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16
Jul 10

How to turn your iPhone 3G into iPhone 4 (Multitasking, Homescreen Wallpaper and Battery Life percentage)

In continuation to my "How to turn your iPhone 3G into an iPhone 4 (Battery Life)" post ,i will cover now methods of unlocking the functionality of the iPhone 4 on your 3G. The features unlocked are: Multitasking, Homescreen Wallpaper and Battery Life.

One of my favourite iPhone jailbreaking sites covers the jailbreaking process for the iPhone 3G and other. It has become fairly simple to do all of this so i'll spare you from reading instructions written by me and direct you to the post directly.

I have done all of the above and have had over a month's time to review the outcome. Sadly, things don't look good. The iPhone 3G even without jailbreak feel sluggish and god-awful with iOS 4. I wish Apple didn't give up on it so early and continued to develop great software on lower spec'd hardware for efficiency sake. Unfortunately, we live in a fast moving tech world and consumers must have the biggest and fastest at any price.

If you had to chose one thing to unlock that the iPhone 4 has is the Multitasking. Just make sure to keep an eye on the number of apps running. This can be a killer on resources. The outcome of this series of posts is not looking so great. The iPhone 3G really is starting to show its age and really lose its position of power among the Android (HTC Legend, Nexus One) and BlackBerry(Bold 8900, Storm 2) handsets in the mid-market segment.

Posted via email from Filip Mares

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20
Jun 10

How to turn your iPhone 3G into iPhone 4 ( Battery Life)

Well, another summer another series of blog posts on how to optimize your life. In this case, it's how to optimize it financially. With the iPhone 4 announcement i was left less than impressed with the update. I have no idea why and what exactly i was expecting. Alright, i know what it is, IT LOOKS the same and has the same dinky little screen(with higher res). To me that's not enough to generate a purchase, but what do i know. I will most likely find myself with it in my pocket in a months time anyways. Maybe…

I am compiling a "guide" on how to still survive with the ol' 3G a little longer. This is for all those 3G owners that are still finishing off their 3 year contracts, don't want to lose their grandfathered data plans that have gotten the axe here in Canada and AT&T in the US. Let's have a look at what we know the 3G will lack compared to the iPhone 4:

- Front Facing Camera (Can't have)

- Multitasking (Can have)

- Homescreen Wallpaper (Can have)

- Better Batter Life (Can have)

- Better Autofocus Camera with Flash (Can almost have)

- Shiny new refreshed exterior (Can have)

- Better display (Can't have)

- iBooks (Yet to see)

Battery Life:

So we've had our iPhone 3G for almost 2 years now. Most of us are lucky to get a nice day of usage without reaching for the charger. Some offset this by buying an external battery such as the Mophie Juice Pack Air and the Mohpie Juice Pack (link). Those are great solutions, but there are great DYI alternatives too. I recently opted to change my iPhone batter. This is a $89 service done by Apple. It's for suckers right? Well, maybe. The process is a little hard for inexperience DiYers out there, so if you're willing to fork the cash for a Mophie Juice Pack, then might as well just have Apple replace your battery instead.

I purchased my battery from eBay(yea yea, i know) from a supplier of iPhone repair parts. It seemed legit so i bit the bullet and got it delivered in 2 business days. Everything cost me ~$30. Not bad. In the package you get a number of tools to make your life easier in the disassembly process. As a guide i suggest following the iFixIt guide you will need a little suction cup to make this a little easier when removing the front bezel. It came apart real easy and if you follow the instructions and don't freak, then you should be fine. The process took a little under an hour for myself.

Results:

Note all tests ran on 3G connection.

Old battery average results:

~8hrs till dead

~30 min talk

~1.5 hrs music

moderate browsing and app usage

GPS

1/4 screen brightness

15 min interval email refresh

Day 1:

Ran ~10 hours

~30 min talk

~1 hr music
lots of wifi

light 3G use
GPS

1/4 screen brightness

15 min interval email refresh

Day 2:

~13 hours

~45 min talk time
~2hrs music

1/2 brightness
Push email
Lots of 3G and WIFI

GPS

Day 3:

~9 hours (12% left)

~1.5 hrs talk time

~1.5 hrs music

1/2 brightness

Push email

Moderate 3G and WIFI

GPS

Day 4 (middle of the blog post):

@4 hours (85%)

1/2 brightness

~30 min music

light email and data(3G + WIFI)

Push email

GPS

Conclusion:

The process of replacing wasn't bad at all and it feel good to be back at an almost acceptable battery life. I'd personally recommend this to anyone looking to extend their dying iPhone 3G battery life. Worth the $30. Stay tuned over the next few weeks while i tackle the other "Can have" upgrades.

Cheers,

V. Filip Mares

Posted via email from Filip Mares

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15
Aug 09

Watch Hulu from outside the US

We have waited too long for access to Hulu here in Canada and are stuck with alternatives such as Megavideo and other online video providers which constantly get taken down for copyright infringements. A little while ago i recommended Hotspot Shield as my #tip-a-day tweet (now #FilTip) as a means to watch Hulu on your PC or Mac. Hulu has smartened up to the proxies and has started blocking all access through them to the site. Fortunately, this week i have discovered another method (more elegant) of watching your favourite shows and movies on Hulu.

You will still need Hotspot Shield as a means to access, but we will be using the Hulu Desktop Application.

Requirements (Downloads):

Instructions:

Install the above software (Hotspot Shield and Hulu Desktop)
Run Hotspot Shield
- This will launch a web browser window which will provide connection info
- Once connected you will be redirected to your home page
- Close the browser window
Run the Hulu Desktop application
- Choose a show and enjoy
- if the video does not load fast enough or you experience buffer delays, select the ‘Low’ quality setting

Conclusion:

Using the Hulu Desktop application allows users to watch their favourite TV shows and movies through the Hulu network in a way similar to the Windows Media Center experience. It has a very intuitive interface and the show quality exceeds all the other video alternatives on the web. I find this a much better experience than the previous web method.

Living in the Cloud: Instant Messaging (meebo)

It’s been just over a month since the introduction post of the ‘Living in the cloud’ series of post. I’m going to kicking it off with an important part for all you social users out there (you know who you are), instant messaging.

Normally, a typical user would use a desktop client such as GTalk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo and AIM. To aggregate all these services one can use clients such as Digsby, Pidgin and Trillian. But what if you’d like the same features across all desktops you use? In comes Meebo!

What is Meebo?

Meebo lets users gather their friends on a single buddy list where they can communicate in real-time across different IM platforms, communities, and traditional social networks.

At meebo.com and with Meebo for partner sites, users can keep in touch with friends across dozens of IM platforms, including AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, MySpace IM, Facebook Chat, and more. With 50 million people sharing over 5 billion messages and 75 million links every month, Meebo is one of the Web’s fastest growing social media companies.

Screenshot of chat client (of course, i blurred out all personal info)

So Meebo is an easy centralized way to IM on Yahoo, MSN, GTalk, Facebook, Jabber and ICQ. There are a couple of ways to chat on Meebo:

Keep your conversations in a tab in your browser
Keep your conversations in a separate browser window
Pop the client and all chat windows out of browser for a more native feel.

You can also install a notifier app which will display new message and logins info as displayed below:

Update: Meebo also supports voice and video chat in browser. The quality is very impressive and carries a great native feel.

This seems to be a lightweight option as it only take about 6MB of RAM.

Overall i find Meebo to be a great alternative to multiple IM clients or an all-in-one. I use a desktop PC , a notebook and occasionally public computers at school and i love having the same friend list everywhere i log on. I especially like having the ability to be reached via Facebook chat when I’m not on Facebook stalking.

So check out Meebo!

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7
Jun 09

Google Tasks Widget/Application

So i like organizing and planning most aspects of my day to day life. I am a huge fan of Google Calendar and Google tasks. Recently Google has started integrating the two services and it has made me the happiest Google user ever…until Wave.

I personally don’t leave my GCal windows open all day. I might have Gmail open about 80% of my day. I do however like to have my tasks displayed so that i am constantly reminded about the little things that need to get done so that i don’t feel like my day is a waist. Sadly to get at Google tasks now, you need to either be in Gmail or GCal. I thought about it long and hard (that’s what she said) and realized there is a web interface for mobiles for tasks (http://m.google.com). There are two really awesome versions: one for Android devices and another for the iPhone. I personally prefer the Android one as the font is much easier to read and Chrome doesn’t whine about switching to the Android site.

Android version (left) and iPhone version (right)

Turn on your Google Chrome browser and turn this site into an application (guide). This will create an icon to launch your new Google tasks Gadget. The end result… –>

Very sexy, i know. No go on and be more productive.

Note: This can obviously be done with Firefox and Prism add-on.

Links:

Add Tasks to Google Calendar

Add Tasks to GMail

Info on Firefox and Prism Applications

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Tom who also suggested the iGoogle widget.

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24
May 09

Living in the cloud: Introduction

I have been reformatting my machines quite o untitled1 ften over the past 8 months and re-installing my most used applications has become quite tedious. I have been reformatting due to trying out new builds of Windows 7. It has been quite the treat to have seen this operating system become as polished as it is in its latest build of Release Candidate. In my quest for the ultimate in lean lightweight computing I’ve decided to stop relying so much on apps that run locally and start looking for alternatives in the cloud. Being an regular Gmail user, i am already accustomed to the idea of having an application in a web browser feel like a native one. Throughout the next month or so i will cover the many ways in which i am eliminating my day to day native applications (Live Messenger, Outlook, Photoshop, Word, Excel, One Note etc.) for in browser solutions.

This move is not only in anticipation of the wiping my systems again on Oct 15th, but also in anticipation to a notebook purchase. Although i am not a big fan of the netbook movement, it’s admirable to see how much hardware can be stuffed into the little 8-9″ package. I’d prefer the 10-12″ variety, but then I personally don’t consider those netbooks. Let’s call them thin and light notebooks. I can see no use for a 9″ screen with a resolution that barely supports most web pages. It would be tedious to use it as thin client for web apps.

Gallery

Just a couple of netbooks that i have my eye on. Asus EEEPC 1008HA(left and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (right).

Hardware

For the time being I’ve resorted to my current notebook to be the platform for this series of Cloud Computing. Here are the specs:

Asus Z71V Notebook

Intel Pentium M 1.86Ghz

1 GB Ram (gettign back to 2 after i get my memory stick RMA’d. BTW this has been the delay in this post as i had to make time to troubleshoot the system)

25Gb of 65 Gb (i have allotted this much based on the fact that i am triple booting between Windows 7, OsX and Linux. Less will suffice also, although i will not recommend less than 20Gb)

Software

Obviously i am using Windows 7, but this really does apply to all versions of windows and sometimes even cross platform. The web browser I plan on using is Google Chrome. Recently, I have started favouring Chrome I’ve Firefox due to its interface simplicity, superior screen real estate and its sheer speed. Some other advantages that chrome has over Firefox or any other browser is its JavaScript engine and built in Google gears engine. This will come in handy when using more intensive web applications.

Conclusion

The types of applications I have planned on covering so far are alternatives to office and personal documents synchronization. I not only plan on picking a service, but also provide some alternatives. To follow along with my posts all you’ll need is a computer (Mac or PC) with either Google Chrome or Firefox with the prism add-on.

That’s all for now.

Update: I was notified that i did not link to any of the browsers and plugins i mentionesd. So here are a few of the links:

Firefox Web Browser

Prism add-on (Firefox only, not needed for Chrome)

Google Gears Addon (Firefox only, not needed for Chrome)

Google Chrome

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26
Nov 08

Google Chrome about:@?# commands

I was wondering the other day what about: commands there are for Google Chrome. I have been using the browser a lot lately due to speed and less bloat. Loving it more and more. Here’s what I’ve found so far:

about:version (self-explanatory)
about:cache (show cache content)
about:plugins -(show information of plugins installed)
about:memory (show memory usage)
about:crash (crash the tab)
about:dns (show dns info)
about:network (network tools)
about:stats (command stats timing)
about:internets (clog the tubes simulation…lol)
about:histograms (histograms)

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24
Nov 08

Guide: Jailbreak IPhone 2.2 Firmware

A couple of days late on the guide, but here it is. The QuickPwn has definitely improved since the last build. Pretty simple and straight forward.

Download QuickPwn tool (here)
Download 2.2 official firmware (here)
Attach IPhone/IPod Touch using the USB cable
Run QuickPwn
Browse to 2.2 firmware file
Select options you would like ( I personally recommend Cydia over Installer, just install both)
Click GO!
Follow button holding/clicking pattern as instructed
wait….
wait…
ENJOY!

Guides — 1 Comment
31
Oct 08

Guide: Mobile Me Alternative for Windows Users – Part 2 [Wireless Task Sync]

It’s been a while and this guide series needs to be completed. In this part we will handle wireless Task synchronization.

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Wireless Task Synchronization:

Firstly, here is what you will need :

A windows mail client such as Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007
Toodledo Account [link]
Toodledo Sync Windows Client [link]

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Toodledo Sync Client Setup:

After signing up for your Toodledo Account. Go to your ‘Account Settings’ link

Copy or write down your ‘Unique Id’ into notepad

Locate and Launch ToodleSync Client. Right click and select ‘Options’.

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Select the following options. Make any changes you wish; It’s all a matter of preference. This is just works for me.

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Enter the Unique Id you copied into the ‘Account’ window

Click File > Close

You’re done with the PC client setup! As long as the toodledosync client is running� your tasks will sync on the set interval.

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IPhone Toodledo Sync Setup:

Run Safari and browse to http://www.toodledo.com/slim/

Click the ‘Add to Home Screen’.

This created an icon on your home screen which you can use to access the IPhone formatted site for toodledo.

All done! Enjoy and stay tuned for the next part of the guide ‘Wireless Contacts Synchronization’.

Filip

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