I wasn’t impressed with Android team on their documentation for installing Android SDK. It is long, and jumps from page to page. Here is my better version:

Step 1 – Install Eclipse IDE

Go to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ and download Eclipse Classic (the latest version is 3.7.1).

After downloading, install and verify that it can run.

Note: If there is any error, check the System Requirements. In particular, you might need to install the JDK.

Step 2 – Install Android SDK

Go to http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html and download the Android SDK package.

For Mac and Linux users, download the zip/tgz package and unpack it to a safe location. The SDK files will be unpacked into a directory named android-sdk-<machine-platform>. Proceed to step (3).

For Windows users, download the .exe package, and run it to install. After installation is complete, the installation wizard will launch the Android SDK and AVD Manager. There is a slight inconsistent behaviour for Windows users here. Go to step (4) first, and return back to step (3) after you have finish step (4).

Step 3 – Install ADT Plugin

1. Start Eclipse, select Help > Install New Software. Click Add.
2. Enter “ADT Plugin” for Name and the following for Location:
   https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
3. Click OK
4. Click Next, Next, Next.. and Finish
5. When the installation completes, restart Eclipse.
6. In Eclipse, select Window > Preferences (Mac OS X: Eclipse > Preferences).
7. Select Android from the left panel.
8. For the SDK Location in the main panel, click Browse and locate your downloaded SDK directory.
9. Click Apply, then OK.

Step 4 – Adding Android Platforms

The Android SDK uses a modular structure that separates the major parts of the SDK. Specifically, the different versions of Android OS are each a module. To develop for a particular version, you would need to add the platform for that version.

To do so, from within Eclipse, select Window > Android SDK and AVD Manager.

Go to Available Packages, and select at least 1 platform. You may select additional platforms if you require.

Click Install Selected to download and install. Done!

The Home button got to be the most problematic hardware on the iPhone.

Recently, my iPhone 4 Home button started to respond slower. I either have to press multiple times, or press harder.. If you faced the same problem, you are not the only one.

Luckily, there is a fix for it! I tried the fix, and it did work help! Here is what you need to do:

No doubt LinkedIn is the biggest social network for working professionals.

LinkedIn is very useful for finding people with job opportunities, or connecting for business partnership. However, it doesn’t come cheap to use LinkedIn. To be able to send someone a message, it requires a premium account, which cost at least $30 per month (just to send 3 messages).

Follow this to send FREE messages:

• Browse someone profile
• Scroll to the section Additional Information > Groups and Associations
• Join one of his group (it might take time for admin to approve)
• Go to the Group > Members, and search his name
• Use the "Send message"

In the unfortunate event that the person did not join any group, this trick would not work. If that happens, look for clues in his profile such as twitter or website.

Adding live chat to your blog/website gives you another means to communicate with your website visitor.

It is especially useful for e-commerce website whereby product support is much needed. A live chat would be a good experience for the visitor who needs immediate dedicated assistance.

There are a number of live chat services that you can find. I have shortlisted 2, and tried both on my websites. Olark on Just2us (left), and Zopim on Just2me (right).

Both Olark and Zopim are easy to set up (less than 10 min including signing up). Yet comparing the 2, I am liking Olark more, for a couple of reasons:

• clear instructions for setting up wordpress blog and website
• use of separate Jabber account for each agent
• can add agent’s account to Adium easily
• has powerful command such as “!push www.google.com”, which will push your visitor to another webpage
• nicer default chat interface (cleaner and bigger font)

For now, Olark is my choice!

There is a method to easily create multiple, or thousands, of email accounts! All it requires is 1 real gmail account.

Let’s say you have 1 gmail account – ladygaga@gmail.com

Then you already have multiple gmail accounts!  ladygaga+1@gmail.com, ladygaga+2@gmail.com, etc..

This is because gmail has this cool trick where it can let you pre-label your emails. It works by giving out a version of your email that comes with the label. Eg. if you want to label all emails from your colleagues with “work”, then you would give them ladygaga+work@gmail.com.

You might be wondering: why would I need multiple email accounts?

It depends. For me, having multiple email accounts allow me to register certain services multiple times. For example, if a trial account expires in 1 month, I could infinitely register for trial accounts using different email accounts (:

I have also used the trick when registering for a US iTunes Account (in addition to my SG iTunes Account).

Google+ is a new social network application that Google has recently introduced.

It is like both Facebook and twitter, yet even more awesome.

With killer features such as hangout, where several friends can join a VIDEO chatroom, and even watch youtube together! You never need to have physical hangout with Google+ hangout.. Very nerdy yet awesome feature!

Problem

No doubt Google+ is one of the most awesome thing on the Internet now.

But the problem is that it is released in its very early stage, so only those who are invited can try it out. And although Google+ users can invite ~300 friends, the invite mechanism was shut down due to insane demand..

Solution

The good news is, there is a workaround to getting the invites (:

You still can be invited to Google+ by an existing user. The existing user has to do these:

1. Post something in his steam.
2. Add the email of the friend to invite.
3. Share
4. The invited friend will receive an email asking them to sign up to Google+

A screenshot of how I invite someone@gmail.com to Google+ in my stream.

Where to find an existing user to help?

If you need an existing user to perform the above invitation workaround, I can help.

Just leave a comment below with your email.

Update: If you did not receive an email from Google+, do not panic. Wait for another day, or two. They should arrive..

Tips: To increase your chances of being successfully invited by Google, you should  create a google profile with your gmail, and +1 something.

For example, +1 this post!

You have probably heard about iOS 5 from the recent Apple’s WWDC keynote. It includes 200 new features – iMessage, Notification Center, twitter integration, Reminders, taking pictures with volume key, etc..

But you have to wait until Fall of 2011 to officially install iOS 5..

If you can’t wait, this is how you can update to iOS 5 beta.

Pre-requisite

There is only one, hard pre-requisite:

• You need to have your iPhone/iPad device activated with a iOS developer account

A iOS developer account can activate up to 100 devices for testing purposes. You can either spent $99 to register as an iOS developer, or find a developer willing to activate for you.

Then you have to:

• Install a UDID app on your iPhone/iPad, and use it to send your device info to the iOS developer. The developer will then add your device to his list.

Steps

The rest is easy.

1. Fulfill the pre-requisite first!
2. Register a free iOS developer so that you can download the beta (it’s free)
3. Download the iOS 5 BETA for your device (link)
4. Extract to get a IPSW
5. Download and install iTunes 10.5 BETA (link)
6. Connect your iPhone/iPad to your computer
7. Open iTunes
8. Press and hold the Option/alt key (Mac) or Shift key (Windows), and click Restore
9. Select the extracted IPSW
10. Restore!

Pitfalls

Some possible pitfalls:

• If you encountered this error during restore "this device isn’t eligible for the requested build”, try editing your host file.
• Still doesn’t work, try restarting in DFU mode.

This post I will highlight 3 ways to change to your PATH variable.

1. The quick way

Firstly, check your current PATH

echo $PATH

If the directory (eg. /my/new/path/) you want to add is not already in your current PATH, then you can easily add with the command

export PATH=$PATH:/my/new/path/

Done. Right?

It’s not really done, if you would like the PATH to change permanently (which is usually the case). This quick method only change the PATH for that bash session. If you close the terminal or open a new terminal, the PATH reverts back.

2. Set permanently for a user

This brings us to the second way of setting PATH permanently for a user.

Edit the user’s bash profile (replace USERNAME)

pico ~USERNAME/.bash_profile

Insert (or edit) this line

PATH=$PATH:/my/new/path/

Press ctrl-x, then ctrl-y, to save the file.

Done.

3. Set for all users

As a bonus, if you want the PATH to change for all users

sudo pico /etc/paths

Enter your superuser password to edit, and insert or edit this link

PATH=$PATH:/my/new/path/

That’s it! Enjoy your path!

Sometimes, people delete their blog/website to protect their privacy.

For example, during Singapore Election, when Nicole Seah of NSP (National Solidarity Party) is nominated as a candidate, and she instantly becomes a public figure.

She starts protecting her privacy on Facebook, and deleted her personal blog to avoid public scrutiny. Her blog was originally at http://crappology.blogspot.com/

With the help of Internet Archive, which archive ALL public webpages periodically, you can travel back in time to look at a website. Fortunately, her blog was archived in 2007 for us to take a look.

http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20070713212452/http://crappology.blogspot.com/

PS: This post merely educate on how to view a deleted webpage, and nothing else.

App Store reviews play a very important role in a customer’s decision to download an app.

As such, it is very common for the developers to write “reviews” for themselves.

I was prompted to write this article when @mugunthkumar mentioned “the reviews looked like insider job”.

I took a look and is very sure it is fake reviews, generated by Singtel Idea Factory.

These are the characteristics of fake reviews that you will be able to identify with WheresApp SG:

• All ratings are 5 stars
• Number of reviews = number of ratings
• Reviews all on the same date and close to release date
• Suspicion reviews voted helpful
• Overdose of exclamation marks
• Same writing style eg. First letter uppercase, title style
• Mentioning functions similar to app description
• Reviewers have only reviewed that 1 app in their lifetime
• Reviewers gave a lousy 1 star review to competitor’s app

With those pointers in mind, you know not to trust the review when you encounter one. And not waste that $1.99.

All 5 stars, reviewed on same day (with no further reviews), lots of !!, title styles with “app”.

Reviewer only reviewed 1 app.

Reviewed gave M1’s My Movies (competitor to Singtel) a 1 star app (when the app averages 3.5 stars).

Disclaimer: As a developer myself, I admit I have written my own “reviews”, but mildly, and smartly.