iNDEXPLORER

Blog Postings Reduced

2010-08-06T09:19:00.003+02:00

As you might have noticed the amount of blog postings is low.

The main reason is that I use Twitter for that now; the latest news and trends are immediately fed to my twitter account. I recommend to start following me and check regularly what is going on in Apple land...

iPhone 4 - Bought!

2010-08-06T08:35:00.004+02:00

A lot has been said about it already, but I am really happy with it...

First of all the "death grip" is not bothering the ones who use a case around it anyway... like me.

The rest is amazing about it; speed, resolution, camera, and so on.

Just to let you know it is really worth it.

iPhone 4 - To buy or not to buy?

2010-07-15T15:30:00.000+02:00

I haven't got it yet and already starting to have some teeny tiny doubts about the machine with all its reported issues, nervous behaviour of its creator and the postponing of its release in the Netherlands.

Is it going to be worth it?

Initially yes, because my 3G is definately out of date; it feels crippled since iOS 4 is installed - it can not coop and I have never rebooted the device as often as I do now. I miss features on it I haven't even used yet and the 16Gb has been too little for me for a long time now.

But now I can at least make calls with it, wherever I hold it and even with bluetooth. I take pictures with a proper digital SLR anyway, so the camera is an extra. It has not spontaneously combusted yet and it runs everything I need...

Still there is a hunger for the new gadget, but the shining has gone a little to be honest.

fortunately Apple took away these doubts for once and all; who doesn't want an iPhone 4 when you will get a free case with it?
It looks nice but it does not work... well the network is not good either so I can renew my contract with ease!

Apple rulez!!!

2010-05-20T10:19:00.004+02:00

Just have to get this off my chest:

Yesterday I found out my Time Capsule died (happen to browse to it for some backed up files); no light, no sound, nothing.

Since my TC originates from the US and is already more than 18 months old I had not a lot of hope in getting support from Apple, but they really really surprised my this morning.

I called Apple Customer Service (NL) and explained the issue. When they checked my data in the system and found multiple AppleCare registered products (not on the TC though) they were willing to repair the unit for free, since the power failure issue is commonly known.

When I asked them kindly if it is at all possible to repair the power supply so I can keep my unique data (mainly family pictures and music), the answer was that repairing actually means replacing the unit and send me a new one, so no data is kept.

Oops, that was a bit bitter to hear. But the customer service man told me another options was to have it repaired at an official Apple Repair Centre in my neighbourhood. Ok, fine I thought, at least I keep the data then. That is where we part.

Five minutes later the customer service man calls me back, unexpectedly, and after consulting his line management they acknowledge our dedication for Apple products and the two (never used) Apple Care protection plans and proposes to send me a new unit WITHOUT returning the old one so I can do with the old one whatever I like.

WOW, THAT IS SERVICE. THAT IS A BIG THUMBS UP FOR APPLE!!!!

Thank you very much for such excellent service.

Spirit - the latest jailbreak

2010-05-04T10:29:00.005+02:00

Spirit is an untethered jailbreak for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch on the latest firmwares.
Spirit is not a carrier unlock.
If you currently are using a tethered jailbreak, you have to restore to use Spirit. Do not upgrade if you use an unlock on an iPhone 3G or 3GS. (You can, however, restore to 3.1.2 if you have SHSH blobs for that version.)
visit http://spiritjb.com/ for more information.

Hilarious!

2010-04-16T11:36:00.003+02:00

iPhone Tethering AND Keep Visual Voicemail and MMS (T-Mobile NL)

2010-02-22T10:16:00.005+01:00

Enabling internet tethering on your Dutch T-Mobile iPhone was already possible for some time through help.benm.at. The only downside was the disabling of your Visual Voicemail and MMS.

But this has finally been fixed as well now. Install the new Mobile Configuration File below from your iPhone and fix your Visual Voicemail and MMS instantly, TOGETHER with your internet tethering.

nl_tmob.mobileconfig

For thos who want to know what changed: the config from help.benm.at the number ‘-2′ had to be changed to ‘48′. This seems to work.

Firmware 3.1.3

2010-02-04T10:03:00.003+01:00

Apple released iPhone Firmware 3.1.3. Minor changes were implemented (mainly small code changes to prevent abnormal behaviour of the OS like crashes). However if you are the owner of any jailbroken iPhone and want to keep it that way, keep in mind the following:

Blackra1n does not support 3.1.3 (yet)
Pwngatool can be used, but make sure you use the right version.

iTunes: "Backup could not be saved on the computer" Error Message

2010-02-04T09:52:00.005+01:00

After a lot of hassle and searching and trying and failing and searching again, etc. I finally have the solution to the big problem I encountered in iTunes on my new MacBook.

Every time I synced my jailbroken iPhone 3G 3.1.2 iTunes attempted to backup the phone, but resulting in the same message over and over again:Apple's solution centre provides the standard answer, which did not work for me at all;

During the backup process, iTunes overwrites any previous backups on the computer. iTunes may show the error message If the existing backup file is locked, damaged, or unreadable.

To resolve this issue, delete the backup in iTunes Preferences and then create a new backup. If you would like to retain a copy of the backup, you can move the backup file to a different location. The backup is located:
On a Mac: /Users/[username]/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

On Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

On Windows Vista and Windows 7: \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

To delete the backup file:

Open iTunes Preferences:
Choose iTunes > Preferences (Mac) or choose Edit > Preferences (Windows).
Select Devices.
Select the device backup to delete.
Click Delete Backup. iTunes will ask if you are sure you want to delete the backup. Click Delete Backup.
Click OK.

To manually create a new backup, right-click (or Control-click) iPhone on the left side of the iTunes window under Devices and choose Back Up from the shortcut menu.

However, THIS works:

Check the permissions on your iPhones backup in iTunes

It’s possible for the “backup” folder permissions to be set to “read only” for your user account.
To check if this has happened go to ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync and go to “get info” for the Backup folder.
Make sure your permissions are set to “Read and Write” and change them if not.

Thanks to www.guruguidedvds.com

From Joke To Worm!

2009-11-18T15:24:00.009+01:00

As I wrote in my last post some Dutch jailbroken iPhone owners got stung with a relatively innocent warning message in their screens due to unprotected file systems. Now the real thing hit the fan: the first worms are reported which actually steal your personal data from your phone. And this, I reckon, is only the beginning... where is Symantec with their first Antivirus App...

Anyway, again the strong advice to change your file system passwords (root and mobile directories).

Since apparently not everyone is following the advise I provided earlier, here are the steps to protect yourself from intruders:

1. Log into your iPhone's file system with the MobileTerminal (if not installed, install with Cydia).

2. Type su root

3. Type password alpine

4. Type passwd

5. Enter your own new password now

6. Enter your own new password again to confirm

7. Part 1 of 2 done.

8. Type su mobile

9. If asked for, type password alpine
10. Type passwd
11. Enter your own new password now
12. Enter your own new password again to confirm
13. Part 2 of 2 done.

Of course you can also do the above mentioned steps with an external terminal program. Username is then root and password alpine to access your iPhone's file system.

Remember to take these steps everytime you restore or update your (custom) firmware!

Enjoy.

Jailbroken iPhones Broken Into In The Netherlands!

2009-11-05T21:07:00.008+01:00

Several iPhone owners in the Netherlands became recently victim of hijacking of their jailbroken iPhone.

It turns out these phones have SSH installed with the standard passwords in use. If this is also the case for you, read on!

The network protocol SSH (Secure Shell) is meant to create a secure network connection between two devices. Many iPhone users make use of the free OpenSSH to access the file system of their iPhone. Some (most!) users don't bother to change the standard password (alpine) of the iPhone file system, which makes them vulnerable for unauthorised access to their system files. The threat has been outlined before, but now we have finally seen the result of this lack of awareness: a straight attack into the iPhone file systems of an estimated 70 iPhone users by a Dutch geek.

First French Apple Store To Be Opened...

2009-11-03T16:06:00.002+01:00

Bienvenue a Pomme Shop Paris!

Blackra1n = Blackpa1n by half!!!

2009-10-14T12:28:00.006+02:00

04/02/2010 Update: Blackra1n does NOT support FW 3.1.3 and according to Geohot's site, he is not planning any updates either to his jailbreaking method.

07/01/2010 Update: After restoring in iTunes to genuine FW 3.1.2 the Blackra1n RC3 did it's job properly... only thing I changed since the last update is the purchase of a MB991. That certainly works smooth! Geohot is back on top for me!

04/11/2009 Update: As promised I would get back when something would work. Well, something works; the jailbreak still didn't, but the unlock certainly does. I am talking about BLACKRA1N RC3 here, operating from my PowerBook G4 (so PPC compatibility does it's job as well). Inserting my Vodafone SIM in my T-Mobile 3G worked without a problem! So now I can call with Vodafone from a genuine FW 3.1.2, because despite the popup stating it's jailbroken, no icons appears, nor can I install DRM-free apps. So in my case: half the job done, although the wrong half for me, since I have a subscription with T-Mobile anyway...

03/11/2009 Update: I know the poor guy worked very hard on his blackra1n, but it is too buggy to be true. Despite new RCs it still doesn't do the trick for my 3G. Perhaps some new light on the horizon appears and I promise to be the first to tell you about it if it works then. Until then: no ra1n, just (black) darkness.

14/10/2009: So finally there was promised light on the horizon for the community operating on genuine FW 3.1.2. Tried every single option and suggestion possible to human kind, but nothing worked.

Finally I gave up with Blackra1n, despite some promising postings from all around the world.

I stay on APPLE SLAVE MODE for now: no jailbreak, no Cydia, no everything else.

Who'd Have Thought: Dropped Jailbreaking & Back To Genuine OS 3.1

2009-09-28T13:31:00.006+02:00

Last Thursday my Jailbroken T-Mobile 3G (or "pokkie" is it is suddenly called everywhere in NL because of some ad) crashed hopelessly into restore mode. This was the ultimate moment to try to install the new firmware (3.1) with Dev-Team's Tools. All seemed fine until I had to hard reset the iPhone resulting in all my applications either disappearing completely from my screen, turning into white ghost icons or instantly crashing upon executing them. After numerous restores with many different builds of the custom firmware (bigger partition, w/o Winterboard, all auto, etc) I couldn't work it out. It refused to load, formerly properly working, custom 3.01 or lower anyway, so Sunday night I gave up. Mr. Jobs finally won I guess and I restore just like Apple wants you to: via iTunes 9.1 with the original firmware...

It works and it works fine, but GOSH I miss my Cydia (and all the other apps)!

Clever Brightness Control

2009-08-31T15:24:00.008+02:00

The iPhone has three cool sensors. An accelerometer that detects when you’ve rotated the iPhone into landscape orientation. In programs like Photos, Safari, and iPod, it triggers the screen image to rotate as well.

Covered by the black glass where you can’t see them except with a bright light (sun!) are two more sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the screen illumination and touch sensitivity when the phone is against your head (it works only in the Phone application), and an ambient-light sensor that brightens the display when you’re in sunlight and dims it in darker places. Note the different locations of the sensors on the 2G and 3G(S) phones.

Apple experimented with having the light sensor active all the time, but it was experienced as nervous behaviour to have the screen get brighter and darker all the time. So the sensor now samples the ambient light, and adjusts the brightness; it does this only once—each time you unlock the phone after waking it.

You can use that tip to your advantage. By covering up the sensor (just above the earpiece) as you unlock the phone, you force it to a low-power, dim screen-brightness setting (because the phone believes that it’s in a dark room). Or by holding it up to a light as you wake it, you get full brightness. In both cases, you’ve saved all the taps and navigation it would have taken you to find the manual brightness slider in Settings.

OS 3.0 Bug Making App Icons Dissapear, Switch Apps

2009-08-20T08:03:00.008+02:00

A strange bug has been causing trouble for some iPhone OS 3.0 users. Several users on Apple's discussion boards are increasingly reporting strange problems with app icons either being blank white squares, switching icons with other apps, or disappearing altogether. TUAW confirmed the strange bug when their own Mel Martin had the AT&T Navigator app and Reuters News icon switch places. One developer says issues like these were highly common in the beta releases, and weren't fixed until the final release of the software.

This seems a problem with iPhone 3.0 and higher. Older versions seem unaffected.

APPLE: iPhone 3.0.1 Firmware Released To Fix SMS Exploit

2009-08-03T10:48:00.004+02:00

Firmware 3.0.1 is now available for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS through iTunes. The update is around 300MB. There is no indication that there are any new features or fixes other than the text message exploit patch.

Security researcher Charlie Miller, co-author of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook, demonstrated the exploit at the Black Hat 2009 conference in Las Vegas. The attack takes advantage of a vulnerability in the phone’s short messaging service, or SMS, feature, allowing an outside party into the phone’s root access without the owner’s knowledge.

The exploit takes advantage of the fact that SMS can send binary code to a phone. That code is automatically processed without user interaction, and can be compiled from multiple messages, allowing larger programs to be sent to a phone. The exploit supposedly exposes the iPhone completely, giving hackers access to the camera, dialer, messaging and Safari. It occurs regardless of hardware revision or which version of the iPhone OS is running.The technique involves sending only one unusual text character or else a series of "invisible" messages that confuse the phone and open the door to attack. Because users won't know whose messages to block in advance, there's little iPhone owners can do but to shut off the phone immediately if they suspect they're at risk -- a real problem as the trick could also be used to make an iPhone send more messages of its own.

APPLE: Keep iPhone 3G And 3GS Within Acceptable Operating Temperatures

2009-07-07T10:54:00.013+02:00

Apple published on their website information about operating temperatures of the iPhone 3G and 3GS:
Operate the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a place where the temperature is between 0º and 35º C (32º to 95º F). Low- or high-temperature conditions might temporarily shorten battery life or cause the device to temporarily stop working properly.

Store iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in a place where the temperature is between -20º and 45º C (-4º to 113º F). Don’t leave the device in your car, because temperatures in parked cars can exceed this range.

If the interior temperature of the device exceeds normal operating temperatures, you may experience the following as it attempts to regulate its temperature:

* The device stops charging
* Display dims
* Weak cellular signal
* Temperature warning screen appears (see image below)

This message appears when the operating temperature has become too hot. This is a safety mechanism that protects the components of your device. If this message appears, you should turn the device off, move it to a cooler environment, and allow it to cool before resuming use.

Note: When this message appears, the device may still be able to make emergency calls.

Some conditions and activities that may activate the Temperature warning message:

* Leaving the device in a car on a hot day.
* Leaving it in direct sunlight for extended amounts of time.
* Using certain applications in hot conditions or direct sunlight for long periods of time, such as GPS tracking in a car on a sunny day or listening to music while in direct sunlight.

How To Force Quit Applications In iPhone OS 3.0?

2009-07-01T08:03:00.006+02:00

Were you used to hold down the home button of your iPhone to force quit applications? This is no longer supported in iPhone OS 3.0 and up. This is due to the iPhone 3GS’s voice control feature. Apple has changed the way you force quit applications. How does it work now?

1. Hold down the power button untill you see the slide to power off screen.

2. THEN you can hold down the home button and your application will force quit.

Your iPhone 3G slowed down after upgrade to OS 3.0?

2009-06-28T21:35:00.007+02:00

Simply switch your PUSH EMAIL to manual:

1. Go to SETTINGS
2. Go to MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS
3. Switch FETCH NEW DATA to MANUALLY

It speeds back up your iPhone considerably.

ONLINE iPhone 3G OS 3.0 Tethering Activation

2009-06-22T00:00:00.000+02:00

THE EASIEST WAY OF INSTALLING TETHERING ON YOUR iPHONE!!!

As you might know or have found out already some network providers do not support the new tethering functionality (using your iphone as a modem for your lap- or desktop) of OS 3.0 (yet). They simply hide the option. This can be bypassed in a very easy way with the following steps.

Forget all the difficult procedures to activate tethering (so without all the hassle of finding and installing IPCC files):

1. Surf with Safari on your iPhone(!) (so not on your PC or Mac) to: help.benm.at
2. Select "mobileconfigs"
3. Select your country
4. Select your provider
5. Click ok a few times to install the file that changes your settings and...
6. Happy tethering!

Remember that some providers are not as happy as you are with (i.e. not allowing) tethering and might charge you additional costs for using the tethering functionality.

You Dance?

2009-03-05T10:45:00.004+01:00

Big Bang!

2009-03-03T00:00:00.000+01:00

Finally, after all these years on the net I created a blog. Was about time I guess.