iFlasha

Experience Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on Your Windows, Mac and Linux Computer

2013-07-11T13:14:00.001+07:00

Have you ever fancied experiencing you favourite operating system for mobile on your desktop or laptop computer? The very idea of any possibility of such thing might thrill any tech-enthusiast. In the past, we shared another emulator tool for Windows based computers that could recreate Android environment. That tool called “WindowsAndroid” emulated Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on a pop window. You can know about that program here.

Here is another amazing emulator that does the same stuff but in a little more charming way. Genymotion, as this emulator is called, is a complete set of tools that provides a virtual environment for Android. The program is easy to use when set-up but before that it is a little complicated.

The Genymotion Android emulator can be very useful for developers and app testers because it also supportsADB (Android Debug Bridge) and thus you can various tasks with it and even play games that are not compatible with your Android device.

If you are a developer, you’ll have have to install the Eclipse plugin before you can test your application developed with Eclipse IDE. It uses ADB to connect to any active Genymotion Virtual Devices and then push your applicationvia commands. While installing Genymotion, you are asked to choose an Android device that you want to emulate and the list of virtual devices with various screen resolutions is pretty big.

COMPATIBILITY:

To be able to install this Android emulator on your computer, you must have a system with any of the following Operating Systems:

Microsoft Windows XP SP3 (32 or 64 bits)
Microsoft Windows Vista (32 or 64 bits)
Microsoft Windows 7 (32 or 64 bits)
Linux Ubuntu 12.04
Linux Ubuntu 12.10
Mac OS X 10.X

DOWNLOADS:

To download the program, hit the link below and sing up with Genymotion.

Genymotion with VirtualBox

HOW TO INSTALL:

As I mentioned above, setting up Genymotion is a bit complex and for that you’ll need a guide on how to get things started.

Download the Genymotion installer from the link above and run it on your Windows/Mac/Linux computer.
When the installation is finished, double click the “GenyMotion” icon shortcut created on your desktop. Mac users can click on the icon from App directory and those with Linux can launch it by typing: [InstallationPath]/genymotion]
When it is launched, click on Add button and then enter your Genymotion User name and Password when prompted.
Next, you’ll be asked to choose a virtual Android device which you want to emulate on your computer. Select a device from the list and then click on Add button.
On the next screen, you’ll be shown the virtual device properties. Click on Next button.
Your selected virtual Android device’s file will be downloaded now. In my case, it was 200 MB in size. When the download is finished, click on Next button.
Then choose a name for your new virtual device, and then click on Finish.
Your virtual device will be created and you’ll see the following screen.
Now close this window to come back to the main window.
Finally, you’ll be greeted with the main window. Just click on the Play icon and wait till the real action begins.
The emulator will ask you to define your Android SDK location before launching, If you have installed it, select the location. In case, you do not have it or do not want it for development purposes, just skip it.
Your selected virtual Android device will now be ready at your service. If you are an Android user, I do not think you need any further guidance on how to explore the interface and settings.

I forgot to mention it above that the Android 4.1 environment that you have on you computer is very much like your rooted phone. Just play with it, install your favorite apps and do all stuff that you do on your real phone except making calls.

Do not forget to share with us how Android feels on your computer! Cheers to all!

Source : http://droidviews.com/

How to Boot Android Devices into Safe Mode

2013-07-11T13:12:00.005+07:00

Android is the most popular operating system for mobile devices and we love it for being open source, easy to customize, having nice features and millions of apps. While most of the apps are awesome, there are still many that might have had a bed impact on the performance and battery-life of your device. There are yet a few freaking apps out there that are capable of screwing up your Android phone or tablet in such a way that a basic users might find not find a way out.

It has just been a couple of days when I experienced a very irritating situation on my HTC One. Actually, I was looking for an app that could let me unlock the One by pressing any of the volume keys on the phone. After a little digging, I went for an app called Button Lock Screen (never try this crap, guys!), and enabled it. It did not work at all and my phone was stuck on the lock screen. Since HTC one does not have an external SD card slot, all my data was on the device itself and so I wanted to avoid a data/factory reset.

It was then that the “Safe Mode” thing hit my mind. And let me tell you guys, it was just a lifesaver for me! Thanks to Google for adding this mode to Android. So, what is the Safe Mode and what is its role on your Android devices?

WHAT IS SAFE MODE?

If you use Windows, you must be familiar with Safe Mode. The option to boot your PC into this mode comes up when your computer shuts down unexpectedly due to power cut or any other reason. Android has a hidden Safe Mode that is a very useful, though not essential, tool that can save you time and important data and fix an issue created by a mischievous app. Safe Mode is perfect for pulling out the nuisance that is responsible for apps crashing, device reboots, or fast battery drain.

The mode is the best way to check if the issues you are experiencing is caused by a third-party app! When you reboot your phone into Safe Mode, your Android device temporarily disables all third-party apps that you’ve installed on it and lets you analyze the cause. If you see those issues even when the device is in Safe Mode, there might be some problem with the software installed on your device. And if, they just disappear, the culprit is some app installed from the Play Store.

Though Safe Mode does not show the apps in the app drawer and stops them to function, it lets you uninstall those app. Open Settings> Applications> All.

How to Boot Devices into Safe Mode

The Safe Mode tool is found on almost all Android devices but the method of accessing it differs from one manufacturer to other, device to device and sometimes, one OS version to other. Here I’ll try to add the method and hard key combos to get the device into Safe Mode.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 SAFE MODE:

Turn off the device.
Press the power button to turn it on.
When the screen turns up keep tapping the soft Menu key that is left to the Home button till the device boots up.

You will see the Safe Mode label at the bottom-left corner of the screen. This will be persistent throughout the UI.

SAFE MODE ON GALAXY S3, NOTE 2 AND OTHERS:

This is the most common way of booting Galaxy Devices into Safe Mode:

Turn off the phone.
Press the Power key to restart it.
When you see the Samsung Logo screen, press and hold the Volume Down key till the device boots up.

SAFE MODE ON HTC ONE, ONE X AND OTHER DEVICES:

HTC devices have a common method of entering the Safe Mode. I have tested it on HTC One.

Turn fastboot off in your power settings.
Switch off the device.
Power it on
Once you see the HTC splash screen, press and hold the Volume Up key till the phone boots up in Safe Mode.

On some HTC devices like Desire S, you need to press the Volume Down key instead.

SAFE MODE ON NEXUS 4 AND OTHER DEVICE:

If you got a Google Nexus device or have installed an AOSP, AOKP or CyanogenMod based custom ROM, you can get into Safe Mode as described below. This method works on most devices with Jelly Bean.

Press & hold Power button
It’ll bring up Power off/Reboot options
Then press & hold the “Power Off” option
It’ll ask for your confirmation to boot device into Safe Mode.
Tap OK button.

SAFE MODE ON MOTOROLA DEVICES:

Power the device off.
Power the device on.
When the Motorola splash screen appears, press and hold Volume Up /Down keys simultaneously.
Continue to hold the Volume Up & Down keys until Safe mode appears in the lower left corner of the screen.

In case, the method give for your device does not work for you, you can try the steps for other devices.

How to Exit Safe Mode:

Exiting Safe Mode on most Android devices is as easy as powering off and then turning them on. However, there are a few devices on which you will have to hold the button combination you used to enter Safe Mode to exit it. There are some other devices that require you to press and hold the volume down key to boot device normally.

Should you ever notice app crashes or battery drain on your device remember Safe Mode before doing a factory reset or reinstall the whole ROM. As always, I just hope it will help you understand your device better! If you have any question, doubts or suggestions, please let me know.

Play safe & cheers to all!

Source : http://droidviews.com/

Samsung Galaxy S4 like Micromax A87 Themes

2013-07-11T13:10:00.004+07:00

I am pretty happy to share this awesome micromax a87 theme, which will give an exact galaxy s4 look to your A87. When ever we talk about android themes first name came to our minds is Cyanogenmod. Cyanogenmod having a speacial features that is theme chooser, there are thousand of themes available in market which can only be used with cyanogenmod ROM. So congo to all those device user who got cyanogen port, you can check our collection of Cyanogenmod 7 themes. But unluckily cyanogenmod port is not possible for Micromax A87 because of no kernel source. But that doesn’t end the mmx development.

One of our Facebook group developer Viraj Trivedi have done an awesome job he edited the framework & systemui of micromax a87 so nicely to make a galaxy s4 look alike micromax a87 theme. If you are using Micromax A87 ninja 4.0 smartfone then probably you have idea about android rooting, custom rom, cwm recovery, Mods etc. I guess many of you have already rooted there a87, because rooting is the first step of android customisation, only after rooting you can load your device with ROMs , THEMES. So if you haven’t rooted your a87 yet then check out our guide onhow to root micromax a87.

Pre-requirement to Install Micromax A87 Themes

1) 60% Charge level

2) Rooted Device : check our micromax a87 rooting guide.

3) Custom Recovery Installed : check how to install micromax a87 cwm recovery.

[alert-announce] Download Micromax A87 theme [/alert-announce]

How to install this Micromax A87 Theme

1) Download this theme from above link.

2) place it in your sdcard.

3) Boot into A87 cwm recovery mode.

4) select wipe cache.

5) select Install Zip from Sdcard.

6) Choose the micromax a87 theme zip which you placed in your sdcard.

7) Reboot.

[alert-warning] This theme will not work with Cyanomax ROM :Source[/alert-warning]

Micromax a87 theme Screeshots

Thats it here’s the end of my post, I am damn sure that you will like thismicromax a87 theme so leave feedback after trying to encourage the developer,so that he can offer lots more themes to you. If you need help regarding micromax a87 theme installation then leave you comments bellow.

Source : http://www.andro-park.org/

How to print from your Android phone or tablet

2013-07-11T13:09:00.002+07:00

Android phones and tablets are just like computers. They’re not as powerful, but they’re extremely portable. As portable computers, they can be used to send emails, browse the Web, watch YouTube videos, and all sorts of stuff that you can also do on your desktop or laptop. Yes — including printing.

With the advent of cloud-based printing technologies and services, as well as cloud-ready printers and apps, printing is no longer an impossibility on your Android phone or tablet. In this post, learn how to print from your Android phone or tablet. For a video tutorial, you can skip to the end of this article.

Connecting your classic printer to Google Cloud Print

Some printers let you print from your Android phone or tablet over a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB connection. However, if your printer doesn’t have such capabilities, you can register your printer to Google Cloud Print, a technology and service that lets you connect your printer to the Web, making your printers accessible wherever you are. You can even make your printers accessible to your friends or print documents from your mobile devices.

Google Cloud Print works with most printers. But, for the best experience, a Cloud Ready printer is recommended. These types of printers can directly connect to the Internet and don’t need a computer for it to work. Google keeps a growing list of Cloud Ready printers compatible with and supported in Google Cloud Print.

If your printer doesn’t have cloud capabilities, you can still connect your classic printer to Google Cloud Print via your computer. For this to work, you will need a Google account and the Google Chrome browser installed on your computer. (If using Windows XP, make sure Windows XP Service Pack 3 is installed on your PC.)

The steps below describe how to set up your local printer for use with Google Cloud Print:

Launch Google Chrome on your computer.
Click the Menu button (represented by an icon showing 3 horizontal bars) at the upper-right corner of the window.
Select Settings.
Click Show advanced settings.
Scroll down to the Google Cloud Print section and click Add printers.
Log in to your Google Account to enter Google Cloud Print
A confirmation message appears on the next screen. This will register the printer that is connected to the computer. Click Add Printer(s) to confirm.
Your printer is now registered with Google Cloud Print

Google Chrome acts as a go-between for your printer and Google Cloud Print. When you print something from your mobile via Google Cloud Print, you actually send data from your mobile device to Google Cloud Print, which forwards it to Google Chrome, which in turn tells your PC to print the document on the attached printer. So, to print via Cloud Print, always make sure that your PC is connected to the Internet, that you are logged in to your Google account in Google Chrome, and that your printer is on.

Printing from your phone or tablet

Now that your printer is accessible via Google Cloud Print, it’s time to print from your Android phone or tablet. For that, you will need Google’s official Cloud Print app for Android.

Download, install, and launch Cloud Print on your Android phone or tablet.
Set your Google account, making sure that you use the same account as the one you registered on Google Cloud Print.
Tap the printer icon to select a file to print. You can select a file from Google Drive, Dropbox, Gallery, and other file manager apps on your device.
The next screen will show you a list of your printers registered on Google Cloud Print. Select one printer.
The print preview page will appear. You will be able to set the orientation of the document, media size, DPI, and the number of copies.
Once all are set, tap the paper plane icon at the top row to send the data to Google Cloud Print and print your document.

PRINTING WEB PAGES AND GMAIL MESSAGES

Printing Web pages is also possible through Cloud Print. Just open your Android browser’s Menu, tapShare, and select Cloud Print. From here, you can then print the Web page to any of your printers registered on Cloud Print.

Or, if your phone or tablet’s Internet browser supports printing functionality, you can directly send the Web page to your printer over a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB connection.

As for printing Gmail messages, Google’s Gmail app for Android doesn’t have an option that allows you to print your mails. But, if you access your Gmail account through a Web browser app, you can print your mails. Just open a Gmail message in your browser, tap the arrow to reveal additional buttons, and select Print. You will then be taken to Google Cloud Print to print your mail.

Third-party printing apps

Several third-party apps for mobile printing are available on the Google Play Store, including such apps as Cloud Print (by Paulo Fernandes) and PrinterShare Mobile Print (by Mobile Dynamix).

CLOUD PRINT BY PAULO FERNANDES

Developer Paulo Fernandes’s Cloud Print app for Android may have the same name as Google’s official app for its own service of the same name, but the two apps are different. Both, however, use the Cloud Print service to allow printing from phones or tablets.

The free version of Fernandes’s app comes with ad support and has certain features restricted, but the app is generally still usable. You can upgrade to its premium version for about US$3.00 to remove the ads and remove the feature restrictions.

Here are the general steps for using Paulo Fernandes’s Cloud Print app:

Download, install, and launch Paulo Fernandes’s Cloud Print app on your Android device
Select or add a Google account that you registered with Google Cloud Print.
On the next screen, select a printer registered to your Google Cloud Print account. You can either select Google Cloud Print ready printer, HP ePrint printer, or Other Printers.
A list of registered printers will be shown on the screen. Select one that you want to use.
On the next screen, tap Print test page to check if your printer has successfully connected to Google Cloud Print. Or, you can tap the arrow at the bottom of the screen to skip this step.
Once the app and printer have been set, you can now print from your Android phone or tablet using the Cloud Print app.

What I like about this app is that it allows you to print your SMS messages, scan documents by taking a picture and print them afterwards, create scribbles or drawings for printing later, or jot down notes and print them later. The app also allows you to access your Dropbox and Box files, Facebook images, Google Drive files, Gmail attachments, and Google Calendar events and print those files from within the app.

PRINTERSHARE MOBILE PRINT

PrinterShare Mobile Print also uses Google’s Cloud Print service to connect your printer and Android phone or tablet via the cloud. The app’s free version includes the following features:

Perform a printer test to printers connected via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB
Free and unlimited printing via Google Cloud Print
Print up to 20 pages over the internet with Remote mode.

You can upgrade to its premium version for about US$13.00 to be able to connect and print to your printer via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB. The premium version also lets you print to shared Windows or Mac printers nearby, as well as print without limit with Remote Mode.

Here are the general steps for using PrinterShare Mobile Print:

Download, install, and launch PrinterShare Mobile Print on your Android phone or tablet.
Open the settings menu and tap Select Printer.
On the next screen, select your printer connection type. You can connect via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, Google Cloud Printer, or through a Remote Printer. For now select Google Cloud Printer. (NOTE: If you’re using the free version and you connect your device to your printer via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB, you will only be able to perform a printer test unless you purchase the premium key.
Select a Google account and the printer registered on your Google Cloud Print account.
Once the printer has been set up, you can now print from your Android phone or tablet via PrinterShare Mobile Print.

The types and categories of files that PrinterShare Mobile Print can print are displayed on the app’s main screen. You can print pictures, contacts, calendar, Web pages, SMS messages, call logs, Gmail messages, Google Doc files, and other documents.

Conclusion

Mobile printing has become easier, thanks to Google Cloud Print and third-party printing apps on the Google Play Store. With these technologies and services, you can easily print your files or data from your Android phone or tablet.

How often do you print from your Android phone or tablet? Do you use a different method or solution? If so, what solution do you use? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.

Source : http://www.androidauthority.com/

How to make your smartphone look like stock Android without rooting

2013-07-11T13:08:00.001+07:00

Android handsets are purchased on a daily basis, whether we’re talking about that shiny new HTC One, a mid-range device like the Galaxy S4 Mini, or any other phone for that matter.

However, far too many people come to be disappointed with their purchase due to the modifications on top of Android that ruin the experience for them. This problem can be solved by rooting and flashing a custom ROM, but that’s hardly a solution for everyone. But there’s another way to get that vanilla Android experience on a smartphone without rooting.

Developers have been hard at work creating solutions to feed our stock Android craving, in the form of launchers, icon packs, keyboards, and other apps. We’re going to walk you through some of the most useful and show you how to transform the interface into a vanilla-like one, without root and without hassle.

Launchers

There are a lot of cool launchers out there. Action Launcher Pro combined with the Stark icon pack is one of my favorites, however, there are a lot of offerings to get that stock Android feel.

So the first step is to choose a launcher. For that, we’re going to take a look at Nova Launcher, Apex Launcher, and Holo Launcher HD. Alternatively, you can use Holo Launcher Plus to achieve stock Android for Ice Cream Sandwich.

Nova Launcher is a free download, however, paying for the Prime version of the app will give you access to a few more features. Apex Launcher and Holo Launcher HD are both free downloads, but they have pro versions for added features as well.

Before and after

When it comes down to it, you’re going to need to choose which one you’re most comfortable and satisfied with. In my case, I went with Nova Launcher. After you have a launcher downloaded, simply hit the Home button on your device. A pop-up window will appear, and you’re going to need to set your chosen launcher as the default (instead of TouchWiz, Sense, etc). Alternatively, open up the Nova Settings, and, on the first page, there’ll be an option to set the Nova Launcher as the default launcher.

Once that’s done, your home screen should, more or less, look like the image above.

Lock screens

Custom lock screens on Android are a fickle thing, as they’re often filled with bugs and are unreliable. However, there are a couple that’ll get the job done, though not many.

Holo Locker Plus is a good a Jelly Bean locker to use when paired with a Jelly Bean-themed wallpaper. If you don’t want to pay for anything, a great alternative is the GO Locker, which will require you to download two apps, the base GO Locker app and then a theme addon, namely a Jelly Bean one.

Once GO Locker is downloaded, adding the Jelly Bean theme is pretty self-explanatory. However, Holo Locker Plus is another story — it’s easy to enable Holo Locker, but in my findings, it does not come with a Jelly Bean wallpaper. So you’re going to need to find your own. To do that, you need the Plus version of Holo Locker to access the features that let you add a custom wallpaper to the lock screen. You can use any wallpaper you’d like, but, to get the coveted stock Android feel, a Jelly Bean wallpaper would be ideal.

If you’re looking to achieve stock Android with Ice Cream Sandwich, GO Locker is your best bet with this theme.

If you’re using Holo Locker, the final outcome should look like the image above.

Keyboards and Wallpapers

Nexy, you need a new keyboard and wallpaper to finalize the makeshift vanilla Android experience we’ve created. A Jelly Bean wallpaper package can be easily found in the Play Store. Anyone will do, but I used this one. A Ice Cream Sandwich wallpaper package can be found in the Play Store easily as well. Lastly, we need a new keyboard.

When it comes to keyboards, you really don’t need a Jelly Bean one in particular. Any kind will do as long as you’re comfortable with it, even if its your manufacturer’s stock keyboard. However, a lot of people tend to go for things like SwiftKey or Swype. If you insist on a stock Jelly Bean keyboard though, Google recently brought it to Google Play.

Final thoughts

It should only take you a few minutes to complete these steps. After you do though, you’ll have an awesome makeshift vanilla Android experience on any device of your choosing. If you’d like to break away from stock Android a tad bit, I like to download the Stark icon pack to freshen things up a little bit. It’s not a requirement though, it just looks nice.

Finally, to show you that this was all done using apps through the Google Play Store, we used Root Checker to prove that there was no rooting or flashing involved.

Do you plan on using this method for a makeshift vanilla Android experience? If you went ahead with it, how did it work out for you?

Source : http://www.androidauthority.com/

How to Overclock T-Mobile Galaxy S4

2013-07-11T13:02:00.005+07:00

Galaxy S4 is Samsung’s latest flagship and one of the most popular and powerful Android based smartphones available on the market. But when talking about power and speed, especially when we refer to a smartphone, we can surely affirm that there is never enough, meaning that there will be anytime room for improvements. If you think that too, then resume this step by step guide and learn how to easily overclock your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4. As you will see, by completing this operation you will be able to increase the power that your phone provides and also you will be able to gain more speed and an improved Android Jelly Bean experience.

So, overclock your T-Mobile Galaxy S4 if you want to take your smartphone to a higher level of performance. As you know, there are other ways that can be used when trying to upgrade your handset, like gaining root access or updating with a custom ROM firmware. But when the classic methods are just not enough, or if you want to spice things up, then you have to overclock the CPU. That’s exactly what we will be doing on your Galaxy S4, so don’t hesitate and use this tutorial.

Overclocking your Android device is quite similar with overclocking your computer or notebook. In a few words, here is what you will do: you will change the maximum CPU frequency, which means that your Galaxy S4 will provide and operate on more power. Don’t worry, as it is unlikely to burn your handset, especially if you know everything about overclocking Android devices (use the link if you want to learn everything about this process – do so before applying the present tutorial). Also, if you properly set the frequency, (increase it with only 10-20%) then you will not have battery drain issues. Therefore, don’t hesitate and overclock your T-Mobile Galaxy S4.

Unfortunately, by overclocking the warranty of your SGS4 will get voided. This is happening because you first have toroot your phone as you need to flash a custom kernel for enabling overclocking. So, as you will see below, before increasing the power of your S4, you will first learn how to install a new kernel into its system. Anyway, remember that you must root your smartphone before going any further. A final tip related to the warranty: you can restore the same by downgrading / updating the stock / official Android firmware.

Then, install CWM or TWRP recovery on your Samsung Galaxy S4. Do this after rooting your phone as a custom recovery image can be applied only on unchained systems. Don’t skip this part because you will not be able to install the custom kernel without using the custom recovery tool – the stock recovery that comes pre-installed on any Android handsets can’t be used when dealing with unofficial operation like the present one.

Those were the essential pre requisites; now let’s see which the general preparation things are – complete the same as you can’t perform this guide without properly preparing your SGS4 for the overclocking process.

Backup the contacts, messages, call logs, market apps and calendar info from your phone.
Backup EFS and internet settings, along with your personal info and accounts.
Make a Nandroid backup for storing the stock ROM.
Make sure you can use a computer on where you will save the kernel file.
In order to avoid the unpleasant situations, make sure that on both computer and handset there aren’t security tools installed – if different temporarily deactivate them.
Enable the USB debugging option on your Galaxy S4.
It is recommended to charge the phone’s battery before going any further; you can skip this step if your phone has more than 60% power left.
This step by step guide has been developed to work only for the T-Mobile version of the Samsung Galaxy S4, so don’t try to overclock a different or similar device by using the steps from below.

How to flash a custom kernel on T-Mobile Galaxy S4

From this page download the custom kernel (we should thanks those of xda-developers for the same).
Place the downloaded file on your computer, preferable on desktop.
Take your phone and connect it with the PC via USB cable.
Select the downloaded file and copy-paste the same from the computer to your phone’s SD card.
Then, disconnect the devices by unplugging the USB cable.
Turn off your handset.
Reboot it by pressing the Power, Volume Up and Home buttons at the same time.
The recovery mode menu will be displayed.
By using the same select “install zip from SD card” and “choose zip from SD card”.
Pick the kernel file and install the same on your device.
Finally, in the end select “+++go back+++” and “reboot system now”.

Now overclocking is enabled on your T-Mobile SGS4 which means that you can safely precede to the next, and final, section of this step by step guide – we are almost done.

How to Overclock T-Mobile Galaxy S4

Go to Google Play.
Download any of these apps: SetCPU, or AnTuTu CPU Master.
Install the app on your SGS4.
Run the tool.
By using the menu that opens set the new frequency (remember to increase it only with 10-20% or else you might have battery drain issues).
Close the tool and reboot your device.
Test the new results as you are done.

There you have it, the best way to use when looking forward in bumping the power of your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4. Anyhow, since you have successfully overclocked your Galaxy S4, use the comments area from below and share your experience with us and with other users who might need a proper advice. Also, stay close as we will bring further Android tips, tricks and tutorials.

Source : http://www.android.gs/

Overclocking your Android device: Everything you need to know

2013-07-11T13:02:00.002+07:00

The Android based smartphones / tablets had become more and more similar with a notebook or computer in both performances and usability (you can use your device for watching HD movies, for taking high res pictures, playing games, develop apps, organize and plan your work strategy and a lot more), so now most of us rather choose to buy a tablet or a high end smartphone with a “generous” display, instead of using the classic notebooks. That’s why, when having an Android device, you should always find new ways for improving and upgrading the performances, as it’s really unpleasant (mostly you can’t afford it) to buy a new smartphone from time to time.

And since the best way for powering up the performances of your Android handsets is to apply complex and risky operations, you should always do a proper research before tweaking your gadget. Else, you can end up in bricking your phones and that’s not a good thing especially due to the warranty aspect: when performing unofficial methods, the warranty gets void. Anyhow, during the present tutorial we will discuss about Android overclocking; basically, by reading the following lines you will be able to find out everything that’s related with the overclock operation, from advantages and disadvantages to proper ways in which you can speed up your Android devices.

You should overclock your Android smartphone / tablet if you want to obtain more power from it, as by overclocking we understand: increase the CPU frequency / speed in order to receive better performances. So, the overclock operation applied on a smartphone or tablet is similar with the one performed on a PC or notebook as both will increase the CPU frequency; the best is that is hard, almost impossible to burn your phone’s CPU (especially if you follow and use dedicated tutorials) by overclocking as the mobile CPUs are coming with more safety mechanisms to prevent CPU from burning up, this compared with computer’s CPUs.

So, is Android overclocking safe? Well, we can say yes, though you should overclock only 10-20% of your stock frequency, or else your device will encounter another issue: battery drain. Anyhow, let’s say you overclock your handset from 1 GHz to 1.5 GHz; now this doesn’t mean that your Android device will constantly run on 1.5 GHz, as that power will be used only when needed (running games, or multiple apps, showing HD movies or running 3D tools).

As already mentioned, usually, after overclocking the CPU, the Android users are complaining about battery drain issues. In order to increase the power and also keep the battery performances I recommend you to bump the CPU frequency only with 10-20% of your stock power.

Well, now you know what Android overclocking refers to. Furthermore, we will be checking on how to prepare your device for such operation and how to actually apply the same.

Overclocking – pre requisites

Of course overclocking the CPU frequency is an unofficial operation that has nothing to do with Android, Google or your phone’s company. Therefore, before completing this method you have to prepare your device. Unfortunately, here come the negative aspects, all being related to the warranty of your handset: it will get void. However, if you are about to overclock your device, first read and apply the tasks from the following list.

Root your handset. Bumping the CPU performances can be performed only if you flash a custom Kernel; and for doing such thing you first have to unchain the system of your smartphone / tablet.
By gaining root access you will also gain access to the internal system of your handset (the factory restrictions will be removed) so the warranty will get void.
You can restore the warranty by downgrading to stock Android OS, or by updating with an official Android update.
Replace the stock recovery with a custom one – like CWM recovery or TWRP recovery. The stock recovery can’t be used when trying to flash a custom Kernel, so the custom one must be previously installed.
Take note that many custom ROMs are coming with custom kernel that supports overclocking; so if your device is currently powered by a custom firmware, then overclocking might be already enabled – in that case you don’t have to flash the custom kernel.
It will be important to backup the data that is being saved on the internal storage of your Android device, because usually wiping operations are being required (when installing a custom ROM software or custom kernel).
Also, it will be a good idea to make a Nandroid backup for saving the current ROM – you will be able to restore the same after overclockinng.
A computer will be required, your handset and its USB cable.
On the computer you will have to install the device’s drivers and there shouldn’t be running any security tools.
You should charge the battery of your smartphone / tablet before beginning the process and you should also enable the USB debugging option from its system.

That’s all; you are now ready to overclock your Android device, so let’s see how to do that:

Well, as already stated several times now, a custom kernel is being required. Therefore, you will have to follow a suitable step by step guide that can safely be applied on your device; don’t install a custom kernel by yourselves as you can end up in bricking your phone.

Do remember that most of the custom ROMs are coming with kernels that enable overclocking. In that case you can skip the operation mentioned above.

Then, after enabling overclocking you need to download one of these apps: SetCPU, No-frills CPU Control, or IncrediControl; install the tool on your device and run the same. Follow the on-screen indications in order to increase the CPU frequency, reboot and that’s it.

So, that was all for today; now you should know almost everything about Android overclocking. Do use the comments area from below if you have questions or if you want to talk with our team (if you have problems with your handset try to resolve the same by using the guide from here) – we will assist you as soon as possible. Also, stay close because we will bring overclock tutorials suitable for almost all the Android based smartphones / tablets out there.

Source : http://www.android.gs/

How to Root Galaxy S4 on Leaked Jelly Bean 4.3 Firmware

2013-07-11T13:00:00.001+07:00

The Android 4.3 Jelly Bean firmware has been ported to the Samsung Galaxy S4 from the Google Edition of the same device, the update being anytime available for you (you can manually apply the software on your handset). Anyway, those who have installed the JB 4.3 OS on their devices had complained that the root access has been revoked and there is no suitable root solution for the new Android system. Well, now you can easily root your Galaxy S4 on leaked Jelly bean 4.3 ROM as a new version of the Chainfire tool has been made available.

The best is that the new app is working on the Android 4.3 system which means that by using the same you can now safely root your SGS4. So, during the present step by step guide I will show you how to use the Chainfire app for gaining root access, all being explained and detailed below. On this tutorial you will have to use the stock recovery image of your Galaxy S4, as the root package can be flashed by using the same – therefore you have nothing to worry about as you don’t have to install and use complex and risky programs that might damage the system of your device.

The root operation should be applied by those who want to obtain more power and control, because once you apply this method, the factory restrictions and default settings of your Galaxy S4 will be removed. That’s why, on a rooted system and OS you can easily install complex apps that requires root access, remove in built programs for improving the battery life, update with custom ROMs for improving the performances, customize the looks and so on. Furthermore, on a rooted system you can also overclock your Samsung Galaxy S4, this being the perfect method to apply when looking into bumping the speeds and the performances.

Unfortunately, by completing this tutorial the warranty of your smartphone will get lost. As you can tell, this operation is an unofficial one and that’s why you are dealing with this aspect. Anyhow, don’t panic as if you follow this guide, nothing bad will happen. Also, if needed, you can restore the warranty; all you have to do is to downgrade / update your phone to stock / official Android OS. Of course, then the root access will be revoked and the factory restrictions reinstalled.

Use this guide only if your Samsung Galaxy S4 is on leaked Android 4.3 Jelly Bean firmware; else your phone might get bricked or its system damaged. Furthermore, ensure that:

You can use a computer and the phone’s USB cord.
On the computer there are no security programs running; if different uninstall or deactivate the antivirus, antimalware and Firewall protection.
On your handset the USB debugging option needs to be enabled; else you won’t be able to connect your device with the computer.
You should charge the S4 if there is less than 60% power left; else your smartphone might get turned off and bricked, while you are trying to root its JB 4.3 software.
Backup the SGS4 data because it might get corrupted – you won’t be able to use it after rooting the internal system.
So, make sure you save everything that’s important to you, along with the EFS folder and internet settings.

So, that was all. You have prepared your phone for the installation procedure that will shortly follow and you also checked which the main aspects related to the root operation are. So, head to the next, and final, section of this step by step guide and learn how to:

Root Samsung Galaxy S4 on Leaked Android Jelly Bean 4.3 Firmware

Download the root package from here and save the file on your computer.
Place the file on desktop as you will need it in a second.
Connect your phone with the computer.
Use the USB cable for establishing the connection.
Select the root package and copy paste or drag and drop the file from the PC to your smartphone’s SD card.
Turn off your S4.
Reach recovery mode.
For recovery mode all you have to do is to press Power, Volume Up and Home buttons at the same time, until the recovery mode menu is being displayed.
Select “wipe data factory reset”, “wipe cache partition” and “wipe dalvick cache”.
Now, by using the recovery menu choose, or select “install zip from SD card” followed by “choose zip from SD card”.
Pick the root package and flash the same.
In the end, return to recovery and select “reboot system now”.

Good job, you have rooted your Samsung Galaxy S4 on leaked Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS. If there were problems while trying to apply the steps from above, use our dedicated guide and learn how to resolve the most common issues. Also, use the comments area from below if you want to talk with us or if you have something to share.

Source : http://www.android.gs/

Update HTC One with MIUI v5 JB 4.2.2 Custom ROM

2013-07-11T12:59:00.001+07:00

As you know, the latest version of the MIUI custom ROM firmware, v5.0 has been released for the HTC One. So, if you want to update your handset with a fast, stable, based on stock Jelly Bean 4.2.2 OS and powerful custom software, then use this tutorial and learn how to flash the MIUI v5 firmware on your HTC One.

The best about MIUI v5.0 is that the ROM is coming with the stock Android 4.2.2 JB experience (looks, user interface and so on) along with stock and extra features (that cannot be found in the default version of the Android platform) meaning that you will be installing your HTC One with a custom update that looks like the default Jelly Bean 4.2.2 OS but performs like a custom ROM that is featuring its own apps and capabilities.

Even though you will flash an official-like ROM on your One, do remember that the MIUI system is actually a custom software and not an stock Android update released by HTC or by Google. So, be careful when applying the same as your phone’s warranty will get void. This is happening because you need to root your smartphone before starting the update operation as a custom ROM can be updated only on unchained systems.

Don’t panic though, as for the future, if you will have to, the warranty can be regained. For achieving the same you will have to un-root the OS and that can be done by: performing a un-root procedure, downgrading to stock Android firmware or by updating with an official release of the Android software. DO note that on rooted devices, the OTA updates can’t be received; so you will have to manually apply the future official updates.

After gaining root access you will have to flash CWM recovery, or any other custom recovery image, on your phone. As you know, a custom ROM can be updated only if you use a custom recovery, so the same is applying when dealing with MIUI v5.0 JB 4.2.2 firmware. Therefore, root and install CWM recovery on your HTC One. After completing these operations, you can start the update process.

But, for avoiding the unpleasant situations and for ensuring that everything will go as planned, first complete the list from below.

Backup the HTC One data, including text messages, call logs, market apps and contacts list – don’t forget about internet settings and current ROM (via Nandroid backup) too.
On the computer you will use (you need to have access to a computer or notebook) uninstall the antivirus protection along with any other security programs. Do the same for your device too.
On your phone go to “Settings -> More -> Development Options -> USB debugging” and check / enable the USB debugging box.
Take the charger in plug it in if your handset is having less than 60% power left.
Remember to root and install a custom recovery on your HTC One or else you will not be able to flash the MIUI v5.0 Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean custom ROM.

Good job; you are now ready for the proper update operation. It is important to know though that this tutorial was designed to work only for the HTC One smartphone – don’t use the next steps if you own a different device. Also, we have to thanks’ the MIUI team for providing the ROM for us.

How to Update HTC One with MIUI v5 JB 4.2.2 Custom ROM Firmware

On your computer or notebook save the MIUI custom ROM file – use the link from here for downloading the update package.
Save the ROM on desktop, as you will have to use the same in a minute.
Take the phone’s USB cable and plug it in for connection the smartphone with the PC.
Now, take the downloaded file and place it on your handset.
Disconnect the devices and turn off your HTC One.
You now need to enter the One in recovery mode.
For that first reboot by pressing Power, Volume Up and Ok buttons.
The bootloader mode will be displayed; from there select “recovery” and enter the same.
From recovery wipe the system: “wipe data factory reset”, “wipe cache partition” and “wipe dalvick cache”.
First, return to recovery menu.
And then select “install zip from SD card”; next select “choose zip from SD card”.
Select or pick the MIUI custom ROM file.
Flash the firmware on your device.
Select “+++go back+++” and “reboot system now”.
If your handset will get stuck in a boot loop, re-wipe the system once more, or follow thisdedicated tutorial which will show you how to resolve the most common Android issues.

Congratulations, you have completed the step by step guide. Now, your HTC One should be powered by the MIUI v5.0 custom ROM firmware. Remember that this software is based on stock Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS and comes with stock looks along with extra features and capabilities. The system should be stable and without bugs, but test the same and share your impressions with us by using the comments field from below.

Source : http://www.android.gs

Update T-Mobile Galaxy S4 to stock JB 4.2.2 UVUAMDL Firmware

2013-07-11T12:57:00.001+07:00

The T-Mobile Galaxy S4 had received a new OTA, the JB 4.2.2 UVUAMDL firmware. But if your handset is on a custom ROM, or rooted, then the OTA can’t be received and installed. Furthermore, if you will have to downgrade your Galaxy S4 to stock Android OS, or if you will have to restore the warranty of your handset (the warranty gets void when you root your phone) then you will have to use a manual method for installing the official Jelly Bean 4.2.2 software. So, for all that, use this step by step guide and update your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 to official Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean UVUAMDL firmware.

This guide will take you through the installation procedure of an official update. So by completing the steps from below, the warranty of your Galaxy S4 will not get lost. Actually, if your device is currently rooted or based on a custom ROM (or if you have completed an overclock operation), now you will be able to revoke the root access and restore the warranty. Therefore, the root access will be revoked, so you will have to use a root method that is suitable with the new JB 4.2.2 UVUAMDL OS – if you will need to unchain the system of your phone. Don’t worry though as this update operation is compatible with both rooted and un-rooted T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 devices.

Since we are talking about an official update and since we will flash the UVUAMDL firmware on a Samsung branded handset, for completing this tutorial we will use Odin. Therefore, you don’t have to worry as there won’t be used complex and risky apps or programs. Odin, is a dedicated tool used on update and root operations; the program is designed and offered by Samsung, so you have nothing to worry about.

Of course, if Odin will be used, then you will have to use a Windows running computer, your T-Mobile Galaxy S4 and its USB cable. Also, on the computer the S4 drivers must be installed – download Samsung KIES and install the drivers via the program. Also, as usual, on your computer you have to deactivate the security protection; then you need to enable the USB debugging option on your smartphone and you also have to charge the battery of the same. All these are preparation tasks that have to be applied if you want to successfully install the stock JB 4.2.2 UVUAMDL on your Galaxy S4.

Don’t forget to backup the SGS4 data, this being the most important thing to do before heading to the flashing procedure. Save everything you need to, including EFS folder and if possible the current ROM – Nandroid backup.

Now, since the UVUAMDL software is the stock Android JB OS released for your T-Mobile Galaxy S4, the firmware will be coming only with stock features and minor bug fixes. If you want to improve the JB experience or power up the performances of you handset, then don’t hesitate and update your smartphone with a custom ROM, or even consider in overclocking your T-Mobile SGS4.

Anyway, do note that this guide is compatible only with the Samsung Galaxy S4 model number M919. Applying the next steps on a different or similar Android based device will probably brick your handset.

How to Update T-Mobile Galaxy S4 to stock JB 4.2.2 UVUAMDL Firmware

Remember to install the proper drivers on your computer.
Then, download Odin and unzip the file on your computer.
Install the tool and run Odin.
On desktop, download the update file and unzip the same.
You can download the update package from here.
Turn off you phone.
Reboot in download mode -> press and hold Power, Volume Down and Home buttons.
Connect your S4 with the computer.
Check Odin: the “added” message should be there and the ID:COM should be yellow or blue.
If not, you must reinstall the drivers; then repeat the steps from above.
From Odin you need to select “PDA”.
Then you have to pick the firmware file from the desktop.
Don’t check the re-partition option from Odin, also don’t make any other changes on the program.
Just click on “start” and flash the ROM.
In the end, you will see the “pass” message displayed.
Unplug the USB cord and reboot your device.

If Odin gets stuck during the update operation, or if in the end your S4 gets stuck in a boot loop, use our tutorial and learn how to resolve the most common Android issues. Then, return here, use the comments area and share your experience with us. Anyway, your T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 has been updated to official Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean UVUAMDL OS, meaning that we are done for today.

Source : http://www.android.gs/

How to prevent inadvertent Hot Corner activation in OS X

2013-07-11T12:50:00.003+07:00

OS X supports a feature called Hot Corners, in which moving your mouse to a far corner of your screen invokes functions such as window management features of Mission Control, starting or disabling the screensaver, and activating Notification Center.

To set this feature up, go to the Desktop & Screen Saver system preferences and click the Hot Corners button. In the panel that drops down, you can select an action for each of the four corners of your screen.

While potentially useful, Hot Corners are easy to inadvertently activate. For instance, if you have the top-left corner configured, then you might regularly invoke it by accident when accessing system menus, especially the Apple menu. It could be a good idea to assign that corner a relatively harmless action, such as preventing the screensaver from activating.

Click the Hot Corners button to activate the panel. You can activate the menu and hold various modifier keys to show the possibilities available. Select one to assign that modifier key.

For a more decisive approach, you can take advantage of a hidden option, which is to require a set of modifier keys to be pressed in order for the Hot Corner to activate. To do this, when assigning a Hot Corner in the system preferences, hold one or more of the Shift, Control, Command, and Option keys and you will see the corresponding symbol appear next to the listed hot-corner action.

If you then select one of these actions, then you will need to hold the corresponding keys for that action to work.

While you can assign different modifier requirements to different corners, you can only assign one function to a particular corner at a time, so you cannot set, for example, the Option key to cause one action and the Command key to cause another in the same corner. These requirements only serve to prevent the Hot Corners from inadvertently being activated.

There are also third-party applications, such as Quicksilver and CornerClick, which offer delay options and other enhancements to Apple's hot-corner routines.

Source : http://reviews.cnet.com/

Put iOS 7's Control Center on your Android device

2013-07-11T12:49:00.001+07:00

One of the things Apple discussed and demoed during its Worldwide Developers Conference in June was a new feature, Control Center, coming in iOS 7. This feature is the first time Apple has brought quick access to frequently used device settings. Once iOS 7 is released this fall, users will be able to swipe up from the bottom of any screen to activate Control Center and then toggle Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and screen rotation, plus plenty more settings and features.

Android has no shortage of methods of accessing device settings from any screen, but that doesn't stop developers from getting creative. One such developer, Hi Tools Studio, has decided to take iOS 7's Control Center and bring it to Android (click here to download). As covered by Addictive Tips, you're just a few minutes away from having a bit of iOS 7 on your device before iOS users have it.

The free app looks and acts exactly like iOS 7's Control Center, with the addition of a few additional features. After installing the app, toggle the service on and then adjust where you'd like the arrow (the icon you touch to activate the service) to be placed. If you're having trouble seeing the arrow, be sure to adjust the height. I wasn't able to see the arrow -- let alone activate it -- at the baseline 5dp setting.

Any time you want to access Control Center you simply tap and press the arrow until your device vibrates (assuming you left vibrate on in the settings) and then slide your finger up. You can access Control Center from any screen on your Android device, including the lock screen.

Once it's pulled up you can tap to toggle Airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mobile data, and rotation lock. Also present is a brightness control, complete with auto brightness toggle and volume and profile settings. Along the bottom of the display you'll find quick access to a flashlight toggle, a clock app, a calculator, the camera, and a Mailbox-like icon. The last icon doesn't actually take you to your inbox, but instead to a page that mimics Apple's Game Center and presents you with games to download.

Should you run into issues with the shortcuts on the bottom not launching an app, tap and hold on the icon to select the app you want it to launch. I had to set the Clock app on my Nexus 4, with all other shortcuts working without any further tinkering.

To close the control panel, drag the arrow at the top of the window down to the bottom of your screen. Using the back or home buttons won't hide it.

Source : http://howto.cnet.com/

How to Hide Apps & Icons on the Apple TV

2013-07-11T12:38:00.002+07:00

Apple TV makes rearranging the app icons easy enough, but you can also hide services, icons, and apps that you don’t want visible at all. This is useful as a way of tidying up the Apple TV home screen of apps or services you never use or aren’t interested in watching (ESPN, HBO, Hulu, whatever), and it’s also a great way to limit access for specific media providers and shows that you don’t want someone else to see.

Much like on the mobile side of iOS with the iPad and iPhone, hiding apps on the Apple TV is handled through Parental Controls:

Open the Settings app on the Apple TV and choose “Parental Controls”
Choose “Turn On Parental Controls” and set a passcode for accessing the control panel (this is only necessary if you haven’t used parental controls yet)
Go through the list of apps/icons on the Apple TV home screen and flip them so they are shown as “Hide” to remove the app icon from the screen, or “Show” to make it visible”

There’s also a third “Ask” option, which requires the parental control passcode to be entered in order to use the app. That option is mostly useless for the intention of hiding apps or icons, but it is excellent for the original intention of parental controls, which is to control access to apps or services that may have media or programming that you do not wish children or other individuals to see or access from the Apple TV.

Source : http://osxdaily.com

10 Mail Tips for iPhone & iPad to Help You Email Smarter and Faster

2013-07-11T12:37:00.002+07:00

We all need as much help as we can get with email, and that’s why we’re offering up a slew of tricks to help master the Mail app on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. With ten tips ranging from having more emails be visible and stored on the device, to bulk management, to replying smarter, moving recipients around quickly, the quickest way to access drafts and add attachments to a message, and using Siri to compose complete emails, you’re sure to become more efficient working with emails in the iOS Mail app while you’re on the go.

1: MOVE EMAIL ADDRESSES TO DIFFERENT RECIPIENT FIELDS (TO, CC, BCC)

Decide at the last minute you want to blind carbon copy someone instead? No biggie, just do this:

Tap and hold on an email address or contact name, and then drag it between TO, CC, BCC

Of course, you can move addresses to any of the fields, from BCC to CC, TO to CC, whatever. Beats typing out an address again, doesn’t it?

2: SHOW MORE EMAILS IN INBOX

Want to have more emails be immediately visible in the inbox, without having to retrieve them from a remote mail server? This is the setting for you, it will keep more emails stored on the device, letting you see more directly on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod:

Go to Settings then to “Mail, Calendar, Contacts”
Tap “Show” and choose “100 Recent Messages” or higher

The default setting is “50 Recent Messages”, which means that 50 mail messages will be visible in the inbox by default, and scrolling beyond that must access the remote mail server to retrieve another 50. Changing this setting is very helpful if you wrangle a huge inbox, though the higher settings (500-1000 messages) can have some undesirable side effects of slowing down Mail app on older devices, and even increasing that “Other” space that shows up in iTunes.

3: SEE MORE EMAILS PER MAIL SCREEN

This setting displays more emails per screen in Mail app by adjusting the message body preview size. The default is set to 2 lines, but by moving it to 1 line or None, you can see many more emails instantly without having to scroll at all:

In Settings, go to “Mail, Calendar, Contacts” and choose “Preview”
Tap on “None” or “1 Line” to show more emails on each mail screen

Notice how this differs from the previous tip, in that more emails are visible on each mail screen, but it has no impact on the total number of emails shown in an inbox without accessing the server again.

4: QUICKLY ACCESS ALL SAVED DRAFTS

There is a super quick way to access saved email drafts in iOS:

Tap and hold on the Compose icon to jump to the Drafts folder

This accesses all drafts, whether they were created and saved on the iPhone or iPad, or on a remote server or webmail client like Gmail. This very handy feature was introduceda while ago and retains full functionality in Mail app for iOS 7. Use it, you’ll appreciate it!

5: BULK MANAGE GROUPS OF EMAILS: MARK AS READ, UNREAD, DELETE

Managing a group of multiple emails is easy in iOS Mail app, but it may not be immediately obvious to all users:

From the mailbox you want to adjust, tap on “Edit” then tap each mail message you want to adjust so that it’s highlighted with a checkmark
Tap on “Move” to send the emails to the Trash for bulk deleting, or to another inbox
Tap on “Mark” to flag the emails as spam, or mark as read or unread

This is very helpful if you’ve gotten a barrage of messages that are either unimportant or just need to mark as read, or when you need to Trash a bunch of them that are clogging up your inbox.

6: INCREASE FONT SIZE TO READ EMAIL CONTENT EASIER

The text size of emails is pretty small by default, and even those of us with moderately decent eyesight can have a hard time reading through long messages at such a tiny font size. Fortunately, it’s really easy to increase the size of the email text to something much more legible:

Open Settings, then go to “General” and “Accessibility”
Tap on “Large Text” (iOS 6) or “Larger Type” (iOS 7) and choose a size better for your needs

Something to consider with this option is that it will also increase the font size shown in text messages and iMessages within Messages app, which is actually really nice and makes those messages much easier to read as well.

7: REPLY TO PORTION OF EMAIL WITH SMART QUOTES

Smart Quotes are a little-used feature of iOS Mail app that let you reply to just a specific portion of an email, and they’re very easy to use:

Tap and select any portion of an email to include in the reply, then tap the “Reply” button as usual

The new email message will now only contain the portion of the email you selected, rather than the entire thing.

8: DITCH OR MODIFY THE “SENT FROM MY IPHONE” SIGNATURE

The default signature for emails sent from any iOS device identifies that device as “Sent from my iPhone” or “Sent from my iPad”. If you want to change it or delete it, it’s quite simple:

Open Settings, then go to “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
Tap on “Signature” to modify or delete it

We generally recommend keeping these signatures for a variety of reasons, including the brevity expectation, but if you want to delete it or modify it, it’s easy enough to change back.

9: INSERT PICTURES INTO EMAILS FASTER WITH A TAP

You can easily insert a picture or two into an email message just by doing the following:

Tap and hold in the message body, and choose “Insert Photo or Video” to find the picture or movie to attach

Images can be inserted anywhere into email messages this way, and it’s much much easier than poking around in the Photos app to create a new email from there, or using the copy and paste method to place images into emails.

10: COMPOSE & SEND A QUICK EMAIL WITH SIRI

Don’t want to type out an email message, or maybe you’re hands are busy? Siri canwrite it for you using a simple mail composition command:

Summon Siri and say “Write an email to [recipient name] about [subject] and say [message body]

This is really helpful in situations where your hands need to be mostly free and you can’t spend time looking at your iPhone or iPad screen, whether that’s because you’re just occupied doing something else, riding a bike, walking, or maybe you just hate typing on the touch screens.

Source : http://osxdaily.com/

How to Installing / upgrading Windows 8.1 preview

2013-07-11T12:32:00.003+07:00

This post is a recommended read if you are about to install Windows 8.1 preview on your pc. Windows 8.1 preview is a pre-release software from Microsoft which is publicly available to download. Being a pre-release software, only advanced computer users and people willing to get their hands on something new and exciting from Microsoft should get the Windows 8.1 preview.

Things to know before proceeding:

Currently 13 base languages are supported. This means that if you are upgrading from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 preview via Windows store, your current Windows 8 installation should be installed with one of the 13 supported base languages. The supported languages are

Arabic
English (US)
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
French
German
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
If you have installed your current operating system with some other language. You should not continue, else you will be presented with an error message “The update is not applicable to your computer”
If you are installing the Windows 8.1 preview by booting from a bootable DVD / USB drive, make sure to select the language from the above mentioned thirteen languages.
Windows 8.1 Preview requires the same configuration as Windows 8
Your current hardware and Windows 8 device drivers should work with Windows 8.1
If you uninstall Windows 8.1 in future and return back to Windows 8, you will have to reinstall your apps.
If it highly recommended that your take a proper backup of your computer before proceeding.

Things to do before installing Windows 8.1 Preview:

Make sure to disable or uninstall any Antivirus program ( but retain licensing information of your product for future installation )
Create a custom refresh image for your current Windows 8 operating system. This will help you in future when you might want to uninstall the 8.1 preview and return to Windows 8
Do a clean boot before installing Windows 8.1 preview from Windows Store
Detach any peripheral device that is not needed at the time of installation and plug these devices back after the installation is complete
Download the Windows 8.1 preview product guide from here

Hope you have a great experience trying this preview version of Windows 8.1. If you face any problems with this pre-release software, please use the comment section to start a discussion and express your views.

Source : http://www.troubleshootwindows.com/

Fix Internet Connection Not Working Using Mobile Phones or USB Modems in Windows

2013-07-11T12:31:00.000+07:00

The solution given in this tutorial will work in all Windows versions!

This problem is faced by many Windows users who try to connect to Internet using their mobile phones or USB devices such as USB Modem, etc. When they install the bundled software and try to connect to Internet using the given dialer program, they get error messages and the error messages do not help in troubleshooting the annoying issue.

Recently an AskVG reader "Windows Fan" contacted us regarding a strange issue which he faced inWindows 8.1. He was using Tata Photon+ wireless broadband data card which allows you to enjoy broadband speed (kind of) using a USB drive. He told us that it was working fine in previous Windows versions including Windows 8 but when he tried to use it in Windows 8.1, he got following error message:

Failed to create a phone-book entry.

The same problem was also faced by another AskVG reader "Anurag". He told us:

I have Dell Vostro laptop and Tata Photon+ data card. I installed Windows 8.1 on the laptop and every other driver got installed without any issue. But the Tata Photon+ data card is not connecting to Internet. Its giving the below error message:

Unable to create a phone-book entry.

Tried a few solutions available online, no dice. Also tried calling Tata Photon helpline, they said they can't help. Tried downloading new drivers available for Windows 8 from their website, still same issue. Tried using different Tata Photon+ card (from a friend), still same issue.

It'll be great if you could help. Thanks for taking the effort to read through.

We have also received a few similar emails from other AskVG readers who faced similar problems while using their mobile phones to connect to Internet in Windows. They were getting "Could not connect to the Internet" or similar error messages and were not able to connect to Internet.

So the question comes, why does it happen? If a mobile phone or USB modem Internet works fine in one Windows version, why does it not work in another Windows version? The reason is different features and functionality of different Windows versions.

When a new version of Windows is released, it comes with new or improved functionality and the same thing happened with Windows 8.1. It seems Microsoft has made some changes to Network and Sharing Center in Windows 8.1 which is causing this issue.

Actually when you try to install drivers and required dialer programs for your mobile phone or USB modems in Windows 8.1 or other Windows versions, the setup fails to create the required Internet connection which is used by its dialer to connect to Internet, that's why you get error messages.

The solution to fix this problem is very easy! You just need to create the Internet connection manually and then you can use this Internet connection to connect to Internet.

So if you are also facing this issue in Windows, check out following simple steps to fix it:

1. Open Network and Sharing Center using Control Panel. You can also open it by right-clicking on Network icon in system tray and click on "Open Network and Sharing Center" option.

2. Now click on "Set up a new connection or network" link.

3. It'll open new connection wizard. Click on "Connect to the Internet" option present at first place in the wizard.

If it shows "You are already connected to the Internet" message, click on "Set up a new connection anyway".

Again if it shows "Do you want to use a connection that you already have?" message, select "No, create a new connection" option and click on Next button.

4. Now click on "Dial-up" option.

5. Here comes the important part! In next screen, you'll need to enter correct dial-up phone number, username and password. These 3 things will differ for different service providers. If you don't know about these things, you can contact the customer care and ask them.

Generally for GSM mobile phones and USB modems, the dial-up phone number is *99# or *99***1#. Leave the username and password fields blank.

For CDMA mobile phones and USB modems (Tata Photon+), the dial-up phone number is #777 andusername and password is internet (all in small letters).

If the above settings don't work for you, you'll need to ask your mobile phone customer care for correct settings.

6. That's it. Click on Connect button and you should get connected to Internet without any problem.

You can create a shortcut of this connection on Desktop so that you can access it quickly and easily. To create its shortcut, click on "Change adapter settings" link given in left-sidebar of Network and Sharing Center and there you'll see your new connection icon. Right-click on it and select create shortcut option. It'll create its shortcut on Desktop.

Source : http://www.askvg.com/

2013-07-11T12:28:00.001+07:00

The Windows Device Manager is an important troubleshooting tool. It displays all your installed hardware devices and allows you to view which ones have problems, manage their drivers, and even disable specific pieces of hardware.

You should only need to use the Device Manager when troubleshooting your computer’s hardware and managing its drivers, but it’s an important system tool that you should know how to use.

OPENING THE DEVICE MANAGER

The easiest way to open the Device Manager on any version of Windows is by pressing Windows Key + R, typing devmgmt.msc, and pressing Enter.

On Windows 8, you can also right-click in the bottom-left corner of your screen and select Device Manager. On Windows 7, you can open the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and click Device Manager under Hardware and Printers.

VIEWING YOUR INSTALLED HARDWARE

By default, the Device Manager displays a list of your installed hardware, sorted by category. You can expand these categories to view which hardware you have installed in your computer. If you ever forget the exact model number of your video card or even your hard drive or DVD drive, you can quickly find that information in the device manager.

Note that some hardware devices don’t appear in this list by default. You can view them by clicking View and selecting Show hidden devices. This will display a variety of “non-plug and play drivers,” including low-level system drivers included with Windows and drivers installed by third-party software.

Windows does not display certain types of hidden devices, even when you enable the Show hidden devices option. “Ghosted” devices, such as USB devices that aren’t connected to your computer, will not appear in the list. To view them on Windows 7, Vista, or XP, you’ll have to launch the Device Manager in a special way.

First, open a Command Prompt window. Run the following commands in it:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

start devmgmt.msc

The Device Manager will open and will now show all hidden devices when you select Show hidden devices from the View menu. You can use this trick to remove drivers associated with your old, disconnected hardware. This hidden feature was removed in Windows 8, so viewing such “ghosted” devices is no longer possible.

IDENTIFY DEVICES THAT AREN’T WORKING PROPERLY

To identify devices that aren’t working properly — possibly because of problems with their drivers — look for the yellow triangle containing an exclamation point over a device’s icon.

Right-click the device and select Properties to view more information about the problem. The problem could be a driver issue, a system resource conflict, or something else. If it’s a driver problem, you can generally install a new driver for it from the Driver tab in the Properties dialog.

DISABLE A DEVICE

Let’s say you want to disable a device completely. Perhaps your laptop’s touchpad is malfunctioning and sending phantom events, moving your mouse cursor when you don’t want it to. Perhaps you never use your laptop’s webcam and you want to disable it at the system-level to be sure no malware can use your webcam to spy on you. Whatever your reason, you can disable individual hardware devices from the Device Manager.

As an example, let’s say we don’t like the annoying system beeps that come from our computer. These beeps come from the speaker on your computer’s motherboard.

To disable them, click the View menu and select Show hidden devices. Expand the Non-Plug and Play Drivers section, right-click the Beep driver, and select Properties.

Click the Driver tab and set the Startup Type to Disabled. You won’t hear beeps from within Windows anymore. (Note that, for most types of hardware devices, you can generally right-click them and select Disable to quickly disable them.)

This setting just affects Windows, so you may hear a beep while booting up. This is a troubleshooting feature that allows your motherboard to beep at you if problems occur.

MANAGE A DEVICE’S DRIVERS

A device’s properties window contains information and settings that may be specific to that type of hardware. However, you shouldn’t need to look at most of the information or options here.

The settings that matter most for troubleshooting are the Driver settings. After right-clicking a device and selecting Properties, click the Driver tab. You’ll find information about the currently installed driver and buttons for controlling it.

Driver Details: View details about the exact location of the driver files being used by the device on your system. You shouldn’t need this option.
Update Driver: Install an updated driver. Windows allows you to search online for an updated driver or manually choose a driver that has been downloaded to your system, just as you can when installing devices normally. Searching for an updated driver may help if the driver is old and outdated. If you want to manually choose a custom, downloaded driver for a device, you’ll do it from here.
Roll Back Driver: Revert to the driver the device was previously using. If you’ve updated the driver to a new version and the hardware isn’t working quite right, you should downgrade the driver. You could hunt down the old driver and manually install it, but this button provides a quick way to downgrade your driver. If this button is grayed out, the driver hasn’t been updated, so there’s no previous driver to roll back to.
Disable: Disable the device, preventing it from working in Windows until you re-enable it.
Uninstall: Uninstall the drivers associated with the device from your system. Note that this may not remove all driver files, so uninstalling the drivers from your Control Panel is a better idea, if this is possible. You may have to reboot your computer after doing this. This should only be necessary if you want to purge certain drivers from your system and try setting up the device and its drivers from scratch.

The Device Manager also warns you about resource conflicts, but you should see resource conflicts very rarely on modern systems. The above information should cover just about everything you would want to do with the Windows Device Manager.

Source : http://www.howtogeek.com/

How to Optimize Windows 8.1 For a Desktop PC

2013-07-11T12:27:00.000+07:00

If you’ve heard one thing about Windows 8.1, you’ve probably heard Microsoft is bringing back the Start button. Windows 8.1 includes many features that should have been included with Windows 8, and it can feel much less awkward on a desktop PC.

Many of these options aren’t enabled by default, so you’ll have to enable them yourself. Windows 8.1 also isn’t a complete reversal from Windows 8. Microsoft is trying to meet us desktop users halfway — but only halfway.

THE START BUTTON THAT ISN’T A START BUTTON

Log into Windows 8.1 for the first time and you’ll see a familiar sight on the left side of your desktop taskbar: the Start button. The new Start button looks just like the logo used by Start8 — it’s the same logo used by the Start button on the charms bar.

Microsoft actually insists that this it not a Start button — it’s the “Start tip” that you could view by moving your mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen in Windows 8. As Microsoft explains it, they haven’t restored the Start button — they’ve simply made the Start tip always visible on the desktop and given it a Windows logo icon to make it look like a Start button. However, it isn’t a Start button!

Microsoft’s silliness aside, this is clearly a Start button. However, many people won’t be happy about it, because the Start menu has not been restored — clicking the Start button on the taskbar just opens the current Windows 8 Start screen.

Microsoft hasn’t actually given us the Start menu back, but stick with us — you can make the Start screen much less awkward now. If you really love the traditional Start menu, Start button replacements are being updated so they work with Windows 8. Start8 has been updated, so you can still install Start8 on Windows 8.1 to get the traditional start menu back.

Amusingly enough, there’s no way to disable the new Start button on the desktop. Windows 8 lovers who defended Microsoft’s changes and were much happier without the Start button will now be unable to disable the Start button and will have to live with it.

BOOT TO DESKTOP

After going out of their way to prevent boot-to-desktop tricks and third-party Start buttons from working during Windows 8′s development, Microsoft has now relented. Windows 8.1 includes an option that lets you boot to the desktop so you don’t have to see that tiled interface anymore. You don’t have to install third-party software or mess around with complex hacks involving the Task Scheduler just to boot to the desktop.

To enable this option, right-click the taskbar, select Properties, click the Navigation tab, and check the “Go to the desktop instead of Start when I sign in” option.

DISABLE ANNOYING HOT CORNERS

You’ll see many other new options under the Navigation tab. For desktop users, some of the most important are the “When I point to the upper-right corner, show the charms” and “When I click the upper-left corner, switch between my recent apps” options.

Unchecking these options will prevent the app switcher and charms from appearing when you move your mouse near the top-left and top-right corners of the screen, something that happens frequently when using full-screen apps and games on a Windows 8 desktop. These just get in the way, as they aren’t at all useful for desktop users.

You’ll still be able to open the app switcher and charms with hotkeys (Windows Key + Tab and Windows Key + C) and by moving your mouse cursor to the bottom-left and bottom-right corners of the screen and moving it upwards along the edge. However, you’re much less likely to trigger these hot corners accidentally.

MAKE THE START SCREEN FEEL LESS FOREIGN

The Start screen feels completely alien in Windows 8. Press the Windows key and you’re whooshed from your desktop to a completely different environment with a completely different background that’s separate from your desktop background. If you want to set a custom background for your Start screen, well, you can’t — you can only choose from among the handful of weird Start screen backgrounds that Steven Sinofsky decided to give you.

Windows 8.1 deals with this by providing an option to “Show my desktop background on Start.” It sounds like a small change, but using the same background on your Start screen makes it feel much less out of place. When you go to the Start screen, it will look as if the tiles (or list of installed apps) are hovering over your desktop rather than existing in a different environment.

TURN THE START SCREEN INTO A DESKTOP APPS LIST

Okay, you’ve gone through all these options but there’s still a problem — that damned tiled interface appears whenever you click Windows 8.1′s new Start button. Fortunately, there’s now a way to hide it so you never have to see those live tiles again. Live tiles don’t work with desktop apps anyway, so they’re only useful for tablet users who actually use Modern apps.

First, check the “Show the Apps view automatically when I go to Start” option in the Navigation pane. Click the Start button and you’ll now see a list of your installed apps — no live tiles.

You’ll probably also want to check the “List desktop apps first in the Apps view when it’s sorted by category” option, then open the Start screen, click the drop-down box, and sort it by category. You can also opt to show your most frequently used apps first, so it will work like the frequently used apps list in Windows 7′s Start menu. Windows will remember this setting.

Click the Start button and you’ll see your installed desktop apps first in the list, with Modern apps hidden near the end. It’s now like a full-screen Start menu. You can still click the little arrow at the bottom to go back to the live tiles, but you never have to see them again if you don’t want to.

You will probably also want to leave the “Search everywhere instead of just my apps when I search from the Apps view” check box enabled. This will allow you to also search your settings and files when you start typing at the Apps screen.

SHUT DOWN FROM THE START BUTTON

Windows 8.1 extends the “power user menu” that appears when you right-click your Start button or press Windows Key + X. You can now find Shut Down, Restart, and other power options here. In other words, you can now shut down your computer right from the Start button again — you just have to right-click it instead of left-click it.

This menu also still provides quick access to other frequently used system configuration options, like the Control Panel.

USE UNIFIED SEARCH

Windows 7′s unified search was split into a clunky interface containing three different categories — apps, settings, and files — in Windows 8. Windows 8.1 now reunites Windows search into a unified experience. Search at your Start screen and Windows will search your installed apps, settings, and files without any clicking through different categories.

You can now perform searches without leaving the desktop, too. Want to quickly launch an app or open a file with search? In Windows 8, this required you leave your work behind to use the full-screen Start menu. In Windows 8.1, you can simply press Windows Key + S to open the search sidebar and perform searches without leaving your desktop.

FIXING OTHER ANNOYANCES

Windows 8.1 doesn’t fix some of Windows 8′s other annoyances, so there’s still a tablet-style lock screen and opening media files from the desktop will whisk you away to the Modern environment. To fix these annoyances, read our guide to banishing the modern environment on Windows 8.

It’s clear that Windows 8.1 isn’t a complete reversal for Microsoft. Microsoft hasn’t backed down on some of Windows 8′s most controversial changes, like the full-screen Start experience, Modern apps designed for tablets, and restricting sideloading to only allow Microsoft-approved apps to run in the new environment.

However, Microsoft has backed down on their complete hostility to desktop users and seems to actually realize that keyboard and mouse users are important, too. Windows 8.1 includes many options that should have been in Windows 8, and it’s a much less jarring experience. If you can get used to the new Start menu interface, you’ll be able to use all of Windows 8′s great desktop improvements and security improvements without having to install third-party Start menus.

Source : http://www.howtogeek.com/

How to apply a Google Play gift card to your account

2013-07-11T12:25:00.002+07:00

GOOGLE PLAY CARDS ARE A GREAT WAY TO BUY APPS AND MEDIA, AND REDEEMING THEM IS EASY

Google announced Google Play cards late last summer in the U.S., and have since been made available in Canada and the U.K. Of course, we all want them to be able to go global with the service, but there has been no word of when we can expect that to happen. In the meantime, if you're in a supported country, it's nice to know just how to apply the balance from a card to your Google account.

It's a pretty simple affair. You can find the gift cards themselves at retailers like Target or Walmart in the US and Canada, and Tesco and Morrisons in the U.K. They come in $10, $15, $25 and $50 denominations in North America, and £10, £25 and £50 in the U.K. You'll find them next to iTunes cards in most retailers, and you buy them like any other item off the shelf from the store. Once you get them home, adding the balance to your account is easy.

Visit our Google Play mini-site for everything there is to know about Google Play

REDEEMING ON THE WEB

You can apply the balance to your Google account (your Google Wallet account if you want to be specific) from your Android device or from any computer with a modern web browser. We'll look at redeeming the balance on the web first.

Simply fire up your web browser and point it at play.google.com/redeem. You'll likely be asked to authenticate by signing into your Google account, do that just like you would if you were accessing Gmail or any other Google service. You'll then be forwarded to the redemption page.

Next, take a coin of a sharp fingernail and scratch off the grey security paste covering the redemption code. It's just like a scratch-off lottery ticket, except you won't lose $2 while you scratch it. Once you've uncovered your redemption code, simply enter it into the text box marked with the word "code" on the right side of the page and click the Redeem button. You'll get confirmation that it was successful and you'll be able to use that balance to buy apps and media.

REDEEMING ON YOUR DEVICE

It's just as easy to redeem a gift card on your Android device through the Google Play app as it is from the web. Open up the Google Play application, and make sure you're at the main view where you can choose which Google Play store you want to visit. In the action overflow menu (those three buttons in the upper right), or the standard menu if your device has a dedicated menu key, you'll see the entry that says Redeem in the list. Tap it.

You'll need to be patient for a second as the app accesses your Google Wallet account, and then you'll be faced with a dialog to enter your redemption code. Scratch off the security covering over your card's code number, and type it in the text box that says "Enter code". With a tap of the green Redeem button you'll be set, and have the balance to spend in Google Play.

It's worth noting that Google Play balances on your Wallet account "cannot be redeemed for Android app subscriptions, magazine subscriptions, or hardware and accessory purchases", but will work just fine for apps, music, videos or books.

Source : http://www.androidcentral.com

How to Use Split Screen Mode in Windows 8.1

2013-07-11T12:17:00.002+07:00

Windows 8.1 has e brand new facility of using multiple apps in a split mode screen, that is splitting uo the screen spatially in two halves and open two apps at the same time. Surf your travelling destination while listening to the songs of some old folk dialects – that enhances the flavor of your surfing. The following steps will take you to activate split mode in Windows 8.11 and finally exit it.

Steps to Use Split Screen Mode in Windows 8.1

1. Open any two apps and open one app in full screen mode.

2. Now move the cursor to the left top corner to get the bar of opened apps. Drag one app inside the full screen and release it only when it fits in to the split mode.

3. The split mode looks like this.

4. Now if you want to swap any of the opened apps with another, for e.g. the Desktop, take the cursor to the top left corner and tap it. The window will come at the center, now place it in place of any one of the applications in the split mode.

5. To exit the split mode, click on the partition and drag it to any of the extremities.

Source : http://mywindows8.org

5 Ways to Bypass Internet Censorship and Filtering

2013-07-11T12:15:00.001+07:00

More and more Internet connections are being filtered, from public Wi-Fi and workplace connection filtering to ISP and country-level censorship. However, there are still ways to get around this filtering and view blocked websites.

Some of these methods may be restricted by harsh filtering. For example, the Great Firewall of China is now interfering with outgoing VPN connections, although VPNs were left alone for years.

DNS Server

This method is the least likely to work, but it’s worth covering here. Some Internet service providers have implemented filtering by changing their DNS servers to redirect requests for the blocked websites to another website. Some places that filter their Internet connections may use something like the web filtering solution offered by OpenDNS.

Assuming the filtering is just at the DNS level and requests to other DNS servers aren’t being blocked, you can get around the filtering by setting a custom DNS server on your device. This overrides and bypasses the default DNS server controlled by your Internet service provider or the organization running the network. Use something like Google Public DNS and you’ll know no DNS-level filtering is taking place.

Tor

Tor allows you to browse anonymously. It does this by routing your web browsing over and encrypted network before it emerges at an endpoint, which will likely be in an uncensored, unfiltered location. You shouldn’t use Tor to access sensitive, unencrypted data, but Tor will let you access blocked websites on any connection.

Tor’s developers are fighting a long, unending battle with regimes that attempt to block it, such as Iran. Tor may work even if standard VPNs, proxies, and SSH tunnels won’t.

Note that Tor does have a big downside — it’s much, much slower than typical web browsing. It will allow you to access blocked websites, but it shouldn’t be used for all your day-to-day browsing unless you’re a dissident living in Iran or China.

VPN

Connect to a virtual private network and all traffic coming from your computer will be redirected over that VPN. In other words, if you’re connected to a VPN located in Iceland, all your network traffic will be redirected to Iceland before it emerges. Replies will be send to the server in Iceland, which will forward them back to you. This all happens over an encrypted connection. All your ISP, network operator, or even your country’s government can see is that you’re making an encrypted VPN connection and sending data over the connection. If they want to block you, they’d have to block VPN connections.

VPNs are also commonly used for remotely connecting to work networks, so VPNs are generally not blocked. However, China has recently started interfering with VPNs.

Free VPNs are available, but a solid, fast VPN will cost you money — either to rent from a VPN provider or to pay for hosting so you can set up your own VPN.

Proxy

Blocked sites can also be accessed using a standard proxy. System-wide (or browser-wide) proxies generally function similarly to VPNs, but they’re not as reliable — for example, they only work with certain programs, not every program on your computer. If you want to pay for a service and send all your traffic over it, you’re better off with a VPN.

However, if you want to quickly access a blocked website, you can try using a web-based proxy. There are many available, including the widely known Hide My Ass. Plug a website’s address into the box on the website and you can access it via the proxy.

This won’t always work, as the proxy itself may be blocked. It’s also not the best experience, as the proxy itself will add advertisements to the page — they have to pay for their free service somehow. However, if you want to quickly access a single blocked site without installing anything or changing any system settings, this may work for you.

SSH Tunnel

SSH tunnels can work similarly to VPNs for securely tunneling your traffic. If you’re looking to pay for such a service, you’ll probably want to get a VPN. However, if you’re a geek, you may already have an SSH server you can access remotely.

If you do have an SSH server you can access, you can connect to it remotely and set up tunneling, redirecting all your web browsing traffic over the secure connection. This is helpful to encrypt your browsing traffic so it can’t be snooped on on public WI-Fi networks, and it will also bypass any filtering on the local network. You’ll have the same web browsing experience you would have if you were sitting at the SSH server’s location, although it will be a little slower.

You can create an SSH tunnel with PuTTY on Windows or with the SSH command on other platforms.

Blocked websites are only becoming more common, with governments like the UK’s pushing ISPs to start filtering the Internet connections they provide to subscribers by default and laws like SOPA in the US demonstrating the kind of harsh blocking governments want to put into place.

If you ever stumble across a blocked website, these tips should help you understand how to get around the block.

Source : http://www.howtogeek.com/

How To Run Google Glass On Your Android Smartphone

2013-06-18T14:30:00.001+07:00

You’ve probably already heard about Google Glass, the sets of wearable high-powered eyeglasses that were recently distributed to a limited audience across the United States.

While Google Glass currently costs $1500, that doesn’t mean the average Android smartphone user can’t try out Google Glass for free. Today, we’re going to show you how to do that on just about any Android device.

An Android developer named Zhuowei Zhang created an .apk file that allows average Android users to access certain parts of Google Glass. Thanks to Zhang, anyone with Android 4.0 or higher can try out Google Glass for themselves by following the steps below:

Step 1) On your smartphone, go to https://github.com/zhuowei/Xenologer and download the glasshome-modded.apk file.
Step 2) Make sure your Android can download and install apps from third party sources by going to Settings > Security and checking the box beside Unknown Sources
Step 3) Tap the .apk file you downloaded in step 1 to install it
Step 4) Start the app and you will find the standard Glass home screen along with the clock that Glass users get projected onto their eyes
Step 5) Say ‘OK Glass’ out loud to access the menu and browse through the list of options
Step 6) This is where things get cool. Yes, you can tell Google Glass to do just about anything. From going to your favorite website to recording a video. Although the app is a little buggy at the moment, it should be upgraded and improved over time.
Step 7) In order to do most of the cool things with Glass, you’ll need to download the other .apk files from the same folder found here: https://github.com/zhuowei/Xenologer
Step 8) Download and install the Hangouts, Maps, and Camera .apk files (along with any other Glass apps you would like)

That’s it! You should be able to access the official Google Glass app and most of its features on any Android 4.0 or higher device. If you’re having trouble getting the app to work, read through the comments on this article, where there’s a fair bit of troubleshooting going on. Enjoy!

Source : http://www.oneclickroot.com/

Hacked Verizon carrier update for iPhone and iPad may boost download speeds

2013-06-18T14:28:00.001+07:00

After releasing hacked carrier updates for AT&T and T-Mobile that enables Release 9 DC-HSPA+ on iPhone 5 for improved network performance, Joe of iTweakOS has now released a hacked carrier update for Verizon.

The hacked Verizon carrier update enables 1x Advanced and EVDO Rev. B on iPhone 5, iPad 3 and iPad 4, which the developer says should boost download speeds.

He explains how it works:

This hack enables 1x Advanced and EVDO Rev. B on the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, 4, and mini as well as enhancing LTE data speeds. Though Verizon is limited to EVDO Rev. A, the device itself becomes more open to an increased amount of bandwidth thus allowing for better throughput of data and data connection. Throttling code was put in place to limit users to a certain amount of bandwidth on 3G and LTE but will now have a better opportunity for some faster speeds. This won’t increase signal so don’t expect it to like the AT&T version of this hack.

He also goes on to explain why some Verizon users may not see improvements after installing the hacked carrier update:

This hack does NOT guarantee that you will see any dramatic changes or any change at all as certain areas are simply limited because of population density, natural features that degrade signal, the traffic on a specific tower, and even the amount of spectrum the tower is limited to as not all LTE towers have been upgraded to 10MHz or more for higher bandwidth support. If you feel this hack has not helped you, we have provided a way back to defaults, if you choose to do so.

The hacked carrier update is available for iPhone 5, iPad 3, iPad 4 and the iPad mini. You can head over to iTweasiOS for the download links and how-to install the hacked carrier update. Please note that while you can install the hacked carrier update even on a non-jailbroken iOS device, the downside is that you will have to restore your device to revert back the changes. We’ve not been able to test it, so please proceed with caution.

Source : http://www.iphonehacks.com/

Restore Windows Services, Registry to factory settings

2013-06-18T14:26:00.001+07:00

RefreshPC is an simple application that claims to restore the Windows 8 registry entries, Windows Services, clear Temp files, clear the Prefetch files. It’s hard to say what exactly this program does it in background, since there is no log what so ever. We have to trust the developer with the process. The earlier version had lot of red flags from lot of trusted Antivirus programs. So I was very cautions about running this application. First I uploaded the application to Virus Total and did a full scan. No antivirus flagged it as malware or potentially dangerous. You can find its findings here.

The Refresh PC or Reset PC is a very useful feature in Windows 8. But before you try that you may want to try this freeware, RefreshPC. This tool will reset only the Windows OS Registry settings and the Windows Services settings to their default values.

So the big question is “When do I run this application?”

Under normal circumstances you don’t need to run the application – i.e. if you’re computer is running fine then leave it alone. But let’s say you messed up with the Windows Services or Windows Registry settings. On such occasions before a reinstall you can try this application as a last resort. The good thing is that the application will prompt to you to create a System Restore point. Please don’t not continue without it. The other scenario is, when you run some registry cleaner application and messed up your computer. If you don’t have a registry backup then you can run this as a last resort. Since it claims to restore Windows registry let’s hope this does the trick.

When I installed this application, it did not install any toolbar or any other application. But I did find a warning at Softpedia. Users are advised to pay attention while installing this ad-supported application:

Offers to change the homepage for web browsers installed in the system
Offers to change the default search engine for web browsers installed in the system
Offers to download or install software or components that the program does not require to fully function

This happens when it’s a location-based install.

I decided to use this tool with the Process Explorer open so that I could find out where it goes and what it does. I didn’t find anything suspicious though it did access a lot of Registry keys, Access controls, etc. I believe they are using WMI based commands to reset everything back to stock settings. So in case if you have WMI disabled or not working, this tool will not work for you. Once you complete the scan you’ll get this window. Don’t worry about the numbers - it is the default for all Windows 8 machines.

After running the tool, I rebooted the system and something really strange had happened!

My classic Control Panel no longer opened. It gave me some ‘Could not find shortcut” error message. Then my laptop was not connecting to my network nor was it slowing my ‘list of available networks. I tried to use ‘netsh wlan show profile’ command so that I could rebuild the profile, but it was empty. Seems like it deleted my wlan profiles and it was not creating a new one.

I had created a System Restore point, but it failed to restore the system. So I ended up reformatting my system and installed Windows 8 from scratch.

The problem I have with this application is that there is no log.

In my opinion any application which make system changes should provide a log that tell us the changes it has made to your system.

Source : http://www.thewindowsclub.com/

Windows Explorer Doesn’t Show Thumbnail Previews in Windows Vista and 7

2013-06-17T12:29:00.001+07:00

Recently an AskVG reader "Neo13" contacted us regarding a weird problem. Following is the problem description:

Hello VG

I'm using Windows 7 and suddenly Windows Explorer has stopped showing thumbnails for files and folders. When I change the view type to thumbnails, Windows doesn't show thumbnail previews.

Can you please help me in fixing the problem?

Actually its a very common problem in Windows. Sometimes Windows Explorer doesn't show thumbnail previews for images and other files as shown in following screenshot:

It might be due to a bug or the user accidentally turned off thumbnails using Folder Options or System Properties.

Anyway if you are also facing this problem, you can use following easy fix to show thumbnails again in Windows Explorer:

1. Open Windows Explorer, click on Organize button present in command bar and select "Folder and search options".
2. Now go to View tab and make sure "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option is not enabled i.e. its disabled.

If the option is enabled, uncheck the checkbox and click on Apply button.

It should fix the problem. If you can't access Folder Options, you can use following alternative method:

1. Type sysdm.cpl in RUN or Start Menu search box and press Enter. It'll open System Properties.
2. Go to "Advanced" tab and click on "Settings" button in "Performance" section.
3. Now make sure "Show thumbnails instead of icons" option is enabled.

If its not enabled, enable the option and click on Apply button.

Source : http://www.askvg.com/