AnkiMiniSync Version 0.1, an ‘offline’ sync script for AnkiMini (on the iPad)

Since I didn’t want to use the Anki Online service to sync AnkiMini on my jailbroken iPad and Anki on my Laptop I always had to copy the recent version from/to my iPad over ssh (sshfs). To automate that task a bit and save me some time I wrote this little sync script. It basically compares the two .anki decks in the local and the remote folder and replaces the older with the newer version. It does however -NOT- read the .anki file and merge the files properly. That means you can only work on one machine and then have to sync before you start working on the other one. It also means working on more than one mobile device is not possible (well, it’s possible but you’ll lose data through the sync process).

There are still some restrictions in this first version:

-Your username and directory where the Anki deck is stored must not contain any whitespaces (will be hopefully be solved in v.0.2)

-You can only sync one deck at a time (functionality to sync whole folders is planned for v.0.2)

-The .anki folder must be directly in the mounted directory of the sshfs volume

-You should have public key authentification turned on

-As far as I know this script only works on *nix systems, I have only tested it on OSX so far

If you encounter any bugs or problems besides the above don’t hesitate and write a comment! Don’t write any bug reports in the Anki support forums or to the developers of Anki (or AnkiMini), they have nothing to do with this.

Contributions to the code are always welcome of course. You are also allowed to use the code or parts of the code anywhere else, though it’d be nice to notify me somewhere along the way.

Link to ankiminisync-0.1.py

Spirit – the jailbreak for the iPad

Today the Dev-Team has released their latest stroke of genius: Spirit is the name of the latest untethered jailbreak for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Before you jailbreak your device you should take two steps:

1. Save the SHSH blob of your device. To do so you either have to download the necessary tool for Windows or Mac or edit your hosts file (/etc/hosts) to point “gs.apple.com” to “74.208.10.249” (Saurik’s server)
2. Perform a full backup with iTunes! Especially if you’re trying to jailbreak your iPad – the whole procedure as well as Cydia on iPad is still considered beta.

Then go to http://spiritjb.com/ and download the jailbreak application for Mac or Windows. The jailbreak itself is as easy as one single click.

How to download / buy iPad Apps that are unavailable outside the U.S.

That was a big buzzkill yesterday at first: After I unwrapped the iPad and did the first few touches on its beautiful glistening screen, I had to realize that in my country the App Store for the iPad is unavailable until the official launch (whenever that will be…).

A solution was quickly found, with a $ gift card or certificate you can open an account in the US-Apple Store. I just opened another account on an address of a relative in the US. For everyone who isn’t lucky enough to have a relative or friend in the states you can open it  to an imaginary address. Although I have no idea how legal or illegal that is, so you might want to check that first before doing something illicit. I won’t write any stupid disclaimer here, you’re a big boy/girl.

These gift cards can be acquired on eBay, just do a search on your local eBay site. Searching for “US apple gift certificate” on ebay.co.uk should give you similar results like this:

Search results

If you don’t want to wait for your code take a vendor who scans the codes and mails it to you – worked pretty well for me, I had the code in less than 15 minutes.

Next step is, after changing the country by accepting the terms and condition of the US, to enter your coupon code next to “REDEEM COUPON CODE” or similar and select “none” under the payment methods.

That’s it, you should be able to have access to all the sweet iPad apps available now! Have fun and keep this trick in mind for future Apple products.

Apple releases new ‘tablet netbook’ called iPad

On yesterday’s Apple-Keynote the highly anticipated Apple Tablet named iPad had been released. The usual downtime (some people also call it the ‘drumroll’) of the Apple online shop failed to appear, instead you can have a look at the iPad on http://www.apple.com/ipad/.

As it looks from there the device is rather an oversized iPod touch than a real Mac, but the name already suggests that. This comes with the advantage that you have access to thousands of apps already available in the AppStore. But nevertheless it seems to lack usb ports, which I find to be rather annoying when you want to transfer big files because with bluetooth or wifi this takes an eternety. Not to mention that bluetooth filetransfer could be blocked by the firmware like in other Apple devices. A camera is not built in but can be added via the 30-pin connector on the bottom of the device. Lastly, I really hope there will be a compatible pen available so you can eg. take hand written notes or letters.

When the iPad is available for purchase there will definitely be more articles on it. For now I’ll leave you with some impressions from the iPad:

iPad [Source: Apple]

iPad size and weight [Source: Engadget]

iPad tech specs [Source: Engadget]

iPad display [Source: Engadget]

Steve Jobs with his newest toy [Source: Engadget]

iPad in use [Source: Engadget]

iPad prices [Source: Engadget]

iPad on the dock with external keyboard [Source: Engadget]

The iPad desktop [Source: Engadget]

iPad featuring iBooks [Source: Engadget]

iPad featuring iBooks [Source: Engadget]

The iPad will feature games, such as NFS Shift [Source: Engadget]

The iPad App Store [Source: Engadget]

iPad running an iPhone app unscaled [Source: Engadget]

iPad featuring a scaled iPhone app [Source: Engadget]

Watching a movie on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

The iPad will be fully compatible to sync with Apple’s iPhoto [Source: Engadget]

mail on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

Youtube on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

iPad [Source: Engadget]

Google Maps with streetview on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

iCal on the iPad [Source: Engadget]

iPad’s generous on-screen keyboard [Source: Engadget]

Reading the newspaper on the iPad [Source: Engadget]