Let’s face it - despite the fact that there will soon be much more competition on the market, the iPhone is just about the best phone out there right now. It’s really in a class of its own as far as the user interface is concerned. One shortcoming of the iPhone, which is actually an umbrella for a whole category of shortcomings, is the lack of third-party software available for it. The iPhone does what it does better than anything else, but there are plenty of things that it doesn’t do (as seen here). Apple has said that they will launch an iPhone store, in which users may download new applications, in June, but that doesn’t help us in the meantime. Thankfully, there are some talented hackers in the world who’ve dedicated lots of time and effort into making the iPhone that much better by creating their own applications to make up for what the iPhone lacks.

Before you can use those third-party apps, though, you need to jailbreak your iPhone. Not familiar with jailbreaking? It’s a term used to describe the process of opening your iPhone to third-party (non-Apple) applications. Jailbreaking is actually very easy, but using third-party applications isn’t for everyone; it does require patience (since not all third-party apps are stable) and a tad of general geekery would help too.

To get started, just download ZiPhone; install it; run it; and hit the jailbreak button in the ZiPhone application while your iPhone is connected to your computer. ZiPhone will handle all the dirty work, making the process of opening your iPhone up to third-party applications a breeze. As long as you’re running firmware 1.1.4, there’s virtually zero risk in jailbreaking your iPhone. Should you ever need to un-jailbreak (jailfix?) your iPhone back to the original factory settings, you can easily do so from iTunes.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is the very first step in maximizing your iPhone. Once your iPhone is jailbroken, you’ll notice a new icon on your iPhone’s main display called Installer. This is the tool that will allow you to download and install all sorts of nifty apps. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, which will talk about which of these apps are worth spending time on and what they do (read: why you really want to go through the trouble of jailbreaking your iPhone in the first place).

This is what it sounds like when KK Slider plays all of his songs simultaneously. It’s kinda like what the Internet would sound like - terrible.

I made a website for Julie (a girl I worked with until recently - she just graduated college and is going to do something meaningful with her life, or something goofy like that). The website, as you may have suspected, is OldDogNewBiscuit.com. On the site, Julie has many kinds of healthy dog treats available. I even ate one and, while it’s still a dog biscuit, it wasn’t nearly as bad as one might expect.

As usual, I made the entire site with the almighty WordPress. In addition, I couldn’t have done it without the excellent eShop plugin.

An Oregon Girl recently blogged about who she’s going to vote for to be president, which reminded me to do the same. Unless something completely wacky happens to make me change my mind, Obama has my vote. Of all things, I admire his sense of honesty most of all. When he gives a speech, or answers a question in a debate, it doesn’t sound over-rehearsed or generic; he speaks from the heart, and I appreciate that.

One thing that An Oregon Girl mentioned that bothered her about Obama was that he doesn’t support gay “marriage”, only “civil unions”. I do support gay marriage, and while he may not support using the word “marriage” for gay couples he still believes that they should have the same rights as straight couples. Works for me.
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It was only a matter of time before a company came out with a true “iPhone killer” - but who knew it would be a joint venture by oft-rivals Sony and Microsoft? Sony Ericsson has developed a new, super slick interface for Windows Mobile called XPERIA (annoyingly in all caps) which allows one to easily switch between applications like never before possible on a Windows-based phone.

Sony Ericsson’s new device, the X1, is exciting for many reasons. To me, the best reasons are that it makes up for the iPhone’s shortcomings.

• 3G: The iPhone runs on the slower EDGE network. With 3G, the X1’s faster data connections means more reliable streaming of online content like audio and video.
• Slide-out keyboard: The iPhone’s on-screen keyboard doesn’t make for the best keyboard, in my opinion. I really prefer the tactile feeling of a real keyboard.
• Windows: There are many third party programs available on Windows Mobile - on the iPhone, there are virtually none (unless you want to run the chance of bricking your phone).
• Flash: Rumor has it that the X1 will actually play Flash, rather than convert certain streams into a compatible format. If this proves to be true, that would really bring the internet to your phone in a way that not even the iPhone can do.

The X1 isn’t coming out until summer-ish, maybe later, so it’ll still be a while before the hype goes mainstream. For now, it’s still just a gleam in a geek’s eye… but man, it’s cool.