Will the WP8 Nokia “Phi” have a Pureview camera?

Nokia is expected to unveil its new Windows Phone 8 devices on September 5th, at a press event in New York, and we’ve seen bits of leaked information on the at least two expected devices, including the Nokia Phi.  Now word coming to us from Australia, specifically from WPDownUnder.com, run by Windows Phone enthusiast “Sheeds“, indicates that the Phi may indeed include Nokia’s 40MP super phone camera, the PureView.

Recent leaks have confirmed that the next Lumia model is codenamed the Nokia Phi, and will continue the “upper end” of the Lumia device range following on from the 800/900. WPDownUnder has received information this week advising that not only is this the case – but that the Phi device WILL feature a PureView camera fully integrated and functional with Windows Phone 8.

The Pureview camera is featured on Nokia’s 808 phone, but has yet to make it to a Windows Phone device, and it has been unclear whether the first wave of Nokia Windows Phone 8  devices would include the uber-camera.

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New Windows 8 tablets, phones at IFA

IFA, the consumer electronics show in Berlin, apparently is setting up as the de-facto unveiling for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 devices, with a number of manufacturers showing off devices this week.  While the show is decidedly Android focused, Sony and Samsung have both announced new Windows 8 tablets, and Microsoft, via its Windows Phone blog, is touting Samsung’s new “Ativ S” Windows Phone 8 device, a super thin (and super big) phone sporting some super specs:

8.7mm thin brushed aluminum chassis4.8” HD Super AMOLED displayCorning Gorilla Glass 21.5Ghz dual core processor1GB onboard RAM8MP rear facing camera1.9MP front facing camera16 or 32GB storage, both with Micro SD slot for more2300mAh batteryphysical Windows button

The Windows Phone blog post is promising a full recap of all the devices announced at IFA on August 31st on the Blogging Windows blog.

Sony introduced a  new set of tablet devices, including a $399 Xperia device (running Android) that may give us some clues as to Microsoft Surface pricing (although the Xperia costs another $99 for the keyboard), and two new Vaio Windows 8 tablets, the Vaio Duo 11, which Sony calls a “hybrid-style notebook”, and the Vaio Tap 20, a 20” tablet.

Samsung also is introducing a series of Ativ tablets, some using their new “S” pen technology (Bill Gates would be so proud!):

We’ll be hearing lots more about new tablets and phones as IFA continues during the week, but things are definitely heating up!

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Zune. Still dead.

Zune users received an email from the “Zune Music Team” today informing them of a number of changes coming to the Zune Music services as Microsoft prepares to transition from Zune to Xbox Music.

Here’s the email:

As we prepare for the exciting launch of Xbox Music later this fall, we want to make you aware of some pending changes to the Zune Music service that will be made on August 31st.
Specifically, the following features will no longer be available:

Sending and receiving messages, inviting friends, sharing the songs, playlists, and albums you are listening to, and viewing past play historyMixview playback and channel playlistsApps for Zune HDPurchasing music videos or streaming them as a part of Zune Music Pass from the Zune PC softwareRe-downloading, re-activating, or re-licensing previously purchased music videos if / when you upgrade your PC

These changes will NOT affect music streaming or downloading as part of Zune Music Pass, impact songs that you have purchased from Zune Marketplace, or change your ability to stream music videos on Xbox 360.

We thank you for being an important part of the Zune Music community.
Soon we’ll have more to share about Xbox Music, our brand new service that lets you access the music you care about on Xbox, phones, and tablets, plus a whole lot more.

Sincerely,

The Zune Music Team

Interestingly, music video streaming from the Zune PC software, but not to your Xbox, is being shut down.  You’ll still be able to stream or download music to your PC.  Zune Social as we know it looks to be kaput after the 31st, and we still don’t have any definitive details on Xbox Music.  We certainly hoped that Microsoft would have been selling a new music service all summer, but they seem to be more intent on killing off the old service (slowly and painfully) than in promoting a new one.

Still, September is looking like a busy month as Microsoft begins to fill out Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox services in preparation for what is either going to be a big holiday season or an even bigger bust.  Either way, it’s going to be a heck of a ride!

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Is this the Nokia “Arrow” Windows Phone 8 device?

Just earlier this week we reported that a mid-ranged Nokia Windows Phone 8 device, codenamed Nokia “Arrow” (or “Atlas” for its CDMA variant), might be announced during Nokia World 2012, scheduled to be held in Helsinki, Finland on September 5. Today, a user had posted an image of the alleged Nokia Windows Phone 8 device on Chinese micro-blogging website Sina Weibo (via WeLoveWP.hk), which had been speculated to be the Nokia “Arrow”. Check it out below:

The device is very unlike leaked photos of the alleged Nokia “Phi”, which is said to be the successor to the Nokia Lumia 800 and 900, with a polycarbonate unibody design. This leads to speculation that this may be the other device to be announced next week – the Nokia “Arrow”. Whilst the photo above only shows the back of the device, the rounded corners and the shape of the device does in fact match another previously leaked images of a display-digitizer unit, allegedly coming from ALPS, a sub-contractor for Nokia who handles parts for their phone development. Check it out below:

If the above image is in fact the Nokia “Arrow”, then the device might still sport a 4.3” display (compared to the rumored 4.7” display for the Nokia “Phi”), as well as a front-facing camera. Not much else is known about the device at this stage, but based on the photos above, it does seem to be a pretty decent phone. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

(And for those who thinks this might be related to another Nokia design patent, think again as the device depicted in that design patent is actually the Nokia Lumia 719, which we reported back in March this year to be a Windows Phone 7.5 device that is supposed to be coming to the Chinese market. We don’t know whether Nokia might have shelved plans for the Lumia 719, or repackaged it to be a low-end Windows Phone 8 device, but the chances that it is the Nokia “Arrow” is very slim.)

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Mary Jo Foley: Windows Phone 8 launch date revealed

A few weeks ago, we reported a rough timeline regarding the launch of Windows Phone 8. We saw Samsung kicking off the wave of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 news by announcing their ATIV line of tablets and phones. Next week we also expect Microsoft to be announcing more details about the consumer features of Windows Phone 8 on September 5, with Nokia also revealing their much awaited Lumia range of devices on the same date. HTC is also rumored to join in with the announcement of their new Windows Phone 8 line of devices around mid-September. Today Mary Jo Foley reported that Windows Phone 8 might be officially “launch” on October 29, a few days after the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, with devices coming a few weeks later:

October 29 will be the official "launch" of Windows Phone 8, I am told. I’m hearing this event will likely be on the west coast, either in San Francisco or Los Angeles. (Again, I don’t know exactly where. A photo studio? Outside an Apple store?) But this is considered the "consumer launch" of the product, with handsets to be made available starting a week or two later, meaning early November, as other sources of mine had indicated.

Given Mary Jo Foley’s accurate track record with launch dates, and the fact that the October 29 launch date seems to make sense such that Windows Phone 8 devices can be in people’s hands before the holiday season, we’re inclined to say this might in fact turn out to be true. However, as always, things may change last minute and Microsoft has not officially confirmed anything yet, so take this news with a pinch of salt. October definitely seems to be an exciting month for Microsoft!

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SkyDrive for Android released

In mid August, SkyDrive updated its look, added features, upgraded its apps for PC and Mac, and announced that a SkyDrive for Android app was coming to complement the apps for iOS and Windows Phone:

Today, Microsoft is making that Android app available for download from the Android Marketplace, announcing the new app in a blog on the Inside SkyDrive blog*.  According to the post, the app is designed to work best with Android 4.0 (ICS, or Ice Cream Sandwich), but it is also “fully functional on Android 2.3 and above”.

The app includes the usual features:

Access your SkyDrive—documents, photos, and other files, plus the files other people have shared with you.View recently used documents.Choose multiple photos or videos to upload from your phone.Share your files and photos—send a link in email or in another app.Open your SkyDrive files from other Android apps.Easily manage your files—delete or create new folders.

… although at least according to one tweet from Peter Bright from Ars Technica, the Android app won’t do everything the Windows Phone version will do:

SkyDrive for Android can't open a OneNote document even though I have OneNote for Android installed. Is that expected behaviour?

Apparently the iOS app won’t open OneNote files either, according to a reply to @DrPizza’s tweet from Romit Mehta.

From what we’re hearing, the SkyDrive for Android app is part of Wave 5 Milestone 4, which should include the appearance of a Recycle Bin for SkyDrive, and of course we’re still waiting for updates to Calendar, support for Excel forms, and more, so there’s more to come for SkyDrive before Windows 8 ships, we hope.

*  Just a note on Microsoft’s blogging conventions – back in the day we had a blog for every product, and lots from team members.  Many of those were on Spaces, and many of those links are dead now.  Then Microsoft aimed to consolidate their blogs and blogging strategy, and we eventually came to the “Inside Windows Live” blog, which didn’t work when Microsoft dropped “Windows Live” branding.  It was renamed “Inside SkyDrive, Hotmail, and Messenger” (although it’s still referred to as “Inside Windows Live” in the Windows Blog navigation), but that of course is already outdated, and so we have a new “Inside SkyDrive” blog.  Hotmail, which is now transitioning to Outlook.com, has joined the Outlook blog (btw does that mean that Hotmail/Outlook.com is part of Office, now?), and so that leaves Messenger out in the cold, where it most likely is as a product, too.

(edit: fixed the links)

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Use WP8 SDK to build “Modern apps” beginning September 12?

A new site devoted to the “virtual launch” of Visual Studio 2012 seems to be answering a couple of Windows development questions at once: apparently we’ll be able to build what www.visualstudiolaunch.com calls (6 times on the home page!) “Modern apps” for Windows 8, and according to a tweet by @VisualStudio, that means, or implies to WMPowerUser.com that the Windows Phone 8 SDK will be launched by then, too (we posted on earlier speculation that the SDK might be released on September 7th):

Microsoft has been using the term “Metro style apps” ever since it first introduced Windows 8 back at D9 in June 2011.  But just recently, the company made an unannounced but noticeable switch from “Metro style apps”, reportedly asking 3rd party developers to stop using the “Metro” term in their apps, and using both “Windows 8 style apps” and “Modern apps”.  Although The Verge had some insider info as to the reasons for the abrupt switch (a trademark issue, apparently with Metro AG from Germany), nothing has officially been announced (other than the purported memos to developers) either way.  Microsoft apparently does not own any trademark rights to “Metro” (although Metro AG does), but then they don’t appear to own any for “Modern” or “Modern apps” either (although maybe a “modern app” is fair use of the term).  We’ve yet to hear anything definitive from Microsoft on the subject – Frank Shaw, are you listening?

Although we’re a little concerned about this new penchant for non-naming of services (see: The Services Formerly Known As Windows Live), we’re fine if Microsoft goes with “Modern”.  We kind of like it, and as Brent Schooley noted in our original post on the kerfluffle, it’s an interesting throwback to the Modernist, or Bauhaus movement.

Anyway, and perhaps most importantly, it looks like Windows Phone 8 developers won’t have to wait long to get the SDK, and they’ll soon be able develop apps, no matter what they’re called.

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Get Back the Sidebar Gadgets in Windows 8

Windows used to have a long sidebar which is a vertical bar that is displayed on the side of your desktop. It contains mini-programs called gadgets, which offer information at a glance and provide easy access to frequently used tools. These gadgets were available in Windows 7 and Vista. But with the release of Windows 8, Microsoft has completely removed the concept of gadgets and sidebar.

Now if you were using gadgets in Windows 7 and want to get it back in Windows 8, then you can probably try 8GadgetPack.

This app works on Windows 8 (32/64-bit). This app will install all those original Windows gadgets available in Windows 7.

The app comes with almost all popular gadgets like clock, calendar, CPU, disk usage, weather, slideshow, sticky notes etc.

If you love gadget on your Windows desktop, then this free app is for you.

Download 8GadgetPack

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Start8 Brings the Original Start Menu in Windows 8

Windows 8, which is expected for final release on October 26th and one of the major change is the start screen. While many users accepted the new change, a majority of users were not happy with the implementation of it saying that it is suited only for touch screen tablets. In case you are not happy using the start screen on Windows 8, we had covered Start Menu X, a free app to get back the Windows 7 style start menu. Here is another freeware tool, Start8, which is now supported on Windows 8 RTM and will bring the exact start menu available in Windows 7 to Windows 8.

You can do all the options available in the classic start with this free tool. You can also launch and search metro style (modern UI) apps from the start menu.

You can change the start button to look like Windows 7 or even like Windows XP. You can easily access all the metro apps and also pin them to start menu.

Start8 Features;

Features:

Adds a classic styled “Start” menu to the Windows 8 taskbar. Including support for: View and launch installed applications (including Metro/Modern), All Programs menu, quick links to commonly accessed folders (Documents, Music, Photos, Computer, and more).Adds searchable Start menu options for Windows desktop applications, Metro/Modern applications, and documents.Adds a “Start” button to the Windows 8 taskbar.Automatically load directly to your Windows desktop on login (vs the start screen).Pin favorite shortcuts directly to the start menu for easy access.Includes support for “jump lists”/recent documents for recently accessed programs.Quickly access Run… option via the start menu or right-click menu.Quickly access Shutdown… and power options via the start menu or right-click menu.Optionally disable Windows 8 desktop hotspots via right-click menu.Choose a custom “Start” button image.Automatically matches the color of your start menu to your taskbar.Supports WindowFX 5.1 startmenu animations (currently in beta)Optionally access Metro/Modern start screen in a configurable window without leaving the Explorer desktop. The new start menu also adds a shortcut to switch to the new Windows 8 menu.Adds control over Start menu size on Explorer desktopAdds option for WinKey to show fullscreen Metro desktop.

Overall, this is the perfect start menu replacement for Windows 8.

Download Start8

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Facebook Offering 2GB to Store your Photos Privately

There has been several issues regarding the privacy of photos and updates of users in Facebook. But now, Facebook is rolling out a new feature called Photo syncing, which lets you store your mobile photos privately, then choose which ones to share. As of now this feature is not available to all users but only available for some people using the newest Facebook for Android app. This feature currently under testing and should be available soon.

You can install the latest Android app for Facebook and check if you have this option. As per this feature, you can now get 2GB of space for storing photos privately.

To start syncing your photos, make sure you have the latest version of Facebook for Android installed on your phone. You can access these photos from Android app as well as your timeline on PC.

From the Android app:

Go to your timelineTap PhotosTap Sync at the bottom of your photos section. Follow the step-by-step instructions.

From your computer:

Go to your timelineClick PhotosClick Synced From Phone at the top of your photos section. Follow the step-by-step instructions.

You can choose how many photos you’d like to sync from the app. Your synced photos are privately stored in a section of your Facebook Photos that only you can see. When you view your synced photos, you can choose shots to share or send in a private message.

More details here.

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Take a Full Backup of Android Phone without Rooting

Generally when you want to take a complete backup of your Android phone, you will need to make sure that the phone has root access or in other words the phone is rooted. But not all users might be interesting in rooting their phones as it might void the warranty. But now you can take a complete backup of your phone using the Ultimate Backup Tool developed by a member of XDA Developers forum.

Ultimate Backup Tool is a free app for taking a full backup of your Android phone. The app comes with multiple backup options namely with apps or without apps.

The process to take a backup is simple, just connect the phone using the USB cable and enable debugging mode on your phone. Now select the choice from the above screen. Once you select them, you will see a backup option on your phone. Enter the backup password and continue.

 

The backup will be saved in C: drive in the folder backup. The app works on Android ICS and above. We tried it on Galaxy Nexus and it worked well.

More details on the tool, including download links available here.

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A Powerful iTunes Alternative- iTools for iPad, iPhone and iPod

When it comes to managing files in your iOS devices- iPad, iPhone or iPod, you need to connect your iOS device to PC and then use iTunes to transfer files. But iTunes isn’t probably the best designed tools and its often confusing for average users. Although there are many tools like PhoneTrans Pro, SynciOS which we have covered on this blog, iTools is a very powerful app to manage your files on iOS devices.

It comes with all the standard features for any file transfer app and also has advanced features like file system, live desktop view and many more.

As soon as you connect your iOS device, you get all the detailed information about your device. The sidebar has the navigational options, namely media, photos, iBooks, applications, desktop, storage, file system, information and advanced features.

While media and application and ibooks are common, the file system is pretty handy, you can access the core files in your device from desktop. You can navigate through the folder structure of iOS.

Another awesome feature of this app is the live desktop. It can shows the live desktop of your iPad on Windows. So what’s big deal about it? You can now record your iPad screen using this tool. All the actions performed on icons and apps can be recorded using this app.

Everything is searchable on your iOS using this app and it has extensive features to manage your installed apps as well.

Although the app is in beta, without any doubt this is probably the best app we have used for managing iOS devices from your Windows or Mac. A must have app for all iOS users.

Download iTools (Available for Mac as well)

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How to Pin a Folder, File, Shell Location or Library in Windows 8

Ever since the release of Windows 7, the taskbar has been made more functional with jumplists and app pinning. You can pin any application on to the taskbar for quick access. There were many limitations for this pinning as you cannot pin a file or folder or a shell location. Taskbar Pinner is a new freeware tool for Windows which allows you to pin any folder, file, shell location like recycle bin or hard drives or even libraries. The portable app is supported both on Windows 8 and Windows 7.

There are four options in the main interface where you can select the action required. For Pin a Shell location, the application pops up a defined list of shell locations like control panel, my computer, recycle bin etc.

If you select Pin a Library, it lists out all the libraries available on your PC.

Features of Taskbar Pinner;

Pin ANY file regardless of its type;Pin ANY folder;Pin drive;Pin Control Panel items, all them including some hidden like God Mode/All Tasks, Network Connections;Pin Libraries;Pin Shell Objects like Run command, “Miminze All”, Window Switcher;Pin any drive,all folders and all files via Explorer Context Menu;Pin any folders or files with drag and drop. Drop them on application window.Pin any folders or files via command line:

The app also features option to add a context menu entry, which makes it still easier to pin any file or folder. You can simply right click on any file or folder and select the pin option. There are seperate versions of this app for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Taskbar Pinner

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SkyDrive for Android Released

SkyDrive is a popular file sharing service from Microsoft which provides around 25GB free space (7GB to new users). The mobile app for SkyDrive was available for Windows Phone, iOS and also Windows. Microsoft has now released the official SkyDrive app for Android phones. The app is now available for download from Google Play and is supported on Android 2.3 and up.

Although the app works with GingerBread (Android 2.3), it is designed to work best with ICS. This new app for Android is similar to apps for Windows Phone and iOS and is a key part of making sure your SkyDrive files are accessible and shareable from all your devices.

 

The interface is pretty slick and fast and also user friendly. There are different views available for files especially for images. You can create new folders inside your drive and also easily upload files from your phone.

What does this app offer;

Access all of your SkyDrive content including files shared with you.View recently used documents.Choose multiple photos or videos to upload from your phone.Share your files and photos – send a link in email or in another app.Open your SkyDrive files in other Android apps.Manage your files – delete, or create new folders

You can download SkyDrive for Android from Google Play.

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4 Ways to Delete All your Tweets

Twitter is undoubtedly one of the most popular micro blogging platforms with millions of tweet published every day. Twitter was started way back in 2006 and if your account is pretty old you might have hundreds of tweets on your account. If you want to delete these tweets any time, there is no direct option in Twitter web or mobile apps.

In such cases, you will have to rely on third party web services which are free. These services connect to Twitter using oAuth and help you in deleting all your Tweets in one go. Here is a list of few useful services which allows you to delete Tweets in one go. Important note: Deleted tweets are not recoverable, do use it at your own risk.

Delete All My Tweets is an app which deletes your tweets. If you want to delete all tweets from your Twitter account simply sign in with Twitter, authorise the app, click to confirm and sit back as up to 1000 tweets are deleted in one go. If you need to delete more simply repeat the process.

Tweet Eraser is a completely free service to mass delete your Tweets from your Twitter account(s). The good feature of this app is that you can filter your Tweets before you delete them. Once you authorize the app, you can search for tweets based on filter and then delete them. This is particularly useful if you had tweeted with a hash tag.

TweetDelete is a service for Twitter users and it allows you to automatically delete your Twitter posts that are older than a maximum age you specify. TweetDelete is useful for people who want to reduce the amount of old data in their Twitter account. TweetDelete can only work within the latest 3,200 tweets on your account.

TwitWipe is a tool to wipe or delete all your tweets in one go. Like other apps, you need to sign in with your Twitter account and then delete the tweets. This service does not have any restriction on the number of tweets that can be deleted.

DLTTR is a free mobile app available for both iOS and Android and allows you to bulk delete your tweets. It can delete the latest tweets by an hour, day, week, month, year or all of them once. You can add multiple Twitter accounts to delete tweets and then select the filter to delete the tweets.

Download – Android version |  iOS Version

Tweeticide is a paid app which quickly, and securely removes all of your Tweets from your existing Twitter account, allowing you to start over from scratch. Since Twitter displays only 3200 tweets and other tweets are not visible, this app can only delete these tweets.

 

The app costs $1.99 and you can set the number of tweets you want to delete.

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Get the Start Menu and Start Button in Windows 8 RTM

One of the main changes in Windows 8 is the new metro UI or the modern UI start screen and it completely replaces the old classic style start menu. While many like the new start screen, there has been constant complaints from people that the new start screen is best only on touch screen tablets and not suitable for desktop. While many developers created apps to skip the start screen, most of them do not work on Windows 8 RTM.

Start Menu X is a nice freeware app, which is perhaps one of the best start screen alternative and brings back the classic start menu and start button to Windows 8.

There are two aspects for the programs, one is that it adds a start button which is customizable and secondly it add the traditional start menu seen in Windows XP. You can even create your own start button and use it on Windows 8.

Another nice feature of the app is that while installing, you can select whether you want the start button or not.

There is also option to select whether you are accessing the start menu using mouse or touch.

Overall, the app is perfect replacement for Windows 8 and is fully compatible. There is also a pro version which allows you to add folders to start menu.

Please note that when you install this app, the metro start screen will not be accessible and so is the app switcher.

Download Start Menu X

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Droid Manager- Android File Backup and App Manager

Since Android phones are developed by multiple vendors, they provide their own tool to connect your Android phone to PC. The problem with these application suites is that they provide only basic functions like copying or transferring multimedia files. Droid Manager is an excellent all-in-one Android file and app manager that can manage any task, files, and apps in your android mobile phone.

You can backup your files and apps using this powerful tool. To connect the phone to Windows, you need to install the app in your Android phone as well and then install the desktop app. Once you connect the phone to your desktop, it is automatically detected by the application.

It lists all folders by default and you can navigate to any particular folder in the phone. There are quite a lot of advanced options available including ROM manager.

What features does Droid Manager Offer?

Navigate through phone files.Copy from / to device.Search for files on the device.Change permissions.Install user & system apps (to install system apps your phone mus be rooted)Fix APK files title saved locally, view permissions and required SDK version.Get build.prop file from device, change it and save back to device.Create zip files, sign and push to device external storage.Execute Fastboot commands, mostly used commands are built-in (e.g flash partition, erase partition)Supports transferring files from / to device via wi-fi by using the Android App provided.Extract custom Rom and edit build.prop, replace system / user apps, edit / add init.d scripts, add / remove kernel.Change Boot Animation.Change default Ring Tones.Export and sign output zip file.Create backup zip file that contains the system files to be effected by applying a theme or a mod. The zip file can be flashed via CWM.

Requirements:

.Net Framework 4.Fastboot & ADB drivers installed.Android 2.1+Device USB Debugging turned on (Settings -> Developer Options -> USB Debugging).Forward ports 8000 & 8001 in the router for Wi-Fi Transfer.

Overall the app is an advanced free tool to manage your Android phone.

Download Droid Manager

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How to Delete Location Information from Previous Tweets

Twitter had long back enabled location sharing feature for Tweets where you could add you location and coordinates along with Tweets. While some people found it useful other found privacy concerns with it. If you have enabled location sharing on any of your previous tweets and want to delete them now, then Twitter offers a quick way to delete all location information from previous tweets in one go.

To delete your location information, you need to log in to Twitter web. Once logged in, select the profile icon on the top navigation bar and select Settings.

Under settings, you will see the button “Delete all Location information” listed under Tweet Location.

Once you click it, Twitter will ask a confirmation and it might take few minutes before all the location information are deleted. If you have a lot of tweets, then probably it might take more than 30 minutes or so. Once you delete all the tweet location, make sure you uncheck the option “Add a location to my Tweets” above.

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HP Envy x2 Convertible Windows 8 Tablet Has Optional Keyboard Dock, Premium Feeling (Video)

The convertible tablet format has been trendy lately, especially for Windows 8 devices. We’ve seen ASUS adopting it, Samsung too and even Lenovo and Acer tried it. Now HP does the same thing, but they have a more premium approach through the HP Envy x2 convertible slate model. Envy x2 comes with an optional keyboard dock, that turns the tablet into a laptop or ultrabook.

We get a device with a thin design, aluminum build quality (both the keyboard dock and rear of the slate), plus Beats Audio technology for improved sound experience. The device is based on the Intel x86 Clover Trail chipset, so it gives you the full Windows 8 experience and not Windows RT, the one that’s limited for ARM chipsets. HP Envy x2 packs a bright 11.6 inch HD touchscreen with IPS technology and 400 nits of brightness. It also has NFC support and has an optional digitizing pen. At the back we find an 8 megapixel camera and at the front there’s a HD quality webcam.

Separating this product from its rivals is an unique hinge, activated by magnets. Instead of requiring that extra push to fit into the locking on mechanism, we get this option of docking system with magnets. Each piece, the tablet and dock weighs 1.5 pounds and the total weight matches the one of an ultrabook. The pricing is yet unknown, but what we do know is that the product is coming towards the end of the year.

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IFA 2012: Lenovo IdeaTab A2109 Is Now Official, With 9 Inch HD Display, Tegra 3 CPU (Video)

Lenovo has leaked the IdeaTab A2109 tablet long before IFA 2012 and now here it is officially handled by Engadget and exposed in a video and photo selection. Showcased in Berlin, this device packs a 9 inch display with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, a Tegra 3 quad core CPU and Android 4.0 ICS as the OS.

Below you can watch a hands-on of the device, that also comes with 1 GB of DDR3 RAM and the screen on board is apparently an LED one. Micro USB and micro HDMI ports are depicted here as well and the IdeaTab A2109 has a rear case made of aluminum. It weighs 570 grams and has 16 GB of storage, as well as microSD. There’s a 3 megapixel camera at the back and the product measures 0.5 inches in thickness.

I hate to say, but this glossy product looks much like the “you know who” tablet and also the HP TouchPad. It may lack a Home button, but you all know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the previous IdeaPad and IdeaTab slates resembled the iPad as well and they didn’t get sued, right?

If you like this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed or follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube for more interesting articles and video reviews! Also you can recommend Tablet News on Google:

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