Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Skype and Google Talk

Skype and Google Talk both support video chat on most of phones with front facing camera. I used it to do video calls over both Wi-Fi and 3G networks. Both of these applications work very well and in any decent 3G connection can provide a pretty usable video call function.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Save battery and secure your Android Device

The best combination of applications for your android phone are Lookout and Juice Defender. The biggest pet peeve for most of the android (and even iPhone) phones is that the battery does not really last a day if you are regularly using the phone whole day for emails, google maps and other stuff.
Juice Defender disables data connectivity and re-enables it after certain interval to save battery and can increase the life of the battery by 2-3 times.
Lookout Security app is a much because it acts as a virtual guard and can help you to locate the phone if it is really lost. The problem is that if you are running this app with Juice Defender, then you data is disabled and you can not locate the phone.
This is where a hidden feature in Juice Defender comes really handy. There is a feature to define a password that you can send to your phone and Juice Defender would disable itself.
With the combination of these two applications, you can save battery as well as secure your android device.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Moto Razr Android XT910 -- a review

Finally got the latest Moto Razr Android XT910  from expansys.com UK. Here are my first impressions. I still believe that apart from Apple and Nokia, Motorola has the best mechanical design of its devices and that tradition continues with Moto Razr. The phone looks sleek, really thin.

The camera definitely is an improvement over Atrix.
The video camera also produces decent quality stuff.

Swype IME is bundled with the phone which is definitely better than the standard IME available with the android OS.

The Blur software in the phone seem to have been toned down but still exists. I actually like some of the stuff provided as part of Blur. For example the Favorite Contacts widget is a great tool for keeping few of the favorite people on the home screen.

The phone has the battery compartment sealed (like iPhone) and SIM and SD cards have to be inserted to the side of the phone. Also the phone only accepts micro SIM cards, so one has to either get a micro SIM card or make one by cutting their SIM cards.

On measuring the performance using Quadrant Standard Edition, the phone returns a benchmark figure of 2608 which is almost twice the figure returned by Nexus One 2.2+.

The phone has Smart Actions application which looks very similar to Locale application that has existed in the Android market for quite some time.

The screen is pretty good, although it has same resolution as Atrix but the physical size is higher, which makes it easier to use but little harder to carry. People with smaller hands may find it difficult to hold in their palms.
Here is the details that Android System Info application returned.


OSBrowser UserAgent : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.5; en-us; XT910 Build/6.5.1-73_SPU-9) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1
BuildInfosAndroid version : 2.3.5Release Codename : RELAPI LEVEL : 10CPU ABI : armeabi-v7aManufacturer : motorolaBootloader : unknownCPU ABI2 : armeabiHardware : mapphone_cdmaRadio : unknownBoard : spyderBrand : MOTODevice : umts_spyderDisplay : 6.5.1-73_SPU-9Fingerprint : MOTO/XT910_RTGB/umts_spyder:2.3.5/6.5.1-73_SPU-9/1319876225:user/release-keysModel : XT910Product : XT910_RTGBTags : release-keys
BatteryDischarging...Level : 60 %Technology : Li-ionTemperature : 32.0 °C (89.6°F)Voltage : 3892 mV
MemoryDownload Cache Max: 708MB/ Free: 692MBdata Max: 3.74GB/ Free: 3.29GBExternal storage Max: 8.00GB/ Free: 7.99GBTotal RAM: 0.91GBFree RAM: 196MBThreshold RAM: 46.00MB
Low Memory Killer LevelsFOREGROUND_APP:__ 12.00MBVISIBLE_APP:_________ 18.00MBSECONDARY_SERVER: 28.12MBHIDDEN_APP:________ 46.00MBCONTENT_PROVIDER: 68.00MBEMPTY_APP:__________ 82.03MB
CPUProcessor ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)processor 0BogoMIPS 43581.82Features swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp thumbee neon vfpv3CPU implementer 0x41CPU architecture 7CPU variant 0x1CPU part 0xc09CPU revision 3Hardware mapphone_CDMARevision 0000Serial 0000000000000000Freqency range: 300.0 -> 1200.0MHzCurrent Frequency: 1200.0MHzFrequency Stats (time):- 300.0 MHz 63.77% (3124603)- 600.0 MHz 7.74% (379481)- 800.0 MHz 7.37% (361167)- 1000.0 MHz 7.91% (387678)- 1200.0 MHz 13.2% (646818)
CameraAntibanding: autoColor Effect: noneExposure Compensation: 0Exposure Compensation Step: 0.1Flash Mode: offFocus Mode: autoFocal Length: 4.6Horizontal View Angle: 62.1Jpeg Quality: 95Jpeg Thumbnail Quality: 60Jpeg Thumbnail Size: 240x320Max Exposure Compensation: 30Max Zoom: 15Min Exposure Compensation: -30Picture Format: JPEGPicture Size: 2448x3264Preview Format: NV21Preview Framerate: 30Preview Size: 480x640Supported Antibanding: - off- auto- 50hz- 60hzSupported Color Effects: - none- negative- solarize- sepia- mono- natural- vivid- colourswap- blackwhite- whiteboard- blackboard- aqua- posterize- red-tint- green-tint- blue-tintSupported Flash Modes: - off- on- auto- torchSupported Focus Modes: - fixed- auto- infinity- macro- continuous- continuous-video- extended- portrait- touch- face-prioritySupported Jpeg Thumbnail Sizes:- 0x0- 96x96- 144x176- 144x352- 384x512- 240x320- 120x200- 120x160Supported Picture Formats: - JPEG- YUY2- NV21- RGB_565Supported Picture Sizes: - 240x320- 480x640- 960x1280- 1200x1600- 1536x2048- 1458x2592- 1936x2592- 1840x3264- 2448x3264Supported Preview Formats: - YUY2- NV21- RGB_565Supported Preview Frame Rates: - 30- 25- 24- 20- 15- 10Supported Preview Sizes: - 96x128- 120x160- 144x176- 160x240- 288x352- 240x320- 480x640- 576x768- 480x720- 576x720- 480x800- 480x864- 720x1280- 1080x1920Supported Scene Modes: - auto- macro- action- portrait- landscape- night-portrait- sunset- steadyphotoSupported White Balance: - auto- daylight- cloudy-daylight- shade- tungsten- fluorescent- incandescent- horizon- face-priority- sunset- twilight- warm-fluorescent- sun- cloudy- flash- night-normalWhite Balance: autoVertical View Angle: 48.2Zoom: 0Zoom Ratios: - 100- 115- 132- 152- 174- 200- 230- 264- 303- 348- 400- 459- 528- 606- 696- 800Smooth Zoom Supported: trueZoom Supported: true
ScreenResolution: 540 x 960Refresh Rate: 68.0X factor for DIP: 1.5Density: 240 dpiPixel per inch X: 258.79245 dpi Y: 256.67368 dpi
OpenGLOpenGL Version supported : 2.0OpenGL Version supported : OpenGL ES-CM 1.1 build 1.7.17.4958Vendor : Imagination TechnologiesRenderer : PowerVR SGX 540Extensions : GL_OES_byte_coordinates GL_OES_fixed_point GL_OES_single_precision GL_OES_matrix_get GL_OES_read_format GL_OES_compressed_paletted_texture GL_OES_point_sprite GL_OES_point_size_array GL_OES_matrix_palette GL_OES_draw_texture GL_OES_query_matrix GL_OES_texture_env_crossbar GL_OES_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_OES_texture_cube_map GL_OES_blend_subtract GL_OES_blend_func_separate GL_OES_blend_equation_separate GL_OES_stencil_wrap GL_OES_extended_matrix_palette GL_OES_framebuffer_object GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8 GL_OES_depth24 GL_OES_stencil8 GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture GL_OES_mapbuffer GL_OES_EGL_image GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_OES_required_internalformat GL_IMG_read_format GL_IMG_texture_compression_pvrtc GL_IMG_texture_format_BGRA8888 GL_EXT_texture_format_BGRA8888 GL_IMG_texture_stream GL_OES_egl_sync GL_IMG_vertex_array_object
SensorsLIS3DH 3-axis Accelerometer: 0.25 mA by ST MicroAK8975 3-axis Magnetic field sensor: 6.8 mA by Asahi KaseiAK8975 Orientation sensor: 7.05 mA by Asahi KaseiCT405 Proximity sensor: 3.0 mA by TAOSCT405 Light sensor: 0.175 mA by TAOSGravity Sensor: 0.25 mA by Google Inc.Linear Acceleration Sensor: 0.25 mA by Google Inc.Rotation Vector Sensor: 7.05 mA by Google Inc.
Featuresandroid.hardware.wifiandroid.hardware.location.networkandroid.hardware.telephonyandroid.hardware.locationandroid.hardware.touchscreen.multitouchandroid.hardware.sensor.compassandroid.hardware.cameraandroid.hardware.touchscreen.multitouch.distinctandroid.hardware.bluetoothandroid.hardware.sensor.proximityandroid.hardware.sensor.lightandroid.hardware.microphoneandroid.hardware.location.gpsandroid.hardware.camera.autofocusandroid.hardware.telephony.gsmandroid.hardware.telephony.cdmaandroid.hardware.camera.frontandroid.software.live_wallpaperandroid.hardware.sensor.accelerometerandroid.hardware.touchscreenandroid.hardware.camera.flashglEsVers=2.0
JavaPropertiesjava.vendor.url: http://www.android.com/java.class.path: .java.class.version: 46.0os.version: 2.6.35.7-ge439ab5java.vendor: The Android Projectuser.dir: /user.timezone: nullpath.separator: :os.name: Linuxos.arch: armv7lline.separator: file.separator: /user.name: java.version: 0java.home: /system


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Atrix is finally on gingerbread

Finally motorola has delivered android 2.3.4 aka gingerbread for atrix. Many interesting enhancements are part of this update. Video chat on google talk works great. Full hd video recording is also available.
All in all a great update on a hardware that can deliver a performance to match.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Motorola Milestone Software Update FroYo

Finally Motorola has made FroYo upgrade available for some countries. I have a phone that was bought in UK and I could upgrade the software. You can see the 3G hotspot and apps2SD and other features that were part of FroYo.

The software update is not available for OTA but you need to download Motorola Software Update utility from here.

Once you have the software and a Windows machine, you can connect the phone using USB cable and after that it is self explanatory.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Application Review: Lookout

So many days since I posted something. I got to try this new app called Lookout. Very decent app. It provide functionality related to identifying vulnerabilities in the phone, one can request location of the phone from their portal, backup photos, call records and contact book.

Basic application is free but some of the functionality is premium and you need to pay $29.99 per annum for premium functionality. Premium functionality includes backing up of photos and call records and remote lock and wipe of the device.

If one is keeping lots of confidential data on the device, I would say that the premiums version is worth it otherwise one should anyway install the free version.