Month: July 2010

Spirit iOS 4 Jailbreak Release Imminent

Sébastien Page ∙ July 20, 2010

Comex gave some good news today on Twitter when he confirmed that he was not going to wait for iOS 4.1 to release an updated version to Spirit, the jailbreak tool that will work with iOS 4 and iOS 4.0.1.

The right thing to do would be to save your SHSH blobs with Firmware Umbrella to insure you can always downgrade to a previous iOS in the future. It is the right thing to do, but it is certainly not mandatory.

With PlanetBeing and MuscleNerd being almost done on their iPhone 4 unlock, it now makes sense to release Spirit.

Excited?

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Apple Sold 8,400,000 iPhones in the Last 3 Months

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 6, 2016

Apple just released its financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter ended June 26, 2010, and the numbers are pretty impressive... Here are some interesting data for you:

8.4 million iPhones sold, 61% increase year-on-year 3.27 million iPads sold 9.41 million iPods sold 3.47 million Macs sold - a record

Want to talk $$$? Here you go...

revenue of $15.7 billion net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion
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Want to Get Rid of iAds? There’s An App for That

Sébastien Page ∙ July 20, 2010

We saw before that it is possible to opt out of targeted iAds. But what if you don't want to have any iAd at all on your iPhone? You guessed it, there's an app for that...

Don't even waste your time looking in the App Store because you won't find anything there. However, if your iPhone is jailbroken, head over to Cydia and add the following repo: http://apt.macosmovil.com/

When you're done, search for iAdKiller on Cydia and install the app. Finally, reboot your iPhone or iPod Touch, and voila!

Obviously, iAdKiller is for iOS 4.X and will only work on jailbroken iDevices. Now enjoy your iAd free iPhone!

Thanks Ydro for the tip.

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Tales of the Apple / AT&T Meltdown

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Wired has an interesting article in the August issue about the relationship between Apple and AT&T. You won't find this article on the web yet but ZDNet summed up some of the highlights of the article.

It's very interesting to see what happens behind the scene. Here are a few pieces worth noting:

Early on when an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with the AT&T board, he was told “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

One of the iPhone’s problems was that Apple had chosen to source the radio from Infineon, whose hardware was used widely in Europe but rarely in the US, where cell towers are placed farther apart and reception was therefore less forgiving. AT&T would say “Let’s resolve these issues together” and Apple would say “No, you resolve them. They’re not our problem. They’re your problem.”

One Apple source told Wired that Jobs has discussed dropping AT&T at least a half a dozen times.

On the two-year tethering impasse: Apple wanted it included in the data plan, AT&T wanted to charge extra.

Apple also heavily considered switching to Verizon numerous times. [...] It concluded that switching to Verizon would be too complicated and expensive because the chips were different sizes and would necessitate rebuilding the iPhone from scratch. Apple also wasn’t convinced that Verizon’s network would fare much better and let’s not forget the nasty lawsuit that voiding its exclusive pact with AT&T would invite.

According to the article Qualcomm began working with Apple on a chip that could allow the iPhone to work on both the AT&T and Verizon networks.

Interesting indeed. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's probably much more going on...

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MuscleNerd Unlocks the iPhone 4

Sébastien Page ∙ July 19, 2010

Just a few days after PlanetBeing revealed the first iPhone 4 unlock, MuscleNerd just showed his very own unlock in a tweet sent earlier today.

The two members of the Dev Team have been working on 3 different options to unlock the iPhone 4. PlanetBeing was the first to find one out, and now MuscleNerd got his 2nd and 3rd ideas working.

Now the hardest part of the job is done, they will compare their unlock solutions by taking into account the loading time and the stability of the unlocks. Once MuscleNerd and PlanetBeing agree on the best solution, they will most likely update ultrasn0w.

There would be no point updating ultrasn0w without releasing a jailbreak first, which Comex apparently has had ready for quite a while now. The team has given us any estimated release date but it seems it's now just a matter of days.

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HTC Responds to Apple Over Antenna

Sébastien Page ∙ July 19, 2010

After RIM and Nokia, HTC is kinda responding to Apple over the firm's claims that all smartphones, including HTC's own Droid Eris, drop signal bars. The company hasn't officially replied to Apple but it gave some interesting information to Pocket Lint.

Eric Lin, HTC's Global PR Manager, told Pocket Lint that they "have had very few complaints about signal or antenna problems on the Eris". So, what percentage exactly? 0.016% of customers! This number is far from Apple's 0.55%...

I don't know if HTC will come up with an official statement but if so, I doubt it will beat RIM's response to Apple, which to date is still my favorite.

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This Is Why the White iPhone 4 Has Been Delayed

Sébastien Page ∙ July 19, 2010

I hope you're not holding your breath for the white iPhone 4. It was supposed to be available at the same time as the black iPhone 4, on June 24th, the official launch day. Then reports started showing up saying the white model wouldn't be available at launch after all. Putting an end to its silence, Apple decided to communicate and said the white iPhone 4 would be out by mid July. Mid July just went by and Apple now says the long-awaited white version of the latest iPhone will launch at the end of July.

There is still no official launch date for the white iPhone 4 but a Chinese Newspaper finally gives us more details regarding the "manufacturing challenges" Apple is facing. 21st Century Business Herald said the problem comes from manufacturing issues at Lens Technology, Apple's glass supplier. According to Apple Insider:

A worker with the company's quality control department said that the company is still trying to work out the right balance of paint thickness and opacity, in order to ensure the panel allows enough space for the digitizer overlay, but also gives the level of white that Apple expects the product to have.

Additionally, the reports says Lens Technology can only cut 3 iPhone 4 glass covers per hour, which is half Apple's demand.

Now I am no engineer but I still can't understand why it's taking them so long to figure out how much paint they need. I also can't understand why they have no problem with the black model, which also requires a certain amount of paint.

This is all strange to me. Even stranger is Apple's silence about it. If it wasn't for third party reports, we'd still be wondering what's going on with the white iPhone.

In the meantime, my fiancee stopped waiting for the white model and ordered a black iPhone 4 today. I'm sure she's not the only one.

Are you still waiting for the White iPhone 4?

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InvisibleShield Solution to Fix Your iPhone 4 Antenna Issue

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

If you've been anywhere near a computer, a TV set or a newspaper within the last week, you may have heard there is a bit of controversy around the iPhone 4 antenna.

To cut the backlash short, Apple decided to give away free cases to every iPhone owner. That's a nice commercial gesture, but what are you going to do, if like me, you don't really like cases?

Zagg, the maker of the InvisibleShield for iPhone has come up with a side shield that will prevent any electrical bridges, thus saving those precious signal bars. Additionally, you can even create your own custom invisible side shield.

They sell the side shield for $9.99, and the full body coverage for $24.99. You can order any of those products from here.

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