iPhone hack that I like

[victor]

Ok, since this is the board for anything, here is something really cool that I found:

I bought iPhone 3G awhile back (it is now FREE in Japan - I kid you not), and I really enjoyed using it as my personal data terminal. The call quality obviously sucks compared to the standard 3G phones I am used to.

One great thing about iPhone is that it can run Fring on it. For those of you who do not know what Fring is, it is MSN chat, skype, SIP, Google Talk and everything else in one. Due to iPhone carrier restrictions, you can only use VoIP capability when you connect iPhone to your wireless network. So, when you are outisde, you really can only chat (text) ...

And then I found a small application that tricks iPhone into thinking that 3G is actually wireless... And ... my Fring (Skype) worked!!! I actually can now dial via Skype to people outside Japan without paying an arm and a leg! It is amazing how good the quality of Skype is, considering that it is after all 3G and I guess, carriers must be throttling upstream traffic to prevent exactly what I am doing...

Interesting how carriers would fix this one...
http://planet-iphones.com/2008/10/26/trick-your-iphone-into-thinking-it-is-on-wifi/

(of course, you need to jailbreak the phone first, but since there is already software out there that does it without you doing anything but pressing the GO button, I am really surprised more people are not writing about it...)

I have no one to really call abroad so I cannot really use this functionality much anyway; however, the fact that iPhone can actually do SIP should be something that many of us should really think about... it can really replace a deskphone in a call center, can't it? All you need is just an adapter to keep it charged. And it is cheaper than most of SIP phones out there anyway... I wonder how long it will take for someone to actually MAKE a SIP deskphone from iPhone...

Am I the only one who sees the huge benefits of doing this?

[tony]

Hi Vic,

The provision of VoIP/SIP on a data-enabled mobie handset isn't new - it has the right protocols and hardware, so why not..?  The fact that you have to "jailbreak" it and then "trick" it into thinking it's on WiFi instead of your providers data network is proof that it [i]can [/i] be done - and that the provider would prefer it if you didn't do that...

Skype mobile phones exist already.  They "switch" from data network to WiFi and back again, depending on your environment and I believe you can set them to use either voice or data networks, depending on what you want to use.  Most UK mobile network providers charge extra for using the Skype protocols, as a deterrent... others disallow it on their network.

It's bad news for mobile network providers, obviously.  Personally I can't see a downside, apart from quality - and the fact that it's IP means so much more can be achieved...  data streaming [i]with [/i] the call means you could effectively video stream using the same methods.  That in itself pretty much blows all of the traditional telephony network providers "toys" out of the water...

It's the way forwards, no doubt...

Tony

[Dionysis]

The only thing I don't like about Fring is the way it does SIP.

I have an Asterisk Server at home which connects to my VOIP provided using an IAX trunk.  This means I only need to open a single port in my firewall for the connection to work.

I've never been able to get my iPhone to connect to my asterisk server, it times out.  The way Fring works is to use it's own VOIP on their own servers, this is how they acheive the skype, SIP, MSN, etc etc functionality in a single client.  It connects to your registered SIP Server from the Fring server on the internet.

So the only way to get this to work fully with Asterisk is to expose your asterisk server to the internet.

This is probably not that big a deal, but since I haven't jailbroken my iPhone I don't have any need to do this anyway.  But when I do, I'll be opening those ports as quickly as I can type.

I agree though, VOIP is the way forward, mobile or otherwise. 

[tony]

Skype has only just appeared as an Application for the iPhone in the UK... Still, better late than never... Now all we need is video chat and we're all done...

Tony

[Adam G.]

What would be good was if there was a CCPulse lite for mobile phones. The call centre managers would love it.

[tony]

= "Fan" ...