Everything is running smoothly. You’ve installed WinterBoard to make your theme look shiny and sweet. Perhaps you’ve installed some Android apps such as AndroidLock to add some of the beloved features found in Android to your iPhone. **Maybe you’ve even purchased MyWi to tether your iPhone to your laptop & actually take advantage of your “unlimited” data plan.

But what happens when your Jailbreak breaks? It’s happened to all of us, and is bound to happen to you if you are constantly changing your theme functions or installing new repositories and unofficial Apps.

What does one do when their phone goes into the dreaded “Apple Screen of Death” and their iPhone becomes an  iDoorstop? Is all lost? Nope. It’s software, and software is always reversible.

So let’s start by trying to figure out what you actually did to your poor iPhone to make it stop breathing. ***Afterward, I’ll guide you through what to do to bring your iPhone back up and running in no time.

Before you do any of this, and especially before you jailbreak your phone for the first time, make sure to back it up in iTunes. You’ll need that backup for later if your phone becomes unresponsive.

Editor’s Note: I’m not going to tell you how to Jailbreak your phone. Check your good ol’ friend Mr. Google.

Here is a list of known issues that will cause a Jailbroken iPhone to crash and become unresponsive:

• Installed a bad or unsupported repository in Cydia or Rock My Phone. A repository is a feed of items (apps) that become accessible to you once you add the link to the “list” hosted somewhere on the internet. If this list isn’t made correctly, or if it’s just not yet supported by Cydia or Rock (the Jailbroken equivalents of the App Store) then your iPhone may become confused and crash. Don’t install Cydia repositories inside Rock and vice- versa.
• Installed an app over an app. If one of your apps isn’t working correctly, you may need to reinstall it. But DO NOT simply download it again and install over the one you already have installed. If you do, the permissions of the disk inside your iPhone will become corrupt because two things are trying to access them at the same time – the system, and then the current reinstall process. If you don’t want to “brick” your phone then make sure to remove the app first. This can easily be done inside Cydia or Rock.
• An App didn’t install correctly. Yeah, something happened, and more than likely something became corrupt. Sorry, friend, it’s time to restore or re-jailbreak. See below.
• Installed a bad App. One of the downsides to Jailbreaking is that you can now install almost any iPhone supported App out there. But these Apps aren’t tested and verified by Apple – they are made by just about anybody and can contain malicious code or are buggy enough to crash your whole system. Unless you know the ins and outs of SSH, it’s just to restore or re-jailbreak. See below.
• Trying to update your Jailbroken iPhone. Don’t even think about it. If your phone is Jailbroken, why would you even think about installing an official Apple update over it? That’s a guaranteed break right there. Just wait for someone to crack the update or remove your Jailbreak and install if you rather have the official software update. See below.
• Something else. Random OS crash, out of memory, overheating, almost anything that can cause a computer to crash can, and will, cause your iPhone to crash. In most cases, especially with a Jailbroken iPhone with newly made changes, your phone will go into restore mode and you’ll be forced to start over. See below.

So now you know what you did and what probably caused your iPhone to die. Let’s bring it back from the dead. Check out the Restore or Re-Jailbreak guide after the jump.

Restore or Re-Jailbreak.

The main question that everyone always asks is “Can I permanently damage my iPhone by Jailbreaking?”

Well, gardware wise, there’s an extremely slim chance. I have yet to see one, but a malicious, unverified App could use so much processing and memory resources that could cause the iPhone to overheat. The iPhone has a security function built in to shut the phone down in case of such a tremendous spike in heat to protect it, but technically, there’s a slim chance the hardware inside can become permanently damaged. Apple looks at the code in all of the Apps that hit the App store and they see if that App could ever be a cause of hardware failure. If it looks good, they approve it. If it looks bad, or if it’s made by Google and has to do with voice, they reject it. When you install a Jailbroken App, Apple isn’t and probably has never looked at it.

Software-wise, absolutely not. Like I said before, software is always reversible and no matter what you install on your iPhone you’ll be able to restore it. If you have any type of software problem on the iPhone, unless you cracked the hardware boundaries and flashed the whole device to your own homebrewed creation, your phone is fixable.

DFU mode (Device Firmware Upgrade), or as some like to call it “Recovery Mode” because it sounds comforting, is something that will always be there. If your root system becomes corrupted to a point where you can’t boot your phone, all you have to do is put your iPhone in DFU mode, connect it to iTunes, and restore. It’s a guaranteed fix.

In most cases, your iPhone will know there’s something wrong and will automatically put your phone in DFU Mode. It looks like the picture above.

If your iPhone is confused to a point where it has absolutely no idea that it’s broken (a common characteristic in insane people), then you’ll have to force it into DFU mode. It’s easy: 1) Open up iTunes on your computer. 2) Plug in or dock your iPhone. 3) Hold the screen “lock” key at the top and the “home” button on the bottom. Your iPhone will reboot. 4) Keep holding down your home button and your iPhone will put itself in recovery.

In a few moments iTunes will recognize it and you’ll be able to restore it to that backup I told you to make earlier on. You made one, didn’t you? If not, then you’ll just have to start over with a fresh iPhone OS install while at the same time losing your MMS, photos, Apps, etc. iTunes will guide you through this the rest of the way until your iPhone is back up and running.

Now, call your mom. She’s been waiting and your phone can now actually make a call.

After you know all is well, if you want, you can go ahead and Jailbreak again. Just don’t do whatever you did in the first place to break it. Now for the legal stuff:

* I do not encourage you to Jailbreak your iPhone. It is illegal and will void your warranty with Apple.
** I am not responsible for any additional data charges you may incur while using unofficial apps and/or tethering your iPhone without the appropriate plan.
** I am not responsible for any damage or software issues your iPhone may experience by following this guide.

When a brand new product comes out on the market, especially if it is made by one of our favorite companies, we just have to have it. I’m not talking about the new cellphone model that Motorola comes out with every week, I’m talking about something brand new and extremely over-hyped that places itself in the back of our mind until we have it in our hands.

For example, remember the Xbox 360 launch? It was one of the first consoles ever that caused people to camp out in the blistering cold weeks before just to snag one of the ten consoles that a brick and mortar store received. The PlayStation 3 and the Wii caused similar effects upon consumers, but they weren’t nearly as competitive as the Xbox 360 launch.

But what happened with the Xbox 360? There were massive failure rates – over half of the consoles sold to early adopters overheated and had to be replaced. Microsoft responded by redesigning the system.

What did they do? Well, for starters, they implemented a new cooling system to make sure that the “Red Ring of Death” was a thing of the past. Sure, I’m sure it still happens here and there, but it’s not the market mess that it was the first year that the Xbox 360 was out.

So it’s a year later and Microsoft is fixing the consoles and preparing the huge shipments of the new ones with the new cooling system. The PlayStation 3 is about to be launched and everyone is talking about HDMI. “The PlayStation 3 has HDMI and is truly HD unlike the Xbox 360″, they said. “I’m going to get a PlayStation 3 because component cables suck,” they said. So what did Microsoft do? They took this perfect time of reconstruction to add HDMI and even larger hard drives to compete with Sony.

Hey, those of you who camped out in the cold, took off work and school, and even that guy who was followed home from an Xbox 360 launch and got robbed, guess what? Your crappier console is going to have problems and not have some new features because you early adopted! Sounds fair, right?

This is a perfect example of how early adopting is a bad thing to do. Sure, you can be one of the first to use it, but if you wait, something good may happen. A new generation is always around the corner which will almost always include new features and functionality for the same price or even cheaper. And to those of you who paid $600+ for a PS3 on eBay the first week that came out, I truly feel sorry for you. The PS3 now has more harddrive space and functionality than ever, and they’ve been in stock only a few weeks after you got yours on eBay.

When GameStop asks you if you want to pre-order the next Xbox, the Xbox 720 or whatever, say no. The next generation of gaming is going to be the same or worse. Everyone sees now that controlling the market and keeping supply under demand increases hype, and thus allows the market to flourish with software sales before hardware. Thanks, Nintendo.

Does this apply only to gaming? No! Think about the iPhone. Thousands camped out outside of malls and Apple Stores to get their hands on the first generation of the device – the one that didn’t have 3G. Apple dropped the price $200 only a few months after it came out. Thanks to Steve Jobs and his Open iPhone Letter, Apple did offer a $100 store credit for those who got it first, but they were still out another $100. Also, less than a year later, the iPhone 3G was announced which deemed the first generation pretty much useless. Then, less than another year later, the iPhone 3GS came out, which is the only version of the iPhone that runs iPhone OS 3.0 smoothly.

But what about the people with extra cash in their pockets that needs to own absolutely ever generation out there? They are the fortunate ones in the technology world, I suppose, but companies need to think about everyone by increasing the lifespan of their products. Apple especially leaves out features just so they can have a new update next year and make everyone buy the almost same product again.

So just remember this. If you early adopt, you will be disappointed. If you buy, for example, the iPad (3G version) now, which lacks some features that were hoped for and it is all during the transition of everything to 4G and beyond, you will be disappointed. It doesn’t have a camera – within a year it will. When something is announced, let everyone else get it first and see how things go. If there’s no announcement of a change to the lineup shortly thereafter (6 months), then grab one. If a new generation comes out, then you’ll be the cool kid on the block. It pays off to wait.

When most think about Yahoo!, they think about their slick web portal and their famous search engine that is still loved and used by many. But Yahoo! didn’t just create search engine technology, a free (ad supported) email service, and an easy place to grab the latest news – they also put their foot in the door as an internet registrar, selling domains and hosting services for all to use. For the past few years, they have also had $1.99 domains for the first year for any new account created with Yahoo!. Sound like a good deal, right? Think again.

So say you’re new to the whole internet startup thing and want to start a personal blog to see how everything works. You stumble upon Yahoo!’s $1.99 for the first year of a domain and find the domain you want. You fill in your info, put in your billing information, and see that shiny submit button. You move your mouse down to it, raise your finger on your mouse and…STOP. Close your browser right now.

You see, you will indeed get that domain for $1.99 for the first year, but will be automatically rebilled for $34.95, the most ridiculous pricing for a domain ever, for the next year. Good with canceling something before it bills you? You don’t know when Yahoo! will auto-renew and charge your card or PayPal account, because they do it 2-3 weeks before the expiration date. Late me explain.

Almost every other domain registrar will bill you for the recurring year the day that the domain expires, not weeks before. What Yahoo! will do is automatically renew your domain and bill your account before you even think about your domain expiring. Once billed, they instantly send the renewal information to their registrar headquarters and there you go, you have another year of your domain at an insane price with absolutely no chance of a refund. This has happened to me twice now and I have since transferred all my domains to GoDaddy.

Yes, Yahoo! sends a “reminder” email before they bill you, but they do it literally the night before. If you don’t catch that email in time, even though your domain has a few weeks left on it to complete the original full year you agreed on, you’re out $34.95.

This is an example of a nasty gimmick that a company plays on its customers in a time of financial need. Yahoo! is hurting, and therefore they think it’s right to rip people off. Yahoo! knows that the majority of the costumers who take advantage of the $1.99 domain deal won’t remember about the recurring fee and even if they do, they won’t know exactly when to cancel or transfer the domain.

Another thing, it’s really easy to transfer your $1.99 domain to somewhere like GoDaddy, but make sure you do it a month or two before your year is up with Yahoo!. Also, make sure to cancel your domain at Yahoo! once your start the transfer process – even though you have transferred your domain elsewhere, if you don’t cancel your “plan” with Yahoo!, they will still bill you $34.95 for nothing. This, my friends, is called stealing.

If you were to ask me what to do, I’d say avoid Yahoo! in its entirety in terms of a registrar. Most likely something will go wrong and you’ll be charged. You’ll call their billing department to complain and they’ll tell you that your domain has already been renewed with the registrar and they won’t be able to refund what they took from you – a price that’s worth almost 3-4 years of a domain renewal even though they will just give you one. Unless you are searching for pictures of dogs, though you should probably be doing that with Google or Bing, stay away from Yahoo!.

Though getting your site or content on Digg or Reddit is a great way to start, it’s not always possible. Write up a summary of your site and send it to these following sites. Each link will directly send you to their contact page:

1) KillerStartups: KillerStartups reviews 15+ sites a day, and displays basic information about your site and company to the world. Getting reviewed by them is a little tougher than some other sites, so make sure you have a “killer” site.

2) MakeUseOf: MakeUseOf is a large directory of web apps, with over 60,000 subscribed via e-mail or RSS. This can drive great amounts of traffic to your site, and is very beneficial in the long run.

3) FeedMyApp: Almost any Web 2.0 startup sent here will be published. Users can rate and comment on your site, and some good traffic is generated.

4) TechSnack: TechSnack is a blog type site listing new websites on the internet. They are pretty good about checking your submission out, so you should submit your app and see what happens.

5) Post on forums. Don’t be annoying and make it sound like a commercial, just casually tell them they may enjoy using your site and that they should check it out. Also, make sure to tell them to comment and critique it, so they will be inclined to actually check it out. There may be more of a chance of a “flame war” on some sites rather than others, but if you have already have a good reputation on a forum, you should be fine.

There are a million web directories and review services out there, but these are the ones that have worked for us in the past and helped out with new startups. Merely getting reviewed on one of the first four sites may spark other sites to review you, and in no time you will have 15-20 links to your site. Your users will be happy, the internet will be happy, and most importantly, you and your company will be happy as well.

If you know of a site that has worked better for you and I didn’t include, list it in the comments.

[Tags]Seo Samurai, Advice, SEO, Tips, Startup, Exposure[/Tags]

Step 1. Create An Account: Twitter has one of the easiest registration processes of any social network. Head on over here, enter your full name, username, password, and email. That’s it! You can add some of the recommended random people on the next page but they are all extremely populated accounts. There’s a good chance that they won’t add you back, so unless there is a news network or politician that you would like to read on a daily basis, you can just skip this step.

Step 2. Follow Me: Here’s a deal for you. If you read this guide, and then follow me, making me one of your first followers, I’ll follow you back. Just click this link, click “follow”, and then send me a message as instructed on the next step.

Step 3. Send a reply (now called a mention): This is where the magic of Twitter starts happening. If you want to send a message to someone, all you have to do is type an “@” symbol in front of their name. For example, if you just followed me from step 2, and want to let me know about it so that I can follow you back, go to your Twitter page, and at the top type “@zea Hey! I just followed you!” or whatever your little heart desires, and of course without the quotes. If you want to reply to someone’s tweet, click the little button and it will automatically put the “@zea” in the type box for you, and tie your message to their reply.

Step 4. Your replies and checking a conversation: If someone replies to you or mentions you in their tweet, you will either see it in your public timeline or on your  “@username” link on the right sidebar. Here, you will see the respective tweet, along with a timestamp and conversation link under it. It will look something like this: 1:26 PM Apr 27th from Whoever in reply to zea. If you click the timestamp, it will take you directly to the tweet, or, if you click “in reply to” you can see what they are replying to.

Step 5. Direct Messages: If you want to tell someone something without the whole world seeing, then either click on your “Direct Messages” link in the sidebar, or instead of putting an “@” in front of their name, put a “D” or “DM”. This will send them a private message, and hopefully you’ll secret will remain a secret. Unless they decide to be a mean follower and reveal it.

Step 6. Get More Twitter Followers: Twitter isn’t Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, FriendFeed, Orkut, or any other one of those personal social network. Twitter is open to everyone, so following or contacting a random person is the cool thing to do. If you go to a friend’s page and see someone that might be interesting to you, and you want to follow their tweets, add them. If you want to get a lot of followers fast, add a whole bunch of people. Just not too many, or Twitter may ban you. Perhaps only a fourth of them will follow you back, but this is definitely an option. Make sure to update frequently – someone who doesn’t tweet will lose friends. And also, make sure you have a profile picture. Having the default avatar of 0_o is just creepy.

Step 7. Search: Searching Twitter is really fun, and useful to network with people with similar interests (trends), or a way to find people around you. Head on over to search.twitter.com, or use it in your sidebar for those select of you that have it enabled. Search for events in your home town, or find people tweeting about the stuff that you want to tweet about, and follow them. I’d recommend following a lot of the people in your city, so if something big is happening or going on, you’ll know about it.

Step 8. Remember What Twitter is For: Twitter isn’t a place to spam, write in all caps, be mean, or just plain annoying. That’s for other social networks. If you have somthing interesting or neat going on in your life, tweet about it. If you just got a new iPhone, tweet about it. If you are at a large event, tweet about it. If you want to yell at someone because they stole your girlfriend, head on over to Facebook.

Well, that’s my Twitter Starter’s guide. I hope new tweeters find this helpful, and I hope usual tweeters find this interesting. Twitter is really fun once you get going, and I hope your experience will be as good as mine.

[tags]Twitter, Social Networks, Facebook, MySpace, Tweet[/tags]

Sometimes you find yourself in a cyber-cafe, in class, or someplace where you are on your laptop and people can possibly look over your should to see what you are doing. Everyone has their usual routine of sites that they visit every day, but there are some that should just be passed over whilst being at one of these locations. Here is a list of the top 10 in no particular order:

1) Torrent/Warez Related Site – In almost every circumstance, you should wait until you are at home and in private before browsing today’s most popular torrents or new music to illegally download. Most of these sites are banned from usual popular contextual advertising networks, such as Google Adsense or Yahoo Publisher Network, and thus in order to for these sites to profit, they must resort to advertising networks condoning porn and adult related banners and pop-ups. Sure, you may be browsing something innocent like the SpongeBob Seasons Box Set, but there may be a picture based advertisement for Fleshlight above it.

2) Porn Site - This one is obvious, but you would be surprised how many cases there are of people pulling up their favorite porn site in a public area. I’m sorry, but sharing your foot fetish with the whole world is just plain embarrassing.

3) Dating Site – Most may have trouble comprehending the negative effects on your self image that dating sites have. The content on most dating sites aren’t inappropriate, but checking your matches in a public library or Panera Bread makes people feel awkward. Someone who hasn’t tried a dating service sitting behind you may change seats if you are checking out “SexyMan09″ on Match, eHarmony, or any other service like this. There is also the extremely unlikely possibility that “SexyMan09″ is the one sitting behind you, and that would just be plain weird.

4) Online Banking – Would you going around telling random people that you have $1.00 left in your checking account? Unless you have an extremely high interest rate, then probably not. Most Online Banking sites have a small font when showing your current balance, but some don’t, and there’s always the chance that someone can snoop over and see how poor you really are. Either that, or someone with good eyes could find something could find something personal about you, like your name or account number. Keep Online banking for portable devices or in the privacy of your home.

5) WebMD - Browsing WebMD for entertainment in the first place, whether you are out in public or at home, is generally a bad idea. The site is created to easily access and discover many diseases whether you have them or not. Unless you are a hypochondriac or don’t want to become one, only use WebMD for personal research related to symptoms that you truly have. Now, looking up an STD for the hell of it in public will indeed make everyone around you think that you have that STD. People that don’t know you will become paranoid if you are looking up Tuberculosis and you just so happen to cough in their general direction.

6) Wikipedia: For the most part, Wikipedia is safe to browse in a public area. However, beware that each link within the articles link to another article of the respective topic. Be careful though, before you know it you will be at the male reproductive page and there are some images within that article that may make some people laugh at you.

7) StumbleUpon: One of the best ways to waste some time is to stumble around the internet with StumbleUpon. For those of you that aren’t aware with the service, users click on a “Stumble!” button on a special toolbar which takes them to random sites that have been submitted. However, many don’t realize that adult content is indeed mixed in with other sites, and unless you set your settings to block this adult content, you may StumbleUpon something inappropriate and make many people feel uncomfortable around you, especially if it has automatic audio like a lot of sites unfortunately do on StumbleUpon.

8 ) Craigslist – Craigslist is barely moderated, and so almost anything goes. You may find yourself clicking on a Mint Condition Original Nintendo Console and a male prostitute service may pop up…with pictures. Be careful.

9) Yahoo Answers – Unless you are searching for the answer of the Universe, or something that almost everyone cares about, be careful in public while searching through answers. Each question has the largest font on the page and it can easily be seen from 10-15 feet back. Yahoo Answers has almost every sort of question, and if you are looking at one entitled, “Where do babies come from?” then some people around you may wonder.

10) Facebook – If you walk into a libary, cyber-cafe, or school-campus, you may see at least a few people on their Facebook page. This is more dangerous than you think, because not only could someone easily get your first and last name, they could see an extremely embarrassing picture of you. It is almost instinctive to click on a link saying “Mr. Smith tagged you in a photo” – especially if last night was one that you didn’t remember. Pulling up a picture that you are unaware of in existence and wouldn’t want anyone around you, let alone anyone on the internet seeing, it may be a bit uncomfortable for you and everyone close by. Stick to Facebook Mobile or browse it very cautiously when in public.

There were a few runner-ups, such as masked links provided from TinyUrl, but if you generally avoid visiting these sites in public areas things should turn out okay. That, or you can sit in a corner of the coffee shop; just make sure there isn’t a large window behind you.

[Tags]Torrents, Online Dating, Match, eHarmony, Online Banking, WebMD, Wikipedia, StumbleUpon, Craigslist, Yahoo Answers, Facebook, Cyber-Cafe, Starbucks, Coffee, Public, WiFi, Laptop, Mobile[/Tags]