iFunBox Development

After several rounds of fighting against Apple’s iTunes database, we decide to stop following any further variations of the new database format. Instead, we are looking for alternatives of the iPod application on iPhone/iTouch.

Our plan is to provide an open, efficient and easy-to-use solution for obtaining and enjoying video and music on iPhone. The key of the solution is to establish an open, flexible and efficient standard of playlist exchange format, which describes a list of the video and music on iPhone and their associated information such as album title, cover and the year of publish. Such a standard bridges the mediaplayer on iPhone and File browsers on PC/Mac and provides the seamless user experience of copy-and-play of media files in any format. On the other hand, we are open to alternative ideas.

We are calling for collaborations with iPhone developers who are working on mediaplayer/file browser. We are working on a dedicate edition of the ifunbox to convert and transfer media files from PC/Mac to iPhone via high-speed USB connection.

iFunbox V0.9.257.241 is just released. [ download ]

What’s New:
1. Fix compatibility problem with iTunes 9
2. support customized shortcuts: add, rename and delete

All localization  versions are updated, with original translation dictionaries.

Highlight:

Besides the built-in shortcuts, users can add customized shortcuts pointing any locations of the iPhone’s file system. Customized shortcut is added by clicking the “Add to Shortcut” item in the context menu of the folder to be pointed. The list of customized shortcuts is stored on your iPhone. So, these shortcuts will always appear on iFunbox V0.9 running on any PC.

We received a lot of feedback that i-funbox stops working after iTunes 9 installed. The problem is that the Apple Mobile Device Support is also updated with iTunes 9 upgrading. After a quick check, we found the device is detected but fails to connect to AFC service on iPhone, on which file system access is based. It seems some communication protocols are changed on the application level.

We are investigating ways for workaround.
We just find the problem is that the internal signature of the string representation has been changed in the new release of iTunes 9 as well as Apple Mobile Device Support. We have fixed the problem by assigning the signature with the new standard. We are now testing the fix-up with previous versions of iTunes and will release a new version within 8 hours.

I decide to add Favorites feature that the user can add its own shortcut. So, the new release postponed to after next 12 hours.

iFunbox V0.9.257.241 is released, all localized versions are updated.