MarcForrest.com

Month: November 2010

  • How to setup Find My iPhone on iOS 4.2

    As you may know Apple released the latest version of their iPhone and iPad software earlier today. This is a huge update in many regards, and especially for the iPad, which now allows multitasking. This has probably been the biggest bugbear of the iPad since it’s launch, and I honestly think it changes the whole device overnight.

    One of the coolest features of the new iPhone & iPad 4.21 software updates is a feature called Find My iPhone. This functionality has actually been around for a while, if you had an Apple Mobile Me account. But from today, Apple has made this feature free, and I know it will make a couple of people smile, including me.

    What Find My iPhone allows you to do, is pinpoint the exact location of your iPhone/iPad. So that means, if it gets stolen, you now to can log onto a website, and see on a map, exactly where it is. The feature also allows you to send a message to the device, as well as send an “alarm” for up to 2 minutes, for those (too often) times when the iPhone mysteriously creeps between the couch cushions. You also have an option to lock the phone, as well as erase everything off the phone, and make it redundant, should someone steal the phone.

    There is a downfall to this though, and that is that it is only available to iPhone, 3rd Gen iPod Touch & iPad users. I have a little “hack’ below to get round that though if you own a 3Gs :)

    To get Find My iPhone activated you can follow these steps:

    1. Ensure you have updated the firmware on your iPhone/iPad to the latest version, 4.2. To do this, you need to click the update button in iTunes once your phone/iPad is plugged into your computer.
    2. Once your phone restarts, go to:
      • Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Add Account…
      • Choose the Mobile Me option
      • Sign in using your standard iTunes username and password. This is the account you use to sign in to buy apps etc. You do NOT have to set up a new account, you can use your existing account. (One of my readers pointed out you need to have a email address iTunes account for this to work, if you have a standard username, you may need to sign up for a new account)
      • Once this is done, your account will be verified
      • Turn Find My iPhone ON
    3. This will activate the Find My iPhone portion of your “Mobile Me” account
    4. If your iPhone/iPad gets stolen, or you would like to locate it, you can do one of the following
      • Go to https://me.com/find/ and log into your account using your iTunes account details that you signed up with in the step above
      • If you have access to another iPhone/iPad download the Find my iPhone App (iTunes Link – FREE) . Here you can login with your account details and perform the functions as above
    5. If you have an iPhone 3Gs/iPhone 3G and would like to use this service, fear not. Even though the feature is meant for iPhone4 & iPad users, if you want to use it on an older model phone you can do the following
      • Find someone who has an iPhone 4/iPad
      • Sign up for the feature using the steps above and make sure your account is activated
      • This will “activate” your account
      • On your iPhone 3GS/iPhone 3G, you can now setup a mobile me account as above. You can delete the account you setup on the iPhone4/iPad

    If you have any hassles with the above leave a comment below, and we will try to give you a hand. Enjoy this amazing free service :)

  • Spud is no small fry!

    As you may know, one of South Africa’s most anticipated movie releases hits the big screen on the 3rd of December, Spud the Movie. I was unfortunately unable to attend the premiere here in Durbs on Friday eve, but my mate, Rich Mclennan, went down to the Pavilion, and gave this sterling review

    It was always going to be a challenge taking the hilarious Spud novel and turning it into a film but Donovan Marsh (Director and Screenplay) certainly didn’t disappoint. The film is clearly no small budget affair and is sure to get international acclaim.

    “Spud” for those of you who haven’t read the book by local author John van de Ruit (shame on you!) is a 13 year old boy who’s real name is John Milton, yes, like the poet… It’s 1990 and young “Spud” is attending the prestigious Michaelhouse School on a full scholarship and this is where the fun begins. Our very unique South African idiosyncrasies and the changing political climate of 1990 only add to the winning formulae that makes this film so relevant to us.

    Throw in 7 crazy dorm mates with nicknames like “Rambo”, “Boggo”, “Fatty”, “Gecko”, “Rainman”, “Mad Dog” and er Simon and you know you are in for absolute mayhem, the boys do not disappoint.

    John Cleese steals the show as young Spud’s English teacher and mentor “The Guv”,  his hilarious profanities will have you in stitches. Young South African born actor Troye Sivan who play “Spud” will be a name to watch in the future, the boy oozes talent and will be nice to know he honed his skills on our sunny shores. Local Durban comedian Aaron Mcilroy adds to the talented cast with his brilliant performance as “Spud’s” eccentric Dad.

    It is hard to fault this film, cinematography is inspiring with the impressive Michaelhouse setting the perfect scene. The soundtrack is full of 80’s classic and the attention to detail on the set, particularly with 80 and 90’s memorabilia is impeccable, right down to original rice crispy boxes and dodgy garden furniture that we all once had.

    If there is just one small fault it is just that there seemed insufficient time to get to know some of the other characters better. Sure, a lot of stuff has been missed but it would have been impossible to cram it into an 80 odd minute film.

    “Spud” get’s a 10/10 and is bound to get excellent international exposure both for our local talent (on and off screen) and beautiful country. We can certainly expect to see the next 2 books making their way to the silver screen in due course, move over Harry Potter and Hogwarts there is a new ‘kid’ on the block and he is sure to keep us spellbound for the next couple of years.

  • Win a copy of Halo: Reach for the Xbox

    Win a copy of Halo: Reach for the Xbox

    Remember the other day I told you about the Xbox Kinect that launched in South Africa. Well the guys from Xbox caught wind of the post, and very nicely, offered me a copy of the latest popular Xbox title, Halo Reach to be given away on my site.

    Here is a little bit of info about the game:

    In 2552, the Covenant discovered the planet Reach, humanity’s last line of defense. The UNSC mounted an unparalleled assault against the alien war machine, and at the heart of this conflict was Noble Team, an experienced group of accomplished soldiers prepared to meet the enemy head-on. Now, with the addition of the team’s newest member—Noble Six—this squad will face its most challenging mission yet: the defense of Reach…in what may well be the twilight of human existence.

    Halo: Reach, easily the biggest and most ambitious Halo title yet, includes an intense, pulse-pounding Campaign, an addictive and frenetic Multiplayer, a riveting four-player Co-operative Firefight mode, the massive ForgeWorld experience, and a Theater mode to capture it all. With more modes, maps, missions, and features than ever before, Halo: Reach represents the complete Halo experience—a tour de force of stunning visuals, powerful story, epic encounters, and more replayability than any Halo title to date!

    The guys over at IGN have given the game a 9.5 which is one of the highest scoring games ever !! The game also sold over 3 million units in it’s first month in the US.I also played the game for a couple of minutes (hours) at Tech-Ed where they had a couple of demo units on display.

    To win a copy of Halo Reach here, all you need to do is leave a comment below, and I will randomly choose the winner…simple hey :) The competition closes on the 25th November at 12pm. Winner will be chosen using Random.org…

  • Giving the Nokia N8 a run

    Yesterday I received a package, and when I opened it, found a brand new Nokia N8 to use for the next 2 weeks. The review is part of a promotion at the moment where Nokia selected 60 people from around South Africa to give the phone a run for 2 weeks. They will also be selecting 2 of the best reviews to keep the phone.

    I am going to try to do a comprehensive review once my 2 weeks is up, and my main goal is to see if I can use the Nokia, alongside the iPhone4.
    My first impressions of the phone was that it was pretty slick. The phone matched up size & weight wise to the iPhone4. The packaging was different what we have become accustomed to in the sleek Apple packaging, but that said, the Nokia does come with a lot more accessories.The other thing that grabbed my attention was the 12MP camera the phone has. Nice !

    I’m not going into much detail, for now,  but what I can say so far, is that I am very impressed with the phone, after playing around with it for a couple of hours.
    I will be tweeting updates using the #N8ReviewZA hashtag during the course of the next 2 weeks, and when I am done, will do that review. Standby :)

  • ESET Cybersecurity for Mac

    On Monday morning a really large package arrived for me at reception. After ripping the packaging off, I was presented with a couple of really cool gifts from the chaps over at ESET. ESET are one the worlds largest antivirus companies, and have been around for a couple of years. Included in the package was a disk which had the latest offering from the guys, ESET Cybersecurity for Mac.

    To give you a better idea about what the product is about, this from the ESET cybersecurity website:

    It is a generally accepted fact that Mac/Linux-based operating systems are safe, compared to Windows® platforms. However, no system exists in a vacuum and writers of malicious software are hard at work looking for weak-spots and devising exploits that can run across multiple platforms. Additionally, third party applications run on Mac systems can become easy targets for hackers. Unprotected Macs in a networked environment, where cross-platform sharing is taking place, can act as malware carriers.

    ESET Cybersecurity shuts down all attack vectors, neutralizing threats designed to attack Windows or Linux systems, along with emerging exploits against the Mac platform – to keep your sensitive data and identity protected around the clock.


    I installed my copy on my machine earlier this week, and had no issues at all. In fact, the setup & activation was so simple, it was over in a flash. Once I had activated my copy with the username and password that I had received, I rebooted my machine, and ran a full scan. The scan took about an hour and a half, and found no threats (sjoe) :)

    The very cool thing about this software, is if you run a bootcamp Windows partition, or use a virtual environment, you have full access to the Windows NOD32 antivirus software, under a license called “Unilicence”

    If you have a Mac, I would highly recommend grabbing yourself a copy of ESET Cybersecurity. A 1 year licence for 1 computer costs around R355. The Apple Retail stores around the country are also stocking them at the moment. You can also download a 1 month free trial from the ESET site to give it a run before you buy it.