All About Iphone

Towards the end of last week we featured the truly magnificent iDial application for the iPhone that brings retro, analogue style dialling to your Apple handset and now, thanks to an especially talented skinner by the name of Spec Works, the Vista fanboys amongst you can sport an iPhone (assuming you have one, of course) with an unmistakably Vista feel courtesy of his exhaustively detailed VistaPerfection iPhone Windows Vista theme.

To refer to Spec Works’ VistaPerfection 2.0 theme as a work of considerable accomplishment is by no means an exaggeration as the theme consists of over 80 Vista icons, Vista wallpapers, Vista themed boot and restore splash-screens, as well as login and log off screens, and is even accompanied by a faithful set of associated Vista sound effects – and, yes, Vista’s Start Menu also puts in an appearance.



An astonishingly polished and accomplished theme by anyone’s standards, the only downside is that, at the time of writing, you’ll be forced to jump through a series of hoops in order to get it installed on account of the fact that there’s no installer – hence to install this theme you’ll need Jailbreak, SSH access, SummerBoard and some measure of sheer determination. If, however, you simply cannot wait to get VistaPerfection 2.0 installed (an Installer is purportedly in development, incidentally) then you’ll find a full walkthrough of the steps you need to take to get the theme up and running via the site linked below.

Modmyifone [via JAIB / Technabob]
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Read more: http://nexus404.com/Blog/2008/05/19/vistaperfection-20-iphone-theme-gives-your-iphone-a-vista-flavour-apple-ms-in-sweet-harmony-kind-of/#ixzz0HGHzkyeO&B

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iGrip offers an array of iPhone car holders, some of them with very innovative design, like this cigarette lighter mount. Not only that it looks great but it's also very easy to use. Installing this holder means only to plug it into your car's cigarette lighter socket, rotate the plug to tighten itself, then adjust the flexible neck to keep the phone in the desired position. No glue, screws or clips also makes it easy to remove and store into the gloves compartment when not in use.

The iPhone itself is hold in place by two padded sides, that move in and out at a push of a button. The funny part about this holder is that, even if it plugs into a 12 volt power source, it does NOT charge the iPhone. It is just a holder. In the following pictures you can see some other iPhone car holders from iGrip and you can visit the official page HERE (as usual, no affiliate link to keep the review impartial).

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Many of you probably have heard about the classic FM transmitters compatible to normal mp3 players. It would have been really discriminating for the iPhone owners if someone hadn't developed something similar compatible to iPhone and iPod.

Thanks to Pro Power now you can enjoy your favorite music in your car while traveling, without having to take a trip at the car service and modify your audio system.

They developed the first iPhone FM Transmitter, which will allow you to play the music you choose on a frequency that will be easily detected by your radio and so you will listen to it trough the cars stereo system. The smart thing about it, is that there is no sound quality loss at all, you will be hearing the exact song but only much louder than on the iPhone's standard speaker.

Many FM Transmitters work with batteries, this one is fully adapted and prepared for long journeys, with a built-in Car DC Charger so your iPhone will get charged while you comfortably sit your seat and listen to the music.

In order to prevent some frequency intercalation you can easily choose the FM frequency you like to play your songs on, delivering excellent sound. The configuration of the device can be easily done trough the LCD Screen, you will have no problems in understanding and controlling the device.

Pro Power One-Piece Car Kit is also very light and portable, people who spend much time on the road won't regret spending $33.99 on this device from Amazon.com.

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Like the name sais and as you can clearely see from the above picture this is a video projector with an iPhone dock. It allows you to watch videos from your iPhone on a 15 to 27 inch display. Also has a set of 2W stereo speakers.

It has a 0.44" panel with 4:3 aspect ratio and manual focus that provides a 640:480 resolution, enough for videos from your iPhone. It has a 5W led lamp which will last forever, but is only able to provide a 200:1 contrast. For more details see Honlai's website: honlai.com.tw

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Devicescape is all about Wi-Fi, and I’ve been using Wi-Fi on an iPhone ever since we got our first one on June 30, 2007. Over that time, we’ve learnt a lot about the iPhone’s Wi-Fi experience.

If your thinking is limited to home networks, Apple’s decision to make the switch to a known Wi-Fi network happen automatically seems pretty smart. You walk into your home (or office, etc), the iPhone switches to your Wi-Fi network and everything is good.

But, the iPhone is a mobile device, and one that people tend to have with them all the time (unlike a laptop). Increasingly, those devices are being connected to other Wi-Fi networks, including public hotspots like AT&T’s network in the US Starbucks locations. So now my iPhone knows the AT&T Wi-Fi network as well. And therein lies the problem: every AT&T Wi-Fi becomes a black hole for data access until I log in.

Daily Annoyance

Every morning I walk from the ferry terminal to my bus stop. In between the two, very conveniently, there is a Starbucks where I stop to buy a coffee and check my email and catch up on my Twitter stream before the bus comes. As I walk towards the door, my iPhone switches from the cellular network to the Wi-Fi one, and in doing so disconnects me from the internet. Now I am stuck in the AT&T walled garden. My email no longer works. I can no longer update my Twitter stream. I can’t connect to the App Store.

Sure, I can launch Easy Wi-Fi and within a few seconds the connection is back (or, I can launch Safari, enter my phone number, jump through a few hoops and get online that way). But that’s annoying. I just wanted to check my email. It’s even worse on the days when I’m tapping out a quick reply as I walk, only to find the send fails because the network switched. That slick automatic switching from 3G to Wi-Fi, intended to do away with the need for me to think about the type of network my phone is using, just disconnected me from the world!

Known Problem

Oddly, Apple should be well aware of the problem since their original launch of the iTunes store in Starbucks, back at the end of 2007 when Starbucks still used T-Mobile for Wi-Fi, did exactly the same thing. Glenn Fleishman wrote a great description of this over at Wi-Fi Net News.

T-Mobile hotspot subscribers noticed the problem before this was launched, but by giving others a reason to connect to the Wi-Fi signal in Starbucks, Apple made the problem affect a much larger group of people. And with the addition of free access at AT&T’s Wi-Fi network for all AT&T iPhone users, the problem just became much larger.

What can be done about this?

There are really two things that Apple needs to change to make this black hole a thing of the past:

1. Apple’s network reachability mechanism needs to become aware of the concept of web-based authentication;
2. There needs to be a mechanism to allow third parties, like Devicescape, to add authentication services to the OS.

The first means that when a device latches on to a Wi-Fi signal, it won’t automatically switch all traffic to that network until it knows that it can actually get to the internet, and is not just stuck in a walled garden.

The second provides a way to support the thousands of different networks out there without having to have them all built into the firmware. The default option here could be to ask the user whether they want to sign in using Mobile Safari.

Beyond Switching

The holy grail when it comes to handling Wi-Fi and cellular data networks is that the selection and transition is totally transparent to the user. Even if the black hole issue is resolved, the iPhone still switches from one network to another. When that happens, any connections open on the old network are dropped (especially going from Wi-Fi back to cellular).

Applications can try to resolve that by catching the error, re-opening the connections and carrying on where they left off, but that’s very dependent on the application and may not give the best user experience. A nicer solution is to include a mobile IP solution so that data connections can move between the radios without interruptions. Of course, some applications (esp. streaming media apps) might need to adjust to the new network’s capabilities, but at least they stay connected.

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The iphone has become one of the phones to beat and with 15,000 + applications for the device there is bound to be one that will help you make something easier in your day. In the video below I will show you a nice little free program named Around Me. This program has great features to help you find what you need when you need it.

No more driving around aimlessly trying to find the nearest store or gas station in your area. There is also another program I will mention which is Gas Buddy and this program will help you find not only the nearest gas station but it will show the price at the pump in that gas station. It also has a great beautiful interface. Gas Buddy is $2.99, Oil and Gas is Free, and Around Me is also Free.

I was not able to find links that will activate itunes directly to find the programs. Below are their names, just open your itunes program and on the search bar on the top right put the name of the programs as they appear below. You can also do this on your iphone by going to the app store.

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