iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource » Recommendations

Top 5 Jailbreak Tweaks for the iPhone 4S in Cydia [Video]

Kris Meador — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:51:20 +0000

Jailbreaking opens your iOS devices to a lot of different tweaks and customization. And with so many options in Cydia, it can be tough to go through them all.

I’ve put together a list of the Top 5 Jailbreak tweaks I’ve made to my iPhone 4S. By no means are these the definitive best five, but they are the ones I’m getting a lot of use out of right now, and ones I think add more functionality to the iPhone 4S.

I should point out, only one of the tweaks is limited to the iPhone 4S, and that’s because it’s a change to Siri. So the others can likely be used on your other iOS devices. Just make sure to check the descriptions within Cydia.

Here is my list:

SBSettings (free)
AnyLockApp (free)
Infinidock + Cascade (both are $0.99)
Zephyr ($2.99)
VoiceUtils (free)

Other Jailbreak tweaks members of iPhoneinCanada are using.

Winterboard (free)
iFile ($4.00)
PkgBackup ($7.99)
Cyntact ($1.00)
xMessages (free)
My3G ($3.99)
BiteSMS (free)
CyDelete (free)
SiriToggles (free)

So please feel free to let me know which tweaks you think are the best.

Top 5 Jailbreak Tweaks for the iPhone 4S in Cydia [Video] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Siri Plays a Yamaha Disklavier (Video)

Stephen Cleary — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:59:57 +0000

Using Wi-Fi, Airplay, and an Apple Express, Craig Knudsen of Yamaha has figured out how to get Siri to play a Yamaha Disklavier; complete with moving pedals and keys in full expression.

The pointer comes via Jim Dalrymple of Loop Insights:

Take a standard MIDI songfile and convert it to an audio file (while maintaining the MIDI data). The songfile is then sent wirelessly via WiFi to an Apple Airport Express (which is mounted underneath a Yamaha Disklavier reproducing piano. The audio output of the Airport Express is then connected to the analog MIDI inputs of the Disklavier, using a standard audio cable.

Then, you simply ask Siri to play your favorite song from your iTunes library, and Siri responds immediately, by making the Disklavier’s keys and pedal move up and down, recreating the performance, including full orchestration.

It’s pretty cool. Check out the video here.

Siri Plays a Yamaha Disklavier (Video) is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Google Zeitgeist: It’s an Apple World

Stephen Cleary — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:23:17 +0000

Every year Google takes a look at what we’ve been searching for on the Internet. Today they released the 2011 Zeitgeist (“the spirit of the times”) which sorts billions of Google Searches to capture the year’s 10 fastest rising global queries.

On the main page Google lists the 10 fastest-rising global queries. Included in those top 10 you’ll find three Apple subjects represented: the iPhone 5 (whoops!), Steve Jobs, and the iPad2. Of technology-related subjects, only Google’s new social network Google+ and the Battlefield 3 placed higher.

Under Tech & Gadgets for the U.S., Apple dominates taking seven spots, including the top 6.

Digging into the meta-data reveals all sorts of interesting information. Take a look, and let us know interesting Apple tid-bits you discover.

Google Zeitgeist: It’s an Apple World is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

$100 Discount Voucher + Free Shipping On JVC UX-VJ3 iPhone / iPad Speaker Dock

Usman — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:03:26 +0000

Back in October, we published a comprehensive review of the JVC UX-VJ3 iPhone / iPad speaker dock. In November, we also gave away one unit of the JVC UX-VJ3 speaker dock for free to our loyal readers, right here on iPhone In Canada. Now, we have another great deal to offer for the coming holidays i.e a discount voucher that entitles you to $100 CDN off the JVC UX-VJ3 (black or white) plus free shipping, bringing the total amount to $149.99 plus applicable taxes.

To use, simply copy and paste the following discount voucher in coupon field at checkout:

VJ3HOLIDAY11;VJ3FREESHP11

** The coupon code is valid for a limited time only and will expire on December 25th at 12:00am EST.

$100 Discount Voucher + Free Shipping On JVC UX-VJ3 iPhone / iPad Speaker Dock is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Buy iTunes Cards For 25% Off At Safeway, Offer Valid All Across Canada

Usman — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:28:28 +0000

If you’re a frequent iTunes customer, here’s a limited-time deal you cannot miss. You can buy an iTunes card for 25% off at Safeway. The offer is valid all across Canada. We’re told that if you buy 2 of their 3 x $10 packs you get $15 off. This also beats Future Shop‘s deal who are offering $60 worth of cards for $48.

Using your iTunes card is easy. Once you redeem the scratch code against your iTunes account, you can use it to buy anything from the iTunes store including apps, music, magazine subscriptions and movies. The card’s amount will show up as a credit in your online account which will be consumed before using your registered payment method (if any) such as a credit card.

[via RedFlag Deals]

Buy iTunes Cards For 25% Off At Safeway, Offer Valid All Across Canada is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Zuckerberg Says Amazon and Apple Were Allies, While Google’s Building “Their Own Little Version of Facebook”

Stephen Cleary — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:52:15 +0000

PBS has released a YouTube preview of a Charlie Rose interview with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer.

The interview covers everything from Facebook’s plans to become publicly traded, privacy, China, the Arab spring, the lack of engineering talent in U.S., and questions about their supposed “war” with other tech companies: primarily Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon.

Zuckerberg plays down the idea of a war, noting that Facebook is a social network and doesn’t compete with hardware companies. He acknowledges that Facebook competes with Google who is “trying to build their own little version of Facebook,” but remarks that for one company to “win” doesn’t mean the other has to “lose.”

In Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, it’s revealed that Jobs viewed it as his responsibility to give advice to up-and-coming technology executives, including Zuckerberg who he admired “for not selling out” and building a company. Part of that advice, Zuckerberg reveals in the interview, was to sharpen Facebook’s focus and build a high-quality team.

Mark Zuckerberg: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, he — he’s amazing. He was amazing. I mean, he — I had a lot of questions for him on –

Charlie Rose: Like what?

Mark Zuckerberg: How to build a team around you, right, that’s focused on building as high quality and good things as you are. How to keep an organization focused, right, when I think the tendency for larger companies is to try to fray and go into all these different areas. Yeah, I mean a lot just on the aesthetics and kind of mission orientation of companies. I mean, Apple is a company that is so focused on just building products that — for their customers and their users. And — and that’s like — it’s such a deep part of their mission is build these beautiful products for their users. And I think we connected a lot on this level of, okay, Facebook has this mission that’s really more than just trying to build a company, right, that has a market cap or a value. It’s like we’re trying to do this thing in the world. And I don’t know, a lot of it I just think we connected on that level.

The interview is scheduled to be broadcast on PBS on Monday evening and on Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. It will also be available on the Web at the site for Mr. Rose’s show.

[VentureBeat]

Zuckerberg Says Amazon and Apple Were Allies, While Google’s Building “Their Own Little Version of Facebook” is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Rare Steve Jobs Speeches in ’82 and ’91 to Students in New Orleans and Reed College

Stephen Cleary — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:49:08 +0000

Having recently finished Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs and hungry for more, I turned to the internet. I watched Steve and Bill Gates dual interview at D5; I watched Steve alone at D8; I watch the Stanford address; then Steve reading of the Think Different ad; then some old WWDC presentations. All great stuff, but nothing I hadn’t seen or heard before.

Then luck found me. Searching iTunes University I made two exciting discoveries. Both are of audio recordings of a younger jobs. Both give further insight into Jobs’ character and how he viewed the world. Both I’ve never heard before.

The first recording is only seven-minutes long and comes from 1982 when a then 26-year old Steve Jobs addressed the Academy of Achievements at its Summit in New Orleans:

Steve Jobs was still a mischievous 26-year-old iconoclast when he addressed the Academy of Achievement at its 1982 Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana. Steve Jobs participated in the Academy’s Summit at the suggestion of his mentor Bill Hewlett who attended the 1981 Summit as a Golden Plate honoree when it was held in Dallas, Texas. In this audio podcast he urges the Academy’s student delegates to seek out the widest possible variety of experience and learn to think for themselves.

It can be downloaded as a podcast here.

The second is nearly 15 minutes long and comes from August 27, 1991 when Reed College presented Steve with the Vollum Award:

Audio of the presentation of the Vollum Award to Steve Jobs, called the “father of the personal computer” by presenter Richard Crandall ’69 at Reed College in 1991. Jobs attended Reed College in the early ’70s and took calligraphy from Robert Palladino.

The recording can be download as a podcast here. Both of these speeches precede the famous Stanford University address made later by Steve in 2005, seen as one of the greatest commencement speeches of all time. This post is spoiler free, but feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Rare Steve Jobs Speeches in ’82 and ’91 to Students in New Orleans and Reed College is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

WhatsApp Messenger Is Currently FREE in the App Store

Gary Ng — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:00:44 +0000

My favourite cross platform messaging app for the iPhone is WhatsApp Messenger, one of the most popular apps in the App Store. It allows me to communicate with anyone who is using an iPhone, Blackberry, Android, or Nokia device. You can group chat, send pictures, videos, audio, and even share your location.

WhatsApp Messenger is regularly priced at 99 cents, but it’s currently FREE in the App Store. Click here to download! I just spoke with Jan Koum, the creator of WhatsApp and he said this is a temporary promo. Get downloadin’!

Now that’s WhatsApp is free, you can shut up those cheapo friends of yours!

Thanks to Pat O’Brien for the email!

WhatsApp Messenger Is Currently FREE in the App Store is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

ZAGG 50% Off Memorial Day Sale, May 30-31: LIVE!

Gary Ng — Sat, 28 May 2011 23:00:19 +0000

Here we go again. The ZAGG Memorial Day sale is around the corner on Monday and Tuesday, with all items up to 50% off. If you missed last year’s 50% off sale, this is your chance for redemption.

The sale starts Sunday, May 29th at 9pm PDT, and ends Wednesday at 1am PDT. Once you add items to your cart you’ll receive 50% off. This is the time to stock up on some invisibleSHIELDS for all your gadgets. I’ve been using invisibleSHIELDS since my first gen iPhone, and it’s the best in my opinion. Their warranty and money back guarantee provides lots of support for their customers.

Check out our reviews:

These 50% off ZAGG sales only happen a couple times a year. Don’t miss out!

Click here to visit ZAGG.com

ZAGG 50% Off Memorial Day Sale, May 30-31: LIVE! is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Jailbreak Tweaks that Should Already Be in iOS

Gary Ng — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:32:19 +0000

Here are some jailbreak tweaks that should already be in iOS. Could of any variationÂ of these tweaksÂ make an appearance in iOS 5? We’ll find out next week at WWDC.

ScreenDimmer â€“ Lets you change the minimum time until the screen dims or turns off entirely. You can also set a whitelist so that the screen never turns off. The newest version also incorporates the accelerometer so if it detects movement the phone wakes up. However I find this somewhat gimmicky since you can just tap the screen and the backlight will come on. But overall, it should save a lot of battery since the default time until the screen dims is 1 minute. Price: $1.99

SBSettings â€“ Must have tweak as I talked about before especially with two of the toggles that I always use: Push Notification SbSettings Toggle â€“ lets you turn on/off push notification with one easy click, Ring & Silent Vibrate SbSettings Toggle â€“ lets you turn vibrate on/off in any mode either silent or ringer mode. I find it very useful when I want to have the phone in complete silent more with no ring and no vibrate. Price: Free

App Switcher Brightness â€“ Adds a brightness bar in the app switcher bar underneath the volume bar, which is useful when you want to change the brightness and youâ€™re in a full screen app and have no access to sbsettings. Price: $0.99

App Switcher Ringer â€“ similar to the stock volume slider but by clicking on the icon it changes it to the ring tone slider. Useful when you want to have different volumes in apps and ringer. Price: $0.99

TruPrint â€“ The default Airprint doesnâ€™t support many printers, this fixes that issue since it works with most printers. Price: $9.99

Lockinfo â€“ Best tweak in my opinion for notification. Shows you missed calls, mail, sms, push notification, even twitter and the weather. Price: $7.99

mobileNotifier â€“ Similar to Lockinfo, but in my opinion it is still missing a lot of features, so Iâ€™d have to say that Lockinfo is still my choice for notification usage. However, I do like how a small bar thatâ€™s pops up when you get a text message or a push notification even when you are in full screen mode which Lockinfo does not include. Price: Free

biteSMS â€“ Must have text Message app that I talked about in previous post. Price: $ 8.99

iFile â€“ A file browser that lets you view any type of file that you have on your iPhone. Price: $ 4.00

Mail Enhancer â€“ Adds features such as signature to your emails and customizable sound and vibration notifications. There is also a feature to have your phone speak the senderâ€™s name out. Price: $2.99

Attachment Saver â€“ Saves any email attachment like mp3 or PDF and allows you to view it easily with iFile. Price: $ 3.00

Delete Mail â€“ Lets you delete all your mail in a single click. Price: $0.99

Mark Read â€“ Marks all your mail in your inbox as either read/unread. Price: $1.99

Data Deposit â€“ Saves you app data and uploads it into Dropbox so you can restore it at a later time. Price: Free

One tweak that I would really like is to have the mail app be able to only show my unread mail. The Lockinfo mail some what does this but it would be nice to have it supported natively by the mail.app.

What other tweaks do you think should already be iOS whether or not it is available on Cydia?

Jailbreak Tweaks that Should Already Be in iOS is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog - Canada's #1 iPhone Resource