Hey everyone, sorry for the lateness on this one but T-Mobile has retaliated and I can kiss data good bye for now. I managed to get on for a few minutes, but that is it for right now. So now onto the review of ControlPad.

Well, ControlPad is a very simple application to use, as was iLaunch. Basically it allows your iPhone to act as a trackpad for your Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard, Windows XP/Vista, or Linux Unbuntu enabled computer! This is done over Wi-Fi, no internet connection necessary, just make an Ad-HOC connection on your computer.

A really useful thing that they did was add step by step instructions for all of the operating systems I mentioned above! So just purchase, open the app, follow the simple instructions, and you can start using it as you feel fit.

This is useful for when you are either tired/lazy or in some cases incapacitated for whatever reason. It also gives you a familiar keyboard to use, and as we all know, texting is our thing, and I found that typing on my iPhone is faster than on a computer in some instances.

So check out ControlPad! Its available on the iTunes App Store for a low price of $2.99 ! This is a very useful app and I recommend it if you are lazy or need some way to type or use the track pad for whatever you feel the need to.

The creators of G-Map, XRoad Co., Ltd, have given us a copy of G-Maps to review and promo codes for you to win.  Please check out the review below and be sure to enter in the contest! We will be giving away 5 copies of both East and West.

When you first launch the app, you will notice a very nice and simple layout as seen in the second to last picture.  You can easily see exactly where you are by hitting the View Map button.  As with all GPS units you need to be outside to get a good GPS lock.  Testing the program indoors will not find your location that easy unless you are by a window.

Creating routes for use later is very simple with G-Map’s Route Manager.  You can view you current route, create and edit routes and even revers the routes.  This is perfect if you travel to certain destinations frequently.

If you are on a current route and accidentally make a wrong turn,  G-Map’s will instantly create a new route to get you to your final destination. You will notice that if you are in an area of construction like I was that the maps may be old and not updated with the current info.  I was on the highway that got rerouted and G-Maps instantly recognized it and recalculated the best route to take.  It will put a red flag up as your new starting point as seen in the picture.

Another handy feature  is the route preview.  You can simulate the driving as if you were going 20-100mph. This is nice so you can get a preview of where you will have to turn throughout your actual driving route.

You can easily go back to the main screen at anytime to update your route with a new POI (point of interest).  Say you need gas, G-Maps quickly finds the closest gas stations and tells you their name and how far away they are from you.  There are many more options such as food, lodging, and rest areas.

G-Maps gives you a few nice options to choose from such as fastest and shortest route, Are you driving a car or truck (not sure what kind of difference this would make…).  You also have the option to stay away from certain avoidances such as toll and unpaved roads.

Advantages

-Very nice voice.

-Lots of voice commands.

-Updates your route on the fly if you go the wrong way.

-You can easily update your route with a POI (Point Of Interest).

-Lots of POIs to chose from.  It will display the name and how close you are to them.  This is very helpful if you need to see how far you are from the nearest gas station.

-Ability to choose the fastest or shortest route.

-Ability to avoid certain items like Toll Roads and Unpaved Roads.

-Ability to create, save, and manage routes as well as reversing them.

-Does not use Cellular Data!

-Priced between $19.99 and $34.99 only for a limited time.  Here is the Direct Link to their iTunes Page.

Disadvantages

-Volume is really low.  If you have the radio on in your car it is hard to fully hear the voice commands.

-No landscape mode.

-Screen does not automatically dim or shut off.  It is on the entire time so make sure you are connected to a power source if you are going on a long trip.

-Way too many Food options.  This could be an advantage for some but most people would just like to see a list of all the options nearby.  This application gives you a list of 61 categories such as: American, Thai, seafood, Mexican, etc.  Once you click on the category it gives you a list of nearby restaurants.

-Take up 824MB of space on your iPhone (G-Map U.S. West version 1.3.1).  You need to have double that free space initially to install it as iTunes extracts it and then cleans up the space.

Currently for the price, I believe that this is the best GPS application out there as long as you are able to hook up the volume into your cars stereo.  Hopefully they will fix the volume issue in the next update!

Coverage Areas:

WEST

EAST

GeoHot decided he did not want to wait for the iPhone firmware 3.1 was released by Apple.  He decided that he wanted to be in the public’s eye again by making it Ra1n.  He has released the iPhone 3GS jailbreak to the general public and dubbed his jailbreak “Purple Ra1n”  You can download the jailbreak at PurpleRa1n.com.  Like I said in my previous post, UltraSn0w will unlock the iPhone 3GS as well due to the same baseband.

Now get out there jailbreak and unlock your iPhone 3GS, but make sure you do not upgrade to 3.1 when it because available or you could lose them both forever.

Windows version only with Mac to come soon.

So you just jailbroke and unlocked your iPhone 3G to work with the new 3.0 firmware only to find out that push is not working?  Well we have a solution for you.  Its not pretty but it works.  I know the iPhone-Dev team is hard at working getting it implemented into RedSn0w.  But for now here are the steps you need to take in order to get push working on your newly jailbroken iPhone.

First thing you need to do is get a AT&T simcard
Put the AT&T Sim card into your iPhone 3G and restore to firmware 3.0.
You will now have an unactivated iPhone 3G, so you will need to jailbreak it with RedSn0w.
Once that is done you will need to turn of 3G.
Go to settings and turn off your 3G.
You will probably see a waiting for activation message. Just ignore it an open up Cydia.
You should get a “Waiting for activation.” message, dismiss it and Open cydia.
Install all of the updates and then restart Cydia.
Next add the Ultrasn0w source repo666.ultrasn0w.com.The Last o is a number zero.
Let Ultrasn0w install and then turn off your iPhone 3G.
Remove the ATT sim and insert your T-Mobile simcard.
When you turn the iPhone 3G back on you will see the message. “iPhone has been activated” and Push will now be working!

You’ve Already Purchased this.  You can redownload it for free on your computer, or tap Buy to buy it again.

Apple must have put this measure into place to stop people who use it for piracy.  Currently if you log into someone elses iTunes account you can download apps that they have purchased directly onto your iPhone.  I know many people who have one iTunes account per family and they all share the apps within the family.  I can say that I let my brother download a poker app when he first got firmware 2.0.  This is a great way to try and stop piracy but is an inconvenice for others.  Personally I like to delete apps and then redownload them when I need them.  Weatherbug for example, I initally got it when it was released and do not use it much so I deleted it.  Last weekend when I was traveling and wanted to check the weather, I redownloaded it again for free at the airport.  Hopefully this will not make it to the final realease of firmware 3.0, but I am betting that it will be included.