iOS 4.2.1 released today with free Mobile Me Find My Device

The release of iOS 4.2.1 is imminent, and the surprise is that with it comes the first free Mobile Me feature. Find My iPhone is now available to all iOS users without paying a Mobile Me annual subscription, and is easily set up from an iPhone/iPad/iPod using an existing or new iTunes account. Here’s a quick walk through of the steps using an iPad.

JailbreakMe.com for iOS4 (and 3.2) devices

The iPhone Dev Team has announced that jailbreakme.com is now live offering a Safari based jailbreak for iOS4 devices, as well as iPads running 3.2.1. Their blog post states the site will jailbreak iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads so it may work with older software versions but details are a little scarce at the moment.

The screenshots above and below show the simple jailbreaking process on my 3.2.1 iPad which now has Cydia installed as well as the marvelous iFile.

Camera Connection Kit with iPad and iPhone Review

The main accesory I wanted to buy with my iPad was the camera connection kit. Unfortunately this was sold out in New York, so I tried again on launch day in the UK. When the kit sold out in a couple of hours here it was time to place an order through the Apple online store and wait three weeks like everyone else. I’ve now had the kit for two weeks and can give some thoughts on it’s use.

The camera connection kit comprises two small adaptors that plug into the iPad dock connector, providing an SD card slot and a USB socket.

The intended use for these two items is to transfer photo and video content from your digital camera to the iPad for viewing, storage and subsequent transfer to a computer. The first thing I tested when the kit arrived was its ability to import media from my Panasonic LX3 camera. Jpeg and RAW images preview and copy to the ipad correctly, and the camera’s 720p video is also fully supported. This wasn’t a huge surprise as much has already been written about the functionality of the kit, but being able to copy party video’s quickly to the iPad for immediate viewing was one of those ‘wow’ moments for the guests.

Jailbreaking a 3GS with iOS4

With the iPhone Dev Team’s release of PwnageTool 4 yesterday (and the 4.01 update today) I was ready to jailbreak my iPhone 3GS. It’s been running the iOS4 beta 4/Gold Master since that was leaked, but being on iOS4 already had prevented the use of the beta jailbreaks available before the public release of iOS4. There were still several steps involved to achieve the jailbreak, as stipulated in this condition from the Dev Team’s blog:

If you have a Jailbroken iPhone 3GS with the OLD BOOTROM and you DID NOT use Spirit to jailbreak then you can create the ipsw with PwnageTool 4.0 and restore with your jailbroken recovery mode

My 3GS uses the old bootrom, so OK there. The requirement for a jailbroken 3GS NOT using Spirit meant the first step was to downgrade the firmware to 3.1.2. That’s an easy step if Cydia has your SHSH stored for the previous firmware, as mine are.

The next step was to jailbreak the 3.1.2 install using redsn0w 0.9.2. Once this was confirmed to be working correctly (just look for Cydia to be installed) PwnageTool 4.01 was used to produce a custom iOS4 ipsw. The iPhone was then put into DFU mode, and iTunes used to pick the custom ipsw to restore.

Both times I restored a firmware during this process a 1015 error was given after the restore. By that time the restore had successfully completed but the iPhone was stuck in recovery mode. The freeware RecBoot utility was used to get out of recovery mode and back to normal startup.

A backup had been made by iTunes before starting the jailbreak, so this was restored once the jailbreak was completed. I now have SBsettings back on my iPhone, giving fast access to 3G and WiFi on/off to help conserve batter power. There’s a few other useful jailbroken apps that haven’t been updated for iOS4 compatibility yet, but hopefully that will be done soon.

Once again thanks to the iPhone Dev Team for redsn0w and PwnageTool, and to Saurik for Cydia and enabling the downgrade to earlier firmware.

iOS 4 thoughts

An Engadget post yesterday revealed the gold build issued at WWDC works on any compatible iPod/iPhone without the device being registered for development. A quick search of the usual places such things are found turned up the latest beta of iTunes 9.2 required for the restore process, as well as the ipsw packages for the iPhone 3G/S and iPod Touch 2g/3g. Since these are far from official sources everything was scanned for nasties but the clean results meant it wasn’t long before my 3GS was running iOS4.

After a day of playing with the next year’s OS the initial stand out additions are multitasking, folders and the unified Mail inbox. Multitasking, even in the current state of only being fully supported by Apple apps, is a big improvement in speed and ease of use. Opening a link in Mail takes the user straight to Safari but a quick double click of the home button and a tap on the mail icon and you’re back to where you left off in Mail. Folders means an alternative to page after page of app icons, and the unified inbox is such an improvement you just wonder why it wasn’t like this from the start. There are some problems and inconsistencies with the new additions, so read on for more details and screenshots.

Stanza updated for iPad

The iPhone version of eBook reader Stanza has today been joined by an iPad version with the 3.0 release. Support for PDF, DjVu, and Comic Book Archive format media has been added, expanding Stanza’s abilities to include Comic books and anything that can be saved as a PDF. The organising of media into groups is a little clunky so I still prefer using Goodreader for PDF’s, Cloudreaders for comics and Stanza for Books. Where Stanza really shines though is in its display options, offering a huge range of fonts and control over page layout. Fast access to night mode for those lights out reading sessions is also a big plus. Version 3 also adds more online sources for free and paid ebooks.

What’s new in iPhone OS 4

Apple today unveiled many of the new features of iPhone/iPod/iPad OS 4, with the disappointing news that some of the features will only be available on the current generation of iDevices. More on that later, the new features were dominated by the seven chosen for attention:

Multitasking

There wasn’t much chance of this being left out if Apple wanted to stay competitive with Google’s Android platform. New API’s are provided to allow apps to run as background services until resumed. Background apps can allow control from the lock sceen, and display notifications. There are seven background services available:

• Background Audio
• Voice over IP
• Background Location
• Push Notification
• Local Notifications
• Task Completion
• Fast App Switching

iPhone OS 4 unveiled 8th April

It’s an exciting time for Apple fans just now, and the fun continues April 8th. Apple has announced the unveiling of iPhone OS 4 this Thursday, and the Apple promotion machine (that’s us) has gone into overdrive speculating what might be new. Here’s a few of the suggestions:

• Multitasking seems to be the big focus, but Apple have previously commented on the effect this would have on battery life. The Pre offers multitasking and battery life sucks, so maybe iPhone OS 4 will freeze the running app when you switch to another so it’s not using up the battery in the background. Just an idea.
• Unified Mail Inbox is much needed and has been hinted at, so looking like a good bet for inclusion.
• Home Screen is one area the iPhone is lagging. We don’t need a huge battery indicator when the space could offer customisable RSS feeds, weather, stocks or any other information a plugin could provide. Just think, a whole new section for the App Store.
• Interface Updates After three years the iphone interface is getting a bit old, isn’t it time for a refresh? I’ve been using the Mobileme GUI 3.0 theme since getting my 3GS, and while interface themes aren’t likely to be in iPhone OS 4 a new look would be welcome.

Apple Tablet Predictions

Just about every site covering anything vaguely Apple related has pondered what might be announced at the ‘Come see our latest creation’ event on 27th January. If there isn’t a Tablet PC announced the internet will ignite with the wrath of a million Apple fanboys. On top of this the rumours of Iphone OS 4, iLife 10 and updated Macbooks mean that some of these aren’t going to be included. Just for fun, here’s my predictions on what will be announced tomorrow.

The Tablet

• Called the MacPad. iPad is too obvious, and iSlate and iTablet are too awkward sounding.
• 10 inch screen, resolution 1280×800 for all the iTunes HD content. This gives around 150DPI for use as an eReader. Possibly in two versions for LCD and OLED, until the OLED price comes down.
• The OS will be something between the flexibility of Snow Leopard and the ease of iPhone OS. Maybe a dashboard type display with selectable widgets/feeds/ information. I would include the ability to run iPhone apps in a 320×480 window or full screen tablet apps. And multi-tasking.
• 32-128Gb Flash Memory on board dependant on expansion options, so a worthwhile amount of HD content can be stored. Streaming HD content and audio from your iTunes account at home with a fast data connection.
• An SD card slot. The Macbook Pro’s have them, and a 10 inch tablet would make an excellent photo viewer/editor.
• A USB port, possibly miniUSB if the Tablet is as thin as the photoshop fake’s are hoping. This really opens up the device for adding an external HD stuffed with content, but realistically isn’t likely as most other peripherals would plug into a dock connector. How about a dock with USB available for third party expansion options?
• Universal 3G ability rather than tied to one service provider, just add your own 3G sim. Maybe a data package as an option, but not compulsory.
• A P.A. semi highly integrated processor?
• Front and back video camera’s for video calls is a killer app for a tablet.
• eBooks magazines and newspapers in iTunes, just like the Amazon Kindle store with lower prices and higher volume.

iLife 10

• Grand Central and OpenCL support bringing a big speed boost to HD encoding. What’s the point of building these technologies into Snow Leopard if Apple doesn’t use them?
• iDvd gets new authoring abilities for the Tablet and HD content, or a new app is added to do this. Dvd’s can package photo slideshows and multiple video’s, so file based media needs the same.
• A simplified version of iLife for the Tablet would be nice, offering basic photo retouching and video editing.

iPhone OS 4

• There’s no denying the iPhone seriously needs a good home screen showing calls and messages, calendar etc. Other platforms, especially Android, are catching up so something flexible but simple is required. And an easy way to switch 3G, WiFi and brightness like SBsettings would be nice.
• Irrespective of what the iPhone doesn’t do well it’s still selling in large amounts so how badly are improvements needed? I’m betting iPhone OS 4 will be saved for the WWDC mid year, and an update to V3 will add tablet support and some new features.

Macbooks

• Nope. It’s a tablet event.

Jailbreaking iPhone 3.1.2

With the release of the iPhone Dev Team’s PwnageTool 3.1.4 it is now possible to jailbreak everything but the iPod touch 3rd generation on the Macintosh. Blackra1n for Windows is available to jailbreak any 3.1.2 device including the iPod Touch 3rd generation, so your choice is governed by your platform or device.

I tested PwnageTool 3.1.4 this morning and it worked flawlessly with my 3GS. The previous 3.1.3 version for jailbreaking 3.1 had caused me big problems with the phone being unable to connect to the network after installing the modified ipsw. Luckily I had a version 3.0 ECID SHSH on file with Cydia so it was possible (if convoluted) to restore back to 3.0 and try again. Second time round upgrading to the modified 3.1 worked fine, and I have been unable to figure out what went wrong the first time.