Using Terminal on Mac and Unix

Terminal is a very powerful tool on Mac and Unix. It enables the user to carry out tasks they wouldn't normally be able to do from the GUI. A few commands are:


sudo shutdown -P now  -  Shuts down and turns off the computer now ("now" can be changed to  the amount of minutes until shutdown or a time. e.g. +10 in ten minutes) this command can be useful for shutting down your computer from an SSH terminal if it isn't responding.


say  -  Make your mac talk.


ifconfig  -  View the network information for your computer.


open -a  -  Open an application in the Applications folder. can be changed to any application e.g. iTunes.


sudo  -  gives superuser permissions to the current user (requires password).

Get full artwork for iPhone App icons

You can get the full sized (512 x 512) icon for iPhone apps in iTunes. 


To do this right click on any app in your iTunes library and click "Get Info" or "Properties" on Windows. Navigate to the "Artwork" tab and you should see an icon of the app. 


Click and drag that to any Finder or Explorer window while holding the option key (⌥) or the control key (Windows). 


You now have a 512 x 512 size icon of that app. Don't use it in your own application though which could infringe copyright

Use Find my iPhone® for free on older devices

I discovered a way to use Apple's "Find my iPhone"® feature of MobileMe® on iOS devices other than the iPad, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G.


The way to set it up is to:


1.  Enable it using one of the supported devices (i.e. a friend's iPhone 4) temporarily; using your Apple ID®.


2.  You will need to look at this page and follow the instructions on how to set it up.


3.  Remove that account on the device you just enabled it on.


4.  Go to your older device (the one you want to enable it on) and enter the details that you used to enable the feature in the first place. It should then be configured properly. 


5.  You can access the Find my iPhone® MobileMe® portal at MobileMe Login or using the Find my iPhone® app. Login with the same email address and password as your Apple ID®.

Google SketchUp

Google SketchUp is a free 3D Modelling application that enables users to create and share buildings they have created. You can make anything with SketchUp from pencil pots to entire cities. 

More info at: Google

FaceTime for Mac

FaceTime is already a big hit on the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G but what about the Mac? Well, now Mac users can get it for their computers. It requires Mac OS X 10.6.4 installed for it to work. You use your email address to make and receive FaceTime calls. The application is still in Beta - it hasn't been officially released yet. You can still download it here though.


More info at: Apple

Mac OS X Lion

Mac OS X Lion is yet to be released but it brings great functionality. It includes features such as folders, like on the iPhone, The Mac App store, launchpad and many more. 


Folders acts as they do on the iPhone so you can group applications i.e. Games, Utilities, etc. The Mac App store behaves just like the iOS app store, you can download apps and install them on your Mac. You can also use iTunes cards for purchases. 


Launchpad is just like the home screen on iPhone or iPad - there are pages of apps, folders, etc. You can drag icons around to rearrange them or you can delete them.


Mac OS X Lion will be released in late 2011.


More info at: Apple

There is also an iLife update.  :)

Ubuntu Review

I recently tried out Ubuntu on my PC and Mac and it worked great. It is much easier to use than Windows and doesn't use up valuable processing power and RAM. I haven't found any flaws yet but there is sure to be some. The OS is a free and open source making it affordable for home computing.


More info and download at: Ubuntu


I will update this post with more later on.

Google Instant

Google has updated it's search engine, it now searches as you type and puts suggestions in the box in grey. 


It is called Google Instant and was added today. It is currently only with web search but makes for faster searching as you don't have to click the search button or press enter anymore. 


There is an option to turn off Instant search but it is on by default. It incorporates autocomplete which makes it faster to search. You can still press enter or click search to find something specific. 


They have also added a clear button like on mobile devices. It is not yet available for mobile devices but will be in the future. 

More information is at: Google instant

iOS 4.2

The latest version of Apple's iOS Operating System is coming out in November. It will be for iPad and will bring the Much wanted features of iOS4 to it. (it will also be for iPhone and iPod Touch). The features include: 

- Multitasking

- Folders

- Unified Inbox

- Find text Feature

- Keyboard and Dictionary Enhancements

- Enhanced Enterprise Support

- Accessibility Enhancements

- Game Center

- AirPrint

- AirPlay

The AirPrint feature enables an iOS device to print to a wireless printer or a printer on your wireless network. This has been a much anticipated feature of iOS and it is now here. 

The AirPlay feature allows an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to wirelessly stream their currently playing song/movie/TV Show to play on their Apple TV. It can also stream to the AirPort Express base station with connected speakers. 

Games center has been brought to iPad as well, preparing it for ultimate gaming. 

iPod updates are here!

Apple announced the new iPod Touch 4th Generation on 1st September giving it almost iPhone 4 capability. It now features a rear camera, front facing camera, gyroscope, iOS4.1 and... a retina display. The rear camera has a shameful 0.6 megapixels but still supports HD video recording. Apple has done this because they could not fit the 5MP iPhone 4 camera in the extremely thin iPod Touch. The front camera supports FaceTime video calls with its microphone, it can call other iPod Touch 4G's and iPhone 4's. The retina display is an improvement for viewing webpages and photos. It provides 326 ppi screen quality and crisp text quality. another improvement is iOS4.1 which fixes minor problems and brings in Game center and iTunes Ping. The WiFi chip has been improved, enabling 802.11n signal as well as 802.11g,b,a. Apple also released a new iPod Nano, Shuffle and Apple TV. The Nano is now touchscreen and is square and smaller. The iPod Shuffle has found its buttons and become smarter, it now supports playlists and genius playlists. The TV is smaller and faster, and now streams content instead of storing it on a hard drive. Apple no longer sells the old iPod Touch, the Nano, the Shuffle or the TV. Prices are below (prices are in US$):

iPod touch

8GB $229  32GB $299  64GB $399

iPod Nano

8GB $149  16GB $179

iPod Shuffle

2GB $49

Apple TV

$99

Google rivalling Skype®

Google has released a new feature enabling users to make calls to landlines and mobiles. It is called Google voice and it lets people with a Gmail account to call phones for very low rates. it costs nothing to set up and gives you 10¢ US call credit to start. For 2010 only, people can call US and Canadian phones for free, even if they are in another country. The call rates are extremely low, much better than leading telecom services. Skype already has this feature, but doesn't have the low rates which makes Google a rival for Skype. The google voice feature requires the plugin which it gives you a link to download. At the moment you can only make outgoing calls, you can get an online number, but only in the US, they are bringing out full features for other countries later in the year. Google already has Google talk which is basically Skype in a web browser, it supports video as well.


Google Voice requires the Google Voice and Video plug-in.


Link (It can also be accessed from Gmail.)

Inside an iPad

Here are some photos of the inside of Apple's iPad. Apple also tries to conceal the names of the hardware manufacturers. 

Bluetooth and WiFi module

The screen taken out

The main chip housing the Processor 

Apple tries to conceal the hardware manufacturers

All the pieces

Main units

Transform an iPod Touch into an iPhone

A new add-on has made it possible to turn an iPod touch into an iPhone. A Chinese firm has created a device that gives some iPhone capabilities to an iPod Touch. The case, known as the Apple Peel 520 has a dock connector which connects to the ipod, a SIM card slot and an extended battery. It gives calling and messaging capabilities as well as extra battery life. The case costs $64  but don't get too excited, there are some things that you can't get such as ring tones. The case will be available online in the next few weeks. I would recommend just buying an iPhone 3GS instead of the case.


More info at SMH.com

iPod Touch 4th Generation

The new iPod touch 4th Gen will be coming out soon. It will feature a camera, microphone and a retina display. Some suspect that it will support FaceTime, one of the main features of iPhone 4. It might have a retina screen and flash. People are hoping that it will have a 128GB memory and most of the features of the iPhone 4. There has been rumour about a front facing camera for FaceTime (only over WiFi). I will keep updating this post as more info rolls in.

Jailbreak available for iOS 4.0 and iPhone 4

A new jailbreak is available for the lates apple update, 4.0 and can also be installed on the iPhone 4. The jailbreak is available from jailbreakme.com and can be installed on-device, no need for a computer. The software has support for the 4.0 software which wasn't available before. However it's not all gravy, because the jailbreak is so new, there are still a few bugs in the software and can cause some problems. I would recommend waiting a few revisions before jailbreaking.

More info at SMH.com

iPhone 4 Cracked

Users have reported the iPhone 4 as "fragile" and "weak" because of it's strength. If the phone is dropped, the glass can break easily, rendering the phone useless.

Apple claims that the glass is chemically hardened to be 30 times stronger than plastic and the same type used in helicopters.

One person by the name of Steven (who didn't want his last name revealed) has complained about his broken iPhone 4 and identified Apple's description as "a load of crap". He didn't put the cover on his iPhone when he first got it because he thought it would not get broken.

It has glass on both the front and the back of the phone, which makes the phone vulnerable to getting broken.

The phone has already been put down with its antenna problems.

More info at SMH.com

Smartphones Unsecure

Smartphones are becoming less secure and vulnerable to attacks from hackers. There are apps out there that secretly steal your contact info, text messages and web history. A company by the name of lookout did a search on nearly 300,000 apps and about half of them turned out to be data collecting apps. The main problem is mobile devices because they do not have a firewall, especially apple devices, they do not currently support any firewall software unlike computers. When an app is published it is supposed to be checked by apple and sometimes apple just let's it through. The developer may not even know that there is spy coding inside an app which they have created which can be dangerous.


More info at SMH.com

iPhone 4 is Fantastic

I tried out the new iPhone 4 today and found it great, the new retina screen is crystal clear and the processing speed is lightning fast.

The iPhone screen is so clear that the apps look like they are blurry and of poor quality. the camera on the front of the iPhone has good resolution and the camera on the back with its flash is amazing. 

The buttons are round and the back of the phone is flat, making it more square. It has two microphones which work together to reduce back round noise. I instantly wanted to buy one although i didn't have the money. 

The queue at the Apple store was massive, and stretched almost the length of the street.

The new Mac Pro

The new Mac Pro can come in 4, 6, 8 or 12 core processors.


It has the most up to date graphics card and can get up to 8TB of storage. You can get maximum 32GB of RAM with the eight slot the Mac Pro has. It has bluetooth, 802.11N networking and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. You can get a Magic Trackpad for the Mac Pro, it is just like the iPod touch or iPhone touchscreen.

Early bird buyer

The new iPhone 4 release date is on the 30th of July, tomorrow, but one store just forgot. The Allphones store in Campbelltown assured one customer that he could buy an iPhone today and sold two to Arselle Torres. An hour after selling the iPhones the store realised that they weren't supposed to sell any iPhones today. They sent him messages asking him to return the iPhones for any amount of money he wanted (to a degree), but he decided to keep the iPhones instead of waiting till tomorrow.


More info at SMH.com

Internet address shortage

Every internet connected item in the world has its own unique identifier called an IPv4 (Internet Protocol) address.

No two devices have the same IPv4 address. But, there is a problem, there are only about 4 billion IPv4 addresses in the world and almost all of them are used up, there are only 232 million left and with the growing population of computers and mobile phones, all of the IPv4 addresses will be gone in under a year. That is why some internet experts created a new identifier, IPv6. IPv6 is a much longer IP address and will be able to accommodate TRILLIONS of IP addresses for EACH person.

To give you an idea, an IPv4 address looks like this: "192.168.3.8" and an IPv6 address looks like this: "2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7334" , it is much longer and the world will never run out of IPv6 addresses. Although; the switch is proving quite difficult as some ISP's are reluctant to make the switch to IPv6 as it is quite difficult. This can cause a problem as the world's internet could ground to halt, it could be like another Y2K where it could have caused mayhem worldwide. Most internet companies are making the switch.

More info SMH.com

iPad not so cool

Keeping cool is getting hard for Apple's iPad. there have been accounts where iPad's have shut down and said "iPad needs to cool down before you can you it" when used in direct sunlight. One person is suing Apple because their iPad does not live up to their expectations. The normal operating temperature is 0° to 35° C but when put in sunlight it overheats which has caused many problems for new iPads.

More info at CNET.com

Zen Magnets

Zen Magnets are little super magnetic spheres that link together to create shapes, both 3D and 2D. They are very fun to play with and are quite amazing. They come in sets of 72, 216 and 1728. This is the 1728 set.

iPod Touch Mic/Headphone Splitter cable

I recently made a cable that you plug into your iPod Touch and splits the audio jack into two pieces, one for mic input and the other for headphone output.

Although it was difficult to make and quite time consuming, i found it very successful and recommend it to anyone wanting to plug a professional quality microphone into an iPod Touch.

I got all the parts at jaycar electronics, even the 4-conductor jack. it cost me about $12 to make.

It requires precision soldering and about 2-4 hours.

The idea came from another blog (which i have put a link to down the bottom), so i thought i should put more info about how good it was.

Required:

4 pin-conductor plug 3.5mm

4-core wire (length depends on how long you want it to be)

Mono input socket 3.5mm

Stereo input socket 3.5mm

6mm Heat shrink tubing

Resin cored solder

Soldering iron

Wire cutters

All rights go to Jesse Rutherford

More info at Benttronics.com

iPhone 4 going out of contact

There has been a number of problems with signal strength on the new iPhone 4 as the steel band on the edge is the antenna for the phone. When the antenna comes in contact with someone's hand, it greatly reduces signal strength which causes call drops and message delays.

Apple is giving out free bumper cases to iPhone 4 users to limit contact between the hand and the antenna.

Info from SMH.com

iPhone 3G ruined by new apple update

The iPhone 3G has been ruined by the new update which has made it slow and unusable, apple has released a revision to fix it but that has not done anything to help. Apple is blocking people from downgrading and people are beginning to suspect that apple is doing this deliberately to make people buy the iPhone 3GS or the iPhone 4.



Some have discovered how to force downgrade the iPhone 3G at this link is how.



Info from SMH.com

iPad is getting a camera, or has a camera...

There has been rumour about the first gen iPad already having a slot for an apple iSight camera when a repair service found a slot in the frame for a camera.

There will definitely be a camera in the 2nd gen though as pcworld states.

iPhone 4 with more problems

There is yet another problem with Apple’s iPhone 4, and now it is the camera. The iphone 4 has already dropped in sales because of antenna issues but now the camera is experiencing problems. When a photo is taken with the phone’s rear camera, the picture comes out with a hue tinge on it. This is mainly noticeable on photos with white in the picture. Some say it is to do with the software for the camera and not an actual hardware problem. On $6000 cameras there is this problem also, but this can be fixed by updating the firmware. The front facing camera does not get these problems as much as the rear camera. Apple is being scrutinized for not making sure that there were no problems when they released the iPhone. You can even see the tinge on one of the pictures on the apple website.