Apple iPhone in and out

Apple iPhone isn't exactly the best kept secret in the world. The odds are it's either on your Christmas wish list or you may as well already have it. Love it or hate it, the iPhone has set the bar pretty high in terms of interface and user-friendliness and, almost six months after its launch now, the competition has not yet managed to fight back with a product likely to generate the same buzz.

Apple iPhone official pictures

Now, don't get us wrong, the iPhone is not the perfect gadget. It has its flaws and most of them stem from the tendency of the people at Apple to oversimplify things. Plus, they have taken good care that the only way to upload or download content to and from your iPhone is via iTunes. It's an expression of their closed-ecosystem product portfolio - if you want their hardware, you must use their software. Our hopes for a 3G-enabled Euro-iPhone went down the drain; the 2-megapixel camera has not changed either; official third-party application support will not be available before February 2008 and, finally, on the Old Continent the device will cost 1.4 times more (with the current exchange rate) than back in US. Why all the fuss then, you might ask. Actually, to get a feel of that, you must have held the handset in your hand and tried it for real. It's nothing like anything you've seen. Touch sensitive screens are nothing new, but Apple have created a unique user interface that reacts to your touch in an almost physical way.

Now that the air is thick with jailbreaking and unlocking, seems like the right time to step back from what iPhone is and look at what it could be. We know there's enough of you who don't like spending hours reading stuff on the Internet just to enhance their phones. So we are looking at some applications that take the capabilities of the device to another level. And just as a refresher in case you were not caught in the "Jesus phone" stir, you are welcome to read our Apple iPhone overview.

We do not endorse jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone and we are certainly not encouraging you to take any of these actions. But if you're interested in what your gadget is capable of, we take a look at the fun world of modding the iPhone. So it's up to you whether you take the blue pill or the red pill. Stay tuned, we're back after the jump.

Getting in

Looks like the red pill went down well, now back to our game. It seems jailbreaking the original firmware version of the iPhone (1.0.0, later updated to 1.0.2) was not that much of a problem. Jailbreaking is the action that gives you access to the iPhone file system. As you will see, having your iPhone jailbroken swings the door wide open to a world of options, even if you don't intend to unlock and prefer to stick with what AT&T has to offer (O2 and T-Mobile too, starting today). Getting in or jailbreaking serves the double purpose of allowing you to install third-party applications and getting your iPhone unlocked should you choose to do so. Once the original firmware was jailbroken native third-party applications started sprouting like mushrooms in rain.

However, with the major 1.1.1 firmware update all that went to the dogs. And, like in a game of cat and mouse, crackers and coders started searching again for the Holy Grail of Jailbreaking the "Jesus phone" (sorry for the Biblical approach). Apple added fuel to the fire by announcing that jailbroken iPhones are no longer subject to their limited warranty service.

However, it was only a matter of time for a new jailbreak to surface and allow firmware 1.1.1 iPhone owners to take a bite at the third-party application scene. Virginizing software was also made available, so firmware 1.0.2 users who have been tinkering with their iPhones could restore them to their original state and get the 1.1.1 update or keep their warranty if they please.

Things are now pretty much back to normal and the third-party application scene is again bristling with new ideas and solutions for making your iPhone a happier puppy. Today, November 9, the Euro iPhone will start selling and word is out that it would flaunt the spanking new 1.1.2 firmware version. It will supposedly be jailbreak resistant, so early buyers of the EuroPhone will probably have to wait a little before they unleash the true powers of their new mobiles. However word is out that some developers out there have already hacked the 1.1.2 firmware of the iPod Touch, so a jailbreaking solution for the EuroiPhones is probbaly just around the corner.

Getting back to the basics, three things need to be done before new software can be installed on the iPhone. First is the jailbreak (that's not unlocking) and installation of the AppTapp (Installer) software. It's a software manager that allows users to install or uninstall software. It contains a catalog of applications from a default source (website) and supports adding additional sources (websites) of even more available programs. So that's about it and it's really that simple. The last thing to do is install an application that patches the Home screen (better known as Springboard) of the iPhone, so it can accommodate more slots for icons - those are needed for the new applications.

A crew of developers has created the AppSnapp application (not to be confused with AppTapp Installer) that does all those three things en bloc. And right before you ask, no, it doesn't unlock your iPhone. For that purpose the AnySIM 1.1 software is used right afterwards, but that's out of the scope of this article.

You can read more information on the actual process of applying the AppSnapp magic with simple instructions over here. The process is more than simplified and it takes no more than 10 minutes before you are up and running. At the time of writing this article, news broke that more than 100 000 iPhones have been jailbroken using this routine. And it was made available only a couple of weeks ago. Bear in mind that all that applies to the 1.1.1 firmware.

Where to, now?

Probably the best place to start exploring a free iPhone is the AppTapp application with the available programs. It appears as a blue icon dubbed Installer on the Springboard. The default source of applications is limited however, so installing the Community sources available in the Installer is another option. There are several other sources available that can be added manually - just google around for ones that other people trust.

If you do have an unlimited data plan with your carrier, please skip the following paragraph. For the less lucky, probably the first application worth adding is Services. It allows you to switch off the EDGE functionality so you don't accidentally pay for some pricey megabytes - the iPhone has no habit of asking before downloading something.

Now, one thing the original iPhone won't do for you is change wallpapers under the springboard icons. Their background is always black. The Summerboard application sorts that out. Themes can even be applied to the springboard icons. How cool is that?

We should probably conclude this chapter with an enhancement relating to iTunes synchronization. You already know that you can hardly upload any usable content to the iPhone without the iTunes software. Well, for most people out there that seems ok, as almost every mobile manufacturer uses their own proprietary synchronizing software for their handsets. But the nasty part about syncing with iTunes turns out when you try syncing the iPhone with two different computers - obviously Apple never thought of the idea that you just might happen to have two PCs - not even counting the office computer. So, what happens when you sync the iPhone with a second PC is that the new iTunes overwrites all the content uploaded beforehand. The SwapTunes software is meant for those tricky situations. With it two iTunes Music and Video repositories can be set up on the handset and switched between for syncing with different computers.

We are not providing any direct links to the applications, as they can be found in the Installer app. For those that haven't been tinkering under the hood of their iPhone, we hope that this article is quite revealing. The application development scene is on the rise and new applications emerge every day. A perfect example of that is the iApp-a-Day project, also available through the Installer. The project developer has committed to developing a new application for every day in November. And while those applications are not as elaborate as others, they seem to make a point about expanding the boundaries of iPhone. That's our way of bidding the iPhone a warm welcome on the Old Continent. Cheers.