iPhone Unlock

I’ve been running some tests on an iPhone – typical user type applications, and will document my various experiences as they arise.

The first operation to attempt was unlocking the iPhone from an original network so that it could be used on any mobile network (Virginmobile in my case).  Locking a phone to a specific network is not limited to the iPhone – it has been done in the past to other handsets, depending on the deal being offered.

Costs will vary from carrier to carrier, in this case Telstra’s charge to unlock an iPhone is $150.

The process is pretty straightforward, and even better if you don’t follow Telstra’s instructions, and instead get the real steps required.  It can take up to 72 hours (or 3 working days depending on who you are talking to – 3 working days seems more likely, as there is a human step or two in the process (apparently)).

When you are ready to try to see if the unlock request has gone through, you do the following:

With no Sim Card in the iPhone, connect it to your computer and start iTunes.

Click on “Check for Update”

Click on “Restore to Factory Settings”

Re-sync phone to iTunes.  Now the instructions (apparently) require you to turn the phone on and off, but instead iTunes instructed me to insert the new carrier’s Sim Card.  I did this while the phone was still connected, and it did a few things, and reported back that the operation was successful.

Even better – it was.

It then took me through the (basic) operation of setting up a new phone (which simply means it does a synchronisation, and creates a backup).

All in all, a relatively painless operation, once I found out the real steps required.

I’ve been playing around with the device for the afternoon (and evening) so far – and am struggling to find reasons why it is treated with distain in certain circles.  So far it seems a very powerful device, with a very simple user interface.

Google Promote

Google have added “Promote”, “Remove” and “Comment” buttons to their search results.

New Google Buttons

I haven’t found the definitive answer as yet, but it appears at least that these only affect your searches, and are not a way to promote or demote sites that you do, or don’t like.  I certainly hope that is the case, otherwise we will start seeing sites popping up to the top of Google searches not based on their popularity, but on how many people they have in the background doing constant Google Searches that bring up their site, and clicking on the “Promote” button (and clicking “Remove” on any competitor’s site).

However, it seems a bit pointless at this stage- after all, I Google to find a site / information that I don’t know about, so each search is new and unique, and therefore the results will be fresh and unaffected by previous buttons I’ve clicked.  Secondly, I’d probably rather not have my biases affecting my search results – and would rather the most popular sites (and therefore hopefully the ones most likely to match my search criteria) coming to the fore.

History of Gaming

I have had a particular interest in the history of computer gaming, and love reading about the developments and how one game led to the creation of a genre, such as Dune2 starting the whole Command and Conquer phenomenon (which incidentally also led to Warcraft), and early games like Wolfenstein 3D tht is now the first person shooter etc.

A great (online) TV show is called Play Value, and is a very well produced, short (10 minute episodes) look at the whole game development, hardware, software, personalities behind the scenes etc

Currently hosted by On Networks (I pick up episodes through iTunes)

If you are interested in computer gaming, and are interested in how we have gotten to where we are today, this is definitely worth a look.

A book that may also be of some interest (if only for the various game screen shots), is called “High Score!”

This is not to be mistaken for the documentary “High Score” made back in about 2005, where Bill Carlton attempted to break the 80 million point record for “Missile Command”

The documentary byline reads “One Quarter. Two Days. No Pause Button” Hopefully the documentary isn’t as long as the game lasted!

MIA

Ok, sorry, it has been just a little while since I made any IT Savvy posts.  Been rather wrapped up in the whole blogging thing that this blog has suffered accordingly. (My Woodworking Blog – Stu’s Shed – draws a lot of my resources).

Lightscribe

A number of DVD Burners these days are coming with a “Lightscribe” option.  The principle is: if you have DVD media designed for Lightscribe, after burning your data (or whatever) on to the data side of the DVD, you then remove the DVD, flip it over, and put it back into the burner.

Then, by running the Lightscribe editing software, you design a logo / image etc to be ‘printed’ on the other side.  The printing is actually a laser that burns the laser-sensitive material on the reverse side of the disk, which is why you need disks designed to be “Lightscribe”

Some initial impressions, after trying it out for the first time (actually the second time, but the first time was a couple of years ago, and I gave up because it was too slow to be practical).

1.  It is still slow – for the image I made, it took 16 minutes to burn

2. The image I chose probably wasn’t very suitable, and the results looked rather ordinary.  High contrast is definitely required.

3. If the image is not high contrast, the result looks very muddy.

4. Even with a high contrast image, the result is rather pale and dare I say, unimpressive. (And very low contrast)

I’ll try some other images and experiments, but at this stage, I still don’t see that there is much to recommend the Lightscribe process.

New Apple Laptops

Apple have released their new laptops, with a new MacBook, and Macbook Pro (with various optional configs as per normal).

New Apple MacBook

Not sure when they will be available here – around Xmas based on previous experiences.

Sophos Smells Super-Sized Spam Stock Scam

Bit of a mouthful title, and no – it isn’t mine!  However, it is worth noting that there is a significant increase in spam emails out there (that may or may not make it through the filters in place to your inbox) trying to encourage you to buy stock, particularly given the current financial markets.

What is continuously surprising to me, is that people keep falling for these scams.

(Edit – actually, I missed the date on this article, and it was from October 07, rather than 08.  I got confused, partly by the date, and partly because I was getting heavily hit with stock spam at the time).  Oh well, we all have the occasional slip)

Sophos Article here.

Legitimate Emails

According to Sophos, currently only email in 28 is legitimate.

So the next “unbelievable” offer, request for your account confirmation, “I really want to meet you”, “I have funds I need to get out of the country” etc etc email you get in your inbox, you might want to think twice (or more) before blindly acting upon it.

Thank goodness for spam filtering, but even so, a number always gets through, and potentially, these are the smarter ones that you really need to watch out for, as they may pose as something quite legitimate.

That isn’t to say you should stop reading emails, but like ‘they’ say: “don’t believe everything you see on TV”

Techspansion is no more

Nostalgia

Which may not mean a lot to most people, but they produced the software I blogged about on here recently called VisualHub and AudialHub.  The second I didn’t get to try out in the end, and the first is the primary solution I use for converting video files from one format to another, and in my case specifically, producing the iPod compatible mp4 files (H264 codec).

Apparently the products will still be compatible with the next Mac OS (10.6 – Snow Leopard), but with the recipient hardware changing regularly and rapidly (iPods etc), the software will become dated very quickly.

It is disappointing, and somewhat surprising that they’ve simply closed their doors and discontinued the product, rather than selling it.  Guess I will be looking for a new conversion solution in the near future.

The Turbo264 is ok, but doesn’t produce as small a file with the same quality, and more importantly, cannot handle static images (such as powerpoint slides) inside the video file – they tend to run like a watercolour painting in a rainstorm – weird, and unusable.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Adobe Premiere Elements 7

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 and Premiere Elements 7 have just been released.  These are cut-down versions of Photoshop (for digital image editing), and Premiere (for digital video editing), however what they have left out 90% of users wouldn’t miss anyway – the Elements packages are still very powerful.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Adobe Premiere Elements 7

Also fwiw, CS4 is almost upon us as well.  Included is OnLocation which in CS4 is now able to run on Mac for direct-to-disk capture which is quite exciting if you do a lot of video production.  (I’m leaving it here as a footnote, because it is exciting to all of about 3 people (myself included!))