Free Android Apps from Blackmarket Alpha

For those of you looking for a way to fill the void left by the downfall of Applanet, fear not.  Blackmarket Alpha is looking to fill the gap.  While not as elegant in design as Applanet, it is proving to be much more reliable...that is to say it works, which is more than Applanet can say.  Click on the link to get the file straight to your phone...

Click Here for Blackmarket Alpha

The app is simple enough to use.  When you run it the first time you will see tabs for "Applications," "Games," and "Installed."  The first two take you to more categories in their respective areas.  The apps are all listed alphabetically so the search tools are a little limited.  There is the option to also search for a particular app by name which is useful.

As always, remember that the point of these types of apps are to try BEFORE YOU BUY!  Always do whatever you can to support app developers by buying apps you like.  Let app makers make a living at it so we can sit back and enjoy more app goodness.

Free iOS Apps With Installous

One of the first questions anyone asks after jailbreaking is "Where da free apps at?!" Granted, some people may ask the same question in a more grammatically correct manner.

Once you are jailbroken, the process of being able to install free apps is fairly painless. First off, we have to address the issue of why someone would do this. The purpose of this hack is to be able to download apps for free to try out before you buy (emphasis being on "BEFORE YOU BUY"). If you find an app that you like, you should always, always, ALWAYS download the paid app from the App Store to support the app makers.

Step 1: Begin by going into Cydia (which you should have once you jailbreak your iOS device).

Step 2: Once inside Cydia, click on Sources on the bottom row of buttons

Step 3: This screen shows the app repositories you currently have.  (A repository is basically a big bank full of apps.)  We want to add a new repository so click on the Edit button on the top right corner.  On the next screen click on the Add button on the top right corner.



Step 4: Now we are going to tell the program where to find the new repository.  Type the following into the search box, exactly as it appears so that your search box has only this text: http://cydia.hackulo.us

Once you have done that click on Add Source.



You'll see this next screen as everything is installed.



Step 5: Now your list of app repositories will have a new option...Hackulous.  Click on it.



Step 6: Once inside the Hackullous app, click on the Install button on the top right corner.



Step 7: Click Confirm on the next screen to finalize the installation



Step 8: Once the installation is complete, you will see the Installous icon on your screen.  Just tap this to launch your new Installous app store.



Once you're inside Installous, you can see the categories of apps listed on the left.  There is also a Search button on the top bar to search for specific apps.



Installous is run and maintained by regular people that are working hard to bring you a great and easy way to try apps before you buy.  As a result of the grass roots basis of the program, it can be frequently out of service due to high traffic.  Always be patient when using things like this and understand that people are working hard to bring you this.  If you want to help out, you can always make a donation to those dedicated few bringing you these great services.  Just go to http://hackulo.us/ for more details on the app and to donate.

If you get this to work drop a comment below and let us know what device and version you ran it on.  And remember... if you find an app you like, spend a few bucks to buy the real version from the App Store.  Keep app makers cranking out quality apps.

JailBreakMe.com

The worlds easiest and most elegant jail break tool is back.  Comex has released the much anticipated JailBreakMe.com update recently and so far there are a lot of happy Apple fanboys around the world.  The biggest feature of this update was the inclusion of the iPad 2, which up until this point was un-jailbreakable (yup, that's totally a word).  Now even the owners of Apple's latest and greatest tablet can partake in the Cydia goodness.

So how does it work?  On your iOS device's browser, just go to JailBreakMe.com.  From there you will see a screen that has a single button.  Click it and you are jail broken.  It literally could not be any simpler or cleaner than that.  So far reports are that this will work on all current iOS devices but that probably won't be the case for long as Apple usually makes it a point to crash the Jail Break party whenever it can.

And remember, jailbreaking will void your warranty but it is NOT ILLEGAL! And if you ever want to go back, you can just undo the whole processs by using iTunes to revert back and fully wiping your device. Just remember to back everything up before you do.

If the jailbreak worked for you, drop a comment below and tell us what device you did it on.

Applanet Still Down

UPDATE: We have added a link to another app similar to Applanet but with better availability called BlackMarket Alpha.  Check it out here...

If you are reading this post then you are probably well aware that Applanet has been down for some time now. It's still unknown exactly when the service will be up and running but rumor has it that it's down in preparation for a new and improved version that has been slated to be released for some time now.

In the meantime, we are reviewing a few other options for online app repsitories and will post an article with some of our favorites soon. Sit tight and keep checking back frequently.

Video Footage into iPad 2 for iMovie

One of the points Steve Jobs made sure he emphasized during the iPad 2 unveil was that it was now powerful enough to be a portable video editing tool.  He rolled out the new iMovie made specifically for the iPad and demonstrated how you would edit footage you shot with the iPad 2's built in camera.

However, that's where the problems begin.  Unfortunately, the camera on the iPad 2 really isn't very good, not to mention that fact that you would probably look rather ridiculous walking around on vacation with a 10 inch tablet in front of your face.  So how do we get footage we shot elsewhere (either on our cell phones or dedicated still or video cameras) into the iPad to edit on iMovie.

If you just transfer footage in, you will be able to see the footage in your photos folder, but you won't be able to access it in iMovie.  The reason for this is that iMovie is very particular about the type of encoding the videos have to be in to be recognized.  Photos, for the most part, will be ok to be transferred in, but video must be transformed into a format that iMovie and the iPad 2 like.

After much research, a user on the Apple forums seems to have discovered the secret.  Forum member Zwiller5 has found a program that will do the conversion as well as the correct settings to make your video footage and your iPad 2 live in harmony.  You can see his original settings at this following link...

Apple Forums: Settings for Video for iMovie on iPad 2

(You'll have to scroll down a little to find his post.)

The program he suggests using is a PC application called Aleesoft Free iPad Video Converter (the name sounds pretty self explanatory).  He also includes all of the settings.  The application itself is relatively user friendly so you should be able to enter the information without too much hassle.  I tried it myself and have converted footage shot on my Nexus S as well as footage shot on my Panasonic point and shoot that does 720p video.  Both times the footage came out very well and the editing in iMovie was a breeze.

I'm going to keep looking for a more suitable program for the Mac that can do the same thing, but in the meantime we can now start transferring footage over to the iPad and let out the Scorsese in all of us.

Getting Video Into Your Android

So by now you're a DVD ripping wizard. You've got some movies on your computer in the MP4 format and you're ready to get those into your Android device. The last (and arguably easiest) step is transferring the video files. There are several ways to do this so we'll start with the basics.

First off, we're going to do this by simply manually dragging the video file into our phones memory card or built in memory (depending on your phone). First off, we'll plug our phone into the computer using a USB cable (usually a microUSB cable for Android phones). Depending on how your phone is setup, it may automatically show up as a new external drive on your computer. We'll assume it didn't. Pull the down your drop down status bar and you should see an option saying "Select to Copy Files to This Device" (or something like that). On the next screen press the "Connect USB Storage" button and give the device a moment to mount the memory card.

Now, on your computer your memory card will show up as an external storage drive. On the PC use Windows Explorer to find your memory card, and on the Mac use Finder. On the memory card I like to have a folder called "Videos" that I use to hold all my movies. Create this folder on your memory card and then just click and drag the video file from wherever it is on your computer into this folder. Depending on the size of the file, it could take a few minutes to complete the transfer.



Now you can open your gallery and go to the video folder and your movie should be there, ready to be played. You can also download other apps on the market to use as your video players. I like the DoubleTwist player. You can download it from the market for free and it's great because it does a great job of remembering where you stopped watching the movie and continues from there next time you start watching.

If you had any kind of errors in this process, drop a note in the comments and let me know what device you were trying this with. In the next article we're going to look at doing the same thing using Double Twist. Stay tuned...

More DVD Ripping Goodness

Ok, let's say you weren't a big fan of the VLC approach.  Now we're going to talk about another free program for your computer that can convert DVD's into formats that can be transferred to your mobile device.

Handbrake is an open source, free program that is downloadable for your Mac or PC.  It's a very powerful program that can rip DVD's as well as convert video files from one format to another.  For example, let's say you already have a video file that is an AVI file but you want to put that into your mobile device.  You'd have to convert that to an MP4 video file, which is what most portable devices like.  When it comes to ripping DVD's, Handbrake can rip a lot of formats, but not all of them.  DVD's are all encoded a little differently in their copy protection style, so you're going to have more success with some programs versus others.

Now we'll get started and first download Handbrake.  Follow the link below to go to Handbrakes site and download the version for your computer...

Click Here to Download Handbrake

Once you've gone through the installation process, go ahead and pop a DVD into your computer and then open Handbrake (actually, you can do that in either order).  The program is virtually identical for Mac or PC, but for the sake of this demonstration we're looking at the Mac version.



Sometimes when you first open the program, it will prompt you for the Source (where is the video or DVD you want to convert).  If it doesn't, you will get a the main window of the program.  Click on the Source icon on the upper left corner.  If you're ripping a DVD, select the DVD drive and hit open.  If you're converting a video file into a different format, find that video file on your computer and click open.

The program will say "Scanning Source" for a few moments and then a screen like this will pop up.  Now we're going to adjust the settings depending on the device you're going to be watching the movie on in the end.  On the right side of the program is a slide out menu that shows some device presets.  If you don't see that, click on the Toggle Presets Icon on the top right of the program.  If you're converting to an Apple device, just pick that device from the menu and you're basically set.  For Android, you want to select the Normal profile under the Regular group.

Next, back on the program's main interface, go to the box labeled File and enter where you want the finished video to appear.  You can even have it just save to the desktop so you can find it easier.

Beyond that, I recommend leaving most of the settings alone.  If you want the video file to be a certain size (maybe a little smaller to conserve space) you can click on the Video tab near the center of the program, then check the Target Size box under Quality.  Now enter the size you want the finished video to be and Handbrake will adjust the video settings to get as close as possible to that size.  Naturally, the smaller the file size, the lower the quality of the audio and video.

Once you're happy with the settings, go to the top of the screen and click on the Start icon and let it do it's thing.  Handbrake is much faster than VLC, so depending on your computers speed you could have a DVD ripped in as little as 15 minutes or less.

If you are planning on converting multiple files that you have saved on your computer, you can click on the Add to Queue button at the top of the program.  This adds your video to a list that will do all at once.  Then just keep adding sources like you did before and hit Add to Queue for each one.  Once you're ready, press Start and it will do them all, one at a time.

Drop a comment below if this worked for you and how the video quality was once you were done.  We'll have another post coming up soon on how to get those video files onto your mobile device.