Confession: Jeremy can’t believe we’re posting this, but after a bunch of forum questions, email queries, and a mini Twitter ’splosion, we figured we’d put this up as a public service message to the Jailbreak community.
First: don’t panic.
Second: those strange little black icon badges that have suddenly popped up on your Phone, Email, iPod, and perhaps other apps? Yeah, that’s because you installed Backgrounder, and that’s how Backgrounder shows you which applications, built-in or user-enabled, are currently running background tasks (multitasking).
Back in February we brought to you the story about Apple saying that Jailbreaking your iPhone is illegal. Granted that was in response the (Electronic Frontier Foundation), and their filing an exemption request for Jailbreaking iPhones. (See the AIPLA Quarterly Journal’s article on this from last week). Well this past Friday Apple’s head of marketing, Greg Joswiak, faced off against Fred von Lohmann, the EFF’s copyright guru and a plethora of Copyright Office officials. The topic? Jailbreaking…
Apple is opposed to the proposed Class #1 exemption because it will destroy the
technological protection of Apple’s key copyrighted computer programs in the iPhone™ device
itself and of copyrighted content owned by Apple that plays on the iPhone, resulting in copyright
infringement, potential damage to the device and other potential harmful physical effects,
adverse effects on the functioning of the device, and breach of contract. The proponents of the
exemption have also not satisfied their burden of proof of showing harm to non-infringing uses
of the copyrighted works protected by the technological protection measures on the iPhone. In
addition, because Congress has already explicitly addressed circumvention for interoperability in
Section 1201(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),4 the Copyright Office should
not create interoperability exemptions outside that statutory structure, at least without a clear
showing of specific and significant harm, which has not been put forth here.
The way we see this is that Apple is against Jailbreaking for the simple fact that it can and will cost them money. Common sense will tell you that Apple does not get any money from iPhone users if they do not use the App Store for installing applications and they also run the risk of legit App Store apps being pirated, which we have already seen. So TiPb can see where Apple is coming from but at the end of the day, if you purchase an iPhone or any other device for that matter, it is yours to do with what ever you’d like.
For a complete rundown of all the shenanagins that took place this past Friday be sure to check out Wired.com’s Jailbreaking Showdown.
We’ve expressed concern before that, with the arrival of Push Notification, the iPhone’s built in alert system, especially the modal text boxes, may not be a user-friendly solution. There have been a couple creative solutions to this problem already on the Jailbreak side, but GriP takes a rather novel approach: it aims to be Growl (the well known Mac OS X global notification system – Wikipedia link) for iPhone — hence the name.
Personally, I’ve always found Growl to be a little “floating” for my tastes and preferred what looks like more “grounded” approaches in Google Android and especially Palm Pre, but hands down anything at this point might be better than Apple’s built in version.
Efiko Software, the developer behind which we remember fondly for providing much needed UI relief to our old Palm OS devices, has produced a very interesting looking quick tweeting application for Jailbroken iPhones called qTweeter.
It works almost magically: just wipe your finger down from the very top status bar in an application and a quick Twitter window slides down and the keyboard slides up to overlay your screen. If you’re in iPod and want to tweet the music you’re listening to, if you’re in Safari and want to tweet a link you’re reading, a quick button press auto-fills the details in your tweet for you.
It can alternatively — or simultaneously — update your Facebook status as well.
This means no exiting one app, launching another, waiting for load, waiting to launch entry dialogs, etc. when you want to tweet something. Just drag and go.
These kinds of apps show that, even post iPhone 3.0, until Apple surfaces more API’s and figures out how to allow better cross- and multi-app functionality while retaining security, there’ll still be a vibrant community of Jailbreak developers — and some amazing software to go along with it.
Available for trial on Cydia, and can be unlocked fully via donation.
Remember that Apple patent for biometric and other advanced authentication schemes we mentioned yesterday? Well, Engadget took a closer look and it seems like the artwork used in the patent features none other than a few of everyone’s favorite Jailbreak apps, including Installer, SMBPrefs, and the iWood theme.
So is Apple trying to sneak in some Jailbreak patents, or did a crafty draftsman just do it for the lulz?
Wow, so I’m guessing you are all probably really sick of hearing about the 3.0 software. Ok, I really don’t believe that but you never know. So how about some jailbreak conversation? You say you’re still on the fence on whether or not to jailbreak your iPhone even after ourTop 5 Must Have Jailbreak AppsPart 1 and Part 2? After reading this you should have hopefully made your decision one way or another. So buckle up and I will take you for a ride… on the wild jailbreak side.
***All of the following apps can be downloaded via Cydia on your Jailbroken iPhone.
UPDATED: iClarified has posted an extensive how-to for getting iBluetooth setup on your jailbroken iPhone so you can enjoy a little Apple-unsupported OBEX Bluetooth file transfer.
If you give it a try, let us know how it works for you.
ORIGINAL: [See comments and then move right along...]
A few weeks back we introduced you to a little Jailbreak app called xGPS. This is the first app available to bring turn-by-turn directions to your iPhone. It has just been updated to version 1.2 and seems to be much more polished overall. The biggest improvement is this version is of course, voice instructions support. To those of you who have not interested in Jailbreaking, are you tempted now?
Everybody would say: Finally! Yes, xGPS 1.2 has been released. The version has been sent to the MMI repository and will be available within some hours. It should be in everybody’s Cydia as the MMI repository is installed by default. Just do a refresh within some hours and xGPS should pop up. This version of xGPS has required us a lot of hours of work. We have tried to bring the most advanced and stable navigation software for the iPhone / iPod touch. However, even if we have made our best, you have to keep in mind that this software is free but not bug free. If you experience such a bug feel free to ask in the forum but do not say “It doesn’t work, it’s crappy”.
It’s important to remember, this application is only available to those of you who are Jailbroken. For all of the details be sure to stop by the xGPS Blog!
Tired of hitting the 123 key to toggle on the numeric keyboard? Well, obviously some ingenious iPhone hacker was and whipped up this interesting little Jailbreak app to change the standard 4-row virtual keyboard into a five row with numbers surfaced right on top (or symbols, if you tap the shift key).
Want to grab it? Gizmodo (via iPhone Hacks) says you can find it under “5-Row QWERTY Keyboard” in Cydia”
Should Apple consider changing their own virtual keyboard to be more like this 5-row? Or are the keys on the 4-row already small enough?
You really have to love Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park:
“We’re always in favor of people downloading. It’s how a lot of people see the show. And it’s never hurt us. We’ve done nothing but be successful with the show. How could you ever get mad about somebody who wants to see your stuff?”
Well Apple drops the ball yet again with the official South Park app in the App store… and yet again a 3rd party picks up the slack. South Park Mobile is available via Cydia and if you are not jailbroken, check out www.southparkmobile.net on your iPhone. What this app allows you to do is stream full episodes of South Park for your viewing pleasure right on your iPhone. Every single episode, from every single season is available for you to stream. Keep in mind this is not something official from Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker but it’s the best we currently have available to us.
*You must be on firmware 2.2+ in order for this Jailbreak App to work.
