Black On Stuff

After a 2 weeks vacation with access to company email either from my laptop or via my iPhone in a browser (webmail), I have decided to make the step of upgrading my 1.1.3 iPhone to 2.0 and test the Exchange connector, cause I’m done with all the refresh in the browser. After almost half an hour searching and reading different posts regarding the upgrade, I have decided to go with this tutorial, partially because it contained step by step instructions for idiots/dummies and also because in one of the comments there was this guy who said that even if there are a lot of steps, there is only one important step, that is putting the iPhone on DFU mode (Device Firmware Update - recovery mode, step 14). There are a few tutorials out there about this, but the way it worked for me doesn’t have anything to do with counting seconds:

Step 1. Connect iphone to USB then listen to the sound when it connects.
Step 2. Hold the home and power buttons until hear the disconnect sound then release power button.
Step 3. Wait until you hear the disconnect sound then release home button.

Ok, so I have finalized upgrading to 2.0. First problems amazed me: all my old applications disappeared (and I had lots of applications), there were only the default ones … So, if you’re upgrading, you might want to consider backing up your information (if you have something to back up). I had my Lockbox application full with encoded strings, and now it’s gone.

The good news: Exchange works. Also, Apple decided to get rid of the word “EDGE” and use “Cellular Data Network”. I don’t know why they don’t just name it “GPRS” (because it’s GPRS or EDGE).

Other good news: there is an Application Store built in, so you can install applications directly from Apple. Bad news: you need an account in iTunes Store, and to make an account you need a credit card. After searching and searching the web, I have found the way to create an account without the credit card info: using an iTunes Gift Card. There are websites that are giving away such Gift Cards for free, so you even get some free music with it. See this tutorial to get the idea on how to redeem your gift card: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1574?viewlocale=en_US

Bad news for me: I haven’t found a proper RSS reader. I was using SmartRSS, but now this one doesn’t seem to be available for 2.0 (can’t find it). I have tried several others, but they’re all dumb applications, without any usefull features to read properly a RSS.

Good news: Twinkle is available in the iTunes Store (I was wondering why I don’t have any updates on my 1.x version, while TwinkleKing is talking about so many releases.

Good news: my calendar and contacts are not in sync with my Outlook Address Book, without the need to connect to my computer periodically. As long as I have an Internet connection on the iPhone, everything is in sync.

There are other bad things about the new version and also good things. But the worse is losing everything I had in the first place. It’s like losing your hard drive. But anyway, with the next Exchange connector, iPhone can now be used in business mode, and I like that!