Wired's How To Wiki: Make Custom iPhone Ringtones Without Paying Apple $2
108505
Despite Apple's best efforts, hackers find ways to load custom ringtones onto the iPhone without buying them from the iTunes store. Though Apple updates its iTunes software to block loopholes, hackers stay one step ahead. Show us what you've got, in this How To Wiki for new and interesting hacks.
533837
A hacker group has released what it says is a one-click way to install unauthorized third-party applications on an iPhone or iPod Touch. You still can't switch the iPhone to another wireless carrier.
676143
Hacker Jon Lech Johansen, known widely as &quot;DVD Jon,&quot; has cracked Apple&#39;s iPhone activation, or so he claims, meaning that iPhone buyers will be able to activate and use the new handset without having to commit to an AT&T wireless contract. Johansen announced his feat in a blog post entitled &quot;iPhone Independence Day.&quot;
512722
In this new post from the splitbrain.org website (creators of the Dokuwiki application), there's an example of how to join wav files together with PHP with a quick and easy script.   I'm currently working on a CAPTCHA plugin for DokuWiki and thought about providing audio output for users not able to see the image. This is pretty simple for CAPTCHAs - there is no need for complicated speech synthesis because you only need recordings of the 26 possible letters. But you need a way of joining those recordings on the fly...   There was an example he found previously, but it seemed like overkill, so he rolled together his own solution - a 24 line script that takes in the filenames of the wav files and spits back out the joined resource. This functionality has already been added to the CAPTCHA plugin if you'd like to check it out.
420495
PayPlay.FM is offering its 1.3 million indie songs in DRM-free MP3 format for $0.88 each.
266814
An 'export to iTunes' feature is included in GarageBand 4.1.1, released last week.
671897
Have iPhone customers won the freedom to tinker with their cool new handsets? Maybe, if you have the skill to do it yourself. But we don't yet know if you're legally entitled to get help.
377738
By Edward C. Baig  Want to hear music from your iTunes library on your cellphone? No, not that cellphone.
500399
Ringtone Soup (www.ringtonesoup.com), an online community enabling consumers to create, share, and save free ringtones, announced today its new mobile (wireless application protocol, WAP) site providing access to free ringtones directly from a mobile phone or PDA.
725624
Tired of Apple's elegant, understated product design? A host of companies banish the bland with custom designs for iPhones, iPods, MacBooks and other products. Commentary by Leander Kahney.
535752
Ambrosia has released iToner, a Mac OS X utility that enables you to put custom ringtones on your iPhone without hacking the iPhone.
205100
(InfoWorld) - Now that Apple's iPhone is finally on sale, the race is on to see who can unlock it. Locked phones can only be used with cellular service from one carrier, a move designed to guarantee carriers recover the cost of subsidizing a handset through monthly service charges. But the cost of the iPhone, which is priced at either US$499 or $599 depending on the model, is not subsidized by AT&T. Users must pay full price for the handset and sign a two-year contract, which requires them to pay from $59.99 to $99.99 per month for cellular service. Unlocking the iPhone will enable the handset to be used with any cellular provider with a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) or EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) network, not just AT&T's network. That's an attractive proposition for users who already have a cellular contract with another carrier, or users outside the U.S. who can't wait to get their hands on Apple's new handset. Efforts to unlock the iPhone are being tracked on several Web sites, including Hackint0sh and the iPhone Dev Wiki. Initial signs look promising, although the iPhone remained locked at the time of writing. Like other GSM phones, the iPhone uses a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, a removable smart card that contains a user's phone number as well as limited storage space for contacts and messages. SIM cards are designed to be swapped between phones, allowing users to change handsets while using their cellular service. They can also be switched when users travel, allowing them to avoid international roaming charges with the purchase of a prepaid, local SIM card. A removable SIM card is a good sign for hackers, because it indicates the phone is locked using firmware, which can likely be cracked. Of course, unlocking the iPhone requires more than simply changing the SIM card. Swapping the AT&T SIM card used with the iPhone for a SIM card from another carrier results in an error message that reads, "Incorrect SIM. This iPhone must be used with an approved SIM." To unlock the iPhone, hackers must first circumvent the handset's activation process. New iPhone users are required to activate their handset using the latest version of iTunes, released on Friday, before they can use the phone. Without activation, which requires users to sign up for an AT&T service plan, none of the iPhone's functions, including the camera and music player, can be accessed. If hackers can circumvent the activation process, the next challenge will be to unlock the SIM card itself. That could happen as soon as Monday. By Sunday night, U.S. time, hackers had made progress towards circumventing the iPhone activation process, gaining access to key system files and finding two passwords used with the phone, according to the iPhone Dev Wiki. "I think by the end of tomorrow we'll have an activation crack," one user wrote on the site.
317987
SRS Labs, makers of surround sound and other audio technologies, announced Thursday the release of SRS iWOW, a plug-in designed specifically for iTunes on the Mac. Available as a free trial download, iWOW costs $19.99.
727483
Apple has begun shipping Logic Express 7, music composition and production software that delivers professional quality audio and MIDI tools at an affordable price of $299. With new Apple Loops support, software instruments and high-quality effect plug-ins, Logic Express 7 allows musicians to create, record, edit, and mix music. [Oct 28]
64858
(InfoWorld) - Even before Apple's much anticipatedÂ iPhone hits the shelves later this month, users of many different kinds of phones can listen to their iTunes music, via a new service from Seattle company Melodeo. Anyone can use the beta version of NuTsie, launched on Tuesday, by signing up and then exporting their iTunes playlists to NuTsie. Users don't actually upload their music files, only the metadata of the files which identifies the songs. After receiving an application via text message to their phones, they can start listening to their playlists. On the backend, Melodeo is assembling a library of music so it can stream the songs to users. When a user chooses to listen to music from their playlist, Melodeo streams it from its own library. The company adheres to "radio rules," the same guidelines that govern how broadcast radio and online stations play music and then pay artists and record companies for the right to play the songs. Because Melodeo follows radio rules, NuTsie has a few quirks. For instance, users can't pick individual songs from their libraries, they can only listen to their playlists. Also, playlists don't play in the order that the user made them -- NuTsie shuffles the order. If a user's playlist includes a full album, Melodeo must insert random songs into its playback in order to comply with the rules. For now, NuTsie supports 15 phones, although the Java application may work on other phones. Melodeo is developing a Brew version and a Windows Mobile client. Most users will want to subscribe to an unlimited data plan from their mobile operator before using the service, otherwise the cost to stream the music could be high. Melodeo is recommending that users have third generation service, even though the stream uses just 24Kbps, in order to get a high quality service, said Dave Dederer, vice president of music content at Melodeo. So far, Melodeo has a library of 500,000 songs, and is adding around 10,000 songs every couple days, he said. That means that some songs users might have from iTunes, which has a library 5 million strong, might not play. The service shouldn't anger Apple and that wasn't Melodeo's intent, Dederer said. "People have invested time and energy into their libraries and we're trying to embrace and extend that universe," he said. "It's an extension of the value you're already getting out of the iTunes universe." There's another plus to the service. "We monetize music that's illegally stored in an iTunes library," said Dederer, who is himself a songwriter, record label owner and member of the band The Presidents of the United States of America. That's because when NuTsie streams a song from a playlist that a user may have illegally downloaded, Melodeo pays the artist and record company for streaming the song. Melodeo hopes to launch NuTsie commercially in six to eight weeks and hopes to also soon launch with a carrier partner that could decide to offer a subscription to the service. The company hasn't yet decided how to charge for the service. It could offer it via a monthly subscription or with a one time fee for downloading the application. Melodeo is also looking into visual and audio advertising so that users could access it for free, Dederer said.
684110
(InfoWorld) - Security researchers at SPI Labs are warning iPhone users not to use a special feature that lets them dial telephone numbers over the Web using the iPhone's Safari browser. The feature was created to give iPhone users a simple way to dial phone numbers listed on Web pages, but according to SPI, the feature could be misused. [ Blog:Â Researchers point to iPhone security riskÂ ] Attackers could exploit a bug in this feature to trick a victim into making phone calls to expensive "900" numbers or even keep track of phone calls made by the victim over the Web, said Billy Hoffman, lead researcher with SPI Labs. The iPhone could even be stopped from dialing out, or set to dial out endlessly, he said. "Because this vulnerability can be launched from Web sites, everybody who has an iPhone has the potential to get exploited," Hoffman said In order for the attack to work, the bad guys would have to either trick iPhone users into visiting a malicious Web site or make a legitimate Web site send untrustworthy information to the iPhone using what's known as a cross-site scripting attack. "Any time someone could control the content that's getting sent to the iPhone [the possibility of an attack] exists," Hoffman said. SPI is not releasing detailed information on how the Web dialing feature could be exploited, but the company contacted Apple on July 6 and is working with the iPhone maker to prevent these types of attacks, Hoffman said. Apple could not be reached immediately for comment. Because Apple is encouraging software developers to write Web applications for the iPhone that use Safari, the browser has come under particular scrutiny from iPhone hackers. Researchers had previously noted that Safari could be used to misdial numbers, but Hoffman's post suggests that this could be done more easily than previously thought. Not everybody thought the SPI findings were groundbreaking, including Dave Aitel, CTO with Immunity Inc. "If you can make calls from the Web browser, you can make fake calls from the Web browser," he said. So should iPhone users stop using the Web to place calls? "Yes," said Aitel. "If they know a lot of hackers and are a special target."
547622
(InfoWorld) - The iPhone has arrived, but not from Apple Computer. Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, introduced two VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) handsets adding to five others the company already offers. The group of phones is now part of a Linksys family of products called iPhone. The Linksys iPhones aren't quite what some people may have been expecting.Â Apple is rumored to be working onÂ a combined cell phone and digital music player and the mythical device has been dubbed the iPhone, after the popular iPod digital music player, by Apple enthusiasts. Linksys' newest iPhones include the CIT400, a cordless phone with a base station that attaches directly via Ethernet to a network and comes preloaded with VOIP software from eBay's Skype Internet telephony service. The phone allows users to make and receive Skype calls without having to turn on and use their computers. The WIP320 also comes loaded with Skype software and is compatible with Wi-Fi so that users can make and receive calls on the phone from anywhere they can connect to a wireless access point. Users can check their Skype contact list on the phones to see if someone they want to call is available. The devices support SkypeOut and SkypeIn, the services that allow users to make and receive calls with landline phones for a fee. The WIP320 costs $199.99 and the CIT400 retails for $179.99. Both are available in North America and are expected to become available in Europe, Asia and Latin America during the first quarter next year. If Apple is indeed developing a combined mobile phone and music player, fans will have to adjust their expectations that the device will likely not be called an iPhone. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Cisco holds the registration for the "iPhone" trademark.