Thanks to the industrious folks in PRC, iCosta introduces an additional input method for Jailbroken iPhone owners.

Even from firmware 1.0.6 the iPhone was already capable of supporting Chinese text but unfortunately even until now, that support is only to the extent of displaying text. Not input.

Add http://iphone.freecoder.org/rep into the list of Sources in your Installer app and iCosta becomes available for install. iCosta is touted to support all firmware versions and is a great solution for the Chinese writing iPhone owners who cannot wait for Apple Inc to provide this function natively.

After adding the source, select the correct version of iCosta fitting your iPhone's firmware from the Localization menu and you're typing Chinese on your phone seconds later!

Its confirmed. And official. Bowing to the ransom of understocked Turbo, Stealth and other similar SIM emulating hardware hacks is a thing of the past. Thanks to George Hotz, the iPhone firmware 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 can now be hacked and unlocked out-of-the-box (OTB). We say "hacked" and "unlocked" to indicate that the iPhone can both be Jailbroken and SIM unlocked.

This hack can also be applied by owners of the earlier generation of iPhones that shipped with firmware 1.0.2 and 1.1.1. Its long and tedious but rewarding.

In essence, most of the process involves breaking the iPhone down to earlier firmware versions, e.g. 1.0.2 of 1.1.1 and upgrading back up to 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 consecutively again. Be prepared to set aside a few hours of your life if you are looking to perform this hack. The exact time consumed is directly commensurate to the level of experience you have with hacking and unlocking iPhones.

Ok, now lets get back to making those Springboard icons... jiggle...

"George,... you da man!!" Many thanks on behalf of all iPhone owners alike..."

[edited: Mack] Unfortunately, after upgrading to firmware 1.1.3 you may experience the following:

• YouTube access denied; with persistent message requiring users to connect to iTunes with a live Internet connection and;
• the return of the CallerID bug where phone numbers appear instead of caller names as per your iPhone Address Book

Once again, the Mac developer community comes through to improve upon and already great product!! Before we go on, a big shout out and thanks goes out to Amrut Joshi!!

One of the biggest gripes for iPhone users was the total loss of the ability to perform the most common place SMS functions - the ability to Forward and Mass Send SMS. Amrut Joshi has provided a simple workaround in the form a third party app aptly entitled SMSD.

First, you need a Jailbroken iPhone then from there, find Amrut's SMSD on the Installer app and install it in your iPhone. But that's not all... most people stop here, launch SMSD and finds that it hangs and fails.

You'll also need to install Erica Sadun's Ulctl app that enables proper SMSD launch and operation. So, a big shout out and thanks goes out to Erica Sadun as well!! Erica,... you're a babe and we all love you!

With great apps and added functionality like this, it kind of makes you wonder why anyone would not hack their iPhone...

"Written for Jac, because she's feeling a little frustrated with her iPhone and feels like she 'lost' her Mac tech... cheer up bub!"

Related Articles:

• iPhone | SMS Face Off: Firmware 1.1.3 Native SMS vs Amrut Joshi's SMSD v.0.2.2

Thanks to the folks at Doomlaser, you can now add a prank Kernal Panic screensaver to your collection of screensavers. If you've been fortunate enough never to have witnessed a Kernal Panic personally - a Kernal Panic is, if you like, the Mac equivalent of a Windows Blue Screen of Death and usually occurs when there's a serious hardware/software failure on your Mac.

Every time an application is launched in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, an application icon representing the application usually appears in your Dock to indicate that its running.

Wouldn't it be nice, if there was a quick and easy way to hide the running application's icon away from prying eyes?

This little modification that can be carried out in a little under 5mins will not only keep snoops from finding out what's running on your Mac at a glance, but also recoup invaluable Dock space.

All you'll need is an installation of Xcode 2 Developer Tools and a little copy and paste work.

Granted Software has come up with something that ought to have been included as part of Mac OS X. Now, for USD$6.95, you can keep an eye on your peripherals. Including network devices that connect/disconnect to your Mac.

Utlising a floater window that flashes briefly in the center of your screen, Peripheral Vision, keeps you in the know on the status of your peripheral and network connections.

There's nothing like getting some work done in a room filled with Air Tunes and tunes coming outta your Mac portable speakers simultaneously. Does it get any better than this?

...Yes, it does.

Thanks to a freeware offering from Yellow Mug, Sizzling Keys empowers Mac users everywhere to do the one thing that makes the Mac a quick system to work with, without having to roll a mouse around or drag your fingers lazily about your portable's trackpad - Hot Keys.

Unlike Dashboard widgets; Sizzling Keys integrates directly into your Mac's System Preferences and operates system-wide, allowing you to control your iTunes without even making iTunes your active application. If that wasn't cool enough, it also displays a floater window whenever an action is performed and/or when your iTunes changes tunes. Displaying album art in the process!

Sizzling Keys includes Hot Key settings to put your Mac to sleep, activate the screensaver and lock your Mac. Upgrading to a Pro version unlocks the ability to set Hot Keys for skipping forward/backward and toggle shuffle on/off. As well as, toggle off the sponsors messages that appear in the Sizzling Keys preference pane of your System Preferences.

Great work guys!

Related Articles:

• Airport Express | Play AirTunes Through Your Mac And Multiple Airport Express Points
• AirTunes | -3256 Error Connecting To Multiple Speakers

Kudos to Alastair Tse, on his great effort to bring us closer to acquiring album art for our tunes. Whilst, Fetch Art is an effort to match album art from the Internet for your entire iTunes library; Alastair's Album Art purports to search the Internet for the album art of the song currently being played over your iTunes.

With a funky interface and the option to either add the found album art to only the currently played song or all songs within the same album, it definitely adds a new aspect to jam'in on iTunes whilst fast switching between Dashboard and iTunes.

Alastair has also kindly included yesasia CDDB servers in the selection of servers which his Album Art widget can scour album art from. Effectively, giving asian language music listeners a solution to finding album art for asian language artistes.

Alastair's Album Art is donationware, integrates and works seemlessly with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Apple introduced Front Row with the launch of its revised iMac G5 line-up. Featuring the Apple remote together with a built-in Apple iSight and its accompanying application, Photobooth.

Some reviewers and sceptics have compared Apple's Front Row efforts with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center, as being 'basic' or a copy of Microsoft's popular one-touch remote media center. But right now, we're not concerned with comparisons -- the main issue in contention is making Front Row available to the rest of us.

Although, Front Row can be downloaded as a free update to Mac OS X Tiger, during the install process it will verify that your Mac system is an 'approved' system, e.g. iMac G5 equipped with an Apple Remote, before continuing the installation. Effectively, taking away bragging rights from the rest of the Mac community.

Andrew Escobar has a solution and possibly the best tutorial on overcoming this slight hitch. Not only has he managed to hack Front Row for the rest of us, but he has also made it a snap to install with the help of Enabler 1.01.

Kudos to Andrew! Keep up the good work...

Disclosure: While the patches to system files are small, enabling Front Row with this process is not supported by Apple Computer, Inc. and may have unintended consequences. Install at your own risk.

Thanks to Ben Kazez and Nick Takayama you can now view iCal events and To Do items on your Dashboard. Not only can you view the entries but they are coloured co-ordinated to match your iCal entries!