Update: Using the iPhone in Ireland
21/02/08 16:33
Upgrading to 1.1.4...
Readers of Mac Information will know that we looked at using an iPhone in Ireland in 2007 before O2 launched the Apple smartphone in March 2008.
We had reservations at the time, but still see the O2 route as the best method for those people who would like to have their warranty honoured and have the help of Apple support if anything goes wrong. However, if you are like us, you may enjoy jailbreaking the iPhone, which is the method which allows you to customise and install third party apps on the phone.
We have been using a iPhone for 6 months now, and the one problem we had was the inability to upgrade to the latest iPhone software. We were unwilling to risk our perfectly working phone by removing software version 1.1.1 and installing 1.1.4. The risk ranged between ending up with a phone which would not recognise our SIM card to a completely unusable unit! Our reason to upgrade was motivated by one small problem- the iPhone under 1.0.2 and 1.1.1 did not send us an SMS message if there was a voicemail message waiting for us, and this was an irritation.
However we were persuaded to move following the changes to Independence, the Mac application which allows you to "jailbreak" (open iPhone to third party apps) and unlock (open for other SIM cards). The second application was Ziphone, a one step unlocker/jailbreaker app.
We used Independence in the past and have found it works well. So here are the steps we took. We do not recommend this unless you know about what's involved, and you are prepared for the possibility that you could damaged or lock your phone. It worked for us, taking it slowly and with patience! But it may not work for everyone and we encourage you to read around the websites below before making any decisions.
1/ The first question is if the iPhone was unlocked in the past. If you unlocked the iPhone for 1.0.2 with anySIM, it will have changed your software and this needs to be repaired before you can move on. We ran "The Virginizer" which brought our "baseband" software back to its original state. The Virginizer is available through "Installer", the application for the iPhone which allows you to install third party apps. With Installer on the iPhone, The Virginizer is in the unlocking tools section. To run this software you have to ensure that you set your auto-lock to "never" (in General section of "Settings" on the iPhone). It takes a few mins to run, but afterwards you are ready to upgrade.
2/ we updated the iPhone to 1.1.4 using iTunes in the normal upgrading method. This is a step we had always avoided as we were afraid of locking our phone. However we took the plunge, clicked on "update" in the iPhone section of iTunes, and waited a few minutes for the iPhone software 1.1.4 to download and install.
3/ after the upgrade we had a fresh 1.1.4 version on the phone, with all of our contacts, SMS messages, emails etc. still on there. Therefore the next step was to jailbreak the phone, and enable it for new applications. We used Independence for this step and were able to "activate" the phone. This step did not work on our second iPhone and this led us to Ziphone. This application offers a one step route to both activate and jailbreak, as well as unlocking the phone. On a second phone we used Ziphone instead of Independence for both steps, and it worked perfectly.
4/ there were a few clean up steps at the end. First was to re-enter the EDGE settings. For O2 we used apn: internet, username: user, and password was left blank. For Vodafone we use apn: isp.vodafone.ie, username: dublin, password: dublin.
5/ using the Ziphone method, it put a copy of Installer app onto the phone, so we were ready to go. On the other phone, when we used Independence, it took a bit longer as Installer was not on the phone. We had to manually install it.
6/ the last step was installing the instant message application, Apollo. Apollo is a handy way to have iChat on the iPhone. However under 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 it reports an "hosts" error. The solution is to open Installer and add the "IM Chat 1.1.3 fix" in the category "1.1.3 tweaks".
The main advantage of all of this is that we now get an SMS message when we miss a call and there is a voice message waiting for us.
Check out our coverage on the cost of the iPhone in Ireland vs the UK, and our iPhone guide page.
Simon Spence/2008
Readers of Mac Information will know that we looked at using an iPhone in Ireland in 2007 before O2 launched the Apple smartphone in March 2008.
We had reservations at the time, but still see the O2 route as the best method for those people who would like to have their warranty honoured and have the help of Apple support if anything goes wrong. However, if you are like us, you may enjoy jailbreaking the iPhone, which is the method which allows you to customise and install third party apps on the phone.
We have been using a iPhone for 6 months now, and the one problem we had was the inability to upgrade to the latest iPhone software. We were unwilling to risk our perfectly working phone by removing software version 1.1.1 and installing 1.1.4. The risk ranged between ending up with a phone which would not recognise our SIM card to a completely unusable unit! Our reason to upgrade was motivated by one small problem- the iPhone under 1.0.2 and 1.1.1 did not send us an SMS message if there was a voicemail message waiting for us, and this was an irritation.
However we were persuaded to move following the changes to Independence, the Mac application which allows you to "jailbreak" (open iPhone to third party apps) and unlock (open for other SIM cards). The second application was Ziphone, a one step unlocker/jailbreaker app.
We used Independence in the past and have found it works well. So here are the steps we took. We do not recommend this unless you know about what's involved, and you are prepared for the possibility that you could damaged or lock your phone. It worked for us, taking it slowly and with patience! But it may not work for everyone and we encourage you to read around the websites below before making any decisions.
1/ The first question is if the iPhone was unlocked in the past. If you unlocked the iPhone for 1.0.2 with anySIM, it will have changed your software and this needs to be repaired before you can move on. We ran "The Virginizer" which brought our "baseband" software back to its original state. The Virginizer is available through "Installer", the application for the iPhone which allows you to install third party apps. With Installer on the iPhone, The Virginizer is in the unlocking tools section. To run this software you have to ensure that you set your auto-lock to "never" (in General section of "Settings" on the iPhone). It takes a few mins to run, but afterwards you are ready to upgrade.
2/ we updated the iPhone to 1.1.4 using iTunes in the normal upgrading method. This is a step we had always avoided as we were afraid of locking our phone. However we took the plunge, clicked on "update" in the iPhone section of iTunes, and waited a few minutes for the iPhone software 1.1.4 to download and install.
3/ after the upgrade we had a fresh 1.1.4 version on the phone, with all of our contacts, SMS messages, emails etc. still on there. Therefore the next step was to jailbreak the phone, and enable it for new applications. We used Independence for this step and were able to "activate" the phone. This step did not work on our second iPhone and this led us to Ziphone. This application offers a one step route to both activate and jailbreak, as well as unlocking the phone. On a second phone we used Ziphone instead of Independence for both steps, and it worked perfectly.
4/ there were a few clean up steps at the end. First was to re-enter the EDGE settings. For O2 we used apn: internet, username: user, and password was left blank. For Vodafone we use apn: isp.vodafone.ie, username: dublin, password: dublin.
5/ using the Ziphone method, it put a copy of Installer app onto the phone, so we were ready to go. On the other phone, when we used Independence, it took a bit longer as Installer was not on the phone. We had to manually install it.
6/ the last step was installing the instant message application, Apollo. Apollo is a handy way to have iChat on the iPhone. However under 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 it reports an "hosts" error. The solution is to open Installer and add the "IM Chat 1.1.3 fix" in the category "1.1.3 tweaks".
The main advantage of all of this is that we now get an SMS message when we miss a call and there is a voice message waiting for us.
Check out our coverage on the cost of the iPhone in Ireland vs the UK, and our iPhone guide page.
Simon Spence/2008
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