How to Migrate Facebook friends to Google Plus

Facebook won’t let you export your Facebook friends to Gmail or Google Plus for their own anti-competitive reasons. But what you can do is export Facebook contacts to a new Yahoo account and then import to Google Plus. It might silly but this is the only reliable way to do it.

1. Exporting Facebook contacts: Create a new Yahoo account, if you don’t have it already. Once you’ve created an account, sign in and head to the Contacts tab. Click on “Import Contacts” and choose the Facebook option. You should now see all your Facebok friends in your Yahoo address book.

2. Importing Facebook contacts, Inviting all: Now goto Google+ Circles tab. Click “Find and Invite” and then click the Yahoo button. It’ll add all your Facebook Contacts that were previously added to your yahoo account. In Find and Invite page, add your Facebook friends to your circles and they should get the invites. You may also find all the people that already are on Plus.

Migrate Facebook Photos to Google Plus

You can even migrate all your Facebook photo albums to Picasa (hence Google Plus) using Chrome a& Firefox extensions. Install & run them, it should take couple of minutes depending your number of photos.

Migrate Facebook Videos to Google Plus

Unfortunately,  this one takes some effort as you would have to download them all and re-upload. You can do this Account > Account Settings, and scroll down to “Download Your Information”. Click on “learn more” link and then Download button. It will take a while to gather your info, but you’ll receive an email when it’s done, and you can download a ZIP file full of your photos, videos and profile information.

Goto Google+, click on your profile, and go to “Videos”. Hit the “Upload New Videos” link and re-upload your videos to your Google+ profile.

Update Twitter, Facebook with Google Plus

That’s it, you are all set, Happy Plusing!

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Previously,  we had shown you how you can install chrome OS on notebook, desktop PC using bootable USB and install Chrome OS on Virtualbox, vmware, this is the step further in that direction bringing full hadware support to MBA with nightly builds of Chromium OS.

Warning: This method does a clean install, you would lose all your data, make backups before proceeding.

How to Install Chrome OS on Macbook Air [Chromium OS]

Step 1: Download Chromium OS from hexxeh’s site here and extract it.

Step 2: Using dd, burn the download image of Chromium on a USB (check this guide)

Step 3: Plugin the USB and boot your Macbook Air along with OS X install drive.

Step 4: Hold the “C” key on your keyboard and simultaneously press the power button, moment you see the apple logo, you can now leave the “C” key.

Step 5: You would now enter wizard that guides you through installation. When done with language selection, you would enter the wizard.

Step 6. Click “Utilities” from top menu and select Terminal.

Step 7: Type the commands:

dd if=/dev/rdisk1 of=/dev/rdisk0 bs=4m count=512

Step 8: When done, hold down the power button till it powers off.

Step 9: Unplug the USB drives and now power on your Air. Wait for few seconds and you’re done.

What’s broken:

• Boot times are not as good as REal chromebooks (22 seconds vs 8s)
• Bluetooth doesn’t work (Coming soon)

Related: Try chrome OS features in Browser

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iOS 5

Warning: We are not responsible for what you do to your iPhone. Once completed, you will not be able to connect to a carrier. Proceed at your own risk.

The method essentially exploits a vulnerability in the activation screen.

How to Install iOS 5 Beta

1. Google for iOS 5 beta ipsw for your iDevice and download it via torrents.
2. Update your iOS device using iTunes.  click on the Check for Update button with the Option (Mac) or Shift (PC) key pressed. browse iOS 5 IPSW file.
3. Sit back while it updates. Wait till activation screen appears.

How to Activate iOS 5

1. Triple click the home button on your iPhone, this will activate the Voice Over.
2. Now again, triple click the home button and Emergency Call will appear.
3. Click on Emergency Call and, while it’s switching, swipe with your three fingers down.
4. The Notification Center will appear!
5. Click on the Weather widget. The Weather app will load.
6. Click on the home button to exit to the iPhone’s springboard.

That’s all. You would now have access to iOS5 homescreen bypassing the activation. What’s next? Jailbreak your iOS 5.

Update: Install iOS 5 Beta 2 without developer account

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Its now possible to Mirror out Video for iPad 1, thanks to the  untethered iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak using Redsn0w.

How to Enable Video Mirroring on iPad 1

• SSH into iPad, and navigate to “system/library/coreservices/springboard.app”
• Download the K48AP.plist file to your computer and add the string “display-mirroring boolean YES”. (Hint: see image)
• Upload the newly edited file back to your poor unsuspecting iPad & restart it.
• Start video mirroring using either the VGA or Digital AV Adapter.

Now you should have iPad 2′s screen sharing available on your old iPad. You might experience some glitches, jerks, but they are expected during the run.

Here’s how it looks on the external display:

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You can now +1 web links and your friends will be able to see your recommendations. This is very much like the Facebook LIKE button, but could be even better as it has much wider reach.

The beauty of +1’s is their relevance—you get the right recommendations (because they come from people who matter to you), at the right time (when you are actually looking for information about that topic) and in the right format (your search results).

Checkout the Video:

How to Get/Enable Google +1 in Search

Google Search will now incorporate recommendations from all sites you’re connected to, you can edit those under “Social Circle and Content” section of the Google Dashboard.

To kick start, create a Google profile or upgrade it. You can use your profile to see all of your +1’s in one place, and delete those you no longer want to recommend.

Google PlusOne +1 is rolled out to US then other countries, if you cant wait goto experimental search site and then visit google.com/ncr . Initially, +1’s will appear alongside search results and ads, but in the weeks ahead they’ll appear in many more places (including other Google products and sites across the web).

Enjoy the new Social search experience as Social recommendations start appearing over time.

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iH8sn0w has released the latest version of iREB which lets you fix all the 1600, 1604, 1601, etc errors that happen during the restore with custom firmware created with Sn0wbreeze or PwnageTool.

Download iTunes 10.1.2 for Windows
Download iREB RC3 for Windows

iREB 4.0.x/4.1/4.2.1 [r3] supports wide range of  devices:

• iPhone 2G/3G/3G[S]/4
• iPod Touch 1G/2G/3G/4
• iPad Apple TV 2

How to Fix iTunes Errors 1600, 1601, 1604, 16xx

1. Start iTunes 10.1.2 and put your iOS device into DFU mode.

iPhone/iPad/iPod touch:

Connect your iOS device with your Computer. Hold Power and Home buttons for 10 seconds. Now release the Power button but continue holding the Home button for 10 more seconds. You device should now be in DFU mode.

Apple TV 2G:

Connect your Apple TV with your Computer via microUSB. Now reboot your Apple TV by holding down Menu + Down buttons together for around 6 seconds. After reboot, immediately hold Menu + Play until you see the message in iTunes saying that Apple TV in recovery mode is detected.

2. Close iTunes and run iREB RC3 and  select your device. Wait for a few seconds until you get white or a red screen on your iOS device.

3. Next, start iTunes again and select your iOS device from the sidebar in iTunes. SHIFT+  “Restore” button in the iTunes and browse the custom .ipsw file and restore it. That’s all!

You should no longer get those 16xx errors.

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Most office doors employ magnetic sensors that require a access card to be swiped across to unlock. These magnetic cards have unique magnetic pattern underneath the plastic, which when scanned is matched against a person’s identity.

Among the most popular lineup of Office door lock, Kaba Ilco Simplex lineup has been there for more than 3 decades, and had been pretty much unhackable till 2010. But if you have a strong  magnet, it opens up effortlessly in under 3 seconds.

You devise the Hack, you need powerful rare-earth magnets, which formulates the state-of-the-art attack.

Worst part is,  most other locks that use a combination chamber are equally vulnerable.

How it Works

Normally, these door locks need to capture weak magnetic fields generated in vicinity of a access card or a specific combination of buttons  have to be pressed to make the bolt withdraw. However, when a strong magnet is presented,  it messes with the magnetic field inside the combination chamber, the system scrambles making the bolt withdraw even if no buttons are pressed/ no card is presented.

Kaba, being the industry leader, has fixed the problem with a new combination chamber design in the latest models of its lock, but that won’t change the existing locks that have lying world over in offices since last 3 decades.

The rare earth (lanthanide) elements are metals that are ferromagnetic, meaning that like iron they can be magnetized, but their Curie temperatures are below room temperature, so in pure form their magnetism only appears at low temperatures. However, they form compounds with the transition metals such as iron, nickel, and cobalt, and some of these have Curie temperatures well above room temperature. Rare earth magnets are made from these compounds.

You can buy one of these neodymium magnet for about $10, no experience required.

Warning: This is just for educational purposes, do not hack into someone’s office, you and alone you would be responsible for any consequences.

Alternatively, you can design a a card writer that can hack magnetic locks:

In the above demo, hacker used pre-made connectors so he could easily disconnect and reconnect the device. When you put the reader’s cover back, the Gecko would be hidden behind it.

The card reader also continues to work fine with the Gecko attached. It passes along the signal from the reader to the control system as it’s supposed to. But when someone swipes an authorized card that unlocks the door, Gecko saves that signal.

With that saved unlock signal, the attacker can swipe a ‘replay’ card that tells Gecko to re-send that saved signal, and the doors unlock. What’s more, any saved access logs would only show that the same person who originally swiped the saved signal swiped his card again.

The replay card isn’t anything special, and could be any card. It’s just one that Gecko knows about beforehand. When it sees that card’s code – because the card reader passes it along – Gecko knows to send its saved signal in response.

The device also knows to look out for another card code – again, just a regular card – and in that case, disable the system. Only the recognized replay card can unlock the door. Every other card, authorized or not, will fail.

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Glitches would never go away till it’s a software. And they can be annoying at times, but there are ways you can minimize the annoyances and prevent havocs. One such problem is with Windows Explorer who like to act weird with its “Windows Explorer has stopped responding” “Windows explorer has misbehaved and needs to be closed”, blah blah.

You can always force close it but The Explorer process runs a lot of important things in Windows, and when it crashes, it can really slow you down.

But there is a solution to minimize the damage by sandboxing its process, so that when next time one crashes, others don’t in the fission.

The Solution to windows Explorer crashes

Windows Folder options actually let you create a separate process for the taskbar and desktop from the other open Explorer windows in two different explorer.exe processes (that you see in task manager). This comes handy when one of them crashes.

HowTo: Go to any Windows Explorer (say my computer), Alt+T  > Tools > Folder Options > View > “Launch Folder Windows in a Separate Process”.

If you look more closely, its something that powers Google Chrome browser, new process for every Tab. Instead, there are just two processes. Of course it would be slightly more CPU intensive, but that’s definitely worth it.

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For 50GB, they charge $10/month equaling $120 per year. Compare this with Google Docs GDrive: $5/year for 20GB (and same price for all multiples of 20GB). The price difference huge, plus Google docs’ storage is shared among all Google applications: Gmail, Picasa, Docs, you name it. And coz Google is all about goodness, if you stop paying yearly thing, you can still retain uploaded data FOREVER, free for lifetime, but not upload new data. Which is NOT offered by any of the competitors.

Here’s proof from Google’s Terms & conditions:

No matter when you cancel your storage subscription, your extra storage will be available for the entire year you’ve purchased. After your plan expires, your storage will be limited to each individual product’s free storage quota. Under our current policy, any content over the free storage quota will still be accessible, however you will not be able to add new content until your storage balance falls below the free storage limit.

So you are already convinced by now that Google Docs is a more viable Cloud storage, except for the fact that it doesn’t retain your folder structure (unless you create it manually).

How to Upload Folders to Google Docs

Try an Open-source program for Windows called Cyberduck that lets you transfer files and folders from the computer to Google Docs (and vice-versa), just like a FTP.

1. Simply create a new connection in Cyberduck and choose “Google Docs” from the list of service providers.
2. Fill in your Google Account credentials and connect. It will get a list of your Google Docs files and folders.
3. To upload a local folder to Google Docs, simply select the files to upload or Drag-drop them.

Note: The application handles duplicates quiet well. You cannot upload MP3, EXE via this app, they can only be done via browser unless you’ve a Google Apps for Business account. The restriction is essentially set by Google Upload API.

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Till now it wasn’t possible to Watch Hulu Videos outside USA without proxy. With proxies enabled, video streaming sucks across the seas and the result is a choppy video even on highbandwidth connections.

How to Watch Hulu Videos Outside USA without Proxy

Step 1. Install this Firefox addon that lets you modify the request headers to Hulu.com. Once installed, go to Tools > Modify Headers in Firefox and add a new filter by clicking on the drop-down menu and hitting “add”. In the first box, type X-Forwarded-For and in the second box, type in the IP adddress of any US web site. Leave the third box blank, and then save and enable the filter.

Step 2. Hulu uses TCP and UDP port 1935 to create conenctions with Flash based clients which locate your current position in the world. We will have to block these:

On Mac OS

Fireup terminal and enter these commands:

sudo ipfw add 0 deny tcp from any to any 1935
sudo ipfw add 0 deny udp from any to any 1935

On Linux

Install iptables and use these comamnds:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp –dport 1935 -j DROP
iptables -A INPUT -p udp –dport 1935 -j DROP

On Windows

Goto your network interface’s properties and enable Firewall (if not already) and add a new rule to block the specified ports.

Alternatively, you can use the guide here.

In general this method is succesful with any kind of websites that impose Restrictions for US only. However, undo these changes when visiting other flash based sites since it can block most flash videos.

via Reddit

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Tethering your iPhone on iOS4 gets super simple. With MyWi 4, you can share your 3G Internet connection with PC, Mac without hassles.

MyWi 4 for iPhone comes with many new features for Tethering including faster performance, lets you adjust the transmitted power, which is an ideal scenario for lowering battery consumption while it acts as a Wifi Hotpot. Ata time, multiple multiple laptops, mobile devices and even other iPhones, iPAd can connect  to share your iPhone’s internet connection.

MyWi lets you add WEP Security, and alternatively enable USB Tethering too. In addition you can check your data usage at all times.

MyWi Feature Summary:

• Faster performance
• Lower battery consumption using dynamic power management — Adjust the transmit power (Between 30% and 100%)
• Battery consumption meter
• IP Management: See who is connected to your hotspot (IP addresses), Choose from a list of subnets to dish out over DHCP
• USB Bridge mode. (Connect your laptop over USB to the phones 3G or WiFi connection!)

My favorite feature is the battery consumption and the battery meter. Choose the status bar icon over the annoying blue bars and watch in real time your battery drain level. Lower the transmit power to conserve battery. Plug your phone in to power during those large downloads or extended use periods and see confirmation that your battery charge is on the rise.

Where to Try & Buy MyWi

Your iPhone should be jailbroken on iOS4. You can  download MyWi 4 from the Cydia that offers 10 days Trial and if you like it, you can get it for $19.99. Existing owners will have to pay $9.99 for upgrades.

The unlocker community in U.S. as well as gadget freeks worldwide are questioning if its possible to use Standard SIM with iPhone 4 or even with iPad? To be honest, nothing has changed from SIM to Micro SIM except for truncating the redundant area, which makes it possible to use your standard SIM in place of MicroSim with some basic tricks of the scissor.

As it turns out traditional SIMs measure 15 x 25mm and have that angled corner. The new micro-SIM is officially 12 x 15mm. That’s effectively the size of just the normal SIM contact area. Apple was just wanting to be clever or it just wanted everyone to be forced to buy new SIMs, either way it’s a touch annoying, but with our mighty scissors we can cut them down to size and so can you.

PDF guide

Video Turotial: How To Make Micro SIM for iPhone 4, iPad from SIM

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Google Book Search

Google had been scanning and converting images to text using OCR (optical character recognition). They have been able to build a large dataabase of books that are now fully searchable on the web. However, Google limits the usage of these books to read-only pages and cannot be downloaded for offline use. Only few books are available with full preview based on agreements with publishers, but there is a way out.

Following are different tools using which you can download any Google book as PDF.

Method 1. Google Books Downloader
Step 1. Download Google Books Downloader and unzip, run the exe

Step 2. Open the installed application and Paste the URL of the book you wish to download. Press “Check” button. This will check the book download info and all available pages will be retrieved.

Step 3. Click “Download entire book” button to download all the pages in one go. Press “Save entire book as…” button. All downloaded pages will be saved in PDF format.

Method 2. Downloading Google Books with Leechvideo

Visit leechvideo and copy paste the URL of the book you searched from Google and hit ‘Grab’ button. Click right mouse button on the links and save it manually one by one. You can use Orbit for batch downloading.

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Linux/Unix has inbuilt feature of creating symlinks using “ln” command. On older Windows versions, there is no inbuilt utility that does that. However, on Windows Vista, Windows 7 you can use a command line utility called “mklink”. But not everyone likes the command line that’s why there is a GUI-based tool for this:  Symlinker.

There are several Use cases for employing Hard symlinks. e.g. when you are running out of diskspace on your c:\ drive and certain programs still force you to install new software in c:\ drive (most microsoft, Google products do that) you can create a directory symlink and point it to another drive, save the buck. Another reason would be to move the caches, libraries (media player, iTunes songs lib), indexes (picasa photocache, search indexes, google desktop indexes) which take a large amount of disk space on your C:\drive.

There could be n number of other reasons, and this tool always comes handy.

Download Symlinker

To use this properly, here is some background on types of SymLinks:

Soft Link
A soft link is essentially a shortcut to a file or folder –it won’t pretend its part of the filesystem. You can still directly reference or open a file with the symlinked path, and it mostly works.

Hard Link
A hard link directly points to the file, and acts to the operating system as if it is the file itself. You’ll want to use this option the majority of the time if you are trying to fake an application’s directory just like the case described earlier.

Using Symlinks for a Network Share

What you need:

1. Bluetooth dongle (Integrated BT might not work, try your luck)
2. Right Bluetooth stack (BlueSolelil or WIDCOMM or Toshiba).
3. Software to control WiiMote (GlovePie on Windows or WMGUI and CWIID on Ubuntu, DarwinRemote on MAC)

4. Last but not the Least – Wii Remote (WiiMote). (You can buy it separately from eBay as well around $20.)

Instructions:

Step 1. Make sure you have Bluetooth plugged in and proper Bluetooth stack installed.

First, you need to get your wiimote into discovery mode. You do this by pressing the 1 and 2 buttons. The blue lights at the bottom of the wiimote should be flashing. You may have to keep pressing these buttons until the wiimote connects with your PC.

Now Turn ON Bluetooth and try to discover for devices. You should be able to detect a device named “Nintendo RVL-CNT-01“. Keep holding down the buttons until pairing is complete. If you let up, the Wiimote will time out and turn off. If it does this before pairing is complete, pairing will fail.

Step 2. If you have a compatible Bluetooth stack, it will be detected directly as a HID device and displayed in device manager. I used IVT BlueSolelil as shown in screenshot.

Now you need to install the software to actually make WiiMote usable.

For Windows,  GlovePie, Extract the contents of the zip into a new folder and run GlovePIE.

Now, go to File and Open and navigate to the WiimoteScripts (included in the zip), look for NESController.pie. Click Run and your wiimote should be able to control NES Emulators! I tested it with the default settings in VirtuaNES and it worked great!

GlovePIE comes with may more scripts for you to try out, so have fun with it! It’s only a matter of time before we have some games on the PC to play with the Wiimote, but in the meantime, enjoy all of the things GlovePIE already allows you to do!

On Mac, Ubuntu, it’s similar. You have to run the application  and load a profile or configure yourself. Else, Google for any game profiles you are looking for.

On Mac with DarwinRemote running, Once paired, DarwiinRemote will display a graph showing the forward, up and down, and left to right sensors on your remote. You can let go of the (1) and (2) buttons now.

Once you’re done playing with that, press the (1) button on your Wii Remote once to toggle the motion sensor mouse feature. Tilt the remote to move you mouse up, down, left and right. To move it left and right, turn the remote instead of moving it. Press the (2) button to toggle the IR sensor mouse feature. Please note that this only works if you have a Mac that supports the original Apple Remote. Now you can literally point and click on the things on your screen.

On Ubuntu,

Follow this guide.

More..

There are few more softwares that can replace GlovePIE on Windows. Like WiinRemote, BlueTunes. Check them out, they are also pretty cool. You can control iTunes, Winamp, Napster, Windows Media Player, VLC, Quintessential Player, Media Player Classic, Foobar2000, Zune, etc with them.

After 2 months of experiments, fighting in the dark, and with help from black Trinitron, the work is done and I think its time to reveal it.

Who doesn’t love Open Source? And when a Open source product is better than a paid application, we adore it. So is the case with Virtualbox. Virtualbox 3.1 is an amazing platform for Virtualization, It’s not only free, but also much faster than VMware in Disk I/O, Network I/O, RAM optimization, CPU Usage,  Hypervisor level operations. Hats off to Sun-Oracle.

Note: This is a Retail installation guide, hence little more tricky. If you don’t mind an osx86 distro inside virtualbox and want ease of installation, tryout Install Mac OS X Hackintosh in VirtualBox [Snow Leopard] instead.

Before you begin, make sure you have enough CPU, RAM, Disk resources to share for the virtual machine.

Hardware Requirements:

• Processor: Any Intel Processor with VT-x (Virtualization Technology) or AMD-V. (Almost all Intel processors starting from Core 2 Duo, Quad, etc. support it) Ask us, if you still have a doubt: @geeknizer.
• RAM: Anything above 1 GB, Recommended 2GB or higher
• Disk space: 10GB (minimum)

Software Requirements:

• Snow Leopard Retail Disc (or ISO). We recommend you buy Original, don’t pirate!
• A OSx86 Leopard Distro – Any OS X 10.5.x iDeneb, iAtkos, etc. (I had bad time with Kalyway) iDeneb v1.3 (10.5.5) worked great for me. (and iAtkos 10.5.7 as reported by a commenter)
• Virtualbox 3.1.2 (Download)
• Bit of Patience

Brief: We will be installing Osx86 Leopard then upgrading to Snow Leopard Retail, that is 100% upgradeable to 10.6.2 and Works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7. Alternatively, You can install Snow Leopard directly via an OSx86 Distro like SnowOSX (but that won’t be upgradeable, unless you use SnowOSX v3.6 which is already 10.6.2. But the upcoming 10.6.3 update won’t be possible). So let’s go the usual way (Leopard then Snow Leopard Retail), though it’s upto you to choose.

Let’s Get started:

Phase I: Install Leopard on Virtualbox

Step 1. Create a new Virtual Machine with name “Leopard”:

• System Type: BSD, FreeBSD
• Create Disk (10 GB will suffice) with name “Leofx”
• System > Motherboard > Enable IO APIC
• (optional) Processor 2 or 4 (Dual Core, Quad core)
• Acceleration > Enable VT-x/AMD-V
• Storage > IDE Controller – ICH6
• Attach New CD drive > select image (OSx86 Leopard)
• Hit Ok

Step 2. Open Virtual machine xml.

Windows 7: C:\Users\fx<Your User>\.VirtualBox\Machines\Snow\Snow.xml

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\fx<YourUser>\.VirtualBox\Machines\Snow\Snow.xml

Add string to the section <ExtraData> for the XML:

<ExtraDataItem name="VBoxInternal2/SupportExtHwProfile" value="on"/>

Step 3. Switch on Virtual Machine and install Leopard distro as-usual. (You can check Install Leopard on PC guide, if you are new to OSx86).

Alright, Leopard setup would succeed and  is up and running after reboot.(Make sure you change boot priority to “Leo” Hard disk in VM settings).

Stuck somewhere? Get in touch @geeknizer on Twitter.

For installing Snow Leopard, proceed to Phase II

Phase II. Installing Snow Leopard

Step 1. Close VirtualBox and patch it with files from here (32 bit) and here (64 bit)

Update: I heard Virtualbox 3.1.4 Beta works out of the box, without patching. I haven’t tried that though.

Step 2. Attach the following Three disks to the virtual machine under “Storage” tab:

• Attach A new Disk (10 GB minimum) with name “Snow”.
• DVD drive, if you plan to use Snow Leopard Retail disk OR The Retail image. (use PowerISO to convert DMG to ISO).
• Download and attach this Addon Util image[iso]. (contains few Kexts, utils).

Step 3. Boot Leopard and Launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilties ) and Format the new “Snow” with “Mac OS Journaled”

Step 4. From the addon image “MacUtils”, Run “unHideIt” and then browse to /System/Installation/Packages( inside Retail disc) and run OSInstall.mpkg

Step 5. Select “Snow” disk and customize install to remove unnecessary packages (languages, printers) and Install. Installation should finish without any problems.

Step 6. Install Chameleon from the “MacUtils” on to “Snow” drive. [How to Install Chameleon]

Beyond this point, all changes are made to /Volumes/Snow

Step 7. Let’s setup some drivers:

• Remove all stuff from /Extra/Extensions
• Copy “Mac Utils”/Mac/Extra/Extensions to Extra/Extensions
• Copy “Mac Utils”/Mac/System/Library/Extensions to System/Library/Extensions
• Navigate to System/Library/Extensions and delete “AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext”

Step 8. Fix permissions by using Terminal (from Applications > Utilities):

su
cd /Volumes/Snow/System/Library
chown -R root:wheel Extensions/
cd /Volumes/Snow/Extra
chown -R root:wheel Extensions/
kextcache -a x86_64 -K /Volumes/Snow/mach_kernel -m /Volumes/Snow/System/Library/Extensions.mkext /Volumes/Snow/System/Library/Extensions
kextcache -a x86_64 -K /Volumes/Snow/mach_kernel -m /Volumes/Snow/Extra/Extensions.mkext /Volumes/Snow/Extra/Extensions

Nice! Hold down your patience we are almost done.

Now, Shutdown Leopard and move on to Final Phase

Phase III: Creating Snow Leopard machine

Step 1. Alright, Let’s create a new Virtual Machine, name it “Snowfx” or whatever you wish to. Create it exactly as we did in Phase I : Step 1. Only additional step is t configure Networking:

• Network > Adapter 1 > Attached to “Bridged Adapter”
• Advanced > Adapter Type > Select “Intel PRO/1000 MT server”

And add the following to Snow Machine XML:

<ExtraDataItem name="VBoxInternal/Devices/e1000f/0/Trusted" value="integer:1"/>
<ExtraDataItem name="VBoxInternal/PDM/Devices/PcExt/Path" value="VBoxDD3"/>

Step 2. Run the Virtual Machine and you will land into desktop with everything (including internet) working.

Note: If your mouse doesn’t work use this Kext. For me it worked as-is.

Go ahead and update to 10.6.2. And when the upcoming 10.6.3 is released, you will be able to upgrade without issues.

There you are, running the latest Snow Leopard, sweet! Enjoy the speed and cost benefits VirtualBox has to offer, Praise the Sun and love Open Source

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You need a parabolic dish surrounding your USB 3G dongle, 3G modem or a 3G phone (iPhone included) when at home or outside. To make it simpler, a kitchen strainer and aluminum foil can also do the job pretty well in providing a significant signal boost.

Watch the Evidence/HowTo do it in the Video:

So next time you face issues with that dirty service provider, you have nothing to complain with after using this trick. But excessive exposure to RF (including 3G,  WiFi) can have health affects. Take proper precautions.

Ubuntu and other Linux distros give us multiple Virtual desktops by default. To add to it, there are apps available that leverage it adds some fancy graphics to it. The best such utility is Compiz/Fusion.

Here’s a Preview of what you would get:

But the possibilities are endless, You can play around once you are done. Okay, let’s go over it step by Step for Ubuntu 9.1 and others.

Pre-requisites: Make sure you have your Display/Graphics drivers installed: Nvidia, ATI or Intel. If you are clueless, contact me on Twitter, I`ll help you out.

Step 1. Enable Full Graphics:

Go to System → Preferences → Appearance, click the “Visual Effects” tab, and select “Extra” and “Close.” Then drag any window somewhere on the desktop. If the window edges are “squiggly” then graphics acceleration is working.
Step 2. Installation:

Next thing is to get the Compiz Fusion installed on your Ubuntu.  To do this, open Synaptic Package Manager (System → Administrative menu → Snaptics) . Using the “Quick search” field, enter “compizconfig”

You should see “compizconfig-settings-manager.” If it’s listed under the “Installed Version” column as already installed, you’re good to go and can skip down to the next step.

However, if you need to add it, check the box and click “Apply” in the toolbar and install it with on-screen instructions.

Alternatively you can type this on console:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Step 3. Configuring and Enabling 3D Cube

Start CompizConfig by selecting System → Preferences → CompizConfig Settings Manager.

The first step will be enabling four virtual desktops (in order to have a cube). In the left-hand menu, click on “General” and then click “General Settings” on the right. Click the “Desktop Size” tab and adjust the “Horizontal Virtual Size” slider to four. And then click “Back.”

In the left-hand menu, click “Desktop.” Then select “Desktop Cube” (this will de-select “Desktop Wall”- that’s fine) and “Rotate Cube.”

To start the 3D cube, press Ctrl + Alt + left-mouse and drag the desktop to left or right. You can also use arrow keys to toggle between desktops.

To enable wobbly windows, mark the corresponding check box under “Effects”. To make the menus wobbly as well, click on the “Wobbly Windows” button, select the “General” tab, and change “Map Effect” to “Shiver”.

Note: There’s lot more you can do in Compiz Fusion, just play around in the settings to get dazzling effects.

Need Assistance ? Contact me on Twitter Or put a comment below:

Windows 7 vs Ubuntu 9.10

Transform Ubuntu to Windows 7

Who Should buy one – Are you a movie freak? You love HD content or you are a hardcore gamer? You may be a passionate laptop guy that needs a bigger rich screen, LCD HDTVs are for you.

When buying a LCD/LED HD TV, there are few things you should look for in the Specs:

1. Contrast Ratio: Contrast ratio, by definition,  is a measure of a display system, defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest color (white) to that of the darkest color (black) that the system is capable of producing. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display, but with the various methods of measurement for a system or its part, remarkably different measured values can sometimes produce similar results.

The problem lies in the fact that most manufacturers mention the Dynamic contrast. Dynamic contrast can come out to be much higher than actual contrast. For good contrast, a value of 60,000 or above is what you should look for.

2. Screen resolution: There are large no. of TVs in the market with different resolutions. the most common names you will hear are HD Ready and FullHD. In simple words, HD ready says i can play 720p video. FullHD says I can play 1080p. Infact, FullHD is the highest you will get in the market. Knowing the fact that most TV channels and movie content from BluRay DVDs will be 1080p, go for FullHD TV sets.

3. Response time: Response time refers to the time that it takes to change the state of on an individual LCD pixel. Response times can specify the time it takes a pixel to change state from black-to-white-to-black or from one gray level to the next gray level. There is no real industry standard on how or what to report as response time, so take this number with a grain of salt (unless you know the measurement specifies of this value). Typical older LCD response times had been around 4 ms. Many of the newer LCD TVs now incorporate faster 2 ms pixels. Response times also affect motion blur and jitter. Don’t buy a TV with response time >5ms.

4. Refresh rates: It refers to the number of times per second a TV screen is updated with a new image. The typical refresh rate for US TVs has been 60 times per second (60 Hz) and for Europe and India is 50Hz. LCD TVs suffer from motion blur. One technique used to help reduce motion blur is to increase the refresh rate to 120 times per second (120 Hz) or 100 times (100Hz). Look for a TV that has TruMotion or equivalent technology running @ 100Hz or 120Hz or above.

5. Look for Features: Some TVs gives you good no. of features like plugging in your USB and playing DIVX video, audio, photos. Also, LG provides Bluetooth for 2 way streaming of the audio., etc.

6. Inputs & ouput ports: This is important consideration before you decide upon a LCD. If you want to hookup your LCD HDTV with home audio and video sources/outputs you need to consider them. Here is what you should look for:

- Multiple HDMI ports (3 preferred)

- RGB (also called VGA port, used to conenct to PC)

- Audio video ports

- Component ports

7. Power saving/consumption: Most LCDs in market are NOT energy efficient, as we move to a more greener world, we need gadgets which are more energy efficient. Look for a panel which consumes peak power not more than  200Watts. some of the decent nes consume 150watts during normal usage.

Some of the good brands even have power saving technicques embedded like auto dimming and switching off when not being used actively just like your notebook LCD. These were some of the things you should look.

Now Here is the list what you should NOT look for in LCD TV:

1. Screen Brightness & Illuminance: When you visit a showroom, you will often see people choosing the display which the most vibrant. Stop right there. Its not about illuminance and brightness of the display, rather its about the crispness and the detail of the picture you get on the screen. Look for the panel which displays colors naturally rather then saturating them. Try to adjust screen contrast/brightness to bring them down to a level that you will use in your daily life. And then compare the detail and clarity.

2. Audio: You must be wandering I’m talkin about LCD TV for home entertainment and i didnt even mention about Audio? That’s true. you don’t need to consider this. Don’t be surprised but when you are buying a LCD TV, dont look for TV which has better audio. Most LHDTVs that i see in market are labelled 10 +10 Watts RMS., which is sufficient for them. The reason being, you can always extend the audio to the levels you expect by adding good home audio solutions. But if you sacrifice of image quality once, You are stuck!

3. Contrast ratio: Contrast ratio is one point which you should look for and Not look for. Sounds confusing? Earlier, I explained why contrast ratio can be a misnomer for choosing “better quality” of picture. The rule of the game is that “Trust your eyes” rather than the quoted ratio by the manufacturer. Play some good vibrant FullHD content on the displays and try to figure out the difference between the contrasts. Figure out which screen has better darkness for showing Black color. which pscreen shows better red, which screen has better vibrance, etc.

All in all, if you follow these guidelines, I’m sure you will come home with a decent  LCD HDTV! Happy shopping

What is Chrome OS – Everything you need to know.

Now the curiosity rises to try the OS yourself. As Google announced, it needs special hardware which will be available at end of next year. For the meantime, you can Virtualize the OS and run it under VMware or Virtualbox.

You can either download the source (Download) and trying building it (if you are an developer) else download binaries directly and run them under VMWare/Virtualbox.

Step 1. Download The Image from this torrent or this one. You can also try out the build that GDGT has uploaded. The former way needs registration.

Step 2. Download VMWare Player or VMWare Fusion or VirtualBox and run it.

Step 3. Unzip the downloaded image. In VMware/VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine. One of the options will be to use an “existing virtual disk.” (In VMware Fusion, this is the last option below, “use operating system disk” and “use OS disc image file.”). Make sure your VM is set to use bridged networking, rather than NAT.

Step 4. Login to Chrome OS with username and password which is nothing but  your Google account!

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Just like  the jailbreak community on the iPhone, there’s a group of Android developers determined to grant any Google-powered phone free access to every feature imaginable. And they’re able to accomplish this task more legitimately than underground iPhone hackers, since Android’s source code is completely open to developers.and to add to it, Android 2.0 is now Open Source, so it becomes prevalently much more easier.

However, it’s possible to Tether your Motorola Droid even today. All you need to do is follow the steps carefully.

What you’ll need:

1. USB Driver – Download or Download (Mirror)
2. Tethering Software – [PDANet] Download (Full  version costs $29, onetime)

Step 1. First, Install PDANet software on your desktop and Phone. The moment you install it on desktop, it will automatically install the USB driver for you, if it doesn’t, you can use the USB driver above to install.

Step 2. Make sure you have USB Debugging still enabled. Connect your Droid to the USB and on  phone, launch the PDANet software. Click on “Turn PdaNet On“.

Step 3. Once it is turned on, you can then go to your PC and “Connect” on the PDANet software on your taskbar. You are done, You have Tethered Droid successfully, enjoy the High speed wireless Internet.

Step 4. (Optional, only for Bluetooth) If you need Bluetooth Tethering, first thing you need to do is pair your phone with your PC via bluetooth connection.

Step 5. Once successful, create a Dial-up Networking Connection (DUN). When asked what modem to use, select the Bluetooth Modem Driver. It will ask you for a username and password, select you won’t need to use one. It will ask you to for a phone number to use to dial out. Use “123″ as the phone number.

That’s it. If you need any help/assistance or have any questions, or need more Android updates Follow us on Twitter @taranfx

Motorola Droid vs iPhone 3GS

Nexus One vs. iPhone 3GS

How to Tether Nexus One

Google Maps Navigation will be part of Android 2.0, and Android 2.0 is expected to come to most—if not all—Android handsets on the market eventually. But this hack (requires a rooted phone) makes it possible now.

Google Maps Navigation Beats All GPS

Android 2.0 Feature Review

Pre-requiste: Download here, Make sure you have CyanogenMod 4.2.3.1

Here’s How to do it:

Step 1. Unzip the downloaded file and Run Part 1.bat. When prompted to press any key, do so; the phone will reboot

Step 2. When phone is rebooted, run Part 2.bat and again as before, When prompted to press any key, the installation process is done.
Step 3. Enable GPS, if not already and then Open Maps and press OK.
Step 4. Press Menu >  Press Directions > Enter an end point > Click Go
Step 5.  Just under “Show on map”, click Navigate. When prompted to install the voice codec, do so.

And it’s there up and running for free: One of the best turn-by-turn navigation on Android

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Don’t worry we got a quick solution for you. All you need is Firefox and a plugin

Download Plugin

What’s ridiculous is just this morning there were at least two new pages requesting the addition of a “Dislike Button” (dislike button page and dislike button petition page) each of which have over 1 million fans. wow, the Demand is huge. Till Facebook implements it, you can live with Firefox addon. Here is what it will Look like:

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• Install Mac OS X Leopard OSx86 on PC Dual Boot Windows 7, Vista in 9 Easy Steps
• Install Snow Leopard on PC using Rebel EFI
• How to Install Snow Leopard on PC [Hackintosh]
• How to Install SnowOSX Universal
• How to Install Snow Leopard on VMWare
• Install Snow Leopard on VirtualBox

With all your generous support, we are now able to produce the Easiest Guide to Install Snow Leopard on PC.

Update: You can upgrade to OS X 10.6.2 without any issues.

Before We Start:

• This is “Retail method” for Installation [Most Trusted]
• You need Supported hardware.
• 8GB or Higher USB drive.
• Snow Leopard Install DVD ($29 upgrade disk works) or an equivalent downloaded ISO.
• Another Mac to prepare your thumb drive. You can also do this over a Hackintosh PC.
• The EP45UD3P Snow Leopard install package: Download. This Automates all CommandLine work.

Step 1: Prepairing USB

First, we’re going to format usb thumb drive, later  copy the Snow Leopard DVD image to the thumb drive.

Watch the video in HD and fullscreen to get clearer look at the process.

After you restore the Snow Leopard install DVD to your thumb drive, all you’ve got to do is Run the EP45UD3P Snow Leopard.pkg file (download link above), select your thumb drive, and, let the installer will take care of all the work.

Step 2. Configuring BIOS:

You’ve got to make some small adjustments to your BIOS.

• Boot Priority: Enable USB Boot, and set USB thumb drive the highest priority for Boot.
• AHCI Mode: SATA RAID/AHCI Mode  should be set to AHCI
• ACPI Power mode: Set it to S3(STR).

If you have trouble finding these settings, refer to the images below (click to enlarge) credits to Adam Pash.

Step 3: Installation

Now comes the easy part.

Restart PC, Make sure your prepared thumb drive is plugged into your PC. :

As shown in the Video: Boot into the Snow Leopard installer, format the hard drive you want to install Snow Leopard to (go to Utilities -> Disk Utility, then click on the drive, select 1 Partition, Mac OS X Journaled, give it a name, and make sure GUID Partition Table is set in the Options. After you Apply the new partition, go back to the installer and install like normal to that drive. When you reboot after the install completes, press the arrow keys at the graphical boot menu and select the drive you just installed Snow Leopard to.

Step 4. Minor Tweaks (optional but good to have)

You should have everything working by now. But here are few additional, optional steps to enhance your Experience:

1. Get Sound Fully working:

Sound isn’t entirely working yet. You may notice that sound actually does work in some instances, but not all. All you should actually need to do is open up the Sound preference pane in System Preferences (/Applications/System Preferences), click the Output tab, and change the output device to Built-in Line output (I haven’t tested with digital out, but it should work fine in theory).

2. Boot into Snow Leopard without USB Thumb Drive

Right now, your Hackintosh needs USB to boot. To boot from internal harddisk,  install the custom bootloader to your hard drive. Unzip EP45UD3P Snow Leopard.pkg zip file that you downloaded initially, run it and select the hard drive you’ve installed Snow Leopard to. Once the installer completes, you’ll no longer need your thumb drive plugged in to boot into Snow Leopard.

Bingo! You installed Snow Leopard on PC by the Easiest Way!

For Fixing WiFi: Intel 3945 Wireless Driver for Snow Leopard

Tip: In case you need quick assistance, contact me on Twitter: @taranfx

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