Macgasm » Simon Wicks

iPad studio lighting

Simon Wicks — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 18:44:36 +0000

I’ll admit it. I’ve bumped the brightness up on my iPhone from time to time and used it as a torch. Who needs fancy apps when a clean Safari page does the same thing as a fancy flashlight.

But, I’ve also never thought about using my iPad as a lighting source for a photo shoot, let alone asking a bunch of friends to donate theirs to the cause.

That’s where Jesse Rosten is different.

With $4,500.00 worth of iPads, some plywood, and some cheap parts from a hardware store, Rosten whipped up three soft boxes by mounting three iPads on each of the three separate stands.

While it may not be the most practical use of nine iPads, and certainly not the cheapest way of creating nice soft light, it certainly illustrates Rosten’s imagination and ingenuity.

Check the video out below, and read Jesse’s post, which goes into more detail about his idea and how he put the lights together.

iPad Photoshoot from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Images and video via Jesse Rosten

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Opening Day at Apples New Covent Garden Store

Simon Wicks — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:53:06 +0000

For almost 2 years, I’ve been waiting to see what Apple unveiled for it’s newest store in London. Yesterday, I finally found out, and I can’t say I’m anything less than impressed with what they’ve done to the old building they’ve put it in.

I’d originally intended to get there for the opening, but remembering I had guests this weekend, I didn’t think it would be fair to leave them alone. So we waited until the afternoon before venturing into London to check out the store. Arriving in Covent Garden and hearing cheering from down the street, I originally thought it might just be the street performers receiving the applause, and that surely some of the hype would have died down for the Store opening, but i was wrong. Just like a new iPhone launch or the iPad Launch — which I actually took part in — the Apple Store staff were still cheering every group of people into the store.

It was heaving, the queues were massive, and it wasn’t completely unsuspected after a reported 10.000 people were going to be turning up on opening day. But there queues were round the plaza! Madness. Apple had it under control though, keeping paths clear for people to walk, and ferrying people across walkways with tickets to prove they weren’t queue jumping.

We decided not to bother queueing for a look, and I was coming to terms with the fact I might not get to see the store on opening day, but after a bite to eat and a walk around the markets the queues had died down, and it turned out the queues were only for people wanting to buy the iPhone 4, so within seconds I was being cheered into the massive new store with a huge smile on my face.

The place is stunning, as soon as you walk through the door the spiral staircase is to your left, and although not as impressive as the 5th Avenue one, it’s still a great staircase linking the ground and first floor. Walking through to the center of the store, the light floods in through the giant glass ceiling from above, and a thousand eyes set upon you looking around in awe from the sections above. There were a lot of camera crews walking around, so I imagine we’ll be seeing some great videos from the launch day in a few weeks. I felt kind of lost. I wasn’t really sure which part of the place to go an explore next, but I found myself in a back room staring at the second glass staircase. Two floors up or one floor down? Down it was, nothing great down there but a few doors for staff only, but toilets for the public which I wasn’t expecting. It’s not very often you see toilets open to the public in stores over here.

Each room is filled with different Apple goodies — no overlapping. You want a case for your iPhone? Head to the second floor, at the back and you’ll find the biggest selection and stock than compared to any other Apple Store.

I’m so impressed by this store, the Regent Street one used to be my go to place when i was meeting friends, as it’s a great place to go for a wander round and a play while having some time to pass. But this place, you’d not feel bad for being late to meet a friend here as there is so much to see.

I actually went into the building a few years ago, we had a work Christmas party there, with a temporary staircase in place, and each room dedicated for DJ’s, bars, food etc. It was nice to remember that while I was stood paying for my new Magic Trackpad that two years ago I was in a Moroccan smoking lounge.

I’m struggling to put into words just how impressed I am at the work and effort they’ve put into keeping this building looking as original as possible. The small signs outside dont take anything away from the old building, you’d struggle to see it was even an Apple Store if you didn’t know and were just passing.

Although I didn’t make it for the opening, I kept my eyes on Twitter and saw that the senior vice president of iOS software Scott Forstall was there, and had his picture snapped by quite a few people. Someone even managed to get Matt Lucas, an English comedian, and Scott in the same photo

Following are a few video’s from the opening that people have managed to capture, followed by a gallery of a few shots I took while walking around.
This Store should get added to your places to visit list, while not as famous as the Eifel Tower or the Colleseum, for any Apple fan this place is a must.

Oh, and I’ll post a review of the Magic Trackpad when I’ve had a bit more time to play with it.

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London’s Covent Garden Apple Store Opens This Saturday

Simon Wicks — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:00:43 +0000

Apple’s almost on the eve of opening it’s newest store in London — less than a mile away from it’s already hugely popular store on Regent Street (the most profitable per square foot store in the capital). This time, they’re headed for the popular Covent Garden in their most expensive, but most impressive, bid yet.
The store opens after almost 2 years since the original plans were signed by the City of Westminster, and construction started in July last year. The building, which has until recently been covered in scaffolding and white covers, now just has tall wooden boards around the outside, with a red curtain on them saying Coming Soon and bearing Apples Logo — awaiting the grand opening at 10am on Saturday the 7th.

Hanging around long enough in the days leading up to the opening, you’ll be sure to catch a glimpse inside as workmen and security come and go. Someone managed to grab a cheeky picture a few weeks ago which show the wooden benches and restored brickwork, while I got a peek last night on my way home and all the computers, iPod’s, iPhones etc have all been installed, along with the signs and posters on the walls, everything up and running, and looking like a real store from what I could tell in the few short seconds before I was spotted and the doors were closed once again. The iPhone 4′s camera is fast, but not still not quite fast enough for chances like this.

The building covers an impressive 4 floors, but only 2 of these are rumored to be for retail, while the others will be office space, altogether featuring around 30,100 square feet of space, including the basement likely to be just for stock and back end going ons.
Apple’s come up against a few problems in the planning and construction of this new building, but dealt with all in a fashion you’d expect. Even going as far as to remove a set of brick archways piece by piece, labeling and numbering them, and rebuilding them onto a floor just 4 inches lower. All to keep the building looking as original as they can.

I’m excited for the opening on Saturday having never been to anything like this before, so I will definitely be there. It’s slightly easier to arrive for a store opening than it is trying to be first in line for the new iPhone or other branded gadget. I won’t be aiming for first in line or anything — just in time to soak up the atmosphere and grab some good pictures ready for another post. Maybe I’ll be able to do a live blog while I’m there.. I’ll talk to out Editors :)

Header pic via @aquiros, in post pic via ifoapplestore.com

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Incase Slider and Snap case now available to order for iPhone 4

Simon Wicks — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:30:21 +0000

Adding to their already grand armoury of cases for Apple products, the folks at Incase are now accepting orders for two of their iPhone 4 cases on their web store.

It may be taking longer than some other case makers to get the Slider Case and Snap Case up for order, it’s certainly going to be well worth it in the long run as they have paid so much attention to detail ensuring everything is 100% perfectly compatible with the iPhone 4. They’ve even added flash ring on the Snap Case, around the camera cutout on the back, which is designed to prevent glare interference during camera usage with the flash, something which has plagued a few other manufacturers cases.

These two cases are a part of Apple’s free Case program, so you can now get a better look at what you’ve ordered if you went for one of these. Better than looking at the renders they posted a few weeks back, anyway.

The Slider Case will set you back $34.95, available to order now in Black, and metallic cases in Dark Mauve, Gunmetal and Raspberry will be available in a few weeks time, with White to follow after those.

The Snap Case is also available for $34.95 in clear, with a Frost Black version to ship a few weeks after.

Incase are also offering free ground shipping on this case, using the code IPHONE4 when ordering.

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Apple Aluminium Keyboard Made In CSS

Simon Wicks — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:34:11 +0000

Chris Michel fancied himself a new challenge with CSS, looking around his room for inspiration his eyes eventually settled on the keyboard we’ve all grown to love from Apple.
Created entirely from CSS, this is just too great not to share with everyone. The details are amazing, clicking the buttons, and the caps lock even has the little green light in it!

Best viewed in Safari and Google Chrome, make sure you click here to see it in all it’s glory, and over here to read Chris’s blog about how he went towards putting it together.

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Apple to charge for iOS4 for iPad?

Simon Wicks — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:07:48 +0000

Just when we thought Apple had done away with charging for their iOS updates after revealing that iOS4 was free even for iPod Touch owners, a big fat rumour has been passed to Stuff.tv from a developer working on a future iPad app that the update will now be forcing our hands into our pockets for it, just like the old days.

Stuff.tv contacted Apple over the matter, and as expected received a ‘no comment’ as a response. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this if it’s true. I bought my iPad thinking that the update would be free. I know I wasn’t led to believe it would be free, but just the price of the device made me think this.

I’ve been looking forward to it ever since buying the iPad, and even more since buying the iPhone 4 and using multitasking. Being a paid update won’t make me not update it though. I’ll just be doing it with a bit of a grudge towards Apple for a while.

What do you think of this, and how much do you think Apple would charge if it end up being true?

Article Via Stuff.tv

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First in line at the Regent Street store for tomorrows iPad launch

Simon Wicks — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:44:15 +0000

As I was walking home this evening, it didnt even cross my mind that there would already probably be a group of people outside London’s flagship store on Regent Street. At 7pm, when I was walking past, there was already about 10 people with chairs and other goodies to get them through the night. I posted a picture on Gowalla, and a couple of minutes later I had a reply over Twitter from Joe Woodcock saying “we’re number one :D haha“.
Joe’s been there since 12 midday he told me. After reading his Twitter stream, it seems he and his friends have already been interviewed by a couple of the UK TV network. Also, he has been given some gifts by the iwantoneofthose.com website, and some stuff from Griffin. Lucky fellas. Unlucky for them is the fact it looks like rain out tonight, and they dont have a tent. Anyone care to go along and help them out?

I’ve asked which model of iPad Joe and his friend are queueing up for, and it seem’s he’s not actually getting one! He’s just there with his friend Jake who’s going for the 32 GB wifi model.

You can follow his updates on Twitter here, and show him some support if you’re feeling nice.

Though I’m not tempted to sit out in the cold for the evening, I am getting more tempted to get myself an iPad in the morning. That is, if there are any left by the time I get there. It all depends on how early I manage to wake up tomorrow.

Few more pictures of the queue so far here:

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iPod Touch with 2MP camera spotted in Vietnam

Simon Wicks — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:30:42 +0000

Vietnam seems to be bringing us all the goodies recently with both iPhone 4G shots and the Macbook updates a few days ago. Today we have a fresh batch of pictures and a video of the once mythical iPod Touch, but this time with a 2MP camera. Engadget is reporting that it’s a late 2009 third generation model, similar to what we saw just before the September announcement last year, which could mean it’s part of the same batch as the ones which ended up on eBay for a few hours. This version holds the same DVT-1 stamp on the back as one of the eBay ones did.

If it’s from the same batch as the ones before, should this spark any more speculation that Apple will be including a camera with a eventual iPod Touch refresh? No.

Apple clearly pulled this model for a reason at the last-minute, and for some reason there’s still a few left in the wild. Until we see a differently designed iPod Touch pop up in Vietnam (face it, you know that’s where we’ll see it first), then we can expect that Apple has put the camera model on the backburner for now.

Don’t get me wrong, I do hope they include a camera on the iPod Touch. There’s no reason for it not to be included in the device, to be honest. Think of how many more apps they’d sell if they included a Camera on them.

Check out the Vietnamese post for a load more pictures, and enjoy the embedded video showing the diognostics utility below.

via CrunchGear

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Be a part of the new MobileMe Mail beta

Simon Wicks — Thu, 13 May 2010 16:00:30 +0000

Long after Apple launched MobileMe, they are starting to roll out a few new features that people have been longing for. If you’re already a user of the service, you can login to me.com/mail today, and you’ll be greeted by a small note at the bottom left of the screen asking you to “Request an invitation” if you’d like to participate in the beta. At some point soon, you’ll receive an email if you’re one of the chosen people.

One of the main features I’m most happy about them adding to the mix is Mail Rules. I’m a big user of rules in Mail.app on my main Mac, and it bugs the hell out of me that if I go out, then any email I get while I’m out is getting filtered as it should back home. This causes me to get no notification of the emails on the iPhone as they sit in a folder; it only seems to tell me of new mail which goes directly to the inbox. The only way I can find them is by browsing through my huge list of folders to see if any are marked. Is this just me, or a common problem everybody has with it? Because I’d like to know if I’ve missed part of the game somewhere…

So, I’ll be glad when this comes along, as long as I can sync all the rules I already have up to me.com, but from what their notes say, I don’t know if this will actually be possible. “Set them up at me.com, and your rules organize your incoming email on the web and everywhere else — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.”. Will have to wait and see, as I don’t fancy having to set them all up again online when they already exist.

Anyway, here’s a list showing some of the new features you can expect to see in the beta, and if you don’t get in then you’ll hopefully see them when they roll it out live to everyone.

Widescreen and compact views. When reading your mail at me.com, the new widescreen view lets you see more of each message with less scrolling. Choose compact view to hide your folders or classic view to see more of your message list.

Rules to keep your email organized everywhere. Mail rules help you reduce inbox clutter by automatically filing messages into folders you select ahead of time. Set them up at me.com, and your rules organize your incoming email on the web and everywhere else — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.

Single-click archiving. Click the Archive button and the selected message is quickly filed into the Archive folder where it’s always available for future reference.

Formatting toolbar. You can create great-looking email messages using formatting buttons to bold or italicize text, change font color, insert images, and more. You can even create formatted web links to hide long URLs.

Improved performance. Mail at me.com loads your inbox and messages faster. And with interface refinements such as the ability to scroll through your entire inbox without having to manually click to load the next set of messages, you’ll be able to work more efficiently.

Increased security with SSL. With the MobileMe Mail beta, accessing your email on the web is more secure than ever. Your inbox is protected to prevent anyone from eavesdropping on your webmail. As always, you receive SSL protection when you use your MobileMe Mail account on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.

The beta is best viewed with Firefox 3.6, and Internet Explorer 8, and a load of other questions and answers you may have can be found here

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The Spirits Have Been Released – iPad Jailbreak

Simon Wicks — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:26:03 +0000

And here we have it, available for all to go and test out now is the new Spirit Jailbreak from comex of the iPhone Dev Team.
Spirit will jailbreak all the latest iDevice firmwares, but comes with a few words of warnings for those that may be a little too hasty in their clickings.

Spirit is not a carrier unlock.

If you currently are using a tethered jailbreak, you have to restore to use Spirit.

Do not upgrade if you use an unlock on an iPhone 3G or 3GS. (You can, however, restore to 3.1.2 if you have SHSH blobs for that version.)

The Jailbreak is available for Windows and Mac OS X, and will work on any iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch on firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3, or 3.2.

Notes on the site warn that the iPad jailbreak is still a very beta version, so do it at your own risk and make sure you back everything up to iTunes before hand just incase it messes up.

Cydia’s still not got a “final look” for the iPad, and I doubt at the moment there will be many things availble for iPad users on it. There will probably be an iPad section listing all the available packages (if there isn’t one already. I don’t have an iPad to check).

If you’re feeling confident, head over to http://spiritjb.com/, read everything, and read everything again, then give it a go.

Let us know how it goes if you try it out on any of the devices in the comments.

We’re interested in what Cydia looks like for the iPad so if you can share some screenshots we’ll include them in the post with props!

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SMS on iPad 3G

Simon Wicks — Sun, 02 May 2010 14:26:55 +0000

Musclenerd from the iPhone Dev Team is back again today with more teasers for iPad users. This time posting some iPad information on his Twitter page. He links to a video showing the iPad sending SMS messages to an iPhone. There is no app for this at the moment, as the iPhones SMS app does’t run natively on the iPad, so it’s all done through code. Also as the AT&T sims bundled with the iPads dont support SMS, he’s using a hacked up T-Mobile sim so it fits in the Micro Sim size slot the iPad uses.

It’s a sign of things to come though, even if you do have to use another sim card just to do it.
Would you be willing to (literally) chop, and change sim cards around just to send sms messages to people?

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Just in case you had any doubt – iPad 3G Jailbreak Video

Simon Wicks — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:53:02 +0000

In case you had any doubt that the brand new 3G iPad that you received today would be un-jailbreakable, the Dev Team has posted a teaser video for you to drool over. The video clearly illustrates an iPad running Cydia.

As you can tell from the video that the DevTeam released a couple weeks back, the firmware is the same, so there’s no surprise the jailbreak works for the 3G iPad. There’s no release date posted for when they’re going to make a jailbreak available, but when they do, it wont just be good for the iPads of the world, because it’ll work on your iPhones and iPod’s as well.

The DevTeam is planning one tool for all of Apple’s devices — making it much easier for consumers to manage their jailbreaks.

The news from yesterday comes with a typical Dev Team warning stating “Backup your SHSH blobs.” While you dont need to do this to jailbreak, it’ll help if you have them readily available if anything should go wrong, and you have to downgrade at somepoint.

Head over to the post by the Dev Team from yesterday for more info and links on how to do this.

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iPad hacked and Jailbroken

Simon Wicks — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:29:50 +0000

It’s only been out for around 24 hours, and the Dev Team have already cracked it, that’s right, the iPad has been jailbroken. What else would I be talking about?

MuscleNerd from the Dev Team posted a picture, and also the following YouTube video on his twitter account showing how they’ve already got root acess into the device using a version of the Spirit jailbreak by fellow hacker Comex. This hack targets a bug in mobile Safari on firmware 3.1.3 on the iPhone, and 3.2 on the iPad which clearly doesn’t escape the same flaw.

There’s still a lot of work to do before it’s available for public consumption, but that’s all the proof we need for now. For those of you lucky enough to have your hands on one of the 700.000 iPad’s sold on launch day, it wont be long before you can start applying your own themes, sounds, and a whole host of other things I’m sure will become availble soon after it’s out there for the masses.

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Operation iBook – iFixed It!

Simon Wicks — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:00:24 +0000

Sometime last year, while downloading a file on the Mac that I used as a backup and to do all my dirty work, it just froze. There was no Kernel Panic — nothing. It just stopped dead in its tracks, and a few minutes later the hard drive started clunking. ‘Oh. I guess it’s dead then’ I thought. My iBook G4, after 4 years of service to me had decided to kick the bucket Not bad going, I guess. I expected it to live a lot longer than that really, but I was certainly putting it through it paces every single day, and the little old 60GB HDD just couldn’t keep up with the pace. I looked into getting the drive replaced by going along to the store on London’s Regents Street, but the genius didn’t really have any ideas about prices, nor seemed particularly bothered about trying to find out for me unless I took it in. Seems a bit stupid. It needs a new hard drive. What would you charge to do it?Not going to make any difference if you see the machine or not right?

A few months went past and it sat on it’s stand collecting dust, and then I moved my XBox onto the desk in it’s place, and I figured I really should do something about it, my poor Macbook it taking a beating with everything i’m trying to make it do.

I decided to brave the water that I’d never tested before, and take the task of rising the machine from the ashes myself. I headed over to ifixit.com. Using their guide, I managed to figure out which machine it was I had, without even having to boot it up, good job they told me I could do that, because I had no idea.

I did some online shopping for a new 2.5″ HDD to put in, and I went for a 160GB after quite a bit of shopping around. These smaller drives are quite a bit more expensive for massive sizes, and as much as I wanted to cram a 360GB in it, I talked myself down to a more reasonably priced drive instead. Stuff goes on and comes off it again with a pretty quick turnaround anyway, so it’s plenty. I just like massive hard drives.

A spudger, a set of torx screwdriver and size 00 philips screwdriver later, and I just had to await the postman to bring me it all.

Last week, it all arrived, and I set aside a Saturday evening to get to grips with it, man up, and do some DIY on the poor thing. With my printed guide from iFixit, the living room table cleared and surrounded by tools, I set up my Xbox webcam (gotta own something Microsoft, right?) on the Macmini to capture a picture every 5 seconds using Gawker, and my Macbook in front of me livestreaming the fix for anyone bored enough to watch using UStream (ended up being two of my friends), and for a possible Google search if I ran in to any problems.

I was expecting the fix to take around 3 hours, after reading reports of it taking some people that long, but the actual drive replacement seemed to only take me around an hour and a half from first screw out, to last screw in.

The guides from Ifixit are a godsend, everything was simply explained and not to much info in each step, and the screw guide’s they have included in the PDF versions help you keep each steps screws separated so you can work through backwards and know where each screw goes. Of course, even with such a simple guide I still ran into a couple of problems, like forgetting to re attach the keyboards ribbon cable before screwing the ram cover on and re-installing the airport card. Luckily, that was only 4 or screws, though. No biggie, and I’m allowed one slip up. Right?

Fingers crossed, I booted it up and almost cried and the beloved machine chimed at me letting me know it was once again healthy.

I inserted a copy of OS X 10.5, expecting to just be able to install that, but it turned out those disc’s were the disc’s we were sent by Apple after my dad bought a new Macbook Pro with 10.4 on it only for a week later 10.5 to come out. So they were only upgrade disc’s, no good for a brand new install.

OK, I’ll try the 10.4 disc we have, again, but I just kept getting Kernel Panics. I was almost having a Kernel Panic myself at this point. Three hours into my fix, and I was stumped. Why the hell is it doing this? I’ve replaced the drive, and everything else is fine. Why are you doing this to me? I came to the conclusion the discs were for a Intel based Mac, and most probably tied to my MacBook somehow, so would be no good for me to use on the PPC iBook.

I went back to 10.5, as at least this one let me into disc utility. I partitioned the new drive, and gave it a name. Then, I had to search around in the loft of the house for the original discs that shipped with the iBook. Luckily, they were in view right as I went up there. Phew.

Dusting off the envelope which held all the original info that came with the machine, it was great to see how much Apple’s packaging has changed in just a few years. A huge Panther user guide, nicely designed iLife disc’s and some of the big Apple stickers you used to get. They seem to have shrunk them over the recent years, apparently. That is, if they’re even still bundled with things.

I insert them, and we have life! No more Kernel Panic on loading up the disc. No more “You cant use this disc as it’s an upgrade.” Just the sweet look of 10.3 loading onto the iBook. I gave a small cheer and a huge smile and sigh of relief. Once it was all installed, looking at the old OS was just like looking at the user guide. Oh, how they have changed. Not massive changes; just small UI changes.

What seemed like 50 system updates and countless restarts later it was back, my iBook was smiling at me once again and was begging to be used.

But it has to wait. I have a pesky ‘can’t mount’ error come up now when I try to mount anything. I’m now waiting for my dad to bring round the original 10.4 discs so that I can upgrade to that. Then I’ll upgrade to 10.5, and hope all the bugs are ironed out.

Phew, long post! A few quick notes, though:

To anyone with a broken Mac, iPhone, or iPod, do check out ifixit.com. They have guides for everything. I’ve used them before to fix a 2nd Gen iPod as well. The guides are amazingly easy to follow, and they have good forums and help sections if you run into any problems. You can also help them out a little by buying the tools and parts directly through them.

This fix was rated difficult on the site, so read through the guides, and if you don’t feel comfortable and don’t think you could do some steps, then it’s best to get help or pay for someone to do it for you. Nothing worse than jolting and scrapping your screwdriver along the motherboard, eh? :)

Here’s the time lapse I captured. You can’t always see what I’m doing as I needed light for some parts so had to face it the other way. I also needed to eat, so you see me get up and go off to cook some diner with my girlfriend. But, I’m no editor so it’s all in there with no music. Only a couple of minutes though, so no big deal.

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How Many Oranges Does It Take To Charge An iPhone?

Simon Wicks — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:12:41 +0000

This could be a clever aim at a viral advert for UK iPhone carrier Orange as it’s the only video on the YouTube page, but the phone in the video is actually on O2, so it’s not. But it’s a great use of science, and a well put together little video that’s going to show that you can power more than just little clocks using fruit like oranges.

Via Geeky Gadgets

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Happy Blocky 3D Papercraft iPad

Simon Wicks — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:47:03 +0000

Tubbypaws is back with more papercraft, and this time it’s Apple related.
So, if you have the patience and the need/want to recreate your own Steve Note on your desk, you can download this handy template, get your favourite scissors and glue out, and get cutting and sticking.

This isn’t the first ‘create your own’ iPad which we’ve seen, the other day macrumors posted about a full sized one that Jess Silverstone, the lead artist for Revolutionary Concepts had put together for her team, and they are now coming in useful they say ‘btw we now have six ipaperpads and they are actually helping us with the scale of graphics and UI placement for our upcoming iPad apps’.

So, you can make that one too if you like.

Scared of glue? Love Legos? How about you make one out of Legos instead then like jmenomeno on Flickr.
There are probably a whole host more papercraft and other iPad mockups out there, I saw one made of foam the other day, and they were up for sale on eBay, but I can’t find that one to link to anymore, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

Let us know in the comments if you have any sucess making this. I tried my hand at making the Portal one a few years ago, needed thicker card, but it turned out all right.
Good luck!

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The iPad is: Incredible, Beautiful, Amazing!

Simon Wicks — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:00:16 +0000

Neil Curtis has summed up last weeks keynote into a handy 180 seconds for those people who still haven’t got round to watching it, or just cant be bothered to sit through the whole 1 hour 14 minutes and 19 seconds of it. This version does just mainly include all the adjectives which were used though. Most important parts? You decide.

We saw this done with the last keynote as well, and I’m guessing we’ll see it done for future ones too.

Via Bitterwallet

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Would you be my Valentine? – Love Apple

Simon Wicks — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:22:54 +0000

It’s Love at First Touch according to Apple this year, as their main email focus seems to be on the iPod Touch. “Share a love song. Download a Karma Sutra app. Play two-person games. Even find romantic restaurants. It’s all possible with iPod touch. Make it perfect with a free personal engraved message.” OK, so I added the Karma Sutra app in, but it’s Valentine’s..

Don’t be fooled by the free engraving if you thought now was the time to get that personalised iPod with ‘I <3 my cat’ on it though, that’s still free the rest of the year.

They’ve put together a guide on all the Apple products you could buy that special someone in your life, not sure how my girlfriend would take to receiving a Tom Tom car kit, but hey, it’s the thought that counts right?

The Product Red iPod Nano seems the most fitting Valentine’s product to buy, and it’s almost affordable to most pockets at £118/$149 for the 8GB model. Dont forget the free engraving, and for another £3/$5 you can even get it gift wrapped so you don’t need to bother!
Just remember to order before the Feb 10th to give them time to lazer that beauty and get it shipped out to you. There’s also free shipping on orders over £78 for UK folks, and on Gift Guide items for US folks. Looks like you get a bit of a sore deal there guys, sorry.

So get clicking and buy buy buy, you can never have enough Apple stuff, even if you treat yourself to something this Valentine’s, that’s OK, we wont tell.

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UK iPhone carrier speed test showdown

Simon Wicks — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:48:45 +0000

fonehome.co.uk have put together this short video showing the speed differences on the 3 main carriers in the UK by loading up Google Earth, one of the most data demanding apps on the iPhone 3G [S] all at the same time.
Vodafone (the new kids on the block here, having only had the iPhone for a matter of weeks now) come up trumps in the test, managing to locate them right down to street level and providing a nice clear image before Orange have really started up. O2, the elder in the game were not far behind Vodafone, but they only managed to get a rough area with lots of points of interest.

What does this go to show?

Maybe because Vodafone are new around these parts they did better than the others? Then surely there is no reason for O2 to have beaten Orange to the chase. O2 have been in the press recently about slow data on their network, and customers even losing connection completely, something they say they are working to make better in the future with more devices relying on heavy data use. Orange even boast that they cover more thanany other network, 93% in fact..

I don’t think this will be tempting me to move to Vodafone though. I’m out of my 18 month tie in with O2 now, and I phoned them up and managed to drop my contract by £15 and add another 700 SMS messages to my original plan. I still have unlimited data and the same amount of minutes. Told them I was just holding out for the next generation in June/July to which, of course, they said ‘we know nothing’ :)

If you’re in the UK, your contract is nearing it’s end, and you want to hold out for the ‘maybe’ next gen iPhone while saving some money each month, change to the simplicity 20 plan. Then thank me later.

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Do knot forget. Ford Germany takes a potshot at Apple’s Ear Bud.

Simon Wicks — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:30:47 +0000

Here’s a fun advert from Ford Germany, featuring Apple’s distinctive (although terrible) white earbuds, advertising the fact that Bluetooth® is now built into a whole bunch of their new models as they roll out of the factories.

From Ford’s website:

The Bluetooth® with Voice Control system allows you to operate your mobile, satellite navigation system, climate control and audio system using voice-activated commands – all wirelessly. It’s not only safer, leaving you free to keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel, but it also means you’re keeping within the law while still staying in touch.

The iPhone and iPod are amongst the devices which can use this feature, and they have the most recognizable headphones I guess, this could be why Apple’s were chosen. Either way, I think it’s a fun and clever advert.

Do knot forget: Bluetooth® comes with every new Ford model.

via adsoftheworld

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Calculator errr Calculator

Simon Wicks — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:00:45 +0000

This is a pretty nice idea I dont think I’ve seen anywhere before. A funky desk calculator based on the Mac OS Calculator app. While this is only a concept from Mint Pass, I know if they were ever available and my job meant I had to use a calculator often enough, I’d definitely buy myself one. I’d probably have to get a Kensington Lock to stop someone stealing it as well, after all, a box of cereal got stolen off my desk the other day.

There is also a Windows version on the site, but we don’t talk about that do we.

I realy hope someone from Apple or Microsoft pick up on these though, Mint Pass are onto a really good idea here. While the desktop calculator is something which is probably being used less and less these days, I think there would be plenty of fans that would buy one of these, and they’d make an aweomse novelty gift or stocking filler even for the non geeks.

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Apple give us new ‘Reserve and Pick Up’ to ease the Christmas rush

Simon Wicks — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:00:44 +0000

The Apple Store can get pretty crazy over the Christmas period, and that sucks. Not only do you have to battle the high streets, (in my case London Regent Street which is a nightmare to walk down on a regular day) but you have to fight your way through the cold shoppers that have nipped in for a spot of Facebooking while you’re trying to decide which of the new iMac’s to buy ME!

Apple has tried to ease this a little for us now, and also taken away the worry you might have about the postman stealing your new Apple toys on the way from the depo.

You can now head over to the new Reserve and Pick Up site, and reserve all the stuff you’re after, making sure that it’s actually in stock at the store of your choice as well, pay for it online, then head on over and pick it up between from December 15th – 24th. They’ll even gift wrap it for you as well, because you know as well as me, no one can wrap things as well as they do in stores..

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Orange announce UK iPhone tarrifs

Simon Wicks — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:00:34 +0000

This morning for us UK folks, Orange have unveiled their iPhone tariffs which will be starting on Tuesday 10th November. When they first announced they would be carrying the iPhone, along with rival telecoms company Vodaphone, I thought there would be some competition in the pricing plans they offered. But, alas, it seems there will be none from Orange so far at least.
Check out this chart that my friend Alan put together, so you can see the price differences side by side.

I currently hold the £35 a month 3G contract, and if i were to change this plan to Orange’s once the current one is up, I’d save a massive 0.39p over the 18 month contract. Plus I’d have the massive 750MB ‘unlimited data’ allowance. 750MB is not unlimited, it might seem like a fair bit to be using on a phone, but don’t claim it’s unlimited when it’s clearly only 750MB!? O2 also offers unlimited data on their network, and I have never had any warning from them telling me I’m using too much data. Orange have also parterned with BTOpenzone to bring free wi-fi to their customers, but this is also slapped with the 750MB unlimited data allowance, whereas us O2 people can get as much as we want for free

So for me, I plan to stick with O2. I still have a grudge against paying £35 a month for my shiny toy (iPhone) which brings me endless hours of joy when I’m out and about, but I know we get a much better deal than some of you other folks in other countries.
My contract is up in January, and I can actually get a better deal if I change my plan to a pay as you go one, with a data bolt on. But I have to stick with the 3G handset. Not ideal for anyone who loves having the latest and greatest, but for the penny pincher its a pretty good deal.

We also have to wait and see what Vodaphone have to offer. I don’t think their offers will be much better either…

Please click the pictures to view pricing plans in full.

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Le Cube – The making of the Apple store on 5th Avenue NYC

Simon Wicks — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:00:15 +0000

I love the Apple Store in NYC, it’s one of the first places I wanted to visit the first time I visited the city. I’ve just come across this 7:53 minute video, a short making of the now famous landmark Cube at the edge of Central Park. The video features the people behind the idea and construction of the Store, worth the watch if you like these kind of things. I’d personally like to see a longer one though!

Photo credit Thomas Hawk

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I fell in love at the Apple Store

Simon Wicks — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:59:35 +0000

Monday’s here. No one really likes them, but how about you put a smile on your face to try and brighten the start of your week with another video created in an Apple Store. This time its fanboyism at its upmost.

The author ‘Fatty Spins’ even goes as far as proving this video is not green screen in a RAW video posted up to YouTube as well. No real need for that, as you can see people staring at him for dancing around in the Apple Store.

One day I swear Apple is going to turn part of the stores into free recording studios.

Photo credit Thomas Hawk

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iGame turns your iPod into a Wii, almost

Simon Wicks — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:45:11 +0000

Over at elonex they’ve been busy coming up with a completely new idea that will revolutionize the gaming market… It’s a dock for your iPod that you plug into your TV so you can wave a Wii-Mote style controller around to make
Cathy, Mark and your friends jump around on screen playing games like bowling, table tennis, darts, firecracker and trampoline.

Quotes from the brochure (Opens PDF)

The iGAME is a great new gaming experience that is both
entertaining and engaging but also simple to play, great for
interacting with family and friends and above all healthy and
active.
Using wireless vibrating controllers the iGAMER swings the
controller as if it were a real tennis racket and the movements are
mimicked by the character on the screen. This not only gives kids
a great introduction to computers but also helps improve motor
skills and visualisation.

It’s compatible with a wide selection of iPods which is quite good though, but weirdly it is just iPods, the iPhone isn’t on their list of supported devices, or did they simply just miss it off the list.

iGAME lets you get the very most out of your iPod. Browse through your
iPod folders on the TV using the iGAME controller. Get the party started
with your music, playlists and podcasts and watch movies, music videos and
vidcasts full screen on your TV!

I wonder if it will be compatible with other games and apps that you can buy using Apple’s own App Store, or if it will be completely locked down just for their own titles. They’re looking for developers to create more titles though, so if you fancy your chances get in touch with them.

No prices out for it yet, but Joystiq.com have got in touch to see if they can dig up any more information.

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Back To School: Your Home Office

Simon Wicks — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:00:34 +0000

You’ve just had the most amazing summer of your life, again. Same every year when you get a break from school right?
To top off that break, what would be better than to go back to school with a brand new Mac. These things can help you get better grades after all *lies*

In this article, I’m going to go over the basics all the way up to the top spec Mac fanboys dream machine, and as I’m based in the UK, you’re going to have to make do with the links going through to the UK store, but I’ll convert the prices into dollars too. And if you’re not in the UK or America, it’s up to you to convert.

Quick links
Jump to ‘Budget Mac’s’ – Low Price
Jump to ‘Dont wanna look cheap’ – Mid Price
Jump to ‘I’m blowing my loan’ – High Price

Budget Mac’s – Low Price
Now I know there isn’t really a budget priced Mac, as they’re all more expensive than that fugly grey box you could buy from ‘Bob’s Used Computers’. But bear with me here, you do still have a few options if you’ve saved hard all summer and can maybe scrape together a bit more cash.

The trusty Macbook. This is the least expensive of Apple’s notebooks coming in at a respectable £714/$999. It’s still a pretty powerful machine, featuring a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR2 Memory and a 160GB hard drive. If this is still a little too expensive for you, there are always deals on at the Apple Refurb Store, which can save you quite a bit sometimes. I’ve had stuff from the refurb store myself, so don’t feel dirty about using it, you’re actually getting a 1 up on everyone else.

Next up comes the Mac Mini. These are actually a little cheaper than the Macbooks at £499/$599, but you’re only getting half a machine here remember. You need to find yourself a keyboard, mouse, monitor etc to go with them, so you could end up spending more taking this route, not to mention its not portable. Still, the lowest end of these little beauty’s has a slightly slower processor at 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory, and a 120GB hard drive. Don’t forget to check the Refurb Store for these as well, my dad got one of his from there and has been a small powerhouse ever since.

Don’t wanna look cheap – Mid Price
You had a pretty good job all summer, lived off noodles at school all last year and now you’re ready to make the move and buy that new Mac.
In this section I’m again covering one portable and one desktop, and both ends of the mid range price scales.

The Macbook Pro. In Apple’s last product refresh, when they got rid of the black Macbook completely, they also gave the rest of the Macbook line a boost up to Macbook Pro status, giving them all the same features as you used to only get on the higher end machines. The lowest end of this line is now the 13″ 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory and a 160GB hard drive. This has all the same features as its bigger brothers, and comes it at £899/$1,199. You can step those specs up and get yourself the 13″ with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB Memory and a 160GB hard drive and that will set up back £1,149/$1,499.

Still got some more cash? Why not get a few more inches and get the 15″, or maybe even a 17″ model. That’s going to set you back £1,849/2,499 for a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4GB Memory, a 500GB hard drive but unlike it’s smaller brothers this one has an ExpressCard/34 slot instead of the SD Card slot.

Up next we have the iMac, what i’d call Apple’s family desktop computer. Like the Macbook Pro, this comes in a variety of sizes, from a £949/$1,199 20-inch with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, and a 320GB hard drive, up to a £1,799/$2,199 24-inch, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB memory and a 1TB hard drive.

Last on the mid priced list we have the Macbook Air. This things so thin and sharp it can cut a cake. But don’t let that put you off, maybe the price or its lack of features can instead? The lowest of the two models on offer comes in at £1,149/$1,499, and crammed into that 0.16-0.76 inch body fits a 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory and a 120GB SATA hard drive. Now, we say it’s a SATA drive because on the 2.13GHz model you get a 128GB solid-state drive instead, £200/$300 more that one costs you though. You’re also going to need to buy the Superdrive for another £64/$99 if you want to install any other software that you don’t opt to have pre-installed on the computer like, iWork and Aperture and heaven forbid you actually want Microsoft Office, you’re definitely going to need this as Apple to offer that as an extra.

Of course, you can opt to upgrade some of the feature of your Mac when you buy direct from Apple, opting to have a bigger hard drive, or more memory are just a couple of things, so it’s best to really check them all out and go for one that fits your budget and your needs.

I’m blowing my loan – High Price
Now comes the fun part, the bit every apple fan boy dreams of. Money is no option, be it because you’ve decided to live on someone else’s floor for the term to save money on accommodation, been given hand me down books to save buying expensive new ones, and your ready meal and noodle supply has never looked better. Maybe a lottery win, or just parents that really don’t mind spending loads of money on you.

You want to be the best, everyone that visits you at home or in your college dorm room will look on in awe at the beast of a machine you have opted to get for this year. It’s not going to be portable, not by a long shot, so you better have a big supply of pens and paper and really like typing if you’re taking this route.

All you have to do if you wanna be the best there is, is visit the Apple Store, and select the 8-core Mac Pro and never look back, select everything they have in the ‘Configure your Mac Pro’ section. Of course you need Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors, who doesn’t? You’re going to need 32GB ram to go with that, a Raid card because you can, nothing wrong with having 4TB of HDD space either, i have more than that in external drives, so you might as well get it built in, 4x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB graphics cards to power the 2 x Apple Cinema HD Display (30″ flat panels) you’re getting, and maybe the 6 more you might want later on, Two 18x SuperDrives, a wireless keyboard and mouse, airport, a Quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card, along with all the software, cables, Mobile Me and Apple care. Then grab that credit card, and start filling in the details for your brand spanking new £16,289.98/$22,036.85 machine. There are a few different options between the UK and USA ones, i just maxed them all.

I don’t really think it’s wise anyone just does that though to be honest, but we can all dream right?

Whatever you do choose to buy as your back to school computer, make sure you check out all your options and the refurb store, and as much as it pains me to say, check out the PC’s as well if you’re on even more of a budget, no one will hate you for it when you’re graduated and not still paying it off, just until then you’ll be frowned at :)

Article inspired by one in September’s T3 magazine in the UK. I also used their images for the header and big budget section. Great gadget mag, check it out sometime.

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I like that boom boom pow…

Simon Wicks — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:24:17 +0000

Every time I go into an Apple store here in London, there are always massive groups of the ‘Yoof’ hanging around all the computers, usually just watching YouTube videos and cranking the volume to max on the speakers before a member of Apple staff comes along and spoils their fun. It’s not that I always have things I’ve specifically gone in there to do, like getting that urgent memo over to Dave at the office and the Apple store is my only hope. I usually just want to go in and hold one of the unibody beauties I one day aspire to own for myself. But it does annoy me, and it’s even worse during the holidays, it’s like a youth centre in there sometimes.

Now, at least this kid is doing something more entertaining with his time there, and has so far raked in over 21,000 views of this video already.

Not to be the old man, stick in the mud kinda guy, but I don’t think I’d mind so much if they were all in there doing a massive choir version of Africa by Toto rather than seeing who can annoy the most people first.

Photo credit Thomas Hawk

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iPhone OS 3.0.1 update now available

Simon Wicks — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:03:01 +0000

Apple have just pushed out the 3.0.1 software update for all 3 models of the iPhone. There were rumors from the UK carrier O2 that the update would be coming tomorrow to patch the SMS vulnerability that was disclosed at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas yesterday.

Of course, this brings a bit of a predicament for jailbreakers like myself at the moment.

Do i carry on browsing through life unprotected, and put myself at risk of getting my identity stolen, my phone hijacked, and other things, just for the sake of using some apps in the background, or changing the way my lock screen looks? Hopefully the Dev team are on this problem right now, but who knows what else has been baked into this firmware update, maybe it will cause them more problems and they wont be able to get the quick fix out for us all that we’re hoping for.

Only time will tell. It’s up to you what you do. Do you take the 280MB update and be safe, or do you shrug it off for now and wait for the new Pwnage tool?

Let us know which route you have taken in the comments.

Read the official release documentation from Apple here: here

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Rolando 2 Quest for the Golden Orchid – Now on App Store

Simon Wicks — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:00:26 +0000

I’m downloading Rolando 2 right now, and you should too!
I really enjoyed the first one and the ‘secret’ levels which Ngmoco put out in an update for us while they we’re developing the new version. It’s one of the best and fun games I’ve played on my iPhone so far.

In this new version, the environment has been changed from a standard looking platformer to a 2.5D system (as you can see in the screenshots above), there are lots of new characters, weapons and vehicles and of course, lots more puzzles to roll, tap and swipe your way through 46 new levels.

Ngmoco has taken advantage of the OS 3.0 with this new version as well, and have introduced Plus+, which enables you to keep a buddy list of people to play against and push notifications for games.

Welcome to the next step in iPhone gaming. Plus+ connects you to a vast community of iPhone gamers across a growing array of iPhone and iPod touch games. have a completionist streak? play to unlock every game award. want to take on the world? vie for a spot on our global leaderboards. feel like starting something? send direct challenges to your friends and step up the competition.

Here is a preview in which developer Simon Oliver shows off some new features including new ways to get revenge on enemies and new traps that await in Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid!

iTunes Link Requires firmware 3.0. $9.99 / Â£5.99

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That damn beach ball!

Simon Wicks — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:28:15 +0000

‘Beach ball’, ‘Pizza wheel’, ‘Spinning pinwheel’, ‘Rainbow ball’, ‘That fracking thing again?!?!’, call it what you will, but it’s actually called the Spinning wait cursor.

I can’t really find any other information about this following short, other than what’s been said on the site I found it from.

It’s called ‘Study for Stone Waiting Sculpture’ and it’s by Brian Kane who is a designer, Emergency Broadcast Network co-founder, and Vujak co-creator.

Life sometimes feels like its been halted by the ball which brings impending doom to many Mac users daily. I know I’d like one of these on my wall to just sit and stare at sometimes, if it were real.

via

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iPhone 3.0 firmware Jailbreak now live!

Simon Wicks — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:02:13 +0000

“Thar she blows” comes a tweet from the iPhone_dev teams twitter account. All those of you who have been waiting patiently to either upgrade to 3.0 with the jailbreak, or just jailbreak the 3.0 firmware you already have on your device, that time has arrived.

This is the low down on our tools for use with the 3.0 firmware from Apple, read the whole post in full before attempting anything. Because of some bugs and unexpected changes this will be a multipart release, starting with the release of PwnageTool for Mac OS X. QuickPwn for Mac OS X and Windows will follow sometime soon, please don’t bug us about it, we are working flat out to get everything finished to release them.

No word on the 3G S support yet, but I’m sure after todays release they’ll of got their hands on one and are busy giving it the once over as i type.

Head on over to their blog and read the instructions over and over again, then get cracking.

The dev team have released a series of easter eggs in this version of the PwnageTool as well it seems.
Coming from their twitter account once more we have:

#1 – Hold s + f + click the Pwnapple in “About PwnageTool” box.
#2 Try a demonic value in the custom partition size before making the .ipsw there is a gift from “@stephenfry” if you do this.

Let us know how it all goes in the comments.

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O2 shed a tear over ‘free’ tetherers

Simon Wicks — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:00:18 +0000

The iPhone’s official UK carrier O2 have kicked up a fuss at the fact somebody has managed to find a workaround for the iPhone 3.0 firmware’s tether option, enabling users to get the service for free instead of paying their ridiculous prices. They have said that they will disconnect or charge the offenders which choose this route over getting the official bolt on package.

Internet rumours suggest that some customers have modified their iPhone to enable Internet Tethering without the purchase of the Internet Tethering Bolt On. Any use of this particular feature without the purchase of the Bolt on is specifically prohibited under our terms of service.

Under those terms we reserve the right to charge customers making modem use of their iPhone or disconnect them. If customers wish to use the Internet Tethering feature on their iPhone 3G or iPhone 3G S, we recommend taking the Bolt On which is available from Friday 19 June.

I’m not 100% sure how they would manage to distinguish regular iPhone data usage and that which has come via a tethered connection, but I’m sure over time we will find out when somebody tries to download a BluRay movie rip and gets screwed over it.

My iPhone was jailbroken before 3.0, and I had a tether app which I used to use in the car and on the train to check my email and general light browsing around the web. I never really abused the fact that I could do it by downloading massive files this way. Nothing really would have peaked for them in my data usage. I did ‘however’ maybe abuse the fact that I had changed some settings so I wasn’t limited to downloading 10MB files at a maximum from the App store. I have an ‘unlimited’ data allowance after all so I never really saw it as a problem.

How is me downloading some games over the air different to me sitting watching YouTube videos all day, and what is someone with a tethered connection really going to be doing with it that O2 seem to think is going to massively increase data usage across their network? You’re still limited to the same speed you can get on your iPhone right?

O2′s tether prices are still far too high if you do want to take the legal route, but Ofcom wants to hear from you, and if enough people complain they will be forced to do something about it. Read about it on bitterwallet and make that call if you’re in the UK.

Quick note. Adding the tether hack seems to change your data settings to ‘wap.o2.co.uk’ instead of ‘idata.o2.co.uk’. Maybe they can hunt you out this way?

I don’t know what this is like on other supported networks, but be warned.

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Give us a D, give us an O, give us a C, give us a K!

Simon Wicks — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:00:25 +0000

Mike Giepert says ‘This literally popped up on my desktop and I thought it was too good not to share’, speaking of the ‘Browse’ in icon form you see in the title picture.

To be honest, I have never noticed any of the applications in my dock spelling words out, or even thought about trying to make them, but I know I’m going to be giving it a go now and sending them into him here so he can put them up in his gallery.

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It just makes scents

Simon Wicks — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:10:28 +0000

This is an awesome Time Capsule styled candle. I don’t have much info on how it was made, even Google translate can’t really help me understand the source page. From what I can work out, it was made with an aluminum mold, and that’s about it! However it was made though, I’d fail at making one for myself, so if you know where we can buy these awesome candles, let us know in the comments please.

via

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Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe – Pages Live

Simon Wicks — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:42:07 +0000

Find my iPhone was one of the many new features revealed to us yesterday at the World Wide Developers Conference. A feature of MobileMe that would let you locate your iPhone should you *gasp* loose it!Â We covered it in our MobileMe round up already so I’ll spare most of the details.Â Just wanted to pass along a quick note to say that if you login to MobileMe now, under account you will see the new Find My iPhone button.

The feature is not yet active, but if you want you can go and stare at the page untill June 17th when it goes live along with the new iPhone OS 3.0. To use this feature and Remote Wipe, you’re going to be needing a MobileMe account too, so you might as well pick one up, even if it’s only for this feature I think it’s worth it.

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iPhone 3Gs – A guided tour

Simon Wicks — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:42:50 +0000

Apple have now posted one of their ‘guided tour‘ videos about the new iPhone 3GS.
You can watch online in 3 sizes, or download for later.

While you’re there, check out the new TV advert.

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There’s an app for that..

Simon Wicks — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:39:44 +0000

By now you must know that there’s an app for just about everthing you want or need on the iPhone or iPod Touch.
You must have seen the adverts on TV. If not, here’s a refresher of one.

Over at nerduo.com they have come up with a site to poke a little bit of fun at Apple’s campaign.

Check out appft.com where you can submit your own phrases in the mock SMS app interface, and watch them roll down the screen. Press the refresh button to see other peoples answers come up (some might be inappropriate, you have been warned) and you can send those updates out to Twitter, Facebook and other services.

~~You can view the site on your iPhone or iPod Touch, but you can’t yet submit to it. It does say that they are working on that though.~~
You can now submit your own quips direct from the iPhone site.

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Game Boy iPhone Skin

Simon Wicks — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:07:49 +0000

Did you ever own a Nintendo Gameboy? Or maybe just want one but never got round to it, maybe you were a Sega lover and had a Game Gear instead, I know I did.

Well now thanks to infectious.com you can re-live your childhood and put these stickers on your pride and joy and pretend like you own one of those now 80′s 8-bit wonders.
The kit comes with:

1 full sized piece of iPhone art for the back
1 small front piece of iPhone art for the front
1 Infectious logo

Also available for iPod Touch. Both at the price of $14.99.

Now all you need is the Gameboy4iphone emulator, and the iGameboy buttons and theme from cydia and you’re sorted! (only available on jailbroken phones, sorry)

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Skull t’shirt made from mac keyboard keys

Simon Wicks — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:15:18 +0000

This is a fun t-shirt created by rubyread, made up from classic Mac white and original iMac black keyboards.

Even though I have a couple of old Mac keyboard hanging around, I still don’t want to pull them apart, not even in the name of art. I’ll just let them sit there and collect dust, like so many other people probably do.

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iPhone Konami code easter egg

Simon Wicks — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:00:16 +0000

Everyone knows or has even at least heard of the Konami Code right?

The Konami Code, known in Japan as the Konami Command (ã‚³ãƒŠãƒŸã‚³ãƒžãƒ³ãƒ‰, Konami Komando?), is a cheat code that appears in many Konami video games, [1] although the code also appears in some non-Konami games.

Well, if you visit milliondollarcu.be, from your iPhone or iPod Touch, then use the swipe gesture on the site to enter the code, you get a nice little Easter egg of a big eye show up, that moves around when you move your finger around the screen. Nothing really happens once you’ve done it, just a bit of fun like lots of other sites have been doing recently.

UPDATED

So, I received an email from one of the site developers Robert Black earlier about some new updates which have been pushed to the site.

As of tonight I’ve reworked the loading of the iPhone-specific homepage, and it now features iPhone native hardware-accelerated 3D rendering of the Cube while the ads load in the background. Words don’t do it justice, so here’s a short video showing the new features

ps. The home page of the site features it’s own Konami Code and easter egg when viewed in a regular desktop browser, using the keyboard. In fact it’s a double-konami ;-)

So make sure you go and check it out if you still haven’t got round to it.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Glowing iPhone Apple logo

Simon Wicks — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:56:37 +0000

Back in August last year, a bunch of Russian hackers had about $300 to spare and decided to mod a first-gen iPhone to include a glowing Apple logo in it.

The result is quite good. We all know Apple loves people to know that you have their stuff, the Macbooks have the glowing logos on the lids, and just about everyone knows the distinctive white earbuds by now.

Apparently this mod didn’t affect the battery life at all, I don’t really see how this is possible, maybe if the back of the screen was transparent and allowed it to glow through? But that would affect the front, and, *head-splode*. I don’t really do engineering, I leave that to the pros.

Either way, I don’t see why Apple would waste their time adding a feature like this into the iPhone, they already made the screen turn off when you put it up to your ear, why have a logo that lights up when you do it? Defeats the point surely.

Check out the video anyway, and if when we get the new iPhone, it has a glowing logo, I’ll eat my iBook.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

‘Sims 3′ First iPhone Gameplay Video

Simon Wicks — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:51:19 +0000

Intomobile have gotten their hands on some exclusive footage of the new Sims 3 game for the iPhone and iPod Touch from EA, the guys behind hits such as ‘Spore Origins, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Need For Speed Undercover‘.

The Sims 3 takes full advantage of the iPhone’s 3D graphics capabilities. The entire 3D world pans, tilts and rotates around your Sim character smoothly, without any noticeable lag. In fact, we were repeatedly impressed by the iPhone’s ability to smoothly render the 3D world with ease. sims3 07 300×200 First Look: The Sims 3 for iPhone [updated]You pan around the game with a single finger. Dragging two fingers vertically along the touchscreen tilts the 3D view and rotating two fingers (as if you were twisting a volume-control knob) rotates the map. All the while, the game dims and raises the lighting to match the time of day in Sim-land – a nice touch to be sure

I have to say I’m really impressed with the games being released under EA’s name for the Apple devices. Monopoly, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit are just a few that keep me entertained on my daily commute to and from work, and now I’m looking forward to giving The Sims 3 a whirl when it’s released on June 2nd.

Check out the video to see it with all its pan, tilt, zoom and pinch actions.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Steve Jobs in Typography

Simon Wicks — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:22:56 +0000

This is just incredible. Dylan Roscover has created this Steve Jobs portrait based on the “Here’s to the crazy ones” ad campaign from Apple in the 90s. Made up in its entirety from only those fonts present in Apple branding and products. You definitely have to click through and check out the attention to detail on it in full size.

Here’s the ad it was based on too.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Twitterrific 2.0 for iPhone Coming Very Soon

Simon Wicks — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:48:18 +0000

It’s about time!

The guys from Iconfactory haveÂ submitted version 2 of Twitterrific to the iTunes App Store and is expected to be approved next week.

For me, Twitterrific was one of the first apps I installed after getting my iPhone, but it soon grew old and featureless with the way Twitter was being used. No search, trends and re-tweet features made me move over to Twitterfon, even after I paid for it.

The new version boasts lots of new features like:

Multiple account support
Filters for mentions
DMs
Favorites
Trends
Search by keyword, person, or location
Saved searches
Notes on users
Retweet
Conversations
Custom shortcuts
The ability to follow/unfollow/block
Expanded and condensed views
Shrinkable text
Complete Twitter bios

Here’s a 9.15 minute video you can watch explaining all the new features in version 2.0.

I just hope they update the desktop version too, as i paid for that as well and have since moved over too Tweetie for the same featureless reasons.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.