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.

10 iPhone Apps for Travelers

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

The iPhone is one of the most popular devices that has been made in the last decade and there are now literally thousands of applications designed for it. But with all of those apps to choose from, which ones are best to make sure you take with you on your travels?

Take a look at this list of some of the 10 most powerful iPhone applications available for you to download today.

1. Cheap Gas! (Free) Cheap Gas! helps you locate the lowest priced gas closest to wherever you're at and then display a map showing you the specific location. The application utilizes the built-in GPS feature to discover the ten nearest gas stations with the lowest prices according to GasBuddy.com. You even have the option to search based on zip code and determine whether the fuel is unleaded, premium unleaded, or diesel.

2. ExpenseBay (Free) Developed by Expense Cloud, this application removes the demand to maintain an actual collection of receipts and bills gathered throughout your travels, which puts a stop to any potential misplaced reimbursements. You can easily add transactions and receipt images to your ExpenseBay.com account in a matter of a few clicks, and also modify existing expenses that still require to be billed to a client or submitted for reimbursement.

3. GateGuru (Free) GateGuru is an application that provides intricate detail about services available at different gates at more than 80 major airports in the United States, as well as several others throughout the world. This application is extremely useful when you want to get a quick bite prior to boarding your flight and you're not familiar with the airport.

4. HopStop (Free) Similar to the website service available at HopStop.com, this particular application offers in depth public transportation directions and advice. Regardless of whether you are journeying by bus, subway, cab, or even walking, this iPhone application will enable you to get to exactly where you are heading.

5. Flight Track ($4.99) Flight Track monitors every part of your domestic and international flights together with live updates and gorgeous, zoomable maps. Examine gate numbers, flight delays and cancellations for more than 5,000 airports worldwide.

6. FlightCaster ($1.99) This app uses an innovative formula that tracks information on every single domestic flight within the last decade and then matches it to current conditions to predict delayed flights. At the moment FlightCaster only supports U.S. domestic flights.

7. Free Wi-Fi Finder (Free) Free Wi-Fi Finder does exactly as the name implies. No matter where you are in the world, it will use both your iPhone's GPS feature and network capabilities to to uncover free Wi-Fi Internet access.

8. SitOrSquat (Free) SitOrSquat allows you to track down the closest restrooms nearest to your present location. You can check out close by restrooms on the map or in a list categorized by distance and see which ones are open for use. Not only that, but you can read reviews and ratings, and even see photos of the toilets so that you know what awaits you.

9. AroundMe (Free) Developed by TweakerSoft, AroundMe easily determines your location and helps you pick the closest bank, gas station, hospital, hotel, restaurant, supermarket, and so on. You can view a comprehensive listing of all of the businesses inside the chosen category and see how far they are from where you are at.

10. Urbanspoon (Free) Urbanspoon uses a unique slot machine system that determines a high quality restaurant that you can try when you're hungry, but not sure what exactly to eat. Just shake your iPhone until you find a suggestion that suits your tastes. After locating the restaurant, you can read ratings and even compare your choices with friends. At the moment it is available in most cities in North America, along with London, Melbourne, and Sydney.

This is a guest post by Melissa Tamura. Melissa ranks online schools for the Zen College Life Directory. She most recently wrote about becoming a Massage Therapist.

Make Your iPhone Icons Smaller With Shrink

Sébastien Page ∙ May 11, 2010

Shrink is a new application available in Cydia that lets you size down your iPhone icons in order to fit more on the screen. Well, at least that's what it says in the description as I was not able to fit more than 4 icons per row, but I might be missing something.

After installing Shrink from Cydia, simply go to your Settings.app. From there, you can reduce the size of your iPhone icons to up to 25% of the actual size (see screenshot).

The good thing is that Shrink is fully compatible with WinterBoard and InfiniDock. The downside is that it also shrinks your badges, making it almost impossible to see how many unread emails you have, for example.

All in all, I think Shrink does a pretty good job at reducing the size your icons, if that's what you're looking for. If not, then save yourself $0.99, which is the price to download Shrink in Cydia.

Have you tried Shrink? What do you think about it?

Featured iPhone Theme: iAwesome

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 16, 2017

I found out about a very nice theme called iAwesome thanks to AIS so I wanted to share it with you.

iAwesome is a WinterBoard theme that contains 304 redesigned icons (though all icons are modded… more to come on that), wallpaper, status bar, lock screen wallpaper, lock screen battery, badges, pop-ups and quite a few UI mods.

The nice thing about this theme is that it contains an icon overlay which means that all icons are modded… not just icons that have been designed for the theme. If you go into the App Store, you will see that even the icons in the AppStore are modded with the overlay.

What do you think of this theme?

Turn Your iPhone Into A Fan

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 11, 2018

Want to turn your iPhone into a fan? There's an app accessory for that! Actually, German company HMB Tech has enough original accessories to make Inspector Gadget jealous.

For 20 Euros, my favorite is the iPocketFan for iPhone.

But HMB Tech as something for everyone:

LED Pocket Flashlight Laser pointer Thermometer Heart rate chest strap IR remote control Stethoscope Breath controller

Like Gizmodo says, "there's enough add-ons and apps here to open a doctor's surgery".

It's incredible what you can do with an iPhone. I think this is just the beginning. We're probably going to see more and more of these accessories in the future.

If you could create your own iPhone accessory, what would it be?

QuickLauncher: A Smart App Launcher for iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ May 9, 2010

Have you ever wished your iPhone was smart enough to figure out what apps you want to launch at any given time? If so, read on because QuickLauncher might be the right app for you.

QuickLauncher is a revolutionary launcher for your iPhone or iPod Touch that automatically learns what your most used apps are and shows you a SpringBoard-like view of them.

No more flicking through your springboard pages to find your most used applications, QuickLauncher knows them and sorts them out accordingly to allow you to quickly access them from anywhere.

For quick and easy access, you can configure the way you launch QuickLauncher with Activator.

QuickLauncher is available for download from Cydia. At $1.99, it's one of these simple apps that make a great productivity tool. If you try it, please tell us what you think by leaving a comment.

WiCarrier Displays Wifi Network in Status Bar

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 19, 2010

Earlier today I told you about FullForce, a new app by Ryan Petrich. Ryan is very prolific these days as he has yet another app available in Cydia.

Ryan's new application is WiCarrier, a very simple app that displays the name of the wifi network you're connected to in your status bar. Additionally, it can display your IP address as well.

After installing WiCarrier from Cydia, you will notice that if you're on wifi, your carrier name has been replaced by the name of the wifi network. If you tap on the network name, it will display your IP address.

While it's not a breakthrough app that will change your life, it's still a nice little tweak.

FullForce Forces Your iPhone Apps to Display in Full Screen Mode on iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 19, 2010

A few days ago I shared with you a hack to make your iPhone apps run in full screen mode on your iPad. This hack requires a few steps that might scare away those of you who don't feel like playing with the core files of applications.

Lucky for us, one of my favorite jailbreak developer, Ryan Petrich, created FullForce, an application that "force selects applications to show in full screen iPad mode, even if the developer hasn't certified them as compatible".

The result? Even if an application like Facebook can't be properly displayed in full screen mode on your iPad, FullForce will work its magic and make the app fit the whole screen without pixelizing it.

You can download FullForce from Cydia for free. Once installed, go to the settings.app and in the FullForce options, select the applications you want to force.

Note that FullForce doesn't work with all applications. Just like the hack, text based apps such as Facebook and Tweetie work best in full screen mode.

FullForce is developed specifically for iPad so it can safely be added to the list of iPad compatible jailbrak apps.

Android Running On iPhone 3G

Sébastien Page ∙ May 7, 2010

A couple weeks ago, iPhone hacker and Dev Team member PlanetBeing made the headlines when he successfully ran Android on an iPhone 2G.

With the help of other developers, PlanetBeing is back at it, this time showing us Android running on an iPhone 3G. In an article published on PC World, he explains the hack has come a long way since its initial release.

Now you can use the Android OS to browse the web and run any application that does not require audio support, as well as send and receive SMS text messages over the cell phone radio. [...]

We've also made several other improvements to the original port in this version. Along with many under-the-hood improvements and bug fixes, the Wi-Fi driver has been fleshed out with all the Android-specific extensions, making it more stable and reliable. We've also added an Android icon to the boot menu to make it more easily accessible.

If you feel up to the task, instructions on how to do this yourself will be published soon.

While this is still very buggy, PlanetBeing hopes to be able to release a stable and "usable" version of Android for your iPhone 2G or 3G soon. Will keep you posted!

[via Linux on iPhone]

How to Recover Pictures Deleted by Spirit

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Although Spirit is probably the easiest and fastest jailbreak ever, it does come with its share of problems. After jailbreaking their iDevice with Spirit, many people reported the loss of their pictures. This issue was fixed by Comex when he released an update to Spirit, but what happens to those of you who lost their pictures before the update?

I spotted an article that explains how to recover those missing pictures after jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad with Spirit. The process is pretty simple and it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

For this to work, you will have had to backup your iPhone or iPad before jailbreaking. If you did not backup your device before jailbreaking with Spirit, then this will not work for you.

How to recover deleted photos from your iPhone or iPad after jailbreaking with Spirit

Step 1: If you haven't already, install OpenSSH from Cydia.

Step2: Download iPhone Backup Extractor (for Windows 32 bit or 64 bit - for Mac OS X).

Step 3: Launch iPhone Backup Extractor. It will automatically find backups available on your machine. Select the right one.

Step 4: Navigate to Media/Media/DCIM and select this folder. Click next to save it on your computer.

Step 5: Using CyberDuck for Mac of WinSCP for Windows, SSH into your device.

To find your IP address, on your device, go to Settings > Wifi > Tap on the blue arrow of the network you're on. Username is root. Password is alpine

Step 6: Navigate to User/Media and replace the existing DCIM folder by the one you downloaded to your computer in step 4.

Step 7: Reboot your device.

Done! All your lost pictures after using Spirit should be recovered.

How to Mount An External Hard Drive on the iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Yes, you read it right, you can mount an external hard drive on your iPad. This hack isn't the easiest one to perform but it's not very complicated either. If you know your way around Terminal, SSH and the likes, you should be fine.

Maxwell Shay wrote a very good tutorial on how to mount an external hard drive to a jailbroken iPad. I haven't tried it myself but I wanted to share the info with you as I think it's a pretty nice accomplishment. You can read the full tutorial here.

If you try to add an external hard drive to your lovely iPad, let us know how it went by leaving a comment.

4 iPhone Games I’m Enjoying These Days

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

I'm not a big gamer at all. Until a month ago, the only games I had on my iPhone were Flight Control and Wildcard Pro Surfing. However, I've been traveling a lot lately and spending hours in planes made me develop a gaming habit.

Today, I'd like to share the few games I've been playing for the last few weeks. These games are not new, and you may very well have heard of them or even own them. If not, you may want to give them a try.

Street Fighter IV

I remember playing Street Fighter II when I was a kid. My cousin and I spend countless hours on arcade machines. I also remember doing not-so-nice things in order to finance our gaming, but that's another story...

I was a little skeptical about this game before downloading it because I thought the controls wouldn't work well on such a small screen. I was wrong. The controls are very good, and the game is fast. Favorite fighter: Ken!

At $9.99, Street Fighter IV is a no brainer for anyone who likes fighting games, or anyone who feels nostalgic about the good old days of Street Fighter II.

Doodle Jump

I had heard about Doodle Jump for a while but I had no idea what it was about. One day while I was bored in Vietnam, I decided to check out the game description in the App Store. It looked fun so I downloaded it.

Doodle Jump is by no means a technical game. It's actually quite simple, both in term of concept and design. Your goal is to jump from platform to platform without falling. The higher you go, the more points you score. Don't get fooled by this candid description. Doodle Jump is highly addictive.

At the time I'm writing this, my highest score is 70,967. And I spent more than 6 hours on it, jumping over 20,000 times (I got this information from the stats page of the game).

Priced at $0.99, Doodle Jump is a must-have for people who like killing time with simple, fun and addictive games.

Plants vs Zombies

I was told about this game by one of my Twitter friends who had warned me that Plants vs Zombies was another addictive game, and boy was he right.

The concept of the game is completely retarded: you must prevent zombies from entering your house (and eat your brains) by planting various types of plants, each of them having their own specific weapons. Yes I know, it sounds stupid, but you have to try it to see how fun it actually is.

The first time I played this game, I was sick in my hotel room in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Due to some strange and unusual allergy, I wasn't able to go out. I started playing Plants vs Zombies. After a while, I realized that I had been playing the game for 4 hours straight. For a non-gamer, I felt kinda bad.

I told my fiancée about this game but she wasn't really convinced it had potential to entertain her. The fact that I explained her that she had to grow sunflowers in order to get more sun to by more plants wasn't obviously the best way to turn her on this game. Then she finally decided to give it a try. Like me, she got hooked in no time.

Plants vs Zombies is priced at $2.99 and is a whole lot of fun. Get it now!

Need For Speed Undercover

Racing games are always fun! I was originally looking for a rally game but many of my Twitter buddies recommended I give NFSU a try, so I downloaded it and got in the spirit pretty quickly.

The game is fast and fairly easy to get your head around. At $4.99, it certainly ain't cheap but it is a very fun game to play. Warning: have your iPhone charger close by because NFSU will kill your batteries in no time.

What are you playing these days? Please take a minute to leave a comment and let us know what your favorite games of the moment are.

Official iPhone Unlock the Easy (But Expensive) Way

Sébastien Page ∙ May 6, 2010

You may have heard that in certain countries, carriers offer their customers the possibility to buy unlocked iPhones. These iPhones don't differ from yours. They have exactly the same hardware and exactly the same software.

How does this official unlock work?

The difference between a locked iPhone and an officially unlocked one is due to the IMEI number, a number unique to every phone (it's like a fingerprint if you want). When officially unlocked, your IMEI is added to an Apple database which authorizes the device for unlocking.

Fine, but how to add your IMEI to the database? Well, turns out there are some people out there who seem to have the right connections at the right companies. After doing some research, I found one of these companies. According to their website, they know people at T-Mobile Germany (which offers officially unlocked iPhones). You can just pay them a hefty $190 and they will submit your IMEI to T-Mobile, who will add you to the official iPhone unlock database.

Apparently, it takes somewhere from 4 to 25 days to get this done. Once the addition to the database is processed, you can simply connect your iPhone to iTunes, follow the prompts to install a new carrier settings update, and you should be good to go.

I contacted this company about a month ago to get more information but they never replied to me, which is why I don't bother mentioning their name in this article.

Two days ago I talked to one of my friends who owns a mobile store in France. He's in the process of being approved by Apple to resell the iPhone so I asked him if he would be able to provide this official unlocking service to his future Apple customers. He told me he wouldn't take the risk but he said that he knows a few store around town that can do it for you for about $100.

It sure is expensive but the main benefit is that this iPhone unlock is permanent. Unlike some of the software unlocks such as UltraSn0w or BlackSn0w, you’ll be able to update your iPhone firmware without losing your unlock.

Would you be willing to pay nearly between $100 and $200 for an official unlock?