Yovav (Jay) Meydad's Personal Blog

Update (1/26/2010):
There is a new iPhone app that eliminates the need to configure FStream. Read about it here.

Original post starts here:

This tip is mainly for Israelis and other Hebrew speakers who live abroad or just travel and want to listen to Israeli radio stations on their iPhone while on the go. Getting this done is pretty simple:

1. Install the free FStream application on your iPhone via the AppStore

2. Open FStream and set up your favorite stations. You can do it on the iPhone or you could use a web interface which makes the input process quicker (see instructions under the More -> Web Management tab inside FStream)

3. Last thing, make sure to turn on the “Cellular Network” option otherwise the application will only work when you are iPhone is connected to a wifi hotspot.

I have collected urls for some of the popular Israeli stations streams:

• 88fm – mms://s67wm.castup.net/990310006-52.wmv
• Galgaltz – mms://stream.msn.co.il/gglz
• Galatz – mms://stream.msn.co.il/glz-stream
• Reshet Gimel – mms://s4awm.castup.net/990310004-52.wmv
• Reshet Bet – mms://s4awm.castup.net/990310001-52.wmv
• Radio Tel Aviv 102fm – http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?clipmediaid=30795

Update (3/1/2009, thanks to Tal Barnea):

• Galgaltz – http://glz.msn.co.il/media/gglz.asx
• Galatz – http://glz.msn.co.il/media/glz.asx

I have found many other urls on different websites but those were broken. The streams above were tested and as of today (1/30/2009) (3/1/2009) are working.

If you know of other stations’ streams, feel free to add in the comments section.

Update (11/28/2009): I posted an updated list & more stations here.

I still come accross iPhone users that don’t consider jailbreaking their iPhone because “they can find all the apps they need in the AppStore” or “jailbreaking could break my iPhone”.

The truth is that Jailbreaking has become a very simple process thanks to application like QuickPwn (available for Mac & Windows). Once you do it, your iPhone becomes a much more powerful and customizable device than what AppStore applications offer.

Here are 10 good reasons, meaning applications that can only be found on Cydia (the “AppStore”/installer for jailbroken devices):

• QuickGold – the quickest way to call or email someone and launch applications. Much like Quicksilver for Mac OS.
• BossPrefs – the quickest way to change settings such as Wifi, Bluetooth, Brightness and others.
• Copy & Paste – Clippy or the hClipboard (more powerful than Clippy but not suitable for users with more than one keyboard)
• Snapture – full featured advanced camera
• Cycorder – video recorder with real-time compression
• MxTube – download YouTube videos
• Backgrounder – keep applications running in the background while using others (very useful for IM or a Twitter app like TwitterFon)
• iCallBR – delete individual entries from the recent calls history
• OpenSSH – access the file system so you could get videos off the device after downloading them using MxTube or recording using Cycorder
• HebDev – full Hebrew support for the iPhone and iPod Touch, free of charge.

These were only ten and I am sure there are many others that are listed under the different sections within Cydia. Feel free to leave recommendations for apps in the comments section.

Interesting. Google is running a campaign on iPhones via AdMob to promote the google voice search app.

I saw it on QuickGold which is an app (great one – the Quicksilver version for iPhone) that can be installed only on a jailbroken iPhone.

This makes me wonder, does Google, a long time Apple partner, advertise on semi-illigal applications? Or is that a RON type of buy?

Big buzz today around the revamped Flickr mobile site (see TC, RWW, Mashable), their “universal access point for all device types.”, but a simple test that I did on my iPhone shows that the folks at Sunnyvale have missed one important and frustrating issue that mobile users experience daily when accessing Flickr urls.

This is not the first time I write about the fact that a direct link to an image does not load in its mobile version. The solution is so simple, that I am amazed no one at Flickr caught this while building the new version. All they have to do is detect the UserAgent and in the case it is of a mobile browser, change “www.flickr.com” to “m.flickr.com”. A simple manual test proves it is working.

So from now and until it gets fixed by the Flickr folks, you can use this manual hack and edit the url in safari’s address bar whenever you get a link (via email or twitter) to a Flickr image.

flickr-on-iphone-manual-hack

According to Flickr Camera Finder, the iPhone is the most popular cameraphone users use to post photos to their Flickr accounts. Not that a surprise given the iPhone’s popularity and how easy it is to upload photos direct to a flickr account via email or one of the native iPhone application.

So, if Flickr is so popular among iPhone users, how come Flickr has not optimized their site for the iPhone? It is really annoying to recieve direct links to Flickr images (I get those mainly via Twitter) and see that they resolve to non-optimized pages.

In case Flickr is looking for inspiration, they should take a look at Picasa’s optimized interface for the iPhone. One thing I wish Picasa would take from Flickr is the ability to upload via email. Picasa could only benefit from this feature and see a spike in photo uploads, just like Flickr saw.

This post was done using the new WordPress client for the iPhone, and my first impression is very positive.

The app is super simple to set up. It took me 30 seconds to put my blog’s URL, username and password, and that’s it.

Beyond a simple setup, the app has the popular feautres you would expect – write a post and attach photos (although it crashed when I tried attaching a few, but the recovery mode worked nicely).

The preview mode is also a great feature.

If you are a WordPress user with an iPhone, give it a try.

The man behind it told me it is going to be worthwhile…

Have you registered?

I think there are still some places left in the black level.

Earlier today I upgraded the version of the Nullriver Installer that is installed on my iPhone. The biggest improvement in the new version, numbered 3.1, is search which makes it easier to find applications. In addition to that, the “Featured” page was updated to include a few additional applications, among them Kate, a commercial package of tools and toys.

This made me thinking about the economics of the “Featured” page and the Search results pages. After all, VC are investing and companies are raising money to develop iPhone applications and so distribution is going to be critical to succeed. So far, everyone has expected Apple to be the one selling applications via iTunes but I think that there is a secondary market that is already bubbling called the Nullriver Installer.

The thing with the Installer that makes it unique compared to popular software download web sites is that currently the Installer is the single entry point to get 3rd party applications for iPhone and iPod Touch. Hundreds of thousand and maybe even millions of jailbreaked iPhone users around the world access the Installer every day in order to search, install, upgrade or uninstall applications, games, utilities, themes and all kinds of tweaks for their iPhone. Every time these users start the Installer, the first thing they see is the list of featured applications, and from today they are also going to start using the search capabilities.

So, what should a company/developer do in order to get his app featured? I did some research but could not find an answer. So, for now, I am assuming that the list is compiled by an editor with some exceptions (my guess – Kate which charges users and therefore can pay for distribution). The search function is also very primitive and seems broken (a search for “Wiki” returned zero results).

But I think that this is just the first step in what is going to become an active marketplace (probably PPI – Pay Per Install) that is going to be developed around the Installer. Both the “Featured” page and the search result pages are too valuable to be kept as they are today. And seeing how fast the Installer has evolved so far, I expect this to happen sooner than you expect.

Jason finally jailbreaked his iPhone and asked me yesterday for a list of recommended applications he should install. Instead of sending the list to him via email, I am posting it for everyone’s benefit.

I have plenty of applications installed, but the ones I use most are:

• Twinkle – an awesome twitter client with seamless camera & geo-location integration 
• TuneWiki – song lyrics displayed while songs are playing
• Capture – taking screenshots has not be so easy
• iLog – a rich call log util (make sure also to install the Call History Patch to increase the number of entries)
• Snapture – a better camera applications with zooming, color adjustments and more
• iPark – I am terrible at remembering parking spots
• Hebrew fonts & keyboard (by Hebrew 4 iPhone) 
• Fring – both as an aggregate IM client but mainly for Voip calls over Wifi
• and lots of games that my kids love to tryout, including Tap Tap Revolution (Guitar Hero using your fingers)

In case you are interested in the complete list, you can find it below. Putting it together was simple. I used Capture to take screenshots of the “Uninstall” tab. This way you can see all the applications installed, including those that don’t create an icon on the dock. You can also see the category each application belongs to, so you can easily find them under the “Install” tab.

Feel free to recommend more using the comments section. Enjoy.

In case you use Twitter on an iPhone using the popular & excellent web based client by Thincloud, you will see ads, strategically placed, as the first post when viewing recent posts. I noticed them this morning. Here are two examples.