Filed under: iPhone
Install applications on your iPhone without hacking
Good news everybody! Have you wanted to try out all those great-sounding third-party iPhone applications? Did the hacking part of it put you off? NullRiver has released a simple iPhone GUI installer for Mac OS X.
Download the latest version of AppTapp installer to your Mac and then dock your iPhone, quit iTunes, and launch the program. The software downloads a copy of the latest Apple Firmware; you choose whether you're using Firmware 1.0.0, 1.0.1 or 1.0.2. It takes a few minutes to download the files from Apple using a good connection and then the software copies some files to your iPhone. When finished, your iPhone restarts and the Installer app appears on your iPhone home screen. The Installer application gives you access to nearly every third party application that has thus far been released by iPhone developers. I tested the entire install procedure on my G4 Mac and it worked flawlessly.
Oh, and if you're looking to try out those software packages I posted about earlier today, open Installer App, and install "Community Sources".
AppTapp is a Universal Binary, in Beta, and free.
Update: Readers ask: "Will this mess up my firmware updates?" Answer: Possibly--I'll try to get a firmer answer out of the developers. Use at your own risk, of course.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Letty said 2:21PM on 8-28-2007
Works like a charm on v 1.02. Installed in 3 minutes. Thank you.
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marcosmalo said 2:20PM on 8-28-2007
Let me be the first to make the obnoxious and crude comment that I'd happily tapp Erica's app any day. =)
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Raj said 2:41PM on 8-28-2007
is there a third party app that will allow for custom ringtones? (i know i am reaching...)
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Gary Brinkman said 2:48PM on 8-28-2007
I installed this yesterday and it listed only about 6 apps that could be installed. I find it hard to beleive that 6 is "..... nearly every third party application that has thus far been released by iPhone developers." Also there is no uninstall that I could find for this on the BSD tools for the iphone, which was one of the few apps I could install. I had to do a restore to get rid of this app.
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Jamie said 2:49PM on 8-28-2007
Installed this earlier this morning on a G5 and it worked without any problems. Excellent work by the developers! Let's hope that Apple begins to get the idea that they are NOT going to be able to stop the development community from doing what they have not wanted to do... Keep the good work going!
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Kryptinite said 2:51PM on 8-28-2007
I really hope this doesn't screw my phone up :(
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Jamie said 2:53PM on 8-28-2007
Gary - You have to install the "Launcher" app to get all of the other applications that are out there...
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neodymium said 2:56PM on 8-28-2007
I tried this last night and it hung, crashing my phone. Luckily, it went into safety mode and I revived it with a fresh firmware restore. I'd advise waiting a little longer until more bugs are worked out.
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Dripps said 3:02PM on 8-28-2007
This reminds me of when the brilliant minds were working on a way to install Windows on the new Intel macs. Then it was accomplished and everyone was excited....and a few days later Apple announces BootCamp. Anyway, when I finally got up the courage to install apptapp installer I was amazed at how easy it was. Now installing on my G5 to give that a whirl.
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Aron Trimble said 3:16PM on 8-28-2007
@Raj Erica's SendSong app will not only allow you to email songs in your iPhone/iPod library - it will also allow you to set them as ringtones!
ERICA FTW!
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Aron Trimble said 3:20PM on 8-28-2007
My question's are.
#1) Can this app work with a previously downloaded firmware file? My issue is that I don't have internet at my apartment yet (*crosses fingers* should be soon) and I have to download updates at work and bring them home.
#B) Does this app install ssh/scp/sftp-server (doubtful)? Does the BSD subsystem install ssh/scp/sftp-server (hopeful)? If neither of those are yes, then I just assume do it the manual way because I use FUGU, SSH-FS and SFTP quite often.
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zetasmack said 3:21PM on 8-28-2007
you need to install "community resources." that will make all of the other apps show up, if you don't, just nullriver apps are listed.
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Adam said 3:28PM on 8-28-2007
Crashed my iPhone too. Currently doing a restore. Not for the faint of heart.
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basscadet said 3:24PM on 8-28-2007
...and thanks to the hacker community, the iPhone is slowly and steadily regaining more and more of its crippled functionality.
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Aron Trimble said 3:34PM on 8-28-2007
Answered my own question (#B) Installer.app -> BSD Subystem -> OpenSSH. This process will get my sftp thirst on - w00t.
Can somebody try this with an already-downloaded update file? I'll download it and try it myself if I have to; but I'd really like the TUAW community to do it for me.
*sigh* I wish TUAW had a forum
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Aron Trimble said 3:36PM on 8-28-2007
Answered my own question (#B) Installer.app -> BSD Subystem -> OpenSSH. This process will get my sftp thirst on - w00t.
Can somebody try this with an already-downloaded update file? I'll download it and try it myself if I have to; but I'd really like the TUAW community to do it for me.
*sigh* I wish TUAW had a forum
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jason said 3:39PM on 8-28-2007
@raj - after you've installed this, and added the community packages, install "sendsong" it will allow you to send a song from your iphone library to the ringtone page.
I installed this yesterday, and it took about 20 minutes to do it. but after that it's been smooth sailing. really quite amazing.
i installed apache and put some pdf ebooks on it, now i just hit http://localhost and read what i want.
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David Chartier said 4:01PM on 8-28-2007
You have to install the Launcher app so you can use more than 2 or 3 extra apps.
You also have to install the Community Sources package to get all those extra apps to install. Then the list will really explode.
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Aron Trimble said 4:04PM on 8-28-2007
I like Finder.app it is a great launcher as well as file-browser. Pair it with squid for permissions editing and Bob's your uncle, seriously.
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macfan said 4:04PM on 8-28-2007
So how exactly is this not "hacking" if it could still mess up my firmware updates or crash my iPhone? Because it has a GUI?
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