Apple has just pushed out Firmware 2.2.1 for iPhone and iPhone 3G, iPod touch, iPod touch 2G. You can download them here. Firmware 2.2.1 cannot be jailbroken at this time, so unofficial application users should wait for new version of QuickPwn from DevTeam. Unlock (yellowsn0w) also doesn't work for 2.2.1.
This update contains bug fixes and improvements:
Version 2.2.1 (Build 5H11)
Modem Firmware 02.30.03
Improved general stability of Safari
Fixed issue where some images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll
Fixed issue that caused some Apple Lossless (ALAC) to skip during playback
Unofficially Apple fixed SMS bug: users suddenly experience inability to send SMS text messages on the iPhone 3G, receiving the message "error sending" upon attempting to send.
First of all these icons can be viewed on any iPhone with 2.2 firmware. But to be able to send these icons users need to perform additional actions. There are 4 ways to turn them on and 2 of them are free:
Solution N1 for $5.99:
In AppStore buy and install Touch Dial Emoji. Goto Settings -> Touch Dial -> Enable Smiley icon ON. Launch Touch Dial. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."
Solution N2 for $0.99:
In AppStore buy and install FrostyPlace. Play with the app for a minute to activate, click on a story, etc. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."
Solution N3 for Free:
Jailbreak your iPhone. Run Cydia and install Emoji application (iSpazio repository). Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."
This application adds boolean ‘true’ key KeyboardEmojiEverywhere edits in /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist. You can do it manually if you want.
Solution N3 for Free:
Step 1. Download the vcard.vcf here.
Step 2. Import it to your address book program. If you are using Windows, you may want to do it on iPhone directly. Send the vcard.vcf file to yourself. Open in on iPhone’s Email.app, click the vcf file and import all the contacts.
Step 3. Go into “Settings” > “General” > “Keyboard” > “Japanese Keyboard”. Enable the QWERTY keyboard.
Step 4. In notes or any other program you want. Type “emojia”, “emojii” or “emojiu” to select those icons.
I like Solution N3. It is free and simple. You do not need to play with contacts and etc. But you need to jailbreak an iPhone.
Cooliris, the popular browser extension that revolutionizes the way you view media. Now it is available as an application for iPhone and iPod Touch. Cooliris makes finding news and search results a breeze by displaying them as an endlessly streaming 3D Wall, complementing the touch screen perfectly.
This application is free, avaliable via AppStore (link).
Features
3D Wall makes finding and viewing content easy, and fun
Discover provides you with news on-the-go: stay on top of the latest current events
Get the full story: Read more inline without having to jump to the web browser
How to use:
1-Finger Swipe - Scroll the wall a screen length
Pinch / Expand Wall - Zoom in/out
Single Tap - Select Media or go full screen
Tilt Wall - Scroll the wall by tilting the device left or right
Press Title Bar Menu Button - Select the item to go one deeper
Press Cooliris Logo - Go home
Finger Swipe Submenu - Slide the sub-menu items to see more
Click the Envelope - Share media via the default Mail Client
Click the Metadata - Opens the containing page web page
Click the 'i' Info icon - Shows/Hides the metadata panel
Another nice application became free today. The price dropped from $1.99 to $0. The app is called Record (AppStore link). This is audio and voice recorder for iPhone.
Features:
Launch and shake to start recording, or if you prefer, use the button on the lower right toolbar.
Pause and resume recordings.
Search recording titles.
Organise recordings into folders.
Setup smart folders based on keywords, or the location you recorded.
Email recordings from your iPhone (15 minute recordings or shorter).
Rename and reorder recordings.
Seek and pause during playback.
Compressed IMA4 AIFF format.
Records when iPhone is locked.
NOTE: iPod Touch 2nd Gen users will need an Apple headset with microphone to use Record.
This application is developed by Jay Freeman, the creator of the Cydia. Veency is a free app that allows iPhone owners to remotely control their iPhone from PC or Mac desktop via a VNC client.
Here are some of the features:
Launch applications on your iPhone
Reply to emails, text messages, and more
Rearrange icons
Lock/Unlock your iPhone
Browse through Photos and Contacts
Of course you cannot do two finger gestures with this app. All other actions can be done with the click of your mouse. The only area in which Veency fails tragically at is when opening any video recording application on the iPhone.
Be sure to restart your iPhone after installing Veency and connect to the server using a Wi-Fi connection. We recommend using UltraVNC or TightVNC to connect your Windows desktop. If you're using a Mac, we recommend Chicken VNC.
Here is a video demonstration:
Remote access software or remote desktop software is software that allows you to access a remote computer.
We wrote about several applications, that allow to write email in landscape mode. Now there is a better application. It is called Firemail. It does the same thing as the others, but it does it for free. It is avaliable via AppStore (link).
TouchType (iTunes Link) is a new app available now in the App Store for the low price of $.99. Now all that is left is some SMS landscape love.
Here’s a brief overview of how it works: Open the application and you get a landscape mode keypad, get your email groove on, tap the send button and it automatically sends it to the email application. Type in the email addresses and you’re all set.
This is all great. But it would be much much better to see this kind of functionality in Mail. app, rather than separate standalnone application.
Update: Four landscape email front-ends popped up on the App Store last night, including this one:
You probably know about latest iPhone’s security issue. The good news is that there is a solution to fix it.
Jonathan Zdziarski has deviced a way to disable this writing to disk, so that screenshots cannot be recovered. On a jailbroken iPhone, you can disable these screenshots with the following commands in MobileTerminal or through SSH connection to iPhone:
Screenshots themselves actually get written to /var/mobile/Library/Caches/Snapshots. So these commands delete this folder and symlink it to /dev/null, so the screenshots don’t get written to disk.
The side effect to this is that when resuming an application, you’ll get the default screen in the zoom-in effect. Once the application resumes, however, you’ll have your application screen back. For example, your mail application will always zoom to the front as if you had an empty inbox, but will quickly correct itself once the application resumes.
“To return to the default behavior, just delete the symlink and the directory will get recreated. Mind you, this has no effect on the many other pieces of data stored on the iPhone, and therefore your iPhone will always be at risk for leaking private data, especially to seasoned forensic examiners. Use at your own risk.”
CopierciN is a cool app that implements some copy / paste functionality. It’s in the beta stages but has potential. It lets you import and export between apps like notes, sms, email. Avaliable via Cydia Installer for 2.x firmares.
CopieriN is a basic text editor which, hopefully, bring some kind of copy/paste mechanism to iPhone (to jailbroken ones only, unfortunately). It does not add copy/paste functionality directly to other applications but it provides a mechanism to import text from and export text to SMS, Notes, Mail applications (more to come in the future) and files in the filesystem.
Usage: It basically has two parts: Text Editor and Importer/Exporter. Within the text editor, you can select a piece of text using your finger, cut or copy it, and paste it to a selected location.
The iPhone 2.1 is out. It contains the following updates as listed by Apple:
- decrease in call set-up failures andcall drops
- significantly improve battery life for most users
- dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
- improve email reliability, notable fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
- faster installation of 3rd party applications
- fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
- improved performance of text messaging
- faster loading and searching of contacts
- improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
- repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
- option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
- Genius playlist creation
The 2.1 firmware is build 5F136 (weighing in at 237.8MB) and can be directly downloaded through iTunes. The new firmware also contains a number of security fixes including the well publicized passcode flaw.
It's amazing, how curious some people are. iPhone hacker and data-forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski explained that iPhone snaps a screenshot of your most recent action -- regardless of whether it's sending a text message, e-mailing or browsing a web page -- in order to cache it. This is purely for aesthetic purposes: When an iPhone user taps the Home button, the window of the application you have open shrinks and disappears. In order to create that shrinking effect, the iPhone snaps a screenshot, Zdziarski said.
The phone presumably deletes the image after you close the application. But anyone who understands data is aware that in most cases, deletion does not permanently remove files from a storage device. Zdziarski demonstrated that if you know what you're doing (and you've got over an hour), you can recover the file system and see many, many of these grabs.
"This flaw can only be exploited by somebody with physical access to a device, but your phone could get into the hands of someone with more malicious intent," he said. "Obviously, you don't want to trust any of your data to a passcode."
Gadget Lab is also reporting that Zdziarski said forensics experts have actually used this method to solve serious crimes.
Jim Dalrymple at Macworld notes that the iPhone software update from Monday was mostly to handle issues with dropped calls on new iPhone 3G handsets. According to an Associated Press article, the update "improved communication with 3G networks," said Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock.
However, some Macworld commenters are saying the update hasn't helped with dropped calls, even in areas with a strong signal.
What's more, according to an AppleInsider rumor, another update is scheduled for September that addresses an issue where non-default applications will repeatedly crash. A tipster claims to have received a Steveogram saying the issue "is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September."