Hello.

It’s been awhile.

This weekend I spent some time installing iPhone OS 4.  Too impatient to wait for the actual release this summer, I decided to go off the beaten path.  To descend in the vagaries of legal gray areas.  To sell out.

To help you wayfaring strangers accomplish the same,  I am documenting the process.

Step 1:  Get your UDID added to a developer account.

Best way:  Sign up for a developer account and wait for approval.
Fast way:  Find someone willing to add yours to their account.  I chose this method.

There are several ways to find someone.  I ended up paying someone $8.  I found their e-mail address on a popular sharing site with several confirmations of successful transactions.  If driving into the ghetto of the Internet to make a deal on the corner is too scary, there are several users on hackint0sh.org giving them away or selling them.  Probably a safer source of information.

Why do you have to do this?  Your iPhone activates itself on first launch after any restore.  If it doesn’t have your devices Unique Device ID registered, it won’t activate.  You can’t use your phone.

Step 2:  Download iPhone OS4 build.

Best way:  Sign up for a developer account.
Fast way:  Use torrents or other file sharing sites.

I chose the latter option, of course.

The most important thing to  be aware of here is corrupt builds.  I’m not talking about hijacked builds with viruses (though those are possible),  I’m speaking of builds that for whatever aren’t bit for bit identical to the version Apples is distributing.  To arm against this, run whatever file you download through and MD5 checksum utility.  The authentic checksum for the 3GS version is: b7f4501ef6122da7addab344ae5ba58a.

I found several that did not have this checksum.

I ended up using this link to download the file.  It was in 3 parts, but the assembled version had the correct checksum.

http://forum.megasharesvn.com/showthread.php?s=0f2d2b8d7d3d270c5c29e00408596cc0&p=443827#post443827

Also, the MegaUpload links were the fastest.

He recommends using Split&Concat to assemble the parts.  Since I was not on a Mac, I ended up using a tool called NewzToolz.  Horrible name but it did the job.

Step 3: Find a Mac with the latest version of iTunes.

You might foolishly believe that iTunes has a Windows version and that this version would work, but you would be wrong.  What it will do is brick your phone forcing you to restore back to 3.1.3.  The same thing will happen if you use a version of iTunes other than 9.1.

Once you have said Mac and said updated iTunes,  simply Option + Click the Restore button in iTunes and navigate to the ipsw file you downloaded in step 2.

Step 4: Watch it restore, thanking your lucky stars I wrote this guide so you didn’t have to spend 8 hours tinkering.

Seriously, it took me trial and error all day.  It was annoying.  My friends made fun of me.

First impressions.

My very first impression was that this build is a little laggy.  Not unusable.  Not worse than your typical Windows Mobile phone.  The animations and transitions just aren’t quite as buttery smooth as we’re all accustomed to.

I’ve been told this is par for the course in Apple betas.

Other than that, it’s pretty stable.  I have had a few random bugs that I have never seen in 3.x, but nothing too terrible.  The new features are nice.  Here are a few of my favorites:

1. New spell correction.
   
   It’s undeniably awesome.   Words that have spell correction options have a wavy red line beneath them a la Microsoft Office.
2. Multiple Exchange accounts.  I now have both Gmail and my work e-mail account being pushed.
3. Similar to above, the unified inbox enhances the experience.
4. Google suggest in the search box in Safari.
5. Slightly redesigned album view in iPod app with new shuffle button. (I think it’s new)

Those are the things I like most.  I like the multitasking pane, but I can’t really test background applications as there aren’t any at the moment.  It seems to speed up my multitasking in the ease of switching applications arena, but that’s about it.

Annoyances at this point are mainly the occasional instability, laggy animations,  the fact that AT&T hotspot no longer recognize I’m using an iPhone and pass me through without hitting the login page, etc. Nothing huge.

I haven’t really used the game center yet. No thoughts on it.  Nor have I used iBooks.

Anyway, feel free to ask questions.  I might answer them if I feel nice.

My work laptop is a Lenovo T500 equipped with a fingerprint reader.

When I originally installed Windows 7, I downloaded and installed the drivers for the fingerprint reader from Lenovo’s website.   I didn’t realize at the time I was by passing built in Windows functionality.

Don’t get me wrong, the Lenovo software is very functional…never really had any issues, but I prefer Windows native software 90% of the time.

So this morning I set out to fix this.  I first uninstalled the Lenovo fingerprint reader software.   After a reboot I checked “Biometric Devices” under Control Panel and was disappointed to see a message telling me I didn’t have any compatible fingerprint reader devices.   This made little sense as Device Manager clearly showed my Authentec AES2810 and it was properly categorized as a biometric device.

After searching online, I decided to delete the existing driver and let Windows reinstall it.  Doing so was successful.  After reinstalling, the device was listed in Control Panel as expected.  Enrolling fingers launched custom Authentec software (TrueSuite).  I enrolled a few fingers and locked my screen to test it out.

I ran into one problem. “Fingerprint reader is not enabled for domain accounts on this machine.”

A quick Google search revealed this article.   It’s a simple checkbox in Control Panel.

So it’s all working now.  The native reader is a little snappier than the non-native and just barely more consistent with Windows 7 styling.  Other than that, there is probably no real advantage.  Your mileage may vary, of course.

If you have Office 2007 or prior products installed and you try to install Office 2010, you receive a fun error message warning you that this is not possible and that you must uninstall all Office 2007 products before proceeding.  Fortunately, there is a bit of a work around.

While you do have to uninstall all Office 2007 products to proceed with the installation, you can selectively reinstall them afterwards. I did this for Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007, as we are not ready to migrate our forms to 2010.

There is one limitation: You can’t install Outlook 2010 next to Outlook 2007. It will simply not work. Only one version of Outlook can be installed and Office 2010 will make Outlook 2010 that version.

I finally made the jump to the heavy weight champion of the smart phone world, the iPhone.  After admiring the device mostly from afar for years, I was slightly concerned that in the end the phone would be unable to live up to the hype.  So far, that has not been the case. In no particular order, here are a few thoughts from my first few days using the phone.  I will be focusing mostly on what I did not expect.

1. It was easier to setup Microsoft Exchange on the iPhone than it is on Windows Mobile.

Which is just pathetic, Microsoft. For some reason, I imagined that setting up exchange was going to be a pain as many 3rd party implementations are, but the process was an absolute breeze. It just worked.

2.  I multi-task better on the iPhone than Windows Mobile.

The iPhone may restrict you to one application at a time, but the fact that virtually all applications open again to the same place you left them mostly hides this.  I have no problems going from app to app…I’m accomplishing more and the fact that the programs are not simultaneously running is insignificant.

3. The battery life is excellent.

If there is a technical spec that seems to be erroneous or blatantly dishonest, it is usually battery life.  I have found the iPhone, specs aside, easily makes it through a whole day of moderate usage.  Considering my HTC Touch Pro could barley make it past 1PM, this is a huge improvement.   I suspect that my overall battery life will decrease by 20% as I use the phone more, but so far…I’m very pleased.

4. Edge is slow, but not that slow.

I can tell I’m not on 3G, but the fact that the actual software is so responsive and quick decreases the effect of the smaller bandwidth.  Plus, the iPhone makes connecting to Wifi natural and effortless, so most of the time I do not have to rely on AT&T for my data at all.  Safari is a speed champ. After using Pocket Internet Explorer and Opera for years, I will gladly give up a little bandwidth.

5.  Typing is really easy, actually.

In the past I have veered away from touch screen only phones because of a lingering suspicion that this would be a more frustrating, more inaccurate way to type. Using HTC’s touch keyboard relieved some of my fears, but in no way did I expect to be this accurate this quickly on the iPhone’s touch keyboard.  The larger screen real estate and extremely accurate auto correction make me much faster than I was on the physical slide out keyboard on the Touch Pro.   That’s pretty cool!

6. Voice quality is fantastic.

Compared to my last two phones, the voice quality on the iPhone is superb.  Even with AT&Ts spotty coverage, I’ve yet to drop a call. (Though I haven’t made many either.)

So there’s six things that I love, how about dislikes? There’s only a few.

1. Apple’s application reviews.
   While there are many apps for the iPhone that have no Windows counter part, there are also some fairly basic ones that are unavailable for the iPhone solely because Apple won’t approve them.  LAME.
2. Noise alerts for new e-mails in subfolders other than my inbox.
   I can’t seem to turn them off.
3. Vibration is a bit difficult to feel in my pocket.
   Though I think it will improve as I get used to the phone.
4. AT&T’s coverage is truly awful.
   Worst I’ve seen in Lynchburg, VA by far.  There are several places in town where I can barely get 1 bar of coverage.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. Overall I love it. I will definitely stick with this phone (and its future updates) if my experience continues to be this positive.