Cookbook For Third-Party Apps On iPhone

a_skripko suggests this easy step-by-step procedure for adding third-party applications to an Apple iPhone. While the article claims "this procedure can be performed by the average user," it might at least have to be an average user with no fear of the command line.

I'll wait

[Merritt.kr (1120467)]

I think I'll just wait until another iPhone type phone comes out. The openmoko, or something along those lines. Because something else with touchscreen and video and etc WILL come out, and I have no doubt it will be better, considering how many people are p.o.'ed about the restrictions on the iPhone (like 3rd party apps, restriction to AT&T, etc). Just a matter of time.

Re:I'll wait

[man_ls (248470)]

HTC P4550 Kaiser

I'd argue that it is equal to or better than the iPhone...it's like the 8525 on steroids (AT&T is rumored to be getting it as the 8925 this year.)

Quad-band GSM/GPRS, also includes UMTS and HSDPA versus EDGE Only for the iPhone, means you'll be able to access the Internet and pretty quickly as well.
Windows Mobile 6 Professional versus Proprietary for the iPhone, means you'll have no trouble finding a ton of third-party applications that'll run out of the box.
Transflash slot versus Internal Hard Drive...the iPhone might win this one, the largest Transflash card I've found anywhere is 2GB and that was very expensive. But you can carry multiple ones around with you without much of a problem.
3MP Camera with Autofocus, an actual camera with optics.
+ a front VGA camera for video calls.
and finally, built-in GPS + Google Maps for WM6 to allow you to do the iPhone "local businesses" thing.

Only difference is this one has a flip-out keyboard...it's about as powerful as a 2002-era consumer PC, and those are functional for almost everything.

Re:I'll wait

[Man On Pink Corner (1089867)]

Jeezly crow. How big is this thing?

I'm sure my tailor could sew a pocket into my pants that's big enough to hold my Dell D420 laptop, too, but that doesn't make it a good idea.

Re:I'll wait

[Man On Pink Corner (1089867)]

Agreed... after Googling it, you're right, it does look like a pretty nice phone, and only about 50% heavier than the iPhone.

But it's a phone for phone geeks, not Joe Sixpack and Jane Boxwine. WTF are all those tiny hieroglyphic icons all over the screen?

And for that matter, what's up with the name? "HTC P4550 Kaiser"? Is that a cell phone, or something that requires State Department approval to export to non-NATO countries?

The comments that point out that the iPhone is more than the sum of its bullet points sound like excuse-making and back-pedalling, but they're not. They're 100% on target. If the Kaiser hardware were available with anything like the iPhone's OS, I'd probably be willing to pay $2000 for it. As it is, if I bought an HTC P4550 Kaiser, I'd just be buying one more gadget full of features I'll never remember how to use.

Re:I'll wait

[bigstrat2003 (1058574)]

But it's a phone for phone geeks, not Joe Sixpack and Jane Boxwine. WTF are all those tiny hieroglyphic icons all over the screen?

At $500, the iPhone is also not a phone for Joe Sixpack and Jane Boxwine.

Re:I'll wait

[Guy Harris (3803)]

From his post, the only size-related thing is its flash vs. the hard drive of the iPhone.

That would make it SMALLER.

Except that the iPhone doesn't have a hard drive; it has flash. The specs for the HTC P4550 [pdadb.net] say it's 59x112x19 mm, 190 g with battery. The specs for the iPhone [apple.com] say it's 61x115x11.6mm, so the iPhone is a little longer and wider and a little thinner, and it weighs 135 g (and the battery's attached to the motherboard, so presumably that's "with battery"), so the iPhone is a little lighter.

Re:I'll wait

[Man On Pink Corner (1089867)]

From his post, the only size-related thing is its flash vs. the hard drive of the iPhone. That would make it SMALLER.

Kangaroos don't have dorsal fins, Chevrolets don't run on kerosene, and iPhones don't have hard drives. Other than that, yeah, I see your point.

iPhone weight: 140 grams
Kaiser weight: 192 grams
iPhone volume: 94185 mm^3 (115x63x13 mm)
Kaiser volume: 114840 mm^3 (110x58x18 mm)

Re:

[Guy Harris (3803)]

Transflash slot versus Internal Hard Drive

Neither of which the iPhone has (its file system is in flash memory).

Re:

[toleraen (831634)]

For MicroSD, 4GB are available online, and 8GB were announced a few months ago. I picked up a 2GB for ~$40 several months ago.

And the 8525 can already do everything the iPhone can do, minus the touch screen. The iPhone does bring a better interface (HTC's TouchFLO being a response to this), but the 8525 has a lot more functionality. I dunno if I'd call the Kaiser a Hermes on steroids, there aren't a whole lot of upgrades. The Hermes already has GPS onboard, but it's physically disabled. The only thing t

Re:

[mrchaotica (681592)]

Windows Mobile 6 Professional versus Proprietary for the iPhone...

"Proprietary versus Proprietary"? I don't get it; what's your point? Unless I'm reading it wrong you just repeated the same word twice.

Re:I'll wait

[mrchaotica (681592)]

I was (sarcastically) making the point that, as far as I'm concerned, Windows Mobile is no better than, and just as proprietary as, the iPhone's OS.

That's been fixed for weeks.

[djh101010 (656795)]

sshd and Terminal.app have been out for the iPhone for several weeks already. I can either open up the app and be right in the shell on the phone, or I can ssh into it from any other system that can see it networkologically. No need to wire anything to a terminal. There's also a binkit (google Nate True and the word 'binkit' for link) with some Unix binaries that weren't on the phone when it shipped. I've got apache and a wiki running on mine, a couple games, and can serve up webpages (which I'm using f

Re:I'll wait

[WPIDalamar (122110)]

I can't even take a picture and download it to my computer without paying my phone company, I don't expect any phones to become truly open anytime soon :(

Re:I'll wait

[njfuzzy (734116)]

I have an iPhone, and I can get my photos onto my computer for free.

Re:I'll wait

[njfuzzy (734116)]

This is the fallacy of the feature list. The iPhone, when it is great (it isn't always) isn't great just for what it can do, but for how seamless it makes doing it. The interface, not the feature. The copycats will look better on paper, and totally miss the point.

Re:I'll wait

[shmlco (594907)]

It doesn't work if you have to explain it. Some people instinctively grok elegance... and others don't. It's as simple as that.

Re:I'll wait

[Afecks (899057)]

Sounds like religion.

Re: Elegance like a religion

[ezavada (91752)]

Sounds like religion

Maybe. An elegant design reflects a deep understanding of everything it touches. Intensive study is necessary, but it goes beyond that. You have to know it so well that you instinctively feel what works and what doesn't. You can't grok something that way without caring a great deal about it. And while one person usually has a guiding vision, it takes the intense focus of lots of people to get the best possible outcome.

That's when the magic happens. The design starts to seem purely asthetic, because the functional design seamlessly helps you do what you wanted, without calling attention to itself. It's only if you stop and think about the amount of complexity that's hidden (beneath the apparent simplicity) that you really start to appreciate how elegant that design is.

So, like a religion? Well, perhaps like the good bits.

Or a music scene before it's mainstreamed...

[StCredZero (169093)]

Or an art movement. Or a new scientific paradigm.

Most people don't get new forms of elegance, actually. They usually need a little nudge to get something that's genuinely new. Once something has entered the mainstream, then people can use social cues to direct their attention. Most of us are used to being told what is good.

OpenMoko

[StarKruzr (74642)]

Is not going to be all that awesome. Without carrier support, which it will never get, it will never be able to use any faster data connection than GPRS.

It can have all the 3G chipsets it wants

[StarKruzr (74642)]

but there are security measures in place that ensure that you will not be able to use any faster data connection than GPRS unless your phone is approved by (read: sold by) the carrier.

GSM (voice) and GPRS will work fine. Nothing else will.

A (much) better step-by-step at Macworld

[daveschroeder (516195)]

http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/08/the_iphone_hack ing_kit_step_by.php [macworld.com]

Great!

[by Anonymous Coward]

Anyone has an app that can make a phone call?

careful

[wannasleep (668379)]

The danger here is that an iphone update could wipe out not only your changes, but also your ringtones, your address book etc. The reason is that the software update performs an integrity check. If the check fails the update reinstalls the operating system.

It happened to me, but I expected it. A "regular" user may not appreciate.

Re:

[edwardpickman (965122)]

The thing to remember first and foremost their concern is maintaining the integrity of the iPhone as it was designed. Part of the issues with doing the reload is to avoid a tech support call when their shareware app isn't compatible with the changes in the iPhone OS. If you're after an open source product iPhone isn't it and it's not likely it ever will be. I'm sure eventually they have a SDK and encourage some third party development but it'll never be a tinkerers device. It does a great job at what it was

How is that dangerous

[SuperKendall (25149)]

The danger here is that an iphone update could wipe out not only your changes, but also your ringtones, your address book etc.

How would an iPhone update do that? Or perhaps I should say, how is that really dangerous?

The worst case is an update wipes the device and reinstalls the OS clean. But you certainly aren't going to lose Address Book data - after all, that's all synced to the computer when you connect, as is every other possible spec of data stored in normal locations on the device. Sure you might

Re:

[daveschroeder (516195)]

"Apple's sync software" (iTunes) absolutely does back up an iPhone. To say that it doesn't is completely incorrect. All data you'd expect to sync does in fact sync as you'd expect it to, both on Mac OS and Windows [apple.com]. (How did this get modded up?)

Custom ringtone associations are lost because, well, the iPhone doesn't support custom ringtones (yet).

Backing up an iPhone completely is a necessity because:

1.) If an iPhone needs to be "Restored" (set back to factory defaults), there obviously needs to be a way to g

Re:

[MirthScout (247854)]

Uhh... not so fast there.
I have an iPhone. The touch screen started malfunctioning so I had to send it for repair and use a loaner ($29, ugh). So, I got to test just how well iTunes backs up and restores the iPhone on Windows, twice. I followed the directions I was given; basically just sync, swap the SIM card and sync.

What I lost:
all photos taken with the iPhone
all SMS message history
all clock and alarm entries
all notes
all Safari bookmarks
all Weather selections
various settings, such as for bluetooth, ri

iPhone Hacking End-User Insecurity

[landonf (905751)]

Imagine how valuable a smart phone is as a malware target: it's carried on your persons, has access to your home and office, it's always always on, has direct internet connectivity, a decent camera, sensitive microphone, and a great deal of your personal information.

Given the value of this target, why on earth are people installing random binaries on their iPhone when they have absolutely no way of ascertaining whether they can trust the original provider of said binaries?

Writing malware is not particularly difficult when you have a good SDK. The iPhone is, for most purposes, a fully functional and familiar UNIX environment, and the APIs necessary to build a SpyPhone are not a secret. Given the lack of insight the average user will have into the operating system on a handheld device, they'd likely never know of an infection.

While I *very much doubt* we'll ever see a mass malware infection, users need to be careful about what they put on their phone, who made the binaries, and how they verify the source. Even one compromised iPhone would be very valuable to a nefarious malfeasant.

Re:

[tlhIngan (30335)]

Given the value of this target, why on earth are people installing random binaries on their iPhone when they have absolutely no way of ascertaining whether they can trust the original provider of said binaries?

Writing malware is not particularly difficult when you have a good SDK. The iPhone is, for most purposes, a fully functional and familiar UNIX environment, and the APIs necessary to build a SpyPhone are not a secret. Given the lack of insight the average user will have into the operating system on a h

Re:

[Strange Ranger (454494)]

>Well, you've more or less have put on a major concern of *ALL* smartphones. Whether it runs OS X (iPhone), Windows Mobile, Linux, Symbian, RIM OS (Blackberry) - they all meet the same criteria. Most people will install a random binary on their smartphone if it does something "interesting", regardless of what it runs.

Whatever. You're going to be so jealous that my phone has Comet Cursor and Weather Bug on it.

Re:

[OECD (639690)]

...users need to be careful about what they put on their phone, who made the binaries, and how they verify the source. Even one compromised iPhone would be very valuable to a nefarious malfeasant.

Well, yeah. Replace "iPhone" with "computer" and you have the current state of affairs.

I'm starting to think that Apple has made this 'just hackable enough.' That is, if you want to, and don't fear the command line, you can do it (and they can disclaim any responsibility.) But if you don't want to, you don't hav

...why?

[corychristison (951993)]

If you want to build/install third party apps on a smartphone, why not buy something a little more open [openmoko.org]?

Not trying to troll or anything... I'm being serious. I truely believe in what OpenMoko is doing. Apple makes OK hardware and systems, but I will still side with whichever is more open.

*shrugs* I suppose I've just never found the iPhone to be anywhere near appealing.

Re:

[Reality Master 101 (179095)]

If you want to build/install third party apps on a smartphone, why not buy something a little more open [openmoko.org]?

Because the software is not actually finished and some people want a functional phone? (The web site you link specifically screams "Currently it is not suitable for users.") The operating system isn't even functional, much less having applications (such as a good browser).

Then there's the fact that the phone that's available doesn't have WiFi (a deal breaker for me), nor a camera (wh

Why not? The usual reasons.

[mbessey (304651)]

Why not buy an OpenMoko phone? Well, it's certainly poised to bring the same success to the mobile phone market as we've been seeing with Linux on the desktop.

from http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Developer_preview [openmoko.org]
What you can expect
a functional bootloader with support for firmware upgrades
a functional Linux kernel with basic drivers for the various hardware subsystems, with small bugs here and there
a basic, simple linux distribution based on OpenEmbedded, that you have to install yourself as rootfs image using USB DFU
all the source code that we have at this point in time, and the corresponding build system
mailing lists

What you CAN NOT expect yet
reliable means of making phone calls, esp. not from the UI
reliable means of sending/receiving SMS, esp. not from the UI
integrated GPRS data access
bluetooth integration (basic bluez driver works)
proper power management (i.e. no reasonable battery life yet)
ringtone (or other) profile management
network preferences (call deflection, manual operator selection, ...)
a complete application framework where third party application developers can write apps that easily integrate with the OpenMoko world

Maybe I'm just a stupid Apple fan-boy, but I'm willing to spend a little extra for a cellular phone that can, you know, make phone calls.

Re:

[corychristison (951993)]

As you so eloquently pointed it, that is the Developer Preview.

As stated in other post [slashdot.org]:

If you'd have done a tiny bit of searching [openmoko.org], you'd see that the version available right now is the developer edition (aka GTA01). This version was designed with price in mind. It purposely lacks some non-essential features to make it more affordable to developers. The next revision is the consumer edition (aka GTA02) which happens to be coming out in October. If my math is correct, that's only 2 months away...

Damn you

Re:

[LKM (227954)]

What the hell are you talking about? Below is my original post, please feel free to point out where I claimed it was a complete alternative to the iPhone.

Sure. Here:

"If you want to build/install third party apps on a smartphone, why not buy something a little more open?"

You're clearly telling people who want to install apps on their iPhones to buy "something a little more open," i.e. an OpenMoko phone, which you actually name in the next paragraph - despite the fact that - as you you yourself explain in other posts - they are only selling dev phones.

Also, there's no reason to get excited. Please calm down. I'm not trying to insult you personally, just pointing out an inconsistency in your argument. Just because we're on the Internet doesn't mean you need t

Re:

[corychristison (951993)]

The Open Moko, in pictures, looks to be a little large

Looks pretty close [gizmodo.com] to the same size as the iPhone to me...

is that a medical condition?

[edwardpickman (965122)]

Is command line phobia a medical condition or is it related to a fear of typing? Do people actually get the shakes and start screaming "where did all the icons go"? An older Unix system must make them go fetal.

Re:

[vonFinkelstien (687265)]

"Type? There? No, no I won't" "But you'll get that sweet app that I have on my iPhone." "Please, no. I can't. I won't" "What's wrong with you. Look, just type this.* *Arrggh!*

Re:

[shmlco (594907)]

No, it's more like "I have a life and don't need to learn arcane commands written by social misfits who themselves had a deep phobia of dictionaries."

No point in the end

[Coward Anonymous (110649)]

So you install a couple apps to stick it to the man. It's fun for about a week and then you have a fragility problem. Apple clearly isn't supporting this. Any updates/changes Apple makes will most probably wipe out anything you've modified, forcing you to re-liberate the phone and re-install your apps again not to speak of being able to restore your lost data (the equivalent of your apps/data disappearing when the battery drains).

Apple doesn't want anyone playing in their sand box, so let them play alone.

Re:

[Zorque (894011)]

Actually, their latest update didn't do a thing about people's unlocked and otherwise hacked phones. Maybe in the future we'll see that, but Apple never did anything about iPod Linux either (Nevermind that iPL wasn't really a runaway success or anything).

Autoinstaller

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

When someone figures out how to package these apps in an installer that can be just "clicked" (or tapped, or slid... what exactly is the operative gesture on an iPhone?), the iPhone will finally arrive as a platform, not just a product.

Your wish is their command

[StarKruzr (74642)]

There already exists an Installer.app that does exactly this.

Expect something much better coming soon that will blow that away as well.

Re:

[One Childish N00b (780549)]

Because the whole point of the Mac, and the thing valued most by it's whole target market, is it's simplicity. The UNIX underbelly is supposed to stay hidden beneath the sleek brushed-metal lines. You don't get these patronising predicates in Windows articles involving the shell because the Windows shell is considerably less complex (read: powerful) than the UNIX shell that OS X has. To an unfamiliar user, that much power is scary.

Also, it might be a dev-oriented article, but at the end of the day, once y

Re:

[GotenXiao (863190)]

The reason you don't get those patronising predicates in Windows articles is because you can't do anything in the CLI on Windows. It's mostly for decoration, or possibly finding out your IP.

Re:

[ColdWetDog (752185)]

Oh you're just in a bad mood. You need to go to an Apple store and have one of the employees implant a Reality Distortion Field in your head. You'll be much happier and you will look forward to the next iPhone article. Take your credit card and leave the tin foil at home.

Re:Slashvertisements?

[jamrock (863246)]

Am I missing some point, or is Apple just darling du jour?

Yes, you're missing the point [slashdot.org], you and everyone else who fails to realize that it's not the feature list, it's the interface. And please don't talk to me about open alternatives; the average consumer doesn't care. Joe Sixpack only wants something that will work without fuss and look good doing it.

Ten years ago, I would have been all hot for something I could poke around and mess with. These days, I have different hobbies and greater demands on my time. I've become extremely miserly with my free time because I want to spend every possible second of it with my kids; they're teenagers now, and all three will be off to college over the course of the next three years. My priorities have changed, and I have neither the time nor inclination to spend hours digging into the guts of a machine or wading through configuration files. It is for this reason that I simply can't be bothered with Linux. I'm Mac user and I have nothing whatsoever against Linux; in fact I admire Linux and the Linux community, and I'm rooting for FOSS in general, so don't think that my personal decision not to use Linux is a rejection of Linux or open software. But when I weigh the time I would have to spend configuring everything to my satisfaction, including finding/testing/learning replacement software, against time I could be spending with my sons and daughter, there's no contest.

I should point out that I apply the same test to pretty much every single thing in the same fashion before deciding whether to embark on it: Is it worth the time away from my children? If I find an alternative that will produce the same result, with less demands on my time, then usually that's the path I take. With regard to operating systems, moral* and technical concerns aside, Linux and Windows both fail to meet that all-important criterion as far as I'm concerned.

* What exactly does "moral advantage" mean anyway, when used in a discussion of technology? How can an inanimate object be immoral? It's the use of that object that is moral or not. Is the iPhone somehow less "moral" than the computer I presume you're using? Does loading Linux on it make it somehow morally superior to a Mac or Windows machine, even if it was produced by a manufacturer with an extremely poor environmental record? If you're so concerned about the immoral nature of a product manufactured by a company that *gasp* doesn't hew to your party line, then how in the name of Christ do you even get through the day without using transportation manufactured by a greedy automaker and fueled by nature-raping oil companies; eating a meal of recombinant DNA patented by monstrous agribusinesses; wearing clothes and shoes bearing the fingerprints of Asian sweatshop workers; and -shocker!- using an evil, soul-sucking ISP to connect to the Internet so you can post your drivel to Slashdot? And if you think that your lifestyle and choices somehow insulates you from contact with "immoral" technology, then you're delusional. Like a right-wing politician seeking re-election, people who preach morality tend to do so out of convenience. Grow up.

Nice Smear Job

[DECS (891519)]

The iPhone is only expensive if you compare its full cost with the subsidy illusion of another phone. Hardware costs nothing compared to service plans. If you compare the full cost over two years, the iPhone with its cheaper service plan is one of the least expensive smartphones you can buy. The more expensive 8GB iPhone with 2 years of service is $2056.

a TYTN is $800 more
a Sony Ericsson K850i is also nearly $800 more
a Nokia N95 is over $800 more
an LG Prada KE850 is $700 more
a RIM BlackBerry Pearl is over $