yup, what was i thinking not taking a look at this app earlier when davak mentioned it in his blog….   handbrake is an all in one video converter program.  its for both apples and pcs and does basically all the major file types/device types from iphone to psp to ps3 to apple tv to x360 to quicktime..

anywho, handbrake is able to convert a dvd to a ps3 mp4 file in about 2 hours on my setup (2gb memory, athlon 64 dual core) the quality is very good and the consistency and stability is topnotch vs ps3 video 9.  i have not had the av sync problems i had w/PS3 video 9 (very annoying when the audio would get behind the video by a minute towards the end of some movies)

now if only i could put an even bigger hdd in my ps3! oh handbrake.. how i love thee..

htpc, ps3, osx86, iphone, x360, hd, geek, windows, mac, gaming, music, console, apple | 2 Comments »

Happy New Year to everyone!  This last year was a pretty crazy year in regards to technology, gaming and being a geek.  Today’s post will be a personal recap 2007, and what i thought was the biggest trend from it.

2007: The year that gaming really went mainstream?

2006 yielded an estimated 12 billion dollars in revenue for the video game industry however 2007 could end up being an even better year.  This year we saw the X360 sales thrive (not counting japan of course) w/the release of much the anticipated Halo3 (which itself set a record for most copies sold on release for any media; movie, music, game).  We also saw gaming go mainstream with the help of the casual gaming system, Nintendo’s Wii (ie money printing machine, hehe).   Sony’s PS3 also started to pick up steam in sales with the price drops and release of two new models; however the PS3 was/is still trailing the pack in sales but has seemingly helped the next-gen format war for blu-ray vs. hd-dvd (x360 did not include the hd dvd, optional drive vs sony making blu-ray a requirement in the ps3).

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fanboy, blogging, Zune, launch, ds lite, life, x360, iphone, osx86, ps3, wii, opinion, gaming, linux, hardware, applications, console, culture, geek, handheld, apple | 2 Comments »

i love it.. as a windows user/pc user, i love how the other side claims that its product/os is nearly unhackable but yet only less than a day after being released; Leopard has been hacked and patched to work on an Intel/AMD based pc hardware. 

Daily Apps has the full guide to making your own patched dvd and installing over here:

http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/hack-attack-install-leopard-on-your-pc-in-3-easy-steps/

i plan to try the patch myself on my Tiger partition.  hopefully my network cards (one of the two hopefully) will be recognized and then i can try using Leopard as a main os for a week or two and give a write up on it.

just thought i’d let the uninformed informed! Go OSX86 Hackers and pc geeks!

fanboy, news, osx86, culture, geek, apple, mac, hardware, pc | 5 Comments »

well.. as i had previously blogged about, i’ve been working on a pals G5 tower just recently.  he had the logic board (ie motherboard for the windows hardware geeks) go bad and found out it would prob cost about $700 to get it replaced including labor.

so he went out and got a new board and then asked me to install it.  hell, i figured it couldn’t be more than an hour long swap.  boy, was i wrong.  apple hardware is probably the worst designed for the DIYers in life.  i swear apple does this purposedly so they not only make money off of hardware but also off of service.

the hardest part of the swap was finding an appropriate tool to get to the screws on the heatsinks.  basically you need a 7-8″ long screwdriver and torque wrench to get to them; however finding a place that makes this tool is next to impossible.  my pal decided to fabricate two specialized tools for the job.

after making the tools and of course tweaking them to fit; we had the heatsinks off and it was downhill from there! 

here’s a great tip for anyone that messes with or takes apart hardware they are unfamiliar with; take photo of it as your doing it.  it will save you hours of troubleshooting and frustrations!  after i had the board swapped out and put back together, the G5 would boot but nothing would show for video.  after reading the service manual i found for the G5, realized the problem was the DIMM configuration; basically i had to move the four sticks to the 1/2 spots for each processor.  once i did that, bam! got the OS X boot screen and finally the desktop!

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guides, geek, hardware, apple | 4 Comments »

well, i apologize to my readers or followers for not updating in a few weeks.. been a busy geek lately and trying to catch the attention of a girl at the same time! i tell ya, a full time job indeed!

this last week, one of my mac pals called me and dropped off his G5 Mac.

basically he had it looked at and found out the motherboard/logic board went bad in it. the place he went to though wanted to charge him $700 to get a new board and to put it in. so he decided to go out and buy a new board (around $500) and asked me to remove and install the new one.

the removal was going great until i got to removing the two heatsinks for the processors. there are 4 screws that are nearly impossible to get to. to get to them, you really need a long (8inch or so) screwdriver w/a very narrow shaft to get to them. however, finding such a tool can be nearly impossible.

my pal decided to try out his welding skills and we have in turn gotten one of the two heatsinks off. we’ll see if his second tool gets to the final screws.

this is my biggest gripe of apple products. they work great and have great warranties; but once that warranty is up and gone, your basically screwed and are better off getting a new mac if its a mainboard/logic board issue.

if my motherboard on my windows pc goes down, i can have a new board in in prob about 25mins if i have the part..

arggg!! i like oranges much better than apples when it comes to fixing.. hehe..

i’ll post a full dis-assemble pics later and also the order in which i did it and also a shot of the tools we made to get to the screws.

geek, opinion, hardware, apple | 1 Comment »

hahah! again, this is why when the iPhone launched, i really wasn’t too excited.  the iphone was the ‘jesus’ phone when first launched.  it was viewed as ‘revolutionary’ by the first, early adopters (who in turn also go screwed on a price drop only 3 months later, sure $100 voucher to the apple store but thats almost an insult since you HAVE to use the voucher at an apple store).

the hacking community started to really get involved in both unlocking the iphone’s sim card and also allowing third-party code to run.  however the apple’s latest 1.1.1 iphone firmware update appears to not only break/brick unlocked iPhones but also kills all the thirdparty apps that have been installed too.

the iPhone is starting to look more and more like my older Danger Sidekick in regards to closing off of the phone’s OS and third-party software. 

gizmodo.com even was pretty mad about this and they seem to be pretty hardcore apple fanboys too (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/iphone/iphone-revisted-verdict-dont-buy-302075.php) 

in my opinion, i still would not get an iphone or ever since i hate systems that are so closed.  now open up the iphone to hackers again and maybe i’d consider one but then i would have to worry that apple may send another update and break it again.  

so, any iphone users w/thoughts on their purchase? are you having buyer remorse after apple’s lock-down?

iphone, culture, mobile, apple | 3 Comments »

well, a few weeks back i did a full system rebuild from scratch and originally had planned to do a six os install but decided to cut back to just a quad booting system.  i realized that installing windows98se and windows 2000 was just a waste of partitions and space since i really have no need for them. 

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geek, htpc, osx86, vista, windows, apple, mac, hardware, pc | 3 Comments »

well, i and the rest of the world knew this was coming; a way to unlock the iPhone sim card.  prior to this newest hack (which will run about $90-100 for the blank sim card and sim card reader/writer), the non-ATT/Cingular users could activate the iPhone via a hack but were still unable to use the phone (basically it made it a wifi ipod).

however, the good folks over at hackint0sh forums have found a way around this!  here’s direct link to the forum post on the how-to.

http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2215&page=1

so, it seems like i may perhaps end up w/an iphone at some point if this hack works w/Tmobile USA.  i’ve  always wanted to get into the whole SIM card hacking but really never had a reason to and now i may.  i know, i am still an iphone naysayer (but thats mainly because i didn’t want to switch to cingular/att) but may sway to the dark side.  we shall see.

oh yea, on top of this, Windows users now have a nice iPhone file browser. check it out at modmyiphone.com:  http://www.modmyiphone.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=301

so.. anyone wanna send me an iphone to unlock and then in turn post up a nice tutorial?? hehe, had to try.

culture, news, modding, mobile, hardware, opinion, apple | 1 Comment »

is july the official RMA month? sure seems so for me, had to RMA three items this last week: my new W810i phone (arrived DOA, argh!!), a 1GB MicroSD card, and of course my Western Digital 80GB laptop hd.  however, i guess i can’t really complain since prior to this month i’ve only had to RMA 4 items in the last 5 years (considering how many geek toys/items i buy, not a bad number).

i’ve officially given up on getting OSX on my HP TC1100.  using a different external cd/dvd drive did not seem to resolve any of the install problems/slowness.  i might try the deedmo image method but at this point don’t see any reason to try since it will prob run slow as heck.  so instead, i’m back to my dual booting XP/Vista setup.

been thinking about a few of the mods i want to do w/my new phone (that is once i get a replacement and verify that it works fine since my mods will nullify the warranty).  so far these are the mods i plan to do (given the phone is CID36 not CID49; the RMAd W810i was a CID49 so i may be limited on what i can do w/the filesystem and UI hacks).  glad i held onto my buddies dead K750 so that i can use those parts w/my W810i. i love how sony ericsson phones are so moddable! now if only they could get rid of that WSOD; however i think the problem i had w/my phone was mainly because it was really not a NIB phone (phone had signs of wear and tear; the camera lense had a nasty coating on it and the memory card slot was broken and the LCD display was not properly centered; i could see light on the side of the lcd). so hopefully get that back soon.   here’s the mods list i want to try:

-housing mod:  going to use K750i camera cover side, replace all black buttons w/silver K750 buttons

-software mods: complete overhaul of UI (black/orange brushed metal style) and Walkman player.  Possible camera and acoustic driver hacks (use drivers from K750, W800). I may see its possible to add the camera lense switch from the K750 (given there this is supported on the W810i, which it may not be).

and i’ll see if i can get tethering working too since i was able to get the non-existant VPN Internet plan from Tmobile (the $19.99 that doesn’t include wifi since who wants hotspot service to start with eh?).

i’ll be posting up some recipes to my hacks/mods later next week.  btw, if your a sony ericsson user, head over to my other fave SE hangout area: http://se-nse.com  some good SE fanboys/hackers over there.

peace

geek, fanboy, guides, osx86, handheld, modding, apple, mac, hardware, gaming, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

well, i figure its time for me to do a follow up post on my recent experience on getting Mac OSX 10.4.6 on my HP TC1100.  previously i was having some major problems getting OSX86 to install and to even boot after install.  sadly, my situation/experience has not changed in regards to getting OSX86 installed and running on my TC1100 tablet pc.

my installation will take over 5 hours to complete (if it does complete) but never boots.  i have tried using all of the known flags for darwin to see if that would speed up the install but none of them seem to have any effect (ie tried platform=x86pc and acpi, tried idehalt=0 and cpu=1, nothing seems to help).  i also have tried using a different install dvd (10.4.6 and 1.04.8, both JaS versions w/the amd/intel patches built in), different harddrive (since my 80gb died, but should be back this week), removed my 1GB memory and used only the builtin memory (512mb), removed the battery; again still over 5 hours to install and no luck on booting.

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geek, culture, tablet pc, osx86, applications, hardware, general gadgets, apple, mac, pc | 1 Comment »