In preparation for both eComm and the launch of the iPhone SDK on March 6th I spent some time on Sunday hacking my iPhone. I’d had it just one week. I’d killed my T-Mobile account to move to AT&T, so my initial activation was all official. Then I kept reading about more.. all the neat things it could do.
Actually “hacking” is hardly a term. I downloaded the latest Zibri ZiPhone after tracking blog posts for a few weeks. I’d recommend following the “Iclarified” site. It’s now available for iPhone with 1.4 installed. I used the one click Mac Gui approach and just prayed. (I did back up and restore it first). It was jailbroken first time. No problems. I didn’t “unlock” the SIM at this time although I could have and certainly will before I next travel.
It’s no wonder so many are “hacked” according to data I’ve seen. I added lots of games quickly. My favorite Labyrinth… which is a play on the classic tilt game. There’s also a program that leaves Ant’s running around your screen. I laughed my head off when sharing it. I also found an RSS reader… didn’t work, LastFM does, System Info, Voice Dialer, and added the ability to customize themes which maybe the best thing I added. I also added a flickr uploader – that works with the camera – integrated. You can upload a hotted up camera too; although i deleted it as still seemed a little buggy. Today I added a Video Camera. On initial view it works fine however, no sound and I don’t yet know how I might get the videos uploaded or sent by email etc. Still as a demo, it works. Although I’d expect Apple to build this in.
I concluded that any game or program you have ever seen on a Symbian phone will be available for the iPhone within six months or less. Key programs are already close to launch. Most are really easy to do. Obviously, it would make more sense that these programs are available via the iTunes store than more illicitly like I have them now. That would also provide an earnings opportunity for Apple and their developers. I hope there are already enough in circulation that Apple doesn’t feel like charging a fortune for these things. Some of them like the “fake shaver” app I saw today are just gags. They have to free. Podcasting provides a useful model!
I’m left with the feeling that this is “bigger than ever”. The tradeoffs on the iPhone were slick and smart. I’ve been watching others even more intently with them. Surfing the web is now easy and plausible on a small device. It’s going to be a neat gaming platform. More Wii that PSP like I’d guess.
One Week Observations:
- The hacked iPhone is more satisfying than the original. I have more games on it that I ever had with any Symbian smart phone and with the large screen they are better to play. I’m not sorry I’m playing and using one. It’s revolutionary.
- The speakerphone sucks and I’m more pissed off than ever about the lousy bluetooth and the lockdown on it. There are niggles.. but generally it’s easy to use. The telling thing is… I can see how my kids would both prefer this to what they have now.
- The web browsing and mail client on the iPhone beats anything I’ve used before for searching, speed real-time viewing etc. Similarly, the synchronization is just easier. I’m no longer really complaining about the texting and the typing.
- On AT&T vs TMobile. Frankly the EDGE (supposed 200kpbs) seems no faster than the GPRS connection I used on TMobile. It sucks. The account details are on a par. At least I could activate paperless billing on AT&T (it always fails on TMobile).
- I’m working around the fact that Truphone and GizmoVoip (Gizmo has a basic Jajah like solution) don’t work on the iPhone. Jajah Direct has a great iPhone Java enabled page (very cheap calls to India) and Mobivox lets me call anywhere and to Skype buddies directly. I’ve also tried S4iPhone with limited login success.
Back to eComm. I’m sure the iPhone is going to get talked about even if it doesn’t do VoIP. Its reframing mobile telephony and breaking some of the carrier rules along the way. The developer community for it is emerging almost from nowhere and when it is reported today that you can get bittorrent running on it…… Let’s conclude the future will not be as we expected.
