If you would like to give this a go yourself, follow the steps below;

• Make sure iTunes isn’t running and open up a Terminal window and cut and paste the following command into the window and hit enter.

defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE

• Download this file…

2. Open iTunes and select your iPhone. While holding down the Option key click the Update button. Browse to to the file you downloaded in the step above and continue.

• Turn off your iPhone to reboot it.
• Be sure your MMS settings are set the same as in the image below. (Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network -> MMS)

You should now be able to at least receive MMS messages. It took a couple of hours before I was able to send them myself but as the images above show I can in fact send and receive MMS. You will be able to tell that MMS is now enabled as there will be a camera icon in the MMS message window to the left of the text input field. Clicking the send icon in the lower left when you are viewing a photo will now show an MMS button. Now I am not guaranteeing that this will work for anyone else but if you are in Blacksburg as I am it should work. I don’t know what will happen when MMS is officially rolled out but my guess is I will update my phone at that time and every thing will be just as if I had not updated my carrier file early.

Good Luck. If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment.

Here is a copy of the original ippc file should you want to revert back to the 4.0 version of the carrier file.

Got a little bored waiting for a phone call today and whipped up some Super Mario Brothers ringtones for my iPhone using GarageBand. Thought I would post them online in case any one else was a SMB fan and had and iPhone. There are ringtones from SMB 1 through 3 as well as one for the New Super Mario Brothers in the archive. Just import them into iTunes and they will be listed under Ringtones. All, except the New Super Mario Brothers Theme, are 28 seconds in length and fade out over the last five seconds of the loop. The New Super Mario Brothers ringtone is 39 seconds. It was a late addition to the pack.

Enjoy!

Click the image below to download.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Maybe it’s the pessimist in me but I am rarely completely happy with anything in life. There always seems to be at least a little room for improvement. In that vain, I wanted to make a list of things I would like to see added to the iPhone in order to make it the perfect mobile device. At least for me. I am sure your idea of perfect will vary greatly from mine.

The first thing I would want is a way to customize the SMS tone. This is a huge oversight by Apple in my opinion and it seems others feel the same considering the fact that most everyone seems to be using the same SMS tone I use, Electronic. The only decent tone in the group. Besides, I miss my Monty Python “Message for you Sir!” sound effect!

The next thing would be canned SMS messages. I miss the ability to shoot off a quick SMS message from some templates stored on my phone. Didn’t realize how much I missed them until I had to type the same inane message about 50 times on my iPhone.

For my next wish, I would like the ability to place a phone link on the home page from a contact. Just like you can place a link to a URL on the home screen from the browser, I want to be able to do that from a contact so I can have one button calling from the home screen. If I have a picture associated with that contact, that is the image it would use for the icon. This seems an easy add for Apple since the mechanism for adding URL’s the home screen is already in place.

One last thing is blue tooth file transfer. Since the iPhone has blue tooth, it would be nice to be able to transfer files between my Mac and my iPhone as well as between other iPhones.

That’s my list for now but I would love you hear what you guys would like to see in the next update to the iPhone’s software. Please leave you suggestions in the comment section of this post or feel free to start a discussion on the forums.

Until next time, may all your class connect and your iPhone reboot!

Edit: I can’t believe I forgot to mention video. I don’t want anything grand. Just the ability to record video at a quality good enough to post to YouTube and I’ll be happy. There are a couple of smucks on campus I want to video parking in handicap spaces and I think the world should know their names.

Well, I am still managing to chug along with my iPhone 3G. The crashes are coming more and more infrequently now. I can only attribute this to the updates Apple has been putting out as I have not really changed my behavior with respect to how I use the phone. I can tell you I always hold my breath a little when I restart the phone (I still think there is a memory leak some where as it tends to get slower the longer it runs) expecting it not to boot back up.

I have now gone naked. Ok, more like partial nudity as every thing but the glass is covered. I was using a screen protector but I have become more and more convinced that the glass is nearly, if not completely, impossible to scratch.

Back ups do in fact seem to be a faster with 2.1. I am wondering if Apple if now using an incremental back up strategy now as compared to before. It seems like before 2.1 it was backing up the entire phone each time even after the smallest of changes. Still takes far too long with the measly 180 megs I am carrying on my phone.

That’s about it for now. I will leave you with this one last tip that I have found to be helpful. Until the next post,

Cheers!

iPhone Tip: Airplane mode

This setting has several uses that have come to light over the last couple of months. First when you are backing up your iPhone or syncing with iTunes, turn Airplane mode on to keep from receiving calls or texts that might interrupt the process. Second, if you go inside and find you have lost your cell signal when you return to the great outdoors, switch Airplane mode on and then back off again to force your iPhone to acquire a signal a little faster than normal. Also, if you are traveling and want to use the phone as an alarm but do not want phone calls or text messages to wake you up, yes you guessed it, turn Airplane mode on.

]]> http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/09/18/iphone-3g-status-report-21-update/feed/ 0 http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/07/30/iphone-3g-stuck-at-apple-logo/ http://www.roaminggecko.com/2008/07/30/iphone-3g-stuck-at-apple-logo/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:48:45 +0000 Gage Gecko http://www.roaminggecko.com/?p=173

For me the nightmare began last night. I was on duty at the station and I looked down and the App Store application informed me there was an update to one of my apps. Since it was late at night and I was unlikely to get a call I decided to go ahead and update through the iPhone. When the application looked to be about 90% percent or more installed the iPhone suddenly rebooted. I got to the Apple logo and that was a far as it got. I let it sit there for about a half hour and then gave up on the phone making it through the boot process. I tried a hard reboot but again, the phone would not make it through the boot process.

My next thought was to get it hooked up to my Mac and see if I perform a restore. No go on that. iTunes would not recognize it. So, I took the last resort and that was to do a DFU restore (Information on how to do this will be at the bottom of this page). Soon I got the image of a USB cable and the iTunes logo and iTunes recognized the phone and offered to do a firmware/software restore. At this point I thought my troubles were over. After the restore the phone would boot and all my apps, music, video and contacts were back and the phone started to operate normally. Wishful thinking, the phone soon locked up again and would not respond so it was back to the DFU restore process. I did this a total of three times before I decided I needed to do a little net investigating. Well, in my search I came across a post in Apple’s own discussion forums. Seems I’m not the only one with this issue.

Forum Thread

So, where am I at now? After doing some reading online I have decided not to sync my applications through iTunes and I am not going to download anything through the App Store on the iPhone that isn’t produced by a major software developer, ie. Apple, EA, Sega, Vivendi. I will also do this slowly. Download an app or group of apps and then run the phone through it’s normal use to determine if it is going to lock up before moving on.

I will posts updates for anyone reading about the pitfalls or triumphs I encounter in this long and tedious process. Of course, Apple could save me the trouble of having to do this by releasing a firmware or software update but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

To Perform a hard reboot of your iPhone, do the following;

Hold the Power button and the Home button down until the phone reboots.

When the phone shuts off, release the buttons.

Turn the phone on as you normally would.

To place the phone in Recovery Mode;

Turn your phone off.

While holding down the Home button, plug your iPhone into your computer via your USB cable.

Continue hold the Home button until an iTunes dialog informs you the phone is in recovery mode.

Follow the on screen instructions to reformat and restore your phone.

To place the phone in DFU Recovery Mode;

Plug your iPhone into your computer via your USB cable.

Turn your phone off.

Hold the power button and the home button, after ~ 7 seconds release the power button but continue to hold the home button. Your phone’s display should not turn on.

iTunes should pop up a dialog box once it detects your phone.

Follow the on screen instructions to reformat and restore your phone.

Note – This method more or less bypasses your phone’s normal boot process allowing your to do a more through restore that is very useful with downgrading or upgrading your phone’s firmware.

This blog post has generated a lot of interest as well as hits and I would like to hear more about your iPhone woes. I believe getting your troubles with the iPhone out there in the open for the public to read helps make Apple aware of any shortcomings this phone has and prompts them to fix them as soon as possible. It’s in their best interest to ensure the public’s opinion of this device is a positive one. Please consider clicking the link below and posting your story in our forums for others to read. Thanks!