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.

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

[daveschroeder]

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

Re:I'll wait

[man_ls]

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.

careful

[wannasleep]

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.

Why not? The usual reasons.

[mbessey]

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:I'll wait

[Guy Harris]

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]

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:I'll wait

[njfuzzy]

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

Your wish is their command

[StarKruzr]

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

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

Re:Because I need a phone too

[corychristison]

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...

Re:Why not? The usual reasons.

[corychristison]

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 fan-boys piss me off. You bash anything you don't understand, or apparently don't care to understand. Do some research and save the world the hassle of dealing with asshats like you.

Re:OT: Oh No! A command line - KILL IT!!!

[GotenXiao]

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:I'll wait

[CelticLo]

"Agreed... after Googling it, you're right, it does look like a pretty nice phone, and only about 50% heavier than the iPhone."
That's funny because it's only 27.1% heavier than the iPhone.

Re:How is that dangerous

[daveschroeder]

"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 get the user data back onto it as it was.

2.) If an iPhone needs to be sent in for service, and you receive a loaner AppleCare iPhone in the meantime, you obviously want to sync it and have all of your data.

Funny that you'd just assume that "Apple's sync software doesn't properly back up an iPhone" when Apple has been one of the largest vendor doing such syncing reliably (with iPod and iTunes) for *years*, and your first reaction is that you'd need to run out and "tell" people who ask you if the iPhone is a "good buy".

See:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/questionsandanswers.ht ml [apple.com]
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305 741 [apple.com]

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

[Anonymous Coward]

http://weblog.bluedonkey.org/?p=714 [bluedonkey.org]

http://code.google.com/p/iphone-sdl-mame/ [google.com]

Re:I'll wait

[ToasterMonkey]

Lets not arbitrarily assign income levels or spending limits to generic references to the common man/woman. Is there a special name that better fits the average middle class American?

Re:How is that dangerous

[MirthScout]

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, ringtone selection
probably a few things I'm forgetting to list

What was restored correctly (not much):
some settings
contacts
photos I had on my computer and had downloaded to iPhone
music and videos I had on my computer and had downloaded to the iPhone

I have not hacked my iPhone (yet) and wouldn't expect it to back up such hacks (it would be nice though).

I know for a fact that iTunes on Windows DOES NOT correctly backup and restore most of the information on my iPhone. Been there, already tried to do that. I like the iPhone a lot but Apple's got some work to do!