Safari on the iPhone is the best mobile internet experience in today’s market bar none. It is as much intuitive as it is pretty which makes for a superb user interface and browsing experience. But one complaint I had with Safari was the lack of quick search tools. If you ever used Sogudi or Saft on the desktop Safari, you know that it makes Safari an even more powerful web browser.
WebSearch on the iPhone comes from a similar mold. Because in Safari the default search engine is Google (you can also switch to Yahoo! in the settings) it kind of limits the specific searches you might need. Especially considering the slow pace of EDGE, quick searches in the wild can often be cumbersome. Well with WebSearch you are allowed quick easy access to the searches you want. How does it perform?
Read on for the rest of the review! (and remember you’ll need a jailbroken iPhone!)
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VLC is a popular media player that supports countless audio and video codecs and multiple file formats. Because of such versatility, a lot of folks use VLC as their computer’s main video player. And now thanks to ZodTTD, it’s available for the iPhone (jailbroken ones only, sorry)!
The project is currently in private beta but a public release is planned for ‘very soon’. In its current iteration, VLC supports drag and drop files for MPEG/MPG, AVI, and MP3 formats. Support for FLAC and OGG are well on their way and they are currently researching playback for DivX, VCD, WMA, and WMV. The project is even asking for YOUR input on what codecs you want to see supported, feel free to click the Read link to let your voice be heard.
I firmly believe that this will be a game changing program for the iPhone and the jailbreaking scene in general. Imagine being able to play ANY video format like the desktop version of VLC, that freedom from iTunes will undoubtedly lead people to jailbreaking. Keep up the good work ZodTTD!
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Okay, so their names weren’t really Harold & Kumar (Fukaba and Vincenti, for the record), but then again it doesn’t really sound like they were banned for life from the Apple Store as initial Interwebs rumor mongering suggested, b’okay?
Seems some Palo Alta teens were waiting for a classmate, ducked into the Apple Store to burn some time, and ended up getting burned instead. You know the story, boy finds iPhone, boy Jailbreaks iPhone, boy downloads Raging Thunder, to show another boy, Apple Store management, security, police, and parents become involved and hilarity ensues. (Though perhaps not for our hapless hax0rs and their two friends).
Fake Steve has the full fake details on what sounds to me like a bit of a fake — or more accurately overblown — story.
Hopefully no iPhones were bricked in the course of these shenanigans and the boys will be back to giving all their money to Apple again in the near future.
Can’t wait any longer for Native Apps? Me neither. (Late) June seems too far away? I’m with you. So why wait, when you can jailbreak! Over the next couple weeks before 2.0 is released, I’ll give you guys a glimpse into the jailbroken world of native apps every week. Plus: let’s face it, Jailbreaking isn’t going anywhere. The SDK is awesome, but some people won’t settle for anything less than full-on access to all the hidden bits of the iPhone.
In this week’s edition, we’ll take a look at a nifty little program called IntelliScreen. The idea behind this native app is smart, it creates a ‘Today’ screen for your iPhone’s unlock screen. Much like certain layout options in Windows Mobile and Blackberry, Intelliscreen offers a quick look at your calendar, mail, SMS, news, and weather. How well does this native app perform? Does it offer a great feature for users?
Read on for the rest of the review!
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Trying to break records on your iPhone? Can’t manage to do it with the touchscreen? Well jailbreak nation, it looks like there is a solution—iControlpad!
Though the image above is just a prototype, it takes obvious visual cues from the PSP, just take a look at the button layout and form factor. Supposedly, it works via serial port and is currently supported by GBA, PSX (ZodTTD developed) emulators. They are planning on releasing the source code and SDK soon so hopefully more developers can jump on board.
Honestly, I’m tempering my excitement for this. I personally feel as if putting buttons and an analog stick will trap iPhone’s games ‘in the box’. But emulators are for re-creating the original experience, so I’ll let it slide. Either way, it could be a great idea if utilized the right way.
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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.
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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.
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A lot of people look at the iPhone, in its current iteration, and complain that while it looks good, it lacks customization and is in dire need of native applications. And there’s a lot of truth to that, Apple has restricted much of the features on the iPhone and has limited what you can and cannot do. As much as it falls in line with keeping the user interface clear and intuitive, making users become passive to development prevents Apple from fully realizing the iPhone’s potential.
You want to run 3rd party apps? Safari and Web Apps is the only ‘official’ way. Granted that Web Apps have come a long way, it doesn’t give justice to the true power of the iPhone as much as it shows off the versatility of Safari.
Currently, the only answer to this dilemma is jailbreaking. After having mulled the jailbreaking option a few times before, I made the switch only a couple months ago. And my, if you want to get a true glimpse of what the iPhone can do, Jailbreaking is currently the only way to go. In this article, I’ll show you why you should strongly consider jailbreaking and what it offers for iPhone users.
Read On For The Reasons to Jailbreak!
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Can’t wait any longer for Native Apps? Me neither. (Late) June seems too far away? I’m with you. So why wait, when you can jailbreak! Over the next couple months before 2.0 is released, I’ll give you guys a glimpse into the jailbroken world of native apps every week. If we don’t find anything life-changing, hopefully we’ll learn a few things along the way. Plus: let’s face it, Jailbreaking isn’t going anywhere. The SDK is awesome, but some people won’t settle for anything less than full-on access to all the hidden bits of the iPhone.
Today, we start with another look at the ever-evolving program that is Installer.app. Developed by the guys at Nullriver, Installer.app is the first app you see after jailbreaking. Its main goal is to serve as an outlet for all the rest of the iPhone’s native apps and it has come a long way since we first showed you how to use it. Does it succeed? Is it effective? Can Apple learn something from Installer.app?
Read on for the rest of the review! (and remember you’ll need a Jailbroken iPhone to take advantage of this native app)
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