Sam's Lifestream - tagged with apple

BBM Probably Won’t Be Available to iPhone/Android

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 05:53:00 +0000

If you keep up with the tech rumor mill, you might have heard some rumors that BBM could make it’s way in some form or another on iPhone or Android. I became a bit hopeful that this closed messaging protocol would finally become cross-platform, but now that I’ve done some more research, it’s not very likely that RIM will open this up. The Rumors When I first heard that RIM was going to release an SDK for their BBM platform, I got kind of excited. Within my group of friends, about half of them use Blackberries and they’re always “BBMing” each other. Apple fanblogs and alike also seemed to share the same sentiments, hopeful that the release of an SDK could at least mean that third-party developers could create cross-platform apps for BBM. The SDK

iPhone has an 86% Market Share in Canada

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:34:00 +0000

While working at Mediumrare, we toyed around with some ideas of mobile apps and most of the time, it would be an idea for the iPhone. Now, as a developer, I loved the SDK that Apple prepared for Developers in order to create apps for iOS. However, it’s also important to understand your audience. Although Apple boasts about having a huge chunk of the pie in regards to mobile device market share, it shouldn’t be accepted at face value. Today I came across a very interesting presentation titled Rethinking the mobile web. It brings up points that we shouldn’t disregard other mobile devices just because the iPhone has taken North America by storm. The presentation states that globally the iPhone has

iPhone Specific Favicon

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:49:00 +0000

Earlier this week, Google released a mobile version of Gmail Tasks which could be accessed on the iPhone/iPod touch or an Android device as its internet browser is also WebKit based. I thought it was great that Google allowed us to manage our tasklist previously only accessible through Gmail or a Google Gadget on the go now - but was pleasantly surprised at the attention to detail when you added the site to your Home screen on the iPhone:

How did Google specify this iPhone specific icon?

Getting your site to have this “iPhone specific favicon” was just as simple as applying a regular favicon. To do so, just insert a tag like so in the section of your markup:

Obviously, just replace “PATH_TO_ICON_HERE” with an image path and you’re all set! To keep things to spec, be sure to design your icon in a 57×57 pixel canvas and export it to PNG format when finished. If you’d like a sample to work with, why not check out the tasks icon Google uses? Related PostJailbreaking & Unlocking 1st Gen iPhone on 2.0.2Rogers Is FINALLY Bringing the iPhone to CanadaRumor: iPhone Coming to Canada Jan/Feb 2008iPhone Web Concept KitiPhone Rate Plans Revealed. What’s in Store for Canada?

Jailbreaking & Unlocking 1st Gen iPhone on 2.0.2

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:33:00 +0000

Warning: The following only applies to non-3G iPhones. 3G iPhones running 2.0+ firmware cannot be fully unlocked yet (meaning that you can only use it on official carriers for now). They can be jailbroken though, but it is your responsibility to research how to do so as this guide only applies to 1st gen iPhones! Also with the upcoming release of 2.1, I am not sure if QuickPwn will work with 2.1 yet. Please use this guide only with 2.0.2. This guide also only covers OSX specific software for the first essential step. An alternative Windows guide can be found at macgeekblog. Skip to guide One day I received a newsletter from eBay trying to persuade me into buying some summer gifts. On that newsletter was a link to some iPhone listings and by chance, I came across a listing for an unlocked 1st gen iPhone running 1.1.4 firmware. The bidding stayed at $200 for days so I figured I’d watch it. Near the end, it still stayed the same and I figured it didn’t get many hits because it was listed as an “I Phone” whereas people would probably be searching for an “iphone”. Regardless, I won the auction and now had an iPhone. Wanting to upgrade it to the newest firmware, I searched for hours on methods to use while still keeping it unlocked. Through blog postings and forum threads, I found a way to achieve it so I had an iPhone running 2.0.2 with the new app store functionality while still being able to install unofficial apps through Cydia, and also was able to make phone calls on the Rogers network. “Pwning” At first, I had absolutely no clue how I was going to run 2.0.2 while keeping the phone in an unlocked state. I first looked into ZiPhone as that got some exposure on digg but later found out that it did not support 2.0.2 yet. Through some hints I found another program called QuickPwn which would do half of what I needed. What QuickPwn will do is what is apparently termed, “pwning” your phone. When your phone is “pwned”, it is for the most part, in an unlocked state with the exception that you cannot make phone calls on an unofficial carrier…but don’t worry, BootNeuter will fix that. The first thing you need to do first before pwning your phone, is to get your phone to the official 2.0.2 firmware first. You can do this by plugging your iPhone into your Mac and then doing an update through iTunes. (Note: as of this post, 2.0.2 is the newest firmware. I am not sure if QuickPwn will still work on future firmware releases).

After the update is done, you’ll get this

After iTunes updates/restores your phone to 2.0.2, you can now run QuickPwn. If your iPhone is not connected to your mac (it should already be since you just updated/restored it through iTunes), QuickPwn will present you with the following prompt:

Connect your iPhone if it’s not plugged into your mac already

Once QuickPwn recognizes your iPhone, it will start doing its thing…

QuickPwn does its thing

Later QuickPwn will ask you to push some buttons on your iPhone that will need to be carefully timed. Just follow the onscreen instructions.

After, your iPhone will reboot and iTunes will popup the following error. Do not worry about it.

QuickPwn will then reengage a connection with the iPhone and then iTunes will present another popup.

QuickPwn will do its thing again and send files to your iPhone:

When the progress bar nears the end, QuickPwn will give the following popup:

Do not press “OK” because when your iPhone reboots at the end, QuickPwn will start running the entire process again. After your iPhone reboots you will notice that it boots up with a pineapple logo (QuickPwn) rather than the original Apple logo:

However, iTunes will now recognize your iPhone

At this point, you can start doing all the synching you want, but if you find that you cannot make/receive phone calls, read on… Fully Unlock the Phone With BootNeuter To be able to receive/make phone calls, you will need to download an application called BootNeuter which can be downloaded through Cydia (already installed via QuickPwn). Below are the series of steps you would need to go through in order to obtain BootNeuter:

Open the Cydia app:

Select the Search option at the bottom:

Search for BootNeuter and once found, select it:

Press Install:

Confirm the Install:

Once BootNeuter is done installing, open it and apply the following settings:

Neuter: ON FakeBlank: OFF Unlock: On

Your iPhone might need to reboot, but afterwards, try making a call — it should work! Applications From the App Store Crash Upon Launch This is actually a bug of the 2.0.2 firmware (which might have been fixed with the recent 2.0.3 release but I’m not sure if QuickPwn will work with 2.0.3 yet). ilikemyiphone.com released a solution to this problem. Related PostiPhone Specific FaviconRogers Is FINALLY Bringing the iPhone to CanadaRumor: iPhone Coming to Canada Jan/Feb 2008iPhone Web Concept KitiPhone Rate Plans Revealed. What’s in Store for Canada?