Currently, I’m using the Incase Slider (metallic) to shield my iPhone from scratches and drops. It’s served me when, but for 25 bucks… sure, why not. So I went to the website and I purchased the case pictured above. Click the “continue reading” link below to see my video review.

Grab a beer, kick back, and enjoy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

First, here’s what I was looking for:

After recently downloading a navigator application, I found myself struggling with where to keep the iPhone in my car so that I could see the navigation on the screen. I tried to put it on the dash where the speedometer was, but it keep sliding side to side or falling over. I tried holding it, but nearly got in a wreck.

I went to my local electronic store and found several “holders” for the car. All of which had little suction cups that I could stick on the windshield. At first thought, that would work great for me, but what about plane trips? I take a few plane trips a year and I don’t want to hold the iPhone up the entire plane ride. What about bike rides? Can’t really suction cup anything there.

Enter, the In Your Face flexible holder. This thing is perfect. It has a large clamp at the bottom allowing me to clip it to the review mirror, the ash tray (finally a use for that damn thing), the tray on the air plane, the handlebars on the bike. Basically anywhere that I wanted.

After checking the pictures and videos out at the site,  one of the key things I noticed was the swivel on the clamp. Most of the clamps all suffer from the same problem, they don’t clamp odd shapes. If you have a flat surface, you’re okay… but try to clamp it to a pole or something like that, and you’re screwed.

Not with this device though. This thing firmly grasps just about any surface. My other concern was with the holder for the phone. Some of the holders made you snap the iPhone in place, which is great if you don’t have your phone in a case… but I do.  I don’t want to have to remove it every time I go to put it in the holder.

No problem here, the sides expand so that you can put your iPhone, case and all, in there without any issues. It’s also wide enough to hold other devices like a PSP or several other navigation units.

Oh, and here’s another great feature… The flexible stand and ball and socket join on the holder allow you to move this thing into pretty much any position that you need. It’s long enough to reach where you want, but not so long as to not be sturdy.

This item is rock solid guys, it does exactly what it says it will do and with a $30 price tag, you can’t go wrong. They’re website was also easy to order from and I got the item within about 3 days. I got one for myself and for my wife, and I told several other iPhone owners about it at work.

5/5 – Definitely worth checking out.

P.S. It also helps to make a killer iPhone as seen in the picture above

**NOTE** Just for full disclosure, the makers of the product are sending me a free one. However, I bought and paid for one, made the robot, and wrote to them telling them how awesome their product is PRIOR to them offering me a free one (for my wife). They did this as a thank you for the support as they recently debuted their product. Had they not offered me one, my opinion wouldn’t be changed in the slightest.

Since no patch has been release the best option is to disable SMS. The people over at quickpwn have put together a quick guide for you. Here it is.

How to disable the SMS App

1. Jailbreak your iPhone using either purplera1n or redsn0w
2. Go to Cydia, search for OpenSSH and install it
3. Download an SSH client (WinSCP for Windows users and Cyberduck for Mac)
4. Make sure WiFi is turned on, go to Settings -> WiFi. Select your network and check your iPhone’s IP. SSH in to your iPhone using the iPhone’s IP. Login with the Username: root and Password: alpine.
5. Navigate to the Applications directory
6. Locate the directory named MobileSMS.app. Right-click and click on properties. Where it says Permissions uncheck all the options.
7. Click OK.
8. To test if you did this right, tap the SMS app on your iPhone and it should crash when you launch it!

If you’re not going to apply this method and you receive an SMS with a small square character, turn your phone off immediately.

I don’t even know why I still have cable. Well, actually I do. It’s because the wife likes the cable. She’s a freakin’ DVR ninja. If however I was single, I’d have already canceled my cable months ago. Between RSS bittorrents, Newsgroups, and online TV shows straight from the networks themselves or Hulu, why bother shelling out the extra money?

There’s a few problems with this setup though:

1. You have to have a PC connected to your TV. (which I suspect most people will have in the near future. I have a shuttle hooked up to every TV in my house)

2. Setting up a media center PC can be a bit of a pain in the ass.

3. Finding all those websites for online TV can be a bitch and might not look slick in your default vanilla browser.

Well, for the first two,you’re on your own. For the third one though, you can check out Mediafox. Mediafox is simply a download of portable firefox (no install, just unpack and run) version of firefox that has been tweaked with the media junkie in mind.

This handy tool has a theme and addons such as cooloris, foxytunes, as well as a fullscreen button. It also has a shit-ton of bookmarks for all your online TV needs. Check it out. It’s worth the download if you ask me.

Mediafox.zip

Apparently Microsoft has been working on an update for the 360, instead of adding more horsepower to the device, they’re giving it different functionality. I guess they got tired of Nintendo one upping them in the novelty department and decided to dish it back. They’ve developed a way to play games without the use of a controller.

The video makes it look really awesome, score one for marketing. However, if being a gamer has taught me anything, it’s to be skeptical of video game commercials. Too many times have I been burned by pre-rendered graphics and other awesomeness in the commercial that wasn’t delivered with the final product.

However, if this turns out to be as bad ass as the video makes it out to be, we could be looking at a Wii killer here.

I’ll let you check out the video for yourself after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kantaris Media Player is a more or less a skin for VLC Media Player. It does more than just skin though, it adds a few features to the player that are worth having. This player integrates Last.FM and Apple Movie Trailers to bring your media collection together.

Since it’s built on top of VLC Media Player, it can play pretty much any file without having to download any extra codecs. I’ve been using VLC for a while now, but I think I’m going to switch it up to this. Why not get the extras if you can keep the same core right?

Walk-through video after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I know I’ve told several of you that you need to be using newsgroups for all your warez needs, but some of you have yet to listen. In this post I’m going to explain why it is that you should be using newsgroups.

For those of you who don’t need any convincing and just want to see how to get going, check out the video after the break.

“I just use torrents, they work fine for me.”

True, torrents do work. Here’s a few drawbacks to torrents though that I know you have faced in the past.

1. Not enough seeders (download takes forever)

2. Always wondering if RIAA or MPAA is on the torrent with you, writing down your IP and calling your ISP

3. Your favorite torrent site keeps getting shut down due to litigation (where the authorities now how your IP listed as one who has downloaded from that site)

4. Waiting 4 days on Season 3 of (insert TV show here) and you get to 98% complete and the one asshat seeder bails.

Here are a couple of answers to them.

1. Just download popular stuff

2. Download some IP blocker do-dad and hope for the best.

3. There’s always another site. Spoof your IP somehow.

4. Track down that piece of shit and kick his teeth in.

or…

5. Just use newsgroups (the correct choice)

Newsgroups are not peer to peer. You download (only, no upload) files from a newsgroup server of your choice. This means that only two people are aware of what you’re downloading. You… and your newsgroup provider.

“But I don’t want to have to pay for anything!!!”

You don’t have to. You can download any one of a hundred free newsgroup clients and use your ISP’s newsgroup servers and download your stuff from there.

Why should you pay and for what?

1. Newsleecher. This newsgroup client is 29.95 a year and well worth it. This program will save you shit tons of time. Essentially it turns newsgroups into a google search for warez. I also repairs and unpacks all the files you download for you.

2. Giganews (or newshosting). These two providers offer decent retention, they will max your connection, and for 15-30 bucks a month you can download all the movies, music, games, and software you want. You get your money’s worth after the first game download.

Watch the video, then stop being such a joo and start using newsgroups. You won’t regret it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

They said that the site would stay open regardless, but really how long? And do you really want to be downloading from this sight knowing it has a giant target on it’s back?

This is why I use newsgroups. Typically when you use another method that’s not so mainstream, with a bit of a learning curve, you’ll be fine.

It’s only these mainstream and really simple protocols (ie. kazaa, piratebay, torrentspy, etc) that seem to get their asses handed to them. I know if everyone started using newsgroups, it would be the one with the target on it’s back. As of now though… not so much. Plus newsgroups are much harder to track down. You can’t take on the protocol itself and if you shutdown one server, there are literally millions of other servers out there that you could use.

Not to mention once you have the right tools, newsgroups are waaaay easier and faster than torrents.

Reconize… bitches!!!

I remember playing this game back in the day. Only I didn’t play it on the regular xbox, I played it on the original Nintendo!

I kind of like throwbacks to these old games, I just don’t think I’ll pay ten bucks for it :/