CommsBlog

Hi All,

I’ve just upgraded my iPhone to 3.0 and was alarmed to see that to utilise Internet Tethering (which frankly, would be a ‘last resort’), I would need to pay O2 an additioanl £14.68 a month on top of my existing data connection!

Fear not humble iPhone users, there is a solution out there. Browse to this URL from Safari on the iPhone:-

http://www.iphone-notes.de/mobileconfig/

Select your country and carrier,  and download the Tethering profile (ignore the warning message)

Note: This doesn’t mean you get data for ‘free’, but if you already have a ‘data package’ it should be included within that, rather than paying a separate ‘Tethering’ charge (like O2 are trying to get you to do!)

When you go back into Settings, General, Network you will now see that the Internet Tethering is ‘Off‘ (as opposed to ’set up’)

If you now tap on the “Internet Tethering“, you get a new screen that allows you to enable it

Just as a footnote – if you are wondering how I captured the screens on an iPhone, simply press the top power button and the home button at the same time, and the current screen is saved to the camera roll.

Hello Avid Reader,

Yes… It’s true… I have succumbed to the coolest gadget of them all; The Apple iPhone.

I resisted for a while (mainly due to it only being available on O2 in the UK), but in the end managed to get O2 to take over our 12 phone contract from Orange, give us 3 iPhone’s and 5 Nokia E71’s (plus a couple of spare phones), and even pay our termination clause on the Orange contract. It just shows how desperate the carriers are to get you tied into a 2 year contract nowadays!

Anyway….

First impressions; As with all Apple packaging, you feel a little disappointed as it is always very minimalist, but once you start playing with the iPhone, you realise why it is so much better than the other touch enabled devices out there. I’ve had the LG Prada, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro, and even the Samsungs with touch sensative buttons. I can honestly say that they are not even in the same ball-park as the iPhone.

Ok, onto the top free Apps (and as always, please feel free to comment with your fav’s as well!)

1. Free RSS Reader – forget the others, this does exactly what it say’s on the tin. Add all your favourite feeds, or browse to a site and it automatically detects any feeds that are available.  Supports Landscape
2. Google Earth – Just because it is sooooo cool to zoom in on your own house. Supports ’tilt’ view.
3. eBay – Yes… I do need to know what I am bidding on or selling 24/7 !!!!
4. iTranslate – this does need a data connection, but allows you to save phrases so that you can prepare for your encounter at the patisserie in advance! – Also has the ability to play the phrase (a little scratchy,  but still useful!) out of the speaker/headphones.
5. last.fm – Ideal for all those Audioscrobblers out there… plays your fave’s and lets you listen to the usual last.fm radio selections.
6. MMS – because the iPhone can’t do this yet!
7. VNC Lite – Allows me to manage a server remotely. It’s a bit fiddly, but it does let you do everything you need to in an emergency (e.g. Reboot the server or reload your software)
8. midomi – Remember “Shazam!”… well that cost’s £1.00 per go!… Midomi is *free* (and surprisingly recognised me humming the Godfather theme!)
9. Stanza – good intuitive eBook reader
10. GuitarChords – handy pocket aide-memoir for all your Guitar Chord needs
11. Ok, this one is a ‘Paid for’ (£2.99) application called TV Plus, but what a fantastic applet… this program allows you to view the TV listings for your region, and then instruct your Sky+ or SkyHD box to record it no matter where you are! It uses a pre-registered “My Sky” account name / password to log into Sky and then remotely instruct your Sky box to record!

Silly Stuff!

1. Pac Man Lite – Namco’s original, now ported to the iPhone
2. Jellycar – I can’t even begin to explain this… just download it and laugh!
3. Labyrinth LE – great use of the inertia sensors for marble madness fun.
4. Darts -yep… it’s Darts!
5. FS5 Hockey – Remember those happy days at the seaside playing Air Hockey with your sister!

Tips;

1. Removing an App or rearranging the ‘Desktops’

If you hold down your finger on any icon for more than a few seconds and all the icons wobble. Once they are wobbling, you can drag them from one ‘desktop’ screen to another. You can also delete them by clicking on the (X) icon in the top-left of the icon.

2. Drag an App to the far right-screen to create a new ‘desktop’ area.

Thunderbird Syncing

Ok, this is a problem at the moment, only solved by using 3rd party app’s.

Here is a solution for contacts only (calendar to follow shortly apparantly)

1. Install Funambol Mozilla Plugin into your copy of Thunderbird [link]

2. Install the Funambol iPhone app (just search for it in the Apple App store)

3. Create a free account at Funambol [link]

4. Enter the account details into the options page of Funambol on both the iPhone and Thunderbird

5. Click on Tools, Funambol Plugin on Thunderbird and click on ‘Click to Syncronize’ and wait to finish

6. Click on the Funambol icon on your iPhone and do the same

You can set Thunderbird to sync both the contacts and calendar, but only the contacts arrive on the iPhone at present. The Thunderbird client can also be set to sync automatically (but not the iPhone end)

Can’t make it to the casino because your TomTom’s broken? Don’t worry, you can still rock any blackjack game online with your knowledge of black jack rules and black jack strategies from GamblingCity.net!

Hi All,

Well once again I have a new phone!

It seems that Orange UK wanted to upgrade my business account (saving me £2000+ per year) and give me 6 new phones in the process!

The one I decided to play with is the HTC Touch, and obviously I had to get under the bonnet and have a little ‘tweak’ )

Unlocking

Ok, this is pretty straighforward. All you need to do is run two apps on the HTC, and one on your PC to recover the 8-digit lock code.

Here are the exact steps:-

• Download HTC Unlocker (Google to find it!)
• Connect your Phone and establish the usual Activesync Connection.
• Browse the the ‘My Documents’ folder on the phone and place the Cert_SPCS.cab and the EnableRapi.cab in there
• Run Cert_SPCS.cab and EnableRapi.cab by using “File Explorer” -Click through any warnings
• ON YOUR PC: Run Touch_Unlock.exe
• A few moments later you will seea file appear in the folder called Unlock_Result.exe
• Open HxD.exe and drag Unlock_Result.exe onto it.
• Look for your IMEI Number (its under your battery) and find it in the Hex File. The 8 Digits that appear after it are the unlock code.
• Place a Sim card from a different provider in your phone, and enter the 8 digit number when prompted (I had to do this twice on my phone)

As you can see, my unlock code was 55644428, but obviously that is tied to my IMEI number (before you try it!) – you will also note that I wiped out the last 4 digits of my IMEI (didn’t want the world to know that info!)

Bluetooth DUN (Dial Up Networking)

As you will know from my previous experiences with trying to get my TomTom working on the Samsung i600, it is almost impossible due to the BT DUN being removed from WM6. Well all is not lost my friends – it seems that on the HTC Touch (and maybe other HTC phones as well), you can install a .cab file that restores this functionality.

Instructions again:-

• Download the WM6 BT DUN Cabinet File [WM6 BT DUN]
• Unzip to Desktop on your PC
• Browse your HTC through ActiveSync and place in “My Documents” on the phone
• ON THE PHONE:Using File Explorer, run the WM6_BT_DUN.cab file and click through any warnings
• Reset your phone
• Run TomTom’s “New Phone” process.

I would recommend updating your TomTom using the TomTom Home application first. These updates seem to really help when it comes to setting up phones, and mine even downloaded the (600 contact!) telephone directory off my HTC without a hitch.

Dear Avid Reader,

Since getting my Eee PC, I’ve been reading about the ability to overclock the FSB (Front Side Bus). This bus has the capability of running at 100mhz (as opposed to the default 70mhz). The net effect of this is that the CPU speed increases to 900 Mhz from the normal 630 Mhz (which is 70% of 900 Mhz of course!). You must if course be running Ubuntu to do this!

Once you have downloaded the scripts from [here], run the following commands from within the unpacked archive:

sudo ./tweak-gnome.sh
sudo ./install.sh all

Then reboot your EeePC

After doing this, Pressing Fn-F6 will automatically enable the FSB increase, and various other fixes for the EeePC will start working, namely;

• Asus Eee kernel modules
• ACPI support (suspend, hotkeys)
• overclocking code
• Wifi support
• Sound
• Boot speed
• Additional software sources
• Skype two way video

All this can be found on the Ubuntu Eee Wiki located here: http://ubuntu-eee.tuxfamily.org/

Now I know that I have already told you how to do a lot of this in my article about installing Ubuntu on an EeePC, but this does take a lot of the hassle out of it, and it definately gets the overclocking working!

Bluetooth [photopress:trust_usb_bt.jpg,full,alignright]

There has been lots of mods popping up lately that allows you to install a Bluetooth dongle inside your EeePC utilising the additional USB connections that are hidden on the motherboard… well you could of course use a tiny USB dongle like this. You can pick these up for £10, and its a lot less hassle than getting the soldering iron out! One supplier is Novatech [link]

Now as you all know, I *love* my Eee PC, and have spent some time making sure I could get Ubuntu working on it

But I have been totally blow away by the hacks that someone else has made to this diminutive laptop.

How about adding; GPS, Bluetooth, Modem, Flash Card Reader, FM Transmitter, 802.11N Wifi and more!

Well someone has done this, and documented it well. You can find all the internal upgrade details here [Link]

I may well be trying some of this myself, and will post an article with step-by-steps if I do.