Category: iphone

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What to Know When Buying an iPhone 3G in Hong Kong

A reader of my blog asked a series of good questions and I thought it may be something all readers will be interested in, so I decided to create a post to answer him. Jonathan asked:

If I simply buy the phone from the Apple store (unlocked) and then get the sim from vodafone (they have a deal on at the moment) will it be as simple as putting it in and turning it on, and I’m good to go? Also, is there anything I need to be aware of when I am choosing my contract?

Yes, all iPhones purchased legitimately in Hong Kong from the mobile carrier Three (“3”) or Apple HK Online Store are full carrier (SIM) unlocked iPhone 3G, and will accept any SIM cards that support the GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz and/or GSM 3G: 850, 900, 1900, 2100MHz.

Continue reading “What to Know When Buying an iPhone 3G in Hong Kong”

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iPhone Firmware 2.2.1

Pwnage Tool logoApple released a new firmware for the iPhone (v2.2.1).

Again for anyone who had or plan to jailbreak or unlock your iPhone (2G or 3G) please be patience and DO NOT upgrade to the latest iPhone firmware.

This is especially important for all those who are currently using unlocked iPhones (2G).

The iPhone Dev Team had already posted a note saying that they will investigate the new firmware. Most likely update versions of the Pwnage Tool and QuickPwn applications for both Macintosh and Windows OS will be coming to address changes in this latest iPhone firmware from Apple.

Along with the update announcement within iTunes, Apple included notes to say there are Safari improvements. Hopefully this will finally eliminate all those Safari crashes on the iPhone.

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How-to: Enable Emoji On iPhone WITHOUT Jailbreaking

There is a new way to enable the Emoji icons on your iPhone with firmware 2.2.

The trick is to purchase the USD0.99 iPhone App 老地方冰果室 (aka “FrostyPlace”). This is an application that allows you to view the latest posts from an Apple discussion forum in Taipei, Taiwan. Therefore if you read Chinese it may be useful and if you live in Taipei it may also be relevant.

Continue reading “How-to: Enable Emoji On iPhone WITHOUT Jailbreaking”

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My Life Without My iPhone

iPhone 3G imageLast Saturday I decided to sell my 1st generation iPhone. Believe me this decision did not come easily.

Like most early adopters, I had been a user of the iPhone since it’s launch in June 2007.

This was not easy given I live in Hong Kong. Back in those days; sounds like a long time ago, but in technology timeline it is indeed. The iPhone unlocking/jailbreaking process took about an hour and a half with 24 steps that you cannot not miss or mess up.

Of course now this process of has been greatly improved, to a 15 minutes process with a single program and several clicks. Anyway you can read all about my iPhone exploits in my other posts.

Getting back to my decision to sell my iPhone. Ever since the first day after returning with the iPhone, purchased at the New York City, Fifth Avenue Apple Store, there had been a minor defect in the screen. This resulted in an area of discolouration. Unfortunately, I had hacked the phone and I was not about to fly back to NYC to bring it back to Apple. So I lived with it.

Continue reading “My Life Without My iPhone”

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7 Things You Love to Ask About iPhone Unlocking

Pwnage Tool logoOver the past year and a half I had assisted many people with the unlocking of their iPhones. Many more people ask me about unlocking.

So instead of answering each of these people over and over again, I thought I post an article in my blog, which I can refer them to for more details.

  1. What Does iPhone Unlock mean?
    Many carriers around the world will “carrier lock” a cell phone that they had subsidized for their customers. To ensure the purchaser of the cell phone stays as a customer of the carrier after the purchase, the carrier will normally do two things:

    • Make the purchaser commit to a contract that bounds them to the carrier for a number of years (2 years is common). Of course the purchaser can break the contract, but there is usually a penalty to compensate the carrier for the subsidizing the cell phone.
    • Carrier Lock the cell phone to the carrier’s network, meaning the cell phone cannot be used on any other cellular network in the world.

      • Continue reading “7 Things You Love to Ask About iPhone Unlocking”

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Video of iPhone 3G Unlock

Member of the iPhoneDev Team, MuscleNerd, posted a video of him unlocking the iPhone 3G from his Mac.

The layman version is expected to be release on New Year’s Eve 2008.

Fortunately, people who lives in Hong Kong, Belgium and Taiwan do not need this unlocking method, as those iPhone 3G sold are already officially carrier (SIM) unlocked straight from Apple.

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[Update] Mac OS 10.5.6 Breaks DFU Mode for iPhone

The iPhoneDev Team has released a note addressing the issue reported regarding the problem with activating the DFU (device firmware update) mode for the iPhone, after the Mac has been upgraded to Mac OS 10.5.6.

The next release of the iPhoneDev Team’s Pwnage Tool is not expected until Christmas Eve (Dec. 31.2008), but there is no mention if this upcoming release will resolve the DFU problem.

Original Store: WARNING: Mac OS 10.5.6 Breaks Hacked iPhone

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WARNING: Mac OS 10.5.6 Breaks Hacked iPhone

Pwnage Tool logoApple released Mac OS 10.5.6 update on Monday (US PST). As always I would suggest everyone follow the instructions on the release notes plus use the Combo Upgrade to upgrade your Mac.

Although, if you are the millions who owns iPhones that had been jailbroken and/or Unlocked, you need to stay AWAY from this Mac OS X update for now. It has been reported that this version of Mac OS X will not recognize hacked iPhones. Until either this report has been independently verified or until the iPhoneDev Team has a method to get around the problem, hacked iPhone users should stay avoid updating their Macintosh for now.

Please stay tuned here, I will update everyone as news develop.

[Update: December 17, 2008]
The iPhoneDev Team has released a note addressing the issue reported regarding the problem with activating the DFU (device firmware update) mode for the iPhone, after the Mac has been upgraded to Mac OS 10.5.6.
The next release of the iPhoneDev Team’s Pwnage Tool is not expected until Christmas Eve (Dec. 31.2008), but there is no mention if this upcoming release will resolve the DFU problem.

[Update: December 19, 2008]
Finally an Automator script that will perform the fix suggested by the iPhoneDev Team. This method will not require a layman to jump into Terminal and fuzz with the inner workings of the Mac.

I have yet to try this so will report when I have.

[Update: December 20, 2008]
Now there are two solutions: one is to connect the iPhone to the Mac via an USB hub. The other is to replace the IOUSBFamily.kext with the version from 10.5. Someone had created an AppleScript to do this for you as explained in the iPhoneWiki forum thread.

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Taiwan iPhone 3G Unlocked Out-of-the-box

Chunghwa Telecom LogoWhen Apple made the iPhone 3G available on the little island, Taiwan, these phones sold through the official carrier partner, Chunghwa Telecom, are all carrier unlocked.

Just to remind readers that, ever since the availability of iPhone 3G back in June 2008, all iPhone sold here in Hong Kong, whether through the official carrier partner, Three (“3”), or through Apple Hong Kong’s Online Store, are also carrier unlocked.

The official price for iPhone 3G (8GB) and (16GB) from Apple HK Online Store are HKD5400.00 and HKD6200.00 respectively.