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PogoPlank 2.0 – Status Update [iPhone Jailbreak Apps]

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:30:26 +0000

As I’ve mentioned here many times, I’m a huge fan of PogoPlank, the iPhone springboard replacement app (for jailbreak users). I’ve used it continuously since I first discovered it back in October. It allows me to happily run 160+ apps and have just one home screen.

Version 1.x of PogoPlank does have some drawbacks though, and I’ve been looking forward to the major new 2.0 version for some time now. Today I got a chance to get a status from jaywalker, PogoPlank’s lead developer. Hit the jump for some details on this …

Although there is not yet an expected release date, it is sounding like it is not far off, and also like it will be well worth the wait. Here’s some of what I learned today:

Work on the 2.0 backend is just about done. The only changes at this point are going to be bug fixes and perhaps one or two improvements

Work on the frontend and planket interaction is also almost done:

*** Plankets are PogoPlank’s term for items that are very similar / identical to widgets and will be used in PogoPlank 2.0 – one of the most exciting things about the upcoming update.

The biggest remaining holdups are mainly on the business side of things, as well as on implementing a store where plankets (add-on widgets) from third party developers will be available.

The only ‘built in’ plankets will be the wheel, dock, and possibly one other. Plankets from third party devs that are expected to be ready by the time 2.0 is released include search (HURRAH!), Twitter, weather, and clock. Anyone can create plankets and look to have them added to the in-app plankets store.

A smoother wheel will be part of Version 2.0.

Finally, some good news on the ability to uninstall apps and more – jaywalker’s answer when I asked about whether we’ll be able to do this in 2.0:

Yes! Both app store apps and cydia apps with cydelete. Also we have badges and AppStore download progress bars .

Needless to say, I’m very excited about PogoPlank 2.0 and can’t wait to try it out. Hopefully the wait will not be too much longer.

Heavy Gunner 3D

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:09:27 +0000

Dust off that bandana, light your cigar, and put away your Teddy bear, because it’s time to become a turret-turning, machine-gun wielding badass. Heavy Gunner dispenses hot lead and frantic action in equally giant portions, and I guarantee you that your thumbs have never felt more powerful.

As the Turret turns…
If all that Heavy Gunner did was allow you to tilt the accelerometer to turn the turret and then tap on the screen to fire, it would have lost my interest within minutes of first loading the game up. While there are a few guns that require only a tilt of the device and the touch of a screen to fire, it’s the other weapons — the dual-wielded machine guns, for example — that really make this arcade shooter shine. These machine guns (your default weapons at the start of the game) are absolutely incredible because you have one analog stick to control each gun. This sounds pretty simple on paper, but it’s mind-blowing to see in action. This setup allows you to fire on enemies on the left side of the screen while tracking and killing all of the ones on the right — it’s a fantastic sensation.

Action Packed
The very first level starts off with enemies literally pouring onto the screen like evil, tentacled ink blots and only your high powered machine guns are standing in their way. Ripping into the enemy is insanely satisfying, which is a good thing, since there’s really nothing more to Heavy Gunner than a lot of heavy gunning. Each of the 25 single player missions (available in Normal, Hard, and Extreme modes) is either about surviving for a set amount of time or killing a set number of enemies. This formula works just fine for the first hour or so, but the fighting gets a little dull when the required enemy kill count for a stage is 300 (this is not Sparta).

Armed to the Teeth
There are a total of six weapons in Heavy Gunner, and I actually only played with two of them because I didn’t have time to upgrade them all. Each weapon has a set of three characteristics that you can improve multiple times with the points that you earn during missions, and you have to use these same points to buy new weapons. I upgraded the main machine guns to nearly max level and also played around with a set of dual missile launchers that could lock onto multiple targets and send out swarms of missiles to dispatch them. However, it should speak for the quality of the weapons that I was happy to use just two for the entirety of the game without even thinking to try the other four out.

Free Zion
One Apple Store reviewer hit the nail on the head when they said that the battles were reminiscent of the Battle for Zion in the Matrix trilogy. The enemies in Heavy Gunner mostly look like black, cyber squids, and they fly at you in huge swarms, just waiting to be swatted out of the sky. These enemy swarms will charge straight at you in varying numbers (and sizes — watch out for the huge cyber squids and bosses), but as you progress further in the game they’ll get a little bit tougher, and a little bit less fun to fight. That’s because the enemy will eventually take to circling you like a vulture, and the pace will shift from a frantic shooting gallery to a twisted version of a Merry Go Round. It’s a good idea to switch the gameplay up a little bit, but tilting the device to turn the turret while continually aiming at enemies that are just barely staying on-screen isn’t what I’d envisioned my late game Heavy Gunner experience being.

Considerate Combat
Heavy Gunner is pretty graphically intensive, if only because of the sheer number of enemies and bullets on-screen. The game is best played on a 3GS, but there are “Performance” settings that lower the graphics quality so that the game can be played on older devices. Performance mode doesn’t look nearly as good (distant enemies aren’t drawn, but are replaced by static images) and it was actually still a little choppy on my iPhone 2G, but at least it plays

Conclusion
The Merry Go Round problems did spoil a bit of the fun for me, but I thought that the dual stick and accelerometer control scheme was such a stroke of genius that it pulled me through the whole game. The single player mode includes just enough action to make the game, but the extra free play modes and online scoreboards add a lot of replayability to the title. If you’re a fan of arcade shooters or simply enjoy the sight of smoke rising from two over-heated sets of high caliber barrels, then you must play Heavy Gunner 3D.

Lets You Know if Your iPhone Can Be Jailbroken

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:49:37 +0000

With the recent update of the iPhone OS to Version 3.1.3, and tightening of security on newer iPhone 3GS models as well as latest generation iPod Touches, it can be quite confusing to figure out whether your iPhone can be jailbroken or not.

For instance, older iPhone 3GS models can be jailbroken, most newer ones cannot. Latest gen Touches are also no-go. And those who have upgraded to firmware 3.1.3 may find that there only option is a ‘tethered’ jailbreak (where the device has to be re-jailbroken on every reboot).

f0recast is a handy little Windows app that offers to take the mystery out of all of this for you. It’s a free download and you just run it while your iPhone or Touch is connected to your PC via USB, and it will instantly come back with the verdict on the jailbreak-ability of your device.

Here’s the result I got for my iPhone 3GS running firmware 3.1.2:

Indicating, as expected, that it can be jailbroken without tethering.

And the result for my daughter’s current gen iPod Touch:

Saying that a tethered jailbreak is possible.

This app is from the iH8sn0w team. I’ve never used any of their tools until trying this one out, so I’m not sure about the quality / reliability of any of their tools, including this one.

Misty, Water-colored iPhone Jailbreak Memories

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:15:27 +0000

Apple iPhone School has a great ‘Friday Night Movie – Flashback’ post up – with a Flashback to the truly old school days of iPhone jailbreak. The AppSnapp jailbreak method shown in the video involved fake activation, some fancy home button jockeying with precise timing, mutliple reboots, and running the actual jailbreak app from within Mobile Safari.

For those of you who have only ever jailbroken your iPhones in the one-click Pwnage Tool / redsn0w / blackra1n sort of days, the process shown will probably seem beyond comical.

For me, and anyone else who recalls those days, it’s a lovely bit of nostalgia – but I’ll stick with Pwnage Tool or blackra1n now, thanks very much.

Check out the fun video here:

http://tinyurl.com/y984jln

Anyone else here remember using the AppSnapp jailbreak method?

Austin, SXSW, Free Shows, Free Beer – There’s an App for That

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 08:48:03 +0000

Here’s how dedicated I am to this iPhone blogging thing: when I spot an app that mentions SXSW (the upcoming music, film and interactive festivals here in Austin), free shows, and free beer, I’m willing to immediately give it a look and share it with you our dear readers.

Today I spotted just such an app – with a catchy little name: Guide to free offshows and free beer at SXSW Music 2010.

I spent a little while with the app this morning. It’s a very basic app, but pretty much does what it says on the box. You get a listing of free shows (for those without wristbands and such) with details where possible about drink specials as well. You can also submit a new item if you come across one. Its listing does not seem enormous just now but it is being regularly updated.

The app is available now in the App Store for $0.99.

Quick Look: biteSMS [Jailbreak Apps]

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:44:01 +0000

I thought I could go back to using the default SMS app and simply use Pro Switcher to let me pause my games while I answered text messages, but it just hasn’t been working out. The SMS app still takes a bit too long to load up, and it pales in comparison to some of the jailbreak SMS apps out there. I’m a real iRealQuickSMS fan, but I thought I would try something different this time around. A lot of commenters have mentioned biteSMS on various articles on this site, so I thought I’d finally get around to giving it a shot. I’m glad I did.

Replacement SMS App
biteSMS can become your default SMS app, but I still use the biteSMS Springboard icon because the one for Messages still leads to the default app. Aside from that little bug, however, everything else has gone quite smoothly for me. Threaded messages show up perfectly within the app and I even have it set up to show contact display pictures.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see that my Winterboard SMS theme carried over nicely, so biteSMS really does feel like the best of both worlds.
The app features a very clean design, with all of the extra features tucked nicely into hidden menus (smileys, templates, timed sending options) at the bottom of the screen.

Quick Compose and Quick Reply
One of the coolest things about biteSMS (and my other favourite iRealQuickSMS) is the quick compose window, accessible through a quick tap of the volume button and then another tap on the middle of the screen. The top text field lets you call up contacts by typing their names out or by using your iPhone’s Favourites list. The field just below that is where you type your texts out, and I am very grateful to biteSMS for including a handy dandy little character countdown that appears above the “Send” button. This countdown even turns into a badge should your text become so long that it has to be sent over multiple messages.
Quick replies look very similar, but only show one text field, with the incoming message above. One notable difference between biteSMS and iRealQuicksms, however, is that the whole text shows up without the need to scroll. I often have long text convos with friends, so this small difference is a real time saver for me.

Minor Winterboard note
If you want to skin the biteSMS icon, the Matte Nano theme has a .png called BiteSMS. This has to be lower case (“biteSMS”) for the icon to be skinned properly.

Trial Version
I’ve been using the full-featured trial version of biteSMS for a little while now, and it’s given me a whole month to decide whether or not I like it enough to buy it. The full license costs $13 and allows you unlimited usage of the application, although I’ll probably end up purchasing a 50 biteSMS credits for $6 instead. These credits can be sent to almost any country in the world, and they’re usually cheaper than buying an SMS bundle from your carrier. This doesn’t matter for me since my Rogers plan includes unlimited SMS, but each purchase of biteSMS credits comes with a one-year license to use the biteSMS application as well, so that works out quite well for me. I figure that I’ll be on to a newer iPhone or a newer firmware in a year’s time, and that’s also plenty of time for the default iPhone SMS app to mature and hopefully catch up to its jailbreak alternatives.