Vuzix brings a huge SUPRISE!!!

Vuzix has released glasses that connect to your iphone/ipod (see below for more details) that gives you the same range of view as a 44 inch TV. Yes you heard right 44 inch TV!!!. Watch all your videos in vivid colors and no more having to stare at your iPod Screen.

Availibilties: The IWear AV230 XL is availible now! from http://www.vuzix.com/iwear/products_av230xl.html

Price: $199.95 (USD)

Made for:

FW 3.0b2 gets sent to devs

Today, firmware 3.0 beta 2 as well as a new version of the SDK was seeded to devs.

check out what renowned graphic designer Louie Mantia had to say about it:














The new updates are

• Slightly modified icons
• Voice Notes
• More responsive interface
• MMS on more providers

im NOT going to give you the leaked version but you can beg shabz for it...
BUT heres the apple version for devs APPLY FOR DEV
please discuss THIS also if you have looked at the 2nd option
FORUMS TOPIC

Winulous, the new addition to the "-ous" family!

Hope you guys realized this was an april fools joke :D

They brought you installous, appulous, hackulous, grabulous, crackulous, now they are bringing you winulous.
What is Winulous?
It's having a "dumbed" down version of Windows 2000 on your iPod/iPhone

As of now it comes with only a few working applications (minesweeper and solitaire) but in the coming weeks, there should be frequent updates for new applications!

Requirements
Winulous works for all devices iPod Touch 1G&2G iPhone 2G&3G.
You must be on firmware 2.2.1, because it has not been tested on any other firmware.

Future Plans
They are planning on making a "dumbed" down version of Mac OS X and Linux.

How Do I get it?
If you have installous, you already have the source added, but if you don't the source is
http://cydia.hackulo.us Once you add that source just search for "Winulous"

Faster than Cydia and installer, made by RIPDEV, ICY!

It's here!

Icy is a lightweight, fast, and cool looking source manager for Cydia sources. What makes it better? No more "reloading sources" everytime you open up Cydia. This program makes installing an app you would get from cydia fast, easy, and painless.

What else is new?
As you can see above, you can use icy in landscape mode too, making it very user-friendly.

How do I get it?

• If you would like to get it through Cydia you will need to add a new source.Go to manage-->Sources-->Edit(top right)-->Add(top left) and enter the following URL http://apt.ripdev.com then click add. Once you are done adding the source search for Icy and install it and Voila you have it.
• If you would like to get it through Installer just go to the System category and it should be there.

More quick facts

• Cydia takes up 32mb of space. Icy takes up a little more than 1mb
• Everything on Icy is black and white(which looks super cool) to keep it running fast
• Animated Download screens that actually tell you what's happening unlike cydia download screen
• Does not refresh sources automatically- you must decide yourself when you want to refresh them!(VERY IMPORTANT to refresh periodically)

Enjoy :D

Skype is here for the iPod/iPhone!

What is Skype?
A very affordable way to make calls from your iPhone/iPod touch. This is an iPod Touch users answer to "make phone calls."
**MUST HAVE WIFI TO MAKE CALLS**
Where do I get it from?
Skype is available from the App Store for free.
How affordable?
Unlimited Calls in the US: $2.95/month
Unlimited Calls to Mexico: $5.95/month
Unlimited Worldwide Calls: $9.95/month
***FREE SKYPE TO SKYPE CALLS***
How Does it work?
Once you download the app, just make a skype account and you will be ready to make calls.
You can also use Skype as a way to chat with friends/family for FREE.

Get everyone on Skype and make free Skype to Skype Calls!

Apple announces Worldwide Developers Convention, The countdown to New iPhone and Snow Leopard

Mark your calendar folks, June 8-12 in San Francisco are Apple days. The Worldwide Developers convention was confirmed to be on those dates. What does that mean? Well, last year at the same event the iPhone 3G made its first appearance, so we are hoping that we will some new hardware this year. Hopefully, the new iPhone, iPod Touch, or even a new Mac! Steve Jobs was at a leave of absence from Apple because of sickness, and June is when he said he'd be back, so new hardware would be the perfect way to start off again. Snow Leopard is a new operating system for Macs that should be spectacular. Well, that's all the info I have right now, for more information click the following link:

Worldwide Developers Convention

Oh, and if you wanna buy tickets for the WWDC(you get $300 off) click the following link ;]

Ridiculously Priced Tickets

ShabzCoHelp is going Mobile!

Soon, if you try to access the shabzcohelp.com website on your iPod/iPhone you will automatically be redirected to a mobile version of my site.

Now you can access all the main things of my site on the go! Easier than having to navigate through a "full browser" site.

Here is a preview of the homepage:



Can't forget about the SHOUTBOX directly on your iPod/iPhone



Movies section is in the works, but will not be there when I release the mobile version.

Here is the mobile section to get News.. Makes it easy to comment too


You can also view/write/register for the Forums all from your iPod/iPhone!



And last, but not least. You can now directly download apps from your iPod/iPhone from the ShabzCoHelp Mobile site!



Enjoy! and please, leave me comments/suggestions to make this mobile website as convenient as I can for you guys :D

New iPod/iPhone Found in 3.0 Fw!

The new 0S 3.0 found in the IPhone has suggested the existence of new touch hardware for the Iphone and the ipod that has not yet been released. Ars Technica reports that the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist file, which lists details about the USB configurations of various hardware models along with their Device IDs and product names, lists not one but two unidentified iPhone models, as well as a new iPod touch model, and two unknown products. The original iPhone, iPhone 3G, original iPod touch, and iPod touch 2G are listed as iPhone1,1; iPhone1,2; iPod1,1; and iPod2,1 respectively, with an increase in the first number representing a significant hardware redesign.

A listing for a product labeled iPhone 2,1 was found in the latest iPhone firmware in January, and has since been joined by products listed as iPhone 3,1 and iPod 3,1; as well as listings for iFPGA and iProd0,1. Two new iPhones on the list simultaneously suggests potentially differing form factors or features, such as a smaller iPhone or a larger one. The report suggests that the iFPGA could be a device that uses field-programmable gate arrays, a type of programmable microchip, but since it doesn’t observe Apple’s standard numbering scheme, it’s unlikely to be intended for release. The iProd, with its 0,1 status, is most likely an early prototype of a new device that is neither an iPhone nor an iPod touch.

Customize is back and kickin' on 2.2.1!

Time to dust off customize if you haven't been using it for a while, because it kept crashing.
If you have customize downloaded, you might have noticed an update in cydia for it. Yes, AN UPDATE. Finally, it has been ported to work on 2.2.1. So get searching and go download Customize from cydia.

What is Customize?

• Customize is a tool similar to winterboard that allows you to theme your iPod/iPhone. What makes customize different is the ease of picking and choosing between themes. I.E. you can use the background of one theme and the icons of another.
• Also, with Customize you can edit your system strings. What's that? You can change your "slide to unlock" text and all the others too.

Of course the program still has some bugs, may still crash. Just try it out! Cydia-->search-->Customize

[Written by ShabzCoHelp]

The highly small and cool new tool for Ipod!

Its out now. The new thumbtack Mircophone which just plugs straight into your earphone jack. Just Plug -in and play. suits all 3.5mm jacks. Made nicely by SwitchEasy and works perfectly with Ipod nano 4th gen and Ipod Touch 2nd Gen. For more information click here http://www.switcheasy.com/products/ThumbTacks/ThumbTacks.php

Price: $12.99
avail: Black, White, Red

HD Movies for Sale on itunes soon

For less then 20 dollars you can get a HD movie from itunes which is compatible with Mac, Windows and the Apple TV. Sounds great doesn't it but unfortunately its not out yet. You can Preorder Quantum of Solace HD version and others like Twilight. From the annoucements they will all come with a standard definition so you can play it on your Ipod/Iphone when you get them. Hopefully this will be out soon but for the mean time itunes are renting HD movies out for a dollar more then the standard editions.

Bluetooth on iPod Touch 2nd Gen!

If you didn't know your iPod Touch 2nd Gen has bluetooth capabilities. Long ago, iFixit did a complete teardown of an iPod Touch and surprisingly found a "Broadcom Bluetooth Chipset". Now this was back in September 2008, and people had pretty much given hope on having any meaning behind the chip. Yesterday, March 17th 2009, Apple made a release of the new iPhone OS 3.0. And during the Q&A someone asked the question:

Q: Bluetooth on the iPod touch?
A: Bluetooth is a capability we can “unlock” on the latest-gen iPod touch.

Answered by Apple associates themselves, Bluetooth will be "unlocked" in the OS 3.0 making your iPod capable of playing multiplayer games with people near you. Unfortunately, the chip was only found in the 2nd Gen iPod, so 1st Gen users will not be able to use the bluetooth functionality.

Round Up of 3.0

This is from Abcmsaj, who worded in ways i could have never hoped of. thanks mate

---

What's going on?

Apple are giving us a sneak peek at the upcoming iPhone 3.0 Operating System, and a look at the future SDK for iPhone developing. The event was on Tuesday the 17th of March at 10am PST, at Apple's HQ in Cupertino (instead of San Fransisco where Apple normally hold big events.)

What's new in 3.0?

• The new OS has over 100 new features for customers.
• Copy and Paste is finally here! Huzzah!
  
  
  
  As spoiled on Diggnation, double tap, drag, tap copy, and then double tap, paste. Shake your device to undo. Works on all apps, for anything from text to HTML.
• You can now email more than one photo at once, in the same way you can mass delete/move mail. Just tap the action button, choose photo thumbnails and SHARE.
• Landscape mode has come to more apps than just Safari... you can now use them in key applications like... SMS, Notes and... MAIL!
• SMS is upgraded too. You can now delete and forward multiple messages.
• MMS is coming too. You can send pictures via text messages. Why wasn't this in iPhone 1.1.x?
• Voice Memos. Record yourself with the iPhone's mic, trim it on the iPhone itself, and then send it around.
  
  
• Support for two more calendar types. CalDAV (Google and Yahoo) and Subscriptions (using .ics files.)
• In Stocks, they’ve added support for news stories (headlines) in the bottom of the app. You can also get details like highs and lows and PEs. And landscape view.
• Added search functions in Mail, Calendar, Music - Searching support was on Remote (app) but not on the iPhone's actual music app... Hmm
• Mac users will be familiar with Spotlight, the search bar in the top right of all Macs. Well it's coming to the iPhone. Just flick left on your homescreen and it will open up - and you can search your whole device! VERY useful.
  
  
• Here's an image with a whole lot more additions that Apple never talked about. Notice the YouTube app looks like it's getting a major update. Also, live streaming. And ability to sync notes. AND shake to shuffle! Loads of new features coming in 3.0
  
  

What about the SDK?

• SDK 3.0 will bring 1000 new APIs.
  
  
  Quote:

  In game voice chat, iPod library access, proximity sensor, audio recorder, battery API, streaming audio and video, data detectors, text selection, UI alert view, shake API (for rumble) and GPS lingo.

• A new API will allow Peer-to-Peer connectivity between devices over Bonjour. This is amazing for games, as you can have multiplayer with no Wifi network around!
• Devs will be able to write code to be able to talk to hardware. For example, here is an FM radio - If you connect your iPod Touch to it, you can control the stations, volume, and more!
  
  
  
  
  The accessories will be able to talk over the dock connector - AND Bluetooth.
• Developers will be able to use the Google Maps interface inside their applications - Rather than the app having to open the Maps app itself.
• The devs can add turn-by-turn functionality into their apps! Allowing things like SatNav.
• Push notification is finally here. But - Apple says no to background processing: Battery life falls significantly (80% fall). But with Push notifications, battery decreases - But lasts longer (20% fall).

I heard there was App Store enhancements?

• "In-App Purchase" brings extra revenue to developers - who can now sell new things to go along with their applications! This will be for paid apps only though.
  
  

Anything else?

• Apple set themselves a goal before they shipped their first iPhone - To sell over 10 million. They smashed the record, by selling 17 million! (But with iPod Touches aswell - Over 30 million!)
• 62% of people who downloaded the old SDK, had never developed an Apple application before.
• In the 8 months, there have been 800 million application downloads in total.
• 15 more countries have been added to the App Store list - That makes 77.
  
  Future Application Releases.
• Meebo are making an IM app which connects with social networking sites too. It will use the new push notification. Could there finally be a decent, cheap IM app?
• The Sims 3 is coming to the App Store. EA have stuck a load of 3.0 features into the app: for example, you'll be able to buy items for the game (presumably furniture and clothing) for 99 cents each (59p)
  
  
  Quote:

  For example, playing music from the stereo in the game lets you play music back from YOUR music library (from the 3.0 SDK API)

• Ngmoco were over at the event - And announced LiveFire (a 3rd person multiplayer shooter game) and are showing off their TouchPets app (out soon - look on the ngmoco site.)
  
  TouchPets uses push notifications to tell you when a friend wants to make a play-date with you. It also uses in-app purchases so you can buy food and clothes for your dog. Personally, I'd let it starve!
  
  LiveFire is an FPS game. You control by touching the screen. Again, you can send notifications to friends, and buy weapons in-game to play with. It also looks like you'll be able to do in-game voice chats too - Just like on an Xbox or PS3!
  
  
• Smule (the makers of the legendary music app, Ocarina) demoed their new app: Leaf Trombone. Another music app. Using the iPhone's mic and finger-to-screen controls. A duet was played using the new peer-to-peer API.

Recap

To recap the big features in 3.0: In-App purchase to enable more app functionality, peer to peer connectivity, accessory connectivity, Google map controls, push notifications, cut and paste, landscape mode, Messages (MMS), voice memos, new Calendar support, enhancements to the Stock App and search (Spotlight). Plus, Bluetooth, if you’re really looking forward to that one.

The 3.0 Beta is available to all members of the iPhone Developer Program.

It will be coming out in June 2009 for us normal users! $9.95 for iPod Touches, free for iPhones. Not all features will work on the 1st gen iPhone.

Q: Josh Quittner, Time: Why did it take so long so get Cut and Paste into the iPhone?
A: There’s a user interface you need to design, security issues, and “there’s a lot of pieces you need to worry about instead of getting something that doesn’t work right.”

Q: Flash? What are you doing?
A: We have no announcements on that topic today. But there are a lot of video streams we can handle. h.264 works great. We're adding HDTV streaming for audio and video. We think there's a lot of great video solutions for a single clip.

Q: Could you qualify a bit more about the peer to peer. It looks like it’s available across the two iPhones, but it seems like you can do peer to peer with other Bluetooth devices.
A: It’s really a device to device Bluetooth connection. It’s 1 to 1, using Bluetooth and Bonjour to discover other devices and make an IP connection.

Q: Could you qualify a bit more about the peer to peer. It looks like it’s available across the two iPhones, but it seems like you can do peer to peer with other Bluetooth devices.
A: It’s really a device to device Bluetooth connection. It’s 1 to 1, using Bluetooth and Bonjour to discover other devices and make an IP connection.

Q: So you can control devices…?
A: Yes, now you can, with third-party applications, control and talk to accessories over Bluetooth.

Q: Are people able to trade files, say music files, through iPods with this?
A: We have the ability to stream music to music apps, and certainly a game, if a game has music in the game it would be possible to download game tracks, but if would be confusing for other music apps with downloadable music that isn’t through the app store.

Q: Where do you stand on tethering?
A: There’s two pieces needed to support that: client side and working with carriers. We’re absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we’re working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.

Q: Can you say anything about hardware?
A: No.

Q: Netbooks?
A: Nothing to announce today.

Q: Will you make any promises about push notification in terms of uptime?
A: No. We want it to be as reliable as possible.

Q: On the voice memo, you mentioned external microphones. Could you use an off-the-shelf microphone?
A: Yes absolutely, if you have an adapter.

Q: Are you addressing some of the performance issues in the current OS? It’s slightly laggy, are you going to address that in 3.0.
A: We absolutely take performance very seriously. These units, because they’re tethered, are more laggy than you would see on standalone units. But we are addressing lagginess in our own ways.

Q: Is there a physical hardware problem on the first-gen iPhone that prevents it from doing MMS.
A: It’s a different radio, so it is a physical issue.

Q: With Peer to Peer, can you have access to other iTunes library?
A: You can see them but I don’t know if you can play them.

Q: Bluetooth on the iPod touch?
A: Bluetooth is a capability we can “unlock” on the latest-gen iPod touch.

iTunes 8.1 is it safe for jailbreaks? What's new in it?

Is it Safe?
Just like usual, the introduction of a new iPod means a new version of iTunes. Problem is, us jailbreakers have to be cautious about updating to anything (firmware, iTunes). You never know if Apple is watching you, especially now that they are trying to make Jailbreaking illegal. If you heard anything about iTunes 8.1 having some kind of tracking device that lets Apple know that you're jailbroken. THEY ARE WRONG.
Here is what MuscleNerd from the iPhone dev-team has to say:
"iTunes 8.1 is safe. Last time they changed it specifically to try to combat jb was just after 3G pwnage, but nothing since then"
-Twitter(MuscleNerd)

Now that you guys know it's safe download it! http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

What's new in this version?

With 8.1 you get speed boost, a genius sidebar, and iTunes plus.
Some other stuff that I noticed is that they FINALLY changed the rating system on the App Store. The ranking now tells you how many 5 stars, 4 stars, 3 stars..etc an app got.

Also, now you can't rate an app if you don't have it. No more fake ratings.

Of course, if you own it you can rate it


Basically, Apple also released an update to their Remote application to go with iTunes 8.1 and it is now possible to set up iTunes so that anybody with an iPhone or touch connected to the same network can actually request songs from your library into the DJ list (formerly Party Shuffle playlist). Once songs are queued up, other guests can even vote on the songs (presumably to move them up the queue, though that's not confirmed). You can still control all playback features via Remote on your own, authorized iPod touch or iPhone.[Gizmodo]

iBluetooth is released! By MeDevil

MeDevil did it. The first bluetooth application that allows transferring of files is here and available for download on Cydia through the iSpazio repo. For the price of $3.99 you anyone can get this "descent" application that should have been on the iPhone to begin with. I'm not sure if you guys know, but there was a heated debate between MeDevil and the members of the iBluetoothProject. If you're not aware, MeDevil supposdely stole the bluetooth program from the iBluetoothProject(makers of SweetTooth) and released his own version.
What's my view in the debate? Whether or not MeDevil stole the program, he made a pretty nice bluetooth program.
Do I think SweetTooth will be better? Absolutely, I think compared to MeDevil's program SweetTooth will be much better, because of the excessive time and effort they have put towards it.
Have I tried it? Yes, I have sent and received things using this application and it works on some phones better than others. I tried to send files to my iPhone from my Samsung BlackJack and it didn't even respond on the iPhone that it was receiving something, but when I used my dads LG Incite, it worked fine. So not really sure, that bug will probably be fixed. It sends files great though. I sent music and pictures, both of which worked fine.

iPhone OS 3.0 Software released March 17th??

Things that may be in the next firmware.

• SpringBoard is replaced
• Video recording (possible new API)
• Maps API (for devs)
• Copy/paste
• and more...

As you may or may not know. Usually firmware changes for example like (going from 2.2 to 2.2.1) do not bring upon big changes. A number change for example from firmware 1.1.4(from the iPod touch 1st gen) to firmware 2.0 brings upon bigger changes like the App Store. So hopefully as 3.0 strolls by on March 17th(hopefully) there will be room for big changes mentioned above. I am just eager to see what Apple has cooked up for this update.

Quote:

Originally Posted by engadget

We just got the announcement, iPhone OS 3.0 is coming. Set your clocks, mark your calendars. It's going down March 17th. Apparently, we'll get a sneak peak at the new OS, as well as a look at a brand new version of the SDK. Exciting stuff indeed, and we'll be there live at 10am PST (1pm EST) with the liveblog. Apple's calling this an "advance preview of what we're building," so we're not expecting anything ready to go as of the 17th, but hopefully this will allow developers to start building toward future functionality (hey, how about some push notifications?), and presumably users won't have too many months to wait after that for the real deal.

Cracking down on Cracked Apps

Ben Chatelain the developer behind the App Store app Full Screen Web Browser has taken steps to prevent piracy of his app. Just days after the initial app release on the App Store Ben received notification via a Google Alert that his app had been pirated and the cracked copy was being distributed by Appulo.

Frustrated by the events Ben went on a mission to stop cracking of Full Screen Web Browser (App Store link). He checked out informative posts about making an iPhone app crash if cracked but was hesitant to enable the measures because he didn't want the application to crash for legitimate users or crash during the App Store review process and subsequently face rejection from the App Store.

After some thought Ben came up with the solution that he is utilizing now. The application looks to see if it has been cracked and sends pings to a server with a device identifier (UDID) so that illegal usage can be tracked. If the app has been cracked the server controls a demo period with ten runs after which the the application shows a message allowing you the option to quite or buy complete with a guilt trip "Purchasing a legal copy helps support independent software development and will help me feed my 1-year old baby."

With App Store application cracking running rampant and many developers up in arms over the issue we will be sure to see more and more measures like this taken in the future.

[Written by cash7c3 of modmyi.com]

Cydia Store open now! Heres what you need to know.

Lets face it. Apple does not allow many very cool apps for sale in the App Store because of their very tight (and in many cases unreasonable) restrictions. The developers of these apps (PDANet, MySMS and iBlacklist to name a few of the many) still want to earn a little revenue for their hard work and until now have been forced to come up with their own sales solutions on Cydia/Installer.

Tonight the game will start changing as Jay Freeman (Saurik) releases the Cydia Store. Just moments ago Freeman announced on Twitter that "Tonight (late) a new Cydia will come out with one package 'for sale' (more over the next week): more details will be in Cydia." Developers of popular paid Jailbreak programs will be able to sell their applications straight from the overwealmingly popular Cydia without having to worry about the hassles of independently creating sales solutions.

Whats more is the Cydia Store will have many features to rival the App Store. According to Freeman in addition to application sales "There will also be a method of voting via the classic stars, but are linked by a review, which must first write a comment / review, and then you can vote. This feedback system will require a login which should be based on Google or Facebook."

Freeman isn't the only one with a third party store to compete with Apple's App Store. RockYourPhone.com is another independent application store that is currently in development. The Wall Street Journal also mentions a third store thats name has yet to be revealed. While it is clear that there is a market for applications outside of the App Store it is not clear whether or not Apple will allow third party App Stores to compete without legal intervention. Freeman says he has lined up a lawyer in case Apple takes legal action. "The overworking goal is to provide choice," he says. "It's understandable that [Apple] wants to control things, but it has been very limiting for developers and users."

[via Saruik on Twitter and wsj image via iptf]

New iPhone Design!

Could this very well be the “Next iPhone?” So many people have came up with there own ideas of what it might look like, but I just wanted to let you guys know about this one. It looks pretty cool and if they did make it I would get it!

Particularities are:

• Alloy steel and hard plastic glass effect,
• OLED Screen
• New ARM Processor
• iSight Camera
• Springboard Rotatable (iPhone/ iTouch Pages)
• Three different Colours

Following the “success” of his first concept, iSpazio’s user Rocklea Frankie has made another, far different from the previous year! So beware this is only a Rumor, remember that.

SweetTooth- The future of iPhone Bluetooth

The latest donor updates from the Makers of SweetTooth are the following:

"-- I guess some explaining needs to go with this:

Tthe physical space around you will be transformed into this kind of "Bluetooth Space" where each device that is found will appear somewhere in space, the closer devices with higher signal strength will be closer to the center, while devices that are far away will be in outer space. It will support multi touch and scrolling vertically and horizontally, and if all that gets to hectic (like I'm talking 100's of devices) or you just hate our amazing design, then the 'classic' list option will always be there.

The search bar at the bottom will support full fuzzy logic searching by BT name, MAC address, Class of device, keywords such as 'computer' or 'phone' or keywords part thereof.

Also - are you sick of typing 0000 or 1234 to pair *every time* you just want to send a file, listen to music etc: iBluetooth Project introduces "Auto-Pin". you set (or choose not to set) a pin which will be used every time you get a request, streamlining your Bluetooth experience and letting you get back to the big picture quicker.

When ever you get a request to push a file onto your device -- the space will automatically scroll to the device requesting and bounce not unlike the OS X dock icons and/or (depending on your Auto-Pin preferences) ask for a pin to connect.

File browsing and actual sending will not have even the slight innovations, its merely functionality we're after for those features

Although this is just a design concept and the final reality will have some changes, this is what we are aiming for and WILL provide to you!
SweetTooth v2. You've just gotta have it.

This should keep you F5'ers happy! Have fun frothing :)"


Thanks for watching/reading if you have any questions please ask :D

Best Buy giving out huge discounts on iPhone 3G!

This week Best Buy
is giving a $100 instant discount for silver and premier reward zone members. These are NEW! As usual it requires a 2yr new contract, add a line, or be eligible for upgrade and a data plan.

cash edit: Some other details:

* You must have been a rewards member as of 2/21/09. Becoming a rewards member now will do you no good
* You can see the BesyBuy Rewards email with details here.
* Premiere Silver members get the 8gb for $99 16gb for $199
* Normal Reward Zone members get the 8gb for $149 and 16gb for $249
* Yay for a real $99 iPhone!

MewSeek, Download Music from iPod/iPhone and have it go to your iTunes Library!

Most iPhone users will remember an app called iSlsk, which then changed it’s name to MewSeek. It was basically a native Peer2Peer Soulseek client for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch. It gave users the ability to search and download free music legally to their iPhones without the need for iTunes or a computer.

It worked in much the same way as the popular computer programs Limewire and BearShare, in which you were downloading the songs from other users or “peers”, kind of like seeding is to a torrent client. You were also given the opportunity, where applicable, to download that “peers” entire album including the song you wanted.

When MewSeek was released last year, alone it gave you the option to search, download but NOT listen to your new songs. For this they presented PwnPlayer, released in it’s beta stage, and very buggy to boot. There were problems with songs not appearing in PwnPlayer after download, and sometimes crashing of the app completely.

Well, in the last few days there was an exciting new release that appeared in Cydia, MewSeek Pro, which is hosted in the BigBoss and Planet-iPhones repository. It comes as a new app and not an update to the previous version. It has pretty much the same UI as the first version but the most exciting new development is that it now has the option to import your downloads into the stock iPod app, so it is basically syncing the songs with your iTunes library, which makes it the first of it’s kind. Whats more, you are also given the option to live stream each song before you download it.

The search and download speeds have been vastly improved upon, giving impressive results when used with an iPhone 3G or on wifi, and speeds may also vary for the 1st gen iPhone and iPod Touch. This is mainly due to it now being HTTP based as apposed to P2P based. It now uses SeeqPod’s API to display results, and like dTunes, the search results are a little less fulfilling but you do get them instantly.

There is, of course, another main difference with the Pro version of MewSeek to the original version, this is the introductory $6.99 registration fee. The creator states that this fee is purely to aid in the continuing development of the app and there will be no further charges thereafter. He also states that SeeqPod requested that he didn’t offer the search engine for free, as they are also developing apps for mobile devices and considered it unfair competition to do so. This begs the question, why is dTunes free?

While unregistered though, you are able to stream an unlimited amount of songs and also get a maximum of 15 free downloads which you can add to the music library. This is not much to ask for such a groundbreaking achievement and I will be happy to pay the price, and lets face it, there are plenty of less useful apps on the App Store with the same price tag.

The developer has also said that he has not abandoned the original Application, and will include support for music library management, both on MewSeek and “maybe” Pwnplayer.

Next step to an untethered iPod Touch 2nd Gen Jailbreak

xGPS, first turn by turn Voice Navigation App for iPod/iPhone

Features/Specs/Thoughts

* The voice navigation is great. The voice engine is pretty accurate and although it has some issues with a few words and abbreviations for the most part the voice directions are clear and easily understandable. It also will provide voice directions while music is playing though for me this feature needs to ability to mute the music while giving directions before it will be practical - I just couldn't understand the directions while music was playing.
* The turn by turn instructions are basically Google Maps directions. They are accurate in a lot of places and I can't fault them most the time. Turn by turn is initiated by pressing the magnifying glass at the bottom of the app and then either searching for something to get directions to or entering in an address. In the future I'd like to see the search list results in a more friendly fashion with distance to the results etc.
* Night mode. Who wants to have a bright white screen shining at you while driving at night? The latest beta of xGPS includes a night mode feature with automatically turns on between 8pm and 7am or turns on by a timer which you can set manually. The night mode screen is pretty click looking with a black/purple background and streets.
* Maps Manager. If you're going to a location and are worried that the network wont be fast enough to download maps while you're moving you can use the map manager to download maps ahead of time. A simple menu allows you to select an area to download by creating a red box. Pretty simple. There is also a desktop client for both Windows and Mac allowing you to download and manage maps on your computer before uploading to the iPhone.
* For iPhone 1st Generation and iPod Touch users you aren't out of luck. xGPS supports a number of external GPS modules including the iGPS360 from the xGPS hardware partner Orangegadgets.com
* There are a lot more features to go into detail about including the ability to set miles or km, latitude and longitude, lots of language support, landscape view, etc. Check out the screenshots below for a peek.
* edit: I may have forgotten to mention the price tag of Free

Keep your eyes out in Cydia for xGPS version 1.2 coming soon. For more information check out their blog and forums. You can also get the previous version 1.1 of their repo @ cydia.xwaves.net but it doesn't include voice navigation among some other features.

Clippy, The Copy and Paste tool for iPhone/iPod Touch

Look here if you missed anything in the video!
Thanks for watching

**First make sure you have updated Clippy
Beta in Cydia.**

Feature #1: You can now copy & paste
received and sent texts by double tapping.
Once you have double clicked on the text
it will go directly to your stack.

Once you are in your stack you can delete
or use something you have copied. Just
tap on what you want to paste.
To get back to your stack just press the
"?123" button on the bottom. And you can
paste again!

Feature # 2: You can now decide whether
you want to highlight text by dragging your
finger through it or just go back to fix a
mistake
-If you want to highlight text double tap
and then start dragging your finger back.
-If you don't want to highlight just drag
your finger back like you normally would.

Feature #3: If you want to copy something
big and don't want to highlight all of it. You
can just press copy when you find
something you want and it will copy everything

Any Questions?
shabzcohelp@gmail.com

Jailbreaking Illegal? Officially

After a year and a half and many millions of iPhones Jailbroken Apple has finally decided to publicly state that they believe jailbreaking is illegal. Here at MMi we do not believe Jailbreaking is illegal for many reasons. While I could list them all Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation which confronts cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights says it best with his statment:

"Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. This marks the first formal public statement by Apple about its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking.
Apple's iPhone, now the best-selling cellular phone in the U.S., has been designed with restrictions that prevent owners from running applications
obtained from sources other than Apple's own iTunes App Store. "Jailbreaking" is the term used for removing these restrictions, thereby liberating your phone from Apple's software "jail." Estimates put the number of iPhone owners who have jailbroken their phones in the hundreds of thousands.

As part of the 2009 DMCA rulemaking, EFF has asked the Copyright Office to recognize an exemption to the DMCA to permit jailbreaking in order to allow iPhone owners to use their phones with applications that are not available from Apple's store (e.g., turn-by-turn directions, using the iPhone camera for video, laptop tethering).

Apple's copyright infringement claim starts with the observation that jailbroken iPhones depend on modified versions of Apple's bootloader and operating system software. True enough -- we said as much in our technical white paper describing the jailbreak process. But the courts have long recognized that copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software, a body of law that Apple conveniently fails to mention.

As for the DMCA violation, Apple casts its lot with the likes of laser printer makers and garage door opener companies who argue that the DMCA entitles them to block interoperability with anything that hasn't been approved in advance. Apple justifies this by claiming that opening the iPhone to independently created applications will compromise safety, security, reliability, and swing the doors wide for those who want to run pirated software.

If this sounds like FUD, that's because it is. One need only transpose Apple's arguments to the world of automobiles to recognize their absurdity. Sure, GM might tell us that, for our own safety, all servicing should be done by an authorized GM dealer using only genuine GM parts. Toyota might say that swapping your engine could reduce the reliability of your car. And Mazda could say that those who throw a supercharger on their Miatas frequently exceed the legal speed limit.

But we'd never accept this corporate paternalism as a justification for welding every car hood shut and imposing legal liability on car buffs tinkering in their garages. After all, the culture of tinkering (or hacking, if you prefer) is an important part of our innovation economy.

Of course, many iPhone owners will be happy to choose solely from the applications that Apple is willing to approve, just like many Ford owners are happy relying exclusively on their local Ford dealer. But if you want to pop the hood, the DMCA surely shouldn't stand in your way."