Change your user icon on Mac OSX Mountain Lion (a.k.a 10.8)

I just migrated my MacBook Pro from OSX Lion to OSX Mountain Lion. There are some changes here and there and of course the most notable are the iCloud integration, iChat, Notification feature and the Gamecenter integration.

Well, I presume the upgrade would be pretty straight forward. I did a clean install instead as my MacBook just came back from repairs so I thought what the heck... Just do a clean install since there is nothing inside that I need. After my installation, I wanted to change my user icon to a customised icon and I realise that I cannot do it the same way I did before with OSX Lion.

The Elongated iPhone... iPhone 5

For the first time since the release of iPhone 3GS, I'm not awed by the announcement of the latest iPhone 5. Yes it is bigger (just longer actually) and yes it is more powerful than the previous incarnations (it has to be right?), but.... Well, I confess I have been an Apple fan since I first owned the iPhone 3GS and since then, I have got my family and myself the iPhone 4, the iPad and also migrated to a MacBook Pro for my computing usage. Everything has been so innovative from Apple ever since the first iPhone and it took iPhone 3GS to convince me to start using Apple's products.


That being said, yesterday's annoucement of the iPhone 5, nothing special (this is my own opinion of course). For the first time I feel that Apple is playing catch-up rather than being the one being chased. For the first time (since 3GS), I have the urge to tryout a Samsung S3 or even the Nokia Lumia 920. And for the first time, I wish Apple still had Steve Jobs with them for I think they are loosing a lot of creativity without the MAN.

iOS 6.0, another way Apple is screwing its users over...

I have no problems with the features that will be appearing in the upcoming iOS 6.0. I have been an Apple user since iPhone 3GS. Ever since then, I got an iPhone 4 each for my wife, my mum and myself. I've also just recently bought the iPad 3 and migrated from a Windows PC to a Macbook Pro. 

When Siri came to iPhone 4S, I thought well, maybe the iPhone 4 really will lag if Siri was used on it, so that's why Apple don't want it in there. Fine. But then iOS 6.0 came along and in comes a feature already available to Android phones for ages, the turn-by-turn navigation, I was excited. I then later found out on Apple's website that this turn-by-turn (now on referred to as TBT) is only available for iPhone 4s and beyond! My expression at that moment was one of someone who just accidentally stepped on some sh*t! How could Apple do that to their iPhone 4 users??

My first iPad... The New iPad

Although there has always been an iPad in my household (the first iPad), it was not officially mine. Up until the iPad 2 was released, I was tempted to get one for myself but told myself to wait until the Retina display is on it before getting one. My old iPhone 4 continue to be my iOS companion for the time being. But now, the time has come and last week the New iPad was finally launched in Malaysia.

New iPad in Malaysia on 20th April!

This just in... finally Malaysia will be getting a taste officially on the "New iPad". Of course its already here with import versions from Singapore, Australia, etc... But now you can officially get it from any authorized Apple resellers and distributors in Malaysia. And those who just want the iPad 2, get ready for some big discounts! Time to pack your sleeping bags and get ready to queue up!

Here is the official press release:

iPad 3, iPad HD, whatever you wanna call it, but its called the "new iPad"

The "new iPad" touted by netizens as the iPad 3 or iPad HD has finally been announced. Anything that we didn't know yet? Anyone who has been actively looking out for Apple's new product launches would have known what to expect during the 7th March 2012 announcement.

Needless to say, the launch of the new iPad have most of the features that we have come to expect. Here is a summary of some of the important hardware features that the new iPad sports:

iPhone 4S - Maxis & DiGi registration now available

Maxis today just put up in their iPhone website the availability of the iPhone 4s in Malaysia. Although it is not specified on the site when exactly it will be available, I presume it won't be too long because its already all over the world except for Malaysia. Of course it is already available in other mobile phone suppliers, but Maxis, DiGi and Celcom would be their official distribution network.

Jobs quits job

Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. just announced that he is relinquishing his post as CEO of the company and will remain only as chairman and employee. This has been a long term speculated many months back when he first took a long leave of absence and many have suggested that it may be for health reason (as can be seen from his significant lost in weight). Today, this news came through and you might say the rumor mill may have its truth in it. But even with this news, Apple's stock has not suffered any disastrous effect. In fact, it went up a few dollars during trading hours.

 This I believe may be because he still remains in Apple Inc. as chairman and still significant enough to lead the company. And even as chairman, I believe no one will deny the fact that he will hold considerable influence in what steps the company takes next. Jobs have single-handedly brought Apple back from the brink of death with the first release of the new generation iPod (new then) and then the iPhone. Of course the rest as they say, is history. Not only is Apple Inc. back to life, but it is today the most valuable tech company in the USA (if not the world!). The release of the iPad only propelled it to further unimaginable heights.

Apple's new iOS5, anything else new?

It was the Apple's WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) yesterday. There were no new consumer hardware introduced as some have expected, but there were 3 main things. No iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 that was rumored to be announced. The 3 things were the OSX Lion, iOS5 and iCloud. I'm not going to talk about OSX Lion as I do not own a Mac (but I am surprised at the $29 upgrade price!). I'm going to talk mainly about the new iOS 5 and some of its main new features that they have added.

Restoring from a backup for iPhone, jailbreak or not!

Here's a myth that most people believe, "You cannot backup or restore a jailbroken iPhone". The fact is, you can. And yours truly have done it a million times (over exaggerated of course). I personally do not use AptBackup, PKGBackup or any Cydia apps to help me backup my apps' settings and data. iTunes can do all that for you. What does that mean? It means that not only are you able to backup your iPhone's settings, the legitimate apps and its data (and settings), but you will be able to also backup your Cydia apps' settings. I will tell you how...

iPhone 3GS random shutdowns on iOS4.01, iOS4.1 and iOS4.2.1

I use to be able to use my iPhone 3GS until the battery runs dry and I get the battery running out popup message starting at 20% remaining and below. At that time, using the iPhone was a really enjoyable save for the bad battery life. Then came iOS4.01 and I hesitantly upgraded to it. I say hesitantly because if given a choice, I would not have upgraded it. My upgrade was made because of the increasing number of apps that do not support iOS3.x and most of them wouldn't even let you install it if you do not have iOS4.x. You can see my blog entry on Why I think iOS4.01 firmware sucks.

My iOS4.01 experience was still ok until I upgraded to iOS4.1 the moment the greenpois0n and limera1n jailbreaks were released for it and oh my... did I regret it. All other displeasures aside, the most horrible thing about it was that my iPhone started to shut down randomly whenever it is under intense use. By intense I mean by playing a game (e.g. Angry birds, FIFA 11 or even Bejeweled 2), or typing constantly on Whatsapp, using Safari or even taking a video. The shut downs usually happens when the battery is down to between 80% to 40% and it is totally random. If I leave it and not do anything except for receive and making calls, then I'm safe (or at least I think I am).

Read on...

What does the Jabulani & iPhone 4 have in common?

The South African 2010 World Cup has concluded and the Espanols have claimed their first world champions title in their history. During the course of the World Cup, there has been heartbreaks and delight. The fans of the world most famous sport will probably remember this World Cup for many years and that is many years not without the mention of all the controversies. Most talk-about would likely be the controversial Adidas' brainchild, the "Jabulani" ball. Being the scapegoat of all the matches whenever there are weird goals, this ball has earned its name in the history books of World Cup sports.

And during this same month where World Cup 2010 was happening, we have the launch of one of techs most controversial gadget too. Released on the 24th of June 2010 this year, this gadget is probably one of the most anticipated gadget in 2010. We're talking about Apple's new iPhone 4. Of course the suspense of its technology was not too great thanks to an earlier debacle with it being found in the wild and exposed by a certain tech website, but its release nevertheless brings the competition yet again to their knees. However, every new gadget is not without its own controversy as well.... it makes good (free) publicity as well (like Apple will ever need it.). The controversy which has since emerge after the launch of iPhone 4 is the antennae/signal problem (the internet has since name this the antennagate)

Here are some common things that the Jabulani and the iPhone 4 share (IMHO):

1. Both were released in the month of June 2010.
2. Their brand both starts with the letter "A" (Apple & Adidas).
3. Both are a product of advancement in technology.
4. Adidas has refused to admit the Jabulani's shortcomings and have instead protected its design and say its best for the competition.
   Apple has also refused to admit iPhone 4's antennae design fault and also protected its design.
5. Both were not being withdrawn from the market and has continued to be used.
6. Both has been featured on various popular world news website frontpages for their respective controversies.
7. Both makers have been branded arrogant for their ignorance to dissatisfaction from players and users alike. 
8. The Jabulani was used mostly with the presence of the noisy Vuvuzelas.
   iPhone 4 has a Vuvuzela app available for download :)

If you can think of any other similarities in these two, please do let me know so I can append this list.

Microsoft My Phone... their solution to Apple's MobileMe

Microsoft has a new service called My Phone (maybe it isn't new, but I just discovered it). Its a very apparent respond to Apple's MobileMe service. Well, I do not use MobileMe service for my iPhone and neither do I own a Windows Mobile cellphone, so I can't make any comparison about these two services. One thing I know though is that Microsoft's My Phone service is free (although service provider data charges may incur).

iPhone/iPod Touch future owners take note, Apple is breaking Jailbreak!

It seems that Apple is going all out to stop all jailbreaks on their iPhones and iPod Touches. This excerpt from iClarified says it all :-

Apple is now shipping the iPhone 3GS with a new Bootrom that is not vulnerable to the 24kpwn exploit.

The iBoot-359.3.2 started to ship last week. A screenshot posted by Mathieulh shows the new version number.

MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev-Team has confirmed that the loss of the 24kpwn exploit would mean a normal jailbreak would be impossible for the time being.

oh oh, from what @cpich3g + @Mathieulh have found so far, a normal untethered JB may be in jeopardy in brand new 3GS units

For the time being we would suggest locating old stock or refurbished units. Hopefully, the dev teams will be able to find another exploit for the new bootrom.

Well... fortunately i've got my iPhone already. But for those looking forward to get their iPhones and jailbreaking them, better hope you're not getting one of these new ones. But I'm sure the genius hackers out there would probably find a way around it again.... you'll just have to wait a little longer if Apple does what is said above.

Owned 2 iPhones 3Gs in as many weeks (and OS ver 3.1)

I just got my new iPhone 3Gs from Maxis last Sunday and this week I have another new one. Well, I still only have one, the second one being a replacement from my first one (from last week). Why you might ask? The first one went kaput and I sent in for repairs on last Saturday and got a replacement on the recent Monday. The iPhone was beyond repair (thanks to the car lighter USB port which I used to charge it). The moment I plug it into the car lighter outlet, I could feel the heat on the iPhone and the next thing I know the iPhone's battery was draining like 1% every 30 seconds. By the time I send it to Maxis center, it was already drained out and the 'experts' there couldn't start it up (and they can't check whether I jailbroke the iPhone too!! Lol...) so they deemed it irreparable. I was told the replacement would probably arrive in another 2 to 3 weeks due to shortages in supply and also the fact that they had to get it from Singapore (I suppose Singapore's Apple is the regional office). Great! I waited 2 weeks for the iPhone and now I gotta wait another 2 weeks minimum.

However I was pleasantly surprise when 2 days later (Monday) I received an SMS from them saying that my iPhone has been repaired and ready for collection. Two thoughts came to my mind.

1. Maybe they found out it can be repaired and so replaced the circuit board and voila! But I had mixed feelings with this thought. What if the battery unit is not slightly defficient now because of the draining??
2. Maybe they were able to start the phone and found my phone has been jailbroke before and decided to void my warranty... that would be crap!

Anyway, when I arrived to pick up the unit, I was told that it was a replacement unit... imagine my relieve when I heard that. But I am really surprise that they have the replacement in little more than 2 days only. And it is actually just one day if you minus the Sunday as it is a non-working day.

Now that I have the new iPhone, i'm not going to use that darn car lighter USB anymore. Learnt my lesson. Maxis though, do not need to know about this (or there goes the warranty). Ok... off to jailbreak my iPhone now!!!

Ok... Apple has just announced the latest iPhone OS ver 3.1. It has little enhancement over the previous ver 3.01 but nevertheless still an enhancement. Jailbreakers do not attempt to upgrade yet as it would probably remove all your settings and Apps. As for myself, I'm not so hyped about this ver 3.1 OS. There isn't really any enhancement that I would REALLY want that I would sacrifice my jailbreak and upgrade the OS. So if you can wait, just hold horses and wait for ver 3.1 jailbreak before upgrading.

Here is a list of some of the enhancements:

• Improved syncing for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos
• iTunes U content organization
• Redeem iTunes Gift Cards, codes, and certificates in the App Store
• Display available iTunes account credits in the App Store and iTunes Store
• Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
• Option to Save as new clip when trimming a video on iPhone 3GS
• Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on (this one sounds funny, why would bluetooth improve Wi-Fi performance?).
• Remotely lock iPhone with passcode via MobileMe
• Use Voice COntrol on iPhone 3GS with Bluetooth headsets (Should have been here all along!).
• Paste phone numbers into the keypad
• Option to use Home button to turn on accessibility features on iPhone 3GS
• Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
• Improved Exchange calendar syncing and invitation handling
• Fixes issue that cause some app icons to display incorrectly

As you can see, no bluetooth file transfer between bluetooth enabled devices yet. If they had enabled that, it would be something that would entice me to upgrade. Anyway, to catch more about the updates go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/. You can update it via your iTunes (did I mention iTunes is also being upgraded to ver 9.0?). iPod Touch users can also update your OS to ver 3.1 for free!