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Tech News & Commentary
Jonathan in Panama City Beach, Florida listening on Supertalk 94.3 WXRZ calling in via the App asked: “I need to know about how to roll back my iPhone iOS 6 to 5.1.1”
Well, there is no legitimate way of doing this. The only way to do it, is to Jailbreak your phone but we don’t recommend it because you can void your warranty or even ‘brick’ your phone. Now, that being said, we do know of a process to do the downgrade.
Also, this process only works on iPhone 3GS to 4S, it doesn’t work on iPhone 5. Anyway, these are the steps on how to do the downgrade.
First, you’re going to download a program called “Redsn0w” version 0.9.15 b1.
Second, you need to download iOS 5.1.1
Both of these downloads can be found using a search engine, like google.
Third thing you do is jailbreak your iOS 6, and remember it will be a Tethered jailbreak.
Now that you’ve jailbroken your iPhone on iOS 6, run Redsn0w again, except this time click on EXTRAS, then MORE, then RECOVER, then scan your 5.1.1 iOS
Now get your iPhone, plug it into the computer and put your phone into what’s called DFU mode.
Once you got it in DFU mode, you go back to Redsn0w, and click on EXTRAS, then MUCH MORE, then DISTANT.
After that Redsn0w should automatically downgrade your phone.
Remember though this process can void your warranty with apple or any other retailer as well as brick your phone, so honestly I don’t recommend you doing this.
If you had ever backed up your iPhone to your computer using iTunes and you still have a backup of the phone from the time when you were running iOS 5.1, you might be able to use that to roll back your phone.
We do need to remind you that while you can still legally jailbreak your phone, it is no longer legal to unlock it. If anything you do to your iPhone unlocks it to run on another carrier’s network, that is now a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and you can in fact face legal consequences for doing it.
We’re stunned at this, too. The wireless carriers snuck this one through in the dead of night. Don’t you love politicians?
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
Mike in Pembroke Pines, Florida listens via the iPhone App asked: “I’m about to upgrade my phone. I currently have an iPhone 4. I don’t know if I should go with an iPhone 5 or even a Galaxy Note 2. I can see thta they’re both great phones. I’m just not that thrilled with the iPhone 5. I feel that the Note has some great features. wanted to see in comparison, what you guys think.”
Neither device is perfect and there are definitely areas where the Galaxy Note 2 bests the iPhone 5 and vice-versa. The 1st and probably biggest thing you’ll notice is the size of the phone. With the iPhone 5 screen being a little bigger than that of the 4. Upgrading from a 3.5 inch screen, to a 4 inch screen. However the Galaxy Note has a 5.5 inch screen, which is great for viewing, but can also make it a bit difficult for storage — like in your pocket.
Next you can look at data storage size. The Note 2 comes with 16GB internal storage which can be expanded with a memory card. Where as the iPhone5 come with 16, 32 and 64 GB options, that can not be expanded. Battery life is a little better on the iPhone 5 but that tends to vary based on the user.
The best thing to do is to figure out which features meet your needs the most, and look to see which phone meets those needs better. Keep in mind, when switching from Apple to Android, you will need to rebuy a lot of your material (such as your paid apps). That is always something to consider when switching.
We would recommend taking some time to see what phone would work best, and if you get a chance, try going to a store and ask to play with the phones to get a better feel for it. If you need any more help, feel free to call us back, and we can provide even more specific details.
What it will likely come down to, however, is apps. Still, even today, after all this time, iOS has the app edge over Android, and everybody else for that matter. If an app is available only for one platform, it will be iOS, generally speaking. And when you compare the iOS and Android versions of apps, you will likely find that the iOS version just feels smoother and sharper.
A lot of app developers will talk to you about how Apple devoted so much time and effort to screen updates and user interface, while Google wasn’t as focused, and as a result iPhones update their screens very well and their apps feel smooth.
But the Galaxy Note II is a unique product, a combination phone and tablet that actually works, and offers great support for a pressure sensitive stylus (something iPhones and even iPads cannot).
Which one is better? Whichever one you like better, we’re pretty confident in saying, for you…will be better.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
Guests in this hour:
Sam Cervantes, CEO –Solidoodle
Seth – listens to the podcasts – is calling in via the App: “I’m looking for a podcasting app for my Android phone so I can better enjoy your podcast and other podcasts. Thank you”
You have several options, but some of the most popular ones are not free.
Two of our favorites are Doggcatcher and BeyondPod. BeyondPod is the most expensive one of the two, it sells for $7 and it includes some options that might appeal to you if you download many different podcasts, for example, you get control over how much data the app is allowed to use and, when podcasts can be downloaded, you can set automatic downloads, and sync with Google Reader.
Doggcatcher is slightly cheaper, it costs $5, and it also has some premium features, like remembering where you left off on whatever file you were playing, and variable speed playback, so you can speed up spoken podcasts. It will also recommend other podcasts based on the ones you subscribe to.
You do have free alternatives, Podkicker is not totally free, but freemium, you can use an ad-supported version for free, but if you want to lose the ads or access automatic downloads via WiFi, you can pay $3 for the pro version.
ACast is also free, it will let you disable ads for $4, and it can also download episodes automatically.
So you have plenty of options, BeyondPod and Doggcatcher have many, many fans, so they may be worth considering, but you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding plenty of alternatives if you don’t think they’re worth the price.
For more information tune in to Hour 2 of our podcast. Just click the red arrow in the upper right column on this page.
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