tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1913739561363126492024-03-05T16:30:15.000-08:00The IT enthusiastAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-21438296190156299382015-06-25T03:40:00.002-07:002015-06-25T03:40:39.264-07:00"Fix" your 2012 Nexus 7 slowness on Android 5.0 Lollipop and above.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you've got a 2012 Nexus 7, then updating it to Android 5.0 Lollipop and over is likely to be the worst mistake you can make in regards to the software on this tablet. If you did not upgrade it yet to Lollipop, I would recommend NOT doing it (yes, I know, update notifications can be annoying). If you updated it, then just keep reading. I will explain to you what you can do in order to relieve yourself from the stress that any 5.0 and above firmware is creating while using the tablet.<br />
<br />
<br />
There is one single thing that can be done in order to fix the incredibly poor performance of the tablet: <b>to downgrade it to Android 4.4 KitKat or below.</b> Trust me, I have tried almost 10 different ROMs which run from 5.0 all the way to 5.1.1, and I am still trying to understand what is going on through the head of whoever is responsible at Google for providing these updates on the tablet.<br />
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Luckily, since it is an Android tablet, downgrading is extremely simple.<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>if you've got a tablet with an <i>unlocked bootloader and a custom recovery</i>, I would recommend following getting <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2533035" target="_blank">this link</a> and getting the provided ROM (it is pre-rooted). I've got the Odexed 1.6 version and it works flawlessly. Since you are downloading this version, I assume you already know how to flash that (gapps are included and do not need to be flashed separately);</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>otherwise, you can follow this <a href="https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images" target="_blank">official link</a> for the official Factory Images (I would recommend downloading the 4.4.4 image). More detailed instructions are available <a href="http://androidforums.com/threads/guide-how-to-flash-a-nexus-factory-image-manually.706533/" target="_blank">here</a>, but please make sure you are downloading a pre-Lollipop version and flashing that on the device, not the latest version which is 5.1.1!</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The reason for the extremely poor performance of the 2012 Nexus 7 on Lollipop ROMs is not clear. People speculate it might be due to flash wear-out but this is highly unlikely due to the fact that KitKat is running as new once installed. It is true that it has only 1GB of RAM and the pressure for low prices might have forced Asus to put low quality (thus slow) components that provide insufficient IO speed. But that does not explain the fact that a similar device which was also sold cheaply, the Nexus 4 is absolutely flying through Lollipop (the Nexus 4 does have 2GB of RAM, but this is not an excuse for the low memory killer on all Lollipop versions not being much more aggressive in order to keep the tablet usable, this, of course, provided that RAM was the culprit). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Thank you for reading these and please let me know if downgrading to KitKat managed to help you!</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-78120460485296256692014-07-06T00:51:00.001-07:002014-07-06T00:51:54.592-07:00Previewing Android L on Nexus 7 2012 through MultiROM!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Disclaimer: Before you start anything, you must know that I take no liability for anything that would happen to your device as a result of you following this guide and/or any of the instructions from the links that will follow.<br />
<br />
The new Android L (5.0) has been recently announced by Google, and if you own a Nexus 7 2012 tablet, than this is your chance to try the newest version of Android on your device. Please note that this is nothing official, it is just an port from the Android L emulator with the proper Android 4.4 binaries included. Therefore, you should expect frequent force closes, poor performance overall and lots of other problems.<br />
<br />
<br />
Here are the general steps you need to follow:<br />
<br />
1) First of all, the tablet must have an <b>unlocked bootloader</b>, with a <b>custom recovery</b> installed on it. This is a great guide that'll help you achieve that: <a href="http://nexus7.wonderhowto.com/how-to/definitive-nexus-7-guide-bootloader-unlocking-rooting-installing-custom-recoveries-0144705/" target="_blank">link</a>.<br />
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2) Then, you must<b> install MultiROM</b>, it will allow you to boot multiple ROMs on your tablet so that if you feel Android L is too unstable, you can easily boot the other ROM: <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2011403" target="_blank">link</a>.<br />
<br />
3) Finally, <b>download </b>the Android L files and gapps, <b>and flash </b>everything in MultiROM by following these instructions: <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2799011" target="_blank">link</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you see a .zip file named repacked-something (repacked4.zip at the time of writing this article), <i>then it needs to be flashed in MultiROM, unless the last link states otherwise.</i> Do not follow what other websites or articles say (they are not even giving direct links to the original authors, which is unfair), some of them advise to flash repacked4.zip directly through recovery, that will not work and you risk bricking your device that way.<br />
<br />
So that was all I had to say. I am currently running Android L myself, it is unexpectedly stable, I've seen relatively few force closes, but performs poor in terms of speed. There is probably barely any acceleration whatsoever (YouTube videos won't start at all). The animations are probably accelerated at less than even 30 frames per second and with more than several programs in the multitasking menu, you are going to see huge performance issues.<br />
<br />
For the apps that are not available (Chrome, Facebook etc): go on Google, and search, for example, "Chrome apk". It will give you the apk for that app, which can be easily installed. Yes, it can be altered/have malicious code injected but.. this is the only way you can get these apps.<br />
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Good luck!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-14304373991189184192014-06-04T08:47:00.000-07:002014-06-04T08:47:00.173-07:00HP Chromebook 14 - 6 months into using it.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've now had the HP Chromebook 14 for about 6 months, and I think it's time that I give it a fair review and explain why this is not only my first HP review, but quite possibly, the last one.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Performance. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
In the performance department, you should expect nothing but to be impressed. True, it's not the best processor available and so on, but it performs remarkably well no matter what I throw at it (I don't play games or use intensive video processing applications for example, and these will probably get it into trouble, but for the coding I need at university, for listening to music, word processing, browsing the web a lot, it works just fine). I have 16 tabs open in Chrome at the moment, a YouTube song playing in one of the tabs, Skype running in the background and a few terminal windows opened, and it doesn't have any issue handling all these. It moves like it had only one thing opened at a time. And for the battery life, it expects about 6 hours with all these opened, so it that is really fine.<br />
<br />
<i>Build quality, ports.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I love its design, it does really look good in my opinion. The build quality is quite good, the rubberized finished on feels absolutely great, and handles usage quite well. True, there are some light marks on the edges caused by the case I was using with it, but I can't attribute that as a fault to HP. And there is a thing on the top of the screen which I will show in the pictures, but I can only assume they used insufficient glue to use the parts together. The ports on the machine behave outstandingly well, and the HDMI port it comes with proved of great use so far. The plastic the palm rest is made of (which also goes around the keyboard) proved to be quite impressive in quality.<br />
<br />
<i>Screen.</i><br />
<br />
The screen is OKish. It is definitely not the best screen available, but it serves its purpose acceptably, and the colors it manages to produce are reasonable. Despite the common concerns, the resolution is just fine (especially in this price range), but the viewing angles are quite bad. Overall, I am satisfied with the screen, but would have definitely paid more for a Full HD one for example.<br />
<br />
<i>Touchpad and keyboard.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
The touchpad is the best one I have ever used. I can't say it's better than the ones from newer MacBooks, but it is definitely on a par with them. I can only laud HP for it.<br />
<br />
Regarding the keyboard, I have very mixed feelings about it. It behaves extraordinarily well, it is spaced enough and it feels great.<b> But it has a huge issue, and that is, some keys tend to color in the worst possible color, pink. </b><br />
<br />
There will be some photos posted at the end of this article about this, but I had to change the saturation and improve textures for the images as a whole in order for this to be apparent in photos. It looks bad, especially in the powerful sun light or the light emitted by fluorescent tubes. The keys having this issue are probably the ones which are used more often, but this is a 6 months old machine. I began seeing this when it was only 3 months old, and it's getting worse as the time goes by.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The HP customer service (I am impressed they even bothered answering to my email) claims that this is normal, and it "<span style="background-color: white;">is not due to a manufacturing issue, it is due to the regular usage of the computer". How on earth can a 3 months old computer have its keyboard turning pink due to regular usage? How can HP, in the first place, permit something so badly designed to get out of their factory gates (or their contractor's gates)? This keyboard should have been made in another color.. or in some other way which would have prevented this from happening. </span></span></div>
<br />
I was not born yesterday. I have been using lots of computers over the time, and I've rarely seen such an issue. My other Chromebook (the first Samsung one ever released) is over 2,5 years old now, and it never had such an issue with it's keyboard. That one still looks like new, while this one starting looking bad after only 3 months.<br />
<br />
<i>Conclusion.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
In the end, I still do like the machine. It's just that HP has a customer support which treats customers like they were all born yesterday and they don't know what should expect from a computer. Would you buy a car whose color would start washing out in areas which are most often exposed to usage (the doors near the door handles?) after just 3 months? Most probably not.<br />
<br />
For the same reason, <b>I do recommend staying away from this laptop.</b> Too bad it has the large 14" screen and the beautiful design, which I really like.<br />
<br />
A serious alternative is the 13" Samsung Chromebook 2, which has just been released in the US. Samsung proved to offer much more reliable machines so far (at least when compared to HP), and I see no reason why that wouldn't go on. It has also a good design, and it has a Full HD screen (which will really smoke the one from this HP). The only potential problem with that machine? Samsung has put a ARM processor into it. I use Ubuntu for my day to day activities, and though there is stuff compiled for ARM, not anything will work on that processor.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day, it is mostly up to you which computer would you go for, and though I agree that the HP Chromebook 14 is faster than the 13" Samsung Chromebook 2, I tend to say that the latter one would be better overall. If you need to use Linux, please be careful and check that things you'll need are compatible with the processor from the Samsung Chromebook<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzGdr25bgYD1c8V6ctwY7CJueTsfUZdwDNddxGiWJ-kBuQd4lVVvZ1cHIVkd7Q4c4ToM7fwqoJO0tTEeZaqhN_b6wn65jhjqsn7Pd5-FxDk0oYAppG-D-XnBxdENbYSVirVSyJnYPlZYB/s1600/navkeysEdited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtzGdr25bgYD1c8V6ctwY7CJueTsfUZdwDNddxGiWJ-kBuQd4lVVvZ1cHIVkd7Q4c4ToM7fwqoJO0tTEeZaqhN_b6wn65jhjqsn7Pd5-FxDk0oYAppG-D-XnBxdENbYSVirVSyJnYPlZYB/s1600/navkeysEdited.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see here the navigation keys (ignore other anomalies<br />introduced by editing, e.g. what you're seeing on Shift).</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmByEIVC1O_cfBMrRhV-CMXZQlXNGiVLFwmMTT2qgrJMz4xsdnCiiAYDF7XrHtce_etVVFBnfPKVOAIcVsZ60p_rPadEXvudkdtE8v_bRGdl2QzEo4QjhgHOZY99QietqWmsN4CYqV02LO/s1600/otherPartEdited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmByEIVC1O_cfBMrRhV-CMXZQlXNGiVLFwmMTT2qgrJMz4xsdnCiiAYDF7XrHtce_etVVFBnfPKVOAIcVsZ60p_rPadEXvudkdtE8v_bRGdl2QzEo4QjhgHOZY99QietqWmsN4CYqV02LO/s1600/otherPartEdited.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here you can compare "a", "s" and "d" with "z" and "x".</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3p4ncZZkyGJ9_qftjRghTpWw9c3bnLHVOoZuhE-Kwt3TI8R_Op582ABoPsqtF9kX_VfUwzg1usIzHSeWCg1sbfkw2U7MxkKZrNjr7IP8qH5TaTNMSkglzsx5dEXihX2MFKPZ_EbZp9NpX/s1600/topScreen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3p4ncZZkyGJ9_qftjRghTpWw9c3bnLHVOoZuhE-Kwt3TI8R_Op582ABoPsqtF9kX_VfUwzg1usIzHSeWCg1sbfkw2U7MxkKZrNjr7IP8qH5TaTNMSkglzsx5dEXihX2MFKPZ_EbZp9NpX/s1600/topScreen.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You can see here that the bezel of the screen is not completely<br />glued to the back part of the screen. Probably just insufficient<br />glue used.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-171770722906546502013-05-12T11:45:00.001-07:002014-04-13T13:58:24.334-07:00Ubuntu Linux on Chromebook: Crouton vs ChrUbuntu, or installing over Chrome OS or dual booting. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
For the end of the term at the University, I've decided to bring with me my Chromebook (Samsung Series 5). I am on a computer science degree, so I must sometimes act like I am a power user or at least, have access to ssh, plus a X client. Therefore, it seemed obvious that I sometimes needed to have a desktop environment able to run native applications (e.g java), plus the X thing via ssh. Okay, Chrome OS is somehow able to do ssh and some sort of X server-client thing, because it's still a Linux operating system underneath, but it's not brilliant at that. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Before starting anything, <span style="color: red;">I need to say that I am not responsible for anything that happens to your computer by following what I will say. You are doing everything on your own responsibility. </span>Everything is specifically designed for Samsung Chromebook Series 5. It might apply to other machines, or it might not. Please check the sources carefully before doing anything.</div>
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<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>
One vs. another.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Just to make everything clear: </div>
</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>ChrUbuntu is installed on a removable storage, so it doesn't touch the internal storage or alter it.</li>
<li>crouton is installed on the internal storage, so it *might* touch the internal storage.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My recommendation is crouton, for a number of reasons I will enumerate in the section designed to it. ChrUbuntu is probably easier to install, and easier to use, but it has some fundamental drawbacks which make it a bit annoying. For crouton, you'll probably need to use the terminal a little bit, but it's really not that much to be afraid of.<br />
<br />
However, because ChrUbuntu is installed on a removable storage, all you have to do in order to get rid of it is to format that storage. This is rather easy, and won't affect the existing Chrome OS installation from the internal storage at all. For crouton, there are some commands to run in Chrome OS in order to remove it, because it installed on the internal storage of the Chromebook. This can get risky sometimes, and if something goes wrong, the only way to recover is to get back to the original state of the storage, and that is to wipe everything and set-up as a new Chromebook.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, on Samsung Series 5, there is a hardware switch which just turns off developer mode, and so it wipes the internal storage completely. It might be this easy on other Chromebooks also, but I am not sure about this matter. I advise you to search a little more on recovery for your Chromebook before doing anything.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">
ChrUbuntu.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
First off, I tried to install ChrUbuntu. ChrUbuntu is a quite nice thing, it runs, as I have already told, on a USB flash drive or on a SD card, and you basically dual-boot in order to be able to get into Ubuntu. Yes, you need to reboot for that, so you don't have both running on the same time. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Installation. </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Technically, to get anything working you need to follow everything from (this is the official ChrUbuntu website) (<a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html" target="_blank">here</a>), except that at point number 4, you MUST replace the command with the one you get from (<a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/so-you-want-chrubuntu-on-external-drive.html" target="_blank">here</a>), according to your device and according to where you are installing it (USB flash or SD card). That is all.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Note: turning on developer mode will remove everything from the internal storage!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Luckily, it's not a very hard process (even though at first sight is seems so), and it should be easily reversible in most cases. Unfortunately, after a month, my USB drive stopped working (applications were reporting I/O errors when it happened), and after a reboot it failed to boot anymore in ChrUbuntu. I've seen some other people complaining about this, I don't know if it's only the flash drive which has been broken, if it's related to ChrUbuntu, or if something from the operating system got broken. Anyway, Chrome OS was just fine. </div>
<div>
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Booting it up.</span></b><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
What I should mention here is how ChrUbuntu is supposed to start. When you first start the Chromebook, you'll get a warning screen with a "scary" face. At this point, you have three options:</div>
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Wait for about 30 seconds and it will beep two times, and boot Chrome OS.</li>
<li>Hit Ctrl + D -> instantly boot Chrome OS.</li>
<li>Hit Ctrl + U -> boot Ubuntu.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Nothing that complicated at all. If you hit Ctrl + U and the installation of Ubuntu is not present, than it will beep so that you know that it can't boot.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Good and bad points.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: lime;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> Ubuntu runs exactly like on a regular computer.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> so you can do (almost, look below) anything you would do on any other machine running Ubuntu.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> the guy who created ChrUbuntu took care of the drivers, everything is working fine (on my machine at least).</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> little or no maintenance to involved, so might be suitable for people not willing to touch the terminal at all.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> nothing really altered on the internal storage (except when you first turn on developer mode).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="color: red;">-</span> it's only Ubuntu 12.04, not one of the latest versions.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">-</span> because it's installed on a USB drive (2.0 is supported only), or on a SD card, it's deadly slow.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">-</span> limited to the maximum speed of the medium it's installed on.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">-</span> requires a medium of at least 8 GB, about 2 GB will be free after installation.</div>
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<span style="color: red;">-</span> has no swap partition, so when you get out RAM...well, Chrome and other applications will eventually crash, or lag being very bad.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>
Crouton. </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
It's a bit more complicated, but the huge advantage is that it runs on top of Chrome OS, and in the same time with Chrome OS. Therefore, it uses the kernel provided by Chrome OS, all the drivers from Chrome OS, and everything else that is provided by Chrome OS, and so everything should be working just fine and it's extremely fast. When I say extremely fast, I mean that it's one of the fastest experiences I've seen to date on a computer running Ubuntu (this is on just 2 GB of RAM and a dual-core Intel Atom processor running at just 1.6GHz!). </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<strike><b>Important</b> here: just don't do the silly thing of installing Xfce instead of Unity. Xfce is just awful. It has the worst interface I've seen, it's not attractive at all, half of the icons are broken etc etc etc. Go for Unity from the beginning. I did the silly thing, and it seems that there are some "traces" from Xfce on my installation of Unity, and it's sometimes annoying, but I can still do whatever I want because I have the terminal available. </strike><br />
<strike><br /></strike>
Actually, forget what I said above. Xfce works actually quite well, and it is worth to give it a try. It will be significantly faster than with Unity, but I still think that Unity will give higher productivity. It's really up to you. Please note that you must use "xfce" wherever you see "unity" in this guide, and start it using "sudo startxfce4" after installation.<br />
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Installation.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
For the installation, follow the first point from ChrUbuntu for your own Chromebook, that is, just to turn on developer mode. I repeat, from (<a href="http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/chrubuntu-1204-now-with-double-bits.html" target="_blank">here</a>), follow just the first point!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then, from (<a href="https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/blob/master/README.md#usage" target="_blank">here</a>), download the package provided. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Afterwards, follow the guide from (<a href="https://github.com/dnschneid/crouton/blob/master/README.md#examples" target="_blank">here</a>, same as before but at another heading), but for the point 2, type "unity" instead of "xfce". This will install Unity. For point 4), type "sudo startunity", and Unity will start. Everything else is the same.</div>
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</div>
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
Note: logging off does not work for me, for some reason. If this is the case for you, to close Unity, just hit Ctrl + Alt + Back to get back to Chrome OS, and then, in the crosh window in which Unity is running, hit Ctrl + C. This is not a very elegant way of closing it, but it should kill it pretty okay.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Starting it up.</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
Just as with ChrUbuntu, when you power up your Chromebook, you will get the "scary" face warning. But now, you can wait for 30 seconds and Chrome OS will boot automatically, or you can hit Ctrl + D and it will boot Chrome OS at that moment.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When you want to start unity from now on, hit Ctrl + Alt + T. This will open a crosh window on Chrome OS. There, type "shell". Afterwards, type "sudo startunity", just as before, and it should start.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To close it, try to click logoff. If it doesn't work, then go to Chrome OS, and in the crosh window, hit Ctrl + C.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">
Good points and bad points of this method.</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: lime;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> it runs on top of Chrome OS, in the same time with it.</div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> easily switch between them.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> everything is guaranteed to work.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> performance is absolutely astonishing, as everything is optimized for Chrome OS.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> Unity + my apps apps add up to about 2 GB, leaving around 8 GB of free storage.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: lime;">+</span> unified storage, so each OS can easily manage the files.</div>
<div>
<br />
<span style="color: red;">-</span> it's only Ubuntu 12.04.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: red;">-</span> can be a bit too technical for some users.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: red;">-</span> in my experience, I had to use the terminal quite a little bit.</div>
<div>
<span style="color: red;">-</span> uses internal storage (not excessively much).</div>
<div>
<span style="color: red;">-</span> resources are shared, but I could not notice any difference.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Conclusion.</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I've seen a lot of people complaining about the Chrome OS not being a complete operating system, about not knowing to do that and that, about being too minimalist and so on. With the possibility of having Linux working on a Chromebook, this completely vanishes. It's definitely not a solution which satisfies anyone, at least not on my machine. I am expecting it to work much better on the Series 5 550, the newer generation of Chromebooks that has the Celeron processor and double the amount of RAM.</div>
<div>
<br />
However, it transforms the Chromebook into a computer that is capable of handling almost all the tasks a home or a power user would need to perform.<br />
<br />
<br />
If you have any kind of questions, I will answer them here. I will try to look regularly for this on this particular post. I think that almost anything you would need can be found just by searching on Google, but if you still need help, I am here and I will try to provide it. </div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-56376172672711038842013-02-08T12:20:00.001-08:002013-05-12T02:55:58.632-07:00Congratulations to Microsoft for buying Skype. They simply destroyed the compatibility with Linux.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Update: I actually seems to be working now. However, it's not brilliant at all, the quality is unacceptable for any standard, in my opinion. The sound tends to be very unnatural, and it gets stuck for a few times every single second, so you must sometimes guess what the person at the other end is saying. Furthermore, the video gets behind for about 7-10 seconds after just a few minutes of talking. I talked with a lot of friends from twitter, and they all complain about Skype. I have no idea where Microsoft is heading towards. </i><br />
<br />
Who has not heard of Skype? It's probably one of the most known and popular service for voice and video chatting over the web, and it's been a wonderful product a few years ago. The times in which the quality of both sound and video were great have disappeared a long time ago, and all that's left today is a poor service, with quality which is below any acceptable level and disastrous compatibility (given the fact that mobile and Linux usage have significantly increased over the last few years).<br />
<br />
Skype's decay has actually started before it getting acquired by Microsoft, but Microsoft only made everything worse. Before the Microsoft story, Skype was somehow working for me. I am using Linux most of the time, because not only I enjoy it the most, but my University courseworks and tasks require me to use Linux for almost every single module I have on my course. So I had to use Skype under Linux, which used to work quite decent, I might say.<br />
<br />
However, over the last few months, it's been getting worse and worse, and now it is completely unusable under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (after being bought by Microsoft, coincidence?) . From the very beginning, video quality was a total mess under Linux, as the colors were completely out of their place and I always had a lot of shadows of different colors going on in the place where my image should have been (my image was still in the background, with all that going on on top of it). But recently, it started to crash frequently, mostly when I was trying to answer a call (calling worked just fine). And it still used to be decent, even like that!<br />
<br />
But now, it reached the point when it signs in, and that's virtually all it can do. There are no connections going on at all between me and the other contacts, no matter what device/OS they use. All contacts appear as offline, I appear offline to them, I can't call, they can't call, so it's completely useless, and this has been happening for about a month now.<br />
<br />
I gave up any chance that Microsoft will even think about fixing something, the last update they launched has done nothing good (it seems to have broken anything which was working), except bringing compatibility with MSN (which by the way, I heard they are planning to close and use Skype as their main messaging service). I just suppose they are probably trying to close down the compatibility with Linux because their recently-launched Windows 8 seems to be a flop, and Linux seems to be gaining more and more market share (or simply "users", because it doesn't really have market share as it's open source).<br />
<br />
Therefore, the only chance of getting a Skype conversation is through Windows, but the situation is not exceptionally good even there, while doing Windows-to-Windows video calls (but this is another story). Microsoft's own software doesn't work good on their own operating system, so there is nothing new here. They simply deserve their Windows 8 to fail so bad that they will be motivated to do much better software, which works exceptionally at least on their own software!<br />
<br />
Don't get me wrong, I am not asking for a flawless product from them for Linux. All I want is one which just does its job, on software it used work on.<br />
<br />
The best alternative out there: <a href="https://plus.google.com/hangouts" target="_blank">Google hangouts</a>. Unfortunately, its interface is sometimes confusing for some users, but quality and compatibility wise, it is absolutely perfect. Recommended trying.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-26049456790214068732012-08-13T02:51:00.000-07:002012-10-06T10:26:54.320-07:00PGM Nexus is an application which makes you forget of the power button.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
PGM Nexus is a great kernel module (or an app, if you prefer it in simple terms), designed for rooted Galaxy Nexus phones which allows you to turn your screen on or off using just swipe gestures. For example, on my Nexus I just swipe from left to right across the screen, and it powers on. If I do the same thing but on the other direction at the bottom of the screen (where the navigation buttons are located), screen just turns of. It takes a bit of time to get used to it, but after you start enjoying it, it'll be the exclusive mode you turn the screen on and off.<br />
<br />
If your power button fails and you are afraid of that, this is exactly what you need. I still can't figure out how it actually works (the screen is off, it doesn't use any power but it still recognizes the swipes), but it's a great idea which is well implemented. It's really great, but because of the kernel thing, it will automatically turn off (if set to start on boot) when a kernel is flashed, but selecting that option again seems to stick through reboots afterwards.<br />
<br />
Only drawback: it's $3. There's a free version available, but people complain that it completely stops working after a week. So you decide on which way to go. </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-56234112057940093972012-08-09T06:01:00.000-07:002012-08-09T06:01:21.686-07:00Jailbreaking Apple's iOS 5.1.1 proves not to be an easy task, you might run into trouble.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've owned an iPhone 3G when it came out and after my experience with it, I will be never going to buy any iThing again: waiting for new exploits for jailbreak, waiting for new unlock solutions, for every and each iOS version. On Android it is much more simple, and on Nexus particularly, everything is done using Google's own software (and the unlock, if needed, can be realized through a simple PIN code). But I'm not going to compare these aspects, because it's clear who is the winner here.<br />
<br />
The idea is that two days ago I've updated my brother's iPod Touch 4G to the latest iOS version (was running an antique one), promising that I'll jailbreak it again (he run into trouble when he was not allowed to install apps that were designed for newer versions of iOS).<br />
<br />
So, I simply updated it without any problems, but afterwards I found myself into a stupid situation. No matter what I was doing, I couldn't jailbreak that iPod. I tried several applications of this kind, knowing they are supposed to work properly and to do untethered jailbreak on iPod Touch 4G. None of them finished their job, Absinthe for example started the jailbreak and seemed to do everything needed, but just after rebooting the iPod, it kept returning an error saying something went wrong. After a couple of reboots while trying to run it in different ways, it started to crash even before starting. I wasn't luckier at all with redsn0w, which sometimes seemed to start doing the jailbreak but crashed at the end (iPod still untouched), while other times it even refused to start the jailbreak. And I tried everything, even in Recovery Mode or in DFU, but with no avail.<br />
<br />
The solution came with sn0wbreeze (I really <b>recommend</b> you trying with this one), which basically downloads the iOS version and modifies it, adding everything required for jailbreak (including Cyadia and everything else). By using iTunes (Shift + click on Restore, and selecting the modified iOS), I was able to jailbreak that iPod. Of course, this happened after having to apply something else first because I ran into another problem (failed to restore with an error code), but I fixed that easily with a search on Google. <br />
<br />
I'm not here to criticize Apple or the guys who take care of jailbreak solutions, but I'm saying that everything is way too complicated and the only loser here is exactly Apple, because the fact that there are so many jailbreak options (4 at a first sight), translates into the following: there is a high demand for this kind of solutions, and iOS is more vulnerable than ever. <br />
<br />
I'm not going to post here any links, but you can easily find everything you need with a search on Google. Good luck if you are trying to jailbreak an iDevice and...be patient. :)</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-12215076323695196122012-08-06T15:01:00.000-07:002012-08-06T15:01:30.430-07:00Whatever you do with your Galaxy Nexus, just make sure you don't crack the screen glass; or you'll have to pay a lot.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last week I succeeded in cracking the screen (glass) on my GSM Galaxy Nexus but I really didn't care very much about that when it happened because I was sure I would be able to repair it at a quite decent price, as I knew how much this job usually costs for iPhones. However, I got quite fast to the reality, and everything I was able to find on the internet indicated a price of $170 for this repair alone. OK, don't get me wrong, I am not stressed about this, because the screen is fully functional and I can use it like it is without any problems, but paying that money for just a screen isn't worth at all!<br />
<br />
The problem is the following: the glass, which is basically what we touch when we use the screen, is simply fused to the LCD, so they can't be separated, resulting in something stupid. If you need to replace the glass, you have to replace the entire screen, including the LCD, for which you must pay that price ($170).<br />
<br />
Of course that you can only buy the glass from eBay, but it is very har to detach the two parts because the screen is fused at an extremely high temperature to the LCD. And all the repair shops refuse to do it, so you can only do it yourself... but the chances of succeeding are very reduced. I wouldn't even try if the touch is still functional and cracks don't bother me, because if you break the LCD, you just paid around $20 for the glass and you'll have to pay another $170 for the entire screen to get the phone functional again. (and no, CDMA screens won't fit correctly of GSM and otherwise).<br />
<br />
So, the entire screen is at least $170 (cheapest price) on the internet. The phone is currently available at $350 in the US, which means that the screen is almost a half of that. Much overpriced, in my opinion. Not to mention that the phone shops asked for at least $270 just for the screen, here, in Romania. Comparing it to other phones, it is still overpriced. The same thing for the Galaxy S2 is $130 (but the quality is also lower, so it's obvious it is cheaper). But the same thing costs only $30 for the iPhone 4S, which means Samsung is definitely overpricing things (a lot) but I can't tell why. Yes, you heard me right, the screen (glass + touch + LCD + whatever else is related to the screen): iPhone 4S - $30 vs Galaxy Nexus - $170.<br />
<br />
You probably think I'm furious now...but I am not at all. It could happen to anyone. And I would definitely buy the next Nexus (I love these phones), even if it will still be manufactured by Samsung. The only difference will be that if I go somewhere (I was at a restaurant and I dropped the phone with the face down on a brick walkway), I would definitely keep it in a case to protect it. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-89601775161613750912012-07-23T08:07:00.001-07:002012-07-23T08:07:24.861-07:00How to listen to Pandora radio from anywhere outside the US.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I used to listen a lot to Pandora radio when I was in the US and I really enjoyed it, so obviously that I wanted it back home. But unfortunately, Pandora is available only in the US, because of the licensing problems which streaming in other countries could create. So, basically, if you are not in America, you can't listen to Pandora radio. But this is the official version...<br />
<br />
There is a VPN service called Hotspot Shield which creates something like a tunnel between your computer and a gateway provided by Hotspot Shield (that's some sort of the definition of the VPN), which exists exactly in the US. The idea is that through this VPN, you should get a much safer browsing experience, because everything you do on the internet is sent, securely through that tunnel, in the US, so there is impossible for one to attack you and to try to track your data or something like that. For me it is not clear how the data is handled when it exits in the US, so I wouldn't trust Hotspot Shield when I buy something on the internet for example, but this remains at your own judgement.<br />
<br />
By using Hotspot Shield, you should be able to access Pandora from wherever you are. I've been using it not very often for the last 1,5 years, but it always did its job.<br />
<br />
Of course that using this also has some disadvantages, and they are mainly related to slow internet speeds (because everything has to go to the US and back) and sometimes slow DNS response. However, it is definitely worth being used for the possibility it introduces to all the internet customers, no matter where they are.<br />
<br />
Note: I am not responsible for everything that happens to you by using this service. You use it on your own responsibility.<br />
<br />
You can go on their website to learn more or try the product: <a href="http://www.hotspotshield.com/">http://www.hotspotshield.com/</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-39533483971396850652012-07-22T06:02:00.001-07:002012-07-22T06:02:24.236-07:00Send free SMS messages all over the world with e-FreeSMS.com (July 2012).<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've just discovered <a href="http://e-freesms.com/">e-FreeSMS.com</a>, a website which allows you to send free SMS messages to whoever you want, regardless your position or the position of the person you want to text (with two servers to choose from). It's a simple website, of course with lots of ads (it's a free service after all), but the idea is that I've tested it and it works very good, got the messages within 5 seconds (Vodafone Romania).<br />
<br />
The website says that you can also make free calls directly from it, but from what I understood, they are available only if calling the US or Canada, regardless your position. More than this, it also allows you to watch local television channels from your own country, but you must have luck to get it working, so it's not really reliable for this (most televisions are streaming on the internet directly from their websites, which are better streams than the ones provided by this website). <br />
<br />
<a href="http://e-freesms.com/">e-FreeSMS.com</a> is working properly at the time of posting this article (the end of July 2012). Give it a try, maybe you'll like it. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-39594109275312880832012-07-22T04:54:00.000-07:002012-07-22T04:54:04.106-07:00mysms SMS application seems to be very promising, brings many useful features over Whatsapp.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A few days ago I've presented you Whatsapp (<a href="http://it-nthusiast.blogspot.ro/2012/07/ive-been-using-whatsapp-messaging.html" target="_blank">here</a>), a great messaging app available for a lot of mobile platforms which gives you the possibility to send free messages over the internet to all the users who have Whatsapp installed on their device. One of the disadvantages of Whatsapp is that you must be on your phone to send the messages, so you can't register on your phone and then send the messages from your computer or anything like that.<br />
<br />
However, with mysms SMS application, it becomes possible to send messages from your computer to all of your friends from all the other platforms, using the mobile phone number you register with before. Moreover, mysms comes also as a standard SMS client, having the ability to handle all the SMS functionality of your phone's default SMS application. More specifically, you can send and receive standard SMS messages directly through mysms, without having to open the stock application separately (you'll have the option to send messages via mobile carrier or via mysms, in case your friends have it). I don't know whether this works or not on iOS because of Apple's restrictions, but on Android it works quite well.<br />
<br />
One problem which I found is that I can't send messages through mysms from the browser (Chrome), maybe this functionality is currently unavailable, but it's still a great product. At 700 messages a month from my carrier contract, I think that it's still worth using it, considering that I don't even need to access my phone in order to view or send messages. And the ICS/JB design is a big plus over Whatsapp.<br />
<br />
Visit the official website for more information <a href="http://www.mysms.com/">http://www.mysms.com/</a>, or search directly in App Store/ Google Play for "mysms".<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-21233119151511302922012-07-21T13:06:00.000-07:002012-07-21T13:06:05.631-07:00XXLF1 radio for Galaxy Nexus, OK to install (works good).<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday I installed the latest radio available for my GSM Galaxy Nexus, version XXLF1. It works without any problems, didn't occur any signal drops or anything like that. The WiFi signal seems to be the same, while the GSM signal is significantly improved (HSDPA). It's difficult to notice any battery change, but it seem to be slightly improved (30% at the end of the day).<br />
<br />
Please note the the beginning "XX" means that this is a radio only for the European networks, so don't try to install it if you live somewhere outside the Europe. It works very good in Romania, didn't have any issues after installing (Vodafone). Tested on Jelly Bean.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Download from XDA: <a href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27984155&postcount=1096" target="_blank">link</a> (flashable zip, flash in CWM recovery). If the link becomes broken, please report in a comment and I will change it. </div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-3027318303836969142012-07-18T03:14:00.000-07:002012-07-18T03:19:34.818-07:00Chrome 20 might be the most unreliable browser to use on Ubuntu.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm a big fan of Google's products, and of course that this includes Chrome, but Google's lightweight browser is not worth being considered as the best one from all the available ones, at least on Linux. Ubuntu (because that's the OS I use most of the time) comes with Firefox for this: even though it is not as fast as Chrome, it is rocket-stable and fully usable (free of bugs). But Chrome has been having bugs since a long time ago and it has some even now. And what's worse, Chrome 20 "features" more bugs than ever.<br />
<br />
First of all, there are huge issues with Flash. Most of the content from YouTube still uses Flash (please note that YouTube is also owned by Google), and one of the most used ways make a video start again is to refresh the page. And I have to do this because I simply can't click on anything that's Flash related, for I-don't-know-what reason. Moreover, Samsung's Chromebook computer, which runs on Chrome (there's nothing else to choose) has the same problems with Flash.<br />
<br />
Then, there is the Blogger platform. You can write everything you want (just like I do now), but you can't put a title in the article (note: the article is going to have a title put on Firefox, just because Chrome can't do it for a reason or another). And here we are talking about two Google products. Blogger, a Google product, can't be properly used on Chrome, Google's browser. I am sorry, but this is something incredible, and Google should have taken action long time ago on this subject.<br />
<br />
And there are other, not so serious, but still annoying bugs. On 9gag, portions of the bar from the top of the screen spread across the entire screen while scrolling. On YouTube, the same thing happens with the bar located just below the videos. And more that this, while watching something, you can't see what you type when you search for something else (on YouTube), it just displays what was searched before (it still searches, if you write something and tap enter you'll see it will return what you wanted, but it's annoying).<br />
<br />
Of course that these aren't the only bugs, but with these I have to deal day by day. My girlfriend complains that she can't enter full screen while watching some TV series on the internet (don't know whether it's Flash or not), but there clearly are some issues Google have to take care about.<br />
<br />
I can't simply give up using Chrome because, as I've told, I'm a big fan of Google's products, and I have more computers, so I need sync across all of them (bookmarks and stuff). Owning a Galaxy Nexus is also a strong reason for using Google's products. And I don't even want to give up using them, because they make the life a lot easier (Gmail, Picasa, Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Maps etc), I use them a lot and they help me everyday, but the idea is that some of the bugs really have to be fixed sooner or later.<br />
<br />
I don't know if they are present only on Linux, because I rarely use Windows, and when I do it, I don't usually have a lot of time to spend on YouTube, 9gag or such websites. </div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-42564682089158617542012-07-17T14:01:00.000-07:002012-07-18T01:02:44.193-07:00Some reasons for which to use Whatsapp as your default messaging client.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've been using Whatsapp messaging client on my phone intensively for about half a year now, and I've been really satisfied with it. Or at least, it's been working perfectly for me until now (Galaxy Nexus on Jelly Bean now), even though there are some who report serious issues with it. For those who did not use it until now, the main idea is that it is a lightweight messaging client which works over the internet (WiFi or mobile network).<br />
<br />
I really recommend it because it is very popular (so there should be a lot of users to speak to), uses a very small amount of battery, it is very fast, and uses a ridiculously reduced amount of data. I've sent about 3700 messages since I installed Jelly Bean (very recently) and it used only 1.5 MB, which is really negligible, considering that I have a 750MB data plan and I am a lot of time in areas where WiFi is available free of charge.<br />
<br />
But here is the most important feature: based on the mobile phone number, it detects whether the contacts from your address book have Whatsapp installed or not, and it will display those who have it. For this purpose, you'll have to give your phone number when you first run the application. And as you had probably figured out already, you are going to be in tho places, with two different accounts, in the case that you have two phones and you want it installed on both of them. For this reason (the necessity of having a mobile phone number), Whatsapp can't run and was not designed to be used on computers. So no, there's no PC/Mac version, and probably, there will never be one.<br />
<br />
Whatsapp is available for the following platforms (click the links for download):<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.whatsapp&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS53aGF0c2FwcCJd" target="_blank">Android</a> (free for the first year);</li>
<li><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whatsapp-messenger/id310633997?mt=8" target="_blank">iOS</a> ($0.99);</li>
<li><a href="http://www.whatsapp.com/appworld/" target="_blank">BlackBerry</a></li>
<li>Nokia phones (<a href="http://www.whatsapp.com/s40/" target="_blank">Nokia Series 40</a>, <a href="http://www.whatsapp.com/nokia/" target="_blank">Symbian</a> and <a href="http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/218a0ebb-1585-4c7e-a9ec-054cf4569a79" target="_blank">Windows Phone</a>);</li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
</ul>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-29941090728361617722012-07-16T07:41:00.002-07:002012-07-16T14:24:01.190-07:00Make S3 ProSavageDDR graphics card work properly on Windows 7.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the last few days I've been using my old Fujitsu Siemens notebook, which runs on an old hardware (it is not worth mentioning its specifications). It had Windows XP installed and after a few crashes and a lot of lagginess, I decided installing Windows 7 on it, hoping it would run better afterwards. So the installation went smooth, but I got stuck at what I was afraid of, the drivers. Almost anything worked out-of-the-box, but in a limited way. For the video card, which I want to talk about, Windows 7 used some sort of basic graphics driver, instead of using a dedicated one, which meant very sluggish graphics and improper resolution (had to find the right one by myself).<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Basically, S3 (the company who manufactured ProSavageDDR) dropped the support for this graphic card, along with many others, leaving on their website only links from where you can theoretically download the drivers. Theoretically, because the download links are broken, and now (at the time of writing this article), even the webpage is down. But the main problem is that many of the other download links (from other websites) for the driver for ProSavageDDR are down, broken or link to nowhere, so it is quite difficult to find the driver for this graphics card. Moreover, the support has been dropped when the driver was designed for Windows XP or earlier, so there was no driver for Windows Vista or 7 created. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
However, I managed to find the driver on a website (link posted below), and I even successfully installed it on my laptop and it works more than decent. The idea is that you can first try installing it normally (double click that file), or, if that fails, you must install it in compatibility mode: right click the file -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Check the box from "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and select "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)". Then, just reboot and you should see at Screen resolution the name of your graphics card. If that happens, it means that everything is OK.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Download link: <a href="http://www.4shared.com/file/KzgwqOES/S3G_ProSavageDDR_winxp_v139433.html">ProSavageDDR driver</a> (Windows XP and 7, confirmed to work). </div>
</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-45535555317097935762011-07-18T07:14:00.000-07:002011-07-18T07:21:59.379-07:00Review Samsung Chromebook Series 5 (3G).<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Au trecut deja cateva zile de cand mi-am cumparat Chromebook-ul Samsung (varianta cu 3G), asa ca am avut destul timp sa ma joc cu el si sa-mi fac o parere despre el. Sigur ca nu am reusit sa “explorez” tot ceea ce stie acest laptop, dar in cele ce urmeaza va voi explica ceea ce mi-a placut si ceea ce nu mi-a placut la acest device. De-a lungul review-ului, am scris cu </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">verde</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> acele lucruri care au fost gandite bine de Google, si cu </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">rosu</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cele care au fost gandite aiurea, sau care ofera anumite beneficii in utilizare dar cu care nu ma pot eu obisnui.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incep cu hardware-ul mai intai. Ar trebui sa-l plasez sub o categorie, ceea ce e oarecum dificil, asa ca o sa il numesc simplu, Chromebook. Asta pentru ca nu e nici netbook (care e ceva mai mic decat acesta), nici notebook (Apple are MacBook-uri cu dimensiuni mai mari, incep de la 13”). Si cu siguranta nu e nici tableta. M-am tot intrebat de ce nu o fi scos Google o tableta cu asa ceva (Chrome OS, sistemul de operare), dar mi-am dat seama ca nu prea ar avea rost. Google are deja tablete cu gramada (cu Android pe ele), asa ca probabil au vrut sa scoata un produs usor si portabil, care nu e o tableta. Si le-a cam iesit. Samsung i-a plasat dimensiunea exact intre cele doua MacBook Air-uri, dar nu prea se apropie nici de ele (ca si categorie in care l-as putea plasa).</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ca si plusuri aici imi place </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">dimensiunea</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ecranului, dar si </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">ecranul</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in sine (LED de 12,1 inch, foarte luminos, Google zice ca se vede foarte bine in lumina soarelui dar eu inca nu l-am testat in aceste conditii). Deasupra ecranului are un webcam, microfon, si un senzor de lumina ambientala, dotari destul de folositoare, zic eu. Toata conectivitatea de care dispune (cea prin porturi) e reprezentata de: 2 USB-uri, mufa pentru curent, un port miniVGA (cred, am primit in cutie adaptor la VGA pentru el), un port de casti/microfon (da, unul singur, cred ca se pot schimba functiile intre ele) si cititorul de carduri. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Tastatura</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are taste mari, cu destul spatiu intre ele (e island type, ca pe MacBook-uri). In partea superioara, butoanele cu F-uri (pe care eu foarte rar le-am folosit pe tastatura traditionala) au fost inlocuite cu back-forward, refresh, full screen, un fel de change screen (poti sa ai multiple screens pe Chromebook), cele de luminozitate si de volum. Google/Samsung merita felicitari pentru ca incearca cu adevarat sa iasa din tipar, ca si Apple cu ale sale MacBook-uri. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Trackpad-ul</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> e foarteeeee mare si raspunde foarte bine la comenzi, cel putin la degetele mele (sunt multi care s-au plans de senzitivitate, dar eu nu am probleme). Pentru a face click, by default, trebuie sa apesi pe trackpad, nu doar sa il atingi, insa poti sa apesi doar de la jumatatea sa in jos (destul de ciudat, desi nu ma deranjaza). Stie si multitouch, insa doar two-finger scrolling si drag-n-drop (click pe ce vrei sa muti, si apoi cu celalalt deget muti unde vrei respectiva chestie). Ca si </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">greutate</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, are cam 1,5 kg (cum eu am fost obisnuit cu multe alte laptopuri, pare foarte usor). E extrem de </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">subtire</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, nu stiu cum e in comparatie cu MacBook Air, dar va asigur eu ca e chiar subtire. Toata carcasa e construita in intregime din plastic, care desi scoate unele sunete cand il iei in mana/il misti, pare de calitate. La trackpad am observat cateodata un scartait mecanic, datorat faptului ca touchpad-ul nu e fix (cum am zis, trebuie apasat cand vrei sa faci click pe ceva). Bateria nu am apucat sa o testez, dar conform Google, ar trebui sa tina in jur de 8 ore jumate. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trecem la software. Prima data cand l-am deschis, am simtit ca ceva lipseste, si anume sistemul de operare. M-am obisnuit insa rapid cu Chrome OS, care practic e doar browserul Google, cu toate aplicatiile si extensiile sale, plus cateva optiuni (ca si setari). Cand l-am primit, nu a trebuit sa-mi bat prea mult capul cu el, si-a facut singur update, am dat datele contului meu de Google, si el automat mi-a adus aplicatiile si extensiile. Simplu, rapid, eficient. Conectarea s-a facut simplu si rapid la reteaua </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">wireless</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, fara batai de cap (eu am varianta cu 3G, la care am si 100MB trafic de internet gratuit pe luna de la Verizon cat timp mai sunt in SUA). </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ca si </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">viteza</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, e foarte rapid deoarece e cam browserul Chrone care ruleaza de unul singur pe laptop. E rapid in limita procesorului dual-core de 1,66 GHz (Intel Atom) si a celor 2 GB RAM. Adica se descurca bine la incarcat majoritatea site-urilor, la schimbat taburi, la taskurile ce tin de acele aplicatii din Web Store. Dar daca deschizi un website mai mare, cu multe elemente, incepe sa aiba un pic de lag (in acel website). Insa in momentul in care deschizi mai multe website-uri de felul acela, deja incepe sa se tarasca. Sa nu uitam totusi ca a fost conceput ca si un dispozitiv portabil, nu ca un monstru de laptop de 15” si 4-5 kg care numa portabil nu e. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Boot-ul</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> e ft rapid (sub 8 secunde), din </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">stand-by</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> iese in mai putin de o secunda, deci ceea ce a promis Google s-a si intamplat. Un lucru cu care chiar nu m-am obisnuit dar nu ma derajaza e faptul ca in momentul in care ridici ecranul, Chromebook </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">porneste automat</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Functia de guest mode e una foarte interesanta. Cand vrei sa ii permiti cuiva sa-ti foloseasca laptopul, pur si simplu apesi butonul power pentru cam o secunda, indeajuns incat sa iasa din cont si sa nu se stinga (cam in inca o secunda se stinge), si intri in Guest. Din acel moment, Chromebook nu mai tine date despre navigare, dar nici “nu isi aduce aminte” nimic din datele salvate din timpul in care ai fost logat pe contul de Google. </span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nu cred ca se putea ca acest Chromebook sa nu aiba si dezavantaje, si inca unul care chiar ma “supara”, si anume </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Flash-ul</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> instalat pe Chrome OS-ul din el. Ideea e ca videoclipurile merg foarte bine, doar ca pur si simplu nu poti face click pe niciun fel de buton din acel player facut in Flash. De exemplu, cand deschizi un videoclip de pe YouTube, acesta porneste de unul singur, si asa continua, pentru ca nu poate fi oprit, nu poti regla volumul, nu poti sa il duci in full screen, nu poti sa faci nimic cu el. Din cate am vazut, versiunea instalata e 10.2.158.28 iar Chrome OS-ul e up-to-date, deci deocamdata problema nu poate fi rezolvata desi sunt sigur ca Google va lansa un curand un update la Chrome OS menit sa rezolve problema. Totusi, YouTube mai poate fi folosit si in HTML5, care merge destul de bine (e disponibil pentru majoritatea videoclipurilor, nu pentru toate, si poate fi activat de la </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/html5" style="color: #a3d5ea; text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://www.youtube.com/html5</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ). Deocamdata insa, un punct in minus pentru faza asta. Cu atat mai mult cu cat YouTube apartine Google. Puteau macar sa faca videoclipurile sa li se deschida celor de pe Chromebook-uri direct in HTML5, pentru a nu face problema asta chiar asa de evidenta.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Si acum un lucru care creeaza destula confuzie: HDD-ul. Asa cum probabil ca ati citit, e un SSD de 16 GB, doar ca nu poate fi folosit. Adica singurul care il foloseste e sistemul de oprerare, pentru cache-uri. Eu am salvat o poza pe el Chromebook, insa inca nu imi e clar unde a pus-o, dar sigur nu e in Picasa (care acum ofera unlimited storage pentru dimensiuni mai mici de 2500 x 2500 pixeli). Cred ca e undeva pe HDD, si stiu ca e accesibila prin butonul downloads din...Chrome (si da, poate fi deschisa out-of-the-box, fara un program third-party). Un lucru interesant pe care l-am facut astazi: am downloadat un .xls, pe care am incercat sa-l deschid direct de pe Chromebook, insa nu il stie deschide. Asa ca am mers in Docs (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">Google Docs</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, am aplicatia luata din Web Store), am uploadat fisierul, si dupa ce l-a convertit intr-un format compatibil pentru aplicatie, mi l-a deschis exact ca pe un PC cu Windows si un Office instalat. Doar ca in cazul asta am </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;">platit</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> doar 499 de dolari pe Chromebook, si nu un pret care se apropie de acea valoare doar pe licentele pentru Windows si Office.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ar mai fi unele chestii de zis despre acest Chromebook, dar deocamdata ajunge. Acum sigur ca multi ma vor intreba daca “merita cumparat?”. Depinde. Daca sunteti genul celui care are nevoie de un laptop puternic, cu aplicatii dedicate pentru un anumit task, raspunsul e...nu prea. Dar daca aveti nevoie de un laptop portabil cu adevarat, cu browserul Chrome pe post de sistem de operare, si sunteti dispus sa incercati ceva nou, atunci da, cu siguranta ca merita.</span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In cazul in care aveti orice alt fel de intrebare, nu ezitati sa ma intrebati si eu o sa va raspund cat de repede pot.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-13549126141686292912010-11-09T07:25:00.000-08:002010-11-09T07:25:07.448-08:00Antennagate passed, Glassgate has just started. What's up next, Apple?The antennagate madness seems to be finished now (everybody knows now that Apple's faulty design is causing signal lose, or even call drops), and the next problem, generically named glassgate, has just started. It was believed that it was just the creation of the competitors, but it seems to be quite real now because Apple has taken measures against this problem.<br />
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It is not clear how resistant the glass from the back of the device is, as there were reports which said that after the device has been repeatedly taken out and inserted back from and in some cases, scratches occurred on that glass. It seems that dust particles can get stuck when the cases are inserted (between the case and the glass), causing serious scratches on the glass. In fact, these scratches will, eventually, create cracks on the whole glass surface from the back of the iPhone 4.<br />
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It seems that Apple is aware of this issue, because they pulled from the Apple Stores from all around the world all cases of this type (at least until this problem is clarified). So, if you don't have a case, you'll get call drops because of the way Apple designed iPhone's antenna. But if you get one (anything else except the bumper), you risk to have the glass from the back of the device even cracked. <br />
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I already see Apple telling everybody that their products doesn't have any issues, and users are the only ones responsible for that scratches/cracks (just as they did with Antennagate).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-19182640737390714142010-11-06T07:56:00.000-07:002010-11-06T08:00:08.688-07:00No Limera1n or GreenPois0n icon on iPhone/iPod/iPad's SpringBoard after Jailbreak? You're just doing it wrong.For those who didn't know, SpringBoard is the home screen of the iOS, the screen where all of your apps are located. I won't tell very much about Limera1n or GreenPois0n, they are just jailbreaking applications (Limera1n works on Windows and Mac, while GreenPois0n has a version for Linux also). Basically, they are quite the same thing (they're using the same exploit), and they work with any iDevice running 4.0, 4.0.2 or 4.2 firmware.<br />
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They are both very easy to use, you just have to download, run, and click "Make it ra1n!", and you'll be told how to put your device in DFU mode in order to start jailbreaking your device. A problem experienced by some of the people who tried jailbreaking their iDevices was that there was no Limera1n/GreenPois0n icon on the SpringBoard after jailbreaking (even though the applications said that jailbreaking succeeded).<br />
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The idea is that iTunes (it doesn't matter what version it is, it just needs to recognize your device) must be <b>kept running</b> while jailbreaking. Don't ask me why, I also had that problem, and when I left iTunes running while I used Limera1n, my jailbreak succeeded (when you see that drop rain on your iDevice, it means that jailbreaking succeeded). Probably, there's something in iTunes which allows the device to receive data while in DFU mode.<br />
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Who would have thought that there's such an easy fix for this problem?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-16775062577501443932010-11-06T07:14:00.000-07:002010-11-06T07:16:21.900-07:00If you're on Android, just don't use NetTraffic Monitor (from PopSoft) to monitor your traffic. It causes only issues.NetTraffic Monitor is an app from Android Market which claims to be capable of monitoring your data traffic. It seemed quite weird to me even from the first run, because it requested me super user access (I'm running on a rooted device), even though its only work was to view and count my traffic, and nothing more.<br />
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After I installed it, I observed that the internet over 3G/2G networks was no longer working (the device was sending data, but it wasn't able to receive back anything). Actually, I didn't realize that the problems started after I installed NetTraffic Monitor, it took me about 2 days to realize that (during that time, I spoke with my carrier, thinking that they had problems with the network).<br />
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The app indicated only about 30 kb during that two days on mobile data networks, and absolutely no traffic on WiFi, even though I probably had about 50 MB on it. So I decided to uninstall it because it was useless (I also realized then that the problems started after its installation), and after the uninstall, guess what? The internet started working normally, and I haven't got any problems since then.<br />
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The app is the first one if you search for "Traffic Monitor" in the Market, so just be careful what you install and what you don't.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-12099624634793098082010-10-17T06:45:00.000-07:002010-10-17T06:47:24.683-07:00Angry Birds, the popular iOS game, now available for free in the Android Market.Angry Birds is one of the most popular games for iOS, and it was bought by over 6.5 million people running Apple's devices (without counting those who downloaded it via Installous). A few days ago it has also been launched for Android, in the Android Market, and is now available for download, yes, for free. Of course that it includes ads, but they appear only when you are restarting a "mission" and only for a few seconds (2-3 maximum).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3Ehp1HoV8zw/TLr-WqfYSFI/AAAAAAAAAXA/3mEwG7-x1DY/s1600/angry-birds-android.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3Ehp1HoV8zw/TLr-WqfYSFI/AAAAAAAAAXA/3mEwG7-x1DY/s320/angry-birds-android.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Just as I was expecting, it is a very addicting game, and I started liking it as soon as opened it. On my Nexus One (1GHz processor with 512 MB of RAM) the game runs smoothly, without any lag. I've first seen this game on someone's iPod Touch (3rd gen) and it really had lag. The high graphics the developers included in this game make it a must have one for any Android device.<br />
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As someone said, "Once played can't stop". Maybe only when your battery discharges completely. It has already over 250 000 downloads, and about 10 500 ratings. A paid, ad-free version is expected to become available later this year.<br />
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To download it, just search for "Angry Birds" in the Market, it should be available on Android Markets from all over the world. If you can't find it there, just request me a download link for it and you'll be able to download it directly on you Android device.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-32128477229544090882010-10-16T12:03:00.000-07:002010-10-16T12:03:18.986-07:00Limera1n/Greenpois0n and iPad on 3.2.2? Better...not.If you've got an iPad and you want jailbreak on it, my recommendation is to avoid the update to 3.2.2 (if you haven't done it already). My iPad was bricked today by a an app (it was stuck at boot logo), and I decided that because there was no way of recovering the data I had on it, the best option was to update it to the latest firmware, 3.2.2. But it turned out that it was a bad idea....<br />
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Everything went fine, iTunes 10 successfully updated it to 3.2.2, but the problems started when I tried to jailbreak it. Even though it seemed that the jailbreak succeeded, I couldn't find on the home screen the icon/shortcut/logo/app/whatever of the jailbreak tool I tried. I tried both <a href="http://www.limera1n.com/">limera1n</a> and <a href="http://www.greenpois0n.com/">greenpois0n</a>, on three different computers. One was running Windows XP, one was on Windows 7, and the other was on Mac OS X. However, on none of the them I got the icon of the jailbreak solution I tried. So, I couldn't get Cydia, so the jailbreak was completely useless.<br />
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I really don't know where's the problem, some people reported that both solutions worked fine from the first try on their 3.2.2 iPad, others reported that they tried of few times and than they succeeded, and others reported that they got in the same situation as me. I think that I tried about 25 times to jailbreak that iPad. I really got tired of these iDevices. Unjailbroken, the iPad it is just a bigger iPod, even a much cheaper Android-powered device being able to do much more that an iPad can. But if you jailbreak it (it's legal in case you didn't know, read more <a href="http://it-nthusiast.blogspot.com/2010/07/breaking-jailbreak-unlock-for-iphone.html">here</a>), you'll get a big headache with all the bugs and problems jailbreaking brings.<br />
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I ended up by restoring the iPad to 3.2.1 (I had SHSH on file for 3.2.1, so it was quite simple), and I did the jailbreak using <a href="http://jailbreakme.com/">jailbreakme.com</a>. If you're still on 3.2.1 (or 3.2) and you want jailbreak, make sure you do it before updating the iPad to 3.2.2, because at that time you can save your iPad's SHSH blobs without any problem.Having SHSH saved on 3.2.1/3.2 (or even on 3.2.2 if you get there with a jailbroken iPad) means that you can anytime downgrade/restore to the version you have that SHSH saved.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Use them on your own responsibility:</span><br />
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Jailbreak by limera1n (Windows, Mac OS X): <a href="http://www.limera1n.com/">http://www.limera1n.com/</a><br />
Jailbreak by greenpois0n (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux): <a href="http://www.greenpois0n.com/">http://www.greenpois0n.com/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-88922885355217485742010-10-10T07:05:00.000-07:002010-10-10T07:05:04.833-07:00Ubuntu 10.10 is live, there aren't any huge changes.Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution, got today to a new version, 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. This new version brings some changes, but they are small so the experience is pretty close to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. The themes (Radiance and Ambiances) were slightly polished, making Ubuntu a quite good-looking alternative for Windows or Mac.<br />
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One of the most notable difference is represented by the fonts. They look now much prettier than before. Below is an example:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Ehp1HoV8zw/TLHA79nldWI/AAAAAAAAAW4/8ShFFbOS5jE/s1600/ubuntu10.10-font.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Ehp1HoV8zw/TLHA79nldWI/AAAAAAAAAW4/8ShFFbOS5jE/s1600/ubuntu10.10-font.png" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>The Ubuntu Software Center has also been changed, bringing you new features, such as "What's new", "Where is it", the ability of handling .deb files or paid applications. Actually, there's only one paid application now, but it is just for testing purposes, more are expected to come with Ubuntu 11.04. </div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div>The installation process has been completely redesigned. Andrew (from <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/ubuntu-1010-maverick-meerkat-has-been.html#more">webupd8</a>) shot a video of it:</div><div><object height="590" width="370"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xat76mgzCI0?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xat76mgzCI0?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="590" height="370"></embed></object></div><div><br />
</div><div>Ouch, I was about to forget about it. There's also a new wallpaper into Ubuntu 10.10 by default. The old one, which has been a little redesigned compared to the one present in 10.04, created a real scandal and was changed after some users reported even a bug into it. So, it now looks something like this:</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Ehp1HoV8zw/TLHE9WRwGPI/AAAAAAAAAW8/w89ZX6vYumY/s1600/warty-final-ubuntu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_3Ehp1HoV8zw/TLHE9WRwGPI/AAAAAAAAAW8/w89ZX6vYumY/s400/warty-final-ubuntu.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div><br />
</div><div>Other changes are represented only by under the hood improvements and updates to most applications, changes that are seen rarely or aren't at all for the end user. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Ubuntu is available for download from <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download">here</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-76398808657595281122010-10-10T06:12:00.000-07:002010-10-10T06:15:07.797-07:00Limera1n is available, jailbreaks iOS 4.0-4.1.Limera1n has been released yesterday evening, and after geohot got angry and pulled the download link (I don't know exactly why), it seems that Limera1n is now available for download again on the <a href="http://www.limera1n.com/">official website</a>. This new jailbreak tool promises to jailbreak almost any device running iOS 4.0 or 4.1.<br />
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<b>The supported products are iPhone 3Gs/4, iPad, and iPod Touch 3G/4G</b>. For the unmentioned products: iPod Touch 2G support is coming soon, while for the iPhone 3G you must use redsn0w. For the moment, limera1n is available only for Windows, the compatibility for Mac is coming soon.<br />
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Theoretically, limera1n <b>does hacktivate your device</b> (allowing you to use it with any carrier), but many people reported problems after hacktivating their iPhones with limera1n, so I don't recommend you doing this yet (limera1n is currently in beta 4).<br />
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Hope I don't have to tell you that <span class="Apple-style-span" "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">you're using it on your own responsibility</span></span>, it is an unstable release so don't expect from it to be bug-free. You might have to restore your device or you may even get a bricked one as a result of using limera1n!<br />
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Download from <a href="http://www.limera1n.com/limera1n.exe">here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-36500592866386733242010-09-30T10:59:00.000-07:002010-09-30T11:04:33.744-07:00We'll probably have an alternative to iOS for the iPad soon, and that's the Chrome OS.OK, I'm starting by telling that I have no idea about how popular "Hexxeh" is, but I never heard of him until now. And it seems that he isn't very popular on YouTube, as he has only a few thousands of views. But he did something really interesting, he succeeded to run the Chrome OS on the iPad. Yes, I'm sure you know, that OS created for netbooks by Google, running on the so popular iPad. So here's a video of what he did.<br />
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<object height="370" width="590"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/w4tyG4upFns?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/w4tyG4upFns?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="590" height="370"></embed></object><br />
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This seems to be quite real, because of two reasons: the first one is the pointer, which you can see that really moves when he clicks on something, and the second one is the speed of the OS, which shows that the Chrome OS might have been emulated on that iPad. Of course that there is a lot of job to do for Hexxeh, and one of the first things he needs to do is to improve the speed of Chrome OS (if he wants to release a official version of his work, of course).Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-191373956136312649.post-90900089222570591732010-09-25T03:44:00.000-07:002010-09-25T03:45:26.148-07:00In case you have issues with Market on your Android device, here is what you can try.As you probably know, there are somewhere around 100 000 apps currently available in the Android Market, growing faster and coming forcefully behind Apple's App Store (which has around 200 000 apps). Is isn't currently any problem for Apple, but there's a matter of time until there will be a real challenge for Apple to keep up with the incredible grown of the Android Market.<br />
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However, the Market (the place from where apps for Android are officially installed) isn't a perfect app. Actually, it's quite buggy, maybe too buggy in some situations. Nexus One, a device on which the Market worked perfectly and which is considered "the Google Phone", got some problems since it was updated to 2.2. There weren't big problems until about a month ago, and, from then, my phone fails most of the times to install some updates (when more updates are available in the same time).<br />
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This is a common problem on many Android devices, and here is what you can try in order to get Android Market working properly. First, disconnect your device from wifi. Then go into Settings | Applications | Manage Applications | All (if these steps doesn't correspond to your device, just find in the settings the list with all apps).<br />
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From there, scroll down to "Market", tap on it, and then tap "Clear data", "Clear cache", and "Force stop". This will practically clear everything Market had saved about your apps. Then, connect again to wifi, and start Market. You'll be asked to Accept the "Terms of Use", and then it will list all your installed apps and the available updates on "Downloads" (just like it was before).<br />
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Now, just don't force it to update everything. Update every app from the update button (inside the app page), and make sure you don't update two or more apps in the same time. Otherwise, it will continue failing to update some of the apps.<br />
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Keep in mind that this is just a temporary solution, and doesn't work at all times. Additionally, make sure you have enough free internal storage memory on your device, as this could be the problem in some situations.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09877950102040299326noreply@blogger.com0