Posts filed under 'Software'
[Update 1] Good news for all those iPhone aficionados who visit my blog: there is now a relatively simple jailbreak procedure that also handles activation for those of you looking to use an unlocked iPhone on unsanctioned networks. The older version only handled jailbreaking, but not the very important activation step, something I found out the hard way. Thankfully I was able locate instructions for manually cracking activation by replacing the /usr/libexec/lockdownd file with a hacked version via SSH/SFTP. Not fun. So do yourself a favor and use the new, improved jailbreak/activation method and save yourself the hassle. Instructions are in the included README.txt file.
Please note that I have not tested the new version myself, so run it at your own risk. I’d suggest reading through the comments on this TUAW article and maybe scanning the posts in the Hackint0sh forums to see if anyone is having any problems before proceeding. Please note that this jailbreak/activation solution DOES NOT handle unlocking. This will require an extra step using an unlocking program such as iPhoneSimFree.
Now I say it’s relatively simple because it is somewhat lengthy, with many steps to follow, but the hard stuff is automated, so as long as you are comfortable following step by step instructions and are fairly familiar with your OS of choice (Mac OS X or Windows), you should be OK. Whether or not it’s worth upgrading to the latest firmware really depends on who you are and how you want to use your iPhone, or more specifically, in what language. Besides the likely bug and security fixes (like the Safari TIFF file exploit, which has been closed), the only new features seem to be better support for typing and using your iPhone in other languages. So unless you want/need the better language support, have bought a new iPhone that came with firmware 1.1.2 out of the box, or, like me, you absolutely have to know you’re running the latest firmware “just because”, you may want to just sit this one out and wait for the next firmware update.
Update 1 - 12/22/2007: Please note that as of this writing, there is no software unlocking solution for out of box version 1.1.2 iPhones. The above article is referring to iPhones that are updated to firmware 1.1.2 from earlier versions. Thanks to reader “TM” for bringing this to my attention.
November 19th, 2007
[Update 2] A lot has happened in the iPhone hacking world in the past week. On October 10, the iPhone Dev Team published detailed instructions for jailbreaking and activating iPhone firmware 1.1.1. Within 24 hours, the folks at iPhoneSimFree, confirmed that their unlock solution in conjunction with the iPhone Dev Team’s hack would enable unlocked phones to be fully operational running the latest firmware. They also released an update to their SimFree application which repaired iPhones that had previously been bricked due to corruption of the baseband radio firmware caused by some of the free unlock solutions.
Yesterday, an update to iNdependence for Mac OS X was released that makes the process of updating, activating and jailbreaking iPhones a whole lot easier. I tried both the old manual instructions as well as using iNdependence 1.2.3 to update mine and my wife’s unlocked iPhones to the latest firmware with a high degree of success. Read all about my experiences in the full article.
Continue Reading October 17th, 2007
The iPhone development community has released iNdependence 1.2.1, an update to the iPhone activation/hacking tool that now enables YouTube functionality on non-AT&T activated iPhones. I’ve tested it and it works beautifully. This program is in my opinion the most important tool for hacking the iPhone using a Mac.
You can download the latest version from the iNdependence project page.
September 15th, 2007
Just wanted to let all of you know that Art Of Geek has an official Folding@Home team! Just enter the below team number into your Folding@Home client’s settings on your PS3, Mac or PC and you’ll be able to contribute to Team Art Of Geek’s ranking while helping the geeks at Stanford study protein folding and misfolding to enable the scientific community to better understand the development of and research cures for Alzheimer’s disease, BSE (mad cow disease), cancer, Huntington’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis and other aggregation related diseases.
Team Art Of Geek
Folding@Home Team #56245
You can view our team’s progress on the F@H Team Art Of Geek page.
If you’re not already folding, what are you waiting for? It’s a good cause, and costs you next to nothing, if not nothing, depending on whether you pay your electricity bill. You can learn more about the Folding@Home project from this Wikipedia article, or the official Folding@Home project website.
F@H clients are available for Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista, Linux x86 (32 and 64-bit) and Mac OS X (PPC and Intel) and can be downloaded from the project download page. Of course if you own a PS3, you’ve already got the most powerful F@H client available built-in, just look in the Network menu of the XMB (Xross Media Bar) interface.
For those who participate, whether on Team Art Of Geek, or other team of your choice, thanks for contributing!
July 26th, 2007
I have been on a quest for the ‘perfect’ mobile phone for several years now, buying a new one every 6-9 months, but never being quite satisfied with any of them. I think the quest started back in 2003 when I bought a Sony Ericsson T68i, my first BlueTooth equipped phone, and was able to synchronize it wirelessly with my Mac using iSync. Every phone I bought since then could sync contact names and phone numbers with Mac OS X’s Address Book, and appointments with iCal but I have been forever plagued by a desire for a phone that can sync full addresses and contact notes with the same simplicity. In other words, I wanted something that could finally allow me to ditch my Palm PDA in the garbage forever.
Back in November of last year, a friend of mine IM’d me and told me about this new smartphone he had purchased. I told him what I was looking for in a phone, and he told me his phone would do all that, and synchronize contact photos to boot. I was skeptical, because I was starting to give up hope that any device could live up to my high expectations, short of Apple making a phone of their own*. But I was curious to see what benevolent creation my friend possessed. That phone was a Nokia E61, and after a short demonstration and a bit of a test drive, I was convinced. The next day I bought an unlocked Nokia E61 from a local reseller, and kissed my Motorola RAZR V3i and Palm TX goodbye.
The latest version of Mac OS X’s iSync at the time didn’t directly support the Nokia E61, but a free plugin available off the Internet quickly solved that problem. I just had to drag the plugin into a specific location on my hard drive, and iSync suddenly recognized and worked with my phone, like they were designed for each other from the beginning.
So last night, the Mac OS X 10.4.9 update dropped via Software Update, and I quickly went about downloading and installing it. The installation went without issue as expected and I was quickly back up and running with no muss or fuss. But this morning, when I went to launch iSync to sync up my phones with my MacBook Pro, I was greeted with this message:
My first thought was, “where the heck did I install that plugin?” My second was, “oh no, I might not be able to sync my E61 until an updated plugin gets released!” Well, looks like Apple’s iSync developers read my mind because they seem to have anticipated my concerns and dealt with them ahead of time. I proceeded to click on the little arrow to the right of the plugin name in the dialog box, and was pleasantly surprised to see a Finder window pop open with the offending plugin highlighted. All I had to do was drag the file to my Desktop to disable it. Then I relaunched iSync, re-added the Nokia E61 to the list and it was instantly recognized. Seconds later, I was syncing it without issue. I no longer need to use a third party plug-in because iSync now has built-in support for the Nokia E61.
Once again, Apple has exceeded my expectations by obsessing over the little details so I don’t have to waste my time. After this positive experience, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like had I gone through the same ordeal on Windows or Linux. Having used and supported the former for years, and dabbled a bit with the latter, I think I’ve got a pretty good idea what that would have been like.
*Of course, we all know Apple has decided to make their own smartphone, the iPhone, which is slated for release in the US in June. No firm release date has been given for Canada, although Rogers Wireless has apparently said they would be the exclusive carrier in the Great White North. For the record, as much as I do like my Nokia E61, I do plan on replacing it with an iPhone as soon as they arrive north of the border. A mobile phone that is as well thought out as Apple’s other products is, will be utter mobile nirvana.
March 14th, 2007
Those of us who have been lucky enough to get our hands on a Playstation 3 here in Canada will probably agree that there isn’t exactly a huge selection of content for the next-gen console yet. Like most people, I don’t have a huge amount of time to spend playing games, so this hasn’t been a problem for me, and I’m fully aware that the situation will get better as time goes on. March seems to be the month the floodgates will open on game releases, no doubt to coincide with the console’s March 23 European launch. It’s given me time to finish the games I already have before my attention is distracted by newer, shinier things. 
So yesterday’s release of flOw was a welcome addition to the console’s catalog. This seemingly simple casual game is unlikely to keep me away from other retail Blu-Ray titles that are waiting to be finished, but I was excited to get home from work and give it a try. I had heard little about the game ahead of time, in fact I think my first real exposure to came from the online Flash version I heard about on Digg or Slashdot. The game intrigued me, as it really was nothing I had seem/played before. I purchased and downloaded the game last night from the Playstation Store, priced at $8.99 here in Canada ($7.99 in the US). I’m not sure why we continue to pay some of the cheapest prices in the world for digital online media, but I’m not complaining. Sure it’s no “at par” pricing like iTunes 99¢ downloads, but we are still getting better than market exchange rate!
So I played the game for about a half hour, maybe 45 minutes. It’s kind of hard to say because you really can lose track of time in this game. The basic premise is you are a water-born organism that has to eat other organisms in order to grow and evolve. It’s basic gameplay seems to be somewhat of a cross between the classic video games Snake and Joust, in that you have to eat to grow and evolve, but the other creatures you are trying to eat, are trying to eat you too, so you have to try to approach them from angles that will allow you to eat them without exposing your body to their mouth. Everything you eat, changes your body so you are constantly evolving based on what you eat.
The game takes place in a body of liquid, which I’m going to assume is water. Each level takes you deeper in the body of water, and you can vaguely make out what organisms exist in the next deeper level ‘behind’ you on the screen, which adds to the feeling of immersion. The ‘levels’ are relatively short, but there is no waiting between them, and you can easily move deeper and shallower through levels at will by eating the appropriate shaped and coloured floating cells. Red with inward pointing arrows to descend deeper, and blue with outward pointing arrows to ascend to the previous level.
I almost have no clue about how many levels I passed in the 30-45 minutes I played because there is no indicator about what level you’re on. Not only are the levels not indicated in any way shape or fashion, but there’s no score and no menu either! The game’s interface is completely devoid of any information whatsoever. When you launch the game from the PS3’s XMB interface, after viewing the customary bevy of brand logos that adorn the startup of every game, and a screen that describes the controls, you just start playing. No need to press the start button, or navigate any options. In fact, there are NO options. There’s nothing to configure whatsoever. The same screen that describes the controls also mentions that a second player can join in at any time, but I didn’t have a chance to try the multiplayer option out, so I’ll have to revisit this aspect of the game in a followup posting.
The refreshing surprise about the game when I first started playing is it’s controls. It uses the Sixaxis motion control completely for movement. You simply tilt the controller in the direction you want to travel, and your organism responds instantly. This game really showcases just how accurate and sensitive the motion sensor is in the Sixaxis controller. It took a bit of practice to realize that I had to use very subtle movements in order to have accurate control in the game, and after a bit of practice, I quickly got the hang of it. I have to say this method of control seems so utterly intuitive for this type of game, and I applaud Sony for releasing a game that truly takes advantage of this feature, rather than most PS3 games that add motion control as an afterthought. In fact the only other inputs you will use on the controller in playing the game is to press any button to speed your creature up in some fashion (this will vary based on what state of evolution your creature is in) and the Start button to pause/unpause the game. That’s it. This game’s control is as simple as it gets.
One other indicator that is missing from the screen, is how many lives you have left. Because you don’t die in this game! When predators eat parts of your body, you simply de-evolve into a simpler organism, which makes you a smaller target and insures you can still defeat the bigger stronger creatures you are up against–creatures that you will no doubt eventually become, once you’ve evolved far enough. The bigger and more evolved you become, the more ‘hits’ you can take before being devolved to something much smaller. So the trick to survival is to keep eating and learn the movement and tactics of each new enemy organism so you can get better at defeating them. Not having to worry about dying in this game really adds to the relaxed and enjoyable game-play. The words “game over” do not exist in this game whatsoever.
When you’re tired of playing, you simply exit the game as any other, and your progress up till a certain point is saved, to continue at a later time. There appear to be specific save points, which aren’t identified in the game, so there is the potential that you will lose some of your progress when you quit and come back. From what I can tell from my limited time playing, the save point appears to be when you pass a major milestone your evolution. When I finally quit the game, and quickly went back in to see where it continued from, I had lost a good few minutes worth of gaming, but nothing that I can’t get back the next time I play. I’m wondering if maybe had I paused the game before quitting, whether it would have saved my progress a little further. I’ll experiment on this next time I play.
flOw’s graphics are simple yet beautiful at the same time. The game supports both 720p and 1080i/p, so everything is very crisp and clear on modern TVs. The graphics are an interesting mix of 2D objects interacting in 3D space, much like looking at micro-organisms through a microscope. The game is very conservative with it’s use of colour, focusing more on shape and physics. Everything moves in a very natural and life-like manner, and everything seems to affect the movement of everything else in the way one would expect objects to affect the flow of the water around them. It’s probably a very complex physics engine, but it’s not apparent to the player. Everything just seems to move naturally, which I think is one heck of an achievement, from a developers perspective.
So is the game any fun to play? Yes, but not in ways that one might be used to. There’s no bright colours, annoying sound effects and fast-paced action that are usually associated with most addictive, repetitive, casual games such as Tetris. Playing this game doesn’t feel like work the way that playing Tetris does. It seems designed for longer average play time, with difficulty increasing at a slower pace and the subtle background music and natural freeflowing movement intended to relax, rather than stress. It’s really an anti-video game, in almost every way I can think of. From the relaxed atmosphere, slow difficulty progression and simple and intuitive controls to the utter lack of progress indicators, lives, menus and options, it really feels like the developers set out to create a game that has as little in common with traditional video games as possible, and succeeded.
flOw is a uniquely addictive game that one will play just for the sake of playing, as opposed to trying to beat the high score or attain a certain level. I can’t even imagine how people will discuss their progress in flOw with friends, given the lack of any clear progress indicators such as score or level names/numbers or any language at all. If flOw is the anti-video game, then maybe it isn’t meant to be discussed at all. Maybe it’s enjoyment should just be experienced and then forgotten about, which makes it the perfect game for people who don’t want to think about their games.
February 23rd, 2007
Next Posts
Previous Posts