iPhone User Agent Spoof - How to make all mobile websites display perfectly

[clipcarl]

Originally Posted by NoResults

Do any of the other web browsers work better?, ie Opera Mine (5)

Work better than the webOS browser? No way. The Pre browser is as good as it gets and most mobile browsers can't compare. Only the iPhone browser is in the same league (and is better than the Pre only because more sites are compatible with it).

[HISempire]

I have installed this only couple of days ago, but my Google Map doesn't work now, and unable to get a location fix.

Is there still persistent problem for this issue? Or should I just uninstall and reinstall with another download?

[dwhitman]

Originally Posted by clipcarl

@dwhitman

I don't think your problem is related to this patch because I and many others have been using it nonstop for 6 months and I have never experienced or heard of this issue. I don't think changing the user agent could cause your symptoms.

The only other thing that uninstalling this patch does is clear the browser cookies so if I had to take a wild guess it's possible the real problem could be that your browser cookie database is getting messed up. Try downloading the latest version of the patch (change-user-agent_universal-2.3.zip) and install it. The next time you have the problem run

/media/internal/change-user-agent --clear-cookies

and see if that fixes things.
Thanks,
Carl

Thanks Carl, that's a great suggestion.

Didn't make any sense to me how changing one little string could cause this (which was why removing the patch was the last thing I tried...) but your cookie hypothesis explains why removing the patch could have the side effect of fixing the problem. Got it reinstalled and if the problem reasserts itself, I'll try clearing cookies.

[clipcarl]

Originally Posted by HISempire

I have installed this only couple of days ago, but my Google Map doesn't work now, and unable to get a location fix.

Is there still persistent problem for this issue? Or should I just uninstall and reinstall with another download?

What exactly do you mean when you say that Google Maps doesn't work? If you mean only that you can't get a location fix (as you stated above) then that has nothing to do with this patch.

The very first version of the patch from several months ago had a problem where Google Maps wouldn't run usably at all but was pretty much completely broken. Its buttons and menus did not work. However, that problem was fixed within a day or so and every version since then has worked fine with Google Maps.

[myculito]

Want to mention a couple bugs that I found after using this patch:

- Engadget application would not longer load
- The new Google Voice page (m.google.com/voice) would throw an error if you select the contacts button

I tried to clear the cache as suggested in this thread, and it didn't work. So I removed the patch, and boom, Engadget and the Google Voice app started working again.

It's a shame, since this patch did fix the formatting of some of the pages i frequently visit from my Palm Pre.

[clipcarl]

@myculito:

Good to know. Of course, web sites and apps that look for a particular user agent to work don't like it when you use a different user agent. (That's the whole point of this patch after all!) It looks like the Engadget app is just trying to load the web page, so you could just bookmark i.engadget.com instead of using an app to load it. And of course, there are multiple Google Voice apps to choose from so you could try using one of those instead.

[magicjj]

All,

For a quick easy fix of a page or two that is showing up poorly in the browser, take a look at this as well:

http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pr...wport-fix.html

[kegger18]

Is it possible to enter the commands in webos quick install and selecting toolds-->linux commandline?

Originally Posted by clipcarl

[Updated: 21 November 2009]

We all know that the Palm Pre has a fantastic web browser that handles full web pages very well. But I've noticed that many mobile websites designed for the small screen of mobile devices don't display properly on the Pre. To add insult to injury these same sites display perfectly on the iPhone which uses the same browser engine.

The problem is that these mobile sites do not recognize the Pre and send it generic web pages that don't look good or work very well. On the other hand these sites recognize the iPhone and send it web pages that are designed to look and work perfectly on it.

My solution is to change the Pre's browser so that it identifies itself to websites as an iPhone. Web sites will send your Pre pages designed for the iPhone which also work perfectly on the Pre. Technically I accomplish this by patching a library on the Pre to modify the user agent string sent to websites. (If you don't understand that last sentence that's OK.)

Here is how the USA Today mobile web site looks before the patch:


And after the patch is applied:


You need to be able to access a root command line on your Pre to use this patch. This is very easy to do by downloading the developer's kit from Palm, putting your Pre in developer mode a running the novaterm program on your computer. See this site for complete instructions.

I and others have extensively tested this patch and it has proven to be very safe. There is a lot of error checking to make sure nothing unexpected or bad happens to your phone. However, it's a very good idea to back up your phone before doing this just in case. You may only use this patch if you accept that no one other than you yourself is responsible for any problems you may have if you try this.

How to install:

1. Download the attached change-user-agent_universal.zip file to your computer. This version should work for everyone on any webOS device running any recent version of webOS on any mobile network.
2. Unzip the file to reveal another file called "change-user-agent" .
3. Attach your Pre to your computer using the USB cable and put the Pre in USB Drive mode.
4. Copy the "change-user-agent" file to your Pre using your computer's normal method. Put the file in the root of the drive while it is in USB mode and not in a subdirectory (this ends up being the /media/internal directory from the command line).
5. Access a root command line on your Pre. You can do this using Palm's "novaterm" program installed as part of the developer's kit or by using an SSH client program if you have installed an SSH server on your Pre. See this site for instruction on how to access the Linux root command line on your Pre.
6. From the command line run the file. Simply type:

   /media/internal/change-user-agent
   

   Your Pre will reboot with the patch installed.

If you decide you would like to uninstall the patch and revert back, simply follow the above instructions and add the work "uninstall" on the command line in step #6. For example:

/media/internal/change-user-agent uninstall

Enjoy! If you find this useful please post a reply here to keep this thread alive so that others will see it. Thank you!

UPDATE: Now plays nice with Google Maps!

UPDATE 2: (No longer applies.)

UPDATE 3: Now the normal, safe version of the patch works perfectly with virtually every mobile web site. There is no longer any version that breaks Google Maps. Many thanks go to hofs1 for the idea that made things perfect!

UPDATE4: Should now work for Bell Canada Devices.

UPDATE5: Now the patch is a simple shell script without any binary files. It uses the 'sed' command to change the library instead. This makes the patch much more transparent and easy to understand for those that wish to audit what it is doing.

UPDATE6: Now the patch should work on any webOS device running any recent version of webOS on any mobile network. Yes, this means the patch should (hopefully) work for GSM Pre users as well as Pixi owners. Please test this as I do not have any of these devices.

[macd2002]

awesome awesome awesome

[clipcarl]

Originally Posted by kegger18

Is it possible to enter the commands in webos quick install and selecting toolds-->linux commandline?

I don't use webOS quick install myself but I believe some people have done it that way.

[cnmdiva28]

Is there anyway someone can give me a simplified version of these instructions. Im WAY confused as to how to install this patch. From what I read, it seems that u can do it by PC or from the pre itself. Id rather do it from the pre but the instructions were a little jumbled up and too advanced for a virgin such as myself. I have preware installed on my pre. What are the instructions that i need to follow using my pre. Again, simplified, yet step-by-step version would be appreciated. Thanks

[deesugar]

FYI, just as many sites as it makes look better it makes look bad or doesn't work. I tried it for a month. Not worth it.

[crogs571]

I used quickinstall from the pc.

1. download the file from the 1st post and unzip it.
2. connect your Pre or Pixi and put it in USB mode.
3. Copy the unzipped file (change-user-agent) to the root directory of your device
4. From QuickInstall, go to Tools then Linux Commandline
5. Type in "/media/internal/change-user-agent" and hit enter.

That's it. The device reboots with the patch installed.

To uninstall go to step 4 above, then type in "/media/internal/change-user-agent uninstall"

It's pretty simple. I've never tried to do the linux command line from the Pre.

Originally Posted by cnmdiva28

Is there anyway someone can give me a simplified version of these instructions. Im WAY confused as to how to install this patch. From what I read, it seems that u can do it by PC or from the pre itself. Id rather do it from the pre but the instructions were a little jumbled up and too advanced for a virgin such as myself. I have preware installed on my pre. What are the instructions that i need to follow using my pre. Again, simplified, yet step-by-step version would be appreciated. Thanks

[milliman]

clipcarl has done an excellent job with this patch. The patch has performed excellently for the many months it has been out. It has made several sites tweaked for only the iPhone usable. Unfortunately the patch now conflicts with the excellent Engadget application and Google Voice's site. I removed the patch an hour ago and expected to have to make a decision between the patch and Google Voice and Engadget. I first went to Chase and to my amazement the site displayed correctly with big buttons and all. I started going down the list of bookmarks and they all displayed properly from AMEX to the Weather Channel. Perhaps web site developers are more enlightened these days and look for the WebKit agent instead of just iPhone. Suffice it to say, I no longer need this patch.

Thanks clipcarl for all of your dedication maintaining and helping us with this patch!

[dkotoric]

is this PATCH ever going to be available through Preware -----> PLEASE

[Ozmodiar]

I dunno if everyone has heard about Google Buzz yet, but I just tried going to buzz.google.com from my Pre and it redirects me to a help page with the iPhone user agent spoof enabled... No surprise that Google is smarter than most other mobile webpages.

[Nosgoroth]

The user agent itself needs to be updated to a newer one for Buzz to work:

Mobile Browser ID Strings (a.k.a. User Agent ID)

Buzz works in chrome with this user agent:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16

[ppcjacky]

Hi crogs571

I Just Follow your steps and want to setup to my pre (1.3.5.2) After enter the patch in command line and wait for few minutes pre havent reboot (i reboot manually)
also it not haven't any changes when surfing a mobile website..
Is it not support a newest FW?

Originally Posted by crogs571

I used quickinstall from the pc.

1. download the file from the 1st post and unzip it.
2. connect your Pre or Pixi and put it in USB mode.
3. Copy the unzipped file (change-user-agent) to the root directory of your device
4. From QuickInstall, go to Tools then Linux Commandline
5. Type in "/media/internal/change-user-agent" and hit enter.

That's it. The device reboots with the patch installed.

To uninstall go to step 4 above, then type in "/media/internal/change-user-agent uninstall"

It's pretty simple. I've never tried to do the linux command line from the Pre.

[dump71]

And of course, there are multiple Google Voice apps to choose from so you could try using one of those instead.

clipcarl, since GDial is no longer going to be developed, is there a way to keep the spoof on AND access my contacts through the web versions of google voice? TIA

[nxd10]

When I go to m.google.com, it seems me as an iphone and only shows me iphone specific material. (So sad, it tells me about all the voice commands and good map services I don't have.)

I am NOT using this patch - just running the basic browsers.

Your User Agent lists this as:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U;en) (webOS/1.3.5.1; U; en-US)
AppleWebKit/525.27.1 Version/1.0 Safari/525.27.1 Pre/1.1 -CET

I see the websites (e.g., USToday.com) just as you show them.

If I downloaded your patch, would it allow GoogleMaps to function like it does on the iphone? No, correct? Just checking.