What I’ve had were some issues with XBMC (v 10.0-9), some crashing as well as a constant nagging scrapper issue.
So I decided to find a solution to update to a nightly build (for better or for worse).

Luckily after not too much searching, I found the proper section:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Install_XBMC_on_Apple_TV_2

(Remember you need to have a jailbroken Apple TV2! And XBMC installed with Cydia prior to doing this).

Enjoy!

I keep all my contacts organized on ‘Google Contacts’ and then I’m able to synchronize my iOS devices with my contact list. Its easy to do and just requires some dedicated time to enter everything in.

As I live in the US, I still have many friends (as well as family) in Canada, and that requires me to call ‘international’ (at least what AT&T calls Canada calling…). My skype local setup is quick and easy, and SIRI makes it fun.

I simply setup a phone number for a contact like so:

1. Create new phone entry, call it Skype
2. Enter my skype number (ex: 734-000-1234)
3. I follow that number with a PAUSE character `,` (comma) + a 2 (skype’s 2 means, call a custom number)
4. After that 2, I simply enter a Canadian number (ex: 1519-555-1234)

The final solution looks like:

Skype: 734-000-1234,21519-555-1234

And then once my contact is sync’d to the phone, I say “SIRI call [persons name] on Skype”, and obediently SIRI completes the call, and I don’t have to punch in any long strings of numbers.

Enjoy!

I don’t know about you but isn’t standby mode advertised `up to` 200 hours? Maybe that `up to` really needs quotations as it might require shutting the phones capabilities off completely (airplane mode?). I can’t imagine why anyone would want a smart phone only to disable data, gps, wifi, etc; to get it to run for min 1-2 days without a recharge.

How to get your iPhone 4s working

Anyway, cutting the rant short, I have been trying different settings, back and forth since I got the phone, and I really got good results by disabling the Location Services for the Reminders (as I imagined they ping quite frequently to get the GPS bearing, as the reminders are location specific now). Recall that SIRI is capable of setting a reminded for “when I get home” or “when I get into the office”. Those are features, that one would imagine require constant GPS checking (after all checking every 15/20 minutes doesn’t make sense.. I could get home in under that time and then what? Later reminder.

Give it a try, see how it goes. I know I have my Apple ‘fast lane’ support call scheduled, as I can’t stomach a phone that only has battery life for ~6hrs or so with full features.

What I want to clear up today, is the confusion (at least for me and a few folks I know) regarding iMessage. iOS5 brings to it a new feature, the ability to give the carriers a ‘BIG F-YOU!’ when it comes to gauging users on ‘per-text-message’ options. Personally I don’t want to pay more than $5 bucks for texting, and I don’t think I should have to pay $20 per month for 160 characters each. My $5 is a 200 message plan, which is more than enough for me.

But ever since I got my iPhone, I have been unsure of what the hell I was doing when sending a message, I would click on the green ‘message’ button, and then I tried selecting a co-worker, but I couldn’t select their apple id email address, it would just show me their home/mobile numbers. However, one friend of mine told me “Its the colors! Look at the send button colors”…

At that point, the realization came, when you SELECT A CONTACT, the send button will turn one of 2 colors:

• GREEN = Text message
• BLUE = iMessage available

So that’s it, don’t worry about SMS vs iMessage, just remember, blue is good, green is not (if you are not on the unlimited plan at least!).

Hope that helps some of you to clear up the confusion regarding wether you are sending an actual iMessage or just a plain text message. Oh and in case you didn’t notice, the input box, also says “text message” vs “imessage” just to be sure, but still its confusing, especially judging by people’s forum posts around the net.

Enjoy!

I decided to do some digging and searching, afterwards through some trial and error I discovered that the location services actually is VERY active while you are connected on wifi. The service is constantly updating your location (via triangulation / MAC address or gateway). I decided to take it a bit further and do some testing by disabling that service. After some testing, I found that DISABLING LOCATION SERVICES totally would eliminate my 3-5 hour battery life.

My battery life has returned, and I am able to actually go 2 days of normal usage (music, some app usage which may or may not be graphics intensive) on my iPod, personally I don’t care about the location awareness as I don’t use any apps that really need it and can’t live without it.

Give it a try if you are suffering from poor battery life, it worked for me. Enjoy!

What you will need for this jailbreak:

1. Apple TV2 (of course) running 4.2.1 (as of this entry)
2. a micro USB cable (cheap from Monoprice.com)
3. a mac/pc
4. the greenpois0n jailbreak software
5. 4 minutes of your time.

Where to begin:

1. Plug in your AppleTV2 into your PC/mac using the micro USB cable that you purchased (and waited for).
2. Have greenpois0n running and ready, go through the DFU steps below
3. Have the ATV2 just plugged in with the micro USB, no power, after 7 seconds (the app will run a counter for you, try it a couple times you will get the hang of it), plug in the power, and click and hold both the menu + play/pause buttons.
4. If you did this correctly (and if you didn’t just retry) you will have the ‘Jailbreak’ button become active in the app.
5. Click the ‘Jailbreak’ button.
6. Wait patiently the short 2-3 min that it takes to flash / jailbreak / crack open your Apple TV2.
7. Once the app tells you it is all done, unplug the apple tv, and plug it under your TV.
8. Navigate to the greenpois0n menu setting, and complete the jailbreak by installing SSH via the cydia injection / install.

Congrats

After that very complex process (ha!) you are now done and jailbroken.  I ended up installing XBMC and testing some videos off my network.  It all worked great.  So enjoy more use out of your Apple TV2!  No more needing to convert your xvid/divx to MP4′s.

XBMC info:  http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/01/20/you-asked-for-it-xbmc-for-appletv2-ipad-iphone4/

Owners of the 2nd generation Apple TV on iOS 4.2.1 will soon be able to jailbreak their devices, untethered thanks to the upcoming GreenPois0n RC6. Joshua Hill of the Chronic Dev Team confirmed it earlier today. http://twitter.com/p0sixninja/status/34102372288438273

I’m not really about pitching stuff on my blog, but I was excited to find (on ebay of all things) Cowboom.com, a Best Buy ‘Outlet’ that sells referbs and used devices / laptops etc;

The great thing is they sell the Apple TV 2 for $79.99! Which is great, personally I could care less if the Apple TV was pre-opened or not, the model I got was brand spanking new looking, and I saved $20 bucks.

Anyway, my plan for my ATV2 is to hack it with XBMC and run my local network shows/movies off it. Saves my MacMini from being dedicated to just that effort, and for $80 bucks, hey its a no brainier. Plus Apple products have a tendency to keep their value well, so I’m sure if I get tired of this I can pawn it off on ebay for almost the same amount that I purchased it for.

What you get with the iPod 4th gen is the following for a camera:
0.7 megapixel!!?

What you get with the iPhone 4th gen is the following camera:
5.0 megapixel

Confused? Yeah me too… WTF!? springs to mind immediately. I am honestly mad. Here is a comparison on the pervious iPhone models (notices these came way before the iPod 4th gen.

iPhone 3G
2 megapixel

iPhone 3GS
3.2 megapixel

From the moment the newest generation of iPod came to market I wanted to upgrade to gain the camera feature. I could live without iOS 4.2 but I wanted a camera on my iPod so that I could take some photos regularly as I seen my colleagues do with their iPhone 3Gs & 4th Gens.

Here is a comparison photo iPod Touch 4 vs the iPhone 4:

I thought I was ‘doing it’ wrong when I started taking Christmas photos, they were all coming out dark and blurry. I really am bummed about the whole affair. I feel cheated. Why would Apple screw iPod users over by throwing in a SUB megapixel camera?? Why? Its so pointless I can’t even fathom why you would put that feature in if it was such poor quality. I always expected high quality from Apple, and this is the first time that I feel cheated.

This is ultimately pretty cool, but very unusable as an every day piece.  I really like my watch for the simple fact that it is always reliable, I never have to worry about charging it, the battery dies once in a blue moon (every couple years), plus I don’t own a Nano, and if I did, this would not be the greatest way to listen to it, can you imagine a big white cord hanging off your wrist.

Running with one of these would be pointless too, just another thing to plug a nike connector onto, I would rather just settle for my already clunky Garmin 305 (which is another story all together).

However this still is a pretty cool idea, even if it isn’t for me. If you want to get in on this, they are doing a ‘pre-order’ means of getting this product to market, details @ Kickstarter.

Full story here:
http://gizmodo.com/5692738/the-ipod-nano-watches-to-rule-them-all-trust-me-here