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.

Replica Island (requires Android 1.5 or higher; free download)

Replica Island has been specially designed for Android, rather than ported over from another OS, and it really shows. It’s a labour of love for its developer – which is also very obvious when you play – and already has 40 brilliant levels of old-school, Mario Brothers style platforming fun. Plus, it’s all open source, so if you fancy trying your hand as an Android game developer yourself, making a new Replica Island level might be a good place to start. Perhaps our favourite thing about this game, if “free download” and “huge fun” weren’t enough by themselves, is that the character you control as you jump from platform to platform on Replica Island is none other than the iconic green Android mascot. Only with rocket packs in his feet.

Abduction! 2 (requires Android 1.5 or higher; free demo download or £1.29 full game)

Save cute animals from alien abduction! Control your equally cute, bouncing cow heroine by tilting your phone, as she ascends the levels to rescue her farmyard chums from unseen but doubtless grisly experiments.

Doodle Jump (requires Android 1.5 or higher; £0.61 download)

This is a highly addictive platformer, with almost perfectly balanced gameplay. It’s unforgiving, and starts off quite tough, but you’ll quickly master the basics of bouncing the Doodler from one platform to the next, without bouncing into any enemies or dropping off the bottom of the screen. There’s none of that wimpy “three lives” nonsense here – the game ends as soon as you make a mistake – but that’s part of the reason it’s so addictive, and so good.

Puffle Launch (requires Android 2.1 or higher; £0.63 download)

Puffle Launch is technically a physics/platform crossover game, but it’s so good that we decided not to let that stop us including it in our “best of” list for platformers. Cartoony graphics, 36 detailed and engaging levels, and a hugely fun boss battle make Puffle Launch a real standout.

Cordy (requires Android 2.2 or higher; free download)

If you’re not already playing Cordy, and you have a phone that runs it, go and download this beautiful 3D platformer right now. With great graphics, and impressive gameplay blending platform and puzzle game elements, this really is a must-have. Although there’s a superb free game here, you can unlock extra levels with a small payment if you love it as much as we do.

Android has in the past been accused of not having much of interest on the Android Market, but as some of these games show, Android is quickly becoming the platform of choice – not just for gamers but for game developers too.

This is a guest post, written by Simon Drew, who is a Marketing Executive at MD Operations.

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.

Review:

There are a few changes compared to the default one on my Samsung Galaxy S2.

Good:

The num keys option of symbols is reduced.

Apart from that, the keys look well layed-out with quite generous spacing. The layout is very standard Android, and the highlight colour is pleasant blue.

Also, the punctuation suggestions at the end of each word is very welcome here.

Bad:

The ICS Keyboard does not have any pre-installed keys for emoticons. You can insert emoticons if you are texting, by hitting the menu button, and selecting “Insert Smileys”.
But if you are trying to use it as a text keyboard for any other app, you are out of luck. You’d have to write your own emoticons.

Other:

If you are searching for this app in the Android Market on the phone, it is the one developed by Johntanmi, and not Nick Zhang.

Techkeyla Rating: It does what is says on the tin, and then some more. Full marks on functionality, but the exclusion of emoticons is a step backwards.

The Ice Cream Sandwich keyboard gets 3.5 *** / 5

Let me know if it works as well on your Android phone, and leave your comments below.

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/

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.

Step 1: Download the files required

You’ll need the following files (just click on the links below to download)

1. LK2-02-1_update.zip
2. i5700_LK2-02_PDA.zip

Also download the Odin Multiloader for Android here . You’ll need the spica_jc3.ops file for this process, which is bundled with Odin.

Step 2: Copy the stuff on your SD Card:

Connect your phone to a PC with the USB data cable, and then copy the file LK2-0-1 update.zip file to the root of the SD card. Please make sure it sits in the root and not in any sub-folder.

Now, unmount the SD card, disconnect the USB cable from your phone, and turn it off . Turn on your phone in the Download mode ( which can be done by pressing the Volume Down+Camera+End Call keys simultaneously and hold it until your phone displays the following screen.

Step 3: ODIN download:

Run the installed ODIN Multiloader (mentioned in Step 1) and load the extracted i5700_LK2-02_PDA.tar file as PDA in Odin. Load spica_jc3.ops as the OPS file. To make sure, you can reset the files to clear any previous settings, and load the .tar file, and the spica_jc3.ops in the OPS.

Now attach the phone (in download mode) to your PC with the USB cable. ODIN should detect the phone, and once that is done, you should be ready to roll. Hit the Start button to begin flashing your device with the new LeshaK kernel. This process takes a bit of time, and your device will reboot in the process in the recovery mode. You can be sure that the process has finished when the ODIN Multiloader shows a blue background PASS replacing the usual RESET display as shown in the screen below (from left to right).

Step 4: Over to the phone:

Your phone homescreen will resemble a sort-of LINUX boot screen, and with the help of the D-pad, you can scroll up and down the options. Please make sure that Step 3 has completed successfully before you run this step. Select ‘Apply any zip from SD’ and press OK button. The next screen will show all the zip files present in the root of your SD card. Select the one indicated in the screenshot below, and press OK. Select the LK2-02-1 update.zip file and confirm by pressing the Home button.  Once the update is installed, the home screen will flash a message saying ‘Install from SD card is complete’.

Step 5: Reboot:

Once Step 4 is done, Reboot your device as usual, or by pressing Home+back keys, and your device has successfully been rooted. To check, go to Settings->About Phone and look for the Kernel version.

Google Plus +

After more than 24 hours of testing out the new social network in town – Google+ (you’re supposed to call it Google plus), I find myself in the middle of a dilemma. Of course, the comparison to Facebook is inevitable. After all, Facebook has evolved into this omnipresent entity in our conversations, our lives and even our offline world. With the new social network, where does Google’s old product Orkut stand in the race, is anybody’s guess. As of now, by the looks of it, Google seems to have taken the best of Facebook and spicened it up with their own goodness, and in the process also incorporated the simplicity of twitter. Confused already? Let’s discuss the points individually.

User Interface:

The overall layout of the Stream as well the Profile page looks very similar to what Facebook has. While Facebook boasts off a very blue theme, as all Google products, white, grey and green are the most prominent colours. The title fonts are in sky blue ( standard hyperlink colours). Google chat lies on the left sidebar similar to GMail. The stream is much smoother than it is in facebook, and the clutter free page is a welcome change. Of course, that is subject to future change when Google Plus eventually takes off and Google Adsense invades the stream page with targeted advertisements. But as of now, I like the simplicity of design.

Circles:

One of the key concepts of Google Plus is Circles. It is similar to what Facebook has in groups – when you can group your friends into categories. But Google Plus has a brilliant advantage. Unlike Facebook, you can decide what to share and what not to based upon the circles created. So you might have some wild night out which you’d like to share with your mates, but might be too embarrassed to  make it visible to your work acquaintances or even your family members. With the circle-centric share,  control of privacy is set at the forefront of this social networking product. Further, there are default Circles created (more can be created/added/customised), one of them being – Following. This could be similar to twitter where you can follow celebrity Google Plus users ( I am following Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg and the like).

Privacy:

Just to reiterate what has been mentioned in Circles, you can decide what is shared and with whom. So you can share publicly (as you tweet ), or share with individual users, circles etc. Also, unlike Facebook where privacy setting as embedded a hundred feet below sea level, Google Plus enables you to edit them just by clicking on the link – Google Plus settings. Most importantly, on the profile page, you can view how your own profile would look like when viewed by a specific user etc.

Ease of Share:

This is similar to what Facebook has in place already. But it still makes sense to mention that Google Plus does the job as efficiently. There’s options to add links, photos, videos or simply text. The Google Buzz is added as one of your tabs on the Profile, as well as all weblinks being +1′ed by you appear under the +1 tab. This should be sort of a deli.cio.us replacement. How are these going to be integrated is a hazy picture as of now.

+1:

A very smart rollout, the +1 button has  been termed as the Google’s answer to the Facebook Like button. And similar to the Like button, the +1 button works on web-links as a bookmarking tool, as well in your stream shared posts.

Animated Gif support:

I am a mad tumblrer. And that means I love animated GIFs. Facebook does not support GIFs in your albums (as in all uploaded animated GIFs are converted into static images). Google Plus on the other hand supports GIFs. I know its not a very big deal for the most of you. But I thought of mentioning it as this was something I missed at Facebook.

Huddle:

Group conversations, Wiki and Forums are going to get a serious facelift with this awesome feature. Now I have not personally tested this feature due to lack of time, but I have heard some very good things about this.

Picasa:

As all Google products, Google Plus has the awesome functionality of integration with other Google products. One of the major ones – Picasa is integrated into the Photos. Again, albums can be chosen to be shared accordingly. Although there have been some complaints about tagged photos on Picasa not being imported on Albums in Google Plus.

Android App:

Unfortunately there is no iOS app for the Google Plus as of now (which makes me very happy). The Android app on the other hand works like a charm. Weighing a very light 2+ MB, the app enables to instantly upload all pictures taken from your phone to an unshared web folder called – Photos from your phone. So, say goodbye to Twitpic. Of course, with Android smartphones sporting front facing cameras, I believe Google Plus would allow video chats as well.

Group Chat / Video Chat:

Again I have not tested this extensively in a group chat, but going by what Google chat video looks like, this thing is going to be a Skype killer for sure.

Sparks and RSS:

Finally, a sort of a data collecter. The Sparks tab allows users to read the latest news feed based upon interests such as – Android, Films, Sports, Fashion etc. The option to be able to add RSS Feeds would be very helpful (after all, all we want is just one place where we can have it all). But as of now, there is no sort of user customisation available on the Sparks page.

So, I believe Google Plus has indeed hit quite a lot of good notes with this one. There is absolutely huge potential in this product and the thing it can do. Integration with Youtube for video podcasting straight from the profile page will be an amazing feature to look forward to. Also, as with Facebook, Google Plus should be able to integrate commenting systems on blogs with the stream page. And finally, I really hope that Google plus never gets cluttered with crazy gaming apps such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. Let them remain with iGoogle.

P.S. There is an official Google Plus fanpage on Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg has a Google Plus profile. Talk about a social networking full circle.

Why root your Android phone?

There are million and a half reasons why you should make that bold move to root your beloved Android phone. So you made that investment to go with that data plan to finally land your hands on your favourite Android phone. But why take the risk of bricking it? Trust me, the rewards are big. Of course, there is the warranty void thing which keeps you thinking, but if you are brave enough to overcome that, look at the following reasons which will positively make you to think otherwise. So here are the..

*10 reasons why you should root your Android Phone *

1. Performance, Performance, Performance:

Android is an absolutely awesome open source mobile OS for smartphones. The only problem is that with manufacturer’s own version of UI layered upon with bloatware, the performance of the phone could become sluggish, and thus ruining your phone usability. With every update of Android, the performance of the hardware just gets better and better. But here’s something more awesome. Rooting your phone and installing your own custom ROMs available online gives a new lease of life even to the first generation of Android Phones. And we are talking stuff like proper performance stuff – New windows opening up faster, App menus loading faster and UIs being more responsive.

2. Hardware / Software Interaction:

Stock Android installations often tend to have bottlenecks when it comes to performance. With a rooted Android OS, this is removed and hence the performance is tweaked. Overclocking the processor is much easier, and even certain functionalities can be enabled which are not present in the default install – e.g. Flashlight function in HTC Desire.

3. Freedom:

Take for example my Android phone – Samsung Galaxy Portal. It came with Android 1.5 (or the Donut), and I hate to wait for bloody ages to get the carriers upgrade it to Eclair. It was eventually done, but I had to wait ages for the update. If I would have rooted my phone back then, I could’ve easily upgraded my phone with the then readily available custom ROM ( in Eclair version). So, no need to wait any more. Of course, you need to take care that which Custom ROMS are compatible with your phone. Also, most carriers haven’t really made any updates for the first generation Android phones such as the T-Mobile G1. With a root, these phones can be made to run Android Eclair.

4. Apps2SD:

One of the most important features that rooted phones support is that you can install Apps to the SD Card, instead of clogging up the phone memory. Although, the performance of apps which are installed on the SD card is a bit inferior to the ones on phone. This comes in very handy when you need to backup Apps, since most of the 1st and 2nd generation Android phones don’t come with a lot of internal memory.

5. Unavailable features:

With the root, features such as Live wallpapers can be enabled. C’mon, you have to admit. As silly as it may sound, one of the most amazing features of the Eclair update was the Live Wallpapers. With the official Eclair update on my Galaxy Portal, Live wallpapers was disabled. And Live Wallpapers was disabled on all Android phones with version lower than Eclair. By rooting the phone, I could enable Live Wallpapers.
P.S. After rooting my phone, I installed a custom Cyanogen MOD ROM based on Android 2.2 Froyo. More on that in a future post.

6. Multitouch:

This is yet another major feature which is enabled by rooting your phone. ‘Nuff said.

7.WiFi and Bluetooth tethering:

With this functionality enabled, you can share your cellular data connectivity to be used by your PC/Laptop. There are several apps available which can assist you to establish a tethering connection, but these only work with rooted phones.

8. Better keyboard:

Not that we don’t love what Samsung, or Moto or HTC have to offer – or any of the other paid apps offering keyboard layouts , but custom ROMS have their awesome input methods that make me go hmmm!

9. Apps from other builds:

The whole wide world of the Android market is your oyster. But also, you can get apps from Custom ROMs which are integrated from other builds – such as Switchers that can toggle WiFi connectivity, Bluetooth, GPS , Microsoft Exchange to support work mail, etc.etc. The list is endless. [Well, not endless really, but you know what I mean).

10. Because you can:

The most ultimate reason. Because you are a BOSS, the BOSS. Its your phone which you paid hard earned money for. And you are not letting the shitty default installation ruin the experience for you.
Now go and root your Android.

So, I hope you have had a change of heart, and almost brave enough to make that move. So now that we have established the Why, we will move on to the How of it. In our next Android Hack post, we will discuss on ‘How to root your Android phone’. I will be specifically discussing how to root the Samsung Galaxy Portal/Spica/Lite coz that’s my phone.
And then, we can go around and look at some custom ROM to install Froyo. Peace!

Google’s homepage has the Doodle on right now [ 23:36 London time right now on June 15, 2011 ] the full lunar eclipse. The official Google blog reports that this Full Lunar Eclipse broadcast is in association with Slooh Space Camera. To quote Google:

Slooh will host a live mission interface using Google App Engine that lets anyone not lucky enough to live in certain areas (South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) take part in this rare astronomical event. It’s equipped with audio narrations from real-life astronomers so you can hear a firsthand, expert account of the event.

The event can also be viewed on Youtube [ Link here ].

But if you are unfortunate enough to discover about this quite late, don’t worry. Techkeyla has the solution. Right from the core of Google’s image cache [ inserted geek word, check ], I have managed to pull through this awesome lunar eclipse transition picture. The moon goes from white, to dark, to eclipsed, to red and back to white. Check out the image below.

OK, so the width of my page allows only 500 pixels. So you’d need to click on the visible line to enlarge it to appreciate it in its full beautiful form. And you’re welcome

The new Android 2.1, more popularly known as the Android Eclair, is now available to be downloaded on the Samsung Galaxy Portal on T-mobile UK. The catch is, this upgrade is not available over-the-air (OTA), but has to be initiated by the user using Samsung’s mobile PC suite – Samsung PC Studio.

This is ridiculous, since the Android is a modified version of the Linux kernel, and at its core, is Open Source. However, for the upgrade itself, it has to be connected to a Windows PC. More on that later. For now, let’s focus on the upgrading progress. And this process took me a good 4 hours to complete, until I found the easy and shortcut way to do it. Trust me, follow this process and the upgrade is done within 15 minutes flat!

What I did wrong before:

• Installed Samsung PC Studio which was on the CD that came along with my phone.[ This is version 1.4. etc, which is an old one ]
• Connected my phone via USB cable, and opened up Samsung PCS, and hit the Upgrade button.
• It goes to download the latest install, and then on to Step 3, which is actual upgrade on the phone, and then it goes on for ages, whilst the phone keeps flashing the Samsung logo.

Here’s the right way to do it.

• Install the latest version, just to be very sure. Go to Samsung Mobile UK website, and select Samsung Galaxy Portal-> Software, and download the 1.5 version of Samsung PC Studio.
• Once installed { i.e. after uninstalling the previous version and installing this one } , connect your Samsung Galaxy Portal using the USB Cable. Mount your SD card.

• Open Samsung PC Studio, and now it should detect your phone as GTi5700, and also should show – Firmware version on your phone, and the Upgrade Firmware version.
• Hit the upgrade. First it will download the BinaryUpdate file which is the new firmware that will be eventually loaded onto your phone. Once downloaded, it will go on to Step 3 – Upgrading the firmware on the phone.
• It will ask if you have backed up your data – i.e. contacts, SMS etc. ( I hope you have. This upgrade wipes all of it clean. Data on Memory Card is untouched ). Say yes, to that, and now it will start upgrading. PC Studio will ask you not to disconnect your phone from the PC. The phone will flash a Samsung Logo whilst in this process.
• A lot of people have complained about this process taking ages to complete. I personally experienced this 4 times, when the process did not progress at all for more than an hour.
• I found this shortcut on T-Mobile’s forum, and hence, thought to give it a go. When the Samsung logo is flashing, open the back case, and remove the battery.
• PC Studio will alert you of a critical fault in your cell, and advise you to reboot your cell in recovery mode.
• To do this, press these buttons simultaneously – Volume Down + Camera + Power. When you press these buttons, the home screen will show a Blue SIM logo and a Downloading status bar.
• In the recovery mode itself, hit Next on Samsung PC Studio, and it should go back to Step 1 and Step 2 – but it gets completed pretty soon. On to Step 3 of upgrading, this time around, the progress bar on PC Studio actually shows progress, and the process takes only about a minute to be 100%, and simultaneously, the Download bar on your phone also shows the progress.
• Once this is done, PC Studio goes to finish, and advises you to download Kies, as the new Android firmware is not supported by PC Studio. Ignore it.
• Your phone reboots on its own, and now has Android 2.1. Voila!
• All you need to do now is associate your Google account as you did the first time.

The entire upgrade process took around 15 minutes for me. I know it is quite sad that when the whole world of Android phones has been busy flashing off their Froyos, the Samsung Galaxy Portal has been struggling to get the Eclair. But still, it is much better than the 1.5 Cupcake. More on that later.
Do let me know if you face any problems in this upgrade.