Month: May 2010

4 iPhone Games I’m Enjoying These Days

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

I'm not a big gamer at all. Until a month ago, the only games I had on my iPhone were Flight Control and Wildcard Pro Surfing. However, I've been traveling a lot lately and spending hours in planes made me develop a gaming habit.

Today, I'd like to share the few games I've been playing for the last few weeks. These games are not new, and you may very well have heard of them or even own them. If not, you may want to give them a try.

Street Fighter IV

I remember playing Street Fighter II when I was a kid. My cousin and I spend countless hours on arcade machines. I also remember doing not-so-nice things in order to finance our gaming, but that's another story...

I was a little skeptical about this game before downloading it because I thought the controls wouldn't work well on such a small screen. I was wrong. The controls are very good, and the game is fast. Favorite fighter: Ken!

At $9.99, Street Fighter IV is a no brainer for anyone who likes fighting games, or anyone who feels nostalgic about the good old days of Street Fighter II.

Doodle Jump

I had heard about Doodle Jump for a while but I had no idea what it was about. One day while I was bored in Vietnam, I decided to check out the game description in the App Store. It looked fun so I downloaded it.

Doodle Jump is by no means a technical game. It's actually quite simple, both in term of concept and design. Your goal is to jump from platform to platform without falling. The higher you go, the more points you score. Don't get fooled by this candid description. Doodle Jump is highly addictive.

At the time I'm writing this, my highest score is 70,967. And I spent more than 6 hours on it, jumping over 20,000 times (I got this information from the stats page of the game).

Priced at $0.99, Doodle Jump is a must-have for people who like killing time with simple, fun and addictive games.

Plants vs Zombies

I was told about this game by one of my Twitter friends who had warned me that Plants vs Zombies was another addictive game, and boy was he right.

The concept of the game is completely retarded: you must prevent zombies from entering your house (and eat your brains) by planting various types of plants, each of them having their own specific weapons. Yes I know, it sounds stupid, but you have to try it to see how fun it actually is.

The first time I played this game, I was sick in my hotel room in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Due to some strange and unusual allergy, I wasn't able to go out. I started playing Plants vs Zombies. After a while, I realized that I had been playing the game for 4 hours straight. For a non-gamer, I felt kinda bad.

I told my fiancée about this game but she wasn't really convinced it had potential to entertain her. The fact that I explained her that she had to grow sunflowers in order to get more sun to by more plants wasn't obviously the best way to turn her on this game. Then she finally decided to give it a try. Like me, she got hooked in no time.

Plants vs Zombies is priced at $2.99 and is a whole lot of fun. Get it now!

Need For Speed Undercover

Racing games are always fun! I was originally looking for a rally game but many of my Twitter buddies recommended I give NFSU a try, so I downloaded it and got in the spirit pretty quickly.

The game is fast and fairly easy to get your head around. At $4.99, it certainly ain't cheap but it is a very fun game to play. Warning: have your iPhone charger close by because NFSU will kill your batteries in no time.

What are you playing these days? Please take a minute to leave a comment and let us know what your favorite games of the moment are.

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Official iPhone Unlock the Easy (But Expensive) Way

Sébastien Page ∙ May 6, 2010

You may have heard that in certain countries, carriers offer their customers the possibility to buy unlocked iPhones. These iPhones don't differ from yours. They have exactly the same hardware and exactly the same software.

How does this official unlock work?

The difference between a locked iPhone and an officially unlocked one is due to the IMEI number, a number unique to every phone (it's like a fingerprint if you want). When officially unlocked, your IMEI is added to an Apple database which authorizes the device for unlocking.

Fine, but how to add your IMEI to the database? Well, turns out there are some people out there who seem to have the right connections at the right companies. After doing some research, I found one of these companies. According to their website, they know people at T-Mobile Germany (which offers officially unlocked iPhones). You can just pay them a hefty $190 and they will submit your IMEI to T-Mobile, who will add you to the official iPhone unlock database.

Apparently, it takes somewhere from 4 to 25 days to get this done. Once the addition to the database is processed, you can simply connect your iPhone to iTunes, follow the prompts to install a new carrier settings update, and you should be good to go.

I contacted this company about a month ago to get more information but they never replied to me, which is why I don't bother mentioning their name in this article.

Two days ago I talked to one of my friends who owns a mobile store in France. He's in the process of being approved by Apple to resell the iPhone so I asked him if he would be able to provide this official unlocking service to his future Apple customers. He told me he wouldn't take the risk but he said that he knows a few store around town that can do it for you for about $100.

It sure is expensive but the main benefit is that this iPhone unlock is permanent. Unlike some of the software unlocks such as UltraSn0w or BlackSn0w, you’ll be able to update your iPhone firmware without losing your unlock.

Would you be willing to pay nearly between $100 and $200 for an official unlock?

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Poll: Should We Talk About The iPad On This Blog?

Sébastien Page ∙ May 6, 2010

Since the launch of the iPad about a month ago, I started writing about it, even more and more as I got an iPad myself. At first, I didn't really know what to do. I didn't know if I should create a new blog specific to the iPad, or if I should write about it here on iPhone Download Blog.

Sure the name of the blog is "iPhone Download Blog", and one might expect to see iPhone stuff only. But the thing is the iPad and the iPhone are so similar that I feel like the iPad has a place here on the site.

Some of you have been complaining about it, saying that I should start another blog just for the iPad. That really is the last thing I want to do. Having 2 sites means twice the work load. Besides, as I said above, I believe the iPad and the iPhone are pretty much the same devices and deserve to be on the same site.

A few of you said that you won't read the blog anymore if I keep posting about the iPad. That sucks. Do you stop watching Comedy Central because you don't like South Park? Probably not, you just don't watch it. You can do the same here. If you don't like an article, just don't read it. Chances are the next article will be to your liking.

This being said, I'd like to see what you think. If a majority of you doesn't want to see any iPad-related articles here, then maybe I'll make the painful decision to take my iPad stuff to another site.

Please take 3 seconds to give your opinion on this matter. Thank you.

Should We Talk About The iPad On This Blogonline survey

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How to Set Up A Bookmarks Bar on Safari for iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ May 5, 2010

A bookmarks bar allows you to quickly access your favorite sites. Since the iPad has a pretty big screen, it's now possible to show a bookmark bar in Safari.

By default, the bookmark bar in Safari for iPad is hidden but you can easily activate it by going to Settings > Safari > Always show bookmarks bar.

To add bookmarks in the bar, you will have to save new bookmarks in the "bookmarks bar" folder.

That's a simple tip that can come in very handy if like me you like to optimize the amount of clicks (or taps).

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iPhone Tethering: How to Tether iPhone 3.1.3

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

With Internet tethering on your iPhone, you don’t need wifi to surf the web from your computer. Tethering your iPhone allows you to share the 3G or Edge connection on your iPhone with your laptop and connect to the Internet anywhere.

A while ago, I wrote about tethering iPhone 3.1.2. Today, I'd like to show you how to tether iPhone 3.1.3.

UPDATE: This post is outdated. Please check out this page for the latest information about iPhone tethering.

Tethering iPhone 3.1.3

You have 2 options to set up internet tethering on your iPhone 3.1.3.

Option 1: If your iPhone is jailbroken

If your iPhone is jailbroken, you can simply install the MyWi app from Cydia ($10). Not only MyWi allows you to tether your iPhone, but it can also turn your iPhone into a wifi hotspot. If your iPhone is not jailbroken and you want to jailbreak it, read our Spirit jailbreak tutorial.

Option 2: If your iPhone is not jailbroken

UPDATE: I have tried this option on an iPhone 3G and it works fine. Many of you reported in the comments that it does not work. Proceed at your own risk...

If for some obscure reasons you do not want to jailbreak your iPhone but still want to tether it, there is another solution:

From your iPhone, navigate to Help.BenM.at Tap on "Tethering" Choose your country Choose your carrier Tap "Download" Tap "Install" Reboot your iPhone

After rebooting your iPhone, you should see a new option under Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering. By turning Internet Tethering on, you will be able to share your iPhone internet connection with your laptop.

Note that for this to work, your SIM card should NOT be locked with a PIN. If so, simply deactivate the PIN lock in the settings.

That's this simple. You should now be able to tether your iPhone 3.1.3.

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List of Jailbreak Apps Compatible with the iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ May 5, 2010

Spirit brought us the easiest and fastest jailbreak ever. Great! The only problem is that most of these jailbreak apps aren't compatible with the iPad just yet.

Some smart dude got the idea to create an editable list of jailbreak apps that work on the iPad. The list is on Google Docs so anyone can edit it. I'm not sure who started this but it sure is a good idea.

So far, about 70 apps have been tested, with more to come. You can find the list here. If you have tested a few jailbreak apps on your iPad, try to report the results by adding them to the list.

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Fix For “Spirit Requires iTunes 9 to Function”

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 22, 2017

The Spirit jailbreak tool is probably the easiest jailbreak ever, however, like every piece of software, it is not perfect. Even though Spirit was updated yesterday, a few users still face issues.

One of the most common one is the error saying that "Spirit Requires iTunes 9 to function. Please install a correct version of iTunes and run Spirit again."

In this case, Spirit believes you are not running the correct version of iTunes, even though you are.

There is a simple fix for this:

Step 1: Download Spirit Fixer by Kirma (mirror link)

Step 2: Extract the downloaded file then run Spirit.Fixer.By.Kirma.v1.01.exe

Step 3: Run Spirit.exe

It should work.

[via Tech Petals]

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Star Walk for iPad, Because Bigger is Better [App Giveaway]

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

I've always been a huge fan of the Star Walk app for iPhone. Not only it is an amazing app to discover the sky, but it is also beautifully made, taking full advantage of the iPhone's features.

For those of you who don't know what Star Walk is about, here is the App Store description:

Star Walk is your personal planetarium that can answer all of your curiosities about the sky! For anyone who is interested in stargazing, amateurs or professionals Star Walk makes discovering more than 9,000 stars, planets, constellations, and messier objects as beautiful and easy as it has never been before!

With Star Walk, you can see the sky in front of you in real-time. Tilt your iPhone towards the sky to activate the digital compass which will determine the location and orientation of your iPhone. The image on your screen will correspond to the area of the sky you are pointing your iPhone towards, and it will follow your movements.

Now Star Walk is also available for iPad. If you thought SW was cool on your iPhone, wait to see it on this big fat iPad screen. I'm already completely sold on it!

Vito Technology, the devs behind Star Walk, were kind enough to give me a promo code for the iPad version so I can try it out. Even better, they gave me 3 promo codes to give away too!

If you want a promo code for Star Walk for iPad, simply leave a comment explaining why you want it. I'll randomly (or not) pick the 3 winners in a few days.

Vito Tech also gave me promo codes for Star Walk and Solar Walk for iPhone. Make sure to follow me on Twitter and on Facebook to be the first to grab one of those soon.

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Spirit Jailbreak Update Fixes Windows Error and Photo Deletion Bug

Sébastien Page ∙ May 4, 2010

The very few of you who were having problems with Spirit on Windows can rejoice. Spirit, which would sometimes give you an error code c0000005 depending on what version of Windows you were using, has been updated to fix this error.

I personally didn't have any problem with the Spirit jailbreak on Windows. One problem I had though is that it deleted the camera roll on my iPad. Well, Comex also fixed this bug so it shouldn't delete pictures anymore.

This is the update Comex posted on his site:

I've updated the jailbreak tool. It no longer deletes photos (sorry!) and should resolve the issue with error code c0000005. (If you still get that error with the new version, try setting compatibility mode to Windows 95.)

You can download Spirit for Windows or Mac from here. It's the most simple jailbreak ever but if you need directions on how to use it, see my Spirit tutorial.

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AppSync for iPad 3.2

Sébastien Page ∙ May 4, 2010

AppSync has been updated for iPad. You can download AppSync 3.2 for iPad from Cydia by adding the following source: http://cydia.hackulo.us

Once this source has been added, look for AppSync for OS 3.2. That's it!

Check out this page for all MobileInstallation files for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad

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How to Make Your iPhone Apps Run in Full Screen Mode On Your iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

iPhone applications that have not been optimized for iPad yet don't look so good on the iPad. Sure you have the option to blow up the iPhone apps by hitting the "2x" button, but the pexilization is so bad that it makes this feature almost useless.

For those of you who jailbroke your iPad with the newly released Spirit (see Spirit jailbreak tutorial), there is a solution that will allow you to blow up your apps to fit the full screen, without having the dirty pixelization.

I initially saw this on Remond Pie but the instructions didn't work at all for me. So I dug a bit more and I found something on ModMyI that perfectly worked for me.

Step 1: Download iPhoneBrowser and launch it. In Cydia, download Afc2Add and reboot your iPhone.

Step 2: Plug your iPad in and navigate to /var/mobile/Applications.

Step 3: Find the application you want to hack and search for the info.plist file in the app's main folder.

Step 4: Copy the info.plist file to your desktop.

Step 5: With a text editor such as TextWrangular (for Mac) or Plist Editor (for Windows), edit the info.plist file to add the following:

<key>UIDeviceFamily</key> <array> <integer>1</integer> <integer>2</integer> </array>

Step 6: Save the file and drop it back in its location in the app's main folder.

Step 7: Reboot your iPad.

I tried the following hack on several apps. I didn't work for many of them but it did work for a few like Tweetie, and I know it works for Facebook as well. I think it completely depends on how the app is designed. Graphic heavy apps don't seem to do well, whereas text oriented apps such as Tweetie do well.

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