Industry guru Dave Taylor offers free tech support on a wide variety of technical and business topics, including HTML, Apple iPhone, online advertising, Cascading Style Sheets, Web design, management, Unix, Linux, search engine optimization, online dating, Mac OS X, shell script programming and Microsoft Windows.

iPhone app has frozen phone. Now what?

i have a problem with my iphone 2g 8gb. the phone was working just fine, until i downloaded the call me application from cydia, i turned off & now it wont turn fully on, the screen only freezes showing the pineapple, tried pressing both buttons & holding the initiation one, nothing.. what can i do?? does it still work?


Dave's Answer:

This is an interesting problem and, of course, one of the pervasive nightmares of both device owners who freely download applications and companies like Apple who are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place, wanting to have a rich, vibrant application marketplace but also needing to ensure that downloading an app from Apple doesn't freeze, brick or otherwise kill your phone.

Digging around on Google for information about the "Call Me" application from Cydia, I realized that you have omitted a very important piece of information: you've "jailbroken" your phone (that is, hacked the system so that you aren't running the stock Apple iPhone software any more). I understand the lure of freeing your gadget from the constraints of the corporate overlord :-) but as I hope you realized when you did jailbreak the phone, there's a risk involved. A big risk.

Your situation illustrates the risk very well: if you move into your own world with all of this, eschewing Apple's carefully crafted operating system for the phone, then you really are on your own and are far more at risk for malware, viruses, and bricking your phone.

Now, to fix it, I would say that your best bet is to hook it up to your computer, launch the iTunes application and choose "Restore", then go have a cup of tea or walk around the neighborhood. It'll take a while. (here's a more detailed article on the subject: How to restore your Apple iPhone)

When it's done, you should have a fully functional non-jailbroken phone that has no music, no videos, and, most likely, no additional applications. At this point you can re-jailbreak it (and, again, I have an article on the subject: How to jailbreak your Apple iPhone) or leave it as a "jailed" phone and rest comfortably that it's going to be far more stable and reliable and that the 10,000+ applications in the iPhone App Store are most likely going to have just about everything you need anyway.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!



Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon    

Ringaza Free Bonus Ringtones and Wallpapers!


Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

I'm very curious to know if this works. I hope the guy follows up!

Posted by: Dan at February 27, 2009 5:33 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











Remember personal info?


Please note that I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.

While I'm at it, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site.








Ask Dave Taylor: The iPhone App: Advertisement



Follow me on Twitter @DaveTaylor

Search
Find just the answers you seek from among our 2300+ free tech support articles by using our Lijit search engine.


Help!





Subscribe to
Ask Dave Taylor!

Add to Google Reader
Add to My Yahoo!
Subscribe in NewsGator Online

RDF   XML

Free Updates!
Sign up and get free weekly updates and special offers on books, seminars, workshops and more.


Recent Entries
Book Links
© 2002 - 2010 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.

[whiteboard marker tray]
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.