Have you had an iPhone for months and never thought of hacking it? Have you taken a new unit just recently and you want to open it up to homebrew right away? If the answer is yes to both, this is your chance to find out how exactly to become part of the Apple homebrew community. We've prepared a series of guides that will have you primed and ready for this wonderful craft. Read on and get started by Jailbreaking your handset!

Remember when we told you of stuff that the Apple TV is doing that it's not supposed to do: i.e., running Apple TV on a MacBook, and getting the Xvid to work on the Apple TV? Those are only some of what you can do with the help of this extensive tutorial from the Tutorial Ninjas.

The Ninjas made it clear that doing the stuff they specify will have to require you to put apart your precious Apple TV. If you get over that quite iffy part, you will be able to do the following stuff:

• Disable the Firewall
• Enable SSH & VNC
• Playing xvid/divx encoded stuff
• Stopping Watchdog
• Running Applications(Firefox, Centerstage, etc)
• Installing Quartz

All you need is a computer (preferrably an Intel Mac), a torx 10 and a torx 8, a way to hook up a 2.5" hard drive to your computer, and a method of SSHv1 into a box. But remember: you're on your own when you start breaking apart your hardware for these mods; albeit the steps that the Ninjas provided, available on the "via" link below, can be very detailed.

So we told you before how the possible release of the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard this Spring could be delayed. It turns out that this rumor holds no truth. Apple has responded to these reports, saying that Leopard will be released this Spring as scheduled and not on October, as previously thought.

We all know how risky believing in rumors is, but sometimes it's nice to dream. We guess the worth of the rumor must always depend on the worth of the sources. There were a lot of clues that eventually pointed out a Spring release for the Leopard. Besides, it's always safe to stick with the official announcements from the Apple people themselves.

"The Efficient Mac User" at Low End Mac has listed 11 ways to optimize the performance of your Mac - whether it be a high-end or low-end unit. Yes, some items on that list are pretty simple and well-known, but they're all good basics that any Mac user should know, so we're putting them here as well.

The goal here is to save on RAM and processor resources - even by doing something as simple as turning off or removing unwanted applications and widgets.

QJ.NET also has a guide on troubleshooting OS X from July, 4, 2006 based on an article from Apple Matters. There is also an article on clearing up more hard drive space.

Remove unnecessary code. A significant number of recent software for the Mac are programmed to work with PowerPC processors and Intel processors. If you have a PowerPC processor and don't intend to migrate to an Intel Mac, or if you already have an Intel Mac, then you don't need the software code that lets your applications run on PowerPC! You can look for utilities like XSlimmer that will "slim down" the code on your software.

(For example, my friend Samantha has an Intel Mac, so she uses XSlimmer to strip away the PowerPC code in her applications - this makes her applications run faster. There's a bonus: it also reduces the size of the applications so she saves on hard drive space!)

Clean out startup items. Some applications entrench themselves in your Login Items folder, and that makes these applications automatically open each time you restart or login to your account. Go to Apple Menu > System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items to see a list of these startup items. Click on one item in the list and hit the minus button at the bottom of the list to remove that item. NOTE: Be careful about removing important or critical applications - just remove the ones you know you don't need.

Turn off Universal Access, Bluetooth, Speech Recognition, and Internet Sharing. If you don't use any of these, turn them off (go to the Apple Menu > System Preferences).

Clean out "Other" System Preferences items. While you're in Apple Menu > System Preferences, you can also remove Preference Panes in the "Other" section.

Know the build of your software. If you're using an Intel Mac, you may be better off upgrading your software or application (most likely there's a patch available online). For example, your software may be currently running on the Rosetta translator that lets PowerPC applications run on an Intel Mac. If your application has a patch that can upgrade it to an Intel or "universal" version, then your application won't need to call on Rosetta anymore.

Remove languages and translations. Utilities like Monolingual will remove language localizations that you don't need. As Ed Eubanks Jr. said in his article, chances are you're not using Catalan, Farsi, or Klingon.

More ways to optimize your Mac's performance - after the Jump.

   

So what would happen if you installed Vista on a Mac Pro and ran OS X alongside it? This is possible with the use of a hardware emulator, Parallels Desktop.

After discovering that Vista runs faster than OS X on an Intel Mac Pro, the guys at Gizmodo got curious about how the two operating systems would do when running side by side. They installed Vista on their MacBook Pro and waited to see what happens. It worked, but with assorted problems.

They encountered problems with Vista support in Parallels - describing it as "still quite developmental" - and Aero graphics which was explained by Parallels' inadequate graphics card support. Networking problems (the complete non existence of it) were also encountered. They tried getting a Windows Experience Index score but their plan to compare scores were botched by an error pop up window.

Parallels isn't perfect - atleast not yet. We'll see how it goes in the near future when Parallels updates their Beta. Stay tuned.

SEGA has announced the successful launch of Football Manager 07 on PC, Mac and Intel Mac on October 1. The demo for this football management simulation games by Sports Interactive is now available to download from the official website and will allow gamers to sample the first six months of a season.

The demo comes in two different versions for each platform, namely, Vanilla and Strawberry. For the PC and Mac Vanilla version, the file only includes English language and the English league, with no kits, no player photos, no sound and basic graphics. The Strawberry version for both PC and Mac, meanwhile, includes playable leagues from Brazil, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain and Sweden, as well as Danish, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese and Swedish languages, with all relevant kits, player photos and graphics.

The Vanilla downloads are 66.45MB for Mac, and just under 80MB for PC. The Strawberry downloads are 248.67MB for Mac, and 260.43MB for PC.

Football Manager 2007 is due to be released for the PC, Mac and Apple-Intel by October 20, with the version for the Xbox 360 to follow later, as well as the PSP version.

Apple finally released the latest update for Mac OS X 10.4.7 -- the Mac OS X 10.4.8 Update, also called "delta". Those who are updating from Mac OS X 10.4, 10.4.1, 10.4.2, 10.4.3, 10.4.4, 10.4.5, or 10.4.6  to 10.4.8 should install Apple's "combo" update instead.

Apple offers troubleshooting tips if your installation encounters issues. Basically, you use one of the two methods in updating to Mac OS X 10.4.8: The Software Update or the standalone installer.

The update addresses some important issues in the printing, Finder and other Apple applications, networking and modem, and third party software, and security among other things. It's a leap from the 10.4.7 version, especially when it comes to improving reliability and support with other apps as well as enhancing the software's general performance.

With the latest version, it's now possible to sync iTunes with other iPod models with less hassle. Furthermore, the external Apple USB modem has improved the connection reliability when faxing in France or Belgium. Issues with Microsoft Word's OpenType fonts, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, Canon EOS Utility and even with the TV Tracker 2 Dashboard widget have also been resolved.

Note that the update applies for both Intel- and Power-PC-based Macs. Download your standalone installer for PowerPC and Intel-based Macs here.

The Unofficial Apple Blog's David Chartier managed to get Microsoft Windows Vista running on his MacBook Pro in both a copy of Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp, and he has graciously made a tutorial on how to do the former.

According to him, Vista runs OK in Parallels Desktop. Just plain OK, as opposed to "'really well' or 'it made an un-switcher out of me'." Mr. Chartier also reports that it doesn't seem to fully support high-end graphics cards yet, so it's still a no go on all of the fancy 3d effects, or what he calls "Translucent Everything TechnologyÂ? (TET)", that Vista boasts.

Click on the 'read' link below for the full walkthrough on setting up, installing, and running Vista on an Intel Mac via Parallels Desktop. The walkthrough also includes some things to watch out for as well as just how far the more-or-less Beta-status Vista software can be pushed.

Ever since the release of Apple's Boot Camp, Mac users have been able to use those Windows programs that just don't have a Mac companion. The only problem was the fact that you had to reboot your system to do it. CodeWeavers have changed that.

CrossOver is a program by CodeWeavers that allows Mac users to install and run windows applications natively on any Intel Mac. But it gets better: with CrossOver you don't even need a copy of windows.

We've mentioned CrossOver before but they have recently come up with a new version of the beta. If you're not into using experimental software, you'll have to wait for the official release. There's only one bit of sour news to report on this product: you're gonna have to pay eventually, but it's cheaper and easier than Boot Camp and a copy of Windows XP. By the way, before checking out the read link, keep in mind that right now it's only for a 60-day free beta.

Download: [Codeweavers' CrossOver 60-day free beta]

According to Market Share, Apple Computer's Safari browser is continuing to fight it's way through the Internet browser arena, taking on the likes of Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer to rise by 46% year-over-year. Safari remains the third most popular browser with Internet Explorer topping the charts and Firefox taking second place but the statistics are much in Safari's favor.

In August 2005, Safari's market share was 2.20 percent.  In August 2006, its market share comes in at 3.21 percent.  The rise from 2.20 to 3.21 represents a year-over-year growth of 46 percent for the month of August.  In July 2006, Safari had a 3.18 percent market share and experienced a 0.94 percent increase in just one month. Of course, as you will know the Safari browser is only available on Mac OS X, leading some critics to believe that Safari's market share is directly related to an increase in Mac sales.

Of course, Mac sales have increased, particularly after the integration of Intel-chips into Macs but what critics don't take into account are those who have switched from Firefox and Internet Explorer (especially after Microsoft stopped updating IE for Macs) to Safari as the browser has improved. Whatever the reason, Safari's market share is likely to increase again as browser developers feel the full-force of the Intel Mac.