Wow, what an great laundry list of features coming to version 3.0 of the iPhone firmware. Copy and Paste, MMS, Stereo Bluetooth A2DP support and Search (spotlight) are amongst a huge overhaul of the iPhone.
For more info check http://live.gizmodo.com/
It’s been a very long time coming but finally I have the time (thanks to a sleeping baby!) to finalise my words on these headphones with the thought they deserve.
As I have lamented previously here on the site, the iPhone is a great piece of hardware let down (very surprisingly) so far by one thing, an almost total lack of fully compatible and functional headphones! Apart from the worthless white buds you get with the phone, there are very few headsets on the market which offer the full functionality the iphone should be blessed with.
So I dugg around and managed to find a few alternative headphones that offer superior sound quality to the standard headphones whist being fully compatible with the iPhone functions. Before I start the reviews let me just define what I mean by ‘compatible and fully functional.’ continue reading »
Well the reader response to my previous post has been terrible so far 
But I have had some luck in locating some headphone options I hadn’t previously heard of.
Etymotic HF2 iPhone Headphones
Ultimate Ears Super.fi 4vi iPhone Headphones
But then I also found another interesting solution which is an adapter that you can use with any heaphones to give you the mic and play control functionality! With the rather odd name of iSoniTalk Heaphone Adapter. You can check a review of it here
If you have used any of the above hardware, let us know how it they are in the comments below. I have emailed all the companies to see about a review and shall see whether they provide the goods for a full on showdown review here.
Seriously, why are companies not falling over themselves to produce fully functional iPhone headphones? The stock ones are as terrible as ever, but I am forced to use them fairly frequently. The main reason is that they act as a hands-free kit for the phone as they have the click button and microphone that enable me to make and receive calls. With normal headphones, every time a call comes in I am forced to fumble around, rip the headphones from the phone and then eventually accept the call (extra dangerous when driving!).
Why are the OEM Apple iPhone headphones so bad? Well for one thing, the sound quality is the usual tinny/baseless quality as normal ipod headphones, but the other thing is that they absolutely refuse to stay in anyone’s ear for more than 5 seconds. It’s not just me, I have asked maybe 6 or 7 people to test them for a little while and they all report the same thing… it’s like they were designed to actually repel ears! When driving, it’s almost to the point where I cannot look left or right at junctions without one or both buds falling out. So I have a choice of either not looking left and right (dangerous!) or fumbling around after the junction trying to find them again after they have fallen out (just as dangerous!).
When not using them I have a wonderful set of Sennheiser PMX70’s which are truly the best sounding headphones I have ever had the pleasure of popping in my ears. Unfortunately the band around the back of the head is really uncomfortable when lying down, reclining in a chair or generally sitting in any relaxed position. So I would like to get the OMX70’s instead as they would essentially cut out the only bad part of the headphones… the band, yet still stay in my difficult ears.
But of course then I would still be in the situation of having no hands-free iphone function and checking out the alternatives is a depressing alternative.
V-Moda were out of the gate early with some fully iPhone compatible headphones, but reviews are mixed. The sound quality and build quality seem to have a lot of question marks raised about them. They have the mic and the click button for full control of calls and music; the most thorough review I have see is Macgirl’s and I would be prepared to take a chance on them if they were so seemingly expensive for a dubious sound/build quality.
Errmmm and thats it! I cannot find a single fully-compatible alternative to these.
So here is the challenge for readers, and manufacturers. Tell me of some fully iphone-compatible headphones.
By fully compatible I mean:
For Bonus Points:
If you are a manufacturer, get in touch about a review and i will give them as fair and objective test as I can, and guarantee to sing your praises from the hilltops if they are suitably boombastic!
Everyone knew it was coming, and though I still struggle to fill 8gb very often, double capacity iphones and touches have finally been announced by apple.
Once again I am in the debt of someone for a fantastic guide to moving from my anysim 1.02 unlocked iphone, to a fully functional unlocked 1.1.1 phone (with the added bonus of ridding myself of the nasty mess that was the original anysim unlock).
The guide is copied in large parts here and full credit must be given, but there were a few things not mentioned that mean I feel I can repeat the guide with some extra detail and give a full idiots guide of the process.
So the recent Apple press release on iPhone unlocking is stating that unlocked iPhones could well be bricked by the new firmware update released in the next few days.
There are a few things I find obsurd about this statement.
1. Since when has a firmware flash been irreversable damage? The is no software on earth that can’t be changed.
2. The is no hardware on earth that can be ‘damaged’ by software unless it is written in a malicous way, and even then extremely difficult to do
3. Why are Apple the only company on the planet to be exempted from laws that state that all phones should be unlockable so they can be used for the purpose for which they were bought on any carrier?
4. Why are Apple warning users in advance of the upcoming firmware changes? Normally they break stuff without any advanced warning. The answer seems obvious. Their exclusive deals with AT&T, O2, T-Mobile etc are in jeopardy if they don’t at least ‘appear’ to be doing everything they can to keep user on those networks.
To the average user FUD like this is a great way of scaring them into keeping the phone locked, whilst technical users will see this as a subtle warning not to update your firmware as AT&T et al have requested code that breaks the current unlocks. This is currently being very senstionally reported when the truth is a little more subtle. Headlines should really read ‘Apple warns users not to update to the new firmware if they want to keep their phones unlocked’
It’s a fantastic achievement by the anySim team to create the GUI, ‘one click’ solution to unlocking the iPhone, but to be honest things are getting very confusing with so many versions flying around, so many contradictory guides, and so many relative success / failure stories. So what I hope to achieve in this little guide is a simple step by step guide that takes you from an iPhone in a selophane sealed box, to an unlocked iPhone using any SIM card and with as many features as I can figure out 
So with the phone finally in my hands, I will lay out the basic steps and update as I progress. If you see anything wrong or have a correction /comment to make please let me know in the comments below.
Pre-Requisites:
The Unlock Process
)UPDATE: Mine apparently failed with the message "the flash operation succeeded but the unlock commands failed" but I rebooted the phone and it worked!!!
If you have any issues then refer to http://iphonegoboom.com where a lot of this guide was stolen from and they maintain a great FAQ on common issues.
In order that you can choose whether or not to install later updates to iTunes and/or the iPhone firmware (i.e. avoid updates that may break the unlock) make sure you disable all options in iTunes that check for / install updates automatically!
Post Installation
Add your EDGE settings for your network/carrier. Everything you need to know right here
Make the voicemail button ring your voicemail. Taken from the iphone dev wiki: 1. First, take note of what your voicemail number is with your current provider (for example, in Spain the Vodafone voicemail number is 177). 2. Click on the phone button in your iPhone. 3. Click on the keypad tab. 4. Tap the following code: *5005*86*xxx# The xxx is the voicemail number, in our example it will read: *5005*86*177# 5. Tap call. 6. After a second, the code will have been set. 7. Tap now on the voicemail button and it will automatically call your usual voicemail service. Fix YouTube. Coming Soon Overall I am delighted with the phone and have had a great evening playing with all its features on the Telia network in Sweden
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