Nate True's Weblog: Posts tagged with cat

Going to Taipei!

Posted by natetrue 31 weeks ago

If you've been following me on Twitter you will already know. I'm traveling to Taipei tomorrow, to attend Computex 2008. Apparently AMD is launching something at Computex Taipei and Gear Live is going to be all over it, naturally! I'll be the video tech/producer with Jake Ludington as the host.

It's going to rock. Hard. Yes, I will be taking lots of pictures and posting them!

I just hope this sore throat goes away soon.

Tags: computex, flying, mysterious cat, sore throat, taipei, taiwan, trip

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The 1.1.3 iPhone soft-upgrade jailbreak FAQ

Posted by natetrue 49 weeks ago

My inbox has been overflowing with various questions about the 1.1.3 jailbreak, including numerous failures (I said there was risk, didn't I?). So I put this FAQ together to try and answer the most common ones.

If your phone is broken please scroll down to the PANIC section below.

Read on for the FAQ.

Tags: 113, cat eye swab, faq, iphone, jailbreak

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iPhone 1.1.3 firmware behind the scenes changes

Posted by natetrue 50 weeks ago

So I've had the chance to examine the 1.1.3 firmware on a deeper level (using a technique not developed by me and which I can't release so don't ask) and have noticed some interesting changes behind the scenes that are quite blogworthy:

- SpringBoard no longer needs to be modified (via SummerBoard) in order to show extra applications in the /Applications folder.
- All applications now run as the user 'mobile' instead of as root.
- Preferences are now stored in /var/mobile rather than in /var/root.

What does this all mean? I'll tell you what it means.

The iPhone 1.1.3 firmware is ready for official installable applications.

Even though there are no applications available for purchase (besides the iPod Touch's $20 "upgrade package"), the installation architecture appears to be there already.

It also appears that the frameworks have undergone many changes, ostensibly to make it easier for official SDK developers to make programs. It does, however, break many of the existing applications including most of mine (Lights Off still works though :D).

Additionally, the SpringBoard app appears to have widget support - it contains a class called SBWidgetApplication which manages the package location and icon.

I will update this post with more details as I find them, so keep checking back.

Also check out this other hack for adding Speed Dial icons to your 1.1.3 home screen.

Tags: 1.1.3, applications, breaking, changes, hack, internal, iphone, jailbreak, sdk, widgets

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iPhone Privacy Patcher utility released: Stop sending your IMEI to Apple!

Posted by natetrue 1 year ago

So now that it's out that Apple is spying on you, people have been clamoring for a way to hide your IMEI from the all-seeing eye of Apple's Stocks and Weather applications. These apps send your IMEI as well as your iPhone firmware version to Apple for their nefarious usage statistic processing.

This is a big deal, because the IMEI is sent in plaintext, over any Wi-fi network you may currently be connected to. So anyone listening on that network will be able to grab your IMEI and do stuff with it, like, um, yeah, I'm not sure they can do anything with it.

Until now you just had to avoid the Stocks and Weather apps and/or wrap your phone in tin foil to prevent them from reading your thoughts.

Concomitantly, I have produced a simple command-line utility to patch out the nefarious code from Stocks and Weather allowing you to check your portfolio and the weather without worrying about sending your IMEI to Apple.

What the utility does is scan for the URL that the app uses to talk to Apple, and zeroes out the part where it includes your IMEI.

Download now (binary and source)

Source is included because open-source is the bomb. It also makes backups because you may want to start sending your IMEI again. You know, if they get to you.

Right now the patcher does not prevent Stocks or Weather from functioning but as the Stocks and Weather functionality is served from Apple, they could easily disable patched applications remotely. So if they stop working you'll have a fair idea why.

And while you're installing dangerous 3rd party software onto your iPhone, why not also try some hilarious 3rd party software too? You won't regret it.

Tags: all-seeing eye, iphone, paranoia, paranoid cat, patcher, privacy, stocks, tinfoil, weather

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cre.ations.net is moving servers

Posted by natetrue 1 year ago

So Dreamhost isn't so hot about the amount of CPU time that cre.ations.net uses, and their new PS service costs way too much compared to a dedicated server. So there may be a hiccup or two while the move is going, and for now all the permalinks redirect to "1.cre.ations.net" which means it's running on the new server. I have some DNS hoops to jump through to make sure that there's (nearly) no downtime.

Enjoy the ride!