MacNix

How to cut down and sand your SIM or Micro SIM to a Nano SIM for iPhone 5

2012-09-14T10:11:00.002-07:00

iPhone 5 will be with us next week and I'm pretty sure my carrier (Orange UK) isn't going to get a Nano SIM to me in time, when I called today they said 'Call back in a week'... oh dear...

So I am planning to cut down my Micro SIM from my 4S to fit the 5. This is the method I have been working on together with pitfalls I found along the way.

Please note, right now I am doing this with a spare SIM, I have not tested this in an iPhone 5 yet, because I haven't got one to test it in.

Here is a nice template courtesy of Germer Consulting you can use for measuring: -

NOTE: Make sure you print the template the correct size (check against your SIM before you start cutting!)

WARNING! Cutting SIM cards is one thing, sanding them is another. This whole process could very likely kill your SIM card for good so attempt it at your peril and don't blame me if it goes wrong.

One good idea is to use any old SIM card you might have lying around to practice on first.

Step 1 - Writing
Write down the IMEI number from the back of your SIM. It's very easy to get carried away in the moment and just reach for the sand paper, but it makes sense to keep a copy of the IMEI number. You can get the number from the 'Settings' app on your iPhone of course, but not if you break it doing this :)

Step 2 - Cutting

You need a good, sharp pair of scissors. Some people suggest a sharp knife and a cutting board but the risk of the SIM slipping as you cut is very high, its a tiny thing and therefore hard to keep still.

Cut around the card to match the template above, leave about 0.8mm plastic showing along the top and bottom, about 0.3mm along the left side and around 1mm on the right side.

Finally, cut the bottom right corner and your done with step 2.

Step 3 - Sanding
Here we go! It helps if you have a digital vernier caliper like the one below, they're pretty cheap to buy online, but if not, you can work by eye and make sure you stop when you start reaching the underside of the chip (see pictures below).

So, this pic shows the SIM at 0.77mm before I start, that is pretty close to the design thickness of 0.76mm.

The sand paper. First off, it's not sand, it's silicone carbide wet and dry paper, available from most hardware or vehicle repair shops (Halfords in this case).

I picked a 400 grit to start with, and a 1500 grit to finish, in the end though, I only used the 400grit.

The hardest part was ensuring the SIM was flat, and that the sanding was even, I used a piece of tape on the front of the card (the contact side) to give me something to pull the SIM smoothly over the sand paper.

I placed the index finger of my other hand on the center of the card to keep the pressure even as I pulled the SIM using the tape.

I did this a few times down the sheet of sand paper, stopping and checking thickness as I went.

Eeek! I was initally worried when during a quick check, a faint circle had appeared on the back of the card, as you can see, the IMEI number has been completely worn away. This circle is the outline of the back of the actual SIM chip. If you continue sanding after this point, it is extremely likely you will damage the chip permanently.

When you can see the back of the chip, it's definately time to stop sanding.

The caliper is now reading 0.68mm, that is +0.01mm out from the design thickness of the nano SIM and given that my caliper was reading +0.01mm on the un-sanded SIM, should easily be close enough.

Bingo!

Summary
That's it for now, I will update this article when I get my hands on an iPhone 5. Meantime, I would be interested to hear if anyone tries this and how they find it works for them.

Update - 22/9/12
Well it works :) I have now done this on 2 SIM cards, one Orange, one O2 and both worked perfectly. I didn't use a caliper on them, just sanded until the card was almost flush with the SIM tray.

Just be careful, check the surface often to make sure it is sanding evenly (using the tape to drag the card makes this easier) and that you haven't hit the underside of the chip and you should be fine.

Good luck, may your hands be steady :)

Change Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion Calendar & Contacts Skins from Leather to Aluminium

2012-07-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

UPDATED July 25 for 10.8 Mountain Lion Release Version (Including Retina MacBook)

Here we go again with an Aluminium skin for Calendar.app (formerly iCal.app) and Contacts.app (formerly Address Book.app) in Mountain Lion.

Please note these will not work with 10.7 Lion. If you are looking for the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion skins, either scroll down the blog or go here.

I created new images files to go inside Calendar.app and Contacts.app to give them an aluminium look like previous versions of OS X.

These modification ONLY change the appearance of Calendar.app and Contacts.app, they do not alter the actual programming or functionality in any way. It just makes them look Aluminium.

Download the installers here: -
Aluminium Calendar Skin for Mac OS Mountain Lion (v.1.1) - download
Aluminium Contacts Skin for Mac OS Mountain Lion (v1.1) - download

These skins are provided free of charge but please make a donation if you use them regularly :)

Mountain Lion Installation Restrictions: -
Mountain Lion restricts which applications you can install by default. If you receive a warning that this package cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer do the following. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, click the Padlock to authenticate, then select 'Allow applications to be installed from anywhere'.

Here's a comparison of the leather vs aluminium: -

and...

Reverting back

If you decide you want to go back to the original Mountain Lion versions and you made a backup before you started, do the following: -

1 - Delete Calendar.app / Contacts.app - This can be done in Finder by dragging the application from the Applications folder to the trash can.

If you receive the error 'Calendar (or Contacts) can't be moved or deleted because it is required by Mac OS', go to Utilities > Terminal.app and enter the following command: -

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Calendar.app

or

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Contacts.app

2 - Copy back the backup of Calendar.app / Contacts.app you made earlier in to the Applications folder.

Change Mac OS X 10.7 Lion iCal and Address Book Skins from Leather to Aluminium - Easy Method

2011-07-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

Revised: 17/2/12 - Updated to fix new image files included in 10.7.3 Update.

Please note these will not work with 10.8 Mountain Lion. If you are looking for the Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion skins, either scroll up the blog or go here.

I am not a fan of the new leather title bar in iCal on Lion... what were they thinking? Now all we need is a wood-effect dashboard for our cars and rotary-dial iPhones...

I created new images files to go inside iCal.app and AddressBook.app to give them an aluminium look like previous versions of OS X.

This is a simplified version of my previous post which uses a package installer to apply the skins automatically without you having to manually modify the iCal.app and Address Book.app files.

For the simplified installer based method, continue reading...

DMG files for Automatic Installation (Last updated 17/02/12)
Address Book Skin - 10.7_Address_Book_Skin_Installer.dmg
iCal Skin (v3) - 10.7_iCal_Skin_Installer.dmg

These skins are provided free of charge but please make a donation if you use them regularly :)

IMPORTANT NOTE

Make a copy of iCal.app / AddressBook.app before you start (Copy / Paste them somewhere safe).

If you don't make a backup you will need to reinstall to revert back to the original look.

They look like this: -

and this..

Reverting back

If you decide you want to go back to the original Lion versions and you made a backup before you started, do the following: -

1 - Delete iCal.app or Address Book.app - This can be done in Finder by dragging the application from the Applications folder to the trash can.

If you receive the error 'iCal can't be moved or deleted because it is requires be Mac OS X', go to Utilities > Terminal.app and enter the following command: -

sudo rm -rf /Applications/iCal.app

or

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Address\ Book.app

2 - Copy back the backup of iCal / Address Book you made earlier in to the Applications folder.

Accessing the Recovery Partition on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

2011-07-26T02:21:00.000-07:00

Lion includes a small recovery partition which is there in case you irreversibly screw up your main install. This is nothing new to PCs but it's 100% new to Apple.

By default, the Recovery partition is not mounted (ie. it is not visible to the operating system), but mounting it is an easy job: -

1 - From Finder, go to your Applications > Utilities folder

2 - Launch Terminal.app

3 - Run this command to mount the Recovery HD partition: -

diskutil mount Recovery\ HD

4 - You're done! BaseSystem.dmg contains the (very) cut-down version of MacOS that is used to connect to the internet and download the full Lion install.

Make a bootable Mac OS X Lion USB Flash / Pen Drive

2011-07-21T04:22:00.000-07:00

Following on from my post about making a bootable 10.7 Lion Install DVD, here's how to make a bootable USB flash drive.

You will need the following: -

A Mac
A copy of the Lion Installer App (available from the AppStore)
A USB Flash Drive / Pen Drive with 4.2GB (approx) of free space

** NOTE ** Unfortunately, this doesn't appear to quite fit on a 4GB Pen Drive, you may find differently but for me Disk Utility gave a 'Not enough space error' Anything above (eg. 8gb) should be fine.

1 - Go to the Applications folder and right click (or Control-Click) on 'Install Mac OS X Lion' and select 'Show package contents'.

2 - Navigate to the Contents > SharedSupport folder

3 - Copy InstallESD.dmg to someplace (eg. your Desktop)

4 - Open Utilities > Disk Utility.app and click on your USB drive in the left pane. Then click 'Partition'.

5 - Enter a name for the partition and make sure the format is set to 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'.

6 - Click 'Options' and choose 'GUID Partition Table' as the partioning scheme.

7 - Click OK, then Apply, you will then have to confirm and authenticate you want to go ahead. This will erase all data on your Flash drive!

8 - Now click the restore tab, select (or drag) the copy of InstallESD.dmg you made earlier in the 'Source' box.

9 - Drag your USB Flash drive in to the 'Destination' box and click Restore, again you may have to authenticate.

10 - After a few minutes your USB Drive will be ready to do... How long really depends on the speed of your USB Drive, but most have faster Read speeds than Write and you only have to write it once.

11 - To test your USB drive, you can either go to system prefrences > startup disk and select it there, then hit restart, or just hold down the Option / Alt key while you restart your computer.

12 - Enjoy some peace of mind!

Hope you find this useful, please make a donation if you do :)

Make a bootable Mac OS X Lion DVD

2011-07-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

A lot has been said about Lion being delivered purely as a digital download rather than physical media.

Also, with a new operating system, like a lot of people I prefer to do a clean install rather than an upgrade. It's a great way to spring clean your mac and lose all those old junk plists, apps you no longer use and other odds n sods you can't even remember putting on there.

Then there's the safety aspect. Without physical media, a hard drive failure is a real problem.

Anyway, the work around is pretty simple, using the downloaded 'Install Mac OS X Lion' app you can easily make a bootable DVD that can be used either for a clean install of Lion (sans Snow Leopard) or as an emergency backup.

You will need the following: -

A Mac with DVD writer
A copy of the Lion Installer App (available from the AppStore)
A blank DVD-R (Single layer 4.7GB is fine)

1 - Go to the Applications folder and right click (or Control-Click) on 'Install Mac OS X Lion' and select 'Show package contents'.

2 - Navigate to the Contents > SharedSupport folder

3 - Copy InstallESD.dmg to someplace (eg. your Desktop)

4 - Open Utilities > Disk Utility.app and click 'Burn'. In the window that opens, choose the copy of InstallESD.dmg you just made, then click Burn.

5 - Wait a few mins for the disk to burn and verify and your done.

6 - If you are using a printable DVD or labels, here's a Mac OS X Lion 10.7 DVD Label I made that you might want to use.

Hope you find this useful, please make a donation if you do :)

Change Mac OS X 10.7 Lion iCal and Address Book Skins from Leather to Aluminium

2011-07-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Revised: 30/7/11 - Removed repeating gradient from sidebars in AddressBook skin & revised some images.

This is my original post on how to re-skin 10.7 Lion's iCal and Address Book from leather back to an Aluminium look as in previous versions of Max OS X.

This method still works but I have since posted a much easier way to do the same thing using standard installers.

Click here to go to the new installer-based method.

If you prefer to do things the manual way and want to see exactly what is going on, then continue reading....

Download the zip files below and follow the instructions further down this article, they have been tested with Mac OS X Lion 10.7 Build 11A511 (Gold Master and Final Release)

Zip Files for Manual Installation (Updated 30/07/11)

Address Book Skin - 10.7-Lion-Address-Book-Aluminium-Skin-v2.zip

iCal Skin - 10.7-Lion-iCal-Aluminium-Skin-v2.zip

They look like this: -

and this..

Installation Instructions

Both of these skins are installed in the same way and using them will not affect your user data (eg. appointments, addresses etc), only the look of the application: -

1 - Make a copy of iCal.app / AddressBook.app ** THIS IS IMPORTANT **

If you don't make a backup you will need to reinstall to revert back to the original look.

2 - Download the relevant file above and unzip it someplace.

3 - Go to your Applications folder and Control-Click on iCal / AddressBook and select 'Show Package Contents'.

4 - Browse to Contents > Resources.

5 - Drag the files from the zip to the Resources folder (You may need admin rights).

6 - Quit and Reopen iCal / AddressBook.

Reverting back

If you decide you want to go back to the original Lion versions and you made a backup before you started, do the following: -

1 - Delete iCal.app or Address Book.app - This can be done in Finder by dragging the application from the Application folder to the trash can. If that doesn't work, go to Utilities > Terminal.app and enter the following command: -

sudo rm -rf /Applications/iCal.app

or

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Address\ Book.app

2 - Copy back the backup of iCal / Address Book you made earlier in to the Applications folder.

Hope you enjoy them, please make a donation if you use them regularly :)

Accessing the Recovery Partition on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

2011-05-11T15:18:00.000-07:00