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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-28-2007 @ 2:20PM
marcosmalo said...
Let me be the first to make the obnoxious and crude comment that I'd happily tapp Erica's app any day. =)
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:21PM
Letty said...
Works like a charm on v 1.02. Installed in 3 minutes. Thank you.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:41PM
Raj said...
is there a third party app that will allow for custom ringtones? (i know i am reaching...)
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:48PM
Gary Brinkman said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:49PM
Jamie said...
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!
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:51PM
Kryptinite said...
I really hope this doesn't screw my phone up :(
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:53PM
Jamie said...
Gary - You have to install the "Launcher" app to get all of the other applications that are out there...
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 2:56PM
neodymium said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:02PM
Dripps said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:16PM
Aron Trimble said...
@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!
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:20PM
Aron Trimble said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:21PM
zetasmack said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:24PM
basscadet said...
...and thanks to the hacker community, the iPhone is slowly and steadily regaining more and more of its crippled functionality.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:28PM
Adam said...
Crashed my iPhone too. Currently doing a restore. Not for the faint of heart.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:34PM
Aron Trimble said...
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
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:36PM
Aron Trimble said...
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
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 3:39PM
jason said...
@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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 4:01PM
David Chartier said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 4:04PM
Aron Trimble said...
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.
Reply
8-28-2007 @ 4:04PM
macfan said...
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?
Reply