Most of the problems with yellowsn0w—the free iPhone 3G unlock program—have been worked out. I have Yellowsn0w 0.9.6 installed and it works like a charm, no problems whatsoever. Other people report the same. [Gizmodo Coverage]
We already knew a fresh OQO handheld would be headed to Digital Experience! here at CES, and lo and behold the model 2+ has arrived in our oh-so-fortunate hands. The 800 x 480 (native) OLED touchscreen was positively gorgeous to look at, and the Qualcomm Gobi dual-mode HSPA / EV-DO WWAN chipset was much appreciated. It’s also sporting a 1.86GHz Intel Atom CPU, 2GB of RAM, WiFi / Bluetooth, DirectX 9 and H.264 video decode support, 3.5 hours of battery life (7 hours on the double capacity cell), a world keyboard and a global power supply. The unit checks in at under a pound and can support 1,9200 x 1,200 external displays with HDMI / DVI / VGA interfaces. Get ready to lust after one (we already are) when it ships in 1H 2009 starting at $999.
[Via ArsTechnica]
OQO officially launches Gobi / OLED-equipped model 2+, we get hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Netgear didn’t go for any fancy-schmancy new form factor with its 3G mobile broadband wireless router, instead opting for the standard shell we know and love. Nine different Sierra and Novatel 3G modems are currently supported, and just plugging one into the USB 2.0 slot will provide you web access via either ethernet LAN or 802.11g. Usual amenities like WEP / WPA encryption are here, and it includes both AC and 12V DC adapters. The router is due out this month for $130. Anyone up for a World of Warcraft campfire LAN party?
Read – List of supported 3G USB modems
Filed under: Wireless, Networking
Netgear announces 3G mobile broadband wireless router for 802.11g’s on the go originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
As our warriors move from the beachheads of SF to the trenches of LV, here’s today’s recap, and reminder that the war week is far from over:
It’s been the easiest thing for everybody in the universe to say that Apple’s Macworld 2009 keynote lacked not just Jobs but luster. We did feel a distinct absence of a Jobsian ZOMG hover-board-that-shoots-lightning-bolts reality distortion, a surge that is always followed by inevitable grumbling anyway. But the speech by able stand-in Phil Schiller wasn’t without genuine news…
• Those who enjoy their iPhoto couldn’t help marvel at the new features, including real bonafide face identification and new useful geographical organizing tools.
• People who hated last year’s iMovie overhaul are now starting to realize that it might have been a necessary step in a whole new approach.
• We finally got the 17″ MacBook Pro that had been projected for so long, though with a truly Apple-flavored twist: a long-lasting but non-removable battery.
• iWork got some improvements, but more importantly made its first lunge toward the cloud—for better or for worse.
• iPhone owners got the chance to impulse-buy songs directly over AT&T’s 3G network (and even the EDGE network, at their own peril).
• And DRM—the reason I started buying all music from Amazon—finally got the boot, though under the condition that the four major record distributors get to charge higher prices on their tastiest licks.
It was an eventful day in the Apple-verse, even though Steve sat it out. But Macworld has come to an end (perhaps for all time), and we’re already up and running at CES! [Macworld 2009; CES 2009]
The iPhone 3G unlock is now available. The unlocking software is called yellowsn0w, runs as an invisible application, and it’s very easy to install. Here’s how. Updated 3: Now works for me with 0.9.4.
Yellowsn0w, the iPhone 3G unlock, runs as a small command line application that gets installed in any jailbroken iPhone 3G using Installer. It’s very easy to install:
• First, update your iPhone 3G to the latest iPhone OS provided by Apple using the latest iTunes.
• Then, use QuickPwn 2.2 to jailbreak and activate your iPhone 3G. If you have Mac OS X 10.5.6 installed, you should follow these instructions before doing it.
• Use Installer or Cydia to install yellowsn0w, which is completely free. Here are the addresses you have to use to add yellowsn0w to your installer application:
For Cydia enter: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/
For Installer enter: http://i.yellowsn0w.com/
• That’s it. There are some special SIM cards that give problems, but f you have a normal SIM card from any non-official carrier, you are fine.
BEWARE: This is a beta application—version 0.9.1— so install at your own risk—I’m installing, it, though. Since it’s a daemon which doesn’t alter anything permanently, it seems safe. Just proceed with caution and be warned.
Update: I’ve been trying to get this to run all day. The installation is very easy. Getting it to work right is a completely different matter.
After reboot, the iPhone won’t pick my Vodafone carrier (the Vodafone SIM card works fine in an iPhone first generation, unlocked with the old unlock). It will just sit there, idle. Won’t give any error, but it won’t connect to the carrier network.
My iPhone 3G has the 2.28 baseband, as it should, and has been Quickpwned for the first time to do the unlock. Installer and Cydia are there, working fine. I’ve carefully followed the instructions in their page—about getting out the SIM card for a minute, then get it back in (and all other possible combinations)—but it just won’t fly.
Like they say, this is beta. It won’t damage your iPhone—in theory—but it may or may not run. It seems like there are other reports of the same, as well as other people talking about losing the network connection.
Even while this is labeled as a beta, it saddens me that the iPhone Dev Team has embraced the damn beta culture just to make the release on a cute date. It looks like the old days of solid versions are long gone by.
Update 2: There’s a poll here with people saying if it works or not. At the time of this writing, these were the stats:
It worked: 23 34.33%
It doesn’t work: 44 65.67%
Voters: 67.
Hopefully, a more stable and predictable release will come soon. Until then, I will keep trying. If you have any reports, drop me a line via email.
Update 3: iPhone Dev Team has released version 0.9.4. After some magic moves in the terminal, it worked for me. My iPhone 3G is now working in Spain in the Vodafone network. [IPhone Dev Team]
The Mac OS X 10.5.6 update broke pwnage, the unlocking/jailbreaking program for the iPhone. Fortunately, there’s now an easy solution to fix this problem. You just need an Automator script and these simple instructions.
You first need to be logged into the Mac with administrator privileges and, when asked, you have to provide with the administrator password.
Yes, it’s that easy. Enjoy. [Get the script here or here via Hackintosh]
After a grueling eight-city coast-to-coast test of the 3G networks run by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, we’ve come up with some clear-cut test results. Think you know who has the best network? Think again.
The Test
3G is more important now than ever before. Obviously, AT&T made a big push over the summer to augment 3G for the arrival of the updated iPhone, but almost every smartphone and most standard phones in the three largest cell networks runs on a supposedly fast 3G network, and T-Mobile’s 3G network is in the works. The technology can, at least on paper, rival home broadband. AT&T’s HSPA network, for instance, is supposed to deliver data at up to 3.6Mbps downstream, while letting you upload at 1.4Mbps. Meanwhile, the EVDO Rev. A that Sprint and Verizon use promises a comparable “burst rate” of 3Mbps up, with 1.5Mbps down.
Like a lot of business travelers, we bloggy types have a particular interest in 3G USB dongles, since we’re often trying to file stories far away from any decent wi-fi. Figuring out who has the best service quickly becomes a fixation, which becomes an obsession, which, as usual, becomes an ultimate Battlemodo.
In lieu of jetsetting all around the country, we FedExed our testing package from one staffer’s home to the next, until we’d hit eight of the country’s biggest cities. In each city, testers were instructed to put the three cards—one each from AT&T Sprint and Verizon—through some pretty rigorous paces. (Note: In case you’re wondering why T-Mobile isn’t represented, the carrier doesn’t yet have the coverage required, nor does it yet offer 3G USB dongles or cards like the ones we used in testing. Next year, maybe.)
The testers chose three to five locations (preferably including one suburban spot). Parking themselves somewhere, they would connect each card to the laptop, running Speakeasy’s bandwidth test five times for each device, and then follow it up with an auxiliary battery of repeated pageload and file download tests, in order to verify Speakeasy’s readings.
The Gear
The USB dongles we used for testing were typical 3G cards from the carriers: AT&T’s Sierra USBConnect 881, Sprint’s Sierra Wireless Compass 597 and Verizon Wireless’s Novatel USB727. We used both a Lenovo and a MacBook Pro, but at any given time the cards were being tested on one or the other, in order to keep hardware from being a comparative issue. (After all this extensive testing, we don’t think results have much to do with your platform or laptop of choice—even the USB dongles’ antennae didn’t have as much relevance as sheer position to cell tower.)
While it may sound like hopping around town testing cards is easy, rest assured it was plenty challenging. Any test where any of the three cards wasn’t playing well with a laptop, and the whole test had to be scrapped. This may not be a clean-room lab study, but we kept firm to our methods and the results speak to that. There’s a reason this may be the most information anyone has gathered, independently, on the subject.
Download Performance
As far as download performance goes, Sprint won overall, beating AT&T five cities to three, and handily beating Verizon in four cities while losing close contests in four more. To round it out, Verizon beat AT&T in four cities, tied in one, and lost in three.
These results aren’t so random when you plot them on the map. Besides proving that Sprint is a serious contender in almost any location—and should be taken seriously as a 3G and 4G data service provider, no matter what your feelings are about its basic phone service—we have confirmed what we thought, that the regional Bell heavies (and the former GTE) hold their own where their real estate holdings are most vast.
AT&T had troubles in the Northeast and Chicago, but down the coast in Raleigh and over in Austin, it’s probably no surprise that the southern Bell conglomerate came out victorious. On the West Coast, it was a toss-up except in Portland, where Verizon couldn’t quite keep it together.
Upload Performance
What are more surprising are the upload performance results: AT&T totally kicked ass here, winning six cities and barely losing to Sprint in the other two. Verizon was the slowpoke here, though it did nudge Sprint out of the way twice, and beat it soundly once.
Although the same regional attributes crop up here—AT&T is at its weakest in Boston and Chicago—AT&T clearly has a technological edge with HSUPA. Well, it’s either that or all of the 3G build-out meant to lure iPhone 3G customers has left the carrier with an awful lot of unused upstream bandwidth, since smartphone users download a lot more than they upload. (This is assuming that upstream and downstream operate independently, as they seemed to in AT&T’s case.)
Even when the download performance was crappy, AT&T’s upload talents shined through, indicating that the congestion argument could hold merit. So, for the time being anyway, if you’re into sending big files, or running some kind of masochistic mobile torrent service, AT&T is the right choice.
The Cities
Want to check out your city or region? Have a look at the eight contestants in this round, and while you’re at it, you’ll get to know a little more about the Giz staffers who took time to test the gear. If we didn’t get to your town this time around, don’t fret—maybe we’ll get to it next year…or when we eventually test LTE vs. WiMax.
• Austin
• Boston
• Chicago
• New York City
• Portland
• Raleigh-Durham
• San Francisco and the Bay Area
• Seattle
Thanks to Mark, Sean, Andi, Eric and Jack for testing. Special shout-out to Mahoney for helping put together the testing regimen and instructions, and to my brilliant wife for working her Excel bar-graphing magic on our unwieldy spreadsheets .
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
