Today iSmart Dialer was released for the iPhone. iSmart Dialer adds layers of functionality to the familiar iPhone dialer. iSmart Dialer is released in 2 versions, for Cydia and for the AppStore (the first software with both ?) and are far beyond any similar apps for the iPhone. The Cydia version adds all the new [...]

Last October, pseudo developer “El Jabon” tried to swindle us all by submitting a fake app called idontcrash. The premise was great, but the app was totally fake. The developer had no credibility and was caught in multiple lies. The whole event was recorded in my posting in October in this post. (It’s a fun read!).

Apparently, “El Jabon” is still at it and has a whole website dedicated to his scam. In addition, he has supposedly “rewritten” the app and posted it new with astounding results!

After further careful analysis, I have arrived at the following conclusion:

This app is still totally fake! Do not install it!

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Update (April 2, 2009 by BigBoss) I just pushed an update to Crash-X’s VoIPover3G v1.0.2 that will enable skype in the plist for you. No need for editing plist files just update the VoIPover3G app.

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Update (April 1, 2009 by BigBoss and ranova): Saurik just released mobilesubstrate 0.9.2805-1. This version fixes the problem entirely allowing for mobilesubstrate addons to work with Skype app. You can now use Skype app with VoIPover3G! -
Quick Tip: The voipover3g string for Skype is: com.skype.skype -All lowercase. You must add it in the VoIPover3G.plist located in /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/
Full Guide to add Skype to voipover3g

Latest clippy and keyboard custom sounds now also seem to work with Skype using the latest Mobile Substrate update. If you are still experiencing crashes when you open up the keyboard, disable these two components.

If you are still experiencing crashes with the new Mobile Substrate and have disabled clippy and\or custom keyboard sounds, make sure to check other mobile substrate extensions or apps that run in the background and disable them. They may be still conflicting with how Skype runs. This is not a Mobile Substrate problem, but a problem with the extension or app itself and the author of it will have to update it. I had no problems using Clippy, Cydelete, Cyntact, Five Icon Dock, QuickGold, SBSettings, VoIPover3G, and Winterboard as mobile substrate extensions.

Known extensions or apps that cause skype to crash: mcoolphone, mobilelog, AdvLock, Hood, and Intelliscreen (it may work if you mess around with the performance settings in Intelliscreen).
You can check what mobileSubstrates extensions you have running and installed by looking in the folder:
/Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/

If you use Intelliscreen, From User Daron:

Eventually, I discovered that Skype would launch if I *disabled* IntelliScreen. I then tried to disable some of the IntelliScreen Performance extensions (Backgrounder, FileSchemaMobileSafari, MailToAttachmentMessageUI, PrefHooker-iKeyEx, SBHooker-iKeyEx, SBSettings, Veency, VoIPover3G, WinterBoard) and discovered that the culprit was Veency.

Thank you Saurik and everyone else that posted comments that helped us figure out the underlying problems.
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Update (March 31st, 2009): Saurik has released a new mobile substrate and the issue is fixed. No need for intelliscreen or any other hacks. Just update mobile substrate from cydia. Update to v0.9.2803-1 (or newer) of mobile substrate.

To fix the Skype crash, all mobilesubstrate based hacks are disabled on the Skype app. This means you cannot use voipover3g or backgrounder with Skype app. Do not ask how to do it or point out that it doesnt work. The developer of mobile substrate has already stated that it will not work.

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The highly anticipated app for the iPhone has just been released in the US:
Skype in the AppStore.

Now the bad news. It seems that all jailbroken phones do not play well with the Skype app. I had problems getting it to work at all, the app would crash when you try to use the keyboard to login to the app. I later found out, through trial and error, the culprit for keyboard crashing is Custom Winterboard Keyboard Click Sounds and Clippy. Getting rid of the keyboard custom clicks (tock.aiff) seems to work with regular themes. Using SBSettings Clippy toggle to switch it off seemed to do the trick also.

That problem, while small and fixable, is not the biggest problem. Skype seems to freeze within 30-50 seconds while in the app – no matter what you do (calling, idling, chatting, etc). I went into safe mode using SBSettings and tried out Skype – to my surprise, everything worked perfectly – I used it to talk to my friend for about 20-30 minutes. I decided to do a little bit more troubleshooting – deleting mobile substrates one by one to see if it helped or not, and then deleting them all. Nothing seemed to work, the app would still crash within one minute.

I decided to run SysInfoPro and compare running processes (non-mobile substrate) between safe mode and regular mode. They both had the exact processes running at the same time.

Although I didn’t delve much deeper into the problem (could have tried using Top and system logs), I have come to a conclusion that Skype crashes ONLY on jailbroken iPhones. I had a couple friends try it on their newly restored iPhones, and they worked flawlessly. Other people from multiple forums have also said it crashes non-stop for them (their iPhones also jailbroken):

“I managed to download skype and tested myself. It is buggy and all the symptoms the same as described by ranova. I have tried it on a 1G phone newly updated to 2.2.1 jailbroken. The only apps I have installed is sbsettings, ierase, nimbuzz, and skype. It still crashes after 30sec or so. It has got to be the phone that is jailbroken. I have nothing on my phone other than what you get after you jailbreak.” – duceduc

“2.2.1 jailbroken 3g here. It crashes after 30 – 60 seconds.” – jgsx

“Confirmed – Crashes like every minute.” – Zazox

Let’s hope this isn’t an attempt from Apple or Skype to cause apps to crash only on jailbroken phones (to deter the use of voipover3g). [end conspiracy theories]
Update: Saurik has just updated regarding reasons behind the crashes:

“Skype seems to be using some kind of /awesome/ DRM that involves them having an entire replacement binary somehow inside of it: the one on disk doesn’t link against /anything/ ;P. Whatever its doing, though, involves stressing dyld in some weird way.

Interestingly enough, its not anything MobileSubstrate does to the code: its just it existing in the process before it loads its replacement. (Which is extra weird, as the new MobileSubstrate links against almost nothing: just CoreFoundation.)”

So what we know so far:

• If Skype crashes when trying to input text: Disable both clippy (Use SBSettings toggle) and any custom Winterboard sounds relating to the keyboard tick (tock.aiff).
• If Skype crashes within 1 minute of having the app open: Update your Mobile substrate via Cydia. The latest version (April 1st, 2009) allows mobile substrate to play nicely with Skype. Thanks Saurik!

Temporary fix that allows mobile substrates extensions (voipover3g, backgrounder, winterboard) to run, from Autotrade at Engadget:

“For people having crashes (especially the 1 minute thing) use this FIX: I had to enable in Intelliscreen, Performance, App Boost ON and select the apps below (in my case I set Backgrounder and VoipOver3G both to ON). That fixed it, no more crashes at all, tested this on 2 iPhones.”

Well there you have it, Skype on the iPhone is amazing – sound quality sounds better than regular cell calls. I briefly tested it on T-mobile’s EDGE network (using voipover3g) and for the 30 seconds that it lasted, there was no noticable lag and quality was great! I look forward in using Skype as a regular VoIP app. Thanks for all the comments and thank you saurik for looking into this.

Since the dawn of Cydia, users have been struggling to remove applications they’ve installed with it. Uninstalling a package is a seven-step operation at best: Start Cydia, Manage, Packages, (locate package), Modify, Remove, Confirm.

With the advent of CyDelete, however, Cydia packages can now be removed like any App Store applications- hold down the icon, wait for them to start wiggling, and tap the X. What was once cumbersome is now integrated into the standard iPhoneOS workflow. It is a lightweight MobileSubstrate plugin that only does anything in Wiggle Mode.

CyDelete will not remove applications that are not managed by Cydia, though they will be branded with an X. From SpringBoard’s standpoint, applications managed by Cydia and applications just sitting in /Applications are one and the same. CyDelete will also not remove Cydia itself, for safety reasons.

Without further ado, some screenshots!

With the release of 1.0.0, it is expected that some uninstallations may fail, and that some packages may incorrectly be flagged as removable when they’re not, and not removable when they are, and that there will be crashes. For that reason, there is a “Bug Report” link available on the Cydia information page for CyDelete. Please submit any failures you encounter. Here is the link.

So a while ago i created this application, back when i was still learning the basics of Cocoa Touch, therefore, it sucked. I have been updating it a bit recently, and i believe it is much, much better. I figured i’d release it here before i sent it over to BigBoss to be updated. Please [...]

iRealSMS 2.0.8 introduced a new feature called QuickSend to the iPhone – after being the inventor of QuickReply it is only logical for iRealSMS to come up first with an equally simple and slim in memory solution for sending SMS from any app. QuickSend also includes the ability to QuickCall your contacts simply by typing their [...]

The CydiaStore is open for business. There is currently only one package that you can purchase in it. I have captured the purchase process so you can all see how it works.

Cydia store packages are going to be in blue writing. when you click on one, your install button says “purchase” instead of “install”.

See the install process of the first app with screenshots.

The “Cydia Store” should be out today with a couple packages. What is the Cydia Store? Saurik, author of Cydia, is adding a checkout service for developers that sell software so they can sell it inside Cydia as an alternative to AppStore. This is already happening today, but developers are on their own to figure out how to charge and register their apps. The Cydia store will make this process easier for both developers and users.

Some facts about the store:

1) Cydia will still be Cydia. There will still be free apps, themes, and all the packages there are today. This is not a new app, there will not be a 2nd Cydia icon added to springboard.

2) The same sources work. Nothing changes there either.

3) Some packages may have a shopping cart next to them indicating that they’re not free. You will have to buy them. Paid packages currently show up in a blue font.

4) Registration is currently being handled by Facebook, but other registration methods are being implemented.

5) Checkout is currently being handled by Amazon shopping but other payment methods are being implemented.

6) Only a few packages are going to be part of the “store” to start in order for more testing of the process.

We have updated ToneFXs to version 1.5. It is a free update for currently registered users. Not much has changed on the surface. It is under the hood where a lot of work has been done.  We had to make some major changes behind the scenes to serve as the foundation for version 2.0. These [...]

BigBoss Edit: Excellent post Ranova. Added as rule #16 to why jailbreak.

Here’s another reason to jailbreak your iPhone 3G. Today, xWaves released the highly anticipated update to their GPS app for the iPhone: xGPS. xGPS features full turn-by-turn guidance through the clever use of Google Maps. It also features full voice directions (TTS – text-to-speech) that try to pronounce the upcoming turn in full detail (direction, street name, etc), a feature a lot of standalone GPS’s do not have. It does a pretty good job at pronouncing street names. A female voice (found in most GPS units) would sound a lot better than a robotic voice, but it is still decent.

biteSMS v3.1 is out now. Here are the changes / additions: Added support for language translations in Quick Reply. Quick Reply is much improved, including scrolling for long messages. Added ability to long press the “Send” button in Quick Reply to switch between Carrier and biteSMS. We now disable the Quick Reply “Send” button during [...]

Gaming Robot and I rewrote the SBSettings autolock toggle from scratch. It should now work. The toggle will also save your current autolock settings value from the settings app and restore it when you toggle it. When the toggle is on, autolock will occur. When the toggle is off, autolock will not occur. Thank you to Erica Sadun for help on getting SpringBoard settings to take effect immediately without a respring.

In this version we added ability to set microphone record on alarm sound. Also we added option shake to snooze. Many users like push button snooze on usual alarm clock and we give to you this possibility. For activation this function you need set requered time for snooze in options of alarm clock. And when [...]

I finally brought Torrentula to Firmware Version 2.x, with the help of Mark Peterson. It’s a GUI for the command line Tool “Enhanced cTorrent” with a lot of other Features! Developers: Albert Schulz and Mark Peterson Special Thanks to: Marcel N. and Sven S. for the Graphics Features: Download you .torrent Files right to your [...]

I have updated Categories today addressing some stability issues in the configuration app. It’s still not perfect but it should at least run better. Hopefully sometime I will get enough time to really go through this thing.

The main issue was a pretty substantial memory leak in the configuration app. What would happen was springboard would detect a low memory state and shut the app down. The then on close, the app would respring. The respring would not have enough memory to complete and springboard would freeze up the device. I have done a lot of work on this, but there is still some smaller memory leak left. The launchers are fine so the hassle is just setting up the folders the first time. I have also removed the respring when low memory state is detected so hopefully it will prevent the freezes.

v2.23
• Fixed issue where users behind a proxy had the app close and safari open in some cases.
• Worked on memory usage. Fixed a large memory leak. (There is still a memory leak in the configuration part of the app, but it’s not as big. I hope I get time to fix it in the near future).
• The iPhone 2.1 and newer froze up when trying to respring with less than 7MB RAM. When memory got low, springboard would kill the app causing it to respring and freeze up. The respring flag should now be cleared in most cases when memory gets this low.
• The app will now detect if it gets closed due to low memory and allow you to continue your editing where you left off.
• Memory free and respring state are now in the status bar while the app is running