CyanogenMod 7.2 Release Candidate Brings Predictive Phone Dialer, Ice Cream Sandwich Features to Android [Cyanogenmod]

Android (rooted): Our favorite custom Android ROM, CyanogenMod, has come out with a release candidate of its next version, complete with some Ice Cream Sandwich visual effects, a predictive phone dialer, and more.

We're still waiting for CyanogenMod 9, the Ice Cream Sandwich version of our favorite Android ROM, but the CyanogenMod team has come out with a small update to hold us over. It has some of Ice Cream Sandwich's transition and rotation effects, which adds some pizazz to the OS, plus an awesome predictive phone dialer, much like the one found in HTC's Sense UI or Samsung's TouchWiz UI. As you type numbers, it'll also search your contacts for people that match the numbers and letters as you type. It also has a number of bug fixes, plus advanced options for quiet hours, calendar reminders, and more. It also supports over 20 new devices, so if you've never tried out CyanogenMod, hit the link below to see if it's available for you (or check out the changelog to see all its newest features).

CyanogenMod is a free download for rooted Android devices. As always, the Release Candidate may still have a bug or two, but should be stable enough for everyday use.

CyanogenMod-7.2.0-RC1 Is Upon Us | CyanogenMod Blog

Right Click Tweaker Adds "Move To", "Encrypt", and Lots of Other Useful Features to Windows' Right-Click Menu [Context Menu]

Windows: We've shared countless ways to clean up Windows' context menu, but you can actually add some pretty neat stuff too. Free app Right Click Tweaker adds up to 14 useful features with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Right Click Tweaker doesn't require much explanation. Just start up the portable app, check the boxes next to the functions you want to add. and press Apply Tweaks. You'll see those options in Windows' right-click menu from there on out. The menu items it can add range from handy shortcuts to really useful functions, including:

Copy To FolderMove To FolderOpen in NotepadAdministrator Command PromptEncryptCreate File ListPrint File ListSearch and ReplaceCopy Content To ClipboardGod ModeProblem Steps RecorderTake OwnershipSystem Configuration UtilityControl Panel

Right Click Tweaker is a free download for Windows only. For more info on what each function does, check out their homepage below.

Sparrow for iPhone Features Intuitive Swipe Control, Smart Contact Lists, and More [IPhone Downloads]

iOS: The popular email client for Macs, Sparrow, released its iPhone version today. On top of sporting a similar look to the desktop client, the app comes packed with a few handy features, including swipe control of the entire interface, a smart contact list that sorts your contacts, and a few features that will be familiar to those who use the Mac version.

The desktop version of Sparrow is our pick for the best email client on Mac OS X and for the most part the mobile version sticks to the same design. You control most of the app with swipe gestures instead of button presses, it imports pictures from Facebook of your contacts, and its most handy feature is that it lists you most frequent contacts at the top of a list instead of alphabetical order. It also has the same threaded conversation view as the desktop client, a great search engine, a quick sender switch, and one feature iPhone users have been asking for since the iPhone was first introduced: a mark all as read button.

Two big problems with the iPhone version of Sparrow should be noted. First, it doesn't support POP email accounts. If you have your own email server and it uses POP, don't bother with Sparrow. If you're on the likes of Gmail, iCloud, Yahoo, AOL, or your own with IMAP support you'll be fine. However, the other big caveat is that Sparrow does not support push notifications. This means you have to manually check your email and you won't be notified when new mail arrives. It's a pretty big missing feature that you should consider before checking it out. Sparrow is available now in the iTunes App Store for $2.99.

Photoshop Touch Gives You Core Photoshop Features for Your iPad or Android Tablet

If you’re a Photoshop fan and an iPad owner, you’re in luck. You can now edit and share their images through the new iPad Adobe Photoshop Touch app. The app is part of the Adobe Touch Apps family, a group of 6 apps inspired by Creative Suite® software made especially for tablet use. Up until now, however, the apps have only been available for Android tablets. Here’s a rundown of the new iOS version.

First off, you should know that you need a second generation iPad (sorry, iPad 1 users!) and at least iOS5 to run Adobe Photoshop Touch. Now that that’s out of the way– Photoshop Touch for iPad allows you to import images from your iPad native photo albums, your Adobe Creative Cloud account, Google Image Search and your Facebook albums. Once your images are in the app, you can combine them into layers and edit them with popular Photoshop features such as selection tools, adjustments and filters.

Other notable tablet-optimized features include the Scribble Selection and Refine Edge tools, which let you use your fingers to select part of an image to extract from its background, and the camera fill feature which allows you to capture an image with your iPad camera and use it fill in part of a layer.

When you’re done touching up your image, you can save it to your camera roll or upload it to Facebook, Email, or your free Adobe Creative Cloud account. If you save your work to Adobe Creative Cloud, you can retrieve and continue to edit an image (with the layers intact!) from Photoshop CS5 on your desktop.

Adobe Photoshop Touch is available in the iTunes App Store (and the Android Market) for $9.99, but if you’d like a chance to get it for free, we have one $10 iTunes gift card to give away. Just comment on this post before 11:00 P.M. EST today and we’ll pick one person at random to receive a free $10 iTunes card!

Sarah Feng is a sophomore at NYU, where she is double majoring in Economics and Journalism and minoring in Computer Science. She came to New York from her hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Her interests include figure-skating, playing the piano, eating, working out, and trying new apps on her Macbook Pro. Her favorite color is pink, her favorite food is ice cream and favorite teen drama is a tie between Gossip Girl and The O.C. Aside from writing on Hackcollege, you can also find her on twitter and facebook.