Joy of Gadgets

Here is some feedback I have sent to Apple regarding the latest issues related to Apple killing “Google Voice” type applications in the App Store and Apple’s statements that jailbreaking your iPhone will cause the world to end. I would encourage you all to do the same.

I’ve seen a number of news stories that says that Apple thinks people shouldn’t hack the baseband software in their iPhones because it can cause damage to the mobile phone network. If there was a simple way to unlock the iPhone people paid for without hacking the baseband, people wouldn’t be hacking the baseband. Make it dead simple like a Nokia–enter a code into the phone, boom, the device is unlocked.

People would not be as interested in jailbreaking iPhones, either, if there was some way for people to install apps that Apple does not approve of. The best app on a Nokia is something called Gravity. It is digitally signed, but frequently not by Symbian (who is owned by Nokia). Other platforms have this concept as well.

Both of these issues–and resulting bad PR–is entirely self-inflicted. Please consider changing your policies in these areas to more customer-friendly ones. Permit people to unlock their legitimately paid for iPhones and install applications of their own choosing.

This past week, I have primarily been using my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic as a way to listen to my podcasts. However, I have been using it without a SIM card. This is good, as it extends the battery life of my Nokia 5800 substantially, particularly when all I am using it for is browsing via WiFi and listening to podcasts.

The bad thing? Well, just about everything else. Some applications, such as Mail for Exchange, will not work when a SIM card is not inserted. An error similar to the one pictured on the right is shown. In other applications, you are asked to confirm whether or not a connection can be established in offline mode.

I understand why you might want to prompt in this manner. On an airplane, or in other areas where you must be “radio silent,” this kind of prompting is necessary. The current Offline profile should be maintained.

What we really need is a new Profile type. Called it SIMless. It would allow the WiFi and Bluetooth radios to be activated as if a SIM card were there without the stupid “Create connection in offline mode” prompts.

How about it, Nokia? Seems easy enough to do.

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• Maximising Battery Life on the Nokia 5800 (allaboutsymbian.com)
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Image via Wikipedia

A while ago, I got a pair of headphones from Radius Products to review. They are these in-ear headsets that go deeper into the ear, sealing out noise, sound great! The problem I have is when I put the headphones in my pocket. After a while the earphone fittings simply fall off, either in my pocket or someplace else. Sometimes, they even come out in my ear. Sometimes, they simply get lost.

I have to assume this is a universal problem of sorts, i.e. it’s not specific to the unit I reviewed. However, I can’t easily find a way to replace the earphone fittings. You’d think someone would sell replacement earphone fittings. I found a couple of places, but they are somewhat expensive in comparison to their actual cost, which can’t be more than a few pennies! The fact there aren’t replacements in stores seems silly.

So what happens when you lose the earphone fitings for your deep in-ear headphones? Do you just buy new ones? Is there some reasonably inexpensive of a similar style that are more sturdy in this area?

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