How to use Google Music outside of United States

Now that Google Music has finally clawed its way out of the realm of beta-ware, anybody in the US can sign up to play without an invitation. Of course, that leaves many folks out of the equation, so we thought it a good time to point out at least one other route to let you get involved in the service, no matter where you live. See, the rub seems to be that Google checks your IP address on your first attempt to log in, and accept its terms of use -- only the first time, and yeah, you're definitely going to be ignoring that doc by following this guide.

So, in essence all we need to do is find a way to gently tiptoe past that gatekeeper and we're home free. Keep in mind that while you can upload your music, buying new tracks isn't going to happen until it rolls out in your neck of the woods in a more official way -- but hey, most of a good thing is still a good thing. There are various means to get this done, and we've found a pretty straightforward route, and if you're up to it click on through to the guide.

We've made this how-to as straightforward as possible, but it will require a couple tools to help game the system and a bit of time to get it all running smoothly. First and foremost, since the Google Music app isn't available in markets outside of the States you'll need to source that – don't ask us where to get this, we simply don't know, but a Google search can do wonders. Once you've dug up com.google.android.music.4.0.9.apk, put it aside somewhere safe.

Next step is to head on over to the Tor project website and grab the Tor bundle for your operating system. What's Tor you ask? Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that can increase security and anonymity while playing on the internet. The military uses it, police services use it, and now, dear reader, you're about to use it. We're not really interested in the privacy aspect of Tor in this case, but we are interested in our exit node from the Tor network. Our goal is to ensure that when our login request lands at Google Music's door our IP address is one from the United States, so grab it and extract it to your desktop.

Fire up Tor from your desktop, the Vidalia control panel should start and get connected to the network -- watch for the onion icon in the UI to turn green and for an integrated browser to start. Kill the browser as we won't need it 'til a little later on.

Now, we're going to find a US-based Exit Node, copy its info down and then edit Tor's config file -- don't worry, we'll include screenshots of each step, and then, if that wasn't enough a video walkthrough is available at the bottom of the guide. From the main window, hit the "View the Network" button and a new window should open with a map of the world with a list of nodes on the left side.

We need to select a US node – see the little map icon? Find one with an American flag that's close to the top of the list, right click on it and choose copy --> fingerprint.

Exit out of the Network Map window and back to the Vidalia Control panel. Next step is to take the fingerprint we so carefully copied and edit the config file to force Tor to only use this node. Click settings, and then hit the advanced tab. In the middle of this tab you should see a button to edit the torrc file, click that and you'll be presented with a text editor that sets up some of Tor's behaviors.

Plop your cursor down at the very top of the file and add the following replacing XXX in our example with the fingerprint you just finished grabbing:

ExitNodes XXX
StrictExitNodes 1

When done, your changes should look like the image below and if it does, now's the time to push the OK button to save your work. Once back at the config window, we'll need to exit Tor and then restart it with our fix applied.

At this point, the tougher stuff is done. If you're still with us, we're almost home free -- and we're super impressed with your vigilance. Once Tor has restarted, the integrated browser will eventually open confirming you're using Tor. Now we can login to https://music.google.com using this inbuilt browser. You may get redirected to a Google notice page asking for confirmation that you're really you, as you're logging in from a new location, but no sweat, this is a good sign so answer the question and proceed. If the cosmos aligns, you'll log into Google Music and a terms of service pop up should appear, accept them.

After you've accepted the terms, close out the Tor browser and then exit from Tor by shutting the program down -- we won't need it again, so feel free to delete it if you wish. Now we can test to make sure Google Music will let you in: start your favorite browser, surf to https://music.google.com and login. You should be whisked straight to the Google Music desktop where there will be a link to get the music upload client. All that remains to be done on your desktop is to install the upload tool and start uploading music. To wrap up the entire deal, now's a great to time to install the Google Music Android client on your phone or tablet and finally associate it with your account.

We're done! You can now upload your most favorite 20,000 songs to enjoy on any of your devices, no matter if online or off. Hit up the video if all these words made your mind numb, or you simply can't be bothered to decipher them.

Source is
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/19/how-to-use-google-music-from-anywhere-yes-outside-of-the-unit/

 

Google Music is here

* As reported, Google (GOOG) launched its new online music store. Currently Google Music includes deals with three of the major music companies, lets users also upload and store up to 20,000 songs for free, as well as share music via the company's Google+ social network. (Computerworld)

* Nokia (NOK) discussed its plans to undercut Windows Phone-selling rivals, which in large part has to do with being price competitive. (Reuters)

* AOL executive Brad Garlinghouse, President of the Applications and Commerce group, and head of AOL's Silicon Valley operations, is reportedly quitting AOL. Garlinghouse joined the company in 2009, however according to GigaOm, AOL (AOL) is now prioritizing its web media over applications. Meanwhile, the company launched a preview of a streamlined version of its AIM service. (GigaOm and VentureBeat)

* GE (GE) is getting into software in a big way by announcing the $1 billion Global Software Center in San Ramon, Calif. The facility will have 400 employees with the goal of speeding up "the pace of innovation, collaboration, and commercialization of new technologies." (San Francisco Chronicle)

* Adding to what seems like an employee exodus, Twitter Communications Director Lynn Foxx is also leaving the social network. Foxx's departure is just the latest, joining others like ex-head of communications Sean Garrett and former VP of engineering Mike Abbott.

Source is
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/17/google-music-is-here/

Another App like as Siri in Android - Jeannie

I believe we have been so familiar with Siri - the voice assistant in iPhone 4S. As the storm of Siri impact on the market, many cloners come out in the voice market. Previously, I had written an Android version of Siri - Iris, now let's look at another Android version of the Siri - Jeannie.

How to Use
The operation of Jeannie cannot be easier as Siri. Just open the application, and start the dialogue with it. Besides some questions about “What’s the time”, users can also ask Jeannie to search on Amazon and Ebay, enable Bluetooth and wifi, translate in different languages, and start the app installation.

How it works
Jeannie just use the API of Google's voice to recognize speech and switch to text first, then process it. In most cases, Jeannie fairly answers your questions accurately.

Dialogue with Jeannie
Like as Siri, Jeannie often gives some funny answers to specific requirement. For example, asked: "Can you open the door for me?" Jeannie: "I am sorry I could not do it."

Of course, Jeannie is not perfect. Sometimes it will crash when you use it. And there are some difficulties in understanding the individual words. For example, when we ask it, "What movie is playing now?" It will directly log into YouTube. About the weather, Jeannie is often given the degrees with Celsius, but unfriendly to U.S.  And the speed to open the contact, search somebody is really so slow.

Google Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich source code is now available

Google promised, and Google delivered: the source code to Google Android 4.0.1, codenamed “Ice Cream Sandwich,” has been released to the open source community. You can check it in this thread. And as a nice side bonus, the code now available encompasses the complete source code history tree, which includes the never-before-open Android Honeycomb family of releases.

I’m not a developer, so I’ll defer to Google Android Open-Source Project software engineer Jean-Baptiste M. “JBQ” Queru’s post to the Android Building mailing list for details:

This is actually the source code for version 4.0.1 of Android, which is the specific version that will ship on the Galaxy Nexus, the first Android 4.0 device. In the source tree, you will find a device build target named “full_maguro” that you can use to build a system image for Galaxy Nexus. Build configurations for other devices will come later.

Later in the same post, he writes:

This release includes the full history of the Android source code tree, which naturally includes all the source code for the Honeycomb releases. However, since Honeycomb was a little incomplete, we want everyone to focus on Ice Cream Sandwich. So, we haven’t created any tags that correspond to the Honeycomb releases (even though the changes are present in the history.)

This is a very cool thing for Google to do - I stand by my opinion that Google had been misrepresenting the openness of the Android operating system to everybody up to and including the US Senate, but this goes a long way towards realigning perception with reality.

But on the other hand, it seems pretty transparent that they only did it for fear that Google’s rushed Motorola Mobility buy coupled with the closed Google Android 3.0 release tree would intensify the scrutiny on the search giant at a time when it can’t afford much more of the legal spotlight.

There’s no point looking a gift horse in the mouth, though, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the Android hacker community puts together with Ice Cream Sandwich as its new foundation.

YouTube Upgrades Its Android App

YouTube had updated to version 2.3.4 for android platform when there is still too much inovitive functions, but also get some practical ones.

Regardless of if you’re a big video watcher, or someone who’s more into uploading your own clips, there should be something in this release to catch your interest.

The introduction of a “watch later” queue brings that feature from the web-based YouTube to its mobile app. As you discover videos you’re interested in viewing, you can easily add them to your queue, and then watch them later at your leisure.

Uploaders should pay attention to the change in clip info editing features, letting you revise the metadata associated with a video while you’re still in the middle of uploading it.

What's more, this app gets the button of Google +1, allows the users to show the supporting for their favorite YouTube videos.The uses can update and download it in Android Market now.

Blogger Breaks Android Face Recognition with... a Picture?

There's always a scene in your average spy action movie thriller that goes a little something like this: The protagonist somehow ends up with a recording of a person's voice (or in gutsier movies, a copy of their fingerprint and/or eyeball), which said super-spy then uses to gain access to a voice-, fingerprint-, or retina-locked room. Valuables and information critical to the plot: pilfered.

One of the new features in the latest iteration of Google's mobile OS, Android 4.0 (codename: Ice Cream Sandwich), is the ability to unlock one's phone using one's noggin. In other words, your phone –the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, to use the market's only example at the moment – uses its front-facing camera to take a gander at your face. If it recognizes you, the phone automatically unlocks without need for a PIN code or some kind of graphical unlocking mechanism.

Neat, huh?

Of course, facial recognition isn't without its pitfalls – the technology just plain didn't work when demonstrated during the Galaxy Nexus announcement this past October. But what happens when facial recognition works too well? Or, to put it another way, what happens when the phone recognizes a face, but the face isn't a living, breathing user holding said phone?

That's the question posed by a blogger over at Soyaincau.com, who has allegedly been able to fool Android's facial recognition system by holding up a picture of himself to a Galaxy Nexus. And it's wasn't even a printed picture of his face: The blogger took a snapshot of himself using a different phone, and then held that phone's screen up to the front-facing camera on the Galaxy Nexus. And that, allegedly, is all it took to unlock the Nexus.

"What's even more important is clarifying to everyone that the test — and the video — is not a trick. Some believed that we had programmed the Galaxy Note to recognise the picture and not the face. We must stress that this is not the case," wrote Soyaincau blogger "CC." "The Galaxy Nexus in the video was the exact same unit we used to do our hands-on video where we originally set up the device to recognise a face and not a picture of a face."

To Google's credit, however, Android does indicate that facial recognition unlocking is "less secure than a pattern, PIN, or password" when a user goes to set up the feature. That said, amateur spy enthusiasts are likely rubbing their hands together at the notion that a picture of their friends' faces could be all they need to gain access to a treasure trove of smartphone data.

Source is
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396321,00.asp#fbid=sb2zXI6VYQo

Without Adobe Flash, Is Android Safer?

With Adobe killing mobile Flash in the browser, malware writers may have a tougher time attacking Android.

Most exploit packs target Flash and other Adobe products, including Flash Player for Android. In fact Adobe updated its mobile Flash Player just today to version 11.1.102.59, which fixed "critical" security vulnerabilities intended for PC users.

As a result, not including Flash reduces the operating system's threat level—but by how much?

"Attackers will have to look elsewhere," said Fraser Howard, principle malware researcher at Sophos. But in reality, he added, attackers target Windows PC, not mobile, users with these Flash-based exploits.

Tim Wyatt, a principal engineer at Lookout Mobile Security, was less concerned. He said Adobe treats Android as a "first class platform" and provides timely patches for Android users. Furthermore, he has never detected malware targeting Android specifically via the Flash runtime.

Yesterday, Adobe confirmed that it will no longer develop Flash for mobile devices after its next release and instead focus on HTML5 and AIR apps. But the company assured it will continue issuing "critical bug fixes and security updates" for devices running the software—like the BlackBerry PlayBook and Android devices. Now that Android is the most widespread, and open, mobile platform, it attracts more malware. Common Android Trojans that sneak their way into your smartphone through poisoned apps are premium rate billing, GPS-based espionage, fake antivirus, and poisoned search results.

Source is 
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396235,00.asp#fbid=wNQVae1fKOE