Revisiting idea of Contacts on home page.

[nelse92]

I really do not understand all of the coding details to hacking the iPhone but it seems to me that since the contacts are accessed on the iphone by pressing a specific "contacts" button while in the phone app, then there must be a way to move or copy that code into a home screen button. I would really love to have Contacts on my homescreen. Does anyone have any ideas on if this could be done?

[sogo]

The ipod touch is doing this, lets get it done.

[s2kpdx]

I agree, this would be a great, and USEFULL hack

[darngooddesign]

The secret probably lies in forcing Phone to go to the Contacts tab rather than which ever one you happened to be on last time you were in Phone.

[lifesmymachine]

maybe we can borrow the Contacts program from the ipod touch....

[speedemonV12]

this would be a very good addition to the iphone.. i would use this all day

[locklin]

Any news on this? I'd like it too...

[Mrhager]

This is just what I would like as well.... Please!

[pengcm]

I don't think it's quite as simple as putting an icon on to the home screen.
Actually the entire phone application is a single executable containing all the features (Contacts, Keypad, Recents, etc.). The Contacts part is like a subroutine in the phone app.

If we could only get the source code and take out this subroutine, then all we have to do is make an icon for it then put it onto the home screen. This is unlikely to happen without resorting to Apple.

However, as someone pointed out, we might be able to steal the contacts app from the iPod Touch, but then we need to figure out how it communicates with the database files.

Sit tight, if demand is strong enough, and once the jailbreaking process is completed on the iPod Touch, we will be seeing Contacts as a standalone app in the future.

Personally speaking though, I do not find this approach efficient, nor logical. For me, making a shortcut would be much more logical.

I think there will definitely be a shortcut manager for the iPhone in the near future. For example, I don't want to go 3 levels down just to change my ringtone! (which i do a few times a week)

[ARobinso0502]

I really do not understand all of the coding details to hacking the iPhone but it seems to me that since the contacts are accessed on the iphone by pressing a specific "contacts" button while in the phone app, then there must be a way to move or copy that code into a home screen button. I would really love to have Contacts on my homescreen. Does anyone have any ideas on if this could be done?

Here's what I did...
1. Open an SSH connection to the iPhone via WinSCP
2. Locate the /Applications folder
3. Duplicate the MobilePhone.app application group as Contacts.app
4. Find the contacts.png file in the Contacts.app folder and duplicate the file to default.png and icon.png
5. Now delete all the files in this directory with the exception of: Default.png, icon.png, Info.plist and MobilePhone
6. Edit the Info.plist file with the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>English</string>
<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
<string>MobilePhone</string>
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>com.nullriver.iphone.Contacts</string>
<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
<string>6.0</string>
<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
<string>APPL</string>
<key>CFBundleSignature</key>
<string>????</string>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>2.11</string>
</dict>
</plist>
7. Reboot the device

What this essentially does is gives you another PNG that you can use to access your contacts. The way the MobilePhone program works is that it remembers the last location used when opened so make sure to always leave off with the contacts tab.

Hope this helps until someone really works out how to get the contacts on the main screen.

[Argelius]

Wow...this sounds cool if I can get it to work.

Twos question:
"Find the contacts.png file in the Contacts.app folder and duplicate the file to default.png and icon.png"

Do you mean duplicate the contacts.png twice, renaming the duplicates default.png and icon.png?

Also, do you replace all the text in 'info.plist' with the text you provided?

So far it's not working (doesn't show up on my homescreen, although I see it in my Applications list using Finder on the iPhone).

Thanks for your help...

[canadianiphone]

thanks for the info,
i treid this and it works...however the bottom dock is not visually appealing with the missing icon pics...
maybe you could clarify how to either remove this bar or add the icon images back...
thanks


Argelius: you have to edit the plist file with an appropriate plist editor.
simply do a google search for a plist editor and make sure to view using the XML view not Binary or ASCII....
i used plistedit pro
to view in XML go to operations and change view....

hope this helps

[longgiang81]

Screen shot PLZ....!

[zoidberg md]

Screen shot PLZ....!

Ummm..... month old thread here dude.