This tutorial will show you how to use CM Updater to easily update your version of CyanogenMod on your Android phone

Update: thanks to Nick for pointing out that you can actually download CyanogenMod Updater via the Android Market. If you opt to do so, you can skip steps #1-4 below. In the Market search for CyanogenMod Updater to find it.

1. Start out by opening your Settings. Scroll down to the Applications section and select it.



2. Make sure there’s a “check” in the Unknown sources box. Exit out of your Settings.



3. Now launch your Android browser. Open the URL http://code.google.com/p/cyanogen-updater. On the right side of that page look for the Featured downloads: link. Click the cmupdater_x.x.x.apk link to download the file.



4. Once the download has completed, tap the file to launch the installer.



5. You’ll be asked to confirm that you want to install CM Updater. Tap the Install button.



6. And now CM Updater will install.



7. Once the installation has completed, click the Open button.



8. Tap the Check now button and CM Updater will look for any new version of CyanogenMod.



9. It should only take a moment…



10. … and if an update is found, it will be displayed (see screenshot below). In the Please select the ROM to download: menu, the latest version of CyanogenMod will be displayed. If it has an “anchor” icon next to it, that means it’s a stable release. If it has a “beaker” next to it, that means it’s an experimental release (and thus more likely to have bugs etc.). Tap the Download button to download the latest version.



11. CyanogenMod is typically somewhere around 35MB (give or take) so if you’re using 3G it can take a while to download. If you have access to WiFi, you may want to use it instead.



12. Once the download has completed, you’ll be prompted to install it. Here you have two choices – Apply Now will immediately begin the installation process – which will involve rebooting your phone. Apply Later will close out of CM Updater and the latest version will not be installed. The benefit of installing later is that you can perform a backup first, if you haven’t already. The latest version (the one you just downloaded) will remain on your SD Card so that it can be installed after performing a backup. For the sake of this tutorial, lets jump right in and apply the latest version. Tap the Apply Now button.



13. Tap the Update button on the confirmation window.



14. At this point you’ll probably be prompted to allow the program to run as root. Place a check in the Remember box, and then tap Allow.



15. You may be prompted to repeat steps #12 and/or #13. If you are, just repeat them, and your phone will reboot. If you’re not, your phone will reboot. The installation/upgrade will now begin.



16. Let it do its thing, and once completed, select the reboot system now option from the Android system recovery list.



17. Your phone will once again reboot – and this time it will almost certainly take longer than usual to start up. Don’t worry if it appears to have ‘frozen’ – just give it more time. Once it starts up, you’ll be running the latest version of CyanogenMod. That’s it!

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

Windows Mobile 6 upgrade available for Rogers HTC S621 owners
How to install and manage packages in Linux with RPM
How to run Google Gadgets in your OS X Dashboard
How to install CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your G1 Android Phone
How to update CyanogenMod from 4.1.99 to 4.1.999

Update: invites all sent. As soon as I have more, I’ll be sure to offer them up here.

I have 3 Google Voice invites for the first 3 readers who leave a comment on this post. Please make sure to use a working email address in the “Email (required, but never shared)” field (not in the body of the comment).

Please remember that Google Voice is currently only available to US residents (the service does not work outside of the US).

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

Jango Invites
10 Brightkite Invites for Simple Help readers
Jaiku invites for Simple Help readers
How to install and use Google Mobile App on your BlackBerry
Streamy Invites

This brief tutorial will guide you through upgrading CyanogenMod 4.1.99 to 4.1.999 on your Android G1 phone.

Fortunately, the process to go from 4.1.99 to 4.1.999 is much, much easier than updating to 4.1.99 itself. For a full list of all the changes in v4.1.999 see the changelog. One of the bigger changes is that bluetooth is now 100% working. Please note: the steps outlined in this tutorial require that your G1 is currently running 4.1.99. You cannot use the method outlined below to go from any version other than 4.1.99 to 4.1.999. If you need help installing 4.1.99, please see this tutorial.

1. Start out by downloading CyanogenMod 4.1.999 here (or from this mirror).
2. Copy the .zip file to your G1’s SD card.
3. Boot into Recovery Mode by powering off your phone, and then powering it back on while holding down the Home button.
4. When the Android system recovery screen loads, scroll to nandroid v2.2 backup and select it by clicking your trackball.



5. Before applying any upgrade, it’s a good idea to perform a backup with nandroid. The process only takes a couple of minutes.



6. Once the backup has completed, scroll to apply any zip from sd and select it by clicking your trackball.



7. Select the update-cm-4.1.999-signed.zip file on your SD card. Make sure to select the one ending in .999 if you still have version .99 on your card.



8. Click the file with your trackball. You’ll be prompted to confirm this action by clicking the Home button on your phone. Do so now.



9. CyanogenMod 4.1.999 will now install.



10. Once the installation has completed you’ll see the message Install from sdcard complete on the Android system recovery screen. Now scroll to reboot system now and click it with your trackball.



11. Your phone will now reboot. Don’t be at all surprised or alarmed if your phone takes longer to start up. Both the mobile providers boot screen (in my case T-Mobile) and the Android boot screen (pictured below) may be displayed for longer than usual. Again, this is normal.



12. One of the minor smaller changes in 4.1.999 is the inclusion of some new wallpaper. In case you missed the link at the beginning of this tutorial, see the see the changelog for a full list of new features and fixes.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to easily upgrade CyanogenMod using CM Updater
How to install CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your G1 Android Phone
The complete step-by-step guide to rooting your Android phone
Joost Invites
Streamy Invites

This tutorial will take you every step of the way through installing CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your G1 phone – the first “legal” version of CyanogenMod (after Google sent cyanogen a cease and desist).

The steps outlined in this tutorial were gathered from the official announcement of 4.1.99 on the xda-developers forum. For more information on 4.1.99, see this thread.

Warning: though unlikely, it probably technically possible that following the steps outlined in this tutorial may result in your phone no longer working. Not following these steps in the right order, would increase those chances. With all of that said, it’s very unlikely that anything bad will happen.

See the link at the end of this tutorial, once you’ve completed it, to upgrade to CyanogenMod 4.1.999.

1. Start out by making sure that you have Cyanogen Recovery 1.4 installed on your G1. If you do not, follow steps 6-20 in this tutorial.
2. Download the file signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-ota-14721.zip (the Recovery image, not the Radio or System image) from the Android Developer Center. Then download the file update-cm-4.1.99-signed.zip (mirror). Copy both files to your Android’s SD card. Note: I copied them to my phone in OS X (as illustrated below) – you can use Windows or an Android FTP client – it doesn’t matter. As long as they’re copied to the root of your SD card, you’ll be fine.



3. Now power off your phone. Hold down the Home button when powering it back on, so that you enter recovery mode. Select nandroid v2.2 backup and click your trackball.



4. This will perform a backup, just in case it’s needed.



5. Once the backup has completed, select apple any zip from sd and click the trackball.



6. Select signed-dream_devphone_us… and again, click the trackball.



7. You’ll be notified that you’re going to install a new image. Click the Home button on your device to confirm this action.



8. The new image will now install.



9. Once the installation process has completed, you’ll be taken back to the recovery screen. DO NOT reboot your device at this point. Instead, once again select apply any zip from sd.



10. This time, select update-cm-4.1.99-signed and click the trackball.



11. As with the previous image installation, click the Home button on your phone to confirm.



12. This will install CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your phone.
13. Once that installation has finished, you’ll be presented with the recovery mode screen, again. This time, select go to console.



14. Click the enter key on your keyboard



15. You should now be presented with a command prompt. At the prompt, enter fix_permissions and click the enter key on your keyboard.



16. A bunch of text will fly by. You might notice that some of the text says No such file or directory. This is normal, depending on how your phone was previously set up.



17. Once you’re back at a prompt (the text has stopped scrolling) – type the word reboot and click the enter key on your keyboard. Your phone will now restart.
18. Your providers ‘boot’ screen (in my case T-Mobile) might be displayed for slightly longer than normal. Don’t worry. Eventually the CyanogenMod Android logo will appear – and it too may be displayed for longer than normal. Again, don’t worry.



19. Once your phone finishes starting up, select Settings from your Applications, and then About phone from the Settings list. In the Mod version section it should say CyanogenMod-4.1.99. That confirms that you’ve successfully installed CyanogenMod 4.1.99. Congratulations! You now have a completely legal modded G1.



20. Launch some of the apps on your device. Confirm that the proprietary programs like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps etc all work. If you experience any issues, try asking for help on this thread at the xda-developers forum. Be sure to include as much and as specific information as possible in order to receive a timely reply.
21. Once you’ve finished upgrading to 4.1.99, you can upgrade to version 4.1.999 by following this tutorial. The process is much faster (fewer steps) – but again, you must have completed the steps in this tutorial first.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to update CyanogenMod from 4.1.99 to 4.1.999
How to easily upgrade CyanogenMod using CM Updater
How to partition your Androids SD card to install apps on it
The complete step-by-step guide to rooting your Android phone
How to quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi on your Android device

This tutorial will show you how to stop iPhoto from launching each time you plug in your iPod Touch (or iPhone, or any device with a camera) – and still allow iPhoto to automatically launch when you plug in your digital camera.

The application Image Capture was recently updated to include much awaited functionality – the ability to choose which application launches – or none at all – when you plug in a specific device. This means that you can set your digital camera to automatically launch iPhoto when it’s plugged in, but have nothing happen when your iPod Touch is plugged in.

To set your preferences by device, follow the instructions outlined below.

1. Launch Image Capture by going to your Applications list and double-clicking it. With no devices (cameras, scanners, iPods, iPhones etc) connected, it will look similar to the screen below.


click to enlarge

2. Now plug in a device (or three, as I have in the image below). Select that device from the DEVICES menu in the left column. Now choose an action for that device by selecting the Connecting this xxxxxx opens: drop-down list. In the case of my camera, I want iPhoto to launch when it’s plugged in.


click to enlarge

3. Now select (or plug in) another device. In the example below, I don’t want anything to happen when I plug my Android phone in, so I selected No application from the drop-down list.


click to enlarge

4. And I repeated the above step for my iPod. Note: iTunes will still launch when you plug an iPod or iPhone into your Mac if you have that preference set in iTunes itself.


click to enlarge

5. That’s it! Now you can have individual settings per device.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to customize the music icons (buttons) on your iPhone or iPod Touch
How to accurately relocate the cursor in Notes for your iPhone or iPod Touch
How to reorder the icons on your iPhone or iPod Touch springboard
Screenshot Tour: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D for iPhone/iPod Touch
How to convert almost any video file to play on your iPhone or iPod Touch

This video tutorial will show you step-by-step how to create iPhone ringtones from almost any audio or video source.

I was going to write up a tutorial on how to use this software, but it turns out the author already has a fantastic video tutorial. So all you have to do is head over to his page, download iRinger, and watch this video.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to create a custom iPhone and iPod touch icon for your web site
How to access uTorrent from your iPhone or iPod Touch
How to reorder the icons on your iPhone or iPod Touch springboard
How to accurately relocate the cursor in Notes for your iPhone or iPod Touch
How to determine your iPhone data usage

This tutorial will take you step by step through the process of partitioning the SD card in your Android phone so that you can save (and run) applications on/from it.

The process of installing programs on your SD card – knows as Apps2SD, App2SD and A2SD – not only allows you to install many more programs on your Android phone, but it keeps internal memory free so your device runs faster.

This tutorial will show you how to partition your SD card so that you can run programs from it.

1. Before you even get started, here are the disclaimers. First, you’re going to be wiping your SD card completely clean. That means that every file you currently have saved on it, should be backed up before you even get started. Second, you’re going to need a rooted Android phone in order to take advantage of the partitioned SD card. Luckily we have a detailed tutorial that shows you just how to do that, if you haven’t already. Finally, you’ll need to have the Android SDK installed on your PC. And as you may have guessed, we have a tutorial for that as well (NOTE: you only need to follow the first 10 steps in the previously mentioned tutorial to install the SDK).
2. Now that you’ve backed up your SD card, rooted and installed CyanogenMod (or any other mod that includes Apps2SD by default) and have the Android SDK installed on your PC – lets get started.

   Right-click on this link and save the file (sdparted.txt) to the root of your C:\ drive. Note: don’t save it to you’re My Documents folder, your Downloads folder or your Desktop. It needs to be saved right on your C:\ drive. This script (sdparted.txt) was developed by “51dusty” at the xda-developers forums. You may want to visit this thread at the xda forums and download the latest version of sdparted.txt, as it is updated somewhat frequently. The version I’ve provided is v0.5.2.


sdparted.txt in the root of C:\

3. Connect your Android phone to your PC via USB. Boot into cm-recovery by holding down the Home button on your phone when you hit the Power button. This should bring you into cm-recovery (see image below).



4. Now locate your Android SDK folder. Inside the tools folder, copy the two files adb.exe and AdbWinApi.dll to your C:\windows\system32 folder.



5. Now open a Windows Command Prompt (click Start > Run > enter cmd and click OK). At the prompt, type:

   adb push /sdparted.txt /sbin/sdparted

   Then enter:

   adb shell chmod 755 /sbin/sdparted


click to enlarge

6. Now enter the command adb shell. You should get a ‘new’ prompt as seen in the screenshot below.


click to enlarge

7. At this point you issue the command to partition your SD card. There are a number of ways to do this, but the most common is sdparted -efs ext4

   This will create a swap that’s 32MB, an ext4 partition that’s 512MB and the remainder of your card will be a fast32 partition. This allows for 512MB of apps to be installed on your SD card – which is plenty of space. If you’d like to set your card up differently, see all of the options listed here. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll run:

   sdparted -efs ext4

   Right away you’ll be asked to confirm this action. Type Y and hit enter. Note: it’s important that you type a capital Y, not a lower case y.


click to enlarge

8. Again, you’ll be asked to confirm your action. Type Y.


click to enlarge

9. And yet again you’ll be asked to confirm your action. Type Y.


click to enlarge

10. Now you’ll be presented with a ‘print out’ of your newly partitioned SD card. It should look similar to the screenshot below (but not exact, unless you have an 8GB SD card, as I do). Type exit to leave the adb shell. Restart your phone.


click to enlarge

11. That’s it! You’re done! When you install apps now, they’ll be installed to your SD card instead of the interal phone memory – allowing you to install many, many more. You should also see a nice improvement in your phones speed.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to delete a Boot Camp partition
Email Virus Warning: That Greeting Card isn't from Mom
How to resize Linux partitions using GParted
How to access your OS X partition from Windows in Boot Camp
How to install the most popular software on your new PC all at once

This tutorial will guide you every single step of the way through the process of rooting your Android phone, and installing the Cyanogen ROM.

NOTE: this tutorial is no longer accurate. I’m leaving it up because steps 6-20 are still required for the new way to install CyanogenMod.

I’ve created this guide by using several other sources I found online. None were (in my opinion) as comprehensive and easy to follow as this one.

If you’re wondering why you’d want to root your Android phone, give Lifehackers Five great reasons to root your Android phone a read.

It should be noted right up front: following the steps in this tutorial may void the warranty on your phone. All of your settings and applications will be wiped out (but the data on your SD card will remain intact).

Note: the steps and screenshots in this tutorial are specific to the HTC G1. It’s my understanding that this process will work perfectly fine with the myTouch 3G, but I cannot personally confirm that, as I don’t have one.

Here goes:

1. Start out by plugging your your phone into your PC via USB. Once it’s connected to your PC, you should see a small USB icon in the upper left corner of your phone. Drag the “menu bar” down and there will be an entry titled USB connected. Tap (or click) it.



2. Now tap the Mount button.



3. In your browser, visit this page and download the latest stable release of CyanogenMod. The file will be in the format of update-cm-x.x.x-signed.zip (make sure to download the zip file and not the md5sum file). At the time of this tutorial, update-cm-4.0.4-signed.zip was the latest CyanogenMod. Use the date column on the right side of the page to determine which one is the latest version.

   Once you’ve downloaded the file, copy it to your Android’s SD card. The SD card can be found by going to My Computer and locating the drive that represents your SD card.



4. After you’ve copied the CyanogenMod .zip file to the SD card on your phone, slide down the menu bar again and this time tap Turn off USB storage.



5. You’ll be prompted with a Turn off USB storage window – tap the Turn Off button.



6. Now open the browser on your Android phone. Enter the URL http://ryebrye.com/files/flashrec.apk.



7. The file is just about 4MB in size, so it might take a minute or three to download.



8. Once the download has completed, tap the download entry for that file.



9. If you haven’t previously enabled installing 3rd party applications, a warning window will pop up. Click the Settings button on that screen. Note: if you have previously enabled installing 3rd party apps, skip down to step #12.



10. The Application settings window will open. Tap the ‘grayed out’ check mark next to the Unknown sources entry (so that a green check-mark appears).



11. Tap OK on the warning window.



12. Use the Back button to return to the downloads list. Now tap the download entry for flashrec.apk again. This time you’ll be prompted to install it. Click the Install button.



13. Once the installation has completed, tap the Open button.



14. On the Recovery Flasher window, tap the Backup Recovery Image button.



15. Let the recovery flasher do its thing. It’ll only take a few moments.



16. Once the backup has completed, you should be presented with a screen that says Backed up. at the top. Now tap the Flash Cyanogen Recovery 1.4 button.



17. Once this process has completed, you’ll be presented with a screen that says Flashed new recovery image. at the top.



18. At this point you need to power your phone off. Hold down the power button and select the Power off option.



19. Tap OK to shut your phone down.



20. Hold down the Home button and click the power button to turn your phone back on. It’s very important that you hold down the Home button when turning your phone back on or Android will over-write the recovery image that you just installed.

    When Android powers up, you’ll be presented with a new screen – the Cyanogen recovery image. Use your trackball and navigate down to nandroid v2.2 backup. Click this entry with the trackball.



21. Cyanogen will now create a recovery image for you. This is very helpful if you ever need to restore your Android phone. Don’t skip this step.



22. Once the backup has completed, you’ll see a screen with Backup complete! at the bottom.



23. Now scroll down to the entry titled wipe data/factory reset and click it with your trackball.



24. You’ll be asked to confirm this action by clicking the HOME button on your phone. Do so now.



25. Cyanogen will now wipe your Android phone. Once this process has completed, scroll to the apply any zip from sd entry and click it.



26. Select the .zip file that you copied to your SD card way back in step #3. Again, this file should be titled something like update-cm-x.x.x-signed.zip. Once you’ve selected that file, click it (using the trackball-button).



27. Click the HOME button to confirm this action.



28. The process of applying the CyanogenMod can take a couple of minutes to complete, so don’t worry if nothing seems to be happening.



29. Once it says Install from sdcard complete at the bottom of your screen, scroll to the reboot system now entry and click it.



30. Your phone will now restart. You’ll notice that the boot screen is slightly different now. This is a good sign.



31. Once your device finishes starting up, right away you’ll notice a new background image.



32. If you’d like to confirm everything installed, open your Settings, scroll down to About phone and select it. There should be a new entry in that list titled Mod version. It should say CyanogenMod-x.x.x (where x.x.x is the version you downloaded and installed).



33. Once again mount your SD card in Windows (see steps #1-3 above). There should be a new file on your SD card titled recovery-backup.img. Copy this file to your PC. This is the backup that you created in step #14, and it’s very important and helpful to have if you should every decide to restore your Android phone. It’s also a good idea to copy this file elsewhere – to your online backup service, a DVD, an external drive etc. You may even want to email a copy to yourself if you use an online email service like Gmail, so that it will always be stored on the Gmail servers.



34. That’s it! You’ve now rooted your phone and installed the CyanogenMod mod. Explore your Applications and phone – you’ll notice a number of new apps and features. One of which is that you now have 5 ‘home’ screens instead of 3. You should also notice that your phone is considerably faster – one of the main reasons to go through this process.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to partition your Androids SD card to install apps on it
How to copy music to your Android phone from Windows
How to copy music to your Android phone from your Mac
How to install CyanogenMod 4.1.99 on your G1 Android Phone
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows

This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to browse the web anonymously on your Android phone.

1. Start out by opening up the Android Market. Select Search from the options.



2. Enter the word torproxy in the search field, and run a search for it.



3. You should get two results: TorProxy and Shadow. Install both of them.



4. Once both TorProxy and Shadow are installed, open your applications list and select TorProxy



5. Here you’ll have to set your anonymous preference. Off will leave it turned off until you change that setting, on-demand will turn TorProxy on when an application (Shadow) requires it, and always on will leave it always running. The on-demand option is a good one.



6. Now launch Shadow from your applications list. One thing you’ll notice right away is that a “timer” will appear in your top menu, counting down. This is the TorProxy connection status, and it lets you know how long it’s going to take to make a connection. Once the timer hits 0, you should be connected.



7. Once you’re connected, the “timer” icon will change to an onion – and Shadow will notify you that you’re now browsing anonymously.



8. Shadow is similar to the built in Android browser. Click the menu button on your device, and the Shadow options will appear. Select Go to enter an address.



9. I visited http://whatsmyip.net to find out what IP address web sites believed I was ‘coming from’ (the Tor Proxy).



10. It also confirmed that I was browsing anonymously – the IP address displayed was not the one assigned to my Android device.



11. One thing you’ll notice while surfing with Shadow is that a little Cookies Blocked button will appear fairly often. This lets you know that the page you’re visiting wanted to issue a cookie to you, but Shadow blocked it. Tap that icon..



12. … and you can change the setting to allow cookies for that domain (whitelist).



13. If you bring up the Notification window while TorProxy is running, it will be displayed. Tap its entry.



14. From here you can change the settings, turning TorProxy off etc.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to surf the web anonymously using OS X
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from OS X
How to quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi on your Android device
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows
How to copy music to your Android phone from Windows

This brief tutorial will show you how to quickly turn GPS on or off on your Android phone/device.

If you’ve ever enabled GPS on your Android based phone, you know that you have to navigate through a bunch of screens just to get to the location to turn it on. Using Toggle GPS, enabling and disabling GPS can be done with just a couple of taps/clicks.

1. Start out by opening the Market from your Applications list.



2. Select Search.



3. In the search box, enter the phrase toggle gps and run a search.



4. The first result should be GPS Toggle Widget by Rounded Labs. If it’s not, scroll down until you find it. Once you do, select it.



5. Tap the Install button.



6. After reviewing the permissions and confirming that you’re OK with them, tap the OK button.



7. After GPS Toggle Widget has installed, add it to one of your home screens. If you need help adding widgets to your home screen, see this tutorial.



8. If GPS isn’t currently enabled on your phone/device, the widget icon will be of a satellite “not transmitting” – as indicated in the screenshot below. Tap the widget.



9. You’ll be taken directly to the My Location sources sub-section of the Security & location settings. From here you can enable (or disable) the use of wireless networks and enable (again, or disable) the use of GPS satellites.



10. With GPS enabled, the GPS Toggle Widget will show a satellite “transmitting” – as indicated in the screenshot below.



11. So any time you need to quickly enable or disable GPS – use the widget.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi on your Android device
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from OS X
How to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop in Windows XP
How to disable some of the unnecessary features and services in Windows Vista

This tutorial will guide you step by step through the process of adding audio files (mp3, ogg, wma, etc) from your Windows PC to your Android phone.

Note: the steps and screenshots in this tutorial are specific to the G1 Android phone. They will likely be similar if not identical as new Android devices reach the marketplace.

1. In order to add music to your Android phone you’ll need to plug it into your PC using a USB cable. Once it’s connected to your PC, you should see a small USB icon in the upper left corner of your phone.



2. Drag the “menu bar” down and there will be an entry titled USB connected. Tap (or click) it.



3. Now tap the Mount button.



4. Depending on how you have Windows configured to react when a new drive is detected, you may see a Removable Disk screen similar to the one below. If you do, select Open folder to view files using Windows Explorer, click OK and skip the next step. If you don’t see a Removable Disk window, proceed to the next step (#5).



5. Double-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop, or open My Computer from your Start menu. There will be a new drive listed – double click it.



6. You’re now viewing the contents of the SD card in your Android device. There should be a folder titled Music – but if there isn’t don’t worry – just create it.



7. Now navigate to the location you store your audio files on your PC. Select the ones you want to copy to your Android phone/device and copy them by clicking Ctrl+c or right-clicking on them and selecting Copy.



8. Return to the Music folder on your phones SD card and paste the files into it (click ctrl+v or right-click and select Paste).



9. Your music/audio files will now copy over.



10. Once you’ve finished adding files to your phones Music folder, double-click the Safely Remove Hardware icon in your system tray.



11. Select the USB Mass Storage Device and then click the Stop button.



12. Select the drive that represents your Android phone (in my case it was F: drive, as indicated in the screenshot below) and click the OK button.



13. Windows should now prompt you that it’s OK to remove the device (your Android phone). But before you disconnect the USB cable, keep reading.



14. Back on your phone, pull down the top menu bar again, if it isn’t still being displayed. Tap (click) the Turn off USB storage entry.



15. Now tap the Turn Off button.



16. At this point you can disconnect your Android phone from your PC. To listen to the files you just added, go to your Applications screen and select the Music app.



17. Tap either the Artists, Albums, Songs or (if you added them) Playlists button.



18. And now you’ll be able to play your songs and/or audio files on your Android phone!

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to copy music to your Android phone from your Mac
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows
How to quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi on your Android device
How to update CyanogenMod from 4.1.99 to 4.1.999
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from OS X

The following review is a guest post by Jason Kaneshiro. Jason has also contributed numerous iPhone app reviews for Switching To Mac.

Game Concept: Color squares for points against several opponents in this turn-based board game.

The Good

Simple rules create deep gameplay: Move one adjacent square horizontally or vertically and turn the vacated square your color. Jump two squares horizontally or vertically, and all adjacent squares turns your color. Tap your current square to jump to a random, empty square. You can only move to open squares that haven’t been colored yet. Moving a single square turns out to be rather defensive, while jumping is required to grab territory. But if you can jump to a particular square, so can your opponent, and as a result, seemingly awesome moves can be undone not soon after.

You can have up to four players set to either human or computer opponents. The game is a lot more fun with four players and defaults to this mode.

The Bad

Sub-par graphics: your primary piece is happy face, the animation of squares changing color is blocky, and the screens surrounding the game are rather simplistic.

Wish pieces could move diagonally.

Conclusion

Although My Squares’ graphics aren’t that impressive, there’s a refreshingly compelling strategy game lying just beneath the surface. I’ll be playing this one for a while. The game is available for the iPhone and iPod touch for $0.99 from the App Store.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to take screenshots of your iPhone or iPod Touch screen
How to access uTorrent from your iPhone or iPod Touch
iPhone App Review: Diner Dash
How to reorder the icons on your iPhone or iPod Touch springboard
How to accurately relocate the cursor in Notes for your iPhone or iPod Touch

This tutorial will take you step by step through the process of adding audio files (MP3, OGG, WMA etc) to your Android phone.

Note: although the steps and screenshots in this tutorial are specific to the G1 phone, they will very likely apply to future Android based devices – and this tutorial will be updated if they do not.

1. The first step to adding music to your Android phone is to plug it into your Mac using a USB cable. Once connected to your Mac, you should see a small USB icon in the upper left corner of your phone.



2. Drag the menu bar down to reveal your notifications etc, and there will be an entry titled USB connected. Tap/click it.



3. Now tap the Mount button.



4. Open up a Finder window in OS X, and you should see a new drive in the DEVICES list. The name may vary depending on your mobile provider or if you’ve added your own SD card to your phone. As indicated by the screenshot below, mine is titled NO NAME. Regardless – select that new device.

   In the “root” of that drive, there should be a folder titled Music. If there isn’t – no big deal – just create the folder yourself.


click to enlarge

5. Now start dragging and dropping (copying) music into that folder. The songs, albums and playlists don’t have to have a specific folder structure. As long as they have been properly ‘tagged’ in a program like iTunes, the song names, artist names, album names and album covers will display properly.


click to enlarge

6. Once you’ve copied your audio files into the Music folder, you’ll want to disconnect your phone from your Mac. This is a straight forward two step process. First, right-click on the drive name in Finder and select Eject.



7. Back on your G1 (or other Android phone/device) select Turn off USB storage from the alerts menu.



8. Tap Turn Off when prompted.



9. To play the songs you just added to your phone, select Music from your list of apps.



10. Tap on Artists, Albums Songs or (if you added any) Playlists.



11. And from there you can play your music, podcasts etc. That’s it!

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to copy music to your Android phone from Windows
How to quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi on your Android device
How to update CyanogenMod from 4.1.99 to 4.1.999
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from OS X

This brief tutorial will show you how to quickly turn wifi on or off on your Android phone/device.

If you’ve ever enabled wifi on your Android based phone, you know that you have to navigate through a bunch of screens just to get to the location to turn it on. Using Toggle WiFi, enabling and disabling wifi can be done with just one tap.

1. Start out by selecting the Android Market

   

2. Select Search.



3. Enter in the phrase toggle wifi and tap the search button.



4. Select the Wifi Toggle Widget by Rounded Labs. It should be the first search result, but if it’s not, scroll down to find that specific widget.



5. Tap the Install button.



6. After reviewing the access permissions, tap the OK button.



7. Once it’s installed, add it to your home screen. If you need help, see this tutorial on adding widgets to your Android home screen.



8. Assuming you have wifi currently disabled on your Android phone, the icon will appear as it does in the screenshot below.



9. Tap the Toggle Wifi Widget to turn wifi on. The icon changes to reflect its status, and you’ll see the wifi indicator in the top menu bar.



10. When you want to turn wifi off, just tap the widget again. That’s it!

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to quickly enable or disable GPS on your Android device
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from Windows
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from OS X
How to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop in Windows XP
How to disable some of the unnecessary features and services in Windows Vista

This brief tutorial will show you how to add and/or delete apps (which are actually just shortcuts to the application) to your Android home screen.

1. Start out by pulling up the list of all your apps. Tap and hold down the app that you want to move to your home screen.



2. The app will instantly move to your home screen.



3. With your finger still held down, drag the app to the location on your home screen you’d like it to reside.



4. Repeat the above steps to add more apps.



5. If you decide you want to remove an app from your home screen, tap that shortcut and hold your finger down. You’ll notice that the ’slider’ that normally brings up your full list of installed programs turns into a “trash can”.



6. Drag the app into the trash can and both will turn red. Let go of your finger and the app will be deleted. Note: this process does not actually uninstall or delete the program – it just removes the shortcut to it from your home screen.

---
Related Articles at Simple Help:

How to add and remove Widgets from your Android home screen
How to quickly enable or disable Wi-Fi on your Android device
How to quickly enable or disable GPS on your Android device
How to copy music to your Android phone from Windows
How to take screenshots of your Android based phone from OS X