James |
28-05-2009 02:54 PM |
I am taking a break from my sparring with Dave on the various religious threads presently springing up in GCC, to thank him (and also Lizzy) for their help and encouragement in jailbreaking my IPhone. What a revelation!
First of all, to anyone who hasn't tried it, it really is a piece of cake. It also seems to be relatively safe. From what I have read about it, it's easy to reinstall the official firmware if the process goes wrong for any reason (or should you just change your mind).
Now I have done it, I am realising the full potential of this amazing bit of equipment. Tethering is the first bonus. iPhoneModem from the Cydia store is brilliant and so easy to set up. I am now able to link my laptop to my 3g IPhone and use the IPhone as a modem. It works very well indeed.
Next is iBluetooth. Essentially, this lets me do all the things with Bluetooth that most people take for granted on other mobiles (such as file transfers). Why on earth Apple decided to limit the potential of the Bluetooth facility is a mystery.
Cycorder gives the IPhone the ability to record video (with sound) from the built in camera. The results are far better than I had expected.
Backgrounder allows you to keep any application running in the background, while you do other things. Without this, only the IPod part of the IPhone will continue to work, when you are using other Applications. So, if you are listening to Internet radio, you can switch to a game, and continue to listen.
TVOut will allow anything from the IPhone to be transferred to a TV or monitor, assuming you have the right connectors. This includes all applications.
A very nice surprise was finding Tricker ThreeG. Basically, this fools various iPhone Applications into believing that you are using WiFi, when in fact you are on a 3g (or Edge) Network. I went to Lords last night to watch the Middlesex v Kent Twenty20 under floodlights - and was able to watch the entire Champions' League game on my IPhone using the Slingplayer Application. Just as well, since the cricket was very dull. This will also allow you to use Skype Out on a 3g network (i.e. when there is no WiFi available).
It's not something I would do, but if you have jailbroken (is this the right verb?) your IPhone, you can then install the Appulous application, and proceed to get every Application in the ITunes library for free. However, I am sure that this would be of no interest to the morally upright, honest, folk of the BBS, so I'll just leave it there.
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