Gizmodo: tuaw

iPod Pictured Onboard Space Shuttle Endeavour

Haroon Malik — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:30:00 EDT

A TUAW reader has managed to spot an iPod onboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which is currently floating around in a giant vacuum. The hawk-eyed reader spotted the iPod from official NASA photos, which showed the device, barely visible, through a cabin window. Interestingly, iPods cannot be taken into space willy-nilly. In fact, the usual lithium battery must be replaced with specially designed alkaline alternatives to ensure safety standards are met. That seems like a lot of planning to us, which is part of the reason we won't be leaving planet Earth anytime soon. Another equally valid reason is because we are not qualified astronauts. If you are having difficulty recovering from the shock of this new information, please sit down and drink some water. Jump for a zoomed out shot of the space shuttle, which indicates the founder was either very bored or has awesome Superman-like eyesight. You decide.

Hit the link to learn of other galactic fantastic Apple iPods. [TUAW]

AFP Hack Gives Read/Write Access to iPhone, iPod Touch

Haroon Malik — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:50:00 EST

An iPhone hacker, known as Core, has managed to finalize an AppleTalk Filing Protocol hack that enables full read/write access to either an iPhone, or iPod touch, via Finder. Unfortunately, the work has just been completed, and as yet, it is not available via Installer.app. If you fancy trying it manually, you can find the complete instructions after the jump, courtesy of the great guys at TUAW.

To install by hand, use sftp to copy the tar file into /opt/iphone. Extract the archive on your iPhone or touch—the tar archive program is part of the BSD program; use tar xvf name-of-archive.tar—and run /opt/iphone/afp/startserver.sh &. The ampersand lets the program run in the background. (You will need to restart it after reboots.)
Once installed and running, go to Finder. Choose Go > Connect To Server, and enter the afp address for your iPhone, in my case afp://192.168.0.111. Just use the afp:// prefix with the local IP address of your iPhone. Enter your user id (root) and password (alpine) and your iPhone or iPod appears in the sources list for your Finder windows... To add new applications, just drop them into the Applications folder. To back-up your personal data, just copy /var/root/Library

To get cracking, hit the link to download the necessary file. Be sure to opt for the newer package, named afpd.with.registered.users.tgz. If you are not willing to get messing all up inside your iPhone or touch, wait a little while longer, as this awesomeness is bound to appear in Installer.app in the not too distant future. If you do give it a try, be sure to let us know how you get on. [Wickedpsyched via TUAW]

Free iPhone Ringtones from iTunes

Brian Lam — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:57:23 EDT

TUAW's post on how to rip the 30-second track samples from iTunes for use on an iPhone is evil, brilliant and I love it. The secret: export a playlist from the iTunes store, download the MP4 sample clips, and upload them using iFuntastic.

Stick it to the carriers who overcharge for ringtones of songs you probably already own! Not only is iTunes sourcing the ringtones, but the 30-second clips are generally the best parts of the song for ringtone use. I hope Apple rewrites the way ringtone sales are done the same way they made paid online music a satisfying experience, but until then, it's going to be a repeat of the Napster scenario. [TUAW]