No Sweat Mobile Mail (and other iPhone Applications) Installation for the iPod Touch

Yesterday, I took and plunge and upgraded my 16Gb iPod Touch to the latest firmware (1.1.2). Jailbreaking my 1.1.2 upgraded iPod Touch was pretty painless, in fact, the process took less time than my previous jailbreaking activities. Applications that I did not immediately restore are the mobile iPhone applications (Mobile Mail, Mobile Notes, Weather and Maps) because I knew that there may be some incompatibility issues considering that the files I have of those apps were still version 1.1.1.

But this morning, I revisited the Touchdev wiki and saw that there's an easier way to install the iPhone mobile apps. This involves adding a new software repository to Installer.app and once that new repository is recognized, 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 iPhone applications will be available for automatic download and installation!

Now, my iPod Touch is back to its old usable state and I couldn't be happier!

Happy hacking!

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AFP: Yet Another Way to Add Files to your iPod Touch/iPhones

The original way of putting files on the iPod Touch/iPhone is using command line SFTP (Secure FTP).  This method is efficient but not well-received by the community (who wants to use command-line interface anyway).  Then there's the method of using Cyberduck or FUGU, an easier way because of its graphical nature.



Now TUAW reports that someone has found a way to use AFP (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) to work on the iPod Touch/iPhone!  IMHO, this is the better way to transfer files to your iDevice because it does not involve using a 3rd party application on your Mac (for Windows users... I think they can find a way to use this too).

I can't wait for this to become available in Installer.app so I can give it a spin.

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jailbreakme.com: Jailbreak Your iPhone/iPod Touch By Visiting a website.

I have mixed feelings about this "easiest jailbreaking method ever".  By just visiting jailbbreakme.com, a previously "virgin" iPhone/iPod Touch will be jailbreak-ed opening it to 3rd party applications with minimal user intervention.  This is made possible through the TIFF exploit discovered by a PSP hacker named Niacin.

Well and good for those who does not want to muck around with using SSH (or WinSCP) -- which is a vast majority of iPhone/iPod Touch owners.

But... this also opens up the iPhone/iPod Touch to the dark side of the web.  Picture this:  a "virgin" iPhone/iPod Touch visits a seemingly "harmless website" using Mobile Safari.  But in the background, the seemingly "harmless website" is now capable of running a background process in the iPhone/iPod Touch doing something sinister (like sending out the whole contact list as an email to the hacker, or simply messing up with the system file... bricking the device).

Now, if an iPhone/iPod Touch was jailbreak-ed using jailbreakme.com, the process also patches the system, fixing the TIFF exploit.  Those that have jailbreak-ed their devices using the more arcane methods also has the option to download the TIFF exploit fix.  But what about the majority of users that kept their units untouched?  They are all vulnerable to these types of "attacks".

This is my fear at the moment.  I think Apple will address this TIFF exploit weakness on the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Once Apple releases the official fix through another software update, the firmware 1.1.1 fiasco may happen once again and will render countless devices useless, until the hacking community finds yet another way to circumvent Apple's "fixes".

I guess I'll just have to be content with what I have now -- an iPod Touch with extended capabilities thanks to the iPhone/iPod Touch hacking community (with some level of confidence that it is somewhat safe from the TIFF exploit).

The solution to this conundrum? Apple should immediately release the SDK for this platform and let the developer community enrich the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

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GUI Jailbreak for the iPod Touch

iJailBreak is out!
October 14th, 2007 | Posted by Ben Feldman, co-13-year-old developer

And it's on our Google Code for download. It has been tested to work on OS X Tiger on Intel chips. No guarantees that it will work on PPC chips - we're working on it. Enjoy!

iJailBreak - Home

If you're not too keen about using Terminal.app to jailbreak your iPod Touch, this *may* be the solution for you.  It is currently at version 0.2.1 which means that it is still in its early stages of development, therefore USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Update: Oh, and did I mention that iJailbreak only runs for Intel-based Macs?  The developer, however, promises compatibility with PPC Macs in the future.  Sorry Windows users, no love for you here... yet. :)

Update 2: iJailBreak works!  I botched my previous hacking attempt by manually installing an alpha version of an app (don't ask) so I decided to restore iNewton and run iJailbreak and it indeed worked!  Now iJailbreak has the Talkin' Tech seal of approval! :D

Update 3: Windows users need not fret!  There's a Windows-based all-in-one solution for you too and its called touchFree. Since I can't test this version, let me just quote my friend at Mac-a-Doodle, "CAVEAT hax0r".

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State of Talkin' Tech's iPod Touch Jailbreak

Yesterday, I said that I had successfully Jailbreak-ed my iPod Touch. I was enjoying my Touch with its 3rd party applications. I had fun installing and uninstalling 3rd party apps but there was one thing missing, Mobile Mail. I want to be able to access my emails on-the-go but something seems to be wrong with the steps I followed so I decided to re-do the Jailbreak and attempt to install Mobile Mail properly this time.

Here's what I did to achieve this. I'm not sure if I'll be successful but I just want to document the steps that I'm taking for posterity's sake.

1. Connected my iPod Touch to my MacBook and did a "Restore" via iTunes. This will bring my iPod back to factory default settings.
2. With that done, I ran the .TIFF exploit to enable me to browse the contents of my Touch.
3. Proceeded to perform the JailBreak procedure as outlined here.
4. Setup SSH as outlined here.
5. Fixed iTunes as outlined here.
6. Installed Installer.app as outlined here.
7. Installed Springboard hack as outlined here.
8. Setup native iPhone apps as outlined here.

Just like yesterday, everything worked flawlessly *but* I still can't make Mobile Mail work although I did make Mobile Maps, Mobile Notes and Mobile Weather work flawlessly. I also installed the BSD Subsystem and Term Vt-100 to do some *nix stuff using Installer.app.

In th coming days, I hopefully will find a way to make Mobile Mail to work but in the meantime, I'll enjoy using my iPod Touch (which I now dub "iNewton"), especially my "killer applicaton" Books.app.


Update: It turned out that the Mobile Mail program that I was installing was corrupted. I tried a package from a different source and now I can access my Gmail account using iPhone's Mobile Mail on my iPod Touch! Now it is worthy of its nickname of "iNewton"

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