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Apple’s Mac OS X Lion out by summer?

What is Mac OS X Lion? It is Apple’s latest operating system. Apple is going to take the best features from the iPad and implement them into the Mac with the new Mac OS X Lion. The Mac App Store, which is also available on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, will also be a feature on Mac OS X Lion. The Mac App Store will allow you to purchase apps and they will appear right on the new Launchpad that is also a new feature. The Launchpad is similar to iOS devices because it allows instant access to your apps. The Launchpad icon is on your Dock and with one simple click on the icon, a full screen display of all your apps appears. You can arrange your apps anyway you like by dragging them onto different locations or even into folders.  Mac OS X Lion gives you the opportunity to use your apps on the full-screen. You can also swipe the trackpad to switch to another app’s full-screen window or back to the desktop. Mission Control is another feature on Mac OS X Lion that allows you to view all programs running on your Mac and even click it to get to that program. Multi-Touch is also more responsive.

Other new features include Auto Save, which automatically saves your work by saving the changes made on the document, Versions, which lets you revert to older versions of a document, and Resume, which lets you restart your Mac and return to exactly what you were doing before you restarted your Mac. For checking your email, Mail 5 allows you to view messages in your inbox and let’s you see a preview of it. It also introduces Conversations, which groups emails together of the same conversation. AirDrop allows you to send files to other people nearby that are using AirDrop also. Your Mac is also more secure with XTS-AES 128 data encryption at the disk level. FileVault encrypt your external drives too. Lion Server is also a new feature that helps you set up your Mac as a server and enjoy the many benefits that it has to offer.

Apple is currently getting ready to release a Mac OS X Lion update to developers that may be called “GM1”.  “GM” typically stands for “Golden Master”. This means that the product is complete, but there can be a lot of bugs and performance issues that Apple has to work on. The launch of Mac OS X Lion will be released sometime in the summer, but it depends on how fast Apple can get rid of the bugs and other issues.

Feel free to leave a comment.

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Uncategorized

Jailbreak iOS 4.3 Released

Monday night, after weeks of waiting, redsn0w 0.9.6rc9 was released. This is the first untethered, stable jailbreak of all iDevices running 4.3.1, except the iPad 2. For those of you not familiar with Redsn0w, it is a popular Jailbreak tool created by the iPhone Dev Team, a team of talented hackers who devout their time to jailbreaking every iOS on every device, the team that geohot (the maker of limera1n, another popular jailbreaking solution) was originally apart of. Redsn0w 0.9.6rc9 uses the exploit found by Stefan Esser, or @i0n1c on twitter, who hacked iOS 4.3, but felt that releasing the exploit to the public would just result in Apple removing it in 4.3.1. With the release of 4.3.1, this was no longer a problem, and redsn0w was released to the public.

 

Redsn0w is very simple to use, just update your device to 4.3.1, then open redsn0w. It will prompt you to find the ispw file, which, if you updated through iTunes, can be found in users/yourname/library/itunes/iPod Software Updates. It will build a custom ispw for you, and, after following the directions to put your device in DFU mode, you just have to sit back and watch your device be jailbroken.

The official version of Redsn0w can be downloaded here.

If you having trouble finding the right software to jailbreak with, try this interactive guide.

*Note: The Real Mac Genius.com does not condone illegal uses for jailbreaking (i.e. installing cracked apps), nor is responsible for any damages or loss of data that may be caused by jailbreaking.

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News

Rumor Roundup: iPhone 5

There are many people who are looking forward to the new iPhone 5. With a new Apple product on the look out, rumors are spreading like wildfire. One of the first rumors is that the new iPhone 5 will be made of metal, instead of the aluminosilicate glass used in the iPhone 4. Using metal for the back of the iPhone 5, added to the stainless steel band on the iPhone 4 would make the iPhone 5 completely metal based. Making the new iPhone 5 have a metal back would be much better than using the aluminosilicate glass for the back. The metal is more durable then the glass and wouldn’t shatter. The glass back would also add more weight to the phone and had stress-fracture issue due to sliding cases for the iPhone 4. With a metal back, the new iPhone 5 will be more durable and resilient. It would be similar to how Apple makes its Mac computers with a metal unibody. The metal would be thinner than the glass, so you can have a lighter feel to it. The iPhone 5 is most likely to follow the iPhone 4’s design and continue to have a flat back. There have been some iPhone 5 cases that were leaked to confirm this design.

There have also been some rumors that the screen will be 4 inches instead of 3.5 inches. The camera may also improve from a 5-megapixel to an 8-megapixel. Some other rumors are that the iPhone 5 will most likely be available in white, which is highly probably. The iPad 2 has dual-core A5 chips, so the iPhone 5 should also have it. One rumor that is very interesting is that the iPhone 5 will have NFC Technology, or near field communication technology. The iPhone 5 will use NFC to make your iPhone 5 act like a credit card. With all these rumors going around, you have to wonder, which rumors are true and which are false. You have to wait until the iPhone 5 launches to find out, which is rumored to be near June — September.

Feel free to leave questions or comments.

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Average Joe's Tips

How To: Restart Finder

 

You might be asking yourself why do I need to quit Finder? Well a reason that you might need to quit Finder is becasue you are trasfering a file or downloading a file and it freezes, so instead of shutting down your computer you can restart Finder. Restarting Finder is easy and there are multiple ways to do it. The first way to restart Finder is to force quit it by clicking  Command + Option + Escape.  The second way to restart Finder is by typing “killall Finder” into your terminal. This kills Finder which will then relaunch. Usually when you quit finder it will relaunch by itself, but not always, so if it dosen’t just type in “open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app.” For those of you who may be new to Macs Finder is essentially Windows Explorer for the Mac. It allows you to manage files, disks, networks, and applications.

Stay connected at my new twitter handle to stay updated 24/7 @TRMGaveragejoes and @realmacgenius

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Uncategorized

How To Mod an iPad 2 Case

The Smart Cover for the iPad 2 is by far more advanced than the original iPad Case with its slim design, magnets, and an auto sleep mode. It’s crazy that the cover for the iPad 2 is as much a marvel as the device itself. I’m actually surprised Apple didn’t brand it with its logo. Yet the one area where the iPad Case beats the Smart Cover is in providing full protection for the iPad. The Smart Cover lacks a back. It’s easy to see why this is so, and until a third party vendor comes up with something, your options are limited.

However, with a second cover and an X-Acto knife, you can have the best of both worlds. The TPU Thermoplastic Polyurethane Resin Skin Cover from Hand Held Items is a flexible, yet protective back cover. It’s advertised as a special type of material that won’t crack. That property can be used to combine it with the Smart Cover. Once you have the TPU cover, place it on your iPad 2. Mark on it where the magnets of the Smart Cover will attach to the iPad’s left side. Then, using the X-Acto knife, cut out the marked lines. The top hole will be the easier of the two, since for some reason, there is already a hole there. Snap the Smart Cover on and check how it fits. Adjust as necessary.

iPad 2 with Smart Cover and TPU case

The beauty about this mod is that the Smart Cover’s functionality is not imposed upon at all. It still folds nicely for propping the iPad 2 and will put it to sleep when placed across the screen. The iPad 2’s slim design is not compromised at all with a bulky case. The only downside is that you might need to pull the Smart Cover’s edge slightly to make it perfectly line up with the iPad 2’s side (though that might not be the case with some fine tuning). For those wanting to mod the TPU even further, a standard hole punch tool will provide a nice opening for the iPad 2’s mic on top.

The TPU comes in a variety of colors, though it looks like clear and a couple of other varieties are out of stock as of the publishing of this article. For $5.99, the price can’t be beat.

Take fully protecting your iPad 2 into your own hands.

Special thanks to Lorie Lee for the idea.