ProSwitcher Leaked!

21 12 2009

A while back I wrote an article for www.iPhoneinCanada.ca, on how to make your iPhone look like a Palm Pre (check it out here). This is definitely an app that you could add to that. “ProSwitcher” is yet another backgrounding interface, to go with “Backgrounder”. It creates “cards”, like the Pre, that you can swipe through to choose from all your apps that are running in the background. A beta version of this app was leaked on Cydia, recently, so I took the opportunity to try it out.

PhotoToMac Mike's iPhone 3GS 39

So far, there are tons of settings for this new backgrounding interface. Custom background image, customize the shape of the cards, how many cards are viewed at a time, and much more. One thing not sorted out yet, is the way you activate it. Currently, you have to launch it from a Springboard icon, but we can assume there will some sort of Home button integration.

So far, this my favourite Backgrounder interface, and I can’t wait to get the full version. No word on when it will be officially released, and how much it will cost, at this time.


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Categories : Jailbreak, Mods and Tweaks, Tech, iPhone

Rogers Having Widespread Network Issues

17 12 2009

Oh, Rogers. What is the problem now? It’s like having an employee that, no matter how often you tell them how things should be done, they always seem to let you down.

Rogers Wireless network seems to being having issues, right accross Canada today, with very spotty service, if any at all. I lost my 3G this afternoon, then had no service at all, for about a half an hour.

Looks like things are slowly coming back on, for Rogers, but here’s a Twitter search I did for #Rogers #fail, around 6:00pmPST.

Seriuosly considering Bell, if this keeps up.


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Categories : Rogers, Tech, iPhone

iPhone 3G Official Gets Video Recording, with iVideoCamera

13 12 2009

Apple has approved an app that allows video recording on the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone. “iVideoCamera” recording capability, without having to upgrade to the iPhone 3GS. Of course, there are apps for jailbroken iPhones that already do this, but this is the first official release from the App Store to allow this. It is only $.99.

So, does it work? My opinion: Meh… It is great that there is an official solution, but, to be honest, the quality is not that great. Rather than actual video recording, it is more like a timelapse, converted to video, resulting in a choppy, blurry video. Once you are finished recording, it takes approximately 1 minute to convert and save your video. I know 1 minute doesn’t sound long, but when you’re in the moment, it seems like forever.

Outdoors, the video quality is barely viewable. Moving the camera, at all, results in a choppy, stuttered effect. The audio is decent, though. It reminds me of a cheap webcam recording. Maybe that’s the best we can get with the 3G’s camera?

As you can imagine, indoors is much, much worse. Very blurry, and not watchable.

There are some great features, though. You can save videos to your camera roll, but you can also upload your video to YouTube, Facebook, and/or Vimeo, right within the app. Although, you have to log in to your account, on your computer, to name, tag, and describe the videos. Once your video is uploaded, the url of the video is automatically copied to your clipboard, so you can easily share it, via email, Twitter, or however you want. The user interface is very simple and easy to use.

Being an iPhone 3GS owner, I know what kind of video the iPhone is capable, and this doesn’t even compare. The iPhone 3GS video is leaps and bounds above this quality. I’m sure the higher quality camera of the iPhone 3GS has a lot to do with it. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, I would suggest sticking with Cycorder, and don’t pay for this. If you’re completely against jailbreaking your iPhone 3G, then this is the app for you, if you want video recording capabilities.


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Categories : App Store, Apple, iPhone

Video of Apple’s “Tablet” Leaked?

12 12 2009

French tech wesite, www.nowhereelse.fr, has posted a video of what could be a tablet device from Apple. From the video, it would appear to have the same taskbar from the iPhone, an accelerometer, a webcam similar to all Mac computers, and touch navigation like other Apple touch devices.

Is it a fake, or the real deal? It has been rumoured that Apple has approached magazine designers to come up with a version of their magazines that would be compatible with such a device. Take a look at the video and decide for yourself:


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iClassic Brings the Click Wheel to Your iPhone/iPod Touch

8 12 2009

Before your iPhone or iPod Touch, did you own one of the “classic” iPods, with the click wheel? Do you miss the good ‘ole days? Well, a new app, just released in Cydia, brings the click wheel to your touch screen. Take a look at “iClassic”.

iClassic is an alternative to the iPod app, for playing music. It mimics the look and feel of the iPod Classic, incorporating a touch version of the click wheel, with the familiar sound of navigating through the menus. It accesses your iPod library and displays Playlists, Artists, and Songs, just like the iPod Classic. It even displays the album art, when playing a song.

In the Settings, you can set your iPod Classic to silver or black, adjust your repeat options, toggle “Shake to Shuffle”,  and set iClassic to open on double tap of the home button. Why doesn’t it look like an iPod’s click wheel? (you may ask). Well, BigBoss and Cydia are not allowed to distribute the original images, due to leagal reasons, but iClassic is themeable! In fact there is already one theme available that makes iClassic look exactly like an iPod Classic.

There are a few people out there (myself included) who have hung onto their old iPods, either for the storage, or just plain old nostalgia. iClassic definitely brings back that old feeling of using the click wheel. iClassic is available in Cydia, from BigBoss, for $2.00.


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Categories : Jailbreak, Mods and Tweaks, iPhone, iPod

Bell Takes Another Jab at Rogers

7 12 2009

Oh, man. This flyer I got in the mail today, basically declares war on Rogers. The front of the flyer literally says, “It’s On”. This is most likely referring to their new 3G network, but we know better. Them’s fightin’ words!

The flyer goes on to say that Bell is the fastest, largest, and most reliable network. This is definitely a swing at Rogers, as they just instructed their employees to remove everything from ads to email signatures that said “Most Reliable Network”.

I thought I would shae a few pages of the flyer, though you may have received one yourself today:

I still have not heard any reports on Bell actually being faster and more reliable than Rogers. Any of you reading this have an iPhone on Bell? Let us know how it’s going.


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Categories : Apple, Rogers, discussion, iPhone

What is up with Rogers 3G Network?

4 12 2009

Are you on Rogers, with your iPhone? Have you noticed your “reliable” network is not to  reliable lately?

Over the last couple of months we have heard about Rogers upgrading their network to offer speeds of up to 21MBps, making Rogers one of the fastest networks in North America. Has anyone seen these speeds? Granted, you need a device capable of this. I have an iPhone 3GS, which is capable of up to 7.2MBps, yet I’m surprised when I can get over 1MBps. In fact, just yesterday, Rogers 3G wasn’t working at all, in British Columbia. A friend of mine called Rogers and they suggested switching off 3G and just using EDGE for a while. Really??!!! Your trying to promote yourself as the country’s most reliable 3G network, and your telling your customers to turn it off??!!!

Looking at Rogers website yesterday I did notice that their “Canada’s Most Reliable Network” slogan has changed to “Canada’s Reliable Network”. With the speeds I’ve been seeing lately, I would even argue that point.

So, are these problems just network congestion, or is Rogers choking our speeds on purpose? Is their a bigger problem that they are not admitting to? I tried calling Rogers iPhone Tech Support this morning; they have a pre-recorded message stating that they are having issues in Victoria, specifically, (that’s where I am) and are working on the issue. I didn’t bother to stay on hold past this message. The issues are drop calls, not being able to place or receive calls, etc. I hope when this is resolved, my 3G speed issues are resolved as well. We’ll see.

Anyone else across Canada having trouble? Post in the comments.


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Categories : Tech

Push Notifications for Facebook, via Boxcar

26 11 2009

just discovered a new push notification service, for the iPhone, called Boxcar. This all in one app, gives you push notifications for Twitter, Facebook, and email. There are other apps out there that give you push for Twitter and email, but this is the first push notification app, I’ve heard of, that includes Facebook.

Boxcar is incredibly easy to set up. If you don’t already have an account with Boxcar, just type in what you would want your email and password to be, and your account is created automatically. You have the option to add a few services to your account: Twitter, Twitter search, Twitter Trends, Facebook, and email. Choose wisely though, as your first service is free, but any additional services are gonna cost you, via in-app purchasing.

I chose to add Facebook, as I already receive push notifications for Twitter, via SimplyTweet. For Facebook, notifications are sent when someone comments on your status, posts on your wall, comments on a photo of you, or sends you a message. Boxcar polls your Facebook account every 2 minutes, looking for notifications. If it finds any, read or unread, it sends them to you, via push. There are many notification sounds to choose from, none of them being the stock iPhone sounds, so you won’t get confused with other notifications you are receiveing. You can also toggle badge notifications, on or off.

There have been some reports, just in the past week, that Facebook notifications have stopped working. Boxcar is looking into this, and you can get help on their support page, here. At the time of this post, I myself, could not get this to work with Facebook. According to the reports I read, Boxcar worked fine from it’s release date, up until just last week. Boxcar is currently looking into the issue.

UPDATE: Shortly after publishing this, my Facebook notifications did start to work, but I wasn’t receiving all my notifications. This one was someone commenting on a photo I had commented on earlier.


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Categories : App Store, Apple, iPhone

XBOX 360 Update Coming Nov 17th, w/ Facebook and Twitter Intergration

12 11 2009

chatpadXbox LIVE general manager, Marc Whitten, has announced that the newest XBOX 360 dashboard update will be coming next Tuesday, November 17th. This new update will bring Twitter, Facebook, Last FM, and Zune HD to the dashboard. Here’s some more details, as reported on Xbox.com:

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Whitten. “Xbox LIVE’s differentiator has always been our community, and we’ve already seen a tremendous response to these features in our public preview. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”

  • Facebook*– Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen – all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE.
  • Zune – Zune video on Xbox LIVE offers a full fidelity experience with instant on HD in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound. No waiting for downloads or buffering, it’s there at the press of a button. You can also share the experience with up to seven friends through voice chat and Avatar integration on the TV screen – it puts a whole new spin on “movie night.”
  • Twitter*– Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to Tweets right on your Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favorite game.
  • Last.fm* – Discover more music and explore endless personalized radio stations with Last.fm on Xbox 360. Skip, “ban” or “love” tracks to create your perfect mix—we’ve even built in “Gamer Stations” with game-related types of music selected specifically for the gaming community(Available in the U.S. and UK)

One downside to this great news is that, these new features will be for XBOX Live Gold members only. If you’re only a Xbox LIVE Silver member, starting November 20 until November 23, you can enjoy the latest Gold features for FREE.

This may be a big reason for some to upgrade to a Gold membership, and is definitely a good reason to go out and get one of those QWERTY “chat” pad attachments. Personally, I’m not sure how much I would actually use these new features. For, me, the ultimate way to use Facebook and Twitter, is on my mobile device. I guess it woulld be cool to share high scores, level upgrades, and achievements, as soon as you get them, but do your connections and/or followers really want to hear about it?

We’ll have to wait and see the interface and how it actually intergrates with our favourite social networks. I’m only a Silver member, but I’ll be trying it out for those couple of free days!


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Categories : Games, Tech

iPhone Bell TV Commercial Now Airing

10 11 2009

A Bell branded iPhone commercial has begun airing on some Canadian TV stations. I ripped this one from G4 Tech TV.


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Protect Your Jailbroken iPhone from the “Worm”

10 11 2009

There has been talk in the tech news about an iPhone worm, that has made it’s way on to a number of jailbroken iPhones, in Australia. A hacker named “Iketx”, has released a worm that will “Rick Roll” your iPhone, by changing your wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley. To me, this is hilarious, but is quite a serious issue. If someone can get into your iPhone to change your wallpaper, they can pretty much do anything in there.

So, where is the vulnerability? This worm can only affect jailbroken iPhones, with OpenSSH installed. OpenSSH is used, by the user, to wirelessly gain access to the root folders, to change, or install files. The default password is widely known to be “alpine”, and if you don’t change it, you leave your iPhone vulnerable to anyone who knows how to gain access.

I will say, that there has to be a certain set of circumstances in place for this to happen. You would have be on the same WiFi network as the perpetrator, and you would have to have your iPhone “in use”. By that, I mean: lock screen not locked and WiFi active. The hacker could then easily scan for devices connected to that network, and infect any or all of them.

How do you protect yourself? The simplest, easiest thing you can do is: don’t jailbreak your iPhone. Since that is not an option for most of you reading this, the second easiest thing you can do is, install SBSettings (available in Cydia, for free), and toggle off SSH. Then you can toggle it on, only when you need access to your root folders.

sshSBSettings

The other thing you can do, is change your SSH password from the default one. You will need to change the mobile password, as well as the root password. Here’s what you gotta do:

- Install “Mobile Terminal”, from Cydia, (it’s free). Once that is installed, open it up.

- Type “passwd”. You’ll be prompted to type in your current password, which is “alpine”. Hit enter. (Don’t worry if you don’t see any characters as you type your password, you’re not supposed to)

- You will then be prompted to type your new password. Make sure it is something simple you can remember. Hit enter, and you’ll be asked to re-type the same password. Hit enter. Your mobile password is changed.

- Now type in “su root”. Hit enter, and type your current password (alpine), hit enter.

- Type “passwd”, then type in the new password, twice.

Now, your mobile and root passwords are changed.

PhotoToMac Mike's iPhone 3GS 1

There you go. You’re now protected from “prying eyes”. Once again, I’ll say, the odds you’ll get a virus or worm on your iPhone are pretty slim, but better to be safe than sorry. Now that this simple and harmless worm has been publicized, we may see more of them popping up around the world, and they may become more dangerous.


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Categories : Apple, Jailbreak, Mods and Tweaks, Tech, iPhone

blacksn0w released!!

3 11 2009

blacksn0wGeohot has released his newest unlock, blacksn0w, for iPhone 3G and 3GS on firmware 3.1.2, and baseband 05.11.07. The fastest jailbreak and unlock ever. Update your blackra1n app to get blacksn0w, or wait until later in the day, and download it from Cydia.

Here’s the details from Geohot’s blog:

“Today 11/3/09 is a sn0w day. School is officially cancelled, and all your iPhones will be unlocked. Remember getting those calls?

At Noon EST, 5 PM GMT, I will be making it sn0w, and I’m looking to see “#blacksn0w” trending. blacksn0w is the unlock for the latest 05.11.07 baseband, and will also enable official tethering.blackra1n, a jailbreak for 3.1.2, has been updated to RC3, with hacktivation support, 15 second speed improvement, Tiger+PPC support, and installation of the latest blackra1n.app. Here is how getting yourself some sn0w and ra1n will work.

Nothing is live until Noon

If you are a loyal blackra1n user who kept the blackra1n.app on your iPhone, run it. You will see Icy replaced by an option “ra1n”. Install this to upgrade your app. After upgrading, run blackra1n.app again. You will see “sn0w”. Install this, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone.

If you are new to the scene, just looking for an unlock, finally ready to upgrade to 3.1.2 and the accompanying baseband, willing to restore for the latest and greatest, or stuck on the “Connect to iTunes” screen, you are in luck. Jailbreaking and unlocking have never been easier. Go to blackra1n.com, click on the logo corresponding to your operating system, run the app, and click “make it ra1n”. When your phone reboots, you’ll see blackra1n.app. Run this, install blacksn0w, and enjoy your unlocked iPhone.

If you jailbroke using pwnage or deleted your blackra1n.app, you are in luck too. Sometime later in the sn0wday, blacksn0w will be added to Cydia, and instructions will be posted here.

If you are on a 2G iPhone, blacksn0w isn’t an option for you. ButBootNeuter is, a completely free permanent unlock for your 2G. Of course, blackra1n will work great, and even hacktivate for you.

If you have been getting 404 errors when downloading from blackra1n.com, first off, be sure you use the links at blackra1n.com If you are, something is blocking your http referrer.

Thanks to ih8sn0w for bringing the at+xemn command to my attention. This is the injection vector used to get code running on the baseband. One of these days I will write a technical post about how it works.

Also, a note. This may be the best iPhone users ever have it. Be sure, if you have a 3GS or iPod Touch 3, to use Cydia’s “On File” or Firmware Umbrella in order to be able to restore to 3.1.2 in the future. And as always, the baseband cannot be downgraded, so be *super* careful with updates if you need the unlock.”

If you haven’t used blackra1n yet, you can download it from here. Blacksn0w is included in the blackra1n app.

I’ll be testing this later today!


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geohot Hosts Contest for New blacksn0w Icon

1 11 2009

There is currently a contest happening on Twitter, hosted be geohot, to find a new logo for the upcoming blacksn0w unlock.

Here’s the rules:

- must be at least 256 X 256 pixels, but also look good at 30 X 30 pixels.

- must look good and black and white backgrounds.

- must go along with the blackra1n theme

That’s it! It’s pretty much open to interpretation. To enter, simply post your entries to Twitter with the hash tag: #blacksn0wlogocontest.

Here’s my entries:

On black

blacksn0wonblack

On white

blacksn0wonwhite

 


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geohot Asking for Everyone’s Help…

1 11 2009

nopayThere has always been a constant battle between iPhone Dev Team/geohot and the scumbags that copy their work and sell it as their own. Geohot wrote an open letter to the public asking for everyone’s help to get the word out about these companies. In a nut shell, he is saying: DO NOT PAY FOR AN UNLOCK OR JAILBREAK, EVER!! These tools are freeware, and if you’re paying for them, you are getting them from the wrong place. The two main sources for jailbreaking and unlocking the iPhone are the iPhone Dev Team, and geohot.

Here’s geohot’s post, from his blog. Please help spread the word.

“First off, Jody Sanders, I am declining your $10,000. Why? Because you, and the rest of the iPhone unlock sites out there are scum. You make money selling freeware; that’s not cool, and I am in no way going to legitimize it.
Seriously, the people who really lose here are the customers. These sites are full of blatant lies, claiming to have unlocks for 05.11.07 People buy them, and are told the unlock is in development, and the release date is unknown. Imagine you bought a cup of coffee and were told it’s in development? Recently, many of these sites sent out e-mails saying they made major breakthroughs and the unlock will be ready 11/04/09. Coincidence that that’s the release date of blacksn0w?
I’m not going to post all these scam sites here, as I don’t want to give them the pagerank boost. Rather I’ll give you a whitelist, two people make unlocks, me and the dev team. Every iPhone unlock site you see out there is selling our stuff, repackaged in some form or another. Same goes for jailbreaks, although ih8sn0w and chronicdev are legit. Notice what all the legit ones have in common? They are free.
Now despite rumors of the ferocity of my legal team, they actually are pretty poor lawyers. And the scum who run these websites are the type who get off on legal battles. So we have to fight them in another way, and I’m asking for everyones help on this. Our weapon is information. Get the truth out, that all iPhone unlocks and jailbreaks are free, and if you are buying something, you aren’t getting anything a simple google search couldn’t get you, and are probably funding someones crack habit.
This is the first time I have tried to make something simple for the end users, and it enrages me to see people selling it. Let’s shut all these assholes down, and tell the iPhone owning world all they need is at blackra1n.com, including blacksn0w instructions on it’s release date, 11/04/09(yes, will support hacktivation). You do your part, and I’ll do mine making things as simple, reliable, and straightforward as possible.

You have 4 days.”

Please copy and paste, post this link, re-tweet, or whatever it is you do, to help get the word.


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Categories : Jailbreak, Tech, Unlock, iPhone

Blacksn0w coming November 4th! 05.11.07 Unlock!

31 10 2009

Earlier this morning geohot, the original iPhone unlocker, confirmed that he has unlocked the latest iPhone baseband, 05.11.07. His unlock will be called “blacksn0w”, and will be released November 4th.

Here’s his video proof:

Congrats to geohot, the one man jailbreaking, unlocking solution.


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Tap Tap: Metallica Now in the App Store

26 10 2009

screenshot_02Tapulous and heavy metal giants Metallica have teamed up to make one of the best rythm based iPhone games, even better. Tap Tap: Metallica have been unleashed in the App Store, for $4.99. Metallica has been one of favourite bands of all time, since I was a kid, so I’ll definitely be checking this one out. This version of Tap Tap features landscape mode, and an all new, bluetooth battle mode

Here’s the details, from the Tapulous website:

“Built on the wildly popular Tap Tap Revenge 3 platform, Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica features the high quality gameplay that Tap Tap Revenge players have come to expect. Accompanying the Career Mode is a new fast-paced Arcade Mode where players are challenged with bombs and other special objects that make the game more fun than ever before.

Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica also includes a new Bluetooth-based Battles Mode where players challenge friends to a point-by-point battle where they can deploy bombs and other special objects to distract the opposition and secure victory.

Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica was designed with the die-hard Metallica fans in mind, and the game features a unique live action Metallica theme that captures the essence the band is famous for. Users will also have access to a Metallica news feed that provides updates on the band, along with challenge updates and a public battle message board, so users can participate in a true Metallica community.

With this diehard Metallica community in mind, Tapulous is also announcing a one-of-a-kind contest where one lucky fan will get to rock out with Metallica at the sold out Las Vegas stop of their “World Magnetic Tour”. Everyone who purchases Tap Tap Revenge: Metallica will be entered to win the grand prize, which consists of: two tickets, airfare, ground transportation, and an opportunity to meet the band! The concert is taking place December 5, 2009 at 7:00pm PT, from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.”

Here’s the track list, that comes with the game:

- Enter Sandman
- Sad But True
- King Nothing
- All Nightmare Long
- Some Kind of Monster
- Master of Puppets
- Seek & Destroy
- Fuel
- One
- For Whom the Bell Tolls

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NBA Live by EA, for iPhone, Now in the App Store

25 10 2009

screenshot_01Electronic Arts brings another one of their console giants to the iPhone. NBA Live has been released for iPhone and iPod Touch. It is $9.99 in the App Store.

Here’s the details:

NOTHING BUT NET
NBA LIVE by EA SPORTS™ delivers the most realistic 5-on-5 action available for iPhone® and iPod touch®!

AUTHENTIC TEAMS, REAL STARS, TRUE LEGENDS
With real NBA rosters, you can dominate the game as Dwight Howard and other All-NBA stars. Or unlock legends from favorite NBA teams like the Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, and more.

MULTIPLE MODES FOR EVERY KIND
OF NBA ACTION
Match up all 30 NBA teams in the new 82-game Season Mode. Play a casual game in Exhibition Mode, or battle all the way the Finals in the ultra-intense Playoff Mode.

PLAY WITH TOUCHSCREEN CONTROL
Control the game with a virtual analog stick. Use the accelerometer to accurately shoot free-throws. Press the clipboard to pick from multiple plays on offense or to set your strategy on defense.

KEEP HOT WITH A COOL SOUNDTRACK
Stay in the zone with the beat of15 music tracks from artists like Matt and Kim, Snoop Dogg, and Xzibit.

COMMENTARY FROM A BROADCAST LEGEND
Hear legendary announcer Marv Albert accent the action as you rain 3s from downtown.

A PICK-UP-AND-PLAY GAME
Tip-off anytime, anywhere, and watch your game come to life in vivid 3D. It’s intuitive enough for the casual gamer, but delivers the authenticity that hardcore fans demand.

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER EXCITING GAMES:
ROCK BAND, The Sims™ 3, TETRIS® & MADDEN NFL 10 by EA Sports™

COMING SOON: Need for Speed™ Shift

VISIT US: eamobile.com
FOLLOW US: twitter.com/eamobile
FIND US: facebook.com/eamobile

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Categories : App Store, Apple, Games, Tech, iPhone, iPod

blackra1n RC2 Now Available for Mac and Windows

25 10 2009

screenshot_01Geohot has released an update to blackra1n, his all device, 30 second jailbreaker. He has fixed the issue with iPhone 3G, and has also provided a tethered jailbreak for newer iPod Touches and iPhone 3GS, that have the newer boot rom.

I have not tried it myself, as I am already jailbroken. If you’re already jailbroken, there is no benefit in using this new release.

Go here to download the Windows and Mac version: www.blackra1n.com

screenshot_01


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EA Releases RockBand for iPhone/iPod Touch

19 10 2009

This much anticipated release finally showed up in the App Store, yesterday. RockBand has been a phenomenon around the world on all 3 major consoles, and EA has struck gold again, with this new mobile version for iPhone and iPod Touch.

RockBand for iPhone is everything I thought it would be. All the same sounds and UI of the console version. You can play in all 4 modes: guitar, bass, drums, or vocals, with 3 different ways to play: Quick Play, World Tour, and Multiplayer. 3 levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Just like the console version, Quick Play lets you pick any song for a quick drop in session. World Tour follows a career. Multiplayer is where this game really shines. You can connect to friends online, or get your band together and connect via Bluetooth.

IMG_0042

The game play itself, is very intuitive. You have 4 “buttons” on the bottom of your touch screen that you can either control with your thumbs, or use 4 fingers, depending on how you want to hold the device while playing. You build up your meter, as you go through the song, to increase your multiplyer and you flick the device forward to “Rock Out”. I played on the Medium difficulty, and found some of the songs fairly easy to get through. Of course the difficulty increases, as you progress through the game.

IMG_0043

Not many negatives to point out here. Compared to any of the “Tap Tap” games out there, it’s right on par. Things that make it better, is just the simalarity to the console version we know and love, along with the great multiplayer.

The game only comes with 20 songs, so it won’t take you very long to get the World Tour mode. You can, of course, go back and do every song on every instrument, on each difficulty. I really cool feature is the DLC of extra song packs. You can purchase these right in the game (with Apple’s new “In-App Purchasing”). No need to exit the game and go back to the App Store. You’ll be paying $.99 for a 2 song pack. Is that worth it? It depends on how much you really want these extra songs.

Here’s the complete list of songs that come with the game:

· 30 Seconds To Mars – “Attack”
· AFI – “Girls Not Grey”
· All American Rejects – “Move Along”
· Beastie Boys – “Sabotage”
· Blink-182 – “All The Small Things”
· Blondie – “Hanging on the Telephone”
· Foo Fighters – “Learn To Fly”
· Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
· George Thorogood & the Destroyers – “Bad to The Bone”
· Jethro Tull – “Hymn 43″
· Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
· Lynard Skynard – “Simple Man”
· Motorhead – “Ace of Spades ‘08″
· Pixies – “Debaser”
· Presidents of The United States of America – “Ladybug”
· Rise Against – “Give It All”
· Silversun Pickups – “Lazy Eye”
· Smashing Pumpkins – “Cherub Rock”
· Steve Miller Band – “Take The Money and Run”
· The Go Go’s – “We Got The Beat”

This game has been tons of fun, so far, and I definitely recommend this game.


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Multitasking coming to iPhone?

18 10 2009

Multitasking is something other devices have over the iPhone. The ability to have multiple apps running at the same time, and smoothly switch between them, is something iPhone users have been asking for, for a while. There is an app in Cydia called “Backgrounder”, that does a pretty good job, but can be clumsy, if you click your home button the wrong way.

Steven Troughton-Smith, creator of “Stack” and the more recent “Orbit”, has hinted, on Twitter, that he has multitasking working on an iPhone, with someting similar to “Orbit”.

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Here’s his screenshot. What do you think? Could this be true multitasking?

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Exposé Coming to the iPhone!

14 10 2009

Exposé is a feature in Apple’s OS X, that allows you to see all the applications you have running, and quickly switch between the apps. Well, what if you could easily view all the pages on your iPhone, and quickly select a page in the same way? Well, this is now a reality with “MobileExposé”.

I had the opportunity to get a sneak peak at this new app, from independent iPhone developer, Steven Troughton-Smith (Creator of Stacks, for the iPhone). MobileExposé works just as you think it would. You tap the icon, on your home screen, preferable on your dock, and you get an overview of all your pages. Then you just tap the page you want to go to, and you’re there!

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Currently, MobileExposé only works on a jailbroken iPhone, at firmware 3.1, or higher. It is very quick and responsive. On my iPhone 3GS, it is working very smooth. Here’s a short video of MobileExposé in action:

MobileExposé is still in beta, but I would love to see support for the Five Icon tweaks, that are available for the springboard. Other than that, I have no complaints. A big 5 out of 5 from me.

No release date or price has been announced yet, but my guess is, we will find this in Cydia very soon. You can follow the developer, Steven, on Twitter: @stroughtonsmith

UPDATE: (Oct 15, 2009) Steven has announced that the official name for this app will be “Orbit”, and it will be available in Cydia very soon. Also, it will support Five Column Springboard!


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Newly Shipped iPhones and iPod Touches not Jailbreakable?

14 10 2009

screenshot_01Members of the iPhone Dev Team have been reporting, on Twitter, that newly shipped iPhone 3GS’s, and iPod Touches, have a new bootrom that is not vulnerable to the “24kpwn” exploit that has been in use for all jailbreak tools from the iPhone Dev Team, including QuickPwn, Pwnage Tool, and redsn0w.

Right now, the Dev Team is saying this bootrom can’t be hacked, but to be realistic, we didn’t know if the first devices could be hacked, either. Apparently, this bootrom is more secure, but someone is bound to find a way in.

If you already have an iPhone 3GS, not to worry. You will always be able to jailbreak. It’s just the real new units that have this new bootrom.

Attack of the Show included this story in “The Feed” today:


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Blackra1n for Mac OS X released!!

13 10 2009

screenshot_08A few days ago we reported on blackra1n, an all Apple touch device jailbreak, for firmware 3.1.2. It was only available for Windows, but a Mac OS X version has just been released. Click here to download.

The Mac version seems even faster than the Windows version. I had jailbroken an iPod Touch 16GB, 2G, within 2 minutes on the app’s release. Fast download. No installation required. No messing with ending processes, services, anti-viruses, firewalls, etc, etc. Very impressive.

IMPORTANT: If you rely on having your iPhone unlocked, DO NOT USE THIS TOOL. For this tool, you must upgrade your OS, via iTunes, which in turn, upgrades your baseband. The current baseband cannot be unlocked. If you need to have your iPhone unlocked, you’ll have to use Pwnage Tool 3.1.4, from the iPhone Dev Team to jailbreak 3.1.2, by creating a custom firmware that preserves the unlockable baseband.

UPDATE: I have now tested this on an iPod Touch 2g and an iPhone 3G. I have found that on my iMac 7,1 it works with no issues. I tried it on my MacBook 5,1 and it just hung at “Entering Recovering Mode”, and then balckra1n became non-responsive. Not sure what the issue is, between these 2 Macs. This is just my experience, so far.

Simple instructions: Connect device. Leave iTunes open. Open blackra1n. Click “Make it ra1n”. That’s it.

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Find the Blackra1n app on your iPhone. You use this to install Cydia, Icy, and/or Rock. Open up the Blackra1n app, by tapping the icon on your homescreen:

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Select which 3rd party installer you want to use. In my case I’m just sticking with Cydia. Then tap Install, in the upper right.

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Once you’ve installed your 3rd party installers of choice, you can then delete the Blackra1n app. Just tap the edit icon, next to “Uninstall Blackra1n”, and select “Delete”.

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On the iPod Touch I just jailbroke, Winterboard was working fine, but I could not access my root folders, with DiskAid. You will still need to install “afc2add“, from Cydia, to make this work.

To read our post on the Windows version, click here.

Overall, blackra1n has been an impressive release from Geohot. It’s nice to see a simple solution for jailbreaking this most recent firmware. If you don’t need to unlock, this is the jailbreak tool of choice, until a new redsn0w is released, from the iPhone Dev Team.

Here’s a quick video of backra1n working on my iMac:


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Install “afc2add” to enable USB browsing of your blackra1n’d iPhone

13 10 2009

If you used blackra1n to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch, you may have noticed that DiskAid isn’t working anymore, to browse your root folders, via USB.

A new tweak has been released in Cydia, by NetMage, under the ModMyi repo, adding this functionallity. Simpy open Cydia, search for “afc2add”, and install. Your device will reboot, and then you’ll be able to use DiskAid, iPhoneBrowser, or any other USB browsing tool.

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Pwnage Tool 3.1.4 Released! Supports OTB iPhone 3GS!

13 10 2009

screenshot_01The iPhone Dev Team have updated their Pwnage Tool to accomodate the the newest firmware, 3.1.2, with an extra surprise. This newest tool can jailbreak out of the box iPhone 3GS, using the USB exploit that was made public by the Chronic Dev Team, and the same one Geohot used to create blackra1n. A warning though: if you update to an official firmware, before jailbreaking, you will lose your ability to unlock, as the newest baseband cannot be unlocked.

Here’s part of the post from the official Dev Team blog:

Here are some details on our latest version of PwnageTool 3.1.4 for Mac OS X which supports the 3.1.2 release of the iPhone software for iPhone 2G/3G/3GS and iPod Touch 1G/2G.

If you’re already jailbroken (by whatever means), you don’t need to mess around with DFU mode at all.  Just create (or get from a friend) your custom IPSW and Option-Restore (Shift-Restore on Windows) to it via iTunes.  Don’t enter DFU mode at all.  Please make sure you are restoring to the custom IPSW, not the stock one from Apple!  For best results, use the latest iTunes (9.0.1) — which includes a nice new application organizer.

This release allows your baseband to remain unlocked at 3.1.2, but it does not unlock a new baseband put there by restoring to official 3.1.x.  It is super important that people who need the unlock to understand they can keep it only by starting at 3.0 (or earlier) and updating solely to custom IPSWs that don’t update the baseband.  For those who have been onboard the “unlock train”, simply install ultrasn0w via Cydia once you’ve restored to your custom IPSW.  Don’t forget to turn off the “3G” setting in Settings->General->Network if you use T-Mobile in the U.S.A.

Note for 3GS users not already jailbroken and stuck at 3.1.x: this version of PwnageTool has a side feature to jailbreak your 3GS.  It uses a simple implementation of the usb control msg hole found by chronicdev, geohot, and our very own gray.  Now that the hole is public and in use, we expect Apple to close it by the next major firmware update. That’s why 3GS users need to get their ECID hashes for 3.1.x now, and need to stay onboard the “jailbreak train” in all future updates.  For more details on what this means, please see our earlier posts or ask in our comments section (moderated by the always helpful @angie and @confucious!).

For the early adopters who ran blackra1n and are having problems with mobilesubstrate, winterboard, diskaid, or ifunbox, you can install a custom .ipsw from PwnageTool to fix these issues.  That’s because all jailbroken devices accept a custom .ipsw created by PwnageTool.  (However, if you ran blackra1n on a 3G or 3GS that means you updated to stock 3.1.x, and the carrier unlock is now out of reach.  We’ll continue to work on a carrier unlock for the latest basebands, but the timeframe for such an unlock is unknowable.)

Note: If you use internet tethering on a carrier that doesn’t officially support it, you’ll lose it by going to 3.1.x.  Stay back at 3.0 until a hack for that is developed.

SUMMARY:

  • The iPhone 3GS is now supported out of the box in PwnageTool 3.1.4 (or if you have upgraded to 3.1.x in iTunes)
  • The iPod 2G is still supported in PwnageTool 3.1.4 but you must already be jailbroken (we’ll update this if there’s a big demand from non-jailbroken ipt2G owners)
  • The iPod touch 3G is NOT supported

You can download Pwnage Tool 3.1.4 here.


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