Man, the ubernerds are at it again. Check out the iPhone Dev Team site for info, and I’m sure Pylorns will have a step-by-step walkthrough out there soon enough. I’ve done the jailbrake to 2.2.1, and it works pretty smoothly.

Out.

The 2.2 release has been put out for iPhone users to download, and there are some new features on some apps. A quick ‘n dirty review below:

- Google Streets view in maps feature: This is incredibly cool. I’m not a major user of the street views online, but having it on the phone is really nifty- and kinda creepy. I looked up my grandmother’s address, and it pulled up just fine complete with a 360 degree view of her neighborhood. Just seemed… yeesh.

- Google Search relocated in Safari browser: Others are calling this an excellent adjustment to save screen real estate in the browser. I say… meh. I mean, it’s nice and all. Just not a huge change like others are saying.

- Podcast Over-the-air Download capability in iTunes: Okay, this one’s really nifty. They’ve finally added podcast downloads over wifi on the iPhone, and I love it. Now, if I want to get the latest episode of a favorite podcast and I’m not at home to get it, I can do so from my phone. Very convenient, very cool. I’ll be using this one.

Overall, some nice additions to the software- and yes, this means I killed the jailbrake I’d done to the phone a while back to get these updates. I can live without the jailbrake, to be honest. It killed battery life, had serious bugginess and I dropped calls with it. All of these problems were less severe once I went back to Apple’s firmware.

Out.

So, after 17 months I was able to finally able to upgrade the cellphone.

I’ll give you one guess as to what I picked up.

That’s right, folks. I have joined the ranks of the pretentious and douchey and picked up my third Apple product, an iPhone 3G. I grabbed the 16gb model and am typing this post on right now.

Now before you ask, I am not considering myself a complete Apple tool- quite the opposite, in fact. I am still completely loyal to Bill Gates and his product that rules us all. Plus, I kinds figure that Gates is the better man of the two, what with him being the world’s greatest philanthropist and all.

That being said… I really love this damn phone. Holy crap, this thing rocks. Works well (and that is with the updated software and without jailbraking the phone), and calls are clear and I have yet to lose a call. So, I’ve got that going for me- which is nice.

Out.

Thank god for the plastic cover/film.  My iPhone popped out of my golf cart along with a bunch of other stuff and I ran right over the damn thing.  The protective film that I had on the front of the iPhone took the brunt of the damage as all the scratches etc were on it.  The iphone itself was not damaged with the exception of a scratch to the screen that is almost unnoticable.

The crazy thing is that in all my life with so many cell phones never had that happened to any phone - I’ve rarely dropped any cell phones even - and I’ve dropped the iphone, ran over it with a golf cart… what’s next?  One thing I can say these things are durable.  Always remeber your protection though.

This is a late follow up to Jailbreaking the latest Apple 2.1 software update with the latest version of QuickPwn 1.1.  You will as always need to ensure that you have backed up.  Download the latest version of QuickPwn here.

Note: You have to be at version 2.1 on your iphone for this to work.  I’ll go over breifly the update in this tutorial, you can also look at previous tutorials on the update such as here.

1. Launch iTunes and have your phone plugged in and you should receive the message about updating as I’ve covered before in previous tutorials - it will run through these screens as you update to 2.1 version of Apple iPhone Software

2. And it will continue to update, your iphone will flash and reboot at some point as well.

3. Once it’s done make sure you have your quickpwn on your desktop and double click on it.

4. Then the usual screen will come up with the usual we’re not responsible if you brick your phone.

5. Connect your iPhone if you haven’t already - click ok. It will auto-detect your phone and continue.

6. Choose to replace the original boot and logos and click yes.

7. Put in ye’ old username and password.

8. And wait while it builds the new firmware package.

9. Now it needs to xfer the information over - follow the onscreen instructions for getting into DFU mode - if you have problems refer to the previous tutorial here.

10. QuickPwn will send the package to your iPhone

11. The software part is done on your mac now you need to watch your iPhone.

13. Here is the new screen, apologies for the blurryness.  This go around you get a status update about what is going on which is very cool.  Plus it didn’t hang like last time for me or the other iPhone of Prax’s that we jailbroke.  Once its done, you’re good.

14. You may want to install boss pref’s and run through the reset of directory permissions.  I didn’t have this issue before but I did after updating to 2.1.  Check here for instructions and issue.

And that’s it.

I love my iPhone. I hadn’t expected to adore it quite so much but there ya go. It has quickly become one of those things that I can’t figure out how I ever lived without. The secret to my adoration is the App Store. I know that you can jailbreak it and put all sorts of stuff on it but right now the App Store is enough.

The App Store is the paradise of niche software. For example: I have a thyroid issue and debilitating migraines. My neurologist always wants to know certain things in regards to the migraines. Before my last migraine, what did I eat, where was I on my cycle, how many hours of sleep did I get the night before, when was the last time I had sex, did I have my meds and my vitamins, how much stress was I under at work? They may seem like odd questions but I understand why any and all of that data is important. The kicker is that I don’t keep track of that each and every day. So I seldom have an answer.

I tried for years to keep track of it all in a little notebook and that worked for a while but became so difficult that I stopped. Enter the App Store…

With the ridiculous name of Lady Biz I found an answer. I believe the app was originally created to help women who were trying to get pregnant which wasn’t my goal but a lot of the information would be perfect. The kicker was it is a bit pricey and didn’t have a few things I needed. So I took a chance and wrote the developer. He answered quickly with the plans for the next release and asked for input for how to make it more useful.

We wrote back and forth about what would make my life simpler and be useful for me, and he is implementing those changes. I love the app and I love the changes he is making specifically in regards to items I want to see.

Talk about eye opening, I wrote to several of the other developers, commented on their app, told them what I liked and what I would love to have included. In each case they wrote me back quickly, discussed the ideas and overall have implemented large parts of them. Unless you are a developer, have one in the family or have a ton of cash – this is as close to custom software as you could want.

The App Store really does allow a quick and casual interaction with people that make the software and that sorta rocks.

This is a problem with the permissions on your iphone after jailbreaking.  

1. Open Cydia and download Boss Prefs.

2. Open Boss Prefs

3. Choose More

4. Click on Fix User Dir Prefs

Ok a few notes about QuickPwn.  Compared to Pwnage Tool, it makes it much easier for the novice to jailbreak an iPhone or iPhone 3g or ipod touch.  I did not test this on a “clean” iPhone as mine was already jailbroken the first time.  But, iphone dev doesn’t have any notes that say you can’t do it on clean iphones.  So here is the tutorial on how to do this on an already jailbroken iphone 3g, as always backup first, do at your own risk, yada yada, most likely doing it on a clean iPhone works exactly the same way.

Also you have to be at 2.02 in order for this to work.  I’ll walk you through that update if you haven’t already.

1.

Browse out to http://blog.iphone-dev.org and pull down the QuickPwn file from there site or through bit-torrent.  Remember to use the native archive utility and not “unarchiver”.  Once you have this downloaded and extracted chill out a moment and fire up iTunes.

2. Ask yourself this question: “Do I feel lucky?”  Then decide that you haven’t and backup your iPhone.  You should have already but I wanted to remind you again.

Once you have iTunes started and your iPhone plugged in you should get this message, choose to download and install.

3. Click on Next for the update, as you can see it says “bug fixes”.  Can we get any more generic?

4. Agree to sell your soul to Steve and click next.

5. Now when you do this, you may think, what the hell, the screen disapeared.  Steve’s come to collect my soul early! No like all iTunes downloads it just put it in the download section.

6. Soon as it finishes you’ll get this screen

7. And then this one…

8. And then…

9. Boom done, you’re at 2.02 Apple legit software and if you had any jailbroken apps they are gone.  Your iphone should reboot and you’ll get the old favorite apple logo.

10. Now you can fire up QuickPwn. Double click to launch the goodness.

11. Click Ok that you have been warned. You should know the drill you can’t hold them, or me or anyone else but yourself responsible for bricking your iphone.

12. Keep following ye’ old onscreen instructions, your device should already be connected so just click ok, or it may have just jumped right to detecting your device.  Mine was rebooting when I took this so it popped up right after this.

13. Next it should popup with this screen. Basically it is going to go out and look for the 2.02 firmware on iTunes.  You don’t need to re-download or do anything, I had to close iTunes after a minute, but clicking Yes makes QuickPwn do the work and it worked so I didn’t run into any thing too out of the ordinary aside from not expecting it to fire up iTunes. If you didn’t get this or its finished or you’ve done this before just click the device and it should continue.

14. As mentioned before here and on the dev site you don’t get the option to choose how your custom firmware package is built, this puts it all in.  So put in your username/pass and click “ok.”

15. Ok so I didn’t get the immediate next screenshot, but basically we’re repeating the same steps as you should already know to get your phone into DFU mode.  Follow the steps on screen.  In case you have never done this before, look at your screen you’ll just follow the on screen prompts and if you have problems still check the bottom of this post for a tip on DFU mode.

16. And we’re holding…

17. And we’re holding… and boom, you’ll see it automatically sends the firmware as opposed to the crazy stuff you had to do with Pwnage Tool.

18. And here is where it gets tricky.   It took 2-5 minutes aproximately but it rebooted.  Then my phone just hung there.  I went out and checked online others were saying that they just re-did everything and freaked out.  Some say they waited 20 minutes, or they rebooted and it would continue to just hang at the pinapple.   See below.

19.  For me, I watched it reboot after 5 minutes the first time.  Then it hung there for about 10 minutes.  I started to get pissed, but I held down the home button and power button to turn it off.  I then powered it back on again, let the pinapple sit for a couple minutes and boom.  It came up fine, jailbroken, nothing wrong.   Cydia, Installer, all came back, I didn’t have to restore my music from iTunes after the fact or do anything else wonkey which made the experience much less painful.

If you had problem getting the phone into DFU mode follow DJ Felix’s method:

* Turn off the iPhone
* Hold the home button
* Plug it into USB
* Watch for DFU mode

Anyway Comment below, if you saw something else or experienced something else please share as it could help others.

It was released last night, some of us (me) actually downloaded it but I did not jailbreak last night as I didn’t have time.  That said, maybe it was a good thing that I didn’t.  Apparently there are some issues with the tool with passwords but it appears they may be more ipod touch related. From the horses mouth:

We’ve had some issues with iPod touch devices and the latest version of PwnageTool for the Mac, in certain conditions incorrect permissions will be used and the keychain doesn’t save passwords. So hold on and wait for the next release, we’ll push out the updated version via Sparkle as soon as it is tested (it is being tested right now).

I suggest waiting a bit longer.

Prax here, checking in again to give you some iPhone tidbits.  Since my last post several things have happened in the iPhone community that might be of interest to some of you.

1) Jailbreaking, the new old way- Recently iPhone devs have released a new way of jailbreaking your iPhone in windows.  Called QuickPwn, this basically does the same jailbreaking as the old way but without having to go through all the peskiness of creating new roms and restoring them.  Though this is a “new” way its somewhat more dangerous, because you are editing your rom while it’s still active on the phone.  But it does work alot quicker if you need to jailbreak in a hurry.

2) iPhone 2.0.2 and maybe a break?-  Apple released 2.02 for the iPhone since my last post, this update has had mixed reviews to say the best.  The update aimed to “fix” 3G issues that many users were reporting, Apple also seemed to refine some other portions of the rom as well.   From what I have heard from various sources, iPhone dev team has started to take a look at jailbreaking this new version of the OS, but someone apparently didn’t want to wait.  Appearing on several forums earlier today a few iPhone users were able to use the QuickPwn software above to jailbreak the latest OS.  Seeing this done I wanted to try it myself, I can report that the jailbreak went smoothly and I am running 2.02 on my device now with the Cydia installer app loaded.  But this install isn’t without its quirks, for one some of the customizing apps do not skin the OS correctly, and a few of the applications available in Cydia don’t work as they should, but over all I am happy enough to use the phone right now.  Once iPhone dev releases their latest jailbreaking tool I will reflash and use that.

3) To fix your crashing phone downgrade iTunes?- Earlier today in a unusually long e-mail from Steve Jobs to a news site reporting on iPhone apps crashing, the CEO reported that Apple is well aware of the issues users are having with crashing iPhone apps, and they are working to get a fix into the customers hands by next month.  The news site who employs an ex-Apple engineer suggested a temporary fix to its readers in the form of uninstalling the 7.7.1 version of iTunes and reinstalling version 7.7 .  While I cannot report on the success of this, it might be something to look at if you having issues with Apps crashing on your iPhone.

4) Copy cat- One of the most requested features that iPhone users want from Apple is a copy and paste function at the OS level.  While there are some hints and rumors from Apple about this mainly being some loose calls in the most recent development build of the iPhone OS.  There hasn’t been any official word from Apple if this feature will ever be implemented.  So while we wait with baited thumbs, a 3rd party developer has taken up the torch to add the much lusted after feature to a few apps.  By publishing a framework or set of programming tools to other app developers this developer is hoping to integrate his copy and paste function across multiple applications.   While this is far from a perfect solution, I wish the developer luck in his or her endeavor.

5) The iPhone 3G becoming a real class act-  Earlier today, news broke that a Alabama woman, brought about a class action lawsuit in which she names Apple computer for creating a “defective phone”.  She sites lots calls, and spotty reception for 3G network, she also goes on to say that phone is overall slower then she expected.  Not much info is known about what will happen with this class action, but I foresee that this isn’t the last apple has heard about this.

With that I close the first I hope of many chapters of iPhone notes; I will keep my eyes open, for more news to bring the readers of this blog.

Hey all Prax here, this is my initial posting on Wetwierd, and for the initial posting I am going to run though how to jailbreak an iPhone 3g in the windows world.  As Pylorns wrote about how to hack an iPhone on Apple Mac(Leopard) I decided I would help out the rest of the world who aren’t using those Mac things.  This guide is going to assume you know nothing about jailbreaking or cell phones.

First off lets run down a list of what we need to do this, first of course we will need an iPhone (of course) and a windows machine, personally I used my gaming box, that’s running Vista Ultimate edition 64 bit, but any vanilla windows box should work pretty much the same way.  Below is the first of many screenshots you will find in this guide, but it lists all the files you will need.

Going though this list I will explain each of the files and why ya need them.

1) winpwn- this is the application that will actually do all the work for us

2) iPhone roms- There are two of the listed here, you need to grab one from Apple the other one is one you will create.

3) winscp416.exe- this is not a required file but it is great for ftp’ing stuff back and forth to your newly jailbroken iPhone.

4) putty.exe- yet another app that isn’t required, but is of great use once you jail break you iPhone.

So now we got everything you need, or at least know what to look for lets move on to the first step, installing winpwn.  Its pretty easy just double click and keep hitting next until your done, once your done launch the application from the desktop icon it just created.  Once started you will be presented with the following screen.

Once you do the above, it will request an open dialog that you need to select the Apple rom that you downloaded earlier.

Once you select it, it will go though a verification of the rom.  Then the following screen will come up.

Once you have done that and winpwn has going though the check of the rom then click on the IPSW Builder. This will bring up the following dialog.

This shows what applications will be installed by default in the jailbroken rom.  Onto the next screen.

As you can see in the screen above you can select a boot up and a restore screen.  You can either select a boot logo from one that you have on your hard drive or search online for several.  You can skip the Customer payload screen and go directly to the advanced screen.

This is the most dangerous screen in the entire process, but everything works right the above settings will work on pretty much any iphone upgraded to 2.0.  Once the screen looks like it does above click on Build .ipsw file and save it some place you can find later. Once that is done you will get a pop up that looks like this.

Once that is done and you hit ok you will be shown the following screen.

Once you click the button the application will ask for the rom that you created earlier, after you tell the app where to find that file it will “enable” itunes to accept that particular file.   When it is ready you will get this.

Next you will want to dismiss this window and set your phone to what they call DFU Mode.  To do this hold down the power button and the home button at the same time, the screen will go completely blank at this point plug in the iPhone to the computer and load up itunes, but what ever you DO NOT RELEASE THE HOME BUTTON, you can release the power button though.  Soon after if everything went right, iTunes will display this dialog.

Once that happens, you will be taken to the iPhone restore screen and you will have to select the restore option.  But you want to select the rom that we made earlier using winpwn.  To do that hold down the SHIFT key and click the restore button, it will ask you to select the correct ipsw.  iTunes will start to do a restore, your iPhone will blank out several times and look kinda scary but I assure you that if you did all the previous steps everything should work right. Your iPhone will reboot itself, once it does iTunes will ask if you want to do a restore or treat this as a new phone.  This decision is up to you.  If you set the phone as new, you will be asked what to sync to the phone and it will be like the first time you plugged in your iPhone. If you choose to restore your iPhone it will be back to the way it was before you started the process.  After all this when your iPhone is finished booting, you will notice two new apps on your iPhone, Installer and Cydia, both of these installers will install 3rd party apps, but thats a blog from a different time.  Also I will go into what to do if you need to restore back to the original Apple rom.

Prax

Box office is back at the app store.

First things first, the tutorials for the PC seem to actually be easier.  Also a lot of the Mac tutorials left off a key step - holding down the option key when clicking the restore function.  For someone who has never done this before the other tutorials mostly assume that you know what you are doing.  This tutorial will cover how to jailbreak your recently updated 2.01 version iPhone or iPhone 3g. 

Note: This tutorial is for iPhone running 2.01 version software, and for Pwnage Tool 2.0.2 on an Apple Mac.  While it may work for future releases the screens may not look the same.  A PC version of this tutorial will follow.  Make sure you have a backup of everything you have on your iPhone, and make sure that iTunes does a backup prior to starting this.

Why should I jailbreak?

I mean, with the App store, the main reason people did it before was because you couldn’t install other applications, now there are lots of applications and all developers can now get their software on it right?

Wrong.  Apple has strict, slow, approval process and quite often they remove apps without telling the developers - just look at the box office fiasco. Also, with jailbreaking you can customize what your iphone looks like, all the menus, icons, battery indicators you can individualize your iPhone which is a big factor for me. See screenshot below of how you can customize your iPhone.

Winterboad Theme program

How do I get applications on the iPhone?

There are two applications that install when you use the PwnageTool 2.0.2. Cydia and Installer.  Cydia is open source and Installer is not, Installer also has very few programs as opposed to Cydia.  Basically these two are like the app store, they connect to multiple sources and categorize applications and themes.  They also let you know when an update is made.  These two programs are the simplest tools to use.  I suggest installing Winterboard and Customize as well these are installed through Cydia and allow you to start your theming fun.

Ok so how do I do this?

1. You need to head out to the location of the Pwnage tool and download it.  Go here and download the latest tool.  (Also note you’re iPhone should be plugged in and on and iTunes should be ready to rock.)

2. Extract the PwnageTool to your desktop and double click it.

3. Say yes that you want to open the application.

4. Click “OK” to continue.

5. Choose your poison of iPhone and click the arrow for next.

6. Select your firmware (it should show up and just click on it) then click the arrow for next.

7. Click on yes to continue to create your image

8. The tool will need your login/pass so enter them and click continue.

9. Choose if you have Pwn’d your iPhone before.  If your first time just choose no.

10.  Now we get to the interesting part.  Basically you’re putting your phone into DFU mode.  This basically sets the iPhone to be ready to accept the new image you just made.  The phone will appear to be off when you’re done but your system will still see that it is turned on.  Follow the directions by clicking on both the home button and the top button. 

11. Next you choose to hold just the home button down.

12. If you held the buttons down correctly you should have put your phone in DFU mode at this point you’re done with the PwnageTool. 

13. Fire up iTunes (as noted above you should already have it running.  So just bring it back up.

14.  Here is where you need to hold down alt/option button and click on the restore button. 

15. Choose to open the image that was saved to the desktop by PwnageTool.

16. It takes a good amount of time - some tutorials say it could take 30 minutes or so.  Course if you miss a step like I did, you’ll restore incorrectly and 30 minutes turn into 2 hours.  But anyway.   So baring any unforseen circumstances you should see this screen.

17. Now you want to sync up your phone, restore your previous settings and sync your music, photos, etc etc.  You should have two apps installed now on your iPhone; Installer and Cydia.  

Postscript: You can do the expert mode on PwnageTool but this tutorial is more for people doing it the first time as simple as possible.  Once you know what you’re doing - then go back and fiddle with it if you need to.

In my previous post about cleaning the iPhone I mentioned a glare/protective cover.  Forget that product.  Think about Tim the Tool Man saying “Ohhh Hooo Ho… more power.”

I came across a company that does military grade stuff - the stuff they coat military helicopter blades with. Zagg. No the price is not like a government contract price its reasonable and this stuff covers your entire iPhone.  Apparently these guys have also been talked about on Fox News and CNN. Here is their marketing blurb:

The invisibleSHIELD is made from a unique material originally created for the military to protect the leading edges of helicopter blades, the invisibleSHIELD™ offers protection that other screen protectors, covers, skins, or cases just can’t match. With over 2,000 copyrighted, precision-cut designs for a variety of gadgets, including iPods, smartphones, and cell phones, you can protect all your devices from scratches.

The invisibleSHIELD isn’t just another screen protector. Custom-cut Full Body Shields, available for many devices, offer protection for your entire device. With this patent-pending full-body contour wrap, your device will always look like it did the day you bought it.

Can’t find an invisibleSHIELD for your device? No problem - we’ll custom design one for you.

If you aren’t completely satisfied with the coverage of the invisibleSHIELD, you can return it within 30 days for a full refund. And if the invisibleSHIELD ever scratches, we will replace it for free, for life. So what do you have to lose other than those unsightly scratches?

Pretty damn cool eh?  A scratch proof protective cover.  Now what sold me was actually watching the video on youtube.  Check it out:

If I think about my old cell phone and how scratched up it got after a year of being in my pocket with my keys.  I wish I had this stuff 2 years ago.  But now, I’m going to pick up one of these.  I’ll follow up with another post when I get one on how to apply them, good points/bad points.  Anyway, check it out here if your interested.

Can I use Skype on my iPhone or iPhone 3g to make free phone calls?

Yes and no.  Skype already offers several mobile applications that you can download on other phones, just not an iPhone.

There is another company that uses Skype-out that has a program called IM+ for Skype.  Basically you either pay them 5 bucks a month or just buy it for 30 bucks.  The program allows you to chat with your Skype buddies or call out but it is not using VOIP (Voice over IP). It is using the Skype out feature to call the person, and then call your iPhone so its like calling a conference call center where you are both connected.  It uses your incoming minutes on your cell phone so you’re not really saving any money by doing it unless you’re trying to do international calling from your cell phone, then the rates make sense.

But what if you want to do voice over ip and not use your minutes?  First things first, you may ask, “Can 3g support VOIP?”.

Yes it can, but you also have to understand that using VOIP over the 3g network violates your terms of service with AT&T… beacuse you know, they want you to use your minutes and not use the unlimited data plan.  Now it is not a violation to use VOIP over wireless network.  So if you’re in your house or a place with free wifi and want to make calls out using VOIP portion of Skype then bamn! You’re all good.  Except you need to wait.

Fring has already come out with a working solution for the first iteration of the iPhone; pre 2.0 update.  They have not finalized code or even come up with a beta offering for the new version, but they did sucessfully test the functionality on the first iPhone and it works good enough to use.  If you have not updated to the 2.0 software and have an original iPhone well you’re missing out on all the cool stuff, but you also don’t have to wait you can download the beta right now - after you jailbreak your iPhone.

If you are interested in seeing how Frig works with cell phones, check out this video. While he’s not using the iPhone, the concept is the same.