Yes, I’ll be attending the Phoenix Comicon this year  May 24th – 27th, Memorial Day weekend. I’m pretty excited about it since this will be the first time I’ve ever gone to an event like this. I’m definitely looking forward to all of the creativeness that people have come up with for costumes this year.

Being a Star Trek fan, it will be exciting to meet some of the cast from the Next Generation including:

• Brent Spiner
• Levar Burton
• Marina Sirtis
• Michael Dorn
• Patrick Stewart

as well as William Shatner…

Tony Amendola, known for his role on Stargate SG-1 as Master Bra-Tac will be there as well and who wouldn’t want to see the original Incredible Hulk? Lou Ferrigno is supposed to be there as well.

Aside from the Star Trek cast and other TV & Film celebrities there will be plenty of other well known people from the Comic scene. Apart from that, I am looking forward to the events that are planned such as:

• Doctor Who Party Like a Time Lord
• High School of the Dead
• Steampunk Ball

All in all, this will be a nice 3 day vacation away from reality… Looking forward to it.

For more information about Phoenix Comicon and to purchase tickets, etc… go to http://phoenixcomicon.com

 

 

Screen Vault brings you a brand new innovative way to lock and unlock your Mac.

Remember the old combination dial lock on your locker from high school? Well, Screen Vault brings that same experience to your Mac. Using the rotate gesture of the track pad, you can use the combination dial to unlock your Mac with your personal 3 digit combination.

Don’t have a track pad or don’t want to use a combination lock? Screen Vault comes with another way to unlock your Mac. You can choose between using the combination dial and using a pass pattern to unlock your Mac.

The features don’t end there. Read below for a list of all of the features that come with Screen Vault

- Themes: Change the look of Screen Vault by changing the graphics and text using the built in Theme Designer.

- Unlock Options: Unlock your mac using a combination lock by utilizing the rotate gesture of your track pad or use a pass pattern seen on most Android phones.

- Sounds: Change the way you lock and unlock your mac by choosing your own lock and unlock sounds.

- Intruder Snap Shots: Screen Vault can be setup to automatically take snap shots of intruders when they try to unlock your mac with an incorrect combination or pass pattern.

- Intruder Video Recording: Screen Vault can be setup to automatically start recording the second someone tries to unlock your mac with an incorrect combination or pass pattern.

- Video Surveillance: Screen Vault can be setup to automatically start recording video as soon as you lock your mac. A useful feature if you want to know what’s going on while you’re away.

- iTunes Info & Controls: Control what song is playing in iTunes while your screen is locked or view information about the current song that’s playing. iTunes controls and info are widgets that can be turned on or off in preferences.

- Screen Vault Stats: View statistics about Screen Vault, including intrusions, last intruder snapshot, last intrusion time, your current theme, total up time, etc…

- Snapshot & Video Log: A built in log that allows you to easily view snapshots and video footage of intrusions.

Note About SnapShots and Video: These features will only work if you have a built-in camera.

Note About the Combination Lock: The combination lock only works with the rotate gesture and therefore requires a MacBook with a trackpad or a magic track pad connected to an iMac or Mac Mini.

For instructions on how to use Screen Vault please go to the Support Site.

 

 

 

Forget Quantum Physics and give the quantum theory of pixels a try.. Be careful though, brains have been known to explode with the following information.

 

Not sure how many of you have seen this video. I just stumbled across it on YouTube and thought I would share. Enjoy

Over time I’ve read many articles and comments about Mac’s vs. PC’s. The articles are mostly bias to one or the other and the comments are mostly the opposite. In the world of computers today, it is very difficult for someone to make an educated decision as to what platform is best for their use. There are so many factors to take part in the decision making process and in my opinion searching online for an answer makes things even more confusing for the average consumer. For the most part, a lot of people have their mind made up. Those who love Apple and their products will buy a Mac and those who have been raised on Windows will purchase a PC.

This article is not to persuade anyone that Mac is better then PC / Windows. This article is meant to educate and help people make up their own mind about what to purchase.

So lets first analyze the phrase, “Mac vs. PC” what does that even mean anymore?

Well, back in the day it used to mean a great deal when OS X (The operating system that runs on Mac’s) used to run on PowerPC’s which use a completely different architecture from Intel or AMD processors found in PC’s.

Today; MacBooks, iMac’s, Mac Mini’s, etc… all run on Intel Dual Core, i5, i7, etc… processors. You could go as far as stating that a Mac is a PC. Apple will never come out and say this, but yes, the Mac operating system runs on hardware that you could purchase to build a PC that will run Windows.

So what makes a Mac so different? Here’s the thing you have to remember when comparing a Mac to a PC. PC’s can be built using a variety of motherboards, processors, memory, video cards, hard drives, optical drives, etc…

What does this mean?

Without getting to technical, an operating system such as Windows, OS X, Linux, etc… is nothing but a bunch of code that was written and compiled to operate and recognize computer hardware.

Why does this matter?

Well, you could go anywhere online and start ordering parts to build yourself a computer and be pretty much guaranteed that you can install Windows on it after you’ve put it all together. Have you ever wondered why? When Microsoft Windows was written and compiled, it was done so that it would be compatible with almost any type of cpu, motherboard, video card, etc… you could throw at it. That’s great you think, Windows is compatible with anything which makes it easy to pick the parts you want for the computer you want to build. This is actually a bad think when you think in terms of optimization.

Because Windows is so very much compatible with so many different hardware combinations, it is very difficult to have an optimized operating system specific to certain hardware. On the other hand, there are many different distributions of Linux, Gentoo comes to mind that allow you to download the source code to the operating system and compile it to be optimized for the computer it is being installed on. This is no easy task.

Mac’s on the other hand, use very specific combinations of hardware which the operating system ( OS X ) is built around to have maximum optimization and utilization of the hardware being used.

So in short here are the 2 things you need to remember:

• OS X, the operating system that runs on Mac’s is optimized for the hardware that Mac’s are built with. Leaving less for compatibility and more for optimization.
• Windows, the operating system that runs on almost every computer is optimized to run on almost any combination of hardware leaving less for optimization and more for compatibility.

Due to the very many requests I receive asking how to burn XBox360 backups on a mac, I’ve decided to put together a guide. This will be a very detailed step-by-step guide. The guide will begin with the XGD2 discs and go on to cover burning XGD3 discs.

What You Will Need to burn successful XGD2 and XGD3 XBox360 backups.

• Latest iXtreme Firmware update for your XBox360

    iXtreme LT+ 2.0 Firmware (12.1 MiB, 772 hits)

• A DVD burner compatible with iXtreme Burner Max Firmware (Buy on Amazon)
  • Liteon iHAS124B = baseline model
  • Liteon iHAS224B = 124 + LightScribe
  • Liteon iHAS324B = 124 + SmartErase
  • Liteon iHAS424B = 124 + LightScribe + SmartErase
  • Liteon iHAS524B = 124 + LabelTag + SmartErase
  • Liteon iHAS624B = 124 + LabelTag + LightScribe + SmartErase
• iXtreme Burner Max Firmware

    iXtreme Burner Max Firmware (11.5 MiB, 1,632 hits)

• Verbatim Dual Layer DVD’s (Buy on Amazon)
• isoBurn 1.3 or later (Mac App Store) – to support burning XGD3 with the recently released iXtreme Burner Max Firmware. isoBurn 1.2 will still burn XGD3 discs but will force truncating of your ISO. isoBurn 1.3 has been submitted to the App Store for approval and should be available sometime this week if all goes well. There are already plans for isoBurn 1.4 that will have more features and functionality. 1.4 should be available at the beginning of next month.

What are XGD2 discs?

XGD2 (XBox Game Disc 2) is the original disc format used by Microsoft for all XBox 360 games. This format is basically the capacity of a Dual Layer DVD.

What are XGD3 discs?

XGD3 (XBox Game Disc 3) is a new format developed by Microsoft to help prevent piracy by using the extra layer of the outside of the disc basically increasing the capacity and therefore using more space then is currently available on all dual layer dvd’s on the market.

What is Truncating?

Truncating is a process by which the item being truncated is sized to a particular length. Taking a number for example 3.141592654. What if we only have 3 available boxes to fit this number into? By using truncation we could truncate this number down to 3.14, do we need the other numbers? NO we don’t. Does 3.14 change drastically because we’ve truncated it to 3 digits? NO it doesn’t.

When we truncate an ISO, all we are doing is cutting off the end of the file, most of it being meaningless data that is not needed. We do this to change the size of the ISO so that it can fit onto a standard dual layer disc.

A word of warning about truncating. In some circumstances the data being cut off while truncating contains important security information that is sometimes required for validation and could quite possibly get you banned from XBox Live. You should only use truncation as a last resort for burning XGD3 discs and when you do, make sure that you do not game online.

Layer Breaks

What is a Layer Break? A Layer Break simply put, specifies at which point on the disc, the first layer should end and the second layer should start. It has been my experience that you can set the layer break lower but not higher then what the maximum layer break supported by the media is.

Layer Breaks were first introduced to the XBox 360 scene when making backups became available. To burn a successful backup, you would have to enter a layer break that was different from the one that would be set by default.

Since we first started hearing about layer breaks several years ago, there hasn’t been much of a change, until recently. Microsoft developed a new disc format which would hold a slightly higher capacity then what is supported on all current Dual Layer DVD’s. With that came a new layer break.

It just so happens that this Layer Break is higher then the maximum supported layer break for current Dual Layer DVD’s. What does this mean? Well, on a Mac, if you try to set a layer break that is higher then the max supported by the media, the mac doesn’t know what it should do and will kindly give you your media back.

So how do we get around this issue? The very first fix was to truncate the ISO file since it was believed that the information at the end of the file was not relevant to game play. So to burn, you would truncate the ISO to the full size available on the blank Dual Layer DVD and then burn with the maximum supported layer break and your XBox360 drive firmware would take care of the rest. Keep in mind that this layer break again, was different then that used for XGD2 discs. So we are now at 3 separate Layer Breaks.

The most recent fix which seems to be the most successful is a firmware by iXtreme that will enable you to burn Dual Layer DVD’s at a higher capacity by way of overburning allowing you to use the correct layer break without having to truncate the ISO file. This method requires a special burner as well as the iXtreme Burner Max firmware.

So, what are the 3 layer breaks and when should you use them?

• Layer Break 1 – 1913760
  - This is the original layer break and should be used with all XBox360 backups that are not labeled as being XGD3 discs.
• Layer Break 2 - 2086912
  - This layer break can be used for XGD3 discs but only if you are truncating the ISO file to fit onto a Dual Layer DVD.
• Layer Break 3 – 2133520
  - This layer break can be used for XGD3 discs. ONLY use this layer break if you are burning with an iXtreme Burner Max firmware updated burner that can burn the full ISO file without truncating. If you attempt to use this layer break without the special burner, your disc will be ejected.

Media

So, what media should you use when burning XGD2, XGD3, backups? Let’s take a quick second and address this. Why? because this is where most people do not believe us when we say ONLY USE VERBATIM MEDIA. Do not attempt to use anything other then Verbatim. Verbatim has been proven to be the most successful when burning backups. So unless you want to burn coasters / have your burn fail have way through, have problems with verification, etc… buy Verbatim.

Let’s put it this way, if you post a comment asking why your burn failed and I ask you what media you are using, you better answer with. “Verbatim”. If you say anything other then Verbatim, I will not help you.

Let me also add… ONLY BURN AT 2X / 2.4X. Never Never Never burn any higher then 2X. If you are impatient and you can’t wait 45 minutes for a backup to finish burning, then go ahead, burn at 4X or even at 6X and watch your burn fail or experience glitches while playing, etc… Bottom line, the amount of time you would spend burning again and again because you are using crappy media and or using a burn speed that is set too high could have been spent playing the game had you used VERBATIM MEDIA and burned at 2X speed.

So, what Media do you use and what speed do you burn at?

• Verbatim Media (Particularly MKM-003) I’ve heard from a trusted source that they are much better because of the specific dye being used
• 2x

Burners

So what about burners? Can the internal burner on your Mac burn XGD2 / XGD3? For the most part, yes it can. I’ve tested backups on early iMacs and MacBooks as well as a Mac Mini without issues but with the occasional coaster of course. Why do the burns sometimes work perfectly and other times they don’t? It’s because the internal burners that come with your Mac are pretty much crap, its as simple as that.

So what can you do? You can try to go through the hassle of replacing your internal burner which is a real pain or you can go purchase an external burner.

The latter leaves you with a plethora of options, in an almost overwhelming way… Which burner should I get, there are literally thousands of different ones. I will make a suggestion for you and even provide you with a link to the burner you should purchase. This particular burner I am talking about will allow you to in conjunction with isoBurn, burn backups without having to truncate your ISO file. All you have to do is flash the burner with iXtreme Burner Max firmware and voila just like magic you have now turned your Dual Layer DVD media into a higher capacity disc, that now has just enough space to hold a full XGD3 format ISO.

So, what is this magical burner? There are several models that are compatible with the firmware.

• Liteon iHAS124B = baseline model
• Liteon iHAS224B = 124 + LightScribe
• Liteon iHAS324B = 124 + SmartErase
• Liteon iHAS424B = 124 + LightScribe + SmartErase
• Liteon iHAS524B = 124 + LabelTag + SmartErase
• Liteon iHAS624B = 124 + LabelTag + LightScribe + SmartErase

Burning XGD2 / XGD3 on Mac OS X Definitive Guide

The guides below assume the following:

• You’ve acquired an ISO file, either XGD2 or XGD3
• You’ve purchased isoBurn 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4
• You’ve verified your ISO file using abgx360 (Note: At the time of this post abgx360 is unable to verify XGD3 ISO’s)
• You have Verbatim media and understand that using anything other then Verbatim could result in bad burns aka coasters.
• You understand that you must burn at 2x
• You understand Layer Breaks and their differences
• You understand the difference between XGD2 and XGD3

Burning XGD2 / XGD3 with isoBurn 1.2

Note: isoBurn 1.2 currently does not support iXtreme Burner Max Firmware. You can still burn XGD3 discs with isoBurn 1.2 but the ISO file will need to be truncated which for the most part is not an issue. XGD2 games burn normally.

isoBurn 1.2, the version currently available on the Mac App Store is able to burn both XGD2 and XGD3 discs without issues. isoBurn will produce 100% playable backups.

To use this guide you will need the following:

• isoBurn 1.2 (Mac App Store)
• Verbatim Media
• An ISO of an XBox 360 backup

Burning XGD2 / XGD3 with isoBurn 1.3

Note: isoBurn 1.3 will not be available until it has been approved by Apple. isoBurn 1.3 fully supports XGD3 burning and is 100% compatible with iXtreme Burner Max firmware so it will burn XGD3 without having to truncate the ISO file. XGD2 games burn normally.

isoBurn 1.3, currently awaiting approval from Apple is able to burn both XGD2 and XGD3 discs without issues. isoBurn will produce 100% playable backups.

To use this guide you will need the following:

• isoBurn 1.3 (Mac App Store)
• Verbatim Media
• An ISO of an XBox 360 backup
• A burner flashed with iXtreme Burner Max (Optional – If you want to burn full XGD3 without truncating)

Burning XGD2 / XGD3 with isoBurn 1.4

isoBurn 1.4, currently available on the Mac App Store is able to burn both XGD2 and XGD3 discs without issues. isoBurn 1.4 fully supports XGD3 burning and is 100% compatible with iXtreme Burner Max firmware so it will burn XGD3 without having to truncate the ISO file. XGD2 games burn normally.

To use this guide you will need the following:

• isoBurn 1.4 (Mac App Store)
• Verbatim 2.4x Media
• An ISO of an XBox 360 backup
• A burner flashed with iXtreme Burner Max (Optional – If you want to burn full XGD3 without truncating)

 

If you have any questions that this guide doesn’t cover, feel free to ask. If you think any of the information in this guide is incorrect, please contact me and I will verify and correct the guide.

If you’ve read the entire guide and followed it word for word, number for number and you are getting coasters then you haven’t followed the guide word for word, number for number OR you may have a batch of defective media which isn’t likely but possible or your burner is defective which is more likely.

I hope that you all have enjoyed reading this guide as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Seriously, I’m probably the only person with a blog that hates writing.. haha.

Empoc, LLC today, released an update for QR Encode adding QR scanning functionality. You can read all about the features of QR Encode below:

Create and Scan QR codes for any need quickly and easily with QR Encode.

QR Encode is a QR code generator that makes creating QR codes a snap. Select the QR code you wish to create, fill in the information and click on preview.

QR Encode is now also a QR code scanner that uses your Macs built-in iSight camera for scanning. You can also use images of QR codes and drag them into QR Encode.

QR Encode comes feature packed. You can generate the following QR codes:

- Free Form Text
- E-Mail Address
- Website URL
- Phone Number
- SMS Message
- vCard
- meCard
- bizCard
- vCalendar
- Android Market Links
- WiFi for Android
- Google Maps Location

QR Encode will recognize the following QR codes for scanning:

- E-Mail Address
- E-Mail Message
- Website URL’s
- Phone Numbers
- SMS Messages
- VCard
- meCard
- bizCard
- vCalendar
- Google Maps

QR Code Scanning offers an import option for each of the QR types listed above to import the information into QR Encode

E-Mail Addresses and Messages have an additional option of being opened with your default e-mail client and will auto populate the To, Subject and Body fields if available.

Website URL’s have an additional option for opening the URL in your default browser.

VCard, meCard and bizCard have an additional option of being added to the Address Book.

VCalendar has an additional option of having the containing event added to your Calendar

Google Maps has an additional option of opening your default browser to the location within the QR code.

QR Encode supports exporting your are code in PNG format. QR Encode also supports full screen mode in Lion.

QR Encode uses an embedded Google Map to help you easily and interactively search for locations to encode within your QR code.

Additional features also allow you to change the foreground and the background color of the QR code as well as setting the size and the quality of the QR code.

Get QR Encode from the Mac App Store

Swipe Lock, released today by Empoc, LLC is a new app for Mac OS X 10.6 and later that allows you to lock and unlock your Mac in a similar way to the way you lock your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

You can grab a copy of Swipe Lock at http://swipelock.empoc.com

From there you can download the Demo of Swipe Lock as well as purchase the full version for only $4.99.

Swipe Lock, is not just a screen locking app but also allows you set various options. For instance, you can set which widgets you want to show on your screen when its locked, such as; a clock widget, an airport signal strength meter, a battery meter and a button to put your Mac to sleep.

You can also choose from various pre-made themes that change the look and feel of your locked screen as well as set your own image as a background image. What’s also cool is that for those of us with multiple monitors, you can choose which monitor the lock screen should be displayed on.

Further options include setting custom lock and unlock sounds. Setting passwords, automatic startup on login, and many more. Give Swipe Lock a try. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

Core Data iOS Essentials is quite possibly the best book I’ve read so far on Core Data. Core Data can be a tricky thing to master especially if you’re so used to using SQLite. The author, B.M. Harwani does a wonderful job at taking your through the world of Core Data as it related to iOS development. The book starts off by giving you a brief history of the Enterprise Object Framework (EOF) and Core Data followed by an entire chapter devoted to understanding Core Data. This books leaves very little to be desired with topics covering what Core Data is and how it works, how to build full featured data=driven applications for iOS devices, searching with Core Data, displaying your data, etc…

The book assumes some knowledge of iOS programming and encourages some tinkering with Core Data. If you don’t know what Core Data is and why you should use it in your application and you are needing to build an app that needs to store data in some format then this books is for you. If you have a need to store data, then you have a need to use Core Data and this book will teach you what you need to know to use it efficiently and successfully.

I’ve really enjoyed the section on Implementing UITableViewDataSources protocol methods. This section walks you through the basics of setting up a UITableView and using it with Core Data to display your data within your iOS app. The code examples are easy to follow and appear to be very accurate.

If you are planning on developing an app that needs to store data or are currently working on an app with data storage needs then please consider giving Core Data a try, together with the Core Data iOS Essentials book from Packt Publishing you should be able to build a pretty solid app.

Purchase from Packt Publishing

Have you purchased this book? What do you think about it? Is there anything you think that this book lacks that should have been added? I’d like to hear your comments

I’ve recently been able to read another book entitled Cocoa and Objective-C Cookbook. I must say, I am really starting to enjoy the Cookbook series from Packt Publishing. The Cookbook series provide you with quick and simple solutions to common tasks and issues. I particularly enjoyed this book since I am actively developing apps for Max OS X using Cocoa and Objective-C. There are many great books out there that teach you the fundamentals and there are plenty available that also teach you some of the more advanced programming skills. These books are great but are not very useful for everyday reference. Books such as the ones I just mentioned are often within the 500 page range and make it difficult for you to reference back to certain materials.

With the Cocoa and Objective-C Cookbook I found it very easy to refer to some of the simple every day tasks. It also does a very good job at taking you beyond just the basics and introduces you to some of the more advanced topics, such as, Core Animation, Pinch and Swipe, Keychain API, MySQL, SQLite and a few advanced debugging techniques and tools.

Cocoa and Objective-C Cookbook is written  in a straightforward easy-to-follow format and provides a selection of the most important tasks and problems with well organized instructions for solving problems efficiently. With right at 200 pages packed full of helpful hints, tutorials and code samples, I find that this is not a book that will stay on my book shelf collecting dust.

It’s a little difficult to explain who this book might be for, you may think, “I already know everything”, well, that may be true but its the little things that we forget. For instance, I know how to use NSTableView very well but when I started developing my application I totally forgot how to set the datasource. Well, with this book in hand, I was able to quickly find a page with an easy to follow example that got me up and running fast.

There are also a few things I didn’t know how to do, for example, I’ve never before used any of the pinch and swipe features. This book has a whole chapter that is devoted to Handling Events and explains the pinch and swipe very well. All in all, if you are a developer using Cocoa and Objective-C, you should own this book.

Purchase from Pack Publishing

Have you purchased this book? What do you think about it? Is there anything you think that this book lacks that should have been added? I’d like to hear your comments