Month: July 2010

Confessions Of A Jailbreaker With No Jailbreak

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you probably know by now that I am a firm believer in jailbreaking the iPhone. To me jailbreaking opens up all the doors that Apple intentionally closes on the iPhone.

Thanks to the jailbreak community, we had copy/paste before Apple introduced in with iOS 3. Thanks to the jailbreak community, we were able to run multiple apps in the background a year before Apple introduced this new feature in iOS 4. Well, you get my point.

Before getting my new iPhone 4, I was stressing out about not having a jailbreak on it, thus not being as productive as I used to be. I was hoping the Dev Team would release an iPhone 4 jailbreak within a day or two of the i4 launch but even though they confirmed Spirit will work on the latest iPhone, the jailbreak has yet to be released.

It's now been about 2 weeks since I became jailbreakless and to be honest with you, I don't miss it as much as I would have thought. I am actually doing pretty well without my jailbreak.

What jailbreak apps am I missing the most?

MyWi - Not being able to tether my iPhone 4 is almost painful. How am I supposed to get internet access in airports if I can't tether my iPhone?

Winterboard - Even though iOS 4 lets you customize your home screen, I am really dying to get rid of this ugly dock, change some of the icons (mostly the folders icons), and get my matte UI mod.

InfiniDock - That's another app I'm missing a lot. I love having 5-6 apps in my dock so I can easily get access to them from any page on the home screen.

ActionMenu - I kinda replaced this app with PasteBot, which is doing the job pretty well but it's not as convenient as ActionMenu.

Xpandr - I use PasteBot as well to replace this application. Again, it's working ok but it's not as convenient as using Xpandr as I have to switch back and forth between apps to do things I was able to do in 3 taps before.

At first I was missing ProSwitcher but I got over it. Sure I like being able to choose what apps I want to run in the background but I'm getting used to Apple's way.

I am still anxiously waiting for an iPhone 4 jailbreak and I'll sure be right on it as soon as it comes out but in the end, I'm doing much better without a jailbreak than I expected.

What about you? How are you doing without a jailbreak? What apps are you missing the most?

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How to Use Your iPhone 4 Data Plan to Get Free Internet On Your iPad 3G

Sébastien Page ∙ July 10, 2010

If you have both an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3G, I'm sure you tried to switch SIM cards to see if you could get free 3G on your iPad using your iPhone 4 data plan. In that case, you probably were unsucessful and even though you would get 3G connection, you couldn't make use of it.

The guys over at TUAW figured out that to get your iPhone 4 3G data plan on your iPad 3G, you simply need to change the APN settings. To do so, go to your iPad settings under the Cellular Data section, enter the following APN info:

APN name: wap.cingular username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM password: CINGULAR1

Then reboot your iPad and you should be good to go.

Needless to say that AT&T might not be very happy about this little workaround. Like always when using those kinda tricks, be careful as AT&T might figure out what you're doing and send a SWAT team over to your house to get this iPad back or something.

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GeoHot Jailbreaks the iPhone 4

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated July 25, 2014

Geohot, the little genius behind blackra1n and blacksn0w is back at it again. In a blog post he wrote today, Geohot showed us a picture of a jailbroken iPhone 4 running Cydia.

Geohot says that he won't however release the jailbreak to the public and made it clear that the limera1n jailbreak we talked about before was nothing more than a website with no specific goal.

Got one of these in the mail today and figured I'd give it a shot.

As far as a release goes, it probably won't happen from me. limera1n is little more than a raindrop on a website; it was never mentioned by me previous to this post. pwned4life is a complete invention of some blogger in a basement somewhere. When I said pwned for life, I was referring to the original iPhone, 3G, and Touch; which of course are, by the aptly named PwnageTool.

Again, please don't ask for release dates. Every person that does makes me want to release a little bit less.

Did you read this last sentence well? I understand Geohot doesn't want to harassed with questions about a possible release date, which lets us hope he might be willing to release an iPhone 4 jailbreak one day or the other.

If I had a guess, I'd say that Geohot is working on this jailbreak right at this moment and that he will do everything he can to release a jailbreak for the iPhone 4 before the Dev Team or Comex do..

What do you think?

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App Store Hacked… Again!

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Do you remember last week when the App Store was hacked? Well, the App Store was hacked, again, as uncovered by 9 to 5 Mac.

In an article I wrote a few days ago, I explained how Apple was downplaying the situation by saying only 400 accounts were hacked, which to me didn't make sense, and was way less than it could possibly be. It seems that I was right.

This week's shady developer is from China and goes by WiiSHii. All the fraudulent apps are in the travel section which contains over 11,000 applications. That means these apps didn't make it in the Top 100 because they were so few to compete with. People who thought I was wrong about this whole situation won't be able to argue on that point.

They clearly used some cheating mechanism to get their apps in the top 100. Additionally, Ars Technica reports about a user who was falsely charged for a bevy of apps from the same WiiSHii development company.

Your turn now, Apple. How do you fix this?

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AT&T Data Rates in Mexico Are Just Crazy

Sébastien Page ∙ July 9, 2010

As I was driving along the Mexican border between Phoenix and San Diego yesterday, I received this text message from AT&T, which I assume thought I was already on the other side of the border. The text message was sent to alert me of the prices abroad.

Almost a dollar per minute for phone calls! $20 per MB? Really? That sure is going to be some expensive emails...

The moral of this story, if any, is that you should always be careful what you do with your iPhone when traveling oversea, especially with data which can run in the background and get you bad surprises at the end of your trip.

If you're going to use your iPhone abroad, I suggest you check out these tips for traveling overseas with an iPhone.

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When Will the Next iOS 4 Update Come Out?

Sébastien Page ∙ July 9, 2010

Following the antenna issue fiasco, Apple issued an official statement in which it said it would release an update to iOS 4 "within a few weeks". What does a few weeks mean? 2? 3? 10? No one knows for sure.

We can still try to figure out when this update might come out by looking at the past updates of iPhone OS 1, 2, and 3. That's what tiPb did and here is what they found out:

Neither iOS 1.0 nor 2.0 nor 3.0 were bug-free and while it’s easy to forget, users were clamoring for fixes almost as much in years past as they are now. That said, iOS (iPhone) 3.0.1 was released July 31, 2009. 2.0.1 was August 4, 2008. 1.0.1 was was July 31, 2007.

Looking at this past update pattern, one might assume that iOS 54 will get an update in the next 3-4 weeks, however, Apple might be delaying this update in order to work on patching the holes of the exploit found by the Dev Team and Comex. That's what I, and many others think anyways. Time only will tell.

When do you think iOS 4 will be updated?

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Your Charging It Wrong! iPhone 4 Catches On Fire Because Of Defective USB Port

Sébastien Page ∙ July 9, 2010

BGR reports that an AT&T customer brought this fried iPhone 4 back to the store for obvious reasons. Apparently, the iPhone caught on fire because of a defective USB port. BGR's source at AT&T said the bezel got so hot it actually burned the hand of the iPhone's owner.

After telling us that we're holding it wrong, maybe Apple is now going to tell us that we're charging it wrong! More seriously, there is nothing to worry about as this is just an isolated case.

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iPhone 101: How to Tether Your iPhone 4

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 31, 2010

With the release of iOS 4, AT&T finally allowed internet tethering on the iPhone. Because there is no jailbreak for the iPhone 4 yet, we cannot use apps like MyWi to tether your iPhone or even turn it into a wireless hotspot.

So far, if you want to tether your iPhone 4, you're gonna have to play fair and deal with AT&T. Tethering on your iPhone 4 will come at a hefty price of $20/month plus $25/month for the 2 GB DataPro plan by AT&T. That's a complete rip off but that's the only solution to date.

If you're not turned off yet, here is what you have to do to set up internet tethering on your iPhone 4:

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

Step 1: Go to Settings > General > Network > Set up internet tethering.

Step 2: A message will show up telling you that you have to call or visit AT&T's website to enable tethering. Either call them or go to your account online to activate the option.

Step 3: Reboot your iPhone.

Step 4: Plug your iPhone in your computer.

Step 5: Go to Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering > On. Now either choose to tether via USB or Bluetooth.

Step 6: Choose "iPhone" from the list of available networks on your computer.

Step 7: Enjoy the interweb!

As I said above, AT&T prices for this option are outrageous. If you're on a jailbroken iPhone 3G or 3GS you can always tether your iPhone for free using MyWi.

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How to Turn Your iPad Into A DivX Movie Player

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 6, 2016

This is not a feature that comes off the box with the iPad but thanks to an application called OPlayer HD, you can watch DivX movies (and many other formats) right on your iPad.

OPlayer HD allows you to transfer your DivX over wifi or via USB and it is even possible to download them directly from the web browser. The downside? All movies will be played in 800x600 or lower.

If you decide to try out this app, I recommend you make sure to turn ON the Skip Frame option in the settings. All in all, it seems to be a great app for those of you who watch DivX videos, and it will most likely save you time converting those movies into mp4.

You can download OPlayer HD from the App Store for $4.99.

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How to Install Flash On The iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 11, 2018

Last week, Comex, the developer behind the Spirit jailbreak, gave us a preview of Frash, which is nothing less but Flash for Android ported to the iPad. Today it seems someone released a .deb of Frash, and while Comex is not opposed to it, you've got to understand it's just an alpha version.

This tutorial will show you how to install Frash/Flash on a jailbroken iPad.

Step 1: Make sure your iPad is jailbroken. If not, jailbreak your iPad using Spirit.

Step 2: Download Frash.deb. For legal reasons, I cannot link to the file but a Google search can go a long way, if you know what I mean...

Step 3: SSH into your iPad and navigate to /var/root/Media.

Step 4: In the Media folder, create a folder called "Cydia". Open the Cydia folder you just created and create another folder called "AutoInstall".

Step 5: Upload Frash.deb to the AutoInstall folder.

Step 6: Reboot your iPad a few times.

Done! Now navigate to any site that uses Flash. You should see the red F logo where Flash is played. Tap the logo and the Flash animation will start playing

Again, this is just an alpha version that wasn't even officially released by Comex. You may want to try it just for fun if you dare. I suspect it will be posted in a repo on Cydia soon so you may want to wait for that.

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

[via Engadget]

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Turn Your iPhone 4 LED Flash Into A Flashlight

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

This was only a matter of time until someone figured out how to use the LED flash of the iPhone to turn it into a useful flashlight. It's not a pretend flashlight, it's the real deal and definitely a must-have for iPhone 4 users.

Download LED Torch Flashlight for free in the App Store.

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