Month: March 2010

Traveling With An iPhone: My Experience in Laos

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated September 20, 2016

After about 5 months of traveling through Australia, New Zealand, Bali, Thailand, and Cambodia, my lovely fiancee and I decided to check out Laos. Before even going there, I had a bad feeling about the place.

I had done some research online to find out what seemed to be the carrier of choice so I can enjoy the freedom of the Internet on my iPhone. I found some contradictory information and was more confused than not. I gave up on my research thinking that as usual, I'd be able to find a SIM card for my iPhone while at the airport in Laos.

Well, we got there and nowhere was a phone shop to be seen. After settling in our hotel room in Luang Prabang, we went for a walk around town and I bought a SIM card from one of the zillion stores that sell them.

There are several carriers to choose from. I went with Tigo because that's what the lady at the store gave me. It could have been any other carrier, I don't think it would make a big difference in the end.

I asked the lady about Internet. She said "yes yes". After a few months spent in South East Asia, I can tell when someone has no idea what I'm talking about, and she clearly was just saying "yes" to please me and close the deal. So anyways, I have nothing to lose but my $2 so I get a SIM card, pop it in and bingo, it's working without requiring me to tweak the APN settings.

So now I can enjoy calls and data on my iPhone, in Laos, on the Tigo network. Turns out there is no 3G (not a big surprise), and Edge is painfully slow. What's more annoying is that this data plan is costing me a fortune. The $1 credit I was given when I bought the SIM card was gone in 4-5 tweets.

There had to be a better plan than that. Like I did in Cambodia, I have to be able to subscribe to some kind of plan that gives me unlimited Internet for a good price.

I went back to the shop where I got my SIM card and asked the woman about plans. She was absolutely clueless. To this date, I still think she had no idea what I was talking about. So I asked her the phone number for Tigo Customer Service, which she gave me.

I called Customer Service, hoping someone would be able to help me figure out the best option for me. Well, if I hadn't hung up the phone after 15 minutes, I think I'd still be trying to get in touch with them. Basically you just go through an automated menu with no option to talk to a real person. I managed to find an alternative phone number for Tigo's offices and the phone rang and rang forever, with no one answering.

I was really really pissed. I think I was more pissed than I would have normally been in such a situation because I didn't really want to be in Laos in the first place. This whole phone thing was just an excuse for me to justify even more my desire to leave this country asap.

For the next few days, I just recharged my iPhone plan $5 at a time each day. I spent about 4 days in Laos and decided to go back to Cambodia.

Next step is Vietnam. This should be fun!

Oh, did I tell you I shot a bazooka in Cambodia?

BlackSn0w Unlock for iPhone 3.1.3 Baseband 05.11.07

Sébastien Page ∙ March 21, 2010

I just read in the MMI forums that an iPhone hacker going by the name of msft.guy has put together a new package for BlackSn0w to work on iPhone 3.1.3 with baseband 05.11.07. It also appears that this "update" to BlackSn0w fixes the bug that causes issues with WiFi.

Apparently this has been tested by several people and it works flawlessly on both iPhone 3G and 3GS. But will it be released? According to the MMI post,

It appears that msft.guy has no intention of publicly releasing the fix and GeoHot is nowhere to be found to comment on the issue.

I personally don't think GeoHot cares much about this at all. At this point, I actually don't think anyone cares at all about this BlackSn0w unlock. Whoever "accidentally" upgraded their iPhone to 3.1.3 is now stuck on the newer 05.12.07 baseband, for which there is still no unlock. What's really needed now is a jailbreak/unlock for OTB iPhone 3.1.3.

iPhone News You Missed This Week

Sébastien Page ∙ March 21, 2010

This is a summary of all articles that were posted on the blog this past week.

Street Fighter IV review Circuitous, a different approach to app switching Traveling with an iPhone in cambodia Will there be an iPhone 4G? Behind the exploits: The Dev Team What would you pay for an app?

What Would You Pay For An App?

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

I will admit, I’m a free app lover. A real cheapo when it comes to my apps. I currently have a 5 row springboard with 4 pages of apps and a ton hidden with “Poof!”, and most are free. I have just found that most of the things I want apps for have one available for free. Or a lite version. However, I am an admitted (and proud) oldskool video game junkie.

So… when Square Enix recently released two Final Fantasy games for the iPhone I was in. I didn’t know what they would cost but I didn’t really care. I bought into the hype gladly. When the apps were released (finally!) I hopped into the App Store that day to buy them. $9 bucks! Wow!

Up until then my most expensive app was probably $1.99. And I saw that was for EACH game, not both. I went ahead and plunked down the $9.00 and I have to admit, it’s pretty great. Very authentic, not laggy, the graphics are old style & good.

However, I wasn’t willing to buy BOTH games at that price. Why? The fact that I couldn’t try them with a “lite” version first. Now I know that in the grand scheme of things $9 bucks isn’t a ton of money, but for me it’s an expensive app, especially since I’m still rockin’ a 1st gen and who knew how it would work?

I’ve seen several apps around the $5 dollar range that I could probably be persuaded to buy if only I could try them first. And I have certainly bought paid apps after trying the free version and liking it. So the question is… how much should an app cost to require, or at least desire, a free version first? Because I have no problem paying for it, I just want to see if I like it before I do. If it’s a good one I will definitely buy.

Are some of these app developers shooting themselves in the foot by not offering a lite version, or at least a few days trial period so us users can give it a try? I know for me personally, I would buy more if I could try more. Thoughts?

Behind The Exploits: The Dev Team

Cody Lee ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

Wow, where do you start with these guys? They are probably the reason most of you have iPhones, and they are definitely the reason Sebastien and I are writing to you guys all the time. You certainly couldn't "liberate your iPhone" without these guy's transcendent work.

Known to each other by their IRC names like "musclenerd" and "pytey", and known to everyone else as simply, The Dev Team. They are a group of dedicated programmers and hackers, each with their own set of unique but advanced skill set, that come together to bring us jailbreak programs like RedSn0w and PwnageTool and unlocks like UltraSn0w.

From all around the world, these guys meet on IRC and work during their free time. With so many members in different time zones, The Dev Team's work on the iPhone is almost constant, especially after Apple releases a new update.

But don't think these guys are one trick ponies. Several of them are doing work with the upcoming Android platform, and these guys have actually entered hacking contests. Chaos Communication Congress Capture The Flag Competition in Berlin to be exact. Live and in person, The Dev Team actually won the competition by a a hefty margin. They have come a long way, enduring many accomplishments and evolution.

Although there have been several changes within The Dev Team, both in personnel and policy, one thing remains the same, they continue to lead the fight against Apple's tight user restriction policies. Without their software, users like us would not be able to customize our backgrounds, our icons, hell our phones!

One thing I continue to respect about these guys is that they're not looking to make money. Whether it's for legal or moral reasons, these guys maintain an ad free blog site that "Pytey" of The Dev Team told Mobile Crunch receives in the neighborhood of 3.5million hits around a jailbreak/unlock release date. They also continue to turn down cash offers to those sleazy overnight jailbreak startup websites that charge you for "their" software.

In fact they publicly have despised these websites in an effort to warn users of their sketchy practices. This might also have something to do with their dispute with a Jody Sanders, of West Midlands, UK. Seems this gentleman was using a large amount of The Dev Team's work in his software and was making quite a profit. I don't know that I would wanna piss off guys with these kinds of skills, they sound like they've already uncovered a lot of information about him and posted publicly on their blog asking for more help tracking him down.

With publicly followed drama of almost celebrity status (well among popular iPhone and gadget blogs) The Dev Team's former member George "GeoHot" Hotz and his former colleagues didn't see eye to eye on a lot of things. It seems a lot of the problems began when Hotz went public with his completely unlocked iPhone, having worked with The Dev Team just months before. They actually referred to him as the "self appointed media front man" that led a "media circus" in 2007.

For those of you that don't recall, Hotz was given a new Nissan 350z and other things in return for his jailbroken iPhone. A year later their dispute resurfaced as GeoHot obtained a copy of the exploit used to jailbreak iphone 2.0 firmware for 1st gens and 3G, from a Dev Team member and threatened the Dev Team with releasing his own jailbreak software, using that exploit if they didn't release PwnageTool at a sooner date.

So why do they continue to put up with the pressure of hitting release dates, scammers that steal their work, and others that throw stones at them when they don't conform. It's a hobby. Some people relax by fishing or reading, these guys really get down on soldering and disassembling things, especially iPhones.

Since their initial software releases in 2007, the Dev Team has continued with this game of cat and mouse with Apple. They find an exploit, use it, Apple covers it up in an update, and then they start all over again. Until recently, Apple has been relatively quiet about jailbreaking and the hackers behind the software.

Their license agreement of their latest developer kit (suite of software and info released to app developers as often as software is updated) actually adds a clause forbidding developers to work on jailbroken equipment. But as developers continue to find reasons or are forced to leave Apple's App Store, the jailbroken platform gains more and more momentum. Especially as Apple has yet to see any success on fighting the users right to do what they want with a product they purchased.

Regardless it appears things are going to get interesting and The Dev Team isn't going anywhere. Their latest blog notes that this recent firmware update 3.1.3 was released just to flush out exploits before the release of a major update, probably iPhone 4.0. Obviously, being the tricky tricksters they are, The Dev Team aren't biting. Their current release of Pwnage Tool uses old, ported exploits and they aren't releasing anything new until they see Apple's next move. Man this stuff could be in movies.

P.S. @Dev-Team : you guys gonna make my iPad cooler?

Will There Be An iPhone 4G?

Sébastien Page ∙ March 18, 2010

One of my friends asked me the other day if the iPhone 4G was just a rumor or was going to be reality. The truth is it's somewhere in the middle.

There is absolutely no doubt that there will be a new iPhone coming out sometimes in July. If you were on the fence about buying an iPhone now, I'd suggest you wait a few month for the next generation.

There is a big misconception about the so-called iPhone 4G: its name! Apple called the second generation iPhone "3G" because it was "3G capable", 3G being the Third Generation wireless digital standard for fast data transmission.

For Apple to call their new phone the iPhone 4G, it would take it be to be 4G capabale. The problem is that we're still a few years away from 4G to be deployed in the States, so don't hold your breath for an iPhone 4G because this is not happening anytime soon. However, get ready for a badass new iPhone this summer!

Traveling With An iPhone: My Experience in Cambodia

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

After spending about a month on the beautiful beaches of Thailand we decided to go to Cambodia for a couple of weeks. Before flying there, I had done a little bit of research and from what I had read it would be very hard for me to get a SIM card. Well, that was not the case.

We landed in Phnom Penh, the capital. The airport was so small that while I was walking and looking around inside the airport to find a Mobile Store, I realized that I was actually out of the airport. Does that make sense? Anyways.

Local SIM Cards

So right in front of the airport exit, I see a handwritten sign saying "Local SIM cards", provided by the local carrier Hello. Nice! I head over there and ask the woman if I can get Internet access with this SIM. She says "yes" but I can tell she's not really convinced by her own answer.

The Hello SIM card is $5 and I get another $5 of credit so we can make a few calls while in the country. After making the mandatory copy of my passport, she gives me the SIM, I put it in my phone, reboot, and bingo, it's working.

First things first, I check if the Internet works. It doesn't because I need to know the Cellular Data APN for this particular carrier, which is hello. Before leaving, I ask her about APN info and she has absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. Finally she says to me "for Internet, call this number", which is the Customer Service Department for Hello in Cambodia.

Getting Internet to Work

While on our way to our hotel, I deciced to call Hello and figure out how to get Internet on my iPhone. The rep I talked to spoke very good English and after asking me about what device I use, he gave me all the info I needed to get 3G and Edge going, namely the APN hellowww.

He also told me more about pricing. It charges 1 cent per 100KB of data used. For $2/day, you can get unlimited data, which is the option I chose. So everyday, I had to send a text message to a specific number to activate my 24 hours of unlimited Internet. Not very practical but not inconvenient either.

Coverage in Cambodia

I was so stoked at first to be on 3G. After a few months in Thailand, Bali, Australia and New Zealand, this Cambodian network was without a doubt the fastest.

As soon as you leave the borders of major cities though, you're on your own, no 3G, no Edge, just the uber slow GPRS. While in Phnom Penh, I was on the fast 3G pretty much all the time. When in Siem Reap, I was mostly on Edge, although there was 3G coverage.

All in all, my experience getting a SIM card and a data plan for my iPhone in Cambodia wasn't too bad. Now that I'm in Laos, I actually regret how easy Cambodia was...

Circuitous – A Different Take On iPhone App Switching

Guest Author ∙ Updated August 24, 2016

This is a guest post by iDB reader Jeton Aliji. If you'd like to send your articles to be published on the blog, make sure to check out the guidelines.

In the ModMyI repo today we have a new package called Circuitous, which is another app switcher, but this one has a more different approach which some of you might like.

Dan Zimmerman, the author calls Circuitous a “custom app switcher”. Circuitous shows applications in a dock on the right side of your springboard.

The app activation methods are controlled by Activator, the superb centralized gestures and button management for iPhone OS which is developed by Ryan Petrich. It's good to see more and more apps who use Ryan Petrich's library.

Apart from showing the dock (with an activation method you choose from Activator), Circuitous has an option to cycle through open apps (both forward and backward) by letting you choose the activation method to cycle through the open/backgrounded apps.

From my own experience, I find Circuitous very user friendly and less obtrusive than the other apps, as it covers only part of your springboard and not the whole page.

For activating the dock I have chosen the Home Button double press ( used to be kirikae on that spot, but now I activate kirikae by double tapping on the status bar).

Circuitous joins the rank of apps such as ProSwitcher and Kirikae, and the best thing of all these is that they use Activator to manage their activation settings.

Try it for youself, it’s free and of course share you thoughts about it.

Jeton is a 28 y/o Albanian who loves to play and try new Cydia tweaks and apps. He believes that the jailbreak scene is a showcase of the creative geniuses and the beautiful minds of the people that make the iPhone more that it was meant to be. You can find Jeton on Jeton on Twitter where he also has an iPhone Dev list where he keeps up with all things Cydia.

Apple Finally Makes Links In App Store Apps Descriptions Clickable

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 26, 2017

Until now if you wanted to click on a link in the description of an app in the App Store on your iPhone, well, you couldn't. Links were not clickable, which sometimes was very inconvenient.

A Small but noticeable change, Apple finally made these links clickable. I found out about it today while updating Tweetie.

Or maybe it's been here forever and I'm just figuring it out?

Update: @TouchReviews told me on Twitter that links have been clickable only in the 'updates' section. Very amateurish of me; I should have know that.

Street Fighter IV Review

Guest Author ∙ Updated March 27, 2018

If you are in your 30s, you may remember the popular arcade game "Street Fighter II." I remember literally watching hours of people playing the game. (I rarely played the game; I mostly sucked but I wanted to save money). And now, you can get the latest version of the game right on your iPhone with Street Fighter IV [iTunes link] for $9.99.

Immediately, hardcore SF fans will see that there are only eight characters to choose from. In the normal SF IV game, there is a total of 19 playable characters. SF IV Producer Takeshi Tazuka says there are less characters because of the limited amount of CPU memory in the iPhone, 256MB of RAM for the 3GS and 128MB for the 3G.

Otherwise, this game really kicks (no pun intended). As far as onscreen controls go, this is one of the better ones. If you didn't like touch controls before, this will not change your mind but it is more than adequate. Here's a list of buttons: punch, kick, special attack and focus attack. The touch joystick is on the left. These are transparent on the screen and do cover up the players a little, but it hasn't affected my enjoyment of the game.

I have a 3G and the game is so memory-intensive that I do experience crashes. 3GS and newer iPod Touch owners will probably do better.

For those who are new to the game, there is a dojo that will help you to learn the moves. There is also a free-sparring mode and a training room mode to help you perfect your combos and special attacks.

Other features include Bluetooth support for iPhone head-to-head combat and the ability to save your best games.

I'd say at $9.99 this game is a steal. Some may want to wait for a price drop, but SF fans should get this one immediately.

iPhone Stuff You Missed This Week

Sébastien Page ∙ March 14, 2010

This is a summary of all the articles that were posted on the blog this week:

SBSettings actually makes your iPhone better? Cydia update makes it a little less slow How to fix push notifications on hacktivated iPhones iDongle boots your tethered 3.1.2 iPhone AT&T confirms move to a "variable pricing model" ScreenRecorder records everything you do on your iPhone Poll: did you preorder an iPad?

Poll: Did You Preorder Your iPad?

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2018

I'm just curious to see if any of you actually preordered an iPad. I didn't for the simple reason that I'm currently out of the country. I think I will buy my iPad in France when going there in a couple of months.

Did You Preorder Your iPad?opinion