CocoaDevNation

The default string for the carrier when using the iPhone Simulator is “Carrier”. That’s just too boring, especially if you want to use the simulator to grab some screenshots and you want more authenticity. Luckily, there’s a way to change it!

The following command line will do it:

defaults write “~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard” SBFakeCarrier “AT&T”

(Of course, it goes all on one line)

That will change the carrier string to display AT&T, the carrier for the US.

If you have the excellent PlistEdit Pro, the simulator’s springboard plist file is located at ~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard. Just add the SBFakeCarrier entry if it doesn’t already exist and set the value as a string to whatever you want displayed.

Manton Reece has a post outlining two solutions to fix some of the hassel developers have been having with the App Store and it’s fairly painful review process:

1. Accept all applications. Joe Hewitt, the developer of the Facebook application who this week also quit the App Store, has written well on this solution.

2. Allow applications to be installed on the phone without being listed in the App Store. Both Android and the Palm Pre support this model.

Option 1 is a good idea, but opens Apple up to liability issues.

Option 2 would fall more in line with how Mac development works these days. It wouldn’t be too hard to teach users how to install apps to their devices either: just drop this file onto iTunes. I think Indie Mac developers wanting to get onto the iPhone would find this setup much more palatable.

Craig Hockenberry over at furbo.org has posted a great script for changing to the Prefrences directory in the iPhone Simulator for your app as well as opening files from the Documents directory. This is without having to guess what the GUID of your app is. Thanks for sharing Craig!