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.
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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.
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by Sujoy on June 24, 2011
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 *
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by Sujoy on June 15, 2011
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 
