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» 8 Little Things We Still Can’t Stand About the iPhone | Mobilecrunch

I tend to agree with all of the ommissions described in this blog. Consequently, I run a jailbroken (free to run non-Apple apps) and unlocked (not required to sign up for a plan) iPhone.

This means I have a wonderful device in which I can sample both the legitimate apps from Apple, apps designed by other folks to improve on the limitations (imposed by Apple) and pay trivial carrier costs (to txt and talk).

Here are my essentials for seamlessly maintaining this setup:

• Monitor the Dev-Team Blog around the time Apple updates its firmware (currently 2.2.1) and use their brilliant QuickPWN tool to jailbreak and when needed, unlock your iPhone (Stephen Fry purportedly uses this service for some of his 6 or 7 iPhones)
• Install both the Cydia (by Saurik) and Installer (by Nullriver) apps to make sure you have access to all the good work that multitudes of people have developed to improve the iPhone experience. Note that many apps have ads to help subsidise these development efforts.
• Install killer app 1 > Hood (by RipDev) to toggle WiFi/Edge connections, kill processes, reset the Springboard and more. Rather than clicking through two or three menus, simply swipe your finger across the status at the top to access its features.
• Install killer app 2 > Cycorder (by Saurik) to record video. Video is compressed to an equivalent quality used by typical digital cameras and records at the maximum framerate offered by the iPhone (6-15 fps).

The iPhone is a wonderful mobile digital device (not a great phone I should add!) and therefore, should be enjoyed to its full potential. Enjoy.