It seems like the warez scene for iphone apps is finally kicking off (or I must have missed it completely when it happened in the past).  PPCWarez, previously known for distributing cracked applications & games for the Windows Mobile platform, have opened a section for iPhone applications.  It seems to be pretty straightforward too to install these applications on a jailbroken iphone:

• Open Cydia, and add the source http://cydia.hackulo.us
• Also via Cydia, Install the AppSync application and reboot your iphone
• Drag your downloaded iphone application into your iTunes Library
• Sync your iphone via iTunes

Recently I was looking for an application which allows an iPhone user to send SMS messages from his PC through his iPhone.  I came across iPhone PC Suite. This is a free application which allows you to manage a variety of iphone features such as installed applications, media, messages,…

The latest version available at the time of writing is version 2.3.1.86. Admitting that I cannot get the version working myself, I thought i’d share it with others should you want to give it a try.

http://www.ipcsuite.com/

In the iphone app store different applications are available that allow you to establish VoIP calls using Wifi networks.  These tools do however not allow you to establish calls over a 3G connection.   I have not digged in Apple’s terms & conditions, but Apple might not allow this since the contractors with which  iphones are sold would miss alot of connection fees. The good news is that an application is recently made avaiable that allows you to simulate your 3G connection as a Wifi connection so that it is possible to use applications that were limited to Wifi VoIP calls only to establish calls over 3G/EDGE networks too.  Note that you do need to jailbreak your iphone to be able to install this application.

The following applications are available for establishing calls using Wifi:

fring

Fring was already longer available to install on jailbroken iphone’s, but has recently also been added to the iphone store. The biggest advantage of Fring is that it allows you to configure any SIP VoIP service on your iphone.  Disadvantage: after setting up a VoIP call, no phonepad is shown anymore.  For example, calling to your voicemail and deleting a message with the keypad is not possible since Fring does not support DTMF.

http://www.fring.com/

Truphone

Truephone can be installed for free via the Itunes store.  Truephone only support establishing calls using their network; it does not support third party SIP services.

http://www.truphone.com/

sipgate

sipgate is currently only available for jailbroken devices.

http://www.sipgate.com/

Nimbuzz

Nimbuzz is an iphone application supporting different communication protocols including SIP for VoIP.  You can configure any SIP VoIP provider.

When trying the application I succeed in registering at my SIP server, but I do not succeed in setting up calls with this application.

http://www.nimbuzz.com/

Enable these applications for 3G calls

Now comes the good news: It is possible to enable these applications for 3G calls.  Earlier some patched versions of these applications were already released that would allow you to establish 3G calls, but the following application would allow you to use any application. Let me remind you that you do need a jailbroken iphone to be able to do that.  On your jailbroken device install the VoIPover3G application.  This application will simulate the avaiability of Wifi, but will route all your VoIP traffic over your 3G connection.

After playing a bit with Funambol for synchronising email, contacts and calendars I checked which other services are available which allow you to synchronise contactlists and calendar data across different services and devices.

For me the disadvantages of Funambol are that the iPhone version of Funambol currently only supports the synchronisation of contacts data.  Support for calendar data is currently not avaiable yet.  Also, the synchronisation has to be performed manually, meaning that whenever you want to synchronise your contacts you have to run the application and press the ’synchronise’ button.

Nuevasync is a service that allows over the air synchronisation of contacts, calendar, email and task lists. It works transparantly, meaning that it doesn’t require the installation of software and runs completely in the background and over the air.

After registering an account on their website, you can configure the different services.

Calendar: synchronisation with Google Calendar

Contacts:  synchronisation with Plaxo or your Google contacts

On the iphone you configure the Nuevasync service as a Microsoft Exchange server connection.  Using this type of connection it will automatically perform the synchronisation in the background and over the air with the Nuevasync server.

Having configured Nuevasync to configure my iphone calendar with Google Calendar, I am now also able to synchronise my Lotus Notes calendar with my iphone.  I use Companionlink for Google on my computer to synchronise Lotus Notes with Google Calendar, and my iphone transparantly synchronises my Google Calendar to my phone using the Nuevasync service.

Another advantage would be if you change phone (for example to a Windows Mobile device) you can easily synchronise this device with your Nuevasync account to transfer all your contacts and calendar data.

After succeeding in synchronising my iPhone contacts with my Plaxo contacts, I also added the Plaxo addon on some other client software such as Thunderbird to have access to my contacts. Plaxo offers software for Mozilla Thunderbird, PocketPC, Outlook, Outlook Express, and MacOS to keep your Plaxo address book in sync with each of these applications.  On the Plaxo site itself, you have the possibility to synchronise your Plaxo address book with Gmail, Windows Live, Yahoo, Outlook, Thunderbird. The disadvantage is that it only syncs on 1 direction, being towards Plaxo.

With the iPhone 3G being announced at the beginning of this week, I have been browsing alot of iphone website and blogs to inform myself of the possibilities of the device since I might buy one once it will be released.

MobileMe, the service announced by Steve Jobs announched for syncing email, contacts, calendar and photo’s across multime devices also looked interesting to me, but the downside is that this service will not be provided for free.

Since Google already offers email, contacts and a calendar online I was hoping that Google would have already announced a similar service (but for free ), but unfortunately, this is not (yet) the case.

On my seach to a similar service I did find a similar service named Funambol. This service lets you synchronise email, contacts and a calendar. The only feature not offered by Funambol is the synchronisation of pictures. But since Funambol is an open source project, we will probably will see this feature added in the future.

It is possible to download the software, and setup a server yourself locally, or you can use the online service available at http://my.funambol.com

Software packages able to sync with the service:

• PocketPC: Push emails, synchronise contacts, calendar, tasks, notes
• SmartPhone: Push emails, synchronise contacts, calendar, tasks, notes
• Blackberry: Push emails, synchronise PIM’s
• iPod: Synchronize Contacts and Calendar
• Outlook: Synchronize Contacts and Calendar
• Thunderbird: Synchronize Contacts
• iPhone: Push emails, synchronise contacts, calendar

The server software is both available for the Windows and Linux operating systems. Some other interesting project developed by the supporting community:

• Funambol Exchange Connector v6.5
• Funambol Domino Connector v3
• Funambol Palm PIM Client
• Funambol Google Android Push Email and PIM Client
• Funambol Palm PIM Client
• Funambol Gmail PIM Plug-in
• Plaxo Windows Mobile Contact Sync Plug-in

Check out this page for more addons for Funambol: https://www.forge.funambol.org/download/

I am testing the service right now and so far it looks very promising. I installed the PocketPC client on my HTC PocketPC and configured my gmail account via the MyFunambol online service, so now I get Push-email from the MyFunambol service towards my PocketPC and my PocketPC contacts and calendar are automatically syncing with the MyFunambol server.

I also tested the Mozilla Thunderbird and added the Funambol extention. With this service you can sync your thunderbird contacts with the MyFunambol service.

Funambol Downloads:

Standard clients & server download: https://www.forge.funambol.org/download/

myFunambol online server: http://my.funambol.com

Other community projects: https://www.forge.funambol.org/participate/projects.html

For other SyncML synchronisation solutions checkout the SyncML Wikipedia page

The tools you can use until today to unlock and/or jailbreak the current iPhone:

• Pwnage: http://wikee.iphwn.org/main?do=show

• Winpwn: http://winpwn.com/

• ZiPhone: http://download.ziphone.org/

• iLiberty+ http://ipluspwns.com/

• ijailbreak http://www.ijailbreak.com/

And here’s a link to a site where you can download them all

update: On iphone-hacks.com you will find some more tools!

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6827