I F*CKING HATE ITUNES!

Apple may have the iPod, and the iPhone but what they don't have a decent product to synchronise the music/videos/etc.. to these devices. You may have seen my earlier posts on how much I hated iTunes, and on the Windows platform I have found a decent alternative called Media Monkey. But, on a Mac I don't have many choices and have been left to use iTunes. Just to give you an example of how bad iTunes is, I was trying to sync some videos on my iPhone and I tried for an hour with different methods (e.g changing different settings, dragging and...

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Want to compare text files quickly ?

Have you ever been in a situation where you have two similar text files and you cannot tell what the difference between the two are ? Well the folks at dotfork have made an application to help you, check it o...

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What to do with a BIN file on a Mac

I've managed to acquire a BIN and CUE file from a recent download and I couldn't successfully mount the file in finder. I've used BIN files in Windows systems without any problems using third party apps such as daemon tools, but Mac seems to have left out this option for some reason. Some of the forum suggestions included using software called Toast to mount the device, or to use Burn  to burn the BIN image to a CD and then mount it and then rip it to ISO. Well after searching around I've found a little app that can get...

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Iphone 4 launching in Australia

I received an email from Optus, a mobile/broadband carrier in Australia, stating that since I had registered to be notified about iPhone 3G (not 3gs) several years ago, they wanted to let me know about the iPhone 4 release. Hmmmm... so what is odd about this ? First, I registered for iPhone 3G release in Australia about 2 years ago, not last year. Last year iPhone 3gs was launched. The assumption that Optus has made that I might be interested in...

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The word of the year is... ecosystem

Lately I've seen many articles, companies use the word 'ecosystem'. This must be the word of the day/month/year....  definition:  n. An ecological community together with its environment, functioning as a unit. Tech sites/companies are the most common users of this word now.&nb...

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Jailbreaking is ok by us

Here is an interesting article by Ars around the recent announcements around Jailbreaking. For years many people have "Jailbroken" their iPhone in order to install the apps they want, without the 'BigBrother' approving it, and to modify the phone the way you want. Only recently has Apple agreed to give users the ability to change the wallpaper and multitask. This of course has been made available to anyone who has chosen to take the risk and to jailbreak their phone. But all the while, anyone who has jailbroken their phone risks their...

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I need a tablet... or do I

Suddenly, Apple has changed the market for portable devices. If you've been awake and alert watching the tech market, you would have seen the incredible rise of Apple through portable devices. Apple were never the first in the market, but they ensured that they set themselves apart from the others and took strong hold and became the leader. So with the iPod and iPhone as undoubtedly the leading devices in their areas, Apple has recently released the iPad. With sales sky rocketing, and every man and every dog climbing over others to get their hands...

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How to download eBooks for the iPhone without iBooks

Well, if you have your personal book collection that you want to take with you just like your music/dvd collection, then your answer is simple... get them on your iPhone. With the introduction of the iPad and kindle, several companies have released have gone into this market to give you digital copies of your library and more. So what happens when you already have purchased a book and you simply want a digital version, well the answer is simple, download it. Here are some simple instructions on how you can achieve this from http://www.drinkmalk.com. Remember,...

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Double Take!

Well with the WWDC 10 coming up this is something that is great to watch : http://video.allthingsd.com/video/steve-jobs-onstage-at-d1/162F122B-2500-4BF8-8240-C8D1A603A816 Just makes you wonder whether Apple is actually on the ball on what consumers wa...

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Megavideo Audio out of Sync ?

I noticed that after I got my MacBook Pro that the Megavideo's audio was out of sync, sometimes up to 5-10 seconds. Sometimes, when the lag is only about a couple of seconds you can let it slip by not focusing on an actors lips, but when the lag is greater than a couple of seconds it makes it impossible. Usually this is due to a codec, on a windows machine it's quite simple, download the latest version of K-Lite codec pack and 9 times out of 10 the problem is solved. If that didn't work then you can get a codec detection program and try and hunt...

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How to change your Mac's Computer Name

I just went and picked up my new Mac, which was kindly replaced by my insurance company after water damage. I used to have a MacBook Air, but after experiencing the lagging performance of the Air when ever I tried to use intense apps such as Lightroom etc... , I decided to get something with a little more grunt. Happy to say that the Air is actually more expensive than some of the other MacBooks, this is because of the portability factor with the Air. So, since the insurance company offered a replacement at a particular price,...

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UBUNTU 10.04 is out

Well you may have seen that Ubuntu 10.04 is out, with all its great features which the Ubuntu's site doesn't mention that well. This is something interesting, when you type in Ubuntu in google this is the first image that is presented... interesting. When ubuntu first came out, several years ago, a friend of mine came over to my place with a stack of CDs and gave me my fist copy, it was being handed out at our UNI. My first impressions...

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Port Forwarding with NetGear DGN2000

Port forwarding within the DGN2000 can a be two step process if you are looking to customise the rules. DGN2000 comes with a bunch of common ports and services, but if you are looking to stray from the common ports (which is sometimes the best thing to do) then follow these instructions: First create your own service.From the left hand side menu click Services, then click on Add Custom Service.Enter the Name, Type, Port Range (read the help section which is displayed on the right hand side for information on each field)Click Apply You can...

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Belkin Belkin, I thought your service was good but it turns out your product is shit!

This post is about the problems that I have been having with my Belkin Wireless N Router.  Last year I purchased a new wireless modem router combo, and decided to go with the the Belkin range purely because it looked good. It had been working perfectly for about 8 months, and then it suddenly started to drop the connection. At first the connection was being dropped occasionally, and I didn't really notice it until I started to review the...

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apt-get on iphone ? Wanna know how ? Install package 'aptitude' from cydia

Some of you who have come from 2nd Gen Iphone, or OS 2.0 or below (which is Jailbroken ofcourse) might be wondering what ever happend to apt-get command ? Well, if you are like me then you've probably been searching high and low... the answer is simple. What you will need to do is : Launch Cydia select search enter 'APTITUDE' select the aptitude package > Install > Confirm .... voila! Hope this works for y...

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Scratched Iphone ? there's a fix for that

I know that most of you guys reading this would have applied a case of some sort on your brand spanking new iphone. Whether the case is still on the iphone now is probably a different story, eh ? Well you're not alone, I'm in your position. When I first got my iPhone 3Gs I left the original plastic protection for about 1-2 weeks till I got my case from ebay. It was one of those plastic cases that protected the side and back and clicked on nicely to the iphone. The front was meant to be covered by a clear plastic stick on, but I didn't get around...

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Books that are Apps

I downloaded my first Book as an App, and this is major selling point for the new iPad, so I thought I would try this out. I was disappointed and feel that this is not worth it. I'm planning to travel to europe, so I decided to download the City Guide by Lonely Planet, I decided to get this via an app because I am going to go to several countries and couldn't afford the weight of paperback books. My expectations of a book as an app is that it would utilise features of being an application etc.. After purchasing the city guide, I felt that it hardly...

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Upgrading from 3.0.1 to 3.1.2...jail breaking at the same time

As you may know, I have been trying to figure out how to move on to Firmware 3.1.2 safely from 3.0.1 without screwing up my iphone. Undoubtedly you may think that there are plenty of tutorials available online, and I acknowledge this. What I was concerned about was that I used a particular method to jailbreak my 3GS, which I can no longer remember (i think it was purp1erain, or something). Never the less, there are a number of articles describing the dangers of jail breaking an iPhone and Apple had also made a statement stating that it is not worth...

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Safari updates

After a lot of reluctance I decided to update Safari, actually this was by accident and I selected Safari when I meant to only select iTunes. This is part of my jail breaking adventure of version 3.1.2. Anyway, after the update I noticed a new feature which appears when you open a new tab called Top Sites. At first glance this looked neat, it showed all these sites that I had frequented in a thumb nail... a thumb nail of what seemed to be the last page I had viewed.... I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing right now. There were...

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Upgrading and Jail breaking from 3.0.1 to 3.1.2

Well it seems that the IPA file that I have been trying to get on to my iphone requires 3.1+, unfortunately since my last jailbreak I've left the firmware version sitting at 3.0.1. Now, 3.1.3 has just been released by Apple around the start of this month. But apparently this is nothing special, unless you have had previous issues with it. Also, a proper firmware patch is not available yet. But it looks like a loop hole has been found. Now it's just a matter of time I guess. Anyway, I'm not getting much luck in getting information on upgrading from...

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Installing IPA files from PC to Iphone without iTunes

I've been trying to install a custom IPA without much success. No matter which tutorial that I followed, it all seemed to get a point where iTunes was involved. However, my issue was that I didn't want to use iTunes on my laptop, because it wanted to wipe everything (remove all the apps etc...). I thought, there has got to be a way without having to use iTunes. Surely since the iphone is connected via usb or by ssh wifi, we should be able to install the IPA. Initially I used Air Sharing app to move the IPA from my computer to the iphone. This wasn't...

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The Time magazine iPhone app

Today I found the great joy of using the Time magazine's iPhone app. I've always been a fan of Time magazine, and have also thought of the magazine as reputable. But I have to confess that to date I haven't purchased a single magazine, I've only read bits of the magazine from friends and assorted coffee tables.With this app, and the stories that it delivers to you make my train ride to work a lot more enjoyable.I've tried some other news apps and have found their articles to be very brief. Whereas the Time magazine is offering full articles.Fantastic,...

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Nexus one

I just saw the nexus one from google and htc. The specs of the phone look amazing, and it certainly comparable if not better than some areas of the iPhone.At the same token, there's a key note just around the corner... and you know that Apple will not want to loose any market share. The rumours about the next gen iPhoneis that it will contain a multicore processor and a removable battery. But these are only rumours, which I hope will come true. If you remember that the iPhone 3gs, didn't really add much of a wow factor to the iPhone, since the...

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