15 days.

Why? Because I recently bought one, and if past history has shown me anything, as soon as I buy something like there one of the following things happens: a new version is often released or a price drop is enacted. And always 48 hours after I can do anything about it. Since the iPhone has a 14 day return policy and I bought it yesterday, in another 15 days there should be a price drop or new model available.

It has happened before – odds say it will happen again.

Thoughts on the device follow…
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digital pity

+1 iPhone?

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Gizmodo: Apple iPhone Starbucks Ordering Screens Look Like the Real Thing, Precede Apple Patent

If this is the real deal, Apple may have a new iPhone customer.

Putting up with a touch screen device, shelling out $400 for a disposible device (as all phones are), transfering my numbers to at&t and paying more for service is all incidental for being able to cut yet another mammal out of my day to day life.

It’s all about the Bean.TM

digital pity

Balance? In An iPhone Review?

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Gizmodo: Apple: No BS iPhone Review

It’s actually a very good review and that’s not because I agree with the majority of it all – it’s the over all level of content. Although, I think they’re observations on price a bit forgiving: after all, at&t isn’t subsidizing any part of this phone – the $499 and $599 prices are the real retail prices… usually you get a break when you sign on with a new contract, but I guess that’s the price of bleeding edge. I think they should knock more than $50 off the price to move the 4GB models, but seeing as they keep selling out, it’s a moot issue.

The simple truth is that I will share any review that can reference Rosie O’Donnell’s vagina.

GeekStuff

MacWorld Rehash

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In a nutshell… iTV is right around the corner as Apple TV – is to iTunes what the 360 is to Media Center with 10GB more on the HDD. In fact, I don’t think it can download from iTunes directly – like the 360 can – but it does stream from iTunes directly…

The iPhone is live and looks pretty slick, but I refuse to go ga-ga over it until I see it in person which won’t be until June unless Cingular fucks it up. I like the spirit behind the design. If I can’t sync over the air, it’s a deal breaker. The multi-finger thingy has promise but historically I haven’t like touchscreens due to fingerprints, grease and icky experiences. Love the idea of a sensor that turns off the touchscreen; should help with taps in the pocket. Dig on the idea of widgets on the phone.

If it was a proper iPod – meaning no phone and no wireless – at $250, I’d be ordering it now and selling my PSP. The PSP? 4GB Memory Stick Duo is like $400. How can you justify a memory accessory that is more than the damned device?! Anyway…

Other things of interest: no Core Duo 2 in the Mac mini, no mention of Leopard [should be called a slip but never will me], no mention of iLife/iWork [historically a ship, but won’t be called that] and no music only players.

At least my portfolio is glowing green for a change!