Official Wikipedia App for Android is the free encyclopedia containing more than 20 million articles in 280 languages, and is the most comprehensive and widely used reference work humans have ever compiled. You’re presented with ‘Today’s featured article’ on the app’s home screen with an easy to read text layout, optimized for smartphones. It offers an impressive and useful ‘Save page’ feature, thus to let users save desired articles to read later or when offline.

Other nifty options include: the ability to Share pages, read an article in a different language, Full screen search, check history of recently viewed pages and there is a ‘Nearby’ option that searches for nearby locations on a Google Map. Moreover, there’s a Settings option to set the preferred text font size and default language for Wikipedia app from a list of various languages offered.

~ This is the initial version of app that has been installed by a very fair amount of Android users. We hope for some future updates that would make it more amazing.

Download Wikipedia Android App [Android Market]    via  [Techie Buzz]

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This is a pretty simple method that just requires rooting and not any complex tasks. It should work on most Android phones (rooted) and those running CM7. We’ve tried it on LG Optimus One with void #forever custom ROM installed and it worked perfectly.

Steps to Turn Off/Mute CyanogenMod Camera Sound on Android Phone -

1. Install ES File Explorer on your phone.

2. Run ES File Explorer, go to its Settings > Home Directory. Change the default value (/sdcard/) to (/).

3. Then navigate to bottom of settings and enable ‘Root Explorer’ option. Click Yes when the Experimental Feature box pops-up to grant it super user permissions. Also, tick mark the ‘Mount File System’ check box to mount the system as writable.

4. Next, open the Local directory in ES File Explorer. Navigate to:

"/system/media/audio/ui/camera_click.ogg"

5. Tap on the camera_click.ogg file and rename it to camera_click.mp3.

That’s it. Open the camera and take a snap. Voila! No more shutter sound.

Tip: If you’re using CM 7.1.0, then you can now quickly disable camera shutter sound from settings: Settings > CyanogenMod settings > Sound > Mute camera shutter.

Source: CM ForumRelated Posts:

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1. Samsung Parallax Winter LWP

A parallaxing winter scene to remind you of the winter holidays and the Christmas season. You can customize the snowflake type, speed, and number on the screen from the settings menu.

Download Here

2. Samsung Carnival Live Wallpaper

Vibrant flower wheels rotating and blending into a variety of colors. Option to configure and customize the flower type, speed, and number of flowers on the screen.

Download Here

3. 3D Christmas Live Wallpaper Fr

This one by Jetblack Software is a really superb and one of the best free Christmas season live wallpaper for Android. 3D Christmas Live Wallpaper Free is a stunning 3D live wallpaper featuring a sparkling Christmas tree of light, plus an exciting countdown to Christmas. The countdown can be set to Xmas day, New Year day, Xmas eve, etc. It offers customization options to configure graphics performance, rendering quality, detail level and countdown type. The quality is simple awesome and sharp, do try it out!

Download Here

Hope you like the above live wallpapers. Have a great Xmas and New Year ahead.

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Fortunately, Google has now released the Galaxy Nexus User’s Guide as a PDF, thus making it easier and quicker for users to get started with the new Android 4.0 ICS. However, the Galaxy Nexus help page indicates Coming Soon for the Owner’s guide which apparently is a different guide that emphasises on hardware functions of the device.

Galaxy Nexus User Manual is a detailed 107 page PDF with various topics, describing how to use your Android phone running Ice Cream Sandwich. The guide covers most of the basic tips and instructions to help you easily setup your phone, understand all the functions, settings and other new features in ICS. Included are tips to optimize the performance, manage accounts, connect to network and devices, secure phone, etc.

Download Galaxy Nexus User Guide (PDF)

~ You can also check the Galaxy Nexus (Android 4.0) online help guide here.

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avast! Free Mobile Security Beta boasts a nice design, easy to use interface, and offers full-featured antivirus and anti-theft features that are usually found in a paid app. Besides providing basic security, their mobile app delivers several advanced features like Web Shield, SMS and Call filter, Firewall, Remote features, App Manager, etc. avast! Anti-Theft is a module of this app that brings the latest anti-theft technology to your phone. However, anti-theft and firewall requires a Rooted device and will request super user permission on enabling them.

Key Features:

• Real-time protection

• Performs on-demand Scans – Individually scan installed apps and SD card content or both, option for scheduling scans, scanning of apps before install.

• Privacy Advisor – Displays access rights and intents of installed apps, identifies potential privacy risks.

• Web Shield – scans each URL and warns about any malware-infected URL.

• App Manager – shows a list of running apps and system resources consumed by them. Option to stop or uninstall any specific app.

• SMS/Call Filtering – Create a group, then add members from contact list to block incoming calls and/or messages using set parameters based on day(s) of the week, start time, and end time. You can also block outgoing calls.

• Firewall – Guards against hackers. Block app(s) access to Internet either on Wi-Fi, 3G and roaming mobile networks or on all of them.

• avast! Anti-Theft (Requires Root)

- App Disguiser and Stealth Mode makes it difficult for thieves to detect or remove it.

- SIM-Card Change Notification: If someone steals you phone and changes the SIM card to a new number, it can lock and send you notification (to remote device) of the phone’s new number and geo-location.

• Remote Features – Remotely Lock, Wipe, Locate, Siren, Lock, covert Calling, Forwarding, “Lost” Notification, SMS sending, History, etc. using SMS commands.

>> Do note that the app is in Beta and you may experience some bugs.

Download avast! Mobile Security BETA [Market Link]

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AirDroid is a fast, free and a must have app for Android users. It works flawlessly and is a lot easier to use than other similar wireless file sharing apps like Samba and SwiFTP. Besides making it convenient and easy to manage and transfer the data between Android phone and PC over Wi-Fi, it delivers several brilliant features as well. The app boasts a beautiful and simple interface, supports Android 2.1 or later.

To Wireless Remote Control your device, just launch the app and Start. An IP address is listed that you need to visit in web browser on your desktop computer (Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, etc.) and input the dynamic password generated by AirDroid to login. There is also an option to set a Pre-defined password that is disabled by default but can be enabled from the Settings. This makes it incredibly easier to wirelessly connect the Android device and computer, connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

The Web Desktop of AirDroid is far more impressive, with a cool and awesome interface that works just fantastic. One great feature is the ability to sent SMS text messages, reply to messages and forward them to a group of people directly from the browser. It even shows the Internal and SD card storage info of phone, Wi-Fi, network strength and percentage of battery remaining.

AirDroid seamlessly performs a variety of tasks. You can,

• Browse and manage entire SD card directory, including the files and folders.

• Transfer files between Android devices and computers via Wi-Fi: Cut, copy, paste, search, rename or delete files on the SD card. Works like Windows explorer.

• Read, Send, forward or delete SMS messages.

• Install, Uninstall, Backup (export), search Apps and does batch processing.

• Manage Music Files – Import, Export, Delete, Play, search, or set audio as phone call, notification and alarm ringtones. Option to sort music by songs & album. ID3 tags, file size, track length, etc. is also listed.

• Explore Camera Photos (image thumbnails supported) and Images – Preview, delete, import, export, set as wallpaper, search photo album and see photos slideshow. Image name, dimension and file size is also listed.

• Group, create Contacts, edit, search and delete contacts. See call log of a particular phone number and send a text message.

• View and delete Call Logs – Individual tabs for Incoming, Outgoing and Missed calls.

• Share Clipboard Text between desktop and phone – Type lengthy text comfortably using your desktop keyboard and share it from phone.

• Import, Export, Delete, Search, Play, and set Ringtones for phone calls, notifications and alarms.

Moreover, AirDroid on phone offers below listed features:

Device Status – Check Real-time ROM, SD Card, Battery, CPU and RAM status report, and one-tap ‘Release Memory’ option to boost memory.

Tasks Manager – Kill running apps to free memory, batch operation supported.

Apps Manager – Uninstall, or check details of installed user and system apps.

File Manager – Cut, copy, rename, send/share, delete, sort and create folders.

Note: Use recent version of Google Chrome or Firefox browser for best performance.

Video – AirDroid in Action

We really liked this app! Do check it out and share your views below.

Download AirDroid [Android Market]

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Lookout Labs has just released ‘Carrier IQ Detector’, a simple app for Android phones that allows users to easily check and determine if their handset contains Carrier IQ software or not. However, the app does not offers the ability to remove Carrier IQ software from your device because it’s deeply integrated with device firmware, and requires special device permissions to remove it that isn’t so easier for basic users. Its job is just to help non-technical users quickly check the presence of Carrier IQ on their handset. The app is available for free and requires NO ROOT.

How to check if Carrier IQ rootkit is installed on your Android phone – Install Carrier IQ Detector and launch it. Then just see the listed results. If Carrier IQ is detected and you wish to remove it, then try looking for guides available on several forums such as XDA-Developer, etc. It is advisable to NOT proceed unless you find this really intruding.

Download Carrier IQ Detector  [Android market]

Reference: Carrier IQ: What it is, what it isn’t, and what you need to know [Engadget]

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Windows Phone official demo page is specially meant for non-Windows Phone devices, so that other mobile platform users can virtually have hands-on with the interface and basic functions of Windows Phone OS. The demo also works perfectly on Google Chrome browser, allowing everyone to test it without owning an actual Windows Phone (WP7) device. Alternatively, you can chose to install Windows Phone SDK that includes Windows Phone Emulator, in case you’re interested in having a detailed demo of the same.

The WP7 demo page offers access to the default Metro UI home screen with main phone widgets actively working such as Phone, Messaging, Calendar, Pictures, People, etc. You can continue checking other options and functions by tapping the blue button or swiping between screens. The interface look simply awesome, just give it a try out!

Link - http://aka.ms/wpdemo

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