Have you ever thought to yourself - gee, how can I make my iPhone look even more nerdy? Well, you’re in luck. Griffin is killing two birds with one stone with their Clearboost iPhone case, which allegedly improves cell signal while only making you look a little lot dorky.
iLounge spent a week with the little trinket and gave it a respectible B+ rating, citing, “Over the course of five days of testing, we used a ClearBoost-covered iPhone indoors and outdoors alongside one or two iPhones without a ClearBoost case, trying various locations that were known to have great, good, or poor reception. We found that the antenna boosting performance displayed some fairly consistent characteristics: it is almost always a net positive, but it will not be a panacea for those suffering from complete service outages, and under some circumstances, it will do nothing.”
Nobody outside of Apple’s core group of bigwigs and monocle-wearing Monopoly men knows exactly when the 3G iPhone will be released, but Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey has already been 1 for 1 with his surprisingly accurate prediction that the current generation iPhone will receive a simple size bump in Feburary. The relevance here is that with a strong track record, there may be significant weight to his claim that a new iPhone in the second half of 2008 “[will] have a similar form factor as the current version although it could have a different look and will probably include 3G capability.” That sounds fairly vauge, but he was the first to accuratly predict the update and comes from a reputable ilk, so perhaps there is some basing to his statement.
The June date is simply placed due to its proximity to Apple’s WWDC convention, where they unveiled the shipping date for the original iPhone. Many other sources are claiming a June date, so it is shaping up to be both a fairly reasonable estimate and a very likely outcome.
To summarize, you have about two months to sell your old iPhone on eBay before the 3G version comes rumbling along to kill your resale value.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video has to be worth a couple grand.
This video shows off the Nav N Go iGo My Way 8 GPS, though oddly named, as the first commercial hardware GPS solution for the iPhone. Nav N Go’s site claims that the release of the product is “pending the SDK”, which, if the reports are true, is set to be unveiled sometime in the very near future.
They will use the Gomite locoGPS for the hardware end of things.
In my last post, I detailed a method that would allow you to hardware unlock a new model iPhone. Since then, things have progressed greatly on the software front and for the first time in quite a while, a software All-In-One package is released to unlock any model iPhone, including 1.1.3 OTB iPhones (8gb and 16gb).
Using a software called ZiPhone, anyone can unlock a 1.1.3 OTB iPhone. There are a few conditions to be met, and the software is a work in progress, but positive reports are across the board.
The dirty details are as follows from the bundled Readme:
Unlock and IMEI changer will work ONLY on 4.6 BL (112 and 113 ootb).
Jailbreak will work on any OS version.
Activation will work on any OS version, except for youtube on 1.0.X.
Zibri has the scoop and download links (we’re going to shy away from direct links at the moment) but this is something that is definitely worth checking out. Click the blue Zibri link there to check it out.
It seems like a lot of people are interested in how to unlock a 16gb iPhone, because that exact search phrase has sent an odd amount of traffic to some seemingly unrelated posts here. So I figure, why not just give the people what they’re looking for?
Firstly, and most importantly - there is NO software unlock for an out of the box - otb - 1.1.3 firmware. Just isn’t happening, at least until 1.1.4 is released. That means that you are going to need a hardware method.
Editors note - As of 2/8/2008, there is a software method put out by GeoHot. That will be discussed later. The easiest of such is going to be a TurboSIM, or one of its Chinese knockoff counterparts.
For around $30 (USD), you can pick up a brand-neutral “Turbosim”. What this does is “tricks” your shiny new iPhone into thinking that the SIM card that you’ve just inserted (be it T-Mobile, Orange or otherwise) is actually an up-and-up AT&T sim card. But there’s a problem! The phone must be activated first, because no matter how much the iPhone thinks your card is valid, iTunes is going to disagree.
To bypass activation and “jailbreak” a 1.1.3 iPhone is no easy process, but Sbrocket at Macrumors.com has done an excellent job of doing so. You can read a thorough and excellent guide here. You will need to downgrade your phone to version 1.1.1 and then go back up through the upgrade process while jailbreaking at each step. This is time consuming, but its your only hope to use that large capacity iPhone on an unsanctioned network.
Once your device is activated and running, things get easier. Follow the instructions included with your turbo sim and attach the sim to the card sled. Insert into the iPhone, and you should be in business.
If you remain patient and follow ALL the steps outlined, you will be fast on your way to some carrier-unrestricted iPhone loving!
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