Gmail Notes syncing missing in iOS 4.1

Rant time…

So the iOS 4.1 update seems to have fixed the speed issues that plagued the iPhone 3G since iOS 4 was introduced.  However, what I’ve only just noticed is that Apple have removed functionality from the 3G in order to do this:

• Spotlight search no longer indexes MMS messages
• “Over the air” syncing of Notes with Gmail (IMAP) and MobileMe has gone

The second one is an absolute PITA for me.  Apple are renowned for adding only minimal functionality to their products over long periods of time (copy-and-paste anyone?) but to remove features after already adding them – that’s much more annoying.

Add to this the fact that iOS 4.1 made me get up late due to the alarm bug it introduced, and I’m definitely not being an early adopter for the next update.  Grr.

iPhone 3G running slow on iOS 4? Time to jailbreak

Update (26/10): Apple have released iOS 4.1, which pretty much fixes the speed issues on the 3G.

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I’ve been slow to the iPhone jailbreaking party, but I just found the killer app for my 3G – overclocking.

Since upgrading to OS 4.0, my iPhone has been dog slow.  Apple have confirmed this is an issue and are working on a fix, but in the meantime you can do something about it have released a fix, woo.

Disclaimer: at the very least this could make your iPhone run hotter and increase battery consumption – worst case, it could brick it.  But if you think it’s worth the risk then keep reading…

To get your iPhone 3G to run at 600 MHz (normally 421 MHz), follow these instructions:

1. Backup your iPhone through iTunes
2. Jailbreak: open Safari on your phone, browse to www.jailbreakme.com and follow instructions [Note – iOS 4.0.2+ is not supported, so if you’ve already upgraded then restore a previous backup first]
3. Follow instructions to overclock (I used iFile rather than SSH)

You should notice that apps like Google Maps run much faster now.  This hack also works on the 3GS.

Some more benefits of jailbreaking:

• Multitasking on the 3G (backgrounder)
• Internet tethering for your laptop without paying extra
• Install any app, not just ones that Apple arbitrarily allows onto the App Store

On the last point - I’m not suggesting you go and download apps like TomTom without paying for them, but there are plenty of legitimate apps that for some reason Apple haven’t approved.

And in case you were still worried…

• Jailbreaking is completely legal (in the US at least)
• All existing iPhone functionality will still work, including syncing with iTunes and the App Store
• You can completely reverse the jailbreak by restoring a previous backup of your iPhone

On the downside, your phone might crash a bit more (not that I’ve noticed) and you won’t be able to get the latest official iPhone updates until they’ve been cracked by the jailbreak community.

Restoring notes from an iPhone backup

My iPhone got really slow the other week, and the local Apple Genius suggested a full restore to get it back to factory settings. Fair enough, it seemed to fix the problem, and after syncing with iTunes I had all my apps back, only....

No more notes.

It turns out that iTunes doesn't sync the data from the Notes app, so the only way to get them back is from an old backup. A quick Google turned up various tricks involving Grep, Python and Mac-related tools for extracting data from the iPhone backup files, but there's a much simpler way. And it works in Windows too.

1) Run Backup Extractor for iPhone (Reincubate, trial).

The trial lets you extract one SQLite database file (.db) at a time from a backup file.

Choose an iPhone backup, then select which database to restore (in this case, Library > Notes).

2) Run SQLite Data Wizard (SQLMaestro, trial).

Select the file from above, choose your output format (e.g. CSV) and the note_bodies table.

You should now have your beloved iPhone notes back, in the format of your choice.