Looking for a Reason to Jailbreak? How about Spotify and Google Voice?
Yesterday, Swedish music service Spotify announced their application's submission to Apple iTunes App Store. Spotify, which already boasts over 6 million users in Europe, is somewhat of an iTunes alternative - albeit with streaming tracks instead of downloads. However, the similarity between the two services leads some to believe that Apple, notorious for booting apps that duplicate iTunes functionality, won't approve the new Spotify iPhone application. And in another example of Apple's totalitarianism, the company also just pulled Google Voice and other third-party Google Voice applications from the App Store.
Luckily for jailbreakers, problems like those above are less of an issue. There's currently an open source Spotify client app available for download and the third-party GV Mobile app for Google Voice is coming soon.
Spotify for iPhone Jailbreakers
Like the official Spotify iPhone client, the third party client app called Spot, available from Cydia, also requires a Premium account in order to work. Also like the official app, Spot lets you search for songs and build playlists. However, where the official client will let you cache playlists to listen to when the AT&T network fails or you lose your connection, the Spot application has yet to implement this type of feature according to a forum posting. That's a big drawback, unfortunately, since the caching ability is precisely what makes Spotify feel less like a streaming service and more like a real iTunes alternative.
There's also another major issue for jailbreakers here in the U.S. looking to get on board with Spotify - the premium account. In order to run Spot, you need a premium account to sign into the app. However, in order to get a premium account, you have to sign up at Spotify.com, a site which currently prevents you from doing so because Spotify is not available in this country yet. So what good is an open source app if you don't have a premium account, right?
Fortunately, there are a few workarounds for this issue. For one, you could access the Spotify web site using a UK-based (or other European country-based) proxy server. A quick Google search presented us with several options for doing so, although we won't point to any exact resources since this isn't exactly the most legal way of going about things. Let's just say this: we got to the sign up page and it was only a matter of putting in our name and account details.
Another option is to purchase an account from an overseas friend who has access to the service in their country. Have them purchase the account and you pay them back after they give you the username/password. (Obviously, you'd want to go with a real friend you trust here, not some random stranger from the internet.)
Either way, getting access to Spotify via Spot is a bit more difficult than we hoped it would be, but it's not impossible if you're really motivated.
GV Mobile Coming to Cydia
Although there aren't any Google Voice alternatives available just yet, we hear that one in particular is coming soon. The third-party client application GV Mobile was among the Google Voice apps just pulled from the App Store. According to a tweet from the developer Sean Kovacs, he plans to upload the latest version of the application to Cydia ("or similar"...perhaps referring to Icy) soon. You may want to follow his Twitter account for more details as to when that occurs.
For more details on jailbreaking, check out our how-to guide here.
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Sarah, how about covering some of the other cool, new, mobile technology platforms where these apps just work instead just giving us readers encouragement to illegally jailbreak their phones and void the warranty?
If Apple is in fact, a 'totalitarianism' the way to deal with them is to ignore them / stop doing business with them / stop using & supporting their stuff - Not to hack it, break it, and apologize for it.
I can think of nothing more 'anit-apple' in terms of their design ethos than needing to all kinds or work-arounds to make my phone work the way I want it too. It's absurb to me.
People who have an i-phone can jail break it if they want to. They can also read their own warranty. It's a dumb piece of hardware and software which they purchased and own.. no babysitting required. Personally I don't know why people actually need or want an i-phone or ATT or encourage the two companies practices with their money.. but if they already have, these practices show the two what people want as much as a non-purchase does. The trouble to get to that point won't be something they will do a second time. I would say jailbreak and then write the two and tell them you did so. Eventually these company practices will bite back. ATT probably won't respond too quickly. Apple... what they present as features is quickly being recognized as double talk and users who used to feel cool are being called out for looking stupid to a lot of other people. "You pay to be treated that way?" "Wow!... you are sooooo cool!" Hehehe.
I have been so looking forward to this Spotify application for iPhone, if Apple rejects this and it "accidently" appears on Cydia or if Spot get support for caching songs I will jailbreak this phone in a second.
This is interesting. Looks like spotify is going to be the next big thing.
http://AppUseful.com
Signing up for a spotify account through a European proxy only solves half the problem. If you use your spotify client in for example the US with an American IP-adress your account will be blocked after 2-3 weeks. Signing in with an British IP will then unblock your account.
Such a shame I can't get Google Voice on my iPod touch, which has no dialer, nor any ties to AT&T or any other telecom. While I couldn't make calls from the iPod, per se, it would still be very useful to have voicemail transcriptions and the like on it.
*cough* why would I care about Spotify? it's not available in the US according to their site:
"Unfortunately, due to licensing restrictions we are not yet available in your country. We understand that you are currently in United States..."
ANd yes, Sarah, please cover Android and the Pre. It's not like my only choice is an iPhone. There is, for example, an Android app for Spotify and I'm pretty confident that Google Voice will be available on Android sets...