Getting rid of 4G on an iPhone

This may seem like a strange thing to want to do: after all 4G is fast, and faster is always better, right?

Well although I do like a new shiny gadget, I also like a decent battery life and a reasonably cheap monthly phone tariff: both of which seem to be at odds with 4G at the moment.

So, after an update to my carrier settings, my iPhone 'Settings->Mobile->Enable 3G' toggle disappeared, and was replaced with 'Enable 4G', and I lost the ability to select 2G altogether. I haven't paid for 4G, so I would rather have a 3G/2G toggle than a 4G/3G toggle that I'm just going to leave on 3G all the time anyway.

After poking around on the web, I came across this page http://www.macworld.com/article/1143088/carriersettings.html about creating a custom carrier settings configuration profile.

So, I edited my O2/Giff Gaff carrier settings and managed to revert to a 3G/2G toggle by doing the following:

1. Rename the carrier xxx.ipcc file as .zip
2. Expand contents, so you see a 'Payload' folder
3. Contents of Payload will be an operator specific bundle file - right click on it and select 'Show Package Contents'
4. Of the files that expands out to, you will see a 'carrier.plist' file - open it up with a Property Editor of some kind (I used PlistEdit Pro)
5. In my list of properties I had a 'DataIndicatorOverride' key, with a value of 4G - this seems to determine what the highest value data indicator on the phone.
6. I also came across details on the 'DataExclusionOverride' key, which excludes certain data indicators and force the phone to present the next available data indicator.
7. So, to remove 4G from my phone I deleted the 'DataIndicatorOverride' value, and added a 'DataExclusionOverride' value of 'LTE'.

Once this has been done, save the Property List, zip the Payload contents back into an .ipcc file, and install that to your phone via iTunes (as described in http://www.macworld.com/article/1143088/carriersettings.html), and your mobile settings should look like mine below:

NFC, Android and Motorbikes

I recently switched from an iPhone 5 to an Android Nexus 4. After a week or so I am really enjoying it. My main issue has been battery life: I could comfortably get 2 days use out of my iPhone, and although I can do that now with the Nexus I had to do a bit of work to get it.

Using Tasker to turn data and syncing on every 30 minutes made a big difference, as did turning off a lot of the Google services in the Auto Sync settings. Tasker will turn the data back on when I activate the screen, so if I want to use the phone to check email or use Maps then it doesn't get in my way, but it will not kill the battery with lots of constant background data syncing during the day.

One of the things I also want to do with Tasker is to have the phone auto reply to SMS messages and missed calls while I'm riding my motorbike. This wasn't possible on the iPhone - although maybe if it's Jailbroken - but is relatively easy to set up on Android using Tasker.

 I have two Tasker tasks, one to set a %BIKE variable to 'true', and another to set it to 'false', which are my getting on and off the bike tasks. I then have a Tasker profile, triggered by receiving an SMS when %BIKE is 'true', that sends an SMS reply to tell them I'm busy, and a similar one for a missed call.

This is all very nice, but I'm left with having to manually run the two Tasker tasks to set and unset the %BIKE value, which I wasn't that pleased with. I could get Tasker to use the GPS to regularly check my speed and guess whether I'm on the bike or not, but that seemed a bit hit and miss, and potentially a bit of a battery killer.

Then I came across this Lifehacker post about automating your life with NFC cards, and that seemed like a better way to trigger my 'On the bike' and 'Off the bike' modes. So, I ordered a set of NFC stickers from http://rapidnfc.com/ and downloaded NFC Retag Free, which allows you to assign actions to NFC tags - in this case I just had it run my Tasker tasks.

So now it's just a matter of putting NFC stickers somewhere on the bike where they hopefully won't get too rained on:

And so now when I get on the bike I tap the phone against the sticker on the screen and it sets my auto SMS reply mode up for me:

I also need another sticker on the bike to deactivate the bike mode, but as most of my riding is commuting then the NFC stickers at home and work can unset that mode as well as their other tasks, so as long as I tap into home and work then it will all work.