[Edit: Administrator]
This reader is referring to the unauthorized 3rd-party application found in the Installer application’s “iClarified” section. The iClarified source is a source that is automatically set up if you use ZiPhone to unlock your phone. If you used another method to unlock your phone you can add the source using the following URI: http://installer.iclarified.com

If you want to install the suggested application, you will need to ensure your iPhone’s firmware is version 1.1.4. If not you should choose the correct version that matches your iPhone’s firmware.

check your iPhone’s serial number (on the back of the iPhone box). The 4th and 5th number are the week number your iPhone was produced in. (e.g., 7S726107… would be week 26). If that number is 45 or higher, you have the 4.6 BL (boot loader). If its 42 or lower, you have the 3.9 BL. If you’re week 43 or 44, you will need to check further by installing HW Info from Installer

However … ziphone unlocks all phones now. including those with the 4.6 BL

Not that I do not want to help you, but I really do not recommend you purchase an unlocked iPhone in regular phone retail stores in Hong Kong.

You can see my comments above as to why.

For example, I just had two colleagues purchased two unlocked iPhones from a store in Wanchai, and I had to help them redo the jailbreak/unlocking from scratch.

If you still insist on getting one, the phone store just outside of the Wanchai MTR exist at the corner of O’Brien Rd. and Johnston Rd. had good prices in the past.

BTW: Please note that the prices of unlocked iPhones are plummeting. Mainly because the retailers are worry that the new iPhone 2.0 firmware will be release soon, and most of all because the unlocking is now so simple many are taking my suggested method of asking a friend to get the iPhone directly from an Apple Store in the US or UK.

PS: if you are going to get an unlocked iPhone, you should make sure it has the 3.9 bootloader and not the 4.6. Any phone that was Out-of-the-Box 1.1.1 and earlier will have the 3.9 bootloader.

Unfortunately, it is not easy to determine the bootloader when you purchase, unless you install the Bootloader Info application via the Installer application.

I may be a bit off-topic here but I was wondering if you could tell me where the best place to buy an unlocked iphone is in Hong Kong. Also a guide on prices would be great.

Many thanks.

I hv upgraded to 1.1.4 and unlocked (BL 3.9). Used ziphone 2.5. Having same problem for app support. But in my case one no from 3 (dualband) comes at 852………. while all others comes as +852……….. . Quite suprizing but not sure how to do? Earlier it was wokring perfrect when i was on 1.1.2. (Hv upgraded my phone from 1.0.2 - 1.1.1. - 1.1.2 - 1.1.3 - 1.1.4)

Also can not use Ibricker to amend the templates as it does not recognize the phone and asking to “Free the iphone” but i am afraid it may mess up things and i may hv to restore/downgrade/upgrade again.

Also noticed now that signal strength not so good while others reporting on various website (like iphone atlas) that signal strength was boosted after upgrading.

Any help??

Thanks

Best regards.

You can try downgrading to 1.1.1 but you will need to virginize. It is quite involved.

As for the EDGE settings, the iPhone does not have the option to set the Authentication method.

Sorry I don’t understand your question, “I have entered the appropriate APN as advised above. Any recommendations?”.

Is your EDGE not working either?

APN address: SmarTone-Vodafone
Username:
Password:
Authentication: Normal

What’s that Authentication section? I don’t have that part on my iphone.

http://www.modmyifone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27307

Thanks, yeah, I’d tried that. No use.

Vinko - any way to downgrade to 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 and see if that works?

thanks

I do not know how you would correct the problem on a Windows machine, as. I use a Macintosh.

“At the moment the iClarified and other AppSupport hacks do have problems with PCCW mobile phone numbers, but the ones where you modify the AppSupport binary file yourself does not.”

Is there a way of modifying the AppSupport 1.1.3 like how we do in the 1.1.2?
pntedit no longer works for 1.1.3.

Hi Shaky,

about your ‘EDGE’ problem. Try this:

- click Installer-icon on iPhone,
- click Install-icon, scroll down and click Utilities,
– scroll down and click BossPrefs, click Install, click Install, wait a little…
- click home-button, slide “slide to unlock” to the right
- click BossPrefs-icon on iPhone,
(if gui shows that Wifi is off, even if you see the Wi-Fi-icon on the statusbar: click ON)
- Edge: click ON (ie. you turn it off), wait a little, click ON again
If you now wish that EDGE shall always be turned off: click ON (ie. you turn off to OFF)

Hope that helps

No, to do a factory restore you should click on the “Restore” button in iTunes, while holding down the (”Shift” key for Windows user, or “Option” key for Macintosh user). That is because firmware 1.1.4 is out.

When you do so, iTunes will ask you to locate the firmware package to restore your iPhone with. You should point it to the iPhone firmware 1.1.3 you previously downloaded.

thanks

Yes, since 1.1.3 software that assumes the old structure and locations of files no longer works. This include iSMS, SMSD and weTools.

Every time a firmware upgrade us applied you must modify the AppSupport files to re-enable the recognition of local telephone numbers for caller ID.

At the moment the iClarified and other AppSupport hacks do have problems with PCCW mobile phone numbers, but the ones where you modify the AppSupport binary file yourself does not.

At one point I did have EDGE not work on Smartone-Vodafone after upgrading to 1.1.3, but after a restore to factory 1.1.3, re-jailbreak and re-unlock fixed the problem.

Given that it is now so easy to jailbreak/unlock using ZiPhone, you should try restoring your iPhone back to 1.1.3 and start again.

BTW: I no longer assist people to unlock for a fee since it is so easy to do so, but I will assist people who are not technically inclined and have messed up their phone.

Just upgraded to 1.1.3. iSMS and SDSD no longer work. Numbers were not recognised until I installed the iClarified appsupport patch. Now most numbers are recognised. One wasn’t. Not sure if they were on PCCW.

One thing, Edge doesn’t work. I have Smartone-Vodafone in the APN settings. But no luck.

In the PhoneNumberTemplates hong kong has:

hk 852 001;009;0080; - - ########

And here is the AppSupport1.1.2 that worked for me before:

hk 852 00 - 0 8 <-PCCW
hk 852 00 0 3 8
hk 852 40 0 0 8
hk 852 50 0 0 8
hk 852 70 0 0 8
hk 852 90 0 0 8

How can i edit the PhoneNumberTemplates to the ‘PCCW’ so that they match?

I tried:
hk 852 001;009;0080;00038 - - ########
hk 852 001;009;0080; - -;3 ########

But it didn’t work. Any ideas?/Suggestions? I’m sure i’m doing something wrong here. Help please

I believe I said there is a “fee”, but I will be using the “free” Opensource method to unlock your iPhone.

Although, since the unlocking of OTB (out-of-the-box) 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 iPhones are so simple, I will no longer do the unlock for people but will only charge for my time when I have to repair the unlocking if people mess up their iPhone in some way.

The really easy full proof way to unlock an OTB 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 iPhones is to use the ZiPhone method. I am confident of the Mac OS X version.

Cheers..

No one other than Apple can tell you when the iPhone will be officially available in Hong Kong through one or more mobile carriers.

The educated guess is that it will be latter half of this year, but I think that really depends on the negotiations Apple has with the local carriers.

I personally hope that local carrier is Smartone-Vodafone. In my opinion they are the only mobile carrier in Hong Kong really demonstrates that they do want to do better and provide the best possible customer care.

Note that I am talking about wanting to do better and customer care, they are definitely not the best in quality in terms of cell coverage voice quality.

Please note that now all versions of the iPhones are “easily” unlockable, the retail prices should be much much lower than what HK phone retail stores are charging for 1.1.3 (HKD48xx.00) and 1.1.1 (HKD68xx.00).

Note that the cost of purchasing an iPhone from one of the US Apple Store comes to about HKD3400.00 including state taxes. You should keep this in mind when checking out the HK mobile phone retail stores.

I am going to check the store next as i am in Macau right now..

DO you know when Apple is going to release the iphone here in HK?

As you may already aware. My opinions on purchasing an iPhone from local HK phone retail stores. None of them can really be trusted.

If you must purchase one in HK from a local phone retail store, then I suggest you check out the store at the corner of O’Brien Road and Johnston Road, next to the MTR Wan Chai station exit.

I really want to buy an iphone ,any reputable store that you can recommend?

Yes, the “3G/2G Data Plan” I refer to is indeed one of Smartone-Vodafone’s GRPS plan. These plans apply to both Smartone-Vodafone’s 3G and 2G voice plans.

As to whether you need to have a “3G voice” plan. That depends on whether you follow my recommendation of subscribing to both the “Internet Browsing” plan and one of the “GPRS Data” plan from Smartone-Vodafone.

Unfortunately, due to the requirements of the “Internet Browsing” plan you must be a subscriber of a “3G voice” plan to be able to subscribe to the “Internet Browsing” plan.

No, I still have not been able to confidently identify which of the iPhone applications are causing Smartone-Vodafone to consider the data usage to be outside of the “Internet Browsing” coverage. My guess is all data usage not done via the MobileSafari application.

The current iPhone models (1.1.3 and earlier) are all using the EDGE network, hence, the data usage is charged to the GPRS plan of the carrier.

For Smartone-Vodafone’s case, data usage is charged to both their GPRS and the “Internet Browsing” plans depending on the protocol that is consuming the data usage.

Can you clarify if you are subscribing to the “3G” or the “GPRS” data plan please. From your sample calculations you seem to be referring to the 3G plan.
If 3G, do you need a 3G voice plan too? And is the iPhone’s use booked against that 3G plan where EDGE is in fact 2G?

And: do you have any idea which application is creating traffic not covered by the “browsing plan”?

Many thanks for your help.

Please see my updates above in the article for the latest Dataplans most suitable for carefree iPhone use on the Smartone-Vodafone network.

Please take a look at the now available software unlock method available for iPhones with out-of-the-box 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 firmware.

Anyone who had jailbroken their 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 phones should restore their phones to Apple factory state and use the new method to unlock and jailbreak.

visiting back after a long pause.

Now that the iPhone’s been around for a while, what is the collective wisdom of getting lowest charges for EDGE use on Vodafone? Which plan or combination of plans do people use to cover the internet traffic of the iPhone? What’s the total charges you have in a month?

I have not used EDGE so far because of the uncertainties in the plans but it would be great to use it finally. Thanks for your comments.

I think I am going to stay with 1.1.3 for the moment. I have actually found a place that seems to have the corrected phonenumbers file that allows the names in contacts to display correctly.

Here is the link

http://www.iphone.org.hk/cgi-bin/ch/topic_show.cgi?id=3092&h=1&bpg=1&age=0

Regarding the youtube fix, I have found this software in installer after you have installed i.unlock.no

it is then in the unlocking tools category

I am working on a mac and am still trying to get ssh loaded onto the phone as it does not seem to like 1.1.3.

I will try again tomorrow.

Please do find out about the 3rd party application that enabled YouTube.

As for going back to 1.1.1 it is much more involved than that. At the moment your baseband is at the 1.1.3 version (04.03.13_G). So it is best to virginize the iPhone. To do so you will have to restore it first to 1.1.2 then 1.1.1 then 1.0.2. Then replace the modem software with the 1.0.2 version. Next you will have to do the upgrade again back to 1.1.1 following all the jailbreaking and unlocking steps as if you had an out-of-the-box 1.0.2 iPhone.

No matter what you do, always hold down the Option key on the Mac or Shift key on Windows when you click on either Update or Restore in iTunes.

Thanks for your comments. I have managed to get YouTube to work but had to install some software through installer (I forget the name now as I am at work, but will find it later if you want it).

I do however have the same problem as you with the international caller ID as I have this on all my contacts, over 250, and it causes the name on the SMS not to appear as it does not recognise the number. I have exported all my contacts and removed the international number and imported back, but it is a pain and I am sure when I travel it will be an issue so I am starting to think that maybe you are right and I should just revert back to 1.1.1 as with this I did not have any problems. I presume that I should just restore the iphone with the 1.1.1 firmware and then just jailbreak? Is that correct? or is there anything else I need to do?

Thanks,

Paul

Thank you for sharing your experience.

I too had tried to upgrade to 1.1.3 from 1.1.1. Most functions seem to work, including: WiFi, EDGE, iTunes, Google Map Locate Me, but each time I attempt to go to YouTube via WiFi connection, it displays a message saying that I should first go to iTunes with a Internet connection.

The one thing that did not work was the International Caller ID.

I had attempted to do the upgrade multiple times and each time I was not able to get the International Caller ID to recognize the HK telephone formats in my Contact list.

This latter difficulty is what caused me to revert back to 1.1.1

BTW: for those who relies on NativeCN for Chinese text messaging, this does not work on 1.1.3 yet; even with the modified UIKit to enable more keyboards.

So, if you do not need the native “Google Locate Me” function and can live with using the 3rd Party “LocateMe” application in 1.1.1, or the save web page from MobileSafari as an icon on your Home screen. I will suggest you stay with 1.1.1 for now.

If anyone has a confirmed “PhoneNumberTemplates.txt” file formated to work with HK telephone numbers please do let me know and I will make it available here for all (and myself) to enjoy. May be then I will reconsider upgrading to 1.1.3.

BTW: there are also many 3rd party applications which do not work properly in 1.1.3’s new file structure. So if you rely on many 3rd party applications, then it is another reason why you should not upgrade to 1.1.3

Just to let you know for anyone who uses PCCW, I have downloaded through installer Devicescape’s Connect software which basically allows you to go to the website, setup a free account, enter your login/password details for public wifi accounts such as PCCW and then whenever you are in reach of a hotspot it automatically logs in without you having to keep entering the PCCW userid and password every time. I have found it very useful.

I upgraded last night to 1.1.3 and everything is working fine. I have even managed to get the locate me feature in google maps to work.

The only thing I have noticed that is that before I upgraded, I was on 1.1.1 and the Edge Blue box at the top left hand side of the screen had an “E” in it. Now it does not. I presume this is something in the new firmware. I have read somewhere that it might be a power saving function or something like that, but everything is working fine and I can access everything I could before.

Cheers,

Paul

I think I may have confused you.

When you are at a WiFi Hotspot that PCCW has a presence, you should normally find three networks available: “PCCW”, “PCCW Universities” and “PCCW+”, but sometimes 2. Sometimes the latter is not available; I also cannot remember exactly the name of the 3rd network.

Anyway, you need to select the “PCCW Universities” network and it will immediately as you for a password; as you have said in your previous message above. That is the Network (aka “SSID”) Password you need to enter. That is not your university account password.

If you do not know the “Network Password” for the “PCCW Universities” network, you should contact either your university or PCCW for that information.

First of all, if you have a PCCW University account you should be connecting to the WiFi network, “PCCW University”. PCCW currently has 3 different WiFi network at hotspots around town. The WiFi network with the name “PCCW” is the commercial network for Home and Business Netvigator users.

Accessing either PCCW-Universities or Y5Zone are simple. I believe both are Secure connections, so if you find a hotspot with PCCW-University in the list of WiFi networks available, select it in the WiFi menu, then enter the WIreless Network (SSID) password to join the network. Similarly with Y5Zone,

Afterwards, just open MobileSafari, enters any URL (ie. http://m.google.com), you should be directed to a login page for the respective network. After you provided the login credentials you will be connected to the Internet via WiFi. You will then be able to use any of the Internet services on your iPhone.

Need another help… i have free wifi access through PCCW via universities and also Y5ZONE…but as u probably know i am a complete zero in this and have no idea how to connect to them and use them!!!
Please help me if its not too much i am asking for!!
Many thanks in advance..

The only way to see SMS usage, voice usage and Data usage (other than from the “Internet Browsing” plan) before your bill is via SMS bill checking. Even then it is not the most up to date information.

Many thanks once again!

Yes, the “Internet Browsing Plan” will automatically upgrade itself to the “Unlimited” version when you exceed the 20MB/day limit. This will be upgraded only for the month on which you exceeded the 20MB/day limit once. On the next month it will drop back down to the HKD38/month “Internet Browsing” plan.

If you only used your phone for 4 days and you have used over 80MB of data transfer, I strongly suggest you add a 3G/2G Data Plan as soon as possible.

PS: remember not to tell Smartone-Vodafone that you are using an iPhone on their network. If you must name a phone model, you can tell them you’re using the Nokia E61i.

Unfortunately, your concerns are very justified. This is because Smartone-Vodafone does not specify exactly what their “HKD38/month Internet Browsing” plan (btw. it is not “unlimited browsing plan”) covers.

I had tried time and time again to try to get Smartone-Vodafone Customer Service and Technical Support to be explicit about which protocols they cover in the plan. No one I spoke to can or is willing to provide me with that information.

In your particular case, the activities through the iPhone’s built-in Mail (aka “MobileMail”) will definitely be out of Smartone-Vodafone’s “HKD38/month Internet Browsing” plan.

You should be able to check your online bill to see if you have any outstanding data charges.

Best of luck.

please help..
thanks in advance!