Canadian iPhone User - iPhoneUser.ca

Since the iPhone is in fact coming to Canada, many people who have one currently, or don't have one, will want to switch to Rogers from Fido or another carrier. I think that Fido won't release the iPhone. I think only Rogers will. Plus, I don't think Fido will offer the 'iPhone data plan' which Rogers will have to. So what are my options? Stay with Fido and don't use data, or switch to Rogers and use the iPhone properly. I'm going to switch to Rogers. I also doubt that Rogers will let unlocked iPhones use their special iPhone plan.

This is the news we have all been waiting for, the iPhone will be released in Canada later this year. This is coming straight from the man Ted Rogers himself. No official launch date, pricing, plan details are available at this time. But it's coming! That's what is most important.
Here is the full article from the Canadian Press:

"29/04/2008 10:14:00 AM

THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO - Improvements in fundamentals across the board helped major telecom firm Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX:RCI.B) more than double first-quarter profits and the company said it's finally bringing Apple's long-awaited iPhone to Canada, though it didn't say when.

Rogers reported Tuesday net earnings of $344 million or 54 cents per share on a diluted basis, compared with a profit of $170 million, 26 cents per share in the year-earlier period.

That was well above an average analyst forecast for earnings of 43 cents per share in the period, according to Thomson Financial.

But perhaps the most eye-catching announcement included alongside its quarterly earnings was news of an agreement with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to bring its high-tech, touch-screen smartphone to Canada.

"We're thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year," president and chief executive Ted Rogers said in a release.

"We can't tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned."

The company said its revenue grew 14 per cent to $2.6 billion, while the key wireless division saw postpaid net subscriber additions grow to 97,000 for the period.

Operating revenue at the wireless segment for the period ended March 31 was $1.43 billion, up 16 per cent from $1.23 billion in the prior-year period.

"While many challenges lie ahead in the coming quarters, we are well on track to deliver another year of strong growth in both subscribers and profitability, " Ted Rogers said.

"Our focus as 2008 continues to unfold remains solidly upon disciplined execution, excellence in customer service and unparalleled innovation that adds value to our customers' lives."

Shares in Rogers were up 90 cents, a little over two per cent, to $42.90 in morning trading at the Toronto Stock Exchange."

Here's some links to other articles to prove I'm not making this up:
http://gizmodo.com/385095/iphone-finally-announced-in-canada
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9931208-7.html
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/29/tech-iphone.html

This is pretty big news. I wonder when it will be available. I'm thinking July, just in line with the possible release of the 3G iPhone. Wouldn't it be fantastic to use a 3G iPhone with unlimited data on Rogers? I can't wait. I will probably have to switch to Rogers since I doubt that they will release it for fido. I'm still amazed that this is actually happening. I believe this is more than just a rumor since Mr. Rogers said it himself. The only thing we need now is a decent data and voice plan. Hopefully they offer something similar to AT&T. One thing is for sure, I will be lined up at the store the night before the iPhone drops in Canada.

I've found some interesting icons that you can add you your iPhone. These icons are specifically for iPhone users in Canada. There is a Canadian maps icon and some Canadian weather icons. These look fantastic on your iPhone. The maps icon is cool. It features the Trans Canada Highway #1 instead of the Interstate Icon that is on normally. There is a variety of different weather icons available. They aren't specifically Canadian icons but they can easily be tied to Canada. Some of the ones available are rain, snow, etc. I chose to use the one with rain since it seems to rain a lot here. The icons are available for download from modmyifone.com - http://www.modmyifone.com/forums/downloads.php. Click on the icons only category to find these specific icons. You have to be a member of modmyifone to download them. They also have good forums there for more iPhone discussion.

Here are the Canadian icons I have:

I also found another cool looking icon on that site. It is a replacement youtube icon. The standard youtube icon on the iPhone isn't that great. I downloaded these two. I tried both of them but I am using the black one because I think it loks better.

Here's how to add them to your iPhone:
1. You need BSD subsystem and OpenSSH installed on your iPhone from installer
2. I used cyberduck to SSH into my iPhone because I'm using a mac. If you are using a pc and want to know how to SHH, go here.
3. In cyberduck, open the connection, select SSH from the drop down menu, enter your iPhone IP address, user name - root, password - alpine.
4. Hit the up arrow button until you see the applications directory. Find whatever application you want to change the specific icon. The stock icons for each application are named - icon.png. Back up these icons before you change them.
5. Rename each new icon to icon.png and copy them over to each application folder.
6. If you want to change the weather icon, download weather icon fix from installer. The icon wont change unless you install this.
7. Restart you iPhone and the new icons will appear.

This is how my homescreen looks now:

If you know of any other good Canadian type icons, let me know. There may be an easier way to do this but I haven't found it yet. Will post about it when I do find it.

I posted before about using hotmail on your iPhone. That method used izymail as the pop e-mail host. The other problem that some people have with izymail is that you have to pay for it. It costs about $20 a year. If you don't mind paying the 20 bucks, then I highly recommend using izymail. If you don't want to drop anymore cash then I recommend using TouchMail.

TouchMail is not as good as using izymail because it doesn't not use the mail app on your iPhone but it is the next best thing. TouchMail is much more convenient then going to hotmail.com in safari and doing it that way. TouchMail almost looks like you are using the mail app but it is through safari. Best of all, it's free.

Here's how to set it up:
1. Go to http://www.tm.comvalid.com in safari on your iPhone.
2. Bookmark the site for easy access. Add it to your homescreen for even easier access.
3. Click on create account. To set up a new account - enter your hotmail email address for the user name, your hotmail password, and then enter your hotmail email again. Then click confirm.

4. You will be taken to your hotmail inbox and you are done.


They've really done a nice job with the set up and formatting of this web app. It is also good because you can turn the phone sideways and type in landscape mode which is a little easier. Personally, I prefer to use the mail app with izymail, and I'm not going to switch since I have already paid for izymail. But this is a great alternative. Give it a try.


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I keep asking myself everyday...why is the iPhone not available in Canada yet? or when will the iPhone be in Canada? There has been tons of speculation, rumors, thoughts etc. on why it is not available in Canada yet.

The first thought is that Rogers is greedy and doesn't want to offer such a fabulous device which would require them to offer unlimited data to users. If they had to offer unlimited data on a pda or smartphone, whatever you want to call it, then why would they do the same for their other phones like blackberry's or windows mobile phones. I guess that is a good argument for them, however, AT&T has seen a large increase in data revenues since they released the iPhone. So it's not such a great argument anymore. There has to be more it that they don't want to offer unlimited data plans. But if you look into it some more, why is the Nokia N95 not available on Rogers then? We are still waiting to find out what kind of data plan the LG Vu will get too once available from Rogers.

The next factor which is delaying the iPhone from being available in Canada is the fact that comwave has trademarked the word 'iPhone' in Canada. Here are my thoughts on comwave. To me they seem like an internet domain registrar who snaps up all decent domain names in hopes of selling them back to the rightful person who should be using that name. If you go to iphone.com, it takes to to apple's official iPhone page. If you go to iphone.ca, there is no page as the name is owned by some domain name hosting company. The same is true with Comwave. Once the iPod was released and became enormously popular, companies started puting a 'i' in front of random product names in hopes to generate buzz and free marketing off apple's success. This is exactly what Comwave is doing and I think they need to give up the word 'iPhone' immediately. Comwave does have an iPhone home VOIP service and even an iPhone mobile VOIP service. Their iPhone looks a little more like those old Nokia cell phones everyone had 10 years ago. Sadly, it will product take a million bucks or more from apple to get them to give it up. More info on the dispute here.

The latest trend from Apple seems to be that they may be leaning away from signing exclusive contracts with cell carriers. This is what we have learned from the rumors about the iPhone being released in Italy. That also seems to be what will happen if the iPhone is released in China. I don't think Apple will be able to reach their goal of selling 10 million iPhones this year if they hold all providers to exclusive contracts.

So where does this leave us? Nowhere really. There is no new news or facts that suggest the iPhone is coming to Canada anytime soon. So what is the real cause of the delay? I don't really know. It's probably a combination of all factors. If Apple really wanted to release the iPhone in Canada ASAP, they would have paid out Comwave a long time ago. Rogers doesn't seem to be totally on board, especially when their senior executives say 'we're not fans of unlimited plans'. We'll see what happens if an when the 3G iPhone is released. Maybe that is what Rogers is waiting for.

The Toronto Star put an article out recently on the whole situation on the iPhone coming to Canada. What did it feature? Not much of anything, just more stuff we have heard already. They seems to say that the iPhone could be coming to Canada sooner than later but it just doesn't seem likely right now. I hope I am wrong.

If you still don't have one, I wouldn't wait.

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If you haven't seen these iPhones, you gotta check this out. Colorware is a company that customs paints iPhones among other gadgets. They look absolutely fantastic. The only problem is that it is only available for Americans, not Canadians as well.

The base price is $150 for the custom paint jobs. The price goes up for for each customization. You can either send them your iPhone for them to work on or you can buy a brand new one from them. The price for a new iPhone starts at $550 for the 8gb and $650 for the iPhone. You can get the back painted, the apple logo painted, the sides, and the home button. You can even the the headphones or the dock painted to match the phone.


I wish these were available in Canada. But they don't ship here and it doesn't look like their policy is going to change. I guess the best way for us to get one is to get someone we know from the USA to order it for us. I searched on ebay but none were available for sale. I have family in the States so I could get them to order me one if I really wanted. Maybe when the 3G iPhone comes our and Colorware starts selling it, I may get it. Will have a decision to make when the time comes.



My favorite color they have is the white back with the bright green apple logo and green at the bottom part of the back like the photo up top. I would leave the front the same. I think it looks a little weird to have the metal sides painted. Which combination do you like? Does anyone in Canada have one of these? The all black back with the silver apple logo looks pretty good too.



Check out their website and design your own iPhone here:
http://www.colorwarepc.com/p-103-iphone.aspx

The way it looks, I will eventually switch to Rogers and leave my beloved Fido. Not right now of course but it looks that way in the future. From what I can see and what I've noticed, when the iPhone is finally available in Canada, it more than likely will only be available on Rogers and not Fido.

Why? Because Fido is not really geared towards data use and their stock phones are pretty lacking. They do have the Samsung Jack and the Moto Q9 but looks at the data plans they have available for those. The most data is 8mb with unlimited emails for $40 extra per month. All of their other phones are pretty lame. Fido seems to be geared more towards the phone use only type person or even the emergency call type cell user only.

Rogers is going to be releasing the LG Vu and a big maybe on the Nokia N95. Rogers seems to be getting the good phones while Fido does not. Rogers has better data plans available for their phones. Do you call 500mb for $80 a good plan? I don't know. It's definitely not great but it's a much better value than what Fido offers. So once the iPhone is released here in Canada it will most likely be only on Rogers and will come with a decent data plan. I sure hope they include voice minutes in the plan and have an iPhone only plan like AT&T does.

I will probably have to sign another 3 year contract but the good thing about porting from Fido to Rogers is that you don't have to pay the early cancellation fee (ECF). It will probably be another $400 bucks or so but I'm willing to pay that to get a decent data plan. I will miss the per second billing though.

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Here's an interesting question...What phone did you have before the iPhone? I believe that the iPhone is the best phone on the market. Even though it isn't available in Canada it's still fairly easy for us to get.
The last phone that I had was the Moto KRZR K1 Red from Fido. I only got this phone because I had just joined Fido and signed a 3 year contract to get a sim card and a plan. The phone was basically free with the contract. I used the phone for about a month until I got my iPhone. I then sold the KRZR on ebay to help offset the iPhone cost. The KRZR was a good phone, no where near the greatness of the iPhone but it was still cool. Definitely the smallest size phone I have ever owned. Of course it was filled with Fido/Rogers branded junk. I was happy with it for the month I had it. I guess part of the reason I liked it was because I like when I get new gadgets.

The phone I had before that was the Moto Q from Telus. I also only had that phone for about a month. It was the first smartphone I ever had. Basically I hated the Moto Q. The interface was terrible. I had to hack into it to have my nickname show on it instead of 'Home Service' which always appeared as the carrier name. It is a Windows Mobile phone. I was able to get hotmail on the Moto Q a little easier then it was to get it on the iPhone but that's not a big deal. One of the reasons I hated it was the fact that Telus gave me 4mb of data. What a joke that is. Although Telus does have a decent unlimited data plan now and I don't have a decent plan on my iPhone, thats a different story. I also got this phone for free on a new 3 year contract with Telus. How did I only have it for one month? Thats also a another story that I will discuss later.

The phone I had before that was...the Moto RAZR...what a surprise. I actually had it for about 2 years. But who cares about the RAZR, it's old news.

So what phone did you have before the iPhone?

It's just another rumor but it's an interesting read anyway. Not much truth to it from what I can see though. Supposedly it is coming May 21st and it's coming from a Rogers employee. The waiting game continues...

http://www.touchpodium.com/2008/04/19/conversation-with-rogers
-wireless-employee-reveals-iphone-coming-to-canada-in-may/

I'm not really a fan of most third party applications that are available for jailbroken iPhones through installer. There are a lot of neat applications out there, but not too many that really appeal to me. I've had a lot of 3rd party apps on my iPhone but they generally only last a day or two before I uninstall them due to lack of usage or necessity. One more that I don't like about them is the fact that you usually have to have your home screen on at least 2 pages. I don't like how the screen starts scrolling to the next when you put your finger anywhere on it.

I have found a few applications (out of the hundreds) that I actually like and have on my iPhone.

The first application I like is Capture. It allows me to take all of these wonderful screenshots of the whole iPhone screen and post them here on this blog. Before I had this app I would take pictures of the screen with my camera, it was a little hard to focus up close and didn't take good pics.


The next program that I like is the NES emulator and the roms that go with it. It is pretty cool how you can have old school Nintendo on your iPhone. The games are still a little difficult to play and the controls are tiny so it takes getting used to. But it is still playable. I've been playing punchout quite frequently recently.

The next program which most iPhone users in Canada probably have and most jailbroken iPhoners have is Summerboard. Now I really like the look of the iPhone in the way it is supposed to look but I just installed the Mac OS X Leopard default wallpaper and put it as the background on my homescreen and it looks fantastic. I plan to play around with other themes when I get a chance.


The next program that I just installed and plan to keep for a little while is Fring. Fring was just released for the iPhone last week sometime. Fring allows you to go on MSN, ICQ, Skype, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo, or AIM. You can make VOIP calls through skype and stuff with it. Pretty neat stuff. I have only tried MSN messenger on it and it worked flawlessly the first time I logged in. Apollo IM was more of a hit and miss app (mostly miss) when it came to using MSN messenger on the iPhone. Fring is pretty cool and I recommend you get it. To do so, add http://fring.com/iphone.xml to your sources in installer then download and install it. http://www.fring.com



So the only 3rd party apps I have on my iPhone right now are NES, Capture, Fring, and Summerboard. I'm not happy that my homescreen is on 2 pages but I will have to live with it for now. I installed a lot of games on my iPhone like blackjack, solitare and others but they got boring fast so I removed them. If you know of any other good programs, let me know.

I was at the mall yesterday just to look around. What did I notice? More people with iPhones. I think the iPhone is the hottest gadget to have in Canada right now. Besides maybe Nintendo DS. I saw 4 people who had their iPhones out either texting or just playing around with them. I guess everyone likes to show them off. I've also started to notice people listening to music on their iPhones. You can tell they have an iPhone by the headphones with the little mic on the right side.

My sister in law just got an iPhone too. She lives in the states. She was thinking about unlocking it and just using it on T-Mobile to go prepaid service, but decided to go the legit route and activate it with AT&T. Their plan is pretty good compared to Canadian standards. For $59.99 a month you get 450 daytime minutes, 5000 evening and weekend minutes, unlimited data, and 200 texts.

So many people have iPhones now....at least it isn't like all the RAZR's out there. Once it is finally released in Canada, the iPhone may become the next RAZR since I'm sure even more people will get one and then you wont be able to go out for 10 minutes without seeing one.

No, I wasn't charged for using the $7 plan or or mistakenly charged for overage on my 4 months on unlimited browsing on the $18 value pack from Fido. I posted a little while ago about being careful with edge settings. On my wife's iPhone, I entered the edge settings to test to see if the network was down because I couldn't get edge on my iPhone. I was worried because I had just upgraded to 1.1.4 and re-unlocked with Ziphone. After realizing that it was in fact a network problem and not a Ziphone problem, I manually deleted the edge settings in her iPhone. She only uses wifi to check her email and stuff.

The next day, she went back into her email to read some stuff over again, to her surprise, it downloaded a bunch of new messages. The total amount of data used was 546kb. I hoped that we wouldn't get charged but I figured we probably would. Well the bill came and the charge was there. 546kb X 5 cents/kb = $27.30. Kind of expensive for receiving a few emails.

The iPhone can burn through data pretty fast. Good thing I paid extra towards my bill last month. We were charged for this data because there is no data plan on that iPhone. I reset the network settings on the phone to properly remove the edge settings. Fido collected almost the exact amount of data usuage that the iPhone did. Using an iPhone in Canada can get pretty expensive if you aren't careful. If you use a bit of discretion, using the iPhone will bring you great pleasure.

My favorite thing about the iPhone is probably texting. It is so easy to send texts. I love the keyboard and the speed that you are able to type in it. No more hitting one key 3 or 4 times to get the right letter. Also, none of the T9 input BS. It's also cool how it has 2 way text messaging. I thought that was pretty cool when the Hiptop and Sidekick came out a long time ago. Texting on the iPhone is even better though. The only problem that I have found is that sometimes if you are having a conversation with someone and going back and forth very fast, you might get an error message and a text wont go through. This seems to happen only when you send one and the very same moment you receive one. Not a big deal.

Basically when I had a regular cell phone, I might have sent 50 texts a month. At 15 cents a message, thats $7.50. Then I added the 100 text messages plan for $5 a month. I still probably sent about 50. Now that I have the iPhone, I am armed with 2500 texts a month with my Fido value pack. Not that I would ever send 2500 in month and I can't believe people actually do, but I do send way more now. I've been sending an average of 500-600 a month since I got my iPhone. Here's what was on my bill: 558 sent, 496 received!

How many do you send each month?

Want an iPhone but you your cellular provider is Telus?  Lets see if a Telus Mike Sim will work on the iPhone in Canada.

Remember this DOS-like game?  It's called DopeWars and I'm sure many people have played in it the past.  Now it's available for the iPhone.  The graphics are a little better but it follows the same theme.  It is very entrepreneur like.  The object of the game is to buy low and sell high, just like most business.  You can buy, sell, or jet.   Just remember to watch our for the police and other thieves.  It is available in installer under the games section.  The program is called iDope.  It is a good way to spend or waste some time when you need to.  It can get quite fun and interesting especially when you are on a roll and your debts are paid off.

 

Here are some screenshots:

Here's a tip for advanced iPhone users in Canada.  I was searching Howard Forums and came across this.  Apparently if you install the T-Mobile T-Zones hack file from installer and change some settings on one of the iPhone's files via SSH, you can use the $7 unlimited wap browsing pack on Rogers (or $20 communicate pack) and not be charged.  You would probably want to change your IMEI too if you want to go this far.  I have no idea if this actually works but these people are saying it does.  However, if you do this, the mail app may not work and youtube may not work.  Also, you are editing system files on the iPhone which is not for the newbies or the people who were afraid to unlock their iPhone themselves in fear of bricking it (myself included).  My suggestion, don't do this but go ahead if you know what you are doing.

Here's a funny article, apparently Radio Shack and Circut City in the States have printed flyers and circulated them showing a picture of an iPod touch that is jailbroken! LOL, someone is going to get in trouble.  You can see the installer.app icon on the screen as well as some IM program.  Too bad Rogers couldn't sell us an iPhone that is jailbroken and unlocked already.

Unlocking your iPhone to use in Canada on Rogers or Fido is easy. Since firmware 1.1.3 and 1.1.4 have been cracked, there are many programs available to unlock your iPhone. The best part is, it's all free. I don't understand why people out there are still paying to have someone unlock their iPhone or are paying for free information. It's all right here. Also, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or email me.

There are 3 main ways to unlock your iPhone

1. Ziphone - http://www.ziphone.org/

Ziphone was revolutionary when it came out. It is what I used and what most people have used. It will bypass activation, jailbreak, and software unlock your iPhone. It downgrades the bootloader to 3.9 from 4.6. This will basically void the warranty on your iPhone. But, good luck trying to get warranty service on it anyway if your iPhone is not activated on AT&T. I used Ziphone on both of my iPhones and they both work great on Fido. The second time using Ziphone, my mail app wasn't working properly, so I had to restore and do it again. Now it's fine. A few people have had problems with Ziphone, such as youtube not working, mail not working, etc, but that is suspossed to be all fixed with Ziphone 3.0. I have to recommend using Ziphone since it worked for me and I haven't used the other methods.




2. pwnage tool - http://iphone-dev.org/

This program comes from the iPhone Dev Team. They have spent quite a while working on it and it does look exciting. They also made an exciting video on it. Basically it creates a custom firmware for your iPhone. People on the forums are saying that it works and is the safest method to unlock your iPhone now. However, the is no pwnage tool for windows xp/vista users just yet, it should be released soon though.



3.
iLiberty+ http://www.ipluspwns.com/

This new program is a combination of two previous programs called iPlus and iLiberty. The claim to fame of this one is that it doesn't downgrade your bootloader. What it does do is create a 'fakeblank' bootloader which can be reversed in you need warranty service from your iPhone. Basically Apple would not be able to tell that you were messing around with it if you had to take it in. I've heard of people having problems with this program such as that it doesn't work, but I have also heard success stories. I haven't used it myself so I don't know.

There you have it. This is the only info you need to have your iPhone unlocked in Canada. Just watch the videos and see how it works for yourself, it's better than just typing out steps. Let me know how it goes for you.

I only have the back piece of InvisibleShield on my iPhone. I recently installed it on the second iPhone we have so I decided to take some pics and show you what it's like to install it on your iPhone.

Carefully smooth the film out and start pressing the sides down. The sides should be easy to stick.
Once the sides on stuck nicely, and everything is lined up, give it a couple minutes to set. After that use the squeegee to remove the bubbles.

Now we gotta do the corners, these are the hardest part but just be patient and it wont be that difficult. Make sure the film is fully stretched out over the corners, then hold it firmly in places for about 2 mintues. After that it it starts to come off slightly, just leave it. Do the rest of the corners. Now let the iPhone sit and rest overnight, in the morning you will have a nicely protected phone. If the corners are still up slightly, press them down now and they will stick.

Installing InvisibleShield the second time on the iPhone only took me maybe 15 minutes. The first time took me 45. You don't get a practice film with it so be careful and patient. Just take your time and you will be fine. This is probably the best case you are going to find for you iPhone. Nothing else compares. This is a must for all iPhone owners in Canada.

See my other post on the InvisibleShield here:
http://www.iphoneuser.ca/2008/03/my-case-invisibleshield.html 

The 3G iPhone should be coming to Canada soon.  Well I hope so at least.  Since there are so many people who already own an iPhone in Canada and are using it on Rogers or Fido.  I think it is clear by now that Rogers is not going to release the first generation model of the iPhone.  

Attention all people who are using their iPhone in Canada on the $7 unlimited browsing ($20 communicate) pack.  Apparently Rogers/Fido is going to start cracking down on ineligible phone users starting April 15th!  

Ever since the $7 unlimited WAP surfing/browsing plan or $20 communicate/value pack came out, people have been using it on their iPhone.  Since people haven't been charged for 2 months now, people are starting to think that they can get away with it.  The simple fact is that you cannot use this plan on your iPhone.  If you have been using it with no extra charges so far, then you are lucky.