Above are some examples of photos taken with the app, and yes, I took them all from the comfort of my desk. Expecting me to go outside is asking a bit much, no? Not the best examples for sure, better ones are available from the Hipstamatic App Website. Still, this should be fun to play around with when I have the time.

Now, you may remember me sharing a certain Mario themed wallpaper I made a few days ago. Well on that same day, I encountered Gelaskins, who promise to create skins for iPhones (and a plethora of other devices) using your own designs. Taking this as a sign, I decided to see how my Mario design would look  as an iPhone skin.

It’s finally arrived all the way from Canada eh, taking just over a week, though I’m sure this was not helped by the recent Royal Mail postal strikes. Thoughts and photos after the break.

Your Gelaskin will come well packaged inside a hard, cardboard envelope and attached to some backing paper. Don’t throw this away, because your skin can be reused if you reattach it to the backing.

You’ll get some other documentation in the envelope as well, including an option to download various free iPhone wallpapers from the Gelaskins website, or via their free iPhone Application. If you’ve ordered one of their many listed artist designs, and not a custom one, you’ll be able to get the matching wallpaper this way. I’ll provide a brief run through of the application procedure:

After giving the back of my iPhone a good clean, so that there’s no dirt to cause any lumps or other imperfections, I’m ready to apply the skin. Simply a matter of removing it from its backing and then lining up the precut hole for the camera lens. Once that’s all done, press down. It’s probably a good idea to start with the two top corners and then work your way down.

In honesty, it took me four attempts to get it perfect. It’s a bit fiddly lining up the sides so the skin covers the entire thing symmetrically. But then i’m also a bit of a perfectionist.

Due to the rounded corners of the iPhone, these can be a bit finnicky to get completely smooth, but a bit of perseverence and you should be able to succeed. You can see in the photo below where it’s slightly raised – using a finger nail I was able to ‘iron’ this out eventually.And here’s the end result for my trials.

Having had the skin on my iPhone for the past day, I must say the experience has been rather positive. Originally, I had my iPhone in a Griffin Reveal case, which, although a relatively thin case, did add some bulk to the form factor. Since applying the skin, I’ve now removed the case, so getting used to the iPhone’s svelte body has taken some getting used to again. It’s a shame that the skin doesn’t cover the entirety of the iPhone’s back, specifically the top and bottom. You can see why this is the case though, as being able to apply a skin to the entirety of a curved surface is nigh on impossible without it being some kind of hardened shell. As it stands, the skin adds no bulk whatsoever, and will protect the back of your iPhone from surface scratches when laying it on tables and the like. Of course, it also adds a touch of personality.

I found the print quality to be very good; Gelaskin prints on 3M vinyl, and this feels robust. I would say the print is a touch on the dark side, and I can say this with a degree of confidence having had my monitor calibrated using professional tools. It’s only a slight niggle, and obviously is more noticable due to my design being on the bright side of the spectrum. The 3M vinyl also has some texture to it, a sort of checkered feel, which is something I like. It gives the back of the iPhone more grip, which is a good thing for such an expensive device. I tried to take a photo with close-up filters to show this ‘texture’ but it did a better job of showing the dust around my window.

Other than a few minor detractions, I’m pleased with the quality of Gelaskin’s iPhone skin. I just wish my iPhone was white now, so it would blend in more seamlessly. I’ll make sure my next design is on black for this very reason.

A custom Gelaskin will set you back $14.95 with an additional $5.95 for postage and packing to the UK.

Once jailbroken, you’ll have a Darkra1n app on your iPhone, run that and install Cydia and you’re one step closer to having a plethora of awesome Jailbreak Apps on your iPhone. Cydia is effectively the Appstore for Jailbroken Apps.

Because lists are seemingly the cornerstone of blog posts, my must have apps to get you started are after the break.

SBSettings

This gives you access to a number of useful toggles for oft needed settings, such as WiFi, 3G, and Bluetooth. You can download more widgets for SBSettings through Cydia. Combine it with Rotation Inhibitor and you can turn off the rotation. Invaluable for those of us who like to use their iPhone whilst in bed, and find themselves constantly wrestling with the constant screen rotations. SBSettings also offers a Task Manager style Processes list, showing running apps and available memory. From here you can close apps if ever you find your phone running rather sluggishly. To access SBSettings, just swipe horizontally or vertically down from the Status Bar and up it pops. Handy.

Customisation

Winterboard allows you to have custom themes and icons for that customised touch. Combine it with Five Icon Dock and Five-Column Springboard and you can have your springboard looking like this:

Which is useful if you have a lot of apps and don’t like having to change screens constantly. If that’s not enough, install Categories which will allow you to create folders for your apps. Here I’ve put all my jailbreak related applications into a separate folder.

Backgrounder

For those of us who like to multitask, Backgrounder allows you to effectively minimise applications, so that they can keep running in the background. You can use it for radio apps, so you can still listen whilst running another application. You can either have an app set to automatically minimise, or you can tell an app to do it by holding the Home button. Doing this to a minimised app will also close it. You’ll get a badge on your Springboard on apps that are currently minimised.

3G Unrestrictor

Now, unfortunately this one isn’t free, and is rather a paid-app on the Cydia store. As of writing it’ll set you back $2.99. What this does is it tricks applications into thinking you’re on a WiFi connection when you’re not. Why is this useful? For a start it can get rid of that annoying popup telling you to connect to a WiFi network to download anything over 10MB. If i’m on a strong 3G connection I don’t see why I shouldn’t be allowed to download 10MB+ files. Gone are those days. I’ve set the iTunes and App Stores to be unrestricted, so I can download to my heart’s content whilst on the move. Unrestrict the YouTube app and you’ll be able to watch high quality video whilst on 3G, instead of the horribly downsampled versions you usually get.

Unfortunately, BBC iPlayer, much to my chagrin, cannot be circumvented. Apparently they use some other method to detect that you’re on a mobile connection, so you still won’t be able to watch iPlayer on 3G. The developers are working on a possible fix, but don’t hold your breath. 3G Unrestrictor does work with Skype though, so VOIP calls are now at your beck and call (geddit) whilst on 3G. Testing it out, call quality was excellent.

In conclusion, Jailbreaking has truly opened up the potential of the iPhone platform. A large number of these applications would never pass through Apple’s verification process, so jailbreaking is the only way to get access to them. With the Darkra1n release it’s also never been easier.