iPhone 2.0 Better than Jailbreaking Except...

Adventurous iPhone users willing to jailbreak their device have had third-party applications for almost a year now—so now that the App Store's open, you may be thinking: So what? Truth is, the iPhone 2.0 software update and its App Store offerings actually are something to talk about. The 2.0 software update has introduced better applications, better app management, and tons of other excellent features worth the upgrade, but they still haven't made jailbreaking obsolete. Here are some ways iPhone 2.0 one-ups jailbreaking, and then the stuff jailbreaking offers that we're still waiting on from Apple.

What's Great About iPhone 2.0

• Apps Are Better: While this point may still be up for debate, the offerings available in the first iteration of App Store are impressive. Among other things, developers no longer need to figure everything out as they go along—the iPhone SDK provides them with a robust toolkit for making great applications, and the proof is in the pudding. That's not to say that several developers who made programs for jailbroken phones didn't do amazing things, but overall the quality is higher in the App Store.
• iTunes Remote Is Awesome: Everyone's got their favorite jailbreak app that they hate to leave behind, but one free application that's almost worth abandoning jailbreaking in and of itself is the iTunes Remote application. Seeing that it's now a default feature of iTunes, you almost have to wonder why it's not included with the rest of the default applications—maybe to get people like me to abandon jailbreaking.
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• Location-Aware Is the Standard: One thing that you'll see a ton of in App Store applications is location-aware applications. We already covered how your location-aware iPhone will change your life, and now apps from the very impressive Yelp to the get-close-and-shake-to-exchange-details Friend Book to friend tracking and simple movie showtime applications are delivering that. Location aware apps were available in jailbroken iPhones, but it's a stronger trend in iPhone 2.0.
• App Store is Better: As impressive as the effort behind Installer.app is, the official App Store is just a much better tool for managing, browsing, and installing applications. Again, that's not the fault of the jailbreak developers—Apple just has all the tools they need to make it what it should be. When you installed an app on a jailbroken iPhone, your iPhone had to do a soft reset every time. App Store has this very nifty download-and-install interface for downloaded apps that's markedly better.
• Managing Apps is Easier: Using Installer.app, you had to completely uninstall an application through Installer if you didn't want it. With the 2.0 software update and the latest iTunes, you've got way more flexibility. You can remove an app from the phone itself the same way you deleted web clips in previous versions: Just hold down on an icon until they all start to jiggle, and each installed app will have a black 'x' in the corner. Tap the 'x' and confirm to remove it. Even better, you can now remove an application from your phone through iTunes. The beauty of this method is that you don't actually have to uninstall the application altogether, and you can return it to your iPhone with all the application data intact. Definitely not the case for your jailbroken iPhone.

What's Great About Jailbreaking

• Ditching AT&T: If you're not into rolling with AT&T or whomever your country's default iPhone provider is, jailbreaking is still your best avenue for unlocking your phone to use on another GSM cell network. We'll have to wait and see if a jailbreak shows up for the 2.0 software update (my guess is that it will), but right now you don't want to go 2.0 if you want to use your phone with anyone but the default carrier. UPDATE: iPhone 2.0 is already jailbroken.
• Background Apps: One of the biggest drawbacks of iPhone 2.0 versus jailbreaking is background applications—namely that your jailbroken apps can keep running in the background while your official apps cannot. That means functionality from great apps like Mobile Scrobbler (sends music data to Last.fm while playing from your iPod) is lost in the wind, and it's questionable as to whether or not it will ever return. Apple has promised a very interesting workaround for the lack of background apps with push notifications. (In short, apps talk to Apple without your phone, and Apple pings you with any info the app wants to send you.) However, push notifications aren't going to be available until September. Push notifications will fill a need, but they don't altogether replace background apps.
• Play By Your Rules: Perhaps the most attractive thing about jailbreaking your phone is that you don't have to play by Apple's rules. If you want to install an app to run in the background and drain your battery, that's your prerogative. With the App Store, Apple can be as strict and arbitrary in what applications it allows and which developers are approved as they want to be. It's your device, you should get to decide what applications you want to install on it and what you want them to do. If your into customization, you're also unlikely to find any Apple-sanctioned applications like Customize or Summerboard (pictured right) to tweak the look of your iPhone. Personalizing and customizing your device is what some users live for, and for those folks, jailbreaking is currently the only way. Photo by theopie.

What Else Is Missing

Of course, none of this addresses the iPhone's still-missing features. Some—like video recording—is already available for jailbroken iPhones but is unavailable from the App Store. Likewise, VoIP is still MIA from the App Store but fully functional on a jailbroken device. Luckily for us, the iPhone 2.0 software has already been unlocked and jailbroken, so it's not unlikely that you can enjoy the best of both worlds.

Finally, there are other features—like copy-and-paste or MMS messaging—to which we still haven't seen a practical solution in either avenue. If you've gone the jailbreak route in the past, let's hear what you think of the App Store, iPhone 2.0, and the new iTunes in the comments.

iPod Touch 2.0 Firmware: It's Official

Forget the earlier sneaky download, the iPod Touch 2.0 firmware is now officially available from Apple. It'll cost you $9.95, HERE. Though the splash page is there, the iTunes link doesn't seem to be quite up and running yet... you can probably expect some trouble like this in the early hours. [Apple]

Native Orb App Brings Live TV to Your iPhone

The OrbLive streaming media app is for everyone who is sick of waiting for a Sling Mobile client on their iPhone. As you may (or may not) know, Orb pulls files off your PC and streams them to any device with an app or web browser capable of accessing the Orb interface. From there you can stream music, video files, and if you have a TV tuner card, live TV. While Orb was previously accessible via Safari, this new, official app is supposed to be an easier, more intuitive way to get your media on the go. It does require a jailbroken iPhone, however. Check out the video of the client in action. [Orb via Register Hardware]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW7Q51Ma22o

Adobe Developing iPhone Flash Player, No Word on Safari Plug-In

Despite Steve's "HELL NO!", Adobe is developing a Flash player for the iPhone. Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen said to the WSJ that they have evaluated the software developer tools and they think they can develop an iPhone Flash player on their own. A Flash player plug-in for Safari, however, would be much more difficult, if not impossible with the current SDK. But there are other possibilities, from a development point of view, which could actually be better for iPhone users.

[Editor's note: The iPhone SDK limits what applications can do, and doesn't provide with a plug-in architecture for Safari, which is an application that Apple wants to keep as lean and stable as possible. There are, however, many possibilities open that could make this happen.

First, perhaps the most unlikely, Apple could provide Adobe with the framework they need to do a Safari plug-in. Even while Apple doesn't want to develop or license Flash from Adobe, they could be happy to enable the possibility. It won't be the first time that Apple has given Adobe this kind of special treatment: in the past, the Cupertino company had provided with special code to accomodate the migration of Photoshop into Mac OS X, and one could argue that Flash on the Internet is as important as Photoshop on the Mac.

The other possibility—which could be closer to reality—is that Flash in the iPhone could be a stand-alone player, just like Quicktime is now: a player that could be launched when you click on Flash content in Safari. While it may not sound perfect, as some Flash content works alongside HTML, this will easily put the majority of Flash content in the hands of iPhone users. And instead of having to work within the limitations of Safari, the player will fully enjoy the possibilities of running stand-alone, with a dedicated interface, and full access to the the hardware, running at full screen.

This last option will not require any major changes on Apple's part. The acknowledgement of Flash and Shockwave content in pages will be enough, adding a play button over it to launch the player which will grab these resources, being video or fully interactive applications. —Jesús Díaz] [WSJ]

• ADOBE,
• APPLE,
• FLASH,
• FLASH PLAYER,
• IPHONE,
• IPOD,
• SDK,
• SOFTWARE,
• TOUCH

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

iPhone's First Native P2P Torrent App is Up and Running

Core, an iPhone Hacker with mad hacking skills, has managed to port to the iPhone a functioning P2P client based on Transmission, which is a popular torrent app for Macs. This is the first time P2P torrent software has run natively on the iPhone, and the prospect has us in tizzy fits of excitement.

Tests have been carried out, and they have worked a charm. However, before you guys go nuts about downloading completely legal torrent files, there are some things you should know:

• This is a command line client at present, and although someone will chuck a GUI on it in the near future, steer clear unless you can handle messing with terminal.
• EDGE and P2P will screw your shit up. If you plan to get your download on, it's WiFi all the way.
• If you start a download immediately before having sex, your iPhone's battery will be dead before you are finished; i.e. torrenting will drain your battery extremely rapidly.
• You won't see this up in installer.app, hit through on the link for further instructions.

All that aside, this is a neat development and bodes well for the post-SDK era. If anyone does give this one a go, let us know how you get on. [Wickedpsyched via TUAW]

MobileScrobbler connects your Apple iPhone or iPod Touch with the Last.fm social music website. As you listen to music on your device, MobileScrobbler sends the title, artist, and album to the Last.fm website. Last.fm uses this information to suggest new music, new friends, concerts, and events based on the music you listen to.

Features

• Scrobble tracks as you listen on your iPhone / iPod touch
• Queues songs for submission when offline and automatically submits them the next time you connect
• Listen to Last.fm radio over EDGE or wifi
• Tag songs as 'love' or 'ban'
• View album artwork and artist data for songs as you listen
• View lyrics for the currently playing song
• View upcoming concert events and add them to your calendar
• All data is cached for offline viewing
• Browse your friends and listen to their radio stations
• Integrated with the iPhone / iPod Touch settings application
• Multitouch gestures to ban, love, and skip tracks
• View your top artists, top tracks, and top albums
• Ban and love tracks from the Recent Tracks list
• Browse a top listener's profile by tapping their username
• Display arbitrary track metadata by passing command line arguments -track, -artist, and -album

If you enjoy MobileScrobbler, you can send a paypal donation by clicking the button below.

Requirements

• A jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch
• Firmware 1.1.1 or newer
• A last.fm account

Installation

MobileScrobbler can be installed through Installer.app. It is available in the Community Sources repository under the Multimedia category.

If you prefer to install MobileScrobbler manually, please read the manual installation instructions.

Localization

MobileScrobbler is available in both English and German. If you'd like to translate MobileScrobbler into your native language, read the localization guide.

Screenshots

Bugs

Please report any bugs you encounter using the ticket tracking system on this site. You can create a new bug report by clicking New Ticket above, and view the list of existing issues by clicking View Tickets.

Source Code

The source code for MobileScrobbler is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2. You can check the source code out from the subversion repository by typing:

svn co http://dev.c99.org/svn/MobileScrobbler/trunk/ MobileScrobbler

Disclaimer

This application is not created or endorsed by Apple, Inc. Apple, iPhone, iPod Touch, AT&T, AudioScrobbler, and last.fm are registered trademarks, brands, or service marks of their respective owners. This software is provided free of charge and without any warranty.

http://dev.c99.org/MobileScrobbler/

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/02/07/mobilescrobbler-for-iphone-ipod-touch-gets-big-update/

First iTouch VoIP Call

How to Install Third-Party Apps on Your New iPhone or iPod Touch

If a new iPhone or iPod touch found its way under your tree and you just can't wait until Apple officially supports third-party application development to extend its functionality (who can wait until February?), it's time you jailbreak your favorite new portable device. We've covered two methods for doing so already, but that feisty Apple keeps on changing things up, and the latest firmware (which all of you new owners are likely running) requires a bit more finesse before you gain access to the throng of great apps that have already been developed for the iPhone. So today we're jailbreaking that iPhone or iTouch of yours to open it up to the wonderful world of third-party software.

NOTE: I've only tested these instructions on my iPhone using a Mac, so I can't absolutely guarantee the same level of success on the iPod touch or Windows computers. However, the software was made to jailbreak either the iPod touch or the iPhone on either Windows or Macs, so it should work fine on either. That said, I'll be referring to the iPhone through the rest of these instructions. If you're looking to install apps without activating your iPhone with AT&T, our pals over at Gizmodo have covered that.

UPDATE: It seems that there have been mixed results for some users attempting to downgrade from the 1.1.2 firmware. The downgrade appears to be working for some, not for others. If you have trouble downgrading to 1.1.1, you can simply restore the current 1.1.2 firmware and everything should be back to normal, but unfortunately you won't be able to install any third-party apps. I'm very curious to hear what kind of luck others are having with this, so if you give it a try, let's hear your experience in the comments.

Check Your Firmware Version

First thing's first: Dock your iPhone, open up iTunes, and find out what version of the iPhone firmware you're running by clicking on the Summary tab when your device is docked and seeing what it says after Software Version. If for some reason you're running one of the early 1.0 firmwares (1.0.0, 1.0.1, 1.0.2), we've already covered how to jailbreak those phones here. Instead, though, I'd recommend jailbreaking your phone using the following method, since you'll get new and improved features from the newer firmware. If you're currently running the 1.1.1 firmware, skip straight to the Jailbreak Your 1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch section.

Downgrade or Upgrade to the 1.1.1 Firmware

Whether you're running 1.1.2 (the latest firmware) or one of the early 1.0 versions, you want to install the 1.1.1 firmware on your iPhone if it's not the firmware you're currently running. The reason is that the 1.1.1 firmware features a one-click jailbreak through mobile Safari, which makes the process incredibly simple and is a necessary step in jailbreaking the latest 1.1.2 version. So how do you successfully downgrade/upgrade to 1.1.1 since it's not the latest firmware?

Well, first you need to download the 1.1.1 firmware, which you can do here. Make sure that the file ends in _Restore.ipsw, which it should by default. While it's downloading, go ahead and reboot your iPhone by holding down the power and home buttons at the same time, then releasing the power button as soon as the screen goes black. Continue holding the home button until your device enters recovery mode (as indicated in the screenshot).

Since your firmware is probably still downloading, go ahead and download the 1.1.2 jailbreak files here and unzip the contents on your desktop.

When the firmware completes downloading (which—at a whopping 152 MB—can take a little time), make sure you know where you've saved it and fire up iTunes if it isn't already open. Again go to the same Summary tab where you found your current firmware version. This time, though, you're going to restore the firmware to the 1.1.1 version you just downloaded. To do this, Shift-Click the Restore button in Windows or Option-Click on a Mac and browse to where you saved the 1.1.1 firmware, select it, and restore. When the restore process completes, it will end with an error. Don't worry if this happens, as the jailbreak software is made to overcome the error.

Once you get to this point, run either the windows.bat file if you're a Windows user or the jailbreak.jar user if you're on a Mac to get your phone past this error and booting into the 1.1.1 firmware. If you're running jailbreak.jar, all you need to do is click the Boot from Recovery button.

Jailbreak Your 1.1.1 iPhone or iPod touch

Now it's time to perform the first portion of the jailbreak with the 1.1.1 firmware, which—as I said above—is extremely easy. We've covered this in detail before, but here's a quick refresher:

Point mobile Safari to http://jailbreakme.com/ and tap the Install AppSnapp link. Safari will close after a bit and eventually your phone will return to the Slide to unlock screen. After your unlock the phone, you should see Installer.app on your home screen, meaning it worked. When I used this method my iPhone froze the first time I tried unlocking it, so I restarted my phone and sure enough, there was Installer.app. That's really all there is to it.

Jailbreak and Upgrade to 1.1.2

At this point you could just rest comfortably in the knowledge that you're running nearly the latest firmware and it really doesn't have that many differences from the latest version, but if you want to take advantage of the latest ringtone improvements and you want to be sure you've got all the latest and greatest bug fixes and features available, you may want to upgrade to 1.1.2. I did, and here's how it works.

First, fire up Installer.app on your iPhone, find the Tweaks (1.1.1) section of the Install tab, and install an application called OktoPrep. Nothing special will show up on your phone after you install it, but it will have made a few tweaks on your device making it possible to jailbreak 1.1.2 after you upgrade.

Now you just upgrade your iPhone the normal way—by connecting your device to iTunes and selecting Update from the Summary tab. iTunes will go through the long download and upgrade process and when it's done, you'll be updated to 1.1.2 but not jailbroken. To complete the jailbreak, head back to the 1.1.2-jailbreak Folder you downloaded earlier and re-run either windows.bat (if you're a Windows user) or jailbreak.jar (if you're on a Mac).

Follow the instructions each app offers, and when they finish, you should see Installer.app on your home screen and be completely updated to the latest firmware and jailbroken. That means it's time to start installing those apps!

My current favorites—for those of you new to third-party iPhone or iPod touch apps—include:

• iFlix, and incredible Netflix account management tool
• iMapIdle, an app that works in conjunction with IMAP email (including Gmail) to enable real-time, push-like email notification
• iPhoneHome, an app that lets you change the default double-click behavior for the home button
• Navizon, a pseudo-GPS locator that determines your location in Google Maps using cell towers your phone communicates with (iPhone only, obviously)
• Apollo, the native IM app
• MobileScrobbler, which uploads everything you play on your iPod to your Last.fm account
• WebSearch, a web search tool for quickly performing a search on any web site without going through the rigmarole of loading a site, finding the search box, and then entering your search terms
• HuaRongDao and iSolitaire, a couple of really nice looking and addictive games for your device.

Now you're probably thinking, Great, my iPhone's all jailbroken, but I sure wish I knew all the ins and outs of this beast, including how I can squeeze the most productivity from this little gem of a device. Lucky for you, the best iPhone book I've ever written (with Jason Chen of Gizmodo) is both in stores and shipping right now!

Finally, if you're looking for more to do with your iPhone, here's how you can:

• Use Your iPhone's Internet Connection On Your Laptop
• Stream Music from Your iPod touch or iPhone to Any iTunes Library
• Set Up Gmail with IMAP
• Remote Control Your Computer with Your iPhone

Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who hacks his iPhone for business and pleasure. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker, and his book, How to Do Everything with Your iPhone, is in stores now. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed

iPhone Update 1.1.3 In The Near Future?