Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

 

Jailbreaking is stupidly simple.  Now adding Flash to your iPhone is just about as easy.  Benm.at, that site that used to add tethering to your iPhone, now has Frash in its repository.  One you’ve jailbreakme‘d,

1. Open Cydia > Manage > Sources
2. Edit source and add http://repo.benm.at
3. Search Frash and install it.

Also, you might want to pick up some external iPhone batteries for your new space heater.  Works on iPad too but not on iPhone 3G or less. via Giz/iThinkDif/9 to 5 Mac

Benm.at adds Frash (Flash) to repository, makes installation stupidly simple. | 9 to 5 Mac

Microsoft guru extraordinaire Mary Jo Foley has retweeted a company employee boasting of a commitment to hand out Windows Phone 7 devices to each and every one of Redmond’s 90,000-plus employees around the world. That’s certainly one way to spread the word — and realistically, the cost to Microsoft is a drop in the bucket if they can really take advantage of the word-of-mouth advertising effect here. Of course, step one in that process is going to be making sure the product is absolutely rock solid by the time those gratis units start getting handed out. 

Microsoft to employees: ‘everybody gets a Windows Phone 7!’ — Engadget

 

Today the planets aligned for a pretty amazing set of Unibody MacBook Pro updates.  If you want to literally max out your MacBook Pro, both RAM and hard drive have sunk to great prices in the 9to5mac Toys section.  Oh, this works in Mac Minis too but removing the HDD might not be your best move.

• On the hard drive, Dell has the $99 1TB Toshiba Canvio which has a 12.5mm high internal hard drive that can be pulled (According to this thread) and placed into most newer Unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros (check your specs).  It isn’t a speed demon @5400RPM, but it will likely double or triple the amount of disk space you have.  Bonus: You get a USB enclosure for your current Hard Drive and for transferring your data.
• Updated: A Commenter found 4GB DIMMs at a lower price – 2x$99.  I can’t speak for the RAM manufacturer, but OWC ($28 more total) has been extremely reliable in our dealings with them in the past.  Here’s Apple’s RAM installation instructions.

These upgrades are pretty trivial and even a novice can do them.  There are lots of tutorials out on the net.  But as always, no guarantees – if you don’t trust yourself, take it to someone who you do trust!  Here are a bunch of YouTube videos on upgrading.

How to juice your MacBook/Pro to 8GB RAM and 1TB HD for $299 (w/free USB HD enclosure) | 9 to 5 Mac

Oh, Steve — you should’ve known better. You show up and remove a laptop from a manila envelope, and Earth’s most creative go and create a case fashioned out of one. You go and suggest that Eminem could "come out with a band-aid that goes over the corner" of your controversial iPhone 4, and well… this happens. You could wait for a free case, or you could buy six of these Antenna-aids for five bucks. The choice is obvious.

Antenna-aid bandages your iPhone 4 reception issue, hopes for role in next Eminem video — Engadget

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

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

If you didn’t get the geeky watch you wanted for Christmas you should consider building yourself a MakerBotWatch. The watch is an Arduino, using an ATmega328 microcontroller running the bootloader. The watch has two concentric circles of LEDs for minutes and hours. A vertical row of four LEDs adds in the additional resolution needed to get 60 minutes on the watch face.

The schematic and board layout are available from an SVN repository so you can make your own board. The device will go into production as a kit but currently the laser-cut bezel will not be part of it.

[via Adafruit]

 

Zune 80: Review

The Zune 2nd-generation player launch is almost upon us, and today we bring you Zunerama’s pre-release review of the Zune 80GB player ("Zune 80").

The Zune 80 is part of a sweeping update by Microsoft of its digital media player offering. Along with Zune 80, two flash-memory players are being launched, as well as a significant firmware update, new PC software, an updated online Marketplace, and a new Zune Social community site.

Let’s start this review by noting that the Zune 80 unboxing is a most pleasurable experience. Check out our unboxing video and pics.

Zune 80 GB player review by Zunerama.

Microsoft and Bungie had a little surprise waiting for us today at the Halo 3 preview event – a new Zune! This is not the Zune you’ve seen before with a Master Chief wallpaper…



read more | digg story

Simply hop up and down and get propelled across the water like some sort of giant waterbug. It looks like a serous amount of fun, and my new goal is getting one in for review for this summer. They’re available for purchase now for $500 if you feel like giving it a whirl.



read more | digg story

Gizmodo reports

Our Zune source dropped off two more photos that claim to be the Wi-Fi firmware connecting to a base station for song downloading. Remember, these photos claim to be the new firmware running on the first-gen Zune, not the advanced Zune that was talked about earlier this week.

its kinda like the DS system with WIFI both subscription and points are suported, and your account is tied to your zune furthermore, once you download a song of the to go marketplace, you can then send them to other once you have synched back with your PC, copying your downloaded files back to your HD, when it becomes a normal downloaded song.

Apparently you’ll finally be able to put your WiFi to good use by using open WiFi hotspots and Microsoft points for downloading tracks. (Sorry, no word about subscriptions, syncing, and the like.) Also up to bat in the near future, further confirmation that we can expect Zune v2 and a flash Zune in the next month or so.



read more | digg story

<When reports of a Microsoft-hosted Zune event seemed to fizzle out the other day, other Zune blogs lost heart. But not iLounge, which originated the rumors, and says the event indeed took place as a private — and supposedly secret — tech preview by Microsoft to developers. iLounge purports that Microsoft wasn’t terribly happy to hear about the leak, and even more displeased when iLounge noted the meeting was underway. However, perhaps even more interesting than the drama surrounding the leak is the fact that Microsoft apparently has a flash-based Zune in the works, along with a larger-screened Zune with beefier storage options. The word is the flash Zune is nothing to write home about — bigger than a nano, and best described as “not bad” by the sources familiar. A bit more surprising is the large-screen Zune, which Microsoft might be positioning to capture folks digging the iPhone’s real estate, but looking for more movie storage. The leak seems to overlap and contradict prior rumors about a flash Zune, but a lot of this seems logical enough to be inevitable. No word on when these will be out, or how much they’ll cost, but rough estimates point to a couple months from now, and prices will most likely be pretty much in line with comparable Apple offerings.

The newest British Royal Navy’s submarine looks like a giant whale, can sit in the English Channel and fire cruise missiles at North Africa; but perhaps the most extraordinary feature of the British-built sub is that it will never need to be refuelled throughout its 25-year lifespan, meaning it can sail round the world 40 times without surfacing.



read more | digg story

Video: Jake Grossman @ Soulfood Books: MakeDamnSure