Just did a quick experiment to demonstrate what I was wittering on about the other day.

This is me zoomed in on the image on the STW front page while on WiFi:

And here is the same image zoomed in when on 3G:

Basically O2 are re-compressing images on-the-fly when you're on 3G. Saves them bandwidth and makes it looks like their 3G is running faster than it actually is.

Sneaky bauwstards!

I get the same thing using my vodafone mobile dongle thing on my laptop. Its not specific to iPhones, or to phones, or to 02.

Nothing sneaky about it really, I think its just making mobile internet feasible.

Mind you I'm also sure I've seen the same thing with slow dialup connections. It might be the case that the website you are viewing is serving up images to suit your connection speed and it has nothing to do with the ISP. I generally find that thumbnails will be more compressed, but the images you click through to are not

really doesn't bother me at all – the image over 3G is more than good enough. And if it speeds things up then yay!

Makes perfect sense to me, why waste bandwidth on a system not designed for amazing graphic output? Though I can see the problem if you're looking for really close-up detail in your porn 😉

I see that as a positive thing really though I guess that it could be construed as a bit sneaky if you wear a tinfoil hat 🙂

Is your phone still jailbroken with the 3.1 OS update, Graham?

It might be the case that the website you are viewing is serving up images to suit your connection speed

Nah it's definitely the service provider. Websites don't really have any reliable standard way to know your connection speed.

There are several "Speed Up Your Internets!!"-type services out there that do exactly the same thing.

Makes perfect sense to me, why waste bandwidth on a system not designed for amazing graphic output?

I agree it does make a degree of sense. Though it does suggest that 3G capability is being knowingly oversold. Be interesting to see if there was anything actually noting this in the terms of the contract.

I can see the problem if you're looking for really close-up detail in your porn

How do you think I noticed it? The "stills" on ipg are a blurry mess. Fortunately (and oddly) the err.. "movies" seem fine. 😳

Is your phone still jailbroken with the 3.1 OS update, Graham?

Actually I've just got a 3GS (and given the missus the jailbroken 3G one) so not got round to jailbreaking this one yet, (as I spent most of last weekend restoring a fecked hard drive) but I gather that the dev team has a crack already.

The 3.1 update is a bit flaky though.. My phone keeps randomly turning itself off. 😯

My phone keeps randomly turning itself off.

My 3GS does the same and has done on 3.0, 3.0.1 and 3.1 though it hasn't done it in the last two days (since I did a reboot – hold down the home and lock (top right) buttons until it restarts) and it used to do it about twice a day. I kept meaning to take it to the shop (to see a w@nky concierce/guru – seriously, how lame is that…) but haven't got round to it yet.

Fortunately (and oddly) the err.. "movies" seem fine

What movies are you watching I didn't think it could do movie playback except in mobile formats.

I could give you some links, but they may not be suitable for a family forum.
Use google. The three with "hub", "grid" and "mofo" in their names all work very well.

LOL – ah, I was actually asking more generally than maybe what you're suggesting 😉

The interesting thing about the internet is that frot almost always leads the charge with technology.

Basically these, err, "sites" all have mobile-specific versions which are set up to output mp4 and other mobile formats directly. Other "non-specialist" sites may not have caught up yet.

And there's always YouTube.

Armando Iannucci said the same about the invention piano. For all its technical and expressive advances over the harpsichord and clavichord, within weeks people were just using it for online gambling and downloading porn.

is it not the browser? Firefox compresses images when i use my mobile as a 3G modem but offers the option to increase quality when i hover the mouse over images.

actually it seems that O2 compress data on their mobile broadband package as well. If this happened with my t-mobile 3G then i'd be surprised if firefox gave me the option to increase quality? or are these options provided via the site and not the browser?

there is a workaround.

replace your APN username(default=vertigo) with 'bypass'

Oooh good tip. Noted.

I'll leave it for now as obviously it will be a lot slower if I bypass the re-compression. But may be handy at some point.

sutrely its a good thing for mobile broadband seeing as it's limited to quite low download limits? Unless they realy are being sneeky and chargeing you for the uncompressed images?

sutrely its a good thing for mobile broadband

Well only if the mobile broadband itself isn't up to scratch and needs a helping hand from sneaky tricks like this.

One could arguably be pissed off that they are paying for "Unlimited Mobile Internet" and the O2 site doesn't appear to mention this little hack.

jeez. do you ever stop complaining. you wanted the compression off, i gave you a workaround that your not using cos it'll slow things down.

why do you think they use compression in the first place?

do you ever stop complaining

Rarely. It's the joy of middle age.

you wanted the compression off, i gave you a workaround that your not using cos it'll slow things down.

I just wanted to expand on a point from a previous thread where I said they were re-compressing images because their networks weren't fast enough to cope.

why do you think they use compression in the first place?

Cos their network is crap.

i think you want the moon on a stick.

Nah I just want a 3G network that delivers the "mobile broadband" we were all promised.

(I have worked in mobile telecom network monitoring – such things are not beyond possibility, 42Mbit/s on Evolved HSPA, yes please!)