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.

Friday, March 26, 2010

AppBrain: Application Review

Here is one application which seriously eliminates the shortcomings of android market. I believe that at some stage either Google should fold in this functionality in their market or just acquire these guys. It really eliminates most of the hassles of the market today.
Every time you upgrade software on your phone, you end up having to reinstall all the apps on your phone because the phone does not remember what softwares were installed on it. This application provides that functionality.
Give the application a try, use the QR code attached with this post. One can use their web portal (http://www.appbrain.com) to search and install applications and these are automatically pushed to the mobile phone and installed. In summary, I have found this application to be of great use.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Ripping movies to watch on Milestone

Here are the instructions to watch movies by converting them from DVD to a format so that they are optimized for Motorola Milestone. These would also work well for a Droid phone.
  • Install Handbrake Software, make sure to install the CLI
  • Install VLC software, Handbrake will not be able to decrypt DVDs without this software and will give error.
  • I use both of these on a Linux machine but both these software are also available for windows and one can easily figure out how to work these from respective websites. 
Once this setup is done, just insert the DVD and run following command line.
HandBrakeCLI -e x264  -q 20.0 -a 1 -E faac -B 128 -6 dpl2 -R 48 -D 0.0 -f mp4 -X 854 -Y 480 -m -x cabac=0:ref=2:me=umh:bframes=0:subme=6:8x8dct=0:trellis=0 -i -o MovieName.m4v --longest

If the DVD has multiple titles then above command will pull out the longest title. Otherwise one can use --title option for getting specific title. This command scales the movie to correct format for Milestone/Droid.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Application Review: App to QR

qrcode
Another small and useful app in the android market. This application can give the searchable URL for any application installed on your phone or generate a QR Code that you can use to share via the camera with another friend. I have found it extremely useful. Use the QR Code on the right to go to this application.

Application Review : Ringdroid

qrcodeHere is an application that is available on android market for quite some time. I just never tried it primarily because my ADP1 just ran out of space for installing additional application. The application is called Ringdroid. The application can read any MP3 stored on your phone or you can record any sound and then it allows you to define the boundaries of what you want to set as ring tone.

Works pretty well and I found it useful. Use the QR Code on the right to jump to this application in the market.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Facebook App for Android

Finally after long time, a Facebook app for Android is in market. Since the benchmark app for Facebook on mobile devices seems to be one on iPhone, I thought let me compare how the current Android App stands up against iPhone App. Please note that I do not have a iPhone but a iPod Touch so my comparison is between those two.

Category
Android App
iPhone/iPod Touch
Main Screen
Six main icons, New Feed, Friends, Photos, Take Photo, Profile, Notifications
Nine main icons, News Feed, Friends, Photos, Profile, Inbox, Chat, Requests, Events, photos, Notes
News Feed
New Feed screens look very similar. iPhone has a + button to add comments while Android has long touch. iPhone also has a large Rolodex like menu which essentially maps to facebook menu where you can choose a filter for your feed.
Profile
Profile screen is almost identical in both the apps with tabs for wall, info and photos being on top on Android and on bottom in iPhone. Also relationship status on iPhone is better with the photo of the spouse being shown with the name while Android app just says that "Married". Android app also does not show the IM addresses while iPhone app shows them.
Photos is very similar with iPhone app having an additional album for Profile photos which Android app does not have.
Friends
Friends screen is very similar in both with Facebook app sorted on last name while android app sorted on first name. Also the first character selection on iPhone on the right hand side of screen is pretty useful to directly jump to a person whose name starts with a specific character.
Notifications
Screens are very similar but surprisingly Android app does not allow one to click on a name and go to his profile. Also number of notifications in Android app seems to be much less compared to what is there on iPhone. For example I could not find notifications related to people commenting on my status in Android app while these are there on iPhone client.
Photos
Very similar screens, similar functionality.
Events
Android does not this option at all
iPhone client allow you to have a look at events.
Inbox
Android does not this option at all
iPhone client shows the messages in the Inbox and lets you reply to them.
Chat
Android does not this option at all
You can chat with online friends.
Requests
Android does not this option at all
You can see pending requests and respond to them.
To sum it up, even though Android client is far improved compared to the last version, it still lags too much compared to iPhone client. Many features are really very important omissions. If I had any say in prioritizing these, I would put them in following order.
  1. Chat -- very important, many people are only available for chat on Facebook and can't get them on google talk
  2. Friend requests -- Very important option, since currently the best solution is to click on the email received and go to web browser and then accept/reject the request.
  3. Inbox/Event
  4. Catch up to other features that I have listed in the table above.

Motorola Milestone, Apps that I use

Here is a list of applications that I have downloaded from Android Market and use them.

  • Barcode Scanner -- Really essential app, can use the camera to scan any barcode. This app is also used by many other apps for that functionality.
  • Bubble -- A surface level testing application
  • Calorie Counter -- A client for weight losers' social network http://www.fatsecret.com
  • Cardio Trainer -- Can record your running sessions along with a google map
  • Compass -- A regular direction compass, has analog and digital settings. Pretty useful
  • Documents to Go -- Office compatible document reader and editing capability
  • Facebook for Android -- What would be life without facebook
  • Finance -- Client for Google Finance
  • Fring -- IM client for many systems, supports skype
  • Goggles -- Nifty app that can decipher things based on their pictures, Just point the camera and it would tell you what it is.
  • Voice -- Client for google Voice. I have it but can't use it in India
  • Layar -- Augmented Reality app, overlays stuff on google map. Pretty cool
  • Listen -- Podcast finder
  • Locale -- Very nifty app to change the settings of your phone based on time or your location.
  • My Tracks -- Records your movements. Very useful to share directions with others.
  • My Backup -- Backups all the user data on SD card. Useful when changing phones.
  • Places Directory -- Another cool app from Google, nice to find places around you.
  • Seesmic -- A twitter client
  • Shazam -- Can decipher song details by listening to it.
  • ShopSavvy -- Retail app, not very useful for India but apparently very popular in Japan
  • SMS Backup -- Backups all your SMS messages to your gmail account under a specified Label.
  • Toggle Wifi -- Does what it says, I place it as a shortcut on home screen to control WiFi
  • TouchDown -- Exchange App, I prefer it over what is already on the phone
  • Twidroid -- Client for twitter, I prefer it over seesmic
  • Unit Converter -- Converts pretty much any unit to any other unit
  • Ustream Broadcaster -- Broadcast yourself. Pretty good
  • Voice Recorder -- Record voice
Let me know you any of you people out there use any other app that you find useful. I can try that out.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Motorola Milestone, Review #1

Here are my initial thoughts on Motorola Milestone.
  • I think it is a pretty good phone, I had been using ADP1 form last one and half year and the mechanical quality of the phone is pretty evident as soon as you touch it.
  • The slider is pretty crisp
  • GMail application now supports multiple GMail account which is a great feature addition to the phone since I (and many others whom I know) have a .gmail.com account and another account for their hosted domain. Earlier I had to access one of these accounts via IMAP which definitely is not as efficient as GMail since many of the gmail features like Label and Archiving are not available from IMAP.
  • The new maps is also pretty good, addition of layers and landmarks is better over the earlier version. The one thing is missing is voice navigation which supposedly is available on US droid but it missing in this one.
  • Keyboard take little time to getting used to but one gets used to it. The only problem is that for entering numbers one has to press Alt.
  • Soft keyboard is much better, for me the success rate is much higher compared to ADP1.
  • Browser has pinch and zoom but the maps does not. I am hoping that a future release of maps through the market may carry pinch and zoom.
  • There are many posts on internet that this phone does not allow protected applications download but I could download Calorie Counter from fatsecret.com which I know for sure is a protected application because I could never download it on my ADP1.
  • One of the downside of getting it shipped from UK was that the phone was missing the microSD card which should have been inside the phone and it did not have it. I am trying to follow up with vendor but I have very little hope that I will get it. Anyway I can pick one up here.
  • Gallery is much improved, pinch and zoom works on photos, even the gallery display is much improved with a good way to browse photos.
  • Facebook for Android application is still not available for Android 2.0, one can download Bloo which works ok and the web based facebook is also decent.
  • Twidroid and Seesmic clients work great for twitter.
  • Camera is not great but does decent job.
Overall a great device. Solved many of my problems, Facebook, Twitter, GMail and all other google services.

How to get Motorola Milestone in India

So, I waited and waited and waited some more and could not find anyway on how to get Motorola Milestone in India. There was no news from company so I decided to take matter in my own hands.

It was available on UK online retailer eXpansys on 10th of December 2009, so I decided to order directly from them. In the end, it seems to have worked out very well. I ordered and my order reached in time before they ran out of stock.

Since they were shipping outside EU territory, I did not have to pay VAT which was 15%. That saved me £59.56. I had to pay £22.95 as shipping (in place of £5.95) so I ended up paying £17.00 extra.

The shipping was through DHL international and they cleared customs and charged me Rs. 2002/- as custom charges. In the end I got the phone for a price way less than what I would have paid if I got it shipped to somebody in UK and asked him to bring back.

Total cost to me for the phone was around Rs. 33,500/-. The only downside is that in place of $ symbol on keyboard, it has £ symbo.l. I think I can live with that.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Installing Google Maps 3.3 on ADP1

Recently Google pushed Google Maps 3.3 to Android market. But due to a signature mismatch, you can not install it directly from market. It would give you signature mismatch error. If you are owing a ADP1, you should not have problems with getting your hands dirty. Here are the instructions that you can use to install new version of Maps.

Connect your ADP1 to your PC using the USB flashing cable and them perform following steps. Login into the phone using following steps.

  1. $ adb shell
  2. $ su
Now erase the old instance of Maps.
1) Mount /system read/write; as root on the phone:
    mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

2) erase the standard system Maps.apk; as root on the phone:
    rm /system/app/Maps.apk

3) uninstall the Maps data; on your computer:
    adb uninstall com.google.android.apps.maps

4) Optional; You probably want to mount /system read-only again; as root on the phone:
    mount -o remount,ro /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

5) You can install Google Maps from the Market as normal now.
As usual, standards disclaimers apply. Thanks to  Zinx at Google Forums for this post.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Geotagging photos from your DSLR

I have never been a great fan of camera phones or even point and shoot ones for that matter. So I always used a GPS logger while shooting photos from my DSLR. Earlier I used to use Nokia Sportstracker application. Now since I have started using a Android phone, I needed to find an alternative to that solution.
From the time MyTracks application was released by Google, it has become easy to take a GPS log. The latest version of MyTracks application also allows user to send the track as a GPX file to any email address. So one can start recording a track, shoot all the pictures and then email the track as GPX file and then use any of the available open source applications for tagging photos.
I use GPicSync which is available for free download.

Android Donut 1.6 for HTC G1

I know it is late but I finally got Android 1.6 firmware for my G1. It adds new market and some other minor improvements. On the downside though now I get more frequent out of space errors so my guess is that the new firmware occupies significantly more space on the device and any further updates may be in question.

Monday, May 11, 2009

ADP 1.5 Cupcake release

Finally HTC has provided the official software update named cupcake and labelled 1.5. and it is available here.

Hope that helps.
Interesting things to look for are calendar widget, auto rotate feature and most anticipated feature on screen keyboard.

Earthquake -- Widget Review

Recently I downloaded earthquake widget on my ADP phone with cupcake build. Very cool widget? It is surprising to know how many earthquakes happen everyday. The package can be downloaded from market and has an application and one widget. Search for Earthquake in market.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Official ADP1 1.1 firmware

I had earlier posted about the software update for my ADP1 device, it seems that was not the official software update. That supposedly contained the software that was provided as part of holiday gift phones that were given to Google employees.

Finally HTC has provided the official software update and it is available here. Please go through the page and the software upgrade should be easy. One things that I faced was that I had setup the USB device into mass storage mode, one needs to set in debug mode. Select Settings->Applications->Development->USB Debugging. This option should be enabled and then the phone will be visible to adb and fastboot.

Another issue that has cropped up with this software upgrade is the fact that to start with Google Latitude is disabled. It seems it is just a software option and can be very easily enabled by using instructions here.
1) Connect your Rooted G1 to your PC via USB and run 'adb shell' (or use the G1 Terminal App no the phone)
2) su
3) cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
4) sqlite3 settings.db
5) .dump gservices (to see all your current settings and check if maps_enable_friend_finder already exists)
6) INSERT INTO "gservices" (name,value) VALUES('maps_enable_friend_finder','1');
7) .quit
8) exit

Now the Join Latitude button will be shown in Maps again, no need for a reboot.

If it doesn't appear make sure you have the values
<boolean name="FF_SHOWN" value="true" />
<boolean name="SHOW_MY_FRIENDS" value="true" />

in the file /data/data/com.google.android.apps.maps/shared_prefs/com.google.android.maps.MapsActivity.xml

Hope that helps.