A few days ago I got an Aramex package containing some iPhone cases the I ordered a couple of months ago via Kickstarter. The i+Case reminds me a lot of the Element Case’s Vapor case for the iPhone that I previously owned. But the i-Case is more compact and I can use 3rd party chargers, A problem I hated when I was using the Vapor.

I really loved the high quality of the compact screwdriver and the fact it has button extensions. But as it is with this type of cases, you can’t take it off unless you got the miniature screwdriver with you.

I also dislike the mute button extension, its not as firm and secure in its position as the rest of the case, I’m not sure if its only a problem with that particular case or if it is a design flaw.

There is also a signal  loss issue according to some users. They confirmed that but its not that serious and I haven’t  noticed it that much. Especially since the iPhone is not my main phone.

All in all, I really love the case so far and haven’t got any major issues with it during the 18 hours that I have had it installed.

After having the problem with my SSD in my PC build a few weeks ago and having to order a new one. I kept experimenting with my “faulty” SSD and see if I missed something. After playing around with it for a few days  discovered that it ran fine as a data drive (opposed to a boot disk). So I thought I might as well try sticking it in my Macbook Pro.

I’ve opened up every computer I’ve owned but still I had to research the matter before diving into it. After a quick read it was confirmed that it was pretty straight forward and that I had all the tools necessary for the job.

After unscrewing the bottom of the Macbook Pro (I have the unibody 2010 edition) and popping it open, you can see the HDD in the bottom right secured by a latch. removing the latch and the SATA connector completely releases the HDD. And from there its just a matter of replacing the HDD and putting everything back together.

There are a number of benefits to having a SSD such as:

• Speed: boot time is 18 seconds from pressing the power button to read use and having 3 programs running (Pixelmator, Safari and MarsEdit).
• Silent: Because SSD has no moving pars it is virtually silent and also there is no vibrations.
• Slightly better battery life.

The 2 major and only disadvantages that SSD have in my opening are price and capacity. but in time we “should” get there.

This is the first day of using the MBP after the upgrade so I’ll be watching if it acts up.

Mac Legion

Mac Legion’s bundle only has a few hours left but it might be the least desirable from the bunch as most heavily discounted apps are Motion Composer and Nisus Writer Pro, which I have no interest in.

Link

Productive Macs

Productive Macs bundle is the least discounted, selling at $40 down from $264 but has a pretty good collection of apps such as Fantastical and Default Folder X among others. The bundle has 8 days to go.

Link

Bundle Hunt

Bundle hunt has remarkable savings as its the most discounted app bundle of the bunch, selling at $50 down from $1100. But again, the app collection is not for everyone as a Vector Collection wont do everyone some good. The bundle has 4 days left.

Link

Mac Update

I have written about Mac Update and their bundles before. They usually have the best app collection and this time its no different. The Winter 2011 bundle has some essential apps and I like there software management system. The bundle has just under 10 days left.

Link

Got an iPhone? Thinking about jailbreaking it? don’t be fooled by the $10 app in the app store that doesn’t have sufficient description and tricks you into thinking it actually jailbreaks your phone. Its just a cheap game. I remember when the App Store was much more strict, but then again, I also remember the I Am Rich app that was being sold for $1000

There are a lot of small and hidden features in iOS5 that weren’t advertised as much as say the notification drawer or iMessage but this is pretty awesome.

You can create a custom vibration pattern and set it to individual contacts on your iPhone. So now even silently you can know who is calling you without the need to look at your phone.

1. Navigate to the Accessibility menu of iOS 5 (by tapping your Settings app, and selecting General and then Accessibility), and enable Custom Vibrations.

2. Navigate to Settings, Sounds, Vibration to record a custom vibration pattern that will replace the default iPhone vibration.

3. Use the touchscreen to tap out a custom vibration pattern. When you’re finished, tap Stop. To double-check your pattern, press the Play button; then save the pattern with a custom name.

Use the Contacts menu (bottom center) to assign custom vibrations to your friends.

4. To assign a custom vibration pattern to play only when a specific person calls, open the Phone app, switch to the Contacts tab, tap the contact to whom you want to assign a custom vibration, and select Edit, Vibration, Create New Vibration.

Source

This is a brief video showing how Apple operates. From the monopolization of the entertainment industry to the high demands from the Chinese manufacturers that cause a lot of suicides last year.

Are you the kind of guy that drops his phone constantly? the video will shows what will happen if you drop your iPhone 4/S from various heights vs the Samsung Galaxy S 2. The outcome is predictable as the iPhone’s glass finish is more prone to breaking than the lighter plastic finish of the SGS2.

The iPhone 4S has been up for preorder since the 7th. And should start shipping in the 14th. If you are planning to get your hands on one as soon as possible here are few hints.

The iPhone 4S will be released on the14th in only 6 countries (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan) if you happen to be in one of those countries and willing to wait whole day in line for it you will be able to get your hand on the iPhone 4S for the following prices:

iPhone 4S Price in UK:
iPhone 4S 16GB – KWD 212.71
iPhone 4S 32GB – KWD 255.33
iPhone 4S 64GB – KWD 297.96

iPhone 4S Price in France:
iPhone 4S 16GB – KWD 230.48
iPhone 4S 32GB – KWD 270.78
iPhone 4S 64GB – KWD 311.09

iPhone 4S Price in Germany:
iPhone 4S 16GB – KWD 230.48
iPhone 4S 32GB – KWD 270.78
iPhone 4S 64GB – KWD 311.09

iPhone 4S Price in Canada:
iPhone 4S 16GB – KWD 175
iPhone 4S 32GB – KWD 200
iPhone 4S 64GB – KWD 230

iPhone 4S Price in Australia:
iPhone 4S 16GB – KWD 220
iPhone 4S 32GB – KWD 250
iPhone 4S 64GB – KWD 275

iPhone 4S Price in USA:
Carrier unlocked phones will be available in November
iPhone 4S 16GB – KWD180
iPhone 4S 32GB – KWD 205
iPhone 4S 64GB – KWD 235

If you have someone in Canada then you are lucky. But if you are ordering online your best bet is to order from Apple UK as they ship to forwarding addresses last time I checked. But keep in mind the the first batch of phones is currently out of stock and the next batch should be here in 1-2 weeks according to all of Apple’s online stores.

By the end of October, The iPhone 4S will be available in 22 more countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein,Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland) and the rest of the market (i.e. UAE)  by December. No word on pricing though.

We just heard yesterday from Apple the specs of the latest iPhone 4S. Next week its Samsung and Google’s turn to announce the anticipated Nexus Prime/Galaxy, a rumored 4.65″ screen with 720P Super Amoled Plus display And from the teaser video it looks like it will have a curved screen. And by the end of the month Nokia world will be taking place and we should see the first Nokia Windows Mobile Phone device. I hope they don’t reveal something too awesome or that means I’ll be broke this month. That’s not taking into account the Amazon’s Kindle Fire that was announced last week.

Apple iPhone 4S exclusive feature is voice control done by Siri. Siri is a company purchased by apple back in April of 2010 and just made its way into the iOS.

Came across this handy little feature today that would make life much easier for a number of people. You can now sign documents on your Mac using preview. I know I’m going to use this feature quite a lot.

They are waaaaaaay too nice.

Technically Windows 8 is not even in beta yet but who cares as long as it looks this good.

The video shows some basic UI elements and some OS settings in both platforms.

I am loving what was shown of Windows 8 so far and just can’t wait to see more of it.

I have been a mac user for almost 5 years now, and the Mac Mini that I got a couple of weeks ago was my first Mac desktop experience. And because I downloaded OS X Lion a few weeks earlier on my MBP and experienced some slow-downs. I knew I had to get extra RAM for the Mac Mini if I intended to use it as a proper desktop with somewhat intensive tasks.

A good thing that the Mac Mini RAM upgrade is fool-proof. All you need to do is unscrew the bottom, both RAM sticks, put in the new RAM (2x4GB sticks in my case) and the just screw the bottom back on. its that simple.

The RAM kit I got from Amazon was for $44/KD12 and works beautifully. [Link]

I have been playing around with the new Mac Mini for a couple of weeks now, and I find it a very capable machine. I initially got it to replace my Windows based media center but after being

handed a second generation Apple TV I decided to use it as a desktop PC instead of my MBP. There have been a lot of talk about the Mac Mini not having a DVD drive. I personally rarely ever use the DVD drive in a PC, and if I do, I am ripping a dvd. But I use my trusty old Windows PC for that heavy-lifting.

I find that OS X Lion is a bit slow, or slower then Snow Leopard. but it comes with a number of new features and tweaks. The device itself is quiet unless you are encoding something and the fans start spinning in full speed then you will definitely hear it. It has all the necessary ports that most of the users will need and comes in a small but capable package. a 2.5 i5 Intel CPU, 4GB RAM a dedicated 256MB Radeon graphic card.

While most people are moving towards laptops and tablets. I am a desktop guy, I only use a tablet or a laptops when I need to. I love sitting on a desk using a 27″ screen and a full size keyboard and a mouse. And thats why I might recommend the Mac Mini to whoever is curious and what to dip his toes into the Mac world.

The image above is a size comparison of the Mac Mini to the Time Capsule.

I recently bought the newly upgraded Time Capsule from Apple. I wanted a dual band router ever since I got my original Airport Extreme, but I thought that having a built in hard drive is a plus I’m having a little trouble with my WHS.

As you can see from the picture above, the Time capsule is a bit bigger than the Airport Extreme. Thats due to the built-in hard drive. I am planing to put my iTunes library on it so that it can be shared by all the household PCs.

After getting all the necessary requirements. The first thing you should do is install the beta version of iTunes. Then launch it and select your idevice’s icon in iTunes and then click on “Restore” while holding “Control” if you are using windows on the “Option” key of you are using a Mac. Select the iOS 5 beta file that you downloaded and the rest should go smoothly.

]]> http://uptill1.com/2011/06/09/how-to-get-ios-5-on-your-ios-device/feed/ 5 http://uptill1.com/2011/06/07/apples-new-ios-5-and-other-announcements-video/ http://uptill1.com/2011/06/07/apples-new-ios-5-and-other-announcements-video/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:34:26 +0000 N http://uptill1.com/2011/06/07/apples-new-ios-5-and-other-announcements-video/ If you follow me on twitter I would have bombarded you with tweets yesterday about both the WWDC and the E3 conferences that were taking place at almost the same time yesterday. Both had some exciting news coming out of them.

Notification:
This one was the most anticipated. Apple revamped the notification system on the iOS. making actually getting a notification more tolerable. Again a “borrowing” the idea from Google’s Android. you can slide down the screen a see all you notification and both the weather and stock widgets (and only widget sadly). Also, notifications will show up on your lockscreen. Making if more than just a glorified clock.

iMessage:
As I said yesterday, this just might be a BBM killer. The device automatically detects every iOS 5 user in your contacts and when you try to message them using the regular messaging app the bubbles switch from the standard green to a blue color indicating the use of iMassage. Apple still haven’t revealed fully how will this service work and will it identify contacts via mobile numbers mobile numbers the way Whatsapp does it or is it just an email account tie in.

Camera:
A few things happened to the photography aspect in iOS 5. for starters you will get a lock screen shortcut for the camera app for those critical moments when you need to access the camera as soon as possible. Also, you will be able to take a photo using the volume button instead of tapping on the screen. Lastly Apple also implemented some minor photo editing features the way iphoto handles editing on the mac. its more than enough for everyday photographer.

Mobile Safari Browser:
Tabbed browsing is long overdue on both iPhone and iPad. It works the same way it does as the desktop version of Safari but its only working on the iPad at the moment not sure if its coming to the iPhone at all. Also Apple added the ability to save long/multiple page articles for later viewing ala “Instapaper”. It also stripes away formatting of the page and convert it to a clean readable interface.

Thumb/Split keyboard is making an appearance. Reminds me of Microsofts Origami Project keyboards back in 2005/2006 and also the one Microsoft showed a few days ago in the Windows 8 video

iOS 5 and iCloud will be available this fall and OS X Lion will be available in July via the Mac Appstore.

• iOS 5
• OS X Lion
• iCloud

What I hope he will announce:

• A revamped notification and widget system for the iOS 5. Something similar to what the Android has.
• A new Airport/Time Capsule. A lot of theories are built upon a new Time Capsule and it getting either an A4 or A5 chip. I was in the process of getting on till I heard those rumors and decided to hold off for a few days.
• Macbook Air i3/i5 upgrade.
• Mac Mini i3/i5 upgrade.
• Apple TV A5 chip upgrade and the ability to run apps.

The other event that is taking place this week is the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3 for short). There are a lot of games that I’m looking forward to playing, so I hope I get more info about them:

• Nintendo’s new console
• Uncharted 3
• Gears of War 3
• Bioshock: Infinite
• Infamous 2
• Need for Speed: The Run
• Forza 4
• Skyrim
• Tomb Raider
• Darksiders ii
• Batman: Arkham City
• Silent Hill: Downpour

And a lot more.

]]> http://uptill1.com/2011/06/06/announcements-week/feed/ 2 http://uptill1.com/2011/06/05/ios-magic/ http://uptill1.com/2011/06/05/ios-magic/#comments Sun, 05 Jun 2011 09:21:54 +0000 N http://uptill1.com/2011/06/05/ios-magic/

So that’s what Steve Jobs meant when he said that the iPad is magical?

The iOS is a great mobile operating system but it is still lacking in certain areas. This video shows how to implement 4 of those shortcomings seamlessly into the iOS. The funny thing is all of those 4 features are already implemented in the Android OS.

I rarely blog on my iPad or even use it lately. But after stumbling on Blogsy, I might just use it more often.

Blogsy is a fully featured blogging application that supports WordPress and Blogger platforms at the moment. And is 10 times better than the official WordPress app.

It’s pretty straight forward to use and you can embed media from a number of online services and also from any webpage using the apps own integrated browser. It lacks the ability to add photos from your library, but its coming in the next update according to the developers.

The app costs . I think it’s worth it.

Enter Henge Docks. A docking solution for the Macbook and the Macbook Pro that is stylish, elegant, reasonably priced and also comes with all the extension wires you would need. Its very easy to setup and is very convenient .

I got 2 of those for my 15″ MBP and I have been using them for more than 6 months now. And I absolutely love them. I have one setup at home and one setup at work. That means my home desktop experience is with me at work and I don’t need to be stuck with the tiny 15″ screen. All I needed to get was a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, a Mini Displayport-to DVI and a DVI cable, and I was all set.

Henge Docks

Who can explain it better thanJay Freeman. The man behind Cydia, the unofficial iOS app store.

Apps shown in the video:

qTweeter – status bar tweeting

Graviboard – adds gravity effect on your icons
Iconoclasm – icon layouts
Springtomizer – Change slide to unlock text & others
SBsettings – status bar hot key toggles
Barrel 1/2 – Homescreen scroll effects

Via iClarified

Thanks Ebraheem

A list of features from their website:

- Aluminum housing

- Attractive non-battery look

- 7200mAh lithium ion battery

- Extend iPad battery life by up to 10 extra hours

- Fully recharge the iPhone up to 6 times – Extend talk time by up to 72 hours, standby time by up to 1800 hours, Internet use by up to 54 hours

- Extend video playback by up to 60 hours and audio playback by up to 180 hours

- 10W (5V/2.1A max) power via USB port- Recharge via standard (5V/500mAh) or high power 10W (5V/2.1A max) USB

- Supports pass through charging, charge both battery and iPad/iPhone/iPod at the same time- Military grade lithium ion cells, rechargeable up to 1,000 times

- Built-in short circuit, overcharging and temperature protection

- 1 year limited warranty

HyperMac Mini

I first placed my order with Element Case back in August. But the case was so backordered that I had to wait 3 months for my case to arrive. It turned out to be a good thing because they had a few more colors to choose from by then.

The case is aluminum that has to be screwed into place, which means you can’t take the case off anytime you want, you have to have the hex key with you unfortunately.

The case looks really cool. Both the screen and the back are a little embedded with the case on. So when the phone is on a flat surface it protects the screen and back from being scratched.

I also got the “Carbon Fiber” back which turned out to be nothing more than a sticker.

Overall the case looks and feels good. The build quality is excellent. It make the phone a little bit more bulky.

Some people reported in a decrease of signal reception when using the case. I can’t confirm that because I always had crappy reception on my iPhone and I don’t use it to make any calls.

I had a problem using my BlueLounge charging station with the case on, it seems that the Apple’s proprietary connection is a different size on the station. Also not all 3.5mm headphones will work, the standard headphones work with no problem though.

Element Case

Don’t let me catch you getting your YouTube fix on that thing mr minister.