How to

Create an iTunes account without a credit card

Sébastien Page ∙ October 18, 2008

[digg-me]So you have a spanking new iPhone or iPod Touch and you can't wait to download all these applications from iTunes until you realize you need a Credit Card to have an iTunes account. Or, maybe you do have a Credit Card but the app you want is not available in your country? Don't panic, there is an easy solution to this problem, and best of all, it's totally legit and should take you about 2 minutes to set up.

This tutorial will teach you how to create an iTunes account in any country whether you have a credit card or not. All you need is 2 minutes, an Internet connection and have iTunes already running on your computer.

How to Use an iPhone Without the Data Plan

Guest Author ∙ October 11, 2008

[digg-me]After playing with my kids iTouch's it became clear to me how much the iTouch is lacking in functionality. Before buying one I considered it just an iPhone without the ability to make calls. The lack of camera was the biggest surprise, because I can't figure out why they left it out. The GPS and Camera would have been really nice to have even if I can't use it as a phone.

So would it still be better to buy an iPhone and use it just like an iTouch but with camera and GPS? I found a thread on one of the iPhone forums where a guy, who was going to college and couldn't afford the $30.00 a month data plan, but wanted an iPhone anyway. He was on campus where they had a robust wifi connection all of the time and didn't really need the data plan. He already had an AT&T cell phone (a Razor), and just wanted to get a used iPhone and put his SIM card into it.

After giving the guy a hard time, a good samaritan responded with a way to do just that. He pointed out a cool service offered by unlockit. It is an APN Changer for 3G iPhones. It lets you turn off the Edge and 3G data service on your iPhone. This lets you use an AT&T SIM card with your iPhone but lets you use it without adding the iPhone data plan.

To use this service do the following:

Put the AT&T Sim card in the already activated iPhone. Make a wifi connection to a local wifi source. Navigate to this page. Click "Continue To The Next Page". Click Disable Data (Fake APN). The Install Profile window appears. Click Install. Another Install Profile window will popup warning you that authenticity of this profile cannot be verified. Click Install on this window too. You should now see a message stating "Could not activate Cellular Data Network; You are not subscribed to a cellular data service.

You should now be able to make phone calls and be able to use wifi to access the internet. When you aren't connected, you should get an error.

To remove the 3G/Edge block, simply go to your Network settings and removed the Fake APN profile.

This thread pointed out a really cool service.

Is there anything the iPhone can’t do?

Cody Lee ∙ October 9, 2008

The device that set out to replace 3 devices, (phone, mp3/video player, Internet) might eventually replace everything in your pocket. Like an idiot I assumed I knew a majority of what the iPhone was capable of. But browsing the internet the other day, proved me more wrong than Bush's policy on foreign relations.

Control your car

Meet the Delphi car control concept web app (watch video here). Capable of doing everything your ordinary key fob does, and more. It'll start your car, roll your windows up and down, and even gather engine diagnostics for you in case you smell something burning. I haven't heard anymore about it since they debuted it last January, so hopefully the project didn't get shelved.

Control your home

Using your iPhone to Record Programs to your DirecTV DVR

Guest Author ∙ October 7, 2008

I was looking at a TV Guide app in the store the other day and I thought it was pretty cool, but because I am a DirecTV customer, it is often difficult to find TV Guides that are not aligned with zip codes but with Satellite Regions.

I remembered that the DirecTV page posted a great guide. So I tried to navigate to there page with my iPhone. I could see the page, but it wasn't formatted for the iPhone so it was really difficult to navigate. After a little bit more research I did identify a DirecTV mobile phone page that seems to work well on the iPhone.

This web app doesn't let you browse the DirecTV Guide, but it does allow you to do something even cooler. You can use this site to search and setup your DirecTV DVR to record shows remotely. You can also sign up to see Pay Per View shows and set up series. If you have more than one DVR, it lets you pick which ones to use to record a show.

This is a really cool feature because if you are away from home and you hear about a show you want to record you can now use this page and your iPhone to set it up remotely.

If you have a DVR, just go to the DirecTV.com page and create an account. Then navigate to the mobile compatible page and login.

It has a very basic menu, but pretty much lets me do what i wanted. It has "Search For Shows", and a "Manual Record" feature. No guide, but search is pretty useful.

The Search for Shows feature lets you enter a search string. It display a list of matching shows. Pick one, and it gives you a description and the option to "Record Once", "Record the Series", or see more show times. I have multiple receiver, so when i pick "record", I get a list of receivers. Once i pick the receiver, i can give it a recording priority. Since I can't see the list of what is already set up, I can say "record if possible" or "Definitely Record this".

The Manual Record feature lets you pick a channel, date, time, duration to record just like recording on your old faithful VCR. This is usually only useful when the guide data is not accurate, but neat to have.

Also, I had high hopes for the login part, because the sign in form has a "Remember Me" checkbox, but it doesn't seem to work. Each time I go to the web page, I have to enter it from scratch.

Using Backgrounder to Speed up Categories

Guest Author ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

I love Categories and use it to organize my apps on my iPhone but it takes forever to load a folder, especially when it contains a lot of apps. Two recent application upgrades have really helped with this problem.

Backgrounder allows you to run processes in the background and the new version of Categories(2.2) takes advantage of this new functionality. By using the Background feature, you can set up folder by folder background loading. This makes it lightning fast to open folders. In normal iPhone mode, open the folder you want to speed up. Press and hold the menu button until you see the message, "Backgrounding Enabled". It will exit the folder but opening it again will be really fast. Press and hold the menu button again while the folder is opened to turn it off.

How to replace the iPhone font

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 26, 2017

[digg-me]Clear, legible, and ordered, Helvetica was developed in 1957 at the Haas Foundry in Munchenstein, Switzerland. It gained immediate, worldwide acceptance among typographers and designer folk. Today it's everywhere. All over London and New York, on storefronts, street signs, subways, planes and trains, income tax forms, postboxes and BMWs, print and television ads, billboards, letterhead, everywhere. And there are no half-measures: designers either love it or hate it.

Helvetica is the default font on the iPhone and it kinda bores me so I chose to replace it with another font. I did some research online to find a way to replace the font on my iPhone and although I thought I would find many sites talking about it, I didn't...

However, I came across James is bored and found a way to replace Helvetica with a font called NeoTech. Note that this will not replace the font called Marker Felt, which is used for the iPhone's Note application (we'll get to this later).

How to replace the default iPhone font with NeoTech:

Download NeoTech Font iPhone 2.0 and extract it to your desktop Connect to the iPhone with iPhoneBrowser or WinSCP Navigate to the following folders on your iPhone and backup the following files, adding .bak at the end (this is just a precautionary measure, you don't ever wanna lose your original files) /System/Library/Fonts/Cache/Helvetica.ttf /System/Library/Fonts/Cache/HelveticaBold.ttf Copy the files you extracted in Step 1 in these same folders Restart your iPhone

This hack doesn't replace the ugly Marker Felt font used for iPhone Notes though. I did a lot of research and didn't find any trick to replace this font. Before the 2.0 firmware, this workaround used to work but it doesn't work on 2.0 or 2.1. There is also another workaround to get Arial for your Notes but it's just a workaround... meaning that it's not a real fix to your problem as you have to manually change the Notes settings every time you create a new note.

Please let me know if any of you guys know how to permanently replace the Notes font. Thanks.

Logo, images and icons locations on your iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ October 5, 2008

Most of the themes you have for WinterBoard often comes with a bunch of new cool icons, carrier images, logos, badges, etc... WinterBoard makes it very easy for you to customize your iPhone but sometimes I want to change one little icon and apply it to all my themes. So how do you do this? Well, you need to know the location of the icon or image inside your phone, SSH into the phone and "manually" change the file.

Below is a summary that will make it easier for you to locate these files:

SpringBoard

Calculator Icon - /Applications/Calculator.app/icon.png Maps Icon - /Applications/Maps.app/icon.png Calendar Icon - /Applications/MobileCal.app/icon.png Mail Icon - /Applications/MobileMail.app/icon.png iPod Icon - /Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/icon.png Notes Icon - /Applications/MobileNotes.app/icon.png Phone Icon - /Applications/MobilePhone.app/icon.png SMS Icon - /Applications/MobileSMS.app/icon.png Safari Icon - /Applications/MobileSafari.app/icon.png Camera Icon - /Applications/MobileSlideShow.app/icon-Camera.png Photos Icon - /Applications/MobileSlideShow.app/icon-Photos.png Clock Icon - /Applications/MobileTimer.app/icon.png Settings Icon - /Applications/Preferences.app/icon.png Stocks Icon - /Applications/Stocks.app/icon.png Weather Icon - /Applications/Weather.app/icon.png YouTube Icon - /Applications/YouTube.app/icon.png

Dock - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SBDockBG2.png

Locked Screen

Unlock Text - /System/Library/Frameworks/TelephonyUI.framework/bottombarlocktextmask.png

Slider Bar - System/Library/Frameworks/TelephonyUI.framework/bottombarknobgray.png

General

Ringer background when you use volume keys - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/hud.png Badge (alert bubble for calls, sms, etc.) - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SBBadgeBG.png Top info bar - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FST_BG.png

Battery Charging Screen

Battery Background - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/BatteryBG_1.png-BatteryBG_17.png

Top Info Bar (signal strength, battery, etc.)

Carrier Logo lighter one - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_CARRIER_ATT.png darker one - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/Default_CARRIER_ATT.pn

Signal Strength /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_0_Bars.png-FSO_5_Bars.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/Default_0_Bars.png-Default_5_Bars.png

Bluetooth - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_Bluetooth.png

Background bar color HomeScreen - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_BG.png

Background bar color Lock mode - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FST_BG.png

Background bar color for all other screens (Text, Safari, Mail, etc.) - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/default_BG.png

WiFi Bars /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_0_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_1_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_2_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/FSO_3_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/Default_0_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/Default_1_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/Default_2_AirPort.png /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/Default_3_AirPort.png

Power on Screen

The logo - /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/applelogo.png

Power Off Screen

Power off slider - System/Library/Frameworks/TelephonyUI.framework/bottombarknobred.png

Calculator

Background - /Applications/Calculator.app/CalculatorBackground.png Screen Background - /Applications/Calculator.app/LCDBackground.png

iPod

Rating Stars - /Applications/MobileMusicPlayer.app/star_filled.png

Phone

Keypad - /Applications/MobilePhone.app/BarDialer_Sel.png

SMS

Input Field (Bubble where you type you're text message) - /Applications/MobileSMS.app/BalloonInputField.png Balloon 1 (Bubble where sent text messages are) - /Applications/MobileSMS.app/Balloon_1.png Balloon 2 (Bubble where received text messages are) - /Applications/MobileSMS.app/Balloon_2.png Bottom Bar Background (Background behing the text input field) - /Applications/MobileSMS.app/MessageEntryBG.png

Safari

URL Bar (Idle) - /Applications/MobileSafari.app/Url.png URL Bar (Inactive) - /Applications/MobileSafari.app/UrlInactive.png URL Bar (Active) - /Applications/MobileSafari.app/UrlProgress.png

Mail

Trashcan - /System/Library/PreferenceBundles/MobileMailSettings/trashmbox.png

Please feel free to add more to the list.

iPhone Custom Ringtones, Easy AND Free?

Cody Lee ∙ October 2, 2008

[digg-me]This is one of those little Internet gems that I wouldn't have discovered if I didn't walk in on a friend of mine browsing a site called myxer.com a few weeks ago. Now before I go any further in my story, those of you who are already aware of the site or don't care to expand your custom ringtone library, I encourage you to stop reading, and check out another great article on the blog. But to those of you who are still intrigued, prepare to become emotionally, mentally, and technologically aroused.

Ok, so I sit down to check out what he's got going on, and he is getting free ringtones of all the latest hits (and even a lot of movie and tv show audio) sent to his cell phone. Of course this is like every other free ringtone/background site, I'm thinking, so when he asks "You think this will work with your iPhone?" I blurt out "no," so fast I almost seem to interrupt him. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous of all the cool free stuff he was getting for his moto Razor.

Then later that night something magical (that's right, I said magical) happened. In browsing the myxer.com website, I came across a link that said, click here for iPhone download. Upon further investigation, I found you can actually download any ringtone on the site, in .m4r format, so you can then SSH them into your ringtone folder, or just drag and drop in iTunes and sync up.

The entire process is extremely quick, and the library of ringtones is enormous. Having tried other custom ringtone options through Cydia apps and such, I must say this is the most streamline and easy to use.

The only thing I would suggest you look out for is iTunes won't recognize any file (even .m4r) that is over 30 seconds long. Also be advised the backgrounds I tested didn't look very good, and the games aren't compatible at all. But the fact that I can now jam out to Lil Wayne's "Man I miss my dogs," when my old high school buddies call, is enough to make me, well, write a short article on a small time web blog. Have a good evening.

How to fix iPhone Blue Screen Of Death due to iTunes 8

Sébastien Page ∙ September 11, 2008

Disconnect your iPhone/iPod touch from the computer In Vista Programs and Features (Control Panel), Uninstall the Apple Mobile Device Support Restart your computer Download the iTunes 7.7 installer Open the iTunes 7.7 installation exe with Winzip or WinRAR, and reinstall only the AppleMobileDeviceSupport.MSI Reboot your system Reconnect your iPhone/iPod touch

Thanks iPhone Atlas

Backing up iPhone applications data

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 9, 2018

I just read a long but interesting post over at Just Another iPhone Blog. Brandon talks about backing up the data that is contained in your applications. He takes the example of the Fuel Gauge app but it applies to any other application, especially games (I just reached level 36 at Enigmo and I'd be pissed to lose this in case I had to restore the phone).

Brandon highlights a great application that is available from Cydia: AppBackup.

How does AppBackup works?

Install from Cydia Open AppBackup Select the application you want to backup Select "Backup"

Backups are stored in /var/mobile/Library/AppBackup/tarballs as files called bundleid.tar.gz, where bundleid is a given app's bundle identifier (e.g. com.ooi.supermonkeyball). Backup times are stored in an XML property list at /var/mobile/Library/AppBackup/backuptimes.plist as Unix timestamps. If you want to "backup the backups," you should back up the entire /var/mobile/Library/AppBackup directory tree.

How to restore?

Open AppBackup Select the app you want to restore Hit "Restore"