Tweak Week Coverage - Week #1: Ryan Petrich

[Week #2 -> Filippo Bigarella]

Thanks to Ryan Petrich for starting up the TweakWeek Challenge on the 1^st of June. A free open source iOS tweak every day of the week, from a popular developer from the community each week. First week is over for Ryan with a pretty good job with the tweaks. My top two from Ryan are Running Indicator and MathAlarm! Find the reviews and description of the seven tweaks below. Click this link for the next week's tweaks from FilippoBiga.

Ryan Petrich - Beta Repository

June 1: DietBar

A nice and simple tweak which shaves a bit less than a centimeter off from the navigation bar found in many iOS applications.

It also removes the same amount from the bottom bars (such as the one with Update and Create New in Mail.app). This therefore gives you about 1.5 more centimetres of window space. There aren’t any settings or icons. Looks tidy most of the time, but if the text in the navigation bar is multi-line then it’s going to get shaved!

Would be nice to have a setting on/off and perhaps control size of navigation bar.

June 2: PagePusher

One again, a very simple, no icon or settings tweak. This tweak changes the default “switching-a-page” animation from the default “pushed-in” or animation to a neat looking “Page curl” one.

I think extending it to have different animation choices which can be set in the settings menu would be a good move.

June 3: SplitMail for iPad

iPad only, and since I don’t have one this isn’t really a review.

From description: “Enables using the split dual-view while in portrait orientation” for the Mail app.

June 4: Read Later Action

An extension to the free “Action Menu” system app (also by Ryan), which saves the current webpage to Instapaper (Appstore: $4.99 or Browser Version free). Tap and hold to select any segment/text of the page you are browsing and the action menu will show up with “Read Later” option, or the Instapaper “I” icon if you are using icons.

Click that and the page’s text is saved with all the links for reading later.

You need an account with Instapaper, and you need to set the plug-in up with your username and password in the Action Menu (you need to download that obviously) settings page. Open up Instapaper using your browser, or device to check your saved links/pages.

I reckon this could be made better if links from other non-browser applications could be saved such as broadcasting apps (Ex: Whatsapp). Still good nevertheless!

Semi-related... On my wishlist: an Action Menu plug-in “Copy to” button, which could be set up from settings to copy selected text/data to different locations (Ex: to New note, Instapaper, Dropbox, etc.) without opening the “destination”. Just throwing this out there! :)

June 5: Running Indicator
My favorite tweak from TweakWeek so far. This tweak highlights the apps that are still running in the background, on your device's springboard.

This highlight is done by a nearly subtle glowing effect of the apps' icons on the springboard, when the apps are still running in the background (Notes and Calculator from my screenshots).

In addition to that there is a single setting to toggle the close button on these icons on or off, allowing you to directly close the applications without entering the app switcher.

I like this tweak because it tells you that there are apps still running if you forgot to Remove Background apps, without having to double-click the home button to get to app switcher, which you would tend to forget to do. Cleans out the memory and probably saves some battery life.

Perhaps a setting to customize the glow effect's color and intensity would be an improvement? Or a different style of indication? (Ex: outlining?) But the tweak is pretty sweet the way it is. Keeper for me!

June 6: SliderBar
This tweak adds a slider bar, or scroll bar if that's the term you prefer to use, on the right of all the pages which have table views, or list items such as the Settings app. The slider bar is represented by dots lined vertically on the right hand side of the screen.

This allows the user to scroll faster to any specific segment of the page, by clicking that area of the scroll bar (so click near the end of the slider bar to go near the end of the page). You can tap and drag to scroll as well, which is faster than the default slide up gesture, but not as pretty. Good for long distance scrolling. The type of scrolling is similar to that of the Contacts app.

Speaking of the Contacts app, this tweak replaces the slider bars when they exist by default (such as the alphabetical Contacts app slider bar) which I believe it shouldn't! That's one negative point, the other one is that there is no indication as to where we are on the page (in terms of the slide bar indicating that). I think making the SliderBar dot which represents our current location in relation to the page darker would solve that problem. Also, I usually don't care for aesthetics, but the dots really don't look that nice. Its a tweak never the less and more tweaks means more choices for people to customize.

June 7: MathAlarm

This tweak in my opinion is the most useful one from Ryan Petrich’s TweakWeek, at least if you’re a heavy sleeper, or alarm evader like I am. MathAlarm extends the functionality of the native Clock app, and makes it more annoying and harder for you to ignore. Traditionally, one would hit the snooze button a few times without realizing and then deactivates the alarm thereby over sleeping and missing a meeting. MathAlarm requires you to get some brain function before allowing you to turn off the alarm! In order to snooze or deactivate an alarm you must answer a simple double digit multiplication question. I am saying simple right now because I am fully awake, but when I’m asleep I’d either need to fully wake up or solve the multiplication question with a pen and paper. The nice/evil thing is you can’t turn the alarm off without the correct answer! So at least you will have to be awake long enough to switch the alarm off, which is better than being completely unaware of the alarm because you deactivated so easily without even waking up.

Here’s the step by step instructions on how to use the tweak. (Note:  the tweak has a few bugs at the time of writing this, so follow the exact steps here or you might  be stuck with an alarm you can’t turn off even after solving the question).

Set the alarm normally from the Clock app.

You will get an input box with the question, two buttons and answer text field.

If your device is locked UNLOCK IT BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING. If you have LockInfo installed you will not see the “Slide to Stop Alarm” text, but you still need to unlock the device before doing anything.

After that you will get a number pad which you can key in the quotient and either click snooze or deactivate.

If your phone wasn’t locked to start with then you just key in the quotient and you’re done.

Simple as that if you follow these steps, however if for some reason you get stuck with a non-stopping alarm (see below) you will have to manually reboot your phone (by holding the power and home buttons until it turns off the switching it back on)

Thanks for the efforts Ryan!

Next on: Week #2 FilippoBiga!

Have a good day or night, wherever you are, whoever you are.
Its been a pleasure.
Sam

Find you lost iDevice without looking like an idiot!

Make sure you don't look like this guy if you ever lose your iPhone. 

Long story short, the guy forgot his phone somewhere and thought someone stole it, used his son's iPhone to "track" his iPhone, tracked and beat up the wrong guy (the phone was always where he had left it), and was charged for assault.

Good thing it wasn't more than a beating...

So, how to avoid that? Well here are a few tips and precautions you can take, and a few tools which could help you find your iPhone.. properly. 

I have an iPhone 4, and these apps were tested on it, but they may work on other devices. Your job to check whether or not they do.

I suppose the "default" iPhone tracking tool would be the stock MobileMe - Find My iPhone one. This allows you to locate your iDevice on a map, display a sound and/or text message on the phone (regardless of whether or not it is on silent mode), lock the device using its existing passcode, and wipe the iPhone data remotely. Of course you will need your location services to be turned on on the device otherwise the last known location would be the one you would get, and an internet connection (3G or Wi-Fi) needs to be enabled on your device as well, or you'd get nothing. I think this is an OKish solution but needs a bit more (like changing the lockcode, I thought that we were able to this before!). [Click for instructions on how to set it up + Screenshots]

There are a couple of Cydia apps which I have tried and I believe would be enough to "secure" your iPhone and enable you to locate it "less foolishly" than the baseball guy. You'd need a jailbroken device for them though. If that doesn't suit you, I will talk very briefly about non-jailbroken devices further down.

First: iGotYa, a Cydia application with pretty basic functionality. When your iPhone is locked and an incorrect passcode is entered, the device silently (meaning the user doesn't know that anything is happening) snaps a photo using the iPhone 4's front camera, captures the devices location and sends that to a predefined email address. If the device doesn't have a internet connection the email will be queued, and if there is no accurate GPS location, well that last known one will be sent anyway. Also the application has a feature allowing the iPhone thief to be able to access your device with an incorrect passcode, except all your personal stuff will be hidden. So now you can see the face who stole your iPhone before you beat a random guy talking on an iPhone to death... or something. [Click for instructions and output example]

My favourite must have app for this issue is iLostMyi, has quite a number of different features than the ones mentioned. Firstly the application registers your SIM cards, meaning it will identify any "alien" SIM cards once they are inserted (i.e. thief switches your chip for his). The application the sends you a silent (meaning the user doesn't know that anything is happening) text/SMS message on one or two predefined phone numbers (i.e. your dad's phone number or your partner's). The message you will get will contain the sender's phone number, and his/her SIM card's ICCID and IMSI. You can then send text messages to that number with special commands (which again, will be silent and will bypass the phone's inbox). The special command can enable you to get the GPS location of the device (automatically turning location services on if they are off) and specifying your desired accuracy of location. You can also send other system commands and pretty much take control of your iPhone remotely (given there is a SIM card in it). Here is the list of commands you can send from the official website. In addition to that you can disable the shutting down of the phone. This is a new feature which I haven't tried out yet but should be useful so there would be continuous communication between you and your stolen iPhone. Also you can send a system message to the iPhone like the other applications for example (If found please contact Sam on PHONENUMBER or EMAIL). Useful if the person who found your phone doesn't actually want to steal it!

NOTE: You can still send the command text messages to your own phone even if no one has put an unidentified SIM card in it. Just use your own phone number. [Instructions & screenshots from the Official website]

There is another app (that I know of) on Cydia, similar to iLostMyi, which I haven't tried but seems to do something similar. It's called iTracker. Also I believe there are quite a few apps for non-jailbroken devices on the AppStore, none of which I have tried to be honest. A quick search shows me that "Device Locator: Track and locate your lost or Stolen iPhone..." could be a good one (based on description). Any other one anyone has used? Anything I have missed here or anything missing which you would like to see in iPhone tracker apps? Please share!

TIPS (You don't need to be jailbroken!)

Put a lock code on your device! If you are one to frequently and easily misplace your device make it auto-lock immediately. That could be annoying but better safe than sorry. If you're (like me) glued to your device, and think there is less chance of it being misplaced, put the locking time to 15 minutes or an hour. Or leave it at immediately and download CleverPin from Cydia. Needless to say, don't put obvious lock-codes such as your birth year or 1234 or 1111 or something easily guessable.

Leave location services always on, and if you have a 3G connection leave that always on. There is a trade-off here of-course with battery life. Personally I turn mine off whenever I'm not using them, but I'm willing to take the risk. Are you?

Before beating someone up make sure they HAVE actually stolen your device! Talk to them? Or send a system message or sound using one of the options I have mentioned to make sure your phone isn't just in your backpack, which you didn't check because you never put it there!

Finally, it is an expensive, or at least valuable device with probably quite a bit of your personal information on it. Keep it safe and don't neglect it. Love it and it will try to love you back. Except if it’s a 3GS (or pre-).. Even Apple don't love you anymore!

IF YOU'VE RECENTLY STOLEN AN IPHONE

I do not in any way condone what you have done.

Don't try the lock-code, don't even guess. Just turn the phone off. Go home. Take the chip out and flush it down the toilet. Restore the device on your computer, and you should be sweet.

No guarantees though. Although none of the options I've talked about would work when you do that, I'm willing to bet you can still be somehow tracked by the cops or Apple.

Take the phone back to its owner and apologize.

If you found this useful and are interested in similar stuff, subscribe to this blog or follow me on twitter @7usamNZ.

Have a good day or night, wherever you are, whoever you are.

It’s been a pleasure.

Sam

Track your iDevice using MobileMe – Find My iPhone

This is just a quick tutorial on how to track your iDevice using MobileMe – Find my iPhone

Go to the “Mail, Contacts, Calendars” page from your iPhone’s settings

Tap the “Add Account...” button

Choose “mobile me”

Enter your details or create a new account.

Switch “Find My iPhone” on, and you are done setting up!

Now, lose your iPhone, and use a web browser to go to me.com. Here's the page you'd get, just log on using your details from the previous steps.

Your alternative is getting the free app "Find My iPhone" from the Appstore and this is the login screen you will see:

It will take a few seconds to locate your phone and then display it, depending on your connection I guess (less than a second on mine). You'd get something like this with your device's name, and location on the map.

Click the blue arrow next to your device's name to view the action's menu as shown below:

You can display a message and/or sound, lock the device, or wipe the device data.

Let's send a message:

Type it and check or uncheck the sound option then click send. Note that it doesn't matter whether the phone is on silent mode, the "alarm" is going to sound.

As soon as the message has been received by your phone, you will be notified, and a confirmation email will be sent to you as well. Here's the email:

This is what the message looks like on my phone:

The other two options: lock and wipe, I am not going to demonstrate, because lock does exactly that, normally locks the device with the passcode, so if the thief stole your phone while it was unlocked he/she can't do anything with it anymore. Also I'm not gonna wipe my phone to demonstrate, use that only if you've lost hope of getting your phone back (and its not backed up on your iTunes) or if you've got really sensitive data on it.

Best case scenario of course is you don't have to use this application. So take care off your device, but better safe than sorry. Also avoid getting yourself in trouble by tracking wrongly, check these tips out.

Have a good day or night, wherever you are, whoever you are.
Its been a pleasure.

Sam