Todd Lambert - Web Designer and Web Development » edition 12

Chinese iPhone knockoffs

Todd Lambert — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:38:53 +0000

Those industrial chinese have once again beaten the rest of the world to making cheap product look-a-likes that will soon flood the global market. I must say though, that is appears that they have done a really nice job of replicating the iPhone as you can see here:

Source: Popular Science

I phone, you phone, we all phone for iPhone

Todd Lambert — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:14:01 +0000

Hopefully within a day or two, I will be the proud new owner of an iPhone! Tonight, my wife surprised me by telling me that she got me an iPhone and it is currently in route. I checked the Fed-Ex tracking number and sure enough, it is in Anchorage Alaska and on its way to me as I write this. I cannot wait, I am giddy inside like a schoolgirl. I have been wanting one since January but I’ve had to resign myself to waiting as I am still under contract with Verizon and we just did not have plans to make a purchase such as this at this time.

However, our Apple contact called and said that she was now able to buy iPhones with her employee discount and with the price for the 8GB model being only $449, my wife jumped at the prospect. Needless to say, I highly recommend making friends with an Apple employee! I will only say “Thank You” to her in person, as I do not want to reveal anything that might get her into trouble, but Thank You Thank You Thank You anyways!

With all that said, expect more iPhone news posted here soon. I may even need to set up my domain name: iphonetrends.com as I had purchased back in January with plans to build for following the iPhone madness, but we’ll see.

Customer service catastrophe

Todd Lambert — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 05:10:57 +0000

I have been a faithful customer of 1and1.com now for several years (actually since the very beginning when they offered free hosting to kick off their business launch in the U.S.) and I have had my share of lapses in support here and there with 1and1 but nothing like recently. A week ago, my website went offline and after numerous phone calls, emails, and support tickets opened, I was livid that a supposed “hardware failure” had taken my sites down and all that the customer service reps could tell was that “someone was working on it” and it would be fixed “real soon now™”.

I finally became so enraged by the complete and utter disdain for my business shown by 1and1 that I made the decision to start the very lengthy process of transferring all of my domain names away from them, moving all of my websites and databases somewhere else. I have had hosting nightmares in the past with several companies and I know what a pain it is to move things. They also know this, so it is my belief that they really don’t care about you once they have you signed up.

After much research and from some of my previous experiences I decided to purchase a dedicated server with a company called Liquid Web. I have done business with them through my previous employer and although that experience ended up being a bitter one, it was not really because of Liquid Web but more because of the types of things we were trying to do that caused the problems. I had fantastic experiences with the tech support and since I’ve been setting up the new server on my account this time, I can only say that those experiences continue. Liquid Web has been a complete joy to deal with when compared to most other hosting providers that I have dealt with over the years. I can call and get someone on the phone in usually less than 5 minutes. My emails are responded to promptly and everyone I have come in contact with has been knowledgeable and quick to act.

I now have complete control over every aspect of my online businesses and coupled with the support I receive from Liquid Web, I am well on my way to web hosting bliss.

Congress is our last hope

Todd Lambert — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:12:46 +0000

Sadly, the US Court of Appeals denied a motion to postpone the start of newly enacted royalty payment structures as I wrote about earlier. This was the last possible delay before what almost seems inevitable at this point, the destruction of the online radio scene as we currently know it. The last hope is that Congress will intervene and so that is why it is vital that you contact your congressional representative and let them know what this matter means to you.

Please help this fight, as we are about to lose something that can be considered a “last frontier” for personal expression and online freedoms.

You can learn more about this issue by visiting the http://www.savenetradio.org/.

Hacking the iPhone

Todd Lambert — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:30:16 +0000

Were you one of the 700,000 people across the continent that purchased an iPhone in the last two weeks? Have you been in utter digital bliss ever since? If not, or if you simply have a few things that you want added or fixed but don’t want to wait for Apple to do it, fret not, as the Internet once again comes to your rescue.

As you read this, there are countless individuals on University lines, Internet cafes and war-driven connections that are furiously working towards one goal. That goal is the eventual unlocking of the latest Apple product that is the iPhone or otherwise known in some circles as the Jesus Device, iPhoney, or just simply the “the next greatest thing”.

The goal of unlocking the phone is based on several shortcomings, perceived or not, that the iPhone has as it is currently shipped by Apple. There are some very unique, industrial individuals in this “crusade of openness” if you will call it that. Almost to be expected, the infamous DVD Jon (Jon Lech Johansen who has been a thorn in Apples side for quite some time now with regards to breaking the iTunes music stores encryption) has become a general in the first salvo of the offensive geared at smashing Apple’s software-based defenses and rendering the currently locked device wide-open. The goal is to eventually create digital telephony anarchy in that one can use AT&T as Apple had planned or even use T-Mobile or other carriers if someone so pleases. This fight is one that will take place in the depths of the Internet where the DMCA cannot reach or that Apple legal cannot easily follow.

As of this writing, the open iPhone advocacy as we will call them, has currently succeeded in a few small skirmishes to begin the battle. First the iPhone has been hacked using a sort of end-around that allows for the iPhone to be activated without requiring AT&T to do so. This allows for the operation of the iPhone’s attributes that are not phone-related such as Wi-Fi, Email, and of course the iPod functionality.

iHackers, have also figured out how to delve into the file hierarchy, by cracking the 82 MB restore image file. They’ve started dissecting the first firmware that Apple released just 24 hours after the phone’s launch and already we know several things about the device that were not widely known before.

Apple has included several applications that are not normally visible, namely Demo.app and FieldTest.app. The FieldTest application allows one to view the number of cell towers that the phone is currently seeing as well as the signal strength and which carriers are involved with those towers.

The iPhone’s finder application called “Springboard.app” lists some very interesting files that could possibly foretell the future of the phone’s relationships with cellular carriers. There are .png files inside the package contents that show icons for “Default_CARRIER_ATT” as well as “Default_CARRIER_TMOBILE”, and “Default_CARRIER_VODAPHONE”.

Some have found evidence of a DisplayOrder.plist file that adds a row of application icons for special purpose apps that include testing apparatus such as FieldTest, and MALogger as well as the SpringBoard applications and the DemoApp as well. These are presumably enabled through a debugging mode meant for developers. You can access the FieldTest application by dialing *3001#12345#*

There are supposedly references to Translator and Unit Converter widgets but as of yet these have not been verified and for now we must wait to see if these will surface in a future software update from Apple.

There is also a .plist file (the preference files for Mac OS X) that sets the default audio levels for the device. This could be the method of fixing some of the woes of those who complain that the volume is too low on the device especially in noisy environments.

Interestingly, the Ringtones that ship with the iPhone are in .m4a format and are identified as iTunes v6.05 as made in Quicktime 7.02. Just today, a proof-of-concept was posted that showed someone with the first documented custom ringtone on an iPhone. The ringtone was the famous sound of the intercom “bleep boop” from the Fox “24″ television show. Everyone knows that Jack Bauer would definitely be using an iPhone to deactivate a nuclear warhead!

The file system of the device has been extracted and can be found at: http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/index.php?title=SystemFileAndDirectoryList

Many will be watching the progress closely and as more things get opened up the battle will surely only intensify. Stay tuned.