My iPhone is now running 1.1.2 for almost a week, its pretty cool as I can use now Garage Band to create my own ringtones, thanks Apple. The only downside is some of my third party native apps are not working yet with 1.1.2 - no big deal as I can live happily without them :)

I’m sure everything will regularize once SDK is formally release this February - I hope. Once SDK is formally release, I’ll try to put my head’s on it and learn how to develop apps in iPhone or at least learn how those great apps works. Fun times coming up!

I don’t know Arabic but my Arabic friends are very happy that they can now read and write Arabic in their iPhones natively.

Here are some of my screenshots.

Browing Arabic websites in Safari is not a problem anymore.

Arabic note taking is now also available!

Sending and receiving Arabic Email is just perfect!

And finally, the most requested hack - to received and send Arabic SMS!

Thanks to Essa, Fady and iTarek.

First of all, I'm using my iPhone to post this entry while lying on the bed, and playing with my kids (tickle-tickle as Princess called this game) so please excuse any typo error - this particular reason is more than enough for me to love this piece of gadget.

Other bonuses are: I use my iPhone to read and quick reply to my emails - too easy to do that from our kitchen up to our parking area specially after I changed our Wireless AP to Apple Airport Extreme N-Draft - the range and speed of my wireless is really amazing.

To catch up with my favorite websites after a busy day I usually subscribe to RSS and read them thru Google Reader easily which is perfectly optimized to iPhone.

Driving going to my work for almost 2 hours a day; iPod part of my iPhone is always my companion while listening to tech podcasts and audio books - no wasted time while stuck even in traffic.

Schedules, reminders and alarms are also very important to keep my life sync.

Oh yes, the 2Mb camera of my iPhone never let me down whenever I want to capture a moment.

Similarly, the built in Notepad and Erica's Voice Notes are always there every time crazy idea pops-up in my head - to capture it and later see where it fit in my getting complicated life puzzle.

I can reboot our servers, back it up, execute commands - do all controls thru SSH, anytime, anywhere.

As Tanc said, it could be a while before iPhone will hit other countries other than US. Our only hope of seeing it earlier, is if somebody can unlock it and let us use other carrier’s SIM card other than AT&T. A removable SIM card in iPhone is a good sign for hackers, because it indicates that the phone is locked using firmware, which can likely be cracked. Using SIM card from other carrier will not work as you still need to activate your iPhone using your iTunes.

So what's the status now of iPhone being used as open and not exclusive only to AT&T and other future authorized only carriers? When we can expect an iPhone that is just like most of the common Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung cellphones that we can purchase over the counter, pop-in any available SIM card, and simply use it (no activation required).

Or at least not even as a phone, I know some people want to use iPhone as Internet device (surfing thru Wifi) and as a touch-screen iPod Video; unfortunately even up to now, for you to enable all those functions including the camera, you still need iTunes activation which means 2 years contract to AT$T.

Here's some good news: I’m reading Gj’s Notes in iPhone Dev Wiki and seems like they will be able to hack iPhone within this week. He even suggests: “I firmly believe the phone can be unlocked and activated even without iTunes... I think we can do it using # codes or keypad presses.” Whoa!

People already disassembled iPhones and studied what's inside - here’s one of them. They found that iPhone’s processor is Samsung S3C6400. It runs at a whopping 667 Mhz, the fastest available on a consumer handheld as the high-end Intel-based handhelds processor is at 624 Mhz only, although Marvell and Qualcomm have both announced faster chips in the future.

Some other features of this chip are:

Many people were asking me, when iPhone will hit here in Qatar or in the Philippines? My casual answer without thinking a bit is maybe next year, hehehe. Honestly, I have no idea, and I think it will take longer time as it requires an Apple account in iTunes and authorized carrier like AT&T for you to activate and use it.

iPhone will hit the US market today and I’m sure all the iHype will be answered today. Although some lucky human in this earth got it first. My favorite iPhone pre-launch review is by David Pogue of NYT, his video presentation is also hillarious and must to see. Personally, without the real reviews of other real users, I don’t think I will go with the iPhone wagon as early as this year assuming Apple Store is available here in Qatar/Philippines and local carrier here starts offering iPhone - as history shows I able to wait until 5th generation of iPod video, and 2nd generation of shuffle before buying iPods. Most probably I’ll buy first Mac Book Pro before buying iPhone, hehehe.

Some factors I’m considering right now: