@Peaz 2.0
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Fix: Parallels iPhone Service won’t start
Aug 4th
Here’s a quick tip to fix for those of you Mac users who are using Parallels 5 as the virtualization solution.
Support came back to me with the following steps to fix the problem. First, quit Parallels if it’s already running. Then go through the steps noted below.
- Go to /Library/Parallels/
- Right-click on “Parallels Service.app” -> Show Package Contents
- Go to /Contents/PlugIns/
- Right-click on “Parallels Network Start.app” -> Show Package Contents
- Go to /Contents/MacOS/
- Copy “prl_iphone_proxy” file.
- Go to /Library/Parallels/
- Right-click on “Parallels Service.app” -> Show Package Contents
- Go to /Contents/PlugIns/
- Right-click on “Parallels iPhone Proxy.app” -> Show Package Contents
- Go to /Contents/MacOS/
- Paste “prl_iphone_proxy” file.
- Restart Parallels and enable the iPhone service!
Yup. That’s all it takes to get it running. I’d expect a patch/update to fix this problem once and for all… A missing file in the iPhone Proxy app isn’t quite a major technical issue isn’t it? I wondered how this got through QA for this release of Parallels 5.
iPhone 4 Antennagate: A case of losing perspective
Jul 18th
There’s seems to be a lot of rant, opinions, news, blogs and anything else you can think of on the iPhone 4 ‘Antennagate’ issue. Well, here’s my rant too.
To summarize the outcome of Apple’s press conference on this issue, all iPhone 4 users would be getting a free Bumper case. If you’re already bought the bumper, you’d get a refund. If you’re still not too happy with the iPhone 4, return it with no questions asked.
Seriously, what more can you ask of Apple?
To all naysayers out there still, it’s my opinion that this is a case of lost perspective.
For one, the people in US has taken for granted how great consumerism is over there. Not every part of the world offers such protection to it’s consumers, what more from the product manufacturer themselves. If you are hoping to return goods you’ve bought here in my part of the world, well, heh, Fat hopes. Claims of return policies are subjected to lines and lines of fine prints.
But that’s not the main point. My thoughts? Well for one, we’ve been trying to kill the messenger.
Using Mac (or Linux) in a Windows dominated workplace
Jul 4th
It’s a (sad) fact that most corporate workplace are still using Windows as the only supported platform for work. It’s not that I’ve anything against Windows. Don’t get me wrong here. Instead, I personally think that if I choose to run Mac and Linux OS, so be it. Why should one get shun off just because the corporate standards and softwares only support Windows.
Now, what would your options be?
One is obviously to setup a dual-boot environment where you get to boot into the corporate-friendly Windows OS which would run all those corporate softwares, such as VPN client, Email and conference clients and perhaps even VOIP systems.
But by dual-booting, you would have reboot the system just to switch over to another platform which really kills productivity. Also, it defeats the purpose of using a non-Windows OS in the first place.
Tip: Calibrating the MacBook and iPhone battery to maximize it’s life
Jul 1st
Everyone knows that the battery on the new MacBooks and iPhone are built-in and non-replaceable. Therefore, it’s extra important to try and maintain the battery to maximize its lifetime.
And since both the MacBooks and iPhones uses a lithium-based battery, there are a few golden rules on how we can keep the batteries in tip-top conditions.
Firstly, lithium-based batteries likes their electrons to keep moving. That way, the battery stays ‘fresh’ throughout its lifetime of use.
So, the myth of keeping it always fully charge isn’t quite true with such devices. If you check out the article here at BatteryUniversity.com, it states the following tip:
The worst condition is keeping a fully charged battery at elevated temperatures, which is the case with running laptop batteries. If used on main power, the battery inside a laptop will only last for 12-18 months. I must hasten to explain that the pack does not die suddenly but begins with reduced run-times.
Also important is to calibrate the battery in your devices. Just to give you an indication, my MacBook Pro now shows remaining time in the regions of 8-10 hours at 90-100% on normal usage.
Upgrading a Spirit-Jailbroken iPhone 3GS to iOS 4.0
Jun 21st
It’s iOS 4.0 day today as I’m typing this blog. If you’re on an official iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware, all you need to do to get iOS 4.0 loaded is to just wait for iTunes to prompt for the a new iPhone software update and just update it. If you can’t wait for the auto-checking, just click the Check for update button on iTunes over the next few hours.
But what if you’re currently have a jailbroken iPhone 3GS. Specifically, an iPhone 3GS on iPhone OS 3.1.3 that was jailbroken using the Spirit jailbreak. So what now? Ok. Jailbreaking isn’t just about installing ‘modified’ apps. There are legit reasons for jailbreaking the iPhone too as I’ve blogged here in this post.
If you’re anything like me, you’d also be eager to get the latest iOS 4.0 firmware installed, jailbroken or not. But, should you also wait for the upgrade to come through iTunes? What would happen then? Or should you restore instead before the upgrade? That was the exact same questions I had.
Tip: Enabling ‘native’ NTFS read and write support on Snow Leopard, at your own risk
Jun 21st
If you’re use both Mac and Windows workstations, then you’d probably also have a bunch of removable hard disks that’s formatted as NTFS laying around. And you’d also obviously know that OS X does read from an NTFS partition. The trouble is, you don’t get NTFS write by default.
In Snow Leopard, both read and write capability is apparently available natively. The reason why it’s not officially available, it seems, is due to licensing issues rather than technical capability.
However do read on to see my experience with accessing an NTFS volume on my MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard with the latest updates.
How I sold microstock to earn money and fund my hobbies
Jun 9th
Shutterstock.com
It seems that after 5 years since I started venturing into selling microstock, till today, I find a lot of people who are fond of photography as hobbies being unaware of the microstock industry. Not even in this age of ‘Long Tail’ economies.
So, I decided to revive an old blog post of mine and update it to today’s relevance and share with you how I’ve effectively funded my photography hobby. And I’m not talking about funding digital cameras here that costs US$199. I’m talking funding DSLRs and lenses. Yup. My Nikon D300 DSLR was a result of this microstock endeavor. Convinced yet? Yes? So here’s a little note that I’d usually share with all my photography and graphic designer friends I come to know of: sell your works as microstocks!
WWDC 2010 – Early thoughts on the iPhone 4 and iOS 4
Jun 8th
It’s that time of the year again. Yup, WWDC 2010′s keynote has just started as I’m typing this blog post while following it at gdgt (photos posted courtesy of gdgt too!)
The beginning of the keynote was nothing too spectacular since all we wanted was the details of the new iPhone. However, there were some interesting statistics and points that was shared by Steve.
Firstly, there was quite a fair bit of focus on the iPad. We all know that over 2 million iPads have been sold so far. Steve went on to share that there’s now over 8,500 native iPad apps. Impressive numbers considering that the iPad is only officially 2 months old. It seems that I’ve missed out the fact that iBook didn’t support PDFs right from the start and now, you’d be able to read and view on the bookshelf. But here’s a question. Would I be able to upload my own? Or would I still need to use one of those PDF supported readers like Stanza?
Steve went on to talk a little about platforms and the App Store. He reaffirmed HTML 5 supports by mentioning it as one of the 2 supported platform, apart from the obvious AppStore. He also touched upon the rather talked about topic of apps approval. Apparently, 95% of the apps are approved within 7 days. The rest of the 5% are rejected due to the following 3 main reasons:-
- It doesn’t function as advertised
- It uses private APIs
- It crashes
And somehow Farmville just HAD to make an appearance. Yup, you read that right. Farmville will be haunting you on the iPhone as well and it comes with push notifications. Bye bye work, hello cabbage. Nevermind that EBay is to generated 1.5 Billion in sales volume in 2010. Nevermind also that 5 Billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, generating over 1 Billion USD in payout to developers. Yeah. Farmville FTW! *slaps palm on face*
Thankfully. Steve quickly revealed the new iPhone 4. Yup, that’s the name of the new iPhone!