Roland Tanglao's Weblog

I love my iPhone (which I paid for with my own money and am still glad I did) because:

• it's beautiful and so is the interface
• the web browser is great, gmail and google reader work well
• the switching between WiFi and EDGE is seamless
• SMS interface is great, so it was great when I was out of Canada and didn't have access to affordable data and wanted to communicate with fellow SXSW attendees
• the voice call interface is great
  

I hate my iPhone because:

• the 2 mega pixel camera s*cks
• no video, i need video!!!!!!
• it's closed at the moment so there's no ShoZu, I need ShoZu! I am addicted to ShoZu's ability to post photos of the kid to my private flickr account and other pictures to my public flickr account

If the iPhone had a 5 megapixel camera and video and ShoZu was available for it, I'd switch in a heartbeat and use it all the time for everything. As it is the phone in my pocket is my N95-1 provided by the Nokia Blogger Relations program (thanks!) and the phone that i would buy with my money if I lost my iPhone and N95-1 would be one of the N95 North American versions.

Having said that I also have a love/hate relationship with my N95-1

I love my N95-1 because:

• It runs ShoZu which has literally changed my life. The ability to "photo-document" my life in real-time has been and continues to be amazing. And if ShoZu ever integrates with Twitter and gets Facebook status updating working, I'll never have to use SMS again when I am in Canada which would be no big loss since I am not a fan of SMS (or paying for messages, I just want to pay for the bandwidth I consume, SMS rates are a ripoff.)
• It runs Qik and similar 'live from the phone videocasting' apps. Qik, flixwagon et al are killer apps over WiFi and 3G!
• It's "open" (since you can only develop 1st class applications using Carbide which only runs on Windows and uses the archaic and silly C/C++ combo, it's not fully open in my book; the whole certificate model and the fact that the amazing hardware on great devices like the N93 is crippled by missing certificates for Python so you can't really access the full power from more modern and dynamic programming environments like Python means Python et al are second class citizens on S60)

I hate my N95-1 because:

1. S60 is not truly open (see the Python problems mentioned above). Hoping for a re-focus around a Linux core e.g. using Maemo from the N770, N800 and N810 Internet tablets.
2. S60 is clunky, hard to use and a maze of twisty little menus and apps are constantly moved around each firmware release. I have taught many people who just got their S60 phones how to use their devices. you don't have to do that with an iPhone which while not perfect is much, much easier to use.
3. It doesn't have enough RAM so ShoZu occasionally hangs and a reboot is required (granted this has become a lot better in the latest N95 firmware updates thank goodness!)
4. The display is too small. As big as the iPhone or VGA please!

Now that my N95 is SIM-less, everytime I try to upload photos with ShoZu or use the WiFi on the phone in general, I get the useless S60 "Create WLAN connection in offline mode?" message. Nokia: this message has got to go please! If I say yes to this once, then remember it forever (cf. the iPhone which does this properly). ShoZu feature request: please work around this useless S60 "feature".

I need 2 Phone numbers and 2 SIM cards, one for the N95 (which is currently SIM-less but I sure do miss 3rd party programs like ShoZu and Qik (e.g. it was alot of fun to Qik the Farmers Market on Dec 22 in real time and have people sending me comments asking about kolrabi and blueberry honey :-) !) happening in real time over the cell network instead of delayed until I get to a WiFi hotspot) and one for the iPhone (which I love for its ease especially for texting and fantastic web browser). My hope is that Rogers introduces a decent all you can eat (well 1-2 GB or less for less than $75 a month) when they give in to the inevitable and introduce the iPhone in Canada.

Like Miss 604 I have a brand new iPhone (courtesy of Santa Roland not John :-) ! and my LA based bro-in-law) which i got working with Fido and Rogers with an iPhone Hellas Sim on December 24th.

Here's how I did it:

1. I followed this 1.1.2 jailbraking recipe on hackintosh, (thanks to Derek and Ian for pointing this out to me, Thanks to Paul for giving me moral encouragement).
2. I then watched the iPhone Hellas SIM cutting video about 10 times and got Barb to cut it and then inserted it (not without a wee accident resulting in a very minor bruise on my finger. I am OK but I suggest using a push pin instead of a needle to remove your SIM like I did. The first time I inserted my Fido SIM together with my iPhone Hellas Sim hack I did it wrong (not a surprise given my lack of mechanical aptitude) and it took considerable effort to extract it and it was much easier using a push pin than a needle). 2nd time worked like a charm

Notes:

1. No need to downgrade my version of iTunes to work with Independence
2. No need to downgrade to 1.0.2, just go to 1.1.1 and then jailbreak and then 1.1.2 and jailbreak

Observations:

1. Everything indeed just works. It doesn't do video and photos like I want but that's what my N95-1 is :-) for! Most people don't care about video and photos like I do and can therefore use the iPhone and its crappy photos and non existent video. I will use the N95-1 over WiFi for photos and video
2. The web browser works much better than the N95-1 webkit browser
3. Threaded SMS just works
4. Contacts just work unlike my Nokia phones which always get annoying details wrong like reversing the first and last names
5. I used Google Maps for finding directions after our Christmas flight and it works great in the dark with a rental car just fine over EDGE using my grandfathered data plan.
6. I miss ShoZu (too lazy to configure it to upload over WiFi in my N95-1 but I will)
7. Nokia please copy the WiFi / Cellular connectivity from Apple, their implementation just works unlike yours.

Conclusion: if you are a Canadian geek with an interest in the mobile space you have to get an iPhone. Just do it and get an iPhone Hellas SIM to make it work. Apple and Rogers might introduce a Canadian iPhone running 3G in early January at MacWorld but I doubt it and if they do, I am ordering one :-)

Mystery solved. Courtesy of Boris' update #2 to his iPhone post and David Pogue's graphic. iPhone has normal SIM Slot with a normal SIM but it can only be unlocked from iTunes

UPDATE: The SIM functionality (there appears to be no user replaceable SIM) appears to be controlled through the iTunes store. Very interesting. 

I am not a cellphone hardware engineer but it seems ridiculous to support EDGE and support CDMA which is what Boris is implying ("If the iPhone is, indeed, a CDMA phone, then the whole will the iPhone be locked to Cingular question is a bit moot: without SIM cards, you can't take it to another network.") but hey we could both be wrong. More likely, the iPhone is GSM and uses EDGE data and the SIM instead of being user replaceable is hardwired in the first version of the iPhone. The soap opera continues :-) !

FROM The Mossberg Solution - WSJ.com:

QUOTE

But the iPhone has a major drawback: the cellphone network it uses. It only works with AT&T (formerly Cingular), won't come in models that use Verizon or Sprint and can't use the digital cards (called SIM cards) that would allow it to run on T-Mobile's network. So, the phone can be a poor choice unless you are in areas where AT&T's coverage is good. It does work overseas, but only via an AT&T roaming plan.

In addition, even when you have great AT&T coverage, the iPhone can't run on AT&T's fastest cellular data network. Instead, it uses a pokey network called EDGE, which is far slower than the fastest networks from Verizon or Sprint that power many other smart phones. And the initial iPhone model cannot be upgraded to use the faster networks.

END QUOTE