So over the past couple years I have been paying around 110-125 a month for my cable services (TV and Internet). But today that has all changed. I called them up and was looking at dropping just the digital and DVR feature to try and see how much that would save me and that was a whopping 5 dollars even though my bill shows me paying 10 for the hardware rental alone…. Gotta love their bundling rip offs to get you to pay more.

So… that info didn’t make me happy to hear, so instead I decided to down grade both my TV and Internet.I changed back to the standard RoadRunner and Basic TV (total of 24 channels woot woot).

This new package has brought my bill down to 50 dollars a month saving me 75 bucks a month! 75 bucks a month!!! So with that 75 extra in my cash each month I am going to be adding Hulu Plus to my month bill it’s only 7.99/mo and that with my already Netflix access I’m almost good to go.

I already have the Apple TV (2nd gen), which gives me a great Netflix experience along with access to my already decent size media library and worst case iTunes Rental access. Now, I just have to find the best method to access Hulu Plus. My first thoughts are a Roku box, but I am also very tempted to get a PS3 so I’d have a blue-ray player too, but after a few months of the $75 dollars savings. I will be able to justify either of these options and until then I have my laptop with a display port to HDMI output for the TV.

So today I say goodbye to my crazily overpriced TWC bill and it feels really really good.

A couple weeks ago I set out to try and figure out, how to install the same application twice on the iPhone. The results where slim to none and there was only one site I found that had promise, but every time I tried it the app would crash before it could fully load. So I decided to take the little information I had learned and figure it out on my own. And I am happy to say I had success and have had the same application on the iPhone working for a week with no issues.

Watch the video or follow the step by step directions and if you have any issue getting it to work just let me know what app and I will see what I can do.

Directions

1. Open iTunes
2. Go into the Application section
3. Right click on the application you want to duplicate
4. Select Show in Finder (Show in Explorer on PCs)
5. Right click on the .ipa file and copy it to you desktop (or where every you’d like)
6. Replace the .ipa with .zip – An IPA files is just another type of a .Zip file
7. Un-compress the zip file
8. Open the new folder and Go into the Payload folder
9. Right click on the App and select show package contents (MAC ONLY STEP, Should just be a folder on the Windows)
10. Find the Info.plist files and open it in you favorite editor. (I prefer Plist Editor Pro)
11. Change the “Bundle display” name to whatever you’d like. This is the name that will be displayed on the iPhone (optional step)
12. Change the “Bundle identifier” (I recommend just putting a 2 at the end.)
13. Save the file
14. Open your favorite FTP software and connect into your iPhone/iPod Touch
15. Navigate to the root directory and then into the Application folder
16. Transfer the application into this folder
17. Reboot or Respiring your iPhone/iPod and the application should now be somewhere on your home-screen
18. Open the App and enjoy

If you have any issue please watch the video above.

As most of you know I now have a Mac at work so I really don’t need to worry about this any more, but I gotta say I really wish I had this software back when I was messing with the Hackint0sh software installers.

Psystar the company that Apple would just love to destroy, has recently come out with a downloadable ISO file (disk image file) called Rebel EFI, this file when burned to a disk allows you to boot from it then use a normal OSX disk to install from, but this ISO also checks out all your hardware and get the correct drivers, so basically it take away all those hard and annoying hours of reinstalling the OS over and over again, until you have all the correct items checked to get it to boot.

So far the reviews I have seen have been pretty good, there is always going to be a few issues you may encounter with any solution, but if you already have a copy of OSX this is a free download so you might as well give it a shot. They have all the instruction on how to install everything on a WIki page you can fine here.

Good luck and let me know how it all works out.

UPDATE: apparently the 0.00 price tag is an error or a scam, The software requires an activation key they they do charge $49.99 for.

So a couple days ago my RTM (remember the milk) pro account expired on me. Normally I would just shell out the $25 bucks and go on, but with it so close to Christmas and my NYC trip, I really don’t want to spend any more then necessary right now, even though I do use it daily and I believe it is worth the cost.

However, as I was looking for a cheaper alternative. I noticed that RTM had a mobile version of there site. But even more importantly, I noticed that the push notifications from the RTM app were still coming through everyday. Now if I open the actual app I get a pro account required screen and get booted out, but to me the popup notifications is what I use the app for.

So, for all you iPhone/iPod-Touch users out there, all you need to do is download the RTM app from the app store, setup a trial account. Get the setting just the way you want them, use the app during the trial, then switch to the mobile version once your trial runs out. I also recommend creating a shortcut to the mobile version on your iPhone/iPod-Touch home screen. If you call it the same name as the RTM app it will have the same icon (see images below). After that I just moved the RTM app icon to my last home screen page and all is well and I get to keep my $25 bucks for my trip.

click images for larger view

It seems like almost every carrier is doing a top 5 (some even 10) list. With these lists they allow you to add 5 to 10 “friends”and no matter what carrier/provider they use, you can call for free and not waste any of your minutes. They all seem to have their own little names. AT&T calls it the “A-List” and Verizon calls it “My Fave Five”. But in the end it’s all the same.

Most of you are thinking, yeah, we know this already, but as I was changing some setting in my beloved Google Voice account I noticed that they allow you to change the number that appears when you received a call from someone. You can have either their number display, which is of course the default and what most people would want. But they also allow you to always have the google voice number show up with every call.

So my workaround is why not just add your google voice number to your top 5 list and give everyone that number. Then change it so that all incoming calls come from your google voice number and never waste your minutes on incoming calls again.

But thats not all, google voice allows you to make outgoing as well, by calling your google voice number, then dialing the number you want to call. So no wasting minutes on outgoing calls either.

Okay, now I know for some of you this just wont work. A lot of us love to always know who is calling before we answer the phone, but google helps with this as well. Google Voice give you control of what numbers you want to ring straight through, but it also give you the ability to have callers announce themselves first and/or just announce their number or name (if in contacts) and then gives you the ability to answer or send to voicemail.

Also, keep in mind you can still give out your real number to the other 4 in your list and anyone else who is worth wasting your minutes on. This workaround is meant to be given out to all those that call you constantly and love to talk for hours or perfect as a business line.

If you think this is something you could really use and want to give it a shot, I have 2 Google Voice invites to give out just leave a comment below and I will pick 2 at random and send out the invites later this week. Just be sure to add the tag “I want an Invite” to the beginning or end of your comment.