“Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they’ll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now — we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you’re going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific.”

Source: Macrumors.com

I was shopping in Target this week and noticed that they had one that looked very interesting. It was from a new brand I have never heard of called Speck.

I had been seeing a lot of Speck cases and what not for the iPhone all the day long as I shopped today. This however looked like something I had been searching for, for quite some time.

This kit provides you with a base that can be mounted on the dash or suctioned to the windshield, a belt clip, a snap on case for the iPhone, ipod touch, or ipod nano, audio aux cable, and also an additional swivel attachment so that you can get every possible angle you need out of this thing.

As soon as I got to the car I took it out of the package and pretend to mount it on the dash to see how well this was going to workout. I could see right away that I didn’t want to give up my Incipio Case for the one they provide. The one that they provide is almost perfect for this.  See on the pack of it there is a square piece of plastic and it happens to fit in the other square on the mount.

This was not a deal breaker for me. I like to modify things, and I had been looking way to long for a decent mount.

All I had to do was take the piece that came with the kit for the ipod nano, widdle it down a bit with a grinder, super glue it to my Incipio Case and I was done.

I tried to find a good link to provide you with so you get pick up one for yourself but I had no luck. I guess the easiest thing to do is visit Target and see if they have one there.

Here is the exact same thing but its by a different company.

http://www.iq-ss.com/index.aspx?menuid=12&type=introduct&lanmuid=66&language=en

I included some photos from my setup.

How To Create Your Own Multiboot USB flash drive

For the longest time when I do computer repair house calls, I often depended on a satchel full of CD’s with my favorite tools on them.
Some of them being ERD Commander, Ultimate Windows Boot CD, Knoppix Live, Ubuntu Live, NTpassword, and so on. I hated to have all these cd’s with me at all times.
I often thought about how to accomplish this, but always got sidetracked.

Recently I made up my mind and said the ultimate goal was to have a bootable USB flash drive with a nice menu. I fiddle with this for at least two months with little to no headway, but alas I figured out how to do it and I would like to share it with all of you techies out there willing to read my blog.

I am going to teach you what I have learned throughout this process, and I’m sure you will feel technically empowered when this is all done.

Today you are going to build a USB Multiboot toolset complete with customized boot menu ready to launch many of your favorite tools.

Are you Ready? Good, lets get started!

Creation

First we are going to need a few tools to get started.
- USB flash drive
- grubinstgui
- grub4dos
- memdisk
- 7zip

Any USB flash drive should work. I first used a Kingston DataTraveler 4 GB. Then I later used a PNY 8 gig Flash Drive. Currently I am using this bad boy right here the Kingston DataTraveler 150 – 32 GB USB
Prepare the USB drive by formatting the drive fat32.  You can do this in Windows Disk Manager

To get to Windows Disk Manager in windows right click on My Computer and choose Manage from the context menu.
Next look for disk management. In here you should see your USB flash drive.  Select it and right click on it and choose format.

Next what you will need to do is run grubinst_gui.
Select the disk option and pick your USB drive. Be SURE to select the correct drive number.
If you’re not sure which drive is your USB drive check with Windows Disk Manager.
You should see your main hard drive as 0 and maybe your USB drive as 1, look carefully as this next step could erase your hard drive and I am not responsible for your laziness.
Read … Read… and Re-Read….
Once you are assured the correct drive is selected, go ahead and click Install.
No options need to be checked, the defaults are fine.

You will then need to copy the grldr file from the grub4dos package to the root of your USB drive. Also while you are at it copy memdisk to the root of the USB drive.
Finally finish off the install by creating a blank text file in the root of your USB drive called “menu.lst”.

Ok this USB flash drive is now bootable, so let’s move on to adding all our favorite tools and toss those cd’s.

For most of the distributions I added, I started off with an ISO version of it. I then extracted the ISOs using 7zip either to my desktop or directly to the root of the thumb drive (or you could just copy the files from a burnt version of the distro, just as long as you get the files to the root of your thumb drive).

Most Linux distros come with 2 folders: a boot folder and another folder that actually holds the meat and potatoes of the distro.

Since it would be impossible to have 6 or 7 different boot folders that don’t overlap on the same thumb drive (without multiple partitions…a route I tried to take for way too long before I realized the magic of grub) I simply renamed the boot folder to something like “bootbt3″ (backtrack3) or “bootknop” (knoppix) depending on the distro, and just left the other folder as is.

I did this at first and had lots of issues with some distros, then I read a little more about grub and realized I could boot the iso, so I will save you tons of time for some of the problem distros and show you how to boot the ISO.

Here is my menu.lst feel free to copy and tweak it. Download it here

splashimage /bgimage/yourimage.xpm.gz
color blue/black yellow/blue
timeout 120

title Hiren’s Boot CD ver 10
kernel /memdisk
initrd /HBCD/boot.gz

title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
boot

title BackTrack 4 Linux Penetration and Security
root (hd0,0)
kernel /bootbt4/vmlinuz persistent vga=0×317 ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet
initrd=/bootbt4/initrd.gz
boot

title Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop
find –set-root /ubuntu904.iso
map /ubuntu904.iso (0xff)
map –hook
root (0xff)
kernel /casper/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu904.iso quiet splash locale=en.UTF-8 –
initrd /casper/initrd.gz
boot

title Puppy Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /puppy/vmlinuz root=/dev/rd/0 pmedia=usbflash
initrd /puppy/initrd.gz

title Gparted 0.4.5-2 Partition Editor
root (hd0,0)
kernel /gparted/vmlinuz1 live-media-path=/gparted bootfrom=/dev/sd boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=789 ip=frommedia
initrd /gparted/initrd1.img

title Ophcrack (Password Revealer, Resetter, Cracker)
kernel /bootoph/bzImage rw root=/dev/null vga=normal lang=C kmap=us screen=1024x768x16 autologin
initrd /bootoph/rootfs.gz

#this is for a space
title
kernal
initrd

title Restart The Computer
reboot

If you will notice in the menu.lst above, I didn’t use an ISO for every single one.
Not all distros boot well from ISO on a USB flash drive, so I had to extract some of them.

For Hiren’s boot CD I extracted the ISO with 7zip and copied the contents to the root of the USB flash drive as HBCD.
For the Ultimate Boot Cd for Windows you can see I booted the ISO. I just copied it to the root of the USB flash drive.
For Backtrack 4 beta I extracted it using 7zip and copied the bt4 folder to the root and also renamed the boot folder to bootbt4
For Ubuntu 9.4 you will see that I used the ISO
For Puppy Linux I extracted the ISO (this one was just for fun, its FAST!)
For Gparted I extracted the ISO to Gparted folder on the root of the USB flash drive.
For Ophcrack I extracted the contents to the folder called bootoph and I also put the tables folder on the root of the USB flash drive.

Here is what the Root of my USB Flash Drive looks like
>USBSTICK
|->bkgrimage
|->USBlogo.xpm.gz
|->bootbt4
|->bootoph
|->BT4
|->dban
|->gparted
|->HBCD
|->memtest
|->STORAGE
|->ntpasswd
|->puppy
|->tables
grldr
memdisk
menu.lst
UBCD.iso
ubuntu904.iso
ghost11.iso
ERD60_x86_WinVista_SP2.iso
ERD60_x64_WinVista_SP2.iso

Add what ever you wish to add to this USB flash drive. You can refer to my example and some of the grub manual for details on how to boot different distros.

Customizing

When it comes to customizing the USB menu with a splash image, its simply a matter of creating a 640×480 – 14 color splash screen image.

This is easy to accomplish with the Gimp. Gimp is like Microsoft Paint on Steroids for Linux users. Once you have the files on your USB flash drive you can boot into Ubuntu and use gimp from there. Just acquire yourself some sort of image and place it on the root of your USB flash drive. It needs to be a 640×480 image. You can crunch the colors in gimp by selecting Image, Mode, Indexed and entering 14 as the maximum colors.
Click Convert. Save this file as a XPM, then gzip it.  To gzip it in Ubuntu right click the image and create archive. Choose .gz from the drop down beside the name of the file.  Copy the gz to the root of your USB flash drive and prepend “splashimage /image.xpm.gz” to your menu.lst file. I inserted another USB Flash Drive in and copied it to that one whilst in Ubuntu.

If you dont want to mess with all that Download mine here

Further information on customizing the grub menu.lst file for your specific distros can be found in the grub manual.

Ok now that our files are in place, wouldn’t it be nice if you could mess with it for testing without having to reboot all the stinking time?

Well…there is an app for that….its VMWARE player and its free.
This way you can test your USB flash drive in a virtual environment without having to reboot your computer. That way you can continue to read my blog.

USB-TestVM -> http://userbytes.com/extra/USB-TestVM.zip
VMware Player direct download -> http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmplayer/VMware-Player-2.5.3-185404.exe

Tools I use:
- Backtrack 4 Beta (the backtrack login is root/toor
- Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
- Ophcrack
- Ubuntu 9.04
- NTpasswd
- MemTest86
- Hirens Boot CD
- Gparted Partion Manager
- ERD Commander Now a Microsoft Product

Some of these tools are downright dangerous in the wrong hands. It would be terrible if say you were an IT Specialist at ohh I dunno… a  “college” and you forgot it in one of the computers one day, and a student got their hands on it and used it for malicious mischief. YIKES !!!

Well I have an idea for that as well.

A password can be added by obtaining a UNIX md5. This can be done from Grub by:

1. Booting up the drive and pressing “c” at the grub prompt (you can do this in the VMWARE player)
2. Typing in “md5crypt” then entering in your desired password
3. Copying the resultant md5 hash on paper, etc. ( write it down. If you cant read it because of your splash screen, comment out your splash screen entry with a #  and try again)
4. Adding the line password –md5 *your md5 here* either after the preliminary lines (i.e. – after timeout, splash image, etc.) (This will require a password to make any changes to the menu.lst from the grub prompt) AND/OR after the title of a distro (This will require a password to boot the distro) Sometimes I have had to place it right before the word boot.

UPDATE -11-20-2009
I took the liberty of creating you one in case you didnt want to do all that. You will need to copy and paste the following in your menu.lst

$1$DnF0$t0Mb7RQFOfYgaTV13mY7t0

That is the md5 encryption for the password userbytes.com …..once again in case you missed it, the password is userbytes.com
You will want to place it at the end of your item to be booted so that it prompts you before the item is booted.
Like this:

title DBAN (Darriks Boot and Nuke, Disk wiper)
kernel /dban/memdisk
initrd /dban/dban.ima
password –md5 $1$DnF0$t0Mb7RQFOfYgaTV13mY7t0

And if you have one with “boot” in it, put it before the “boot” like this:

title Ultimate Boot CD For Windows
map (hd0,0)/UBCD.iso (hd32)
map –hook
chainloader (hd32)
password –md5 $1$DnF0$t0Mb7RQFOfYgaTV13mY7t0
boot

This way if someone discovers your USB swiss army knife, this will slow them down a great deal.

There are many benefits to having one of these. Not only can you rescue computers, but you could also us it as a means to get on the internet while you are on vacation. Just insert the usb flash drive in one of those computers that you use in the hotel business office, and reboot into Ubuntu or Puppy Linux. This way you can securely check your banking and leave no tracks.

In today’s article I will explain how I jailbroke my iPhone 3G.

What is jailbreaking you ask?

The jailbreak is a term used to refer to devices that can freely install and run whatever application the user might want or need. Read more on that here

Please understand that JAILBREAKING is not UNLOCKING your device.  Unlocking is when you free the iPhone to run on other cellular carriers other than ATT. Jailbreaking is a risk free process where you will open the OS of the phone to install and run whatever applications you wish. Also, you can ALWAYS restore your device to the factory state using iTunes, which will vanish the jailbreak modifications.
Everything that was working before this process will continue to work, including all the default applications and pre-installed software’s like AppStore and it’s applications. Jailbreaking will simply just open another door for you to choose a path.

Recently I was visited my my brother-in-law and he had just jailbroken his iPhone. I had always thought I might try this one day but I was scared it would mess up a lot of things like my Itunes account, syncing, corrupt the phone OS, slow the phone down, etc. He showed his phone to me and it was totally fine. He was able to carry on just like before but now there were lots of new tweaks on his phone that I always wanted the iPhone to do, like video record, the ability to block calls like many of my older simpler Nokia cell phones uses to do, and also have a simple battery percentage meter(see below), which just came out on the new 3GS by default but not in the new 3.0 OS update from Apple for the current 3G iPhone. Why Apple Why? See the bottom of this post to see how to enable this nice little feature.

NOTE : iPhone 3G users, you can unlock your iPhone 3G 3.0 using ultrasn0w. Ultrasn0w is Dev Team’s new unlock for iPhone 3.0. Remember, don’t update to future iPhone 3.0 updates without checking here first if you want to keep your 3G unlocked, Apple may permanently block this unlock in their next update 3.01.

Before we begin I must say a few words.
Download the files you need at your own risk, I accept no responsibility if your computer explodes or if it becomes part of a NASA attacking botnet or even worse if your hands fall off mid-way during the use of these files. I do not check these links or archives and I accept no responsibility with regard to the validity of the files, or with other content these links provide or with the content that is on the linked site.
Also do not come crying to me if you cant follow simple directions and your phone becomes a paper weight. Use the following information at your own risk like I did twice already.

Ok… so lets get started!
What you will need:
Redsnow
-for MAC http://bentkowski.com.pl/redsn0w-mac_0.7.2.zip
-for PC http://theiphoneproject.org/windows/redsn0w-win_0.7.2.zip

Iphone Firmware
Download iPhone 2G firmware 3.0 (filename: iPhone1,1_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw)
Download iPhone 3G firmware 3.0 (filename: iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw)

USB CABLE for Iphone

Iphone Browser – useful tool for manipulation files on the iphone easily
http://code.google.com/p/iphonebrowser/

Lets Begin:
Download all these files to your computer in a place you can easily find them, like c:\downloads (pc)

Next connect your iphone up to the computer with the USB data cable that comes with the iPhone, and launch iTunes. Complete a full sync and backup.
Once this was completed I navigated to where the backup was located on the computer, and copied the folder where the backup resides to a safe place for that “just in case” scenario that we all hope never happens. Its always good to have a backup!

On a Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

On Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

On Windows Vista: \Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

Next, leave the iPhone connected to the computer and close iTunes. Go to your place where you downloaded redsn0w and the 3.0 firmware.

Launch Redsn0w. Once Redsn0w is open click the BROWSE button and locate your firmware. Example- iPhone1,2_3.0_7A341_Restore.ipsw

Once the firmware has been verified click the Next button to continue.

Make sure Cydia is selected and click the Next button.

With your iPhone still connected to your computer,  make sure its OFF then click the Next button. Hold the top right corner for several seconds until you see the scroll bar to turn it off and wait for it to turn COMPLETELY off.

RedSn0w will now guide you through the steps to get into DFU mode.
-hold down the power button for 2 seconds
-without releasing the power button, alsohold the HOME button (bottom center) for 10 seconds
-without releasing the Home button, release the Power Button BUT KEEP holding the home button for 30 more seconds.

Your iPhone will not reboot.

RedSn0w will then begin uploading the new RAM Disk.

Once this is complete you will be notified that RedSn0w is done. Click the Finish button.
When your iPhone finishes reboot (5 minutes or so…please don’t freak out…be patient).
It will be jailbroken with Cydia on the SpringBoard.

About the Applications installed after you have JailBroken your phone.

Cydia is a software application developed by Jay “Saurik” Freeman for the iPhone OS that serves as a graphical user interface for APT, and in turn, the dpkg package management system. Repositories that are included with Cydia allow for installation of software packages in which most are available to download at no cost. The software packages are downloaded directly to an iPhone or iPod Touch device, and are located in the /Applications directory, in the same location where “Apple native” applications are located.

Using Cydia install a new repository to locate apps.
Open Cydia, choose manage, choose sources, tap Edit in the top right and in the top left you will see Add, tap that and enter the url http://cydia.hackulo.us/ and click accept on the legal warning. Tap done and done and that’s it. Now install the following.

WinterBoard – WinterBoard is a third party application that enables editing of many display items, such as the background, keyboard, application pictures, Safari, and the lock screen.

Installous – Installous is a third party application that is used to get free cracked applications that are supposed to be paid for. This is highly illegal but people still use it.

Cycorder – Cycorder is an app that enables video recording on the iPhone and iPhone 3G. The video quality is average, but since the camera on both of these devices was not made for video recording, the frame rate on the recorded video can be very low in poor light conditions.

Cool things to do now that you have JailBroken your phone

Enable Battery Percentage Indicator in 3G iPhone OS 3.0

Why Apple decided to make this nice little long awaited feature available to the new Iphone 3GS is beyond me. Oh well, here is one of many ways to accomplish this.

1. First you need to Jailbreak your iPhone as mentioned above.

2. Download the M68AP.plist file from the link: http://www.4shared.com/file/113188452/9434236e/M68AP.html

3. Use iPhoneBrowser to look into your iphone and replace files.

4. Go to /System/Library/CoreServices/Springboard.app/

5. Replace the M68AP.plist in the directory with the one you downloaded, by right clicking on the file and choosing replace. Browse to the file you downloaded.

6. Restart you iphone.

7. Now go to the application Settings -> General -> Usage and there will be a Battery Percentage toggle and you can use it to enable battery percentage next to battery icon in top-right corner.

Now is all this legal?

The legality of jailbreaking an iPod or iPhone remains unclear, particularly in the context of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. As part of the 2009 DMCA rule making, the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the US Copyright Office to recognize an exemption to the DMCA to permit jailbreaking in order to allow iPhone owners to use their phones with applications that are not available from Apple’s store. In response to this, Apple has filed comments opposing this exemption, and indicating that they do consider jailbreaking to be a violation of copyright (and by implication prosecutable under the DMCA). A ruling on this proposed exemption has not yet been made, but a decision is expected sometime later this year.

I must say that if I were you and paid ridiculous money, which I did,  for a cell phone I would not want to be limited to what all I could do with it!

Happy Hacking!

Its the Tom Tom Go 730 and I managed to get it brand new on eBay for $150 less than in stores.

I actually use it to navigate with and hands free calling as well as an mp3 player. I have it playing some of my mp3 collection through the audio out cable into my car stereo. If you wanted to take it with you in another car or friends car you could use the built in FM transmitter to listen to your mp3′s on their stereo.

One of the coolest things about it is when you have a cellphone paired with it via bluetooth and you are listening to your music, it will pause the music and take the call and when the call is over it will pick back up where the music was automatically paused. You can also set it to auto answer the call after a set number of seconds. This is nice if you want to limit how many times you take your hands off the wheel.

It has a battery so you can take it with you to another vehicle if you choose to do so. While its in my car I use the supplied 12v adapter and its tucked away nicely. This way when the power is turned off, you get 10 secs to choose whether you want it to stay on or turn off with the car. I always let it go off with the car and it resumes where it was when I start the car again.

As I said earlier its a great mp3 player and easy to navigate through the music to select tunes to play.

The navigation menus are a breeze and really make it easy to find what you are looking for.

It connects to my iphone with bluetooth as soon as I get in the car after the initial pairing. This also has my address book in sync with it which is really nice.
There is a listing of phones that is supports on TOM TOM’s website. Some phones allow the device to use the phones data connection to get out onto the internet and retrieve weather updates. There is also the capability with some phones to have it read text messages and emails aloud to you and you can respond with voice right back.

There really is too much to list so I tried to find a video that does the job pretty good.

I highly recommend this device to anyone looking for car navigation.

I absolutely love Skype and here is why…

Think about this for a second. The unfortunate part about checking our mailboxes is BILLS!

So I get a water bill and a light bill and (used to be) a phone bill.
What happens if I don’t use any water for the month? Water bill shows $0.00.
What happens if I don’t use any electricity for the month? Last I checked $0.00

What happens if I don’t use the phone for an entire month? That’s right, I still get charged like $60.00 or so for fees and the privilege of having a land line phone. At the very least you might be able to get it down to $26.00. This is ridiculous!

It all started when I was at Wal-Mart one day and noticed that they had a super clearance of electronic items. One of them happened to be a USB Skype phone and I thought to myself that for $2.00 I really couldn’t go wrong and should try it out.

Actually to be honest I have always been a lover of prank calling and thought this would be fun. I must admit that was my First thought. My second thought was more along the lines of business.

At that time I was beginning to start an online computer help website after just being laid off from work, and it would involve people calling me with computer problems and I would remote into their computer and help them.

I started to realize that since I didn’t have a house phone, that I would be using my cell phone for business and this would really eat up my minutes. I had an unlimited data plan but only 450 nationwide minutes per month and to this was already costing me $120 a month.

Now I could have purchased another plan to give me unlimited calling for another $50 a month, but this would be just added expense on a per month basis and cell phone service at my home is not the best.

I was thinking that Skype may be the answer to this.

One Saturday I decided to plug in the USB Skype phone and go to the Skype website and download the software onto my computer. It came with 100 free minutes and once I was all setup I decided to call my Dad and see how it sounded before committing to anything more. After all I only had $2.00 in this so far.

I connected with him over the phone and the conversation was flawless. I couldn’t believe my ears. It was crystal clear despite what others on the internet were saying about Skype’s voice quality. I figure this has got to be my solution to a business phone, so I began to look over their packages.

I ended up getting a Skype Out for a year for $23.00.

That would allow me to call anywhere in the USA and Canada anytime, unlimited calling.

Then I needed a number for people to call me, so I bought a number that was local to me since I plan on most of my customers being near. The number was $24.00 a year for unlimited calling.

This brings my total for the year to $47.00 for unlimited calling inbound and outbound with a number for me to give out so people can call me. Not bad at all.

Now I know what you are thinking… do I have to be tied to the computer all the time?

Well for me and with the purpose in mind, I will be in front of the computer all the time, but you don’t have to be.

There are lots of things you can use.

There is a Belkin Wi-Fi phone (Part # F1PP000GN-SK) http://www.belkin.com/skype/howitworks/ that you can use with your wireless network to go about through your home or take with you on the road and use in hotels, work office, airports, or wherever there is a wireless connection.

There is also a desktop internet phone for Skype (Part # F1PP010EN-SK) http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=404607 for those that do not have a computer, but do have an internet connection or simply just want the phone located somewhere in the home and not have it tied to the computer.

I ended up getting a skype headset and a cordless telephone, a cheap one, one of those v-tech cheap ones.

I also got this Zoom Phone Adapter for Skype – Model 5900 http://www.zoom.com/products/voip_products.html#skype_products

You can get more hard ware here

Buy Skype hardware now

I can now use my headset or the cordless handset and walk about the house and even into the yard.

There are a ton of things you can do with Skype!

Cheap calls
Call phones and cell phones anywhere at low rates.
Skype to Skype calls are 100% free.
Online number

Friends call you from a regular phone and reach you on Skype – anywhere.
You can pick a number that’s local to your area.
I know people that have parents that live in another state. Their parents do not have a computer so a Skype to Skype call is out of the question. Instead my friend gets a number that’s local to his parents so when the parents call, the number is local to them.

SMS
Send text messages directly from Skype.
Voicemail
Never miss a call.
Call forwarding
Get your calls on your cell phone when you’re offline.

There is an option where you can set it to send the call to your cell phone or any phone really after a certain time limit, like 15 seconds for example.

Pay as you go, Pay monthly, or do like I did and just pay for it by the year.
You get it at a discounted price of you do so.

You can find out more about skype here.

3 months for the price of 2 on all 3 or 12 month calling subscriptions from Skype.

Dont forget you can use it for you business too!
Skype for Business