Why rival phone makers should be afraid of the iPhone Jailbreak community.
February 27th, 2010
I have an iPhone and love it. Admittedly there are some shortcomings that other phone manufacturers have highlighted on that there wares can do that the iPhone cannot. Well, after jailbreaking my iPhone I can confidently say that the iPhone hardware as is can handle all those missing capabilities and the software already exists.
My friend pointed out to me that jailbreak mods don’t count because the average consumer couldn’t enable then and a majority of users would never experience the expanded feature set jailbroken software offers.
Here is what I say. The rivals are chasing a ghost. Many of the features and advantages other phones may offer and highlight are a simple modification away. The software already exists, it works, the iPhone is fully capable.
The dark side to Apple is that they leave a lot off the table. They have a lot of technology ready to go but won’t realease while their current products are still hot sellers and miles ahead of the competition. If sales start slipping or the guys in Cupertino feel threatened, they can release these features at the drop of a hat.
If you really want to beat Apple and the iPhone, your going to have to take a page out of their book – Think Different 
A Thought on Craigslist, Sales, and Selling.
February 19th, 2010
Sales Tip #7 – If you’re quoting a sale/special price, state the full price first then present the discounted price.
Right now pretty much the only advertising we do for Refined Pixel is on Craigslist; We run 2 in Chicago and Columbus every day. I spent some time creating a nicely formatted ad that worked with craigslist’s rudimentary formatting rules which is about the same as designing an html email. You can check out one of the ads here.
Honestly the plain text ads seem to be about as effective as the formatted ones but I definitely notice a pick up in activity when I run the ad for several days or weeks in a row. Since Refined Pixel has only been around a few months I pitch the ad as a portfolio builder sale. I think it’s been a good way to stand out in the crowded market that is craigslist.
When I would quote prices for prospective projects I would quote the discounted price and many times the client would ask something along the lines of,
“Is that the sale price?”
That question can really take the wind out of a sales pitch. From now on I’m going to quote the full market price and then offer the discounted sale price. I think this method will eliminate any potential confusion on the customer’s behalf and will make for a more dramatic and compelling sales pitch. I will let you know how it works after I try it a few times!
The Secret to initiating iPhone DFU Mode
February 7th, 2010
I mod/hack/jailbreak my iPhone six ways to Sunday and I’ve bricked it more than a few times along the way. When it first happened I was for a loss, I couldn’t get out of the Apple logo screen loop and I couldn’t initiate recovery or DFU mode. I didn’t know if I had messed up my phone that bad or if I wasn’t following the instructions for getting into DFU mode correctly. Well, you should be able to enter DFU mode no matter what, it’s just tricky to do. After much trial and tribulation I have come up with a fool-proof process for getting an iPhone into DFU mode…
Step 1) Turn the phone on, connect it to a computer, and open iTunes. Even if your phone gets stuck at the Apple logo screen, turn it on.
Step 2) Reset the phone by holding the power/sleep and home buttons. Keep holding both buttons for 10 seconds.
Step 3) Release the power/sleep button after counting to 10. Keep holding the home button.
Step 4) In just a moment iTunes should pop up a message saying your iPhone is now in DFU mode.
That’s all, hope it works for you! Oh and P.S. – don’t update to 3.1.3 if you have any interest in jailbreaking your iPhone!!
Welcome to the new digs…
January 10th, 2010
If your reading this your one of the first few people to visit this site. Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate it! I know it’s not much to look at right now but I’ll be working on the site regularly and once I get it all set up and I start learning the ropes of blogging (writing mostly) I think I can make this site interesting and worthwhile. This post is gonna be kinda long and all over the place. It has a lot of background and stories in it. I’ll probably end up editing and breaking some of it out to other pages on the site but if you have a little time to kill, do check it out in it’s current form! Continue reading this entry »
rEFIT Icon/Graphics Pack
January 6th, 2010
*** I have to clean up the icon pack before I put it up here, until then this article is incomplete!
I recently upgraded my MacBook Pro with extra ram, a new hard drive, and Snow Leopard. When I started getting everything setup, I spend a good amount of time getting my boot camp partition working well with Windows 7 Ultimate x64. Continue reading this entry »