Monthly Archive for November, 2008

iPhone unlock inevitable… but hold off the update !

Published
by
Aaron.Smith
on November 22, 2008
in Apple
. 0 Comments

So, as anticipated our friends the misfits have recently released the long awaited 2.2 update. We can confirm that this update SHOULD NOT be applied using iTunes if you want the chance of a soft-unlock in the near future.

If you want to keep that option of a ‘soft-unlock in the near future’ available but you want the new features of 2.2, you will be able to update to 2.2 using a PwnageTool created custom ipsw file that disables the baseband update. You will be able to do this using an updated version of PwnageTool that will be released sometime soon.

Some facts -

  • The 2.2 firmware for 3G contains a baseband update for the 3G iPhone
  • The 2.2 firmware for 2G (1st gen iPhones) doesn’t contain a baseband update and the baseband is still at 04.05.04
  • We believe that our Pwnage technique (and therefore the Jailbreak) isn’t affected, but PwnageTool and QuickPwn do not support this release as yet, so DO NOT install 2.2 using iTunes as you will lose your jailbreak
  • If you apply this update and you previously relied on PwnageTool or QuickPwn to activate your phone, it may become temporarily deactivated and unusable (until we release the new version of PwnageTool or QuickPwn).
  • PwnageTool and QuickPwn updates will be released as soon as possible that will allow a safe update path to 2.2 the release of these updates is inevitable but not imminent, we are creating the modifications right now and we need to put the new software through the usual testing process.
  • If you apply this update and you have third-party (non AppStore) applications  that you rely on they will stop working.
  • 2G (1st gen) iPhone users who cannot wait for the new PwnageTool or QuickPwn can safely “Update” to 2.2 using iTunes, this will preserve the existing activation. However “restoring” to 2.2 using iTunes will return the iPhone to the unactivated state. If you are in any doubt just wait. NB: This works for 2G ONLY.
  • The use of SIM-Proxies (small circuit boards/chips that sit underneath the SIM card) to provide GSM/UMTS service on your locked iPhone 3G is a method that we have always advised against. Early reports suggest that the 2.2 update disables the functionality of these devices. The techniques used were always unreliable and we are surprised that they have lasted this long.
  • We are not working on the 2nd generation iPod touch at the moment, so we cannot comment on what the the 2.2 software update may do to this specific model

So, as always, if you are in any doubt whatsoever please delay the install of this firmware on any of your devices until we have investigated the release in more detail. Watch this space ;-)

Transfer Bookmarks / Favourites between Browsers

Published
by
Aaron.Smith
on November 21, 2008
in Internet Tools, Software, Tech World and Utilities
. 0 Comments

transmute_center

Okay, we’ve all had that niggling urge to go try the new chrome Internet browser or to give the new version of Opera a try, and upon installing it we’ve discovered its faster, more reliable and tonnes more versatile than your current Browser (Internet Explorer for example, cough)…

So, what’s stopping you… normally id say nothing, nothing at all, but lets face facts with this one, most people have been using the same browser, which they installed 10 versions back and have just got stuck with it, built up a massive collection of their favourite bookmarks and cant for the life of them figure out a way to easily transfer or dare I say it ’sync’ them to the alternate browser.

Well, here’s an interim solution for the adaptive and eager readers. A free application called Transmute has recently been released which provides the functionality to backup your bookmarks across browsers, supporting nearly every major browser for Windows—Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Safari, and, of course, Internet Explorer and Firefox.

You can set Transmute to export bookmarks to a particular folder, with or without timestamp dates, and have it create its own backup files in case things get messy. That’s about it, but that’s certainly no small feat. Transmute is a free download for Windows systems only, requires .NET 2.0 framework to operate.

Via : Transmute

Hitler only had one ball : Official

Published
by
Aaron.Smith
on November 19, 2008
in Random Stuff
. 0 Comments

It’s official: Hitler really did have only one ball, confirming the suspicions of Brits who during WWII musically suggested* the Fahrer was a ‘nad short of a full lunchbox.

That’s according to the Sun, which says the fact was confirmed by German army medic Johan Jambor who saw an injured Hitler during the 1916 Battle of the Somme, minus one testicle.

Jambor - who died in 1985 - recounted the facts to priest Franciszek Pawlar in the 1960s, who in turn wrote the story down. Jambor’s chum Blassius Hanczuch has now confirmed the account. He explained: In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme. For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler.

They called him the ‘Screamer’. He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming ‘help, help’. His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: ‘Will I be able to have children?’.

According to the Sun, records show Hitler did cop a groin injury on the Somme, and suggests a Soviet autopsy may have confirmed his monorchic state, or monotesticularity, or seminadity.

Via : The Register

Space gets reliable porn

Published
by
Aaron.Smith
on November 19, 2008
in Gadgets, Internet Tools, Random Stuff and Tech World
. 0 Comments

NASA is reporting the first successful tests of its Deep Space Network modeled after Earth’s own Internet. Instead of using TCP/IP, however, the interplanetary communication network relies upon DTN (Disruption-Tolerant Networking) co-developed by none other than Google’s Vinton Cerf. As such, NASA’s network does not assume a continuous end-to-end connection — if a link is lost due to solar storms or a planetary eclipse, the communication node will store the information until the connection is re-established. So, what’s the big deal you rightly ask, after all, we’ve been (purposely) transmitting data to and from space for a half-century. As Leigh Torgerson, manager of NASA’s DTN Experiment Operations Center explains it:

“In space today, an operations team must manually schedule each link and generate all the commands to specify which data to send, when to send it, and where to send it. With standardized DTN, this can all be done automatically.”

Testing of the Deep Space Network began in October with twice-weekly communications between NASA’s Epoxi spacecraft (on a mission to rendezvous with Comet Hartley 2) and nine ground-based nodes meant to simulate Mars landers, orbiters, and operation centers. The International Space Station is scheduled to join the testing next summer. Although the nature of the data transmitted wasn’t specified, we can only presume that it was laced with Google ads for Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong.

Via : Engadget

TestFreaks - The New Reviewers on the Block !

Published
by
Aaron.Smith
on November 6, 2008
in Gadgets, Internet Tools, Random Stuff and Tech World
. 0 Comments

logo Back in 1999 the site Pricerunner was launched as a powerful one stop shop for finding the best online stores for spending your well earned pay cheque… Well, it turns out the founders haven’t just spent the last decade sat back enjoying the hit counter soaring on their site, but they’ve been developing the next generation.

TestFreaks is this latest project of the founder ‘Kristofer Arwin’ and his band of designers and coders. Short description is that the site is another online review platform, where reviews are pulled in from hundreds of other review sites into one place, linked to the corresponding product and organised into the good, bad and ugly points…

Well, i’m sure that around about now your thinking ‘well, the Internet has about 50, 000 of these already, im sure I was on one this morning’. Surprisingly you could be kinda wrong, for a start many of the current review sites have articles reviewed by in-house staff, which is good and all, but kinda limits the amount of reviews on the site. TestFreaks has incorporated the massive online population of other review sites, including expert sites and average joe reviewers, pulling in the user reviews from all these other online comparison sites into one place. This makes it a fantastic place for the casual browsers to avoid the mess crawling through website’s like Reevoo and Ciao every time there looking for a new product. The designers also found time to incorporates the price checking features of the PriceRunner endeavour giving the visitors valuable details on the best online price for the item your looking at.

One of the most powerful features of this new site is a unique and powerful scoring system which rates every single product on the site, aptly named the ‘FreakScore‘. Another opportunity appears to point out the true size of the TestFreaks project, in that this international endeavour is not limited to the UK review sites, but pulls in critics from over 50 different continental markets. covering 13 languages (don’t worry, you can filter it down to English still). This means that reviews and scores are calculated not only on what the ‘Joe public’ thinking down your local pub, but also takes into account the opinions from around the world, creating a truly unique review of a product.

I suppose its a good idea to also point out that your not totally dependant on the general, random, inconsistent thoughts of raving loon’s who sit at home and review their new Camera or Computer Game, a series of ‘Expert Reviews’ are available for pretty much every product on the site and subcategory analysis of the items individual assets. So, as you can see from the listed item below ‘The Legend of Zelda Zelda‘ we have a FreakScore of 9.9, 33 Expert Reviews from ’somewhat’ reliable online sources, and 30 reviews put forward from users who just found themselves sat at home with 10 minutes free to go online and give you there thoughts ;)… The individual assets I mentioned are shown towards the far right, games obviously being broken down into Gameplay, Graphics and Sound for this title!

IndividualReview

MY OPINION…

Okay, so i’m guessing you get the general idea of what the site it by now… Reviews about every product that’s rolled off a production line since the dawn of time (pretty much)… Well, to be perfectly honest, I actually like the site, though I have my reservations about the nasty green background that’s on every page, kinda made me feel sea sick after a while lol. The shear number of review sites out there at the moment which just contain the same general rubbish, and pop up every time you type something into Google can really start to get annoying, and there is a good chance this site is about to become one of them, BUT at least the content is a better mix of the things you were probably looking for when you typed in ‘Canon SLR Camera’ and your gonna get the information you wanted, not an pitch for a random product or your very own equine porn web banner…

The site boasts some very powerful features, one above all others which I liked, the ability to ‘ask the community’ which kinda acts like a mini-forum for the Individual product your looking at. On every review page there are a list of the reviews already written from the experts and users, but along side this is a simple box where you can ask something, and hope for a reply. The result of this was somewhat impressive when I asked about the features of a new Canon SLR I just purchased, which was to my surprise given I was expecting the usual crowd of Internet chav’s who respond to any question with ‘Your Mum’ jokes, or something just as profound ! Alas this feature requires you to have an account with TestFreaks, which is kinda annoying, personally id of thought a ‘put your email address here for response’ option would of suited better to a ‘pop in - look around - pop back out’ style site like this, its not exactly the place id spend hours of time and want an account…

At current the biggest problem I found while running around the site was the seriously high number of reviews which scored 9.9, 9.8, 9.7 etc, pretty much everything on the site scores either top marks or no marks. Which means that one of the biggest features of the site, the FreakScores are useless as a means of quickly judging the best item in a long list, and leaves you to slowly sift through them looking at the remarks of the reviewers, which you can probably do on Google, but its nice to have them all in one place. This bug is one i’m putting down to the site BETA status though and can imagine its something that is likely to be updated before the formal release.

Another problem that needs to be mentioned is the somewhat slow speed of the site, when so many other online locations are available to users wanting quick opinions of products, its easy to imagine getting a little frustrated with the 2-3 second load times of pages on TestFreaks, but again this is probably attributed to the BETA, and in fact E-Consultancy published a Q&A session with the founder of TestFreaks whereby a promise of faster speeds were expected within the autumn !

One final point of interest, which came to my attention during the browsing of this site is the lack of ability to add a review of product directly to this site. At current the only reviews which are linked to products are those which have been found by the TestFreak web-crawling bot… Its not so much of a serious problem with the site, but more of a ‘would be nice’ feature lol, and iv even been informed that its something that they are thinking of implementing at a later date…

In conclusion, this one is defiantly a ‘must have’ site that’s in your bookmarks, favourites, or whatever magic way you keep your favourite websites organised… Keep an eye on this one people, its a useful one !!!