Flash Ported for iPhone; Coming To Jailbroken iDevices Soon

Developer of the Spirit Jailbreak utility, Comex, recently tweeted a video showing Adobe Flash working on the iPhone. He stated in the video description that this is "preliminary" as cab be seen by minor graphical glitches on the scree, but it does open and execute Flash based sites with no problems.

Apple's decision to ditch Flash has led quite a few developers to work on their own workarounds to get Flash content working on the iPhone. Some of the most notable workarounds include iMobileCinema, a Safari plugin that has been around for a while that attempts to play video content embedded in Flash, Gordon and Smokescreen, two Flash interpreters written entirely in Javascript (which iOS and MobileSafari handle just fine), Flash In A Pinch and CloudBrowser, which actually render Flash content on a remote server, then stream down the images and sound of the webpage to your iDevice. However, none of these workarounds could really be considered a "Flash player" considering the limitations that each solution has in place.

No other information has been released yet about the availability. It is also unknown at this point if this project is to be eventually worked into Safari as its own plugin or if it will have to stay as a standalone app. This project, should it come to fruition, would be the first real Flash player for iPhone, and comex has already proven his skill by releasing the first ever untethered 3G S/G3 iTouch jailbreak.

Check out the video below:

Taking a slightly different approach, the team at the Artefact Group have been working on a service called Flash In A Pinch

Despite Steve Job's personal thoughts on Flash being a dying technology, it is very clear that many people want to use the technology on their iDevices (or at least developers want to find ways to put it there). We recently heard of Smokescreen, a browser plug-in that takes apart the SWF binaries and reassembles them into a format that Apple can read. Taking a slightly different approach, the team at the Artefact Group have been working on a service called Flash In A Pinch. At the moment it is only in a concept stage, a pretty sweet concept at that. How it works is: Flash is rendered on Artefact's servers, which stream the images to the user's Safari Browser. By placing a Javascript layer on top of the content, the user's touch interactions can be sent back to the server, making it fully interactive. As of right now, the whole idea is too sluggish to use and there is no sound, but looking at an overview, it is a great start. You can check out the video below and you can also click here for technical details as well as more videos.

[WWDC] Apple Allows iAds and Safari Developer Program Sign-Ups

As announced at the WWDC 2010 earlier this week, Apple has finally opened the doors to those wanting to join the iAd network and the Safari Developer Program, as Apple explains it:

The iAd Network offers you a new, easy-to-implement source of revenue through incorporating iAd rich media ads in your applications. Apple sells and serves the ads, and you receive 60 percent of the advertising revenue. Learn about getting started with the iAd Network, how to prepare your apps for iAd, and how to create iAd rich media ads.”

Apple has also announced the Safari Developer Program. This free program offers developers tools and resources they need to create extensions for Safari. “You can add buttons to the Safari toolbar, create bars of your own, modify the behavior and appearance of webpages, and more — all with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.”

The Safari Developer Program also provides you with the tools to create a digital certificate for your extensions. This certificate allows your extensions to be installed on Safari, protects them from tampering, and ensures that your extension can only be updated by you.

Stay tuned for more jailbreak info by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.

Microsoft Launches Free Version of Office Web Apps

Microsoft recently launched the free version of Office Web Apps after nine months of allowing select users test the Technical Preview. The service is initially available via Windows Lie SkyDrive (integration with Hotmail is currently not yet ready) at office.live.com to users in the U.S, Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland with support for English, Spanish (USA), and French (Canada) languages. For the users who don't live in those regions, you will still have access, but you won't be able to choose your language. Rest assured though, Microsoft says "more languages and locales will be added over the coming months."

Office Web Apps allow uesrs to view, edit, and share Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and OneNote documents directly in their browsers. OWAs requires Internet Explorer 7+, Chrome on Windows and Mac, Firefox 3.5+ on Windows, Mac, and Linux, or Safari 4+ on Mac. Microsoft has also revealed which mobile browsers are supported for Office Web Apps: "You can view the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files that you save to SkyDrive via Office Web Apps on supported mobile browsers, including Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile 5 or later, Safari 4 on iPhone 3G or 3GS, BlackBerry 4.x and later, Nokia S60, NetFront 3.4, 3.5 and later, Opera Mobile 8.65 and later, and Openwave 6.2, 7.0 and later," mentioned by a Microsoft spokesperson.

The apps work better with Microsoft Office 2003 and later, and when Office 2010 is released to consumers net week, Microsoft will further explain how the two will work together. This could include features such as editing files offline, co-authorizing documents using revision marks, comments, and other rich features in Word and PowerPoint.) You can go ahead and mark your calendars if you are excited about this: June 15 is when a beta of Hotmail Wave4 (with OWA integration) should start rolling out as well as when Office 2010 will hit retail and start getting preloaded on new PCs.

Safari 5.0 To Debut On Stage At WWDC 2010 Keynote?

According to a report from MacGeneration, a French blog, one of the announcements expected for Monday's WWDC 2010 keynote (which Steve Jobs will be giving himself) is a major update for Safari. If you believe the docs that the site has obtained, there are more than just a few big changes coming. Amongst the changes are Bing alongside Yahoo! and Google search options, a new Safari Reader" for improved RSS reading, 25 percent faster Javascript performance and DNS prefetching, improved HTML5 support, and new developer tools which will be along the liens of Firebug or Chrome's developer helpers. The update will allegedly add hardware acceleration for Windows PCs, and can address fields that auto-predicts URL, along with a handful of other minor tweaks as well. Furthermore, there is also an expected minor upgrade to Snow Leopard (10.6.4) which will resolve some of the nagging issues, but not much more then that. As you already know, as WWDC approaches, the rumors will be flying around, we will try to separate the good from the bad for you, so stay tuned by following us on Twitter and/or subscribing to our RSS feeds.

Mozilla Sync To Bring “Firefox Home” To The iPhone [Video]

It's not just Firefox for the iPhone, but it's the next best thing.

Mozilla announced it's plans for iPhone on their blog introducing "Firefox Home" - an iPhone app based on Firefox Sync that gives users access to browsing history, bookmarks, and tap sets, from their desktop-based Firefox browser.

According to Mozilla, the free app is "encrypted end-to-end." Mozilla have added sync support across the desktop and mobile versions, which means that you can re-open the desktop tabs on the mobile app. You can also use the same “Awesome Bar” as on the desktop app to pull in auto-complete results on the mobile client; that should alsosave you from tapping in long URLs on an iPhone keyboard, since if you’ve visited the page on the desktop it will pull that in too.

Pages will load in the app itself, but it will be a read-only viewer rather than a complete browser; the mobile version of your desktop, rather than a standalone app in its own right. Mozilla plan to submit Firefox Home for iPhone to Apple for App Store approval in June.

Apple has been very particular about apps that "duplicate existing function," a complaint it has lodged against a number of browsers in the past, given the existence of the proprietary Safari browser for iPhone. Though other browsers like, Opera, did manage to make it into the App Store.

Mozilla has previously rolled out a Firefox web browser for Mac OS X running on more than one Apple system, this application takes the mobile Firefox experience one step further by providing iPhone users with everything from browsing history to the tabs used during their last browser session.

Firefox Home feels like a workaround from Mozilla. It's not quite a full browser, but it's a way to keep Firefox users faithful. The new app will reportedly also work on the iPad, but as per Mozilla, it isn't optimized for that platform yet.

Check out the video below -

Spirit Jailbreak Released for iPad

Comex has finally released the Spirit Jailbreak for the untethered jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3, iPad 3.2 and iPod Touch 3.1.3. Spirit was expected to be released last Friday but the developer held it back to allow time to save SHSH blobs for iPad 3G, WiFi, iPhone 3GS 3.1.3 and iPod Touch 3G 3.1.3. According to Comex, Spirit is a userland jailbreak, just not Safari based.

What’s Spirit?

• Spirit is an untethered jailbreak for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch on the latest firmwares.
• Spirit is not a carrier unlock.
• If you currently are using a tethered jailbreak, you have to restore to use Spirit. Do not upgrade if you use an unlock on an iPhone 3G or 3GS. (You can, however, restore to 3.1.2 if you have SHSH blobs for that version.)

Requirements

• Spirit Jailbreak supports any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch on firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3, or 3.2.
• An activated device: one not stuck on the Connect to iTunes or Emergency Call screen.
• Any version of iTunes 9 (including 9.1.1).
• Syncing with iTunes before trying this highly recommended.

Note: The version of Spirit On iPad is still similar to a beta version. Some packages in Cydia, not designed for iPad, might screw up your system and require you to restore. Be careful. (And no, Cydia’s appearance is not final.)

SHSH blobs are not used in jailbreak, but you do need it to restore or downgrade an older firmware if something goes wrong or you accidentally upgrade. For 3.1.2 (required for blackra1n, etc.), Apple is no longer handing out blobs, but for 3.1.3 and 3.2, you can still get blobs– and should do so ASAP! To do this, if you are currently jailbroken, just open Cydia; if you are not, I recommend using The Firmware Umbrella or you can also use AutoSHSH (Steps are same for all devices). Make sure to select the right firmware version.

Download Spirit Jailbreak

You can download Spirit Jailbreak for Windows and Mac from here.

The steps to jailbreak your iDevice using the Spirit Jailbreak are very easy.

1. Download the package (link above) and unzip the contents of the package.
2. Open the application.
3. Connect your device.
4. Hit "Jailbreak"
5. Wait for the screen to so "Jailbreak Complete"
6. Wait for your iDevice to restart.
7. Profit!

Follow us to Twitter and subscribe to our RSS Feeds to receive the latest news and info about jailbreaks as well as technology news in general.

iH8Sn0w Working On A Possible Userland Jailbreak For iPad

After MuscleNerd and GeoHot’s successful demonstration of iPad jailbreaks with Spirit and Blackra1n, the iH8sn0w team (the creator of Sn0wBreeze and other handy utilities to hack the iPhone) stepped up to the plate as well. iH8Sn0w has uploaded a video on YouTube where he opens the Safari web browser, points I to an unkown web address and a video play button appears, after tapping it, the iPad reboots.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, Userland Jailbreak is an iPad explorer based jailbreak where the user needs to point his iPad Safari browser to a specific web address and it will be jailbroken. Check out the possible Userland Jailbreak demonstration below:

As more and more iPad jailbreak demonstrations surface the scene, it’s a good time to save your iPad 3.2 SHSH to secure your iPad for a future jailbreak.

Stay tuned for more jailbreak info by following us on Twitter, and subscribing to our RSS feed.

Google Mobile Services Updated For The iPad

Google wanted in on the iPad craze and they have just announced a complete compatibility and a new layout for their Services on the iPad. Gmail, will now appear in a two column layout and uses all HTML5 which ensures a seamless, clean display. Other services include YouTube – which works with iPad sans issues – and the Google Mobile App. The Google Mobile App has been made bigger to accommodate the iPad’s larger screen. Even if enmity still flows between Google/Apple it’s nice to see Google’s developers hold no grudge against their tablet-toting counterparts.

You can, trick Gmail into thinking you're on an iPad with some tweaking. All you need to do is change the browser's user agent, which can be made possible with just a small amount of effort on some browsers. Here's how to do it in three of them (in order of easiest, to most difficult.)

Safari:

(Mac + PC) This works on both platforms. Just go into Safari's "preferences" menu, click on the "advanced" tab. Go all the way to the bottom, and check the "show develop in menu bar". Close the menu, this will allow you to find a new "develop" option in the main menu. On the Mac this can be found as one of the options on the top of the screen. On the PC, it's a on the page-looking icon next to the Safari settings button on the top right of the screen. In either case, find the develop menu, then go to user agent, then pick "other." You will get a menu to type a custom user agent string. Just drop this (found at blog Digital Inspiration) in there: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B334b Safari/531.21.10. Easy now you're done headead over to Gmail, log-in, and and that’s it

Firefox:

With Firefox, it's not that as easy to change user agents as it is in Safari. You will have to download an extension for it first. User Agent Switcher is the most popular one. And the good news, is that this add-on is good for many other things, like tricking certain sites into thinking you're on the browser they require. Once you've installed UAS, you'll find its options in the Tools menu at the top of your browser. A new option for "default user agent" will be there, go ahead and select that, then "edit user agents" in the sub-menu. Now you just have to opt to create a new user agent. Just clear out all the text boxes that are already filled out, then give it a name (like "iPad"), and drop the same user agent text that we used in Safari in the user agent box. When finished, User Agent Switcher should have already picked your new iPad setting as its default, meaning you're good to go. Just be sure to switch it back to the default for any other pages you're on.

Chrome:

Chrome is the hardest of the browsers to trick into thinking it's an iPad. For now, the Chameleon User Agent Spoofer extension does not work with the settings that was used for Safari and Firefox. Instead, you need to go into the guts of Chrome, and change the user agent settings with a hex code editor. It is a lot of work, but it can be done. Blog Labnol has a good how-to guide here. Just swap out the agent string at the end of step two with the same code we used for Safari and Firefox.

Android Users:

Users of the xScope browser on Android (QR download code on the right) might have noticed that an overnight update of the app added the iPad user agent option in the browser's built-in user agent switching. On Nexus One this kind of worked when holding the phone in landscape mode, though it was utterly useless when held in portrait mode. Still, this option was a whole lot easier than trying to tweak the user agent settings in any of the mentioned desktop browser, even if it's just as useless.

Quake II Ported to HTML5 Browser

A lot of attention lately has been put on the capabilities of HTML5 sites, since the iPad doesn’t support Flash. It turns out to not matter much because most companies have had no trouble to switching to HTML5 supported online video platforms. But what about other things that Flash does well, like games? Turns out that HTML5 might be a more powerful game engine than most people think.

To show off the possibilities of HTML5, some engineers on the Google Web Toolkit team created an HTML5 port of the classic first-person shooter game Quake II. You can check it out in the video below. It is based on an open-sourced Java port of Quake called Jake2.

A post on the Google Code blog explains exactly how they managed to port the game over:

We started with the existing Jake2 Java port of the Quake II engine, then used the Google Web Toolkit (along with WebGL, WebSockets, and a lot of refactoring) to cross-compile it into Javascript. You can see the results in the video above — we were honestly a bit surprised when we saw it pushing over 30 frames per second on our laptops (your mileage may vary)!

The HTML5 game works on “modern browsers such as Safari and Chrome.” If you have had a chance to try it out, let us know what you think.