In response to a new study showing 18-29 year olds would rather give up their Internet than hand over their cell phones, MocoSpace recently signed an exclusive agreement with Street Records Corporation to exclusively pre-release tracks by Def Jam artists. Members listen and give feedback, ultimately determining whether to release the song as a single.

We sat down with Jim Gregoire and Casey Jones of MocoSpace. Jim Gregoire is the Head of Marketing and Casey Jones is the VP of Business Development at MocoSpace. No Casey is NOT the hockey mask wearing maniac from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or maybe he is and he doesn’t tell anyone.

There are a ton of featured artists on MocoSpace right now. Here are just some of the artists you can chat with and listen to their tracks:

Mike Jones - Is his number still 281-330-8004?

Karina:

LL Cool J

As we mentioned before, each featured artist has a profile and you can interact with them via their blog and message board. Here are some examples of how you would interact with an artist, like LL Cool J.

On each artist’s featured page there is a section where you can listen to a track by them. Here is a track released by LL for MocoSpace:

Here’s a blog post by LL that you can read on MocoSpace:

Street Records Corporation is the company bringing you all the great artists. They have a section on MocoSpace where you can hear unreleased tracks. What do you think, would you want this track to be a single?

There is something about the hip hop world and the mobile world that fit together so nicely.

In the future, expect MocoSpace to expand the genres it offers on the website. You’ll be able to hear a wide assortment of music and be able to interact with the artists in a similar way.

Also expect live performances, ringtones and video straight to your mobile!

Ever been in the situation where you’re stuck with no WiFi and you have to get on the net? Of course you have. WiFi is bullshit in most cities and even most conferences we’ve been to have had shitty WiFi. Now that is no longer a problem for iPhone users. I’m going to show you how to easily tether your iPhone to your Laptop and get full internet access.

Before you start, make sure you’ve used the PwnageTool and followed all the steps to unlocking your phone via our first post regarding NES ROMs.

1.. Create a wireless network on your computer. On Macs, just click on the Wi-Fi icon in the menubar and select “Create Network.” On Windows, set up internet connection sharing.

2. Join the iPhone to this network via Wi-Fi as usual.

3. On the iPhone, under Settings->Wi-Fi, select the network you have joined to view connection details. Write down its IP address.

4. From the Mac’s Terminal, run the following command:

ssh -ND 9999 root@IPHONE_IPADDR

but replace IPHONE_IPADDR with the IP you wrote down in step 4. Login. The default root password is alpine; you should really login normally over SSH and change this.

Windows users: the free SSH client Putty will allow you to accomplish this same step. Don’t install Cygwin+OpenSSH as some suggest, that’s massive overkill.

5. Configure your browser to use a SOCKS5 proxy server at localhost:9999. Here’s more on setting up a SOCKS proxy in Firefox; this is easiest in Safari. I had a lot of problems with Firefox.

Done!

Related Articles:

How To Hack the iPhone 3G to play NES games

How to trick out your BlackJack, part 1

How To trick out your Samsung BlackJack, part 2

Excite Bike makes for an awesome iPhone NES ROM

Getting your iPhone 3G to run any NES game in the world is pretty easy thanks to the Mac-friendly developers out there who made the PwnageTool. I will run you through the necessary steps and if you’ve never played with DOS it may be frustrating but bear with me. If you can’t get it to work, just leave a comment and I’ll help you out.

First download the PwnageTool 2.0.1 here Remember, this is mac only so if you have a PC: SAH-WEE.

Now download the firmware bundle from here.

Now run the PwnageTool software. Don’t you love how graphically pleasing it is? So simple.

You’ll now have to go through the backup and update process. It didn’t work for me so I had to start over but I didn’t lose anything special. I just resync’d my apps and music and badaboom badabing.

Keep following the instructions and eventually you’ll have a hacked iPhone with a new app called Cydia. Download the essential updates that it prompts you to get. If you didn’t get a prompt, quit and reboot.

Now I would suggest going to the “Featured Packages” section of Cydia and downloading the NES files. Here is where it starts to get tricky.

Once you’ve downloaded the NES files, you’re going to have to upload NES ROMs via the Terminal program on your Mac. So go torrent some NES ROMs, I suggest IsoHunt.

Now uploading these NES ROMs requires some hacking that’ll make you feel like you’re smarter than Mr. Apple himself.

Open Cydia and install and start the OpenSSH. Now follow the instructions in the picture below:

Now you should have all your NES ROMs good to go! Remember, any problems and hit me up with a comment, I’ll help you out.

UPDATES:

Sorry, I left the steps required to get the roms onto your iPhone a bit hazy. Follow these steps (note - these steps are for a Mac, but if you have a Windows SSH client, the steps should be similar):

1. Jailbreak that iPhone (See above)
2. Using Cydia, install the NES emulator and OpenSSH
3. SSH into your iPhone using the steps described in the big OpenSSH graphic above.
4. Create a directory for your ROMS by typing the following while SSH’d into the iPhone (don’t type the ‘>’ symbol):

> cd /var/mobile/Media
> mkdir ROMs
> cd ROMs
> mkdir NES
> exit

5. Download some roms
6. Copy the roms into a folder on your desktop called “roms”
7. Open Terminal, type the following:

> cd desktop/roms
> scp NAMEOFROM.NES root@192.168.1.xxx:/var/mobile/Media/ROMs/NES/

Replace ‘NAMEOFROM.NES’ with the filename of one of the roms in your ‘roms’ folder.

Replace 192.168.1.xxx with the IP address of your iPhone.

Rinse and repeat the ’scp’ command with the filename of each rom you want to copy to your iPhone.

Also, you have to navigate to your desktop folder, as well as the roms folder. Try this after you first open the terminal for step 7:

> cd desktop/roms

You can type the following command into Terminal to see if you are in the right folder, and what files are in there:

> ls

PS: Windows users are left out in the cold no longer - WinPWN has been released. Engadget has the details:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/24/windows-iphone-3g-jailbreak-tool-released/

I downloaded all the ROMs via torrent, try this one

http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/27640054/NES+roms?tab=summary

A tip from a QB reader David (seen below):

The easiest way to get the ROMS to your phone (or any file for that matter) is to use an ftp program. (with sftp connection). username root and password alpine. I use Transmit (for MAC) and it works great. Using an FTP program makes file browsing much easier for those of you who are not command line friendly.

It turns out that if you copy the ROMs over from a windows share, they won’t work. I have no idea why this is, but it is true. I used the same exact ROMS, but copied straight from my wife’s Mac, and they work great now! Have fun everyone!

Also remember, copying ROMs from a windows share is not going to work, and using an FTP is an easy way to transfer your ROMs from Mac to iPhone.

Other Games We Like:

MotionX Poker for iPhone reviewed - available on iTunes

Super KO Boxing Review

3D Tilt-A-World by Super Happy Fun Fun

Insaniquarium Made Me Insane

MotionX Poker by Full Power is the latest in 15 minute distractions

MotionX Poker on the iPhone is a good example of the type of mobile games we enjoy at QuicklyBored.com. Please stop sending us game submissions that are built for the lowed handset market because they aren’t even worth playing. MotionX Poker, on the other hand, is a game I’ll play over and over.

MotionX Poker has got the right idea about gameplay. Keep It Simple Stupid. With a wide variety of unlocked and unlockable dice at your disposal, you roll against the computer for cash. As you build up your cash you get more tables, dice and rewards. The game is incredibly simple to play and anyone can pick it up in seconds. This simple format is one of the fundamental building blocks of a good mobile game.

With such a simple gameplay, your fun comes from the minor features of the game. The dice feel great to roll for example. There’s a nice vibration and the physics are well tuned.

Currently, I’m at 78 coins and working hard to get 200 to unlock the next table. If anyone is playing this game, please send screenshots and/or updates about your progress to kyle at quicklybored dot com.

Hints for success:

The longer your session, the more points you get.

Winning streaks mean big points!

Winning with small hands can mean big rewards.

Other games QB has liked:

Super KO Boxing Review

3D Tilt-A-World by Super Happy Fun Fun

Insaniquarium Made Me Insane

Never do TV interviews after being awake for 30 hours.

It has taken us ages to finally get my hands on these videos. After writing to the various news agencies about getting a copy of the video, they responded with comments like “don’t bother, it’s a pain in our ass.” So we had to go over their heads and just rip it right off the site. I know it’s a little rude to steal content we linked to them and they did steal Kyle’s soul.

[Click here for the CTV Newsnet Clip]

[Click here for the Ottawa Citizen interview]

My first impressions of a mobile game 100 years in the making.

Okay so maybe The Shroud isn’t 100 years in the making but man it has taken a long time for the game to come out. Just look at this super old post on QuicklyBored from back in January of 2006 where we mention The Shroud.

We finally got our hands on the game so I’ll show you some pictures of the game and talk about my first impressions.

The Shroud is an incredible feat when it comes to mobile gaming. Personally, I’m not a big RPG gamer because I have an addictive personality and when Final Fantasy 7 came out I didn’t leave my parent’s basement for about a week. On the other hand, I would totally play The Shroud. And get fired.

The story:

The Shroud is a world where humans banished an evil race thousands thousands of years ago. It is here that most evil of these creatures lay in wait, anticipating their time of return. That time is not far off, as humans have foolishly uncovered the gateway to The Shroud in the depths of an old mine. With an open doorway to the human world, these fiends are poised to take root and destroy the humans who once banished them. The only way to stop these monsters from emerging is to close their breaches, which are forced openings in time between our World and The Shroud. To ensure the safety of our loved ones, players take control of Taro as he completes various challenges that will be a true physical and mental test of his mettle.

The list of features in this game are incredible. The Shroud takes a Sims like approach to farming, where you have to keep a nice harvest going and goes a hundred steps further by using new technologies such as GPS.

Some of the GPS features of the game bring a truly unique angle to the gameplay. Imagine not being able to finish a quest until you’ve walked 5km North of your position. You’d be getting exercise and playing a sweet game.

I’m also looking forward to seeing how the community involvement works out with the game. This game will require a great deal of attention and I’m sure people are going to be working hard to getting huge farms and tons of cash. With international leader boards and forum participation, this game is sure to bring a big fan base.

Still not hyped about the game? Check out our interview with Robert Sprogis, VP of Your World Games talking about The Shroud.

Interview Excerpts:

You were one of the first people we talked to about The Shroud.

- Robert Sprogis

Around that same time they teamed up with Sony BMG and a number events transpired that led to them adding new features to the game such a downloadable content which made the game better but also resulted in a longer development time.

They teamed up with Gamevil USA to finish the project. In the end, they created a game that they felt made for a good balance between getting lots of features but also getting the game to market.

During the interview, Robert Sprogis gives an in-depth look at exactly what you’ll do in The Shroud and sets the story that is the foundation of this wild RPG.

I tried to get some info about what’s going on with Helio and Virgin but Robert wasn’t having it.

Well it’s in the certification process with Helio. The situation with Helio is…I can’t really talk about it because I’m under NDA but the game is still going to be coming out on Helio.

Damn NDAs! But still sweet.

The next installment of our Overdue Interview Series is up folks! Today’s Podcast is with Isaac Babbs who is the Founder, Chairman and CEO at Tapatap.

Tapatap is a great site where you can upload pics to compete for prizes. The prizes get pretty intense too. Currently, Tapatap is giving away a $500 gift card for Williams-Sonoma for the best crazy cake picture.

In this podcast, we talk about Tapatap and creating a vibrant user community that is competitive yet friendly.

Ever wondered what the difference is between ‘funky’ and ‘cool’? Sexy is obvious but not so much the former. Russel Craig is the VP Director of Marketing at FunkySexyCool and he breaks down the debate. This interview has been a long time coming and as the title explains, it is therefore part of our “Overdue Interview Series”.

FunkySexyCool is a mobile based “Hot or Not” type social networking and dating site. FunkySexyCool is in many ways better than Hot or Not because it’s 100% positive. You don’t have to worry about putting your pic out there for all to see and getting voted the ugliest person alive. Instead, the community will think you’re either Funky or Cool if you aren’t Sexy. Which one are you?

Check them out at www.funkysexycool.com

Here we have another installment of our “Overdue Interview Series”. Due to BREW, we had to push back the majority of our interviews such as this one. In this interview, we’re talking with Mark Jambas, Business Developer over at Shozu. Shozu is a means of managing your online social networking life via your mobile.

A long overdue interview with FISHLABS AND Metaflow.

We did this interview a while back when FISHLABS and Metaflow announced they had formed a partnership to distribute more mobile games. We haven’t had a chance to post it until now because of all our BREW 2008 content. Here is the post:

Metaflow and FISHLABS to distribute more games

Content submissions and content ingestion specialist Metaflow has signed up high end mobile games developer FISHLABS to license a developer version of its market leading content submissions solution.

Although this interview happened about a month ago, the content is definitely still worth listening to. Get some insight into how a mobile games publisher and content distribution solution company work together.