CyanogenMod Team Explains Which Devices Will Get CyanogenMod 9

With over a million unique users, there's a good chance that some of you are running CyanogenMod right now. And if you've been running experimental nightly builds, you may have noticed that they've been getting updated more and more sporadically. According to a post at the CyanogenMod blog today, the problem will only get worse as CM9 and CM7.2 get closer to an official release.

The post explains that in order to get nightly builds released more frequently, the CyanogenMod team needs to purchase new servers, which aren't cheap. That's why they are asking the community for support. You can donate through PayPal at the bottom of the page here, and follow the CyanogenMod blog for further updates.

CyanogenMod is not a for-profit business. We are just a bunch of geeks, trying to make our phones more awesome. The donations we get currently cover our operating costs and occasionally go towards developer devices. This time, I need to ask for help from the community for something a bit larger. We need to purchase these servers in order to bring the build infrastructure back to full capacity.

UPDATE: The CyanogenMod team posted just moments ago, announcing that their goal has been reached (and even exceeded) thanks to donations from the community. This is great news, and will allow the CM team to keep providing excellent work for a multitude of devices.

First Look at CyanogenMod 9 on the Galaxy Nexus:

iLoop Smartphone Holder

We have featured a number of different smartphone stands here on icellbuz over the years, but this new iLoop designed by Provoco, provides a refreshing change to the normal solutions available.

The Prococo iLoop consists of soft and flexible loop, which has been designed to both support your iPhone or smartphone when not in use, and also provides a stress relieving device you can squeeze in your hands whilst on the phone. Its a very unique concept, but not something that would particularly jump to mind for my desk. But if you suffer from stress it might be the perfect gadget for you.

The iLoop’s designers explain:
“iLoop is elegant, minimalistic and multifunctional holder for your phone and it does come with a twist. Without compromising it’s primary function of being phone holder, it can also be used as an effective hand grip for strenghtening your finger, palm and arm muscles and releaving stress while having a conversation on the phone.”

If you think the iLoop is something you can’t live without its available to purchase for around €15 directly from the iLoop website.

iLoop in the wild. Crikey!

New Improved A5 Chip And Brand New A6 One On The Way

According to rumors Apple is reportedly working on an improved A5 chip as well as a brand new A6 offering. This comes as part of the speculation on what the reported Apple media event due to take place in early March will bring. This media event will let everyone know what the new iPad 3 is gong to hold and many think that Apple could be planning more.

A large number of the rumors around the iPad 3 seem to be in agreement that it will feature retina display and have an improved rear camera. Over the past couple of days there has been disagreement over the processing power that the new iPad 3 will have. Some say it will be the quad-core idea whilst other believe that Apple will stick with the current A5 offering as a base but improve on the existing chip by possibly adding an improved graphics engine.

If these latest reports are to be believed, Apple could be planning a double barrelled approach by improving the A5 chip and developing an improved quad-core processor which is likely to be called the A6. 9To5Mac are reporting that the A5X chip is a halfway upgrade between the current a5 model and the next model which will be the Apple A6. Evidence has also been found within the iOS 5.1 beta releases that points to Apple working on the S5L8950X and S5L8945X model numbers which would seem to point to two individual processors with the current A5 model being the S5L8940x number.

The fact that two separate processors are being worked on by Apple will be enough to produce plenty of rumors and possibilities but if this is what is happening then logic reasoning would point to the fact that the A6 chip would be used in the new iPad 3 while the A5X processor could be used in the revamped Apple TV set top box. As with all rumors this is just speculation and it could be that Apple is deciding which processor to use. Only time will tell and we are all waiting anxiously for the March media event to see which rumors are in fact true.

60beat GamePad iPad Gaming Controller

There have been a few game controllers released for iOS devices like the iPad and iPhone, but none that I've seen that work as elegantly as the 60beat GamePad promises it will. The GamePad offers all of the buttons you'd expect on a HD generation video game controller (with analog sticks and triggers and so on), but instead of using the iOS device's 30-pin connector, it hooks up through the headphone port, and apparently passes audio information across there somehow.

Unfortunately, because that's such an interesting connection, the controller only works with two games at the moment, Bugdom and Aftermath. But the company is promising more compatibility next year, and hopefully as more developers jump on board, we'll see more widespread support.

It's certainly an interesting prospect. The controller itself is $50, but as it works with more games, that price will definitely become more and more worth it. I personally have been using the OnLive wireless controller to play those games on my iPad (which still isn't available to the public, unfortunately), and I've been wishing for a controller like this, so hopefully 60beat will get the support it needs from devs.

Introducing the 60beat GamePad:

Setting Up FTP Server On Mac OS X Snow Leopard

This is actually a simple tutorial on how to properly set up FTP (File Transfer Protocol) on your Mac OS X machine so that you can easily access and exchange the content of your computer over the Internet. If you aren’t aware, FTP is a way for computers to transfer files over an IP network. In Mac OS X Server, FTP is started from the command line.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a way for computers to transfer files over an IP network. In Mac OS X Server, FTP is started from the command line. This article provides the basic information needed to use the ftp program as a client on Mac OS X Server. With Mac OS X’s built-in Unix core, setting up a Mac to act as an FTP server is just a snap. The step-by-step guide posted below will show you how to set up FTP on Mac OS X Server.

How To Set Up FTP Server In Mac OS X Leopard:
Step 1: First, simply click on the Apple menu in the upper left-hand corner of your menu bar then select and launch System Preferences.
Step 2: Click on the "Sharing" folder icon to open the Sharing Preferences pane.
Step 3: From the service list located in the left-hand column, just simply click “File Sharing" and click the "On" to activate File Sharing.
Step 4: On the lower right-hand corner of the Sharing Preferences pane, click the "Options" button. This will open the "File Sharing Options" window.
Step 5: Now click "Share Files and Folders Using FTP" to turn on the Mac FTP server. And lastly, click “Done” to close the window and save the options.

That’s it, you have activated the FTP server on your Mac OS X. If you want to deactivate the FTP server, just simply click and uncheck the "Share Files and Folders Using FTP" check box.

Setting up a wiki using Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard:

All New iOS 5.1 Wallpapers For iPhone, iPad And iPod Touch Now Available

Apple have introduced some brand new iOS 5.1 wallpapers for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch which is going to get a lot of people excited. Whenever Apple releases a new version of its mobile operating system there are usually plenty of new features, changes to existing ones and more. In the beta release of iOS 5.1 Apple included some new wallpapers. Apple has included four new wallpapers in iOS 5.1 but they are only showing in the iPad version and not the iPhone one. This has led to some speculation that they will be available to the iPad 3 at launch and that iPhone users will not get these new wallpapers.

The four new wallpapers look very similar to what you might expect to see on a Mac desktop but they have been scaled to fit the iPad screen. The four wallpapers are water on a sand covered beach, blades of grass and two new ocean wallpapers. 9to5Mac have made these wallpapers available for download for those people who don’t want to wait for iOS 5.1 to be released. They have even scaled down some of them to fit the iPhone too which is an added bonus.

9to5Mac also stated that the last time new wallpapers were made available was when the iPhone 4 was released and this was also the first time that Apple changed the screen resolution on an iOS device. This could suggest that a retina display iPad is indeed in the works. If you want to get your hands on these new wallpapers all you have to do is head over to 9to5Mac and download them.

Apple Secret IOS 5.1 wallpaper for ipod, iphone, ipad leaked + Download:

Gingerbread Gobbled Up By 50% Of Android Devices

The Ice Cream Sandwich may be the latest toast among Android users, but for now, Gingerbread is king in terms of sheer number, with a little more than half of Android devices running on it. The latest figures show Gingerbread taking 50.6% of the Android pie, with Froyo running second with 35.3% followed by Eclair at just over 10%.

It is the first time Gingerbread broke the 50% barrier, based on Google data taken in November. It was a marked improvement as just the previous month, Gingerbread was running on 43.9% of Android tablets and smartphones. It took almost a year before Gingerbread made its way to more than half of Android devices, but the 4.0 ICS may take lesser time than that, given the attention it is getting right now. ICS, which recently came out in the open through Galaxy Nexus, is expected to get its own share going up soon, with some mobile phone companies already promising to upgrade their devices to the latest Android incarnation by next year.

More information's:
http://androidcommunity.com/gingerbread-surpasses-50-distribution-on-android-devices-20111201/