Ubuntu 8.10

Well, well, well, after a series of posts on iPhone, here's one for Ubuntu 8.10. I just went through a quick trip to see what are the new features that is directly noticeable (other than those small small version number changes!)

Tip: You can make Ubuntu interface significantly nicer by making changes to system font sizes. In laptops "Subpixel smoothing" works great. These settings gave me a nice professional look for the overall interface.

1. Wallpaper is definitely better than Gutsy.
2. As usual, networking is faster than windows.
3. It took my laptop's ATI X200M video driver automatically. Desktop effects enabled. (I like that)
4. My sound card is also working fine. (Skype runs well)
   
5. Nice softer look in Human theme.
6. One click Shut Down menu. (I love it!)
   
   
7. A Shut Down dialog box is available via System -> Shut Down
   
   
   
8. Revamped Network Manager 0.7 (I wished they didn't)
   
   This is a total disaster. Hey, I can see and edit my MAC address and MTU! Wonderful ha! I know so many home users who needs to see the MAC address of their NIC. Last time I checked, lot of users were having problems with packet fragmentation problems and MTU. I take it that changing the IP address is not so important! Because it's in the 3rd tab! After MAC and after 802.1x security. This will make things really easy for novice users!
   
   
   And it has absolutely NO MEMORY at all. It doesn't save any of my network settings. Is this a joke? This screenshot shows my 'ifconfig' output and IPv4 settings. The IP address and subnet masks were all set here moments ago! When I reopen the network manager settings are all gone. It's better if they send a fix for this but this is certainly not the way to handle major releases.
   
   It's significantly better if they kept the old Network Manager. But they just upgrade for the sake of upgrading.
9. USB Startup Disk
   Now you can create a CD image of Ubuntu on the USB drive very easily and use that to install ubuntu.

Well that's what you see at the first glance. The only bad impression I had was the new Network Manager which is not good at all! It seems Shuttleworth is taking good features from "Apple" GUIs and integrating with Ubuntu, which is a good thing. The new shut down menu is like the one in MacOS X. And the new Disk usage bar in the installer look like the one in iTunes.


This is the iPhone disk usage bar in iTunes:


That's it. Share your experience!
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Having fun with iPhone OS 2.0

It's been a while since I posted an article. During this time, I've upgraded my old 2G iPhone to 2.1 software update and filled it with so many commercial AppStore games and apps (for free of course!). In this article I'm going to show how to get any app you want from the AppStore for free, and install them in your iPhone. Here are some of the few:

"Note: Installing cracked apps on iPhone is illegal. But admitting it doesn't make it right. I know I'm doing a wrong thing. But can't be helped. These apps are just so cool! We should at least appreciate the developer effort they have put."

Cro Mag Rally : Uses your iPhone as a steering wheel. Very nice graphics and music.

Kroll : 3D fighting adventure with stunning graphics.


Nanosaur 2 : Takes iPhone's 3D graphics to the limit. Control a flying cyborg bird through stunning and beautiful worlds.

A word on iPhone 3G

I'm using an iPhone 2G. For Sri Lankans, iPhone 3G is still a bit far. It's not officially available in Sri Lanka. If you have someone in US, they have to buy it with AT&T connection. And even if you managed to get one, there's still no SIM unlock available (see iPhone-DevTeam blog for 3G unlocking updates). For differences between iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G buying procedures read the bottom part of my iPhone3G article.

Information on this article applies to both iPhone and iPhone3G.

I found lot of information from the web regarding this cracking and other procedures. So if you can't find anything from my blog, internet is very rich with so many resources regarding the iPhone.

Steps:

First, I assume you have jailbroken 2.1 software version running in your iPhone. If you don't know how to do it, search the internet. Or I may post an article regarding that if I have time. The process is really easy thanks to iPhone-Dev Team. They are the people who deals with iPhone cracking and unlocking.

You should also have some knowledge on SSH. If you don't know, get someone to assist you.

(Obviously, iTunes 8 must be installed)

Part 1 : Creating iTunes account

For this method to work, you should have downloaded at least one application (free or commercial) from the iTunes AppStore into your iPhone. This is what I did:

1. In your PC, go to iTunes and create an iTunes account.
2. It will ask your credit card information. You have to give them those details, but there is no initial charge unless you buy some product later on.
3. After creating the account, go to AppStore and download any Free application. (If you have Wi-Fi, you can also use your iPhone to go to AppStore and download it)
4. Sync that application with your iPhone.

Now we are ready to go ahead.

Part 2 : Copying the patch file to iPhone

1. Download and Install DiskAid for Windows. (Needs .Net Framework 2.0)
   
2. Download 2.1.MI.patched.zip. This Zip will contain a file called "MobileInstallation". Kepp that file.
   
3. Connect your iPhone to the PC.
4. Open DiskAid... It will detect your iPhone and display the files inside it.
5. As shown in the image, choose "root folder" from the drop down list.
   
6. Click OK for the warning message that will be displayed. (Do not mess with the files in the iPhone. Otherwise it'll corrupt the file system and you'll have to restore the software again)
   
7. Go to the folder: System --> Library --> PrivateFrameworks --> MobileInstallation.framework
8. Inside that folder there will be a file named "MobileInstallation". We are going to replace that file with the file you downloaded above.
9. Rename the MobileInstallation file in DiskAid into MI_backup or something..
10. Now drag and drop the MobileInstallation file in the Zip archive you downloaded into DiskAid window.
11. The file will be copied in to the folder you were in. It should be something like this:
12. Create a folder named "Documents" (with a capital 'D') in both these directories:
    
    • root\Applications
    • root\private\var\mobile
    
13. Now close DiskAid.

Part 3 : Changing file permissions with SSH

1. Connect the iPhone to the internet through your Wi-Fi network.
2. Go to Cydia application in the iPhone.
3. Tap "Reload" button on the top of the screen.
   
4. After reloading, search and install "OpenSSH".
   
   
5. To do the next few steps, your Wi-Fi network should allow your PC to connect to the iPhone through the network. If it doesn't, just connect it through a personal Wi-Fi connection with your laptop.
6. This is the tricky part:
   You should install an SSH client to your PC and change the file permissions on the iPhone as shown below. There are multiple ways to do this, I'll tell how to do this on another post.
   
   
   • /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileInstallation.framework/MobileInstallation
     Set permissions to : 775
     
     
   • /Applications/Documents
     Set permission to : 777 (recursively)
     
     
   • /private/var/mobile
     Set permission to : 777 (recursively)
     
7. That's about it. If you don't know how to use SSH, get some help from the internet.
   

Part 4 : Downloading games and applications

All iPhone/iPod applications from AppStore has the extension ".ipa". So many users have uploaded cracked applications in various file sharing site. So we can download those files directly without paying to the AppStore.

1. Go to AppStore and check for any games or apps you like. For example one of my favourites is "Cro Mag Rally" racing game from Pangia Software Inc.
2. Go to www.4shared.com. This file sharing site has so many .ipa files.
3. Search for something like "cro mag ipa" (put "ipa" at the end).
4. It will display various results. Download anyone of them. You'll get a .ipa file.
5. After downloading drag and drop that file into iTunes. It will appear in Applications area in iTunes.
6. When you sync your phone, you can chose what applications to be installed in Applications tab.

That's all. Here are some of the games that I've installed:


Here are some games and application that I really enjoy:

SpeakEasy : Voice Recorder
Photogene : A feature rich image editor
AquaForest : An interactive physics simulator. Emulates real world object behaviors.

Asphalt4 : Racing game
MotoChaser : Fun motor bike racing game
Spore : A game from EA. Control an evolution of a creature. (Cool graphics)
Scrabble : From EA

There are thousands of apps and games in the AppStore. Just search for what you want.

Enjoy!
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Getting GPRS/EDGE on the iPhone with Mobitel

If you are using an iPhone (2G version) with a Mobitel connection, this is how to add GPRS/EDGE settings to the phone.

• Go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Edge
• For the APN, type mobitel3g (don't mind the '3g' part. This is the network name they are using)

That's all. No user name or password is needed. Now try going to safari and opening a web page.

GPRS/EDGE signal indicator
On the status bar, if you see a rectangle to the right of signal bars, that means you have GPRS. If there's an 'E' on it, that means you have EDGE signal.

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Installing 3rd party applications on the iPhone

iPhone users in Sri Lanka are obviously using unlocked iPhones. Mostly they maybe using it only for phone-like purposes. This article is for people who are interested in customizing the phone and making full use of it by installing custom applications.

Note: Information on this article applies to only iPhone 1.1.4 software version. I haven't tested this on any other versions.

Cracking the iPhone
There are places who unlock the iPhone. I don't know which method they use but this is what I did to unlock my iPhone.

• Download and install iTunes.
• Download and install ZiPhoneGUI for windows (requires .Net Framework 2).
• Connect the iPhone to the computer.
• Use ZiPhone to crack the iPhone. Only one really easy step is needed. Just click the button!

ZiPhone GUI :

When talking about phones, people only refer to unlocking. It's the same with the iPhone too but "Unlocking" means making it possible to use other mobile service providers. With the iPhone, unlocking is only one part of cracking the iPhone. To make the full use of it, you have to "Jailbreak" it. ZiPhone does this automatically for you.

The term "jailbreak" is used for cracking the iPhone OS. The iPhone OS is shielded from outside world. Files in it cannot be edited or seen by the outsiders. Hackers use a procedure called Jailbreaking to get access to the entire operating system running on the iPhone. This means breaking the jail in which the OS is imprisoned. After that anything can be done to the OS like modifying and installing files. The iPhone can be accessed from a computer through the USB cable or Wi-Fi.

Open source community
Because of the ability to access the iPhoneOS and the architecture of the OS is so elegant, a community has been born who began writing open source software for the IPhone, even before Apple introduced the iPhone SDK. Other than that, official apps which are based on the Apple SDK will begin to arrive from the July 11th (but they won't be free).

There are thousands of applications written by various people for the iPhone. I have mentioned a few of them on a previous post. Here, I'm going to explain how to get access to them and install them.

Software sources
Open source community use concept called "software sources" in software installation. A software source is a place which contains a list of software applications. A company may introduce its own software source to list its own applications. So to install an application, you need the corresponding source for it.

Installing software
If you cracked the phone using ZiPhone you automatically get an application called "Installer". I don't know about other methods but just look whether you have that application installed. Then you only need to have internet on the iPhone. For that, you can use GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi or 3G(iPhone3G only). To get info about getting GPRS/EDGE on a Mobitel connection, see this post.

Installer is an application that manages 3rd party software installation on the iPhone. It can manage install/uninstall and update procedures very easily.

Install the software using the Install tab. Applications are categorized in groups like Games, Multimedia etc... Here, you have a group called "Sources". Install the sources inside it. After that, the installer will have access to those software sources as well. The Installer will display a message like "Refreshing sources". This means it's refreshing the list of available software from the sources. After refreshing, the list of software available to you will be much larger and updated. Go to other categories and install the software you like.

Sometimes after refreshing, you receive updates for applications which are already installed on your iPhone.

Installer needs sources to pull software. By default Installer comes with a set of sources specified. So it have access to software provided by those sources only. By manually adding sources to the Installer it checks for software from a broader range of providers. You can do that by going to the "Sources" tab.

Here you can see what are the sources that Installer have access. You can remove them if you don't need them. You can also add them manually. Usually if you visit a web site of iPhone software, they will specify a URL to be added as a source. You can type that URL here and add them to Installer.


For other tips of useful software and patches for the iPhone, see posts iPhone Tweaks and iPhone Games.

CAUTION: Installing buggy 3rd party application may reduce the stability of the iPhone. Install them at your own risk.

iPhone Games

Here are some of the games I have installed on my iPhone. This is on 1.1.4 firmware and you need have Installer app installed on the iPhone. Jailbreaking and installation procedure is available on this post.

Raging Thunder
An accelerometer based car game. You have to use the phone itself as a steering gadget. Graphics are nice.

Cybersaurus
A 3D alien shooter. Unfortunately the demo has only 1 level. Other than that, it's really exciting.

CubicMan
A game which requires the use of your brain. Flip the box using your finger to accomplish the goal.

Solitaire
Really cool and gives you the natural feeling of moving cards using the finger.

Chess
This is somewhat hard for me to play. The computer is really intelligent.

GemLogic
Make continuous blocks of gems. Really cool. Flip the gems using your finger.

Labyrinth
The classic wooden table game. Use the iPhone as a tabletop. Tilt the phone carefully to move the ball to the target without falling into the holes.

SuperPong
Move the bat using to bump the ball back and hit the bricks.

Pool
A nice pool table.

Tris
Tetris with cool colors.


Here are some great OFFICIAL iPhone games which are to be released with the AppStore on July 11th. Unfortunately they will not be available to Sri Lankans and will be costly too.

Chopper

Super Monkey ball

Cardrineline

Spore

iPhone 3G

Finally it's here. At WWDC 2008 Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 3G, which will begin shipping on June 11th to many countries. I'm not going to discuss about the iPhone coz there are lot of blogs about it and I too have published an article about the old iPhone on this blog. So I'll focus on the main differences between the original iPhone and iPhone3G and how will it effect us, Sri Lankan iPhone fans.

Please note that I still haven't used an iPhone3G and these facts are from what I read on the web. I recommend reading my previous post before reading this because that includes much information about the iPhone than this post. If you are in a hurry to buy one, I suggest reading Buying an iPhone3G section at the bottom this article.


Features in addition to the original one (Hardware wise):

3G
iPhone will support 3G + HSDPA. But it doesn't have a front camera, which means No Video Calls. Apple hasn't announced the maximum data rate. But it'll be significantly faster than GPRS.

GPS
GPS is included in addition to the cell tower triangulation.

Size and Color
It's a little thinner than the original one. 8GB has a polished black backside which means it'll be more sexier than the orignal one. 16GB also has a white color model.

Battery
According to what apple has mentioned, battery will have more power. The original iPhone featured a 5hrs talk time on 2G. The new one offers 10hrs of 2G talk time and 5hrs of 3G talk time. Audio and Video playback times are pretty much the same. 7hrs Video and 24hrs Audio.

Audio quality
Apple has said it has increased audio quality. Just play a 256kbps (or more) mp3 on the iPhone. It's an amazing experience.


Features on regular phones but are missing from the iPhone:
(These are also the features on which my iPhone gets criticized)

Bluetooth support
Most hoped apple would ship bluetooth support with their iPhone OS 2.0. But as it seems that's not the case. The phone will still only be able to connect to bluetooth headphones and car audio systems.

Copy and Paste
Adding a clipboard to the OS wouldn't hurt. Would it? But if Apple doesn't like it, users get nothing too. So far apple has mentioned nothing about this feature. It seems it's missing from this software version too.

SMS Acknowlegements/Reply Notifications
The GSM modem driver in the iPhone doesn't support SMS reply notifications. So if you are a heavy user of it, think twice. 3rd party SMS applications also won't have this feature because they depend on the SDK provided by the OS.

FM Radio
iPhone doesn't have an FM radio. You know what? I don't give a damn. I'm perfectly happy with my iTunes music library and 8 giga bytes to spare.


iPhone OS 2.0

The new OS will also be available to the original iPhone as well as a software update. These are some of the new features that c with the OS.

AppStore
AppStore provides a store of (official) 3rd party native iPhone applications. This means the iPhone will get various productive applications and games from worldwide developers (but for a price of course). Actually 3rd party apps weren't a new thing for hacked iPhones due to the huge community base around the iPhone. But the AppStore will certainly introduce some quality apps which will be accessible from any iPhone.

But Sri Lanka most probably won't have access to AppStore. Much like you can't buy music from iTunes store from Sri Lanka.

Exchange Server support
This is not so important for regular users. But corporate users can have access to the global address list and email through direct Exchange Server support. Companies can directly connect iPhones to their internal networks. it supports features such as push email, push contacts and remote wipe. Remote wipe is a security feature which allows system administrators to remotely erase down all data on the iPhone protecting company specific data.


Buying an iPhone 3G

Now for the really interesting part. Most ask me how can they buy the new phone. Up to now the news I've heard isn't good. I'll explain how I got my iPhone and the new buying procedure of iPhone 3G.

The Old way
Like the new iPhone, the original one was dedicated for one service provider (AT&T, US). The Phone had online ordering system. You can order it from the internet and it will come to your home (within US). The bundle included an AT&T sim (I still have it). Then you have to "Activate" the phone by buying a monthly plan from AT&T and acquire the phone number all through the internet and iTunes. What my friend at US did was buying the iPhone and sending it to me without "Activating". I received a locked iPhone (with an AT&T sim) which could be easily unlocked from ZiPhone (a nice piece of software). The cost of the phone was $399 + $26 (tax)

The New way
With the new iPhone, they don't offer online ordering. You have to go to an Apple store or an AT&T store and buy the phone there for $199. Yes, the price is significantly reduced. But you also have to buy a monthly plan from AT&T and "Activate" the phone within the store. So the person who'll be buying the phone will receive a monthly phone bill from AT&T.

The only releif with the new iPhone is that, it'll be available in many countries (but not in Sri Lanka). In India, they are offering it with Airtell. Price will be the same. Let's hope Mobitel (not Dialog!) will sign an agreement with Apple and provide iPhones to Sri Lanka.

Initially they will ship it to 24 countries on June 11th. Asia will begin to receive it on a later date.

Links

iPhone home page : www.apple.com/iphone
Tech specs : www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html
.
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Updated (02-Apr-2009)

A lot have changed since the original post. Now you can actually buy an iPhone 3G in Sri Lanka. Dialog officially brings it (price is bit high) and there are places which unofficially brings iPhone3G here. Since Dialog is officially in the business, EPSI iStore (Apple authorized dealer) is supplying iPhone accessories too. You can buy applications from the Sri Lankan AppStore in iTunes. Everything works well.

.

iPhone Tweaks

To do these, iPhone has to be unlocked and Installer app should be installed. All the instructions are for Firmware version 1.1.4.

• Refresh the sources in installer app.
• Go to Sources section and then install Community Sources.
• Refresh the sources again.

To fix the caller ID problem:
Go to iClarified section and then install AppSupport Patch (1.1.4).
Reboot the iPhone.

To fix the file system access issue with ZiPhone and iBrikr
Add the source iphone.unlock.no to installer app.
Refresh the sources.
Go to Unlocking Tools section and then install ZiPhone iBrikr Fix.
Reboot the iPhone.

To disable the keyboard's auto-correction feature
Go to Tweaks section and then install Kb.
Reboot the iPhone.
An enable/disable setting will be added to the General -> Keyboard section in iPhone settings.

To fix the root password incorrect (su) issue in MobileTerminal
Source iphone.lenlolabs.com should be added to installer app sources.
Go to Tweaks section and install the BSD Subsystem 2.x SU... patch.
Reboot the iPhone.

Usefull Software Sources
iSMS: http://iphone.nonsoft.com/repo/
(A new section called Shawn Chain's Apps will be added to the installer)

MobileTerminal: iphone.lenlolabs.com
will be in System section)

iPhysics: http://iphone.r4m0n.net/repos

Usefull Software
Listed as found in the Installer app.

Dictionaries
Merriam Webster

Games
Chess
ContraSence
GemLogic
iCave
iSolitare
Labyrinth
Pool
SuperPong
Tris
Yeti3D

iClarified
Pysl
Safari Download Plugin

Multimedia
Camera Pro
Voice Notes

Productivity
Mobile Finder
Sketches
weDict

System
Categories
SummerBoard
Terminal
XLaunch

Toys
RealArtist

Utilities
Accelerometer Log
Capture
Customize
SysInfo
weTool