In my fathers house there are many rooms

It was good to see a recent jailbreak of the iphone 4 where all you had to do was go to a website, click on the jailbreak me switch and within a few minutes it was all done. However there are serious security implications of this jailbreak as all it required was to download a pay loaded pdf file which then allowed remote code to be executed which effectively compromised the phones security within seconds. Whilst apple believe a controlled environment can always ensure a more secure safer experience this is a prime example that this philosophy is not always true.

I also believe that because apple cannot easily roll out an over the air update to fix this issue if there were several hundred iphones within an enterprise to update then hooking up to itunes via USB is just not practical.

There are two distinct types of iphone users now the jailbreak has come along, Consumers and customisers. A consumer will use a phone how it has been designed and will not venture far from doing stock processes on it. Whereas a customiser is usually someone who has had another phone and knows how much apple have locked it down and what jail breaking can do to release it.

Whilst in church many years ago I can always remember the verse "in my father's house there are many rooms". I believe in the iphone church that the two distinct types of users above are in two rooms - consumer and customiser. Since jail breaking my iphone and showing my colleagues who are living in the other room as a consumer, I have shown them the phone is capable of becoming a mobile hotspot, I can filter calls and SMS automatically, I have access to my calendar on the lock screen, I can multitask with any application, I can receive notifications on the status bar instead of the annoying messages that are pushed and I can also control my ip connection with the firewall application.

Whilst some of the applications I run are specialised such as the firewall and mobile hotspot; from demonstrating the cosmetic changes to the notifications and lock screen summaries using intelliscreen and notified, my colleagues are beginning to see how much of a blinkered life they have led.

Recently I have also purchased the wifi sync app which removes the need for a USB cable and again mouths have just dropped in belief as they thought this was impossible.

Apple are a marketing goliath and whilst they have been successful In the marketing of the iphone and iPad they should be looking to the jail breaking scene and embrace it like palm did Through banning applications such as the wifi sync, camera+ from using the volume button as a camera button and tethering applications they have really limited the device. Although their domineering approach to approving applications is known as being ruthless, even if they allowed these applications into the app store they could still ensure rules are not being broken or that consumers are being set up to fall.

My iphone is a great device with decent hardware and battery life. Now it is jail broken it is a more useful device that I am more akin to with android, maemo and symbian.

It may never happen but I am excited to spread the good word that jail breaking is beneficial other than what is perceived and being marketed.

Wifigate Part 2

Those of you that have been following me on twitter know recently I have been having issues with my IPhone 4 and WIFI. My Ipad using the same applications and access point downloading the same podcasts does not struggle whereas the IPhone 4 does. The files it really struggles with are the Phones Show chat and Video.

Recently I have stopped with a friend for a short break who gave me access to the Internet via his netgear router. I wasn't really expecting anything better than I currently had at home in terms of performance of the IPhone over WIFI but I was surprised - the phone just worked as it should do. I did some testing of the podcasts that has previously caused issues and it just worked.

I subsequently checked my friends settings and found they were all similar to mine and started to look around on the Internet for answers. From reading it began referring to threshold settings for the wifi and retransmit values to try but I found my router did not have this level of configuration.

I already have 2 wireless routers on my network set up as access points to ensure I am connected as I move throughout the house. These are not using the WDS (wireless distribution system) as they are not compatible. However I have found using both my netgear DG834PN and the supplied O2 wireless box III neither work well with the IPhone 4.

I decided to test a third router I had lying about - a Huawei DMR100 which us a 3g router. I configured this as an access point and to only use the DHCP server on my main router. This was then connected to my LAN using homeplug over a 11mb connection. To my surprise it is performing just as it did at my friends house and is downloading the podcasts with no issues at an acceptable speed. Whereas connecting direct to my main router or the wireless box when I used this both was very slow to the point of not usable.

So whilst I am lot happier to have found the issue and been able to get a workaround it does prove one thing - the IPhone 4 is certainly picky on what router it wants to connect to and after trying 5 I am glad to put this problem to bed. It also has the plus that I will now keep the phone for a little while longer.

The shackles have gone

Last night I went to the site http://www.jailbreakme.com on my iPhone 4. After a few minutes I had successfully jail broken my iPhone and now have the cydia store installed.

Apparently this is possible due to a bug in safari when downloading PDFs, but I have no further information on this.

The first app I loaded was mywi which has allowed me to use my iPhone 4 as an access point. This will allow me to use the extra data I pay for for tethering. I have also installed backgrounder which allows apps that cannot multitask to be sent to te background. These two apps out of the hundreds available are a reason enough to jailbreak.

It's early days, the jailbreak didn't work on my iPad and there's a rumour that mms will no longer work on my iPhone 4. I don't care about the latter but really want to jailbreak my iPad.

So let the games begin.

Iphone 4 wifi issues

I have had the iphone 4 since the launch on June 25 and have been happy with its performance overall. The only niggling thing that has been annoying me has been the poor performance over wifi.

As I download a lot of podcasts over a month as I follow 16 separate shows this can usually mean over 2gb in downloads. Originally I used to do this over 3G but since getting broadband at home and wifi I have been attempting to use this instead and preserve my 3G data usage.

Originally I was using podcaster and then drivecast to download the podcasts but was swapping forwards and backwards between the applications due to the poor performance of each application crashing or slowly downloading over wifi. It even got bad with some podcasts in that I elected to switch back to 3G which was totally defeating the object.

Recently I have purchased an iPad. Again using the same drivecast application via the same access point I am getting expected download speeds over wifi. This in my eyes proves the issue is with the iphone 4. I have also observed using the good reader application to access my google documents accounts that the ipad is quicker than the iphone 4.

Although I am aware of the death grip issues and am happy to receive a free case I haven't really experienced any issues of this nature. However the wifi on the iphone especially since the 4.01 upgrade has seriously degraded the phone. There was mention that the wifi on the ipad used to be terrible but I never saw this first hand as I upgraded to the new ios on the same day I got my iPad.

I do hope Apple like the issues with the death grip also get the wifi issues sorted soon as it's just plane useless for downloading my media direct to the device. Further I believe it tarnishes my usage because with this phone at the moment I have no other major complaints.

Follow the ISheep

I have decided to put my nexus, n900 and android tablet on EBay to buy some new kit but to also remove the pain these devices are giving me at the moment.

The Nexus with Froyo doesn't work for me because all of my apps aren't available in the App Store or just don't work.

The N900 is still too rough around the edges 6 months on and I believe Nokia alately seem to be distancing themselves from it thus making it a niche product.

The android table whilst cheap needs a higher specification to be of any use.

@gerrymoth on twitter asked well what phone next?

To be honest the HTC Desire looks interesting but I am waiting to see what Apple delivers in the Iphone 4G. I am expecting my gadget sale to be able to fund an Ipad but I am still wary of Iphone OS. Maemo, Symbian and Android have meant I have been PC free for 2 years but the Iphone since the 2G doesn't seem to have moved on because it requires Itunes.

So I am challenging anyone reading this to convert me to Iphone OS and find me applications that allow me to still be independent:

Podcatcher - an application to download podcasts over 3G and be able to play them locally without ever seeing an itunes installation

SMB/WIFI network browser - To allow me to side load files through SMB network browsing that I can use locally on the phone in applications again without the need of a PC and off device conversion

USB Disk Mounting - the ability to mount the local phone storage as a USB disk on a PC without the need for Itunes

I know a simple form of multitasking is coming and I know that Cydia store is available if I jail broke, but out of the box using the stock rom can IPhone OS do this?

The bells and whistles of the UI are great but when you start peeling back can it work how I want rather than having to convert myself back to a PC dependent world.

My fear if I was to revisit IPhone OS again after getting a 2G phone several years ago is whilst it has lots of applications and great hardware I will be expected to conform again rather than the device confirming to what I want.

Knowing that I have expectations of which I don't think are our too extravagant can the IPhone OS do what I want or do I have to become another clone?

Froywoes

I was very pleased to see that google released froyo quickly as it reaffirmed my commitment to having a google experience phone. If I had a HTC phone I would still be waiting for them to update their senseui to run on froyo before it was released.

I have being using a cynanogen 5.06 rom on my nexus because of 3g issues. Recently the nexus has been hanging especially when the battery was low so I decided to try froyo. I completed a nandroid backup so I could restore everything back quickly.

Well what a bad decision this was....?

Because froyo is new half of my paid applications don't appear in the marketplace. Then any applications I have installed must be unstable because the nexus is just hanging on the launcher force closing all of the time. It was nice to see the ram boost given by froyo by enabling the second bank of ram as does the cynanogen rom.

But Google should have warned both people and developers that applications would either need updating to run on the new os even if you don't use the new features. They should have also given more time to ensure this happened before the release of froyo to allow time for the changes just like Apple is doing with v4 iphone os.

Then my nandroid backup of the cynanogen rom must be corrupted as any video playback doesn't work now.

What this means for me is now a unusable phone as I have to invest time to rebuild my nexus with a cynanogen rom again or wait until my applications are supported in froyo.

Either way I am not happy about this and am now back on my n900 contemplating either an iphone 4g or desire....?

When a sat nav is useless like CoPilot

I have been the proud user of CoPilot for android since my HTC magic. Recently I am using it on my nexus one and have to admit I want something else.

Take a trip recently to Reading it frequently lost its signal. The live traffic was only reporting narrow lanes even though the I had been in my current jam for over one hour and when/if it detects a traffic issue it expects you to manually route around it rather than just get on and reroute like other sat nav solutions I have used.

Again relying on CoPilot to get me to Chester tonight meant losing its GPS even though when selecting the dialog message it can see 8 satellites and is communicating with them. Plus opening Google maps at the same time CoPilot still cannot find the GPS signal  yet Google maps does.

I have put these questions to CoPilot support and have yet to hear why their product just fails. Thankfully I have my n900 with Sygic maps with me for the return home.

Satellite navigation is something I expect to work especially considering I have paid for it. Even back in the days when I ran tomtom on Windows Mobile 3 with an externally connected Garmin GPS it worked, so why not today on better hardware.

Personally I cannot wait for Google navigation to come to the uk. For the interim if CoPilot cannot fix their bugs and sort out the automatic routing the last journey it will be planning will be to the garbage can.