What Apps Do You Have On Your iPhone Dock?

by Sebastien on Jan 15, 2010

Tell me what you have on your dock and I’ll tell you who you are…

The apps you have on your dock can tell a lot about your iPhone usage. As you can see, my dock is pretty standard. I have the mail app, Tweetie 2, Byline and Safari. These are the apps I use the most.

You’ll notice that my phone.app is not even there. That’s because I rarely make calls. I’ve come to realize that what I like the most about my iPhone, it’s the ” i “, not so much the “phone“.

What apps do you have in your dock? Why did you choose these?

 

iPhone to Me: Update Me, Goddam It!

by Sebastien on Jan 14, 2010

It seems that having an iPhone still running on OS 3.0 is getting more and more complicated. I’ve managed to avoid updating to the latest firmware for several reasons but it’s now catching up with me.

There are several applications I wanted to install from the App Store but it didn’t allow me to because it required at least firmware 3.1.

I haven’t updated since 3.0 because I didn’t want to lose my jailbreak/unlock. I realize that I could just use a custom cooked 3.1.2 firmware or even use BlackRa1n but I won’t for 3 reasons.

  1. I don’t want to use BlackRa1n. It reportedly sucks. Many were successful with it, but it seems even more people were having issues.
  2. I don’t want to use a cooked firmware right now because I am currently traveling around the world with a small netbook and I really don’t have the time for that.
  3. I believe iPhone OS 3.1.3 will be available in a month or so and I might just wait for the Dev Team to come up with a jailbreak/unlock for it and update at this time.

I tried installing FWchanger again to fake my firmware version but it doesn’t work very well, and it even messed up a few things on my iPhone. I guess I’ll have to live without these apps I wanted to install…

What firmware are you on?

 

10 Jailbreak Apps for iPhone to Boost Your Productivity

by Sebastien on Jan 13, 2010

You thought your iPhone could do just about anything? Think again! I handpicked 10 applications for jailbroken iPhones that will boost your productivity and unleash the real potential of the iPhone. You won’t find these applications in the App Store. You’ll have to jailbreak your iPhone in order to install any these apps.

If you don’t have these apps on your iPhone, you’re missing out on 10 must-have features.

Xpandr

Xpandr is a shortcut expander for the iPhone / iPod touch. It allows you to define an unlimited number of shortcuts to save time and make your life easier. It works in every application, even on App Store applications. More about Xpandr.

ProSwitcher

ProSwitcher is a multitasking app for the iPhone that kinda replicates the Palm Pre “cards” feature by adding a very nice UI to Backrounder, the jailbreak app that allows you to run apps in the background. More about ProSwitcher.

AttachmentSaver

AttachmentSaver gives you the ability to download attachments of all types, whether supported by the Mail.app or not, and save them into a folder on your iPhone disk. More about AttachmentSaver.

Find in Page

Find In Page is an application that will help you find any text on any web page in Safari. Now every time you visit a page in Safari and you’re looking for a specific word, simply open your bookmarks and tap “Find In Page”. More about Find in Page.

mQuickDo

Originally, mQuickDo lets you set up gestures to perform predefined actions (ie. slide left to right to close an opened application; or slide right to left to shut off the phone, etc…). The real power and most exciting feature about mQuickDo is the App Switcher. As its name suggests, the app switcher allows you to quickly switch between apps. More about mQuickDo.

QuickScroll

QuickScroll is an application available in Cydia that lets you scroll through documents and web pages very quickly. Once you have installed QuickScroll, simply tap 3 times anywhere on the page and a dialog will show up. Drag the scroller (see on the right of the image above) up and down to quickly go wherever you want on the page. More about QuickScroll.

GriP – Growl for iPhone

GriP tries to strike a balance between being unobstructive while still being able to give out clear information. With GriP, messages are (by default) shown as small floating windows in a corner, which will automatically disappear if you ignore it. In this way, you can still continue your process without missing anything. More about GriP.

Orbit

Orbit brings you an instant way to switch between pages on your home screen. Based on the “iPhone Expose” concept, this modification gives you an icon that, when tapped, animates your home page into Orbit. More about Orbit.

Action Menu

Action Menu is one of those mods that once you try it, you simply can’t live without it anymore. Action Menu takes a stab at enhancing the copy/paste function of your iPhone by adding a bunch of add-ons to it. More about Action Menu.

MultiIconMover

This app is very simple yet very practical. It allows you to select multiple icons to move them to a different page on your springboard. So instead of moving your icons one at a time, you can select many of them and move them all at once wherever you want. More about MultiIconMover.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple implemented some of these applications’ features in the next iPhone OS.

 

Cost of Ownership: iPhone Vs Pre Vs Droid Vs Nexus One

by Sebastien on Jan 12, 2010

In case you were wondering how much it would cost you to own the iPhone, Palm Pre, Droid, or Nexus One over a year of usage, BillShrink released a chart that gives a quick overview.

Not very surprisingly, the iPhone remains one of the most expensive smartphone. But isn’t it worth it?

 

28 Features We Want to See in the New iPhone

by Sebastien on Jan 11, 2010

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about some of the features the iPhone is still missing. Today I’d like to take this a bit further and come up with a comprehensive list of features we (you and I) want to see in the next iPhone.

Here is my list (note that it is in no specific order). Please share in the comments what features you want in the next iPhone.

  1. Ability to save attachments
  2. Running apps in the background
  3. A physical keyboard
  4. A better battery
  5. A removabale battery
  6. Multiple carriers
  7. Bluetooth support
  8. Flash
  9. Front facing camera
  10. A 7MP camera
  11. Camera flash
  12. A louder speaker
  13. OLED screen
  14. Radio tuner
  15. iChat support
  16. IR chip for using it as a remote
  17. Pedometer
  18. Show SMS character count
  19. Custom sounds for SMS and email
  20. Themes
  21. Categories or folders
  22. Unified inbox view
  23. Hide/delete native apps
  24. Spell checker
  25. Quick scroll
  26. Action Menu
  27. Better iPod songs management (ie. sorting)
  28. Built in bottle opener

What other features would you add?

 

iPhone Stuff You Missed This Week

by Sebastien on Jan 10, 2010

Today is Sunday and Sunday is recap day on iDB!

In case you missed some of this week’s articles, here is a summary of what was posted on the blog. Please make sure to leave a comment or retweet articles if you like them.

Have a nice and relaxing Sunday :)

 

I Guess Geohot is Not Working on an Untethered Jailbreak After All

by Sebastien on Jan 9, 2010

It seems that I missed a tweet by Gehot a few weeks ago in which he made it clear that he was not going to work on an untethered version of BlackRa1n.

I don’t know if you remember but Geohot said a few weeks ago that he would give us an untethered jailbreak if he won some kind of contest. Well he lost! And we all lose too!

I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, the kid is completely in his right to not develop an untethered jailbreak. But somehow, I feel like when you have such a great gift as he has, you kinda have a responsibility towards the community.

Again, he’s free to do whatever he wants but I think it’s very childish to say “I”l give you what you want IF I win this stupid contest” and have us hold our breath. Then of course we’re all disappointed when we realize that he lost the contest and he’s not going to give us what we want.

One thing is sure: the Dev Team will not let us down. The Dev Team will not play game with us and they will not have us wait and hope in vain. As I said in an article a few weeks ago, I believe the Dev Team is up to something and might very well surprise us.

What do you think about how Geohot is acting?

 

Dev Team to Release RedSn0w 0.9 to Jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.2 on Windows

by Sebastien on Jan 8, 2010

I knew they were up to something… Some great news coming from the head of the Dev Team, MuscleNerd announced that they are working on releasing an update to the famous RedSn0w, the fast jailbreak method for Windows users.

RedSn0w might be the solution for frustrated BlackRa1n users who are having troubles with their jailbreak. While RedSn0w 0.9 might not be as fast as BlackRa1n, it’s most likely going to be much more reliable.

As soon as RedSn0w is available, I will write a tutorial on how to jailbreak your iPhone with it, so stay tuned :)

 

How to Sync Firefox Bookmarks With Your iPhone

by Sebastien on Jan 7, 2010

Have you ever tried to sync your Firefox bookmarks with your iPhone? If so, you must have been very frustrated as it is not easy as it may sound. For some reason, Apple didn’t deem it necessary to add Firefox to the short list of browsers from which you can sync bookmarks to your iPhone.

Good news is there is a hack for that, using an extension called Xmarks. Bad news is it’s for Windows only (you will need IE) and it’s not very straightforward.

I could write a tutorial on how to sync your bookmarks from Firefox to iPhone’s Safari but Shawn0 has got it covered on his blog, so it would be a waste of time.

Check out Shawn0′s tutorial for detailed instructions.

Isn’t that a neat little trick?

 

How to Set Any Song On Your iPhone As A Ringtone

by Sebastien on Jan 6, 2010

AnyRing is a jailbreak application available in Cydia that lets you use any song on your iPhone as a custom ringtone or SMS ring.

There are several ways to add ringtones to your iPhone for free. Audiko is one of my favorite but it seems it’s going to get some fierce competition from a new app called AnyRing.

With AnyRing (3.2) you can easily select any song on your iPhone (or Record you own voice) to play as a Ringtone or SMS Ring. AnyRing even lets you select the starting/ending point in the song to play when the Ringtone is played. Does not require any audio conversion of any type!

Here are some of the features:

  • Select any song on your device to act as a Ringtone.
  • No Audio/File conversion needed.
  • Select start and ending point in song to play as Ringtone.
  • Easy to use interface.

AnyRing is available from the Cydia Store. It comes with a 10-day trial so you may want to try it out first, and if you like it, you can choose to pay the $3.99.

I think it’s worth the price. What do you think?

 
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