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.

iPhone 4 Unlock Ready for Release?

Sébastien Page ∙ July 12, 2010

While GeoHot is teasing us with fake jailbreaks for iPhone 4, the Dev Team is hard at work on an i4 unlock, and they seem to get closer.

In a tweet sent out his morning, Dev Team front man MuscleNerd confirmed that they are one step away from being done with the iPhone 4 unlock:

Full i4 bars with custom "steve" background task spitting out "One more thing" http://is.gd/doJXt - all pieces in place:)

If I understand this correctly it might mean they just have to package UltraSn0w and put this on Cydia... If that's really what's going on, it also means the release of Spirit for iOS 4 is right around the corner as well.

Stay tuned!

Consumer Reports: We Can’t Recommend the iPhone 4

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

We knew the iPhone 4 had some serious antenna issues. The reason? We're holding it wrong, or at least that's what Apple is telling us.

After carrying out several tests, Consumer Reports actually think the problem doesn't come from the way we're holding the phone but from the phone itself.

Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4’s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”

The tests also indicate that AT&T’s network might not be the primary suspect in the iPhone 4’s much-reported signal woes.

So apparently, the problem is indeed related to the hardware and not to AT&T or even the software, as Apple wants us to believe.

The signal problem is the reason that we did not cite the iPhone 4 as a “recommended” model, even though its score in our other tests placed it atop the latest Ratings of smart phones that were released today.

If you want an iPhone that works well without a masking-tape fix, we continue to recommend an older model, the 3G S.

Although the iPhone 4 is a great device, Consumer Reports can't recommend it because of the huge antenna flaw.

As for me, yes the antenna issue really bugs me but if you ask me, I'll say go for it! Get yourself an iPhone 4. Although I am already at my 3rd iPhone 4, I think it's the best iDevice I've owned so far.

What do you think?

False Alarm: GeoHot Doesn’t Have An iPhone 4 Jailbreak

Sébastien Page ∙ July 12, 2010

A few days ago we talked about GeoHot and the amazing fact that he seemed to have a jailbreak for iPhone 4. It turns out the picture he gave us was actually a fake. Bummer!

In an update to his last blog post, the wonder kid destroyed the few credibility he had left. He says:

Sorry, this post was probably a bad idea. Next time I won't say anything. I miss when this blog was actually about technical things(I've been reacting too much to the feedback, which led it to the place it's in now). I didn't fully realize most of the current scene don't care unless they are getting something. Now I do. It's late tonight, I'll think about what to do about this in the morning.

The real reason behind no release isn't technical. It's just that it will never stop, after blackra1n, people demand unlock, after blacksn0w, people demand untethered. I miss the days when jailbreaking and unlocking were difficult, it attracted a much higher caliber crowd.

Also, to the haters, the picture is quite obviously fake :D

I have a lot of respect for GeoHot's work. The guy is clearly a genius (let me remind you he was the first to unlock the first iPhone back in 2007), but like everyone notices, he's just too cocky and egocentric, which is probably why some call him EgoHot.

So what now for jailbreakers and unlockers? The good news is that the Spirit jailbreak for iPhone 4 will be released soon. In the meantime, the Dev Team is working on an unlock as well.

The world is not going to stop but it's just too bad GeoHot won't invest himself in what he's obviously good at. Oh well, after all he's free to do whatever he wants.

What do you think?

How I Went Through 3 iPhones in 3 Weeks

Sébastien Page ∙ July 11, 2010

I've had my iPhone 4 for less than 3 weeks and I've already been through 3 of them...

As I had mentioned in a previous post, my first iPhone 4 had 3 issues that seemed to be hardware-related. The home button was loose, there was a rattling sound when you would shake the phone, and finally, the screen was yellowish overall.

So I took it back to the Apple Store on Michigan avenue in Chicago. The "genius" said although she couldn't see the yellow screen, which was pretty obvious but anyways, she did replace it because of the loose button and rattling.

She gave me my new iPhone 4 and I went and sit somewhere in the store so I could sync my new iPhone with my laptop which I had brought with me. I synced everything and as soon as I picked it up and went to the home screen, I could see the screen was still yellowish.

I asked an Apple employee walking by if he could see the difference between my yellowish iPhone and a perfect iPhone used in the store for demo purposes. He acknowledged that mine indeed had a yellow tint to it. He advised me to make yet another appointment to change the phone again.

A few days later, I made another appointment at the Apple Store for exchanging my 2nd iPhone. I went there, explained everything, the genius entered my info into his iTouch and told me that he'd want to exchange my iPhone but he had no replacement units in stock. Great! I drove 30 miles and spent 1 hour sitting in traffic for absolutely nothing.

Back in California, I made an appointment at the Apple Store in Century City where I had to explain my problem again. This time, I also added that when I take pictures in a dark room for example, the picture gets all yellow, and apparently I am not the only one with this issue. However, the camera works great during bright day light.

She gave me a replacement iPhone, my third one. I checked the screen and it's definitely not yellow anymore. It's now perfect. The problem is I still have the yellow picture issue when using the camera in darker places.

#4?

I'm going to wait for Apple to come up with iOS 4.1 or 4.01 and see if they can fix the yellow pictures issue. If they can, then great. If they can't, I will have to return it and get my 4th iPhone 4.

It's great to be an early adopter but it sure comes with its downsides...

What about you? Have you had any issue with your iPhone 4? Did you have to return it?

iPhone & iPad News You Missed This Week

Sébastien Page ∙ July 11, 2010

This is a summary of all the articles that were published on the blog this week.

Flash ported to the iPad The App Store was hacked Dev Team working on an iPhone unlock Spirit for iOS 4 coming soon 8 puzzle games for iPhone $20,000 white iPhone diamond edition Dev Team getting closer to the iPhone 4 unlock Awesome PacMan wallpaper for iPhone Apple issues weak statement on App Store hacking iPhone 4 stop-motion disassembly video Apple lying about the App Store hacking issue? iPhone 4 flash light How to install Flash on the iPad Turn your iPad into a DivX movie player How to tether the iPhone 4 iPhone 4 catches on fire When will the next iOS update come out? AT&T data rates in Mexico are outrageous App Store hacked again How to use your iPhone 4 data plan on your iPad Confessions of a jailbreaker with no jailbreak

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?

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.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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.