XPERIA Arc S - Thermal Image

A good friend of mine took this with a thermal camera. This is XPERIA Arc S after been online for 5 minutes! The picture says it all.

Unlocked a Samsung Galxy Ace through ADB

Just finished un-locking a Samsung Galaxy Ace - S5830, that was locked on the 3 network - UK. We don't get to see lots of locked phones in Egypt, and the last time I unlocked a phone, it was through a paid service.

I didn't do much, rooted the phone and then followed the procedure in this xda thread to unlock it via ADB. It worked like a charm. Now my English friend can enjoy using his phone freely with an Egyptian SIM card.

Note: The method for temporary rooting the phone, mentioned in the thread above, didn't work with me, so I rooted the phone permanently.

An Icon Pack

Here is a work-in-progress icons I'm working on. I'm not so sure if I'll ever the time to complete these to what I imagine, but they're fine as they is now!. Royalty Free! Enjoy!

 

Any.DO vs. Taskos

First time I saw these two apps, I was under the impression that they were made by two competing friends, or probably one of them has taken the idea from the other, and created a new app. They have almost the exact same functionality, down to the small details, like shaking the list of tasks to clear completed ones, and of course their icons. The icons of both apps is a white tick mark on a sky-blue background.

But that was the first impression.

Now, having used them both for quite some time, alternating between them, I see myself drawn more towards Any.DO, as it provides the sleeker interface, and some smart functions, though sometimes intervening.

Any.DO is almost a 6MB download, while Taskos is 750kB, which is really inviting, given that it provides almost the same functionality.

Both apps sync with your Google account tasks, but Taskos does a better job at that. I actually had several occasions when I needed to go to my Google account and clean things a little bit, before doing the sync with any.DO.

On the other hand, any.DO has a very well accomplished user interface, nice graphics, option to choose between two themes (white vs. black).

Functionality-wise, any.DO catches the missed calls and set customizable reminders to call back. It also catches your meetings, on any of your calendars, and interactively generates any to-do's that might have resulted from the meetings. I had some problems with the meeting follow-up function in a previous version of Any.DO, but they're gone now.


Bottom line here, in my opinion, is that if you're looking for a nicer looking tasks app that acts smart, though sometimes intruding, Any.DO is the choice. If you have concerns regarding the size, don't want the intervention or looking for a better syncing, then Taskos is the one for you.

	Any.DO	Taskos
Size (MB)	0.75	5.8
Interface
Widget	YES	YES
Missed Call Reminders	YES	NO
Meeting Follow Up	YES	NO
Shake to Clear	YES	YES
Categories	YES	YES
Sorting
Sorting in Widget	NO	YES
Different Widget Sizes	YES	YES
Swipe to Mark as Done	YES	YES
Sync with Google	YES	YES
Automatic Syncing	Buggy	YES
Forced/Manual Syncing	YES	YES
Customizable Reminders	YES	YES
Snooz Reminders	YES	YES

Basic4android .. Clever!

I can't deny it. I'm addicted to BASIC.

Although through the years I've used several programming and scripting languages, the BASIC programming language, being my first love, is the nearest and closest to my heart. I've done complete working applications with MSX BASIC, MS-Basic, GW-Basic, QBasic, Visual Basic, RealBASIC and even ones like Gambas.

Few days ago, I found something called "Basic4android", and immediately downloaded the free trial version from their website, and currently playing with it a little. So far, it seems good enough.

One thing that actually got my attention was that they use the emulator, or an actual phone, as a visual GUI designer. Clever, isn't it? Instead of coding their own visual designer, which is the reason some similar projects have ended badly, they're just using the actual device.

The only drawback I see so far is that it is only released for Windows.

From what I can see, so far, the produced apps are small in size and performs really nice. I haven't done any benchmarking, not yet anyway, but they seem quit equivalent to those written in Eclipse/ADK.

Another Reason to Burn Down Windows!

I'm already annoyed for using Windows on my notebook, and not being able to get the full potential of it under Linux. This said, it seems like Windows doesn't want to leave it that. I used my work computer to log on to WLM, only to find a message on my next login telling me that my account has been hacked. OK, might happen, although I thought it was a mistake from Microsoft's Live.com. But two days later, after changing my password, I'm faced with the same message and required to change my password again.

This time, after finishing all the identification process and changed the password, I went to check my SENT folder. Right to the point, it was full of spam. About 50 messages that I haven't sent. What stupid hacker sends emails from my account, and forgets to delete them from my sent folder?

Investigating the problem, it seems that it was caused by me logging to WLM from my work computer. This one has Windows XP on it, and is managed by the Company's IT team. I can't even do a proper scan on it, as I don't have the proper privileges.

So, until I get Linus properly setup on my notebook, I'm sticking to my Android phone for online services!

Nokia's new Windows Phones

October 2011 was when Microsoft announced they're working with Nokia to develop a series of Windows mobile based smart phones. These days it's all over the tech scene news, with leaked news, specs, photos, etc., which promises the phone is about to hit the market.

The question I'm asking now is: will Microsoft-Nokia's phone survive the smart phone war and have a piece o of the Plus pie?

I'll look the Arabic/ middle east market. Here, people who but Nokia phones can be divided into two main categories: the ones buying cheap feature phones, and those who are buying Nokia because they feel they're more familiar with the phone's GUI. Despite the fact that most modern phones have GUI's that don't resemble the old ones.

Both of these categories don't actually care about the "smartness" of the phone, they want to either buy cheap phones that does voice calls, or buy modern phones, despite the price, that would have a familiar interface to what they're used to. I have personally had many discussions with Nokia phones owners about switching to iPhone or android-based and their answer was that they don't need all the features nor do they ready to try new things.

Hence, Nokia shall face a great challenge in marketing their Windows phones. They're not cheap low end phones, nor have the same "familiar" software. If Nokia fails promoting for their new devices, they will be in a bad situation that might bring down three whole company!

On the other hand, back in the days before iPhones and android phones, Windows phones were not so popular. Blackberry's were the mark for smart phones. Windows phones were something that geeks would buy just to check out or experiment with. Something like showing off to your friends today by having an 8.5" diskette. This doesn't contribute well to marketing the phone.