Jailbreak iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad

iPad USB Camera Connection Kit is much more useful as it seems. Max Sha, an experienced user, was able to access external hard drive with this kit. All you need is a jailbroken iPad, an external drive, a split-USB cable to give the drive some power and a terminal of some sort (f.e. MacBook) to mount the external storage. While it is a little unwieldy, it shows that Terabytes of external storage for iPad is possible.

Here is a complete step-by-step guide from Max Sha:

For starters, you will need to do the following:

1. Have an external hard drive formatted to either HFS or FAT32. NOTE: All data will be erased!

2. Perform the Spirit Jailbreak.

3. In Cydia, install iFile ($4.00 for full version, but there is also a free trial) and OpenSSH (free)

4. As well, install the “Nano” terminal text edit from Cydia.

5. For this particular example Max used GoodReader app for iPad ($0.99).

Now you can begin the process of mounting your hard drive. You will need external power for the drive. If you have an external drive with power (one that has a USB port and an external power supply) you won’t need to worry about this. If you have external drive with just an USB cord you will need a split USB cord.

1. Open “Settings” on your iPad to find your IP address (make sure you’re on the same network as your iPad).

2. Open Terminal, on your Mac (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app). On Windows you can use Putty.

3. At the prompt, SSH into your iPad with the IP address you found in the “Settings” app (make sure OpenSSH is installed!), with the following:

ssh root@[iPad IP address]

For you first time users, the password for your root account will be “alpine”. NOTE: Please change your password ASAP. To do this, once you’ve logged in VIA Terminal, type the following into the command prompt:

passwd root

You will then be prompted for a new password. Please do the same for your “mobile” user as well, by doing the following:

passwd mobile

4. Now, type the following, in Terminal:

mkdir /Volumes
mkdir /Volumes/EXT
ln -s /Volumes/EXT /var/mobile/EXT
nano /var/stash/Applications.xxxxxx/iFile.app/Info.plist (“xxxxxx” is a series of numbers after “Applications”. If you type “/var/stash/Applications” and hit the “Tab” key, it will fill in the rest for you).

5. The nano text editor will now open. Please add the following lines below the first “<dict>”, in the document (this makes iFile look much better on the iPad):

<key>UIDeviceFamily</key>
<array>
<integer>1</integer>
<integer>2</integer>
</array>

6. Then hit “Ctrl+x”. Followed by “Y”, and then “Enter”. This will save the changes that you made.

7. Now, reboot your iPad. You will notice that your SSH connection will have closed, in Terminal. Re-open terminal, when the iPad reboots, and follow steps 1-3 (without reseting the passwords again).

8. Open iFile, and go into the settings. It is recommended to have the settings set as shown below. The most important is enabling “Application Names”. Hit “Done”. Close out of iFile by hitting the Home button. Restart iFile.

9. In iFile, navigate to “/Volumes/”. Then, select the “Edit” button, in the top right.

10. Check the circle next to the “EXT” folder you created in “Step 4″.

11. Click the “Box with an arrow”, in the bottom right. In the dialogue box that opens, select “Copy/Link”.

12. In iFile, Navigate to “var/mobile/Applications/”. You should now see the names of applications above the actual folder names. Navigate to the “GoodReader” folder, then the “Documents” folder.

13. Click the “Edit” button again. And then click the “Box with an arrow”, in the bottom right. Click the “Create Link” button. You should now see the “EXT” folder. Hit “Done” in the upper right.

14. Now, connect your iPad Camera Connection Kit.

15. Take your hard drive and plug the secondary port into a power supply (in this case, Macbook Pro). Then, plug the main USB port into the iPad. You may see a message similar to “Insufficient power to mount this drive” error message on the iPad. With an external power supply, it should be much more convenient. NOTE: You MUST plug in the external power supply first, or else the iPad will not mount the drive.

16. Now, lets go back to terminal. Type:

ls /dev

What you’re looking for here is the file “disk1s1″. If that does not show up, try steps 15-16 again. If you see “disk1s1″, proceed to step 17.

17. For a FAT32 formatted drive, type the following, into terminal:

mount -t msdos /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT

It will take a few seconds, and then return you to the command prompt. For an HFS drive, type the following:

mount -t HFS /dev/disk1s1 /Volumes/EXT

18. You are now good to go! You can now access the files in either iFile, or GoodReader. As an example of how to manipulate the files, watch the video below.

19. To unmount the drive, type the following, in Terminal:

umount /dev/disk1s1

20. That’s all!

Here is a video demonstration:

Many thanks to Max Sha!

Several users report that Apple started allowing iPod touch owners to upgrade to iPhone OS 3 for no charge.

The information initially comes from PocketGamer’s Tracy Erickson:

Syncing a second generation iPod touch today with an older version of the software prompted me to accept the free upgrade. How exciting.

Just as when asked to download and install the latest firmware on an iPhone, iTunes simply asks for confirmation – no signing in to pay for the software.

Sounds like free a good price for iPod touch 3.1.3 upgrade.

PS: Jailbreakers: think before updating – you might lose the ability to jailbreak your device if you upgrade the firmware.

Update: Several users confirmed the free update. However a number of users report that they are still asked to pay for the update.

Pinch Media has shared some data they presented at 360iDev on the state of app piracy on the iPhone, and there are a few key take-aways:

• These analytics show roughly 4 million jailbreak devices, 38% of which are using pirated app(s) (aka cracked apps).
• Piracy is highest in China, Russia, and Brazil, with Europe and Canada being the mid-ground, and the USA, Great Britain, and Japan having the lowest rates.
• Of paid apps that use Pinch Media’s services, 60% have been pirated.
• Of those pirated apps, 34% of all installs are the pirated version.
• Like legitimate app downloads, pirated apps are used a lot at first, but drop off quickly (more quickly than legitimate app usage, in fact).
• Pirated apps on jailbroken iPhones crash more, which may be why they’re used less.
• Those who claim to use pirated apps as a way to “try before they buy” are full of it. While 7.4% of legitimate “Lite” app downloads up-convert to the paid version, only 0.43% of pirated apps lead to purchase of the legitimate paid version.

You can read the full report for all the details.

via theiphoneblog

Action Menu is a new utility that extends traditional Copy / Paste functionality. You can now “Copy All” or add text to a stack (”Favorites”) that allows you to paste phrases frequently at any time and in any application.

The application is free but you can also buy an extension pack (costs $2.99) which will add new features, such as:

• History: keep the history of all copied sentences / words / numbers;
• Lookup: find online matches for phone numbers and words, using Google Search, Wikipedia, Dictionary, and Google Translate;
• Tweet: send selected text through a Twitter client installed on your iPhone (currently support Tweetie, Twitterific, Twittelator and TwitterFon).

We found this utility quite useful. It can be installed via Cydia on a jailbreaked iPhone (iPod Touch).

Apple released new iPhone 3.1 and iPod Touch 3.1.1 firmwares. Here is a quick changelog:

- Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
- iTunes U content organization
- Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
- Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
- Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
- Option to “Save as new clip” when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
- Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on
- Remotely lock iPhone with a passcode via MobileMe
- Use Voice Control on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets
- Paste phone numbers into the keypad
- Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS
- Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
- Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling
- Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

iPhone OS 3.1 is available and is a free download for iPhone customers. iPod Touch users already running iPhone OS 3.0 can update to 3.1.1 for free. iPod Touch users running earlier firmware versions can upgrade to OS 3.1.1 for $4.95.

Users of jailbreaked and unlocked devices – do not update, wait for utilities updates!!

Yesterday Apple blocked an official Google Voice app from the App Store; meanwhile, they also kicked out unofficial versions, f.e. GV Mobile. But you can still get GV Mobile for free… via Cydia.

The developer of GV Mobile has decided to go ahead and release GV Mobile for free rather than let his work go to waste. You have to jailbreak iPhone to get this app.

iPhone OS 3.0 is now available. Update via iTunes (you need 8.2) or download here. Firmwares are avaliable for all devices: iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch and iPod Touch 2G. Here is a link to official Apple site about this upgrade.

Do not upgrade if you want jailbreak and/or unlock. Just wait for DevTeam to release their software.

Clippy is an iPhone addition for copy/paste functionality. It was updated to version 0.98. There are significant improvements that make the application much more stable, and moreover it is important to note that starting from now, Clippit becomes a completely free.

Avaliable via Cydia and Icy for jailbreaked iPhones.

Changelog for 0.98: March 29, 2009:

• Donate button added
• Expiration code removed
• More translations updated
• Fix for accidental activations cause by UIScrollView/UIScroller events buffering
• Menu aborts display if finger is moved/released while menu is showing
• Now retrieves orientation from the statusbar if the window won’t comply (fixes Safari and iPod in landscape)
• Fix for apps that use a custom input traits (such as Colloquoy)
• Paragraphs with inline links now copy the entire paragraph
• All text no longer becomes highlighted when tapping text in some web sites (Gmail, others)
• After saving an image to the library, Safari now continues to load properly
• Holds are now more lenient and allow slight movement
• Support for the upcoming HapticPro

Emoji, emoticons and pictorial characters popular in the Japanese instant messaging culture, were introduced to Japanese customers as part of the iPhone 2.2 Firmware update, but have required workarounds to be enabled for non-Japanese users. There are many solutins to turn Emiji Icons (Get Emoji Icons for free), but the easy one required jailbreaking. Recently Apple approved an application that simplifies this process. App is called EmotiFun and it is free (AppStore link).

Everything is simple: get app, run it, exit and go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable.

Apple rejected iPhone application called iSutra. So it is avaliable via Cydia for jailbreaked iPhones for FREE.