MakeUseOf.com: “Jailbreak Your iOS 4.1.3 Devices With Pwnage Or Redsn0w [News]” plus 10 more |  |
- Jailbreak Your iOS 4.1.3 Devices With Pwnage Or Redsn0w [News]
- Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun]
- Cool Websites and Tools [April 5th]
- The 11 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Join MakeUseOf On Twitter!
- 4 Great Firefox Add-Ons For Mac Users
- How To Find & Participate In YouTube Contests
- Find That Rare Torrent Quickly & Easily With Omega Torrent Search
- How To Keep Your Bookmarks Synced Across Computers With Firefox 4
- 4 Ways To Set Gmail As Your Default Email In Your Default Browser
- Firefox 4 vs. Internet Explorer 9: The New Browser Showdown
| Jailbreak Your iOS 4.1.3 Devices With Pwnage Or Redsn0w [News] Posted: 06 Apr 2011 05:12 AM PDT
The Dev Team have provided both Windows and Mac OS X versions of RedSn0w and a Mac version of Pwnage Tool [Torrent link]. For the time being, Apple TV 2G users can only use Pwnage Tool to jailbreak their devices. Redsn0w is possibly one of the easiest ways to jailbreak your iOS device. For a detailed, step-by-step guide on jailbreaking, one of the best places to get tutorials no matter what you device is, head over to iClarified and select the appropriate guide for your device. Have you jailbroken your iOS device? Which method did you use? Let us know in the comments. Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| Latest Hilarious Picks [MakeUseOf Geeky Fun] Posted: 06 Apr 2011 01:42 AM PDT
If you would like to keep up with all latest Geeky Fun additions, please subscribe to the Geeky Fun feed here. You can also subscribe and get the latest additions via email.
Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already!
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| Cool Websites and Tools [April 5th] Posted: 05 Apr 2011 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| The 11 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 05 Apr 2011 06:31 PM PDT
In our weekly contest the Best Answer of the Week is rewarded with $50 and two runners-up win $30 and $20, respectively. Every comment automatically enters the contest, however, we need to be able to contact you and only skillful answers will win. Please help us out with these questions:
For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
 More articles about: answers, Q&A websites, tech support, troubleshoot
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| Posted: 05 Apr 2011 04:31 PM PDT
You’ll be notified everytime there is a new post on the MakeUseOf Blog, a web app review on the MakeUseOf Directory or something new on Geeky Fun. Plus, we would love it if you would re-tweet the posts and discuss them, so more people get to know about us and join our community. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter Now Thank you! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| 4 Great Firefox Add-Ons For Mac Users Posted: 05 Apr 2011 02:31 PM PDT
Some Firefox add-ons for Mac lovers are used to link your Firefox experience to native Mac OS X functions, while others are for imitating your Mac experience when you’re stuck using a non-Mac machine. Most of these you probably wouldn’t think to look for unless you realised they existed, so we’re sharing them with you today. 1. Mac OS X Dictionary LookupYou may already know that it’s possible to highlight a word in any native Mac application and right-click to look the word up in the Mac Dictionary. You may have also noticed that Firefox doesn’t do this. But not to worry, there’s a number of great extensions that will let you have a right-click dictionary look-up from Firefox.
Why would you want this? Well, if you’ve tricked out your Mac dictionary.app to use Wikipedia and all of your favourite languages, it can be extremely useful to have easy access to those definitions directly from Firefox.
Bonus Tip: If you’re playing with multiple languages on your Mac, you might also like to read this post on Mac shortcuts for accents, this post on Mac language management and use this unofficial Google Translate Firefox add-on. 2. Mac Shortcuts On Windows/UnixIf you love your Mac but occasionally get stuck using a different OS (like perhaps at work), you can use this Mac Shortcuts add-on to bring to life a few of your favourite shortcuts. For instance, CMD+Q for Quit and CMD+, for Preferences. Obviously, the CMD button will change to CTRL and it only works within Firefox, but don’t let that stop you giving it a go.
3. Context Menu Keys For MacHere’s a little add-on which reveals the access key for your right-click context menu items. You can see the access key revealed in parentheses () in the screenshot.
Why would you use this? Well, it could be handy for access on occasion. Also, if you were to create an iMacro or do some GUI Applescripting involving Firefox, you could invoke CTRL-Click to access the context menu, followed by the access key from the context menu. 4. PDF Plug-in For FirefoxDoes it annoy you when Preview opens your PDFs while browsing? If it does, try the PDF plug-in for Firefox on Mac. This nifty extension makes sure your PDFs open from within Firefox. This extension officially makes PDFs less annoying for Mac users.
More Firefox Add-onsIf you need more to read, MakeUseOf has many more lists of excellent Firefox plug-ins you’ll probably like:
What are your favourite Firefox add-ons for Mac users? Let us know in the comments! Image Source: ShutterStock Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| How To Find & Participate In YouTube Contests Posted: 05 Apr 2011 12:31 PM PDT
Like a lot of things on the web, contests too are viral. If they catch on, they spread like wildfire. Now, could there be a more viral medium than YouTube? So it is, that YouTube and contests come together to give participating viewers a chance to walk away with some cool prizes. How do you find the YouTube contests to play in and which ones are the coolest? The first is rather easy; the second is your pick. But here's the first step. Search For YouTube ContestsTo participate in any contest, you have to log in with your username. Although you can land on a channel's page and search for a contest announcement, the direct way would be to go to the page which lists most of the contests on YouTube. The Contests holding page lists some of the running ones and also the ones you have missed. Though, they don't seem to list all contests that are on YouTube.
For instance, YouTube is showcasing a new contest called MyYouTube. I went into it from YouTube's homepage where it was mentioned under What's New. On this particular contest, you have to sign up and subscribe to the channels of your favorite celebrities. Those who score high will receive autographed merchandise like CDs, T-Shirts, photographs, and so on from the celebrity.
This contest though seems to be open for a few selected countries like India and is a clever push to promote celebrity channels through viral social networking. The other way to sweep YouTube for ongoing contests seems to be from the search bar. Type in a keyword like "contests 2011" and then use the Search Options to filter through the results. Which Are The Cool Ones?Here's a sampling of five YouTube contests I found to be quite cool. The Innocent Mini Movies Competition
The hero is a super smoothie bottle. You have to make a follow-up to this TV ad and hope the audience finds it funny enough to vote you to the top prize. That's £5,000 ($8,000) and lots of other windfalls. Contest closes 17th April. Steal The Spotlight
Submit a music video that's less than 6 minutes showcasing a solo or a group performance. MTV will judge the videos and select the winner. Winner gets an all expenses paid trip to open a VMA weekend event plus other goodies. Submissions start from April 4th. Musical Shorts
Hyundai and YouTube partner together on this skill based contest. Create an original music video that represents the soul and spirit of "Mothership Remix", composed by modern-day classical music artist Mason Bates, composer-in-residence of YouTube Symphony Orchestra. The contest started on March 14th and will end on June 7th. Ecomagination Line Dance Contest
This contest started in February and will close on April 8th. By the time you read this, you will have just a few days left to send in your 'line dance' video. The combined goal is to help GE do its bit for clean drinking water in developing countries. You stand to gain $10,000 worth of eco-friendly appliances. Create or Else
Ogilvy's channel is not about a contest actually…it is about inspiring ideas. The channel asks for video submissions from the creative types in the world who have found solutions that can somehow benefit the larger world. As the site says, your rewards are – worldwide glory, a feeling of supreme personal satisfaction and maybe even a dose of inspiration for yourself. In the short time, I couldn't of course participate in all of them and see how they ultimately pan out. I am hoping that you find YouTube contests fun enough to let us know which are the ones you liked. Image Credit: Shutterstock Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Find That Rare Torrent Quickly & Easily With Omega Torrent Search Posted: 05 Apr 2011 11:31 AM PDT
Omega Torrent Search, or Torrent Omega, is one such way to reduce this. Before, if you were looking for a hard to find torrent file you used to have to visit every decent site you knew and search them one by one. With Torrent Omega, you save considerable time because the surfing you used to do by hand is done automatically for you using the website.
As you can see when you first head over to Torrent Omega’s website, the layout is pretty basic. You can type your query in the search box, which is the easiest way to find what you’re looking for, or you can click on the Search Cloud link to view a list of recent searches, or the Popular Torrents link to see a list of the most popular torrent queries.
When you run a search, Torrent Omega will search all of the popular torrent sites out there and display the results from each on a single page. From there you can compare, click through the link to go to a specific listing, or click the download arrow to directly download the torrent file.
There is also an advanced page where you can de-select any of the torrent engines you do not wish to search, as well as set a maximum number of results per search engine. Lastly, there is a Links page that has resources to different sites based on several categories. There’s very little there at the moment, so if you know of any interesting links that should be listed there send them some!
Another good way to search for torrents, as provided by Justin back in September, is the aptly named Torrent Search, so I invite you to check out that service as well. How Do I Download Torrent Files?Once you locate and download the types of torrent files you’re looking for, you’re going to need a way to open them so you can begin downloading the actual files listed inside of them. In other words, you’re going to need a torrent client. There are a lot of great torrent clients out there but for the sake of argument I’ll just give you my favorite one: uTorrent. I recommend uTorrent because it’s lightweight, easy to use, and overall it’s the best client I’ve seen. You can grab a copy of uTorrent here. Once you become familiar with the application, you can start doing things that are a bit more tricky, like remotely controlling uTorrent downloads from your Android. You may also be interesting in learning how to speed up torrent downloads and using RSS feeds to download torrents automatically. ConclusionAs I feel obligated to say this, I’d like to openly state that MakeUseOf does not condone the use of torrenting for illegal purposes. That is to say, we do not support the use of these websites and applications for the downloading of copyrighted works. Having said that, there are a lot of perfectly legal torrent files out there for you to enjoy, so go ahead and see what you can find. Do you have a website or application that you’re partial to when it comes to torrenting? Feel free to share it with us in the comments! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| How To Keep Your Bookmarks Synced Across Computers With Firefox 4 Posted: 05 Apr 2011 10:31 AM PDT
In order to win back the hearts of its users, the latest version of the Fox offers many improvements and new features. One of the new features is “Firefox Sync” which will help users to synchronize their bookmarks across computers. While the feature might not be useful for users with one computer, those who work with multiple computers will really appreciate this ability. Setting Up The Sync Environment
Adding Other Firefoxes To The SystemThe next step is to add other Firefoxes in other computers to your account.
If you are an Android phone user, you can also use the sync feature by installing Firefox on your phone. There’s no Firefox version available for iPhone, but iPhone users can use an app called Firefox Home that will sync and store your Firefox bookmarks. What do you think of multi-computer bookmark sync systems? Do you use them? Do you prefer Firefox’s built-in system or do you have a better alternative that you use? Share your opinions and knowledge using the comments below. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| 4 Ways To Set Gmail As Your Default Email In Your Default Browser Posted: 05 Apr 2011 09:31 AM PDT
The only way to stop mailto: links from opening in a desktop mail client is the use of third party applications (global), browser settings (Firefox), or browser extensions (Chrome). This article will show you how you can set Gmail as your default email client in Chrome, Firefox, or any other default browser. Send From Gmail (Chrome)To open mailto links that you click inside Google Chrome in a new Gmail tab, you can use the Send from Gmail extension. Send from Gmail will also add a toolbar button. Clicking the button will open a separate compose window with the current tab / page title as the subject and selected text plus the page link pasted into the message body. For some reason the button doesn’t work on the extension’s own page in the Chrome web store.
I had to restart Chrome before the extension worked. This extension will override the global Windows solutions provided further below. This is handy if Google Chrome is not your default browser, but you still want to open mailto links locally, rather than in a second browser. GmailByDefault XPIf you’re running Windows XP, you can use this tool to make Windows open any mailto links in Gmail. Windows will launch your default browser and then open Gmail in a new tab.
I had to run the tool twice for it to work, even though it seemed to have installed successfully the first time. Changes were visible under > Internet Options (see below). To reverse the changes made by GmailByDefault XP, go to > Control Panel > Internet Options, switch to the > Programs tab and select your preferred > E-Mail program from the respective pull-down list. AffixaAffixa provides similar functionality as GmailByDefault. However, it is also compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7, and comes with a bunch of extra features. Instead of launching Gmail in your default browser, if you are clicking on a mailto link elsewhere, Affixa will log into your account and drop a draft to the email address you clicked. If your default browser is Firefox, it will first install an extension to handle login cookies. Affixa also supports Yahoo! Mail and Zimbra and you can theoretically add a desktop mail client. The free version only allows you to add one webmail account.
You have to make Affixa your standard mail program. The changes will only affect the settings under > Internet Options as described above for GmailByDefault XP. To use the attachment baskets, Affixa must launch with Windows. However if it doesn’t, mailto links will still open in your default mail client (i.e. Gmail) and browser. To learn more about Affixa’s additional features, read my article How to Send Big Files & Auto-open mailto Links in GMail or Yahoo. Meanwhile, Affixa replaced the cooperation with drop.io with its own file server to offer the Drop feature. Firefox OptionIf you’re using Firefox, you won’t have to install anything to make mailto links open in your favorite webmail client. Go to > Tools > Options, switch to the > Applications tab and type > mailto into the search field. You can now select an > Action for mailto links from the drop-down menu. Apart from Gmail, you can also set Yahoo! Mail or an application of your choice.
If you’re a die-hard Gmail fan, also check out 7 Simple Steps To Use Gmail As A Desktop Email Client. How have you been handling mailto links up to now? Is anyone actually using desktop email clients anymore? Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Firefox 4 vs. Internet Explorer 9: The New Browser Showdown Posted: 05 Apr 2011 08:31 AM PDT
Today, the battle continues. Both Internet Explorer and Firefox have had major new releases this month. Since its release, Firefox has chipped away at Internet Explorer's popularity. Can IE9 turn things around for team Microsoft? Looks & InterfaceWhile this review is about Firefox 4 and IE9, it's impossible not to briefly mention Chrome. When Chrome launched, its minimalist interface was a breath of fresh air, and both of these new browsers take design tips from Google.
Visually, IE9 wins the first impression. The icon-only interface looks more modern and takes up very little space. On small displays, it's great. Firefox's approach is more functional on larger displays, however, as tabs have their own space at the very top of the window. Firefox has a much better bookmarks toolbar. While both browsers let you add bookmarks via drag-and-drop, Firefox feels smoother. IE9 does strike back with a better bookmark organizer, however. On Firefox it opens in a separate window, but IE9 opens it quickly as part of the browser interface when you click on the star icon. Firefox steals the gold in this category with the Firefox button and its associated menu, which includes such wonderful features as the add-on browser. IE9 is still using the clunky “Internet Option” menu, which at this point feels like an artifact of Windows XP. Winner: Firefox 4Performance
To begin my performance testing, I threw both browsers into the Peacekeeper benchmark using a Sony Vaio Y series netbook with AMD's new E-350 APU. In this matchup, Firefox 4 edged ahead slightly with a score of 1955 vs. IE9's score of 1906. However, IE9 nudged in front of Firefox 4 when I tested YouTube’s 720p playback on the same system. The same video ran at an average framerate of 30.34 on IE9, while Firefox 4 resulted in a framerate of 29.23. The results on both of these tests are within the margin of error, however. I'm sure that, given a slightly different system, you could see the leads change slightly. Besides, a framerate difference of just over 1 frame per second isn't noticeable without FRAPS running in the background. Subjectively, I found Internet Explorer 9 was smoother at times. While Firefox 4 takes a few seconds to load on my system, IE9 appears instantly. I also felt some slight lag in Firefox 4 when opening new tabs, while IE9 opened them within the blink of an eye. However, I'm nit-picking a bit by noticing these minor delays – if you're not paying very close attention to how each browser is loading pages, you'll never know the difference. Winner: TieWeb Rendering & Standards ComplianceThe first place I headed to test the capability of each browser in this arena was the infamous Acid 3 web standards test. Previous versions of Internet Explorer have bombed this in spectacular fashion. How would IE9 do?
Actually, it did well, rendering a score 95/100 within seconds. Firefox 4 scored just slightly better, rendering a score of 97/100 with similar speed. From this benchmark, the difference between these browsers is so small as to be nearly irrelevant. In my subjective testing, this virtual tie was usually reinforced. Both browsers render text in near identical fashion, although I noticed that Firefox 4 sometimes managed to cram an extra word in while IE9 moved on to another line. I also noticed some difference in table sizes. For some reason, Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9 didn't seem to render them the same size. Sometimes FireFox 4 was larger, while at other times IE9 exaggerated them. Neither of these browsers should give you any problems while you browse the web. Winner: TieAdd-OnsIn the past, Internet Explorer has lagged significantly behind in this area. Microsoft seemed somehow blind-sided by the popularity of add-ons, but the hearts of developers were also certainly a factor. Firefox is David. Internet Explorer is Goliath. And geeks like to support the underdog. The launch of a new browser version is the opportunity to hit the reset button, as many older add-ons end up broken or partially functional. Yet if anything, Firefox has increased its lead in this area. While Internet Explorer 9 still has clunky management and lacks focus, Mozilla's add-on site is thriving, and the improved add-on manager built into the browser puts everyone’s other browser to shame. Winner: Firefox 4ConclusionHaving considered these new browsers from a number of different angles, there is really no doubt which browser emerges victorious. Firefox 4, long the browser of choice among geeks worldwide, continues to reign supreme. Internet Explorer 9 does deserve a “most improved” achievement pin, because the difference between IE8 and IE9 is substantial, almost shocking. The new browser is an admission by Microsoft that it is behind the curve, and the company is doing everything it can to catch up. Microsoft still has work to do. Internet Explorer 9 is a browser that I don't mind using, but it's not my first choice. Maybe Internet Explorer will claw its way back to my taskbar with IE10. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
 More articles about: browsers, firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Mozilla
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If you've already updated your iOS device to 4.3.1, you might be happy to know that the iPhone Dev Team has just released 
Check out the top picks from MakeUseOf 
Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE or come with a decent free account option. You can make use of them without spending a dime. If you want to have similar cool websites round-ups delivered to your email daily email subscribe 
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If you love your Mac and you love using Firefox, here’s some great news for you. There are a number of useful Firefox extensions designed especially with Mac users in mind. These add-ons fix some of the little annoyances and try to make your life as a Mac Firefox user just a little easier.
Contests have a strange pulling power. It could be our innate need to compete or our sub-conscious 'greed' that propels us towards participating in a contest. Also, as 
Finding good websites that host torrent files used to be pretty easy, but since torrent sites like The Pirate Bay and 
I admit it – I’m not a loyal 
As users are slowly migrating data to The Cloud, having a webmail account has become a given, with Google Mail being the top choice. Unimpressed by these developments, Windows continues to link email hyperlinks (a.k.a. mailto: links) to the default desktop mail client, such as Windows Live Mail or Outlook. Not even the Google browser Chrome challenges this practice.
The battle between Firefox and Internet Explorer has been waged for years. For geeks, a web browser is like a jacket; it isn't just something you use, but also something that identifies you. When I went to college, I was incredibly proud that my selected institution had almost immediately adopted Firefox as the default web browser on all lab computers. Their decision to use Firefox helped me feel at home.
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