You seemed to be on top of the world in design and function.  Then you released the iPhone 4.

What a horribly designed piece of hardware.  Apple seems to have chosen the “form before function” approach here and the swaths of people who lined up for the next iDevice from old Jobs and gang now feel brutally raped and left out in the cold.

Within hours of the iPhone 4′s release, reports already flooded tech blogs of massive reception issues with Apple’s new heralded antenna design.  Apple remained fairly silent on the whole ordeal until last friday when they all but admitted the phone has a fatal flaw… the new antenna system they talked up at the press event.

Apple tried to put a positive spin on the whole thing basically saying it’s not their fault, ALL antenna systems do this, and they even tried to demo the problem in OTHER phones.  Well you know what Steve?  Explain why the iPhone 4 is the only one dropping calls when held.  Other companies are even firing shots across Apple’s bow regarding the design.

Nokia:

Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.

In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.

RIM:

Apple’s attempt to draw RIM into Apple’s self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM’s customers don’t need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple.

Samsung:

The antenna is located at the bottom of the Omnia 2 phone, while iPhone’s antenna is on the lower left side of the device. Our design keeps the distance between a hand and an antenna. We have fully conducted field tests before the rollout of smartphones. Reception problems have not happened so far, and there is no room for such problems to happen in the future.

HTC:

According to Apple, nearly 0.55% of iPhone 4 customers have been in contact with them regarding reception or antenna issues on the new phone

So what percentage of people have complained [about the Droid Eris Antenna]?

“Approximately .016% of customers”, Eric Lin, the company’s global PR and online community manager exclusively revealed to us before adding that “we have had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the Eris”.

If you’re keeping track, that is over 34 times higher than the iPhone 4 complaint rates.

Even Consumer Reports tested and proved the serious issue and rated the iPhone 4 a DO NOT BUY.

So you have the biggest names in phone manufacturing all telling Apple they screwed the pooch on this one.  Apple obviously did not test the phone enough in the real world and pushed the device out before it was ready.  Apple’s solution to this disaster?  A product recall with a fixed design?  Nope, you get a free ugly case to wrap around your phone to prevent your hand from coming in direct contact with their magical and revolutionary antenna.  Wow.  Thanks Apple.

Add on top of this whole Antennagate thing, the fact that the phone’s proximity sensor also seems to be suffering from serious issues, causing people’s phones to hang up, mute, or put calls on hold when the phone is brought up to someone’s face, it’s a wonder if Apple seriously tested this device at all?  I think it is pretty apparent they did not.

With Apple’s iOS being quickly hunted down by the mass influx of bad ass Android devices, the iPhone 4′s massive problems could spell big trouble for iOS and it’s now dated and played out interface.

Can you hear me now?   No Steve, we can’t.

Windows Phone 7 will be a miserable failure.  There are many countless reasons why it is going to epic fail, but here are some of the most important:

1) Microsoft doesn’t know mobile phones from a hole in the ground.  Just look at the current state of Windows Mobile.  It’s built on the Windows CE platform, created in 1996.  Yes.  Let me repeat.  Windows Mobile is based on a platform created in 1996.  Sure, the platform has seen updates, but it’s still based on a world created 13 years ago.  Back when Windows 98 was nothing but a dream.   Windows Phone 7 is based on Windows CE.  Yup.  Microsoft’s newest “cutting edge” Phone OS is STILL based on Windows CE.  They just couldn’t get rid of it.  Thanks Microsoft.  The same bullshit you’ve been jamming down our throats for the past how many years that has NEVER worked right is your platform for the next Windows Phone?  EPIC FAIL.

2) The Kin is a disgusting failure.  The Kin is running a hacked down version of Windows Phone 7.  Don’t believe me it sucks?  Here are a few quotes regarding the Kin and it’s abilities:

“…Lofty goals indeed for a product like this, and unfortunately for everyone, Microsoft misses the mark by a long shot. It’s not even close.”

“…we also take issue with the browser, which is abysmally slow and buggy (it consistently crashed while trying to load any complex web pages like Engadget), and the email client, which seemed to have trouble displaying even the most rudimentary HTML messages”

“While using the One and Two we found ourselves consistently confused or surprised by how many bad little interface problems there are. Not only does the phone make it hard to do simple tasks — and not only are the social networking features poorly implemented — but the handsets are often sluggish, hiccupy, and downright crash-prone. We were told by the devices on more than one occasion that we needed to restart (while performing basic tasks), and often it would just throw us a blank screen while we waited for the device to come back from whatever tragic internal situation was occurring”

That’s enough of that.  If you want to read more though, you can head over to Engadget’s review of the Kin One and Two.

3)  Microsoft does not care about the mobile market.  Microsoft is simply doing this so they can say “us too!”  Windows Mobile 6 SUFFERED from multiple issue that have existed in the Windows Mobile/CE platform for literally a decade now.  Simple fucking tasks like the built in alarm have never worked right (I know I have bitched about this before, but it’s such a shockingly easy feature to fuck up, I can’t believe they have never gotten it right).  Microsoft can’t even code a proper alarm function, nor do they care about EVER fixing it.  What makes you think that Microsoft is going to give a rat’s ass about building a competent useful device and keep it regularly updated?

Which brings me to my next point

4) Microsoft has no sense of time frame in the mobile market.  This market is an incredibly FAST paced arena.   If there is 1 thing Microsoft is definitely not, it’s fast and agile.  Let’s just take a look at some quick time frames:

The Windows Mobile 6 line was released in February of 2007.  They are on Windows Mobile 6.5 right now with nearly zero improvements aside from MAEK BUTTONS HUEG!  Windows Mobile 6 was nothing more than a skin over Windows Mobile 5, released in 2005.  Like I said, WM6 was released in early 2007.  In the 3 years since it’s release, it has seen 1 very very minor update from Microsoft.

In that same time frame of 3 years, we have seen:

• Original iPhone (2007)
• iPhone 3G [With it the launch of iPhone OS 2] (2008)
• iPhone 3Gs [With it the launch of iPhone OS 3] (2009)
• iPhone 4 [With it the launch of iPhone OS 4] (2010)
• Android 1.1 (Feb. 2009)
• Android 1.6 (September 2009)
• Andriod 2.1 (January 2010)
• Android 2.2 (June 2010)

That is 4 seperate iPhones with 4 seperate iPhone OS versions, each one substantially better than the one before it.

4 seperate major Android releases, each one substantially better than the one before it (don’t let Androids weird number versioning system trick you up, each release is pretty substantial).

Windows Mobile, 1 minor release.  The other big players, 4 MAJOR releases.

5)  The Windows Phone Marketplace is a joke.  Microsoft has created a costly CLOSED platform.  You can’t install non-marketplace apps, and developers have to PAY to release $0 cost apps.  How in the fuck is that going to ENTICE developers to your completely fucked platform when there are already other infinitely better and cheaper platforms out there to develop for like the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry devices?  Windows Phone 7 will have no developer support.  Current Windows Mobile has no developer support and it’s been around longer than iPhone and Android.  Don’t believe me? I dare you to download a properly functioning Pandora app on Windows Mobile.  You can’t.  Because developers don’t care about a shit platform and won’t develop for it.

It doesn’t take a genius to clearly see and understand that Microsoft doesn’t care.  They don’t care about making substantial releases and they don’t care about making progress, and they certainly don’t care about mobile devices..  This is even shown in the current version of Windows Phone 7.  They have made no progress other than throwing an interesting skin on top of Windows CE, the same broken piece of shit from before.

It’s pretty pathetic.  I used to be a Windows Mobile fan.  I was using Windows Mobile doing things the iPhone couldn’t even do at launch for 2 years before.  Microsoft could have owned the mobile market, they could have controlled it.  But they don’t care.  They didn’t care about it then, and they sure as hell don’t care about it now.  Thinking anything else is foolish.

Well, here it is.  The article thousands of people have been waiting for!  Ok, well probably no one… but here it is any way, my Fuze vs. iPhone comparison.  I wrote previously about why I went with another Windows Mobile phone over the iPhone, and now here is the comparison.

I’ve had the Fuze for over a week now and had time to get used to it and play with all of its features.

The iPhone is running 2.2 Firmware and has been Jailbroken.

The Fuze is running a custom Firmware.  Basically I’m running the AT&T leaked rom that is been modified.  The rom is the official AT&T update that is coming soon, but it was leaked out and people already have it.  I’m running a customized version that removes AT&T’s bullshit from it, an XDA-Developers member NotATreoFan (NATF) created.  It’s version 4.5 of his rom, which is Windows Mobile 6.1

My general feelings on the Fuze as of right now:  I LOVE IT.  This is one seriously kick ass phone.  It finally feels like a Windows Mobile device should be.  It is very fast, you can multi-task like crazy on it and it has a very nice, easy to use interface utilizing HTC’s TouchFlo 3D (which comes on the device, stock).

That being said, it is still a Windows Mobile device and takes a lot of little tweaks to make it even better.  This is the thing that can suck about Windows Mobile, but it is also the thing that makes Windows Mobile so powerful.  As an example, the on screen keyboard it came with is alright, but damn it I was having a ton of accuracy problems on it.  So I browsed around a bit and came across Finger Keyboard, which has been absolutely amazing.  It looks so nice and works very very well with a bunch of configurable options that make it very nice to use.  There have a been a lot of other little quirks that took some time to work out.  Like my external speaker, speakerphone, and ring volume was way too low.  I could barely hear TomTom in the car.  It took about an hour last night to find a file that worked for my phone, but I was eventually able to update the “AudioPara” file on my phone with one that made everything nice and loud.  Then there was the Java emulator not allowing me to set the needed permissions on Opera Mini.  I replaced the policy file with an open one and it fixed that.  The Fuze also has a light sensor which doesn’t work too great stock, but you can install a program from XDA-Developers called Lumos that automatically adjusts the backlight and it works very well.  I really like not having to constantly tweak backlight settings like I do on the iPhone.  I know I’m leaving out some other things I had to change, but those were the really annoying ones I fixed.

There are lots of little things that take time to tweak, and that is where a lot of people get discouraged.  If you don’t take the time to tweak your device and make it work the way YOU want it to, it’ll never make you happy.  Like I said, this is what makes Windows Mobile a real pain some times, but is also what makes it so great.  You don’t like something on the iPhone?  Well, tough shit.  You’re stuck with it.  Don’t like something in Windows Mobile?  Change it.

As for using the devices, each one has their own advantages.  For power user features, and the nice hardware keyboard, the Fuze rocks.  It’s also got a very useful and informative user interface, which the iPhone is desperately lacking.  Even with all the information TouchFlo 3D still manages to keep a very sleek look to it.

For general media purposes, the iPhone can’t be touched.  The built in MP3 support in the Fuze is pretty much worthless.  It’s a pain to set up, and a pain to use.  However, for video, I do like the Fuze’s ability to play any regular AVI file (using The Core Media Player).  That’s right, you can copy any standard full resolution avi file on to the memory card and the Fuze will play it.  No more re-encoding bullshit like on past phones and like on the iPhone.  Dang it I HATE re-encoding files, so it is VERY nice to now have to do that on the Fuze.  One thing that really ticked me off a bit on the Fuze though was no head phone jack on the phone.  What the hell?  Maybe they realized MP3 use on it sucks so why even bother with a headphone jack?  There is one on the dongle, but fuck dongles.  It’s not 1995 any more.  But, on the other side of the coin, the Fuze has full bluetooth support, so if you really insist on rocking out on it, pick up some very sweet bluetooth headphones and make all the white-corded iPhone boys jealous.  Still, they could’ve at least included one… then you could use any regular headphone-jacked device AND been able to use the built in FM radio with out the stupid dongle.

As for screens… this is a bit of a tough call.  The Fuze’s screen is A LOT clearer and sharper then the iPhone’s.  It’s very nice looking because it’s full VGA resolution, 640×480, while the iPhone is only 320×480.  This makes the Fuze’s screen much more clear, but the iPhones screen is still physically bigger.  Some people will prefer the slightly larger iPhone screen compared to the Fuze.  The iPhone’s physically larger screen does make some on screen tasks easier such as the on screen keyboard.  But with the Fuze, the on screen keyboard is only secondary, because it has a very nice slide out hardware keyboard.  I still prefer a hardware keyboard over on screen.  While the iPhone’s on screen does do a very good job, it’s still on screen.  There is no tactile feedback to be able to tell what key you’re hitting and when.  Hardware keyboards will always win over software keyboards, I don’t see that ever changing.

This kind of brings me to the next point… the size difference in the 2 devices.  Holding them in my hands they feel like they weigh the same.  The Fuze may be slightly heavier, but the difference is negligible.  The Fuze is shorter and skinner then the iPhone, but it is still thicker.  Over all I feel like the Fuze is a more comfortable phone to hold up to your face and talk on.  The iPhone is fat and awkward because it’s skinny.  It feels weird to hold up to your face.  I always felt the Motorola Razr had this problem too because it was so thin.  The Fuze feels much smaller in your hands, but not in your pockets.  It still makes a bulge and you can feel it in there, while the iPhone is VERY comfortable in the pocket and a lot of times you’ll not even know it is there.  I think HTC realy did put a lot of effort in to making the Fuze a sexy looking device, and compared to the past hidesousness of other HTC devices, I’d say they did this pretty well.

Next I’d like to talk about device speed and browsers.  The Fuze is fast, blowing away past Windows Mobile devices and even the iPhone.  The Fuze boots up in 68 seconds.  The iPhone takes nearly 85 seconds.  Cold launching the broswers (Safari on iPhone, Opera on the Fuze which comes with it), is nearly identical.  Opera does an amazing job on the Fuze.  It runs very quick and rivals Safari.  I still think Safari is slightly faster but I prefer Opera at this point for 2 major reasons.  1) Rendering.  Opera renders pages better and when you zoom in, it wraps the text.  You don’t have to scroll left right left right left right to read.  That annoys the hell out of me in Safari.  2) Uploading files.  Safari has no ability to upload a picture to a website or any other type of file.  Opera can upload anything just like a regular browser.  Another minor reason I like Opera better is it has Flash Lite support.  Safari has no flash support.  It’s nice for other embedded media sites that use flash that AREN’T Youtube.  In actual page rendering, Safari gets the nod as being faster, but it is not by much.  Opera on the Fuze is very useable and feels very nice.

I also like that when you have a message on the Fuze the light ring flashes.  The iPhone you’re left clueless with out powering on the screen.  That’s just a little thing that has also bothered me about the iPhone.  I like having some type of visual notification on the phone that there is a waiting alert, with out needing to turn it on and off.

My other main reason for buying WM was TomTom, and I must say the Fuze’s built in GPS works very well.  I’ve read about a lot of GPS issues on the Fuze with VERY slow signal-lock times and a ton of lag when navigating, but I have not experienced any of this.  I also did flash the radio from the leaked AT&T rom though first thing, and most people are saying that radio fixed these issues.  My GPS lock on takes maybe 5-10 seconds, and leg is negligible.  I have noticed there is maybe a 2 second lag in where you actually are compared to where you are on screen, but this doesn’t really effect navigation in any way.  TomTom works great, and I finally got to use new maps, which is nice because there are finally new maps that work right.  I had been using about 6 year old maps because the newer onse I tried were full of errors… but the latest ones I loaded on it work awesome and have a ton of new roads.  I’m also running a full USA and Canada map now, instead of just a 6 state regional map like I did before, so that is nice.  Turn by turn navigation is still lacking from the iPhone, and I honestly don’t see it happening in it’s current hardware release.  I played with some turn-by-turn stuff on the iPhone from a Jailbroken app, and from what I can tell the iPhone’s GPS is highly inaccurate when in motion.  Now, I don’t know if this app was missing some smoothing algorithms or what, but cruising down the road at 65mph, it indicated my speed was bouncing around any where from 45 to 75.  I believe this to be a flaw in the iPhone’s GPS…  who knows though, maybe Apple can fix it by updating the iPhone radio in some future firmware release?  Even so… I still think TomTom on WM will be unbeatable for mobile phone navigation.

So with all that being said, which device is better?  It’s up to you… for now I prefer the Fuze.  I like it better, and that’s all there is to it.

Which device is easier to use?  Hands down, no competition, the iPhone.  The iPhone’s built in app store is something desperately missing from Windows Mobile.  You’re still using cab files to install… this has advantages and disadvantages of course.  You also have to consider 90% of iPhone apps are shit.  Worthless fucking shit.  Seriously.  Windows Mobile has a ton more useful apps… but most of the time they don’t look nearly as nice and are more complicated to configure and use.  The iPhone also has much better media management compared to the non-existent media management in Windows Mobile.  iPhone has fixed memory… Windows Mobile as much as you can want.  I have 2gb in mine, but just ordered an 8gb card for $18.  That’s something the iPhone will never be able to do.  Upgrade?  Drop $300 on a new device.

The iPhone is more refined for sure… which is sad for WM since versions of it have been out for nearly a decade now.  The iPhone has a better touch screen, but the Fuze’s is actually very good.  Definitely the best resistive touch screen I have ever used, and it is sharper.

It comes down to the user… do you want to have what everyone else has?  Yes, it does work well, but it is lacking in some areas.  I’ve always been the type of person that wants things few others have, and been one to mod, tweak, and hack the things I do have.

I like the Fuze and like its potential.  It’s a good piece of hardware, inifinitely better then the 8525 ever was, and I think it’s going to be a better device then the 8125 was as well.  I look forward to many years of use and tweaking out of the Fuze.

My first was the Cingular 8125 (HTC Wizard).  It came with Windows Mobile 5 and I loved it at the time.  It did everything and did it decently.  When Windows Mobile 6 came out it was an excitting time, getting the latest hacked WM6 roms for the Wizard and all that entailed.  Over all I really liked the 8125 and I still believe that it was a BETTER device then the 8525 is.

The only issue I ever had with my 8125 is the screen drift issue, where you had to align the screen about every 2-3 days.  I eventually cracked the screen on it due to my own stupidity/anger at the drift issue.

I bought an AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes) after that…. and this device has really turned me off of windows mobile in the last year or so.  Couple that with the fact that my work phone is an iPhone, I really had a hatred growing inside of me for WM.  I still believe in the post I wrote and that Windows Mobile is broken beyond repair.  What I mean by this is that if Microsoft wants to compete seriously with the iPhone, all WM base needs to be thrown out and they need to start over.

I don’t know what went wrong during the hardware design phase of the 8525 but someone some where really screwed the pooch.  This phone has really been nothing but problems with me since I first got it.  The device has always seemed to run SLOWER then my 8125 did, and it always seems to be having issues, ESPECIALLY lately.  Most recently the phone is locking up ALL the time on me and some days I’ll miss multiple calls and text messages because of this.

I believe part of the issues with the 8525 compared to the 8125 are due to the 8525′s under powered single processor.  The 8125 actually had 2 processors in it.  1 for the OS related tasks, and 1 that managed all the phone’s radio related tasks, like calls, data, and text messaging.  The 8525 does both OS and radio tasks on 1 400 mghz Samsung processor, and I believe this is where the 8525′s shit-factor really comes in to play.

The AT&T Fuze (HTC Raphael) has a single processor as well, but it has some major differences.  For one thing, it’s a 528mghz Qualcomm processor, and from my experience Qualcomm powered devices have ALWAYS seemed to run better.  I don’t know what it is, but I’m guessing Qualcomm simply has a better architecture.  It also has 288mb of ram, dwarfing the 8125 and 8525 ram amounts, and in WM ram was something that was always drastically lacking in the previous iterations.  The Fuze also sports a 640×480 (yes, that’s right, full VGA), resistive touch screen.  While I wish HTC would get the hell away from resistive and move to capacitive touch screens (Resistive = pressure.  Capacitive = electrical signal, iPhone is capacitive and it’s why it’s touch screen is so amazingly accurate and sensitive), the Fuze’s design will be MUCH better because the screen is not recessed inside the device like previous phones.  It’s flush and smooth like the iPhone.  This will make all the items on the edge of the screen easier to press.  It also has built in GPS which will be nice, because I won’t have to screw with my Bluetooth GPS receiver any more!

So anyway… why did I buy ANOTHER Windows Mobile device when I have an iPhone, know it’s glory, and have ranted about WM in the past?

Well… there are several reasons.

1) Cost.

8gb iPhone from AT&T = $199 w/ 2 year contract

AT&T Fuze = $349 w/ 2 year contact.

AT&T Fuze, ebay’ed = $352, no contract.

It might seem at first that I did this backwards… but here me out:

I could get really detailed here on data plans but I’ll skip it and just give an over view.

I bought a phone with no contract, so my current billing rate at $62/month with unlimited data, 500 rollover, unlimited NW, 1500 SMS and 200 MMS will NOT change on me.

Had I bought the iPhone, to get any where CLOSE to a similar plan (which I do require for my usage), it would cost at minimum $90/month.  Add in tax and fees and I am sure it would be more then $92/month.  So I would have been looking at a $30/month INCREASE just to use an iPhone… which I already have through work.  Multiply out that $30 increase over the mandatory 2 year contact and that is $720 in additionaly billing for the iPhone.  So, that $199 iPhone would actually cost $919 due to the mandatory iPhone rate increase.

Jesus christ, fuck that.  AT&T can go fuck itself with it’s bullshit iPhone-inflated rate plans.

2) Windows Mobile is more powerful, and more customizable then the iPhone will ever be. (GPS)

Sure, the iPhone is sexy and has an amazing web browser in it… but even jailbroke, the iPhone is locked down.  There is also no built in turn-by-turn.  I rely on Windows Mobile’s TomTom multiple times a week for work and other things, and the current iPhone has no chance of getting it because from what I have learned, the iPhone’s GPS is not any where close to being accurate/sensitive enough.  I have to have TomTom and the Fuze having built in GPS is absolutely perfect.  There is NOTHING close to TomTom on the current iPhone.

On top of that, the sheer number of roms and other things you can do on the WM platform is astounding.

3) Why get another iPhone when I already have one I use daily. It didn’t make sense to own 2 iPhones.

4) Bluetooth tethering. I need to tether my WM phone to my laptop.  iPhone can’t do this.   Jailbroken, you pay money to do it. It might in 3.0 but even then, rumor has it AT&T will charge a premium for access to it.  With WM you can tether with zero additional cost.

5) I’m a nerd and I always need to tweak things. Windows Mobile satisfies my need to tweak, hack, and play. Jailbreaking the iPhone was fun, but it gets boring quick.  In Windows Mobile it seems there is always something to try out.

So… in conclusion that is why I went for a Fuze.  I’m looking forward to getting it and testing it’s limits.  I’m sure it’ll be better then the 8525 and I think it will be better then the 8125 as well.  I may be able to like WM again

I’ve already gotten excitted doing research on what rom I want to flash and radio version I want to use.  I have my files all picked out, downloaded, and ready to run for when I get the Fuze in my hands.

Keep an eye out for my full on Fuze vs. iPhone post, probably coming next weekend, assuming my Fuze will get here next week!

After an hour of messing around with my logo because my dumbass didn’t save the original source file when I originally made it, I got it looking just the way I want it. (And I’ve saved source files this time so if I ever need to play with my logo again it won’t be such a gigantor pain in the ass)

To see the special site you don’t need to do anything special.  Just browse my site from Safari on any iPhone or iPod Touch and you will automatically be served up the pretty version, complete with ajax-style menus

It will even create a pretty icon for your iPhone’s home screen if you choose to add a link to my site to it (I’ll probably be the only person to ever do this, haha)

Screen shots after the break…

I believe BigBoss is referring mostly to the extra directories under /private/var/stash. Each time Cydia runs “for the first time”, it moves and symlinks some directories there to ensure that the root partition doesn’t run out of space. If that was over your head, stop reading, and follow his instructions above.

Still with me? Okay, so first off it’s these directories that are showing as “Other” in iTunes. That’s fine, and it’s totally normal for there to be a decent amount of space showing that way.

The problem comes when Cydia runs again on the “Upgraded” device, and goes and creates all these directories over again, resulting in double the space consumed (though I personally didn’t see quite as much as 500mb).

If you are comfortable poking around *nix, the cleanup you asked about is generally straightforward. Just stroll over to /private/var/stash, do an ls -al and delete the older of any duplicate directories (Applications.23981, Applications.sidufh, etc.). If they have the same date, you’ll need to find for the symlink and see which one’s current.

As always, backup first, and if you brick your device, go back and follow BigBoss’ instructions above.

So I deleted the old duplicate folders that didn’t need to be there any more and got back over 800mb of free space!!

I’ve some screen shots so you get what I’m talking about…

Duplicate folders, wtf?

Only 183mb free… That is weird because I had around 900mb free before I upgraded to 2.2

What’s this?!  Notice that each folder has an older dated twin… these are the ones that can be safely removed… the ones with the OLDER dates on them, NOT the newer ones!!!

To get them removed all the way I actually did need to ssh in to the phone, cd to /private/var/stash/
And do a rm -rf foldername.random/ on the folder to remove it entirely.

But once I did, it was all cleaned up

And my missing free space has been returned to me!

Just thought I’d give some of you other guys (and gals?) a heads up.  You might be missing some free space on your iPhone…