Dean(ish)

Proof that John Mayer is Awesome

Dean — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:06:48 +0000

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Old Batman vs New Batman

Dean — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:28:39 +0000

It’s pretty awesome how similar the 1989 Batman and the new Dark Knight trailers are. Check ‘em out side-by-side:

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Maximize Your iPhone, Pt 3: Ringy Dingy

Dean — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:59:57 +0000

So you’ve had your iPhone for a few days and you really like it. Great. How do you like those ringtones? Not so much? Me neither. While they’re vibrant and loud, they’re just not good. When someone calls me, I don’t want it to sound like they’re calling a church or a cricket; I want it to sound like me. Here, I’ll show you how to make it sound like you.

Before we go any further, you’ll need to download and install iPhoneBrowser onto your computer. What exactly does iPhoneBrowser do? Simply put, it lets you view the files on your iPhone. More importantly, it allows you to add files - specifically, in this instance, ringtones. Once you have downloaded and installed iPhoneBrowser, come back here to continue.

There are actually a few ways to make iPhone ringtones. You can either do it online; on your desktop; or straight from your iPhone. The easiest way, which I’ll show you here, is online. (Unless you’d rather pay 99¢ per track. Yeah, I didn’t think so.) First, go to Audiko.net (not .com). From there, you’ll use the form on the main page to upload a track that you would like to use. Once it’s uploaded, just move the sliders positions to the beginning and end of your desired ringtone area. Make sure your chosen timespan is less than 30 seconds, as the iPhone may not be able to use it if it’s longer.

Here’s an example of a ringtone of “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” by Tomoyasu Hotei:

Now that your ringtone is made, you need to get it to your iPhone. On your computer, create a new folder specifically for ringtones such as My Documents\Ringtones. In Audiko, click the link to “Download ringtone for iPhone” and save this M4R file to the Ringtones folder on your computer. Open up iPhoneBrowser and go to the Ringtones folder on the iPhone. It’s easy to find - just check the Goto Location tab at the top of the window:

It’s just basic drag-and-drop to get your ringtone from the Ringtones folder on your computer to the folder on your iPhone. Lastly, on your iPhone go to Settings > Sounds > Ringtone, and you should see your newly created ringtone in the list.

Like I said, there are other methods of making iPhone ringtones. However, they’re not as easy and are a bit more time consuming. Still, if you’re looking for something that will work offline (rather than having to upload your track to Audiko) then I would suggest looking into ToneShop or iRinger. If you’re really anal, or would like to do some more complicated audio editing like cutting sections out and blending, then give Audacity a spin. With Audacity, you can create an edited MP3 and then you’ll need to use something like iRinger to convert that to an M4R (iPhone ringtone format).

In addition to the desktop applications, there’s an app available via Installer called Ringtones (original, eh?) that will take tracks from your Library and convert it to a ringtone. It works - that’s not to say that it works very well, but it works - and I hope it’ll be improved upon in the future. The main issues I’ve experienced are that the user interface is a little awkward, and if you’re half-way through converting a track and happen to go reply to a text message, Ringtones forgets everything you just did so you have to start all over. Annoying. Also, choosing the start and end points for the ringtone via Ringtones is about as intuitive as spreading peanut butter and jelly with a rolling pin - it can be done, but there should be an easier way.

Stay tuned for Part 4 in this series. Feel free to subscribe to the Dean(ish) feed.

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Ava’s Funny Cry

Dean — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:17:22 +0000

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Maximize Your iPhone, Pt 2: New Functionality

Dean — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:57:59 +0000

[Required reading: Part 1: Freedom]

Now that your iPhone is jailbroken, you can add more functionality by installing some sweet third-party applications to make your iPhone even more useful. This is a list of applications (available via Installer) that I use and recommend. If you have favorites of your own, please add them to the comments!

BSD Subsystem and Lighttpd: You’ll need both of these apps installed before you’ll be able to install anything else. Install these immediately. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Ready? Right, then continue on with the rest of this list.
MobileTwitter: I’m new to Twitter, and this app makes it really handy to add new posts while on the go. Since I haven’t been blogging here on Dean(ish) nearly as much as I used to, it’s nice to have an easy mobile solution.
ShopList: You can use this app to make lists. You can have several different lists, each with their own items. Once you’ve picked up the item, you can check it off and it moves from a Need list to a Have list, which is pretty cool.
Snapture: This is a replacement for the default Camera app. Snapture adds a few more options, including zoom and burst mode.
Garf: It’s Simon for your iPhone.
iSolitaire: It’s freakin’ solitaire. If you don’t like solitaire, I’ll punch you.
Lights Off: Like Lights Out, but less copyrighted.
Pool: Pretty cool billiards game.
Tris: The best iPhone Tetris clone I’ve played yet.
TTR: Tap Tap Revolution is frickin’ awesome. It takes songs from your library and lets you play ‘em like DDR, but with your fingers.
Yeti3D: It’s like Doom, but it can be controlled by the iPhone’s accelerometer which is pretty damn amazing.
Dashbuster: If you subscribe to Blockbuster’s mail-in dealy, you can manage your queue with this app. There’s an app for Netflix too, if that’s your bag.
SummerBoard: Allows you to use custom themes, rather than the plain ol’ black Apple theme. You can find themes in Installer under Install > Themes (SummerBoard). (Note: Not all themes in the Themes (SummerBoard) folder are compatible with all firmware versions.)
Wallpaper: Allows you to change the wallpaper.
Make It Mine: Allows you to change the “AT&T” text at the top of the screen to your own text.
WildEyes!: This file explorer lets you browse the contents of your iPhone right from the iPhone itself. (A later edition of this Maximize Your iPhone series will discuss how to browse your iPhone from your PC.)

Something else that I’ll add isn’t actually for an app to download via Installer, but it’s something equally as nifty: Orb. You can use Orb to stream media content from your computer to another computer, to your Wii, and now even to your iPhone. Assuming you have Orb installed and operational on your PC, just open up Safari on your iPhone; go to mycast.orb.com; and add the page as a shortcut on your home screen. When you use Orb, you’ll notice that the Orb team has put a great deal of effort into making a really slick iPhone interface for their product - it looks and acts just like a native iPhone application.

If there are any apps that I’ve missed then please feel free to include them in the comments below. Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series, which will talk about making custom ringtones.

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Maximize Your iPhone, Pt 1: Freedom

Dean — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:21:53 +0000

Let’s face it - despite the fact that there will soon be much more competition on the market, the iPhone is just about the best phone out there right now. It’s really in a class of its own as far as the user interface is concerned. One shortcoming of the iPhone, which is actually an umbrella for a whole category of shortcomings, is the lack of third-party software available for it. The iPhone does what it does better than anything else, but there are plenty of things that it doesn’t do (as seen here). Apple has said that they will launch an iPhone store, in which users may download new applications, in June, but that doesn’t help us in the meantime. Thankfully, there are some talented hackers in the world who’ve dedicated lots of time and effort into making the iPhone that much better by creating their own applications to make up for what the iPhone lacks.

Before you can use those third-party apps, though, you need to jailbreak your iPhone. Not familiar with jailbreaking? It’s a term used to describe the process of opening your iPhone to third-party (non-Apple) applications. Jailbreaking is actually very easy, but using third-party applications isn’t for everyone; it does require patience (since not all third-party apps are stable) and a tad of general geekery would help too.

To get started, just download ZiPhone; install it; run it; and hit the jailbreak button in the ZiPhone application while your iPhone is connected to your computer. ZiPhone will handle all the dirty work, making the process of opening your iPhone up to third-party applications a breeze. As long as you’re running firmware 1.1.4, there’s virtually zero risk in jailbreaking your iPhone. Should you ever need to un-jailbreak (jailfix?) your iPhone back to the original factory settings, you can easily do so from iTunes.

Jailbreaking your iPhone is the very first step in maximizing your iPhone. Once your iPhone is jailbroken, you’ll notice a new icon on your iPhone’s main display called Installer. This is the tool that will allow you to download and install all sorts of nifty apps. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, which will talk about which of these apps are worth spending time on and what they do (read: why you really want to go through the trouble of jailbreaking your iPhone in the first place).

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KK Slider on Crack

Dean — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:49:19 +0000

This is what it sounds like when KK Slider plays all of his songs simultaneously. It’s kinda like what the Internet would sound like - terrible.

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Old Dog New Biscuit (.com)

Dean — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 06:51:14 +0000

I made a website for Julie (a girl I worked with until recently - she just graduated college and is going to do something meaningful with her life, or something goofy like that). The website, as you may have suspected, is OldDogNewBiscuit.com. On the site, Julie has many kinds of healthy dog treats available. I even ate one and, while it’s still a dog biscuit, it wasn’t nearly as bad as one might expect.

As usual, I made the entire site with the almighty WordPress. In addition, I couldn’t have done it without the excellent eShop plugin.

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Presidential Candidates

Dean — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:55:57 +0000

An Oregon Girl recently blogged about who she’s going to vote for to be president, which reminded me to do the same. Unless something completely wacky happens to make me change my mind, Obama has my vote. Of all things, I admire his sense of honesty most of all. When he gives a speech, or answers a question in a debate, it doesn’t sound over-rehearsed or generic; he speaks from the heart, and I appreciate that.

One thing that An Oregon Girl mentioned that bothered her about Obama was that he doesn’t support gay “marriage”, only “civil unions”. I do support gay marriage, and while he may not support using the word “marriage” for gay couples he still believes that they should have the same rights as straight couples. Works for me.

(...)
Read the rest of Presidential Candidates (365 words)

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Sony + Microsoft = Awesome

Dean — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 05:07:23 +0000

It was only a matter of time before a company came out with a true “iPhone killer” - but who knew it would be a joint venture by oft-rivals Sony and Microsoft? Sony Ericsson has developed a new, super slick interface for Windows Mobile called XPERIA (annoyingly in all caps) which allows one to easily switch between applications like never before possible on a Windows-based phone.

Sony Ericsson’s new device, the X1, is exciting for many reasons. To me, the best reasons are that it makes up for the iPhone’s shortcomings.

3G: The iPhone runs on the slower EDGE network. With 3G, the X1’s faster data connections means more reliable streaming of online content like audio and video.
Slide-out keyboard: The iPhone’s on-screen keyboard doesn’t make for the best keyboard, in my opinion. I really prefer the tactile feeling of a real keyboard.
Windows: There are many third party programs available on Windows Mobile - on the iPhone, there are virtually none (unless you want to run the chance of bricking your phone).
Flash: Rumor has it that the X1 will actually play Flash, rather than convert certain streams into a compatible format. If this proves to be true, that would really bring the internet to your phone in a way that not even the iPhone can do.

The X1 isn’t coming out until summer-ish, maybe later, so it’ll still be a while before the hype goes mainstream. For now, it’s still just a gleam in a geek’s eye… but man, it’s cool.

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