Jailbreak an iPod touch

Murphy spent an evening hacking the iPod touch he got for Christmas. It should have taken about fifteen minutes but he glossed over some details on one step and overlooked a simple solution elsewhere. Be sure to read Adam’s disclaimers before proceeding. Here are some of Murphy’s observations on the experience:

First - I started with the Adam Pash post over at Lifehacker. It’s written using the word iPhone instead of touch, but there isn’t really any difference. Here are the basic steps to jailbreak an iPhone or iPod touch:

• Restore version 1.1.1 of the iPod touch or iPhone firmware using iTunes
• Go to the jailbreak website with the device’s browser - the application installer will be installed on your device automatically
• Run OktoPrep from the installer
• Upgrade to 1.1.2 using iTunes
• Run Jailbreak
• Install applications using the installer

The first stumble came with downloading the 1.1.1 firmware. The firmware file Lifehacker linked to has a zip extension and when Leopard-Safari downloaded it the contents were automatically extracted. That’s not what iTunes is looking for when you reset your firmware.

The solution was to right-click the link and save it using Download Linked File As… - problem solved. Then I just renamed the file, removing the zip extension. Read more »

Custom DMG Background Image - New Version

This was Murphy’s second entry in the Macinstruct tutorial contest. Murphy didn’t win anything. Maybe next year. If you want to check out the winning entries follow this link and take a look at numbers 26, 6, and 18. They’re the winners. Congrats!

We posted something like this last year, but this screencast does things just a little bit differently. Instead of showing hidden files in Finder to set the background image Murphy uses the ln command in Terminal to create a soft link to the image file. One advantage is that you don’t have to go back and turn off the display of hidden files when you’re done.

Murphy thinks this is a great way to send someone files - if you know the recipient is using a Mac. Using your company logo as a background can give your materials that extra touch that sets them apart.

Click here to see Murphy’s original custom dmg post.

NOTE:  This isn’t working the same way in Leopard.  I don’t have a solution yet.

Add Chapters Using Quicktime Pro

With Quicktime Pro you can add chapter markers to your movie and help viewers jump from one part to another with ease. The steps aren’t as friendly as iMovie - but you won’t have to import your video into iMovie either!

Apple has scripts on their web site that automate tons of Quicktime functions. If you didn’t think Quicktime Pro could do much check out the scripts. It’s amazing just how much this application can do.

That’s enough of the sales pitch. If you need Quicktime Pro chances are you already know about it.

The screencast is loosely based on this tutorial from the Apple site. But the Apple version says to activate chapters on the text track - which didn’t work for Murphy. In the screencast you’ll notice Murphy activates chapters on the video track. It could be an error in the Apple tutorial - or it could be a version compatibility issue.

Here’s a little more information on text tracks and Quicktime. Click to download the movie used in the screencast and a sample text file.

Note: Apple announced changes to the Macbook Pro line today. If you don’t need the very latest check Amazon. At post time they have some previous generation models listed with a $150 rebate.

Borderless Quicktime Playback

Making your movie play back without borders is a little simpler than creating a skin. All you need is a solid black image file, at least as large as your movie. And a text file. And your movie.

Why would you want to do this? That’s a good question. Maybe you want to play a movie back while you’re working and screen space is tight. Maybe you’re using a computer for some kind of demo kiosk and you’d like the video playing back as part of your demonstration. Maybe you’re a minimalist. Maybe you don’t want to do this…

To be honest, Murphy stumbled into this Quicktime behavior when developing the screencast for creating a Quicktime skin.

In the screencast you’ll see the text file is the glue that holds the movie and the image file together. To make your production portable you’d have to export it into a self-contained movie.

If you want to take this a little further see the screencast on Quicktime skins.

You can also download the files used in the screencast.



Indiana Jones Map Effect with Final Cut Express

You can make a map just like the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark - if you’ve got Final Cut Express. It’s pretty easy, but it probably won’t look like something out of Industrial Light and Magic.

However - you could always reduce the opacity of your map and lay it over tracks of whatever your real video covers. The reduction in opacity will go a long way toward hiding any defects in your effect.

Murphy created his map file in Photoshop and drew a red line from a starting city to a destination city. The red line goes on its own layer. Then the two layers are exported as png files. Final Cut Express will accept the transparency of your red line file.

Put the red line file on a track above the map file in FCE. Then you can use key frames to have the line file start with one edge cropped out of view. Set another keyframe later on the time line bringing the edge back to its original position. Final Cut Express will slowly move the edge during playback, revealing your red line. Confused? Watch the screencast.

Most effects can’t be keyframed in Final Cut Express. Toys like that are reserved for Final Cut Pro. But the items on your motion tab can be keyframed, which facilitates some fun stuff. If you don’t have Final Cut Express check out the Amazon discount. If you qualify for academic pricing you can get it for even less.

Check out this screencast to see how to make fake twins using Final Cut Express.