Apple says that its app store has hit the 10 billion downloads mark. The milestone, announced on Apple Inc.’s website Saturday, arrives as the company’s hugely popular smart phone is likely to become even more popular with the addition next month of Verizon Wireless as a carrier.

Apple said it would give the 10 billionth person to download an app a $10,000 gift card to its iTunes store, which now offers movies and TV shows along with digital music files. And the winner is Gail Davis of Orpington, Kent, in the U.K. She downloaded a free game app called Paper Glider.

The company has sold tens of millions of iPhones since the device launched in 2007 and continues to expand the use of apps with its iPad tablet computer. Its app store has drawn an army of software developers hoping to piggyback on the company’s success. The store now boasts more than 350,000 different programs for the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

via Yahoo! News

FriendZoo by Aspyr is a nice application that allows you to map your contacts as animals of a virtual zoo, with lots of atmosphere appropriate for each of them.

With this app you can convert each of their contacts in a different animal, choosing from 18 different species placed in 5 unique scenery of nature, and assigning each to the animal features more appropriate.

You can call, send text messages and emails to each "animal contact", and not only: the more we interact with someone, the more relevant the animal appears happy and satisfied inside the zoo.
The application does not offer any particular option to make it indispensable in any case it is a nice software. For those who want to try it, here’s the direct link respectively Store to download FriendZoo, at a cost of 2.39 euros.

FriendZoo

1. Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Add Account.
5. Tap Other. (Note: If you’re running software update 1.1.3, tapping the ‘Gmail’ icon will automatically configure IMAP. However, archiving and deleting messages will work differently. If you want your Gmail IMAP actions to operate as designed, please continue on to Step 6. Google Apps users, please also continue to Step 6).

   

6. Make sure that:
   • The IMAP tab is highlighted
   • Host Name is imap.gmail.com
   • User Name is your full Gmail address, including ‘@gmail.com.’ Google Apps users, enter your full address in the format ‘username@your_domain.com’

     

   • For Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), Host Name is smtp.gmail.com

     

7. Tap Save.
8. Check our recommended client settings, and adjust your client’s settings as needed.

And you’re done. You can verify your Advanced settings by tapping Settings > [your Gmail IMAP Account] > Advanced.

Incoming Settings
Use SSL: ON
Authentication: password
Server Port: 993

Outgoing Settings
Use SSL: ON
Authentication: Password
Server Port: 587

Via Google Gmail How to

Here is what The register claims:

It is an article of faith, of course, that whatever Steve Jobs does is right. And so, since the iPhone currently has no keyboard on it, it must logically follow that it is wrong to have a keyboard, and therefore that Steve Jobs will never produce a version that does have a keyboard.

Fervent fans can therefore see no reason to change the iPhone from its current "type on the touch screen, or not at all" design. As one of the more zealous remarked when the suggestion was even mentioned: "The only people who think it needs a keyboard are people who have never used it."

Full article link

Warning: Recent Apple Software updates may ‘brick’ your iPhone if you carry jailbreak it or unlock the handset from Apple’s preferred network provider.

The Apple iPhone was designed to be a closed system with Apple preventing any third-party applications, games or utilities being added to it.

However because the operating system is based on Unix industrious programmers have already found various methods of bypassing Apple’s ‘barriers’ and allowing people to add new software to their iPhones.

At first this meant a lot of rather scary programming processes with names like ‘jailbreak’ which were enough to have the typical iPhone user running for the hills while cradling their iPod protectively.

But in recent weeks many of these indimidating command line routines have matured into simple, easy-to-install programs that safely open your iPhone to new features such as IM, RSS readers, games and more.

One of the best of these is called AppTapp and it’s now available for both Windows and Mac computers – although inevitably it’s easier to install on Macs.

Windows Instructions

1. Download iBrickr to your PC
2. Connect your iPhone to your PC
3. Run iBrickr and follow the onscreen instructions
4. Once iBrickr is up and running click on the Applications link then click the Browse Applications button
5. Scroll through the list of applications until you come to Installer. Install this onto your iPhone. You should now see an Installer icon on your iPhone’s main menu

Mac Instructions

1. Download AppTapp to your computer
2. Run AppTap and follow the onscreen instructions
3. When it asks for you iPhone’s firmware version check by going to the main menu, click on Settings then General and then About. Check the number next to Version – in this case it’s 1.0.2 Choose your version and click Continue
4. The application will install and the iPhone will restart. You should now see an Installer icon on your iPhone’s main menu

Using Installer

Installer is a clever application because its uses your iPhone’s networking capabilities – via EDGE or WiFi – to access a central database of software programs and updates.

Click on the Installer icon on the main menu and it will automatically download links to all the latest software on its servers – it may even offer to update the Installer application itself. If it does click on Update and then click on the iPhone’s Home button

Click on the Installer icon again. You should see a long list of programs subdivided by categories such as Featured, Development, Games, Multimedia, Network, Ringtones, System, Toys, Tweaks, Utilities and Wallpaper

The four buttons at the top of the Installer screen let you Install, Update and Uninstall programs – while the Sources button lists the providers of the programs you have already installed on your iPhone.

Installing a program

1. Click on the Install button
2. Click on the program you want to install. You will see a screen showing you information about the software including its version number and size.
3. Click on the Install button and then Yes to install the program
4. The software will be downloaded and copied onto the iPhone
5. When the transfer has finished click on the Home button
6. Your iPhone will then lock itself. Unlock the iPhone and you should see the icon of the program you installed in the main menu. Click on the icon to launch the program as usual

Uninstalling a program

1. Go to the main menu and click on Installer
2. Click on the Uninstall button
3. Click on the program you want to uninstall
4. Click on the Uninstall button to remove the program and click Yes to confirm. The program will be uninstalled and you will go back to a list of third-party programs that remain on your iPhone

Updating a program

Note: when you launch Installer it should automatically list any programs that have updates available – the icon will have a numeral on it in the same way as the Mail icon shows unread emails.

1. Go to the main menu and click on Installer
2. Click on the Update button
3. A list of programs that have available updates will appear. Click on the program you want to update
4. Click on the Update button to update the program and click Yes to confirm. The program will be updated and you will go back to the list of third-party programs that have available updates

1) Adium
One of the best IM clients ever made. It supports nearly every client ever made, only skype isn’t supported. Video and voice chat are in development. It is one of the best applications I have ever tried. For a blogger it is great as you can connect on any protocol and be chatting in minutes.
2) Backdrop
A lot of the time you will be taking pictures of windows within your OS, especially for tutorials or designers. The problem is, not every one wants to see your wallpaper or your icons. As well as this I use my desktop for storing some personal information. Backdrop provides you a very simple way to hide your desktop through the use of a solid background or a chosen picture of you choice. It hides everything behind the current active application. A great app.

Read More..

One day a friend of mine on the team printed off a couple dozen screenshots of Leopard, showing off various tasks the user can do in OS X, and hung them on one of our hallways. Across from it are pictures of the same tasks in that incredibly well-kept secret of a project that we’re working on. There are post-it notes and markers next to each wall where passersby leave comments / questions.

I wonder if any hallways in Cupertino have something like that?

Read More at applegazette.com

Paparazzi! is a small utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of webpages.

It’s written in Objective-C using the Cocoa API and the WebKit framework.

It was inspired by webkit2png which is a commandline tool written by Paul Hammond in pyObjC, so all intellectual credit for the basic functionality goes to him.

Paparazzi! requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later. The current version is 0.4.3.

{Download | Paparazzi}

By default, iPhone doesn’t require you to enter a passcode to unlock it but You can add an extra layer of security to your iPhone by using the Passcode Lock feature.

How to set a Passcode?

Click the Home button to bring up the main menu

Click on Settings

In the Settings screen click on General

In the General screen click on Passcode Lock

This will open the Set Passcode screen. Enter a memorable 4-figure code and re-enter it when prompted.

You will now be at the Passcode Lock settings screen. You can change when you are prompted to enter the Passcode. The default setting – Immediately – means you will be asked to enter it as soon as your start using the iPhone. But you can change the setting so that the prompt appears after a certain period of use.

How to reset your iPhone Passcode?

If you have forgotten your iPhone’s Passcode you will need to restore your phone via iTunes.

But first you have to put your phone into the restore mode which is a slightly fiddly process.

Plug your iPhone into your PC or Mac with the USB cable

Press and hold the power button at the top and then slide to power off the iPhone

Press the power button to power the iPhone on and keep it held while simultaneously pressing the home button

After a few seconds a yellow alert triangle will appear and the iPhone will say it is iPhone Restore Mode.

Open up iTunes and click on the Summary tab

Click on Restore to restore your iPhone. This will reset all your iPhone’s setting to the factory defaults, including the Passcode. You should then follow the steps above to activate the Passcode with a memorable number

Amajor downside with online Office programs (like Google Docs) is that they require an Internet connection – that means if you are on an airplane, a cab or some remote village that has no Internet, you may not be able to create/ edit or print your documents, spreadsheets and presentations that are stored online.If this “always on” factor forcing you to stay away from any of these online office suites, some good news – the very impressive online word processor in Zoho Office suite is now available for both online and offline use through Google Gears.

To use Zoho Writer in offline mode, just install Google Gears and restart your web browser. Then login to your Zoho account and click the link at the top that says “Go Offline.”

Google Gears browser extension is available for both Internet Explorer and Firefox.

This will download all the recent documents from your Zoho online account to the hard drive. Now when you unplug the Internet cable and go offline, you will still be able to edit and save your documents inside the web browser just like you could do in online mode.

And the next time you connect to the Internet, all the changes made to documents locally will automatically be synchronized with the online copy so there are no discrepancies and you always have one version to work with.

The offline mode in Zoho Office will also prove useful in places where Wi-Fi is expensive like in the hotel rooms or the airport lounge – just connect to the internet, download the documents locally and then go offline to make those last-minute edits.

The offline feature is currently only available for Zoho Office but one can safely assume that the Google Docs team is also working on adding a similar feature to their product.

[via labnol.org]