AddictiveTips

Install Leaked Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean ROM On Samsung Galaxy S III

Haroon Q Raja — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:34:09 PDT

The entire Android world seems to be talking about two devices these days – Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. Sammy’s latest offering comes with a lot of nifty features added to the software that make it smarter than your average smartphone. If you already have a Galaxy S III and are not sure whether you wanna shell out extra dough just to get those features or stick with what you’ve got, we have some amazing news for you! You can now get the latest S4 camera features and more on your S III without having to shell out a penny, thanks to SamMobile who have shared the latest official Android 4.2.2 XXUFME3 firmware with us that just got leaked hours ago. Read on for details & installation instructions.

Here are the most significant new features and improvements you can expect from this build:

Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with all its official core features like lock screen widgets, daydream, notification actions etc.
New S4 Lockscreen with different unlock effects and some other tweaks
New Adapt Display and Professional Photo screen modes from S4
S4-style Tabbed Settings interface
S4’s new S-Voice and voice controls for several phone features
S4 and Note II-style full-screen Samsung apps
New Smart Switch widget
Driving mode

and possibly more.

Before you proceed with the installation, do note that this is a leaked internal testing build, and not the final release. Therefore, it might contain some quirks that have yet to be ironed out. That said, if you just can’t wait till the final release is out (we can’t), here’s how to get it up and running on your Galaxy S III.

Disclaimer: Please follow this guide at your own risk. AddictiveTips will not be liable if your device gets damaged or bricked during the process.

Requirements

International GSM Galaxy S III I9300. Do NOT attempt to flash it to any other variant of the S III.
Samsung USB drivers
Leaked Android 4.2.2 XXUFME3 ROM for Galaxy S III
Odin 3.04 (included in the above file)

Procedure

Take a backup of any data that you might need in case you later need to do a factory reset. This includes any data you might have on your internal SD card.
Download the ROM’s package and extract the contents of the downloaded zip file to your computer.
Download and install Samsung’s USB drivers, if they aren’t already installed.
Power your phone off and boot it into download mode by holding Home and Volume-down buttons while powering it back on.
Launch Odin on your computer and connect your phone to it via USB. You should get a blue indicator sign on Odin.
Click ‘PDA’ in Odin and select the I9300XXUFME3_I9300OJKFME1_HOME.tar.md5 file.
Leave everything as it is, and especially make sure that Re-Partition is unchecked.
Click ‘Start’ to begin flashing, and wait for the process to finish.

You should now have the latest leaked Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean firmware up and running on your S III.

In case there are any issues like bootloops or force-closes when you reboot your phone after flashing the firmware, reboot your phone into recovery by powering it off and then powering it back on while keeping the Home and Volume-up keys pressed, perform a wipe data/factory reset, and reboot the phone. This WILL delete all your apps, data and internal SD card contents, but your phone should boot and work fine after that. For this reason, taking a backup before flashing anything like this is extremely important.

[Firmware & Screenshots via SamMobile]

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Bundle & Share A Group Of Links As One Webpage With FatURL

Moaaz Bukhari — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:00:45 PDT

Imagine for a moment that you’re a web designer and a client asks to see some examples of great websites you admire. Over the top of your head, you remember ten or twelve sites and start copy-pasting their URLs to send one by one, over and over again…awkward, isn’t it? It’s also really inconvenient. Well, if you’d like to keep that client around, how about sending them just one charming little FatURL that bundles together all your other links? All the recipient has to do is click it, and they’re led to an ordered page with its own table of contents, and different tabs guiding them smoothly from site to site. You will, in effect, “Say more with less [links]”, to quote the developer’s own service mark.

Let’s take a quick peek at the website. You’ll mostly intuit how FatURL works by just looking at it; copy/paste a URL, give a space, and type a caption for the link. You can add up to three dozen URLs for each FatURL. Next, click the scissors icon, and – ta da! – the service has created your very own FatURL to share. You’ll actually see a list of links, but don’t worry; they’re all the same – just pick whichever URL you fancy.

Let me put in a word about the options here. Click the little wrench icon on the side and a panel drops down.

FatURL basically creates miniature ‘websites’ for you, the content of which are other links. From these setting, you can – among other things – add a title your site, write a brief description, and even customize its FatURL that you’ll then hand out to people. There are some more cool, free features to try, such as managing your site and reviewing its viewership analytics, that are supposed to become available after you sign up for the service. Though in my testing, the registration process didn’t seem to work. If any of you get past the Captcha successfully to register an account, do let us know in the comments below!

So here’s what FatURL’s results look like when you or the person you gave the link to visit it. You have your site’s title and description above, and all the links listed below, with neat captions and icons. Click any link to open it in the same tab. To open them all in separate tabs, use the button below them (the one with the mouse cursor over it in the above screenshot).

At its heart, FatURL is nothing more than a link-sharing service that bundles up 30+ long or different URLs into one snappy little link. But it beats out the competition by offering gimmicks like link editing & rerouting, instant switching between shared sites, and even bulk link opening, as shown below.

You can find the Bulk Link Opener feature under ‘FatURL/More’. It basically provides you with a way to open a list of multiple links in their own tabs or windows, without having to manually open tabs for each of them and copy-paste the links into them individually. You can open these URLs one at a time or all together. If you want to take it easy and open, let’s say, ten links at a time out of thirty, check ‘Batch & remove processed links’ and type 10 in the text field. The first ten links will then open when you click ‘Open all URLs’, and will automatically be removed from the list. When you’re ready for ten more, simply click ‘Open all URLs’ again.

One final nugget of interest in FaURL: you can import any number of the most recent Atom/RSS/XML feed items for any site with one click via the import screen. This can be really useful if the links you want to share are all recent posts on the same site, in which case this feature will save you the hassle of even having to manually enter them into the list. While importing, four radio buttons give you more control over what to do with the links after importing, like creating shortlinks, editing the list, taking a snapshot etc.

To sum it up, FatURL is a great and hassle-free way to quickly create and share a list of links with anyone and allow them to open them conveniently, without having to send them multiple links manually.

Visit FatURL

[via Lifehacker]

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Smart Launcher For Android Boasts A Fast, Minimal Yet Beautiful UI

Waqas Ahmed — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:11 PDT

While many people buy a smartphone to run apps, check emails, surf the internet (and make phone calls too), it’s the customization factor of Android that really shines and give it an advantage over the likes of iOS and Windows Phone. When we speak of customization, it’s not just merely changing the wallpaper or swapping the Message icon, but the complete interface overhaul that third-party Android launchers bring with them. Smart Launcher Special is a new Android launcher based on the already popular Smart Launcher and Smart Launcher Pro, and has recently gone free in the Google Play Store as a limited time offer. The app brings with it all the features of the Pro variant and is being offered free for a limited time. For more details, read on.

The utmost edge Smart Launcher Special holds over the stock Android launcher (and other manufacturer-customized or third-party launchers for that matter) is the gorgeous, minimalist-friendly interface. There are no ugly icons to deal with, nor any cluttered home screens laden with random widgets. In fact, Smart Launcher Special keeps both of them (shortcuts and widgets) separate from one another. The main screen, aka the Quick Start screen, presents app shortcuts arranged in a flower-like shape that looks fairly immaculate, thanks to their uniform design. They are round and can be easily customized to your choice. Existing shortcuts can be removed by dragging them out of your way to the bottom right. In addition, when you tap an icon, a plus button pops up in the middle, letting you add additional shortcuts.

To enter the widgets area, simply tap the minuscule icon at the bottom-right. Likewise, you can tap and hold your finger on the screen to bring up the wallpaper menu. The widgets screen also looks equally nice, and you can place whatever widget you like on it. Unlike the Quick Start screem, the widgets section comprise of multiple home screens.

The app drawer is accessible via its pertaining button at the Quick Start screen or swipe gesture from the left edge, and it keeps your apps well organized under different categories named Communication, Internet, Media, Utility and Settings. This makes it easier to access things you want. If you’re not happy with the preconfigured categories, you can easily customize their names under Settings. The Preferences screen of the launcher lets you customize a plethora of options under Settings and Personalization.

Settings let users toggle functions such as status bar visibility, screen orientation, drawer activation mode, clock, left-handed mode and so on. Similarly, the Personalization section lets you apply cosmetic changes to the app, ranging from clock style and global theme to icon size and categories labels etc.

So, if you like to keep your Android home screen simple and minimal yet functional and elegant, give Smart Launcher Special a shot while the offer lasts. You can download it via the link provided below.

Looking for even more amazing home screen replacements for your Android device? Don’t forget to check out our list of the top free Android launchers out there.

Download Smart Launcher Special For Android

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Log In To Multiple Skype User Accounts Simultaneously On Mac

Fatima Wahab — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:01:56 PDT

Late last year, we covered a little tip to show you how you can run multiple instances of any app on a Mac. It requires you to run a script and is pretty simple even for someone who has never used the AppleScript Editor. Though there is one caveat with that method – it doesn’t work for all apps, as we noted in the aforementioned post. Skype was one such app that we identified would not run multiple instances with the script. The reason has something to do with Skype itself, rather than the script. If you were disappointed by this and have the need to run multiple instances of Skype, Multi Skype Launcher is a free Mac app that will do the trick. It’s currently in beta and requires OS X Lion or higher. The app is basically a launcher for Skype, but allows you to launch a new instance of the popular app each time you click it, be it a hundred times if you need to.

You can open and sign in to the first instance of Skype like you normally would but for all subsequent instances, run Multi Skype Launcher. You will be asked to authorize the app to make changes to your system by entering your password. For each instance you run, you will have to give the app permission again.

It might take a few minutes for the second or any subsequent instance to start but once running, another Skype icon will be added for the instance to both the Dock and the Menu Bar. Needless to say, you can sign in to separate accounts in each instance.

Multi Skype Launcher is only an app launcher made specifically for Skype, and it won’t help you manage your audio input and output between multiple instances, nor will it mute one instance when you’re on a call in the other. Therefore, managing the different Skype instances is entirely up to you. We tested two instances of Skype side-by-side and were able to send and receive messages normally. For Windows users who need something similar, give Seaside a try; not only does it run multiple instances of Skype, but it also lets you save the accounts that you sign in to.

For some users, the very thought of running two instances of Skype might be ridiculous, but for those who use the app at both work and home, running two instances is the easiest way to make sure you remain in touch with your contacts on both your accounts without having to sign in and out with them again and again.

Download Multi Skype Launcher For Mac

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Search Selected Text On Major Websites From Firefox Right-Click Menu

Moaaz Bukhari — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:30:32 PDT

Did you know that surfing the internet is a great way to achieve flow? That happens when you’re so engrossed in your browsing experience that you’re all but lost to what’s happening around. Agreed, most of us feel guilty about being hooked online for hours on end and learning little more than that a certain celebrity had lived in her car, or that a cat dialed 911. Still, despite its addictions, browsing can be quite the meditative experience, and one way to make it even more so is to make it less visible. With Yet Another Context Search for Firefox, you can search for highlighted text right from your context menu, without the distraction of having to open a new tab and entering your search query there.

Visit the add-on’s page from the link at the bottom to install Yet Another Context Search. Once it has been installed, just highlight a portion of text and, from the right-click context menu, click ‘Search Google for ’ to search for it on Google. Alternatively, you can choose one of the different available search engines from the submenu as well. The extension offers all the options available in Firefox’s native search menu.

I’m doing a search for the term ‘larynx.’ As you can see in the screenshot above, I’m spoilt for choice for which search engine to go with. If I choose ‘Wikipedia’ from the list, the Wikipedia entry for ‘Larynx’ will open in a new background tab. To open the search in a foreground tab, i.e. bring its tab into focus, click your mouse’s middle button instead.

Another interesting feature about the add-on is that the context menu reflects any changes you’ve made to your search engines in the current session. In other words, if you use Wikipedia for your searches more often, ‘Search Google for…’ will change to Search Wikipedia for…’ in the context-menu. This sensitivity to quicker access gives the little add-on a boost in its quest to shorten search time.

Yet Another Context Search works on Firefox 20.0 or higher. It’s definitely a handy little tool to have and if you need a bit of a diversification in the available search engines, you can simply edit the list by clicking the drop-down arrow in the search box found in the URL bar, and clicking ‘Manage Search Engines…’.

Get Yet Another Context Search from Firefox Add-ons

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Clear Junk Files From iTunes Library & Sort It With A Click In Windows

Waqas Ahmed — Mon, 20 May 2013 05:00:53 PDT

For a lot of people, iTunes has become the de facto music platform for purchasing music. By and large, it’s a mandatory toolkit for anyone owning an Apple device such as the iPhone, as it’s the only official way for owners of these devices to sync them with their computers. After a few recent software updates, the Windows variant of the app has become even better. Those who use the application must be aware that iTunes doesn’t let you add media files from multiple locations in one go. Furthermore, while specifying the folder(s), iTunes doesn’t explicitly give you an option regarding which audio/video formats should be added. This is where desktop apps like iTunes CleanList come in to play. Not only does it keep your iTunes library well sorted and up to date, but it can also remove any orphaned items, such as deleted or moved files.

One of the key features of iTunes CleanList is that it lets you specify custom media file types that you want to add to your library. For instance, if the selected directory contains a mix of audio and video items and you want to add MP3 files only, you can easily do that using this app.

The interface looks clean and simple, and offers a few settings regarding the synchronization process as well. The ‘Load Settings’ and ‘Save Settings’ buttons at the top help you to save and load your current iTunes CleanList configuration anytime you want. To add files to iTunes, click Add and select your source directory. The application allows adding multiple directories, which saves a lot of time should your media files be scattered in a number of different locations. Next up, you can specify the file extensions for items you wish to add. The application comes with MP3, MP4, WAV, M4P, M4R, M4V, 3GP and AAC selected already, but you can specify any others that you want, or remove any of these from the list.

The options section also contains a few toggles that can be enabled/disabled according to your preferences. ‘Remove entries that no longer exist’, for instance, easily takes care of orphaned links i.e. the files that are longer available in their original location. Similarly, you can choose to close iTunes when the process of updating your library has finished, shutdown your PC after the sync process, remember last settings (for automatically saving current settings), and the more generic ‘always on top’ option.

The application also provides a couple of parameters related to the ‘Saved Settings’ feature and lets you mark whether you’d like to automatically began the uploading process when a saved settings file is opened, and automatically exit after the upload. To kick off the media synchronization process according to your configuration, hit the Start button and let the tool do the rest.

iTunes CleanList works on Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8. Testing of the app was carried out on Windows 8 Pro, 64-bit.

Download iTunes CleanList.

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Itsdagram Is A Neat Instagram Client For WP8 With Upload Capability

Hamza Khalid — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:30:17 PDT

Apps like Metrogram and InstaCam were the only way for Windows Phone users to get a taste of Instagram on their devices, until recently. While both these apps look great and have some nice features, they can never be true alternatives to an official Instagram client, since you cannot upload photos to your account using them. In a bid to get the official Instagram app on WP8, Nokia even came out with the #2InstaWithLove campaign, but that hasn’t done much good so far. Things took a turn for the better recently though, when Instagraph was released. The app was the first for WP8 to offer the ability to upload photos to Instagram. People might have been content with it, but competition makes everything better, so it is good to see that another app with support for uploads has appeared in the WP Store. Itsdagram has a really neat interface, which resembles Instagram’s UI on other platforms. The app offers a variety of filters and account management options, and unlike Instagraph, has a free trial version.

Despite the fact that the Itsdagram welcome screen asks users to sign in with their Itsdagram account, you just have to enter your Instagram credentials to get started. The ‘Home’ section of the app displays an endless feed of updates from people you follow. You can like or leave comments on each post without having to navigate away from the main page, just like Instagram. Swiping to the right brings up the ‘Popular’ grid, and the section next to it displays the activity notifications related to your account.

Itsdagram supports notifications, but they might reach you with a delay of up to 30 minutes. In order to activate live tiles and notifications, you have to head to the app’s settings and enable ‘Background Updates’.

When it comes to uploads, which is the main feature of Itsdagram, you can only post one photo to test thing out, if you are using the app’s trial version. The filters available in the app are a bit different from the ones that come with Instagram, at least in terms of names. Each filter can be previewed by tapping it once, and the photo isn’t really altered until you hit the ‘next’ button, just the way it is in Instagram’s official apps. The upload screen allows users to add a description and mentions to the photo.

Itsdagram fetches for $1.49, but the trial version can be used indefinitely if you don’t intend to upload photos. WP8 has other Instagram clients, but there can be no doubting that Itsdagram resembles the official app most closely. Give the app a go by heading to link provided below.

Download Itsdagram For Windows Phone

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Remotely Track & Control Your Lost Or Stolen iPhone With inner

Hamza Khalid — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:18 PDT

Anyone who takes security seriously, or has had a mobile phone snatched from them in the past, might already be using apps like Prey on their smartphone. Prey is arguably the most popular anti-theft solution available on iOS and Android but if you own a jailbroken iDevice, there are also some less feature-rich yet effective alternatives to the Prey app out there. ICaughtU might not track your stolen device for you, but it can be used to get a photo of the thief. There is certainly a lot of potential in Cydia apps when it comes to countering phone theft, and inner demonstrates that quite clearly. This app has a ton of features, which make sure that every base is covered in case your phone gets stolen. inner can spring into action automatically when an unauthorized SIM is placed in the device, and also allows you to send commands to your phone remotely using the app’s desktop companion.

Although it is not possible to sign up for a new inner account from within the iPhone app, the rest of the configuration must take place on the device. First of all, enable inner using the toggle at the top of the options list. The options below it can be used to define your strategy for the time when your device gets lost or stolen. To give the device a heads-up in such situations, it is possible to register your SIM card with inner so that whenever an unrecognized card is detected, the device goes into theft mode. In this mode, depending upon your choices, inner is capable of tracking your phone continuously, or at regular intervals. To complete the security, users can set a password on the app, or make its icon disappear whenever foul play is detected.

So now that you have configured everything on your device, it’s time to visit inner’s website (www.inner.mobi). Creating an account is easy, and requires just your email ID and a new password. To connect your iDevice to this account, you have to enter the ‘Serial Number’ from the About section of your phone.

Users who are logged in can send a host of commands to their device, regardless of whether it has an authorized or unauthorized SIM in it. These commands deal with tracking, alerts, data and accessing different parts of the device. Some of the features include the ability to protect your personal data remotely, accessing SMS or getting texts forwarded to a new number, shooting photos of the thief at intervals of your choice and viewing call logs. Even the ‘Siren and Alert’ section is pretty thorough, letting you send a 30 second-long vibration, a siren or a text alert to your device.

inner has been around in the Cydia store for a long time, but it is now available for free. The rather long feature list might appear to be a little intimidating at first, but the app is a worthwhile download and should reside in your device as a safety precaution. Give it a go by heading to the ModMyi repo of the Cydia store.

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LinksWatched Notifies You When Duplicate Tabs Are Opened In Firefox

Fatima Wahab — Mon, 20 May 2013 03:00:25 PDT

Duplicate tabs i.e. the same URL opened in more than one tab clutter your browser window unnecessarily. Duplicate tabs are mostly opened by accident or forgetfulness, and rarely out of necessity. We tend to open some of our most frequently used sites multiple times because we forget we already have them open in a different tab, or we can’t find them. LinksWatched is a Firefox add-on that helps fix both these problems; it alerts you when you open a duplicate tab by adding a red border inside the window when a duplicate link is opened, and giving you a desktop notification alerting you that you’ve opened a link that’s already open in another tab, with the option to switch to it. Compared to extensions like Prevent Duplicate Tabs for Chrome that just close the duplicate tab, LinksWatched doesn’t dictate what is done with the duplicate tabs, so the control stays with you.

Once you’ve installed LinksWatched, you can continue browsing like normal since there isn’t anything to configure. Whenever you click a link and it’s already open in some other tab, a red border will appear within the window frame, even if the tab is in another window. The border appears only after the page has finished loading, and remains visible as long as a duplicate tab is open.

A desktop notification alerts you about the duplication and provides you with a link to close the new duplicate tab and switch to the one that you had opened first.

LinksWatched works great and I like it better than Prevent Duplicate Tabs because the duplicate tab isn’t automatically closed for me. The add-on recognizes that at times, you really do need to open the same page in multiple tabs. There are two things that need fixing though: first, when the link in the notification is clicked after the window that the other tab is open has been minimized, it will not be maximized/restored. The relevant tab will still be selected so that when you manually restore the window, you see the tab, but this is practical only if you have two windows open and can safely assume that the other tab must be open in the second window. With multiple windows open, you get no indication about which window has that tab.

Secondly, the add-on doesn’t identify a duplicate tab until the page has finished loading. This might be because it’s waiting for the page to perhaps load a script or query that might navigate to a different URL, but this results in the add-on taking its time to detect the page as a possible duplicate. If you open a duplicate tab in the background, the notification is the only thing that will alert you unless you switch to the tab itself.

Install LinksWatched For Firefox

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myQuests Is A Great Gesture-Based iPhone Project Manager For Teams

Hamza Khalid — Mon, 20 May 2013 02:00:14 PDT

It is a common practice among developers these days to make to-do list apps that rely heavily on gestures and color-coding. Clear kicked off this trend, but more recently we have seen similar concepts implemented in apps like Listacular. Since the whole point of using gestures in a task manager is to make it uncomplicated, these apps aren’t too heavy on features. The new myQuests though, clearly shows that it is possible for an app to be feature-rich without making things too tangled up. The app can prove to be a great tool for project management, specially when you have to work in a group, because it lets users share tasks with others, and has an elaborate commenting system of its own that can be used to stay up to speed with all the latest happenings regarding any to-do list or individual task.

To let you invite your friends for collaboration on projects, and sync the data over cloud, myQuests requires you to sign up for a new account before you can use the app. The registration can be done using email or Facebook. Once logged in, a list consisting of basic instructions regarding myQuests is shown. To create a new list, tap the arrow icon in the bottom-left corner and choose an appropriate folder from the sidebar. There are two ways of adding tasks to myQuests list. You can go for the more thorough input method by hitting the ‘+’ icon, or add a new entry by quickly swiping downwards from the top of the screen. In this quick mode, users get to enter a task’s name, category (personal, business, etc.), priority level and due date. If you want to associate a specific date or time with a task, quick mode is not for you, since it doesn’t offer that level of detail.

In the detailed input method, there are a lot of fields that can be used to make sure that each task in a project is defined completely. You can add notes to tasks, set an alarm for them, and invite other people (via email) to view or edit the current list.

myQuests offers plenty of ways to view your lists. The tasks can be viewed by priority, by due date or by category. Collaborative tasks support comments from people with viewing and editing rights. You can give your feedback on a project’s progress with commenting system, or use it to get in touch with other collaborators.

The app’s pro version ($0.99) offers support for multilevel lists, additional themes, and icon packs for categories. Everything else works perfectly in the free version of myQuests. The app is optimized for iPhone and iPod touch. Give it a go by heading to the following link, and you just might find the task manager you have always been looking for.

Download myQuests For iOS

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Best Apps, Tips & Tweaks Of The Week [05.19.2013]

Awais Imran — Sun, 19 May 2013 02:00:31 PDT

It’s that time of the week again when we round up the most popular as well as the less-popular but useful apps, tips and tweaks that you may have missed during your hectic workweek. This time around, we discuss announcements made at Google I/O 2013, Cydia for Android, Hipstamatic’s take on Instagram, and an unreal file manager for Windows, among other excellent apps and tips.

Google I/O 2013 Announcements

This year’s Google I/O was unusually grand in terms of the quantity and quality of product announcements. Among other smaller announcements discussed in our latest Ask The Readers poll, Google launched Play Music All Access, unified Talk and Google+ Hangouts / Messenger into Hangouts for Android, iOS and Web, and redesigned Google+.

Unreal Commander Is An Extremely Powerful File Manager For Windows

Windows’ built-in File Explorer will suffice for the vast majority of desktop users out there, but those of you who are always on the hunt for a better solution will find it in Unreal Commander with its dual-pane, tabbed layout, built-in FTP client, file hash checker, splitter and archiver, folder synchronizer and more!

What Is Cydia Substrate, Winterboard For Android And How To Install It

Cydia enjoys great prominence in the iOS jailbreak community. Earlier this week, its equally prominent developer – Jay “Saurik” Freeman – released Cydia Substrate for Android that, in the future, as developers show more interest, will allow users to apply nuanced tweaks to their rooted Android smartphone. You can also install Winterboard on top to allow for deep theming options.

Adobe Photoshop Express Released For Windows 8 And RT

Entire books have been written on how to use Photoshop’s full-blown desktop app, and they still don’t cover each and everything available. Thankfully, Adobe does have an easier-to-use, more basic photo-editing app called Photoshop Express for iOS and Android that has now been launched for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Start Menu Reviver Combines Windows 7’s Start Menu Structure With The Looks Of Windows 8 Start Screen

We have covered plenty of apps that bring back the Start Menu of Windows 7 and earlier to Windows 8, but none of them feel as at home in the Modern UI of Windows 8 as Start Menu Reviver. It effectively combines the structure of Windows 7’s Start Menu, with the looks of Windows 8’s Start screen.

Auto-Set Google Now Backgrounds As Android Wallpaper Based On Time Of Day With GoogleNowWallpapers

Are you a big fan of Google Now’s excellent in-app wallpapers? GoogleNowWallpapers for Android allows you to set these wallpapers as the background for your home screens. What’s more is that these wallpapers can be set to change dynamically based on local time.

Hipstamatic Oggl Builds On Instagram With Real-Time Filter-Lens Combos And More

Instagram may be singlehandedly dominating the photo-sharing market on mobile right now, but it’s a fact that Hipstamatic started the whole trend of sharing photos from your iPhone after applying eye-catching filters to them. Now Hipstamatic hopes to get back some market attention with Oggl.

Capture Hands-Free Panoramas On iPhone 5 With Any Panorama App Using Autopano

We have discussed Cycloramic before on these pages. It’s an app for the iPhone 5 that allows you to take hands-free panoramas; the app uses custom vibration patterns to rotate the iPhone 5 on its own. Autopano is a jailbreak tweak that uses the same tactic but works inside any panorama app of your choice.

Send Facebook Chat Stickers From Google Chrome With Facemoji

I don’t quite understand the idea of using Stickers in Facebook messages on iOS and Android (oh, wow! Big emojis! Yay!), but those of you who do and would like to be able to send them from a desktop browser should check out Facemoji for Google Chrome.

Set Any Tweet To Self-Destruct After Set Time With Efemr For Twitter

I recently discovered that there are Twitter users out there who actually go through their tweets at the end of the day to clean things up, deleting tweets they feel ‘pollute’ their profile. Well, if you are one of these people, you may want to check out Efemr to set your tweets to self-destruct after a certain period of time.

Find The Right Fonts For Your Project, Test And Compare Them Online With FontPro

Useful for web designers: FontPro is a free font-testing and discovery service that makes the task of finding the perfect font for your project a whole lot easier.

Popular Tumblr And Twitter Mashup ‘Pheed’ Now Available On Android

Take Tumblr’s multimedia sharing features and combine them with the fast and real-time nature of Twitter, and you get Pheed (pronounced the same way as ‘feed’). After a successful launch on iOS devices, it has made its way on to Android smartphones and tablets.

Collaborative Video Sharing App “Vyclone” Now Available On Windows Phone 8

Just when you think everyone has run out of compelling new ideas for mobile video sharing, an app like Vyclone comes along with “collaborative video sharing”, where users record video clips of a single moment and then create “multi-angle” movies without any extra effort. Vyclone was previously available for iOS and Android only, but was launched for Windows Phone earlier this week.

Read Best Apps, Tips & Tweaks Of The Week [05.19.2013] by Awais Imran on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter

[Ask The Readers] Which Google I/O 2013 Product Announcements Excited You The Most?

Awais Imran — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:30:03 PDT

Google announced a huge number of new products, services and feature updates at Google I/O two days ago. Maps, Search, Google+, Android, Chrome – no major product line was left untouched. In this week’s Ask The Readers Poll, we summarize the major announcements made at I/O 2013, and let you decide and discuss which one excited you the most.

Google Gives Spotify A Run For Its Money

Google has a bit of a habit of looking at a successful product in a lucrative market, and then doing their best to make a better version of it. In launching Google Play Music All Access with an 18 million+ song catalog, track streaming, unlimited skips, virtually unlimited number of downloadable tracks and intelligent mixing of your own library music, all at $7.99/month (introductory offer), Google is trying its best to beat Spotify on Android and the web.

Be sure to check out our review of Google Play Music All Access.

Unified: Google Talk, Google+ Hangouts, Google+ Messenger Merge Into “Hangouts”

Hangouts for Android, iOS and the web is the ultimate, all-in-one messaging app. It combines Google Talk’s instant messaging service with Google+ Hangouts’ group video chats and Google+ Messenger group messaging features. What’s more? Support for Google Voice and SMS on Android is on the way!

Google+ Gets Redesigned; Adds Amazing ‘Auto Awesome’ & ‘Auto Enhance’ Photo Enhancement Features

Just about every techie I know agrees that Google+ is – features and looks-wise – miles ahead of Facebook. At Google I/O, the tech giant announced awesome features that make Google+ even better! Firstly, Google+ now follows the cards-based design language introduced with Google Now. Secondly, photos uploaded on Google+ are analyzed by Google’s algorithms and then automatically tweaked for noise reduction, tonal distribution, skin softening, red-eye reduction and more, in what Google is calling ‘Auto Enhance’. Lastly, ‘Auto Awesome’ finds patterns in your uploaded photos, and creates animated GIFs of shots taken a few seconds apart, panoramas of photos taken at same location, and choosing the best smiling photo out of a bunch of chaotic family photos to create amazing family portraits.

We have already discussed both the new unified Hangouts messaging platform and updates to Google+, so give it a read for more details.

The Next ‘Nexus’ Smartphone: A Galaxy S4 Running Stock Android

One of the most surprising announcements at Google I/O 2013 was that of a Samsung Galaxy S 4 running Stock Android, without any customizations from Samsung whatsoever. With a price of $649 for a 16GB model, it is the most expensive Nexus device on the market to date, but that is fine considering that – compared to the $349 Nexus 4 – it has a Full HD 1080p display, a 13 megapixel camera, a faster processor, LTE support, expandable storage and a removable battery. The phone will be available fully contract-free on Google Play starting June 26th.

Google Maps Redesigned On Desktop And Android

Google Maps is the most popular as well as most powerful consumer maps application in the world, and the new updates for its Android and desktop web apps further cement this fact. The updated web app follows a new “The Map Is The UI” approach, where the actual map takes over most of the screen, with only the header and a little search bar at the top – no more sidebar! Google Earth, vector maps, Google Offers and Zagat’s trusted restaurant reviews are integrated right inside Maps. To make for a more personalized experience, your home, workplace and local points of interest are also included automatically in the map based on data from Google Now.

The new Google Maps for Desktop is slowly rolling out to invited users. You may request an invite at maps.google.com/preview. Android users should update their apps from Google Play to get the new Google Maps.

Google Search Integrated With Google Now For Voice Search And Other Commands

The rumors were right after all. For Chrome and Chrome OS users, Google Now is now integrated with Google Search. Saying “OK, Google” activates voice search – no typing or tapping required. Voice search has been developed to be more intelligent, so Google remembers what you last searched for, and predicts future searches. But that’s not all; you can also send emails, set reminders and more – all without leaving google.com or the Google Search app.

Google Play Books Allows User-Uploaded EPUBs / PDFs; Syncs Everything Across Android, iOS & Web

Google Play Books has always been at a distant third/fourth place in the eBooks reading app market, but a new feature update is bound to push it up ahead: the ability to upload your own collection of eBooks to the service, and to keep your page positions, bookmarks and notes synced across all platforms on which the service is available, i.e. Android, iOS and the web.

Check out our post to learn how to upload EPUBs to Play Books and read them on Android, iOS and the web.

Developer Features for Android

Rather unexpectedly for an I/O event, Google didn’t reveal the next version of Android this time, though that doesn’t mean the world’s most popular mobile operating system was completely neglected at the event. Google did announce several new features and improvements to Android, but most of them were targeted at developers rather than end users for now. However, it will be the users who will benefit from the fruits of these labors in the end.

The biggest new developer feature has got to be Android Studio – a dedicated IDE built by Google to make developing for Android easy. Apart from that, new APIs and developer features were announced for Google’s Maps and Location services, and Google Cloud Messaging. Several new features were added to the Google Play Developer Console as well, making it much easier for developers to optimize, translate and beta test their apps, with the ability to automatically roll out a beta update to a percentage of users first, and then gradually increase that percentage towards a full release. Lastly, a few major APIs were announced for game developers, allowing them to implement features like cloud save, achievements and leaderboards without having to use their own or third-party cloud services for the purpose.

Synced Notifications Across Android Devices

A major new feature for the end users was also announced: notification syncing across all your devices, meaning if you dismiss a notification from your phone, it’ll automatically disappear from your tablet as well. We will likely have to wait for the implementation of this feature in the next (likely minor) update to Android.

So which announcements do you think were the most significant? Join the poll below to let us know. You may select up to 3 answers out of the 9 available.

Haroon Q. Raja contributed to this post.

Read [Ask The Readers] Which Google I/O 2013 Product Announcements Excited You The Most? by Awais Imran on AddictiveTips - Tech tips to make you smarter