Apple Australia keeps warranty policy changes from consumers.

Last Friday Australian Apple retail stores and authorised resellers were notified internally about changes to their warranty policy's. Apple now must fall in line with Australian consumer law and offer 24 months warranty on all of it's electronic devices. These laws actually came into effect January 1st, 2011, so why has Apple taken so long to make the changes and inform customers of their rights?

The Australian consumer law states a statutory warranty as a "reasonable" period of time but does not go as far to define that time period. Instead the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) suggested any large or expensive piece of electronic equipment can be up to 24 months.

Apple has not officially announced the changes on their website and many consumers on forums believe employees will not proactively inform them of the changes to the warranty policy. Fairfax media claim to have seen the email distributed to Apple's stores saying it told the staff not to mention the policy changes to customers.

Hopefully Apple will proactively inform customers of the changes as it will only enhance their fantastic customer service that has made them a leader in electronics and retail worldwide.

Apple's new policy begins on all iOS devices on Monday 25th March, then applies to all Mac products 2 weeks later.

Source - SMH

Jailbreak Tweaks that Rock!!!

So you have recently jailbroken your iPhone and want to add some tweaks that will make your device kick ass??

Here's my list of Tweaks that rock my iPhone 5.

SbSettings - A Must have tweak! Easily access options like WiFi, Airplane Mode and Bluetooth with a single swipe of your status bar. Plus Safemode is installed so you can trouble shoot your device without the pain of a restore!

Intelliscreen X - This is the way your Lockscreen and Notification Center should be. You can tweak your Notification Center to your hearts content. Tweak also comes with Messages+ so you can reply to iMessages/SMS without leaving the app you are currently using.

Activator - You can assign functions to your device using swipe gestures. Don't like opening Siri with a long hold on the home button change it to a long hold of Power button. The sky is the limit!

Zephyr - Forget clicking the home button twice to bring up Multitasking. A simple swipe from the bottom of the screen will do it. Totally customizable to how many fingers you want to swipe with.

iFile - Access your device system files like you are using a Mac. Perfect for trouble shooting and saving files from the Interwebs in tandem with Safari Download Manager.

Safari Download Manager - Ever wanted to download files whilst browsing on your device? Well you can with this tweak then email or add to dropbox.

Springtomize 2 - This little gem will let you virtually customize every aspect of your device. Springboard look, Icons, Folders, App Switcher, Dock, Animations and yer Lock Screen will never look stale again.

Call Bar - Answer and make phone calls using a swipe gesture. Call Bar will let you use your phone as a notification bar along the top of screen. Perfect to keep browsing or an app open whilst on a call.

AnyAttach - Adds a paperclip to your emails allowing you to add files from Dropbox, photo Albums and iFile. Email as it should be.

Auxo - App Switcher as it should be! Live views of apps currently open in your App Switch. Awesome redesigned music player and the ability to turn on functions like Blutooth, Wifi, Airplane Mode and many others.

Browser Chooser - Sick of Safari being your stock browser. Browser Chooser allows you to choose your default browser perfect for lovers of Chrome.

Camera Tweak - Add awesome functions to your stock camera. Separate Focus and exposure, frame rate settings for video, time lapse photos and timer burst shots.

Flex - This tweak is a crowd sourced mod that lets you virtually modify any installed apps on your device. I use it to remove sponsored ads on my Facebook timeline. It's always evolving as devs upload new tweaks.

Protube Extension for Youtube - Protube alters the already installed Google Youtube app to allow you to download videos to your device. Heaps of great functions included.

SwipeSelection - Sick of correcting mistakes when typing by holding your finger down on the word? This tweak allows you to easily swipe your finger across the keyboard to move your curser to the place it needs to be.

Well these are some of my fave tweaks. Some are paid and some are free. They can all be found on the Cydia Store.

Happy Tweaking!!

Jade xx

Team Jailbreak!

Without a doubt the iPhone is one of the most compelling electronic devices to hit the mainstream consumer market in the last 10 years. Year over sales figures have proven that people cannot get enough of these amazing little devices that have jettisoned us into a world of people staring into their devices every 10 minutes. We are basically carrying around a phone, dvd, iPod, gaming console and computer all rolled into one device making the concepts created in Star Trek seem not so far off in our future.

Sometimes I walk into an Apple Store just to see the amazement on people's faces as they hold and use an iDevice for the first time. As a self confessed geek it gives me much pleasure watching the amazement on a persons face as their mind is blown. In saying that nothing is perfect and Apple's iOS operating system is definitely proof that perfection has not been achieved and most likely never will, as you can't please everybody.

Over the years of being an iOS addict I've read the arguments about what would make iOS a better experience. The constant bickering between Apple fanboy's, mobile enthusiasts and the endless faceless trolls in forums and tech articles throw around their opinions like they have all the answers. As it stands Apple may have changed the way we think about mobile computing but since the inception of the iPhone in 2007 they have been quite conservative in regards to growing the operating system.

My first iOS device was the iPhone 3G. My previous phone was a motorola flip phone so the change was astonishing. After the first 2 weeks as an iOS owner I stumbled across the term "Jailbreak" and after a couple of days of reading decided to take the plunge and free my iPhone. As I ran the Redsn0w program my heart was in my throat, worried that my new $900 device was about to die a premature death before I fully explored its capabilities. Thankfully everything went ok and I now was open to modify my device to my hearts content.

I had only just begun to understand how to use iTunes so the introduction of Cydia on my home screen was very overwhelming. Being a longtime tech enthusiast it didn't take long before I was tweaking, respringing and theming my iPhone like most who jailbreak to the point of overkill. Thankfully a few weeks later my obsession with Cydia became more refined and practical, before long I had the perfect iPhone.

So why do people jailbreak? Jailbreaking isn't for everybody, clearly the number of people jailbroken to the number of iOS devices in the wild proves this point. The people who do jailbreak want to extend the already amazing functions that iOS provide, making a better experience than Apples closed concepts. I love the fact that I can add multitasking gestures, make toggles easily accessible and deliver information on my lockscreen that I just can't get from stock iOS.

Over the years jailbreaking has earned it's fair share of negative press for piracy. The fact is most people who jailbreak their devices don't pirate apps and just want to have more freedom on their devices. With everything in life there will always be a minority who spoil it for the majority. We live in a society driven by negative press, people will always remember the negatives over the positives. Just look at the nightly news on television. 30 minutes of doom and gloom which always ends on a story of a fluffy dog riding a skateboard in an attempt to help you forget the horrors you've just been subjected to.

The stories surrounding jailbreaking of voiding your warrantee and bricking your device sent fear into your everyday consumer as Apple scrambled with each iOS update to fix the exploits used. Jailbreak developers continued to create awesome tweaks and find new exploits to keep devices jailbroken and before long we began to see Apple implement jailbreak tweaks into iOS. As time has gone on iOS has integrated many jailbreak tweaks along with awesome new features like iCloud and Siri proving that the jailbreak community is a necessary evil to Apple. Most likely why they never really tried to kill it with the same passion they have attacked Google and Samsung in the courts.

With each new iDevice the timeframe for a new jailbreak to be released has stretched out to over 6 months. Finding the necessary exploits to open up Apple's iOS has become like finding a needle in a haystack. Quite a few jailbreak developers have gone on to work at Apple, Google and Facebook also. Earlier this year it seemed many had given up on a jailbreak even being released. Others felt like they had no need to jailbreak any longer as recent iOS updates had filled the void previously filled by jailbreak tweaks. After a long 6 months on stock iOS I myself questioned if I would jailbreak again, but as soon as the Evasi0n jailbreak was released i jumped on it.

So why do I jailbreak? Flexibility!!
I love the fact that I can tweak things to my liking and enjoy getting into the core system of iOS to better understand exactly how it all works. I'm a tech junky who loves to tinker. Sure, I could buy myself an android and tinker to my hearts content but I'm in love with Apple products. I don't want to have to settle for a phone that I don't like. I want an iPhone and am willing to sit through the resprings and trial and error of finding the right combination of tweaks to make my iOS device stable and perfect for my lifestyle. I also love having something unique to other iOS users. Honestly it's great talking to another iPhone lover and showing them what my iPhone can do compared to theirs.

I'm glad Apple never went thermonuclear on jailbreaking. Over the years jailbreaking has proven to be an asset to Apple in developing new features for iOS updates. Hopefully as Apple continue to innovate and develop their great products further there will continue to be clever people out there creating jailbreak exploits and pushing the envelope for future iOS updates allowing me to keep modding my beloved iOS devices.