Tech of the day: turns off iPhone data

You might think the title sounds stupid: the whole point of having a smartphone like iPhone is for its data capability (i.e., web surfing) What's the point of having one if you turn that off? Well, some people (not me) unlock their iPhone to be used on other networks, which might not have an all-you-can-eat data plan like AT&T. To avoid being charge for data usage at all, it is a good idea to turn it off altogether. Unfortunately, phones like mine that are bought from AT&T, such option is not available. In this case, faking the APN would be your workaround.

To access a data network, iPhone uses something called APN (access point name) The idea is to give it a bad APN so that data would be "turned off." There is a website that allows user to download a profile for that purpose but I had a problem with it (no data access even after I remove the profile! I had to "Reset network setting" to have it back)

Fortunately, there is another tool called FakeAPN (available from iSpatio's Cydia repo http://ispaziorepository.com/) which is an add-on to SBSettings.

In case you haven't installed SBSettings, it is another great app available on Cydia. Basically it gives you a panel that you could access anywhere (simply swipe the top edge of your screen) The panel contains button for toggling 3G, Bluetooth, Wifi, Power/Reboot...... etc. So you don't have to go thru the tedious Settings anymore.

BTW, there is another useful SBSettings add-on called UAFaker, which allows user to toggle between Mobile Safari's default user agent and a custom defined one. I wrote about the need to switch user agent before. After it is installed, you will also need to put your custom user agent string in this file on your iPhone:
/var/mobile/library/SBSettings/Toggles/UAFaker/UAFaker.plist

Tech of the day: User agent

I have been a long-time (paid) subscriber of a popular newspaper and I have always used HTTRACK (the open-source website copier, ideal for offline browsing) as well as my browser to read the PDA version (which has a real clean UI to speed up browsing) even though the "official" way to access it is thru another closed-source website copier iSiloX.

My ways of usage have been working fine until yesterday, when the newspaper's website started to refuse access from any client other than iSiloX. Of course it is implemented by checking the user agent. And of course, this is very easy to defeat: (1) for HTTRACK, just add the command line option -F "iSiloX/4.37 Windows/32" (2) for Firefox, just install the user agent switcher plugin and add the aforementioned user agent string.

Even though it is so easy to defeat, I'm still not pleased. As a paid subscriber, shouldn't I be allowed to access the information in ways that I preferred (and these are ways that won't jeopardize their profit a single bit)? It wouldn't be long until I decide to cancel my subscription.