It seems a well documented problem that if you sync your iPod Touch or iPhone with your machine. then decide to change to a different calendar, it can be really hard to get rid of the older calendar, especially if like me, you sync with google apps then decide to go with the exchange option.

So now im stick with 2 or three copies of my gmail calendar on my iPhone, which no matter WHAT i try does not go away, even after i tell it to not sync any calendars in iTunes.

Luckily i Jailbreak my iphone, i ssh’d in and found where the calendar files are. This fix im afraid only works with a jail broken iPod/iPhone.

ssh in or open a console. If you have file browser you prefer then by all means use that. You need to grab the file at /private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb .

You can use scp to do this, find the IP of the device, then

an7:Desktop wishes$ scp root@10.40.1.5:/private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb .
root@10.40.1.5′s password:
Calendar.sqlitedb                                                                                                                 100%  636KB 636.0KB/s   00:01

Once you have the file, you need an SQLite browser to edit it. I used http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/ on my mac. Make a backup of the sql file before editing it. Open it in the sqlite browser. Click ‘Browse Data’ then in the drop down look at Calendar. Find the entry you dont want, delete it, then save the database again.

Copy it back to the device.

lan7:Desktop wishes$ scp Calendar.sqlitedb root@10.40.1.5:/private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb
root@10.40.1.5′s password:
Calendar.sqlitedb                                                                                                                 100%  524KB 524.0KB/s   00:00

Then test it. If it worked then presto! if not you still have that backup right?.

Sick to death of this garbage going around needlessly scaring everyone who has ever jail broken their iPhone or iPod Touch.

First of all, a straight Jail broken iPhone or iPod touch is not venerable. Nor is a normal iPhone or iPod Touch.
The only phone thats vunerable is one that you have installed SSH on, and have not changed the password.

Most people who have Jailbroken and installed SSH actually KNOW what it does and what to use it for, and its not installed for by default. SSH lets you connect out to another machine running SSH in a console text based way to any other machine running SSH also. Hence the installation of SSH lets you connect to your Device and upload things in bulk or edit files that normally wouldnt get edited.

Now, the hack only occurs because some people did not change the password when they installed SSH. When you install it, it clearly tells you to set a password. If you dont, you are stupid and probably deserve getting exploited.
Chances are that you wont get exploited in any hurry in any case, its not a common occurrence, and its easily fixed if you do.

In summery,
Jail breaking is cool and fun and gives you added functionality. Installing applications when you don’t know how to use them or what they are for is a bad idea, especially if you don’t follow instructions well.
Best of all, just hit the reset/reinstall button in itunes if you get hacked, instant fix!

DONT PANIC!

I had a problem with my iPhone, i had previously added my google calendars to sync with iCal on the mac so they synced with my iPhone. THis was great except i couldn’t add things to them from the iPhone.

When Google allowed exchange access i just set that up and used it, problem was that I could no longer get rid of the old ones. I even set iTunes to sync NO calendars and deleted it all, and still i had a couple of these old calendars hanging about.
I figured since I had jail broken my iPhone i should be able to look around the filesystem and see what the problem was. Fairly quickly i found in the user ‘mobile’ home dir the files Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb (fullpath /private/var/mobile/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb ) .
I grabbed an sqllite editor from http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/ , copied the file over to my local Linux machine.
Opened the file in sqllite editor, went to Browse Data’ then changed the dropdown to ‘Calendar’. Deleted the offending Calendars, saved and re-uploaded.
Make sure you change the ownership so the mobile user can write to it!
Hermes:/User/Library/Calendar root# chown mobile.mobile Calendar.sqlitedb

Now before you get cocky, make a backup before you overwrite the original eh? Just in case you bugger things up!

Command history

wishes@tulip:~$ scp root@192.168.0.28:/User/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb .
root@192.168.0.28′s password:
Calendar.sqlitedb 100% 716KB 716.0KB/s 00:01
wishes@tulip:~$ tar zvxf sqlitebrowser-1.3-i386.tar.gz
sqlitebrowser
wishes@tulip:~$ ./sqlitebrowser
wishes@tulip:~$ scp Calendar.sqlitedb root@192.168.0.28:/User/Library/Calendar/Calendar.sqlitedb-new
root@192.168.0.28′s password:
Calendar.sqlitedb 100% 552KB 552.0KB/s 00:00
wishes@tulip:~$ ssh root@192.168.0.28
root@192.168.0.28′s password:
Hermes:~ root# cd /User/Library/Calendar/
Hermes:/User/Library/Calendar root# ls
Calendar.sqlitedb Calendar.sqlitedb-new
Hermes:/User/Library/Calendar root# mv Calendar.sqlitedb Calendar.sqlitedb-old
Hermes:/User/Library/Calendar root# mv Calendar.sqlitedb-new Calendar.sqlitedb
Hermes:/User/Library/Calendar root# chown mobile.mobile Calendar.sqlitedb
Hermes:/User/Library/Calendar root# logout
Connection to 192.168.0.28 closed.

There is no Mystery here on how to do this , so heres my quick and easy HOWTO.

Backup any Music or apps on your ipod (you should already have a copy on iTunes anyway)

Go to http://www.redsn0w.com

Click on the “info here” button which takes you to http://blog.iphone-dev.org/post/126908912/redsn0w-in-june

Scroll to the bottom and download either the Mac or the Windows version.

Unzip it.

On your hard drive you should have a copy of the iPod Software, its hidden kinda, but this is where you will find it

On a Mac, look in your Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Apple Inc_/iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod touch/iPod2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw

Unsure where it is on a Windows machine, but just use the find/search for it. If you dont have this on your PC, easyest way to get it is just plug in your iPod, click ‘Restore’ and it will download it.

Run the Redsn0w application.

When it asks for the iPod software point it at the iPod2,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw file

Click Next repeatedly until its finished. It does take you through holding down various buttons to put the iPod into disk mode. Dont stress if you are to slow, just keep trying it until you get it right (I managed it first time ok).

Its important to note it gives you the option of Icey and Cydia and the default Cydia is checked and Icey is not. DO NOT CHANGE THIS! Icy by default is broken, once you open Cydia the first time it will update and install Icey fine.

Don’t stress if your screen sits with various things for a while on the iPod after the application has finished. It takes time to finish unpacking (several minutes at least) and then reboot.

If for any reason your iPod completely screws up, hold down the Home button and the power at the top for 5 seconds and it will reboot, you can re-run the jailbreak installer at this point.

Once its installed it will boot your iPod and look identical. Open Cydia and let it update (best if you have wifi available). Install a few themes and whatever else. done!

Well, I can’t say i own an iPhone, much as I would want to (now they finally have 32GB!), however I was also eagerly waiting OS 3.0 with everyone else.
I own an iPod Touch 32GB (2nd Gen). It took some time to move me off the older 60GB classic, the iPod Touch just didnt have enough space for my collection. After a week spent cleaning out the kids MP3s onto their own machine, and removing all the live versions of songs (rarely does a live version sound anything near as good as the studio version), I finally was able to get it down within 32GB.

My habits almost instantly changed once I had the new iPod however, i discovered reading ebooks suddenly became appealing. The screen was big enough, the disk space was big enough, and there were plenty of great ebook readers. After a fair amount of reading online I discovered there was a bluetooth chip in my iPod Touch which was not enabled by default, but would be once I got OS 3.0.
For the next week I read copious amounts of notes on bluetooth headphones, and eventually settled on Jabra 620S set which came with an adapter to use on the iPod. This meant I could use them right away, and dispense with the adapter when I upgraded.
My only concern upgrading to OS 3.0 was that it may have to wipe it, and thus I needed to read like a hound for weeks prior to get through the series of ebooks I was reading.

So the night of the release, i sat up until midnight wondering what time the release was going to happen. Eventually I gave in and went to bed.

I woke in the morning to find the download available, however servers overloaded (to be expected no matter how well you planned!). After about 5 or 6 tries I was finally able to download and install the new firmware. Half of those 5-6 times were to accept new T&C they had added in. As per usual I did not read it but just accepted it, if they really want my soul they can just have it!

First impressions were “Great! it didnt wipe my stuff!”.
Second impression was “Oh it looks exactly the same as it did before”. Apon closer inspection there was an icon for Voice Memos, i opened it eagerly only to have it tell me I did not have a microphone.
I opened the Preferences and paired the headset. The Jabra 620S are a full stereo headphone unit with a Microphone. They support Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) and Audio Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP), which means I *should* have been able to use the Play/Stop Forward, Backward etc buttons. However only the Play/Stop button seems to work. The Microphone does not register, however i suspect this is because they paired as a headphone unit rather than headset (the difference is the sound quality, ones designed for phone, one for music).

Spotlight: well searching is handy! it searches all my movies, songs, notes, ebooks. Its very handy!

Voice Memos: Well this is just another app, It’s of no use on an iPod Touch without a headset, and probably been made before. Bit gimmicky?

Landscape Keyboard: I presume the application needs this compiled in, because half my apps don’t do this yet still. It will be great when its fully implimented, I dislike fat-fingering things!

Copy/Paste: Don’t have much use for it surprisingly, but its nicely done and works ok. Double tap on a word, then drag the ends about to highlight what you need. Then you get a popup asking if you want to copy/paste etc.

Undo: There is now a ‘Shake to undo’ feature, which I have yet to need also.
Shake to change song: This was disabled on mine immediately. Not a very handy feature if you go jogging or walking lots!

iTunes Store: I havnt used this yet, but brilliant idea! I have head several people complain that once bought items transfer to computers they have issues over which device is authorized to have that item.

Parental Control: This is a huge one for me. Im strict about what my kids see, and I refuse to let them watch R13 when they are not 13. Loving that!

Most of the rest of the new features I dont actually use (Stocks, MobileMe etc).

Overall, worth the $13.99 NZD I paid for the upgrade.

The best part for me would be the bluetooth headphones, this is invaluble when im at the gym or running and no longer have cables.