Month: April 2011

GarageBand Running on the iPhone 4

Thanks to a new hack for running iPad apps on the iPhone, someone has been able to successfully run GarageBand on the iPhone 4. GarageBand is a relatively new addition to iOS that was introduced alongside the iPad 2.

Although the App Store's GarageBand is specifically designed for the iPad, it can also be hacked to run on a jailbroken iPhone.

The app seems to function pretty well once ported. The guy says he used OpenSSH to change the app's underlying metadata so that it would run on the iPhone.

There are some obvious scaling and interface issues, but this is still a cool experiment to check out. You can do this yourself through the magic of OpenSSH on a jailbroken iDevice, you just need the right information.

Apple will probably make GarageBand a universal app in the future. It's going to be really interesting to see how the iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) work on the iPhone through this method.

What do you think of GarageBand running on the iPhone 4? Pretty cool, huh?

[9to5Mac]

Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller Discuss White iPhone 4 Delays

The white iPhone 4 is all the rage right now, and rightfully so. Its numerous delays are the type of things that legends are made of.

Now that the white iPhone will be here tomorrow, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and SVP Phil Schiller have opened up about the challenges Apple faced while trying to bring the white iPhone 4 to market.

Apple has created a two-toned version of the iPhone before -- see the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS -- but little did they know that they were venturing into new territory with an all white iPhone 4...

The iPad 2 Jailbreak Situation [Updated]

Yesterday we reported that an unknown hacker by the name of d0nfyxn announced via Twitter that he was almost finished with an iPad 2 jailbreak solution. This was fairly significant because well known iDevice hackers like Comex and p0sixninja have been having problems with Apple's new tablet.

The French hacker announced yesterday that he would be releasing beta software today that could jailbreak your iPad 2. Obviously there were a lot of skeptics, calling the videos and photos that were uploaded as proof of the jailbreak, completely fake. Most people were calling his bluff that he would release anything.

Even MuscleNerd chimed in last night, saying that the only iPad 2 jailbreak available to date is the one discovered by Comex. While Comex was the first to post pictures of a jailbroken iPad 2, he has since announced that he is no longer working on the project.

Well, to everyone's surprise, d0nfyxn actually posted a link a few minutes ago that he claims is an alpha release of his iPad 2 jailbreak software. He notes that it covers all versions of 4.3 firmware, and is only available to Windows users. Is it legit?

While we only have Mac computers here, we more than likely wouldn't attempt to download this file anyways. The file size seems too small to be an application. Known iDevice expert, MuscleNerd, warned the Twitter world that d0nfyxn is a known fraudster and that the download could possibly contain a malicious payload.

We definitely recommend waiting on an official release to come from the Dev Team or at least somebody more reputable than an unknown Twitter user. We'll keep you updated as this situation continues to develop.

Did anyone try downloading the mysterious jailbreak? What were the results?

UPDATE: Once again it's MuscleNerd to the rescue. It looks like he did some investigating and just tweeted a few moments ago that the mysterious file from d0nfyxn is indeed fake. Apparently the tiny app was written to display a message box that says "Failed to connect the device, please try again."

White iPhone 4 Antenna and Proximity Sensor Tested

Italian tech blog iSpazio has already posted one of the web's first unboxing videos, and now they've followed that up with another video showcasing the white iPhone 4's potential issues, if any.

Among the many rumored reasons why the white iPhone 4 was ever delayed in the first place was due to the fact that the material used caused proximity sensor issues. This understandably wasn't up to snuff with Apple's notorious quality assurance standards.

Eventually all of those issues got straightened out. Was it the white paint after all? We still may never know the true reasons behind the delay, but it's good to know that whatever was holding the white version of Apple's top selling smartphone back, has been fixed...

The video shows the iPhone handling any potential proximity or antenna issues like a champ. This is likely to do with the reengineering of the proximity sensor, and some tweaks to the iPhone's antenna.

We're sure iFixIt will have a full tear down of the device to spot the differences between it and the black iPhone 4 before two shakes of a donkey's tail.

Now who's ready for some good old-fashioned white iPhone 5 rumors to begin?

Air Penguin for iPhone is the Latest Bird Game Sensation to Hit the App Store

First there was Angry Birds, then Tiny Wings, and now a new bird-related game has joined the App Store's flock. Air Penguin is a relatively new phenomenon that now sits comfortably in the top ten list of paid apps in the App Store.

What makes Air Penguin so great? Nothing really sets the game apart from the other feather-filled apps that came before it, but Air Penguin is a great example one thing: a really fun game.

Apple Responds to Location Tracking Controversy: “We Don’t Track Your iPhone”

Apple has decided to officially respond to the iPhone's location database issue that has been undergoing intense scrutiny by the media and industry experts. In a Q&A response, Apple has addressed why the iPhone logs your location, and what Apple does with that information.

An alleged email from Steve Jobs answered this issue already with a simple response: "We don't track anyone." That's the message that Apple is confirming with this Q&A response...

OfferedApp Gives Free Downloads of Paid Apps, With a Catch

Would you complete a "special offer" to legally download a paid app for free? The folks at OfferedApp think so, and they've created an advertiser-supported service for delivering paid apps for free.

OfferedApp is almost like Woot.com, except only for apps. The service gives you an app originally priced anywhere from $1-$10 and offers to for a free download. The only catch is that you must first complete anything from an online survey to sitting through a video advertisement.

Sound interesting? Let's take a closer look...

Apple Confirms White iPhone 4 Coming Tomorrow

It's finally coming! Apple has officially confirmed the long-awaited white iPhone 4. The mythical device will be available, April 28, on both AT&T and Verzion and in 28 countries.

Pricing is exactly the same as the black iPhone 4 with a two year contract. The device will be available in a 16GB and 32GB model.

Press release after the break!

Apple to Offer Cloud Service Free Initially, then $20 Per Year?

Much like the infamous white iPhone 4, I can't wait for Apple's new cloud services to be revealed. Ever since Apple purchased LaLa's streaming music service and built that data center in North Carolina, the cloud rumors haven't stopped.

While generally these rumors consist of speculation from analysts, this one comes from folks in the music business.  CNET is reporting that they have word from 'music industry insiders'  that Apple has indicated to them that they could offer the services free of charge initially, and eventually require a fee...

Steve Jobs and Android Co-Founder Thoughts on Location-Tracking

Continuing with the whole iOS location-tracking fiasco, the folks over at All Things D have posted a video from last year of Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google Android co-founder and former CEO, Andy Rubin, discussing their thoughts regarding privacy and location tracking on smartphones.

The video footage includes snippets from last years D8 conference and December 2010's Dive Into Mobile conference. Both Jobs and Rubin assured smartphone owners that privacy was valued on both platforms...

ipswDownloader Now Available for Windows, Download iOS Firmware with Ease

A couple days ago we told you about a nifty little tool for the Mac called ipswDownloader. The app allows you to manually download just about any iOS firmware version for your iDevice.

The only negative thing about ipswDownloader was that it was only available on the Mac. Luckily, someone has ported ipswDownloader for Windows! Now Windows users can download firmware with these easy tool...