The Tech Temple

The Tech Temple Has Moved!

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Blogger has been a great tool in aiding me with getting into the world of blogging and web site creation. For those of you who follow this blog, I would like to inform you that The Tech Temple has officially moved to www.thetechtemple.com. I've found that working with Wordpress has a more professional look and therefore, I will be using that platform in order to maintain a high quality website. Click here for the new RSS feed for The Tech Temple. Be sure to add it to your Google Reader as well. Hopefully you like the new look of the new website. I'm still adding to it and learning how Wordpress operates, so new things are to come in the near future. Thanks for the continued following and I look forward to bringing you more great content :-)

The HTC Evo Has Gone 3D...Don't Purchase That Evo 4G Just Yet!

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:33:00 +0000

via Sprint

HTC's Evo 4G was unarguably one of the hottest smartphones last summer, and Spint is looking to do the same thing again with the release of the HTC Evo 3D. No specific release date has been given yet (I hate when carriers do that. Just do like Apple: announce something then release it week) outside of a summer time frame. The two phones are identical from the front and pack the same features, minus the 3D capabilities of the Evo 3D that allow one to view/take pictures as well as video in 3D. It also comes with a hefty 1750 mAh battery and great dedicated shutter button for photo taking. Unfortunately the kickstand has been dismissed. I'd rather have a 3.7" screen, same sized battery and kickstand in exchange for the 3D...but that's just me (c'mon now, how many people do you know with a 3D tv?).

Check out Engadget for a video overview of the phone, as well as for a comparison of the Evo 3D versus the original Evo 4G.

Droid Does...Dancing?

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:43:00 +0000

Via TopNews

In order to promote their new Xperia Arc, Sony decided to grace the mall with it's presence using the little green guy himself. Don't let him fool you, he can do more than just the robot...Android can get down! I can't even lie, it's pretty amusing and entertaining.

If you haven't heard of the Xperia Arc and it's available in your area, you might be doing yourself a favor by giving it a look. It's an extremely nicely designed phone, smooth looking interface, thin and has a great camera for taking stills as well as video. Even better, it ships with Android 2.3.

Sprint + Google Voice = Goodness

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Sprint and Google Voice have combined forces in a way that should benefit all customers. You no longer have to have a smartphone in order to get all of the benefits that Voice has to offer. After pairing your mobile number with your Google Voice number, the receiver of the call (or text) will see your Voice number. Furthermore, your texts and voicemails will all be stored in your Google Voice account once you logon using a computer. And don't forget you can receive and make calls from your computer as well...all for free!

Who Really Has the Fastest 4G Network?

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:29:00 +0000

via Unreality

For the past several months AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon have all been focusing their advertising on promoting their 4G networks, each claiming to have the fastest or largest network in order to draw more consumers. You can't really believe the info coming from either company because of course their going to construe the facts into a more favorable outcome for them. Thankfully an outside entity, PC World, has performed a relatively extensive speed test to find out who really holds the title as speed king of the 4G networks.


via PCWorld

And the winner is...T-Mobile! Which Network has the fastest laptop modem speed? Check out PCWorld's in depth test for the full report.

HTC SuperHero with Cyanogenmod Slowing Down :-(

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:24:00 +0000

The last few days my phone slowed down to a screeching halt. I had no idea why. Everything was sluggish. I tried modifying Launcher Pro settings, removing Handcent, removing ShapeWriter, clearing the Dalvik Cache...nothing seemed to work! Luckily the CyanogenMod forums came through once again.

The Solution:
Download "GPS Status," press the menu buttons and choose tools. Select manage a GPS State. Reset the GPS then download the data again.

After I did this my phone was instantaneously fast again. The SuperHero is back!

This app is also great for speeding up the time it takes your phone's GPS to lock on. It will dramatically decrease your lock on time as well as help to ensure that you have a strong signal.

Correct Problems with Inaccurate Android Picture Gallery Thumbnails

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:54:00 +0000

If you've ever gone into your picture gallery and clicked on a picture, but then your phone ended up showing you a different one...or your gallery has previews of pictures that you know you deleted a while ago...or any other strange problems in your picture gallery, then this is the fix for you.

I'm running stock Android so I'm not sure if this works for phones running HTC sense or Moto~~mess~~blur. I would assume so since everything should be in same folders, regardless of the carrier's customization. Follow these steps to get your gallery up and running the way it should:

Click Settings > Applications > Manage Applications and clear the thumbnail cache
Use a file explorer, such as Astro File Manager to navigate to the folder /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails. Once there, delete everything in that folder.
Navigate to /sdcard/Android/data/com.cooliris.media/cache. Again, delete everything inside of the folder.

After following the above steps, restart your phone and head to your gallery. The thumbnails should rebuild and any problems you had before should vanquish. Shout out to Shay D. Life for the tip from the Cyanogenmod forum.

Visual Android Activation Timelapse, from Droid to Galaxy S Launch

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:55:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Google has put together a worldwide visual representation of Android handsets being activated from October 2008 to January 2011, with major activity occurring with the release of the Motorola Droid and Galaxy S devices. It's a great sight to see how widespread the Android operating system has become over the years across different countries.

Verizon Getting Rid of Mail in Rebates Through Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:41:00 +0000

via Android Central

Ever get tired of those $199.99 (with $100 mail in rebate) deals from Verizon? Followed by having to mail in the rebate along with the UPC code that you cut form the box, then waiting two months before you see that gift card arrive in the mail.

Yup, we've all been there. From January 31, 2011 through February 14, 2011 Big Red is turning those mail in rebates into instant ones, meaning that you can actually get that $199 phone for $199. The deal only applies to current phones $149.99 and up, so now would be a good as time as any to get that new phone for that special Valentine.

Peep the full list of phone rebates below:

via Boy Genius Report

Let the Verizon iPhone Commercials Commence!

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 01:23:00 +0000

I have been already seen the Verizon iPhone4 commercial 4 times already while watching the Playoffs. Here's the one I've repeatedly seen:

And here's another that you'll probably be seeing as the coming weeks past until the arrival of the iPhone 4 on February 10, 2011:

If you were one of the unfortunate people who renewed their contract before the announcement of the iPhone4, fear not for Verizon hasn't left you out. As long as you purchased your new phone between the dates of November 26, 2010 and January 10, 2011, you have the opportunity to receive a $200 Visa Debit Card in exchange for purchasing the iPhone4 at the full retail price (16GB - $449.99, 32GB - $749.99). Is that a good deal? I'd say it's worth it for the 16GB model, but not for the latter, especially considering the fact that the contract price is $199.99 for the sixteen gig. And why the off contract prices are $50 more than what AT&T are selling it for is beyond me. It's probably just VZW being greedy again.

With that said, of course people will be rushing to go out and get this thing when it drops. Let's just hope that Big Red's network doesn't experience an overload similar to Sprint's when their HTC Evo 4G was released earlier this summer.

Say It Ain't So Sprint...Say It Ain't So!

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:10:00 +0000

Last week Sprint puts out some bootlegged, rehashed commercial for their Evo Shift 4G (still would've bade more sense to me if it was called Evo 4G Shift) and today they dropped a fairly huge bomb that affects all of the carrier's smartphone users.

If you're currently a Sprint customer who owns a smartphone and use the Everything Data plan, after January 30th, you will be charged an additional $10 should you chose to upgrade to a new smartphone. Not only does this hold true for individual plans but the $10 fee, known as the Premium Data fee, will be charged to each additional line on the family plan for those smartphone users.

Seeing as the main reason I switched to Sprint last summer was because of their pricing plans, this is a quite a downer. On the other hand, it's still better than paying $20 for unlimited texting and $30 for data on Verizon. That's already $50 and that doesn't even include the calling plan.

Currently, the Everything Data plan includes (using 450 min in this example):

Everything Data 450 $69.99
450 Anytime Minutes Included
Nationwide Long Distance Included
America - Roaming Included
Unlimited Any Mobile, Anytime
Unlimited SMS Text Messaging
Unlimited Picture Mail
Unlimited Data Usage
GPS Navigation
Sprint Data Essentials Pack
Nights: M-TH 7pm-7am Wknd: F 7pm-M 7am
Caller ID
Call Waiting
Three-Way Calling
Voicemail

Below is Sprint's Press Release:

Premium Data Add-on Charge for All Smartphones
Effective 1/30/11, all current and future 3G and 3G/4G smartphone activations will require the $10/month Premium Data Add-on charge. This allows Sprint to continue to offer simple and affordable unlimited data plans for our smartphone customers, while maintaining a wireless network able to meet the growing appetite for mobile data.
Complete details are included in the Premium Data Add-on Charge Launch Guide found on ISC > Quick Links > Premium Data Add-on Charge.
Details:
The Premium Data Add-on charge applies to:

All smartphones operating on the CDMA, iDEN and 4G networks.
A smartphone is defined as a device that supports a robust operating system including: Android, BlackBerry, Instinct, Palm and Windows Mobile.

All customers activating a new line or upgrading/swapping existing lines (consumer, IL, and most CL customers).

The Premium Data Add-on charge does NOT apply to:

S&R exchanges (warranty or insurance events)

30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee devices exchanges for handsets activated 1/1/11 to 1/29/11

Existing smartphone customers will remain on their current rate plan, until they upgrade, perform an ESN swap or activate a new smartphone

Existing Seasonal Standby customers prior to 1/30/11

Special priced CL customers tied to a Corp ID

Another Bad Sprint Commercial feat. the Evo Shift 4G

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:15:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

As much as I love Sprint, they have the worst marketing team of any cell phone provider company I have ever seen. In recent memory there's been the awful Epic commercial and now this one that features Sprint's newest phone, the Evo Shift 4G. The commercial is the exact same as the Evo 4G commercial, except for the end where it shows the Evo having the slide out keyboard. C'mon Sprint, that's just lazy and unappealing.

Evo Shift 4G Commercial

Evo 4G Commercial

Sad, Sprint. Just sad...

The Playstation Phone is Real

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:51:00 +0000

I'll admit, when the protytpe pictures leaked I was extremely skeptical. It just didn't look real to me at all. Then I saw this:

via Droiddog

YUP! It's real and is named the Sony Xperia Play. More photos and video are available over at Droiddog.

A Phone, A Computer and A Tablet, All in One Device

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:24:00 +0000

Now this is the kinda phone I'm talking about. I can't even explain how cool this phone is. Just check out the video. Oh, and it comes with a 1930 mAh battery. It's about time cell phone companies started focusing more on the longevity of their devices.

Make A YouTube Link Begin Where You Want It

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:03:00 +0000

Ever have those times where you wanna share a YouTube video with your friend, except you want the video to start a specific point rather than at the very beginning? Just pause the video where you want it to begin, right click and chose "copy video URL at current time", then send the link to your friend. Easy peasy.

via Lifehacker

Winamp Automatically Plays Similar Songs for You

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:35:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

One of the problems with having a huge music library is deciding on what songs to listen to. Yes I know, that sounds strange but just hear me out. Let's say you play one song that puts you in a certain mood and you wanna keep the groove goin', but it can be pain sorting through hundreds or thousands just to find one that matches the set mood. And we all know there are times where you don't wanna ruin that mood ;-)

Winamp easily solves this problem. Just right click on the song you're playing and choose "play tracks similar to..." Based upon your settings, Winamp will generate a playlist of related songs. That's it! Simple right? There are several options to choose from such as if you want to include the same artist and album you began the playlist with, as well as how long you'd like the play list to be.

Solving the Winamp Playlist Generator Problem

Every now and then, usually when I upgrade to a new version of Winamp, it's unable to generate the playlist. Here's a fix for it:

Make sure Winamp is closed
Enable the viewing of hidden folders on your computer
Navigate to: %AppData%\Winamp\Plugins\Gracenote or %ProgramFiles%\Winamp\Plugins\Gracenote

You should be able to get to these directories from from My Computer\Users\

Delete the file named: cddbplm.pdb
Delete the file named: cddbplm.idx
Open Winamp, right-click, go to options and select preferences
On the left side, under Plug-ins, select media library and then click on Playlist Generator in the right side of the window
Click on scan (or reset database and then click scan)

Thank you to Juanus in the Winamp Forums for the fix.

Firefox Tabs Won't Close: Solved

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 01:16:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I have been having this problem for the longest ever since the new version of Mozilla's Firefox browser was released. It's random, but sometimes my tabs will just straight up not close when I try to use the "x" button or the Window's keyboard shortcut to close a tab, Ctrl + w. Sometimes I was unable to close any tabs at all! This has been going on for months and I'm not the only one who has been having this problem. Mozilla's answer has been to uninstall each of your add-ons one by one until you figure out which one is causing the problem...no who wants to do that?

After searching through the forum I finally came across someone who posted a possible solution that thankfully worked for me. It seems that the add-on Invisible Hand was doing some invisible magic that prevented me from closing my tabs.

Hopefully this helps out many of you out there who've been having the same problem.

In the process, I also switched back to the Pale Moon browser. In a nutshell, it's the same as Firefox except it runs 25% faster. It even ports over your bookmarks, add-ons, etc. from Firefox upon installation.

Temple Tips: Is Your Droid No Longer Playing Music?

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 02:00:00 +0000

Image by nino63004 via Flickr

Is your Droid or Droid 2 suddenly no longer playing your music, mp3s, songs, or ringtones? If you're trying to play one of the aforementioned items and you've suddenly started receiving the error that says "Sorry, the player does not support this type of audio file," then this is the fix for you.

To correct this problem turn off your phone, pull out the battery and turn your phone back on.

Everything should now be a-okay!

Best Buy Gets Rid of Restocking Fees

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 14:51:00 +0000

(via MediaMemo)

If you ever bought an electronic item from Best Buy and then took it back because it wasn't what you'd thought it'd be, then you know all about the company's 15% bogus restocking fee. Last Christmas I bought my Dad a supposedly HD camera, but the quality was garbage. I took it back and they told me that I'd have to pay $60 just for them to restock it (all I could think of was "get outta my face with that). Thankfully this fee is now being phased out for the most part and applies to the following items:

computers
tablets
projectors
camcorders
digital cameras
radar detectors
GPS units
in-car video systems & audio equipment
iPhones

If you returned an item after November 17th and were charged a restocking fee, Best Buy will offer you a refund. This will come handy for those of you who have to return those unwanted holiday gifts.

Smart move Best Buy. Smart move.

Watch Your Favorite Bowl Games on Xbox Live

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:38:00 +0000

If you have an Xbox 360, no cable but would still like to watch the major bowl games, then you're in luck! Just head over to your dashboard and you'll be able to watch the games live on the ESPN section of LIVE.

It's nice to see Microsoft making this an interactive event. Before the games head over to the ESPN section on your console and you can make your picks for each of the bowl games. Scores are kept so that you can see how you're stacking up against your friends. While making your selections you can see which and how many of your friends picked which team as the winner for each game. Doing so will also enter you into the sweepstakes to provide you with the opportunity to attend the ESPYs or take a trip to ESPN studios.

You get a free ESPN avatar jersey as well as an ESPN avatar hat just for entering, so you really don't lose anything. Check our Xbox.com for more details.

Apps 2 SD: Gain More Space on Your Android Phone (Rooted Only)

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:30:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

This article is strictly for those of you with rooted phones. If you aren't rooted but want to get a little more out of your device that may happen to be a little less powerful than those released this summer, feel free to take a look at what a rooted device can do. The XDA community has lots of instructions and help on how to go about the process for your specific phone. If you're not interested in rooting, please feel free to check out any of the previously written articles.

The best part about owning a smartphone is the ability to download and play with literally thousands of apps. However, a problem arises when your device runs out of space. This is especially problematic for those of us with older devices who don't have gigabytes of internal memory to spare such as the Droid X (8GB of internal memory!). I've been having this problem over the past few weeks, frequently getting the low disc space warning which haults any incoming text messages, voicemails and the downloading or updating of all apps.

I finally decided to do something about it and take advantage of the ability to completely install all of my apps to the SD card. This is different than the feature built in Froyo, which doesn't completely do this. To give you an idea of how great the Apps2SD feature is: before going through with the process I only had 22.31 MBs of available space. After installing App2SD, I now have 92.86 MBs of available internal storage space left. Got your attention now 'ey? :-)

Below is a guide I put together due to all of the scattered information available out there. It took me forever to figure out how to do it the right way and hopefully this makes it much easier for anyone else going through the process. I used tkirton's post to install Darktremor Apps2SD and danfrance's guide from Android Forums.

This guide is for those of your using a ROM from Cyanogenmod.

If possible, move all of your apps to the internal memory
Make a backup copy of everything on your SD card and place it onto your computer
Go to ROM manager and select "Backup Current ROM"
Go to ROM manager and select "Partition SD Card"
Select the size to be 512MB and the Swap = 0
Download Darktremor's Apps2SD and place it on the root of your SD card
Take the backup of everything from your SD card before the partition and place it back on to the card
Reboot into recovery and flash Download Darktremor's Apps2SD

From what I've read, this should be all that you have to do. Check the links I posted if you're still having trouble. If your internal memory is still low then you'll probably have to use move your Dalvik cache to your partition as well. Instructions for that can be found here.

The only problem I'm having is getting my text messaging to work. I have no idea what I did and it's frustrating lol. I made a backup though so if I still can't get it to work I'll just put that back on. If anyone knows how to fix this problem, please let me know :-(

Texting Gone Wrong...Damn You Auto Correct!

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 03:44:00 +0000

When it comes to smartphones, there are two types of people. The first type are those who absolutely refuse to have a device without a keyboard. They've always had one, they stick by it, live by it and won't ever go without. Then there are those who have gone to the other side. Those who have tried going without the physical keyboard have realized that an all touch screen device isn't bad at all!

The best part about touchscreen devices are sometimes they can lead to funny typing moments.

(via. DYAC)

I LOVE this website! It has all kind of crazy text message errors like the one above. DamnYouAutoCorrect.com even has an app for iPhone and Android. Be warned though, you will be laughing out loud when you read these. Shout out to my sister for point me to this site!

Xbox Live Reward Points

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 02:35:00 +0000

Microsoft is beginning to roll out it's Xbox Live Rewards program. I read about this on Tuesday and today I received an e-mail. Or as they put it, an "Exclusive Invitation to Xbox Live Rewards." I don't know how exclusive this program really is, but at least it made me feel special when I first viewed my inbox. According the Microsoft, this program will enable to you to "begin earning Microsoft Points for renewing your Xbox LIVE Gold memberships, spending on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, watching movies, and giving us your feedback." Have any of you other Xbox Live members received this e-mail? I really am genuinely curious about how exclusive this program is for the time being.

Starbucks. Coffee. Free. Enough Said.

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:21:00 +0000

It's nearly 8:15 in the morning and you're probably just getting up, are en-route to work or already at work, and chances are that you're gonna need that afternoon pick me up when 2:00 rolls around. Well for all of you Starbucks fanatics today is your lucky day! Are you a fan of Peppermint Mocha, Gingerbread Latte, Eggnog Latte? And do you know of a friend who also needs that morning coffee jump start? Then bring them with you! Starting today from 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM through Sunday Starbucks is having a buy 1 holiday drink, get 1 free deal. Bring a friend with and share the love.

[Lifehacker via Starbucks]

Google Voice App Finally on iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (The Tech Temple) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:52:00 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Congratulations iPhone users, you finally have a Google Voice app! Sure you've been able to go to Google's mobile voice site for a while now but having a dedicated app is always better isn't it? If you've never tried or even heard of Google Voice, do yourself a favor and give it a try. You get a free phone number that will ring all of your phones at once and various other features such as:

voicemails that are automatically transcribed to text
cheap international calls
free text messages
separate voicemail greetings for each group of people you make
and many more highlights shown in the video below...

The Tech Temple

The Tech Temple Has Moved!

Related articles

The HTC Evo Has Gone 3D...Don't Purchase That Evo 4G Just Yet!

Related articles

Droid Does...Dancing?

Related articles

Sprint + Google Voice = Goodness

Who Really Has the Fastest 4G Network?

Related articles

HTC SuperHero with Cyanogenmod Slowing Down :-(

Correct Problems with Inaccurate Android Picture Gallery Thumbnails

Related articles

Visual Android Activation Timelapse, from Droid to Galaxy S Launch

Verizon Getting Rid of Mail in Rebates Through Valentine's Day

Related articles

Let the Verizon iPhone Commercials Commence!

Related articles

Say It Ain't So Sprint...Say It Ain't So!

Another Bad Sprint Commercial feat. the Evo Shift 4G

Related articles

The Playstation Phone is Real

A Phone, A Computer and A Tablet, All in One Device

Make A YouTube Link Begin Where You Want It

Related articles

Winamp Automatically Plays Similar Songs for You

Firefox Tabs Won't Close: Solved

Temple Tips: Is Your Droid No Longer Playing Music?

Related articles

Best Buy Gets Rid of Restocking Fees

Related articles

Watch Your Favorite Bowl Games on Xbox Live

Related articles

Apps 2 SD: Gain More Space on Your Android Phone (Rooted Only)

Texting Gone Wrong...Damn You Auto Correct!

Related articles

Xbox Live Reward Points

Related articles

Starbucks. Coffee. Free. Enough Said.

Google Voice App Finally on iPhone

Related articles