due to the recent drought in jailbreaking news I have a few tidbits to share on the world of Apple:

1.  Mac App Store is here!

However trite you may deem it, I see this launch as a very monumental one. . . especially for all those hackers out there. For the official assembly of all that software can certainly be made into an opportunity for those that seek to hack that software. This release also brings us that much closer to the Cydia App store!

2. New iPad design rumors seem right on the money!

According to a recently released CES iPad 2nd generation case mock-ups, the spec rumors previously posted seem to be very accurate:

• A Facetime Camera for video calls
• Design: Thinner from front to back and supposedly skinnier from side to side as well.
• New High Definition screen
• Much needed, much better speakers.
• The new back is more flat and iPod Touch Like with a reduced size of 239 mm by 186 mm which means a slight decrease in the size of the bezel.
• The sides of the iPad 2 should be flat, like the iPhone 4, making it easier to hold.

3.  Verizon iPhone

Don’t get too excited yet but I think that if it’s going to happen, it will happen sometime very soon. The CES event today went as expected, the Verizon CEO did not mention anything about the iPhone. Although this may sound like bad news, I’m sure that Steve would have wanted to announce the news were it a reality. It was however announced that something big was primed for 1/11/11.

Some additional evidence has been brought to the table (very idealistic). It seems that Apple has limited retail store staff vacations for the coming months . . . for a big launch perhaps??

4. More Social Network stuff

Although personally not excited about more Ping-like experiments, I am social and I do love music and I believe, therefore, that there can be a good combination. It seems Apple is moving towards trying more social networking things this year.

5. The year of the Tablets

Many are calling this the year of the tablets . . . great news I say. As seen in the phone market, competition like the android market has forced Apple to keep moving, I’m hoping the same happens in the tablet arena. What I’m especially excited for is Android Honeycomb (check out a video here)

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Apple has recently decided to drop the jaibreak detection feature from its iOS 4.2. While this comes as a surprise to me, it seems a relatively smart move considering that jailbreaking one’s device is now officially legal.

I am hoping that this is the first of many steps that Apple will take to lessen its protective hide and allow more openness. They are merely removing a small API from their iOS but it makes me think about Apple’s direction considering open sourcedness. I know it seems idealistic but I think with the Android market now picking up so quickly (grabbing 28% of the US market-share, compare to Apple’s 30%) that Apple is realizing that open source may not be that horrible after all. I’m not inciting that they will ever become open source but rather that they may open their doors to more open-source type apps in their stores. I could, of course, be dead wrong and we might even see Steve become more protective.

Either way, I’m glad to see Apple stop sniffing around to see who is jailbreaking and who isn’t.

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The Android community is growing and the OS is improving greatly. Naturally, somebody thought it would be a great idea to run Android on their iPhone. Its still a bit unstable but if you want to test it you, here is very simple and therefore justifiably long tutorial provided by android-a-lot.

DISCLAIMER: Do this at your own risk

Downloads

Here’s a bunch of stuff that you’ll need before you start:

1. IMPORTANT! Jailbroken iPhone 2G only!!!!
2. VirtualBox Get the right version Windows/Mac
3. VirtualBox Ubuntu Image.  Download number 10, Ubuntu Linux 9.10 codename Karmic Koalax86
4. iPhone Explorer.
5. Android images and sources
6. Patched images.

Preparation

Let’s get some of the basics out of the way:

1. Open Task Manager
2. Kill the iTunes Helper process
3. Install iPhone Explorer
4. Connect your iPhone to your Mac/PC
5. Run iPhone Explorer
6. Click the Change Root button
7. Select “/” Real iPhone Root Directory
8. Browse to private/var
9. Copy ramdisk.img, userdata.img, cache.img and zImage from Downloads#5 (Android images and sources) to that var directory
10. Copy system.img and android.img.gz from Downloads#6 (patched images) to the that var directory
11. That’s all the Android files on your iPhone, now to make them run!

Setting Up Virtual Box

1. Install VirtualBox
2. Open VirtualBox
3. Go on File > Virtual Media Manager
4. Make sure Hard Disks is selected
5. Click Add
6. Locate the ubuntu-9.10.vdi file (download#3) and select it
7. Close Virtual Media Manager
8. Go on Machine > New
9. Click Next
10. Under Name enter “Ubuntu”
11. Select Linux Operating System
12. Select Ubuntu Version
13. Click Next
14. Set an amount of RAM, the default should be fine
15. Click Next
16. Select “Use existing hard disk”
17. Select the ubuntu-9.10.vdi
18. Click Next
19. Click Finish
20. Select that new machine to start up Ubuntu
21. The password to login is: reverse

Setting Up Ubuntu

Almost there – if this feels a bit long, just consider how short and simple each step is!

1. Click System (top bar) > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
2. Enter the password: reverse
3. In the quicksearch box, type libusb-1.0, click the Check Box next to libusb-1.0-0 and select Mark for installation
4. In the quicksearch box, type libreadline, click the Check Box next to libreadline5 and select Mark for installtion
5. Click Apply
6. When it’s all installed close the Package Manager
7. Open Firefox (in Ubuntu)
8. Download openiboot installer from here
9. Click Places (top bar) > Downloads
10. Right-click openiboot.zip and click Extract Here
11. Click Applications (top bar) > Accessories > Terminal
12. Without the quotes, type ‘cd Downloads/openiboot’
13. Restart your iPhone in Recovery Mode (power off, hold down Home button, connect to USB cable)

Getting Android Working!

Well done on getting this far! This is where the fun beings (credits to WinX Blog for these instructions –link)

1. In VirtualBox, the Ubuntu Window, go on Devices > USB Devices and select iPhone (Recovery Mode)
2. In the terminal type (without quotes): ’sudo su’
3. Enter the password: reverse
4. In the terminal type ./loadibec openiboot.img3
5. You’ll see the OpeniBoot screen appear on your iPhone
6. Hold down the power button a couple of seconds (iPhone)
7. The bottom option, openiboot console, will become selected
8. Press Home (iPhone).  You’ll see a bunch of text appear and stop at “Welcome to openiboot”
9. In VirtualBox, the Ubuntu Window, go on Devices > USB Devices and select iPhone (OpeniBoot Mode)
10. In terminal type su ./oibc
11. Enter the password: reverse
12. If this doesn’t work just type: ./oibc
13. You’ll see the same text from the iPhone in the Terminal
14. Type (without quotes) ‘nor_read 0×09000000 0×0 1048576? and press Enter
15. Wait for it to say Done
16. Type (without quotes) ‘~norbackup.dump:1048576?
17. This creates a backup of your NOR memory – save a copy on USB stick, or email it to yourself or something
18. Type install, press Enter.  When this is done you’ve got openiboot installed on your iPhone.  You’re done!

Finishing Off

What you’ve achieved up til now is Android files on your iPhone, and then installing openiboot so that you have an option to start iPhone OS or Android when you turn on your phone.  Openiboot was necessary because that’s the only way right now that you can boot into Android.  Here’s how to finish off and get into Android:

1. If you still have Terminal open with the oibc still running, just type ‘reboot’, press Enter and skip to step 3
2. If you don’t have Terminal open, disconnect your phone, turn it off and back on
3. When openiboot appears press Power button to switch to openiboot console (bottom option)
4. Hold down the Home button
5. Android will start to boot, but it might take a while

Thanks to:
planetbeing – the man who did all the hard work!
WinXBlog – guide for getting openiboot running
Geekoid – for the system images
and a huge thanks to Superhero

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