Another quick iPhone post.

This time, I want to discuss how to quickly hose your iPhone - requiring you to format and reinstall all your applications and hacks.

For me, it was as simple as installing TapTap Revolution (TTR.app) using Installer.app. For many people, TTR is a great, fun application. For me, upon finishing the install (about 20 seconds) my iPhone was damn near unusable (the springboard was caught in a constant restarting loop). I could still SSH into the device (which I did in order to copy my files off the device before restoring and using Ziphone to reinstall my hacks).

If you’re going to use third-party applications, please be aware that anything could have a bug or cause an error - therefore, please be sure you have a good backup of all your device information, files, and other data.

It only took about 15 minutes to backup my images and get the device back up and running, but adding the e-mail addresses, bookmarks and custom apps took a bit longer. A painful lesson, but not so bad as bricking the phone itself.

Lesson learned.

PS: The new Ziphone interface looks like garbage. I’m not big into flashy graphics for graphics sake, and the ‘mock-Zorro’ image looks like hackware.

There’s been several posts of late of my iPhone purchase, hacking, and usage and I’d like to add one more to the mix:

Yesterday I attempted to make my own iPhone ringtones (do a google search for “DIY iPhone Ringtone“). After realizing the difficulty of syncing my iPhone between multiple computers (argh), I found Ambrosia Software Inc’s iToner.

iToner has been a godsend (even in demo mode). The process of creating ringtones is as simple as this:

1. in whatever application you choose, create an audio file for your ringtone (multiple output formats supported). You could use Garageband (see some hacks at the DIY search for ending the process there - but beware, this won’t solve the multiple computer issue).

2. Open iToner and drag your newly created audio files onto the interface.

3. Wait a few seconds for the conversion and click the Sync button.

4. Profit!

Here’s some screenshots:

The beautiful part about iToner is that you don’t actually use iTunes to handle the syncing, thus getting me around the problem of a) iTunes managing my ringtones and b) syncing between multiple computers.

There are of course issues: if you have ringtones on your iPhone or computer(s) already, syncing with iTunes may overwrite the iToner-added ringtones. The Ambrosia Software Web site has a fix for this.

Update: November 4, 2008. I’m working on a new post that will include MobileMe, and Google Calendar as possible solutions (and headaches). Once I complete the post I’ll link it up here.

I broke this tutorial out into a separate post from the initial iPhone experience as I wanted to give some new iPhone users (or those that want to sync Exchange calendars to iCal) a quick rundown on what has worked for me.

Here’s a little background:

This past weekend I purchased a refurbished iPhone for $249 from AT&T with no contract. After taking ten minutes to jailbreak, activate, and insert my T-Mobile SIM card, I was up and running.

Now, to fully replace my Blackberry 8700G, I needed synchronized calendars. Since I’m not part of the Enterprise server system at my employer, I must manually dock my Blackberry at work in order to synchronize, so having mobile 2-way synchronization wasn’t an issue for me.

I looked around the Web in order to find a tolerable (and cheap!) solution to the sync problem from Microsoft Exchange to iCal, and then to the iPhone. Nothing really worked for me (at least, not in my “free or less” budget), so I dug a little deeper, finally finding a magical solution that may actually have some greater benefits.*

Here’s what I found:

Snerdware makes a great iCal/Exchange syncing tool called GroupCal (current version is 3.x). While this tool looks good, it does cost +$50 per seat, and I’m a little worried about everything syncing cleanly. Others have had mixed results. If Groupcal works for you, this may be a lightning solution and your search ends there. If not, read on.

After reading Vladisla’s list of options, I couldn’t get anything working. Upon further digging, I found that some users had success with Plaxo. Already being heavily invested in social networks, I decided to give Plaxo a shot (I won’t review Plaxo here, other than to discuss the calendar use).

Here’s what I needed (and did):

I need a way to sync my Exchange calendar to my iPhone with at most the same amount of headache I have with my Blackberry (manually docking to a PC at work, launching the Desktop Manager, and clicking ’sync’).

I thought it would be as easy as Exchange to iCal to iPhone, but of course that’s not the case (duh, I knew that years ago!).

So, if direct to iPhone wasn’t possible, I thought I’d give Groupcal a shot. Now, I mentioned above that this wasn’t going to work for me (two reasons: 1. I already tried their trial a year ago and can’t retry; 2. I am broke). Like I said above, if Groupcal works for you, your troubles are over. For me, it was a no-go.

So, undaunted, I looked at Plaxo. Plaxo allows me to sync from my Exchange (on the PC) to their Web service, and from the Web service down to my iCal (on the Mac). The process took about five minutes total (for login, downloads, and syncing). I have to tell you, once I saw all my calendar events in iCal, and a minute later on my iPhone, I was really stoked.

Let me say this in terms you should understand: I can has calendar? Yes, is mine!

Summary:

Twenty minutes total in the process (about ten to fifteen for searching and trying, and five for Plaxo). Hrm.. maybe I should hit Plaxo up for some sponsorship money?

I’m hoping this post helps at least one person in getting sync’d quickly and easily. Now that I can move calendar info back and forth (not editing on the iPhone, of course), I am a happy camper and think that my migration off of the Blackberry is complete.

Thanks for reading! I’ll try and get some setup screenshots online at some point (forgot to take any on the desktops).

* Caveat: I’m possibly violating some security regulations at work by pushing my Exchange calendar to an unsupported third-party Web service. This taken into consideration, proceed at your own risk.

God love refurbished deals and T-Mobile Edge networks with unlimited data plans.Update: I got the iPhone on Friday (March 21), and after 10 minutes of software hacking (thanks, ziphone.org!), and inserting my SIM card from t-mobile - I was up and running with a fully-functional* iPhone!I’ll be uploading (to Youtube, Zimeo, etc) a five-minute tutorial video with screenshots, etc. sometime this week.* by fully-functional, I mean every service except the Visual Voicemail, a specific AT&T-only feature (I don’t need it since I’ve never used it, so calling my own voicemail works fine for me - had to call in yesterday, don’t mind continuing to do so today).