Great News for Recording Engineers: Firewire 800 with Firewire 400 devices

Since the release of the new MacBook and MacBook Pro a lot of concern was raised regarding Firewire 800 ports and the reality that most (if not all) audio interfaces have been using Firewire 400 for connection. The great news for recording engineers using M-Audio equipment equipped with Firewire 400 ports is that their devices will work with Firewire 800 utilizing an adapter cable (also called a Bilingual Cable). There is also a Firewire Dongle available from a company called Sonnet that you can plug your FW400 cable into, then plug it into the FW800 port on your MacBook.

From their Support pages.

Q: Can I connect my M-Audio FireWire interface to a FireWire 800 (FW800) port with a FW400 to FW800 adapter cable?

A: Yes, all M-Audio devices will function normally when connected to a FireWire 800 port with a FW400 to FW800 adapter cable. We have successfully tested all devices streaming all channels at the maximum I/O; we have tested at highest bit depth/sample rates available; as well as verified control surface functionality with the ProjectMix I/O. Please see this article for information about problems in combination with FW800 Hard Drives.

Apple iPhone to be sold in Walmart

According to AppleInsider (and many other sources), Wallmart will begin selling the iPhone December 28th. Read more here.

Hold off on the laptop purchase.

If you or anyone you know is considering a MacBook or MacBook Pro purchase anytime soon, tell them to wait!!

October 14th is the day Apple announces it’s next generation MacBook and maybe even a MacBook Pro. The new rumored MacBook design will be aluminum with smooth edges much like a MacBook Air (obviously not as thin).

Another rumor is the price. It has been speculated that Apple is now going to entire the sub-$1000 price market for notebooks. This would seriously drive Apple sales through the roof. The unfortunate thing is that it would drive the resale value of my black MacBook DOWN!

Rumors are also circulating that there will no longer be a FireWire option on the new MacBooks. Seeing as I use FireWire devices for recording, this is definitely a downsize. Let’s hope this is the only false rumor.

Let’s Rock event

According to the Apple Let’s Rock Event there will be:

A new iPod Nano (pretty slick looking)

iTunes 8 with some really cool features for playlist creation/recommnedations and new album view that is nice as your iPhoto “Events” window.

HD TV shows, and NBC is coming back. The Office!!!!

A 32 GB iPod Touch

New in-ear buds with cool carrying case.

An iPhone 2.1 Firmware update coming out this Friday!!

Rogers Plans for the iPhone

In case you haven’t been over to Rogers.com yet.

The current plan I am using with my unlocked iPhone provides me with WAY more talk time, and text for less money. The only thing I’m missing out on is the data plan, which by the way is an insult to Apple. There is no reason they can’t offer unlimited. I’ll just have to stick with WiFi hot-spots for now.

iChat problem with built-in iSight

“This computer does not support video conferencing”

I recently had this issue with my iChat, it was driving me kind of crazy. After a few hours of looking around the internet I finally found the answer. First off I tried a suggestion to reset my SMC, this did not work. What DID work was opening my Finder going to username(your username)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plst, and hitting DELETE. I then restarted iChat and was able to initiate video conferencing.

iPod Touch Jailbreak with Apple Applications!! (mail, google maps, stocks, weather)

This post is over due. Step by step iPod Touch Jailbreak instructions with links.

Download the needed files

Download the 1.1.1 Restore file from Apple. The downloaded file has the extension “.zip”, please remove it and modify it to end up with a filename ending in _Restore.ipsw

Download the 1.1.2 Restore file from Apple. The downloaded file has the extension “.zip”, please remove it and modify it to end up with a filename ending in _Restore.ipsw

Download the 1.1.3 Restore file from Apple. The downloaded file has the extension “.zip”, please remove it and modify it to end up with a filename ending in _Restore.ipsw

Download 1.1.2 Jailbreak unzip this folder.

Downgrade to 1.1.1

Reboot your iPod holding the top (sleep) and home buttons BUT release the top button 10 seconds into it (right after the screen goes dark) and continue to hold the home button until iTunes detects the phone in recovery mode. The iPod screen will appear to be off, but start iTunes if not started yet .

Restore your iPod by pressing and holding the ‘option’ key, then click ‘restore’ to select the 1.1.1 firmware file you downloaded earlier.

Jailbreak 1.1.1

Now visit jailbreakme.com in Safari and install Installer.app (Appsnapp)

You may need to do a soft reset of your ipod touch after this (press and hold the sleep and home button till the screen turns black, but then release BOTH buttons. Turn your iPod on by pressing the sleep button and wait for it to start up. You should now have installer on the screen.

Now apparently Oktoprep comes pre-installed with the new Installer.app but I had troubles with my iPod and had to actually install it. However it doesn’t show up on the screen anymore. You need to install Community Sources (you can find it in Install > All Packages > Community Sources). Now go to Sources at the bottom right side of installer, then at the top right select Edit, then at the top left select Add. Type this in the pop up http://hackthatphone.com/1.xml (I’ll warn you when you type xml, the keyboards predictive text will capitalize it…make sure you click the x beside the suggested spelling so that it does not capitalize it).

Your sources should refresh, and Oktoprep should be there now under tweaks 1.1.1 Install it.

Upgrade to 1.1.2

Now connect your iPod to iTunes again and while pressing and holding the ‘option’ key, click ‘Update’ then select the 1.1.2 firmware file you downloaded earlier.

Once your phone has finished updating you need to quit iTunes, open up Activity Monitor (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, and in the menu select ‘window’ > ‘activity monitor’) Look for iTunes helper, select it and quit the process (big red button that says quit at the top).

Jailbreak 1.1.2

Open the folder “1.1.2 Jailbreak that you downloaded and double click the file named Jailbreak.jar

This will open up a Java file where you can click on a button that says Jailbreak! (you do not need to install SSH)

When this done you should have Installer back on your home screen. Open installer and make sure it is up-to-date. You will need to be connected to WiFi for this of course. You’ll notice an indicator of some sort beside the ‘update’ button at the bottom of the installer window. At this point you do not need iTunes anymore, but you will need to have your iPod connected to power as this next part is the longest and it can take up to an hour and a half.

Before you continue, go to Setting > General > Autolock > and select NEVER

Upgrade to 1.1.3 with Apps (if you already paid for the Apple applications (Mail, Google maps etc.) or if you already had them on out of the box, skip to the next Upgrade method)

Now go to Install > All Packages, scroll down and install “BSD Sub System” Then go to Sources at the bottom right side of installer, then at the top right select Edit, then at the top left select Add. Type this in the pop up http://ipodtouchmaster.com/files/repo.xml (don’t forget when you type xml, the keyboards predictive text will capitalize it…make sure you click the x beside the suggested spelling so that it does not capitalize it).

After adding this resource, it should refresh, then when you go back to the Install section, and go to the category 1.1.3 Jailbreak + iPhone Apps, select that category, then select 1.1.3 Jailbreak +iPhone Apps. Select Install, click OK to all the messages. Once it begins the install it will lock up just over half way, THIS IS NORMAL, AND IT WILL LOCK UP FOR ABOUT AN HOUR TO AN HOUR AND A HALF. After 1.5 hours it should be safe (if it’s still locked up….mine did when I had it) to force it to do a soft reset…..(press and hold the sleep and home button till the screen turns black, but then release BOTH buttons. Turn your iPod on by pressing the sleep button and wait for it to start up).

You now will have a 1.1.3 Jailbroken iPod Touch with all the Apple applications for your enjoyment.

Upgrade to 1.1.3 without Apple apps (do this if you have them paid for already).

With your Jailbroken 1.1.2 iPod Touch open Installer.app go to Install > scroll down to the category “System” then install the “Official 1.1.3 Upgrader” this will not take as long as the other option, but is only rewarding if you have the APPLE applications already. Enjoy!!!

Credit to all the developers, hackers, and the ipodtouchmaster for his videos.

iPhone jailbreak, unlock, bootLoaders and baseband

To start I must say that I really enjoyed my iPod Touch while I had one, and I enjoyed my Sony Ericsson cell phone as well. However, selling them and only paying an additional $19 +tax for a 16GB iPhone has been simply amazing.

Secondly, I would not consider this post to be a solid source for how to jailbreak or unlock your phone if it is an earlier model. The process of updating your phone to 1.1.3 should be further researched before you try anything mentioned here. If you have a new OTB (out of the box) 1.1.3 iPhone 8GB or 16GB, then you are in luck, because my experience is based on this scenario. Everything else I may suggest is information gathered from websites and blogs. Also keep in mind that doing any of the following things to your iPhone will in fact void it’s warranty, and I take no responibility for anything that may happen to your phone. This worked easily with my OTB 1.1.3 16 GB iPhone. I did however have to install Navizon to get my Google Locate me function to work, I’ll explain why later.

Seeing as I don’t live in the US, and they don’t have the iPhone where I live, I have been closely watching the hacking community for advancements in jailbreaking and unlocking both the iPhone and iPod Touch. Once Apple released the 16GB iPhone, I was determined to get one and to find the best solution for jailbreaking and unlocking. Wouldn’t you know that the within a week or so of releasing the 16GB iPhone, iJailbreak gets updated, and is now arguably the simpliest and most effective way of jailbreaking and unlocking ANY version of iPhone. This method will work whether you bought an iPhone the day they were released or whether you bought one yesterday.

How to Jailbreak a new 1.1.3 8GB or 16GB iPhone with one click!

Download the application iJailbreak(version 0.5.3), run it, plug in your iPhone and close down iTunes (I also close all iTunes processes like iTunes Helper), click Jailbreak, when you do you will then be given the option to also Unlock. That’s it, in less than 3 minutes you will have the phone jailbroken and/or unlocked WITH installer.app sitting there waiting for you.

The iJailbreak application is a front end for the also recent Ziphone hack(click here for the GUI for windows), however adds some added compatability for older phone versions. Which brings me to my next subject, bootloaders and basebands: What are they and what happens with this hack, I’ll cover that shortly.If you like the new features of 1.1.3, the webclips, customizable desktop and the Google maps locate me option you may like to know that you can update to 1.1.3 and jailbreak and unlock. First however you will need to restore your phone, which means wiping it clean and restoring it to the original firmware for your phone. To restore hold the sleep and home button at the same time until you get the apple symbol AND then it will shut off, at this point you can release the sleep button but continue to hold down the home button, connect the iPhone to your computer with the usb cable and wait for iTunes to tell you that it found an iPhone in recovery mode, then follow the instructions and Restore your phone. Once it is restored you can then update via iTunes to 1.1.3.Now if you chose to jailbreak and/or unlock, keep in mind that many of the apps in the installer.app have not been upgraded and do not work with 1.1.3 phones (such as Customize and SummerBoard).

Ok so what is this talk of Bootloaders and Basebands.

iPhones purchased prior to November 2007 and before 1.1.2 had Bootloader 3.9. A Bootloader is a smal program that calls on the programs when a processor starts up. It is not updated when Apple pushes an update as this is normally un-erasable, at least it is without putting your phone at a serious risk of becoming a brick if there is any interuption in the process of altering the Bootloader. The 3.9 Bootloader on older phones had a ‘backdoor’ to it’s structure and made it easily unlocked and jailbroken. The new phones after November and 1.1.2 came with Bootloader 4.6 which was much harder to jailbreak and unlock. It is now able to be jailbroken and unlocked, the only thing is that if you have a 4.6 Bootloader, the jailbreak process seems to have to downgrade your Baseband, whereas 3.9 Bootloaders can run all updated baseband firmwares because of the backdoor in 3.9 that makes it jailbreak and unlock quite easily.

The Baseband is the processor that manages all of the activities of the antenna from wifi to bluetooth and of course the cellular signal. It is updatable and has been with iPhone updates through iTunes. It a phone is locked up during a Baseband update (this may happen during a firmware update), it can usually be restored though various methods. Phones with the 3.9 Bootloader will run the newest baseband and shouldn’t have a problem with using the Google maps locate function. Newer phones may have to install Navizon with Installer.app and run it once (you will need to create an account which is free), after it runs it somehows does something to Google Maps that will make the locate function from then on.

This was some nerdy information, so if you are really lost, and you really would like to understand, you can try to read the blogs I obtained this information from:

Bootloader and BasebandsBaseband after Jailbreak

Here is a link to all the iPhone Firmware files for updating/restoring. Make sure that if the end of the file is .zip, just rename the file by deleting the .zip so that you are only using the .ipsw

Firmware files

One Word

I have one word to say if Apple releases an iPod Touch with at least 30GB of storage:

Sold!