Sébastien Page

Sebastien is the Founder and Editor in Chief of iDB. Once a BlackBerry user, Sebastien instantly fell in love with the iPhone when it was first announced in 2007. Shortly after, he decided to start sharing his knowledge of the iPhone and its nascent ecosystem, which led to the creation of this blog. Sebastien currently owns 14 iPhones, 4 iPads, a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, a MacBook Air, 2 Apple Watches, 3 Apple TVs, countless HomePods and AirTags as well as a few pairs of AirPods.

How to Unlock Your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS iOS 4 with UltraSn0w

Sébastien Page ∙ August 1, 2010

Now that the iOS 4 jailbreak has been released, those of you who were waiting for an unlock can unlock their iPhones with UltraSn0w. Before getting into the details, let me tell you more about who this is for and who this is not for.

The latest version of ultrasn0w will unlock the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS running iOS 3.1.2 or higher. As long as you are running iOS 3.1.2 or up to 4.0.1, you're good.

This being said, ultrasn0w will not unlock the iPhone 4 at the time being. The Dev Team needs a little bit more of time to test out the iPhone 4 unlock before releasing it. I believe they will release the iPhone 4 unlock in the next few days, so stay tuned.

This guide and tutorial will show you how to unlock your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G running iOS 4 using ultrasn0w.

Step 1: Make sure your iPhone is backed up in iTunes.

Step 2: Jailbreak your iPhone using JailbreakMe (see instructions here).

Step 3: After the jailbreak process is done, go to Cydia and search for ultrasn0w.

Step 4: Install ultrasn0w and reboot your iPhone.

Step 5: Done!

You now have an unlocked iPhone 3G or 3GS.

Read More

JailbreakMe Causes MMS and FaceTime Issues But Fix Is On Its Way

Sébastien Page ∙ August 1, 2010

Those of you who have installed JailbreakMe on their iPhones might be running into some problems, specifically MMS and FaceTime completely disappearing from the device. Obviously this is not normal but Comex is working on it. I am sure he will fix this in the next few hours. In the meanwhile, sit back and enjoy your newly jailbroken iPhone.

I will keep you posted as soon as JailbreakMe is updated and fixes this issue with MMS and FaceTime.

UPDATE: This has been fixed. More info here.

Read More

How to Jailbreak Your iPhone with JailbreakMe

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 22, 2016

JailbreakMe is the latest jailbreak method for all devices running iOS 3.1.2 or newer. Like I said before, JailbreakMe is the easiest jailbreak you will ever find but some of you asked me to write a tutorial about it.

This guide and tutorial will show you how to use JailbreakMe to jailbreak your iPhone. Obviously, most people won't need this tutorial because JailbreakMe is pretty straightforward.

Step 1: Make you your iPhone is backed up in iTunes, in case something goes wrong.

Step 2: From you iPhone, go to JailbreakMe.

Step 3: Slide to jailbreak.

Step 4: Sit back, relax. JailbreakMe will be downloaded to your iPhone and will work its magic. When done, a pop up will tell you that Cydia has been installed.

Step 5: Reboot your iPhone. You don't have to, but it's always a good thing to do.

That's it. Nothing to download to your computer.

Read More

JailbreakMe Jailbreak for All Devices

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 22, 2016

It's here folks! The long-awaited jailbreak for iOS 4 is now available and it's called JailbreakMe. Those of you who've been jailbreaking their iPhones for a while will certainly remember JailbreakMe, which is without a doubt the easiest jailbreak ever.

Simply go to JailbreakMe.com from your iPhone and follow the instructions. Really you can't go wrong with that.

Comex has done a great job by reviving JailbreakMe and bringing back the browser-based jailbreak to the iPhone.

JailbreakMe will work for every iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad starting at iOS 3.1.2. That means that if your iDevice is at 3.1.2 or newer, then you're good.

I'm in the desert right now and can't get JailbreakMe to download so I will report more about it as I get closer to civilization...

In the meanwhile, please share your experience downloading and installing JailbreakMe on your iPhone.

Read More

Geeky iPhone Apps Coasters Will Be the Life of the Party

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2018

Thirsty? There's an app a coaster for that!

Because they're made using the original high resolution artwork, these coasters come out looking great, crisp with a glossy finish. And to those of you wondering, no, they will not turn your coffee table into an iPad, but we sure hope they did.

These iPhone app coasters come in 3 sets of 6 icons. Each set is about $32. You can get them from here.

If you call yourself an iPhone lover then you owe it to yourself to get the geekiest of all iPhone accessories: the iPhone apps coasters.

Read More

Apple Removes Rival Smartphone Antenna Videos From Its Website

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

TechCrunch reports that Apple removed every video showing rival smartphones losing antenna signal from its US website.

As you can see on this page, the videos are nowhere to be found. Instead, the page now only shows the overview of the antenna design and test labs. A search of Apple’s website brings up a few of the landing pages where the videos used to be — here’s the Droid X one, for example — but now those just redirect to the antenna design page as well. Odd.

What's interesting is that the videos were not removed from the Canadian website or from Apple's YouTube channel, even though they are now a little header to find there.

So why were these videos removed from Apple's website? Your guess is as good as mine but one can easily imagine Apple may have received legal threats from RIM, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Nokia who weren't probably very happy to see their handsets associated with Apple's negative press.

Last month, RIM, Nokia, and HTC responded to Apple's claim that every smartphone suffers from antenna attenuation by pretty much saying Apple is trying to bring every smartphone maker down with them. I can see why they'd be pissed at Apple.

What's your take on it? Why do you think the videos are down in the US but not in other parts of the world? What's going on here?

Read More

iPad Data Cost All Around the World [Hint: the US is Very Expensive]

Sébastien Page ∙ July 31, 2010

The guys over at Tableau Software created this interesting chart that shows data cost for the iPad 3G in every country that currently carries the iPad. As you can see there is a huge gap between the cheapest (Singapore) and the most expensive one (France).

The US is one of the most expensive countries in term of iPad 3G data. However if you're one of the few people who were grandfathered in the unlimited plan for $30, you have a pretty good deal.

[Gizmodo]

Read More

SpringFlash: the First Jailbreak App for iPhone 4 Only

Sébastien Page ∙ July 31, 2010

With the iPhone 4 jailbreak to be released soon, BigBoss has created a jailbreak application dedicated to this device only. The app is called SpringFlash and like the name suggests, it is an application that takes advantage of the iPhone 4 LED Flash to serve as a flashlight.

SpringFlash will be a Springboard Activator-based application which means you will have to use Activator to define a gesture or activation method to launch the app (ie "tap and hold the status bar). Since it is Activator-based, the great advantage of SpringFlash is that you won't have to look for the app icon to launch it when you need it.

I'd like to say that I have tried SpringFlash but since there is now iPhone 4 jailbreak yet, that would be a lie...

SpringFlash will be available under the BigBoss repo for free. Now we just need a jailbreak!

[BigBoss]

Read More

Winners of the BodyGuardz Screen Protectors Giveaway

Sébastien Page ∙ July 30, 2010

And the winners of the BodyGuardz screen protectors giveaway are ThaSickness and Swiftman. You 2 should check your inbox as I will be emailing you soon to ask for your mailing address.

I went through all the comments you guys left and I have to admit it was kind of a hard pick. Man, someone even offered to give "sexual favors" if I chose her. Tough choices, hey? haha. More seriously, I actually randomly chose the 2 winners.

To everyone who entered to win, thanks for participating, and stay tuned because we'll have more of these giveaways in the near future.

Read More

OpenAppMkt is a New App Store Alternative [No Jailbreak Required]

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

OpenAppMkt is a new App Store alternative that takes full advantage of iPhone web apps, which means that no jailbreak is required.

Remember when the iPhone first came out and Steve was praising those web apps? Well OpenAppMkt gathered some of them and packed them up in a nice and convenient web app.

To install OpenAppMkt simply point Safari to http://www.OpenAppmkt.com/ and follow the onscreen instructions.

Installing OpenAppMkt won't install anything but a Safari bookmark on your iPhone homescreen. Hitting the bookmark will take you to OpenAppMkt web app from where you'll be able to browse web apps and install their bookmarks on your homescreen.

To be clear, these are just web apps. by installing any of these apps, you aren't actually installing anything but a Safari bookmark on your homescreen.

I love the concept and its implementation. You sure are limited to what you can do with a web app but OpenAppMkt is a nice and convenient alternative to the App Store or even Cydia.

Update: A few people are missing the point here. I'm going to quote Mike Masnick from TechDirt who sums up why OpenAppMkt is good and different:

Overall, this fascinates me for two reasons. First, it's good to get more people realizing that HTML is already pretty damn good at creating app-style experiences, without having to create special compiled code and, second, it's a really clever way to totally route around Apple as a gatekeeper (without requiring a jailbreak), and is a reminder that even on "closed" systems, openness will often find a way.

[TechDirt via B00b1]

Read More