Thank goodness for email!

[TUTORIAL] How to put videos onto your iPhone/iPod Touch

Unlike music files, which are predominantly in the popular MP3 format, video files have many many formats, such as AVI, MPG, MP4, MOV, WMV, and the list goes on. Stubbornly, Apple's products will only play movies in a certain encoding of MP4, and hence most of the movies you will typically download on your computer (AVI, MPG) will not work! So, how do we overcome this problem?

A whole programming industry of video converters has emerged over the years to help alleviate this problem. Unfortunately, most of them charge you for it, but if you snoop around enough, you'll be able to find some sweet freeware which will do the job for you.

What I've found today is a program called "Videora"

Now I haven't tested this software on Windows but it looks to be pretty decent. This program has a step by step guide to converting your videos for the everyday user. Check out the tutorial HERE

Just in case you missed the download for it, here it is.

Being a mac user myself, I use handbrake to do this for me, a very powerful video encoding program (and free!), despite Videora offering a Mac version. So let me know if you've had success with this program!

If you need help...

Comical yet oddly true!

[TUTORIAL] How to set up Mobile Blogging by email/MMS

For all you blogspot bloggers out there who find something interesting to blog about when you're out and about, here's a quick tutorial to get you started!

What you need:

A phone which can send MMS. (typical phones)

OR

A phone which can send emails. (smart phones)

First, on your phone:

Step 1:

send an email to go@blogger.com with subject "REGISTER" and also include REGISTER in the email body. You should get a reply saying your device has been registered.

Then, on your computer:

Step 2:

Log into your blogger account. You should be at the dashboard.

Step 3:

For the blog you wish to associate your mobile blog posting with, click on the mobile icon next to the title:

Step 4:

You will then be given a code to email or MMS to go@blogger.com FROM YOUR MOBILE. Note: it will be different from the one shown below, that's just an example =]

Step 5:

Once you have received a confirmation message, you can now start blogging from your mobile device! Simply send the contents to go@blogger.com from the registered email or device. It should look something like this:

To: go@blogger.com

Subject: [Insert Blog Post Title Here]

[Insert Blog Post Contents in the email body]

Happy blogging!

Mobile blogging

I've just setup blogger on my iPhone! now I can just send my post as
an email and it will show up as a blog entry! How awesome! check out
my next post for the tutorial =]

Sent from the gPhone!

...aaaand the iPhone Blows Away the Competition!

So much for the competition! Trying to compete with the speed of iPhone's internet browser is the Motorola Droid on the left, and Google's brand spanking new phone, the Nexus One (with a faster processor than the iPhone 3GS). Both competitors run Android Operating Systems (by Google)

Here's the Author's comments:

And I think you all know which iPhone, sorry, I mean, which phone won the test?
This just goes to show that even though the iPhone only has a 600Mhz processor, it can still perform better than a phone with a 1Ghz processor.
Where all the HTC HD2 people now huh?
Talk nah?!

Just goes to show that even after going on the market for around 3 years, the competition is still playing catch-up to the iPhone =D

[TUTORIAL] How to complete your album art collection!

I don't know about you all, but I was very anal when it came to filling out every single mp3 with it's corresponding album art. Yes it was painstakingly repetitive, but at the end of the day I felt like I had accomplished something beautiful - having iTunes and your iPod complete with album art is just such a sight to behold!

For English songs: the iTunes way

Step 1:

Go to "iTunes Store" on the sidebar, type the song name into the search bar and search it up! (no need for google!) You will need to note down the artist and the album name.

Step 2:

Make sure your songs are correctly labelled by "album" and "artist"

Note: if "album artist" is different to "artist", it will not work! However, leaving "album artist" blank is also fine. To check this, right click your song and select "get info". Alternatively, you can just add the "ablum artist" into a column category by right clicking anywhere on the bar which has "name, artist, date added...etc"

Step 3:

Right click on your song, and select "Get Album Artwork" and voila! your album art will pop up! You're done!

Tip 1: You can batch select/edit songs by holding down "ctrl" on windows and "command" on mac's while selecting songs. Alternatively, if the songs you want to edit are all in a row, just hold "shift" and press down/up.

Tip 2: If your music is being organised by Artist and you change the artist name, it may vanish when you confirm, as it will jump to it's new alphabetical location! Make sure your music is organised NOT by what you are editing!

Album Art for songs not in iTunes?

I know many of you listen to asian songs or perhaps indie songs as well. If you want to find album art for these songs, you'll have to do it manually. Here's how:

Step 1:

Obtain the album art somehow using a google search. Here are some nice album art searches for chinese songs:

VeryCD.com

cEyONE Music

Chinese Album Art Website

Step 2:

Go to iTunes and right click your song. Select "Get Info" and select the very last tab on the right called "Artwork". Click "Add...", locate your album art photo, and you're done!

Tip: you can also batch add album artworks for songs in the same album by selecting all of them, right-click>Get Info> Double click on the "Artwork" rectangle.

Note: for this method, no correct labelling is required, although it's in your best interest as iTunes sorts your music using the music labels.

Save this for when you've got a free day to yourself at home! At the end of the day, you should get something like this!

The Wonders of Syncing!

Syncing is to share common information across different platforms. Today I discovered this wonderful thing and started syncing 6 things together -

1.Google Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar

2.iPhone Contacts and iPhone Calendar

3.iMac Address Book Contacts and iMac iCal Calendar

By the afternoon, after some very simple setup in the preferences of programs and some googling, I have successfully achieved syncing of contacts and calendars between these 3 platforms. The implications of this is mind-blowing!

I can now:

>Check my girlfriend’s schedule on my iPhone, since I can see her calendar as well. (stalker!)

>Add or edit an event on iCal or iPhone or on Google Calendar, and it will show up updated on the other 2!

>Add/edit a contact anywhere, and it will show up everywhere else! (still in testing...so far doesnt sync very quickly =/)

This is already in addition to synced mail accounts on the iPhone, Mail on my iMac, and Gmail, which was previously the only type of syncing I took advantage of.

Another thing you can sync is pretty much any file you want. You can do this using an app called “Dropbox”. I won’t bother explaining but instead I’ll just post up the video here. It’s really useful for:

>if you want to consolidate uni work/notes done on a laptop when you get onto your home computer!)

>if you get the iPhone/iPod Touch app, its a quick way to access word docs, pdfs or maps when you’re on the go!

This summarises today’s blog entry about the future - cloud computing. That is, putting all your information on the internet and accessing it universally from your various platforms. Never before have I been so amazed by the concept of the cloud, and can only await what the future of the internet holds for us all!

The Best Jailbroken Apps!

So you’ve jailbroken your iPhone/iPod Touch! Now what can you do with Cydia and what cool apps are there? Here’s a handy starter guide to jailbroken goodness!

First you need to know that Cydia is the “app store” of jailbroken devices. Before you begin, you should add in at least these 2 “sources”, which list a whole bunch of useful apps:

http://apt.iwatcher.net/

http://cydia.xsellize.com/

See my tutorial “Get paid apps for free” on how to add sources onto Cydia (steps 1 and 2)

Once you have these sources installed, you should be able to just search in Cydia for these apps!

SBSettings

This is a must have app! Basically you swipe the status bar at the top and it brings down a handy little menu with toggles for wifi, bluetooth, 3G, airplane mode, bluetooth, brightness etc. I use it pretty much all the time, mostly to turn wifi on and off to save precious battery life. The normal way would be to go to settings>Wi-Fi>turn on/off, and that’s for wi-fi only!

Winterboard

You’ll love this if you’re into customisation. Don’t want your menu to look like everything else out there? Use Winterboard to customise your device with themes! Creators of themes upload them onto Cydia and you can browse through it in Winterboard themes in the categories tab of Cydia.

The “Illumine” Winterboard Theme I am currently using.

Backgrounder+Proswitcher

These 2 apps work wonders together. Backgrounder by itself lets you run apps in the background! My favourite use is when skyping.

When you skype someone, and you press home, skype logs you out because the program quits. However, with Backgrounder installed, you hold down the home button instead, to see a message “backgrounder enabled”, and you will exit to the home screen, but you will still be talking on skype! Backgrounder basically keeps the app running in the background while you can access any other app.

Proswitcher is an elegant way of switching between your backgrounded apps and closing them if need be. It works only when backgrounder is installed. However, native backgrounding apps (Phone, Safari, Mail, Messages, iPod) will show up with Proswitcher as well, which is another great feature.

See the loading circle badges next to Phone and iPod? That’s a feature of backgrounder which tells you they’re being run in the background!

[UPDATED for 4.1] Get Apple App Store apps for free!

Welcome aboard pirates! So you don’t want to pay for your apps? Wish the price tag of that app you always wanted was “Free”?

This is the tutorial you have been looking for!

Firstly, your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad must be jailbroken with LimeRa1n.

See RedmondPie's Excellent Tutorial >HERE

(Note: instructions are the same regardless of which iOS device you have)

Step 1

Open Cydia. It takes a little while to load up. Select “Normal user” when prompted. Once it has loaded, press the “Manage” tab at the bottom. You should see this.

Step 2

Select the “Sources” button, then touch “edit” and then “add”

When prompted, enter “http://cydia.hackulo.us”

Cydia will then load up the files from this source you have just added.

You should get this warning message, tap on "Add Anyway":

Step 3

You should now see the following on your screen:

Tap on the newly installed "Hackulo.us" source shown in the red box, and you will be taken to a list of packages you can download.

Select “AppSync for OS 4.1”(as not shown above in the outdated image) and then select “install”. Cydia should reboot and your iPhone is now ready to play some cracked apps!

Now you’re thinking...how do I get apps onto my device now? It’s very easy. There are several websites which host all of the apps on the app store. Here is the most popular one so far:

Apptrackr.org

Simply search and download the apps you want. Once they are downloaded, drag them into iTunes, and sync with your iPhone / iPod Touch. That’s it!

Let me know if you had success or any problems with my tutorial.

If you want to get pirated apps right from your iPhone like with the App Store App, then simply search for "Installous" in Cydia. It works exactly like the App Store, and lets you download the cracked apps right onto your iPhone / iPod Touch without needing to sync from a computer!

TROUBLESHOOTING!

If you get this problem when trying to install AppSync, simply restart your iPhone and try again!

"The requested modifications cannot be applied due to required dependencies or conflicts that cannot be automatically found or fixed."