I, however, am not a person who enjoys simplicity, and that is why I jailbreak my iPhone. It allows me to take the Notification Center, even though it is not bad on its own, and make it so much better. iOS 5 has not been jailbroken long, and I must say, it is impressive how far the jailbreak community has come with the Notification Center. There are many tweaks out there, but these are three of my favorites.

Set Up

Each one of these tweaks is available in Cydia, so you will need to install each one separately in order for them to work. Once you install the tweak, you will need to go to Settings > Notifications and scroll to the name of the tweak and enable it. It works just like enabling an app to display notifications. Once you enable it, the tweak will automatically show in your Notification Center.

AppsCenter

As you might guess, AppsCenter allows you to launch apps from your Notification Center. By default, it will display all of your apps in a scrolling list. Obviously, this is not practical if you have lots of apps, so you will want to go to Settings and scroll down until you see AppsCenter to tweak this.

From here you can change many settings such as the number of apps it shows at one time, if it shows the apps in pages and whether or not it shows the labels for the apps. You can also set how the applications are sorted from this screen.

If you are like me, and have many apps on your phone, you will want to use the choose apps section to customize which apps are displayed in Notification Center. Personally, I just choose the four applications I use the most, and I am sure you will find a system that works for you.

RSSWidget

This is a cool way to take a quick look at your favorite website (which had better be MakeUseOf.com – or else!) right from your Notification Center. It only supports one feed at a time, which makes sense because otherwise Notification Center would be completely bogged down with information.

From the Settings screen on your iPhone, scroll down to RSSWidget and click it. On this screen is where you will enter the feed for the website you would like to see in the Notification Center.

After you enter the URL, open the Notification Center and you should see the most recent article from the website you added. You can swipe left or right over the article to see older or newer ones, and tapping on it directly will open the full article in Safari.

WeeSearch

WeeSearch is an awesome little widget that allows you to search YouTube, Google, Wikipedia and a dictionary right from the notifications center. Simply install the package from Cydia and enable WeeSearch in the Notification Center section of Settings, and the little search bar will appear.

To use WeeSearch, you simply type in what you are looking for, tap the service you wish to use and click “Search.” The widget will open Safari and search the proper site automatically. It makes it quick and easy to find whatever you are looking for on the web.

Conclusion

The Notification Center is awesome, and these widgets make it even better. It seems odd that Apple has a weather widget and nothing else, but it is great that the jailbreak community is stepping up and filling in the gaps. As time goes on, more and more cool tweaks will come out for Notification Center; this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What are some cool Notification Center tweaks you have tried? What would you like to see included in the future? Let us know in the comments!

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Recent events have highlighted the importance of local backups. Google makes getting data back onto your computer pretty easy but you can also use these same methods if you’re looking to ditch Google because of concerns about their privacy policy.

Google Takeout

You may have heard of Google Takeout, which we’ve covered in the directory. Google Takeout is supposed to package all your Google data into a single file for download, but it isn’t quite there yet. It is improving, though – Google recently added Google Docs support.

With just a few clicks, you can download photos from your Picasa Web Albums account, documents and files from Google Docs, contacts from Gmail and various bits of information from Google+. Google does all the work of getting your data together and packaging it into a single ZIP file for you — you can even close the window and have Google email you when the file is ready to download.

In a perfect world, this would be the end of the process. But we still have to manually back up our Gmail emails, calendar events and other information.

Gmail

Gmail emails are the hardest thing to download properly. Google’s other services let you download a file directly from the associated website, but Gmail requires an email application that supports IMAP. We’ll use Mozilla Thunderbird here. Gmail Backup, which we’ve covered in the past, is another option.

First, you’ll have to head into your Gmail settings, click over to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and ensure that IMAP is enabled. You’ll also want to disable folder size limits – otherwise, Thunderbird won’t see all your Gmail messages.

After that, you can launch Thunderbird and add your Gmail account. Thunderbird automatically detects and provides the appropriate settings for Gmail, so you don’t have to enter them manually.

IMAP isn’t meant for doing full backups, so Thunderbird won’t automatically download all email messages and their attachments by default. We can use Thunderbird’s Configuration Editor window to tweak some internal settings and transform Thunderbird into a proper IMAP backup application.

First, set the preference “mail.server.default.mime_parts_on_demand” to False to have Thunderbird download all email attachments. If you can’t locate this preference using the Filter box, you can create it by right-clicking in the window and creating a new boolean preference.

Second, create a boolean preference named “mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new” and set it to true. Thunderbird won’t download messages from outside your inbox unless you click each label individually until you set this preference.

Third, set “mail.imap.use_status_for_biff” to false. This causes Thunderbird to always check each label for new messages.

Lastly, ensure “mail.server.default.autosync_offline_stores” is set to true, or Thunderbird might delay downloading of emails until you go offline.

That’s quite a few settings, but after configuring all four you can click Get Mail and Thunderbird will automatically download and store all your email and attachments. If you have a lot of email messages, this may take some time.

Thunderbird automatically updates your local backup each time you open it. If you want to switch to another email provider, you can even add another IMAP account to Thunderbird and drag and drop your Gmail emails onto that account.

Chat Logs

Your Google Talk chat logs are stored along with your email in your Gmail account, but you won’t see them in Thunderbird yet. Not to worry, you can back up your chat logs along with your email in Thunderbird.

Just go back into Gmail’s settings, click over to the Labels tab and enable the Show in IMAP check box for the Chats label.

Google Calendar

Calendars are easy to download from Google Calendar. Just click the arrow next to My Calendars in the Google Calender sidebar and click the Export Calendars link on the page that appears.

You can’t download calendars that have been shared with you using this link. Instead, download a shared calendar by clicking the arrow next to the calendar’s name, selecting Calendar Settings and clicking the iCal button.

Other Services

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Google offer easy ways of pulling your data back down to Earth from the cloud – not like Facebook, which requires tricks. If you want to download data from another Google service not covered here, check out Google’s Data Liberation Front page. It provides guides for nearly every type of data associated with your Google account (although its Gmail guide is incomplete).

Let us know in the comments what your experiences have been with backing up your Google data.  How easy or difficult was it?  Did you use a different method to the ones outlined here?

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Video games are challenges in themselves; it’s just that cheat codes make them more interesting. From 8 bit games of old to today’s massively multiplayer online games and even Facebook games like Farmville, cheat codes are a part of the gaming culture.

Use them or abhor them, here are ten gaming websites to go to for game cheat codes.

CheatCodes

The CAPTCHA guarded entry is irksome, but beyond that CheatCodes.com is one of the more popular game cheat code sites around. The site has been there cataloging them all since 1996, so the breadth and depth is pretty impressive. The site is neatly sub-divided by the gaming platforms – from PC games to even Nintendo 3DS. Many of the cheat codes have been submitted by users themselves. You can look into the game details and also print out the cheat codes.

Games Radar

Games Radar is primarily a game review and news site with assorted resources like playing guides, buying tips, walkthroughs, and of course a section for game cheats. You can browse them by platform or go alphabetically. Games Radar covers all the major platforms and a few less popular ones like the Sega Saturn games. Games Radar also lists unlockable games if the main games have one (or few). You can also submit your own tip here.

Cheat Happens

Cheathappens.com is a dedicated website on cheat codes and PC trainers. It also includes game reviews, wallpapers, guides, and has a message board. The site has been online since 2002 and has a mix of free and premium offerings. Premium members get first dibs at some of the games cheats and trainers that are developed in-house, which are later released to the public. Cheathappens.com also features a cheats glossary and trainer tutorials among its resources.

GameWinners

The site’s Cheats And Codes Archive covers 56 platforms from the classic gaming days to today’s current crop. The cheats, codes, and hints library also includes FAQs, strategy guides, as well as CodeBreaker, GameShark, and Action Replay codes. The site is very simple and utilitarian but the information at first glance does seem to be very extensive. The listing is in the style of a directory.

GameSpot

GameSpot is a part of a larger group of media properties and is super-focused on game reviews. The site has channels for every major gaming platform though social games like those on Facebook are absent and the number of cheats if also selective. Each game has its own page with a listing of unlockables, cheats, secrets, and Easter Eggs.

Super Cheats

The 1999 launched site features walkthroughs, an advanced questions and answers features to help gamers with the exact game help that they need, and a bunch of exclusive guides for top games. The site is arranged around the platforms (from PS3 to SNES) and that makes it easy to find the content. You can also go by the ‘Most Popular’ and the ‘Latest’ lists. The listing is vast as at last count, the PC channel alone had 5201 cheats and 2002 walkthroughs. In total the site has 10,432 games, 2,002 walkthroughs across all platforms.

MegaGames

Cheats, trainers, demos, patches, mods, emulators, fixes etc. makes up the content for this site. 9000 different games are featured on the site. The hardcore gaming resource’s main focus is on PC and console games.

IGN

The gaming and entertainment website has cheat codes for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC, 3DS, PSP & iPhone games along with video game reviews, news, interviews and previews. The site itself is on the top tier of its genre and is very neatly organized which each title getting a wiki of its own. The cheats are described in greater detail and it’s almost blog-styled in its description. Most of the cheats are submitted by users.

Game Cheats

The site covers 13000 games and displays a comprehensive list of the most popular cheats. Classic games as well as the Nokia N-Gage are covered. You can go into the forums to discover more cheats as well as ask around.

Chapter Cheats

Chapter Cheats resembles the look and feel of a few sites above. The database is arranged around Top Games, Upcoming Games, and Latest Cheats and Walkthroughs. There is a comprehensive Q&A section to field all your gaming queries. Each game has its own page and you can read about unlockables, and other game related options.

Between these ten cheat code websites and the three we had earlier covered in 3 Great Sources For Computer Game Walkthroughs and Cheats you have enough of a handicap to crash through the levels. Some of the other resources we have covered include:

• Mafia Wars On Facebook – Tips & Cheats
• Top 5 Sites With Free Strategy Guides For Gamers
• How To Cheat In Every Computer Game With Poke
• Top 8 Websites With Cheats for Old PS1 Games

There are plenty more where these came from. Tell us about your favorite destination for game cheats. How often do you fall back on them?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Technophilia is a weekly, irreverent look at the past week in tech. We talk about the big technology headlines, highlight applications we’re using and try to have a good time doing it. So stop whatever you’re doing, right now, and listen to episode 8: “Old man, look at my life…”

This week, James scans barcodes in local stores to find cheaper prices on Amazon. Jerk. Justin plays with Walk Score, a tool that lets you know how easy it is to live without a car at a given address. We compare our neighborhoods and agree that where Dave lives kind of sucks. Dave continues to hack his iPhone 4S. James accuses him of Android envy; Justin falls asleep.

Be warned – this podcast contains naughty, NSFW language, which some people may find offensive. It also features MakeUseOf writer Dave LeClair, which all people will find offensive. Sorry, we can’t get him to leave.

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And, of course, this week’s headlines:

• British teenagers denied entry to America because of their tweets. We try to get James blocked too.
• PCIPA: Worse Than SOPA. Cops won’t need a warrant to see your Internet activity if this bill passes.
• Bulgaria stops ACTA from passing in Europe.
• What do Neil Young and Angry Birds have in common? And why doesn’t James know who Neil Young is?
• Anonymous leaks a conversation between the FBI and Scotland Yard. Justin wonders why this was recorded and emailed in the first place…

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With this being said, I’ve already given you some tips on blogging. However, I haven’t really told you anything you should ignore when writing your personal blogs. Here, you’ll find nothing on SEO or raising ad revenue. This is all about passion blogging and writing for the purpose of self expression. Granted, sometimes folks still get caught up in the rules!

Make Tons Of Lists

It seems that every single publication you see in the blogosphere– yes, even MakeUseOf – is chock full of lists. There are lists out there for every single topic you can imagine – Top 10 Underwater Basket Weaving Tips, Top 5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Marry Your Dog, Top 7 Bovines That Can Dance The Flamenco… If those titles don’t exist right now, I can almost guarantee you that they will in the next five years. Why? Because they are lists. (Well, part of the reason is that I may end up writing them).

But anyway, it seems like everyone’s doing lists, and anyone that will tell you how to write a good blog will tell you to make lists. Guess what? They are right – lists are awesome. However, do not feel like every single post you should write needs to be a list. This is your personal blog, and because of that, we can assume that you can’t always funnel your creativity into this form. Feel free to branch out a little.

Stick With Proper Grammar

Yeesh – this is sometimes a pretty touchy subject on the Internet. Basically, I say that there’s a stark difference between bad grammar and writing well with your voice. Bad grammar is quite blatant – horrible sentence structure, misspelled words, comma splices, etc. But writing with your voice? This allows for you to break some rules, but at the same time, you don’t ignore each and every single law of grammar. I suppose it’s best to know the rules before you can break them.

Despite the many Grammar Nazis that exist on the Internet, you shouldn’t feel obligated to write in perfect English. Break some rules, accept your mistakes, and have some fun with it. Granted, I encourage learning the rules to the best of your ability, though. Furthermore, if grammar is what is preventing you from writing your blog, all I can say is, “So?” Go ahead and write it – it’s more fun that way.

Write Only What Your Audience Wants

You may notice a pattern in that people typically read only what they want to read, and there are folks out there that will tell you to cater to a specific audience. Essentially, they say that you should write only what your readers are hungry for. That’s all well and good, and it works for a business model, but we’re talking about personal blogs, right?

Simply put, I believe you should write what you want to write. It’s your house, and you’re allowed to decorate it however you want. Yes, you could cater to a specific audience, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, chances are if you are writing about something you like, there is someone else out there that is going to like it too. Just make sure that you share your work with the world.

Spark Lots Of Controversy

I’m one to talk, but you don’t always have to tackle iffy subjects when writing. Sure, if you want to build up your traffic, that’s okay. Also, if there’s a controversial issue that you feel like you should speak up about, then that’s even better. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t feel pressured to do it. You can spend hours paying attention to current events and subscribe to every single news RSS feed you can find, but that’s not going to make you a better blogger.

Instead, I’d suggest writing about what moves you. Are you upset about unfair overseas working conditions? Then by all means write about it. Is it going to start up controversy? Likely. However, you’re not writing solely to stir up controversy – you’re writing because it’s something you’re passionate about. I’d just say don’t spark controversy for the sake of sparking controversy. Besides that, you could always stick with articles about marshmallows and hummingbirds.

Conclusion

Blogging is a way for you to get your voice out there. It’s your chance to share with the world what you think. Don’t fall victim to the many rules that exist around it, and definitely try to have some fun.

What types of blogging rules would you ignore? What blogging rules should you not ignore?

Image Credit: Dave, blogs.com, The Grammarphobia Blog, Search Engine Journal, Wired

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Inspiration and motivation comes to each of us in many forms. For some it could like in words of wisdom, for others it could lie in uplifting images, and for a few it could be in a germ of an idea.

The Android universe has an app for most of our inspirational needs, so let’s check out the Android Market and see which motivational Android apps can give us the daily dose of motivation that we need when we flag off.

Inspirational Quotes

Inspiring quotes are probably the easiest way to motivate ourselves by a little each day. There are quite a lot of quote collections that can be found by the way of apps, but this one is the most popular. Unlike the one-quote-a-day variety, you can refer to the wisdom sayings any time you want. The app is also well designed with very few controls. You can easily share a liked quote with your social network and there could be many in the 670 quotes that this app carries. It works with Android 1.6 and above.

GoalTracker

Motivation falls by the wayside if you don’t have goals to aspire to. GoalTracker helps you keep sight of your goals. GoalTracker is simple to set up – you list your goals one at a time and assign it to two types. Yes/No for things like – Did I exercise today? Numeric for things which you need to quantify like the number of pages you read. Each individual goal can be assigned an interval (daily, weekly, monthly), start and end days, and a target value which is like the score for achieving this particular goal. You can put different goals in different categories and also embellish the goals thumbnail with pictures. You can track goals every day and also set reminder alerts. It works with Android 1.6 and above.

The Bucket List

Remember when we talked about the Bucket List? Looking at the response that came in made me realize that most of us have one tucked somewhere. This free Android app helps you create one on your phone. It’s the to-do list for your entire life. You can share your list with others and get inspired and also inspire others along the way. The Bucket List allows you to easily enter your life to-dos and set their priority levels. You can cross each one as you set out to achieve them. It works with Android 1.5 and above.

Rainbow Idea

Ideas can motivate us. More so if you decorate them with colors. And Rainbow Idea is a dead simple Android app that takes ideas and arranges ideas around colors. Ideas can be given any color out of the seven colors of the rainbow for one particular theme. Ideas can be displayed as color circles, blocks, or list. The developer likens the app to a simple mind map. It works with Android 1.6 and above.

Meditation Helper

All the wisdom in the world won’t be able to help you if you cannot quiet your mind. Zen and the art of meditation would be a bit farfetched to attain in a short time, but you can start with short bursts of meditation. The Meditation Helper is a timer which helps you along by allowing you to set a target and logging how many consecutive days you are hitting it.  If practice makes perfect, then this app attempts to aid you in that with its simple start and end chime. It works with Android 2.1 and above.

The other meditation timer you can take a look at is Meditation Support Timer.

Also check out: The 100 Best Android Apps

Here’s hoping these five motivational Android apps give you a better range to work with when you hit the dips. Do you have an Android app installed that injects some inspiration or motivation each day? Let us know about it in the comments.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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However, some of you may be wanting to start your own blog, and I thought I’d drop a few of my personal tips on you concerning this. Please consider them only guidelines, for only you can set your own rules when blogging. Granted, I really hope those rules include having some fun.

Start Small

This is a personal blog, folks. You can’t go into it thinking that it’s going to be a grandiose publication that will draw millions of hits in traffic. This isn’t to say it couldn’t go all Frankenstein on you and become that, but don’t go into it expecting you’ll be swimming in a pool full of paper brought in by ad revenue. At that point, you can safely assume you’re making a personal blog for the wrong reasons. Instead, write because you want to write.

I believe you should make it simple. Write posts that are intimate and… well… personal. I’d suggest making your readers (which will likely be a small amount) feel as if they are having a conversation with you, and during the amount of time that it takes to read your post, it could just be assumed it’s your turn to speak. Hopefully, if the discussion is enticing enough, they will respond.

Pick A Topic

As referenced in one of my past articles, it’s sometimes important to come up with the kind of blog you want to write. Do you want to write about your travels? Do you simply want to churn out daily personal anecdotes that are amusing to read? This is where you should start planning. Although I’m a big proponent of writing whatever you want, I understand that you have to consider why you are writing this thing.

If you are wanting to just spout out your ideas to the world, then by all means write your anecdotes. However, if you want to eventually be recognized for what you do, you may want to take into consideration the kind of topic you are writing about. Granted, your personal stories might be what you want to be recognized for, but just make sure that you have a goal in mind. (As a note, sites like Plinky might aid you with prompts).

Build Your Audience

Your audience is likely going to be small – Facebook friends and family, to be exact. However, you really shouldn’t stop there. Be bold, and start posting your blog on related forums and websites or make a Facebook page and share it. You may say, “Well, people are so mean!”, and you know what? You are absolutely right.

There are people who are going to jump on your blog’s comments and insult your work, your grammar, your personal life, your topic choice… everything really. They may even get around to dropping some malicious slurs against your mother. However, as a certain songwriter once told me, “Dare to suck.”

There are a lot of mean people out in the world, but then again, there are a lot of people out there who are going to like your stuff. Keep improving your work and trudge on through the negativity to find them, and when you do, surround yourself with them. Also, if they have their own blogs, check those out and make some writing buddies.

Stay Consistent

In my world, “consistency” is a relative term. I believe that it’s very important to stay consistent, but the question is how exactly will you be consistent? For instance, will you be consistent with content or will you be consistent with publishing? There are several types of ways you can be consistent with a blog, and not all of them include posting a set amount of times a week.

Let’s consider this – do you have a lot of time to write? No? Well, don’t be consistent with your publishing days. Instead, be consistent with the types of items that you publish.

I would suggest that you not post an incredibly detailed analysis on music of the 1920′s on one day and then a list of your favorite types of gas station meat and cheese snacks on another. Furthermore, you may want to be consistent with the lengths of your articles – your choice on all this, really.

Be Real

The best tip I can give you is that you should be you when writing your blog. Let your voice (not your proficiency in the English language) shine through when writing. Does that mean you can break some grammar rules? You bet it does. Enjoy that.

However, with your voice, you shouldn’t pretend to be someone you’re not. When you blog, you’re basically letting people take a step into your mind. Sure, it’s okay to clean the place up a little bit. However, don’t entirely remodel your brain’s interior just for them. Be who you are when writing.

As I’ve said before – write whatever you want. Hopefully, the tips shown here may spark you to get something started. Also, what is your blog about? Do you have many readers? Let’s see all of your personal blogs!

Image Credit: taliesin

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It is what it says. When you search for a keyword on Yahoo! you will now receive app results when appropriate. They are above the main search results, but also below the paid advertisements. App search results include reviews, pricing and detailed information about the app’s features and requirements. You’ll be given a selection of suggested apps below the most relevant result.

There’s also an App Gallery section of Yahoo! that acts as the front page for app search. Here you’ll find categories and a scrolling selection of featured apps. As you might expect, there are separate sections for iPhone and Android, but the layout is the same for both.

Once you find an app that you’d like to download you can do so by clicking on the pricing button beside the app’s icon. Since this is only a search engine and not a store, you can’t download directly from it. Instead, you are redirected to the iTunes App Store or Android Market via a link or QR Code.

Is app search really a valid alternative to the app stores that already exist? I’m not sure about the iPhone, since I don’t own one and haven’t used the iTunes app store in a few months. Google’s search results on the Android Market, however, still leave a lot to be desired. Yahoo! seems to do a better job.

Source: Phandroid

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