Hackszine.com: iPhone Archives

Archive: iPhone

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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

David Pogue's iPhone keyboard tips

David Pogue has a great collection of iPhone keyboard tips on his NY Times weblog:

As iPhone Week continues here on Pogue's Posts, here's a bunch of cool info about the virtual keyboard that nobody-I mean, not Apple, not the bloggers, not the reviewers-has said anything about. [Update: DOH!! Apple JUST posted a video about the keyboard. Hmph. Well, it's still not as detailed as what follows.]

iPhone Keyboard Secrets - Link

He also has a bonus tip, which I will use all the time; it makes typing punctuation marks as smooth as silk: Link

iPhone bootloader accessed via serial port

The #iphone hackers have posted another breakthrough; they've managed to get an iPhone to give up a serial port that lets you send commands that look a lot like the Open Firmware commands you can use with a Mac. Here's a sampling:



command list:

	help           this list

	script         run script at specific address

	go             jump directly to address

	bootx          boot a kernel cache at specified address

	diags          boot into diagnostics (if present)

	tsys           boot into tsys (if present)

	bdev           block device commands

	image          flash image inspection

	fs             file system commands

	fsboot         try to boot kernel at /kernelcache

	devicetree     create a device tree from the specified address

...

If you want to try this yourself, you're going to need an iPod serial cable (you can make or buy these).

Resources

DIY iPod serial cable - Link

iPhone SERIAL HACKED, FULL INTERACTIVE SHELL - Link

HOW TO - Use IRC on the iPhone with colloquy

Blogimages Gallery Iphone-Colloquy Iphone-Colloquy-Lol Medium
Andru writes -

Since the iPhone launched, we have been on the lookout for all the cool web apps that we were sure would begin to show up. We have had quite a few come along, but just a few minutes ago we were able to log in to IRC on our iPhone, and thought that was pretty nifty. So much so, in fact, that I thought we'd share the process on how to do it yourself. Do note, though, that we used Colloquy to help us out here - that is an OS X application, so you do need a Mac to use this method.

How To: Use IRC On The iPhone With Colloquy | Gear Live - Link.

All about iPhoneInterface

We've gotten iPhoneInterface to compile and run in the Hackszine.com lab (er, my living room). Kudos to the #iphone team; this is pretty cool.

In its current form, it doesn't look like it will compile on Mac OS X (Update: the latest version compiles fine on Mac OS X!). For the moment, it's calling directly into the iTunesMobileDevice DLL that you'll only find on a Windows PC. If you take a look at the #defines in the source code, you'll see that a lot of the action is currently happening in WIN32 regions. But that's likely to be only temporary; this is just a guess on my part, but I imagine that they are looking to completely eliminate iTunesMobileDevice.dll, once they figure out what messages it's sending to the iPhone.

So what can iPhoneInterface do? Essentially, it can do anything to your iPhone that iTunes can do to it: activate it, deactivate it, manipulate files that are in the flash memory (not in the OS install image, though) such as photos, music, etc. You can also start services, but you can't install and execute arbitrary binaries yet.

This is a wonderful achievement, and a beautiful hack. If you've got the time and motivation, you can download the source code, compile, and run it. But it's not trivial to do this; you'll need a few things:

A Windows PC
Dev-C++ - Link
iTunes 7.3 installed
The QuickTime 7.1 SDK from Apple (you'll need an ADC membership for this; hopefully the free ADC membership includes it)
The iTunesMobileDevice.dll from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Mobile Device Support\bin
And of course, the source code to iPhoneInterface

I'm not linking directly to the source code because the #iphone crew has asked journalists, bloggers, diggers, etc. to not post direct links to the website. Anyone who's been following the project close knows that the site has been up and down because high-traffic sites keep linking to it. So I leave you with the IRC channel info: #iphone @ irc.osx86.hu. Make your way there with your favorite IRC client and check the motd (message of the day). If the web site is up, there will be a link to it. If not, read the messages that go by, and you'll find an update with more information soon.

Happy Hacking!

iPhoneInterface: a tool for manipulating the iPhone emerges

The iPhone hackers from #iphone on irc.osx86.hu released a tool to "manipulate the iPhone's state, launch services and interact with the chroot'd filesystem" last night. Although the Wiki is currently down, you can lurk in the IRC channel and keep an eye on the channel MOTD for notification of where to find it when it comes back up.

Remember, these folks are very busy, so be patient and don't post messages to the IRC channel asking where to find the utility. They are working on two things right now: a new home for the Wiki and a Subversion repository for the source code. As soon as those are available in stable locations, the word will get out and you'll be able to play with it.

The tool appears to be Windows-only for the moment, but could probably be coaxed to compile under Mac OS X. I'll update this post with some first-hand experiences if I manage to get it to compile and work.

Update: I've written up my impressions and experiences here

July 4, 2007

Pocket PC iPhone conversion

Call it superficial, but you can really help your Pocket PC's self esteem by giving it a face lift.

It's still Windows Mobile on the inside, so most of your apps will look and function as before, but a few free downloads will get you home screen and dialpad themes, an iPhone-like contacts list, and the cool slide-to-unlock gizmo.

Resources:
Turn your Windows Mobile phone into an iPhone @ Lifehacker - Link
iPhone-like home screen for PPC - Link
Slide 2 Unlock - Link
iContact (flick to scroll contacts) - Link
Dialpad and Calculator skins - Link

July 3, 2007

Activate iPhone on a prepaid plan

There's a way to avoid the standard AT&T contract plan and sign up for pre-paid minutes on your iPhone. With this hack, you can activate your phone for a fixed amount. Even after you've used your prepaid minutes -- or remove the sim card entirely -- the phone will continue to function as a WiFi enabled iPod.

The trick is to fail the credit check during the registration process. This will force the registration software to offer you the prepaid plan instead! It's as simple as entering a bogus 999-99-9999 SSN during the registration process.

Prepaid iPhone hack @ TUAW - Link

iPhone Hacks authors at iPhoneDevCamp

We were fortunate enough to be approached by not one, but two groups of authors, to write iPhone Hacks, and like peanut butter in your chocolate, they've teamed up to take on this fun project. And you can find them at this week's iPhoneDevCamp. So if you're joining the fun, be sure to say hi to our iPhone Hacks team, and if you've got a hack to contribute, let 'em know!:

whurley is a technologist and open source advocate with over 16 years of experience in developing groundbreaking technology solutions. He started his career at Apple in the peripherals support team before moving to lead Apple's World Wide Internet Training Initiatives. Since leaving Apple in 1997, whurley has continued to deliver innovative solutions based on the Apple platform. In 2004 as CTO of Symbiot, he and his team were awarded an Apple Design Award for "Most Innovative Apple Technology Performance Demo". whurley is one of the instigators of the upcoming iPhoneDevCamp.
Raven Zachary is a technologist with over 25 years of experience operating, managing, and writing about Apple products. In the late 1990's, he was a contributing editor and columnist for MacWEEK.com and the co-founder of The Communicator for Rhapsody Project, an open source project to bring the open source Netscape browser (now called Mozilla) to the Rhapsody Operating System (now called Mac OS X). More recently, Raven was a founder of iPhoneDevCamp. Raven works as an open source technology industry analyst for The 451 Group.
Damien Stolarz is an inventor, entrepreneur and writer who has spent most of his life making electronic devices talk to each other. Damien is currently a consultant for The Walt Disney Corporation in the corporate New Technology & New Media group. He is the author of Mastering Internet Video (Addison-Wesley, 2004), Car PC Hacks (O'Reilly, 2005), and Hands-On Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting (Focal Press, 2006). He also writes for the technology magazines Make: and is a regular columnist for Streaming Media Magazine.
Adam Stolarz is a writer, gadget-user, and gamer, who has been using and defending Apple products since his earliest technological memories. Before graduating high school in 2007, he worked in the field of in-car computers, and contributed to books about in-car hacking and Internet video. As a tech-inclined Millennial, he has always kept a Mac laptop in his possession as the most stable, productive link in his computing chain, while keeping a PC as a lovable old crashable gaming machine. He can't wait until his iPhone does every single thing his laptop can.

July 2, 2007

iPhone-state of the hacks

Hackers have been hard at work on the iPhone from a couple of angles. The iPhone restore image has been making the rounds, and hackers quickly discovered two disk images in it: one is a small ramdisk image (694-5259-38.dmg) that kickstarts the other, larger, and sadly, encrypted image (694-5262-39.dmg). There are a lot of folks trying to brute-force the 694-5262-39.dmg image, but it's going to take a long time. Could the password be lurking somewhere in the ramdisk image? Perhaps it's inside iTunes itself? Time and energy will tell. For now, I suggest lurking in #iphone on irc.osx86.hu (please don't ask general questions about the iPhone; that channel is for iphone reverse engineering only, so if you're not actively involved, it's best to lurk).

The other end of things is iPhone JavaScript hacking. Ever since Apple promised that you'd be able to make phone calls and access other iPhone functions from with Ajax widgets, we've been wondering where the glue lives. There are a few people exploring the JavaScript capabilities, include Joe Hewitt, who has released Firebug for iPhone, which lets you send debugging messages to your desktop browser and also execute JavaScript commands on the iPhone.

DayLateDon posted a message to the iPhoneWebDev group with a summary of advice that some iPhone web developers got directly from Apple. Definitely worth a read.

Eccentric Cycles has been investigating a number of JavaScript events on the iPhone, and links to some examples you can try out.

July 1, 2007

The other WebKit-powered phone(s)

Click To Play

One of the iPhone's strengths is the amazing web browser that it uses: Safari. Safari itself is based on an open source web browser called WebKit, and Nokia is also a huge fan of this software. They've embedded the browser into a number of their high-end phones. The video shown above is taken from my Nokia 6290, a clamshell that retails for about $400 unlocked (I got mine for $275 on eBay).

After using both phones, there is absolutely no question that the Apple implementation is much easier to use, but oh, the Nokia phones are super hackable. The very fact that I could get video off of it is proof enough of that: I used the Mobiola Screen Capture utility, a third party tool that displays your phone's screen on a Windows PC. (From Windows, I used the open source CamStudio to record the action.) I'll admit that I ran out of memory a few times while doing this, but if you think about it... running a powerful web browser and a utility that's pumping a video stream over USB at the same time is a mighty stress test. iPod-friendly video

Resources

Nokia's WebKit-based browser - Link
Mobiola Screen Capture - Link
CamStudio - Link
WebKit.org - Link

June 30, 2007

HOWTO: Port 'ineligible' mobile numbers to AT&T and iPhone

A lot of people are running into a problem when porting their old cell number to AT&T so that they can continue to use the same number with their iPhone. The iTunes registration software and customer service reps will say that the nummber cannot be transferred because it's ineligable or that the other carrier wouldn't release the number.

AppleInsider discovered that the problem stems from some obscure rule that doesn't allow you to transfer a number if your zip code does not match the region of your old number's area code. This is common for people that have moved and retained their old cell number -- even if they moved within the same state.

In the case of the iPhone registration process, the solution is simple:

Lie.

When the registration software asks for your zip code, just enter the zip for a region where your cell number's area code will match. Then, make sure to enter the correct information for the billing address, but when it asks you for an address where the phone will primarily be used, choose other (instead of same as billing) and enter a bogus address with the zip code that matches your number's area code. This should let your number be transfered, and you can correct the bogus address later.

How to port 'ineligible' mobile numbers to AT&T and iPhone - Link

Let's find those iPhone APIs

Apple's press release about the iPhone development model says:

Developers can create Web 2.0 applications which look and behave just like the applications built into iPhone, and which can seamlessly access iPhone's services, including making a phone call, sending an email and displaying a location in Google Maps. Third-party applications created using Web 2.0 standards can extend iPhone's capabilities without compromising its reliability or security.

Is it reasonable to assume that those capabilities are built into the iPhone right now? Will they be exposed as JavaScript objects? If so, maybe it's just a matter of guessing the right object name.

I installed the EnumIt bookmarklet (added the bookmark to Safari on my Mac, and then synced it over to the iPhone), and tried some obvious names like apple and iphone, but no dice. The usual suspects (navigator, browser, etc.) do work with EnumIt, and the list of methods and attributes is interesting, but where are these extended iPhone capabilities? If you find something, let us know here, and tell the folks at iPhoneDevCamp; only a few days away!

Related:

iPhoneDevCamp - Link
EnumIt - Link
iPhone 3rd-party app support - Link

Raw notes on the iPhone over at Gearlog

Over at Gearlog, Sascha Segan has posted a list of findings with the iPhone; what works, what doesn't. It's a great, condensed run-down of features, capabilities, as well as limits and let-downs:

Okay, prepare for an unreadable mass of raw notes. I thought you guys might want to know some of what I think so far. So I'm dumping my notes on you. Read on, and you might find some answers about the iPhone. Oh, and excuse the horrible Microsoft-Word-exported HTML. And the typos. This is the raw stuff. I'm going back to testing.

Hands-on With The iPhone - Link

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