I know this is a little overdue but i wanted to be absolutely clear about the information surrounding this Jailbreak (JB from hereon in) before posting about it.

Here’s a list of devices that this JB will work on.

iPods;

iPod Touch 3.1.2 & 3.1.3 Firmware

iPod Touch 2G 3.1.2 & 3.1.3 Firmware

iPod Touch 3G 3.1.2 & 3.1.3 Firmware

iPhones;

iPhone 3.1.2 & 3.1.3 Firmware

iPhone 3G 3.1.2 & 3.1.3 Firmware

iPhone 3GS 3.1.2 & 3.1.3 Firmware

iPads;

iPad 3G 3.2 Firmware

iPad WiFi 3.2 Firmware

Please note that this method is a JB only and is not an unlock.  If you rely on an unlock do not use this.  An unlock is unlikely to emerge until 4.0 has been released.

Why Jailbreak?

“Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to run unofficial code on their devices bypassing Apple’s official distribution mechanism, the App Store. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many applications previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia, Rock App, Icy, and Installer. Cydia is popular with users whilst Rock App has a small catalog of mainly paid apps. Icy and Installer are officially unsupported by their developers and rarely used. Cydia founder Jay Freeman estimates that 8.5% of all iPods and iPhones are jailbroken. A jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch is still able touse and update apps downloaded and purchased from Apple’s official App Store.”

(Source…)

Basically put, Jailbreaking your device breaks the Apple shackles and opens a whole new world of apps, themes, sounds & much much more!

Step 1.

The first thing to check is that iTunes is updated (as of writing, the most up to date is 9.1.1.12) & your device is on the firmware as specified above.

To check iTunes;

Go to the toolbar and select Help > About iTunes

To check your device;

Tap Settings > General > About, make sure that it’s the correct Firmware as outlined above under Version.

If you’re not on the correct Firmware, update your device through iTunes.

Step 2.

Download Spirit.  Right click the .exe and choose Properties.  Under the Compatibility tab, make sure Compatibility Mode is toggled on and that Windows 98/ME is selected, click OK.

Make sure your device is plugged in via. USB and run Spirit.exe

Click the Jailbreak button.

Wait for your device to reboot and you have a Jailbroken device (check for Cydia to verify)!  Enjoy & please don’t forget to lock down root access with a new password ! 

Lock down root access

SSH into your Jailbroken Device

Alternative Method for 3.1.2 Jailbreak

Download Spirit

One of the things Microsoft forgot to properly think about when making Windows 7, was the start-up sound.  With every new version of Windows should come a new start-up sound, however they chose to keep it the same as Vista.

If you’d like to change the start-up sound (the sound played when you get to your login screen) then this is the guide for you.  My favourite start-up sound comes from Windows 95 and I’ll be using its start-up sound for this guide.

If you’d like to trip down memory lane and listen to all the Windows sounds, head over here.

I also came across some interesting remixes of the Windows start-up sounds here.

So without further ado, on with the guide!

NOTE:  You must have Administrator privileges to complete this guide.

Step 1.

We need to take ownership and create a backup copy of imageres.dll and we’ll do so in the command prompt.

Press WinKey+R, type in cmd and hit click OK.

Step 2.

In the command prompt, type these commands in and hit enter after each one;

cd %windir%\system32

(Changes working directory to system32)

 

copy imageres.dll imageres-DEFAULT-.dll

(Makes a copy of imageres.dll to the same folder)

 

TAKEOWN /F %windir%\system32\imageres.dll && ICACLS %windir%\system32\imageres.dll /GRANT Administrator:F

(Changes ownership to Administrator and allows full control of imageres.dll)

Eg.

Step 3.

Head over to Bome Software’s website and grab a copy of Restorator 2007 you can get a free trial or use an alternative such as resource hacker. 

Open Restorator 2007, press Ctrl+O to invoke the open dialog box and type in this address;

%windir%\system32\imageres.dll

Click Open

Step 4.

In the left pane of Restorator 2007, expand the WAVE folder. 

In the main pane, you’ll notice one file named 5080.  This is the default start-up sound played when you get to your logion screen.

Right click 5080, and select Assign… > Assign to…

Choose your preferred start-up sound (.wav) and click Open.

Now press Ctrl+S to save your changes and quit Restorator 2007.

The next time you boot your system, you’ll be greeted by the sound you just chose!

Return to Default.

Returning to default is a simple affair.

In Explorer, navigate to %windir%\system32

Rename the current imageres.dll to imageresDELETE.dll

Then rename imageres-DEFAULT-.dll to imageres.dll

All will be restored after the next boot where you can delete imageresDELETE.dll

Any problems, head over to the forums for help.

Have some cool start-up sound you wish to share, let us know in the comments!

So you have a blurry image and you just wish that you were able to bring back some of the detail and make it less blurry. 

In Photoshop (PS) this is a simple process though note it is no miracle cure and wont make your images perfect but will provide a good starting point.

Step 1.

To get started, open your blurry image in PS.

In the right pane under layers, right click your image and select Duplicate Layer… (Ctrl+J).

Step 2.

With the duplicated layer selected ,

Go to the toolbar and click, Filter > Other > High Pass (Shift+F10)

Enter in a value of around 4-5px to get started, you may have to experiment with your settings to get the desired result.  When you think you’re good to go, click OK.  Now at this point the image will look destroyed.  Don’t worry.

Step 3.

With the duplicated layer still selected,

Click the Blending Mode drop down menu and select Overlay.

You should already see a good improvement to the quality of the image.

To check the before and after, simply click the eyeball next to the duplicated layer.

Step 4.

You can go even further to make the image less blurry and add an unsharp mask to the mix.

Still with the duplicated layer selected, go to the toolbar and click, Filter > Sharpen >  Unsharp Mask …(Shift+F5)

Make sure that Preview is checked and then play around with the values (particularly the Amount) until you get a good result.

And that’s it.  As I said, this is not a perfect way to get your blurry images back but a good building block for further editing.

Got any good tips for sharpening blurry images?  Let us know below in the comments.

Ever used Linux?  Love the way you’re able to scroll inactive windows?  Miss this feature when you use Windows?

Look no further.

Wizmouse is a tiny free application that sits in your notification tray, it’s only a 578KB download and uses next to no resources from your system.

Once you’ve installed and run Wizmouse, the settings box will show you all the options the application has to offer.

They’re pretty self explanatory so I won’t bore you with details, though one setting I would recommend leaving alone is the Run as Administrator box.

Not allowing applications to tamper with elevated applications is a security measure built into the OS and is there for a reason.

So once you’ve set your preferences, you can forget about it and enjoy being able to scroll non-active windows.

For example, here you can see I have an explorer windows open beneath Chrome.

If I hover my mouse over the explorer window and use the scroll wheel on my mouse, it will scroll explorer, not Chrome and won’t make the explorer window active or steal focus.

Got any mouse tips or tricks to share?  Let us know below in the comments.

Wizmouse Download Page

If you’ve moved from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate, you may have noticed a some games have been cut from the mix.  Most notably, Hold ‘em.

Microsoft intends to release Hold ‘em through Games for Windows as it did for Tinker but for those of you who can’t wait, here’s a way to get Hold ‘em working on your Windows 7 system.

Step 1.

Download this zip folder.  It contains all the necessary files required to install Hold ‘em on Windows 7 x86 & x64.

Extract the contents to your desktop, then  right click Install.bat and click Run as administrator.

Step 2.

A command window will open prompting you for a keystroke to begin.

Once it has finished it’s job, it will prompt for another keystroke to exit.

If any errors occur, please post a topic here.

Step 3.

Now you can go ahead and click the Games link in your Start Menu and play away!

Note that you may have a security warning when you attempt to play the game.  This is a completely safe method and you can go ahead and uncheck the box asking to check the file every time it’s opened.

And it’s as easy as that!  Enjoy

Google have finally waved the doors open to the public.

Anyone with a Gmail address can now use Google Wave, head over to wave.google.com to find out what all the fuss (or not) has been about.

I was an early adopter of Google Wave but quickly dropped it as stability and speed issues were rife.  Google seem to have addressed these issues and it’s now a much more pleasurable (though nowhere near perfect) experience.

Google Wave 

Ever had the need to upload an image quickly?  Sure the native Windows snip tool is good and SnagIt is even better but what if you just need to quickly take a shot and upload it without any editing or pasting into paint first? 

This is where Gyazo comes in.  Gyazo is a one trick pony but does the trick well.  All you have to do is download the application, pin the shortcut to your taskbar or have a desktop icon available, click the icon grab the part of the screen you wish to share and it’s immediately uploaded to the Gyazo server and displayed in your browser where you can instantly share with Twitter, Tumblr & Flickr.  Or you can just copy the address and share away!

Alternatively, drag and drop an image onto your desktop icon and it’ll upload too!

Currently there’s no editing tools available but hopefully will be soon.

Gyazo is a free download for Windows, Linux & Mac.

Download Gyazo

If you’re not too keen on using the keyboard when selecting items in Windows Explorer, using check boxes should make your life much easier.

Using check boxes also complements using a single click to open items. Just pointing at items to select them can be frustrating and using check boxes relieves a lot of this frustration and makes things a little more precise.

We’ll cover both of these areas with this Quick-Tip as the method is the same.

Step 1.

Open any instance of Windows Explorer (WinKey+E) and press the Alt key. Go to the toolbar and click Tools > Folder options…

Step 2.

The Folder options properties window will display.  To change the default double click to open items into single click, click the Single-click to open an item radio button.

To use check boxes to select items, click on the View tab at the top of the window.  Under Advanced Settings, scroll to the bottom and check the Use check boxes to select items box and click OK.

You may have noticed my avatar is the Microsoft ad campaign logo; "I’m a PC".  I took the fundamentals of the design and created my own.

Here is a pack of 9 differently coloured "I’m a PC" icons/avatars for your enjoyment.

Each is 512×512 and comes in .ico & .png.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-Non-commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

I’m a PC Icon Pack Download Page

Microsoft has released a training kit in conjunction with the recent releases of VS 2010 & .NET Framework 4.

The 165.6 MB (420MB uncompressed) kit has plenty of resources to help you make the most out of the VS 2010 features including presentations, hands-on labs, and demos.

You can get your hands on any Visual Studio 2010 program from the Microsoft website.  Same goes for the training kit.

Visual Studio 2010 Download Page

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit Download Page