You can listen to different stations through the internet but it’s always a pain to open up a web browser to listen to a particular station. I just wanted a simple app that would play these stations with no fuss at all. The following article will show you how to install a simple Windows 7 Gadget (probably will work on Vista but I haven’t tried it yet) that can give you access to different Philippine radio stations right at your desktop.

To get everything running, just follow these steps

1. Download the Mini Radio gadget from this site.

2. Download and save this file: Philippine radio station list

3. Open the Zip file and install the MiniRadio_EN.gadget

4. A small app should appear on your desktop. Click on the options button that could be found by hovering your mouse to the applications side.

5. After clicking the option button. You should be able to change the look of the radio player app via the Configuration page.

6. Click on the stations button. Then click on the external stations button

7.Do the Following.

A. Click on import station.

B. Select the file Philippine radio stations downloaded earlier.

C. Press Open.

D. Press Save

8. Now you should be able to play all the radio stations in the list right from the comforts of the desktop.

I haven’t tried all the stations listed yet. Some of them might not be working. Just drop me a comment if ever a station is not working so I can amend or remove it from the list.

Being overseas, one of the things I miss most is watching Filipino TV shows. It’s a good thing that companies such as ABS CBN have online streaming services such as TFCnow. As much as I like the service. There are still some drawbacks to it.

1. You’ll need a PC to watch it (never got it to work on my Mac) as the shows require a DRM that needs Windows media Player

2. I can’t get it to work on my iPad

This article would tackle the 2nd point noted above. Sometimes, I cannot be bothered to go to my PC just to watch some Filipino shows.

While there is no straight way of watching it on my iPad natively (Hopefully, ABS CBN can make an iOS app in the future). What one can do is essentially control the PC through the iPad.  One can do so by using Remote Desktop software.

I downloaded an app called Splashtop remote for iPad. While this app doesn’t support standards such as VNC and RDP. It does make up for making it dead simple to setup. It took me 5 minutes to get everything running on my home wifi network. The app can also be configured so that you can remotely access your PC from somewhere else but I haven’t begun tinkering with that.

To get everything running, you’ll need:

* TFCnow subscription

* iPad 1 or iPad 2

*PC

*Splashtop remote desktop for iPad

*Splashtop remote streamer

*Wifi router

1. First, download the Splashtop remote desktop for iPad. I was able to get it for au$2.49 on sale. Might be cheaper or expensive.

2. Download and install the Splashtop remote streamer from their website.

3. After installing, the remote streamer app should ask you to create a password. 8 characters long. Numbers and letters

4. After setting this up, you should see the app saying that its all configured and ready to go. Now even if you close the program. It will stay in the system tray ready to work.

5. Fire up The Splashtop remote desktop app on your iPad. You should be able to find your recently configured PC.

6. Then it will ask for your password. Input the one that you configured with the PC program.

7. You should be able to control your PC now. Basic controls would be touch with a finger to click on a part. 2 finger scroll when scrolling up and down a page. Go to the TFCnow website and watch normally like you would on your PC.

Here’s a video showing the playback of the video on an iPad:

Next video shows how a side by side comparison of TFCnow working on an iPad with Splashtop remote desktop and the PC that is being remotely controlled.

You should be able to watch TFCnow as well as other streaming shows on your iPad after following this post.

To uninstall, drag an application from the application folder to the trash bin icon

The only drawback of this method is it leaves some residue in your system folders. The files in question are negligible but it does accumulate over time.

Enter Apptrap

Apptrap basically tracks all applications installed on your mac. And should you decide to uninstall in the future. Apptrap also purges all files associated with the application.

It will ask you if you also want to move to the trash associated system files.

Easy, no brainer, works in the background. Best of all, the app is free!

This post will show you how to install apps in OSX.

Pretty much, Apple applications come in files with the suffix .dmg or a disk image.

Installing it is a matter of double clicking the .dmg file. For this example, I am using Firefox. You should see an installation screen after.

Just drag the Application(i.e. Firefox)  to the Application folder and you’re done! Easy as 1-2-3

1.Press the start button and type in msconfig in the dialog box then click on the msconfig under the title Programs

2. This should open the system configuration page. Click on the Boot tab.

3. Finally tick on the No GUI boot.

Click OK and there you have it. Once you reboot your PC, you shouldn’t see the startup screen again saving you maybe a second or so.