I will be doing [...]]]> So you just got your sweet new Android phone and you are a little overwhelmed. If you are coming from Apple or Blackberry, there is a large learning curve. I hope that in this article I can brake down some of the basic things you should know about your powerful phone.

I will be doing this whole article on a new Galaxy S 2 (II) running the Samsung TouchWiz launcher (interface). Some things may look different to your phone, but the basics are there. Please comment with any questions you have.

Buttons

The following button will be found on all Android phones along with a Lock and Volume buttons. Your phone might have some extra buttons or have them in a different order but, these will be your main keys.

Back – Will always take you back one step as well as close any on screen keyboard.

Menu – Will bring up secondary options for your open page.

Home – Will always take you back to your launchers home screen.

Long Press Home - Will bring up your multitasking menu.

Search – This will bring up your Google search function. It will also bring up in app search fields.

Long Press Search – You can configure this to launch certain apps such as Voice Search.

Main Screen

This is your “Launcher” you can add app shortcuts, widgets, apps, more pages, etc… You can tailor this page to anything you would like. Most option are accessed by pressing the “menu” button and adding things to a page is easiest by long pressing an open spot.

You can always get back to this screen by pressing the “Home” button.

App Drawer

This is where all of the apps you download live. You can usually access it by an icon on your dock. You can customize the way the apps are listed, depending on what launcher you are using, by selecting the menu button.

Settings

Accessed by pressing the “menu” button > Settings on the Main Screen. Here you can adjust any setting from lock screens, contact accounts, storage, etc…

Multitasking

You can access any running app by long pressing the home button. This will also show you a list of apps that you recently used. Click on the app you would like to use.

Android Market

This is a pre-loaded app on your device. You will have to supply a Google e-mail address. You can install apps from your phone or with ease from your computer by acessing the online store at https://market.android.com/

This should get you up and running on your new Android phone. Messaging, Dialer, and Contacts should be pretty straight forward and the same as any other phone you may have used. Please check back shortly for more advanced guides such as: Advanced Apps, Voice Commands, Must Have Apps, Hacking, ETC… 

Please comment with any questions you may have or areas you would like me to go into more detail.

You just Jailbroke your iPhone/iPad running iOS 5 and you open Cydia to find thousands of apps staring you in the face. What do you install? What will work with your phone? Well, I hope I can shed some light on this for you.

I have a minimalist approach to Cydia because you can create some issues by doing [...]]]>

You just Jailbroke your iPhone/iPad running iOS 5 and you open Cydia to find thousands of apps staring you in the face. What do you install? What will work with your phone? Well, I hope I can shed some light on this for you.

I have a minimalist approach to Cydia because you can create some issues by doing too much. The following collection of apps I have tested myself and have not had any conflicts. Most of these apps are to help you with day to day tasks and overall improve your iOS experience. 

SBSettings

(Free, Default repos)

This is an absolute must have for any iDevice. SBSettings offers an easy way to access most iPhone Settings from any app without going through the hassle of exiting the app and launching the Settings app or digging through setting menus.

This tweak has only gotten better with iOS 5 now that you can integrate it with your Notification Center. To enable this go to Settings > Notifications > SBSettings > Notification Center.

FakeClockUp 

(Free, Add repo repo.insanelyi.com)

This is another absolute must have for any iDevice, especially if you are using an iPad. This tweak will make your iOS experience seem snappier without overclocking. The tweak will not change any hardware settings, but rather alters the UI animation speeds so that transitions and other animations will occur quicker. You have multiple options for speeds, but I prefer the standard x2.5. You can adjust this under  Settings > FakeUpClock

ManualCorrect Pro

($0.99, Default repos)

This is the last absolute must have for any iDevice. With this you can take 100% control of your autocorrect from what, how, and when it does it. I mainly use this app for the custom dictionary. You can simply Settings > ManualCorrect > Add Dictionary Item.. and never send an awkward text message again.

Remove Background + SBSettings Toggle

(Free, Default repos)

I hate opening my task switcher and seeing a list of unused apps. Remove Background easily and in one step removes all apps from the task switcher. This will also kill all app processes too. I added Remove Background SBSettings Toggle so I can easily access this from the SBSettings drop down in Notification Center. If you do not have SBSettings installed, WeeKillBackground is a great, simple, free alternative.

BiteSMS

(Free, Default repos)

This is simply the best texting client for any iDevice.  BiteSMS has more features and it is much quicker to compose or reply to messages. Some of the extra features are Quick Reply, Quick Compose, Scheduled Messages, Auto-Forward, Auto-Retry, Passcode Lock, Privacy, Delivery Reports, Contact Pics, Easy Pick Smileys, Templates, Signatures… Use biteSMS as a complete souped-up replacement to the built-in Messages application on iPhone and iPod devices.

MyWi

($19.99, Default repos)

Must have internet tethering app. Create an iPhone WiFi HotSpot or iPad WiFi HotSpot with a press of a finger. You can connect your laptop or other mobile device to your iPhone/iPad easily to use your iPhone/iPad’s data connection. MyWi 5.0 will work with all jailbroken iPhones and iPad on iOS5.

WinterBoard

(Free, Default repos)

This is a very powerful theming tool used to customize and transform the look and feel of your iDevice. This application runs in the background and handles everything from basic SpringBoard themes (Wallpaper, Dock, StatusBar, & Icons) all the way up to complete themes that customize the entire system UI (Buttons, Backgrounds, & Sounds). WinterBoard also has the ability to theme individual applications which are usually referred to as App Themes.

Infinifolders

($1.99, Default repos)

Don’t get stuck with only 12 icons in your folders. Infinifolders removes that restriction and lets you add as many as you want to any folder. It also comes with a lot of other options for full customization.

Barrel

($2.99, Default repos)

This is a great tweak that adds some character to your iDevice. Barrel adds transition effects to your springboard (Icon Grid) when switching pages.  You have many to choose from under Settings > Barrel

What you will need to do this:

Step 1: Turn your [...]]]> This is a quick tutorial on how to install Plex 0.9.0 Beta on your  Jailbreaken Apple TV with firmware 4.4.4. This entire tutorial was done using Windows 7.

What you will need to do this:

• Jailbroken Apple TV 2 (4.4.4 will be used in this tutorial) How To
• Putty SSH Client (Or equivalent) Download

Step 1: Turn your Apple TV on and navigate to Settings > General > Network. Write down the numbers next to the “IP Address” field. For this demo I am going to use “192.168.0.114″

Step 2: Launch Putty.exe …You should not have to install this application.

Step 3: Enter your Apple TVs IP Address under the “Host Name (or IP address)” field and hit enter. The first time you do this it will take a longer amount of time and warn you about security. Click “Yes” on the pop-up.

Step 4: It will ask you “login as:” enter “root” to log in as the root user and hit enter.

Step 5: It will ask you for your root user password. Enter the default password of  ”alpine” and hit enter. (the password will not show as you type)

Step 6: Now you have to add new Cydia sources. Copy the text below, right click in Putty to paste it, click enter when done.

echo "deb http://www.ambertation.de ./downloads/PLEX/" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/plex.list

Step 7: Now you have update your Cydia database. Copy the text below, right click in Putty to paste it, click enter when done. It may ask you a couple of yes or no questions. Answer “y” every time.

apt-get update

Step 8: Install Plex for Apple TV 4.4.4. Copy the text below, right click in Putty to paste it, click enter when done.  It may ask you a couple of yes or no questions. Answer “y” every time.

apt-get install com.plex.client-plugin=0.0.9.0.0-312c11b0

Step 9: Apple TV will reboot and you will see a PLEX menu now.

Enjoy

What you will need: 

I have had this problem with two computers running both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

All seem to be when I am using my Samsung monitors through DVI port.

The reason is because Photo Viewer uses a color profile that is not properly calibrated. The easy fix is to switch the color profile to the [...]]]>

I have had this problem with two computers running both Windows Vista and Windows 7.

All seem to be when I am using my Samsung monitors through DVI port.

The reason is because Photo Viewer uses a color profile that is not properly calibrated. The easy fix is to switch the color profile to the standard IE color Profile…

Step 1: Go to your “Color Management”

Easiest way to find “Color Management” is the start menu search box.

Step 2: Select your monitor

Step 3: Check “Use my settings for this device”

Step 4: Click “Add” and select “sRGB IEC61966-2.1″

Step 5: Set as “Default” and close out

Your photo viewer should look normal now.

The only issue I have run into are with programs that are not optimized for [...]]]> I have been running Windows 7 RC 7100 on my MSI Wind U120 for a few weeks now.  When I started I was dual booting W7 and XP but, now I am exclusively on W7 and removed the XP partition.

The only issue I have run into are with programs that are not optimized for Windows 7 ( Such as Skype ) but, the latest batch of Win Updates have cleared that up and I expect that to continue over the next few months.

See the screenshot gallery and details after the jump…

Performance:

Intel Atom CPU N270 @ 1.6GHZ and 1GB of ram

Runs fast and stable. Much quicker then XP in general OS use.

Here is a list of programs I use regularly: WMP 12, Word 2007, Excel 2007, Fireworks CS4, IE8, Chrome 2, Filezilla, and Skype

I did disable some of the visual effects to conserve batter life.  (Check the screenshot gallery)

Battery life:

It is a little bit less but almost negligible.  With my 3-Cell batter I average 2.5-3.5 hours of use and double that with my 6-Cell.

Bottom line:

I am very happy with Windows 7 on this machine and will not go back to XP.  If you have a net book… I would recommend switching to Windows 7. I have been running smoothly on 1GB of ram for a few weeks and I do not really see a benefit in sticking with XP.

Directly after the first restart the installer hangs on “Completing Installation”

I have installed Windows 7 on all of my machines (The RC 7100 build) ranging form Netbooks to Quad-Core powerhouses with 8gigs of RAM.  Recently I ran into this issue and figured out [...]]]> I have seen the following issue posted a few times now

Directly after the first restart the installer hangs on “Completing Installation”

I have installed Windows 7 on all of my machines (The RC 7100 build) ranging form Netbooks to Quad-Core powerhouses with 8gigs of RAM.  Recently I ran into this issue and figured out what I was doing wrong after 2 failed attempts.

On the “Where do you want to install Windows” page I was just formatting the partition I wanted and clicking “Next”

THAT IS WHAT I DID WRONG!

I did the following and it was smooth sailing from there.

DO NOT just hit “Format”

“Delete” then “Allocate”

It will then create 2 partitions.

Par 1 –  Will be called “System Allocated” and only be 100mb ( This was the key )

Par 2 –  Will be your new OS volume

( You can also just leave the area “Unallocated” and click “Next” )

Where do you want to install Windows?