OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to have Increased Privacy Controls

Apple’s OS X 10.8, otherwise known as Mountain Lion, is geared for a summer release, but its 2nd Developer Preview reveals some snippets of what to expect with this OS in terms of privacy.

Mountain Lion was seen sporting a dialog box for permission to access your contacts, which was not present in older OS X versions. Also, the Security preferences have been changed to reflect all the apps you have granted permission to, which would allow one to revoke access once you feel the need to.

The added security features were seen as a response to iOS privacy issues, as it was discovered that apps can access and pull out users’ contact information even without permission. While such update is still missing in iOS 5.1, Apple is obviously making some move to increase users’ privacy controls in desktop systems, first through app sandboxing, and now with explicit permission dialog boxes.

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HTC Rezound Ice Cream Sandwich Update

HTC Rezound owners have some good news. They will soon be receiving Ice Cream Sandwich on their phones. But if you’re feeling brave, you can get it right now instead of waiting. The Release Candidate build for the HTC Rezound ICS update has leaked online thanks to the guys over at Android Police. This isn’t the final version that will be released this year, but even so, reports have been positive so far.

As a friendly reminer, make sure you back up your phone before installing this or any update. Then if you are ready, head over and download it. You’ll fin the full changelog for the leaked update, instructions and links to the file.

Then you’ll have that tasty Ice Cream Sandwich. Enjoy every bite.

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Samsung Galaxy S III Shot Shows Apple Patent Issue

A user over at Reddit posted something interesting in the Android section. This image is supposed to be the Galaxy S III. You’ll notice that the render shows a thinner design, a dedicated camera button to the side and a 16:9 display. But the most obvious change is that it has the same ‘lips’ as the Galaxy S Wi-Fi 4.2, supposedly to avoid those accusations of copying Apple. No one wants more lawsuits.

This is more than just a re-edit of the Wi-Fi 4.2; the front camera layout is different and in a different location. Looks like the software is Android 4.0 plus TouchWiz. It could be a leaked presentation slide to prepare for the release.

The bottom line is that we just don’t know if this is genuine or not, but it is consistent with the things we that we do know and suspected.

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Google Tricks

This tutorial will teach you important and useful google tricks which is so easy but hiden to normal users.
*Know your IP address: 

Code to Google:
ip=?
Or,
what is my ip

It will give you this result, Your public IP address is 123.456.789.000, [123.456.789.000 will get changed to your IP address]. Now, you know your IP.

*Using google as unit converter: 

Code to Google:
1MB=?KB
Or,
1GB=?MB
Or,
1TB=?Gb
Or,
1TB=?MB
Or,
Any unit you want.

It depends on you, enter your desired number, for example 1GB=?MB or 15421GB=?MB, etc.
Please remember MB and Mb are both different things, Mb is a smaller unit than MB. 1MB is equal to 8 Mb. So, be careful while looking up.

*Advanced site search: 

Code to Google:
inurl:sitename.com
Or,
site:sitename.com

This will show you all links containing sitename.com in the url. This is most powerful search method to find something, just replace sitename.com with your desired site, for example hackalone.com or facebook.com

*Google as proxy: 

You may use google as free proxy, just open http://www.google.com/translate, and enter a site url that is blocked, and change the site language, for example, if you want to surf a site which is in english language, then select another language that you know, for example change it to hindi, and surf it freely. Well, its a trick but its too complicated, simply you can use http://www.proxy.hackalone.com

*Using google as currency converter:
1USD=?INR
Or,
1$=?INR

Simply replace the currecy code(INR) and number(1) as desired, it will give you 100% correct and latest info.

*Know time of a country: 
country time

Replace country from the code to your desired country, for example, change it to india, then the code is india time or change it to new york, then the code is new york time, it will show the current time of that country.

*Flight status: 
Delta fligh 007

Simply enter the flight name, and it will return you arrival and departure times.

*Rotate google at 360*:
do a barrel roll

Your screen will rotate completely once. Its a great trick.

*Know license of a software(Is it freeware or shareware): 
winrar license?

Simply change winrar to your desired product and it will give you a message like this, Best guess for WinRAR License is Shareware, this result will change according to your software. Please note this may not give all product info.

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Google Earth Android Update Brings Custom Map Views, KML Files

Google has rolled out a new update to their Android Google Earth application for mobile devices this week which has brought with it a number of new features, including support to now view custom maps.

The Google Earth custom maps features that allows you to view KML files, is extremely powerful and has now been added to mobile devices in Google Earth 6.2 for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets.

“For Google Earth for Android users, we’ve also added a new “Share” feature, which allows you to share a screenshot of your current view with people in your Google+ circles, via Gmail, or on other applications. Now you can share your favorite places with friends and family from your desktop computer, mobile phone or tablet. And, if you follow the Google Earth +Page, you can see what others are sharing and discover new locations around the world.”

The Google Earth 6.2 update is now available to download from Google Play and provides easy viewing of any MKL files you might come across when surfing the web. Google also revealed that an iOS update for Google Earth is also currently being processed and will be arriving shortly in the iTunes App Store.

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PayPal Here, Credit Card Payment System Unveiled

This week as expected PayPal has unveiled their new “PayPal Here” credit card payment dongle for mobile devices. Along the same lines as Square, started by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and launched back in 2010.

The new PayPal Here dongle is triangular in shape and PayPal will charge merchants a flat fee of 2.7 percent for each transaction, process through the device.

The new PayPal Here dongle also provides a few additional features allowing you to take a photo of the card to accept payment, is equipped with an invoicing system and will also track cash and check payments.

PayPal’s mobile vice president David Marcus explained during the unveiling of PayPal Here at the San Francisco event yesterday.

“No business will ever have to say they can’t accept a form of payment,” – “We are going to aggressively push this out to our 100 million PayPal users around the world,” Marcus said. “We can accept any form of payment, short of barter.”

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