While the original iPhone never got an official Australian release, there's still plenty of unlocked models kicking around. If you're keen to get some iPhone 2.0 goodness on your iPhone, Danny Gorog at APC offers a detailed guide to using PwnageTool to get your iPhone unlocked and running the latest apps. Note: The process is somewhat fiddly, and the tool only works on Macs, though we're sure a Windows-based approach will emerge.
HOW TO: unlock the iPhone 3G to work on any network [APC]

If you've been checking out the newest VirtualBox beta for Mac OS X, or you're intrigued by Linux but not ready to deal with virtualizing it, the Sun xVM VirtualBox VDI Index—or, as it's skeevily nicknamed, veeDee-Eyes—has a host of pre-compiled, pre-configured images for you. No need to set up space, "boot" from a live CD and mess around with hardware config, as copies of Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and others are ready to run. Not all of them are free, with a few of the multi-GB distros asking for a buck or two to cover server costs, but a good number of interesting variants and betas are there for the taking. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and is a free download.

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Reader Chimera says that you can use the iPhone 2.0 software's built-in screenshot-taking ability to save images of Google Maps to your device before you leave the house (and the fast Wi-Fi connection) for directions at-the-ready. This technique is especially handy for iPod touch owners, and would work with any handheld device with maps and and screengrab capabilities.

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Peek over walls and look around corners with a periscope—a long tool that uses two mirrors to show you hard-to-reach places. Over at how-to site Instructables, they've got the step by step for putting together a periscope using a thin mints box, duct tape, two small mirrors, and an X-Acto knife. The kids will love this one.

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Wired's How-To Wiki demonstrates how to exploit the iPhone's unusual shutter to take distorted photographs. The trick? Just twist your camera as you're taking a picture.

The reason? The iPhone uses a CMOS sensor, which more or less "wipes" the shutter across the sensor like a scanner rather than the circular aperture of a traditional camera. The iPhone's CMOS scanner seems to be a bit slower than, say, the CMOS sensor on your Canon camera. Therefore, as the camera is recording the image, any changes over that small but significant amount of time are recorded.

Taking a psychedelic photo is actually just as easy as it sounds (works better in bright sunlight), but read on for a quick video demonstration.

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With a projector, DVD player, a bed sheet, and an extension cord, Wired's How-To Wiki runs down how to make a movie theatre in your backyard.

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Find yourself in New York City without an airport ride, but don't want to pony up the disheartening full fare for a cab ride? Hitchsters.com hooks you up with other taxi riders taking the same flight to save money and ensure you arrive on time. The benefit over an airline-sponsored shuttle van is that your fellow passengers are trying to make the same flight, so you won't have to hop on two hours early or risk missing your take-off. The service is currently live for Manhattan and Brooklyn pick-ups, but plans to expand. Thanks, Jason!

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Macworld runs down how to get vacation photos that don't look just like everyone else's with some power tips on gear, camera settings, perspective and more.

design, digital photos, camera,

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