Archive for May, 2010

I sound a bit like spock in this, sorry. If you Jailbrake, please backup, and do it at your own risk.

I will try to put a video out on my favorite JB apps. Some are:

- Backgrounder

- DisplayOut

- WinterBoard

- SBSettings

- FullForce (This may be my next post)

- Mouse (MUST HAVE if you have a keyboard dock)

- Themes (These work with WinterBoard)

 

YouTube – Mirror Everything on your iPad to VGA with DisplayOut

Of all the great DIY projects at this year’s Maker Faire, the one project that really caught my eye involved converting a regular old $60 router into a powerful, highly configurable $600 router. The router has an interesting history, but all you really need to know is that the special sauce lies in embedding Linux in your router. I found this project especially attractive because: 1) It’s easy, and 2) it’s totally free.

After a relatively simple firmware upgrade, you can boost your wireless signal, prioritize what programs get your precious bandwidth, and do lots of other simple or potentially much more complicated things to improve your computing experience. Today I’m going to walk you through upgrading your router’s firmware to the powerful open source DD-WRT firmware.

For an alternative to DD-WRT with a simplified interface and fancy charts and graphs, check out another guide to turning your $60 router into a user-friendly super router with Tomato.

Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router

Seesmic has just released a preview version of their Seesmic Desktop Twitter application, Seesmic Desktop 2, the app that runs on Silverlight on both Mac and Windows PC. The most notable thing about this release is the built in support for Seesmic’s new plugin architecture. With the new platform, every tool, feature and service can be integrated into the app as a plugin, which allows for complete user customization of the app.

By default, the app supports multiple Twitter accounts and Facebook, plus it offers support for lesser known services like Google Buzz and Socialwok. You can add in even more plugins, too, like Bit.ly and Bing Maps, for example.

Also new to this version of Seesmic are unique backgrounds provided by Red Bull (and more will arrive later, we’re told). Directory and channels like those supported in Seesmic Look are now available too.

You can download the preview version of Seesmic Desktop here.

Seesmic Desktop 2 Preview

Prior to the iPad’s release, we posed a question to the readers: "why jailbreak an iPad?" Jailbreaking, the act of hacking an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to install unapproved, third-party applications, is a popular pastime for many Apple mobile device owners. It provides more control over the hardware and software, offers new settings to tweak and delivers more features to what was formerly a locked-down, closed device.

But with the launch of the iPad, the reasons to jailbreak seemed, at first glance, limited. Tethering, for example, one of the most popular hacks for iPhones (it turns phones into computer modems) is no longer necessary on an iPad. You can buy an iPad with 3G built in. Apps that let you hack the camera aren’t needed because the iPad has no camera. Apps for hacking the phone or providing VoIP access are also unnecessary because the iPad isn’t a phone. And so on.

So we asked: is there still a good reason to hack an iPad via jailbreaking? As it turns out, there are several.

For details on how to jailbreak an iPad, go here.

1. Multitasking

An app called "Backgrounder" turns your iPad into something that more closely resembles a "real" computer. With this app, you can run programs in the background while you switch between apps. For now, this app is a must-have for iPad jailbreakers, but it’s worth noting that a coming software updated – iPhone OS 4.0 – will deliver multitasking to the iPad later this year.

2. Dashboard

The Dashboard app allows you to download and install widgets from Apple.com, just as you can on Mac OS X computers. Although not entirely bug-free and some widgets don’t work, most of the ones we tried did just fine.

3. Rock

Rock, the third-party app store filled with paid apps that deliver more features and functionality works well on the iPad. Here, you can download things like My3G which tricks apps into thinking you’re using a Wi-Fi connection and not 3G (helpful for restricted video apps) and MyWi, which turns your iPad into a Wi-Fi hotspot others can use. (Note: not all Rock apps will work on iPad).

4. SBSettings

One of the most popular tweaking apps, SBSettings lets you put toggles for various settings on your iPad’s springboard – even toggles for settings that don’t have toggles – like re-spring or reboot. For iPad users suffering from Wi-Fi woes (yes, that’s still not fixed), you could put a Wi-Fi toggle on your springboard to reset the Wi-Fi – the only workaround that actually works for 100% of users.

5. Peripherals!

Devoted hackers have come up with ways to use peripheral devices with the iPad, including, most recently, an Apple Magic Mouse. Others have set up external hard drives to work with the iPad and have even used a Wiimote to play Super Mario World using the jailbreak app, SNES4iPhone.

6. "Depixelize" iPhone Apps

One of the more disappointing things about the iPad is how iPhone apps look when launched on the slate device. We knew they wouldn’t look great, but when Steve Jobs said all iPhone would work on the iPad, we expected something better. They look just awful. However, the combination of a jailbreak app and some slightly more advanced hacking skills will allow you to scale iPhone apps for the iPad to run them in fullscreen without pixel doubling.

7. And More…the Complete List

If your favorite app isn’t listed here, you can check its status in the "iPad JB Compatibility" spreadsheet, maintained here on Google Docs. This crowdsourced report lets you see what apps are compatible, what features work and what, if anything, is being done to update the app for iPad compatibility. – Snippet from ReadWriteWeb.com

Spirit JB Software Download

Windows Mac OS Linux

Spirit

 

For I.T. departments tasked with supporting a wide range of mobile handsets, providing connectivity to internal resources, like SharePoint sites for example, becomes a larger challenge. That’s especially true for handsets that are more consumer-friendly as opposed to enterprise-ready.

But luckily for iPhone owners, there’s an app that can connect you to your company’s SharePoint sites via your device: Moshare. With this application, you can browse documents, send links, docs and texts, access contacts, view calendars and search across all data. Plus, you can access multiple SharePoint sites from the app, too.

Although you can’t edit or upload files using the app, it does provide quick access for read-only, file viewing…and sometimes, that’s all you need. Moshare is affordably priced at $1.99 and is available for download here.

Moshare: SharePoint for iPhone | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

It seems like every week we learn about a new tip to enhance the Windows 7 taskbar, and it’s hard to keep them all straight. Here’s the complete power user’s guide to tweaking and using your taskbar like a pro.

 

Before you even get started trying to tweak your taskbar, you should make sure that you understand how to use all of the features, and there might be more than you think—check out our complete guide to Windows 7 shortcuts to learn useful basic maneuvers, like how you can hold down the Ctrl key while left-clicking to cycle through a group of taskbar buttons, or hold down Shift while right-clicking to show the regular window menu. Here’s the full list of Taskbar-specific shortcuts:

• Win+number (1-9): Starts the application pinned to the taskbar in that position, or switches to that program.
• Shift+Win+number (1-9): Starts a new instance of the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Ctrl+Win+number (1-9): Cycles through open windows for the application pinned to the taskbar in that position.
• Alt+Win+number (1-9): Opens the Jump List for the application pinned to the taskbar.
• Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
• Win+B: Focuses the System Tray icons.
• Drag+Drop taskbar buttons or System Tray icons: to reorganize them.
• Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program or quickly open another instance of a program.
• Ctrl+Shift+Click on a taskbar button: Open a program as an administrator.
• Shift+Right-click on a taskbar button: Show the window menu for the program (like XP does).
• Shift+Right-click on a grouped taskbar button: Show the window menu for the group.
• Ctrl+Click on a grouped taskbar button: Cycle through the windows of the group.
• Drag a File to a taskbar button: to pin the file to the current application’s Jump List.
• Shift+Drag a File to a taskbar button: to open a file with the current application.
• Middle-Click on a taskbar button: to open a new instance of the application.
• Middle-Click on a Aero Thumbnail: to close that application instance.
• Left-Click + Drag upwards: to open the Jump List for an application.

The Power User’s Guide to the Windows 7 Taskbar – Taskbar – Lifehacker