Node.js on your (jailbroken) iPhone

Wynn sat down with Nick Quaranto at Red Dirt Ruby Conference to talk about Gemcutter, RubyGems.org, and how to get started creating your own Ruby gem.

Nathan “Too Tall” Rajlich has gotten Node.js to run his jailbroken iPhone 4. If you’ve got SSH access on a jailbroken phone, simply extract the .deb package:

dpkg -i node-v0.4.5-ios-arm-1.deb

Now you can see if Node is running:

$ node> require('os').cpus()[ { model: 'N90AP', speed: 0, times: { user: 9209240, nice: 0, sys: 6997410, idle: 255377220, irq: 0 } } ]

Nate has created node-iOS to play with iOS-specific functionality with Node bindings:

var iOS = require('iOS');iOS.vibrate();// Quick vibrate, like when you receive text messageif (iOS.compass.available) { // true if the iDevice has a digitalcompass iOS.compass.on('heading', function(heading) { console.log(heading.magneticHeading); // Degrees relative tomagnetic north });}

Of course if you want to play with Node on mobile without jailbreaking your phone, Node.js powers the JavaScript services in WebOS.

[Source on GitHub] [Blog post]

Firefox Never Coming to iPhone

Mozilla blog dispels possibility in no uncertain terms.

I a recent blog post on the official Mozilla blog, Prabhakar Raghavan laid out future plans for Firefox Home and in the process put the question of whether the popular open source browser would ever make the jump to the iPhone.

The blog, titled "Firefox Home -- looking to the future," Raghavan outlined new features for Firefox Home, the cloud-based iOS app that synchronizes bookmarks, passwords, and tabs between Firefox and an iOS device. Some new features mentioned in the post include the ability to share links, reviews, and comments directly with Facebook friends and Twitter followers via Firefox Home.

The Mozilla Project plans to bring Firefox Home to BlackBerry and Symbian soon. There is no need to bring Home to Android, as Mozilla is already had at work on the Fennec mobile browser for the platform. An iPad-specific version of Home is also being considered.

In the conclusion, Raghaven dispelled the rumor that Fennec was being developed for iPhone.

"There are technical and logistical restrictions that make it difficult, if not impossible, to build the full Firefox browser for the iPhone," Raghaven said.

The title of the section was unambiguously "No Firefox for the iPhone."

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