This tutorial will show you how to use CM Updater to easily update your version of CyanogenMod on your Android phone

Update: thanks to Nick for pointing out that you can actually download CyanogenMod Updater via the Android Market. If you opt to do so, you can skip steps #1-4 below. In the Market search for CyanogenMod Updater to find it.

1. Start out by opening your Settings. Scroll down to the Applications section and select it.



2. Make sure there’s a “check” in the Unknown sources box. Exit out of your Settings.



3. Now launch your Android browser. Open the URL http://code.google.com/p/cyanogen-updater. On the right side of that page look for the Featured downloads: link. Click the cmupdater_x.x.x.apk link to download the file.



4. Once the download has completed, tap the file to launch the installer.



5. You’ll be asked to confirm that you want to install CM Updater. Tap the Install button.



6. And now CM Updater will install.



7. Once the installation has completed, click the Open button.



8. Tap the Check now button and CM Updater will look for any new version of CyanogenMod.



9. It should only take a moment…



10. … and if an update is found, it will be displayed (see screenshot below). In the Please select the ROM to download: menu, the latest version of CyanogenMod will be displayed. If it has an “anchor” icon next to it, that means it’s a stable release. If it has a “beaker” next to it, that means it’s an experimental release (and thus more likely to have bugs etc.). Tap the Download button to download the latest version.



11. CyanogenMod is typically somewhere around 35MB (give or take) so if you’re using 3G it can take a while to download. If you have access to WiFi, you may want to use it instead.



12. Once the download has completed, you’ll be prompted to install it. Here you have two choices – Apply Now will immediately begin the installation process – which will involve rebooting your phone. Apply Later will close out of CM Updater and the latest version will not be installed. The benefit of installing later is that you can perform a backup first, if you haven’t already. The latest version (the one you just downloaded) will remain on your SD Card so that it can be installed after performing a backup. For the sake of this tutorial, lets jump right in and apply the latest version. Tap the Apply Now button.



13. Tap the Update button on the confirmation window.



14. At this point you’ll probably be prompted to allow the program to run as root. Place a check in the Remember box, and then tap Allow.



15. You may be prompted to repeat steps #12 and/or #13. If you are, just repeat them, and your phone will reboot. If you’re not, your phone will reboot. The installation/upgrade will now begin.



16. Let it do its thing, and once completed, select the reboot system now option from the Android system recovery list.



17. Your phone will once again reboot – and this time it will almost certainly take longer than usual to start up. Don’t worry if it appears to have ‘frozen’ – just give it more time. Once it starts up, you’ll be running the latest version of CyanogenMod. That’s it!

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If you are somewhat familiar with using the Linux or UNIX command line interface it is quite likely that you have used the history command. For those not familiar with it the history command allows you to search through the commands you have already run on your computer’s command line.

An example of its usage is:

# history | grep “kill”

This will search for a command containing the term kill through the history of commands you have run on your computer. This is a basic example of the history command. There are certain limitations in this command. Let’s take a look at how you can tweak it a bit to work more effectively for you. One of the limitations I find bugging me quite often is that if you are running two terminal session at the same time the commands from the first session are erased from the history of commands. Not the smartest way the command should work, I think. Well let’s fix it then.

Log in to your account and launch a shell terminal. In your user’s home directory you should find a file called .bashrc. If this file does not exist, create it. To open the file use a command like the following, replacing user with your username:

# vim /home/user/.bashrc

Add the following lines to the .bashrc file without any changes whatsoever:

shopt -s histappend
PROMPT_COMMAND=’history -a’

And voila, problem solved. Henceforth all your commands from single sessions as well as simultaneous sessions will be written to the command history file, and no overwriting will happen.

Another useful change I like to make to the history command’s configuration is removing duplicates from the history of commands. This way I get access to a lot more data and get it quicker. Open the .bashrc file once again and add the following lines in a new line:

export HISTCONTROL=”ignoredups”
export HISTIGNORE=”&:ls:[bf]g:exit”

Save the file and exit the text editor. Now the history command will check to see if a command already exists in the log file or not before adding any new information. A last modification I make to the history command’s configuration is adding spell check. Add the line shown below to the file .bashrc to help the history command check for spelling errors in command and suggest a valid command:

shopt -s cdspell

Save and exit. Now your Linux machine will be able to figure out when you type gerp instead of grep.

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A really neat tool I was introduced to a few days back is wkhtmltopdf, a freely distributed tool that allows you to convert HTML pages into PDF documents. This is not something I’ve found a lot of use for too often, but when I’ve needed it it’s been a life saver. Let’s take a look at how to set it up and use it.

The installation of wkhtmltopdf is a lot less difficult that trying to pronounce the name of the project. As the project is not yet distributed as installable binaries you will need to compile it.

Requirements:

- QT 4.4 or above
- CMake 1.6 or above
- Subvertion

On Ubuntu do the following to install the tools required to compile:

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get install libqt4-dev qt4-dev-tools build-essential cmake

Now check out the latest code for the application from the project’s SVN repositories.

# svn checkout http://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ wkhtmltopdf

Time to build and compile it:

# cd wkhtmltopdf
# cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr .
# make
# sudo make install

Once you are done with the previous steps using wkhtmltopdf is a piece of cake. To convert a web page from HTML to PDF all you need to do is to run the following command:

# wkhtmltopdf http://www.simplehelp.net simplehelp.pdf

The previous command will access the website http://www.simplehelp.net and create a PDF document with its contents. You obviously need a working Internet connection for this to work. You can also modify the above command slightly to convert an HTML file stored on your computer into a PDF document:

# wkhtmltopdf /home/calvin/sevenacross.html sevenacross.pdf

Pretty neat stuff, eh! wkhtmltopdf has several options allowing you to make the PDF document in Portrait mode or Landscape, and so on. Visit the project’s website for more info on it.

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Oftentimes my Ubuntu desktop loses track of time. Really. What happens is that the time it maintains goes a few minutes here and there every month. So I like to use a very useful Linux service called NTP to help keep the clock on my Ubuntu desktop in sync with well maintained clocks over the Internet. Let’s look at how to set this up.

You need an Ubuntu computer with Internet access. The access need not be on all the time, it’s fine even if the computer gets access on and off so that it can check with the clocks online and get in sync. Log into your Ubuntu computer and click on the System button at the top of you screen. Navigate to Administration -> Time and Date. You’ll see a window pop up with the time and date setup in it. Click on the Unlock button and enter your password to proceed.

In this window click on the drop down menu next to item titled Configuration You’ll see two options – Manual and Keep synchronized with Internet servers. Choose the second option. If you don’t have the NTP tools installed Ubuntu will inform you of it and ask if you want it to install them for you.

Click on the button titled Install NTP support. It will ask you for your password then begin installing the required tools. Now we can proceed with setting up time synchronization. the next step is to tell Ubuntu which server you want it to sync the time with.

Click on the Select Servers button to pick which server you want to Ubuntu to use.

The window shown in the screenshot below will pop up, giving you several options. Note that you can pick more than one server. This way if a server goes down for some reason Ubuntu will try getting the time from another server.

Click on the Close button once you are done picking servers. One last thing you need to check is that the NTP is set to run at boot. To do this go to System -> Administration -> Services and make sure that the item titled Clock synchronization service (ntp) is checked.

Voila. Now the clock on your Ubuntu computer will sync with the clocks online periodically, making sure you are always on time.

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This tutorial will guide you through blocking people on Facebook.

Whatever the reason – a stalker, an ex – just someone you don’t want to have any contact with – you can quite easily cut them out of your Facebook life. Follow the steps outlined below to do so.

It’s important to note this up front – by blocking someone you are not 100% completely blocking absolutely every possibly interaction on Facebook with that person. As Facebook explains:

If you block someone, they will not be able to find you in a Facebook search, see your profile, or interact with you through Facebook channels (such as Wall posts, Poke, etc.). Any Facebook ties you currently have with a person you block will be broken (for example, friendship connections, Relationship Status, etc.). Note that blocking someone may not prevent all communications and interactions in third-party applications, and does not extend to elsewhere on the Internet.

It’s also worth mentioning that when you block someone, not only will they not be able to see what “you’re doing” on Facebook – you won’t be able to see what they’re doing either. It is a two-way block.

1. First up, sign in to your Facebook account. Towards the upper-right corner, hover your cursor over the Settings link. A little ‘drop-down’ menu will appear. Click Account Settings



2. Click the manage link in the Privacy section of your settings page.



3. Enter the name of the person you want to block in the Person field. Alternately, you can enter their email address in the Email filed, but you’ll need to know exactly which email address they have associated with their Facebook account. Now click the Block button.


click to enlarge

4. If the name you entered matches more than one person, a list will appear displaying all of the possible matches. Locate the person you want to block, and click the Block button.



5. If at any point you want to remove this block, return to your Account Settings page, and click the remove link next to the blocked person.

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Update: invites all sent. As soon as I have more, I’ll be sure to offer them up here.

I have 3 Google Voice invites for the first 3 readers who leave a comment on this post. Please make sure to use a working email address in the “Email (required, but never shared)” field (not in the body of the comment).

Please remember that Google Voice is currently only available to US residents (the service does not work outside of the US).

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This brief tutorial will show you how to test the speed of your Internet connection.

Many Internet Service Providers are playing the “we’re faster” game. That is, they claim to have faster speeds than their competitors. Common claims will be “Speeds up to xMB per second!” etc. Using a ’speed test’ you can find out what your actual upload and download speeds are.

1. Head over to the dslreports.com Flash Speed Test page. As the title suggests, you will need to have the Adobe Flash browser plugin installed (you probably do already). Note: before you run a speed test, make sure that any current uploads or downloads are finished. To get the most accurate results, you don’t want any of your bandwidth to be used while running the test.
2. Now select from the list of speed test sites. Choose the one closest to you that isn’t too ‘busy’ by clicking it once.


click to enlarge

3. An odometer will appear and the test will begin.



4. Upon completion of the test, the results will be displayed.



5. As indicated by the image above, my download speed was 1796Kb per second and my upload speed was 1874Kb per second. This is considerably less than my ISP claims. With that said, there are a number of factors that can affect your results. As mentioned earlier in this tutorial, if you have any uploads or downloads running at the time you take the test, your results will be lower than they should be. There may also be an unavoidable delay on the ‘path’ that data travels to get from the speed test server to your home computer. It’s best to run the test several times throughout the day (at different times) and compare results. Regardless of your connection time (dial-up, DSL or cable) – during the “peak” usage hours, speeds will almost certainly be slower.

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If you have a blog or a website with a lot of content sometimes the images can take a toll on the load time of the pages. There are a number of steps you can take to speed things up. If you analyze the loading of your website you might notice that the images take up a huge part of the load time. Let’s take a look at how you can compress your .png images to improve on this figure.

We’ll use the tool pngcrush for this purpose. pngcrush is a free and open source command line tool that, as the name suggests, compresses PNG images. Take a look at the projects website for detailed information on how to use it. We will cover the basics in this article.

Installation

Most modern distributions of Linux such as Fedora and Ubuntu have pngcrush available directly in their default repositories. So, to install it on you Ubuntu computer execute the following command:

# sudo apt-get install pngcrush

On Fedora do the following:

# yum install pngcrush

Usage

pngcrush optimizes a PNG graphics file by reducing the size of the files IDAT chunk. The process is not simple. The great thing about pngcrush is that the authors of the tool have simplified things for you. They ship it with a great option – brute. When you use this option you effectively tell pngcrush to try and use the most suitable method to compress the image at hand. There are about 114 different filters that can be used, so this option is mighty useful. Here’s how you would use it to compress an image:

# pngcrush -brute -e “.compressed.png” image01.png

The two options used here are -brute which I just explained, and -e. The second option tells pngcrush what extension to add the the filenames. So after the process of crushing is complete the compressed version of the file image01.png will be called image01.compressed.png. you can change the extension if you like.

You can also slightly modify the above command to compress several PNG files in a directory. Execute the following command:

# pngcrush -brute -d “/var/www/html/website/images/” *.png

The above command uses a new option, -d. This option tells pngcrush where to place the compressed image files after the compression is complete. The above command will compress all the PNG file in the current directory and place them in /var/www/html/website/images/.

I strongly suggest that you read up more about this tool and its options on the projects website. There are a lot of options that might help you speed up the process of compression or do a better job of it. Put the new images into your website and watch your pages load faster.

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When Apple released iTunes 9, they finally changed the behavior of the green zoom button to match most other apps in OS X. Then in iTunes 9.0.1 – and almost certainly due to customer feedback (it really annoyed me to have to learn yet another keyboard shortcut to switch back to the mini-player) – they changed it back. Clicking the green zoom button once again ‘minimizes’ iTunes to the mini-player.

If you actually liked the change (having the green zoom button resize the iTunes window rather than changing to the mini-player), open Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and enter the command:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes zoom-to-window -bool YES

Now you’ll have the green zoom button behavior that iTunes 9.0 introduced. If you change your mind yet again, replace YES in the above command to NO.

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This brief tutorial will introduce you to a new service from Secure by Design Inc. that allows you to select from a slew of popular (and free) software, and then have it all installed at once – in the background. Keep reading for an invite to this private beta and an overview of the service.

First you’ll need to head over to http://getvolery.com. When signing up, use the code simplehelp (note: we were given 100 invites to this service, so act quickly before they’re all used up).

Then you select the apps you want Volery to download and install for you. The software is broken down into categories like “Web Browsers”, “Messaging”, “Media”, “Documents”, “Anti-Virus”, “File-Sharing” etc. Place a check in the box next to each application you want Volery to download and install for you.

click to enlarge

Once you’ve selected all the apps you want to download/install, click the Get Installer button. You’ll be prompted to download a small .exe file. Save it to your desktop, My Documents or Downloads folder.

After the download has completed, run the file. If Windows asks if you’re sure you want to run it, click the Run button.

Volery will now begin downloading and installing all of the software you selected.

click to enlarge

Click the show details link to see where you are in the process.

click to enlarge

And once everything has downloaded and installed, just click the Done button.

click to enlarge

All of your software is now nicely installed and ready to use.

One of the big benefits to using Volery is that you can just sit back and play Solitaire until everything is done. You don’t need to go from site to site, download and manually install each piece of software. Plus, they automatically select “No” for the software that asks if you want to install those annoying Toolbars.

If you’re worried that Volery is installing something else on your PC, take a look at their Privacy Policy, quoted below:

Your email will only be used for account notifications, we don’t spam or sell email addresses. All the apps in our directory are user-requested and useful. We do not list malware or other shady apps. We install apps like you would: with default settings and we say “no” to all browser toolbars and other junk. All we do is install the apps you choose. Not even volery is installed. And, of course, we do not include any form of malware or spyware.

That means after you’ve finished using Volery, you can delete the .exe that you downloaded from them – because not even their software was installed on your system, just the software you asked it to install for you.

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This brief tutorial will guide you through upgrading CyanogenMod 4.1.99 to 4.1.999 on your Android G1 phone.

Fortunately, the process to go from 4.1.99 to 4.1.999 is much, much easier than updating to 4.1.99 itself. For a full list of all the changes in v4.1.999 see the changelog. One of the bigger changes is that bluetooth is now 100% working. Please note: the steps outlined in this tutorial require that your G1 is currently running 4.1.99. You cannot use the method outlined below to go from any version other than 4.1.99 to 4.1.999. If you need help installing 4.1.99, please see this tutorial.

1. Start out by downloading CyanogenMod 4.1.999 here (or from this mirror).
2. Copy the .zip file to your G1’s SD card.
3. Boot into Recovery Mode by powering off your phone, and then powering it back on while holding down the Home button.
4. When the Android system recovery screen loads, scroll to nandroid v2.2 backup and select it by clicking your trackball.



5. Before applying any upgrade, it’s a good idea to perform a backup with nandroid. The process only takes a couple of minutes.



6. Once the backup has completed, scroll to apply any zip from sd and select it by clicking your trackball.



7. Select the update-cm-4.1.999-signed.zip file on your SD card. Make sure to select the one ending in .999 if you still have version .99 on your card.



8. Click the file with your trackball. You’ll be prompted to confirm this action by clicking the Home button on your phone. Do so now.



9. CyanogenMod 4.1.999 will now install.



10. Once the installation has completed you’ll see the message Install from sdcard complete on the Android system recovery screen. Now scroll to reboot system now and click it with your trackball.



11. Your phone will now reboot. Don’t be at all surprised or alarmed if your phone takes longer to start up. Both the mobile providers boot screen (in my case T-Mobile) and the Android boot screen (pictured below) may be displayed for longer than usual. Again, this is normal.



12. One of the minor smaller changes in 4.1.999 is the inclusion of some new wallpaper. In case you missed the link at the beginning of this tutorial, see the see the changelog for a full list of new features and fixes.

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This tip will show you how to quickly view the properties of any file in Windows – whether it’s a regular file, a shortcut or a system item (like your Recycle Bin etc).

1. Most of you know that you can right-click a file and select Properties to view its properties.



2. Another, faster way to view a files properties is to hold down the Alt key, and double-click the file.



3. As I mentioned earlier, this always works if you want to view the properties of a system file, like the Recycle Bin



4. And even items like shortcuts.

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By default, Internet Explorer 7 and 8 “hides” the Menu bar. This tip will show you how to quickly toggle it on and off.

1. One of the first things you probably noticed in IE 7 (and then in is that the File Menu is no longer displayed.



2. If you want to quickly display it – just tap the Alt key on your keyboard.



3. If you’d like to have it permanently displayed, right-click in a blank area of the Toolbars section, select Menu Bar, and now it will always be displayed.

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This tutorial will take you every step of the way through installing CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your G1 phone – the first “legal” version of CyanogenMod (after Google sent cyanogen a cease and desist).

The steps outlined in this tutorial were gathered from the official announcement of 4.1.99 on the xda-developers forum. For more information on 4.1.99, see this thread.

Warning: though unlikely, it probably technically possible that following the steps outlined in this tutorial may result in your phone no longer working. Not following these steps in the right order, would increase those chances. With all of that said, it’s very unlikely that anything bad will happen.

See the link at the end of this tutorial, once you’ve completed it, to upgrade to CyanogenMod 4.1.999.

1. Start out by making sure that you have Cyanogen Recovery 1.4 installed on your G1. If you do not, follow steps 6-20 in this tutorial.
2. Download the file signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip (the Recovery image, not the Radio or System image) from the Android Developer Center. Then download the file update-cm-4.1.99-signed.zip (mirror). Copy both files to your Android’s SD card. Note: I copied them to my phone in OS X (as illustrated below) – you can use Windows or an Android FTP client – it doesn’t matter. As long as they’re copied to the root of your SD card, you’ll be fine.



3. Now power off your phone. Hold down the Home button when powering it back on, so that you enter recovery mode. Select nandroid v2.2 backup and click your trackball.



4. This will perform a backup, just in case it’s needed.



5. Once the backup has completed, select apple any zip from sd and click the trackball.



6. Select signed-dream_devphone_us… and again, click the trackball.



7. You’ll be notified that you’re going to install a new image. Click the Home button on your device to confirm this action.



8. The new image will now install.



9. Once the installation process has completed, you’ll be taken back to the recovery screen. DO NOT reboot your device at this point. Instead, once again select apply any zip from sd.



10. This time, select update-cm-4.1.99-signed and click the trackball.



11. As with the previous image installation, click the Home button on your phone to confirm.



12. This will install CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your phone.
13. Once that installation has finished, you’ll be presented with the recovery mode screen, again. This time, select go to console.



14. Click the enter key on your keyboard



15. You should now be presented with a command prompt. At the prompt, enter fix_permissions and click the enter key on your keyboard.



16. A bunch of text will fly by. You might notice that some of the text says No such file or directory. This is normal, depending on how your phone was previously set up.



17. Once you’re back at a prompt (the text has stopped scrolling) – type the word reboot and click the enter key on your keyboard. Your phone will now restart.
18. Your providers ‘boot’ screen (in my case T-Mobile) might be displayed for slightly longer than normal. Don’t worry. Eventually the CyanogenMod Android logo will appear – and it too may be displayed for longer than normal. Again, don’t worry.



19. Once your phone finishes starting up, select Settings from your Applications, and then About phone from the Settings list. In the Mod version section it should say CyanogenMod-4.1.99. That confirms that you’ve successfully installed CyanogenMod 4.1.99. Congratulations! You now have a completely legal modded G1.



20. Launch some of the apps on your device. Confirm that the proprietary programs like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps etc all work. If you experience any issues, try asking for help on this thread at the xda-developers forum. Be sure to include as much and as specific information as possible in order to receive a timely reply.
21. Once you’ve finished upgrading to 4.1.99, you can upgrade to version 4.1.999 by following this tutorial. The process is much faster (fewer steps) – but again, you must have completed the steps in this tutorial first.

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This tutorial will show you how to stop iPhoto from launching each time you plug in your iPod Touch (or iPhone, or any device with a camera) – and still allow iPhoto to automatically launch when you plug in your digital camera.

The application Image Capture was recently updated to include much awaited functionality – the ability to choose which application launches – or none at all – when you plug in a specific device. This means that you can set your digital camera to automatically launch iPhoto when it’s plugged in, but have nothing happen when your iPod Touch is plugged in.

To set your preferences by device, follow the instructions outlined below.

1. Launch Image Capture by going to your Applications list and double-clicking it. With no devices (cameras, scanners, iPods, iPhones etc) connected, it will look similar to the screen below.


click to enlarge

2. Now plug in a device (or three, as I have in the image below). Select that device from the DEVICES menu in the left column. Now choose an action for that device by selecting the Connecting this xxxxxx opens: drop-down list. In the case of my camera, I want iPhoto to launch when it’s plugged in.


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3. Now select (or plug in) another device. In the example below, I don’t want anything to happen when I plug my Android phone in, so I selected No application from the drop-down list.


click to enlarge

4. And I repeated the above step for my iPod. Note: iTunes will still launch when you plug an iPod or iPhone into your Mac if you have that preference set in iTunes itself.


click to enlarge

5. That’s it! Now you can have individual settings per device.

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