All about the iPhone

Dear Readers,

I have been meaning to do this for a while and ChoirPres' post gave me the inspiration. Here it is, my review of the iPhone including Tips and Tricks and what Apps you definitely need.

What I have

We will start out with my iPhone. Currently I have the 16GB iPhone 3G White (that is the second generation iPhone for some of you, 3G is the network it is on). It is currently pwned using the PwnageTool 2.0.2 and the iPhone Firmware 2.0.1 (no I have not updated with the new release yet).

I keep a Contour clear case on it with a screen protector unless I am working out which I have the Belkin Armband for. For charging I purchased a Griffin USB charger for the car since my Alpine CDA-9886 would not charge the new iPhone (more on that later) but it will still run with the Full Link Cable so I can listen to music when I get bored of the old 2G 15GB iPod I still have and use.

I modified the original headphones with JL Audio Marshmellows which sound great and fit much better than the originals.

I also purchased the Griffin car mount that suction cups to the windshield and sits right next to my speedometer giving me GPS navigation ability.

At home I use the old 2G Dock (yes it actually fits quite well) and it even using the direct line output for my studio monitors :)

Setup - I currently have a trial MobileMe account which I think I will cancle very soon but it currently syncs my Address Book with the iMac, Powerbook and iPhone. I use Google for my calendar and mail so the iPhone is setup with an imap account for Gmail and for LutherSem email. The Calendar is using the Exchange server going through nuevasync.com to sync the Calendar.

Things I love

Size. Not only is it incredibly small (even with the clear case) is still is completely usable in the fact you can see the screen and type on the keyboard without a lot of hassle. I now carry two phones around and they don't give the "bulge" as some people like to call it in dress pants as badly as some of my old school phones used to.

GPS - For all the complaints about no Turn-by-Turn navigation I love the GPS feature and Maps built-in to the iPhone. I hate being told when to turn and where, I would much rather see the map and follow the line. Being able to find anything near you with a quick search is also extremely useful in a new city or a place you are not familiar with.

Email - Having the easy access to email at all times and being able to access basic attachments is also "Rad" as my girlfriend would say. I find that when I get to my computer, instead of spending a ton of time reading and replying, I usually just clean my inbox up and do something else. Lot less time reading and more on the fly. Seems like I am not responding as much though to emails because I read them and forget to reply but I will figure that out soon enough.

Games - Lets just say during "down times" I love to be able to distract myself and move the time by and if I am not catching up on Google Reader or checking my email I find it fun to have a small collection of games to play with. Read more about those games later.

iPod and Phone built in button - I wondered how I would use the button with both features and I have to say when I am in a situation where it is kosher to have headphones in, I love being able to listen to music and easily take a call in the middle of it. Studying or walking or doing anything that allows for the avoidance of other human interaction becomes an untangled mess compared to what it used to be. Think about it, you have headphones in with the ipod in the bag, the phone vibrates away and you have to find the phone, pull it out, get the earbud out of your ear, answer the phone and hope you can get to the ipod to pause the music so it doesn't blast in your other ear while you talk. Now, music is playing and when someone calls, the music fades away and your ringtone initiates, without stopping what you are doing you just reach up, squeeze the button and now you are talking to someone through the headphones. When they hang up, your music starts again and you keep on doing what you were doing. Amen.

My Review

The overall experience with the iPhone is a 10 out of 10 so don't take any of the negatives below to be a deterrent to understanding how cool this device is.

1. Battery Life. If you think about it, you have a Phone, iPod Touch, GPS device and PDA with a touch screen in your pocket all day long. With the size and the fact that Battery Technology hasn't drastically changed in many many years, the battery life on this device isn't AMAZING. If you just answered a phone call a day and turned everything else off you might get 2 days of battery life. If you are like me and are a power user, using it all day long, you only get about a half day. Between charging it in the "residence hall" room and the Car while using it for GPS I don't have a problem getting through the day but if I am sans charger, I better not be reading emails, playing games or reading the news. The iPod feature does not use as much battery as the other features and I have gotten a full day of listening to music and answering the phone with the battery dying late in the evening. If course I was working outside with it on my arm all day and did not turn the screen on.

2. Speed. Don't let the commercial's fool you. The time it takes to find your location or search the web for a store or boot up a game is not as fast as they show on TV, of course. Sometimes though it can really lag if you are stuck on Edge Network or in a location that doesn't want to let you find your GPS location. It is much better than my old PII 250 MMX with 128megs of ram in 1995 and Dial-Up but you still find yourself waiting a little longer than you might want. Patience is a virtue... (reminder, I did pwn the phone and I do force it to jump around more than your average user so my experience might be the extreme)

3. Glitches. Maps can have some odd tendencies of finding the wrong location (downtown Lake Oswego, MN) or giving me a repeated map (on 36 between Rooseville and Maplewood MN). It does have the hang problem people have talked about. Sometimes a program will hang for no reason on a rare occasion. Sometimes it won't respond to your touch and when you get impatient it catches up to you and does everything at once. Just restarting the program seems to fix most glitches (see tips below).

Other oddities involve me again pushing things to the limit. If you have a phone call for example and you have the headphones in and pull them out, sometimes you will lose the call. If you are listening to music through a Full Link Cable on an Alpine Deck (and I would assume a dock) and plug the headphones in, you will lose the music and have to reset the cable. Also, I have not been able to answer a call very well if I have the headphone jack connected to a 3rd party stereo and try to talk to the phone and listen through the connected stereo. Have not really tried to hard though...might be the next challenge.

4. Limitations - It would be really nice if you could switch to the landscape view vs portrait view in all programs. It works great in Safari and other programs on the phone. Also, it would be nice if it would do a full 360 with you in all programs so if you pick up the phone the wrong direction it would simply move the screen around. YouTube for example will only allow you to watch a video with the volume buttons down and in Landscape mode. Safari is the only program where you can access the keyboard from the landscape perspective. It gives you more space for the keyboard sideways but also limits what you can see on the screen. If Mail would do the same, you could type a bit easier in my opinion.

Copy/Paste - Everybody talks about it, everybody wants it. It would be really nice Apple!

Camera - The 2 Meg camera is great for a 2 meg camera. Pictures look good (all images are screen shots or pictures from the camera by the way). It would be even nicer if it was a 3 meg camera. I don't really care about the zoom or low light problems, just would like a little cleaner pictures...oh well. I have a camera that I use now...that's a first.

Signal Strength - If you read anything you know that there is a debate going on about the 3G signal strength and the iPhone switching between the faster 3G and Edge network. I have had minimal experience with it but I don't have "More Bars in More Places" in any stretch of the imagination. I do have the advantage of comparing both Verizon and AT&T at the same time though and currently Verizon Coverage is better on average that AT&T.

Battery - I am not sure what is going on but sometimes the iPhone will not charge in rare instances. A reboot of the iphone completely will get it back to normal but it is a very odd situation where you leave it plugged in but for some reason the battery drains even though it says it is charging. Software glitch? I hope...

My Apps and Mod's

Here is a list of installed Apps and programs currently on my iPhone. I will not list the standard applications that come with the phone.

Dobot Todos, Evernote, Pandora, Midomi, Simplify Media, iWant, MySpace, Pageone, Facebook, RC Calendar, Movies, Twiterrific, Remote, Bible, VNC, Google, Banner Free, Moonlight Mahjong Lite, SudokuFree, Tap Tap Revolution, More Cowbell, Labyrinth LE, PhoneSaber, Chopper, Hangman, CannonGame, BubbleWrap, Sol Free, Nearby and Flashlight

Dobot Todos - This is the best To Do list that I found when I first searched for Apps. It allows me to organize my lists into folders, categorize the priority and put dates on things. One downfall is it is only on the iPhone and does not transfer to another program.

Evernote - This is great on the computer and usefull to access from the iPhone. I have not used enough of it but so far for studying it is instrumental in organizing my notes and tracking them.

Simplify Media - Get it now while it is free. Gives you access to your iTunes library over a network or through the 3G. Doesn't work so well on Edge but I listened to a whole album over 3G while shopping at Target.

iWant - Great for finding listings of everything and reviews to know what its good.

Movies - Superfast at finding your movie theater and giving you the time listings! Even connects you to trailers.

Remote - Wanna control your iTunes from any room in your house...this is a great program! Now that I am in a room I don't use it as much but it was great in a house especially when using the airtunes through Airport Express.

VNC - Wanna jump on the computer to open iTunes or see who IMed you without getting out of bed and going into the other room? Oh ya, VNC is exactly that, VNC for the iphone...Hard to use so far but works for little things like hitting a button or seeing who just IMed.

Pwned Apps - For non geeks, a pwned iPhone is a iPhone that has modified Firmware allowing you to have full access of the device or Jailbroken as people call it. I easily pwned my phone and suggest if you enjoy tinkering and have a modest amount of "hacking" experience you can get your phone modified also as I did without too much concern of bricking it. Be very aware that if you do damage the phone, apple care probably won't help you if they see you pwned the phone.

I currently have NES (yes the good old Nintendo!), Metronome, BossPrefs, Powertool, Terminal, and WinterBoard. I created my own theme with organ pipes and modified some of the icons for a couple of the programs. I also modified the battery when the iPhone is charging and added the AT&T globe icon in place of the signal bars in the top left.
Tips and Tricks

Things I learned along the way that might be useful and something that most should know but you might not.

Double Click Home - If the phone is locked and you double click the home button it should show you the iPod controls. Also if you are listening to music and you double click the home from anywhere it should give you and iPod pop up that allows you to change songs, pause or jump to the iPod directly without going through the home screen. Settings can be changed in Settings/General/Home Button.

Auto-Lock and Passcode - Security wise, I don't want anyone getting their hands on my phone especially since my life is on it. Turn the auto-lock feature to say 5 minutes and set a password to the phone and if someone steals it or if they want to use it and you have not turned it on for 5 minutes, the phone will require a 4 diget code to unlock it again.

Maps Direction Tip - It took me a while to figure out that I could pull recent directions in Maps. First, touch directions. Next Edit. Now clear one of the fields with the x...and click on the Book on the right side. You now have access to Bookmarks, Recents and Contacts to fill in the directions field.

Creating a Home Screen for a Web Link - Pretty simple, in the website you want to link to, click the plus and add to Home Screen. Make sure to drag it where you want by holding down the icon and dragging it across the screen while it wiggles. :)

Resetting an App - This is handy. Got a problem with Maps or another app, just hold the home screen down for a while and the app will shutdown completely. Click on it again on the Home Screen to restart.

FOR PWNED PHONES ONLY - (Mac instructions only)

SSH - I would highly recommend SSHing into your 3G iPhone right away after Pwning it and changing the root and mobile passwords.

1. Open Terminal and SSH into the phone using the following command: ssh root@iphone.ip.address.here
(if you are having troubles, make sure the iphone is accessing your network by opening Mail and letting it check for new mail, this insures it is connected to your network)
2. type in alpine for the password
3. once you are into the phone type passwd
4. enter a new root password twice.
5. logout.
6. Repeat the above procees accept with the following: ssh mobile@iphone.ip.address.here

NES - Install NES through Cydia. Download Fugu. Download any NES Rom's you want to play. You first should SSH into your iPhone (see above).
1. Open Fugu and connect to your iphone through root.
2. Go to the following folder: var/mobile/Media
3. Create a folder names ROMs
4. Create a folder inside ROMS named: NES
5. In var/mobile/Media/ROMs/NES/ place any of the downloaded roms
6. Play old school Nintendo on your iphone. Check out the settings to use the accelerator as the up down left and right.

For everyone who actually read any of that, peace be with you and your love for the iPhone and cool technology!

~soundguy