If 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.

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).

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.

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.

If you haven't got the new Twitter interface (yet), you don't have to worry, you will be getting it soon.

You probably heard about the Twitter's new interface which has been released on Tuesday night (September 14th). I didn't write anything about it because I didn't have time for almost anything on the last few days. So, this is one of the most important changes Twitter did to its official website until now.

However, there are some users who don't see the change even two days after the change has been released (I also don't have it). The change is rolling out progressively, so there might be a few more days to wait for some users to get it. As it writes on its official blog, the update started rolling out on that night for a very small number of accounts, and it's probably still rolling out for some accounts.

What's changed, as I've told you, is the interface which has been redesigned, maintaining its simplicity. Twitter also got more user friendly. It's now possible to view embedded photos and videos from DailyBooth, deviantART, Flickr, Justin.TV, TwitPic, USTREAM, yfrog, YouTube and others. You can now see related content, meaning you can see replies to a tweet, other tweets by a user, the location from where a tweet has been sent, and more. Moreover, you now have "mini profiles", which allows you to view quick information about someones account, without having to leave the page you're on.

Over the following few weeks, both versions of Twitter will be available. The possibility of changing between interfaces allows you to accommodate easier with the new one. We'll see how the users will reaction when the old one won't be available anymore (because there are people who don't like the progress and the change).

Samsung S2 are quite good external HDDs. Unless you're going to use them with Multimedia Players (Popcorn Hour/WD HD TV).

Samsung S2 external HDDs are quite attractive products. Mostly because of the variety of capacities, and because of the available colors. So, they look good, they are perfect for backups, and they work well (I get somewhere around 25-30 MBs reading/writing rates on my computers). But if you're planning to use them with multimedia players, such as Popcorn Hour or Western Digital HD TV Media Player, they are going to give you an enormous headache.

I also got one, a blue one, with 640 GB, and I have some issues with it. As long as it is on FAT32 file system or HFS+ (Apple native), it works like a charm, both on my Popcorn Hour and on my WD HD TV. But when I'm converting it to NTFS, it is completely unreadable by my both multimedia players.

WD HD TV used to say that it didn't recognize it, but after I was told that an unofficial firmware might make it work with my HDD, now it doesn't react at all when I'm connecting my HDD to it. On Popcorn Hour, it simply says that "USB failed". I tried connecting it through an external USB hub (which was externally powered), in order to exclude the possibility of failing because of not getting enough power, but the S2, formatted on NTFS, won't work at all.

I found on some forums users complaining of this (reproducing exactly the same situation, the S2 work on these multimedia players as long as it isn't formatted as NTFS), but there's no fix for this (only some suggestions that were tried by everybody having these issues, suggestions that don't help).

If you're stuck here, you can format the external HDD as HFS+ (FAT isn't an option, as it has  limitations), and then install MacDrive on your Windows computer (unfortunately, you have to buy it), which will give you the possibility of both reading and writing to HFS+ partitions from Windows. I don't know if MacDrive can format the HDD as HFS+, because I did it from my MacBook.

Anyway, the idea is that if you want to buy an external HDD and you're planning to use it with a multimedia player, you should avoid Samsung's S2 external HDD.

Android 2.2 Froyo stops supporting .aac files for the media player.

This is something I discovered yesterday, when I was heading towards somebody. When I tried to play my playlist (all songs were downloaded directly on my Nexus with a third-party application, from YouTube, in .aac format) I was notified that this format was not supported (anymore) by the music player.

OK..so I downloaded the songs on a computer in .mp3 from YouTube (because I was in a rush) and sent them to my phone. Then, when I was going home, another surprise. Even if the downloads from YouTube are not done in a very high quality, the .aac songs were more that OK. But the mp3-s were worse than anything else. I had difficulties in even understanding what the singers were saying. So, Google screwed it up a little.

What you have to do is to download the music externally (not from YouTube, because they are mainly in a low quality), preferable is directly in .mp3 (because converting can affect the quality!) and then to send them to your phone. You can send them via your USB cable, but as I observed that the media player "feels" the changes with a considerable delay, I recommend you rebooting the phone. If it still does not see your music and you are sure it is in .mp3, play a little with the player and then it should update the list with the new songs.

Problems with TweetDeck shortcuts on Ubuntu Linux.

I've turned my laptop to Ubuntu a few hours ago, and, like usual, I installed a few programs, including TweetDeck. After I rebooted, I noticed that there were no shortcuts for TweetDeck anymore. I searched for it on Applications -> Internet, where isn't, and it is not even on my panel (where I put it after installation). It's not the first time I get this problem, so I've decided to report the problem to TweetDeck, hoping they have a solution (I searched through Google, but it seems that no one has reported problems like these with TweetDeck).

TweetDeck launches and works if I press "Launch TweetDeck" button on their website, so the installation is intact. I guess there are only some issues with shortcuts.If guys from TweetDeck will give me a solution, I'll post it here, even it will be to go where TweetDeck is installed and send from there a shortcut to desktop.

Update: I've talked to somebody from TweetDeck support team, and he told me that it sounds like being an issue with Adobe Air. He recommended me to reinstall TweetDeck, but since Adobe Air is managing it, I wasn't able to find a solution to uninstall it. I've just played a little with Adobe Air (just a few clicks inside it) and after I found TweetDeck into "Accessories". I don't know how it got there, what I know is that it was reseated in somehow, because that "welcome" window appears again (I set it when everything was normal not to open again).

So, I recommend you searching for the shortcut into "Accessories", and if you can't find it there, try to play a little with Adobe Air, eventually give it an uninstall, and then install it again.

Adding background music to your blogspot blog.

You probably thought if it is possible to add music background to your blog. And yes, it is. But the way I know to do, it is only partially possible. I'm telling you that, because this method works only on Safari, Opera and Chrome, but not on Internet Explorer 8 or on Firefox. So, the only way I can share you the code is by putting it into a .txt file, and giving you the link. I've told you in a previous article, my blog is going to run the code automatically if I put it over here, and you won't be able to see the code, only it's effect. I'm really sorry for that !

Let's continue. Because it's really hard to find a way on which the sharing would be possible only by a link, the service we are going to use is Youtube. Now go to Youtube, choose a video (you'll have only the sound from it), and on the right side, you should see the "URL" (it is in the box where are some details about the publisher). Let that window/tab opened, because now we are going to work with the code. In the .txt file you have the code, which must be copied and pasted into a HTML/JavaScript Gadget (Dashboard -> Layout -> Add Gadget -> HTML/JavaScript), but where it says "URL of the video", please paste the URL which you just saw on the Youtube window/tab. Leave the quotes how they are, and paste that link between them.

Now you should be having music on your blog. If not, please try again, and if you can't get it working, please leave a comment, and I'll try to help you.

Here's the link for the .txt file: (it's safe, don't worry) http://www.4shared.com/file/182233947/6ae0a1d2/musicblogspot.html