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Cookbook For Third-Party Apps On iPhone
a_skripko suggests this easy step-by-step procedure for adding third-party applications to an Apple iPhone. While the article claims "this procedure can be performed by the average user," it might at least have to be an average user with no fear of the command line.
I think I'll just wait until another iPhone type phone comes out. The openmoko, or something along those lines. Because something else with touchscreen and video and etc WILL come out, and I have no doubt it will be better, considering how many people are p.o.'ed about the restrictions on the iPhone (like 3rd party apps, restriction to AT&T, etc). Just a matter of time.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. - Krishnamurti
http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/08/the_iphone_hack ing_kit_step_by.php
Anyone has an app that can make a phone call?
The danger here is that an iphone update could wipe out not only your changes, but also your ringtones, your address book etc. The reason is that the software update performs an integrity check. If the check fails the update reinstalls the operating system.
It happened to me, but I expected it. A "regular" user may not appreciate.
Imagine how valuable a smart phone is as a malware target: it's carried on your persons, has access to your home and office, it's always always on, has direct internet connectivity, a decent camera, sensitive microphone, and a great deal of your personal information.
Given the value of this target, why on earth are people installing random binaries on their iPhone when they have absolutely no way of ascertaining whether they can trust the original provider of said binaries?
Writing malware is not particularly difficult when you have a good SDK. The iPhone is, for most purposes, a fully functional and familiar UNIX environment, and the APIs necessary to build a SpyPhone are not a secret. Given the lack of insight the average user will have into the operating system on a handheld device, they'd likely never know of an infection.
While I *very much doubt* we'll ever see a mass malware infection, users need to be careful about what they put on their phone, who made the binaries, and how they verify the source. Even one compromised iPhone would be very valuable to a nefarious malfeasant.
http://plausible.coop
If you want to build/install third party apps on a smartphone, why not buy something a little more open?
Not trying to troll or anything... I'm being serious. I truely believe in what OpenMoko is doing. Apple makes OK hardware and systems, but I will still side with whichever is more open.
*shrugs* I suppose I've just never found the iPhone to be anywhere near appealing.
Is command line phobia a medical condition or is it related to a fear of typing? Do people actually get the shakes and start screaming "where did all the icons go"? An older Unix system must make them go fetal.
I never see these patronizing predicates in Windows articles where one must enter something into the shell. Seems to be some kind of hand-wringing phenomenon that only affects Mac authors. I don't know if it's some kind of weird CLI hubris ala the 'Ruby on Rails/glossy black Macbook' crowd, or if the authors sincerely think that people are scared of the CLI (even weirder since it's a dev oriented article). Whatever, I wish all these authors would just skip over their CLI anxieties and move on.
If they really wanted to get scared using a command line on a Mac then they should have tried MachTen on System 7. 'Nuff said.
So you install a couple apps to stick it to the man. It's fun for about a week and then you have a fragility problem. Apple clearly isn't supporting this. Any updates/changes Apple makes will most probably wipe out anything you've modified, forcing you to re-liberate the phone and re-install your apps again not to speak of being able to restore your lost data (the equivalent of your apps/data disappearing when the battery drains).
Apple doesn't want anyone playing in their sand box, so let them play alone.
When someone figures out how to package these apps in an installer that can be just "clicked" (or tapped, or slid... what exactly is the operative gesture on an iPhone?), the iPhone will finally arrive as a platform, not just a product.
--
make install -not war
Why not buy an OpenMoko phone? Well, it's certainly poised to bring the same success to the mobile phone market as we've been seeing with Linux on the desktop.
...)
from http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Developer_preview
What you can expect
a functional bootloader with support for firmware upgrades
a functional Linux kernel with basic drivers for the various hardware subsystems, with small bugs here and there
a basic, simple linux distribution based on OpenEmbedded, that you have to install yourself as rootfs image using USB DFU
all the source code that we have at this point in time, and the corresponding build system
mailing lists
What you CAN NOT expect yet
reliable means of making phone calls, esp. not from the UI
reliable means of sending/receiving SMS, esp. not from the UI
integrated GPRS data access
bluetooth integration (basic bluez driver works)
proper power management (i.e. no reasonable battery life yet)
ringtone (or other) profile management
network preferences (call deflection, manual operator selection,
a complete application framework where third party application developers can write apps that easily integrate with the OpenMoko world
Maybe I'm just a stupid Apple fan-boy, but I'm willing to spend a little extra for a cellular phone that can, you know, make phone calls.
The danger here is that an iphone update could wipe out not only your changes, but also your ringtones, your address book etc.
How would an iPhone update do that? Or perhaps I should say, how is that really dangerous?
The worst case is an update wipes the device and reinstalls the OS clean. But you certainly aren't going to lose Address Book data - after all, that's all synced to the computer when you connect, as is every other possible spec of data stored in normal locations on the device. Sure you might have to re-load a few custom apps, or be without custom apps for a few days after a major update while people figure out how to get them on again. But if the mod community can keep up with Sony on the PSP that is activley trying to lock them out, the more lackadasical Apple will do nothing to seriously impede hacking the device.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Is not going to be all that awesome. Without carrier support, which it will never get, it will never be able to use any faster data connection than GPRS.
+++ATH0
There already exists an Installer.app that does exactly this.
Expect something much better coming soon that will blow that away as well.
+++ATH0
Oh you're just in a bad mood. You need to go to an Apple store and have one of the employees implant a Reality Distortion Field in your head. You'll be much happier and you will look forward to the next iPhone article. Take your credit card and leave the tin foil at home.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Yes, you're missing the point, you and everyone else who fails to realize that it's not the feature list, it's the interface. And please don't talk to me about open alternatives; the average consumer doesn't care. Joe Sixpack only wants something that will work without fuss and look good doing it.
Ten years ago, I would have been all hot for something I could poke around and mess with. These days, I have different hobbies and greater demands on my time. I've become extremely miserly with my free time because I want to spend every possible second of it with my kids; they're teenagers now, and all three will be off to college over the course of the next three years. My priorities have changed, and I have neither the time nor inclination to spend hours digging into the guts of a machine or wading through configuration files. It is for this reason that I simply can't be bothered with Linux. I'm Mac user and I have nothing whatsoever against Linux; in fact I admire Linux and the Linux community, and I'm rooting for FOSS in general, so don't think that my personal decision not to use Linux is a rejection of Linux or open software. But when I weigh the time I would have to spend configuring everything to my satisfaction, including finding/testing/learning replacement software, against time I could be spending with my sons and daughter, there's no contest.
I should point out that I apply the same test to pretty much every single thing in the same fashion before deciding whether to embark on it: Is it worth the time away from my children? If I find an alternative that will produce the same result, with less demands on my time, then usually that's the path I take. With regard to operating systems, moral* and technical concerns aside, Linux and Windows both fail to meet that all-important criterion as far as I'm concerned.
* What exactly does "moral advantage" mean anyway, when used in a discussion of technology? How can an inanimate object be immoral? It's the use of that object that is moral or not. Is the iPhone somehow less "moral" than the computer I presume you're using? Does loading Linux on it make it somehow morally superior to a Mac or Windows machine, even if it was produced by a manufacturer with an extremely poor environmental record? If you're so concerned about the immoral nature of a product manufactured by a company that *gasp* doesn't hew to your party line, then how in the name of Christ do you even get through the day without using transportation manufactured by a greedy automaker and fueled by nature-raping oil companies; eating a meal of recombinant DNA patented by monstrous agribusinesses; wearing clothes and shoes bearing the fingerprints of Asian sweatshop workers; and -shocker!- using an evil, soul-sucking ISP to connect to the Internet so you can post your drivel to Slashdot? And if you think that your lifestyle and choices somehow insulates you from contact with "immoral" technology, then you're delusional. Like a right-wing politician seeking re-election, people who preach morality tend to do so out of convenience. Grow up.
Resistance is futile. Reactance buggers it up.
You are currently on apple.slashdot.org. It's not the same thing at all as slashdot.org.
Microsoft says legacy (serial/parallel) ports are bad. They don't obfuscate the hardware enough.
Ten years ago, I would have been all hot for something I could poke around and mess with. These days, I have different hobbies and greater demands on my time.
Welcome to middle age, dude. But be careful whom and what you sell out to.
It still matters. Just might not seem like it for awhile.
Microsoft says legacy (serial/parallel) ports are bad. They don't obfuscate the hardware enough.
Very well said, and I do agree with you. Yes, it does matter. I do think that we have a moral obligation to not only do no harm, but to also encourage others to be mindful that our actions and choices may harm others. That being said, we are so overwhelmed by goods, services, and information in modern industrialized societies that it's becoming more and more difficult to navigate a "moral" path among them. How do we make informed decisions if we can't trust the information (commercials etc)? Given the difficulty of thoroughly investigating each potential choice, are we then simply forced to choose and hope we made a moral decision? Is there a karma scale which allows us to offset an immoral decision with a moral one? As I asked in my original post, does installing an OS with a "moral advantage" offset the use of a pollutant-filled machine? Does the person to whom I replied investigate the history and record of each manufacturer before choosing the "morally superior" one, or like any self-respecting geek, he just goes for the sweetest rig he can find?
The point I'm laboring to make is that we are faced with so many choices that trying make a deliberate judgment about the morality of each and every single one would paralyze us. Obviously, some choices are no-brainers to the non-sociopath (felonies etc), but many are quite morally ambiguous. It really is a grayscale, not black-and-white, world. But I'm also certain that I told you nothing you didn't already know.
Sounds like religion
Maybe. An elegant design reflects a deep understanding of everything it touches. Intensive study is necessary, but it goes beyond that. You have to know it so well that you instinctively feel what works and what doesn't. You can't grok something that way without caring a great deal about it. And while one person usually has a guiding vision, it takes the intense focus of lots of people to get the best possible outcome.
That's when the magic happens. The design starts to seem purely asthetic, because the functional design seamlessly helps you do what you wanted, without calling attention to itself. It's only if you stop and think about the amount of complexity that's hidden (beneath the apparent simplicity) that you really start to appreciate how elegant that design is.
So, like a religion? Well, perhaps like the good bits.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
You have to tell it you want to back up address data in the first place, but data does go two ways - any data I add to my iPhone goes back to the computer, Windows or Mac.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Forgot to mention that includes contact photos. though I don't know where it puts them on the Windows side (perhaps they have a field for contact images as well).
Custom ringtone choices for contacts are kept within the iPhone restore image, and possibly also back to your contact database somehow as a custom field...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That makes it look better, but still awfully thick. I keep phones in my pocket, not a utility belt.
And as noted, it still is not a great phone yet.
I'm still hoping it does well, I love the idea. It just can't be my only phone and I have reservations about the hardware being as good.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1. Take picture with the phone .b : ...go to a directory called something like "/My pictures" ...send the picture over bluetooth ... Oh, sorry. I forgot. We live in Europe here, where the phone aren't completely crapped by abusive "sorry we locked most of the functions that make your phone useful" term-of-service.
2. Save picture on the phone
3. Either :
3.a - plug the phone's flashcard into a reader in your computer
3.b - plug directly the phone with the provided USB cable
3.c - turn on Bluetooth on your PC
4. Then...
4.a &
4.c :
5. There's your picture.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
You make a great point. I love the iPhone (I'm posting from it now) but the lack of an SDK (and thus easily installable 3rd party apps) is a draw back. I think Apple will release one. Even if they don't, I think the open source community will come up with a solution. The software to unlock and customize the phone and to install 3rd party apps is out there already. It won't be long until some hacker brings them all togather with a nice GUI so the less technically inclined can install apps themselves. Still, if Apple wants to compete with Windows mobile they'll need to release an SDK.
sshd and Terminal.app have been out for the iPhone for several weeks already. I can either open up the app and be right in the shell on the phone, or I can ssh into it from any other system that can see it networkologically. No need to wire anything to a terminal. There's also a binkit (google Nate True and the word 'binkit' for link) with some Unix binaries that weren't on the phone when it shipped. I've got apache and a wiki running on mine, a couple games, and can serve up webpages (which I'm using for vacation and kid photos). Deploying files to it is just like any other Unix box, ssh in and work, or scp stuff over to it. Doesn't seem to be all that "locked out from the internals" as some people think.
The iPhone is only expensive if you compare its full cost with the subsidy illusion of another phone. Hardware costs nothing compared to service plans. If you compare the full cost over two years, the iPhone with its cheaper service plan is one of the least expensive smartphones you can buy. The more expensive 8GB iPhone with 2 years of service is $2056.
a TYTN is $800 more
a Sony Ericsson K850i is also nearly $800 more
a Nokia N95 is over $800 more
an LG Prada KE850 is $700 more
a RIM BlackBerry Pearl is over $300 more
a new Palm Treo is nearly $400 more
a "$99" Motorola Q is over $200 more
That isn't taking into account that the iPhone will have resale value as a WiFi browser and iPod after two years, while all those other phones will be pretty worthless. It also doesn't note that iPhone competitors all have:
half the battery runtime of the iPhone.
a clunker design that's commonly twice as thick as the iPhone.
less than half the iPhone's screen resolution.
The iPhone is "locked" to AT&T unless you activate it and attach your iPhone SIM card to another provider. So it's as locked as any other phone. The RAZR, LG Chocolate, Treo and every other phone was exclusive to a provider at launch, and all of them were $500 phones. Who cried foul then? Oh right, nobody did, because it isn't Apple users who are the shrill fanboys, its people like you who love to publish false information.
As for "Proprietary," the definition of that word is owned by a proprietor. Or in other words, for sale. Your OpenMOKO hardware is similarly proprietary to the company building it, it just didn't bother to finish its own software, expecting the "community" to write it for them. So you can own the software collectively and have nobody to blame when it doesn't work but yourselves, but you're still buying proprietary hardware, and it costs just as much. The service just costs more. That makes you a rube, and a pawn, and a simpleton.
"Expensive to maintain" because the battery is integrated? Well, if you plan to use your iPhone for more than a couple years before selling it and getting a new one, yes, you will have to pay for a new battery. My Sonicare toothbrush costs more to replace the battery than the iPhone. There are also third party iPod batteries that cost less than $15, with the DIY kit. Imagine that they'll be available in two years after 15 million iPhones are sold? Again, you are presenting false information because you are bitter about a successful product. You may as well boot Windows.
The iPhone is getting attention because it delivers a much better platform and 80% of the features on any phone in its 1.0 release. It's only going to get more features and improved upon. Apple has a history of updating its software for the Mac and the iPod. Years old devices are kept up to date with updates. No other phone maker does anything approaching this, and any updates that are released are too hard for most users to install. Windows Mobile works like ass, and Palm had been rotting for half a decade. OS X offers the maturity of Symbian or Linux with a consistent, polished interface they will never have.
Even if you hate Apple, its iPhone will make whatever you get end up buying a better phone through competition. That can't be said of Microsoft, which has held back the progress of technology for 20 years. Who else is leading mobile devices? A bunch of stupid followers. If you can't handle reading about a company that can bother to challenge the status quo, maybe you need to reevaluate why. There's nothing insightful about being a whiny bitch with nothing to say.
iPhone cost comparison
iPhone contract security, hardware, sales, FUD comparisons
iPhone camera and viewing comparisons
a no-go for anyone. The keyboard and crippled Bluetooth spring directly to mind. My HTC Hermes is simply incredible with all the stuff it can do.
+++ATH0
but there are security measures in place that ensure that you will not be able to use any faster data connection than GPRS unless your phone is approved by (read: sold by) the carrier.
GSM (voice) and GPRS will work fine. Nothing else will.
+++ATH0
I've never really understood the point of bluetooth.
If you're near enough to your computer to use Bluetooth for syncing, shouldn't you have your phone in its charging cradle so that you can fill up its battery? And wouldn't the wired connection used by the iPhone for that purpose work both faster and more reliably than Bluetooth?
I'd agree that it might be nice to use a Bluetooth keyboard but I'm not sure what the great appeal of Bluetooth synching is.
Your keyboard point is reasonable, but I've been surprised at how fast I can type on the iPhone keyboard, and of course text legibility and screen quality is miles ahead of any other device.
D
Looks like it got slashdotted. Fortunately, google cache still has a copy.
Or an art movement. Or a new scientific paradigm.
Most people don't get new forms of elegance, actually. They usually need a little nudge to get something that's genuinely new. Once something has entered the mainstream, then people can use social cues to direct their attention. Most of us are used to being told what is good.
It seems the article is now slashdotted, but it's still in the google cache.
How about thinking about the article... Thoughts I had include a very obvious bit... maybe they should remind people to change their password (or is that not possible?)
If the password can't be changed, you are VERY vulnerable... sniff a popular wireless network, look for web traffic that has the Iphone user agent in it, ssh to that ip and try the password given in the article.
Also, does this jailbreak technique void your warratee?
Will your changes all get blown away on the next apple iphone update? (or will they get in the way of said update?)
Version 2.0 New and Improved!