We bought an iPhone case that fits both to his iTouch and my iPhone. Even though it does the job for us, the case is for iPhone so it does not fit snugly to iPod Touch and the stand part comes off too easily. I believe there are some comparable or even better cases available, for both iPhone and iTouch. Here I review some of the ones that I found recently. Note that most of the time the stand can double as a belt clip. Also when buying cases with stands, make sure that the stand allows iPod to be in the horizontal position. This is useful when watching movies.

iPhone 3G Cases with Stand

1. Eforcity Apple iPhone 3G Black Aluminum Metal Case with Belt Clip & Stand

Price: $5.56
Aluminum case with removable swivel belt-clip for carrying or for using as a stand. Manufacturer states that the device is fully functional while in the case, i.e. all the buttons are available.

2. Silicone Skin Case (Clear and Pink)

Price: $13.99
This is the silicone case we own. It comes in a 2 pack, pink and clear. The pink one does not look good, we only use the clear one. There are not cut-outs for all the buttons but you can operate them by pressing on the case. It fits nicely on iPhone and loosely on iTouch, but works for us.

3. Blue Premium Leather Case with Removable Video Stand

Price: $19.99
This leather case on the expensive side and pretty baby blue color. It has removable belt clip that doubles as a video stand.

I am still looking for good cases with stands and kid-friendly playful designs. No luck so far. If you know any, or if you have suggestions, other iPhone cases with stands that you own and like, please drop me a note.

iPod Touch 2nd Generation Cases with Stand

1. Aluminum Carrying Case with Belt Clip Video Stand

Price: $9.85
This case comes in very cool, kid-friendly colors. In the Amazon website reviewers indicated that there is no cut-out for external audio volume button in this iTouch case, so you can change the volume only using the screen controls.

2. Eforcity Silver Hard Aluminum Case w/ Stand

Price: $5.99
This case is made of hard plastic and features removable swivel belt-clip which allows you to put the iPod in both horizontal and vertical positions.

3. Sena Premium Stand Case for iPod Touch 2G

Price: $39.95
I am not fond of leather cases, but I included a few here for readers who prefer them. This is a genuine leather with snap closure and padding for extra protection. The cover doubles as stand to watch movies.

]]> http://www.iphonetechzone.com/2009/01/best-cases-with-stands/feed/ http://www.iphonetechzone.com/2009/01/successful-tutorial-at-unlocking-the-apple-iphone-3g/ http://www.iphonetechzone.com/2009/01/successful-tutorial-at-unlocking-the-apple-iphone-3g/#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:05:30 +0000 iPhoneTechZone http://www.iphonetechzone.com/?p=2525 We did unlock an iPhone 3G successfully with the iPhone Dev Team’s tool yellowsn0w, and here is the guide on how to unlock the iPhone 3G.

Download the QuickPWN tool to jailbreak your iPhone.
You can download for windows from here.
And for mac, download from here.

Connect your device with the USB port, and QuickPWN will recognize it. Then download the latest 2.2 firmware from here.
If you don’t prefer to download manually, the tool will download the 2.2 firmware for you. But this upgrade is necessary for the Cydia and installer to run.

IPSW is built and then data + firmware is sent from your computer to the apple website. Then it will need you to do a few things with your phone(like holding the center + switch off button for 10 seconds and releasing). With all this done, the jailbreaking is done.

Then you need to install Cydia to iPhone. Through the installer app in your phone, you will see it already there. Install and then select Cydia from the list of apps in your iPhone.
On the bottom of Cydia page, go to Manage.
Then go to the Sources window, and click Edit on the right.
Click on Add and then enter the Cydia/APT URL = http://apt.yellowsn0w.com

Then click on the added URL and you will be taken to the yellowsn0w download window.

It will install yellowsn0w once you confirm that, and then follow the steps below -
Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
Switch off your iPhone and place the 3rd party SIM into the socket and switch it on. The phone will not recognize the SIM, then go to Settings and Switch On and Off the Airplane mode and wait for a minute.

After this, remove your SIM with the phone On, and re-insert it. Wait for a minute and you will see your network active. Be patient for a minute or two, so that your phone recognizes and establishes connection with your SIM and network.

The dev-team (those that publish software to Jailbreak the phone) are about to launch yellowsn0w which is an application with which you can unlock a 3G iPhone, that means you can put any SIM of any company in the world and use it.

Yellowsn0w is the world’s first software unlock for the iPhone 3G. With yellowsn0w you can unlock your iPhone 3G firmware 2.2 and use it with any other carriers apart from AT&T

Before Downloading this application, DEV team want’s you to read some important recommendations:

• The application works only with the recent  BASEband(02.28.00), therefore it is necessary to upgrade to the latest firmware (2.2) and then activate it using Jailbreak QuickPwn.
• It will be possible to add the application using Cydia and other sources of shock.

The dev-team emphasizes that yellowsn0w is available with a non-commercial license, i.e prohibiting sale or charge for it.

How to Upgrade to iPhone 3G Firmware 2.2 with baseband 02.28.0

1. Download iPhone 3g Firmware 2.2

2. Jailbreak iPhone 3G Firmware 2.2 Using QuickPWN 2.2 and add Cydia/Installer.

Download Yellosn0w to unlock iPhone 3G

Update: yellowsn0w is now available.

Cydia Repos: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/
Installer: http://i.yellowsn0w.com/

Note: After you install yellowsn0w via Cydia, you should return to the Cydia main menu then reboot your iPhone with the 3rd party SIM installed. Wait for the slide to unlock screen, then wait 10 or 15 secs more. If you don’t see your carrier name pop up, then remove your SIM, reinsert it, and wait 10 secs more.(The DevTeam plans on elimintating this step)

Yellowsn0w is also easily uninstallable and completely removable through Cydia, the command line, or iTunes. Yellowsn0w currently is in beta phase with version 0.9, so use it at your  own risk.

To read more about the yellowsn0w unlock go ahead and visit the iPhone Dev Team Blog. Lots of great information there, and I highly recommend you read details there before you proceed.

Deep Green is a fast and strong Chess Game for iPhone.
Flaws? It doesn’t bring up a “check” or “checkmate” indicator. It does, however, vibrate, which was more than enough for me. You can’t play another human over a wireless network; you could hand the phone back and forth. That’s it for flaws.
If you’re interested in trivia, Deep Green was originally available for the Newton, which Apple stopped producing shortly thereafter. It takes up less than 2MB on your phone.
Back in the day I paid almost $100 for my Radio Shack board, and upwards of $30 for Chessmaster. Deep Green costs $4.99 during the introductory period ($7.99 thereafter), and it is fantastic. Go buy.

To me, as a consumer, the iPhone Nano is a waste. Why would you want a phone that is smaller than the iPhone? That trend died when the RAZR did. Now, phones are all about function, and it seems like an iPhone Nano would need to cut a whole lot of function in order to fit the title.

From the leaked screens, it seems like the phone is much smaller than it’s counterpart [the iPhone 3G]. This ultimately comes down to screen size and capacity. I would assume that with this launch, they would bump the iPhone 3G to 16GB and 32GB, and launch the iPhone Nano at 4GB and 8GB. I know many people that have iPhones but DON’T store their music libraries on them [at least not all of it] because it is too small. So the thought of making the capacity smaller is not a turn-off for me.

Instead it is the idea that the current iPhone is GREAT the way it is. By making the iPhone Nano smaller, you are cutting out screen space. Now you can’t watch movies on that big of a screen, the keys when it comes to the qwerty keyboard are smaller [which is already an issue for many people], and there’s less room to view webpages, emails, photo’s and more. One of the great things about the iPhone was that it was one of the first phones to enclude a very large touch screen.

But why do I think that the iPhone Nano is a waste?  Another rumor that is floating around is that the new iPhone Nano would have to run on the Edge network from AT&T. The reduction in over all size of the phone would force Apple to use the smaller Edge chipset, meaning you couldn’t have the great speed of the iPhone 3G. Not only would Apple be compromising on screen size, but also overall speed.

Every time I see Steve Jobs up on stage announcing new products there seems to be a recurring theme. Apple doesn’t compromise [at least according to him]. So what would be an advantage of a phone with so many compromises? Price. I am going to go out on a limb here, and say that IF Apple were to release an iPhone Nano AND assuming they used the 4GB and 8GB price points I mentioned, I would not be suprised to see a 4GB iPhone Nano priced at $99.

So why is the iPhone Nano a waste. Well it seems like there would be too many compromises for the price to be justified. Granted, a cheaper iPhone would sell like hot cakes [sounds a lot like when the RAZR went mainstream], I don’t think the overall preception of the phone would be that great. In the coming months and years, 3G cellular networks will be implemented in more places and in more carriers that it would almost be a standard. And to have Apple compromise the chip and go back to Edge would be pretty sad.

But then again, this is all based on rumors and speculation. Who knows what Apple will announce at Macworld? Only time will tell! Check back here on January 5th for all the news!

Apple announced early this year with the release of the iPhone 3G that a ‘Push’ notification system would be introduced by September but as you have probably guessed, it was harsly delayed. Thankfully rumors have been floating  claiming that the next release of 2.2 (titled 2.2.1) will introduce it to the public.

RussianiPhone.ru have announced this week that the 2.2.1 beta will have the ‘Push’ notification feature bundled with the MobileMe notes syncing. They have backed up their claim with this following screenshot but of course this could easily of been photoshopped:

What is making us not entirely believe this is the fact that the 2.2.1 beta has not even  be released to developers so the Russians must have somehow achieved it outside of public distribution. Whether it real of fake it does beg the question, is ‘push’ notifications coming to our 3-inch screens soon?

Steve Jobs has already told us that Apple are planning to get the system ‘100% right’ from the beginning so maybe the long wait has been worth it. With these rumors and screenshots floating around however, it may catch some attention of some eager developers who like to produce instant messaging apps. Watch this space.

Chunghwa Telecom, the largest operator in Taiwan region, has set the date on when the iPhone 3G be available. Starting December 13, the phenomenal phone can be grabbed legally by Taiwanese. Beside iPhone, Chunghwa is in talk with HTC, the maker of the first Google phone, T-Mobile G1, to offer second generation Google phones as well.

The company said it would sell iPhones exclusively for an unspecified period, with a two-year service contract carrying a minimal month fee of NT$1,049 (about US$ 31). To get a free iPhone with 8GB memory space, people will have to sign a two-year contract with a monthly charge of NT$2,549 (about US$ 76). Or they can buy the phone from Chunghwa Telecom for at least NT$26,600 (about US$ 800) and get a prepaid number.

Chunghwa is starting the pre-sales beginning today until December 10. The company is optimistic to reach 50,000 units of iPhone by next March. Most sales is targetted during end year sales (Christmas) and Chinese’s Lunar Year.