Bug in the bedroom TV

As I mentioned a while back I got a new TV for the bedroom. I'm pretty pleased with most of it, the picture quality - which is the most important feature of a TV - is good although the viewing angle is only acceptable.

So far I've found one problem that needs to be fixed. When you watch teletext the picture is automatically set to 4:3 ratio. This is not a problem in itself, but if you use teletext for subtitling the TV forces the image ratio to 4:3 even if it is broadcast in 16:9. Now its a problem. Unfortunately its not possible to override the image ratio to 16:9 while in teletext mode (or mixed mode).

I submitted a support issue to Philips today. It will be interesting to find out the quality of the support function at Philips. Unfortunately my expectations are low after having dealt with Fujitsu-Siemens support previously. I know its a different company and I hope I will be positively surprised.

Hacked iPod touch with 1.1.2

Once I start tinkering I can't seem to stop. Since the process of jailbreaking 1.1.1 was so smooth I figured I'd give 1.1.2 a go. Thanks to Erica Sedun at TUAW I found the tools I needed. The short version of the update process is this:

• Install OkToPrep on your 1.1.1 iPod Touch using the Installer app
• Connect iPod Touch to iTunes and upgrade to 1.1.2
  
• Wait.
• While waiting, download 1.1.2 jailbreak and unzip it
• Once the iPod Touch is updated close iTunes
• Double-click windows.bat in the 1.1.2 jailbreak folder
• Wait some more. I got an error message during installation saying the program couldn't detect an iPod, but it never stopped and kept on running. The process seemed to go on without problems.
• Once completed power down your iPod Touch by pressing the Home key and Power button simultaneosly for a couple of seconds. Boot it up again by pressing Power only.
• Once booted, the touch will reboot automatically and show two new applications on your Springboard: Installer and SSH.
• Now you have a jailbroken 1.1.2 iPod Touch and can go ahead and install the applications you want. All the apps you had in the jailbroken 1.1.1 are gone and needs to be installed again. If you want to add iPhone apps make sure they are for 1.1.2 and not 1.1.1.
  

The process was really straightforward, but if you have upgraded to 1.1.2 without having run OkToPrep first you need to downgrade before which makes the process somewhat more cumbersome.

Jailbroke my touch

The 1.1.2 firmware version for iPod touch just came out, but no significant updates (unless you count the possibility to add calendar events to your calendar). There should be a number of bugfixes, but I couldn't find anything really worth the upgrade. Oh, and since 1.1.2 AFAIK is not possible to hack unless you downgrade to 1.1.1 first you miss out on a ton of stuff.

So I decided to hack (AKA jailbreaking in iPhone/iPod touch lingo) my touch and go to 1.1.2 if the hack failed. It was a pretty simple process:

• Start the Safari browser
• Navigate to jailbreakme.com
• Follow the link to jailbreak the touch (this exploits a buffer overflow bug in the TIFF viewer)
  

Done. After that I had a new application on my start screen: Installer. With this I could now go on and install a bunch of other applications for the touch. First I added a fix for adding calendar events which got me on par with 1.1.2 functionality wise. I then went on to install:

• Mines, a version of the traditional Windows game Minesweeper
  
• Lights off, new puzzle game I haven't tried before
  
• Labyrinth, which works by tilting the touch - really cool
• MusicQuiz, the old iPod game
• Summerboard, a replacement for Springboard (the launcher application that handles the home screen), with support for themes - and a couple of themes as well
  
• MobileCast, supports podcast downloading over wifi without synching

Next I wanted a couple of the original iPhone applications. First you need to find a friend with the iPhone binaries. The install process was then somewhat trickier but still pretty straightforward:

• Install BSD utils, OpenSSH and Services (which allows you to turn on and off OpenSSH) on the touch (using the now familiar Installer app)
• Download and install WinSCP on your windows machine
• Connect your touch to WiFi, check its IP address in Settings
  
• Start WinSCP and connect to your Touch
• Transfer the applications you want and set execute flag (I couldn't do this for an entire directory, needed to select the specific application binary in the .app directory instead)

Done.

I now have an iPod touch with a couple of nice extra applications. Nothing essential, but good fun.

I'm still wondering what kind of bugs the 1.1.2 firmware fixed though - I still don't like the fact that playing music and browsing large web pages does not work in 1.1.1.