August 24, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Can I Unlock My iPhone?

“Can I unlock my iPhone?”  This is, by far, the most common question we get, so I think it’s

time we put an end to it with this handy little chart brought you Kilkenny Computers.

For purposes of this article, we’ll give you a brief breakdown of the differences between jailbreaking and unlocking:

Jailbreaking – allows users to gain access to Apple’s operating system and download additional third party applications and themes otherwise unavailable through Apple’s App Store.

Unlocking – allows users to use their iPhone with other GSM carriers such as O2 or Vodafone. This comes particularly in handy if you are traveling outside of Ireland and wish to use your iPhone abroad. An iPhone must first be jailbroken before it can be unlocked.

Let’s start by figuring out the current firmware version installed on your iPhone. You can check your firmware version by following this path:

Settings > General > About > Version

*  Requires custom iPad firmware; you may lose GPS function
** Jailbreak only
***Tethered jailbreak only (this means that you will have to plug your iPhone into a computer each time you wish to turn it back on)

If you’re one of the lucky ones with the right firmware and would like your iPhone unlocked, then by all means, give us a call at 056-7780721 or contact us through the site directly.

Thanks for reading!

August 1, 2011 in Blog by Admin

The dates continue to come in on the launch of the iPhone 5

So all of these rumors about August and September on the iPhone seem to all be WRONG! Reading from a source today that seems to be in the know for Apple is stating that release of the much anticipated iPhone 5 will be in October. It seems the blackout information that I found yesterday would seem to be incorrect and that if there is a blackout the sources don’t think it would be for an iPhone launch. But the source didn’t give a solid date and just stated October as the month of choice. So now I have a third month to add to mix, maybe by next week I will find out the launch date will be post Thanksgiving. All in jest I do hope we have come to a final conclusion on when the final firm release date of the iPhone 5 will be.

July 28, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Are you a business on Facebook well life just got easier

It seems that on Tuesday Facebook decided it would be a great idea to release an online guide that gives you a step by step guide to help the small business use social networking of Facebook. Please visit facebook.com/business. This is what is called an online education center to help small business make a business page to help drum up more business.
Facebook’s new business web page does not come along with any new features — it simply puts a lot of information that may be handy for small businesses in one place. Perhaps most importantly, it serves as a nicely timed reminder that unlike Google+, Facebook encourages companies to use its service for company branding. “Facebook allows small businesses to create rich social experiences, build lasting relationships and amplify the most powerful type of marketing –- word of mouth,” a Facebook spokesperson wrote in an email on Tuesday afternoon. “We created Facebook.com/business to make it even easier for people to reach these objectives and grow.”
The funny part about this is that Google+ just announced how to be a business on their site so now Facebook is going blow to blow with Google and this could only make our social networking experiences better.

July 26, 2011 in Blog by Admin

The Lion roars to 1 Million downloads on day 1

So Apple in just one day announced they have seen over 1 million users purchase and download the Mac OS X Lion, which is the eight major OS that Apple has launched. The price tag for this lovely OS, $29.99 through the Mac app store and a physical release due sometime next month for around $69.99.
“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.”

Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

July 24, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Let’s talk about Microsoft’s money

So Microsoft’s announced a record for their fourth quarter and well it was huge. Revenue was marked at $17.37 billion for the quarter that ended on June 30th, 2011, which is about an 8% increase from last year. Now reasons for that are Microsoft Office 2010 which is being set as the fastest selling Office of all time. Windows Server, SQL Server and System Center also helped with this growth. The biggest winner for Microsoft by far was in the Entertainment and Devices Division and no I am not talking about the Windows Phone. This division grew 30% and that is large thanks to the Kinect, Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live service. No doubt we could see a surge of Xbox in the future as well, with all of the issues with Sony and there fight with hackers so people may skip the PS3 or the soon to be announced PS4 from what I hear in the rumor mills, and stick with Microsoft, and of course there is always Nintendo and the WiiU. The problem with the WiiU is that I worry there still will not be enough adult content to make it worth the price tag for many gamers. Yes it is innovative but I still don’t feel like it going to overtake the Xbox 360 or any other Microsoft systems that might come in the long run. So with that all being said Kudos to you Microsoft for being excellent in the field of gaming.

July 20, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Oh my Backup!

I have received a number of calls in the past week or so from panicked clients worried that they have lost all their data.

Whether they have got a virus, had a disk failure, their computer wont start or some other problem, the first question I always ask is “Do you have a backup?” – More often than not the answer is “No!”.

So why do we need backups?

Well your data can easily be lost whether by a disk failure, getting a virus, someone accidentally deleting files, or even a flood or other catastrophe.

Recovering data from damaged or failed hard disks is difficult and required specialist knowledge and equipment and is therefore very expensive. Also often data cannot be recovered at all due to excessive damage, or overwriting.

So my answer is to act now before it is too late – for your own sake. Hard drives fail all the time – it is only a matter of time, and backing up is easier than you think. It can be as basic as copying critical files onto a USB flash drive, CD or even emailing yourself a copy.

The other thing to remember is to keep your copy at a different location – if there is a fire or robbery your backup could be toast also (excuse the pun!).

So get started and make sure you have at least one backup of anything you would hate to lose.

If you would like something more elegant, like an automated backup that keeps regular backups both online and on a local external disk just give us a call or pop us an email.

July 1, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Google plus has potential to be bigger than Facebook

From all that I have read from the beta of Google+ many people are saying it is great, yes it does have its flaws one of which I wrote about yesterday but as stated that is why they beta test these things, to get more information to make it better before it goes live. The big thing that can make Google+ bigger than Facebook is that Google has at least over 1billion people using Google in some capacity and Google+ will just enhance that for the user. There is no wonder that Facebook teamed up with Bing to share friend information on what they like when you are search because Google+ will have that as well. The other key is the developers. From what I have read over 30% of Facebook users use applications off of Facebook. Now if you buy stuff from these games or applications Facebook takes about 30% of the revenue of those games. With the amount of money Google takes in from other revenue streams they could simply take nothing at all from these developers which would make the Google+ platform that much more appealing to work on. So there you have it so far some compelling reasons why Google+ could be bigger than Facebook.

June 29, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Google+ is here and it looks like Facebook

So Google+ has

arrived and like a stated a few months ago this is a long time coming. The funny thing about this new social media outlet is that it looks a lot like one we have already seen… Facebook. But lets talk about what is different. The thing that stands out the most to me is the Circles. Most important, Google+ is a social network of your friends, family and other contacts, a way to connect to these people, just like Facebook.

Unlike Facebook, Google+ is built from the ground up around the concept of sharing material with groups of people, called “Circles.”

This is a novel idea and personally I can’t wait to start just doing the circles there is so much more to show, so much that I have put this video and it gives you a quick overview of what Google+ is all about.

google plus

June 28, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Microsoft Kinect avatars in health care

Microsoft is trying to broaden the horizons of their product the Kinect. Which if you didn’t know is a motion camera with a microphone that can target your movements and record sounds and video. Well they introduced a brand new concept called avatar conferencing. The technology uses the sensor of the Kinect, camera and the mic to make cartoon type representations of people that can interact with others in a virtual space and it is to have realistic facial expressions and motions and is going to be in real time through natural movements and speech.
In a health-care demonstration, Craig Mundie showed the hypothetical example of a support group for people with diabetes, meeting virtually using the technology. By replaying the scene and focusing on a different part of the room, a health-care worker could see that one of the patients was struggling with something, based on in the emotions and body language expressed by her avatar. Which is shown in the picture above.
“If you get the animation of the eyes, eyebrows, face and mouth nominally correct, most of the major human emotions are accurately portrayed. You get a huge amount of cues even though you’re looking at their cartoon characters.” Stated Mundie.
This is a pretty cool concept and I would like to see how it will play out not just in these setting but in social ones as well, but it is a nice cool way to use the Kinect technology.

June 26, 2011 in Blog by Admin

Next iPhone to be dramatically different

So from what I have been reading from tons of different sources, the iPhone 5 is going to be much different than previous iPhones. The phone whose launch is primed for September is going to have a much stronger chip and is going to have a much more advanced camera. The phone is said to have the A5 processor which is actually a stronger chip than what is in the iPad 2. The camera is said to be 8 megapixels which is up by 5 from the iPhone 4. The phone is also said to run on the new iOS 5 which was seen at the developer’s conference earlier this month. With Android gaining much needed ground on Apple, this phone will have to have some drastic changes to make people want to switch. Now that you can go to either AT&T or Verizon for iPhones expanding their market will help slow down the Android surge, but for how long?