yellowchilli's musings.

A Quick look at Windows 8 Consumer Preview

2012-03-01T12:58:00.001+08:00

head over to HERE if you want to try it for yourself. Otherwise carry on for a quick visual tour:

Preview verdict: apps are not loading fast enough for them to be competitive with other platforms. In other words, they still appear to be sucking up too much resources. Surely things will be improved in the final version…

Android Essential must-have apps: ROUND 2

2012-01-03T15:26:00.001+08:00

It’s been almost a year since I did Round 1. The apps landscape has changed considerably and the App Market has gained countless number of apps that perfectly rivals the iOS Appstore. I’m glad that I can still stand by my Round 1 list as they are still around / being maintained / confirmed malware-free… and mostly still one of the top choices among their own kind in this ocean of apps.

I’ve put together a new list of apps now. Android 4.0 is just around the corner for a lot of people and some are already enjoying it on the Galaxy Nexus (and SGS2 if you check out Galnet MIUI!) and of course Android OS adoption is higher than ever. This list will supplement the last, with only one or two replacements so be sure to revisit Round 1. While this list is no longer full of free apps only, the paid ones are absolutely essential in my daily life when I often have to juggle between setting up new phones for friends and my own 3 androids (SGS2, Transformer, DHD if you must know).

Google+ (Google Plus)

Well now that the Google+ hype (by invitation) has died down, is there a reason to put this on your Android?

Other than being a capable social network, it also does one thing brilliantly: automatically upload all photos and videos you take with your camera to Google Picasa (picasa web).

Privacy? well that’s ok because they’re all uploaded to a private folder called “Instant Uploads”.

Worried about data usage? That’s fine too because you can tell it to only upload when connected via wifi.

Worried about battery life? tell it to upload only when on external power.

It’s all in the Settings.

Lookout Security & Antivirus

I’m sure a lot of people have heard about Android apps security by now..how some developers make rogue apps or even spoof popular ones to get themselves onto as many Androids as possible, steal data and then send them home. Naturally, anti malware, spyware and anti-virus becomes the next most essential app your Android must have.

Now, there is never one perfect Anti-virus for anyone since viruses and such are detected and added to the scan lists at different rates across different companies so Lookout or no other can claim to detect 100% of the bad guys out there. But this is lightweight, doesn’t hog resources, has other (some paid) useful features such as “missing device” (like iOS’s Find my iphone). Most importantly, it scans new apps as soon as they’re installed so you should be aware of malware before you even run it for the first time.

It’s free. You can’t go wrong with this.

Of course, you can also checkout offerings from the big companies: Symantec, Kaspersky, McAffee.

What to do when Drupal gives you nothing but a HTTP 500 Internal Server Error

2011-12-08T10:47:00.001+08:00

Give me back my website!!!!

You have no UI whatsoever to your Drupal, no admin page and no idea what this vague error means. What do you do?

Better question is probably what you DID do.
Now I’m very new (less than 24 hours at the time of writing) to Drupal so I don’t pretend to be an expert. But I want to share how I fixed my problem.
I know what I did do- changed themes incessantly and not following instructions.. so i went ahead and searched for solutions to changing the theme manually as in without having to go through the administration dashboard. I soon found out that I could issue sql commands to make changes to my database (which didn’t work for me for a number of reasons) and that my google searching skills needs to level up because the solution has been posted elsewhere but I just couldn’t find it at the time.
What I did wrong was to install a theme that has a prerequisite of installing the core theme…and not installing said prerequisite. So the solution would simply be to install AND enable this core theme and it’ll all be ok.

but of course, I had no UI.

I was ready to delete the whole thing since it was just a test to begin with but decided to try to re-run the installation just to see what happens. So I ran /drupal/install.php (instead of index.php, same thing). It says it’s already installed blahblahblah. So I picked update script and it threw me a few errors along the lines of:

“Notice: site:drupal.org Trying to get property of non-object in drupal_alter() (line 996 of /drupal/includes/module.inc)”

Nothing I could do about it, Clicked “rebuild permissions” out of desperation because the only other clickable link was asking me to “try again” after having resolved the above errors.

doesn’t show said error here because I didn’t take screenshots at the time

And voila. Clicking rebuild permissions brought back the Admin bar where I could access the Themes page and consequently fix everything by switching themes.

Here’s something worth trying instead of going through install.php- add “?q=admin” to your drupal site’s url like so:

http://yoursite.com/drupal/?q=admin

Breathing new life into old Android phones

2011-12-01T16:52:00.001+08:00

CRAP.

You know what’s good? This:

The Galnet MIUI rom (Build 2.11.26)

I was ready to sell off my Galaxy S2 (yes not exactly old..). All content backed up, all data partitions wiped, flashed a new fresh rom and so on. It was ready. It was to be replaced with my new Galaxy Note. Before I could place an ad however, I decided I’d try flash some ICS alpha roms.

Now I’d been aware of MIUI for a long time but it wasn’t until I was on a quest to find a working ICS rom that I was forced to pay attention to it proper. I came across something called Galnet MIUI and it promises that it has a “merged ICS framework” with all the ICS benefits but just none of the frontend UI. Sounds better than some alpha ICS builds with a huge list of non-working stuff, I guess.

The flashing went smoothly- it was no different than flashing a regular rom: via CWM recovery. The boot animation was impressive and turned out to be the precursor to something great. I fell in love with the rom immediately. And just to summarise this rom in 3 words: beautiful, functional and stable.

The original MIUI concept, in my opinion was to bring the iPhone UI to Android. But it’s evolved from that and has grown into so much more. The rom was made for those who either wanted to have a UI that mimics iOS or for those who like to mock iOS, probably. It’s clear in the screenshots alone that it lifts iOS’s apps icon homescreen (because there is no longer an app drawer) and combines it with the best that Android has to offer e.g. widgets, the Android notification system (that ios ripped and planted into ios5). All the animations that MIUI is capable of is on par with iOS and a step above anything found on a stock Android launcher…or even LauncherPRO and ADWLauncher. The modifications aren’t just launcher-deep. Even the popups, settings menus, camera ui, notification area and so on.. it’s a complete suite of something totally different. it’ so heavily modified that it really ought to be considered a branch off that separates itself from Android. And Indeed the team who did the original MIUI rom has built their own phone based on this rom- known as the “Xiaomi phone”.

Speaking of settings, see for yourself in the screenshot. Again it doesn’t stop at the visual level. Many many functions and features were added with native apps to support them. Here are some of the features that are much appreciated here and are sorely missing from practically every other android rom:

guard mode- privacy mode to hide personal data

per application access control- security measures to fence off sensitive data e.g. Messages requires a password before access is granted

local and cloud backups- goodbye to titanium backup and hello sms backup

highly customizable out of the box- different screen transition animations, notification area icons, toggles, built-in themes manager,…

beautiful animations- never gets in the way and enhances the user experience tenfold. love the “cascading” transition effect..

app support: calls and sms firewall, miui customization, MIUI music, Galnet video..

tactile feedback has been given a lot of thought- must experience this yourself

And so on. And I run this rom at 800mhz with no perceivable slow down whatsoever which is definitely a feat. Those who have tried 800mhz on other SGS2 roms would have noticed ui slowdowns one way or another. Not here.

Purists may say MIUI sucks because it is not an Android experience at all. And then people waiting for the Android 4.0 will also moan about how Galnet MIUI is not a proper ICS rom.

But the question that I ask myself is: do I want to flash the stock ICS rom once it gets a beta release? I sure am not going back to any other gingerbread rom. This is the best of both worlds if you can’t decide between an iPhone and an Android (presumably a SGS2).

Heck I might just wait till there’s a stable while I enjoy Galnet.

This was just a random (and overly wordy) post. All I want to do is put the word out and ask those who are remotely interested in flashing roms to please, give Galnet MIUI a go. They support some of the most popular models: SGS2, SGS, Nexus One and S and a bunch of popular HTC models.

Some useful links:

Official website:

http://galnetmiui.co.uk

Official download page:

www.http://galnetmiui.co.uk/landing/ics-builds/

rom builds download mirror:

Couple days ago Galnet MIUI’s download servers were down…right when I was desperately trying to grab hold of 2.11.26. In the end I had to settle for an older version that was hosted by an external party.

forum post: http://www.galnetmiui.co.uk/landing/forums/showthread.php/2306-Language-Packs

direct link to mirror folder: http://uploaded.to/folder/khce2y

MIUI manual:

http://www.galnet.co.uk/miui/MIUI-MANUAL.pdf

How to lessen iOS5’s battery drain

2011-11-01T11:13:00.001+08:00

Be sure to make a full device backup before you begin.

1. turn off automatic Time Zone and all other unnecessary system location services

2. turn off icloud services you don’t actually need.

3. or if you need them, toggle them off, and then back on again.

Read on for more details.

Location services

Surely by now everyone is aware that one of the prime suspects is the automatic Time Zone setting (Settings>Location Services>System Services>Setting Time Zone). To me the setting had always made me feel conscious because I’d chosen to show the location icon on the status bar…and it stayed on at all times because of the setting. So I turned the setting off in no time since I don’t travel much anyway so its convenience was not justifiable at the cost of battery life, no matter how much. While I was at it I turned off Diagnostics & Usage and Location-based iAds. It just so happens that this is now being suspected as the cause of the battery drain and is being investigated by Apple themselves.

While i was not able to experience this battery drain myself (thankfully) because I turned it off waaay when I was still on ios5 beta, I have had some real improvements by optimising my iCloud settings.

I myself own an iPod Touch and an iPad2 so it would appear that it’d be in my interest to use all of iCloud’s offerings. Conversely if you only own one iDevice, then you should be switching off most of your iCloud services like in the screenshot above, leaving only the essentials.

iCloud

In the beginning, I had all iCloud services switched on. And my battery life was draining at an all time high on idle. So what I did was to first do a full backup- this is important especially considering the quirks that plague iCloud1.0. Then, I went into iCloud settings and toggled each one from on to off and then back on again. Don’t do this too fast as some of them need a few seconds to deactivate and activate. From then on my severe battery drain was cured.

But battery life was still not lon par with iOS4 so I further disabled services that I didn’t need. In essence, I didn’t really need anything to be synched across my devices so I switched off everything until I was left with the bare minimum. In the end, I had Mail, Reminders, Find my iPod and iCloud backup. And I was back in battery life heaven… relatively speaking anyway.

Just a word on those ‘bare minimum’ iCloud services:

Mail: that depends on you actually. i wanted to keep my [username]@me.com running separately from my primary account. so if you don’t need this, switch it off.

Calendar, Contacts: I already sync with Google so synching them here might have caused some serious duplication. Otherwise if you just have a local calendar and contact list then it can be excluded.

Reminders: this is an important one, regardless of whether you want it across all your devices or not. This is compulsory if you simply want to be ABLE to use Reminders. If you disable it here, you will not be able to add new entries to Reminders! Strange I know..

Find my iPod: this one will help you locate your device if you happen to misplace it/have it stolen. You can also make the device bleep and send a message to your device remotely on www.me.com. This setting must stay on.

iCloud backup: supposedly takes an image of your device once a day and sends it to iCloud. Most useful if say your primary iTunes library PC suddenly dies one day and you just so happen to need to do a restore of your device. Doesn’t seem to drain battery so..

Possible Solution for Nokia N9’s “problem downloading this item/ Unable to continue installation due to unresolved error” on the Ovi Store

2011-10-31T12:11:00.001+08:00

Crap.

This likely won’t be THE solution for everyone as I’m aware that there are actually different causes for this issue.

But for those who are desperate and haven’t yet tried this, here’s exactly what I did and what worked for me:

1. launched a fresh Ovi Store

2. clicked to download a free app, any should do it

3. encounter error

4. clicked Contact Support, an option that’s immediately offered after the error message. Sent them Nokia an angry message.

5. quit/close Ovi Store completely

6. deleted a randomly chosen app from the device

7. back to Ovi Store and voila, everything downloads just fine again.

I seriously doubt contacting support alone fixed it. So it was most likely down to removing an app from the device that did it.

things I tried that did not work:

reboot phone
plug phone into charger (works for some apparently)
send app link from pc to phone via sms (the url link just opens the same Ovi Store link anyway

Did this work for you? Feel free to leave me a comment.

Playstation Vita HK release date

2011-10-24T17:02:00.001+08:00

So PS Vita is getting a release ahead of Europe and America. Joy. Finally something that doesn’t get released in hk two years after it does everywhere else in the world.

Enjoy the pics. More details further down the post.

Peripherals:

		price (HKD)
3G model		2780
Wifi-only		2280
Memory card (4GB)		188
Memory card (8GB)		288
Memory card (16GB)		488
Memory card (32GB)		888
Cradle		149
Headset		149

Vita Launch titles:

Title Name	Genre	Format
Army Corps of Hell™	Action	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
BLAZBLUE CONTINUUM SHIFT EXTEND	2D fighting game	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
DARK QUEST ALLIANCE	Action RPG	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
DISGAEA3 Return （TBC）	Simulation RPG	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
Everybody's Golf 6	Golf Game	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
KATAMARI DAMACY NO VITA	Romantic Rolling Action	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
Little Deviants	Collection of Mini Games	PS Store Download Version
LORD of APOCALYPSE^™ ^{※PSP version will also be released.}	Action RPG	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
MICHAEL JACKSON THE EXPERIENCE HD	Rhythm/Dancing	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
RIDGE RACER	Exhilarating Drift Racing	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen	Ninja Stealth Action	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
Shin Sangoku Musou NEXT	TACTICAL ACTION	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3	Fighting Action	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version
Uncharted: Golden Abyss	Action Adventure	PS Vita Card / PS Store Download Version

A word on the handheld itself

While there has not been any official word from SCE on the console’s display languages, Shuhei Yoshida has allegedly said that Japanese and presumably Hong Kong versions do have English as the choice of system language. Couple that with the the fact that games will be region-free, import interest is sure to be skyhigh.

Exciting stuff indeed.

Bangkok’s gadget scene

2011-10-11T16:21:00.001+08:00

It’s been years since I last visited Bangkok. I remember how the streets were dirty, the roads were smoggy, the Tuk Tuks made one hell of a racket while navigating the clog of cars and buses, the shopping malls were really dull and you’ll be sure to be greeted by some ladyboy just around the corner. Today the place hasn’t changed much, all except for the how much the shopping malls have grown up. And by grown up, I mean they’ve bloated 100x in size.

Surprisingly, one thing these super hyper mega malls does have aplenty: are gadgets. In fact there’s probably a higher concentration of Blackberry users in Bangkok than in Hong Kong. And they don’t look like corporate issued devices either.

So it’s all very interesting to see how a seemingly developing country have such a healthy gadgets uptake. And thus I was not so surprised when the mega mall next door (Siam Paragon) had such a huge electronics section filled with cutting edge Honeycomb tablets and dualcore phones. And I’m dam glad these places are not saturated with knockoffs like those that you can find everywhere in China.

Samsung Galaxy 7 on the left; Samsung Galaxy Note on the right. I’ve not seen the Note displayed elsewhere in other countries so this was a surprise.

The Nokia Experience Centre….in case you really want to experience Symbian.

Sadly, no Meego N9.

How to install Windows 8 with a bootable USB stick

2011-09-14T11:36:00.001+08:00

hint: it’s actually dead simple.

things you’ll need:

-usb stick big enough to carry you desired Windows 8 iso. in my case, it’s the 32bit version worth 2.8 gbs; 4.8 gb for the 64bit version i think

-the iso image from Microsoft

-and believe it or not, the Microsoft Windows 7 USB tool.

With the ISO downloaded, open the USB tool, choose the .iso file, pick the correct usb drive (which gets FORMATTED) and the rest is as easy as clicking Next Next Next.

Hint: don’t click Start over.

Now just plug in that usb, boot from it and the rest is practically the same as setting up W7. Unplug it when it reboots.

As a reference, Windows 8 is now up and running on my Dell Mini 9 with Atom N270, 2gb ram and a 16gb (14gb usable) SSD.

Have fun.

[Updated] How to grab free Apple App Store apps not available in your region /country /planet

2011-08-18T12:29:00.001+08:00

[Update] Speak of the devil… Rage and Rage HD has now become free because they received 100k likes on Facebook! All the more reason to make a US account. Hurry as the offer only lasts until the 24th of August. [/Update]

More importantly, how could you go about creating an Apple ID without having to enter any payment details to enable the download. Read on.

Cool free apps and games pop up practically on a daily basis on the US App Store. Sadly for you (and me) some don’t on your country region’s App Store. Let’s not talk about paid apps here…I’m pissed that I can’t even buy RAGE from id Software; and let’s not talk about streaming radios- there’s not a hope in hell that they’ll start streaming internationally even when I have the app (there are VPN workarounds..). Did I mention that I hate iTunes Store? Why? Because the whole thing is completely unavailable here. Meaning no music, not tv series, no rentals, movies etcetcetc. At least we have podcasts but that still took Apple ages to bring out back then.

After that little side track, let’s continue. Free apps… Google’s Photovine just became publicly available (without the invite) today, Google+, Facebook Messenger, Google Earth and so on… but NOT in my country. No problem, all I need is a US Apple ID right? and what better way than to simply create one from right within iTunes? (Sign In> Create New Account)

But then….

oops. dont have a US creditcard.

‘Hey I’ll use my Paypal account!’

in your dreams:

“This recipient requires that you have a valid funding source from United States in order to complete this transaction.”

in other words: you’re screwed.

You might try going to Apple’s web version of the ID creation page here, but soon as you log onto the App Store with it you’ll be thrown right back onto the payment details page again.

oh come ON i just want to download a free app! So here’s how it’s done:

1. On iTunes, switch to the US App Store. You can find this all the way at the bottom-right corner.

2. Now search or just pick something free. Anything, like the good Photovine app, click “FREE” to download.

3. Once again, you’ll get that familiar Create account/ Sign in dialog box. Click Create New Account.

4. Follow the instructions and enter your (WORKING) email (if you don’t have a spare, just go sign up for one), password (must have one capital and one lowercase, numbers to make it up to at least 8 characters long) etc.

5. What they heck! Payment options again!!!!! But wait if you look carefully, you’ll now see the MAGICAL “None” option. pick that, US address! No problem- the easiest one to find is probably Apple’s (see screenshot, and LOL). For the phone number, 3 “0” then followed by 7 more “0”s will do.

6. I hope you followed the instructions and entered a WORKING email…

7. Happy downloading.

P.S. And folks don’t forget that you can switch Apple IDs freely on your device meaning you can also download those US-only free apps directly from your device:

just go to Settings> Store> tap Apple ID at the bottom

Google+ invite. Want?

2011-07-11T10:19:00.001+08:00

thanks you a number of kind souls (see them in my “thank you for the Google+ invite” circle) [EDIT no one other than yourself can see your circles…..], I finally got my invitation.

Now if you want an invitation from me, then start by Liking my articles and posting them onto your facebook profile 10x… no just kidding.

Just leave me your email and thanks in the comments section.

Know this, just because you receive an invitation doesn’t guarantee you’ll get in on first try. Have patience i.e. keep trying non-stop . Sign yourself out and sign back in and try plus.google.com again and eventually it’ll work.

or if you don’t want to sign out then you could try typing in “cache:plus.google.com” no quotes.

Don’t for get to grab the Android app (you’ll need Market Enabler if it’s not in your App Market, need rooted phone). Google+ for iPhone should be available soon.

iOS5- Apple’s game-changer or catch-up game?

2011-06-07T11:48:00.001+08:00

first of all, let’s look at ios5’s headline features shall we?
- overhauled notifications system, Android-style!
- wireless sync!
- OTA updates!
- Widgets!
...and of course quite a number of other features

These additions are pretty amazing and means giving users a much larger degree of convenience and freedom. Imagine not having those intrusive notification popups, not having to connect to motherbase with a sync cable, not having to open apps to see the data within it etc. So this is a Win situation for all iOS users.
Now for the cynics critics, if we think back to how iOS is always been hailed as being ‘years ahead’ of the competition and that no other mobile OS is going to catch up then perhaps a rethink may be in order. Because it would seem that Windows Mobile 7 and AndroidOS may just have lept a few of those ‘years’, caught up and left iOS in the dust in a number of ways.
Android gained app install via their web app market around OS v2.2, while having OTA updates and widgets since forever. Not to mention their notification curtain system- while it’s very functional it wasn’t very well thought out and does not fit a large/tall screen device very well- i.e. you really need to reach for it on large devices. Windows Phone 7 handsets syncs in a similar manner to iTunes but already offers wireless sync out of the box at version uno, not to mention everyone agrees that their interface is something innovative, something fresh and just as smooth as iOS. So then it would seem that everything that’s new in iOS5 can be mirrored in all existing mobile operating systems?
hmm.

By all means I wish iOS every success, and competition is always always welcome. But perhaps Apple will need to pull more out of their hat than what is announced so far if they plan to stay ahead? We certainly wouldn’t want to think iOS as going stale.

Thoughts please.

Solution: how to update your Windows Phone 7 (WP7) to “nodo” 7390 (specifically when Microsoft doesn’t want you to yet)

2011-03-29T11:16:00.001+08:00

Own a Windows Phone 7 device?

Want copy and paste? Want faster app startups? Want these today? Well Microsoft says you can’t. Not yet… unless you want to be a bit adventurous.

Currently MS is only rolling batches of these updates out to certain phones, in Europe AND only on unbranded phones. A bummer for everyone else, and Microsoft has even apologised and have made an update schedule to try to keep everyone in order.

So I looked for ways to fool the MS servers. I have tried and tried but have had no luck. Searching out European proxies, resetting my phone, changing regions and time zones and attaching UK Live ids was how I spent my past few days.

But the solution came only after I visited the XDA Forum and all credits go to the poster (couldn’t thank him enough times). Turns out the only thing I was doing wrong was in not using a VPN connection.

To have a chance at getting this, you should at least be holding an unbranded Windows Phone 7 device and are willing to sacrifice all your saved data. Yup, because Zune isn’t able to do a full backup of everything like iTunes can and plus you would need to reset your phone BEFORE applying the update, meaning the backup-before-update process won’t be carried out on your current phone data. Note that even IF you did everything accordingly, you may still not receive the update because apparently Microsoft ISN’T releasing it to all unbranded phones in Europe. As of today, many have managed to grab the update, but there are some who didn’t receive anything. So there is no guarantee and you do this at your own risk.

Here are the steps, basically a copy from the xda forum really, but slightly shortened according to my experience-

-receive the Pre-nodo update, if you don’t already have this. Reboot.
-removed sim
-reset phone(hold down camera-button and volumedown while powering on); or Settings>About> Reset Your Phone
-set up device. Custom>don't allow data connections, don't enter live id, set language to english(uk), set date and time (must be correct)
-disabled wlan on phone
-changed my PC’s language to finland
-changed my PC’s time-format to english(indian)
-then I installed anonymizer software CyberGhost VPN on my pc and signed up for an account
-connected to a GERMAN cyberghost server
-connected phone to pc
-no update found while setting up phone in zune
-MANUALLY checked for update in zune
-update found and message popped up on phone simultaneously
-installed update

Good Luck

Once again, the original post.

Easiest way to speed up a well used iPhone, iPod touch or iPad

2011-02-15T22:57:00.000+08:00

full of stuff

Does your iphone /ipod /ipad feel slow? Does it seem to be skipping app startup shutdown animations? Does it stutter when you scroll through lists?
If so, try the following.

-clear the browser cache- you'll be surprised with the instant boost.
-and then just to be safe, do a *proper* reboot of the device.

Clearing the Browser cache
So just in case and because I'm nice, I'll include some step-by-steps.
1. hit Settings then Browser

2. scroll down a little and tap Clear Cache

3. tap the popup 'Clear Cache' to confirm

Are you sure you want to speed up your device?

Simple.

Now, onto doing that *proper* reboot. What's a proper reboot?
Believe it or not, it's not by holding onto the Power button until you're asked to 'slide to power off'. That isn't a reboot, that's just suspend / hibernate. The current device state is saved and hence nothing gets cleared.
What you need to do, is to hold the Power button and the Home button until the device gets to 'slide to power off', and then hold some more until the screen goes black, then let go of the buttons. That's the proper reboot and that's what clears away all the temp/cache/crap. Now exactly because of this, the boot up time is quite a bit longer than powering up from a suspend.
This is also the sign that you've done yourself a favour.

Android essential must-have apps, free. [UPDATED 20120103]

2011-02-08T09:27:00.001+08:00

[added market links to featured apps]

I own 3 Android phones (HTC Legend, Motorola Flipout and Samsung Galaxy S) and am a semi-compulsive firmware flasher. As far as setting up new Androids go or being forced to re-setup one because of a botched flash/backup, I could say I know a little something about it. More importantly and just so that I stick to the topic, here’s the list of essential apps that all my newly setup Androids will always have- and they’re all free. I’m not going to list the obvious ones like Facebook and Twitter etc. Those are easy to find and the official versions of the apps are already very good.

Browsers

Since the stock browser is already very good, the only thing I needed was something that can help reduce the data usage on my limited data plan.

Opera mini

This used to be REAL fast. It’s supposed to feed your requests say, a search on google, to their servers where they compress the data and then send the results back to you. As a result, data usage is minimal. The browser no longer feels as fast, perhaps because I’m so far from their compression servers or it’s become too popular for its own good…whatever. It’s still most useful in how it helps keep data usage in check.

General Apps

Great replacements or official ones that require downloading off the Market.

FxCamera

Toycam? Polaroid? Fisheye? Warhol even…All very customisable and most importantly, free.

ACast

Every smartphone needs a good podcatcher client, otherwise how would one get their monthly Anything Ghost fix eh? Actually my iPod touch got me started on podcasts and from then on, every phone I’ve ever owned, I’d go looking for a good podcast/podcatcher client and not stop until I’m satisfied. ACast is the one for Android, for me. It can handle regular RSS feeds as well as audio and video podcasts. The UI leaves more to be desired, but hey it’s free.

Reader

ACast may support RSS feeds but I prefer Google’s recent and long overdue addition: Reader. It syncs with Google Reader, which I happen to use everyday anyway. Supports probably 99% of the functions the web client offers e.g. Share, Like, Send via email etc. Very very good.

Handcent

A great replacement app for the native SMS client. Highly customisable, complete with pop up quick reply windows should you choose. Essentially, this is a likened to a skin (but not exactly) on top of the SMS storage underneath. So be sure to turn off notifications in your native SMS client or you’ll be receiving duplicates.

PowerAMP

Let me just say one thing: WHY IS THERE NO EQUALIZER, GOOGLE?!

Which actually applies to most new smartphone OSes nowadays. Motorola on the other hand, did bridge this gap with their own implementation of a global equalizer on their Androids (at least it’s available on my Flipout), unlike HTC and Samsung. Actually I’m not being fair with Samsung here, they do have Equalizer settings in their Music app…but it sucks and doesn’t work as expected e.g. when switched on, it sounds as though a kid is playing with the volume slider.

Note however, PowerAMP is not free. It has a full featured 15day trial but it seems with their regular updating, my trial just isnt running out at all. It did once, but other than nagging me the trial has expired, the app kept working as normal.

Do support the developer.

Springpad

Somehow a simple native notepad app escaped the minds of Android OS’s developers. Let alone one that syncs with your google account… So here to save the day is Springpad. Originally I used Evernote but they STILL have not implemented offline sync in their Android version so…no go for me. Springpad has offline sync and you can always just go to www.springpadit.com and carry on editing from where you left off. It doesn’t just do notes either, but tasks, media, barcode scans etcetc and there is also a social aspect to the app that i’ve not yet explored in full. Really good stuff.

System utilities

Astro File Manager

A popular file manager for Android. Also has a free separate SMB (file sharing with Windows) plugin module on Market.

Apps Organizer

Other than being able to organise (uninstall) apps, this app can also sort apps with Labels and add these labels onto your homescreen as folders. They look better than native folders and can be added to the Dock depending on which Homescreen you’re using.

Advanced Task Killer

Most useful for low to mid end phones where there is often a shortage of RAM and processing power. When you phone starts to slow down, just hit the little robot widget on your homescreen and voila. Within the app, you can also tell it which apps can be ignored, so e.g. if you like your gmail client to be running in the background at all times, then you can just set it to be ignored. Make sure you’re downloading the correct version: non Foryo (2.1) or Froyo (2.2). I’m not sure of the consequences of using the wrong version… A problem I encountered on my HTC though was that by tapping the little robot to do a purge, it sort of killed my Alarm service and didn’t ring the next morning. Not sure what that’s all about…perhaps it was something HTC made and it was recognised as a 3rd party app/service or something. Just be careful here.

Titanium Backup (rooted)

Probably the only backup app any Android owner will ever need. It backs up apps and their respective settings, saving you much time for when you do need to restore your list of apps one day. I’ve never gotten it to restore my SMS messages properly though…in fact it caused the wrong thread bug. But the wrong thread issue is Google’s fault, really.

OSMonitor

Is equivalent to Task Manager in Windows. It’ll let you see what apps and services you have running and will also show its CPU usage and let you kill each should you choose. Not only that, it’ll also let you change the CPU governor and scaling range if your (custom) kernel allows; AND let you put a CPU utilisation graph on your notification bar. Some people do like to keep an eye on this graph constantly…mostly geeks maybe.

Quick Settings

I see a lot of people looking for widgets to switch say… 2G and 3G connections without having to wade through the menus. While this isn’t THE answer to that problem, it does provide a shortcut into the menu right where you can do so. Aside from that, it’s a near perfect ‘quick settings’ app. Brightness, wifi, gps, data sync, volume etc can all be toggled with a maximum of 2 taps. On my Flipout where somehow Motorola thought it ingenious to remove ways to switch off the data connection, Quick Settings plugs that hole and allows me to switch it off completely.

Highly Recommended.

Swype

Introduction necessary? Basically it’s one of the fastest and most innovative ways to type on a virtual keyboard. Sign up here and you’ll be given a link to download the beta version if you’re not using a Samsung phone. Thank you Samsung.
Check out the youtube clip below:

Spare Parts

Gives you access to some hidden Android settings. You get detailed usages stats, battery stats etc that you don’t normall see in the native Settings. More importantly, you get to control all the animation speeds like Window animations, transition animations…you’ll be surprised how ‘fast’ your phone appears to be running when you get the settings right Yes, way to deceive yourself but hey that’s how ALL operating systems deceive their users- by using fancy animations to mask load times and response times.

A few words:

Go to Market and check for updates often
I took these screenshots off my Samsung Galaxy S using an app called ShootMe, also free via Market.

Relocating Chrome's cache to a SSD in OSX

2011-01-30T22:45:00.002+08:00

There's no denying that all Mac Minis run sluggishly due to its low-midrange processor and slow hard disk. I happen to own the 2010 model but it's no different. So I thought I'd attempt to offload some IO from the drive as well as speed up my web browsing by relocating Google Chrome and its cache to a SSD drive.

Relocating the application itself is simple enough as most mac users know that there's nothing complicated like registries in Windows. So all that is required it dragging and then dropping "Chrome.app" (yes i renamed it) to the desired drive- in my case the SSD.
Now starting Chrome feels faster. Problem is, its cache location is still on the internal drive, somewhere around ~/Library/Cache/.
Now this is where it things would have been easier in Windows. Create a shortcut, add --disk-cache-dir as its switch and voila. A saved icon that'll work every time.
Under OSX however, the only solution I have tested that is working, is a Terminal command. Couldn't save it as an executable script...couldn't get Automator to work... Just Terminal.
and here it is:

open /Volumes/SSDOSX/Chrome.app --args -user-data-dir="/Volumes/SSDOSX/ChromeCache/" &

Just change the paths. I renamed "Google Chrome.app" to "Chrome.app" so that the command would accept it.

yes it ends with an Ampersand. And yes I have to open Terminal and type or copy and paste all that every time I need to run Chrome the way I like.

If anyone knows better, then please do let me know.

SD card only recognized as 200mb? no problem…

2010-09-21T22:31:00.001+08:00

Own a Mac?

Ever stuck a multiple gb SD card into your camera/phone/pc only to have it report 200mb/card unrecognizable? and that is, no matter how many times you try to format it in Windows or Mac? Even checked Disk Management under My Computer> Manage or Disk Utility and tried formatting the disk as DOS FAT?

This is one annoying problem and only (i think) happens when you format the SD card with a Mac. OSX leaves a 200mb partition on the card which gets recognised and mistaken as the main partition on anything BUT a Mac. While conventional tools and methods (format, erase etc) cannot reverse this, there is one very useful tool that can help with this specific issue, made by SD association. The rest is quite simple really, just grab the tool called SD Formatter and format away.

And now you have your 4gb or whatever back.

[UPDATED] “We’re unable to complete your activation”, solution for those with the Apple developer program [UPDATED]

2010-09-16T11:58:00.001+08:00

[updated 22-02-2011]

There’s an easier way, assuming you’ve sync’d your device at least once.

-on Windows 7, head over to:

C:\Users\[YOUR_USERNAME]\appdata\roaming\Apple Computer\mobilesync\backup\

there, you’ll find folders with 40 letters…and voila you’re looking at your UDID!

-on Windows XP, it should be somewhere around:

C:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR_USERNAME]\Application Data\Apple Computer\SyncServices\Local

and on a Mac:

/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup

[end of update]

iOS 4.2 Beta1 is out. Wow I thought. I’ll just geddit and flash…

But then after the flash I was hit with “We’re unable to complete your activation” screen in iTunes. The solution, Apple says, is to register my device with the developer program- which I had not yet done.

How to register? By getting the UDID from the Summary screen in iTunes. And how do you get to the Summary screen? by getting past the Restore screen. And to get past the Restore screen…..you need to register and activate. what?

So seemingly I was stuck in a loop of fail. None of the Apple KBs helped. After searching up and down through huge forum threads, I finally found the solution. And here I share:

You need:

a Mac

your iP /ad /od /hone

and the sync cable.

all plugged and connected.

Do:

1, in OSX, go to Apple> About this Mac> More Info…

2. Contents> USB> iPad> Serial Number

3. and that’s it. There’s your 40 letter UDID.

Singularity- underrated awesomeness

2010-07-15T13:01:00.001+08:00

Set fire and THEN age your enemies to death (but not before slowing down time to a crawl)?? Only in Singularity.

Singularity is one of those rare games that just has enough to keep me playing all the way from start to finish. I have lots of games. LOTS. And I tend to jump around from game to game…a short section on Fallout today a quick go on Blur tomorrow and then something totally different the day after. But this is different.

The last time a game that managed to hold my attention like this, so much so that I completed it in one single night I might add, was Metal Gear Solid 2. The game before that was SimCity 2000. And now this.

By no means is this a flawless game. But it tries to take the best elements out of established chart toppers and succeeds quite well. Right off the bat the game sets a heavy atmosphere and is amazingly creepy a la F.E.A.R.. Dead bodies, hints of horrific creatures, creepy flashbacks/time anomalies all help to keep you paranoid with that Silent Hill feeling. The graphics are immediately recognisable as Wolfenstein-like. The engine (based on Unreal?) is able to output good but not exceptional graphics, but at the same time with a lot of amazing special graphical effects happening in real game time. It’s a little unfortunate that the said atmosphere gets lost and forgotten after the first hour or so. Along the way and amidst portal hopping as you would in Valve’s Portal… to make things very interesting, you gain a Bioshock-esque Time Manipulation Device and then later on a most worthy upgrade: the Deadlock.

Valve’s highly acclaimed Portal

Hey is that Gordon on the other side there? o wait…

Maybe the game designers looked at Max Payne and thought hmm bullet time..but cliched. Or maybe they looked at did with F.E.A.R. and thought bullet time in a FPS now thats a change, but it’s been done. Maybe just like they looked at Half Life and went ahh the gravity gun and then came up with the TMD Gravity upgrade or Alyx Vance and then came up with Kathryn… With Deadlock however, Raven Software really really hit the sweet spot in terms of slowing down time. Throw an energy-like ball and you get a localised sphere of time slowdown as it hits its target and expands. Enemies caught in it are powerless and are left to your cruel device; those not caught in it would still have a difficult time hitting you with bullets as they pass through the sphere at a pedestrian rate and some just walk into it and get stuck oblivious to what it is. These are the best moments in the game and you’re free to recreate them as you please. For me this never got old and the single player campaign was short enough for me to finish but at the same time left me wanting more.

He’s stuck there for the next 10 seconds. What will you do?

Pest control of the future gets a little too drastic.

Metacritic’s aggregate score for it is 77. I’d give it an 8 at least. if you like the idea of slowing down time and generally torturing your enemies and then seeing what happens when normal time resumes, get this game.

And if you want to try the following, get this too.

O don’t look so bored love! Let’s see now if I adjust the gravity gun enough for just the clothing…

Gran Turismo 5 detailed, gets a release date finally.

2010-06-18T09:25:00.003+08:00

number of vehicles- over 1000

locations and courses: 20, with at least 70 variations

also has 3D and ingame face-tracking feature

price- 7980 yen

Nokia N900 10 free essential apps

2010-04-28T16:57:00.001+08:00

So Hong Kong (i hear Philipine just got theirs) is getting a N900 release on the 28th April, apparently. I thought I’d create this post to welcome a bunch of happy new N900 owners. You ARE happy right? Nevermind that resistive touchscreen…

The Nokia N900 supports Ovi store yes. Plenty of apps there. But from its Linux roots, spawns a great number of quality community apps too. These are contained in separate repositories, mostly hosted on Nokia, and also enabled on all N900s.

As a pre-requisite to downloading some of these apps, you’re going to have to add a repository: the Maemo Extras Testing. Do note that this is a place where apps are placed waiting to be tested and then put onto the main Maemo Extras respository, they could contain bugs. However, I have used these apps since day one and have never had any problems.

Adding the Maemo Extras Testing repository:

App. Manager> Top menu bar> Application catalogs> New

fill in as follows-

Catalog name: Maemo Extras-testing

Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-testing/

Distribution: fremantel

Components: free non-free

Disabled: (unticked)

Precautionary steps for using Testing repository

Backup everything beforehand
and remember to tick the ‘Disabled’ box after you’re done downloading apps,

On to the list.

To find these apps, just search for them-

App. Manager> Download> pull down Top menu bar> Search> Search area: Application name and description.

The essentials:

1. 3G/2G/Dual Mode Selection Applet

Shortcuts are added to the Top menu bar, very handy. For those who need to be switching between 3G, 2G and Dual mode often. This can help you save battery, e.g. by switching to 2G only when in a low 3G coverage area.

2. Battery-eye or BatteryGraph

The N900’s battery life is hardly stellar. That’s why it’s important to keep an eye on the usage and understand what uses the most battery. I couldn’t decide between the two. Battery-eye is a nice simple graph and BatteryGraph may have more info than you need. Install both and see for yourself.

Battery-eye

BatteryGraph

3. Catorize

The default Applications list is fine. But wouldn’t it be better if they’re all categorised, and more importantly, categorised according to their download category? For example, BatteryGraph up there would fall under ‘Utilities’.

Genius.

Now, Nokia’s PR 1.2 firmware changelog does however mention that they are doing away with the ‘More’ icon in the applications list AND add Spolight-like search into the applications list page. So it’s not known whether this app will still be compatible by then. We’ll see.

Default applications list. ‘More…’ shows all the rest in one screen.

Catorized!

4. Extra protocols plugins for Conversations and Contacts

This adds chat protocol support for MSN, facebook, AIM etcetc…practically everything else that’s missing from the included protocols.

5. FM Radio Player

The N900 has a FM receiver chip. So why no Radio app, Nokia?

6. fm-boost

The N900 also comes with a FM transmitter chip. You can, for example, play the mp3s on your N900 and have the car radio pick on on the fm signal broadcasted by the phone so that the sound comes out of the car speakers. But by itself, it’s pretty weak and does not transmit across great distances…say more than one feet. fm-boost sacrifices more battery power and intensifies the fm signal or something like that.

Though, I have read somewhere that HK’s N900s will not have this transmitter chip due to legal restrictions. Someone enlighten me on this please?

Just click the FM boost icon.

7. gPodder Podcast Client

Podcast manager. Audio and Video podcasts. Very Good. Get.

8. Headphone daemon

This will sense when you have unplugged your headphone and pause the music. Only works with the default player I believe.

9. Load Applet or cpu-mem-applet

Now this may be for the geeks. Those who like to see useless stats after useless stats. On the status bar. me likes. Actually it can be quite useful. e.g. when you see your cpu or mem bar at max, you know something is wrong or you need to close an app.

Load Applet was the original I think. Includes screencast and screenshot functions. However if you don’t need those extras (screenshot is possible with Ctrl+Shift+P without app), then just get cpu-mem-applet.

10. Simple Brightness Applet

This one places itself in the top menu bar. Pull it down, and it will give you the same 5-level brightness control that you’d otherwise have to find deeper within the menus.

The usefuls:

1. AdBlock Plus

Gets rid of ads in the native MicroB browser.

2. Desktop Activity Manager

Basically, Profiles for your Homescreen. Highly customisable. e.g. during the day, you have a profile called Work, with emails, shortcuts to business websites, Boss phone numbers etc on the homescreen. On your drive home, you have a profile called Car with bluetooth toggle, Maps, GPS toggle etc.

3. Facebook Widget

Worst facebook app when compared with iPhone’s and Android’s version. But it’s much better than nothing. All it does is display the top three status updates from friends on your homescreen and…nothing else. Widget takes you to facebook’s mobile site.

4. Hermes

Sync and combine your facebook contacts with your local addressbook.

5. Panucci resuming audiobook and podcast player

Able to resume where you left off after you’ve quit the app. Don’t know why the native media player can’t do it.

6. RaeMote

Controls everything that a Apple Remote can! Without pairing. Uses IR.

7. WifiEye

Scans and shows visually nearby wifi AP signals, their strengths and their channels.

Bonus:

1. Firefox Mobile

Pretty good.

To download, go to Firefox.com/m like Mozilla’s official page says. This is going to be MeeGo’s default web browser.

2. Chrome

Have not tried this one myself. Instructions here:

http://maemoarena.com/2010/04/google-chrome-for-nokia-n900-now-available-for-download/

3. SIXAXIS(TM) Support

Play your emulated SNES games with a PS3 controller via bluetooth! Just because you can.

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/02/05/nokia-n900-snes-emulator-ps3-controller-portable-geek-bliss/

MGS Peace Walker Limited Edition PSP package looks pretty good

2010-04-24T10:10:00.001+08:00

[UPDATE: more pics]

Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker is nearing its release date. Get ready for a load of exclamation marks.

Now, if I didn’t already have a PSP-3000, I’d definitely get this. Either way I’ll be getting the game after being more than convinced by the demo. Huge improvement over Portable Ops.

Hong Kong release: 29th April for the Japanese version, and (aw crap) 8th June for the English version.

Priced at $1688HKD, the pack includes the game, 2 military badges, a badge holder and the camouflaged PSP.

Check out those pics after the break or head over to SCEH for more info:

Don’t ask….:

[HK] Final Fantasy XIII Traditional Chinese version release and pricing; DualShock3 Lightning Edition and OST.

2010-04-23T12:58:00.001+08:00

FF13 is about to get a language treatment. Come 27th May, the release will have everything, except the voiceover, in traditional Chinese. $358HKD. This should please a lot of those who have been holding out on the Japanese and the English versions.

Along with this release, HK will also see 2 special bundles:

DualShock3 Lightning Edition for $699HKD. This includes the game itself in Chinese, special edition DualShock3 controller and a special edition FF themed PSN card.

FF13 Original Soundtrack Package- $799HKD. Package includes: the game itself in Chinese, special edition DualShock3 controller, the OST, poster, artwork album, a special edition FF themed PSN card AND HDMI cable.

Anyway the pics speak for themselves:

Spyshot: Sam Fisher- part time covert agent of Third Echelon, NSA; part time YOGA instructor for terrorists.

2010-04-20T15:35:00.001+08:00

Sam Fisher, normally known to do a lot of sneaking around in the dark executing perfect stealth kills and occasional brutal interrogations, has been sighted giving terrorist free yoga lessons in an unknown warehouse in Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Needless to say, the terrorists were thrilled. But who would’ve guessed.

I leave you to admire his never-before-seen amazing flexibility in these extreme Bakasana pose spyshots:

XBOX 360 USB stick flash drive compatibility list

2010-04-13T10:48:00.001+08:00

[UPDATE3: apologies to all the kind people who have posted in the comments to contribute to the list- all comments disappeared when I moved my blog- very sorry (erm…Disqus?). this update is most likely my final update. Prices sure have come down since this post was first published so I’ve updated them accordingly and all links for sticks that pass the test have been updated.

looks like most 16gb sticks average around $25 now. so go grab some Once again thanks to all those who contributed to the list. /UPDATE]

[UPDATE2: Since this post proves to be quite popular, i’ve decided to expand the list. I could not do this without with the help of the guys over on gamefaqs.com’s boards, so thank them. Meanwhile, if you feel like contributing, just leave a blog comment and I’ll add them asap.]

[UPDATE: my quest has ended with the Sandisk Cruzer Countour 16gb. Although a bit old-a 2007 product I believe and in danger of almost being a Sandisk xbox branded stick, it neverthless has good performance, and is more than 10bucks cheaper. and it probably looks nicer. It’d be interesting to see some benchmarks for the official xbox stick.]

Recently, the Xbox 360 received a most curious dashboard update. It enables the use of USB mass storage devices (flash drives, usb hard disks etc) as an extension to the internal hard disk. The catch is that, and understandably so knowing how MSFT sees us consumers as money trees, well the catch is that you’re limited to using only 16Gb no matter what you plug into the console. Fine. If you wanted more storage you buy their overpriced drive upgrades and so on.

But no this was not enough for you see, they also sell xbox branded Sandisk flash drives here. That’s 70 bucks for a 16GB stick [UPDATE-23/08 now $29.99]. And for just twice that@ 150USD, you can get a larger capacity hdd upgrade. I’ve read many positive reports of people sticking in random usb sticks and having success EVEN when the performance was not up to par, at which point they get this below warning:

And so i thought, great I’ll do myself a favour and get a fast usb stick to load games with. And so I did some research, bought a new 16gb stick and here is the result:

Your device failed the frigging data loss test and can’t be configured, please go buy our xbox branded stick. Some people have had some sucess after formatting the stick on Windows first. I tried that- no dice. I tried formatting it (as a MSDOS filesystem) on a mac- that didnt help either. Tried plugging it into the back port instead- wishful thinking. Tried my other 16gb stick also but that was useless.

Here's the list. It’s small and even though I’m on a personal quest to find one that’s going to work I don’t have the resources to try that many…so if anyone would like to help please leave me a comment with name of device and status: pass, slow, fail. This is so that others might be able to consider this list before buying a new stick just for their xbox and end up wasting $.

The list:

NAME	STATUS
PQI i812 16GB (41usd, 25usd for the 8gb)	fail
A-Data Xupreme 200 XPG 16GB (50usd)	fail
Sandisk Cruzer Contour 16GB (50usd elsewhere, 55 on amazon)	pass
iLogic 2GB	fail
Kingston Datatraveler 4GB	pass
Patriot Xporter XT Boost 16GB (Model: PEF16GBUSB) ($24.99)	pass (detailed info provided by CaPwnD)
PNY Attaché 16GB ($19)	pass (detailed info provided by CaPwnD)
PNY Attache 4GB	pass, but failed the next day (see comment by Lev)
Kingston Datatraveler 1GB	pass, with warning
Kingston Datatraveler 16GB	pass
Kingston Datatraveler G2 8GB DTIG2/8GB ($20.6)	pass
Kingston DataTraveler 100 G2 8GB DT100G2/8GBZ ($7.99)	pass
Sandisk Cruzer 16GB ($19)	pass, with warning
Sandisk Cruzer Micro 1GB ($6.99)	pass, with warning
Sandisk Cruzer 8GB ($7)	pass
Lexar 4GB $20	pass
LaCie iamaKey 8GB ($29.99)	fail
LaCie iamaKey 16GB ($54.99)	fail
Maxell Netbook USB 4GB	fail
Life Time Memory Products 16GB	fail
Newegg brand 1GB	pass
“ATMMD4GFTGR1” unbranded usb sticks of various designs, made of green recycled plastics. 4GB	pass
Corsair Flash Voyager 16GB ($50)	fail
Corsair Flash Voyager 8GB	fail
Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB	pass, with warning
Corsair 4GB Voyager - model CMFUSB2.0 (16gb $22)	pass
Super Talent Pico_C 8GB	pass
Super Talent Pico Mini 16GB ($40)	fail
MicroCenter 4GB ($7.99)	fail
PNY Micro Attache 4GB ($20)	fail
Lexar JumpDrive FireFly 16GB ($26)	pass

What I knew as fact: the A-Data Xupreme boasts a fast read speed. But, it has a slow write speed. And indeed I let HD Tune test it and it was performing quite consistently at (read speed) 31MB/s maximum and around 28MB/s minimum. And the PQI was relatively inconsistent but nevertheless managed a maximum of 30MB/s and a minimum of around 27MB/s.

So it would seem that my mistake was in not paying attention to the stick’s READ speed. And it may seem that the xbox requires the drive to have a minimum read speed before it’d allow it to pass the data loss test. This is just a guess though, if anyone knows better please comment. Meanwhile, i think I’m going to return the A-Data if I could and try a different brand. What I won’t do, is buy the Sandisk xbox branded stick for ~~70 dollars~~ (it’s now 26 bucks on amazon).