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The contest will be running from January 28th, to February 12th. So as you can see, the contest already started, so get going now! You’ve only got 9 days left.
Here are the contest instructions and rules posted by the big guy himself.
With the release of 1.1.3 I have received a few emails asking when we will get a custom WebClip for the site. I would make one. . .but I barely know paint. . .let alone Photoshop.
The contest will start today and end in 2 weeks. . .February 12th @ 12:00am(midnight)
You are allowed to submit up to 3 WebClips. . .just leave a comment to this post with a link(s) to your 1, 2 or 3 WebClips.
As a bonus to the winner, they will receive a 25 dollar prize from Amazon.com(including shipping).
I was surfing the ipodtouchfans forums this evening when I ran into a thread started by mushyfung. In this thread, he provided a link to a video he created on metacafe of himself playing the PocketGuitar iPod Touch application.
I tried this app for myself a couple weeks back, and I must say, practice is needed. However, I’m sure if you’re already a guitar player, you’ll be quicker to learn this app than I was. Practice makes perfect, and if that’s what it takes, I’ll practice long into the night. Expect a video from myself within the next couple of weeks!
.
Have a look at the video mushyfang provided below:
Upon watching his video, he gave me the idea of surfing Google, YouTube and the likes, and finding as many great guitarists (and non-guitarists!) making some sweet sound with the PocketGuitar app.
Getting fed up of having to scratch out, word for word, each item on your weekly shopping list?
Well, no more. Thanks to fsaint of the modmyifone forums, it is now possible to type out your shopping list on the ipod touch, and as you go along, hit the “Have” button for items you’ve already picked up in your shopping cart.
Also, here’s a temporary fix for 1.1.3 jailbroken users by the creator himself:
There is a way to set the permissions. So here is the dirty thing … ShopList stores two files, need and have and the are in /Applications/ShopList.app/. So you need to change the ownership of of need and have:
chown mobile:mobile /Applications/ShopList.app/need
chown mobile:mobile /Applications/ShopList.app/have
and also you need to change the permisions of the directory
I did
chmod 755 /Applications/ShopList.app/need
chmod 755 /Applications/ShopList.app/have
chmod 777 /Applications/ShopList.app/
there might be a more subtle way to set the permissions, but that works. Anyway I have a new version that stores the files in the right place /var/mobile/something. I hope to publish that over the weekend.
It’s official. Andy Huang has opened repo.sc to public beta test!
Okay, I’m probably suppose to write some formal press release for this… but you know what? Whatever. I’m not cool enough to write one of them fancy things up, so here’s just a personal note from me to everyone
As of 02:26 AM, Feburary 2nd, 2008, GMT -08:00, Repo Source ( http://repo.sc ) is live in Open Beta 1!
What does Open Beta 1 mean?
Open Beta 1 means, yes, as the name implies, we’re now open… And it also means we’re still in early development stages of this project… in fact, it is the first beta we’re having for it. So, expect bugs, lots of bugs. While I did try everything in my power to ensure there’s no serious show stopping bugs, I can’t guarentee you that your stay here will be the most pleasant one… But hey, I could be wrong
So, try it out, and report any problems you encounter to me, and I look forward to giving you more features in the week to come!
In case you missed it and can’t be arsed to scroll down, repo.sc is an iPhone/iPod Touch repository aggregator that collects all known, stable repositories in one location, which will eliminate the need to keep dozens of repos in your Installer source list, instead leaving just one single repo for Installer to refresh. This will dramatically reduce the time it takes to refresh your Installer sources from up to 10 minutes down to just a few seconds. Furthermore, you can customize your own personal repository, browsing all available packages from all supported sources and adding only the packages you want to your repo, which will further streamline Installer so that only the stuff you want will show up, and all the stuff you’re not interested in won’t. Head on over to repo.sc and give it a try! I think you’ll find that it is an excellent alternative to the way things run now. Be sure to report your findings/bugs/suggestions in the forums.
Also note that while repo.sc acts as a personal repository, all of the packages still have to come from their original sources — they are not stored on repo.sc, so whatever problems you might have had with a particular repository the old fashioned way will still turn up when you try and install a package from a repo that is down or overloaded.
For those of you who have been wondering why there have been no releases forthcoming from yon Zod way, this would seem to be the answer: He has been busy adding compatibility for firmware 1.1.3 to all of his apps.
Very soon ZodTTD.com applications such as snes4iphone, gpSPhone, OpenTTD.app, and psx4iphone will be receiving updates to fully support firmware 1.1.3 change to using the ‘mobile’ user instead of ‘root’. There is however a quick fix for those who want these and other applications to work with 1.1.3. You must chmod (set permissions) to 777 to the /var/root/Library/Preferences/ directory and also chmod 777 the directories used for external files such as ROMs, usually somewhere within /var/root/Media/.
More news to come shortly. Thanks for the continued support everyone!
“Very soon” is now the current estimate. Be patient — this ain’t Duke Nukem Forever, and he didn’t say When It’s Done™ so we’re safe.
It’s a week chock full of updates, folks. This time, the seminal jailbreak app, Installer, has finally shed its beta skin and is now a full-fledged version 3.0. The new version increases automatic refresh times to every 12 hours, which should clear up the frequent and lengthy refreshes every hour or so that make you scream at your device and say unflattering things about its mother. It also sports a new queuing feature when installing apps, allowing you to queue up multiple apps to install all at once, as well as a much requested Update All function in the updates pane, a free space checker to make sure you have at least half a meg left, and proper keyboard when adding sources (the same one used in Safari, with the URL characters on the main keyboard), among other miscellaneous changes. Refresh your sources in Installer and it should automatically inform you of the required update.
So you’ve upgraded and jailbroken your firmware 1.1.3. Now you’ve finished organizing your 8-page springboard into a neat and tidy single-page with Categories. (You have downloaded the update, right?) Well, boyo, I’m afraid you’re not done sprucing your Touch/iPhone up just yet, because Summerboard 3.1-1 just hit the wires. In case you’ve been living with your head lodged in a small tin bucket while constantly beating it with a pair of wooden spoons for the last several months, Summerboard sits on top of Springboard and lets you apply themes, wallpapers and all sorts of gee-whiz-nifty stuff so your Touch/iPhone looks sexy enough to date. As of this writing the Nullriver repo server is slammed harder than a ho on free sample night, so expect lengthy download times — but like a starving man waiting for a juicy porterhouse steak to grill, I don’t have to tell you that it’s worth the wait. Of course, I really don’t know why I’m continuing to type, because by now the whole lot of you have already grabbed your devices and are furiously stabbing at Installer’s Refresh button while that rivulet of drool on your shirt keeps getting longer.
NOTE: Some people (myself included) are reporting problems with Summerboard coming up as inactive after installing and rebooting, resulting in a non-functional Summerboard install. Thus far we have not determined the problem and therefore have yet to find a solution. If it does not work for you, have some patience and hopefully the collective braintrust (or Nullriver themselves) can come up with a workable solution.
UPDATE: After some straw polling, it would appear as though the ones effected are those who used ipodtouchmaster’s all-in-one jailbreak method. The solution that has worked so far is to do the whole jailbreak process all over again and use the official Dev Team GUI 1.1.3 jailbreak method.
I know, you all love me right now. Please put down the crowbar.
UPDATE 2 (Feb. 2nd, 2008): Well, after banging my head against a brick wall bristling with rusty iron spikes tipped with salt and vinegar, I have finally and successfully jailbroken 1.1.3 by starting with a clean 1.1.1 restore, jailbreaking my way through to 1.1.2 and then using the Official 1.1.3 Upgrader and notusing the restore feature. It did freeze with a blank screen after the “Jailbreaking System Image” notice, but I forced a reboot and it popped into the 1.1.3 springboard with everything working flawlessly — including SummerBoard! After 12 hours of futzing around with this whole 1.1.3 jailbreak debacle, I believe I can finally say that I am done.
Something amazing has hit the iPod Touch front. One team calls it the iPhonePedia.app. The other, simply Wikipedia.app.
That’s right. There are actually two application versions of Wikipedia.com’s database that are available for the iPod Touch (and iPhone, of course).
One huge difference between the two is the size of the download. Wikipedia.app will require ~2GB’s of space, while the iPhonePedia.app will only consume an astonishing ~150MB’s!
Update (from Patrick [starter of Wikipedia.app] on Jan 4th, 2008)
…the iPhonePedia app needs you to download a dump from the main Wikipedia servers in addition to their 150MB file — so you end up
with 3.1GB of stuff (not 150MB). Wikipedia.app (the one I wrote needs a little under 2GB (keeping this size down was one of the big
goals when developing it).
Here’s the basics on Wikipedia.app
What: An offline Wikipedia reader for the iPhone or iPod Touch. I wanted to write an iPhone app over Christmas, and so hacked this together during the break.
Why: It’s the warm fuzzy feeling of having the sum of all human knowledge in your pocket. It’s the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy realised. EDGE is slow; search is slow; you’re abroad, in a plane, a tunnel, or on top of a mountain. You have an iPod Touch.
Size: It’ll consume about a quarter of your iPhone’s storage—the app, indexes and dumps are almost exactly 2GB together.
Completenes: This still has a lot of rough edges. Some articles can’t be opened, and it’s not too hard to crash the app.
Other: There’s also a mongrel-based ruby server for offline browsing on a PC (was used for debug during development). See sh/server in the source distribution. No screenshots yet.
Dear SummerBoard Developers,
SummerBoard just may be the number one reason an iPod Touch user jailbreaks their iPod. They are willing to use illegal measures to be able to customize their iPod any way they like. You and Customize run the jailbreak scene; customize has updated so you can run it on 1.1.3, so I am here, asking you, please hurry your ass’s up. I miss my background, my customized icons. I miss all the abilities you have given me, then taken away (damn you, 1.1.3!). So, do whatever you need to do to develop a patch, drink far too many coffee’s, Red Bulls, what have you; but PLEASE, fix it! I speak for thousands when I say this – BRING SUMMERBOARD BACK!
Margo Giorgini has been hard at work improving his port of the Yeti 3D engine to the iPod Touch. Version 003 is now available, and with it comes a slew of new features, including better bad guys, a health bar (you can die now) and an ammo bar (but no ammo crates to replenish your supply yet), as well as a mini-map in the top corner, a frame counter on the bottom (presumably for his own purposes), and a slimmed-down virtual controller. Furthermore, a dedicated repository is now available in Installer so you have the choice of downloading the ZIP or installing it directly over the air.
A quick note about a new update of Yeti3D
- new UI with Health, Ammo and a map slice
- now enemies move smoother and they got light from environment
- now enemies can kick you (till you die) Read the rest of this entry »
With the update to firmware 1.1.3 and the subsequent (and oft problematic) jailbreak came breaks of another sort: Several apps ceased to work as prescribed. Among those were three of the core essentials that make the jailbreak experience what it is: Categories, SummerBoard, and Customize. Well, you can now scratch one of those off your most wanted list, because Big Boss is back with an update to his Customize app, and he’s brought 1.1.3 compatibility with him. Customize 1.60a is now available on the BigBoss repository, so you lot who have already reloaded your devices with seventeen pages of apps and web clippings now have some housekeeping to do. I’ll keep this brief so you can get to it. And no sweeping DemoApp under the rug.
Some two months back or so I saw a problem. The problem was with the increasing number of sources that were appearing for Installer. The more sources there were, the slower Installer took to refresh them, particularly if one or more was down or being hit too hard. I thought of a few possible solutions, and even partnered up with someone to work on a potential solution, though it wasn’t without its drawbacks. As it turns out though, Alfarin, a.k.a. Andy Huang on the iPod Touch Fans forums, has mercifully obviated the need for me to continue any further by introducing Repo.sc. His solution to this growing problem is more innovative than anything I was able to come up with, so I will let him explain it in his own words:
What is repo.sc?
As we all know, when you add too many sources to installer, your installer takes forever to update sources, and start up. It can be a very annoying wait if you are just heading in to install one or two apps. In a nutshell, repo.sc is a new and innovative service, created to help you speed up installer.
It would seem that amid all of the pomp and ceremony surrounding the various 1.1.3 jailbreak releases, news of a pair of new Javascript-based games managed to slip quietly under the radar. It would seem that shortly after the New Year, developer digicide coded up Javascript versions of the classic Scrabble board game, as well as a remake of Popcap Games’ Text Twist. These two games will run natively on your iPhone and iPod Touch via the Jiggy runtime package (add http://jiggyapp.com/i to your sources in Installer, then install it from the Development category). I’m a sucker for a good word game, and these are certainly two of my favourites, so check them out, and be sure to follow the directions on each game’s page to install them, or read this iPod Touch Fans thread for help and more information.
Last night, an anonymous tipster pointed us to this Austin Heap webpage that purportedly reveals the iPhone’s secret Application SDK key. Another tipster, also anonymous, then tipped me to iPhone “Elite” developer Zibri’s blog, that shows the same key. So what does this mean? Since all iPhone applications must be properly signed for iTunes to process them and for the iPhone to load them, this key suggests that hackers are closer to creating compliant IPA application bundles for home-brew iTunes distribution. With the proper key, developers can create and distribute applications that load through iTunes without Apple’s blessing.
Congrats, to whoever found this, but unfortunately, Apple will most likely change the key before the SDK release next month.
UPDATE (01/30/08 by Eric): As it turns out, Erica Sadun was mistaken. Zibree denies ever saying that this key had anything to do with the SDK.
I wonder how rumors run quickly and I am very disappointed
by Erica Sadun of TUAW for telling people this was
13 year old’s Arix and Ben have programmed a mobile 1.1.3 jailbreak method with their own knowledge.
Here is what they’ve posted on their website on January the 28th (yesterday):
AriX and I are VERY pleased to announce the immediate availability of iJailBreakMobile 1.0, a new branch of the wildly-successful iJailBreak utility.
iJailBreakMobile allows iPod Touches and iPhones to be automatically upgraded to, and jailbreak on 1.1.3 through Installer.app.
The great thing about iJailBreakMobile is that it does not require the use of a computer, so regardless of what operating system of architecture your computer may be running on, iJailBreakMobile will work just fine. As such, this fixes the File Not Found error and PowerPC compatibility issues.
You must start on a jailbroken installation of 1.1.1 or 1.1.2. To downgrade from 1.1.3 to 1.1.1, please visit www.ijailbreak.com/downgrade113. To downgrade from 1.1.2 to 1.1.1, please visit www.ijailbreak.com/downgrade112. iPod Touch owners need only follow page 1 and then visit JailbreakMe.com to jailbreak. iPhone owners should do the first and second pages (which includes jailbreaking). At this point, your device is ready to use iJailBreak.
Doug, the owner of InstallerApps.com, is running a contest.
I was surfing the ipodtouchfans forums this evening when I ran into a thread started by 
Getting fed up of having to scratch out, word for word, each item on your weekly shopping list?
Thank you, fsaint.
It’s official. Andy Huang has opened 
For those of you who have been wondering why there have been no releases forthcoming from yon Zod way, this would seem to be the answer: He has been busy adding compatibility for firmware 1.1.3 to all of his apps.
It’s a week chock full of updates, folks. This time, the seminal jailbreak app, Installer, has finally shed its beta skin and is now a full-fledged version 3.0. The new version increases automatic refresh times to every 12 hours, which should clear up the frequent and lengthy refreshes every hour or so that make you scream at your device and say unflattering things about its mother. It also sports a new queuing feature when installing apps, allowing you to queue up multiple apps to install all at once, as well as a much requested Update All function in the updates pane, a free space checker to make sure you have at least half a meg left, and proper keyboard when adding sources (the same one used in Safari, with the URL characters on the main keyboard), among other miscellaneous changes. Refresh your sources in Installer and it should automatically inform you of the required update.
So you’ve upgraded and jailbroken your firmware 1.1.3. Now you’ve finished organizing your 8-page springboard into a neat and tidy single-page with Categories. (You have downloaded the update, right?) Well, boyo, I’m afraid you’re not done sprucing your Touch/iPhone up just yet, because Summerboard 3.1-1 just hit the wires. In case you’ve been living with your head lodged in a small tin bucket while constantly beating it with a pair of wooden spoons for the last several months, Summerboard sits on top of Springboard and lets you apply themes, wallpapers and all sorts of gee-whiz-nifty stuff so your Touch/iPhone looks sexy enough to date. As of this writing the Nullriver repo server is slammed harder than a ho on free sample night, so expect lengthy download times — but like a starving man waiting for a juicy porterhouse steak to grill, I don’t have to tell you that it’s worth the wait. Of course, I really don’t know why I’m continuing to type, because by now the whole lot of you have already grabbed your devices and are furiously stabbing at Installer’s Refresh button while that rivulet of drool on your shirt keeps getting longer.
With the update to firmware 1.1.3 and the subsequent (and oft problematic) jailbreak came breaks of another sort: Several apps ceased to work as prescribed. Among those were three of the core essentials that make the jailbreak experience what it is: Categories, SummerBoard, and Customize. Well, you can now scratch one of those off your most wanted list, because Big Boss is back with an update to his Customize app, and he’s brought 1.1.3 compatibility with him. Customize 1.60a is now available on the BigBoss repository, so you lot who have already reloaded your devices with seventeen pages of apps and web clippings now have some housekeeping to do. I’ll keep this brief so you can get to it. And no sweeping DemoApp under the rug.
Some two months back or so I saw a problem. The problem was with the increasing number of sources that were appearing for Installer. The more sources there were, the slower Installer took to refresh them, particularly if one or more was down or being hit too hard. I thought of a few possible solutions, and even partnered up with someone to work on a potential solution, though it wasn’t without its drawbacks. As it turns out though, Alfarin, a.k.a. Andy Huang on the 
It would seem that amid all of the pomp and ceremony surrounding the various 1.1.3 jailbreak releases, news of a pair of new Javascript-based games managed to slip quietly under the radar. It would seem that shortly after the New Year, developer digicide coded up Javascript versions of the classic 
This is simply amazing…
