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The iPhone Will Die on June 29, 2009

Sébastien Page ∙ March 6, 2009

Roger McNamee, founding partner of the investment firm Elevation Partners, the same firm that decided to pay $100 million to lift its stake in Palm from 25% to 39% made some serious prediction in an interview with Bloomberg.

McNamee calls no less than the death of the iPhone on June 29, 2009. Wow, this guy has huge balls to say something like that on television...

June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later. Think about it -- if you bought the first iPhone, you bought it because you wanted the coolest product on the market. Your two-year contract has just expired. Look around. Tell me what they're going to buy.

Question is, will you switch to Sprint for the Palm Pre when it comes out?

X-Plane Racing Review

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Laminar Research has released yet another flight simulator app for the iDevices. This time around it's one we've been waiting for: X-Plane Racing. That's right, racing! The app consists of 'highway-in-the-sky', 'hoops' that you can go though. There are 4 regions for now and 4 planes (as developer states: "for now"). There's a course per region per plane, for a total of 16 courses to race though. You can play against the AI plane, which will give you quite a challenge. Courses vary, based on location. Sometimes you will be going almost straight up, sometimes down canyons and valleys, and sometimes close to a river.

As for locations, you can choose from :

Canyons (the default location and quite fun and challenging). Juneau, Alaska (mountains and rivers combine to make it challenging and fun to race in) Anchorage, Alaska (ups and downs and mountains, can you avoid crashing and win at the same time?) Provost, Canada (both easy and hard, combines a little of all the other regions)

And as to the planes:

F-15 Eagle (my favorite. Has afterburner, is the default one, and goes fast) F-4 Phatom (it's ok, but I don't like it, a bit difficult to control) F4-U Consair (feels a bit weird at first, but you get the hang of it. Slower than the others but is more controllable) P-51 Mustang: (same goes as for the F4-U Consair, but this one is VERY tricky to land).

My experience with it has been very good, same as with all the other X-Plane apps. Laminar Research puts a lot of work and quality into their apps. No bugs found so far, everything is going smoothly. Beating the AL plane is tricky and any mistake can cost you. Awkwardly, even if you are in the lead, the AL plane shows up in front of you. But that does not bother me, I still beat it :) . Also, at the end of each course it tells you your time and how many hoops you missed, and the AL plane's time and how many hoops he missed. But there is more.

The AL plane is a lot of fun, all 16 courses................yeah yeah. But there's another thing about the app, something that gives it a kick. Multiplayer. That's right, Laminar Research has added multiplayer to the game. So as long as you and the other player are connected on the same Wi-Fi network, you can race against each other. Booyahh!! This feature is a blast. Playing with your friends is a blast. Especially since they are smarter, and trickier than the AL plane. For those owners of the other X-Plane apps, nothing to worry about. An update was released with other stuff this morning and it includes multiplayer. BUT, you don't get hoops in the sky or a marked course.

The app also features a sound system when landing (also added to the other apps in the update) so either a squeak from a nice landing or a thump from a hard landing. Also in "Racing" and added to the other apps are visible afterburners, and a basic autopilot. I must say, Laminar Research is outdoing themselves. And they are trying to put everything they can into the app, pushing the limits (I'm on a 2G Touch, supposed to be better for gaming, and it got hot!). A little note, the apps are always being updated with a bunch of things. There is an option to set the tilt (in ALL apps) so you can even play from bed. The desktop version of X-Plane is FAA approved, the iPhone version has 90 something percent accuracy. Now that's good!

The app is currently priced at the same price as all the other X-Plane apps, $9.99. There is a "series" of X-Plane apps:

X-Plane - $9.99 - The original, and best for general use. Still my favorite one. X-Plane Helicopter - $9.99 - Came later on, strictly helicopters. A little harder (I don't own it though) but I say this because helis are hard to fly. X-Plane Airliner - $9.99 - Came along with Heli, strictly airliners. Although fun it is a bit more challenging. But it's great fun to fly a 747 on your iDevice. X-Plane Extreme - $9.99 - All about speed and the extreme. Very fun, and my personal second favorite. X-Plane Racing - $9.99 - As mentioned above.

All of the apps now have multiplayer. I am loving every app and highly recommend them. You will get lots of fun no matter which app you get. Plus who has not wanted to fly a 747 on an iPhone?! The X-Plane apps are the only flight simulators on the App Store and they are just great. In case you cannot decide which one to get I will post later on which I recommend depending on what you like.

Zentomino – Find Your Zen Again

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Little White Bear Studios, developers of the award winning puzzle game TanZen, have released a new game somewhat similar to TanZen: Zentomino. Zentomino is sort of like TanZen, but harder. The game, like TanZen, involves moving, rotating, and flipping puzzle pieces to fill in a shape. So what’s the difference? Well, TanZen used smaller pieces and different stuff. Zentomino uses more pieces, larger, and feels different, as well as being harder. You can see the difference by comparing the screenshots below (TanZen on left, Zentomino on right):

TanZen

Zentomino

The game is quite fun, especially if you like puzzle games. There are three things that set apart this app from the others (as well as make you fall in love with it). The game is very well polished, everything fits well. The game is huge fun, unlike any other app, and is cheap. But the most important is the replay ability level of the game. This game does not get old at all. The game currently has 144 puzzles, but just like TanZen more puzzles will be added as free updates (in case your are wondering, TanZen currently has 4x the number of puzzles it started with).

Everything is very smooth, relaxing, and a bit hard! Just like in TanZen there are hints. This game however is a bit more advanced than TanZen. Puzzles have various difficulty levels, with 4-12 piece puzzles. You can also do puzzles in any order you want. And if your screen is all messed up with pieces, shake your device to clear all pieces from the screen. Don’t be scared! You will get the hang of it after playing with it a bit. And if you need help the game, like TanZen, has a hint system. Just double-tap on any open area for a hint. The amount of hints you get on each level depends on how hard / big the level is.

My experience with it so far has been really good. At first I was really bad but after playing with it for a while I have gotten the hang of it. Although I don’t know this as a fact, knowing Little White, an update with more levels with probably be out before you finish the first 144 puzzles included. The game, like I said before is very smooth and relaxing, something I like a lot. Plus it’s pretty cheap. Zentomino is priced at $1.99 . Considering how smooth the game is, the amount of levels it currently has and the amount of levels that will be added, it’s a steal at $1.99 . Here’s a YouTube video showing the gameplay:

UPDATE: A lite version has been released.

xGPS Gets An Update. Now Works Great

Sébastien Page ∙ March 2, 2009

I wrote about xGPS a few days ago basically saying that the app needed some work. It seems that I was heard as xGPS got its 1.2 update earlier today.

What's new in xGPS 1.2?

Wireless transfer of your map files Google Terrain Maps GPS information English voice instructions Night mode Access to GPS traces on your computer

The most exciting feature here is of course the voice instructions. Some unreported bugs were fixed too. Before, using the "current location" as starting point simply didn't work. You had to type in the full address, which could be cumbersome. Now, you can use the "current location" feature without any problem. It seems that you can also type partial addresses, instead of the full address (ie. 1657 Neptune Avenue Encinitas; instead of 1657 Neptune Avenue, Encinitas CA 92024). That's great improvement.

I was so excited about this update that I had to try it. First things first, I downloaded the map of my area (San Diego) to avoid having to rely on data tranfer too much. Then I hopped in the Audi and entered the address of where I wanted to go. I turned off the radio to hear the voice instructions and started my trip.

After driving a few hundred feet, the voice "talked" to me to tell me I had to turn right on Del Mar Street in 290 meters. Even though I had specifically set the app to give me the information in feet, it kept giving me meters (which is fine too since I mostly use the metric system). That's a little bug that will probably be taken care of in the next update.

xGPS also gives you the ability to display your current speed on the screen. I found this feature very accurate, and although useless while driving, I am sure some people could make good use of it.

The volume on my iPhone was at its max and I could clearly hear the instructions but I decided to plug my iPhone in my tape deck. I usually use my tape deck to listen to my iPhone's music in the car (the sound quality is far better than a FM transmitter). Once the iPhone connected to my car stereo, it felt like I had a co-driver sitting next to me to give me directions.

That was the pros... Now let's have a look at the cons...

First, the voice navigation is very good but still needs some work. The voice sounds like a robot speaking to you, and there is no flaw between each word. It works well as is but there is lots of room for improvement.

Another issue I have is when my iPhone is plugged to my car stereo using the tape deck. When I am not playing music, it's fine. But if I play music on the iPhone while requesting voice instructions, the music covers up the sound of the instructions. A great feature would be to pause the music everytime the voice speaks. This feature is already available when your iPhone is playing music, connected to your car stereo and when you receive a text message. The music will pause, you get your new text message notification, then the music starts again.

If you don't have a car charger, xGPS will kill your battery in no time. Remember it is constantly checking your GPS coordinates, which I believe is the most data intensive feature on the iPhone 3G. For my little experiment, I didn't charge my iPhone in the car but when I got home after trying xGPS, my iPhone was really hot! I would not recommend using xGPS on long distances as it might just overheat your iPhone.

All in all, this is probably the most exciting application I've seen this year. xGPS clearly needs some work but the current version will do the trick for now. Besides, you can't ask too much from a FREE application. Yes, xGPS is free, so try it while it lasts!

Will xGPS Be The First To Bring Turn By Turn Navigation To The iPhone?

Sébastien Page ∙ February 27, 2009

I have been out of the countryfor 2 weeks and wasn't really able to try out the beta version of xGPS, the soon-to-be-released voice turn by turn navigation system for jailbroken iPhones. So after catching up on some well needed sleep time, I finally got around xGPS and my first impressions are not that great.

xGPS is in beta version, which probably explains why I wasn't able to get it to work. I downloaded the app, tweaked the GPS options to have it recognize my iPhone 3G and finally typed driving directions. I asked the navigation system to start from the current location and to give me directions to the arrival point of Encinitas, CA. I got an error that said: "no driving direction can be computed using your query".

I thought it was because I had typed the city and state only. So I typed in a full address. Same error! I looked online for this issue and I realized that I am not the only one having this "no driving direction can be computed using your query" problem. I read somewhere that you have to give the full address including the country but again, this didn't work for me.

After 15 minutes of playing around and not finding an answer, I decided that xGPS is useless as is for me for the time being so I uninstalled it. If you encountered the "no driving direction can be computed using your query" error and know how to fix it, please let me know in the comments.

However, looking at the video demo, I am really excited at the full release of this app, scheduled for March 7th. No doubt that xGPS will be the first turn-by-turn navigation system for the iPhone. My conspiracy theorist mind tells me however that Apple is most likely already working on such a feature and that it will be available on the new iPhone later this year. I might be wrong though...

Is the iPhone 2G better — and can a cracked version improve that?

Guest Author ∙ February 27, 2009

Sorry for the long silence: my first iPhone was stolen, and I tried to be a grown-up about it and not have a phone for a short while. Two important life lessons learnt:

1/ I'm an addict — even though I rarely use my phone, not having a cellphone a with a full OS just stresses me out of my mind. I have too much on my mind now, but that is a very concerning aspect of my personality, and you might want to experiment.

2/ In spite of subscribing to all the safety feature, my telephone provider was not helpful at all; I'd love to give details, but their behavior wasn't even borderline fr. . . — let's just say the Police officer to whom I had to declare the loss had even more horror stories.

Hopefully my geek brother had a 2G version that he wasn't using and lent it to me — so I was able to compare the battery life. The difference is unbelievable, especially if you hardly use the phone like me. I literally had it powered-up for a week when I was abroad and de-activated the automatic updates.

Some have tested the 3G iPhone without the 3G connectivity and say the battery is still a drain. I can't find the menu to do that though — and I don't think it would be convenient to neglect the faster connectivity. Some (present company included) tried to resolve it with other means (a great, useful gift, by the way). However, I do think it would make sense to have the 3G antenna back on just before calling someone, or just before a download. When you have a phone conversation in a car and leave a 3G area, you call is not disconnected, so I'm assuming the roaming capability would allow to switch the 3G on during a call. . . All great features that I would love to find on Cydia. ;)

RedSn0w Lite Now on Windows Too! (updated)

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

The Dev Team released RedSn0w Lite not too long ago. This is the tethered jailbreak for the iPod Touch 2G. It was Mac compatible only however. But thanks to some programs by people RedSn0w Lite is now possible for Windows. Problem is it's hard, there are a few choices, and a guide is needed. So here we go.

UPDATE: The tutorial has been re-written to make it easier for you.

What You Will Need:

The GUI Jailbreak RedSn0w Booter Calm and Patience

Preparation:

BACK-UP YOUR IPOD!!!!! Create a folder on your Desktop called "Jailbreak" Extract the two files above into the "Jailbreak" folder but in separate folders. Kill both "iTunes" and the "iTunesHelper" process. Unplug your iPod and the USB cable Open up the GUI program and if you don't have the two packages it says on the home screen please click on the button to install them. Once done you can plug your iPod back in. Place the 2.2.1 ISPW firmware file into the same folder the GUI program is in.

PART 1:

Start up the GUI program. Click next. From the list of files select the 2.2.1 ISPW file. Then click "Start making ISPW file". This will take a few minutes. When finished in the same folder as the GUI program you will have another ISPW file named "JailbrokenISPW". Remember that. Now click on next. Now you need to put your iPod into DFU mode. You need to be PRECISE on your timing here. Hold the power and home button for 10 seconds. Then let go of the power button but keep holding the home button for 8 seconds. If this worked your iPod's screen should be blank. Now press the "Upload DFU file" button. When that finishes, unplug your iPod for 2 second then plug it back in. If it worked your iPod's screen should now be completly white. If so then press the "Upload 0wnboot patch" button. When that is done press next. Now press the "Press me" button. This will open up a CMD window. Right click on the window and click paste. Wait for this to finish. When it finishes open up iTunes and close the GUI program. It will say your iPod is in recovery mode. Now hold down the shift key and press restore. There, navigate to the folder where the "JailbrokenISPW" file is and select it. Wait for iTunes to finish restoring it. When it restarts your computer will not recognize it. But don't worry.

Part 2:

Now pay attention to Part 2. These are the steps you need to follow when your iPod reboots.

Make sure iTunes and the "iTunesHelper" process are dead. Open up the "Redsn0w Booter". It's pretty simple. Again put your iPod into DFU mode by holding the power and home button for exactly 10 seconds and then release the power button but keep holding the home button for 8 seconds. Once your iPod is in DFU mode simply press the "Boot" button. In around 20-30 seconds your iPod will boot up. If your iPod stays in a white screen and the CMD window is not open, make sure iTunes and the "iTunesHelper" process are dead and try again.

And you are done. You have jailbroken your iPod Touch 2G! Now something important. I STRONGLY recommend before running Cydia or anything that you sync all your stuff from iTunes. You can still sync later but at least for me I encountered a lot less bugs when I synched all my stuff first. After you sync make sure to run Cydia first. Then from there you are on your own. Remember it is a tethered jailbreak so you must run the booter every time your iPod restarts. If you are not familiar with some terms please see this FAQ I wrote on the tethered jailbreak.

Please be aware of 3 things:

- One is that after EVERY reboot, you must run the steps above. - That this is a somewhat "beta" release from the Dev Team, that they or non of the people who made the software above are responsible for anything. And neither are we. - And that the Dev Team is not providing ANY support for redsn0w lite.

Whether the tethered jailbreak is for you or not depends on whether you mind going to your computer every time your iPod reboots. Your choice. But at least you know how to now. The Dev Team is working hard on the full un-thered version of redsn0w which will not require you to run the booter after every reboot and is much easier to use. But this is not as easy as you might think.

There is also a semi-tethered version now out. Basically what this is, once you run the booter you can use your jailbroken stuff. When it reboots, if you are using the semi-tethered jailbreak, what will happen is your iPod will boot into normal mode. All your jailbreak stuff will still be there but you can't use them. I personally do not like this because it requires more work, it's a bit more complicated, and a lot of jailbreak apps (such as Winterboard) must be patched. So I prefer the tethered version.

Promo Code Giveaway Over

Guest Author ∙ February 27, 2009

Hey guys. Just thought I would let you know that the iPhone Download Blog Twitter promo code giveaway is over. Tons of codes were given out. There won't be a big one like this in a bit, but small giveaways will hopefully stay around. Make sure to follow me ( @dannyswrld ) and ( @sebastienpage ) for the latest news on the giveaways. But if you don't have a Twitter don't worry, we'll keep the site updated with the news ;-)

RedSn0w Lite FAQ

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 23, 2017

I have seen some confusion about RedSn0w out there and I thought I would make a quick post clearing things up and with a few FAQ.

What is RedSn0w and why can I only find RedSn0w lite?

RedSn0w is the iPod Touch 2G jailbreak. You can only find RedSn0w lite because it's the lite (and tethered) version. The full version is not out yet so that's why you can't find it.

What is a "tethered" jailbreak?

A tethered jailbreak requires that every time your device reboots that you go to your computer and run a "booter". It's pretty fast, and tells your iPod to boot. The problem is that until you run this booter, you cannot use your iPod (but scroll down a bit).

Are there any dangers?

Well I think so. The Dev Team is not providing support and said "that is could void your warranty". So I would hold for the full version.

What's the semi-tethered jailbreak?

Ahhh. It's much better than the tethered jailbreak. The way it works is that if your device reboots, instead of you being completely unable to use your iPod, your device boots up. All your jailbroken stuff is still there, icons and all. But even if you try to launch the jailbroken stuff, it won't. But hey, much better than the regular tethered version.

How do you run RedSn0w lite or the semi-tethered jailbreak on Windows?

There are many ways to do so. But I'm trying to write a tutorial for the regular tethered jailbreak, but the process is sort of consing and writing a tutorial is not easy. As to the semi-tethered jailbreak, the easiest way is this YouTube video.

Now a very important note if you do the semi-tethered jailbreak. DO NOT install Winterboard directly. It won't work you need to install a patch.

Doing this is all at your own risk!! But that's your choice.

My YellowSn0w Success Story

Sébastien Page ∙ February 18, 2009

I am currently in my home country of France for a couple of weeks. Before getting here, I was a little worried about whether I could use my iPhone with a local carrier as I never was able to try YellowSn0w when I was in the US. I unlocked my iPhone 3G about a month ago using YellowSn0w but since all my friends either are with AT&T or Verizon, I couldn't make sure the unlocking worked.

One of the first things I did when I got at my Mom's was popping out her Orange (French carrier) SIM and put it in my iPhone. An error message showed up saying the SIM was locked and giving me the option to unlock it. I taped "unlock" and waited a few seconds until I realized that I was not getting any cell signal at all.

I rebooted my iPhone, got the same error and still no success. Until I finally remembered that the SIM card you put in your jailbroken iPhone cannot be SIM locked. This means that the SIM card can't be protected by a PIN.

So I put back the SIM card in my Mom's phone and went to the settings to deactivate the lock on the SIM. As I am writing this, I realize that I probably could have deactivated it from my iPhone's settings…

Two seconds later, I was getting signal and tried making my first call with my unlocked phone. It was a success. I also realized that I was getting on Edge. I asked my Mom if she had Internet access on her phone but she said she didn't. I launched Safari and went online in no time. My Mom had Internet access on her phone and she wasn't even aware of it…

The following day I went buy a my own SIM card as I couldn't use my Mom's for the next 2 weeks… I bought a SFR SIM as it to me the best carrier.

So this is my success story with YellowSn0w. If there is one thing to remember here, it is that if you have an issue with YellowSn0w, make sure the SIM you insert in your iPhone is not locked (PIN protected).

Apple Reminds Us That jailbreaking Is Illegal

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

In case you're not aware of it, you can't legally jailbreak or unlock your iPhone. You can't! I know what you think. You bought this phone and you should be able to do whatever you want with it but it is not legally correct. The software installed on the iPhone is copyrighted by Apple and by jailbreaking it, you alter the software, getting yourself into a copyright infringement.

After having my share of troubles with Apple's lawyers and during a phone meeting with their top copyright lawyer, he actually informed me that jailbreaking was illegal, but they can't go after every jailbreaker for obvious reasons...

About a month ago, I published an article about the EFF petition to make unlocking and jailbreaking exempt from the DMCA. Basically, it's a petition to make it legal for you do jailbreak your iPhone if you feel like it. In their asshole way of doing business, Apple replied quite extensively to the petition, obviously saying they don't want the jailbreak to be made legal, which I disagree with, but completely understand.

So what can happen? Most likely nothing! Jailbreaking will not be made legal; I really don't think so. On the other hand, jailbreaking will not be made illegal either. Still, it's interesting to see EFF fight for us.

Engadget has a pretty good post about it. Read it for more info.

Google Sync debuts for iPhone. Will Push Email Be Next?

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Google announced today a new service called Google Sync that will push contacts and calendar to the iPhone via Exchange ActiveSync. Google Sync automatically replaces your contacts and events on your iPhone, which can be very dangerous if you are a "syncer". It is still in beta, and as good as it looks, I'm not going to use this service because I think I am dependent enough on Google. I certainly don't want them to handle all my contacts and calendars.

Now the question is: will Google offer push email for Gmail soon? They're on the right track and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw push Gmail coming to the iPhone in the next few months.

Watch the video below for more information.