May 2008: Monthly Archive

The great thing about jailbreaking (and no, it’s not this) is that a lot of smart people take a look at the capabilities of the iPhone and wonder how come nobody made a (insert program here) yet? And then go and develop said program.

Case in point: A p2p client for the iPhone

iSlsk, developed by Eric Castro, is Soulseek in native app form for the iPhone. It uses the Soulseek network to let iPhone (+iPod touch) users share songs with one another. Once the songs are downloaded, iSlsk imports them into your iTunes library for seamless playback. There is a lot of promise in such a program, imagine being able to download whatever you want, whenever you want.

There are still a lot of kinks in the programming, in fact, I couldn’t even manage to start a download due to some bug. But reports are floating that Wi-Fi averaged 20 Kbps while the EDGE network ran about half that. Soulseek doesn’t have the install base of a Limewire and is more known for being a hot bed for indie artists but this is a great first effort into implementing a p2p client for the iPhone. Expect more updates soon.

ReadVia

Robert Scoble is an internet force of nature. Depending on your point of view, even odds that force is either life-giving rain, or death-bearing inferno. A former Microsoft evangelist who acquired a huge social network following that he’s dragged with him through Facebook and Twitter to his current endeavor, Fast Company, he’ll tell 5,000 friends he’s crying over World Wide Telescope, 20,000 people he’s QIKing it live (right now!), and an entire readership just what exactly his top 18 “Star-Spangled” iPhone apps. Let’s see how they stack up (provided we can hurdle the prerequisite name-dropping in the intro, ‘natch!):

“Scobleizing” his pics into 6 easy-to-chew sections, news, photos, music, video, social media, and backup, that include Web Apps, Jailbroken Native Apps, and desktop-side apps, his choices run the gamut from the a-list-obvious Google Reader and Facebook, to the previously-on-TiPB’d PimpMyNews.com (confession, we advertise with them so we must like them too!), and Meebo.

The list, wisely, points readers to the indices from both Apple.com and iPhoneAtlas.com for more.

So, how does Scoble do? Points for including the billion-dollar gorillas alongside some lesser-knowns, and for going beyond his usual social, quasi-self-involved network focus. Probably not everyone’s killer apps (I don’t use any of them!) but an excellent starting place for a pleasantly wide range of newcomers.

Want to Scobleize your iPhone? Check out the June 2008 issue of Fast Company for his complete list of apps.

Kinda.

Seems the strings to set 3G preferences exist in the code of iPhone 2.0 Beta 5, but the GUI screen that was rumored to surface it was a mock-up, a photoshop, a con-job, a bamboozle.

The process used to determine that the screen was less “shot” and more “not” is rather involved and — quite frankly — convoluted but the bottom line remains:

We’re getting a 3G iPhone. That 3G iPhone will have settings. We, as yet, have no idea what form those settings will take.

Now bring on the next rumor!

Adding further fuel to the fire that Apple Inc. will drop the 3G bomb on June 9th, during CEO Steve Jobs’ Keynote address, InfoSyncWorld is claiming that, once announced, the 2nd generation iPhone will be made available via AT&T roughly 10 days later, on approximately the 18th or 19th.

InfoSyncWorld further speculates on HSDPA, GPS, Mobile TV, and other oft-cited iPhone 3G rumors.

And with the time left before WWDC growing shorter and shorter, when it comes to speculation and rumors, no doubt we ain’t seen nothing yet!

Read

What happens when your Sister Site, CrackBerry.com, manages to score a BlackBerry Bold on eBay? What happens after they do their hands-on images, videos, and walkthroughs, that is? What happens is they start sending the beast around the the office. So here we have a full gallery comparing the iPhone and the BlackBerry Bold. Head to head images comparing size, UI, web browser (though that one’s not quite fair since the Bold’s web browser ain’t anywhere near complete yet), and of course media capabilities.

Also after the break, a video walkthrough of the two devices. We’ve made fun of RIM’s claim that the Bold isn’t an iClone and now that I’m looking at the two devices side by side on my desk, that fun-making is half-true. Yes, they’re different, but the metallic bezel around the edge of a glossy black face sure says “iPhone” to me.

More thoughts and comparisons after the break. What are you waiting for? Read on!

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m starting to think I really do have clout around this interweb thing (I can dream)

First, Installer.app received a search feature after I complained about the lack of it in my review. Now, my other complaint, the slight hesitation after installing new programs that sends you back to your unlock screen, has been fixed. It now quickly relaunches your Home Screen to seamlessly load the newly downloaded programs, which essentially makes Installer.app and its functions even more integrated into the iPhone.

Other noteworthy items in the update include the ability to refresh one source at a time and a search feature in the Uninstall category. Now in v3.11, Installer.app is becoming a powerhouse of a program and perhaps the most integrated native app that jailbreaking has to offer.

Installer.app is automatically installed when you jailbreak your iPhone with iLiberty+ or ZiPhone.

WinPwn, the Pwnage tool for Windows, has finally left beta and is now available for official release. WinPwn 1.0 claims to be much more stable than previous beta releases and includes many bug fixes and new features. WinPwn is an incredibly safe and powerful way of jailbreaking your iPhone. It can jailbreak any firmware and the folks over at Pwnage believe that it will eventually replace the likes of iLiberty+ and ZiPhone.

At its most basic level, WinPwn allows you to install custom firmware on your iPhone and restore with custom firmware through iTunes. Though there isn’t a true need for WinPwn and Pwnage for 1.1.4, it is the only current option to jailbreak 2.0. Also, the Pwnage tool is for those who like to dabble with new firmware, so those wary of more sophisticated measures of jailbreaking might want to stick with the other options for the time being.

We haven’t gotten our hands on WinPwn or the Pwnage tool here at TiPb just yet, but we’ll be sure to update you guys about the entire process when we do.

Read

The Bold. The Storm. The Thunder. One iClonic product after another. How does Blackberry do it? Mole in Apple guru Jonathan Ive’s ultra-secure design studio? Unlikely. Telephoto lens from Waterloo? Impractical. So, what is the secret to all of RIM’s post-iPhone Blackberry’s looking (and soon-to-be-functioning?) so much like Apple’s little pocket universe-dent’er? According to RIM CEO, and noted internet deadpan funnyman, Mike Lazaridis, it’s a simple combination of technology right out of Apple’s (and this blog’s!) back yard:

[W]e have a time machine somewhere, or some kind of magic crystal ball or something.

Apple Time Machine + TiPB Crystal Ball = Blackberry Bold?

To be fair, Lazaridis’s full context was that the Blackberry Bold DIDN’T copy Apple, but had been independently designed 3.5 years ago by RIM, and any similarities (such as the glossy black facade and chrome trim) to Apple’s iPhone were purely coincidental.

Of course, Apple has a long history of design, including the use of just these types of form factors and materials, leading up to, including, and past the iPhone (hello, iMac!), whereas RIM has… none. Nada. Zip. Zilch. So while it’s possible the Bold just happened to be independently conceived of prior to the iPhone going public (yet released nearly a full year after…), how likely is it?

Frankly, with the way Lazaridis seems to lust after talk about it, the iPhone very well could be RIM’s “precious”. And given the nearly obsessive amount of (disjointed and reactionary) response RIM’s displayed post-iPhone, my guess is “not very.”

What do you think?

Read Via

I’m sure you may have heard horror stories about refurbished iPhones, specifically those from AT&T. Some of the first batch of refurbished iPhones reportedly came with face grease and scratches, others were already even jailbroken–the issues kept getting more and more outlandish and I began to wonder where the truth lied.

Well after we reported the $249/8gb $349/16gb deal here at TiPb, I just had to see them for myself. I managed to purchase a 8gb version before it sold out that same day and eagerly anticipated its arrival.

Though I already have an 8gb iPhone and before you all tar and feather me for being unaware of the imminent release of the 3G iPhone, I figured that an iPhone, no matter when, where, or how, makes a great gift for a special someone. And in the case that they deny the gift, it’s a good way to make a quick buck by simply unlocking & jailbreaking to those poor, poor souls who live in a country with no current ‘official’ iPhone. And if I received one that was in terrible condition, well I would have struck story gold! So it’s a win-win-win, well unless the 3G iPhone does really come out for a subsidized $199, then I might cry.

Read on for the Rest of the Story & Pictures!

According to Gizmodo, people “in the know” have let slip that the launch date for the iPhone 3G is quite a bit closer than we had thought: June 9th. The launch will be followed up by a nearly immediate release of the iPhone 3G for sale — that’s right away folks. Worldwide availability will follow very quickly with some mysterious “new sales policies.”

Last thing’s first: Giz believes that these new ‘policies’ will be more tightly integrated deals like “point-based upgrades, discounts for switchers, and service based subvention packages.” We humbly submit another idea: have you noticed that there has been a avalanche of carrier announcements worldwide in recent weeks. It’s becoming clear that Apple wants to sell this thing on as many carriers as possible as is much less likely to set up exclusives.

What if, and we’re just saying what if here, what if the iPhone 3G is unlocked by default. You take it home, you plug it into iTunes, and it offers to set you up with the carrier of your choice in your country (provided they’ve set it up with Apple) and a rebate check. If you’re not interested, no worries, the just get it set up with iTunes and stick your SIM in there.

First thing’s last: June 9th?! That’s much earlier than we expected, but we sure as heck aren’t complaining!

Read