Untethered Unlock & Jailbreak Just Released For iPhone 5 iOS 6, 6.0.1 & 6.1 Beta
Great news for all iPhone enthusiasts as http://www.iphone5jailbreak.com have just announced the release of the first and only solution capable of unlocking and jailbreaking the iPhone 5 with the latest iOS 6/6.0.1 installed. They also have confirmed that the solution is untethered. According to their website the software is also compatible with all previous iOS version from iOS 5 up to the latest iOS 6.0.1.
The Jailbreak will successfully install the infamous Cydia application and also provide the option of an unlock.
As most of you will already know Cydia offers the ability to download thousands of cool tweaks, apps, themes and much more. The capabilities go way beyond what is possible with the iPhone 5 with the standard iOS 6/6.0.1 operating system installed.
The untethered Unlock & Jailbreak is available to download from iPhone5Jailbreak.com’s official website. The tool has been tried and tested by many trustworthy sources such as Tipb, Engadget and more. The software has also been featured in many online publications, including AOL news, Yahoo News, Google News and the SanFrancisco Chronicle to name just a few.
With each new iPhone and iOS comes more security, which in turn makes it more and more difficult for potential hackers to exploit, fortunately Apple did not manage to completely lock down the hardware/software otherwise we wouldn’t be able to enjoy this latest Jailbreak & Unlock offering from iPhoen5Jailbreak.com
For full details of the software and to Jailbreak/Unlock your iPhone 5, head over to http://www.iphone5jailbreak.com
iOS 6 JailBreak For iPhone 5 On The Way
Some good news has recently been unveiled in the realm of jailbreaking involving the iPhone 5. Up to this point, there is an iOS 6 jailbreak available but it only works for A4 devices which include the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and the 4th generation iPod Touch. We were hoping that there would be an official iOS 6 jailbreak for the iPhone 5 soon after the release of the phone but it just hasn’t happened yet. But luckily, we could see a tethered jailbreak for the iPhone 5 within the near future according to popular hackers Planetbeing and Pod2G.
During the Hack in the Box Conference, Pod2G stated that there will be an untethered jailbreak within a few weeks which would mean hopefully by December. He also did go over the fact that the jailbreak will be difficult to complete which is what many hackers and analysts have been stating for quite some time. One of the methods that hackers are looking at to jailbreak the iPhone 5 is kernel bugs.
The fact that we still haven’t seen an iOS 6 jailbreak for the iPhone 5 yet is proof that Apple has indeed made the new phone more secure than ever. This is something that they have stated since news about the phone started circulating. It’s also a sign that Apple is really stepping up their efforts to prevent users from jailbreaking their devices. It has been an ongoing battle for Apple to prevent hackers from jailbreaking their devices which inevitably results in lost revenue for Apple.
The latest tidbit of news about the iOS 6 jailbreak for the iPhone 5 is a tweet sent out by @planetbeing. The tween from Planetbeing read “Upgraded the #failbreak with a kernel exploit so tweaks actually work on iPhone 5. 
Almost a full tethered JB, though need dev account.”
Although the tweet is great news in some respect, the last part of his tweet is what some are finding particularly troublesome. Planetbeing stated that he needs a developer account in order for the jailbreak to work. The cost for the Apple developer program is $99 and other than that tweet, there hasn’t been any information as to the status of the jailbreak. There’s also the possibility that what he meant by the tweet was that you just have to be added onto an existing developer account which only costs around $7. He did not go into detail about why a developer’s account is necessary or how far away he is from making a jailbreak ready for public release. There’s a good chance that most people will not be willing to shell out $99 for a developers license solely for the purpose of jailbreaking their iPhone 5.
According to some of his recent updates, planetbeing’s ultimate goal is to set up a full untethered jailbreak. The tethered jailbreak is more of a step towards that goal as that is what most casual users are looking for. Hopefully we will see an untethered jailbreak for iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 before December.
5 Reasons You Should Unlock Your iPhone 5
While an official iPhone 5 jailbreak has yet to be released to the public, that doesn’t meant that the phone doesn’t need one. Fans are patiently awaiting an iOS 6 jailbreak that works for the iPhone 5, while users with the iPhone 4 and below are enjoying full untethered iOS 6 jailbreaks complete with Cydia. So what exactly are iPhone 5 users missing out on? We’ll give you 5 reasons why you should unlock your iPhone 5.
1: Cydia
The number one reason to jailbreak any iDevice is to gain access to the unofficial app store known as Cydia. After you jailbreak iOS 6, you will gain access to arguably the best app store there is. Cydia is packed full of apps that were either unapproved by Apple’s store, or made by beginning developers who don’t want to release in Apple’s app store. Because these apps don’t need to pass any strict qualifications, developers are free to release apps whenever they want and however they want. You’ll find apps that might have been discontinued in the Apple App store as well. Basically, Cydia is the app store that Apple doesn’t want you to have.
2: Customizations
When you jailbreak your iPhone 5, you’ll be able to completely customize your device. Everything from the wallpaper to the home screen can be customized after jailbreaking iOS 6. You can even customize the look of your icons and completely theme your iPhone 5. The preferred app used for this is Winterboard which is available in the Cydia app store. So if you want complete control over the look of your iPhone 5, jailbreaking It is a very useful way of doing it.
3: Unlock Your iPhone
When you jailbreak your iPhone 5, you’ll also be unlocking it. This will enable you to use the iPhone on any network of your choosing. Many people jailbreak their iPhones solely for the purpose of being able to unlock it so it’s definitely a great benefit of jailbreaking. This is especially helpful for people who buy used iPhones and want to unlock it to work on their own carrier. Considering some carriers will charge you to unlock your iPhone 5 (some won’t do it for you at all), you’ll really appreciate being able unlock it yourself after the iOS 6 jailbreak.
4: No Restrictions
Apple places a lot of restrictions on what you can and can’t do with your iPhone 5. The problem is that people who don’t know about jailbreaking don’t realize the full capabilities of their phones! When you jailbreak your iPhone 5 you will have root access to it, meaning that you can basically do anything you would like such as get rid of default apps, text for free, and more. The iPhone 5 is a very powerful device, you shouldn’t restrict yourself.
5: It’s Fun
Last but not least, jailbreaking your iPhone 5 is fun. You can make your device completely suited to your needs with tweaks and customizations that the other millions of iPhone users won’t have. Take advantage of the iPhone 5 jailbreak and get the most out of iOS 6.
New Jailbreak Tweak Helps Track iOS Battery Life
There is a new tweak for iOS users that will help keep you up to date on your device’s battery life. In order to get your hands on this tweak, you do have to jailbreak your device. The tweak is called Battery Status and just as the name suggests, it is a tweak that will notify you of your battery life.
The tweak only costs $.99 and for the money it’s well worth it. Since iOS 6 is packed full of great apps and features, it’s easy to go overboard and drain your battery very quickly, so this nice little jailbreak tweak will help you keep things under control. The battery status notifications come in the form of a pop-up notification or a spoken alert to notify you of several different battery situations such as:
- How much battery power you have left
- How much power you need to get it fully charged
- How long it will for your battery to be completely charged
All of these features are very helpful. By default, iOS devices only show you a battery icon letting you see a visual of much juice you have left. But how many of us really know how long a ¾ battery bar will really last? That’s where this tweak comes in. Not only will it tell you how long you have left, but it will let you know exactly how much longer you need to charge it to be completely full which is a great advantage when you’re in a situation where you want to charge your device a little but aren’t sure how long it will take.
Within the settings of this tweak, you can change a few different options. You can choose how your alerts come to you. As mentioned, you can have pop up notifications (text), spoken notifications, or even a combination of both. So you should have no problems receiving your notifications and will always be on alert when you’re running low. You can also set the actions that will trigger your alerts. The alerts can be triggered by one of three actions:
- Plugging your iOS device into a power source
- Unplugging your iOS device from a power source
- Activator action (you can choose from tons of different actions for this)
It is definitely a great tweak for jailbroken devices to help you avoid waiting around for you device to charge with no idea of how it will take to finish. However, there are definitely some things that could be better for this tweak. For instance, it would be great if you could schedule battery alerts so that you can set your schedule ahead of time and receive the alerts throughout the day so that you know how much juice you have left. If you’re running iOS 6, you can do this manually by setting up alerts to check your iPhone’s battery life at certain times. But if it was built into the app natively it would make things much easier. If you have an iPhone 5 or other jailbroken iOS device, this app will surely come in handy.
Jailbreak Tweaks Make Social Networking Easier
Jailbreaking your iOS device allows you to do a lot of cool new things with your device. One of the things that people love most about jailbreaking is the new tweaks that you can get to make things much easier for you. We have to admit that the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 have made social networking much easier and far more enjoyable than previous iOS devices. But jailbreaking allows you to take things to the next level.
One jailbreak tweak that’s helpful is SLightEnhancerSearch. What this tweak does is add some new search options to Spotlight search. You can use this tweak to add in options such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others to Spotlight searches. You can go into your settings and pick what search options you want on, then tap “Apply Changes” to respring your device. After doing this, you will be able to use Spotlight to search a variety of apps for search terms instead of having to go to each individual app to search. For instance, if you want to see what’s new about the iPhone 5 on social networks, you can use Spotlight to search for the term “iPhone 5” and you’ll have the option of searching Facebook, Twitter, and any other option you have selected. This is extremely beneficial and saves time. Just swipe right on your Home screen to go into the spotlight menu and start searching. It’s that simple.
Another great tweak is Action Menu. This tweak improves the copy/paste function and allows you to easily tweet highlighted text or even search it on the web. That in itself is a very beneficial app, but now you can download Facebook For Action Menu to further enhance the tweak. Since iOS 6 has made Facebook a integral part of the OS, the developer of this tweak has taken advantage of it. Just like the initial Action Menu tweak allows you to tweet highlighted text, the Facebook For Action Menu tweak allow you to post highlighted text to Facebook. Simply highlight the text, tap on the Facebook button on your copy/paste menu and the Facebook share sheet will launch with your text ready to post. You can even add in some new text from this menu before you post it and share it to Facebook. The option to use this can be toggled on/off through your phones settings menu. Go into Settings>Action Menu>Facebook to turn this option on or off. This tweak is for iOS 6+ only. This is probably due to the fact that iOS 6 has such deep Facebook integration which is what makes it possible to pull off.
This tweak is great for when you want to share something you found online to Facebook, or even if you want to share a funny text message with your friends. It’s an all-around versatile and fun jailbreak tweak that you should try out.
Both of these tweaks are entirely free and can really make social networking on your iOS 6 device even easier than it already is.
How To Turn Off Badges For iOS Devices
Apple has made great strides in the notifications department with iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. While there is still more that could/should be done to make notifications better, there is actually another area of iOS that is a little more annoying; badges. These are the little red numbered badges displayed on your icons to let you know there is something that you have to look into. Whether it’s missed calls, updates, or missed calls, these tend to get annoying after a while. Unlike notifications, badges will stay on your Home screen until you address whatever the issue is. We understand why Apple does this. They want to make sure you take care of updates, check your messages, and it’s pretty much their attempt to help you stay productive. However, sometimes it can just be a little too much (since they don’t go away until you fix the problem). Luckily, there is a way to get rid of them!
In order to turn off badges, go to Settings>Notifications>check off every app that you receive notifications for and slide the badges option to off. After this, you won’t receive any more of those annoying badges whenever there’s an update or other notification from an app on your device. This won’t stop you from getting notifications which is good. You just won’t have a permanent reminder of them so it’s much less annoying. In order to get rid of badges for Mail, you will have to make a few more changes though. You can go in and turn off badges for each individual email account you have on your device, including the VIP contacts.
If you want to become even more productive on your iOS device, you can even turn off the sound as well. This will pretty much mean that all of your notifications will be off. You’re probably thinking of what the purpose of all of this is. The fact is, when you’re receiving constant notifications on your iOS device, you will find yourself checking it all the time which will result in draining your battery life quicker and decreasing your production throughout the day.
In order to help you out a little bit, there are a few things you should keep badges on for.
- Messages: When people are sending your text messages, they typically are expecting a quick response. So you want to get these notifications so that you can respond promptly.
- Phone: Just like with messages, you probably want to know when someone is trying to call you. You want to get the notifications when you have a missed call.
- Task Manager: If you use a task management app to keep track of appointments or tasks, you’ll need to keep your notifications on so you don’t miss out on anything.
Some apps that you probably don’t need badges on for are mail, game center, and any social networking apps. The reason for this is that with emails for example, people typically don’t require an immediate response when they email you. So you should be checking those throughout the day instead of every time one pops up. With game center and social networking apps, they will really distract you way too much and make you less productive.
How To Jailbreak iOS 6.1 Beta 2 with RedSn0w 0.9.15b3
If you’ve been hesitant in downloading the newly released iOS 6.1 Beta 2 because you want to be able to jailbreak it, your worries are over. You can use RedSn0w to jailbreak iOS 6.1 Beta 2. While iOS 6.1 Beta 2 is available for a wide array of iOS devices, this jailbreak is only compatible with a few select devices (pre-A5 devices). Make sure to check and see if your device is on this list before you proceed:
- iPhone 3GS
- iPhone 4
- 4th Gen iPod Touch
And a word of advice, you should not update to iOS 6.1 if you use UltraSn0w to to unlock your iPhone. We will be using RedSn0w 0.9.15b3 to perform this jailbreak and it will be a tethered jailbreak. There is still no untethered iOS 6 jailbreak available so you will have to perform a tethered boot for your device. As usual, keep in mind that you should be jailbreaking your device at your own risk and doing so may void your warranty. The jailbreaking process is reversible and you should backup your device prior to proceeding.
With that said, here is the step by step guide for jailbreaking iOS 6.1 Beta 2. You can also use this guide for jailbreaking the first beta as well.
Step 1: Download RedSn0w 0.9.15b3 and the iOS 6.0 firmware file for your specific device. Also, connect your device to your computer.
Step 2: Extract RedSn0w and launch the program. If you’re using Windows, you’ll want to run as administrator. In order to do this, right click RedSn0w.exe and click “Run as Administrator”.
Step 3: In RedSn0w, go to Extras>Select IPSW>Point it to your iOS 6.0 firmware from the first step.
Step 4: In main menu of RedSn0w, click on “Jailbreak” to begin jailbreaking the device.
Step 5: Place your device in DFU mode by holding down the power and home button at the same time for 10 seconds. Then release the Power button and keep holding the Home button for another 10 seconds.
Step 6: Your device will start the rebooting process and RedSn0w will take over from here. Just be patient and let it do its work.
Step 7: You will come to a menu allowing you to select your jailbreak options. On this screen you want to make sure you select Cydia and then click “Next”.
Step 8: Your device should reboot again at this point. When it’s finished its process, you’ll see a notification letting you know the jailbreak is finished. Click on Ok.
Step 9: At this point, the jailbreak process is complete. Now you’ll need to do a tethered boot. With your device still plugged into your computer, go into the main menu of RedSn0w. Select Extras>Select IPSW> and select your iOS 6.0 firmware. Click on “Just Boot”. Place your device into DFU mode again.
Step 10: Your device will reboot and you should see the Pineapple logo on the screen (this is a good sign). After the process is complete you will return to the Lock screen. Check and make sure that Cydia is installed on your device and you’re all set!
Did the iPhone 5 Live Up To The Hype?
The iPhone 5 has been out for over a month now. Prior to the release of the device, there was a lot of speculation about how great it would be and many thought it would be the greatest phone ever made. But fast forward to today, and a lot of people are starting to have mixed feelings about the subject. Some of the hype has turned to disappointment. Some still feel the iPhone 5 is far superior to any other phone on the market and have not been bothered by the issues that have come to light. So did the iPhone 5 live up to the hype?
The Issues
The iPhone 5 has definitely had its fair share of issues, bugs, and problems since it was released. Even diehard Apple fan boys have admitted that the amount of problems we’ve seen thus far have been a bit much. The problems with the phone started from the very first day it was first released. Here’s a short list of problems we’ve seen from the iPhone 5:
- Scuffgate
- Apple Maps
- Supply shortage
- Purple Haze issue
- Wi-Fi issues
- Diagonal scroll issue
There are plenty more issues you could mention, but these have been the biggest ones that have been publicized. Consumers probably could have overlooked them if there weren’t so many all at the same time, and the fact that they weren’t all minor issues didn’t help at all. I think this is the first device in Apple’s history that actually sparked a public apology from the company for the issues consumers were having. So the device has certainly drawn a lot of criticism, and it seems as though every week something new is popping up.
The Positive
Despite all of the issues mentioned above, the iPhone 5 has plenty to boast about. Even after all of the criticism the phone got, it still managed to be the highest selling iPhone ever and continues to have a lot of demand. If all of those problems hurt Apple’s sales, it’s amazing to think of how many they would have sold if it wasn’t so flawed.
In addition to sales, the iPhone 5 is an impressive phone. It helped fuel Apple to being rewarded the most Innovative company again in 2012, and other accolades as well. Along with the iPhone 5 comes iOS 6 which for the most part is a vast improvement from iOS 5. It sports over 200 new features and although some of the more popular features aren’t working as anticipated, they have a lot of potential. Specifically we’re talking about Passbook and Apple Maps. These two features were heavily marketed prior to the release of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, but they haven’t delivered as much as consumers hoped for. But the skeleton is definitely there for great programs and with time we see them both evolving to become huge successful apps that Apple will include in all future versions of iOS.
Conclusion
Overall, there’s no clear cut answer to the question. For the most part, the iPhone 5 has delivered, but not nearly to the extent that it could have. It’s fair to say that Apple really pushed for innovation and creativity with iOS 6, and that will carry over to all future Apple products.
Replace Siri With Google Voice Search With Jailbreak Tweak
As you may recall, Google recently released an update to their Search app that allows users to use a voice search feature called Google Now. Immediately the comparisons to Siri were made and everyone had mixed feelings. Some preferred it over Siri because some tests showed the results were more accurate. Others like the fact that Siri can do more right now. It seems to be another battle in the war between Apple and Google, but right now there is no clear cut winner.
For those of you with a jailbroken iOS device, you now have the ability to completely replace Siri with Google voice search with a jailbreak tweak known as NowNow. NowNow allows you to switch the action for the Short Hold (holding the home button) to open up the Google Search app instead of the default, Siri. So if you’ve wanted to give Siri a break and give Google Now a try, just follow these simple steps to replace Siri with Google voice search.
- Step One:Open up Cydia
- Step Two: Tap the Search tab, then search for the tweak “NowNow” without quotes
- Step Three: Select NowNow from your search results, it should be the first one
- Step Four: Tap on “Install” to begin installing the tweak on your iOS device
- Step Five: Tap on the Confirm button to confirm your installation
- Step Six: Once it has finished, you should be prompted to restart SpringBoard. Tap the button to continue
- Step Seven: The SpringBoard will restart. After it restarts, go into your Settings utility on the Home screen
- Step Eight: Scroll towards the bottom until you see NowNow, then tap it to open it up
- Step Nine: Tap on Activation Methods. This controls how the tweak will be activated.
- Step Ten: Tap Short Hold underneath the Home Button
You should be set up and ready to go now. Press and hold the Home button and it should open up the Google search function instead of Siri. Just tap on the microphone icon and use it just like you would use Siri.
You will have to keep in mind that the Google search app is not integrated into all the functions of your iOS device like Siri. So this tweak will not completely change out Siri with Google search. You won’t be able to launch apps or dictate messages with this app like with Siri. This is a great tweak for people running devices installed with an OS lower than iOS 4.3 because Siri is incompatible with those devices.
Some people have also reported that Google’s voice search does a better job of understanding accents, so it may come in handy in those cases. But again, Google’s app is only for searching the internet, and doesn’t have the capabilities that Siri has. This app is only available in the Cydia store so your device must be jailbroken in order to use it. There is no word on if Google plans on expanding the features of their voice search for iOS to integrate with other apps, but it would definitely be a nice addition.
Issues With iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and iOS 6 Jailbreak
As of right now, there is still no untethered iOS 6 jailbreak available for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S. This has caused a lot of distress and users are beginning to grow a little impatient. We were all expecting to see untethered jailbreaks within the first couple weeks that iOS 6 was released (primarily due to the speed in which the iOS 6 beta was jailbroken) but it has been over a month and we have still yet to see an untethered jailbreak for iOS 6. Even the most optimistic users are starting to worry and getting tired of waiting.
The problem has been made even worse because new iPhone users are being forced into iOS 6, as the iPhone 4S now comes preinstalled with iOS 6 just like the iPhone 5. It’s a pretty well known fact that many iPhone users choose the devices strictly for the purposes of jailbreaking the device and getting apps and tweaks that don’t come with the iPhone by default. So with Apple basically forcing users to use iOS 6, consumers aren’t left with a choice at all. And now that iOS 6.0.1 has been released, things are looking even worse for jailbreakers.
Some users are avoiding updating to iOS 6.0.1 just in case the iOS 6 untethered jailbreak is released. Considering how long we’ve had to wait for an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak, a lot of people aren’t necessarily confident that the iOS 6.0.1 jailbreak would be a priority for hackers. So it’s not uncommon at all for people to “overlook” the update in anticipation of the untethered iOS 6 jailbreak. The long wait has even caused some users to think about jumping ship and heading to Android for the Samsung Galaxy SIII. There seems to be a split in the iOS jailbreak community with some users feeling that an untethered iOS 6 jailbreak for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S will be released any moment now, and others who think they’ve waited long enough. We don’t think Apple has anything to worry about, as most people are just waiting it out and won’t be switching to Android anytime soon. But it’s a bit ironic that Apple could potentially lose some customers due to the security features they’ve built into iOS 6 and their attempts to make jailbreaking their devices more difficult than ever (they’ve succeeded so far).
One thing that Apple might consider doing (now or in the future) is making it a little easier for users to downgrade their iPhones from iOS 6. Downgrading from iOS 6 has proven to be one of the most, if not the most, difficult downgrades of any iOS. We doubt that this would happen because Apple assumes that each iOS is better than the previous (which is true for the most part) so downgrading wouldn’t really serve a purpose other than to make jailbreaking their devices easier. It should go without saying but making the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 easier to jailbreak would be counterproductive for their goals.
Make Your iPhone 5 More Productive With Launch Center Pro
You may have heard of Launch Center before but never knew of its full capability. A lot of people knew about the app but overlooked it because they didn’t know how to set everything up properly. You really have to start using the app for your iPhone 5 regularly in order to really take advantage of all of the benefits it offers. Launch Center Pro is one of the best productivity apps for the iPhone 5 and once you get into the swing of things, you’ll definitely start making great use of it.
Setting Up The Home Screen
First, I highly recommend putting the app on your iPhone 5’s dock. That way it’s easily accessible and you don’t have to navigate through folders on your phone to get to it. It will also encourage you to use it more. Set up some necessary groups and actions. You can leave Flashlight and Toggle on so that they’re easy to get to. You should also have some sort of search function on the home screen such as Safari for easy access as well.
Productivity Group
This is the group of apps where you will have all of your necessary programs for ensuring your productivity. You can have your calendar, timers, emails, and anything else you need for business purposes. Whatever you need to function for work/business should be within this group.
Contact Group
Your contact group should consist of actions that you use to engage with your contacts. You can have an action to act as a speed dial in a way so that you can just tap it and have it call whichever contact you are trying to reach. You can quickly send emails, add contacts, or even use Skype through this group.
Bookmarks Group
This section will hold all of your favorite sites and feeds that you check on a regular basis. While you may bookmark tons of sites while just casually browsing straight on Safari, this group will be for the ones you check back with daily. It’s basically a form of an RSS reader that will allow you to easily go to your favorite sites with one tap.
Apps Group
The apps in this group will be for all of your other favorite apps that don’t fit anywhere else. You will find that this group is extremely necessary when you want to use iOS Maps or another program really quickly without having to sort through the swarm of your other apps.
Social Networking Group
This group is pretty self-explanatory. You can store all of your social network related apps and actions here. If you want to quickly send out a tweet on your iPhone 5, have an action to just tap and enter a message. You can do the same thing for pretty much all of the other popular social networks.
Those are just a few ideas of groups you can have in Launch Center Pro for the iPhone 5 to help make managing all of your apps easier and quicker. Try it yourself and make your iPhone 5 fit your needs until the iPhone 5 jailbreak is released!
Apple Rejects Sparrow’s Update For iPhone 5
If you’re an iPhone 5 user who was looking forward to having a version of the app compatible with the iPhone 5, you may have to wait indefinitely to get it. According to a tweet sent out by Viet Hoa, Apple has rejected their submitted application for the iPhone 5. His tweet read:
“Apple called to tell me that Sparrow has been rejected. Our app will be removed from the appstore if we don’t submit a new version soon.”
If you’re unfamiliar with Sparrow, it is a mobile mail client for iOS and Macs as well. It features support for:
- Gmail
- iCloud
- MobileMe
- AOL
- Hotmail
- MSN
- Live
- Custom IMAP/POP accounts
It was introduced with iOS 5, and has since been acquired by Google earlier this year. Consumers were shocked when the news broke that Google was acquiring Sparrow, as it was known as an Apple product for quite some time. It has actually been a preferred choice over the default mail client for iOS for some users due to its clean interface and ease of use.
Back in September, the developer of Sparrow Dominique Leca stated that their team was working on an update for the app that would make it compatible with iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. It was supposed to make use of the taller screen so that it didn’t look awkward. Around the same time, Google offered Chrome support for the application and was present in the Gmail app for iOS. Sparrow also released some open source components of the app which enabled users to develop their own apps borrowing from their API. So things were really starting to look great for Sparrow and their users, and people were excited to see what was going to happen next. But it seems as if things have hit a snag with iOS 6 and the iPhone 5.
If you’re wondering why the Sparrow update was rejected, Hoa tweeted:
“We managed to get a webview edition + the keyboard appeared without the user had to tap on iOS 5. We’re fighting with apple to get the update of the app through the AppStore validation process.”
The issue seems to stem from the fact that the update implements rich text editing for iOS 5 devices. Apple enabled rich text editing in the default iOS mail client in iOS 5 last year. Due to this, the team’s next submission will only be for iOS 6. So right now, it looks as if Sparrow has been tasked to either make the necessary changes or they won’t have an app in the Apple App store at all. This will be very disappointing for fans of the application as they will be forced to either use the default iOS mail client or find another alternative.
The obvious conclusion that a lot of people will draw from this is that Apple is giving them a hard time since they have been acquired by their biggest competitor. Either way, Sparrow certainly has some work to do. Hopefully we will see an approved update soon so that you can use Sparrow on your iPhone 5.
