Month: May 2010

How To Easily Install Android on Your iPhone

AndroidLess than a month ago, some crazy guy released instructions on how to install Android on your iPhone, now while I followed those instructions and got Android installed it was more than a little complicated, so I didn’t write it up. But now comes iPhodroid.

iPhodroid will automatically copy the required files to your iPhone, and the best part? No more needing a Linux virtual machine to pull this off. This solution is only available for Mac users currently.

First off, you’ll need:

  • An iPhone 2G or 3G running 3.1.2 (doesn’t support 3.1.3 yet)
  • Your iPhone should be jailbroken with Blackra1n, PwnageTool, or RedSn0w. Devices jailbroken with Spirit won’t work.
  • OpenSSH installed with default password (alpine)
  • Macfuse installed on your Mac
  • iPhodroid

Step 1: Disable auto-lock on your iPhone. To do this, go to Settings-> General-> Auto-lock and set it to Never.

Step 2: If you haven’t already done so, download Macfuse and iPhodroid.

Step 3: Install Macfuse.

Step 4: Extract iPhodroid to your applications folder.

Step 5: Connect your iPhone to your Mac. Open iPhodroid and hit run. Expect the process to take a few minutes.

There you have it! Just keep in mind that Android on an iPhone is still buggy and will drain your battery an in hour, but it’s pretty cool to play around with.

iPad 3G Data Usage for May

My first 30 days with my iPad 3G have come to a close and AT&T has sent me a confirmation email letting me know I’ve been charged for the next 30 days, not a nasty letter saying I use too much data. Even if that may be true.

I’ll let this little screenshot tell the story:

Yes, that’s 16.2GBs of sweet bandwidth usage, not bad, right? Guess this means AT&T wasn’t lying about unlimited data… At least for now. Though I should note that I did cheat a bit and enabled the downloading of apps over 20MB from the App Store, which likely accounts for a few gigs of usage.

Fellow iPad 3G owners (or iPhone owners) what’s your bandwidth usage look like for the month of May?

Three Things to Make Your Life Better

Things are about to get crazy at Hijinks Inc, not promising anything but there might be semi-regular updates in the near future. In order to properly prepare yourself for this madness, as well as the coming Zombie Apocalypse, consider doing these three things.

[1] Subscribe to our RSS feed: http://hijinksinc.com/feed/
[2] Follow us on Twitter: @hijinksinc, @aaronnelsen, and @fredericksmith
[3] Register for an account, maybe even comment on a post or two.

Free SIP Calling with Google Voice (sans Gizmo5)

Let me start by saying this tutorial does not use Gizmo5, since they no longer are accepting signups (gee, thanks Google) I was looking for a way to make this work without using their service. When you’re done, this will allow you to make  calls via your computer, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch (2nd gen and newer) to any number using your Google Voice number, all for free.

For starters you’ll need a Google Voice number, if you don’t have one, post your email address in the comments and we’ll do our best to hook you up (I have 5 invites currently available).

This tutorial is rather long and some might find it overly complicated, so consider yourself warned. What I’ve outlined here is the free way of doing things, but if you purchase iPhone software like Acrobits Softphone [$7.99] you’ll get a much better user experience.
Continue reading Free SIP Calling with Google Voice (sans Gizmo5)

The phone that (probably will) get me fired.

(Editor’s Note: This isn’t a review, just a sad story)

In the past month I have been late to work 3 times. If I’m late again, my employment will be terminated due to unacceptable tardiness. Would I be sad? No. But what I want to focus on is why I’m in this situation. Concisely: The Droid made me do it.

It started out simple enough. My trusty Motorola Razr (the fifth replacement in my two year contract) was on its last legs. The outside screen was shattered, the interior screen was broken, and not having my phone as an alarm clock was forcing me to rely on my old bedside clock/radio/iPhone dock. It was time for a new phone.  In the minutes before I left for the Verizon store that fateful morning I hurriedly glanced at some phone reviews. Palm Pre Plus, Blackberry Pearl, and the Droid all scored well. These were not the iPhones I had dreamt about, but they would do.

I entered the Verizon store. I looked at the fifty dollar Palm Pre Plus; too cheap. I glanced at the Blackberry Pearl; too ugly. I walked up to the Droid display; my bank account looked at me with sad, reproachful eyes. I was moving on to the ‘Multimedia’ phones when something caught my eye. It was a Droid, but it carried a price tag under a hundred dollars. What was this? The UI was friendly and intuitive, almost like it made (wait for it) Sense. I had my Goldilocks moment…this was just right. Continue reading The phone that (probably will) get me fired.