Author: TA

New Android Market Version 3.1.3 – New +1 Button and PIN Protection for Purchases – Droid Life: A Droid Community Blog

A new version of the Android Market has unexpectedly started rolling out to handsets this morning as version 3.1.3.  The update includes a couple of nifty new features to add to this already snazzy new store – most notably is the +1 button in app pages and the ability to set a PIN to prevent unwanted purchases of apps on your phone.  A nice feature for those of you out there with little ones who like to grab ahold of your phone and frantically hammer on buttons.

Download:  com.android.vending.3.1.3.apk

To install, simply download the file from above.  When it finishes, tap on it from the notifications bar, tap “Install”, allow it to replace your current market.  Enjoy!

Cheers to Mike and everyone who sent this in!

via Droid Life.

About the OS X Lion v10.7.1 Update

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

  • Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
  • Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
  • Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
  • Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion
  • Resolve an issue where MacBook Air may boot up when MagSafe Adapter is attached
  • Resolve an issue causing intermittent display flickering on MacBook Air
  • Resolve an issue that causes the SD card slot in Mac mini to run at reduced speed with SD and SDHC media

 

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4764.

via About the OS X Lion v10.7.1 Update.

Lion Recover Disk Assistant – Apple releases tool to create an OS X Lion recovery/installation external drive

For those who are unable to use the web-based recovery tool for OS X Lion, Apple has released a new Mac application that allows users to create their own OS X Lion recovery/installation external drives. Specifically, this drive lets you reinstall Lion, repair the disk using Disk Utility, restore from a Time Machine backup, or browse the web with Safari. You need a recovery HD already setup to create this new drive. Here are the instruction straight from Apple:

The Lion Recovery Disk Assistant will erase all data on the external drive when creating the Recovery HD. You should either backup your data before running the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, or create a new partition on the external drive.

If you need to create a new partition on the external disk

1. Open Disk Utility, located in the Utilities folder in Launchpad.

2. Select the drive on which you would like to install the Recovery HD and add a partition. Note: Partition should be at least 1 GB in size.

3. Click Options and make sure GUID Partition Table is selected.

4. Make sure the format for the partition is Mac OS Extended Journaled.

5. Click Apply.

Open Lion Recovery Disk Assistant and follow the on screen instructions to create a Recovery HD on the external drive.

When the Lion Recovery Disk Assistant completes, the new partition will not be visible in the Finder or Disk Utility. To access the external Recovery HD, connect the drive, then restart the computer and hold the Option key. Select Recovery HD from the Startup Manager.

The Lion Recover Disk Assistant download is available here.

via Apple releases tool to create an OS X Lion recovery/installation external drive | from 9to5Mac | Apple Intelligence.

Apple iCloud: What it is, and What it Costs

With Apple revealing iCloud price details along with the beta version of iCloud.com, now seems like a good time to explain what the service is to anyone who missed Apple’s announcement in June.

iCloud basics

iCloud does not replace local storage on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches. What it does is keep your data in sync between any Apple device or PC that you own. For example, if you’re writing a document in Pages on an iPad, that document will automatically be available for editing on your iPhone or a PC, with no need to transfer files by e-mail or USB.

iCloud also remembers your device’s settings, apps, home screen layouts, ring tones and text messages, so all of that information is available if you upgrade or replace your iPhone or iPad. Think of it like the backup function in iTunes, but through the Internet instead.

Which apps use iCloud?

Apple’s iWork productivity software — Pages, Numbers and Keynote — can sync documents through iCloud. Contacts, Calendar and Mail will also be updated automatically across multiple devices. A new service called Photo Stream allows you to download your 1,000 most recent photos to a computer or other iOS device for 30 days. You can also store a device’s entire camera roll in iCloud for longer.

Third-party apps will be able to use iCloud as well. Rovio, for instance, could make Angry Birds data available across devices so your iPhone and iPad will show the same progress through the game. It’s up to developers to implement these kinds of features.

What’s included for free, and what costs extra?

Apple will provide 5 GB of iCloud storage for free, but iTunes music, apps, books and Photo Stream don’t count against that total. iCloud storage is consumed by documents, mail, app data, your full camera roll, settings and other device information. Additional storage costs $20 per year for 10 GB, $40 per year for 20 GB and $100 per year for 50 GB.

Apple suggests that 5 GB of storage should suffice, but that depends largely on whether you’re storing lots of photos and videos on your Camera Roll, and how much app data you’re backing up. The former should be easy to determine — you can already see in iTunes how much data is used by photos and video — but the latter will be harder to pin down until we see how many developers adopt the service.

Who is this for?

People who own multiple iOS devices will get the most out of iCloud, because it saves the hassle of manually transferring data between iPhones, iPads and so on. Owners of a single Apple device may still appreciate iCloud’s automatic backup function, which makes replacing hardware easier.

iTunes is separate

One possible point of confusion with iCloud is how iTunes purchases factor into the service. When you buy music from iTunes, it can be automatically synced to all of your iOS devices, and it won’t count against your free storage. A paid service called iTunes Match is completely separate from iCloud, and syncs any music you haven’t purchased from iTunes for $25 per year.

When will this be available?

iCloud arrives this fall, alongside iOS 5.

via Apple iCloud: What it is, and What it Costs | PCWorld.

Android vs iPhone by state: Who is on top?

Android vs iPhone by state: Who is on top?

Would you like to know what mobile operating system dominates in your state? Planning to move anytime soon? Here’s a map that can guide you in the right direction! Stats and info graphics are always fun, but today we have something extra special for you.

This map shows which US states are dominated by Android, Blackberry or iOS. Android and iOS are obviously the most dominant platforms in the country, but some states are still Blackberry territory and some others that are neutral.

There’s somewhat of a pattern in this map, as you can see. It seems there’s a sort of an invisible diagonal line separating the distribution of platforms. The map illustrates that iOS dominates in the northern/eastern half of the country, while Android seems to dominate in the southern/western section.

These statistics are very interesting, but we have decided to take things a little further. Aside from just knowing which platform is on top (and where), we decided to see how the numbers relate to other maps with state-by-state information.

See the entire article at Android vs iPhone by state: Who is on top? | Android and Me.

Google Chrome Mouse and Track Pad Swipe Gestures in OS X Lion

Three finger swipes still work in Google Chrome. The issue you’re having is that default swipes in Lion are two fingers. Go into System Prefs, then into trackpad and change the swipes from 2 fingers to 3. You can also make it both 2 and 3 finger swipes to accomplish the same thing, in which case swiping will work in Chrome and you’ll see get the cool two finger swipes in Safari that have special animations.

How to make a bootable Lion install DVD disc or USB drive

 

Part 1: For all types of media

1. Once you’ve purchased Lion, find the Lion installer on your Mac. It’s called Install Mac OS X Lion.app and it should have been downloaded to /Applications.
2. Right-click (or Control+click) the installer, and choose Show Package Contents from the resulting contextual menu.
3. In the folder that appears, open Contents, then open Shared Support; you’ll see a disk-image file called InstallESD.dmg.
4. Launch Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities).
5. Drag the InstallESD.dmg disk image into Disk Utility’s left-hand sidebar.

Show Package

Right-click (or Control+click) on the Lion installer to view its contents.

The next steps depend on whether you want to create a bootable hard drive or flash drive, or a bootable DVD.
Part 2a: To create a bootable hard drive or flash drive

1. In Disk Utility, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar, then click the Restore button in the main part of the window.
2. Drag the InstallESD.dmg icon into the Source field on the right.
3. Connect to your Mac the hard drive or flash drive you want to use for your bootable Lion installer.
4. In Disk Utility, find this destination drive in the sidebar and then drag it into the Destination field on the right. Warning: The next step will erase the destination drive, so make sure it doesn’t contain any valuable data.
5. Click Restore and, if prompted, enter an admin-level username and password.

Disk Utility

You can use Disk Utility’s Restore screen to create a bootable flash drive or hard drive.

Part 2b: To create a bootable DVD

1. In Disk Utility, select InstallESD.dmg in the sidebar

2. Click the Burn button in the toolbar.

3. When prompted, insert a blank DVD (a single-layer disc should work, although you can use a dual-layer disc instead), choose your burn options, and click Burn.

You can now boot any Lion-compatible Mac from this drive or DVD and install Lion. You can also use any of the Lion installer’s special recovery and restore features—in fact, when you boot from this drive or DVD, you’ll see the same Mac OS X Utilities screen you get when you boot into restore mode.
Note: As explained in our main Lion-installation article, if you leave the Lion installer in its default location (in /Applications) and use it to install Lion on your Mac’s startup drive, the installer will be automatically deleted after the installation finishes. So if you plan to use that installer on other Macs, or to create a bootable disc or drive as explained here, be sure to copy the installer to another drive—or at least move it out of the Applications folder—before you install. If you don’t, you’ll have to re-download the entire thing from the Mac App Store.
If you’ve already installed Lion—so it’s too late to move the installer—you’ve probably discovered that the Mac App Store claims that Lion is already installed and prevents you from downloading it again. As I explained in our main Lion-installation article, you should be able to force a re-download using one of the following three tricks: First, Option+click the Buy App button in the Mac App Store. If that doesn’t work, switch to the Mac App Store’s main page and then Option+click the Purchases button in the toolbar. If that doesn’t work, quit the Mac App Store app and then hold down the Option key while launching the Mac App Store again. One of these three procedures should get rid of the “Installed” status for Lion and let you download it.

 

Thank you for the Article MacWorld!

HTC Details Upcoming Bootloader Unlocking Process For New And Select Existing Devices Via A Web-Based Tool

Per HTC’s Facebook Page, here are some info on how the unlocking will work!

“The Web tool … requires that you register an account with a valid e-mail address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty. Then plug in your phone to a computer with the Android SDK loaded to retrieve a device identifier token, which you can then enter into the Web tool to receive a unique unlock key via e-mail. Finally, apply the key to your device and unlocking will be initiated on your phone.
In essence, all HTC devices will ship with locked bootloaders which will be unlockable (fully supported by HTC) using the web-based tool. Existing phones will need an OTA update in order to gain this “unlockability” – as expected, they won’t just suddenly all get unlocked automatically.”

**UPDATE 8/3/2011**
“Since our last update, many of you have asked how the bootloader unlocking process will actually work, and in particular why HTC’s most recently released devices still have a locked bootloader. Rest assured we’re making progress toward our goal to roll out the first software updates in August to support unlocking for the global HTC Sensation, followed soon by the HTC Sensation 4G on T-Mobile and the HTC EVO 3D on Sprint. Because unlocking the bootloader provides extensive control over the device and modifications may cause operation, security and experience issues, new devices will continue to ship locked but will support user-initiated unlocking using a new Web-based tool.
So how will this work? The Web tool, which will launch this month, requires that you register an account with a valid e-mail address and accept legal disclaimers that unlocking may void all or parts of your warranty. Then plug in your phone to a computer with the Android SDK loaded to retrieve a device identifier token, which you can then enter into the Web tool to receive a unique unlock key via e-mail. Finally, apply the key to your device and unlocking will be initiated on your phone.
We’re excited to bring bootloader unlocking to developers and enthusiasts, and we feel this new Web tool will meet your needs and continue to provide customers with the best experience. Thanks to the community for supporting these efforts!”

Reset a Lost OS X Account Password

Depending on the circumstances, this task could take 5 minutes or could even be completely impossible. Here is a run through of the different ways you can reset an account password depending on the type of account, whether FileVault is enabled and whether you have the Mac OS X Install Disc.

If you still know the Administrator Password

If you still know the password to an administrator account, it is very simple to reset any standard or managed user’s password. While logged in as the administrator, open up System Preferences and click on the Accounts section. All the accounts on the computer should be listed down the left hand side. Under each account name it should say Admin, Standard or Managed. If the lock at the bottom of the window appears locked, click on it to allow changes to the preferences.

The next step is to select the user whose password you want to change and click on the Reset Password button. Enter the new password and click Reset Password. If you have created multiple Administrator accounts, you can use this method to reset their passwords too, as long as you know the password for the original administrator account.

Resetting an Administrator Password
Obviously, if you don’t have access to an administrator account, you can’t carry out any of the above steps. If you have forgotten the Administrator password or you can’t log into your Mac at all, you will need to use the Mac OS X Install Disc.

Enter the Mac OS X Install Disc that is the closest version to that running on the Mac. For example, if you are running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, you should enter the Snow Leopard install disk, not any earlier ones. Restart the computer, and hold the C key as it starts up. This might take longer than usual, and you can release the C key as soon as the Apple logo appears on the screen. When the window appears, choose your language and click the right arrow.

The next step depends on what version of Mac OS X you are using. Generally you need to choose Reset Password from the Utilities menu. For earlier versions of Mac OS X, choose Reset Password from the Installer menu.

Choose your Hard Drive from the top and then choose the Account from the drop down menu. Be careful not to select System Administrator, as this is actually the root user, not the administrator account on your Mac. Now enter the new password, click Save, quit the Installer and restart the computer.

Note that there are a few issues with this method. Firstly, it does not reset your keychain password. You will have to do this separately. Secondly, do not attempt this if you have FileVault enabled. To reset an FileVault protected account, you need the master password.

Resetting a FIleVault Protected User’s Password
If you have enabled FileVault to encrypt your Account, you need to know the master password that you set when you enabled it. This is the password that the administrator should know that allows you to reset any password on the computer. If you have forgotten the master password, unfortunately your data is lost forever.

If you know the master password, start by attempting to log into your account. When you get the password wrong three times, you will be able to click “Forgot Password”. Now you will have to enter the master password and then a new login password for your account.

If you have lost the Mac OS X install Disc
If you have lost the install disc, don’t try and use one from an earlier version as this might permanently block you out of your account. You really have two options: Firstly, you could buy a new copy of Mac OS X (try Amazon). Secondly, there is a way of resetting an administrator password without the disc if you are running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Note: Do NOT do this with a FileVault protected account, or your data will be lost forever.

First, note the short name of the account. This is the same as the name of its home folder, but not necessarily the name that appears in the login window. Restart your computer, and while it is starting up, hold Command-S. This will start up your Mac in Single User Mode. Once it has started up, you will need to enter three lines of code. Enter sh /etc/rc and press return. Then enter passwd yourusername and hit return. Now you will have to enter a new password twice. What you type won’t appear on screen, but it is working. Once you have done this, type reboot and hit return.

Similarly to the Install Disc method,this will not reset your Keychain password. You will have to do this separately.

via Reset a Lost OS X Account Password | General, System Preferences, Terminal, Utilities | Mac OS X Tips.

Latest Gmail For Android Update Breaks Third Party Apps

If you’re anything at all like me, then you update your apps as soon as possible; after all, new is always better right? Well those who rely on certain apps and widgets that tie into Gmail may want to hold off.

The latest update for the Gmail Android app packs some performance fixes and battery improvements, but we’re hearing that there’s more to the update than meets the eye.

Certain developers (most notably Federico Carnales, of Launcher Pro fame) were notified a few weeks ago that because of potential security issues, the API used by certain apps to access Gmail messages would be removed in the 2.3.5 update. As a result, most apps that relied on that older API are locking up or force closing whenever they are opened. Even though Google seems to have made efforts to reach out to the developer community, at least a few people were caught by surprise and have updated their app descriptions in the market accordingly.

According to software engineer Chris Banes, the change in question blocks access to the app’s database:

Basically, previously an app just had to declare that they use the READ_GMAIL permission in it’s Manifest and it would all work. Now though, they’ve added the android:protectionLevel=”signature” which means that only the Gmail app itself can access it’s DB (as that’s the only thing which will have the right signature).

via Latest Gmail For Android Update Breaks Third Party Apps | TechCrunch.

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