Jailbreak Adventures: How to Sync Plants Versus Zombies 2 Across Multiple Devices

Picture from pixelvolt.com

Christine introduced PvZ to me a while ago, and it wasn't long before I got hooked on the mission to defend my brains from being eaten by the horde of not-so-scary zombies. It's a really fun game!

So, when PvZ 2 came out this month, I was very pleasantly surprised that it came out as a free download for iOs. Of course, this means that Pop Cap has gone the route of in-app purchases, and there are a ton of IAP's--plants, power-ups, new locations--just to name a few of the possible areas to pour your cash into. That being said, PvZ 2 is a game that you can fully enjoy free; everything in it is attainable through hard work, persistence, and the occasional stroke of luck.

The only problem I've had with PvZ 2 so far is that I couldn't sync the game across my iPad and iPhone. I spent a lot more time on PvZ 2 on the iPad than on my phone, so obviously my progress was a lot further on one device than the other. I found a solution that requires iFunBox to access the raw file system:

1. Open iFunBox and connect the device that has the further progress.
2. Locate the following folder: /var/mobile/Applications//Library/Preferences
3. Locate the following files: (1) com.apple.PeoplePicker.plist, (2) com.popcap.ios.PvZ2.plist
4. Copy these files from the device onto your desktop.
5. Connect your second device, locate the PvZ2 folder as above, and paste the files from your desktop onto your second device.
6. This should sync your devices together with the same player ID.

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Jailbreak Adventures: WhatsApp on iPad, iOS 6.1

One of my biggest goals of jailbreaking the iPad was to be able to use WhatsApp on it. As you know, the messaging client only works on mobile phones, and the key to installing WhatsApp is to trick it into thinking that it is operating from a phone, and not a tablet. 

Here's what I did to install WhatsApp on iOS 6.1.

Step 1: Download and install the latest version of WhatsPad from the Cydia store.

Step 2: Download the latest WhatsApp.ipa (at this point of publication, it's 2.8.7). The iPad is smart to the point that it recognizes older, outdated .ipa installation packages. If you try to run anything older than 2.8.7, the iPad will bring up a "Please update to the latest WhatsApp" error message.

Step 3. Connect your iPad to your computer. Use a third party installer (like iFunBox) to install the .ipa package onto your iPad.

Step 4. You now have the app on your iPad. Now you need to verify your app. Verification requires you to key in a code that will be sent to a mobile number. This is the main problem with installing WhatsApp on iOS6.1: you need a working mobile number just to verify the app. You can't escape the verification by putting in a house or office number.

Step 5: This next point is very important. Do not use your own phone number to verify if you already are a WhatsApp user! If you do, your existing WhatsApp will be logged out--removing you from every chat group that you are a part of and erasing your chats. I learnt this the hard way, and I don't want anyone else to suffer! Use a spare mobile number to verify the app. My mother is a technophobic retiree who will never touch a smart phone, so I just used her mobile number.

If you really want to, I suggest buying a pre-paid SIM card for the sole purpose of verification. Yes, I know it doesn't make this method free, but I think the benefits of having WhatsApp on the iPad more than make up for the cost involved.

I have hosted the latest WhatsApp.ipa package here for your download.

You might want to improve the experience of WhatsApp on the iPad by using either of the additional tweaks below:

RetinaPad - You know how the 2x view of iPhone apps on the iPad look grainy and reminds you of your old Gameboy display? This tweak fixes the display by correcting the distortion and making your iPhone apps look it's in HD on the iPad.

FullForce - This tweak forces an app to conform to the dimensions of the iPad's display dimensions and uses the native iPad keyboard (instead of the iPhone keyboard).

For further reading (legacy methods):

Installing the WhatsPad tweak (Redmond Pie)
Using iPhone configuration utility (Justin.my)

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Jailbreak Woes Part 2: When Apps Crash on Loading

I used iMovie for a good part of an afternoon to film and edit clips. It was easily 3 hours worth of work, and I was wrapping up the day's editing and ready to export my videos.

The unthinkable happened. I exited the app to check out my Whatsapp messages, and when I tried to re-open the app, it just won't open. Every method I tried resulted in the same result: app crash! I tried to kill the app from the app switcher and re-open the app. I tried soft resets, hard resets, using iCleaner, checking out if files were corrupted using iFile...everything didn't work!

Then the thought occurred to me that maybe it was crashing because I was working on a new movie project, I wasn't satisfied with the clip, removed the clip (so the project board was empty) and exited the app at the same time. This meant that iMovie was trying to save a project that had an empty project board.

So I rebooted my iPad in Safe Mode--and it worked! I could load iMovie without it crashing on me. And true enough, the project I was working on was empty, as the title screen for that project was showing a total duration of 0:00. I removed that dud project, exited Safe Mode, and I was back in business.

Safe Mode. It really works.

And here's the video I was making that started with a dud project board:

How to spot a vintage stratocaster

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Jailbreak Woes: Removing Siriport from iPhone

No sooner had I started to jailbreak iOS 6.1 did I encounter numerous problems. Well, it's mostly my fault. You see, in my zeal to squeeze the most out of my device, I end up trusting questionable sources. For a long time, I wanted to have Siri on my iPhone 4. In case you don't know why iPhone 4 doesn't have Siri, that's due to the fact that Apple's A4 chip doesn't have noise-cancellation. This was only implemented with the A5 chip, which was introduced in the iPhone 4s. That makes sense, as you need Siri to understand what you're saying amidst background noise.

So I went and searched for a way to get Siri onto my iPhone 4. There are workarounds, but I wanted the real deal, and hence settled for Siriport. What I didn't know was that Siriport was a pirated version of the official Siri (there's a lengthy article on the specifics behind Siriport's architecture and how it works, but that's beyond the scope of this post). I followed the instructions to get Siriport, resprung my phone, and I managed to get my phone into an infinite boot loop. This is where the apple never moves!

Of course, I panicked. But there is always a solution to get a phone out of the infinite boot loop. The problem was that there was no way to access the phone's file system while the phone is essentially a brick...or was there?

Enter iFunBox. This third party desktop software helps to install .ipa packages onto the iPhone, and it still can connect to a phone that's in an infinite boot loop. The only problem I faced was that when I connected the phone with a USB cable, iFunBox would sometimes either lose connection or not connect at all. If you are experiencing this, be patient; you are trying to fix a (temporarily) spoilt phone.

Removing Siriport and Breaking Out of Infinite Boot Loop

What you need: iFunBox and a USB cable.

Step 1: Connect the phone to your computer with the USB cable. Run iFunBox.

Step 2: Find the Raw File System folder, and go to the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons folder.

Step 3: Open the com.apple.SpringBoard.plist in Wordpad.

Step 4: Remove the following

EnvironmentVariables

        DYLD_SHARED_CACHE_DIR 

                 /var/siriport.ru/Cache4SDYLD_SHARED_CACHE_DONT_VALIDATE

1 DYLD_SHARED_REGION private

Remember to save!

Step 5: Go to the root folder (Raw File System), do a search for Siri, and delete the files and folders that are associated with Siri.ru. There should be 14 items of files and folders to delete.

Step 6: Disconnect your phone, and do a hard reset (hold the home and power button, release when the Apple logo comes up). Your phone should be back. If not, repeat the whole process again--I had to try this 3 times, and the hard reset took roughly 2 minutes.

Lesson learnt: Never trust dodgy sources!

Resources

Download iFunBox

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