Unlocking an iPhone

To understand what unlocking is all about, you need a little bit of background knowledge on cell phone technology. Here’s an article on the two different types of cell phone schemes used in the US. The basic thing you need to take away from that article is that any phone on the AT&T network can, theoretically, be used on the T-Mobile network and vice-versa (both use the GSM technology – think SIM card). This is in contrast to Sprint & Verizon where phones on one network cannot be used on the other (these are on the CDMA network – no SIM card).

So if you have a phone on Verizon, you can stop reading now – you can’t unlock your phone. It is forever bound to Verizon and if you want to switch carriers, you’ll have to get a new phone.

Now let’s say you’re on the AT&T network and you’ve got an iPhone (or a Blackberry, Samsung Galaxy, etc.). The phone’s hardware is perfectly capable of running not only on AT&T, but T-Mobile or just about any carrier in Europe (most of Europe is on the GSM standard). However, AT&T doesn’t want you to run their phone on anyone else’s network. They want all of your money for themselves. So what AT&T does, with Apple’s help, is install software on the phone that doesn’t allow the phone to run on any network except AT&T’s.

Does that make sense? Think of the iPhone as an ex-con on parole. He’d like to travel the world but he’s got this ankle bracelet on that prevents him from traveling. It’s not that he can’t travel – he’s perfectly able – it’s just that when he goes to get on an airplane, they’ll see his ankle bracelet and prevent him from boarding the plane. However, if he can get someone to come and take the bracelet off of him, well, then he’s free to travel as he’d like.

Okay, that’s not a perfect analogy, but I always like to work an ex-con into my posts if I can.

The point is, the iPhone being “locked” to AT&T’s network is a function of software, not hardware. If you can remove that software restriction – “unlock” the phone – you can then put a working SIM card from T-Mobile in the phone and it will work great. You’ll even get to keep your phone number. That’s right, if you have a phone number with T-Mobile, you unlock your iPhone, and then put your T-Mobile SIM card in the iPhone, your unlocked iPhone will ring whenever someone calls your number.

So that’s what unlocking is. Now the next questions are: Why would I want to do that? Why wouldn’t I want to do that? and How do I do that?

Why would I want to do that?

There are two main reasons to unlock an iPhone and run it on a different network. First, you might be able to save a lot of money. T-Mobile has significantly cheaper plans than AT&T so your monthly bill will be much less. Another reason is that some people don’t like AT&T’s coverage. If you’re on T-Mobile, you don’t have to worry about AT&T’s service.

Why wouldn’t I want to do that?

Unlocking your phone for another network is not all fun and games. There are five big drawbacks

1. T-Mobile does not support 3G service on an iPhone. You can still get your emails and surf the web, you’ll just have to do it over the Edge network.
2. No more visual voicemail. You’ll have to use the old method of calling your voicemail and then using the number pad to fast forward, skip, delete, etc. If you’ve never experienced visual voicemail, this isn’t a big deal. If you have, this is a huge minus.
3. Apple will not give you any support if they know your phone has been unlocked. They really hate it when people do this because it costs them money (they get a part of AT&T’s iPhone revenues), so they will tell you to get lost if you come in with an unlocked phone.
4. No more iPhone updates. Since Apple hates it when you unlock your iPhone, they remove the unlocking every time you update your phone. In addition, it usually takes a few weeks to months for hackers to figure out how to unlock the newest updates. This means your wonderful T-Mobile enabled iPhone just became useless. There are ways to downgrade to old versions of the iPhone software so not all is lost, but it’s a big hassle and something to be aware of.
5. Security problems. If you don’t take a few simple precautions after unlocking your phone, your iPhone can easily get hacked into. There’s an amusing story about a Dutch hacker that extorted people with unlocked iPhones and CNet has an article about how malicious software can be introduced to unlocked iPhones. These security problems can be prevented with some very simple precautions, but they are something to be aware of.

How do I do that?

The web is full of advice on how to unlock your iPhone but before I do that, let me state two things very clearly:

1. Jet City Devices does not do unlocking for customers and we are not at all suggesting that you unlock your phone. I’m writing this blog post because I get asked about it quite a bit and thought people would like to know more about it.
2. Unlocking your phone can cause all sorts of strange side-effects besides those listed above so be careful if you are going to proceed.

Alright, one more thing: Before you can unlock your iPhone, you have to first jailbreak it. Jailbreaking is a whole other topic of it’s own but it basically allows you to install your own software on the phone. So you jailbreak your phone and then install the unlocking software. That’s the gist of it.

I’m not going to detail for you how to unlock your phone because it really depends on what phone you have and what version of software you’re running. Also, tons of other people have already written about this. My suggestion if you want to do your own iPhone unlocking, start here:

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

That is the main site for all things iPhone hacking related. A good place to look for the latest news. And for unlocking itself, I suggest this site:

http://www.redmondpie.com

Just do a search on their site for: iPhone [3g, 3gs, or 4] unlocking. You’ll find step-by-step instructions.

Lastly, if you don’t want to deal with all the hassle, just do a search on Craigslist for “iphone unlocking” in your city. You will definitely find someone that does it for about $25-$30. Just be careful – there’s a lot of scammers on Craigslist and you could end up with a stolen phone if you’re not careful.

MyTouch Slide Repairs

We are currently charging $85 for the touch screen glass repair. It takes about 30-40 minutes to complete so in-person repairs can be done while you wait and mail-in repairs will be completed and mailed back out within 24 hours of our receiving the phone.

A quick note about in-person repairs: We are currently only offering them in our Chicago offices and by appointment only. This should only be for a couple of weeks as we get all of our technicians at the Chicago and Seattle locations trained. Once everyone is up to speed, we’ll be able to offer the repair in-person at every location with or without an appointment.

So if you’ve got a cracked MyTouch Slide screen, give us a call (800-272-0897) or send us an email and we would be happy to help you out.

Raccoons in the House!

Eric: Oh my, God! There’s a bear in our office.

Short interlude here. Eric is a born and raised Chicagoan. He does love his country music, he’s a great guy, and he’s awesome at fixing broken iPhones, but a zoologist he is not.

Matt: I doubt it’s a bear. What’s it look like?
Eric: It’s furry, the size of a small dog, and has some stripes on it.
Matt: It’s a raccoon.

Short interlude #2. I was born and raised about 7 miles outside a town of 4000 people, my high school graduation had 89 participants, and most of my nearest neighbors were raccoons.

Eric: What do I do? I’ve got a hockey stick in my truck. I could poke it.
Matt: That’s a bad idea. How about I call the landlord and have him take care of it?
Eric: That sounds like a better plan.

Without going into all the gory details, there were about 6 phone calls back and forth with the landlord and Eric and eventually the raccoon was removed from the premises. In reality, it turned out to be 3 raccoons that had to be removed.

“How,” you may be wondering, “did 3 raccoons get into your office?”

Excellent question! The answer is they climbed a tree outside the building that had branches that leaned over our building. They climbed out on one of those branches, jumped on the roof, and burrowed their way through the ceiling. Once inside, they commenced having a raccoon rave complete with tearing apart the blinds, ripping up some of our accessories, knocking the printer off the table and breaking it, and leaving a pretty horrendous mess in their wake.

After a couple hours of cleaning by Eric and the landlord, we had just about everything back to normal and we were even able to get the printer working again. So all-in-all, not too horrible of an experience – just not one I ever thought I’d be blogging about.

iPhone vs. Android

Let me make something very clear: This entire experiment was rigged in favor of the iPhone. The Android never really had a chance and to understand why, you need a little bit of history about how this experiment came about.

You’re probably already aware of this but just in case: At Jet City Devices we fix broken cell phones. Before we offer a new repair service for a particular phone, we buy a broken one online and make sure we know how to fix it. Six months ago, we considered fixing the MyTouch 3G from T-Mobile. We went online, found a MyTouch 3G with a cracked screen, bought it, got the repair parts, fixed it up, and then started offering the repair service. So for the last 6 months I’ve had a MyTouch 3G with the Google Android operating system just sitting on my workbench.

It has been calling out to me like a Siren trying to tempt Ulysses on his great adventures. Eventually, I could no longer resist the sweet temptation of that small white phone as it beckoned me closer. Fortunately, there was no shallow reef on which to destroy my ship – in fact there wasn’t even a ship. The whole Ulysses analogy is really only here to stroke my ego. Not really necessary so let’s get back to the reason this experiment was rigged…

The reason this 6 month old Android phone didn’t stand a chance against the iPhone is two-fold. First, I’ve been using an iPhone for 18 months and I really like the interface. This means I’m going to have some bias right out off the bat against the Android interface because they’re going to do some things differently.

The second reason is that the MyTouch 3G is a decrepit dinosaur of an Android phone. The hardware is slow and outdated, the touchscreen is small and unresponsive, and the software is version 1.6 (there at 2.2 as of this writing). I tried very hard in this experiment to ignore these hardware differences because I know the new Android phones are much better. However, I just can’t completely ignore it. I get uber frustrated every time I type a text and my space bar taps get ignored or it takes 2 seconds to switch screens.

So while I would love to discuss hardware, battery life, camera resolution, speaker quality, touch screen & LCD quality, and more, I just can’t do it with any validity. It’s not a fair fight because the MyTouch 3G sucks in the hardware department. In a few months, when the new Windows Phones come out, I’m going to do this again with an iPhone, an Android Phone, a Blackberry, and a Windows Phone 7. At that time, I’ll try to get the top of the line phones so we can really compare Apples to Apples. For now, I hope this software review suffices.

Review

Google, like Microsoft, tends to let their software engineers drive the user interface (UI). As a former software engineer, I can tell you that engineers suck at designing things so they are pretty and easy to use. It is not in our nature. Because of this, Android’s UI is clunky, somewhat of a pain to setup the first time, has lots of menus, a few annoying bugs, and is not particularly pretty. Apple, on the other hand, is a company driven by designers. As a result, the iPhone is beautiful, super easy to use, and runs great straight out of the box. The iPhone is just way more polished than any other smartphone on the market. Score 3 big points for the iPhone on this one.

Once you get the Google phone setup (and you will have to have a Google account to do it) and spend a couple of days getting used to the interface, you discover that it’s a pretty nice phone. I was pleasantly surprised about the apps (called “Marketplace” in Google parlance). I have been saying for months that the one big advantage Apple has is their App Store. I’m not so sure anymore. Yes, Apple has more apps than anyone else but I had no problems finding the apps I wanted for my new Google phone. Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, some games…no big issues for me at all. That said, it’s still more fun to search the Apple App Store just because of the sheer volume of stuff they have. Score 1 point for Apple.

There is one big exception to this Apple-is-as-good-or-better-than-Google-for-apps scenario: Google Navigator.

The Google Navigator app is far and away the greatest piece of cell phone software I have ever used. In essence, it turns your Android phone into a GPS device that rivals anything I’ve used from Garmin. It offers turn-by-turn directions complete with a woman’s voice telling you when to turn. In addition, this app is integrated seamlessly with other apps on the phone. Found a restaurant and want directions? Bam! It jumps you straight to Navigator. Trying to find a friends house? Just pull up their info in contacts and, Bam!, it jumps you straight to Navigator. Seriously, this app alone, for those of you that, like me, are completely directionally challenged, makes this phone worth considering. It’s awesome! Score 2 for Google.

Let’s talk about networks, baby. If you want an iPhone with all the bells and whistles (3G, visual voicemail, support from Apple), you only have one option: AT&T. I have AT&T and, personally, I don’t mind them. I do, however, have the common complaints: They are way too expensive and their network seems lackluster at best with frequently dropped calls and a number of dead spots in Chicago where I get little or no reception. But again, I love my iPhone and nothing about AT&T is a deal killer for me. That’s not true for everyone, though, and Google Android phones do not suffer from this single carrier drawback.

There are Google phones on all major carriers. Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and even AT&T all have Google phones. In addition, there are a plethora of hardware manufacturers out there making Android phones: HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and more. What this means is that you can find a contract that’s right for you and a hardware device that suits your needs (like a slide-out keypad). This isn’t a huge deal for me at this point, but for some it could be a really big deal. I’m going to score 2 points for Google on this one. If you are playing along at home, want to be on Verizon, and like a slide-out keypad, you can go ahead and score up to 4 points for Google here.

If you’ve been keeping score, you will notice that Android is actually tied with the iPhone at this point in the contest: Apple 4, Google 4. However, we are about to award a negative point to Android.

I, like many people, have more than one Google email account. Yet, for some reason, Google saw fit to only allow me one Gmail account on my phone. Sure, I can use the email application to setup an IMap account for my second Gmail account but it’s a pain in the neck to setup and it’s two icons I have to click to view my mail. I really just want to hit the little GMail icon on the home screen and see all of my Google Mail. Boo! Hiss! Big fail here by Google (at least for me). Score -1 for Google.

So there you have it, Apple wins but by the skin of their teeth: 4-3. The fact is, for a lot of people out there, that network and slide-out keypad thing could actually catapult Android ahead of the iPhone. Make no mistake, if Apple doesn’t at least address the issue of different network carriers soon, they will find that Google, Microsoft, or Blackberry is going to release a phone that comes pretty close to the iPhone in ease of use and beauty. When that happens, Apple better look out. But that’s a different story (and one I’ve written about before). For now, if you don’t mind AT&T and you want the best smartphone on the market, go with the iPhone.

Repeat of the PC wars?

Before we proceed, a little history lesson (don’t worry, it’s short). Back in the early 1980’s, Apple dominated the PC market. They were titans. Controlling, with an iron fist, the hardware and software for their beautiful machines. Then along came Microsoft. They didn’t really care too much about the hardware. They allowed everyone to go ahead and build their own machines: IBM, HP, Dell, Gateway, Joe & Mary PC Nuts, and anyone else with access to computer hardware. These computers were ugly, grotesque, gargantuan, and, above all, cheap. The result: Microsoft came to dominate the world while Apple, for 20 years, languished on the brink of destruction.

Of course, the last 7 or 8 years have seen a great resurgence for Apple. It started with OS X and some good new laptop computers, was greatly advanced by the iPod, and has absolutely exploded with the iPhone. So much so, that in the past few weeks Apple has passed Microsoft in market cap. That’s right, on paper, Apple is now a bigger company than Microsoft. So much for Apple being the underdog.

But I fear that Apple is gearing up to make the same mistake they did 30 years ago with the PC. They control both the hardware and software – including a dictatorial rule over the apps that are allowed to run on it. Contrast this to Google that is basically just writing software and allowing HTC, Motorola, Samsung, and any other hardware manufacturer create their own devices. You can also bet your bottom dollar that Microsoft will take the same tact. In fact, when they announced the release of Windows Phone 7 they announced they’d be partnering with Dell, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, and more for hardware; and Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint for carriers.

So what does all this “software for any hardware” mean? It means that non-Apple phones are going to get cheaper and cheaper and the data/voice/text plans for them are also going to plummet in price. Apple has a huge head start and a great product. They are not going to die any time soon. But the question is, even with this great product, can Apple count on a huge customer base that will be willing to pay a lot more for their devices?

If the PC wars of the past are any indication, the answer is, “No,” and Apple is in trouble.

Unfortunately for Apple’s once beloved middle child, the 3G, multitasking will not be an option. But to my fellow jail-breaking brothers and sisters, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel: the iPhone Dev team has already told us that the multitasking feature will be “switched on” for us.

You can also gift apps, so go ahead pay the .99 so your friend can play along with you, since they don’t want to link a credit card to their iTunes account.

And finally, non jail-broken iPhones can have a home screen, I don’t know why there was such a wait on that. Cameras will now have a 5X zoom, and for those who like to text like an adult there’s spellcheck.

Other than that, the iPhone 4 was somewhat disappointing to me. First its going to use a micro SIM, which hasn’t really been used before. Probably to stop jail-breaking and then using another carriers SIM card. The video chat is nice – it finally feels like we’re in the future. Unfortunately, at least this point, it only seems that it will work with other iPhone 4 users. Can anybody else say Skype?

So nonetheless, I’m crazy excited when OS 4 comes out, then I just have to wait for the Dev team to hurry up.

If I were in charge, we'd backpack.

The iPhone (and any other touchscreen phone) should offer users a custom, programmable set of shortcut gestures on their phone.

Here’s the situation: I’m on my iPhone and want to check my mail. Like most everyone I know, I don’t just have a single email account. I have several. But to check all my mail I have to click mail, click the account I want, pick inbox, read my messages, and then hit the back button several times to get to my list of accounts and then repeat the process to read messages in a different inbox. Basically, it’s a pain in the neck. Wouldn’t it be much better if I could just put my finger down, make two circles and jump straight to inbox one? Make three circles and go to inbox two?

How about shutting off your wifi by just tapping the screen two times in the top right corner? Or swipe left-to-right across the top of the screen and go to my podcasts; right-to-left takes me to my music playlists? I’d love to launch Scramble 2 by just making  a ‘Z’ on the screen. Sure, I could swipe my finger through my 5 different home screens to find the one that has the app and then tap it, but I’d prefer to just make a ‘Z’ on any screen.

You get the picture, right? I love keyboard shortcuts on my computer and I want them on my phone. However, I’d prefer that Apple engineers don’t decide for me what shortcuts I need nor how to activate them. Here’s the interface I would create:

1. You go to settings and select “Shortcuts”.
2. You then select an option called “Record Taps”.
3. You are thrown back to the home page and you click through the desired series of actions you’re looking for. For example, you click iPod and then navigate to your favorite playlist.
4. Once you’re on the final destination, you hit the home button and the iPhone records your series of clicks.
5. You are then prompted for the shortcut action.
6. You put your finger(s) on the screen and make your custom gesture.
7. Once you lift your fingers up, the gesture is saved and associated with the recorded actions.

That’s it. You can now record all of your most common actions and associate them with one quick and simple screen gesture. Sure, there are some little details to deal with (like double tapping on a letter while doing a text should not jump you to some shortcut), but those are manageable. The point is, this type of interface would be a big improvement over the current method of navigation.

So there you have it, one of my many brilliant ideas. I also have another idea about location based settings on your iPhone but we’ll save that for the next installment.

Let’s begin….

As anyone that has had a phone repaired by us in Seattle knows, we require an appointment. Like so many famous people before him, this Amazingly Wonderful and Energetic Selebrity Of Meaningful Exposure did not follow the rules. (For the record, I know that “selebrity” is spelled with a ‘C’ but using an ‘S’ allows for a much better acronym going forward.) AWESOME simply showed up at our office. In Tom’s own words:

If he had just called ahead, I could have prepared. I’d have done a little personal research, arranged topics of conversation, and had it all put down on neatly organized note cards.

But alas, Tom was not prepared. When AWESOME arrived, Tom immediately recognized him and about 3 seconds later began shaking uncontrollably with excitement and nervousness. I think letting Tom proceed in his own words at this point might be a good idea:

I was seriously concerned I was going to wreck his phone. I couldn’t keep my hands from shaking and I couldn’t focus. All I kept thinking was, “Oh my God, AWESOME is in my house. I can’t screw this up!” To make matters worse, I couldn’t even form complete sentences and I just kept stammering on about iPhones and how cool they are.

On the bright side, I’m sure he’ll be sending us all kinds of business. I can hear him talking to his friends now: “You have to get your iPhone fixed by Jet City Devices. It’s so great of them to hire special needs people to fix phones.

I’m such an unbelievable moron. Matt, on the other hand, is suave and smooth and almost as cool as AWESOME.

Okay, I might have taken some liberties with Tom’s statements on that last line, but you get the idea. Tom was totally star struck, but I’m proud of him for successfully fixing our first celebrity iPhone!