appletalker forum [apple mac discussion and troubleshooting] News

ipod/iphone backups

no_email@example.com (madra) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:47:17 GMT

given that i've got a lot of personal info stored on my ipod & iphone [email, login info. etc.] it occurred to me that i should tick the option to encrypt the backup in itunes - just in case.

having done so i then decided to make sure my old backup was deleted. so i looked in ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup where it lives and - to my surprise found about half a dozen folders of backups there. each one weighed in at over 1GB and a couple were over 2GB. all in all i freed up about 10GB by deleting them all.

so i'm wondering - does the ipod/iphone backup make a new copy each time it does a backup, or do you reckon this was a backup for each of the previous versions of iOS i'd been running on my ipod?

whatever the cause, it might be a good idea to take a look in your own ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup folder and doing a bit of pruning - especially if you're running a bit short on disc space

random discoveries no.382 - itunes

no_email@example.com (madra) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:06:09 GMT

i've just randomly discovered that, in itunes, if you click on the disc usage indicator bar, under the summary page for your ipod/iphone, it toggles between three different modes, giving slightly different info:

standard version - disc usage for everything:

version 02 - item count for audio, video, photos and apps:

version 03 - duration count for audio and video:

cue the timeline graphic!

ipod video.app - missing on iphone

no_email@example.com (madra) — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:28:04 GMT

my ipod has a 'videos.app' where movies i sync from itunes live. my iphone seems to be lacking this app - yet, while i was sync'ing it with itunes, i saw [at least according to the progress bar] that the movies i'd chosen to sync were being copied across to the iphone.

am i missing an app here, or does the iphone store videos elsewhere to the ipod?

[as you can imagine, googling for "iphone videos.app" disnae exactly return much in the way of relevant results! ]

Bundesamt für Sicherheit i.d. Informationstechnik warns: security leak in iPhone OS

no_email@example.com (euphras) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:15:28 GMT

Only in german:

http://www.buerger-cert.de/extraausgabe_archiv.a…?param=…

Opening a malicious .pdf document is enough to completely handle over the control to a third party. Seems like the save times are gone. OK, it´s "only" the iPhone OS but what´s around the corner?!

Safari Extensions

no_email@example.com (Gamoe) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:35:58 GMT

Following on the announcement of Safari 5, what extensions are you using? I just recently updated myself (via software update, I didn't bother downloading it manually) and I find shortly very useful, as I often place shortened URLs in my tweets. I'm also using the acclaimed Adblock, and I am trying out LastPass extension, as I had heard about it, but never tried it before. I do not like Twitter for Safari with its huge pixel-grabbing toolbar.

downgrading from iOS4 to iOS3,x,x

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:44:43 GMT

for some weird reason - even tho' iOS4 jailbreaks have been available since before iOS4 itself was officially released - they still dinnae work with the ipod touch 3G, which is what i've got.

well, today i finally had enough of waiting and decided to downgrade my ipod back to 3,1,2, so i could enjoy the full range of my apps again - and not just the ones apple says i'm allowed to run on it. it turned out to be a bit of a palaver, so i thought i'd note down the steps here, just in case anyone else finds themselves in a similar situation.

first off, you need an ipod restore .ipsw file for the version of iOS you want to install. in theory, you should have one of these for all previous versions of your ipod's software in ~/Library/itunes/iPod Software Updates

for some reason [i think i sussed out why later on*], i only had the .ipsw file for iOS4, so no obvious downgrade path.

so next step was to find an .ipsw file for iOS3,1,2 on the web. the nice folks at iclarified keep an archive of previous iOS versions, so i was able to download it from there. i stuck the .ipsw file in ~/Library/itunes/iPod Software Updates - although you can keep it anywhere, in theory.

next step is putting the ipod into recovery mode. you do this by shutting it down, connecting it to your mac and then holding the home and sleep buttons for about ten seconds [until the apple logo disappears]. then let go the sleep button and continue holding the home button for another ten seconds or so until you get the dreaded itunes plug logo. that's the theory anyway. i found it works sometimes and sometimes doesn't

now, in itunes, you need to choose to restore your ipod to factory settings. obviously this wipes it, so make sure you've salvaged anything off it you want, before you do so. clicking the restore button will just automatically select the newest version of iOS to restore to, so you need to alt+click on the restore button, which brings up a dialogue asking you to select the .ipsw file you want to restore from.

this is were i hit my first snag. since version 3 of iOS [or iphoneOS as it was then] apple's orwellian paranoia has required that itunes check with apple to make sure that the .ipsw file you're trying to restore with has not been tampered with [ie. hacked or cracked in any way] and also that it is still supported by apple. when i ran the restore function with the .ipsw file i got from iclarified, i tunes connected to apple to 'verify the restore' and then - after thinking about it for a few minutes - threw up the following error [sorry. no screengrab. i was too occupied trying to get this to work]:

The iPod 'iPod Touch' could not be restored. This device isn't eligible for the requested build.

at first i thought this was because i'd just downloaded an .ipsw off the intarwebs. i reckoned the .ipsw file might somehow be linked to the actual ipod it was meant to restore. however a bit of trawling of the web led me to a different conclusion [see here for technical article]. in short, *apple's servers will not validate any version of iOS prior to 3,1,3 as a legitimate install. since i was trying to revert back to 3,1,2 this was why i was getting the 'ineligible' error.

jay freeman [aka saurik], the very clever chap behind cydia and a lot of other jailbreaking goodies and whose article i've linked to just above has found a way to get around this problem of apple's servers refusing to allow you to install the version of the OS you want on the hardware you bought and paid for; he's set up a spoof server which sends an 'everything's OK. go ahead and install' message back to itunes. all you need to do is edit your /etc/hosts file and add the following line:

74.208.10.249 gs.apple.com

this diverts itunes attempts to connect to appleHQ to saurik's server instead, which sends back the all clear and [finally!] allows the restore to take place.

saurik also mentions that with certain versions of the ipod touch, you will need to have previously saved your ipod's unique ECID SHSH blobs [yeah, those!] with cydia for the restore to work. again, read the article for the technical details. i had done this before and when i tried the restore again in itunes [after editing /etc/hosts], it worked a treat. whether it would have or not if i hadnae previously saved my ECID SHSH blobs through cydia, i dinnae know.

final step - back in the familar territory of 3,1,2 again it was now time to jailbreak my ipod again and start re-installing all my hacks, cracks and non-apple-approved pieces of software. previously i'd used blackra1n to jailbreak. this time, just for a change i thought i'd try redsn0w instead. to cut a long story short, i had no joy with redsn0w. it kept looking like it had done something but my ipod remained resolutely un-jailbroken. so i went back to what i know and jailbroke it on the first attempt with blackra1n.

now for the boring job of setting it all up again!

PS - i'm going to comment out the line i added to my /etc/hosts file so itunes connects directly to apple again. i dinnae fancy the idea of my app store details being channelled through some 3rd party website. i can always uncomment the line if i need to do some more restore hackery-pokery later.

iOS - credit where it's due.

no_email@example.com (madra) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:02:50 GMT

this morning i was writing my shoping list in notes on my ipod, as i usually do. some of the stuff i needed involved going to a shop i'd only ever been to once before, so i noted down the address, in case i got lost and had to search for it.

after i'd typed it, i noticed the streetname and number were underlined, so i clicked on it and the ipod maps app opened centred on the area in question and dropped a pin on the location of the street number i'd typed. very slick! - it's things like that, that make you glad you're a mac user.

[i only wish apple would concentrate more on that kind of meta-info thing and less on the pointless [and generally annoying] bells'n'whistles like auto screen-rotate.]

iOS mail.app - getting rid of keyboard?

no_email@example.com (madra) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:52:58 GMT

is there a way of getting rid of the popup keyboard, after you've typed an email, so you can proof-read it, before hitting 'send'?

trying to proof-read and scroll text in the tiny gap left between the keyboard and top of the window is a real pain in the arse. but, unlike firefox and most other apps, mail disnae have a 'done' button to dismiss the keyboard without submitting anything. i've tried tapping outside the keyboard area [which works on a couple of other apps] but no joy.

Good starter free iOS Apps

no_email@example.com (Gamoe) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:16:06 GMT

So as you know, my gf got herself a brand-new iPod Touch. I know we have a recommended app thread, but it's considerably long. So I was wondering what free apps would be good for her to start off with.

freebie from macheist

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:39:22 GMT

macheist are giving away free copies of socialite by realmacsoftware in return for you clicking a link which will plug the launch of an ipod/ipad app called calcbot on your facebook page.

socialite is a one-stop-shop giving access to all your social networking sites/accounts; digg, facebook, flickr, google reader, RSS and twitter from one window. i've just downloaded it myself. as you'd expect from realmacsoftware, the interface is pretty nice looking, but it remains to be seen whether or not i'll use it much. sometimes the full feature set offered by having half a dozen dedicated apps outweighs the convenience of having an all-in-one that disnae quite cut the mustard for any of them.

anyway, just thought i'd mention it, in case anyone fancied a freebie.

Safari bookmarks

no_email@example.com (Navegador) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:54:26 GMT

Does anyone know how (or indeed where) Safari stores bookmarks?

When I replaced my macbook in May I forgot to back up my bookmarks and now I need one of those addresses very badly!

Cheers

Good Applications to catalogue Files/Folders

no_email@example.com (shmooler) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 16:56:52 GMT

This is something i've never thought about before but cos I now have so many files and folders on different drives it's becoming a headache. I'm trying to organise my files and folders across multiple drives and I'd like to leave one drive here in the UK with a complete off site backup of everything I have whilst i'm away.
Just wondering if anyone could recommend an application that easily catalogues everything across different drives? Preferably freeware would be an advantage but no big deal if not

understanding multi-tasking in iOS4

no_email@example.com (madra) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:11:49 GMT

OK. here's what i'm going on, based what i've read:

to 'multi-task' an app in iOS4, you double-click the home button.

after double-clicking the home button, all the aps which are currently multi-tasking appear in a drawer at the bottom of the screen.

to properly quit one of these apps, click and hold on its icon and then tap the 'no entry' sign which appears in the top left corner of the icon.

all well and good, apart from the fact that, every time i do the double-click on the home button trick, every app i've opened since i booted the ipod appears in the drawer - even the ones i've quit normally. no wonder my ipod's been running like molasses since upgrading to iOS4. it seems that i've got about a dozen apps open at the same time!

so what's going on? - am i misunderstanding this multi-tasking business?... or is it not working properly.

i've gotta say, it was a lot better implemented with backgrounder on 3,1,2 jailbroken: every app that was running in the background acquired a badge on its icon to announce the fact - black for apps you had backgrounded and blue for apps the system had backgrounded. there was no guesswork involved and it worked perfectly. maybe apple should have adopted that system, instead of this confusing mess.

safari 5

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:59:47 GMT

the apple site is now showing safari 5 available for download.

according to the blurb:

Quote by apple:

Safari Reader
Safari Reader removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles. So you get the whole story and nothing but the story. It works like this: As you browse the web, Safari detects if you’re on a web page with an article. Click the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field, and the article appears instantly in one continuous, clutter-free view. You see every page of the article — whether two or twenty. Onscreen controls let you email, print, and zoom. Change the size of the text, and Safari remembers it the next time you view an article in Safari Reader.

Even Greater HTML5 Support
Web standards are the future of the Internet. The world’s most innovative browser, Safari continues to lead the way in support for HTML5. Safari 5 supports over a dozen new HTML5 features that allow developers to create interactive content and media experiences that work right in the browser — without the need for third-party plug-ins.

Better Performance
Faster Nitro Engine.
The world’s fastest web browser gets an engine upgrade. Enhancements to the Nitro Engine in Safari 5 mean you experience web browsing at greater speeds than before.

Powered by the Nitro JavaScript engine, Safari 5 on the Mac runs JavaScript up to 30 percent faster than Safari 4, 3 percent faster than Chrome 5.0, and over twice as fast as Firefox 3.6.

Bing Search
Safari gives you even more search options with built-in Bing search, in addition to Google and Yahoo! Search. Just choose Bing in the Smart Search Field, start typing, and get search suggestions that help you find what you’re looking for fast.

Customizing Safari and the web.
Safari 5 introduces Safari Extensions, a new way for developers to enhance and customize the browsing experience. Create buttons for the toolbar or make your own extension bar. Change the way web content appears. Add controls to web pages. Safari Extensions are built with web standards, so you can do it all using the power of HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.

i guess the headline news is the last one; the fact that, like firefox, safari now supports extensions. t'will be interesting to see what developers come up with here. it's mainly the availability of some pretty nifty extensions that keep me using firefox in preference to safari at the moment, in spite of the fact safari is quicker. if developers start writing similarly useful extensions fore safari, it might be time to do another browser switch.

printing from firefox = no text

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:23:05 GMT

the last few times i've tried to print from firefox, the pages have come out with all the images but minus the text. this has happened both on my printer at home and on the one i use at college, so it's not related to the printer. neither is it a prob with my comp, as printing from other apps works fine. BTW, i'm on firefox 3,6,3.

i thought at first it might be a bug in the HTML5 parser that we were messing about with the other week, so i disabled that and tried again, but still no text.

anyone else had this problem? i've googled for it, expecting it to be a bug in the fairly recently released 3,6,3 - but it seems to be another 'madra special'. i couldnae find any word of anyone else having the same probs.

Firefox nightlies - New HTML5 Parser

no_email@example.com (i5m) — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:17:20 GMT

Euphras,

you may want to check out a Firefox nightly (Since they are still kindly building Universal). The new HTML5 parser really is damn quick. An unscientific test of me on my 2Ghz dual core windows machine, it feels as fast as the Chrome developer builds. It also feels pretty quick on my 1Ghz PPC; still struggles with things like Google Wave, but it's got the least lag yet of anything I've tried for typing in Wave.

It's been a long time, but it may become my default browser on my Mac (Not sure if it ever was? I was using Camino when it was Chimera).

another 'timeline' graphic for madra?

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:56:12 GMT

how long has this option been in itunes?

i just noticed it today and cannae rem ever seeing it before [presumably the AAC conversion will not add DRM to your files ]

Steam for Mac

no_email@example.com (Gamoe) — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:55:35 GMT

There's a little review over at MacRumors of the Steam beta for Mac. I have to admit, I am not a hardcore gamer by any metric, by I am rather satisfied by this development: that the largest online gaming distribution platform is coming to the Mac in a mere few days. I plan to buy some of the first games available.

quicktime X - any progress?

no_email@example.com (madra) — Sun, 09 May 2010 07:59:16 GMT

way back when i first installed snow leopard, i ranted long and hard into the night about how totally and utterly useless quicktime X was and promptly banished it from my computer and re-installed quicktime 7 instead which, flakey tho' it is, does at least have the advantage of seeming to have come across one or two video formats before - unlike quicktime X, which is [or was then] about as much of a swiss army knife for video formats as micro$oft word is for text ones.

anyway, i was just wondering; 3 updates into snow leopard, has quicktime X improved at all?... or is it still as pants as ever?

convert icns to png via terminal

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 06 May 2010 10:18:29 GMT

this is pretty much apropos of nothing, but i thought it was pretty cool, so i'd share it:

i was looking for a plugin for photoshop, or a utility to convert an icns file [OSX icon] to a 'normal' graphics format, so i could include the icon for an app in a document i was writing. i didnae have any luck finding an app or plugin to do it, but even cooler [if you're a geek!] i stumbled across the following terminal command:

sudo sips -s format png full-path-to-original-image.icns --out full-path-to-converted-image.png
it works a treat.

[apparently you can also substitute jpeg, tiff, png, gif, jp2, pict, bmp, qtif, psd, sgi, or tga for png in the -s format xxx part, to output in a variety of different file formats. [tho' i've only tried it with png so far]

pretty cool, eh?

TacoHTMLedit goes commercial - silent crippling of previously free versions

no_email@example.com (euphras) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:46:06 GMT

I´ve used a free version of TacoHTMLedit (v. no. 1.2.1) since the last seven years or so. This version was able to display a split window live preview mode. This evening i fired up my old version, which i never did update or upgrade for some reason. I noticed a complete GUI timeshift back into the era of pinstriped OS X 10.1 and fugly chimera OS 9/OS X icons (around 2001). I visited the Taco (screenshot) site, just to see, that the app is now a commercial one and the split window live preview option is still implemented.
Then i disabled Airport to prevent some *backstage* communication with the Taco HQ during startup and fired up the "original" (in the meaning of OS 7-9) app.. You guess it!? No luck, same strange GUI experience as before...

I think, during the process of going commercial these guys have forced a "silent" downgrade of remotely stored previous versions using the preferences being kept on an individual startup volume.

now that flash is dead...

no_email@example.com (madra) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:45:52 GMT

... at least as far as developing apps which will run on your ipod/iphone/ipad, which should i be trying to get to grips with instead?

sproutcore...?

or cappuccino...?

sproutcore seems to have apple support [apparently demo-ed at apple shindigs and reputedly what mobile me is built on]

cappuccino allegedly more OSX like, as it aims to mirror objective-C in javascript [AKA objective-J ]

sprout based on ruby syntax - cappuccino based on javascript

cappuccino has a nicer icon!

real world examples: mobileme is built on sproutcore [supposedly] - 280 slides is built on cappuccino

discuss!

Transmit 4

no_email@example.com (Speckledstone) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:37:05 GMT

Transmit 4, anyone try it out yet?

Panic is claiming a 25x speed speed bump and honestly, I think they're correct... It seems pretty snappy.

Rumours of a 10.7 App Store...

no_email@example.com (i5m) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:00:41 GMT

This can't be true can it?

http://rixstep.com/1/20100424,00.shtml

Apple will begin signing up independent software vendors (ISVs) for the 10.7 developer programme by early autumn 2010. Membership will cost $99 just as the iPhone programme...

...Developers planning on marketing software for 10.7 will submit their products to the App Store as iPhone and now iPad developers have already done...

No software will be able to run on Mac OS X 10.7 without being approved and signed by Apple, Inc.

I can't believe it. And doing a bit of research, I think that RixStep should be taken with a shovelful of salt.

Still, I could see Apple implementing some of this. What about a non-mandatory App Store that Apple would promote to users through the OS?(perhaps using the increasingly badly name iTunes). What about limiting certain APIs / developer features to apps that distributed through an App store. Hmmm. Maybe.

iphoneOS 4

no_email@example.com (madra) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:03:42 GMT

released this summer [autumn for the ipad version]

multi-tasking

organise apps into folders

improved email [with encryption]

and just in case you think it's going to be all good....

a split revenue scheme whereby developers can have apple feed ads into their apps for a split of the takings

multi-tasking = cool [tho' i've got it already, thanx to 'backgrounder']
more ads in apps = the spawn of satan

app store ipad apps?

no_email@example.com (madra) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 11:26:21 GMT

i'm sure i read somewhere a couple of days ago that the apple app store was now displaying apps for ipad. i was surprised that no-one had posted about this earth-shattering event [ ] here. so this morning i went on the app store to take a screengrab and do it myself....

no ipad apps on the UK app store... switched to the US app store - no ipad apps there either...

have i been smoking crack - or, if not, where the hell did i get the idea that the ipad app store had opened from? like i say, i'm *sure* i read it somewhere pretty reliable, earlier this week.

Google Earth servers down?

no_email@example.com (euphras) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:56:02 GMT

Since one day i´m unable to connect to the GE server. In the settings window all options are greyed out. Is it just me or do you also encounter this obstacle? I haven´t upgraded to a newer version, it´s the version which did run flawless previously.

edit: I did a portscan from an other machine: port 80 is open. I dumped GE, downloaded and installed it fresh. No luck.

annoying iphoneOS mail.app glitch

no_email@example.com (madra) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:04:06 GMT

yesterday, when i was trying to read my email on my ipod, i accidentally turned the screen a nano-degree, so of course the fuckwitted auto rotate kicked in and started to rotate the screen sideways. i instinctively corrected the angle of the screen and, such was my speed and dexterity that the auto-rotate kicked in again, in the other direction and tried to rotate the screen back upright, before it had finished rotating sideways.

the result was that, for about half a second, my screen was stuck at a diagonal, while autorotate tried to catch up with itself. then the screen rotated back to the uprioght direction, but it looked like the menubar remained at a diagonal and then got overwritten by the redrawn upright screen.

all fine and dandy, except i was now stuck on the screen i had been on in mail.app [reading this here email from the forum]. there was no menubar nor any buttons to go anywhere else, apart from this email. i could bin it, forward it, move it to different folders etc. using the buttons at the bottom, but there was no way to navigate away from it. even quitting mail and reopening it again, didnae help. eventually i had to give up and reboot my ipod to clear its custard.

anyone else had anything like this happen? [the chances must of flipping autorotate back in the opposite direction, before it's finished doing it's thing must be pretty small, but i wonder if this is a reproduceable bug, or just a weird one-off?]

[L] mail.app. stranded on this screen, with no way back - [R] normal buttons restored, only after reboot

Homebrew

no_email@example.com (i5m) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:30:11 GMT

Not that kind, although

I do remember a time when I played Hockey (the non-ice kind) at Uni and two of the guys there brewed their own beer and bought it along to a game in a watering can. I didn't dare go near it

anyway, Homebrew looks really interesting, but I haven't had a chance to try it out. It looks like an alternative to Macports. Check out the README.

macheist nanobundle

no_email@example.com (madra) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:22:33 GMT

i see the latest macheist nanobundle is out.

not too impressive IMHO. the previous one had quite a few decent apps. in this one, only clips looks potentially like something i'd like to get a copy of. i s'pose i'm moderately interested in having a play with rapidweaver [but see little likelihood of ever using it 'in anger']. all the rest just seem pretty pointless to me; there's either a free app, or an app that does what they do better, already out there... and sometimes one that's both free AND does it better.