I have begun porting over my projects to jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch firmware 2.0. The first projects I've started with are Quake 1 and gpSPhone (GBA emulator).
Keep in mind all software before 2.0 firmware needs the source code to be compiled with a new toolchain, and in many cases changed around a bit due to differences in the firmware's frameworks. This is why Cydia currently has a lack of software compared to 1.1.4 and previous package management systems like Installer.app. It's not a matter of repos, it's a matter of time it takes to get the port made.
Many other developers and I are working on getting their software to work on firmware 2.0. Some may say if I get my software running on firmware 2.0, could I put it on AppStore...
I am unable to take my current softwares as they are now, over to AppStore due to Apple being selective of what they allow. Apple does not want an emulator requiring external files such as BIOS' and ROMs. When it comes to vlc4iphone, the streaming aspects are allowed, but playing external files may not be.
While I have some software in mind for AppStore, it will most likely not be an emulator. I wanted to do a Shoutcast streaming media player, but it seems I was beaten to it. It will take some thought as to what would be feasible for AppStore.
In the meantime, we have a jailbroken 2.0 firmware ready to see some homebrew!
A good friend of mine, Collin Meyers, just released a video of his latest gadgetry!
Ever wanted to hook up a keyboard to your iPhone or iPod Touch? Well he just did! This video shows Collin typing on the keyboard and the keys being entered into MobileTerminal.
The mastermind behind the Pandora handheld, Craigix, has sent me an updated video of a Pandora devkit in action! It's running FinalBurnAlpha and a larger selection of games are shown!
Things are ramping up for the OpenPandora.org project! Keep a close eye out for some upcoming Pandora action from ZodTTD too!
Just a matter of minutes ago the OpenPandora.org team, makers of the homebrew software friendly gaming handheld Pandora, released a video of it in action!
Here we can see the emulator FinalBurnAlpha running the game DoDonPachi. The performance is amazing, running nearly twice as fast as the normal framerate when allowed to go as fast as it can. Even better, this is at 500MHz. With reports of Pandora possibly hitting 900MHz, imagine the possibilities!
Tell us your thoughts on this upcoming homebrew beast! More videos to come!
There is a known exploit in iBoot, on both the old and 3G iPhones. The "the specific date/time is not firm yet" pwnage tool will leverage it to jailbreak all 2.0 software iPhones, 3G and otherwise. Dev team, that date better be soon or I might just have to release yiPhone. The iBoot exploit is yours, use it. You wouldn't want a repeat of ZiPhone now...
With this quote we now have competition to use a certain loophole in Apple's software to jailbreak the iPhone 3G with 1.2.0 (2.0) firmware. Does this mean homebrew will survive through the 3G era? Or will homebrew be dominated by AppStore and leave previous releases in the dust? Let us know your thoughts!
I spent the day going to an Apple Store for an iPhone 3G to supplement my iPod Touch, but I failed to receive one. The line was easily a 4 hour wait with no signs of slowing down. All AT&T stores were sold out. I decide to check my email inbox and find a nice surprise:
Yes, not only was I finally accepted to the iPhone Developer Program, I was labeled first name "zod" with a last name "ttd". It doesn't get much better than that!
While my current selection of programs for the jailbroken iPhone and iPod Touch aren't what Apple would consider appropriate for AppStore, I still have some ideas for quality releases.
Last night I came across some source code well suited for a port to the iPhone and iPod Touch. It happened to be Quake 1. So quake4iphone is born.
Here's a video of quake4iphone running in demo mode early in development:
In this video the controlpad screen in the bottom portion of the screen is not included. The initial release of quake4iphone will have similar controls to the Gameboy Advance emulator gpSPhone in portrait mode. Using the accelerometer is being considered for upcoming versions, if the demand is there.
I did include network play in this port, and allow for the command line interface to be used.
As firmware 1.2.0 is emerging, I must note I currently am in the process of organizing my code to update to it, including quake4iphone. More on this in upcoming posts.
Thanks for the support everyone! See you in the forums,
ZodTTD
Going way back in time...or at least a few weeks ago, I was speaking to a friend about the Nokia N95. He loves this phone and made some pretty big claims about the available software for it. Then he showed via webcam what it is capable of and my gadget senses were tingling.
Quake on the Nokia N95:
In the little time I get to pull away from ZodTTD activity, I have recently been working on developing a game using my newly acquired Nokia N81. I will provide more details of this game when I get the go ahead from the company I am working with.
I soon find out there is a large homebrew scene within the Symbian OS driven cellphone scene. My Nokia N81 and the Nokia N95 my friend has are both based on Symbian, as is the new N-Gage platform. There are many emulators, ports of games, and more all available freely...so I thought.
It seems there is a company selling a series of emulators such as vbag, a Gameboy Advance emulator, for Symbian based cellphones. I'm very tempted to port gpSP, the GBA emulator by Exophase, to Symbian as I've already done for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
It looks pretty good. Worth a price... [Read More]
While some may know spam as a "food" or may have seen Spamalot, others here at ZodTTD.com noticed the dreaded forum spam. I looked it up in the (soon to come?) ZodTTD.com Wiki, and by definition forum spam is when someone selling knock-off cellphones to the masses. While there is a hoard of potential buyers for such a product, it was not taken kindly here at ZodTTD.
Here's the latest action taken to prevent spammers here at ZodTTD.com...
For those following the ever changing website here at ZodTTD, you may have noticed I am now using vBulletin for the forums here. I am truly happy with vBulletin. Only issue is so are spammers. I've taken a number of steps to prevent spammers including using reCaptcha, all of which have been bypassed by spambots...Spambots being the programs spammers use to automate the spamming process.
What I have done just now should work to currently defeat spambots in general, meaning it will work for vBulletin and other forum software targetted. Though this isn't a pretty and clean method of prevention, it works.
I basically edited register.php in vBulletin and the templates for registration and changed the form names to be unique to my site. This means the only way the spambots will target my site's forum is if they fetch the registration page, and intepret the form names. This is unlikely due to the limited amount of people... [Read More]
Sorry for the lack of updates for the last couple of weeks, we have been adding 2 very requested features in to the iControlPad which we think will make the unit near perfect in terms of what it can do. We will be releasing those details later this month.
We will be emailing interested distributors this week to gather some details.
As soon as we have a finished mass production pad we will put up a youtube video
