Newbie Helper

Complete step-by-step guide to installing flightgear 2.4 in Ubuntu

2012-01-27T01:26:00.000+05:30

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If you follow the guide completely you will be able to run the latest version of FlightGear (2.4) with a graphical user interface to select the aircraft, location of start, resolution of the program etc in Ubuntu.

Why a guide?

The version of FlightGear available from the Ubuntu repository is 2.0.0-4. This version is old, by about 2 yrs. Further more, FlightGear launch control, a GUI front end to FlightGear which is used to customize the program start, is not available in the official Ubuntu repository.

You can definitely install FlightGear from the source file but it creates a lot of blocks in the form of unfilled dependencies. Also if you install flight gear alone, simple tasks such as changing airplane, scenery or resolution becomes a daunting task. This is because without the Launch Control, you have to enter the customization commands manually to the terminal and a single spelling or syntax mistake will fail the opening of the program.

Below is a sample command I would have to enter if I want to fly a F-14 from runway 28R of San Fransisco International Airport at dawn, with a resolution of 1280*800 pixels to match my screen resolution.

fgfs --airport=KSFO --runway=28R --aircraft=f-14b --geometry=1280x800 --timeofday=dawn

If you make a single spelling or syntax mistake in any of these, the system will show an error and flight gear won't run.

Lanch Control simplifies this by entering these customizing commands to the terminal for you. You just need to select your preference from the Launch Control window and it will add a corresponding parameter to the terminal.

This tutorial to install flightgear 2.4 in Ubuntu was made out of an installation in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. But the same tutorial applies to Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) also. Guys with 10.10 and below are out of luck here as the PlayDeb only provides FlightGear 2.0 to you.

Ok enough of the introduction, Lets cut to the chase.

1. Add PlayDeb Repository

Playdeb offers .deb files for Flightgear 2.4 and FlightGear Launch Control. Butyou have to add Playdeb repository to your trusted vendors to install them.

Steps to add playdeb repository

You can Add PlayDeb Repository to your trusted software vendor's list by one of the two methods below

Semi-Automatic way:

Install Playdeb package - use this link or go to the PlayDeb.net Page

You will be asked whether to save the file or not. Save it and then double click on it to install.

Installing the Playdeb package will add the address of the repository and the GPG key automatically.

Manual way :

Go to Software Sources - Either Select Software sources from the programs list or open Ubuntu Software Center and Select Edit >> Software sources.
Select the Tab 'Other Software' and click on 'add' button
in the small window like the one below add

deb http://archive.getdeb.net/Ubuntu oneiric-getdeb games

click on 'Add Source'. Now the archive is added.

now we have to add the GPG key. GPG keys are used to encrypt the transfer and to ensure that you are downloading from playdeb itself.

Open up a terminal, paste the following command to the prompt and hit enter

wget -q -O- http://archive.getdeb.net/getdeb-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

That hyphen in the end is necessary.

Note: If you clicked the 'Install' button from PlayDeb's FlightGear page, without adding the PlayDeb repository to your software sources list first, a software center will open but you will see a page to install FlightGear 2.0 only.

The video below has two sections showing different behavior of Ubuntu Software center before and after the addition of playdeb repository. First when Playdeb was not added the software center just got pointed to FlightGear 2.0 only. Later when the repository was added, the software center got pointed to the newest version available, ie, FlightGear 2.4

2. Update (Synchronize) the repositories and install FlightGear

Open up Update Manager and selet 'Check' button to update the repositories. This is to add files from the newly added playdeb repository to the software center.

After successful completion of the update, you can install FlightGear from either the Ubnutu software center. Now that the playdeb's programs are added to the list of available softwares, you will see FlightGear 2.4 instead of the previous 2.0.

Its a 480Mb download so will take some time to download install. But you don't have to download that much at a single stretch. As Ubuntu software center supports resuming, you can resume the download at anytime.

3. Install FlightGear Launch Control

When the download is completed, you can straightaway start playing FlightGear by selecing it from the games list. But you will be limited to only one plane, one location and one resolution.

If you want to change the plane, location or resolution, you need to do it as commands like I mentioned earlier. Here comes the use of FlightGear Launch Control (Equivalent to Flightgear wizard in windows).

FlightGear launch control can also be installed from the Software center. But the term you have to search is 'fgrun' not 'Launch control' or anything. Even searching for 'FlightGear' won't show up the launch control in the results

Tip: You may also install FlightGear Launch control( Search for fgrun in the search window) first. As the base FlightGear program is a dependancy to the launch control, it will also be installed. This way you don't have to install them separately.

4. Configure FlightGear launch Control

You have to enter the locations of root folder and the flightgear executable manually when you first run the launch control. Here is the way of doing that.

Open FlightGear Launch Control you will be presented with a window like the below screenshot.

You only need to fill up the first two text boxes. If you get those correctly, rest will be filled up automatically.

Box 1 Labeled 'Executable' - Enter full path of FligtGear executable
Enter

/usr/games/fgfs

in that box.

Box 2 Labeled 'FG_ROOT' - Enter the path to the FlightGear root file ( equivalent to the program files in windows)

Enter

/usr/share/games/flightgear

in the box. Or you can use the folder icon on the right side of these text boxes to navigate to the mentioned folders yourself.

In the next screen you can select the aircraft of your choice

The select the location from the next screen

On the last screen you can select the display resolution display effects

You can see in the lower half, the commands that are going to be fed to the terminal to bring out the customizations.

Once you have selected your variables, hit Run. If everything was entered correctly, you will run the setting of choice in flight gear

Next time when you run FlightGear launch control, you will start with the page to select the aircraft. You don't need to enter the path details again.

Note: If you feel that the mouse button is too sensitive while in yoke mode (cross), Check out Change the Mouse Sensitivity in FlightGear.

Change the sensitivity of mouse when used as a yoke in FlightGear in Ubuntu

2012-01-26T10:25:00.000+05:30

When you start with any flight simulator it is natural to have an unstable, mostly swinging plane. In case of FlightGear, this might not entirely be your lack of skill or experience. It might also due to the high sensitivity of the mouse in yoke mode.

The default mouse sensitivity in flightgear is bit on the higher side. This makes the experience frustrating as you need effort just to level out the plane.

Fortunately we can change the sensititvity settings but unfortunately you have to edit some files(here 'mice.xml) manually to make those changes. I am trying to walk you through this unfortunate situation here.

For enabling users to do in-depth customization, fligthgear uses human readable configuration files to control the behavior of input devices. All of these configuration files are located in the file system partition.

To edit a file in the file system partition, with the exception of home folder, you need root access. Without the root access you won't be able to save the changes.
What you need to do here is to navigate to the location of mice.xml, open the file with root permissions and make the necessary changes.

This can be done entirely using terminal but it is a bit complicated for the beginners. We will try here the GUI way.

Step 1 : Open the mice.xml with root permissions. We will be doing this with the help of a file browser with root permissions. For that, open the terminal and type

sudo nautilus

Here nautilus is the file manager in ubuntu linux. You will be prompted for administrator password. Enter it. A file browser with root permissions will be opened. Then navigate to

/usr/share/games/flightgear

You will see a file 'mice.xml' among others in the flightgear folder. Copy the file and save it somewhere else in the hard disk. Creating a back up copy of the file helps to restore the previous state even if you mess the file up.

Rightclick the mice.xml file and open it with the text editor.

Note: If you double click the file, it will be opened in your default web browser instead of text editor.

Step 2 : Navigate to the section similar to the screenshot below

Look for this line in the section

<factor type="double">4.0</factor>

Change the number 4.0 to a lower number (2.0 would be fine) and save the file.
Next time when you open flightgear you will notice a decrease in sensitivity of the aileron and hopefully some better control.

The behavior of mouse in FlightGear is completely controlled by this mice.xml file. You can do other adjustments like changing the sensitivity of rudder, control the throttle with mouse wheel etc by editing this file.

For getting a better control changing the aileron control is enough so it is fine leave the rest as such.

Find the location of executable files in Ubuntu

2012-01-25T02:33:00.002+05:30

When you try to open a program from terminal in Ununtu, you normally do not have to type in the complete address. You just have to enter the command to the terminal and the program will be opened.

If you want to open gedit, you just need to type gedit to the terminal. But if you want to pass parameters to some apps you might need to find the actual( full) location of that executable file ( like the location of .exe file in Windows).

There is a way in Ubuntu to find the complete location of any software. You just need to know the terminal name ( standalone command with which a software can be opened) of the application. For example terminal name for VLC media player is vlc, file browser in Linux is nautilus and FlightGear Flight Simulator is fsgs.

If you know the terminal name, go to the terminal and type

which name

Where name represents the terminal name of the application.

Eg : To find the location of vlc media player, you need to type

which vlc

Below is the screenshot of the output in my laptop

You can see that the executable for VLC media player in Ubuntu is located in /usr/bin/vlc

What if I don't know the terminal name of an executable?

Open Ubuntu Software center and type in the search box, actual name of the software you want to find the terminal name of.

For example, you want to find the terminal name of software center itself. Do a search for the term 'Ubuntu Software Center' and go to 'More Info'. There you will see the details of selected program( Software Center). locate the area where version is written (see screenshot below).

You can see some text and a version number. The text before the version number is the terminal name of Ubuntu Software Center. Here it is 'software-center'.

You can double check the terminal name by typing it to the terminal and hitting enter. If it is correct, the application will be opened

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus Specs comparison with original ace

2012-01-20T02:45:00.001+05:30

This is the specs comparison of Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus s7500 ( Announced Jan 2012) with the original galaxy ace s5830( Announced Feb 2011).

Galaxy ace is one of the most successful smartphones from samsung as it delivers greats specs at an affordable price tag. The second in the ace series address some( not all) of the most nagging problems of the original ace had.

Design and dimensions

The new galaxy ace plus s7500 is taller(114.7 vs 112.4 mm), broader (62.5 vs 59.9mm), thinner (11.2 vs 11.5mm) and a little lighter (111gm vs 113gm) than the original s5830.

Galaxy ace plus doesn't look particularly different from its predecessor except for the camera. The camera has been moved to the center from the side. Also the camera window and flash is now squarer instead of circular in the previous model. On opening the lid it comes clear that the location of the Sim card slot and the camera has been swapped to move it to the center.

The change in shape and location of the camera window spares galaxy ace plus from controversial iphone like look of the original ace.

Another change is the location of micro USB port which has been moved to the bottom in the new model. Also the lid protecting the micro USB port ( which on repeated usage causes damage to bezel) appears to have gone in the galaxy ace plus.

The screen

The screen of galaxy ace plus is a little bigger at 3.65 " compared to the 3.5" of the predecessor. But the resolution remaining the same ( 320 x 480 HVGA), it eventually is a disadvantage to the s7500. The pixel density is dropped to 158 ppi from an already mediocre 165 ppi in the original s5830.

The Processor and Memory

This is where the galaxy ace plus really scores. The processor has been upped to 1Gz (from 800MHz) and the RAM to 512 MB (from 278 MB). The internal memory available to the user has got a very significant boost, from 150MB of user available memory to 3GB of internal memory ( Increased to about 20 times).

The internal memory is divided into two sections. 1GB is dedicated specifically to apps and the rest 2GB is a shared memory for apps, pics and other multimedia files. This means that a hell lot of apps can be installed and you won't need micro SD card mounted to take photos. But I am not sure if the internal memory shows up in USB storage mode because if it doesn't, you will need samsung kies to move your photos (Disadvantage to a Linux user).

While bluetooth has been upgraded to version 3.0, all other connectivity options remain the same.

The phone comes with Gingerbread 2.3 with touchwiz UI layered upon. Given the fate of Samsung Galaxy S with the Ice Cream Sandwich update, I seriously doubt this phone will ever receive one. Samsung also announced that ace plus will be preloaded with full version of Thinkfree document editor, chat on services and usual Google services.

The camera

The camera is completely same as the previous model. It sports a 5 MP auto focus shooter with video recording upto 480p ( VGA recording). There is no secondary camera in galaxy ace plus.

Battery

samsung actually reduced the battery capacity from 1350 mAh on the base model to 1300 mAh in the ace plus. The battery back up on the original ace is considered to be one of the worst(I needs to charge it twice a day). Unless samsung has found a way to use battery in a way more efficient way, it is not going to stand a chance even to its predecessor.

The Price

Samsung is yet to announce a tag to the phone. But it is speculated to be around INR 16,000 ($ 320). This speculation is based on the current price of galaxy ace s5830 in samsung website (Rs 14,600 or $290).

I think this phone doesn't stand a chance at that range as better spec'd phones ( better resolution (480 x 800), front camera, HD recording, HD playback and better battery among others) are available at a near ( Motorola Defy plus) or lesser( Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V) price .

Reinstalling Grub2 in ubuntu

2012-01-13T21:22:00.000+05:30

This is a guide to reinstall the grub 2 boot loader in Ubuntu. This guide will be useful for those who had the grub-xputs not found error and those who installed a windows in a system which already has a Ubuntu.

If you have installed Widows after a ubuntu installtion, windows bootloader will wipe the linux’s grub bootloader before it scrubs into MBR. You need to reinstall grub if you want a dual boot system.

There are several methods for correcting the broken Grub 2. Following are the easiest

Solution 1

Open terminal and type ( in a dual boot scenario, you need to use a live CD).

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

This installs grub 2 to the first hard disk

sudo update-grub

This updates the grub and now you can boot directly to your repaired grub 2.
optionally you can run

sudo grub-probe -t device /boot/grub

to find current location of grub but this doesn’t actually change the procedure.

Solution 2

Ubuntu provides a graphical tool for recovering the broken grub 2 boot loader. It still 352MB in size but provide an easy solution than many others.
Download Ubuntu Boot-Repair.

Solution 3

Use RESCATUX from Super Grub Disk website. Its 334 MB but does the job very well.

Domar.ru - its a referrar spam not actual traffic

2012-01-10T22:19:00.001+05:30

Domar.ru is a domain name frequently shows up in the blogger stats pages as a referrer. A referrer is usually a website that the visitor comes from. But in this case there is no actual visitor, just a request for a visit. In short, a referral spam.

Referral spam is a method to get traffic to a domain by deception. I will try to explain with the help of an analogy.

A man goes to the coffee shop and orders a coffee but leaves the place before the order is served. Now his entry will be included in the orders list but wont make it to the bills. Referral spam is something like this. A website (like Domar.ru) will request your blog/ website but won't actually be there for receiving the page (the connection is terminated).

This request will be present in your server log files but it actually is no good to you as the page is not loaded. But the visit won't be logged in the stats of a third party traffic monitor ( like Google analytics, statcounter) as their monitoring scripts will be executed only when the page is loaded. So there will always be a difference between the server logs and the traffic monitor logs.

I checked back the domar.ru URL and found the following things

1. The website is privately registered so details of ownership are hidden from public.

2. The website first get forwarded to a clickbank hop link ( which is a legitimate online marketing company and then to some video advertisement site about money making.

How does the referrer spamming work for the spammer?

They work in three ways

1. The web masters who check their server log files might click on the link to know how their sites are linked. And usually the spam URL that shows up in the server log files can be traced back to some advertising and the spammer gets free traffic from your clicks.

2. If you do any purchase from the referred site, the referrer ( spammer) gets the commission.

3. Search engines that crawl your site and might index the log file and by this the spammer get a free indexing at your cost (a link from you to a spam site is a bad thing in the eyes of search engine).

What should we do ?

1 What ever you do NEVER EVER click the link from your logs. The blogger referral links that might appear on their site actually has a number representing your blogger blog ( Though the blogs have names, they have numbers designated by BlogID. You can see that in the address bar when you access the blogger).

2 If you are admin of a self hosted website/blog, you can move the server log to a private location ( By default the file might be placed in a folder where search engine eyes have a reach). Alternatively you can edit your robots.txt file to exclude the server logs from getting crawled.

3 Use a third party traffic monitor like statcounter or google analytics - If you are a blogger user adding a google analytics script is easy. you just need to know the analytics site number.

Accessing an Internet Explorer only site in Firefox

2012-01-09T17:04:00.000+05:30

There was a time when websites were created for browsers not users. The website compatible for one browser would not render correctly on another. The developers built their own standards and features which were completely closed and non-inter operable.

In those times websites proudly displayed logos of loyalty to their intended browsers like "Designed for Internet Explorer or Netscape" etc. Thanks to w3c ( World Wide Web Consortium), for bringing order to that chaos, for creating consumer level standards that the developers needed to follow. For their efforts there was a universal standard for the first time.

Almost all of today's websites display in any web browser correctly. But there are some developers who live in their past, creating websites that do not allow users of competitor browsers to view content properly. Here is a solution to view websites marked 'For Internet Explorer' in FireFox.

When a browser tries to access a web page, it sends a request to the server that hosts the site. The request contains name of the page the browser want to fetch, IP address of the requester, the name and version of web browser used among others. You can see a complete tutorial on these requests here.

The name of the browser is send under a label User Agent. This is the part the server use to differentiate the users based on their browser.

What we essentially do in this work around is that we change the content of the request send to the server to make it look like coming from an Internet Explorer browser. The server will be fooled and the page will be delivered believing the recipient to be IE.

There is a good plug-in available to firefox which does this change in user agent easily, descriptively named User Agent Switcher.

Go to the above page by clicking the link and click the 'download now' button.

Wait for 3 seconds (big deal!!) and when the installation button gets activated click on it and the add-on will be installed. Restart firefox to complete the installation.

If you are NOT seeing the user agent switcher in the toolbar, right click on the tool bar and select customize. A screen like the one below will be opened and drag the user agent ( grayed out ball when in inactive state) to the tool bar.

The default and activated states of user agent switcher

click on the down arrow and you will be presented with the target options. Select the one you need ( anyone in the IE category would be fine), and reload the page. you should be fine with the IE only website now.
Note 1 - The switching of user agent affects all current tabs and future tabs so an error might show up in an already open tab ( Eg: Mail might show an error because the user agent you are logged on is changed all of a sudden).
Note 2 - After you are done with the IE only website, remember to switch back the user agent to the default one.

Facebook for android 1.8.0 review - Desktop, finally!!

2011-12-30T11:00:00.000+05:30

This is the review of Facebook for android 1.8.0 update which was released on December 1st 2011. Facebook app for android was a focus of criticism for long as it lacked the ease of use provided by its desktop counterpart.

Thanks to the developers at Facebook, its android app now looks and walks like its desktop version.

Home

Opening the facebook app still loads the news feed. But there are lot of additions to the previous news feed. The developers have beautifully combined the old newsfeed screen and the Home screen with icons into a new, desktop like interface. See it below.

New Home screen now has Friend Request, message and notifications alert on the top panel as seen in the desktop version. Profile, friends, places, groups, events, facebook chat and photos are included in the top left button with the three horizontal lines.

The entire left panel of the desktop website is included in that one button. The contents are grouped into Favorites, Groups, Pages, lists, Apps (This contains the chat now) and settings.

One additional feature you get with the facebook for android 1.8.0 app is that you can select the type of content you want to see in the news feed. If you are in mood to watch videos, you can choose to view only videos in the news feed. Just click on the button on the top right corner (image on the right), and you will be asked to select the preferred content from all the stories to photos or videos alone.

Believe me 'Video' is there at the bottom

Chat

Facebook Chat was one of the most non-dependable section of the app previously. It was buggy as hell. It took a lot of time to show availability and many a times availability wouldn't load at all

At first you may think that the chat is removed from the base facebook app as there is a separate messenger app for facebook now. Location of the chat is now a little deeper. it is located within the left side menu button and at a lower level. Apart from the location, new chat functions, at times, slightly different. If you keep the facebook for android app open long enough, it will load the availability of chat friends in the background which result in snappy loading.

There is no multiple chat option as available in the facebook messenger, but still works good for me.

The "None of your friends are available to chat" error also occur in this version of facebook. But always it was a temporary message and chat loaded within no time.

Friend Requests, Messages and Notifications

These are accessible from the top panel. The number of unattended notifications will be highlighted in red color on the upper right corner of each icon.

Taping on icons open up a small window to view the contents, with the newsfeed in the same place. So you won't have to navigate again if you stopped reading your newsfeed to attend to a notification.

Settings

Now you can set your privacy as well as account settings using the facebook from the android app itself. All the settings available to a desktop user is available to the app user too. I don't know why they included the privacy settings as separate menu item as it is available in the account settings too.

Photos

With the new update, photos cannot be uploaded to a specific folder which is a big drawback. All the photos will be uploaded to 'Mobile Uploads' folder.

With the newest update you don't need to stop your browsing while an upload is in progress. Uploads will occur automatically in the background and the progress can be viewed in the notification panel. But you won't be able to stop an upload once it starts.

The Drawbacks - RAM, Force closes and Sluggishness

Not everything is neat n' shine with the newest update to the facebook app. The app is a RAM hungry beast. ~~Once I noticed it taking up 55MB of RAM which was quite large even for a desktop app~~.

Update: The app is determined to break records. It actually reached to a point where it was using about 102 MB of RAM leaving the phone quite laggy. See the video below of the android task manager showing the Facebook app's RAM usage.

I think the app is trying to live upto its new desktop dress in all areas including RAM usage.

There are force closures as usual and sluggishness of the app itself forced me to close the app many a times.

Despite the drawbacks this is one update I would go for. Though it present us some glitches, functionality is improved by a great deal. So, happy facebooking.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Review Part 2 - The Connectivity

2011-12-29T08:14:00.000+05:30

This is the part 2 of the review of samsung galaxy ace phone. This post tests different connectivity options available on the phone including GPRS/EDGE, 3G, WiFi, and GPS.

Download speeds are calculated based on the time required to download a sample 5 MB file from thinkbroadband.com website.

Another speed test was carried out using the speedtest.net's android app

Naming conventions used in this post:

Kbps- Kilo bits per second

KBps - Kilo Bytes per second - 1KBps is equivalent to 8Kbps

I am converting most of the values to KBps because of the ease to understand.

GPRS/EDGE

Galaxy ace is rated class 10 for bot GPRS and EDGE. Class 10 device should be capable to offer speeds upto 8 KBps downloads in GPRS networks and upto 32KBps in EDGE networks.

The Samsung Galaxy Ace was able to provide 4.4 KBps continuous speed in a GPRS only network (GPRS only networks are not a rarity in our country).

In EDGE networks, the phone gave me about 28 KBps average download speed which is very close to the advertised speed. But this was for the downloading of the 5MB file.

The screenshot below was taken during the 5MB download in an EDGE network. You can see that, except for a couple of dips, the download mostly clocks just below 30KBps.

Network speed test using speedtest.org app provided a little bit different result. The numbers were only about 3 KBps in GPRS networks and 22KBps in EDGE networks. However normal browsing followed the speedtest.org's results as it peaked at about 20KBps.

3G networks in India is fairly underpowered. Though speeds upto 21Mbps are in offer, none actually reach that standard in practice.

Network speed in Galaxy ace with 3G networks peaked around 1Mbps which actually is far lower than the theoretical capability of the phone (7.2Mbps). But I think it mostly is due to the limitation of network, not the phone.

WiFi

The phone was very quick to find available connections even when the network available was a new one. Usually I was prompted with the available connections within 10 seconds. But familiar networks were connected within 5 seconds of switching on.

WiFi has a good range too. It maintained at least 1 bar until about 25mtr indoor.

Wifi Error - Wifi wouldn't turn on until you restart. Frequency of this was reduced considerably since the update to android 2.3.4 but still occurs once in a while.
The same problem affects wifi hotspot too. Clicking on Mobile AP box(see below) won't turn on anything.

See a demonstration of Wifi error in galaxy ace

Bluetooth

Bluetooth in samsung galaxy ace is rated class 2.1+ EDR ( Enhanced data rate) which is capable of transfers upto 262KBps. A closer speed was achieved during my test with a similarly spec-d laptop the transfer speed normally hovered around 230 KBps which I think is not bad.

However transfer speed with another mobile of the same specs was around 100KBps tops. I don't know what made the difference there sure was something.

Bluetooth audio got disconnected at about 8mtrs from the galaxy ace. From this I assume that galaxy ace is equipped with a class 2 bluetooth.

Speed reduces considerably when multiple bluetooth devices are connected to galaxy ace. Transfer speed from my laptop dropped from 230KBps to 150KBps when I started streaming music to my bluetooth stereo headset

GPS

GPS was working without any problem in the original android froyo. It began taking forever to lock after the update to gingerbread 2.3.4.

In the android 2.2 days, without using any additional software I could get a lock within 20 seconds. But after the upgrade 3-4 minutes was usual even under clear sky and if I was travelling, it didn't connect at all.

Then I found a solution to the GPS locking problem on galaxy ace. I installed an app called GPS Status from the Android Market. The app worked like a charm and now GPS is working without any problem.

Note: You won't need data connection to just get a lock on GPS. But A-GPS needs data connection to work as it needs to download location data from the internet. GPS status also needs use of internet connection as it uses A-GPS to improve locking.

I tested GPS in different conditions. The locking time was as follows. (A-GPS was enabled during the test)

Stationary, clear sky - 5 seconds

Stationary, cloudy - 20 seconds

Moving at 60 KMPH, clear sky - 20 seconds

Tethering

USB tethering icon

USB tethering icon on 2.3.4 gingerbread

WiFi Tethering icon

Tethering is a method to channel the mobile data connection to other devices such as laptops. Galaxy ace supports 2 methods for tethering viz, USB and WiFi.

USB and WiFi tethering in galaxy ace is enabled from Settings >> Wireless and connectivity settings >> Tethering and portable hotspot

You can secure the wifi hotspot by assigning a password. Coverage of WiFi also was good getting similar results as of the Wifi test.

The phone offers a variety of connectivity options and also do justice by living upto expectations.

Take screenshots in Samsung Galaxy Ace without rooting (Update: Video)

2011-12-07T14:29:00.001+05:30

Screenshots or screen captures allow you to take photo of visible content of a screen. This post describes a method to take screenshots in Samsung Galaxy Ace running on android 2.3.4 without rooting.

Below is a video tutorial for taking screen shots on galaxy ace.

There are a lot of apps in android market that take screenshots and all of them need rooting the phone. But rooting your phone voids the warranty (Checked with the samsung website. Rooting really does void your warranty)

Samsung has included in its Galaxy Ace phones a built-in method to capture the screen. This method is different from the stock android method of pressing the power and volume down button together. The stock method is replaced with the new one by the TouchWiz UI.

This built-in method also requires usage of two buttons, the back button which is a touch sensitive one and the Home button which is a hard button(one which needs to be pressed down). For taking the screenshot, you need to hold the back button and then press the Home button.

Three audio-visual clues of screen capture will happen, on a successful attempt. These are a shutter sound, a small graphic appearing from all the sides and notification box displaying "Screen captured. Saved as image file"
You can see the semi transparent white graphic appearing from all the sides and the 'capture successful' message

The screenshot will be saved to 'ScreenCapture' folder in the memory card. If there is no folder under that name, one will be created. The screenshots willl be saved as .png files with date and time of their capture as file name.

But taking screenshot in some apps, like opera mini, is difficult. In these apps, holding the back button will execute the back function and the screen goes back to the previous one - with out the screen shot taken - ultimately closing the app. So you won't be able to take the desired screenshot using the previously described way.

If you want to take screenshots in such apps, you need to press the back button and the Home button at the same time. Pressing both the button at the same time will not execute the back button and the desired screenshot will be captured.

Update : See the comments for another variation

This is a little awkward as one is a touch sensitive button and the other is a hard button, aswe have a natural tendency to apply same pressure on both fingers when doing simultaneous press'.

Note: In Samsung galaxy ace running on android 2.2.1, there is no white graphic appearing from the sides, but all other things including the methods are applicable to android 2.2.1 also.

Solve SD card installation error in Samsung Galaxy ace

2011-10-10T21:34:00.000+05:30

Finally there is a complete solution for an installation error in samsung galaxy ace and pop phones. The error resulted in unsuccessful installation of apps to SD card or USB storage, showing an error, "Couldn't install on USB storage or SD card".
The solution is to update the phone to the latest Gingerbread update. Before the update I was getting the same error at least once in two installations. But after the aforementioned update its completely ok. So I suggest you to do the update to permanently escape from the error.

Top 5 widgets for Android 2.2

2011-09-24T22:46:00.000+05:30

This is a list of top 5 widgets for samsung galaxy ace running on android 2.2. All of these are available for free download in the android market.

Widgetsoid2.x

This is the best system widget I have used so far. It brings virtually every setting to the home screen as a toggle widget and is customizable in a lot of ways. Read the full review of widgetsoid2.x.

Battery Widget

Battery indicator of android phones in general and samsung galaxy ace in particular is erroneous.
Battery widget provides a way to see the actual battery power remaining in exact digits rather than assessing from a graphical representation. Read the review of Battery Widget.

Power Control

One of the best comes-with-the-box widget of samsung galaxy ace. Power control widget provides easy one click access to GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth, Sync and Scree Brightness.

Program Monitor

This small widget gives info on all opened programs and their processor usage status.

Flashlight

A small widget which enable to use the mobile screen or the flash as a torch light. It is a nice and simple widget that does the job perfectly.

DNBT Series - Panasonic Cordless 3600 phone review

2011-09-24T21:07:00.000+05:30

Learn about the Do Not Buy This series here

Product : Panasonic Cordless Phone 3600

This is a basic and the cheapest cordless phone from Panasonic. Here is a quick round up of Pros and cons of Panasonic cordless 3600.

Cons: ( This is a do not buy series remember)

The base unit has no battery: This is the most tiring of all problems. In a country like India where there is no guarantee of continuous power supply, this is a big problem. You won't be able to take a call during a power outage and if the power goes out while in a call, it gets immediately disconnected.
No LCD display: There is no LCD display on the handset so you cant be sure about the numbers you are punching in. Of course no basic phone has this funcationality but it feels kinda awkward on a handset may be because of the resemblance to cell phones.
Ring volume too low : there are very few incremental steps for the ringing volume and even the topmost one isn't particularly loud.
Virtually no feedback on the buttons : keyboard feels more like a cushion than a button. No clicks,
no sudden resistance nothing.
Loudness of the headpiece: speaker in the headpiece is not much loud. You might get trouble hearing clearly in a busy room or outside home.

Pros of this product include its low price and good build quality.

If you are planning to buy this phone, do yourself a favor and find another one. I got mine as a gift from EBay so I didn't lose any money on it. I think panasonic cordless 3600 does not qualify as a product you can spend your money on.

Price of Panasonic cordless 3600 in India ranges from 1300 to 1700 INR.

6 tips on improving battery life of an android phone

2011-09-23T01:42:00.002+05:30

Android phones are notorious for their poor battery life. They do the intended job exceptionally well but at a higher cost.

In the Nokia era, a phone lasting 4 or 5 days was a normality than a deviation. We had to think about batteries no more than twice a week. But that golden period of long lasting batteries is gone. Now in the smartphone era a phone which can squeeze the juice to stand a second day is considered relatively good. Android is the most blamed OS among all for its poor battery life.

Best feature of an android ecosystem is its seamless connectivity. Android phones loves to be online. Some might consider it as an agenda being injected to us. But connectivity is the deal of the decade so I don't care, its just freedom for me. Problem with this continuous connectivity is the heavy drain that the connectivity produce on the battery.

The following post is a guide to improving battery life in the least inconvenient way.

Use the android power widget

Power Widget in android 2.2

Power widget is the most useful widget in terms of power saving in an android phone. The power widget controls Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sync and brightness.

Wifi - Switch it on only when you need it. Otherwise it will search for a wifi network every 10 seconds or so. This will dry the battery in a matter of hours.
Bluetooth - Not as strong a battery drainer as others but keeping it off will definitely improve battery life
GPS - The ultimate battery killer. Never leave it open unless you want a dead battery in 4-5 hrs or less.
Account Sync - This syncs all or the chosen account with the server. The power widget toggles the mail sync.
Brightness - Controls the brightness in three steps. Lowest one is more than sufficient and is healthy for the eyes in an indoor setting but in outdoors you might need a brighter setting.

Keep the number of home screen widgets to a minimum

Widgets are small snippets of programs that are continuously running in the background. They provide additional information and make easy the use of phone. They are decremental to the battery life as they use the battery whenever there is a need to fetch data to the home screen.

System widgets like the battery widget will access only the system's internal resources but things like weather widget needs connectivity frequently to fetch the data. So I suggest limiting them to essential minimum. Also keep the update interval to the maximum possible. You don't want to get updated on national news every 5 minutes, do you?

Use a reasonable screen timeout with a soft-key screen turn off button

Keep the automatic screen time out to 5 seconds and you will find yourself getting irritated by repeatedly switching on the screen even during a single task. And every time you turn it back on, you are draining the battery. Keep it to 5 minutes and you will find the phone staying far too longer in the 'on' state which also drains battery. How would you tackle this problem?

I suggest keeping the screen timeout to 1 minutes and using a screen turn off button. Make it a reflex to turn off the screen as soon as you complete the task in hand. You can use the Power button (not the widget one, but the actual hard button) for turning the screen off. If you are reluctant to use the hard button for the fear of damaging it with frequent use, I suggest use of an on-screen toggle for screen turn off. You can use widgetsoid2.x to create a screen turn off toggle.

Say NO to task killer

Don't be amazed because use of a task killer will actually decrease your battery life. From 2.x android is very good at task management. The system keeps apps in memory only if it feels a recent requirement. If you kill the app using a task killer, the system has to restart the app from scratch when required which actually puts more pressure on the processor and drains more battery than when it is keep in the memory in idle state.

Use APNDroid - The second power button

APNDroid is a simple but powerful app that turns off the network on a single click. This offers a large boost on the battery life but has the disadvantage of losing connectivity. But as you can get online using the APNDroid toggle button in 3-4 seconds, I think it doesn't matter much.

Airplane mode

I agree that airplane mode is not a normally intended state of cell phone, but if you are in a situation where a call is not allowed, I suggest keeping the phone in this mode. Keeping the phone in airplane mode is almost same as switching it off, but has an advantage of getting back to connected state in seconds.

Use Battery Friendly Apps

Some apps use battery way more than others. Also system upgrades might cause some apps to drain more battery than before. In my case an app, network monitor, drained battery way more quickly when I upgraded my samsung galaxy ace to gingerbread. I suggest you to read reviews carefully before installing an app.
The apps with greatest chance of killing your battery are those that have to be run all the time. For example, anti virus apps. Select ones which causes the least burden on the battery life.

Solve Error in SMS Unread Count - Android

2011-09-04T19:44:00.000+05:30

Scenario 1 : SMS unread count shown on the SMS app is a wrong number.

Scenario 2 : You got notification for a new SMS, you went to inbox but no message inside inbox bears an unread marking( in red on my samsung galaxy ace). SMS unread counter in the SMS app still showing an unread SMS (number in a red circle). Even if you open up all the threads, the unread count will remain the same.
If another message comes the combined number will be shown unread. If you read the latter the number goes back to the 'stable' one.

Problem: This is an annoying bug in the android OS SMS app. The actual unread message remain hidden in the inbox so opening up the threads and deleting the messages won't work.

Solution: There is a specific free app for resetting the unread message counter developed by Kamosoft.
This app shows the unread messages and lets you mark them as read. The unread counter will be reset.

In my case the app identified the unread message and brought it to the surface. but the counter was showing unread count even after marking it as read. But a restart solved the problem completely. If just marking as read does not solve the problem for you, do a restart and you will be fine.

The reset counter app is completely free and you can download it from the Android Market using the link below.

Reset Unread SMS Counter - Android Market

DNBT (Do Not Buy This) Series Introduction

2011-08-30T21:44:00.000+05:30

I like the Amazon system of buyer feedback. It focuses on the product rather than the seller. Buyer's connection with the seller is a short lived one starting at the order and ending at the receipt. Knowing the quality of the seller beforehand is great but not at the cost of knowing about the product.

In sites like ebay we leave a 80 character feedback for the seller which are usually at one end of a happiness spectrum. Most of the comments are like "You are too good" "Pleasant transaction" "Good Product" blah blah blah. On the other end negative comments are more informative. Usually negative ones specifically says the problem the buyer had with the overall transaction like product not according to description, poor choice of shipping or damaged product.

Why this kind of feedback is inefficient and insufficient?

Because its the product we have a long relation with. Most of the sites has a huge overlap of products. Same product is sold by lots of sellers. But there is no common board to place reviews, whether they are seller reviews on specific products or product reviews. So we are left with no choice but to trust the seller and hope for a quality product.

I will try to explain this further.If a seller has 10 electronic products and you are buying a memory card from him. Before buying you will want to know experience of people buying that specific memory card from him along with the performance and usability of the product. Why? because descriptions cannot match real life performance.

Ebay sellers are giving loads of info on most of their products which are usually copied from other websites or product pages. Often there are clues of the origins in the text itself. For Eg. Certain mobile seller copies all his description from GSMArena site leaving a trace of copy in all pages in the Memory field. They memory field always has a buy memory link in his descriptions. I am not saying this is wrong as every seller making his own descriptions will be ridiculous. But there will be certain amount of partiality because seller will always be a SELLer.it

How do you get the info you want from the above scenario of seller reviews?. Like finding a needle in a haystack, its difficult to locate a seller review on a specific product. And one thing I forgot to emphasize. A feedback once left is final. You, seller or ebay can't change it. Even deletion can be done only by ebay.

reviews

Why Amazon system is good?

Amazon system allows user to give a rating and review specific products they purchase. The reviews can be updated further with additional info they obtained during continued use of the product. Its good because we would have a clear picture of the product its performance and problems to be expected.

So why this series?

This series is dedicated to those products which floods the markets with cheap price and a pathetic performance even their cheap prices can't stand. I had a fair share of these useless products. So I am dedicating some space to give info to people before they make a purchase. If even one person restrain from purchasing a product, I am satisfied.

Comments will be allowed to these reviews but they will be moderated. Anonymous commenting will not be allowed. Please use the comments to express your views on the product.

Tube Mate - Best free youtube downloader for android

2011-08-27T23:12:00.000+05:30

Folks at google doesn't want you to use a youtube downloader. You don't believe me? Check out the results when an app to download you tube videos is searched in the Android market. None is an actual youtube downloader.

But don't be discouraged on such results. We do have an app to download the YouTube videos - TubeMate.

TubeMate is an excellent YouTube video downloader for android and works on almost all versions including the current leader Froyo (Android 2.2).

TubeMate is more like a visitor than like an inmate of Android market. It was not in the Market for a long time but as of writing this post it is back.

Installing TubeMate

For installing TubeMate go to Android Market and search for 'TubeMate'(Note: Other general search terms like 'youtube downloader' won't work ). The app currently stands at 1.05.14 and download size is 724KB.

TubeMate interface

Youtube's mobile interface is shown in the home screen from which you can select the desired video and start the download.

Downloading Videos

You will be presented the available resolutions for the video. Selecting the required resolution will start the download. All the videos I tried so far downloaded with out any glitch.
Downloading speed with tubemate is impressive. Most of the downloads tapped my networks highest potential.

Issues with TubeMate

Fetching the video information and presenting you with the list of available resolutions will take time or freeze altogather if another download i s in progress.
If you select to search using Youtube's own search box, you will have a slight confusion as the popping up of virtual keyboard will push the bottom icons up. This will create a fight for space between the buttons.

Verdict on TubeMate

Overall this app is very good and does what it says. Too bad it is not in the market at present.

Note: If the app is thrown out of the market again you can download and install it through the tubemate website. For this to work correctly you need to allow instillation of non market applications. You can allow this by going to Settings >> Applications and checking the unknown sources

Read the Tubemate Tutorial if you need help with downloading youtube videos

Charging Samsung Galaxy Ace

2011-08-27T00:30:00.000+05:30

Default charge indicator in samsung galaxy ace can be used as an example for words like inaccurate and unhelpful. Its highly inaccurate in showing both the current charging status and the progress.

Charging the phone

First time charging - In previous generation batteries, a first time continuous charging of 6-8 hours were needed to attain full battery capacity. But in new generation batteries such as the one used in Samsung Galaxy Ace, you need to charge only up to the full charge point. No need to keep it in supply for longer time.
This is a screenshot from the galaxy ace phone manual that clearly states that there is no need to keep it for a longer period

There are two methods for charging samsung galaxy ace. One is via the AC adapter and other is via USB cable. Charging via AC adapter is faster of the two methods. for details check out my review of samsung galaxy ace.

Native battery indicator dose not show actual battery level in numbers it just show a graphic indicator. This indicator is difficult to interpret so I installed battery widget from geekygouup which is just a 55kb download (Read Review of Battery widget)

Suppose you are charging from 10%, the charging indicator will rise quickly to 53 or 54 within 5 minutes ie, 10%per minute. If you think you have half the capacity by this time you are wrong. The battery will quickly go back to 10% if you start using the phone at that point. The first time I stumbled on this, the battery went back to 15% with 10 minutes of voice call.

From 54% the ascend is slow until it reaches 88% which is a unique level for this phone as the indicator will directly jump to 100% from there.

Indicator in samsung galaxy ace stays at '100% and charging' for a very long time and then only shows up the little blue notification of charging full. There is a long 30+minutes wait for this to happen.

This is the usual charging graph of samsung galaxy ace. The image is basically a stitch of output from a battery graph app. You can see the quick rise to 60 % and the quick jump from 88 to 100%. The phone showed fully charged status about 40 minutes later which I couldn't include in the graph due to space constraints.

Descend in the battery level is much more decent. The charge decreased almost according to the usage. But the descent below 20% was a little bit slower. This might be because of the aggressive power management kicking in.

At 15% charge, the battery low warning will be shown. When the charge is below 10% the screen become very dim to push the death of the battery as far as possible.

If you know 2 things you wont have much problems with battery level indicator of samsung galaxy ace.

1. Indicator at the half line does not always indicate a half filled battery.
2. Battery isn't full until a full charge indicator appears in the notification.

Also install battery widget to know the actual battery level values.

Update : The power management improved a little bit with the 2.3.4 update giving longer period with full charge but the charging graph still follows its previous path.

Battery widget for android user review

2011-08-16T00:09:00.002+05:30

A perfect definition for battery widget for android would be "A simple battery indicator applet with additional power control options".

The battery widget for android is created by 'geekyouup' and is available for free in the android market. As of writing this, the app is just 55.94kb in size.

Functions

Besides being a good battery level indicator on the home screen occupying only a 1 x 1 space, the app provide additional buttons to control wifi, bluetooth and GPS. The picture below shows the options available for the app shown when you tap on the battery widget on home screen.

Of the above buttons only wifi is a toggle button(wifi on/off button) others are links to their settings menu. Battery button provides link to see which all app used the battery from the point of disconnection from the power source. GPS button opens the location and security settings and BlueTooth button named as BT open up the wireless and network settings.

Battery Use

This app uses negligible battery. There was no apparent difference in battery life with and without battery widget.

Popularity

This is one of the most popular apps in Android market. By the time I am writing this the app has received 99,820 ratings and is at more than 4.5 stars rating.

Compatibility

This app is compatible with almost all android phones including Samsung Galaxy S, galaxy S II, HTC incredible, EVO 3D, galaxy ace etc.

Widgetsoid - Best free system widget android 2.2 and 2.3

2011-07-31T23:37:00.000+05:30

Widgets are one of the greatest features in Android phones. They are small apps designed to work from the home screen. System widgets makes the innards of android phones easily accessible.

Widgetsoid2.x is the system widget I use most. This app provides more toggles and more customizability than any other apps out there. And the best part - its free. Two versions of the app is available in the android market. Widgetsoid and Widgetsoid2.x. the first one is aimed at devices running on android version 1.6 and below. The 2.x is for those running on android 2.0 and up.

The app provides an option to toggle almost every toggleable setting available on android phones.

Update:

Complete Feature List of Widgetsoid2.x

These are the complete list of options with their descriptions available on widgetsoid2.x. The list is based on the latest version of widgetsoid2.x ie, 3.2.4

Network

WiFi
Portable Hotspot -Share your internet connection over wifi
Bluetoot
Mobile Data - Toggle mobile internet (2/3/4G)
2G/3G - Switch between 2G and 3G
4G - Enable/Disable 4G
Data Sync - Chose whether your online accounts(Gmail, Facebook) needs to be synced with the device or not
Data Sync Now - Force a data synchronization immediately
Tether USB - Share your mobile internet over the USB cable
USB storage - Turn on/off USB storage mode
Airplane - Disconnect all your wireless connections which includes cell coverage bluetooth, wifi, gps, radio

Screen

Screen Timeout - Two sets of screen timeout options are available. You can either toggle between 15s/1m/5mts or 30sec/2min/5min
Lock Screen - Turn off the display and lock the device
Lock pattern - Change the lock pattern
Auto lock - Doesn't like to unlock the phone everytime?. This options disables the device lock so that you can use the phone right away.
Orientation - Determine whether you want the phone to rotate the screen on device rotation.
Brightness - Switch between brightness levels
Always on - Screen stays on
Stay awake - Screen stay awake when phone is being charged

Sound

Ring Mode - Switch between ring and vibrate
Vibrate - Enable/Disable vibrate
Silent - Silent mode
Speaker - Audio speaker
Volume control - Change volume for media and sounds
Media Scanner - Initiates media scanner to find new files on SD card
Previous - Previous song
Play/Pause -
Next - Next song

Other

GPS
Battery - Level meter
Temperature - Battery temperature not the climate one
Phone memory - Available phone memory
SD memory -
RAM memory
Flashlight - use the flash as a continuous light
SD card - Mount/unmount SD Card
Lock Buttons - Lock for widgetsoid widget
Reboot - Reboot phone - requires root
Locale - Change the locale of the phone
Debut USB - Phone will change the mode to Debug upon connection with a computer

Shortcuts

Application -
Contact - Call/SMS/email a contact
Bookmark
Tasker task - needs tasker to be installed

Some of the switches have further customizations avilable in the global preferences. For example The sub-settings in Mobile Data toggle will allow you to select the method with which the widgetsoid disables the data. You can use APN toggle, APN rename or Root toggle for disabling the mobile data network.

Extensive customization options to tweak the appearance of the widgets are also available in widgetsoid. And it performed well on every task I throw at it . Overall I think widgetsoid2.x is the best system widget available for android platform.

Nokia mobile phone price increased in india

2011-07-20T00:25:00.001+05:30

I don't know why is Nokia doing this. They are clearly drilling holes in an already sinking ship. When news from other part of the world are coming out about Nokia lowering price of their handsets to stay in business (Read the news here : Daily Tech: Nokia slashes smart phone prices), they are increasing price in India.

I was a Nokia fan boy for a very long time but their disregard to improving usability especially that of touch devices forced me to shift my foot. The company had an undisputed reputation to provide good quality hardware at compelling prices and that too is now biting the dust.

When I heard about the price cuts in Europe, I checked their Indian website for any information on lowering prices in India. But the prices were still the same. To be honest, I believed a price reduction is coming to Indian market also. So I took a screen shot of the prices available at that time so that I can calculate the cut they are doing to stay up in the battle.

The screen shot included prices of the top level( I mean phones that are displayed in the top row - not the 'best in category' thing) phones ie, C7, C6-01, C6 and C5-03 ( Nokia phone that made me interested in this was C7).

The Prices were as follows

C7 - 17,734 ($ 399)

C6-01 - 14,299 ($ 322)

C6 - 12,499 ($ 282)

C5-03 - 8,899 ($ 200)

Nokia mobile price on 8th July 2011

When I checked back today, to my surprise the prices were higher than the previous ones. The following are the increased values.

C7 - 18,399 ($ 414)

C6-01 - 14,979 ($ 338)

C6 - 13,089 ($ 295)

C5-03 - 9,319 ($ 210)

Nokia mobile price on 18th July 2011

Check the latest prices here

Nokia increased the prices from 3.5% to 5% for their phones. Too bad I didn't have a note on any other item in their inventory.

Is this price hike in view of the new survey result?

On July 11 The Mobile Indian released a survey on the most searched mobile phones by Indian customers. The survey was based on the searching preference of 670,000 users of 'The Mobile Indian' website in June. Nokia, to the surprise of many, topped the list by snatching 4 out of the top 5 including the top 3. In the top 25 list Nokia got 12 admissions.

The goal of the survey as they say was "to give marketers a monthly insight into changing consumer preferences". Just 1 week after the survey result came out, Nokia was found to have increased the prices ( 'Found to have' - because I do not know when exactly the change was made).

Three of the above mentioned handsets are in the top 25 list with the exception of C6-01. And all got a price hike.

Was that just a coincidence ? to be frank, I don't know. You decide.

Disabling Mobile Data Network in Android 2.2

2011-07-12T21:55:00.000+05:30

Mobile data network simply termed as 2G/3G networks are one of the biggest attractions ( in view of carrier selectivity and customizability) and the largest pocket drainers in android smart phones. Some mobile carriers charge you for a whole plan as soon as you transfer the first bytes of data. Eg. My friend gets charged 50 cents on his first data exchange on any day where 50 cents is the fees for one full day of unlimited data transfer.

This post deals with different methods of disabling data connection on Android 2.2 . The method described here is tested to be working on Samsung Galaxy Ace running on android 2.2.1.

Method 1. Install APNDroid - The easy way

APNDroid is a free app available in the market which does the job without you needing to learn any technical stuff. It also provides a widget with which you can enable or disable data network on single touch. APNDroid disables all the 2G(EDGE/GPRS) and 3G networks together.

In my galaxy ace network was completely turned off when switched on after a power off. But I heard complaints of it not working in some phones when phone is switched off for more than 30 minutes. But given how this app work it is not possible unless the phone tries to download fresh settings from the network.

Here is a screenshot guide for APNDroid installation and usage

Open the Android Market and search for APNDroid. Install the first one. The on-off widget (Third search result) will also work but the app gives more control over the process thats why I recommend the first one.

After the successful installation go to the home screen and long press to open the widgets. Select APNDroid from the widget list.

Mobile Data Network - Off


Mobile Data Network - On

The widget will be added to home screen. The colour of the widget represents the on off status also. Green indicates that you can connect to the data network and red indicate that you are cut off from the internet.

Same kind of on-off button along with further customizations is available in the actual app also. Below is the screen shot of APNDroid home screen. You can toggle 2G/3G on or off with the first button. There is also option to keep the MMS enabled

APNDroid Home Screen

Update : APNDroid will not work correctly in roaming if you have enabled using packet data while roaming. In that case you need to select 'Disable all APNs' from the menu to completely disconnect from network.

Update 2 : APNDroid free was pulled from Android market. Only APNDroid Pro is available currently. So I suggest you use 'APN Manager' which has the same functionality.

Method 2. Disable the Packet Data connection

In android 2.2 there is an option to disable packet data which essentially turns off the internet connection.

Go to Settings >> Wireless and Networks >> Mobile Networks and toggle Use Packet Data to off. You will now be disconnected(hopefully!! - Explanation follows) from the mobile network. Some softwares may still be able to access internet if it was given privileges to change system settings during installation. So this method is not 100% efficient.

Below screeshots will give you a guided tour to the settings

Options >>Settings

Select wireless and network settings

Select mobile networks

In the above screen you can toggle packet data on or off. You can also selectively disable data usage while on roaming and 3G from this screen. Please make a note on the menu item 'Access Point Names' because we will be using it in the next method.

Method 3. Creating a new (fake) Access Point Name ( APN)

Access Point Name is like a website address. Difference is that you have to connect to this mother website first to access all other data in the internet. If you got the address of this mother website wrong you won't be able to connect to anything at all. This is the principle we use in the third method.

It is more safe as any software, be it a system one or a user installed one, will try to access internet through our fake APN which anyway would fail. If you want to connect to internet anytime, you can just change to default access point to the original one.

Here are the details of creating a new APN

Clicking on the 'Access Point Names' will present you with a list of access points in your phone. Text in big white letters denotes the name of the access point in your phone and the small green one denotes the APN - the mother site name.

There are currently two items in my list one (bsnlnet) is for internet access and other as its name suggests is for mms.

Now we have to create another Access point like the one listed but with fake credentials. For creating a new APN, click on the options and select 'New APN'

You will be presented with long list of things to fill in . Don't worry we only need to fill in just two things here, viz Name and APN.
For this example I gave values 'NewAPN' to the Name field and 'sampleapn' to the APN field. But you can add anything in these fields. Only thing to note is that you should not add an APN name same as that in your default list. (for me that would be bsnlnet)

I would suggest avoiding APN close to the default one also as there might be a test APN with that name( No, I am not a paranoid).
You need to fill in only the first two entries (This is the minimum requirement to save a new access point). So leave others as such. After filling the two fields, save the New APN.

Now select the new fake APN from the list as default connectivity point by tapping on the small circle on its right side ( Default APN is highlighted green here). Now you will be successfully off the internet.
If you want to connect to internet anytime, just change the default back to the real one. This change cannot be over ridden except in case of a settings restore so it is more reliable than the second one.

Note : No method described here interfere with WiFi connections.

Finally I want to add a note on advantages and disadvantages of disabling a mobile data network. It is the disadvantages that I want you to read closely as it might prove to be more valuable at the end of the day.

Advantages of disabling Mobile Data Network

Saves data costs.
Disables ads in free apps as they wont be able to access the ad servers.
Improves battery life (Androids are notorious for poor battery life).
Prevent entry of malicious software.

Disadvantages

You won't be able to access the phone remotely in case it is lost or stolen as it will be masked from the internet.
Google's kill switch to remotely wipe malicious apps already installed on your system won't work.
Whole point of owning a smartphone is the ability to get connected and stay connected. Its your call.

Facebook for android 1.6.0 review

2011-07-02T13:48:00.002+05:30

This is the review of the newest update of Facebook app for android. Facebook for android is an official app developed by the facebook development team and is available for free in the android market.

The app from the official source is always expected to be the best one. But here the case is different. The newest update actually made the app a disabled one. Many of the sections that worked fine previously in the 1.5.x version went completely rogue on the latest version

HOME SCREEN

Home screen in facebook for android is almost similar to the one in previous edition. Home screen provides access to the 9 sections and provide you with a scroll of graphics (photos and videos ) in your news feed.

NEWS FEED

The interesting addition to the news feed section is the ability to upload videos . Uploading videos is done by clicking the camera icon on the second line. The top right button on the news feed screen now lets you select the type of information you want to be displayed on the screen. All of these were good intentions but a crappy code for the implementation of the functionality drove the facebook app to a ditch.

News feed now refreshes constantly every 2 or so seconds if we select anything other than videos and in the latter case nothing loads at all.

UPDATE: News feed is now working fine but videos are still in dark. The news feed is equipped with continuous scrolling which is kinda good because it loads additional items automatically when you near the end of list.
UPDATE 2 : App crashes many a times when trying to download the news feed. The newest update of 1.6.1 also didn't fix this.

CHAT

Chat is the worst part of the new update. Most of the time the chat keeps on loading like forever and finally will say "none of your friends are available to chat" or connection terminated. The no friend thing was always false when I cross checked on my desktop browser.

Another bug in the chat function is the reappearance of active conversations even after I closed it long time ago. I had three conversations currently in that section one of which actually ended 2 weeks ago ( on the previous version) and I have been trying to close it since then.

There was only one successful chat after the current update and this too had many glitches. Posts will appear to be published for sometime and then will vanish mysteriously, without the person at the other end ever seeing it.

One 'dangerous' bug in the program is the swap of the posts. ie, posts intended for one person went to another. This happened to me only once but could have created potentially serious complications so I decided not to use chat until an update is available.

UPDATE: The newest update 1.6.1 resolved most of the previous problems but created new ones. Some times when I am chatting with another person, what I write come in chat screen and what he replies will come in messages section.

FRIENDS REQUEST

In the previous edition, confirming a friend request gave an acknowledgment 'confirmed'. But in the new edition it is shown as 'Ignored'. When I first saw this I thought I mistakenly clicked the reject button. When I opened the desktop to send a request, I saw the person as my friend. This again happened one day later which confirmed the bug.

SPEED

The app now is slower than the mobile version of facebook which offer a slightly less featured 'social network'. Also the desirability of the content decreased as most of the items on the wall now contains 'x' is now friends with 'Y' and 10 others (on my last visit 11 out of first 20 posts were in this class). I virtually had no use with these posts as friend finder is a very good at justifying its name.

MESSAGES

Messages have a good addition as 'to be replied' messages are now marked, so you would know whom to message.

NOTIFICATIONS

You can now set notifications for messages, friend requests and invites. Messages includes both chats and messages and the notification comes only like' you have 2 messages'. Usually clicking on the notification will lead to chat or messages directly. But there were occurrences of appearance of notification without the arrival of any new message or chat.

UPDATE : The notification is more a menace now than a help. What would you expect to happen when you click on a notification item about a new message?. Open app in the correct section ( Chat or message) and show you the message. right?. There is the twist, 4 out of 5 notifications opened nothing. No program opening, no showing the chat, nothing. Just the notification item disappeared thats all.

CONCLUSION

When I downloaded facebook for android for the first time it was an app with 4.5 stars but at the time of writing this it has dipped tot 3.5 because of a large number of negative reviews(One starred ) on the current version. The app now look like an alpha version of the new interface( Its quality is definitely below beta). If the facebook developers do not wake up, the app will end up with 2 or 3 stars by the time they roll out a bug fixed release.

UPDATE: the 1.6.1 version didn't address many of the problems people pointed out about the previous version. They just added some more half baked functions. Is facebook abandoning Andriod platform?. Android reached 550,000 activations per day by july 14 2011. How can they ignore a platform on which a million devices are activated every other day?. Or is it facebook just going away from what is potentially going to be a Google + territory?

UPDATE 2: 1.6.2 app was one of the best in series with apparently no issues in most phones. The app raised the star rating to 3.5. But the newest release of facebook for android 1.6.3 proved to be a disaster again. So any one in 1.6.2 please stay there. And update only after reading the latest app reviews from market.

Samsung Galaxy Ace User Review Part 1 - The basics(Update: Gingerbread review included)

2011-06-28T19:59:00.001+05:30

Samsung Galaxy ace is a mid-range(High-end in our country) Froyo powered android smart phone. I am writing this post after regular use of this phone for one month.

The Looks and Feel

Samsung Galaxy ace is definitely a looker. It is sure to steal some eyes when you take it out of your pocket or bag. There is an indisputable resemblance to iphone 4 but not to an extend as to mistake it. The chrome covering on the sides give the phone a very high class look.

Samsung Galaxy Ace

The Galaxy Ace feels lighter than it looks. When you take the phone in your hands it has more of a plastic feel than a solid feel and even the buttons on chrome bezel feel plasticky. But still hats off to the design guys at samsung who made a classy look with cheaper components.
Front panel is claimed to be made of Gorilla glass. The panel is like museum for fingerprints as every touch is preserved safely until replaced by another touch. The panel needs constant cleansing if you want the perfect looks. Otherwise the glossy finish makes the fingerprints very obvious even in a flash. I am not sure about the gorilla glass thing but my phone does not have any scratches after one month of normal usage and two accidental drops.
Back panel by default is a textured one. The texturing gives holding the phone a lot secure feel. The accessory back cover is a white one with smooth finish and a low-class plastic feel.

The Screen

Galaxy ace sports an HVGA screen ( 480 x320 resolution). The LCD display in galaxy ace is inferior to the AMOLED ones but definitely good at doing its job.

Lowest setting of brightness is more than enough for indoor usage. But in strong sunlight you won't be able to clearly distinguish the texts. Sunlight legibility is moderately acceptable only in the highest brightness setting, which renders the screen more pixelated. High brightness setting in low light condition strained my eye a little bit so I suggest you use a low brightness setting indoors.

There are two ways for controlling the brightness. One is through the power control widget on home screen which controls brightness in three stops and other is by brightness option in the display settings which offer finer control over brightness.

The Call

Finding the network and connecting to it is plainly easy for this phone.The phone gets quickly connected to a network after coming out of a airplane mode. I never had to wait more than 6 seconds after disabling flight mode to connect to my network. The phone also maintains this connection without drops most of the time.

Samsung Galaxy ace's ability to handle calls in a low-intensity network area better than any other phones I used. The area where galaxy ace performs poorly is call handling while on movement. Most of the calls I made during my travel by train dropped and many a times call dropped repeatedly. I don't know if it is the problem of the carrier or the phone.

The virtual touch pad for making call is equipped with smart dialing function. For Eg. if you press 2 and 3 the dialer will search for combination of 23 and all the combinations of letters represented on these buttons ie A to F. This was a pretty useful function for me as I could start typing as soon as the dialer comes up, without any confusion.

Galaxy ace default dialer

Emergency dialer is the dialer you can access from the lock screen which is a bare skeleton of the original dialer. I don't know why the letters are given along with the numbers in the emergency dialer as the smart dialing and access to the phone book are absent. See the emergency dialer below

Voice quality of the calls perceived at my end is good but the phone is not loud enough to hear clearly when I am in a noisy area. I think the in built microphone does a decent job as I had multiple instances of enquiry about milder surrounding noises, a sign of good sensitivity (may also be showing absence of noise cancellation, but I never had a complaint of not hearing me).

The in-call screen has options to hold the call initiate another call and an additional touch pad to punch in numbers for IVRS (interactive voice response system , like the customer care of your carrier) calls.
Below is a sample call screen.

Dialing screen

In-call screen

One nice touch by the graphics team is the change in the appearance of the call screen on ringing and the person picking it up. Nice green hue and appearance of a timer and hold button tells you that the other person has picked up the call . So you do not have to bring the phone to ear until the person picks up the call and that too without the usage of a loud speaker ( In the pic loud speaker is on because I had to take screen shot while talking in a call) .

Speaking of the loud speaker, the one in my Galaxy ace is malfunctioning. Sound is poorer than any $5 speaker. Sound begins trembling when the volume is punched up above the half way. There are only two or three ring tones that I can set without making the listener think of a crap phone before seeing my phone. I am planning for a visit to customer care on this.

One thing that is missing from the call function is the ability to record phone calls. I don't know why this function is omitted in android as most other phones from $40 price range has this.

Update : Gingerbread 2.3.4 update actually removed the different coloration of the dialling and in-call screen. The gray hue is now present in both the screens.
The emergency dialler and the default one stayed the same.

SMS

Combined sms and mms screen

The combined SMS and MMS application is an intuitive one. Attaching a multimedia file automatically converts an sms in to mms, and on removing the file it gets converted back.

Only mild glitch I had with this app was the close proximity of the send button which I accidentally pressed more than twice, sending half baked sms to the receiver.

SMS sending even while connected as a hotspot appeared fine to me, as I was unable to find any noticeable break of connection of data network.

The Battery

The battery of Samsung Galaxy Ace is quoted at 1350 mAh, But in reality it doesn't do justice to the label. Squeezing it to even one complete day with the use of mobile data network(EDGE in here, no 3G) is a daunting task. Turn on the GPS and WiFi, and you got a dead battery in half a day.

Above screen shows the results of typical battery usage. Battery level was 30% , GPS and wifi were off but data syncing with 2G network was on, till the time of taking this screenshot.

You can see that 73% of the charge was used for network standby, which amounts to about 15 hrs. Doing the math I assume a maximum life of 30hrs of normal usage with one full recharge.

Update: When I upgraded the phone to gingerbread, I first got drop in battery performance which got me wondering the cause of this. Because the update promised an improved battery life.

After a little bit of installing and uninstalling I found that a Network monitor app started draining the battery more that it did on the froyo. After uninstalling it things got back to an improved state as was promised. And now the battery is staying for some more time than the previous froyo.

Battery Charging Time

Samsung Galaxy Ace supports USB charging and it does not need a switched-on device at the other end for charging. Means if your laptop has powered USB ports you can charge the mobile using USB cable even when laptop is in shut down state. But you won't be able to switch off the USB charging to preserve the laptop battery.

Typical USB charging time is approximately 2hrs and 30 minutes (From 10% to fully charged, without any breaks or calls.)

Charging Time with the supplied charger is on an average 2hrs 15 minutes for me with the settings same as above.

The battery charge status indicator is a highly inaccurate one in samsung galaxy ace. When the charging is started the level indicator quickly rise upto 53 or 54% in about 15 minutes and then ascends slowly. There is one more quick jump I noticed many times is the jump from 88 to 100%. It continued for about 40 minutes as '100% and charging' status and then only showed the advice to unplug the charger.
See the battery graph

See the 'Battery fully charged' notification for samsung galaxy ace below

100% indicator in notification bar

Full charge Alert

Read the complete battery review of samsung galaxy ace
Conclusion

Galaxy Ace excellent mobile with poor stamina. The phone serves the basic functions quiet easily without many glitches. But expanding the horizons of mobile use by experimenting with this phone is slightly limited because of the battery.

Update: The connectivity options in Galaxy ace is reviewed in part 2 of this post

How to transfer android apps from phone to SD card

2011-06-12T23:09:00.000+05:30

Android users did not have opportunity to install apps on to SD card prior to 2.2 (Froyo). In pre-Froyo time, apps were moved to SD Card using another app named 'app2SD'. But this had one limitation, the moved apps were virtually uninstalled from the phone. They were not usable until transferred back to the phone memory. But the app managed this move seamlessly.

Now we are in Froyo era so we actually don't need a third party app to move the apps to SD card. The functionality is built into the system by default. The app - in most cases - gets installed to SD card directly without prompting.

But how can you move an app that is already installed into the phone memory to the SD card?. For this follow this method.

Go to Settings >> Applications >> Manage Applications. Select the application you want to be transferred from phone to SD card. Tap on the Move to SD card button in Storage section.

SETTINGS

APPLICATIONS

Manage Applications

Select the application you want to be moved

Click on move to SD card to move the app

For some apps the Move to SD card button will be greyed out so that you are unable to tap on it . This happens in case of some system apps and those apps for which developers have not enabled the move to SD option. You can see an example below.

This file being a live wallpaper needs to be in the phone memory itself to work correctly.

Note: Even if you move an app to SD card some data stays in the phone. This is mostly user specific data like searches, game progress etc.