iDownloadBlog.com

What The Heck Is Going On Here?

Sébastien Page ∙ April 29, 2010

Dear iPhone Download Blog reader,

Over the past few months, I've been receiving a few emails, tweets, and comments from some of you complaining about the site. Your main concerns seem to be that what I write about is not new to you (ie. you've seen it on other blogs before) and that the topics covered are somewhat boring.

In this post today, I would like to acknowledge your concerns and explain myself to you.

I take it as my responsibility to update the blog at least once a day. No matter what happens, there is always something new on the blog every single day. You make me the honor to visit my site and I want to give you something fresh every time you come. That's my goal, and for the last 12 months, I haven't failed once to deliver one article a day.

My fiancee and I have been traveling through South East Asia for the last 6 months. We went to countries like Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos, and believe me, it's not always easy to find Internet in some of these countries. Besides there is a time difference of about 10-14 hours, which means that when you go to sleep, I usually get up, and vice versa.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's been incredibly challenging for me to keep up with the news and find the time to blog about it. Traveling is exhausting, and it's rarely convenient for me to pull out my laptop and write about stuff, especially when I'm sick like I've been for over a month now.

I understand that this is not your problem. You come here to get the latest news, hacks, and info and again, it is my responsibility to give you what you come here for. I just want you to know that I haven't given up on the blog, that I am very well aware that it hasn't been as good as it was, and that I do take your concerns very seriously.

Today, I would like to ask you to bear with me for another few weeks. I'm currently in France and it seems it should be a little easier for me here but the blog will not be back to 100% until I go back to the States in a month and a half.

I'm sorry if I haven't delivered to your expectations. Instead of keeping this on the down low, I thought it'd be better for me to explain what's going on and be completely honest with you.

I value you as a reader/commenter/online friend and the last thing I want is to disappoint you. I am sorry if I have and I can promise you that things will be back to normal soon. As a matter of fact, things will be even better than it ever was soon!

Thank you for reading, and thank you for caring enough to let me know when I underdeliver. Your opinion is important to me and I will always respect your views.

Yours truly,

Sebastien

Snappy: the Fastest Camera App for iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ April 28, 2010

Have you ever missed a great picture because your iPhone camera app was to slow to launch? If so, then read on because Snappy might be the answer to your frustration.

Snappy is a jailbreak app available from Cydia that allows you to quicky launch the camera app simply by tapping and holding the status bar.

Look at this demo to see how Snappy works.

Snappy is the kind of app that makes me wonder why Apple hasn't implemented this yet. I mean, it's pretty basic, yet very useful.

Have you tried Snappy yet? What's your take on it?

30 iPhone Experts to Follow on Twitter

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

I am often asked on Twitter who people should follow for good iPhone information. I thought it would be useful to create a list of my favorite iPhone people on Twitter. You may follow all these people in one click by following my iPhone List on Twitter.

I included myself on this list but you're already following me on Twitter, right?

30 iPhone People to Follow on Twitter MacRumors Gizmodo Just Another iPhone Blog Simple Reviews iSmashPhone Apple Insider The Unofficial Apple Weblog Apple iPhone School TiPB iPhone Alley Mac World iPhone in Canada iPhone Savior iPhone Hacks FSMdotCOM iPhone CTO KRAPPS The App Era Simon Blog 9 to 5 Mac iClarified iPhone Dev Team MuscleNerd ziPhoneApps iEvoluti0n Mod My i AppAdvice Appy Sebastien Page iPhone in Canada

If you have people you'd like to see on this list, please add their Twitter username in the comments.

GeoHot: I Have So Much To Finish Before I Work On The Jailbreak

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Yesterday I was telling you about LimeRa1n, a new potential jailbreak by GeoHot for all iPhones and iPod Touch. It seems that many people have gotten in touch with GeoHot by phone or even by showing up at his house (this info can be found in the whois records of his websites), asking for the jailbreak.

Apparently, and for obvious reasons, GeoHot wasn't particularly pleased, and I guess he's growing tired of people bugging him about a new jailbreak.

He made this clear today by saying on Twitter that we shouldn't be expecting a jailbreak from him anytime soon.

What do you guys think of all this? Do you think he's trying to mislead us to surprise us better soon? Or is he just not working on a jailbreak after all?

How to Install Android On iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Last week I posted about iPhone hacker PlanetBeing who successfully installed Android on an iPhone 2G. For those of you who would like to replicate this hack, Android A Lot has written a very detailed tutorial on how to install Android on an iPhone 2G.

Installing Android on a jailbroken iPhone is not for the faint of heart. It involves quite a few steps and if you don't have basic technical knowledge, I suggest you stay away from it. If you think you're up to the task, then head over to Android A Lot to read the detailed tutorial.

Additionally, you might find this video guide to installing Android on iPhone pretty useful. Note that this hack is for iPhone 2G only. As usual when messing around hacks live this one, understand you're doing this at your own risks.

If you decide to install Android on your iPhone, please share the results with us in the comments.

LimeRa1n: A New Jailbreak-It-All By Geohot

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 9, 2010

A few weeks after teasing us with a video showing an untethered jailbreak for all devices, an iPad jailbreak and an iPhone 4.0 jailbreak, GeoHot is now rumored to be releasing a new jailbreak called LimeRa1n in the next few days.

The rumor started when iHackinTosh got tipped about a new website called LimeRa1n.com. After checking the whois info, it appears that registrant info for both LimeRa1n and BlackRa1n is in the name and address of GeoHot.

The questions on everybody's lips is now when will GeoHot release LimeRa1n and what device will it allow to jailbreak? LimeRa1n should be available in the next few days and it should work on all devices, including the iPhone and iPod Touch 3.1.3, as well as the iPad.

A jailbreak for these devices has been around for a while now but they've never been released in order to prevent Apple to patch the exploits in a future OS update.

While, LimeRa1n has no set release date, you can still jailbreak you iPhone with BlackRa1n, PwnageTool, and RedSn0w.

Excited about LimeRa1n?

UPDATE: LimeRa1n is making the headlines again. Check our LimeRa1n page for all the latest information about this jailbreak.

UPDATE 2: LimeRa1n jailbreak for iOS 4.1 released.

iPhone News You Missed This Week

Sébastien Page ∙ April 25, 2010

This is a summary of the articles that were posted on iDB this past week.

This is the next iPhone The "next iPhone" debacle. How it all happened Survey confirms the iPhone is a chick magnet Apple drops the J-word: Jailbreaking 17 pink iPhone themes Android on the iPhone Mini review: Reeder for iPhone

Mini Review: Reeder 2 For iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

A few months ago I wrote about the best RSS readers for iPhone. At the time, Byline was my favorite, even though it was missing a couple important features such as being able to share articles on Twitter.

The Byline app description in the App Store has been saying for months they are working on version 3 which will add tons of new features. Turns out they "worked on it" for so long that someone else outdid them.

My new favorite iPhone RSS reader is Reeder 2. I'm not going to get too much into details but I'd rather give a short and sweet review of it.

Pros:

Easy to use and well thought UI It is incredibly fast. Items sync in just seconds Ability to share on Twitter Ability to save to Delicious Quickly "star" an item Easily browse starred, new or all items

Cons:

I don't really like the light-colored UI I wish it gave a larger preview of items

See, many pros and very few cons. Reeder definitely took over the Byline spot in my iPhone dock. If you're in the market for an RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader, then give Reeder a try. At $2.99, it is the best RSS reader for iPhone you can get.

Android On The iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Dev Team member PlanetBeing successfully ported a debug version of Android to an iPhone 2G.

The iPhone is set up with a dual-boot configuration. At the beginning of the video, you can see it running iPhone OS, but then PlanetBeing successfully boots Linux of his iPhone. This video shows the full boot process and PlanetBeing using Android for Internet browsing, text messaging, etc...

On his blog, PlanetBeing says:

It should be pretty simple to port forward to the iPhone 3G. The 3GS will take more work. Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real alternative or supplement for iPhone users. Maybe we can finally get Flash. ;)

Feel like having Android run on your iPhone too? You can download the pre-built images and sources here. I suggest you do not try this unless you really know what you're doing.

Anyone will give this a shot?

17 Pink iPhone Themes for Women

Sébastien Page ∙ April 22, 2010

Is your girlfriend's iPhone a little boring? Then spice it up with this selection of 17 pink iPhone themes for women, or for men with very girlie tastes...

All these pink iPhone themes are available from Cydia and are for use with WinterBoard. Needless to say that you have to jailbreak your iPhone before being able to install any of these themes.

Apple Drops The J-Word (Jailbreaking)

Sébastien Page ∙ April 21, 2010

"This article is about adverse issues experienced by customers who have made unauthorized modifications to the iPhone OS (this hacking process is often called "jailbreaking"). Issues that have been encountered include instability, disruption of services, and compromised security."

This is the summary of a new support document posted on Apple's website last week. I don't know if you noticed but they clearly used the word "jailbreaking". This is a first!

The document goes on and on about how bad bad bad bad bad jailbreaking is for your device. According to Apple, there are 6 main issues encountered by proud owners of jailbroken iPhones.

As much as I would like to prove Apple wrong, I have to admit that they are right on most of these issues:

Device and application instability: Frequent and unexpected crashes of the device, crashes and freezes of built-in apps and third-party apps, and loss of data.

Unreliable voice and data: Dropped calls, slow or unreliable data connections, and delayed or inaccurate location data.

Disruption of services: Services such as Visual Voicemail, YouTube, Weather, and Stocks have been disrupted or no longer work on the device. Additionally, third-party apps that use the Apple Push Notification Service have had difficulty receiving notifications or received notifications that were intended for a different hacked device. Other push-based services such as MobileMe and Exchange have experienced problems synchronizing data with their respective servers.

Compromised security: Security compromises have been introduced by these modifications that could allow hackers to steal personal information, damage the device, attack the wireless network, or introduce malware or viruses.

Shortened battery life: The hacked software has caused an accelerated battery drain that shortens the operation of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch on a single battery charge.

Inability to apply future software updates: Some unauthorized modifications have caused damage to the iPhone OS that is not repairable. This can result in the hacked iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone OS update is installed.

What Apple failed to mention is how awesome jailbreaking is! For those of you still on the fence, you may want to learn more about what jailbreaking is, and what the reasons for jailbreaking are. If you've already jailbroken, check out the best jailbreak apps and add your favorite to the list.

Survey Confirms The iPhone Is A Chick Magnet

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

I just read on TechCrunch about a new survey of 1,500 women that found that men with iPhones are more attractive to women. The survey, which was conducted by a UK mobile retailer, reveals that 54% of them would be more likely to date a man if he owns an iPhone.

This somewhat useless information comes a year after another survey that had found that iPhone owners are younger, richer, and smarter than others. What the survey failed to reveal though, is whether or not an iPhone 3GS owner is hotter than an iPhone 2G owner.

I'm very skeptical about the serious of this survery but I'd still like to hear your thoughts about it.