Back in 1971, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (founders of Apple Computer Inc.) went into business to build ‘Blue Boxes’. A device that allowed free illegitimate phone calls by faking the signals used by AT&T (Apple’s exclusive network carrier). In the picture, you can see Woz with a ‘Blue Box’.

From Wikipedia:
An early phreaking tool, the blue box is an electronic device that simulates a telephone operator’s dialing console. It functions by replicating the tones used to switch long-distance calls and using them to route the user’s own call, bypassing the normal switching mechanism. The most typical use of a blue box was to place free telephone calls - inversely, the Black Box enabled one to receive calls which were free to the caller. The blue box no longer works in most western nations, as modern switching systems are now digital and no longer use the in-band signaling which the blue box emulates. Instead, signaling occurs on an out-of-band channel which cannot be accessed from the line the caller is using (called Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (CCIS)).

The Apple Founders not only built those devices, but Steve Jobs also sold them to his fellow students at the University of California, Berkeley. Allegedly they demonstrate the product by making prank calls.

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When the iPhone first came out, one of the sought-after features for the device was a Global Positioning System service that could be used with the handset.

Since Apple has yet to provide one, third party outfits seem the way to go. Yesterday, software company Navizon released its Virtual GPS software for the iPhone.

The software, which retails for US$24.99, triangulates signals from Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers to give the user their position. Users can download the program's .zip file directly and add the application to their iPhone via Installer.app , then connect to a Wi-Fi location and create a login.

From here, click the "Locate Me" button to allow the program to find you on the map. For best results, run the "Locate Me" function at least twice in order to have the Wi-Fi scanner become fully operational.

The program is distributed as trial-ware and will remain functional for 15 days before pushing the user to register it.

If you've tried the Virtual GPS program or have two cents to chip in regarding the iPhone and GPS, let us know in the comments.

Thanx to Rick Stenson of Qualnetics for the tip
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That’s right, for $5, maybe less depending on what you have handy, you can replace your iPhone’s busted screen. It won’t work if you puncture far enough through your phone to actually break the LCD, but it it’s just the glass, read on.

The parts list is a 1/32-inch thick piece of plexi-glass, transparent plastic, something of that nature, a razor blade, Dremel, scissors, and Goo Gone. Eye protection is also recommended, but that’s probably only for the part where you use the Dremel.

Use the razor blade to scrap off the remnants of the previous glass screen, cut out the plastic to fit, use paint or a Sharpie to black out the areas that are supposed to be black, use the Goo Gone to remove the left over glue on the LCD screen, then affix the new plastic cover. Word is the touchscreen still works just like it should, and unless someone gets up close, they can’t tell the difference.


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My son is an iPhone genius.

He's not yet three but can already tap the phone's touch screen well enough to play his "Dora the Explorer," "Little Einsteins" and "Sesame Street" videos.

"I do it myself, Daddy," he says before settling into his car seat and firing up the phone's video iPod for a car ride.

Making road trips more enjoyable for him was a surprising iPhone perk. So was not having to buy a DVD player for the family car.

Shaping Up the Competition
Techies were bound to love Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) first smart phone, but it's far more than just another pretty handheld package. After nearly three months, I've found that the iPhone and the tech innovations it introduces to the market are packed with features that make family life simpler and even safer.

Still, even with the recent US$200 price cut, the iPhone costs $400. That's a big bite into any family budget .

The price cut is unprecedented for Apple, coming less than three months after the iPhone's release and fueling speculation of poor sales . Apple, however, announced it sold 1 million iPhones in the first 74 days. The iPod needed two years to sell that many.

Apple's new price puts the iPhone in the same cost range as Motorola's (NYSE: MOT) Razr2 and Palm's (Nasdaq: PALM) Treo. Cheaper iPhone models and/or competitor versions from Samsung , LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson should be out by the holidays.

The good news is that what the iPhone delivers now at that price will eventually become standard on new cell phones and handsets. It has even helped us save time and money here and there.

Dora Saves the Day
My son almost couldn't believe Dora was in the palm of his tiny hand, the first time I downloaded the episode "Rojo, the Firetruck" from iTunes. It costs $2 per cartoon, but I was happily surprised to find out the "Sesame Street" TV shows were free. (When was the last time anyone gave a parent something so useful, for free?)

Suddenly long car and airplane rides seem less daunting.

However, the feature isn't the only family-friendly iPhone perk. Here are a few others:

Lost Dog
I lost track of my five-year-old beagle, Chico, the other night. I spoil him, so that's why I let him play in front of the house without a leash and collar while I cleaned my car.

A scary thought flashed in my mind: You lost your dog.

Fortunately, there were plenty of recent photos of Chico in my iPhone.

I could use them to show neighbors or even make missing-dog posters, thanks to the built-in camera's high clarity.

Ten minutes passed, and Chico eventually poked his head out of some bushes.

However, the incident taught us another important feature of the iPhone: With the included USB cable, parents can instantly download photos of a lost child (or pet) that can be used by authorities and neighbors during an emergency search. I know for most parents it can be unnerving just to think about a lost child, but it's good to know iPhone photos would work well with police computers and the Amber Alert system, which displays photos of missing children on electronic, roadside billboards.

Convenient Camera
The phone's high-quality camera also keeps us from missing unexpected moments for the family photo album when our digital camera isn't handy.

I really liked my old Razr cell phone, but its camera produced grainy pictures compared with iPhone's two-megapixel versions. The iPhone also syncs easily with home computers (PCs and Macs), and the image software is a breeze.

A Busy Parent's Best Friend
The iPhone is handy for those unexpected moments. You can use it to take a photo of a car accident scene or even a crime in progress. The iPhone's Web browser will also let you quickly find the business name and location of nearby gas stations with the cheapest prices or check on local, up-to-the-minute traffic conditions.

Then there's the $50 I saved when I bought a computer back-up hard drive at a Radio Shack store after using my iPhone's Web browser, Safari, to check prices at other stores.

Can the iPhone make you a better parent? Not necessarily. However, it certainly can make you a better-prepared one.

For better or worse, it also introduced my young son to a cutting-edge tech world. Who can put a price tag on that?

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If you bought your iPhone before August 22, you may be eligible for an instant $100 electronic credit toward the purchase of products at the Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. See the terms and conditions below for more details.

To receive your credit, Click this link!


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HaRRo over on the iPhone Dev Team has already upped the ante -- just hours after releasing the first free, open source iPhone SIM unlock software, he's already got an early beta version of the graphical one-click iPhone-based software cooking. We tested out an early build (sorry folks, it's not quite ready for release yet) and can confirm that despite the visual glitches you see above, it's already a fully functional one-click unlock solution, not different from IPSF's paid unlock software. Unfortunately, you still have to actually get the app onto the phone and go through the faux-activation process with your SIM afterward (and re-enable YouTube, if you so choose), but this is the first major step in automating the process of quickly and easily unlocking everybody's iPhone. More information -- including the final build of the GUI unlock -- will be posted as it comes to HaRRo's iPhone unlock site (hit the read link).

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Could VoIP on Apple’s new kit take on the might of the iPhone?


The idea first surfaced over on Apple Gazette, where bloggers have suggested that, thanks to the inbuilt Safari browser, you’ll be able to get Skype going on the touchscreen jukebox when it arrives in the next few weeks.

Potentially, this could give tech savvy punters the choice between laying out on a hallowed iPhone or simply hacking their music machine into a web-friendly mobile.

This is all reliant on the mic-toting iPhone headphones working with the iPod Touch however. And we’re betting that Apple’s already thought of this sneaky loophole and found a way round it.

Still, that kind of behaviour hasn’t stopped hackers freeing the iPhone from its pesky chains. We’ll be on the prowl for any news, so be sure to keep it here at iPhiend.
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The iPodtouch's physical storage limitation of 16GB enraged a lot of people. Why? Most were worried that they wouldn't be able to store much of the video that they wanted to watch on their beautiful new 480x320 screens. However, Apple allows you to play movies over the net. Don't believe us? Point your iPhone/iPodtouch browser over to:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/iphone

Yep. Links to Quicktime movies. Full 480x320. Full stereo sound and amazing video clarity. They also start up right away and play fully without having to catch up if you are on relatively speedy Wifi enabled Internet connection.

So what is stopping us from taking our incredibly diverse .mp4 movie collection and putting it on the web? Not much really.

Just point your Web Server directory to the folder that has your media files. No index.html page necessary - just enable directory listing on the webserver and allow the web browser to open the mp4 files. Now we have an iPod with 2TB of storage.

Technically, this can be done with music files and audiobooks as well. Anything that is read by Quicktime/iTunes should be compatible. Perhaps Apple should run with this on a Airport Extreme update? This functionality would be really easy to build in and make simple for the masses.

As long as we are near some Wifi - which isn't that infrequent! Now Bring on the 3G iPhones!


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The first free iPhone unlock software has been sold and successfully installed today by Mr Paul Taylor, from the UK. Giz was there as an exclusive witness, but when things went very wrong —and the process failed repeatedly giving a “baseband communication error”— I jumped in to help. After some troubleshooting we identified the problem —and I am afraid that it could mean that the software unlock may not work with all SIM configurations. [Updated Sept. 11, 02:52AM EST: iPod Sim Free has issued an application update to fix the problem we discovered during unlocking. Jump to see their statement.]

Nobody has told you this yet, but as I discovered, not everyone would be able to apply the iPhone Sim Free patch to unlock the iPhone. The key seems to be in the SIM card’s PIN. If you can disable it, everything seems ok to go. But if you can’t, it looks like you should have to forget about the iPhone Sim Free software for now.

As I was able to see today, the customer experience to unlock an iPhone is not pretty. In fact, it could be absolutely awful because most final users don’t know anything about SSH, SFTP or the Terminal. If you already have your iPhone jailbreaked using a software like iFuntastic for Mac (current version doesn’t work with iTunes 7.4) or iBrickr for Windows, installing the application will be a breeze: just drag and drop it inside the Applications folder inside your iPhone.

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American Express is not an Apple Fanboy anymore: Gizmodo says they called American Express to have a $200 refund because of the iPhone price drop and the company confirmed that they will honor the price protection plan. This will cost a fortune to American Express or the insurance company behind the protection plan. Other credit card companies are also offering the same plan. Don't hesitate to call them!
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Leave it to Apple to glaze over yet another cool feature of the new iPods and, if an updated product page is right, even the iPhone. Apparently the holiday-friendly gadgets support sending component video out with a new cable the Apple Store is selling. While the iPhone likely doesn't do this just yet, the feature could easily be included in the promised firmware update that will bring the iTunes WiFi Store before the month's end.

If you're wondering how Apple is pulling off component video with the current cable , it apparently isn't. Reports are cropping up all over that there's a new cable, retailing at the same price, which plugs into iPods and iPhones via the 30-pin Dock connector, not the headphone jack anymore. Things get even stranger on that product page, however, as it notes component video output is supported only by the 3G iPod nano, iPod classic, and iPod touch (480p or 576p for the former two, only 480i or 576i from the iPod touch for some reason), but the small icon legend just below that lists the iPhone in addition to the three new iPods.

For fellow iPhone owners, one can only hope that firmware update truly allows us to join the video-on-TV party.

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After numerous delays and problems with releasing their software unlock, iPhoneSIMfree has apparently been acquired by an unknown company before even delivering their software. According to an anonymous email tip, iPhoneSIMFree has yet to deliver their software, but has apparently straightened everything out and is in the process of delivering their unlock software, now that their acquisition has transitioned. Here is the email sent to purchasers of the software:






Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 14:15:38 +0200
From: iPhoneSimFree Sales <*deleted*>
Reply-To: iPhoneSimFree Sales <*deleted*>
Message-ID: <1943016064.20070907141538@iphonesimfree.com>
To: *deleted*
Subject: again sorry about the confusion!


Hello ,

as our operation grew quite big, we were bought by a larger company here in our
country. This is why some proforma were cancelled, and we have switched to our
new billing. Again sorry about the confusion.

--
Best regards,
iPhoneSimFree

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With the new heat the iPhone will be getting from the iPod Touch, Apple decided to lower the barrier of entry to a much more palatable $399, and that's for the 8GB model, which just yesterday was rocking at $599 pricepoint. It also looks like Apple is doing away with the 4GB version, which was seriously lagging behind its big brother in sales, but there's no official word yet.
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A third class action law suit regarding the iPhone battery has emerged. The new case, filed by a Mr. and Mrs. Stiener, cite that the battery in the iPhone will only last for 300 cycles before being completely exhausting. According to the complain, the battery would cost US$115 to replace as well as the time necessary to wait for a replacement.

The couple alleges that by not placing a warning about this apparent limitation in or on its packing materials, Apple and wireless carrier AT&T have violated both good faith and the California Commercial code, which demands that manufacturers in the state honestly reflect how their products will perform in real-world conditions. The Stieners have gone on record to state that the two companies responsible for the iPhone and its service meant to defraud customers.

According to The iPodObserver , the nine-page argument that the case is using as its central core is being written by the Hoffman and Lazear as well as Folkenflik and McGerity law firms. Both of these firms handled a similar suit regarding the iPhone battery in mid-August. If found guilty, Apple and AT&T would be forced to pay restitution to any affected customer in the state of California.

If you have any ideas or feedback on this, let us know in the comments

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We just got a couple of images sent to us from an anonymous source who claims that this is the new iPod nano that we can expect Steve Jobs to announce at the Apple Special Event taking place this Wednesday, September 5th. Since we’ve seen so many photoshop mockups floating around the Internet recently, we are not saying these are the real deal by any stretch of the imagination - however, we love how these look, and a guy can dream, can’t he?

I guess we will see how it all pans out on Wednesday.

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With the flurry of iPhone hacks and applications since iPhone's launch; the real estate on iPhone's home screen has got that much more precious. Until now iPhone users have been limited to just 16 applications on the iPhone home screen.

This is all set to change thanks to the latest iPhone hack from Natetrue, the hacking genius. The hack called "Dock" brings scrolling to the home screen so you longer have to worry about the 16 application limit.

As a workaround to this 16 application limit on iPhone's home screen (also called the Springboard); we had seen launcher applications that search for additional applications and let you choose one from a list. bitSplit has tried to this in the latest version of iFuntastic v3.03 by providing users the capability of having multiple home screens rather than being limited to only one with different applications on each of the home screens then NateTrue seems to have come with an even better iPhone-like solution.

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LG electronics is ready with its iPhone rival LG-KS20. It is 3G enables and uses WCDMA unlike Apple's iPhone. The operating system is Windows mobile 6.0? Other features are WiFi, mp3 player, 2.0 megapixel camera and bluetooth almost iPhone similar features.

LG Electronics Inc.'s battle to beat the iPhone is far from over. The South Korean electronics company has unveiled its second iPhone-like handset and this one packs several important features the iPhone doesn't: 3G and high-speed cellular data networking.

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Whether you feel it's right or not, successful iPhone hardware hacks have been reported around the world. Some of these hacks have worked and the users seem pretty happy with the results.

Others have backfired and caused damage that's nothing less than impossible to explain to the nice person behind the Genius Bar as accidental or the dog's fault (such as the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth now refusing to work or the iPhone itself refusing to power up).

In one reported instance, a more severe example has arisen.

A relatively anonymous post to the Hackintosh forums provided this comment and showed this picture:

“We were so happy, all the software part was done, so we started opening the iphone. The antenna cover was a bit tricky but eventually it came off. Then we started to open the metal cover (after taking out the 3 screws) and PUFF, up it went in smoke, I think my collegue must have touched something. It literally went up in black smoke. It was so hot that when I tried to pick it up I burnt my fingers. So, this is for sure the most difficult part of the whole process. I don’t know what he did, as I had just stepped out of the room to fetch something when I heard a scream…they got such a fright.”

Although the iPhone is severely cool, there are certain proticals to follow when opening it up and trying to modify it: as in, be extremely careful, follow the directions and if you find US$499/US$599 wafting to the ceiling in the form of black smoke, try to have a sense of humor about it after the fact.

If you have any thoughts or feedback, let us know in the comments


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iFunstastic v3.03 is here and the good news for those who have PowerPCs is that the latest version of the iPhone hack now supports PowerPC. The other great enhancement is that the file browser will not only let you gain access to iPhone's file system it will also allows you to install the latest native iPhone application.

bitSplit, after about 3 weeks of silence has just released v3.03 of iFuntastic and if v2.5 was great with the addition of the iPhone file browser, the latest version is even better.

So what's new? One of the limitations of the previous versions of iFuntastic was that it could be used only on only Intel based MAC computers, the good news is the new version now also supports PowerPC as promised. However, looks like Windows PC users will need to wait longer.

The other new feature called "Unshackling" has been introduced in this version, basically this means that you do not need to un-jail or re-jail your iPhone for every modification instead it needs just one-time jail breaking. This method also does not require iTunes to be shut down while you are making modifications which was another limitation of the prevision version.

You can now use the file browser (called the file manager in this version) to not only gain access to iPhone's file system but it will also allow you to install the latest native iPhone applications or hacks including uploading of NES ROMs.

The Home screen personalization feature has been enhanced, with the new version you are not limited to one home screen but you can have multiple home screens with each having different icons and even backgrounds.

As for custom ringtones feature, you can now use iFuntastic to rip iTunes previews for you , all you need to do is simply create a playlist of songs from the iTunes Music Store and drag the exported version into iFuntastic to install them as custom ringtones on your iPhone. For more details Read More...Click Permalink before submitting article:

Hackers have figured out how to unleash Apple's iPhone from AT&T's cellular network, but people hoping to make money from the procedure could face legal problems.

At least one of the companies hoping to make money by unlocking iPhones said it is hesitating after calls from lawyers representing the phone company.

Unlocking the phone for one's own use, for instance to place calls with a different carrier, appears to be legal. But if it's done for financial gain, the legality is less certain.

''Whether people can make profits from software that hacks the iPhone is going to depend very much on exactly what was done to develop that software and what does that software do,'' said Bart Showalter, head of the Intellectual Property practice group at law firm Baker Botts in Dallas.

John McLaughlin of Uniquephones.com , an outfit based in Northern Ireland, said in a phone interview Wednesday that its unlocking software for iPhones is ready, but the company is holding off while it gets legal advice.

He said it had been contacted by lawyers from O'Melveny & Myers LLP, an international law firm representing AT&T, who told him the software contained material copyrighted by Apple Inc.

''They don't have it, so therefore they can't actually threaten us,'' McLaughlin said. ''It was 'friendly advice.'''

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had nothing to say about the case.

Uniquephones.com had planned to release the software via iphoneunlocking.com . The price for people on its mailing list, which contained just fewer than half a million addresses, would be $25 per iPhone, McLaughlin said.

''From their e-mail addresses, they're from everywhere in the world,'' McLaughlin said. ''Everybody is just waiting for it.''

The iPhone is sold only in the U.S., and only for use on the AT&T network, but it is compatible with cell phone technology used around the world, which means an unlocked phone can use an overseas account and number. In the U.S., T-Mobile is the only other major carrier compatible with the iPhone; Sprint and Verizon Wireless use different network technologies.

Most U.S. phones are locked to their carrier when sold, because the carrier subsidizes the cost of the phone. The iPhone, however, is apparently not subsidized by AT&T.

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