Filed under: Hardware, iTunes, Apple, iPhone, SDK, Jailbreak/pwnage
Jailbreakers ahoy! Yesterday brought the release of the Dev Team’s pwnage tool for jailbreaking and unlocking iPhones equipped with the new 3.1.3 firmware. As usual, though, there are a few catches: first, if you don’t need to update to 3.1.3, the dev team says you shouldn’t bother anyway — it doesn’t do much that the old versions of the firmware doesn’t, so if you don’t need to upgrade, just leave your jailbreak as is.
3G and 3GS users especially should be leery of this one, since if a mistake is made, there’s a chance you could upgrade your firmware and then not be able to unlock it again. They also have all sorts of other warnings and exceptions on their blog post. As they say, don’t download and run those files without seriously thinking about what you’re doing with your iPhone.
If, after all of that thinking, you decide it is time to crack open your iPhone with the 3.1.3 firmware, the jailbreak will put together a custom 3.1.3 IPSW for you to restore back on to your iPhone — here’s a quick how-to to start with. Good luck, and be careful out there!
[via Engadget]
Dev team releases PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 firmware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dev team releases PwnageTool 3.1.5 to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 firmware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Ars Technica has reported that a recent study from market research firm Gartner shows Apple’s App Store is responsible for a staggering 99.4% of all mobile app sales in 2009. However, as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, Apple didn’t say it sold 2.5 billion apps in 2009; users downloaded 2.5 billion apps in 2009, including free apps.
Even with that distinction between sales and downloads in mind, it’s not difficult to see that Apple has a huge hold on the mobile app market, although it’s probably not as huge as Gartner’s numbers would lead us to believe. According to the Gartner study, all other mobile manufacturers’ platforms combined accounted for a mere 16 million apps downloaded in 2009.
Note, however, that Gartner’s analysis appears to focus on manufacturer-based stores (RIM, Microsoft, Google, etc.) rather than carrier-based stores (Verizon, Vodafone, etc.). It’s likely that mobile phone service providers’ stores account for a higher number of downloaded apps than the 16 million cited in Gartner’s research; the study also doesn’t appear to account for third-party stores for jailbroken iPhones, such as Cydia. This means Gartner’s 99.4% number for Apple’s mobile application marketshare is likely to be fairly wide of the mark.
Regardless of the possible inaccuracy of Gartner’s figure, it’s still clear that when it comes to mobile applications, the App Store has very effectively set the standard for the market.
TUAWApp Store accounts for 99.4% of mobile apps in 2009? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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I’m the iTunes music pharmacist for my family’s iPod and iPhone music libraries. In short, what this means is that, whether it’s due to “getting sick of hearing the same thing over and over when I’m running” or wanting a new song or album on their iPod, they come to me when they want their music refilled. Which is fine and dandy. I’m more than happy to do this, and have my trusty ol’ 17 inch iMac loaded with everyones’ music on it (except mine, which is loaded on my MacBook Pro).
From the 3rd generation iPod classic to the iPhone 3G S, and from The Arcade Fire to ZZ Top, there exists an eclectic iPod and music mix in my family. How I would sync music for each person varied on a case-by-case basis, and usually took shape in syncing specific folders, playlists, smart playlists, and genres. For the iPod shuffle, however, I would typically click on the “music” within the device and choose playlist-based “autofill.”
This morning, my sister brought over her shiny new third generation iPod shuffle. And to my surprise, it, unlike its predecessors lacked the “autofill” feature. Or so I thought.
After spending a half hour or so creating a size-limited smart playlist with random songs, I said to myself, “Self, there’s gotta be an explanation for this. Surely, the folks at Apple wouldn’t leave out something as important as autofill.”
And they didn’t. They just put it in a different place for the third generation shuffle, and have now extended the feature for all iPods and iPhones.
To enable autofill on your iPod or iPhone, click on “summary” tab for your device (in the “device” section of iTunes). Then place a checkmark on “manually manage music [and videos].”
Now here’s where I got lost and confused, and I don’t want you to pull out your hair like I almost did mine just because I didn’t read the Apple support forums carefully enough. Except for first and second generation iPod shuffle models, the autofill option for all iPods and iPhones is activated by expanding the device (by clicking on that little triangle to the right of it) to reveal its media folder hierarchy. Then, you’ll want to click on “music,” and now you’ll see the autofill option in the bottom left hand corner. The whole time, I thought it’d be located on the “music” tab within the device, much like how it’s on the “contents” tab on the second generation iPod shuffle.
Autofill is now available for all iPods and requires iTunes 8.1.
The more you know…Dun, dah, duh, ding.
TUAW Tip: Getting your fill with iTunes’ autofill originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
TUAW Tip: Getting your fill with iTunes’ autofill originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Bugs/Recalls, iPhone, Jailbreak/pwnage
If you want to have a hot and steamy exchange with your sweetheart via AIM on the iPhone, you might want to think again — if you have an unlocked or jailbroken phone.
CrunchGear reports that Till Schadde with Equinux has discovered an iPhone exploit where AIM messages could be sent to random people without you even knowing it. Schadde discovered this when he was notified that a message he had sent to his iPhone version of AIM got intercepted by someone else. That person proceeded to contact Schaddle, sharing the screenshot shown at right with him. Schadde posted the screenshot and detailed the bug on Twitter after testing it once more from his computer.
The exploit is being blamed on iPhone 3.0’s push notification and seems to be limited to unlocked/jailbroken iPhones at the moment.
[Via CrunchGear]
TUAWiPhone push exploit sends AIM message to unintended recipients originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Adutainment, the art of mixing advertising and entertainment, has been popular in the iPhone app space since the App Store first opened. Grooming product giant Gillette has teamed with developer AIM Proximity on a fun little free app called uArt (click opens iTunes). uArt is the iPhone app equivalent of drawing mustaches and beards on pictures of people in magazines…not that I’ve ever done that…
You provide the photo, taking a shot of yourself or a friend with the iPhone camera, or importing a picture from Photos. After sizing and placing the photo with a pinch and a finger swipe, you can begin to have fun with the full beard that appears on the photo. A single control makes the beard and mustache go from sparse to bushy, while another control lets you apply the digital equivalent of “Just for Men” to the facial hair in 12 different colors and shades.
Now comes the really fun part: touching the shave button on the bottom of the screen brings up a virtual Gillette Fusion razor (it vibrates!) that you can use to trim or remove parts of the hair. Now you can see just how good or bad you’d look with a Fu Manchu. There’s a way to save your work of tonsorial art and even give it a name before sending it to your friends.
Personally, I’m holding out for Rogaine(R) to sponsor a free hair-growing app. Be sure to check out the rogue’s gallery of famous TUAW personalities below.
Thanks to Ivan for the tip!
Gallery: uArt
TUAWAds & iPhones: Facial hair fun with uArt originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 27 May 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Multimedia, Odds and ends, Developer
This is really wild: what you see above is an example of “viral music” — it’s part of an upcoming music festival that’s taking place in Sweden, and it features a circle of iPhones that are both listening to and playing a very abstract kind of “music.” Each one is picking up audio from its environment, then running it through a series of software filters to make it sound more musical, and finally playing it back in a rhythm. As each iPhone is picking up the tune from the other iPhones it’s playing it back through the same filters, and so on and so forth. All while the software is “judging” each “cell” of sound, to see if it’s interesting or loud enough or so forth, and cells will live or die based on that criteria — in essence, a musical organism.
Like I said, wild. That program is called the “Bacterial Orchestra — Public Epidemic No. 1,” and it sounds like the app will be available on the iPhone soon as well. Of course, you’ll have to have a bunch of iPhones with the app in one place for it to work the way it’s designed, but at least there’s good video of it.
Continue reading The Bacterial Orchestra uses the iPhone to create “viral music”
TUAWThe Bacterial Orchestra uses the iPhone to create “viral music” originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 May 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Productivity, iPhone, App Review
Being a productivity nerd who happens to love technology has its benefits. Those of us who are happy to spend a Friday night creating and destroying a list of tasks have absolutely no shortage of quality applications upon which to practice and hone our weirdo craft.
For web-based task management there’s the popular and venerable Backpack by 37Signals which, up until very recently, was in bad need of an equally awesome representation on our iPhones. I’m happy to say that the clouds have wandered west and the iPhone-toting Backpack lovers can rejoice at the advent of Satchel [App Store].
I know what you’re thinking. “Dude, could you be a little more gushy about a freaking iPhone application?” Perhaps I could, but there’s a reason that this article is written with such an overt sense of elation and joy. I love this application. It has succeeded where others (most notably, FrontPocket) have woefully failed. So, if you just want to know whether or not I “endorse” this product, the answer is yes. Read on if you’re curious as to why.
Continue reading Satchel is Backpack on the iPhone done right (finally)
TUAWSatchel is Backpack on the iPhone done right (finally) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 17 May 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, App Review
I have a Canon 5D DSLR. It’s a great camera, but one of the things I wished it had was an on-board GPS receiver to keep track of where my photos were taken. That would be especially nice since iPhoto and some other apps support reading location metadata embedded in the image.
I’ve looked at some of the outboard units, like the Amod GPS Logger, but didn’t really want to shell out the cash or carry an extra device. Of course, you can take geotagged photos with the built in camera on the iPhone, but they aren’t going to match a dedicated high quality DSLR.
Now there is a nice, fairly low cost solution that uses the iPhone you are probably already carrying. PlaceTagger [App Store link] keeps track of where you are from minute to minute, recording your latitude, longitude and altitude. When you unload your camera, an app running on your Mac finds your iPhone using Wi-Fi, and matches the time on the logger software to the time your images were taken. It then embeds the info into the image metadata.
It may sound confusing, but it is pretty simple. When the Mac app launches, it asks you to locate your images, and make sure your iPhone has been found. Your images show up as thumbnails, and when you are ready the software associates the GPS location to each file. The files then display a map of where the image was taken, as well as the specific numerical lat, long and altitude info. When I looked at the information in iPhoto, I saw the above data as well as the city, county, state and country I was in. Cool.
The app is on sale at an introductory price of $7.99US and that is a bargain compared to the outboard electronics packages you could buy. The developer is also doing a Windows version of the app for those that don’t have a Mac. The Mac version requires Leopard, and of course an iPhone with GPS capability. Older iPhones will work, but the location won’t be as accurate.
The software also includes an Aperture plug-in, and can export the data as XML via email. Of course, this app won’t work in the background in the current iPhone software, so if you get a call or have to do something else you’ll have to restart the software and get a fresh GPS fix.
All in all, these are a pair of clever applications. They worked as expected, and I liked the ability to see the photos I took with a displayed map and numerical location information all on my Mac.
TUAWPlaceTagger answers the ‘where was this picture taken?’ question originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 12 May 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone, iPod touch
Brian Brooks, associate dean of the University of Missouri’s Journalism School, knows how his students learn. “Lectures are the worst possible learning format,” he told Columbia Missourian. “There’s been some research done that shows if a student can hear that lecture a second time, they retain three times as much of that lecture.”
I can distinctly remember a former French instructor giving us cassette tapes of lessons from week to week (this was long before iPods, kids), and walking around with the voices of Mireille and Robert in my ears. Even all these years later, I can still manage marginally useless phrases like, “The red shirt of my brother is on the dresser.”
The point is repetition increases retention, and that’s why Mizzou is requiring incoming journalism students to have iPod touches or iPhones to carry audio versions of class lectures. Mr. Brooks points out that students who lack an iPhone or iPod touch won’t be punished or miss out on anything, but they’ve described them as “required” so that students with financial need can include their cost in aid.
Apple has historically offered a laptop/iPod combo as a back-to-school special that these students could potentially take part in, provided that the touch is included (the iPod is typically a nano in the bundle).
The good news is, if you’re going to Mizzou next year for journalism, you’ve got an excuse to buy a shiny new gadget.
TUAWiPod touch, iPhone required for journalism students originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 11 May 2009 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Hardware, Apple, iPhone
ifoAppleStore is reporting that Apple has instituted a new policy that will let iPhone owners swap their liquid-damaged iPhones for replacements. For $199US, customers can swap their defunct phones for a refurb unit, provided that it succumbed to an out-of-warranty encounter with liquid. Here’s the catch: Said swap renews your 2-year contract with AT&T — so it’s pretty much like buying a new phone, except if you were to do that out of contract it would cost you $499 for a 16GB unit.
Of course, this could also be another way to clear current iPhone inventory in preparation for a new model.
We couldn’t determine if sweat-induced failures are covered by this program, but we’ll let you know if we find out.
TUAWApple to replace water-damaged iPhones originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 05 May 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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