via Cult of Mac

We can’t deny it. No matter what smart device we have, there are those moments that cause the device to seize up and just become none responsive. Usually at the most inconvenient time.

Now you will not have to worry when it happens again. Here are two simple steps you should take if an app decides to crap out.

1. Press and hold the awake button. You should now see the shutdown screen.
2. Once there, release the awake button and press and hold the home button. Keep pressing until you are at the home screen.

Presto! Your frozen app is now closed and you can proceed.

This sweet jailbreak tweak comes from the same group that brings us the Siri Mic Colors. It is called Slate Siri Background.

To change the background of Siri, follow these steps.

• Open Cydia
• Tap Manage
• Tap Sources
• Tap Edit
• Tap the “+” icon and add the follow url: http://repo.technetec.com

Once the repo has been added to Cydia, you will be able to search for Slate Siri Background. Just install it, respiring, and you are good to go!

Want this tweak but haven’t jailbroken your iPhone 4S? Use this easy, simple guide to do so.

Are you bored with Siri’s default purple mic color? Yeah me too. If you have a jailbroken iPhone 4S, you are in luck.

Siri Mic Colors is a great new tweak for your newly jailbroke iPhone 4S. Once it is installed from Cydia for free, Siri will now flaunt some rainbow bling.

One cool thing about this tweak is that the colors change based on the intensity of your voice. But if rainbow is not your thing, you can just download single colors as well.

This tweak is not from a repository that come default with Cydia, you won’t find it by just searching. You are going to have to add a repo to Cydia. Here’s how.

• Open Cydia
• Tap Manage
• Tap Sources
• Tap Edit
• Tap the “+” icon and add the follow url: http://repo.technetec.com

Once Cydia downloads the packages, tap of the url. You will now see the color choices you can choose from and install.

Want this tweak but haven’t jailbroken your iPhone 4S? Use this easy, simple guide to do so.

The most anticipated untethered jailbreak ever has finally made it appearance just earlier today. This jailbreak is name ‘Absinthe’ and is very easy to use.

It is compatible with the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 running the following iOS builds:

• iPhone 4S iOS 5.0 – build 9A334, iOS 5.0.1 builds 9A405 or 9A406
• iPad 2: iOS 5.0.1 – build 9A405

Jailbreaking using Absinthe

• Download Absinthe – Mac | Windows | Linux
• Plug your device to the computer
• Open up Absinthe and click the “Jailbreak” button (if you have a passcode on your device make sure to disable it first)
• Let the device set and Absinthe will do its thing and proceed to jailbreak (this will take some time)
• Once the jailbreak is finished, your device will restart.
• When your device it booted back up, you will see an Absinthe icon on your homescreen. Click on it to automatically download Cydia from Greenposi0n website.
• Device will restart one more time

You should now see Cydia installed on your device. You are now successfully jailbroken. Do a little dance!

Troubleshooting:

There are some users (I did) that are getting a “Error establishing a database connection” after pressing the Absinthe icon. If you see that message, follow the directions below.

• Launch “Settings” and tap on “Network”
• Tap on VPN and turn to “ON” and ignore the error
• Reboot the device
• Launch Absinthe again

Another tip from @planetbeing:

Toggle VPN only AFTER Absinthe says it’s done, or it will not work. VPN SHOULD error and then reboot soon. If it does not, rerun Absinthe!

Related articles

• Jailbreak Away! Absinthe for iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Released (devchimp.com)

Have you ever wondered how to create “hidden” folders on your Mac? Granted it is not as easy as creating them on a Windows machine, but you can relatively easily create them on a Mac.

Check out this video for a demo.

To create a hidden folder via the Terminal app, type in the following code (replacing foldername with your desired folder name):

mkdir .foldername

To remove the hidden folder you made, type the following code in the Terminal app (replacing foldername with your folder name)

rmdir .foldername

iKeyboardRemote, a useful little Mac utility from Invictus Security, lets you control your iDevice from you Macbook. If you have ever hosted a party where you used your iDevice as the music source, you would agree that having to constantly having to pick up the device to skip those embarrassing Bieber songs that you kids listen to (not speaking from experience) is a pain.

You can completely alleviate that with iKeyboardRemote.

Pairing steps:

1. Mac : Click “Pair” button and see the “Wait for connection” hine.
2. iPad/iPhone: Select “Settings->General->Bluetooth”, you will find an avaiable Bluetooth keyboard which name is your Mac’s computer name.
3. iPad/iPhone: Select your Mac’s computer name item to finish pairing.

Usage:

• Click on media control buttons to remotely control your iPad/iPhone.
• You can also hit keyboard keys to remotely control.
• Use connect button to quick connect to paired devices. (SnowLeopard)
• Select connect button to wait for paired iDevice re-connection (Lion)

Features:

• iKeyboardRemote use F1~F12 for multimedia functions, please disable the F1~F12 hotkeys for your Mac.
• ESC: Home button
• F4 : iPad slide show / iPhone song album cover
• F6 : Lock button
• F7 : Previous song
• F8 : Play/Stop
• F9 : Next song
• F10: Mute
• F11: Volume down
• F12: Volume up

iKeyboardRemote is FREE from the Mac App Store.

Check out a demo after the break.

If you are wanting to add spacers to your OSX Dock, all you have to do is open up the Terminal.app and copy the code below into it and hit enter. Want more spacers? Just enter it as many times as you want spacers.

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'

Now they won’t show up until you force restart the dock. To do that, just paste this code and hit enter.

killall Dock

Have to many? Want to remove some? Just click and drag out of the dock. To move them around the dock, just drag to different location.

Check out the video how to after the break.

Here is a video that will show you exactly how to do that.

Note: This only works in OSX Lion with QuickTime X.

This allows you to select several emails and forward at once if you are using the Mac’s Mail.app program.

1. Open Mail and, in the list of messages, select those you’d like to forward. You can do this in the usual way by selecting multiple neighbouring items using Shift or selecting singular multiple items by holding down Command.
2. Open a new mail in the usual way and hit Option + Command + I. Voila, you should find the mails are attached one after the other, as if you’d chosen to forward them.

Related articles

• Top 10 Tips Of A Mac Master [OS X Tips] (cultofmac.com)
• The Make-Over Features Of Mail In OS X Lion [Mac] (makeuseof.com)
• Sparrow – Improvement from Mail.app? (lostincolonisation.com)

With Android, you can create shortcuts to your most used settings, even create widgets to place on your homescreen. Apple on the other hand, does not allow that. That is unless you jailbreak your phone.

Once you jailbreak your iOS device, you have the capability to customize pretty much everything. But what if you do not want to jailbreak? What if you just want a little icon for your iCloud backup setting so when you click it, you will be directed straight to that settings page?

Jeff Broderick’s Settings

Jeff Broderick is a UI/visual designer, who created this really nifty solution for non-jailbroken iOS users. Using his Settings web app, anyone can add shortcuts to various popular settings, and access them quickly without having to dig for them each and every time.

There are not real widgets but rather just shortcuts so they are not 100% perfect but are pretty handy. So let’s see how they work.

Setting up the Shortcuts

Direct your Safari browser to http://brdrck.me/settings. From there, you will have a selection of the most used settings. Just select the one you want to install.

Some shortcuts have alternate icons you can choose from and some only have one. Once you select an icon, select install.

You will then be directed to the settings menu where you will install the configuration profile. Tap install to proceed.

You will be prompted to install profile or cancel. Tap install now.

If you have a passcode set up on your device, enter it.

The setting shortcut will now install. Tapping one of the shortcuts will automatically lead you to the specific place in the device’s setting where you can change it.

Removing Shortcuts

If you choose that you do not want a shortcut anymore, you can remove it from your device. Now of course you can remove the shortcut from your homescreen like other apps (by long-tapping the icon and then X, but that doesn’t completely remove it.

Remember when you were prompted to install the configuration profile? You will have to delete it also.

Just go to your phone settings (tapping the gear icon) and then select General.

Scroll down to Profiles and tap that. You will get a list of all the profiles you have installed.

Select the profile you want to remove and then tap Remove.

The shortcut is now complete removed from your device.

Important Side Note

This currently only works on iOS devices running iOS 5.0.1. It seems that Apple has blocked this functionality in the current developer iOS 5.1 beta 2.

If you are currently running iOS 5.1 beta 2, you can downgrade to 5.0.1 and they will then work like a charm.

What do you think of Apple’s decisions regarding iOS’s flexibility? Do you wish you could do more things, or is this whole flexibility thing overrated? Share in the comments.

Related articles

• Get quick access to iOS settings with IconSettings (macworld.com)
• CameraLocker for iOS 5: Always Show the Camera Shortcut (callingallgeeks.org)
• IconSettings Offers Quick Home Screen Access To iOS Settings (macstories.net)
• 10 Little Known iOS 5 Tips That Can Save You Time and Taps (shegeeks.net)