Skype Buys GroupMe In Order To Get Group Messaging Features | Skype Buys GroupMe | Skype |

 
Skype has officially announced that it has purchased GroupMe, a company which was launched last year. The details of the deal between the two companies weren’t revealed, but several reports suggest that Skype will pay about $85 million for GroupMe after the latter raised $11.5 million in total since its launch.
We remind you that Skype was involved in another deal earlier in the year when Microsoft paid $8.5 billion to buy the VoIP service. Microsoft’s acquisition is waiting approval from the regulatory organization and it will probably receive the green light sometime before the end of 2011.
Skype is available on a number of platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Symbian, BlackBerry, and PSP among others. GroupMe focuses on mobile devices as it’s available for download on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and more recently, Windows Phone 7.
The VoIP company will pay $85 million in order to take advantage of the free group messaging services that GroupMe offers. GroupMe allows handset users to add contacts to groups and send them text messages instantly to all of them or to select members of the group. If you didn’t figure it out already, then you should know that GroupMe doesn’t requires an always-on internet connection so you can send SMS text messages without a data plan.
GroupMe also allows its users to start a conference with all members of the group meaning that you can talk with all your friends or family at the same time at the touch of a button. You can take advantage of the GPS on your device and share your location with your friends so that you will never get lost.
This applications also supports photo sharing so you can share what’s cool with your contacts in real time. Everything works smoothly with GroupMe and it’s a must-have application on your mobile device.
I couldn’t imagine how many head-aches I would have if it weren’t for GroupMe. If you are used to hang out with your friends very often, then this app allows you to organize parties, meetings, sports night, and you know that nobody will miss these events because nobody informed them.
We don’t think that the deal will not go through as there is no reason for that. Let’s just wait and see if GroupMe’s acquisition price really stands at $85 million and what Microsoft thinks about it!

HP Will Stop Developing webOS-Powered Tablets And Smartphones | HP | webOS | HP Will Stop Developing webOS | webOS-Powered Tablets And Smartphones | Tablets And Smartphones

We’ve already seen the HP TouchPad tablet, and HP Pre 3 made the official debut in Great Britain a couple of days ago. But the sales of HP were far, very far from what the Palo Alto-based company have expected. A retailer in US said that it has a supply of over 250,000 such tablets.
HP TouchPat is the first device that was born from the collaboration of HP and Palm, and the first such device to be running webOS.
We remind you that HP bought Palm last year and in the same time they got their hands on the webOS platfrom, available in the 3.0 version on the aforementioned tablet.
HP have put a lot of hopes in their TouchPad, and in my opinion they had all the reasons to do so. When it comes to technical specs, HP TouchPad is a real jewel. It sports a 1.2GHz Snapdragon CPU that makes the WebOS run smooth enough.
It also has enough memory, as this toy comes with 1GB of RAM, which makes the multitasking work without any problems.
HP TouchPad comes in two versions, one of 16GB and the other one of 32GB, internal storage space which should be enough for any tablet user. The 9.7-inch LED display comes with a resolution of 1024×768.
webOS is the operating system that HP got when they bought Palm for $1.1 billion in February 2010, and their wish was to enter the battle with Google Android, Apple iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7.
Don’t get it wrong, webOS is not a lame operating system, but to be honest it requires better hardware than TouchPad can offer.
HP said they will not develop their ToucPad tablets and Pre 3 smartphones line-up anymore, but I personally don’t believe they will kill webOS.
At least that wouldn’t be smart, as they should try to find other companies willing to develop smartphones based on HP’s operating system, and when I say companies I’m thinking at Samsung, LG and whoever else.
After Google got their hands on Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson or HTC should not focus only on Android, but also find some solutions to give them some independence

How To Install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread On Your HTC Desire | How To Install Android | How To Install Android 2.3.3 | How To Install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread | How To Install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread On Your HTC | How To Install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread On Your iphone

How To Install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread On Your HTC Desire

Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread has been released a few months back and since this OS has been added as an official update for the HTC Desire, but since it cannot be installed via OTA, which would have been the best option for Desire users, you can choose to update it yourself but only if you know your way around ROM installations and how to do it manually. Here, in this post, you will find all the steps, instructions and software files you need in order to update your HTC Desire to Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread. Do not worry, as this guide is easy to follow and I’m sure that when you reach the final step, the official update should have been successfully installed.
The first edition of the HTC Desire has been released in February 2010 and it came with the Android 2.2 Froyo OS and now HTC decided that the device requires an update, but failed to deliver it via over-the-air upgrading system, which means that you need to download and install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread manually on your device. Also, before getting to the first step of the installation guide, you need to to know that our website can not be held responsible for any damage that might suffer your HTC Desire device and you should always install and update the new OS only at your own risk.

How To Install Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread on HTC Desire:

Before we get to the installation process you need to prepare your device and backup all data you currently have stored on it:

• backup all the data on your device, such as all the applications and their respective settings, contacts, text messages, email profiles and accounts, because while Gingerbread 2.3.3 is installed on your device, all the data you have stored will be erased and the HTC Desire will be restored to its factory default settings. Also, if you were on a carrier customized device, then all the carrier’s installed applications will be removed.
• charge your phone’s battery to its maximum level because the updating process takes a long time before completion.

Now that you know all of these, we can move on to the first step:

1. Download the HTC Sync tool from here. This small app will act as a solid ‘bridge’ between your HTC Desire and the PC.
2. Install HTC Sync.
3. Now, you need to download the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread OS files for HTC Desire from here. Remember that you need to be a registered used of the HTC Dev Center. The file you have to download is called ‘HTC Desire Android 2.3 Upgrade’ and its size is 161MB.
4. After the download of Gingerbread files is complete, extract all the zip contents in a single folder.
5. Connect the smartphone to your computer.
6. Launch ‘RUU_HTC Desire Android 2.3 Upgrade (Gingerbread).exe’.
7. Now the setup installer will guide you with the rest of the steps you need to take. Just follow the onscreen instructions and read all the alerts and warnings.
8. When you reach the screen that contains about the update your about to install, simply on the ‘Update’ button and then confirm the operation.
9. Now, the installation of Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread starts and when it will be completed, you will be notified via confirmation screen. Click Finish.

Your device will be booted into Android 2.3.3 and when all files have been loaded and your HTC Desire loads all items, go ahead and customize its menus and restore all the data you had created a backup of before installing the new Android OS.
In the extracted folder, along with the Gingerbread OS installation files, there were two other applications (.apk items) that you didn’t use during the update and a pack of wallpapers and if you wish to install them you will have to do it like this:

• Go to Settings then Applications.
• Check the Unknown sources.
• Copy the .apk items into your devices SD card.
• When the files have been successfully copied, open it using a file explorer and then install the programs the usual way.

These were all the steps that you had to take in order to successfully download and install the Gingerbread OS on your HTC Desire. If you have any concerns or other questions regarding the installation process, please use our comments field to post whatever bugs you.

Google Handed Over European-based Cloud Data To The US Government Due To The Patriot Act | cloud computing | google | The Patriot Act | Google Handed Over European-based Cloud Data To The US Government |

The USA Patriot Act is one of the worst things that ever happened to the technology business as it allows the US Government to spy the whole world. You probably heard about it when former US President, George W. Bush, “launched” it as a response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. If you didn’t know, the USA Patriot Act allows the US Government to force US-based companies to hand over their data from all over the world.
This means that data stored by Google in Europe can be handed over to the US Government despite the rules of the European Commission. And guess what? That’s exactly what happened as Google confirmed that it has received a request from the US Government and it complied. Sadly, Google sent the cloud data stored in Europe which consisted of details about search queries and about users to the US Government. Well, that’s wrong in so many ways that I don’t even know where to begin.
Yesterday we reported that Anonymous has begun the Operation Facebook as the hackers’ group is looking to kill the world’s largest social networking service on November 5th. The reason why the Anonymous group wants to destroy Facebook is because the company is being used by the US Government to spy on its users and because the firm shares the data with the US Government. Well, if there were any skeptics, then their doubts should be gone now as Google officially recognized this matter.
The problem is that Google violated the laws of the European Union who guarantees the protection of the users’ data, and if the search giant “gave” it, then it’s a serious crime against freedom. Microsoft also confirmed that it might be forced by the US Government to share its data from cloud servers located in Europe, but they didn’t receive a request until now. Another company which offers cloud-based services in Europe is Amazon, but it is unknown whether the “great” Government of the USA has requested the company to hand over its data about users.
So the US Government is inventing laws to allow them to spy on users. Clever guys… What’s more – the very same USA Patriot Act states that the companies must remain quiet when the US Government makes a request for the data or face serious charges. I don’t know what’s worse: the spying or the fact that the Government wants to keep everything a secret and look like it’s actually helping the people?
The European Union hasn’t started an official investigation, but it should do it very soon. We thought that the alleged war against terrorism should have stopped by now, but it’s very fun to spy on people. Let’s just wait for that inquiry to begin which, hopefully, will end very soon with the obvious result: the protection of the users and their anonymity.

HTC HD7 With Windows Phone 7 Tango Build 8200 Leaked In Slovakia | htc | windows phone | Windows Phone 7 | Windows Phone 7 Tango Build 8200 Leaked In Slovakia | HTC HD7 |

 

The next generation Windows Phone 7 version will be called Mango and the update build has been shipped to OEMs. Recently, we established that Mango will be quickly followed by another major update which has the internal codename of “Tango.” The next update after Tango is codenamed Apollo, but we’re going to discuss about it at a later time. Much later time… Anyway the first proof of the Tango existence is a photo of a HTC HD7 which is running on build 8200 DEV that, you guessed, is the build for WP7 Tango.
The leak comes from a very unusual place, Slovakia, not that there is anything wrong with the country or something like that, but we’re not used to getting details from the Central European nation. The photo of the HTC HD7 running Windows Phone 7 Mango comes from the Pretaktovanie.sk forum, while the thread was posted by a person nicknamed Snake who is actually a very active moderator.
At the moment we’re a little baffled that Microsoft is considering selling HTC HD7 units with Tango on-board as the next-generation WP7 smartphones should be the ones to rock Tango out of the box. It is believed that the Windows Phone 7 eco-system will get a new family of smartphones this fall, with HTC being the premier phone maker.
On the screen we’re presented the details of the phone: HTC HD7 T9292 running on Windows Phone 7.10.8200 DEV, while the software build says “Windows Phone 7.5.”  This means that Mango won’t be Windows Phone 7.5, and that Apollo might become Windows Phone 8 if Microsoft doesn’t eventually decided to rebrand the “Windows Phone” name into “Zune Phone.”
The photo has now been removed which doesn’t come as a surprise at all as Microsoft never learns from its mistakes. Both Microsoft and Nokia said that they will adopt the Apple-like secrecy mantra, but we’ve seen numerous leaks recently so we’re just gonna let them talk without believing them.
Allegedly, the Tango-running HTC HD7 was on sale via Facebook for the very low amount of €150, but the post was eventually removed, too. We guess that it was sold really quickly after someone lost it in a bar somewhere.
Check out the photo below to see for yourself, and let us know what do you think about Windows Phone 7. Would you buy such smartphone considering the fact that the Mango update will come packed with five hundred new features this fall? Discuss in comments!

How To Edit Hosts Files In Microsoft Windows OS | How To Hosts Files In Microsoft Windows OS | Microsoft Windows OS | Microsoft Windows | Files

How To Edit Hosts Files In Microsoft Windows OS

  

If I remember well User Account Control (UAC) was 1^st introduced in Windows Vista. Since then this has been a very prominent feature with what you can change and break many usual behaviors of your Windows OS. This happens in Windows 7 too and if we think a little, this will be there to use in further versions of the Microsoft product. Windows 8 will make no exception of course. The only thing that I found annoying is the fact that it’s no longer possible to directly edit the hosts file with Notepad. This allowed users to override DNS and so map IP addresses to the required domains.
If you would try to run Notepad or in fact any other text editor and try to open some files located in %WinDir%/System32/drivers/etc/ folder, after making the changes an error message will appear that will sound like this: “You don’t have permission to save in this location. Contact the administrator to obtain permission.”
This will happen even in those situations where the user has been logged on to Windows as administrators. In fact it doesn’t matter what type of account you have because the same error will appear again and again. So you will need to find a way in which you will be able to provide administrator permission to copy to this folder.
A thing that needs to be remembered is that in Windows 7, UAC has been greatly improved in such a way that you will need only to click the “Continue” in order to initiate the copying or moving. This happens only if you are logged in with an administrator account. Also giving credentials for an administrator account is a good way to do this.
In fact you have probably noticed that Windows doesn’t approve any applications that have non-elevated privileges when it comes to making changes to some important system files or folders. We will show you now the proper way to modify and edit the host file.

1. Simply right click on the Notepad (or in fact any text editor you like) and from there select Run as Administrator.
2. Now click on File -> Open and from there browse to the next folder.
3. %SystemDrive%\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc
4. A good tip would be to copy and paste into the location bar for a better folder path.
5. From the file type drop down menu list click and select All Files (*.*).
6. Now open the hosts file.

After you finish editing you will be able now to save the files.

How To Format Apple’s MacBook Hard Drive | Apple’s MacBook | Format Apple’s MacBook Hard Drive | Apple’s MacBook Hard Drive | Apple’s MacBook | Hard Drive

How To Format Apple’s MacBook Hard Drive

  

Although any Apple user and especially MacBook user would say there is nothing that they would change about their products times are evolving. I am not saying that the MacBook line of laptop computers is a bad one, I am just saying that when it comes to this product people from Apple are upgrading these products on a regular base. But, if you have an old model and for example you decide you want a new MacBook what do you do with the old one. Well you can sell it of course but that would mean 1^st you will need to erase any personal information of the hard drive. And to be sure all is gone I would advise a format instead of staying and deleting numerous files because it’s much easier and at the same time you are sure everything get’s deleted.
For the formatting part I recommend using the Disk Utilities feature in Mac OS X. This is by far the best solution because it’s easy to use and at the same time is guaranteed by Apple. Here are the steps you need to follow with this procedure:

1. Insert the Mac OS X installation disc in order to start the process. Now simply restart your device.
2. After the startup sound plays you press the “C” key on your keyboard. You need to press is and hold it until the Installer screen appears.
3. Click on the “Installer” and after that just select the “Open Disk Utilities” option. Now select your hard drive and then press the “Erase” tab.
4. There will be a list on the Volume Format menu. From there just select a volume and then go and click on “Security Options”.
5. There should be a check box next to “7-Pass Erase”, “Zero Out Data” or “35-Pass Erase”. Let’s explain what all these features do: the 7-Pass Erase is an option that will write data over the hard drive for 7 times. When it comes to Zero Out Data option this is something that will write zero over all the MacBook’s hard drive. The 35-Pass Erase is similar to 7-Pass Erase, the only difference is that this writes over the hard drive for 35 times. All of them are good so I will let every user to chose the one that he thinks benefits his needs.
6. Now press the “OK” button and then there should be an “Erase” option you click on. When it comes to the waiting period this depends mostly on the option you selected. If you chosen the 35-Pass Erase option you should know this will take 35 times more than the Zero Out Data option. Also if you chose the 7-Pass Erase option, this means you will have to wait 7 times the period you wait for the Zero Out Data option in order for the format to complete.

And that is about all. This will increase your security and privacy and will make you to be 100% nobody else gets inside in your private stuff after selling your device.