iPhone 3G software unlock coming?

According to the iPhone Dev Team, unlocking software for iPhone 3G units can soon be a reality.

A video produced by the team shows that they have gained access to the baseband processor used in the iPhone 3G. CNET says the "the baseband chip is what controls the connection between the phone and the mobile phone network, meaning that a software download that could let you use your iPhone 3G on a carrier network other than the ones officially designated by Apple could be released soon."

The original iPhone was unlocked within a short time from its launch but the 3G model has proven harder to crack. The baseband in the new model is more difficult to exploit than its predecessors.

Although it is possible to unlock the iPhone 3G by modifying a SIM card, there are no software-based unlocks available yet.

The demand for unlocked iPhone 3Gs is smaller than that of the original iPhone due to Apple's decision to release the phone all around the world and on many carriers. However, there are still places such as China that do not have official iPhone carriers and where mobile phone users want iPhones.

How to use MKV converter to convert MKV to AVI, MP4, etc

What’s MKV video format?

An MKV file is a Matroska file, the Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free Container format . It is similar in conception to other containers like AVI, MP4 or ASF, but is entirely open in specification, with implementations consisting mostly of open source software. Matroska file types are .MKV for video (with subtitles and audio), .MKA for audio-only files and .MKS for subtitles only.

How to use Windows Media Player to play MKV video files?

Many people who download a file with the extension MKV will often try to play it back with video player software they have installed on their systems. Most of the time this doesn't work.
As it is based on DirectShow Windows Media Player will play back MKV files perfectly if you have the proper codecs and filters installed. A great help here is the Matroska Pack. This pack is an ideal solution for new users as it installs pretty much all you will need to play MKV files.
Download the Matraoka Pack from its official site
http://www.matroska.org/


How to use MKV converter to convert MKV to AVI, MP4, etc?
Step 1
Download MKV converter
Here I recommend you the Aimersoft MKV video converter which has been upgraded to convert MKV format recently.
It’s powful editing function and friendly user interface attract me the most.
You can free download this MKV converter from its official site:

http://www.1click-soft.com/video-converter.html


Step 2
Load video files and select output formats:
Press “Add” button to load the video files.
Aimersoft MKV video converter supports MKV to AVI, MKV to MP4 and MKV to other videos.
And as it’s a standard video converter you can also use it to convert video formats between MKV, WMV, AVI, 3GP, MPEG, RMVB, MOV, FLV, etc to play them on any digital media players such as iPod, Zune, Creative Zen, PSP, Mobile phone, etc.







Step 3
Edit your output files:
After you load the video files, press the “Edit” button you will open the interface below which is a two real-time preview windows to see the differences before and after you editing the videos.

As I said, Aimersoft MKV converter provides me a professional and easy-to-use editing function, I list them below.
1.Adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, etc in the “Effect” selection.
2.”Crop and Trim” help you cut off the undesired area from your movie video and choose your favorite clips to convert.
3.”Merge multiple videos” into a single longer movie file just choose the merge check box.
4.”Snapshot” your favorite picture as an image file
5.Either customizable text or image watermark designing empowers you to coin and color your video files in a personalized way.
6. Select different video aspect ratio from full screen, 16:9, 4:3 and Keep Original.



Step 4
Start the conversion:
Click the “Start” button to start conversion.

How to put DVD PDF Podcast and YouTube Video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video (Section 2)

Part4. How to download youtube video to iPod for free
iPod can play only MP4 and H.264 video, youtube video is stream video (.flv), so you need special software to capture the stream video to MP4 video, and then sync it to your iPod via iTunes. Here’re two ways to do that for free:
1. With free online flv converter such as http://vixy.net when you find your favorite youtube video, just copy the video URL (like this format http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdUUx5FdySs ) to the input box, choose the output format as iPod video, and then click start. When the conversion finished, you will get the MP4 video download link, just download and sync it to your iPod.


2. With Firefox + videodownloader, if you’re using Firefox browser, just install a plug-in named videodownloader, and then you will see a small icon in the bottom right, when you watch youtube video, double click it, and then you will get the flv download link. And then convert the flv video to MP4 video with Aimersoft iPod Converter Suite , done.


Part5. How to download free podcast to iPod
You can use iTunes to download podcast and sync to iPod as syncing music. But I prefer MyPodder to download and transfer podcast to iPod. MyPodder is freeware, a cross platform program for downloading podcasts directly to your MP3 players.

To use MyPodder, you will need to create an account on the Podcast Ready web site. Then just follow along with the instructions for installing MyPodder to your iPod. After all is set up, you can run MyPodder off your iPod on any computer to update your iPod's podcasts.


Part6. Where to download music and movie for iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video
1. iTunes store: $0.99 for one song, $9.99 for one movie, $1.99 for one TV show. Just install iTunes and visit the iTunes store.
2. Limewire is fast and popular file sharing freeware working on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Through the P2P (peer-to-peer) network, you can free download various files by its category or keyword searching.
3. Other stream video website such as video. Yahoo, MySpace, etc. here is a list of free stream video website http://www.aimersoft.com/free-download-video-list.html#114
here is a guide to show you how to download stream video with vixy.net, keepvid.com and Firefox. http://www.aimersoft.com/tutorial/free-download-youtube-video.html#114
the download stream video is flv file, if the free online flv converter couldn't deal with it, you can use try SUPER or Aimersoft iPod Converter Suiter, and they can convert flv video to MP4 video for iPod.
4. You can use iTunes to rip your own CD to mp3, and then sync it to iPod.


Part7. How to manager two iPods on one computer or transfer music between iPods?
Actually, you can manage more than one iPod on the same computer.
Method1. Create multi accounts on one computer, one account for each person to login OS and sync his/her iPod with iTunes.
Method2. Set your iPod to “Manually manage music and video”, and then create a new iTunes playlist for each iPod that contains all the music that you want to send to that particular iPod.
As for transferring music between different iPods, you need a special application to do that, I have tried a program named iPod2iPod, it can successfully transfer my friend’s iPod music to my iPod, and here is a guide about it:
http://www.top5soft.com/tutorial/how-to-transfer-music-between-iPods.html
Or you can refer to Part8, copy the music from another iPod back to your computer, and then re-add it to your iTunes library and sync it to your iPod.


Part8. How to copy and backup iPod files to computer
Because iTunes prevents you from copying music or video from iPod back to computer, so you need a special tool to do that. Here are the free applications that can do the job:
For Windows system:
Yamipod: http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/downloads/
Aimersoft: http://www.aimersoft.com/ipod-copy-manager.html#114
Sharepod: http://www.sturm.net.nz/website.php?
iDump: http://www.download.com/iDump/3000-2169_4-10407429.html

For Mac OS X:
Yamipod: http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/downloads
Floola: http://www.floola.com/modules/wiwimod/
EphPod: http://www.ephpod.com/download.shtml
After you install the iPod manager program, you should connect your iPod to computer, run the program, and when you will see the file list of your iPod, you can just click the Transfer button to transfer the selected file from your iPod to your computer.


Part9. How to hack iPod to play games and music video
This part is mainly for the old version iPod, coz the new series of iPods can directly play video and game and you don’t need to hack them. If you want to hack your iPod to play Doom 3, you have to install iPod Linux on your iPod, here is iPod Linux official installation guide
http://ipodlinux.org/Installation_from_Windows
Or you can take a look at this guide, which I think is more intuitional:
http://www.youtubetoipod.biz/guide/ipod-linux-on-ipod-nano-play-music-video.html
Note: It’ can be pretty complicated to install iPod Linux on iPod, so give it a serious consideration before you do that.


Part10. Why your iTunes converted video has no sound
Because iTunes cannot convert muxed video (the audio and video of a muxed video file are on the same track), muxed video converted by iTunes will lose sound. You can learn more about this issue from apple’s official document
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302588
If you come across this problem, you can refer to Part 2 “How to rip DVD and convert video to iPod”, the iPod converter that I recommend can deal with muxed video with no problem.
If you have any question about this guide, feel free to post here.

How to put DVD PDF Podcast and YouTube Video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video (Section 1)

Part1. How to watch PDF or electronic book on iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video

iPod cannot directly display PDF files, you have to convert your PDF file or electronic book to *.txt format, and make sure the file size is smaller than 4KB, and then copy the *txt file to the “Note” folder ion your iPod. Here are the detailed steps:
1. Enable your iPod as a portable hard drive, plug in your iPod to computer and run iTunes, in the summary tab, check the option named “enable iPod disk mode”

2. Download and install iGadget, it can convert and cut your files to 4kb .txt files. Here is the download link:
http://www.youtubetoipod.biz/software/igadget.html
3. Connect your iPod to computer, open “My Computer”, open the iPod drive (the new drive with your iPod name), and copy the txt file to the “Note” folder, done. Then you can read the text file on iPod note.


Part2. How to rip DVD and convert video to iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video

iPod can only play MP4 and H.264 video, but DVD movie is MPEG-2 video and CSS protected, so you need an application to rip DVD and convert video to MP4 video, and then sync it to iPod via iTunes. I strongly recommend Aimersoft iPod Converter Suite; it can rip protected DVD and convert limewire, youtube video, AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV, FLV, DivX, XviD video to iPod. Also, I always use the iPod manager embedded in it to transfer video, and from my tests, it fully supports all series of iPod including iPod Touch/Nano/Classic/Video. A really cool application.



Here is its official download link:
http://www.aimersoft.com/ipod-converter-suite.html#114

Here is the official step by step guide
http://www.aimersoft.com/tutorial/dvd-to-ipod-converter.html#114

If you want to rip copy-protect DVD movie to iPod on Mac OS, you can use Aimersoft DVD Ripper for Mac from here, it has two version for both Intel Processor and Power PC
http://www.aimersoft.com/dvd-ripper-for-mac.html#114

Part3. How to watch iPod Video on large screen TV
1. Set up your iPod video options. On your iPod choose Videos -> Video Settings from the main menu. You will see three options: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Select the “TV Out” option.


2. Get your A/V cable. If you don't have an eighth-inch-to-RCA cable, you can pick one up on eBay for five or six bucks shipped. Search for "camcorder A/V cable." Remember, you want a three-plug yellow/red/white RCA connection at one end and a three-banded eighth-inch (3.5mm) A/V plug at the other.


1. Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
2. Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
3. Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.
After making these connections, you're physically ready to begin playback.