Jay Meydad's Life Mashup

During the past month there have been a few important developments related to the availability of free Hebrew fonts and localized interface for iPhone and iPod Touch. First, HebDev, a group that developed a popular free open source solution suspended their project, leaving users with only one alternative – pay about $60 to a competitor. Second, Apple released iPhone 3.0 to developers and based on early previews, it looks like Hebrew support will finally be part of it. However, this version will become available to the public only in the summer, so this does not help those who have recently bought an iPhone or iPod Touch or those who have upgraded to firmware 2.2.1.

But today a new solution called OpenHebrew was released to the public. OpenHebrew is a package of basic Hebrew support (fonts and keyboard but not a localized interface) and it supports iPhone and iPod Touch running firmware 2.2 & 2.2.1. The creators used the Hebrew translation made by project iVrit (fully localized interface) and made it possible to install the iVrit package from the same source.

Installing OpenHebrew requires that you have a jailbroken device. If you have not done it, download QuickPwn and use it to jailbreak (5 min task even for non-techies). Then do the following:

Step 1 – Launch Cydia

Step 2 – add this new source: http://tom.zickel.org/openhebrew

Step 3 – Pick one of the two options:

• To install a fully localized Hebrew interface – search for the package iVrit and install it
• To install Hebrew fonts & keyboard only – search for the pacakge OpenHebrew and install it

Personally I prefer the second option which keeps the iPhone interface in English but properly handles right to left display of everything within applications that is written in Hebrew, like email subject lines and content, iPod song titles and artist names, text messages, contacts, etc.

Kudos to the iVrit team and to Tom Zickel at OpenHebrew (and in english) who worked hard on this and made Hebrew free to all iPhone & iPod Touch users once again. You can follow OpenHebrew on twitter as well.

Now, show some digg love.

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.

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.

UPDATE (3/23/2009):

This method no longer works. Information about the new method can be found in this post.

Original post starts here:

Thanks to ziPhone and Hebrew BidiSupport, I like my iPhone (ver 1.1.3 1.1.4) again…

It is amazing how simple & quick this process was compared to what it used to be a few months ago. No need to downgrade/upgrade/use iBricker etc. With ziPhone all you need to do is plug your iPhone, check a few boxes (unlock/activate/jailbreak), run and after 3 minutes the process is over.

Once you are done with jailbreaking/unlocking, use the Installer to add a new source: http://repo.hebrew4iphone.com . Then refresh the list of sources and under the “Install” menu look for a new category called “Hebrew 4 iPhone”. Once you find it, install Bidi Support (1.1.3/1.1.4) and Hebrew Keyboard (which uses Russian keyboard).

After installing, restart your iPhone, select Settings>General>Keyboards>International Keyboard and turn on Russian keyboard.  Then, whenever you have the keyboard open, you can use the globe button (left to space bar) to toggle between English and Hebrew.

Big Thanks to iPhones.co.il

Last night I decided to extend my iPhone’s functionality with a few goodies.

The first thing was to hack the iPhone.

Then I added Hebrew fonts to Safari & the built in RSS reader. The lack of Hebrew support was one of my biggest pains with the iPhone and with the ability to read a few Hebrew web sites (not all sites render properly) things are a little better, although I am still waiting for the full native Hebrew support.

The next thing was to add several applications and personalize the device with a custom ringtone. I installed iBrickr on my computer and use it to manage my iPhones apps, ringtones etc. 

Among the applications that are currently installed on my iPhone you can find:

• Communication applications: Apollo IM & Twitterrific
• Games: Light Off and a few Nintondo retro games running on the NES emulator
• Utilities: VoiceNotes & the text editor Scribe
• Configuration Utilities (launch and manage the iPhone applications): Launcher & recombinant SpringBoard arranger
• and my favorite utility, the Dock, which brought the famous Mac OS feature to the iPhone

Technorati Tags: iPhone hacking, iBrickr, Twitter