That's our new poll for this week. To take this poll, look in the sidebar of the blog.
Here are the results of last weeks poll:
[poll id="3"]
Month: November 2008
The iPhone will get Flash…
Flash needs to be on the iPhone. Adobe knows it, Apple knows it, we know it. Due to Flash's many integrations on the Internet from advertisements to games and even full blown web sites, people are craving this functionality on their iPhone everywhere and a quick search on Twitter shows you what I am talking about. Not to mention it flys in the face of Apple's own statements that Mobile Safari browses "the true web" as it most certainly does not without Flash, Java and Active-X support.
The Good News, Flash streaming video is close ...
Streaming flash video for example can be interpreted by iMobile Cinema but it is only available for 1.x version firmware at the moment. According to the website the 2.x firmware version is in the works. Can't wait for this to be a reality as it is the main reason I want flash to perform on my phone.
Many sites are also offering iPhone friendly video now as they realize the political lockout of the Flash player may take a while to get resolved.
The Bad News, Wired says it will never happen ...
If you read the doom and gloom article over at Wired you may agree with them and give up hope.
Personally, I think they are dead wrong because hackers or 3rd party developers will address the solution if Apple does not. My prediction is that a jailbreak version of the Flash player shows up mid-next year at the latest. Can't wait.
When Jailbreaking Goes Wrong
Last Wednesday, I decided to update my iPhone 3G to the newly released 2.2 firmware. Although jailbreaking is fairly easy and doesn't require much skills, I am never really excited about doing it as it is very time consuming. What's time consuming about it you will ask? Well, first, you have to download the latest version of iTunes (I only use iTunes about once a month and I always wait for the next jailbreak method to update it), which always takes a few minutes. Then you have to install iTunes and reboot your computer. Once iTunes is taken care of, you have to download your firmware, download QuickPwn, etc...
Daily iPhone News – 11/28/08
In the news today:
a hidden video-out feature on the iPhone 3G Apple's black Friday new app: TouchGrind and more after the break...Linux Running On The iPhone
This piece of news might mean something for iPhone geeks out there,but I guess the average iPhone owner couldn't care less... Dev Team member PlanetBeing found a way to port Linux 2.6 kernel to the iPhone.
This is a rough first draft of the port, and many drivers are still missing, but it's enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone.
.Visit PlanetBeing's blog for the download.
iPhone Apps Pirate Gets Pirated
Crackulous is a software that allows you to easily crack any iPhone application, without having to pay a dime to the developer or to Apple. No need to say that this is illegal... In what seems to be a very ironic story, a beta version of Crackulous was pirated and leaked on the Internet before it could enter a full open-source distribution.
Erica Sadun wrote a good article about it over at Ars:
SaladFork, the author of Crackulous, called the leak "absolutely disgusting, and downright insulting." He writes about his pride of development, saying, "[I] have released a new version of Crackulous almost every day or two, fixing all the bugs that had been reported up until that day. I was proud of Crackulous, and put a large majority of my free time into ensuring it will be the best application it possibly could be. I responded to beta tester feedback, and each version of Crackulous was better than the last."
Did SaladFork learn his lesson? Obviously not as he wrote:
Several of you had noticed the irony in me complaining that a tool used to steal from other developers was stolen, but I hope you realize the difference in situation. iPhone developers almost always (99% of the time) develop applications for the App Store in hopes of getting money.
iPhone Works With Toddlers Too
Adam's Game [iTunes Link] is just amazing. I love simple apps, I love apps that needs no explanation, I love apps that you can make your own, but this one simply tops it all... provided you are one year old or younger.
A voice asks you to point at one of three figures; if you do so a cheering noise congratulates you; otherwise you have a nice “Hu-ho”, not so praising, but not too negative either. Anyone old enough to buy an iPhone might find it limited — but who said children have short attention span?
How do I know it is so great? I am a single, toddler-hater with no nephew-turned-tester at hand. I saw the app, didn't really paid attention at first, but like Joe Biden I do take the train often, and unlike him, I'm always seated next to the nastiest one-toothed ear-drump-blaster-of-a-child that starts yelling for no reason. Thank you 3G, I had the app up and running in no time. The best dollar spent in my life, I'd say. I'm not sure my headset was his size, though.
Adam's Game is fully customizable, so all of you overworked parents can let your better half share his or her iPhone with the little wonder, with your voice on it. I know this might sound like a detail, but many workaholic might end up being slightly better parents with that.
The only problem: you might want to use bactericide swipe on your phone after that. And a solid casing: gravity is still an fascinating experimental interest at that age.
Compare Apps Popularity Side By Side
Mybefia is a great, simple service that allows you to compare how popular are three iPhone Applications, based on Ranking, Popularity and Market share. If a new application is still less popular than an incumbent, but gaining popularity, you'll see it there.
The service does not publish download figures, but stores top-downloads rankings every day and offers an easy-to-read summary.
Plus: Win a 50$ prize! If you manage to find out what “Mybefia” stands for, you can win a iTunes voucher. My take? It's either an acronym for My Best Estimation of how Fantastic this iPhone App is — or a Japanese word. As I don't speak Japanese, I'll go with the acronym.
Google Street View Enabler for iPod Touch
A couple of days ago, I wrote about a simple hack to allow iPod Touch users to get Google Street View on the iTouch. The hack is very simple but it does require some file editing, which can be scary to some.
A new application available in Cydia just makes it easier for iPod Touch users to enable Street View. The app, called Street View Enabler, is free, and it seems to work perfectly. I don't have an iPod Touch so I haven't been able to verify this but Street View Enabler is getting good reviews everywhere in forums.
So if you have an iPod Touch, launch Cydia and look for Street View Enabler. Install it and you should be good to go. Be careful though! You have to install this on an iPod Touch with firmware 2.2. Installing it on an iPhone (which would be pointless) or an iTouch on 2.1 can cause problems.
Photo Gizmodo
iPhone Daily News – 11/24/08
We had a pretty good weekend in term of news. First the 2.2 update, and hours later, the release of QuickPwn 2.2 and PwnageTool 2.2. That kept me busy for quite a while as I was writing all these tutorials on how to jailbreak your iPhone.
In the news today:
Apple iPhone black Friday sales MMS on the iPhone. Is it here yet? iPod Touch faster, better, stronger than the iPhone Apple wants you to "iPhone your life" Apple violates its own policy! App reviews: Guitar Rock Tour, Got Your Back More after the break...duiPhone tells you if you’re good to drive… or not
Our favorite new iPhone hack, the duiPhone, will let you know for sure whether you should hand the car keys to a friend after a long night in the bar…
.Via Tellart
Rip Dev releases Hood 1.0. Strangely looks like SBSettings…
Rip Dev developed a new tool called Hood, an application that allows you to toggle AirPort, Bluetooth, and also kill active applications. Hood also allows you to monitor the memory usage of your iPhone in real time. Hood is available through Installer.
Of course, this application reminds us of BigBoss' SBSettings but you might prefer the user interface.
If you're considering installing this app, I highly recommend you read at the comments first, especially this one.
That is the second application released by Rip Dev over the weekend as they released Pusher on Saturday. It seems that the goal here is to have as many people as possible use Installer vs. Cydia. My point of view is that it's too late for Installer. It was doing very good until firmware 2.0 came out. The team was not quick enough recoding Installer to make it work under 2.0 when Saurik released Cydia, which is now installed on 99.99% of jailbroken iPhones.
As usual, if you try this app, please share your experience with us in the comments :-)