a day in the life » mobile os x

iPod Touch 2.0 OS Now Available

nickganga — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:49:34 +0000

The iPod 2.0 software is now available on iTunes! I just hit restore and it popped up

UPDATE

I just connected my iPod Touch to my computer and upgraded it via iTunes. I didn’t have to buy the software update for the App Store or anything. It just works? I’m not sure why. I purchased the January Software update so this might be related to that. Any ideas cloud?

UPDATE: I just updated another iPod Touch and it worked!!

Mac Mini Sneak Peak

nickganga — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:37:29 +0000

Mac Mini, Phase 1

nickganga — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:14:41 +0000

Well, I am HAPPY to announce that Phase 1 of the MacMini in car server project has been completed. I have successfully installed the power supply and router for the MacMini in the BMW 325 Wagon Project. Sparing you the details of the project (those will come later), let’s go through the steps I went through today.

This project starts in the trunk of my wagon. Since the plan was to install the MacMini into the trunk of the vehicle, I started my expedition in the CD Changer/Satellite Radio compartment of the trunk. Since I do not have the CD changer or satellite radio, the trunk compartment has both connections waiting in the trunk. Each of the connections has two components: power and optical connection. For this project, I will not be using the optical connections but the power instead.

The power connectors (Brown & Orange+stripe) are connected to the plug as one, but can be separated from the kit. The first step is to separate the power from the optical block. Once the power has been separated from the optical block, I cut the power cords and attached quick connect adapters to the ends of the wires, for both the CD Changer and the Satellite radio connections. This provides me with power for both the Primary and Secondary power connections that come out of the Carnetix power inverter system. Once the power connector was separated, I cut the power cords and crimped on the quick connect ports.

Now that the power has been separated, I went ahead and crimped on the corresponding quick connect clips to the wires on the cable supplied by Carnetix.

Notice that all the quick connects are crimped on and ready to go. ?The next step for the install involved finding a 12V source that only came online when the car is in Ignition On mode. Luckily, there is a 12V power plug located in the trunk right next to the compartment for the CD Changer, et all. I connected the ignition indicator wire to the positive line from the 12V source.

This completes the power requirements for the MacMini + BMW system. Now that the power has been configured, there are two more steps to completing the phase: the fon router & connecting to the aux audio input. Save that for Part 2.

iPod/iPhone uses SkyHook Location Services in Google Maps

nickganga — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:53:56 +0000

Now that Google Maps has made its way over to the iPod touch, the introduction a new feature called My Location has been introduced. Previously this feature was restricted to devices like the iPhone on a cellular network devices using cell antenna triangulation to determine location. With no cellular hardware in the iPod touch, how would My Location work? Enter SkyHook. Have you heard of SkyHook? SkyHook has gone to the streets of the US with vehicles similar to Google street view cars and instead of capturing images, captured wireless network information and precise geographic information about those networks.

To pinpoint location, WPS uses a massive reference network comprised of the known locations of over 23 million Wi-Fi access points. To develop this database, Skyhook has deployed specialized vehicles to survey every single street, highway, and alley in 2500 US cities, scanning for Wi-Fi access points and plotting their precise geographic locations. Source

SkyHook even has a Google Maps plug-in that will show you what areas have been scanned and are in the database. And yes, it works. Eerily well.

Video of Touchable Stacks!

nickganga — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:18:12 +0000