Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks, How-tos, iPhone
TUAW Responds: Adding a Stand-Alone Contacts Application to your iPhone
I can't tell you the number of readers who have written in asking for a stand-alone iPhone Contacts Application. It's not something that I particularly was trying to solve for myself (I don't mind tapping Phone then Contacts) but this morning, I stumbled on a simple way to accomplish this on your 1.1.3 iPhone.
This is, I'm afraid, right now a command-line only solution although it's relatively easy to automate. Someone from modmyifone should be along any second to offer an Installer-based solution. Here are the steps:
Update: I'm hearing from readers that "Customize" an iPhone app has done this for previous iPhone releases. Hopefully they'll have a 1.1.3 solution out soon. In the meantime, you can follow my steps by hand if you like. It's not difficult.
1. Locate MobileAddressBook.app It lives in your iPhone's /Applications folder.
2. Copy it to another Applications folder. I personally use /var/mobile/Media/Applications/ but you can use any other folder on your Media partition that you've set up for Application use. Try not to overfill the main /Applications directory. Your OS partition has limited storage. Some people prefer to make a symbolic link from /Applications to ~/Applications. I prefer using the (sneaky) /Widgets folder for my symbolic link rather than /Applications for its relatively high safety factor. (Yes, any application placed into /Widgets gets recognized by SpringBoard as an application.)
3. Give it a new bundle identifier. Edit the Info.plist file in the application bundle to give it a new, unique id. Any non-standard (i.e. not com.apple.MobileAddressBook) string will do. You'll probably have to convert the Info.plist from binary to text form. My plutil for iPhone will do this. (plutil -c xml1 Info.plist) This lets you run a second copy of the application without messing with the original and without conflicting with the bundle ID.
4. Remove the SBAppTags section. This consists of an array with a single string, "standAloneContact". You need to remove all 4 lines: from the key to the end of the array.
5. Restart SpringBoard. You can reboot the iPhone or use any number of restart utilities. Once re-started, your new version of the Contacts app will simply pop into place now that you've re-identified it and gotten rid of the app tags.
Enjoy.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
J said 1:37PM on 1-28-2008
FYI, you can do this in 1.1.2
It's invisible, but all you have to do is make it visible and it will appear on your springboard.
Reply
DistortedLoop said 1:51PM on 1-28-2008
Wow, that seems like a lot of work.
I know that under 1.1.2, all you had to use was the Customize App from installer.app to make the MobileAddressBook.app visible on the Springboard.
Surely there's a way to do this in 1.1.3 using similar method from 1.1.2. Probably just a plist someplace that needs the MobileAddressBook.app added to it.
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Toni said 1:43PM on 1-28-2008
does your iphone have to be unlocked to accomplish this? I know it's a silly question.
Reply
DistortedLoop said 2:00PM on 1-28-2008
Jailbroken, not unlocked.
Big difference in the two.
Benny Evans said 2:16PM on 1-28-2008
What is the difference between unlocked and jailbroken?
elroy said 2:56PM on 1-30-2008
Jailbreak = can install user made apps
Unlocked = can use any phone service provider
(feel free to correct)
Jason said 8:06PM on 1-28-2008
You can accomplish this on any version of iPhone soft (I think) with "Customize" (3rd party app). Regardless of how you do it (app or commandline), no your phone does not have to be unlocked BUT yes it has to be jailbreaked as the modifications that are necessary to show the normally hidden app require writing to normally non writable portions of the disk.
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Bassir said 1:51PM on 1-28-2008
Now if you could tell us how to remove the "Bookmarks Bar" and "Bookmarks Menu" folders that can't be deleted after syncing with Safari's bookmarks.
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Yaphi said 2:18PM on 1-28-2008
This lasted all of 5 minutes in my applications folder. I opened it and it's so un-intuitive when compared to Yojimbo, 1password, or Wallet. Nice try Filemaker, but you're in a crowded space.
Yaphi said 2:18PM on 1-28-2008
Yes! I've been wanting this too
Yaphi said 2:19PM on 1-28-2008
Vote down my first comment please, it was autofilled from 1Password. Grr.
Bassir said 2:28PM on 1-28-2008
I fixed it by syncing my phone with Internet Explorer's bookmarks and checking the box that overwrites the old ones.
I may have lost all my other bookmarks, but I don't care--as long as those ugly two folders are gone.
nana said 2:11PM on 1-28-2008
i need help i just bought by iphone and i want the installer on it, ive been trying but i cant do it, i dont even have i clue on how to do it. i have mac not windows.. can someone PLEASEEEE help me step by step on how to do it??
*im willing ti pay =]
thanks
Reply
Alex said 2:48PM on 1-28-2008
ever heard of google? Its this crazy search thing where you can enter in stuff, like "iPhone jailbreak instructions" or whatever, and then you find the answer to your problems yourself without asking people or having to pay. You might wanna check it out ;)
Aron Trimble said 2:13PM on 1-28-2008
I have yet to find an answer to this question... if you have already upgraded to 1.1.3 can you still downgrade to 1.1.2 to follow the jailbreak procedure for 1.1.3?
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moo083 said 2:22PM on 1-28-2008
I still have yet to see a walkthrough I'm confident will work for upgrading from 1.1.2 to 1.1.3 for AT&T users (so no unlocking, just jailbreaking) that leaves me with all the normal phone functionality AND lets me use the Locate Me and Hybrid View features.
From what I understand, I need to upgrade via iTunes to 1.1.3, then downgrade to 1.1.1, use the *#307* trick to get it jailbroken (no phone), Oktoprep, update via iTunes to 1.1.2, use the 1.1.2 jailbreak, then upgrade to 1.1.3 via the iPhone Dev Team solution.
And lastly, replace the lockdownd file in /usr/libexec with one from online that is the original copy from the non-jailbroken 1.1.3. Restart iPhone, plug into computer, and it will activate the phone AT&T style.
Is that correct? I've tried this stuff a couple times now and this is what I think will work, but I can't try until tonight.
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Michael Grant said 2:51PM on 1-28-2008
Yes, that's the process as I understand it. I tried and failed to do it a couple of different times, so I gave up and did a full 1.1.3 upgrade. However, I *can* tell you that the activation hack did not prevent the activation from working correctly when I did the 1.1.3 upgrade, and all my functionality was restored. So it doesn't seem harmful to at least try; the worst thing that can happen is that you have to do a full 1.1.3 restore.
Nick said 2:47PM on 1-28-2008
for 1.1.3 simply add in /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/M68AP.plist
standAloneContacts
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OJ Dorson said 3:40PM on 1-28-2008
Would you paste the bit you added to your M68AP.plist, please? I was unable to get the M68AP.plist to do much of anything. I guessed it had something to do with the way Apple is re-ordering home screen icons, now.
What I did was open the info.plist in /Applications/MobileAddressBook.app/ and remove the SBAppTags section. That was it! After that, MBA appeared on my Springboard.
DistortedLoop said 3:53PM on 1-28-2008
Hmmm....Are you sure?
I just opened that plist with a binary editor. I only see the home page in springboard listed in the /Root/iconState/iconLists/iconMatrix path.
There's a buttonBar path for the dock, then four iconMatrix arrays which appear to house the standard apps.
Where did you put that string?
I tried adding it there and doesn't work, not with your string, or com.apple.MobileAddressBook which I tried for fun and seemed in line with the naming conventions in all the other arrays.