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.

Your iPhone As A Numeric KeyPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

As much as you may love your MacBook, you have to admit that the lack of a numeric keypad can sometimes be a pain in the ass, especially when typing credit card numbers or playing around with Excel.

A simple yet brilliant solution is now available so you can use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a wireless numeric keypad. First you will have to install the Balmuda's Numberkey Connect software on your Mac, and then download the Numberkey app [iTunes Link] from the App Store.

This is only available for Mac so far but I can see it coming to a PC near you soon enough...

[TechnaBob]

Hand Grip iPhone Charger

Sébastien Page ∙ November 18, 2008

I say it's a fake but I might be wrong. Look at the shape of the iPhone. Mine doesn't have such rounded corners. Also look at the time... 4:20! What do you say? Real or fake?

SBSettings v1.0.1

Sébastien Page ∙ November 17, 2008

SBSettings brings the concept of toggle and app launch directly from the springboard, giving you the ability to launch it no matter what apps is running by just sliding your fingers across the status bar. The drop screen appears with docked icons like 3G, Wifi and SSH. These toggles are green when enabled and red when disabled. There is also quick access to hiding icons, respringing, restarting, and features like the "Apple kill switch", etc...

With 1990+ downloads in one day, SBSettings is one of Cydia's top apps.

With v1.0.1, you can move important toggles on the springboard where they are always available instantly while other apps are running.

New changes:

Add icon to dock Added theme support Home button now closes the window Disabled entirely on lock screen (this one was annoying)

SBSettings is available for free on Cydia. After installing it, you won’t find any icon on your screen but just slide your fingers across the status bar to make it appear.

MCallShow tells you more about who’s calling you

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 31, 2018

A new application is available since this morning in Cydia called MCallShow, brought to you by the developers of MCleaner. MCallShow is a call information enhancer that shows the location data of the incoming or outgoing call.

So when you call someone who's not in your contact list, instead of just showing the phone number, your iPhone will also display the location you're calling. I guess this feature is more useful for incoming calls.

The downside of this app... Well first, it's a paid app and although you can try it free for 15 days, it will then cost you $5. Second, the company is in China. I don't have anything against Chinese but a few bad experiences on eBay taught me to be careful about doing any type of business with people located in China. Lastly, it seems that MCallShow requires quite a bit of work on your end to set it up properly.

I didn't get to try this application and I would love to hear from anyone who has. Let us know in the comments...

Poll: Is Your iPhone Jailbroken?

Sébastien Page ∙ November 16, 2008

Please take 10 seconds of your time to take this poll. I am curious to see what percentage of this blog's readers have jailbroken their iPhone and what percentage doesn't. If you haven't jailbroken your phone and don't want to do it, please tell us why in the comments. Thank you.

iRealSMS has potential… if only it didn’t mess up my iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

A new application called iRealSMS 2.0 is available since this morning in Cydia. Earlier this week I had reviewed mySMS and was really impressed with it so I decided to give a try to iRealSMS too. Looking at some of the features available, I was already salivating over iRealSMS...

FULL app in Landscape Mode Your SMS messages organized in folders: Inbox, Drafts, Templates, Outbox, Sent Saving messages as drafts or templates Search messages by sender's name and text Reply, forward and delete individual messages Delete all messages or delete per folder Big text field - both for reading and writing SMS Turn on/off keyboard autoCorrection and autoCapitalization Automatically request sent notification via notification code SMS alerts can be deactivated -> no "new SMS" alerts Adding contact details to SMS

I hurried to install iRealSMS on my iPhone and finally launched the app. Right away I was welcome with a "this is a demo verion" message asking me to register. I chose the "demo version" to try it out and another message popped up saying that since I chose the demo version, features will be limited. Ok, I can understand that, no problem.

I finally get passed all the messages and I am now fully ready to try iRealSMS. However, I got immediately turned off by the limitations of the demo version. All my SMS showed as "demo" so I was really unable to read any text message. Very unconvenient, even for just a demo version.

Not discouraged yet, I started playing with the app anyways and explore a little more these features. You can view your SMS in conversation mode or in a timeline, which is actually my preferred mode. Once you've viewed a text message, you can forward this text message or simply delete it. So far, so good.

A very interesting feature is that you can search your SMS. Let's say you have 1,000 of them in your inbox and you're looking for this girl's number that your friend texted you 3 weeks ago, simply start typing what you're looking for and it will display search results. That has to be one of my favorite features on this app.

The landscape typing mode is very neat too. Nothing revolutionary on this side but it's nice to be able to type in landscape mode. The typing mode also allows you to easily insert the contact info of one of your contacts in the text message. Let's say you want to text your friend's address to one of your friends, simply tap the "insert" button and it takes you to to your contacts. From there, choose the appropriate contact and select what info (email, phone number or address) you want to insert in the text. This is also a great feature!

I was very annoyed by this demo version though. It crashed on me once but the most annoying thing is that I couldn't read my text messages. "Oh well" I said to myself, "let's try to send a text message"... That's when the trouble started for me.

I typed my text message and tapped "send". It took a few seconds and then it gave me an error message saying that it couldn't send the text message due to some error. Mm... ok... not good! I tried again. Same thing. I exit the app and go to the native SMS app and I try to send a text message from there. That's when something I had never seen before happened. It showed that I had -1 text message (see image below). What is that supposed to mean? -1? I can understand "0 text message" but I can't figure out what "-1" means...

I wasn't able to send text messages from my native SMS app either and I started to freak out thinking that iRealSMS had messed up my iPhone. I rebooted the phone and I now had "-2 text messages" showing up on my iPhone. WTF? I was still unable to send text messages. I then decided to clear all my SMS messages hoping it would help. It did. I deleted all my SMS and doing this made the "-2 text messages" disappear and most importantly I was now able to send text messages again.

After that, I launched Cydia and uninstalled iRealSMS. I went to the company's website and realized the app was for sale for 10 Euros (about $13). If you want my opinion, it's way too expensive for taking the risk to mess up your iPhone. I am kind of disappointed because this application seemed to have great potential. All the features available in iRealSMS are great and I would use most of them on a daily basis but I do think it is too expensive and that I'd rather keep my iPhone safe. Hopefully a future update will clear this issue I had, and maybe give less limitation to what you can do with the demo version.

DIY iPhone Speakers

Sébastien Page ∙ November 16, 2008

These speakers could have easily been designed by MacGyver but it's designer Dmitry Zagga who came out with this brilliant, yet simple idea. Made out of 2 cups, 2 toothpicks and a set of earplugs, these DIY iPhone speakers won't compete with your real speakers but it will certainly increase the volume of your earbuds; the sound being magnified due to the shape of the cup. More pictures after the break.

iPhone Bacon Case. Yes, I Said Bacon Case

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

I am always amazed at how creative people can be. I mean, there are some people out there saying "I'm gonna create the first iPhone bacon case", and they actually do it. That's what German website Dawanda came up with and the good news is it can be yours for the price of 25 Euros.

Doesn't it look real? More pictures after the jump.

Subscribe to our RSS feed

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

A quick post to suggest that you subscribe to our RSS feed either via a reader (such as Google Reader) or via email.

I personally use NewsGator as my RSS reader. To me it is much better than Google Reader which looks messy. The mobile version of Newsgator is just perfect too as it was designed to fit your iPhone screen. To date, I am subscribed to 99 feeds.

Subscribe to our RSS feed!

TheMonkeysBall.com shut down for good. Website now up for sale

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 17, 2012

It took a while to Apple's lawyers to find out and do something about TheMonkeysBall.com but they finally did it. They finally got this site shut down for uber massive copyright infringement.

For those of you who don't know, TheMonkeysBall.com was the reference in matter of cracked iPhone apps. The website offered a gigantic library of cracked ipa files, making it the preferred destination for anyone who didn't want to spend a dime on iPhone apps.

Wyze, the owner, explains:

Well, Apple, it took you long enough to find us. We're sure Mr. Haklab will take credit for this and all we have to say to that is that it took you long enough. We had a good run and honestly we are surprised we lasted this long. We don't want to move servers again to another country to avoid DMCA as we've lost interest since the site first launched.

The site is now up for sale. I doubt you can do anything with such a URL but who knows...

American Airlines Introduces Mobile Boarding Passes. Amen!

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated July 24, 2016

It took a long time to the airlines to figure out that you can use your iPhone (or any mobile device for that matter) as a boarding pass. American Airlines is now the first airline to officially offer mobile boarding passes at a few airports but it shouldn't take long for this to be available at all airports, across all airlines.

I tried several times to show my iPhone as a boarding pass at the gate and it never worked. They always told me that was not approved so I had to show them the paper version. I'm always annoyed at having to print all these boarding passes and itineraries (note: I travel quite a bit, both domestically and internationally). I mean, I have my iPhone in my pocket and it is so much more convenient to show your iPhone screen rather than looking in your backpack for the right piece of paper.

Is this hassle going to be over soon? Yes! American Airlines started to make this mobile boarding pass option available to people who travel from Chicago O'Hare Airport, LAX, and John Wayne Airport, and it is leading the way for all other airlines.

From American Airlines website:

When you are traveling on select itineraries from Chicago O'Hare (ORD), Los Angeles International (LAX) and Santa Ana John Wayne/Orange County (SNA) airports, you now have the option to have your boarding pass sent directly to your mobile phone or other mobile device – saving paper and time. Eligible itineraries include non-stop flights with only one passenger listed in the record locator*. Follow the easy steps below for your next applicable flight from ORD, LAX or SNA:

How to use the new Mobile Boarding Pass

1. Check in on AA.com (or AA.com Mobile). Choose "Email for use on Cell Phone or other Mobile Device" option and include the e-mail address for your web-enabled mobile phone and/or mobile device.

2. Check your email from your mobile device. Follow the link on the email to retrieve your Mobile Boarding Pass.

3. Save the boarding pass to your device. Click the "Save Boarding Pass" button directly below the barcode to save it to your phone for easy access at the security checkpoint (check your phone/PDA manual to locate where the Boarding Pass will save).

4. Proceed to Security. When you arrive at security, make sure the entire barcode is visible on the screen of your mobile phone or mobile device and have the backlight setting set to the brightest mode possible. If you have any problems, you will be given the opportunity to print a paper boarding pass at the self-service machines.

The new boarding passes are now available for Chicago O'Hare outbound flights and will become available for Los Angeles and John Wayne outbound flights starting on November 17.

I do believe this is just the beginning. Soon, all airlines will offer this feature and to be honnest, I am surprised that SouthWest or Virgin America haven't figured this one out yet...

I also believe that more places will let you use your iPhone as a "pass", such as hotels, restaurants, car rentals and much more.

Props to American Airlines!

Via Mobility Site

Tatomic: an original action puzzle game for your iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

VGViews, an independent games development company, has released its first title for the iPhone – Tatomic [iTunes Link].

Tatomic is an original action puzzle game that is fun, addictive and really hard to put down once you start playing.

The basic premise of Tatomic is simple. Connect pairs of atoms into colored chains to make them explode and disappear. You earn point bonuses by clearing multiple chains at once. The amount of atoms to clear a chain changes with each level, and so does the game speed.

The game features original music, and state of the art graphics and animation.

Tatomic is available from the App Store for $4.99 | Download