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.

Is the iPhone Coming to T-Mobile? I Don’t Think So…

Sébastien Page ∙ July 21, 2010

The rumor of the day is that the iPhone might be coming to T-Mobile, according to a "highly placed source" of Cult of Mac. While this rumor makes more sense to me than a Verizon iPhone, I still don't believe the hype. To be honest with you, I think this was completely made up by Cult of Mac just so they can get other people (like me) to talk about them.

Talks between Apple and T-Mobile are at an advanced stage, our source says, and it’s 80 percent likely that the iPhone will be coming to T-Mobile in Q3.

Apple can't make enough iPhone 4 for themselves but they're going to give it to T-Mobile anyway? Nah!

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know I don't believe in the Verizon iPhone for one main reason. Verizon operates on the dying CDMA network, while pretty much the rest of the world, including AT&T and T-Mobile, operates on the GSM network. So technically, the iPhone could work on T-Mobile... except there are hardware issues...

Historically, the iPhone has never been compatible with T-Mobile's 3G network which operates on the 1700/2100 MHz bands. While the iPhone 4 added the 2100 MHz band, it still lacks the 1700 MHz, which Cult of Mac claims Apple could have kept secret.

Yes, this rumor makes more sense to me than the crazy Verizon rumors but still, I do not think this is real. If anything, I predict the iPhone will come to T-Mobile in 2012, when the Apple/AT&T exclusivity agreement comes to an end. I doubt Apple would want to get into a lawyers fight with AT&T over the iPhone.

What do you think? Real rumor? Fake rumor?

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LimeRa1n Does Not Exist

Sébastien Page ∙ July 21, 2010

There's been rumors about the LimeRa1n jailbreak for months now but people don't seem to understand rumors are just, well... rumors. LimeRa1n does not exist and it might never will. With Geohot now away from the jailbreak scene, there is even less chances to see LimeRa1n go live one day.

I've been asked quite a few times when LimeRa1n will be available and where you can download it. Let me make this clear for you: there is no LimeRa1n. If you find a LimeRa1n download somewhere on a website, do not download it because it's a fake!

Sure the website exists, and sure it is registered with Geohot's information but it doesn't mean anything. Forget about LimeRa1n, and start looking at the real future jailbreaks, like Spirit, which should be released soon.

I keep this blog up-to-date with the latest jailbreak info. If you don't hear about it here, it means it doesn't exist. If you just arrived on this blog "by accident", make sure to check back here often as I will write about trustworthy jailbreak info as it becomes available.

In the meantime, you can always check our jailbreak section which lists all possible jailbreaks for each iPhone model and firmware.

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Free iPhone Cases Will Cost Apple $175 Million

Sébastien Page ∙ July 21, 2010

Since the antenna debacle is kind of calming down, I thought I would revive it by throwing some big numbers at you.

During today’s Q3 earnings conference call, Apple revealed that it predicts that the free iPhone 4 cases and bumpers will result in $175 million in deferred revenue. It hits Apple’s books as a liability — essentially a debt or a negative balance on the bottom line. Apple says that it will expense the cost of the cases, which will help mitigate the overall cost on the bottom line.

In other words, Apple is accounting for $175 million in lost revenue on its Q4 balance sheet, all due to free bumpers and cases.

It sure sounds like a lot of money but when you think about it, it's actually not much compared to what the antenna issue could have really cost Apple if they had kept being silent about it.

[Mashable]

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Is Geohot Back?

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

Just before he said goodbye to the jailbreak community last week, Geohot recommended we follow his friend Mike Cohen for all future news related to a jailbreak. The kid went from a handful of followers to over 10,000 in just a few days...

Today Mike Cohen tweeted the following, making people believe LimeRa1n might be just around the corner:

Is Geohot Back?

A few people have speculated that Geohot might be back on the jailbreak scene under a new name. I don't believe this theory. For one, the Twitter stream of Mike Cohen looks nothing like what Geohot would tweet. But perhaps, and most importantly, the tweets from Mike Cohen are sent from a Blackberry and I really doubt Geohot would be using one of those.

My Theory

I believe that Geohot is not back and doesn't plan to, at least for a few weeks. I believe that he asked us to follow Mike Cohen so his friend could gain thousands of followers easily. I believe Mike Cohen tweeted about that earlier today to revive the buzz around him and gain even more followers.

I'm sure Geohot will eventually be back. I don't believe this is happening now. Right now, we're just being fooled by a kid who wants to capitalize on the fame of his buddy Geohot and add followers to his Twitter account.

What do you think is going on? Do you think this Mike Cohen is real? Do you think he is Geohot? I'd like to know what you guys think of this all.

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How to Save Your SHSH Blob

Sébastien Page ∙ July 20, 2010

With the release of Spirit now imminent, it would be a good thing to save your SHSH blob, in case you need to downgrade in the future. Saving your iPhone SHSH is very simple.

Step 1: Download Firmware Umbrella from here.

Step 2: Launch Firmware Umbrella and plug your iPhone in.

Step 3: Click "Save My SHSH" and wait for Firmware Umbrella to do the job.

Done! A copy will be saved to your computer and it will also send a request to Cydia to save your SHSH on Saurik's server.

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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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