Free: Javascript Beautifier, RCRD LBL

Offtopic: The first of many "techie" freebies has arrived. More techie stuff may be coming soon. :P

Javascript Beautifier

Convert this mess

/* paste in your own code and press Beautify button */var latest_changes=new Object({'2007-10-17':'Many, many fixes and improvements. Processing speed is also back.','... who cares ...','2007-02-08':'Initial release'});var a=b?(c%d):e[f];

into pretty code

/* paste in your own code and press Beautify button */
var latest_changes = new Object({
'2007-10-17': 'Many, many fixes and improvements. Processing speed is also back.',
'... who cares ...',
'2007-02-08': 'Initial release'
});
var a = b ? (c % d) : e[f];

with the online beautifier for javascript. Yea, it's kinda like pretty printer for javascript. But it's useful to have around if you lost your uncompressed javascript files or just to snoop around compacted scripts made by others, which coincidentally, is why this was actually created. The javascript beautifier is another one of those tools that I can't seem to find when I need it. Bookmarked. :)

RCRD LBL

Feel free to steal all the music you see at RCRD LBL. Tracks at RCRD LBL are free for personal use and you can always download an MP3 version of every track that is released. An account is not required to download music, but it allows you to keep track of your favorite bands. Just in case you're wondering, yes, they've removed all the vowels from the words "record label". :)

Nothing to see here, move along. Oh, can't get enough, can ya? A CD in my mail might do wonders. :P

Just out: iDemocracy 2.0, Updated 1.1.2 Jailbreak

Offtopic: Highlight of the day has to be iDemocracy 2. It does way more than just unlocking and jailbreaking. What other hidden goodies does it have? Read on to find out. :P

iDemocracy 2.0

As promised, Drakenza has let iDemocracy 2.0 loose and it's gaining in popularity. Only after 8 hours after its debut, the download count has almost reached 30,000. Yes, that is not a typo. For the developers/coders among you, Drakenza has also uploaded the source code for iDemocracy 2.


The new iDemocracy packs a host of new features, including support for the 1.1.2 firmware, virginizing, baseband downgrading, MobileStack, file browsing as well as ringtones. As you can see, Drakenza has really outdone himself this time, since iDemocracy 2 is possibly the only (Windows) program you'll ever need for all your iPhone hacking needs. To see the full list of features, see the Changelog.




iDemocracy 2 weighs in at a heavy 31.6MB and requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2.

1.1.2 Jailbreak now includes activation, YouTube support and more

TUAW reports that the 1.1.2 jailbreak has been refreshed to include activation, YouTube support and more. Not exactly what everyone was hoping for, but it'll have to do for now. :P

Free: Clever Hippo App Search, LocateTV

Offtopic: Nothing to see here. Please continue reading below. :P

Clever Hippo App Search

There are a zillion different cool widgets around and looking for a particular one on Google can be, well, frustrating. Enter Clever Hippo Application Search. Clever Hippo is an app/widget oriented search that allows tagging and voting. You can filter results by the various platforms, sort by date/popularity/relevance or just take a peek at what everyone is looking for. Clever Hippo database includes Windows/Mac widgets, social networking widgets, blog widgets as well as iPhone apps.

LocateTV

Where can you find your favorite TV series/movies/actors? Just ask LocateTV and it'll tell you where you can obtain them (shows not the actors!) online or when to catch it/them on TV/DVD. For TV shows, there's even a handy episode list with a short synopsis of each episode. (I never can remember what happened a few seasons back.)



If you're the forgetful type or just want to remind everyone when to catch a particular show, just embed it on your blog. In fact, you can embed practically anything - series, movies, people and so on. Unfortunately, LocateTV only supports the US, UK and Ireland at the moment, so I guess it's back to torrents for the rest of the world. :P


You've reached the end. Send me a Heroes DVD and I'll consider writing more. :P

Official Radiohead In Rainbows Artwork Download

The official artwork for In Rainbows has been unveiled by Radiohead. As you can see, Radiohead fans were pretty close when they created their own artwork to accompany the In Rainbows download last month. To download the artwork below, just right-click on the image and select save image.

Me? I simply downloaded the fan artwork (some are of outstanding quality) till this one came out. :) And I don't feel like changing mine. :P



[via Radiohead
reveal In Rainbows art @ Drowned in Sound]

iDemocracy2 Updates

Offtopic: It's another uneventful day in the underground iPhone hacking world. A momentary flurry of excitement was caused when some users were confused by an iDemocracy announcement, but the sad truth is out.

iDemocracy2

Unsurprisingly, Drakenza has confirmed that iDemocracy will NOT be able to unlock brand new, out-of-the-box 1.1.2 iPhones with the latest bootloader. Jailbreaking and activation are supported for these iPhones though.

iDemocracy 2 DOES NOT support unlocking on iPhones with the new bootloader 4.06! Apparently some people misinterpreted the announcement below. Sorry for the confusion! However, iDemocracy 2 CAN jailbreak and activate these iPhones (I believe, though I haven't tested).

An official screenshot of jailbreaking in iDemocracy:


I believe that Drakenza meant unlocking of upgraded 1.1.2 iPhones (1.0/1.02/1.1.1 -> 1.1.2) in his earlier announcement, which is currently the only possible type of unlock for the 1.1.2 firmware. Until someone figures out how to get around the new bootloader, software unlocking for out-of-the-box 1.1.2 iPhones is not likely to be possible.

Free: Logo Templater, favikon

Offtopic: Yes, there were no freebies yesterday. How sad. :) Actually there were some but I was working on something else. :P

And I've decided to drop the Romlet and BlogRush widgets. Hopefully, this will speed things up considerably. I'm thinking of removing a couple more widgets as well. Not sure which ones yet. Any suggestions?

Logo Templater

Need to throw together a quick logo? Check out Logo Templater for free blank logos and images in Adobe Illustrator EPS format (a vector graphic format). An advantage of vector graphics is that unlike other types of images, vector images can be resized to any dimension without pixelation or degradation in quality. The files from Logo Templater can be used freely by individuals/businesses, except for the purpose of redistribution.

favikon

Create your very own favicon in 3 easy steps with favikon. Upload an image or steal one from the web, crop the bits that you want, click the preview button and your 16x16 icon is ready for the net! Now you just need a website... :)


Too little for you? Make me a logo or favicon and we'll talk. :P

iPhone Status Ticker

Offtopic: It's a very boring day in the iPhone unlocking/jailbreaking world today as there were no significant updates. Fortunately, I've been working on other stuff instead of slamming my F5 key every 10 seconds. :D Hmmm... maybe that's the cause of the frequent database errors at the Hackint0sh unlocking forums. :P

iPhone Status Ticker

While there aren't any new developments today (that I could find), the iPhone Status Ticker would be a good place to check out if there are new unlock/jailbreak programs/methods that are being created.

It's like a FAQ/guide rolled into one, neatly split into the various firmware versions. Under each firmware, there are tips on what works and what doesn't, so you'll have an overall idea of what you should and can do.

The iPhone Status Ticker is community maintained so it'll probably be updated more regularly than my posts here (daily), but I've also had my share of my breaking iPhone news. ;) (Hint: Custom ringtones for 1.1.2 posted on Nov 10, among others.)

1.1.2 Lockdownd Patcher

Offtopic: Yesterday I posted about the 1.1.2 Lockdownd patch and how there were a million different patches floating around. Seems the one from iPhone Elite team isn't foolproof (see the note by zibree). :)

1.1.2 Lockdownd Patcher

But if you're willing to take the risk anyway, you can download and compile patcher for v1.1.2 lockdownd by the iPhone Elite Team. Yes, you read it right, you need to compile it because the file is the source code of patcher in C. :)

The Patcher runs on both your PC and iPhone. Instructions on its usage can be found at the Patcher wiki.

Everything You Need to Know About FeedBurner Site Ads

Feedburner and AdSense caught in the same bed!

Last month during Halloween, Feedburner announced that AdSense was integrated with Feedburner Site Ads. While not the feature that most wanted (that would be feed ads), it's still a great feature because unlike inline Blogger AdSense ads, Feedburner Site Ads comes with channels and custom palettes. What it still lacks though are multiple palette support and the full set of AdSense ad sizes (currently only 300x250 and 480x60).

How to activate Feedburner Site Ads

Despite these slight disadvantages, I've decided to take the plunge and activate Feedburner Site Ads anyway. :) Along the way, I've recorded my steps so you'll be able to see what you'll be getting yourself into.

1. Login to Feedburner and head straight for the Monetize tab. Come on, stop staring at your stats. You've got work to do!
   
   
   


2. If you're already an AdSense publisher, just sign in to link up your AdSense account to your Feedburner account.
   
   
   
   
   Otherwise, get yourself an AdSense account.
   
   


3. Ok, time to login to your email account.
   
   
   


4. Check for an email from Google, click the link they tell you to in that email and you'll see a page similar to the one below. Deja vu? You may have done this if you activated inline Blogger AdSense ads.
   
   


5. Access granted.
   
   


6. If you're still logged into Feedburner, sign out now and sign back in. Initially, I didn't do this and was wondering if my AdSense channels went to grab a beer (as seen in the screenshot below).
   
   Head straight to the Monetize tab, check Display Ads, configure your ad options and you're almost done. If you already have FeedFlare embedded into your blog, just hit Activate and ads should appear soon enough. Otherwise, after activating your ads, go back to the Monetize tab and get your HTML code for your blog platform.
   
   


7. Profit!

FAQs

1. Will the ad appear on my site or my feed?
   The ad will appear only on your site NOT your feed. The Feedburner team is working on feed ads for all publishers.


2. Where will the ad appear?
   

   The ad will appear below the first item on your site and archive pages once you have installed the necessary code. - AdSense Integrated with FeedBurner Site Ads



3. How many ads will there be?
   Our AdSense backfill inventory for the site only places a maximum of a single AdSense unit on the page, be it your home page or a specific article page/permalink. This is the same behaviour as with our own FAN ads. - Matt


4. Some of my posts have no ads!
   We aren't able to place ads below posts that never appeared in your FeedBurner feed, so those oldest items probably will never show ads. - Matt

Final words

Although I've only recently activated Feedburner Site Ads, its performance so far isn't too shabby. I'm not revealing specific figures though. Let's just say that it can easily outperform other ads on a good day.

Free: Quick Ribbon, Task Killer, Linux eBooks

Offtopic: I've finally completed my mashup of recent Blogger and IntenseDebate comments (see left sidebar ;) ). If you're interested in profiting off my effort, stay tuned for an upcoming post about this.

Quick Ribbon

Maybe it's the approaching holiday season, but people are obsessed with ribbons. If you're not lucky enough to get a ribbon in real life, how about styling up your site with Quick Ribbon? In 4 simple steps, you can stick a virtual ribbon on your site. A live preview is available so you won't need to fret over the eventual appearance of your ribbon.

Task Killer

Kill stoned programs and start/stop system services in two clicks with Task Killer. When you launch Task Killer, it sits in your system tray monitoring open windows and running processes and system services. If you feel the need to mercilessly terminate any application, simply left click on Task Killer's icon, scroll through the programs list and click once more to execute. :) System processes are not spared from the list so I highly recommend adding them to the white list (excluded applications list) before you go click happy.



If you ask politely, you can actually get Task Killer to commit suicide. :) Task Killer runs on Win95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP.

Free Linux eBooks

Learn all about Linux with the books at Free Linux eBooks. From creating shell scripts to migrating from Windows to Linux, Free Linux eBooks has got them all covered. In case you need some affirmation that it is at least somewhat useful, Free Linux eBooks has eaten up so much bandwidth (12GB/day) that the owner set a daily download limit of 10 eBooks. Tip for the owner: Free file hosts are your friends.


Not enough for you? Send me a ribbon and I'll think about posting more. :P

Just out: CARNAVAL v0.8, 1.1.2 Lockdownd Patch, Crashing 1.1.2 Apps Fix

Offtopic: No 1.1.2 one-touch unlock or jailbreak yet. :(

CARNAVAL v0.8

Brasuco has released the English version of CARNAVAL v0.8 (other languages coming soon), which currently only works for the 1.1.1 firmware. The only change that I can find so far is

CARNAVAL v0.8 already comes with all the necessary binaries so you can safely run anySIM on 1.1.1 firmwares.

so I guess unlocking is finally integrated into CARNAVAL.

And rest assured he's already looking into making CARNAVAL compatible with 1.1.2.

I've been spending my spare time looking into alternatives for the new version of CARNAVAL for 1.1.2 firmware, so I kind forgot to release this one.

Get CARNAVAL v0.8 here.

1.1.2 Lockdownd Patch

The iPhone Elite Team has revealed their hex patches for the 1.1.2 Lockdownd file. Patching this file is necessary so that hacked 1.1.2 iPhones can be activated and receive carrier signals. As this is not the only Lockdownd patch around (see here or here), exercise caution when replacing the original files. You should also note that the addresses and files being patched are different (some patch the 1.1.1 Lockdownd file, others, the 1.1.2 Lockdownd). :)

Crashing 1.1.2 Apps Fix

If your 1.1.2 SMS and phone applications are crashing, then take a look at this fix courtesy of the iPhone Elite Team. Something else to look out for - tim.schuerewegen points out that

Even after having created the necessary files/symlinks MobilePhone still crashes if you are located in a country where the iPhone is not officially for sale. To "fix" this you need to hex-edit AppSupport and replace an official location with your location. For example if you are located in Belgium then replace "fr/33" (offset 0xA0AC) with "be/32". After this patch MobilePhone will no longer crash.

Free: Songza, Feed Crier, bookr

Offtopic: Yesterday there was an overdose of Windows programs. Today, it's the revenge of the online applications. :P

Songza

If you like the simplicity of Google, then Songza is the perfect music search engine for you. With a simple and uncluttered interface, Songza relies on YouTube to get you the songs you desire. Unlike Google however, Songza is jazzed up with AJAX and Web 2.0 effects. You'll be able to enjoy seamless inline page loads and cool fade in/out animations while searching for your favorite music. One of the strengths of Songza is also its main weakness - its dependence on YouTube means not every song can be found, although Youtube's vast catalog of music videos more than makes up for it.

Feed Crier

If you're not satisfied with the current delivery methods of your favorite feeds, Feed Crier offers you yet another alternative - feeds by instant message. Just enter your alias and a feed's URL and you're all set to receive updates via IM. Feed Crier only works on the AIM, MSN and Jabber/GTalk networks.

bookr

Create a scrapbook of your favorite Flickr photos with bookr. Search for pictures either by users or tags and drag and drop your chosen images onto your book's pages. If you like, you can type a short caption for each photo. When you're done, publish your book for the world to see. Here's one I've made in less than 5 minutes.




Want more? Subscribe to me by Feed Crier and you'll be notified ASAP when I write anything new. :)

Just out: iPhone Dev Team Jailbreak, 1.1.2 jailbreak/unlock guide, iDemocracy Updates, iPhone firmware hacking chart

Offtopic: Yeah, late iPhone update today. I was busy working on something and lost track of time. :)

iPhone Dev Team Jailbreak

1.1.2 Jailbreak Software Released @ TUAW reports that the Dev Team has released a jailbreak solution for Macs and Windows. The main catch is that

THIS METHOD ONLY WORKS ON ITUNES ACTIVATED PHONES OR IPOD TOUCHES

but there's a already a workaround. Oh and before I forget, Java is also required.

1.1.2 jailbreak/unlock guide

In case you're curious about the process mentioned above, Hackint0sh user vomer already made an [ULTIMATE GUIDE] Going from iPhone v1.1.1 to v1.1.2 / Jailbreak & Unlock (includes lockdownd file to allow non-iTunes activated iPhones to use this method as well), which is mostly based on the guide at http://jailbreakme.com/1.1.2/.

Note that this includes unlocking with AnySIM 1.2.1u which isn't recommended. Just skip step 6 if you don't want to unlock your 1.1.2 iPhone.

iDemocracy Updates

Drakenza says

iDemocracy 2 now has confirmed-working 1.1.2 jailbreaking and unlocking support! It's super simple and can be done within 15 minutes.

Might be worth waiting a few days for iDemocracy considering the current jailbreaking/unlocking methods aren't too idiot proof. :)

iPhone firmware hacking chart

Mark @ Hack the iPhone has created a handy iPhone chart that lists the various hacks you can do to your iPhone if you're running the various firmware. Great as a reference guide or as a dumping ground for new users. :P

Free: Xentient Thumbnails, RapidTyping Typing Tutor, Yawcam

Offtopic: Due to some unknown reason, all of today's featured software run on Windows only. No, Microsoft didn't bribe me, though I wish they did. :P

Xentient Thumbnails

Xentient Thumbnails replaces the icons of

JPG, JPE, JPEG, JP2, J2K, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP, EMF, WMF, PCX, PBM, PGM, PNM, PPM, RAS, TIF, TIFF, and TGA

files with tiny thumbnails of the actual images so that you can get an idea of what images you're looking at before you actually open them. Since a picture is worth quite a number of words in this case, here's one to save me from wasting 1000 words.



Do note that these thumbnails take up a tiny bit of space on your harddrive (default cache setting is 31MB for 2000 thumbnails), but if you want, you can configure it to take up 0MB. Xentient Thumbnails runs on Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000/XP and works wherever icons are shown, whether it's the Desktop or Windows Explorer.

RapidTyping Typing Tutor

Improve your touch typing skills with RapidTyping Typing Tutor. As you frantically type out the letters shown on the screen, cute fishes will swim about in an attempt to distract you.



Although it can be turned off, I left it on since I'm not easily distracted. :) At the end of each lesson, I was presented with my stats, which included my accuracy (95%, 96%) and number of characters typed per minute (125, 166). (Pathetic I know, but I'm no touch typist and I improved in the second lesson.) RapidTyping Typing Tutor runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista and includes a portable version so you can practice on the go.

Yawcam

Yawcam aka Yet Another WebCAM software, is a free webcam application that packs plenty of features. Take a few snapshots and combine them into a movie. Stream your video online and monitor how many viewers you're broadcasting to. If you're low on bandwidth, opt for the ftp/http upload option, which will periodically send images to your ftp/http server. It even comes with a built-in webserver so you don't need to setup one.



Yawcam runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista and requires Java, DirectX and Windows Media Player to be installed.


You demand more posts? Maybe if I could type faster... :)

Just out: Unofficial AnySIM 1.2.1u and UK Jailbreak Guide

AnySIM 1.2.1u

The iPhone Elite team just uploaded a new version of their edited AnySIM - AnySIM 1.2.1u - which is for upgraded phones only. No idea what that means either. :) Is someone willing to try it out? :D Edit:

The "u" version of anySIM1.2 was released to give more prominent credit to the original anySIM coders (it is a great app!). But the underlying executable and patch location are the same as in the release available here on Friday November 9th.

It means there's no difference between this version and the "older" 1.2 version. :)

NOTES:
# This folder must be placed on your iPhone in this location: /Applications/anySIM.app

* No other location or name should be used! Capitalization matters. This is very important.
* In the directory named above should be all the .png and .bin files for the app, along with the anySIM executable itself.

1. This version works only with 4.02.13_G baseband version and can be run on 1.0.2, 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 jailbroken systems
* The only way your baseband will be 4.02.13_G while you're running 1.0.2 or 1.1.1 is if you updated then downgraded firmware

2. If your iPhone came with 4.02.13_G (aka 1.1.2) OUT OF THE BOX then do NOT use this unlock yet.
* It hasn't been tested with bootloaders other than BOOT03.09_M3S2
* Some very new U.K. iPhones come out of the box with BOOT04.06_M3S2.
* If you're in doubt, check the output of bbupdater -v or go into minicom and issue at+xgendata

Get AnySIM 1.2.1u here.

Note:

There are reports that running this on firmware 1.1.1 hasn't worked for some iPhone owners. So it's best to use it on jailbroken 1.0.2 or 1.1.2

User anecdotes suggest that it'd be best to wait for a proper solution from the iPhone Dev Team instead as this hacked up release isn't very reliable.

UK Jailbreak Guide

Quite messy and not a very elegant way to jailbreak your 1.1.2 but the important thing is it works. Also contains some steps to fix EDGE and Visual Voicemail for UK iPhones. See o2ukJailbreak for the gory details.