Not that it’s that difficult any longer, but I unlocked my shiny new iPhone this morning. Took all of 45 minutes, and 42:30 of that was spent going hither and yon on the internet looking for concise instructions. I ended up using this page as my guide.

The iPhone went from out of the box to running on the T-Mobile network, no stops in between for bathroom breaks, scenic views or 64-ounce Slurpeesâ„¢. Why did it take a fair bit of time to find out what I was supposed to do? Most unlockings are post-honeymoon phase of iPhone ownership, and so are their tutorials. Few deal with in-the-cellophane unlockings. I found several out-of-the-box unlocking videos on YouTube, but they were either outdated or featured different software than that which I wanted to use.

At first I didn’t even know if I should attach it to my Mac via the included USB cable, or if I needed to perform a key-combo on the phone first. That’s how far out of the loop I was. But after reading perhaps 5 sites on how to unlock the iPhone, none said do not attach!, so I attached.

iTunes sprang to attention when it sensed the iPhone (heart: beat beat beat beat!). I ignored it and ran ZiPhone 2.4. It’s a Mac OS Terminal app, and thus a “command line” geeky thing, but overall wasn’t hairy at all. However, if you’re the type that has difficulty setting preset stations on your car radio, get someone to help you.

I read a fair bit last night about which software to use, and all indicators point to ZiPhone as the best. Right now. Things like this can and do change overnight, so do your homework.

Download ZiPhone
Unpack it (it comes zipped)
Move the resulting folder to /Applications
Open your Terminal application (in Applications/Utilities)
type

cd /Applications/ZiPhone

On a new iPhone, type

./ziphone -a -j -u

…and wait for about 2 minutes while the unlocking happens.

That was it for me. I’m still waiting for T-Mobile to enable my $5.99/month data add-on, so for now it’s just calls and WiFi data. I’ll for sure have more on this amazing device in the next few days.

I didn’t know Rush Limbaugh is a Mac user, until I found myself at a page on his site where he’s complaining about Mac OS X 10.5 bugs [link thanks to Keef]. Fair enough, we all complain. But then something caught my eye:

So I’m asking these guys during the break, “Do you think I ought to put out a plea to Steve Jobs? I know he’s politically opposite of me, but just to say, “Mr. Jobs, please, I just ordered six brand-new Mac Pros: four for me and two as gifts; maxed out, Blu-ray drives. I’ve loaded ‘em up. Our whole office here is Mac, and I just want it to work because I love them — and these two things that aren’t working would seem to me, as a novice, to be a simple fix, but they’re not.”

[my bold]

I’m usually pretty up-to-date on Mac configurations, and sure enough, when I went to the Apple Store to check on the nagging possibility that Blu-ray drives had been introduced for Macs without my knowledge, there’s no Blu-ray drive options on Mac Pros, or any Macs for that matter.

So either Rush is full of (yet more) hot air, or there’s a Mac pilot program for celebrities, and he’s in it.

Apple released yesterday a major update to its photo processing software.

iPhoto’s now-$199 big brother gets over 100 new features:

• recover highlights
• bring out color vibrancy
• manage local contrast definition
• soft-edged retouching
• vignetting
• de-vignetting
• much faster searching

…and a completely reworked interface and core. Nice, especially when you consider Aperture 1.5 was $299. I’m downloading the 30-day trial now and I’ll let you know how much faster it is. Speed is a concern for me because I’m on a lowly MacBook.

For $999, is it worth it to upgrade to less hard drive space?

Yes, if you boot often or rely heavily on reading data from your portable’s drive.

AppleInsider has very interesting tests between the 80GB (traditional) and 64GB (solid state) hard drive choices in the MacBook Air.

For users to whom cost is not a big deal, the SSD option paired with the processor upgrade delivers the fastest possible experience, with significantly faster booting, application launching, and shutdown, and with no spin up lag even when working from the battery in power saving mode. Everyone else will need to weigh their needs for delicious luxury with more practical considerations such as storage capacity and budget.