Still Alive

Been busy lately, but we'll be back at it soon. Stay tuned for updates!

My grandpa is a blogger and doesn't even know it

When I talk about social media I often mention the fact that my grandpa has a blog. Well, actually two blogs: one for his local mycological society and the other for his local pensioner organisation. It all started when his mycological society wanted a website where they could post news and announcements. I told him I would set up a website where he could post his own news. And that was it. I also created a short manual with a few annotated screenshots of the Blogger interface, so that it would be easier for him to start. And now he rarely needs my help with his two blogs; he writes and tags his posts, adds pictures from various events, and even gets an occasional comment from his peers.

Why am I writing about this? I think this is a good example of how sometimes there is no need for getting too involved with the specifics of a technology we want to adopt (or convince others to adopt). My grandpa doesn't need to know what social media or blogging is and he doesn't even need to understand how hyperlinks work because he mainly writes about real life events nobody else is blogging about. He had a need and I helped him to find the right tool for the job and provided what he needed to start. And that's where we should all start when thinking about new technologies: with the need they can help us fulfill. The tools are usually not the problem anymore. So don't be tempted to make web 2.0 (or any other shiny new technology) about buzzwords or about technical specifications. Web 2.0 is a web that enables people to share experiences easily and more effectively, and Web 2.0 is for me a web where my grandpa is a blogger.

What is happening with Digital Forensics UK

What is happening with Digital Forensics UK.For those of you that did not know, which is probably most of the digital forensics community in the UK, as I didn't know, until today 26th February 2009, the Forensic Science Regulator is having a conference in Birmingham on the 31st March 2009 to be held at the International Convention Centre (ICC), Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2EA. The aim of the

Four New Motorola Phones Spotted

Four upcoming Motorola phones have leaked today in the WWW. Apparently, Moto doesn't intend to give up despite all the financial problems it faces today. Here are the leaked phones by order:Motorola QA1: a quad-band GSM and a dual-band 3G slider for AT&T. It also comes with a full QWERTY keyboard and an integrated Facebook application.Motorola QA4: a sleek EV-DO slider with a 2.8" touchscreen and

New Firmware Update for HTC Touch Pro

HTC has recently released a minor software update for its Touch Pro smartphone. Changelog includes fixes for glitchy auto-focus and preview screen, TouchFLO 3D crashes, and the issue when "the display of TouchFLO 3D sometimes may appear cracked". Be warned though, that by installing the patch you may erase your provider's customizations, so read the installation instructions very carefully.

AT&T going to release Pantech Matrix PRO

Alright, today is the day the new Pantech Matrix PRO smartphone hit the shelves. Look it up in AT&T's retail stores, and be prepared to shell out $179.99 after a 2-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.

Samsung SPH-W7100 for children

The new Samsung SPH-W7100 is apparently meant for women and children. It is equipped with a 100dB siren and a SOS function that alerts local authorities to your position via GPS. Should you stop being afraid of terrorists with such a gadged? Hell NO! But these are cool functions anyway.No word on the release in the States, look it up in Korea.

Running Android At VGA Resolution

SIM Technology has presented a custom version of its U1 handset at the MWC. What's so special about it? Well, it was running a fully functional Android OS on a VGA screen. This alone will make a lot of consumers interested in the said device. As for the features, the phone comes with: * Android OS; * Quad-band EDGE support; * Tri-band HSDPA support; * 2.8" VGA display; * 3Mpix

Video of LG KM900 Arena

Here's a video demonstrating the LG's new flagship touchscreen handset, the KM900 Arena, which is set to be released next month. Watch it below the following set of specs. * 3G support; * 3" WVGA (480x800 pixel) TFT display; * 5Mpix camera; * 8GB of memory; * microSD slot; * DVD quality video recording; * Wi-Fi connectivity; * Integrated GPS support; * FM transmitter;

Android Layout Tricks #2: Reusing layouts

Android comes with a wide variety of widgets, small visual construction blocks you can glue together to present the users with complex and useful interfaces. However applications often need higher level visual components. A component can be seen as a complex widget made of several simple stock widgets. You could for instance reuse a panel containing a progress bar and a cancel button, a panel containing two buttons (positive and negative actions), a panel with an icon, a title and a description, etc. Creating new components can be done easily by writing a custom View but it can be done even more easily using only XML.

In Android XML layout files, each tag is mapped to an actual class instance (the class is always a subclass of View.) The UI toolkit lets you also use three special tags that are not mapped to a View instance: <requestFocus />, <merge /> and <include />. The latter, <include />, can be used to create pure XML visual components. (Note: I will present the <merge /> tag in the next installment of Android Layout Tricks.)

The <include /> does exactly what its name suggests; it includes another XML layout. Using this tag is straightforward as shown in the following example, taken straight from the source code of the Home application that currently ships with Android:

<com.android.launcher.Workspace
    android:id="@+id/workspace"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"

    launcher:defaultScreen="1">

    <include android:id="@+id/cell1" layout="@layout/workspace_screen" />
    <include android:id="@+id/cell2" layout="@layout/workspace_screen" />
    <include android:id="@+id/cell3" layout="@layout/workspace_screen" />

</com.android.launcher.Workspace>

In the <include /> only the layout attribute is required. This attribute, without the android namespace prefix, is a reference to the layout file you wish to include. In this example, the same layout is included three times in a row. This tag also lets you override a few attributes of the included layout. The above example shows that you can use android:id to specify the id of the root view of the included layout; it will also override the id of the included layout if one is defined. Similarly, you can override all the layout parameters. This means that any android:layout_* attribute can be used with the <include /> tag. Here is an example:

<include android:layout_width="fill_parent" layout="@layout/image_holder" />
<include android:layout_width="256dip" layout="@layout/image_holder" />

This tag is particularly useful when you need to customize only part of your UI depending on the device's configuration. For instance, the main layout of your activity can be placed in the layout/ directory and can include another layout which exists in two flavors, in layout-land/ and layout-port/. This allows you to share most of the UI in portrait and landscape.

Like I mentioned earlier, my next post will explain the <merge />, which can be particularly powerful when combined with <include />.

Street Fighter II on Mobile?

Checkout CapcomMobile.com where you can download classic Street Fighter II game for various mobile handsets. Looks like it is handled by a company called Movaya. I just can't imagine how to execute a dragon punch over numeric pads.

Smartphone Mobile Experience Progresses Nicely

A little over a year ago, when I was shopping for a laptop, I really wanted a laptop that was 4lbs or less (in the ultra-portable category) with high performance. I thought this would give me the freedom to experience mobile computing on the fly. At the time I was looking at the Sony VAIO S series as well as Dell's XPS M1330 both will cost me roughly $1800-2000 with a reasonable spec. I ended up with a 15.4" MacBook Pro because of its sheer power and graphics capability. In the back of my mind, I always thought I'd pickup an ultra portable later on.
Throughout the past year, some interesting things happened. MacBook Air, Netbooks like the Eee PC and extreme ultra portables have arrived the scene. While small, their cost and low CPU performance never made me think twice about them. Yesterday, I saw an amazing offer from Dell XPS M1330 with reasonable features for as low as $800, I still did not find myself intrigued at any of the options mentioned above. Why is that?

For one, the smartphones have really stepped up over the past year. iPhone in its current firmware version has drastically improved since its first days (albeit still lacking copy & paste function). Google G1 has arrived offering a new flavor in open source mobile experience. BlackBerry(s) have been refined including its all new touchscreen interface. Even the boring old Windows 6.1 is now sexier thanks to HTC's overlay.

But what does this mean? It means that smartphones have finally leveraged light and robust applications to carry a very focused functions which gets our job done whenever we want to: ie. check your emails or chat online via IM, look up weather conditions for local or traveling destination, get a stock quote, grab a movie review to help you decide what to rent/buy, look up side effects of a medication, check flight status, and so much more can be retrieved on your little smartphone from anyone at anytime.

I didn't bring my personal laptop on my last trip visiting friends and family to the West Coast. My iPhone managed to get me through the entire trip for all the basic computing needs. I was even playing a FaceBook game called Mob Wars over Safari in the non-mobile friendly site. To be fair, I did bring my work laptop along simply because I was in the middle of a project integration and VPN is required to access some information. Perhaps that will be the next step for smartphones. As for me, the chances of me picking up an ultraportable laptop in the near future is slim so long as my MacBook Pro is still going strong.

Hello World C program using Android Toolchain

I had reported earlier how I had gotten a C Hello World statically-linked program running on my Android phone using CodeSourcery's toolchain (on linux). Today I got a dynamically-linked Hello World program running on the phone, compiled using Android's prebuilt toolchain from the source.

It's well known that Android uses a stripped down version of libc, called bionic. When you compile your program with static linking, you don't use bionic because well, you linked statically. This is non-ideal. You want to use the bionic library on the phone, and besides you want to compile using Android's prebuilt cross-compiler arm-eabi-gcc

If you are anxious to get things working, use agcc, a perl wrapper over arm-eabi-gcc that sets up everything for you so that you can just:
$ agcc hello.c -o hello
and the resulting binary (hello) just works. Of course you should have the directory containing arm-eabi-gcc in your PATH for agcc to work.

Let's explore a bit deeper. But let me first simplify my hello program to contain just a main
$ cat hello.c int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
return 0;
}

The minimal set of flags to pass to arm-eabi-gcc to get this working is:
$ arm-eabi-gcc -o hello hello.c -Wl,-rpath-link=/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib -L/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib -nostdlib /Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib/crtbegin_dynamic.o -lc

Here /Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake is the root of my Android source.

$ file hello
hello: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

Note that the executable binary is dynamically linked.

If you leave out -Wl,-rpath-link=/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib you get
/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/prebuilt/darwin-x86/toolchain/arm-eabi-4.2.1/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-eabi/4.2.1/../../../../arm-eabi/bin/ld: warning: libdl.so, needed by /Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib/libc.so, not found (try using -rpath or -rpath-link) /Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib/libc.so: undefined reference to `dl_unwind_find_exidx' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

If you leave out -L/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib you get
/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/prebuilt/darwin-x86/toolchain/arm-eabi-4.2.1/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-eabi/4.2.1/../../../../arm-eabi/bin/ld: cannot find -lc collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

If you leave out -nostdlib you get
/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/prebuilt/darwin-x86/toolchain/arm-eabi-4.2.1/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-eabi/4.2.1/../../../../arm-eabi/bin/ld: crt0.o: No such file: No such file or directory collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

If you leave out /Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib/crtbegin_dynamic.o you get
/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/prebuilt/darwin-x86/toolchain/arm-eabi-4.2.1/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-eabi/4.2.1/../../../../arm-eabi/bin/ld: crt0.o: No such file: No such file or directory collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

And finally, f you leave out -lc your compilation fails with:
/Users/nirnimesh/NIR/android/mydroid/cupcake/out/target/product/generic/obj/lib/crtbegin_dynamic.o: In function `_start': bionic/libc/arch-arm/bionic/crtbegin_dynamic.S:(.text+0x10): undefined reference to `__libc_init' collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

So far we've been able to compile C programs using Androids toolchain and run on the phone.
To summarize, it's the most convenient to use agcc as the compiler so you don't have to bother.

Rumor: Motorola 5Mp coming soon ?

Unofficial images of the rumored 5-megapixel-camera phone by Motorola have been captured on the Internet. The gadget was said to be Motorola’s first of a kind in the sense that it is the first touchscreen phone ever produced in the history of Motorola.A Xenon flash backs up the phone’s 5MP camera while a TV-Out facilitates easy sharing of images. The phone is rumored to be Android-powered.

Fennia Prize 2009 mentions Nokia BH-804 with honor

An honorary mention was given to the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-804 during the Fennia Prize 2009 for winning in the “The Fennia Prize – Good design grows global” category last February 19 in Helsinki, Finland. The recognition aims to acknowledge and acclaim the companies for their exemplary use and application of design.Meanwhile, the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-804 is the smallest Nokia headset

Running Android At VGA Resolution

SIM Technology had a rather interesting version of its Windows Mobile-based U1 at MWC. What made the device special is that it was running a fully functional Anroid OS on a VGA screen, which is a step forward in the right direction. Of course, the phone will also offer quad-band EDGE, tri-band HSDPA, 3 megapixel camera, AGPS, Wi-Fi, TV-out, microSD card expansion, and 2.8-inch VGA display. It

Sprint Palm Treo Pro Coming Soon?

The anticipated Palm Treo Pro from Sprint has been spotted on Best Buy Mobile’s March circular. The phone is listed as the “Sprint Palm Pro” (sounds like Pre, doesn't it?), and will be going for $249 with a contract, or for $699 off-contract.

Android Layout Tricks #1

The Android UI toolkit offers several layout managers that are rather easy to use and, most of the time, you only need the basic features of these layout managers to implement a user interface. Sticking to the basic features is unfortunately not the most efficient way to create user interfaces. A common example is the abuse of LinearLayout, which leads to a proliferation of views in the view hierarchy. Every view, or worse every layout manager, you add to your application comes at a cost: initialization, layout and drawing become slower. The layout pass can be especially expensive when you nest several LinearLayout that use the weight parameter, which requires the child to be measured twice.

Let's consider a very simple and common example of a layout: a list item with an icon on the left, a title at the top and an optional description underneath the title. Here is what such an item looks like:

To clearly understand how the views, one ImageView and two TexView, are positioned with respect to each other, here is the wireframe of the layout as captured by HierarchyViewer:

Implementing this layout is straightforward with LinearLayout. The item itself is a horizontal LinearLayout with an ImageView and a vertical LinearLayout, which contains the two TextViews. The source code of this layout is the following:

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
    
    android:padding="6dip">
    
    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/icon"
        
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        android:layout_marginRight="6dip"
        
        android:src="@drawable/icon" />

    <LinearLayout
        android:orientation="vertical"
    
        android:layout_width="0dip"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent">

        <TextView
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1"
                    
            android:gravity="center_vertical"
            android:text="My Application" />
            
        <TextView  
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_height="0dip"
            android:layout_weight="1" 
            
            android:singleLine="true"
            android:ellipsize="marquee"
            android:text="Simple application that shows how to use RelativeLayout" />
            
    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

This layout works but can be wasteful if you instantiate it for every list item of a ListView. The same layout can be rewritten using a single RelativeLayout, thus saving one view, and even better one level in view hierarchy, per list item. The implementation of the layout with a RelativeLayout remains simple:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
    
    android:padding="6dip">
    
    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/icon"
        
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="fill_parent"
        
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_marginRight="6dip"
        
        android:src="@drawable/icon" />

    <TextView  
        android:id="@+id/secondLine"

        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="26dip" 
        
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/icon"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        
        android:singleLine="true"
        android:ellipsize="marquee"
        android:text="Simple application that shows how to use RelativeLayout" />

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/icon"
        android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true"
        android:layout_above="@id/secondLine"
        android:layout_alignWithParentIfMissing="true"
                
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:text="My Application" />

</RelativeLayout>

This new implementation behaves exactly the same way as the previous implementation, except in one case. The list item we want to display has two lines of text: the title and an optional description. When a description is not available for a given list item, the application would simply set the visibility of the second TextView to GONE. This works perfectly with the LinearLayout implementation but not with the RelativeLayout version:

In a RelativeLayout, views are aligned either with their parent, the RelativeLayout itself, or other views. For instance, we declared that the description is aligned with the bottom of the RelativeLayout and that the title is positioned above the description and anchored to the parent's top. With the description GONE, RelativeLayout doesn't know where to position the title's bottom edge. To solve this problem, you can use a very special layout parameter called alignWithParentIfMissing.

This boolean parameter simply tells RelativeLayout to use its own edges as anchors when a constraint target is missing. For instance, if you position a view to the right of a GONE view and set alignWithParentIfMissing to true, RelativeLayout will instead anchor the view to its left edge. In our case, using alignWithParentIfMissing will cause RelativeLayout to align the title's bottom with its own bottom. The result is the following:

The behavior of our layout is now perfect, even when the description is GONE. Even better, the hierarchy is simpler and because we are not using LinearLayout's weights it's also more efficient. The difference between the two implementations becomes obvious when comparing the view hierarchies in HierarchyViewer:

Again, the difference will be much more important when you use such a layout for every item in a ListView for instance. Hopefully this simple example showed you that getting to know your layouts is the best way to learn how to optimize your UI.

Another Mobile Experience Story on Fitness - Boxing Timer

A co-worker of mine, Gustavo, has an active lifestyle (exercise, rock climbing, kickboxing). He goes to the gym regularly and loves training on kick boxing to get his cardio in top shape. Not much of a gadget guy himself, he recently said he jumped on the hype and purchased an iPhone as his old mobile phone was on its way out. I still remember the first day he showed me his new phone, he was very excited but didn't know too much about it.

A week later, we got to talking again and this time around, he knows more about different applications than I do. When asked, he proudly showed me one of his favorite applications BOXING TIMER made by Chris Gummer. Its basiclly a round clock that can be used as a background application and uses sound to alert you a desired time interval for exercise duration. The application costs merely $0.99 which according to Gustavo, rivals lots of cheaply made portable timers he's owned which can cost from $10 to $15. To get a more reliable timer otherwise, it can become more expensive as well as bulky in size.

This story signifies the further evolution of the mobile experience. My friend, who is not an avid gadgeteer, has within a very short time mastered an easy to use smartphone. Not only is the phone keeping him well connected (email, SMS, voice) it also helps him improve his workout routine.

In case you've been wondering...

Yes, it certainly has been a while since I last posted on this blog. I can easily think of several reasons for this: finding micro blogging easier for sharing quick ideas and cool content, having the feeling that what I have to say has already been written more eloquently somewhere else, not finishing drafts, spending more time writing a newsletter for my company, dealing with health problems, struggling with finding the right direction and voice for this blog... and probably much more. But that's not really what I want to talk about today.

I started this blog as a personal exploration of this new medium and perhaps it's best to keep it this way. It's just one of the many channels I use to communicate with the world and right now I have no desire to have this blog as my main channel. That's why I'm not writing this post to promise to blog more regularly or to keep this blog in a certain direction. And neither am I giving up on this blog completely. I might post again tomorrow, next month or even next year; the thing is that I just don't want to worry about that anymore. I never considered myself a blogger anyway; right now I'm just somebody who enjoys writing blog posts once in a while, and I think I do a better job at sharing interesting content through my Google Reader shared items or on my recently revived tumblelog.

So, I guess I just wanted to make an announcement that this blog isn't quite dead yet, but at the same time admit that I really have no idea of what you can expect here. All I can do is to invite you to keep watching this space and watch its journey with me. Who knows, we might find something interesting along the way :)

Real Time Stock Quotes from Mobile CNBC

Need to check on the stock prices on the go? Want to get real time quotes (not 15-min delayed)? Now you can get NYSE and NASDAQ stock prices on CNBC Mobile Site (http://mobile.cnbc.com). While I've been waiting for the big discount firms to release applications allowing me to stream real time stock prices as well as carry out some basic transactions on the fly, this is the closest to real time quote for a mobile site as I can find. Prior to this, I had to use iPhone Safari to log in to a brokerage account in full version. Glad to see folks at CNBC stepping up.

More Nokia 6720 Live Photo

Several live shots of the new Nokia 6720 have surfaced today and should provide further insight on this handset. Check them out below.Features:Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz);Tri-band UMTS;5Mpix camera;Noise reduction technology;aGPS navigation;20-day standby timeFor more photos hit the source link.

Iris Browser v1.1.0 Released

Here's a nice alternative for the usual Internet Explorer, Mozilla Fennec and Opera Mobile - the WebKit-based Iris Browser 1.1.0. It runs on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, and renders websites the same as if viewed on the PC.All willing to try it out head over here.

Cheap Refurbished iPhone 3G from AT&T

Once again AT&T is offering the refurbished iPhone 3G at a significantly lower price. The device runs the latest firmware version, and is available now for $99 and $199 on a 2-year contract for 8GB and 16GB models, respectively.

Vertu Constellation

If you're a fan of Vertu, then this will probably interest you. Check out the new Vertu Constellation, a €6,800 ($8,574) worth limitted edition luxury cell phone. Only 2,500 units of it will be made, so think fast.

Sony Ericsson Idou 12.1 Mp camera phone

Sony ericsson is becoming camera phone kings!! after nokia launched 5Mp camera phone, SE launched 8.1Mp C905 phone. now there newest production is 12.1Mp one. so it's becoming world's highest megapixel camera phone!.
Sony ericsson announced about this phone in last week. it will be available on middle of 2009. mostly it will be launched before launching Nokia N97.
now let's look at about features of this phone. Sony Ericsson Idou is a 3G mobile phone. it has 3.5 inch large touchscreen which supports 360 x 640 pixels resolution.
the camera has many features, it has new feature named touch focusing which allows easily to focus the camera. the camera supports high quality 30fps video recording and it has xenon flash. the maximum picture resolution is 4256 x 2832 pixels. also Sony Ericsson Idou runs with Symbian OS and it has embedded google maps application.
Idou has full featured GPS receiver and it supports A-GPS feature. also unlike other phones, Idou's screen easily fit with 16:9 size.

All features

Widescreen 3.5-inch 16:9 touch screen taps directly into videos and music through the media menu

Integrated 12.1-megapixel camera with intuitive touch focus and Xenon flash takes huge prints that can be cropped, rotated and edited

PlayNow service brings unlimited entertainment and applications

Transfer data at high-speeds with Turbo 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity

cp on Android

The Android Dev Phone (and G1, by extension) does not have the cp command in the adb shell prompt. Since you can compile and run C code on the phone, you could in theory also compile the cp program but that's probably a stretch. Alternatively, you can:
cat source_file > dest_file

This works because the phone has a full-featured shell which supports stream redirection.

Griffin Launches SmartShare Slim USB Hub

Griffin Technologies launched a slim USB hub solution called SmartShare USB today. Coined as the "Ultra-slim 2-Port USB Hub", its basically an USB Y-cable for you to expand your accessories needs on the go. Unlike traditional hubs, this handy cable can easily slip into a small pocket or pouch compartment. Other benefit includes having the extra play room since each cable offers a couple inches of elbow space where you can move bulky USB accessories around to accomodate. Perfect for neat freaks! MSRP $19.99.

Screenshots on Android

If you want to report something about your phone over email, a screenshot goes a long way.

To take a screenshot you need to download the Android SDK for your machine. It includes a tool called ddms which is the dalvic debug monitor. Dalvic is the Java runtime powering all the apps on your android phone.

Connect the phone to your machine, run ddms from the terminal and go to Device > Screen Capture (or Ctrl-S) for taking a screenshot.

Android Market update: priced applications for US users

Last Friday, we enabled developers to upload priced apps and saw a flurry of activity in the days that followed. Today, it is my pleasure to let you know that we have begun the phased rollout of priced applications to T-Mobile G1 users in the US. Once the service is enabled on their devices, T-Mobile G1 users will be able to see the priced apps immediately without the need to reboot. For more details on this update to Android Market, please see last week's blogpost.

8208, a new CDMA cellular phone coming from Nokia

The last handheld officially presented by Nokia at the Mobile World Congress 2009 is the 8208 CDMA cellular phone, a device that first appeared a couple of weeks ago, sometime in January.The bad thing about the Nokia 8208 is the fact that it’s targeted to CDMA markets outside the United States. Why is that? We don’t know. But I suppose that the Finnish company has a very powerful reason for such

KT770, a Symbian S60-based LG slider cell phone

Following the example of other major companies, LG decided to take advantage of their presence at the 2009 edition of the Mobile World Congress and to officially present their latest smartphones, such as LG KT770, LG Arena KM900 and LG GM730.The novelty consists of the fact that the KT770 is equipped with the Symbian S60 3rd edition, compared to the other two smartphones I mentioned above which

Magic, Vodafone’s first Android-powered HTC cell phone

The 2009 edition of the Mobile World Congress proved itself to be exactly how many of us expected it: a chain of nice surprises coming from all major cell phones manufacturers from all around the world. And HTC Corporation doesn’t make an exception whatsoever.After we got the chance to see a couple of leaked images of the HTC Magic, branded with another famous name, Vodafone, it seems that the

Hello World in C on Android

If you've been following the Android world, you'd know that Android's SDK requires you to write apps in Java. Ever since I got my phone I've been dying to run a Hello World C program, but I've been unable to get the right cross compiler for it.

Today I finally managed to do it using CodeSourcery's cross compiler on linux. A cross compiler is something which allows you to compile on one architecture (the host) and run the executable binary on another (the target). In this case, the host is the linux machine where we'll install the toolchain (linux intel x86) and android phone is the host (arm).

1. Download CodeSourcery's toolchain installer for GNU/Linux target for IA32 host
2. Install it: sh arm-2008q3-72-arm-none-linux-gnueabi.bin
3. The toolchain provides the cross compiler arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc. You need to put it's directory in your $PATH. Once you have the toolchain, you can easily compile your hello world program: arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc -o hello -static hello.c
4. Copy the binary to your phone and run it from an adb shell prompt: ./hello

Voila!

Points to note:

• The above binary is static, that is it does not use the phone's libc libraries. Android ships with its own trimmed down version of libc, called bionic. Next I'll be trying to compile and run using bionic libc, so that I don't have to compile statically
• The above steps do not use the toolchain in the android source code. I'll try later to cross compile using that.
  

Nokia 8208 Almost Here

Today Nokia announced a new Nokia 8208 phone for its CDMA markets outside the US. The Nokia 8208 features a smooth, dual-slide form factor, and packs a dose of entertainment with its MP3 music player and 3 megapixel camera. It provides easy access to tunes through the phone’s dedicated music buttons, where music can be played for up to 20 continuous hours.For easy music storage, a 16GB external

LG Showcase its Eco-Friendly Solar-powered Phone

LG Electronics, a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, today unveiled its eco-friendly mobile phone equipped with a solar panel battery cover at the Mobile World Congress 2009.The phone’s solar power system is embedded onto the battery cover, to conveniently harness the sun’s limitless and pollution-free energy. By simply pointing the phone’s solar panel at natural

N86, the 8 megapixel Nokia slider phone

It seems that Nokia wanted to prolong as much as possible the agony of those who were waiting for the first ever 8 megapixel Finnish cell phone. If the first day of the Mobile World Congress came as a disappointment as far as the highly anticipated release is concerned, the second has finally brought the official announcement.The full name of the first 8 megapixel handheld is Nokia N86 8MP and it

Pantech Matrix Pro for AT&T

AT&T and Pantech Wireless today introduced the Pantech Matrix Pro, available exclusively from AT&T on Feb. 24. The new Matrix Pro features dual-sliding, double-keyboard and includes a larger LCD screen, a chat-style view of text messages, tri-band 3G, more memory, a faster processor and AT&T Video Share calling. It is running Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard edition.Customers in 3G coverage can also

HTC TouchFLO 3D Available in Landscape Mode Soon on Video

If you are using the HTC Touch device, you know you can’t get the TouchFLO 3D rotate to landscape mode like this guy. duttythroy from xda-developer has promised to release a new HTC Touch HD customized ROM, which has included a new TouchFLO 3D version with landscape enabled.Other than the new landscape mode, the new version will have a new calendar tab, phone dialer, QWERTY soft keyboard,

Nokia 5630 XpressMusic Visits FCC

The European variant of the recently announced Nokia 5630 XpressMusic smartphone has passed through the FCC today. Unfortunately, pricing and availability details weren't givenFeatures: * Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz); * Dual-band 3G (900/2100MHz) support; * Wi-Fi; * 3.2Mpix camera; * microSD card slot; * Dedicated music playback keys; * 3.5mm audio port

Yahoo Launched Mobile Application

Yahoo! came up today with the latest version of its Yahoo! Mobile client. Now the app is supported by the followin branded handsets: Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and other Windows Mobile devices.The software will be released in Q2 of 2009, but for those interested a beta version is currently available for download. Features of it include: * Integrated Opera Mini 4.2 * Search

Samsung Blue Earth Charged with Solar Power

Unveiled at Mobile World Congress, Samsung is planning to integrate the solar panel on its mobile phone with the introduction of its “Blue Earth” eco-friendly phone. The full touch screen phone has a solar panel at its back, users can generate enough electronic power to call anytime anywhere.Blue Earth is made from recycled plastic called PCM, which is extracted from water bottles, helping to

LG Arena KM900 Uses SanDisk 8GB iNAND Embedded Flash Drive

SanDisk announced that LG Arena (LG-KM900) multimedia handset is using SanDisk’s iNAND 8 gigabyte (GB) Embedded Flash Drive (EFD). The iNAND storage device will be utilized by the handset as both a boot and data storage device, eliminating the need for a separate boot device.Announced at the 2009 Mobile World Congress exhibition, the LG Arena multimedia handset is the company’s flagship model for

Yahoo Announces Partnership with Opera Mini

Opera Software and Yahoo! today announced their partnership to distribute Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!’s mobile Web sites in the near future.“As the most popular mobile browser on the planet, Opera Mini will also be available to users of Yahoo! Mobile. Yahoo! Mobile with Opera Mini is easily accessible to end-users, operators and manufacturers and

How to get iPhone out of Recovery Mode?

When you try to use QuickPwn or Pwnage on your iPhone, you'll have to get your phone into the so called DFU mode. During this process, if you miscalculated the seconds (for me its always Holding Power+Home for 8 seconds then release power button), your iPhone will enter the dreaded Recovery Mode. During this time, if you go by what iTunes wants, it will ask you to restore your phone which can take a good 20 minutes before your phone is back to normal mode again (assuming if you entered DFU mode by mistake more than once, its can be an awfully long time wasted).
I finally decided to document how I got out of Recovery Mode through trial & error without full restore: (Note, this was tested on an iPhone 1st gen w/ firmware 2.2.1 on it)

1. In Recovery Mode Screen (it shows a cable and a CD looking iTunes icon), press and hold power + home for about 10 seconds, this will shut the screen down. Let go of buttons!
2. With the screen dark, press and hold power+home buttons again. This time, the Apple logo will light up for about 8 seconds then again it will be powered down. (I noticed this round of power down, it seems to be a little different with the way the screen shuts off, hard to explain). Let go of buttons!
3. Once again, press and hold power+home buttons (only this time, you'll mimic the entering DFU mode like pattern) by counting to about 8 seconds then release the power button. Keep holding down the home button until about 20 seconds then let go. During this time, the Apple logo should reappear but don't get distracted, keep up with the counting. By the time you let go all buttons 20 seconds later, the Apple logo should stay lit and it will boot into regular mode shortly after.

This method has worked for me in the said iPhone and firmware 2.2.1. As always, do this at your own risk and best of luck!

Review: V MODA Vibe II Headset with Mic

V MODA has been known for producing high quality headphones catered towards the iPhone and iPod crowd. My buddy Yasir has always sworn by their amazing sound quality of his original Vibe Duo. Personally, I have always wanted to get a pair of V Moda headphones for my iPhone, until now, I have been using a moderately good pair of Griffin's Tune Buds Mobile. When the good folks at Formula PR offered a pair of V MODA Vibe II for review, I gladly accepted.
Before we get started, I have some basic requirements for headsets: 1). Must have a built-in mic, 2). Must have good sound quality [good highs and deep bass], 3). Must have some sort of in-ear buds that blocks outside noise. You'd be surprised to find how little choices are available if you require all of the above.
The Vibe II is beautifully crafted in stainless steel alloy and comes with an Italian designed leather protective case. My review unit is black with a soft fabric cable and includes a set of sport earhooks which is optional if you need to secure your headphones for more active environment. In addition to including an inline mic, it also includes inline control to play/pause/answer call. This headset will work with other smartphones, media players as well as VOIP laptop applications (ie. BlackBerry Bold, Curve, Storm, Laptops/MacBooks) so long as they support the 24K gold plated 3.5mm plug.
Hands on with Vibe II
"Only the finest materials are used to create..." as claimed by V MODA's press kit. And finest material they are! I am amazed at the quality and craftsmanship that went into this headset. Even down to its packaging, protective case and Kevlar-infused cord fabric for added durability. When other headphones supply 3 different silicon ear buds for sizing, V MODA gives you a wider range of selection with the four sizing options.
Audio Clarity and Quality is Superb!
The sound quality on the Vibe II is sharp and clear. "Precision" is a word I would use to describe this headset, from the sounds to the fitment. The music sounds very tight and concise; I tried out a variety of songs from Classical to R&B and every note is reproduced accurately. The bass from the 8mm driver is especially great with the in-ear design which is nice and deep (hence is 12- 22Hz range). Even when I cranked up the volume (which is not recommended), the audio is still precise and clear. I placed a couple of test calls and I can hear the other party just fine as they have no problem with hearing me either. In fact, the mic is so sensitive it was picking up the HVAC vent sound to my receipient.
Overall, I am very pleased with V MODA Vibe II and I would recommend this set to any hardcore audio phile with or without an Apple product. At $128 MSRP, it is demanding, however, when compared to the super expensive Shure or Bose headphones, this is actually a great price offer excellent performance and build quality. I'd be very interested in comparing the VIBE II to Apple's In-Ear Buds in the upcoming future. (Special thanks to Jamie C. at Formula PR)

AT&T will Start Selling Pantech Matrix Pro from February 24th

AT&T and Pantech Wireless today introduced the Pantech Matrix Pro, available exclusively from AT&T on Feb. 24. The new Matrix Pro features dual-sliding, double-keyboard and includes a larger LCD screen, a chat-style view of text messages, tri-band 3G, more memory, a faster processor and AT&T Video Share calling. It is running Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard edition.Customers in 3G coverage can also

MWC2009: Digicel and ZTE Launch Coral-200 Solar Powered Phone

Digicel Group and ZTE has launched the Coral-200-Solar, which will be available in selected market in June this year. The company has been providing its customer with low-cost or free portable solar chargers, now it has decided to join the solar panel integrated mobile phone.Mr Xiong Hui, VP of ZTE’s handset division says: “As mobile phones continue to proliferate in emerging markets and are

Faster screen orientation change

Android is a mobile operating system meant to be run on a wide array of devices, with very different hardware configurations. Some devices, like the T-Mobile G1, can change their hardware configuration at runtime. For instance, when you open the keyboard, the screen change from the portrait orientation to the landscape orientation. To make Android applications development easier, the OS automatically handles configuration changes and restart the current activity with the new configuration. This is the default behavior that lets you declare resources like layouts and drawables based on the orientation, screen size, locale, etc. If you are not familiar with the way Android handles resources, I highly suggest you to read the official documentation on resources.

While this behavior is really powerful, since your application adapts automatically to the device's configuration at runtime, it is sometimes confusing for new Android developers who wonder why their activity is destroyed and recreated. Facing this "issue," some developers choose to handle configuration changes themselves which is, in my opinion, a short-term solution that will complicate their life when other devices come out or when the application becomes more complex. The automatic resource handling is a very efficient and easy way to adapt your application's user interface to various devices and devices configurations. It sometimes comes at a price though.

When your application displays a lot of data, or data that is expensive to fetch, the automatic destruction/creation of the activities can be lead to a painful user experience. Take the example of Photostream, a simple Flickr browsing application I wrote for the release of Android 1.0. After you launch the application and choose a Flickr account, the application downloads a set of 6 photos (on a T-Mobile G1) from the Flickr servers and displays them on screen. To improve the user experience, I also use slightly different layouts and drawables in portrait and landscape, and this is what the result looks like:

Photostream lets Android take care of the configuration change when the screen is rotated. However, can you imagine how painful it would be for the user to see all the images being downloaded again? The obvious solution to this problem is to temporarily cache the images. They could be cached on the SD card (if there's one), in the Application object, in a static field, etc. None of these techniques is adapted to the current situation: why should we bother caching the images when the screen is not rotated? Fortunately for us, Android offers a great API exactly for that purpose.

The Activity class has a special method called onRetainNonConfigurationInstance(). This method can be used to pass an arbitrary object your future self and Android is smart enough to call this method only when needed. In the case of Photostream, I used this method to pass the downloaded images to the future activity on orientation change. The implementation can be summarized like so:

@Override
public Object onRetainNonConfigurationInstance() {
    final LoadedPhoto[] list = new LoadedPhoto[numberOfPhotos];
    keepPhotos(list);
    return list;
}

In the new activity, in onCreate(), all you have to do to get your object back is to call getLastNonConfigurationInstance(). In Photostream, this method is invoked and if the returned value is not null, the grid is loaded with the list of photos from the previous activity:

private void loadPhotos() {
    final Object data = getLastNonConfigurationInstance();
    
    // The activity is starting for the first time, load the photos from Flickr
    if (data == null) {
        mTask = new GetPhotoListTask().execute(mCurrentPage);
    } else {
        // The activity was destroyed/created automatically, populate the grid
        // of photos with the images loaded by the previous activity
        final LoadedPhoto[] photos = (LoadedPhoto[]) data;
        for (LoadedPhoto photo : photos) {
            addPhoto(photo);
        }
    }
}

Be very careful with the object you pass through onRetainNonConfigurationChange() though. If the object you pass is for some reason tied to the Activity/Context, you will leak all the views and resources of the activity. This means you should never pass a View, a Drawable, an Adapter, etc. Photostream for instance extracts the bitmaps from the drawables and pass the bitmaps only, not the drawables. Finally, remember that onRetainNonConfigurationChange() should be used only to retain data that is expensive to load. Otherwise, keep it simple and let Android do everything.

Amazing Stantum Multitouch Interface

I haven't posted in some time but this technology is simply amazing so I had to share. Stantum has created a resistive touchscreen that allows for multi-finger touch, pressure detection, gesture recognition (rotation, pinch, multi-finger pan), and with great precision that even the screen is not precise enough to keep up with the technology. The video from Engadget speaks for itself!

http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/292/

Nokia N86 with Wide-Angle Carl Zeiss Optics Released

Today Nokia has released more info of its new Nokia NSeries multimedia computer, the Nokia N86. Nokia N86 has a wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics, able to produce up to 8 megapixel photo. According to the announcement, the Nokia N86 8MP is designed to excel in both bright and low light conditions, and it’s optimized for both video and still imaging. The Nokia N86 8MP is expected to begin shipping in

Optimized Your Internet Browsing With LG KT770 Slider Phone

Not included in its official press announcement, LG has actually listed the new KT770 slider phone on its MWC website. The KT770 is a Symbian S60 3rd edition smartphone providing full internet browsing on its 2.8-inch display screen. You can also use alternative A-GPS LBS such as Map, Navigation, Travel Information through easy scrolling. Furthermore, it is a stylish all-in-one optimized Internet

New Android Phone: HTC Magic Android

With Android users eagerly to see new Android phones at Mobile World Congress, BoyGeniusReport has got a good news for Vodafone subscribers in Europe. Said to be exclusive for Vodafone in Europe, HTC will announce the new HTC Magic Android smartphone this week according to the source. The new HTC Magic supports HSPA high speed data connection, has built in WiFi, GPS and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

O2 offers new Option ExpressCard with retractable antenna

Telefónica O2 Germany will be one of the first operators to offer the GlobeTrotter Express 441. The company will market the GlobeTrotter Express 441 under its own brand as the O2 Surfcard Speed. Supporting quad-band HSPA as well as quad-band EDGE and GPRS, the GlobeTrotter Express 441 has been designed to deliver worldwide coverage for busy international business travellers. This device breaks

Sprint Now Offers New Simply Everything Plan Plus Mobile Broadband

Starting today, Sprint is offering business and consumer customers the new Simply Everything plan + Mobile Broadband with a price of $149.99 per month. Other than giving an unlimited text, picture and video messaging, GPS navigation, email and Web surfing on your phone, you also get Internet access on your laptop. Though, there is a 5GB capped for your laptop access.Existing Sprint customers can

LG unveiled a new LG-GD900 fashion phone

LG today unveiled its new LG-GD900 fashion phone, aims to make a stand out with its unique transparent keypad. When the sliding keypad is opened, the keypad illuminates a cool glow that reflects the phone’s sleek and polished silver body. When available, a bluetooth headset specially designed for the GS900 will be included with the retail package.The LG-GD900 is scheduled for release during the

LG Releases LG GM730 Windows phone

Following the pieces info of the LG GM730 Windows phone, LG has made the official announcement in its press event today, although it is still lacking some final technical specifications. Powered by the new Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and 3D S-Class UI, the GM730 has a 528 MHz Qualcomm cpu, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, 5 megapixel camera, built in GPS, FM Receiver and WQVGA screen (240 x 400 pixels). It will

Nokia N86 Spotted With 8 Megapixel Camera Phone ?

Although Nokia has not included this 8 megapixel camera phone, it might be planning to announce its first 8 megapixel camera phone in Mobile World Congress. According to Symbian-Guru, the un-announced Nokia N86 has been inserted to its Mobile World Congress’s press material, which featuring a 8 megapixel camera module with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash dual flash LED. The slider phone also

HTC Touch Pro Got Upgraded as Touch Pro2

Together with the new HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC has also announced an upgraded Touch Pro with the new HTC Touch Pro2. Featuring a sliding QWERTY keyboard, the Touch Pro2 is also pre-installed with the improved TouchFLO 3D and the new HTC Push Internet technology. It also has the new Straight Talk technology, delivers an integrated email, voice and speakerphone experience. Users can transition

HTC Unveiled Touch Diamond2 Powered by Windows Phone

Today HTC has unveiled its new Windows Phone Touch Diamond2, featuring the TouchFLO 3D user interface. According to the company, the TouchFLO 3D has been more deeply integrated into a customized version of Windows Mobile 6.1 to deliver more consistency throughout Windows Mobile applications and menus. As part of this improved Windows Mobile integration the touch focus areas have been enlarged to

Installing non-Market Apps on Android Phone

If you own an Android Dev phone, at some point you'd probably want to create and try your own apps (or apps from your friends).

To ensure that you do not break your phone by installing malicious apps, Android has a couple of safety features built in. So you need to specifically instruct android to be able to install unsigned / non-market apps.

Menu > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources

Check "Unknown Sources" to allow install of non-Market applications. While developing, you most likely also want to enable "Stay awake" in Menu > Settings > Applications > Development so that your screen does not go to sleep every often.

Now you can install any app (including malicious ones) the usual way either by browsing to the app using the browser or using adb install command.

Most Cell Phones will use Mini-USB Charger by 2012

I heard about the news this morning while getting dressed. GMA anchor Chris Cuomo along with the rest of the new cast laughed out loud when they disclosed the 2012 date. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. Mini-USB charger is definitely the way to go, majority of smartphones already use such. Which makes it easy to find charging solution on the go. I normally keep a spare mini-USB cord in my office as well as traveling.

2. The fact that it will take until 2012 to change over is a big joke; changing over to DC 5V charging over micro USB doesn't take 4 years, definitely laughable

3. Although Apple is not going to change its port design to mini-USB, it is somewhat compatible already. Note that you can take your iPod data cable and plug into any computer USB for charging. There are even lots of car chargers designed to accept USB ports so an iPhone data cable would work as well.

MWC 2009: Nokia 6710 Navigator

Since the first Nokia Navigator made its appearance two years ago, the company has been updating and improving its location based services steadily and has now introduced the latest arrival in its Navigator line, the Nokia 6710 Navigator. The slider phone has built in GPS and a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash“The navigation solution provided by the Nokia 6710

PacketVideo Mobile Video Application Available for iPhone

PacketVideo (PV) announced today the commercial availability of PV’s mobile video application for the Apple iPhone, enabling the delivery of operator-branded TV and video services. Mobile operators are expected to offer the new iPhone application under their own brands via the iPhone Application Store, enabling subscribers to view local live television channels and on-demand video clips.In

SEVEN to Support Android OS for Mobile Email Solutions

SEVEN today announced the availability of itsmobile messaging solution for the Android platform. The SEVEN Android client is available today for carriers and device manufacturers who plan to embed mobile email solutions on Android devices. SEVEN is currently demonstrating Android solutions at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.Other than supporting standard email protocol and email

T-Mobile Releases Samsung Memoir from Feb 29th

Samsung and T-Mobile USA has officially released more info for the new Samsung Memoir (SGH-T929), a touch-screen phone with a 8-megapixel camera. The built-in 8-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, 16x digital zoom and five shooting modes empower customers to capture photos and videos from their phone. Samsung’s new photo widget allows customers to post images taken with the Memoir directly to

New Palm Pre With Calendar Apps Video

Palm has just posted a new video of their new Palm Pre, demonstrated few user actions with its calendar application. In the second part of the short video, Palm is also showing how you can do a google search and share the web site to other user via email. Check out the video inside.

Sony Ericsson W995 Hikaru Walkmanphone Details

First leaked by semcblog last week, Sony Ericsson today has revealed its new W995 walkman phone with an optimised video playback style. The slider phone comes with a 8.1 megapixel camera, built in Wi-Fi, 2.6-inch display screen and support YouTube. The W995 walkman phone is also the first Sony Ericsson phone that featuring a new software called Media Go, providing an easy and convenient way of

Sony Ericsson Idou With 12 megapixel camera

On today press announcement, Sony Ericsson has announced the W995 Hikaru slider phone and a 12 megapixel camera phone called Sony Ericsson Idou. The Idou will be marketed as Entertainment Unlimited, which will develier a complete music / video / camera solutions to high end market. The Sony Ericsson Idou will be available at second half of 2009.Capture moments, talk through pictures and share all

Rumor: Sony Ericsson Reese With QWERTY Keyboard

More announcement from Sony Ericsson soon tomorrow? Esato forum is spreading a new Sony Ericsson Reese messaging phone with QWERTY keyboard. It looks like it has a special swivel-able display screen, allow you to use the QWERTY keyboard while using the display screen at portrait mode. Look out for more info next few days!

Windows Mobile 6.5 Beta is now ported to HTC Touch HD

If you are one of those who loves to have first hand experience, Windows Mobile 6.5 Beta is now ported to HTC Touch HD on xda-developer forum. The ported rom is not working perfectly yet, especially the available 6.5 source is still in beta build. Check out a video demonstration for the Windows mobile 6.5 beta here.Check out the 9 minutes video below

NETGEAR to Demonstrate Live 3G Femtocell-Enabled Mobile Services

NETGEAR will demonstrate its Femtocell Voice Gateway (DVG834GH) at the Mobile World Congress. The DVG834GH integrates ADSL2+ modem, router, Ethernet LAN, Wi-Fi access point, Voice over-IP (VoIP), and a miniature 3G base station known as a femtocell. NETGEAR is appearing at Mobile World Congress in the booth of its partner Ubiquisys.“This public demonstration, of advanced 3G mobile voice and data

White LG Cookies KP501On O2 UK

LG Electronics announced the launch of the fresh new ‘White’ LG Cookie exclusive to O2. The UK’s most affordable full touchscreen handset now comes in a crisp white finish with a metallic blue rim, adding another stylish colour variation to the range. The ‘White’ LG Cookie will be available on O2 Pay & Go for £99.99, both in store and online at www.o2.co.uk .The LG Cookie’s intuitive user

Android Market Paid Applications Coming Soon

Google has started to accept paid Android applications submission from developers last week, promised to make the paid applications available next week. When available, the paid applications will be available to US users and followed by additional countries in the coming months. More roll out plan will be announced by the end of this quarter.According to google, Google Checkout will be used as

Huawei Introduces i-Mo HSPA Modem

Huawei has announced i-Mo HSPA modem, which will be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress. i-Mo supports plug-and-play and data transmission speeds up to 7.2 Mbps (downlink) and 5.76 Mbps (uplink). With its built-in Micro SD card slot, i-Mo can also serve as a USB disk. i-Mo will be available to customers in Q2 2009.

LG’s New Eco Friendly at MWC 2009

LG has announced that it will set up a ECO Friendly Zone at the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2009, together with a eco friendly prototype phone which has built in solar panel and made from recycle plastic or bio plastic. The company has also planned to enable user to make a 3 minutes phone call with just 10 minutes charging.

Ovation MC995D HSPA USB Modem Now Available

Novatel Wireless announced the Ovation MC995D high performance USB modem. Optimized for Europe, the MC995D is a global modem that provides download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and upload speeds up to 5.76 Mbps, with multiple frequency band operation on HSPA, EDGE and GPRS networks. The MC995D includes an auto-install connection manager to provide quick, easy setup with support for Windows, Mac and

Samsung Blue Earth - solar-powered cell phone

Samsung Electronics has unveiled a solar-powered full touchscreen phone called “Blue Earth”. Made from a recycled plastic — extracted from water bottles, the handset as well as charger, is also free from harmful substances. More importantly, the Blue Earth is the first such phone to the market and charges up via the solar panel on the back of the phone, apparently generating enough electronic

Verizon Wireless Offering Friends & Family Feature

Beginning Sunday, Feb. 15, Verizon Wireless subscribers will be able to identify five or 10 numbers as a Friends & Family calling group. Minutes used when placing or receiving calls to anyone in the calling group will not count against customers’ plan minutes. Customers can even include landline numbers or wireless numbers of non-verizon wireless subscribers.Customers wanting to take advantage of

i-mate Launches 810-F power by Windows Mobile

To be presented on Mobile World Congress, i-mate is bringing its new 810-F rugged windows mobile smartphone to the show. The smartphone meets tough US military specification 810F. It can withstand harsh conditions like shock, vibration, solar radiation and blowing dust.The i-mate 810-F will be running Windows Mobile 6.1, supports Triband HSDPA wireless network and can be used with GSM Quadband

Rumor: New Casing For iPhone 2009 ?

It looks like every new iPhone leak is related to its casing design, thanks to the manufacturer in China, the photo below might be the new iPhone 2009. The back case is now in glossy matte black. It is designed for better gripping according to macrumors. Apple is rumored to be launching 3 new iPhones this year.

Spb Software Develops Windows Mobile Netflix Application in Cooperation with Microsoft and Netflix

Spb Software worked closely with Microsoft and Netflix to develop the first official Netflix application for Windows phones. The Mobile Manager for Netflix is an on-device application that seamlessly interfaces with the Netflix web service, allows searching the entire Netflix library, viewing the movie details, managing the DVD queue, and adding movies to Instant Queue directly from Windows

Nuance Mobile’s T9 Nav Now Available

Nuance Communications today announced the general availability of T9Nav, Nuance’s unique search and discovery solution for mobile devices, via a direct to consumer download for Series 60 third edition phones on the Nokia Software Market.T9Nav leverages the T9 predictive text technology to simplify navigation and discovery of on- and off-device applications, content and information. By typing with

Sun Microsystems announced the availability of the JavaFX Mobile

Sun Microsystems today announced the availability of the JavaFX Mobile platform, enabling the Java wireless ecosystem to create expressive solutions. The JavaFX Mobile platform delivers rich content and services across the broadest range of mobile devices - from mass market feature phones to smart phones. Sun also announced that several leading handset manufacturers, service providers and ISVs

BlackBerry Connect Desktop Tool For HTC Mobile

Available for HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch HD, HTC Touch Pro and HTC TyTN II, HTC has put up the BlackBerry Connect Desktop Tool and Connect Client 4.0 on its support page for BlackBerry users. BlackBerry Connect on HTC handsets supports push-based wireless email access, wireless email reconciliation and attachment viewing in conjunction with both BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry

LG KM900 on Video

While we have already got most of the info on the upcoming LG Arena KM900, its new S-Class 3D UI has got a short video demonstration on a TV report. Check out this link for the video (make sure you turn off the pop up blocker). LG flagship device is said to be cost around $535 when available by March or April this year.LG Arena KM900 features list: * It has a dedicated multimedia chipset to

How to Turn on GPS on Tmobile G1?

The Google G1 can be very intuitive at times but there are other features that just bugs me. (ie. the information bar doesn't always pull down when need to, lack of on screen keyboard, no file manager or video player by default. etc.). The biggest gripe I have is how hard it is to find GPS on/off switch. For me, it was completely non-intuitive. Instead of keeping it in Settings/Wireless Controls, they have a dedicated menu under Settings/Security & Location.

Searching the web wasn't very helpful for me so hopefully this post can help anyone looking for GPS switch. PS - by default, GPS is deactived, so My Location feature is based on IP/Cell Tower proxmity.

Speech recognition: Almost ready for mobile prime time

I've always wanted to see speech recognition incorporated into mobile devices. Since you don't have a big keyboard when you're on the go, you ought to be able to just talk to your phone and tell it what to do, or dictate memos to it and have it convert them into e-mails or SMS messages. In addition to being incredibly convenient, this would increase the safety of a lot of drivers. It's a spooky fact, but in surveys I've done more than 10 percent of the US population admitted to sometimes sending text messages while driving.

Not smart, not safe.

So, is voice recognition good enough to let you just talk to your mobile device and then send the converted text as a message?

I first asked myself that question a couple of years ago when I bought a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and a small voice recorder. I tried recording weblog posts and other documents while driving, and then brought the recorded sound back to my computer to convert it into text. The result was a disaster. Dragon was unable to keep pace with the recorded sound in the files, and started dropping sentences, paragraphs, and eventually entire pages of spoken text. I was so disgusted, and so disappointed, that I gave up and went back to listening to sports talk radio while I drove.

Recently a newly appointed product manager at Nuance (publisher of Dragon) sent out a survey asking for feedback on the product. Unlike most product managers, she signed the survey form with her own name and with her own e-mail address. Most product managers wouldn't do that because they don't want to be overwhelmed with feedback. I don't know how much feedback she got in general, or how overwhelming it was, but she got a note back from me describing my problems with the product and explaining why I really wasn't satisfied with it.

I didn't expect to get any reply from the company; Nuance has a remarkably restrictive policy on providing technical support unless you pay extra for it. Usually, companies that do that aren't interested in getting any sort of conversation going with their customers. But to my surprise, I got a note from the product manager not only sympathizing with my problems but offering to send me a copy of the latest version of the software and a voice recorder that she said would work well with the software. I wish my weblog address hadn't been in my signature, so I would know if they do this sort of thing for every frustrated user. But anyway I took her up on the offer.

You can see the results here. I dictated this weblog post using the voice recorder, synced it onto my computer for recognition, and then corrected the (few) errors by hand. There are pluses and minuses to the dictation system. The good news is that the program can now keep up with my dictated speech. I no longer lose sentences or paragraphs of text. I'm also surprised with the way the product recognizes trade names, so for instance when I say Home Depot or McDonald's or Nike or Apple or IKEA or Lowes, Dragon gets the names correct and properly capitalized (I didn't have to fix anything in that sentence).

On the other hand it does make mistakes -- the packaging claims about 99% accuracy, which means that you should expect one word in every hundred to be incorrect. My guess is that I'm getting somewhere between 97 and 99% accuracy. That's not bad. In fact, it's pretty darned impressive. But in practice it still means you have to go back and do a lot of corrections.

The training is close to torture: reading aloud a 20-minute excerpt from a Dilbert book while trying to pronounce every word correctly. Later I tried setting up the program without any training, and it worked exactly the same. So my advice is to skip the training.

The software is not great at understanding where punctuation should be placed in the text. I have learned that I have to give grammatical guidance by saying things like "comma," "period," and "new paragraph" in order to make sure that the text will be reasonably well formatted.

If I just speak naturally the text will come out like this making it very difficult for anyone else to read and even making it hard for me to edit without punctuation inserted it is very hard to get tell where a sentence was supposed to end and another one start add in a few wreck cognition errors by the soft wear and the text is not something you would want to send to someone uncorrected

Speaking with punctuation is unnatural, and could be somewhat distracting while driving. I have to think carefully about the text that I'm dictating, and I believe for some people that could cause them not to pay enough attention to what's happening on the road. I think I can do it safely or I wouldn't do it, but it definitely is an issue to consider.

Overall, I think this approach will make me a bit more productive, so I should be able to produce a little bit more weblog content and maybe get some other sorts of things done as well.

So it's nice for me, and I finally feel like I got my money's worth from Dragon. But is the technology ready for broad deployment in mobile devices?

I think the answer is technically yes, but practically no. Mobile devices are casual-use; tasks that require too much commitment or effort just don't get used. Without careful attention to spoken punctuation, the software produces errors and the sort of run-on text you saw above. Even in a short message, I think it's likely that you'd get more mistakes than you'd find acceptable. Correcting those errors on a small screen with no mouse would be tedious at best (it's an annoying task even on a PC).

More importantly, the software is very sensitive to the quality of the sound file coming into it. I believe most phone microphones and headsets wouldn't produce the required quality. You'd probably get better results with a service that just records your speech and has someone in India retype it (such services exist today).

So, the news from the world of voice recognition is hopeful for mobile users but not yet wonderful. The technology is good enough that you can definitely use it as a substitute for typing if you have physical problems. It's also a useful PC productivity tool for someone who generates a lot of text for a living.

However, I think we're not yet quite at the point where you can just talk to your phone and have it reliably transform all of your speech into text. It's getting better, but it's not all the way there yet. For a mobile device, the dream of just talking is still a dream. But I do think it's a dream that's getting closer to reality.

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PS: I'd also like to compliment Kristen Wylie, the product manager at Nuance who responded to my message. Take notes, folks, this is the right way to communicate with customers online -- sign your real name, use an address they can respond to rather than a no-replies mailbox, and when someone has a problem help them solve it.

Android Market update: support for priced applications

I'm pleased to announce that Android Market is now accepting priced applications from US and UK developers. Developers from these countries can go to the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish to upload their application(s) along with end user pricing for the apps. Initially, priced applications will be available to end users in the US starting mid next week. We will add end user support for additional countries in the coming months.

We will also enable developers in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France, and Spain to offer priced applications later this quarter. By the end of Q1 2009, we will announce support for developers in additional countries. Developers can find more information about priced applications in Android Market at http://market.android.com/support/

Google Checkout will serve as the payment and billing mechanism for Android Market. Developers who do not already have a Google Checkout merchant account can easily sign up for one via the publisher website.

Also, Android Market for free applications will become available to users in Australia starting February 15th Pacific Time and in Singapore in the coming weeks. Developers can now make their applications available in these countries via the publisher website at http://market.android.com/publish.

We look forward to seeing more great applications on Android Market.

Samsung Ultra Touch S8300 Coming With Live Pics

If you'ew interested in the new Samsung Ultra Touch S8300, you should definitely check the new photos of its pre-release unit. Don't ask where that guy got it, though...

Mobiado 105GMT

Mobiado introduces the second model in its Mechanical Watch Mobile Phone Series, the new 105GMT WHITE. The 105GMT WHITE incorporates a unique dual mechanical watch movement, allowing for the setting of two international time zones and using the electronic phone time for the local time,. Each Swiss mechanical watch movement contains 25 jeweled bearings, performs 28,800 vibrations per hour, has

Garmin-Asusvtoday announced the Garmin-Asus nuvifone M20

Garmin-Asusvtoday announced the Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20, an all-in-one phone, mobile web-browser and premium navigation system with a Windows Mobile operating system. The Garmin-Asus nüvifone M20 will be on display at GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, February 16-19, 2009, at the Garmin-Asus exhibit (Hall 7, #7C37). The GPS smartphone combines a dual-band 3.5G/tri-band GSM phone

Garmin Asus Nuvifone G60

Garmin Asus partnership is appearently starting to afford, as they've announced the upcoming release of the Nuvifone G60. The device will be released in the first half of 2009, though no carrier, availability or pricing details were provided.Features include: * 3.5" touchscreen display; * HSDPA/3G connectivity; * Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity; * Built-in accelerometer; * Pre-loaded

Say Hello To iPhone 4G

Here's another Apple iPhone 4G concept. Looks very nice and attractive.(More photos after the jump)

Sprint Rumor 2?

According to reports, Sprint will soon be launching the second Rumor phone, simply called Rumor 2, in order to replace the first one. In addition, they'll also be releasing a smaller version of the Samsung Instinct called Instinct Mini. The Rumor 2 should be released sometime in mid-March, while the Instinct Mini should be available on April 19th.Stay tuned for more details.

i-mate 810F Is A Tough Smartphone

I-mate 810-F is a new rugged smartphone, capable of withstanding extreme conditions like pressure, heat, water, humidity, and shock. It should be coming in a couple of weeks, but the price is uknown yet.Features: * Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional; * QWERTY keyboard; * QVGA (240x320 pixels) touchscreen display; * 2.2GB of internal storage; * 2Mpix camera with video recording; *

Sony Ericsson W395 and C903 Photos

Want to see all the color options available for the new Sony Ericsson W395 and C903 Cyber-Shot? planete-se has done a good photo shot on both models. Check out here for the W395 photos, and here for the C903 Cyber-Shot photos. Both models including the C901 have been announced yesterday. The C903 Cyber-shot will be available in selected markets from Q2 in the colours Lacquer Black, Techno White

Verizon Wireless and WeatherBug announced WeatherBug Protect

Verizon Wireless and WeatherBug announced WeatherBug Protect, giving Verizon Wireless customers the most relevant weather information on their wireless phones. WeatherBug Protect provides advanced warning of lightning, tornadoes, extreme temperatures, flash flooding, high winds, hurricanes and more through text message. Customers also get a variety of radar, satellite and other imagery to help