Steve Jobs has passed away...

He is a visionary, creative technology prophet, true genius, brilliant CEO. I use present tense because he will always live in my mind.

He have technology vision like noone else. Things he dreamed 20 years ago are now reality, and he is the reason that they are present. He dreamed about tablets, video calls, personal assistants... He was rediculed for hes ideas,(too modern for that time). He never quit dreaming, he never changed hes ways. He gave us the future in our hands. Even when he was banished from the company he saved it twice from bankrupcy which is a testament for hes brilliant CEO skills.

Hes touch is present within all apple products, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad, the MacBook Air... which many are trying to copy without success. Hes vision about technology is that things should be simple and easy to use and accessible to everyone, fast and stable hardware-software combinations, beautiful and unique design, environmental friendly.

I really hope that Apple will continiue the vision of Steve in their products, or else there will be noone to save them this time.

There is one thing i will regret for the rest of my life, that i haven't met Steve in person during my lifetime. He shares very similar vision for technology as me, and i am truly sad about hes passing away. This is loss for all mankind. True technology revolutioner is gone.

Rest in peace Steve.
See you in iHeaven.

HTC say iPhone is not cool anymore - My thoughts about it

If you read about this in the iPhone news portals such as iclarified and 9to5mac and others, then you are familiar with the story so i will not rewrite it here.

My thoughts about this subject:

Why kids do not like iPhone (here i am taking about these specific kids from the article, because here (Bulgaria, Eastern Europe) students and kids are crazy about iPhone 4)

1. It is expensive and they parents will not waste money for high tech toys for their kids. So everyone else prefer a lot cheper android phones and other shinese knockoffs (again android based)

2. Android is not perfect but it does the job (emails, IM, Social networking and few games)

So these reasons of not liking the phone are not quite convincing.Here is why

1. iPhone i far stable than any android based phone (i have more than 3 years of technical experience with iphones, they do not crash that often as the Android ones)

2.Technologically Apple are far ahead from their competitors. When Apple designed and used SOC others used separate CPU, RAM and graphics chips. Now everyone started designing and using System On Chip. So far noone produced such sensitive touchcreen as Apple. Apple patented noise cancelation technology with second microphone which makes audio recording and calls and voip more clear than ever. In iphone 4 apple used combination of camera and software which produces far better video quality of any 5 megapixel cameras in other mobile devices, and better than most of the 8 megapixel ones. I will stop here because I can write for days on improvements.

3. iPhone 4 is more than a year old. This means that the competitors had time to improve their mobile devices in order to keep up with Apple. A5 CPU have far better performance than any other mobile CPU (according to recent benchmarks), and it will be used in the upcoming iPhone model which will raise the bar even higher for everyone else in this market which will make the iPhone most preferrable phone in the world again.

You can not judge the whole world just because of the opinion of couple of kids, so the title of the original article is rediculous. Like the collegues at 9to5mac wrote "College kids don’t want an iPhone because their dad has one. They also have no interest in dad’s Porsche.".

If you don't like it, thats fine. Don't buy it! It is that simple! Just don't whine that you are fed up of this and that.

I like my iPhone 4 and will buy the next one when it comes out.

Update on Activation Method for iOS 5 beta 5

Jailbreak and activation works exactly the same as in previous betas. You have to use Beta 5 firmware file in latest redsn0w in order to jailbreak and boot tethered. You will need updated bundle in order to skip headache.

You will need latest beta version of iTunes 10.5.

Latest redsn0w 0.9.8b5: Windows | Mac

You can find both latest iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5.0 Beta 5 here.

Updated bundle links: Ziddu | Mediafire

Updated iOS Firmware page

Today i updated the iOS Firmware page of my blog with the latest firmware for all devices.

These are all Apple hosted links so they should be fast.

iOS 4.3.5 Jailbreak relesed (it's a tethered again)

RedSn0w can perform a tethered jailbreak on iOS 4.3.5 for all devices except the iPad 2, according to MuscleNerd.

So those who really do want tethered 4.3.5 can use redsn0w pointed at 4.3.4 (except iPad2)

I strongly recommend that users don't update to iOS 4.3.4 or iOS 4.3.5.

You need the latest redsn0w and point it to 4.3.4 firmware in order to jailbreak.

Update on Activation Method for iOS 5 beta 4

Jailbreak and activation works exactly the same as in previous betas. You have to use Beta 4 firmware file in latest redsn0w in order to jailbreak and boot tethered. You will need updated bundle in order to skip headache.

You will need newer beta version of iTunes 10.5.

Latest redsn0w 0.9.8b4: Windows | Mac

You can find both iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5.0 Beta 4 here.

Updated bundle links: Ziddu | Mediafire

New theme, including mobile blog layout

Recently Blogger made few mobile layouts for their blog system, so i decided to try one out. Mobile version looks very similar if not exactly the same. Looks very cool on iPhone and Android devices. Havent tryed on iPad yet but probably will look good there as well.

Hope you enjoy it.

Tethered jailbreak for iOS 4.3.4 released unofficially.

Half an hour ago MuscleNerd tweeted a link with updated redsn0w which can jailbreak tethered iOS 4.3.4.

So here are the links:
Windows | Mac

Why you don't need the iOS 4.3.4 update.

Apple pushed iOS 4.3.4 Firmware yesterday and it's only purpose is to close the vulnerability used by comex'es Jailbreakme 3.0 method. The title of this article says why don't you need it, well comex released fix in Cydia which patches the problem area. So you can use the perfectly working jailbroken firmware 4.3.3 with comex'es fix installed and still have secure device. At this time there is no jailbreak for 4.3.4 and i0nic said he will not release any untether for this firmware because it is pointless.

Stay away from 4.3.4, and save your SHSH if you have not done it so far, Apple still signing 4.3.3 so you have last chance to save them until it's too late.

Update on Activation Method for iOS 5 beta 3

Jailbreak and activation works exactly the same as in previous betas. You have to use Beta 3 firmware file in latest redsn0w in order to jailbreak and boot tethered. You will need updated bundle in order to skip headache.

You will need newer beta version of iTunes 10.5.

Latest redsn0w 0.9.8b3: Windows | Mac

You can find both iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5.0 Beta 3 here.

Updated bundle links: Ziddu | Mediafire

Update on Activation Method for iOS 5 beta 2

Jailbreak and activation works exactly the same as in Beta 1. You have to use Beta 1 firmware file (in redsn0w) in order to jailbreak and boot tethered. You will need updated bundle in order to skip headache.

New in beta 2 is wifi sync with iTunes. In order to do it you will need newer beta version of iTunes 10.5.

You can find both iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5.0 Beta 2 here.

Updated bundle links: Ziddu | Mediafire

Foolproof iOS 5 Activation method (Windows And Mac)

Many people complained that my method for activating is very complicated so i had to think about something more simpler than it and something popped in my mind about the custom bundle option in redsn0w so i made one which simplifies the whole process.

What you will need:
iTunes 10.5 Beta
iOS5b1 firmware
redsn0w 0.9.8b1 ( Windows | Mac )
iOS5.0b1Bundle: Ziddu | Mediafire
Basic Steps:
1. Install iTunes 10.5
2. Put your device in DFU mode
3. in iTunes press shift+restore(Windows)|option+restore(Mac)
4. After process completes (you will see iPhone written on your lockscreen) power off, put your device in DFU mode/
5. Run redsn0w and browse for the iOS 5 firmware, press next and again next and again next and wait for your iphone to jailbreak(process is finished when the iPhone reboots).
5. After this put your device in DFU mode again run redsn0w and when you reach the point in redsn0w where you can select install cydia or install custom bundle or boot tethered etc. - select install custom bundle and browse for the tar archive with the bundle.
6. Boot tethered with redsn0w and activate normally with itunes. It will activate successfully and you will get service. All left to do is to complete the setup on your iPhone. It will ask you for language, country,operator (by the time it ask for operator i got service so i just pressed next), wifi, iCloud, and iTunes account.

In the bundle there is the modified SystemVersion.plist which replaces the original one and makes itunes think that final firmware is used so it does not require UDID registration. The only problem (not much of a problem) is that jailbreak is still tethered and every time you reboot the phone you need to boot tethered in order to use your jailbroken apps and safari.

p.s.

For experienced user the guide can look lihe this:

1. Install iOS5b1 and jailbreak it.
2. Install the custom bundle, then activate in iTunes.

Looks a lot simpler aint it ?

Edit: Added Mediafire mirror for the bundle since many people have problem downloading it.

iOS 5 First impressions

The following review is based on the first beta of iOS 5, so the negative parts of it apply only to this build and not the final product.

I am using it for 24 Hours so here is what i found:

Negatives:
1. Battery drain because of iCloud sync (battery drops twice faster than normal)
2. Memory leaks
a)iMessage when combined with notification center
b)Phone app when you use custom vibration
c)System wide leaking which causes all kinds of applications crashes for no reason (or for low memory reason)
3. Bad memory management - closed apps do not free all the memory they used while they run (which is one of the reasons that we have low memory crashes all the time)
4. iBooks crashes (probably there is some incompatiblity with Newsstand because they share similar technology)
5. Newsstand does not work (there is no beta market for it yet)
6. Wallpaper does not work (either wallpapers are missing or it does not work)

Positives
1. Sounds - you can manually setup almost all the system sounds
2. Custom vibration - one of the best features which no other phone have
3. Notifications are awesome - notifications in iOS5 is very clever implented and are actually useful
4. Camera in lockscreen - this is another amazing feature. I wanted to photo something but i lost time to unlock the phone and open camera app and in most ways i missed the moment for picture, now i can do it far faster with this new addition.
5. iMessage - i feel it is kind of ripoff WhatsApp but it works really fast
6. Reminders are not so much of a feature because you can do similar things with calendar but it is good implentation with very simple interface.
7. Long awaited edit option in pictures app is awesome
8. Camera shutter with volume up button is too a great feature
9. Notifications on lockscreen are great as well

So far this is what i had in mind, probably soon i will update this list.

iOS 5 is a must have upgrade because it saves me time to install many apps in order to do some things - now everything is included. I do not advice regular users to go for the beta because like i said it is unstable (stable for a beta but still unstable for daily use)

Activate iPhone 4 on iOS5 Beta 1 without developer account registration and without any No Service issues.

This tutorial is for experienced people only!!!

What is needed:

Mac or Hackintosh
Newest redsn0w
Cyberduck
iOS5 Beta 1
iTunes 10.5 Beta (Mac)

About this method:

This method is combined from a few others well known methods used in the past. With editing SystemVersion.plist we made itunes think it have no beta firmware so it does not require developer UDID. It depends on SAM activation to gain service. So at the end you have same activation as in regular firmware.

Lets Begin

1. Install itunes 10.5
2. Enter your iPhone in DFU mode
3. Option + Restore and select the iOS5 firmware file
4. After iPhone starts up to the lock screen power it down, enter it in DFU again and jailbreak with the newest redsn0w while browsing iOS5 firmware file.
5. After the jailbreak you have to boot it tethered using redsn0w.
6. Activate to springboard Merd Erdir's way
7. Open Cydia add repo http://repo.bingner.com and install SAMPrefs from it (it will install all other needed things in order to run)
8. It will require reboot (because of mobilesubstrate) so you have to enter it in DFU and boot it tethered and again activate Merd Erdir's way.
9. Open Cydia and install OpenSSH
10. Open Cyberduck and connect to your phone over SSH
11. Edit /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist and remove

<key>ReleaseType</key>
<string>Beta</string>

from it.
12. Open SAMPrefs and set the operator to manualy (you have to choose the operator to which the phone is locked) then apply these settings and reboot your phone.
13. Boot tethered and connect the phone to your itunes 10.5. It will activate just fine. You will have to setup your iTunes account and iCloud settings and you will enter springboard without hacks in a minute you will get range as well(i had to switch airplane mode 1-2 times in order to get range)

This tutorial is tested on 2 iPhone 4 GSM and worked flawlessly on them probably it will work on 3GS and CDMA iPhone 4 and iPad1 3G. It can work for iPod as well without SAMPrefs parts.

Unlock iPhone 4 Baseband 2.10.04 / 3.10.01 Without Gevey SIM Is Now Possible

If you rely on a software based unlock for your iPhone 4 and are stuck on a higher baseband like 2.10.04 / 3.10.01 on iPhone 4, the only way to unlock iPhone 4 up till now was through the Gevey SIM interposer which can unlock iPhone 4 baseband 2.10.04 and 3.10.01 by forcing baseband activation via the emergency dialler. While Gevey SIM iPhone 4 unlock is illegal, there is another solution for unlocking iPhone 4 baseband 2.10.04 and 3.10.01. A hacker named Dill Huang has been able to unlock iPhone 4 on the above mentioned basebands, without requiring Gevey SIM. As proof, he has also posted a video.



First, he inserts the SIM with the real IMSI value and dials 112 and then hangs up after 2 seconds. He then toggles the iPhone into flight mode and removes the SIM card. Then he inserts the SIM with the test IMSI and toggles flight mode off and voila, the iPhone 4 is unlocked on baseband 3.10.01.

Once again, you won’t be able to do this unlock procedure on your own device, however lets keep waiting for the 40 bit NCK hack for unlocking iPhone 4, that the iPhone Dev Team is working on.

Source

Ultrasn0w fixer for iOS 4.3.1

As far as you know from all other news sites iPhone Dev team released yesterday updated versions of redsn0w and Pwnage Tool which handle 4.3.1 firmware - with exception of breaking ultrasn0w so unlockers were advised to stay out of 4.3.1. Today iH8sn0w and msft_guy made fixes for ultrasn0w issue - unified package for 3GS & iPhone 4.

Ultrasn0w fixer for 4.3.1 available on repo: http://cydia.pushfix.info/

Source

Hacker Turns Down Sony Job Invite Over geohot Treatment

Koushik Dutta is a revered hacker in Android circles. In a show of its respect for his brainpower, Sony reached out to Dutta asking if he’d be interested in interviewing for a plum software engineering position with its R&D department. As documented above (and Tweeted out by Dutta himself a few days ago), he declined, citing Sony’s hardline position against geohot, the 21-year-old hacker against whom Sony is taking harsh legal action due to his major hack to Sony’s PlayStation 3, which allows anyone to run unsigned code over the system.

Dutta:

Hi Sarah, I appreciate that you reached out to me. The opportunity does sound very interesting! However, due Sony’s recent treatment of a fellow hacker, George Hotz (@geohot), I could not in good conscience work at Sony.

Regards,
Koush

Some of Dutta’s Twitter followers criticized him for turning down the opportunity, saying that he would regret this a few years down the road. Whether or not that turns out to be true remains to be seen, but if so it won’t be because Dutta is hurting for money: With more than 50,000 downloads at $5 a pop, his premium ROM Manager app for Android more than proves that an enterprising hacker can still make good money.

(via MAKE)

Apple introduced iPad 2 and iOS 4.3 - Video of the event

Apple introduced the new iPad as well as iOS 4.3.

Here is the video of the event.

How to untether your 4.2.1 iDevice

Today windows version of greenpois0n is released so it is possible for everyone to untether their devices. Even if they were jailbroken previously with redsn0w. If you have used Monte to jailbreak you must restore to clean 4.2.1 firmware.

Steps are quite easy.

1. Enter DFU mode.
2. Run Greenpois0n and press jailbreak.

Thats it.

Download Greenpois0n from the official site or from one of my mirrors:

Windows version
Mac Version
Linux Version - Still Unavailable

iPhone 5 Details Summarized + other upcoming iDevices news

So far every site "leaks" about the same info which is known for months. This is why i decided to summarize all the info I gathered through my sources at Apple and various trustworthy websites and people.

Lets begin.

1. iPhone 5 will have round (3G, 3GS like) back. Very similar if not the same as the chinese iPhone 5 clone seen in the following picture.



2. iPhone 5 will have new A5 CPU - it is know to be next generation Cortex A9 Dual Core CPU - contains much faster dual-PowerVR SGX 543 graphics processing unit, and generous on-chip DDR2 memory.

3. Better camera - it is known that iPhone 5 will have Omnivision OV8820 sensor. It is 8 megapixel and capable of recording 24 or 30 frames per second on 1080p.

4. Qualcomm GSM/CDMA chipset - more energy efficient than the Infineons used today. Exact model of the cihipset is still unknown. LTE will not be supported by this chip. LTE support will be included in later model of iPhone

5. Larger(rumor) and faster(not rumor) flash chips - I heard that they will include latest Toshiba chips in iPhone 5 (which is a rumor), and largest iPhone 5 model will have 128 GB of memory inside.

6. Tottaly redesigned antennas - they have learned a painful lesson from iPhone 4

7. Display - IMO it will remain the same. Apple is testing new technologies Super-AMOLED and something that they call "Next Gen Projection-Type Displays" . Also they invest in Toshiba and Sharp factories as their new diplay suppliers. Also they will continiue to use LG for displays as well becuse they have 5 year contract which expires january 2014. Apple will remove the home button in a future iPhone model which will make the screen reach 4 inch.

8. Software - right now Apple test iOS 4.3 on iPhone 5, but it will not be shipped with it for sure. iOS 4.3 will be out in March for the supported devices. Most likely it will recieve later update of the OS considering it will ship at best in August 2011.

In 2011 there will be 4 versions of iPhone and 3 versions of iPad. Two hardware versions of iPhone 5, 2 more hardware versions of iPhone 4 and 3 hardware versions of iPad 2. About iPhone 4 versions one is the Verizon iPhone 4 and the other is revised iPhone 4 without any antenna issues. The iPhone 5 models will probably one GSM only model and one GSM/CDMA model. There will be 3 Versions of iPad2 as well - one Wi-Fi model, one GSM model and one CDMA model - both like iPad 3G but for difrend networks.

iPad2 brief news - basicly same changes apply there as well, A5 CPU, higher resolution and DPI display, but not near RetinaDisplay DPI. Apple will probably make it Retina in next ipad.

First i heard from a friend about iPhone 5 was that it will be a refresh model like a 3G and 3GS, but after i have found out the specs it will be more like a huge hardware upgrade.

Apple to Announce Second-Generation iPad Within 3-4 Weeks?

Digg founder Kevin Rose today noted that he has received information from a reliable source indicating that Apple will announce the second-generation iPad within the next 3-4 weeks, possibly on February 1st.
I have it on good authority that Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 in the next "3-4 weeks", possibly Tuesday February 1st. The iPad 2 will feature a retina display and front/back cameras.

In an update to the post, however, Rose notes that another source has indicated that while the display on the second-generation iPad will be of higher resolution than on the current models, it will not be a "Retina" display of the resolution seen on the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch. A number of observers have noted that an iPad display at "Retina" pixel densities would be extremely difficult to achieve given the horsepower necessary to drive a display in the range of 2560 x 1920 pixels as would be required.

Rose has offered some accurate information over the years, most notably pinpointing a number of details of Apple's September 2008 iPod refresh. He has missed on several other predictions, however, suggesting that some caution should be taken with his most recent claims.

Rumors of a new iPod announcement come as Verizon is reportedly set to announce next Tuesday that it will begin offering the iPhone, with several reports pointing to an early February date for availability. It is unknown when the second-generation iPad would become unavailable under the scenario of a February 1st introduction, although many observers assume it will be close to the late March-early April timeframe of the original iPad.

iPad 2 Body Spotted at iLounge Pavilion in CES

A rear shell purportedly from the second-generation iPad has been spotted at the 2011 International CES within the iLounge Pavilion. The shell, which has been marked by developer Gopod Mobile with “iPad 2” and “128GB” logos that would not appear on the actual device, is being shown paired with an iPad 2-specific foldable rechargeable battery pack developed by the company, and depicts the revised device’s redesigned curves, ports, and cameras; it is said by Gopod to represent the actual appearance of the as-yet-unreleased thinner and slightly smaller iPad.