After recently acquiring an unlocked iPhone 4 in the UK I have now left the ranks of "tied-in" iPhone users - at least that's what I thought.

I had intended to keep my iPhone 3G and use it as a backup phone, both in the UK and in Switzerland. This would mean that the phone needed unlocking so that I could swap SIMs. No problem, I thought: Just ask those nice people at Swisscom if they can unlock it! After all, I've had it over two years and have certainly paid back the subsidised price difference by now!

No chance. Once a Swisscom iPhone, always a Swisscom iPhone. I could pay somebody in London to unlock it for me but they only knew how to unlock an iPhone with OS version 3.1.3 ... I'd already updated to 4.0.1 and am not going backwards for anybody!

Enter JailbreakMe.com 2.0 and some quick surfing!

The process was easy and quick. To save you from surfing around for the answers though, here's how it's done:

(Note for the geeks amongst you: This may be old news for you. I didn't write this for you though, but for everybody else who may feel a little nervous about playing around with the innards of their iPhones!)

(Important note for everybody: remember that this is, while no longer illegal, something that those nice people at Apple don't like and something that will void your warranty - if there's any warranty left on your old iPhone 3G/3Gs)

Step 0. Make a backup of the iPhone with iTunes.

Step 1. Visit JailbreakMe.com with the device you want to unlock. If you visit from a laptop you'll only see the default server setup page.

Step 2. You'll see a welcome screen with a "slide to jailbreak" slider:

Step 3. This is exciting! Go for it. Slide the slider and you'll see that you then download "Cydia" onto your iPhone. Cydia is used to Jailbreak your iPhone - allowing you to install other software not authorised by Apple and not supported. Once Cydia is installed, start it. Choose the option "Let Cydia make my life easier" to ensure that you pull updates in the future and you're sorted.

Step 4. Your iPhone is now Jailbroken - meaning that you can install other software through Cydia.

I'm not too interested in the majority of the Apps that are featured in the Cydia repositories - except for one: Click the "Search" icon, go to the search box in Cydia and search for Ultrasn0w (that's a zero, not an "O"). Links I found on the internet mentioned version 0.93. I installed the latest version, 1.1-1, which states that it also unlocks iPhone 4!

Step 5. Install Ultrasn0w and allow your iPhone to reboot.

Step 6. There is no 6. It's done!

Here're two screenshots from my previously-Swisscom-locked iPhone 3G, just after rebooting (with an Orange pay-as-you-go SIM):

Remember not to update your iPhone iOS version past 4.0.1 with iTunes unless you've checked out the availability of a Jailbreak and Ultrasn0w for the new version - otherwise your phone may be locked to your original provider again.

That said, those 5 minutes of time saved me the cost of getting the phone unlocked by somebody in the UK for around £30-£40. maybe I should have kept this quiet and charged you all? ;-)

Big thanks to comex and everybody behind JailbreakMe.com and to the iPhone Dev Team for Ultrasn0w. No thanks whatsoever to Swisscom for stating that they never unlock phones, even after a contract qualifies for renewal.

Disclaimer: Of course, this is messing around with your iPhone's iOS and may cause your phone to be messed up. Make a backup first with iTunes. If all goes belly-up, simply restore your iPhone with iTunes and restore the backup.

How cool is that then?

Not only are there great prizes up for grabs, but the website is really nice - I love the helicopter preloader:

(click the image to go to the site...)

There are some really fun videos on the site too, like this one:

OK, so it's an old theme - but on a massive scale - could this be a new form of transport?

Think you can do better or want to show off with some crazy stunts? Then sign up and upload your video!

The website is in German and French and they're on Facebook too:

According to Bloomberg, Facebook aren't set to go public this year after all - despite expectations...

It seems that Mark Zuckerberg was being his usual open self when asked about the subject on TV recently. According to the Bloomberg article:

Zuckerberg, in a television interview this month, said Facebook will go public “when it makes sense,” without elaborating.

Let's face up to some facts, shall we: It may never make more, or less, sense for Facebook to go public. That particular response from Mr. Zuckerberg is not exactly the sort of eloquent insight we'd expect from the figurehead of a multi-national multibillion dollar phenomenon such as Facebook. Maybe that itself is a clue to why Facebook shouldn't go public yet: More time is needed for Mark Zuckerberg to mature, to learn about running a public corporation and to take responsibility before he can really be forced into that role. Maybe he'll never lead the company once it's gone public? It's a challenge.

Another reason it's a good thing:

The extra year will certainly give him, and his close management team, a chance to finally get really in touch with developers - something which is not only sorely needed but also seems to line up with the stated strategy, according to the article:

...venture capitalist Jim Breyer, a member of Facebook’s board, said in January that the Palo Alto, California-based company isn’t focused on a 2010 sale. Instead, Facebook’s management is trying to woo more users and developers, Breyer said at the time.

So, Facebook. You want to "woo" users and developers? Cool. When are you going to start?

Woo users by making it clear what the privacy settings mean and make the defaults clear. Clear communication is the only way to stop people being upset. Just remember that most people who use Facebook aren't US college-kid geeks and learn how to communicate with them.

That's users. Developers are a little bit different, and the same. We want to have clear communications too - and rely on them. Your platform would be a lot less interesting and nowhere near where it is today without App developers. Talk to us. Tell us when new features are coming and, more importantly, when existing ones are going to be radically changed or simply switched off. Your approach to informing and supporting developers is, at the moment, severely lacking. Fix it. Woo developers by helping them to use your frankly more than dodgy and badly-documented platform.

One other thing: Most of your users and developers are not even in the US. Think global and don't impose an American way of thinking and doing business on those outside of the US.

Once you're finished wooing, and Mark Zuckerberg has had a chance to mature a little, you can change the company culture to make it more friendly and less "take it, or leave it" when it comes to those who raise issues.

If you can spend an extra year and focus on those things then Facebook will really be a good and ethical company to invest in. Sure, people will invest without you being "nice" or more ethical. It may just help, however, if you are...

I'd certainly like to see it.

Some of you will have heard me utter those words many times And why not? We should all take time to enjoy the beautiful things in life!

I found an interesting project today on Kickstarter - a New York-based Designer Duo called EVIGHEDEN have produced some really beautiful work and are raising money through Kickstarter to help them finish their collection.

Here's how they describe themselves:

EVIGHEDEN (which means "eternity" in Danish) is Marianna Barksdale & Abigail Stewart. We are a luxury fashion studio, launched in 2010. We design high-end garments, drawing on stories to inspire each collection.

All our pieces, from tiny accessories to the formal collections, are one-of-a-kind. We make textiles from scratch, work with local artists, and buy from farms to get materials like wool, yarn, and metal, so we can genuinely say we're making something New. We want our clients to feel transported, as if on a flying glitter unicorn of happy, when they wear our garments.

The work they've produced for this collection is fresh and stunning, real Things of Beauty. Click through on the Kickstarter Widget below and take a look or check out their website for photos of the full collection.

Remember: The great thing about Kickstarter projects is that you are not being asked to invest huge sums of money AND you will get something unique and special back as a reward for your investment if you so choose.

In my last post I mentioned Air Display from Avatron Software. Today I've been playing a little with the possibilities presented by this really neat App. I had a surprise too - but I'll come to that in a short while...

Firstly, by using Air Display and adding your iPad as an extension to your MacBook desktop you gain a second monitor with a resolution of 768 x 1024 pixels - perfect for those tool palettes or for viewing the iPhone simulator when developing and testing Apps:

But - and this is of course the benefit of the iPad touchscreen - you also get the ability to interact with the content you're showing on the iPad by touch. This means you can test iPhone Apps by actually touching and can interact with your photoshop tool palettes by touching them instead of messing about with the mouse. Very nice indeed - although my fingers are a bit too big to accurately use the colour picker, for example

Take a look at the image above and you'll see just how much extra screen real estate you get. Air Display is, for me, a killer-App for the iPad and especially if you're involved in developing in any way and sometimes need just that bit more screen space.

Now here's what surprised me: Air Display is what's known as a "Universal App". This means it also runs on iPhone. Yes, it allows you to use your iPhone as a neat little 480 x 320 pixel (or 320 x 480, of course) second monitor for your MacBook Pro This might sound a bit on the small side but here's a screen shot of my Fireworks Tool Palette on my iPhone to give you an idea of what you can do in 480 x 320 pixels:

All you need to use Air Display to extend your desktop this way is a wireless network and a little piece of software which runs on your MacBook - downloadable free from the Avatron Software website.

I certainly fully recommend the App - a must-have for iPad!