The iPhone hacking community saved (and revived) my frozen iPhone after 8 days in the snow!

First, let me just say there are a LOT of details to this story, so I will try to keep this as brief as possible without sacrificing any important points...

In mid-December I lost my iPhone in about 8 inches of snow. I was taking my dog for a walk and started playing with her in a very large, open field park that I live by. The iPhone was in my (unzipped) coat pocket, and when I got home I soon realized that I was without my iPhone for the first time in 6 months. I frantically scrambled back to the park, but because it's a huge park and there had been a fresh 6-8 inches of snow in the Chicago area, I couldn't find it. We literally searched for hours, but it was a lost cause. And frankly, after a few hours I figured it would be broken anyway. Moisture + freezing temperatures made it a goner in my mind. I was slightly bummed - after all, I did wait for that thing for 6 hours on release day.

About a week later I was walking my dog in a now thawed park - the snow had melted and there was just a dusting of snow. I retraced my steps out of sheer curiosity, and boom - there it was! Face down, stuck to the grass frozen. I peeled it off the grass and ran home with it. I had no illusions that it would work, but at least all my personal data was safe.


When I got it home, it immediately started condensing and thawing. I wiped it down frequently to try and prevent as much moisture getting into the iPhone as possible. I continued to let it thaw for about 4 hours in front of a heating vent to help it dry out. I probably should have waited longer, like 24 hours, but I couldn't help myself. I began charging it, and it powered up! Since my phone had been lost for a week, I had already activated another SIM - so the one in the iPhone wasn't recognized and it didn't hook to AT&T's network. So I swapped my new SIM card in, everything at least looked to be working.

However, once I started playing around with it, it was clear there were some problems - primarily a dead strip about 3/4 a way down on the touchscreen. This was a major problem as the top row of the keyboard was rendered useless, as well as any confirmation popups. With this much of the touchscreen dead, it was basically unusable.

I began researching touchscreen fixes, and found this great touchscreen sensitivity fix/hack. Obviously, as I read on I realized it required a jailbroken iPhone so that you could access the filesystem. So I did my research and used Independence to jailbreak my frozen iPhone. All went well, and I installed the touchscreen sensitivity fix and voila! I had increased the touch sensitivity to 0 (the highest setting) and all of a sudden the keyboard worked, confirmation buttons worked, etc.

This touchscreen sensitivity hack single-handedly saved my iPhone from being relegated to a junk pile and has instead made it nearly fully functional. There are times when the screen is still flaky, and not everything works well (sometimes I have to tap things a couple times) - but given that the phone was frozen for 8 days and absorbed 8 inches of snow moisture, I think 85% usability is pretty damn good! Every other hardware component (Bluetooth, wifi, EDGE, sleep button, volume buttons, home button, vibrate switch, proximity sensor, accelerometer, headphone jack, and camera) works without issue - truly amazing.

This is a really strong testament to two groups of people - first and foremost, the iPhone hacking community. Without this hacking process and the really smart folks who figured out, my iPhone would be dead, no question. Secondly, this is quite an engineering feat for Apple. For all the Apple hardware problems people seem to blog about (iPhone or otherwise), this is just amazing - an electronic device left in freezing temperatures and moisture, and really only one component partially breaks (the touchscreen).

Apple has made it clear that the hacking community is not exactly encouraged, but they've been relatively cool about letting people hack away in an unsupported manner. As far as I know, they haven't asked any hackers or websites to cease and desist, and information is readily available. Apple continues to patch each version of their firmware (1.1.3 most recently broke third party apps), but they can't be expected to support all the hacked iPhones out there. I'd say overall this is a generally healthy relationship, and we'll have to see what happens when the SDK comes out and people will be able to charge for apps (or give them away).

But to the entire iPhone hacking community, this probably isn't said enough - but a big, big thank you to you guys for all your hard work...and for saving my frozen iPhone!

Here's the official timeline of events:

• 12/16/07, 5 p.m. - iPhone is lost in 6-8 inches of snow.
• 12/16/07, 9 p.m. - iPhone search party is called off.
• 12/16/07, 10 p.m. - Deep depression sets in.
• 12/17/07, 9 a.m. - I have to tell people at work that I lost my iPhone - shock and awe sets in.
• 12/17/07 - 12/22/07 - I continue to walk my dog in the same park, and just look around for the iPhone occasionally.
  
• 12/22/07 - Major snow thawing occurs - thank you global warming! All 6-8 inches melts.
• 12/23/07 - Gets cold again, and a slight dusting of snow sets in.
• 12/23/07 - I retrace my steps and discover the frozen iPhone!
• 12/23/07 - iPhone is thawed, charged, and powered up.
• 12/23/07 - 12/28/07 - Attempted various hack methods out of sheer curiosity, including touchscreen sensitivity fix. Eventually settle on 1.1.1 with installer apps, then an upgrade to 1.1.2.
  

A virtual middle finger to the Cubs and their "exclusive" 9-game ticket package

I received an email on Thursday 1/17 from the Cubs saying they were selling an "exclusive" 9-game ticket package before tickets went on sale to the general public - a thank you to those on the season ticket waiting list that is about 6 million people in length. Obviously I was excited, and checked at 10 a.m. when they went on sale.


I first encountered a virtual waiting room to which my first thought was, "Great, here we go again with the hellish waiting room", but got in quickly. But it got worse from there - I was greeted with the game choices (specific details here). Basically, you got to choose:

• 6 April/May games, 2 of which were midweek day games (yay, Wednesday 1:20 games in April!).
  
• The other 3 you got to choose were summer midweek night games or Friday 1:20 games - not a single weekend game in the bunch.

So as a longtime loyal Cubs fan, a big fat middle finger to the Cubs for that one.

The Red Sox use .Net

It's too bad the Red Sox won a World Series a few years ago, otherwise I could blame .Net for their failures. Looks like they've put up a job posting for a .Net developer - damn it I wish I knew .Net.

Scary part is that that use Sharepoint as well, one of the worst document management systems I've ever seen. Cool part of the job though is that you get to (presumably) work with their baseball operations department.

iPhone commercial ringtone

Does anybody have any idea why the ringtone they use at the end of the iPhone commercial is strictly for show? It's not available on the iPhone itself, and it makes me wonder why Apple (or their marketing firm) would choose to use a sound that's not even on the product.

Sadly what this does prove is that there are no "serious" ringtones on the iPhone. While not as bad as the dizzyingly retarded Samsung stock ringtones, there's nothing as simple as a "ringing phone" ringtone on the iPhone like the one on the commercial. Hell, that's the one I'd use if it was available.

Apple's new number keypad-free bluetooth keyboard

There's been a lot of hubbub about Apple's new bluetooth keyboard, particularly about the lack of a number keypad (aka, numeric keypad, number pad, etc). Most everyone loves the design, some people don't like the keys themselves, but it seems everyone is confused as to why Apple would cut off the number pad.

I personally think that cutting off the number pad was a great idea. I can only speculate as to Apple's real reason, but I have to believe portability was the #1 concern. That may be an obvious statement, but I don't mean moving it around your desk or onto your lap. Rather, true portability - as in you take it with you wherever you go, along with your laptop. It's no secret that Apple has made their laptops a priority, and a lot of folks prefer an external keyboard to the one on the machine itself. I personally would do this if I could find a Mac compatible keyboard I like, but they're pretty much all crap. And as to why they don't offer a fullsize bluetooth version? Well, it's Apple - they rarely clutter their product offerings with products they consider to be unnecessary.

Consider that with this new bluetooth keyboard, you can literally pack it in your laptop bag along with your Mighty Mouse and laptop. I can bring my entire setup to work and it will all fit in my bag beautifully. A full keyboard with a number pad would never fit in my bag, and I would therefore never take it with me anywhere. So while bluetooth keyboards with full number pads might be great for moving around your desk (or even your house), when was the last time you took it anywhere else? Given the svelt proportions of the new keyboard, it's gotta be a breeze to take it everywhere.

There has also been commentary that maybe it will work with the iPhone in the future. Maybe, but I doubt that was the original purpose of the design. I guess you could be carrying around your phone and keyboard in a backpack if you're in the airport or something, but most of the time if you don't have your laptop, when would you be holstering a keyboard in addition to your phone? Also, if you holster anything onto your belt, you're a huge dork.

Anyway, when I get mine, I'll let you know how it travels.

Cubs lose to Astros, diarrhea

Angel Pagan is expected to go on the 15-day DL today with colitis. I had no idea what that was, but I found this when I looked it up:

"The inflammation makes the colon empty frequently, causing diarrhea."

Essentially, the Cubs are now losing players to diarrhea.

Good riddance Will Ohman

God Will Ohman sucks, and today he got what he deserved - sent down to the minors. Then he was nice enough to let the beat writers know that his arm has been "barking" and that he's going to have it looked at before he gets back to, you know, doing his job poorly.

Some choice stats, courtesy Yahoo Sports:

• 1-4, 5.06 ERA, 37 hits in 32 innings of work, plus 13 walks
• With RISP, 9.26 ERA, 9 walks, 2 home runs surrended
• With the bases loaded, 36 ERA, 3 walks (translation - he walked in three runs, a real pressure player)

To say I was delighted to see him sent down is the understatement of the year.

Review - PowerSupport Wrist Rug (for MacBook Pro)

I'm a big fan of PowerSupport's products (they make a variety of protective gear for Macs/iPods/iPhones). I've used their crystal film protective covers on my iPod and iPhone, and both have performed well.

I had been aware of their "wrist rug" product for a while, but wasn't completely sold on it. After using my MacBook Pro for a while and realizing how hot it really does run, I decided to give it a try. I wanted something that would a) keep my wrists a little cooler and comfortable, and b) would protect the wrist area on the machine. My previous PowerBook has numerous scars of where my metal watch rubbed against it, and I didn't want that happening again.

The verdict on this thing? Quite good. Typing on the machine is considerably cooler and more comfortable. You wouldn't think that a velour-like surface would really make a difference, but it does. Also, as previously mentioned, I can wear my watch and type without fear of damaging the case. When you consider that your wrists have always rested on metal, plastic, or wood, resting your wrists on a softer surface is actually pretty damn nice.

In terms of how it looks, I could take it or leave it. It doesn't exactly match the color of the aluminum, so the surface has a two-toned appearance to it. Additionally, it comes with a clear plastic adhesive cover for the trackpad, but after a day of use I decided to take it off. The tactile feeling of the regular trackpad surface is better, and I doubt it will get very dirty.

At $32.54 ($24.95 + shipping), it's pretty pricey. It's also a difficult item to find, which might explain why it's so expensive - I didn't find it at any Apple store (online or B&M), nor Amazon, nor eBay.

All things considered, if you're on your MacBook Pro's keyboard a lot, it's worth it.

PowerSupport Wrist Rug Page