Make Tech Easier » iPod Touch

How To Enable Emoji Icons On Your iPhone For Free

Damien — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:49:18 +0000

Unless you are having a Japanese iPhone, chances are your iPhone does not come with the attractive and interesting Emoji icons. Like any other Emoticons on mobile, the Emoji iconset allows you to insert smily faces and many other icons in your notes, sms and any other text entries.

If you are affected by the fact that your iPhone does not has the emoji function, don’t worry, here is a simple trick that you can use to activate the emoji iconset in your iPhone.

Go to the AppStore in your iPhone.

Tap on the Search and type in “spell number”

Install the application

From your Home screen, open the Spell Number application and key in 9876543.21 (including the decimal point)

Exit the application.

Go to Settings. Navigate to General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards.

Scroll down to Japanese. Tap on it.

Swipe the Emoji option to ON.

Back to your Home screen, turn on your Notepad (or any other application that requires keyboard) and create a new note. On the keyboard, you should see a globe beside the Space button. Tap on it and it will display the Emoji iconset.

I am not sure how long will Spell Number stays free. In the event that it charges you for the download, there is another way that you can activate the Emoji icon for free, but it requires you to jailbreak your iPhone.

- Jailbreak your iPhone.

- Load Cydia. Tap on the Section. Navigate to Tweak -> Emoji.

- Install it.

You can now activate the Emoji icon via the Settings page.

The above tricks will work for iPod Touch as well.

What other iPhone tricks do you want us to cover? Tell us in the comment.

How To Enable Emoji Icons On Your iPhone For Free originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How To Perform Copy/Paste Function In iPhone

Damien — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:34:00 +0000

Even though your iPhone/iPod Touch allows you to install, run and perform many applications, there is just one simple function that is most sought after, but is not available – Copy/Paste.

Yes, iPhone/iPod Touch does not come with Copy/Paste function and despite countless pleas to Apple to implement this feature, there is still no news that this function is going to be included in the future firmware upgrade.

Nevertheless, if you are willing to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch and void the guarantee, you still can get the Copy/Paste to work. For those who are yearning for the Copy/Paste function, here is how you can get it working on your iPhone.

1. Jailbreak your iPhone

2. On the home screen, you should see a Cydia icon.Tap on it to run the installer application.

3. On the Cydia main screen, navigate to Sections-> Keyboards Extension. You will find hClipboard. Tap and install it.

4. Once you have finished the installation, exit Cydia and go to Settings. Navigate to General ->Keyboard->International Keyboards. You will see the hClipboard function. Slide the button to turn it on.

5. Now, go to any text application (such as Note). On the keyboard, you should see a globe button. Tapping on this globe button will turn the keyboard to the Copy/Paste mode.

Now type some text on the Note. Go to the Copy/Paste mode. Tap on the first icon (on the right) to copy all the text. To copy only a portion of the text, first place the cursor on the starting. Tap the second icon. You should see a sentence “Select from here…”. Next, move the cursor to the end of the selected text. Tap the second icon again. The selected text should now be copied to the clipboard.

To paste the text, simply tap the entry on the copy/paste keyboard. To delete, simple swipe the clipboard entry to the right.

You can also save the copied text as a template so you can use it over and over again, without having to retype it.

That’s it. Enjoy the Copy/Paste function in your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Note: Another application that gives you the Copy/Paste function is Clippy. You can find it in the Cydia installer.

How To Perform Copy/Paste Function In iPhone originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Google Earth for the iPhone Reviewed

jamesyeang — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:53:05 +0000

Google Earth’s ability to take a satellite camera and zoom down to practically any country, city or street in the world arguably made the common atlas obsolete overnight. Previously only available as a desktop application, you can now carry around Google Earth in your pocket! The iPhone/iPod touch iteration of this app is absolutely free, and serves up most of the functionality which we have grown to love with the desktop version.

It takes advantage of the iPhone’s hardware capabilities using a pinch and slide interface for zooming in and out, as well as the accelerometer for tilting terrain in 3D. Not only that – you can also check click on Panoramio and Wikipedia entries which are embedded in relevant locations within the map so you can check out photos and learn more about the area which you’re viewing. All in all, this app is a MUST have for anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Check out the following video for more details.

Do you like Google Earth? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Google Earth for the iPhone Reviewed originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

The BEST Way to Read News on Your iPhone

jamesyeang — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 13:25:31 +0000

Free RSS readers on the iTunes app store are a dime a dozen. Most of them however, are not worth even a second look. So what IS the best way to read your news and get yourself up to speed on an iPhone?

Well one app clearly stands out head and shoulders over the crowd, and it’s Net News Wire for the iPhone.

It’s powerful. It comes with a plethora of customizable options, which lets you completely customize your reading experience. At the same time, it’s simple to use. If you don’t care for customization, it works out of the box beautifully. It even syncs up with your online newsgator account so the feeds you read on your laptop will be in sync with the feeds you read on your iPod.

The best part? *Drumroll* ….Offline reading.

While almost all other free RSS readers rely on a net connection to function, NetNewsWire will download the feed onto the phone so you can read it offline. That way you never have to worry about having a decent 3G connection. If you’re using an iPod touch, it is truly a Godsend to be able to read feeds offline because you no longer need a Wi-Fi hotspot to get your daily news fix.

Do you read news on your mobile device? Tell us about it in the comments!

The BEST Way to Read News on Your iPhone originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How To Sync iPod Touch With Win XP Virtual Machine In Ubuntu Intrepid

Damien — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:17:42 +0000

Syncing your iPod Touch with iTunes on your Mac or Windows is a no-brain job. Simply plug in your iPod, fire up your iTunes and your synchronization will be done in a minute. However, since there is no Linux version of iTunes, there is almost no way that you can sync your iPod Touch with your computer. If you are using an Ubuntu system and you don’t want to create a Windows/Ubuntu dual boot just to sync your iPod Touch, here’s a tutorial that teaches you how to sync your iPod Touch with a WinXP virtual machine in Ubuntu Intrepid.

(This tutorial was tested using a iPod Touch 1st generation. I have not tested iPod Touch 2nd Gen, iPhone 2G/3G, but I guess they should work as well.)

Install Virtualbox

(skip this step if you have already installed Virtualbox in your system)

Add the Virtualbox repository to your Apt list. In your terminal:

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line to the end of the file. Save and close.

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free

Add the gpg key

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Update the repository and install Virtualbox

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.0

During the installation, you will receive a prompt to ask you to add users to vboxusers group.

click OK to continue.

You will then receive the next prompt to recompile the kernel for vboxdrv

click OK to continue, follow by Yes to compile the vboxdrv kernel.

When installation is completed, you need to add yourself to the vboxusr group.

Go to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups

Press the Unlock button. Enter your password and Authenticate.

Press Manage Groups.

Scroll down until you see the vboxusers. Highlight it and click Properties.

Check your username and click OK. Close everything.

Remember the Group ID (in this case, the group ID is 127). You will need to use it later.

Back in the terminal,

echo “vboxdrv” | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

to start the vboxdrv module during bootup.

Configuring the USB support

The following is to configure the Virtualbox to detect any USB devices that are plugged into your system.

gksu gedit /etc/fstab

Add the following line to the end of the file

#usbfs for virtualbox
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=GROUP_ID,devmode=664 0 0

Replace the GROUP_ID by the group ID that you have recorded just now.

Recompile the kernel USB support

In the terminal, type

uname -r

You should see something like this

Next, using the kernel information you just obtained, install the source code of the kernel

sudo apt-get build-dep linux-source-2.6.27
sudo apt-get install linux-source-2.6.27 build-essential

Once it is done, type the following to the terminal, line by line

tar -jxvf /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.27.tar.bz2 cd linux-source-2.6.27/drivers/usb/core perl -pi.bak -e 's/16384/131072/' devio.c make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/ M=`pwd` modules strip --strip-debug usbcore.ko sudo install -m644 -b usbcore.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/core sudo depmod -ae sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot the computer.

Install Windows XP in your Virtualbox. (skip this step if you have already done so).

Connecting iPod Touch to Windows XP VM

Plug in your iPod Touch using the USB cable.

Ubuntu will detect it and ask if you want to open it with F-spot manager. Click Unmount

Next, open your Virtualbox and boot up the Windows XP VM.

Install iTunes in your Win XP VM.

Activate the iPod Touch by going to Devices -> USB Devices -> Apple Inc. iPod

The WinXP VM should recognize the USB device and configure it for usage.

Open your iTunes. You should be able to sync it like you do in a native Mac or Windows environment.

That’s it.

Note: I have tested this with a iPod Touch 1st Generation. I have not tested this with iPod Touch 2G and iPhone, but they should work as well.

[Reference: Ubuntu Forums]

How To Sync iPod Touch With Win XP Virtual Machine In Ubuntu Intrepid originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Copy Files To/From Your iPhone

Damien — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:30:27 +0000

While you can use your iPod as a portable hard disk, Apple does not allow you to transfer files to/from your iPhone. Although there are several apps that allows you to copy files, they are no free solutions. If you have jailbroken your iPhone, you can customize it to connect to the desktop and copy files to/from your iPhone.

For those who have not jailbreak their iPhone, here is a tutorial on jailbreaking your iPhone the easy way.

For Mac users:

In Mac, you can make use of AFP to access iPhone/iPod Touch via the Finder.

To do this, you have to first install Netatalk via Cydia.

On your jailbroken iPhone, go to Cydia. At the bottom, go to Sections. Navigate to Networking -> Netatalk. Click install on the top-right corner of the screen.

Once you have installed Netatalk, on your Mac desktop, open up Finder, you should find your iPhone entry on the left pane, under the ‘Shared‘ section. Click on it. You should see a blank screen with a ‘Connect As‘ on top of the screen.

Click on the ‘Connect As‘ and enter the following:

Name: mobile
Password: alpine

For some reason that you can’t find the entry in the Shared section, you can go to Go -> Connect to Server. Under the server address field, enter afp://your-iphone-ip-address. Mine is 192.168.0.102, so I entered afp://192.168.0.102. (You can find your iPhone IP address on Settings->Wi-Fi->Your network connection)

The Connecting to Server window should open up, and then ask for your user name and password.

Fill in the above login credential.

That’s it! You can now access the iPhone straight from Finder!

Most of your personal files will be in private/var/root/Library or private/var/root/Media. And of course installing applications is as easy as dragging the .app into your /Applications folder!

For Windows users:

iPhoneBrowser is a windows based file browser for your iPhone. It features drag and drop uploading to our phone, automatic and manual backups of files on your phone, previews of text and picture files and very cool icons.

Download SetupiPhoneBrowser.1.7.exe from http://code.google.com/p/iphonebrowser/downloads/list

Run the installer on your Windows XP (May not work well on Vista).

Upgrade your iTunes to 7.7.1 (it works on iTunes 7.7 as well).

Open the iPhoneBrowser and connect your iPhone to the computer via the USB cable. The iPhoneBrowser should detect the iPhone and show the file structure on its screen.

You can now drag and drop files to the iPhone.

For Linux users or any other platforms:

In any platforms, as long as you have a FTP program, you can easily transfer files to/from the iPhone via OpenSSH.

On you iPhone, go to Cydia. Tap on Section on the bottom pane and scroll to Networking->OpenSSH. Tap on the Install button to install it.

On your desktop, open up your FTP program (it doesn’t matter which one you use. For me, I used Filezilla because it is free and easy to use).

On Filezilla, go to File->Site Manager

On the left, click New Site

Rename the site to ‘iPhone‘

On the right, enter the following:

Host: Your iPhone IP address
Servertype: SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol
Logontype: Normal
User: root
Password: alpine

Click ‘Connect‘

You will be shown a confirmation message asking if you will accept key exchange / connection with the device with the iPhone’s address. You’ll need to click OK for it to connect.

Connected mode:

Once connected, you will see the familiar Explorer-like navigation structure. Simply drag and drop the files to and forth the iPhone.

How to Copy Files To/From Your iPhone originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Jailbreak Your iPhone/iPod Touch Easily With QuickPwn

Damien — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:47:33 +0000

The iPhone-dev team has recently released a QuickPwn tool that enable users to jailbreak iPhone and iPod Touch without having to reformat the whole unit. If you have not jailbroken your iPhone/iPod Touch, thinking that it is a difficult process, here is where you can learn to jailbreak your unit the easy way.

The QuickPwn is available for both Windows and Mac platform. There is a difference though. The Windows version of QuickPwn supports any 2.0.x firmware while the latest Mac version only supports 2.0.2 firmware. If you are using a Mac, you will have to upgrade your unit to the latest 2.0.2 firmware before you can use the QuickPwn tool.

The following tutorial will teach you how to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch on your Mac. The step for Windows will be the same.

Some points to note;

1) This tutorial is illustrated with an iPod Touch and assumed that you have already upgraded your firmware to 2.0.2.

2) If you have not, simply connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to your iTunes and select the ‘Download and Install’ option when it prompts you to upgrade your firmware. Make sure that your iTunes is of version 7.7 and above.

Step 1:

Download the QuickPwn for Mac from the iphone-dev site . This is a torrent file. So make sure you have a torrent client (such as Transmission) to download the program.

(The above link is only for Firmware 2.0.2. If you are using firmware 2.2 or later, check out the iphone-dev blog for the latest QuickPwn download link.)

Step 2:

Connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to your iTunes and perform a backup sync. Even though the jailbreaking process is relatively safe and shouldn’t break any data, it is still better to do a backup and safe guard your data. Sometimes, you just can’t trust technology.

Step 3:

Once you have sync with iTunes, quit iTunes completely. This will prevent iTunes from interfering the jailbreaking process. Unzip the QuickPwn_1.0.0.tbz using Archive Utility to a convenient folder (say your Desktop). Do not use any other decompressing application. You should see this red icon with a pineapple.

Step 4:

Double click QuickPwn to open it. A warning screen will appear. Once you are WARNED, click OK to continue.

Step 5:

QuickPwn will now attempt to identify your iPhone/iPod Touch unit. If you have not connected your iPhone/iPod Touch via the USB cable, do it now.

Step 6:

Once QuickPwn successfully identifies your unit, it will ask if you want to receive update on startup. There is no harm in doing so, but if you are uncomfortable with application running in the background, then choose No.

Step 7:

QuickPwn will now scan your Mac for the 2.0.2 firmware that you have downloaded and automatically build the jailbreak firmware. There is nothing for you to do in this step. Just let the application run on its own.

Step 8:

Once the custom firmware is built, you have to switch the iPhone/iPod Touch to DFU mode (aka Restore mode) so that QuickPwn can modify your unit’s firmware. Make sure you have closed your iTunes completely. Follow the onscreen instructions to set your unit to DFU mode. (This can be rather tricky. You might have to try a few times to get it to DFU mode)

First, turn off your device by pressing the Power button for 3 secs and slide the slider to the right to power it off.

Now, hold the power and home button together for 10 seconds.

Release the power button and continue to hold the home button for another 10 seconds.

Your iPhone/iPod Touch will now be in DFU mode. If it fail to reach DFU mode, unplug and reconnect your unit to your Mac and repeat the above procedure again.

Step 9:

QuickPwn will now send the modified firmware to your unit. There is nothing to do in this step except to wait.

Once it is done, it will show the reboot warning. At this moment, don’t touch anything on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Let it run and reboot itself. It will take around 3-5mins. Just be patient.

Your iPhone/iPod Touch should be jailbroken after the reboot. You should be able to see the Cydia and Installer apps on the home screen.

That’s it. Your iPhone/iPod Touch is now jailbroken.

How to Jailbreak Your iPhone/iPod Touch Easily With QuickPwn originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

How to Transfer Music From iPhone/iPod Touch to Your PC

Damien — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:18:54 +0000

iPhone/iPod Touch users will know that while it is easy to sync music from iTunes to your iPod, it certainly does not work the other way round. It may be a great security feature by Apple, but it has definitely caused lot of inconvenience to its users. Luckily, there are lots of easy way to get this done.

In Mac, users can use the free application Senuti to copy music from their iPod to the computer. At the moment, only the beta version Senuti 0.50.2b7 supports iPhone and iPod touch.

The configuration of Senuti is easy and works out of the box. After installing, Senuti will prompt you where to save your music files and whether to add it to iTunes library. Once that is done, plug in your iPhone/iPod Touch and it will automatically detect all the songs/videos/playlist in your device. Click Transfer and the all the selected entries will be transferred to the computer.

In Windows, users can use the Winamp’s iPod plugin to achieve the same effect.

In Linux, it is more troublesome to sync the iPhone/iPod Touch with the OS, nevertheless, it can still be done via this tutorial.

How to Transfer Music From iPhone/iPod Touch to Your PC originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)