geohot twitter conversation

Serious scooter envy. http://post.ly/Ap5f

@geekrebel kinda leaning towards brand names over Chinese ones. Yamaha one looks good. Any other ideas? Anyone looking to sell a scooter?

I am getting a scooter. We are being ripped off to park in CT! http://post.ly/ABRX

So, I thought that I would help him out with this, envy, by adding to it. I decided to do a little undercover “scooter assessment” by checking out all of the scooters currently parked in my complex, and found the following:

Some slightly old ... and purple!	Pimped out with real Ostrich leather seat!
Another "oldie" parked off in the corner	Closeup of the Ostrich leather seat
old or new? At least it's blue! Looks nice!	Something a little more "modern" for the kids
And finally ... something a little more "off road"	Hope that you enjoyed the pics Rob! Can’t wait to see which you decide to buy!

If you answered YES to all of the above four questions, then you will probably LOVE the following “iPhoneDelivery” application for your iPhone! It is a very simple application that you can install on your iPhone, which will enable delivery reports that you have loved and missed!!

What is iPhoneDelivery?

iPhoneDelivery is an application written by Francois Guilleme for iPhone users around the world who are frustrated that Apple did not build delivery report functionality directly into the Apple iPhone’s operating system (OSX). Why Apple decided that we did not need delivery reports is beyond me, but they didn’t.

Basically once iPhoneDelivery is installed on your iPhone it “hooks” into the CommCenter service that is run by OSX and monitors when you send and when you receive an SMS message.

When you send an SMS message, iPhoneDelivery picks up on the AT+CMGS command used to send the SMS, and it replaces the bit 5 in the second byte of the SMS message to request from your service provider that it should send you a delivery report once the SMS message has been received by the recipient. (Regarding long SMS, since they are basically concateneted SMS, only the last one is patched. Orignaly the first fragment was patched but the delivery report was receive before the message itself. It was pretty disturbing for some.)

It does not change anything else in the SMS, only that one byte of information. Really just changes the “Request delivery report: No” to “Request delivery report: Yes“.

When you receive an SMS message, iPhoneDelivery determines if the SMS is a normal +CMT message (which it leaves), or if the SMS is a +CDS delivery report message. In the second instance iPhoneDelivery rewrites this +CDS message to a +CMT message, and then links the delivery report to a specific SMS message that you recently sent. It then uses sqlite3 to map the phone number to a name in your address book, and then accesses the SMS database.

The flash mode allows you to either get the delivery report as a normal message or get it as a full windows message.

A nice feature of iPhoneDelivery is the “tick mark” that is displayed in the SMS bubble in your conversation window once the SMS has been successfully delivered. When a message is sent iPhoneDelivery stores the reference returned by the SMSC (SM service center) in the sms database. When the report arrives this reference is included in the payload so iPhoneDelivery knows which message it relates to. iPhoneDelivery then updates the SMS text in the database and prepends a nice looking “tick” character to the SMS message which symolises that the message has been delivered to the intended recipient correctly.

Prerequisites:

You need to have jailbroken your iPhone.

Installation Method:

1) ADD the following source to Cydia: http://iphonedelivery.advinux.com/cydia

2) Search Cydia for the “iPhoneDelivery” application, and install it.

3) Open up your “Settings” application, and go down to “Messages”.

4) You then have the option to enable “Delivery report” as well as “Flash DR”.

5) Click on your “home” button, and then test it out by sending a friend a test SMS.

Note: A big Thank You to fxit_man from the mybroadband forum for making this information available to the general iPhone South African users, and creating a little “how to” guide for installing it!

mybroadband forum

iPhoneDelivery Homepage at Google Code

Cyide Source: http://iphonedelivery.advinux.com/cydia

P.S. I have iPhoneDelivery working 100% on my jailbroken iPhone 3GS on the Vodacom network!

It is however apparently NOT available through the Apple AppStore, so you are going to have to come up with more constructive ways at downloading it.

It’s 147.24 MB in size, and works PERFECTLY !!!!!

Grab it while it is still available!

There is mention that you will need a jailbroken iPhone 3G or 3G[S] to install it however, so for those of you “legit” Vodacom users, you have a while to wait still!

Today at Apple’s “Let’s rock and roll” event in San Francisco, they officially announced the updated iTunes, releasing version 9 today.

iTunes 9 comes with Genius Mixes, with more than 54 billion songs to choose from, helping consumers find new music that relates to current library. Apple also announced Genius DJ built into iTunes 9 that seeks out songs and creates a playlist for endless possibilities, great for parties.

iTunes 9 also improves syncing with devices, for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Users can sync by artists, playlists, genres, and more possibilities. Apple also announced that iTunes now offers Home Sharing, allowing users to copy songs, movies, TV shows and more, for up to five computers around your house.

iTunes 9 comes with a built in application sorting feature for the iPhone and iPod Touch, allowing users to customize the layout of their device directly from their computer, without having to painstakingly move dozens of applications and games around. The built in feature should make users organize their devices a little easier.

Download here: Apple iTunes v9 Windows XP & Vista x86 (88MB)

Apple releases 3.1 iPhone & iPod touch firmware

Apple has announced the release of iPhone and iPod Touch firmware 3.1, available for download later today. The free download, for both iPhone and iPod Touch 3.0 users, is said to improve battery life.

The 3.1 firmware will improve video editing on the iPhone 3GS, that won’t overwrite the original clip when editing videos, preventing the loss of the original film. The new developer API’s allows third-party applications access to the videos and edit them, without having to use Apple’s editing tools for the iPhone 3GS. The update is said to increase the boot time of devices. The device will now vibrate when moving icons around to different locations.

Apple also included a “Fraud Protection” toggle switch for browsing, now available under the settings for Safari. The firmware update allows Voice Control over Bluetooth now. Users can also organize their icons through iTunes without having to move them around on their device.

Download v3.1 for iPhone 2G – iPhone1,1_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw (241MB)

Download v3.1 for iPhone 3G – iPhone1,2_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw (242MB)

Download v3.1 for iPhone 3GS – iPhone2,1_3.1_7C144_Restore.ipsw (306MB)

Get them while they are hot!

“Starting today, you’ll be able to play MONOPOLY as it’s never been played before: The whole world will be up for sale. Anyone, anywhere will be able to own real streets and build their own online city.”

“For everyone eager to buy their first choice street, we’re about 30 mins out from going live from 12:15pm GMT Wednesday 9/9/09″

Brilliant news! The game’s alive and working … or is it?

Monopoly City Streets

“The registration is slow due to the overwhelming response. Our servers are on fire! Thanks for everyone’s interest and patience – please keep trying.”

O no, major traffic jam ahead! Back to work for me then!

:-/

Monopoly City Streets Website

Monopoly City Streets Blog

What is Trapster?

Simply put, Trapster is an application for getting speed trap alerts on your Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, Android, Garmin, or TomTom device.

How does Trapster work?

When you see a trap, report it by pressing a button on your phone, or calling a toll free number. Other user’s phones will alert them as they approach the trap. Trapster learns the credibility of traps based on how many users agree. It also learns the credibility of each user, over time.

So how does it work? Our goal is to make it so simple that you don’t need to know. But in case you are interested, it combines technologies such as GPS and wireless location, voice transcription, geocoding, reverse geocoding, and SMS, with a central database server. It communicates in real time, using the Internet.

Some Statistics:

1390641 Total Trapster users world-wide

1131687 iPhones using Trapster (I wonder how many SA users there are?)

717612 Traps reported world-wide

Why you need trapster even if you already have a radar detector.

Even the latest, most expensive radar detectors are useless against modern police enforcement technologies such as instant-on and laser. Your radar/laser detector will still beep, but in almost all cases, only after it is too late. The only way a radar or laser detector can help you is if it beeps in time for you to slow down before the officer gets a reading on your speed. With instant-on and laser, this only happens if the officer activates early or “misses” the shot, and some of the signal leaks past a car in front of you. Radar detectors are still effective for more traditional (Ka etc.) band radar. We recommend that you use both Trapster and a radar/laser detector for the best possible coverage. Also radar detectors are illegal in many US states, and are illegal nationwide for commercial vehicles.

Trapster works on Garmin and TomTom.

After about a gazillion of you (our users) asked for Garmin and TomTom support, we implemented it! While other sites charge money for this data, we offer it absolutely free (for personal use by individual registered users). Check out our innovative approach to setting areas, routes, and alert types of interest, and for POI Mailer automated notifications! Note: Static trap types such as red light cameras and known police enforcement points stay in the same place for years. But real time trap types such as the motorcycle police with laser, a mobile speed van, or a checkpoint, move from place to place every few hours. Garmin and TomTom navigation devices are not connected, so our servers cannot deliver real time data to them. Therefore we suggest you additionally use our location based text message system to be alerted to the trap types that are not static in nature.

Is Trapster legal?

Our understanding is that Trapster is legal in most countries. It does not fall under text messaging or hands free calling laws, or radar detector laws. If you are concerned you should probably check the laws in your state or country. In fact, the police we’ve spoken with actually like the idea. It beeps, people slow down, they have met their objective, you save money on the ticket and insurance, and everyone is happy. The police can always find plenty of other people to issue violations to. People who don’t use Trapster, that is.

Traps in South Africa?

Reported traps in Cape Town, South Africa

Amazing hey? I definitely think that there are already a number of Trapster users in South Africa! Or maybe just one user doing a LOT of driving around?

Anyway, give Trapster a try by downloading the application for your iPhone here:

Trapster on the App Store

Official Trapster Blog

Trapster Website

We know that HTC Magic owners out there are pretty psyched at the news that the HTC Sense UI is available for their Android phone. However, based on this latest news, it appears that iPhone owners also have a reason to rejoice as they too can enjoy the benefits of this new user-interface!

Well, it looks kinda nice, but there is no real new functionality!

Enjoy the pics!

I just have to show you this most beautiful iPhone mock-up that some graphics designer did! I think that it looks amazing, and I really hope that Apple will use a design similar to this for their 4th gen iPhone when it is announced in July 2010 !!!  It’s still a while to go … but come on!

4th gen iPhone design

Ferrari owners, Porsche kiddies, Lambo Lovers eat your hearts out, because this beautiful car will turn heads quicker than any other car on the plant! (Okay, not as quick as the Bugatti, but still very quick!)

The 2008 Maserati GTS

Maserati have added the same bellowing 4.7-litre V8 to be found in the 8C Competizione to their GT, to give the GranTurismo S (GTS). It also benefits from some subtle visual surgery, boasting new wheels, and a leather and Alcantara interior with sport buckets.

Update: Click here to have a look at the pictures –>

Maserati South Africa – Official Maserati Importer