If your like me, a member of the Cult of Steve, then you too probably rushed out to buy a Magic Trackpad the minute they were released. Since I don’t own an Apple desktop machine and work mostly on my MacBook Pro with a built in trackpad, purchasing one was, err, well stupid. Now, thanks to Mobee and their magical Numpad films you can breath some new life into that flat yet oh so sexy device.

For $29 you get a set of films that allows you to transform your Trackpad into one of three different numeric keypad layouts. Add in some software for enabling an on-screen calculator and setting macros you can be crunching spreadsheets in no time. The Magic Numpad is available for pre-order now and should be shipping this coming October.

[Link to the Magic Numpad]

Magic Numpad For Your Magic Trackpad originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Apple’s AirPlay is a great technology. It lets you stream music and video wirelessly to Apple products like iPods, iPhones and to the Apple TV. It also can be used to stream to Apple approved hardware like speaker docks, AV receivers and stereo systems. The problem with it, like most Apple technology, if your not on the “Apple approved” list your SOL.

The thought of AirPlay being supported in open source software is unheard of, until now. The Totem media player, which installs by default on most Linux distributions, now has an unofficial plugin that will let you stream media via AirPlay.

Instructions

Clone the git repository

git clone http://git.sukimashita.com/totem-plugin-airplay.git

Move the files you just cloned (make sure you create the appropriate directories if needed)

mv * ~/.local/share/totem/plugins/airplay

That’s it. Start up Totem, enable the plugin and start to enjoy streaming media from any other AirPlay capable device. Now that the open source world has nailed down the AirPlay standard, it shouldn’t be too long before we start to see it supported in things like XBMC or Android.

[Link to Totem AirPlay Plugin]

AirPlay On Linux originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The second generation Apple TV suddenly looks a lot better as a home theater PC. XBMC, the open-source media center software that is the driving force behind projects like Boxee and Plex has just launched for jailbroken second generation Apple TVs.

The Apple TV iOS port uses Apple’s “VideoToolBox” private acceleration API. This gives XBMC access to the built-in hardware video acceleration included in Apple’s A4 chip, allowing for non-Apple approved HD video playback. You heard me correct, full 1080p video playback on the tiny $99 box. Video playback isn’t the only thing you get, most of the core apps that are in the Desktop or Xbox versions are there as well.

Since the second generation Apple TV runs iOS, developers didn’t stop there. They added an iPhone and iPod touch port which can be installed on jailbroken devices via Cydia. Not a remote application, a full blown XBMC system on your iPhone or iPad. The iPad version tends to be less frustrating to use than the iPhone version, but I’m sure they will work on that.

I hope Apple can see the benefit of XBMC on their devices, it would be an instant hit if it ever hits the App store.

[Link to XBMC for iOS]

XBMC Launches On Apple TV 2 & iOS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/21. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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In a bit of a shocker, Eric Schmidt announced today that he would be stepping down from his CEO role at Google.

Why would someone at the helm of such a super power decide to step down? Simple, Larry and Sergei have grown up and are ready to lead Google. The company is as strong as ever. The stock price is up 32% in the last three months, the search end of the business is as strong as ever and in Q4 of 2010 the company made $8.4 billion in revenue.

Larry Page was once CEO, before Schmidt. In 2001, three years before going public Schmidt was named to the post. Wall Street dislikes young CEOSs and being only 29 at the time, Page wasn’t thought to be ready to lead Google. Schmidt was the perfect choice, a former computer scientist who made a name for himself while at Java, and was to later be CEO of Novell. During his his decade long tenure, Schmidt ran the company with Larry and Sergei at his side, never making a single decision with out them.

So now the Schmidt is gone and we may possibly never see Jobs back at Apple, will the two companies kiss and make up? You never know. One other possibility is Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt getting together to start a new company. I know it’s a far stretch and I’m hoping that Job’s medical LOA isn’t anything serious, but together, no matter what they did, would be awesome.

Eric Schmidt Stepping Down As Google CEO originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The almighty Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is taking an unexpected Medial leave of absence from the company he co-founded. In an email sent out to all Apple employees today Jobs said …

Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve

This isn’t the first time Jobs has taken a leave of absence due to his health, I just hope this is just a leave to get some rest and catch up on some reading. Tim Cook will head up the day-to-day operations and I’m sure Jobs will be in the loop of all the decisions and vision. Get well soon Steve.

Steve Jobs Taking A Medical LOA originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Engineers at the University of Michigan have put together a prototype device that can be powered and communicate via the audio jack on an iPhone. Currently if you want to create an accessory that is to be used with the 30 pin connector on the iPhone you must pay a licensing fee to Apple as well as a percentage of the profit made on said device. Using the audio jack for accessories will save money as there will be no need for licensing or proprietary hardware.

The parts used to build the device cost a total of $2.34 (in bulk), and the audio port can deliver several milliwatts at 3 V and offers bidirectional communications at a data rate of 8.8 kbaud. You won’t be able to run any data-hungry applications, but this should be more than enough to transfer text or a remote signal. The developers envision small, low-powered sensors for thing like element detection or moisture sensors. Check out the video of a prototype ECG sensor for the HiJack.

[Link to HiJack]

HiJack: Cheap iPhone Accessories originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The masterminds behind the hack are speculating that Apple might fix the venerability in the upcoming CDMA iPhone that Verizon will be selling starting February 10th of this year. It’s a new phone with a new radio, it would be real easy for Apple to address the exploit in a hardware revision. The same could be said for the rumoured iPad 2, but new hardware that fixes old problems also brings with it new problems.

The cat and mouse game will continue and my money is on the dedicated community that has worked so hard to bring the jailbroken openness to a set of devices that should have been open from the very start. Way to go guy and keep up the good work.

iOS 4.3 Jailbreak Already Available originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The guys over at fireCore have just released Seas0nPass, an application that will jailbreak your second generation AppleTV. Seas0nPass requires you to tether your AppleTV briefly during boot in order to preform the jailbreak by loading custom IPSW files onto your AppleTV.

fireCore is a name that is synonymous with AppleTV hackers. The group also released aTV Flash, unlocking software for the first generation AppleTV that added additional functionality like XBMC and a browser.

Seas0nPass is open source and free and only works on the second generation AppleTV, so don’t try using it on your iPad or iPhone. It currently only works with OS X 10.6 or later and a Windows version is currently under development.

Remember, jailbreaking an Apple device can lead to rendering your device useless if you don’t know what your doing. By the looks of it over at fireCore’s website most people seem to agree that jailbreaking the second generation AppleTV is riskery than other Apple devices. If your okay with the risk you can grab Seas0nPass here.

Seas0nPass: 2nd Gen Apple TV Jailbreak originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I can’t begin to count the amount of iPhone chargers I have. Multiple ones from Apple, knock off units I bought because I left them at home, I even have an awesome unit from iGo that can charge two USB devices from it’s internal battery. But I bet that none of them are as green or as cool as this unit.

The Visible Green Charger will reduce standby power by up to 85% when your iOS device is not in use. The awesome electroluminescent cord will light up and flow quickly to indicate that your iOS device is charged up to 65% and will slow down as the device’s battery starts to fill up.

The Visable Green Charger will retail for $40 when it hits store shelves later this month. Currently the device only supports iOS devices but the company behind the unit, Dexim, hopes to expand it to other gadgets that can take a charge through USB.

[Link to Visable Green Charger]

Electroluminescent iOS Charger originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/10. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Apple has removed the video player VLC from it’s App Store, so if you don’t already have it installed on your iPad or iPhone you’re out of luck.

Before you decided to send hate mail to Steve Jobs, you should know that Apple didn’t want to remove it. Rather, it’s a result of a single man’s crusade who coincidentally works for Apple’s competitor, Nokia.

Rémi Denis-Courmont (who is a lead contributor to the VLC project) launched a one man campaigned based on Apple adding DRM to their applications and thus violating the GPL’ed code VLC is released under. It’s important to know that Rémi acted alone and that VideoLAN, the group that’s responsible for the desktop version of VLC, had nothing to do with having Applidium’s VLC port for iOS removed. As as lead developer, Rémi was within the legal right to pursue the removal himself.

Denis-Courmont’s response to the removal of VLC from the App Store comes across quite snarky.

“At last, Apple has removed VLC media player from its application store. Thus the incompatibility between the GNU General Public License and the AppStore terms of use is resolved – the hard way. This end should not have come to a surprise to anyone, given the precedents.”

Thanks a lot for sticking to your principles, it sure out-weighs all the people who could have enjoyed the FREE app on their iPhone or iPad. Well done

Apple Removes VLC From App Store originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/08. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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In our next installment of Distros That Don’t Suck we will be looking at open source HTPC software. Sure you can load up VLC or even use Windows Media player, but having a dedicated solution with a UI that is made for a TV is a lot easier and pleasing. I’ve left the PVR-centric software like MythTV and Freevo off the list since their main purpose is to act as a PVR. I’ll be reviewing open source PVR software by itself at a later date.

XBMC – The Xbox Media Center Project started as homebrew software for the original Xbox gaming system and has since been ported to Linux, Windows, OSX, AppleTV and even as a standalone Linux based LiveCD/LiveUSB image. It offers a clean UI, intuitive interface and can play just about anything you throw at it. It offers a plugin system with a huge repository of community plugins to enhance the experience. It’s real easy to setup and it’s configuration is portable across operating systems. If you have an old Xbox laying around this makes a great HTPC that is powerful and best of all cheap.

MediaPortal – This is a Windows based HTPC software so technically it’s not 100% open source since it requires Windows and doesn’t offer a Linux port. If offers everything you would expect in HTPC software; Video streaming, DVD playback, Internet Radio, Picture Gallery and it’s own plugin system. You will need a compatible TV Tuner card to enjoy PVR features and to watch TV but it’s not needed to run the software. If you are a Windows fan and are looking for an alternate to Windows Media Center this is as close as you can get without the cost.

Element – Element is an open source HTPC system that comes pre-loaded with XBMC and the ability to play back just about any media locally or over the Internet. Element also has it’s own framework for offering add-on modules that allow you to play content from services like Hulu, Cooliris, Boxee, Clicker, Amazon on Demand and Youtube. They have adapted the UI’s of popular open source software like Firefox and Pidgin so that it fits the TV experience better than their native desktop versions. They also offer an Android app that allows you to use your Android phone as a remote control; definitely a neat idea for the times you can’t find the remote anywhere.

GeeXboX – A Gentoo based fully functional media center that can be run from LiveCD, LiveUSB, or be installed on a hard drive. GeeXbox is a very lean distro that doesn’t require a lot of processing power so it’s perfect for older hardware. It uses Enna as it’s primary media center application to play your music, videos or look at your pictures. This is the perfect distro for the no-frills experience when you just want to play your media and aren’t looking for any additional functionality.

Open Source HTPC’s That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looks like Microsoft is “pulling an Apple”; barring an emulator of the classic 8-bit video gaming system NES. Matt Bettcher has put some hard working into getting this emulator to work (video of it running after the break) and Microsoft has just shut him down.

Matt is looking to drum up community support in hopes of changing Microsoft’s mind, and in the meantime he will be releasing his project into the open source world. Come one Microsoft, every device with a screen and an input device should have an NES emulator.

Windows Phone 7 NES Emulator Barred originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Apple just can’t seem to get the Alarm Clock app right on the iPhone; earlier this year people experienced problems shortly after the DST time change. Alarms that were set to repeat went off either an hour early or an hour late depending on where you lived and now in 2011 it doesn’t want to go at all.

Reports are rolling in about one time alarms not going off now that we are in 2011. This could possibly cause chaos for those of us who rely on the device to get our ass up. Independent tests show that the problem should clear up by January 3rd 2011.

Even if the problem clears up after the 3rd it leads to the trust one can put in the app. If you rely on the alarm on a regular basis this might make you worry that it could fail again in the future. After all, the alarm clock screws up twice in one year? Come on guys, you can put a computer in my pocket but you can’t get the freaking clock to work properly?

iPhone Alarm Doesn’t Like 2011 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2011/01/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Apple is really picky about what type of connectors it offers. Sure you can get a composite or component cable for your iPhone and hook it up to a TV but why hasn’t Apple moved into the 20th century and offered something a bit more modern like HDMI?

Sanwa has just announced that it will do just that, offer an HDMI adapter that will let iPhone and iPad users output 720p video to an external display like a TV. You will be able to output video, pictures and presentations (via Keynote).

The adapter should be out soon in Japan and will cost you about $75. No indication as to when or if this will hit the North American market yet.

[Sanwa]

iPhone To HDMI Dongle originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/29. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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By booting up his iPod Nano with a modified SpringBoard.plist file hacker James Whelton was able to remove an app from his screen and replace it with a blank space (Video after the break).

Now this isn’t quite a jailbreak like hack, but it is a small start in the right direction. Today we can remove an app, tomorrow we might be able to add a new one and a week from now we might be able to write our own iPod Nano apps and cause Apple to open a whole new app store dedicated to the nano. Alright so maybe that’s pushing it a bit far, but just think if we could modify the sleep settings of the unit. Yes, we could finally have that iPod Nano watch we have all been waiting for.

iPod Nano Hack originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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We have all done it. Drive down the highway with a coffee in hand, the other hand fumbling with the iPhone trying to call someone. Alas, we are now saved by a simple $0.99 app that will let us make that call with our nose!

NoseDial is easily is the weirdest iPhone app I have ever come across. For less than a buck this app will create some big icons on your screen of contact and allow you to use your nose to select them. I know that there are people out there that have a limited ability of use with their hands, but to dial with their nose?

You will still have to unlock your phone with your fingers and actually tap the icon of the app to load it, but I guess it’s a step in the right direction.

NoseDial App originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/12/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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You knew it was bound to happen. Ever since Apple announced the new redesigned iPod nano everyone has been referring to it as a watch and now you can turn it into one. I’ve been using the new nano for about a week now and love it. It’s perfect for the gym and it really motivates you to reaching that 10,000 step-a-day goal, and with this wrist watch band from Incipio this might make the perfect all the time watch.

Keep in mind that you will have to change your ipod daily and be okay with hitting the sleep button every time you want to check the time. If your okay with all that then you can pick them up in a variety of colours for $24.99 and they should be ready to ship sometime in October.

[Incipio Linq Nano Watch Case]

Nano Watch originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/14. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The latest beta of the awesome XBMC (Windows, OS X, Linux, AppleTV) code-named Dharma has been released and is packed with wonderful new features. Probably the most notable one is built in functionality to make sure that all your plugins and skins are updated automatically and the ability to play back BlueRay movies.

The list is way to long to list, so head on over to their milestone page to find a complete breakdown of everything that has been added or updated.

[Via XBMC Blog]

New XBMC Beta Released originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/09/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looks like someone is trying to de-throne Apple’s iPad. Japanese company Redstar are taking pre-orders on their Linux powered tablet.

The 10″ tablet is multi-touch friendly, comes with 1024×600 resolution and is powered by a Freescale iMX-37. It will also include 4GB of internal memory, 256MB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, 3G and a SDHC memory card slot.

No pricing information or shipping date has been set yet, but I know as a happy hacker I can’t wait to get my hands on one, especially since it will run Linux. Imagine all the possibilities. If you know Japanese, then you can hit their website to get more info, otherwise, check the video below of the unit in action.

Shogo Linux Powered Tablet originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/30. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The iPhone/iPod touch has quickly become a gaming favorite. There are tons of games for you to enjoy and best of all, it’s small and already in your pocket. The unit is great for games that require nothing more than touch like board games and trivia games, but when it comes to games that require a lot of movement or dexterity like a sports game it can be really hard to use.

Enter the iControlPad which is essentially nothing more that a massive case for your iPhone that adds some buttons and a few joysticks. This is for the hardcore gamer only, not really small and compact as you can see form the picture, but if you like gaming on your iPhone then this is for you.

There is one small downfall, it requires a jailbroken unit to work since it requires some software that is using private api’s that Apple won’t allow. No word on pricing or availability yet, but you can sign up for more info right on their site and be notified when it’s ready to ship.

Gamepad For iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/28. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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We are only a few days away from Apple’s press event where it’s rumoured we’ll see an new iTV product and new iPod touch’s. Since it’s right around the corner the leaks just seem to be flying around.

At first glance the above picture might look like the front and back of an iPhone 4. but according to SmartPhoneMedic.com it’s the front and back from a 4th-gen iPod touch. If you belive the rumour then we now know that the new touch’s will have a retina display and glass back much like the iPhone 4 does.

A visual inspection reveals it to have the same fused design as on the iPhone 4, which naturally invites speculation that the retina display will be pulling some PMP duty as well.

Check the video out after the break and decide for yourself. Let us know in the comments what you think.

Leaked iPod Touch Video originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Most larger gadgets that recharge via USB require at least 10 watts of power like Apple’s iPad. The iXP1-500 dongle claims it will allow devices to recharge from underpowered USB ports.

I’m not quite sure how they accomplish this for $5, but I assume it must have some sort of capacitor inside that stores juice from these underpowered ports and then sends it down the USB port.

XMultiple Technologies (the makers of the iXP1-500) say that its “100% guaranteed to work”. Hocus pocus or simple electronics? I’m not sure, but if anyone out there gets one be sure to let us know.

Boost USB Port Voltage originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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If you can avoid using disposable batteries then you should. Landfills are full of them and we are doing nothing more than killing our environment by using them. I know that rechargeable batteries are better, but there is always the hassle of having to recharge them and then you eventually have to toss them out as well.

When Apple recently released their desktop trackpad I was surprised to see that it was using batteries as opposed to USB power. Apparently others thought the same thing and did something about it.

Markbog over at the MacRumors.com forums did just that. He crafted together a battery size dowel and stripped down a USB cable to make it all happen.

I’m assuming the trackpad must have a voltage regulator or voltage step up since 2 AA batteries only give off 3V and the USB power spec if 5V. Either way, it seems to be working just fine for him.

Replace Batteries With USB Power originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Remember the good old C64, the home PC that was all enclosed in a keyboard? Kinda like the first laptop sans screen. A crafty hacker has done just that. By using the guts of a MacBook Air, a thin Mac keyboard and Apple’s new trackpad he has created an all in one keyboard based Mac.

Not ‘quite’ there yet with the case. I have to add some small mounting points for the keyboard and trackpad to rest on and attach the left hand side of the case where the USB ports are. However everything is in its place, the motherboard is bolted down so it can’t move about and everything else is held in place in the most hack friendly method ever….black duct tape.

If you interested in the project you can visit the modder’s site here

All In One MacBook Air originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/08/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Benjamin Blundell built a hardware interface for his jailbroken iPhone that reads RFID signals. By patching in his homebrew hardware to his iPhone via a standard iPhone USB cable the reader detects low-frequency tags and will soon be able to read MIFARE tags as well.

You can bet you will never see this app approved in the official Apple app store, but just imagine how cool it would be to read RFID tags with your iPhone. Check out the video after the break

[Link via Hack a Day]

RFID Reader For Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/03/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2010 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: 2010, ac, app store, apple, cable, dell, ds, ea, hack, homebrew, id, iphone, jailbreak, jailbroken, loa, Mac, nda, phone, rfid, signal, tag, tech.nocr.at, tor, ui, usb, video | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Earlier this week at the World Mobile Conference Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7. Microsoft, the once high and mighty in the smartphone market looks like it’s getting serious about taking back their smartphone crown.

I have never been a Microsoft fan but I must admit I was a heavy user of the Windows Mobile environment a few years back and I quite enjoyed it. Development and improvements in their mobile os quickly fell to the way side and they were quickly overshadowed by the like of RIM and Apple.

The OS looks clean and simple, following the Zune’s UI but it is already suffering from some bad play like the fact that there will be no backwards compatibility with older WinMo software, no multi-tasking and no Flash (could this finally be the death of flash?), and a super late roll out date (Q4 of 2010).

Check out the video after the break of the new shiny OS.

[link to Windows Phone 7]

Windows Phone 7 In Action originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2010/02/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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With all the hype surrounding the “maybe possibily” release of the Apple tablet, other possible tablet like devices have been over shadowed. Take this uber sexy looking Innovative Converged Device called the Vega.

The Vega will be offered in 7, 11 and 15-inch models and will all run Android 2.0 software. The largest of the bunch will have a 15.6-inch resistive screen that supports a resolution of 1366 x 768, come with a Tegra processor, 512MB DDR DRAM, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi (no N), and Bluetooth 2.1. The built-in 512MB NAND Flash storage can be expanded via MicroSD cards. It’ll weigh about 45 ounces and have a battery life of around 4 hours.

Look for them to hit tier one cell phone carriers sometime in early 2010. No pricing is available on them yet, but the company does say that they intend to let them go for little cost, so it looks like the carriers might be subsidizing them.

Vega Tablet With Android 2.0 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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People in their 30′s rejoice, you may now relive your youth on your iPhone, again. The Commodore 64 emulator is available again in the iTunes App Store. (Check the video of it in action after the break)

If you don’t remember, back in June Apple removed it from the app store claiming that it violated the rules on launching executable code (Uhmmm, isn’t that what all emulators do?).

The only downside to this new version is that it can only play games that are downloaded from the App Store itself, no uploading of your own ROMs. I’m hoping someone out there will whip up a hack so that we can get such classics as “California Games” and “Bards Tale” back on. Oh the memories.

[Link to iPhone C64 Emulator]

The C64 iPhone Emulator Is Back Baby originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Time Machine is a great built-in feature in OS X. When Apple first announced that they would be offering the ability to backup and restore your files and system with the ease of use that we have come to know and love from Apple I was ecstatic. Then I found out that you had to have a physical drive connected to your machine to utilize it, or you’d have to purchase an expensive Apple made NAS product (Time Capsule) to use it without a physical drive connected to the machine.

Many hacks have been released that allow you to use any NAS drive as a Time Machine drive. All you really need to do is some shell code and create a sparse image, but now someone has taken all of the dirty work away from you and released a simple AppleScript that will get you up and running with any headache’s.

[Link to Time Machine NAS AppleScript]

Turn Any NAS Drive Into A Time Machine Drive originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Since the release of the iTunes app store the iPhone and iPod touch have really been pushed as the next great portable gaming platform. Game developers have really started to push the limits of the device but the one major stumbling block has only been the “touch only” interface.

The iControlPad looks to change all of that. It’s a case for your iPhone that offers dual analog nubs, a gamepad controller and of course a few buttons. There is also an internal battery that charges your iPhone while you play.

Bad news is that you will need to jailbreak your iPhone to use this since it’s not an official Apple licensed product, but the iControlPad is supported by some of the biggest devs like the boys that make all the cool emulators. If you’re interested in the device, you can can place a pre-order by signing up at their site.

iControlPad: Gamepad For Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Another week another bunch of stuff that we posted. In case you missed any of it we have everything from Videogame Alarm Clocks to Secret Knock Door Openers. Enjoy.

In Case You Missed It: Week 44 Round Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: 10.6.2, 360, ac, alarm, alarm clock, apple, appletv, apps, arduino, arm, atom, batteries, beep, bluetooth, bug, bundle, case, cash, cat, cell phone, charger, clock, communicator, cpu, dead, diy, door, ds, ea, fuel cell, game, Gaming, google, google voice, gun, hack, hacking, hacks, id, invite, iphone, jailbroken, knock, loa, lock, Mac, macheist, mixtape, nano, open, os, pc, pen, phone, remote, roundup, safari, secret, security, sentry, star trek, tap, tape, tech.nocr.at, tor, tracking, trek, tricorder, ui, usb, video, web 2.0, weekly | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Woops, looks like 10.6.2 won’t kill support for the Atom chip after all. All you netbook hackintosh users can now breath a sigh of relief. We reported a few days ago that the latest developer build of Leopard had support for the Atom chipset removed. None of the Apple hardware uses the Atom chip so it looked like it was a direct attack at killing off the hackintosh community. Well, we were wrong.

It looks like Apple has added support for the Atom chip back in. Not sure why they did this in the first place. It could have been a mistake, could just be a temporary measure, but it can change again at any time. Apple is notorious for going to extreme measures to it’s OS off of non Apple hardware. Only time will tell. In the meantime, enjoy the latest developer build on your netbook.

Woops: 10.6.2 Doesn’t Kill Atom Support originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Not happy with the limited ability of Apple’s remote control? Build yourself your very own by using an Arduino.

Besides the obvious fact that this will act as a remote control for not only your AppleTV but also your Mac, you can easily build projects to automate tasks via the remote control.

This is a great first step in adding some more functionality to Apple’s “Hobby” hardware. This is also great for remotely getting your AppleTV to work when your out of town and your wife can’t figure out how to work the damn thing. It’s to AppleTV what MythWeb is to MythTV. Awesome.

[Link to Instructables]

DIY: Arduino AppleTV Remote originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Looks like Apple is taking another step to put a nail in the coffin of the hackintosh community. Looks like the developer build of Mac OS 10.6.2 lacks support for Intel’s Atom processor which every netbook around uses and is very popular in the hackintosh community.

If this is a conscious move on Apple’s part and they let the build go live we might be looking at another cat an mouse game between Apple and the legions of hackers in the hackintosh world.

For the longest time Apple hasn’t really anything heavy at stopping people from installing their OS on non Apple hardware. With a move like this, which really doesn’t streamline the OS and looks like a blatant attack on the hackintosh world, I wonder how long it will take set community to find a work around. You can never keep the power of the people down (I just had to throw that one in there).

10.6.2 Kills Off Atom CPU Support originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: 10.6.2, ac, apple, atom, avy, book, cat, cpu, ds, ea, game, hack, hackers, hackintosh, intel, ir, live, loa, Mac, mini, mouse, netbook, os, power, proc, stream, tech.nocr.at, time, ui | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Here’s one thing you don’t hear of too often, a serious bug in Apple’s iPhone version of Safari that could end up cost you, the user, some serious cash.

Although it’s not a very common bug but thanks to someone who probably spend countless hours trying to poke a hole in Apple’s mobile device, all iPhone users might avoid being hit with extra operator costs.

Estonian Apple site AppleSpot discovered the bug in question. If an iPhone user visits a site which uses Motion-JPEG (usually found on websites that show live feeds of web cams) in Safari, Safari will continue to use up bandwidth even after it’s closed. Safari is one of the few apps on the iPhone that is allowed to run in the background. So let’s say you have a web page up that uses Motion-JPEG streams and even if that site is in another tab or worse yet, Safari has been closed, the stream will continue and if your on a mobile carriers network then bandwidth will continue to rack up.

Now just imagine you were traveling outside your home country where you would be nailed with international data roaming charges and you decided to visit that sexy nurse pay live stream nature wildlife live cam, you could easily rack up some serious charges. The guys at AppleSpot have claimed to rack up over 740 MB in silently streamed bandwidth in one hour of testing. That would cost something like $3,000 in international roaming charges. Yikes!

[Link to AppleSpot]

iPhone Safari Bug Could Cost You Cash originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/11/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, apps, band, bug, car, cash, ds, ea, id, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone 3gs, led, live, loa, Mac, mobile, network, os, pen, phone, safari, stream, tech.nocr.at, tor, Untitled, web cam | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

In case you missed anything this past week, we have everything from cooling with mineral oil to video editing on your iPhone. Enjoy.

Gadgets

Asus Keyboard PC

Gaming

Cool Your Xbox With Mineral Oil
PS3 Smashing Into A TV At 80 KMH
Open Source DS Bluetooth Adapter
Black Wii For The Brits
Rock Band For iPhone Now Available

Hacking and Security

Remote Control That’s Impossible To Lose
DIY: Build A Solar Power Station
PS3 Laptop
Hard Drive Lock Pick

Mac

Dead: ZFS For The Mac
Rebel EFI: A Thorn In Apples Side
ReelDirector: Video Editing For Your iPhone

Tech News

Project Eagle Claw: Taking Out The Scammers
Skype And Chrome Go Portable
Microsoft’s App Lab
Windows 7: Will You Upgrade?
B&N Nook Officially Released
Super Fast Robot Hands

In Case You Missed It: Week 42 Round Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, amp, apple, asus, band, bluetooth, case, chrome, control, dead, diy, drive, ds, ea, editing, fast, Gaming, hack, hacking, hard drive, id, iphone, ir, key, keyboard, laptop, loa, lock, Mac, microsoft, mineral oil, nook, open, open source, os, pc, pen, phone, portable, power, ps3, rc, rebel efi, remote, remote control, robot, rock, rock band, roundup, rss, scammer, security, skype, smash, solar, tech.nocr.at, tor, ui, video, weekly, wii, wind, windows, windows 7, xbox, zfs | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Remember all of the hype behind ZFS for OS X? Remember how everyone was talking about how great it would be to add such a powerful and robust file system for the Mac? Something to replace the aging and outdated HFS+. Well you can forget about ZFS. Apple has decided to shut down the project. Maybe they got busy with other stuff and forgot about it. Maybe it just wasn’t what they were looking for. Who really knows, but as time goes on, Apple will be behind the gun if they continue to use HFS+

From the project page on Mac OS Forge:

ZFS Project Shutdown

2009-10-23

The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly.

It’s hinted that this was caused by legal issues surrounding the merger of Sun Microsystems and Oracle, which caused Apple to back away from the next-generation file system technology. After many rumors, including ZFS support that was going to be added in Snow Leopard Server, but that ended up being removed in the final version, it now seems like the saga of ZFS on Mac OS X is ending with a whimper.

Dead: ZFS For The Mac originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, bus, dead, ds, ea, gun, hfs+, id, leopard, loa, Mac, mail, os, os x, power, server, snow, tech.nocr.at, technology, time, tor, zfs | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

I’ll give Microsoft credit, when they want to be funny they are funny. The Windows Mobile Dev team released this video giving everyone a sneak peak from their super secret application development lab of the upcoming apps that will be released on the new Windows Marketplace.

I love the under-tone of poking fun at Apple’s ridiculous app approval process. They talk about some of the apps that have been rejected like the “You Are Here GPS App” and my personal favorite the virtual handsake app called the “Germaphobe”. I’d pay $0.99 for it.

Microsoft’s App Lab originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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You guys remember Psystar, don’t you? Psystar was the company that openly sold hackintosh systems, complete with a beige box PC and OS X pre installed. Well looks like they have dealt another painful blow to the kids in Cupertino.

Rebel EFI is Psystar’s latest attempt at sending Steve Jobs off of the deep end. For $49.99 the company claims that their Rebel EFI software “allows for the easy installation of multiple operating systems” including OS X on plain old PC hardware. The software can also detect hardware on your system that is compatible with OS X.

There are always risks involved with running hackintosh systems. Apple can decide to roll out an update to OS X at anytime that will break this functionality and let’s not even get into the legal issues surrounding running an Apple OS on non Apple hardware.

If you want to see it for yourself you can grab a trial copy of the software off of their site that will run with a two hour time limit.

[link to Rebel EFI]

Rebel EFI: A Thorn In Apples Side originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, copy, ds, ea, hack, hackintosh, id, ir, job, jobs, led, loa, Mac, mit, open, os, os x, pc, pda, pen, psystar, rebel efi, steve jobs, tech.nocr.at, time, update | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

With Windows 7 officially released, will you be getting up early to purchase your copy?

It has been a long time coming (I really don’t count Vista as a usable operating system), a stable a somewhat decent OS from Microsoft. Let’s be honest, the form and function of the new OS from the boys at Redmond is no big secret. Reviews and betas of Windows 7 have been around since January of this year, hell, I’ve been running it on my HP laptop for the past few months, but the question is will the general public bite? Will they head out in mass to grab their copies and upgrade their systems?

Let’s take a quick look at your options. If you purchase a new machine instead of upgrading your current computer you’ll get away with a free copy, that’s your best bet. If you decide to not go down that route you’ll be dishing out on the high end, $319 for the Ultimate edition and not that much more less for any of the other usable versions of Windows 7. I think they have completely missed the boat again. With Apple selling a single complete version of Snow Leopard for $29 how can anyone justify paying over $300 for an operating system?

It’s not a big secret that I’m not a big fan of Microsoft, but I will give them credit. Windows 7 has a lot of the look and feel of Vista with the stability of a 2000 or XP. They tried to bring their UI into the 21st century with Vista and it failed miserably. It ran sluggish and had it’s issues, but this time I think they have a winner. Welcome back to the game Microsoft, you can now join the usability ranks of OS X, Gnome and KDE.

What will you do? You gonna run out and pick up your copy of Windows 7 today? Let us know in the comments.

Windows 7: Will You Upgrade? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, apple, comments, computer, copy, dish, ds, ea, fail, game, gnome, hp, id, ir, kde, laptop, led, leopard, loa, Mac, machine, microsoft, nes, os, os x, rc, ring, secret, snow, tech.nocr.at, time, ui, vista, wind, windows, windows 7 | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

You can now head over to the iTunes App Store and pick up Rock Band for your iPhone for $10. One of the most anticipated games for Apple’s mobile gaming device lacks all of the hype that was built around it.

I decided to dish out the $10 today to play it and besides suffering some serious cramping of the hands it really didn’t live up to all of the hype.

Sure it’s got multiplayer support via bluetooth so you can jam out with your friends but what happened to some of the cool features I enjoy on the console version like drum fills for overdrive? Mashing my fingers against the screen just didn’t have the same feeling as holding a guitar or actually hitting the drum pads.

If you don’t like the 20 songs that it comes with, you can download others in a two-song pack for a buck. I personally wouldn’t bother. I’d rather spend my buck on some other mind numbing game or useless app.

If you want to experience all of the fun that you get when playing rock band then take your console and instruments with you everywhere you go because you’ll be pleasantly disappointed if you spend your hard earned cash on this game.

[Rock Band for the iPhone]

Rock Band For iPhone Now Available originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Gaming | Explore more in: ac, amp, app store, apple, band, bluetooth, cash, console, dish, drive, ds, ea, experience, finger, game, games, Gaming, guitar, id, iphone, iphone 3g, itunes, live, loa, mobile, nes, os, pen, personal, phone, ring, rock, rock band, rockband, tech.nocr.at, tor, ui, useless | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Reports are flying around the internets that Apple is now shipping iPhones with a new bootrom that is resistant to the 24kpwn exploit that was used by the iPhone Dev-Team to jailbreak the iPhone. To be really honest with you I’m surprised it took Apple this long.

MuscleNerd, who is a Dev-Team member, has confirmed that the latest bootrom, iBoot-359.3.2 makes jailbreaking the iPhone impossible for the time being. People thought that the original iPhone would never be jailbroken when it was released too.

There has always been a cat and mouse game between manufactures and hackers. Take Nagravision, the company who creates the client access cards for the parent company of Dish Networks, Echostar. Hackers and Nagravision has been playing this game for years. A new encryption is release and shortly (some times not so shortly) there-after the encryption is broken. I’m sure it will only take some time and some crafty hacker will find another exploit that can be used to jailbreak the iPhone.

Jailbreak Resistant iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: 4k, ac, apple, avi, boot, bootrom, car, cat, dev team, dish, ds, ea, encryption, exploit, game, hack, hackers, iphone, iphone 3g, iphone dev team, ir, jailbreak, jailbroken, loa, Mac, make, mouse, nes, network, os, phone, tech.nocr.at, time | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Rumour has it that Apple is working on a radio app for the iPhone and the Touch. The app will be similar to what they developed for the iPod Nano. That includes the ability to pause like streams and to fast forward when you decide to resume.

Radio apps for the iPhone are nothing new. Wunder Radio is probably the one single app I use the most. It gives you the ability to listen to 10,000+ radio stations from around the world. I’m sure Apple will build in some sort of revenue model into this. Something like the ability to click on a song your listening to and it will then give you the option to purchase it from the iTunes store.

Apple Working On Radio App originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/16. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: 3g, apple, apps, ds, e3, ea, fast, id, iphone, iphone 3g, ipod, ipod nano, itunes, loa, Mac, mod, nano, nes, os, phone, radio, rc, rumour, stream, tech.nocr.at, tor, touch, ui | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Following Linux Distros That Don’t Suck from earlier this year here is a comprehensive list of, you guessed it, more Linux Distros that don’t suck. Some of these are more obscure lesser known distros that are quite powerful and very useful. Some of these come from personal use some of them came from the great comments you readers posted the first time I did this.

Remember that this is just a personal list, nothing more, nothing less. I’m not trying to start a holy war since that’s what usually happens when you open something like this up. With that being said, let’s us know in the forums what your list of Linux Distros That Don’t Suck would be.

SLAMPP – A Slackware based Live DVD that can only be described as a one-stop server system. Right off the DVD your up and running with pre-configured services including an HTTP server, FTP server, DHCP server, DNS server and a whole lot more. This is the perfect Distro for those “I really don’t know when I will need a fully functional small network server” times. Best of all, you can run it all without ever having to install anything on the host machine.

Pardus – Pardus, which is the scientific name for the the Anatolian Leopard (watch out Apple), is a Turkish Linux distro which is extremely underrated. It’s wonderfully crafted and has a lot of polish to it. You can tell that the developers have really put a lot of time and energy making this not only run really well but also make it really sexy. I would easily recommend this distro to novices and experts alike.

CrunchBang – Think of CrunchBang as Ubuntu for the advanced. It offers speed and style as well at the bleeding edge of packages. It’s highly customizable and comes with the nimble openbox window manager. No bloated Gnome or KDE here. This is the perfect distro if you really like Ubuntu but don’t like how it’s geared towards linux n00bs.

Sabayon – Sabayon promises to transform your computer into a powerful Gentoo Linux system in under 5 minutes. It’s a livecd (with the option to install) of the uber geek popular Gentoo. It’s very powerful and very polished like you would expect from any Gentoo system, but best of all it still acts like an other Gentoo system allowing you to use portage to pull from the Gentoo repositories.

PC-BSD – Alright, I know it’s technically not Linux, it’s BSD based, but it tries really really hard to be Linux. If you are more of a BSD fan but like the Desktop functionality that a standard linux distro offers then PC-BSD is perfect for you. Much like any out of the box distro you can listen to music, watch some video, work with office documents and you can even install applications with a gui. Best of all, it’s a rock solid BSD core that powers everything.

CentOS – Based on the rock solid RHEL, CentOS is one of the most reliable distros you will every find. It offers quick errata, package management that offers stable applications and has a very strong community behind it. They even get upstream fixes from RHEL. If you want a solid server based OS you can’t do much better than CentOS.

Slackware – The oldest of the bunch. Created in 1992, Slackware is the oldest surviving distro. It orginally came on 24 floppy disks as was built on top of kernel 0.99 and it was one of the hardest things to install. Thank God that things have changed. It’s now a highly technical and clean distro. No fancy tools for settings, you have to do everything by editing text files. You know what they say, if you learn Ubuntu you know Ubuntu. If you learn Slackware you know Linux.

There you go, another list of distros that don’t suck (according to me). You millage may vary. I really don’t want to start a holy war so I open it up to you to add to the list by visiting our forums and letting us know what you like.

More Linux Distros That Don’t Suck originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | 44 Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, amp, apple, arm, avi, bsd, cat, comments, computer, distro, ds, dvd, ea, editing, fix, follow, forums, ftp, gentoo, gnome, ical, id, ir, kde, lamp, leopard, linux, live, loa, Mac, machine, make, music, nda, network, office, open, os, pc, pen, personal, power, rock, server, service, small, speed, stream, tag, tech.nocr.at, text, time, tool, tor, tron, ubuntu, ui, video, watch, wind | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Looks like Apple and Telus will break the exclusivity bond here in Canada as Telus is now reporting that they will be offering the iPhone 3G S here in Canada in November.

Funny thing about all of this is that Telus is a CDMA carrier. Could this signal the end to the GSM only iPhone? Could people in the US possibly see the iPhone on other carriers like Verison as well?

Pricing and availability still haven’t been posted, but as soon as we know more details we will pass them on.

Vancouver, B.C. – TELUS and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to Canada this November.

Additional information about pricing and availability will be shared in the coming weeks.

Customers can sign up for more information and updates at telusmobility.com/iphone.

More information on this can be found at telusmobility.com/iphone

iPhone Coming To Telus, A CDMA Carrier originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/06. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he said the the iPhone and iPod touch would revolutionize gaming. EA Sports has just released FIFA Soccer 10 for the Apple mobile platform. This is EA’s first attempt in the soccer area on the device but if Madden NFL 10 is something we should be looking at then FIFA 10 will rock.

At $9.99, a somewhat heft price for an iPhone game when you can grab Real Soccer 10 for only $6.99, FIFA 10 promises to deliver more licensed teams as well as a “Be a Pro” mode that will allow you to create a player and track him over multiple seasons.

If you don’t have an iPhone or iPod touch, EA will also be releasing FIFA 10 on all the usual dedicated gaming consoles on October 20th. I’m willing to bet that they will cost a bit more than $10.

FIFA Soccer 10 For The Iphone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2009/10/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2009 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Gaming | Explore more in: ac, apple, cat, console, ds, ea, evo, fifa, game, Gaming, id, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, ir, job, jobs, live, loa, mobile, mod, os, phone, rock, soccer, steve jobs, tech.nocr.at, touch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

We have featured many things that would explain why people with tons of money are really stupid. But it seems that every time I stumble across some new over priced useless piece of technology it beats the last.

Take this solid gold (yes solid, not plated) PC. I’m not quite sure how much gold is used in the case, but I am sure that it costs more than the internals, which are; an Intel Core 2 Duo, 100GB drive (WTF, solid gold and all you get is 100GBs?), 4GB of RAM, 8 USB ports, and 2 FireWire ports (and Apple wouldn’t put any in the latest MacBook).

No word on pricing either, but I’m pretty sure none of us could afford it.

Pure Gold PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/31. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Our favorite quicktime add on, Perian, turned 1.1.2. If you have never heard of Perian before then you should take this opportunity to slap yourself. The free plugin for quicktime allows you to play back all kinds of popular video formats like avi, mkv, flv, and more. It’s an absolute must for anyone who likes to watch video on their Mac.

Here’s what you’ll find in the latest release.

• Fixed update checker never running – this version requires a manual install
• Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV
• Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime
• Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s

You can head on over to their site and grab the latest release.

Perian Turns 1.1.2 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, avi, ds, ea, fix, frame, hd, id, ir, led, Mac, mkv, mp4, os, pda, perian, quicktime, time, ui, update, video, watch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

I have seen my fair share of PC case mods, but an Apple case mod, especially one that encompasses a Microsoft created case, awesome. Inside this Xbox 360 Elite lives a functional G4 powered by an old Powerbook G4 867MHz processor. Modder Phil Herlihy had some spare 360 cases laying around and thought he would put them to good use and turn one of them into a Mac.

Unfortunately there was no way to get the Xbox’s DVD tray to work since all Powerbooks came with a slot loading drive so he had to cut a slot in the front of the unit to get it to work.

I’m an avid broken Xbox 360 collector, trying to develop strategies for hacking and repairing once-thought dead consoles. I’ve got plenty of empty 360 cases around with nothing to do but gather dust. When it hit me, The PowerBook logic boards are tiny. Perfect for one of those cases. Even better with PSU integration.

[Link to Xbox G4]

Xbox G4 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/17. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: 360, ac, air, apple, avi, book, case, console, dead, drive, ds, dvd, ea, elite, g4, hack, hacking, id, ir, live, loa, Mac, microsoft, mod, modder, mods, os, pc, power, powerbook, proc, ring, tiny, tor, xbox, xbox 360 | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

We all know how rumours start swirling around the internet when it comes to Apple. There hasn’t been a major product from Apple that hasn’t had its share or rumours. The iPhone, AppleTV, new iPods, they have all had their share of chat on the internet.

Apple is set to announce some new products tomorrow, and one of the hottest rumours to hit the net these past couple of days is the “brick” laptop. I suppose that the “brick” name might have come from the process of milling out the case from a solid piece of aluminum, hence the “brick”.

A few of the rumours sites over in China have posted various pics of these supposed “brick” Mac Books. What do you think? Real or Fake? I have posted a collection of these pics over on our forums, tell me what you think.

New Macbook? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/13. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, book, brick, case, ds, ea, forums, id, iphone, ipod, ir, laptop, Mac, macbook, os, phone, proc, rod, rumour | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Last night Apple rolled out a security update for it’s AppleTV. According to Apple, this update fixes a bug in the unit that could allow a “maliciously crafter movie file to lead to an unexpected termination of arbitrary code execution”. Doesn’t sound good at all for all the Apple TV owners, all 6 of us.

With yesterdays release Apple also sneaked in a Genius playlist function. When you hold down the play/pause button while a song is playing then a popup menu will appear and allow you to “Start Genius”.

You can pick up the update via the Update Software option in your AppleTV. Anyone found any new and exciting features in the latest update?

AppleTV Gets A Genius originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, apple tv, appletv, bug, ea, fix, genius, led, Mac, movie, pda, playlist, security, sound, update | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Adding OS X to his MSI Wind wasn’t enough so he took it one step further and added the ever so familiar glowing Apple logo to the back of the screen. A dremel, six white LEDs, some tape and aluminum foil was all this crafty hacker needed to mod this into a MacBook Mini.

Maybe Apple should take some pointers and actually give us an OS X UMPC. Either that or someone should just get it working on an HP 2133 so that I can use that instead of my big and bulky MacBook Pro.

[Via Gadget Lab]

MSI Wind Modded Into A MacBook Mini originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Hacking And Security | Explore more in: ac, apple, book, dremel, ds, ea, glow, hack, hacking, hp, led, Mac, macbook, macbook pro, mini, mod, msi, msi wind, os, os x, pc, tap, tape, white, wind | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

My beloved VisualHub, oh how I will miss you. That’s right, Tyler Loch (founder of Techspansion) has decided to close the door. Now I know there are a lot of tools on the Mac to help your compress or re-compress video, but none are as simple and powerful as VisualHub. For less than $25 you got Flash, DVD, mp4, divx, WMV and more, plus it is super easy to convert a video into a format that is friendly to the Mac family of products like the iPhone and AppleTV.

Tyler says that it was a difficult decision and is a personal one. He’s readjusting his priorities. He also has no current plans to move VisualHub into the open source world.

VisualHub Discontinued originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/03. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 3 Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, compression, convert, door, dvd, ea, flash, id, iphone, Mac, mp4, open, open source, os, pen, personal, phone, power, press, rc, rod, tool, video, visualhub | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Here’s a great app if you current run a jailbroken iPhone of iPod Touch. iPhone Backgrounder brings some much needed functionality that Apple doesn’t want to allow; the ability to run processes in the background.

After installing the App, hold down the home button on the app you want to preserve and it will keep running in the background until you tell it to stop with another home button press. You can also add some XML code and have an application run in the background by default, a neat trick for keeping IM apps open while you do something else.

There are some bugs in the app that still need to be worked out, but if you are willing to put up with them then you can grab the app via Cydia.

[Link to iPhone Backgrounder]

iPhone Backgrounder – Multitasking For Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, apps, backgroud, bug, bugs, cat, ea, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, jailbreak, jailbroken, Mac, open, pen, phone, press, proc, processes, ring, skin, touch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Don’t like the look of your AppleTV UI? No problem. Boxee, which is a fork of the awesome XBMC project, has just rolled out a version that will work on your AppleTV. Now you can enjoy all of your media without being tied into the iTunes DRM. Boxee installs on a flash drive which you can then use to install on your AppleTV. The interface is similar to the original Xbox version that started it all.

You can sign up for the Boxee alpha here

Boxee For Your AppleTV originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, boxee, drive, flash, itunes, led, Mac, nes, ui, Untitled, xbmc, xbox | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

After much pressure from the community, Apple has finally decided to drop the NDA from released iPhone software. According to the company the NDA was an unnecessary obstacle for developers.

To our developers

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

Now I wish they would drop the gag order around iPhone app rejections so that developers can actually talk about it.

Apple Drops NDA originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/10/01. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, app store, apple, ds, ea, gag, id, iphone, iphone 3g, led, Mac, nda, os, pen, phone, press, ring, rip, technology | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting on an email they received about the possibility of the Apple TV being replaced later this month. The email states that resellers should remove all Apple TV displays and destroy them (I hope it’s just the literature and not the Apple TV’s) by September 30th at 5 PM. The email also says that there will be a webcast kick off on the 30th.

Apple hasn’t been very happy with the performance of the Apple TV. I personally love the unit. My wife is watching the Sex and the City movie that she just bought from the iTunes store. Rock on Apple!

It will interesting to see what Apple might have up their sleeve. I hope it’s an Apple TV like device that also records TV and plays DVD’s. The perfect media center device. Only time will tell.

Is The Apple TV Being Replaced? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/27. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, apple tv, appletv, blog, display, ds, dvd, email, ir, itunes, Mac, mail, media center, movie, nes, os, personal, records, rock, time, tor, watch | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

I agree with all the Mac faithful in this world. We need a new MacBook Pro (now that I just purchased a fully loaded on a few weeks ago) but this has to be one of the worst photoshop jobs I have ever seen. Bad clone stamping everywhere, janky right corner, the dock seems to be in the trackpad (what the hell is that all about) and the ever too-convenient iSight self portrait. But, if this was real (minus all of the non-symmetrical stuff)I would consider buying one. Get to it Apple.

Now that I come to think of it, this would be a perfect shot for an episode of You Suck at Photoshop.

New MacBook Pro Or Wannabe MacBook Pro originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/25. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, amp, apple, book, dock, ea, ical, id, iso, job, jobs, loa, Mac, macbook, macbook pro, os, photo, photoshop, rc, rumour, trackpad | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Is that genius bar annoying the crap out of you? Kill it with secrets. Secrets is a preference pane you add to Leopard that allows you to play around with all sorts of options that Apple never wanted you to play with.

Did you know that you can enable an expert mode in Disk Utility that will let you explore many more file formats? Or enabling HD movie trailers in Frontrow? Best of all, How would you like to backup to a network share using Time Machine? All this and a whole lot more is waiting for you.

[Link to Secrets]

Leopard Secrets originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/23. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, backup, genius, hacks, hd, id, leopard, leopard tweaks, Mac, machine, mod, movie, network, secret, secrets, time, time machine | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

This super tiny keyboard would be perfect for iPhone users if the iPhone actually had a USB port. Maybe someone could come up with a Apple 30-pin connector to USB adapter so that some of us could actually be productive on our iPhones. Enough with my rant, on to the product.

The “Super Tiny Keyboard” from Brando has it’s own built in USB zip-cord. Actual dimensions are 6.7 x 2.9x 0.6 and for only $25, it’s not that bad a deal if your current UMPC keyboard isn’t cutting it for you.

[Link to Super Tiny Keyboard]

Super Tiny Keyboard originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/22. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Gadgets | Explore more in: ac, apple, bra, connector, ea, iphone, key, keyboard, nes, pc, phone, rant, rod, tiny, tor, ui, usb, zip | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

One of the coolest apps that ever rolled out of the iTunes app store was the Apple Remote app that allowed you to control your iTunes or Apple TV via your iPhone or iPod Touch. This has come in quite handy when I can’t find the remote for my Appple TV.

Now you can have that same fun and functionality with your XBMC (Xbox Media Center). The remote application (iTunes Link) allows you to control your XBMC with your iPhone or iPod Touch. You will clearly need an instance of XBMC (They just release a new multi-platform beta) running somewhere. Features include:

• Play, queue and shuffle the media on XBMC
• View cover art for albums, TV Shows and movies
• View artist and album reviews and information
• ‘Standard’ remote mode. Control XBMC with standard remote buttons

You can pickup XBMC from iTunes for $4.99.

XBMC App For Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, app store, apple, apple tv, apps, cat, control, ea, iphone, ipod, ipod touch, itunes, led, Mac, media center, mod, movie, nda, nes, phone, pickup, remote, shuffle, tor, touch, ui, xbmc, xbox | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

The uber cool open source media center application Xbox Media Center (XBMC) has just release the first beta of XBMC Atlantis for all platforms (Windows, OS X, Linux, Xbox, and even on a live cd or thumb drive). Don’t let the beta status scare you, these guys are really close to brining this to production. Mac OS X users get a pretty benefit out of their release, integrated iTunes and iPhoto support. This could easily replace Front Row on every Mac, even replace your AppleTV if you have a Mac Mini laying around.

XBMC is free as in beer and works on all platforms. It’s still in beta so if you experience a bug here or there report it, but it’s been running real smooth on my machine.

[Link to XBMC]

XBMC ‘Atlantis’ Beta 1 Released originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, apple, appletv, beer, bug, car, cat, drive, ea, experience, front row, ir, itunes, linux, live, Mac, mac mini, machine, media center, mini, nes, open, open source, os, os x, pen, photo, rc, rod, wind, windows, xbmc, xbox | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Farewell Jerry and Bill, we barely knew thee. Just when I was actually getting analytical and trying to break down the hidden messages in the ads, Microsoft goes and pulls the plug on the whole $300 million campaign. Microsoft has decided to go with a slightly different advertising campaign. In place of Jerry and Bill they will be taking a direct shot at the Apple “I’m a Mac” ads with a Microsoft engineer who resembles John Hodgman.

The Hodgman look-a-like will greet you and say “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype”. What will come next is a collection of everyday PC users from fashion designers to celebrities who will talk about how much they like using computers that run Microsoft operating systems and software (I bet none of them have ever used Vista).

I’m no fan of Microsoft, but one thing the Jerry and Bill ads were doing was creating a buzz again about Microsoft. It got me talking, and I hate Windows. Now I know why I don’t like Microsoft, just as they get a good thing going, they go and screw it all up.

Jerry And Bill Get The Axe originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Tech News | Explore more in: ac, amp, apple, bill gates, buzz, computer, design, ds, ea, fashion, gates, hodgman, ical, id, ir, light, Mac, messages, microsoft, os, pc, sienfeld, vista, wind, windows | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

We have covered installing OS X on an Eee PC 701 in the past, but this great guide compiled by the guys over a Wired makes running OS X on the 701′s bigger brother, the 901 and 1000, a breeze. Why would you want to install OS X on an Eee PC? The question your should be asking is “why not”!

While many would question why you’d want to go to the trouble of installing OS X when there are many Windows and Linux distributions available out of the box? Maybe you’re looking for a challenge. Installing OS X on non-Apple hardware provides plenty of chances to flex those (very metaphorical) geek muscles.

[Link to Installing OS X on your Eee PC]

OS X On An Eee PC originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | One Comment | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: ac, apple, ea, eeepc, ical, id, ir, led, leopard, linux, Mac, make, os, os x, pc, skin, tap, ui, wind, windows, wire | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Apple today released the 10.5.5 update to their Leopard OS. The update contains a long list of fixes for the core OS as well as app fixes like iCal, Mail, MobileMe, and Time Machine. Here’s a list of what’s included:

General

• Includes recent Apple security updates.
• Addresses stability issues with video playback, processor core idling, and remote disc sharing for MacBook Air.
• Addresses an issue in which some Macs could unexpectedly power on at the same time each day.
• Resolves a stability issue in TextEdit that could be found when accessing the color palette.
• Improves Spotlight indexing performance.
• Fixes an issue in which contacts might not sync properly with PalmOS-based devices.
• Improves iPhone sync reliability with iCal and Address Book.
• Includes improvements to Active Directory.
• Improves Speech Dictionary.
• Fixes Kerberos authentication issues for Mac OS X 10.5 clients that connect to certain Samba servers, such as Mac OS X Server version 10.4.
• Includes extensive graphics enhancements.

Address Book

• Addresses stability issues that may occur when creating a Smart Group.
• Resolves a printing issue with address cards containing information that spans more than one page.

Disk Utility and Directory Utility

• Improves reliability when rebuilding a software mirror RAID volume in Disk Utility.
• Improves reliability of server status displayed in Directory Utility.

iCal

• Updates iCal to more accurately handle repeating events.
• Improves performance when choosing meeting attendees.
• Resolves an issue in which the “Refresh All” option may be dimmed (“grayed out”) in the contextual menu for certain calendars.
• Fixes issues with read-only calendars.
• Addresses an issue that prevents an invitee from moving an event to a different calendar.
• Resolves an issue with syncing published calendars.

Mail

• Addresses performance issues related to displaying IMAP messages.
• Resolves an issue with SMTP settings for AIM, Compuserve, Hanmail, Yahoo!, and Time Warner Road Runner email accounts.
• Addresses stability issues that may occur when dragging a file to the Mail icon in the Dock.
• Addresses an issue with the “Organized by Thread” view in which the date does not appear when the thread is collapsed.
• Resolves an issue in which RSS feeds could temporarily disappear from the sidebar.
• Improves Mail robustness when sending messages.
• Improves reliability when saving drafts that have attachments.

MobileMe

• Improves overall sync reliability.
• Improves Back to My Mac reliability.

Time Machine

• Improves Time Machine reliability with Time Capsule.
• Addresses performance issues that may affect initial and in-progress backups.
• Fixes an issue in which an incorrect alert message could appear stating that a backup volume does not have enough free space.
• Time Machine can now back up iPhone backups that are on your Mac, as well as other items in (~/Library/Application Support).

OS X 10.5.5 Available Now originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

© tech.nocr.at 2008 | Permalink | Comments | Read more in Mac | Explore more in: 10.5.5, ac, air, apple, avi, back to my mac, backup, backups, book, bra, bus, car, cat, display, dock, ds, ea, email, fix, graphics, ical, id, invite, iphone, ir, leopard, light, Mac, macbook, macbook air, machine, mail, messages, mirror, mobile, mobileme, nda, nes, os, os x, pda, phone, power, proc, raid, remote, ring, rss, security, server, sidebar, space, sync, text, time, time capsule, time machine, tor, ui, update, video, yahoo | Add to del.icio.us | Stumble it | Reddit

Looks like the EFiX USB dongle that is suppose to relive all of the hackintosh headaches isn’t living up to expectations. The EFiX is designed to let you install and run OS X unmodified on x86 hardware, not any hardware, but the hardware that EFiX claims is compatible. You should even be able to run OS X updates without fear of breaking your system.

The product has been delayed several times, but now seems to be shipping in select European countries (no luck in North America just yet). The hackintosh community is up in arms since they claim that the device uses technology that has been developed by the community. Let’s not even go into the legal issue of this either.

There have been some reports in the InsanelyMac forums of users with both success and failure (both on unsupported hardware), but I’m sure as these things ship more and more people will be piping in with their results. If the device works as it claims, it could be a cool way to building a fast and cheap dual boot system without the limitations of Apple hardware.

OS X Mod-Chip EFi-X Spotted In The Wild originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/12. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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The second Gates-Seinfeld Microsoft ad made it’s way into homes today, and to be honest was a million times better that their first spot about absolutely nothing that kicked off the $300 million dollar campaign.

We learned that Gates and Seinfeld are on a quest to reconnect with real people. The latest installment has the two of them hanging around with a “normal” family. Gates asks Seinfeld to remind him why they are doing this (I think that’s the question everyone in the world is asking). “We need to connect with real people”, Seinfeld says.

Could this be a complete story to be played out over many episodes? Maybe, but I’m not sure how these ads will try to combat the Apple switch ads or even get people excited about Windows again?. One thing is for sure, at least in my opinion, the two of them do bring some great comedic value to the whole story. I’m enjoying the interaction between the two of them, quite funny.

Bill Gates And Jerry Seinfeld – Episode 2 originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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So it seems that the iPhone and iPod touch is leaving a trail of what you’ve been up to, even if you don’t want it to. Do you know (and love) all of those cool swooshing transition effects that happen when you hit the home button or switch pages in Mobile Safari? Well that’s your problem right there. Seems that the iPhone takes a snap shot of your screen to produce those nice transition then it deletes them… the thing is, it don’t really delete them, more like a quick delete without an overwrite. Anyone with physical access to your iPhone and some hacking skills can build a trail of what you have been doing based on those screenshots that haven’t been deleted.

This can be a serious problem if people have access to your physical unit, but most people who find an iPhone or iPod touch would be more interested in selling it or using it for their own personal use. But since the hack has been demonstrated, it would be nice if Apple could pony up and fix the problem. This way if you even have your phone confiscated by law enforcement agencies you would be embarrassed by all those trips to dateanerd.com

iPhone Keeps Pic Of Everything You Do originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/11. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Now that the “Let’s Rock” even has come and gone, let’s take a look at what Apple has brought into our laps.

HD TV Shows

Right off the bat Steve announced the arrival of HD TV shows to the iTunes store. The shows will cost you $2.99 a pop (instead of the $1.99 you pay for SD shows), but unlike HD Movies, HD TV shows can be watched on your computer, not just an Apple TV. Also, after a much publicized breakup, NBC is back. I wonder if they came back on hands and knees.

iTunes 8

The newest version of the worlds greatest music management software was also released today. A new Pandora-like “Genius” feature is now included that can generate playlists of songs that go together based on a seed song you pick. I’ve been playing with this tonight and my Genius seems quite stupid, but I’m sure they will smarten him up in the next update.

New Nanos

We all saw it coming. Kevin Rose let the world know a few weeks ago that the “Zune” like nano would make an appearance at todays event, and it did. The new nano is “the thinnest iPod” ever made. It has an oval, tapered shape with a black wheel. The new Nano can also create Genius playlists on-the-fly without the need to connect to iTunes. You will also get a built in accelerometer like the iPhone and Touch so that you can view Cover Flow art, photos, and video when turned sideways.

New iPod Touch

The new touch has the same 3.5″ display but is thinner with a tapered stainless steel back. The touch will also gain integrated volume controls on the side and a built in speaker. You will also be able to channel the Genius without the need of iTunes. The new touch is rated for 36 hours of music and 6 hours of video. 8GB for $229, 16GB for $299, or 32 GB for $399.

OS 2.1 for iPhones and iPod Touches

Rolled into all of the excitement today, Steve also announced the arrival of the 2.1 firmware for both the iPhone and iPod Touch. The major update includes fixes for better battery life, dropped calls, backing up speed, and general bug fixes.

One More Thing

The was no “One More Thing”. Too bad, I was hoping a rev on MacBook Pro’s since my son spilled a full bottle of water on my MacBook Pro yesterday. I guess I will have to go out now and just buy whatever the local Apple store has in stock.

Apple Sept 08 Event: Wrap Up originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/09. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Front Row on the Mac has to be one of the slickest “Media PC” like experiences that a user can have, but when Front Row 2.0 hit the scene Apple mysteriously removed the ability to stream audio to it. Will Apple release an update that will restore the streaming functionality? Who knows, but in the meantime there is a solution that we can all jump on.

The great Mac folks over at Rogue Amoeba have released Airfoil 3.1 which works around the streaming problem in Front Row. Airfoil will let you send any audio to multiple Airport Express units and keep the audio between them in sync. The latest release also allows you send audio from any source to an AppleTV. The functionality doesn’t end there; you can send any audio from your Mac to another computer (Mac or PC) on your local network via the Airfoil Speakers program which is bundled with the download. You can also watch videos on the built-in Airfoil Video Player.

All of this streaming goodness can be your for $25 right here.

Airfoil 3.1: Stream Audio To Front Row originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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$300 million dollars and two guys who are retired and this is what you get? If Microsoft is really serious about taking on Apple’s switch ads then they are going to have to do better than this. I’ve watched this ad 10 times now looking for a message and all that I have been able to take from it is that computer might become warm and chewy. With ads like this it’s no wonder that Apple is still kicking their behinds in the marketing department.

First Microsoft Seinfeld Ad originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/05. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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I tend not to jump into iPod rumours since I have been wrong so many times, but since Kevin Rose release some info that was sent to him about Apple revving their iPod line to include a very Zune-ish style nano it’s hard not to say something.

iLounge has gotten their hands on what they are claiming to be dimensional drawings of the new iPod nano and a “Touch 2G” which is an iPod touch replacement with iPhone 3G specs in mind.

Take this with a grain of salt, most fakes follow the line of any other rumour that has hit the internets, but knowing Kevin Rose personally, I don’t see why he would start a rumour like this. I haven’t seen the documentation he said he received, but I do put some confidence in him that this might just be real. Check his video out below.

Leaked New iPod Touch Dimensions? originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/04. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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You might hope that you never need it, but if you ever run into a situation where your Mac doesn’t boot all the way to the Finder and you don’t have any boot capable utilities like Das Boot to fix your problem, AppleJack will be your best friend. AppleJack is a single-user-mode tool that is only available if you can boot your machine up in in single-user-mode by holding down Cmd-S. Once you get in it eases the process of checking your disk for any errors, permission problems, cleans your cache, gets rid of any problematic preference files, and deletes any corrupt swap data.

Many people feared that this great tool would never make the jump from Tiger to Leopard, as 10.5 make some charges that broke AppleJack’s functionality. Developer Steve Anthony took on the project of coding around the issues and giving the Mac community AppleJack back.

[Link to AppleJack]

AppleJack Goes Leopard originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/09/02. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Remember OpenClip? It was supposed to be an open framework for implementing copy and paste functionality to the iPhone. If Apple wanted to implement copy and paste they would have done so already or they will do it soon, OpenClip was a notable effort to work around the limitation or the forgetfulness of Apple.

OpenClip used a loophole that made it possible for apps to peek into each others home folders, thereby creating a temporary area for copy and paste data. The only problem is that the 2.1 firmware will no longer allow apps to do that.

Apps that use OpenClip will no longer be able to copy and paste between applications. However, applications can still utilize a persistent way to store data inside the application, meaning that copy and paste within the app will still work fine. And on top of that, apps that utilize only one form (either copy or paste) can disable interface elements when Apple axes OpenClip.

Goodbye great idea, we barely knew thee. I hope that Apple finally opens their eyes to the need for some sort of copy and paste on the iPhone/touch.

OpenClip Is No More originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/26. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Rooms is the first known IRC app for the iPhone, one of the things that the unit has lacked along with chat and copy & paste. For those of you who just can’t be away from your usual hangout place then this is for you. The app is more like a “lite” IRC client, it limits on a lot of the features people have come use to in an IRC like like the ability to enter slash commands like /op or /me and it has no DCC capabilities either.

Version 1 still has some bugs that need to be ironed out, but for $0.99 you really can’t complain if you just absolutely have to be in an IRC room.

You can pick it up from the iTunes App store.

Rooms: IRC Client For Your iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/24. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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OpenClip is an open-source project dedicated to brining cut and paste functionality to the iPhone. Apple should count themselves luck since all of the fanboys are doing the work for them.

Copy-And-Paste On An iPhone originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/20. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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Here’s a look at Google’s OS 0.9 SDK r1 Beta. Screen shots show a nice and clean looking interface which is something that Google will need if the plan on taking this OS and laying it head to head with Apples iPhone. Rumour is that they are nearing a 1.0 release of the OS, so what you see here might not change much from now till then. You can see the video of it running after the break.

Android OS originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/19. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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That’s a total of 3 months worth of free service. I’m sure that is costing Apple millions of dollars, not to mention the stock hit that it will take in the morning.

I’m not sure why it’s so hard for a company that has been held in the highest light for doing no wrong by geeks everywhere to screw up a project so badly. Why is it so hard for them to just get it right the first time? They did it with the iPod, the iPhone, and even the iMac. Maybe they should have called the service iMobileMe, that might have made it work.

MobileMe Gives You Another 60 Days originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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A new iPhone update just hit the servers. Version 2.0.2 is described as a bug fix release. As always a version can be downloaded directly from Apple’s servers or through the Update feature in iTunes. If you have jailbroken your phone then this update will de-pwn your phone.

If you find any new features in the update drop us a line in the comments and let us know what you have found thats new.

iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 Is Out originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/18. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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With Apple selling upwards of 3 million iPhones already I bet you are looking for that extra little way to stand out in a crowd. Why not light up the Apple logo on the back of your iPhone. iPhones.ru has a teaser of an iPhone hack that causes the Apple logo on the back to light up whenever the screen is turned on. Details are still sketchy, but it looks to me like the hack involves replacing the metal backplate with an LED equipped one; custom software also allows you to select the brightness of the glow independently of the screen brightness.

I’m not sure if the are going to be selling kits to let you do this at home, but if they do we will let you know.

Custom iPhone Light-Up Apple Logo originally appeared on tech.nocr.at on 2008/08/15. Reproduction of content not allowed without consent.

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