Forecast’s Design

The Forecast application is built on top of the Foursquare application, so you will find many elements, such as the location page and the color scheme, very similar to Foursquare. To log into a location, simply click the orange “Forecast” button at the center. You can also check out the activity from the individuals you follow by clicking the “Activity” button on the left. The profile button is to the right of the “Forecast” button. The front page automatically shows the forecasts that you make. You can also click the “Check-In” page to show the confirmed Forecasts. The top right button allows you to add a friend or invite someone to Forecast.

How to Begin

To begin, simply click the “Sign in with Foursquare” button. After signing in, you are brought to the homepage. From there, you can check in by clicking Forecast. By clicking Forecast, you are sent to your most commonly checked in location, perfect for places that you frequent most often. If the location isn’t on the page, you can go to where it says “Search places” to find the location you are currently at. Once you find and select the location you want to check into, you can click “I’m Here Now” to check right in.

If you want it to forecast your next checked in location, then use the turn wheel to find the date and time you will be there and click the big orange button to forecast. If you want more information on the location, including a map, click the “i” right next to the location in the list.

The Features

Forecast revolves mainly around remembering to check into the location that you are planning on checking into in the future. This means that Forecast doesn’t do this automatically. There are many features in Forecast that help you to remember this, while still being logical in knowing that you may not always be there. Plans change, times move up or behind an hour. Forecast understands this and has a push notification feature that allows you to always remember your plans.

Once your forecast is scheduled, you will receive a notification once your scheduled time has come to remind you to check in. From that page, you can either check in or change the time and date. Another feature related to push notifications is the ability to see when your friends schedule a check in, great for scheduling meet-ups in the future. Once you see their scheduled check-in, you can also mark that you will be going to, like a digital RSVP service.

The Possibilities

The great thing about Forecast is that there are many possibilities with Forecast. When you look at it at face value, you can see it as a great way of not forgetting to check into your next location. Especially when I’m out with friends for the night, I may find myself enjoying my time so much, that checking in would be an after thought. However, I really am into Foursquare and building up my points. This application will definitely come in handy allowing me to continue to increase my points.

However, when stretching the idea a bit, we can see Forecast as a great addition to an informal event. Want to celebrate a new business deal or an upcoming celebration? If you have enough friends on Forecast, you can make a forecast and they will be notified by push notifications, almost guaranteeing a response. This takes out having to call each and every one of them, or even having to text. The possibilities of Forecast are endless. The service is free, and with a growing number of people switching to iPhone, you can find yourself with even more options. If you find a great use of Forecast, let us know in the comments.

The Conclusion

To conclude, Forecast is the perfect way of planning your check-ins for the future. In addition, as we see, Forecast is a great way to get a group of friends to have a night out in a short period of time. There are many times when i have to text friends to schedule a dinner or an evening out. Could Forecast be a great replacement of this? We must wait and see. The iPhone-only focus at the moment can hinder it’s growth.

In addition, Forecast seems too much like Foursquare to be an app of its own. Foursquare should look into partnering with Forecast and having a “schedule a check-in” feature implemented for the Foursquare application. Sort of like how we saw with the Starbucks application and the dedicated Starbucks mobile payment application. Forecast has the potential, we just need more users.

Forecast (iTunes link)

Here is a quick and easy way to fix this:

Open a terminal and add the repository:

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmcenery/ppa

Next, type the following command:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libimobiledevice1

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

After the upgrade, you should be able to sync your iPhone/iPod Touch (with iOS 4) with Rhythmbox

Source: Ubuntu Forums

Image credit: karindalziel

Remove all iFuse related files

If you have previously installed ifuse in your system, you need to remove it and its related files. If you did not install ifuse before, you can ignore this part and skip to the next section.

sudo apt-get remove gvfs-backends ifuse limobiledevice-dev libplist0 libplist-dev libiphone0 libiphone0-dev limobiledevice0 libgpod4 libusbmux0 libusbmux-dev gtkpod gtkpod-common

You also need to remove the jonabeck repository from your apt list.

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Delete the jonabeck PPA from the sources.list file. Save and close.

Refresh your system.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Installing iFuse (for Ubuntu Karmic only)

Add the iFuse PPA to your repository:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmcenery/ppa

Update your system

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If there is a need, restart your computer.

Install the relevant packages

sudo apt-get install gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-bin gvfs-fuse libgvfscommon0 ifuse libgpod-dev libgpod-common libimobiledevice-utils libimobiledevice0 libimobiledevice-dev libplist++1 libplist-utils python-plist libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libusbmuxd1 usbmuxd

Update: I have removed libiphone0 libiphone-dev from the above packages since they are not longer needed.

When the installation is done, go to System -> Users and Groups

Click on the key icon to unlock.

Click the Manage Groups button. Scroll down till you see the fuse entry. Select it and click the Properties button.

Check the box beside your username and click OK.

Close all windows and restart your computer.

You can now plug in your iPhone/iPod Touch and see it appears in your Rhythmbox and Nautilus.

That’s it. Let us know in the comments if this works for you.

Image credit: pennacook

iSofa is a Mac application that turns your Mac into a Web server. You can then access the web server from your iPhone/iPod Touch and remote control your Mac from your iDevice. it makes use of the Mac inbuilt web sharing feature and the automator scripts to achieve the effect. The concept is simple, the implementation is simple and the user interface is great.

Download and install iSofa.

Once it is installed, it will show a window showing the IP address that you can access from your iDevice.

Click OK. Your Safari will now pop up showing the iSofa admin page. This is where you can configure your iSofa’s iPhone interface. You can upload a background wallpaper, set a password for the connection, the IP/port for your Mac to listen to etc.

If you have make any changes to the connection IP and port, you need to restart the Web sharing service. Go to System Preferences -> Sharing. Turn off the Web sharing and turn back on again to restart it.

Next, on your iDevice, launch the mobile Safari. Browse to the IP address given to you earlier. You will be able to connect to the iSofa main page.

In the event that you cannot connect, it is probably due to the firewall measure that you have put in place. To solve this, go to System Preferences -> Security -> Firewall. Check “Set access to specific services and applications”. Make sure Web sharing is listed is in the box below.

Refresh your iPhone mobile Safari. You should be able to connect to your iSofa admin now.

There are several things that you can remote control with iSofa. For example, you can play iTunes music.

You can browse files on your iPhone.

You can also set alarm for your Mac.

Other features include

• Keynote Remote
• VLC Remote
• DVD Player Remote
• QuickTime Remote
• FrontRow Remote
• Screen wake up
• Screen sleep
• Screensaver launcher

iSofa background customization

Optionally, you can also customize the background of the iSofa interface to your liking.

Go to iSofa Gallery. Browse through the collection of wallpapers and find the one that you like one. Download it to your desktop.

In your Mac iSofa admin page, re-upload the wallpaper. Now, refresh your browser in the iPhone. The wallpaper will change.

Conclusion

Considering that it is free (with Creative Common license) and allows you to remote control plenty of stuffs from your iPhone/iPod Touch, I think that iSofa is a great app to have. It might not aid you in productivity, but it sure can allow you to laze in your bed while enjoying the music/video playing from your Mac. And yes, it saves you the effort to get out of your bed to shut down your Mac.

What uses do you have for iSofa and what other features do you hope to see in the future version?

If you are affected by the fact that your iPhone does not has the emoji function, don’t worry, here is a simple trick that you can use to activate the emoji iconset in your iPhone.

Go to the AppStore in your iPhone.

Tap on the Search and type in “spell number”

Install the application

From your Home screen, open the Spell Number application and  key in 9876543.21 (including the decimal point)

Exit the application.

Go to Settings. Navigate to General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards.

Scroll down to Japanese. Tap on it.

Swipe the Emoji option to ON.

Back to your Home screen, turn on your Notepad (or any other application that requires keyboard) and create a new note. On the keyboard, you should see a globe beside the Space button. Tap on it and it will display the Emoji iconset.

I am not sure how long will Spell Number stays free. In the event that it charges you for the download, there is another way that you can activate the Emoji icon for free, but it requires you to jailbreak your iPhone.

- Jailbreak your iPhone.

- Load Cydia. Tap on the Section. Navigate to Tweak -> Emoji.

- Install it.

You can now activate the Emoji icon via the Settings page.

The above tricks will work for iPod Touch as well.

What other iPhone tricks do you want us to cover? Tell us in the comment.

Yes, iPhone/iPod Touch does not come with Copy/Paste function and despite countless pleas to Apple to implement this feature, there is still no news that this function is going to be included in the future firmware upgrade.

Nevertheless, if you are willing to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch and void the guarantee, you still can get the Copy/Paste to work. For those who are yearning for the Copy/Paste function, here is how you can get it working on your iPhone.

1. Jailbreak your iPhone

2. On the home screen, you should see a Cydia icon.Tap on it to run the installer application.

3. On the Cydia main screen, navigate to Sections-> Keyboards Extension. You will find hClipboard. Tap and install it.

4. Once you have finished the installation, exit Cydia and go to Settings. Navigate to General ->Keyboard->International Keyboards. You will see the hClipboard function. Slide the button to turn it on.

5. Now, go to any text application (such as Note). On the keyboard, you should see a globe button. Tapping on this globe button will turn the keyboard to the Copy/Paste mode.

Now type some text on the Note. Go to the Copy/Paste mode. Tap on the first icon (on the right) to copy all the text. To copy only a portion of the text, first place the cursor on the starting. Tap the second icon. You should see a sentence “Select from here…”. Next, move the cursor to the end of the selected text. Tap the second icon again. The selected text should now be copied to the clipboard.

To paste the text, simply tap the entry on the copy/paste keyboard. To delete, simple swipe the clipboard entry to the right.

You can also save the copied text as a template so you can use it over and over again, without having to retype it.

That’s it. Enjoy the Copy/Paste function in your iPhone/iPod Touch.

Note: Another application that gives you the Copy/Paste function is Clippy. You can find it in the Cydia installer.

It takes advantage of the iPhone’s hardware capabilities using a pinch and slide interface for zooming in and out, as well as the accelerometer for tilting terrain in 3D.  Not only that – you can also check click on Panoramio and Wikipedia entries which are embedded in relevant locations within the map so you can check out photos and learn more about the area which you’re viewing.  All in all, this app is a MUST have for anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Check out the following video for more details.

Do you like Google Earth?  Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Free RSS readers on the iTunes app store are a dime a dozen.  Most of them however, are not worth even a second look.  So what IS the best way to read your news and get yourself up to speed on an iPhone?

Well one app clearly stands out head and shoulders over the crowd, and it’s Net News Wire for the iPhone.

It’s powerful.  It comes with a plethora of customizable options, which lets you completely customize your reading experience.  At the same time, it’s simple to use.  If you don’t care for customization, it works out of the box beautifully.  It even syncs up with your online newsgator account so the feeds you read on your laptop will be in sync with the feeds you read on your iPod.

The best part? *Drumroll* ….Offline reading.

While almost all other free RSS readers rely on a net connection to function, NetNewsWire will download the feed onto the phone so you can read it offline.  That way you never have to worry about having a decent 3G connection.  If you’re using an iPod touch, it is truly a Godsend to be able to read feeds offline because you no longer need a Wi-Fi hotspot to get your daily news fix.

Do you read news on your mobile device?  Tell us about it in the comments!

(This tutorial was tested using a iPod Touch 1st generation. I have not tested iPod Touch 2nd Gen, iPhone 2G/3G, but I guess they should work as well.)

Install Virtualbox

(skip this step if you have already installed Virtualbox in your system)

Add the Virtualbox repository to your Apt list. In your terminal:

gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the following line to the end of the file. Save and close.

deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free

Add the gpg key

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Update the repository and install Virtualbox

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.0

During the installation, you will receive a prompt to ask you to add users to vboxusers group.

click OK to continue.

You will then receive the next prompt to recompile the kernel for vboxdrv

click OK to continue, follow by Yes to compile the vboxdrv kernel.

When installation is completed, you need to add yourself to the vboxusr group.

Go to System -> Administration -> Users and Groups

Press the Unlock button. Enter your password and Authenticate.

Press Manage Groups.

Scroll down until you see the vboxusers. Highlight it and click Properties.

Check your username and click OK. Close everything.

Remember the Group ID (in this case, the group ID is 127). You will need to use it later.

Back in the terminal,

echo “vboxdrv” | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

to start the vboxdrv module during bootup.

Configuring the USB support

The following is to configure the Virtualbox to detect any USB devices that are plugged into your system.

gksu gedit /etc/fstab

Add the following line to the end of the file

#usbfs for virtualbox
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=GROUP_ID,devmode=664 0 0

Replace the GROUP_ID by the group ID that you have recorded just now.

Recompile the kernel USB support

In the terminal, type

uname -r

You should see something like this

Next, using the kernel information you just obtained, install the source code of the kernel

sudo apt-get build-dep linux-source-2.6.27
sudo apt-get install linux-source-2.6.27 build-essential

Once it is done, type the following to the terminal, line by line

tar -jxvf /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.27.tar.bz2
cd linux-source-2.6.27/drivers/usb/core
perl -pi.bak -e 's/16384/131072/' devio.c
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/ M=`pwd` modules
strip --strip-debug usbcore.ko
sudo install -m644 -b usbcore.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/core
sudo depmod -ae
sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot the computer.

Install Windows XP in your Virtualbox. (skip this step if you have already done so).

Connecting iPod Touch to Windows XP VM

Plug in your iPod Touch using the USB cable.

Ubuntu will detect it and ask if you want to open it with F-spot manager. Click Unmount

Next, open your Virtualbox and boot up the Windows XP VM.

Install iTunes in your Win XP VM.

Activate the iPod Touch by  going to Devices -> USB Devices -> Apple Inc. iPod

The WinXP VM should recognize the USB device and configure it for usage.

Open your iTunes. You should be able to sync it like you do in a native Mac or Windows environment.

That’s it.

Note: I have tested this with a iPod Touch 1st Generation. I have not tested this with iPod Touch 2G and iPhone, but they should work as well.

[Reference: Ubuntu Forums]

While you can use your iPod as a portable hard disk, Apple does not allow you to transfer files to/from your iPhone. Although there are several apps that allows you to copy files, they are no free solutions. If you have jailbroken your iPhone, you can customize it to connect to the desktop and copy files to/from your iPhone.

For those who have not jailbreak their iPhone, here is a tutorial on jailbreaking your iPhone the easy way.

For Mac users:

In Mac, you can make use of AFP to access iPhone/iPod Touch via the Finder.

To do this, you have to first install Netatalk via Cydia.

On your jailbroken iPhone, go to Cydia. At the bottom, go to Sections. Navigate to Networking -> Netatalk. Click install on the top-right corner of the screen.

Once you have installed Netatalk, on your Mac desktop, open up Finder, you should find your iPhone entry on the left pane, under the ‘Shared‘ section. Click on it. You should see a blank screen with a ‘Connect As‘ on top of the screen.

Click on the ‘Connect As‘ and enter the following:

Name: mobile
Password: alpine

For some reason that you can’t find the entry in the Shared section, you can go to Go -> Connect to Server. Under the server address field, enter afp://your-iphone-ip-address. Mine is 192.168.0.102, so I entered afp://192.168.0.102. (You can find your iPhone IP address on Settings->Wi-Fi->Your network connection)

The Connecting to Server window should open up, and then ask for your user name and password.

Fill in the above login credential.

That’s it! You can now access the iPhone straight from Finder!

Most of your personal files will be in private/var/root/Library or private/var/root/Media. And of course installing applications is as easy as dragging the .app into your /Applications folder!

For Windows users:

iPhoneBrowser is a windows based file browser for your iPhone. It features drag and drop uploading to our phone, automatic and manual backups of files on your phone, previews of text and picture files and very cool icons.

Download SetupiPhoneBrowser.1.7.exe from http://code.google.com/p/iphonebrowser/downloads/list

Run the installer on your Windows XP (May not work well on Vista).

Upgrade your iTunes to 7.7.1 (it works on iTunes 7.7 as well).

Open the iPhoneBrowser and connect your iPhone to the computer via the USB cable. The iPhoneBrowser should detect the iPhone and show the file structure on its screen.

You can now drag and drop files to the iPhone.

For Linux users or any other platforms:

In any platforms, as long as you have a FTP program, you can easily transfer files to/from the iPhone via OpenSSH.

On you iPhone, go to Cydia. Tap on Section on the bottom pane and scroll to Networking->OpenSSH. Tap on the Install button to install it.

On your desktop, open up your FTP program (it doesn’t matter which one you use. For me, I used Filezilla because it is free and easy to use).

On Filezilla, go to File->Site Manager

On the left, click New Site

Rename the site to ‘iPhone‘

On the right, enter the following:

Host: Your iPhone IP address
Servertype: SFTP – SSH File Transfer Protocol
Logontype: Normal
User: root
Password: alpine

Click ‘Connect‘

You will be shown a confirmation message asking if you will accept key exchange / connection with the device with the iPhone’s address. You’ll need to click OK for it to connect.

Connected mode:

Once connected, you will see the familiar Explorer-like navigation structure. Simply drag and drop the files to and forth the iPhone.

The QuickPwn is available for both Windows and Mac platform. There is a difference though. The Windows version of QuickPwn supports any 2.0.x firmware while the latest Mac version only supports 2.0.2 firmware. If you are using a Mac, you will have to upgrade your unit to the latest 2.0.2 firmware before you can use the QuickPwn tool.

The following tutorial will teach you how to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch on your Mac. The step for Windows will be the same.

Some points to note;

1) This tutorial is illustrated with an iPod Touch and assumed that you have already upgraded your firmware to 2.0.2.

2) If you have not, simply connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to your iTunes and select the ‘Download and Install’ option when it prompts you to upgrade your firmware. Make sure that your iTunes is of version 7.7 and above.

Step 1:

Download the QuickPwn for Mac from the iphone-dev site . This is a torrent file. So make sure you have a torrent client (such as Transmission) to download the program.

(The above link is only for Firmware 2.0.2. If you are using firmware 2.2 or later, check out the iphone-dev blog for the latest QuickPwn download link.)

Step 2:

Connect your iPhone/iPod Touch to your iTunes and perform a backup sync. Even though the jailbreaking process is relatively safe and shouldn’t break any data, it is still better to do a backup and safe guard your data. Sometimes, you just can’t trust technology.

Step 3:

Once you have sync with iTunes, quit iTunes completely. This will prevent iTunes from interfering the jailbreaking process. Unzip the QuickPwn_1.0.0.tbz using Archive Utility to a convenient folder (say your Desktop). Do not use any other decompressing application. You should see this red icon with a pineapple.

Step 4:

Double click QuickPwn to open it. A warning screen will appear. Once you are WARNED, click OK to continue.

Step 5:

QuickPwn will now attempt to identify your iPhone/iPod Touch unit. If you have not connected your iPhone/iPod Touch via the USB cable, do it now.

Step 6:

Once QuickPwn successfully identifies your unit, it will ask if you want to receive update on startup. There is no harm in doing so, but if you are uncomfortable with application running in the background, then choose No.

Step 7:

QuickPwn will now scan your Mac for the 2.0.2 firmware that you have downloaded and automatically build the jailbreak firmware. There is nothing for you to do in this step. Just let the application run on its own.

Step 8:

Once the custom firmware is built, you have to switch the iPhone/iPod Touch to DFU mode (aka Restore mode) so that QuickPwn can modify your unit’s firmware. Make sure you have closed your iTunes completely. Follow the onscreen instructions to set your unit to DFU mode. (This can be rather tricky. You might have to try a few times to get it to DFU mode)

First, turn off your device by pressing the Power button for 3 secs and slide the slider to the right to power it off.

Now, hold the power and home button together for 10 seconds.

Release the power button and continue to hold the home button for another 10 seconds.

Your iPhone/iPod Touch will now be in DFU mode. If it fail to reach DFU mode, unplug and reconnect your unit to your Mac and repeat the above procedure again.

Step 9:

QuickPwn will now send the modified firmware to your unit. There is nothing to do in this step except to wait.

Once it is done, it will show the reboot warning. At this moment, don’t touch anything on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Let it run and reboot itself. It will take around 3-5mins. Just be patient.

Your iPhone/iPod Touch should be jailbroken after the reboot. You should be able to see the Cydia and Installer apps on the home screen.

That’s it. Your iPhone/iPod Touch is now jailbroken.

In Mac, users can use the free application Senuti to copy music from their iPod to the computer. At the moment, only the beta version Senuti 0.50.2b7 supports iPhone and iPod touch.

The configuration of Senuti is easy and works out of the box. After installing, Senuti will prompt you where to save your music files and whether to add it to iTunes library. Once that is done, plug in your iPhone/iPod Touch and it will automatically detect all the songs/videos/playlist in your device. Click Transfer and the all the selected entries will be transferred to the computer.

In Windows, users can use the Winamp’s iPod plugin to achieve the same effect.

In Linux, it is more troublesome to sync the iPhone/iPod Touch with the OS, nevertheless, it can still be done via this tutorial.

Luckily, the iPhone/iPod Touch community has been working hard to crack the tough nut. The latest 0.3 version of iPhoneNotes allows you to do a transfer between your iPhone/iPod Touch and Mac.

It is not a true syncing, but a download/upload process. The application downloads the notes from your iPhone/iPod Touch, you make amendment on your Mac and it upload the edited notes back to your iPhone/iPod Touch.

To use this application, you will need a jailbroken phone. Luckily, jailbreaking is easy and you can do it in under a minute.

You will need to install OpenSSH to use the iPhoneNotes.

iPhoneNotes [via tuaw]