Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet became the first BlackBerry device to be rooted this past November, granting users access to the device’s file system and allowing a level of customization that BlackBerry users have not had in the past. As RIM enters into the cat and mouse game Apple knows all too well, PlayBook owners willing to root their devices now have access to the Android Market as well as the apps contained within. CrackBerry has published a complete how-to guide that details all of the software and steps required in order to install Google’s Android Market on a PlayBook tablet. While an upcoming PlayBook software update will soon bring official Android app support to the tablet, apps will need to be repackaged and made available in BlackBerry App World in order to function in RIM’s app player. Using the guide linked below, no such tweaks are necessary from developers, and users can have Android apps running on the PlayBook immediately.

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A group of iOS hackers have managed to successfully port Apple’s virtual assistant software Siri to the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch, and the software needed to perform the port is now available to the public. Tech blog InTech-BB posted the necessary links on Sunday along with a how-to guide, and a number of users have reported successfully installing Siri on their devices using the tools and steps provided within the guide. Several users note problems with their cameras after installing the ported Siri software, but a fix is apparently now available. IPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch owners who understand the risks involved with jailbreaking and installing unauthorized software can follow the read link below for a step-by-step tutorial along with a video of Siri in action on an iPhone 4.

[Via The Tech Erra]

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We live in a digital age where it seems nearly impossible to maintain your privacy. There are some measures that can be taken to limit your exposure, however. While numerous companies make money by collecting data from public records and selling it to people looking to perform quick and easy background checks, there are ways to stop these companies from tossing around your personal information willy nilly. Reddit user “pibbman” has compiled a list of all the major background check sites that hand out your data to anyone with a credit card, and he has included instructions and links on how to opt out of their services and have your information removed from each site. Of course, be sure to search your name before opting out of any service — you’ll be required to prove your identity to these companies in order to opt out, and there’s no reason to hand over your information if they don’t already have it. Pibbman notes that once you have your personal information removed from each of the major sites he lists, you should also disappear from smaller sites as they seem to pull in data from the “big boys.” Hit the break for the start of this how-to guide, and hit the read link for the rest.

How to remove yourself from each of these have been listed below. I would recommend that you scan some form of ID such as a state issued ID like a drivers license. Black out your picture and drivers number. Leaving your name, address and DOB visible. Any sites that requires such a thing will have an * after the address.

Intelius.com* - Opt-out

Acxiom.com - Opt-out

MyLife.com – To request that a Member Profile or Public Profile be deleted, please contact Customer Care at 1-888-704-1900 or contact us by email at privacy@mylife.com. Upon receipt of these requests, and confirmation that you are requesting that your own profile be removed, please allow MyLife 10 business days to complete this removal. It may be necessary to contact you to validate that you are the profile owner requesting the removal. This is to ensure the correct identity and profile ownership before completing these requests, and is for the protection of our users and their privacy.

Zabasearch.com* - Opt-out

Spokeo.com - Opt-out

BeenVerified.com - LawyerCT’s guide

Peekyou.com - Opt-Out

USSearch.com* - Opt-Out

PeopleFinders.com - Opt-Out: Annoying form you have to mail in

Continued on Reddit…

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Microsoft doesn’t have plans to release its upcoming tablet-friendly Windows 8 operating system until some time next year, but that doesn’t mean Windows fans have to wait for an optimized tablet experience. Windows tablet fan Justin Campana found a series of apps and tweaks that can be combined with a few custom scripts to make the Windows 7 touch experience much more appealing. On his blog, Campana lays out a great guide that gives users all the tools they need to transform their contrived Windows 7 slates into gorgeous touch-optimized tablets. He uses a variety of software such as ObjectDock, Fences and Rainmeter along with a bunch of tweaks to make Windows 7 look like it was born for tablets. Best of all, Campana happily shares his methods with the world. Hit the break for a video of ASUS’ 12-inch Eee Slate EP121 Windows 7 tablet with touch optimizations applied, and follow the read link for a simple guide that will show you how to perform the mods yourself.

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To say Android fans had mixed emotions earlier this month when Netflix finally released its Android app is an understatement. On the one hand, the app is finally here, which is obviously great news. On the other hand, Netflix only made the app available on five of the many, many Android phones currently on the market. But we have good news for those of you with an Android device not currently supported by the Netflix app: your pals over at xda-developers forum have figured out a workaround that will let you install the app and stream all the movies and TV shows you can handle — and you won’t even need to root your phone. The workaround is tested and working on plenty of devices and it couldn’t be easier to do; you’ll just have to change a setting and then install one of the Netflix apps linked in the xda thread. Of note, most AT&T devices won’t be supported until a fix is implemented, but that should be coming in the near future. Check out the via link below for the how-to, and the files you’ll need can be found through the read link.

Thanks, Jim

[Via Lifehacker]

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Apple has been testing multitouch gestures for quite a while, and we reported in January that this will likely lead to Apple ultimately ditching the home button on future iPad and iPhone devices. The feature, which simplifies certain tasks such as app switching, still isn’t available to the general public. But as it turns out, anyone can enable multitouch gestures on the iPad or iPad 2 with just a few minutes and $5. As pointed out by Gizmodo, users can simply purchase Apple’s iOS developer software Xcode 4 — available for $5 from the Mac App Store — and enable the nifty feature with a single click. Once enabled, users will be able to use a four-finger swipe from side to side in order to switch open apps, swipe up with four fingers to open the app switcher, and use a five-finger pinch to return to the home screen. Hit the break for the simple instructions.

Before following the steps below, ensure your iPad is updated to iOS 4.3.

1. Purchase Xcode 4 from the Mac App Store [iTunes link] (UPDATE: You can also download the older version of Xcode (v3.2) for free)
2. Launch Xcode and connect your iPad or iPad 2 to your computer
3. Click the “use for development” button
4. Ignore Xcode’s request for developer credentials and disregard the ensuing error
5. Once developer mode is activated, you can enable gestures from within Settings > General on your iPad

[Via Gizmodo]

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Sorry, Stevie… it looks like your plan to keep Flash off iOS devices just hit another speed bump. We know Apple claims performance issues are the reason Flash is nowhere to be found on iOS devices — and we can’t say we disagree with the company’s assessment, in some cases — but we also know tons of Web video content still uses Adobe’s Flash platform and, well, we want the option to view it on our iPhones, iPads and iPods. There are several options for viewing Flash videos on your iDevice, but most methods involve a jailbreaking. Skyfire is a good non-jailbreak option of course, but it has a tendency to be a bit slow at times. Luckily, a group of developers has a new free method that doesn’t involve a jailbreak — in fact, you don’t even have to install an app. A simple bookmarklet is all you need to stream Flash videos right to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Hit the jump for a quick guide that will bring a plethora of embedded Flash video content to your iOS device of choice.

1. Navigate to http://iosflashvideo.fw.hu/ in Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch
2. Hit the + button (replaced by the box/arrow icon on some iOS builds), select Add Bookmark and tap Save
3. Open your bookmarks and tap Edit
4. Choose the new iOSFlashVideo bookmark
5. Delete everything before “javascript:” and tap Done

Now you’re ready to rock.

Simply navigate to a page with an embedded video from Blip.tv, Flickr, Dailymotion, Break, MegaVideo or Vimeo. As usual, you’ll see an empty white space or instructions to download Flash Player where the video should be. Just open your bookmarks and tap the iOSFlashVideo entry, and a new thumbnail will appear where the empty space used to be. Tap the thumbnail and the video will begin streaming immediately via QuickTime.

A sometimes overlooked feature that has been made incredibly simple on the iPhone is the ability to subscribe to a variety of calendars. Many are familiar with CalDAV as it adds a quick and easy way to keep your iPhone or iPod touch in sync with your Google Calendar, but did you know you can also add a wide range of publicly available calendar subscriptions in a matter of seconds? One of the more common subscriptions is the US holidays calendar but you can also quickly and easily add TV show schedules, network premier schedules, sports team schedules, movie releases, concert tour schedules and plenty more to your iPhone calendar. Hit the jump to find out how.

The easiest way to add calendar subscriptions is to start by finding a good directory. There are a few decent ones out there but for the purposes of this quick how-to we’ll use iCal World (another popular one is iCalShare). Simply pull the site up in Safari on your iPhone and have a look through the various available subscriptions. When you find one you like — yep, you guessed it — click on it.

Provided the link is alive of course, Safari will ask you’d like to subscribe to the calendar in a pop up message. Tap “Subscribe” and your iPhone will do just that. Once you see a confirmation message you’re good to go, and you can even tap “View Events” in the pop up to see your new events in the Calendar app.

As with most things, there is a “but” involved. You’ll find that many of the calendars you try to subscribe to are no longer maintained. As such, it can take a bit of searching to find what you’re looking for. Once you do find it though, adding the subscription to your iPhone couldn’t be easier.

Reduce the amount of RAM Firefox uses for its cache feature

1. Type “about:config” (no quotes) in the adress bar in the browser.
2. Find “browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewer”
3. Set it’s value to “0“;(Zero)

Increase the Speed at Which Firefox loads pages

1. Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit Enter.
(Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.)

2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to some number like 10.

This means it will make 10 requests at once.

3. Lastly, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0“;.(Zero)

This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives. If you’re using a broadband connection you’ll load pages faster now.
Optionally (for even faster web browsing) here are some more options for your about:config (you might have to create some of these entries by Right Click –> New– > Interger or String

network.dns.disableIPv6: set “false”
“content.notify.backoffcount”: set “5“; (Five)
“plugin.expose_full_path”: set “true”.
“ui.submenuDelay”: set “0; (zero)

Reduce RAM usage to 10MB when Firefox is minimized:

This little hack will drop Firefox’s RAM usage down to 10 Mb when minimized:

1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter “config.trim_on_minimize”. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

Thanks, Mel!

[Via Unplggd]

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No, this certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen multi-touch demonstrated on the HTC G1. This time around however, the sweet demo is accompanied by an extensive how-to guide that will walk you through enabling your T-Mobile G1 for some sexy multi-touch zooming action. Of course the process is hardly T-Mobile approved so we have to warn you that you’ll likely void any warranties, but such is the price for the more ambitious mobile users out there. All in all, the process isn’t overly difficult for savvy gadgeteers but there’s always a chance something could go wrong – consider this your brick warning. This hack is also still in early stages so multi-touch is not yet implemented in all of the areas you’d want it to be. If you’re still fiending for some multi-touch love on your G1 however, toss on your hacker hat and hit the read link. For those who don’t quite have the stomach for invasive G1 surgery, no worries – you can still enjoy a saucy multi-touch video after the jump.

Thanks, JJ!

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