Photos from Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo clearly show huge crowds at the two Beijing and three Shanghai locations, despite temperatures between 32 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The lineups are likely for people who want to try to get an iPhone off-contract and unlocked, starting at 4,988 yuan, or around $790. Shoppers can also buy directly from China Unicom, which even has some pricing plans that allow users to pick up the hardware free, but monthly contract requirements for those subsidies are quite steep. Plus, buying unlocked makes it easier for scalpers to resell devices through unofficial channels.

When it launched in the U.S., the iPhone 4S was also greeted with long lines, and in Hong Kong, attendance at Apple’s retail flagship store numbered in the thousands. The Chinese launch of the 4S should be the biggest since it debuted in October, since China is now Apple’s second-most-important market, and according to at least one estimate, it’s conceivable that Apple sold more iPhones in China during its fiscal fourth quarter of 2011 than it did in the U.S.

The staggered launch means that sales resulting from the Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S will appear as part of Apple’s second fiscal quarter results and not those that will be reported on Jan. 24. That could help Apple post higher iPhone shipments next quarter even without the holiday bump, especially if its regulatory progress with getting a China Telecom-compatible version of the 4S to market bears fruit within the next couple of months.

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Mophie’s Juice Pack Air for the 4th generation iPod touch is one of two battery cases being recalled. It can, in very rare instances, become so hot it can potentially cause burns to a user. Mophie says it only happens in very rare cases, but the heat is enough to deform the case in many more instances. If your product has a serial number starting with TR113 through TR120, you’re eligible to receive a replacement product, which you can get following the instructions found at Mophie’s replacement website.

Best Buy’s in-house brand Rocketfish is also having heating problems with its battery case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. The situation is a little more extreme for those accessories, however, as Rocketfish is saying those overheating issues could in some cases lead to a fire during the charging process. There are 14 reported incidents on record, some of which include minor property damage. Affected owners will be reimbursed with a gift card for $70 or $105 depending on whether they’re located in the U.S. or Canada, respectively. Check your eligibility and find directions for getting your gift card at Best Buy’s recall site.

If you’re a battery case user, you already know they tend to get hot, but in both these cases the situation is going beyond the average levels of heat and into dangerous territory. Had any incidents with the products described above? Let us know in the comments.

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A lot of factors are involved in choosing a new device, and people might be understandably reluctant to drop a lot of money on new hardware now, given the current global economic climate. How you use your device will also ultimately determine whether new features are worth the investment. So consider the following before making up your mind.

Is your contract up?

Carrier subsidies are a huge boon to cell phone buyers. With subsidy, the new iPhone 4S costs between $199 and $399, depending on how much storage you want on your device. Off-contract pricing in the U.S. hasn’t yet been announced, but in the Canadian store, it’s listed as starting at $649 and going up $100 for each additional level of onboard flash storage, topping out at $849 for the new 64 GB tier. U.S. prices should be in the same ballpark, if they don’t match those exactly.

A difference of $450 is going to be a difficult pill to swallow for most. Unless a brand new iPhone is a valid business expense for you, or necessary because your existing phone is actually broken or failing, you probably shouldn’t upgrade if you can’t get the subsidized pricing unless you’re really interested in Siri, but let’s take a look at that particular buying incentive.

Siri looks good, but so did FaceTime

Siri plays well in Apple’s promo videos, and it was impressive during the Apple presentation Tuesday, but those things don’t necessarily make it a must-have. Many are pointing out that using Siri in public will be downright awkward, and there’s also the comparison Stacey drew to FaceTime: How many will actually use Siri with any kind of frequency or consistency?

If Siri is the only reason you’re thinking about upgrading, then taking a step back and waiting might be your best course of action. Siri isn’t going anywhere, after all, and a couple of months of it being on the market might give us a better idea of its usefulness in everyday situations.

Will you be upgrading anyway?

Some might be tempted to consider upgrading an older iPhone (a 3G or 3GS, for example) to an iPhone 4, given that device’s lower starting price point. But if you’re already going to be upgrading, and likely locking in to a new contract anyway, consider that by the next time you become eligible for a phone you’ll be two devices behind instead of just one. That isn’t working out so well for 3G owners right now, since software support ended with iOS 4.3.

A faster processor and dual-core graphics might not seem like big advantages today, but the gap will widen; the iPhone 4 will become slower and less reliable with each subsequent software update, while the iPhone 4S is better able to take advantage of its increased power. Even if you think you can live without Siri, a better camera and faster networking (which will also only get better and make older devices look worse as time passes), you should seriously think about paying up for the iPhone 4S.

How important is your carrier?

If your choice of carrier is a key factor in prompting an upgrade, then now’s a good time to move to the 4S. Sprint availability is going to be great for some, especially considering the availability of unlimited data plans on that network. If you want a new iPhone because you’re looking to improve your network reliability, then the 4S is an especially good choice because of the new, speed-boosting dual-antenna design.

In summary: The iPhone 4S isn’t a disappointing upgrade, no matter what tech pundits and analysts may say. But just because it isn’t disappointing doesn’t mean it’s right for you. Before you decide to stay up late and hit the iPhone pre-order page, consider the above, and should you think of anything else that’s worth considering, share it with us in the comments.

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iOS 4.2.1 Update Tested

To test how iOS 4.2 affected performance, I took an iPhone 3G and ran it through the same series of performance tests I did when iOS 4.1 was released. Just like last time, I used GeekBench 2 ($1.99), Gauge Mathematical Tool ($1.99), BenchTest (99 cents), SunSpider (free) and V8 (free) to test the performance of each OS version on the 3G.

Also like last time, the 3G I was testing was still running with a lot of features disabled, and was being used more as an iPod touch than as an iPhone. I am reusing the same data collected last time for comparison. The following results are only a subset of the data collected, and focus on the data points that changed the most from version to version:

Results for iPhone 3G: The 4.2.1 Update

While some things seem to have improved slightly, like JavaScript and drawing new content when you switch views in an app, other tests have dropped off considerably. Memory performance as measured by GeekBench, as well as the executions of Gague’s Prime Number test are especially bad. These would affect apps that are doing much more than just displaying or editing a simple screen, like an RSS reader, for instance.  It would have a greater impact on apps performing more advanced computational functions, such as Documents to Go.

Just informally trying out several core apps like Apple’s Notes, Safari, Calendar and Contacts revealed more than the benchmarking tests indicate, however. Scrolling speed and data entry appear to be much improved. It seemed as though my performance tests were contradicting my real world experience.

One More iPhone 4 Test: The 4.2.1 Update

Testing on the iPhone 4 was the best way to find out if the performance degradation I was seeing on the iPhone 3G in the tests was really something to worry about. I reused the same benchmarking data collected in earlier tests for comparison. I was looking for the same degradation in performance in the same areas.

Since both the GeekBench Stdlib Allocate test as well as the Gague Prime Number test degrade on the iPhone 4 as they did on the iPhone 3G, I had to conclude that it was an issue with how the test was seeing changes made to the iOS firmware in version 4.2.1, and not necessarily a reflection of actual device performance.

Conclusions

While data entry, scrolling, pinching and zooming have improved slightly, the 3G is still not up to par with its newer siblings. Where we see the most gains on both the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 4 is in the JavaScript results.  Whatever the Webkit/Safari team is doing, it is having a positive effect with each release.

Bottom line: If you’re still using iOS 3.1.3 and use sophisticated apps that are heavily computational, then it’s probably best to avoid 4.2 (that’s easier if the apps you’re using don’t require 4.0 or higher). If you’re content with the apps Apple provides and mobile Safari, you should be fine. If you need the more demanding apps, and those apps need iOS 4.0 or higher, it might be time to consider that hardware upgrade.

Online Benchmark Results

• GeekBench 2 – iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1
• SunSpider – iPhone 3G running iOS 4.2.1

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The lead plaintiff in the case, Bianca Wofford, claims the update effectively turned her iPhone into an “iBrick,” rendering it pretty much unusable. She says Apple informed customers that iOS 4 would be an upgrade for their 3G phones, even though it wouldn’t bring all of the features that later devices would get. Instead, she got a device that’s not only much, much slower, but also prone to crashing.

The complaint, filed with the Superior Court of California, asserts that Apple did this knowingly:

Since the release of iOS4 in conjunction with the sale and release of the fourth generation iPhone, or the iPhone 4 in June 2010, Apple has falsely, intentionally and repeatedly represented to owners and consumers of the iPhone 3G that its new operating system for the device, iOS4, was of a nature, quality, and a significant upgrade for the functionality of all iPhone devices, when in fact, the installation and use of iOS4 on the iPhone 3G resulted in the opposite – a device with little more use than that of a paper weight.

Wofford and her attorneys further justify this claim by pointing out the Apple practice of not allowing customers to downgrade their iPhone’s operating system. She says there isn’t a way to get back to iOS 3.x without resorting to “hacker tactics” that void warranties and iPhone user agreements.

All of these, taken together, amount to an intentional move by Apple to force customers into a situation where they’d have to purchase new hardware in the form of the iPhone 4. According to Wofford, Apple knew full well that iOS 4 was actually a downgrade for older devices, and used its release as an artificial upgrade incentive.

Wofford is seeking restitution, the return of Apple’s “ill-gotten” gains and damages resulting from false advertising, unfair competition and the violation of state consumer protection laws for herself and each member of the plaintiff group associated with the class action suit.

Is Wofford right? Apple has held back updates in the past from legacy hardware, presumably because it knew those devices weren’t up to the task of running them. It must have conducted tests in-house to determine how well iOS 4 worked on older iPhones before releasing the software. But then why release a limited version of iOS 4 for the 3G and 3GS, instead of the full one if its intention was to slow performance? Maybe the full update rendered it actually unusable instead of just badly hobbled?

Regardless of the accuracy of the claims, Apple will probably move quickly to either quash this or settle out of court, since it could be potentially damaging to its reputation among consumers. If the upcoming iOS 4.2 brings any relief to iPhone 3G owners, that could go a long way toward preserving that reputation.

What do you think? Did Apple intentionally encourage iPhone owners to do harm to their own devices? And even if not, shouldn’t they provide a legitimate downgrade process in instances where performance, stability and usability are affected?

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Next Gen Customers on Previous Gen Devices

The most likely recipients of older iPhone 3G devices will be the siblings of the owners of the devices which have replaced them with the new iPhone 4. This is a very important class of user that Apple cares a lot about. The new owners of these older iPhone 3G devices will be potential Apple customers throughout their academic life. And it appears that students are serious about Apple. Providing a less than awesome experience now could jeopardize their loyalties later.

One iOS to Rule Them All

The current burden on developers targeting Apple’s mobile devices is that there are too many software versions to manage; 3.1, 3.2, and 4.0, to name a few. The number of devices on each of these three major platforms is still significant. With the upcoming iOS 4.1 update, Apple has the opportunity to converge more of these devices to just one OS platform. That is, if they can convince iPhone 3G owners that performance is no longer an issue.

Focusing on multiple platforms does take time away from adding features and releasing new titles. Giving developers the tools they need is only part of the equation. Switching between simulators and managing several different devices takes time. Cutting down on the number of device and OS combinations that developers need to support will only strengthen the quality of the apps for devs that don’t test across the matrix of combinations, and give back some development time to those that do.

Engineering Pride

Apple has been quite public about the engineering capabilities of other software development shops. Apple was also adamant all along that iPhone 3G devices would be supported on iOS 4, minus some features. Nonetheless, Apple proclaimed support for these devices. Taking on its own challenge, stepping up to the plate and delivering an awesome experience to its next generation of customers is what Apple’s core values are all about.

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You’ll need an iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2nd-gen, as well as the redsn0w jailbreak, which you can download from here. Now you’re set to do the real work, but first a disclaimer: the procedure is rather simple, but be warned that you could easily brick your device if you’re not careful. Also, jailbreaking will void your warranty, so be smart and restore your device with iTunes before you take it down to the Genius Bar.

Got it? Great.

If your device is still running on iOS 3.x, you’ll need to upgrade to 4.0 before you proceed. Just go into iTunes, click on your device in the sidebar, and check for updates.

The Nitty Gritty

1. When you start-up redsn0w, you’ll need to point it to the iOS 4 IPSW, which, if you’ve already installed iOS 4 on your device, should be at ~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates/ and will be named something like iPhone1,2_4.0 for the iPhone and iPod2,1_4.0 for the iPod.

2. If you’re using an iPod, redsn0w will ask you to clarify whether it’s one of the newer models that start with “MC.” You can check this by going to General -> About on your iPod and scrolling down to “Model.”

3. Now you can decide what features you want redsn0w to enable. You can choose to install Cydia (which is like an unwalled version of the App Store), Verbose boot (which gives you every detail of what’s going on while your device boots), Custom boot logo, and Custom recovery logo. That’s nice, but you can also enable multitasking, home screen wallpapers, and the battery percentage indicator, which are the really great benefits from doing this.

4. Connect your device to your Mac and turn it off by holding down the lock button until a red slider appears, which you should then slide. Make sure your device is completely off before you continue, meaning there should be no spinning progress indicator, or anything, on the screen.

5. Be prepared for this part, because redsn0w will start on this step immediately once you click “Next.” You’ll need to put your device into Device Firmware Update (DFU) mode. redsn0w will walk you through it, but you’ll need to be quick. The process basically goes like this:

• Hold down the lock button for 3 seconds
• Without releasing the lock button, hold down the home button for 10 seconds
• Without releasing the home button, let go of the lock button and continue holding the home button for 30 seconds, though redsn0w should start doing its thing before the 30 seconds are up. Once you see a grey background on your screen, you can let go of the home button.

6. Watch while redsn0w jailbreaks your device and enables all the features that Apple left out. Do not yank the device of the cord, no matter what happens. That’s a recipe for bricking your device. Just relax and go get some coffee, or drool over the new Mac mini. When you come back, your device will be running with all the features you envied the 3GS for. Tip: You can enable the battery percentage indicator by going into Settings -> General -> Usage and turning it on.

How does the old hardware handle multitasking?

4.0 was already sluggish for me without multitasking. Rest assured, your performance won’t improve if it was already sluggish. But it hasn’t gotten worse, at least on my device, and if you’re going to use a sluggish OS, you may as well have all the features enabled, right?

Is your device running faster after the 4.0 update? Slower? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

Battery Percentage

Many users were disappointed to learn that Battery Percentage is exclusive to the iPhone 3GS, and not a general feature in iPhone OS 3.0.

There are two ways to turn on the battery percentage in the jailbroken iPhone OS 3.0.
1. Through SBSettings
If you have SBSettings installed, simply tap on “More,” then “Extras.” There you will find Enable/Disable Numeric Battery.

2. Through AsBattery
If you prefer to have the stock Battery Percentage toggle found only in the iPhone 3GS, you’ll need AsBattery. To install AsBattery:

1. Fire up Cydia.
2. In its “Search” section, type in iPhone-notes. What you are doing is looking for the repository that AsBattery is hosted in. Install this repository.
3. In Cydia’s “Changes” section, look for “AsBattery” and install that.
4. Reboot your iPhone.

Once you’re back in, the battery percentage toggle will be present in Settings → General → Usage.

The magic that AsBattery does is it adds the string gas-gauge-battery to a file called M68AP.plist (if you have an iPhone), N82AP.plist (if you have an iPhone 3G), N45AP.plist (if you have an iPod touch 1st-generation), or N72AP.plist (if you have an iPod touch 2nd-generation).

Video Recording

Jailbreakers have long enjoyed Cycorder, a free app that records video in MPEG 384 x 288 at 6—15 fps, depending on lighting conditions. Sure, it’s far from the 640-by-480-pixel at 30 fps capability of the iPhone 3GS, but, hey, I’ll take some video over no video any day. It’s better than nothing.

Voice Control… somewhat

If you’re so inclined towards voice dialing, there’s always Vlingo and Melodis Voice Dialer. Both apps work pretty well, though you can’t do neat stuff like ask your iPhone what song it’s currently playing (and have it reply!). One other notable voice-related app is, of course, the Google Mobile App, though it should be noted that this app does not do voice dialing.

Vlingo has one neat feature. You can dictate a status update for your Twitter or Facebook account.

Isn’t North Always Up?

Sorry, it’s a hardware limitation. But it’s not that bad. Do a search for “compass” in the iTunes App Store and you’ll find a plethora of apps purporting to show you the way to The Great North. Most, if not all, of these apps require you to be outdoors and to be actually moving, since they employ GPS to find out your bearing.

If you are in a built-up area, there is an easy way to find our which way north is. Fire up Maps and let it find your current location. Since all maps are drawn with north pointing up, all you have to do is do a visual survey and orientate your iPhone so that any roads around you line up with their counterpart on the map.

But if you’re out in the middle of nowhere with no distinguishable landmarks, you’ll have to settle for sticking a compass on the back of your iPhone.

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All the goodness of iPhone OS 3.0 aside, the one thing you’ve probably noticed after updating your iPhone or iPod touch is how quickly its battery is draining.

I certainly did, along with many other users. The battery life of my iPhone 3G is now barely six hours, a huge departure from the 12+ hours or so I would get with 2.2.1. And even though I’d experienced a decrease in battery life with the beta builds of 3.0 back in May, the battery never drained at a rate as alarming as this. Now, it depletes 10 percent every hour even while the phone is left doing absolutely nothing.

My first thought was that push notification must be the cause of this. But even after turning off push notification, the battery continued to drain at an alarming rate. After some investigation, it would seem that the culprit is, instead, iPhone’s push mail setting.

To turn off push for all mail accounts, follow these steps:

1. On the Home screen, tap the “Settings” icon.
   
2. Tap “Mail, Contacts, Calendars.”
   
3. Tap “Fetch New Data.”
   
4. Turn off “Push.” This turns off push, in one step, for all email accounts that are enabled for it, while preserving the “Fetch” settings you may have already set for every account.
   
5. Reboot your iPhone. To do that, hold down the Sleep/Wake button (the one at the top) until you see the red slider appear, then drag the slider.
   

After your iPhone has restarted, you should see an improvement in its battery life. Leave a comment, and tell us if this works for you!

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I’m already on record saying that I think AT&T’s upgrade pricing for iPhone 3G owners is not only comparable to the industry, but maybe even a little better.

Despite what could already be considered reasonable terms, AT&T has responded to the complaints by shortening the contract duration for 3G owners to be eligible for the full subsidy:

We’re now pleased to offer our iPhone 3G customers who are upgrade eligible in July, August or September 2009 our best upgrade pricing, beginning Thursday, June 18.

This means you can get a full subsidy having used the iPhone 3G for as little as nine months out of a 24-month contract. There’s a FAQ about the changes, and also a video. Nicely done, AT&T.

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There is already a lot of noise over this all around the ‘net. Owners of the iPhone 3G saying they’re getting ripped off, or not being treated like “loyal customers,” because they’re not being offered the fully subsidized price for the new iPhone 3G S. In reality the AT&T upgrade pricing is pretty much like all phone subsidies in the U.S. (and, for that matter, many other parts of the world). Actually, it’s a little better.

The unsubsidized price of the iPhone 3G and S models is $599/$699. The ones complaining most are iPhone 3G buyers who bought it for $199 shortly after its launch last July. Even then, they’ve only had the phone for 11 months. They have less than one year completed on a two-year contract. At best, they’ve only “earned back” half the $400 subsidy, yet they somehow feel entitled to it all, as if AT&T should just swallow the remaining $200.

For all the complaints about being ripped off, the truth is AT&T is actually being pretty good about this. When 3G owners have a year under their belt, AT&T is willing to say, “You owe us another year of subsidy ($200), but if you ink a new 2-year contract for the 3G S we’ll provide you the second year’s subsidy ($200).” That’s why 3G owners are being offered the new models at $399/$499 when they hit their 1-year anniversary.

Why do I call the above “pretty good”? Because typically you have to go 18 months or more before a carrier is willing to provide a subsidy for a new purchase. That AT&T is willing to do so at 12 months is about as “generous” as a U.S. carrier gets. Yes, it’s only half the subsidy, but you only completed half the time on your current phone.

I’m not asking you to agree with the subsidized sales model, or be happy about it. Nor am I trying to convince you it’s good — none of that is the point. The point is it’s the model we have, and a 3G owner is not paying extra or getting ripped off because of it. Do the math. If you bought the 3G at $199, and one year later bought a new 3G S at $399, at the end of that new 2-year contract you’d have paid $600 for both phones, and received $600 in subsidies. That amounts to $200 in subsidy for each year, which is exactly what AT&T offered you in the first place (and what you agreed to).

What’s strange about all this is that, even though this upgrade maze exists with all carriers, only Apple makes a phone so compelling people want to get a new one after only a year, so the upgrade policy is getting the spotlight on it and grabbing all this attention. Maybe the outcry will compel some changes in it, though it’d likely require all the carriers to come on board for it to work.

Meanwhile, this is generally the way it is for any heavily subsidized phone on any carrier. If someone buying a Palm Pre or BlackBerry Storm with full subsidy today thinks they can get that same full subsidy on a newer model before putting most of their time in, they’re kidding themselves.

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Cut, copy and paste has finally come to iPhone OS and I could not be happier. The lack of copy-and-paste in iPhone OS was one of the biggest reasons why I jailbroke my iPhone. If you need copy-and-paste today, but do not have access to the beta builds of iPhone OS 3.0, there are a handful of jailbreak solutions out there.

Did it really have to take two years? Security issues arising from sharing data between apps aside, my money is on the guess that Apple had agonized and deliberated on the most elegant way of implementing cut, copy and paste. Which should come as no surprise. Apple is known to either do it the best way there is, or to not do at all (you can thank Steve Jobs for inculcating that belief at Apple).

Now that we have seen Apple’s implementation of cut, copy and paste, it is all the more interesting to see the many vastly different methods independent developers had come up with to get copy-and-paste working. How well do these solutions work? In testing all of them, I have narrowed down four methods they use to copy-and-paste text. Let’s weigh the pros and cons of each.

The Relay Method

CopierciN, one of the first solutions to come to market, is a standalone app billed as a basic text editor with some copy-and-paste functionality. Essentially what CopierciN does is relay text selections by importing and exporting them between certain apps. Once a text selection has been made, you choose from a limited list of destination apps to which CopierciN can launch and paste it.

Pastebud and Pastie take a completely different route. Rather than being apps in the OS, Pastebud and Pastie are web services that relay text selections between Mail and Safari. The upside of these two solutions is that you don’t need to jailbreak your phone to use them; all you need are a couple of bookmarklets in Safari. The downside is that it is not system-wide copy-and-paste, and the notion of sending chunks of text this way puts me off.

The Swipe-to-Select Method

In December 2008, Clippy was released. It was a breakthrough at that time, in that it took a different approach than all the other solutions out there. Instead of being a standalone app, CIippy is a system hack that hooks itself into iPhone OS as a background service.

Of all the jailbreak copy-and-paste solutions, Clippy bears the most resemblance to Apple’s implementation of cut, copy and paste in iPhone OS 3.0. Both are system-wide, and Clippy employs a swipe-to-select method similar to Apple’s.

In Clippy, you tap and hold your finger to mark the start of a selection. Then, with your finger still pressed to the touchscreen, you drag your finger to highlight a selection. Upon lifting your finger, Clippy’s HUD pops up for you to cut or copy the selection.

This is where Clippy’s similarity to 3.0′s cut, copy and paste ends. A highlighted selection in Clippy does not have handles you can grab to finesse where it starts and ends. Getting a selection right the first time requires much precision. You have to get it right the first time or you’ll have to do it all over again. Also, when you select a passage that extends beyond the page view, you have to hold your finger at the edge of the view to get the page to scroll, if it scrolls at all. Even when it does scroll, oftentimes the selection will break. Text editor apps such as TextGuru and MagicPad also employ this method with equally mixed results.

On the upside, Clippy does have a very nice feature that is missing in iPhone OS 3.0. Called “Stack,” it stores multiple snippets of selections. In iPhone OS 3.0, you can only copy text one selection at a time.

The Mark-In/Mark-Out Method

Finally, in 2009, hClipboard was unleashed upon the jailbreaking world. hClipboard is a system mod in the form of a keyboard extension, so copy-and-paste is available only when the virtual keyboard is invoked.

In hClipboard, you highlight a selection by marking its in and out points. You mark a start point, tap a button in hClipboard, flick the page to quickly scroll to an end point, and tap the button again. Compared to swiping and dragging, this is simply the fastest and most accurate way to select a passage of text.

If you aren’t looking to only select a specific passage, there is a Copy All button. Another convenient feature, obviously well-thought out by the developer, are the ‘Move to beginning’ and ‘Move to end’ buttons that jump the cursor to the start and end, respectively, of a document.

hClipboard stores up to 10 clippings at a time. I’ve tested this with 500-word clippings and it works fine, so there doesn’t seem to exist a limit to how many words per clipping you can store in hClipboard.

A companion feature is Templates. Unlike normal clippings in the Clipboard, where older clippings will be deleted upon the 10-clipping limit to make way for newer ones, clippings in Templates are permanently stored. I like to keep HTML tags that I often use in drafting blog entries and frequently-used addresses for quick entry into Calendar.

The Best of Both Worlds

In the four months I’ve been testing all of these solutions, hClipboard stands out as the fastest and the most effortless way to copy and paste text in iPhone OS, while Clippy extends more seamless copying and pasting into areas of the OS such as Safari and Mail¹.

I’m glad that Apple’s implementation of cut, copy and paste is a combination of both swipe-to-select and mark-in/mark-out methods, one that offers the best of both worlds.

Now that Apple has finally caught up and has given us cut, copy and paste, all of these solutions may become largely irrelevant once 3.0 is released in the summer. But for now, Clippy and hClipboard are as good as it gets for copy-and-paste goodness in iPhone OS 2.x.

¹ hClipboard can copy text on a web page through two Javascript bookmarklets that convert non-editable text into editable text fields.

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So you’ve just jailbroken your iPhone. Congratulations! Your iPhone life is about to improve in so many ways. Be sure to follow our Jailbreak series to get the most out of jailbreaking your iPhone. Going forward, here are some tips to bear in mind.

1. Never upgrade firmware directly via iTunes

In the process of jailbreaking the iPhone OS, a partition inside the iPhone OS is created specially to store the files and data necessary for jailbreaking to work. This partition is typically 500MB. If you look at the storage bar of your device in its iTunes page, you’ll see this 500MB partition marked as “Others”, since, naturally, iTunes does not recognize this third-party addition.

When a user attempts to upgrade the iPhone firmware by clicking on the ‘Upgrade’ button in iTunes, it will not count the 500MB into the storage space available to install new firmware. The result is that these 500MBs are effectively “lost.” For example, if you directly upgrade your jailbroken iPhone — running, say, 2.2 — to 2.2.1, you’ll find that you now have 1GB of used space in “Others”.

If you wish to upgrade the firmware of your iPhone, always restore to the default firmware first. After you’ve done so, you can safely click that ‘Upgrade’ button in iTunes.

2. You can be a law-abiding customer

Jailbreaking and unlocking are, to the uninitiated, one and the same thing. Do know, they’re not. Jailbreaking frees your iPhone to run applications and code that are not signed by Apple, while unlocking frees the device from the carrier that it is bound to as part of the service contract you’ve signed with your carrier of choice.

So, the fact is, yes, you have to jailbreak before you can unlock your iPhone, but unlocking is not a necessary step in jailbreaking. While tools such as QuickPwn and Pwnage include unlocking as part of their procedure, it is equally easy to skip that step. You are certainly not obligated to unlock if you choose to not violate the terms of service set by your carrier.

3. There is more than meets the eye in Cydia

Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent of Apple’s App Store, is, on the whole, well-designed and easy to navigate. But, being a community, pro bono effort, it is ad-supported. If you are new to jailbreaking, here is how you separate the wheat from the chaff.

This is what you’d immediately see when you click on an item listed in Cydia. Of most interest to you is perhaps the ‘More Information’ link. But before you tap on it, wait a couple of seconds (or more, if your data connection is slow).

What just happened? Ads have loaded and the ‘More Information’ link has been pushed down, out of sight. If you’d tapped before the ads could load, you’d have most likely tapped on the ad instead of the link you intended to visit. So, when browsing in Cydia, patience will go a long way in making your shopping experience a more pleasant one.

While we’re still on the subject, the only page links in Cydia that matter to the typical user are listed below.

More Information — Tapping on this takes you to a sub page where you can usually find a detailed write-up of what you are about to install. But sometimes, a More Information link can take you to an external site. This varies from developer to developer.

Changelog — Some developers offer a list of the changes the latest version of his or her application contains. Reading the changelog gives you a better idea of what to expect, and whether the app is worth upgrading.

Screenshots — Most of the hacks available in Cydia are visual ones. This is especially true of custom themes. Most developers will include screenshots — “Screenies” as they are commonly called in the jailbreak community — accessible thru the ‘Screenshots’ link.

But remember that every page in Cydia contains ads. So wait a while and let those screenshots load.

4. Secure your iPhone

Being an operating system with UNIX components, iPhone OS has a root account. The default root password has already been made widely-known on the Internet, so any one with some knowledge in SSH can easily access the contents of your iPhone wirelessly. Be sure to change the password after you jailbreak your phone.

1. Fire up Cydia on your iPhone.
2. Browse or search for an application called MobileTerminal and install that.
3. Open MobileTerminal and type ‘passwd’ (without the quotes).
4. You will be prompted for the old password; for iPhone OS 2.2.x, the password is ‘alpine’.
5. Hit the Return key. You’ll be asked to input a new password.

As an extra security measure, you can install utilities such as BossPrefs or SBSettings and turn off SSH.

5. If your device is getting sluggish, uninstall WinterBoard

“Jailbreaking slows down your iPhone.”

“Your device will become unstable.”

I often hear these two comments about jailbreaking. To be fair, there is some truth in them. If you think the performance of your iPhone is beginning to feel really sluggish, chances are you have installed too many WinterBoard themes and hacks.

WinterBoard is a well-known feature of the jailbroken iPhone. The most visible part of WinterBoard that you see is as an application that lets you apply themes to the user interface of iPhone OS.

The invisible part of WinterBoard is a platform for system hacks to run, injecting code into iPhone OS while it is running on your device. In an over-simplification, it does this via a system process called the Mobile Substrate. Mobile Substrate runs beneath SpringBoard, Apple’s name for the home screen of your iPhone. You can think of SpringBoard to the iPhone what the Desktop is to Mac OS. Some system hacks are dependent on WinterBoard, ‘piggy-backing’ on it and running in the background.

An iPhone freshly rebooted typically has about 30—50MB of free memory out of the total 128MB available to iPhone OS. Running in the background, WinterBoard typically takes up 11MB or so. Add a theme and some hacks, and it adds up quickly. Remove WinterBoard, and you will see a dramatic improvement in the responsiveness of your iPhone. But you’d lose what many users consider as the most compelling reason to jailbreak the iPhone, so it’s really your call.

If you really must keep WinterBoard, go easy on the number of themes and WinterBoard-dependent hacks you install. Also, uninstall the themes and hacks that aren’t in use; you can certainly claim some speed and memory back this way.

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Recently, Apple has started offering would-be iPhone 3G buyers an opportunity to save time in the store and purchase an iPhone 3G online for in-store pickup (and AT&T activation).

You first tell them whether this is a new single- or dual-iPhone purchase for either a new account or an existing AT&T account. You then either enter new billing information or provide your current AT&T account data and select your rate plan and store location. When you arrive at the store, your old number will be automatically switched (if you migrated it to AT&T) or your new number will be activated and you should be in-and-out in the blink of an eye.

When I was switching my plan from my old iPhone to new 3G this weekend at my local AT&T store, availability was almost zero on the popular 8GB model due to the power adapter recall (no replacement stock yet), so this may be a great option to ensure that what you want will be in stock.

You can still shop old-school retail by finding your nearest AT&T or Apple Retail store and taking your chances (“roll the dice, ba-by” as it were).

Have an iPhone 3G Apple Retail or AT&T store story to share (good, bad or ugly)? Drop a note in the comments!

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“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

The launch of the much hyped iPhone 3G wasn’t without problems. Apple servers, due to excessive traffic, had reached the breaking point and in some cases stopped working. People purchasing the iPhone 3G in Apple and AT&T stores were sent home to activate it at home via iTunes.  At home, some users still ran into problems activating their new phones.

I have to admit I was slightly surprised when I heard this news. Apple has had months to prepare for opening day. Based on the reaction to the first generation iPhone, Apple should have expected this type of reaction. Perhaps it exceeded Apple’s wildest expectations. It makes you wonder what type of sales Apple would have this past weekend if it hadn’t run into problems?

Another hot place to be while surfing the net was Apple’s App store. Over ten million applications were downloaded over the weekend. I joined the masses that flocked to the App store. I did experience a few delays on opening day however this past Monday when I purchased applications for my newly purchased 32GB iPod touch I didn’t experience any issues. IPod touch users have the option to download iPod touch software 2.0 for $9.95 which will enable them to gain access to the App store, and have access to MobileMe.

When the App store opened its virtual doors, it had just over 500 applications. Now there are over 800 applications to choose from. The majority of the apps are less than $10 and there are also 200 free applications available.

For those who purchased the iPhone 3G did you run into any problems?  Did any of you iPhone or iPod touch users download any apps? Let us know in the comments section.

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Contrast that to this year, when the much anticipated iPhone 3G was launched at 8 AM local time. I was in line (with a few hundred soon-to-be friends) at 8 AM when the “launch” started. After 2 hours we had barely moved 10 feet. Around 11 AM, we finally got reports that there were server issues. At first they said the issues were with iTunes software activating new iPhones, but then they quickly shifted the blame to AT&T’s servers.

The mood quickly went from upbeat and excited to tired and irritated. Standing in line, hour after hour, this year was a stark contrast from last year. At Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, security guards wouldn’t even let people sit down (on the floor, or in mall-provided seating) even though we were mall customers waiting to spend quite a bit of money in their stores.

The whole atmosphere of this year’s launch was of disappointment, disorganization, inconvenience and irritation. Very un-Apple.

I know of at least 20 people around us in line who gave up and simply went home, disillusioned at the company they admired so much earlier that same day. I personally have mixed feelings about the competencies of both Apple and AT&T after such a botched event.

Last year, Apple was hurrying to get FTC approval and launch a brand new product with new technology to the world. It was much anticipated and they knew they were on a tight time frame. In spite of the very limited time to plan and the long lines (which seemed to be even longer than this year in most places), the event was overwhelmingly successful. Even though I didn’t get my 1st generation iPhone activated until after 10 PM, over 4 hours after I got it, I never even associated that with Apple. It was simply AT&T’s activation, a typically slow telecom company doing what they do best.

But when Apple and AT&T decided to subsidize the phones this year, and force in-store activations they should have known there were likely to be issues. As a developer and manager of enterprise-level applications, I’m shocked that AT&T and Apple did not sufficiently stress-tested their systems to ensure it could handle at least the same volume as last year.

I finally got my iPhone last night at 8:15 PM, over 12 hours after I got in line and 12 hours after they went on sale. Contrast that to last year, when I got to Lenox Square Apple Store at 8 AM and had an iPhone shortly after 6 PM, minutes after they went on sale.

This years iPhone launch was already complicated with in-store activations, which were enough to slow lines, but added to all the iTunes and AT&T server issues yesterday made me seriously question attending another launch event.

Apple is a master of creating emotion and excitement. They do it with their products, keynotes, launch events and even inside their products, which are typically elegant and just easy to use. Apple fanatics… err, I mean, customers… will spend any amount of money and wait in line (in the cold or rain) without complaining, just for the privilege of giving Apple their money or attention.

That changed on July 11, 2008. As I walked down the line as I left, I spoke with several people that had been in line for more than 12 hours for the new iPhone. The only reason most of them were still in line is simply the fact that they couldn’t imagine spending 12 hours in line and not having anything to show for it at the end of the day.

Apple is just a company and is bound to make mistakes, but I wonder if this is to become a recurring theme or if Apple will work harder in the future to ensure that product launches go smoothly. Only time will tell. One thing’s for sure though, if Apple launches iPhone 3.0 in July 2009, I won’t be in line.

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