iPhone Carrier Editor - No Jailbreak (iOS 6)

A common misunderstanding among iPhone owners is that Jailbreaking is required to achieve any type of customization. While this was mostly true in earlier versions of iOS, the 6th release (iOS 6) has a nice handful of tweaks. CarrierEditor is one of my favorites; it allows the ability to stop advertising for you carrier, and chose your own logo as a replacement. As you can see pictured below, my phone is on BatSignal.

Hidden Apple TV Features

Apple TV is a wonderful little set top box with some powerful features. Here are four of my favorite hidden features. 

iSO 6 Live for Download

The much anticipated iOS 6 is now available for public download. Available either through iTunes with a connected device or over the "air" on you iDevice (Setting>General>Software Update).

Enjoy.

WWDC Reflections: Hardware

Over the last week and a half I have both drooled over and chewed on the Next Generation MacBook Pro announcement. This notebook is nothing short of remarkable and I would be lying if I said I did not desire one myself. However, the justification of the purchase price coupled with the how the hardware was designed, the satisfaction quickly wears off.

(Courtesy Apple.com)

The Retina Display

This is the reason to purchase this machine. With an incredible resolution, images and video will have never before seen clarity. The downside to this however is the applications that do not support the pixel density, they not going to look too hot until the developer gets around to an update.

(Courtesy ifixit.com)

All Flash Architecture

This flash storage setup coupled with the new Ivy Bridge processors is going to make this machine screaming fast. According to this independent YouTube Video boot time is under 15 seconds! 

Dropping the Legacy

(Courtesy of Apple.com)

The other main feature of the next generation MacBook Pro is the removal of all legacy I/O ports. What have come to be standard features on most notebooks have been removed in entirety from this hardware. The list of "missing features" includes: Ethernet port, FireWire, and (thought this would happen a while ago) Optical Drive. There are two other features that although not "legacy" will be missed from this device. First is a dedicated Audio-in port. Second is the simple battery charge indicator.

Putting it All Together is Where it Falls Apart

This computer's physical size is impressive enough; slap on the specs that Apple has built in and it is jaw-dropping. This computer was built to take on the most demanding of computing tasks in whatever location you want to perform them (I always prefer to work out of the office). There is no doubt that "Pro" is the name that suits this computer...But not for the reason in which Apple started the Pro line.

The Apple Pro line of computers (Mac Pro and MacBook Pro) where, and still are, designed for the professionals. The original feature that set these machines apart from the rest of the Mac line-up was the easy upgrade-ability. Though the easiness of this upgrading has taken a downward turn over the past few years it was still possible, until this next generation MacBook Pro. With the RAM soldered to the logic board and a proprietary cut SSD, what you buy is what you get. My advice, buy the fully upgraded version if this is the machine you want. Otherwise, you may regret it in as little as a year from now.

What are your thoughts on this new generation of hardware? Comment below.

Apple's Naming Convention - The New iPhone

Since the release of the Millennial Mac, there have been many iterations of both hardware and software. Along the way we have seen Apple's products grow in leaps and bounds in the performance spec department while keeping the familiar names: iBook, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro (okay, the latter hasn't seen much change). And since the release of OS X (the tenth Apple operating system) we have simply referred to it as the "big cat" names: Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion. All along the way, Apple has used a naming system that is both recognized and simple (unlike the Android phone names). There has however been an exception, specifically in the mobile device department.

WWDC 2012 - Predictions

Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) is right around the corner. The feature Keynote address is probably one of my favorite times of the year... actually any Apple Keynote event is great. With WWDC 2012 less than two weeks away the rumors are flying around the internet. These are my thoughts on the subject.

Tips: Wallpaper

Desktop wallpaper is one of the easiest changes to make in personalizing your computing experience. Depending on your taste, the default system wallpapers may be enough to satisfy your desired theme.

But wallpaper is not just for the desktop computer anymore.

All of our mobile devices now have wallpaper options and since the aspect ratio is nearly opposite of our desktops and notebooks, the choices for using a similar wallpaper on all platforms while keeping them aesthetically pleasing on each decreases.

My favorite site for high quality wallpapers is mantia.me. Not only are the graphics beautiful and of great quality but there is an optimized version for each device that I may want to us it on. On top of that, some of the graphic even include alternate images (the "Lego" wallpaper is a perfect example of this).

Where do you normally find your device wallpaper?

Did you know you can customize your device beyond the background picture? Check out these iOS tweaks that do not required jailbreaking.