Developers Continue to Fight Piracy!

As I have said in preview posts, I believe that we should as users get to try before you buy on Apps from Apple’s App Store, so as a result I do use the cracked method to try out Apps; however I test them for a few days and if I like them and think they work well, then I will purchase them. As a student I don’t have much money to be spending on loads of Apps such as the amount as I do now so I buy what I like and delete what I don’t.

However as I wrote before Beejive IM began to stop pirates using there App, but today I tried the Camera Zoom App from KendiTech and got a trial expired screen:

Camera Zoom Trial Screen

As you can see the developer has now implemented a system so that it can tell if the App has been pirated.
Now I agree that developers should do this seeing as this App is very cheap to buy from the store and obviously it’s supporting these hard working developers. But it brings an interesting note, developers should allow full versions with trial periods of say a week or a few days so that the user’s can get a taste of the App before spending there money and leaving bad reviews.

How To Use iPhone OS 3.0 Beta Without Activation

iphone30For some people they are too eager to try the new iPhone OS to wait, you may have read of the problems that many of them run into but here’s a way round it.

The way we stop the verification is not disconnecting from the internet each time but stopping iTunes contacting the verification server.

Note: this is a Windows tutorial not Mac.

First of all open Notepad.

Click on File > Open and ensure that your viewing All files and not just .txt files.

Now go to   C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

Now find the file ‘hosts’ and open it.

Go to the bottom of the file and paste the following:

127.0.0.1    albert.apple.com

Now save the file making sure iTunes isn’t open.

Note: this will just stop the verification, you can still use the iTunes store.

iPhone Twitter Push Notification Mockups

This is a mockup I’ve just came up with, that would be good for Twitter App’s. However if your one of those people who follow 100’s of people then this wouldn’t be very good, unless maybe for direct messages on Twitter.

Twitter iPhone Mockup

The font isn’t perfect as I didn’t use Photoshop so no shadows were placed on the text but as you can see it would be a good way for Twitter App’s to push tweets or direct replies/messages.

Update: Here’s a second mockup which would appear if you get multiple tweets.

Twitter iPhone Mockup 2

Assassin’s Creed iPhone Screens

With the release of Assassin’s Creed for iPhone & iPod Touch just a few weeks away, IGN has posted up some screens from the upcoming title. It’s expected that Gameloft will charge around £5.99 or more for the game.

Assassins Creed iPhone 1

Assassins Creed iPhone 2

Assassins Creed iPhone 3

The graphics on the game surpass that even of the Nintendo DS, showing how much the iPhone really is ahead of the competition when it comes to mobile gaming.

The iPhone version is largely based on Altair’s Chronicles, the prequel for the Nintendo DS to the first game. You must explore the city of the Holy Land to uncover “The Chalice”, a sacred artifact held by the Templars. The superiors at The Order of the Assassins say that stealing the Chalice has the potential to end the Crusades.

More details on the game are expected soon.

Redsn0w Beta Released!

JailbrakeIf your like many 2nd gen iPod Touch owners, you’ve been wanting to jailbrake your device for a long time now. There have been ways but they either cost money, or were not mainstream user friendly. The Dev-Team have finally released the beta of Redsn0w which is set to simplify the process.

Redsn0w is currently in beta because it relies on the user running it from the command line, but the code is being added to a GUI which is set to be realsed soon, so for those who don’t trust themselfs with command lines, wait till the release of the GUI soon.

Head over to the redsn0w.com to grab the beta.

Updates

As you may have realised I have updated the blog recently, this is because I have all my exams coming up in the next few weeks and so need to spend a lot of time revising for the tests, so over the next few weeks updates will be less but will pick up after the exams are over.

Thank you for your understanding & keep tuned!

Upcoming Website Info

I previously ran a technology website last year that hosted my photography, software and graphics.
Due to lack of funds at the time, it had to be closed after it expired but I’m re-opening it, in the next few months.

Hopefully by it’s release it will have a technology blog, photography section where you can order prints or posters of my work, a graphics section including iPhone Wallpapers and maybe software again. I am hoping in the next few months to start developing for the iPhone, as I have many ideas which I’d like to put to good use. So there is a chance that later this year I’ll begin iPhone development too.

I’ll post more info on here as the site is nearer release.

iPhone/iPod Touch File As a USB Drive Without Jailbraking

If you want to edit or view files on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you used to have to Jailbrake the device and install Disk AidOpenSSH and access the files wirelessly,  but now there is a way to access the file system without having to jailbrake.
It doesn’t give you as much power as using OpenSSH but allows you to copy and paste things to and from your device.

DiskAid is a freeware application for Windows & Mac OS X, it supports both gen iPhones and both gen iPod Touchs. It will automatically detect your device, just plug in and go. It’s as simple as drag and droping the files. And it supports Firmware 1.1.1 to 2.2.

DiskAid Download Page

Nintendo Launches Wii System Menu 4.0

Nintendo has just lauched Wii System Menu 4.0 at GDC today. You can now backup and play WiiWare titles straight from the SD card. Nintendo has now included a new menu known as the ‘SD Card Menu’, it can be accessed from the main Wii System Menu. Not only the new SD features but Nintendo has at last allowed SDHC card’s up to 32GB to work in the Nintendo Wii.

Wii Menu 4.0

Go and update youw Wii now for the new menu.