Creating your own iphone theme

Making your own iPhone theme is not a hard thing to do. In fact, if you have a little knowledge on how to use photoshop, or gimp or paint (not as good as the previous ones) it will be very easy.

*requirments

   -jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.
   -Winterboard and open ssh installed on it.
   -Some program to acess the iphone with (like winscp, iphonebrowser, cyberduck(Mac))
   -A photo editing software (not obligatury but extremely usefull)
   -A program capable of converting .mp3 sounds to .caff (only if you want a custom UI sound)

1.The Theme Folder
The first thing to do is to create a new folderwherever you like in your computer. Name it like the name of the theme you'd like to have. Inside it  create this new folders with the exact name here:
     -Icons
     -UISounds (only if you'd like custom, sms, mail, calendar lock and unlock tones)

2.Wallpaper
      For the wallpaper you can get any photo you like from google, from a webpage or from your own photo library. All you have to do is opening it with a photo editing software an change the picture size. In paint (at least in windows 7) you have a resize option. The sizes you have to put are 320px  wide and 480px tall. Be careful with paint because you have to have the "maintain aspect ratio" option disabled and that will cause paint to strech your photo. This doesn't hapen if you use photoshop where you can go to the top bar and click image>>adjust canvas size and set the parameters. Then you just have to do a free ransformation of your image by presing ctrl + t and aumenting or reducing your image to your needs.

     After you are done with that just save it as a .png file with name: Wallpaper (for behind the main menu) or LockBackground (for the lockscreen). Be careful because it is case sensitive. Save it in the main folder of your theme.

     You might want to have a transparent dock so you see your entire wallpaer, for doing that download  this file (right click > save target as) and place it in the main folder of your theme as well.

3.Icons
   You can have anything you'd like as an icon for any application, I'll show you how. The first thing is to get an image from wherever you want for your icon. Then, as I've explained above resize it, but this time to 57px x 57px. Make sure you save them as .png files and in the icon folder. The name you have to put to the icon image is the name of the app as it appears in the homescreen. Be careful, it is case sensitive as well. You can use this method for internet shortcuts.

4.Sounds (only for sistem sounds)
The sistem sounds of the iphone are the ones for the text messages, for the email, calendar alerts or lock and unlock. You'll have to use an application to convert the audio files to caf. This is not such a big deal since iTunes itself does it. You can get any free audio editing software to cut the part if the audio that you want firs, then import it to iTunes, right click the song and select convert to aif (you might have to change iTunes preferences). When you have done that go to the directory of the fille and change its extension from .aif to .caf  Then rename it to one of the following and save it on the UISounds folder:

(this method will not add new sms sounds, it will only replace the deafult ones) 

sms-received1.caf
sms-received2.caf 
sms-received3.caf 
sms-received4.caf
sms-received5.caf  
sms-received6.caf 
new-mail.caf
alarm.caf
mail-sent.caf
SentMessage.caf
unlock.caf
lock.caf

*This is just a variety of the sounds aviable to change. If you want to see all of them ssh into your iPhone (explained below) and get into /System/Library/audio/UISounds.

5.Get the theme into your iPhone
     To put your theme inside your phone, as I've alredy said you'll have to get an ssh program. Here I will explain the settings for Winscp (iphonebrowser doesn't need any settings because it works by USB), first of all conect to your home wireless with your iphone and click in the blue arrow near to your wifi's name. The ip that appears (usually 192.168.1.x) is the one you have to enter in the ip adress space, then enter "root" as user (without quotation marks) and "alpine" as password. choose sftp as conection type and go for it. The first time you shuld get a warning, but its completely normal, just go on and wait. When you get to the main screen look for the "var" folder in the bar in the right, then enter "stash" and then "themes.(randoom numbres and letters)" Then drag and drop the theme folder there. Go to your iphone, open winterboard and select your theme. Close winterboard and let the iPhone respring, and You're done!!

If you have any doubt feel free to comment. 

How to use Winterboard

Winterboard is a very interesting application that most users may like. It allows you to change the complete appearance of your blog.

First Step: installing

To install Winterboard simply go to cydia or rock and search for it. You'll get tons of results, buts there's a quick way to get over them. Tap the "w" in the side bar. Then look for a package called Winterboard. If it says anything more (I'm not talking about the description) don't install it. The package should look like the image on the right. After installing you'll be asked to reboot your iPhone/iPod touch. when it is done you'll find a new icon.

Second Step: downloading themes

Themes are packages that you can install from cydia, rock or icy. They usually are in the themes section (obvius) but not all of them are there so if you're looking for something especial try the general search. As you are not promted to respring or reboot your device after installing a theme, I recomend you to install as much themes as you can so you don't have to wait till cydia opens and updates everytime.

Third Step: applying themes

Just open winterboard and tap them. As you can enable multiple themes at a time you have to remember that the one in the top is more important to winterboard that the ones below it and so on. So if you want a set of icons with the background of another theme that also comes with icons you should tap and hold the icon set and move it to the top. That way winterboard will load the icon set and after that the rest of the things from the other theme. When you're finished close the aplication and wait while your device does a respring.


If you have any question ask in the comments
Coming: How to make your own iphone theme

Starting with cydia

Cydia is a very powerfull program of your iphone. You wouldn't be able
to install hacked programs as easy as you can do. Althought it is
powerfull it is an exhaustive program for your device.

Learning to use cydia is very easy, the hard part is how to make it
work as it should.





USING CYDIA FOR THE FIRST TIME:

When you first open cydia it will show you the message: "organizing, will close when done". Wait till cydia closes or the iphone kind of reboots (resprings). Then open cydia again, the first thing you will see is cydia asking what kind of user are you. If you don't know so much about this kinds of things choose user, the only thing it would do is hide some packages to prevent you. You can always change that on the manage tab. It will start downloading updates and the package information and it will ask you if you want to upgrade. Tap complete upgrade. Wait till it is finished and press "respring" or "reboot" whatever it tells you. When its done open cydia again, this time you can use it. Some might have trouble updating because of the internet conection or because they are under wifi. Please be patient, cydia might not download what you want the first couple of times, but if you keep trying it works.

ABOUT CYDIA

Cydia is a program made for installing packages using a graphic interface rather than using terminal. Its a very useful program because appart from installing the package you want, it installs its dependencies so they work perfectly. It is basically divided in 5 tabs.

-The first one is the cydia main page. It will give you acces to the latest cydia news, the cydia store products and the most popular packages. It also has information about updating and rejailbreaking.

-The second is the secctions page. All the things in cydia are divided in different secctions that you can quickly access. Some sources have their own section, but its not the usual. Most popular sections are ringtone and themes section where you can get wallpapers for the main screen, lock themes, UI sounds (lock, unlock, new mail, sms alert, etc....), app icons or even cooler things (is there anything you can't change in the iphone?). Maybe you'll want to check on app Addons, there is some interesting stuff there.

-The third page is called changes. Here is where all pending updates appear and also new packages cydia has found.

-The fourth is manage, where you can see uninstall and reinstall all the packages that you have. You can also see the sources cydia has for downloading packages and add your custom ones. You can also get information about your iphone's HDD likie how much memory cydia uses and how much you have free.

-The last one is just a search. Its necesary to coment that you'd better type in quickly all you want because if you stop for a second or so it starts searching and the keybord gets really lagged.

INSTALLING PACKAGES:

It is not so complicated, but there are some important procedures to follow trhu.

1.Make sure that that package is going to work with your current firmware version. Obviously this doesn't apply for themes, it's more for mobile substrate add-ons (for those who don't know what mobile substrate add-ons are, they are just applications that run with the iphone system and therefore they are always on, like SBSettings or Winterboard)

2.It is going to download faster if you use a mobile connection, rather than wifi. If it gets stuck downloading, try again and again because each time it will resume the download where you left it.

3.Never ever close cydia, reboot or respring your iphone while you are in the black screen of the installation. It will probably cause cydia to stop working.

4.Always reboot or respring if you are asked to

Jailbreak 3.1.2

Welcome to My hacked iPhone blog. I have decided that I should start with something that everyone reading this blog should know, and that is how to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod touch. Right now we are in the version 3.1.2 and it is completely jailbreakable.

WARNING:

-Only do this if you don't have to unlock it from it's deafault career. If you think you'll want to unlock it later follow this link (not aviable yet).YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO USE ULTRASN0W

-Ipod Touch 3G 16Gb and 32Gb users will have to use their iPod in tehered mode, wich means that you'll have to jailbreak it each time you turn it on. I seriously recomend waiting for a better jailbreak.

-Make sure you have updated to 3.1.2 version. Doesn't work with 3.1 users


RECOMENDATIONS:

-If you can, avoid restoring your backup till the jailbreak is done.
-(for those having trouble with blackra1n stuck on running) If you are on a Windows machine close itunes and all the proceses such as:
   itunes.exe
   itunes.helper.exe
   ipodservice.exe
   applemobiledevicehelper
   applemobiledeviceservice
   MDNSResponder (for disabling Bonjour)

  (to close them just press ctrl+alt+delete and open the task manager, go to the processes tab and terminate each of these proceses)

-You can also try copying blacra1n.exe to the main folder of your hard drive and run it as an admin. (If you are in Windows 7, run it in Windows XP SP3 compatible mode too)

-If you have problems with blackra1n getting stuck at "running" and none of this things works try saving a backup of your iphone, restoring with itunes and inmediatly after you activate your iphone run blackra1n and then, when you are done with the jailbreak, restore your backup.


WINDOWS AND MAC:

-Go to www.blackra1n.com and click on the apple for mac users and the windows icon for windows.

-Update your iPhone/iPod touch to the 3.1.2 firmware version via iTunes

-Plug in your iPhone completely turned on

-Open the Blackra1n program and press "make it ra1n". Your iPhone will automaticly enter recovery mode and then the blackra1n image will appear in the screen. After some seconds it will reboot.

-When it has completely rebooted search beteween your icons and you'll find the blackra1n icon

-It will ask you wich Apps you want to install. Install Cydia, if you want, you can also install Rock, that has some useful apps, but under any circumstances install Icy, it will make cydia stop working and you will have to restore and jailbreak again.

-It may take a little while and may fail a couple of times if you are under wifi (sorry iPod touch users)

-After this you're done. ENJOY YOUR JAILBROKEN DEVICE

I have tried this myself with both windows and mac with an iPod touch 1G, iPod touch 2G  and an iphone 3G. I had no trouble with the first two but I had to restore my iphone because it always got stuck at running no matter what I did. If this is happening to you and you don't know how to get out of recovery mode just reboot your iphone by pressing both home and power buttons for 10 seconds. If you wanna know what I did go to the begining of this page, to the recomendations section.