O2 put to shame by US carrier's extension of 3G S upgrade eligibility to more customers

AT&T is bringing forward update dates for its customers. Any chance O2 might do the same thing? I guess we better not hold our breath...
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/06/17/atandt-extends-iphone-3g-s-upgrade-pricing-to-many-customers/

AT&T's new policy:

"All of that said, we've been listening to our customers. And since many of our iPhone 3G customers are early adopters and literally weeks shy of being upgrade eligible due to iPhone 3G S launching 11 months after iPhone 3G, we're extending the window of upgrade eligibility for a limited time.

We're now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18."

Easy solution enables free tethering for iPhone O2 iPhone

From Richard Lai's blog

This is a walkthrough of how I enabled tethering on my iPhone 3G on O2 UK. It was a lot easier than I thought - no jailbreaking needed, and all you need really is a MobileConfig file, which is essentially what O2 wants to charge you for £15 min per month!

Of course, even though the O2 iPhone contract claims to offer unlimited data download, there is still the fair use policy, so just be careful with how you use your tethering i.e. don't go watching YouTube or BBC iPlayer!

Also, note that the tethering option on the iPhone is only available if you're using it with an official iPhone carrier.


Quick and easy way: use your iPhone to visit http://help.benm.at , choose your carrier, install the profile and go to Step 3 more

Screenshot of my iPhone 3G:

iPhone Dev Team releasing 3G/3.0 unlock Friday

The iPhone-Dev Team - developers of successive successful iPhone software-based unlocks that free up the iPhone for any carrier, is releasing the new version of its yellowsnow software, now called ultrasnow. Ultrasnow will unlock all 3G iPhones running 3.0 software - but of course not the iPhone 3G-S.

And on that note, if you are planning to buy-out your O2 contract you have until 18 June to let them know - or you will not get your new phone on launch day.

The Dev team say the 'jailbreak' - that lets you install 'unsigned' apps not available in Apple's app store - for the new 3.0 iPhone operating system update will be released today. Among other things jailbreaking your phone means you can download an application that will enable you to use tethering (iPhone as a modem for your laptop) without paying O2 £15 for the privilege. If you Jailbreak or Unlock your 3G iPhone you will not be able to update to the next software release until an unlock has again been developed.

iPhone 3Gs graphics power outperforms PSP

Michael Schade, CEO of Fishlabs, an iPhone and mobile games developer, said the iPhone 3G S's processor, and support for the more powerful programming features of OpenGL ES 2.0 API, pushes the machine's 3D graphics capabilities beyond that of the PSP. But it will take a little while before we see the improved graphics:

Simply put, making games look outstanding takes time and money and new PSP games cost £25 and each game sold goes a long way toward recouping development costs. Longer, at least, than a £3 game on the App Store would.

Some AT&T iPhone 3Gs's have working MMS and tethering

AT&T in the US were not meant to be offering tethering and MMS at launch for 'system upgrade' reasons.

From Engadget

Update: Turns out the secret to enabling MMS and tethering lies buried in the carrier settings file, which happens to be the same black magic employed to roll out 3G MicroCell support a while back. Customer devices are at AT&T 4.0, but there's an AT&T 5.0 profile floating around the interwebs that turns the features on -- it's just a matter of finding it, installing it, and making sure that your account is provisioned for multimedia messaging. Thanks, everyone!

Video: 3Gspeed launch TV commercial

Commercial for the new iPhone 3Gspeed launch.

Rubbing salt into my O2 inflicted iPhone 3GS wounds

I received this email from Apple this morning inviting me to purchase the iPhone 3GS from my nearest Apple Store next week, which was a bit like rubbing salt into the wounds.

iPhone 3GS first unboxing pics - from China of course

[Update 12:13 BST 13 June] MacRumors has updated its post on what were thought to be the first unboxing pics. The site's been asked to pull the pics.

Update: The original images have been pulled and we've been nicely asked to remove them for now.

The chinese version of Engadget has posted the first iPhone 3G S unboxing pictures, and naturally the originate from the workshop of the world - China. I want at 3GS now but O2 won't let me upgrade without having to shell out a small fortune - arghhhhhhh

O2 MMS service for iPhone turned on then turned off

Not sure what's going on with O2's MMS for iPhone. A friend of mine who updated to 3.0 today tried activating by sending a text to 1010 and got the reply that it wasn't up and running yet, although I am still able to use the service, which I set up yesterday - see screenshot. The weird and wonderful world of O2

Free texts feature built into AIM beta instant messenger - will O2 let it onto UK iPhones?

I received an email from Apple last night inviting me to take part in their push notification testing. I installed the AIM beta application.

As it happens I don't do much Instant Messaging so probably not the best beta tester Apple could have picked, but the most exciting thing I've noticed in a cursory look around is the fact that you can send an IM to anyone in your contacts list and it will convert it into a SMS text - and the reply from the recipient is sent as an SMS text that is converted back into an IM.

This means that you get free texts (not that I do that much texting either). However, this feature of the app may only work in North America at the moment.

If there is anyone out there that wants to test whether this feature works in the UK leave me a comment with your AIM name and I'll add you to my budddy list and send you an IM.

Unfortunately I can't see the jerks at O2 letting this feature onto the iPhone in the UK... but who knows?

Find My iPhone up and running... cool

If only I could find another network carrier...

Up and running on iPhone 3.0

I don't think I'm going to be upgrading to iPhone3GS but I am now running the 3.0 software as Apple released the pre-release to developers (GM - Gold Master) last night, so that's cheered me up a bit. A great trouble-free install it was too. Thanks Apple, f**k you O2.