Well, I am veering slightly off track here but the point is; the iPhone 3G got it very right when other companies were floundering and trying to guess the next technology move. Apple, in my opinion, did two things very very well with the iPhone - they integrated the iPod (simple but genius) and they made the App Store source code available to all and sundry.
As for things that were missing, these were well documented and Apple listened. The folder structure was something that would definitely make the home screen easier and multi-tasking was really needed by any modern day user. However, this was where the pain set in for me (for a short period). As a 3G user and tied into a contract with O2, I was keen (not desperate) to get the folder structure (well I am a long time Windows user - we need folders!) So I downloaded iOS4 (with some excitement) and can only describe my feelings as ‘disappointed’, ‘upset’ and ‘cheated’. Could my phone get any slower? Every app I installed loaded up with the efficiency of an English World Cup 2010 defence. How could this be? My amazing iPhone the one that I had told everyone was the best thing since the birth of beer and now, how disappointing - it could barely tell me the time, let alone direct me to the Britania Hotel, Lisbon or somewhere equally exotic. F*&k! Damn you Apple - you are making me want to buy an iPhone 4! I had about four weeks between release of the new phone and the end of my contract, so I had to survive technologically in that time, so I put the phone to the test. First, I tried to see who else was suffering from this awful ‘piss take’ from Apple. There were a lot of people out there on the Interweb who were suffering as I was. Slow app loading, crashing, some apps refusing to load and disgust that the greatest gadget was now a blubbering retard (can I use that word?)
There were comments suggesting a hard reboot or indeed doing it twice. Others were suggesting ‘upgrading’ to an Android mobile system. Which Multiverse am I in? It was clear that the 3G was not/is not capable of successfully running iOS4. Shame!
Well, thankfully I was able to upgrade to the new iPhone (I only had to use a slow 3G for 4 weeks) and now don’t have to worry about slow loading apps and no multi-tasking - all is well. I will post my thoughts on it at a later date, but the question was, what do I do with my old 3G? Keep it? Will I use it? Sell it? Will anyone want it? And then I thought - I can jailbreak it. Yes! I didn’t want to when it was my main phone, just in case something went wrong. But now it doesn’t matter. Just last week there was a ruling in the US that users could legally Jailbreak their phones (shame I’m in the bloody UK, but oh well). This opens up a whole new world, separate from the App Store. Jailebreakme 2.0 only runs on iOS4 so would this slow my phone down any more?
Firstly, I have to say how easy it was to download. As easy as sliding your finger to the right of the screen, from Safari, on the device (as shown in pic below). Easy! It adds an additional icon on the home screen (Cydia). Open it to further install the software and job done, your phone is jail broken. Now I am still playing around with it, but after a little research Winterboard is apparently a good shell to install (I love the constantly changing background on the home screen). It allows you to completely change the look of the home screen and all apps. Different icons, changing backgrounds, and a whole new store to buy and download apps. It is not quite as user friendly as the inherent Apple set-up but it is fairly intuitive and a good bit of fun for anyone who has techie curiosity. For now my jail broken 3G is lying around the house connected to wi-fi and serving as a fun new device. So now I have two new devices - I’ll never just have one gadget that does it all!
