One More Tap

True story: I finally did it and jailbroken one of my iOS devices. The victim happens to be my faithful first-generation iPad. I did it simply because I wanted to be able to do screencasting on my device.

You see, I have always been a fan of Street Fighter. I downloaded both Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter IV Volt the moment it was released. If you want a fighting game for your iOS device, the Street Fighter series is the one to get.

With the debut of Street Fighter IV Volt, online multiplayer became possible. I’ve spent countless hours before bed playing with people from all over the world. One thing I loved about the game is the ability to save replays of your favorite matches. Some of these replays were epic moments during game play. I hit the maximum amount of 20 replays quickly enough that I find it difficult to let go most of these replays.
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written by xcool \\ tags: Apple, display recorder, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Jailbreak, quicktime, screencasting, street fighter iv, street fighter iv volt

I recently got myself the latest Airport Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi base station, dubbed the 5th Generation to replace it’s cousin, a 7-year old Airport Express 802.11g base station. Everything went smooth with the new Airport Extreme, setup was foolishly simple and I was up and going in less than an hour of having the base station delivered to my home.

I retired the Airport Express into my desk drawer, and told my wife that we should keep the Airport Express instead of putting it for auction on eBay. Simple reason: the Airport Express is ultra portable, we brought it together with us during our stay in an Australian share house and that made us fully connected to the internet whenever we needed to.

Everything was fine, until this noon. I was sitting comfortably downstairs in my living room, trying to use my iPhone 4. Wireless signal doesn’t seem to be that strong. It could be the way my house was built, but I decided to put the blame on the iPhone 4 simply because it’s running on a beta version of iOS. Please don’t ask which version. That’s when the thought of extending the wireless signal came into play.
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written by xcool \\ tags: 802.11g, 802.11n, airport express, airport extreme, wds, wi-fi, Wireless, wireless distribution system

I read David Pogue‘s latest article in the NYTimes regarding extending your battery life with a lot of interest. There are some mistakes in the article, particularly on how one can actually prevent apps from staying in the background by killing them – Pogue has requested the NYTimes people to amend his article.

What got me more interested was the fact that quite a lot of people don’t really understand how multitasking on iOS 4 works. One of the main reasons was the way Apple (and most likely Steve Jobs) dictated how multitasking should work on their mobile operating system.

Thinking differently, Apple thought that their multitasking implementation would help a lot in saving battery life. To a certain extent, they did.
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written by xcool \\ tags: Apple, appswitch, background, battery life, iOS, ios 4, multitasking

Apple made an excellent job, opening up MobileMe’s Find My iPhone feature to the masses. Find My iPhone accounts are free, and can only be created using any iPhone 4, iPad or iPod touch (4th Generation or later) running iOS 4.2. Once you create an account using any of the aforementioned devices you will be able to use your Apple ID login to enable Find My iPhone on your other devices running iOS 4.2.

Here’s a quick rundown on how to set up Find My iPhone on your device:

1. Upgrade to iOS 4.2 if you are still running an older version of iOS. At the time of this posting, iOS 4.3.2 is already available. If you have never created a MobileMe account before, then you will need to create the account using an iPhone 4, iPad or iPod touch (4th Generation or later).
2. Tap on the Settings icon, scroll a little further down and choose Mail, Contacts, Calendar.
3. Next, tap on Add Account, followed by MobileMe.
4. Enter your Apple ID credentials into the fields provided. Your Apple ID is usually the same login you use when purchasing from the iTunes Store. If you need to create a new account, then tap on the Create Free Apple ID button located at the bottom of the screen. MobileMe users can simply enter your me.com or mac.com credentials into the fields provided.
5. You will need to verify your account to complete the setup. Take a peek in your email inbox, as Apple will be sending an email with a link that you will need to click to properly verify your account.
6. Once you have verified your account, return to the MobileMe screen you were previously in and switch on Find My iPhone. Click on Allow to verify that you really want to enable this feature.

If your setup is correct, you ought to be able to sign in to Apple’s me.com website and give Find My iPhone a test drive. You may also want to download Apple’s free Find My iPhone app from the iTunes App Store to help you locate your devices on another device.

Officially, this is the instructions that Apple has made available for everyone interested in Find My iPhone. However, anyone who understands iOS knows that this setup has its weaknesses. If a criminal gets hold of your device, he can simply disable cellular data on your device and render Find My iPhone inoperable. The best way to secure Find My iPhone is still via a passcode lock.

written by xcool \\ tags: Find My iPhone, How To, iOS, Location, MobileMe, Passcode Lock, Restrictions, Set Up

I thought I’d upgrade my iPhone 3GS (which was recently semi-retired, but has since found a new home in my wife’s handbag) with iOS 4.2.1, since that is the first version to ever support Find My iPhone. I wanted to be able to locate the phone (and thus, my wife) if required.

So, I went ahead and search for the direct download, knowing that Apple would not be offering the said firmware anymore from within iTunes, now that iOS 4.3.1 is out in the wild. I found a couple of sites, and managed to grab a copy. However, upon trying to perform the upgrade, I was greeted with Error 3194. Yes, the darned error code which basically means that you can’t install that particular version of iOS onto your device because Apple would not allow you to do so anymore.

The story behind this is, Apple would stop signing older firmwares whenever new ones are made available. Signing is a process that happens when you install new versions of iOS onto your device, whereby iTunes checks with Apple’s servers and ‘signs’ the installation. I’m not about to jailbreak my device, so I went ahead and installed the latest firmware, which is 4.3.1 (build 8G4).

Anyhow, since this post relates more to direct downloading the firmware from Apple’s website (Apple continues to offer older firmwares, although they wouldn’t sign it, I am not sure why), we’ll stay on topic and provide you with the locations. You are free to do whatever you please with the IPSW files that you download, which I know most of you will use it to jailbreak older devices.

iOS Firmware – Direct Download Links

written by xcool \\ tags: Direct Download, Firmware, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, IPSW, Software Update