iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 Improvements
August 27th, 2008
I’ve been playing around on 2.0.2 for couple of days. And here’s the improvements I’ve seen based on my experience.
1. less mobile signal recover time than all previous firmware versions
I did have such kind of experience that I had to reboot the phone to get the lost cellular signal back. Using carrier search function(tap Setting->Carrier) can bring the signal back, but not always. Not mention the side effect the search brings as well: no Edge icon on the taskbar, which means no internet browsing, no weather update, no email checking bla bla bla.
I should say from 2.0 Apple has been working on this. the recovery speed in 2.0 is better than 1.1.4, and now 2.0.2 is better than 2.0.
2. Overall more stable than 2.0, but still not as good as 1.1.4.
The launch speed of Contacts and Setting.app is much faster than 2.0. The safari browser works much stable and smooth than 2.0. And the time to pop up the keyboard when clicking on the input box is faster as well. Oh, the iTunes sync takes less time than 2.0 as well.
When the comparison comes to 2.0.2 against 1.1.4, i would say 1.1.4 behaves better. I mean, the whole system’s performance, including the faster launch speed of native applications, the less crash times and more accurate touch intention processing(my scroll touch has often been taken as select touch in 2.0.x ) etc.
Anyway, i’m now on 2.0.2 already. and I’ll stay. But I’m really looking forward to the coming firmware 2.1 on the rumored Apple’s Sep.9 event, even though it’s already confirmed that 2.1 will kill the 3rd party’s copy-and-paste effort 
iTunes Store Unblocked
August 23rd, 2008
After being blocked for about a week since last Monday, iTunes Store has been unblocked and come back to live this morning.Now you can access it by either iTunes on the computer or App Store on the iphone.
Cheers! 
I can install those of my favorite free apps now.
Update(Aug,24,2008): Here’s the screenshot of proof at the time of this updating.
weDict Dictionary on iPhone 2.0.1
August 12th, 2008
I’ve been successfully added the langdao-chinese-to-english dictionary manually to my iphone 2.0.1. and it works as expected. Here’s the screenshots,fyi.
The how-to? well, reader Daniel has put it in this comment. All same as before, except the target folder where the .dict and .idx files should be copied to, has been changed from ‘/var/root/Library/weDict/‘ to the new ‘/private/var/mobile/Applications/5AD48CB3-xxx/WeDict.app‘.
This post is just a proof based on my own testing.
Of couse, i assume you can use WinSCP without any question. If i’m wrong, you may get some info from that old post. Leave your comment if it’s nor working or anything is wrong.
Update(Aug,23,2008): Confirmed: this trick works on my updated 2.0.2 as well.
Chinese Input Methods For iPhone 2.0
August 10th, 2008
You’ve got the following options:
1. Apple
No additional installations, just several clicks on the Settings. But it’s very basic, i mean, in both features and Chinese character dictionary. No surprise at all, after you play it around for a while.
Use only when you’ve got no choice
2.iCosta 1.2.3(in Chinese)
My choice now. Very stable, as good as it used to be before 2.0,from 1.0.x to 1.1.4.
Easy installation through Cydia is first to install their source from Sections->Repository(freecoder.org) then install your favorite IME from Sections->Localization.
3.WeFit iPhone 2.0(Chinese)
Still in very early development phase,but there’s already a release in Cydia. I Haven’t tried it yet. But i did use the old WeFit iPhone 1.1.x before when i was in 1.1.x. Works like a charm. If I’m right, WeFit iPhone 1.1.x is the first Chinese IME by which you can input character phase, other than character one by one. I may give the 2.0 version a try later when it’s out of beta.
If you are brave enough and can’t wait for a more mature release, you can get it from Sections->[WeiPhone] after enabling WeiPhone source from Sections->Repository.
4.iAcces(Chinese)
Initiated from the same dev group in HongKong who creates the previouse iphone 1.1.x IME NativeCN, now it has a brand new name and lots of cool features.
Very promising. I’m looking forward to its release. The only problem for now is you have to wait
Google Reader: GWT is back!!
August 6th, 2008
My request(actually ‘our’ request) is fulfilled by Google now. That’s really COOL!
I’ve tried Readerburner iphone version before, when GWT is not allowed. It works fine, the only limitation i think is that i can’t import all my own feeds there.
Now i’ll swich back to Google Reader, and keep readerburner bookmarked as well.
My Experience on iPhone 2.0
July 27th, 2008
i’ve just updated my iphone(BL 3.9, first-gen 4G version) from firmware 1.1.4 to the new 2.0 by the newly released winpwn. Actually I pwned the phone twice, first with winpwn 2.0.2 and second with winpwn 2.0.3(download).
I am a little bit excited about some of the new features in 2.0, even if until now I only played with it for 2 days. Here’s why i’m saying that.
1.full system-level international support
For Chinese iphone owners like me, we can choose either of Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. Accordingly we have the input method and region format.Yes, we’ve got hand-writing input method too, as picture shows above.
Besides, we can read gb2312-encoded Chinese email now.
2.App Store
This is the coolest part. Tons of apps in the store and you are just one-click away to them.You may also feel surprised when you are playing with those really creative apps, like WritingPad(reviewed by ipodtouchfans.com) and midomi(youtube video). I do. I really do.
However, in order to take full use of the App Store, you need an valid iTunes account. And generally you have to provide some payment details in the registration process, like an Visa credit card info. This may block some people. Hackint0sh has a post here where i found this solution. For the phone number and address, i filled with Apple’s own info 
3.some new features, like Contact Search, WiFi-only mode, Exchange support etc.
Some of you may feel more excited on Exchange support or Contact Search. Sure they deserve. But for me,I think wifi-only does help. I do have that kinda moment when I wanna browse the web while keeping the phone off. Not possible in firmware 1.1.4 and below.
These are all the reasons that drive me to do the upgrade. But, nothing is perfect. iPhone 2.0 still needs improvement as well. As to my experience, 2.0 is a little bit slower, less stable than 1.1.4. Perhaps that’s why Apple is pushing the testing on 2.0.1 now. Guess they’ll relesae it soon.
Last but not least, currently there are very fewer native 3-rd party unofficial applications in 2.0 than in 1.1.4. To update or not, you decide.
iPhone 2.0 Unlocked by the Dev Team, Again
July 13th, 2008
Here’s the proof(Bootneuter 2.0 from iphonedev on Vimeo):
The reason i say again is because they have done it before, for many times, actually, from the starting 1.0.0 to 1.1.4. I don know what you think, but i do think i should salute to them, again, not mention just after i read their latest post titled Rush,rush,rush on their blog.
btw, it’s for the old 1st-gen iphone, not the new 3G one.
One Feature Request for New Google Reader
July 13th, 2008
In the morning of July 12, 2008(Beijing Time), as usual, I launched Google Reader from my Safari’ bookmarks in the iphone and wanna see if anything could interest me a little.
Guess what? I didn see the old and familiar Reader interface. Instead, i saw the New one. Actually i did try it when it’s still beta before. I even bookmarked it, for later use.
The New Reader is cool, in some way. However, there’s one very important feature missing compared to the Old one: mobiled the targeted html pages. Let me remind you of that with the following screenshot.
Why is it such an important feature, anyway? You may wonder. Well, I’ve explained before on this post. And after some googling, I’ve found i’m not the only one.
There’s a post titled See original - mobile vs. full HTML - Please fix created by in the Google Reader Team’s groups, which exactly says the same thing. I already left my agree comment there.
So in all, we’d like to see this cut feature could be able to appear in the New Reader again some time in future.
I have no idea of how Google chooses the features for their product, but I do hear that Google treats user feedback very seriously. Hopefully Google will not let us down this time.
UCWEB: A Wap Browser for iPhone
July 5th, 2008
I’ve been waiting for an iphone edition WAP browser for a long time. Today i just happened to get it: UCWEB.
Of course it can do a lot of things, Nek has made a good summery for us here. Quote part here:
1. WEB and WML webpage browsing
2. WiFi, CMWAP(only in China), CMNET access
3. bookmarks
4. upload and download files
5. search
6. address
7….
For me, the most wonderfully thing is exactly what it’s designed to be: browsing wap sites on the iphone. I myself actually use Google Reader on Safari for the daily news, and Safari does work fine for me most of time, but in the worktime, i do need to visit some wap sites a little. That’s always been my headache when coming to it.
Now it’s come to the end,finally. Cheers
BTW, the source for UCWEB iphone edition is http://wap.ucweb.com/iphone/UCWEB.plist. And its offcial forum is here(in Chinese)
How To Get Yahoo Mail Working on the iPhone
July 1st, 2008
I’m not sure if it will work for you, but it does work for me. here’s the how-to step by step:
1. switch to the classic if you are in the new yahoo mail. pic below shows you where to find it.
2. Enable the pop support.
3. now add your yahoo mail account in the phone by Settings->Mail->Add Account->YMail.
I’ve also tested mail receiving and sending, both work well.
Failed again? Try yahoo pop. That is, add a pop account on the phone in which you use the following yahoo pop settings:
| Incoming Mail (POP3) Server: | plus.pop.mail.yahoo.com (Use SSL, port: 995) |
| Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: | plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com (Use SSL, port: 465, use authentication) |
| Account Name/Login Name: | Your Yahoo! Mail ID (your email address without the “@yahoo.com”) |
| Email Address: | Your Yahoo! Mail address (e.g., user@yahoo.com) |
| Password: | Your Yahoo! Mail password |
Still no luck? well, if you can do step 2, you may choose to let yahoo forward your ymail to one of your gmail accounts, here i assume you can be able to access gmail on the phone successfully.
Hopefully you can take use of one of the three work-arounds mentioned above to fix the ymail issue. Good luck.
Update(Jul.6,2008): I’ve tried some other mail accounts, including @yahoo.com, @yahoo.cn and @yahoo.com.cn. All has no such an option I mentioned above by which you can enable/disable POP support. Sorry buddi
