Sébastien Page

Sebastien is the Founder and Editor in Chief of iDB. Once a BlackBerry user, Sebastien instantly fell in love with the iPhone when it was first announced in 2007. Shortly after, he decided to start sharing his knowledge of the iPhone and its nascent ecosystem, which led to the creation of this blog. Sebastien currently owns 14 iPhones, 4 iPads, a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, a MacBook Air, 2 Apple Watches, 3 Apple TVs, countless HomePods and AirTags as well as a few pairs of AirPods.

Help! My iPhone 3G S Is Stranded In Kentucky

Sébastien Page ∙ June 17, 2009

Yesterday I wrote about how I was hoping my iPhone 3G S would be delivered on the 18th as per the information UPS tracking system was giving me. Well, reality slapped me in the face this morning when the tracking tool showed what I feared most: the package was put on hold.

The statuts of the package says that "the receiver requested a hold for a future delivery date". I obviously didn't make such request but you don't need a PhD to figure out that Apple asked UPS to do not deliver iPhone 3G Ss until June 19th.

I am not the only one in this situation as many other site report the same thing.

Dev Team Demos UltraSn0w – iPhone 3G Unlock

Sébastien Page ∙ June 16, 2009

As announced yesterday, Dev Team member MuscleNerd did a demo of UltraSn0w, the new software unlock for the iPhone 3G (skip to 2.20 min on the video below). Unlike its predecessor YellowSn0w, UltraSn0w will unlock your iPhone 3G no matter what firmware, bootloader or baseband you have, as long as you have the new 3.0 firmware installed.

The actual program that UltraSn0w injects into the baseband to accomplish the unlock is the exact same one the Dev Team developed for YellowSn0w. What changed is that the Dev Team found a new "hole" to inject the unlocking payload.

During his demo, MuscleNerd successfully jailbroke his iPhone 3G and proved it by inserting a T-Mobile SIM card.

UltraSn0w won't be available until Friday and like YellowSn0w, it will be downloadable through Cydia. Your iPhone will obviously have to be jailbroken and the Dev Team will release the necessary tools for that (QuickPwn and PwnageTool) soon.

Again, just to make this clear, there is no baseband downgrade needed. You can just upgrade to 3.0 tomorrow and wait for the Dev Team to push its unlocking tools and UltraSn0w on Friday.

Note that this unlock is only valid for the iPhone 3G. According to the Dev Team, this hack may be applicable to the new iPhone 3G S if it can be jailbroken, which should happen sometimes soon. Go Dev Team!

6 Reasons the iPhone 3G S Sucks

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

If you read this iPhone blog on a regular basis, you know that I'm not a big Apple fan, and I take any chance I get to talk smack about them. There are enough fanboys, so someone needs to be the devil's advocate... Last week I wrote about 7 reasons to buy the new iPhone 3G S and today I'd like to give a few reasons why the new iPhone 3G S is kind of a joke.

The Name Sucks

Lets' start with the obvious: the name - iPhone 3G S. I had speculated about several names for the new iPhone and I really thought they would simply call it "iPhone". You have to admit that "iPhone 3G S" is a pretty clunky name. If you were going to have a "S" in the name, why not simply call it "iPhone S". It would have been a shorter and more "esthetically appealing" name.

The Design Is Boring

I think what I hate the most about the iPhone 3G S is the design which is exactly identical to the iPhone 3G. When I pay $560.16 for a new phone, I expect to have something that looks different from everybody else. Yes, the iPhone is a phone for the elite, I admit it. I kinda miss the days of the first iPhone, when people came to me and candidly asked me "wow, is this the iPhone?". I was proud of it. Now everyone has an iPhone, and even worse, everyone has an iPhone that looks similar.

I was really looking forward having a revamped iPhone design. To those of you arguing with this, think about it this way. What would you say if BMW came out with the same car design twice, even though the engine was different? Any car critic would just roast BMW for their lack of creativity. Strangely, no one seems to care that the iPhone design is the same as the previous one.

The Camera Still Sucks

We went from a 2 to 3 megapixels camera. It's better than nothing but it's still 4 years behind every other smartphone, possibly more. The camera doesn't even come with a flash. My old BlackBerry pearl did all this 4 years ago...

New Features Are Old News

Voice dialing, video recording and copy/paste were welcome as the messiah during WWDC. That's BS if you want my opinion. This is just a software update, and once again, any smartphone on the market has had these features for years.

The Pricing Is Scandalous

The attractive $300 price tag for the 32GB iPhone 3G S is only applicable to new AT&T customers. While I understand the whole subsidize thing, I am really pissed I have to pay $560.16 for this new phone, especially when I see that the iPhone 3G S costs about 17% more than the G1 and 32% more than the Palm Pre over the course of a 2 year contract. AT&T is cashing in on existing customers, yet it won't give throw them a bone and sell them the iPhone 3G S at $299?

No Tethering Or MMS At Launch

This is not specific to the iPhone 3G S, but rather to AT&T. AT&T has most likely been aware of these new features for months, and it still couldn't manage to get its shit together on time. That's a huge fail for AT&T who claims tethering and MMS will be available "later this summer". At least AT&T won't charge extra for MMS but I can't see their future tethering plan under $30. I'll stick to PDAnet for my free tethering.

The iPhone 3G S really is a non-event for existing 3G owners but the success of the pre-orders shows once again that fanboys are willing to throw money at anything Apple releases. If it wasn't kind of my job to have the latest iPhone, I probably wouldn't have upgraded.

I look forward to reading your comments and see whether you will upgrade or not.

iPhone 3G S to Be Delivered On June 18?

Sébastien Page ∙ June 16, 2009

Late last night I received an email from Apple saying that the iPhone 3G S I had pre-ordered last week was being shipped. I immediately hit the UPS link to track the shipment and I noticed it was being shipped from Shenzhen, China. When I first checked last night, it said the scheduled delivery date was June 17.

I checked again this morning and it says that the scheduled delivery date is now June 18. Either way, it's ahead of Apple's official launch day. Now the question is: if my iPhone arrives on June 18, will AT&T let me activate it?

iPhone 3.0 Unlock YellowSn0w Demo

Sébastien Page ∙ June 15, 2009

Dev Team member MuscleNerd sent a tweet a few minutes ago about an upcoming live demo of the YellowSn0w unlock for iPhone 3.0. The live demo will happen Tuesday night, most likely on Qik and should answer a lot of questions.

This demo should show how YellowSn0w can unlock firmware 3.0. I assume this unlock will only work for iPhones that currently support YellowSn0w.

AT&T Says No Extra Charge For iPhone MMS

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

The long awaited MMS feature for the iPhone is finally coming with the release of 3.0. It is legitimate to wonder how much AT&T will charge iPhone users for this feature. Well, a good news uncovered by TiPB reveals that AT&T will not charge extra for sending MMS from your iPhone.

Later this summer, as part of the 3.0 software, AT&T will make multimedia messaging (MMS) available at no extra cost to customers with a text messaging bundle.

It makes sense but it's always good to be reassured, especially knowing how AT&T likes to overcharge its customers. Now the question is: when? AT&T only says "later this summer", which could be anytime from June 19th (which would make sense) to sometimes in September...

Click here for more answers from AT&T to your questions about the iPhone 3G S.

Tap Tap Revenge Updated to Allow Push Notification

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 11, 2018

According to TUAW, Tap Tap Revenge is the first app to have been updated to allow push notification.

If you are running OS 3.0, upon launching the new version of Tap Tap it will ask you for permission to send push notifications to your device. If you allow them, a new category called Notifications will appear in your device's main settings, which will allow you to toggle push notifications on or off. Additionally, it appears that each app will have individual settings for badges and alerts.

While the type of notification you can receive hasn't been confirmed yet, it is safe to assume that you may be notified when other users want to challenge you. Tap Tap probably won't send any notification until the official release of 3.0 in 2 days.

Until June 17th, I believe we'll see more and more of these app updates allowing push notification. Apple most likely wants some "big names" to be ready to push notifications when 3.0 becomes available for download on Wednesday.

iPhone OS Running On A Mac Pro TouchScreen

Sébastien Page ∙ June 15, 2009

This is either a great hack or a great hoax... Either way, it's very creative and deserves to be showcased. This guy is supposedly running the iPhone OS on a Mac Pro with a multi touch screen. What do you think?

iPhone 3G S 3.0 Firmware Available For Download

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

The 3.0 firmware for the iPhone 3G S is now available for download on Apple's website: iPhone2, 1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw

Installing it on your iPhone 3G won't give you video recording or copy/paste. No, unfortunately it's pretty useless for the time being as it can only be uploaded on an iPhone 3G S. So don't waste your time downloading it and trying to install it on your iPhone.

Palm Pre Theme For iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Here is a nice and simple Pre theme for iPhone I found on ModMyi. It doesn't come with many icons but it covers the most commom ones. You may download this theme from here.

Battle of the Costs: iPhone 3G S Vs. Palm Pre Vs. Android G1

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

We all know the iPhone 3G S comes with a very attractive price tag of $300, except for those of you looking to upgrade their 3G of course... However, do you know how much the 3G S will cost you over the course of the 2 year contract you're extending with AT&T? And how does this cost of ownership compares with the Palm Pre and Android G1?

That's the question that the guys over at BillShrink asked themselves and they did some more digging. The results? Well, not very surprising if you ask me...

The iPhone 3G S seriously kicks the ass of the Pre and G1 on most levels except on multitasking. Where the 3G S takes a big slap in the face is on the total cost of ownership. The cheapest phone to own over a 2-year contract is the Palm Pre with a total cost of $2,600. The G1 comes at the second place with a total cost of $3,150. Our beloved iPhone 3G S is the big loser with a total cost of $3,800. Note that all these costs do not include the initial cost of the handset.

In other words, the iPhone 3G S costs about 17% more than the G1 and 32% more than the Palm Pre over the course of a 2 year contract.

How to Do Everything On the iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

So you thought you knew everything about the iPhone? Think again! With all these new features unveiled in iPhone 3.0, chances are there are a few you don't know how to operate yet. That's why Apple created how to guides on its website. Interestingly, copy/paste, one of the most anticipated features is not explained.