by Sujoy on December 14, 2011
Mobile phone games will always suffer somewhat compared to games played on a dedicated console or even a computer, largely because the controls are optimised for smartphone purposes rather than gaming. The screen size is also a major limitation. Processing power is not so much of an issue as it once was, particularly with the latest high-speed, high-memory, dual-core phones.
So, what kind of games work well on smartphones? Anything where you can touch the screen to control the action; anything where the screen size doesn’t need to be large; and, on older phones, retro-style games that can manage with less processing power than the latest console or PC games. Platform games fulfil most of those requirements, but admittedly they can be tricky with standard phone controls. Plus, the market is somewhat flooded already, particularly when it comes to free and advert-supported games. We take a look at which ones work best, and offer most fun, for Android mobile phones.
[Continue Reading]
by Sujoy on November 28, 2011
For now, it is only the Galaxy Nexus which has got the latest version of Android OS, the Ice Cream Sandwich. Amongst other improvements over the previous versions, is the new improved keyboard which has better suggestions, targetting and shortcuts. And if you have an Android phone running 2.2 or later version, then you don’t have to wait for the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwhich.
The keyboard is available for download for free, and ready for you to use.
Go hit the Android market link here:
But is it worth the download? Hit the jump for the review of this keyboard.
[Continue Reading]
by Sujoy on October 3, 2011
If you feel the need to rebel against the capitalism and global media dominance of Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp, then this Chrome web app should save you the hassle of entering a list of Murdoch’s owned websites into your block list. To install the app, go to this page of Chrome Web App Store. There is a similar addon available for Firefox which can be found here: Firefox Addon – Murdochblock
For the comprehensive list of the websites that are blocked by the app, go to this wiki page. As rightly pointed out by commenter Alec on the app page, the websites of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph have been incorrectly blocked as well, even though these are not owned by Newscorp, but are owned by1Barclay Brothers. Probably, this is due to some confusion since Murdoch owns the Australian The Daily Telegraph (thedailytelegraph.com.au).
This is an open-source app and the source-code is here: http://code.google.com/p/murdoch-block/
by Sujoy on July 24, 2011
I know that the Samsung Galaxy Portal is quite an obsolete device by now, especially when the Android world has seen the emergence of dual-core handsets sporting Gingerbread and what not. But don’t be mistaken that this device can only handle Android Eclair 2.1. Although the official carriers won’t be upgrading the device beyond Eclair, when rooted, this device can be upgraded to Froyo (and there is some other dev work going on to upgrade it to run Gingerbread as well). We have already discussed the benefits of rooting your Android Phone here. So, now that you’re fully convinced to go down the root lane, let’s see how to root your Samsung Galaxy i5700 phone. (To avoid confusion, let me put one thing straight – the Samsung Galaxy i5700 is known as Galaxy Portal/ Lite/ Spica depending upon the region)
Disclaimer: Rooting your device is at your own risk. I do not take any sort of responsibility for bricking your device. Although it is important to mention that I have implemented the process on my own phone, and it works fine.
This root is going to use LeshaK’s Kernel Spica v.LK2.02. The root procedure is fairly simple and avoids complex commands. It also brings awesome features such as full root, su+Superuser, support for ext2, ext3 and ext4 SD card partitions, recovery mode, etc. Most importantly, this guide assumes that your Galaxy i5700 is already running Eclair (Android 2.1). If you need to upgrade your i5700 to Android 2.1 check our guide here. Please make sure that your Samsung Android drivers (USB modem and Composite device) are properly installed, and that you have Android Debug Bridge (adb) properly configured. This process will not delete any of your files or settings, both in SD card and internal memory. But just to be sure, it is always advisable to backup your phone.
So now that that is established, let’s begin with the process.
P.S. Some of the steps will be common to most of the Android devices.
[Continue Reading]
