Disable Spotlight Searches to Improve iPhone 3G Performance on iOS 4 [IPhone]

Disable Spotlight Searches to Improve iPhone 3G Performance on iOS 4 [IPhone]: "

If you're still a loyal iPhone 3G owner and upgraded to iOS 4, you've probably noticed one major new thing: slowness. You can downgrade to 3.1.3, but more than one Gizmodo commenters suggest a fix that's worked for them. More »

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Run Google Reader Play on Windows 7 Media Center

Run Google Reader Play on Windows 7 Media Center: "

One of the cool new services from Google Labs is Google Reader Play which integrates with Reader lets you browse the web in a visually appealing way. Today we show you how to run it in Windows 7 Media Center.

Google Reader Play is a cool new toy from Google Labs that will play a slideshow of web articles. It will keep track of your Google Reader Recommended Items and will find similar interests of what you and others you’re following have shared.

Google Reader Play

If you haven’t tried out Google Reader Play yet, head over to the website (link below)…log in and click Get started.

It runs in your browser and offers features such as slideshow, clicking on individual screenshots from an article, full screen mode, star or mark articles to read later…and more.

If a video comes up in one of the articles you’re reading, you can play it directly in Google Reader Play.

You can show or hide the thumbnail viewer and easily scroll through the articles.

Google Reader Play on Windows 7 Media Center

While Google Reader Play is cool enough on it’s own, we want to add it to Windows 7 Media Center. We can do this by installing the GoogleReader MCE plug-in. Download the file, make sure you’re closed out of WMC, and install it like normal accepting the defaults.

After installation is complete, open WMC and select the Extras Library from the main menu. Then click the icon for Google Reader Player.

You will get a message saying the site isn’t designed for WMC check Don’t ask me this again and click on the View Now button.

Click on the Get Started button.

Now you can go through and view Google Reader Play just as you would in a browser but now it’s in WMC…cool. You’ll need to sign in to see content you’re interested in. Click the Sign In link at the lower right corner of the screen.

A message will pop up about viewing the page over a secure connection. Check Don’t ask me this again and click Continue.

You’ll be brought to the Google site to log in…

Now you can use Google Reader Play just as you would in a web browser.

There are some known issues that the developer has listed on their page. Just remember it’s a plug-in still in development so you might experience some quirks.

If you’re a fan of Google Reader Play for getting updates on items of interest, adding the feature to Windows 7 Media Center is a cool way to view it from the comfort of your couch.

Download GoogleReaderMCE
Google Reader Play

How-To: Use Firefox Home for the iPhone

How-To: Use Firefox Home for the iPhone: "

Last week saw the arrival of Firefox on the iPhone, but not as we know it. Mozilla’s new app, known as Firefox Home, is not strictly a browser — instead it brings your desktop browsing session direct to your iPhone.

The free app from Firefox, which now joins Opera as a browser company with a presence in the App Store, brings a user’s search history, saved passwords, bookmarks and open tabs to an iPhone or iPod touch. This harmony between multiple devices is made possible due to a Firefox desktop add-on from Mozilla dubbed Firefox Sync. As the name suggests, the free-to-use Firefox Sync add-on synchronizes all of a users browsing data, from multiple devices — making it readily available in the cloud, wherever a Firefox browser is installed.

But how can you get your Firefox browsing data, be it from a PC or Mac, on your iPhone? Our guide shows you how.

Getting Started

The first thing you are going to need to do is download the application from the App Store.

Install The Add-On

When you open up the companion application the first thing you will be asked is whether you have a Firefox Sync account. If you do, then you can go ahead and select the appropriate option to proceed. But for those who don’t have an account you will need to head to a computer to get going.

When at your computer (in my case a PC, as I tend not to use Firefox on my Mac) open up Firefox and navigate to Mozilla’s sync add-on page. Follow the on-screen prompts to get the add-on installed and restart the browser.

Set-Up Sync

When the browser restarts a pop-up will prompt you to begin the setup process for the now installed extension. As you are new to Firefox Sync you will need to select ‘I’ve never used Sync before’. Selecting this will begin the sign-up process. The sign-up process is a typical one made up of a few simple steps. You will need to provide a username, password, email and a 12-character secret phrase.

With all your sign-in credentials in order you will then need to name your device, for example ‘My Windows 7 PC’ or ‘My Mac Mini’. Taking a few seconds to name your device correctly is an important step for later use, as when you have multiple sync’s in place it’s an easy way to see what data is from what device.

Once all the data has been added, the sign-up process will be completed. You will now find a new ‘Sync’ option in your browser under the Tools menu. A sync of your data is automatically made once a day, however this new menu will show you specifically when a last sync was made, in addition to allowing you to make a sync take place manually.

Back to the App

Now all the settings are in place, it’s time to try the application. Select ‘I Have A Sync Account’ and enter the same login information, including your secret phrase, that you just entered on your computer.

When logged in you will see four options: Search, Tabs, Bookmarks and Settings. The Settings page will let you sign-out, refresh your synced data and see what data is being sync in the cloud. As expected, the Bookmarks, Search and Tabs pages show a listing of any bookmarks, history or open tabs you have from your last sync. Sadly Firefox’s application is lacking in one browsing essential — an address bar. You can’t manually input a URL, therefore using the search tool seems to be the most effective way to navigate around, allowing access to any pages in your history.

And that’s how you use Firefox Home on your iPhone.

Thoughts On Firefox Home

Why Mozilla decided to take this route for its mobile application is unknown, especially considering Opera’s success in getting Opera Mini approved and on the App Store, address bar included. However, despite its flaws, the app does have some value. Take this example — you’re about to head out but want to continue working on a few things while on the move. Mozilla’s app makes this a fairly easy and instant reality, allowing you to pick up where you left off, tabs intact. How often this scenario would arise to be of great benefit to someone is unknown, but the option sure is nice.

While using the app a few things were noticed; the pinch to zoom, like Opera Mini, isn’t quite right. If you have a lot of data to sync, it can take a little while. Finally, unlike the full desktop sync service, the mobile version is not compatible with private servers.

Firefox Home is available to download for free from Apple’s App Store now. Have you tried it, and if so, what are your thoughts on this ‘browser companion’?

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Restore the Color of Old Lego Bricks [DIY]

Restore the Color of Old Lego Bricks [DIY]: "

We've been known to break out the Lego every once in a while for fun DIY projects, but if all your Lego is old and discolored, here's how to get it looking like new. More »

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Beginners Guide for Setting Up Windows 7 Media Center

Beginners Guide for Setting Up Windows 7 Media Center: "

If you’re moving from XP to Windows 7, one of the new features you might be interested in is Media Center. In this tutorial we’ll walk through the process of configuring it for the first time and look at some of its default features.

Unless you happened to be using XP Media Center Edition or Vista and are new to Windows 7, Media Center is probably completely new to you. Let’s take a look at setting it up for the first time and getting important basic features working.

Note: Windows Media Center is only available in Windows Home Premium and above.

Windows 7 Media Center Setup

Click on the Start Menu and click on Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center will launch…click on the Continue button.

On the Get Started screen you can select Learn More, Custom setup, or Express. The quickest way to get rolling is to click Express. You can start with Custom setup, but it will take longer, and you want to get started right away. Also, you can change customizations at any time after you have it up and running.

Now you have access to all of the default features in WMC…Pretty simple right? In this example we have a home network with Windows Home Server and we get a message asking if we want to use the Media Center Connector which we’ve previously covered.

Another message that will pop up is for adding a Desktop Gadget if you want.

The gadget will transition between different Internet TV programs that are available to watch. Click on the Wrench icon to change its settings. You don’t have to install the gadget at all, but if you do this is what you can expect.

Setup Internet TV

You’ll probably be interested in watching TV and videos right away so on the menu screen go to TV and click on Internet TV.

The Free streaming Internet TV window will come up, agree to the Terms of Service and click Install. After installation you can start watching the available streaming TV programs.

For more on this head over to our article on how to watch TV programs without a TV tuner card in Windows 7 Media Center.

Setup Live TV

If you do have a TV tuner card, another thing you’ll want to setup right away is live TV. Make sure you’re antenna, cable, or satellite cable is connected to the card.From the main menu under TV scroll over to Live TV Setup.

Verify the Region for your local TV service is correct.

Enter in your zip code to get the Program Guide for your area.

Agree to the Program Guide Terms of Service…

Then you’ll need to agree to the EULA for Microsoft PlayReady.

Wait while the Program Guide is downloaded and PlayReady is installed.

After everything is setup you’ll be able to navigate through the Guide to view you’re favorite shows. If you like to use WMC to mainly watch Live TV, a cool trick is automatically starting Media Center in Live TV mode.

If you’re hard of hearing, or just want to mute the volume on a show, Close Captioning is available as well.

Use Media Center as a DVR

Another cool feature you’ll want to get started with is using it as a DVR to record, pause, and rewind live TV. The process is simple, while watching Live TV simply click the Record button.

You’ll know it’s recording by a small message popping upon the left side of the screen with the red record button.

Click the Record button again to stop it and you’ll see the Record button is no longer there.

Then you can watch the recorded TV by going to the main menu and under TV select Recorded TV.

This will pull up a list of the different shows you’ve recorded.

Your recorded live TV files will be in the Recorded TV Library Folder as “.wtv” file format. Keep in mind the Recorded TV files are lossless and will be quite large, so make sure you have the appropriate disk space. If you want to convert the files and remove commercials, check out our article on MCEBuddy.

You can also convert the files to “.dvr-ms” format by right-clicking the file and selecting that option from the Context Menu.

Watch Netflix

If you have a Netflix account, by default you can watch instant streams through WMC. In the main menu navigate to Movies and select Netflix.

Agree to the Terms of Service and click Install.

Now sign into your account or if you don’t have an account you can start a free trial.

After signing in you can go through your Queue and browse for movies and programs that are available to watch instantly.

You have the ability to manage your Netflix DVD and Instant Queue directly within WMC.

For best viewing results you can watch your videos in full screen.

This should get you started with Windows 7 Media Center. Setting it up and getting the basic features working is relatively easy following the wizard driven user interface. Once you get comfortable with Media Center you can start configuring more complex and interesting options such as:

• Adding Cover Art & Metadata to the Media Center Movie Library
  
• Add Zune Desktop Player to Windows 7 Media Center
  
• Configuring Startup Customizations in Media Center

If you’re new to Windows 7 and Media Center, you might want to dive in and start utilizing it. We’ve already covered several articles on WMC and will be showing more neat features and addins in the future so stay tuned. What about you? Have you tried Windows 7 Media Center? If so, let us know what your thoughts on it in the comments!