US Mobile Industry» Apple

tlkng wth tnkgrl webisode 12

matthew bennett — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:37:56 +0000

In this webisode we take a look at some of the best new gadgets, including most from our June Tsunami list. We show and discuss the HTC Magic, Samsung i8910, Nokia N97, Palm Pre. We also discuss the future with awesome video phones, MOBILETRON tees and Nokia in Iran.

twtg11 was a bust, because we already showed the Palm Pre unboxing video, and there wasn’t much left after that. The audio is for twtg11 and 12 are available from tnkgrl’s site, tnkgrl Mobile

This video was filmed on a Nokia N95 with an external Mic, and edited in iMovie 09.

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Bustin Out with 3.0 [jailbreaking]

koruptor — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:30:49 +0000

So the iPhone 3.0 firmware has been out and you’re wondering how to do a proper upgrade and jailbreak. You can try using aptbackup to backup your jailbroken apps, but I’m all for fresh starts. Here’s how I did it.

Note: If your iPhone is not jailbroken and this is your first time, jump ahead to Step 3. Jailbreak at your own risk. If you brick it, it ain’t my fault.

Backup content if applicable (via SSH)
- Custom ringtones
- Custom themes (if you made your own)
- Photos, videos, etc.
Familiarize
- Create a list of all your downloaded apps from Cydia (i.e. SBSettings, Categories, Winterboard, etc.)
- Unhide any hidden apps, and remove apps from thier folders. It may not be necessary, but I always do it as a precaution. This one time, I updated to FW 2.2 and forgot to remove my Settings.app from a Categories folder. That shit disappeared.
Update
- Update iTunes to version 8.2. Just launch iTunes and it’ll prompt you about the update.
- Update your iPhone to 3.0 through iTunes. It’s safe to do this. You’ll also be able to backup your contacts, calendars, App Store downloads, media, etc.
Jailbreak
- Download either PwnageTool (OS X) or redsn0w (Windows) and follow the instructions to jailbreak your device. You’ll also need a copy of the .ipsw file (use Google).
- Install your previous Cydia apps. Note that not all are required/compatible with FW 3.0.
Software Unlock (applies to iPhone 3G at the moment)
- Open Cydia or Icy and add the source repo666.ultrasn0w.com.
- Allow it to refresh and install ultrasn0w.

I hope this brief guide was helpful. If you have an iPhone 3GS, the Dev-Team indicated today that:

Apple is surely coming out with a 3.0.1 firmware release shortly. They need to fix ultrasn0w. They need to fix some UI issues. 3.0 is buggy and 3.0.1 is coming. We’re going to wait and see what 3.0.1 brings before figuring out the release date for our version of the jailbreak.

Prepare for the June Tsunami!

matthew bennett — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:38:00 +0000

The entire planet is about to enter the next cycle of Human Communication. The June Tsunami’s effects will be felt by every human on the planet. This revolution will be bigger than the Personal Computer, and it will be pocketable. And it’s all starting in two weeks.

Advanced mobile users have always had a tough time finding the perfect device. Historically many devices have needed to make great sacrifices to remain pocketable in size. Gadget lovers have long been forced to choose between a mixture of 3G, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, A2DP, Removable Storage, a great camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, QWERTY keyboard and/or large touch screens.

In their search for the Perfect Mobile Device, many advances users were forced to import unlocked devices not sold by their carrier of choice. This meant the devices were expensive without carrier subsidies. The worse downside was that often the 3G frequencies of imported devices weren’t the same as the carrier, so Expensive Imported Devices were trapped in modem-like network speeds with EDGE.

The Nokia N95 was one of the first devices that didn’t make compromises. Sporting most of the above listed features, save the touch screen and qwerty, The N95 was the singlular choice among most bloggers and media creators prior to the iPhone. Remember that Nokia has sold over 10 Million N95′s in less than one year.

The iPhone has kick-started the revolution of well-equipped devices with full carrier support. While many Nokia users would scoff at the iPhone (and many also switched!), many iPhone users were upgrading from a crap-phone like the RAZR. To these users, the iPhone experience out-of-the-box is mind-blowing.

Two Thousand Nine is the year that all US carriers will (Finally) offer wide choices of very powerful pocketable computers, many US exclusives. The Palm Pre, iPhone 3.0, Sidekick LX, Nokia N97, Nokia E71x, Samsung i8910 are all new devices delivering on this promise starting in June. at&t recently launched six qwerty “messaging phones”, and Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile all have Tsunami-compatible devices in their near-future lineup.

The next infobit to consider is the mainstreaming of Social Media. Oprah’s on Twitter, your Boss is on Facebook, and your little brother is a star on YouTube. In the very near future a device *will not sell* if it does not support Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter out of the box. Many of these devices will support widgets, which will deliver updates without requiring launching a dedicated app. Some of these devices will pull the phone directory from these online services, as well as profile pictures. Sporting full QWERTY keyboards, typing a quick status update, instant message or email is no longer an annoyance, it’s downright easy.

Most of these new devices not only record decent quality video, you can upload the videos to YouTube with just a few clicks. The user becomes the media creator overnight. After an initial period of shyness, the wave of video publishers will be big. Having a camcorder in your pocket will also bring social justice. The people are watching the watching men. The camera is the new gun.

Yes, the June Tusnami is the effective end of CrapPhones as we know it. It is the beginning of much higher expectations from most users. From taking great pictures and video, to instant communication, the next round of devices are evolutionary, and will start a Media Revolution.

Communication barriers are shattering all at once. In your pocket. Right Now!

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It’s Hella Cold Up In Here: Icy

koruptor — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:44:33 +0000

The Ripdev team recently released Icy, an alternative to popular package manager Cydia. After playing around with it, and updating it to 1.1, I’m finally ready to write a few things about it. Here you go:

Pros:

Fast. Icy loads up really fast and installs packages really fast…see the video below.
Simple UI. A “Recent Packages” link was just added.
Borrows sources from Cydia.
Cool install animation.
Landscape mode! Perfect for late night app-surfing in bed.
Free

Cons:

Not all repositories from Cydia sync with Icy.
Missing packages during installation, which is related to the issue above. When I tried to install a Dr. House theme it claimed Winterboard was missing.
No queue feature. I really like queues…and the Q.

Icy isn’t quite there yet, but I’m very excited about it. I’m looking forward to future updates.

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iPhone gunning for the Console Market?

matthew bennett — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:38:12 +0000

Apple’s new iPhone is expected to ship sometime around June of this year. The firmware has been available to developers for a few months now, and they’re pretty excited about 3.0. Any information on the device(s) itself is still speculation, but Apple has let us know some new information about the iPhone cables.

I was having a conversation with Serko from MobileDivide over the weekend, and he pointed me to this MacDaily News posting. They’re claiming that Apple has told retailers to clear out all existing inventory of AV cables for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The exsisting cables are $50 each, one for SD and one for HD playback. The existing iPhone’s HD playback is also limited to 480P.

In the announcement, Apple says “supports multiple AV connections, just like the Xbox 360.” I’m assuming this is not going to be a simple HDMI cable, as SD tv’s wouldn’t support HDMI. I’d guess there will be a cable which can connect to the iPhone, and a separate dock sold as another component.

So what’s the big deal about a fricking cable? I mean, sure it’s exciting to be able to go to a friends house, pull out your iPhone, and queue up your choice of 20 movies. Heck, all your friends also have iPhones, so let’s just see who’s got what movies and pick the best one to watch.

Nope, the big deal is the iPhone app store, specifically games. Sure the Xbox 360 has downloadable games, ranging from free demos to $5 – $20 for downloadable games. The Wii also has downloadable games, going for FREE – $4 – $20. The Sony Playstation 3 can also download games, I think. Leave a comment. : )

Even at $4, there’s a bigger barrier to purchasing vs 99c games on the iPhone. Seriously, if a 99c game sucks, no big deal, just give it a bad review, and download another one. If you’re spending $10 on a game, that’s Lunch, but a $1 game is more like a tip for a cup of coffee. An Easy Decision.

Don’t forget that the iPhone also has an accelerometer, just like the Wii. And WiFi and Bluetooth, like the Wii. If there’s an AV dock that supports these wireless standards, we wouldn’t even be wired to the TV while playing.

I’m also thinking about how much fun the “offline” aspect of such games could be. Just because you’re not sitting at home connected to the TV, the gaming could go on. The iPhone can connect to the Internet just fine, even while you’re out and about. Besides, at&t is upgrading the whole network to HSPA+ just for the next iPhone launch, so we needn’t worry about data speed issues.

So what would you buy? A $400 console with $60 games that *might* be fun? Or just pull the device out of your pocket, and play the same games you know are fun anytime, or *also* in HD resolution on your nice flat panel TV?

This is also overlooking the Media playback expected in the new iPhone. With WiFi, there’s no reason you couldn’t just stream from your computer to the iPhone, so it wouldn’t even need giant build in storage. Whether or not this will support MY movies, or just purchased iTunes movies is unknown.

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Engaging Autopilot: iPhoneTool

koruptor — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:29:32 +0000

A neat little app called iPhoneTool was just released on Cydia, courtesy of iSpazio. Because of its generic name, I almost skipped it as I was browsing through the new releases. Anyway, this app allows you to automate Airplane Mode on your iPhone. Why do that? Well, maybe because you don’t want ex-girlfriends calling at 2am. Maybe because you don’t need your cousin asking you to come over at midnight to fix his DVR so he can record episodes of NCIS.

I won’t write any instructions. It’s very straight forward to use. Screenies:

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Skype for iPhone, big announcement tomorrow

matthew bennett — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:04:40 +0000

It’s official. Or at least, it will be official by Tuesday March 30th around 3:30 PM PST. Skype for iPhone is out.

Sure, you’ve been able to connect to your Skype account with Fring ot Truphone, but this is the official Skype app. Will it leave the other Skype apps in the dust? We’ll need to wait until tomorrow to see.

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Cutting In Line: Cydia Beats The AppStore To Queueing

koruptor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:45:40 +0000

If you haven’t noticed already, Cydia can now handle queueing of apps. So instead of installing every individual app I mentioned in my previous article, check out how to queue up a batch:

Warning: It’s probably a good idea not to queue up too many apps. It’s also a good idea to put your phone on WIFI mode first.

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Clean Slate: Starting Over on Cydia

koruptor — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 02:27:03 +0000

It’s frustrating to spend so much quality time installing awesome apps from Cydia, only to lose them after a firmware update. Should you forget to backup your apps, think about installing a few from this list:

All Sources – This installs a crapload of sources, which will make installing the following a lot easier.¹
SBSettings – With the swipe of your finger across the status bar you can toggle settings like autocorrect, WIFI, 3G, rotation lock, bluetooth, etc.
Backgrounder – Leave your favorite apps running in the background for quicker access. It’s probably not a good idea to enable everything, so stick with a few.
Categories – Don’t keep Wobble Hot Babes (aka Wobble) in the open. Put your pervie apps in folders.
Clippy – Cut, copy, paste. This feature will be available in the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware.
CyDelete – CyDelete enables jailbroken apps to be removed from the Springboard like regular apps.
Cyntact – This one costs $0.99 but it’s definitely worth it. View contact pictures in your address book without actually selecting the contact.
Emoji – Japanese-style emoticons. I’m not 100% sure but your recipients can only view these emoji if their phones are set up for it.
Five Icon Dock – Cram an extra app on your dock. You might also want to check out Stacks.
GRiS – The best Google Reader app out there. See here about automatic/background syncing.
NocamSound – Turn off the shutter sound on your camera.
StatusNotifier – This places notification icons on your status bar of any missed calls, text, email, etc.
Supreme Preferences – This adds additional options in your Settings app.
vWallpaper – Animate your wallpaper with a lazer show or Matrix theme.
WinterBoard – Download custom themes on your phone and apply them using WinterBoard.
yellowsn0w – Free your phone! yellowsn0w is a software unlock for your phone. Do not install iPhone OS 3.0 if you want to keep your phone unlocked.

The apps listed above are merely recommendations and do not constitute a definitive list of any kind. Enjoy!

¹Update: “All Sources” requires the Steffwiz repository.

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Big Boss – iPhone 3.0 downgrade instructions

matthew bennett — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:46:10 +0000

Over on the aptly named BigBoss iPhone website, the BigBoss himself is warning users NOT to try the leaked iPhone 3.0 software. He’s also posted a very helpful guide to downgrading your iPhone from 3.0Beta to 2.2.1 in OSX or Windows.

Looking through the comment section, BigBoss is also updating the main article to make it more clear based on comment feedback. Big props to BigBoss for helping out everyone interested in the 3.0 iPhone firmware. With his helpful hints, hopefully you can avoid bricking your beautiful shiny iPhone.

You have been warned!

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