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Updated Nov 23, 2008 by zataang.om
QuickGold  
Fast, keyboard-based launcher for jailbroken iPhones

Introduction

QuickGold is a fast, keyboard-based launcher for pwned iPhones. Think Quicksilver for the iPhone.

News

IMPORTANT


When you select a contact to call, Quickgold locks up on 2.2.

If this happens, please ssh into your device and issue the command 'killall SpringBoard' ...

I am working on getting a fix ready now.


  • 1.2.2 is out now. It has less adverts. They will not show up all the time. Only some times. Hope you like it.
  • 1.2.1 is out now. 1.2 users should immediately upgrade since it fixes a dangerous crash related to indexing of contacts.
  • Advertisements: I have received all kinds of responses: (1) I don't mind at all, they are done nicely, (2) please provide a pay-for-no-ads option (3) I hate you, go to hell. :)
I am working on getting (2) working.

Features

Press the home (menu) button while you are on the SpringBoard to bring up a search bar and a keyboard. Type a few characters and tap to:

For features you want, please leave a comment on the QuickGoldFeatures page.

Please also list features in the Issues table. Please try to keep it one feature-per issue filed. It gets pretty difficult for me to sort things out from the comments! I will read the issues and just attach labels appropriately to them. Thanks!

Advertisements

I have added ads to support myself. I have made my utmost effort to keep them really unobtrusive. In fact, as soon as you typing anything, both the ads and the keyboard switcher buttons disappear. So it does not use any real screen-estate at all. This allows you guys to use this for free, while I spend my time improving QuickGold and trying to make it one indispensable program.

Screenshot

After you press the home button, and type in a few characters, while on the springboard:

Credits

Thanks go to:


Comment by ipodtouchpro, Sep 06, 2008

please add one more thing:music search. it's the most important for me!!

Comment by ipodtouchpro, Sep 06, 2008

or you can categorize the searches..for example

serach:

apps websites songs videos pics contacts

Comment by Goisser94, Sep 06, 2008

yeah something like a filter would be cool (on my ipod i don't need all the phone number displayed)

and a wanted to say,that the tableview isn't displayed whole

Comment by gshawin, Sep 06, 2008

that's the best thing ever made for the iPhone. In your latest version, you changed the results area to fill the whole width of the screen, unlike the screenshot above. I liked how it was before. Would be even better if it was transparent. And if you could use the iPhone's transparent keyboard. Thanks for making quickgold.

Comment by michaelsfutter, Sep 06, 2008

Fantastic App. One little note. I have a number of restaurants in my contacts with no first or last name, just company name. Those contacts won't show when using QuickGold. Would love an update to address this. Thanks for a fantastic app!

Comment by kupietz.mobile, Sep 06, 2008

Two complaints:

1) Automatically assigning it to the home button disables whatever you previously had set to launch on doubletap via appflow. This should just be an ordinary app with an icon in springboard, giving us the option to assign it or not assign it to the home button, as we choose.

2.) If no search criteria is entered, it should show a list of all the apps on the phone... this way we have the option of launching apps that way OR entering keystrokes to searcg for.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 06, 2008

kupietz.mobile: the first complaint isn't (or shouldn't be) valid since QuickGold does not interfere with double-tap at all. if it is interfering with a double-tap, please file a bug.

Comment by asharmain, Sep 07, 2008

I had a problem with the phone now not opening up at all after I installed quick Gold. It opens for 3 seconds and then closes. Also when I make a call via quick Gold it just has a small red bar at top which says tap to go back to call but does not open the phone sceeen - any suggestions ?

Overall seems a really good app - once i get the phone to work !!

Thanks Anupam

Comment by abeliever, Sep 07, 2008

Great app, something Apple should have included from the get go.

Instead of listing each number for the contact is it possible to include the actual contact link so we get the ability to text send email, etc... or just include both. Perhaps the first entry can be the FULL contact link whereas the following can be individual numbers.

Looking forward to updates.

Comment by gshawin, Sep 08, 2008

Oi Zachary, is it easily possible to make quickgold work on the lock screen? It's not a request. I'm just thinking about how useful this would be...

Comment by toniotoninho, Sep 08, 2008

Each time I install quick gold, my iphone doesn't start. I tried it twice and had to restaure twice. Is there any known conflict with another app? I have an iPhone 3g pawned.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 08, 2008

@toniotoninho: as far as i know there is no conflict with any other app, what does the system log say? is there any output there? do you have any other "mobile substrate" based libraries installed? In particular, can you tell me what the contents of /Library/MobileSubstrate?/DynamicLibraries? is for your case?

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 08, 2008

@gshawin: it could be useful certainly since i hate having to slide the slider sometimes to launch stuff. wouldn't it be nice if one could launch directly from the lock screen? :) I will think about it.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 08, 2008

@asharmain: i have not observed / reproduced that behavior at all on my end. are you able to consistently reproduce that behavior still? if so let me know. you can contact at the gmail address provided.

Comment by antoine.vidal, Sep 09, 2008

Thank you for the answer zataang. The only file I have in /Library/MobileSubstrate?/DynamicLibraries? is FiveIconDock?.dylib

Comment by gshawin, Sep 09, 2008

Yay! Thanks. I hate sliding-to-unlock as well when I'm on the go and need to make a call. QuickGold will be even quicker. lolz.

Comment by r.farivar, Sep 09, 2008

I have the same problem as aharmain and after installing quickgold my phone key pad is not working and i can not cancell a call or dial a number. I am trying to restore the original stage and i hope to be able to get rid of this software. Also I uninstalled the software and still the same thing.

Comment by paul.baumgartner, Sep 10, 2008

Great software, I think its simplicity is a real strong point.

I think the idea of a lock screen is to prevent accidentally launching things. It wouldn't really be a lock screen if you can launch things without unlocking. Why not just leave your phone unlocked if you want that functionality?

Comment by kirkshook, Sep 10, 2008

as for no keypad, the only time I've experienced this is when I have "Kate" installed. However I haven't installed Quickgold yet.

Comment by boydbme, Sep 13, 2008

doesn't seem to work with 2.1 update. No longer searches apps. Any idea how long a fix will take?

thanks. I love the program, sooo useful.

Comment by fuel.me, Sep 13, 2008

In FW 2.1, everything works except searching for apps. No app shows up when searching. Hope an update is coming. Thanks!

Comment by Johnny.Niu, Sep 14, 2008

Can not search apps in FW 2.1. Waiting for new version. Thank you.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 14, 2008

hi guys, yeah, i have fixed the apps searching issue in the development version. will try to release an update as soon as i can.

Comment by egordin, Sep 14, 2008

Great thanks zataang! Can't wait to get app searching back (I miss having minimal amounts of icons on my homescreens!)

Keep up the great work!

Also, are you planning on searching bookmarks too? That'd be great!

Comment by misaelt, Sep 14, 2008

Great news Zataang.

Maybe apple will copy Quick Gold funcionality?

Comment by shimada1954, Sep 14, 2008

It is very useful,but it does not serch program(only can serch contacts) on 2.1.

Comment by alextrob, Sep 14, 2008

As soon as that 2.1 update comes out through Cydia, I'll hit you up with a donation. QuickGold is an awesome app.

Comment by xxragexx, Sep 14, 2008

Glad to hear you've found a fix for 2.1! Keep up the good work man, this app is one of the top 3 available and a primary reason for jailbreaking IMO.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 14, 2008

ok, version 1.0.3 is out now. everybody run and update :) and let me know if you still cannot search for apps on 2.1 or 2.0

Comment by firas.mo...@gmail.com, Sep 15, 2008

Apps are searchable again!!!! (with the 1.0.3 update)

Great Job :D

14 hours between "accepted" and "fixed"

Imagine if this was the app store :P

Comment by onehoon, Sep 15, 2008

plz add phone number search feature plz..

Comment by 121applesolutions, Sep 15, 2008

Thanks for a simple app that works so well. Could you add calendar events to the search function, as this is the most important function I need to service over 250 clients. It would be the clincher for me. Cheers.

Comment by onehoon, Sep 15, 2008

Is quickgold a background app? or same with others??

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 15, 2008

@onehoon: no, it is not a background app. it "injects" itself into the springboard, and so acts as if it is a part of the springboard itself.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 15, 2008

@121applesolutions: i did not understand the need properly. what would you want to do by searching the calendar events?

Comment by Johnny.Niu, Sep 18, 2008

Will be perfect if SMS and Notes can be searched.

Comment by onehoon, Sep 19, 2008

can you add contact search feature by phone number?

for example, the phone number of my friend in contacts is 213-232-3345, then when I type last 3345 on Quickgold, Show My friend..

thanks~

Comment by alextrob, Sep 21, 2008

Awesome update (1.1) - I love the icons. Much pretty :)

I think a few of the features people are suggesting (like searching calendar events or searching email) would make QuickGold too complex.

I'd like to see it go in the direction of QuickSilver? for Mac, where the app gets 'smarter' the more you use it and learns what you launch the most. And then the Go button can launch the first item in the list with some pretty good accuracy.

Anyway, great app. Keep up the awesome work.

Comment by musicking, Sep 23, 2008

This is great, but ever since the update....whenever I get a legit app from the app store it restarts my phone into safe mode after install. This just started happening after the quick gold update.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 23, 2008

@musicking: yes, i know!! :( folks have filed a bug as well. i have already fixed this in the dev version, it should be out with a few more exciting features in a day at max. Sorry for the trouble! :(

Comment by emilv345, Sep 23, 2008

I love this app. It is perfect in concept. There is one bug i have found however, which has stopped me from using it.

I use it only for contact search & call, not for apps.

When type a contact name in, it searches, finds and displays correctly, however, when there is more than one number for a contact (eg home, work, mobile), it list the contact 3 times (I know it should, thats fine), but each listing whether it is home, mobile or work, all calls the same number, and it is different for each contact.

For example, if i type "ta" my wifes contact comes up (Tanya), it shows home, work, mobile. All 3 listings call her work number. My contact details, work, home, mobile, work mobile all default to call my mobile, regardless which listing i select.

It also seems a bit slow the first time you search, the search is quick, but you cant select a listing for around 5 secs after the list is displayed. After first search, it seems to be fine.

Thanks for listening, If the contact listing bug gets fixed, i will be donating some good money.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 23, 2008

@previous guy :) -> i have fixed the contact bug, as well as the app store update crashes springboard bug. there's also a new secret and useful feature there (hint: g <word>) in this new update. it should be out shortly - in about an hour.

Comment by mkmy11, Sep 23, 2008

Great app!

Possible bugs:

- Name is Müller. If i type "mul" the build in contacts app finds "müller", QuickGold does not.

Feature: search contacts using phone numbers or emails - Phone number is saved as "+12 345 6789" according to build in contact app (sync from exchange). QuickGold displays it as "+12-345-6789". Typing "3456789" should find this phone number. - Search using emails doesn't work for me (haven't found a pattern yet)

If I create a new contact QuickGold doesn't find it right away.

Feature request: - Ability to open a contact without calling it. Either a point in the menu on the right (open contact, send text message, send mail, cancel) or if you tap the name or the left icon. - Highlight the search characters in the found items (for the first and the smaller second line)

Comment by egordin, Sep 23, 2008

zataang -

I love that the icons are properly skinned via winterboard. Oh man, you're doing SUCH a great job!

Comment by york.henrywong, Sep 24, 2008

this is a good idea and creative software in iphone and it most userfriendly, but i think u can add these feature in this software.

1. Give UI is setting for user define the search in "web", "contact", or "software", becaus for my example i no need the quickgold to search my web history, when i searching the contact it show many my web history for me.

2. add a optional button in quickgold to show a big number pad like "lockdown" software number pad. i think the big number pad is build in iphone sdk. the number will help me type the phone number more easily.

Thank Henry Wong

Comment by alok.desai, Sep 24, 2008

Hey Zaatang,

You are doing a great job and this is the best app available on cydia. I have a question and a feature request.

Question:

As you said in one of the comments that quickgold is not a background app and just injects itself in the springboard then why does the usage meter equals the standby time in the general setting after installing quickgold? I have verified this by restoring my iPhone twice and not installing any other application. (just quickgold...not even winterboard)

Feature Request:

Currently when you search for a contact which has a pause (",") inserted in the phone number (like for dialing an extension automatically), and you click on that entry in the quickgold it does not launch the phone application. For that matter none of the launchers I have used is able to do that. I am wondering if that is the limitation with the OS or launchers.

Thanks,

Alok.

Comment by matonski, Sep 24, 2008

I love this program but have 2 issues.

1) Sometimes, if I press the home button to get out of QuickGold, it looks like it opens another instance of it, as opposed to quitting it. Then, I have to press the home button twice more to exit in order to close both of them.

2) Sometimes, if I happen to open QuickGold while making a call (usually by accident), I have a hard time returning to the call screen. The "touch to return to call" banner at the top shows, but touching it then takes me back to the home screen. This has caused me issues a few times when I accidentally dialed someone, pressed the home button instinctively to cancel it, which then causes QuickGold to come up and I'm stuck there and unable to cancel the call for awhile as I fiddle around trying to get back to the call screen.

Besides those 2 occasional hiccups (which could just be me being dumb), I love QuickGold. Thank you so much for developing it.

Comment by alok.desai, Sep 24, 2008

Nevermind my question above, the usage and stand by problem only happens the first time after you install QuickGold. On the subsequent full charges, usage and stand by times are displayed correctly.

Comment by pthomaslandry, Sep 24, 2008

I love this app, it's a huge time-saver. Is there any way to add email search? Email search would make this a killer app for me.. If not, does anyone know any app that does email search?

Comment by joewlo, Sep 24, 2008

great app. Noticed a bug with 1.1.0 and 1.1.1.

When searching for a contact with both phone numbers and email addresses, the email addresses don't come up in the search, only the phone numbers.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 25, 2008

@matonski: (1) strange! not been able to reproduce this myself, but I will keep an eye on it. (2) you can just hit "Go" without typing anything in the search box, and QuickGold will close itself. Hope that helps.

Comment by mkmy11, Sep 25, 2008

@zataang.om: if i reported a (possible) bug here, should i also report it under issues (sorry, didn't see it at first).

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 25, 2008

@mkmy11: yes, please. I may forget about the issues listed in the comments, but those in the Issues section keep poking me in the eye, so I take note more seriously :D

Comment by gshawin, Sep 25, 2008

Oi if I type e.g "g star wars", quickgold just goes back to the home screen. The google and powerset thingy doesn't work for two words. Otherwise, quickgold still rocks.

Comment by isaiah.roberts, Sep 25, 2008

How do I download the program? I can't find the install link on Cydia. Thanks for the help.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 25, 2008

@isaiah: just go to Featured Programs link within Cydia and you will find it. Otherwise go to "Search" and search for it.

Comment by chrisb8sn, Sep 25, 2008

i thought about this. thanks for making it.

Comment by isaiah.roberts, Sep 25, 2008

It didn't show the install link in Featured Programs, but it did when I searched for it. Thanks!

Comment by oswaldo.ripalda, Sep 26, 2008

Hi, great app zataang. I've had problems since upgrading to 2.1 FW. Every time I try to install QG 1.1.1 I get a message from Mobile Substrate and it goes into Safe Mode. I restart the phone and the same, until I uninstall QG. Is it a known Bug? I've tried everything I can think of to make it work. Do you know how to fix this? Thanks

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 26, 2008

@oswaldo: that is strange indeed. This is not a known bug, and almost nobody has reported it. Do you have crash reports (for springboard) or anything in syslog to send me so I can take a look?

Comment by rootdude, Sep 26, 2008

Nice work Zataang - I appreciate the effort (as evidenced by my donation earlier). One thing i would really like to see is a way for the app to index email and allow us to search our email accounts for text strings... that'd be MONDO helpful to us... Regards, S†åç™

Comment by scottb82, Sep 26, 2008

Great app guys. You should be working on the Apple iPhone team. Just a few questions.

1. How long does it take to index new content eg. Added new contact via Exchange sync and not showing up via Quickgold yet.

2. Searching via number, why do we have to have the "-" between the numbers. Is there a way to search just by typing the numbers?

Keep on working on this guys and I will keep on jailbreaking my phone. This would be the only reason to jailbreak even if there were no other apps to use.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 26, 2008

@scottb82: respring and you should see the new contacts. I will make sure you don't have to respring in the next version. Searching via numbers: yah, this is a known filed issue. As I have updated in the page above, please use the Issues tab to file requests and bug reports. It keeps things organized. Only add stuff like "Hey this rocks" in the comments page. Just kidding :-)

Btw, it's not guys, just a "guy" :-)

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 26, 2008

@rootdude: email search - i can certainly see it being useful. however, it is really not that easy to get it going robustly and quickly. QuickGold stays in the SpringBoard? all the time, and memory consumption is a huge deal for me. So, yes, email search will come. But, only down the line, when some of the more annoying issues with the current feature set are sorted out.

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 26, 2008

@rootdude: and thanks for the donation btw! :)

Comment by tmcaffeine, Sep 28, 2008

What keyboard is that in the screenshot?

Comment by zataang.om, Sep 28, 2008

@tmcaffeine: glossy keyboard. it's a theme you get for winterboard.

Comment by mylistsandstuff, Sep 29, 2008

love quickgold. Not crazy about the appearance though.

It would be nice if instead of having the top half scale in you made it either slide down from the top and meet the keyboard in the center or have the whole UI slide up from the bottom like the new message view in apple's mail app. Just feels weird that the UI parts come from different places.

Also would be nice if it had a simpler color scheme. Maybe match the search box and list a little better to the keyboard. Or even better, make it all translucent black like the app store login keyboard.

Thanks.

Comment by hrovatma...@hotmail.com, Sep 30, 2008

Love quick gold! :D I have a request though: can you build in the function that you can easily scroll throug "pages" of apps (on the sprinboard) with typing in like just number "1" to go on the first page, or like "10" to go to the tenth page. Cuz I have like 10 pages of apps and dont know every app by heart, but I mostly know on which page its on or that its near that page. You know how that is - I mostly use the apps on the last page (the newly downloaded/installed) and the apps on the first page (like safari, calc, cal...).

That would be really cool if you could manage!

Rgds

Comment by york.henrywong, Oct 03, 2008

you are a very strong, i try the new version 1.2, last time i leave here a message in the separate searching and have number pad to search tel no. all come true in this version.

but i found that when quickgold if select to search tel mode. it will appear a number pad. if u can make a dial button in it is more perfect in quickgold..^^ beacuse if a type a phone number which is not include in my contact i cannot dail it. but if in default mode, it can use go button in the keyboad to dial the phone call.

Comment by gruppler, Oct 03, 2008

I just updated to the latest version and now my iPod is stuck in a respring cycle. As soon as the lockscreen wallpaper loads, i see the spinner and it resprings, and i can't do anything to stop it other than force a reboot, which doesn't help at all. What should i do?

Comment by jusasweet69, Oct 03, 2008

after upgrading to 1.2 I also find myself in a constant booting into safemode now I hope this gets fixed cuz I can't live without this I use it constantly

Comment by christoph.stamm, Oct 03, 2008

hello same problem since the update to 1.2. my iphone 2G with fw 2.1 goes to safe mode on everytime. so i cannot use quickgold anymore... is it possible to install the old 1.1.1 with the cydia installer again? thanks.

Comment by onehoon, Oct 03, 2008

same here safemode Waiting for getting fixed Thx

Comment by ssengel, Oct 03, 2008

Yep, safemode also on the 3G with 2.1.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Grr. Sorry guys. I am going to start a beta-testers mailing list / group so you guys can beta test new releases. I hate breaking people's phones :( and none of my friends (or me) seem to find these crashes when we use it ourselves.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Also, let me know what you think about the adverts. I have tried to make the ad completely unintrusive. Basically if you start typing anything, the ad and the keyboard switching buttons will both disappear. So you won't lose any screen real-estate AT ALL when using quickgold. But I would still like to know your feedback.

Comment by jrunning, Oct 03, 2008

I installed the update and I'm trapped in a respring cycle like gruppler. If anybody can tell me how to get out of the loop so I can kill QuickGold I'd greatly appreciate it. Force-rebooting the iPhone didn't help.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Hey, can anybody with these forced respring cycles please get me some syslog or crash report traces?! I have tried everything and just can't reproduce this bug at all.

Comment by jrunning, Oct 03, 2008

zataang: How do I do that? I can't SSH in (the iPhone isn't on wifi right now), but I can browse the filesystem with iPhoneBrowser, so if you can tell me where to look I can try to get it for you.

Comment by gruppler, Oct 03, 2008

Yeah...i can't access my ipod at all. If this doesn't get resolved soon, i'll just have to restore, which i really, really, really do not want to do. If i could just SSH i know i could at least stop QuickGold from trying to launch, but the ipod doesn't have time to connect to the network before respringing, and i think i have the SSH server disabled anyway.

Comment by alok.desai, Oct 03, 2008

For me, it's working perfectly. Btw, I have not installed winterboard. If people who are having problems give more info like which apps they have installed it would be a helpful to Zataaang. I think the mobiad Advertisement implementation is brilliant. This way the project could be sustained and also is not a hindrance in the app's usability. Hats off zataang. Now only if you remove the bug that I reported about calling phone numbers with extensions, it would save a lot of time for me. Thanks and keep it up.

Comment by jrunning, Oct 03, 2008

gruppler: If you're on Windows and do have SSH turned on, iPhone Tunnel Suite works for SSHing to the iPhone over USB.

http://www.iphone3g-mods.com/2008/08/ssh-to-your-iphone-without-wifi.html

Now I just have to figure out how to stop QuickGold.

Comment by gruppler, Oct 03, 2008

Just a thought... I'm also using IntelliScreen?. Maybe that's interfering. Anyone else with problems using it?

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

jrunning: if you can browse the file system (and have syslog enabled), you should have the report at /var/log/syslog. Otherwise, you should also search in /var/mobile/Library/Logs/CrashReporter?/ and search for files beginning with SpringBoard? with a date and time approx close to when your phone crashed.

God, these infinite respring cycles are crazy. MobileSubstrate? has a safety mode to prevent exactly this, and I am really surprising it is not kicking in.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

jrunning: btw, if you can edit the filesystem using iPhoneBrowser, just get rid of /Library/MobileSubstrate?/DynamicLibraries?/QuickGold.dylib and you should be golden

Comment by alok.desai, Oct 03, 2008

gruppler you can also use iphonebrowser to access your iPhone file system using USB... It has very nice features and interface

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Btw, guys, could you please move over to the quickgold google group for all these discussions? People can find stuff better then instead of having to scroll through this madness all the time! By the end of this day, I will disallow commenting here and archive all the comments.

Comment by jrunning, Oct 03, 2008

zataang: I can't find the group so as to join it.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Sorry, jrunning: here it is: http://groups.google.com/group/quickgold

Comment by raulbe, Oct 03, 2008

Can someone please post the 1.1.1 version while this gets fixed.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Ok guys, I have fixed this infinite respring thing I think ... An update will be shortly - in 15 minutes.

Comment by zataang.om, Oct 03, 2008

Shutting down comments on this page now. Please move over to: http://groups.google.com/group/quickgold for all your discussions

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