Monday, May 23, 2011

Adding Wallpaper to HTC Widget HD using iFile



The default wallpaper for the HTC Widget HD is just a black background. However, you can choose to insert your own wallpaper. This can entirely be performed using iFile:

1. Copy your wallpaper into this location 'var/mobile/Library/Springboard'.

2. Rename your wallpaper as 'HomeBackgroundPortrait.jpg'.

3. Respring.

In my case, I like the default wallpaper '100.png' (the one with the bubbles) and it can be found for my iPhone in the directory 'var/stash/Wallpaper.ajkUws/iPhone'. The screenshot is illustrated here.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Borowitz Report: iPad prevents adultery



New and serious "research" uncovered by the Borowitz Report dated 19 May 2011, says that iPad owners are less likely to commit adultery “because they stop noticing other people altogether.”




The article here, goes on to say that the study, which was conducted on a sample of one thousand iPad owners, found that not only did iPad use make them thoroughly uninterested in extramarital sex, “their nonstop talking about the amazing features and apps on their iPads made them completely unattractive to potential sex partners as well.”

Being an iPad owner, I was both agreeing and offended by the article. Firstly, I thought being less likely to commit adultery was a good thing. However, the article was extremely discriminatory towards iPad owners since it would apply to all Tablet owners, unless, it supposes that potential iPad owners were more sexually promiscuous than the average Tablet owner before they bought the iPad.

Secondly, my wife notices me less when she's checking her facebook updates on her Macbook. So obviously, you become less sexually interested also when you're (1) on facebook and (2)using your Macbook. Although, if you're checking your facebook updates of your ex-girl/boyfriend, that would be very suspicious so this is obviously something very difficult to factor into any experiment or research study.

Thirdly, the sample size of 1000 iPad owners is extremely small, given that there are many more iPad owners than any other tablet in the market. And being an Asian, I suspect that the sample size wasn't reflective of the global ethnic demography. However, having checked the chinese app market, the higher than average rankings of tintillating apps/ebooks suggest that being Flash-unfriendly was definitely necessary in keeping Asian iPad owners on the straight and narrow.

In conclusion, given that Mcdonalds is required to put up warning labels on their paper cups regarding the dangers of hot fluids, there should then be a warning that pops up at 30 minute-intervals of iPad usage, reminding every iPad owner not to forget to spend a few minutes stretching, talking to your wife and kids and petting the family dog.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Winterboard Alternative: PerPage Themes for iPhone 4



As you may already know, there are far more adventurous possibilities for theming your iPhone if it is jailbroken. Having been dissatisfied for some time with merely swapping wallpapers, I explored various theme packs on Cydia. This requires time and patience as some themes don't work well with other plug-ins. Recently, I've stumbled upon PerPageHTML, which is a very cool alternative to Winterboard for those of us who like to install cool themes for their iPhones.

PerPage is currently a free tweak in Cydia (although there is a paid version as well) which allows the installation of PerPage Javascript-based widgets on the SpringBoard. However, it is far more powerful than Winterboard because it allows the user to specify which page each widget would show up on. For example, as shown below, I've installed the HTCAniPPH perpage widget to display only on the Homescreen i.e. 'Page 1'.



This is useful because it allows other widgets to be installed on every page and with the paid version of the tweak, overlapping widgets can also be installed. In my case, this allows me to continue using my LockCalendar tweak for my Lockscreen.

For further tweaking of the weather locale in the HTCAniPPH widget, SSH or use iFile to go into the 'var/mobile/Library/PerPageHTML/HTCAniPPH/configureMe.js' and substitute the default weathercode at var locale = "SNXX0001". (SNXX0001 gives me Bukit Panjang). Your weather code can be found by going to www.weather.com.

Below are the weather location codes for Singapore as used by AOL Weather, The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Yahoo! Weather.

SNXX0001, Bukit Panjang
SNXX0002, Bukit Timah
SNXX0003, Changi
SNXX0004, Paya Lebar
SNXX0005, Serangoon
SNXX0006, Singapore

My icons are from the Winterboard theme 'HTC Froyo'.

PerPage has proved to be very stable on iOS 4.2.1.