No Limera1n or GreenPois0n icon on iPhone/iPod/iPad's SpringBoard after Jailbreak? You're just doing it wrong.

For those who didn't know, SpringBoard is the home screen of the iOS, the screen where all of your apps are located. I won't tell very much about Limera1n or GreenPois0n, they are just jailbreaking applications (Limera1n works on Windows and Mac, while GreenPois0n has a version for Linux also). Basically, they are quite the same thing (they're using the same exploit), and they work with any iDevice running 4.0, 4.0.2 or 4.2 firmware.

They are both very easy to use, you just have to download, run, and click "Make it ra1n!", and you'll be told how to put your device in DFU mode in order to start jailbreaking your device. A problem experienced by some of the people who tried jailbreaking their iDevices was that there was no Limera1n/GreenPois0n icon on the SpringBoard after jailbreaking (even though the applications said that jailbreaking succeeded).

The idea is that iTunes (it doesn't matter what version it is, it just needs to recognize your device) must be kept running while jailbreaking. Don't ask me why, I also had that problem, and when I left iTunes running while I used Limera1n, my jailbreak succeeded (when you see that drop rain on your iDevice, it means that jailbreaking succeeded). Probably, there's something in iTunes which allows the device to receive data while in DFU mode.

Who would have thought that there's such an easy fix for this problem?

Limera1n is available, jailbreaks iOS 4.0-4.1.

Limera1n has been released yesterday evening, and after geohot got angry and pulled the download link (I don't know exactly why), it seems that Limera1n is now available for download again on the official website. This new jailbreak tool promises to jailbreak almost any device running iOS 4.0 or 4.1.

The supported products are iPhone 3Gs/4, iPad, and iPod Touch 3G/4G. For the unmentioned products: iPod Touch 2G support is coming soon, while for the iPhone 3G you must use redsn0w. For the moment, limera1n is available only for Windows, the compatibility for Mac is coming soon.

Theoretically, limera1n does hacktivate your device (allowing you to use it with any carrier), but many people reported problems after hacktivating their iPhones with limera1n, so I don't recommend you doing this yet (limera1n is currently in beta 4).

Hope I don't have to tell you that you're using it on your own responsibility, it is an unstable release so don't expect from it to be bug-free. You might have to restore your device or you may even get a bricked one as a result of using limera1n!

Download from here.

Microsoft tries desperately to attract the attention of Windows Phone 7, organizes weird parade.

Microsoft organized something like a parade with the occasion of launching the RTM version of Windows Phone 7, which isn't the version that is going to be the present on the devices that will be shipped with Windows Phone 7 on board (what I'm trying to say is that the RTM version, or Release to Manufacturing, isn't the final product, it's the version which has been sent to manufacturers in order to allow them to prepare themselves and their devices for the final launch of Windows Phone 7).

Returning to the parade, what Microsoft did was to dress its employees in all kind of zombies, clowns and women in pink, celebrating, along with the launch of Windows Phone 7 RTM version, the death of iPhone of BlackBerry. They actually carried on the streets a dead giant iPhone and BlackBerry, trying to show everybody that the Windows Phone 7 is just near the corner.

One thing is clear, there's a total desperation in what Microsoft did, and what they probably wanted to say is "Death to iPhone and BlackBerry, the Windows Phone 7 domination starts". Windows Phone 7 looks good from what I've seen on YouTube (the interface is completely changed and the OS has been highly optimized). However, I doubt they have any chance on a highly competitive market, such as the US, where the market is shared by Android (with HTC, Samsung, Motorola, etc), iPhone and BlackBerry.

Anyway, why they didn't say anything about Google's Android?

More on Gizmodo and Engadget.

iOS 4.1 expected today. Jailbreakers must stay away!

Dev Team announced today that all those who need jailbreak and unlock must stay away from iOS 4.1, which is expected to be available today through iTunes. Especially those who need unlock, they should not update in any situation as the update will also update the baseband from the device and there's no way to downgrade or to unlock it.

If you have SHSH saved for any iOS version before 4.1, you will be able to downgrade the iOS, but the baseband will be still blocked. Saving SHSH is highly recommended, because if you got any issues with your current jailbroken iOS and you have to restore when the iOS 4.1 will be available, it will automatically restore your device to iOS 4.1, situation in which you'll be stuck with an firmware which can't be jailbroken (and the saved SHSH allows you to downgrade the firmware).

Motorola tries to sell its Droid 2 by making fun of iPhone's lack of Flash.

You probably remember Apple's campaign with the apps from the App Store, yes, that one with "That's an App for that". Motorola, taking the example of Apple, makes fun of its obstinacy for denying flash on its iDevices, starting its own campaign, named "Flash Websites? There's a phone for that". The phone which is advantaged by the campaign is, of course, Motorola's Droid 2, which has recently been launched.

This is nothing more than a hit in Apple's face, which has been aggressively attacked from all directions with the Antennagate madness, which, paradoxically, has drastically increased the request for the iPhone 4. The original Droid was sold quite good, so, considering this, I'm expecting for the Droid 2 to be a successful device. And this will, definitely, increase the market-share of Android, which, according to some recent studies, has overpassed Apple's iOS market share in the US.

Apple about to patent a technology that allows them to detect if your iPhone was stolen or jailbroken.

Apple has made something like a....passion from patents. The last thing they want to do is to implement a technology which can detect if your phone has been stolen. This technology should help you in case if your device was stolen by notifying you about this situation and allowing you to remotely find it. However, the situation can stay a little bit different in practice, because Apple might be able to audiovisual spy you, by detecting if somebody with a different voice or face is using the device, and shutting down the device remotely.

But what's really worse, the technology should allow Apple to identify if the device has been jailbroken and unlocked, so they might have the possibility to kill the device remotely. A line in the patent also mentions that cellular carriers could shut down or cripple the device, if it is detected as jailbroken.

That's a good news for the retail, but for the customers, it is definitely something unacceptable.

You can read more on Engadget.

BREAKING: Jailbreak & Unlock for the iPhone, now officially legal in the US.

The US Government announced today big changes for all iPhone/iPod/iPad users. Starting from today, Jailbreaking and Unlocking of these devices, along with rooting of Android devices and ripping of DVSs (for educational purposes only) are completely LEGAL into the United States, unless they are violating copyright law.

This is a major hit Apple's face, who, because of its strict policy, didn't let users install unauthorized apps. This decision is a big news for users who were afraid that jailbreaking could bring them into illegality, so, starting from now, they can jailbreak and unlock their iDevices without any fear. However, it is not clear if Apple's policy is still applicable, as they might still refuse to offer support if the device was jailbroken (I'm not sure if this decision puts them into illegality if they continue doing that, we'll  most probably get a clarification of this on following period).

You can read more on this subject on Redmond Pie (they've also included the new DMCA legislation).

Samsung sends free Galaxy S devices to unsatisfied iPhone 4 users (UK users only).

It seems that Samsung offered free Galaxy S devices to users who declared themselves unsatisfied by Apple's iPhone 4. The only thing that these users from the UK to which Samsung sent these devices did, was to complain on Twitter about the iPhone 4, so that Samsung contacted them offering free Galaxy S devices.

It seems that this is a tactical move made by Samsung, which tries to make a little advertising to its devices in order to increase its market-share. Of course that these devices were sent to people who are really influential, so if you are a normal Twitter user, don't even mind trying to receive a free Galaxy S. You can try if you really want, but there is almost no chance of getting one. And don't forget, devices are being sent only to important people from the UK.

Apple still doesn't admit that iPhone 4 has problems with signal reception.

Everybody hoped that Apple will, in a final, admit that the iPhone 4 has problems with signal reception, at the conference they organized today. But Apple still doesn't admit this, saying that "phones aren't perfect", and declaring that BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris and Samsung Omnia II have the same... little issues. This surely wasn't the answer that anybody wanted to hear.

The only good news is that Apple will offer free Bumpers for everybody who own an iPhone 4 (what an incredible fix, Apple!), and when they will run out of Bumpers, another accessory for your device will be offered. But this happens as long as you bought your phone before September 30th. They also claim that they spent over $100 million in special rooms, where they tested iPhone's antenna, and they didn't discover any problem. 

Moreover, they also said that only 0.55% of iPhone 4 owners called AppleCare to complain about the reception issues. If anybody finds details about this problem on the internet, who they think that is going to call them just to be told that the phone doesn't have any problem with antenna?!

Personally, I am completely disappointed by this policy of Apple. Are they ever going to admit (maybe in the following 50 years) that the iPhone 4 had problems with antenna? 

iOS 4.0.1 and 3.2.1 hitting the iPhone and the iPad. Jailbreakers MUST stay away!

Apple launched today two updates, one for the iPhone (4.0.1) and the other one for the iPad (3.2.1). It seems that these updates are patching the exploits used for jailbreak, so the guys who are working on these solutions are telling everybody who need jailbreak and unlock to stay away from these updates.

The only thing that the update does on the iPhone is to fix the signal issues (or at least, this is what Apple says). It is not confirmed if this fixes the issues or not (however, it seems that Apple silently recalled the iPhone, because many people who got their phone replaced are no longer complaining about the signal issues). I didn't find out yet what the update exactly does one the iPad.

I just warned you about what these updates do, but I won't offer you solutions for jailbreak at all. If you need, search on a dedicated website for something like this.

iPhone 4 available in the Eastern Europe, at prices nearly $3500.

A few days ago some users from Twitter discovered that an online electonics shop from Romania has the iPhone 4 in its offer, at a price somewhere under $3500 (32GB model). Everybody hoped that it was a mistake, or at least, that the guys from that website were kidding, but after somebody contacted them, we found out that the information was, unfortunately, true.

Today somebody found out that another online store has included the iPhone 4 in its offer, at the same price. I don't know who the hell they think that is going to buy an iPhone 4 at that price, I mean, if somebody can find an iPhone 4 in an Apple Store in the US, he/she can bring it here and pay under $1000 for it. However, because of Apple's problems with stocks, iPhone 4 is currently a hard-to-find product almost anywhere.

These prices are available at regular online stores from Romania (which are not Apple dealers and I think that they don't even have the right to resell iPhone 4 here).

If you live near Romania (Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, etc) and you know that iPhone 4 is available there, we would be glad if you can tell us its price (and if it is locked on not).

Is Vietnam the place where Apple decided to lose all their new devices?

After the story with the iPhone which was found by somebody in a pub in the United States, and of course, after the start of the investigation for possible theft against one editor from Gizmodo, a new (lost) iPhone appeared in Vietnam. This second device has 16 GB internal memory (on the device which was found in the U.S. it was written "XX GB"), and the main (big) difference is that it doesn't have any screws on the bottom, anything else being the same.

Now, another new device from Apple appears, again, in Vietnam. This time, it is an iPod touch, and the differences compared with the actual iPod Touch are that it seems to have a 2 megapixel camera, and 64 GB internal storage memory. On its back it is written "DVT-1", so it is 99% sure that this is not a final version.

June 7th is the date when Apple Worldwide Developers Conference is scheduled, and it is sure that we will have then a new iPhone, but I think that it is improbable to hear any announcement about a new iPod Touch there.

Even if when the story with the lost iPhone in that pub started I refused to accept that everything might have been planned by Apple, now, that is what I think. Apple is a...too serious company to lose devices like this. My opinion is that they are making this in order to explode the speculations about their devices, and so, their devices to get shortly after launch enormous popularity.

What do you think?

More here, here and here.

Californian police investigates the supposed theft of the iPhone 4G/HD prototype.

The story sounds like this: an employee of Apple forgot an iPhone 4G/HD in a pub, somebody found it (hidden in a normal iPhone case), and sold it to Gizmodo.com for $5 000. Then, Apple declared the prototype as stolen, and the guys from Gizmodo announced that they are going to send it back to Apple, in order to avoid any legal action that Apple may open against them.

However, it seems that Apple has spoken with the police about this, so now they started an investigation and are searching for evidences, in order to find out if there is any reason to open a case for any of the parts. I said any, because it is not known if the police considers that the person who found the device is "guilty", or that's Gizmodo. My opinion is that neither the person who found the device nor Gizmodo aren't guilty in any way.

We'll see what happens next, and as soon as I find something new, I'll update this article.

Source: Gizmodo.com

iPhone 4G/HD rumors - the internet blows up.

It seems that the 4th generation of iPhone has been revealed. A device has been found in a pub in the U.S., and Gizmodo (who currently has the device) claims that it's the new iPhone 4G/HD which everybody was waiting for.

This seems to be the next iPhone because of more reasons. This device seems to be having the next generation of iPhone OS 4.0 on it, and has been remotely modified by Apple so it can't currently boot up (and can't be restored). Also, Gizmodo opened it, and on the chips it's written "APPLE". But this isn't all. Apple lost a device, and it wants it back, so many experts are 99% sure that this is what Apple has lost.

However, if this is the next iPhone, it doesn't seem for me that its something extraordinary, at least, related to its design. Apple 3GS stays perfectly in the hand, while this device, with its new design, won't.

If this is the new iPhone, here are what is new:

• improved camera (probably 5 MP) featuring a LED flash
• front-camera for voice conversations
• standard SIM has been replaced with Micro-SIM
• split buttons for volume
• smaller screen than the previous one, but most probably with higher resolution
• probably noise-cancellation microphone (next to headphone jack)
• also, it is expected to have a similar hardware platform as the iPad (Apple A4 chip with 1GHz processor and 256 or 512 RAM)

Source: Gizmodo.

iPhone OS 4.0 - what's new?

Apple's new iPhone OS 4.0 has been announced for a while, and a beta version has also been launched, being available for developers only (I know, it's on torrent networks, but don't attempt to download and install it, because it won't work -- it must be activated with Apple's servers). Now I'm going to describe you what is new inside this version.

A new feature which everybody was waiting for and which Apple decided to implement, is multi-tasking. Or at least, this is what Apple says he has implemented. It won't actually be a full multi-tasking. True, applications like those ones used for music will be making multi-tasking, but games, for example, won't. As Steve Jobs showed in the presentation, if you play a game and you want to....browse a website for example, you have to double-click the home button (the game will pause), go to safari, browse, double-click again, and go to the game, and resume playing. So, the game won't be actually making a real multi-tasking.

Apple said that they didn't implemented multi-tasking since now because it consumes more resources and power, and they have found a method which resolves this. The main advantage of this "multi-tasking" is that apps like Skype can now run in the background, so you don't have anymore to stay into Skype to speak with somebody, without having any possibility to do anything else.

Now, iPhone can finally use folders. You can now put apps for games or for weather together, for example, in a singe folder, so you don't need anymore to browse through more screens just to find an application. This is something good.

Also, you can now set wallpapers. I don't know why Apple didn't implement this earlier, but it's good they finally made it. And you now have "unified" mailbox, so all the mails will come at the same time from all your accounts. This has bad and good points, and in my point of view, I think that it's better without this feature.

What really sucks, is that Apple is going to implement iAd. This means that now everything on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is going to have ads. Steve Jobs said that this is a good feature, and it is, for advertisers, but for regular users, it is a disaster.

And, from what is known, there will still be no Flash in iPhone OS 4.0. This is totally stupid. I now think that the iPhone is never going to have Flash.

Apple says that this upgrade will be available only for future generations of iPhone, and for the 3GS. Guys who are working on jailbreak solutions showed clearly that Apple does this just for the people to buy new iPhones. Because they ran the OS 4.0 beta on both 3G and even 2G, without any difficulty.

And, you have to know that this new software was jailbroken in less than 24 hours since it was launched, so, probably, when the new OS will be available for anybody, jailbreaking will be easily done on any iPhone.

Testing the iPad (+video).

A few days ago I had the opportunity of testing the product which Apple says that it's a revolutionary one, the iPad (they said the same when they launched any other product).

Firstly, I'll tell you its specifications. It has an Apple A4 1 GHz processor, based on ARM technology. The storage memory varies between 16, 32 and 64 GB, and, related to RAM memory, this is a complete mystery (yet). It is known that physically it seems to be having 512 MB of RAM, but in practice, it reveals only 256 MB of RAM (showed by different tests). It is certain only that the RAM is integrated into the chip of the processor.

It also has a 10 inch capacitive multi-touch screen, perfect for almost anything. On the connectivity side, we have the Wi-Fi model, which starts at $499 with 16 GB of storage, and the Wi-Fi + 3G model which is going to be available soon, this month. The battery offers 1 month for stand-by, and about 10 hours when surfing web on Wi-Fi and stuff like that.

On the Apple Store I've waited for a few minutes after I got one to play with (everybody was running to get one to test when somebody finished testing one). I think that there were about 15-20 iPads available (it is a quite big store, in Dadeland Mall, Miami).

The first sensation was that it was fast. But not as fast as I was expecting, but it was pretty good. The applications are launching like on the iPhone (slowly, showing who made them or things like that), and some of them really looked very well. But several were made especially for the iPhone, and looked very bad because they were running at a low resolution (I'm sure that this will be a problem for a long time).

I found it difficult to play with it using its accelerometer, considering that I used an iPhone for about 1 year and a half, and now I have the Nexus One. It is an updated version of iPhone OS, so the menus are updated in many basic applications (they look really good).

Many fans of Apple said that the iPad is very fast, faster than even the Nexus One. I don't agree with this. They probably said this even without ever touching a Nexus. It is clearly faster than the iPad.

There have been reported several problems with the iPad after only a few hours after it was launched, many users complaining that on their Windows machines and especially when connected to USB hubs the iPad refuses to charge. Apple says that when it gets into sleep, it starts charging automatically, but they can't actually prove that this happens at all times, because there is no icon indicating if it charges or not. And there are also problems with weak Wi-Fi signal and connection problems on LAN configurations.

And if you want one, if need to know that it has no camera and no GPS. You can buy additional accessories, and even if the iPad starts a $499, you can easily pass $1000, considering that Apple has only quite expensive accessories.

Apple has reached again, a great success with the iPad. In the first day of selling, the sells with the pre-orders passed 300 000 units. This is completely astonishing. To compare, Google sold only 135 000 Nexus One units after 74 days, while there were about 1 million iPhones (first generation) sold after the same period of days. I don't know how Apple does this, but it is known that Steve Jobs has currently the most profitable company in the domain of mobile devices.

Below is a video taken with my Nexus One, while I was testing some of iPad's functionalities:

Apple banishes aggressively (and abusively, I think) apps from AppStore.

A large number of applications from the App Store capable of searching nearby access points, offering many details about them, and connecting to them, had disappeared recently. Today, I was surprised to discover this thing. So, I've googled a little, and I found that Apple pulled from the App Store intentionally some of that kind of applications.

There were more cases in which Apple pulled from App Store some applications, because they said that...they did it because for some legal reasons. I can't think of what could 6 WiFi manager apps (for current case) have violated, but I'm pretty sure that they did it because that's what they wanted to.

Recently, Apple published a clear list of apps that will not be approved or will be pulled from the App Store if they exist, in case that they will not respect that list. Apple said that that apps were explicitly referring to adult content. A completely abusive behavior of Apple, in my opinion. That apps were not really referring at what they said. Their official explication was that they "want to protect children".

But lets return to what made me angry today. I searched for eWiFi into the App Store, a way better WiFi searcher than what Apple offers by iPhone's settings, but it was not there. I found that a number of 6 apps of that type were banished: WiFiTrack, WiFiFoForum, yFy Network Finder, WiFi Get, eWiFi, and WiFi Analyzer. I was not able to find anywhere a clear explication from Apple regarding this situation.

That's not cool, Apple. I was some time ago a big fan of Apple. Today, I am a fan of them because of their laptops. Aggressive and excessive restrictions from iPhone made me a fan of Google's Nexus One. I think that its OS is definitely superior at the moment compared to iPhone's.

Spawn Lite: a free light show play on your iPhone (entertaining).

Spawn Lite is an iPhone App which will make a light show on your phone. It has some hidden features, which I'm going to describe you. You have to move two fingers in the same or opposite direction, on the following side:

• (vertical) on the left side to change the length of the lights
• (vertical) on the middle of the screen to change the length of the lights
• (vertical) on the right side to change the color of the lights
• (horizontal) on the middle of the screen to change the movement speed of the lights

It's simple. But because it's a lite version, it includes advertising (on the bottom of the screen). Multitouch is supported. Please leave a comment if you like it. Below is a video to demonstrate you how it works.

Search it in the App Store: "Spawn Lite".

INCREDIBLE how the voice search from Google App works (iPhone).

Google has its own App for iPhone, which offers a large number of features (they are not included into the App, they are only listed there, and launched in Safari when tapped):

• Gmail
• Calendar
• Docs
• Talk
• Tasks
• Reader
• News
• Notebook
• Photos
• Translate
• Maps
• and YouTube

The App has its own browser, which has Voice Search option. And this is an amazing feature. It's so far the best App of this type I've ever seen. It recognizes perfectly everything that I say to it. I know, it's not a big thing for an English native speaker, but for me (I'm from Romania), it's the first application I've ever seen that is able to "understand" any word I say to it.

I've also tested Microsoft's App, named Bing, but it really sucks here. From 10 words I say to it, it understands only 2 of them, while Google understands at least 9, most of the time all of them.

So, search it in the App Store: "Google" or download via your PC/Mac from here. (remember to activate voice search from settings)

iPhone/iPod Touch works out of the box on Ubuntu 10.04 (confirmed).

Yesterday came the first announce which said that Ubuntu 10.04 supports iPhone/iPod Touch out of the box. Now, more and more people (including me) are confirming that this is true (including unjailbroken devices). The method works even if Ubuntu is ran via VirtualBox (tested by me).

For additional details about running Ubuntu 10.04 in VirtualBox, follow this link.

More details on WebUpd: http://www.webupd8.org/2010/02/confirmed-ubuntu-1004-supports-iphone.html.