[cmdshft]

I recently foolishly decided to go toying around with my carrier.plist file, and because I forgot that CommCenter signature checks the file, the changes and the bundles plus all related symlinks were deleted.

I ended up losing the ability to do some things, like use data and FaceTime. I was able to call and text, though, but obviously that wouldn’t do at all.

Apparently I am not the only one who has had this issue. So I will outline a simple way to fix this issue. You will need some Terminal (Mac) or Command Prompt (Windows) knowledge. This also is for official bundles (the ones that iOS comes with by default). If you have a custom bundle for an unknown carrier, this may not work for you.

- Download this file: CarrierBundles.zip
- Extract the bundle associated with your carrier (I will use ATT_US as an example for AT&T).
-  Make a new folder called Payload.
- Put ATT_US.bundle into the folder.
- Zip the foler, and change the file extension from .zip to .ipcc

On Mac:

- Open Terminal and type: defaults write com.apple.itunes carrier-testing -bool true

On Windows:

- Start>Run>cmd
- “%ProgramFiles%\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1

- Open up iTunes.
- Plug in your iPhone, and select it in the sidebar.
- Option+click (Mac)/Shift+click (Windows) on the “Update” button.
- A windows will pop up, select the ATT_US.ipcc file you made.
- iTunes will then update your carrier settings

Your phone should now be operating properly now.

What you get:

- Mobile Hotspot. Up to 5 devices at once.
- Verizon carrier image.
- Redesigned antenna and button placement.

What you don’t get:

- Talk/Surf simultaneously.
- Ability to be connected in most countries.

Everything else is the same.

I have no incentive to switch. I rarely make calls anyway (I have the lowest possible voice plan on AT&T)  so I could care less if they drop. I can hotspot as well via a jailbreak app. Not being able to talk and surf blows.

Here is your iPhone, Verizon users. Enjoy less abilities and slower speeds.

I recommend waiting for iPhone 5. Likely HSPA+, EVDO Rev B, possibly worldphone style (and hopefully LTE, but not as likely) and therefore truly limitless.

@w1kedZ graciously sent me a package from website http://cnn.cn which sells all kinds of cellular parts.

What they sold that caught my eye (and the eyes of a few tech blogs) was metallic iPhone 4 glass back replacement covers. They are inexpensive, and oh so solid.

The piece that @w1kedZ sent me was this unit.

It’s solid, feels comfortable in your hand and you can actually go caseless with this as I am (I don’t have any of the radio issues because of how I hold my phone), and I have a screen protector so I am all set with this.

Here are some pics:

The only issue that I have with this is the camera. The beveled nature pushed the viewport out a few millimeters, which can cast a small shadow around the edges of the pics. It’s not too big of a deal, but if this bothers you then buy the non-beveled version (currently backordered at the time of the post).

Highly recommend.

Ok, so I just upgraded to the iPhone 4 and jailbroke at iOS 4.1 just fine.

I ran into a little issue with themeing with Winterboard, namely just the [email protected] file. [email protected] will theme just fine, however. To get the Switcher BG image to work, you need to SSH/SFTP into your iPhone 4, place your replacement [email protected] file into /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app (I will explain why you do this and not put it into the theme itself)  and remove the following file:

/private/var/mobile/Library/Caches/com.apple.Springboard.folderSwitcherLinen

After you remove that file, respring and your replacement Switcher BG should show up. This only affects the iPhone 4 on iOS 4.1 it seems, as I did not seem to have this issue on my iPhone 3GS on iOS 4.1.

Unfortunately, anytime you respring, it will remake this cache file using the file that is in SpringBoard.app, NOT the Winterboard theme. So anytime you want to re-theme the Switcher BG you will have to remove this cache and replace the actual SpringBoard.app [email protected] image.

Hopefully Winterboard will get updated to get around this issue.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Basically one giant “Fuck you Adobe.” right from Steve Jobs himself.

However, if you look past the obvious bias, the article is rather astute and factual. I’ll break it down for you.

Point number one talks about being “open”. Jobs is absolutely right in the fact that Flash is 100% proprietary. The only people who can do anything with Flash is Adobe. This may sound hypocritical, but only half so. While iPhone OS is fairly closed off and the main app channel is the App Store which is under Apple’s control, it is technically open. It uses stuff from Mac OS X which any well educated person will tell you uses open source components. You can actually see which components are in use on iPhone OS by reading the legal notice in settings>about>legal. iPhone OS is closed in the sense that we have to jailbreak it to do as we please, but in the terms that Jobs is talking about, Flash is much more closed off and Apple does indeed support open standards and has always been to push legacy tech out of the way, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Because of this method, Apple has surged and become a leader in innovation.

The second point, the full web, is right on the money. Because of the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, many large sites have taken these devices into consideration and adapted so that the user experience is up to par with expectations. Sure, there are many sites out there that have not made changes, but these are sites that will slowly fall off the map. The argument is “Well why should we have to adapt to these users?”. The answer is “Why shouldn’t you?”. The web is ever evolving, if that was the attitude several years ago, we’d still be looking at some pretty shitty web sites. Geocities anyone? While Flash is undeniably still somewhat important, the fact is that there are new and open standards that can do everything that Flash can do, using less power and better control. If there is an issue with a Flash web object, you have to jump through hoops to fix it. With an open standard like HHTML5 and CSS3, it’s often just some keyboard work in a text editor and can be done faster. I’m sure there are naysayers, but those are the facts. Bravo to Apple for pushing new and worthwhile/beneficial standards.

Third point: Security and performance. How many times have you went to youtube and your browser hung and crashed? Youtube has offered up an HTML5 version of its site in support of the new standards, and many other sites are doing the same, simply because Flash sucks. Apple was also correct in that while Adobe has had previews of Flash Mobile, they have yet to ship it on any consumer smartphone. There really isn’t much to comment on here.

4; Battery life. While the iPhone hasn’t always had a showstopping battery life, Apple is correct that using software to do things that could be better done in hardware uses more power. Using software to decode means that the CPU of the machine has to handle the work as well as run everything else on the device, and this both uses more power and reduces the reliability of other software running, such as a browser. When you offload a video to be decoded to the GPU you leave more room for the CPU to breath and work, and make better use of any idle GPU cycles to do the dirty work and everyone is happy all around, and uses less power as well and things run fast. I’m all for using H.264, it can be decoded in hardware and plays smoother and faster than a flash video will on a mobile device. All websites should offer up a choice of either running the flash or H.264 formats at least.

5; Flash was made way before the iPhone and iPod touch were ever even being tested internally. Not all the features would be logically supported, such as the very “rollover” method that Jobs mentioned. How would you implement this using your fingers? Even if flash was allowed on the iPhone, you’d still have to redo your flash objects, so why not spend the time doing so using an open standard and make your site even more worth while?

And finally, the 6th point; Apple disallows apps not written with C, C++ or Objective-C. This means that Adobe is shit out of luck with their Flash app compiler. And this is good, for the very reason Apple has stated, that they would have to subjugate themselves to a third, intermediate layer not under the control of Apple to ensure that things work as advertised. And this works so long as Apple keeps iPhone OS under the strict control it is under. If Apple opened up iPhone OS to allow people to run whatever they want on the device (which they wont), then I could see where this would be way to harsh to agree to. Plus, as stated for point 5, if you’re gonna write an app for iPhone OS, why not just use the prescribed code standard to begin with? What makes a Flash based app any better than one written with C, C++ or Obi-C

Some people have said that Apple is tyrannical with this stuff, and while it may kinda be true, I completely see where they are coming from and I see that they are pretty spot on with their points and reasons. I understand why iPhone OS is closed and why Apple wants to push things the way they are; Because without it, iPhone and iPhone OS would be just another “smartphone” and fallen through the cracks. Keeping control and pushing things in certain directions is key to their success, and no one can say they matched their success and quick growth by a long shot.

Clinging onto old, legacy formats and tech is a quick way to get left behind. Not maintaining and keeping quality control on things to make sure they work right is another. People need to understand this. Apple is far from wrong, and I applaud Jobs for calling out Adobe on its shortcomings with Flash. And instead of just responding to the open letter, why not fix what is broke and make people happy for once, Adobe?

I DO NOT CONTROL PUSH DOCTOR CERT GENERATING, DO NOT ASK ME TO GENERATE CERTS.

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If you like the work done here, please consider contributing a donation to anethema. There’s no obligation to do so, however.

Thanks to the work of the iPhone DevTeam, with their original “by hand” method of fixing push, they have paved the way for a more automated process.

#iphone IRC commoner anethema has setup a way to fix push via Cydia which gives you GENUINE activation certificates, and they are ALWAYS unique. You will never share acivation certs with another iPhone user. The best part? Unlike http://www.pushfix.info/ which charges it’s userbase a fee for them to get their push working,  anethema’s solution is 100% FREE.

You can find Push Doctor on NERV Repository. Add the repo URL on my homepage or on this blog under “Tweaks” to Cydia’s sources to get the fix. Do NOT open the page up in a browser and click the submit button, all it does is send me a blank email with nothing in it and you are wasting your time that way. You have to add the repo URL to Cydia in order to get Push Doctor.

If you’ve legit activated, you do not need this but even if you install it you wont have an issue.

Here is a writeup by anethema about Push Doctor: http://www.cmdshft.ipwn.me/pushfix/

NOTE: This is NOT an application you run from SpringBoard or command line. It does all the work immediately while Cydia runs. If you install this to fix push, and you decide to uninstall the package it will not remove the push fix. Reinstalling will delete your “old” certs and install new ones. You will not notice any difference, however.

NOTE: If you’re having an issue with installing Push Doctor and you cannot get push working, it’s because the server it’s getting your unique cert from is actually out of certs. The demand is very high apparently, and @anethema is now generating 1 unique cert per minute to put on the server. Try every few hours, eventually it will work. Any errors just means the same that it cannot find a unique cert. Just “reinstall” the package later or the next day.

NOTE: If you get the following:

“Subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1″

“sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error coda (1)”

The server is simply empty of any available unique push certificates. Wait for the counter on the blog to be greater than zero.

If you need support, join #pushfix on chat.osx86.hu

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How Do I Get Push Fix? :
1.  To get push fix navigate to Cydia and add the source: http://www.cmdshft.ipwn.me/apt/ , http://iphonix.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/p1.png

2.  To download the app go to Cydia search and type in Push Doctor, it should look like this, http://iphonix.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/p1.png

3.  There are a very limited amount of certificates available for download at the moment, to see if there are currently any for download go to http://www.cmdshft.ipwn.me/blog/ on your computer and look for a counter on the right, it should look like this: http://screencast.com/t/ZjRhOTJjYzM , If there are some left go ahead and download Push Doctor, if there aren’t left, don’t bother as you will not get a certificate

4.  If you try and download Push Doctor and there are no certificated available, you will get an error and Cydia will ask to keep the half-installed package or forcibly clear it. The safest way to go it to forcibly clear it as it prevents future conflictions when trying to re-download Push Doctor

5.  The last part is if you successfully downloaded Push Doctor, navigate to the AppStore and download iPusher, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipusher/id348540958?mt=8 , it will test to see if your push is functioning correctly: http://screencast.com/t/Mjk2ZjBjODI

6. If youtube is not working, try a reboot. If that doesn't fix it, then it's an issue with the certs and youtube in very specific countries. There are 3 packages on NERV Repo for Youtube, try them ONE AT A TIME. If one does not work, uninstall and try the next one.

UPDATE: This method is deprecated. You must contact AT&T in order to change the ring length.

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Not many people know that you can change the length of time that the iPhone will ring before going to voicemail. It’s all done on the carrier’s end of things, and doesn’t require jailbreaking your iPhone either.

One way is to just call up your carrier and speak to a techie. They will ask you how long you want, you tell them, and they set it, and you’re happy.

If you’re an AT&T customer and you’re a hands on person, like the rest of educated society, you can do it yourself, and here’s how (this only works on AT&T):

1) Dial *#61#
2) Look at the line that says Forwards to and note the voicemail access number
3) Dial *61*[vm access number]*11*n# (replace [vm access number] with the number you noted down. n is the number of seconds you wish to set, in increments of 5 with a max of 30. To type a + you hold down the 0 button.

You should now see the following:

Setting Activation Succeeded
Voice Call Forwarding
When Unanswered

That’s all there is to it. Enjoy your full 30 second ringtones instead of just 15 seconds of them.

http://hara.ipwn.me/apt/

http://cmdshft.ipwn.me/apt/  <– USE THIS NOW

The page has a submission form. Enter all the relevant info, and make sure your packages are in a .zip form when uploading to filebeam.com. You can put notes or extra info in the description field if you want. You can also upload your premade .deb files if you’ve already made your package and I will simply add it to the repo quickly.

Benefits of this repo: No adds, no downtime, no bandwidth limit, free access, free submission, fast.

Recently, I’ve been working with Daverto [http://daverto.com, @daverto] on getting a Cydia repository started up. Thanks to my good friend Diabolik [http://osx86.me, @FreshlyBaked], I have near unlimited hosting capacity and bandwidth, so I figured I would put it to good use. Daverto has been so kind as to build a repository frontend for users to submit to. You can view the latest demo of said system here.

I will reveal the repository address when it’s all done. I have revealed it in other places, but that’s not an official release. The official release will be in a post on here and on my twitter soon.

When it’s released, as you can see in the demo, people will be able to submit packages for use on Cydia. The users will have to provide their own description page from somewhere, but that’s not that hard to do. The benefit is that there will be no ads to slow down package page loading (unless you put them on your description page)  and also minimizes clutter and scroll time. The server has remarkable uptime (near 100%, I’d say 99.9999%), so it should ALWAYS be available. Each night, any submissions received will be added immediately to the repository.

This only works on iOS 3.1.2.

Here’s how:
1) Jailbreak your iPhone. You can use blackra1n or PwnageTool, this works with both.
2) Install OpenSSH from Cydia (you can preinstall this into the firmware with PwnageTool).
3) Using your favorite SFTP/FTP client, SSH into your iPhone (if you don’t know how to do this, there are guides elsewhere, a simple Google search will yield many working results) and browse to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreTelephony.framework/Support/

6) Download CommCenter to your desktop.
7) Download this file for your 3.1.2 3GS or this file for your 3.1.2 3G
8) Open up Terminal.app and enter

cd Desktop
bspatch CommCenter CommCenter-hacked CommCenter.patch

9) In the SFTP/FTP client, delete CommCenter and upload the new CommCenter (making sure to rename it to CommCenter) in it’s place. Then make sure to set it’s permissions to 755.
10) Reboot your device.
11) If the option for tethering in Settings>Network don’t appear, browse to http://www.benm.at/help/help.php on your iPhone and install the appropriate profile. You need this for tethering to show with this hack. After installing, tethering should appear.
12) Et voila!

NOTE: I could not get bluetooth tethering to work for some reason. USB worked best. I am not sure if this is also an issue for other users. Also take note that you may incur charges on your bill. I’ve briefly used it, so we’ll see what happens when my bill comes. Others have said they haven’t seen any charges yet, but in any effect you should be very careful when using this.