Well today’s been one of those days that you think you’ve got loads done, when in fact you haven’t. When I got up this morning, I decided to re-install everything on my Apple touch screen device… something that I had to do a couple of times. Why a couple of times you ask? Well when I jailbroke the device to install some software, I messed something up. Last night, when I jailbroke it for the first time, the device seemed to develop a little O/S issue – whenever it was rotated to horizontal angle, and you wanted to drag an application icon, it wouldn’t do it… it’d drag it off wherever it wanted (usually in the other direction). I think it was something to do with Winterboard, but as I don’t have that installed now, I can’t be sure.
When I jailbroke it, I installed Installous from the cydia.hackulo.us repository so that I could try some Twitter clients out before deciding which one to buy (it meant I could try before I bought). Whilst I don’t advocate that someone should pirate apps for iDevices, I’m a firm believer that we should have a trial option for the paying applications. I don’t want to fork out a lot of money before I find out that the app that i’ve just bought doesn’t work like I thought it would… or is missing some vital features that I thought would come as a standard. Besides, after the reviews are done, the apps will be deleted and i’ll buy the one I want.
So… in a few days, I should have a review post coming that lists the pros and cons of each application, as well as my take on each app.
And with that statement, I think that’s enough on the twitter applications for now.
So, what else have I been up to today? Well today, some time about 6pm GMT, Apple is releasing the iPhone O/S version 4 (now called iOS4). This version includes hundreds of improvements for the iPhone, including Background Application stuff (for apps and iPhones that support it), App Grouping and so on. Up to this afternoon, I was using the developer GM version of iOS4 – the version that was released to developers to say that it was ready and that they could write applications for it. Because it was a developer build, I thought i’d reinstall version 3.1.3 so that when it’s released later today, I can do a full install as end-users are meant to. Most people are saying that the GM Version of the operating system is the same that is going to be shipped later today, but I can’t help but feel it’s still slightly buggy – so I reckon that they will have fixed some more bugs. Anyway, it seemed to take forever to downgrade, then re-sync the hundreds of apps that I have onto it… and then setup my Google Apps exchange stuff on it so that I can access my mail, contacts and calendar stuff (it seemed to have a hissy fit to start with, so I removed the exchange profiles and redid them).
That’s it for now – i’ve got to get on with some work for One Voice on their Disability Access Guide website (disabilityaccess.info) and then re-start the Keynote presentation I accidentally deleted off my device and hadn’t got a backup of… whoops!
Chat Soon y’all!
p.s. if you’re looking for details on how to jailbreak your iDevice, take a look at the Gizmodo site – that’s how I learnt how to do it!