Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, iPhone
Better Webclip Icons for 1.1.3 iPhones and iPod touches
Soon after Steve Jobs announced the new 1.1.3, Emil Hedaya realized that a simple meta-refreseh redirect would allow him to create custom icons for any webclip. All you need is a website of your own. You link to your custom pages and have them redirect you to the sites in question.
To demonstrate this he's put together a set of iPhone shortcuts to his favorite sites (including Meebo, Fandango, Flickr and more). If you navigate to his page and webclip off those links, you'll create some great looking icons on your SpringBoard Home page instead of the dull defaults.
Update: Redirected the links to http://redmedia.com/i/ at Emil's request to avoid overloading his server.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
cashmonee said 11:30AM on 1-17-2008
Too bad he will only make them for mobile sites.
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adam.m said 4:58PM on 1-17-2008
Don't feel too bad, if his site goes down or he takes it down your links stop working. It stopped working for a short while eariler today, an error on the page. The links are always first to his website, then redirected.
Emil H said 8:41AM on 1-18-2008
hey adam, these are on my google pages account, so if they go down it's google's fault. i'm not going to remove the redirects, i don't use my google pages account for anything except this.
that said, i agree this is not an ideal solution. peter's script is better in that it links directly to the site. hopefully all these sites will get with the program soon and make their own icons.
jgodden said 11:37AM on 1-17-2008
yeah too bad.
I sent him a few links I would like to see images for, we'll see if they show up on his site.
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MATT! said 6:56AM on 1-21-2008
Meebo already has one that is better than this IMO
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James C. said 11:51AM on 1-17-2008
Where's the TUAW "great looking icon" for my iphone. So far my best option is to zoom in to the "TUAW" at the top and capture as much of it as I can. What gives.
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Sportsmedjosh said 11:53AM on 1-17-2008
Hey guys I just made one for one of the websites I run it's a fashion forum I made for my girlfriend. I know you guys are picky beyond belief and was wondering if you could check out my webclip icon and let me know what you think. Here is the url. www.fashionaccessoryforum.com
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ttfnRob said 11:56AM on 1-17-2008
I happened across this earlier: http://allinthehead.com/retro/319/how-to-set-an-apple-touch-icon-for-any-site
A bookmarklet that lets you set the icons to any URL you like
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Peter Zich said 9:17PM on 1-17-2008
I wrote a little more complex little more customizable script, check it out if you like: http://pz2.ucls.uchicago.edu/webclipIcons.js
YodaMac said 11:57AM on 1-17-2008
Maybe I'm missing something, but when I zoom in and try and make a "nice" icon for a website, say TUAW, then when I actually launch the website it launches to.... that same super cropped view of the page, so I then have to zoom out to actually read the site...
What am I doing wrong?
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catachip said 12:19PM on 1-17-2008
That is how it is supposed to work. It is like the web clip feature in the desktop version of Safari. It is so you can create a custom web app/clip that is only a portion of a whole webpage. During his Keynote address, Jobs used the example of zooming in on the specific "Top Web Apps" portion of a page at Apple.com.
It's a feature, not an error.
YodaMac said 1:18PM on 1-17-2008
Yeah, I get how it works... I'm just confused how people are saying they create cool icons for their web clips that way, since when you launch the web clip you only see that close-up instead of the whole page.
Everyone seems all excited about these icons, but I am just too dumb to understand how it works. Are there directions somewhere that explain it in "Average Joe" terms? Step by step...
Shane Lloyd said 4:22PM on 1-17-2008
That is the whole issue (and point of the article). That it doesn't make sense to do that, and if you just leave the website unzoomed then you end up with tonnes of white blobs on your iPhone springboard. The solution is either to use the bookmarklet link suggested in another comment response here, or follow the link to the guy in the original article.
I know what you mean though, it's a big confusing. I guess some people just don't mind zooming out after they click the icon?
mdnetguru said 11:58AM on 1-17-2008
Food Network already has their own icon up that appears automatically... http://iphone.foodnetwork.com
I renamed it to "Recipes" though because "Food Network" doesn't fit.
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olivier said 11:59AM on 1-17-2008
give me a facebook icon, Marc Z!
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James C. said 12:07PM on 1-17-2008
ditto
emil h said 12:08PM on 1-17-2008
I'll add the ones people have sent later tonight.
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Alex said 12:22PM on 1-17-2008
Josh at http://pz2.ucls.uchicago.edu/webclipIcons.js
a commenter here on Tuaw on Jan 15, was the first to come up with a javascript bookmark that does this much, much simpler. Check out his link above.
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emil h said 12:33PM on 1-17-2008
I agree my list of links isn't the best, and will be unnecessary once these sites get with the program, but for now, it's easier for most people who don't have their own web server. The TUAW crowd is pretty hard to please, it seems, all the comments are so critical. Sheesh.
Peter Zich said 8:43PM on 1-17-2008
Actually, it's Peter, I'm the one that wrote that code, that's my server.