Bitfever

I am so happy Apple avoided Flash on the iPhone. The reasons I have for that are mostly listed by Steven Franks in 'The Politics of Flash'. Most of it boils down to this:

I played with various ad and Flash blockers over the last year or so. At the time, I had somewhat of a hostile stance to web page advertisements in general. The way I saw it, it’s my computer, my bandwidth, my electricity bill, so I am damn sure not going to let you serve anything to my computer that I didn’t ask to see.

This is especially true, if you have a device that is even more limited in battery and CPU then a laptop. In addition to that the I think that calling the (German) iPhone contracts a flatrate is either a lie or a redefinition of the word flatrate.

I am not against advertising. it ist true that most websites could not be funded without it. But if the advertising is annoying me it is to much. And there are way to many sites, way over the edge when it comes to annoyance. And judging by the amount of reporting around the ClickToFlash Plugin I am not the only one.

If you use Mac OS X and Safari I suggest you install the nice ClickToFlash and be done with this once and for all.

Update: Es funktioniert! Ich habe von meinem iPhone eben einen Anruf über das E-Plus Netz getätigt!

Update 2: Der Spaß ist wohl vorbei. Die einstweilige Verfügung von Vodafone ist wohl abgewiesen worden. Ich hoffe ihr ganz euch euer Telefon schon emzsperren lassen. Ansonsten hat T-Mobile zugestimmt nach Ablauf der Mindestvertragslaufzeit das iPhone zu entsperren. Danke dafür Vodafone.

1. Das iPhone muss am oder nach dem 19. November gekauft worden sein und wohl auch vor dem 29., da dann möglicherweise die einstweilige Verfügung wieder aufgehoben wird (auch wenn wir das mal nicht hoffen wollen)
2. Man schicke ein Fax an 01805 330633, den T-Mobile Kundenservice mit folgenden Dingen:
   • Einem Brief, dass man das iPhone mit der IMEI xyz vom SIM-Lock befreit haben möchte. (Die IMEI findet man auf dem iPhone unter Einstellungen > Allgemein > Info)
   • Dem Kaufnacheweis (Kassenbon etc.)
   • Der Vertrags und Kundennummer
3. Dann erhält man ein bis zwei Tage später einen Brief von T-Mobile:
   
4. Man klickt (nach etwa 24 Stunden) in iTunes auf wiederherstellen, hat etwas Geduld, stelltdas Telefon wieder her und tada…
5. Das iPhone ist unlocked!

I bought an iPhone on the evening of the 19th November 2007. On the same day Vodafone, which is a competitor to T-Mobile, who is carring the iPhone in Germany, reached a preliminary injunction forcing T-Mobile to

• Sell an unlocked iPhone (for 999€)
• Unlock all phones sold since the 19th of November

Read the T-Mobile -spin- press release(German). So luck me will get his iPhone unlocked for free, although I have to live with a T-Mobile contract, but that is not to bad, because I wanted to switch anyway and get EDGE this way.

The run on unlocked iPhones, reported by mobile-macs.de (German) just goes to show you how much people want an iPhone and how much they loath the carriers.

Update: Just got of the phone with T-Mobile customer service. To unlock your iPhone (if you bought it since the 19th at a T-Mobile Store) just bring it into any store and they will unlock it for you. I would suggest anybdy with the possibility should do so, because that way you will get an unlocked iPhone without loosing your support.

Update 2: A commenter on fscklog.com reveals that you get an email from Apple within 24 hours and that contains instructions how to unlock the phone. I'll try that tomorrow.

Only good karma for Apple today. First a definitive shiping date for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: October 26th. Juheee!

Second they announced an iPhone SDK for February '08 cool

Third the iPhone will ship without SIM-lock in France, which means a way to get not-SIM-locked iPhones. wow

For details you can look at the Apple Hot News or take a look at the great fscklog (German).

Expect cries of victory to begin shortly!