Hijinks Inc.

Category: Apple

  • Why your iPod won’t charge (and what to do about it)

    Why your iPod won’t charge (and what to do about it)

    Show of hands if you’ve seen this message on your iPhone or iPod touch:

    “Charging is not supported with this accessory”

    Why not?  The music and video still works… why wouldn’t charging be supported?  It upset me too.  I tried connecting it to an older Alpine stereo and it flashed me the error.

    The short and sweet of it?  Previous to the 3G iPhone and 2G iPod touch, the pin-out configuration of the connection used a FireWire standard for the location of the charging pin.  The newest generation switched to using a USB pin-out standard, and low and behold, the charging pin is different!

    Enter the Scosche passPORT charging adapter.  The $20 adapter (Apple actually sells it, as well as many other retailers) switches the charging pin-out, but allows the rest of the data stream to pass-through.  However, there are limitations… this from Scosche’s website:

    “The charging adapter is specifically designed to fix the charging error associated with several iPod and iPhone accessories. If the accessory you are intending to use does not initially support the audio or video functionality of the iPod or iPhone , the charging adapter will not enable these features.”

    What bothers me is there had to be some poor tech from Scosche who took this call:

    Customer: “Hi, I’ve got a problem.”

    Tech: “What can I help you with?”

    Customer: “Well, I bought your charging adapter for my iPod touch, but I can’t see the video on my TV!”

    Tech: “Are you connecting your iPod to your home theater system?”

    Customer: “No, I’ve got it connected to a wall-mount charging adapter.”

    Tech: “Great, now we need a disclaimer…”

  • Jailbreak 101: An Introduction to Jailbreaking

    Jailbreak 101: An Introduction to JailbreakingWelcome to the wonderful world of jailbreaking, each week I’m going to focus on how to better take advantage of your new found freedom by featuring an app only available through Cydia.

    This week  I’m going to walk you through jailbreaking your iDevice, this used to be a lot more in depth process, but thanks to programs like QuickPwn and Spirit things are easier than ever.

    Disclaimer: This tutorial is only for iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch running firmware 3.1.2, 3.1.3, or 3.2 and users running any version of iTunes 9 except 9.2. This does NOT work with iOS 4 or the new iPhone 4.

    Looking for a jailbreak for the newly released 3.2.1 firmware for the iPad? Sadly you’ll have to wait a little while longer, but rest assured we’ll be posting information on any new jailbreaks that are released.
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  • Live Coverage of Apple’s iPhone Press Conference

    Apple LogoWill Apple man up and admit they made a mistake? Find out by watching live coverage on the TWiT network!

    [ Live Coverage ]

    So far they’ve just been playing the blame game.

    …And all you get is a free case. Or a refund if you bought a bumper already.

  • 60 Days Without Voice Service

    60 Days Without Voice Service

    Its officially been sixty days since I last made a phone call on my iPhone that wasn’t over VoIP and life is good. Not only do I have $200+ extra dollars in my bank account but I haven’t had a dropped call either. I’d say all things considered, my iPhone 3G is aging rather well.

    Since my last update, I’ve used 803 minutes of talk time and 649 text messages. 90% of my calls were incoming, so I wasn’t really bothered by the indirect method required for placing a call. The only real change I’ve made to my setup is I’ve switched over the to G.729 codec for calls (both over WiFi and 3G) with good results, though it does require an in-app purchase from Acrobits Softphone but it seems to be worth it so far.

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  • Hijinks Reviews: Pro Zombie Soccer

    Publisher: Chillingo Ltd
    Platform: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad
    Cost: $0.99 [iTunes Link]
    Updated: June 28, 2010 for iOS 4.0
    Version Reviewed: 1.1

    Pro Zombie Soccer. I gotta admit, I downloaded it because it was about zombies. I don’t know what it is, but something about zombies just makes games better it seems. The problem is that the market is getting flooded with crappy zombie games, making those that are actually worth your money have to work so much harder to get your attention. Whatever the case if you can accept the premise that someone is better fit to kill zombies because he has such amazing soccer skills… then this game just might be for you. (more…)