Hackapalooza: making the iPhone main screen scroll!

All the buzz this evening is about developer "lg" and his wild plunge into customizing SpringBoard, the home screen application you see every time you power on your iPhone. Turns out he figured out how to burrow inside SpringBoard and get it to scroll so users don't have to use cumbersome application launchers and dock extenders. SummerBoard currently extends SpringBoard to add scrolling and wallpaper, with further features promised in future releases.

The secret seems to lie in tricking SpringBoard into loading custom routines and seizing control of the application through the back door. Lg calls his modified system "SummerBoard", a name I find especially droll--although I think "SpringRoll" might have better described the software.

The new software is currently available using Installer.app, which we have discussed in previous posts.

Now to the down and gritty. This is a first release. It's pretty cool but it's still a first release. I ended up rebooting my phone 5 times before I got it working. I had to launch an app, and then force-quit it by pressing Home about 4-8 seconds. Then it worked really well. So keep looking for updates. It's still getting debugged.

Lg says the software works by loading items into memory after launch. I took a look around and found /Library/SummerBoard.framework. This contains an alternate com.apple.springboard property list, a short dynamic library and a framework file. This seems to be what gets loaded upon launch on top of SpringBoard.

Congrats to lg for this clever hack.

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Source: http://iphone.nullriver.com/

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All the buzz this evening is about developer "lg" and his wild plunge into customizing SpringBoard, the home screen application you see...

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Karemo

I installed the newest version of appsnapp and summerboard, but the screen doesnt scroll, it makes pages. Any ideas???

November 08 2007 at 9:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Vijay

When I was rearranging the icons using rSBT, I pressed "no icons" buttons by mistake and now there is no icon visible. Can someone help me to reset the mobile to get all the icons please? It is an unlocked mobile, using in China now.

Thanks
Vijay

October 28 2007 at 1:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

MacSlut

This is a really cool app. I've upgraded to 1.5. It seems like a previous version dimmed the wallpaper, but now it's bright again and thus can make the icons hard to read. I'm really hoping future versions allow you to remove the wallpaper or point to a different image to be used from the main wallpaper image...even if this was done by editing a .plist file.

September 04 2007 at 10:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Andy

Its working good for me except I have two widgets that don't have any description underneath. When you launch them the phone locks up. Any way to remove them? they dont show up in rSBT.

September 04 2007 at 10:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

The app names fonts seems to get a little skewy after installing this Summerboard app. Anyone have this issue ?

September 04 2007 at 10:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Fabio P

since version 1.3 the text looks better (labels), the bar is transparent (which i like), and the notification bubbles work again.
perfect :)

a little bit offtopic, does anybody know how i can use Ericas tool?
dumpsms, dumpnotes? i didnt really find some docs, nor got i any output when i run "dumpnotes" / "dumpnotes test.txt"
any idea?

September 04 2007 at 5:30 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Antonio

I've installed SummerBoard and it worked just fine, rSBT is still a little buggy and I need to sometimes restore to Backup, because some applications disappear. I also agree with some guys that prefer to have a Black BG instead of using the Wallpaper, this can be some configuration.
Anyway congrats, its really an upgrade to the iPhone whole experience, but I still miss and To-Do List App and Exchange native integration :-(

September 04 2007 at 2:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jimsbigpp

i installed it with some other apps and now the phone is showing an activation required notice.... don't know what to do now cause even when synced to itunes it still shows up as activation needed.

September 03 2007 at 11:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Craft

Response to #16:

If you enable the 5 icons on the Dock in rSBT, it will move SMS down there by defualt. Once it goes to the Dock, the message count works again. :)

September 03 2007 at 7:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bill

if you guys wanna chat/ask question about iphone.
get on irc server irc.osx86.hu port 6667
i use Linkinus for Mac as my IRC software

September 03 2007 at 6:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply