TamsIJungle

I stumbled across UNIEA at last year’s Hannover-based CeBit fair. The manufacturer’s excellent PR team agreed to provide me with samples immediately. They are the new kid on the block - but can their stuff stack up? Our first test candidate is a “crystal case” called U-Feel…read on for the full test.

UNIEA’s products ship in small blister cases that protect the stuff well - my samples arrived unscratched:

The case ships with a belt clip that can be attached to the back. I personally dislike these due to the higher risk of theft - people who feel like taking the risk will be happy as the clip appears to be pretty sturdy:

Getting the iPod touch into the case is easy. First, the case is pulled apart. Then, the iPod is inserted into the front part. Finally, the “lid” is slid onto the case:

The iPod touch remains perfectly usable in the case. The case’s front contains a “screen protector” that covers the screen. I tortured my iPod quite a bit and found the screen to remain perfectly responsive. A small cutout allows you to access the home button:

Cutouts at the top and the bottom allow you to sync, attach headphones and use the power button:

In the end, the U-Feel is an excellent case for people owning an iPod touch - if you like crystal cases, there is nothing not to like about this one. It offers decent protection and doesn’t get in your way - the zen of cases… The only issue I see availability - as the UNIEA online store isn’t ready yet, you need to find a distributor close to you via their distributor finder…

The lack of an effective Copy&Paste facility is one of the things showing that Apple doesn’t see its devices as smartphones, but rather as funphones. Hell gee, someone at apple even called this feature a low-priority thing…I consider it funny that both Palm OS and Windows Mobile supported it right from scratch.

So far so good - a very innovative developer has cooked up his own Cut&Paste system and added it to this rich text editor which will be released soon.

Should you feel like a sneak peek - head over to MacNN at the URL below:
http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/07/29/magicpad.for.iphone/

Apple decided to drop the all-metal casing on the latest incarnation of the iPhone. Unfortunately, this hasn’t turned out too well for iPhone 3G owners: many of them report issues with cracks.

The images below come from Engadget and show the latest crack victims, user reports all over the web make this look like a somewhat widespread issue:

Currently, no statement is available from Apple as the company may try to sit the crisis out.

Cracking PVC cases are nothing new, as manufacturers like Palm have faced similar issues before. However, Apple customers traditionally demand a higher level of product quality…as mobile phones get cheaper and cheaper, a compromise will have to be reached if Aple wishes to remain competitive…

Stay tuned for further info as we get it.

The APple iTunes store managed to get loads of front line space on this very young web site: the reason is its - in some parts boneheaded - way of handling things. Journalists and Bloggers already have had their fair share of eekers with the thing: now, the can comes around to open-source developers.

Apple’s NDA contract prohibits developers from sharing their source code with third parties on the internet - which is exactly what the GPL forces you to do(more-less). This puts everyone who does GPL apps into huge troubles: should they break the GPL or break the contract with Apple?

The folks at WordPress decided to stick to the GPL and give Apple the finger. Due to their celebrity status in the online community, it’s very unlikely that the madmen at Apple’s will have the guts to go up against them. However, smaller developers may not be as lucky and may have their applications removed from the ITunes store…

As of now, no resolution is on the way - stay tuned for further info as we get it.

Something tells me that this isn’t the last time we’ll post about the iTunes app store - stay tuned for further bork-ups as we hear about them!

RemoveTheLabels.com reports that an American customer purchased an iPhone 3G and found the following three images in the memory of the device:

Do not ask me how this happened - maybe Apple has an employee test each iPhone 3G before shipping it out to avoid DOA devices. Some semiconductor manufacturers like National Semicon do so for each and every part, so why shouldn’t Apple do so too?

Third-party developers have traditionally been dependent on enthusiast web site reviews of their products and have gladly provided free evaluation licenses. In the Apple landscape, thing seem to run a bit different: journalists must PAY for their evaluation licenses!

A friend at a PR agency told us the following (and requested to remain anonymous):

(we have apps)….in the App Store, with the unique distinction …. Since we don’t control sales and distributions through the App Store, it’s tough to handle reviews, but what we can do is reimburse you through PayPal if you send us a PayPal invoice.

Hell gee? Yes, the story is correct: there is no way for a developer to hand out a free app. Analysts must buy the stuff themselves, and the developers then refund them via PayPal (and Apple gets to keep its cut).

IMHO, this is a total catastrophe for independent journalists. Traditionally, Apple has disliked people who write stuff that Apple…well…dislikes. By forcing developers and analysts to buy stuff themselves, Apple manages to control the journalists who cover the iPhone 3rd party market…

Any ideas?

With the introduction of the iPhone 3G, Apple chose to replace the metal back found on regular iPhones with a plastic one. This IMHO is not only a weight-reducing measure, but could also allow for greater flexibility in terms of case styles.

MacBlogz claims that it’s possible that we will see a red iPhone sooner or later. The reason for this is Apple’s membership in the Product (RED) campaign.

Product (RED) is a scheme which involves manufacturers creating special red versions of their hardware and then donating x% of the proceeds to anti-AIDS research in Africa.

Further information and a mock-up can be found at MacBlogz via the URL above…

TamsIJungle covered an annoying WinPwn bug yesterday - I was very happy to see that the program has been updated to version 2.0.0.3. Unfortunately, this version doesn’t fix the bug mentioned - you still cannot generate iPod touch firmware with Cydia “slipstreamed” inside.

Without Cydia, the entire point of jailbreaking is moot, as you cannot install homebrew applications and remain limited to the offerings in the iTunes app store.

As of now, the only workable way to achieve a jailbreak invovles the use of a Mac: people on Windows boxen are left in the rain as of now…

A big thank-you goes out to user zub for letting us know

Just in case anyone of you feels like jailbreaking his Apple device and already has firmware 2.0 on: don’t bother trying to do this with WinPwn 2.0.0.2 RC1.

I have just tried to create a custom firmware file on my Windows XP box. The process runs halfway though, but then suddenly dies. A small (approx 24MB) ipsw file is created in the process; however, it cannot be flashed onto the device via iTunes.

The bug seems to be known to the WinPwn team to some extent - a few posts in their forum confirm it and offer readily-made firmware files as a remedy.

People who don’t feel like installing files found on the web currently can’t do anything if they don’t have access to a Mac. Stay tuned for further updates as we get them though!

Get the full scoop here:
http://iphonelinux.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=301

P.S. Looking for instructions on installing ipsw files onto your iPod touch/iPhone?

This one could be interested to all folks who are into jailbreaking. An iPod touch can be “restored” to any firmware version by following these steps:

Make the iPod touch enter recovery mode
Prepare a PC connection cable. Then, power off the iPod touch (long press on power button). Hold the home button while connecting the USB cable, keep holding the home button until the following screen appears:

Open iTunes
Now, open iTunes. The program will bicker about having found an iPod in recovery mode:

Install a firmware of choice
Click recovery while holding the Shift button. A file selection dialog will pop up. Choose your firmware of choice:

The flashing process will then begin. it can take up to 30 minutes - so better be patient:

“Apple-ize” the firmware
People who feel paranoid can now “appleize” their firmware image afterwards. Just go into debug mode once again and click restore, but this time without holding the shift key. iTunes will download the official, current version from the Apple server and install it…

Fir example, here is an iPod touch that was “updated” to firmware version 2.0 via a file from apple’s FTP server. As the firmware has been “Appleized”, the App Store can be accessed:

In the end, it all comes down to finding the correct firmware images. Firmware versions ranging from 1.1.1 to 2.0 are available from Apple and from various third parties - a bit of Googling usually helps out here. However, please be careful about software licensing - the use of some images may not be legal in some jurisdictions. Tamoggemon Publishing can not be held liable for any issues you may encounter…

Note to any Apple guy reading: this blog is hosted in Austria, a country with intact press freedom for technology journalists. Tamoggemon does NOT condone or recommend the usage of pirated firmware! So: please leave us alone.