Part two of this two part article is based on the Software required to get your Media Center PC up and running.  If you remember from part 1, we have a $600 budget but only spent about $400.

Operating System:

Really the most expensive component of this PC is the operating system.  What you’re looking for is a copy of  Vista that has Media Center in it.  There are two options: Windows Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate.

If you have an existing copy of XP (that is not installed on another computer) you can upgrade to Vista cheaper than buying it.  If you don’t have an extra copy then you can buy a legit version off ebay for $128.  The upgrades go for half the price at around $65 dollars.  You might ask, “Well why don’t I just go with XP Media Center 2005?”.  Well you can, but with Windows 7 coming out towards the end of this year XP is going to start really getting phased out this year.

If you’re really adventurous you can go with Windows 7 Beta Ultimate which has Media Center built into it – but remember its a beta, and it expires in August ‘09.  But the download is free for a couple more weeks.  I’m sure though someone will have a copy – but you want to make sure you get your legitimate key before hand.  I’ve tested Windows 7 on my Macbook and it runs pretty well.  You can read up on that experience here.

Anyway,  the one thing to take out of this is that you do want to ensure that you are purchasing a 64 bit version of Vista – or if you’re downloading Windows 7, make sure you get the 64bit version as you want to take advantage of the 4GB of RAM, and the 64bit dual core processor.

General Purpose Video Player:

One great video player that has all of the codecs you would ever need built into it is VLC Media Player.  Downloaded a 1080p H.264 MKV file no problem VLC has the codec to play this built in.

It’s free, open source, and works on any operating system.  Now the drawback is that when you go to play that 1080p MKV file with a 2.0 GHZ dual core processor it is going to choke on the video file and die and you’ll notice your CPU is through the roof.  Again this is something I pointed out – few tools are optimized to utilize multi-core CPUs and VLC.  This is where specialized codecs come in handy.

Codecs:

The thing about codecs is if you load too many of them you’ll screw up your system.  For the most part you’re going to need 4 things.  FFDshow, Hali Media Splitter, and the MKV codec, and divx.  The first 3 can all be installed by getting the Combined Community Codec Pack.

They have a free player as well, try it if you like, but all you need is the actual codec pack.  Divx can be found by going to divx.com. You’ll notice that this is, in many cases, the default encoder for videos that you would upload to youtube etc.   There is a player that they offer as well, but all you really need is to ensure you have the updated codec from them.

Now you might say “But there are other codec packs like the Vista Codec Pack out there.”  This is true, but generally you only need a couple codecs and heck, you may not even need these, it depends on the format of the HD content you’re viewing.

CoreAVC:

So now you’ve pulled down all of the above free tools and codecs and you’re still having problems running a smooth 720p or 1080p h.264 MKV file.  There is only one option when it comes to codecs that has any twinkle of multi-core support (even if its not great).  CoreAVC. 

This codec is not free, and rightly so – it allows you to buy a slower dual-core processor and utilize it, as opposed to going out and buying a more expensive piece of hardware.   You do not want to buy the standard edition you want to spring for the professional edition as it does offer support of SMP (mult-core CPU).  The great news is there is a free trial so you can download, install and test it out to verify.   Not only that you’ll notice that if you compare video quality of VLC with a higher-powered processor vs. CoreAVC the picture quality is better with fewer dropped frames.   At $15 bucks, its a small investment to have high quality decoding.

Zoom Player:

Now, when installing codecs, where do they go? They install to windows but not all players allow you to easily choose which codec to use in which scenario.  There are work arounds to allow Windows Media Center to take advantage of all codecs but if you’d like to have more control and ease of use/choice there is one last Media player that you should take a peak at.  Zoom Player.  You can change codecs on the fly and I find that it plays MKV files with CoreAVC very well as it seems to use less overhead than launching Media Center.  The drawback of course is that you can’t use your Media Center Remote with it.

BlueRay/HDDVD Player:
When it comes to playing actual HDDVD’s or BlueRays – or maybe you have the actual files on your computer – if its real BlueRay files the answer is simple.  PowerDVD.

Forget about Codecs, if you’re watching real HDDVD or BlueRay content off a file or the disc itself PowerDVD offloads the processing power to your Video Card and unlocks the performance of the card to run a smooth viewing experience.   The unfortunate part of this is of course is that the cost is slightly higher the Ultra version of this is $99 bucks.  Remeber I said the main costs are software.  Here you go.  Sometimes you’ll get lucky and it will come with a DVD drive or with a video card but chances are you’ll need to buy this direct or upgrade from a previous version.  But if you are not watching Blue Rays/HDDVD’s then you don’t have to worry as you don’t need Power DVD to play a regular old DVD in your computer – Windows Media Center takes care of that.

Why don’t you use open source?
This is actually an easy question to answer.  It boils down to ease of use and availability of compatible software and devices.  To an average person trying to figure out installing codecs to Linux, trying to find a decent tool to capture and record TV and/or act like a Media center in Linux, finding good software that can play a movie – not only that how about trying to get COREAVC to work in Linux.   Can it be done? Yes.  But this is about the path of least resistance.   And I’m sure someone is going to chime in and say “oh but you could do this so easy in ubuntu with x program and x configuration all you have to do is recompile this, modify that”.

Stop that.  Seriously.  Soon as you talking about recompiling a kernel, yeah the novice user isn’t going to do that nor do they need to.  There is a lot to know as it is just to do it in windows – you jump the complexity bar WAAAY up there when you add in an open source OS solution.  That’s why Linux is still not mainstream.  And I’m a person who runs a flavor of Linux on one of my machines right now.

But, because you’re going to google it and find us – I’ve gone ahead and done the research for you because that’s the type of jackass I am.  Go here to check out Media Center type setup for Linux.

Summary of Cost:

Windows OS Upgrade $65
CoreAVC 14.95
PowerDVD 8 Ultra 99.00

Total Software $178.95

Summation:

You may or may not need all of the extra pieces of software but when you add it up – we’re still under $600, in some cases you might even come in under $500.  With todays economy piecing together a system like this can make things a bit easier.  Not only that you might find some really good deals on additional used or spare parts.

That’s right, I downloaded the beta version of Windows 7 today and successfully loaded it on my macbook.  Driver installation is interesting though because Apple has not created a bootcamp version of drivers.  In fact if you try to load bootcamp disk from your Leopard disk you’ll get a message that says it is not compatible.  But never fear you can browse the DVD and install the drivers manually (most of them).

I had trouble with the 64bit version, and I had downloaded from newsgroups instead of directly from Microsoft so I pulled down the x86 non 64bit version today, the install was fairly quick – 25 minutes or so.  I have a 2Ghz dual core Macbook with 2GB Ram to give you basis.

By default the wireless works out of the box.  The sound, on the other hand does not.  It even looks like it should because the speaker icon is down there next to the clock but it doesn’t.  The trick is to browse the leopard DVD and find the IDT Signa Tel Setup – run it.  Your sound will work.  You also need to browse to the Apple folder and run the track pad and various installers – you may notice that they seem to run but nothing actually comes on the screen – this is because they are installers that were meant to show up in the Bootcamp install menu and not stand alone.  But It does seem to install ok.

I’ve tried pointing Windows 7 to the Intel Ethernet driver folder but it doesn’t install and I’ve tried running the other installers but for some reason the base Ethernet does not install.  Which I have seen others that have had similar problems.

Of Interest:

The rating of performance is extended to 7.9 now.  You may remeber in Vista the score goes from 1.0 to 5.9.   I’m guessing they are accounting for the newer hardware on the market now.

As you can see my base score is a 2.0 – This is because the hard drive is a 5400 RPM Sata drive – I may update the drive in the future to a larger 7200 RPM drive.  It is interesting that drivers have been updated as we all know that this model black Macbook has built in Intel 915G graphics which are not known for being great- but they got a better score in Windows 7 than they do in Vista from what I recall.


The whole system runs faster than Vista.

The task bar is a bit strange as it runs as icons instead of little bars or sub bars.

Internet Explorer 8 – pretty much the same as 7.

The install by default is a fairly large footprint.  I setup a 10GB partition using bootcamp and it took up damn near all of it – I have 1.45 GB free after the install with no programs installed.  By normal standards that’s fine because most new computers are coming with 500GB drives or 1TB drives.  But for netbooks it’s a bit large.   The download of course is Windows 7 Ultimate so that could be part of it – but I also didn’t notice an option to choose to remove items during the install even though I chose the custom option.

Update: Atheos commented in the comment section and provided a solution for getting bootcamp to install.  Thanks very much, I’m including your answer here in the post proper.

Attention: You CAN use the normal Boot Camp installer located on the Leopard DVD. Trying to do that directly will probably give you error 2229 BUT you can just copy the “Boot Camp” folder on your hard drive and replace the BootCamp.msi and BootCamp64.msi packages with the ones from here (big thanks to limo79 for this!): http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=6908029&postcount=216

The fix includes support for 32 and 64 bit versions as well as Boot Camp versions 2.0 and 2.1. I did that on my early 2008 MBP with Windows 7 x64 and *everything* works perfectly (ethernet, iSight, WLAN, keyboard backlight…), including the F-keys (volume, eject etc.) and the Boot Camp Control Panel. No need to run the separate installers. I advise getting the display driver directly from Nvidia site and if there is no sound you can also downoad newer driver from Realtek site. You might want to include this information in the post as an update.

Very cool.

This is a late follow up to Jailbreaking the latest Apple 2.1 software update with the latest version of QuickPwn 1.1.  You will as always need to ensure that you have backed up.  Download the latest version of QuickPwn here.

Note: You have to be at version 2.1 on your iphone for this to work.  I’ll go over breifly the update in this tutorial, you can also look at previous tutorials on the update such as here.

1. Launch iTunes and have your phone plugged in and you should receive the message about updating as I’ve covered before in previous tutorials – it will run through these screens as you update to 2.1 version of Apple iPhone Software

2. And it will continue to update, your iphone will flash and reboot at some point as well.

3. Once it’s done make sure you have your quickpwn on your desktop and double click on it.

4. Then the usual screen will come up with the usual we’re not responsible if you brick your phone.

5. Connect your iPhone if you haven’t already – click ok. It will auto-detect your phone and continue.

6. Choose to replace the original boot and logos and click yes.

7. Put in ye’ old username and password.

8. And wait while it builds the new firmware package.

9. Now it needs to xfer the information over – follow the onscreen instructions for getting into DFU mode – if you have problems refer to the previous tutorial here.

10. QuickPwn will send the package to your iPhone

11. The software part is done on your mac now you need to watch your iPhone.

13. Here is the new screen, apologies for the blurryness.  This go around you get a status update about what is going on which is very cool.  Plus it didn’t hang like last time for me or the other iPhone of Prax’s that we jailbroke.  Once its done, you’re good.

14. You may want to install boss pref’s and run through the reset of directory permissions.  I didn’t have this issue before but I did after updating to 2.1.  Check here for instructions and issue.

And that’s it.

This is a problem with the permissions on your iphone after jailbreaking.  

1. Open Cydia and download Boss Prefs.

2. Open Boss Prefs

3. Choose More

4. Click on Fix User Dir Prefs

Ok a few notes about QuickPwn.  Compared to Pwnage Tool, it makes it much easier for the novice to jailbreak an iPhone or iPhone 3g or ipod touch.  I did not test this on a “clean” iPhone as mine was already jailbroken the first time.  But, iphone dev doesn’t have any notes that say you can’t do it on clean iphones.  So here is the tutorial on how to do this on an already jailbroken iphone 3g, as always backup first, do at your own risk, yada yada, most likely doing it on a clean iPhone works exactly the same way.

Also you have to be at 2.02 in order for this to work.  I’ll walk you through that update if you haven’t already.

1.

Browse out to http://blog.iphone-dev.org and pull down the QuickPwn file from there site or through bit-torrent.  Remember to use the native archive utility and not “unarchiver”.  Once you have this downloaded and extracted chill out a moment and fire up iTunes.

2. Ask yourself this question: “Do I feel lucky?”  Then decide that you haven’t and backup your iPhone.  You should have already but I wanted to remind you again.

Once you have iTunes started and your iPhone plugged in you should get this message, choose to download and install.

3. Click on Next for the update, as you can see it says “bug fixes”.  Can we get any more generic?

4. Agree to sell your soul to Steve and click next.

5. Now when you do this, you may think, what the hell, the screen disapeared.  Steve’s come to collect my soul early! No like all iTunes downloads it just put it in the download section.

6. Soon as it finishes you’ll get this screen

7. And then this one…

8. And then…

9. Boom done, you’re at 2.02 Apple legit software and if you had any jailbroken apps they are gone.  Your iphone should reboot and you’ll get the old favorite apple logo.

10. Now you can fire up QuickPwn. Double click to launch the goodness.

11. Click Ok that you have been warned. You should know the drill you can’t hold them, or me or anyone else but yourself responsible for bricking your iphone.

12. Keep following ye’ old onscreen instructions, your device should already be connected so just click ok, or it may have just jumped right to detecting your device.  Mine was rebooting when I took this so it popped up right after this.

13. Next it should popup with this screen. Basically it is going to go out and look for the 2.02 firmware on iTunes.  You don’t need to re-download or do anything, I had to close iTunes after a minute, but clicking Yes makes QuickPwn do the work and it worked so I didn’t run into any thing too out of the ordinary aside from not expecting it to fire up iTunes. If you didn’t get this or its finished or you’ve done this before just click the device and it should continue.

14. As mentioned before here and on the dev site you don’t get the option to choose how your custom firmware package is built, this puts it all in.  So put in your username/pass and click “ok.”

15. Ok so I didn’t get the immediate next screenshot, but basically we’re repeating the same steps as you should already know to get your phone into DFU mode.  Follow the steps on screen.  In case you have never done this before, look at your screen you’ll just follow the on screen prompts and if you have problems still check the bottom of this post for a tip on DFU mode.

16. And we’re holding…

17. And we’re holding… and boom, you’ll see it automatically sends the firmware as opposed to the crazy stuff you had to do with Pwnage Tool.

18. And here is where it gets tricky.   It took 2-5 minutes aproximately but it rebooted.  Then my phone just hung there.  I went out and checked online others were saying that they just re-did everything and freaked out.  Some say they waited 20 minutes, or they rebooted and it would continue to just hang at the pinapple.   See below.

19.  For me, I watched it reboot after 5 minutes the first time.  Then it hung there for about 10 minutes.  I started to get pissed, but I held down the home button and power button to turn it off.  I then powered it back on again, let the pinapple sit for a couple minutes and boom.  It came up fine, jailbroken, nothing wrong.   Cydia, Installer, all came back, I didn’t have to restore my music from iTunes after the fact or do anything else wonkey which made the experience much less painful.

If you had problem getting the phone into DFU mode follow DJ Felix’s method:

* Turn off the iPhone
* Hold the home button
* Plug it into USB
* Watch for DFU mode

Anyway Comment below, if you saw something else or experienced something else please share as it could help others.

Hey all Prax here, this is my initial posting on Wetwierd, and for the initial posting I am going to run though how to jailbreak an iPhone 3g in the windows world.  As Pylorns wrote about how to hack an iPhone on Apple Mac(Leopard) I decided I would help out the rest of the world who aren’t using those Mac things.  This guide is going to assume you know nothing about jailbreaking or cell phones.

First off lets run down a list of what we need to do this, first of course we will need an iPhone (of course) and a windows machine, personally I used my gaming box, that’s running Vista Ultimate edition 64 bit, but any vanilla windows box should work pretty much the same way.  Below is the first of many screenshots you will find in this guide, but it lists all the files you will need.

Going though this list I will explain each of the files and why ya need them.

1) winpwn- this is the application that will actually do all the work for us

2) iPhone roms- There are two of the listed here, you need to grab one from Apple the other one is one you will create.

3) winscp416.exe- this is not a required file but it is great for ftp’ing stuff back and forth to your newly jailbroken iPhone.

4) putty.exe- yet another app that isn’t required, but is of great use once you jail break you iPhone.

So now we got everything you need, or at least know what to look for lets move on to the first step, installing winpwn.  Its pretty easy just double click and keep hitting next until your done, once your done launch the application from the desktop icon it just created.  Once started you will be presented with the following screen.

Once you do the above, it will request an open dialog that you need to select the Apple rom that you downloaded earlier.

Once you select it, it will go though a verification of the rom.  Then the following screen will come up.

Once you have done that and winpwn has going though the check of the rom then click on the IPSW Builder. This will bring up the following dialog.

This shows what applications will be installed by default in the jailbroken rom.  Onto the next screen.

As you can see in the screen above you can select a boot up and a restore screen.  You can either select a boot logo from one that you have on your hard drive or search online for several.  You can skip the Customer payload screen and go directly to the advanced screen.

This is the most dangerous screen in the entire process, but everything works right the above settings will work on pretty much any iphone upgraded to 2.0.  Once the screen looks like it does above click on Build .ipsw file and save it some place you can find later. Once that is done you will get a pop up that looks like this.

Once that is done and you hit ok you will be shown the following screen.

Once you click the button the application will ask for the rom that you created earlier, after you tell the app where to find that file it will “enable” itunes to accept that particular file.   When it is ready you will get this.

Next you will want to dismiss this window and set your phone to what they call DFU Mode.  To do this hold down the power button and the home button at the same time, the screen will go completely blank at this point plug in the iPhone to the computer and load up itunes, but what ever you DO NOT RELEASE THE HOME BUTTON, you can release the power button though.  Soon after if everything went right, iTunes will display this dialog.

Once that happens, you will be taken to the iPhone restore screen and you will have to select the restore option.  But you want to select the rom that we made earlier using winpwn.  To do that hold down the SHIFT key and click the restore button, it will ask you to select the correct ipsw.  iTunes will start to do a restore, your iPhone will blank out several times and look kinda scary but I assure you that if you did all the previous steps everything should work right. Your iPhone will reboot itself, once it does iTunes will ask if you want to do a restore or treat this as a new phone.  This decision is up to you.  If you set the phone as new, you will be asked what to sync to the phone and it will be like the first time you plugged in your iPhone. If you choose to restore your iPhone it will be back to the way it was before you started the process.  After all this when your iPhone is finished booting, you will notice two new apps on your iPhone, Installer and Cydia, both of these installers will install 3rd party apps, but thats a blog from a different time.  Also I will go into what to do if you need to restore back to the original Apple rom.

Prax

First things first, the tutorials for the PC seem to actually be easier.  Also a lot of the Mac tutorials left off a key step – holding down the option key when clicking the restore function.  For someone who has never done this before the other tutorials mostly assume that you know what you are doing.  This tutorial will cover how to jailbreak your recently updated 2.01 version iPhone or iPhone 3g. 

Note: This tutorial is for iPhone running 2.01 version software, and for Pwnage Tool 2.0.2 on an Apple Mac.  While it may work for future releases the screens may not look the same.  A PC version of this tutorial will follow.  Make sure you have a backup of everything you have on your iPhone, and make sure that iTunes does a backup prior to starting this.

Why should I jailbreak?

I mean, with the App store, the main reason people did it before was because you couldn’t install other applications, now there are lots of applications and all developers can now get their software on it right?

Wrong.  Apple has strict, slow, approval process and quite often they remove apps without telling the developers – just look at the box office fiasco. Also, with jailbreaking you can customize what your iphone looks like, all the menus, icons, battery indicators you can individualize your iPhone which is a big factor for me. See screenshot below of how you can customize your iPhone.

Winterboad Theme program

How do I get applications on the iPhone?

There are two applications that install when you use the PwnageTool 2.0.2. Cydia and Installer.  Cydia is open source and Installer is not, Installer also has very few programs as opposed to Cydia.  Basically these two are like the app store, they connect to multiple sources and categorize applications and themes.  They also let you know when an update is made.  These two programs are the simplest tools to use.  I suggest installing Winterboard and Customize as well these are installed through Cydia and allow you to start your theming fun.

Ok so how do I do this?

1. You need to head out to the location of the Pwnage tool and download it.  Go here and download the latest tool.  (Also note you’re iPhone should be plugged in and on and iTunes should be ready to rock.)

2. Extract the PwnageTool to your desktop and double click it.

3. Say yes that you want to open the application.

4. Click “OK” to continue.

5. Choose your poison of iPhone and click the arrow for next.

6. Select your firmware (it should show up and just click on it) then click the arrow for next.

7. Click on yes to continue to create your image

8. The tool will need your login/pass so enter them and click continue.

9. Choose if you have Pwn’d your iPhone before.  If your first time just choose no.

10.  Now we get to the interesting part.  Basically you’re putting your phone into DFU mode.  This basically sets the iPhone to be ready to accept the new image you just made.  The phone will appear to be off when you’re done but your system will still see that it is turned on.  Follow the directions by clicking on both the home button and the top button. 

11. Next you choose to hold just the home button down.

12. If you held the buttons down correctly you should have put your phone in DFU mode at this point you’re done with the PwnageTool. 

13. Fire up iTunes (as noted above you should already have it running.  So just bring it back up.

14.  Here is where you need to hold down alt/option button and click on the restore button. 

15. Choose to open the image that was saved to the desktop by PwnageTool.

16. It takes a good amount of time – some tutorials say it could take 30 minutes or so.  Course if you miss a step like I did, you’ll restore incorrectly and 30 minutes turn into 2 hours.  But anyway.   So baring any unforseen circumstances you should see this screen.

17. Now you want to sync up your phone, restore your previous settings and sync your music, photos, etc etc.  You should have two apps installed now on your iPhone; Installer and Cydia.  

Postscript: You can do the expert mode on PwnageTool but this tutorial is more for people doing it the first time as simple as possible.  Once you know what you’re doing – then go back and fiddle with it if you need to.

In my previous post about cleaning the iPhone I mentioned a glare/protective cover.  Forget that product.  Think about Tim the Tool Man saying “Ohhh Hooo Ho… more power.”

I came across a company that does military grade stuff – the stuff they coat military helicopter blades with. Zagg. No the price is not like a government contract price its reasonable and this stuff covers your entire iPhone.  Apparently these guys have also been talked about on Fox News and CNN. Here is their marketing blurb:

The invisibleSHIELD is made from a unique material originally created for the military to protect the leading edges of helicopter blades, the invisibleSHIELD™ offers protection that other screen protectors, covers, skins, or cases just can’t match. With over 2,000 copyrighted, precision-cut designs for a variety of gadgets, including iPods, smartphones, and cell phones, you can protect all your devices from scratches.

The invisibleSHIELD isn’t just another screen protector. Custom-cut Full Body Shields, available for many devices, offer protection for your entire device. With this patent-pending full-body contour wrap, your device will always look like it did the day you bought it.

Can’t find an invisibleSHIELD for your device? No problem – we’ll custom design one for you.

If you aren’t completely satisfied with the coverage of the invisibleSHIELD, you can return it within 30 days for a full refund. And if the invisibleSHIELD ever scratches, we will replace it for free, for life. So what do you have to lose other than those unsightly scratches?

Pretty damn cool eh?  A scratch proof protective cover.  Now what sold me was actually watching the video on youtube.  Check it out:

If I think about my old cell phone and how scratched up it got after a year of being in my pocket with my keys.  I wish I had this stuff 2 years ago.  But now, I’m going to pick up one of these.  I’ll follow up with another post when I get one on how to apply them, good points/bad points.  Anyway, check it out here if your interested.

Can I use Skype on my iPhone or iPhone 3g to make free phone calls?

Yes and no.  Skype already offers several mobile applications that you can download on other phones, just not an iPhone.

Update: 3-30-09: YES you can.(not to be confused with Obama)  Check out this link.  You need a monthly subscription or you can do pay as you go credit.
With Skype you can make free calls over the Internet. Skype – the whole world can talk for free(yeah yeah blatant advertisement…what can I say, I like Skype)


There is another company that uses Skype-out that has a program called IM+ for Skype.  Basically you either pay them 5 bucks a month or just buy it for 30 bucks.  The program allows you to chat with your Skype buddies or call out but it is not using VOIP (Voice over IP). It is using the Skype out feature to call the person, and then call your iPhone so its like calling a conference call center where you are both connected.  It uses your incoming minutes on your cell phone so you’re not really saving any money by doing it unless you’re trying to do international calling from your cell phone, then the rates make sense.

But what if you want to do voice over ip and not use your minutes?  First things first, you may ask, “Can 3g support VOIP?”.

Yes it can, but you also have to understand that using VOIP over the 3g network violates your terms of service with AT&T… beacuse you know, they want you to use your minutes and not use the unlimited data plan.  Now it is not a violation to use VOIP over wireless network.  So if you’re in your house or a place with free wifi and want to make calls out using VOIP portion of Skype then bamn! You’re all good.  Except you need to wait.

Fring has already come out with a working solution for the first iteration of the iPhone; pre 2.0 update.  They have not finalized code or even come up with a beta offering for the new version, but they did sucessfully test the functionality on the first iPhone and it works good enough to use.  If you have not updated to the 2.0 software and have an original iPhone well you’re missing out on all the cool stuff, but you also don’t have to wait you can download the beta right now – after you jailbreak your iPhone.

If you are interested in seeing how Frig works with cell phones, check out this video. While he’s not using the iPhone, the concept is the same.

After having a $350 electric bill its time to start working on being more energy efficient.  Some of you know that I purchased a house in Round Rock (suburb of Austin) to fix it up and resell it.  Basically live in it for 2 years, thus making the taxes less when I sell it, and take my time to fix it and decide on what to do that improves the property value and what doesn’t improve the property value.  

July, August, and September here in Austin are usually really damn hot.  We have a lot of 98-102 degree weather here and with the cost of energy going up it makes it just that much more expensive so I figured purchasing tinted film for my windows (at least the ones that get the afternoon sun) is a wise investment. Who knows, it can only help the resale value. 

Being a moron I jumped the gun and didn’t research film prior to just buying a few rolls at Lowes.  The 30% (keeps out 70% light, reflective, UV, Heat etc) goes for $32 bucks a roll x4 rolls, and a $9 dollar kit. I’m down $150 bucks with taxes etc. I bought the 3′ wide roll and it works perfect for the majority of my windows and the sliding door.  I unfortunately didn’t know how to do this stuff(applying tint) aside from watching the guy who tinted my car in my garage but apparently that gave me enough of an idea to try it myself.

The film that comes from Lowes is pretty good (Gila) and it even comes with a moron’s guide to putting on film with pretty pictures.  But of course I knew best and started with the big ass sliding glass window and cut a large section for that first instead of you know.. cutting a smaller window first to learn.  Anyway, one piss poor application and a zillion bubbles later I decided to read the instructions and actually use a razor to get the extra dirt and grit off the glass before applying the next section of tint and I decided to try a smaller window.  (Of course I actually blame the not reading of the instructions on Mimzy because whenever a woman says “lets read the instructions” a switch in the mans brain says “lets not”.) 

So, half a roll down and basically half that I’m going to have to buy again in 6 months because it’s going to peel, I decide it was one of those good learning things that you just have to learn the hard way of what not to do. Choosing a smaller window pane was easy, I first cleaned with windex and a paper towel, then used the handy dandy spray bottle of application spray(read soap and distilled water) on the window as lubricant along with a razor blade to get the additional dirt of the window.  Next I sprayed with the application spray again and then used a squeegee to remove the water.  

I happen to have a glass dining room table and it turns out this is the absolute best surface to use when removing the clear coating from the sticky portion of the film.  Basically you take two pieces of tape (masking not duck) and put them on each side of the film, press together and then pull apart.  This separates the film from the protective clear stuff.  This also allows you to figure out which side is back and which side is the sticky side.  Once you know where the back is, you spray the glass table top and press the back of the film on that.  This keeps it down as you peel the rest of the clear coating off the film. As you remove the coating spray the sticky side with the application spray (soap and water).  Note: As long as you keep this stuff sprayed down good, the chances of it sticking to something else like your clothes… or itself are reduced, and I tell you from experience.

Once you’ve removed the outer coating and you have this film sprayed down laying on your table you spray the window again and leave it.  Lift up the corners of the film, put it on the window, spray the back of the film again and then use the squeegee on the first pass.  Once you have it where you like it and more or less stuck you then take the razor blade and cut the excess film off.  Note, this is not always easy with the rubber around windows, sometimes there is some excess silicone – you might have to cut the silicone or the film around it. 

Once you have used the squeegee you may want to use the plastic tool to push out any smaller air bubbles, its really handy for the hard to get stuff.  Voila tinted window pane, you have 24 hours or less to fix it before its really stuck.

Notes: Once I got the hang of it, I was able to do about 4 panes in 30 minutes with help from Mimzy pre-cutting and removing the backing while I was cleaning and preparing another window pane.  Doing this is really not a one man job, it can be done but its really, really, difficult. That extra set of hands holding the film while you carry it really helps.

Tips:

Measure the width and height of your windows before you go to pick up the film.  (That said you can get it cheaper online but you have to buy larger quantities. (I may actually buy some online if my friends want to go in with me)

Don’t buy the application spray unless you just want the spray bottle, once you run out of what is in it, put some joy and filtered/distilled water in it. 

Buy the razor/squeegee/hard plastic edge tool kit it is worth it unless you already have pro-tools, which if you do why are you reading this?

The plastic cutting edge tool is a pain, I just cut by hand and follow the window frame, it goes faster and it is actually more accurate. 

Find someone to help you, its not a one person job.  If you can, find someone who has done this before so they can show you all the do’s and don’ts.  

Clean the window several times and then use a razor blade scraper with soap and water.  You’ll be surprised when you look at the blade that its dirty.  There are lots of things you just can’t see but you can feel them and see them after they have collected on the razor blade.  Putting this film on requires super-clean glass.

Don’t be a moron and try a big window first (like your sliding glass door). Start small and cut a small window pane first.  

Amazingly enough after doing most of the windows in my house, it’s not too bad.  It cuts down on the heat for sure and it cuts down on glare.  I might even be coerced into helping you out (for a fee).

I’ve been looking around for good information about cleaning the screen of the iPhone and while the iPhone has a glass screen you would think windex is ok but you pose a risk of getting it in the ear piece the button, etc. What is really suggested is put non-alcohol or chemical cleaner  just good old soap and water. If you clean your LCD most likely that cleaner is just fine because it doesn’t contain chemicals that will break down your screen. Check out the apple knowledge base article that describes the correct way to clean it here.

I suggest getting a microfiber cloth and spray it directly then clean the screen. Then put a screen cover on it cause really as soon as you use the phone again your stuck with smudges again.

There are several iPhone film covers out there, I suggest the matt finish Power Support film set for iPhone 3G.

When applying these film covers you have to clean the screen really well.  They also come with this “pre-application film” which is just another film that sticks to the screen and removes particles that you can’t see.  This is REALLY important because if you have any dust particles between the film and the screen you will have air bubbles that you can’t get rid of and it will annoy the bejesus out of you.  



Below is the instructions for applying these:

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1st Step: Thorough Cleaning

1. Clean your iPhone LCD screen with a lint free cloth and a small amount of glass cleaner. Ensure that all fingerprints and particles have been removed.
2. Wipe off any excess glass cleaner so that the screen is completely dry.

2nd Step (Pre-Installation Film): Removing any dust particles that may have fallen onto your screen.

1. Remove one half of the white backing of the pre-installation film.
2. Without touching the LCD screen directly with your fingers, place the half of the film without the backing onto the LCD screen.
3. Without touching the LCD screen, remove the second half of the backing. Apply the rest of the film to the LCD screen. Rub it down thoroughly to ensure that the Pre-Installation film has captured all dust particles.
4. Remove the Pre-Installation film by pulling it off by the excess film. Do not touch the LCD Screen.

3rd Step (Crystal/Anti-Glare Film): Applying the Film

Note: Power Support’s Protective Screen Films come attached to a basic transparent plastic backing. Whenever applying films, you can touch either side of this transparent backing and the non-adhesive side of the film. However, do not touch the adhesive side of the film because the oils from your skin will compromise the adhesive qualities of the static cling adhesive.

1. Without touching the adhesive side of the film, push down on the backing to expose the adhesive side.
2. lign the edge of the film with the bottom of the face of the iPhone. You can use the button or ear piece hole as alignment tools. Once a proper alignment is found, apply part of the film.
3. Without touching the face of the iPhone or the adhesive side of the film, allow for the rest of the film to apply by peeling off the rest of the backing from underneath the film.
4. Cover your finger in a lint-free cloth and rub out vigorously  any air bubbles.

Another tid-bit, forget about getting the Apple Store employees to apply this for you.  I was in there buying one and didn’t even think to ask about it but the guy just told me that they stopped doing it because of how picky customers were about the application and if they messed up they had to get another one etc, etc.  So, do your due diligence and apply them correctly and it will work amazingly well.

In my previous tutorial I covered how to create ringtones using a Mac. Today I’ll cover creating ringtones using a PC and only free applications such as audacity. Download and install audacity and iTunes on your PC prior to doing this. I’m also using Vista but the same or similar screens exist for XP.

1. Open the piece of music or sound that you want to be your ring tone in Audacity and edit it down to under 40 seconds.

2. Go to File>Export and export the song as MP3. Audacity does not have the ability to export to AAC.

3. Give the file a unique name and save as .MP3

4. Once you have saved it you’ll next need to open the file in iTunes. Right click on the file and choose Open With>iTunes

5. Now that it is in iTunes you can convert it to iTunes native mp4 or AAC. Right click the file and choose Convert Selection to AAC

6. Now we need to rename this file to a ringtone format so browse to your iTunes music folder – in most cases its your default windows music folder.

7. By default windows Vista does not show file extensions. You’ll need to turn this off. Go to Tools>Folder Options. Un-check Hide extensions for known file types.

8. Once you have done this you should be able to change the file name to .m4r

9. Choose Yes that you are aware your computer will explode if you change the file extension.

10. Right click on the file and choose to open with> and choose iTunes.

11. Once you open it up in iTunes you should see it is now in its ringtone category. And you’re good.

Update: some of you have commented that you can’t move the song over to the iPod after it is created. You get a message like “unable to find file” others have had no problems.

First off when you get a message like that it is telling you something important. Try finding the location of where the file is supposed to be. Reimport it. Also you might verify that you renamed the file correctly by opening a command prompt and look at it in dos.
Update: 2/25/09
See screenshot – you need to see your ringtones in this list if you don’t they won’t go over to your iPhone.

This is an article about how to create custom ringtones for the iPhone or iPhone 3g for capturing movie quotes or music from a DVD using a Mac. I’ll follow up later with one specifically for PC. This article assumes that you know a few things about how to setup itunes, audio hijack, and the built in DVD software. I also use Sound Studio Pro but Audacity will work too.  *disclaimer I am not suggesting creating copyrighted ring tones – that would be wrong…

1. Launch Audio Hijack Pro and select your DVD player then click the Hijack button.  Play your movie, click on record during the part of the movie that you wish to sample.

Audio Hijack

2. Open the sampled audio that you have recorded in Sound Studio Pro, or Audacity and edit it to get the amount of spoken word or music to under 40 seconds.

Sound Studio Pro

3. In sound Studio you’ll next go to File>Save As>  give the file a unique name

Choose File Format of AAC (m4a)
Choose a Bit Rate, I usually go with 112 or 96kpbs.
Click Save

Saving in Sound Studio Pro

4. Now that you have saved the file you need to change it to an iTunes recognizable format for ringtones. To do this, simply right click the file and choose Get Info.

Get info of file

5. Where it says Name & Extension you want to change the extension from .m4a to .m4r

Change File Extension

6. You’ll receive a warning that says “Are you sure…” Click the Use .m4r because yes, you are sure.

Use .m4r

7. The last step, right click again on your file and choose to open with iTunes.  This should put the file (if you have itunes auto-copying) in your ring tones section.

Open with iTunes

8. As you can see in my ringtones is my new sample.  When I sync up my iPhone it will automatically be transferred as long as I have ringtones selected to transfer.

Voila

If you have questions post a comment.

I’ve launched a new site and its in the final design fixes stages and adding content etc. The site is Company of Heroes Unleashed or http://www.compofheroes.com It will contain tutorials, strategy, tactics and general tips on playing the new RTS game. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, do so.