While the hacker community doesn’t have a ton of native applications for the iPhone out yet, there are some gems available such as Doom available for the OS X-based phone. The only issue with these hacks are that, well, they’re hacks. You need to be a hacker just to get them on your phone. But a new installer is helping many of us non-hacker iPhone users get some of the over a dozen applications onto our phone.

Logically titled, Installer.app is a free little utility that, yes, you need to install on your iPhone via command line. BUT after that, it’s Install City right on your iPhone via Wi-Fi! With Installer.app you can download and install applications right from the iPhone itself. You can also update and un-install all from your phone. Using the UIKit, Installer.app may be the way to get all these and future applications onto your phone until the next Apple firmware, sure to kill this great utility, or until Apple itself opens the doors to third-party applications. Give it a try. It’s free!

Most everyone with an iPhone has heard about the 22 step procedure to get custom ringtones on your iPhone and nearly all of these people move on in disappointment. Well, rejoice, iFuntastic is here!

iFuntastic will let you add custom MP3 or M4A ringtones on your phone as well as remove tones off the iPhone. Simply drag the file or files onto the iFuntastic GUI and click the plus icon and add it to your iPhone. That simple! You can also change the AT&T logo to whatever you’d like (I chose an Apple logo,) and reorder the application buttons on the home screen. With easy to follow directions and the simple drag-n-drop procedure, you’ll have a hacked iPhone in no time. I got my Cisco VoIP (aka CTU 24) ringtone as my default tone and my 10 other custom tones on my iPhone in just under four minutes. Piece of cake!

Now do note, the newly update iPhone update (1.0.1) BREAKS this hack. As is the custom with Apple, Jailbreak (the main component behind iFuntastic) no longer functions in the updated firmware. Further, if you do attempt to update your iPhone, iTunes will complain that it does not reqonize your iPhone and will restore it to factory defaults. Many have said they lost all their past SMS conversations as well as their customized settings for the phone in general. So, only upgrade if you’re looking for IMAP/Exchange folder displaying and the Safari hack patch.

Me? I’ve lived this long without my Exchange folders and I know what sites to avoid that I’d rather keep my custom ringtones instead. Once Jailbreak breaks the iPhone again, I’ll go for the update.

So, you’re kinda having buyers remorse, huh? Missin’ those custom ringtones on your free LG or Motorola phone you tossed to the junk drawer for that $600 iPhone of yours. “But I really love this phone!” Ya, ya, we know, we love it, too. But man, no custom ringtones? Come on, Sci-Fi ain’t that good and who’s going to use Motorcycle for a ringtone? It’s not even a Harley!

http://www.ccir.ed.ac.uk/~jad/ringtone/CTU24.mp3Well, don’t worry young iPhone 1.0 user, you can have custom ringtones. Anything you want in M4A (AAC) format. You just have to download some hacking software, perform some Terminal commands, kill -9 iTunes, and cross your fingers. That’s it! But hey, when your phone rings with the CTU Cisco ringtone, you’ll be looking sharp. Real sharp. Okay, okay. The link. Proceed with caution.

While not Safari on the iPhone, BareSite.com will help your web-challenged phone formatting web sites for that dinky screen of yours. Much like other web-reformatting sites, BareSite.com strips out many of the graphics and formats the text to easily flow on your small screen. BareSite.com told SvenOnTech that it removes, “‘unneeded content’ creating an extremely light mobile version that shows well on mobile devices.” Claiming that 90 percent of “unneeded content” is removed from your request, BareSite.com will save you a ton of cash if you’re on a metered Internet plan. Adding the ability to search the dictionary, weather, traffic, news, and even jobs, BareSite.com puts many needs right there in one place. Add the fact that it is very customizable, BareSite.com may be a new reason for you to use your Internet capable phone again.

I don’t get Entourage. In some ways it’s way better than Outlook. In others, it’s horribly worse. What gives Microsoft? Couldn’t it at least be consistent on some features like Insert Web Address? I mean, E-mail does use the Internet, right? That said, it would suppose that from time to time, one would want to add a link into a message for a friend to go visit. Right? But don’t try looking for Insert URL or Web Link in Entourage thinking it’ll be there like it is in Outlook. Nope. You’ll be stuck wasting time and coming up with a big empty. Lame.

This one’s for you Fletch. I found a work around.

Barry Wainwright is a man who has felt our pain and has written a few AppleScripts to get that stinkin’ web address into your Entourage message. He has written a script for both Firefox and Safari. Similar to a script I use for submitting articles to Macsurfer, Barry’s script will insert the address of the current web site you are at to the foremost Entourage window. It’ll insert the full address in pure HTML code. Just like that!

Thankfully, people like Barry understands our needs more than Microsoft. He’s got a pulse on the people. Thanks, Barry.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading Mac and PC technology company, announced today that its new Axiotron ModBook, the first and only OS®X Mac tablet solution, will be available with special discounted pricing for a limited time until February 1, 2007. Priced at only $2,199, the OWC’s Axiotron ModBook solution now includes a free GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receiver and free delivery in the U.S. for a total savings of $249 (price includes the cost of the Apple® MacBook™ and the comprehensive 1 year OWC solution warranty). After February 1st, pricing will start at $2,279 with the optional Axiotron™ GPS Module for an additional $149.

Macs and PCs are just different. Not just at the operating system level, but even at the hardware side as well. I’ve always felt Apple hardware is a superior design in computer technology but its lack of forward delete on its notebooks has been one con to using a Mac. Now, if you have a full sized keyboard, you can use the forward delete above the cursor keys (it has an X inside a forward arrow on it) but us MacBook, MacBook Pro, iBook, and PowerBook users don’t have such a key. Thankfully there are many keyboard mapping applications out there to assist in this problem.

One keyboard mapper I found is DoubleCommand. Doing more than just giving me my beloved forward delete, the freeware application sits in your System Preference’s Other section awaiting your command. Mmm, sorry for the pun. Other cool tricks include turning that ENTER key, down by your space bar and Command key to the right, into a Control, Option, or even a Function key. You can swap keys and their uses as well as make those HOME and END keys act more like they do on a PC. It’s just all good stuff, really!

Hey, I have installed and I’m a happy camper. I know you will be too when you give it a go on your system. Try it out and if you like it, give author, Michael Baltaks, a donation to keep him going.

So Microsoft thinks it’s got a winner with the release of Windows 5.2, a.k.a. Vista, huh? Heck, some may even like that new glass looking interface that appears somewhat familiar to certain Mac users. If you’re a certain Mac user that feels like dressing things up, like your Vista counter part, then you may want to make a change. A Changeling, in fact.

Changeling is an interesting (donate-ware) program that lets you skin OS X and Safari. Changing everything from the Finder to icons to the windows themselves.

Changeling is pretty nifty if you’re growing tired of brushed metal. With four different skins to choose from, such as Morpheus LCD and Eurydice Backlit LCD, your Mac will be looking fresher than a Microsoft marketing campaign for some Eskimos on its new refrigerator line to debut this winter!

I live in Firefox most of the day. That and iTunes as well as Entourage (or Outlook, depending which system I’m on.) I’ve been using a Konfabulator widget, iTunes Bar, for most of my interaction with the Apple music client, but it’s not exactly right. Then I stumbled over FoxyTunes some time ago and now with its 2.0 preview, the scales are starting to tip toward this sly little fox for best iTunes controller.

FoxTunes is a Firefox extension that lives on the bottom right of your Firefox browser. Displaying the artist and track name with an ingenious time indicator embedded below the text, you’ll find this information easily retrievable with a simple glance. Right of this information is your controls for playing, pause, skip, and so forth, as well as volume control just right of that. Oh yes, the song note icon is the first button of the play controls and when hovered over, up comes the info panel as seen above. You can also gather much information about the artist and the song by clicking on the song note with jumps to flikr for pictures and searches for lyrics to the song you are currently enjoying. The power doesn’t stop there as many more goodies exist in this small package.

Having ran 1.x for some time, I can tell you there is no noticeable hit on Firefox’s or your systems performance with FoxyTunes running. The 2.0 beta seems fine, as well. And like most things Firefox, this extension runs on both Macs and PC.

I remember listening to my dad as a kid talking about drive-in diners, cigarette commercials on TV, and a bunch of other fascinating things before my time that dated who he was. Today when I tell my children about vinyl records and how that’s how I once listened to my music, I see the same look in their eyes that I had when I gazed at my father about a quarter of a century ago. (Ouch, did I have to put it that way?!)

If you always wanted to make your own “record” like I did as a kid, now you can. The Vinyl Record Generator lets you put in the track name, credits, and band name. You can even select the stickers colors. With a click of a mouse, you’ll have you’re very own record. 45 or 78! Take a look at ours in full size.