It had been a while since we had heard from our favorite team of hackers, namely the DevTeam, but today they posted on their blog, giving us an update about the status of the iPhone 3G unlock.
We made some significant 3G progress this week.
Here’s a screenshot of a 3G iPhone whose baseband has been modified. And even though it’s modified — and fails the integrity check — it’s still running. Can you guess where the patch was made?
So, can you guess where the patch were made??
After SSH, I believe that iPhoneBrowser is the best way to manage your iPhone files. It is easy and quick to use, especially if you want to play around with your themes or fonts. This being said, it's gonna be hard for a new software to make me stop my relationship with iPhoneBrowser.
Now comes DiskAid, a free software which does most of what iPhoneBrowser does, but "most of" is not enough... I want DiskAid to do more than that. Let's see what Digi DNA, the company behind DiskAid says about it:
DiskAid is a tool for PC and Mac which enables to use your iPhone or iPod Touch as external Disk. With DiskAid you can transfer files and folders between your iPhone or iPod Touch and your Computer.
* DiskAid is a Freeware, 100% free of charge * PC Windows & Mac OSX compatibility * Supports iPhone 1, 3G and all iPod Touch * Auto detection feature, just plugin it in ! * Copy Files & Folders between your iPhone or iPod Touch and your Computer * Files & Folders Browser * Drag & Drop * Features rich file organization including folder creation, renaming... etc. * No jailbreak needed * Supported firmware versions : 1.1.1 to 2.1
Looks pretty good. One big benefit of using iPhoneBrowser over DiskAid is that iPhoneBrowser provides a file preview which is very helpful when editing themes or icons. Like iPhoneBrowser, DiskAid does NOT allow you to change file permission.
DiskAid also pretends to transfer music files from your iPhone to your computer. That's true, you can do that. What they don't tell you though is that you will not be able to know what files you're moving as music files are encoded and look like something like this F0012-0848463. So unless you know that F0012-0848463 is the song "Lounge Act" by Nirvana from the album Nevermind, you'd never find out by yourself. I say: useless!
I'll stick with iPhoneBrowser...
Firemail is a new application that does exactly what TouchType does, except that Firemail is free...
As soon as you launch Firemail, it will allow you to type your emails in landscape mode. Type in your subject line and email body, then you can choose to "send to MobileMail", which opens your default email. From there, you can select the recipient and send the email. You can also "Save to bookmarks", which saves the snippet of text to use it in another email.
Firemail [iTunes link] is free and is currently your best option for typing emails in landscape mode... well, at least until Apple decides it's a must-have feature.
[digg-me]If you tried before to sync your iPhone with more than one computer, you probably had an error message saying that your iPhone is already synced with another iTunes library and asking if you want to erase this iPhone.
There is somewhat of an easy hack for this that Andrew Grant explains on his blog. You will need some basic hacking skills for this (I'm no hacker and I was able to do it). Andrew also lists editing tools that you will need to download: UltraEdit for PC, and HexEdit for Mac.
Basically, the process takes 3 steps:
Backup your library Find your iTunes library ID Change your library ID1. Backing up your library
On the additional computer you want to sync with, backup “iTunes Music Library.xml” and “iTunes Music Library” (you can find these in your iTunes folder in your “My Music” (on XP) or “Music” (on Vista) or in your "Music" directory on Mac) to a safe location. These are the files you will be modifying.
2. Find your iTunes Library ID
On the computer that currently syncs with your iPhone, open “iTunes Music Library.xml” with any text editor and look for the entry between the <string></string> tags, after “Library Persistent ID”. Note that it should be in the first 15 lines of the code. Now copy this entry as you will need it in the next step. You can now close the text editor.
3. Change your library ID
iTunes stores your library info in an XML file and a binary file. You will have to edit both of them. Note that iTunes must be closed. This part is a little tricky so either go to Andrew's blog or follow directions that I copied from him below:
On the machine you want to sync with open “iTunes Music Library.xml” in a text editor. Again, find the entry between the <string></string> tags after “Library Persistent ID” and copy this entry exactly. This time you can use the clipboard if you wish.
When you have a copy, replace this entry with the one you copied in part 1. Make sure you do not change anything else, and the length of the entry is 16 characters/digits. Save this file and close it.
In the Hex Editor, open “iTunes Music Library” (Tunes Music Library.itl on PC).
Select “Find and Replace” from the Edit menu. Make sure “Hex” matching is selected (not ASCII). In “Find” enter the ID you took a note of in Part 1. In Replace, enter the ID you copied at the start of Part 2. Choose Replace All, there should be one match.
Save this file and close it.
That's it! See, it's not that hard.
This is a quick rehash of Andrew's post. For detailed information with pictures, I highly recommend you go visit his blog.
If you know of an easier way to do that, please let us know in the comments.
Orange Gadgets, the folks behind the still awaited iControlPad, announced today on their blog that their iGPS360 add-on module for iPhone and iPod Touch is available for order for $75.
This state of the art module, as Orange Gadgets calls it, is supposed to bring full GPS capability for your iPhone and iPod touch. We have yet to see a video demo of this accessory. There is no word about it but I assume this will be available for jailbroken iPhones and iTouches only.
Looking at the company's website and blog, I wouldn't feel safe to pre-order this product, but maybe I'm just too carefull... From Orange Gadgets' blog:
The current expected ship date for the module is 10/22/2008 (which is still subject to change depending on the arrivals of the housings). Keep in mind that not all 1000 modules will be ready by that date as they come out of production bit by bit. So please be patient after you place your order. We will send you a confirmation email once your order is packed and ready to ship.
If you want one, hurry up as they have only 1,000 in prod right now... Would you feel safe pre-ordering from an unknown company anyways? Let us know in the comments.
Orbz is a new iPhone theme that is now available for download in Cydia. Like most themes, Orbz works with WinterBoard. I really like this theme so I decided to give it a try until I find a better one or until I come back to my original theme.
Orbz is a clean, simple, orb-based theme with over 470 custom icons, battery, sliders, and SMS bubbles.
Available in Cydia today is a fun little application that display quotes on your locked screen. This is the description of the widget by its author, Allen:
Entertain yourself and your friends with famous quotations everytime you go to your lockscreen. This widget for WinterBoard contains hundreds of quotes and each time you lock your iPhone/iPod Touch, a new one is displayed. Works on top of other Lockscreen themes.
While "entertaining" me and my friends with this widget sounds a little too much, I think it's a really cool app to have. It just makes your iPhone look a little smarter...
One thing I'd like to be able to do is add my own quotes. Maybe for future releases?
Menulizard is a Web App that lets you search for restaurants by name, by state, or by zipcode and displays the location, phone number, restaurant hours, and menu for each restaurant it returns. There are other apps that do some of this, but the menu feature just really hits it home for me.
It has a very simple, straightforward interface and works just like it should. The address links you to google maps, the phone number lets you dial it, etc.
But what I like most about it is that it let's your average Joe send them menus. This will help them grow their database organically. Too many restaurant guides on the web rely on restaurant owners or their staff to keep their database current and they just don't succeed. To upload a menu, simply mail it to them.
I live in Connecticut and currently there aren't any restaurants loaded for my state, but I have a whole drawer full of local menus that just take up valuable kitchen drawer space so I think I am going to pack them up this weekend and send them to MenuLizard.
They also have a trends menu that lets you see some top lists and metrics about their database. You can look up 20 biggest menus, 20 newest menus, etc. Very interesting.
The only suggestion I have for them is to let people email them menus. They explain why faxes are really hard for them to read and I get that, but their are really good quality scanners out there today and an email attachment would work pretty well for them too. Snail mail is so last decade :) It would also be great if they would let people upload pictures of food to associate with menu items.
For small changes to the menu, they request an email message.
So let's pretend you are a start-up iPhone software developing firm. Now, let's say that you have developed a hot application. So hot, that Apple actually uses it in an iPhone commercial for a nationwide marketing campaign. I mean, your foaming at the mouth trying to predict your first month sales numbers.
But, when the App store launches in July, there is another application that looks exactly like yours. What's worse is, yours cost users $2.99, and their app is a free download.
My guess is that you would be Hottrix, creators of iBeer, and you'd probably be pretty steamed.
And they are. They are suing the Molson Coors Brewing Co. for 12.5 million dollars in lost profits thanks to iPint. iPint was identical to Hottrix' iBeer, but with a Carling Beer advertisement banner.
What's funny is Steve Sheraton, inventor of iBeer, was actually approached by Beattie McGuinnes Bungay Ltd. ad agency for promission to use iBeer to market Coors products. Obviously Sheraton didn't say no loud enough, and after just a short life on the App store, iPint was removed due to a cease and desist order.
After months of trying to settle the matter outside of court, the Arizona based software company has decided to bring in the attorneys.
I believe that if there is a direct correlation between Hottix declining iBeer profits, and a copyright law broken by Molson Coors, this should be a no brainer.
One thing is clear, as Sebastien stated in his Tap Tap Tap divorce article, this iPhone software developing game is "serious business."(now accepting applications for my new start-up iPhone software company ;op)
Extended Preferences is a new app available in Cydia that allows you to take the customization of your iPhone a step further. Something quite unusual about Extended Preferences is that after downloading it, you have to "activate" it in WinterBoard.
Once it's activated, you can go set your preferences in Settings > SpringBoard (note that this "SpringBoard" tab has been added by Extended Preferences.
Extended Preferences will allow you to:
hide internal apps such as Safari, YouTube, etc... Set fake signal bars, time, or carrier Display a numeric battery or wifiI downloaded Extended Preferences 1.0 and tried to set a numeric battery. It wouldn't work. Have you guys been luckier than me?
Tap Tap Tap, the company behing the Where To" application is splitting up. I think they were not able to agree on the direction the business should take. It sounds pretty familiar as the Tapulous team is having the same issues right now.
While most of Tap Tap Tap's assets are going to be split between the 2 main owners. However, they are putting their top seller application Where To? for sale. Considering that Where To? already sold for over $200,000 in less than 3 months, the final sale price could go well over $1,000,000.
Mark Milian from the LA Times says:
Software development for the iPhone is serious business. In just three months, we've heard a number of success stories from independent developers, such as the Trism game netting $250,000 in profit in a couple months or rock band Nine Inch Nails striking up a licensing deal with the Tap Tap Revenge game developer, Tapulous.
It is indeed a serious business. I was even considering creating a new section called "iPhone Business" on this blog. Do you think I should proceed?
I know that WiFinder [Itunes Link] has been out for a few months and we have discussed it here before, but a new version recently came out and I thought it was time to discuss this amazingly simple but quite useful app again.
I have been using Wifinder (by Lars Bergstrom) for about a month now. It was only .99 cents, and I have to say it is one of my most useful apps.
I have been traveling a lot lately and due to signal issue, I have had to frequently look around to find an available wifi signal. This was especially true when I went to Canada. This time because I didn't want to pay the enormous cost of Data Roaming so I had to find wifi if I wanted to use my phone's Internet connection.
When I can find an AT&T hotspot, I'm all set, but what do you do when there isn't one available and you can't use your data connection.
Internet skunking (the act of stealing some time on someone's open wifi network) isn't actually legal, but who does it hurt if you are only going to use if for a few minutes to check your mail or lookup something in Google?
Finding those "open" signals when you are traveling can be hard, especially when you are in a populated area. In some parts of NYC, you can see hundreds of wifi signals, but most of them locked. The ones that aren't locked, usually require a login on a web page the first time you access the connection.
You know the drill. You find an available network and when you try to use it, you get shunted to login web page where they want you to either pay or promise your first born child.
But also out there are those wonderful individuals who just plugged in their wifi hub and didn't set up any authentication and those kind hearted individuals, who, out of the goodness of their hearts, created a guest login.
WiFinder lets you quickly find and identify those that are not only not using authentication but don't try to force you to login to a network page as well. For those of you who don't know, Wifinder locates Wifi signals, and it sends a quick html post message to each connection to see if they are really available. It shows a green check icon next to the Wifi networks that are not restricted by either an authorization requirement Or a web login requirement.
When I was in Halifax getting ready to set sail on a fishing trip, I needed to quickly find the phone number of the boat owner. At the time I didn't have WiFinder and, using just the built in Network Browser, it looked like there was 20 free Wifi Connections. I had to systematically try each one, (connect to the network, open safari, try to browse to Google). Out of the 20 available networks only 2 were really Open. WiFinder would have identified the two in a matter of seconds.
That was it for the functionality of the first version, but the newest version, you can actually get information about the network and use Wifinder to establish a connection to it, without having to back out of it and select it again in the Network Settings.
This latest version also lets you set a time for automatically rescanning intervals and lets you setup an alert to let you know when a new network is found. Cool feature when you can't find a free one right away, but want to be notified without having to check every few minutes as you move around town.