How to Transfer Photos & More From Your iPhone

I recently gave my mom my older phone but I wanted to make sure everything was kept the same, specifically the photos.  Unfortunately the computer she used to sync it with was not at the house so I had to find a solution online.  There were a couple of solutions, some straight from Apple, but didn't completely answer my question.

If you want to transfer the camera roll from your iPhone you can do that without any additional software (Apple Knowledge Base Article).  They have guides for Mac and Windows.

The limitation here is that it does not import other photos that you might have, such as albums, which is what I really needed.

There are a few applications out there but I decided to use DiskAid for Mac.  It's not free, and honestly is on the expensive side, but it did do the job and there is a Windows version if needed.  It's not limited to just importing photos, you can do videos, music, messages,  contacts, etc.

But in my case I just wanted to get the photos off of the phone and on to my computer so I could backup the phone, restore it to factory settings, and then restore from backup.

Besides having to authorize my computer everything went pretty smoothly.  I backed up the contacts to iCloud and iTunes took care of the rest.  After it is all said and done I was able to restore all the apps, photos (iTunes backs up the camera roll), contacts, messages, etc.

Other Apps:

Swiss Army Knife (does practically everything):
DiskAid (Windows/Mac)
iExplorer (Windows/Mac)

Music Only:
Senuti (Mac)
Sharepod (Windows/Mac)

Borderlands 2: How to Maximize Screen Resolution

Since I'm on vacation I finally have a chance to get back to playing some video games.  I bought Borderlands 2 a long time ago, during the Steam Summer Sale, but never had the time to play it.  I started playing it yesterday but found that the resolution was really poor and for some reason I wasn't able to change it to a higher resolution.  Well I was able to determine the reason was the Framerate option.  So, if you are unable to change the resolution to a higher resolution change the framerate option to something higher.  I've set mine to unlimited, using a 7950, and it works wonderfully, and I was then able to change the Resolution setting.

You can probably do it before starting the game or from within the game but I didn't notice the resolution issue until I started the game.

Hackintosh: P-State Stepper Error 18 at step 2 on CPU X Possible Fix

I was doing a reinstall on a system that has been solid but I kept encountering the "P-State Stepper Error 18 at step 2 on CPU X" error.  The motherboard is older so I knew to use a patched DSDT.  Well, after a few hours trying to figure out what in the hell was going on I was able to finally fix the issue.  The problem was that I was using the wrong patched DSDT BIOS version for my motherboard.

Silly me.

Once I used the correct patched DSDT for my BIOS version I was able to get the build working.  So if you are encountering this error just double check that you are using the correct patched DSDT for your motherboard and for your BIOS version.

If you're positive that you are using the correct patched DSDT for your motherboard and BIOS version you might want to try this SSDT Generator over at TonyMac.  I don't have any knowledge of what it does, but apparently it has helped a few people.

Hackintosh: Hard Drive Not Showing Up in Disk Utility During Mavericks Install?

If you are wondering why your hard drive is not showing up in Disk Utilty when you are installing Mavericks then the most likely culprit is that you forgot to set your BIOS to ACHI mode.  This isn't a big deal anymore with the newer boards that are coming out since this option is usually preset to ACHI, but if you have an older board you might want to check to see that it is not set to IDE.

I encountered this problem today on another Hackintosh I am building with older parts.

Cursor Lock, Keep the Mouse Within the Application Window

If you have played any RTS(Real Time Strategy, ie. Starcraft, Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, etc.) game it's common knowledge you mainly move around the map by dragging your mouse to the edges of the window.  Well, I recently started playing an older RTS game, in windowed mode, and the mouse wasn't being locked within the application window which was really annoying.  Even when the game was fullscreen it wouldn't work because I have a dual screen setup.  After a quick Google search I stumbled upon an app called Cursor Lock.  The idea is simple, it locks your mouse cursor within the application window.  In my case I use a hotkey to turn on/off the cursor lock.  Below are the steps on how I set it up:

First download it from here and install it.

The first thing I did was set a hotkey to turn on/off the cursor lock.  I set it to something I wouldn't normally press during a game which is the Pause key.

Next go to Shortcut and select User Mode.  Then make sure to select the Lock Region checkbox and set it to Window Interior.

Again, this is for setting it up for a Windowed Mode game.  A fullscreen game when using more than one monitor may not use the same settings.

The Window option, as opposed to Window Interior, would allow you to resize the window since your mouse can move to the edges of the window, while the Window Interior option will just keep the mouse within the window which would prevent any resizing misclicks.

Once you have that setup you can test it to make sure it works.  Remember to trigger your hotkey if it doesn't lock within the Cursor Lock window.

Now that it works you click the Create Shortcut button and name it whatever you wish.  I saved the shortcut to my Desktop which I then copied over to my Startup folder (You can access the Startup folder by going to Start>All Programs>Right click the Startup folder and drag the shortcut into that folder).  Now when I boot into Windows the application will automatically run and I can trigger the hotkey whenever I want to lock the cursor.

Older Games:

I have recently been playing an older RTS, C&C Generals Zero Hour, and unfortunately the cursor lock program did not work when in Windowed Mode.  The cursor was being locked to the window but wouldn't pan the camera at all.

There still is an issue with full screen mode when using 2 monitors.  The current fix I am using is to just disable to 2nd monitor with Windows.  It's a lot better than unplugging it.  Below are the steps on how to easily accomplish this:

Right click on your Desktop and go to Screen Resolution.

Then choose to Show desktop only on X on the Multiple displays option.

This will disable the 2nd monitor and allow you pan around the map correctly within the game.

Hope this helps.

*The Program Mode allows you to create a shortcut which will also open whichever game you assign.  I prefer to use a hotkey instead of having multiple game shortcuts.