Thursday, July 24, 2008

Cydia/Installer Woes...Hope is Nigh!

With the guide below (for Mac OSX) to jailbreak your 2.0 firmware, people who haven't read other forums or blogs have not realized that with use of the Pwnage tool, the installer.app is no longer present or functional. There are youtube videos explaining how to port apps from 1.1.4 firmware to the new 2.0 firmware, but once the apps get there, they don't work. For the most part, the jailbroken applications that we've all come to love, are non-existent at this time on the updated firmware jailbreak.

However, a program called Cydia has taken Installer's place. And it has a bright future.

New technology replaces old technology, as anyone who owns an iPod Touch or iPhone can attest to. Cydia is new technology. Installer is the old.

A list of qualms has come out about Cydia in the last few days. The program AND the jailbreak for the new firmware has only been out for a few days, so it's expected that it's still a work in progress. The list is as follows:

  • People are not happy with the fact that none of the programs that they've come to enjoy are present on the 2.0 firmware.
  • The "manual addition of repositories" is not present in Cydia.
  • None of the older apps work, and all of them have to be re-programmed to work with the updated firmware.

The truth of the matter is, all of these things will be taken care of. Soon.

I lost faith in the Cydia program early on. I pwnd my iTouch, then, since Cydia didn't have any programs on it, I downgraded to 1.1.4 to get the old apps onto my iPod. I decided to give it another try, as I read that the ZiPhone jailbreak could potentially permanently damage your iPhone or iPod.

I have pwnd my ipod touch with the latest tools and have reloaded Cydia every day for the last few days, and more and more stuff is appearing. There are only a few graphical applications (the NES emulator, and an AWESOME port of Pac-Man known as Mac-Man) but there are many more scheduled to come out soon. The man who built the pwnage tool has described and answered all the questions that new adopters of the 2.0 jailbroken firmware have had.

Stay tuned! Be patient. As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait.

Winpwn

The windows version of Pwnage 2.0 was just released for the P.C. Get your copy of it now.


Sunday, July 20, 2008

Pwning 2.0 iPod Touch & iPhone/3G Guide

First off Pwnage 2.0 was released around 23 hours ago and since this morning I've been working on getting it to work. Some people have had success with it right after downloading it, others have had a lot of trouble. This is a guide for those who have had trouble, or are new to pwnage and need help getting through. I'm on a Macbook 2.4GHz, 2GB of RAM and 250GB HDD. I have an brand new U.S. assembled iPod touch (which replaced my old one yesterday), which is now newly pwned on firmware version 2.0. I used only my Macbook to pwn it, and have constructed a guide that is guaranteed to work on a Macbook with an iPod touch. And should work on any other mac, and an iPhone or iPhone 3G. I've gone through these exact steps many times, and have included any other problems that may occur so you can solve them with ease.


Here we go.



0.First off let's download pwnage version 2.0 (if you have trouble with 2.0.1, it should work too). Choose one of the mirrors below:



1. Try opening pwnage, if it works the first time great, if it doesn't try each of these side steps. Usually it will bounce in the dock continually, and eventually stop. But it will be completely unresponsive. 




1a. Open activity monitor (search it in spotlight). 




1a. Select all processes





1a. Type in the search bar "ps" and force quit it. 






If pwnage doesn't immediately open, try the next step. 


1b. Save all of your stuff (whatever your doing) and shutdown. Not restart. Hold the power button and when you hear the tone (not before) hold the shift button. Release it when you see the Apple icon and spin wheel. 



1b. Try opening pwnage, if the same problem persists repeat step 1a. while your in safe mode. 


1c. If that still doesn't work search google for answers, if it does work continue to step 2. 



2. Now that you have actually open pwnage 2.0 lets use it. To start off, make sure you have firmware version 2.0 on your device. I found restoring it helpful, you don't really have to though. 



2a. Go through the normal steps of Pwnage 2.0 if you can get all the way through, great. If you can't and you get an error message, or somethings not working try all of these sub-steps, until you get it working. 








2b. If this screen pops up after you've clearly followed all of the steps correctly, it usually doesn't even give you a chance to put your device in DFU mode. Follow the next step/s. 





2ba. Unfortunately you've reached a step I struggled with a lot. Now, what you have to do is put your device into DFU mode prior to even starting Pwnage 2.0. First off, close iTunes and Pwnage. If your device has the connect to iTunes screen restore it completely. Afterwards go to this link and put your device into a proper DFU mode, you won't even have anything on your device's screen, thats how you know it worked). 

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiTcKMZfyfk&fmt=18 


2bb. Now that your device is in DFU mode, go through all of the steps of pwnage after doing whatever you need to open it. Keep your device disconnected until you get to your Once you have pwnage open, go through all the steps until you get to this exact screen, it is imperative you stop at this screen. 



2bc. Now connect your device and click "No" you will finally get to the next step. After that you should be able to finish on your own. If you can't please comment below, and I'll try to get back to you. Please click on the google ads at the bottom so I can keep this blog alive. This took me a long time to create and figure out tell me if it helped you. 

Here's one of the first (mine) jailbroken 2.0 iPod touches pwned from a Macbook!








Saturday, July 19, 2008

Top Applications Part 3

Productivity 

WeDict


This application is the perfect pocket dictionary. Luckily for iPod touch users you don't need Wi-Fi to use this application to it's full potential. It delivers your definition in impressive time for an application that has a 12 megabyte data library. Each definition offers about a page or so of text, giving you good understanding of the word. Download it now for free on the app store.



Reference

Pocketpedia

This application was useful for the most part. It allows you to search Amazon for different
products. However it was not always consistent. When I searched on the US store it continuous-
ly gave me listings that were in chinese. But out of all the applications that were offered in this
category either this or google was the best. (I'm not including Social Networking because the
best application in that category depends on which network you are apart of).



Sports

Sports Tap

This is simply the only application that can keep up with a major sports fan. With an
absolutely huge array of sports from MLB to MLS, this will keep you constantly updated for
no cost whatsoever. It's user interface is very nice allowing you to navigate through this large
application seamlessly. Download it now from the app store.





Friday, July 18, 2008

Top Applications Part 2

Games

Enigmo

This is likely the most addicting and enjoyable game app you have to pay for. It doesn't get old nearly as fast as the racing games. And you'll love the app even if you don't enjoy puzzles. The graphics are beyond anything I've seen on the iPod touch or iPhone, and is still no problem for the processor of your device. If you don't enjoy this I would have to recommend Super Monkey Ball. 


Music
 
                            Pandora Radio
 
This may be one of my top 3 favorite apps. This application delivers you with the music like without you having to lift a finger. It uses an advanced matching system that finds songs or artists that have some sort of relation to the songs and artists you know and enjoy. You create different stations by simply entering the name of a song or artist you enjoy listening to, and within seconds your listening related music you're guaranteed to love. Get it for free from the app store. Highly recommended. 




News


Jamd

To be honest the news applications that are offered aren't as good as they could have be. But Jamd's UI stood out like a swore thumb. This application really allows you to view all of the latest pictures and read all of the latest stories, in a simple and fun way. Try it out for yourself free of charge, download it from the app store now. 

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Top Applications Part 1


 Business 

                    Mocha VNC Lite                      
 
This application allows you to very easily access and control your PC or Macs screen with a few easy steps. One of the greatest things about this application is that you don't need to pay for any service or download any set up tools for your computer. This is great if you don't bring your laptop or you have a desktop and you don't have a file with you. I do find this to be more of a utility app than business. You can find this on the app store and download it for free.




Entertainment


                               Remote
This one of the very few (I believe two) applications that Apple has created for its app store. Now this application allows you to remotely control the iTunes library on your computer from your iPod touch or iPhone. This app is great if your too lazy to get off your ass to press a few buttons. But I was very disappointed to find that you can't stream your iTunes library to your device. Which would let you watch/listen to media that wasn't on your iPod or iPhone. Because otherwise it's just replacing your apple remote with something that lights up and you payed $300 bucks for. 



Games

Tap Tap Revenge

This application features a Guitar Hero style game where you tap out the beats of a song as they come at you. This is the predecessor of Tap Tap Revolution which I was playing from the day it was uploaded on installer. This application blows it away with a more reliable menu navigation, higher end graphics, and new features using the accelerometer. This is the best free game out of them all by far. I'm going to continue posting top applications in sets of threes, for (if my schedule persists) the next few days. 

Edit: Just today, Friday, July 18th, Tapulous released Tap Tap Revenge 1.1 now allowing you to download extra tracks. Still no iTunes library support.

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Monday, July 14, 2008

Pwnage 2.0 Release Date?

A few hours ago the developer team posted a link on their blog. A mysterious countdown with 13 digits. With what looks like an edited painting of "the last supper." You would immediately assume that at the end of this countdown they dev-team would release the highly anticipated Pwnage 2.0 update, allowing users on both iPod touch and iPhone running either firmware 1.1.4 or 2.0 to jailbreak their device, and be "free" once again. But of course the developer team leaves another mystery, the countdown is a negative number and the number is rising (creating a larger negative number) what I just noticed (it took me a while because I neither studied the painting nor do I study any religion) there are of course 13 digits, 13 people at the table, and at the head of the total number there is a 12 which might make you assume that it's counting up to 13. Now if you read the comments on the blog people continually refer to 6 PM. Wednesday. On a completely separate note this could be some weird coincidence but this afternoon I saw this picture, then watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and the current time of this writing is 3:00 AM, (if you've seen the movie you'd know why I'm a little freaked out). Anyway, I do not know how people to the conclusion of 6:00 PM Wednesday afternoon but the dev team did say that they would release it sometime this week. If I hear anything at all I'll inform you all immediately. That's all for now.


The Number