Running iMovie on iPhone 3GS

One new feature presented at iPhone 4 launch event is a exclusively designed iMovie for the device. Apple was clear: it would be paid, available for purchase from iTunes Store but only works on the iPhone 4. But what if you have an iPhone 3GS and also wants to edit videos using simple iMovie ways? Follow the steps below and edit your photos and videos the way you would on the iPhone 4.

Update: there’s a new technique to edit the info.plist file (located inside iMovie.app) with the following values:

• Minimum system version = 3.0.0
• UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities/front-facing-camera = false

You’ll need an iPhone with Jailbreak. You can’t install the application on the iPhone 3GS without Jailbreak.

1 – Counting your iPhone has been jailbroken, open Cydia, find “OpenSSH” application and install it. Connect your iPhone in the same Wi-fi network from your computer.

2 – Open iTunes, search, purchase and download iMovie:

3 – When the process complete you’ll see the iMovie icon in your Apps list. If you try to sync the iPhone, you’ll receive a message that the application is not compatible:

4 – Right-click the application icon list and select the Show option to reveal the folder where the application is located.

5 – On Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (Win), rename the file to . ZIP and unzip it:

6 – Find the iMovie.app file in the decompressed folder

7 – Connect to your iPhone using a software SSH / SFTP (Mac: Cyberduck, Win:WinSCP) and send the iMovie.app file to the /Applications folder:

8 – Do a respring on the iPhone (you can do so using the SBSettings or other application installed on Cydia for this feature)

9 – Ready! iMovie is in your screen!

The only limitation we could notice is that’s not possible to export high-definition videos, just average quality (360p).

The export process is also slower than in iPhone 4 because iPhone 3G’s hardware is inferior, but the videos are normally transferred to phone’s photo area.

Featured, iPhone

Found something wrong? Please contact us!