So you think you know everything there is to know about the new iPhone 3G S? Think again! Apple released a guided tour of the new iPhone and as usual, it's pretty amazing. Check it out over at Apple's website.
Video
iPhone OS 3.0 Event Video
Today Apple unveiled details about the iPhone OS 3.0 software and released the new iPhone Software Development Kit for developers.
You can either read my summary (and my complaints) of the event and/or watch the full video on Apple's website if you feel like it.
How To Watch Ustream Over 3G
I made it clear that I'm not a big fan of Ustream. One of the concern many of you have is that it doesn't work over 3G. Well, I've got good news for you. Thanks to this simple hack, you will now be able to watch Ustream over 3G, and not only rely on wifi.
In order to do so, there are some prerequisites:
Your iPhone must be jailbroken - see quickpwn 2.2 tutorial You must install the following apps from Cydia: Mobile Substrate; OpenSSH; VoIPover3G (reboot after install) You must not be scared of playing around with your iPhone files...Now comes the funny part! Note that from now on, I assume you are familiar with SSH. If not, there are plenty of tutorial on YouTube that will show you how to do that.
1. SSH into your iPhone and go to the root directory "/"
2. Navigate to /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries
3. With a text editor, open VoIPover3G.plist
4. Look for:
Filter = {Bundles = ("com.Fringland.Fring", "com.apple.AppStore", "com.audiofile.Interstate", "com.apple.MobileStore");};
Now add this part: , "tv.ustream.player"
It should look like this:
Filter = {Bundles = ("com.Fringland.Fring", "com.apple.AppStore", "com.audiofile.Interstate", "com.apple.MobileStore", "tv.ustream.player");};
Don't forget the "," and the quotation marks!
5. Save the changes you just made and upload the file back to its location: /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries
6. Now go to your springboard and delete the Ustream application. Reboot your iPhone and reinstall Ustream from the App Store.
7. You're good to go! Ustream should now work over 3G!
I want to thank GreenGeek to email me all these instructions! If you have such hacks you want to share with us, feel free to contact me.
RedSn0w Demo
Dev Team member MuscleNerd showed us a demo of RedSn0w running on an iPod Touch 2G earlier today on Qik. The video reveals that RedSn0w is a patch that keeps the iPod Touch from detecting the jailbreak and stopping it from booting. Absolutely brilliant! RedSn0w is still not ready for a public release but as I said before, I am pretty sure it will be released before the end of the month.
Hacking The iPhone 3G… The Dev Team Way
Dev Team members PlanetBeing, MuscleNerd, and Pytey were speaking last week at the 25c3 conference in Germany to present how they hacked the iPhone. It's a very "geeky" video but it's worth your time if that's your cup of tea.
Some interesting facts is that at least 180 people with Apple corporate IPs update their phones using the Dev Team’s software on a regular basis. No doubt these guys at Apple are working on countering the jailbreak and unlock tools.
Animoto Is My New Favorite iPhone App
Maybe some of you already know Animoto, this website that let's you upload images, music, and creates cool slideshows in a matter of minutes. Don't misunderstand me, Animoto is not one of these cheap slideshow thing like Rock You or Slide. Using their patent-pending Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor & director, the resulting video has the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video.
Animoto [iTunes Link] is now available in the AppStore, letting you create animated slideshows directly from your iPhone, and believe me, this app delivers!
You can start creating a new slideshow right after launching the app as no registration is required. Select 8 to 16 photos from your library, arrange them at your liking, select a song from Animoto's library and tap "create". It takes about 15 second to upload each image to Animoto's servers. Once all the images are uploaded, Animoto will start creating the slideshow, which takes a few minutes. At this point, you can quit the app, make yourself a sandwich and come back a few minutes later.
The newly created video slideshow will be available for viewing. You can then edit it or share it with someone, which is the whole point of this app. It will send an email to whoever you want to share the slideshow with, with a link to your video on Animoto's website. From there, you can do a bunch of things such as embedding it, uploading it to YouTube, etc...
I love this application but I do have a few feature requests... First, I would like to be able to login to my Animoto account so the videos are saved in my account. Right now, Animoto doesn't allow you to login from your iPhone so you won't be able to save these videos to your existing Animoto's account if you already have one. My guess is that this will come in the next update.
My second request is that it should be able to let you upload a song from your iPhone. The website let's you do it. You can just choose a song you have on your computer and upload it so you can use it in your slideshow. Now I believe that Apple won't let anyone access the music library on the iPhone. Besides, uploading music directly from your iPhone would take forever.
At any rates, Animoto is clearly my favorite app of the week! I was already sold on the website, so it wasn't too hard to make me an adept of the iPhone app... You can download Animoto from the AppStore for free here.
Here is a slideshow that I quickly made for demo purposes. If you have created your own slideshow, share it with us in the comments!
Successful iPhone 3G Unlock
iPhone 2G jailbreak - checked iPhone 3G jailbreak - checked iPhone 2G Unlock - checked iPhone 3G Unlock - NOW CHECKED!
Earlier this week, I told you that the Dev Team was going to release its iPhone 3G soft unlock on New Year's Eve and today, MuscleNerd, leading member of our favorite hackers team broadcast live on Qik, showing the first "public" iPhone 3G soft unlock.
The live broadcast was about 4 minutes long and was not about fluff and BS. MuscleNerd went straight to the point switching SIM cards, running the unlock tool and showing the newly unlocked iPhone successfully operate under T-Mobile.
If you look at the video below, you will see that MuscleNerd is actually performing the unlock running some code directly from his computer but you won't have to do that once the 3G unlock becomes available to the public on December 31st. Indeed, you will be able to download and easily install the unlock method directly from Cydia.
The Simpsons Make Fun of Apple
Have you guys watched the Simpsons last night? If not, you missed out on some fun. The episode opened with a brilliant, prolonged visit to the Mapple store. The epic announcement from Steve Mobs, Mapple's founder and Chief Imaginative Officer is painfully spot on which makes it hysterical. "He's a genius!", He's like a God who knows what we want!", proclaimed two obvious Mapple fanboys standing close by.
LiveCLIQ brings video streaming and recording to the iPhone
Like Qik and FlixWagon, LiveCLIQ is a free application that allows live streaming and recording of videos directly from your iPhone. Before some of you get too excited, let me tell you right away that this app is only available for jailbroken iPhones. This means that if you're on a stock iPhone, you will have to wait 2017, until Apple finally decides to add video recording to the iPhone for you to enjoy this neat feature...
Here is how LiveCLIQ works. First I downloaded the application from Cydia. After installing, when you launch the application a message shows up asking for your "token number". This got me confused for a while. I understood that I needed some type of registration but nothing was telling me where to get this "token number". The "more info" link for this app in Cydia was showing the LiveCliq.com website and going there didn't help me at all. After googling "livecliq", I finally found the LiveCliq.NET website where you can register.
Review: OrbLive
This review of the OrbLive [iTunes link] iPhone app is at least two weeks in the making. As soon as I saw OrbLive in the App Store, I knew it had to have it. OrbLive streams pictures, video, music and documents over your cellular or Wifi network. But, the REAL gem of the app is its ability to stream LIVE television! But, I had a couple of hurdles to overcome:
I did not have a cable television connection available for my computer. I did not have an MPEG-2 encoder that was compatible.So, first I had to get a cable connection into my bedroom where my computer is. I went to Radio Shack and spent $50 for a really good 4-way splitter (yes, we have a bunch of TVs in the house) and a really long cable. That was the easy part.
Next, I went shopping for a new TV tuner card/MPEG-2 encoder. I decided to play it safe and get hardware I knew for sure is compatible with Orb, the PC desktop software that streams media to your iPhone. There was none in stock at the local stores, so I bought the WinTV-PVR USB2 off of eBay for $46. It's an external MPEG-2 encoder that can run more than $100.
After installing everything, I have to say that live streaming television iPhone through OrbLive is AWESOME! The picture doesn't looks as good as a digital copy of a movie on your iPod, but it's quite good for streaming TV over 3G and Wi-Fi.
Here's pictures I captured of live TV on my iPhone on 3G and Wi-Fi. Can you guess which is 3G and Wi-Fi?:
For the record, the top is Wi-Fi and the bottom is 3G. I have heard on message boards that the Wi-Fi picture used to look better but I cannot confirm that. Using EDGE for live television is not good at all.
To use OrbLive on the go, just make sure that your desktop PC running Orb is on. If you have an external encoder/tuner you need to make sure that is on as well. As far as I know, Orb does not make software for the Mac.
So, the money I spent on a cable connection, MPEG-2 encoder and a $9.99 app came out to a little more than $100. Was it worth it? I'd have to say that it's a resounding YES! But, like the MasterCard commercials, being able to watch your favorite live program on your iPhone when you're away from home is indeed PRICELESS.
iPhone Video Projector Coming Soon… This Time It’s Official!
We've had our share of rumors and hopes about a mini projector to work with your iPhone or iPod Touch but it seems that something is officially on its way. Engadget reports that Texas Instruments' DLP Pico Projector will launch on December 1st for sale in Apple Stores in Japan. The miniature projector allows you to display a 60-inch 480x320 video image from up to 8.5 feet away.
David Pogue of the NY Times reviewed the device and seems to love it:
You’d have to be a jaded gizmophile indeed not to be impressed the first time you turn on this tiny, shiny black box. In the center of the short end, there’s a very bright light-emitting-diode lamp. Inside, there’s a miniaturized Texas Instruments digital-light-processing (D.L.P.) chip, similar in principle to the ones that drive some full-size HDTV sets. Together, they produce an astonishingly bright, clear, vivid video or still image. That’s right -- from a projector you’ve pulled from your jeans pocket.
The DLP Pico Projector will be priced at about $500 in Japan and there is no word of when this long-awaited device will be available in the US.
iPhone 3G Gets External Keyboard
If you've been complaining about the lack of external keyboard on the iPhone, rejoice! Well, don't rejoice too much as this hack is very close to being useless but I guess what's interesting is that some people spend time on that kind of stuff.
It seems that the person behind this hack is running some type of Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone and plugged and external keyboard via USB. You can see the final result in this boring video.