Apple made Lion, its eighth major OS X release, available to Mac computer users on July 20th, and the Cupertino-based tech giant noted in the first sentence of its press release that Lion includes “more than 250 new features.” Unfortunately for a seemingly large group of users — this editor included — the only new features that really mattered were the numerous annoyances that came to light after just a few minutes of usage. The new autocorrect, the annoying new event behavior in iCal, the lack of key repeat, the bizarre defaults set throughout the OS… we could go on for quite a while. Some love these new features while others seriously considered rolling back to Snow Leopard. While unhappy users will have adjust to much of the new behavior if they wish to continue using Lion, there is now an answer for several common gripes: Lion Tweaks. Developed by “Fredrik W,” Lion Tweaks allows users to dial back some of the improvements that are common sources of agony, including the new spelling correction feature, a bunch of annoying animations and more. Lion Tweaks is at version 1.2 right now, and it looks like the app is being actively developed, so we can hopefully expect new capabilities soon. Hit the break to download the utility from the developer’s site.

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In January 2009, legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder went to the Consumer Electronics Show and asked companies to consider the blind when building their wares. At the time, Wonder had the iPhone in mind — and Apple would answer the call. The company made its popular smartphone much more accessible to the blind in its subsequent software release by adding a great VoiceOver feature. According to recent rumors, the iPhone could soon become even more accessible thanks to the introduction of more robust voice controls. But developers are doing their part as well, and one in particular recently released an application that helps emphasize the kind of power smartphones have to make people’s lives easier.

Los Angeles-based LookTel has built an app called Money Reader, which has a single purpose: the app reads American paper currency and repeatedly speaks the value of each bill it sees. The goal of the app is to allow people with severe visual impairments or blindness to easily identify and count bills, and it succeeds. In its current state, the app can identify $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills. It is not compatible with coins because current camera technology simply can’t capture enough contrast on them to provide a consistent and reliable experience.

The app is also smart. In low-light conditions, it will automatically activate the flash (if a flash is available). And the bill recognition was instant and flawless in our tests. Either side of a bill can be shown to the camera, and bills can be flat, wrinkled, spread out or folded — we’ve yet to find a way to stump Money Reader. Even with just a tiny corner of a bill in view of the camera, the app immediately repeats its value until the bill is removed from sight.

Money Reader is still in its infancy and we’re going to see some great new features added in the future. We spoke with the developer and one of our immediate questions was, what about foreign currency and international users? Interestingly, LookTel pointed out that it initially thought there would be no need to support foreign currencies because bills are often different sizes and many currencies have braille on the corners. But it turned out that wasn’t the case. “We’ve already had an influx of users asking for it, and explaining that even though foreign currency is technically accessible, it is still challenging to identify and that foreign users want LookTel Money Reader,” LookTel’s Eyal Binshtock told BGR. The company is also considering some other useful features, such as a vibration ID mode that will allow users to identify bills without audio feedback.

Money Reader is available immediately in the App Store for $1.99, which is a small price to pay for such a powerful utility. It is compatible with the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and the fourth-generation iPod touch, as all are equipped with cameras.

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Via a brief blog post, software giant Adobe has announced a preview of its “Wallaby” Flash-to-HTML5 conversion tool. The company is describing Wallaby as “experimental technology,” but notes that it will facilitate the viewing of FLA files on iOS devices. “This [Wallaby] allows you to reuse and extend the reach of your content to devices that do not support the Flash runtimes,” writes Adobe. “Once these files are converted to HTML, you can edit them with an HTML editing tool, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, or by hand if desired.” Not all Flash features are supported by the conversion utility and Adobe does warn of a handful of documented, known issues. Hit the jump to see a video of the utility in action.

[Via 9t05 Mac]

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Geohot’s iOS 4.x jailbreaking utility limera1n has been available for Windows since 10/10/10 and now, thanks to some handy coding, it is available for the Mac as well. The one-click jailbreak utility can be downloaded free of charge from limera1n.com; geohot does ask for voluntary donations to keep the project alive. If you give it a whirl let us know how it goes. Happy jailbreaking!

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Whew. About a month ago, a German group by the name of Chaos Computer Club exposed a vulnerability in Nokia’s S60 handsets that allowed attackers to remotely disable messaging by simply sending a string of specifically formatted SMS messages. Dubbed the Curse of Silence, Chaos Computer Club responsibly contacted Nokia and carriers long before releasing details to the public and while some carriers responded immediately, Nokia apparently hung back for a while as it prepared a fix. S60 users whose carriers weren’t among the responsible few that addressed the issue need not worry as Nokia as finally released a cleanup tool, free of charge of course, that will repair any device affected by the exploit. While a preventative solution would have been preferable, something is better than nothing and the fix is confirmed to work. If you found yourself the victim of a CoS attack hit the read link, follow the simple instructions and you should be back in action in no time.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

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