iHacks: Install third party applications on the iPhone

A new version of the installer.app program for the iPhone has just been released, and this new version makes installing third party applications onto your iPhone much easier. In fact, once the installer.app is on the iPhone, it can install applications directly over a WiFi connection; no need to attach the phone to a PC or Mac and run lots of arcane shell commands.

We haven't written a how-to on this before, because previous versions required some serious hacking; if you weren't a command line geek, the potential for busting your Mac or your iPhone was way too high. This new version of the installer.app is much easier to use; it only requires a couple of shell commands and automates most of the more complex parts of the process. Here's how to install it, and how to use it to install other third party applications on your iPhone. Click on read more for details.

 [Via Gizmodo]

These instructions are Mac only for the moment; a PC version of the new installer hasn't been offered just yet.

DISCLAIMER: The software that this process uses is unsupported. Although the process seems to work, we can't be held responsible if it damages your Mac, your iPhone or your gives your dog fleas. Proceed at your own risk.

1 - Download the new installer.app from here, using the first link on the page. Expand the zip file into a folder on your desktop (use Stuffit eXpander if you don't have a program that can handle .zip files installed).

2 - Make sure that iTunes is closed, and then start the Activity Monitor program (usually in Applications>Utilities). Scroll down the list of processes until you find the once called iTunes Helper, then click on it and click on Quit Process. This will make sure that iTunes won't start when you connect the iPhone; that would interfere with the process.

3 - Connect your iPhone with the standard USB cable.

4 - open the terminal application (in Applications>Utilities). This brings up a terminal window; a text interface to the Unix OS that underlies the MacOS. From here, we can run the scripts that make the new installer.app so easy.

5 - Type cd Desktop/iphoneinstaller and hit return. This takes you into the directory where the installer.app program is held.


6 - To run the installation script for the installer.app application, type ./get_installer.sh

7 - The installer script will ask you what firmware your iPhone is running. For most people, the correct answer is 2)1.0.1; this is the update that Apple put out a couple of weeks ago. Only select option 1 if you have never installed the update.
8 - Wait while the script downloads the firmware image from Apple. This may take some time, but it keeps you posted on how quickly it is going, and how long it might take. On our speedy office connection, it took about 10 minutes to download.
9 - When the download is complete, the script will ask you to press down and hold the power and home buttons; do so. Keep holding them until you see the yellow triangle icon that says "please connect to iTunes", then let go. The script will then run through 14 steps that copy files to the iPhone, and reboot it twice.. This will take some time; don't worry if the iPhone seems to not respond; it's just pondering something.
10 - when the script finishes, your iPhone should restart and go to the unlock screen. When you unlock it, you should see the installer icon on your home page.
Congratulations! You can now install applications to your iPhone directly. This is best done when you are connected to a WiFi network; EDGE is too slow. To use the installer, go through the following steps:

1 - touch the installer icon. The first time you run it, it should go to the update page, where it checks for any updates to installed applications.
2 - The first thing to do is to update the installer itself; touch the icon for the installer, and click on the update button in the top right.

2 - the program will go online, download any updates, then install them.
3 - When it is done, touch on OK, then touch the home button to quit out of the installer.
4 - Run the installer again, and select update again. Touch the Community Sources icon, and again touch update on the top right. This downloads the list of applications that you can install. When that is done, touch OK and touch the install button again; you'll see a big list of applications you can install.

5 - To install any one of them, touch the icon, then the install button on the top right.
There still seem to be some quirks in this; you can't have more than three applications showing on the home screen (one space is reserved for the installer application itself), and new applications don't always show up on the home screen. But these are minor issues; the installer.app does a great job of getting around Apple's decision not to allow third party applications (for the tiem being at least), and now there's no reason not to try it.