iPhone fake from China's Iorgane spotted

While China does not officially get the iPhone, one Chinese company has made a very similar-looking copy of one, officially called the Wang TouchCool orange F4. The company responsible, Iorgane, not only copied the look of the popular Apple device, but many of the functions are similar as well. For example, a similar touch interface is used, and a gyroscope will turn the screen 90 degrees when the...

published on Friday, the 24. October 2008, macintosh-news-network

RIM Starts a Storm, Spy Photos Whip Up a Hurricane, Woz Rains on iPod

Research In Motion kicked the week off by announcing the new BlackBerry Storm, the company's first touchscreen smartphone, which in turn jump-started the "iPhone Killer" headlines. While the mobile bloggers were busy with that one, traditional Mac lovers have been stoked into a frenzy of anticipation over the new MacBook lineup -- will they come Oct. 14? Are these spy photos real?

published on Friday, the 10. October 2008, macnewsworld

Reset the screen position of the Character Palette

When you connect an additional monitor to your Mac, and then drag the Character Palette (opened via the Input Menu icon in the menu bar) to that screen, you may end up in a situation where the Character Palette's top bar is off the top of your Mac's main display after you disconnect the external monitor -- making it impossible to move. To reset the position of the Character Palette, type killall CharPaletteServer in Terminal, then press Return. The next time you bring up the Character Palette, its position will be reset.

published on Tuesday, the 23. September 2008, macosxhints

How to force an iPhone into restore mode

My iPhone 3G locked up on me recently. I mean it really locked up on me. The Sleep plus Home button reset trick (hold both for about 10 seconds) wouldn't work. The iPhone wouldn't get passed the initial Apple logo while booting. Plugging it into iTunes simply caused iTunes to freeze. There was nothing I could do. So after taking it to an Apple store and talking with a Genius there, I learned this trick for forcing the iPhone to go into restore mode. WARNING: This is a last restort! All the data on your iPhone will be cleared and it will be reset to factory defaults. Turn off the iPhone (you can hold down the Sleep button, or use Sleep + Home, and release as soon as the screen shuts off). Hold down the Home button while connecting to your computer with iTunes already open and ready for a connection. iTunes will prompt you to perform a software restore. Your iPhone will obviously be wiped new and be reset as a result and you...

published on Thursday, the 18. September 2008, macosxhints

Switch MacBook power on/off with its lid closed

If you want to use your MacBook as a desktop system, you can connect a USB keyboard (and of course, a monitor), and the internal screen will stay turned off that way. I rarely use my MacBook outside the office, so this setup is perfect for me. It also turns out that the Macbook fits perfectly between the stem and the panel of my Belinea o.display 24" -- which means that it does not use any valuable desktop space at all.Problem: In order to power-on the MacBook, I had to remove it out of its resting spot, to open its lid which is covering the on/off switch. Not a nice concept, Apple.Solution: I taped an old PCI slot cover to my MacBook, as shown here: Mounting 1 Mounting 2. The slot cover sticks out far enough, and can easily be bent a little bit (just about 1/4 inch), which presses the butt...

published on Tuesday, the 9. September 2008, macosxhints

Possibly recover from a dual CPU failure on a Mac Pro

When I tried to boot my Mac Pro recently, it failed -- all I got was a black screen and a chime. I opened the case, and on the motherboard, I saw two LEDs were red: the cpuA and cpuB failure lights. My warranty is over, but here are the steps I followed to get it working again: Turn off your Mac and unplug the power cord. Remove the CMOS battery on the motherboard (just above the graphic card). Wait 10 seconds -- I'm not sure if this is necessary, but it worked for me. Plug the power cord back into the Mac. Press the power button. The Mac should boot normally and give you the startup chime, but you want your CMOS battery back. Turn off the Mac, then unplug the power cord again. Put the CMOS battery back in. That's it; boot and enjoy! [robg adds: I've never seen this on my Mac Pro, and I'm not sure if it's a sign of a failing CMOS battery, or something else. I'm publishing the hint beca...

published on Tuesday, the 26. August 2008, macosxhints

Create "If Found" note on iPhone home screen

I wanted to create a text note that I could save on my iPhone home screen that contained my contact details in case my iPhone was lost and whoever found it was honest enough to try and return it to me. I wanted this note to be accessible regardless of Internet access, and I didn't want to muck up my wallpaper with this info. This isn't a fool-proof method to make sure that whoever finds your phone knows who it belongs to, but it is better than nothing. All you do is create a webpage with your "if found" details, making sure that the page can be viewed offline, and saving the page as a bookmark on your home screen. Create a Google account (if you don't already have one). If you do, log into Google. Go to Google Page Creator. Create a new page with your "if found" details. Publish the page. It will create a URL for your page. Go to http://iwebsaver.com ...

published on Wednesday, the 20. August 2008, macosxhints

iRiver tries touchscreen players with SPINN

iRiver today officially unveiled its turn at a touchscreen device with the Korean appearance of the SPINN. The machined aluminum player earns its name through a dial that allows quick scrolling through a radio-like interface, tuning built-in FM radio or DMB mobile TV, and scrubbing through video. However, it also hands over control in many areas ...

published on Tuesday, the 29. July 2008, macintosh-news-network

TeleNav: turn-by-turn Navigation for iPhone coming

TeleNav Software says it's developing turn-by-turn voice navigation software for the iPhone 3G, according to TWICE, The industry newspaper says the move comes despite a clause in Apple's contract with iPhone Developers that prohibits sophisticated navigation features. The iPhone 3G has a built-in GPS, but offers only on-screen maps and text directi...

published on Friday, the 11. July 2008, macintosh-news-network

Listen to music on iPhone 1.1.4 with a Bluetooth headset

Prior to the iPhone software version 1.1.4, you could listen to the iPod audio over a Bluetooth headset if you did the trick of switching to the voicemail screen and selecting the headset for audio. This still works, but you can't leave this screen and you can't sleep the phone, or the headset audio is disabled. What I found was that you can get the old functionality back by doing the following:Start the iPod audio. Go to the voicemail screen and enable the headset audio. Double tap the home button to bring up the iPod controller. Press "iPod", which will take you to the iPod app. Double tap the home button again, which will take you to the speed dial screen.The headset audio will now be on, and you can also go to other apps or sleep the phone and it will continue. If you go back to the voicemail screen and move away from it normally, the headset audio will stop. In fact, you have to do this step to turn it off (I think a...

published on Friday, the 13. June 2008, macosxhints