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Useful Android Tips & Tricks

December 15th, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

Get the most out of your Android phone with these nifty tricks

I’ve been using Android for a while and I love it. It is the most flexible mobile operating platform on the market and gives the user a great experience. I’ve compiled a list of useful tips & tricks to help you get the most out of your Android experience.

Connect your Computer to the Internet through your Phone’s Data Plan

Android 2.2 got a very useful new feature called Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot. It allows you to connect to the Internet through your phone’s data plan.

To setup the Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot, Press MENU, then tap Settings >Wireless & Networks and check the Portable Wi-Fi Hotspot. If you have concerns for battery, plug in your phone to your computer and select USB Tethering – You cannot push a Wi-Fi network through this feature, it will always use your phone’s data plan.

Quickly Search Using Your Voice

Hold down the “Search” button for a few seconds and a “Speak Now” dialog box will appear. Say what you want to search and Google will search for it. If can do more than just search as well. Try saying “navigate to [place]” and it will perform those commands.

Move Applications to SD Card Without Rooting

Prior to Android 2.2 (Foryo), users had to install a third party App2SD app to move apps but as of 2.2, this feature has been added to the OS. Since not all applications have been made to support App2SD as the developers just haven’t gotten around to adding that function. On rooted devices, this can be done quite easily but if your device isn’t rooted, you can follow these steps on an unrooted phone:

Download the Android SDK and enable USB Debugging mode
Plug your device into the computer
Launch the Command Prompt on your computer [Start > Run > type "cmd"]
Navigate to the “\tools\” directory in the location where the Android SDK has been installed. Use cd \path\to\folder to go to the tools folder, if the SDK is on the C drive root type C:\Android SDK\tools
Type “adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2″ in the Command Prompt and press Enter
Unplug your computer and now you should be able to transfer all your applications to the SD card

Top Ranking Broadband Internet Service Providers in UK

December 9th, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

Broadband service providers have been struggling to maintain their rankings by providing good value, customer service and technical support, easy billing, quality and consistency of the connection and incentives. All of these factors combine to satisfy customers and keep them from switching to a different provider.

Nowadays there is greater competition and faster speeds being offered. Home users are now getting speeds that were previously only available on corporate connections and are enjoying applications like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu etc. all of which offer rich content. To get the experience that the users want, a reliable service offering from the broadband service provider can make or break a customer. The customers experience will greatly depend on the quality of service being provided to enjoy all the content-rich applications that are available.

Having said that, it is also very important for users to look at the bigger picture when choosing a service provider as their decision is directly linked to their satisfaction. A recent study that was released which ranked O2 UK as one of the top broadband internet service provides with a whopping 89% customer satisfaction rate right after PlusNet which has come up this year. O2 UK was dominating the charts in 2010 as well.

Reliability of connection and value for money are still ranked high by customers using broadband internet which leaves room for providers to improve their services further.

The rankings were:

PlusNet (90%)
O2 (89%)
Sky Broadband (81%)
Virgin Media (79%)
Orange (75%)
BT (74%)
TalkTalk (70%)
AOL UK (67%)

For a more detailed view of the results of the study conducted, check here

Android ‘Jelly Bean ‘ Up Next! Stay Tuned

December 7th, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

With a string of crazy names for previous Android versions like Donut, Eclair, Frozen Yogurt (FroYo), Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich its not shocking that the next one would be names after a delicious treat and in alphabetical order no less. Jelly Bean is the rumored name for the next version of Android which comes after Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

What version number for this release will be is still unclear, come to think of it, we don’t even know the version number for ICS yet. It could be 2.3.6 or 4.0 or whatever Google decides to make it. Having said that, ICS has some major functional, architectural and and layout changes so the next round of game changing upgrades might just get pushed to Jelly Bean instead of ICS.

Why a new release is coming out so soon when ICS is still in Alpha phase is a little baffling. But it seems like the powers that be will make us wait for watch.

Duqu Worm Command & Control Servers Scrubbed

December 2nd, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

Hackers erase all data from Duqu C&C servers, close spy operation

The hackers behind the Duqu botnet have shut down their spying operation and erased all data on the 12 known command & control servers that were used to control all computers infected with Duqu on October 12, 2011 as per Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based security firm.

Experts say that Duqu was designed by advanced hackers and were most likely backed by a government. Earlier reports suggested that Duqu was an off-shoot of the highly sophisticated Stuxnet worm which attacked Iran’s nuclear program by sabotaging their centrifuges. Duqu creators scrubbed all their command & control servers which were being used to manage the infected computers globally and then made sure they had not left any traces behind. All servers going as far back as 2009 were completely erased of all data. After their scrubbing operation was completed, the attackers updated the OpenSSH versions on all servers from 3.4 to 5.8 to make sure no other cyber criminals stole their servers and possibly because the newer version has some functions that were of use to the attackers.

Experts say that this phase of the operation has been shut down but that is not to say that they will not return with an even more scary worm. Initial research showed that the worm used zero-day exploits to infect systems.

Its a scary thought that the hackers who made this worm are still out there and might even be working on scarier version.

Pakistan bans obscene words from text messages

November 22nd, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has released a list of words that should be banned from text messages in Pakistan

In another move to curb the freedom of Pakistani citizens, the telecommunication regulatory authority in Pakistan has banned over a thousand words from being transmitted in text messages. Spokeswoman for Telenor Pakistan stated that telecom providers received a letter from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to start blocking text messages that have obscene words.

The words that PTA suggests be blocked mostly comprises of swear words or sexually explicit terms which also included mild words like idiot and fart. The letter stated it was a legal order under 1996 law to prevent people to send information via telecommunications system which is obscene, false, indecent or fabricated.

There were 50 phrases using the word “fuck” and 17 involving “butt”, alongside 17 variants on “tit” and 33 on “cock”. As well as 1,109 wonderfully rude English words, the PTA also banned 568 in the national language Urdu. The list includes a lot of common everyday words that may or may not be considered offensive.

The PTA is clearly quite perceptive, too, and has included a bunch more – what’s the word? – figurative phrases too. They include gems such as “strap-on”, “beat your meat”, “crotch rot”, “love pistol”, and — wait for it — “flogging the dolphin”. I can only guess at what that one means.

Being a Pakistani myself, 90% of the words are those which I heard last when I was in grade 5. How the telecoms manage to block it is still to be seen as the technology is not 100% accurate.

Content Filtering ENGLISH

Google Music Event “These Go To Eleven”

November 12th, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

Google hints at a Google Music event with phrase from "This is Spinal Tap"

Google Music has been running in Beta mode for a while but with the latest invites going out to the media, it seems like the music store is finally out of the testing phases and on the verge of going live. Invite have gone out for an event next Wednesday, November 15th, 2:00 PST. The invite did not specifically mention Google Music but certain music references indicate there might be something to the rumors floating around. The event will be streamed live on the Android YouTube channel.

Google has not been forthcoming about what the event will be about so there is still speculation on what it can be. However, Android chief Andy Rubin had said at the AsiaD conference in October that Google was very close to launching a new music offering at the time. In my previous post about Google Music, I had listed the number of labels Google was talking to and reports suggest that it has been successful in signing with only EMI but a deal with Universal was close to being finalized.

Its been speculated that the new service will be closely linked to Google+, the web giants social networking platform. What this will all be about will only be revealed on the day, lets just wait and watch.

Adobe Flash Player Mobile Development Stopped

November 10th, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

Further development of Adobe Flash Player mobile will discontinue once version 11 for Android and Blackberry is complete

Adobe confirmed on Wednesday that it is dropping Flash Player for mobile browsers and focusing its efforts on developing HTML5 which is now supported on mobile devices.

“This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms. We are excited about this, and will continue our work with key players in the HTML community, including Google, Apple, Microsoft and RIM, to drive HTML5 innovation they can use to advance their mobile browsers” says Danny Winokur.

Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work with new mobile device configurations (chipset, browser, OS version, etc.) following the upcoming release of Flash Player 11.1 for Android and BlackBerry PlayBook however they will still be releases critical bug fixes and update for existing configurations. The stop in further development of Flash will allow Adobe to concentrate their investment in HTML5 and innovate advance gaming and video with Flash to benefit the industry.

Flash Player 11 has a dozens of new features like hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection to name two. Danny Winokur also said “Flash developers can take advantage of these features, and all that our Flash tooling has to offer, to reach more than a billion PCs through their browsers and to package native apps with AIR that run on hundreds of millions of mobile devices through all the popular app stores, including the iTunes App Store, Android Market, Amazon Appstore for Android and BlackBerry App World.”

Finally he said “We are super excited about the next generations of HTML5 and Flash. Together they offer developers and content publishers great options for delivering compelling web and application experiences across PCs and devices. There is already amazing work being done that is pushing the newest boundaries, and we can’t wait to see what is still yet to come!”

Adobe has worked hard to push Flash to mobile devices and major OS and device manufacturers like Google and RIM have adopted the Flash Player into their operating systems. Apple however did not add Flash support to the iOS ending its support in the mobile industry. One can wait and see what Flash Player 12 will offer but that will only be on PC’s.

Amazon rolling out hundreds of apps for Kindle Fire

November 10th, 2011

Omar Khan | Print this Article

"We’re adding more apps and games every day across all categories." says Amazon Kindle VP Dave Limp

Amazon announced the release of hundreds of apps ahead of the Kindle Fire release set for 15 November, 2011. Kindle Fire which is running a modified version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread with a custom market will have apps and games from Facebook, Netflix, Pandora, Zynga, Twitter, Gameloft, Rhapsody and more available for purchase from the Amazon Appstore.

The under $200 tablet is gearing up to be a hit this holiday season. Besides the basics, Amazon is giving Kindle Fire owners free storage space on Amazon Cloud and Whispersync for books, movies etc. Consumers will get to chose from 18 million apps, movies, games, TV shows, songs and reading material. Adding popular apps and games will most likely boost sales for Amazon. Initial estimates were somewhere in the area of 250,000 Kindle Fire pre-orders right after its launch. The tablet will be battling it out with Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet which is priced slightly higher at $249.

Amazon said that they are constantly adding new apps to their store and will keep updating them with apps. “We started talking to app developers everywhere the day we introduced Kindle Fire, and the response has been overwhelming,” says Dave Limp, VP Amazon Kindle, in a statement. This is only the beginning — we’re adding more apps and games every day across all categories.”