As usual, tethered jailbreak for the recent release of iOS 4.3.1 is available on iPhone 4. This tethered jailbreak for other devices like iPad, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch will be available soon. The major downside of tethered jailbreak is that you have to connect with system on every reboot if you want a jailbreak again. There may be also incompatibly issues with some apps.

You can use the bundle created for iPhone 4 to jailbreak on iOS 4.3.1 with PwnageTool 4.2. Here are the instructions.

Stuff Required:

Latest iTunes on Mac

PwnageTool 4.2

iOS 4.3.1

Custom Bundle for PwnageTool

Ramdisk Fixer

TetheredBoot Utility

Here is step by step guide to do it.

1: Extract the custom bundle which is in zip format and copy the file iPhone3,1_4.3.1_8G4.bundle.

2: Place PwnageTool 4.2 in “Applications” folder. Now right click on PwnageTool and select “Show Package Contents”.

3: Now browse to Contents/Resources/FirmwareBundles/ and paste the bundle we copied in first step which is iPhone3,1_4.3.1_8G4.bundle.

4: Now you have to install the Ramdisk Fixer which will patch the iOS 4.3.1 as PwnageTool 4.2 does not support this.

5: Launch PwnageTool and select “Expert Mode” and mark iPhone.

6: Locate iOS 4.3.1 in next step where it resides.

7: Once firmware is loaded, chose Build to create custom iOS 4.3.1 GM IPSW.

8: After firmware creation, now get your iPhone into DFU by clicking on DFU button at top in PwangeTool and follow the instructions.

9:Launch iTunes and select iPhone from left side bar. Hold “ALT” button and click on “Resotre”. Select Custom iOS 4.3.1 which was created by PwnageTool.

10:iTunes will now install custom iOS 4.3.1 firmware on your iPhone 4. Wait until the process is finished and your iPhone will be jailbroken on 4.3.1 firmware.

You are tethered jailbroken on iOS 4.3.1 but if you reboot the device it should be get into jailbroken state manually. Here is how to do it.

Change the extension of custom iOS 4.3.1 form ipsw to zip. Now extract this custom firmware and copy kernelcache.release.n90 and iBSS.n90ap.RELEASE.dfu files from /Firmware/dfu/ and paste into tetheredboot folder after extracting the tetheredboot.zip.

Once your device is off and run the terminal. Type following commands

sudo -s

After entering admin password, run following commands

/Users/engineerhead/Downloads/tetheredboot/tetheredboot
/Users/engineerhead/Downloads/tetheredboot/iBSS.n90ap.RELEASE.dfu
/Users/engineerhead/Downloads/tetheredboot/kernelcache.release.n90

Make sure that tetheredboot folder is in Downloads Folder and replace “engineerhead” with your user name.

At some stage, you will need to get the device into DFU mode

• Press Home and Power button for 10 seconds.
• Release Power button while keep pressing Home button for another 10 seconds.

Some processing will be done on iPhone and your iPhone will now be in a jailbroken state running iOS 4.3.1

Via: Twitter

Apple has just dropped iOS 4.3.1 for iPhone 4/3GS, iPod Touch 3G/4G, and iPad 2/1. It brings some improvements like battery life, fixes some bugs and vulnerabilities.

Usually when you will connect your iOS devices to PC/Mac and launch iTunes, a message will be displayed to get the update. You can click on “Download and Install” or chose your choice accordingly. If you don’t want to update now, you should later do it in settings for iPhone.

• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G
• iPad
• iPad 2 WiFi
• iPad 2 GSM
• iPad 2 CDMA

Here are the direct download links and you can update after downloading the firmware. All you have to do is hold Shift on Windows or ALT key on MAC and click on update. You will select the 4.3.1 firmware, you just downloaded.

Breaking: Untethered 4.3.1 Jailbreak guide is up. Get Redsn0w 0.9.6RC9 to jailbreak iOS 4.3.1.

A team of WP7 developers have released a tool “ChevronWP7” to unlock Windows Phone 7 devices. The developers have been working to get access into Windows Phone 7 core and they were progressing steadily. Since some time they were silent on how much progress has been made. Today, they have unleashed a simple and elegant tool to unlock Windows Phone 7.

You might be looking for a reason to unlock Windows Phone 7 device

it’ll be beneficial to indie developers who want to push beyond the limitations of the Silverlight framework and SDK – including but not limited to access to the microphone and camera. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could override the Bing search button?

The official information regarding this tool is

Today we have an exciting breakthrough for the Windows Phone 7 homebrew community – the ability for anyone to unlock a WP7 device without a Marketplace developer account.

Unlocking allows the sideloading of experimental applications that would otherwise can’t be published to the Marketplace, such as those which access private or native APIs.

We’ve taken the pain out of the process involved and put together a super simple executable that will allow anyone to unlock any WP7 device on the market using a USB cable and just a couple clicks.

This tool is completely safe and reversible for the phone. (The app even allows you to relock the phone.)

Happy Thanksgiving with unlocked Windows Phone 7!

Download ChevronWP7

Source: istartedsomething

Online social networking has overridden normal social life of Internet users. It is now a routine work executed by Internet users whenever they launch their web browser. It is also being used for business promotion and interaction with customers. Many 3^rd party tools have emerged to make interaction with theses social services more flexible and convenient when compared to their default interface. We are going to provide a list of Google chrome extensions (3^rd Party Tools) which will make your social experience more pleasant.

Google Chrome Extensions for Facebook

Facebook for Google Chrome
This extension implements a new design to interact with Facebook in Google Chrome. Besides, it uses Facebook connect to get updates about wall, status updates, and messages. The notification mechanism also has a Sound design.

Beautify Facebook
If you are tired of default Facebook look, try this extension in Google Chrome to bring some change. This extension improves the appearance by adding a gradient background, rounded corners, shadows, emoticon for chat, and many more. It makes possible some navigation in Facebook using Keyboard shortcuts.

Facebook Photo Zoom
Pictures in Facebook albums are shown as thumbnails and to view the image user needs to open separately. This extension displays a large preview image whenever user hovers mouse over an image. The same happens with profile pictures and you don’t need to open friend’s profile for seeing the display picture. The feature can be easily toggled on or off with Ctrl+Shift+Z.

Facebook Fixer
This is actually a greasemonkey script which has been ported as Google Chrome extension. It provides lot of customizations for Facebook like bigger album and profile pictures, keyboard shortcuts, homepage customization and many more.

Friends Mural for Facebook
It is another novel to get updates from all friends and as well as for selected friends. Friends can be added to a wall in the extension’s pop up and all the updates about specific friends can be seen individually.

Facebook Simple Notes
This extension for Google Chrome turns the clumsy notification area of Facebook into a fancy one by organizing related notifications into groups. The notifications related to same topic like picture, status, post, and application are categorized.

Google Chrome Extensions for Twitter

Chromed Bird
It is a nice replacement of desktop client to utilize Twitter while browsing in Google Chrome. It has lot of features like tweeting, get notifications, monitor custom search queries, preview image links, follow time lines, creating short urls, and many more.

Chrowety
This can also work as alternative of desktop client for Twitter right in your web browser. You can save drafts for updates and replies, follow lists, change twitter API, have an eye on time lines, browse user profiles, and many more.

Other Google Chrome Extensions for Social Networking/News

Shareaholic for Google Chrome
An awesome extension to share content across the web with a simple click which supports all social services like Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, Stumble Upon, and Digg, Email services like Gmail, Google Apps mail, and Yahoo, IM services and many more. It is possible to select services of your choice and make them launch through keyboard shortcuts.

Orkut Chrome Extension
It provides a smart way to get scrap notification, find a friend’s page, and share content on Orkut. You will be no longer needed to refresh or stay permanently on Orkut’s page to remain updated.

Delicious Tools
A simple way to save bookmarks in Delicious account is provided by this extension. The user is also able to assign a keyboard shortcut for easy access.

StumbleUpon
If you are an avid user of Stumble Upon, this is the only extension available in Google Chrome. It is a bit messy due to some restrictions in Chrome API. Therefore, it is not a perfect alternative for counterpart supported in Firefox.

Digg for Chrome
You can utilize this extension to make your interaction with Digg more convenient. It can tell you whether a webpage has been submitted to Digg by showing Display Count. You can easily share and find new content.

AutoPager Chrome
You will no longer be required to make a click for viewing next page. The extension loads the next page automatically when you reach at the end of a page on many websites like Google, Twitter, You Tube, Flickr, and many more.

Add to Amazon Wish List
Adding item to Amazon wish list has been made much simpler by this extension. You can add the item with a single click. The process is very straight.

Social Graph Analyzer
If a user has created profiles on different services like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, or on other with same user name, this extension will help you find other profiles while you are on page of one of the profiles

StayFocusd
It is an application to enhance your productivity which is usually lost while browsing web and making online social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, and etc. You can configure it in multiple ways to block specified pages when a time limit is reached. So that you will get on Work rather than wasting more time and lose your rankings.

These chrome extensions will improve your productivity as well as a charming dealing with popular service like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Orkut, Stumble Upon, Delicious, and others.

Every modern web browser attempts to provide maximum default functionality in different constituting modules but maximum is difficult to offer. It is also not possible to satisfy varying requirements of different users. Similar is the case with tabbed interface which can be tweaked in a lot of ways to utilize it in utmost capacity.

Google Chrome’s default tabbed interface has been designed with a different approach while compared to Firefox or other browsers. Still this interface can be tweaked in a lot of ways using chrome extensions. These extensions can offer an overall satisfying experience while dealing with tabs. They bring a lot of shortcuts and customizations at your hand. Following is a list of worthy extensions that can tweak tabs in Google Chrome.

Also Take a Look at:

• Tab Managing Extensions for Google Chrome
• Change Default Tab Ordering in Google Chrome with Extensions
• Modify New Tab in Google Chrome with Extensions

Reload All Tabs

The user may need to reload all tabs in Google Chrome at once. Doing it manually with a large number of tab can cause fatigue. This extension provides a single button to reload them all and adds an exception to pinned tabs.

Tab Wrangler

Typically, a user browses through a number of websites which makes tab managing difficult. Also if user is busy on some other tasks, closing numerous tabs can be cumbersome. This extension will automatically close idle tabs after a predefined time.

Tab Lock

A tab may get closed accidentally and the user may lose a lot work performed in the specific tab. This extension can lock the desired tab and will display a confirmation dialog before closing it. The extension provides some configurations to disable dialog box, shortcut support, and auto locking for new tab.

Tab Shorctus

Keyboard shortcuts offer a convenient way for browsing. Different tasks can be employed easily with keyboard rather than moving your mouse around. This extension support many shortcuts for different tasks related to Duplicate, Close, Move or Switch tabs. The shortcuts can be changed according to the user’s preference.

Join Tabs

There may a situation arise when user need to join tabs of multiple windows into a single one. This extension does the job easily. A single click on the extension’s icon will merge all separate chrome windows.

Tabs Preview Light

If the user has a lot of tab opened at an instance and having difficulty in finding one, this extension provide an elegant thumbnail preview of tabs in Google Chrome and makes it easy to switch tabs.

PanicButton

While in office, home, or campus, the user may be browsing some websites which are not appropriate. This extension will save your face in such awkward situation by hiding all the tabs with a single click or key.

UnTab+

This extension will close all the windows and tabs with a single click and it can be set to open new tab after performing a close call.

tabWheeler

If you are looking to navigate through tabs with mouse wheel, give this extension a try. By holding down Ctrl key or Left mouse button and then moving mouse wheel.

Using these extensions in Google Chrome can save a lot of time and an easy way to deal with tabs.

Images are an essential part in our normal life and as well in online life. Online image hosting services or social image sharing websites have played a vital role in the widespread use of images at a normal user’s end. For a normal user, images mostly appear while the user is busy in social activity on Facebook, Orkut or My Space. Similarly if user has also joined social image sharing websites like Flickr or Picasa, images have to be dealt more frequently.

There may be situations when user needs to edit, zoom or preview images in slideshow. To deal with such situations, you need some specific tools. The tools may be desktop or working in cloud. For heavy editing of online images, you may use desktop tools but for normal editing you can use online image editors right away in your browsers. Other tweaks like zoom or slideshow can only be applied in your web browser with ease and comfort. Modern Web Browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome support this sort of tweaking through add-ons and extensions respectively. I will review and list here best available extensions to achieve desired goal in Google Chrome.

Instant Image Editor

This extension for Google Chrome redirects the desired image to open in popular online image editing tool “Pixlr”. The service provides some necessary online image editing tools like marquee, eraser, pencil, gradient, and many more. After installing the extension, you need to hold down ALT key and then right click the image to be edited. The feature to edit background image is in beta so its functionality may vary.

iSlide

It is a promising extension to view a large number of images on a web page. On a web page where one or more images are shown in thumbnail, clicking on this extension will start a slide show of images in full sizes. The extension also supports multiple hot keys to configure slideshow. It also displays a preview of you tube video in a light box style. The extension currently does not support Flickr or Facebook but these web sites will be supported in upcoming updates.

zoomZOOM

In your daily browsing, you come across a number of images which are displayed in thumbnails. If you want to see all the images at once in full size then you should use iSlide. In other case when one or more images have to be previewed in large sizes then this extensions works perfect in Google Chrome. It supports many popular web sites like Facebook, Flickr, deviantart, and many more.

Image Preview

It is a sort of same extension like the extension mentioned above. This extension provides a preview of image in a light box. Additionally, the image can be zoomed for a large display. This extension also works in the same way for You Tube video links.

Pats Flickr App

If your are in search of extension that can extend the default functionality of Flickr and can modify its interface for user convenience then this extension is for you. It provides light box functionality to view Flickr images on a dark background. The download links for all image sizes are available below the image. The commenting module has also been extended for easy reply.

Fittr Flickr

This extension has been developed for Flickr freaks. It adds a lot of enhancements to your Flickr experience. The main features provided by this chrome extension are keyboard shortcuts, large previews, tag auto-fill, and many more. If you are a habitual user of Flickr, you will get addicted.

Flickr Puzzle

Have some free time and want to enjoy it, install this extension. This chrome extension takes a random image from Flickr and converts it into a puzzle which appears in a Pop Up. Test your skills and solve the puzzle. You will love it.

Picasa Web Albums

If you want to remain updated with latest happening at your Picasa web album like comments or want an easy access to the albums, try this chrome extension. There are a lot more features which you can explore.

OpinionCloud

Comments on a Flick album may tell the whole story of the image. They also give a picture of the picture like its plus and negative points. This extension has applied an innovative way to summarize the comments that appear on a Flickr image. Besides it also works on You Tube videos.

These extensions should make your online experience with images in Google Chrome more comfortable and productive.

New tab is the opening door to browse a web page. Every user creates New Tab multiple times in a web browsing session and number of all New Tabs opened may not be calculated. Do you remember how many times you create New Tab in a day? This depicts that New Tab is one of the modules of a web browser which is encountered more frequently. There have to be some methods to modify the default look and behavior of New Tab. In result, the interaction of user with New Tab can become more convenient and easy.

In Google Chrome, the developers decided to modify the behavior of New Tab as it behaved in Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari. The New Tab is filled with Thumbnails of the most visited web pages. A strip of Recently Closed Tab has also been placed below the Most Visited section. This conduct of New Tab in Google Chrome is strange for the users who are migrating from Firefox or Internet Explorer. In order to tweak or modify this behavior of New Tab in Google Chrome, the following extensions can be used.

Also Take a Look at:
How to Manage Tabs in Google Chrome with Extensions
How to Change Default Tab Order in Google Chrome with Extensions

Default Way to Empty New Tab in Google Chrome
There is a default way to empty or clear New Tab in Google Chrome. Move to the button in the upper right corner of New Tab which changes the Page Layout. Click on each enabled option and disable it. Now, the New Tab page should be empty except the Google Chrome Logo.

New Tab Redirect
This extension is an easy way to redirect New Tab in Google Chrome to the page of you preference. The page can be blank, different options pages related to Google Chrome or any other web page. Now, every time you create a New Tab, it will open a custom web page defined by you. (Download Here)

Speed Dial
This feature is available in many modern browsers by default or as an add-on. Speed Dial allows you to access your defined set of web sites easily and quickly. It is like visual bookmarking. In case of Google Chrome, you may think of it as replacement of the thumbnails of Most Visited web pages with thumbnails of your defined web pages. The extension is equipped with different themes and many other options. The user can also define the rows and columns of visual bookmark holders. (Download Here)

New Tab Extension Dashboard
With help of this extension, you can replace layout of New Tab with iGoogle Dashboard. Consequently, you dashboard will be accessible every time you create a New Tab. Beware, this extension makes New Tab a kind of Heavy and takes some time to load the iGoogle Dashboard. (Download Here)

New Tab to Tasks
If you always wanted to remain updated with your upcoming activities and you are using Google Tasks to manage activities, this extension would do the duty. It will always remind you about To-Do-List and you can also refresh it at spot with new tasks. (Download Here)

Now, you can tweak the layout of New Tab with extension of your own choice. If you just want to empty or clear it, I will recommend the built-in method to do that. This will save your resources by not installing just another extension.

URL stands for abbreviation of Uniform Resource Locator which is the global address of web pages, documents or other services. It consists of two main parts: one is protocol identifier and second is document address in from of domain name or IP. They are separated by a colon “:” and two forward slashes “//”. URL needs to be unique which may result in a longer URL as the World Wide Web is growing at an exponential scale. Also there is a tendency to pass descriptive attributes in the URL to forward different kinds of information. This may result in awful situation where URL looks ugly and can’t fit in Human Memory.

The solution produced to tackle the problem is URL Shortening which takes long URL addresses as input and outputs a unique and short URL. This short URL actually redirects you to the original web page. The URL shortening services became even more constructive with the popularity of micro blogging service known as Twitter which imposes a limit on maximum messages in a character. bit.ly is by far the most popular URL shortening service. The convenience of URL shortening services has pushed Google to launch goo.gl and youtube.be while Facebook to start fb.me.

It solely depends upon you which one you prefer for URL shortening. During web browsing on Google Chrome, you may need to shorten URLs quite often. Instead of moving to service’s webpage, you can use following extensions in Google Chrome for time saving.

ChromeMUSE
This extension serves the both purposes.

• Shortening long URLs
• Expanding short URLs

It supports many popular URL shortening services. By default, goo.gl is enabled which can be configured from extension’s options. A favicon appears at the end of address bar. A click on the icon will short the URL according to preferences. This short URL is automatically placed in clipboard and can be pasted anywhere. The notable URL shortening services which can be chosen are bit.ly, is.gd, and TinyURL.

If you browse to a web page where shortened URLs are present, this extension will involuntarily expand the URLs. The titles and destination are shown when you move mouse cursor over the short URL.

You can configure ChromeMUSE to show a list of desired URL shortening services when you click the icon. Besides, the extension can be set to replace the short URL with actual URL after expansion.

URLShortener
This is another extension which allows URL shortening along with support to post on Twitter directly. It means that it is a kind of mini twitter client for Google Chrome. You can use popular URL shortening services like bit.ly, goo.gl, tinyURL, and is.gd. The services can be selected from extension’s options. If you want to link it with Twitter, the credentials have to be provided in options.

Untiny
If you are only interested in expansion of short URL to avoid any harmful effect like Phishing then this extension is for you. You need paste the short URL in the extension input box then the URL will expanded and will show you the destined web page.

If you are happy with only one popular URL shortening services then you can stick with Bit.ly or goo.gl URL Shortener extensions. The decision is up to you which extension meets your needs in Google Chrome although I prefer ChromeMUSE.

Computer Mouse is really helpful for a normal computer user because it provides an easy way to navigate. It becomes even more convenient when browsing web. The user can easily select links, images, or text in a web page. Despite this functionality, there is some more juice which can be extracted from computer mouse. As a result, Mouse Gestures have been developed to provide more functionality. Mouse Gestures functionality is available as a utility for operating systems like Windows XP or they are available in modern web browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

I will review here best available Google Chrome’s Extension which let you use mouse gestures. If you are using Mouse Gestures for the first time then it should not be a problem but users who have migrated from Mozilla Firefox may feel some irritation in using the solutions as the solutions are not fit when compared to the mouse gesturing add-ons developed for Firefox.

Smooth Gestures
This extension works almost perfect. There are a plenty of already built gestures available. These gestures can be identified from extension’s options page and they are also customizable. Mouse Stroke supports and recognizes three types of gestures.

Simple Gesture: Draw a gesture by moving the mouse while pressing the right mouse button and then release
Scroll Gesture: Scroll the mouse wheel while pressing down right button
Rocker Gesture: Hold down either the right or left mouse button, and then press the other one.

The default mouse gestures provided by this extension are divided into three categories which are Page Navigation, Tab Management, and Miscellaneous. These mouse strokes almost will satisfy needs of any user. Any gesture can be disabled or modified. The modification is pretty straight forward.  When you will click on “+” sign, a canvas will be shown on which you can draw your own stroke for specified task. If the gesture already exists, it will show a warning. You can ignore it and over write the gesture or re draw.

Smooth Gestures has got some nice preferences which can be configured for your convenience. These preferences are

• The position of New Tab
• Color and Thickness of Mouse Trail
• Association of Right Click with Context Menu
• Selection of Right or Left Mouse Button for Gestures
• URL List for which Mouse Gestures will be Disabled

Chrome Gestures
This is another nice extension which can be used for performing Mouse Gestures in Google Chrome. It worked neatly on my stable release of Google Chrome but use it with a caution on Beta or Dev releases. This extension is also equipped with enhanced features.

Drag and Go for better navigation and quick searches can be enabled because it is disabled by default. The user can configure gestures for Text or Link selection. New gestures can be added easily and the task to be performed can be selected from a predefined list.

The list of basic gestures is available in Basic Tab. Obviously these can be edited and new can be added. The visualization of a mouse gesture is better in this extension when compare to earlier. When the user draws a stroke, the respective mouse movements in from of arrows are shown. If a valid mouse gesture is detected, the task specified with this gesture is also displayed. This mechanism assists users in early days when you can’t remember each gesture.

This extension also comes with a solution for smooth scrolling which is disabled on install but can be enabled on wards. The user needs to check “Mouse Wheel” box then the speed of smooth scroll and acceleration of scroll can be set accordingly.

Mouse Stroke
This is another alternative available to get benefit of Mouse Gestures in Google Chrome. This extension also comes up with a set of awesome features and options. It also supports and recognizes three types of mouse gestures like Smooth Gesture does. It is also equipped with Drag and Go support. Instead of visualizing arrows, it shows letters respective to mouse movements like L for Left, R for Right, U for Up and D for Down. There are a plethora of built in gestures available for different tasks. The look of trail can also be modified. It will also let you change the position of new tab and web page to open in new tab.

The best available extensions to utilize the function of Mouse Gestures in Google Chrome have been described. These extensions also provide some extra features which are available as separate chrome extensions like Positioning of New tab and Drag and Go. It is up to you which extension meets your needs but don’t forget to share tour experience in comments.

Tabbed interface in web browsers boost the user experience in many ways. The user does not need to switch between separate windows. All of the browsing can occur in a single window which makes shifting between different web pages more convenient. You can even browse a website and the related links in a different window while other browsing activity may take place in a separate browser window.

Each web browser has its own policy of ordering tabs. It is difficult to get accustomed with tab ordering if the user switches from one web browser to another. This is the case when someone is migrating to Google Chrome from Mozilla Firefox. Some prominent differences between the tab ordering strategy of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are regarding

• Position of New Tab.
• Which Tab should be active upon closing a Tab.

Some solutions in form of extensions have been developed which replicate the tab ordering Policy of Firefox in Google Chrome. This makes the migration of users from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome trouble-free.

Also take a look at: How to Manage Tabs in Google Chrome with Extensions

Tabs Plus
This extension changes tab ordering of Google Chrome to work like Firefox. The behavior can be changed from options.  Position of New Tab can be fixed to Default, First, or Last. You can also opt whether to open new tab in background or foreground. If an active tab is closed, the tab which was used last time will get active. If a specific tab is required not to be considered as Last Used Tab, it can be excluded.

Tab Stack
It is a useful extension with nice feature which moves tabs in a way that they are always arranged in a Most Recently Used order from left to right. In this way, the most recent active tab is always at left of tab strip. When you will use Ctrl-Tab key combination to navigate through tabs, it will work like Alt-Tab combination in Windows. The most recently active tab will be visible.

These extensions will modify the tab ordering strategy of Google Chrome so that the migrating users from Mozilla Firefox can feel at Home.