Joy of Gadgets

Ok, I was suckered into something I said I wouldn’t do: I actually jaikbroke and unlocked my iPhone. George Hotz, a.k.a. geohot make it so easy with blackra1n. It was a super easy process to do, and if you do a restore, your iPhone is back to its Steve Jobs approved state.

For the most part, I don’t want a jailbroken phone. However, Apple (or is it AT&T?) doesn’t permit the iPhone to be unlocked in the United States. I don’t need that often, but it is handy when I am traveling, which I have done quite a bit lately.

One other thing I can certainly use is the ability to tether, which AT&T still doesn’t officially support. However the blacksn0w also enables the IPCC “hack” that allowed you to download a provisioning file that enables tethering (i.e. using your iPhone as a modem). That’s also useful when traveling, particularly if there isn’t an iPass-compatible WiFi hotspot nearby.

There’s a part of me that feels uneasy about this. Geohot and others like him are finding and exploiting security vulnerabilities in the iPhone to inject code into the phone to make it do things Apple didn’t want you to do. Whereas we usually hear about the “bad” results of security vulnerabilities–and these exploits could be seriously bad in the wrong hands–this actually gives the user more functionality.

Apple will, of course, study these jailbreak tools and find a way to close the security holes they take advantage of. Typical in the game of cat-and-mouse between vendor and hacker. Of course, if Apple had more customer-friendly policies related to unlocking the device and allowing installation of “unapproved” apps, this problem would mostly go away.

Apple could be using these “hackers” to make their phone as secure as possible. Once Apple believe the phones are invulnerable to these kinds of attacks, they could simply provide easy access to device unlock and allow people to install whatever apps they want. People get the functionality they want with a much more secure device to boot. Everyone wins.

That’s just a crackpot theory, of course, and I’m probably wrong about it. I hope I’m not.

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Yes, this headset from In Store Solutions is that good. It’s also surprisingly affordable at just under $23 shipped to your door from the Skype store! I’d be buying one right now if I didn’t get a review unit.

As a long time user of Skype, I’ve used many a headset over the years. You want to use a headset so you can hear the other party better and the other party can hear you better.

The problem is that PCs weren’t always equipped to do proper sound. I remember the days of the Apple ][ with a very simple speaker that you could coax into playing music. I also remember building my first PC and having to put in a Soundblaster card!

If you've bought a PC in the past 6 or 7 years, though, you know that sound cards are pretty much standard equipment these days. Actually, they're just included on the motherboard, you rarely even buy an extra sound card these days! Unfortunately, what isn't standard is the quality of said included audio. It varies widely. Not to mention having to remember to switch between speakers and headsets.

One of the ways to eliminate any issues with onboard audio is to use a USB headset. Audio is processed on the USB device itself. It shows up as a different audio device, which you can easily switch between in applications or the operating system.

I've been using a Logitech USB Headset for a while now. It's fairly comfortable, the audio quality is acceptable. But it's not very portable. And it wasn't cheap.

The folks from In Store Solutions have made a comfortable headset that is portable, sounds fantastic, and is very inexpensive. It's quite an impressive engineering feat.

As shown, the Everyman USB headset folds up flat so it can more easily fit into your bag. It is also quite comfortable, which is also important for someone who spends a lot of time using Skype on their computer. The boom mic is not rigid, allowing you to place it in the most optimal position: at the corner of your mouth! Since the earphones unplug from the USB dongle, the headphones can also be used on your MP3 player/iPod/iPhone.

While all of those are nice features, what sets the Everyman apart from all the others is the audio quality. Both the microphone and the speakers take full advantage of Skype's new SILK_V3 codec, which operates at 12Khz. When SILK_V3 is being used along with these headsets, it's quite literally like you're in the same room with the other person. There is nothing like it! Other reviewers are saying similar things.

The headset arrives in a very compact, easy to open box made out of recyclable cardboard and paper. You open it up, plug the headset into an open USB port on your computer, and you're ready to make calls on Skype.

When you consider the price: under $23 shipped to your door, purchasing this headset is absolutely a no-brainer. It will be one of the best investments you can make to improve your calling experience with Skype.

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It’s that time again:

FreeConferencing.com Launches: Until they do something to equalize inter-carrier compensation between most civilized parts of the United States and rural locations, services like FreeConferenceCall.com and now FreeConferencing.com will continue to exist and be profitable. By hosting these services in, say, rural Iowa, they actually make a small amount of money per minute on incoming calls. Anyway, FreeConferencing.com is a way to do a one-to-many call, complete with a web-based console to manage the call.

Vonage Trying To Act Like Mobile Phone Carriers: Vonage, the VoIP landline replacement service provider that refuses to die, is now offering a deal where you can sign up and not pay for equipment, shipping, or activation. The catch? You have to sign a two year agreement complete with early termination fees that are, according to my calculations, worse than a mobile phone contract.

iPopperz Fashion Earphones: Personally not my thing, but these are relatively inexpensive, in-ear haedphones with a number of styles, colors, and whatnot. I would consider buying the black, green, and black pair. One cool thing: they sell replacement earpads. Granted, there is a huge amount of markup there, but it’s the first time I’ve seen them available.

Bad Experience on DeFi Mobile: I briefly wrote about DeFi Mobile in October. Wasn’t sure how well the service was going to be when it went live, but someone forwarded me some correspondence to and from the company related to their experience. In short: it was bad voice quality and improper CallerID. Anyone have a good experience with DeFi Mobile?

Qwest Offering Free WiFi Nationwide: If you happen to live in an area where Qwest is your local exchange carrier and you get high speed Internet from them, now you can take it with you–sort of. Qwest has signed a deal with AT&T to provide Qwest customers free WiFi at 17,000 AT&T operated WiFi hotspots. Personally, I think it’s worth $9.95 a month for Boingo, which offers WiFi at AT&T locations and a whole bunch more!

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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I will admit that I’ve thought a device like a Chumby might be kind of a cool nightstand clock. It provides a lot of functionality at your fingertips and has kind of a cool form factor.

The thought of dropping $200 or more on a handheld gadget is not something I like to do. It also seemed quite wasteful when much of the functionality I want can be had with a device I already own: the Nokia N800 tablet.

What you see here is the home screen of my Nokia N800, which has all the information on it I need 98% of the time: the current time and the weather. The clock is a program called cairoclock, which is an applet that appears on the home screen. It’s resizable and movable.

The weather is an applet called omweather, which I configured to pull the 3-day forecast for Gig Harbor (and those temperatures are in Fahrenheit, also configurable).

The IP information is courtesy of the HomeIP applet. Good for “just in case” I need to SSH into the tablet (I have Dropbear SSH installed).

The only other thing I configured on it is a bookmark for the one site I’m likely to need to look at while in bed: the website for the local school district. They post school closure/delay information on the front page.

Granted, the tablet can do a lot more. However, for a nightstand device, that’s really all I want. If I need to do anything more serious, there’s always my office just down the hall

I would expect someone like Andy Abramson to be excited about his client, Truphone, getting an application on the Apple iPod Touch that makes it possible to make VoIP calls over WiFi. Eventually, according to MarketWatch, you’ll be able to receive calls as well, though I’m not sure how that will work given Apple doesn’t allow background apps on their iPhone and iPod Touch.

However, when I look at it in the bigger picture, I go “meh.” It’s not exciting to me. Turning something that isn’t a phone into a phone is old hat. That’s been a reality on the Nokia N800/N810 for a while thanks to Skype. I’m sure you can think of other examples of this as well.

I don’t see a lot of “average” people go through the trouble of downloading the Truphone app from Apple’s App Store, getting the necessary microphone adapter from Apple, and using this to make calls versus some other method. No doubt some people will do it–perhaps people aided by geeks like me, perhaps not.

Most of the people I know can barely use their mobile phone. Anything more complicated than making a call, receiving a call, and perhaps using the camera requires assistance from someone like me. I helped my wife’s aunt over Thanksgiving with her LG Dare, never having seen the phone before.

Now granted, not everyone has an iPhone, or an iPod Touch. Apple does make it dirt simple to get apps onto the handset. I’m sure the smart guys at Truphone guys have also done a brilliant job of making this application dirt simple to use, much like they’ve done on the Nokia handsets.

I am struggling to see the market for this. It might seem like there is with 300 Million applications downloaded from Apple’s App Store. However, what percentage of Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch user base have actually downloaded an application and installed it? How many Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users are actively using third party apps on their devices? My gut says not nearly as many as people are thinking.

The other niggling question is: of the people that download Truphone’s iPod Touch application, how many will turn into paying users instead of just using the free features of the application?

I would love to be wrong and have this be a mainstream game changer. I’d love to see more people using VoIP, but I’m having trouble seeing how this vision will work. Can anyone help clarify it for me?

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Let’s get straight on with it:

• How S60 and Share on Ovi Can Help You Meet (From The Convergence Zone)
• Cell Ranger: Boost Your Bars (From Joy of Gadgets)
• Need Your Gadgets Blessed? Go to Japan! (From Joy of Gadgets)
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The folks at Joiku, makers of the awesome JoikuSpot for S60 now offer a similar program for Windows Mobile devices: WMWiFiRouter. Both of these programs turn your mobile phone into a WiFi hotspot!

The theory is that the program uses the data connection on your mobile phone–which is hopefully 3G. That data connection is made available over WiFi as a regular access point to other WiFi-enabled devices. Sort of, at least on S60, as it is only able to use an AdHoc network type, not infrastructure. This limits you ability to use it with, say, a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. However, it works great with computers.

JoikuSpot is also currently 40% off: 15 Euros instead of the normal 25! While that’s still a lot of clams in U.S. Pesos, it’s still a nice investment. Where else are you going to get a portable WiFi router for that price?

A couple of months ago, the folks at Cahoona Games sent me a review copy of Marble Maze for the Nokia N95 and Nokia N82. I feel bad that I didn’t review it before now, but I certainly played it several times in the meantime!

The reason this game needs these two specific phones is that it actually uses the accelerometer to move the little ball through the maze. This limits the game to the N95 and N82, both of which contain an accelerometer.

It’s like that old labyrinth game where you take the ball on a table and try and navigate it through a maze without the ball falling into a hole. Marble Maze is exactly like that, except you can hold the maze in the palm of your hand and there are 40 different mazes to go through.

This game is so worth the $5.99 it will cost you to pick it up.

Losing a cell phone sucks. I’ve been lucky enough to not do it myself, but I know what a pain it can be. This Mobile Superhero software from YouGetItBack.com provides a very useful feature when this happens: the ability to remotely lock your phone!

When you lose your phone, you simply log into yougetitback.com and with the click of the mouse, your phone is locked. You can’t use the phone for anything–even if you power cycle it! There was a brief period of time–maybe 30 seconds–where I could do something before the software is activated.

If someone finds the phone, they can use the phone to report it lost or stolen. That’s it. All the phone will allow you to do is make a call to report the stolen phone to YouGetItBack.com.

Mobile Superhero can be downloaded for free and it supports a number of Blackberry, Nokia, and Samsung handsets. After the 30 day trial, it costs $19.95 a year.

You can also opt for physical asset tags for $9.95 that are good for three years, but they do not protect the access to your phone. The tags can be used on any item, though, not just mobile phones.