Whited00r lets you install iOS 5 look-alike on old-gen iPhones and iPod Touches originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Since the release of the first developer preview of Windows 8, Mac users have been downloading it to run in virtualization software such as Parallels and VMware Fusion. It’s also possible to install the preview on Boot Camp, the tool built in to Mac OS X which allows you to dual-boot your Mac into other operating systems.

What you’ll need

• A Mac with at least 2 GB of RAM and at least 20 GB of free hard drive space.
• A disc burned using the ISO of the Windows 8 preview, available to download here, with a burning program such as Toast.
• A hard drive backup, in case everything goes pear-shaped.

Method

1. First, open the Boot Camp Assistant, which can be found at Applications > Utilities > Boot Camp. Once opened, you’ll see a screen explaining what Boot Camp does, and warning you to make a backup.
2. After clicking Continue, you’ll be asked whether you want to download Windows support software or if you have it on a CD or DVD. Make sure to select the second option; you won’t actually be installing the support software, since it won’t work with the Windows 8 preview. Then click Continue again.
3. The next step is to choose how large to make the Window partition on your hard drive. A Boot Camp operating system must be installed on a partition of your internal drive; it can’t be used on an external drive. The partition you create should be at least 25 GB in size, so there’s enough room for the OS and anything extra that might end up there, like files or applications. Next, click Partition.
4. Once your drive is partitioned, it’s time to install Windows. Again, the Windows 8 preview needs to be burned to a disc in order to install. Boot Camp should detect the disc once it’s inserted and allow you to continue installing. Click Start Installation. Your computer will now restart and boot from the Windows disc.
5. Follow the instructions on screen. When the installer asks you where to install Windows, select “Disk 0 Partition 3 BOOTCAMP” and then click Drive options (advanced). Choose Format from the options that appear to format the partition to NTFS, the file system Windows requires.
6. Follow the onscreen instructions again. Once Windows has installed, your Mac will automatically restart into Windows.

Since the Boot Camp support software for Windows won’t work with the developer preview, you won’t be able to install the Boot Camp tools on Windows. That means that to boot back into your OS X partition, you’ll need to restart your Mac with the Option key on the keyboard held down. You’ll be shown a list of available startup drives, from which you can choose your main partition where OS X is housed.

Remember this is a developer preview version of Windows 8. That is, it’s essentially alpha software, so things could go very wrong when you use it. Just as Apple suggests when using developer previews of OS X, you might not want to install Windows 8 on your main computer, and make sure to back up before you do any installations.

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Apple’s ban on incentivized installs of mobile apps, once a growing model for app distribution, has killed off one tool for iOS app marketing, but the need to get apps noticed and distributed hasn’t gone away. In fact, with the App Store closing in on half a million apps, it’s only become more imperative.

That reality is pushing app distribution and monetization companies to continue to evolve around Apple’s ban. W3i, once a leader in incentivized installs, has come up with a new alternative app discovery service that it hopes will aid game developers to push downloads while staying within Apple’s rules. The new product, called Mobile App Ad Network, allows game developers to offer their apps for free for a 24-hour period in customizable banner ads that appear in other gaming apps. The new “free app of the day” ads are going into beta today.

Advertisers and publishers have a number of options as to when and where they run the ad so that it is most effective. Instead of just a persistent banner, an advertiser can have the offer run when the app is launched, when the user hits a milestone or in exchange for an achievement. This targeted use of the ad means it works more within the flow of an app and is less intrusive. And because it only advertises free games for one day in other games, it is more likely to be downloaded because it is more relevant to the target audience. W3i said this model can boost conversions to 48 percent, though we will have to see if that bears out over time.

W3i believes the new ad product won’t run afoul of Apple’s ban on incentivized installs because it is basically a banner ad for an app that is on sale. Incentivized installs, which allowed a user to download an app in exchange for virtual currency or goods, was targeted by Apple for apparently gaming the App Store rankings, boosting apps that paid for those ad campaigns.

“It’s difficult to predict Apple’s behavior but they have no problem with recommending apps and they have no issues with publishers putting their apps up for sale,” said W3i product manager Melissa Johnson.

Johnson said that incentivized installs also enticed people to download unrelated apps they may not have been interested in to gain virtual goods. By offering games that may have appealed to a gamer, they increased the chances that the user would continue to engage with the app, making the investment more worthwhile for advertisers.

W3i’s product illustrates how the mobile app distribution market is shifting in response to Apple. Tapjoy, another leader in incentivized installs, said it has had to move away from pay-per-install campaigns on iOS, and it now targets other platforms and runs more cost-per-action ads, which allow users to gain currency in exchange for watching a video. It is also doing more-traditional banner ads for apps, Tapjoy’s CEO Mihir Shah recently told me.

This new campaign by W3i shows that mobile advertising is also becoming more contextual, something I’ve noted with products like Kiip and Tap Me, which use very targeted moments in apps to offer up real rewards or sponsored in-game power-ups. There is more creativity happening now in mobile advertising, some of it by necessity in the case of W3i. With a booming market for mobile apps, the marketing of those apps is a big opportunity that can’t be ignored, and marketing will always find a way.

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View full post on TheAppleBlog — Apple and iOS News, Tips and Reviews

Tapjoy, whose app promotion campaigns have been halted by Apple in new and updated iOS apps, has come up with a new solution that it hopes can help it avoid Apple’s recent ban. The company has proposed a simple fix that allows Apple to identify app referrals from Tapjoy’s ad network so it can prevent those downloads from being counted by the App Store ranking algorithm.

Tapjoy and other mobile advertising companies that promote incentivized installs were thrust into the spotlight in April when Apple began rejecting apps that included pay-per-install campaigns. The promotion allows an app developer to get paid when one of its app users downloads a separate app in exchange for virtual currency or some reward. The practice has drawn the attention of critics who said companies like Tapjoy were using it to game the rankings system by boosting apps in the top ranks. Apple didn’t publicly explain its actions but cited a section of the developer program license agreement that prohibits developers from manipulating user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store.

Tapjoy CEO Mihir Shah said he reached out to Apple three weeks ago and offered to include a referral URL for the App Store when a user chooses to download an app in exchange for virtual goods. That would allow Apple to identify that the download came from Tapjoy and not count it in the App Store ranking algorithm. Shah said Apple wrote back a couple days later saying it had no time to discuss the issue.

This follows another attempt Tapjoy made to limit the influence of its incentivized installs. Just days after the ban went into effect, Tapjoy also offered to limit pay-per-install campaigns to prevent any one app from leaping into the top 25 of the rankings through this form of cross promotion. Apple did not go for it. It’s left Shah confused about Apple’s stance on pay-per-install, which appeared to be about preserving the integrity of the app store rankings.

“If this is about charting, we have a very simple solution,” said Shah. “But I’m a bit confused because it seems to be about something I’m not aware of more than pure charting.”

What Shah believes is clear is that the Apple ban is hurting developers, who have relied on cost-per-install campaigns to help drive downloads and build awareness of their apps. A new survey of 496 iOS developers by Tapjoy underscores the impact of the ban with 48 percent of developers saying they’re received user complaints about the lack of incentivized installs and 54 percent of developers who say they’re making less money now because of the ban. Also, 60 percent of developers said they derived more than 20 percent of their revenues from pay-per-install campaigns.

These results show how much many of Tapjoy’s developers came to rely on the pay-per-install model. I’m not sure developers should have been putting so many of their eggs in this basket. But Shah argues that the model has been good for up and coming developers, helping them get their apps noticed in the crowded App Store. With the cost of acquiring users about three times cheaper than more traditional display network campaigns, cost-per-install was an important tool for developers, said Shah.

Larger publishers and bigger developers also used the model to help inject some predictability into their businesses. By leaning on pay-per-install, companies were able to justify their investment in mobile apps because they were able to better predict their performance. But Shah said the biggest impact is for users, often younger people and students, who were able to participate in games without access to a credit card by downloading another app.

Shah said prior to Apple’s change, Tapjoy was interacting with 30 million daily active iOS users and 175 million monthly users on all mobile platforms, generating 1.5 million conversions a day. The company, like its iOS developers, has seen its business decline on iOS though it is making up for it with big growth on Android. Shah said he’s not clear why Apple still doesn’t want to work with Tapjoy and others even if they end their influence on the rankings. But he noted that Apple and others who operate mobile ad networks are benefiting from the enforcement change as developers turn to them for app cross promotion.

“I think the facts speak for themselves; ad inventory on iAd is going up as a result of (Apple)  indicating to the market they’re not OK with developers using Tapjoy, W3I and Flurry.”

I’m not sure Apple is trying to drive developers to iAd. There could be other reasons why Apple isn’t interested in implementing Shah’s solution. But he does raise some interesting questions about whether this ad model deserves a right to exist with limitions in place. Developers are struggling to get their apps noticed and have been using cross promotions display ads in apps. Cost-per-install is attractive because it’s cheaper and if Apple limits its influence on App Store rankings, is it so different from mobile display ads?

Ouriel Ohayon, co-founder of AppsFire, an app discovery service which competes with Tapjoy, however, says the goal of developers should be to drive engagement, something Tapjoy hasn’t been able to prove. But Shah said cost-per-installs are more like coupons, helping users try an app. That’s a legitimate goal for developers, he said. The question appears to be moot on iOS for the time being because Apple is showing no willingness to change its ban.

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Extensions have now gone public with the newly released Safari 5.0.1. Here’s a list of seven extensions you should install right away. Also, be sure to read our previous list of 25 extensions worth checking out.

AdBlock

Firefox users should recognize this popular extension. This one’s an offshoot of AdBlock for Chrome, which itself is an offshoot of AdBlock Plus, the original Firefox extension. AdBlock does what its name implies: block ads. I installed it just to block that obnoxiously huge banner ad on YouTube’s homepage. If you’re not the type to ever click on ads anyway, then why not cut down on the visual (and sometimes audible) clutter?

Type-To-Navigate

Type-To-Navigate is a mouse-hater’s dream. It lets you navigate links by simply typing the name of the link. So say I wanted to view the About page of a blog, I’d just type “about” and Type-To-Navigate will highlight the link and display an attractive popup of what I’d written (“about”). The only places where this extension doesn’t work are in text fields and when the link is attached to an image. However, it should find any text link with no problems. Another neat thing you can do with it is to press certain shortcuts while the link you’re searching for is highlighted. You can type ⌘G to find next, ⌘C to copy the URL, and ⌘I to send it to Instapaper.

Invisible Status Bar

Another neat extension from the developer of Type-To-Navigate, Invisible Status Bar gives you a Google Chrome-like status bar that pops up when hovering over links, and even tells you how big a file is when you’re hovering over a download link.

MouseGestures

This feature was originally pioneered by Opera back in 2001, and it’s kind of amazing that it’s taken this long to get it into Safari (at least officially). If you’re unaware, mouse gestures are where you hold down a button on the mouse (normally the right or middle button) and move the mouse to perform a gesture. Gestures can do things like go back a page, or reload. MouseGestures only offers four gestures right now: up, down, left, and right. Assignable actions run the gamut from going back a page to closing the active tab. Unfortunately, there are no customizable gestures like in Opera yet.

WOT (Web Of Trust)

Another popular Firefox extension, WOT offers better security when searching the web by ranking pages based on their content, with other WOT users providing the rankings. The green WOT symbol means the site is safe, and the red means it’s unsafe, with several degrees of safety in between. The only annoying thing about it is that it pops up a little indicator in the top left of the window whenever you visit a new site, but fortunately, it doesn’t popup when you visit a site you’ve already visited.

Gmail Counter

For those who don’t use anything other than Gmail’s web-based interface, this extension is rather useful. It adds a new toolbar icon that shows how many unread messages are in your inbox. Clicking on the icon also takes you to your inbox, so you can get rid of your Gmail bookmark, if you have one.

Reload Button

This one was made by the venerable, and über-critical, John Siracusa, to address his annoyance with the location of Safari’s reload button since version 4. It adds a reload button to the toolbar that’s freely movable, unlike the default reload button. There isn’t much else to say about it, unless you like Safari’s default reload button, in which case, what’s wrong with you?

You could install most of these from the Extensions Gallery, but I’ve elected to link directly to the developers websites, as Apple doesn’t have individual pages for extensions yet.

Have you been playing around with Safari extensions? What are your favorites so far?

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Apple’s new Safari 5 brings support for browser extensions, which the company plans to showcase on its own gallery in a few months. In the meantime, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites.

To learn more about using Safari, check out our Safari 101 screencast on TechUniversity (subscription required).

Web & Utilities

AdBlock

The AdBlock extension is a great way to remove unwanted content from your browsing experience. Download the extension and load your web pages without as many intrusive ads. There’s even beta options to remove Google ads and YouTube ads.

BuiltWith Analysis

The BuiltWith Analysis extension provides an insider look into a website with one click. You can see what JavaScript libraries a site uses, who provides analytics as well as other nitty-gritty details that are totally public, but often obscured in tons of HTML source code.

Invisible Status Bar

Google’s Chrome browser does away with the status bar at the bottom of your window and only shows it when you hover over a link. The Invisible Status Bar extension does the same thing for Safari!

Live CSS Editing

The Live CSS Editing extension provides a quick way to load up a page and test modifications to the CSS in real time.

Bit.ly Shortener

The Safari Bit.ly Shortener extension makes it easy to shorten a URL with Bit.ly. Simply load the URL in your browser and then click the button!

PageSaver

The Svay.com PageSaver extension will, in one click, save the visible portion of a web page as an image and automatically download it into your Downloads folder.

ScribeFire

ScribeFire is an extension for using a centralized place for posting to all of your blogs, supporting a variety of typical blog features including formatting, categories and tags. ScribeFire’s Safari Extension brings support for this right into Safari.

Snapper

Similar to PageSaver, Snapper also saves the currently viewable portion of a website as a PNG and automatically downloads it for you.

Type to Navigate

The Type to Navigate extension is pretty darn cool. If you’re browsing a page and there’s a link you want to follow, just start typing any word that’s contained within it. It’ll highlight the link and then you just press Return to load it. If it’s not the right link, press Command + G to move to the next one.

E-Commerce

Amazon.com Search Bar

If you frequent Amazon.com, you’ll want the Amazon.com Search Bar extension. It’ll add a new Amazon.com bar to Safari giving you one-click access to your shopping cart, wish list, the latest deals and a quick way to search Amazon.com.

InvisibleHand

The InvisibleHand extension will subtly let you know when it finds a cheaper price to a product elsewhere on the Internet. The list of supported retailers is fairly decent for the U.S., UK and Germany, but more are being added frequently.

Social

FaceBlock

The FaceBlock extension blocks all of the annoying ads on Facebook. I always feel a little sadness for the advertisers that are paying for impressions that I never have to see. Oh well.

safari140

This gem of an extension allows you to post directly to Twitter from within Safari. Links are automatically shortened by is.gd.

Share with Facebook

The Share with Facebook extension gives you one-click access to share your current URL with your Facebook account.

Webbla

If you use Webbla for managing your bookmarks, take a look at the Webbla browser extension, which allows you to quickly add or modify them.

YouTube Full Screen

This extension is a great way to enable full-screen support of YouTube videos if you’re using YouTube’s HTML5 player instead of its Flash player.

Productivity

Background Tabs

The Background Tabs extension will allow you to open a new tab in the background by simply pressing the V key.

Gmail Checker

The Gmail Checker extension will give you an icon and badge in your Safari toolbar to show unread messages on your Gmail account. Keep an eye on their website for updates because the next version will support Google Apps users.

GoMBoX

The GoMBoX extension transforms your Google Images experience by showcasing results in a Lightbox overlay, allowing you to see larger versions without having to leave your search results page.

Instapaper

If you love Instapaper, check out Instafari, a simple one-click way to save an article to your Instapaper account.

InstaPaper Greystyled and Article Tools

The Greystyled and Article Tools extensions provide you with a cleaner style for your Instapaper.com account. Once the extension is installed, just visit instapaper.com to see the changes.

Google Reader – Simplified

If you’re a fan of Google Reader and the GreaseMonkey scripts that give it a simplified look, check out Lucidica, an extension that’s based off Helvetireader.

Safari Reload Button

If you’ve ever wanted to move the reload button for Safari out of the URL window and into its own button, the Safari Reload Button extension does just that.

Search Preview

With the Search Preview extension, you can preview the web pages that show up in your search results. This extension works with Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Toodlethings

If you use Toodledo for your task management, the Toodlethings extension re-styles the web interface with clean buttons and easier to read fonts.

For more great extensions, check out the Safari Extensions blog and keep an eye on Apple.com for its showcase that’s scheduled to premiere later this summer.

Have you written your own extension or found others? Share them in the comments below!

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