A Quick Look at the Improvements in iOS 6 SDK and APIs

Hello guys, as you know, iOS 6 has been public for quite a while now. I don't know about you, but the only changes I've noticed after updating is the disappearance of the YouTube and Google Maps apps, as well as the implementation of an 'all-new, Apple-designed' Maps app.

Well, it turns out there's more to the update than just the mysterious disappearance of apps we are familiar with. Today we have a very informative guest post by Anelei Ivanova, discussing changes under the hood of iOS 6.

A quick look at the improvements in iOS 6 SDK and APIs
With the release of iOS 6, Apple has made significant changes in the SDK. New features have been added, with improvements in existing class and frameworks. I had a quick look at Apple’s article on the new features and I am trying to summarize those improvements here. I think all the iOS developers must read about these improvements and build their new apps keeping these new improvements in mind.

Map Kit
The new Map Kit framework now provides a way to the apps to display different kind of routes (bicycle or hiking trail, air routes, public transportation lines) without integrating the Map Kit within an app. This means developers can use the map features by invoking the Map externally. It also provides the opportunity to register an app as Routing App, and if registered the in-built map application displays available routing apps on app store and provides a facility to the user to purchase those apps directly from within the map application.

Social Framework
Social Framework has got more exciting. The Twitter framework has been replaced by the new Social Framework. Now it supports Fcebook and Sina’sWeibo Service. Integrating users’ social accounts within app has become easier. The framework bundles with a UIActivityViewController, which can be used to interact with social accounts.

Game Centre
The Game Kit framework has been improved. The following new features have been added to it:
- GKChallange: Can be used to challenge other players directly from within a game
- GKAchievement: Facilitates to submit multiple achievements at a time
- GKPlayer: Now supports displaying member’s name
- GKGameCenterViewController: Includes all the previous features like Leader board, Friend Request and Achievement. Previous view controllers still exist.
- GKMatch: This class also has been improved and provides a method to detect which player has the best connectivity to the Game Centre.
- GKMatchMaker: Improved to support better programmatic matchmaking. It has become easier to implement customized matchmaking interface.

Also local user authentication procedure has been changed. Authenticate Handler property can be set to a block to handle all the authentication steps. Authentication interface can be represented as and when required.

Pass kit
Pass kit is a new technology used to implement the support of downloadable passes. Passes are basically files with a new file format, which can be created by business and can be delivered to user’s device via email or custom app. Different kind of documents like Event Ticket, Discount Coupon, Boarding pass can be created with the support of barcode.

Reminders
The event kit framework is now updated and provides the support to create reminders in user’s device.

In-App Purchase
In-App purchase now support hosting content in Apple’s server and download the contents using SDK Download class.

Collection Views
UI Collection View is a new addition. It has become much easier to display ordered items to user using this class. It supports standard flow-based layout. The view can be customized to support any type of layout.

UI State Preservation
State Preservation makes it easier to restore application state. In the previous versions of the SDK, developers needed to write down the application state so that it could be restored next time the app launches, but with the help of State Preservation it is now a lot easier.

Data Privacy
The system now asks the user whenever a third party application tries to access the following data:
1. Calendar
2. Contacts
3. Photo Library
4. Reminder 

The application should be programmed and prepared to handle the situation where user denies the access to the requested resource.


There have been a lot of other improvements in the following frameworks:
1. OpenGL ES
2. Media Player Framework
3. Image IO Framework
4. IAd Framework
5. Foundation Framework
6. External Access Framework
7. Event Kit Framework
8. Core video Framework
9. Core Media Framework
10. Core Location Framework
11. Core Bluetooth Framework
12. Core Audio
13. AV Foundation Framework
14. Ad Support Framework
15. Accelerate Framework

I’ll discuss the enhancements in the above said frameworks in the next article.

Anelei Ivanova is an eminent guest post writer. She has writing different technical article based on I-phone app development, jailbreak, Android application development and many more topics. In the above article, you can get good information about Iphone application.

12 Christmas Gifts From Apple - Get This App Now!

So this year, Apple decided to give us iOS users a little treat. For 12 days after Christmas, we're gonna get one gift each day. Today's (26th Dec) gift is a Maroon 5 EP for me, I'm not sure if the gifts differ for different region or anything.

So you know what I'm gonna say, since it's free, just download the app and give it a shot. Head over to your AppStore and download '12 Days of Christmas' and enjoy.

Track Your iPhone's Data Usage The Easy Way

This post is for those with a limited data plan for their iPhones. Telcos often charge a fair bit when you exceed your specified data limit, and if you're anything like me, you'd have definitely exceeded your quota at least once.

Well when I exceeded mine, I had no choice but to pay the charges, and after that I went on a search for the best way to track my data. At the time of my search, which is around a year ago, there was no worthy data tracking app except Data Usage.

My problem with Data Usage is every time you reboot your phone, you have to start up the app again otherwise it does not track your usage. Well, most people would accept that as a small price to pay, but not me!

Well, the commonsense approach would be to go into Settings and reset your data counters every month, but you know, that seems like too much work compared to searching and trying all possible solutions for a better one.

With iOS 5, Apple introduced Notification Center (you know, that grey piece of cloth you pull down from your statusbar). WeeTrackData is a jailbreak tweak by Albert Schulz that takes advantage of that, and it essentially tells you how much of your monthy data quota you've used so far. A swipe to the left gives you your usage for the week, and another swipe gives you your usage for the day. Simple, minimalistic, and it gets the job done.

Open up your Cydia app and search for it, give it a shot.

Jailbreak for Dummies: How To Actually Do It

Generally speaking, the mark of a jailbroken device is the Cydia app whose natural habitat is the home screen of your device. I say generally because dev teams (groups of hackers working together) sometimes release a jailbreak tool that jailbreaks the device, but does not install Cydia. This is usually because the jailbreak is still not ready for public use, perhaps it's not stable yet and the dev teams want to give some sort of beta testing to a smaller crowd, usually those who actually knows all this stuff in-depth; or the dev teams simply want to give jailbreak developers a head start in developing jailbreak contents first. It's their choice, and we should respect that. These people put in countless hours finding and developing jailbreaks, and they give it to you for free.

A screenshot containing Cydia, as well as some feature unique to the particular device often serves as evidence of a successful jailbreak attempt. The image above is from a time not too long after the iPhone 4S was released. At that time, the iPhone 4S was the only device with Siri, so that screenshot was all the evidence needed to prove the iPhone 4S has been jailbroken. Similarly, in the picture at the beginning of this post, we see Cydia on a device with five rows of icons and a dock. Unless you've been living under a rock, that's the mark of an iPhone 5.

Of course, skeptics can say it's photoshopped or whatever and it's all lies. Fair argument, but when the jailbreak is actually released, you skeptics better not be using it. For us jailbreak fans however, these pictures gives hope that a jailbreak is round the corner.

Enough of background stories, now back to the topic.

Checking Your iOS Version

In the Settings app, go to General, then About. Once there, you should see a row labeled Version, and that's your iOS version right there.

As you can see, mine's iOS 5.1.1. The first number refers to the major iOS version (in this case iOS 5), and the numbers that follows is the smaller update/revision of that major iOS version. It's important to note your iOS version because different each version's jailbreak, if available, uses different jailbreak tools because of the different exploits/vulnerabilities used each time.

I'll show you how to jailbreak the two latest iOS versions, namely iOS 5 and 6. Note that iPad 3 refers to the ridiculously named 'new iPad', and iPad 4 is obviously the one newer than that, launched after the iPhone 5.

iOS 6

I stayed away from iOS 6 because I didn't want to lose my Google Maps, and more importantly my iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak. However, if you're on this iOS, check to see if you're on the devices listed below.

• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• 4th-gen iPod touch

If you device is on the list, then congratulations, you are entitled to a free, all-expense-paid, 10 minutes journey to tethered jailbreak-land. If you're not, don't bother reading the next part.

Redsn0w is a jailbreak tool provided by the iPhone Dev-Team. This tool is often updated to support jailbreaks for newer iOS versions, and we are now at version 0.9.15b2, supporting iOS 6.

I emphasize here, this is a tethered jailbreak, meaning if your device runs out of juice or reboots, you have to connect your device to the computer and use Redsn0w to boot it. Read this if you want to know why.

Download Redsn0w for Windows here, or for Mac here.

Extract and run it. Be sure to run it in administrator mode (Windows) or ctrl+click then select open (Mac).

Click on Jailbreak, then follow the steps to put your device into DFU mode.

If you've done it right, the tool will jailbreak your device. Be patient and try to contain your excitement, don't do anything funky. When it's done, go to Extras, and Boot Tethered. Select “Autoboot this device when it connects in DFU mode”. 

Once the device reboots, you should see the Cydia icon on your home screen.

If your device powers down in the future, connect your device and run Redsn0w. Go to Extras, click on Just Boot and follow the instruction. Should be a piece of cake.

iOS 5
There's four iOS versions; iOS 5.0, 5.0.1, 5.1, and 5.1.1.
The cool thing about redsn0w is that it is only updated to support the newer jailbreaks, it's not a different tool every time. So the same redsn0w that jailbreaks iOS 6 will jailbreak iOS 5 and all previous versions, provided that the device model fulfills the requirements. For each version of iOS 5, redsn0w supports different devices. Sometimes certain device gets an untethered jailbreak while others get tethered ones, so check if your device can be jailbroken untethered or tethered in the list below.

iOS 5.0 

• Not supported
• iPad 2

• Untethered 
• iPhone 4s

• Tethered
• Everything else

 iOS 5.0.1

• Untethered 
• All devices

iOS 5.1

• Not supported
• iPhone 4s, iPad 2, iPad 3

• Tethered
• Everything else

  
iOS 5.1.1

• Untethered 
• All devices

Redsn0w download links and jailbreak instructions are the same as for iOS 6. Scroll up.

I should remind you guys that if you have an old-bootrom 3GS, the criteria listed above for being able to jailbreak doesn't apply to you. Your device will be jailbroken untethered by redsn0w. Find out why and how to check your bootrom here.

That's it. In the next post I'll show you how to convert tethered jailbreaks to semi-tethered.

Update:

I just jaibroken iOS 6 myself and it seems like without semitether, the iPhone boots but without jailbreak content. It seems like redsn0w now jailbreaks with some sort of semitether protection, but this is just my guess.

Anyway, if you are on iOS 5 or your iOS 6 device cannot boot without plugging into the computer, semitether can be downloaded through Cydia.

In Cydia, go to Manage > Sources > Edit > Add, and add this repo http://thebigboss.org/semitether. 

Search for SemiTether and install the package. Be sure to check on the semitether app installed on your springboard every now and then to ensure you are protected.

Why (Some of) the iPhone 3GS Can Forever Be Jailbroken Untethered

Building on the previous Jailbreak for Dummies post, I thought I'd share this story with you guys, maybe it might help newbies understand jailbreaks better. This story revolves around a bootrom exploit/vulnerability that is known as 0x24000 Segment Overflow a.k.a. 24kPwn, that was first discovered on the iPod Touch 2G.

Perhaps it's best explaining what a bootrom is before we begin, and I'll try and do this without breaking your brains:

The bootrom is essentially some codes that runs at startup, and it's job is to check on the status of the boot image. The boot image is the entire iOS that is to be 'booted'. Actually a boot image consist of more than just the iOS, but no need for the extra confusion. So before booting the iOS, the bootrom checks it to make sure it's not corrupted and it's an iOS version authorized by Apple.  

Now back to the story.

Hackers @pod2g and @MuscleNerd discovered a hole in the bootrom, and this hole is referred to as 24kPwn. Using this hole, a dedicated group of hackers bypassed the checks and made it possible for unauthorized firmware to be loaded, blessing us all with a beautiful untethered jailbreak.

What makes bootrom exploits cool is that it can only be fixed by a hardware revision. In other words can't be fixed by any form of software update. So if your device's bootrom has an exploitable vulnerability, it's there forever on that device. Just like an underground passageway into a castle. No matter who the king is, or how many guards you have, the passageway is there unless you reconstruct the castle.

So just like that the iPod Touch 2G became a device that can forever be jailbroken. However, by releasing this jailbreak, Apple is now aware of the existence of this hole and can then work on patching it.

Now what happened was the bootrom used on the 3GS dates back a couple of month before the release of 24kPwn. Apple had no idea of it beforehand and could not fix it in time. So when sale of the 3GS began, there was cheers of joy as hackers and jailbreakers realize that the exploit lives on!

Seven months after the release of the exploit, Apple updated the bootrom of new iPhone(s) 3GS and... R.I.P 24kPwn. This resulted in two types of iPhone 3GS (no, I'm not talking about black vs. white 3GS): the old-bootrom and the new-bootrom. Until today, right up till the latest version of iOS, iOS 6, the old-bootrom iPhone 3GS is forever untethered.

Beautiful story isn't it? Now if you're the owner of an iPhone 3GS, let me show you how to quickly check if your device is using the old or new bootrom.


Checking if your 3GS has the old or new bootrom

On your device, open your Settings app. If you're struggling to find it, leave a comment and I'll do what I can. Hint: It's in the picture above.

Look for General, then About.

Once you're there, scroll down and look for a line named Model. If that begins with MC, then what you have is new-bootrom 3GS. If it begins with MB, then congratulations, you have an old-bootrom 3GS and can forever enjoy being jailbroken. Now take your phone to iPhone 5 owners and rub it in their face; "I've got all this customization from jailbreaks, and you've got what? One extra row of icons? Ha ha".

If you have a 3GS, give this a shot. You have a 50% chance of having either a new or old bootrom 3GS. There's nothing to lose anyway.