iPhone backups contain a huge amount of personal data, from various account and service logins, contact list and phone logs, personal notes, emails, health data, messages, fully readable SMS conversations, just about anything that is used or stored on the device gets placed in the backup file. That’s excellent for backup restoration purposes, but technically anyone with access to the computer can easily dig around in the backups locally if they wanted to. For this reason, it can be a good idea keep these locally stored iPhone backup files encrypted, which then require a password to access and restore from, and it also makes the backups safe from prying eyes.

Enabling backup encryption for iPhone (and iPad and iPod touch for that matter) is a simple procedure that must only be enabled once. After encryption has been toggled on, all backups will be placed through encryption, and all future backups that are made will be encrypted, making them unreadable and unusable without having the accompanying password that was set. This allows for a very secure layer of privacy and security for stored iOS data on any computer.

This tutorial will show you how to enable encrypted backups in iTunes for Mac or Windows.

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This is starting to look like flashback week, first with the flickering retro Terminal app Cathode and now this absolutely ridiculous iPhone case that is made to resemble the giant block cellphones from the 80’s.

Is this thing hilarious or what? It’s not just photoshop either, here it is next to an Android:
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How about a bit of everything with an Apple logo? Here’s a full range of portable Macs and iProducts; an iPhone, iPad, MacBook 13″ (maybe Pro?), and a MacBook Pro 15″.

Perhaps the coolest thing about this setup is that you can sync the bluetooth keyboard and mouse to any of the devices.

This pictures is from Flickr, and if you browse through the users photostream you’ll see a *gasp* Google Nexus One phone too!

Todolicious is a nice and simple to-do list manager for Mac OS X. I generally just use Stickies for to-do lists on my Mac, but Todolicious has a couple features that are handy that Stickies doesn’t.

One is obvious, you can check items off and they disappear from the task list. The other you have to set in the apps preferences, but it causes the Todolicious Dock icon to show a red badge with the number of items remaining in your to-do list, shown below:

More and more apps are starting to do this (kind of like the Twitter for Mac notifications tip from earlier) and it’s surprisingly useful.

Usually it costs $4.99, but today only (January 28) the developer is letting anyone download it for free via the Mac App Store. So if you need a to do list app for your Mac, grab this one from the Mac App Store while it’s free.

I wouldn’t recommend this, but someone was crazy enough to apply a Zagg shield to their MacBook Air, and then use it as a cutting board to chop some peppers and a tomato with a large knife. I guess this is supposed to demonstrate how effective the Zagg shields are at protecting the MacBook Air, which it does, but it also just looks slightly crazy.

Video of this below, it should start at 5 minutes 10 seconds in, if not skip ahead to see the cutting board action:
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You can get desktop Growl notifications in Twitter for Mac, here’s how:

• From Twitter for Mac, go to the Twitter menu and open Preferences
• Click on the Notifications tab
• From the drop down menu, select ‘Growl notification’ for either Tweets, Mentions, or Messages
• Close out Preferences and changes are immediate

Now just a word of warning, if you follow a ton of people, having Growl notifications for Tweets can be a firehose of desktop notifications atop Mac OS X. I just enabled the feature for Mentions and Messages, and if you have a large and active follow list this might be the best choice.

Notice that you can also set notifications to appear on the Dock icon. In the screenshot below you can see the little red star badge appear on the Twitter icon, alerting you to a mention or message.

Twitter for Mac is a great twitter client with a lot of cool features. I wasn’t originally sold on the app, but after using it and discovering the cool features like sending a tweet from anywhere in Mac OS X, I’m now a regular user.

Thanks for sending in the tip Adem!

Apple has just released iTunes 10.1.2 for download, the update is said to offer improved stability and performance in addition to improvements with AirPlay and iOS device syncing including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

The release notes state iTunes 10.1.2 is necessary to sync iTunes with a CDMA iPhone 4:

“iTunes 10.1.2 syncs music, movies, and more with iPhone 4 (CDMA model) and provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.”

In other words, if you plan on getting the Verizon iPhone, you will need to install this iTunes update before you can use the phone with your computer.

It is also worth pointing out that Apple specifically references the iPhone 4 as a “CDMA model” rather than specifying Verizon, this might suggest that the CDMA iPhone is coming to other CDMA compatible carriers soon around the world.

Download iTunes 10.1.2

You can download iTunes 10.1.2 either directly from Apple or through Software Update.

If you choose to get the download from Apple, you do not need to enter an email address, just click on the “Download Now” button and it will start without filling out the form.

Microsoft has released a 30 day demo of Office 2011 for Mac, the trial is free to download and includes the entire Office suite for use. The other nice feature about the trial is that you can enter a product key at any point directly into the app, this lets you download Office 2011 for use now and then purchase a full license at a discount through a reseller like Amazon.

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The Mac just had it’s birthday, but don’t you long for the days before a GUI? Don’t you wish you were in the 70’s or 80’s banging away at a DOS prompt connecting to a local BBS? Do you get nostalgic for the days of typing commands into a noisy green on black terminal that would desync and flicker at random? Your dreams are about to come true, thanks to Cathode, the self-proclaimed vintage terminal emulator, and it perfectly captures that retro computing feel.

You can run Cathode in full screen (like the screenshot above) or in windowed mode (like the screenshot below). The app is an absolute riot and surprisingly customizable, letting you create picture perfect old school terminals that are full of wear and tear, curvature, flickering, jitters, burn-in, and even an adjustable bit rate that lets you emulate a 300bps modem. You can tweak the settings to make your Mac Terminal feel like something straight out of WarGames or The Matrix, or anything in between.
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3DBoard is a somewhat gimmicky jailbreak tweak that utilizes your iPhones accelerometer to create 3D looking icons. How does it work? The developer hasn’t specifically said, but it looks to me that 3DBoard adjusts the location of the wallpaper background and shadows in relation to the icons based on movement, which gives the appearance of the icons floating over the iPhone screen.

3DBoard will be on the Cydia store soon for $4.

The Verizon iPhone plan pricing has been revealed, these rates are monthly and in addition to the price of the Verizon iPhone 4 which starts at $199.99 with a two year contract.

This data is from the Verizon iPhone purchase section on Apple’s website, although the information and rates could change at any time.
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By default, anytime you take a screen capture in Mac OS X, the resulting screenshot file will save to the current users desktop. This makes retrieval very easy and is very appropriate for the average Mac user, but for those who take a lot of screen shots in Mac OS, they may find their desktop to be cluttered with the screenshot files rather quickly.

An excellent solution is to adjust the default location of where Mac OS X saves captured screen shot files to another location in the file system when Command + Shift + 3 is pressed, this walkthrough will show you how to do that with a defaults command.

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You have probably heard by now that Verizon will charge an additional $20 per month to use the wireless hotspot feature of iOS 4.3 on their iPhone 4. Is this fee worth it? I think that depends, but here’s my opinion on the matter…

Who should pay the Verizon hotspot fee

If you’re too lazy or don’t want to deal with a jailbreak, or if you’re setting this plan up for your grandma, or if you want an absolutely hassle free nontechnical experience to use a wireless access point, just pay the Verizon hotspot fee. It’s another $20 per month and it’ll certainly be simple to use, just realize that what you’re really paying for is the convenience and super easy setup.

Who should jailbreak and get MyWi tethering

If you’re already familiar with jailbreaking or you’re one of the more technically inclined folks out there, I think you should jailbreak your iPhone and pay for a generous data plan instead.

My view is this, you already pay for data usage, why pay more to use it how you want? Let me remind you that anyone can setup an iPhone Wireless hotspot right now, you just need to jailbreak your phone, and then pay a one time fee to purchase the MyWi app from Cydia.

Jailbreaking + MyWi vs Verizon’s Hotspot Data Plan

Let’s do some quick math comparing the two options:

• Jailbreak your iPhone + buy MyWi once = $20
• Verizon iPhone Wireless Hotspot Plan * 12 months = $240/year

Is the $220 difference over the course of a year worth the convenience to you? Not to me, but for some it definitely will be.

The only uncertainty here is that we don’t know when a CDMA iPhone jailbreak will be available, but let’s hope it comes quickly, then you’ll be able to use MyWi on the Verizon unlimited data plan (the unlimited plan is a good thing to get if you plan on using the iPhone hotspot).

What about AT&T?

We still don’t know what AT&T will charge for accessing the iOS 4.3 hotspot, or if they’ll even offer it, but hopefully they’ll just decide to include access to the wifi feature for free. Is this likely to happen? I doubt it, but including the hotspot in their standard data plans would be a strong reason to stay with or sign up for AT&T vs Verizon, what other competitive advantage are they going to have? Now, considering AT&T charges $20 a month right now to use your iPhone as a tethered modem, well, the outlook is bleak.

Did I mention that jailbreaking is not illegal? It’s your phone and your data, do what you want with it. For me, that’s MyWi.

The latest iPad commercial starts off with the turntable DJay app scratching the now widely known iPad commercial song “Never Stop” by Chilly Gonzales, followed by more apps and words: fresh, tickets, news, stories, 60,000+ apps, students, teachers, hollywood, iconic. Finally, the commercial ends with Marilyn Monroe on Vanity Fair magazine as seen on the iPad.

This fits nicely into the line-up of other iPad commercials, and it’s unmistakably Apple.

Remember that wireless hotspot feature of iOS 4.3 that everyone was so excited about? In order to use it, you’ll have to shell out an additional $20/month on top of your standard data plan to Verizon. Bummer. Although as some consolation, you’ll also get an extra 2GB of data allowance for the fee (which is useless in the face of the $30 unlimited data plan).

The $20 monthly fee was confirmed by Verizon to MacWorld. Remember, you can also just setup a iPhone Wireless hotspot on any jailbroken iPhone.

If you thought last weeks news that you can now buy Starbucks coffee with an iPhone was cool, this is even cooler. According to Bloomberg, iPhone 5 and iPad 2 will both feature “Near-Field Communications” technology that allows the devices to become a digital wallet. Thanks to the built-in NFC chip, your iPhone will be able to access credit cards, bank accounts, and gift card balances already on file with Apple, allowing you to make any purchase directly from the phone.

In terms of the timeline, Bloomberg says the technology is “due to be embedded in the next iteration of the iPhone for AT&T Inc. and the iPad 2” and that “Both products are likely to be introduced this year… citing engineers who are working on hardware for the Apple project.”

Most rumors put the iPad 2 release in April and iPhone 5 in June, keeping in line with Apple’s past release schedules, but what about in-store infrastructure? According to the report, Apple has already created prototype NFC payment terminals that they may subsidize to encourage rapid nationwide adoption of the technology.

I’m wondering if the NFC data will be accessible for third party app developers, if so, this could completely change the face of mobile banking, transactions, gift cards, and so much more. Owe your friend $5? Imagine being able to send it directly to his bank account with a few taps on your phone. Consider this all a rumor for now, but hopefully Bloomberg is right about this one.

Hoping to further distance itself from rival AT&T, Verizon will offer an unlimited data plan for $30 to new iPhone 4 customers. This would make Verizon the only US carrier that offers unlimited data for the iPhone, since AT&T removed the unlimited plan in favor of a 2GB limit.

But there’s a catch; the unlimited data plan will only be available temporarily before all Verizon plans are moved onto a tiered data plan like AT&T’s, according to the Wall Street Journal. The pricing and data allowances of the tiered system are currently unknown.

It still remains to be seen what, if anything, Verizon and AT&T will charge to use the much desired wireless hotspot feature in iOS 4.3. Depending on the associated fees, it may be more cost effective to sign onto the unlimited data plan and then jailbreak the iPhone into a wireless hotspot.

If you’ve ever accidentally shut down your Mac, you’re not alone. That dreaded feeling when everything starts closing when you didn’t mean to reboot, ahh! But don’t freak out, there’s an incredibly simple way to stop the shut down process in OS X!

All you need to do to stop a Mac shutdown is immediately launch an OS X app. You have to act quick because a reboot happens fast, so move fast and just pick any app in your Dock and launch away.

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