Mobile gadgets running Blackberry & Android OS'
Posts tagged Android
Google Music updated to 4.1.512!
013 days
It looks like Google decided to release a new (albeit small) update of its rocking Google Music for Android!
This one brings some bugs fixes, hopefully some I encountered along the way in the last 3 months.
If you’re not in the U.S, you can still get it by searching for the term in the title followed by .apk and follow the instructions. Of course, by now you should’ve managed to use a proxy, in order to make it work outside U.S. If now, search the web or ask me!
Android’s own Ice Cream Sandwich – we’re getting there fast!
032 days
You know what they say: it depends to whom you’re talking to. For them, it’s a fragmentation issue. Since the beginning Google wasn’t able to steer the O.E.M manufacturers into the right direction, a.k.a “release-phones-with-the-latest-OS”. Like this guy said, it’s only business; you want the latest OS, get a new phone!
And then, there’s the rest of us (me included!) looking at this from a positive point of view. Ice Cream Sandwich was launched less than 2 months ago, 3 days before the Galaxy Nexus took off and it’s already close to 1% in “market” share. Well, more like 0,6%, but that was a few days ago!:-) It’s also important to note that there are three versions out there and they are split on only two devices: Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the last year’s hit, Samsung Nexus S, which is not even completely updated yet! Even so, that’s a huge leap in a very short time!
Again, let’s look at the chart above and think positive: Froyo (2.2) and Gingerbread (2.3) make up the most of today’s Android OS phones out there: ~85%.
Fragmentation? Fahgettaboudit!
via Android Central and Android Pit
Read It Later – a must have for any news junkie
045 days
Too many times we’re interested in reading the news. As so many times we do it on the go, while attending to other, more important things we need to do.
While I can always “favorite” the items in Google Reader and read it at some point in the future but it’s not gonna offline it for you, which means you can’t read it at some point in the future without an Internet connection. And that’s the strength of Read It Later: it’s downloading the link’s content for future, offline reading, while getting rid of the ads, related stories and other junk interfering with the act of reading.
The most awesome part is the integration into more than 250 smartphone apps, the support for almost all known browsers in the world and the seamless synchronization between them.
There’s a free version with a limited number of items you can save (which served me just fine!) and a Pro version, if you want to save more items and support the developer.
Here.


Dropbox updated and optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich
046 days
Looks like ICS is getting traction among the developers! Some are rushing to launch new versions compatible with ICS – hell, Dropbox for Android was long over-due anyway!
Here are some of the improvements:
•Favorites: quick offline access to files
•Bulk upload photos and videos
•Rename files and folders
•Single-tap access to all file and folder actions
•Improved gallery view
•Upload from and export to local storage
•Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements
Grab it directly from here:
Source: Dropbox Forums
Still not getting the ropes with the updates, Google?
047 days
It’s been years now since Google updates our phones from one version to another. The operators, too! And they still manage to screw-up our phones.

Nexus S and ICS this time.
Free unlimited SMS? Not without hidden costs.
068 days
Just yesterday, while reading the news, I found out about an Android application that will allow you to send free SMS. It’s called JaxtrSMS and it works. Just like the description brags it allows you to send worldwide SMS’, even coming from your number, not some shoddy service over the Internet. It uses data and some complain that 5 MB/day is a bit much when you’re not sending many SMSes.
I registered with my name and mobile number and I’ve tried it a few times on various numbers. By the time I pressed the “Back” button to exit the app the SMS was delivered! JaxtrSMS is a bit slow, its blue background comes a bit hard down on my eyes, especially when the writing is pale white. Your recipient’s replies are coming into the SMS Inbox as usual.
What I really found out afterwards is what pisses me off: the application will send a separate SMS or add ads to your initial SMS urging the recipient of your message to signup for the free service! And I can’t find a disclaimer letting you know about this when you sign-up for the service. I used to use a service like this more than 10 years ago and paid for it. The free portions also contained an ad, but it was the link to the service, 20 chars or so.
Of course, I unistalled the app right away.
It is a nice option but not for me. And the fact that it’s coming from Sabeer Bhatia, founder of Hotmail, makes no difference; in my eyes it’s still spam.
