I am the most anal-retentive Mac-junkie you may ever meet, one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone touches my MacBook monitor with their finger and leaves a greasy smudge! Don’t worry, I recognize that this is just a petty issue and I normally don’t even mention it to the perpetrator. But there is a much bigger elephant in the room: using Lime Wire or, for that matter, ANY illegal downloading software. Nothing gets me more upset than seeing a beautiful, expensive, state of the art piece of machinery being destroyed by illegal software!

Since the first time I was screwed by the monster’s grandfather, Napster, I have always loathed music downloading software. All it brings is problems! I watched it eat away at my old Dell machine years ago and even today, I see the same thing happening to my friends. To boot, they don’t even seem to care! When I try to explain it to them all I hear is cries of, “Oh no, it won’t happen to me” and “I only download it for a couple hours every few weeks and then delete it right after.”

When you download files through this type of freeware, you are directly accessing the files from someone else’s computer. What most users don’t realize is that hundreds of other people are doing the same to their own computer; remotely accessing it without their knowledge or consent. Therefore the firewalls are non-existent and absolutely nothing lies between them and evil-minded hackers.

So please, this is my cry to all Mac users out there: DO NOT USE ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING SOFTWARE! It will literally eat away at your computer for months without you realizing. I’m not saying that it all hits in one day; it’s actually a very gradual process. I saw it happen to my cousin’s MacBook Pro, she never listened to me. It all began with minor start up issues, such as extended blue screen and then it progressed until her computer wouldn’t even turn on. In the end, she gave up, leaving her once great, MacBook Pro to gather dust in the corner and began using her desktop again. I simply don’t understand how anyone can let their computer fall to the wayside for a couple free songs.

This isn’t the end and I don’t come empty handed, I have a solution! You can purchase, for a nominal fee, iPod backup software that is completely safe. Whenever one of your friends comes by, plug in their iPod and take all the songs you like! So easy a caveman could do it! Even my boyfriend, after a few weeks, had already accumulated 6,000 songs. And if you don’t have any friends with good music on their iPods, well, then I guess you’re out of luck. But at least your computer will still be working 4 months from now.

Don’t even get my started on Jailbreaker for iPhone…

written by Simone Renee \\ tags: Acquisition, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Jailbreak, Napster

I’m pleased to report that I’ve successfully jailbreaked an OTB 1.1.2 iPhone. (Yeah I know, ‘big deal’ right?)

I had done a lot of ‘tutorial’ searching, and had found quite a few… Just needed the time to sit down and do it

For those of you that don’t have iPhone plans yet (I’m talking to you Canada), I’ve found the jailbreak method I’ve used to be quite reliable and easy. While it won’t ‘unlock’ your iPhone for use as an actual phone, it WILL jailbreak it so that you can use the iPod and internet browsing capabilities. You can install lots of 3rd party apps as well (tons of fun).

To view the tutorial I used, click here. (Thanks to ModMyiFone.com)

There are methods and tutorials out there to show you how to activate and unlock your 1.1.2 OTB iPhone (Using TurboSIM and StealthSIM). Seeing as I have 2 iPhones here in the Mactropolis office I may try one of these out.

I’m still looking for a solid unlock for 1.1.2 as everything I’ve read so far seems to be quite lengthy and complicated, but quite frankly and more importantly… I’ve read mixed reviews. The last thing in the world I want to do is ‘brick’ the iPhone.

For more information and helpful discussion, view this helpful thread over at ModMyiFone.

Lastly, does anyone out there have a reliable unlock/activation of the 1.1.2 OTB iPhone?

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: 1.1.2 OTB, iPhone, Jailbreak

It can take some frustration to get the iPod Touch hack working, particularly if you’ve upgraded iTunes to 7.5 and have already got your iPod Touch at firmware version 1.1.2. My link to Crunch Gear (see earlier post’s comments) goes through the high-level steps but I thought some might want a little more guidance. If you do, read on… Note: I can only confirm this works on Intel Macs. PPC Macs are still not fully supported. If you needed another reason to buy a new Mac, you now have one! Also, this is done at your own risk so don’t come crying to me if your iPod is bricked (this is very unlikely to happen though).

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written by Mike Bradbrook \\ tags: iPod Touch, Jailbreak