As someone who is gearing up to head overseas, I’ve put my laptop into somewhat of a lock-down mode, password protecting everything to make sure that it can’t be molested if it falls into the wrong hands abroad.

However, the drawback of such tight security is that (with the omission of physical labelling), if my laptop falls into the right hands, there’s no way the finder can figure out who the laptop actually belongs to.

Enter this handy hint, sourced from Apple’s own Leopard Security Configuration Guide. The hack allows you to place a custom phrase in the OS X Leopard Login Screen, just above the user name and password.

Crank up the terminal, and enter the following:

su [your admin username]
sudo -s
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “This laptop belongs to Jason Deacon, and you don’t.”

Of course, you may want to garnish your welcome message with maybe a contact phone number, email address or more impressive message than the example here.

The beauty of this hack is that as your contact details change when you travel, updating them is a simple as re-entering this into terminal. No more re-printing labels on the road, and you’re able to enter much more information here, too.

The Apple Security Guide is a good read, which I thoroughly recommend if you’ve got an eye for that sort of thing. We’ll explore more security tips in time!

We can’t be penalised – we didn’t sign NDA’s anyway! Ha!

Enjoy!

Needless to say, the anticipation was killing us!

Oh, wow. Steve’s really done it this time…

iPhone 2.0 really does scroll like butter. Quick, somebody call me on it!

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The dealio is this: iPhone only knows how handle numbers of a certain length without an area code, and seeing as most of us are using iPhones with a US firmware, that length is the minimum American phone number length (much longer than that in Australia – 8 digits).

That means that when someone calls your iPhone from a home phone (or mobile) that doesn’t send the area code down the line (9### ####), and you have the number listed in your contacts with an area code (03 9### ####), then iPhone doesn’t quite cotton on to the fact that they’s the same thing.

Too many times I’ve received calls from friends, but iPhone didn’t clue on that they were in my Address Book, so I had to spend the first part of the conversation trying to figure out who they were without sounding like too much of a tool.

So you’ve done your Australian Phone Number Mod, what now?

Som people had reverted to adding both the area code version and the normal version of numbers to their contacts, but a better alternative is at hand! The chaps on the iPhone Dev Team have a workaround, by means of replacing the Springboard app. with a modified one. The modified one whispers sweet nothings into the iPhone’s ear about phone numbers being able to be only 8 numbers long and still cool.

Read up on the mod here.

For me this was an absolutely crippling problem, but there is surprisingly little info on the net about how to fix it.

Help share the love, and donate to the Dev Team if you find it of use!

And thank the lord for the iPhone Elite team! This week they came up with a method to re-virginise sim-unlocked 1.0.2, and further more, rather than users having to screw ’round in the terminal they put together an automated process(es) which makes the whole ordeal rather damn simple!

And even better, i can attest to the fact that it works! So if you indulge in some re-virginising goodness, be sure to donate some moola to these fine folks, allowing international peoples like mwa to enjoy the benefits of 1.1.1, and use of the iPhone as just that, a phone.

After i’d revirginised, i then followed this guide where it details upgrading from a re-virginised 1.0.2 iPhone to 1.1.1, and further more unlocking your updated iPhone. Thanks so much to the iPhone Dev Team for that beautiful solution, anySIM.

For those interested, i’ve posted some photo’s from my re-virginising escapades…

I definitely decided to run with the auto install that also facilitates a backup of your seczone – good stuff in-case things go apple shaped. Oh, and don’t forget to install MobileTerminal via AppTapp before you start so you can have some terminal access to kick off the virginiser, if you want some cool green text action like i got (and in case things go wrong).

“Yes please”. Or just “Yes”, as i typed in. Manors aren’t required in terminal land.

And another “yes” to forge ahead with the risky business. At this stage i pretended i was calm and cool. All was going well. Just say yes and don’t ask question. No shit in the pants yet.

And all is done! My iPhone was ready to be upgraded, then laid horizontal again to make it function in the land Down Under. Awesome!

Virgin tastic.

I almost did shit myself when i saw that unread text message up the top there. I freaked that the re-lock had been unsuccessful and that i’d just received a new message. Buuuut i eventually realised that not only does iTunes backup your contacts etc, it also backs up your text messages, your clock alarms, ringtones etc and background picture! Very nice. Pants still dry.

Whilst upgrading to 1.1.1 via iTunes, i came across a fantastic error, which made the iPhone display… nothing. It was a blanket of grey. Oh oh… Is this what it’s like in bricked heaven? I’ve come to so far! I’m not ready to die yet!…

But thankfully re-trying the upgrade was successful.

God i love anySIM. That lock logo is the sorta sexy that makes me want to dress up like a woman and “pick myself up at a bar type-thing” in the mirror.

And just like that, BOOM! Yes Optus away! Like having a brand new phone. Double home key click and double space bar here i come! And iTunes store, too, i guess.

Now do i take ’50 more steps’ to install apptapp now? Or wait ’till simpler GUI version is created…

A bench clamp, a hacksaw and a 3.5 mm audio cable combined with a taste for adventure, delivered me my brand new iPhone certified cable!

Now my iPhone can enjoy the spendorous accoustics of my Daewoo Lanos, as I cruise the badass streets.

I think the cable has poignant beauty to rival the iPhone itself.

But seriously, seeing the amount of redundant excess plastic on something like this really does make you appreciate the minimalism of Apple design. We’ve all seen a lot fatter 3.5 mm adapters than this one, too!

Along with Jason, i too changed the scrolling carrier logo YES OPTUS.

Whilst he replaced his with “iPhone”, i went the slightly more ghetto approach to gain some street cred with all me homeboys and girls. And mum and dad. See below…

• the menu animation on my iPhone is noticably sluggish
• the screen brightness on my iPhone is dimmer than Dan’s
• my iPod and Safari crash a lot

A lot of other people have also reported that after a SIM unlock, the speaker volume drops as well.

What on earth?

It’s certainly looking like ye olde SIM unlock isn’t as pristine as we once thought!

The screen brightness drop isn’t something I have any idea about, but the chunky animation seemed like something fun to try and nut out.

After many wasted restore attempts and other efforts, I started to wonder if the lacking performance has anything to do with the absurdly long and equally ugly ‘YES OPTUS’ gracing the top of my screen.

Turns out that it did…

It seemed to make sense – unlike AT&T, or O2, iPhone is reading the Optus logo from the network each time it loads, rather than from a PNG image on the phone. Additionally, the software is then forced to scroll the carrier name because it doesn’t fit the gap (which occasionally caused some bizarre stretching and the like).

So at least in my mind, it looked like I’d found a possible way of getting performance back to how mother Jobs had first intended it to be, while satisfying my anal retentive tendencies.

Dan came across a great tutorial on how to rename the Optus carrier logo on the iPhone, which we set to work on pronto!

As iPhone does read from the network, it’s not as simple as swapping an image file over… Though you do get to put your own image in there once you’ve used a Hex editor to re-jig the springboard.

The result? After loads and loads of testing, I am confident to say that I think I have at least finally gotten rid of the sluggish animation! It is like a brand new iPhone once more!

Some people have still reported sluggishness even after a restore, however it is not stated whether they were using it on AT&T (image logo) or another network without an image.

So I’m happy. My saga of shitty animation looks to have come to an end.

Mind you, I should point out that I don’t have App Tapp installed on my iPhone, only custom number formats, You Tube and the SIM unlock. I think Dan went through a similar process without quite as much love, but he’s fully pimping it with the 3rd party apps, so that is perhaps a bit of a trade-off.

For what it’s worth, Safari hasn’t crashed on me as much either. Placebo?

I’m not sure if I could say the screen’s any brighter, however! I guess I’ll save that for another day!

After restoring the firmware (not by choice) and activating using iNdependence without installing anything remotely 3rd party, everything was as smooth as a baby’s bottom once more.

That was until just recently when the whole jerky thing started all over again! Aahh!

I wasn’t about to do another restore (and loose all my precious saved Google Map data? Ha!), so I started looking for what else could be causing the problem.

I’d already removed all my songs last time without success, after reading that someone thought this caused the thing to slow down. So I turned my attention to the Safari cache!

Voila! After a good Safari colonoscopy and a restart, everything was cool once again!

I’m not sure whether this was exactly what was to blame, but right now there’s not a lot else to put the performance lag and then sudden improvement down to… Hmm!

EDIT: Crapola! After some light use it’s back to it’s usual sluggish behaviour.

EDIT 2: I finally managed to fix it for good here. Solution: Removing the YES OPTUS carrier logo.

The low-down is thus: when SIM-unlocked iPhones shake hands with soon-to-released iPhone firmware 1.1.1 (one sixth of the sign of the devil, you might add), it puts your sexy new friend into a state that Apple are terming “permanently inoperable.”

Of course the statement is written in such a way that it is not Apple’s update that is bricking the phones, but rather the way in which the SIM unlocks have already “caused irreparable damage” to the phone’s software.

Rubbish!

Tell me AT&T didn’t put the hard word on Apple to bend over and relax!

With the SIM unlock software being freeware, there was now no way for a desperate AT&T to grab back lost profits or follow through with legal action. A software update is the only opportunity that AT&T has to get back their iPhone exclusivity deal, and you can bet they’re pushing hard for it. So hard that they want Apple to go to drastic measures to get their point accross.

What on earth has to change in the new firmware that is so drastic that it will actually kill an unlocked phone? Not just re-lock it. Kill it.

It doesn’t seem to be adding up.

I suspect this is a considered move by Apple, and the media release is just grooming the public for the ‘I told you so’ effect.

Dan’s new toy arrived just this arvo after a lengthy flight, and fortunately he got onto the rumour sites before the unlocking ones. So, he’ll be keeping you posted on efforts to successfuly SIM unlock v1.1.1 and how that all pans out.

Fortunately the issues are rumoured to only affect SIM unlocked iPhones, and he can at least scroll like butter through his music in the meantime.
Being the manly man that I am, I will keep my SIM-free iPhone away from all USB ports until further notice, waiting wimpishly to see what happens when everyone else with hacked iPhones updates to the new firmware.

Surely all these (however many thousands) of unlocked iPhones can’t just go toi-toi?

I plugged it into iTunes for some syncing good times, when – boom – hello recovery mode!

Something went awry somewhere, but no matter. I simply dropped my re-downloaded 1.02 software into iTunes’ download dir (~/Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates), turned off wireless to stop it trying to re-download the damn package (over dial-up, I don’t even want to think about it!) and started a restore.

But you know what? iTunes refuses to restore your iPhone unless it can first have a word with its Cupertino cohorts. No network, no restore.

Fine. Whatever. So I let iTunes connect to the internet, check for an update, and once satisfied that there wasn’t one, it began restoring my iPhone to 1.02, which will maintain my current SIM software unlock.

But what if a new firmware had been available?

I would have had no choice but to upgrade, effectively doing all sorts of nasty things to my unlocked precious, in line with Steve’s recent ‘cat and mouse‘ comments. There is currently no way to choose a previous firmware to restore.

Imagine if new revisions of iTunes checked your configuration for authenticity whenever you synced, and if in doubt, force you into recovery mode!

I really don’t think it’s that far fetched.

‘Genuine’ owners would simply perform the upgrade and restore from a backup. Unlocked iPhone owners would be either forced to wait for another unlock solution (hopefully not another 2 months!) or simply not sync their iPhone out of fear of it being kindly popped into Recovery Mode by iTunes!

We cover this in more detail in Episode 4 of the podcast. Maybe someone can make us a special Home Screen button that changes colour depending on whether it’s safe to sync of not? Maybe someone can just make a way to restore the thing without using iTunes?

Tell ya what, I’m gonna be keeping an eager eye out for updates before I next drop mine into the dock!

EDIT: Turns out it just might be possible to restore to an earlier firmware through iTunes! Hold down ALT + the Restore button  to select your desired firmware version. If this doesn’t work, play around with the different functions keys. It’s different on Mac to PC, etc. The one shortcoming is that you can’t downgrade from 1.1.1, which is obviously a big bummer for SIM unlockers.

But why anyone would have encouraged you to blindly upgrade to 1.1.1 is beyond me. Unless of course… oh yes.

Of course I wasn’t expecting Visual Voicemail to magically work in Australia, but surely hitting the button would just call my normal Voicemail, no?

Thanks to the chaps over at hackint0sh, now it can! And the best news is that you don’t even need to enter the firmware (those who have restored to factory default for reasons of stability like me, breath a sigh of relief)!

Punch this into your ‘last century’ dialer:

*5005*86*xxx# (where xxx is your Voicemail number).

So, on Virgin (cough) that is *5005*86*212# and viola! Hello Voicemail!

Think of all the taps hackint0sh just saved us! Now we don’t have to put Voicemail in our favourites.

Handily, accessing Voicemail this way automatically enables the in-call keypad. Hats off to you, Apple!

Now, if only I could figure out why I’m not receiving the new Voicemail notifications from Virgin? All other SMS’s come through fine, so surely I don’t have to mess around with this, do I?

I’d been enjoying the splendours of AppTapp‘s additional home screen icons (particularly VNotes, a superb voice recorder as part of AppTapp) when I started to notice that a few things weren’t quite right about the place…

Animations suddenly were skipping frames and super sluggish in parts! (Particularly when unlocking the phone).

I tried numerous tests to see what was causing it: it wasn’t that there wasn a lack of free space, because when I removed all my songs – it still underperformed.

It wasn’t converting the Address Book Language file to ASCII in a bid to change the number format, because putting the binary version back on made no difference!

Reverting the You Tube hack didn’t bring me any joy either.

Something must have cocked up somewhere… but what to do?

Well, being a fairly anal-retentive guy, I can’t stand something running at only 95%, so the choice was to just restore the thing with iTunes.

I was planning on putting YouTube back on after the restore, but when it occured to me that in order to do that, I’d basically have to reinstall all the mods which might put me back to square one minus some hours, so I decided I could live without YouTube and Australian-formatted phone number mods.

I’d read that flashing the modem to unlock the SIM was restore-resistant for 1.01 and 1.02 firmwares, so off I toddled to restore town!

Everything worked dandily, the SIM unlock remained, I just had to use iNdependence to ‘activate’ the phone and we were good to role, complete with sexy smooth animations once more.

EDIT: The joy was short lived, only a day later all the animation slowed down again, however, I ended up solving the problem for good here, by replacing the YES WHATEVER OPTUS carrier logo from the menu bar.