IOS 5 Update

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Last week the most recent IOS 5 update was released and for me it was bitter sweet.  My iphone was jailbroken under IOS 4 but I wanted all the cool new features so here I am without a jailbroken iphone.  It takes some getting used to, but one week later I have acclimated myself with the 'new' features.  

This has been my favorite update in the IOS since I started using it.  There are some things I wish could have been included but I'll take what I can get and hope my wish list gets checked off someday.  Here is a list of all my favorite features in IOS 5.

1.  Notification System:

First and foremost my favorite feature in this new IOS is the notification system.  SOOOOOOO much better than the previous version.  There are so many new options available under the new notification system.  kudos to Apple for this feature.

2. IMessage:

I haven't actually gotten to use IMessage very much since everyone I know either doesn't have an Iphone or hasn't updated to IOS 5.  I have texted with a guy I work with and it's a really cool feature and I am excited to use it more.

3.  Drop down thingy (technical I know):

I'm to lazy to actually look up what this item is called but I'm assuming it goes along with the notification system.  One thing I wish you could do is pull it down in the lock screen.  All in all it is a good/needed feature with a lot of potential.

4.  ICloud:

I like have my iphone back up the 'the cloud'.  I'm pretty lazy about syncing my iphone to my computer as much as I should so this is probably a good thing for me.

5.  Twitter:

So I don't use Twitter at all, because it would lie dormant for a very very long time with no updates.  But since Twitter has been integrated with the iphone they added a tweet tone.  I like this better than the typical incoming mail sound so now every time I get an email it sounds as if I have a little bird in my pocket (Awesome!).

6.  Camera on the lock screen:

I don't take a ton of pictures with my iphone but it is a little more convenient when I need to take a quick picture and don't have to unlock my phone to get to the camera.  Also the ability to take a picture with the volume button (volume up only) is very nice.  Makes it seem more like a real camera now.

7.  To Do List:

I used this for the first time the other day and it is awesome.  I set a reminder for me to grab something from work when I arrived.  I got to work the next day and BOOM (well beep beep).

Those are most of the new features that I'm excited about.  Apparently there are 200 new features, but you really only notice the big features.  

Verizon Faux commercial

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I laugh every time this commercial shows on TV.  Why?  Because this would be like comparing apples to oranges.  If you really pay attention all the commercial says is that they are comparing "Verizon's 4G LTE network with AT&T".  Not AT&T's 4G network.  So, what are they comparing it to?  AT&T's 3G network... not their 4G network.  I would hope that Verizon's new 4G LTE network would be better than AT&T's 3G network.  From what I have heard about AT&T's 4G LTE network it is about twice as fast as Verizon's 4G LTE network.  Verizon's 4G network is more widespread and they are really pushing to get it developed, but AT&T's 4G network is being developed at a steady albiet a little more slowly than Verizon.

So, all that to say that Verizon's compares apples and oranges while AT&T compares apples and apples, or oranges and oranges.  Got to love marketing.  

C++ Programming...

When I was in college I started out studying computer engineering only to realize that it wasn't really for me.  But while I was declared as an engineering major I took a computer programming class.  I'm pretty sure the teacher felt bad for me because somehow I passed the class (pretty sure I failed every test).  I honestly had no idea what I was doing at the time.  But recently, as in last week I had a sudden urge to learn a little C++...

I foresee this being a long road of learning, and can't promise that I will be very consistent.  Really I'm just looking for something enjoyable to do in my free time.  That is really the main reason I started writing this blog.  As you can see I haven't done that very consistently either.

So in the past week of me dabbling in computer programming I haven't learned very much.  I created a simple calculator program (with a little help from the website I was using)  but I think I got the jist of it.  It's really like a different language but your spelling and grammar have to be exactly correct.  I will continue to dabble in this for as long as it hold my interest but I can't promise I will get very much out of it.  I have thought about taking some classes, but that cost money and more school/classes doesn't sit well with me.   

Upgrading a PowerBook G4

Doing this was actually fun and I got a better computer out of it.  First off was upgrading the RAM in this puppy, from 768 mb to 2 gb.  I bought 2 x 1 gb DDR for around $60, and received it about a week later.  This part was super easy and took no time at all to put in.  This is a great video demonstration on how to do it.  (skip the first minute) Thanks to OWCmacsales for the video.

The next part was the tricky part but once I had it done I realized it actually wasn't too difficult.  The original hard drive in this computer was only 60 gb (sad huh?).  So I decided I wanted to install a larger hard drive.  I bought the hard drive for around $80 and had it in my hands within a few days.  I found a video with good instructions on how to install it (watched it a few times through to make sure I wasn't going to miss something) and off I went.  About half an hour later I had my computer put back together and turned on... not that it was going to turn on to anything.  The hard part was figuring out how to reinstall Mac OS X on it (see here).  Here was the instructional video I watched to replace my hard drive.  Thanks again to OWCmacsales for the video.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic, this is one game that I am very excited about.  The release date has not been announced yet, but whenever it comes out I will definitely be getting this game.  First off, this is a BA video that was released at E3 2011 earlier this week.  

I'm not a Star Wars geek or anything but I am a pretty big nerd and anything sci-fi is awesome in my book.  I've played a few Star Wars games including Lego Star Wars, and one of my favorites Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II for the original XBox.  I enjoy a game with a good story that is easy and fun to follow.  Other notable games include Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy X (most of the others I couldn't really get into).  Since most of my favorite games are RPG's I am really excited about this new Star Wars game.  

This game looks pretty awesome, and looks like it will be really enjoyable to play.  I'll leave you with this video.

My iPhone

I considered upgrading my iPhone to IOS 5, but decided not to because its not officially released and I'm not completely satisfied with the beta.  So here I am with my iPhone on IOS 4.3.2 because I'm to lazy to upgrade to 4.3.3.  Although I will get to that here in the next few weeks.

If you can't tell this is my jailbroken iPhone.  I was really hoping for a widget feature to come out with IOS 5 similar to what I currently have with Lockinfo.  I guess we will see what progress Apple makes on their newest IOS when it is finally released this fall.  I'm really looking forward to the new notification system as well as iMessage in IOS 5.  I like the UI of the iPhone, but jailbreaking it lets me customize my iPhone how I want to.  I'll go over a few tweaks I have made to my iPhone.  First off as you can see in the two pictures above I have a clock and weather widget that carries on from my lockscreen to my homescreen.  This is one of my favorite features because this way I can just glance at my lockscreen and see what the the weather forecast is for the next week.

I'm not a big fan of the iPhones native messages app, so as a solution I use biteSMS.  With the native messages app you have to open the app to be able to text your contacts, where as with biteSMS you can text from within any app you have open as well as directly from the lockscreen.  One really cool feature I like is the biteSMS quickreply feature.  Basically this lets you have a key to activate the feature then tap the screen to send a text (see below).  For my iPhone I press either of the volume keys then tap the onscreen block to bring up the quickreply window.  This works in landscape mode as well.

I'm a pretty organized person when it comes to computers and my phones, so I like to have folders to organize all of my stuff.  The same applies on my iPhone.  I don't like having my apps covering my whole screen in a disorganized way so I use folders, as well as infinidock.  Typically the IOS only allows you to have four apps/folders on your dock while the rest are on the springboard pages.  I have ten on a scrollable dock (see below).

With infinidock I am able to always have my widget show on my homescreen and instead of multiple pages of apps I only have ten apps/folders to find what I'm looking for.  The five apps I use the most are on the first page of my dock while the other five apps/folders I need are on the second page.  I also use inifinifolders which allows me to put as many apps in a folder as I want.  My Utilities folder has 42 apps in it.  

I'm definitely not a fan of the IOS multitasking system.  I think it is very poorly done and needs a bit of tweaking.  Cue Backgrounder plus Multifl0w.  Backgrounder basically takes over the multitasking system and allows you to set which apps you want to use multitasking and which ones you don't.  This helps free up some RAM therefore making your iPhone a little faster.  Multifl0w is my replacement for the IOS background popup bar at the bottom of the screen.  Multifl0w is more similar to the expose feature in Mac OS (see below).

                                    

Multifl0w shows you thumbnails of the applications you have open.  You can tap the red X to close the app or press the home button to return to wherever you were last.

The last tweak that I will talk about is something called SBSettings.  This is a pretty cool little feature because it gives you access to some settings pretty quickly without having to actually go into the settings menu.  Nothing really amazing about this just a little more utility.  There is definitely a learning curve to jailbreaking your iPhone and probably isn't for those who aren't very tech savvy.  There are plenty of sites out there that explain the process and are easy enough to follow.  That is all I have to say on the subject for now.

Installing Mac OS X on PowerBook G4

I few months ago a roughly seven year old PowerBook G4 (old Apple notebook) fell into my possession.  My fiance claimed my newer MacBook, so I took said PowerBook and deleted everything, hoping to jump start this CPU with the Mac OSX discs that came with my MacBook.  Little did I know that said discs don't work on computers other than the computer they were made for or something like that. So, I was stuck now with a PowerBook that didn't have an OS on it anymore to boot to (suck).  I could however boot off the discs that I had, just couldn't install from them...

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My first thought, "Mistake".  Tried again, same thing.  Second thought was, "okay, there has to be a way around this".  So I scoured the internet for a solution.  Found some pretty crazy stuff like hold these keys and press this button this many times and crap like that.  I'm pretty good with computers but none of these ridiculous tips seemed like a dependable solution.  

This was the solution I came up with...

step 1:  Find a family version of Mac OS X or whatever and copy it to a thumb drive using disk utility on a newer mac that will read the Mac OS X DVD

step 2:  Create 2 partitions on the internal hard drive through Disc Utility.  Mine looked similar to this:

step 3:  Copy the Mac OS X installer onto the second (very important) partition you created in step 2 using the restore feature in Disk Utility.

• The source would be the original copy of the Mac OS X installer (ie. CD)
• The destination would be the partition you are copying to (ie. second partition of internal hard drive)
• Be sure to check the box that says 'Erase destination' then click 'Restore'

step 4:  Reboot the PowerBook and hold down the option (shown below left)key to show the startup manager.  Should look something like this:

                techiediva.com                                  support.apple.com

step 5:  Click on the hard drive labeled Mac OS X Install DVD (not the one with the picture of a DVD) and boot from that.

step 6:  This should bring you to the Mac OS X Installer which now needs to be installed on the first partition of the internal hard drive.

step 7:  Once the installation has completed you can repartition the hard drive to have only one partition through the disk utility feature in Mac OS X

I would have better pictures on how the steps go but A. I don't want to do it all over again (not that it's hard) and B. it seems that nobody else has anything on how to do this online.