Please note that you must first jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch to gain access to Cydia apps.

1. iBlacklist (iPhone only) – is actually the main reason I ended up jailbreaking my iPhone. Some spammer had gotten a hold of my phone number and was sending me chain mail text messages and picture messages. After searching and searching for a simple solution I ended up deciding that iBlacklist was the best option (apparently AT&T will block numbers for $5 a month). iBlacklist allows you to block numbers from calling, texting, or picture messaging you. The app you download from Cydia allows you to block 5 different numbers before asking for a small contribution (so 5 numbers for free as opposed to AT&T’s $5 a month). This app has done exactly what I needed it to do and not one piece of spam has gotten through.

2. Lock Calendar – displays your calendar events for a set time period on your lock screen. I still don’t understand why Apple doesn’t do this by default. Having to open up the calendar app just to view the days events is just annoying. Having them displayed on the lock screen utilizes the free space that’s already there and I don’t even have to unlock my phone to know that I’m already late for class. To access the options for this app, simply go to your Settings app and scroll down to the Lock Calendar section. You can completely customize the number of events shown, number of weeks ahead it will look at, as well as the font style and color for the events.

The picture on the left shows you how Lock Calendar looks on the lock screen.

The picture in the middle shows you where the settings are located for Lock Calendar (simply click the ’settings’ app and you should see Lock Calendar down there.

The picture on the right shows Lock Calendars settings. I would definitely recommend making the ‘Max Interval’ two weeks.

3. Categories – allows you to categorize all your apps using folders. Want to keep all your games in one place? and all your Cydia apps in one place? Categories  allows you to create a folder  on one of your 9 available home screens and then allows you to put apps within that folder.  When you add an app to a category, it will no longer show up on the home screen, but instead in the category of your choosing.  Eric was able to reduce his number of home screens from 6 to 3.  The ‘Search’ feature (left most home screen) will find apps placed in categories, not just those on your home screens.  Of course the category name and icon is completely customizable.  In fact there are hundreds of icons you can use to ensure it fits with your theme.

The picture on the left shows the settings page for the Categories app.

The picture in the middle shows a few of the possible folder icons you can set for each of your Categories.

The picture on the right shows the apps placed in a ‘Social’ category. Basically there is a folder on one of the home screens named ‘Social’ and when clicked this is what opens.

4. WinterBoard -  allows you to personalize your iPhone in more ways than Steve Jobs wants you to. Do you like that black background screen? What about those app icons? WinterBoard lets you change the home screen background and designate a theme (of your choosing). Luckily Cydia keeps quite a number of themes you can try out.

The picture on the left is one of my home screens. I have used the WinterBoard app to change my background to show wood shelves.

The picture on the right is one of Eric’s home screens. He has installed a theme and changed his background.

5. AptBackup – allows you to easily backup all the Cydia apps in your collection. You no longer have to worry about losing all your Cydia apps when updating your iPhone or iPod Touch. This app is quite simple: just open the app and press ‘Backup’. The app creates a list of your Cydia apps and stores it with other settings and files that iTunes backs up when you do a backup within iTunes. If you were to need to restore for some reason, just restore from your iTunes backup file and then install AptBackup again through Cydia and click ‘Restore’. Note – you should only click ‘Restore’ after performing a restore in iTunes.  Clicking ‘Restore’ when not needed can cause unexpected results (as Eric learned when showing me this app).

This picture shows you the extent of AptBackup. However simple this app is, the time you save by not having to download each individual app again is the reason I have it on my iPhone.

So, what Cydia apps can’t you live without?

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Amarok, a familiar name from the Linux community, has decided it’s newest release will be available to all you Windows users. But what is Amarok? Amarok is an open source, extremely popular music player. It’s current version is only available in Linux, in fact I’m listening to my music through Amarok right now. Before I switched to Linux I was a heavy iTunes user but now I’d rather use Amarok. I can’t really pin-point anything that makes Amarok so much better than iTunes, I guess it’s just that I’m comfortable with Amarok now. For all you iTunes haters, Linux lovers, or people looking for a decent music app, Amarok is worth a good look. A list of what Amarok has to offer:

• Quick and simple drag and drop playlist creation
• Super eye-candy interface
• Multiple backends supported (xine, NMM and Helix)
• 10 band equalizer
• Automatic cover art download using Amazon services
• The unique and powerful Context Browser
• Automatic play-statistics generation (iRate style)
• Full lyrics download
• Funky visualisations from libvisual and XMMS
• Streaming from any KIO source
• Crossfading
• Fully configurable translucent OSD for track changes
• K3B (CD-burning) integration
• KDE integration
• Style your Context Browser with custom CSS styles.
• Save space in your Context Browser with collapsable boxes
• Show the Context Browser without amaroK open through the konqueror sidebar!
• Full support for last.fm! Share your music taste with friends on the net
• Generate dynamic playlists based on last.fm suggestions
• Support for sqlite, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases ensuring fast collection access
• Support for iPod®, iRiver® and generic UMS mp3 players with the all new media-browser
• Powerful scripting interface, allowing for easy extension of amaroK
• Complete DCOP access
• Translated into more than 35 languages, thanks to the KDE internationalization team.

I know a few of these don’t apply to Windows users, but most of these features will be included in the Windows version for Amarok2.

Here’s a quick screenshot I borrowed from the Amarok blog:

For more information about the Amarok2 development for Windows, check out the Amarok blog.

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1) Download and install HandBrake. If you download version 0.9.2 you must be running Leopard. If you are using Tiger or older, you should download 0.9.1

2) Place the DVD you wish to rip into your DVD drive and open HandBrake. If your computer tries to play the DVD automatically, close the program so that only HandBrake is accessing the DVD.

3) Click the Source button in the top left corner. Then choose the your DVD drive and click Open. At this point HandBrake will begin to scan the DVD. This could take a couple minutes.

4) Click the drop down box next to Title and choose the longest title if you wish to copy the entire DVD (this does not apply to Episode based DVDs).

5) The default Destination is the Desktop. Change this to wherever you wish to save the DVD file.

6) If the presets are not already displayed on the right side of the window, click the Toggle Presets button in the upper right corner to display them.

7) For the iPhone and iPod Touch you should choose iPhone / iPod Touch.

If you have an iPod video or iPod classic and want high resolution (much larger file size, good for 160GB versions) choose iPod High-Rez.

Lastly, if you have an iPod Video or iPod classic and want smaller files (good for 80GB versions) choose iPod Low-Rez.

If these presets aren’t quite what you are looking for, check the troubleshooting at the bottom of the article.

TIP: For better quality, choose 2-pass encoding. This will take longer to encode but will look better.

8.) Click the Audio & Subtitles tab. Here you should choose the language you prefer under “Track 1:”. Also, be sure to set Subtitles to None. The Sample rate should be between 32 and 48 while the Bitrate should be set between 112 and 160.

9) At this point you should be ready to begin ripping your DVD. Click Start to begin.

10) Once your DVD is finished ripping all you need to do is add it to your iTunes library (or whatever iPod manager you use) and then transfer it to your iPod.

Troubleshooting
If you have trouble with the video and audio settings from the presets, you should try the following settings instead. These settings are more strict and should work on any iPod with video capabilities.

File format: MP4 file
Codecs: MPEG-4 Video/AAC Audio
Average bitrate (kbps): 700 (again lower numbers mean less quality and smaller files)
Check 2-pass encoding
Picture settings -> set Width: 320 and the height will auto adjust to something close to 240 (will be lower for widescreen movies)

Once you find the settings that work the best for you, you can save them as a custom preset.

For more information on how to use HandBrake take a look at these websites:
How to Rip a Move for your iPod with HandBrake v0.9.0
How to Rip a TV show for your iPod with HandBrake
HandBrake Documentation

MacPoker.net is a new but comprehensive mac online poker guide. It has poker site reviews for ‘PokerStars’ mac poker client, along with many other poker sites and general poker articles.

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This post will show you how to install iPodLinux from Ubuntu; however, this post still applies to Windows. The reason I chose to show the installation from Linux is because it is a little more difficult to get the installer running then in Windows.

The iPodLinux Project is an open source project that has ported Linux to the iPod. iPodLinux allows you to install addons for more functionality, programs and games to your iPod. For example, you can install Wikipedia on your iPod. For a list of all the cool stuff you can install on your iPod, take a look at the module list and the application list.

iPodLinux works with most iPod models, however, you should check to make sure it is compatible with your model by clicking here. According to the iPodLinux website, iPodLinux currently does not work with the following iPod models: 2nd/3rd generation iPod nano, 6th generation iPod classic, all iPod shuffles and the iPod Touch.

iPodLinux provides an installer for installing from Windows or Linux. There is not an installer for Mac OS X; however, you can perform a manual installation if you are Mac OS X user. This post will cover how to install iPodLinux from Ubuntu; however, the installation from Windows is very similar. If you cannot get the installation to work using the installer, try the manual installation mentioned above.

WARNING- BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE CONTINUING!!!

You should back up all the files on your iPod (music, pictures, video, data, etc) before continuing. The installation should leave all of your data unharmed but you should still backup in case something were to go wrong. Keep in mind that it is physically impossible to permanently damage your iPod by installing iPodLinux.

Ok, onto the installation.

1.) According to the iPodLinux website, Debian/Ubuntu users need to install libpng3 and libssl0.9.8 libraries before trying to install iPodLinux. To install these libraries, simply type ‘sudo apt-get install libpng3 libssl0.9.8‘ into the terminal.

If you are a Windows user you do not need to do this, merely download the installer (zip archive) to your computer and skip to step 4.

2.) Next, download the iPodLinux installer 2 located under the download section on the Installer 2 page. Be sure to pick the appropriate installer for your computer (32bit or 64bit). Most users will probably need the x86 version.

3.) Once you download the installer, extract the zipped archive with your favorite archive manager. You can also use the following code (only for 32bit) which will extract the files and place an icon on the desktop. For the 64bit version see the iPodLinux website (Installer 2 page).

% gunzip /tmp/ipodlinux-installer-2.2l.run.gz
% chmod +x /tmp/ipodlinux-installer-2.2l.run
% /tmp/ipodlinux-installer-2.2l.run
% /opt/iPodLinux/installer     (or use the icon)

4.) Now you are ready to run the installer. You can do this by either clicking on the icon on your desktop (if you used the code above) or by using the terminal to navigate to the folder and running ‘./installer’ (if you used an archive manager to extract the files).

Windows users should run the file ‘installer’ after extracting the archive.

At this point you should see a screen similar to the following:

5.) I recommend reading the text on this screen as it could be helpful if something were to go wrong. But for those of you who don’t like to read (like myself) just click Next to get started.

You should now see a screen similar to the following. However, it should list the iPod information related to your model. As you can see, I am using a 4th generation black and white iPod.

6.) Because of a bug in the installer, you will have to come back to this step in a minute. But for now just click Next, you do NOT need to click the advanced check box.

There is a bug in the installer that makes it quit once you have backed up your iPod firmware (in this step). Therefore, once you backup the firmware you will have to run the installer again. So for now it doesn’t matter how you load Linux.

7.) However, if you want to be safe just click iPodLoader2. This will bring you to a boot menu when you turn on the iPod. You will then be able to choose whether to start the Apple OS or Linux. You can also choose to turn off the iPod or put it in Disk Mode.

8.) Check ‘Yes, I want to save a backup.’ and leave the directory as it is to save the backup in the iPodLinux folder. If you want you can change the directory and save the backup elsewhere.

The backup will begin and you should see a screen like the following. When the backup finishes, the installer will probably quit. Don’t worry; apparently this is normal. This is the bug I mentioned earlier.

9.) Once the installer quits, run it again and stop when you get to the page that identifies your iPod. This time you should check ‘Advanced partitioning and package selection.’ Click Next when ready to continue.

10.) After clicking Next you will be presented with the following screen. These default settings are fine so you can go ahead and click Next. However, if you are an advanced user (and who isn’t?) you can change these settings to fit your needs.

11.) You should have seen the following screen the first time you ran the installer (to backup the iPod’s firmware). This time uncheck ‘Yes, I want to save a backup’ since you already did this. This will keep the installer from quitting and allow you to finish installing Linux. Click Next when ready.

12.) You should now see a screen where you can select which modules to install. The following modules are required for Linux to run: base, kernel, ipodloader2, appearance, podzilla2. The top 4 are selected by default but podzilla2 is not. Without podzilla2 you will receive an error when trying to boot into Linux.

Under ‘Podzilla modules ‘is a list of modules you can install to your iPod. These include games, applications, and demos. Just scroll through the list and check the ones you find interesting. There is a little bit of everything here. Click Next to begin the installation.

The following screen will show the status of the installation. This should not take very long (less than a minute depending on how many modules you chose).

Once the installer is finished installing the modules you will be presented with the following screen. Again, I recommend reading this page but of course you don’t have to. Just click Finish to close the installer.

You have now successfully installed iPodLinux! ;-) Be sure to unmount your iPod (don’t just unplug it!). The iPod should restart on its own and when the boot loader appears, scroll down and select ‘iPod Linux’. After a few seconds podzilla should run allowing you to run the modules you just installed. The interface is similar to the default Apple firmware.

If you want to uninstall simply run the installer again. This time it should ask if you want to upgrade your iPodLinux, change the boot loader, or remove iPodLinux. Select uninstall iPodLinux and then select the backup you made earlier. This did not work when I tried it. This could be my iPod model or a problem with the installer.

The only way I could successfully remove iPodLinux was to restore my iPod using iTunes.

WARNING- Restoring your iPod will completely erase all data on the iPod.

I had trouble installing iPodLinux at first, mostly because I didn’t read the website. It took me a while to figure out there was a bug in the installer (if only I had read the section of the website entitled Important Notes).

So if you have some trouble with iPodLinux my suggestion to you is to spend some time on the iPodLinux website and even take a look at the forums. It can be hard to find what you are looking for on the website so if you are still having problems post in the comments and I will do my best to help you.

If you would like to see some of the cool stuff you can do with iPodLinux, check out the Screenshots. Some videos are listed at the bottom of the screenshots page.

If you have any more questions about the iPodLinux Project, be sure to check out their FAQ page. There is also some good guides for iPodLinux located in the Documentation page.

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Apple is supposedly looking at offering subscriptions for its iPhone customers. Since the iPhone has a monthly plan, the subscription would just be added onto your wireless bill. While this is a good idea for iPhone users, I hope Apple will be able to come up with a subscription service for its iPod customers as well. The subscription service might be a good option if they are unable to agree with music labels about the unlimited download option discussed above. It might also be a good option for those customers who already have an iPod and are not willing to upgrade just yet.

pictures credited to http://www.apple.com

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