Alwaraki blog

This is why I quit Facebook

2013-05-18T12:19:00.002+03:00

I started using Facebook 4 years ago so that I can play some of the games offered on it, particularly Mafia Wars. Ever since then I've been an everyday user of Facebook. I'd open Facebook a few times an hour, update my status frequently, and stay in touch with my family and friends over messenger. The social network was extremely addicting. Many people quit it to stop their addiction. But for me it was different, I quit it because my addiction stopped.

I never thought I'd quit it though. Why quit something you enjoy doing it? My family referred to me as mr online since I'd never go offline.

Most of the blame is due to decisions made by Facebook, and the rest was because of some decisions they never made. In short, the company stopped focusing on the user and instead paid more attention to advertisers. Facebook became a website for advertisers to reach the right people more than it is for people to connect with those they cared the most about.

Advertisers

Facebook started placing so many adverts on their website. It started off with the endurable sidebar. Introduced suggested posts, and rumored auto playing video ads were on the way too. I'm not entirely sure how Facebook does it, but my newsfeed on the web always started with an advertised post.

I'm no longer connecting with friends, but with advertisers who know everything about me, from where I live to which apps I have installed on my phone. And this brings me to the next point.

Privacy

Even though I know most popular websites and apps are constantly tracking my location, seeing which users I talk to, and what I like to do. Yet, I use these services because they provide me with useful ways to communicate. I'm ready to sacrifice some of my privacy for that. I give all of my data to websites and I don't really care. That's how it was for Facebook, but not anymore.

They took it too far. Knowing which apps I have installed on my phone? Now that's not acceptable. Meanwhile other competitors are providing me with better features than Facebook, and without all the sponsored crap and creepy privacy settings. The video below says it all.

Competitors

When I asked my friend why he isn't switching to Google+ he told me that if you have a car for all your life, then find out that there's another car that's slightly better then why would you switch?

That used to be true, in the days when Google+ first launched. It was better, but not too much better. Right now Google+ offers a lot more features, and doesn't advertise in my feed, and doesn't spy on me as much.

Same with twitter. It serves a slightly different purpose to Facebook and G+, and it does it very well.

Users

Although most of my friends are still on Facebook, very few are actually active. They scroll through their newsfeed without interacting with any posts or updating their status.

On the other hand, most of my friends are active on Twitter. I have a few friends on G+, but the rest are other bloggers from around the world. I find most useful and interesting content on G+ and Twitter.

Usefulness

At first Facebook was the best. It combines chatting, status, commenting, liking, games, news, funny pictures, and a lot more. Due to the highly unreasonably management made by Facebook, and how the company switched towards being a heavily advertised site; users began looking for alternatives.

Sharing pictures now takes place mostly on other websites and apps such as tumblr, ifunny, 9gag and Instagram (which is now part of Facebook).

For news and updates I use twitter and G+. And for games I .. well I use gaming websites. Facebook was amazing for bringing all of these features at one place, but their dominance made the website and app become worse over time. Until eventually, users (like me) who were once addicts to the network are now deactivating their accounts.

Conclusion

Quitting Facebook took a lot of time for me. The idea would pop into my head every once in a while and I'd reject it. I mean, it's Facebook! What am I gonna do without it.

Then I was fed up of ads, fed up of privacy issues, and realized that I wasn't really enjoying my time on Facebook. I watched the Google I/O keynote and fell in love with the new features in G+. So I deleted the app, and quit Facebook for a while. Maybe for good.

What do you think of Facebook? Do you still use it, or are you switching to other social networks? Share your opinion, it matters.

If you liked this post then you may want to like AWB on Facebook, or follow on Twitter. It's a great way to stay connected!

Blackberry announces BBM on iPhone and Android for this summer

2013-05-14T18:54:00.002+03:00

Big news today. Blackberry announced plans to release BBM for iOS and Android this summer. A move which should have arguably happened earlier. Yet, the announcement came in as good news for most people. There's a lot more behind this though, and what it means for the future of Blackberry.

BBM will first get released with basic features. Users will have the ability to chat using text with individuals and in groups. According to the plan, this is it for the summer. But more features such as voice chat and screen sharing will come later in.

“We’re committed to making the BBM experience on other platforms as fully featured as we can,” Heins said. “We’ll start with messaging and groups, but we’ll add voice and screen share later on. … BB10 is such a strong platform that we are confident it can become an independent messaging solution.”

After all the cheering, this announcement means a lot to Blackberry. A company that has been dedicated to making phones, and a software to run alongside its phone is starting to make apps for other phones. The anticipated messaging app could just be the first step for Blackberry to slowly move out of the 'making its own phones' strategy to simply making apps.

I'm not saying this is for certain. It's more likely for Blackberry to become like what Google is on mobile. Hardware, OS, and apps.

It's been a long time since we were waiting for this. Blackberry should have done it earlier. All the hype for BBM on other devices slowly started dying last year, and now with growing competitors such as Whatsapp, Kik (and maybe iMessage) it is a bit too late. But still it's big news.

Do you think that it's too late for Blackberry to make this move? There's no doubt that the BBM app will become the Top Free app on the App Store the day it's released. Well, if it is free..

If you liked this post then you may want to like AWB on Facebook, or follow on Twitter. It's a great way to stay connected!

[Source: AllthingsD]

How to set up Find my iPhone on your iOS device

2013-05-09T19:44:00.000+03:00

Losing your iPhone is a huge pain. Most of us just think that it won't happen to us, but having your iPhone left behind somewhere could be your next nightmare. It's very possible and happens a lot. Most of the top smart phones have a feature to help you find your phone, for iOS this feature is in an app called Find my iPhone. There are three essential steps you need to take to protect your iOS device. The three steps are included in this post.

Find my iPhone offers four key features to help you track down your lost (or even stolen) device. Users of the app can:

Play a sound to help locate their missing device.

Put their device in lost mode. This allows the user to add a password as well as a custom message to their device.

Erase all the data on the device. Use this if you value no one seeing your data over recovering your device. Once you erase data you can't track your phone.
Track the device on a map. This will require your lost device to have had location services enabled, so to stay safe, keep it on all the time.

Step 1: Download Find my iPhone on all your iOS devices

An important thing to do now is to download the app on all your Apple devices for free from the App Store. This is an essential proactive step to take. So if you lose any of your iDevices you're ready to start tracking. Without a jailbreak, using Find my iPhone is the best method of finding a lost device and keeping your data safe.

Step 2: Turn the feature on in iCloud Settings

If you head over to Settings --> iCloud you'll find a toggle for Find my iPhone. Ensure that the feature is toggled ON in your iCloud settings as shown in the picture below.

Step 3: Keep Location Services ON

Without enabling your location services it is impossible to track down your iPhone using Find my iPhone. So check that your location services are ON in the Settings app. Head over to Settings --> Privacy --> Location Services and make sure your location services are on. You can turn the service off for other apps, but don't turn it off for Find my iPhone. Even if your battery is low, Find my iPhone will be consuming little to no battery unless you're tracking down the phone. Ultimately, your iPhone is too valuable to take this risk.

As long as you have taken the three steps above, then you're on the safe side. Share this post with your friends so that they'll be grateful when they lose theirs!

If you liked this post then you may want to like AWB on Facebook, or follow on Twitter. It's a great way to stay connected!

Stop iPhone from taking two pictures when on HDR

2013-05-07T10:00:00.003+03:00

This is a quick tip on how to stop HDR from taking two pictures when enabled. Usually the iPhone will capture an HDR picture, and a non-HDR picture. This is done in case the HDR picture turns out to be blurry.

Nevertheless, most users end up having to delete the non-HDR picture every single time; which can get annoying and is a waste of time. This tutorial shows you how to stop saving the non-HDR picture too. It doesn't require a jailbroken iPhone.

Go to:

Settings --> Photos & Camera

Then swipe down until you find the toggle 'Keep Normal Photo'. Toggle that to OFF.

Now to test if it worked, which it will, capture an HDR photo and check how many pictures were taken. Only one picture will be saved, which is the HDR picture.

If you liked this post then you may want to like AWB on Facebook, or follow on Twitter. It's a great way to stay connected!

Change iPhone UI color using Accentify

2013-05-06T18:49:00.000+03:00

Since the release of the first version of iOS, Apple didn't change the UI color of the top bar in its apps. I'm talking about the blue color you see at the top bar of the settings app. It gets boring after 6 years, so it's a good idea to change it.

That's why today's blog post is about changing that 6 year old grand color and replacing it with many new fresh colors. Today's tweak is called Accentify and will require a jailbroken iPhone.

As you can see the bar at the top, as well as the status bar are orange. I chose them orange, and with Accentify you can choose whatever color you want.

Pull the sliders to make your own color!

Another great thing about Accentify is that it is constantly updated with cooler features and bug fixes. I would totally recommend this tweak as it brightens up your iPhone for only $1. Grab it from Cydia.

If you liked this post then you may want to like AWB on Facebook, or follow on Twitter. It's a great way to stay connected!

Google Now comes to iOS

2013-04-29T21:04:00.000+03:00

Google Now has been proved to be better than Siri on many tests before. While this feature put up a challenge against Siri and could have convinced users to switch to Android, Google released Google Now for iOS devices. This finally gives iOS users a chance to try out such a promising feature.

While Google Voice Search has already been available for a long time, Google Now is slightly different. For those of you who don't know the difference, Google Now has a cards view that gets you your information right at your fingertips before you need it. Seriously. Read on for more about Google Now as well as a download link.

As a starter, this conversation is over.

"We have Siri!" -Apple fans
"We have Google Now" -Android fans

What is Google Now

Google now displays you information in cards. While it's different to Siri, the two of them are usually compared. Voice search is sometimes considered as Google Now, but voice search has been out for months on iOS.

Google Now shows you things such as the weather in a card. If you're leaving for work it will show you the time to get to work in a card. The feature gets smarter as you use it. Eventually, it will display a card showing the time to travel to work on your workdays but not on your weekends!

Another example is if you land into another country, Google Now will automatically display a card with currency conversions so you can get used to the new currency and convert any money during shopping. There are many other cool features in this free service by Google.

Download Now (no pun intended)

To download Google Now right now (My sense of humor is disappointing) use the direct link below.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-search/id284815942?mt=8

Quick Tip: Redial contacts with one tap

2013-04-26T09:33:00.000+03:00

This is a really quick tip to read, and should save you time whenever you want to redial a contact. Most people are aware that you can use the 'Recents' tab to access recent calls. But you can tap 1 button on the keypad to redial the last number you called. Can you guess which one it is?

If you tap the big green Call button, it will automatically paste the last number you called. Nice, right?

How to enable or disable battery percentage on iOS

2013-04-15T18:15:00.001+03:00

This is a quick tip here. You've almost certainly seen the battery percentage next to the battery icon in the status bar on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. You want to know how to hide or show the battery percentage? Perhaps it looks cool up there, or maybe it's just wasted info on your screen. Either way, you will want to toggle it to suit your preference. By default, this should be toggled ON on your iPhone. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to toggle battery percentage.

1. Go to Settings

2. Tap on General

3. Then tap on Usage

4. Toggle Batter Percentage

This is how to toggle battery percentage. If you found this post useful then share it with your friends, they will too!

Get Swype Keyboard on iPhone now

2013-04-10T12:48:00.001+03:00

I have never really been a big fan of using a Swype keyboard, but since so many people like it I decided to share this tutorial with you. This is how to get the popular Swype keyboard on your iPhone. You'll need to have a jailbroken iPhone and add a source to Cydia.

The tweak is completely free to download and easy to use. It also adds an autocorrect bar similar to the one in Android.

To get the Swype keyboard you need to:

Launch Cydia
Tap on Manage --> Sources
Tap on Edit in the top left, then add in the top right
Add the source: http://cydia.myrepospace.com/wyndwarrior
When the source is added, download iSwipe
Restart your Springboard when the download is complete

To test you have a working Swype keyboard open the Notes app and try using the Swype feature. It should be working now!

Here's a challenge for all you Swype keyboarders! Try sharing this article while using the Swype keyboard. Let's see who wins!

Getting a Refund From Apple on Digital Purchases

2013-04-05T23:39:00.000+03:00

So I recently published a post on how to disable in-app purchases to avoid huge iTunes bills. I advised people to follow the method so that a young child doesn't waste money on unnecessary purchases. Ironically though, I opened up the App Store next day and noticed roughly $16 disappear from my account. After some panic, resetting the email that receives the iTunes receipt, and asking the whole family if they spent $16 in a couple of days time- I found out the problem. It was in-app purchases. My young brother had spent money on in-app purchases without even knowing what they are! Oh God, the embarrassment of writing a post on avoiding this problem, then finding out next day that you're a victim of it.

Anyway, I decided to reach out to Apple and ask for a refund. After all, I heard many customers share the amazing experiences they had with Apple's customer support. The whole process of getting a refund was thankfully successful. In this post I'll show you how to receive a refund on iTunes (or App Store) purchases as well as share some of the experience I got.So let's get to the point. The first thing you need to do is to contact the Apple Support team. Apple emphasizes its importance of support by keeping it as a main link alongside iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes... when you first open up Apple's website.

Go to www.apple.com/support

You should see a screen like the one below

Click on the product you need help with. I'll go with iTunes for the sake of this post because this is where most people need to contact Apple Support. Please note that iTunes includes the App Store too.

After clicking on the product, you'll find a new page with a screenshot or picture of the product taking up a good bit of space. On the left you'll find a navigation table. The last link at the bottom should say Contact Support. Click on that.

Depending on the product you chose, you'll be asked to narrow down your problem a bit. This will ensure your message will reach the right person in Apple who is best at helping with that specific issue. For the iTunes example, you should be asked if you need support for the iTunes store or the iTunes player. If your problem is unintentional in-app purchases like mine was then you should choose the iTunes store.

This will send you to a page where you narrow down the problem even further. The options are self-explanatory and should be straightforward to follow. If you need further help in narrowing down your choice feel free to add a comment below. For the in-app purchase issue I narrowed down the selection as shown in the screen shot below.

You can add in more details on the issue in this step if you would like to. You'll also need to choose the country for your store. You should add in unintentional in-app purchases in this step. When you click on continue you may be recommended to read an article that solves your issue. If you're asking for a refund then this probably won't help you, so you have the option to email Apple by clicking the email button on the page. The button should be below the link to the recommended article.

In the email to Apple explain your problem in as much detail as possible. A person from the team will be assigned to work with you until your issue is solved. I worked with a very kind man called Joe. Below is part of the first email I received from him. I received the email roughly 24 hours after reaching out to the support team.

So I did exactly as I was asked. I followed the instructions in the linked article. This helped me identify the order numbers for the items I wanted a refund for. I responded with the name of each app, the order number for that app, and how much money was spent in that app.

Less than 24 hours later I received an email from Joe telling me that I will get my money back within 48 hours. Next day I had the money in my account.

After being very grateful to Apple for giving me a refund, and double checking that the iPad was restricted from buying in-app purchases and warning my brother not to mess around with the restrictions menu in the settings- I was all happy about it again. I thanked Joe in an email and received a response where he said that nothing makes Apple happier than hearing that their customers are pleased. I certainly was, and I imagine other customers to be. This is where Apple proved to me that their support team lives up to its expectations. I received similar support from Sony regarding my PS3 before and that made me pleased to. Were your previous experiences with customer support up to their standards, or were they way down the ground? Share your experiences in the comments!

Enable text to speech on your iPhone

2013-04-04T21:26:00.000+03:00

Did you know that your iPhone, iPod and iPod Touch can read out text for you? You may have seen some people doing it. They highlight some text on their iPhone and then tap Speak. BOOM! Guess what? Siri is reading out the text. How can you get Siri to read out any highlight-able text for you? This is what this post is all about. Step-by-step instructions with pictures, and also a video to make sure that everyone can get this feature working on their iOS devices. Please note that this feature does not work on all versions of iOS. Your device needs to support Siri to support this feature.

1. Go to Settings

2. Scroll down and tap on General

3. Tap on Accessibility

4. Tap on Speak Selection

5. Toggle Speak Selection ON

To test if this works, go to the Notes app and add a random note. Highlight any word or phrase from the note, or even the note as a whole. A mini menu will appear above or below the text with options such as Copy, Select All, Speak. Tap on Speak and admire the magic.

If a step-by-step guide with pictures isn't what you're after, then enjoy the short tutorial video below. The video gets straight to the point. Sorry about the really poor quality. For some reason the quality of the video isn't up to standard in this post. I'm still trying to find out why! Anyway, the video is below, and the quality is good enough to watch and understand the video.

Did you find this tutorial helpful? If so, then please share it with your friends. They'll probably find it useful too!

Disable in-app purchases to avoid a huge iTunes bill with Pictures and a Video

2013-04-02T14:01:00.000+03:00

Every few weeks we hear parents complaining that their child spent a few thousand dollars on in app purchases. This always got me annoyed because it's something that's so simple to avoid. Perhaps people just need to know how to do it, which is the objective of this post. Instead of blaming Apple for this, parents should toggle in app purchases off. Here's how to do it. I included pictures and a video in this post to make the steps as clear as possible. Hope this helps.

1. Go to Settings

2. Scroll down and tap on General

3. Tap on Restrictions

4. Enable restrictions. You'll need to type in a password. This password will need to be typed in every time you edit the restrictions. So make sure it's one you can remember.

5. Toggle in app purchases off

Now when you go to download an in app purchases you won't be allowed. An error message like the one below will show up.

I even made a video to show the steps. Watch the video below in HD:

Now next time someone tries downloading an in app purchase they won't be allowed to.

For any help feel free to leave a comment below.

Apple loves jailbreak hackers. Here's why!

2013-04-01T10:06:00.000+03:00

With the release of every new iOS upgrade, a group of hackers attempt finding a security exploit to allow a jailbreak. And with the release of every new jailbreak comes an iOS update from Apple that blocks the jailbreak. This seems like a mini warfare between the hackers and Apple. But as a matter of fact, Apple want the hackers to make a jailbreak and the hackers want Apple to keep on releasing iOS updates.

Why is this though? Well the obvious one is the hackers wanting Apple to release the iOS updates. They want it so they can enjoy new software versions on their devices. But the harder one to believe is Apple wanting the hackers to make jailbreaks. Why would they want this? Here's why.

There are two major reasons for this. The first one is new ideas for iOS. And the second is because these hackers are finding security exploits. I'll explain why both of these are useful.

New ideas

Apple's iOS upgrades usually have features that were first seen in jailbreaks. This gives Apple a chance to get new ideas from a large number of their customers, and to know what their customers want. Apple even hired a developer who had developed a tweak on Cydia to work for them and implement his tweak in their OS.

The jailbreak also gives many customers a chance to show what they want to come in the next iOS upgrade. Again, allowing Apple to get more relevant features for their customers.

Security Exploits

The second great thing for Apple is that they don't need to spend a great amount of time looking for security exploits. These security exploits can allow a hacker to destroy a device. What happens is that the jailbreak hackers find the exploits and Apple patches them, which ultimately leads to a safer iOS. In other words the jailbreak hackers are helping make iOS safer!

It's pretty amazing to look at this story from a different angle. Rather than seeing it as a war you can see it as a benefit for both sides. Or is it just me trying to be positive?

What technology can I recycle in my home?

2013-03-30T00:06:00.003+03:00

Most of us live in homes that are more or less packed out with various types of electronic equipment in all shapes and sizes, from games consoles and MP3 players to peripherals, computers and myriad small gadgets that accumulate like flotsam and jetsam on the beach.

Every upgrade means another obsolete item added to the growing pile and the temptation is often just to dump them in the trash and create some breathing space, but a better idea is to embrace recycling and do a small but necessary favour for our long-suffering planet. Try to sell a Blackberry Bold 9780 or other gadgets online or donate them to a good cause rather than binning it out of hand.

Consider for starters that the PC you’re about to bin may not actually be rubbish at all. If it’s less than a decade old you may be able to refurbish it with an upgrade. But even if it is completely useless you shouldn’t just toss it out because devices like old computers often include potentially toxic substances such as mercury and lead, which will leach into the ground from circuit boards and monitors. So the basic choice when it comes to old PCs and similar devices is to either reuse or recycle them. If at all possible, get the gadget fixed because reusing is a better option than recycling, which takes up energy.

Having said that, gadgets such as mobile phones are easy to donate for reuse, as the place you buy your new model will almost certainly take the old one at no extra cost and donate it for you. If you prefer to choose your own charity you can find one with a quick web search yourself. If you have a PC that is fairly recent and which works, there are plenty of educational establishments that will be more than happy to take it off your hands, and there are numerous online message boards where you can advertise older and non-working items like scanners, printers and web cams. If you want minimum fuss to de-clutter your home of old or outmoded technology, bear in mind that many makes of computer are built so that they can be easily broken down into their components and so effectively recycled. Although lots of electronic devices will take up much energy to recycle this is still a better option than contributing to the growing toxic landfill.

Recycling is a fairly new industry, and this is especially the case with the recycling of electronics, so at present there is not much centralisation, which is probably the main reason why a lot of it ends up in landfill – people get frustrated and go for the easy option just to free up space. If you’re serious about recycling, however, and are prepared to spend some time and effort on research, you can usually find how to appropriately recycle all the electronic gadgets you accumulate and no longer need. The website of the manufacturer is often the best place to start looking and many retailers and local councils have set up collection programs to simplify the process.

Craig Johnson is a retired technology expert with years of experience trading and selling mobile phones. He appreciates that the world of technology has come on in more ways than one and anyone looking to sell their BlackBerry Bold 9870 handsets nowadays would be best of looking at mobile phone recycling websites.

Share to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Foursquare at once using Postargram

2013-03-27T19:46:00.000+03:00

With the increase in numbers of social networks, it could take individuals and businesses a few extra unnecessary taps to share the same message on a few social networks. Fortunately there are apps to help you get rid of these taps by sharing to these social networks together simultaneously. Today I want to review with you an app called Postargram which helps solve this first world problem.

Postargram is a really simple app and easy to use, which is why I'm sharing it here. When you first launch the app it will take a while to set up, but after that the app is simple and gets the job done. Plus, the app has some additional features that make it superior to apps with a similar purpose. I'll cover all of this after the break.

First Launch

When you launch the app for the first time you'll find that the setup could take a bit longer than you think. The app unfortunately doesn't take advantage of Facebook/Twitter linked accounts in iOS and so you'll have to login from the web login screen for Twitter and the app on Facebook. Don't worry about what you have to do to link your Facebook and Twitter to Postargram as you'll be automatically redirected between webpages and apps. The real hassle though is if you want to link all 4 social accounts supported by the app. I ended up having to type in my password four times till I could get started with using the app.

Lots of accounts!

The first great feature worth mentioning is that you can link up to 4 social accounts to Postargram. The four supported services are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Four Square. Furthermore, you can have more than one Twitter account linked with Postargram, which is really useful for people with multiple accounts.

Shrink Text

With Postargram you hardly need to worry about the Twitter 140 character limit caption. The app has a cool feature which lets you shrink text you've already typed in so that you can fit more words in fewer characters. So you can shrink "What should I do" to "wht shld I do". Although this could make you seem like an idiot, it could come in handy every once in a while.

#NowPlaying

You can tweet any song you want as Now Playing (even if the song isn't!) The app takes the NowPlaying to another extra step though. The user types in the name of the song and artist, and the app will help fetch the album cover to include with your tweet/post. So your tweets will look more friendly.

Live Camera

With Postargram, you can have the app display a live camera on your screen behind the text you've typed to share. Once you press post, the image will be captured and sent along with your post. Having a live camera while typing in a tweet is certainly a different experience!

Instagram Pictures

You may have been wondering how Instagram comes in if all you did was type in text without a picture. Postargram has a good way of doing this. When you share text to Instagram you get to pick a background to place the text on. You can't move the text around or anything though which is quite a shame. Nevertheless, adding in such a feature will over complicate the app.

Simplicity

While reading some of the features that make this app outstanding, you may be doubting the fact that it's simple. I need to point out that these features are there for you to find and do not get in the way. So if all you want to do is update your status on Facebook and Twitter simultaneously then the app will do its job without and complexity, but there are apps that do the job better if that's all you wanted.

Conclusion:

Postargram is a really simple app without some extra unique features for you to discover. Setting up your accounts could be a bit of a hassle, but other than that you shouldn't be encountering trouble and bugs with the app. You can download Postargram for free using the link below.

Download Postargram for Free

Follow 3 Simple Steps and own any smartphone to completely increase your productivity level

2013-03-25T19:03:00.002+03:00

We all want to be productive in our lives. Some want to simply do their work while others even want to become someone remembered in history. To do this, we need to get over procrastination and begin a new routine in our lives. Making a time table and hoping that this will help you do what you want to get done barely ever works, and all the methods on the internet are useless. Don't worry we've all been there, and I've been there. But for the last few weeks I have been testing and experimenting with some free apps and seeing which works best.

Although ironically I didn't blog for quite a long time, and blogging was on my list of things I really want to do, I now understand why I wasn't blogging recently and will explain it all in this post. What you're about to read could be your lifesaver.

Before we get started you need to know what procrastination is, and how it works. By knowing how it works you'll find it easier to overcome it. Don't hesitate in reading the amazing answer on Quora explaining how to get over procrastination.

Ok now that we know what procrastination is it's time to defeat it. Most people think that the one and only true problem is getting started, then it will all go well. I'm sorry but it turns out life doesn't work that way. There are two major pains; getting started, and to keep going. In fact getting started is a lot easier than keeping on. To get started you need to dedicate yourself to what you want to do.

Let's say you want to start a blog. In a few free hours in a weekend you could create a blog and even write a first post. That's it. A few hours is all what you needed to start. Now that you started you have to keep going, and this is the harder part.

So I started my search for apps that actually keep you going. Apps that will help me accomplish the mini daily goals of my life. Over the past few weeks I was busy testing out apps that helped change my life. You'll need to use two out of the three apps to change the shape of your life.

App #1 Mr Mood:

When you first open up Mr Mood you'll realize that this free app is gorgeous. It's a really unique app of its kind. What makes me love this app are its:

Lovely interface
Daily notifications at a user-specified time to be reminded to open the app

How will this help reshape your day though?

Simple. What Mr Mood does it that it lets you rate each of your days with a simple swipe gesture. There are five faces you can rate your day with, and the higher up you slide, the better your day is. Moreover, you can add a comment everyday to say what you loved or hated during that day.

This will seriously help you identify what makes you happier and what ruins your day. By analysing a pattern in your life you'll be able to know which of the habits to get rid of to get your day a higher rating, and which ones to keep to also increase your daily ratings. A simple gesture will show you your previous daily ratings. Unfortunately though, you can't change the ratings on previous days, so if you forgot to rate on one day then tough luck.

You can download Mr Mood for free using this direct link: Download for free from the App Store

App #2 Lift OR Good Habits

Both lift and good habits perform a similar function and aim to solve the same problem, but they both tackle the problem differently. I'll first describe the problem they're trying to tackle then go over the different approaches taken by both apps.

Both of the apps aim to help their users in completing daily tasks. You put down a list of habits that you want to do every day and tick them off when you do them. The aim is to tick off all of the habits by the end of the day. That way you have done all the productive steps that you needed to take today.

What makes them both different though?

Lift is more of a community based app. When you tick off a habit it is shared with all other users who are attempting this habit. When you share you can see how many days in a row you have been completing this habit, you can also view the same information for other users. Furthermore, when you tick off a habit you can put a small note to the community with more details. Users can interact by liking and commenting on each other's activities.

Good Habits on the other hand goes for a slightly different approach. It is offline, so there's no interacting with others. What makes this app special though is that it has the idea of creating a chain, and the aim of the user is to not break the chain. You complete your habits or tasks day after day and this makes a chain in the app. The chain will show you how many consecutive days you've completed this habit. The app motivates you to not break the chain and starting again from 0 days.

Good Habits app on iPhone

So the main difference is that Lift inspires you via the community while Good Habits urges you not to break the chain. I'd recommend trying both apps, but I've personally chosen Good Habits because it turns out very little interaction actually happens in Lift, leading to little motivation. Meanwhile Good Habits has a really cool idea behind it and has been more inspiring to me. See which one works better for you! Both download links are available below.

Lift- Download for free
Good Habits- Download for free

Step #3 Timetable

The third step is to make a time table. I know I started off the post saying that time tables don't work, but with the apps above a time table is necessary and will certainly be effective. You have the list of things to do, you need to choose the time of doing them. Or else you'll end up leaving everything to the last minute of your day. But this will just mean a bit of Facebook while delaying your productive requirements for tomorrow. Something you don't want to be doing.

To make the time table effective you need to make it neat and organised. More importantly though you should:

Use the same time interval throughout the whole time table (1 hour intervals are recommended)
Add some time for fun, or else you'll be having the "fun" time taking over your whole day
Have a copy of your time table in your phone, computer and any other possible device

The three bullet points above along with two apps from the start will make your day a ton more productive. Trust me on that!

Conclusion

Try this method for at least a week and you'll find a change in the way you live. It won't take you much time to download the apps and make your time table. When should you do this? Do it now! Because if you don't create a productive plan for your self today then you'll procrastinate it forever. So start today.

I'm sorry that all the apps I used are for iPhone specifically. That's because I'm a long time iPhone user and never owned an Android phone meaning I won't be able to link you to great Android apps that do the job, but there are apps out there on Android and other platforms that can do a similar job. If you know one then please link it in a comment.

Please note, this post took me a lot of time and effort, a share would be greatly appreciated.

Most elegant Do Not Disturb toggle on lock screen for iPhone

2013-03-16T11:38:00.000+03:00

When it comes to Cydia tweaks on iPhone we get a wide variety of them. Some do their jobs better than others. And unfortunately, some do a really bad job in terms of both design and performance. Today's tweak is one of the "fortunately" tweaks. This one adds a handy Do Not Disturb toggle on your lock screen. Hold on this one's different!

I understand you've probably seen a million of these toggles on the Cydia store, but this one's just different. It's too good to miss out, and it's impossible for me to think of ways it can be improved. This is one of the tweaks that as they say "looks like something done by Apple".

Flusterless is the tweak I want to share with you today. I can't really call it a review because it's a really simple tweak and there isn't much to say. As I said earlier this lets you toggle the Do Not Disturb feature that came with iOS 6. But as I also said earlier, this one's different. How come? Well look at the screen shots and judge for your self.

Notice the grabber at the top left

All you need to do is pull that grabber at the top left of the screen and you've toggled DND on/off. That's it. No accidental toggle presses and no annoying design. It's really simple and won't accidentally toggle in your pocket.

Toggle Do Not Disturb from your lock screen.

I found this tweak extremely clean and useful. This is a short post but its only because there's not much to say about it. How about you add your comments and let this post become a bit longer?

One thing Apple should do to double their iMessage users

2013-03-09T21:48:00.001+03:00

iMessage was released as one of the hit features in iOS 5. It got users at first, and the numbers are increasing day after day. Messages sent and received are increasing, number of active users are increasing, etc. But we all know that's not good enough for Apple. Can they really not have more users than what's app?

Of course they can! And it's not by going cross-platform, as that will go "against Apple's rules". So you might be wondering what that one thing is, the thing that can double -or even triple- the number of active users on iMessage.

It's simple. The thing they have to do is not go cross-platform but go multi service. By that I mean that users should be able to send messages using other services such as Facebook Messenger and Google Talk directly from the iMessages app.

You might be wondering, isn't that going to be too complicated and against Apple's simplicity culture? Well the answer is that Apple's iMessage service is actually pretty complicated to understand, but once you do so, adding more services to it will just seem like a logical move.

We have seen many apps on the App Store thatcan perform a similar function. They can support messaging for many services. But these apps in a Steve Jobs way of saying it "are a piece of shit." In other words they range from 1/5 rating to 4/5. Basically apps that are good but don't do as good as what Apple can do. (BTW: if you're not familiar with Steve Jobs, I don't actually mean these apps are crap, but this was his way of saying that they can be improved!) An issue that could be caused by Apple implementing such a feature is that they could be gradually killing tons of social apps from the App Store, which would be a shame. What would make iMessage superior to these apps though?

Again, the answer is very simple. You can text people over iMessage or SMS and then also the other services. Another feature that would help Apple compete with the other App Store apps is that iMessage obviously comes built into the iPhone and other iOS devices.

This move isn't unlikely for Apple to do. It's not just because its has many pros but because this is what Messages on the Mac has. And we have seen Apple copy features from the Mac to the iOS devices and vice versa. It's logical to do so. Messages on the Mac certainly ranks as a top social app due to the extra services it supports. It would certainly be great to see this coming to the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

I would love to see this happening, will you? Do you think Apple will implement this feature? Why do you think so?

Live Wallpapers on iPhone for Free [Jailbreak Tweak]

2013-03-07T20:31:00.001+03:00

Lots of people are still questioning why Apple has not made live wallpapers officially available for iOS devices yet. It is likely to be because Apple "want to keep things simple", but a live wallpapers isn't complicated at all. While we have the people questioning the live wallpaper issue, we also have people solving this issue. This is exactly what LivePapers does. It solves the issue.

LivePapers, as you have correctly guessed, brings live wallpapers to the iPhone. There are a few cool features about LivePapers that makes it really great though. They are based around consistency and battery life. Read on for more details on what this tweak does, and how to set it up. I also made a mini demonstration for you to watch.
To first get the tweak you'll need to download it from Cydia. Just search for LivePapers and you'll find it. It's free!

Once downloaded you can open the LivePapers app which will be added to your home screen. Scroll to the left and you'll find a live wallpaper with bubbles on it. Tick the "home" and "lock" buttons in the top left of the screen.

Tap the home button and there you go, you'll find an animated wallpaper on your iPhone. This tweak is also compatible with iPad. For a video of what the home screen wallpaper will look like with the live wallpaper watch the video below. (Please note that I have made the icons smaller using a separate tweak).

What really makes this tweak special is that the live wallpaper doesn't freeze and get stuck when you do things on your phone. When you open a folder the bubbles stop moving, but when you close the folder they'll continue from where they were. When you pull down the notification center or move the lock screen slider around for example, you'll see that the live wallpaper is still active.

To save battery life too, the live wallpaper pauses from moving after you being inactive from your phone for thirty seconds.

If you want to get the app for free search for LivePapers on Cydia. Leave comments if you have any questions. Please share this post with your friends so that they can have live wallpapers too, and if you haven't already, follow this blog's twitter account and like its page on facebook.

Fit more icons on your iPhone home screen [Jailbreak Tweak]

2013-03-04T16:39:00.000+03:00

One thing I don't like to do on my iPhone is scrolling between pages to get to my apps. So I made folders on my iPhone to reduce the number of pages, but for someone with almost 200 apps I still had to constantly scroll between pages to find apps. I tried sticking to spotlight, but typing the name of the app every single time is too much. So I found this way on Cydia to fit more icons on your springboard and reduce the size of the icons for a great overall look. Now I only have 2 pages on my iPhone, and if you want to see how this is done then read on for a tutorial as well as a video I made to show you how to set it up!
I'll first have the video here because the video clearly shows you all the steps you need to take to add more icons per page. If you don't want to watch the video, or if you want further instructions then read on below the video.

To have more icons on every page you'll first need to have a jailbroken iPhone. If your iPhone is not jailbroken click here for how to jailbreak (Jailbreaking is worth it!). Here is a step by step tutorial if you did not watch the video:

1. Open Cydia
2. Search for Bigify and add it to the queue
3. Search for Five-Column Springboard and download it
4. Your iPhone will respring
5. Open the Settings app on your iPhone
6. Make sure the five column springboard is enabled, and adjust the scale size in Bigify to roughly a third
7. Respring your iPhone again

Now you can enjoy more icons on your page!

Share this tip with your friends and they'll be grateful too! If you need any help I'm more than happy to answer your questions.

10 things you need to know about the PS4

2013-02-23T23:23:00.000+03:00

When Sony held the event for the PS4 a few days earlier it started a lot of confusion on what they are actually announcing. Yes, they didn't show a console, announce the release date or the price; but there are things you need to know about the PS4. Whether or not you're a gamer, you'll certainly find this post useful to you. I'll talk about everything you need to know about the PS4, and although you might think there isn't much out there, there is.

Price & Release Date:

As previously mentioned we are not given an accurate price or release date. However, we can roughly predict both of them. The price is expected to be roughly $500. This prediction is based on previous pricing strategies used by Sony for its consoles. The release date as said by Sony is "Holiday 2013". This means that the PS4 should be available in Q4 of 2013 (October-December).

Controllers:

The controllers for the PS4 have been announced during the event. The controllers have a touch pad on the front and a move sensor at the back. The touch sensor will almost certainly be used for a browser. There's a share button indicating that the PS4 is aimed to be a social console. At the bottom you can see a built in microphone at the controller. This also adds on to the social as explained in the next subheading.

Social:

The controller of the PS4 clearly shows how the console is aimed to be social. The microphone could be used to talk to your friends while playing a game, or a live stream. That's right, PS4 will include a built in streaming service after deals with Ustream. The console will also have tight Facebook integration.

Backward capability:

Will you be able to play PS3 games on your PS4? So far you can't. This is likely to change in the future though. Sony are trying to integrate all your Play Station consoles together. So there may be some hope of not throwing away your old games after making the switch. If the PS4 supports backward compatibility then Sony are creating another valid reasons for PS3 owners to stick to Play Station.

Online purchasing:

With the PS4, users can purchase their games online just like with the PS3. But it's a lot better now. It seems like all games will be available on the Play Station Store. Furthermore, the games you purchase will be available to play the moment you begin downloading. Don't ask me how this is done, but it will be done. Additionally, you can purchase games using your smart phone so that you can have your game ready even if you're not at home. You can also use your smart phone as a second screen to show things like a mini map during the game.

Problems with the launch:

We all know that Sony's launch wasn't too ideal, so here's a video to have a bit of a laugh at Sony!

The competition:

When we speak about the competition, we immediately think of Microsoft's Xbox as it certainly is the biggest competitor. Even if you're a die-had PS3 fan, Microsoft have got a good surprise for you. The video below according to Microsoft has not been modified or edited, but has been recorded in their labs. Impressive!

Price of Games:

The PS4 will play games free games. Most games will range from $0.99 upto $60. You can imagine the big games which you would normally buy on a CD to cost the $60 while mini games could possible be free.

Two last things:

There are two other things you need to know. First is that the PS4 will not require an internet connection all the time so that you can use it. So don't worry about your internet not working for a couple of days. Second is that the PS4 will play used games. The head of Sony Worldwide Studios confirmed this and said that this is a basic customer's expectation.

Conclusion:

There is still a lot left to know about the PS4. We now know as much as we possibly can, but Sony still have more to tell us. Let's hope they have a good surprise waiting. As you saw by the Xbox video, the competition is going to be big and Sony better be ahead of the competition. What are your thoughts on the PS4?

Download to Newsstand - Use Newsstand app as a downloads folder [Jailbreak]

2013-02-20T15:33:00.000+03:00

When you open up the app store it is really common that you just download a lot of apps, or perhaps you are updating apps you already have downloaded. When your iOS device- whether it's an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad- is downloading many apps things can get messy. You get a lot of downloaded apps scattered everywhere and you scroll between apps that you can use and others that are still being downloaded. If you don't like to have both downloaded apps and downloading apps together then a free tweak on Cydia is ready to help.

The tweak is called Download to Newsstand. It lets your Newsstand folder show all apps that are currently being downloaded to your iOS device. So the apps will not be visible on your home screen unless it has finished downloading.

There are two drawbacks with the app though. Firstly, as you can see in the picture above, the icons look pretty weird in the newsstand folder. But this is a really minor issue. The more major issue which is the reason I got rid of the tweak is that all apps are placed on the home screen as if they have just been downloaded. Let me make this clearer. Basically if you have an app in the third page of your home screen and you update the app, the app will be sent to the end of the second page as if you've just downloaded it.

So while this app removes the mess during the download phase, it creates another mess afterwards. The tweak was fine though and if the issue gets fixed then I'll download it. What do you think of the tweak?

How to gift an iOS app

2013-02-11T14:45:00.001+03:00

So you want to surprise your friend with a good gift. Perhaps it's their birthday or something, you might want to gift them an app on iOS. You can send them a gift from your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or computer and send them the app to any apple device. It is really easy to do so. Make sure you have a payment method though, you can't gift apps if all you have is an iTunes Gift Card.

Update: Your iOS device needs to run iOS 6 for this method. Thanks Vinamra!

Just follow the step by step guide below on how to gift apps.

1. Open the App Store
2. Find the app you want to gift. It obviously needs to be a paid app so that you can gift it.
3. Tap the action button in the top right of the screen

A menu will come up.

4. Tap the gift icon in the bottom right corner of the menu

You will then need to enter the email of the user you would like to send the gift too. The receiver will receive an email with a link to install the app.

This is just a great way of saying thank you to a friend! Make sure you share this post with your friends, because who knows they might be considering to send you an app!

Run Cydia in the background

2013-02-09T07:53:00.001+03:00

After jailbreaking your iOS device you may have realized that Cydia does not run in the background. It may show up in the multitasking switcher, but it's not actually running in the background. When you launch Cydia you'll realize it loads up every single time. This is not the case with most apps nowadays which do in fact run in the background.

The reason Cydia doesn't do that is because Cydia takes up quite a bit of memory. This used to be an issue on older devices, and may still be. However, if you have a new iOS device then you may want to follow this tutorial so that you can background Cydia. The instructions are really simple.

Before you being, make sure you have an app that can allow you to access files on your iOS device. SSH will certainly work for this purpose. But I prefer to do it directly from my iPhone. I use an app called iFile from Cydia which shows up as a paid app but you can install the light version for free. The light version is good enough for this purpose. I will be using iFile throughout this tutorial, but the steps are almost identical if you're using another method.

1- Launch iFile

2- Navigate to /var/stash/Applications/Cydia.app

Please note that after the word Applications you'll probably have a few letters and numbers, but it's probably different on every device so don't worry about that.

3- Go to the Info.plist file in the Cydia.app section and tap on it. A menu will come up

4- Tap on Property List Viewer
5- Scroll down to the bottom and you'll find a toggle next to the line UIApplicationExitsOnSuspend
6- Toggle it off

That's it! Cydia will now run in the backgroud. You may need to respring your iOS device for changes to take effect. Share this post with your friends to give them help too. And if you need further help feel free to ask for help in the comments.

Fix unresponsive Notification Center on a jailbroken iPhone

2013-02-08T21:40:00.000+03:00

After jailbreaking your iPhone one of the first things you might have wanted to do is to customize your Notification Center. Unfortunately though, when you start tweaking your Notification Center you'll find that it will start becoming unresponsive and laggy. Especially when you are pulling down the Notification Center. The fix is really simple, but it's perhaps not what you were waiting to hear. Remove some of these customizations.

If you really want to narrow down your choices, you can navigate to Settings --> Notifications and start hiding some of the tweaks from your Notification Center. It could be that you tweaked your Notification Center to add in a few toggles or an extra button recently. Either one of these tweaks could be causing the issue, or perhaps even both. Just play around and hide some of the tweaks and narrow down your choices to find exactly which tweaks are the ones causing your Notification Center to become unresponsive.

That's unfortunately the only fix out there. If you know a better way please share it in the comments below.