The Broken Home Button

Many people encounter the situation where their iPod touch home button has broken. Some are lucky and still have it under warranty and can return it for a new one. Others don’t, so in order to fix their problem they must send in their iPod and practically pay for a new one in repair costs. I have finally figured out a way to bypass this process, Jailbreak your iPod and install SBSettings. “But Ryan don’t you need the home button to enter DFU and jailbreak your iPod?” Well I have recently learned of a new Jailbreaking process, BlackRa1n. BlackRa1n is super easy and super fast method to Jailbreak your iPod and “fix” your home button.

1. Go to http://www.blackra1n.com/ and click on the appropriate operating system.

2. Download the file and run it with your iPod plugged into your computer (Restore your iPod first to prevent any files from becoming corrupted)

3. Once the program has started a button will appear saying “Make it Rain” click this and the software will detect your iPod and sync to it (When I tried running this on windows vista the software would crash, use XP if that happens.)

4. Your iPod will then show a picture similar to the website. Wait for a bit and once it is done, your iPod will display the icon “blackra1n”

5. Tap on this icon and install Cydia. Once installed, run Cydia and let it update.

6. Once the updating has finished, tap the search icon and type “sbsettings” find and install this package

7. Once complete launch Cydia and search for “Close Button Widget” find and install this package

8. If all worked well, swipe your finger across the top of the iPod and a window will come down and a button called “Close app” is present. This is your new home button and will replace your now broken one.

So now you can enjoy your iPod without shutting it down to change applications, plus keep a couple hundred bucks in your wallet.

-Ryan (Tech guy)

Borderlands First Impressions

First of all let me start of and say that the TV commercials do not give this game justice. When I saw it for the first time it looked like a crappy game that had terrible graphics and would be one of those games that would be over advertised and would be a failure. Was I wrong, this game is fun and addicting to play. So I will break the awesomeness down just so that your brain won’t explode.

STORY:

The basic story of Borderlands is that your character is a treasure hunter looking for a legendary vault. And its contents would make who ever found it rich, famous, and have all things desirable. But its only a legend right? Wrong there has been tell that the vault is real, and you happen to be one of those individuals. But if you are looking for a deep story this is not the game for you. This game is intended for co-op between individuals.

GRAPHICS:

All of the graphics are a type of cartoon-ish concept art style which at first doesn’t seem that appealing or impressive but it really is. You can tell that each character was fully developed in their own unique way. Also the environment graphics follow the same style of art but still have the high quality aspects and features as you would see in a high graphics game.

GAMEPLAY:

The single player aspect of the game follows a similar game play of Fall Out in which you take quests from various sources, go out and complete those quests, turn in the quests and gain experience. And along the way various types of loot drops which can be picked up and used for your own benefit. Personally this system works great for the players and for advancing the story. It  will also work great for co-op multiplayer.

COMPLAINTS:

I am sad to say this but there are a few complaints. First of all the online multi-player has failed to work for me and my other friends playing on PC’s. Second, one of my friends has had several episodes where his game has crashed therefore losing the progress he has made.  We have yet to understand what the reason is .

Overall this game is awesome. It plays nicely and is very fun and addicting to play. If you plan to buy the game, buy a 4 pack on steam and split the cost between you and your friends therefore you save money and have other people to play with.

-Ryan (Tech guy)

Microsoft Tablet

Many people have anticipated the arrival of Apple’s tablet computer, but maybe they have been looking at the wrong company. Microsoft has released a series of videos displaying the abilities of their tablet computer Courier, and from what is displayed, I’m throughly impressed. This computer is running a completely new distribution of Windows that

greatly utilizes the features of the tablet. As shown in the movies, some of the hardware displayed are: 2 multi-touch (finger or stylus) vibrant screens set up side by side, a 3 mega pixel camera, wifi functionality and much more. The aesthetics of the device look awesome, its clean cut and seems to contain no wasted space. Also the graphics and layout of the operating system are fantastic. The movie shows the use of  a scheduler/calender, applications menu, and a contacts book, all of which have their own special features. For example, while using the contact book, the tablet can look up the location of somebody’s office, house, or store using Google maps.

Unfortunately I am only scratching the surface of this amazing piece of technology and I would throughly enjoy to use it in person. (Movie)

-Ryan Martin (Tech guy)

T-shirt Cannon

Everybody has wanted to build a B.F.G. This time it was my turn, so i built a T-shirt cannon to blow the minds of crazed fans and students. Once everything was made it ended up costing about $90. To build your own click here.

-Ryan (Tech guy)

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