Inside the Mind of Suz

As someone who has run fan sites for a decade, and also is obsessed with their smartphone, being able to take video and put it on my device is extremely crucial. I think I just aged myself again! DOH!

I mean, how often do you see a video on YouTube and wish you could have it on your phone for easy viewing any time you like? Probably a lot, right? There are a lot of browser add-ons and tools that can help you download video, in various forms, but what happens when you want to move said files to your iDevice? (I’m going to concentrate on Apple since a lot of people, even if they have a Blackberry/Android phone, also own an iPod) iTunes probably tells you to pump your breaks and try again. Am I right?

Well, this is where the fine folks at ImTOO’s iPod Movie Converter comes in handy. I’ve actually used ImTOO products before, specifically their comprehensive Video Converter, and they are legit. The iPod Movie Converter will not only take your downloaded video and convert it to an iPod-friendly format, but it will also transfer it to your device for you, if you so desire! Easy peasy, right?

So, if you have a collection of downloaded TV shows, cat videos, movies, or anything lying around your computer, but would like to have them on your mobile iDevice, I’d give the ImTOO iPod Movie Converter a shot. Who doesn’t like multimedia tasks being made a little bit easier? Exactly. I’m pretty sure even my parents could use this, and that’s saying something!

I waited months to upgrade my iPhone to iOS5. I’m part of the Jailbreak Nation, so I wasn’t upgrading until there was an untethered jailbreak available. I don’t want to have to connect my iDevice to my computer every time I reboot. That’s no bueno!

So, with my freshly jailbroken phone running smoothly on iOS5, I decided to go ahead and set up my free iCloud account. Pretty neat! As someone who can’t afford to jump to all Apple products, I still own a PC, and we all know those things are prone to crashes and other random malfunctions that we don’t always know the cause of.

Previously, backing up your iDevice to your computer was the best option we could muster. But what if something happens to your computer? Looks like Apple took this into consideration with the inclusion of iCloud. It now routinely backs up your iDevice to iCloud for easy syncing and restoration whenever you need it! Read more »

I made a video, earlier this year, about my new cassette tape iPhone4 case, which may or may not have been the highlight of my spring/summer. It’s been on my iPhone4 ever since it came in the mail. For less than $2 shipped, it may have been the best purchase I’ve made in a long time!

Anyway, I was browsing my Tumblr dashboard and saw my next to case targets: old school Nintendo cases! In particular, the original NES controller case and a Game Boy case. FREAKING COOL!

When I first saw them, I was leaning towards the NES controller case, but after seeing the detail of the Game Boy case, I feel like I might want that one instead! Also, it appears to be Limited Edition!

All, I know is I will be getting one of these suckas! Maybe even both, eventually! My cassette tape case is such a conversation starter. I cannot tell you how many random people I’ve ended up talking to about my case. People love it! Want to know how much it was and where they can get one! I have a feeling it would be the same with a throwback Nintendo case!

I’ve got some eBay Bucks to spend, I think I’ll find myself a nice case over there! Off I go!

What do y’all think? Do you like having fun & unique cases on your phones?

So, it’s no secret that I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with my ISP and cable provider, Time Warner. Today added another chapter to the book.

I don’t know what’s going on, but there have been City of Columbus workers prowling our street and marking the electrical lines. I don’t know if they hit something they shouldn’t have or it’s Time Warner sucking as usual, but we haven’t had internet, or CABLE TV, allllll day!

Now, I’ve been watching my newly acquired “Best of the Cosby Show” DVD, but I also have my iPhone’s wonderfully fast 3G connection. This is the best part of us at least having full power. I can stay on my phone indefinitely. After a while, I got tired of typing on my little keyboard and decided it was time to get on a freaking computer!

So, I downloaded MyWi from the Cydia store and it has provided the entire house with a WiFi hotspot in which to connect to. My brother was going a little crazy too, so I figured I’d throw him a bone too!

Everything’s running smoothly as I write this post. I have a 3 day trial and then will be prompted to purchase MyWi. It’s so easy to use, I might just consider it. The only reason I wouldn’t, other than the $20 price tag, is that I only seem to need something like this in a power or internet outage. It happens rather infrequently. Decisions, decisions.

And yes, I know that our official carriers want us to use a special and overpriced tethering plan for situations like this. But those start at $20 per month and I don’t need this on a monthly basis. That would be highway robbery! If I only need to tether once every 3-4 months, there’s no way in hell I’m adding an extra $20 to my monthly bill, just in case. Now, if you’re one of those people who are constantly traveling or away from your usual connection, and need to tether a lot, you probably should invest in an official tethering plan. /disclaimer

Anyway, I thought I’d share my experience just in case my fellow jailbroken iPhone users find themselves in a similar situation! Who ya gonna call? Not the Ghostbusters, but MyWi!

This won’t be the first time I’ve mentioned the wonderful 3rd party backup app, PkgBackup, here. When reviewing competing app, iBye, I frequently compared the two products, with PkgBackup winning my endorsement. But all my previous dealings with PkgBackup dealt merely with the backup process. I’d never used it for a restore… That is, until Sunday night!

I upgraded to 4.3.3 (since I’d been on 4.2.1 since I got my iPhone 4 on NYE) so I could use the now-patched jailbreakme.com exploit. It was sooooo easy! If you’re thinking about jailbreaking — and you totally should — do NOT upgrade to 4.3.4. You can still jailbreak, but it’ll be a little more difficult. Visiting jailbreakme.com, prompts you to press a button twice, and you’re jailbroken within a minute. Seriously. Perfect for jailbreaking noobs!

But, on to my restore. PkgBackup put my stuff back on my phone rather quickly. After a reboot, my folders were back, with the apps already in them as before. My settings from the MyProfiles app were already applied, as well. I was amazed!

I had a bit of a snafu with restoring the AppStore app data. The data didn’t want to transfer over (which was probably due to user error, AKA me), but I ended up trading 4-5 emails with the developer, Jibril Gueye, who walked me through suggestions on how to get my data back on my phone. The data from my banking app, WordPress, photo editing settings, Awesome Note, and 2do are now all fully restored on my iPhone and things are running smoothly. And, mind you, this correspondence with the dev all took place within 24 hours; sometimes immediately after I fired off a reply! Now that’s customer service, folks. PkgBackup is worth the $7.99 price tag for that alone!

So, after finally performing a restore with the software, I still fully recommend PkgBackup to anyone and everyone who has a jailbroken iPhone. That doesn’t change with Apple’s upcoming iCloud. I’m guessing they won’t be backing up 3rd party data, so there will still be a market for this wonderful app. Do yourself a favor and get it now!

I’ve bitched complained about the lack of functionality of Tumblr’s iPhone app before. It’s just so, so, so lacking compared to 3rd party apps.

Well, today, Tumblr rolled out a MAJAH update to their iPhone app. It addresses a couple of the gripes I have, but ignored others, & then removed on really key feature!

The app now allows for posting from multiple blogs, but those are the secondary blogs already attached to your main account. I started one of my other tumblogs as a secondary, but couldn’t figure out how to blog (easily) from it using an app. I went back and forth from secondary blog to completely separate account a couple of times and settled on the separate account. Which is not supported with this new app update. So, that doesn’t help me there. I’ll still have to use a different app, if I want to blog mobile-y.

But, there is good! I like being able to see if any of my contacts are on Tumblr, and follow them. I don’t have that many contacts, but I can see others using that feature a lot. Seeing all your likes is cool too. LOVE THE DRAFTS MANAGEMENT! Now that’s what I was talking about! Before it was like they didn’t even exist. Bravo, Tumblr!

Back to the bad. WHERE IS THE SEARCH FUNCTION?! Now, I’m fully aware that I could just be blind and missed it. So, if I did, someone please direct me to it! If it really isn’t there, then it’s a step in the wrong direction. While the previous update left much to be desired, it STILL at least had a search function! I can’t even…

Anyway, for all the good, the bad is worse, IMO. Pretty doesn’t equal better, and that’s what Tumblr still hasn’t figured out. Don’t rest after this redesign, guys. You still have a lot of work to do!

If you’re a child of the 80s, like me, or just love all things retro, then you need to get the iPhone case that I’m currently sporting. I love it! And I always get the best comments/compliments on it. Great conversation starter!

I was scrolling through the “Changes” tab of Cydia today and saw a new app, titled DataDeposit.

It claims to backup your iOS app “save data” to Dropbox. Think about if you play Angry Birds and you’re really, really good. But then your iPhone craps out on you or you unknowingly update to the latest firmware. iTunes loads all your apps back on your iPhone, but not your awesome high scores! This is where DataDeposit steps in. (Jailbroken phones only) I’m not a gamer, but there are other apps I wish I could easily save the data from. Read more »

As a self-confessed Twitter app addict, I of course, jumped at the opportunity to check out a new offering. This was especially true, given the hype from beta testers as well as the reputation of the devs.

I’m talking about Tweetbot, by Tapbots, if you haven’t heard.

After opening the app & putting in my Twitter login credentials, my first impression was “damn, this is a beautifully designed app!”. It’s clear a lot of thought was put into the the UI design and I appreciate it. Previously, I thought Twitterrific was the prettiest iPhone Twitter app. No more. Tweetbot now wears the crown!

I read the MacStories review before I even downloaded the app, so I knew the little intricacies beforehand. Long read, but extremely helpful!

I’m not going to go into detail, but I will give a list of things I did & did not like about Tweetbot. At the end, I’ll tell you if it’s my HG Twitter app, which earns a spot on the dock. Read more »

Can someone please make this happen?

There are a million sweet iPhone apps; and I probably own 90% of them. They’re packed with extremely useful features that I’ve become extremely accustomed to.

It’s gotten to the point that when I open the Tumblr app, I expect to see those same features. But then become instantly disappointed, because they aren’t present in any Tumblr apps. I don’t know if it’s because the API doesn’t allow it, or simply that the really talented app devs just aren’t interested, but I wish that’d happen.

What am I really missing? There are overall Tumblr improvements I’d like to see, which would then, hopefully transfer over to any apps that are developed and/or updated. Read more »