2G iPhone on Version 2.0

Well, I thought I'd better check out all the new cool iPhone stuff on the Apple Store.  Now, this was gonna be a bit of a challenge for me as I'm using a jailbroken 1.14 (2G) iPhone and the only way to get to the store is by upgrading to version 2.0 which will immediately brick my "non-approved, pre-vodafone deal" phone.  Not happy with paying through the nose to Vodafone for a new 3G and getting locked into some ludicrous contract, I set out to upgrade the good old fashioned hackers way.

It is a somewhat nervy process and you're never far from tears as you go through a few steps that basically brick your phone and then reopen it.  It took me about an hour all up and now I have version 2.0 nicely installed and all applications working. I've even bought my first application at the Apple store.

To be honest, it took a bit of effort to get everything back up and running and you'll need to have SSH installed (and WinSCP if you're a PC user like me) to be able to get into some local folders to tweak stuff.  I'm missing some of the really neat applications that the dev community put out on the 1.14 but I installed the Cydia installer as part of my custom built v2.0 and it is only a matter of time before they are ported I'm sure. 

I've noticed that a lot of the stuff that was free and well refined for jailbroken 1.14's is now in the Apple Store.  I think that the iPhone versions up to 1.14 were nothing but a giant global beta test of how people would use the device and where Apple should concentrate........all the good stuff is worth paying for and I'm happy to shell out some dollars for a good ebook reader and RPN calculator.

Ponoko Rocks

I'd been a bit nervous of trying out the very cool Ponoko and then I met a Ponokoite and he gave me a two minute overview.  Deeply inspired I went home and with Miss R (age 6 3/4) we drew up some designs together and I loaded up Inkscape.

After about an hour we were ready to upload our designs to the Ponoko web site and began the exciting wait to see how they would come out.  We got update e-mails as the design was turned into our goodies and I went into their offices today to pick up our test run.

We got out the beads tonight, some leather twine and hey presto, personalised jewellery.  Can't wait to try out some more complex stuff now we've mastered the basics.  One more thing that technology lets me and my daughters learn together; nothing beats turning a paper design into a real world item!

Brrrr

It is officially the coldest morning this year for me, brrrrrr.  It is also one of those spectacular winter days in Wellington that we all talk about.  Absolutely crisp and still outside with the sun shining and the spring flowers coming through.  Perfect day to take a flight to Nelson which is what I'm about to do......got to love this country.