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.

Everything You Need to Know About iPhone OS 4

Sébastien Page ∙ April 8, 2010

Today was a big day for Apple. As we told you about earlier this week, they were holding an event on their campus about the future of iPhone OS. Steve Jobs was here to lead the presentation, which as usual started by throwing some big numbers in our face (450,000 iPad sold, over 600,000 books downloads, 3.5 million iPad apps downloaded, 185,000 apps in the App Store, etc...).

After making the crowd go WOW for a few minutes, Steve-o, loyal to himself, started the presentation about iPhone OS 4.

Here is everything you need to know about iPhone OS 4 (all images are compliments of gdgt):

iPhone OS 4, will come with many many new features. With over 1,500 new APIs for devs, chances are there will be a little something for everyone.

Although iPhone OS 4 will come with hundreds of new features, the presentation was focused on 7 of them.

How to Turn Your iPhone Into An iPad Camera

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

It's too bad that a great device like the iPad doesn't have a camera. Fortunately, there's an app that will turn your iPhone into an iPad camera. It's not the perfect solution, but it should do the job...

All you need to use your iPhone as a camera for iPad is the Camera for iPad app. After installing the app on your iPad and iPhone, simply launch it on both devices and they will find each other via Bluetooth. Your iPad will then show what your iPhone camera is seeing.

Intuitive controls let you zoom with a pinch or rotate with a swipe. You can just tap the button to take a high resolution photo that is saved onto your iPad.

Camera for iPad isn't just for the iPad! You can connect an iPhone to an iPod Touch, or even connect one iPhone to another, and choose which is the sender and which is the receiver.

Camera for iPad is available from the App Store for $0.99. While I haven't personally tried the app, MichaelB who tipped me on this confirms it works like a charm.

What do you think?

Apple to Unveil iPhone OS 4.0 On Thursday

Sébastien Page ∙ April 5, 2010

Engadget got words that Apple announced an iPhone 4.0 event that will be held on Thursday where the company will give a "sneak peak into the future of iPhone OS".

A few months ago, I wrote about 28 features I would like to see in OS 4.0 and I'm pretty sure the big news of the event will be around:

multitasking theming ability to save attachments unified inbox better iPod library management and more...

These are just a few of my predictions. We'll see how much I'm right/wrong. I'll be staying up late here in Vietnam so I can give you a run down of the new OS as soon as it is unveiled.

In the meantime, tell us what you would like to see in iPhone OS 4.0.

iPad Jailbreak Video

Sébastien Page ∙ April 4, 2010

It didn't take too long for the jailbreak community to come up with a jailbreak for the iPad. Last week I told you about Spirit, a jailbreak for iPhone 3.1.3, and today, MuscleNerd confirmed the iPad jailbreak using a variation of Spirit, originally developed by Comex.

Even better news is that this jailbreak can also be applied to every platform including the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3G, and potentially to the iPad 3G.

Credit goes where it's due. This iPad jailbreak is a cross-team effort by @chronicdevteam, @comex, @chpwn, and the Dev Team.

If you were on the fence about buying an iPad, this might just be the reason you were looking for.

There is no estimated release date for this jailbreak. My guess is that these smart hackers will wait for iPhone OS 3.2, so Apple doesn't patch the firmware and render this jailbreak useless.

How exciting!

iPhone News You Missed This Week

Sébastien Page ∙ April 4, 2010

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

So long iPhone screen protectors and thanks for nothing Remotely control your computer from your iPhone with Remote Jr. Spirit: a new jailbreak for 3.1.3 iRemix improves your iPod BlackBreeze: fix iTunes 9.1 and BlackRa1n issues on Windows Meet the new iPhone killer: iPhone HD iPhone user guide How to save your iPhone ECID SHSH WSJ chimes in on iPhone rumors When does your first gen iPhone become obsolete?

How to Save Your iPhone ECID SHSH

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 27, 2018

Every time a new iPhone firmware comes out, many of us accidentally update their device to the latest OS, making it impossible to jailbreak/unlock, or even downgrade to an earlier version.

In order to have a shot at downgrading your iPhone, you must have your ECID SHSH on file on Saurik's server, just in case Apple stops signing the older firmware version, just like it did a few weeks ago with 3.1.2.

How to Save Your ECID SHSH

Note that this is only valid for iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 2G/3G. iPhone 3G owners are not concerned as they can downgrade the firmware (not the baseband).

The Easy Way

If like me you are lucky and you launch Cydia and see that "this device has SHSHs on file for iPhone OS: 3.0, 3.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3", then you don't have anything to do. I have these 4 SHSHs on file but it's ok if you only have the latest SHSH on file. At the time I am writing this, the latest firmware is 3.1.3 so to date, you should make sure you have at least the SHSH for 3.1.3.

The Other Easy Way

If you don't see this message then don't worry, just scroll down a bit on Cydia's homepage and look for the "make my life easier" button. Simply tap on it and your ECID SHSH will be automatically saved on Saurik's server. Close Cydia and launch it again. You should now have a message at the top saying your SHSH is on file.

You're good to go now! But remember that anytime a new firmware is available, do not update right away. Just wait until a new jailbreak is available.

iPhone User Guide

Sébastien Page ∙ April 1, 2010

The other day as I was trying to figure out how to add songs being played on the iPod to my on-the-go playlist, I landed on Apple's website.

As I was already bitching at Apple for not even bothering creating a mobile version of their website, I was positively surprised to see that they actually had an iPhone User Guide formatted for the iPhone.

I wasn't aware of this iPhone User Guide and even though it didn't solve my problem, I found it pretty interesting to browse for a while (I actually learned a new trick).

You can access the mobile version of the user guide by going to http://help.apple.com/iphone/.

I might be a little late on that one but if you haven't been there yet, it might be worth to go check it out. Now that I think about it, doesn't this iPhone User Guide comes with the stock Safari bookmarks of the iPhone?

BlackBreeze: How to Fix iTunes 9.1 and BlackRa1n Issues on Windows

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

With the release of iTunes 9.1, those of you on a Windows machine and an iPhone jailbroken with BlackRa1n RC3 might experience syncing issues. Fortunately, iH8Sn0w, the developer of Sn0wBreeze and F0recast has released a tool called BlackBreeze to fix this.

How to fix syncing issues between iTunes 9.1 and iPhone jailbroken with BlackRa1n RC3:

Step 1: Create a new folder on your desktop and download BlackRa1n.exe and BlackBreeze to it.

Step 2: Launch BlackBreeze and click on Fix my Ra1n! and select the BlackRa1n.exe file you downloaded in step 1.

Step 3: BlackBreeze will patch BlackRa1n and place a file called blackra1n-fixed.exe on your desktop.

Step 4: Execute blackra1n-fixed.exe to boot your tethered iPhone. Once done, you should be able to sync your jailbroken iPhone with iTunes 9.1 on Windows without any problem.

Thanks PhilT for the tip and the tutorial!

iRemix Considerably Improves Your iPod App

Sébastien Page ∙ March 31, 2010

Do you feel that the features of the iPod app of your iPhone or iTouch are limited? You're not alone. The other day as I was miserably stuck in a bus between Ninh Binh and Halong Bay in Vietnam, I was playing with my iPod and building an on-the-go playlist. I found it absolutely ridiculous that I couldn't add songs to the on-the-go playlist while playing the songs.

After doing a bit of research online (all this over the amazing Vietnamese 3G), I came across iRemix, a jailbreak app that aims at enhancing your iPod experience. iRemix is more a mod than an app per say. It integrates seamlessly with your iPod app, making it much better.

I was excited about iRemix because it was supposedly able to do what I wanted: easily add songs being played to the on-the-go playlist. But it also has other badass features:

Favorites: tap and hold on a song then add it to your favorites Bookmarks: tap the little bookmark icon to create a bookmark anywhere in a song or audiobook Quick add: quickly add songs to the on-the-go playlist Fast search: simple and powerful search feature Song info: easily get artist or album info. Also allows you to watch the video of the song as well as search for lyrics Enhanced FFW and REW: tap and hold the FFW or REW button to easily jump forward or backward by 15 s, 30 s, 1 min, or 5 minutes.

In the first image below, you can see the bookmarking feature, the "i" for information search, and the FFW/REW feature. Note that I added all of them for this screenshot but the screen doesn't normally look so busy. In the second image, you can see the "add to on-the-go" and "add to favorites" features.

These sounds like very simple features, don't they? Well, they are very basic but very powerful. So powerful that I suspect we will see some of them in iPhone OS 4.0.

iRemix is available from Cydia for $2.99 and comes with a 5-day trial period. This app is a no brainer for anyone looking to make enhance the iPod feature.

You might have already heard or even tried iRemix since it's not so new. If so, what do you think about this app?

Spirit – A New Jailbreak For iPhone 3.1.3

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 4, 2010

Just a few days after GeoHot released a video of a potential untethered jailbreak for 3.1.3, a new video by hacker Comex emerged on the internet showing a new userland jailbreak called Spirit.

UPDATE: Spirit has been released. You can see my Spirit jailbreak tutorial here.

A userland jailbreak is a browser-based jailbreak, similar to the good old JailbreakMe.com, which allows you to jailbreak your iPhone simply by visiting a site from Safari and agreeing to jailbreak your iPhone. If you used JailbreakMe.com before, you will probably remember how easy and quick it was. As for me, I remember going visit the Apple Store and jailbreak a bunch of iPhones on display for the heck of it...

Presumably, Spirit will work for every device on 3.1.3 with the newer bootrom, and potentially even the iPad. It's interesting to note that this is an untethered jailbreak.

For those of you that might be skeptical about this video, MuscleNerd confirmed that it is indeed a legit userland jailbreak.

The question on everybody's lips is when will this new jailbreak be available? Well, there is no ETA at the time. Now that Geohot has been challenged though, I suspect that he's going to rush to release his new jailbreak, which in turn will kinda force Comex to release his too. Only time will tell.

Send iPhone Apps As Gifts

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated July 6, 2017

Giving an iTunes gift card is cool, but I think it's even cooler to be able to give specific apps as gift, and that's what Apple just made possible.

According to Mashable, this new feature has come to the App Store, allowing you to gift specific iPhone apps to other users.

On the drop-down box on each application’s page (next to the “Buy” button) there’s now an option that says “Gift This App.” From that point, you then just enter in details like name, e-mail address and the message that you want to include.

Apparently this feature has been around forever and allowed you to gift music from iTunes. I wasn't aware of it until today. A pretty simple bu neat feature... What do you think? [Via Download Squad]

Why the Apple/Google Feud is Good for Us

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

A few months ago I wrote an article titled Apple Vs google: the war is on. As often, I saw things coming fast and the feud between Google and Apple is now a big deal. For those of us who have bad memory, here are a few events that heated up the rivalry between the two giants.

First, Google entered the mobile market with Android, competing with iPhone OS Then Google entered the browser market with Chrome, competing with Safari Now Google wants to enter the OS market with Google OS, competing with Mac OS Google CEO Eric Schmidt resigned from Apple's board Apple tried to buy mobile ad platform AdMob, to compete with Google Google outbid Apple and snatched AdMob Apple bought out PlaceBase, a company that does what Google Maps does Apple bought Lala in a hurry, lest Google buys it out first Apple bought digital ad agency Quattro Google enters the hardware business by making its own phone, directly competing with the iPhone

Both companies have lots of businesses overlapping each other and that's good for us. Google and Apple are now competing on the following grounds: hardware, software, advertising, location services, and probably more that I forgot.

I don't know if you realize this yet but this is the beginning of an amazing war between Google and Apple. Apple is not just a computer company anymore. In the same way, Google is not just a search engine anymore.

Why is the rivalry between Google and Apple good for consumers?

This war between Google and Apple is good for 2 main reasons. First, let's talk about innovation. When 2 (or more companies) fight for a market, one of the several ways they can outdo each other is by innovating. With Apple in the same room as Google, they won't have any choice but to provide users what they really want, and not slow down feature releases like Apple has been doing for a while.

Remember how we were waiting for copy/paste on the iPhone? Remember how we're still waiting for multitasking? Remember this shitty camera on the iPhone? Well this is a thing of the past. With new phones like the Nexus One delivering the quality that you might expect from such a device, Apple will have to come up with at least as good as Google.

The second reason this war between Google and Apple is good for consumers is that prices might go down just a bit. Apple is not the kind of company that sells cheap products. That's part of their marketing. They know people will pay more for quality product with a little apple on it.

However I believe that in the long run (I'm talking a few years from now), Apple will have no choice but reducing its prices to align its strategy on Google's.

I really don't think the price war is coming anytime soon. As I said above it will take a few years. But one thing I am sure of, it's that Apple will now move its butt and come up with an amazing iPhone 4.0 in a few months. They won't do that to please you. They will do that because Google leaves them no choice.

Go Apple, go Google. Beat each other up. We users are waiting to see what good is going to come out of your feud.

[Image: Business Week]