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So much work, so little time.

I could be posting about how I’ve been playing with Google Wave for the past couple of hours.

I could also post about how I recently re-discovered new and innovative ways to use Instapaper.

Instead, I’m going to post about how I’ve got 3 assignments due in the next week, and haven’t started any of them yet.

Eeek.

Blogtober, 2009, etc. Cheers for reading!

On screen protectors and full-body shields…

From left to right: Bodyguardz back (now unusable due to stretching), Invisible Shield back (after 7 months of use, including a couple of weeks in Malaysia), and an Invisible Shield front (applied at the same time as the back).

photo

After jailbreaking my phone, the next step was to apply a new shield to it. I’m a huge fan of not having a bulky case that destroys the elegance of my shiny iPhone, and I’d hate for it to be scratched (yes, even on the back), so an Invisible Shield/Bodyguardz is the perfect choice for me.

I’m also somewhat anal-retentive – I tend to replace my iPhone’s body protection every 6 months or so, just so the buildup in the imperfect corners (see above) isn’t too much. Speaking of corners, damn them. Damn them to hell.

As for the ruined Bodyguardz in the photo above, well, my fault; the bottom bits (which were pulled off in anger and frustration) aren’t visible, and the top piece (which is secured by one flimsy plastic piece) is just rediculous. The reason that this piece is now unseable is because of the damn corners. They were, frankly, imperfect, and being the perfectionist I am…
If you’re lucky enough to lay hands on my iPhone from this day on, you’ll see that the Bodyguardz on the back is missing it’s bottom protector and it’s top one.

Previously I had applied two full-cover Invisible Shields beforehand, and while they weren’t great in terms of corners/edges, they provided my iPhone ample protection. I also loved the extra grip they gave – preventing my prescious from slipping out of my hands and tumbling to the floor. The horror…
The reason I’ve chosen to go with Bodyguardz this time around is availability. My local Apple reseller (*cough*NextByte*cough*) stocks them – while I can lay hands on a set of Invisible Shields fairly easily nowadays, I had to import my previous sets from the US – and that was before I had my iPhone… Besides, I was curious to try them out – by all accounts, they’re pretty much identical to the Invisible Shields, and do the same job.

This time around I’ve elected for something different – instead of using the front Bodyguardz as well as the back, I’m rocking a Power Support anti-glare screen protector. These are, quite frankly, awesome. The cool thing about them is that they diffuse any light that hits the screen – goodbye nasty reflections. They also feel really smooth, and are an absolute must for your iPhone if you’ve got to have a screen protector.

With a back Bodyguardz and a Power Support anti-glare screen protector, my iPhone is all pimped out. This makes me happy 🙂

This post brought to you by Blogtober 2009 (one of these days I’m going to write Bogtober and see if any of you notice). A post a day, huh? I can do that.

iPhone is now jailbroken.

For a moment there, I actually thought I had jailborken my iPhone. (Get it? Jailborken, as in borked? As in temporarily bricked?)

This took quite a few attempts, though, so I’ll just outline what worked for me.

  1. If you get a 1604 error, try a DFU restore instead of a recovery. DFU is where you hold down the sleep+home buttons for 10 seconds, then release just the sleep button, still holding down the home button – there are more guides on the net, but you’ll know if you’ve done it right from the fact that nothing appears on the screen and it doesn’t power up in any way.
  2. If you get a 1600 error, try restoring from recovery mode instead of a DFU restore. Restore mode is where you hold down the home button, then plug your iPhone into iTunes. You’ll know if you’ve done it right from the fact that there’s a USB cable pointing to iTunes on the iPhone screen.
  3. Preventing these errors isn’t something I’m that sure about. There were times when I thought it wasn’t going to work, but a quick reset of the phone fixed that.

I also encountered what I’ll term the “error 1604/1600 merry-go-round of hell” (or death, depending on your personal preference), where I would do a DFU restore to be greeted with a 1600 error. I would then try a recovery as per my own “research” (comments on the dev-team blog, haha), only to be greeted with a 1604 error. This carried on until…

…I found a blog post explaining how to circumvent the errors altogether. It involves some possibly dodgy, third-party, non dev-team-sanctioned software, but hey – it worked for me.

I now run iPhone OS 3.1 quite happily on my iPhone 3G, and everything’s all right with the world.

So I’m cheating a little in this particular blog post (part of Blogtober 2009) – I’ll just set the date of publishing back to the third, and no one will be the wiser! I love WordPress. 🙂

Hobartians, I present to you: Smiggle!

You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to take pics of public things when people are watching.

Then there’s the incredibly cute blonde I was surreptitiously stalking (it was an accident, I swear :P), but that’s for another day.

This blog post is a proud part of Blogtobe 2009 – a post a day doesn’t sound too hard, right?

Posted via email from Benny’s posterous

Today’s Haul – Blogtober One

Becaus I buy stuff from the internets, I get quite a bit of mail.

This was today’s haul.

Also, this is my first post as part of blogtober. As far as I can tell, all I have to do is post something on my blog everyday in October.

Let’s see how long until I forget.

Posted via email from Benny’s posterous