What is this jailbreak - Part 2

So, if you read my last post talking about just exactly what a Jailbreak is, you might have come to the decision to actually perform the jailbreak on your device.  Congratulations!  Not only is it really easy to do, but you will open up a whole new world of options on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

There are a couple of important points I need to make before you can go any further.

1. If you have one of the newer iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch 3G, your Jailbreak will be what's called a "Tethered jailbreak".  This means that the tools available are not 100% compatible with your device and you will need to connect it to your computer every time you want to reboot it.  Granted, you should not need to reboot all that often, but it is definitely something to keep in mind.
2. If you have an iPod Touch with a model number starting with MC, you will also be limited to the Tethered Jailbreak.  To determine if this affects you, go to Settings -> General -> About and scroll down until you see the model number.  If it starts with MC you are stuck with the tethered jailbreak.

NOTE

When I first got my iPod Touch I was limited to a Tethered Jailbreak for the first month or so.  This is only inconvenient if you need to reboot your device.  The teams that come up with the Jailbreak tools will find a way to fully support the newer devices, just like they did with mine.  You can either go ahead with the Jailbreak, or you can wait for the tools to support it.  If at any time you feel it is too inconvenient, you can always restore your device in iTunes to default and this will remove the Jailbreak.

There are two main methods of Jailbreaking  your device.  The first is Blackra1n, which will NOT work if you have the newest 3.1.3 firmware from Apple.  However, if you are on 3.1.2 it is the easiest and fastest method.  The second is Redsn0w which has been modified to work with the new firmware.  I have not had the chance to upgrade and test mine yet, so I cannot confirm the functionality yet.  Please go here for detailed instructions on using Redsn0w.

NOTE

If you have an iPhone and plan on Unlocking your device, there are new tools available as of today that will allow you to upgrade, jailbreak and unlock.  Please go here and here for specific information.  I do not own an iPhone so I have not been able to test these methods.  If  you attempt these methods and run into any problems you can always restore your device to factory default to undo them.

Let's do the actual Jailbreak now shall we?

If you are still reading, it must mean you are not on the 3.1.3 firmware and want to use Blackra1n to jailbreak.  YAY! 

1. Perform a backup of your device in iTunes.  This will protect you in the unlikely event something goes wrong and you are forced to restore your device.  Do not upgrade your firmware at this point unless you want to use Redsn0w instead.
2. Go to Blackra1n and download the appropriate version for your operating system.
3. Once it has been downloaded, connect your device and run the blackra1n.exe file.  Click the "make it ra1n" button.  In about 30 seconds your device will reboot itself, display a picture of Geohot (the person who made blackra1n) and reboot itself again.  At this point you should have a new icon on your device called Blackra1n.  Congratulations, you have now jailbroken your device.  (wasn't that easy?)

NOTE

If, when the device reboots, you get a Conenct to iTunes message, it means you are one of the unlucky people to have a device which requires a "tethered jailbreak"  If you get this message you can simply connect it to your computer and run the Blackra1n program to boot your device.  You will be forced to do this every time you reboot the device.  If you don't like this, simply launch iTunes and choose to restore your device.

Now you are thinking to yourself, "now what?"  On your device, click the Blackra1n icon and select to install Cydia.  Cydia is the program that gives you access to all the wonderful jailbroken applications that you have heard so much about.  After it has installed you can now start searching through and start installing all the applications and themes.

If you have an iPhone 3G and want to be able to unlock your device, the Blackra1n application that was installed will have an option to install Blacksn0w.  This will unlock your device.

The unlock is different than the jailbreak.  The unlock gives your phone the ability to be used on a different carrier than the one it was originally "locked" to.  This will be handy if you purchased a used iPhone as you can then use it on any mobile provider.

My favourite Cydia Applications

Now that you are jailbroken and have installed Cydia, I am going to simply list the applications that I have installed which are cool.  If you do a simple Google search there will be TONS of suggestions as to the best applications to get.

1. Winterboard - this application allows you to install custom themes on your device.  This is one of the best reasons for jailbreaking your device.
2. Five Icon Dock - allows 5 icons to reside in the Dock area of your device (bottom of the screen) 
3. Five Column SpringBoard - allows a 5th column to be added to your screen, so instead of 4 icons across, you can have 5.
4. MakeitMine - allows you to change the carrier information at the top of your screen.  On the iPod Touch it will usually just say iPod, with MakeitMine you can change that be whatever you choose.
5. OpenSSH - Allows SSH access into the device itself.  If you are not a power user, this app might not be for you.  If you do install it, make sure you change the default password!!!
6. ProSwitcher - Allows you to multitask, which is something Apple doesn't want you to do.  Another great reason to Jailbreak!
7. SBSettings - adds a dropdown menu to give you instant control over important settings on your device.  The ability to turn on/off Wifi, 3G, Bluetooth, SSH.
8. Shrink - Cydia includes some apps that you have to pay for, just like the Apple App store.  Shrink is one that I use to reduce the size of my icons.  This is really handy with the use of the Five Column SpringBoard application.  I highly recommend it!
9. CyDelete - allows you to uninstall Cydia applications the same way you uninstall App Store applications.  Really handy!
10. Simple iPad Theme - This theme adds some of the look of the newly announced iPad to your iPhone or iPod Touch.  Spiffy!

There are thousands of great applications that you can now install, and thousands of themes to customize the look and feel of your device.  Have fun!


Thanks go out to the iPhone Dev-Team and GeoHot for all the specific information and tools used to jailbreak!  Without you guys we would be locked into what Apple thinks we should be. 
Thanks also to Redmond Pie for the tutorials on using the newest tools available.

What is this Jailbreak you speak of?

Ever since I got my iPod Touch I have had it Jailbroken.  People always ask me about it so I thought I would put up a post on what exactly it is and why you should do it.

Jailbreak is the term given to the act of "hacking" your iPhone or iPod Touch. By using the word "hacking" I have given it a negative connotation, when in reality Jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch is simply giving you control over the device you have already paid for.  Apple may have a problem with it, but contrary to what you may have heard - it is not illegal.


So...what is this Jailbreak you speak of?  

The technical answer is the act of Jailbreaking your device gives you access to the actual system and the file system of the device.  The iPhone and iPod Touch run a type of Mac OSX/Unix Operating system and Jailbreaking your device gives you access to this.
The easy to understand answer is that: Jailbreaking your device allows you to install 3rd party applications that are not available on the Apple App Store; the ability to change the appearance of your icons, wallpaper, dock etc (themes); and the ability to have more control over settings and functionality that already exist on the device.

So, now that you technically know what Jailbreaking is, the question I get all the time is why?  Why should I do it?  Why risk voiding my warranty?

A Google search will return more than a million hits for the simple question of "Why jailbreak?"  Here is a link to the best list of reasons I have found from Big Boss.

What about "bricking" my iPhone/iPod Touch?

It is nearly impossible to damage your device by Jailbreaking it.  The worst you should ever see is the Jailbreak is lost (either from a failed attempt, or a firmware upgrade) or you may be forced to restore your device to factory default.  Neither scenario is destructive to the device itself.  Apple included a nice recovery mode in the event anything ever goes wrong with the device.  This allows you to "recover" your device.  If you feel you have completely "bricked" your device and it will simply not function anymore, Apple has included one more mode which will recover your device for you - DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode.  As you can see, Apple has made it very safe for us to Jailbreak.  :) 

Will I lose the existing functionality if I Jailbreak?

No.  You will still be able to purchase apps from the Apple App Store, you will still be able to purchase music from iTunes and you will still be able to do everything that you did before.  iTunes will still work the same as it did before you did the Jailbreak.  The only thing that will change is the ability to enhance the device - make it better.  The iPhone and iPod Touch are such powerful devices - wouldn't it be nice to use them to their fullest potential?

I am not going to go into a great amount of detail since I would basically be repeating what has already been written so many times before.  Suffice it to say that not jailbreaking your device is like not being able to paint or renovate your house.  Everything is functional, but it doesn't look as nice as it could, and it would sure be nice to put a jacuzzi tub in the master bath!


One of the nicer things I have seen recently is the ability to "skin" your iPhone and iPod Touch to look like the recently announced iPad.  I have personally gone through and implemented some of the changes and I am quite happy with the results.

Once you have gone through all the information that is available, you can then decide if it makes sense for you to Jailbreak your device or not.  The actual process is not that difficult and I will make a new post in a few days to describe that process.  If after jailbreaking you are not convinced that it's for you, you can always return your device to factory default.  There is literally no risk to you.

NOTE:

If you ARE planning to Jailbreak your device, do not upgrade your firmware to the newly released 3.1.3.  Doing so will prevent you from being able to jailbreak at this time.  If you have already Jailbroken your device, upgrading to the newest firmware will also undo the jailbreak.  If this has happened to your device, you will need to wait for a new Jailbreak to become available.

MegaFPS

This past weekend was a busy one for me - I was at a LAN Party!  :)  For those of you who don't know what a LAN party is - Google is your friend!  LOL

The guys at MegaFPS put on another LAN this weekend - JanLAN.  Somewhere around 20 - 30 people came together in the GoldBar Community Hall for a weekend of GAMING!  I arrived around 7:30pm on Friday and quickly setup and got down to some gaming.  We played some L4D2 (Left for Dead 2), some Flatout and some more L4D2.  The next thing I know it is 3:30am.  I decide to go home and get some sleep.  Some people elect to stay and sleep at the LAN, but seeing as I was only a 15min drive from home I felt I would sleep better in my own bed.

I drag my ass back Saturday at about noon ready for another marathon session of gaming.  Armed with some coffee and pop I get down to the serious business of zombie killing.  My wife and I were supposed to go to a wedding Saturday night so I left the Lan about 4pm to go get ready.  About 1 minute after I leave, she calls me to say she is not feeling well and that we wouldn't be going to the wedding.  I promptly turn around and head back. 

After about 4 more hours of gaming, interrupted only for a pizza break (thanks Geoff and Adam!), I decide to head home for a shower and to replenish my supplies.  Back at the Lan about 9:30 I settle in for the long haul armed with some typical geek Lan food - snacks and energy drinks.  Seeing as I am not as young as I once was, I brought some water to keep myself hydrated, which is a good idea at any age.

Between the L4D, TF2, Flatout and some Trackmania, I decide to call it quits - at 3:30am.  As things tend to end rather early on Sunday, I decided to pack up and head home, rather than come back for an hour on Sunday.  This was a first for me as I always come back, if for no other reason than to help clean up.  I guess I really am getting old!  LOL

JanLAN was a great time.  If I knew in advance that I wasn't going to the wedding, I would have brought my comfortable chair, and my RockBand.  As a result of the crappy chair I spent the weekend on, my back is killing me!  As a result of not bringing the RockBand, I didn't get to rock out!  LOL  Next time...

Sunday afternoon some of the Fragapalooza staff got together for a meeting to decide if we are going to put on another Frag this year.  You heard it here first - yes we are!  We don't have a venue or date set yet, so the official announcement will wait a bit.  However, now that we have decided, the planning can begin.

One thing I should mention...we had our meeting at Red Robins.  Gil had informed me of the pre-fill of fries, and I thought I would share it with you.  As you get free refills on your fries at Red Robins, why not order a PRE-fill of fries instead of paying for an appetizer?  The fries are really good and it will save you some money.  :)  When the waitress asks what you want, simply request the prefill.

I think I have bored you enough now...until next time, remember to get your geek on whenever possible!

Whew! Made it through the holidays!

So...here we are in 2010.  Now...is that twenty-ten, or two thousand-ten?  I am torn actually...I mean I did say two-thousand-nine, so it stands to reason that I would say two-thousand-ten right?  Well...the argument will come out about 1999 for instance.  We said nineteen-ninety-nine, so we should say twenty-ten right?  Food for thought...

Anyway...back to the topic of this post...  I made it through the holidays in one piece.  Santa was good to me this year.  Between gift cards and some cash I managed to snag myself a nice entry level Netbook.  Thanks to Best Buy for having one on sale just in time for me to get one!  :)

I spent xmas morning/afternoon with my side of the family and did a nice lunch.  Spent some time with my son, his gf and her son (my grandson - still really hard to say that!!!) and it was a lot of fun.  Opened gifts, ate great food and contrary to a previous Blog post, the day was not as uncomfortable as I expected.  LOL


We then made the trip up to Grande Prairie to spend some time with my wife's parents.  The roads were pretty decent on the trip up and with next to no traffic out on xmas day we made good time.  We spent the next 5 days in GP before coming home on the 30th.  It was nice to get away for a bit, had a good time, but it was also nice to come home again.  The drive home was a little different.  The roads were pretty slick and we saw a bunch of cars in the ditch, and even a big semi trailer/truck.  I drove slower to avoid any problems and made it in one piece.

New Years Eve was relatively quiet.  I watched hockey until about 9:30, went to my friends house (wife had to work) and rang in the new year nice and quiet like.  Home just after 1am and the best part of a quiet new years - no hangover the next day!  LOL

Throughout the holidays I have been watching a TON of hockey.  From the Oilers games, to the Spengler Cup (Canada didn't win this year) and best of all, the World Juniors.  My wife is getting tired of all the hockey, but hey...it's only once a year right?  (except with the Olympics this year...and I think there is the World Cup of hockey in the spring...)

So here I am after 10 days off and I am back to work.  It was REALLY hard to get up this morning, but I managed to make it into work.  With all the B.S. that has been going on at work with the re-org and the outsourcing I only have 1 new years resolution - stay employed this year.  Wish me luck!

The Holiday Season brought out the worst in me this year...

So...there I was minding my own business one day when I sneezed. Of course the auto-response for most people is to say "bless you". This got me to thinking...what right do you have to bless me? What if I don't want to be blessed? What if I am NOT religious? Saying that to me might offend me.

Then, my cousin joins a Facebook group called "put Christ back into schools". I have serious problems with this. With all the different religions and beliefs in the world, what right does anyone have to teach "Christ" in the school? A Catholic school is different because you have the choice to send your kids there. I elected to comment on this group saying what I just said above. This opened a big can of worms.

I already had a bee in my bonnet, so I decided to stir the big can of worms I already opened. I joined a Facebook group called "take god out of the Canadian National Anthem". Again, what right does anyone have to impress their religious beliefs on someone else? Simply change the word "god" to "please" in the anthem and all will be well.

Boy was that the wrong thing to do. PLENTY of discussion occurred with the religious nuts coming out and basically telling me that I was doomed. The worst part - one of them was my Mother. Now our relationship is strained because I was "mocking her belief". OMFG.

It is perfectly OK for her to "like" the fact that my cousin joined that group, but it is not OK for me to voice my opinion. It is OK for people to say "god bless you", but it is not OK for me to voice my opinion. It is OK for people to say "so you have no direction in your life?" when you don't believe in god? See where I am looking? That is the direction I am going in my life.

Not only is my Mom disappointed in the fact that I am not a good christian, but now I have my Dad trying to fix things by including my brothers, my daughter and my wife in this discussion. Even after I said "let it go and never talk of it again". Boy our family get-together tomorrow is going to be fun!!!

I guess what annoys me the most about this whole situation, is the fact that the bible is supposed to teach tolerance and forgiveness, yet those people who claim to be Christians are the most intolerant people I know. It is fine if you believe what they believe, but don't attempt to have your own opinion. It is perfectly OK for people to come to my door and push the Watchtower in my face, perfectly OK for people to say "god bless you", perfectly OK for people to pray for me, but apparently it is NOT OK for me to voice my opinion.

I'm sure I could rant about this for pages upon pages, but where will it get me? I will offend someone because I don't agree with their beliefs. It is a losing battle. Feel free to comment if you can handle a rational, logical discussion.

a Night of Sin

So we went to Grande Prairie to attend a Murder Mystery. This was going to be our first time so we were not sure what to expect.

We got our character profiles and I was to play a US Senator, while Michelle was to play a high class Las Vegas call girl.

We were encouraged to dress up so I wore a shirt and tie, while Michelle went all out. Short skirt, tall boots, fishnet stockings and a pink feather boa. Needless to say she looked smokin hot!! She also won for best dressed.

When we got to the party we were given a set of tasks to complete before the murder. Basically just to introduce yourself to everyone and get to know all the characters. There was also some setup for the rest of the night.

After the lights went out, someone was murdered!! The hunt for the killer was on. Each of us got another list of tasks and objectives to accomplish in our pursuit of the killer.

Everyone from the senator and his wife, to his mistress, to the casino owner are suspects. I am not going to ruin it for anyone who is going to do one of these so I won't tell you who did it!! Lol.

It was a fun time and I would love to do another one someday. I think it would have been better if everyone knew each other as we didn't know some of the participants and they didn't know us. However, we had a great time.

Photos are up on Facebook and I will also be putting them on my Shutterfly site in the next day or so. Http://hollandsphotos.shutterfly.com

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPod touch]

Where's my cane sonny?

So...there I was minding my own business on a Saturday evening. Tracey (sister-in-law) bought a new house so we were helping them break it in when I get a text message. I check and it is from my son saying that he has some news. You can imagine my shock and surprise when he tells me that he and his girlfriend are pregnant. That's right...you heard me. BubbaMike is going to be a Grandpa for real!

After I got over my initial shock - oh wait...I still haven't. It's not that I am upset or anything, but I worry about Rob and wish nothing but the best for him. He is only 17 which is WAY too young to be fathering a child. I was 21 when I became a father and that was too young. I remember well the challenges I went through, so I can only hope for the best for Robin and Storm.

Now that I have completely blown your mind...on to other thoughts.

Umm...

Ahh...

Right now, at this point in time, nothing I can say would come even close to topping my latest news. Maybe I will come up with something later...