Top 11 Android Hacks and their applications

Android is now the most used mobile operating system in the world, with many commentators putting its market share at around 70%. With such growing presence, there are too many applications if we are able to hack Android and customize as we wish. Not to worry, crazy Android developers have already done this for us. People have successfully rooted Android and there are number of wild hacks with countless applications. Some are fun and some are very useful too.

1. Get Android updates before your handset manufacturer releases it

For most people using Android phones, they usually have to wait for Google to release updates for Android, and this may sometimes take months. However, the problem is that when the new updates are released, handset manufacturers have to readjust them in order to run on their handsets, and also add new software, before releasing the updates to their customers. However, the good news is that you do not have to wait this long for the latest updates. Since there are a great number of people working on releasing their own stable updates, you can root your Android phone so that you are able to release such updates as soon as the developer has released them.

2. Scale up your media center

One of the major reasons why people usually buy smartphones is so that they are able to play their favorite music and videos. However, this usually comes with some limitations, mainly with regard to storage space. For many people, most of their music and video files are usually stored in their PCs, while just a select number of files are stored in their smartphones. This thus means that they cannot access their music files, and they have to keep deleting some of the files in order to make room for new files. This is a great inconvenience; the good news is that someone saw this and decided to come up with a simple hack that enables one to stream their music from their PC to their smartphones by using Wi-Fi. There is an app called Gmote that makes accessing this future a breeze.

3. Change the appearance of Android user interface

One of the most common tasks that people usually perform on their mobile phones is changing the themes and wallpapers so that they can suit their fancy. If you have tried this before, then you will have realized that there are numerous limitations, thanks to the small number of wallpapers and themes that ship with your Android phone. The wallpapers and themes are also not that inspiring, since most of them are static. But you can change all this and bring your Android’s user interface into life. This is easily done through the use of tools, such as Beautiful Widgets, which will then give you access to tonnes of customized and animated wallpapers that you can use on your phone.

4. Play retro games on your Android phone

If you are an avid gamer, then you most definitely usually pull out your old game console ad play a few classic games so as to remind yourself of how it used to feel playing such games. Android, being open source, has stirred some interesting thoughts from some top tinkerers who also happen to love playing games. They have come up with simple hacks that can enable you to play classic games on your Android device. Gameboid and Ataroid are two such apps that allow you to play some classic games on your Android device. There is another hacker, who even went ahead and rooted his Android phone so that it is now able to use an NES controller by attaching it to the phone.

5. Install apps that are root-only

If you like tinkering with different aspects of your Android phone and would like to get as much flexibility as possible, then you should go ahead and root your phone by installing root-only apps. These apps will open up a whole new world of possibilities for you, as you will be able to undertake some tasks that are not usually support by the standard Android software that is usually shipped with phones. For example, you can install a root app that allows you to gain access to extra memory on your phone, making it run faster, especially when running apps that demand plenty of computing power.

6. Open your garage door

Now this is very interesting! With an imaginative Android hackers, there have been some simple yet highly effective hacks. For example, there is an app called OpenSeMethat makes it very easy to enable your Android phone to open your garage door; this is pretty cool. This app has some simple features that make it safe and easy to use. It uses a pin to verify authenticity of the owner before opening the door; it also only opens the garage door when within a radius of one block. In short, it acts as a garage door opener.

7. Overclock your Android phone

Are you tired of having your android phone hang up every time you use an app that is resource-intensive? If this is the case, then you should consider overclocking your phone. Overlocking is noting but rooting your Android mobile to such an extent that a user adds permission to OS settings and removing number of hardware limitations such as inernal memory, battery life etc., However, you have to take note of the fact that overclocking your phone has a number of side effects. You may wear out your phone’s processor since overclocking it creates intense heat, which may overwhelm the in-built cooling system. It may also shorten your phone’s lifestyle. However, by using well-designed overclocking apps, you will be able to also underclock your phone’s processors so that their lifespan is prolonged. You also need a new generation Android phone in order to run such apps. One great app that you can use for this function is called SetCPU, and it comes highly recommended.

8. Run Android on an old iPhone

If you love playing practical jokes as well as tinkering, then you may find this hack hilarious: install Android on your old iPhone. This is a cool way of finding out how Android would perform on an iPhone. If you have an old iPhone lying around, say iPhone 2G, then you can install Android on it. Doing this will also open up quite a number of apps that you can then use. In order to have some fun doing this, you can install apps that have been restricted by Apple. But in order to get this hack to work, you have to break into your iPhone; you can use software such as Redsn0w or PwnageTool to do this.

9. Take screenshots

One of the common complaints about Android is that it does not allow users to take screen shots. However, some clever developers have made this possible by creating some interesting apps that enable you to take amazing screenshots of your Android phone, albeit with some fancy effects. However, you need to first root your phone before trying these apps. You can use the ShootMe app that enables you to take screenshots of your phone, with a little shake. This is a simple yet very effective feature.

10. Block Ads on your phone

Advertisements are the price people usually pay for using free software, and this is not different on Android. Many free apps you will be using will be running ads, and one of the ways of getting rid of these apps is to use paid versions f the apps. However, after you have rooted your Android phone, you can install the Adfree app that essentially blocks ads from everywhere on your phone. This is quite handy if you usually use plenty of free apps.

11. Turn your Android phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot

Many people would be more than happy to use their Android phones as a Wi-Fi hotspot, but only a few of them are able to do so. Once you root your Android phone, then you can easily turn it into a Wi-Fi hotspot, regardless of the carrier you have subscribed to. You can use the Wireless Tether app, as it makes it such a breeze to turn your Android phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot that other devices can plug into.

So, by rooting your Android phone, you can turn it into a very powerful mobile device with limitless possibilities. However, always bear in mind that rooting your phone usually makes your warranty void, and it may end up totally messing up your phone.

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How to Share Mobile Data Connection

When you're using an Android device with mobile data connection enabled, wouldn't it be convenient for another computer device such as a Windows-based notebook to share this connection for access to the Internet? Yes, you can do a wireless connection via a portable hotspot, or a wired connection using a USB cable:

Turn your Android mobile into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot:

1. On your mobile, go to Settings > More > Tethering & portable hotspot.
2. Tap "Portable Wi-Fi hotspot" to enable it.
3. Tap "Configure Wi-Fi hotspot" to enter an ID and password to prevent unauthorized connections.
4. On a computer with Wi-Fi connectivity, click the network icon on the system tray to identify and connect to the wireless network you set.

Enable USB tethering on your Android mobile:

1. Connect a computer to your Android device with a USB cable.
2. On your mobile, go to Settings > More > Tethering & portable hotspot.
3. Tap "USB tethering" to enable it.
4. On the computer, click the network icon on the system tray to identify and connect to the wired network. The Windows system may take more than a minute to discover the network for Internet access.

Note: Enabling Bluetooth tethering on your Android mobile to allow for Internect access from a computer is also possible after the two devices are paired.

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How to Add a Web Clip Icon to Home Screen in Android

If you frequently visit a web page, you can tap a web clip or bookmark icon on your home screen and quickly access the page without the need to touch the Browser icon. This web clip icon can be added to your home screen easily:

1. On the page you often visit, tap the Menu button in Android's Browser.
2. Select 'Save to bookmarks'.
3. Edit the Label if necessary, then select 'Add to' and tap "Home Screen'.

Next time you visit the same web page, just tap the web clip icon on your home screen. Some websites including Gizmo's Freeware have a web clip icon which has been customized for you (see the screenshot).

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Shortcut Keys in Word

CTRL + A Selects all in the current document. 
CTRL + B Bold text. 
CTRL + C Copies the item or text to the Clipboard + can be pasted using CTRL + V. 
CTRL + D Displays the Font dialogue box. 
CTRL + E Centre Alignment. 
CTRL + F Displays the Find dialog box, to search the current document. 
CTRL + G Displays the Go to dialog box, to go to a specific location in the current document. 
CTRL + H Displays the Replace dialogue box. 
CTRL + I Italic text. 
CTRL + J Full Justification. 
CTRL + K Create Hyperlink 
CTRL + L Left Alignment 
CTRL + M Tab 
CTRL + N Creates a new document. 
CTRL + O Displays the Open File dialogue box. 
CTRL + P Displays the Print dialog box. 
CTRL + R Right Alignment. 
CTRL + S Displays the Save dialog box. 
CTRL + U Underline text 
CTRL + V Pastes the copied item or text from the Clipboard into the current position in the document. 
CTRL + X Cuts the item or text selected to the Clipboard. 
CTRL + Y Redo the last undone action. 
CTRL + Z Undoes the last action. 
CTRL + ENTER Insert Page Break. 
CTRL + F2 Show Print preview. 
CTRL + F4 Closes the active document window. 
CTRL + F6 Opens the next document window.
CTRL + 1 Single spaces text
CTRL + 2 Double spaces text
CTRL + 3 Triple spaces text

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Navigation Button Tricks for Interactive PDF on an iPad

When I’ve been working on creating interactive PDFs that will be viewed on an iPad, I’ve been frustrated by the immature applications available for reading and working with PDFs. I’ve written about this in the past year before here and here.

One of the most maddening problems was just getting simple navigation buttons (Next Page, Previous Page, etc.) to work properly. If you create navigation buttons in InDesign CS6, they work fine in Acrobat Pro or Reader for Macintosh or Windows, but they do nothing when you click on them in Adobe Reader on the iPad. Another problem is that, even with PDF Expert, a paid PDF reader app I recommended in the postings above, the buttons work, but the text for the buttons doesn’t display properly.

Creating Navigation Buttons in Acrobat

An Acrobat expert, George Johnson, explained the problem with navigation buttons creating in InDesign CS6 not working in Adobe Reader, in a posting on the Adobe Reader for iOS forum:

The problem with InDesign is in using the Go To Next/Previous Page options in InDesign, it creates an Execute a Menu Item action when exported to PDF, and since Reader for iOS doesn’t have menu items or interprets such actions otherwise, they are just ignored.

When I first created some navigation buttons in InDesign CS6 like those shown below, the Go to Destination action and Go to URL actions worked in Adobe Reader for the iPad, but the First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, Last Page buttons did not.

Navigation Buttons in InDesign

If you examine the buttons that don’t work in the Forms Editing feature of Acrobat Pro, like the Next Page button shown below, the PDF sees the navigation command as a menu command. This is a menu which appears in Adobe Reader and Acrobat for the Macintosh and Windows, but not on an iPad.

Buttons Viewed in Acrobat Pro

The workaround is to create those buttons in Acrobat. This requires a different workflow. Here’s what I did that works in Adobe Reader:

1. Instead of placing the navigation buttons on a master page, I created the four buttons (First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, Last Page) only once, and I placed them at the bottom of page 1. I didn’t give the buttons an action. (The other buttons can be created with actions in InDesign.)

2. I exported to PDF (Interactive) and opened it in Acrobat Pro. In Acrobat Pro XI, I chose Tools > Forms > Edit. In the Forms Editor, I right-clicked each of the four buttons on page 1 of the PDF, to bring up a contextual menu and chose Duplicate Field, and chose to duplicate the buttons on each page of the PDF.

Duplicating Buttons Across Pages

3. Then for each button, I created an action in Acrobat Pro which created the navigation to the desired page. I double-clicked on each button. On the Actions tab of the Button Properties dialog, I selected a Go to a Page View action.

Go to Page View Action

4. After choosing the action, I was prompted to navigate to the destination page as shown below.

Creating Page View

5. The resulting PDF, when transferred to Adobe Reader on the iPad, worked perfectly.

Viewing the Buttons on an iPad

Be aware that Adobe Reader still does not support Show/Hide buttons, nor does it support video or audio files.

Another Workaround for PDF Expert

Readdle’s PDF Expert, which I’ve written about before, has a different kind of limitation with buttons created in InDesign CS6. It has apparently created its own workaround for the navigation buttons which doesn’t require using Acrobat Pro. While the buttons work to navigate, you can’t read the text labels on the buttons! For PDF Expert, the workaround is to outline the type which is contained in the button. The screen capture above was created in PDF Expert after using that workaround.

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PDF tricks

Tips and Tricks for Creating PDF Buttons

The following list isn’t exhaustive, but, no doubt, those reading it can suggest some other tips:

1. When possible, create buttons on master pages in a document. This will greatly reduce the number of buttons you need to create, and will ensure consistency.

2. Buttons can have different attributes for visibility and printability. In the PDF language, buttons are considered a kind of field (think form fields). Fields can have four variations of visibility—Visible in the PDF, Visible in PDF but Doesn’t Print, Hidden in PDF, and Hidden in PDF but Printable. You can choose which of these attributes are applied to a button from the Button panel menu. Most buttons are Visible in the PDF but each of these options has their uses.  (Example: If you want a picture to appear when you click a button, create two buttons. Place the picture in a Hidden button, and use the Show/Hide Button action in the Visible button to make the picture visible.)

3. Buttons only “come alive” in an interactive PDF file if you turn on the right options when you export your PDF. (Forget trying to create a PDF using Distiller; that kills everything.) In the Export PDF dialog, be sure to check Interactive Elements (and also check Hyperlinks if you’re using those in your interactive PDF file).

4. If you’re using transparency in your document and it in anyway interacts with a button, you must save your file with Acrobat 5 compatibility or higher (no transparency flattening). Otherwise, you’ll get the message below, and you’ll lose your interactivity:

Creating a Go to Page Button in a PDF File

As I mentioned in the previous posting, there is a Go to Page action in the Button panel in InDesign CS4, but it’s only for creating buttons to be exported as a SWF file. So how do you create one in a PDF file? You need to create a text anchor, and use the Go to Anchor action. (As we’ll see, these have a different name—named destinations—in Acrobat.) Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the destination page, and select text in a text frame. (You could make text Paper color to hide it if you don’t want it to be visible.)

2. Open the Hyperlinks panel (Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks). Choose New Hyperlink Destination from the panel menu. By default, it names the text anchor it creates using the text string you selected, although you could rename it.

3. Make a button, and make its action Go to Text Anchor. Select the text anchor you created.

When an interactive PDF is created, that should create a named destination that the button will select, jumping to the appropriate page.

Button Troubleshooting in Acrobat

We’d expect that all the buttons we create in InDesign would create perfect buttons in Acrobat. Unfortunately, many things can go wrong. In fact, as I was preparing this posting, I ran into one myself. So I’ll use it as an example of how to troubleshoot buttons in Acrobat. When I created a text anchor as I described above and made a PDF, all my buttons worked correctly except that one. As of this writing, I’m not sure what happened (my colleague and friend Sandee Cohen wasn’t able to replicate the problem). I did the requisite troubleshooting (like restoring my InDesign preferences) but the problem persisted. The method worked correctly in InDesign CS3 so it could be a subtle InDesign CS4 bug.

I opened up Acrobat to see what was going wrong. Acrobat has had its own interface for creating and editing buttons for many versions. In many ways, it can create buttons which are more complex than those that can be created in InDesign so it’s worthwhile to learn how it works.

I worked in Acrobat 9 Pro which now has a special form editing mode, and I’ll give the steps I followed, but I’ll also describe how I could use Acrobat 8 Professional as well. I ended up editing the named destination (text anchor).

1. Choose Forms > Add or Edit Fields (In Acrobat 8 Pro, choose Forms > Edit Form in Acrobat.)

2. Find the button which is not working. You can use the Fields panel at the left to help identify it, if necessary. Double-click the button. (In Acrobat 8 Pro, the Forms toolbar opens. Click the Button tool, and double-click the problem button.)

3. The Button Properties dialog box opens. Click the Actions tab.

4. In the Actions section at the bottom, select Go to a page in this document. Click the Edit button.

Now you can see that the text anchor (now called a Named Destination) is embedded in the PDF file. Browse to reselect it again, and click OK.

5. Close the dialogs. Click Close Form Editing (Acrobat 9 Pro only).

After reselecting the destination, the button worked fine.

What if you needed to create a new destination in Acrobat? You’d use Acrobat’s Destinations panel. Here’s how:

1. Choose View > Navigation Panels > Destinations

2. Navigate to the page you’d like to make the destination.

3. Choose New Destination from the Action popup menu (gear icon).

A new destination is created. You’re given the opportunity to name it. It’s set to the page you’re currently viewing.

4. Edit your button to select the new destination you created.

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shutdown computer automatically after watching a movie or listening to music

How to shutdown computer automatically after watchinga movie or listening to music

Hi tech tricks Blog Visitors Do you like watchingmovies or listening To music ? but sometimes you can fall asleep and leave your computer upand running  or just maybe you don’t want to get up after the movie , then you must need GOM Player

GOM Player like some other players of the media files, it gives you a nice feature to turn off the computer automatically after the completion of listening to music or the end of the film, so you will not care if you fell asleep and left the computer on.

After download and installing the software, a small box will open after running the program for the first timeand asks you to choose between the best settings that are in line and your computer settings, repeatclicking on the “Next” button until they reach the button “Finish”. Click on it as well as the order to appearyou media player window GOM Player.

After selecting a media file or maybe a couple of theme Click again on the word Gom and go to options and then select shutdown once finished playing the current file In order to make the program turns off thecomputer immediately after completion of the operation of a specific file You can also click on the fourth option which is to make the program closes computer as soon as you finish running a set of files and i guess he is the best choice if you will occupy a set of audio clips shutdown once finished playing files inplay list, and so as soon as you finish running the film or musical clip the computer will be shutdownautomatically.

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