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What Features Does Nokia 112 Offer For EUR38?

Walker — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:31:49 +0000

For luxury smartphone owners or people who is particular about the differences between HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3, the coming Nokia 11x series is not worth to mention/know at all.

Only it’s a great mobile phone for value, if you’re looking for a quality hardware that mainly used for making lengthy phone call or to stay in-touch much longer via mobile voice services. For just EUR38 (less than 50 bucks), excluding taxes and subsidies, you get a Nokia 112 with 1400mAh extended battery to supports 8 hours talk time or 28 days on standby.

Best of all, Nokia 112 features dual SIM slots, which means you can easily switch between two mobile service operators without powering off the device – a great convenient for those who crossing the border between countries regularly.

Other notable features of Nokia 112, which includes but not limited to QVGA color screen, Nokia Browser (that help to save data cost by compressing the requested web pages in the cloud), Bluetooth, expandable with micro-SD card up to 32 GB, GSM 900/1800 (GPRS, EDGE/EGPRS, GSM), FOTA (Firmware over the Air), PIM (alarm clock, calculator, calendar, converter, notes, recorder, reminder, to-do list, expense manager, etc), Nokia Mail (IMAP4, POP3, SMTP), Nokia Messaging 2.0 (Nokia Chat, Windows Live Messenger), 0.3MP VGA camera (don’t complain!), music player, and radio.

If EUR38 is too much, what about 3 buck lesser :)? For EUR35, you can shop for Nokia 110 (1020mAh battery) or Nokia 111 (single SIM card but supports 7.8 hours talk time or 790 hours standby time).

How To Access WhatsApp Setting Or Set Status On HTC One V?

Walker — Sun, 13 May 2012 18:12:01 +0000

It’s really frustrated to find apps setting on HTC One V (the scaled down version of HTC One X), as there is no menu button (the dotted vertical line) displayed by the app like WhatsApp, ES File Explorer, etc.

So, how to set WhatsApp status if you can’t find the way to access WhatsApp setting/menu page?

Here you go – the Recent Apps button of HTC One V (the red circle, as shown in screenshot) is also functioning as a menu button of an active app!

Thus, open WhatsApp then tap and hold down on the Recent Apps button for 3 seconds or longer, then you’ll get access to configure settings, create new chat group, set WhatsApp status message, etc. In the Chat screen, long press the Recent Apps button you’ll see options to set wallpaper, add shortcut (of chat) to home screen, email conversation, etc.

Once again, using the Recent Apps to function as menu/setting button is applicable to most apps, such as ES File Explorer.

Hard Reset HTC One X Before Send It For Repair Or Resale

Walker — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:58:13 +0000

My pricey HTC One X screen showed yellow tinted bar on bottom-right corner, which is only obvious when displaying white background in full-screen mode (e.g. Settings page or web browser with blank page).

Though the phone is working, that yellow tinted bar that looks like edge of burning paper is just pissed off me. So, I’ve to send it to HTC service center – Thanks god! I got one-to-one exchange over the counter, which seems to me it’s a manufacturing defect but didn’t get blocked by QC :(

Back to the topic, if you can power on the smartphone, please consider do a hard reset to wipe off personal data prior to send it for repair, put on eBay for resale, or go for a trade-in deal. Best if you can activate storage encryption first then only perform hard reset – double insurance :)

How to hard reset HTC One X

There are two ways to do it:

Do it from Settings screen

Go to Settings > Storage > Factory data reset > Reset phone > Erase everything.

Using hardware buttons

1. Power off the phone,

2. Hold down both the “power button” and “volume down” button together until you see 3 Android mascots appear on screen (if you can’t get it, try to press and hold down “volume down” button first then only followed by “power button”),

3. Use the “volume down” button to move selection bar down to highlight “FACTORY RESET” and then press “power button” to confirm selection:

As shown in the screenshot (above), the HBoot screen has options to do recovery, factory reset, check barcode, verify image CRC checksum, simlock, etc.

Video Demo: How To Open HTC One X Camera Even Screen Is Locked?

Walker — Sun, 13 May 2012 15:30:29 +0000

The data on Android smartphone is precious, so I enable storage encryption and use a complex password (not PIN) to lock screen.

Yes, entering the long password is troublesome. But, I don’t need more than 3 seconds to shoot a rare scene, as I can open HTC One X camera without unlock the screen!

You know, its 8MP BSI sensor featuring F2.0 aperture is capable of doing high speed (zero lag) continuous photo shooting (for more 20 frames in a row if tweaked), which means the chance to capture sharp and clear photo is much higher :)

All I have to do is make sure:

1. Go to Settings > Personalize > enable “Show launch bar shortcuts” option,

2. Put the camera app on the Launch bar that appears at bottom of Home screen. If it isn’t there, put the camera shortcut to home screen then drag it to the Launch bar.

Thereafter, I can drag the camera app shortcut to the ring and start shooting photo/recording video, even the screen remains locked! When the screen is locked, Android only allows one to use camera app and restrict viewing the photo gallery (so those secret photos saved in device will not expose when the smartphone goes to the wrong hands).

How To Capture Screenshot On Device Running Android 4.0 ICS?

Walker — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:17:34 +0000

Devices running Android 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) should all support native screenshot capturing function, i.e. there is no need to root the OS cum install app just for capturing screenshot right on device.

Standard ICS shortcut

On Galaxy Nexus, dubbed as Android Dev Phone (ADP) running standard Android 4.0 ICS, you can hold down both power AND volume down buttons together (with reference to “Snap a screenshot” of Galaxy Nexus features page).

The Acer A500 that upgraded from Android 3.x Honeycomb uses the same way. Some users claim this trick doesn’t work or it’s tricky. I personally try it and find out that I cannot press both buttons briefly – this won’t work. If you see either the volume control displayed on screen or the screen goes black (sleep mode), it means fail. To snap a screenshot of Acer A500 (as below), you must hold down BOTH power button and volume down key firmly for 2-3 seconds (or longer).

Custom ICS shortcut

For HTC One X, the shortcut key is different from standard ICS (c.f. HTC One X How-tos), and it’s a bit tricky too for some people – hold down power button first THEN ONLY quickly press the HOME button.

Using Wget To Recursively Download Folders From FTP Server With Login And Password

Walker — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:18:47 +0000

Question: How to automate a Linux shell script (or Windows batch file) to recursively download a folder via FTP server that requires login ID and password?

Answer: Uses wget, a non-interactive command-line program available in both Linux/UNIX and Windows platform, that can login FTP server and perform recursive download for a directory.

Example: Login to FTP server 172.28.7.21 as walker using password dotnet, to download the whole folder content of mybackup (which contains a bunch of files and sub-directories). In this case, the wget syntax is as this:

wget -r ftp://walker:'dotnet'@172.28.7.21/mybackup/*

You can also use wget option switch for specifying login ID and password, e.g.:

wget --user=walker --password='dotnet' -r ftp://172.28.7.21/mybackup/*

NOTE:
1. The use of asterisk is a MUST to indicate all files and folders.
2. The login password must be enclosed by single quote character.

New Features Of Acer A500 With Android 4.0 ICS Update

Walker — Sat, 12 May 2012 17:41:38 +0000

My Acer A500 tablet is almost one year old, but it looks new after upgrading to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – the first benefit or apparent “feature” in my view.

With Android 4.0, there is no need of rooting OS + 3rd-party app for taking screenshot of A500 right on the tablet – just press and hold down both power button and volume-down key together for about 3 seconds (or longer) will do.

By dragging one app icon to on top of another app icon, Android 4.0 ICS automatically creates an unnamed folder (which appears as a circle with apps icons in it), which is useful for grouping similar apps together.

It’s a new experience of browsing apps screen, where app pages become layers as you swipe from one page to another. To stop and/or disable apps, open Settings screen and select Apps from left pane, then tap an item listed on the right pane for further action.

There is panorama feature for the camera app (can’t remember I’ve this prior to ICS upgrade) but it doesn’t include function of recording video and taking photo concurrently (as what HTC One X can do). Oh yes, there is no Face Unlock either :(

Besides, the Acer Ring is not there and it can’t open apps from locked screen, though these features were mentioned in Acer announcement dated Feb 17, 2012.

So, what else do you get from the latest Android 4.0 ICS update for the Acer A500 tablet (that is worth to mention but I’ve accidentally missed it out here)?