iPhone News Updated

iPhone 3G Carrier Unlock Released and Working Fine

This New Year, you may be planning to join a gym, or to quit smoking. Some of you might even want to cure an internet addiction (you fools!). I will be doing something I have wanted to do for some time. I’ll be getting an iPhone.

Why now? Because the iPhone Dev Team, those tireless iPhone hackers, have finally released Yellowsn0w, a carrier unlock for the iPhone 3G. As promised, it was released on the first day of the year, and as expected, it works. A simple download of the Yellowsn0w application is all you need, although you’ll have to have a Jailbroken (hacked to run non-App Store applications) iPhone to do it.

From there it’s easy — run the application and reboot with the new SIM installed. That’s it. You now have an iPhone 3G that will run on any network. One note — you’ll need the latest baseband firmware for the iPhone, numbered  02.28.00, and you’ll have to disable the PIN unlock code on your SIM. Other than that, what’s stopping you?

[Thanks: http://blog.wired.com]

Review: Take A Note for the iPhone

Note-taker blends gorgeous looks with functional features

Not too long ago, I had lunch with a graphic designer acquaintance and fellow Mac cultist who bemoaned the mediocrity of so many iPhone apps. “They don’t look like they’re Apple quality,” he complained. “They’re so dull and drab. They’re boring!”

Notable Appearance: Readdle’s Take A Note uses a brown and light yellow color scheme that creates an aesthetically pleasing app for the iPhone or iPod touch.

Now, it isn’t exactly fair to hold every third-party app developer to a lofty Cupertino standard. But it may be fairer to say that a healthy majority of apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch deliver on form or function, but rarely deliver both. Oh, sure, there are quite a few apps that are as stylistic as they are functional. Instapaper and Classics spring instantly to mind. Many developers, however, have the programming skills but lack the design savvy to effectively meld style with substance.

That thought occurred to me again as I was using Readdle’s Take A Note app. I had already reviewed and adopted YouNote , which is an excellent, free note-taking organizational tool for the iPhone and iPod Touch. YouNote is functional, but not at all beautiful. Take A Note is drop-dead gorgeous. But is it also functional?

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