To enable Adobe Flash on demand in Google Chrome browser, you do not have to install any plugin like FlashBlock. Chrome has built-in support to ‘Click to Play’. Follow the steps to enable flash just on demand :-

1. Open a blank new tab
2. Type ‘about:flags’ into the address bar and hit enter
3. Scroll down to the botton and enable ‘Click to play’
4. Restart your browser
5. Now click the wrench menu > Options > Under the hood > Content setting > Plug-ins
6. Select ‘Click to play’ from the right hand side
7. Further, you can even use the Exception button to whitelist specific domains like Youtube etc.

Thanks to Mushaf for the Tip.

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Just press the ‘Escape’ / ESC key whenever you see an animated GIF on any web page – The animations will stop!

Simple.. isn’t it?!

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Another gem of an application/hack I found today. It turns your Android phone’s utility multi fold. This hack – Brut Google Maps – makes Google Maps Voice Navigation International. For some reason, Google has enabled this feature only for few selected countries in their official Maps/Navigation apps on Android.

But remember, this feature only works if you have an active Internet connection. Manufactures like Motorola has partnered with MapMyIndia to offer offline maps for India. You can even purchase the MapMyIndia navigation software for various platforms separately.

I’m very happy Brut’s hack saved me some bucks!. Let me know if this worked for you in the comments.

Download:

Google Maps with free Global Navigation
md5sum: 456b3fe71f74bb8b76a443be4075473c

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Well, It’s not really a software hack!. I have a simple trick to completely ‘unlock’ the Kindle 2 Global Wireless options even while using in India / other restricted countries.

Unlocked Kindle 2 Features:-

• Complete browsing experience

• Ability to buy any books available on Kindle Store

Here is how you ‘unlock’ the Kindle:-

1. Keep Two Amazon accounts
2. Using one purchase a $20/$50 Amazon Gift Card.
3. Then top-up one of second Amazon account using the Gift Card
4. Register you kindle to use this Amazon Account.
5. Try to buy a Free Kindle E-book.
6. During this process, Change the “1 Click Buy Settings”, put a random USA address with correct PIN Code in the shipping details. This does not matter, as nothing physical will ever be shipped!
7. Thereon you will have a complete unlimited / unlocked Kindle experience!

What it does:-
The new Amazon account will be interpreted by Amazon as that of a Kindle Owner based out of USA, but on a long trip to India!. Hence the web browsing and unlimited Kindle store buying experience are available for this person (Free of Cost).

Will it be problematic?
If ever Amazon complaints that, you are trying to download/browse from a different country than USA, get any of your friends in USA to Fax them his identity information. OR alternatively you can change the address to your Indian address. Your purchased book should remain and that should solve the problem.  I sincerely hope Amazon does not block this alternative option – as it helps genuine Amazon Kindle users and book Buyers. I personally use this method not to browse, but to buy Kindle Books not available for India.

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An iPhone Developer Program (IDP) membership (costs $99 for Individuals) is required to officially deploy your application on the iPhone – even during the development and testing. Though I have applied for the IDP membership long ago, mine is yet to be approved. Perhaps India is not a listed country for IDP.

Not having an IDP membership will not affect your iPhone development and further testing on a real iPhone. But you would still require a Jailbroken iPhone. You will have to tweak your XCode (Version 3.1.2) and individual project settings – along with the iPhone (Firmware 2.2) – to get the Applications deployed on the phone. Here are the steps. These information were collated by the results of endless queries posted on different forums and by reading various material available on the Web. All the credits are due to their respective owners :)

Common Instructions to Install :-

• Jailbreaking the iPhone requires you to follow the clear instructions given by iClarified. This includes a Video demonstration also. There is no need to Unlock your iPhone. Just Jailbreak should suffice.

• Install the iPhoneTunnel and CyberDuck applications on the Mac

• Install OpenSSH, BossPrefs and Link-Identity-Editor applications using the Cydia application on the iPhone. After installation Reboot the iPhone

• Add source in Cydia (if you have not yet done so), please remember there is a slash (/) at the end of the url Code: http://www.iphone.org.hk/apt/ . Install MobileInstallation Patch version 2.2 in Section “Tweaks”

• Connect the iPhone using the USB Cable to the Mac

• Close the iTunes.

Setting up XCode to Compile and Build the iPhone Application

• Create a Signing Identify on your Mac by following this simple guide from Apple. I suggest you name the Certificate as “iPhone Developer”

• TextEdit the /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Info.plist file to look the respective portions like:-

   1: <key>NATIVE_ARCH</key>

   2: <string>armv6</string>

   3: <key>PLIST_FILE_OUTPUT_FORMAT</key>

   4: <string>binary</string>

   5: <key>PROVISIONING_PROFILE_ALLOWED</key>

   6: <string>NO</string>

   7: <key>PROVISIONING_PROFILE_REQUIRED</key>

   8: <string>NO</string>

   9: <key>SDKROOT</key>

  10: <string>iphoneos2.2</string>

• Change your own Project Settings by taking [Menu] Project->Edit Project Settings. In the Properties List, find the Code-Signing-Identity and Select the Certificate Name(iPhone Developer) you created earlier.

• Add the following snippet on to your projects info.plist using TextEdit

   1: <key>SignerIdentity</key>

   2: <string>Apple iPhone OS Application Signing</string>

Transferring the Application Binary to the iPhone over USB

• You may duplicate the following steps using an Ad-Hoc WiFi connection too, of which I am not so fond off!. I prefer the USB.

• Start the iPhoneTunnel Application on the Mac. You should see a respective icon on the Superior Bar at the top of the screen. Click on that Icon and select [Turn Tunnel ON]

• Again click on the same icon on top and select [Tools->SFTP]. The Cyberduck should start automatically. Enter the username as ‘root’ and password as ‘alpine’ in the cyberduck login window.

• Copy the TestApp.app (Your Own App) to the /Application folder of the iPhone using Cyberduck

• Click on the iPhoneTunnel icon and select [Tools->SSH(root)]. Enter the root/alpine credentials at the command prompt.

• At this command prompt enter the following two commands:-

ldid -S /Applications/TestApp.app/TestApp

chmod +x /Applications/TestApp.app/TestApp

• Open the BossPrefs application on the iPhone and choose the “ReSpring” option. This will restart the SpringBoard application to show your application on the Home Screen.

• Enjoy Your App!

If you have a proper Code signing Signature from Apple , you can follow these great instructions to deploy on to AppStore.

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Apple conspicuously did not provide any Task Management application for the iPhone, even with the latest firmware updates. For some, the default ‘Notes’ application itself provided a simpler way to manage tasks. There was expectations of iPhone featuring a default Task Management application with the MobileMe launch. But that did not happen either. Fortunately, with the AppStore featuring plenty of native Task Management applications, the void has been filled perfectly. One specific Task Management Application which I bought was ToDo by AppiGo. Interestingly You can setup ToDo to Sync perfectly with the Microsoft Outlook too.

First download and install the ToDo app on your iPhone through AppStore. Setup synchronization with the ToodleDo Service. Download the ToodlDo Sync Application and run it along with Microsoft Outlook. Automatically all your tasks will be synced across the iPhone, Cloud and Outlook.

Getting Task Reminders on iPhone!

Presently, Apple iPhone SDK does not provide for running background notification services. Hence by default ToDo will not be able to give Tasks reminders. But there is a simple way out!. You can automatically sync the dated Outlook tasks as a Outlook Calendar Entry using TaskToCal ($19.95). Thereon You get timely reminders of your ToDo’s!

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Google Docs can be easily transformed to a Daily Journal with the following easy steps:-

1. Create a “New Document” called “Daily Journal”
2. Insert a “Comment” or press Ctrl-M
3. Make your Journal entries above the Comment.
4. Do steps 2 & 3 – Everyday!

Since Google Docs can make use of Google Gears offline storage capabilities, you can even make journal entries without an Internet connection. All your entries will be saved and synced once you go online next time. Simple yet effective!

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[Update: Here is a LifeHacker commentary on this article ]

The need

Here is a small tutorial on How you can safely backup your Outlook data on to a USB Drive. Most of us who work in corporate environment obviously have our years of communications and documents captured in .PST files. Microsoft Outlook’s PST file format is proprietary but serves as a portable archival data format. You can make backups of your old .PST files by simply dragging and dropping on to the target media. Or use a professional backup tool like SyncBackSE or Microsoft Personal folders backup .

The Issues

You cannot backup your .PST file while it is opened by Outlook. Most of the time this is the case as Outlook locks the respective .PST file. Your backup utilities will fail to backup your current Live Outlook data as long as Outlook is kept opened. This also does not allow us to further automatically schedule .PST backup too.

The Solution

The simplest solution is to instruct Outlook to simultaneously keep a copy of the incoming emails in a separate .PST file created in the external storage device. Even though you can password protect your .PST files , for additional security , you are better off creating a Secure & Encrypted Drive inside your external storage device.

Tools Required

TrueCrypt is my choice for a platform independent data security software. It is free, Open Source and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux with excellent speed and robustness. It has some of the performing yet strong encryption algorithm support. The user interface is very convenient too. It has the capability to make an entire drive encrypted or keep a huge encrypted file on any drive to be further treated as a virtual drive. I follow the later approach.

How-To

1) Create an encrypted volume within your USB Drive / External storage Device

2. Goto Volume->Save currently mounted volume as favourite menu item.

3. Goto Settings->Preferences->Check the [Start TrueCrypt] and [Mount Favourite Volume] items.

4. Create a .PST inside this volume using the Mail-Setup tools within Windows Control Panel.

5. Open this additional .PST file too in Outlook

6. Set an Outlook Rule to make a copy of the incoming email to this .PST file

Outlook – Tools->Rules and Alerts->New Rule->Rules Wizard->Start from a Blank Rule->Check Messages when they arrive->Check [On this Machine Only] , [Through the specified account = Select Exchange Server] -> Next -> Move a copy to the specified Folder( and select our new PST file’s folder).

Also make sure that this rule is the top of the other rules in the list.

7. Set an Outlook Rule to make a copy of the Outgoing email to this .PST file

Outlook – Tools->Rules and Alerts->New Rule->Rules Wizard->Start from a Blank Rule->Check Messages after it is sent->Check [On this Machine Only] , [Through the specified account = Select Exchange Server] -> Next -> Move a copy to the specified Folder( and select our new PST file’s folder).

Success :) Now you have all your incoming and outgoing emails backed up automatically and securely on the USB media. You have this backup copy of your email without you making any conscious effort.

Disadvantage

The only disadvantage with this method is that you will have to keep your USB drive connected all the time while you are working with Outlook. I think that is a reasonable tradeoff between convenience and security.

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Thought it would be interesting to see a cost comparison of the software between Mac and Windows. The fact is that Windows is having more ‘functional’ freeware for my needs – yet for the purpose of comparison I’ve picked some commercial alternatives. Let me know what you think!

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gDocsUploader is a nice little OS X application for easy bulk upload of office documents to Google Docs. gDocsUploader shines with some cool drag and drop options. I have the program icon setup on the Dock for easier access.

Windows Users have DocSyncer which supports syncing and mobile access. A Mac OS X version of DocSyncer is expected soon too.

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