How to - Create a secret partition on a pen drive

A workshop, where we show you how to create a secret partition on your USB pen drive which can be accessed only on your PC

There is no way you can partition USB pen drives. They show up as a removable drive on the PC. In order to do so, you need to trick the operating system into recognizing the USB pen drive as a fixed hard drive. To do this, you will need to create your own set of drivers. In this workshop, we shall demonstrate just that. Doing so, you can create multiple partitions and store your private data on it. Only the first partition will be visible, and the other partitions will not show up on any other PC, but your own. This way, you can store your personal data away from your friends and family, and also you can avoid viruses affecting this data when plugged in on another computer. To do this, all you need is a simple universal USB pen drive driver, which can be downloaded from ‘http://www.mediafire.com/?oqlgdvcymzz’. Download the archive, uncompress it to a folder on your desktop and get started. Don’t forget to backup the contents of your pen drive, as it will format it. Step 1: Plug in your pen drive into your PC’s USB port. Next, right-click on ‘My Computer’ and click on ‘Manage’ in the context menu. Click on ‘Device Manager’ on the left pane. This will show all the hardware devices connected to your PC. Now, on the right pane, scroll down to ‘Disk Drives’ and you should see your pen drive connected here. Right-click on the pen drive and select ‘Properties’. Selecting properties for the flash drive Step 2: In the properties window that just opened, click on the ‘Details’ tab. From the scroll down menu under ‘Property’, choose ‘Device Instance Path’. You should see a string of characters highlighted in the ‘Value’ window below, which should read something like ‘USBSTORDISK&VEN_&PROD…..’ Right-click on this value and select ‘Copy’. Now close all the windows without saving changes. Selecting the Device Instance Path Step 3: Now open the folder that you uncompressed after downloading the universal USB flash drive driver. In this folder, find and open the file named ‘cfadisk.inf’ in ‘Notepad’ or any test editor you prefer (Notepad++ is ideal to be used here’ (download from ‘notepad-plus-plus.org’). Modifying the flash driver Step 4: Now locate the words ‘device_instance_id_goes_here’, which is available on line 26. You need to replace these words with the string you just copied to the clipboard from the Device Manager. Save the file and close the editor. Step 5: Now go back to the ‘Device Manager’ page (repeat step 1). This time click on the ‘Driver’ tab and click the button ‘Update driver’ Switching to the updated driver Step 6: On the next window, choose ‘Browse my computer for driver software’ when the system asks how you want to search for the driver software. Then on the next window, choose ‘Let me pick from a list of drivers …. ‘.  Step 7: On the next window, uncheck the box ‘Show compatible hardware’ and click on the ‘Have disk button’. Now click on ‘Browse’ and from the universal USB driver folder on your desktop select the ‘cfadisk.inf’ file and click on the ‘Open button’, followed by the ‘OK’ and then ‘Next’ buttons on the previous windows. Step 8: An update driver warning message should show up stating that you are trying to install a driver, which is not compatible with your hardware. Ignore the message and click on ‘Yes’. The system will start installing the driver and show up another warning that the driver is not a verified or authentic driver. Ignore this one message and click on ‘Install this driver software anyway’. Let the system update the driver and you shall receive a message of a successful driver update.  Windows security warning for the driver Note: You can use this modified driver for this pen drive only. To use another pen drive, you will need to do the whole process again. Step 9: That’s all you needed to do. Now once you are back to the ‘Computer Management’ window, click on ‘Disk Management’ from the left pane and start partitioning your pen drive as you would with a regular hard drive. You can create multiple partitions and format them, accordingly.  Partiitioning the flash drive, like you would a hard drive Note: You can access all the partitions on the pen drive only from your PC. Other PCs will only be able to see the first partition and the rest will be unavailable. Make a copy of the driver on the first partition of the pen drive and you can install it on other PCs, in case you need to access the other partitions. This way, you can plug in the pen drive on your friend’s PCs without worrying about your private data. To reset everything back to the way it was, simply delete the partitions completely and uninstall/delete the driver for the pen drive from the Device Manager.

Apple's New iBooks 2, iBooks Author Apps Hit 440,000 Downloads Combined in First 3 Days

About 350,000 textbooks were downloaded from the iBooks 2 store while iBooks Author had 90,000 downloads

Just last week, Apple unveiled its efforts to reinvent the textbook via two new apps called iBook Author and iBooks 2, and both have gained significant popularity in their short time since release.

IBook Author and iBooks 2 launched January 19 at Apple's education event at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. IBook Author is Mac software that allows textbook writers and publishers to create textbooks specifically for the iPad while iBooks 2 is a sequel to the iBooks app that provides students with textbooks on the iPad as well as new study options like note-taking.

Global Equities Research, which provides research in global equities with a focus on near-term to long-term trends, has been keeping its eye on Apple's latest educational offerings via a proprietary tracking system. According to its findings, Apple's two new apps are already a huge hit.

Global Equities Research's tracking system determined that there were 90,000 downloads of iBooks Author within the first three days of availability while 350,000 textbooks were downloaded from the iBooks store within that same period of time.

The new textbook apps seem to be a winner for all parties involved, since iBook production costs about 80 percent less than print publication according to Global Equities Research. With supply chain markup on textbooks between 33 and 35 percent, cutting out the middlemen between the publisher to the retailer and instead delivering digital textbooks from the publisher to the student via iBooks will present considerable savings.

The textbooks in iBooks 2 are high school level books that are starting at $14.99 or less for now. These prices will increase over time as the selection expands. The books offered in the free app come from publishers like Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which combined make up 90 percent of textbooks available.

YouTube Reaches 4 Billion Video Views Daily, Up 25 Percent From May 2011

In addition, about 60 hours of video is now uploaded to YouTube each minute, which is an increase from the 48 hours of video uploaded each minute back in May 2011

From music videos to TV shows to clips of cats playing the piano, YouTube is a place where video enthusiasts and bored Internet users alike can find free entertainment. It seems many Web surfers are finding their way to the site lately, as YouTube recently reached the point of streaming 4 billion online videos daily.

YouTube is a video-sharing website initially created and owned by three former PayPal employees in 2005, but was purchased by Google Inc. in 2006 for $1.65 billion. It currently operates as a subsidiary of Google and offers a wide range of user-generated video content.

Since the explosion of mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, YouTube has gained some serious viewership. In fact, Google recently announced that the site streams 4 billion online videos every day. This represents a 25 percent increase over the past eight months.

In addition, about 60 hours of video is now uploaded to YouTube each minute, which is an increase from the 48 hours of video uploaded each minute back in May 2011. Google also mentioned that its display ads running with the YouTube videos are generating $5 billion in revenue annually.

YouTube has been moving up in the internet video ranks by adding 100 original programming deals. Even the talent on the site is being taken seriously, with some making six-figure incomes.

Twitter Puts Its DMCA Takedown Requests Up For All To See

Yesterday’s announcement that Twitter would be selectively censoring tweets based on country was not well-received. But part of that announcement was the assurance that the process would at least be transparent. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

They also mentioned that they were working with Chilling Effects to make notices and orders sent to Twitter publicly available. At the time of the post yesterday, the site wasn’t up yet, but you can now browse it at chillingeffects.org/twitter.

It’s a good thing, certainly, though not quite a successful saving throw versus the localized-censorship piece. The database has several thousand DMCA takedown requests right now, but is not quite up to date — it isn’t clear at what rate they’re updating the database, but there aren’t many from this month so it seems to be something less than weekly.

Browsing the listings is a good way to waste 15 minutes, looking at the different ways people tend to provoke a DMCA takedown request. There’s a lot of cricket being linked to, apparently. And there are the inevitable copyrighted avatars.

What’s interesting to me is that there are a number of requests that in themselves request dozens of tweets to be taken down; this one, for example, points out a number of pirated movies being linked to, and the accounts are clearly bots. The DMCA request is only for the movies the rightsholder is concerned with — which is at once both correct and perverse. The account only exists to link to copyrighted material and has done so thousands of times, but everyone involved would rather snip out individual tweets one by one. Talk about a Sisyphean task.

Presumably this database will also house the official requests by governments who wish to restrict tweets based on content. While most won’t agree with Twitter’s decision to accede to these repressive entities’ wishes, it can at least be hoped that it will be done so with maximum transparency. The best thing Twitter users can do, perhaps, is to make sure this database is up to date and reflective of the restrictions being placed on tweets. Until a solution comes along, reducing the harm this new policy does and making sure it’s well understood should take priority.

What to Do When Your Email Account is Hacked?

It can be a real nightmare if someone hacks and takes control of your email account as it may contain confidential information like bank logins, credit card details and other sensitive data. If you are one such Internet user whose email account has been compromised, then this post will surely help you out. In this post you will find the possible ways and procedures to get back your hacked email account.

For Gmail:

It can be a big disaster if your Gmail account has been compromised as it may be associated with several services like Blogger, Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Orkut etc. Losing access to your Gmail account means losing access to all the services associated it with too. Here is a list of possible recovery actions that you can try.

Step -1: Try resetting your password since it is the easiest way to get your account back in action. In this process Google may ask you to answer the secret question or may send the password reset details to the secondary email address associated with your compromised account. You can reset you password from the following link

Gmail Password Reset Link

If you cannot find success from the Step-1 then proceed to Step-2.

Step-2: Many times the hacker will change the secret question and secondary email address right after the account is compromised. This is the reason for the Password Reset process to fail. If this is the case then you need to contact the Gmail support team by filling out the account recovery form. This form will ask you to fill out several questions like

1. Email addresses of up to five frequently emailed contacts
2. Names of any 4 Labels that you may have created in your account
3. List of other services associated with your compromised account
4. Your last successful login date
5. Account created date
6. Last password that you remember and many more…

You need to fill out this form as much accurately as possible. It is obvious to forget the dates of last login, account creation and similar terms. However you need to figure out the closest possible date/answers and fill out this form. This is your last chance! The more accurate the information filled out in the recovery form, the more the chances of getting your account back. You may reach the account recovery page form the following link

Account Recovery Form

For Yahoo and Hotmail:

Unfortunately for Yahoo/Hotmail there is no second option like filling out the form or contacting the support team. All you need to do is either answer the secret questions that you have setup or reset the password using the secondary email option. 

To initiate the password reset process just click on the Forgot password link in your login page and proceed as per the screen instructions.

I hope this post will help you recover the lost account. I highly recommend that you also read my post on How to protect your email account from being hacked and Tips to find unauthorized activity on your Gmail account so that you always stay protected!

Android 4.0 ICS gets a style guide, with Android Design site

Google has written a style guide for Ice Cream Sandwich, hoping to help developers and device manufacturers create apps and user interfaces that are optimized for both tablets and smartphones. The style guide is called Android Design.

According to Android Developer Blog, Android Design is a “place to learn about principles, building blocks, and patterns for creating world-class Android user interfaces. Whether you’re a UI professional or a developer playing that role, these docs show you how to make good design decisions, big and small.”

The recommendations supplied in the style guide are optional, however, Google’s intension is clear – it’s trying ensure that future Android apps and custom user interfaces from manufacturers work well in terms of user experience, regardless of differences in display sizes and other hardware features. The aim is to make the Android platform less fragmented as a whole, even within the unified Ice Cream Sandwich version of the operating system.

The current Android Design guide is just the first step towards this goal, with more in-depth content promised in the coming months. Refer to the blog post, and the Android Design guide, for more information.

Tips to Find Unauthorized Activity on Your Email Account

Do you suspect that your email account is under attack? Do you want to maintain total security of your email account and make it 100% hack proof? Well, Some times our email account might have got hacked and we may not be aware of that. We may believe that our email account is safe, but in reality our private and confidential information may be falling into the hands of a third person.

Here are some signs of  unauthorized activity on an email account.

1. Your new emails are marked as Read even if you’ve not read them.

2. Your emails are moved to Trash or even permanently deleted without your notice.

3. Your emails are being forwarded to a third party email address (check your settings-> forwarding).

4. Your secondary email address is changed.

If you come across any of the above activities on your email account, then it is a clear indication that your email account is hacked.

Additional Security Features in Gmail to ensure the Safety of your Account

Gmail provides an additional security feature to protect your email account through the means of IP address logging. That is, Gmail records your IP address every time you login to your Gmail account. So, if a third party gets access to your account then even his/her IP is also recorded. To see a list of recorded IP address, scroll down to the bottom of your Gmail account and you’ll see something like this.

You can see from the above figure that Gmail shows the IP address of last login (last account activity). You can click on Details to see the IP address of your last 5 activities. If you find that the IP listed in the logs doesn’t belong to you, then you can suspect unauthorized activity.

Steps to be carried out to stop unauthorized activity on your email account

If you feel/suspect that your account is hacked then you must immediately take the actions mentioned below 

1. Change your Password

2. Change your security question.

2. Remove any third party email address (if any) to which your account is set to forward emails.

3. Make sure that you can access the email account of your secondary email address.

4. Also change you secondary email password and security question.

This ensures that your account is safe from future attacks. But I strongly recommend that you read the following post to protect your email account from being hacked.

How to Protect Your Email Account from being Hacked

Please pass your comments and express your opinions.

Apple halts store sales of iPhones in Bejing and China, following disturbance

Following a disturbance at one of its stores in Beijing this morning, Apple has announced it has put a halt to all iPhone sales in its Beijing and Shanghai stores, “for the time being”. The devices will still be available, as before, via the carrier - China Unicom, other retail stores, and Apple’s online store.

The disturbance this morning was caused by a 500-strong crowd at the Sanlitun store in Beijing, where people had stood in line for hours in sub-zero temperatures, awaiting the launch of theiPhone 4S. The store did not open when it was supposed to, at 7AM, and the crowd became unruly, with some members even throwing eggs when they were informed that there would be no sales of iPhone 4S that day because of shortages.

The store was cordoned off, while the crowd was cleared by police. The store never did open however, and company later issued a statement, saying it was because of “the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees".

Elsewhere, one Shanghai store opened early, hoping to minimize problems at launch, but instead ended creating a lot of disappointment, amidst those people who arrived ‘on time’ to find the device sold out. Apart from these two incidents, no trouble was reported at any of Apple’s other Beijing and Shanghai stores, so it is perhaps surprising Apple made the announcement to stop iPhone sales in these cities.

The official reason for the halting of sales has not been given, though if the halt was not called because of the disturbances, but because of an iPhone 4S shortage, it would make no sense for Apple to have stopped sales of all iPhone devices.

The crowd outside the Apple Store at Sanlitun has faced problems in the past, when a crowd waiting to buy the iPad 2 turned unruly, evening breaking the glass of store, and causing some injuries to bystanders. Apple has faced other problems in the recent past with the launch of its devices, with resellers purchasing most of the devices on launch day, and selling them at exorbitant mark-ups.

At today’s fracas at Sanlibun, nearly 60 migrant workers were spotted, most hired by resellers to stand in line and buy the devices. According to reports, these workers were perhaps the most disappointed in the unruly crowd, as they would not be able to collect their fee.

China is Apple’s second biggest market for mobile devices, with the company’s products evidently very popular there. Maybe next time, Apple could price the devices in China as high as India, to prevent any such incidents.

How to Protect an Email Account from being Hacked

Today in this post I’ll teach you how to protect your email account from being hacked. Nowadays I get a lot of emails where most of the people say “My Email account is hacked please help…”. Now one question which arises in our mind is: “Is it so easy to hack an email account? OR Is it so difficult to protect an email account from being hacked?”. The single answer to these two questions is “Absolutely NOT!”. It is neither easy to hack an email nor difficult to protect an email account from bieng hacked.

If this is the case, then what is the reason for many people to lose their accounts?

The answer is very simple. They don’t know how to protect themselves from being hacked! In fact most of the people who lose their email accounts are not the victims of hacking but the victims of Trapping. They lose their passwords not because they are hacked by some expert hackers but they are fooled to such an extent that they themselves give away their password.

Are you confused? If so continue reading and you’ll come to know…

Now I’ll mention some of the most commonly used online scams which fool people and make them lose their passwords. I’ll also mention how to protect your email account from these scams.

1. WEBSITE SPOOFING

Website spoofing is the act of creating a website, with the intention of misleading the readers. The website will be created by a different person or organisation (Other than the original) especially for the purposes of cheating. Normally, the website will adopt the design of the target website and sometimes has a similar URL.

For example a Spoofed Website of Yahoo.com appears exactly same as Yahoo Website. So most of the people believe that it is the original site and lose their passwords. The main intention of spoofed websites is to fool users and take away their passwords. For this,the spoofed sites offer fake login pages. These fake login pages resemble the original login pages of sites like Yahoo,Gmail,Orkut etc. Since it resemble’s the original login page people beleive that it is true and give away their username and passwordsby trying to login to their accounts.

Solution:

• Never try to login/access your email account from the sites other than the original site.
• Always type the URL of the site in the address bar to get into the site. Never click on the hyperlink to enter the site.

2. BY USING KEYLOGGERS

The other commonly used method to steal password is by using a Keylogger. A Keylogger is nothing but a spyware. The detailed description of keylogger and it’s usage is discussed in the post Hacking an email account. If you read this post you’ll come to know that it is too easy to steal the password using a keylogger program. If you just access your email account from a computer installed with keylogger, you definitely lose your password. This is because the keylogger records each and every keystroke that you type.

Solution:

Protecting yourselves from a keylogger scam is very easy.Just install a good anti-spyware program and update it regularly. This keeps your PC secure from a keylogger. Also there is a program called Anti-keylogger which is specially designed to detect and remove keyloggers. You can use this program to detect some stealth keyloggers which remain undetected by many anti-spyware programs.

3. ACCESSING YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT FROM CYBER CAFES

Do you access your email from cyber cafes?  Then definitely you are under the risk of loosing your password.In fact many people lose their email account in cyber cafes. For the owner of the cyber cafe it’s just a cakewalk to steal your password. For this he just need’s to install a keylogger on his computers. So when you login to your email account from this PC, you give away your password to the cafe owner. Also there are many Remote Administration Tools (RATs) which can be used to monitor your browsing activities in real time.

This doesn’t mean that you should never use cyber cafes for browsing the internet. I know, not all the cyber cafe owners will be so wicked but it is recommended not to use cafes for accessing confidential information. If it comes to the matter of security never trust anyone, not even your friend. I always use my own PC to login to my accounts to ensure safety.

So with this I conclude my post and assume that I have helped my readers to protect their email accounts from being hacked. Please pass your comments…

iPad 3 reportedly on track for early March shipment

 Though you can never really separate truth from fiction until Apple makes its announcement, a series of iPad 3 leaks and rumors is starting to paint a picture. The latest rumor, from Asian supply chain sources, has Apple splitting production duties between Foxconn and Pegatron. While that doesn’t shed a lot of light on the end result that will end up in consumers’ hands, this last part will: supposedly the tablets will be ready to ship in early March, putting the iPad 3 in around the same release slot as last year’s iPad 2 — around March.

This report says that Sharp will be supplying the Retina displays in the iPad 3. Foxconn will be driving 85% of the iPad 3′s production, with Pegatron picking up 15%. This is similar to the division that Apple went with for the iPhone 4S, so it sounds feasible.

Chinese New Year celebrations are earlier than usual this year, which throws a wrench into iPad production. 2012, the year of the Dragon, has the festivities starting on the evening of January 22, and ending on February 6. That’s a prime time slot for iPad production; one which is likely being compensated for by starting production earlier.

At this point, rumors and leaks are supporting logic. Nearly everyone expects this to be the year that Apple goes “Retina” — 2048×1536 resolution at 264 pixels per inch — with the iPad, and leaks have supported that. If the next-gen iPad does have that Retina display, then it may need a bigger battery to power it. Leaks have also supported that. And most people expect the tablet to be released in March, this latest leak corroborates that too.

This latest report also supports yesterday’s leak, which said that the form-factor of the iPad 3 will remain mostly unchanged from the iPad 2. One differentiation, however, is that form-fitting cases designed for the iPad 2 allegedly won’t fit the new iPad without a gap. The previous leak said that the iPad 3 would get slightly thicker to compensate for the Retina display, a larger battery, or both.

                     

Siri says!

The “Intelligent Assistant”, Siri has generated a whole lot of excitement. Not just because talking to your phone gets a new meaning, but also because it is a unique way to get things done. It will do things like set the alarm, schedule a reminder, call a contact or search the web. However, what it will not do - any location search in India.

The way we pronounce words, our accent is the real bottleneck here. You need to speak slowly and clearly for Siri to properly understand what you have just said. The words need to be spaced out, and the speed of the speech has to be a lot slower than it usually would be. While it will work well, if you follow the slow and clear routine, in a silent environment, Siri does get very annoyed with any ambient noise.

Overall, while it is fun to get things done by talking with the phone, it is equally irritating to have it understand words all wrong, and having to re-say the entire thing.

How To Updating the ROM in Your Mobile Device

Remember This: The phone or tablet you purchased is yours. It does not belong to the carrier that you bought it from despite the fact that the device is emblazoned with its corporate identity, logo or splash screen.

This outright ownership you have in the device means that you can do whatever you like with it once you've walked out of the store, assuming you don't mess with the radio hardware and cause interference to your fellow users.

This state-of-play lends itself to the question: What to do with the corporate logo-dripping thing? How can you really make it your own? Customize it? Theme it? Move the soft buttons around? That all goes only so far.

The real mark of ownership in the device is to replace the ROM (Read Only Memory) with one that suits you more than the carrier or manufacturer.

What Is ROM?

The ROM is the memory within the phone or tablet that's used to run the base device. It consists of the code that boots the device and runs it as it relates to its hardware.

For example, the ROM will contain code that tells the phone's GPS or WiFi chip how to behave. ROM is distinct from Apps, which aren't hard-coded into the phone's operating system.

Although Apps also tell the chips what to do, they're less rigid in their approach and can be customized more easily by the end-user through UIs. ROM is also distinct from RAM (Random Access Memory) that can be written to.

ROMs are loosely related to one or more of four areas: Speed enhancement; customizing the look and feel; bug fixes not supplied by the phone company or manufacturer; and pre-official ports of operating systems, just for the hell of it.

When to Look for a New ROM

If there's something that your device doesn't seem to be doing properly, there's a chance fellow owners have identified the issue and created a fix. The nature of the passionate developer community means this fix can be released significantly faster than one approved by a manufacturer, which may not even bother to fix it, and may even be focused on the next hardware incarnation -- you a long-forgotten blip in its revenue stream.

The developer-created fix will often be provided as a patch, initially, and then incorporated into an updated ROM.

A good example of this is a common issue whereby some Honeycomb tablets don't support ad hoc WiFi tethering that's necessary for some phones. Toshiba's Thrive's Honeycomb 3.2 operating system, for example, doesn't. So Dalepi, a member of the Toshiba Thrive Forum, coded a fix. Dalepi then incorporated that fix into a ROM that he made available at the Forum's website.

Owners run his code on their tablets rather than the factory-supplied code, because it's the owner's tablet and not Toshiba's, and Dalepi's code in this case suits the owner better than Toshiba's code.

How to Look for a ROM

Perform a Web-based search for your device maker and model, and add the word "forum." Browse the resulting pages for good leads.

In the case of the Toshiba, for example, the Toshiba Thrive Forums website holds all ROMs available, and is the definitive source. You'll often find one Web-based location that's definitive.

Another good source is XDA Developers -- likely the largest Android developer community. XDA members have been responsible for, or active in, any ROM I've used. Look for releases labeled "Stable" or "Beta," rather than "Nightly" or "Experimental" for best results to start.

Some Prerequisites

Any replacement ROM must be loaded onto a rooted device. The phone you purchase isn't rooted, but the sources in the previous step will tell you how to perform the root.

You'll also need a PC and a USB cable. Sometimes you'll also need a memory card.

The Process

Ensure that the device can communicate with the PC you're going to be using. This involves installing the correct drivers. Then root the device following the instructions provided by the developer specific to your device and revision.

Often the developer will have written all of the commands into a batch file that you can simply run with one click from a connected PC. This can include the root, drivers, recovery software and ROM.

Follow the instructions provided by the ROM developer to load new recovery software after a simple root. Once the recovery software is loaded, any new appropriate ROM can be installed.

Further toying can include restoring the ROM back to its original condition. If you get the opportunity to make a backup -- say from within the recover software step, always do so.

Thank the developer, or donate money to his or her listed Paypal account if you get good results or have otherwise enjoyed the process. It's considered good form.

A Few Warnings

Follow the forum instructions carefully, because it's possible to brick the device. Often, the first release day of any community-released code will be athwart with danger -- the experimenters that day know it and like the thrill. We don't. The first day of a recent Google TV upgrade bricked numerous devices.

As a beginner, wait a few days after a release for the kinks to get ironed out, and always reads the forums carefully. Always match release-for-release. For example, if the hack (ROM, root tool or other) is for a version labeled 3.1.01.5.0029, don't use it on 3.1.01.5.0002. Be aware that sending a bricked, hacked device in for warranty repair might be problematic. You may be on your own.