Paul Hartrick » ipod touch

iPhone Webclip Icons

-Paul — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 22:18:17 +0000

*Warning Geek Content*

With the advent of the iPhone populating the world I have been inspired to develop at least one application for the iPod/iPhone. Part of development process is obviously creating the graphics for the application, and in particular the Icon people will see in the AppStore and on the iPhone desktop.

As a website owner you can also create your own iPhone Icon for the iPhone desktop, so when people bookmark your website on their iPhone instead of getting a crappy scaled snapshot of the Webpage they will get the Icon of your choosing.

Here are the steps to create your own website icon for the iPhone

Create a 57×57 PNG
Name it “apple-touch-icon.png”
Upload the file to the root folder of your website.
Safari will automatically round the corners and apply the standard “glassy” overlay so it will looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application.

Apple has more info on their iPhone Dev Center (you need a developer ID to access)

If you want more flexibility you can use a link tag in the head of the document, such as:


    Paul Hartrick

iPhone 3G Stuff

-Paul — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:41:34 +0000

I have recently resisted posting too much about the iPhone 3G for fear of being labeled a Mac Fan Boy.. well.. I guess it’s partly true.. however I do have a foot deeply planted in the non Mac world for various work and pleasure related activities.

In addition to my iPhone3G I also have an iPod Touch that I have decided to use as a development platform, it’s time I jumped into the development of some applications for the iPod/iPhone world.. some of the numbers from the Apple September 2008 Special Event has definitely motivated me to put the coding hat back on.

Quote: “Users have now downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone and iPod touch, or roughly 2 million per day”

I want some of that action…..

All that aside, the iPhone really is a great utility for everyday life, the number of application available now is amazing. The screen shots below show my current applications and bookmarks, and while I don’t use them all everyday I have used them all in the last 2 weeks so they get to stay for now. Even John Turningpin get a spot, well its so I don’t accidentally end up on the other Madtokyo sight… unintentionally…

With the upcomming release of Firmware 2.1 for the iPhone 3G this device will only get better. Now all I need to do is invent a compelling application, sell it for $0.50 2 million times…

Jailbreak 1.1.2

admin — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:45:02 +0000

With my recent purchase of my new iPod Touch I have been left pondering whether or not to hack it so it is able to be loaded with all the goodies you get on the iPhone plus more. Before purchasing my new toy I did a lot of research on the iPod Touch to ensure I was buying a model that had no negative black issue and that all the little bugs had generally been resolved.Basically I had to get a model that was built later than the week 38 release and ensure it had V1.1.1 firmware loaded.

A quick check of the model numbers at my local Yodobashi revealed I was good to go. Now my only dilemma is whether or not to unlock the iPod Touch’s full potential.Jailbreak seems to be the go when unlocking the iPod and there a specific sites that basically do the whole process for you just by navigating the iPod’s inbuilt Safari browser to the relevant site. As I have already upgraded my iPod to firmware V1.1.2 I will need to downgrade to V1.1.1 before the process begins.

I have read many posts and seen many people “Brick” their iPod’s only to restore and begin the process over.
Here are the instruction on how to Jailbreak you iPod Touch, I didn’t include any links to the required firmwares, you will have to use google to locate those yourself.

I have this planned for tonight so I will post all the trials and tribulations on a follow-up post. My other concern, apart from potentially bricking my iPod, is how much memory some of these new applications may consume. I guess I will know by tonights end.

iPod Touch

admin — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:03:53 +0000

Today is the day I take the plunge and purchase my iPod Touch. This has been brought on a little earlier than expected by an unfortunate event with my existing iPod Video G5. Last Wednesday I decided to have Sushi with a friend at his local Sushi bar and as always a couple of quiet drinks.

As the night went on we were befriended by a couple of local Japanese businessmen. They were very excited to talk to us as it’s not that often that you will see gaijin in a small “Mom and Pop” Sushi bar so we had some great conversation and Japanese language practice.

After Sushi was done we were invited to a second party which we quickly accepted of course, so of we went to one of the popular drinking areas, Kubukicho. Well Kubukicho is not the safest place in Tokyo as it is full of all sorts of bars and people, generally pretty shady but we have been there many times before so we weren’t worried at all.

After a fun night of drinking and getting home a little after midnight I was thinking to myself what a great night, made a couple of new friends and not too dusty for the office on Thursday.

On the walk to the Station the next morning I went to grab my trusty iPod Video only to find it wasn’t in my pocket….hmmm… were could it be. So after frantic checking my bag and pockets no iPod. Damn, lost it in Kubukicho, I remembered the location of the bar we went to so I paid a visit Thursday night on the way home from work. Well what do you know, they didn’t have it, not saying they took it out of my pocket, just trying to work out how the headphones could have been unwound from the body, unplugged and how the sticky silicon skin could actually allow it to slip out from and extremely deep pocket with a pocket flap keeping all safe…hmmm.. oh well…. live and learn.

Still all in all it was great night and as the iPod was over 3 years old I had attached pretty much zero $$ value to it, and I get a great excuse to get an iPod touch.

Love the iPhone

admin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 04:06:00 +0000