The Elongated iPhone... iPhone 5

For the first time since the release of iPhone 3GS, I'm not awed by the announcement of the latest iPhone 5. Yes it is bigger (just longer actually) and yes it is more powerful than the previous incarnations (it has to be right?), but.... Well, I confess I have been an Apple fan since I first owned the iPhone 3GS and since then, I have got my family and myself the iPhone 4, the iPad and also migrated to a MacBook Pro for my computing usage. Everything has been so innovative from Apple ever since the first iPhone and it took iPhone 3GS to convince me to start using Apple's products.


That being said, yesterday's annoucement of the iPhone 5, nothing special (this is my own opinion of course). For the first time I feel that Apple is playing catch-up rather than being the one being chased. For the first time (since 3GS), I have the urge to tryout a Samsung S3 or even the Nokia Lumia 920. And for the first time, I wish Apple still had Steve Jobs with them for I think they are loosing a lot of creativity without the MAN.

Why buying a discounted iPhone 4s now is stupid

iPhone 5 will likely be announced next month and everybody who follows tech news knows it. And every who does follow will know that many vendors and even Apple themselves have dropped the price of their iPhone 4s. A good,time to buy you say? Not unless you think you cannot afford a brand new iPhone 5 which maybe 50-100 bucks more costly. But, if you can afford it and you still want to get it, it is downright silly.

Here's why...

iOS 5.0.1 Untethered Jailbreak for pre-A5 devices released: RedSn0w

If you have been following the development on the iOS jailbreak community, you would probably know by now that the untethered jailbreak has been released for iOS 5.0.1 for all iDevices (except for iPhone 4s and iPad 2). Few hours right after the release announcement, I jumped in immediately to restore my iPhone 4 (which was on iOS 4.3.2) and jailbreak it. Dev-team has release the latest RedSn0w tool (version 0.9.10b2) that includes the exploit to jailbreak the iOS 5.0.1.

There are some pre-requisites before you try and jailbreak your iDevice. Click on for more...

Transition from iOS 4.x to iOS 5 and Jailbreaking

I have recently made a transition from iOS 4.x to iOS 5 on my iPhone 3GS and I can say it wasn't a particularly smooth sailing journey. Of course we're talking about jailbreaking it as well. My plan was to do this:

1. Sync & backup iPhone 3GS with iTunes
2. Fully restore iPhone to iOS 5
3. Jailbreak iOS 5 with redsn0w
4. Install AppSync 5.0+ from Cydia
5. Restore from backup to iPhone with iTunes.

Sounds easy right? Wrong! Now usually when after I sync and backup the iPhone before an upgrade of the firmware, I will do a backup of the backup first so I can do it again if I screw it up. I have written an article on how to do this before and you can see it here: [Restoring from a backup for iPhone, jailbreak or not!]

iPhone 3GS random shutdowns on iOS4.01, iOS4.1 and iOS4.2.1

I use to be able to use my iPhone 3GS until the battery runs dry and I get the battery running out popup message starting at 20% remaining and below. At that time, using the iPhone was a really enjoyable save for the bad battery life. Then came iOS4.01 and I hesitantly upgraded to it. I say hesitantly because if given a choice, I would not have upgraded it. My upgrade was made because of the increasing number of apps that do not support iOS3.x and most of them wouldn't even let you install it if you do not have iOS4.x. You can see my blog entry on Why I think iOS4.01 firmware sucks.

My iOS4.01 experience was still ok until I upgraded to iOS4.1 the moment the greenpois0n and limera1n jailbreaks were released for it and oh my... did I regret it. All other displeasures aside, the most horrible thing about it was that my iPhone started to shut down randomly whenever it is under intense use. By intense I mean by playing a game (e.g. Angry birds, FIFA 11 or even Bejeweled 2), or typing constantly on Whatsapp, using Safari or even taking a video. The shut downs usually happens when the battery is down to between 80% to 40% and it is totally random. If I leave it and not do anything except for receive and making calls, then I'm safe (or at least I think I am).

Read on...

HD Video wallpaper for iPhone

Up till now I have not even considered having an animated wallpaper on my iPhone. I remember all my old Sony Ericsson and Samsung phones have those cool animated wallpaper features. As I got to find out from Redmond Pie, Android has built-in support for the animated wallpapers ever since version 2.1 of their OS. Well, iPhone fanboys, no need to envy as there is now a solution for you too so that you can show off your iPhone 4 on the retina display with an animated wallpaper. Behold the vWallpaper jailbreak app. Yes you heard me right, you would first have to have a jailbroken iPhone. For the rest of the story, follow this link to Redmond Pie on how to install it.
Demonstration video after the jump...

Blacksn0w will be released soon. 11/03/2009.

Geohot has done it. Blacksn0w (a.k.a Blackra1n with unlock) will be released tonite. Here is an excerpt 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, 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. But BootNeuter 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.


Anyone with an upgraded (FW 3.1.2) iPhone 3G/3GS, your baseband will likely be 05.11.07 baseband and if you're not on the official network, then you will need this to unlock your phone. Brace yourself people.. for BLACKSN0W!

New Blackra1n RC2 jailbreak from Geohot for iPhone

I jailbroke my iPhone 3GS on firmware 3.1.2 last month using the Blackra1n software by Geohot. Everything was smooth sailing for me, but I do understand many people went through a lot of problems with their iPhones. Mainly because of the different versions there are (i.e. 2G, 3G, 3GS with different firmwares as well). Well, Geohot has released version 2 of the Blackra1n jailbreak method which hopefully solves many of your problems.

Here is the update list:

• Fixed 3G issues
• Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB ipt 8GB and new 3GSes
• Fixed Icy issues
• Both Windows and Mac
• If you used RC1 with success, no need to rerun

Note the last one. IF YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY JAILBROKEN YOUR IPHONE USING THE FIRST VERSION, YOU DO NOT NEED TO JAILBREAK AGAIN WITH THIS VERSION!

Sorry I had to SHOUT that.... some people just don't understand it :)

If you're looking for a step-by-step guide (I'm not gonna write one since so many are already available on the net), go here for a pretty good guide: iPhone Download Blog and you can download the blackra1n executable here: BLACKRA1N.

Please note though that this jailbreak method (blackra1n) DOES NOT UNLOCK YOUR PHONE. So if you need to unlock your iPhone, do not use this method.

iPhone/iPod Touch future owners take note, Apple is breaking Jailbreak!

It seems that Apple is going all out to stop all jailbreaks on their iPhones and iPod Touches. This excerpt from iClarified says it all :-

Apple is now shipping the iPhone 3GS with a new Bootrom that is not vulnerable to the 24kpwn exploit.

The iBoot-359.3.2 started to ship last week. A screenshot posted by Mathieulh shows the new version number.

MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev-Team has confirmed that the loss of the 24kpwn exploit would mean a normal jailbreak would be impossible for the time being.

oh oh, from what @cpich3g + @Mathieulh have found so far, a normal untethered JB may be in jeopardy in brand new 3GS units

For the time being we would suggest locating old stock or refurbished units. Hopefully, the dev teams will be able to find another exploit for the new bootrom.

Well... fortunately i've got my iPhone already. But for those looking forward to get their iPhones and jailbreaking them, better hope you're not getting one of these new ones. But I'm sure the genius hackers out there would probably find a way around it again.... you'll just have to wait a little longer if Apple does what is said above.

Owned 2 iPhones 3Gs in as many weeks (and OS ver 3.1)

I just got my new iPhone 3Gs from Maxis last Sunday and this week I have another new one. Well, I still only have one, the second one being a replacement from my first one (from last week). Why you might ask? The first one went kaput and I sent in for repairs on last Saturday and got a replacement on the recent Monday. The iPhone was beyond repair (thanks to the car lighter USB port which I used to charge it). The moment I plug it into the car lighter outlet, I could feel the heat on the iPhone and the next thing I know the iPhone's battery was draining like 1% every 30 seconds. By the time I send it to Maxis center, it was already drained out and the 'experts' there couldn't start it up (and they can't check whether I jailbroke the iPhone too!! Lol...) so they deemed it irreparable. I was told the replacement would probably arrive in another 2 to 3 weeks due to shortages in supply and also the fact that they had to get it from Singapore (I suppose Singapore's Apple is the regional office). Great! I waited 2 weeks for the iPhone and now I gotta wait another 2 weeks minimum.

However I was pleasantly surprise when 2 days later (Monday) I received an SMS from them saying that my iPhone has been repaired and ready for collection. Two thoughts came to my mind.

1. Maybe they found out it can be repaired and so replaced the circuit board and voila! But I had mixed feelings with this thought. What if the battery unit is not slightly defficient now because of the draining??
2. Maybe they were able to start the phone and found my phone has been jailbroke before and decided to void my warranty... that would be crap!

Anyway, when I arrived to pick up the unit, I was told that it was a replacement unit... imagine my relieve when I heard that. But I am really surprise that they have the replacement in little more than 2 days only. And it is actually just one day if you minus the Sunday as it is a non-working day.

Now that I have the new iPhone, i'm not going to use that darn car lighter USB anymore. Learnt my lesson. Maxis though, do not need to know about this (or there goes the warranty). Ok... off to jailbreak my iPhone now!!!

Ok... Apple has just announced the latest iPhone OS ver 3.1. It has little enhancement over the previous ver 3.01 but nevertheless still an enhancement. Jailbreakers do not attempt to upgrade yet as it would probably remove all your settings and Apps. As for myself, I'm not so hyped about this ver 3.1 OS. There isn't really any enhancement that I would REALLY want that I would sacrifice my jailbreak and upgrade the OS. So if you can wait, just hold horses and wait for ver 3.1 jailbreak before upgrading.

Here is a list of some of the enhancements:

• Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
• iTunes U content organization
• Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
• Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
• Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
• Option to Save as new clip when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
• Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on (this one sounds funny, why would bluetooth improve Wi-Fi performance?).
• Remotely lock iPhone with passcode via MobileMe
• Use Voice COntrol on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets (Should have been here all along!).
• Paste phone numbers into the keypad
• Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS
• Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
• Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling
• Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

As you can see, no bluetooth file transfer between bluetooth enabled devices yet. If they had enabled that, it would be something that would entice me to upgrade. Anyway, to catch more about the updates go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/. You can update it via your iTunes (did I mention iTunes is also being upgraded to ver 9.0?). iPod Touch users can also update your OS to ver 3.1 for free!