Month: July 2011

To Whom it May Concern, A Little Lesson on Jailbreaking

I've always looked at jailbreaking as a good thing for Apple's iDevice products. Over the years it's helped spur innovation through 3rd party applications, and has more than likely enticed a number of consumers to purchase iDevices who would have otherwise been on the fence.

But apparently not everyone feels this way. A rather interesting article made its way around Twitter last night entitled, "Lockout: iPhone 5, iPad 3 boot jailbreak hackers from platform at last." At one point in the ridiculous post, the author comments that jailbreakers are "using their iPhones as less of a tool and more of a tinker-toy for their geek fantasies."

As a long time member of the jailbreak community, I feel like I'm qualified to respond, and figured I'd go ahead and clear a few things up for our friends over at Beatweek...

iPhoneDownloadBlog is Dead… Long Live iDownloadBlog!

Today is a big day for the iDB Team. After blogging for over 3 years under the www.iphonedownloadblog.com domain name, we have decided to make a strategic move and change our name to iDownloadBlog.com.

As you've probably noticed within the past few months, we've been widening up our focus from iPhone-related information to everything iOS. There are two reasons for that...

Virgin Announces Data Throttling Starting in October, Prepaid iPhone to Blame?

Hold on to your hats, 9to5Mac has submitted another piece of evidence that points to an October release of the next iPhone. This time around, the information also suggests that Apple could be launching a prepaid device this Fall.

Virgin announced yesterday that it is going to be making some plan changes to its Sprint-based prepaid network this fall. Unlimited data plans will go up to $35, and users who cross 2.5GB during their bill cycle will see a significant decrease in speed. When does all of this start taking place?

An Interesting iPhone 5 Concept

At iDB, we can never get enough of these iPhone 5 concepts. Though they don't provide us with any concrete evidence of what the next iPhone will look like, they do open the door of possibilities.

Up to this point, I think my favorite next-gen iPhone design has been the iPad-based concept by Michal Bonikowski. But these new set of renderings that iPhoneItalia just posted might give Bonikowksi a run for his money...

One Third of iPhone Users Already Think They Have 4G

"Will the next iPhone be 4G capable?" It's a popular question in the ongoing next-gen iPhone debate. Some folks believe that Apple wouldn't sacrifice reliability or design by going with currently available 4G chipsets, and others think it's a necessity for the device to sell.

However, a recent survey by marketing research firm Retrevo suggests that consumers aren't too concerned about 4G compatibility. In fact, 34% of the iPhone users questioned believed their device was already 4G...

Apple Buys iPhone4.com and WhiteiPhone.com Domain Names

Interesting news for those who like to keep tabs on domain names - a noble cause indeed - with reports that Apple is now the proud owner of two new URLs.

According to Fusible, and in turn TechCrunch, both iPhone4.com and WhiteiPhone.com are now owned by the Cupertino web masters, with the two addresses already pointing to Apple's iPhone 4 product page...

PanAmp Offers a New Way to Play Music in iOS

One of the slight blotches on the iOS report card is the platform's less than inspiring iPod app. Yes it's functional, and yes its user interface won't make you want to poke your own eyes out with a cocktail stick, but it's just not very exciting.

Past the app's lack of excitement, it's lacking such simple features. If only there was an app that we could use to replace the boring iPod app on our iPhones. Something a little more interesting. As of July 14th, there will be, with PanAmp due to be released into the vast ocean that is the App Store, and we think it's going to be a bit of a hit...

New in iOS 5: AirPlay Mirroring for FaceTime

Apple has come up with some remarkable technology over the last few years, AirPlay and FaceTime to name a few. AirPlay allows users to sling media from their iDevices to the big screen via an Apple TV, and FaceTime enables one-tap video calling.

What would happen if you combined the two technologies? According to TiPb, you would get a unique video chatting experience that can be shared by everyone in the room. Meet the latest iOS 5 feature to surface, FaceTime via AirPlay mirroring...

Apple TV Bluetooth Support Could Mean App Store is on its Way

The Apple TV has always had one glaring downfall: there's no bluetooth support. Up until now you had to jailbreak the Apple TV to obtain this feature, but it looks like that could change this Fall.

9to5Mac is reporting that iOS 5 contains hidden code (above) that enables bluetooth in the Apple TV2. While the new function is more than likely for connecting bluetooth keyboards, it does suggest that Apple could have bigger things in store for their TV set-top box...

TweetBot for iPhone Getting Push Notifications?

RazorianFly is reporting that Tapbots, the creators of many popular iPhone apps, will bring Push Notifications to their popular Twitter application, "TweetBot." The update supporting Push Notifications should be out very soon.

Tapbots teased this on Twitter when a user by the name of "@NotoriousUSB" tweeted to them about not using TweetBot anymore, due to the lack of Push Notifications.

China Telecom Will Offer iPhone Before Year’s End

China Telecom, a carrier in the world's largest mobile market, plans to offer the iPhone before the end of this year. Rumors are that Apple has been talking behind closed doors with China Telecom execs for months about bringing the iPhone to the Chinese market, and Apple's acting CEO, Tim Cook, was recently spotted at China Mobile HQ.

It's unclear as to when China Telecom will sell the iPhone exactly, but it's expected that we'll see Apple's flagship device on the carrier by at least December...

Got Issues With Your Verizon iPhone After JailbreakMe? Here’s The Fix!

Many Verizon iPhone users are experiencing issues with the latest JailbreakMe exploit that causes their device to get stuck at the Apple boot logo. If you’re one of them, here’s how to fix it!

Comex, the brains behind JailbreakMe 3.0, has published instructions on how to fix the issue that should get your device running smoothy again, and here they are.

You have two options if you’re experiencing this issue: you can either restore your device and forget about the jailbreak, or you can try a “quasi-experimental fix using redsn0w” to try and maintain your jailbreak: