To iPhone or not to iPhone

Here is an email converstation I had with my friend MQ who is in Enlgand right now. We where talking about the merits of getting an iPhone or not.

From: MQ
Subject: Question about the iPhone

Hey there,

Before you trash this email, it's me MQ. I have a question about the iPhone. I'm thinking of getting it here in the UK. The problem is that it wouldn't do me any good if I can't use it Kuwait. I know about the jail break thingy, but I was hoping to get the full capabilities via the network.

So what gives?

Thanks.

MQ

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone


. If you are in the UK, jump over to France and get it there. French law forbids SIM locked phones. Apple always tries to break unlocked iPhones (done by something like the jailbreak hack) with each firmware upgrade.


From: MQ
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

Another question, I need your advice. I'm still kind of hesitant about the iPhone. I watched Job's keynote, and you know that it kind of gets you dazed for a couple of days, but when the hangover wears off, and you get back to reality and things start looking different. I was wondering, if you had a chance to check out the keynote on the new iPhone, what your thoughts are on the device. Cause I am torn between the iPhone and the HTC Diamond. What do you think? Do you have a super geeky opinion on the subject, oh king of all things geeky?

Thanks

MQ

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

I would. Go for the iPhone, but one that is not SIM locked from apple. I don't want any jailbreak bullshit hack.

Also, I would wait a few months so that they get a chance to fix all the bugs that are usually found in a new product.

From: MQ
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

Why did you choose the iPhone over the HTC Touch Diamond? Do you any particular reason for that?

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

I had an older htc mobile and the battery sucked, especially with push email. I have an ipod touch and the interface is much nicer and usable, even without a keyboard. It is also faster for email attacments. My htc got bricked after I tried downloading a large pdf file from an email.

From: MQ
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

Since the touch interface is the deal breaker, then I should settle for an iPod touch. As far as the email and email attachments go, I don't think I ever seriously used the email program on my imate, and I'm not sure if I will be using this feature on an iPhone much either. I think since you are in a corporate atmosphere, and having to travel a lot means that you rely on your email a great deal.

Any other reasons why I should get an iPhone?

MQ

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

The Safari browser is excellent and supports all that AJAX stuff and browsing
with your fingers is fun.

From: MQ
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

So why haven't you jail broken an iPhone, and used its other features as opposed to using the iPod Touch? Also, there is still this other question you didn't answer: why should I get the iPhone, when all the features you had mentioned are in the iPod Touch. I mean I could just skip the phone feature of the iPhone, and get all the other touch, feel, coolness, and emotional relief from the iPod "Caress".

You also mentioned the browser. Opera has just "released" its beta version (hackers actually ripped off the unreleased version from the Diamond) of a super duper browser for the Windows Mobile platform. I have it now, and it rocks. Granted they have copied the coolness from the iPhone's "mini" Safari, added all the other AJAX, Flash, and pretty much all the other important regular browser plug-ins, but they have added something absolutely necessary. They made it so that when you double tap the screen, and get zoomed in, the text within the screen wraps around to the size of the screen. With the iPhone/iPod, you would have to scroll sideways if the text didn't fit the screen.

Sorry for the length of the message, your Geekyness.

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

I don't believe in jail breaking products, especially from apple. If apple does not want us to use the phone, then they can keep it. I will only buy it if it does not put on me restrictions. That's why I'd buy the French iPod because its does not have SIM lock. Also, hacked software might be fun, but one small mistake and your phone is a shiny brick. HTC still has a short battery life. Opera is my browser of choice for the desktop, and its features are always excellent. The problem with Opera on the Mac is that it still does not know how to behave with multi touch. I don't know how it will behave on the iPhone platform. Opera on the Nokia would not run youtube flash, on the htc it might be different. Safari ran all the flash stuff as if you where on a regular Mac, which is expected because the iPhone is really running a slimmed down version of OSX, which has roots in Mach Unix.

From: MQ
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone


I was searching for information on buying an iPhone from France, and I got the following response in a forum. It should be clear that buying one from France is not worth it all.

-----


Ok well having just returned from France on Wednesday with an iPhone I can help you out here with some details.

It is certainly possible to purchase an unlocked iPhone in France. In fact as of the other day it is no longer possible to buy an unlocked iPhone in Germany leaving France as the only place in the world where this is possible.

Its a relatively involved process but achievable.

The Prerequisites:
1) Speaking French (Pretty difficult to go through the process without)
2) A French address (a friend living in France is fine)
3) A French credit card (you need this to create a French iTunes account to activate it)
4) Un ordinateur (French for computer :p)
5) Patience :)

The Process:
1) Walk into an Orange store and ask to buy an iPhone with a prepaid sim (mobicarte is their product name). This will cost you 649eur. Provide them with your valid French address (this is important). Oh, and most likely you will need to do this all in French :)
2) Purchase 100eur pre-paid credit for you mobicarte.
3) This brings the purchase price up to 749eur.
4) Wait around 4 hours for the mobicarte to become active on the network.
5) Call the mobicarte recharge number and load the 100eur credit you purchased in the store. (Simply key in the code number on the paper they give you) (Prompts are in French)
6) Fire up iTunes on your computer and create a new iTunes store account using the French address (must match the one you gave Orange when you bought the phone) and your French credit card.
7) Once you have your French iTunes account you can now activate your iPhone (this will make it fully usable as a phone/ipod/device with the Orange prepaid SIM. Just connect the iPhone to your PC via the USB cable supplied and follow the prompts in French to activate it using your iTunes account.
8) Ok so now you have an activated but still locked French iPhone. If your PC was Australian then the iPhone will be in English and it will be using the QWERTY keyboard layout. Otherwise you will need to go into the settings on the iPhone and change this from French and AZERTY (easy process).
9) Now you need to make a couple of phone calls from the iPhone to announce the IMEI (hardware phone serial number) to the Orange phone network.
10) Wait a couple more hours (2?) or the Orange call centre will not see your iPhone on the network yet.
11) Call the Orange support centre and request "desimblockage" (unlocking). This is where the 100eur credit comes into it. They deduct the 100eur unlocking fee from the prepaid phone credit you loaded. Its also worth noting here that when you buy 100eur credit you get a little extra, like 125eur due to a bonus system they have. This is useful because you dont want your test phone calls/data usage to drop the credit below 100eur or they wont unlock it for you - if in doubt or you want to play more, just buy more credit when you get the phone or at the petrol station etc.
12) Now the waiting begins.
13) Orange will send the unlock code to your French address via snail mail.
14) Once you have this code I presume you connect up the iPhone to your PC, visit the iTunes store, click a link and type the code in and voila - desimblockage!!

I say presume with step 14 because this is as far as I am up to in this process as I only bought mine last Sunday (2nd of December) and got back to Australia on Tuesday. My buddy in France emailed me today to say he called the Orange support line today and they said they mailed out the code yesterday. Unfortunately for me hes out of France for a week so I have to wait another week before my iPhone is unlocked :(

Another worthwhile tip is if you wont be in France the whole time required (7 days is the end-to-end process i believe) then call the Orange service line and ask to turn on International/Global roaming on your mobicarte so that the SIM still works in Aus, just roams as if you were visiting here from France. Not sure if this is technically necessary but it costs nothing and I wanted to guard against activation SMS's or similar that would have required the iPhone to still remain in France.

Anyways, that's enough of a post. My apologies if it is somewhat unclear but im tired :)

If you have any questions or require clarification on anything just ask.

Alex.
----

This is the website

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/873516.html

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

Vive La France


I thought it would be easier, if you are willing to wait, then the French iPhones will be gradually getting in the grey market through eBay. I hate hacking an iPhone, then having Apple zapping all my fixes/hacks through a firmware upgrade.

From: MQ
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

Now I'm thinking of getting an iPod touch. It seems more logical since I can upgrade the software to 2.0 in July, and get all the software features of the iPhone. Of course, with exception to those features that uses hardware available only to the iPhone.

It seems that getting an iPhone to work as it should either requires that I go through the hassle of jail breaking it, or get setup properly through UK's O2 carrier and have an iPhone that functions as an iPod in Kuwait.

I'm definitely not liking this situation.

MQ

From: DV
Subject: Re: Question about the iPhone

That's business, that's why I got an iPod touch with 32 GB, I get all the connectivity I need through wifi, and for a Mobile I got a blackberry, which is not the best mobile, but good for doing work. I hate the blackberry but I can't live without it. :-(

Long Busy Week

It has been a long busy week and I have not updated my blog as much as I would like to. I hope to get a good night sleep today and update it tommorow with some interesting posts. I bought an HTC Touch Diamond and have been trying it out for the last week. I also had a lot of interesting email conversation with my friend MQ about the Diamond versus the iPhone. I will post these emails after I edit all the typos and make it readable.

Here is a short clip of the HTC Diamond being used for sending a text message:

Kids Look Before You Eat

Check out this cute video called look before you eat. Hilarious.

My Macbook Air got eGO

Earth as seen from Mars

This is how Earth looks from Mars, just a small speck of dust in a huge dark sky. I always thought we would look much bigger.



For more information, have a look at NASA's Site.

NBK Scam Phising - Investigated

MY K, from MY K Blog wrote about a National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) Phishing scam.

The scam works by sending you an email telling you to go to a seemingly valid banking site and update your account number and PIN code. That site would be a fraudulent site and what it does is send to the fraudsters your personal information that you just entered. Later they will log on to your account and try to transfer money out of it.

I did a little investigation and read the source code of the NBK fraudulent site. I found some clues such as the signature niarB, which is Brain in reverse. Searching around I found some more information about this elusive Brain. It turns out that Brain is a group of Morrocan fraudsters calling themselves Mr. Brain. They offer phishing/scam kits on the Internet that allow you to set up a fraudulent site that looks like a popular bank's page. When the poor victim enters his information, that information is sent to the fraudsters who used Mr. Brain's tools. A copy is also sent to the Morrocan Mr. Brain team. More information about this scheme can be found at Trend Micro's Site and also at Netcraft's Site.

In addition to the Mr. Brain's signature found in the source code, there is also a coded string that represents the email address. The string is "245616c647881696e30384067617761622e636f6d". It probably is the email address of the fraudster.

I did not bother to decode it, but if NBK wants to, they can always catch the Mr. Brain team and they can explain everything to them.

De-Motivational Posters

Plenty more here, be sure to print them out and hang them in your work cubicle.

Share the Love

Here is a little love for anyone who needs it. Love Pictures.

Kuwait and Egypt

While reading a news article from AFP about the new parliament and the Emir's speech I noticed the little map in the sidebar showing where Kuwait is located in the world.



Notice that Kuwait is located right on top of Alexandria, Egypt.

I know it is holiday season and half the Kuwaitis will be vacationing in Egpyt, and the other half somewhere in Europe, but I don't remember the country moving there. Could it be the large Egyptian Expat population in Kuwait has decided to make us part of Egypt, since they are running the goverment sector anyway?


News Article is here.