Category Archives: Communication

How to activate iPhone tethering and MMS

Leave a reply

These instructions are for those of you who wish to tether your iPhone to your Mac.  This only works on iPhone OS 3.0 and 3.01 (NOT 3.1, yet).  Jailbreak or extra fees to AT&T are NOT necessary to make this work!

How to enable tethering:

  • Run Safari mobile web browser on the iPhone.
  • Visit the following Mobileconfigs website:  http://help.benm.at/tethering.php
  • Select your country.
  • Select your mobile service provider.
  • Tap Install to install new profile.
  • Select Install Now to download and install new profile.
  • On iPhone interface, go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet Tethering.
  • Set Internet Tethering to On.
  • If prompted that Bluetooth is off, select Turn on Bluetooth or USB Only according to your preference.
  • Internet tethering is now enabled, connect your iPhone to your Mac via USB or Bluetooth to start connecting to Internet through the iPhone as tethered Internet gateway modem.  While using this feature the top of your iPhone screen will glow blue to notify you tethering is active.

How to enable MMS:

  • Visit the following Mobileconfigs website:  http://help.benm.at/mms.php
    • Its best to visit on your computers browser, so you can reference the settings while entering them into your iPhone.
  • Select your country.
  • On your iPhone go to Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network
  • Scroll down to the MMS section.
  • Enter the data from the Mobileconfigs website in the appropriate fields.
  • Restart your phone.

To verify MMS is active, go to the Messages application, create a new message.  Next to text entry box, you should have a little camera button, where you can select a picture to attach to your message.  If not, something went wrong with your setup.

My visual voicemail stopped working after I enabled tethering.  Here are the instructions to fix visual voicemail:

  • Go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings.
    • NOTE:  Do NOT use the Settings -> General -> Network -> Cellular Data Network -> Reset Settings.  If you do this your tethering will stop working and have to be setup all over again.
  • After the short reset, iPhone should be able to be used for MMS, Voicemail and Internet tethering.

Sync your Facebook Fan Page to Twitter

Leave a reply

If you are a Facebook Fan Page administrator, here is a very easy way to sync your updates to Twitter.  Facebook-to-Twitter

  • Sign into your Facebook account
  • Go to http://www.facebook.com/twitter
  • Click on “Link a Page to Twitter”
  • Select the Facebook Fan Page you want to link to your Twitter account
  • You will be redirected to Twitter to authorize Facebook access (you may need to sign into Twitter)
  • Next you will configure the settings for what information gets sync’ed to Twitter
  • Your done!

Source:  http://www.theinternetjourney.com/social-networks/twitter-social-networks/facebook-twitter-fan-page/

iPhone MMS coming soon, whats the big deal?

1 Reply

With all the hype about MMS finally coming to the iPhone, I finally have to rant…

I’m sure most of you are familiar with SMS, a technology that allows you to send 160 characters at a time, that was first introduced in 1992.  MMS was the next evolutionary step, that allowed people to send not only text, but also pictures and/or audio, and is generally limited to 100-300 KB’s.  Email, on the other hand, allows you to send messages FAR GREATER in size and content.  Typically limited to 20-30 MB’s!

So why is it that people are so into TXT’ing and sending MMS’s?  Can you all see you are playing into the pocket books of the carriers?  They charge on both ends of the messages, sending and receiving.  SMS is typically 20 cents and MMS is typically 50 cents.  That means carriers get 40 cents per SMS and $1 for each MMS!  Outrageous!  Yet everyone can’t wait to be able to send them.

Whats even worse, are “smart phone” users who have unlimited data and email access, who STILL send SMS and MMS message!

I don’t think most people realize they CAN do email on their phone without a data plan.  Just about every carrier has what is known as a SMS or MMS to email gateway.  This means you can send a SMS to an email address, or receive email to your SMS capable device.  Here is a list of addresses to do this on the major carriers in the USA (number = your 10 digit mobile number):

AT&T:
SMS:  [email protected]
MMS:  [email protected]

Verizon:
SMS:  [email protected]
MMS:  [email protected]

T-Mobile:
SMS:  [email protected]

Sprint PCS:
SMS:  [email protected]
MMS:  [email protected]

Sprint Nextel:
SMS:  [email protected]
MMS:  [email protected]

A comprehensive list can be found here.

Screen Sharing hack for OSX

1 Reply

Here’s an easier way to share the screens of other Macs on your network. The screen sharing feature is just an application. It resides in /System/Library/CoreServices/Screen Sharing.app.  You can drag that to your dock for easy access.

If you launch it now, you will get a box asking you for the IP address of the machine you want to connect to.  But if you want to simplify things, you can use Bonjour to show you a list of all machines on your local network.  You will need to launch terminal and enter:

defaults write com.apple.ScreenSharing ShowBonjourBrowser_Debug 1

When you launch Screen Sharing.app you will be presented with a graphical list of computers available on your local network.

NOTE:  This functionality has been removed/broken in Snow Leopard!

Source:  http://www.macworld.com/article/131094/2007/12/screensharepower.html

Using Google Reader “Send To” with Gmail

Leave a reply

Here is how to use the new “Send To” feature, in google reader, to send items directly to a new Gmail email.

To set this up, go to Google Reader and open Settings. Select the “Send To” tab and click on the “Create a custom link” button.  Fill in with this information:

  • Name:  Email
  • URL:  mailto:?subject=${title}&body=${title}%0A%0A${url}
  • Icon URL:  http://mail.google.com/mail/images/favicon.ico

Example:

gr_sendto_gmail_example

Using Google Reader “Send To” with WordPress

2 Replies

Here is how to use the new “Send To” feature, in google reader, to send items directly to a new WordPress post.  (make sure to replace with your own domain name!)

To set this up, go to Google Reader and open Settings. Select the “Send To” tab and click on the “Create a custom link” button.  Fill in with this information:

  • Name:  Whatever name you want the action called in google reader
  • URL:  http://www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/press-this.php?u=${url}&t=${title}&s=${source}&v=2
  • Icon URL:  http://s.wordpress.org/favicon.ico?3

Example:

gr_sendto_example

via Using Google Reader “Send To” with WordPress | thingelstad.com.

Howto find the bundle identifier for VoipOver3g on iPhone

1 Reply

Problem:  So your paying AT&T plenty of money to use their slow, spotty, 3g network.  AT&T and Apple have gotten together to tell you what apps can and can NOT use 3g data.  One of your apps that you need to use anywhere is only allowed to access the internet via WiFi.

Solution:  Jailbreak your iPhone and install VoipOver3g via Cydia.  VoipOver3g will trick your apps into thinking they are using WiFi, when really only 3g is available.  To tell VoipOver3g which apps to allow you need to add the bundle identifier to the /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/VoIPover3G.plist on your iPhone.

How to find an applications bundle identifier:

  • ssh into your iPhone
  • cd /User/Applications
  • find . |grep appname
  • cd into the long folder name
  • cd in appname.app
  • nano Info.plist
  • find <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
  • key should be just below it: <string>com.vnetcorp.sipphone</string>
  • nano /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/VoIPover3G.plist  and add to list

Simply add that string to your /Library/MobileSubstrate/DynamicLibraries/VoIPover3G.plist, reboot the phone, and that application should now be able to access the internet over 3g!

How to send large files without email attachments

Leave a reply

Problem:  You want to send someone a large file but your email provider doesn’t allow attachments over a certain size.

Solution (in no particular order):

  • http://senduit.com/
  • http://rapidshare.com
  • http://www.mediafire.com/
  • http://www.filemail.com/

These service providers allow you to upload a file.  You get a web link to that file, which you can email or IM to the person you wish to download the file.  That person simply clicks on the link, and begins the file download.

NOTE:  Most of these sharing sites do not authenticate the downloader.  This means that if someone guesses the URL of your file, they too can download it.  While this is not likely, it should be something you are aware of.  You can add another layer of security by zipping the file with a password, or encrypting the file before uploading.