Hacking the iPhone

For the last month I’ve been hacking my iPhone with iFuntastic. Adding ringtones, moving stuff around and so on is fun…but I want more. I want applications. Why? Because as much as I enjoy and truly love my iPhone, I’m bored. I’d love to be able to buy an application, for instance, that would allow me to have a To Do list that is useful (that little note pad is pretty worthless).

The problem is that the hacks don’t work well and few developers are willing to invest in application development if the runtime is dependent upon a hack to make it work. For example, iFuntastic allows icons alone or icons with captions…but not all turn off. It’s a little thing but it ruins the aesthetic of the iPhone when it’s all kludgy looking. An Apple update for the iPhone often removes the hack and a restore is necessary…not something a developer would be to keen on.

This post on Lifehacker is one I’ll try next.

Whether or not you have an iPhone or if you’ve hacked it or not, the energy around trying to arm-wrestle this device into submission is one in which I delight. There are people just like me — bored but with the technical acumen to actually hack the device — that are providing ways to customize it. The recent SIM card hack is one example of how people are figuring out how to make it more useful, including having it run in places Apple would prefer it doesn’t at this time.

What is interesting about this phenomena is how companies try to position and control technology and its release…but people mold, bend and shape it to their own ends. With the instant access to news and information (and how-to’s) flying around the internet at the speed of electrons, control is being lost and quickly.