I’ve got a four-year old iPhone 2G sitting in the dock of the stereo in my room. I purchased it in 2008, a few months before the iPhone 3G came out, because it didn’t look like the iPhone would hit Canada for a while (oops). I have no plans to sell this iPhone 2G because […]
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Give New Life To Your Old iPhone 2G With whited00r 5.1

Feb 27th 2012 by

I’ve got a four-year old iPhone 2G sitting in the dock of the stereo in my room. I purchased it in 2008, a few months before the iPhone 3G came out, because it didn’t look like the iPhone would hit Canada for a while (oops). I have no plans to sell this iPhone 2G because I like keeping my old tech around, but I always like to see if I can give older toys some new life, so this past weekend I decided to give the latest version of whited00r (5.1) a shot.

Whited00r is a custom iOS firmware based on iOS 3.1.2, which is the second-last official firmware released for the 2G. This of course means that apps that require anything above 3.1.2 won’t run on my 2G, but the trade-off is that whited00r is seriously optimized for performance and adds a few iOS 5 features to the device. There are folders, background sync, and even the new iOS 5 app, Reminders. Notably missing are the App Store (I sync apps through iTunes), the unified inbox introduced in iOS 4, and unsurprisingly, iCloud. Whited00r does have an iCloud icon on the Springboard, but it’s actually a re-named Dropbox-based backup system.

It has been years since I’ve picked up and used the 2G, so the device definitely feels slow compared to my current 4S, but for simple tasks like calculating, reading e-mails, and checking Google Maps, it’s definitely usable. It also lasts for days and days in Airplane mode with Wi-Fi on, which is a pleasant surprise, considering the four-year old battery. The 2G isn’t snappy, but it’s usable enough to make a decent backup device should something happen to my main iPhone (thank goodness for the carrier unlock included with whited00r).

I’ve kept my whited00r 2G close at hand over the past few days to see what I could use it for, but the sad truth seems to be “surprisingly little”. This has a lot to do with the firmware limitations of 3.1.2, since many of my productivity apps, like the Things beta, WriteRoom, Clear, and Tweetbot don’t run on the 2G, and everything else is simply faster on my iPad or 4S. I also tried installing Real Racing 2 on the device, just for kicks, and was surprised that it actually ran. I was getting about 10-15 frames per second and it wasn’t much fun, but the game was running.

The real surprise of this whited00r installation for me has been how well Reeder, my absolute favourite RSS app, has been running on the 2G. It can download and display the hundreds of items in my daily RSS feed within 30-60 seconds, and flicking through a list of 200+ items is still buttery smooth.

Whited00r 5.1 has been an interesting experiment and I’m surprised at how well the 2G has held up over the years, but I also haven’t had the flash of insight I was hoping for when I first installed this custom firmware. My iPhone 2G is once again carrier unlocked, running a fast(er) firmware, and can run a few of my current apps, but short of using it as our media center remote (a role currently claimed by an iPod Touch 2G), I’ve really have no current need for it. That isn’t a veiled complaint about Whited00r, it’s just my own personal failing to find a cool use for my old tech. However, if you fancy yourself a little more of a creative mind, or are perhaps more willing to jailbreak and tweak your older devices, here’s the link to the Whited00r website. Just make sure you download and install the right versions for your device, follow the instructions, and know that although the process is relatively safe, you’re still taking a bit of a risk with your old device by installing custom firmware.

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