If you came from an all PC background and used an old windows smart phone you know this isn’t too complicated. You could use outlook and sync it with your phone.

But what if you’re a switcher, a turncoat, a technical wanderer? Apples iPhone is a great combination of hardware and software, but they left some pretty basic stuff out, one of which is a to-do list.

For the last year I’ve looked around for a solution to this lack, never really finding the right combination of iPhone and desktop software that would work together flawlessly.

The closest solution looked like it was Things by cultured code. Things is an elegant task management program that is very flexible and has an iPhone app that works with it. Problem solved right?

Well, not exactly. Things is Mac only and I’m platform agnostic. The iPhone app can only sync manually over wi-fi, and worse than that is the price. The desktop app is 60 bucks and the iPhone app is $10.

$70 bucks for a task list? Really? I guess Apple users are willing to pay more for everything.

So after all my searching and complaining and being cheap, what’s the point of all this?

The point is I found the dream solution I was looking for.

Wunderlist runs on Mac, PC & iPhone and they say an Android app will be released soon. Wunderlist does wireless cloud syncing and is the right combination of simple, powerful and pretty. And how much does this elegance cost?

Nothing.

Nada. Zip. Not a penny charged for the desktop or iPhone version. There isn’t even any advertising in the various app versions.

WTF? How can they do that? I have no idea, but after just a few days of using it I can highly recommend it.

This is the EASY way I built an iPhone cradle for my car – using the ashtray.  I’m using a JVC KD-800 deck because it was cheap, had built in head unit control for the iPhone* (not just ip0d), and most importantly had 2 USB ports, one in the front and one in the back.  On a side note, I’m quite happy with this JVC deck.  It has all sorts of extras I don’t use, like bluetooth and is HD and Satellite radio ready (with an extra adapter).  I use the front USB port with a thumbdrive and have wired the back port to my DIY car cradle hack.

I plugged a standard iPhone charge/sync cable in the back of the deck when I installed the head unit, and ran it down behind the ashtray, which in my car is located in the same center console.  I pulled the ashtray out and removed the tray itself leaving only the drawer that held it.  I then needed a cradle to hold the iPhone.  I think you could use any standard iPhone/iPod charge cradle, but it would have required cutting to fit in my ashtray, and they’re only available in white.

I wanted a shiny black cradle, so I got this Scosche charge adapter which is supposed to help with charging issues in old cradles.  Why you wouldn’t just buy a new cradle if you had that problem I don’t know, since they cost about the same as the adapter, but it was perfect for my needs.

I pried the cradle part with the cable port in it out of the plastic base and it was almost a perfect fit for my ashtray – I expected to have to do some drilling to hold it in, but lo and behold, the two screw ports that held the ash tray in matched up with two wholes in the Scosche adapter.  I just plugged in the cable, attached the cradle to the inside of the ash tray drawer and popped it back into my console.  There are a few things I intended to fix about this installation, but since it ‘just works’, I’m not sure if I ever will.  This is what the ashtray looks like without the phone in, I haven’t bothered to hide the cable yet since it doesn’t interfere with the tray sliding in and out and the phone covers it when its in the cradle.

Here’s on more shot of the phone in the cradle.  It covers part of the ventilation controls, but you can still access them and I don’t find it inconvenient.

*a head unit built for iPhone control is important because decks built just for use with the iPod can pick up interference from the mobile phone causing extra static and stress while listening to music.

The problem is that in their pursuit of elegance they dropped some basic things that I miss from my old smart phone.  One simple key feature is ring profiles.  Why the hell can’t I set this phone to not ring at certain hours?  Sure I can mute the whole thing, but then what if I forget in the morning to turn the ringer back on?  How hard is it to add a timer in software to control the sounds my phone makes?

And why not allow input from bluetooth keyboards?  I guess I should just be happy they’ve finally given me the ability to cut and paste text.

All these little frustrations finally added up to the point where I was willing to take the risk of jailbreaking my phone so I could use Cydia to add missing functionality.  I had fears of bricking my phone, but it turns out I had nothing to fear.  Thanks to the brilliant simple process allowed by the freely available blackra1n my iPhone now feels like MY phone.  I can enable features that were missing and modify the little annoyances this device shipped with.

Certainly Cydia is a lot uglier than the app store, and there is the very real possibility of bricking your phone – with great power comes great responsibility – but after a month or so of freedom I am so very glad I busted this mobile phone out of Apple corporate lockdown.

One note: After the 40th week of manufacture Apple changed the bootrom on the 3GS which adds an irritating limitation to the blackra1n jailbreak.  If you ever need to reset your phone, or your battery runs completely down, you’ll need to reconnect your iPhone to your computer and run blackrain again to reboot.  If you’ve got one of the early models, you’re in luck, you can reboot with impunity.  You can tell the week of manufacture by the 4th and 5th digit of the iPhone serial number. If that number is below 40 you’ve got an early phone.

You can download blackra1n for Mac or PC here.