Hackszine.com: iPhone Archives

Archive: iPhone

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July 21, 2007

Custom iPhone background

Bgi
Hacky way to change the iPhone's background screen - [via] Link.

July 20, 2007

Customize iPhone ringtones and system sounds

It's a laborious process, but here's a pretty thorough walkthrough for using Jailbreak and iPhoneInterface to upload ringtones and custom system sounds to your iPhone.

What jailbreak does is (at a very high level) perform the first half of the restore operation that iTunes would, getting the phone into the powerful restore mode. It then issues a series of commands that modify the configuration of AFC to allow you to access the full filesystem while still presenting the same interface to iTunes (so as not to break syncing).
After that, iPhoneInterface allows you to interact with the phone using AFC to upload and download files.

Once you've run Jailbreak, you have quite a bit of access to the filesystem with iPhoneInterface. When you're comfortable with this hack, you might want to poke around and see what other files can be tweaked to add new behaviors, themes, or functionality to your device.

References:
How to add custom ringtones/system sounds to iPhone - Link
All about iPhoneInterface - Link

July 16, 2007

Offline iPhone apps with RFC 2397

An old and forgotten RFC provides a way to create applications for the iPhone that people can save and execute locally, even when offline!

Back in November, I wrote about how you can store whole images inside of a URL using the RFC 2397 "data" URL format. Using this scheme on supported browsers, you can embed images within an HTML document, and you can even embed an entire HTML document within a single link.

W. Clawpaws discovered today that the iPhone's web browser supports data URLs. This is particularly cool, because it provides a way to write and store little utlity applications entirely on the device. This is different from cached data, since the entire application is ebmedded inside the URL, tucked safely in your iPhone's bookmark storage. You'll be able to use these sorts of applications even when the phone has no connection or its network stack is completely disabled, like when you're on an airplane or in Vermont.

Here's a little javascript-based tip calculator he created as an example: Link

There's an upper bound to how much data is allowed inside a URL on the iPhone browser. That said, there is probably a large class of utility applications that can be created this way. Remember, you can store images in a data URL as well, which you can further embed in an encoded HTML document. Provided you keep things small enough in size, you can make a whole range of micro interactive iPhone apps that are stored locally on the device.

References:
Storing iPhone apps locally with data URLs - Link
RFC 2397 - Embed image data inside a URL - Link
Online HTML/JPG/GIF to Data URI converter - Link

HOW TO - Put DVDs on the iPhone - the super simple way

HandBrake is a GPL'd multi-platform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter - it's super easy to rip the DVDs you have and put them on the new iPhone - they look great and are about 1 GB each, here's how...

First, get HandBrake - Link. There are also PC versions of HandBrake, it might work about the same way.

Make 825
Install it, run it. Pop the DVD in. Pick the DVD volume. Choose your settings, I use the defaults usually.

Make 826
It takes about 30 min or so, it runs fine in the background.

Make 827
Drag the MP4 file it makes in to iTunes, in videos tab in iTunes for the iPhone select the movie, click Sync.

Make 828
In a couple minutes it transfers over.

Make 829
It's about a gig.

The video is in the videos section. iPod / Videos.

It looks and sounds great!

*Joe notes - I found if you create a new preset for iphone in handbrake and set the video dimensions to 480x320 you can crunch movies down to a much smaller size optimized for the iphone native resolution.

July 15, 2007

Laser etching an iPhone

High powered laser + deer vector art + iPhone from device nine six Link.

July 12, 2007

Tap AT&T to return to the top on the iPhone

Here's a quick tip for iPhone users, tap the AT&T words on the top menu bar after you reach the bottom of a page - this will take you up to the top in an instant (good for long pages like nytimesriver.com)...

Update: This is from David Pogue

It's not the AT&T logo--you can tap ANYWHERE on the status bar (the top edge
of the screen) to return you to the top.

(It's actually in the manual. :) )

Press and hold "Action" on iPhone, it does nothing

Press and hold the little LEGO looking plug-in block that appears when the iPhone sees a Flash movie/video and you get an action balloon - but it does nothing.

Remote Desktop / VNC on your iPhone

1782
Natetrue writes -

The idea seems simple enough. I want to be able to use my PC from the comfort and safety of my iPhone. I got to thinking about it, and it seemed that modifying VNC was the best option. It already has the remote framebuffer thing down pat and I just had to write a web interface for it so the iPhone could connect up.

I decided on TightVNC as my starting point. There was already a built-in HTTP server that I modified heavily.

cre.ations.net - Creation: WebVNC - Remote Desktop / VNC on your iPhone - Link.

July 11, 2007

iPhoneDevCamp wrapup

It's been a few days since iPhoneDevCamp wrapped up. Although I couldn't make it there myself, the authors of the upcoming iPhone Hacks were there, and two of them (whurley and Raven Zachary) were organizers of the DevCamp. I'd say it was a success, with over 350 attendees, and 40 new applications for the iPhone that were the result of team and solo efforts. There are over 1,000 photos tagged 'iphonedevcamp' on Flickr.

You can check out the list of iPhoneDevCamp applications right here. You don't need an iPhone to try them out; as long as you have Safari 3 running on a Mac or PC, you should be all set. However, if you want to play Tilt, you'll need an iPhone.

There was an incredible amount of press coverage, which is collected on the iPhoneDevCamp Wiki.

And if you want a taste of the iPhoneDevCamp experience, check out Tech Alley's iPhoneDevCamp video walkthrough.

July 10, 2007

iPhone: Singing the Praises of iTunes:

I was really grateful that I could initialize and configure the iPhone using iTunes. It's a complete break with the way we buy a cellphone. Plus, iTunes keeps insinuating itself into my life, helping me manage more and more of the content I care about. iTunes is becoming an important desktop application, growing up from managing content on a single iPod to sharing that content across a network of computers and then delivering it into the A/V world and on to your TV and now finally putting it all on a phone. iTunes has become a platform. I also talk about reading on the iPhone and why I'm trying to learn to use the iPhone with one hand. Finally, I'd like to use verbal commands to control the iPhone.

Read full story

July 9, 2007

Top 10 apps from iPhoneDevCamp

Andrew Mager of WebWare has posted a roundup of his picks for the best applications from iPhoneDevCamp:

10. iPhoneVote: This application was the first one presented at the hack-a-thon, and it was used as a voting system for the event...
9. AppMarks: If you have an iPhone, make AppMarks your Safari home page...
8. PickleView: The only sports application presented...
7. Fluther: I liked the Fluther app because it focused on modular code and fresh CSS specifically for iPhone...
6. The Pool: Imagine your iPhone screen as a pool of water, and every time you touch the screen, a ripple effect occurs...
5. TeleMoose: This is not a hunting game, unless you are hunting for books...
4. iTunes Remote-o-Matic: Rob Chang ... transformed a really expensive cell phone into a remote device to control his iTunes library on his MacBook...

I'll let you click through for the top three, but I've got to say I'm a big fan of #3! - Link

Move to the wrong state and your iPhone turns into a paperweight

monkeywrench76 writes:

I found out a few days ago that I am being re-located to Vermont. I am here now, and I have 5 bars of service. But I now find out that AT&T is going to cancel my service anywhere between 3 and 10 months from now (when they get around to it) because I am roaming too much. See, they don't have service in Vermont, so I am using one of their partner providers (Unicel). Although the service I am getting is good, I am not profitable enough for them to keep me as a customer, so they will get rid of me. I will, of course, be stuck with a non-working iPhone.

...

I called apple and spoke to Meghan, who was very wonderful and was surprised by the situation. She offered to connect me with AT&T so she could be on the line (so apple!). So, she did. We spoke to an AT&T rep, then her manager. They could not have been more clear... no exceptions. I live in Vermont, they cancel me. Meghan seemed as bummed as I was.

I realize there are reasons behind this (AT&T doesn't want to keep customers that they lose money on), but the real problem is the way AT&T and Apple have set things up. Despite the fact that phone unlocking is legal in the US, AT&T and Apple have created an arrangement where the iPhone is useless without AT&T service. Fortunately, some smart people are working hard to fix this bug.

Related:

Cell phone unlocking legal (for three years) - Link
iPhone bootloader accessed via serial port - Link
OpenMoko: $300 Linux-powered mobile phone - Link

Update: Apparently, this is a major annoyance in Vermont. morgant posts on digg:

I live in Vermont and work for an Apple Specialist, so I've been covering this aspect of the whole iPhone & AT&T thing recently. See:

http://makkintosshu.dyndns.org/journal/iphone-today-or-ratatouille-instead

http://makkintosshu.dyndns.org/journal/iphone-the-week-in-review

It's definitely very disappointing.

iPhone hacks widget

Make 775
Here's a widget for your Mac that will give you all the latest tips, tricks and HOW-TOs for your iPhone - from HACKSZINE! - Link (zip).

July 7, 2007

Send an MMS from your iPhone

One of the limitations of the iPhone is that you can't send a multimedia message over MMS. Fortunately, there is a simple workaround. Most, if not all, cellular providers have an email-to-MMS/SMS gateway that you can use. For example, T-Mobile uses tmomail.net. So, all you need to do to send an MMS to your T-Mobile-using peeps is send an email with a photo attachment to phonenumber@tmomail.net.

modmyiphone has a comprehensive list of US and many non-US gateway addresses. Link

(If you still can't the email address to use, ask your friend to send an MMS to your email address. The MMS should arrive as an email, and you can use the From: address to email an MMS to your friend.)

July 6, 2007

Telekinesis - remote control your Mac with an iPhone

Telekinesis is a bundle of small web apps that you can run on your Mac to give the iPhone remote control. You can use it to stream media files to your iPhone, run scripts remotely, and capture images with the iSight.

You can also add your own features by dropping custom PHP applications beneath the Application Support library folder.

Telekinesis Project - Link
Create apps for Telekinesis - Link