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Using Ninite to Automate Your Updates

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If you’re one of those people that doesn’t think to update your applications then keep reading. You are probably missing out on new features and still have unpatched versions of programs. Ninite offers an easy fix for the lazy.

I stumbled upon Ninite from a lifehacker article a while back. Previously I was familiar with the FileHippo updater that works quite well, but still requires users to manually go to each program link and download the update. Ninite is a no nonsense tool that downloads updates to your commonly used programs. It automatically installs whichever programs you select without the toolbars, changing of your home page, and other packaged garbage. Ninite currently offers a wide variety of programs to choose from including popular browsers, iTunes, Adobe flash, and many others.

To get started, head over to ninite.com . Then choose the programs you either use currently or any additional ones you want to install. After you’re finished scroll to the bottom and select “Get Installer”. Ninite downloads as a small file, then you’ll run it.  It will begin to run and download and install the applications you’ve selected. For $29.99 (for 5 machines over 1 year) you can have Ninite run automatically and download and install updates with no interaction needed. They also have tiered plans to manage multiple machines at once, while eliminating the annoying update notifications. This is a great option for a small network or maybe even a corporate environment.

 

iTunes_ringtones

How To: Create Custom Ringtones with iTunes

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Remember when you’d pay $1.99 a month to be able to download 3 ringtones a month. Yeah, those days are long behind us. Even before the smartphones ran wild, you could put your own ringtones on your phone. So assuming you own some music this can be achieved even easier with the new phones of today. I’m going to give you a step-by-step guide on creating your own ringtones easily in iTunes. Even if you aren’t a fan of Apple products, or you don’t use iTunes; I think this may be the easiest method I’ve come across.

 

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Uninstall Adobe Flash Player Silently

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Flash Player

Well this is going to be one of my shorter posts, but I think it’s helpful. Some may want this and some won’t, at work we wanted to uninstall flash silently. We’re pushing out a package for flash 10.2 and we needed to try and make it as silent (no user interaction). After searching and chatting with their support we finally figured out the solution. You will need to:

  1. Download the flash uninstaller tool (CLICK HERE)
  2. Open the command prompt by doing a Start >> Run >> CMD
  3. Drag the Flash uninstaller to the command prompt window so it should now display the full folder path
  4. Append a -uninstall to the end of the command then hit enter.

This will remove Flash for both ActiveX (IE) and other browsers as well. The switch used to be different from what I’ve read. It seems that after 9.0.28.X they changed it (I could be wrong). From what I’ve seen it’s varied between a /qb and /silent switch. The above method is the new way to make the uninstall process silent. We happened to use this for SCCM, and then to install Adobe Flash player just follow the above steps but change the -uninstall switch to -install.

Fixing the “Swype Trial Ends”

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Swype Trial Ends

If you are on android device and have installed the Swype Beta, you may get the above error, “Your trial period has ended. Please upgrade your copy of Swype”,  after 100 days of use. After this time period Swype becomes useless and it no longer works. Originally the developers had figured a new version would be released after 100 days. There is an easy way to fix this problem and start using  this great keyboard alternative again.

Start by going to your Settings then to Applications. Select Manage Applications and under the Downloaded tab you will see both a Swype Installer and a Swype program. Uninstall just the Swype application which should be between 10MB and 11MB. Once that has complete navigate back to your applications screen (with all of your apps listed). Tap the Swype Installer and if there is an update to the swype installer you will need to download that first. You will then be prompted to Login using the credentials you setup when first registering for the Beta. After logging in, choose the Swype Beta Full and tap Download Sywpe. You will be prompted to install Swype again, go ahead and tap Install. Once that finishes installing tap Done and you’ll be taken back to the Swype installer where the program will be licensed, and you can enable the swype keyboard.

If you do not have Swype yet you can sign up for their Beta here:
http://beta.swype.com/

Force Updating on Android

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The great thing about Android devices is the over the air (OTA) updates that are pushed to devices. If you are a follower of some of the ‘droid sites then usually you get an inside scoop of new updates coming for your phone. The problem of coarse is a time frame. Some phones will receive an update sooner than others. Although using a little trick, you may be able to prompt your device for an update quicker. Going to your phone and dialing *#*#2432546#*#* should automatically check for updates which seem to include apps from the marketplace. You shouldn’t need to hit the dial key, as entering the last “*” should automatically show you a message “Checkin Succeeded” (2432546 is “Checkin” on the numeric keypad).

Safe Browsing with a Web of Trust

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Web Of Trust
Unsure about that website you just clicked on? Doing some research on a touchy subject and you are uneasy about the search results? Well, with the Web of Trust plug-in you can browse safely. WOT relies on user feedback about a site to rate its potential threat. When looking for a site using a search engine, a traffic light style icon is placed next to each result. These icons should look a bit familiar to anyone who has used the AVG LinkScanner before. The millions of users that have the plug-in installed have the ability to rate each site they visit, giving the green light to go ahead, yellow to browse with caution, or red to stop using that site. It’s available for IE, FireFox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. It’s non invasive and is easy to understand and to use. The link checker also works on your email accounts as well.

Still have questions? Check out the video below on a demonstration of how it works.

Web of Trust Website

Fixing Some Common iTunes Problems

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Well if you’re listening Apple, or in this case reading, there are a few improvements that need to be addressed in iTunes. Rather than adding visualizations or piggy backing on the “Pandora” type of reccomendation add-in, I think it’s time iTunes addresses some essential problems in your program.

The more aggrivating problem in my opinion is the lack of a “folder watch” or auto adding feature in iTunes. This is common amongst other media players like WinAmp. Basically whenever music is added to your designated music folder it gets automatically added to your library. There are a couple programs that fix this issue in iTunes.

1. iTunes Folder Watch (Windows XP or Vista) – The demo of this program only allows manual adding of tracks, after it automatically scans your music folder. The full version (€7.5 or approx. $10.63 USD) will run in your system tray and monitor your folder and add new tracks to your library when added to your music folder. It even will create a playlist for the new music added so you don’t lose track of when and what new tracks you’ve added.

2. iTunes Library Updater – This program is freeware and has a similar functionality to the above program, although it does not have an automatic adding feature. The one thing it does have is the ability to clean dead tracks. These are tracks in your iTunes library that are no longer located in your music folder.

Another problem I ran into was that sometimes iTunes doesn’t like to add tracks to the library even when they are in an acceptable format. I’ve learned that this is due to the headers of an mp3 file. After searching for a solution I came across a program that analyzes mp3 tracks for errors including that of the headers and fixes them.

Mp3 Validator – Freeware that fixes problems with errors in mp3 files.

Finally a program issue that is an easy fix is when the tracks in an album are out of order. All you have to do is Select the tracks that need to be ordered correctly, Right Click and hit Get Info. Select the info tab if it is not already selected and enter for disc number 1 of 1

Tips & Tricks: Toolbars

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Image courtesy of www. absolutelytrue.com

The picture above is a bit of an exaggeration, but I, personally have worked on machines with over 10 toolbars installed. While their functions may be cute, zany, or seem helpful, they are more of a nuisance than anything. There are a few toolbars out there that can be arguably useful, but usually don’t provide any other benefit that a web search on another website couldn’t. The main discrepancy I have with them is that they take up your valuable screen real estate.

Toolbars are the majority of the time bundled discretely with software you may want or need. A small check box thrown in after the EULA can elude even the most careful of users. Companies actually earn money per toolbar installed, so the more people that speed through the install of a program the more money they make. The Java install process shown below is a prime example of sneaking in a toolbar. By default the check box is checked which installs the toolbar.

Another common toolbar trickery is the installers that emulate an EULA agreement. This basically makes it seems as though you need to agree to the terms and conditions in order to install the software. The setup for IMGBurn below shows an example of this. By reading carefully, you can uncheck the box stating you accept the license terms and choose to install the toolbar, to avoid bloating your browser.

If you take the extra few seconds to read through the installer and make sure you are installing only the program you originally intended; you eliminate the clutter of toolbars in your browser. This in turn can ultimately improve the speed your your browser and computer.

Facebook for Android: AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED WHILE FETCHING DATA (NULL)

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I recently stumbled upon this error on the android facebook app. It happened on my fiancee’s phone but not mine, and we are both using the Motorola Droid running 2.2. She kept receiving the error AN ERROR HAS OCCURRED WHILE FETCHING DATA (NULL) anytime she’d try and use the facebook app. My phone however was fine. I tried signing in and out, and doing a force stop and clearing the cache in the application settings. Neither of these ideas worked. I then found an interesting but effective solution.

I went into the Market, did a search for Facebook, and I found the Facebook for Android app (the default one that comes with the phone). To my surprise it said it wasn’t installed and was advertising that it was free. Normally it would say Installed since it did come with the phone. I installed the app and it updated the Facebook app to the latest version and layout. In doing so this fixed the error message.