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.

             12 days ago I was happy to report that a 2.0 version of Google Plus for Android has been leaked! I also shared it to a lot of people, finding about it very early on a Saturday morning, thus having a high share of re-posts on Google Plus.

I’ve used it ever since up until last week, when suddenly I got a “corrupt” message when I tried to open the “People” application on my Desire HD. To my horror, I was unable to access any other contact in my phone except for the ones in the call logs! Being a  HTC core application, I knew I was in trouble.

I guess I don’t have to mention I spent the next hour trying to find a way to get into my People app and get the contacts. To no avail. I even installed 3rd party contacts apps only to receive the same error no matter what I did.

I tried contacting HTC on Twitter: no reply. I figured “whatta hell, they’re busy, screw this, I’m reinstalling”. Everything. Relying on HTC Sense’s backup. Bad idea. I ended-up reinstalling everything from scratch. Then the phone wouldn’t log on GTalk, so I couldn’t use the Market at all.

Long story short, after 2-3 Master Resets and cleaning up the 8 GB card I was informed that the G+ 2.0 was the culprit. I don’t know why but I guess it has to do with IceCream Sandwich and the way it handles the new “People” application in the Android OS.

So back to 1.08 (updated, nice!) and I kinda miss the 2.0 improvements and nice design.

I wanted to ask if any of you had that issue? Because I know for a fact that not everyone had this issue (I know a Froyo user who had no problems) ; the 2.0 version had a bug with not receiving pictures in the new Chord application and had to be uninstalled.

Picture courtesy of FreeFoto.

Saturday morning is always better when you find-out about a new update for the newly born Google Pus for Android!

It sports a new look: the notifications were moved from the bottom of the screen to the top. The notifications number is bigger and rounder on the edges.  The “Messages” section was renamed “Chord” to differentiate from all the others.

Every section of the application was changed or improved: “Profile” has 3 sections now – Posts, About and Photos. You can now browse all your data. “Circles” shows you everyone in your Circles based on your choosing, individual “People” in a different section, o.. You can also make a new Circle right from the phone.

I also noticed the performance was improved. The timeline started almost instantly compared to 1.07 I rocked till now. The app also starts-up faster when the icon is pressed.

I am sure there will be bugs, they always are. For now I have only one wish: I hope they fixed the phantom

notifications. They always show up, no matter how may times you read that them and it’s quite annoying.

Is this the Ice Cream Sandwich version? Might be, I found no indication in those regards.

Version 2.0.0, build 10000 and you can find it here.

I’ve been using BT headsets for more than 7 years now. I find them more convenient than the wired ones, although it’s true, it’s a hassle sometimes: keep it safe, keep it close, charge it, try to use it when you make and receive a call – oops - disconnected/out of battery/out of reach, the usual stuff.  But all in all, a truly handy tool for long talks at the office or when driving or doing anything else  and your hands occupied.

Over the years Sony-Ericsson BT headsets were trustworthy partners. In fact, these HBH series have to be the most reliable they ever launched; they’re still in production after so many years. Great price, battery life, great connectivity, great comfort. And a little bulky – there’s no perfect solution in life!

But after 3 or 4 of these in as many years I decided I need to move on: something without an over-the-ear-hook! And something less bulky! And I chose the Plantronics Discovery 975.

Here’s why:

Hardware:

• Build quality is very good, sturdy, nice aesthetics and ergonomics. Hairpin shaped, this headset has a thin, short arm with nice, glossy, finish - yes, parts of it came off after 9 months of usage, but this is a working tool… So much for Premium quality though. While worn and stuck into the ear, the multi-function button works just fine; I need to press it a little harder in order to operate and I have to grab the unit with another two fingers, otherwise the ear would hurt. I try to interfere as little as possible with the headset while I’m wearing it. There’s also a volume button with 3 stages – they are notably different in volume, which is quite high for a BT headset. 
• Charging/protection case: the headset comes with a charging case (with a battery inside) wrapped in Faux leather, which sports a led illuminated mini-display showing you connection status, charge level of both the headset (if inside) and case. The headset itself is a little lacking on stand-by and talk time (more about that later!), so they threw-in the charging case. This one will keep your headset full at all times. Both devices have the Universal Micro-U.S.B connectors, so I am able to use the same chargers for the phone, headset and charging case.  
• 3 kinds of different spare small ear-tips for different ear sizes and shapes. I use the medium one, so the headset will fit perfectly in the ear.  There is also a lanyard for the case.

Just a quick update on a great Live wallpaper I stumbled across Friday.

It’s called Verizon Wave Live Wallpaper and it was taken from a file – dump of the leaked upcoming HTC Vigor Android smartphone on Verizon U.S.A. Among other files like regular wallpapers and ringtones was this file. The only thing I wanna write about is that it doesn’t consume more energy than a regular wallpaper. It does not appear in the battery consumption log which means it takes less than 1% of the weak 1230 mAh equipping my Desire HD.

Oh, yes, some of the users report it causes motion sickness, so be aware!:)

A demo here from bmmahfood user on YouTube.

You can get it here.

Yet another update for Google Reader! A very useful tool for reading and sharing everything we read over the Internet.

This time around they introduced a new U.I and optimized it for tablets. I like the flowing transitions, it’s definitely a big improvement over the dull and static interface we’ve employed for almost a year now. The team also altered a very important function; the “Mark All Read” is now contextual, which means I need to press long on an item in order to mark all previous as read. It’s a bit annoying but I guess it’s the same thing as hitting “menu” and “mark previous as read” – there were two clicks before as now there’s only one…oh, well.

Other than that, I can remark the adding of “share” and “star it” on the top right thus enabling the reader to quickly share with others or mark it in order to read it later.

A good improvement all in all! Keep ‘em comin’!

Pictures courtesy of Google.

Update: A new version was pushed today; it seems some of the devices required bug fixes. My Desire HD has/had no issue.

YouTube comes baked into each Android phone. It offers OOTB functionality, nice U.I, lots of options including uploading from the phone.

I’ve used it for a long  time “as is” – I’m not an avid consumer of video clips, but this app always served me as expected: full screen, HD available, not too much buffering required, no hassle.

And today it has been updated! Things you can expect:

1. Edit the title, description and privacy of your uploaded videos
2. New uploading UI integrated into the app
3. Create/Edit/Delete playlists on the go
4. Bug fixes and performance improvements

So, yes, the update is here! The 2.3 version a.k.a Gingerbread is pushed to HTC Desire HD as promised. My version is 2.3.3 with 2.1 HTC Sense still on it. You can find it in Settings/ About Phone/ Software Updates. It’s 100 MB and it takes 2 minutes to download it over Wi-Fi. All the previous settings, applications, even application’s settings are kept.

I have to say I was a little worried about the whole update business, as there are so many ways in which you can brick your phone. Or you need to spend another 2 hours afterwards restoring everything because something went wrong? Who can you blame?

The main (aesthetics) improvements I spotted while browsing the phone were:

• the Notifications bar got a 2-tab line: first tab holds the usual notifications tab and the second is “Quick Settings”, which allows you to access Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the Wi-Fi hotspot, G.P.S, Mobile Network and all phone settings. I can think of at least 3 or 4 widget applications becoming obsolete.
• unlock the screen on the Weather/Clock widget and you’ll be presented with the usual animation (the wipers if it’s raining) but ALSO sound: the sound of rain and the sound of the wiper’s motor – quite neat! Also the clock movement is a bit laggy!
• the bottom bar containing the “Menu” button, the Phone button and the “Personalize” button is thinner and the whole design is crisper.
• inside the menu there’s a new bottom bar holding also “Favorite” and “Downloaded” applications tab. It’s a very good idea if you wanna have a faster access to the most important applications for you.

Of course, there are many more important updates coming with Gingerbread, but that should require more than a peek. You can find a complete list with the improvements here.

Looking forward to the power-saving improvements!

Picture courtesy of Christmas-Clip Art.

Android on a Motorola: at its finest! I plan a short but comprehensive review!

These days consuming data on the move is as natural as talking on the phone ten years ago. Most of the people I know have data-enabled phones or smartphones. We all use Twitter, Facebook (not me but that’s another story!), Y!M, GTalk, email, browsers and weather apps. In Romania they’ve introduced recently data service on prepaid SIMs, a first for big operators like Vodafone and Orange over here. I’m pretty sure nobody saw this “customer need” two years ago. A prepaid customer was a “necessary-evil” in the mobile equation, in which the monthly subscription (still) is King! Well, not anymore! Everybody can have data.

And with this “need”, a new set of problems appear; are we charged by KB? Or by 10 KB chunks? Are we paying a daily subscription for data-roaming? And if yes, how much (not that much, “just” 25€/day for 50 MB or so!)? All these questions lead us to a single reply: control. Data control.

Say… 3G Watchdog for Android. Like I said, a “not-so-simple” app, with a beautiful design and a very hand U.I. I learned from the description in the Market that it guards you against costly Internet over-charges, it monitors your 3G/EDGE/GPRS data consumption by showing an icon in the Status bar which is gradually turning from green to orange and red in according to your settings for the data usage. Personally, I already have extra two icons besides the standard ones in the Status bar and I don’t need another one – you can switch this one on or off in the app settings as you wish. One interesting feature is the ability to auto-disable the mobile data by using external apps used to monitor your energy consumption: APNdroid and/or Juice Defender, which also sports a link button in order to install this last app! Cool integration, huh?

Also, the application will predict your overall consumption based on your usage history, letting you know all the time if you’re gonna go over the allotment or not. You can choose a graph, a text based info or a table for that. Or all three of them complementing each other! It will also count the roaming usage, the billable vs measured consumption and can disregard the uploaded data if your operator won’t take that into account. (Multiple) SIM changes can be tracked.

Two widgets are also available; I personally don’t use them but if your budget is tight or your data plan is small, you should definitely reserve a spot for one of those.

On a more personal note, I had to seek support from Mr. Richard Gruet and I have to say I am impressed: he replied within 2 hours with clear explanations. This is what makes an app perfect: support.

This app is a must-have and it’s free! There’s also a Pro version with more features and carrying a small fee.