Once in a while, I also almost scream, “What the heck is wrong with people?”

Insanity Everywhere

Somebody slaps Android on tablet hardware and markets it as “the answer to the iPad”. Ludicrous. How is that particular tablet different from the legion of Android tablets out there, all of whom put together have not made a dent on the iPad’s dominance?

What makes Android successful is partly that it is different from iOS – and that’s a good thing.

Still, while Android is outselling iOS on the smartphone playing field, iOS rules in the tablet playing field. Perhaps Android just doesn’t make for a great tablet experience in its current shape. Perhaps it is something else.

But for crying out loud, all these iPad wannabes need to go get a life. If I want an iPad, I will go buy one, thank you.

Or at least, if you are going to claim to be the answer to the iPad, do really present us a unique user experience that is different from what is currently on the legion of also-ran iPad wannabes.

By the way, good morning, fellow mobilists!

A researcher named Trevor Eckhart found that a logging software from a company named Carrier IQ is installed on a number smartphones from multiple manufacturers and carriers, and it tracks every keypress, message and location and sends this information out – all without the user’s knowledge.

Trevor’s research using his Android-running HTC EVO 4G smartphone led to the discovery of this software from Carrier IQ.

You can watch the video of his demonstration below:

Carrier IQ claims that the information collected is to help improve the user experience on mobile devices.

Who Is Guilty?

Carrier IQ is not built into any mobile OS, but is installed at the point of customisation or manufacture by either the carrier or device manufacturer.

HTC have come out to say that they run an opt-in system and have no direct involvement in installing Carrier IQ ion their devices. They point at the carriers.

Microsoft have boldly stated that Carrier IQ is not installed on any Windows Phone. See tweet by Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore.

Apple, who have been recently hit by a privacy storm, have stated that they stopped supporting Carrier IQ in iOS 5, and would completely remove it in future updates.

Through its Blackberry Advisor, Mark Sohm, RIM has stated that it does not pre-install the CarrierIQ application on BlackBerry smartphones and has never done so or authorised its installation.

TechCrunch says:

Eckhart’s original report has shown that Carrier IQ has been discovered on HTC and Samsung devices, and that CarrierIQ counts Sprint among their domestic carrier clients. AT&T also appears to use Carrier IQ on their devices: a member of the XDA-dev forums called AT&T and was told that Carrier IQ is indeed preloaded on the HTC Vivid. Other carriers, including Verizon, Vodafone, and O2 have all denied that they use Carrier IQ on their devices.

Nokia and RIM were also among the companies that Eckhart claimed CarrierIQ provided their “mobile intelligence” services to, but they have vociferously denied the connection. The Verge also reports that the three devices in Google’s Nexus line are free of the logging service, so Nexus devotees can rest easy.

RIM has responded that “If the CarrierIQ application is present on a BlackBerry smartphone, it does not mean that the CarrierIQ application has “hacked” the BlackBerry platform. It means that either the BlackBerry smartphone user or the user’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server admin explicitly installed the application and authorized it to run“.

The whole Carrier IQ scandal seems to be a US-only issue, so not everyone in the world has to worry about it. Of course, if your phone was imported from the US, especially if branded by one of the fingered carriers, chances are that you are in the picture too.

Stay In the Know

If you use an Android phone – and it is rooted or you are willing to root it – you can run a quick check to find out if Carrier IQ is installed on your phone.

Download Eckhart’s free Logging Test app. Once installed, hit ‘CIQ Checks’ to run the test.

Wrapping Up

If manufacturers and carriers need user feedback, it should be an opt-in system, not something that runs hidden in the system. Also, exactly who is the info sent to, and what is it used for? How safe are the users from exposure?

Questions. Questions.

The US justice department has shown interest in this, and talks of lawsuits are already in the air. This can get very messy, but in my opinion, the public has a right to know what is going on.

This will certainly get more interesting. Comments welcome!

Here’s a quick guide to unlock your iphone 4 running basebands 03.10 and 04.10 that are not factory unlocked. Currently, there is no software unlock for the basebands. There are 2 methods available for your unlock.

1. Buy an official unlock
You could do a quick google search for this as quite a number of sites offer online unlocks of the basebands at fairly affordable prices. I however cannot guarantee the validity of a number of those sites so you need to be careful.

2. Use the Gevey Sim
The Gevey SIM unlock uses a SIM interposer which sits between the baseband hardware and the SIM card itself to perform the unlock procedure, rendering iPhone 4 basebands 01.59.00, 02.10.04 03.10.01, 04.10.01 all unlockable.

The Gevey SIM is a much thinner SIM that must be placed on your regular SIM card so that both fit into the phone’s SIM holder. It must stay in place at all times for the phone to stay unlocked.

It’s a pretty reliable unlock method however it can be inconvenient at times especially in areas with poor network coverage as you have to repeat the unlock procedure if the signal is lost for more than 2 minutes.

Here is the step-by-step guide to using the Gevey sim unlock

Step 1: Dial 112 then hang up after 2 seconds

Step 2: Wait 15 seconds, then switch your phone to airplane mode

Step 3: Wait until you get this message ‘No Sim Card Installed’

Step 4: Once you get that message, switch off airplane mode. Your device will probably show “Sim Failure” for a couple of seconds and then should unlock by itself.

Let me know if this was helpful. I know a couple of readers have been asking for this on my twitter account. Oh, and by the way, my iPhone 4S is due to arrive this week. I’m already having pre-excitement jitters! Keep checking Mobility for the first Nigerian review of the iPhone 4S and Siri!

The much anticipated update to Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS, was released yesterday.

It comes with compatibility for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 1, iPad 2, iPod touch 2nd & 3rd gen. iOS5 comes with over 200 new features, including a Notification Centre, Reminders, iMessage, and Newsstand.

I have been trying to download my version for the 3GS for a couple of hours now which is a task on its own especially since everyone’s trying to download at the same time. I will publish my hands-on review of iOS5 later today.

Meanwhile, if you rely on a jailbreak, I will advise you to hold off on the update for now as only a tethered jailbreak is available now. The untethered jailbreak is set to be released tomorrow.

Jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on devices running the iOS operating system through use of custom kernels.

Pros
Jailbreaking is completely legal so you’re not breaking any laws if you eventually decide to jailbreak your idevice

Jailbreaking removes all those ‘silly’ restrictions that Apple placed on the iPhone.

Jailbreaking instals “Cydia” on your idevice. Cydia is just like the official AppStore but basically houses all the apps, tweaks, themes and other features that Apple did not allow into the Appstore. The Cydia store actually started before the AppStore, so most of the good things that happened to the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad can actually be credited to the jailbreak community. Most of the features in the official Apple software came as ideas from the tweaks in the jailbreak store. Apple even hired some members from the jailbreak community, the most recent being Peter Hajas (the guy responsible for the notifications centre in the highly anticipated iOS 5).

You can install a whole load of themes. you can even make your idevice look like Windows OS.

Jailbreaking enables you to install custom IPSW (iPhone software) to unlock your idevice even if it’s already locked on an international carrier. This means that you don’t have to shell out $700 for a factory unlocked iphone before it works in your country. You could just buy the $199 iPhone 4 on a cheap contract and then unlock it to work on any carrier.

Jailbreaking enables features like bluetooth transfer to and from any phone . Depending on your device firmware, you can use either of three apps to do this (iBluenova, iBluetooth, or Celeste).

Jailbreaking is really cool. It makes you feel like you’re a programmer even though you know you’re just following instructions that the real hackers simplified.

Cons
Even though it is completely legal to jailbreak your device, Apple is still cracking down on jailbreakers. Jailbreaking instantly voids your warranty. (An easy way around that though is just to install an official apple software on your device which would wipe any traces of a previous jailbreak so your warranty is ‘safe’).

Installing too many jailbreak apps tends to make your battery drain faster. It also slightly slows down your device especially if you’re using an iPhone 2G, 3G or first generation iPad.

Jailbreaking can absolutely screw up your device, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Jailbreaking your device is easy. You shouldn’t have to pay for it. Over the next few days, I will be teaching you all the things you need to know to jailbreak any iOS device.

I can be basically qualified as chronically technofreakish (couldn’t think of the right word so had to invent one) when it comes to gadgets. I absolutely love them and can always be found pressing one thing or the other so it was Joy Unlimited when I finally became the proud owner of an Apple iPad back in May 2011. Though it took a day or so to fully understand it, exploration of the app store (and opening of the AppStore to Nigerians mentioned here) was what it took to make this wide screen wonder an effective replacement to my laptop (and phone to an extent).

It is a Version 1 Wifi iPad running iOS 4.2 (it would take iMessage on iOS 5 to make me use 10% of my 5GB MTN limit in updating ) and offering the best battery life I’ve gotten apart from on the “Torchlight” Nokia Series. I browse on it using Wi-fi via JoikuSpot on both my Nokia C7 or 5800 – I don’t consider it nice paying twice for Internet.

I will list 7 apps (in no particular order) that have made my iPad a Joy to own and my second most used device (after my phone).

1.) YouVersion
You Version, the Bible app is a Free iPad application which contains numerous translations of the bible in many languages. While I must confess it’s an excuse to take my iPad to church, It’s also very useful as it has audio versions for some bible versions as well as reading plans to enable you complete your bible.

It also keeps the History of Verses you’ve read before, lets you make bookmarks and has a well designed search function. I downloaded and deleted a lot of Bible apps before this so I believe it’s a must-tryout for all iPad users.

You can get it from the AppStore

2.) QuickOffice Pro HD
Hmmmmnnnn, I’ve always used Quick Office right from my days with the Nokia e51 so many years ago. For anyone who doesn’t know, Quick Office is an application which enables you Create, Read and Edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files right from your mobile device.

I downloaded Quick Office Pro HD (after downloading Keynote for a presentation I had to do and immediately asking for a refund) a few months ago and it has really brought out the “secretary” in me.

I am actually using it to type this Blog Post right now and I also use it for my PowerPoint Presentations, Record-Keeping with Excel and mostly, typing of documents, letters, and blog posts like this, of course.

The downsides to the application are that:
1.) It has serious challenges opening my really large Excel files and
2.) It doesn’t have the capability, or I haven’t yet figured out how to insert pictures in my documents which means after typing the text version, I would have to save to Google Docs & insert images using my computer.

Which brings me to one of my best features in the app…

Quick Office allows you to save your documents to various cloud-based services such as Google Docs, DropBox, MobileMe, Sugar Sync and Huddle (though I use just Google Docs for now) and this makes work a breeze as I can easily do typing on my iPad and continue later on my Nokia C7 or Laptop by simply retrieving the document from my Google Docs account.

This is really a powerful mobile suite and at $ 19.99 it is a steal from the AppStore.

3.) Easy Books
I’ve used this app for only a few weeks and I believe it is a must-have for every small business owner or Accountant. It enables you keep track of your business (or personal) finances and can generate Very Professional looking reports such as Balance Sheets, Cash Flow Statements & etc without any stress.

Though you would need a little accounting knowledge to use it as it’s Garbage in Garbage Out, I think a lot of people would find it helpful (as I have). It is a Free App on the App Store with paid upgrades if you are a power user.

4.) iBooks
Ok, I shouldn’t be adding this, it’s a default app with iPads but it’s also an App I’m on most of the time. I have always been a voracious reader from childhood and I lost this habit for a few years after getting my Laptop back in 2007 (yes I know, I always deceived myself that I would read the PDF’s I saved back then on the laptop).

The iPad has brought back the reader in me, with a vengeance and I can comfortably say that I spend the most money spent on my iPad in the iBookStore.

I’ve over 100 books in various categories (of which I’ve read all, some more than once) and the reading experience on the iPad is just something else.

You can easily adjust the light intensity, fonts and other settings, add bookmarks to interesting pages and also, your books would always open wherever you stopped when you open them in the app (one excellent feature that’s saved a lot of my time).

For the Literature and Book Addicts like me, iBooks is definitely a reason to get an iPad

5.) iUnarchive
This was downloaded in a time of desperation and has not been regretted one bit since then. I had paid for a logo for a client and after a long delay, I received the file one hot afternoon on the deadline as a zipped .rar file and was far from my computer so had no means of unzipping and reviewing the work before forwarding it to the client.

After a few “this file could not be downloaded” errors in my Safari browser, I immediately went over to the App Store where after a few false positives, I got the iUnarchive App for just $3.99.
This app which works with cloud storage services, email and even the inbuilt safari browser, enables you to easily handle compressed folders in a wide range of formats.

The best part of it is that it has made me comfortable going anywhere armed with just my iPad as I know those troublesome attachments are no longer an issue. Download it here

6.) Read it later
Can I ever praise this app too much? I’m the kind of Internet user who leaves five firefox windows with 20 tabs each open and would always hibernate the computer rather than shut down on order to avoid loosing important information (far from exaggeration).

Read It Later is a productivity app that lets you save your webpages and bookmarks so you can always come back to them on any of your devices and whenever you are offline.

I first got the Read it later (from readitlaterlist.com) as a firefox add-on (and later on chrome) and this really reduced the tabs open at any given time as I would just mark them to be downloaded and then close the “offending” tab.

Later when I got the iPad, and started using it a lot more than my laptop, I searched for and downloaded the iPad app (and also the mobile safari bookmarklet). This has really made life so simple for me as any webpage I save on the laptop is simultaneously saved on my iPad and vice versa.

For the long pages, one thing I noticed in the app is that it continues at the exact point you stopped when you last used the application. It removes pages immediately you read them and let’s you choose if a text only version or the full website would be downloaded. This is a free app.

7.) MyPad for iPad
This is the app I use for everything about facebook. Though I hardly use facebook nowadays, those few times when I use it, this app has been very helpful.

MyPad let’s you save multiple profiles and can be very useful in facebook (and now twitter) everyday tasks. It lets you chat, upload photos, play games and a lot of other features.

Though I haven’t yet used the twitter features (I still don’t get the fun there), if you use facebook a lot, this would be very useful to add to your app arsenal

This is my very short App list, although I would appreciate more useful/ better apps than these from other iPad users I know with these, the iPad is my gadget of 2011.

I will be back soon with more.

Some apps are just plain silly, pointless and a complete waste of time, while some other apps make you wonder how you have survived without them all this while.

This is just to give you some perspective in the ever-expanding AppStore.

Here are the top 10 apps I just can’t do without.

1. Olivetree BibleReader

This Biblereader app is beautiful, loads super fast with a neat UI that lets you simply enjoy your spiritual experience while being in the 21st century.

2. Facebook for iPhone

This is a no-brainer. The Facebook app makes it really easy to connect with your friends on the go. Instant notifications for friend requests, messages, wall posts makes it easy to enjoy your facebook experience.

3. Tweetdeck

Interesting Twitter client which, in all fairness, is better and more intuitive than the official Twitter app. It has the ability to ‘MUTE’ people on your timeline.

4. iBooks

Apple’s official ebook reader app comes with all the ‘coolness’ of the brand that is Apple. The ‘flip page’ design is just awesome and makes even people who would not normally read to turn a page or two.

5. Genius Scan

Ok, so this one has a story. I had to scan a document for my brother’s Visa application while I was far from civilization (okay; not so far really). All I had on me was my iPhone. Genius Scan did everything in 30 seconds and bailed me out of a really stressful situation. You just never know when this app will come in handy.

6. Eurosport

I can’t do without checking this app everyday. All the latest scoops on all sporting activities worldwide. You can set your favourite clubs, countries, sports and receive instant notifications on kickoff times, goals scored during live matches as well as final results.

7. IM+ Pro

Chat client for Yahoo, Facebook, Jabber, Gtalk, etc. The major highlight of this app is the animated emoticon. You can literally laugh for hours while watching the hilarious animations. Sadly, the animated emoticons are only on versions 5.2 and below. I don’t know why this was disabled in the latest app update.

8. Opera Mini

This just saves my data plan. It’s loads web pages really fast. Definitely a must have. The only glitch is that it doesn’t seem to connect to Opera servers when you’re using the MTN network.

9. VLC media player

This app lets you play all movie formats on your iPhone. It was pulled from the app store after the first version but you can still get it on the Cydia Store, if you go the jailbreak route.

10. Arsenal official app

What can I say? I’m an Arsenal fan! The app has the full squad list, complete with pictures and some videos as well as Arsene Wenger’s pre and post-match interviews (so that I can finally figure out what goes on in that old man’s head!). Sadly that doesn’t change the fact that Man U will probably still whoop my boys any day.

So there you have it. Let me know which apps you feel should have made the cut and please do not tell me that the Arsenal app should have been left out (I know).

Twitter for iPhone

Twitter for iPhone is arguably the best Twitter app there is. This app stands out from the hundreds of other Twitter clients. The features are elaborated below:

Pros:
1. It’s easy to use, very simple user interface.

2. It takes just a few seconds to load your timeline and you can also load all of your missed tweets if you log in to Twitter after a long time (for example: 2 weeks), this app will load up to 500 latest tweets.

3. Proper Retweet functionality. You can quote another user’s tweet and add your own opinion. You can post a retweet exactly how another user posted it. Most importantly, Twitter for iPhone allows you to see “retweets by you”, “retweets by others” and “your tweets retweeted”. This is a rare functionality which I haven’t come across in any other twitter app.

4. Notifications for mentions and direct messages works smoothly in this app. You get the notification just when someone mentions you or replies to you or sends you a message. But in twitter for blackberry, you receive the notification when your blackberry automatically updates your timeline after a short period of time which is user dependent. But the minimum amount of time is 5 mins and blackberry twitter app won’t refresh automatically before 5 mins. So if you are having a conversation on twitter which requires you to load your replies and sending tweets quickly, twitter for blackberry can be a real shocker here.

5. A very powerful and excellent feature of Twitter for iPhone is “Top Tweets”. You can see the top tweets in the search tab. This is one of my favorite features in a Twitter app. Unfortunately, no other apps seem to provide this.

6. Twitter for iPhone has another unique feature which is “Translate”. You can swipe over a tweet which is not in english, and the app will translate that tweet to english when you tap the translate option.

The only missing feature in this app is that you can’t view the trending topics for any particular location. Only worldwide trending topics are available.

Twitter for BlackBerry

The latest version of Twitter for Blackberry app (2.0.0.16) comes with a lot of improvement that the previous version. The whole app got a new lighter background. There is a different tab for the trending topics.

Most importantly you can view the trending topics for any particular location/country you like. The mentions take comparatively less time to load than the timeline. However, there is no way to find out which of your tweets has been retweeted unless you manually visit the person’s profile page.

Twitter for Blackberry provides the most basic functionalities of a Twitter app. In fact, I can’t find anything which Twitter for blackberry can do better than its iPhone equivalent. This implies the current decline in the number of Blackberry users.

Finally, I would like to say that the QWERTY doesn’t really help the Blackberry much these days. There is a lot that needs to be done in order to make the Twitter for Blackberry a top class app. For now Twitter for iPhone is a clear winner.

Gameloft is giving off their latest car racing game, Asphalt 6, absolutely free! Usually, offers like these do not last longer than 24 hours so you might want to get it now if you’re the least bit interested.

It’s a big file download (545mb) so you can only download it if you’re on wifi or if you go through the iTunes store on your computer. All you have to do to be sure you get it before it is made $10 again is to click on the install button and enter your password. You don’t have to complete the download before the sale is over.

As expected, the game is already number 1 on the top free apps chart.

Get it now, and thank me later. It’s a really nice game.

It appears that the much awaited update to Apple’s famous iOS Software for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch appears almost set for launch as the last beta version (iOS 5 beta 8 ) is set to drop this Friday, 16th September (for developers only).

I have tried my hands on iOS 5 beta 7 which turned out to be quite buggy. Apple, as always, will definitely iron out all the glitches before its final release which is anticipated to be sometime in the next 3 weeks together with the rumoured iPhone 5 launch. I don’t know about you guys but Apple ‘fans’ around the world are already getting excited. (I know I can’t wait to get my hands-on review of the iPhone 5 here).

Among the over 200 new features that iOS 5 sports, my personal favourites are listed below:

1. Facetime over 3G

2. Nuance’s text-to-speech feature

3. New Notification Centre : The revamped notification style in iOS is a beauty to watch and a breeze to use.

4. Reminders App: This app comes with the ability to remind you to do something when you leave a certain location, or when you arrive at a destination.

5. iMessage App: Finally!!! My answer to all my friends asking for my BB pin. iMessage is Apple’s BBM style social messaging app. It’s exclusive to all iOS devices.

6. Twitter integration: With this new feature, you only have to login once for all your tweeting needs. You can tweet from almost anywhere in the iOS.

7. iReader in Safari: This feature, according to Apple, is just ‘phenomenal’. It gets rid of all the clutter in safari while reading webpages and sets the font size just right.

Let me know your thoughts.

What is your most anticipated feature in iOS 5?