Command-line terminal for iPhone!
Mark this one geeks only. Apple hasn’t yet convinced me to buy an iPhone, but assuming Apple doesn’t disable third-party apps, a bunch of hackers have just pushed me a step closer to buying it. They’ve created mobileterminal, a terminal app for the iPhone. It looks like the iPhone not only is Mac OS X, but includes enough of the BSD environment to install command-line apps.
The screenshot shows them using ”ls” and then “screenshot”, presumably to capture the screen they’re showing off. You can download a binary kit that contains, among other things, base64, curl, pico, vim, scp, grep, cron, and ping. One installation method is to scp to your iPhone!
Other apps that can be installed are ssh and python. How far off is Django, something like appscript to control the built-in apps, and scripting incoming call filters?
- mobileterminal
- “A GUI Terminal application for the iPhone.”
- iPhone applications (Nate True)
- Includes ssh, python, and ruby for Apple’s iPhone.
- appscript
- Appscript is a high-level, user-friendly MacPython to Apple event bridge that allows you to control scriptable Mac OS X applications using ordinary Python scripts. Appscript makes MacPython a serious alternative to Apple’s own AppleScript language for automating your Mac.
- Django
- “Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.” Oh, the sweet smell of pragmatism.
More cell phones
- Miracle and Wonder: The Pioneer 3200/3300BT
- “These are the days of miracle and wonder. This is a long-distance call.” I’ve been using the Pioneer 3200BT bluetooth-enabled stereo in my car for a year now. It really is amazing what we can do nowadays.
- Sprint wants me to buy an iPhone
- It shouldn’t be easier to switch to a new carrier than it is to get information from your current carrier.
- We have met the enemy, and he is our carrier
- If you want a phone that works as well as your Macintosh, you need a network that works as well as the Internet.
- Stephen Fry on iPhone killers
- “You’re only on this planet once—do something extraordinary, imaginative and inspiring. That’s the difference, ultimately.”
- The Ringtone Racket
- John Gruber adds his 99 cents to the iTunes ringtone debate, and comes to the same conclusion: Apple is losing its battle for the hearts and minds of consumers. It might make more money in the short-term, but it faces a significant chance of becoming just another company in the long-term.
- 10 more pages with the topic cell phones, and other related pages