Windproof Umbrella – Senz Original

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Sparking Silver Senz Original

I’ve had bad luck in the last couple of years with Umbrellas in Montreal (merde il pleut). The first double canopy umbrella I had was large, and worked great. I lost it at Mister Steer (which has amazing burgers by the way) and was devastated when I came back and it was taken. Next I bought a small umbrella on the go recently because it was raining a lot, only to lose it a couple of days later. Finally I bought one that has a feature that if the umbrella inverts it doesn’t break easily. However it is sort of broken after a really powerful storm rolled through town.

We are now getting more into the raining/snowing season, so I decided I need a new umbrella. After about five minutes of research on the net, I bought the Senz Original which can stand wind forces up to 100kph/70mph which pretty much makes it wind proof. According to the manufacturer it plays with the wind instead of fighting it. One really cool design point is the higher front which allows you to see in front of you. I can attest that’s an important feature to have in an umbrella since others almost always block your eyesight. So you can head on over to the manufacturer’s website to check the umbrella out (I bought mine on eBay) and watch the video of it in front of a wind tunnel below.

Update: I changed my order for the larger Senz XL.

Ps. I still really hate Internet Explorer, the backend of wordpress looks so squareish compared to Chrome, Firefox, and just about every other browser.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPVzNEFAaho

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Giveaway

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WinX Dvd Ripper Platinum

The always friendly people at WinX have let me know that they are having another giveaway for Halloween. This giveaway is for Windows and Mac, and you have about five hours left to download it (my fault, I’ve been behind as usual in dealing with emails). They usually extend the giveaways though, so you might be able to nab it later.

Head on over to their site and download it now! (really nice Halloween graphics)

Wanda’s Waffles Toronto

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Wandas' Waffles Toronto

If you are in Toronto, you need to stop by Wanda’s Belgian Waffles, and get your self a Belgian waffle. They are so good, I make a habit every time I come to get one. I always get a mountain of fruits, and top it off with Maple syrup. I assure you under those fruits is a waffle! You can check out Wanda’s at 361 Yonge Street or 599 Yonge Street, or check out their website.

Apple announces FaceTime for Mac

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FaceTime Mac OS X

Today at the Back to the Mac event Apple introduced a couple of new things, one of them being Facetime for Mac OS X. This means you can now use your Mac to make free phone calls to iPhone 4, iPod touch, and other Mac users. I find this really cool, it is a step up from skype, and is free anywhere in the world. You can download the beta today, and start using it.

I just tried it and it’s pretty cool, looks like they just ported it from the iPhone 4/iPod Touch and just made some modifications to the interface. One thing that I found annoying is that you can’t just type in a number or email you want to FaceTime with, it has to be in your address book, or in your recents tab. Other than that it works well! You do have to sign up for an account, if you don’t already have an Apple Id.

Apple introduces Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

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Mac OS X Lion

Today Apple also announced the next version of OS X; 10.7 Lion. If you ask me it takes some features from the iOS, however on the sneak peak page on Apple’s website, it does not mention any of the features I was wishing for. I have not watch the full keynote as it is not available yet. Who knows maybe by the time it arrives it will have it. I was hoping for the full GPU acceleration and some other features. Oh well, go to the lion page for more information.

How do blind people manage?

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On my way home tonight, I encountered a blind or legally blind man (not sure which) walking on the street. He asked me which street he was on. I answered Maisonneuve and he then asked how to get to Sherbrooke. I let him know the way, and had to tell him when the light turned green so he could manage. In Toronto they have bird chirping noises that help the blind find their way (if anyone knows how that works please comment), where as in Montreal they don’t (and most of the world). So it makes me think, how do they walk in the street and find their way everyday? I know that when you can’t use one of your senses the others are sharpened, however for navigation purposes sight is the most important part. It just made me thankful I have my sight. To top it off, when I got home and started watching CSI Miami (don’t ask) a witness to a murder was blind and just made me think, wow twice in one night? That is no coincidence, so appreciate your sight if you have it!

What to expect at the Back to the Mac event Oct 20th, 2010

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Back to the Mac.

Next Wednesday there is going to be a Back to the Mac event at Cupertino. They have teased the interwebs with this picture. Many claim that Apple wants to let you know that they are not just focusing on iOS devices (according to RBC though they are having a hell of a quarter thanks to the new iPhone 4), and that their Mac product line is just as important.

To start things off the rumor mongers have been saying that Apple might announce the next iteration of their OS X probably calling it lion as you can see in the picture above. To me this is a clear statement that the new operating system is not just a simple upgrade, and should have a slew of new features and optimizations. I feel that the gpu acceleration they wanted to introduce will make it into the cut of new features. Also hopefully a native 64 bit kernel that boots without the “6,4” boot trick. Finally when I had an SSD, I felt that OS X did not handle it well, and maybe it should implement TRIM or something like it. This news has got me so excited, and I just can’t hide it.

One More Thing… Apple Insider, Engadget, and all other tech blogs are reporting a hardware announcement. This hardware is the new Macbook Air which has been sized down to 11.6 inches and might run on a flash based memory called an SSD card. Hopefully they also announce a refresh to the Macbook pro lineup, and jump on ship for USB 3.0. Anyways this will all be happening at 10AM Pacific Timing on October 20th, 2010. So If I were you going to buy a mac in the next couple of days/weeks, don’t!

Suave HD iPhone theme

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Suave HD

Suave HD Battery Screen

Sauve HD SBSettings

I found this great iPhone theme thanks to my friend Andrew! It is made to work with the retina display, so it is very sharp. It’s is also one of the classiest themes I have seen. It reminds me of the realize theme. The cool thing is the creators of the theme as well as others online are creating more and more icons to try to accommodate for people’s different application usage. Head on over to the official site to download the themes as well as extras. I recommend you also install the Battery screen and SBSettings if you use that. They also have alternative icon packages for a lot of apps if the default one is not to your liking.

Suave HD Official site

1.To install the theme download “Themes+Icons” on the bottom of the page.

2.Extract (on macs you can not use Archive utility at this time because it does not read the zip file correctly and will result in an error).

3. SSH into your iPhone (if you don’t know how to do that you can follow these directions: Windows|OS X) I would also recommend you change the default password which is alpine. To do that SSH into your iphone using Terminal and type passwd, it will prompt you for your current password, alpine, then ask you for a new password.

4.Copy the Suave HD.theme folder to “/Library/Themes/”

5.Launch Winterboard and select the Suave HD theme. The battery screen folder also goes into this folder. However the SBSettings theme goes into “/var/mobile/Library/SBSettings/Themes” and has to be activated by running SBSettings, clicking on more, going into SBSettings Theme and selecting “iSuave”

Manfrotto 057 BALL CARBF KIT Q5

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057 BALL CARBF KIT Q5

While on vacation in Egypt a month ago, my sister asked me if she could keep my tripod since she got a new camera. I told her sure, I’ll just get a new one. This is the tripod I want to buy soon. It is the Manfrotto 057 BALL CARBF KIT Q5. The legs are made of carbon fiber, and features the MH057M0-Q5 pro ball head which allows the camera to move in free form allowing for angles not possible with a normal tripod. The moving head was the icing on top of the cake if you will. How did I find this gem? I was browsing the Manfrotto website for a tripod that would fit my needs, when I saw they have various social networking accounts. I clicked on the vimeo link and watched the video below and saw a demonstration of it. Then I quickly found it on the site. There is no word yet on the price, which I expect to be very high since it’s a professional line Manfrotto product, made from carbon fiber and magnesium, has the new ball head, comes from Italy, and waters your plants (just kidding). However I think it will be worth its price tag, as it should help take my photography to a higher level! Other than the product page there isn’t much info on the net about it.

limera1n jailbreaks iOS 4.1

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limera1n

Today Geohot released his latest jailbreak which releases most iDevices into freedom land. It will jailbreak iPhone 3GS (Old bootrom only at this point) , iPod Touch 3G, iPad, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G on iOS 4.0, 4.1 and claims also to jailbreak future official releases. According to Engadget, this release has angered the Dev team. After reading the story I do understand why, however it’s still funny that there is jailbreak politics. At this point it is windows only, so either fire up Bootcamp/Parallels/vmware fusion/VirtualBox or use a pc. It uses the same way to jailbreak as back in the day by holding the power and home button to enter DFU mode. Anyways I already jailbroke my iphone 4 running 4.1. At this point the only complaints I have were that initially limera1n and Cydia had white icons, but after updating Cydia everything is back to normal. Now I can reinstall my paid applications in Cydia! Below is the link to the limera1n website.

Update: I saw a user that landed on my site from google searching on how to use Cydia on iOS4.1 after installing limera1n. I’m assuming (s)he couldn’t figure out how to install Cydia. To install Cydia after you jailbreak, open up limera1n and tap on Cydia, then tap the Install button on the top right of the screen.

Limera1n