Walker News » Hardware

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).

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).

HTC One X Camera Tricks

Walker — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:24:04 +0000

One of the highlighted features of Android 4.0 ICS is camera app enhancements. So, what can you do with the HTC One X 8MP camera with BSI sensor?

Open camera app from locked screen

Never miss the chance to shoot a rare scene with HTC One X camera even it’s locked with a complex PIN or password. Just drag the camera app to the ring and you’re set to take photo!

Two criteria to use this feature, i.e. the camera app must exist in the launch bar (at bottom of home screen) and the “Show launch bar shortcuts” option is turned on – both of these criteria is ON by default.

Risk of data breach? No worry, HTC One X only allows one to take photo and prohibit browsing Gallery if the screen is locked.

Shooting video and photo concurrently

This is darn cool feature that I really looking forward! Certainly you can save the screenshot from video, but why have to waste time doing this if now you can take photo and record video at the same time? Says if you’re recording video of a street performance and out of sudden there is a need to capture few photos of charming performers, just tap the camera icon without stopping the video recording – simple as that!

Unlimited continuous photo shooting

The high speed continuous focus and zero shutter lag exposure features increase your chance to freeze a perfect moment in clear and sharp photo. Once the “Continuous shooting” option is checked/enabled, just hold down the camera icon and HTC One X will continuously taking photos until you lift finger. If you want to take more than 20 photos in continuous shooting mode, then disable that “Limit to 20 frames” option.

Built-in Panorama and HDR function

When the scene is too big for a normal photo, choose the Panorama option, tap camera icon and move the camera focus slowly towards one side with reference to green border frame shown on screen. After tapping stop icon, it automatically stitching the photos into panoramic image.

Using High Dynamic Range (HDR) feature, you can easily capture stunning photo of a scene that may look too dark or too bright in non-HDR mode.

Using Bluetooth to trigger camera shutter

The trick demonstrated by video (below) suggests that some Bluetooth headsets can actually trigger HTC One X camera shutter. If there is a “tripod” to hold the camera phone in hidden place, it becomes a spy camera or short of, which allows one to remotely shoot photos using Bluetooth headset (though the distance couldn’t be too far)! Best of all, you can turn off shutter sound of HTC One X (a feature that never exists natively on my previous Nokia N8) and enable auto-upload function!

Other misc. camera features are geotagging (record GPS location in EXIF), Full HD video recording with stabilization, 16:9 widescreen photo shooting, face and smile detection.

What it’s lacking of is automatic continuous shooting at fix interval, i.e. native time-lapse photography option that I want to have too! :(

Fix Problem Of HTC One X Software Update Appears Hang After Restart

Walker — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:18:08 +0000

Prior to perform system software update for HTC One X, I activated the storage encryption feature for safeguarding my precious data stored in its huge built-in memory.

By the time storage encryption process completed, the battery left merely 10% power and thus cannot start with system software update.

When the battery charged to 50%, I started the update process but left the “smart” phone connected with charger. After the phone restarted itself, it just showed a static green round arrow icon and no status or progress bar. After waiting for more 30 minutes, that scary still screen remained unchanged, looked like it’s hang or stop updating. Am worry and hesitated to power it off and on manually :(

Phew, luckily I did take some screenshots of system update screen and sent to Gmail prior to the update process started. Here is the answer to the problem – avoid charging your phone during the update as it may interfere with the process :(

DO NOT charge HTC One X battery while performing system software update! Charge the battery to full or at least more than 80% (though the screenshot suggests that at least 35% will do) and disconnected charger from HTC One X prior to start the system software (firmware) update! This “problem and fix” should be applicable to HTC One S and HTC One V, basically the One series.

If you’re in that situation like me, then just disconnect the charger (that’s what I did) but DO NOT power off or reset the phone!

Verdict: Read the instruction carefully, especially to veteran, overconfident owners.

Is Android Face Unlock More Secure Than Pattern Screen Lock?

Walker — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:51:56 +0000

Android 4.0 ICS Face Unlock is fun and cool, but it’s not secure because just anyone can unlock your smartphone screen using a picture of your smiling face (taken by camera or grab from Facebook).

With reference to Galaxy Nexus – Android mobile technology platform 4.0 User’s Guide, the Screen Lock options are shown in order of security strength:

Obviously, the fancy Face Unlock feature is less secure than Pattern. Both of these two Screen Locks provide minimal security, no doubt they’re intuitive and convenient to unlock the screen.

Therefore, Android (ICS) endeavors disable these least secure Screen Lock types and enforce the use of either PIN or Password type of Screen Lock when user activates Storage Encryption, to minimize risk of data loss.

If you choose to encrypt precious data on the phone, you won’t expect that someone can easily jeopardize it, like using a picture of you or remember your pattern used, to unlock the smartphone screen and access to data.

Apparently, for better security and protection, use Password type of Screen Lock that made up of mixing case alphabets, digits, and special characters. Of course, the longer the password the better!

How To Find Nokia N8 WLAN MAC Address?

Walker — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:06:02 +0000

Every network card comes with a unique Media Access Control address (commonly known as MAC address). So as your Nokia N8 smartphone that has built in Wireless LAN (WLAN) component.

However, Nokia doesn’t print this WLAN MAC address on chassis (it does print IMEI code next to HDMI port).

If a Wireless access point (AP) or router only grants Wi-Fi access to known MAC addresses (e.g. Wireless MAC Filter of D-LINK), then you must know how to check your Nokia N8 WLAN MAC address for maintaining the MAC Filter.

With reference to Nokia E72 support page, there is this non-intuitive “secret” code, *#62209526#, which is applicable to most of the Nokia smartphones including Nokia N8 – just enter the code (on keypad) and Symbian OS will show it.

I can’t recall there is a screen (Settings or About) displays this piece of info (not user-friendly!).