The Shade Effect!©™

iOS 5 .xx Battery & Performance tweaks & hacks

2012-04-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

There is no way some of us are going to lose our Jailbreak, and waiting for Apple to fix its pathetic code on battery issues is not an option - iOS 5.xx is here, we got it, we like it, so lets move ahead...

I've worked on my own iPhone which was great with iOS 4.xx and upgrading to 5.0.1 brought with it Absinthe JB AND Apple's battery woes.
After weeks of research & testing i've come to improve my battery life from 5 hrs to 1.5 days with normal usage
No hearsay - see the proof & fix your own woes...

A WORD OF CAUTION
_________________
Backup everything from your iPhone - I always like to start with a clean slate - no leftovers to come haunt us again.
Make a note of all the Apps you had installed as well as Cydia packages as your going to start fresh
You can use alternatives to install/restore them if you have the know-how

STEP 1
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1) Download the iOS 5.0.1 (can be JB untethered as of today) or 5.1 (only tethered JB as of today) ipsw file from Apple servers to your computer
2) Connect to iTunes and do a Restore (Shift+Restore if your using Windows)
3) Once done, make sure to Setup your iPhone as New Phone (we don't want any of the old corrupted stuff coming back to kill our battery)

STEP 2
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After installing the new OS be sure to also go to (Settings/Reset/Reset all settings)
Standby drain becomes around 2% per hour max after this is done

STEP 3
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Battery calibration - Use the iPhone until your battery completely dies (not even 1%).
Now once it shuts down give it a full recharge.

STEP 4
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Setting up your iPhone settings (Non-Jailbroken device)
First of all Make sure you reset all Usage settings and enable iPhone Battery %age so you can keep track of the improvements

1)Go to Settings - General - Restrictions (you may need to enter your passcode here)
Now turn PING off

2) Settings - General Location Services
See what I have kept active, or else simply put the entire Location Services OFF

3) Settings - General - Notifications
Make sure u set it to Manual and only keep what apps you want notified about on

4) Settings - Mail,Contacts,Calender - Fetch New Data - Push (OFF) & Fetch(Manually)
You can still download email Manually as this is a huge battery killer!

5)Settings -iPod -EQ(Off)

6) Set Brightness levels to as low as your comfortable and activate "Auto-Brightness"

7) Wi-Fi, 3G, Data, Bluetooth etc. (Keep off when not in use)

STEP 5
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Install an app like SYSTEM (or similar) to keep your iPhone RAM free of apps running in the background
They may not be in use, but they certainly do drain your battery by just hanging around!

STEP 6 (The steps from here on are only for Jailbroken Devices)
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Go to CYDIA - PACKAGES and remove packages you don't need or can live without
Most of them like AERO, Winterboard, 3DBoard, FlipBoard, and so forth that affect the SpringBoard just eat your battery, so what you can live without - REMOVE!

STEP 7
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Jailbroken device please make sure you have the following Repo's added
In CYDIA - go to MANAGE - SOURCES - ADD
1) http://repo.insanelyi.com/
2) http://cydia.xsellize.com/
3) http://myrepospace.com/xtoyou/
4) http://ihacksrepo.com/

Now search and install the following from the repo's I have written beside it)
1) Battery Fix iOS5 (IHR repo)       (whether it works or not, why disregard something that may help)
2) Lang2ez (insanelyi repo)          (deletes all languages except English from your iPhone - makes it faster)
3) Daemon Tool iOS5 (xtoyou repo)    (we need this to disable iOS Daemons that screw with your battery life)
4) MobileTerminal (xSellize)         (this is to activate Daemon Tool to do it's job)
5) SBSettings (BigBoss)              (this is absolutely fabulous to disable stuff rather than using iPhone's SETTINGS)

STEP 8
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I won't detail much here as the CYDIA packages will do the job for you in Auto mode.
However to disable un-necessary Daemons you need to do a bit of work (this process is a HUGE battery saver!)
Start the app with the black icon named "TERMINAL"
Now just follow my screenshot and type exactly as I have on it (in Terminal)
login
root
alpine
daemontool -extreme
daemontoon -list

STEP 9
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Now reboot your iPhone and give it a full charge, reset usage and smile at the results of your work :)

STEP 10
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1) To keep your iPhone in top gear, make sure to keep refreshing its RAM (using the app names "System"), by doing a Respring, or simply rebooting (slowest)
2) Also make sure to keep closing open apps to keep the memory and battery hog's at bay! (see Screenshot)
3) When you don't need things like Bluetooth, 3G, Data, Wi-Fi, Location Services... switch them off!

Not only will your iPhone boot faster, it will run faster & also last way longer!

You've paid a lot to Apple's bad engineers... instead please support people like us (specially Pod2G for his work on JB 5.0.1 with Absinthe) who really do try to make things better :)

IF YOU APPRECIATE MY EFFORTS AND HAVE BENEFITED BY MY WORK PLEASE DO HELP SUPPORT ME TO CONTINUE HACKING/TWEAKING
IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO THEN PLEASE DONATE TO MY BY PAYPAL (sharan.desai@live.com)
IF YOU CAN'T THEN PLEASE CLICK A FEW AD'S ON MY BLOG SO GOOGLE DOES :)

Hacked!
123...

Digital DJ'ing - The ShadeEffect! way...

2011-02-05T23:15:00.000-08:00

Q) What does it take to be a Digital DJ ??
A) At first - any computer, & access to any freely downloadable DJing software...

All good till you realize, that there is more than one software out there..
And then there are controller's aplenty to manipulate them, (bye bye keyboard & mouse!)
Yet each come with its own caveats and crowns...

So along my 10 year journey, I've been through infinite software installs & uninstalls, changes, upgrades, alternatives & downloads.... a madness that barely managed to dent my wallet...

But the hardware ???
Sigh... once the box was opened, it always went downhill from there.

By the time I research the "perfect" hardware & software & get my hands on it, something better is out - and my controller seems outdated or lacks the "knobs & buttons" I really wish it did for the money I spent... and hardware's got no Uninstall/Upgrade options!!!

Now with the Traktor S4 has been by far an outstanding pacifier for our Digital DJing madness... but then at a 1000US$ how many of us can just throw in our wallets & give it a "try" ??

I decided to give it a try for a hand's on feel to see if its worth the money.
From what I saw - It was almost perfect!
1) 2 In/ 2 Out
2) Mic In, Phones Out
3) Midi In/Out & a Foot-switch In
4) 4 channel mixing & swappable (A-C & B-D)deck control
5) Traktor S4 Software - with loops/line-in options
6) Access knobs/buttons with feedback LED's to almost every visible feature of the current version of Traktor!
Now... this is a real good All-in-One, and if I got it as a gift, I'd be elated !

Ok get real!
How many of us are going to use ALL the above features or miss then if they weren't there ??? And what if something newer or better comes by in terms of Hardware or Software??

So before I throw in a 1000$, I start to do what I do best.. research into what else it can do...
Can it be tweaked ? NO
Can it be re-mapped ? NO
Can we use other wares? NO
Do I have options? NO
Do I have time-code? NO

Ouch! A 1000$ Digital system, and I'm being limited to whats in the box?
Maybe I don't need all of what it offers, or maybe I need a little more flexibility.
What if I feel that I need a few more knobs or buttons or some re-mapping??
And what if I got my own software of choice, or something I already paid for???
Can I have my money back and the option to make a choice? YES!

So I started backwards, and from the bottom - to what I need, and split them apart so that I could get the best options if ever I needed to upgrade - and here's what I came up with...

The base - your computer:
1) Windows XP or 7 (don't even mention Vista if your living in the real world)
2) Apple MAC (and if you go the money to splurge on one, why bother even reading this post! :P )
3) Linux - simply isn't there as yet... so stick with the above

A MAC isn't the norm... it's just an option, and an expensive one! And I don't much like it...
I've tweaked my Windows for extremely low-latency so that I can effortlessly DJ on it.
Take a look at the latency for yourself (WinXP has 9µS, & Win7 has 93µS)

DJ Software:
1) Virtual DJ 7 - with 99 deck supports that I can use as loop-decks (My backup)
2) Traktor Scratch Pro - 4 deck , CD & Vinyl support
3) Traktor S4 1.0 - 4 deck or 2/3 deck + 2/1 sample deck toggle
4) Ableton Live - If ever I do end up messing with this alongside Traktor
5) Fruity Loops - we all stock a DAW of sorts for our own little re-edits don't we :)
6) NI Kore Player - or the likes, for those additional sounds you could always use.

Audio Hardware:
I'm sticking with what I like, and not all the options available
1)Audio2DJ - The sweetest little pocket solution with 2 audio outputs
2)Audio4DJ - 2 Audio In, 2 Audio Out (Almost the same thing that the S4 has), and the option to use Time-code Vinyl or CD's. (Which you can't do with the Traktor S4 as of now)

DJ Controllers & Midi Keyboards:
The list as of 2011 is jaw-dropping & endless but like I said, I'm building my system up using the best available basic hardware, not all the possible options.
1) Numark Mixtrack (not the pro)
2) Akai MPK Mini (drumpad+keyboard)

Headphones:
Any cups that suit your fancy & your ears (I got the Pioneer HDJ-1000)

Alright then!
The damages for the gear (Assuming you got your laptop & software already)
1) Mixtrack 150 US$
2) Akai MPK Mini 100 US$
3) Headphones 50 US$
4) Audio2DJ 100 US$
_________________________
Basic Hardware Cost 400 US$
_________________________

Now as I said our hardware is BASIC... I still chose to buy a separate audio card so that I can use it for anything, standalone and to keep the upgrade option open.

The Mixtrack lacks the knobs & buttons to control most features of Traktor Pro or S4, but what is has is worth the more than 150$
However it can be extensively re-mapped to control 4 decks (like the S4) and the rest is for you to decide....

But hey, guess what! Multiple MIDI inputs is possible and its been done as below:
http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/02/24/set-up-multiple-controllers-in-traktor/

So now in comes the Akai MPK Mini - giving you 8(x2) velocity pads + 8 knobs + a 25 key-board.
All the functions that you wish to additionally control can now be mapped to it!

I choose to use the MPK Mini for:
1) Cue-points (4+4 on the pads)
2) Loop deck(Traktor S4) (4+4 on the pads - 2nd bank)
3) Effect parameters - the 4+4 knobs
4) Effect activation - (4+4 on the pads)

Once your done, the 3 FX knobs on the Mixtrack can now be assigned to control the Filter & Gain and the buttons for anything from Selecting/Activating effect to cue-point juggling... you decide!

The 25 Midi keyboard can be used to assign anything you like.... or to control a different software.

You could have gone with the cheaper Akai-LPD8, but this is future-proofing your investment.
When your decide to, your MPK Mini will work perfectly for your DAW or for other audio tools.
Best of all is the freedom from software or hardware lock-down's!

As new things come out, all you need to do is add or swap the part of your rig or software that you wish to upgrade, not all of it.
Once you get comfortable with your Midi Hardware, you could even play along some virtual instruments live while DJing!
You decide....

Think of it, in my world the possibilities are endless, and so are my choices!
Dj Shade5

2010-06-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

GTALK 2010 Edition!

GTalk , better known as Google Talk has surely come to be a part of all our computers soon after GMail showed the world how e-mail is meant to be used.
Now I like things being original, but I simply get bored using things as they are.
After all , five years later GTalk surely needs some new life in it
So here I was staring at a bland white Gtalk one afternoon, and then decided to change things a bit :D

Now this is what I ended up with after 2 days of tweaking.
Take a look at the all new 2010 GTalk that I've coded, with a soft black feel, tweaked response words, a background that you can customize with a picture of your choice, smileys integrated, and a new sound for those incoming messages....
I also put in my own TSE Theme (and if you like you may add your own or customize the themes too)
A dark black Gtalk Theme Skin is what I wanted from so long, so now I made one for myself !
Whether you have Gtalk installed or not, my installer will give you access to all the stuff I have shown here - it's so easy that even my mom can install & use it like a pro !

Now since its been a lot of work, and I don't get paid to do these things, be nice and click on some Ad's on this page to keep me going :)

If you like it leave me a comment, and I'll be glad to share my work with you
For now the download links are not posted - but once I see there is enough clicks (read:Ad.Clicks) & people who want my work - YOU'LL HAVE IT ! :D

Enjoy!
TSE!

My first new step...

2010-06-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

My very first blog line, like my life itself, will start with my Mother - the one I owe everything & my life to
I love you Molle Aayi