iPhone Hacks book review

iPhone Hacks
by David Jurick and Adam and Damien Stolarz
O'Reilly, 459 pages, $34.99



The iPhone is an amazing portable computer. It features capabilities that twenty years ago would have been something out of the pages of science fiction. Instant communications access with anyone in the world, the ability to seamlessly access the corpus of human knowledge that is the Internet, and of course, an ability to be entertained by music, video and games limited only by your imagination.

Almost.

The iPhone, as shipped by Apple, is a wonderful device for 95% of its users. But Apple locks iPhone users into a gilded cage. The cage is sumptuously decorated, but it is still a jail cell. You are limited to using your iPhone in ways Apple approves of. "The man" (or Steve Jobs) decides what applications you can run and what capabilities your phone has. Like a bridled horse, the iPhone is docile, but unleashed, it could do so much more!

To really set the iPhone free, you need to "hack" it. Once you do this, your phone becomes the powerful computer it is meant to be, and you can run much more diverse software, giving your phone new abilities, like being able to record videos, customize the user interface, emulate popular video game consoles, and send and receive multimedia messages. You can even give your phone the ability to act as a wi-fi "access point" to the internet for your laptop, and unlock the phone to use on other carriers.

"iPhone Hacks" by David Jurick and Adam and Damien Stolarz is your guide into this brave new world. The authors act as friendly guide into the world of iPhone customization. This book is not meant for beginners; the authors assume both some technical computer knowledge and a curious nature. Some of the software-based "hacks" can be done by any experienced user, but other hacks require programming and even hardware "breadboard" skills, such as handiness with a soldering iron.

The authors first explains some of the basics of the iPhone operating system, including its history, the phone's boot process, and how the file system is put together, which is an excellent overview, before they head into the basics of "jailbreaking," which is the process where you use some simple software tools to open your phone's operating system up to customization.

I should note that many of the hacks in this book require the jailbreaking process, which, contrary to its name, is neither illegal nor very difficult. There are several hacks which do not require jailbreaking, however, these are more in the vein of "power user tips" rather then true hacks. It is worth noting that Apple will not provide warranty services to jailbroken phones - luckily, if anything goes wrong, it is very easy to "restore" your phone to pristine condition before seeking warranty service.

The actual hacks are divided into various sections by theme. The first two thirds of the book is all software-focused, and as such accessible to those without programming or hardware hacking skills. For example, there are sections on using the phone as a multimedia devices, sections on enhancing the camera and video recording functions, as well as sections on topics such as SMS messaging, gaming, and user interface customization. Any of these sections can be accessed in an ad-hoc manner; there is no need to go in order after the initial chapter on the jailbreak process itself. Simple pick the topic you are interested in and dive in. It is easy to browse the book to get an idea of what the iPhone can do, and all of the chapters are very clearly explained, with excellent use of screenshots and supplementary information to guide you in the process.

The final third of the book covers both application programming, and actual hardware hacking, including how to disassemble and reassemble your phone. Many of the hacks in this section are very entertaining to read about (and fairly useless in a practical sense), especially since it would take someone way braver then me to actually crack open my phone's case! The programming section is a useful introduction to both the official Apple-provided way to program for the iPhone as well as the unofficial ways to get access to private APIs and methods which can be used to program applications that could never make it into the App Store.

More controversially, "iPhone Hacks" also describes the process to "unlock" your iPhone (this is different then "jailbreaking") so you can use it on a carrier other then AT&T. This information is presented fairly and accurately, with both the risks and rewards clearly outlined for those users who may need to use an iPhone on another carrier. The book also describes how to activate tethering, where you can use your iPhone as an internet access point for your laptop. This may violate your contract with your carrier, but the book doesn't moralize here; it simply describes the "hack" and leaves the decision as to how to use the information up to you, the reader, which is as it should be.

Overall, this is an amazing book, clearly and thoroughly describing the dozens of ways you can truly make your iPhone your own. It manages to cover challenging information fairly and accurately in a manner that will appeal to any adventurous, curious and technically-minded reader. Even if you never plan to do anything other then the tamest "hacks" to your iPhone, browsing this book will teach you a lot about your phone as a computer, and leave you stimulated and fascinated.


Rating: 5 out of 5 DogCows
Plusses: A through and interesting book on how to expand the iPhone's universe
Minuses: None

This review was cross-posted at the Lawrence Apple Users Group web page.

Dave and I were on "The 10th Voice"

Dave and I were guest on the KKFI (Kansas City 90.1 FM) radio program "The 10th Voice" today. Ourselves, along with another couple from Lawrence talked about our relationship and our legal marriage, and how it has affected us. We think it turned out really nice. If you missed the show when it was on the air, you can listen here:

http://www.mikesilverman.com/kkfi_mike_dave.mp3

Two new movie ideas

1. Steve Jobs is dying. He has his best engineers build his consciousness into the next version of MacOS, Snow Leopard. As the distributed network that is now Jobs becomes stronger (as more copies of Snow Leopard are sold), Jobs becomes evil and plots to take over the world. An all-star team of top geeks (starring Angelina Jolie as the chief engineer) figures out the only way to stop Jobs is to turn off every Mac in the world at the same time; now it's a race against the clock!

2. Steve Jobs is dying. He sees the evil of humanity and how we are not worthy of his beautiful creations, so he has himself cryogenically frozen for 1000 years. When he awakens, humanity has descended to a state of barbarism, and Jobs must raise humanity back up to civilization while also developing the cure for his disease before time runs out.

Review of John Birmingham's "Without Warning"

Without Warning by John Birmingham



"Without Warning" is a science fiction/military fiction hybrid in the "kicking over anthills" school of thought (see also "Dies the Fire" by S.M. Stirling), where the author make some enormous change to the world and then lets things plays out as they may. It is not strictly alternate history, although some may categorize it as such. The premise is very simple: an energy field of unknown origin wipes out all life - and makes impenetrable - the majority of North America. In one fell swoop, the United States is no more. What happens to the rest of the world, including the remnants of the USA (mostly the military, ex-pats, and citizens of Hawaii, Alaska, and Seattle, which are outside the field)?

The book follows several groups of people as they make their way in this new world, including portions of the military, an ex-war reporter working for the BBC, the Seattle city engineer, a group of opportunistic pirates (almost, but not quite, with hearts of gold, of course!) and other various dramatis personae from around the world. Most fiction of this type doesn't deal with the in-depth motives of the players or deep character development, preferring to focus on the nitty-gritty of "what happens" and of course, action sequences. Rest assured, there is plenty of both -- excellent scenes of military activity, fighting, and general "weapons and warfare" goodness, but also a nice attention to some of the wider geo-political consequences of the excision of America from the globe (including the internal political struggles in what is left of the USA).

In short, everything goes to hell (what else did you expect) but the specific descriptions and vignettes of various disasters, such as the descent into madness in Acapulco, the initial "day after" in Paris, and a horrifying series of events in the Middle East right out of some "end of days" preacher's fantasy should give pause to nearly any reader, and certainly had me alternating between deep thought and plain old chills.

This is a damn good book, and anyone who enjoys military science fiction ought to enjoy it. There wasn't much I didn't like, although I would have liked perhaps a little more description of the wave itself, and its actual causes and effects, beyond a few early glimpses. This isn't a deal-killer by a long shot, the book isn't about the energy wave itself, except as a plot device -- the story is what happens to the rest of the world (and I suspect the wave itself will get further attention in future books in the series).

"Without Warning" is highly recommended.

A turd in the middle of my cake

Got a wonderful delicious cake last night -- President-Elect Obama!

And then California went and crapped in the middle of it....with the passage of Proposition 8, which limits marriage in California to opposite-sex couples.

This sucks.

More thoughts later.

Books I have read lately

Here are some brief reviews of books I have read recently:

The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God
by Jonathan Kirsch
A fascinating history of the inquisition and how it presaged the 20th century's atrocities. Very strong on the history, weaker in the author's attempt to tie the inquisition to present-day events

Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology through History
by Alfred W. Crosby
The anthropological history of humankind's development of projectile technology from the earliest stones to ballistic missiles. A unique mix of history and biology.

The Diamond of Darkhold: The Fourth Book of Ember (Books of Ember) and The Books of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
A post-apocalyptic series for younger readers about the world after a massive war; excellent characterization and plot, and truly a pleasure to read

13 Things That Don't Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
by Michael Brooks
A good survey of thirteen current mysteries in the world of science, from physics to biology to evolution. Very sharp and smart.

Plague War
by Jeff Carlson
The second book in a two-book (so far) series on life on Earth after a nanobot plague. Some good action, but overall very confusing and uneven.

The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition
by James Howard Kunstler
An top-notch survey of the social and cultural trajectories of a dozen of the world's great cities, and how the choices they have made in development have affected their quality of life. Intelligent and with a wry sense of humor.

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says about Us)
by Tom Vanderbilt
One of the best of the recent spate of books on mundane topics, in this case traffic engineering. The author's deft hands turn this topic into a fascinating study of human social behavior and will make anyone who drives think of things in an entirely different way.

The Man with the Iron Heart
by Harry Turtledove
The king of alt-history turns in a solid, workmanlike effort featuring the trademark Turtledove storytelling style; based on the fascinating premise of what would have happened if German had engaged in guerilla warfare after WWII, with obvious parallels to our Iraq situation.

Empires of Trust: How Rome Built--and America Is Building--a New World
by Thomas F. Madden
The author focuses on the overlooked Roman republican period, comparing the rise of Rome with the rise of America in the social and political arenas. A nice change of pace from the usual comparisons of the two cultures based on the Imperial period.

The Snake Charmer: A Life and Death in Pursuit of Knowledge
by Jamie James
A pleasantly entertaining biography of a renowned herpetologist and his tragic death. Good creepy descriptions of serpent natural history mixed with occasionally dramatic events.

The Valley-Westside War (Crosstime Traffic)
by Harry Turtledove
Another entry in Turtledove's juvenile series; this one is a pedestrian tale of life in LA a hundred plus years after a nuclear war. Mildly entertaining, but one of the weakest of the bunch so far.

Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped
by Tony Perrottet
A light, trivial and entertaining look at the sexual foibles of world history. Excellent cocktail-party fodder, but this is an appetizer, not a meal.

Beyond Fear
by Bruce Schneier
Unique insider's perspective into the world of security and defense. Truly fascinating, and useful for everyone from individual citizens to security professionals.

Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America
by Eric Jay Dolin
An amazing historic tale of some 300 years of American maritime history. The author does a fine job mixing the gruesome with the mundane, while covering the social, technological, and political history of whaling, including a real insight into the lives of average whale-men and their families.

The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why
by Amanda Ripley
A look at the psychological and physiological aspects of human behavior when disaster strikes. The author is very good at bringing out the dramatic events of disasters while showing a touch for human interest and psychology while also sharing practical examples that might help future survivors.

Sideways In Crime
by Lou Anders
A decent anthology of alt-history and crime mash-up stories. Like most books of this type, there are good stories mixed with the mediocre.

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
by Ori Brafman
A fun, light pop-psychology tome about the hidden influencers on our behaviors. The book is quite short, but very engagingly written with enough nuggets of interest to hold the readers attention.

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age
by William Manchester
Really three books in one; a fascinating section on the medieval mind that really gives a feel of what it would be like to live back then, a middle section which contains a solid, workmanlike history of the Reformation, and finally, a completely tacked-on, although still interesting story of Magellan. Each could stand alone as a short book, but together they feel artificially joined.

The Accidental Mind: How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God
by David J. Linden
An overview of brain science, with good coverage of how the brain works and how various aspects of the brain may have evolved. Overall an amazingly complete survey in such a short book.

The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America
by Maury Klein
A book on the economic and industrial history of electric power in America. Contrary to the title, steam power is only about 1/5 of the overall book, and there is almost no coverage of the science or technology, with almost all the focus on the economics and marketing of power. The title is misleading; as a technology book, it is very bad, as an economic history of electricity, it is very good.

Truthiness?

The Omaha Jewish Press ran an adapted version of the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle story on Dave and I.

For the most part it was a straight adaptation, with a few "localizations" to make it more relevant to Omaha readers, but there is one big change that is simply incorrect. In the original article, Dave notes that Israel recognizes same-sex marriages performed abroad (although a same-sex couple can't get married in Israel itself). This is the result of a 2006 Israeli Supreme Court ruling.

The Omaha Jewish Press for some reason stated that Israel doesn't recognize same-sex marriages -- and in addition to this inaccuracy, they actually change the words of Dave's quote to account for this inaccuracy -- they made Dave's quote wrong to match the incorrectness of their changed story!

First the original:

“The state of Israel will recognize gay marriages from other parts of the world. We’re hoping that since Israel would recognize it, should we ever make aliyah,” Greenbaum said. “Because we are not legally married in the United States, that would make aliyah more difficult. After tomorrow, we’ll be seen as a couple.”

They don’t have immediate plans to make any sort of move, but they like the security the marriage provides, in case they choose to make aliyah in the future.


and the "new and unimproved version:

The state of Israel does not currently recognize gay marriages from other parts of the world.
“We’re hoping that since Israel might someday recognize it, should we ever make aliyah,” Greenbaum said. “Because we are not legally married in the United States, that would make aliyah more difficult. After tomorrow, we’ll be seen as a couple.”
They don’t have immediate plans to make any sort of move, but they like the security the marriage provides, in case they choose to make aliyah in the future.

We're contacting the Omaha Jewish Press to get the to the bottom of this story. Hopefully someone just made a mistake, and they will correct it. I don't expect any malice behind this, but it is important for news stories to be accurate, and to accurate quote people. I'll let you know what we find out.

UPDATE (11:05 AM July 3, 2008): The Jewish Press responded to our complaint...as we suspected, it wasn't malice but an honest error where they didn't do enough research before posting the story. The following correction will run in next weeks issue:


Correction
In last week’s Press, there was an error in the story “Kansas gay couple wed in San Francisco,” stating: “The state of Israel does not currently recognize gay marriages from other parts of the world.”
In fact, in November, 2006, Israel’s Supreme Court did rule that the government had to register gay marriages performed outside the country, however, they cannot be performed within Israel. While opponents did introduce a bill in the Knesset to overturn the court’s ruling in December of 2006, there has been no action since, leaving the high court’s ruling to accept gay marriages performed elsewhere still standing.
Dave Greenbaum’s quote in the article by Beth Lipoff, which originally appeared in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle should have read:
“The state of Israel will recognize gay marriages from other parts of the world. We’re hoping that since Israel would recognize it, should we ever make aliyah,” Greenbaum said. “Because we are not legally married in the United States, that would make aliyah more difficult. After tomorrow, we’ll be seen as a couple.”
The Jewish Press regrets the error.