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How to tether your iPhone or G1 to your laptop

Published
by
Kyle
on February 16, 2009
in News
. 1 Comment

Tethering your device is really helpful if you like to work around the city on your laptop, but your city’s WiFi situation is a little bleak.

When tethering, make sure you aren’t seeding any torrents because although most carriers offer a decent ‘all you can eat’ data plan, torrents can quickly put you over the limit.

What You’ll Need:

• For G1: USB cable, Tetherbot App, Android SDK, Firefox
• For iPhone: iPhoneModem app, Jailbroken phone

G1 Tether

Graham Stewart wrote a great guide and app for tethering which can be found here. This app isn’t a true modem tether, so you’ll have to browse with Firefox (what else would you use?).

1. Go here on your G1’s browser and install the Tetherbot app. If unknown sources are not enabled on your phone (under Settings -> Applications -> Unknown Sources) do that first.

2. Turn on USB Debugging under Settings -> Applications -> Development and connect your phone via USB.

3. Get your Android SDK set up. If you’re on Windows, you’ll need to download and install a driver.

4. On your phone, fire up the Tetherbot app and tap the “Start Socks” button.

5. Now, the SDK incantation. In a terminal window on Mac or a run window on Windows, navigate to the “tools” folder within your SDK directory and then type the following:

Mac:

./adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080

Windows:

adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080

6. Now, in Firefox, go to Options -> Advanced -> Network, and click to configure how Firefox connects to the Internet. In the window that pops up, choose “Manual proxy configuration” and clear out everything that might be there. Under SOCKS host, type “localhost” and change the port to 1080. Hit OK, and you should be in business. Easy right?

iPhone Tether

This tether will require you to jailbreak your iPhone. Although tethering is incredibly sweet, I’m not a huge fan of jailbreaking the iPhone. It has been my experience that these sorts of hacks really degenerate the quality of the software over the long run and sometimes it’s best to stick to what you’re given.

Here are instructions to jailbreak your phone.

The instructions and app I’m using can be found at iPhoneModem.de and it is completely free. This is a Mac-only app and set of instructions, but Windows users can use PDANet for their tethering needs.

1. Once you’re jailbroken, open up Cydia and install the package called “iPhone Modem zsrelay” - you can find it by searching “modem.” Also install OpenSSH - find it by searching “SSH.” BossPrefs is also recommended, so you can make sure SSH is running.

2. Download the iPhoneModem.de helper app and run it, and go to “Settings…” under the little iPhone icon that just appeared in the status bar.

3. Fill in the following fields:

IP-Address of Mac: Leave the default value (192.168.100.1)
Password of Mac: Your admin password
WLAN Name: The name of the ad-hoc network that will be created - your choice
WLAN Password: It must be 13 characters-your choice as long as it’s 13
SOCKS Port: Leave default (9999)
iPhone root Password: alpine (as long as you’re running 2.x firmware)
iPhone Mac Address: Found under Settings - General - About - make sure you use the wi-fi MAC address.

4. Once your config is saved, go to “start connection” and follow the prompts. Your Mac will create an ad-hoc network, which you will then join with your iPhone (make sure you get an IP address on your iPhone before continuing). Everything should go smoothly, and voila, you’re tethered!

[Via]

How to turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone

Published
by
Kyle
on February 10, 2009
in Customization and News
. 1 Comment

Although this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a product like this, it’s good to know that people are still plugging away at turning the iPod Touch into an iPhone. Back in December, we heard about a company called Truphone, which also provides VoIP services for your smartphone.

In theory, having a VoIP device sounds good. The problem is the reliability of the service has consistently been lackluster on mobile. I’ve yet to try a service that can provide the sort of reliability you would expect from Vonage ported over to mobile.

“With JAJAH, consumers would only need a Wi-Fi connection, no SIM card or contract. JAJAH’s IP communications platform gives its partners everything they need to launch the service immediately. That includes the application itself and the entire suite of management services from termination of calls, quality control, billing and processing of payments in 200 countries around the world.”

Personally, I’m an iPhone user so I don’t have much of a need for this, but I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve tried it.

Check out JAJAH here.

[Via]

How to sync all your contacts, calendars and events with Nexthaus

Published
by
Kyle
on February 9, 2009
in Customization and Opinion
. 1 Comment


Most companies who are BlackBerry-centric have a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. It’s the ultimate solution for sync’ing your device with your contacts, calendars and events wirelessly with your desktop/laptop. But what about that growing consumer market? The average consumer is clearly not going to spend the cash or energy to set up their own BES, but they still need to sync their device. One option available to you is Nexthaus.

Among the many benefits of having a sync’ed lifestyle is that your life stays organized. Having all your calendars and contacts sync’ed wirelessly means you can effectively manage your life and stay mobile. Take for example the following situation:

You’re at a dinner party and one of the guests just so happens to work for that store you’ve been meaning to go to. The guest offers his contact info and tells you to come by the store Monday morning. When the conversation is done, you log the contact info into your phone and set a calendar event for the date, time and location of the store. Sync’ing this info will mean you’ll instantly know of schedule conflicts and you’ll be reminded when the time comes. Being sync’ed means more effective networking.

Nexthaus is a company we’ve been working with recently and they have great software to sync your device wirelessly. The first thing you need to do is get a copy of the software. Go to their homepage and select SyncJe for BlackBerry. Now follow these simple instructions and you’re set.

If you know of other companies that offer similar software, we’d love to hear about them. Leave a comment and we’ll follow up.

Sony Ericsson C510 made more affordable with new features

Published
by
Kyle
on January 15, 2009
in Hardware and News
. 0 Comments



The Sony Ericsson C510 was recently made official. The C510 is the latest in the Sony Ericsson Cyber-Shot family and is supposed to be a smooth improvement over previous editions. This new model, is expected to be a little more affordable and yet offer the same quality cameraphone technology that is expected from Cyber-Shot.

A new feature arriving on the C510 is the introduction of Smile Shutter. This new feature allows the user to capture the smiles of freinds and family effortlessly by detecting the smile and immediately taking the photo.

Finally! Sony has managed to end the saying of the word “CHEESE!”

[Via]

The ultimate social network phone - the INQ1

Published
by
Kyle
on January 13, 2009
in Hardware, News and Opinion
. 0 Comments

The INQ1 is more than just a phone with a mobile web browser to view Facebook. The device is dedicated to social networking and Facebook, being one of the largest, is an obvious focus. The phone will also keep you connected with your other social networks using a system of widgets and shortcuts to all your communication means. An added benefit to this uber-communication device, is that it is in the midrange of handset prices. So if you’re looking for a device that isn’t your standard expensive smartphone, but will keep you in touch will all your friends and relatives, this could be your device.

Nokia 5800 Xpress Music reviewed

Published
by
Kyle
on January 13, 2009
in Hardware and News
. 1 Comment

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is clearly designed for the music lover who isn’t interested in any other feature. You might say to this person, “would you like QWERTY?” and they’ll just be like “is that a band? Because music is where it’s at.” The 5800 is the world’s first Symbian S60 5th Edition touchscreen mobile phone and Nokia’s first proper attempt at a dedicated touchscreen handset. Although I wouldn’t consider it Nokia’s flagship touchscreen, that is obviously the N97. In any case, the 5800 is shaping up to be a really decent phone.

[Via]

Samsung Armani M7500 has officially launched

Published
by
Kyle
on January 9, 2009
in Hardware and News
. 0 Comments

he new Samsung Armani M7500 aka the Night Effect is now available for sale in the UK. The device is an upgrade from the previous P520 yet it may seem to be somewhat downgraded, having favored a slim candybar to the earlier device’s touchscreen.

Although this device isn’t about to blow you away with features and innovation, it appeals to an Armani principle of simplicity. When I showed this phone to a designer friend of mine, he said it looks awesome and he would definitely buy it. It was then that I realized that fashion designers don’t care about playing accelerometer based games on their phone and prefer sleek to geek.

[Via]

BEST OF 2008: How to save money on your phone bill

Published
by
Kyle
on December 31, 2008
in QuicklyBored
. 0 Comments

Looking to save some cash on your phone bill? Sascha Segan at PC Mag had $35 dollars taken off his phone bill and I’ll tell you how he did it. In order to get these discounts, you will have to be very bold with your carrier and make threats that you wouldn’t otherwise make. Remember, you are trying to tap into the customer retention plans and processes that carriers have in place to keep your business. If you don’t come across as frustrated and willing to walk away from it all, you’ve lost your ability to properly negotiate.

Click through to read how to save money on your phone bill

BEST OF 2008: An amazing Zombie Attack! high score

Published
by
Kyle
on December 31, 2008
in QuicklyBored
. 0 Comments

High score

Doug and I just finished a solid round of Zombie Attack! by IUGO and his score is ridiculous. At first I thought that it was the best score that anyone has ever had on Zombie Attack! I mean, his score was 3529. Nothing could possibly top that right? Well I was checking out the forums and it turns out hyk from the touchArcade forums got 4096! I’ve posted his screenshot above, which shows his score just before he died. Amazing! My hat goes off to this guy. I’ll quote his story below for your enjoyment. Nice one hyk!

Click through to read about hyk’s insane Zombie Attack high score