phranker’s Think Tank

And I’m one of the 4000. Not bad, ehh? Steve Jobs made a point of identifing the numbers, and I’m pretty proud to be part of such new and hot technology.

Well, I’m in. I got accepted into the iPhone Apple Developer Program last month. I installed the new SDKs and downloaded the 2.0 beta firmware. Now all I need to do is write a great app and have it ready for June/July.

I’ve also been really busy with other things in my life and haven’t been around the scene lately. I saw that the DevTeam released there ‘pawnage’ tool. I downloaded it, but I have been pretty legit since getting into the program.

BTW - Today I got a call from a blocked number so of course I told them I wasn’t in and asked if I could take a message. It turned out to be someone stating they were from the Apple Developer Program. He said he would try back, but hasn’t yet. I wonder what thats about???

So everyone knows that there is limited space for Apps on a jailbroke iPhone, but there are a few solutions. The first, and probably the easiest, is to install BossTools via Installer. That particular app was written to perform this specific task of moving certain directories (Fonts & Ringtones) to the media partition (where your music is stored). However, most don’t even know what it did, except that they know they have more room for apps.

Below is a simple shell script that will perform the same steps as BossTools, but via SSH on the command line so that you have the freedom to organize or structure your filesystem to your own liking.

This script will move the System Fonts and Ringtones to the media partition (/private/var) - thus freeing up more than 100MB for more & bigger apps. You can just cut/paste each line - one by one - to preform the task.

mkdir /private/var/Fonts_PHRANKER
mkdir /private/var/Ringtones_PHRANKER
cp -Rp /Library/Ringtones/* /private/var/Ringtones_PHRANKER
cp -Rp /System/Library/Fonts/* /private/var/Fonts_PHRANKER
rm -r /Library/Ringtones
ln -s /private/var/Ringtones_PHRANKER /Library/Ringtones
rm -r /System/Library/Fonts
ln -s /private/var/Fonts_PHRANKER /System/Library/Fonts

Just like always, I hope this helps some of ya. At least it should help some of you understand what is going on behind the scenes, such as in BossTools. Of course, you could do the same with the Applications directory, but, moving your Apps to the media partition is not a good idea, since an update will erase the media partition, erasing all your apps as well.

It’s finally here. The Apple iPhone SDK is now available as a free download from Apple Development Center. It was a real pain in the ass to get through since everyone and their brother was trying to download it at the same time. Summed up as short as possible; $99 gets you access to Apple support, and allows your app to be available via iTunes or AppStore directly from the iPhone. They also setup a program where developers get 70%, Apple 30% of what ever the developer wants to charge.

You do need to be a registered ADC member to download the SDK. Click here, developer.apple.com/iphone/to login to the iPhone Development area.

Here is a link to the full video of the SDK / iPhone Roadmap Conference from Cupertino earlier today. Full demos of everything to come. A great video!

With the release of 1.1.4 and the news that both the Dev Team’s Independence & Zibri’s Ziphone both work with the new firmware, I thought it was about time to upgrade my 1.1.2 OOTB 1.1.2 JB iPhone. However, I wanted to make sure I had a full backup of everything just in case

Here is a small, sweet little command you can run in Terminal from the directory in which you want the backup placed into.

ssh -C -l root [ip of iphone] "cd /; tar zcpf - ." | tar xf -

ssh -C -l root [ip of iphone] "cd /private/var; tar zcpf - ." | cat > PrivateVar.tar.gz

This should just be a starting point, read the commands and make sure you understand what is being done and you should be able to tweak them to fit your specific needs. Also, the ‘User Space’ backup may just be enough, especially if you used BossTools to move your Apps into the media partition (or did it yourself with a syslink like I did).

Hope this helps some of ya… at least give ya some sense of security before jumping into a 1.1.4 upgrade.

As I posted earlier, I just made the “switch” and bought a MacMini & a MacBook, mainly because of the iPhone development community. But today, Apple released a new MacBook with better specs for the same price I paid for mine only 2 weeks ago. I truly feel ripped off.

I tried calling Customer Support, but they are closed until morning. However, I was able to chat with a support person via Apple.com, her name was Janet. As soon as I explained my plight, she quickly responded with “Call Customer Support, they are handling all purchases made Feb 7 - Feb 26.” That was good news to hear… because my Apple Store receipt is dated Feb 9!!!

I hope I get the new MacBook this week.
2.4 C2D, 2GB RAM, 160GB HD

UPDATE: [02/27/08]
I went to the 29th Street store in Boulder and after talking to CS on the phone and the manager Josh & Jeff said they would allow me to switch it, however I had to pay the 10% restocking fee. All in all, it was worth it, just the extra 1GB of RAM (from Apple) is worth the $130.
Thanks Apple!!

It looks like the “Official 1.1.3 Upgrader”, aka the soft upgrade, has been removed from the Community Sources. I personally think it was removed because of Zibri’s work and his release of the “true” 1.1.3 jailbreak, but a few were asking for it on the Dev Team’s #iphone. SpeedyAZ hooked it up and it’s now on my repo if anyone needs it. It’s still found under ‘System’ in Installer.app.

My Repo/Source address: http://installer.phranker.com

I guess some may say I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. Thing is… I alway appreciated Apple’s products, especially the iPod and Mac OS X. Then came the iPhone and I was completely hooked. Yet, I was still a PC guy. Note I say PC guy and not Windows guy. I am and have always been a Linux geek. Back in the days of version 1,2,3 of Slackware/RedHat etc. However, since I got into all this iPhone development hoopla, I knew I needed a ‘real’ Mac, no more using OSx86 to pretend I’m on a Mac.

So, I am now the proud owner of a brand new MacMini C2D 2.0 and a MacBook C2D 2.4. I even upped the RAM in the MacBook to 4Gb, as well as in the Mini !!

Pictures to follow.

I got into the iPhone development community soon after I bought my iPhone. I thought it would be awesome to work with and develop apps for such an amazing phone. I’m sure everyone knows that Apple will be releasing a SDK in February, but I quickly found out that other members in the community put together an open sdk called the ‘toolchain’.

First of all, I am not a mac guy. Never was. Surely have become one  though. I want a Mac bad!! I’m saving some money to get a MacBook or MBP, but in the mean time I figured I’d install and use the toolchain under Linux. It took some time - but I got it. I have a dedicated server setup just for iPhone development. But the more I read, the easier it seems to develop apps under Mac OS, especially Leopard.

Then today, while hanging out at iPhone-Elite in #iphone-dev, a member with the nick Shade posted a link to his filebase which I have to admit is the most comprehensive archive of everything released with in the community. I mean EVERYTHING!!

What he was most proud of is, he finished working on a VMWare image of Debian with the toolchain already installed. That means all you need to do is download the VM Player, download Shade’s VM Toolchain image, and poof… you got yourself a working iPhone development platform.  Pat on the back for Shade

The official DevTeam 1.1.3 JailBreak was released a couple days ago. They are still holding on to their ’secret exploit’ until the SDK is released but I have to admit, this release is much better than the previous release by NateTrue.

The great thing about this new release is that it can be done without even using a computer - as long as your phone is already at 1.1.2 and jailbroken. In Installer you will find an app that does it all. Of course, this is aimed at those with little or no knowledge of the inner workings of jailbreaking.

Ideally, I suggest downloading the release and reading the script (install.sh) to really see what is going on. It’s a pretty ingenious method. It downloads the firmware directly from Apple, unpacks, decrypts, copies, and structures the filesystem all within the one script. It even removes the firmware it downloaded and leaves you with just a jailbroken 1.1.3 iPhone!!

1.1.3 Jailbreak Instructions
1.1.3 Jailbreak r1 || r2 (DevTeam)

NOTE: Some att customers may need to download and apply the original lockdownd file. It is explained in the instructions. Download it here.