12. The built in timer is great
when waiting between keys in
VATS equipped vehicles.
of you taking artistic photos, or
photos for publication), and you
can’t beat the convenience. Newer
iPhone models also feature the
capability of capturing video.
All of these features obviously
make the iPhone a pretty handy
tool. What if you don’t have one,
or don’t have AT&T? There are a
few options available to you. The
first, and cheapest, is to purchase
an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is
very similar to the iPhone in that
it is essentially a small computer
with a touch screen. The features
it lacks however is the phone and
camera. Moreover the iPod Touch
cannot get wireless Internet
(called 3G) like the iPhone can.
Rather, the iPod Touch is only
capable of access the Internet via
a locally-broadcast WiFi signal
(such as in your home, a coffee
shop, or in some libraries).
The advantage of the iPod
Touch? First of all it’s cheaper, (as
low as $150 new on Ebay, even
less used). It also is impressively
thin which is neat. Besides Internet connectivity and the camera,
the iPod Touch can run any of
the apps that the iPhone can. I
personally owned an iPod Touch
before I owned my iPhone.
13. The iSafe app stores
sensitive information securely.
Then there is the issue with the
AT&T network. As of writing this
article AT&T still is the sole cell
phone carrier for the iPhone. What
this means is that when you buy
an iPhone in the United States it is
sold locked into that one particular
network. If you tried to install your
SIM card (a small computer chip
which stores information to identify you to the cellular network, see
photo 15) from another network
like T-Mobile into your iPhone it
simply won’t work.
This didn’t sit very well with
a lot of people so before long
computer gurus all over started
to release work-arounds. The first
thing these hackers needed to do
was trick the computer’s operating
system (the software that makes
everything work) into allowing
them to install and run third party
software. This process, called
jailbreaking, opened the doors
for a number of other changes.
For example an iPhone that has
been jailbroken can install third
party applications to change color
schemes, icons, and even display
more icons on the screen at a time
than previously. More importantly
however, jailbreaking the iPhone
allows for the next step in the process: unlocking. Unlocking allows
14. Browsing the web on the
iPhone has countless benefits.
15. SIM (Subscriber Identity
Module) cards store information
that the cellular network accesses.
the iPhone to be compatible with
carriers besides AT&T.
Many folks that do in fact have
AT&T still choose to jailbreak
their phone for various reasons.
One such reason is so they can
tether there iPhone to their
laptop. What this means is you
plug your phone into your laptop
so that you can use your phone
like a modem. This way you can
access the web at 3G speed on
your laptop wherever you could
on your phone.
At the time of writing the
legality of jailbreaking the iPhone
remains unclear. The Electronic
Frontier Foundation (EFF) has
specifically requested that the
US Copyright Office allow an
exception to certain copyright
laws with regard to jailbreaking
the iPhone, but Apple maintains
that it is copyright infringement.
The lawyers with the EFF on the
other hand maintain its legality
under current law. We may see
an official court ruling on the
subject within the year, but for
the time being there isn’t much
to worry about besides voiding
your warranty.
