Things that I can't get from Apple or the App Store without Jailbreaking

I have blogged many times before regarding the benefit of jailbreaking an iPhone. I upgraded from a 3Gs to an iPhone 4 a few weeks ago and yes, the first thing I did was jailbreak. Funny when I mentioned of the upgrade to my colleagues, the first thing they asked was, did you jailbreak it yet. When I told my wife she asked me the same question, I just have a reputation for hacking my gadgets :)

Anyway, below are a list of apps that would not be possible without jailbreaking my iPhone and they just make the device that much better,

• Winterboard - Allow you to add awesome themes and totally change the look of the interface.
• SBSettings - Allow you convenience access to the frequently used settings, turn/on Wifi, BT, 3G, Airplane mode...etc.
• SwitchMod - When you double press the home button you will get a list of apps currently running mixed the list of recently used apps. This mod will hide the recently used apps and only show the active ones so you can easily close them. 
• Safari Download Manager - Allow you to download files from safari...enough said.
• RemindMeLater - This is a big one for me, before this app, when my calendar reminder came up, I did not have the ability to snooze it, well I can now :)
• PhoneCloser - Remove the annoyance of automatically launching the phone app after I end a call. APPLE, this is the way it suppose to work! 
• NoSpot - I hate that spotlight page.
• No Bookmarks - Why does safari always take you to bookmarks when you launch it, well no more with this tweak.
• MyWi - This is probably one of the best, allow you to setup your iPhone as a wifi hotspot and best of all, carrier can't detect that you are tethering!
• MyProfiles - I use this one for alert. I miss one feature from the "dumb" phones, it's missed calls alert. I hated that fact that my iPhone does have an audible alert for missed call. This app solves that problem, it does a lot more than just missed call alert but I won't get into the other features.
• My3G - Allow me to use apps that works only on Wifi over 3G.
• Infinifolders - When Apple introduced folders with iOS4, they did a half-ass job at it. There was a limit in the number of apps per folder, well with this tweak the restrictions are gone.
• Gridlock - Allow you to place icons anywhere on your SB.
• Five-Column SB - Like the name said, it gives you another column on your springboard.
• Five Icon Dock - Add up to 5 icons to your dock.
• EZDecline - What was APPLE thinking, my guess is they were not thinking at all. When a call come in, the only option is to answer it, well this tweak gives you the option of declining the call.
• Direct Closer Pro - Allow you to easily close apps on the multitasking bar, it will give you the x option without going into wiggle mode.

I have given you a few reasons to jailbreak your iPhone...

LeBron Nike Commercial

Don't know if you saw the LeBron James new Nike commercial, but South Park did a parody of it for Former BP CEO Tony Hayward. Enjoy...

iPhone 3GS can record in HD

Well, well...looks like the iPhone 3GS has the capability to do HD recording thanks to its ARM Cortex processor and mods to a few system files. This will allow you to record in 1080×800 vs. 640×480, follow the instructions below on how to enable this on your jailbroken iPhone 3GS.


1. Download the modded system files here (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4K8K8SO3).
2. Extract the downloaded system files to your desktop.
3. SSH or use iFunBox to access your iPhone file system.
4. Copy N88AP.list to /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app
5. Copy AVCapture.plist, CameraRollValidator.plist, and MediaValidator.plist to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Celestial.framework/N88
6. Lastly, reboot your phone and HD recording should be enabled.

Wifi Direct...the possibilities

Looks like the Wifi Alliance is going to announce Wifi Direct. What is this and how much of an impact it will have? This technology will allow you to establish a direct connection been two or more devices over current Wifi standands (without the need for a router). You probably been using this technology already with certain gadgets already in the market, such as the Nintendo DS, which allow you to connect two DS together and team up or play against each other. Since it's based on current Wifi standards, speed is maxed out at 300Mbps, watch the video below to see the possibilities this will open up.

Wi-Fi Direct from Blake Robinson on Vimeo.

Running multiple OS with VMWare Player

I love to have access to multiple operating systems (new and old) but I hate the fact of creating a multi-boot with 5-6 OSes, seems a bit messy and too much work for my liking. The solution, VMware Player, this allows me to run another operating system from within my main operating system.

I have Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate as my main OS and have access to other flavors of Windows 7 as well as older OSes such as Windows XP and Windows 2000 via VMware Player. I bet the first question you'll ask is how I can accomplish this with just VMware Player? The player only access virtual machines that have been created by VMware Workstation, a version of VMware you must pay for. The answer is EasyVMX.com, EasyVMX will create a complete virtual machine for you base on the OS you plan to run on it. All of this is done online and in matter of seconds you can download the virtual machine. Once the virtual machine is created, you can access it with VMware Player.

EasyVMX only create the virtual machine, no OS is installed. This is something you must do with your own license of the OS. To do this mount your OS installation CD to the virtual machine and have it boot off of that. If I mount my XP installation CD, when I start the virtual machine, it will boot into the installation CD and initialize the setup of XP and away I go. I then setup XP as if it was on any other PC. If you have more OSes, do the same and create virtual machines for those OSes. 

There are functionalities differences between VMware Player and Workstation, hence one is free and the other is paid but if you are just looking for a solution to run multiple OSes, VMware Player will probably suffice.

 

Japan is the capital for Vending Machines

In Japan you can literally get anything via vending machines, by everything I mean weird things. To name a few, egg, rice, used panties (see what I meant by weird and everything!! :), fruits and vegetables, and something I never thought was possible, live seafood!


JapanProbe dot com
Uploaded by pubjapaned. - Explore international webcam videos.

How many of these 749 NES games can you identify?

This week the beloved Nintendo Entertainment Systems (a system that closed to my childhood) celebrated its 25th anniversary and NESGuide.com made their tribute with a 15 minutes montage featuring 749 NES games, how many can you identify?