Thanks to the industrious folks in PRC, iCosta introduces an additional input method for Jailbroken iPhone owners.

Even from firmware 1.0.6 the iPhone was already capable of supporting Chinese text but unfortunately even until now, that support is only to the extent of displaying text. Not input.

Add http://iphone.freecoder.org/rep into the list of Sources in your Installer app and iCosta becomes available for install. iCosta is touted to support all firmware versions and is a great solution for the Chinese writing iPhone owners who cannot wait for Apple Inc to provide this function natively.

After adding the source, select the correct version of iCosta fitting your iPhone's firmware from the Localization menu and you're typing Chinese on your phone seconds later!

The Internet forums have been alight with complaints from parties all over the world. It seems, it doesn't matter what version of firmware you're using. Whether you're on 1.0.6 thru 1.1.3, the issue is the same - after a while, there's no sound coming from the earpiece!

Unfortunately, this seems to be a software/hardware bug in the surrealistic iPhone where the OS seems to think that the earphones are still plugged in even after they have been removed. Whereby all sounds which are ordinarily channelled through the earpiece are muted.

At first, reading the forums it appeared to be a potential software bug but after experiencing it for ourselves the phone continued to behave erratically even AFTER restoring it!

For now, there doesn't appear to be a surefire cure that will remove this issue other than deceiving the iPhone that the earpiece has been removed by plugging and unplugging your earphones until the iPhone stubbornly 'believes' your efforts and returns sound back to your earpiece.

On the other hand, one workaround, would be not to plug any earphones into your iPhone at all to avoid this issue altogether but what's the point in having an iPhone/iPod then?

At time of writing, representatives from Apple could not be reached for comment.

Related Articles:

• Apple Hardware | The Fix For No Sound From Your MacBook Pro or iPhone

When Apple Inc launched the latest firmware, version 1.1.3 on the iPhone, they introduced multi-party SMS for the first time to the iPhone's native SMS application.

The expectant Mac crowd cheered with jubilation at this year's MacWorld at the sound of this news. But,... and yes, once again there's always a 'but'.

With Mr Jobs, its always, "...one more thing" but here at MacRiot; whilst we appreciate what Mr Jobs and the innovative beings at Cupertino are constantly doing to push the frontiers of human-computer interaction, we hope to represent the desires of the users.

In this article, we highlight the subtle difference between what has been introduced in the form of Apple Inc's multi-party SMS versus what has been practised as the norm over the years since cellphones first appeared in our lives to change the way we communicate forever.

Owners of iPhones have probably had enough of iPhoto launching every time they attach their iPhone to their Macs. This occurs by default, whenever an iPhone or any camera with pictures in it is attached but can be switched off.

The only thing is, the switch cannot be found in iPhoto or iTunes...

Transit is another pragmatic offering from www.peeinmypantz.com. A slighty heavier application compared to its sister MRTSchedule application, Transit purports to provide a detailed directory of the public bus system in Singapore.

At time of writing, Transit is yet another free offering, necessitating only a one time online registration by the user which can be carried out directly from the iPhone. An alternative, is to choose to try it without activation whereby Transit will allow a user up to 8 sessions before demanding registration.

Screenshots inside!

There's good news for public transport commuting iPhone owners in Singapore. Now thanks to the owner of www.peeinmypants.com, the commuting public can add the MRTSchedule application to their Jailbroken iPhones and have the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) directory in their pocket.

This application not only provides a quick map reference for all the existing MRT lines in Singapore but also an extensive guide which details the MRT schedule for all the lines.

MRTSchedule is a fast, quick reference application and recommended for the MRT commuting public. To include this application on your iPhone, simply launch the Installer app and add http://potty.peeinmypants.com as a new source. Once the Installer app has refreshed the source list, scroll to the newly added "Singapore Transport" category and install the MRTSchedule application.

At time of writing MRTSchedule is donationware and can be used without limitations other than the donate prompt whenever the application is launched.

Screenshots inside!

If you're like most of the general cellphone using populous, then its more likely than not that you will rely on Short Message Service (SMS) as the most frequent form of cellphone communication. This not only saves, on cellphone bills but also doubles up as an overly effective method of communicating with someone, especially if they are not available to talk at the times you would like them to.

Trouble is, on the iPhone, by default, the SMS Preview function is switched on. All the time.

If you've not noticed, whenever the iPhone is locked and a new SMS comes in, the iPhone will not only alert you on who the SMS sender was but also provides a few lines previewing the content of the SMS. This happens even before you unlock the phone.

This may not only result in an overall lack of privacy (especially given the screen size and clarity of the iPhone) in public places but may even have dire embarrassing consequences.

Thankfully, this feature can be switched off but Apple Inc has not provided an obvious way to do this. When we first got our iPhone it took us a while to work around it because the actual menu option is 'hidden' from view.

You will still receive new SMS prompts even if the SMS Preview function is disabled but the difference is, the prompt will only display the name or number of the sender without a preview of the SMS contents.

Unfortunately, at time of writing, the menu option controlling the SMS Preview function is still hidden from plain sight. Even on the latest 1.1.3 firmware.

To get to this menu option, a user has to actually engage the Passcode lock function on the iPhone.

After a few days of running with the 1.1.3 firmware and finally getting over the shivering icons, we've decided to revert back to 1.1.1. Why?

Well for one thing, after performing the CallerID bug fix hack the native SMS application appeared to run very slowly. Although Apple Inc has added multi-party SMS to the SMS application, it still lacks the ability to forward SMS'. To exacerbate this issue users can no longer install the SMSD application that, at time of writing, does not support version 1.1.3 firmware.

But,... here's the really bad news for the folks who have rushed to upgrade to 1.1.3 and synced their iPhones with itunes.

Even if you manage to downgrade your iPhone back to either 1.1.1 or 1.1.2; you might find that its no longer possible to re-sync your back ups from your iPhone back into the downgraded iPhone!

So in summary, if you haven't gone 1.1.3 yet but intend to, be sure to make a back-up of your iPhone's contents whilst its still pre-1.1.3 and keep it safe. In the event you ever consider downgrading again.

For your reference your iPhone back up files are actually stored in your Home/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ folder. These files are not readable in their native form because iTunes backs up these files in some sort of compressed SQLite3 files.

To keep things simple, before you upgrade your iPhone to 1.1.3, make sure you only retain a single iPhone back up in your iTunes application. That way you will know for sure that the file contained in the Mobilesync/Backup/ folder is the latest back up from your iPhone. Copy it to a safe location and keep it, in the event you need to restore your iPhone after downgrading back to 1.1.1 or 1.1.2.

As for us, we're back and happy iPhoners again at 1.1.1... until Apple Inc comes up with a better solution to the SMS issues and value adds that really justify upgrading.

It seems Apple Inc has yet to fix the CallerID bug even in the latest release of its version 1.1.3 firmware for the iPhone. Either that, or the iPhone hacking community has overlooked patching this bug in the soft update.

Whatever the case, you'll know you've been afflicted with this bug if when people call you and a number shows up instead of their names from your Address Book.

Thankfully a patch for this has been found and if you're familiar with hacking the iPhone then you can quickly work around this and bring your 1.1.3 iPhone back into 100% working condition again.

This time the thanks goes out to an individual going by the handle timschuerewegen over at the Hackintosh forums.

After upgrading to a hacked version 1.1.3 of iPhone firmware, some users experience the inability to use YouTube and despite the many tutorials on the World Wide Web that direct the download and installation of the YouTube activation patch from the AppTap installer, some times it doesn't work.

You will know something is wrong when you see this message shortly after launching the YouTube application on your hacked iPhone: "You must first connect to iTunes with an Internet connection to enable Youtube".

In such a case, the best solution is to manually patch the YouTube certificates on your iPhone.

Its confirmed. And official. Bowing to the ransom of understocked Turbo, Stealth and other similar SIM emulating hardware hacks is a thing of the past. Thanks to George Hotz, the iPhone firmware 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 can now be hacked and unlocked out-of-the-box (OTB). We say "hacked" and "unlocked" to indicate that the iPhone can both be Jailbroken and SIM unlocked.

This hack can also be applied by owners of the earlier generation of iPhones that shipped with firmware 1.0.2 and 1.1.1. Its long and tedious but rewarding.

In essence, most of the process involves breaking the iPhone down to earlier firmware versions, e.g. 1.0.2 of 1.1.1 and upgrading back up to 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 consecutively again. Be prepared to set aside a few hours of your life if you are looking to perform this hack. The exact time consumed is directly commensurate to the level of experience you have with hacking and unlocking iPhones.

Ok, now lets get back to making those Springboard icons... jiggle...

"George,... you da man!!" Many thanks on behalf of all iPhone owners alike..."

[edited: Mack] Unfortunately, after upgrading to firmware 1.1.3 you may experience the following:

• YouTube access denied; with persistent message requiring users to connect to iTunes with a live Internet connection and;
• the return of the CallerID bug where phone numbers appear instead of caller names as per your iPhone Address Book

This is an extension to our earlier article on how to create and link remote iPhoto libraries for those of you who have asked. Only this time, we're teaching users how to create and link iTunes libraries.

This lesser disclosed trick is very useful for users who have limited internal hard drive capacity. Essentially it allows the user to create and link iTunes music libraries located on a remote hard drive.

It amazingly simple and for this tutorial we tested it using iTunes 7.6 Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger.