Pro Computer Geek

The new iPod Nano, announced earlier today, features a multi-touch, iOS4 styled interface. Access music, radio, and, pictures.
For those who who like the click wheel or the video camera and video playback, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Check out more information about it here: http://gizmodo.com/5627044/the-new-multitouch-ipod-nano

iOS 4.0.2 is now available. As expected. it fixes the PDF exploit, protecting your phone from dangerous PDF vulnerabilities like Jailbreakme.com
If you like your jailbreak, do not update!

Thanks to the hard work of comex, a new jailbreak is available for iDevices running 3.2.1, 4.0, and 4.0.1. This jailbreak requires you to visit http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com/faq.html. Visiting that page will initialize the jailbreak process, and soon enough you will be downloading all your favorite 3rd party apps and themes from cydia! If you’re ready to enter the jailbreak scene on your 3.2.1+ iDevice, head on over to the website.

FakeSMC (the open source SMC emulator written by Netkas) has been given many new features, thanks to the hard work of “Slice” on the Project OSX forums. By using the source code provided by Netkas for FakeSMC 2.5, Slice was able to add a pluggin system. This allows for new extensions to be paired with FakeSMC, creating the possibility for new features. Here are the pluggins that are included with Slice’s FakeSMC:

IntelThermal – Intel CPU temperature monitoring.
LPCMonitor – temperatures and fans from ITE, Winbond and Fintek controllers. – now replaced by SuperIO plugin
TZplugin – temperature from ACPI device “Thermal Zone” – now excluded by ACPI monitor replacement
NVidia GPU temperature and FAN
Intel X3100 temperature
ACPI monitor – temperatures, fans, voltage, current – all that you can find in your DSDT. Manual DSDT modifying required.

These pluggins make it possible for programs like iStat to properly display more system temperatures, something that was not possible with the original FakeSMC 2.5.

I would also like to note that the source for Slice’s work, along with the pre compiled driver and some more information, can be found here.

Many of you may remember that confusing time period back in Leopard days, where everyone was worried about patching their DSDT in time for the 10.5.6 update. The fear began when it was discovered that beta builds of 10.5.6 required this DSDT patch for the OS to boot. Fortunately, by the time 10.5.6 came out for everyone on software update, the requirement was no longer in place to have a DSDT.

But at this point, many people had gone ahead and patched their DSDT’s anyways to be proactive. DSDT patching popularity grew when people realized the benefits. Thanks to some noob-friendly software that automated the process of patching some key DSDT elements, such as HPET, many people were able to experience the advantages of having a DSDT. As time went on, new tools were released which allowed us to add even more fixes to our computers, making our Mac experience even better.

So onto the meat and potatoes of this article; having the benefits of DSDT, without DSDT. Since the hackint0sh community started, Gigabyte motherboards have gained the reputation of being very flexible. They often have compatible hardware which works with vanilla kexts. Even better, is the flexibility of the BIOS. With stock BIOS, the Gigabyte boards offer many options that OEM BIOS from, for example, Dell, do not offer. This allows us users to tweak settings to maximize compatibility with various operating systems, including, Mac OS X.

So what does all this mean regarding not needing to use a patched DSDT? Well, the Gigabyte BIOS’ can be modified to include un-official modifications much more easily than say, Dell BIOS’. This means that common DSDT patches can be included directly in a custom BIOS. Once flashed, these custom BIOS’ allow supported Gigabyte motherboards to boot Mac OS X with no patched DSDT. On top of this, the modified BIOS’ also allow us to use less custom kexts.

Well, insanelymac user Cartri has done just that. Basically, his custom BIOS’ allows for many things to work out of the box on Gigabyte motherboards, which normally would require manual DSDT patching. Here’s what he has accomplished so far:

• No need for DSDT.aml
• Mac Display image instead of gigabyte’s one (splash screen)
• Bios Setup sounds in sound boxes(not loud)
• Native PowerManagement correctly loaded
• Shutdown Fix (still long shutdown time, arround 10 to 20 seconds but no need for kexts)
• CMOS-reset bug fix for Snow Leo
• USB 1.1 and 2.0 seen as internal with sleep capability
• Native SMBus loading
• Full Sleep and Wake capability.
• Full AHCI hotplug capability
• HDEF Audio (eliminates HDAEnabler)

Cartri also points out that other OS’ like Windows and Linux work perfectly with this modified BIOS as well.

Right now, most BIOS’ are in the creation/alpha testing stage, so check out Cartri’s blog and his insanelymac post to follow the project for your Gigabyte board. If you appreciate Cartri’s hard work, consider donating to him so he can further his project and extend it to more motherboards!

The widely used PC-EFI boot-loader has been updated today to version 10.6 by netkas himself. In case anybody needs a reminder, PC-EFI is a boot-loader which allows vanilla Mac OS X kernel to be run on not Apple hardware. This update adds support for desktop Radeon 4300/4500/4600 graphics cards via the GraphicsEnabler feature. It also adds a system-id fix which resolves the issue of your keyboard settings being forgotten, and finally, a fix for Lynnfield Intel CPUs has been added. As said by netkas, “So it’s ready for snow leopard finally.” You can download the latest update for PC-EFI here.

I know that this has been a hope of mine for a long time – Bring back the iPod Classic click wheel for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. No, I’m not talking about a physical click wheel, but rather an application that utilizes the touch screen on the device to simulate the click wheel, for a “classic” feel. The developer at blog.epelaez.net has created this exact app, taking it even a step further by not only simulating the click wheel, but simulating the actual classic iPod interface as well! I hope my review of this app will explain the rest, enjoy!

Presentation:

The presentation of the application is overall very well done. The graphics make it seem like you actually are using an iPod classic. You have the option to change the appearance of the iPod between silver and black, a nice feature if you have a certain color preference for the classic iPod. The iTunes library along with album artwork, playlists, artists, albums, and songs are all integrated perfectly. Overall, very authentic looking. Although the click wheel changes the volume when music is playing, the volume bar is not shown, so there’s not much of a visual of how much or how little your volume is changing when you move your finger around the click wheel. *FIXED IN FINAL VERSION* I have not run across any visual problems yet. This app does a wonderful job of  simulating the UI of a classic iPod.

Overal score- 4.5/5 … Final Revision Overal Score- 5/5

Usability:

The usability of this app could have a little improvement. Changing songs too fast causes it to close. Thankfully your music keeps playing in the background, but still an annoyance. Another issue I have noticed is that using the right and left click to change tracks under the albums category causes it to display “No Song.” At this point, clicking play seems to cause a random track to be played in your library. Besides from that, the only other problem I can think of is the click wheel speed. Dragging your finger slowly around the click wheel on the screen appears to work perfectly, but move it at normal speed and all of the sudden your skipping all the way down your music library. It seems like the developer was trying to have a faster scroll skip down to the next alphabetic category, but at this point, it is too fast to be usable. Hopefully that will be fixed as doing so will greatly improve the usability. *FIXED IN FINAL VERSION* “No Song” bug is fixed, and the click wheel speed is improved (Still not perfect, but a great improvement).

Overal score- 3.5/5 Final Revision Overal Score- 4.5/5

Value:

For $1.99 on the Cydia Store (did you really think the App Store would allow this app?) this app is a decent value. It brings back the greatness of the original iPod onto the newest iPods and iPhones. With a few minor improvements, this app will be an even better value. For some, the $1.99 could be spent on something else, but for others, the retro feel is enough for them to buy this app. Keep in mind that besides a click wheel simulator, this app really doesn’t do anything more than the built in music player does. Whether this app is for you or not is going to depend on how much you want that retro feel back!

Overal score- 4/5

Final Score- 13.5/15…an A-

This application will be released soon is on the Cydia Store. For more information you can visit this website.

Here’s a bit of interesting news for all you do-it-yourself-ers out there! Hackintosh user Will Urbina has managed to pull together one of the coolest case mods ever seen by the community. Using an Xbox case, computer components, and some serious talent, he has managed to fit an entire desktop computer inside an Xbox case. After some cutting, sanding, and painting, the Gigabyte motherboard along with an EFI-X, Intel quad core processor, nvidia graphics card, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 4 hard drives came together in a hack-pro masterpiece. According to Will himself, this mod totaled under $1,500. Not bad considering how much more the Apple equivalent would cost! A video showing the process Will went through to build this can be found here.

With the release of the second update to Mac OS X Snow Leopard last Monday, many problems have arisen for netbook users. The bad news began when it was reported that beta builds of 10.6.2 had no support for the Atom Processor; a commonly used processor in netbooks. The problem originates in a revision to the kernel in 10.6.2. The changes Apple made to the latest mach_kernel removes support for this processor, leaving updated netbooks in a useless state. Fortunately, insanelymac user “teateam” patched the new kernel just two days after Apple rolled out the update. The original post can be found here. Many users are reporting success with this patch, so if your an Atom user looking to update to 10.6.2, give it a try, and let’s not forget to give “teateam” a round of applause for saving all our hackintosh netbooks!