Filed under: Accessories, Odds and ends, Macbook Pro, MacBook, MacBook Air, iPod nano

quirky is a design firm with a difference. Rather than pay a brain trust to sit around and think up product ideas, they let average Anns and Andys submit designs that are then refined and named by a community of site visitors. When designs are ready for production, quirky sets a threshold number of units to be sold to be profitable, and once that number of orders comes in, they send the design off for manufacturing.

Plato said "...the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention." In this case quirky community member Jeff Scholen was driven not only by the need to neatly wrap up the thin power cable and thick AC line going into his Apple MagSafe Power Adapter, but also keep the transformer "box" off of the floor or desk and give it a way to stay cool.

In less than 24 hours, the design was finalized through input from Apple fans worldwide and the PowerCurl (US$9.99) was ready to roll. It comes in "quirky orange" only, but has two sizes to match the 60W and 85W MagSafe Power Adapters.

The quirky community has also come up with a case design for the new iPod nano that not only protects that shiny finish, but acts as a stand and video handgrip as well. The Kickster (US$14.35) is awaiting your commitment to purchase before it moves into production.

TUAWPowerCurl: A quirky way to wrap up your MagSafe Power Adapter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

A quanto pare, iH8sn0w è riuscito a trovare un modo per fornire l’ECID firmato a tutti gli utenti che non hanno fatto in tempo a salvarlo. Questo permetterà di eseguire il Downgrade del proprio iPhone 3GS dal Firmware 3.1 al 3.0 e, successivamente, di eseguire anche il Jailbreak!

Ripeto: Tutto quello che leggerete di seguito vale solo ed esclusivamente per i possessori di iPhone 3GS che hanno installato per sbaglio il firmware 3.1 e che sono interessati a recuperare il proprio certificato al fine di eseguire il Jailbreak (non appena sarà pronto il DevTeam).

Per ottenere i vostri file certificati dovete:

1. Trovare il vostro ECID (un numero di 16 cifre che potete ottenere seguendo questa guida)

2. Una volta ottenuto il numero, collegatevi al sito http://purplera1n.com ed incollate la cifra nel box nero che trovate sotto i loghi Apple e Microsoft, successivamente cliccate Invio.

3. In questo modo riuscirete a scaricare un file che dovrete inviare tramite email a questo indirizzo: ih8sn0wydaz@gmail.com

4. Non vi resta che attendere la risposta di i ih8sn0w che ri-creerà per voi i file iBSS, iBEC ed il certificato firmato.

5. A questo punto, e grazie a quei 3 file, riuscirete a tornare al 3.0 ed eseguire il Jailbreak del 3.1 non appena il DevTeam rilascerà i nuovi programmi

In Alternativa:

Se il sito www.purplera1n.com non dovesse funzionare, in alternativa potete utilizzare quest’altro metodo per ottenere i due file iBSS e iBEC:

1. Utilizzate iBSS & iBEC Grabber (per mac e pc) mentre eseguite un ripristino dell’iPhone al firmware 3.1

2. Quando il ripristino sarà completato vi ritroverete con i due file salvati nel vostro computer e dovrete inviarli a questo indirizzo email: ih8sn0wydaz@gmail.com

In pochi minuti dovreste ricevere nuovamente quei 2 file, comprensivi della firma digitale che vi permetteranno di eseguire il downgrade ed il jailbreak non appena il DevTeam rilascerà i nuovi Tool. In altre parole, questa guida permette di ottenere l’ECID firmato a tutte quelle persone che non hanno fatto in tempo a salvarlo o a chi acquista un iPhone 3GS che monta già il firmware 3.1 (Grazie Bobo)

I possessori di un iPhone EDGE, iPhone 3G ed iPhone 3GS con firmware 3.0, NON DEVONO eseguire nulla di quanto scritto in questo articolo.

Grazie FlorinoBV, Erciarzo, AndyTheJoker e Giampaolo

Filed under: OS, Software, iPhone

Remember hearing that one of the new features of iPhone OS 3.1 was an anti-phishing capability for Safari? Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop wondered if it was working properly, and asked Apple what was going on. The response?

"Safari's anti-phishing database is downloaded while the user charges their phone in order to protect battery life and ensure there aren't any additional data fees," Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told The Loop. "After updating to iPhone OS 3.1 the user should launch Safari, connect to a Wi-Fi network and charge their iPhone with the screen off. For most users this process should happen automatically when they charge their phone."

What this apparently does is allows Safari to completely download the anti-phishing database, which is necessary before the feature will work. It also appears that you'll need to update the database on occasion in the same way -- charge your iPhone with Safari up and the screen off.

As always, TUAW urges you to practice safe computing, so enabling anti-phishing in this odd Apple-approved manner is highly recommended.

[Thanks to LoopInsight.com for digging into this]

TUAWiPhone OS 3.1 anti-phishing works; you just need to set it up properly originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sea Battle Classic è un nuovo gioco disponibile gratuitamente in Cydia che abbiamo già conosciuto qualche tempo fa attraverso l’AppStore. Si tratta di una versione speciale, probabilmente non accettata da Apple, che comprende il multiplayer online e rende il gioco davvero molto più divertente.

Potremo quindi trascorrere il nostro tempo sfidando gli altri utenti di tutto il mondo, in uno dei più classici giochi esistenti: la battaglia navale. La grafica, seppur minimalista, è davvero ben fatta poichè emula una vera e propria partita giocata sui quaderni a quadretti. Vi consiglio di provarlo.

Filed under: Odds and ends, Bugs/Recalls, iPhone

There are quite a lot of posts on the Apple support forums discussing whether nor not the upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0 and later releases has trashed the GPS functionality of the device.

At last count there were 24 pages, a high percentage from users in Europe who claim that moving to 3.0 eliminated GPS functions, and all they get is Wi-Fi geolocation or cellular network triangulation.

As often happens, the passion devolves to nasty comments going back and forth, but clearly, some people are having a GPS problem which Apple is not acknowledging as a bug. They are giving some people new phones, but others aren't getting them because their iPhones are out of warranty.

Here's a typical comment from one poster:

"I could not get a satellite GPS (blinking blue dot) on my iPhone, while two other phones running 3.0 like me, got it within seconds. So I returned my unit, and got it replaced. The new phone got a correct GPS signal at once and according to MotionX GPS it was correct within 8 meters.

This leads me to the conclusion that OS 3.0 makes GPS not work on some iPhones (not all). Replacing the unit was the only solution for me, and it worked.

I recommend it to anyone who never (or almost never) get a GPS satellite signal."

Some are blaming their cell service provider, others are blaming Apple. Others are saying it was fixed by the recent version 3.1 update. Of course, with any new hardware/software there are problems, and with millions sold, a lot of reports will surface. What's odd here is that some people are solving it with resets, some with new phones, others with turning 3G off. There just doesn't seem to be any consistency in the solutions, which is probably driving Apple crazy.

Hope these folks get this problem sorted out, and Apple dives in and finds a solutions, or more likely, solutions.

Thanks to Torstein in Norway for the tip

TUAWUnhappy customers flaming Apple and each other over iPhone GPS issues originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

BigBoss ha rilasciato un nuovo aggiornamento per BossPaper, l’applicazione che permette di cambiare gli sfondi e personalizzare alcune parti grafiche dell’iPhone. La versione 1.1.1 serve soltanto a risolvere alcuni bug introdotti con l’ultimo aggiornamento. Ecco tutti i dettagli:

• Risolto un problema con gli sfondi che non riuscivano più ad includere la statusbar
• Aggiustata la nuova schermata di Help che adesso include le istruzioni per l’utilizzo della nuova funzione “Under Winterboard”
• Risolti alcuni problemi con i livelli

How well does the new iPod nano's video camera compare to a standard-definition pocket camcorder? Take a look at samples that PC World shot with a nano, a Flip Mino, an iPhone 3GS, and a Kodak Zi8.