I'm curious to see what App Store or stock apps you use on a daily basis.
Here are my 5 most used apps, in no specific order:
Tweetie 2 Byline Mail Safari CameraI usually don't use the camera app much but since I started traveling a few months ago, I now use it several times a day.
Please take a few seconds to share your most used apps by leaving a comment.
I said the iPhone camera sucks so many times that I can't even count. Lately though, I have rediscovered the CameraBag app and I have been playing with it. I say "rediscover" because I had completely forgotten about this app and stumbled on it again by accident.
If you don't know CameraBag, basically it's an app that allows you to apply some cool filters to your pictures.
Here are a few images I tweaked with Camerabag (pix from my Australia and Thailand trip)
While CameraBag can't improve the quality of the images, I think it does a great job at getting the most out of them.
CameraBag is available from the App Store for $1.99. I know there are other apps in the Store that pretty much do the same job but I'm too lazy to look for them. If you know any, please let us know by leaving a comment.
Any iPhone totin' PS3 users out there? You might want to turn your bluetooths up, the folks over at Deluxe Digital Studios have a killer app for your 2 favorite gadgets. It's called Pocket Blu, a lovely little client application that talks to any internet capable Blu-ray player (PS3) that happens to be playing a BLU capable DVD.
Awesome thing is, it turns your iPhone into a Blu-ray remote for your PS3. Not so awesome thing is that it doesn't work on all Blu-rays, just ones that are BLU capable, which judging by their library isn't too many.
The app also has some special features for the movies like lost scenes, interviews with the actors, even live reviews from other Pocket Blu users, of the movie you're watching. Debbie Downer told me that it requires a wifi connection to the PS3, but I have a feeling that's not a huge problem for most of our readers.
Overall its a pretty sweet little app, easily worth the free download. If you're a frequent Blu-ray watcher with a PS3, you'll find some space on your springboard for this guy. Imagine you're getting ready to watch a movie, you got your snacks, and your drink. You've forgotten what you wanted in the kitchen twice already and can't wait to finally sit down and start the show. You sit in your favorite chair, and just as you go to recline back and start the movie, you realize, you don't have the PS3 remote. As your left eye starts to twitch, you'll remember you read this article and you'll say to yourself "Thank you Cody" and pull out your iPhone.
Hey, your welcome, and here's hoping we see many more movies become "BLU" capable.
UPDATE: Interestingly enough, there is an extremely similar application is BD Touch Remote by BD Touch LLC. Exact same premise except with "BD Touch" capable blu ray discs. I call this, 2 apps, 1 review.
Any question or comment, please feel free to write us a comment below!
When jailbreaking your iPhone, you always take the chance of messing up with the settings and losing all your Cydia apps. If you "experiment" a lot with your iPhone, I'm sure you've had to restore your iPhone on many occasions.
The problem when restoring your iPhone is that you have to resintall all your Cydia apps, which can take quite some time, depending on howm many you have.
Thankfully, there are a few options available out there that will allow you to easily backup and restore your Cydia applications.
Backup & Restore Jailbreak Apps with PkgBackupPkgBackup is a $3.49 application but I think it has to be the best out there thanks to its great UI and ease of use. In top of backing up and restoring your jailbreak apps, PkgBackup will also preserve the way your icons are arranged on your springboard.
iClarified has a great tutorial on how to use PkgBackup. Check it out here.
Backup & Restore Cydia Apps with AptBackupAptBackup supposedly works the same way as PkgBackup except it doesn't save your icons arrangement. Personally, I was never able to get it to work, and it actually got me in serious troubles before.
You might be luckier than I am though. I know a few people who use AptBackup and never had any problem with it.
Manually Backup and Restore Your Cydia ApplicationsIf you feel like messing around your iPhone folders and don't mind taking risks, there is a way to manually backup your jailbreak apps. I haven't done that myself, and to be honest, I probably never will, but I want to share this option with you.
Simon wrote an interesting tutorial on his blog on how to manually backup your jailbreak apps. Read it if you're interested.
My favorite way to backup jailbreak apps is still PkgBackup. Sure it costs a few bucks, but to me, it is from far the most reliable and easiest option.
Do you ever backup your jailbreak apps? If so, how do you usually go about it?
Are you tired of telling iTunes NOT to update to 3.1.3 every time you plug your iPhone in? Well, there's an app for that. It's called Fake 3.1.3 and it is ideal for people like me who don't like being bugged by recurring iTunes alerts.
Fake 3.1.3 will make iTunes believe that you are running firmware 3.1.3, although you will still be on 3.1.2 with the older baseband. It kinda reminds me of FWchanger, although this one just helped make the App Store believe you were on a different firmware.
Fake 3.1.3 is available for free on Cydia via the http://cy.sosiphone.com repo.
I've always been a big fan of iPhone tethering, which has saved my butt a few times, especially during my travels. Today, a blog reader by the name of DarkN sent me a really nice tip about MyWi, a jailbreak app that allows you to both tether your iPhone AND create a Wifi Hotspot so you can share your Internet connection with computers around you.
This has to be the most useful app I've seen in quite a while. I had heard about MyWi before but I thought it was only an app to tether your iPhone so I didn't even look at it. But being able to use your iPhone as a wireless hotspot is just amazing!
If you can't see the benefits of using your iPhone as a wireless router, then let me give you an example. My fiancee and I are currently in Thailand. Unfortunately our hotel doesn't offer wifi. I do however have a local SIM card and a data plan which I use to tether my iPhone. By creating a wifi hotspot with my iPhone, I literally turn it into a modem/wifi router and my fiancee can now connect to the internet with her iPod Touch.
How to Turn Your iPhone Into A Wireless RouterStep 1: Make sure your iPhone is jailbroken and that it is running at least OS 3.0.
Step 2: Launch Cydia and search for "MyWi". If you don't have Rock installed on your iPhone and you don't want it, choose the "MyWi (no Rock)" version.
Step 3: Purchase ($9.99) and install MyWi then reboot your iPhone.
Step 4: Launch MyWi and tweak the settings to your liking:
Change the hotspot name Change the channel Enable Wep security Enable USB/Bluetooth tetheringThat's it. You should now be able to use your iPhone as a modem and share your internet connection with other computers or iPods around you.
Note that using your iPhone as a wifi router is an absolute battery killer. Make sure it is plugged in so you don't run out of juice in just a few minutes.
There are several ways to protect your iPhone by restricting access to it from the lockscreen. You can use the stock feature that allows you to set a password containing 4 numbers. You can use this hack to add an alphanumeric password, or you can use AndroidLock.
AndroidLock is a new application available in Cydia that brings Android's lockscreen protection to the iPhone. After installing the app, you have to activate it in the Settings.app. To do so, you first have to create a pattern and save it. Then, in order to unlock your iPhone, you have to connect the dots according to the pattern that you previously created.
On the example above, I have to go from bottom left to top right, then top right to top left, then top left to bottom right, in order to unlock the iPhone and gain access to the springboard. Obviously, you don't see the pattern until you have completed it.
I do think it's a great alternative to setting an alphanumeric password. However, the downside for me is that I can't really see the picture of iVan the dog anymore, which is the picture I have on my lockscreen.
As I am traveling quite a bit these days, thus increasing my chances of losing my iPhone, I have set AndroiLock to protect it. I created a simple unlock pattern that doesn't make it a pain in the butt for me to do, but it makes it very hard for a potential thief to figure out. That won't protect me from losing or having my iPhone stolen, but at least it won't be easy to access the data on it.
What do you think? It's a pretty nice mod, isn't it?
Those of you who have a jailbroken iPhone will probably remember ContactFlow [iTunes Link], the jailbreak app that brought coverflow-style management to your contacts. Turns out that the dev decided to go legit and removed ContactFlow from Cydia to submit it to the App Store.
When you launch ContactFlow, you have access to all your contacts. Just tap on a contact to flip the picture and display associated numbers and e-mails. By selecting a number, ContactFlow will simply call your contact. The SMS icon automatically send you to the SMS application. By the same way, in ContactFlow, selecting an e-mail will send you where you can write a new e-mail.
ContactFlow is available from the App Store for free for a limited time, so get it while you can. In the meantime, have a look at this video demo to see ContactFlow in action.
Forget about the 5-icon dock tweak... InfiniDock is a new application available in Cydia that lets you add an unlimited amount of apps in your dock and make them easily scrollable, just like you scroll through your pages of apps on your springboard.
InfiniDock was developped by Chpwn and just like the ProSwitcher app, I think this is a simple but powerful tweak that Apple will most likely look at and implement in iPhone OS 4.0.
I'm glad to see that there are some developers out there like Chpwn. New releases in Cydia have been pretty boring lately. There sure are a bunch of themes and wallpapers, but not so many useful apps.
I first heard about InfiniDock about a week ago but I didn't give it a try until I read some of the comments made by a few of you on my post about how many apps you have in your iPhone dock.
If you haven't tried it yet, launch Cydia and look for InfiniDock. You can download it from Cydia for $0.99. Well worth the money if you want my opinion.
Have you tried it yet? What do you think?
Tell me what you have on your dock and I'll tell you who you are...
The apps you have on your dock can tell a lot about your iPhone usage. As you can see, my dock is pretty standard. I have the mail app, Tweetie 2, Byline and Safari. These are the apps I use the most.
You'll notice that my phone.app is not even there. That's because I rarely make calls. I've come to realize that what I like the most about my iPhone, it's the " i ", not so much the "phone".
What apps do you have in your dock? Why did you choose these?
You thought your iPhone could do just about anything? Think again! I handpicked 10 applications for jailbroken iPhones that will boost your productivity and unleash the real potential of the iPhone. You won't find these applications in the App Store. You'll have to jailbreak your iPhone in order to install any these apps.
If you don't have these apps on your iPhone, you're missing out on 10 must-have features.
XpandrXpandr is a shortcut expander for the iPhone / iPod touch. It allows you to define an unlimited number of shortcuts to save time and make your life easier. It works in every application, even on App Store applications. More about Xpandr.
ProSwitcherProSwitcher is a multitasking app for the iPhone that kinda replicates the Palm Pre “cards” feature by adding a very nice UI to Backrounder, the jailbreak app that allows you to run apps in the background. More about ProSwitcher.
AttachmentSaverAttachmentSaver gives you the ability to download attachments of all types, whether supported by the Mail.app or not, and save them into a folder on your iPhone disk. More about AttachmentSaver.
Find in PageFind In Page is an application that will help you find any text on any web page in Safari. Now every time you visit a page in Safari and you’re looking for a specific word, simply open your bookmarks and tap “Find In Page”. More about Find in Page.
mQuickDoOriginally, mQuickDo lets you set up gestures to perform predefined actions (ie. slide left to right to close an opened application; or slide right to left to shut off the phone, etc…). The real power and most exciting feature about mQuickDo is the App Switcher. As its name suggests, the app switcher allows you to quickly switch between apps. More about mQuickDo.
QuickScrollQuickScroll is an application available in Cydia that lets you scroll through documents and web pages very quickly. Once you have installed QuickScroll, simply tap 3 times anywhere on the page and a dialog will show up. Drag the scroller (see on the right of the image above) up and down to quickly go wherever you want on the page. More about QuickScroll.
GriP - Growl for iPhoneGriP tries to strike a balance between being unobstructive while still being able to give out clear information. With GriP, messages are (by default) shown as small floating windows in a corner, which will automatically disappear if you ignore it. In this way, you can still continue your process without missing anything. More about GriP.
OrbitOrbit brings you an instant way to switch between pages on your home screen. Based on the “iPhone Expose” concept, this modification gives you an icon that, when tapped, animates your home page into Orbit. More about Orbit.
Action MenuAction Menu is one of those mods that once you try it, you simply can’t live without it anymore. Action Menu takes a stab at enhancing the copy/paste function of your iPhone by adding a bunch of add-ons to it. More about Action Menu.
MultiIconMoverThis app is very simple yet very practical. It allows you to select multiple icons to move them to a different page on your springboard. So instead of moving your icons one at a time, you can select many of them and move them all at once wherever you want. More about MultiIconMover.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple implemented some of these applications' features in the next iPhone OS.
AnyRing is a jailbreak application available in Cydia that lets you use any song on your iPhone as a custom ringtone or SMS ring.
There are several ways to add ringtones to your iPhone for free. Audiko is one of my favorite but it seems it's going to get some fierce competition from a new app called AnyRing.
With AnyRing (3.2) you can easily select any song on your iPhone (or Record you own voice) to play as a Ringtone or SMS Ring. AnyRing even lets you select the starting/ending point in the song to play when the Ringtone is played. Does not require any audio conversion of any type!
Here are some of the features:
Select any song on your device to act as a Ringtone. No Audio/File conversion needed. Select start and ending point in song to play as Ringtone. Easy to use interface.AnyRing is available from the Cydia Store. It comes with a 10-day trial so you may want to try it out first, and if you like it, you can choose to pay the $3.99.
I think it's worth the price. What do you think?