I have added a special repo for beta testing SBSettings. In it, I have put an update to SBSettings and SBSettings toggles. I am looking for testers that are interested in testing things out. However, there are some rules you must agree to before doing this:

1) This is a beta repo. It should never be given out. It must never appear in any “all sources” packages. As soon as that happens, the repo will be removed. Steffwiz / pwncenter already *ruined* my last beta repo.

2) If you install anything from this repo, you are not going to look for tech support. You will need to be able to send syslogs if there are any springboard crashes or major problems. You can do so with logmailer. If you do not know how to do these things, please do not install the beta repo.

3) If there are issues, you must be capable of describing them well with details and willing to work through them to solve the problems rather than just reverting to an old version with “it didnt work”.

4) As this is beta software, I cannot guarantee its stable (although its working well for me and initial testers). Therefore, if you have a 3gs with no 3.1.2 SHSH stored in Cydia, I suggest you do not bother with the beta tests as long as there is no 3.1.3 jailbreak out.

Ok now that has been said, if you are interested in testing and helping out, please add the repo at this address: http://thebigboss.org/betarepo

Whats new so far:

• Added app sorting in hidden icons and dock applications section of more app.

• Added ability to switch to max 2 rows. This keeps smaller window for those that want it. Find the option in extras in more app. On firmwares 2.x max of 8 toggles would be the limit. On 3.x you would be able to scroll pages.

• Added “App Folders” section to the more app to get the path to a specific app folder. Useful for trying to fiddle with appstore apps that have cryptic locations.

• Added Activator support. You must have rpetrich’s activator v1.3 or newer. Also beta. We are waiting on the thumbs up from the sbsettings beta test and then this all goes live.
  
• Removed EDGE toggle which only worked on 2.x devices and replaced it with DATA toggle that should work on all devices.
  

ILogManager Basic 3.1 is out. Both trial and full versions are available at Big Boss repo. The users, who are all using 3.0.1 are advised to update to the new version immediately. In this new release, we addressed, critical memory and table scrolling issues with the contact images. Real cool news: As we announced in [...]

It looks like Geohot has announced that he has a working jailbreak for 3.1.3 which he plans to release on the next major release (3.2 or iPad or such, not 3.1.3). The really good news for us all is that it is untethered which means all of you out there with the new tethered bootrom will be able to get a real jailbreak in the next few weeks. Of course we will announce here when it is out.

For more info and a funny video demonstrating it, you can view Geohots blog.

Of course, it won’t be released for 3.1.3. Since 3.1.3 is so worthless, there is no point giving Apple another exploit to close until after the next release is out that is actually worth something.

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Many users, including me, have gotten the iPhone System pop-up: “Warning: You are running low on memory…etc” in the past few days. Unfortunately for me, my phone did a hard crash when my wake-up alarm went off this morning and I had to do a full restore (I was planning on upgrading from 3.0 anyways).

The culprit? Rock App

Why? It seems that Rock is not clearing out the log\cache file, so it constantly grows larger, indefinitely.

Solution.

1. SSH into your phone or use iFile\Diskaid and locate /var/mobile/Library/RYP/logs
2. Delete rockapp_{date}.log

Some users have indicated that their log files have totaled from 1gb to over 8gb in size!

I have not confirmed this, but a user told me that going into Rock and clicking “Clear cache” will fix this problem.

I am not sure if there was a date bug, but it seemed that it has recently hit everyone that has Rock (and extensions) installed.

Update: kwickone has stated that a Rock update is out that will fix this problem. Update Rock to see if the problem is resolved, if not, delete the log file as mentioned above. I had to fix my friend’s phone and I could not even launch Rock. After deleting the logfile, rebooted, everything was back to normal

I have removed the firmware 313 spoofer from Cydia and instead placed a firmware 313 spoofer *app* into Cydia. This time, rather than rely on cydia to copy the files, I have an app that will let you load it and toggle the firmware from 3.1.2 to 3.1.3. Note that it does require a reboot after toggling in order for this to take effect. In hindsight, having Cydia copy the files was a bad idea because it seems Cydia has crashed on some installs or the scripts have not completed for some reason causing problems on uninstall. The new app will solve that as it removes all the scripts from cydia.

The app still just edits the file at /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist, which you can manually edit if you so choose.

If you installed the previous version of firmware spoofer, I suggest you do not remove it (ever) as there was a bug in the uninstall script that could remove your firmware plist. Just use this new app instead to select which firmware you want. Selecting 3.1.2 and rebooting is equivalent to uninstalling the old tweak

App is basic but functional:

And some quick comments to some questions I keep getting:
1) No, this does not actually update your firmware to 3.1.3
2) No this does not impact tethering tweaks or other tweaks. It just changes the *reported* firmware version
3) No this does not break your unlock or cause “no service”

Remember that you have to reboot for this to take effect even though the settings app shows the version change immediately.

Final note: if you want this to remain permanent you can uninstall the app after selecting the firmware so you don’t have to have the icon. The last firmware you have chosen will remain. If you wish to change it later you can always reinstall the app and change it again.

Update: Appsidy will issue a refund to everyone that bought this in the next 5-7 days.

Today some developer released a “pay” package called “Vroom” which sounded too good to be true. Unfortunately, it is. Do not install this package. Not only does it not do what it claims, but it is also somewhat dangerous and will wear out your iPhone with limited use. Read below for details. (Note: Zodttd has removed this package from Cydia, but it may creep up somewhere else).

First, this package claims to speed up your iphone, increase your free memory by managing your daemons, and increase your battery usage. Sounds amazing right? Who wouldnt want this?

So what does it really do? It enables memory swap on your device.

What are the results of memory swap on your device? The free memory will appear to be better. That’s because it is using your disk as memory.  But that’s not all. This package is actually just a stolen file that is already on your device, renamed. So that means the “developer” decided to take a file off his iPhone, rename it, and sell it to you for $1.99.

Here is proof that the file is stolen. The original file is dynamic_pager that is provided by Apple in your /sbin folder. The new file from this app is called Vroom_data. Check out the md5sum of both proving that the files are identical:

BigBoss-iPhone:~ root# md5sum /sbin/dynamic_pager
e57afa9289e98fbd336eff14b996370a  /sbin/dynamic_pager
BigBoss-iPhone:~ root# md5sum /sbin/Vroom_data
e57afa9289e98fbd336eff14b996370a  /sbin/Vroom_data

Ok so the package is fraud.

But if you already have dynamic_pager, whats the harm in enabling it? The reason you don’t want memory swap enabled on your iPhone is this:

1) Memory swap will create a disk file on your flash disk. The CPU will need to spend I/O cycles reading and writing to this disk file. The I/O cycles will cost you battery because it takes battery power to do disk writes.

2) Flash disk has limited life span. They say some 100,000 writes per sector then it is dead. Having a swap file running will be quickly writing to the same sectors wearing out your flash disk.

3) Writing to a page file takes some CPU cycles.

Now, lets examine the developer’s claims and compare them to what the package actually does:

Claim #1: Increases memory.  Sort of. It creates a disk swap. Result is iphone will appear to have more memory. Some apps may crash less. This isn’t all bad. (I think I will release a free package that enables disk swap with a strong warning on it for those that want this).

Claim #2: Manages your daemons. FALSE / lies. It is the apple dynamic_pager file. It does only that. It does not manage your daemons.

Claim #3: It speeds up your device: FALSE. In fact, disk swap actually slows down the device because there are extra disk write used in order to access memory.

Claim #4: It provides better battery performance: FALSE. In fact it actually causes your battery to drain faster because of the disk write I/O cycles and the extra CPU required.

Claim #5: It allows your iPhone to boot at 2% rather than 15% battery. FALSE. This is built into the device not the iPhone OS. (Just like DFU mode). You cannot make changes to this.

Claim #6: It allows your iPhone to run until there is 1% battery rather than 5% before it shuts off. FALSE. See #5 above.

Finally, the package in Cydia was packaged incorrectly. Daemon plist was owned by user 1000. Launchctl will not load any daemon not owned by root. This caused the daemon to not start. With that bug, the paging system is not even enabled resulting in no change in performance! (LOL again). Anyone claiming to install this and finding a boost in speed, battery, etc is experiencing the placebo effect.

This all reminds me of the scam last year with the fake app I dont crash. At least that guy wasn’t trying to charge you money.

Note: enabling memory swap also seems to break google maps app.

So to all your 3.1.3 3GS users that cant jailbreak, this is a reminder to you. Update your computer’s hosts file right now to point to Saurik’s server. This should be a permanent change everyone that owns a 3GS should make. This allows you to down grade your firmware in the future. Even if you don’t care about jailbreaking, it is still a good idea. What if Apple releases a firmware that you hate in the future? This at least allows you the option to downgrade. It also guarantees your SHSH is stored.

While it’s unlikely 3.1.3 will ever be jailbroken since it is utterly worthless, it is still a good idea to get your SHSH stored. Once your hosts file is set up, anytime you restore, the signature is stored for you so that you can go back and restore to that firmware again in the future whether or not Apple decides you should or not.

To fix your computer, simply follow these steps:

OSX: Open the file /etc/hosts with a text editor.
Windows: open the file C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts with notepad:
Add the line:
74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com

Note: on windows you may need to “run as” administrator your notepad to get the file to save. On OSX, you may need to use sudo or su to get to root user.

SBSchedule is a new program for your iPhone / iPod Touch which allows to setup profile groups of SBSettings toggles. You can then schedule those profiles to fire at a given time or activate them anywhere via a shortcut you can trigger. The possibilities here are limitless, as almost any on/off toggle you have for [...]

After about a year of using various methods to get it to work right, there is now a Data Toggle for SBSettings. The problem with disabling data (EDGE) is discussed in my post from last July. Today, Anderson Vulczak contacted me with a working solution to both disable and reenable Data on 3.0 iPhone OS. So we quickly put together a Data toggle and put it into Cydia. In short, this solution sets a bogus IP address, (1.1.1.0) to your data adapter’s IP address. This seems to kill EDGE / 3G without any battery drain issues reported in using other methods such as entering a bad APN.

I recommend that anyone that needs to disable Data use this rather than the EDGE toggle. The toggle should work also with BossPrefs as well.

We are calling this “Data” toggle because when it is off, it should kill the data connection entirely. 3g can be on and you will not be able to access your internet via your provider’s data connection. You will notice you get an IP address, but it is a bogus one that we assign (1.1.1.0).

The only downside is that to reenable data, we have to kill commcenter which can freeze the device for up to 15 seconds. (Should come back to life after that though).

Just a note that Apple stopped signing 3.1.2 today. That means those of you 3gs or iPod touch 3 users that did not rush out and store your TSS in Cydia or Rock are screwed and cannot restore anything but 3.1.3. If you are a jailbreak user running a 3gs or ipod touch 3 (or later generation ipod touch 2) that has not stored the TSS in cydia, you should be very careful with what you do from now until the next jailbroken firmware. You will want to be careful in what you install to make sure you don’t have to restore for any reason. It would be a good idea to install open SSH and learn how to use it so that you can get in and fix any problems without a restore, also.

3g / 2g users need not worry as you dont need Apple to sign your firmware files.

Note: the warning applies only to 3gs, ipod touch 2 and 3 users. Regular 3g, 2g, and ipod touch 1 users can use redsn0w 0.9 to jailbreak 3.1.3.

iPhone OS 3.1.3 is now out from Apple. Supposedly it fixes some battery issues. (Doesn’t every release make things faster and fix battery problems?) There are no new features. The release only stops jailbreaks. That’s right. No new features.

DO NOT UPDATE YOU WILL BE SORRY.

Currently there is no jailbreak for this firmware. Unofficial sources have confirmed that they have patched up the method we used to jailbreak 3.1.2 so you will not be able to jailbreak. If you update you will lose all your jailbreak apps and will not be able to get them back. In other words, updating means you lose a lot of stuff in return for almost nothing back. In addition, there is no ETA on a jailbreak for 3.1.3. It may never be jailbroken. It is likely that they (dev team, geohot) will not waste another hole on 3.1.3. They will most likely hold it for the bigger update that will come with the release of the iPad and iPhone 4.0.

One more thing, as of right now, Apple is still signing 3.1.2 for you 3gs users but no one knows for how much longer they will be. Make sure you *rush* into Cydia or Rock and get your keys signed on the front page if you have not. This will make certain you can always restore 3.1.2 even in the future using Saurik’s server.

To summarize:

- Update adds NO NEW FEATURES, do not update.

- Update kills your jailbreak. Do not update.

- Get your 3gs 3.1.2 keys signed by Cydia/Rock now if you haven’t.

Read dev team info about this update here.

Ever want to fake your device into believing it’s anywhere in the world? Now you can, with Location Spoofer available on Cydia Store! Location Spoofer allows you to get around all of the location specific locks that some apps put in place to prevent you from viewing content in certain regions, as well as creating [...]

Did you know your iPhone/iPod Touch can play videos on your TV? Did you know Apple wants you to pay $50 to get a cable that lets you do such? Did you know you don’t need to? There are plenty of accessories on the market that allow you to play video out with iPods, but [...]

There are plenty of accessories on the market that allow you to play video out with iPods, but when plugged into the iPhone, display “This accessory is unsupported by iPhone”, and refuse to play video out. Or at least used to.

Resupported is a safe and cheap alternative to paying the Apple tax. It enables video out through many unsupported AV cables and devices, and it does not modify system files!

Here’s a simple check to see if your cord is likely to be supported:
-Does it plug into the dock connector?
-Will audio play through it when connected to your device?
-Does it have a video output or a screen?

Available in Cydia for $1.99

With this app called BTstack Keyboard from Matthias Ringwald, jailbroken iPhone users can now use a bluetooth keyboard for text entry in your iPhone. Great for college or taking notes in a class or meeting at work! The app should work with most any bluetooth keyboard available. For more details see Ringwald’s product page.

The keyboard is available for $5 on Cydia Store. Added to reasons to jailbreak!

Here is a petition that I recommend you all sign. Click here to sign it. It is to petition the FCC to keep the iPhone free. Jailbreaking lets you make a decision on what you want to do with your iPhone. Apple will have none of this. The utlimate goal of the petition is to have Apple open up access to us iPhone users without having to jailbreak.