How-To - page 106

If you’re going to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, the first thing you MUST do is backup your device’s SHSH blobs.

With the release of iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch G3, Apple added an extra layer of security to prevent hacking, jailbreaking and unlocking. Apple is constantly closing the exploits used by jailbreak hackers by updating the firmware of its iPhone/iPt and iPad. If you accidentally upgrade your jailbroken device to Apple’s latest firmware, you can’t re-jailbreak it until hackers release new jailbreak software.

You can, however, downgrade your device to the previous firmware version which can be jailbroken — if you have your SHSH blobs on file.

You can extract these SHSH records and save them with the help of a utility called Umbrella. Here’s how:

These records are firmware specific and each time you update, you should repeat this process to save the records for the particular firmware version.

Warning: This method no longer works. To jailbreak the latest firmware, check out greenpois0n/limera1n/Pwnage Tool

Redsn0w by DevTeam allows you to jailbreak your device, to get complete control over it (see why you should jailbreak here). Currently, redsn0w version 0.9.5b5-3 allows you to jailbreak a device that has already been upgraded to firmware 4.0, without losing the jailbreak data. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.

Please note that this tool will NOT work if you have ANY iPhone 3GS, newer iPod Touch G2 or the iPod Touch G3. (On the newer iPod Touch, serial number begins with ‘MC’.)

Warning: This method no longer works. To jailbreak the latest firmware, check out greenpois0n/limera1n/Pwnage Tool

The Pwnage Tool by the DevTeam hacker group allows you to create custom iPhone firmwares for the purpose of jailbreaking, to get full control over your device (see why you should jailbreak here).

Currently, the Pwnage Tool version 4.0 allows you to update your previously jailbroken device to firmware 4.0, without losing the jailbreak data. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.

Please note that this tool will NOT work if you have the iPhone 2G, newer iPhone 3GS, newer iPod Touch G2 or the iPod Touch G3. (On the newer 3GS, go to Settings –> General –> About, the fourth and fifth digit of the serial number should be greater than 40 and on the newer iPod Touch, serial number begins with ‘MC’.)

With the release of Safari 5, Apple introduced a much-requested feature — extensions.

Extensions are a better way to add those little missing features than the old and complex plug-in approach. Extensions have been available on Firefox and Chrome for a while and finally are available for Safari too.

However, Apple currently labels it as a developer feature, which needs to be enabled before extensions are available.

Backing up your computer is like flossing teeth or mowing the lawn – something you know you should do but usually don’t. Apple has gone to great lengths to make Time Machine, the backup program included with Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard, easy and fun to use. Those aren’t terms which you typically hear applied to backup programs, and these efforts are to be commended.

Time Machine is easy to setup, but restoring files is not as intuitive. Many of my clients ask me for help with how to do this, and how to ensure that their backups are running reliably. Time Machine allows for restoration of files, folders, applications or an entire Mac, depending on your need.

A review of the process couldn’t hurt. Like chicken soup from Grandma …

Since the days of Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” Apple has provided a wonderful utility, Migration Assistant, to help move data between your old and new Macs. With this utility you can easily migrate your installed applications, system settings and user data from your old system to your new one.

On the whole Migration Assistant works very well, performs successfully more often than not, and has gotten better with every subsequent release of Mac OS X. However despite Apple’s best efforts there are times when Migration Assistant can’t or won’t work.

A Manual Mac System Migration is just a fancy term for copying things over. The key is knowing what needs to be moved and how to connect the two machines.

Yes, the iPad is good. But you haven’t seen the full potential of the iPad hardware until you jailbreak it.

Jailbreaking may seem like something your shady neighbor or geeky cousin does, but you can do it too!

I’ll walk you through the easy process of jailbreaking your iPad to unleash its full potential.

WiFi operates in unregulated portions of the radio spectrum.  These frequencies are shared with things like microwave ovens, cordless phones, garage door openers and an increasing plethora of other WiFi devices.  What many WiFi networks face these days is like trying to tune in to a weak radio station in a busy city market.

This week a few tips and suggestions to try when things aren’t working.

Windows has its Control Panel, and your Mac has one too. It just has a different name.

Where you would once have looked for the Control Panel, you now need to look for an application called System Preferences.

Over at Gadget Lab, our favorite yoga-practicing nicotine golem of a gadget blogger, the pseudonymous Charlie Sorrel, has posted a fantastic guide on how to transfer your existing Stanza e-book library into iBooks.

The process is tricky, but as Charlie points out, since Stanza was purchased by Amazon last year, the likelihood of a native iPad port is in question as Amazon focuses on Kindle for iPad. Right now, then, this is the only way to transfer your existing library, along with cover art and keywords, to the iPad’s native e-book reading format. For guys like me, with an extensive Stanza library, this is a must read tutorial.

Reader “Romeo From Brazil” wrote in to share an awesome tip: how to quickly and easily get a U.S. iTunes account anywhere in the world.

Romeo’s method works like a charm. You don’t need a credit card and it is far easier than other methods we’ve seen. Best, it works in ANY country, so if you’re in the U.S., you can use it to buy music available only in the U.K. And if you’re outside the U.S., you can use the account to buy apps and music not available in your country, like Apple’s iWorks suite.

Here’s how it works:

Apple recently updated its Backup software to v3.2, improving its reliability and efficiency.

So now is a great time to show how to use it to make offsite backups of your most important files.

This week a tip for Firefox power users. In addition to the Preferences accessible via the menubar, Firefox retains a comprehensive set of hidden settings that go back to it’s roots in the Netscape era.

Of course you are presented with an initial Caveat Emptor about the stability of your system and all that, but you’ve already jailbroken your iPhone and iPad (right?) so go ahead and dive right in…

Even though the iPad will go on sale in Canada at the end of the month (May 28), our friends north of the border are buying them by the boatload on the grey market.

It’s not hard to smuggle an iPad across the border, but Canadians have to jump through a couple of hoops to download apps from the U.S. App Store.

Reader Tyler Hojberg emailed us with the details.

One thing a lot of Windows users miss is the Start Menu. How do you find your way around a Mac without a Start Menu to help?

If you stop to think about it, the Start button is a visual aide-memoire; you click on it to start the process of figuring out where to go next. If you’re looking for a particular file, you can navigate to it using the default locations listed in it. And if you want to open a particular piece of software, the likelihood is that you’ll find it there too. The Start button is there for you to click on when you don’t know where else to begin. No matter what you want, you can find it (eventually) from the Start button.

Unfortunately for switchers, Mac OS X doesn’t really have a single button that completely replaces Start. But I can suggest a couple of alternatives.

Remember how, back on Windows, you used to use the Win key and the Control key quite often? Well, on OS X, the Command key is your best friend.

There are two Command keys, one each side of the spacebar. You should find them easy to reach with your thumbs while typing.

The previous lines of plastic MacBooks are notorious for developing a wide variety of defects. One defect in particular, cracking plastic, has caused many to aptly refer to these MacBooks as “CrackBooks.”

This article will tell you how to turn that outdated CrackBook into a brand new MacBook. It worked for us. I hope it works for you.

As an IT consultant you get accustomed to certain problems and complaints from users.  “My computer is running slow” is a universal favorite.  “You said this would only take a few minutes” is another perennial frontrunner.

But one stands out as arguably the most common end user headache: “My Email Isn’t Working.”

Sigh… Welcome to the club.  Email headaches are endless.  Fortunately, many issues are common problems that can be fixed relatively easily.

This tutorial helps you find out the ECID of your iPhone, which helps extracting SHSH keys needed to downgrade your device.

Ingredients:

• iPhone 3GS / iPod Touch G3 / iPad
• Mac
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Spirit by comex allows you to jailbreak your device, to get complete control over it (see why you should jailbreak here). Currently, spirit allows you to jailbreak any device that has already been upgraded to firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3 or even an iPad on version 3.2. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.

The first thing you’ll want to do on your brand new iPad 3G is sign up for a data plan. It’s pretty easy, and you can do it right on the iPad. It’s basically half-a-dozen finger taps (except for typing in your credit card number of course).

Here are step-by-step by instructions, courtesy of this knowledge base article from Apple.

These days many people do some or most of their music listening on the computer, and much of that is managed with iTunes.  It’s very nice to have such quick and easy access to your music library, podcasts and internet radio in one place, but by default these only play in the room where the computer is located.

Wouldn’t it be nice to listen throughout your whole house or office, and without breaking the bank?

In the last tip, we showed you three standard views for looking at files in a Finder window.

There’s a fourth view, though. It’s called Cover Flow, and we’ve given it a tip all of its own because you’re likely to see it in many different places.

Apple’s own iPad dock gives an easy and handy way to use a physical keyboard with your tablet, but one annoyance is the official dock’s inability to allow you to type when the device is in a landscape position.

It’s slightly irritating, but the Book of Joe has an easy-to-follow instruction manual on how to dock your iPad in a landscape position.

Essentially, you prop up your iPad (in Joe’s case, with the official iPad case) and use an iPod cable extender to connect the iPad to the dock connector. It’s a lot more of a kludge than it has to be, and I imagine a bluetooth keyboard and a sixty-nine cent business card holder would be a better solution for the price. Still, if you’ve got this stuff lying around already, it’s not a bad hack… at least until a third-party accessory maker comes out with a dock that allows typing in both landscape and vertical orientations.

We’ve shown you a first generation iPhone dual-booting into Android OS, but want to do it yourself? You’re in luck! Here’s an easy to follow seventy step guide, simple enough for that even a drunk, googly-eyed neonate could figure it out.

We’re slightly kidding: a lot of this instruction list is devoted to things like setting up virtualized Ubuntu installs, so it’s really only fifty steps. Still, that’s an order of magnitude too many steps for a guy whose technical sophistication tops out at dragging the install icon to his Applications folder.

Are you Cylon enough to attempt it though? God speed, and let us know how you get along in the comments.