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 Share Your iPhone Pictures in Full Resolution

Sébastien Page ∙ November 13, 2009

There are 2 ways to share your iPhone pictures via email or MMS but one is better than the other because it does not compress the images and keep them in their original size and resolution.

Method 1: The first way is to simply go to the photo application and type "share". This will ask you if you want to share via email or MMS. Whatever you decide, it will compress the picture to 800x600, reducing the quality of the image.

Method 2: The better way to do it if you want to preserve the quality of your images is to "copy" (not "share") the image, then manually launch the mail or MMS app, and paste the image into it. This way, your images will not be automatically resized and should be 1600x1200.

By using the second method, your MMS or email will take longer to be sent out, but at least it will be a full quality image.

If you have other simple tips like this, feel free to let me know.

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5 Hidden iPhone Features for People With Vision or Hearing Disabilities

Sébastien Page ∙ November 12, 2009

As I was playing around my iPhone settings a couple of days ago, I discovered a few options I had never seen before. I might be a little late and maybe you guys already know about that but I'd like to share these findings with you anyway.

These hidden features are in Settings > General > Accessibility. While they would appear useless to most iPhone users, they are very helpful for people with hearing or vision disabilities. I know for sure I had been in this area of the settings before but for some reason I didn't notice them all.

Note that these features may be available for iPhone 3GS users only. Also note that when you try to grab a screenshot by of these features in action, it simply doesn't work, which is why I took these bad pictures...

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CyDialer Brings Contacts Coverflow to Your iPhone Lockscreen

Sébastien Page ∙ November 11, 2009

CyDialer is a new application by Saurik, the developer of Cydia, that aims to bring coverflow-like contact management to your iPhone lockscreen. Instead of launching your phone.app and going to the contacts, you can directly flick through your contacts on your lockscreen.

FSM gives a pretty good description of how CyDialer works:

Installing from Cydia, the preferences are accessed from the settings app and you select from them just like Winterboard (another Saurik creation). When exiting, it resprings and you are presented with your favorites (from the phone app) on the lockscreen. You can choose to have your wallpaper showing and a click of the home button, the favorite are there, scrollable just like cover flow from iTunes. Or you can choose to have the contacts show and dismiss with a tap of the home button. Chances of pocket dialing have been minimized by having a 2 step process to actually make the call. Tap the favorite, then slide to dial. Nice and easy.

According to Saurik, what sets CyDialer aside from other similar extensions is the attention to detail and quality of the app. The interface is designed to blend and integrate smoothly  into the lockscreen, and to be easily maintained as Apple releases firmware updates.

I haven't tested CyDialer myself, but it sure looks like a great app (and a good compliment to Cyntact. CyDialer is available from Cydia for $1.74.

What do you think of this app? Have you tried it yet?

Image: iHackinT0sh

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Twidget: Get Twitter on Your iPhone LockScreen

Sébastien Page ∙ November 10, 2009

Twidget is a new application available in Cydia that will display your Twitter stream on your iPhone lockscreen.

To install Twidget, simply go to Cydia and search for "Twidget". There are several versions available. I installed the simple version hosted on iSpazio.

After installing Twidget, launch the app and enter your Twitter credentials then go to WinterBoard to activate the widget.

WinterBoard will automatically respring your springboard and you should now see you Twitter stream.

From the lockscreen, you'll be able to see your friends' tweets, your own, your @replies and your favorites.

I installed this app just to test it and I uninstalled it right away because I suspect it to be a battery killer. I might be wrong though, so feel free to correct me if that's the case.

Still, I think it's a great application for all Twitter addicts out there.

What do you think of this widget?

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UltraSn0w iPhone Unlock Updated to Fix Missing Carrier Logo

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 16, 2017

The Dev Team updated UltraSn0w from 0.91 to 0.92 to fix the missing carrier logo. Those of you who unlocked using PwnageTool + UltraSn0w noticed the disappearance of the carrier logo. While this was just an "aesthetic bug", the core functionality of UltraSn0w (the unlock) was not altered in any way.

A short update was given on the Dev Team blog earlier today:

Today we released an ultrasn0w update that fixes an issue for those running firmware 3.1.2 with the 04.26 baseband.  That specific combination resulted in a missing carrier name in the upper left-hand corner of your home screen.  Today’s ultrasn0w update from 0.91 to 0.92 fixes that problem (which was an important issue for roaming). You should see the update available if you have http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com as a Cydia source.  Enjoy!

According to AIS, the carrier logo has been fixed for the following countries: USA, Thailand, Austria, Trinidad, Germany, China, Kuwait, Serbia, Poland, France, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Ireland, UK, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Malaysia, Hungary, The Netherlands, Bahamas, Jamaica, India, Israel, Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Denmark, Costa Rica, Italy, Chile and Argentina.

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How to Fix Wifi Connection Issues After Unlocking Your iPhone With BlackSn0w

Sébastien Page ∙ November 6, 2009

Many people are experiencing various issues after unlocking their iPhone with BlackRa1n and BlackSn0w.

Here are some of the problems you may have encountered:

No 3G or Edge Can't connect to wifi Problems with YouTube No push notifications

There are 2 possible solutions for this.

The first fix is to reset your network settings. On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. After resetting your settings, make sure to reboot your iPhone. It is very important to reboot or else, the changes won't take effect.

A few people told me on Twitter that this didn't work but resetting ALL the settings then rebooting did work. So try this if the first fix didn't work.

The second fix is pretty simple too but it does require you to have an Internet connection. From your iPhone, go to Cydia and add this new source http://cydia.iphoneil.net.

After adding this source, search for an app called Push Fix and install it. Reboot your iPhone and you should be good to go.

If the problems persist, I suggest taking more drastic measures by restoring your iPhone. I know, I know, restoring is not fun but it's always a good thing to do when nothing else works.

If you choose to restore your iPhone, make sure you set it up as a new phone. Do not "restore from backup" as this would bring back some of the bad settings that caused your issues in the first place.

If you tried all of these fixes and you're still experiencing issues, then I'm not sure what else to tell you.

If you found another fix, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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How to Tether Your iPhone 3.1.2

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

With the release of BlackSn0w, it is now possible to tether your iPhone running OS 3.1.2.

For those of you who don't know what tethering is, it basically allows you to use your iPhone as a modem in order to share the internet connection with a computer. For example, this post was written on my laptop while tethering my iPhone in Los Angeles airport.

UPDATE: This post is outdated. For the latest information about tethering your iPhone, please visit this page.

Step 1: Unlock your iPhone using BlackSn0w. See my BlackSn0w tutorial.

Step 2: From your iPhone, navigate to help.benm.at, hit  tethering, choose your country and carrier, hit download, then hit Install.

Step 3: Reboot your iPhone.

Step 4: Go to Settings > General > Network > Internet Tethering and turn it on.

You're done!

You should now be able to tether your iPhone, either via bluetooth or USB.

Pretty simple, isn't it?

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How to Change Your iPhone Root Password

Sébastien Page ∙ November 4, 2009

You may have heard the story a few days ago of a hacker who took a few iPhone owners hostages andpretty much blackmailed them into paying a fee.

For those of you who don't know the story, here is a quick summary, courtesy of Gizmodo.

Apparently all that it took to terrify many Dutch iPhone users was a "trivial" port scanning technique and "a modicum of networking know-how." After the hacker gained access to the jailbroken phones with unchanged root passwords and SSH enabled, he sent the pictured message which led to a demand for a €5 PayPal payment and words of caution:

If you don't pay, it's fine by me, but remember, the way I got access to your iPhone can be used by thousands of others-they can send text messages from your number (like I did), use it to call or record your calls, and actually whatever they want, even use it for their hacking activities! I can assure you, I have no intention of harming you or whatever, but, some hackers do! It's just my advice to secure your phone.

How to prevent any hacker to hijack your iPhone? Simply change the root password!

How to change your iPhone root password:

Step 1: If you haven't installed MobileTerminal yet, go to Cydia and look for "MobileTerminal" and install the app, then reboot your iPhone.

Step 2: Lanch MobileTerminal and type su and hit return.

Step 3: You will be asked to enter your current password. Your default password is alpine so, type alpine and hit return.

Step 4: You are now inside your iPhone. We are now going to change the root password. Type passwd and hit return. Make sure you type passwd correctly.

Step 5: You will be aske to enter a new password. Type whatever you want for your new password and hit return.

Step 6: You will be asked to enter your new password again. Do that and hit return.

That's it. You have successfully changed your iPhone root password. Make sure you don't forget it!

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BlackSn0w Unlock Now Available on Cydia

Sébastien Page ∙ November 3, 2009

If you jailbroke your iPhone using PwnageTool or if you uninstalled the BlackRa1n app from your iPhone but still want to unlock your iPhone 3.1.2 with baseband 05.11.07, then read on.

You can download BlackSn0w from Cydia and unlock your iPhone this way.

Simply add the following repo in Cydia: blackra1n.com.

Then in Cydia, look for BlackSn0w. Install the application and reboot your iPhone.

Congrats, your iPhone is now unlocked!

Other tutorials of interest:

Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3 Unlock iPhone 3.1.2 with BlackSn0w

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any question.

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Tutorial: Unlock iPhone 3.1.2 with BlackSn0w

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 31, 2010

It's official, BlackSn0w is out and available for download. BlackSn0w is not a standalone app. BlackSn0w is part of  Blackra1n RC3.

People who accidentally locked their iPhone on baseband 05.11.07 will now be able to unlock their iPhone using BlackSn0w.

This step by step guide and tutorial will show you how to unlock your iPhone OS 3.1.2 baseband 05.11.07 with BlackSn0w.

If you just want to jailbreak your iPhone and are not interested in unlocking, refer to my BlackRa1n RC3 tutorial.

This BlackSn0w iPhone unlock tutorial will work on both Mac and PC.

In this tutorial, I will assume that your iPhone is currently not jailbroken or unlocked.

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Tutorial: Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3

Sébastien Page ∙ November 3, 2009

Ealier today, GeoHot unveiled BlackRa1n RC3, his latest jailbreak for iPhone OS 3.1.2. BlackRa1n RC3 is very similar to RC1 and RC2. The difference is that RC3 includes BlackSn0w, the unlock for iPhone baseband 05.11.07.

This step by steps guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak your iPhone OS 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3. The steps are strictly identical to BlackRa1n RC1 and BlackRa1n RC2 but I figured it might be good to write a tutorial for novices.

This BlackRa1n RC3 iPhone jailbreak tutorial will work on both Mac and PC. If you already jailbroke your iPhone using BlackRa1n RC1 or RC2, there is no need for you to run BlackRa1n again.

How to jailbreak iPhone firmware 3.1.2 with BlackRa1n RC3:

Step 1: Update iTunes to the latest version available and reboot your computer. If your iPhone is not running OS 3.1.2, update your iPhone to firmware 3.1.2 in iTunes.

Step 2: Download BlackRa1n RC3 from our iPhone Downloads page.

Step 3: Plug your iPhone to your computer and make sure iTunes is closed. Run BlackRa1n RC3 and click on "make it ra1n".

Step 4: Your iPhone will enter recovery mode and you will see the usual recovery image replaced by a picture of GeoHot.

Step 5: BlackRa1n will run on your iPhone and it will reboot when done.

Step 6: A message will show up asking to donate. If your jailbreak is successful, I think it's the right thing to do to donate $5 or more. It's a good way to keep GeoHot motivated.

Step 7: After your iPhone has rebooted, you will notice a new BlackRa1n icon on your springboard. Make sure you have an internet connection and launch BlackRa1n.app on your iPhone.

Step 8: You will now have the option to install Cydia, Rock, or both if you choose to, then tap "install". You will also notice that Icy is gone and it's been replaced by "sn0w". Run "sn0w" only if you want to unlock your iPhone.

Step 9: Once the packages are installed, your iPhone will respring and you should see Cydia (and Rock if you chose it) on your springboard.

Step 10: Once Cydia and/or Rock are installed on your springboard, you can now uninstall BlackRa1n from your iPhone. Uninstalling BlackRa1n will obviously not remove the jailbreak. It will simply remove the BlackRa1n.app that was used to install the packages. To do so, simply launch the BlackRa1n.app and select "uninstall BlackRa1n".

Step 11: After uninstalling BlackRa1n, I suggest you reboot your iPhone.

Done!

The whole process shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. It definitely is an easy jailbreak.

If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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