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Jailbreak how-to: SSH basics and theme editing

One of the most common topics in the jailbreak forums is always theme editing and customization.  To really be able to truly customize a theme, you need to know how to SSH into your iPhone.  Anyone who is already familiar with web development and using an FTP client should be right at home.  For the most part, FTP clients are also capable of SSH.  If you don’t have a client, don’t worry, there’s plenty of free ones.

And now for the typical disclaimer – if you aren’t comfortable messing with your phone’s file system and the possibility of having to completely restore if something goes wrong, don’t proceed any further. As always, we aren’t responsible for any damage you may do to your phone, so proceed at your own risk.  If this all sounds okay to you, read on iPhone ninja!

1.  Download an FTP client. In the video, I’m using CyberDuck, which is a Mac client for FTP. You can also use Fugu or iPhone Explorer.  If you’re a windows user, iPhone Explorer has a Windows version or you can use something like SmartFTP.

2.  Install OpenSSH and SBSettings to your iPhone.  Most of you probably already have SBSettings, but you’ll need OpenSSH to be able to access your iPhone’s file system.

And don’t forget, at some point, change your iPhone’s root and user passwords!  If you need help with this, jump over to the Forums.  OpenSSH and SBSettings can both be downloaded through Cydia or Rock, your preference.  SBSettings isn’t necessary, but it gives you a very easy way to toggle SSH on and off.  Here’s a ninja tip, whenever you aren’t actively using SSH, turn it off. It not only further protects you from unauthorized access, but SSH is a huge battery hog.  So when you’re not using it, just switch it off.

3.  Alright now that we’ve got that taken care of, you’ll need to do one of the following after SSH is enabled on your iPhone:

• iPhone Explorer users – plug in your phone and launch iPhone Explorer and it should automatically populate your iPhone file system, then skip to step 5
• Most other FTP clients – be on a wifi network and find your iPhone’s IP and jot it down, it’s found under Settings –> Wi-Fi –> click the blue arrow next to the network you are connected to, once you have that, launch your FTP client

Click the blue arrow, like in the image below, IP address is what you’re looking for, write it down.

4.  For FTP users, you’ll need to enter your iPhone’s IP address and make sure the port is set to 22.  Your username is root and the default password is ‘alpine’ (without the quotes).  Then click connect or continue.  If you’re successful, you should now have a list of all your iPhone’s files.  (Note: over wi-fi, you don’t have to have your iPhone plugged in, but I’d recommend it so it doesn’t kill your battery)

5.  You’ll now see a list of files you can navigate through, to get to your themes for editing, simply click Library —> Themes and all the themes you’ve downloaded should be in there.  Next jump down to the video for a walk-through of how to alter/change/add files in existing themes as well as create your own custom themes! And one more ninja tip, go into Settings –> Autolock –> Never. Sometimes when you’re SSH’ing and your screen goes off, your SSH client will give you an error, so turn off auto-lock while you’re customizing.

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YouTube Link

Jailbreak how-to: SSH basics and theme editing is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Logitech's Google TV companion box includes smartphone apps, we go eyes-on (updated: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 16:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google takes shots at Steve Jobs and Apple, forgets rubber and glue rule

Google used their Android 2.2 Froyo launch today to bring the fight squarely to Apple and Steve Jobs, saying in essence they created Android because they feared a future where one man (Steve Jobs) and one company (Apple) controlled the mobile space.

Now I’m not going to call that cake a lie (because it’s technically a chilled desert this time), but let’s be clear — Google created Android because they feared any future where any company — be it Apple, Microsoft, or some unforeseen upstart to lock them out of their cash-cow, advertising. That’s why Microsoft built Bing and why Apple is making iAds.

That’s smart business. But to claim any form of benevolence or greater-than-thou community spirit is disingenuous-to-insulting. Google, like Apple or Adobe is as open as suits them and as proprietary as their revenue generation demands. As much as Apple controls the iPhone, as much as Adobe owns Flash, Google’s crown jewel of advertising is theirs and theirs alone. AdWords isn’t open source.

So they can make fun of Apple curating the App Store, or that at any one time any of a dozen high-end Androids can perform certain tasks well, or that they can put Flash on a phone but not Silverlight or ActiveX, or poke at iTunes not yet being cloud-based. But they can’t and don’t talk about the Android Market’s enormous selection of keyboards, fess up to the battery problems as a platform issue, come to grips with the inconsistent user experience, deal with the reality that is recent devices have unclear and fragmented OS paths, and acknowledge those users burned severely by the still immature cloud who want local solution options as well.

Google pushed out a lot of tech this week. A scary, wonderful, crazy, beautiful amount of tech I don’t think we’ve seen in such volume in such a short time before. It will be challenge enough for them to realize most of it, much less all of it. It’s just plain gutsy.

Even gutsier was poking Apple before the much better spoken Steve Jobs takes the much bigger stage at WWDC 2010 to announce the much more attention getting 4th generation iPhone.

[Android Central]

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Pinball HD for iPad – app review

Pinball HD brings classic pinball arcade playing to the iPad. The graphics are beautiful and motions are smooth.

There are three tables included with Pinball HD: Wild West, The Deep, and Jungle Style. I find Wild West to be the least interesting table to play, but it will probably be great for a child who doesn’t need a complicated and involved table. The Deep and Jungle Style are much more detailed and require much more skill to get a good score.

Pinball HD can be played in 3 different views. Holding the iPad in landscape will display the full table from a perspective view (the front is bigger than the back). In portrait, you can either view the full table or play with a “flying-table” view. The latter view follows the ball around the table and zooms in even closer when the ball is doing something interesting like bouncing around a bunch of bumpers or entering a special hole. The graphics in “flying-table” are very impressive; however, I find myself getting a little dizzy when playing in this view.

If you’re a fan of pinball, Pinball HD will not disappoint. The physics are accurate and the gameplay is fun. For video and screenshots, follow us after the break!

Pros

• Beautiful graphics
• Realistic physics
• 3 tables
• 3 views
• Detailed instructions for each table
• Local and global high scores

Cons

• “flying-table” can make you dizzy and is the default view for portrait play
• Table instructions are busy and sometimes difficult to follow the lines

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

Pinball HD for iPad – app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Supposed next-gen iPhone cases surface in China originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 13:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iTunes Store Integrates Rotten Tomatoes Ratings

If you’re a frequent browser of the iTunes movie section, you may have noticed the addition of a Rotten Tomatoes rating section.  If you’re not familiar with Rotten Tomatoes, it’s basically a site where users and critics can rate movies as fresh or rotten.  To the left you’ll see the classic TomatoMeter rating system while to the right you’ll see a few of the most recent ratings for that specific movie.

And if you still want to know more about a movie, clicking the find more option will take you to the Rotten Tomatoes site page for that film.  Fancy! What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

[via TUAW]

iTunes Store Integrates Rotten Tomatoes Ratings is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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