Tutorials

How to Turn Your iPhone Into A Remote Control

Sébastien Page ∙ December 4, 2009

Ever wanted to use your iPhone as a remote control for your TV, DVD player, and more? Well, I have! A few months ago I was really excited to write about UiRemote, an app + hardware solution to control your home electronics. At the time, the devs even offered to send me a beta version so I can try it out for myself. I'm still waiting for the product to be mailed, and quite honestly, I think their project died along the way.

RedEye on the other hand is not a beta and it is currently available to anyone willing to put the price into it. RedEye [iTunes Link] is a universal remote control solution that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a remote for any IR-equipped device in your home. In other words, it's an iPhone remote control for your TV, DVR, cable, home stereo, etc...

Engadget explains how it works:

The app itself is completely free to download, though it's the $188 base station that really makes the magic happen; your handheld talks to said dock via wifi, and if you've got an AV device, home automation system or pretty much anything that responds to IR signals, your iPhone can now control it.

Check out this video for a quick demo (2 more vids here and here).

This is a great idea even though it's not really new as Palm has been doing this for years without any extra hardware.

Everything about this sounds great, except maybe the price, which might be a deal breaker for most of us, especially since you can get a universal remote control from Best Buy for a fraction of this price. I also wonder why they had to make the dock so clunky. Adding an IR dongle to the iPhone seems it would have been a better solution.

All in all, I think it is a great piece of technology and even though I will definitely not buy a RedEye, I'm really glad that there are companies out there putting the effort into such developments. Now I wouldn't be surprised if Apple added an IR port to the iPhone in the future and sold the app at an hefty price...

What do you think about the RedEye iPhone remote control? Are you willing to pay nearly $200 for it or are you just gonna stick to your current set up?

Warning: Your iPhone is Under Attack! Here Are Instructions on How to Get Maximum Protection

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

Let's be honest, the iPhone has had a pretty long run without being the target of hackers and it's about time it gets its share of viruses and worms.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article showing you how to protect your iPhone against hackers. But what happens if you have already been infected? What are the symptoms and how to get rid of them?

In this article, I will show you how to figure out which worm (if any) has infected your iPhone, and how to get rid of it while making sure it never comes back.

This information was first compiled by Patrick Miller of PC World, and I adapted it for the purpose of this article.

Ikee

Ikee was the first virus to target the iPhone. The symptoms are pretty clear: it changes your wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley. So if you see a picture of a young man with the words "ikee is never gonna give you up", then look no further, you have been infected by the Ikee worm.

Thankfully, getting rid of Ikee is pretty simple. First you will have to download and install MobileTerminal from Cydia and reboot your iPhone. Then launch MobileTerminal and login with your username and password under your root account. If you haven't changed it yet (and you should), your username is "root" and your password is "alpine".

Now follow these commands. Everything is case sensitive so be very careful.

rm /bin/poc-bbot rm /bin/sshpass rm /var/log/youcanbeclosertogod.jpg rm /var/mobile/LockBackground.jpg rm /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.ikey.bbot.plist rm /var/lock/bbot.lock

These commands sometimes don't work. That means you are infected by an alternate version of Ikee. If that's the case, follow these commands instead:

rm /usr/libexec/cydia/startup rm /usr/libexec/cydia/startup.so rm /usr/libexec/cydia/startup-helper rm /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.saurik.Cydia.Startup.plist

Note that if you have to remove the 4 files above, you will have to reinstall Cydia.

iPhone/Privacy.A

The iPhone/Privacy.A is harder to detect because it doesn't leave any track on your iPhone. Instead, it can be installed on any computer (even Mac OS X) and it will scan all available networks in search of a vulnerable iPhone to infect.

In order to get rid of iPhone/Privacy.A, simply update and run your antivirus. It should have no problem detecting and deleting it.

Unnamed Worm

The last worm hasn't been named yet. You can easily figure out if you've been infected if your battery is running down abnormally quickly. The reason to this battery drain is that the worm is constantly running in the background in search of other iPhones to spread to over wifi. This one is pretty tricky too as it will change your default SSH password to prevent you from deleting it.

Unfortunately there is no easy fix for this unnamed worm. The only solution at the time is to restore your iPhone and set it up as a new phone (do not restore from backup).

How to Make Sure You Don't get Infected Again

The best way to make sure you don't get infected in the first place (or don't get infected again) is to change your iPhone root password. You may want to refer to this tutorial on how to do this.

I hope this information will be usefel those of you who have been infected, but hopefully you won't have to use it...

How to Enable Voice Control on iPhone 2G and 3G

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

This step-by-step guide and tutorial will show you how to enable the Voice Control feature on your iPhone 2G or iPhone 3G. It is pretty simple but it does require your iPhone to be jailbroken. If it's not, simply follow one of our jailbreak tutorials.

This hack will not get the "real" Voice Control to work on your iPhone but it will install the Vocalia app, which is basically a clone of Voice Control with a few differences.

As usual when performing any type of file tweaking on your iPhone, there is no warranty that it will work for you... That was for the disclaimer part...

How to Get Voice Control on iPhone 2G/3G:

10 Tips Every iPhone User Should Know

Sébastien Page ∙ November 19, 2009

Every once in a while I get asked about how to do something dead simple on the iPhone, such as moving icons around. To most of us, this is very basic stuff, but not everyone knows everything about the iPhone, which is why I decided to write a post with 10 tips and tricks.

Shake to Undo

When you are writing an email or a note, you can shake your iPhone to undo what you just wrote. If you just deleted some text from the note or the email, you can also shake to undo and it will bring back the text you accidentally deleted. Note that this feature works for every application that allows you to input text (ie SMS, Tweetie, etc...)

Quickly Silence or Send Incoming Call to Voicemail

If you are receiving a phone call you don't want to answer, you can press the power button or any volume buttons once to mute the ringing. Now if you want to send the person calling you directly to voicemail, simply press the power button twice.

Zooming on Images in Safari

To quickly zoom on an image in the Safari web browser, simply double tap on the image.

Zooming on Text in Safari

Just like you can zoom on images, you can zoom on text in Safari by double tapping it. If you are on a website with multiple columns (such as the New York Times website), it will zoom in the column, making it easy for you to read what's in it.

Save or Copy an Image

You can easily save images from virtually any application (ie Safari, Mail, Twitter app, etc...) by holding your finger on the image and selecting "Save Image" or "Copy". If you select to save the image, it will be saved in your camera roll.

Quickly Go Back to the Top of A Page

In any application, if you are scrolling down (ie scrolling down a web page in Safari) and you quickly want to go back to the top of the page, you don't have to scoll up. Simply tap the status bar (this is where the time is displayed) and it will take you all the way up the page.

Preview Links

When browsing a web page for example, you may see a link to another page. If you are curious to see where this links may take you without having to open it, simply put and hold your finger on it. It will show you the destination of the link, also giving you the opportunity to open it, open it in a new page or even copy the link.

Save Time Typing Domain Names

When you are in Safari and you want to go to another web page, you don't have to type the full URL. For example, if you want to go to https://www.idownloadblog.com from Safari, just type iphonedownloadblog and the "www." and ".com" will be added automatically.

Take a Screenshot

You can take a screenshot of any screen on your iPhone by simply holding the Power and Home button together. You will see your screen flashing and making the camera noise. The photo will be saved in your camera roll.

Add Your Favorite Websites to Your Springboard

If you have favorite sites that you visit all the time, it might be a good idea to add them to your springboard (the main screen where all the apps are). To do this, simply go to the webpage you want to add to your springboard, tap "+" at the bottom, and choose "Add to Home Screen". This will create an icon on your home screen and you'll be able to access this page quickly, without having to open Safari first.

Do you have more tips? Please share them in the comments.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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!

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.

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.

Tutorial: Jailbreak Your iPhone With BlackRa1n RC2

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

GeoHot came up yesterday with an updated version of BlackRa1n called BlackRa1n RC2. This new release supposedly fixes a bunch of issues that some of you may have encountered, especially while trying to jailbreak an iPhone 3G.

This step-by-step guide and tutorial will show you how to use BlackRa1n RC2 to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch, either on a Mac or a PC. This works for all iDevices, except for the iPod Touch 3G. This tutorial was made using an iPhone 3GS but again, it should work on all devices except the iPT3G.

I already wrote a BlackRa1n tutorial and the steps are identical but a few people emailed me or tweeted me asking to write a tutorial for BlackRa1n RC2.

Before we start, you have to understand that BlackRa1n is a jailbreak and jailbreak only. BlackRa1n will not unlock your iPhone. As a matter of fact, if you want to unlock your iPhone, do not use BlackRa1n as it will update the baseband and make it impossible to unlock for the time being.

If you want to unlock your iPhone, I suggest you use PwnageTool. PwnageTool will help you create a custom IPSW that won't update your baseband, thus allow you to unlock using UltraSn0w.

How to jailbreak your iPhone with BlackRa1n RC2: