Last Wednesday, I decided to update my iPhone 3G to the newly released 2.2 firmware. Although jailbreaking is fairly easy and doesn't require much skills, I am never really excited about doing it as it is very time consuming. What's time consuming about it you will ask? Well, first, you have to download the latest version of iTunes (I only use iTunes about once a month and I always wait for the next jailbreak method to update it), which always takes a few minutes. Then you have to install iTunes and reboot your computer. Once iTunes is taken care of, you have to download your firmware, download QuickPwn, etc...
Daily iPhone News – 11/28/08
In the news today:
a hidden video-out feature on the iPhone 3G Apple's black Friday new app: TouchGrind and more after the break...Linux Running On The iPhone
This piece of news might mean something for iPhone geeks out there,but I guess the average iPhone owner couldn't care less... Dev Team member PlanetBeing found a way to port Linux 2.6 kernel to the iPhone.
This is a rough first draft of the port, and many drivers are still missing, but it's enough that a real alternative operating system is running on the iPhone.
.Visit PlanetBeing's blog for the download.
iPhone Apps Pirate Gets Pirated
Crackulous is a software that allows you to easily crack any iPhone application, without having to pay a dime to the developer or to Apple. No need to say that this is illegal... In what seems to be a very ironic story, a beta version of Crackulous was pirated and leaked on the Internet before it could enter a full open-source distribution.
Erica Sadun wrote a good article about it over at Ars:
SaladFork, the author of Crackulous, called the leak "absolutely disgusting, and downright insulting." He writes about his pride of development, saying, "[I] have released a new version of Crackulous almost every day or two, fixing all the bugs that had been reported up until that day. I was proud of Crackulous, and put a large majority of my free time into ensuring it will be the best application it possibly could be. I responded to beta tester feedback, and each version of Crackulous was better than the last."
Did SaladFork learn his lesson? Obviously not as he wrote:
Several of you had noticed the irony in me complaining that a tool used to steal from other developers was stolen, but I hope you realize the difference in situation. iPhone developers almost always (99% of the time) develop applications for the App Store in hopes of getting money.
iPhone Works With Toddlers Too
Adam's Game [iTunes Link] is just amazing. I love simple apps, I love apps that needs no explanation, I love apps that you can make your own, but this one simply tops it all... provided you are one year old or younger.
A voice asks you to point at one of three figures; if you do so a cheering noise congratulates you; otherwise you have a nice “Hu-ho”, not so praising, but not too negative either. Anyone old enough to buy an iPhone might find it limited — but who said children have short attention span?
How do I know it is so great? I am a single, toddler-hater with no nephew-turned-tester at hand. I saw the app, didn't really paid attention at first, but like Joe Biden I do take the train often, and unlike him, I'm always seated next to the nastiest one-toothed ear-drump-blaster-of-a-child that starts yelling for no reason. Thank you 3G, I had the app up and running in no time. The best dollar spent in my life, I'd say. I'm not sure my headset was his size, though.
Adam's Game is fully customizable, so all of you overworked parents can let your better half share his or her iPhone with the little wonder, with your voice on it. I know this might sound like a detail, but many workaholic might end up being slightly better parents with that.
The only problem: you might want to use bactericide swipe on your phone after that. And a solid casing: gravity is still an fascinating experimental interest at that age.
Compare Apps Popularity Side By Side
Mybefia is a great, simple service that allows you to compare how popular are three iPhone Applications, based on Ranking, Popularity and Market share. If a new application is still less popular than an incumbent, but gaining popularity, you'll see it there.
The service does not publish download figures, but stores top-downloads rankings every day and offers an easy-to-read summary.
Plus: Win a 50$ prize! If you manage to find out what “Mybefia” stands for, you can win a iTunes voucher. My take? It's either an acronym for My Best Estimation of how Fantastic this iPhone App is — or a Japanese word. As I don't speak Japanese, I'll go with the acronym.
Google Street View Enabler for iPod Touch
A couple of days ago, I wrote about a simple hack to allow iPod Touch users to get Google Street View on the iTouch. The hack is very simple but it does require some file editing, which can be scary to some.
A new application available in Cydia just makes it easier for iPod Touch users to enable Street View. The app, called Street View Enabler, is free, and it seems to work perfectly. I don't have an iPod Touch so I haven't been able to verify this but Street View Enabler is getting good reviews everywhere in forums.
So if you have an iPod Touch, launch Cydia and look for Street View Enabler. Install it and you should be good to go. Be careful though! You have to install this on an iPod Touch with firmware 2.2. Installing it on an iPhone (which would be pointless) or an iTouch on 2.1 can cause problems.
Photo Gizmodo
iPhone Daily News – 11/24/08
We had a pretty good weekend in term of news. First the 2.2 update, and hours later, the release of QuickPwn 2.2 and PwnageTool 2.2. That kept me busy for quite a while as I was writing all these tutorials on how to jailbreak your iPhone.
In the news today:
Apple iPhone black Friday sales MMS on the iPhone. Is it here yet? iPod Touch faster, better, stronger than the iPhone Apple wants you to "iPhone your life" Apple violates its own policy! App reviews: Guitar Rock Tour, Got Your Back More after the break...duiPhone tells you if you’re good to drive… or not
Our favorite new iPhone hack, the duiPhone, will let you know for sure whether you should hand the car keys to a friend after a long night in the bar…
.Via Tellart
Rip Dev releases Hood 1.0. Strangely looks like SBSettings…
Rip Dev developed a new tool called Hood, an application that allows you to toggle AirPort, Bluetooth, and also kill active applications. Hood also allows you to monitor the memory usage of your iPhone in real time. Hood is available through Installer.
Of course, this application reminds us of BigBoss' SBSettings but you might prefer the user interface.
If you're considering installing this app, I highly recommend you read at the comments first, especially this one.
That is the second application released by Rip Dev over the weekend as they released Pusher on Saturday. It seems that the goal here is to have as many people as possible use Installer vs. Cydia. My point of view is that it's too late for Installer. It was doing very good until firmware 2.0 came out. The team was not quick enough recoding Installer to make it work under 2.0 when Saurik released Cydia, which is now installed on 99.99% of jailbroken iPhones.
As usual, if you try this app, please share your experience with us in the comments :-)
Hack to enable Emoji icons systemwide
The latest 2.2 firmware update allows Japanese iPhone owners to use Emoji icons in their emails and text messages, but for some reason, the rest of the world cannot enjoy these useless, yet funny icons...
That was until Irish developer Steve Troughton-Smith found a simple hack to allow everyone to use Emoji icons, not mater what carrier you're on. Here are the instructions:
You need to edit the file /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist on the device -> whether you use a jailbreak to achieve this or merely some iTunes backup editor is up to you.
Add the following boolean key as 'true':
KeyboardEmojiEverywhere
Then merely go to the Keyboards section of the Settings app, hit Japanese, and turn on Emoji. Will work for any text field/view in the OS, including on websites, AND including the titles of items on SpringBoard (e.g. if you save a bookmark to the home screen).
Easy enough :-)
UPDATE: I just published this post and went back to my news reader to realize there is now an app available on Cydia that allows emoji incons with no editing required!
Install the package called Emoji, then go to Settings > General > Keyboard > International Keyboard > Japanase and enable Emoji Icons. Now launch your mail or note app and try it out! By the way, this only works on 2.2, so if like me, you're still on 2.1, it won't work.
New Poll: Have you updated to 2.2 yet?
Our last poll closed yesterday and revealed interesting information about the audience of our blog... Here are the results:
[poll id="2"]
We've got a new poll for you to take so we can find out if you have already updated to 2.2 or not. To take the poll, simply look in the right sidebar of the blog.