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.

No point in the end

[Coward Anonymous]

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:I'll wait

[Guy Harris]

Transflash slot versus Internal Hard Drive

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

OpenMoko

[StarKruzr]

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.

Re:How is that dangerous

[vsync64]

Good to know Apple's sync software doesn't properly back up an iPhone. I'll pass that on to anyone that asks me if they are a good buy.

Re: Elegance like a religion

[ezavada]

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.

That's been fixed for weeks.

[djh101010]

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 for vacation and kid photos). Deploying files to it is just like any other Unix box, ssh in and work, or scp stuff over to it. Doesn't seem to be all that "locked out from the internals" as some people think.

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

[StCredZero]

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.