Hacks

Jailbreaking iOS 7 on your iPad

Evad3rs have finally announced the much awaited jailbreak for iOS 7. Since I have the iPad 3 myself, I immediately decided to jailbreak it. A few words of caution though: evad3rs have mentioned that there could be boot loop problems even after a successful jailbreak on devices which have been updated OTA. This post provides instructions based on the Windows version of evasi0n7 on jailbreaking iOS 7 on your iPad. You can follow the same steps while using the Mac version too.

[alert style=”1″]Disclaimer: Jailbreaking iOS 7 on your device will void your warranty. We do not take responsible for any issues you may face after you jailbreak your device[/alert]

I learnt this the hard way, having upgraded to 7.0.4 OTA my device was stuck on boot after a successful jailbreak. So if you are on pre iOS7 or 7.0.0, upgrade your device to 7.0.4 through iTunes. If you are already on 7.0.4 through OTA, just follow Apple’s guidelines to restore iOS device to factory settings. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414.

Once you’re done you are now ready to jailbreak your iOS device.

So now, here the process – It is not very complicated and I just followed the steps provided by evad3rs team.

First, backup your device through iTunes or iCloud.
Download evasion 7 from http://evasi0n.com/. Unzip the folder
Open evasion and hit jailbreak.

The device will boot several times.
You will be asked to unlock device and tap the evasion icon on your iPad.

A confirmation message will be shown once jailbreaking iOS 7 is complete

It’s been a couple of days since I tried jaibreaking iOS 7 on my iPad 3rd Gen and I haven’t really encountered any major issues. So, happy jailbreaking!

Image credit: 3dfoto / 123RF Stock Photo

Key Tips to Protect Yourself from Phone Hackers

The latest news about the now-obsolete tabloid ‘News of the World‘ gave me a shock. The critically acclaimed Royal family, the terrific murderers, pathetic murder victims, and almost everyone became prey to the phone hackers (sorry, they are the so-called journalists). Now that the tabloid has been closed forever we shouldn’t be happy thinking that this is the ‘happily ever after’ ending for the phone-hacking business.

Somewhere in this same world there will be phones getting hacked when you are reading this article. We aren’t modern day Robin Hoods to stop the people from doing evil but what we could do from our side is, follow these simple steps to ward off the hackers from our valuable phone.

1. Is your Password Powerful or Pathetic?

I know many people who still use the default passwords for their phone even years after buying the phone. The default password will be same for the whole company for instance if your phone is of Nokia brand then the password of all phones produced by that brand is 12345. To crack this code no special intelligence is needed.

Change these default passwords first. As soon as you buy a phone and put your sim card change all the default passwords. However, most people end up changing the password from default ‘12345’ to obvious ‘22222’. Some people are so naïve that even a hacking amateur can easily hack their phones.

You must avoid the following while choosing your passwords –

Birthdays of any kind (yours, spouse’s, kid’s, etc)
Anniversaries
Your name’s number format. For instance, DEEP = 45516
Last few digits of your social security number

Keep your password totally random.

Tip – Don’t write down this password anywhere; one of my cousins has kept a really hard-to-guess password but she wrote it down and kept it in her clutch where she keeps her mobile too.

2. Lock your phone

What’s the use of keeping cryptic passwords without using them? It is as similar as not having a password at all. Keep your phone locked always especially when you are surrounded by quite a lot of people. I know it too obnoxious to lock and unlock each time you receive or send a message, but if you love your phone you don’t have any other option other than locking your phone (until someone finds phone locking system with biometrics).

Especially if you are a proud owner of a smartphone then definitely your phone should be under lock always. Unlike conventional mobile phones which needs a passcode to access voice mails, smartphones allow users to access the voice mailbox with a single touch (thanks to the voice mail Apps) irrespective of the user’s identity.

3. Hacking your phone, without using your phone

Your phone can be hacked without the help of it. Yeah, a hacker can simply call from an outside line to your service provider and access your voice mailbox. All he needs is your social security number or some other personal detail. The default passcode may me jus 0# or 0, etc.

To avoid these type of mishaps call your service provider and change the pass-code to access your voice mailbox and also discuss with them about increasing the security levels.

You may not be a big shot to get hacked, but once you get hacked then you will surely become a big shot (of course in the negative sense). Therefore, build up a Crypt (above said points) for your Phone right now!

Installing Ubuntu Linux on the Samsung Galaxy Tab

For Ubuntu Linux fans, here’s a way to get Ubuntu installed on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and have the best of both worlds. The instructions in the following video show how to install Ubuntu under Android like a Virtual Machine. So you can have Linux application run alongside Android ones.

To check out Ubuntu in action in the Galaxy Tab 10.1 take a peek at this video:

via: Galaxy Tab Hacks

World of ROMs on the SGS: How to Videos

While we had written a couple of how to’s for the SGS, including the Groundwork, more is always better.

However, that was back in the Froyo days. We’ve since moved on to Gingerbread, and there’s even been a 2.3.4 update recently. And people do find it easier to see what needs to be done. So, here are a couple of Videos courtesy TotallydubbedHD on youtube, who happens to be an active member on the Darky Rom Community and on XDA.

Of course, you SHOULD STILL ROOT AND USE TITANIUM BACKUP to maintain a backup of your apps + data. While it is recommended to not restore system data while restoring your backups while switching bases (JVH,JVO, JVP, and many more), I haven’t had a problem so far. Your experience may vary though, so be prepared. Need to know how to root your phone to use Titanium Backup? Here’s an easy way:

Anyways, if you’re happy with Froyo, here’s a video of how to do that. Links are provided in the Video, including ODIN, which you will need to flash. Follow the instructions carefully, and you’ll be set.

Already on Froyo and want to move to a Stable Gingerbread Edition? Here’s how. First Flash the JVH Base ROM (You’ll need the bootloaders, and you can flash this over anything.)

And then Flash any JVH rom you want via CWM Recovery. You can follow the video below, the steps to flashing most roms will be the same. Of course, if the ROM you want is a JVO ROM, just download the JVO base rom and flash via ODIN as in the video above and flash the ROM you want just like the video below.

Feel that your battery life/WiFi Signal/Phone Signal isn’t upto scratch? Use a different modem. Here’s how:

Want to change the look of your phone? Flash a new theme! Here’s how:

Oh and want to flash the lastest 2.3.4? (WARNING! BETA STILL)

Again, we are not responsible for anything that could happen to your phone. Having said that, if you follow all the steps properly, there shouldn’t be any problem. we’ve flashed a wide variety of ROMs on the Galaxy S, screwed up a couple of times, and the phone is still running perfectly. Go ahead.. It’s a disease called Flashitis now.

Thanks to @Totallydubbed for the guides.

Sony Ericsson provides Tutorial to Build/Flash Android Kernels

After the whole issue with not providing timely updates to the Xperia series of phones, and locking down the bootloaders, Sony Ericsson seems to be set to get back to the main stage. Apart from releasing a bunch of awesome new phones, SE recently announced that all their new phones will have the ability to have their bootloaders unlocked, thus providing the ability to flash a custom ROM on it. And THAT is what Android is all about. Choice.

Well, SE has stepped up. Again. They now have a tutorial on their Developer Blog on how to build and flash a custom kernel.

You can read more over here, where they do state that “Since the launch of the unlock boot loader site, we have received a lot of really great feedback. The Sony Ericsson Developer Program wants to continue to build on this open dialogue with external developers.

Developers and advanced users can now unlock the boot loader, which is the first step to be able to flash your own image. Now we have seen quite a few comments in different forums like the XDA forum, where developers run into problems when building their own image, and and trying to flash the image using Fastboot. With the help of our Master Software Architect, James Jacobsson, we put together a short article on how to do this.

Before moving on, we’d like to remind you again that there is no turning back when unlocking the boot loader. You may void the warranty of the phone, and you will not be able to revert the phone to a locked or original state if you unlock it.”
It gets better though, they actually say that while they won’t offically support this, they do say “We will monitor the Building the Linux kernel for Xperia phones thread on the XDA Developers forum. However, we cannot guarantee an answer for every question asked in this forum.”

They’re going to support XDA! That’s close to officially acknowledging XDA! Now if only Samsung and HTC would get over the bootloader issues (Samsung doesn’t lock it, FYI, but they are slow in supporting it!). The Galaxy S has a Massive number of Custom ROMs available, which we will try and cover. Hopefully, soon, there’ll be more for SE phones too!

Video Chat on your Android Phone

Last week, Google Announced Video Chat for Android Phones running 2.3.4 (Gingerbread). You can even use it for Voice Chat, something you needed an app like Fring or Nimbuzz to do until now. The only bad bit was the 2.3.4 part,which meant it was limited to the Nexus S as of now. The way manufacturers issue Android updates, it might take forever to get this nifty little version of Google Talk on your device. Of course, there are the good folks over at XDA Developers working round the clock to get everything set up for all kinds of Android users (and non android users too).

So here’s a little hack to get Google Voice/Video Chat working on your Gingerbread Device (whichever version you’re running). It might even work on Froyo devices.

DISCLAIMER– WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU END UP BRICKING YOUR PHONE, VOIDING YOUR WARRANTY etc.

First up, ROOT USERS ONLY. If you haven’t rooted your phone, then you can’t use this. Also, it doesn’t seem to work properly on all devices. I’ve read that it works best (the way it’s supposed to) on HTC devices Running Cyanogenmod 7+. For Galaxy S devices, it supposedly does only one way video right now, and doesn’t seem to able to find the front facing Camera.

Anyways, head over to this thread over at XDA and download the file and get cracking. Let us know what your results are! AND BACK UP YOUR CURRENT GOOGLE TALK APK.

There are three ways to push this app:

Using Root Explorer (Try the Super Manager App, available on the Market).
Using CWM to flash the update.zip. Check here, and if that doesn’t work, try this.
Using ADB, Follow the steps below;

(lines starting with # are comments)

Code:

#mount the /system partition as writeable
adb remount
#backup the old Talk app
adb shell mv /system/app/Talk.apk /system/app/Talk.apk1
#uninstall the old gtalk, I think it clears the related cached bytecode too.
adb uninstall com.google.android.talk
#copy the two new files
adb push libtalk_jni.so /system/lib/
adb push Talk2.apk /system/app

Mixed reports coming in so far, so let us know what you think. It should work like the video below:

Source: Google Mobile Blog, XDA

World of ROMs on the SGS – Part II: Returning to Stock

Now assuming you’ve flashed a custom rom on your Galaxy S and you want to return it to a stock state (why would anyone want to do that? Unless it’s going back for service, in which case I understand), here’s what you have to do.

Now, I hope you have the USB drivers for the Galaxy S or KEIS installed. If not, download the USB Drivers over here.

Next up, I hope you have ODIN, and know how to put your phone in download mode and Recovery mode using the three button method. If not, read up over here.

DISCLAIMER– WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU END UP BRICKING YOUR PHONE, VOIDING YOUR WARRANTY etc.

I hope you understand that you are returning your phone to a stock state and will lose your data. Make a Titanium Backup file. Once you flash the stock ROM, you will have to ROOT again to restore using Titanium Backup.

Now head over to this thread on XDA Developers and download the Pit file, and the ROM specific to your region. If you’re in India it’s the JP6 version, etc. Download and save the files, and extract the files to a folder.

Now, you can do this two ways: by flashing only the PDA (kernel), or by completely flashing the whole ROM (which I recommend).

If you want to Flash only the Kernel, follow the steps below:

Open ODIN, make sure only Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time are selected, select the PDA file from the folder
Put your phone in download mode and connect it to the computer
Click start, wait for it to finish, and your phone will boot up. Once that’s done disconnect and use your phone.

Check out the screen shot below.

Now, if you want to flash all the files (which I recommend), follow the steps below:

Select the PIT 512 file in ODIN
Select the respective PDA, CSC and PHONE files.
Make sure Re-Partition, Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time are selected
Connect your phone in Download mode and Flash!

Voila! You’re back to a Stock Galaxy S.

Looks like a lotta people were worried about flashing a custom ROM as they weren’t sure if they could return it to stock. Now that you know how to do that, go ahead and get onto a Better Custom ROM.

We’ll be back soon with more custom ROM options. Until then, catch us on twitter, we’re @myportableworld

World of ROMs for the SGS – Part I : Darky Rom and Doc’s & Stefunel’s ROM Kitchen

In this series, we’ll try and take you through some of the custom ROM options that are there for the SGS. We’ll introduce you guys to two or three at a time.

Assuming your phone has been rooted and you have flashed ClockWorkMod recovery (if you haven’t do read this post. You need to prepare your phone to be able to flash a custom ROM onto it), flashing a new ROM is as simple as running your phone in recovery mood and installing the ROM from the zip file. Before you do that though, there are multiple Kernels and Modems available out there. In some cases, the ROM chef might have a preferred Kernel/Kernels that he/she has tested the ROM on, so it’s advisable to stick to what they’ve mentioned. That doesn’t mean you can’t try out other kernels though. Modems on the other hand, are optimzed for regions and carriers, so you can pick what ever you want. If you get the right one, your battery life and voice/data quality will be good. It’s kinda trial and error, or you can read up on XDA Developers Forum.

DISCLAIMER– WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU END UP BRICKING YOUR PHONE, VOIDING YOUR WARRANTY etc.

Let’s start out with listing out a few of the Popular Kernels out there:

Voodoo: Project Voodoo is the work of François Simond (@supercurio). He’s also worked on the Voodoo Sound Amplifier (which is a must have on the SGS). It comes with its own Lagfix, Colour and also has BLN support built in. If you want to flash the kernel, you can download it from the XDA Thread, which has versions that can be flashed from CWM and ODIN. Visit the Project Voodoo Page for more info. If you want awesome Graphics (with some battery life sacrificed in return), use VooDoo.
Speedmod: Speedmod Kernel by hardcore is probably THE BEST kernel out there for battery life, without losing much on the graphics side. Along with its own Lagfix, it also has tweaks for improved battery life. You can read more about it over on XDA, where you’ll always be able to download the latest version. If you need an installation guide, check this out.
Ultimate Kernel: The ultimate kernel by DamianGTO is the kernel you want if you want to OverClock or UnderClock your phone. It can run from 800 MHz to 1200 MHz, so you can underclock it if you want better battery life. It also supports UnderVolt. You can read more about the Kernel and Download it here.

All three kernels support the 350MB RAM hack.

Now, WRT the modems, check out this thread on XDA for the list of modems for each region, which explains which one to pick.

Onto the ROMS for today!

Darky’s ROM:

If you need a ROM that runs fast, smooth, and has decent battery life, this is the ROM for you. It’s a no-brainer! I currently use this ROM (currently on version 9.3). It’s probably the easiest ROM to install, and with version 9.0 onwards, it even has an app on the market that lets you configure it on the phone itself! Just search for the DarkyRom Configurator, or click here.

The ROM comes with a Gingerbread look and feel, is really really smooth, and has quite a few features.

Once you’ve installed the configurator, assuming you’re coming from a Stock Rom, it will WIPE your device whether you tick the Wipe option or not. It’s advisable to wipe your device when you update, so use Titanium Backup to create a backup of your device. The recommended kernels for Darky’s are VooDoo and Speedmod (which you can select from the app), or you can leave the option blank to run whichever kernel you want. You can also select which modem you want (JPY is the recommended one) or leave it blank and use the modem that works best in your region from the list above. You can also use the circle battery icon (which is what I’ve used) instead of the stock Gingerbread style battery icon, choose which Boot animation you want (the darky one or the Nexus Boot animation), whether you want the Samsung Social apps installed, Swype, Live Wallpapers, Extra Font Packs and all the 3rd Party apps (like SGS toolbox, etc).

[ad#ga-480-break]You can download the zip file for the ROM over at Darkyrom.com. Copy it onto your SD card (the 16GB built into the phone that is,not an external SD). Head over the configurator, select whatever you want, and you can Flash the rom from the darkyrom configurator app itself (just click on the Select zip and Flash option).

Update: The latest version is v9.5, which has a lot of tweaks! Download it here! IF you’re flashing for the first time, you can use the Resurrection Edition (download here), and then update to the latest version.

The Rom also has two way call recording built in. (WARNING: THIS MAY BE ILLEGAL IN YOUR COUNTRY)

All said and done, Darky’s ROM is by far the Smoothest rom I’ve used, and the fact that you can easily select what you need for it and Flash it directly from your phone itself makes it the First Choice (for me at least). Currently, there’s no way to update the ROM Over the Air, but that might be possible in the upcoming versions.

(The ROM version is Darky’s ROM 9.3, and is based on XWJS5)

Doc & Stefunel’s ROM Kitchen:

If you actually have read up on what you want on your phone, and want a COMPLETELY configurable rom, Doc & Stefunel’s ROM Kitchen is where you need to go. First up, head over to the XDA thread if you want to read whats new with the ROM. Once you’re done with that, head over to romkitchen.org, and cook up your ROM.

First up, you can select which device you’re on. This ROM currently supports the SGS i9000 and the at&t Captivate. Once you’re in, head to the generator and Pick your ingredients.

The current versions available are XWJS7 (v9.8.1) and ZSJPG (v9.9). Pick whichever one you want. (The version you see below is from an earlier 9.6.6 build)

Next up you pick the CSC file, which has all your regional settings, and any apps that were built for your region. Pick the one that’s suitable for your region and then head over to the kernel section. The recommeneded kernel here is Hardcore’s Speedmod, but you also have the option to pick Voodoo, Damian’s Ultimate Kernel and Fugumod kernel and Lastufo’s Kernel (I haven’t tried the last two).

Pick up the Modem that you want, (the choices have been simplified, they’re sorted by region), select which all apps you want to install (from the browser version you want, to whether you want the Samsung Apps, etc).

Tweaks for the phone are available too, from the Voodoo sound app, to Damians UV tweak, the LCD density changer, and a different WiFi WPA supplicant capable of AdHoc networks (the stock version will not detect adhoc networks). You can select the theme from a HUGE selection, the boot animation you want and which Ringtone Pack you want (Stock SGS, the Nexus S or the Cyanogen Mod Pack). Head over to Stefunel’s Youtube Channel to preview all the Boot Animations.

People who use this ROM swear by it. Personally, I’ve found that it’s not necessarily as Smooth as Darky’s, but with the different builds and modems available, it does have a slightly longer battery life (depends on how you use it of course).

Both these ROMS come with the extended power control panel,which gives you access to the download/recovery mode, Airplane Mode, and lets you turn off data and reboot your phone just by pressing the power button. It saves you a few steps everytime!

Pick whichever ROM you want, and if you’re not satisfied, come back. We’ll soon have a couple of other ROMs for you to try out! Catch us on twitter, we’re @myportableworld. And Do visit our Facebook Page.

Running a New Rom on your SGS: Groundwork

The Samsung Galaxy S is an awesome device. But you can easily squeeze more out of it. All you have to do is flash a new rom. Thanks to the developer community, there are a bunch of choices out there for you to pick, with different kernels, modems and roms designed for more speed, better battery life, etc.

But before you can do all that you need to prepare your phone (assuming you’re running a stock rom) to be flashed. So we’ll go step by step (and make sure you follow them EXACTLY in the order mentioned. It’s quite hard to “Brick” your SGS, but you wouldn’t want that to happen anyway). (Incidentally, the steps mentioned here are for the SGS i9000, and not the Fascinate, Captivate or other SGS variants.)

Before that, you need to check if you have three button mode enabled on your SGS. This lets you get into download and recovery mode, which is essential.

Shutdown your phone
For Download Mode, hold <volume down>+<power>+<home>. You should get a Yellow Screen with “Downloading” on it. If you do get this, then you have download mode enabled
For Recovery Mode, hold <volume up>+<power>+<home>. You should get a recovery menu, which you can Navigate using the volume keys. Assuming you are on a stock rom, with the stock recovery, you need to use the home button to select an option

Next up, you’ll need to download ODIN. You can download ODIN3 over here.

DISCLAIMER– WE TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU END UP BRICKING YOUR PHONE, VOIDING YOUR WARRANTY etc.

ROOT your device:

If you are running an Eclair device (Android 2.1, check under settings -> About Phone), you need to just root your phone. Use z4 root, and root your device (make sure you select the permanent root). You can download Z4Root here.

If you are on a Froyo Device (Android 2.2/2.2.1), you need to use ODIN to flash CF Root onto your phone.

Open Odin, make sure Clear EFS and Re-Partition are not selected
Download the Right CF root, which you can find over at XDA, at this thread.
Unzip the CF Root file
Click the PDA button on ODIN and select the CF Root.tar file from the unzipped CF Root folder
Put your phone in Download Mode and Connect it to the computer via USB
Click the Start button and it should be done!

Now that you have rooted your device, you need to download Clockworkmod Rom Manager from the Android Market. You can Download the free version here or just scan the Barcode below for the market link. You can also use the Paid version that gives you a few more features (not necessary).

You should also download Titanium Backup (scan the QR Code to the right, or click here). Titanium Backup lets you backup EVERYTHING (contacts, apps, accounts, etc). It’s highly recommended that you run scheduled backups.

Now open Rom Manager, and select Flash ClockWorkMod recovery.

You’re now set to Flash whichever Rom you want onto your Device. To do that, all you need to do is download the .zip file of the rom (DO NOT OPEN IT), reboot your phone into recovery (you can do it from Rom Manager Itself), and select install zip from SD Card, select the zip file and run it.

If you need to figure out which rom to select, do come back. We’re trying to make this a series of posts, where we’ll list all the Roms available for your SGS, along with Pros and Cons. We’ll also list out different Kernels, and Modems.

Samsung Galaxy S Gingerbread Rom Leaks

[ad#ga-cbox-left]Although Samsung took their own sweet time getting FroYo out to the Galaxy S series (with a few phones in that family still running Eclair), it looks like they won’t be as slow in deploying the update to Gingerbread (Android 2.3). Gsmarena reported that the SGS would be getting updated to Gingerbread in March. Well, it looks like an official Gingerbread rom for the SGS has leaked out and is now available for you to download and flash onto your SGS, courtesy the good folks over at Android.com.pl.

It’s signed “XWJV1” and is based on 2.3.2. Head over to XDA Developers to download and follow instructions if you want to flash it onto your device.

Note: This might be a beta version of the Gingerbread Rom, so Flash at your own risk. We are not responsible for anything. Having said that, the SGS is quite hard to brick.

The Rom hasn’t been rooted (yet), so I don’t think you can run a custom kernel just yet. Download mode seems to be working, so you can always go back to an older rom. Market doesn’t seem to be working just yet though.

Personally, I’ll be waiting for Darky or some other Rom Chef to get cooking.

UPDATE: Here’s a video walkthrough on how to install the rom.