so i went to an apple iPhone tech talk this past friday. the talk was mostly good – some good talks about design principles and UI considerations. i had been wanting to get an iPhone like most other ppl – but figured that i shouldn’t break my credo of NEVER buying the first release.
well i caved.
i had been looking on craigslist and i found a seemingly good deal ten days ago (yes i was looking before the tech talk) and somehow i passed it up because of second thoughts. once those subsided in the tech talk – i closed the deal after the talk.
so far – i like it. it’s an intriguiging device. so far, i’ve been using it as a wi-fi ipod. i spent a few days reading up on how to break into the phone, install apps, and bypass the carrier. it seems like there are lots of ppl claiming they can unlock the iPhone – but i found three apps that worked on my G4 powerbook/iPhone combination.
first i tried iFuntastic, but that is Intel Mac only. Since I was not in front of my mactel – i had to find the G4 solution. I downloaded AppTapp – though I got it from this NullRiver URL: http://iphone.nullriver.com/beta/
you could easily go here: http://www.apptapp.com/index/download
once i installed AppTapp – i was able to unlock the phone and install lots of great apps, but i could not register the phone. since the iPhone i got was two months old – i knew the phone was already activated. but after playing with it for a bit – and resetting it a few times – i lost the registration and was locked out. so i used iActivator: http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/index.php/IActivator
now my iPhone has some great apps on the phone and it is unlocked for my pre-existing sim card. I tried to use my other sim card – but no luck. so until i really unlock the iPhone – i can use my existing sim card and some great additional apps!
there are some seemingly great games too: http://www.deliciousmonster.org/
and even NES – though i have not downloaded any ROMS yet: http://iphone.natetrue.com/nesapp/
these links and apps are all experimental – their authors have loads of disclaimers. so be careful, but have fun!