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Installous, a major portal for pirated paid apps from Apple's App Store, won't be around anymore.

Development team Hackulous today announced the closure of Installous on their official Web site. As of today, the pirated app store no longer works, and only shows these errors: "Outdated version. Installous will now terminate" or "API Error. API unavailable." … Read more

iTunes 11 is the latest version of Apple's music player and management software, but if you have upgraded your iTunes installation to this latest version you may find that some of the statistics regarding your library are not being updated.

Whenever you play a song in iTunes, the program keeps track of the number of times the song has completed playing, how many times it is skipped, and when these events occurred. This information is stored in the library and used to help determine how to build automatic playlists from the songs you prefer, among other functions.

After upgrading … Read more

Samsung Electronics will be the first to sell a smartphone running on the Tizen operating system through Japanese carrier NTT Docomo and other partners next year, according to Japan's Daily Yomiuri.

Samsung, NTT Docomo, and their partners hope to build a platform that will rival the major operating systems from Apple and Google. Other carriers interested in Tizen include the U.K.'s Vodaphone and France Telecom, according to the report.

CNET has contacted Samsung for comment, and we'll update the story when the company responds.

Tizen is a Linux-based operating system that emerged from the death of … Read more

New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority finally joined the smartphone era today by releasing an iOS app showing train arrival times for seven subway lines.

Available for the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad, MTA Subway Time will display train arrival times for 156 stations on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 lines, and the S shuttle line. Though officially in a test version for the time being, the app will use the same arrival times shown on station countdown clocks and on MTA's Web site.

"The ability to get subway arrival time at street … Read more

Apple's built-in Calendar application in OS X is a convenient calendaring tool to have; however, its default method of entering calendar dates may be a bit cumbersome by first appearances.

When you first enter an event in Calendar, you select the calendar you wish to use and then double-click the date on which to create the event. You can then title the event accordingly. By default this action creates an all-day event that will further need to be refined by editing it to adjust its time frame. While those who use Calendar may find this somewhat acceptable though a … Read more

Did you find some variety of iOS device under the tree this week? If so, you've likely spent more than a fair amount of time trolling through the App Store in search of apps for your new toy. If you feel you've exhausted your search efforts in the App Store, give Hip by Kinetic a try. This free app points you toward new and interesting apps, pulling in recommendations from 10 tech blogs (CNET's own How To blog is not included, due to what I can only imagine was a gross oversight). It also lets you build … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about managing custom services in OS X, RAM prices for MacBook systems falling dramatically over the past year, and resetting a forgotten administrator password without admin access and without an OS X installer or recovery disc. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Managing custom services in OS X MacFixIt reader Francis asks:

Apple certainly enjoyed a jolly Christmas, at least to judge from its App Store downloads.

Data out yesterday from mobile analytics firm Distimo revealed an 87 percent jump in iPhone and iPad app downloads on Christmas Day as compared with the average for the month. Sales from all those downloads rose by 70 percent on December 25.

The iPad seemed to be an especially popular gift this season, according to Distimo. App downloads for Apple's tablet lineup grew by 140 percent on Christmas compared to the monthly average, while revenue for iPad apps shot up by 83 percent.

Among … Read more

To help identify your user account from others who use your system, OS X assigns your account a small picture that appears in various places in the system, including the log-in window as well as in applications like Mail.

When you initially set up your account in OS X, the system will have you set up your account picture, but often people skip by this step and continue with the setup process to start using their computers quicker, leaving their accounts with the image that OS X randomly chooses for it. However, if you would like to change your account … Read more