With an increasing number of online users seeking solutions to hide their identities from the outside world, privacy services have seen a spike in customers recently. The most common and widely used privacy services are VPNs that allow users to connect to the Internet while hiding their own IP-address.

Ive been using ItsHidden a great free VPN service that allows for 1mbps of free unlimited traffic, I thought this sounded perfect to use on my iPhone, here is how to configure the iPhone to tunnel all internet traffic through ItsHidden

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iPhone update 3.0.1 is here and it addresses an SMS bug, if you’re on a jailbroken iPhone you probably want to update now and keep your applications/settings intact.

You can re-use redsn0w v0.8 we released a few weeks ago to jailbreak today’s 3.0.1 update. Just let iTunes update or restore you to official 3.0.1 then run redsn0w. The only “trick” is that when redsn0w asks you to identify the IPSW used, point it at the 3.0 IPSW instead of the 3.0.1 one. After the jailbreak, reinstall ultrasn0w 0.9 if you need the unlock.

1. Download aptbackup in Cydia this backs up a list of all the applications you have downloaded. Run the back up within aptbackup and then sync your iPhone to to iTunes (to backup within iTunes).
2. Update your firmware via iTunes. Once the installation is complete load up redsn0w.
3. When redsn0w asks for your IPSW browse and select the 3.0 firmware file (presuming you still have it on file, if not you can download it here)
4. Jailbreak.
5. Restore your applications using the aptbackup backup.

This is the method i’ve been using and it seems to work well.

There are an estimated 400 million mobile phones in Europe, with 185 million bought each year. Until now manufacturers have all been using their own proprietary charging units, within my family alone all four of us have to utilize a different plug to charge our phones, luckily this madness is set to end.

The answer? Standardize with Micro-USB.

Along with Apple; Motorola, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments have also signed the agreement. Together they are accountable for around 90% of the phones sold/used in Europe.

I think instead of changing the dock style connector Apple has been using since the dawn of the iPod they will simply offer an adaptor to go from the dock connector to Micro-USB for charging purposes, which is fine by me.

Or next to the dock connecter Apple could include a Micro-USB connection in the next generation iPhones. It wouldn’t negatively affect the overall design of the phone one bit and I’m not in a habit of looking at the base of my phones anyway.

I’m really excited about it and think its only a good thing for all involved, manufacturers and end users. Finally you’ll be able to charge your mobile at a family or friend’s house without hassle.

Full story: Reuters reports

If like me you’ve been waiting for the iPhone 3G S a while and have been anticipating the main new features, mainly;

• Compass
• Faster CPU
• More RAM
• 32GB Space

Then like me you probably already own an iPhone 3G, here in the UK the only service operator to choice from is o2. I signed up for my iPhone 3G on launch day (July 11, 2008) this was my first experience with o2, before that I was using an Orange pay-as-you-go plan.

I wanted to get the new iPhone 3G S in much the same way, on launch day. However o2 iPhone owners with a 3G iPhone cant do this. It seems o2 wont be offering current iPhone users, with any contract left, an early upgrade opportunity.

When asked by MacWorld UK o2 responded

You have to cancel first by giving us 30 days notice. said the O2 customer service rep. It transpires that you won’t be able to just walk into an O2 or Carphone Warehouse store and pay to cancel the contract and pick up your phone.

This means o2 want users to pay £245 just to get out of their contract, let alone the £274.23 price tag on the 32GB version. That cancellation charge is almost as much as the phone!

I fully understand when I bought my iPhone 3G it was heavily subsided by o2 but why cant they offer a slightly higher price for an upgrade like AT&T do ($100)?

With the precedent o2 set on the original iPhone (giving users an early upgrade path) I guess I was just expecting the same treatment. I think the decision o2 has made is fundamentally stupid. Having me sign up for another 18 month contract could only be o2’s benefit, they will get money for the early upgrade, the device and have me locked in again. Furthermore when my contract ends in January 2010 there will be little point in my signing up for a new 18 month contract on hardware that will be updated in July 2010 anyway.

If o2 ever lose their carrier exclusively with Apple I will be the first to abandon ship. There are rumors of Orange getting the green light to start flogging the 3G S in the next 6 months anyway. Come this June 19th I wont have a shiny new toy, instead I will have to be content with iPhone 3.0 on my current 3G hardware.

Im not the only one that feels this way, there are already 4325 twitter signatures (and growing) on patrickaltoft twitition’s post

If o2 cant offer a reasonable early upgrade fee it looks like ill be sitting this iPhone out and that’s pretty sad.

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Finally someone has released iPhone 3G S specs, and its TMobile’s Dutch site.

This is the first revelation that the iPhone now has 256MB of RAM.  Also, the 600MHz chip is likely the Samsung S5PC100 ARM Cortex A8. If the speed was simply megahertz, the new iPhone would only be 1.5 times as fast (400MHZ to 600MHz).

Apple obviously don’t want to scare “the average Joe” with talk of MHz and RAM on their iPhone webpage, but why not disclose this information at WWDC, anyone that’s watching/there will understand MHz and RAM….nevermind.

For a video on just how much faster the new CPU makes check out the iPhone 3G S Guided Tour