Install Android 4.0 ICS On Galaxy S II And Galaxy S [How-to Tutorial] - by aby benedict

The latest and, according to some, most important update to Google’s Android OS – 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – was open-sourced just a few days ago and talented folks from the hacking and developers community have already managed to get Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) working on some of the most popular handsets. In this post, we’ll guide our readers on how they can flash ICS on a Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy S II. Check it out after the break!

The news comes from developer xplodwild over on Twitter in the form of a tweet which links to the files required for flashing ICS on Galaxy S / S II.
The current build – Alpha 7 – is, well, in alpha stage. Most things, particularly connectivity features such as modem, Bluetooth, WiFi and other basic things like sound, camera etc. do not work. This build is not recommended for daily use. We suggest you stay away from this until the stable or at least beta builds arrive.
How To Install Android 4.0 ICS Alpha On Galaxy S / SII
DISCLAIMER: Redmond Pie is not to be held responsible for any loss of data as a result of the malfunctioning of your smartphone in the following of this guide.
Your phone must be rooted for this flashing process. Follow our guide on how to root Galaxy S II or look up how to root Galaxy S on Google. You must also flash ClockworkMod Recovery.
Secondly, please ensure that your phone has enough battery to last through the process which doesn’t take more than 5 minutes if you’ve got all the files ready. If your phone does run out of battery during the process, chances are it may get “bricked”.
Lastly, be sure to take a nandroid backup which you can use to restore your previous setup.
With that out of the way, let’s get ICS flashed on our GS/GSII!
Step 1: Download required ICS file to your computer.

• Galaxy S II ICS Alpha 7
• Galaxy S ICS Alpha 4

Step 2: Connect your device via USB and transfer the file to the root of your phone’s storage media.
Step 3: Turn off your phone after transfer is complete. Now, turn off your device.
Step 4: Boot into ClockworkMod Recovery by holding Volume Up + Home + Power buttonsimultaneously until the main menu shows up on screen.
Step 5: Scroll down to mounts and storage and format /system. After that, you must also format/data and /cache.
Go back to menu and then wipe data / factory reset.
Step 6: From main menu: install zip from sdcard > choose zip from sdcard > [name of file you downloaded in step 1] to flash ICS to your device.
If you followed the steps correctly, you should now have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Alpha build installed on your Samsung Galaxy S or S II smartphone.

Ice Cream Sandwich coming to Galaxy S II, Samsung UK confirms - by aby benedict

Here's some exciting, if somewhat unsurprising news for Galaxy S II devotees: Samsung's UK outpost has just confirmed that the handset will indeed receive an upgrade to Android 4.0, delectably known as Ice Cream Sandwich. As of this moment, details are relatively scarce, and Sammy has yet to make similar declarations for markets outside of the UK -- but at least it's coming. "The Galaxy S II will be receiving ICS, but there are no dates confirmed as yet," the company wrote in a tweet this morning. "We will keep you posted." As will we.

First BBX OS BlackBerry phone leaked...? - by aby benedict

A photo has emerged showing a BlackBerry-branded phone that appears to be running a brand new operating system (OS), believed to be the company's upcoming BBX OS. BBX will bring the QNX OS from the PlayBook tabletto smartphone devices.

Consistent with earlier reports, this phone does not come with a physical keyboard. It has a large touchscreen and an angular design, not unlike the recently announced Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone from the same company.

If this turns out to be true, we hope the Canada-based company has another model with physical keys in the works, too--it just wouldn't be the same without the QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry addicts have grown to love.

iOS 5.0.1 didn't fix battery drain bug, say some users - by aby benedict

Apple rolled out iOS 5.0.1 yesterday in large part to squash a battery drain bug, but some users say their batteries are still losing charge at a fast rate.

A variety of comments on the Apple Support Forums have so far revealed several people who say the fix did nothing to improve battery life.

Here are just a few comments among the range of unhappy users:

"Upgraded to 5.0.1 this morning. Still draining at the exact same rate. Unplugged with a full charge 2 1/2 hours ago, and already down to 80% with light usage."

"Installed the new IOS 5.0.1 two hours ago. I started a test at 1:30 CT today. 5% battery drain in 45 minutes with WIFI and location services turned on and me not touching the Iphone 4S. The new update doesn't seem to help much."

"I updated last night (UK) and it didn't fix anything. Losing 6% / hr in standby which is the same as with 5.0."

Some have even claimed that the fix made the situation worse:

"Lost 15% in 45 mins and I didn't even use the phone. What happened? This update is no help. In fact, it drains the battery even quicker."

"Updated to 5.0.1 last night and my battery life seems even worse than before! My phone dropped by 4% overnight in flight mode! I have had it out of flight mode since 6.30am (at which time the battery was at 51%), and its now 8.30am and its down to 35%."

"For me, its worse than ever. the battery life was much better, since i updated 5.0.1 foriphone yesterday. Battery % was on 92% last night, 3g is not on, wifi also, and now the battery is on 69%. unbelievable!!!"

In the midst of the complaints, one user chimed in with a more reasoned approach: "Don't rely on immediate numbers when you've had mixed pre/post patch usage. Most likely you need to reset the network/device itself and discharge/recharge! It's not magic! Enthusiasm is normal but Apple users have to learn to be methodical."

In line with that, some people advised performing a total discharge to 0 percent and then recharging all the way. Others suggested resetting the device by doing a complete backup and restore.

Apple also provides a page on battery usage for the iPhone and how it runs battery tests on the various models.

The users who say iOS 5.0.1 didn't resolve the battery problem could be in the minority since other early adopters reported that the update did, in fact, take care of the issue. And several people on the Apple Support Forum say the fix did help them. But even a small minority can indicate that the update didn't fully address the issue or that other factors may be involved.

Complaints of poor battery life certainly didn't start with the iPhone 4S or iOS 5. Users of the iPhone 3G also griped about short battery life. Older versions of iOS, or the iPhone OS, such as OS 1.1.3 and OS 2.1 triggered grumblings over the same issue.

But complaints seem to be on the rise. Today's crop of smartphones run a variety of apps and services, often in the background, all of which can easily chew up battery life. In the case of iOS 5, many users have already trieddisabling notifications, turning off location services, and tweaking other features, yet the battery glitch seems to persist for a fair number.

iOS 5.0.1 arrives with battery fix in tow - by aby benedict

Ahead of its original estimate, Apple released iOS 5.0.1 to users this morning. It's the first update to the latest version of its mobile operating system, and one that promises to fix bugs that gave users poor battery life on their devices.

The updates comes a little more than a week after Apple first acknowledged that some users were, in fact, running into problems with battery life after upgrading to the newer version of iOS. In conjunction with that, the company released a beta version of the software for developers to test. A second beta of that software arrived a day and a half later.

Apple has not copped to any specific reason as to why some users were experiencing shorter than usual battery life as part of iOS 5. Originally it was believed to be related to some of the hardware changes with the iPhone 4S, including a move to a dual-core processor, though some iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 users were experiencing issues as well.

There's no telling how much of an improvement to battery life the fix will bring. Initial reports from users of the beta have been positive, with one going so far as to call it "nothing short of amazing."

Besides tackling the battery life issue, one of iOS 5.0.1's headlining features is that it brings multitasking gestures to original iPad owners. The feature lets iPad users take advantage of multi-finger gestures to navigate between apps, and access certain features--notably pinching together the screen to go back to the home screen. Apple originally included the feature in an earlier developer beta, though removed it entirely in the final version of the software that went out to users with the first-generation iPad.

The update also fixes a security issue with Apple's Smart Cover for the iPad 2 that would let users gain access to whatever app the owner of that device was running, even if they didn't know that user's lockscreen password. That bug was discovered late last month, after iOS 5 was released.

Other fixes include a bug with documents in Apple's iCloud service, and improvements to voice recognition accuracy for Australian users using Apple's dictation feature on the iPhone 4S.

The new software is available as a free update through iTunes. This is also the first time users get to try out Apple's built-in updating feature that's new to iOS 5.

How To Install OS X Lion On Your Hackintosh PC With UniBeast All-In-One Bootable USB Drive [The Easy Way] - by aby benedict

If you’ve ever attempted to install OS X Lion onto your PC (a process known as hackintosh), you will be aware that although the result is pretty good, the effort required to get you there is quite high in what is a rather tedious process.

You have to install Snow Leopard, and follow an upgrade process in order to enjoy Apple’s famed operating system on an ordinarily Windows-based PC. Hardware wiz tonymacx86 is renowned for developing the hackintosh project, and has now made the process a whole lot simpler by introducing UniBeast all-in-one bootable USB drive.

The new utility enables you to create a bootable Lion flash-based drive for hackintosh, and also eradicates the necessity of using an iBoot CD to boot. So unlike the previous method, no optical drive is needed for you to create your own hackintosh.
We’re going to demonstrate how you can install OS X Lion on your hackintosh, following these recent advances.
Firstly, you will need a copy of OS X Lion (downloadable from the Mac App Store or attainable via the official Lion USB flash drive), and a separate 8GB (or more) flash drive.
Additionally, you will need UniBeast, which can be downloaded from here.
Step 1: Firstly, you’ll need to create a bootable USB drive using UniBeast. Open/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and highlight your USB drive on your Mac.
Step 2: Next, click the Partition tab, then Current and opt for 1 Partition. Then, click Options and select Master Boot Record.
Step 3: Change Name to ‘USB’ (can use any name, but we’ll use USB for the benefit of this tut), and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) as your format. Once you’re done, select Apply followed byPartition.
NOTE: If you’re using the Install Mac OS X Lion Application, be sure to check that it’s been placed in the /Applications folder. If you’re instead using the OS X Lion USB Thumb Drive, plug it in.
Step 4: Download and run UniBeast. Continue through the first few steps.
Step 5: At Destination Select, click USB and then Continue.
Step 6: Select the package name of the method you’ll be using to install as depicted below. Laptop users will need to select the Laptop Support in addition. Once that’s done, hit Continue.
Step 7: Enter password and click Install. Depending on the speed of your system and the flash drive, it could take up to 15 minutes.
Step 8: Boot from your freshly prepared USB flash drive and install.

Fifth Ave Apple Store’s fancy new cube unveiled - by aby benedict

The flagship Apple Store has been getting a revamped glass cube up top that we saw in renderings back in August. The new cube is much better looking than the old cube and has less visible hardware thanks to a reduction in the number of panes of glass the cube uses. The original glass cube used 90 panes of glass and the new one uses only 15.

The cube has been getting the install for a while now and the 5th Ave Apple Store is set to open today at 10am. However, the crew that was working in the store has finished their work and the first pics of the cube in the flesh have now turned up thanks to a reader at MacRumors. The new cube looks really cool.

Other than the reduction in the number of panes of glass used, the new cube also has no seams and almost all the hardware holding the panes is gone. Along with the new glass cube, Apple made a few other improvements with new drains for the plaza and some new pavers around the cube. If you end up at the store today shoot some pics for us too, it looks really cool.