Monday, April 25, 2011

Your iPhone is being tracked...do you care?

I am sure all users of iPhones etc. by now have heard that your iPhone (and iPod and iPad) record connection data. It seems it is just Latitude, Longitude, value (?), and time.

I guess if you are worried that someone could be tracking your whereabouts (a rough city area vs. time) you probably shouldn't be using a cellphone anyway...

The people who wrote an OSX app (iPhone Tracker) to access this data are Alasdair Allan (alasdair@babilim.co.uk) @aallan on Twitter and Pete Warden (pete@petewarden.com) @petewarden on Twitter.

Here is the site with the app, and source code.

I don't use OSX to sync my iPhone or iPod...so luckily a Windows version was compiled by huseyint (@huseyint on Twitter).

It is pretty cool. But hardly a tracking item...it just gave rough locations of where my iPhone was...like narrowed down to a neighborhood, and I was using the GPS quite a bit during the time period I checked.

So, personally I found it interesting to have a date with a city...to help me keep organised...(I do travel quite a bit).

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Koribo Leira wireless HTPC keyboard - review

There have already been a ton of reviews on this keyboard...so again I won't repeat the info.

Website here.

Summary is that this is a wireless keyboard, operating in the 2.4Ghz range, comes with AA batteries and a USB dongle (2.4 Ghz receiver).

The keyboard has a standard key layout, and some extra keys...a trackpad with mouse buttons on one side, a scroll wheel with mouse buttons on the other, and some multimedia keys.

I will say I have not tried to use the multimedia keys...I am just using this as a wireless keyboard.

So far it works perfectly. I plugged the dongle in, Win7 automatically loaded the drivers, pressed a key on the keyboard (the any key), the keyboard woke up and instantly worked.

I have used the scroll wheel, all the mouse buttons, the track pad, and the multimedia volume controls...as well as the actual keyboard. I have not used any other special keys.

It has a good feel to it, a good balance, good key feel. The only weird thing about this keyboard is there is no power button...it automatically powers off...so you have to punch any button to bring it back alive. Unfortunately that key you press immediately registers on the computer.

In my case I would be watching a video, the video ends, I attempt to use the trackpad...it doesn't wake the keyboard up, so I have to press a mouse button...then something undesired happens on the screen.

Spinning the scroll wheel does not wake up the keyboard...I don't remember if hitting the volume controls does. But pressing a mouse button definately does wake the keyboard up.

The hard part is finding one. I bought mine off Ebay from an Israeli ebayer...it has hebrew keys as well as the regular arabic keys. Doesn't affect the usability at all.

Friday, April 1, 2011

iPhone 3GS Jailbreak revisited...part 2

Here is how you install an iOS that iTunes doesn't want you to install.

-this website give all sorts of info on the subject...here are my steps.

First download Tiny Umbrella.

- this bit of software will, make sure your SHSH blobs (don't ask me) are uploaded to Cydia-and will fool iTunes into looking there for them.
--all I know is the SHSH blobs are important.

Next start TinyUmbrell.exe and allow firewall access (win7 popup anyway).

-click the "Save SHSH" button. (under the log tab you shouldn't see errors)
-click the "Start TSS Server" button, it will change to "Stop TSS Server" and continually show a little 'waiting' animation on the button (like the iPhone circle thing)
--the log should show 'Server Started', and 'accepting connections'

Now start iTunes and do the normal steps for installing an iOS (SHIFT-click Restore, DFU etc)

If all goes well, your iOS will install taa daa.

...in my case all did not go well, and I got another 1604 error.

The fix for that was also easy...go back to the ih8sn0w website, and download iREB.

iREB is a nice little utility that will fix errors resulting from the kind of hacking we are doing here.

-real simple, start up the program, it sees you phone, click the appropriate device (in my case iPhone 3GS)...it does its thing and says it is done.

So from here I started at the beginning, but didn't have to Save SHSH, they were already showing on the list. But I started TSS server, and iTunes, and SHIFT-Restore.

4.2.1 installed correctly (again) and so far, no errors...I don't think I will do anymore icon management using iTunes...it may be balking on some of the Cydia installed software.

Back to normal again.

iPhone 3GS Jailbreak revisited.

Ok, I don't know how, but I had some kind of crash on my system, while the iPhone was plugged in.

I was organizing the apps using iTunes when the program locked up. I unplugged the iPhone and noticed it was only showing half the apps...

I rebooted the iPhone, and it wouldn't boot past a blank screen...uhoh.

I rebooted the computer and plugged the iPhone back in, put it in DFU mode and attempted to reinstall iOS 4.2.1.

The computer showed a 160x error (maybe 1604)...and it did this about half way through the restore as the phone is rebooting...simultaniously with that error message, win7 itself popped up a message about the device would operate faster in a USB 2.0 slot...uhoh.

I didn't know what was fudged up, so I attempted to reinstall iOS 4.0.1. That worked and the phone came to life normally.

I gave up at that point, happy that at least the phone was working.

...it was late, I went to bed...

I got up the next morning and decided to try one more reinstall...this time iTunes showed some kind of 2000 series error.

The iPhone was still working with iOS 4.0.1 so I quit while I was ahead...I had to leave town for a trip anyway.

--time passes--

Now I am away from home with my laptop (used the desktop for the original install), and I am thinking that maybe the problem is with the desktop.

So I give the 4.2.1 install a try with the laptop...it almost immediately shows a 3194 error (which means Apple doesn't think the iOS should be installed)...hmmmm

The solution for that is to fool iTunes into checking with Cydia for permission to install the new iOS.

SEE part 2