Oldstone Place

RealBASIC is a cross-platform (Mac, Windows, Linux) development tool available in a trial version. Price ranges from ¥9,900 for the Personal Edition, to ¥118,000 for Real Studio.

FBtoC creates Mac OS X universal applications (Mach-O executables) from FutureBasic projects. FutureBasic is freeware.

Chipmunk Basic is an old-fashioned freeware Basic interpreter which runs on almost all Apple Macintosh computers. It uses a traditional command-line console.  Supported features on Mac OS X include color graphics, sprites, sound (including Quicktime MIDI sounds and morse code), speech synthesis, matrix ops, AppleScript, network sockets, pipes, serial I/O, and even some rudimentary OOP (object oriented programming) capabilities. Versions are available for System 6.0.7 thru Mac OS X 10.6, for systems from very old Mac 512Ke’s, up thru the latest Apple iMacs & MacBook Pros.

Mono is a software platform designed to allow developers to easily create cross platform applications. Sponsored by Novell, Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft’s .NET Framework based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime. A growing family of solutions and an active and enthusiastic contributing community is helping position Mono to become the leading choice for development of Linux applications.

Palm has launched a public beta of their IDE for writing Mojo apps for WebOS. The whole thing is browser based — it works in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox — and looks pretty slick.

Project Ares is the first mobile development environment hosted entirely in a browser, lowering the barriers for web developers to jump into mobile development.

If you upgraded your iPhone to version 3.1 and for some reason you want to rollback to OS version 3.0 or 3.0.1, here’s how.

1. Download the 3.0.1 firmware from here.
2. Connect your iPhone 3G or original iPhone to iTunes .
3. Switch off your iPhone by holding the power button for a few seconds, then slide when it tells you to.
4. Put your iPhone into DFU mode by pressing both the Home and Power On buttons for about 10 seconds.
5. When you see the Apple logo, release only the power button, and keep pressing Home until the USB – iTunes screen appears.
6. iTunes will say it’s detected an iPhone in Recovery Mode and tell you that you need to restore it. Click Ok.
7. Now press and hold down the Option key (for Mac) or Shift key (for Windows) and click on the Restore button in iTunes.
8. In the window that opens, select the firmware you downloaded. Usually this will be iPhone1,2_3.0.1_7A400_Restore.ipsw
9. You’ll get an error message at the end of the restore, probably 1015. Don’t worry, the next step will fix this.

How to fix the Recovery Loop:

I tried the Hackintosh iRecovery Package but it didn’t work for me. I had better success with QuickPwn.

1. Leave your phone in DFU mode and close iTunes.
2. Download and unzip QuickPwn22.zip
3. Run QuickPwn22-1.exe and wait for the message to appear. Don’t close the message yet.
4. Hold Power and Home for 15 seconds, then release Home and wait 2 seconds, then release Power.
5. The Apple logo will be displayed, then you should see a progress bar while QuickPwn does its work.
6. You can now exit QuickPwn and open iTunes.
7. iTunes will tell you set up your phone. You will have to set up your iPhone up as a new phone, or you can try to restore from backup if you have any backups at version 3.0.1 or earlier. You cannot restore backups of OS 3.1. I set mine up as a new phone even though I knew I’d have to re-enter settings for things like mail, Wifi, and various applications. Restores take a looong time…

Now that your phone is running 3.0.1 you can try tethering (Mac) or tethering with Windows, or see here for tethering with Softbank.

Enable Tethering with Softbank

1. If you are using iTunes 8.2 or later, then close iTunes and run the following command.
   For Mac users, open Terminal, and execute:
   

   defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE

   Or on Windows XP, open a Command prompt (Win+R, cmd) and run:

   "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe" /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1

2. Plug your iPhone into your computer via the USB cable
3. In iTunes, display the summary page of your iPhone
4. While pressing the Option key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows), click on the "Update" button.
5. Select the Softbank_jp.ipcc file.
6. iTunes will now update your iPhone with the modified carrier settings
7. Once finished, unplug the iPhone, go to Settings>General>Network, and enable tethering.
   
   

Have you ever wanted to be able to control your computer using your iPhone? Here are three methods to allow you to control your computer remotely.

LogMeIn

TechnologyEvangelist describes how to configure LogMeIn to allow you to control your PC with your iPhone. Essentially you change the LogMeIn Remote Control preferences to use HTML instead of ActiveX. It’s a little slow but it works. As the article says, it would be great if LogMeIn automatically selected HTML for iPhone users so you don’t get a slow connection when you log in from a remote PC.

VNSea

If you have jailbroken your iPhone, CNET shows you how to set up VNSea to control your Mac or Windows PC.

1. Install a VNC Server on your PC.
2. Jailbreak your iPhone if you haven’t already.
3. Use the jailbreak Installer.app or Cydia to install VNSea.
4. Launch VNSea and tap the Connect button on the VNC Servers screen
5. Enter a name for the session, followed by the IP address and password you configured in your VNC Server

When connected, tap the top of your iPhone screen near the time display to switch between interactive mode an scroll mode.

iPhone Browser with TightVNC

Natetrue at Cre.ations.net hacked TightVNC to let you use the iPhone’s Safari browser to remote into your Windows PC.

1. Download the application from the Cre.ations.net site
2. Extract all the files into a folder and run WinVNC.exe
3. Enter a password
4. Note your computer’s IP address and type it into the iPhone Safari address bar like http:///192.168.5.21:5800/
5. Enter the password and tap Log In
6. Select a window, or choose Full Desktop to show it all

The CenterStage Project

The CenterStage Project was founded in January 2005 by Neil Curry. In May 2008, Elan Fieldgold, who was working on the Mac OS X port of XBMC, left the XBMC project and started a new project called Plex. On July 13, 2008 Plex and CenterStage projects announced that they had teamed up, with Plex developers focusing on backend and the CenterStage developers working on the GUI. The new Media Center is still under development and currently only an alpha version of Plex is available.

Freevo

Freevo started up in 2002, and, as with the majority of other Media Centers, basic functions provided can be extended by plug-ins. Freevo is written in Python, which makes it easy for users to develop new plug-ins. This may also be the reason why many plug-ins are discontinued. Various plug-ins are bundled with Freevo, and they just need to be activated. Freevo offers so many plug-ins that it is almost impossible to know and use them all. Freevo runs on Linux, but there are reports of users using it on Mac and Windows too, though a certain degree of expertise is required to install it.

MediaPortal

MediaPortal is an XBMC fork started up in February 2004 by Erwin Beckers (also known as Frodo), who was actually one of the founders of XBMC in its early days. MediaPortal is built on the Microsoft .NET framework using C#, and supports a plug-in system and a skin engine allowing users to extend the base software. In 2006, MediaPortal released the “TV server.” For the first time users can now use multiple frontends for viewing and recording TV streamed from 1 or more TV servers.

My Media System

The project My Media System (mms) was started as “Mpeg Menu System” in the summer of 2002 by Anders Rune Jensen. After a half year of development, mms was rewritten in late 2002, and mmsv2 was released in January 2003. After four years, it was time for a new name, since mms had grown out of its mpeg-only output starting point and into a full media system. The new name, My Media System, was selected with overall consensus from the forum’s users. Versions prior to 1.1.0 do not support plug-ins.

MythTV

The MythTV project was started up in April 2002 by Isaac Richards. In early 2007 a book called “Practical MythTV” about MythTV and its installation was published. During this time, MythTV grew considerably, and is still growing today, supported by a very active community. There are several other projects which include a Linux distribution bundled with MythTV (“all-in-one” solutions) to make the installation, configuration and maintenance easier and faster. MythTV has a modular structure, so that what can’t be found in default modules is probably available using unofficial plug-ins.

Boxee

Boxee is a cross-platform freeware media center based on XBMC. Boxee includes social networking features enabling users to view, rate and recommend content to friends.

MythBuntu

Based on Ubuntu and MythTV, MythBuntu is designed to simplify the installation of MythTV on a Home Theater PC. It can be used to install a standalone frontend, backend, or combination of the two. All unnecessary standard Ubuntu applications such as OpenOffice, Evolution, and a full Gnome desktop are not installed for MythBuntu. Users who wish to do so can add a full desktop onto their installation after using the control panel. The development cycle of MythBuntu closely follows that of Ubuntu, with releases occurring every six months, approximately two weeks after Ubuntu releases.

KnoppMyth

KnoppMyth has been around since August 2003. It is a blend of Knoppix and MythTV. It is a Debian-based operating system using Knoppix configuration scripts and Knoppmyth-specific scripting that installs and configures the MythTV PVR software and a number of add-ons. Similar to MythBuntu and MythDora, the goal is to make the often complex installation and configuration of a MythTV-based Linux Home Theater PC system relatively easy and pain-free. KnoppMyth can also run directly from a LiveCD (i.e. without installation), providing there is a network connection to a PC with a ‘complete installation’ (a MythTV backend server).

MythDora

MythDora is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Fedora and MythTV. Like KnoppMyth and MythBuntu, MythDora is designed to simplify the installation of MythTV on a Home Theater PC. Unlike KnoppMyth, however, it does not run as a LiveCD yet. The work on a LiveCD is in progress at the time of this writing. Currently, the distribution must be installed on the computer in order to run. The project started in early 2004 as a pet project, with no real intention of going public.

MiniMyth

The MiniMyth project was initiated in 2003. It is a small GNU/Linux distribution that turns a diskless computer into a MythTV frontend. Originally, MiniMyth was developed to download and boot the root file system over the network, and run on VIA EPIA motherboards. It now supports local boot, runs in several new chipsets, and supports more MythTV plug-ins. MiniMyth was developed to run on a diskless computer. As a result, MiniMyth runs with its entire compressed file system resident in memory, thus requiring more memory than a typical MythTV frontend.

XMBC

XBMC initiated in 2002 under the name “Xbox Media Player” (XBMP); it was renamed XBMC a year later, since it was growing out of its “player” name and into a “center” for media playback. It runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, Xbox console and Apple TV. The Xbox version of XBMC has the ability to launch console games. XBMC is not produced, endorsed, or supported by Microsoft or any other vendor. As a result, XBMC for the Xbox console requires a modchip or softmod exploit to run. Apple TV also needs a patch in order to run XBMC. XBMC is a very mature Media Center project, and Boxee, Plex and MediaPortal are all forks from the XBMC project.

Neuros OSD

The result of a spin-off from Digital Innovations in December of 2003, Neuros Technology is a private company selling Neuros OSD, a set-top box running an Open Source firmware based on Linux. The next generation (Neuros OSD2.0) is part of the “Neuros Open Internet Television Platform”, a system aimed to bring the freedom of the internet to the people’s living rooms. It is almost ready for shipping, and will support HD.

LinuxMCE

LinuxMCE is also a Media Center. The best definition would be it is a Smart Home Entertainment Center. LinuxMCE started in mid 2006, initially as a fork of the PlutoHome system from Pluto Inc. to Ubuntu. It bundles MythTV with Kubuntu as the GNU/Linux distribution. It can perform light and climate control, manage home security systems with alarms and stream video to a mobile phone. It blends media center, home automation, telecom control and home security into a single unified user experience. Users can (optionally) control the user interface with a Gyro remote and 3 command buttons. Any peripheral connected replicates across to the entire house, and any media is also available house-wide. Presence detection is also available, and can be implemented with either Bluetooth or RFID technologies, to implement "Follow Me" functionality, so that media, lights, climate, and telecom follow the user throughout the house.

GeeXboX

With a tiny 8 megabyte ISO, GeeXboX can boot from a CD, USB stick, or the network and run totally in RAM. It comes with a utility called ‘generator,’ which allows for the customization of GeeXboX discs, including the possibility of adding custom media files, non-free codecs, extra themes and configuring a wide range of custom settings. GeeXboX can run on diskless computers, and there is an alpha version for the Nintendo Wii console. The project was started in 2002; by 2006 the GeeXboX and Freevo projects decided to work together, redefining a multimedia framework that could be used either as a standalone application on any GNU/Linux distribution or natively built-in with the GeeXboX project.