iCARS, A Star Trek LCARS Summerboard Theme For The iTouch and iPhone
Posted by Rich | Filed under Apple, Technology
I created a Summerboard theme around the Star Trek LCARS interface. This theme is based on the original iPhone theme by Kevin Rohrman (kevin@themonsterjam.com).
The iCARS theme includes a wallpaper you can put in /Library/Wallpaper to set the lock screen. This theme requires that you load and order your applications very specifically. You must read the details after the jump or you will not get this theme to look like anything but a jumbled mess.
The First Screen
The Second Screen
The Third Screen
The iCARS theme requires that the following application be loaded and visible on your iPod Touch or iPhone:
Dock:
Music, Videos, Photos, Finder
Screen One:
Safari, Mail, Calendar, Contacts
YouTube, Stocks, Maps, Weather
Term-vt100, Apollo, Colloquy, Notes
Screen Two:
Preferences, SMBPrefs, Customize, SysInfo
Installer, Stumbler, Clock, Calculator
SSH, VNsea, PDFViewer, weDict
Screen Three:
Books, gpSPhone, NES, psx4all
RSS, Tetromino, iBLackjack, Sketches
iLevel, iPhysics, iTunes, ToDoList
Here are shots of the application ordering in Customize -> Icon Display Order -> Manual Reorder:
Finally, here is how you setup your prefs in Summerboard.
Download this theme below:
iCARS, A Star Trek LCARS Summerboard Theme For The iPod Touch and iPhone
42 Responses to “iCARS, A Star Trek LCARS Summerboard Theme For The iTouch and iPhone”
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JLeRoy Says:
December 31st, 2007 at 9:01 amThis is simply the greatest! Dreamed of it as a kid
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Rich Says:
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:16 amHehe, one nerd to another
I am surprised how many folks comment on this theme when I am using my touch in public. -
Ariën Says:
January 6th, 2008 at 4:00 amToo bad it doesn’t work on the iPod Touch, maybe you can look into it? Please?
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Ariën Says:
January 6th, 2008 at 4:07 amActually, it does work, but it looks whrecked, cause we iTouch users have less icons.
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Rich Says:
January 6th, 2008 at 9:07 amYou have to have the exact applications in the exact order I set out above, or it will look “whrecked”.
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joe b Says:
January 8th, 2008 at 6:45 amwas wondering how i can install lcars on iphone,doesnt seem to work in the order you propose.any help would be great,been waiting for something like this for 30 years,,,help
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aki Says:
January 8th, 2008 at 9:40 amA non-whreckable version would be even better… any chance? Amazingly cool tho.
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Rich Says:
January 8th, 2008 at 7:45 pmHmmm, the non-whreckable version would be very hard to build indeed. If the applications and settings are not exactly as shown above, it will not work.
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joe b Says:
January 9th, 2008 at 8:53 amwould love to know what files and in what order can i put these files into my iphone…dosent seem to want to take in the order you show
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Andrew Says:
January 10th, 2008 at 10:52 pmDo these specific applications have to be loaded? In other words, can I put the applications in this order, but some not be exactly the same?
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Opus Penguin Says:
January 11th, 2008 at 7:51 amAn easier format to read would be better. Also, it would be better if you can customize it easier instead of the applications having to be in a specific order.
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Rich Says:
January 11th, 2008 at 10:33 am@Andrew: The specific applications do not have to be loaded, but you will have to rename the icons to the applications you are using in the theme folder.
@Opus: Agreed, but the Summerboard themes format does not lend itself to the type of behavior you specify.
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Ho0ber Says:
January 26th, 2008 at 6:19 amHey Rich - I thought you might be interested in some additional tweaking I’ve done to add to the iCARS experience. I made a quick set of battery charging images, and I also found a way to change the iPod Touch’s Piezo (”Clicker”) sounds to resemble those of a LCARS system (iPhone users can just use real sound clips in Customize, of course).
It is all explained here: http://ho0ber.googlepages.com/systemsoundbuzztonesequences.plist
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Rich Says:
January 26th, 2008 at 9:41 am@Ho0ber: Oh man that is so cool
Don’t forget to convert the plist back to binary with:
plutil -convert binary1 SystemSoundBuzzToneSequences.plistI also had to reboot my touch to get it to work afterwards.
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Ho0ber Says:
January 27th, 2008 at 2:12 amHmmm, I guess I didn’t convert it back to binary and it seems to be working fine. Is there any real reason to do that other than perhaps speed? And yeah, I forgot to mention the reboot step.
Another quick question: Where did you get your wifi bars shown in the screenshots above? I’ve been working on something to replace the default, and I just noticed yours.
Thanks again for putting this stuff together, Rich (and Kevin, of course)!
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Andrew Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 2:36 amJust an FYI … if you upgrade to firmware version 1.1.3 (which can be jailbroken), currently Summerboard and Customize does not work to get this to work. I am waiting for an update so I can hopfully get my ICARS back online.
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Victor Says:
February 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 pmAwesome, is there a version of the newer, blueish lcars system?
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Opus Penguin Says:
February 5th, 2008 at 3:28 amThe new Summerboard version 3-1.1 came out and this works great with it. You will still need Customize to arrange your icons, but if you got the iPhone applications for $20 (or free if you jailbreak it), you won’t need customize as you can move the icons manually. I now have my iCARS back on.
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Opus Penguin Says:
February 5th, 2008 at 3:53 amI would like to know where you got the image for the wifi bars as well.
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Jason Almazan Says:
February 11th, 2008 at 3:43 pmThanks for allowing this theme to be downloaded. I followed your instructions to the letter and got it working on the first try. The order is definitely important, as one wrong application order, and the default setup is misaligned. I figured out in like 5 mins how to get the phone icon and youtube the way I wanted. I am running this on an iphone if anyone is curious to if it works or not. Now that I figured out that the labels are very important to the naming schema to the names of the individual files, I’ll have it photoshoped to the apps that I want rather then the initial ones you have to install just to get it working. Thanks for this, and I’ll let you know when my customized one is up as well.
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Andrew Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 1:57 amI got this working in firmware 1.1.3 on a jailbroken iPod touch, and even got the battery charger image that HoOber provided. If you install the new iPhone apps, you will not need customize as you can manually move the icons in the order you need. You may need customize to do the battery images though. Now I am back to trying to figure out if I can add sounds.
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John McGinnis Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 2:07 am -
Skids McGrimy Says:
April 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pmNICE work! This is by far the best LCARS I’ve seen.
Anyone can make this work in any configurations… just rename the icons to whatever you need it to be!
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iPod Touch | Third Moon Says:
April 27th, 2008 at 9:17 am[...] The friend’s friend was using a theme made by ICars. [...]
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Jeffrey Says:
May 8th, 2008 at 4:32 amWhat font did you use. I want to edit the icons for my phone and would like to change some of words
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Rich Says:
May 9th, 2008 at 1:53 amHere is the font info and download location:
SWISS 911 Ultra Compressed BT (TrueType)
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Bandit Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 3:24 pmThanks for this very nice theme, I modified some icons for my iPhone. Also removed the wallpaper and, designed buttons from your wallpaper for Fring (Messenger/Skype/SIP), games and tools (Categories Buttons).
If you would like to add them, to your icons, let me know.
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iAndy Says:
May 16th, 2008 at 1:33 pmThanks for this, it’s brilliant. It’s easy to modify the icon files to create your own for applications you use, so it was surprisingly easy and flexible.
Strangely enough though my Weather.app icon refuses to change. I’ve tried everything I can think of, creating an entirely new icon, moving the weather icon around, renaming the .png files, nothing. Is anyone else aware of this or have any suggestions? I have now got all my 3 screeens looking great apart from my first screen with the weather icon sticking out like a sore thumb.
Thanks again.
iAndy
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Rich Says:
May 17th, 2008 at 11:19 amiAndy, check out the macrumors.com forum for details on how to fix this…I don’t have the post handy, but I have seen this discussed.
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iAndy Says:
May 18th, 2008 at 4:38 amRich,
Thanks for that. I originally found this site from the MacRumors forums. I’ve gone back to check that original post as well as hunt around some more but I can’t find any reference to this fix. If I’ve missed it I apologize. If you have any more pointers or links that would be great!
Many thanks.
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Matt Says:
May 28th, 2008 at 11:38 pmAll I can say is.. WOW. This just made my iPhone the COOLEST tech I’ve ever owned. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
With the help of Photoshop, I customized the word lables to say what I wanted, and it’s just absolutely amazing. I grew up wanting a PADD, and now I have one. Thank you SO much. -
iAndy Says:
June 10th, 2008 at 2:54 amDid you manage to get the Weather icon working correctly? Sorry guys but I still can’t find the solution to this and get it working. Any help would be gratefully appreciated.
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*new* Star Trek Lcars Theme - Forums at ModMyiFone.com - iPhone | iPod Touch, news, apps, themes. Says:
June 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 am[...] why so interested? I’ve made a new Star Trek LCARS theme based on Kevin’s iCARS Theme (iCARS, A Star Trek LCARS Summerboard Theme For The iTouch and iPhone | RobotThoughts). But apart from Kevin’s Home Screen Design it is definitely a whole new theme! Here some preview [...]
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Blade Says:
June 26th, 2008 at 8:58 pmHi
This looks great, but i have a few questions. Does the itouch have to be jailbroken? If so, where would i find the best online tutorial to do it?
Also, Rich. You say you need to have the exact icons you’re using. Where do i find all of those apps?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks -
Rich Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 11:56 am@Blade — you’ve got to jailbreak, look at macrumors.com and other mac sites for info on the jailbreak and apps
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Blade Says:
June 28th, 2008 at 5:04 amHey Rich
Ok. My itouch is jailbroken. Guess i’m on the search now. -
Blade Says:
June 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pmRich
Quick question. My itouch is the 1.1.3 jailbroken version. Where can i find app tapp installer for that version?
Thanks
I’m dyin to get this theme on my itouch -
rav Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:33 aminstaller plz i cant figure out this thingie
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Rich Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:16 pm@rav & Blade: I can’t get this onto installer, it requires the customization outlined above. Even if you installed it through installer you would need to reorganize the apps to match the layout.
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Manny K Says:
September 20th, 2008 at 9:19 pmCan this work on Winterboard and what steps needed…
Have IPhone 3G & Winterboard.
Summerboard won’t install from sources provided in Cydia and Installer 4.x. Thank you
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Rich Says:
September 20th, 2008 at 10:21 pmI have not tried this on Winterboard.
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Tim Says:
September 27th, 2008 at 9:57 amRich,
Would you mind posting the Star Fleet network icon badge you are using? Thanks!
