iPhone Hacks

How-To Fix YouTube on JailBroken iPhone Firmware v1.1.2

Many readers here @ iPhone Hacks asked me if I had a solution to the YouTube problem which they faced after Jailbreaking iPhone running on firmware v1.1.2, as post the jailbreak apparently YouTube stopped working.

Unfortunately I am no iPhone hacking genius I am just a passionate fanboy and a humble reporter of all the hacks, applications and news on the iPhone, so could not provide a solution. However, for all those readers I have some good news as Erica over at Tuaw who now is the iPhone hacking legend has posted a link to a simple guide by Ging of the South which should help in resolving the YouTube problem.

iPhone launched in France - Unlocked iPhone for €749; Orange Offering Four Tariffs

Apple iPhone has been launched in France and is available with four tariffs plans from Orange who is Apple's exclusive carrier partner in France.

This is deviating from the strategy followed by Apple's other exclusive carriers partners such as AT&T in US, O2 in UK or T-Mobile in Germany who are offering iPhone with only a single tariff plan.

There are some interesting details that Orange has put in the fine print. More details and the tariffs available after the jump.

Apple's Greg Joswiak on the iPhone

I stumbled upon Greg Joswiak's interview posted on Fortune's Big Tech blog and thought of sharing it with you folks. In case you are not aware, Greg Joswiak, is head of marketing for Apple's biggest product, the iPod, voted best gadget of all time as well as the iPhone, probably the most hyped gadget ever created.

If you think that is probably the easiest job in the world thanks to the frenzy and hype surrounding both these gadgets, you are mistaken as there is a lot more than just promoting the products. Apparently Greg Joswiak was the one who pushed Apple to produce the 14-inch iBook even though Steve Jobs wasn't entirely convinced about it and we all know the end result, it turned out to be a hit.

In the interview Greg Joswiak touches upon quite a few points related to the iPhone such as the evolution of the iPod from being just a music player to now the iPhone, iPhone’s holiday prospects etc.

The interesting part of the interview was that when he elaborated on his views on how to open up the iPhone platform for legitimate developers to develop native iPhone applications, he seemed to reiterate the point Steve Jobs had made when he announced about the iPhone software developer kit (SDK) about the use of digital-signature. It now seems quite likely that Apple will be going the Nokia way and use the digital-signature approach to the upcoming iPhone SDK.

If you are an Apple fanboy like I am, the interview is a must-read. We have all heard, seen and admired Steve Jobs but it is interesting to hear from some of the other heroes at Apple.

Read the full article at Fortune's Big Tech blog by following this link.

iPhone Hackers release ScummVM: Emulation Engine brings LucasArts and Sierra Games to iPhone

Some of the most popular native applications for the iPhone have been native iPhone games, they have generated a great deal of interest. We have already seen Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator and recently the Game Boy Advance (GBA) emulator for the iPhone.

The latest emulation engine to be ported to run on the iPhone as a native application is ScummVM, the emulation engine that allows you to play popular LucasArts and Sierra games.

Breaking News: Unlocked iPhone now being sold in Germany for €999

I had reported last week that T-Mobile will be selling Unlocked iPhones in Germany for around $1500, its no longer a rumor as Germans can now get their iPhones unlocked for €999 (around $1500).

The information that is available currently is that the iPhones will be sold in locked state and are not unlocked out of the box and in order to unlock the iPhone you will need to use iTunes.

The process of unlocking is also not real-time as when you buy the €999 iPhones, the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number is recorded and sent to Apple. Then apparently after 24 hours you will get an e-mail confirmation. Once you receive the email confirmation all you need to do is connect your iPhone to iTunes and it does the magic which other unlocking methods have been doing so far.

If you are one of those who has already bought the iPhone and are interested in unlocking it then as of now there is not too much information available. I guess your only option would be to go back to the store and check if there would be arrangement for you to pay the difference to get your IMEI registered in order to unlock your iPhone.

[via Gizmodo]

Zinio's Mobile Newstand for the iPhone

With the hype surrounding Amazon's Kindle in the last few days I guess it is quite timely for Zinio, a digital publisher and distributor for digital magazines and books to announce that they will feature their favorite magazines on iPhone as well as iPod Touch.

Zinio has been a publishing partner for world’s leading magazine and textbook publishers and offers one of the best digital reading experience in my opinion.

10base-t Interactive brings Mobile DropCopy to iPhone

One of the popular Mac OS X Utilities, DropCopy, which is designed to simplify the task of copying files between Macs, is now available for the iPhone as well as iPod Touch.

Folks at 10base-t Interactive have now extended the functionality of DropCopy with Mobile DropCopy for iPhone and iPod Touch to support iPhone-to-iPhone, iPhone-to-Mac, and Mac-to-iPhone file transfers.

Mobile DropCopy for iPhone and iPod Touch is currently in Beta, and should make copying files from and to your iPhone easy.

T-Mobile to sell Unlocked iPhones in Germany for $1500

After the news yesterday that Vodafone had won a court injunction against Deutsch Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, against selling the iPhone tied to their network and with a 2 year contract, T-Mobile has announced that they plan to sell unlocked iPhone to German customers, however for a huge premium, it will set you back by around €999 ($1500) and a locked iPhone for €399.

So if you do the simple math, the premium for the unlocked iPhone is €600, which seems to be close to the estimates making the rounds in the blogosphere as to the amount going into Apple's kitty for each iPhone sold. But in my opinion the way Apple's exclusive carrier partners pay Apple a monthly fee for each iPhone activate on their network, I am quite sure they are smart enough to take a cut from Apple for an unlocked iPhone sold in their stores.

If you were thinking that this would mean the end of the iPhone hacking community think again as the premium on most unlocked iPhones that you see available on eBay is mostly in the range of €100 to €200 or if you are one of those technically inclined then you can do it for free thanks to the iPhone hacking gurus.

iPhone News: Vodafone wins court injunction against Deutsch Telekom in Germany

We had reports that Vodafone has won a temporary injunction against Deutsch Telekom from selling the iPhone tied to their network and with a 2 year contract.

However, a Vodafone spokesman has clarified that "The preliminary injunction filed in Hamburg doesn't mean Deutsche Telekom will have to cease marketing the product immediately."

He even goes on to confirm that they do not have any plans to take such actions anywhere else, or in the U.K as apparently some national rules on access to networks were being broken.

If you are thinking that Vodafone is doing this for the benefit of iPhone customer's then you are mistaken. The real reason for Vodafone's legal action is to do with Apple's revenue sharing arrangement with T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom is the parent of T-Mobile) for the iPhone. Vodafone fears that it could prompt Nokia or Ericssion to follow suit which could challenge the established business models.

It just seems like a case of sour grapes for losing out on the iPhone deal.

Update: Apple is NOT Tracking iPhone IMEI (Rumor Squashed)

So all the speculations that the URL embedded into the Stocks and the Weather widgets, which apparently included your iPhone's equipment ID (coverage below) was used by Apple for tracking has been squashed by a German site Heise Online.

According to Heise Online, the iPhone doesn’t send an IMEI (the iPhone’s unique identifier) back to base but actually is some application specific information and does not have any person identifying data.

The main reason the original news/rumor was convincing was due to the fact that it was supported by a screenshot which shows the URL string being called and it had the code "IMEI". However the German site goes on to confirm while the code says "IMEI" the actual IMEI is not being transmitted after comparing the strings with the test iPhone's IMEI. Based on some more investigation carried out by Rene at blog docpool, these IDs are in fact identical in all iPhones he has tried.

banker, one of the readers here @ iPhone Hacks has given an interesting reason in the comments for Apple collecting the data when you use the Stock widget though it still does not explain why the URL is called from the Weather widget.

Anyways, based on the above explanation from the German site and blog docpool, I am quite convinced that the rumor was false and vindicates my theory that it was not for Evil, are you convinced?