Going beyond the limit of app screens on the iPhone 3GS!

[Zoticos]

After I bought my iPhone 3GS 3 weeks ago I had been downloading many APPS. Once I hit over the 11th app screen page the icons were not showing on the 12th app screen. It appeared to me that the number of the app screens had found its limit. Now I started to delete all the apps I no longer needed.

Then by accident I came across some sort of back door that allowed me to create an extra app screen. I tried that same procedure again and again and another extra app screen was created. I tried it so far that I now have 16 app screens with over 250 apps. I don?t know how far it will go, but now I feel free again. I can re-install some of the apps that I had to give up due to the app screen restrictions. I don?t know if I should talk about how exactly I found this back door here on this blog because I?m afraid that apple will close this back door in the next OS update. I will post again with a youtube link showing that this blog is not a joke! By the way I did not use any kind of crack or jailbreak app to enter this app screen back door.

I will be adding more apps to see if there is a limit around the 16th or 18th app screen. Then it looks like there are only enough white apps screen dots at the bottom to show a total of 18 dots.

After that I would like to visit my Apple store and show them how many apps I got on my iPhone and see what they have to say.

Perhaps they might say this back door is only available for VIP's.

 

[paul100]

On a standard non-jailbroken iphone 3GS you can create up to 11 app screens by default. And if you have created more than that without jailbreaking (without using anything like Redsnow, Quickpwn,) then you can boldly march towards your apple store to get their comments, I congratulate you on your achievement. But if you have used any of the above tools then your warranty becomes invalid and will not get any support or replacement in case of damage.

So make sure what you've done doesn't make the warranty invalid.

 

[Zoticos]

Thanks Paul100 for your reply. I never heard of Redsnow or Quickpwn before. All I can say is that all my apps were downloaded from the Apple apps iTunes store.

And again as I said in my first post I did not JAILBREAK my iPhone.
All the steps involved are completely permissible by any iPhone user.
It all has to do with a combination of icon moves. That is all I'm going to say about that for now.

I'm just guessing that this back door is an unknown bug or someone from the Apple OS developer team had put this little workaround in for their own use.

I remember back in the old days 1992. In my own business I was selling the NeXT computer in Germany. It was at an NeXT developer seminar I had attended. The software developers started sharing some of the hidden programs you could launch by pressing certain keys and many others things.

For those of you that didn't know, the NeXT computer was developed by Steven Jobs and his team when he had left Apple.
For more Information: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

Perhaps we could share here on this board all of the hidden undocumented secrets we find on the iPhone.

Next week I will be migrating some users from their BlackBerry to the iPhone. That should give me an opportunity to retest the hidden app screens procedure and document the process on video.

But before I would release the video on youtube I need to get the OK from Apple. I don't want to violate any rights.

 

[Christinme7890]

If you jailbreak your phone you void your warranty...the end. It doesn't matter if you have all legit apps or not.

On the other hand, how did you get more than 11 pages of apps? I will never need 11 pages, and use 6 pages now, but interested in how you got more than 11 (if you have a jailbroken phone i don't care how you did it). I have done it with a jailbroken iphone and that is no big news. But if you did it with a non-JB then that is interesting.

 

[GMJeff]

The OP has said twice now that he did not jailbreak his phone. I believe there could be workarounds to the limitation, as he does mention moving certain icons around...Hmmm.

In software, these are usually used by devs, or are included as easter eggs, which the devs sometimes throw in for fun.

Whatever happened to believing a person's word until he could back it up with proof. Oh yeah, that went away a long time ago, sorry.

 

[Leanna Lofte]

I'm a little confused... you say you found a "back door" but don't want to say what it is because you don't want Apple to fix it, yet you're going to show it to your Apple store? Violating rights? How the heck would you be violating rights?

 

[big9erfan]

Speaking as a software developer...

If you find something that is typically used for developer access only, and the developers deem it not to be used by the general public, you'll find it "fixed" or just re-hidden in the next release. If it's a bug, then it may or may not be fixed in a future version depending on the type of impact it has. If you've found a buffer overflow type bug, then it will be fixed for security concerns, if it's just clever use of software design, they may never fix it.

I say post the video, let Apple sort out how to deal with it. Regardless you are not liable for anything.

 

[BradM73]

I think what he's getting at is once you fill up the current "limit" of screens, you can drag an icon, like you would to move them around or delete apps, and move an app to the right, to a "blank" screen. This then should allow you to download more apps until you fill that page, and so on. Maybe it was intended to work that way. Seems kind of pointless to limit the number of apps, though it might slow the phone down a little bit if you cram your iPhone full of apps! lol

 

[Behshad]

It's very simple. If you truly have achieved this then you could simply share with the rest of us.
I call BS , since there's too much talk and no action.

One simple way you could prove this without telling us HOW you achieved this is take a video of your screen and show us the 16 white dots on your home screen.
Or just a picture taken by your iPhone from your homescreen.

 

[Zoticos]

276 visible icons on the 17th app screen. Yes it did work again. At this point I'm sure that would be enough apps I would want on my iPhone. The small white dots at the bottom are now showing all across, maybe one more could fit I'll leave that for someone else to try out.

So, I called Apple support last night gave them a tinyurl.com link to this blog. They said that you can only have up to 11 apps screens. I talked about making a video with instruction how to bypass the limitation and would post the video on youtube.
They answered that Apple's customer relations would probably want to get involved in this matter.

Anyway, I'm going to record a video by next week and post it on youtube by the end of this mouth if nothing negative comes back from Apple.

I'm hoping for all iPhone users that would love to have more app screens (instead of using the search function to find apps), that the word would be spread far enough to all forums that on Aug. 01/2009 06:00PM EST there will be a video named "Going beyond the limit of 11 app screens on the iPhone 3GS!" demonstrating how easy anyone can add a new app screen.

I can only hope the buzz would be loud enough that Apple would think twice if they would want to close this back door in the next OS update.

Just think if one could see more app icons one might buy more apps, wouldn't that make every app developer more happier that the chances of one buying your app could increase.

I will be going today to my Apple store at the "Big Apple NYC" and see what they have to say about my finding.

Will keep you posted.........

 

[jglowe74]

when you post the video to youtube, please link it here on TiPb too. that way we can follow this thread and will know when your video is up on youtube. thanks zoticos.

 

[Leanna Lofte]

lol. You should've just told us how to do it and kept Apple out of it. I guarantee they'll "fix" it.

I'm sorry... I just can't believe it until I see it.

 

[alex6speed]

+1 llofte. You'd might as well claim you found how to multitask while you're at it.

 

[BradM73]

Oh yea, and make sure to tell them that there are jailbreak and unlocks available too, so they can "fix" those "problems" as well.

... some people...

 

[lionheartednyhc]

Wait, Im confused. You found a "secret" that you seem to enjoy, yet you are trying to get apple to take it off?

Am I the only one completely baffled by this?

Bank Robber: Dude, this is awesome. I just found a ton of cash. I'm going to go show the cop what I did, hopefully he will let me keep it.


By the way, who the hell needs that many apps? You probably have 12000 friends on Myspace that you talk to regularly too, huh?

 

[Zoticos]

Secret or not, I'm just trying to find out if anyone out there including Apple can concur with me of my finding. You guys really think if I didn't contact Apple and would had explained exactly how to create those extra app screens here on this blog, Apple would never hear about it. I don't think so.

Anyway, so I went to the Apple 24/7 superstore in Manhattan yesterday and got my Apple care package for $69,-.
Now came the one million dollar question: How many app screens can you have on a iPhone3GS?
The answer: "You can have up to 11 screens.
Then I showed my iPhone with 17 app screens including the 17 small white dots at the bottom plus the spotlight dot.
Their responds from several Apple specialist was: "It's part of the new 3G "S" model that can handle more app screens"

They also said they haven't seen it yet on a live iPhone. So what should I make of that?

Well, like I said the other day a video will be made and posted on youtube Aug. 01/2009 06:00PM EST with the title: "Going beyond the limit of 11 app screens on the iPhone 3GS!"

Until then I hope to see somewhere else that my finding is not a hidden secret, and is some sort of intention from Apple to give users more than the 11 known possible apps screens in the future.

 

[Leanna Lofte]

Aug. 01 at around 6:00 EST, eh?

lmao

 

[lionheartednyhc]

Secret or not, I'm just trying to find out if anyone out there including Apple can concur with me of my finding. You guys really think if I didn't contact Apple and would had explained exactly how to create those extra app screens here on this blog, Apple would never hear about it. I don't think so.

So basically you are either crazy or having an existential crisis and need others to verify that you are indeed seeing what you are seeing? Do you ask people what color the sky is to make sure you are seeing that too?

Dude, you are making NO sense.

If you can actually do that on your phone, and you can see it, why do you need other people to tell you you are seeing it?

If its real, freaking post a picture.

 

[big9erfan]

The more this goes on the more I want to call shenanigans.

 

[alex6speed]

Oh I'm already calling shenanigans, if not over dramatic. It's not like the whole iPhone world is going to go crazy enough to schedule everything off on august 1 at 6pm eastern just for a page access the majority of us will never reach. Unless you found how to use the iPhone on CDMA, or somehow activating video conferencing, drop the drama and share the info or STFU.