• Introduce yourself to PPCGeeks users all over the world in our introductions forum. Click here
• Our Windows Mobile HTC Arrive/7 Pro forums have some interesting topics. Click here
• Check out the “Off Topic” chatter box and explore several different topics. Click here
• [NEW TOPIC] Maybe Moving from Windows. Would like some real input from users. Click here
• [THEMES] Lots of Android themes can be found here. Click here
• [HOW TO] Install CWM and ROOT for GALAXY TAB 10.1 in our Android Tablets forum. Click here  
• [SPRINT] Perplexed: troubleshooting dropped calls in our carrier discussion forum. Click here

PPCGeeks is a site for smartphone owners (including Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, Android, Blackberry, WebOS, and iPhone) with discussions, reviews, news, links, downloads and much much more. We have several helpful members in the forums who are willing to help you with questions you may have. If you are not a member yet and just now stumbled upon us, what are you waiting for? Join the forums now by clicking here.

One of the main reasons people flocked to get a 4S was the introduction of Siri, a personal assistant and amazing voice recognition agent that has not been successfully emulated and is the envoy of the other phone operating systems at the moment.  Siri can perform hundreds of tasks by voice activation and even responds with witty remarks should you get creative with your voice commands.

Now, thanks to the iTweakers, you can now change Siri’s accent in a number of ways, using the app AnyVoice.

Some of the accents sound better than others, so try them out and see which one sounds best for you!

The app requires that you be jailbroken and is accessed via Cydia.  Just search for AnyVoice, install it, and there you have it!  If you would like to learn how to jailbreak your device, head over to our iPhone forums.

(via redmondpie)

In this article, I’m going to give you my favorite iPhone theme app due to its simplicity and many options and variables. Especially highlighting the ability to transform you iPhone into Windows Phone 7 with its sleek Metro UI.

The first thing you’ll need to do is jailbreak your iPhone.  If you don’t know how to do this head over to our iPhone forums and if the tutorial for your device and firmware version is not listed, just open up a new thread!  Currently ANY iPhone can be jailbroken untethered (meaning you do not need to plug the phone in and run an app to turn it on and get it working) and can be done so very easily.

Once you’ve gotten it jailbroken, you will have a Cydia app.  This app will need to update for a little while on first run, you want the user/graphical option when it asks.  You will need to go to Sources > Edit > Add and add the following repo:  http://www.themeitapp.com/repo.

Once this is added you need to go to the Search tab and find DreamBoard.

Once DreamBoard is installed, you can add the repo:  http://www.themeitapp.com/rep  and add the app Themeit.  Themeit has some paid themes that are, in my opinion, better than the free ones.  The best two Metro UI ones are “Metro” and “Metro 8” by Rigaton1.  They both offer many options, live tiles, custom icons and a nice Metro experience, and cost a minute amount.  Check out the pictures of them below.  First is Metro, second is Metro 8

The third option (which is free) is actually pretty good too, with some live tiles, custom icons, and good settings. It is called OS7 by Andrew Lui, and the files can be SSHed into your DreamBoard folder (see our How-To on SSH in the iPhone forums) and found free on Google.  See below.

There are also PLENTY of themes available of the Android flavor and other awesome themes on Cydia both paid and free for DreamBoard, just search and try them out!  I will have an article soon on my very overall favorite DreamBoard themes!

(images and info helped via Redmondpie.com)

I’ve had the iPhone for a few months now, after using Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Phone 7, and Android. Android obviously had excellent integration with Google’s services such as GMail and Google Talk. The transition to the iPhone took a little time, but I’ve gotten a lot of things to work pretty good. One thing I noticed the other day was when I would supposedly delete my emails from my phone, they weren’t going into Trash in GMail, instead, they were going into All Mail.

There are a few ways you can setup GMail on the iPhone. You can use the IMAP way, which will basically just give you email, no contacts. You can also set it up as an Exchange account, which will let you sync your email, contacts, and calendars. Here is Google’s walkthrough on how to set it up via Exchange.

Now, if you have multiple calendars in GMail that you want to sync, you can visit m.google.com/sync using Safari on your phone, login with your account, then click on your iPhone. You should have a list of your calendars that you can check to sync to your phone.

Now to the point of this article. If you want to actually delete items (move them to trash) instead of archiving them (move them to All Mail), there’s another check box on this screen that says “Enable ‘Delete Email As Trash’ for this device”. Check that box and scroll down to save.

Voilà! You’re good to go now!

On November 10, 2011 Sprint announced the Samsung Epic 4g would be updated to Gingerbread S:D700.0.5S.EI22 over the course of the next ten days.  Sprint’s intent of slowing updating everyone to the EI22 ROM is to be able to monitor the process in the event they have to pull the update due to technical problems. Already users are reporting WiFi, GPS, and keyboard bugs which Sprint or Samsung has yet to acknowledge.

For those of us who are too anxious to wait on the OTA now have several methods available (a few of these methods have fixes already available).

IMPORTANT:  Please make sure that you make backups of all your information before doing any upgrades, while some methods like the update.zip is rather safe, it doesn’t hurt to make a copy of what is important to you. For those who have clockworkmod 2.X (green one), you should upgrade to the latest clockworkmod 3.X (purple) as old clockworkmod backups will not be compatible.

1) First method is to do a manual update.

a) Go to this link and download the file gTen has provided.
b) Rename the file to update.zip (make sure it’s not renamed update.zip.zip)
c) Place the file on the Root of your SD Card
d) shut down your phone and boot into recovery by holding voldown+camera+power
e) Choose to flash update.zip

 Notes:
1 This method will not give you Root
2 If you already rooted the above method will not work
3 This is NOT a custom ROM it is the manual way to upgrade.

2) Second Method Rooting EI22 after OTA or Google update (credits: XDA member metalblaster)

a) Video Provided by qbking77
b) first you need to install the OTA either through the OTA method or through the Google link method.
c) Next you need to go to the ACS forums and Download the ACS recovery 1.0.0.5.tar.md5 file, You will need this file as well

1 confirm you have gingerbread EI22.
2 download the 2 files above (you can use CWM purple version as well if you don’t want the acs Recovery.)
3 Put the su-3.0-efgh-signed.zip file onto your sdcard and turn off the phone.
4 Boot into Download mode by holding the 1 key on the keyboard and the power key
5 open odin and connect the phone to the computer, one of the ID:com boxes will light up to confirm it is connected.
6 put the ACSrecovery.tar.md5 file into the PDA area of odin, make sure everything is uncheck except Auto-reboot and hit start.
7 if done correctly your phone should reboot directly into ACS recovery mode.
8 once in recovery flash the Su-***** .zip file then reboot the phone.
9 If CWM does not stick due to the added script Samsung embedded in the phone kernel you should see below. There are thus far, 2 possible options, Option 1 will give you the Keyboard fix with a relatively Stock experience and Option 2 will give you a Deodexed Rom, nubernal, the keyboard fix and the GPS fix.

***UPDATE***

Apparently Samsung included a script that reflashes the stock recovery upon boot, so if you install a custom recovery (ACS or CWM) it will overwrite it upon boot.

d) (Option 1) Fix so that Clockwork Sticks

i) First Odin Mkasik’s EI22 Keyboard fix Kernel (PDA – Only check Auto Reboot) Then Odin Purple Clockwork.

e) (Option 2) override the built in Samsung issue and make CWM as well as add the nubernal.

i) Follow the steps up until you get into ACS recovery or CWM and flash the .zip in this post rather than the Su.zip file.
ii) This will completely fix your GPS and CWM problems as well as deodex the EI22 version you have.

Kaos has recently posted about the new cool ability of Titanium backup to save backup files to a cloud server such as Dropbox. Read here: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/android-apps-games/145969-drop-box-titanium-backup-titanium-media-server-love.html

You need Titanium Backup,

Titanium Media Sync,

and a cloud network such as Dropbox

Now the Media Sync costs a few dollars, but other than that your good to go with only a little downloading and setup. Titanium is free (the basic version) and all apps are found in the market. Dropbox is also free, you get 2GB free but can get more by using a referral (the person who referred you gets an additional 500MG as well, so do Kaos a solid and go back to the post and use his referral (and leave a thanks as well). Oh yeah….you need to be rooted as well!!

All you need to do is install all of these on your Android device, setup storage to the cloud network in the settings and your good to go….no full or lost memory cards, files available at any computer or dropbox-enabled device and a lot less headaches!!!

Hey Geeks!

For Those of you owning or considering an EVO3D this summer, nows your chance to get in the loop! Join the Conversation  in our EVO3D Forums!

Check out our EVO3D Forums, where the users are chatting up the latest news and information on the brand new HTC Device on the Sprint Network. You can rate the device and share your thoughts, spill the beans on your tips and tricks, or just start a new discussion and see where it goes!

Keep on Geeking!

Apparently the newer Apple iOS versions have built in to them location tracking.  This basically records latitude and longitude and a timestamp and isn’t even encrypted so it would not be very hard to access it.

Take a look at this ABC News article and others floating around the web, and it looks to be a pretty bid deal right now.  This is actually pretty weird because the data doesn’t seem to be sent anywhere.  It’s as if they are saving this feature for a future version or to “activate” it or something, but it’s still a little creepy.

Personally I would be uncomfortable with this on my iPhone, but what a lot of these articles won’t tell you is that there is a brand new solution to handle this.

Your phone does have to be jailbroken (take a look at our iPhone forums on jailbreaking ANY iOS version except the iPad2 for right now).

Simply go to Cydia and search for and install the app called Untrackerd, this will prevent your iPhone from being tracked by clearing out the secret database file that records this information so it does not get stored anywhere on your phone!

So it seems Microsoft has hidden a lot of features in the phone….tethering…and mass storage now…Who would have thought that the new OS would allow such a thing?  Well it appears that our friends over at MobileTechWorld has discovered this little ability hidden inside the phone.  The best part is you don’t have to unlock it, jailbreak it, root it, or whatever else you may want to call it. All you have to do is simply alter the registry of the zune software on the computer that you normally sync with.  This is just one more nice thing that has been discovered on WP7.

Now we here at PPCGeeks, do not suggest you all run out and do this though.  There are always the potential for issues, and taking advantage of this option, should you dare to use your new Windows Phone 7 device for mass storage is on your own.  There does seem to be a little issue with file recognition that may limit the overall usefulness of the hack.  If you want to see it in action yourself head over to Tom’s Guide here.

Source: Windows Phone Thoughts via MobileTechWorld

UPDATE: Congrats to the winner of the case, O.A.T.! You’ll receive a PM with instructions soon!

My motto: “You can never have enough watches, purses, shoes, and yes, cases!”

My friends call me the “Case Lady” because I go through so many cases for my precious toys.  Since I acquired my iPad last May I have purchased more than five cases of different styles and purposes. There is always that new one that I just have to try. Imagine my joy when I had the opportunity to try out and review not one, but two cases from well known Case Logic.

Though similar in purpose, each of these two cases also has unique individual features.  Both cases are well padded sleeves with wrap around zippers and slim styling. As with most sleeve styles there is no strap or carrying handle suggesting the best uses would be for a quick trip from the office to the meeting room or to slip inside a bag, briefcase, purse or other carryall. The black (IPAD-101) is made from a semi-shiny nylon material that is very clean and durable with a contrasting teal liner. The herringbone (IPAD-102) is made from a woven cloth material that is suited to a business look with a not-too-bright orange liner.  Both products are very pleasing to the eye and are cleanly constructed with strong seams, rounded corners and finished edges. I asked my male friends which case they would prefer based no looks alone and all agreed they would easily use either one so case styling is truly gender generic.

The obvious difference between the two is in the fabric material. However, size differences also come into play; the Herringbone style is an exact fit to the iPad with virtually no extra room. The iPad slides right into the landscape-oriented opening and the case zips closed easily. When I put my soft shell on the iPad I am still able to slide the iPad into the case easily though the zipper is a bit snug. So far, with several weeks of use there has been no signs of excessive wear on the zipper from this setup. The black case is actually much larger, as seen in the photo. The ipad fits loosly into the portrait-oriented opening with plenty of room to spare. In fact, I was able to easily place my HP netbook into this case and close it up, great dual purpose!

In order to duly test these Case Logic productss, I ditched my portfolio style case and pulled on the sleeves. I recently had a stint with Jury Duty and took my iPad, incased in the Black (101) sleeve, to help pass the time. The experience was rewarding.  I was able to carry a few essentials (ID, cash, pen, phone) inside the case no need to carry extra baggage. The case also is great for security scanners since there is no requirement to remove the iPad. With this case I am not concerned with wear and tear, dirt, or snags as the material is very durable and yet pleasing to the eye.  The  Herringbone style case is much more business-like and eye-catching.  I used that model during the work week, carrying my ipad as I would a folder or clipboard to my meetings. I have to say several collegues were impressed with this look.

At the end of the day, I have to say  my favorite is the herringbone, though I used the black case more often. I am mostly concerned with the durability of the fabric, though I have had no adverse experiences. I have been known to be rough on my possessions and I do fear snagging or staining the product. I did not realize how much I would enjoy the sleeve experience as I always thought the portfolio was the way to go. I am happy to have had the opportunity to try the Case Logic products and I really do not miss the portfolio. Sleeves are so much thinner, easily fit into any bag or pack and can be used with the gel shell backing. The only complaint is I have yet to find a nice femine pattern or color that is not too girly or over the top. When I do, I will finally be satisified in my case quest… Yeah, right!

Thanks for the cases Caselogic! Now we’re going to give one away!

Post a comment on this review and you’re entered to win one of these ipad cases! Remember, these can be used for any device smaller than 10″ in size! Perfect for an upcoming Galaxy Tab

You have until November 20th to Enter!

Hey there Geeks!
We recently got in touch with the makers of ROR – a high end screen cleaner for multi-layer plastic, glass, and mirror surfaces – and were curious in their recent initiative to bring their products to the consumer end, having them used for cleaning anything from cellphones, to cell phone cameras, and even TVs and larger screens (such as on laptops & iPads.) We decided to pick up some ROR of our own and do some simple quality comparisons to some Monster Screen Cleaner we had lying around.

For starters, we did a simple screen cleaning, as you could see in the above photo. The plastic and glass layering that composes the majority of smartphones and electronics on the market are a perfect surface for the cleaner to work on. While most cleaners feel like a soapy water that quickly evaporates when used, the ROR has a much different consistency; it appears to carry a basic quality to it (as there is a small amount of ammonia inside) and lets it glide and easily break down the oils on the surface, letting you remove them with a napkin (you don’t need to use micro fiber cloths!) and leave the screen bright and glossy. Even better, the larger sprays require a large amount to clean the area, the 1oz eye dropper and 2oz spray  bottle can clean an EVO is just one spray/drop, and an iPad in just two drops. This means just one bottle will last you for months at a time!

Next, we showed the origin of the ROR’s use, camera quality. We dirtied up a Canon lens we had lying around and took comparison shots below.  You can see the dirty/clean difference on the ROR, but even better, we tried it with a generic cleaner, note the blurry results!

In Conclusion, ROR is a fantastic product we suggest to the heavy user with oily hands, or an oily device. Here are the shots we took using the product

Before ROR was used.

After ROR was used

Before MONSTER Cleaner was used.

After MONSTER Cleaner was used.

Pick it up here at ROR’s website. It’s worth it!

What you see above is a tile, well three to be exact. All a Tile is; simply a blue square. A WP7 Live Tile is a Blue square that is updated every time new information is received, all the time.

Now let’s say we have a program, a program called Twitter. As your friends post tweets you receive that immediately on your phone through a server that Microsoft made available to developers, like Twitter. This can be the same for Facebook as well. This server is called PNS, you might have heard of something similar called APNS, this is Apples version of the same thing. This is used for the iPod, and iPhone. PNS servers are simply a cloud based server that you can load your application into to allow it to update for you. Simply put it is like an RSS Feed for us bloggers, and followers.

Every program you install on Windows Phone 7, gets turned into a Tile, even if it is a still picture. This happens by the interface called Metro UI. Love it or Hate it, Metro UI is fluid and constant throughout the device. Since the launch of WP7 is coming next week for us here in the United States, and already out for European Countries, we have seen question arise. “Why Don’t My Live Tiles update?” well simply they are not live, or they are missing the PNS server setup. Regretfully, we as end-users can not make a PNS service for the program, it has to come from the developer. I hope that the Developers really take a hold of this feature, and if not I hope that they [Developers] will allow us a voice for them to make a PNS server setup.

To learn more about this article please look to our source, and the following links:

Windows Phone 7: A New Kind of Phone

Windows Phone in 7 Minutes

source: windowsphonethoughts.com

Saturday, October 9th, famed (or infamous, depending on which side you’re on) iPhone hacker GeoHot (George Hotz) released a new jailbreak for iOS 4.1 for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3G, iPod touch 3G and 4G, iPad 3.2.2 and even works on Apple TV 2G called “limera1n”.  This came as a stunning update as the iPhone Chronic Dev team (another group of iPhone hackers) were all set to release their brand new jailbreak for these same devices the next day, called “greenpois0n.”.

GeoHot was supposedly retired from the iPhone jailbreak scene on July 13th, 2010 due to people taking it too seriously and always demanding new jailbreaks.  Jailbreaking allows you to modify your iPhone in various ways such as changing your icons, themes, wallpapers (static and video wallpapers) as well as new settings, and for most models and versions even carrier unlocking.  GeoHot was the originally whiz-kid who, at only 17 years old, jailbroke the first ever iPhone and carrier unlocked it as well.  Throughout the years he came up with easier software “one-click” jailbreaks and unlocks.

You may recall that another 19 year old whiz kid entered the scene in March of this year.  Comex brought us the jailbreak “Spirit” which jailbroke firmware 3.1.3 (which was unable to be jailbroken for a few months, only 3.1.2 could using GeoHotz’s “blackra1n” tool).

Comex then erupted on the scene again. in August 2010, when he released a new jailbreak for all iPhones on iOS 4.0, which had not been out very long at all.  This was by far the easiest jailbreak to use as well, as all the user had to do was point his phone’s web browser to www.jailbreakme.com and it would do all the work from there.

Videos came in from all over the place showing people jailbreaking iPhones from Apple stores all over the country using this method.

iPhone iOS 4.1 came out about a month ago with no way to jailbreak.  The chronic dev team had announced that they were releasing a new “bootrom level jailbreak” which would be unpatchable by Apple on any new firmware updates.  This meant that any iPhone out right now would be vulnerable to this jailbreak forever, no matter what Apple did, until they made a hardware change on any new iPhones released.

A day before they were set to release this jailbreak, GeoHot came in and released his own bootrom level jailbreak with a totally different exploit called limera1n.  The release initially had bugs and didn’t work on the 3GS (which has been fixed now).  This dramatic turn of events was rather infuriating to Comex and the Chronic Dev team because they now had to choose whether to release greenpois0n or not!

They chose to hold off releasing it for now, and implementing GeoHotz’s exploit into greenpois0n so that they can save their own exploit for the iPhone 5 or however Apple patches GeoHotz’s exploit with a hardware fix.

This whole soap opera in the iPhone jailbreaking scene continues!

For now, if you have an iDevice on iOS 4.1, go to www.limera1n.com and follow the jailbreaking instructions (this does not work on iPhone 3G, head over to our iPhone section to learn to how to jailbreak this device).

Note, if you want to carrier unlock your iPhone, DO NOT update it to 4.1 as it has an upgraded baseband version that is not yet unlockable.

For a bit of fun check out this old CNN video interview GeoHot when he first unlocked his iPhone!

Over the weekend a new jailbreak was released which works for iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS on new and old bootrom, iPhone 3G, and iPad all on iOS 4.01!!

Comex, the new iPhone jailbreak Guru, who gave us an untethered jailbreak for 3.1.3 and iPad os 3.2, has done it again.  This new jailbreak is even easier than the last and works on a whole myriad of devices and firmware versions.

So, how easy is it to jailbreak the iPhone 4 on OS 4.01?

Well, on a Windows Mobile device, as most of you know, you have to download the right HSPL for your phone and your carrier.  If you do it wrong you’re bricked.  If you’re honest, you will admit you cringe every time you flash an HSPL or a radio for fear that you will somehow get an error and brick your device.

For Android, there are many methods of rooting, but sometimes you get a one click magic program that will do it for you.

On this method of jailbreaking, you just get a good WiFi connection, open your browser and visit http://jailbreakme.com, and follow the instructions.  That’s all!

Now you can modify your phone to your heart’s content!  Themes, ringtones, and no doubt soon to come Android port for the iPhone 4.

This jailbreak also works for the iPad on 3.2.1 (newest firmware)

The iPhone unlock, by PlanetBeing (the guy who ported Android to iPhone 2G and 3G), is confirmed to be working and will be released within 48 hours, so you can use the iPhone 4 on ANY carrier.

Head over to our iForums to learn more about this!

Posted by Volunteer Newsie Ticklemepinks!

Despite the recent cancellations of pre-orders due to problems with AT&T and Apple, the majority of the pre-orders have been sent out (estimated 600,000 handsets) for the June 24th release which are now leaving people who didn’t pre-order with the question of “Can I upgrade?” Well I’m here to break it down for you.

So if you are eligible for an upgrade you will be paying $199 for the 16GB and $299 for the 32GB version, the standard upgrade rate for a 2 year contract

If you currently have an iPhone 3GS you and it ends within this year You can get it for the upgrade price as the same: $199 for a 16GB and $299 for a 32GB.

Now in some cases if you have less than 23 months left and are over the requirement to qualify by the end of the year, (depending on timely bill payments and spending limits on the account) you can get an “early upgrade” price of $299 16GB/ $399 32GB ($100 more than subsidized price for a two year contract)

And If you aren’t a current iPhone user, you’re basically at square one, either pay full price of $399 16GB/ $499 32GB or wait until your eligible.

So I hope I cleared this up for anyone who was lost, dazed, or confused. Because I know the Mobile dept. at my job (Best Buy) doesn’t even know the deal.

XDA strikes again!!! In a good way of course, thanks to the folks over there 802.11n Wi-Fi support has been enabled. As some of us know, the HTC Evo has the same wireless chip the Nexus One has, as do the Incredible and Desire. So with a hex-editor in hand you too can unlock this “easter egg”. (gamer quote FTW)

Now be sure to remember that this is still a phone so the additional support doesn’t affect the speed of the connection but it will increase the range and signal strength.

There are two ways of doing this, either flashing the “update.zip” way through recovery or if ya feeling froggy, you can try your hand and let out the inner hex-editor: (http://www.chmaas.handshake.de/delph…vi32/xvi32.htm is the suggested one). Detailed directions are over at XDA and are quite painless. Thanks to XDA members Chuckhriczko and Calkulin for their work.

Source: XDA Developers

Written by PPCGeeks Volunteer Newsie  Ticklemepinks

So you have decided to download the Windows Phone Developer Tools in order to start developing applications for Windows Phone 7. You spend hours upon hours coming up with the greatest app ever developed to date. You decide to release it as shareware with the best licensing key algorithm that no one could ever crack. You start up a new website, spend hours making it look professional, and once you are happy with it, you decide to finally post your application. Within the first hour, 3000 people have downloaded your application, so figuring that 5-10% of those people will register the application; you start doing the math, and realize that it was all worth it. [Ed’s Note- Some MightyMike Rom’s experience 3ooo people downloading per second.]

The next day you decide to do a Google search on your application to see if Google has indexed your site correctly, but to your surprise, the top hit is a crack for your application. How could that be? You have spent way too many hours coming up with algorithms that would make NSA jealous for it all to be for naught.

This could and has happened to a lot of developers out there, but how does this happen? Well, this has to do with how Microsoft Visual Studio compiles .Net applications. In .Net applications, they are not really compiled to what you and I would consider a true .EXE file; instead, they are compiled to Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). So what is CLI you ask, CLI is a byte-code, like Java uses, so when you run the .Net application, it first uses a Just In Time (JIT) compiler to compile it for the computer or device it is being run on.

So know you’re asking, what’s wrong with CLI code? Well, with the correct application you can re-create the original code from the CLI. The code turns out to be very close to the original, with only minor differences. The application in question is .Net Reflector.

Your next question is why anyone would use this for good and not evil. Well, I had made quite a few changes in a program I maintain while deployed, compiled it, installed it on many machines, but forgot to back up the changes. My laptop was stolen after that, so I figured I had lost all that hard work, but I still had the install file. While developing ZURN for MightyMike, I was having wait cursor issues, and started researching why; well it had to do with the JIT compiler compiling the program prior to running. I kept reading about it, found .Net reflector, but that didn’t help me with Zurn at the time. However a few months later, someone needed me to fix a few problems in my application, so I had to go back to an earlier version, made the changes, but then remembered .Net Reflector, so after a few hours, I had all my other changes back in. It really was a life saver for me.

Now, how can you protect yourself from this very thing if you’re a programmer? Well, there are other applications for just that, they are referred to as Obfuscators. What they do is go through the CLI code, and rename every function and variable to simple names. For example, if you have a function called HelloWorld(String strText, String strTitle), it might change it to A(String a, String b). This does not change the actual function; it just makes it really difficult to follow. A really good example of one of these programs is Obfuscar, and it is open source, which always makes me happy.

Zagg, well known for their invisibleSHIELD screen protectors, has launched a promotional contest that will give 1 free iPad to a lucky winner for each week in April. While not winning is no fun, Zagg is making the liner in this cloud metallic silver. For entering the contest, you will receive a 50% off discount code to use on the Zagg site. Nothing wrong with getting 50% off an screen protector for doing nothing more than entering in some information. You can access the contest here.

The developer team over at alldroid.org has  managed to gain root access to the version of the Motorola Milestone which was recently released by Telus Mobility in Canada.  At first glance this doesn’t seem like news; both the Droid and Milestone were rooted months ago.  The difference is the Telus version was released with the root exploit patched.

A few days after the Droid/Milestone exploit was discovered, a developer submitted the patch for it to the Android Open Source Project.  The patch was accepted and merged into the source code.  Interestingly, this developer was Steve Kondik aka Cyanogen who is best known for his custom ROMs which he has developed for rooted HTC phones.  You can review the patch here.

The way to root a Telus Milestone is covered in detail here.  Basically it consists of completely wiping the memory of the phone and then flashing the memory with the Brazilian Milestone’s operating system.  This version of the Milestone software doesn’t have the exploit patched.  Once this is flashed, you simply continue as normal by downloading and running a modified ‘update.zip’ file which piggybacks the root access inside an over the air update file.

Although this does give the user root access, none of the Milestone branded devices will run a boot image unless digitally signed by Motorola.  This means no overclocking, custom roms, or custom recovery menu; but there are already tutorials for running interactive wallpapers, blocking unwanted advertisements, removing unwanted apps, and installing customized themes available over at alldroid.

I wonder how long until these guys figure out how to digitally sign custom ROMs?  At this pace we should see them by Friday.

Sources:  alldroid.org; telusmobility.ca

The developer of this widget pack modestly describes this as “just another weather widget”.  This is perhaps the most polished and well put together weather forcast widget pack available for the android.  He also has some amazing flipclocks that moderately resemble clocks from some paid applications (Check out the ‘Weather forcast 4×2 widget.)  Definitely a 5 star application.

This widget is so handy that I am surprised it doesn’t come on Android phones from the factory.  This is simply a 1×1 widget that displays one of ten gmail icons and will show how many unread messages are in your gmail account.  Tap the widget and it opens up the  Gmail application and goes to the inbox.  Simple, beautiful, customizable and functional.

The premise of this widget is simple: allows you to put more icons on your homescreen.  This widget app allows you to put 3 applications in the space of one; the fourth location links to the widget’s settings screen.  At first it seems as if the icons might be too small, but the developer has done a good job and it’s easy to select the icon you’re after.  This  is a perfect addition for people like me as it allows for more room on the homescreens to put widgets.

This is an app that almost everyone would find useful at one point or another.  It’s an open source task list that is simple to use and works very well.  The widget alone is enough to generate 5 stars.  The widget will display one of your todo lists in a nice and easy to read format.  Even if you don’t use Astrid task manager, the widget can synchronize with other applications such as ‘Remember the Milk, Locale and more.

Although it does consume an entire page, the 4×4 widget is stunning.  The widget gives buttons for the important musc player functions and displays the album art.  Beneath the surface this player will also scan through your music and make recommendations based on the songs you are listening to.  All around a great application over and above being an awesome widget.

NOTE:  Once you’ve downloaded the widget from the marketplace you must add the widget to your home screen.  To add a widget to your home screen, simply long-press an empty space and select “widgets”.

UPDATE: My bad, I confused two different programs both titled ‘Weather Widget’ and after looking through the Android Market, there appears to be a few others. Anyhow, here is the link to the barcode image for the one I originally posted. Even though it’s not what I had intended to post it is still very nice and is pictured above.