I love the ability of rotating the iPhone/iPad/iPod’s screen between portrait and landscape view but it can be pretty annoying when you’re lying down in a comfortable spot and the screen is constantly tipping back and forth. The iOS 4 firmware update includes a rotation lock feature, similar to the rotation lock switch found on the first generation iPad.

To enable rotation lock and prevent the screen from automatically changing orientation when the device is turned:

1. Double click the home button to bring up the multitasking bar.
2. Swipe right until the last set of icons is displayed in the multitasking bar (these will include play/pause and skip buttons for iPod or Pandora).
3. The furthest left icon looks like a circular arrow. Touch this icon to enable or disable rotation lock on the device.
4. A rotation lock icon will appear in the status bar next to the battery charge icon when rotation lock is enabled. This looks like a circular arrow around a padlock.

To lock in landscape mode, hold your device sideways in landscape view before enabling rotation lock.

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Last Sunday, we turned our clocks back for Daylight Savings Time (DST). The time change should be reflected automatically on all computers and laptops except for Mac users who are using Entourage X as their mail client.

I wrote about this issue last year around the same time. This happens because Entourage 2004 and 2008 use DST information from related ‘Timezones’ files which are not up to date with current information, even though the time change on the operating system is accurate. Microsoft has not released a fix for this issue but there is a workaround solution.

Download the updated 2010-2011 timezone file for Entourage, provided by Barry Wainwright.

Continue to read the Unofficial DST Workaround Guide for Entourage X.

For more information about DST Workaround, check out the Entourage Help Page.

I’ve been holding off on updating my iPhone 3GS firmware for the longest time — still running 3.1.2, and yes, I get an earful from people trying to convince me to upgrade. I know the nightmare and headache that encompasses jailbreaking. If I’m lucky, it’s half a day’s work for me to jailbreak. If not, it could take up to a couple of days trying to figure out what went wrong and going through the mess of reconfiguring my iPhone to bring it back to it’s previous glory. Besides, I haven’t had any issues with 3.1.2 and it’s probably the most stable firmware (in my opinion) that I’ve come across so far. So, why ruin a good thing?

Well, this morning I got an email from my best buddy Mike saying, “Apple is releasing new products today after their keynote, so they might roll out new firmware updates as well. I think you should update your phone SOON!” So today is the day that I get with the program and update to iOS.

I chose to go with LimeRa1n because I wanted a simple jailbreak without having to unlock my iPhone. I tried using PwnageTool 4.1 a few times but wasn’t successful. I couldn’t get my cellular data network to come up so it was like having a iPhone turn into a iPod Touch; no good. I haven’t tried GreenPois0n because it’s made for Windows and I’m on a Mac… So LimeRa1n it is!

WARNING:
Jailbreaking is NOT for the faint of heart. Do not attempt this unless you know exactly what you are doing to your device. I am not responsible for anything that happens beyond this point.

Here’s what I did:

1. Download LimeRa1n for your operating system and iOS 4.1 firmware for your device. Unless you prefer iTunes to download the firmware for you, you can download it now to speed up the process. Keep these files in a folder on your desktop for the jailbreak.
2. Upgrade to iTunes 10 and Safari 5.
3. Plug in device and backup everything on iTunes before proceeding. I took screenshots of my apps and emailed them to myself so I know what to reinstall after the jailbreak, just in case.
4. Upgrade to iOS 4.1 by holding down the OPTION button and click Restore on iTunes. This will allow you to select the IPSW you downloaded from Step 1. You can simply click Restore to let iTunes download the IPSW for you but it takes longer to restore your device.
5. Once your device is updated to iOS, run LimeRa1n. Ignore iTunes when it pops up asking to restore from recovery mode.
6. Follow the instructions on LimeRa1n to bring device back from DFU mode.
7. Turn on your device when LimeRa1n is done jailbreaking.
8. Once you see LimeRa1n on your iphone, your device has successfully been jailbroken.

So what happens next? Run LimeRa1n on your iPhone and install Cydia. With Cydia, can now install any 3rd party app and customize your device!

NOTE:
I was advised against updating my iPad firmware because it’s running fine on 3.2.1 and there aren’t any new features for the iPad at this moment.

I hope this helps for those who are looking to jailbreak! Good luck!

For more information, check out iPhoneHeat.com.

Last month, Apple launched iTunes 10 that includes Ping: a social network that lets you follow both friends and artists on iTunes. It works on Windows or Mac, as well as on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

When you first download and install iTunes 10, Ping appears as an item in the top iTunes navigation bar and the Ping drop-down on each individual song. It’s not active until you turn it on. Once you do, you’re asked to fill out a profile that includes a photo, some info about you, and some details about your musical tastes. Once Ping has a critical mass of users, it will be become a useful and big driver of music sales for Apple.

However, if you’re not a fan of Ping like myself, there is an easy way to remove it on a Mac.

There are two parts of Ping. First, the Ping sidebar can be removed with a click:

1. Open iTunes and navigate to Preferences → Parental
2. Check the boxes “iTunes Store” and “Allow access to iTunes U” to disable.

Second, the drop-down menu needs a quick trip to the Mac OS terminal:

1. Quit iTunes and open Terminal.
2. Copy this line (in one line), and hit enter:
   defaults write com.apple.iTunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool TRUE
3. You might need to authenticate. When you open iTunes 10, the Ping drop-down menu will be gone.

Repeat the command with FALSE instead of TRUE at the end, if you want to bring it back.

To read more about Ping, iTunes 10 and Apple’s Social Network Strategy, check out The WSJ.

To disable Ping for Windows, check out Lifehacker.