Yesterday the iPhone OS 3.0 firmware was released, and tomorrow the iPhone 3G S is available online and from select stores.

The new iPhone 3G S has a 600MHz CPU and 256MB of RAM, up from a 412MHz and 128MB RAM in the 412MHz in the first-gen and the 3G iPhones (from Engadget Mobile). That should certainly provide a Speed Boost.

In “Need for Speed“, my blog entry about the new iPhone (”iPhone 3G S”) and the iPhone 3.0 OS update, I mentioned “Jailbreak” twice.

Now I understand that some of my readers do not want to Jailbreak their iPhones (or iPods). That is perfectly valid. I felt like that for the first six months that I had my iPhone 3G, and found all the “How To Jailbreak” videos from major tech websites mildly aggravating.

I’m going to have to make a hard decision whether to sit it out until the iPhone OS 3.0 can be easily Jailbroken, or do without all the tools I’ve grown used to over the past few months. From what I see the OS 3.0 cut, copy and paste are better integrated into the OS than the Jailbroken one was, but that is to be expected. Other than that, I’ve grown so used to the SBSettings app, which will pop-up with simple left to right swipe on the Status bar and from there it is one tap to toggle Wi-Fi, and two taps through the Power icon to reboot the iPhone.

This week I finally canceled the monthly voice and data plan on my T-Mobile G1. It was just getting too expensive to have it and the iPhone.

This was before hearing about the T-Mobile G2 which is rumored to be coming out in July – I first heard about it from a Blog Entry by Keith “Next Generation Android Phone Out” on the Gottahave Blog.

Unfortunately, the G2 or HTC Magic, drops the one thing which made the T-Mobile G1 one of the more viable alternatives to the iPhone – the hardware keyboard. Now the slide out keyboard of the G1 has been criticized by reviewers since day one. The fact is, I would rate it better than any of the Palm smartphone keyboards – and from what I hear the Palm Pre’s keyboard is just too small. The keyboard may add at least a third to the thickness of the G1, but it is by no means a brick.

My only real gripe with the G1 is that you must have a Gmail account to activate it. Using it without a cellular data plan – which prevents the phone verifying your Gmail account, even if you are on Wi-Fi, disables the Android Marketplace (equivalent of the iTunes Store) and several other features on the device. That really sucks.

I’ve considered just using the T-Mobile G1 as a portable internet browsing device, as its browser is pretty good. It is a difficult choice between the G1 and the N810 Internet Tablet, which has an even better hardware keyboard.

“Need for Speed – Undercover” is one of the best racing games for the iPhone so far. If the announcement at Apple’s WWDC on Monday is to be believed, the game should load even faster on the iPhone 3G S. That is because the “S” is for Speed, and here we thought the iPhone 3G was supposed to be fast. No, the 3G S is faster still!

Actually, I’m quite excited about both the new iPhone (”iPhone 3G S”) and the iPhone 3.0 OS update.

Although physically there are no major changes, the third version of the iPhone adds some neat features. Improved battery life is one of them. Another is an upgraded 3-megapixel camera with built-in support for video recording. Then there is voice control, and a compass.

The iPhone 3.0 OS update (features available to the older iPhone 3G, as well as the iPhone 3G S) adds Cut. Copy and Paste (finally, you don’t have to Jailbreak to get this feature), a Landscape mode keyboard, MMS support, a search function and Voice Memos.

Also, surprisingly, the iPhone will now support tethering (using the iPhone as a wireless modem for a notebook). AT&T will not be offering tethering until their networks are updated. If you want tethering in the US you still have to Jailbreak your iPhone to get it.

As expected, the new iPhone comes in a 32GB capacity. It also has a 16GB version. One surprise is that the 8GB iPhone 3G is still going to be sold, but it is now the $99 iPhone.

It was inevitable I guess, that sooner or later there would be cracked Apps available for the iPhone. (for a explanation of what I mean by “cracked app” or “pirated software” see the article “Software cracking” in the Wikipedia.).

I had heard that some cracked Apple App Store Apps were being distributed in some way on Jailbroken iPhones. It was only when I was doing some research for the Blog Entry “148 Apps“, that I came across some evidence of this. I was going to refer to a blog where someone had installed the maximum amount of apps on his iPhone, and had a picture showing all the screens of his iPhone full of Apps. Then I spotted a suspiciously named app, Googled the name and discovered it was a source for cracked Apps. It was a good picture but I could not use it.

So why am I writing about cracked Apps? Well, first I must make this disclaimer: as a former Software Developer, I’m definitely against using cracked apps. Also, searching the web for and downloading cracked apps for any platform is one of the surest ways of getting some sort of malware on your machine.

One of the primary methods to install cracked apps on an iPhone is by using tools only available on Jailbroken iPhones. However, the developers of software for Jailbroken iPhones are very much against cracked apps. The last thing they want is to give Apple another reason to want to shut them down. Also, their apps are among the ones being pirated.

Of course cracking of Applications happens on every popular platform. One of the most pirated applications in the world today is an Operating System: Windows XP Professional.

The launch of the Palm Pre is coming up soon, on June 6 (see Keith’s Blog posting “Palm Pre Debuts June 6“). This is a couple of days before Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) where Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 3.0. Although I have used Palm products for years, and really wish Palm all the best with the launch of their new smartphone and the webOS, the thought of switching to the Palm Pre, or at least trying it has not even crossed my mind. There are a lot of technology experts studying it with interest and ready to jump in. Maybe if the Palm Pre wasn’t being released on Sprint first I would be more interested. Personally I have had one bad experience with Sprint which put me off them totally.

Palm does seem a bit touchy about their webOS though. Several months ago, TealPoint Software came out with a launcher for the Palm called TealOS. It mimicked the look and feel of the WebOS on the Palm Pre. So you could have a your old Treo 680 sporting what looked like a webOS interface.

Now TealPoint develop software almost exclusively for the Palm platform, and are likely to already have some applications in the works for the new WebOS. After a beta testing phase TealOS was released. I tried it and was interested enough to buy a copy. Several point releases later, Palm objected and forced TealPoint to withdraw the software. Now this launcher was basically giving users a taste of what the PalmPre interface could be like, and Palm appeared to get uppity and had it shutdown. Nice one Palm!

I’m using Napster, but it is no longer the illegal music-sharing service of years ago (see “All the Rave“, a book about the original Napster’s rise and fall).  Napster is now a provider of subscription music, and they also sell MP3s. Up to now they have competed with Rhapsody in the music subscription business, which is mainly targeted at MP3 Players other than iPods and Zunes.

After being purchased by Best Buy in September of last year, Napster has now come up with a pricing strategy which puts them in competition with iTunes. First they dropped their monthly subscription from $12.95 to $5 per month - this is the “regular membership”, and not “Napster To Go” which still costs the same. Then they sweetened the deal by allowing subscribers to download 5 songs per month for free. These free songs are in the MP3 format which most MP3 Players support. iTunes gives you one free song download per week, but you don’t get to choose the song, and it is in the Apple AAC format.

So basically you are paying $5 for 5 songs, which is more or less what most online music stores charge. Additionally you can stream music from a large music catalog of around 7 million songs. You can add downloaded songs to your Sony Walkman NWZ-E438FBLK 8GB MP3 Player, which also supports DRM-free AAC format songs from the iTunes Music Store.

148 Apps is one of my favorite iPhone App tracking websites. It is also the maximum number of apps you can get on the iPhone and iPod Touch. That is 16 Apps per page and 9 pages equals 144 plus 4 applications on the Dock at the bottom of the screen .

With so many iPhone Apps coming out all the time, it is harder and harder to stay within the 148 App limit.  There are even Apps which track or review Apps, like PandoraBox, BargainBin and AppReview.

If you happen to install more than 148 Apps, the apps at the bottom of the ninth page are moved to a tenth hidden page (see “How Many Apps Can Your iPhone Hold“). This can be temporarily used to hide App Icons, but on a Jailbroken iPhone the “BossPrefs” App will hide the icons you want - for example if you have no need to track the Stock market, you can hide the Stocks app which comes pre-installed. Of course not everyone wants to Jailbreak their iPhone, which quite understandable, considering the cost of the iPhone and the possibility of doing it some damage.

The only way I’ve found to keep on top of too many Apps is to be in constant cleanup mode. Fortunately Apps which are deleted from the iPhone can be easily reinstalled from iTunes or the Apple App Store.

This is probably not news for people who visit the Apple iTunes Music store. Since April this year Apple has changed the pricing of their music tracks. It used to be that every music track in the iTunes store cost 99 cents. Instead, there is now a variable pricing structure. So when you connect to iTunes with your 16GB iPod Touch you’ll find that the prices of single tracks are 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29. The way this is supposed to work is that the more popular singles cost more, and the less popular ones cost less. This is something the record industry had been pressurizing Apple to do for a long time now. (in “Apple to launch ‘variable-pricing’ for iTunes” ZDNet.com blogged: “Apple has finally caved to the pressures of the recording industry“)

This is not the first time that the pricing of songs in the iTunes Music store has changed. About two years ago, when Apple started offering some DRM-free music, it was priced at $1.29 per track, and the tracks with DRM stayed at 99 cents. This lasted until Amazon launched its online music store, with a much larger DRM-free catalog and singles for 99 cents. Apple then lowered the price of these DRM-Free tracks to 99c. (see “What iTunes Variable Pricing Means to You” from blogs.eweek.com)

The variable pricing structure is actually backfiring, as the more expensive tracks are selling less, and the increased price is not making up for it. (see “iTunes Revenue Drops on Tiered Pricing” on MP3newsire.net) This was predicted, but the Recording Industry still wanted it. (see “Music Industry Folks Worried About iTunes Variable Pricing” on TechDirt.com)

Tripped up by levels of “compatibility”!. I had mentioned that I was having problems after installing Eeebuntu NBR (Net Book Remix) on my Asus EeePC 701 Netbook (see “Neglected Netbook gets new OS“). Important Dialog Boxes were cut off at the bottom of the screen, making it impossible to configure Eeebuntu properly. I though it would simply be a matter of looking at an Ubuntu distribution on another PC to see what the buttons are, and work from there. It wasn’t.

Then I came across some interesting information. The Ubuntu wiki had a page
“HardwareSupport/Machines/Netbooks” which gave three Tiers of compatibility for Netbooks which had been tested with Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04. Tier 1 was “…netbooks that work reasonably well, with few or any issues, and no major issues“. Unfortunately, the Asus EeePC 701 Netbook fell into Tier 2:
“…netbooks that work somewhat, but have problems that may interfere with typical activities at the moment, or many smaller issues.”
For the EeePC701 there was this note “This netbook basically works, but most of the problems with it center around the fact that it has a very small screen with a default resolution of 800×400 and many apps simply won’t scale down to that size.” Two of the issues were “Evolution setup assistant takes more space than available on Eee 701SD” and “Display preferences takes more space than available on a Eee 701SD“.
By space they mean screen space.

This wasn’t even mentioned on the main Eeebuntu NBR website, and if I’d known about it, I certainly would have thought twice before installing Eeebuntu on my Asus Netbook.

On Saturday morning the lights went out with an ominous clang.

My main Desktop PC was on, but since it is on a UPS, it was simply a matter of shutting it down gracefully. I have a fairly basic UPS, similar to the APC (American Power Conversion) Back-UPS ES 8-Outlet, but it suits my purposes.

After the usual checks of fuses and account payments, we assumed it was a general area-wide power failure. Later I confirmed this by phoning the local Power Authority a while later. A recorded message said the power should be back on by mid-afternoon.

That left me with a problem. I needed to mail a parcel before the Post Office closed at 1pm, and the mailing address was in an email message online. Fortunately I could access my email account with my iPhone via AT&T’s 3G network, which was up. It made me appreciate cellular data access more than ever.

It was only mid-afternoon before the power came on again, but the hours without power were quite a drag, as I still had several computer-based tasks which needed to be done.