iPhone World

I haven’t gotten a single song from iTunes, ever, but a lot of you have. Apparently, both iTunes and Amazon release free singles and sometimes complete albums on a daily basis. I installed it for this write-up, and of the currently 10 songs available, spanning 3 days worth, I have not heard of a single one of the artists. I’m not sure if it’s because of the fact that next to nothing I listen to would ever appear on any Top 40 list, or if these are just totally obscure and unheard of artists. Either way, if you find something you like here, then this post has served its purpose.

In order to install this you will need to be running the 4.x version of Chrome, and visit the extension page at http://www.chromeextensions.org/music-videos-photos/broketunes/

While it can be a bit annoying, I can understand why free apps often come with ads. If done correctly, there is nothing wrong with this, it’s free, so you can’t really complain. What I do have a problem with however, is when the ads are placed so as to make it difficult to use the app without accidentally tapping on the ad. 9 times out of 10, this is done intentionally, and this I have no patience for. Cydia doesn’t have too many ads, but when they do show up, they can get a little out of hand. Lately I have been noticing more and more of the ads that will follow you as you scroll down the page, to the point where they can make it difficult to read app descriptions.

There is a quick easy way to eliminate these ads altogether. To rid yourself of these dreadful things, FTP/SSH to your device, and modify the file /Applications/Cydia.app/package.js. What you are looking for should be on line 209.

Find this

if (depiction == null)

and change it to

if (depiction == null || true)

From that point on, you can enjoy an ad free Cydia. There will however still be ads on the screenshot pages, but at least they will be gone from the app details, and they will load faster also.

I’ve seen a few forum postings recently from people claiming the Belkin FM tuner kit is doing bad things to the 3GS. It is claimed that simply plugging a 3GS into these docks while they are powered will fry the dock port on your phone. The problem seems to only be for the 3GS so if you have a previous model you should be fine. The only one “confirmed” to cause this problem looks to be the Tunebase model, pictured on the right. This report could be nothing, but one user who had this problem stated it happened to multiple 3GS phones while working just fine with a 3G, so on the side of caution, be warned. If this is a true problem, then there could be other accessories that could cause the same results.

Anyone own one of these and used it with their 3GS? Post your results in the comments.

After watching the stats for the site for a while now I’ve seen people show up here by searching for all kinds of things, sometimes they land on a page that answers their question, sometimes they do not. I’ve decided that I will have regular Q&A posts to answer those that are not covered. Ideally this will be weekly, but we’ll see how it goes. Anyhow, on with the show…

Q: Should I trust Saurik/Cydia with my ECID/SHSH?
A: Absolutely! I can think of no better hands to put that information into than Saurik. Though this is a bit of a moot point at this time since Apple is no longer signing for 3.0. I don’t believe it it available yet, but I’m sure something similar will appear for 3.1 as well. When it does, I would urge everyone to have their SHSH on file with Cydia. I still want to dedicate a proper post to this topic, but for the information hungry, check out this VERY well written post by Saurik.

Q: Does AppSync work with iTunes 9?
A: Yep! Though usb ssh doesn’t appear to work yet.

Q: Will iTunes 9 remove Cydia?
A: No.

Q: If I reset my phone will it remove Cydia?
A: If by reset, you meant restore, yes it will remove everything.

Q: Will Winterboard make my [device] run slower?
A: Unfortunately, yes. Overall there isn’t much of a difference, the biggest slow down will be noticed when respringing, or when returning to the springboard after closing an app.

Q: How can I change the UDID?
A: There was an app called UDID Changer, but all traces of it seem to have vanished. I’m not even sure if it would work in a 3.x world. Currently there is no way I am aware of. But I assure you there is a way.

Q: Can someone steal my ECID and hack my phone?
A: No

Q: Can I install Cydia on 3.1?
A: As of September 15, 2009, No. 3.1 has not yet been jailbroken. The DevTeam has confirmed a well known exploit still exists and it shouldn’t be long before PwnageTool works with 3.1, and of course Redsn0w will follow shortly after. YES! As of 2hrs ago it is now possible. Note that as always, the initial release is just for PwnageTool, and just for Mac. Note that the 3GS, and iTouch 2G/3G are not yet supported. See the Dev-Team’s post for details and expect a guide here once everything is completed.

Q: How to set permission 755?
A: First I will clarify. This is what needs to be done after transferring an app via SSH (WinSCP or FileZilla). It sets the permissions to executable, readable, and writable. If it is not, when you attempt to launch the app, it will crash immediately. To do this with WinSCP or FileZilla, right click on the app folder and choose set permissions (actual wording may vary). You will see a number in the window that opens along with a bunch of check boxes. Change the number to 755, and select the option to recurse into subdirectories. To do it from the command line, you would either launch Terminal on the device, or connect via SSH. After changing to the correct folder (most likely /Applications), you would type chmod –R 755 Yourapp.app where Yourapp.app is the name of the folder containing the application. To change the permission of a single file just omit the –R.

Q: How do I set up uGrowl?
A: Can you be more specific? Post your questions in the forums please!

Q: “uGrowl bug torrent add”
A: I’m not sure what the problem is that you found, but kindly post more details in the forums!

Q: Why does my phone drop calls when plugging in headphones?
A: See this post

Q: Why doesn’t my iPhone split music into each headphone?
A: I’m taking that to mean stereo audio is not working. I had an Apple audio cable that ended up to be quite cheap and one of the wires must have severed because I only get stereo if I pull it to one side coming out of the plug. Point is, for any problems like this, always rule out any cables, connectors, adapters, headphones, etc first as that’s where the problem usually lies.

Q: How can I downgrade from 3.1?
A: I’ve been meaning to post on this, but see this article for an excellent guide.

Q: What is the difference between 3.0 and 3.0.1?
A: Basically, the only difference is there is a nasty SMS bug that could allow someone to gain complete control of your phone. You would know as you would receive a text message containing only a square. Developers would know this as an unprintable character. Should you receive one of these, they say you should turn your phone off immediately, but I say it would be just as effective and slightly faster to enable airport mode. Give it a few minutes and you should be good to go.

Q: I’m in a respring loop, help!
A: If you are fortunate enough to have installed SSH and syslog, I highly recommend connecting via SSH and issuing the command tail –f /var/log/syslog. This will list logged entries as soon as they are added. Often you can get a clue as to what is going on from this. It has saved me multiple times from having to restore. If you are not one of the lucky ones, I’d suggest rebooting it and if all else fails be prepared to do a restore. Next time install syslog!

Q: Is it safe to generate a provisioning profile using a hackintosh?
A: Absolutely!

Q: Does jailbreaking remove some functionality?
A: Absolutely not! Quite the opposite in fact.

Q: dpkg-i command not found
A: You need to put a space before the –i there sparky

Q: Will my unlocked iPhone 2G/3G[S] stay unlocked if I update to 3.1?
A: NO NO NO NO NO! While unlikely, if you update now, you could potentially lose the ability to unlock for good! You MUST wait until PwnageTool is updated for 3.1 so you can restore with a custom firmware containing the 3.0 baseband. While you may be able to downgrade back to 3.0, the baseband is not able to be downgraded and you will be up a creek until a new exploit is found.

Q: Can I install Cydia/SSH/FTP to/etc without jailbreaking?
A: No. Installing Cydia should be synonymous with jailbreaking.

Q: Restore from backup removes Cydia?
A: Sortof. It seems after restoring a backup, the Cydia app and anything installed via Cydia remain on the device, they just do not appear on the springboard. I honestly couldn’t tell you if there is a way to make them appear again or what exactly causes them not to appear. I always advise against restoring a backup unless absolutely necessary. Many random problems tend to creep up as a result of this whether the device is jailbroken or not. Restoring a backup is especially not recommended if it was made while running a previous major version of the OS (ie 2.x to 3.x).

And that wraps it up for the first installment of Q&A here.

This is straight from the horse’s mouth. This is a very simple step but has the potential to have a big impact if you’re unaware of it and are now on 3.0.1.

iPhone OS 3.0 SDK and iPhone OS 3.0.1 software release for Mac OS X v10.5.7

To continue development with iPhone SDK 3.0 on your iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS running iPhone OS 3.0.1 will need to perform the following:

1. Log into your Mac with an Admin account and launch the Terminal application
(/Applications/Utilities)

2. Copy and paste the following line into Terminal:
ln -s /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/3.0\ \(7A341\)/ /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/3.0.1

Note: If you installed iPhone SDK 3.0 somewhere other than the default /Developer
location, replace the "/Developer" directory as appropriate.

*I am seeing a lot of hits to this page from folks searching for iphone 3.0.1 advisory. This is somewhat confusing to me as I would think if you are aware of the advisory, then you know what it is. So what’s up? Are you finding what you’re looking for here? If not, please do post a note in the comments as to what you are actually trying to find out and I will be happy to update the post with whatever the answer might be.

In keeping up on the logs for the site I’ve noticed quite a few people arriving here after Googling some variation of ‘install cydia over ssh’. So to all of you out there, what exactly is it that you are looking for? The only conclusion I can draw is that folks are searching for jailbreak instructions using incorrect terms. That, or some of you have managed to remove Cydia and now need to get it back. Based on the fact that you cannot have the ability to SSH without first having Cydia, what other possibilities could there be?

If you are looking for jailbreak instructions, there is a guide in the menu on the right.

If you have managed to remove Cydia, first of all, BAD USER! Go stand in the corner! Why would you do that??

All reasons aside, if you’ve managed to get into this situation, you’ve come to the right place as I have a solution for you. First, download the following file.

• Cydia and essentials

Now unzip the file, you will have 2 .deb files. You will need to get them onto your phone using your client of choice (WinSCP, FileZilla, etc).

In an SSH session, change to the folder you put the debs in. Type exactly the following:

• dpkg -i essential_0-1_iphoneos-arm.deb cydia_1.0.2953-59_iphoneos-arm.deb; respring

If you attempt to install either on it’s own you will get errors and it will not work. Once it has finished, your phone should respring, and if all is well, you should again have Cydia on your springboard.

If the situation is that you simply deleted the Cydia.app folder, I can make that available as well but I’m not going to unless it’s requested you can download it as a zip here. I zipped it directly on the device preserving the permissions, so you can either unzip it on the device, or make sure that after FTP’ing, you right click the Cydia.app folder to edit the permissions, set it to 755 and choose the recursive option.

So there you all go. Hopefully this is what you guys have been looking for, if it is not, be sure to make yourself heard in the comments. As you can see, your questions get answered even if you do not ask them, imagine what might happen if you do!

Unpacking cydia (from cydia_1.0.2953-59_iphoneos-arm.deb) …
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of cydia:
cydia depends on essential; however:
Package essential is not installed.
dpkg: error processing cydia (–install):
dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
cydia

likewise, attempting to install just essentials will yield:

Unpacking essential (from essential_0-1_iphoneos-arm.deb) …
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of essential:
essential depends on cydia | com.ripdev.icy; however:
Package cydia is not configured yet.
Package com.ripdev.icy is not installed.
dpkg: error processing essential (–install):
dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
essential

There are a few services available now for tracking your phone. As far as I know, all of them can be disabled by a would be thief rather easily. I have found a method that will give no indication whatsoever that your phone is being tracked. Additionally, there is only one way to launch the app to change the settings or disable it, and for the common thief is not likely to happen.

The idea just came to me when I was backing up my Cydia applications and saw the FieldTest.app folder. If you aren’t aware, there is a special number you can dial on the phone that will open the field test application. To check it out, dial *3001#12345#*. When you hit call, the field test app opens. So I thought it could probably be replaced with something else, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.

I should note that only jailbroken phones will be able to use this method. You will need to have SSH installed, and I would recommend plist editor as it allows you to edit XML and binary plist files, both of which you will likely encounter.

Ok so the first step is to ftp to your phone. First go to /Applications. This will take you to the real location of the apps (Native and Cydia). Find and delete the FieldTest.app folder. Note that you will need to use root as the mobile account will not be able to remove it. (If you still want to have the fieldtest app available, change it’s identifier and remove the lines used further down to hide the icon)

Next you will find the folder for the app you wish to hide. If it is a native app or something installed with Cydia, you should look in /Applications. For AppStore apps, instead go to /private/var/mobile/Applications. You will see folders named something like 1B8A526F-88B8-4447-8EAD-E7F9575E07E6. You will have to look at each one until you find the app you are looking for. As an example let’s just use Navizon. You will find the folder containing Navizon.app and then enter that folder.

Copy the Info.plist file to your computer and open it in plist editor. Find the line that says

<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>

and change the next line to say

<string>com.apple.fieldtest</string>

This will cause Navizon to be identified as the field test app. Next, go to the end of the file and right above </dict>, add the following

<key>SBAppTags</key>
<array>
    <string>hidden</string>
</array>

This will prevent the icon from showing up on the springboard. All that is left is to respring.

Now, when you dial *3001#12345#*, Navizon will open.

One thing I should note is that Navizon in particular will show an icon on the status bar when it is running in the background. To get around that, simply delete or rename the TopBar.png file in the Navizon.app folder.

This method can be applied unchanged to any app you like.

Has this happened to anyone? You’ve got headphones or external speakers plugged into the headphone jack with nothing playing, and when you unplug them, music starts playing on the built in speaker?

I have run into this several times. Upon trying to search for a cause/solution, I found that I am hardly alone with this issue. I have a theory and need your help to confirm it. I do not have the special Apple audio cable/adapter, I simply use regular headphones or a car tape adapter with it. I believe the problem may only occur when the headphone jack is being used WITHOUT a crApple proprietary audio adapter. I have had this problem since 2.x so I do not believe it is a software bug.

While it continues to happen, I have not been able to reliably reproduce it at will.

Has this happened to you? Are you using an Apple audio cable/adapter, or something with a standard headphone plug? Found a solution?

Go

SOLVED

I purchased an Apple audio adapter (ebay of course) and have confirmed the cause of this issue. The Apple adapter has one extra contact on the plug. There is also a button that, depending on how many times is pressed or how long is held, will perform certain actions such as voice command, starting / stopping music, skipping tracks, etc.

The second I discovered that 1 short push of the button toggles music playback, it was pretty obvious what’s going on. A standard headphone plug (non-Apple) will have 3 total contacts (left, right, ground). The one that is furthest from the tip is split in 2 on the Apple adapter. I believe the button on the Apple adapter crosses these contacts to perform the user actions.  So basically, what it comes down to, is when you insert or remove a standard headphone plug, because the contact is so long, it bridges the contacts inside your phone and completes the same circuit the little button would, causing the music playback to toggle.

So if you are having this issue, your options are either to live with it, or fork over a few bucks for the adapter. DO NOT BUY IT FROM APPLE unless getting ripped off makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Go look on EBay, I got mine for less than $2.

(Just because some people will need this to be said, this goes for any cables you might need. A $40 cable from Apple (of whatever variety) can be found on EBay for 1/10 that price.

A few days ago I posted about Tapulous and the potential to have your associated Facebook / Twitter accounts hacked. There is another potential problem here. Let’s say you sell your phone. The UDID has not changed, so whoever you sell it to, if they install an app that you used that identifies you only by UDID, you’ve just given them access to your “account”. Now, it is possible to change the UDID (jailbroken users only), but it appears Apple may use this for verifying warranty coverage so if you change the UDID of a phone still under warranty and then sell it, the buyer may not be able to use the warranty. Likewise, it may be possible to change the UDID of a phone that is no longer under warranty, to one that is in order to have it serviced.

What I would recommend, is if you are going to sell your phone, email the contact for any apps you use that store settings on a server but don’t require a login, and ask them to remove your UDID from their system, or change it to your new one.

To see your UDID, just hold shift and click the serial number in iTunes.

What does this have to do with Push? Not much. In fact Push notifications are not sent based on UDID. They are sent based on a device token that is generated.

There is an issue that has cropped up that some people have stopped receiving push notifications. Apple has confirmed that in certain cases, your token can change when you sync with iTunes. When this happens, you will no longer receive any Push notifications. Their solution is to simply launch any apps that use Push and they will update the token.

Has anyone run into this? Has opening the app once resolved it for you?

I myself have not run into this, but there have been a lot of other users reporting problems with their Visual Voicemail not notifying them of new messages. It’s not clear yet if this is an issue exclusive to jailbroken or IPCC hacked iPhones, or if it is an issue with the service in general. Either way, if you have stopped receiving Visual Voicemails, give these steps a try.

• Open the Settings app
• Select General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.
• After resetting reboot your phone if it does not automatically.

There is also another method I have seen that isn’t quite as convenient:

• Open the Phone app and go to the dial pad
• Hold 1 until it dials your voicemail
• Check your messages
• Call your line from another phone and leave a message.

If neither of these solve the problem you should probably call AT&T about it, especially if you are using a non-jailbroken phone.

If one of these DO solve the problem, please post it in the comments along with whether you are jailbroken or have applied the IPCC hack.

*EDIT* 6/15/09 – This post seems to be getting another rush of visitors since the 3.1 release. I have seen the IPCC hack has been updated as well, is this issue occurring all over again in 3.1 for you guys?