How to Change Your Jailbroken iPhone’s Root Password

The recent spate of worm attacks in the past week has brought the focus on the importance of your root password.

Unlike feature phones, smartphones like the iPhone run on operating systems, which very much like our computer have administrator privileges.

It is hence that when the hackers get access to your iPhone’s administrator account, they can lay their hands on anything that is on the iPhone. However, in a non-jailbroken device, this administrator account (called root) cannot be accessed as the iPhone has no console or terminal access and also does not run services like SSH.

But when an iPhone is jailbroken and SSH is turned on, it becomes imperative that you change the default password of your root since hackers now have an easy access to your iPhone. Here is a short guide on how to change your root password.

Instructions to Install Mobile Terminal:

Step 1: Tap on the Cydia icon on your jailbroken iPhone to launch the application
Step 2: Open the ‘Sections’ tab on the bottom of the screen and select ‘Terminal Support’

Step 3: From the list of packages, select and open ‘Mobile Terminal’

Step 4: Tap on the ‘Install’ button and choose ‘Confirm’ to begin installation

Step 5: Once installation completes, tap on ‘Close Window’ button to finish the installation process.

Once mobile terminal is installed on your iPhone, you can proceed to changing the root password

Instructions to Change Root Password:

Step 1: Tap on the ‘Mobile Terminal’ icon on your iPhone Springboard to launch it.

Step 2: You are shown a black screen. Against the command prompt, type su and tap the return key.

Step 3: You are now prompted for the password. The default password for root is alpine. Input this text and tap the return key once again.

Step 4: You are now logged in as the root user. Against the command prompt, enter the command passwd and tap the return key.

Step 5: You will be prompted to enter a new password. Enter this new password and retype to confirm.

Your root password has been changed. Please do note that the root password is stored in encrypted format in the device and so in the event of you losing the password, it is quite a task to retrieve it. So, make sure to remember your new root password.

How To Extend Your iPhone’s Battery Life

Apple
claims that iPhone 3GS offers up to 5 hours of talk time on 3G (12 hours on 2G), 5 hours of Internet use
(9 hours on Wi-Fi), 10 hours of video playback or 30 hours of audio playback and finally 300 hours of standby time.

However, you might have observed significantly lesser battery life based on your usage pattern.

Apple has some useful tips on how to extend battery life of iPhone and iPod Touch.

So if your biggest complaint about the iPhone is that you need to keep recharging it regularly then you will find this article useful.

Here are some of the tips to extend battery life of iPhone and iPod Touch:

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Heat can degrade performance of your iPhone’s battery. So it is important to keep the iPhone out of the sun or a hot car (including the glove box).
*

Set auto-Lock interval (Settings > General > Auto-Lock) so that your iPhone will turn off more quickly after a period of inactivity.
*

Apple has also provided some tips to optimize your iPhone settings to extend battery life:
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Use location services only when needed (Settings > General > Location Services).
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Turn off push notifications (Settings > Notifications)
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Fetch email or other data less frequently (Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data).
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Turn off push mail such when you don’t need it (Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off).
o

If you rarely use Wi-Fi or in a area where there is no Wi-Fi coverage then turn it off (Settings > Wi-Fi).
o

If you hardly use Bluetooth then turn off Bluetooth to save power (Settings > General > Bluetooth)
o

Turn on Auto-Brightness to allow the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions.
o

Dimming the screen will also help in extending battery life.
o

If you’re on the plane or in an area where there is no coverage then use Airplane mode to increase battery life (Settings > Airplane Mode).
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Turn off equalizer setting to song playback as it can decrease battery life (Settings > iPod > EQ).
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As you might have noticed, you can use the iPhone for a longer time to surf the internet on 2G (up to 12 hours) as compare to on 3G (up to 5 hours). So you can turn off 3G to extend battery life (Settings > General > Network and set Enable 3G to Off).
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You can improve battery life by minimizing the use of iPhone apps like games as they prevent the screen from dimming and iPhone apps that use location services.
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Apple advices users to update their iPhone with the latest iPhone OS.
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You should also use the iPhone regularly for proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery. In fact, Apple advices users to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).

The tips are useful especially when you’re travelling and need battery life on your iPhone or iPod Touch for a longer time, or when you’re running extremely low on battery and want to save power as much as possible for something important.

I hope you find these tips useful. If you have a tip that you want to share then feel free to tell us in the comments.

[via Apple]

How to lock iphone screen position! Using Rotation inhibitor

In this tutorial I’ll show you how to enable tether on iphone 3.1.2.

First thing you need to do is install black snow (snow)

Then go to http://m.peacefulinsanity.com/tether.mobileconfig.

Using your iphone internet browser (safari).

Once you there you should see something like this:

Hit install and and after is installed reboot your iphone by holding the power and home button till it power off automatic.

Power on and go to SETTINGS/ NETWORK and you should see the option to use tethering. Have fun using this hack.

By Moroni

This tutorial will help you change the theme or background of your iphone or ipod touch.

In This tutorial there are many very helpful tricks.

1) Get URL Hints

In Safari, you can press and hold any links in order to see the URL and site name of the link.

2) Dismiss Keyboard Suggested Word

To dismiss the keyboard suggested spelling of a word, you can tap on anywhere of the screen. You do not have to press “x” button at the end of the word.

3) Scroll to the Top of the Page

When you are using iPhone applications, you can automatically scroll to the top of the page by tapping on the “top bar”, which has the time, service bars and the battery information. In Safari, this will also brings up the URL address bar as well.

4) Different Domain Suffix

Hold down the “.com” button, you can see a popup comes up with “.net, .edu and .org” buttons. Slide your finger from them and then release your finger to choose.

5) Domain Resolution

When typing a URL in Safari, you don’t have to type the “www” or the “.com”. For exmaple, you can type “iPhoneToolbox” in the URL box in order to view “iPhoneToolbox.com”.

6) Take Screenshots Anytime

You can take any screenshots at anytime easily on your iPhone. First of all, press and hold the “Home” button and then click the “Sleep” button once. The screen will flash white and the screenshot will be stored in your camera roll immediately.

7) Save Images in Safari

When you are browsing any web pages on Safari. You simply touch the image and hold your finger until a menu show up, select Save Image.The downloaded image is located under your Photo / Camera Roll.

8 ) Inserting a Period

When you are typing on you iPhone, simply double tapping the “Space Bar” button at the end of a sentence, it will automatically insert a period followed by a space. It saves you a lot of time instead of pressing “124″ to get the numbers and symbols page where the period located in.

9) Alternative Way to Navigate Screens

You can tab the bottom right or left corner to switch between different screens instead of swiping your finger across the screen.

10) Alternate Characters

Hold down a letter on the keyboard, you can see popup comes up with various versions of the character.

11) Move Dock Icons
Just press and hold any icons on the screen, then drag them while they are shaking. You can put any 4 icons on your dock (grey bar at the bottom of your iPhone).

12) Fit-to-page Column, word and Picture

When browsing web pages on Safari, you can double tap on a column, word or picture to fit it’s width to your iPhone’s screen.

13) Select Icon for Bookmarked Webpage

When you are browsing a web page on Safari and add its icon to your home screen by pressing the “+” button and select “Add to Home Screen”. The icon is a screenshot of the page you were on. You can have a different icon by zooming in a particular item on the page. It can be the website’s logo or any picture.

14) Scrolling with Two Fingers

Some web pages contains separate text boxes with their own scroll bars. If you are trying to move around in one, you can scroll it with two fingers instead of one. That will let you scroll just inside the box and not affect the position of the entire page.

15) Maximize Battery Life

There is a separate sensor situated right above the earpiece, that detects ambient light. The iPhone uses this sensor only once per session, just as you unlock the handset. But if you cover the sensor as you unlock the phone, you will trikc the handset into thinking it’s in a dark room, and it will power down the screen brightness. You can Also turn off Bluetooth and WiFi if you don’t expect to use them for a while. You can also set email fetch time to “Hourly” or “Manually”, and turn the “Push” off in order to save energy.

16) Reset Your iPhone

Press and hold the “Home” Button and the “Sleep” Button to Reset your iPhone. A white light will flash, the screen will shut off and then turn back on. Please keep holding both buttons until the screen turns back on.

17) Insert Punctuation Quickly

To enter any punctuations while using iPhone keyboard, you can press and hold the “123″ button and slide your finger over to any punctuation button. And then the punctuation will be inserted after you have released the button.

18) Get a Bigger Keyboard

When you are using the on-screen keyboard on Safari, you can rotate the iPhone horizontally before tapping on the address bar, the Safari window will switch to horizontal mode. Now you can have a much larger keyboard, making data entry a little easier.

19) Changing iPod Icons

By the default, the buttons at the bottom of the iPod scren are “Playlists”, “Artists”, “Songs”, “Videos”, and “More”. You can change them by pressing the “More” button, and then tap on the “Edit” button in the upper left corner. A Configure screen will appear with icons for “Albums”, “Podcasts”, “Audiobooks”, “Genres”, “Composers”, “Compilations”, “Playlists”, “Artists”, “Songs”, and “Videos”. To substitute one of these icons for one that appears at the bottom of the iPod screen, just tap and hold on the icon you prefer and drag it over the icon you want to replace. Tap on Done when you’re finished.

20) Make a Call from Safari

If you find any phone numbers in Safari you would like to call, you do not need to jump to the phone component. Just tap on the number, and the iPhone will dial it for you immediately.

Via phonetoolbox.com