iPhone Download Blog reader kper sent me a very good hack for iPhone 2G or 3G owners who would like to have the same video editing capabilities as the iPhone 3GS. Basically, this allows you to view the videos you record with Cycorder or VideoRecorder directly in your Camera Roll. Additionally, you can trim the videos, exactly like on an iPhone 3GS.
Tutorials
How to Sync Yahoo Calendar With Your iPhone Calendar
A couple months ago, I wrote an article on how to sync Google calendar with your iPhone calendar. Until now there was no way to sync Yahoo calendar with your iPhone calendar but Yahoo wrote a blog post about how to do that over the air.
It's very simple but it does require you to run the latest 3.0 firmware. It is also important to note that "once you start syncing your Calendar with your iPhone you will be upgraded to Yahoo! Calendar Beta automatically. You will not be able to go back to the old calendar product once this is complete".
How to sync Yahoo calendar with the iPhone:
1. Go to Settings > Mails, Contacts, Calendars >Add Account > Other
2. Tap "Add CalDAV Account"
3 . For the Server settings, simply type "yahoo"
4. Type in your Yahoo! username and password you use to signin to your calendar.
5. Click "Next" and it should verify your information.
6. You're done :)
Next time you open the calendar app on your iPhone, you will be able to choose to view your Yahoo calendar. Every time you will load the yahoo calendar, it will sync over the air.
Give A Matte Twist to Your iPhone UI
WinterBoard is one of my favorite jailbreak apps because it allows me to customize my iPhone and make it "stand out" from the crowd. One of the latest tweaks I found to push the customization a little further is to have a full custom UI.
There is a great-looking UI tweak available in Cydia called Matte UI Graphite.
Here are a few screenshots of what the new UI looks like. Changes are very subtle, yet very elegant...
How to Get Vonage on Your iPhone
I originally signed up with Vonage because it was inexpensive and it gave me unlimited calls to France (and other countries) where all my friends and family still are. As my fiance and I are planning our one-year trip around the globe, I started looking into getting Vonage on my iPhone so I can make calls from my iPhone, either over 3G or wifi, using my Vonage plan.
There are many reports showing that Vonage is currently working on an iPhone app but it's probably not going to happen anytime soon. By digging a little more, I found an article that shows you how to set up Vonage on your iphone by using your Vonage line as a SIP line.
First, you have to find out your Vonage SIP credentials. To do so, open your internet browser from your house and point it to:
https://im-config.vonagenetworks.net/config?&login=USERNAME&password=PASSWORD&type=1003
Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD by your Vonage account username and password.
This is going to open a page with a bunch of information. The information we need is at the top of the page. You are looking for something like that:
[SIP 2.0] ProxyUserName=iphoner ProxyUserPassword=Y0ur1Ph0ne5ux ProxyDomain=a.vonim.com ProxyPort=10000
Next step is downloading an SIP client for your iPhone. I recommend using Fring as it can be downloaded for free from the App Store. If your iPhone is jailbroken, you can also download SIPhone from Cydia.
Launch Fring then sign up or login with your existing account. Go to More > Add-ons > SIP > Other.
Fill out the required fields as follow:
User ID = ProxyUserName Password = ProxyUserPassword Proxy = a.vonim.com:10000
Save these settings. You can now place a call from your iPhone using your Vonage account, assuming you have wifi connectivity. If your iPhone is jailbroken, download VoIPover3G from Cydia and you will also be able to use Vonage from your iPhone over 3G.
It works great but for some reason, I can't have it place international calls. Every time I try to call France, it gives me an error message. It's still pretty awesome that you can use your Vonage account to place calls for free over wifi and 3G.
That's a pretty sweet hack, eh! What do you think?
Jailbreak & Unlock iPhone 3.0.1 With RedSn0w
The Dev Team reported that it is safe to update your iPhone to OS 3.0.1. After updating your iPhone to the latest 3.0.1 firmware, you can run the latest version of RedSn0w and point it to firmware 3.0.
Since the 3.0.1 doesn't update the baseband, you will also be able to unlock your iPhone using UltraSn0w via Cydia (for iPhone 3G and 3GS), and you will also be able to run RedSn0w on your iPhone 2G to unlock it by following these steps.
My latest tutorial on how to jailbreak your iPhone using RedSn0w still works and I suggest you check it out if you're not sure on how to update and jailbreak your iPhone.
Note that in order to jailbreak, you will have to update to 3.0.1 in iTunes first, which will remove all your jailbreak apps.
For more detailed information about jailbreaking and unlocking, I recommend you check out the jailbreak page and the unlock page of this site. It is updated with the latest info.
Add an Extension to A Contact’s Phone Number
If you know the extension of the person you're trying to reach, you may enter it anytime or press 1 for more options. Hi, please listen carefully since our menu has changed. For sales and marketing, press 2. For customer support, press 3. For accounting, press 4...
You know how annoying these long messages can be, especially when you know exactly what extension you want to reach. Today, thanks to iPhone Download Blog reader Carn, I'd like to give you a quick tip on how to add an extension to a contact's phone number, so you never have to type this extension ever again.
1. Create or go to an existing contact.
2. Edit his phone number.
3. Make sure the cursor is at the end of the phone number and tap " + * # " at the bottom left of the keyboard.
4. Tap "pause", which will add a space and a coma after the phone number.
5. Enter the extension and click "Save".
That's it. Now every time you call this number, you will be directed to the contact's extension.
GeoHot Releases PurlpleSn0w iPhone 3GS Unlock
A few days after releasing PurpleRa1n, the first iPhone 3GS jailbreak, GeoHot has now created his own iPhone 3GS unlock called PurpleSn0w.
Wifi fails? Battery fails? Unlock fails? You need purplesn0w, the geohot 3GS unlock solution. Now I know you here a lot about different colors of sn0w, but I'm here to tell you why purplesn0w is the best. First off, what is purplesn0w? It's a soft unlock for your 3GS that I'd actually use day to day. It's not a daemon that takes any resources, and it doesn't add a task to your baseband. It's very close to a true unlock. All it does is patch three files, CommCenter, lockdownd, and your wildcard activation plist(which you need, activate w at&t sim first, no hacktivation support yet).
Many users reported losing wifi connection and not being able to get any signal after unlocking their iPhone with UltraSn0w, so hopefully PurpleSn0w will get better feedback.
Follow these steps to install PurpleSn0w:
First your iPhone has to be jailbroken (see jailbreak guides) Launch Cydia and add this source: http://apt.geohot.com Install the com.geohot.purplesn0w package Reboot your iPhone Done!If you want to unlock your iPhone for T-Mobile, make sure you disable 3G in the settings.
GeoHot also posted technical information about PurpleSn0w. If you're into dissecting lines of codes, GeotHot made the source code available for you to play with.
Protect Your iPhone With An Alphanumeric Password
You can easily passcode protect your iPhone by going to Settings > General > Passcode Lock. However, this only gives you the ability to set up a 4-digit code. If you're a security freak and want to add an extra layer of protection to your iPhone, there is a simple hack that will let you create an alphanumeric password of as many characters as you want.
How to enable MMS on iPhone 3G 3.0 With T-Mobile
iPhone Download Blog reader Charlie sent me this simple hack to enable free MMS on the iPhone 3G running 3.0 with T-Mobile. Note that this hack only works for T-Mobile on the iPhone 3G.
First, go to Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network.
Add the following in MMS field:
APN: wap.voicestream.com Username: leave blank Password: leave blank MMSC: 216.155.174.84/servlets/mms MMS Proxy: 216.155.165.50:8080 MMS Max Message Size: leave blank MMS UA Prof URL: leave blankAgain, this only works if you have T-Mobile. It does not work with other carriers.
Feel free to contact me should you have iPhone tips and tricks you want to share.
Tutorial: Unlock iPhone 3GS With UltraSn0w
This short tutorial will show you how to unlock your iPhone 3GS using UltraSn0w. Unlocking your iPhone 3GS will allow you to use your iphone with any cellphone carrier in the US and in the world, assuming they use SIM cards.
Before starting, make sure this is the latest tutorial on unlocking the iPhone 3GS by visiting this page.
Unlock iPhone 3GS Guide:
First you have to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS. Read my RedSn0w tutorial on how to do that first. It should take about 10 minutes and it is a necessary step to be able to unlock your iPhone.
After jailbreaking your iPhone 3GS, follow these simple steps to install UltraSn0w:
Launch Cydia. Add the following source to Cydia repo666.ultrasn0w.com (note there is a “0″ in sn0w, not an “o”). After installing this source in Cydia, search for “UltraSn0w”. Install UltraSn0w and reboot your iPhone.That's it :)
Tutorial: Jailbreak iPhone 3GS Using RedSn0w
This guide and tutorial will show you how to jailbreak your iPhone 3GS using RedSn0w. After jailbreaking your iPhone 3GS, you will be able to unlock it using UltraSn0w should you want to.
Note that this tutorial is for the iPhone 3GS but the steps are the same for the iPhone 2G, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2G. Read this for more information about the jailbreak that best fits your needs. This was done on a PC but I assume the steps are the same for Mac and Linux.
Jailbreak iPhone 3GS Guide:
1. First, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes installed on your computer. If you have to update iTunes, make sure you restart your computer after installing the latest iTunes.
2. On your desktop, create a folder called "jailbreak iPhone 3GS" or whatever you want to call it. In this folder, download firmware 3.0 for your iPhone 3GS and RedSn0w 0.8 from here. Unzip the RedSn0w folder.
3. Launch RedSn0w and browse for the 3.0 firmware you downloaded in the previous step. RedSn0w should be processing the chosen firmware and tell you that the IPSW was "successfully identified". Click Next.
4. RedSn0w will start working for a few seconds and then will ask you what you would like to install. You can install Cydia and Icy. I highly suggest you only install Cydia. Choose Cydia and click Next.
5. We'll now have to connect the iPhone 3GS in recovery mode. To do so, unplug it from your computer, turn it off and wait a few seconds. Then hold the home button while plugin your iPhone to the USB cable. Keep holding the home button until the "Connect to iTunes" image appears.
6. Your iPhone will then go into recovery mode and that's when the magic happens... RedSn0w will install the jailbreak, which may take a few minutes.
7. Your iPhone will restart and install a bunch of stuff. . Even though RedSn0w says "Done!", wait until the very end to click "Finish".
8. After a few minutes, your iPhone will restart. Then click "Finish".
9. Go to your iPhone springboard and you should see the Cydia icon. Note that the icon may be on the second or third page on your springboard.
10. Done!
It took me about 10 minutes to jailbreak my iPhone 3GS, including time to take screenshots and write this tutorial. It was from far the quickest and most painless jailbreak.
iPhone Jailbreaking and Unlocking Guides
I just added 2 new pages to the blog's navigation bar: jailbreak and unlock. I will make sure to keep these pages up to date with the latest tutorials on how to jailbreak and/or unlock your iPhone.
If you have a look at these pages, you will see that it's pretty straightforward: look for the firmware you want to jailbreak/unlock, then choose your device (2G, 3G, or 3GS) and click on the appropriate guide.
I decided to create these 2 pages because it might be a little hard for newbies to figure out what they're supposed to do or even how to search for information on this blog. This way, I make it dead simple for everyone to find relevant and clear information on both jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone.
Note that I am starting this page with the latest 3.0 firmware. By now, most people have updated their iPhone to 3.0 and it wouldn't make much sense to list previous tutorials I wrote.