Replacing The iPhone Glass/Digitizer & Adding A Custom Orange Back!
Dec/090
Okay, before you get too excited I should warn you; This is more so just a documentation of my experience doing this rather than an actual tutorial like I usually post. Before you jump in to a project like this you can save yourself a lot of headache (and avoid ruining your phone!) by doing your homework and watching videos on disassembling your model of iPhone. There are a lot more videos that just show you how to change the glass/digitizer than there are full disassembly vids (which is required to change the back), so take care of your due diligence before trying this at home kids! :)
My iPhone’s screen shattered one evening while it was changing on my desk and I received a phone call… unfortunately I wasn’t nearby and it vibrated off the table…
The good news; I ordered both the replacement glass / digitizer part and a slick new orange iPhone back for around 35 dolars on eBay. There are lots of sellers on there with these parts, so just find a reputable one with good feedback & positive comments for their iPhone parts. I had to wait two weeks to get the back part from Hong Kong, but it went smoothly and shipping was free! [FYI, the glass and touch sensor, which is called a digitizer, are one part, so you must replace them together]
Here, documented via somewhat blurry photos, is my attempt to do this without destroying my phone completely… luckily it was a success! The first thing you hear in the how-to videos for disassembling your iPhone is the importance of removing the internal connection in the proper sequence. So I carefully lifted up my digitizer panel and peaked in… yeah, the connectors just popped off all at once! haha. Thankfully the phone still worked in the end!
I apologize that I didn’t video this or put more time in to a proper tutorial, but this turned out to be more involved and time consuming than I had imagined… and to be honest I just don’t want people trying this solely on account that they saw my successful attempt here, as you will have many opportunities to ruin your while iPhone doing this!
Sorry for the burred images, the lighting I was working in sucked!
At one point later in the disassembly process I did get a bit overwhelmed trying to remember where screws went and how parts were oriented, so I did miss what probably would have been some interesting photos of lots of little parts lying around on my desk!
You’ll notice in the second to last picture that my case did not completely close evenly at the top! It looks worse here than in real life and so far no one has noticed it until I pointed it out. I am not certain if this is due to a part defect or if I did not seat the battery perfectly or something.
Secure Your iPhone Against the ‘RickRoll’ worm!
Nov/090
If you’re an iPhone owner, particularly if you’ve jailbroken your phone, you probably saw the news this morning of the first ever iPhone worm to appear in the wild. The good news is that it’s just a proof-of-concept virus written by white-hat hacker Ashley Towns to spread awareness about the default password vulnerability that we’ve all known was a potential security hole for ages now. This only effects iPhone users who have jailbroken their phone and have installed SSH (and keep it running on their device, as it does by default). While the worm does ‘infect’ your iPhone with with an annoying wallpaper change, that is about the extent of it.
For more info on protecting yourself from this and future woms/virii that exploit this vulnerability check out this great YouTube video by D7 [below]. If you don’t know who he is you will probably want to subscribe. He has a plethora of helpful iPhone videos on YouTube! In addition to changing the default password I’d also suggest you get the SBSettings module ‘SSH Toggle’, this way you only have to run SSH when you actually need to use it (which isn’t very often for most users).
Thanks for the video D7!
Some things are meant to be updated; some, not yet
Sep/090
Just a few weeks ago, Snow Leopard started shipping. Those with a new Mac who was promised to have the “upgrade package at $9.95″, it came a few days later (You can’t blame them, they said it’ll only be available in September). Just before that even happened, though, developers and hackers alike found a glaring mistake by Apple: the Flash Player included in Snow Leopard was an obsolete version. While mayhem and hell hasn’t exactly broken out, Apple has swiftly provided OS X Update 10.6.1, now available through Software Update. My update is at a tiny size of 9.8MB, but if you’re going to install it on multiple computers, or Software Update doesn’t give you that option yet, you can always download the package here (DIRECT LINK) at a whopping 71.47MB.
According to Apple’s site, the updates are as follows:
- Improves compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
- Addresses an issue in which some printer compatibility drivers might not appear properly in the Add Printer browser
- Addresses an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
- Addresses an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
- Resolves an issue in which the Command-Option-T keyboard shortcut would sometimes bring up the special characters menu in applications such as Mail and TextEdit
- Addresses instances in which auto account setup in Mail might not work
- Resolves issues when sending mail with certain SMTP servers
- Addresses an issue in which Motion 4 could become unresponsive
- Includes an update to Adobe Flash Player plug-in version 10.0.32.18
All Snow Leopard users are advised to update as soon as possible to fix the gaping hole Apple has left. But for iPhone 3GS users, that’s another thing.
As you guys might have known, the iPhone OS 3.1 is out. The iPhone Dev Team has reminded us that the iPhones might never be unlocked again if you update it, because the baseband might not be jailbreakable. And reports around the Internet have confirmed that the iPhone cannot be restored to 3.0 anymore. So while iPhone 2G and 3G users have to wait patiently, here’s something to do for your iPhone 3GS if you haven’t done it yet. Get the iBSS and iBEC files now before you update to 3.1.
It’s important because this is a security procedure. It was mentioned in one of the earlier posts, and if you still haven’t done it yet, the wonderful guys at Modmyi.com have come up with a very useful guide:
3G[S] Users Capture Your iBSS and iBEC BEFORE 3.1 [Reminder]
For the rest of the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod touch users, why not grab yourself a cup of coffee and wait? Jailbreak should be on the way, and so is the unlock. Go, Dev Team!
Rock and roll, Apple!
Sep/090
It’s D-Day! Well, not exactly, but Apple’s gotten creative this year by making the event coincide with the 090909 mark of the century. And boy, Steve Jobs is back! He’s the keynote speaker of the event. I’m sure some of you might have missed what has happened in the past hour, so why not make a summary?
Photo courtesy of gdgt
- iPhone and iPod touch OS 3.1. (duh)
- Genius function in iTunes now applied to App Store: It suggests what apps you might like based on your current inventory.
- Ringtones will be sold at $1.29.
- Free for iPhone users. Only iPod touch users who have OS 3.0 will get to download OS 3.1 for free.
- iTunes
- iTunes 9 released.
- Genius mixes (something like your iTunes DJ, but Genius technology incorporated)
- Home sharing. Songs, movies and shows can be copied to 5 different authorized computers.
- Redesigned iTunes Store.
- iTunes LP for music, Extras for movies.
- Sharing to Facebook & Twitter now possible.
- Apps can be managed through iTunes.
- iPods
- iPod touch pricings: $199 for 8GB, $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB
- 32GB and 64GB versions will have OpenGL.
- iPod classic will be bumped up to 160GB for the same old price: $249.
- iPod shuffle will not be kicked! In fact, there’s now the “nanochromatic” version of the shuffle for 2GB at $59, and a stainless steel version (4GB) at $99.
- iPod nano will have 2.2″ display, camera, mic and speaker built-in. FM player built-in as well. Voice recorder app and pedometer is also in that small little thing. Amazing.
- iPod nano will be draining your wallet of $149 for 8GB, or $179 for 16GB.
That’s all the announcements. I’m sure many of you guys out there have been expecting much more things from Apple, including a camera for the iPod touch. But cheer up, at least there were other improvements! And oh, jailbreakers: 3.1 is not jailbreakable yet. ;)
What to expect from the Apple Rock n’ Roll event?
Sep/090
It’s been very long since Gadget Cracker has updated anything at all. We’re very sorry for this. In any case, if you haven’t heard about it in other sites, the Apple Rock n’ Roll event is coming up! You can count on Engadget updating frequently here. There are plenty of rumors flying around this time, with none confirmed yet. Here’s a few that we’ve gathered over the course of the last few weeks. Again, nothing is actually confirmed, so please do not shoot us if we’re incorrect!
- This event will solely revolve around a music theme, i.e. there will not be any updates on Mac or the Apple TV, as speculated earlier.
- The iPod touch and iPod nano will be getting built-in cameras. So far, photos seem to show only that of the iPod touch, and the camera is located just beside the WiFi patch on the top-left corner of the back of the device. (this is further supported by some of Belkin’s casings for the iPod touch leaked out early)
- The iPod touch will have a 64GB model.
- The iPod classic range will be discontinued, effectively killing off Apple’s HDD-based music players.
- The App Store will be getting an upgrade in view of the 65000+ applications the App Store has.
- The new iPod range will not be available so soon, in view of some defects. (aww.)
Whatever it is, the event will start at 9am PDT, so check the Engadget link above! The event will start at GMT 1700hrs. Remember to count in the DST hour if you’re affected by the areas. (UPDATE2: You could always refer here, though.) Let’s hope this will be interesting…
EDIT: I almost forgot about this, but the iPhone OS 3.1 will be coming out soon, and it doesn’t seem that far-fetched to say that it might coincide with the event. Needless to say, the iPhone Dev Team has posted here that jailbreakers who have jailbroken their iPhones should NOT update to 3.1, or you will risk losing your unlock forever. Heads up!