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Roger Keays — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:42:38 +1000

Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 VoIP Bug [SOLVED]

Roger Keays — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:23:47 +1000

One of the first things I did when I bought my Samsung Galaxy Spica was install SipDroid, and to my disappointment it didn't work. The sound came out of the back of the phone instead of the earpiece.

This turns out to be Just Another Samsung Bug (TM), but unfortunately the fix is not simple. The developers at samdroid.net have built patched kernels but you need to flash your phone to apply them.

However, for what it is worth, I've uploaded the files you need and some simple instructions on how to flash them on the Samsung Firmware Downloads page.

Hope you can fix your VoIP on your Spica because it's pretty handy.

Samsung Firmware Downloads

Roger Keays — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 05:07:08 +1000

For your convenience, here are all the files you need and some basic instruction to flash your Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700. This page is not meant to be a tutorial, just a handy reference.

SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones.exe
Odin 4.03	Flash original firmware to your phone.
spica_jc3.ops	Needed when you flash with Odin.
I5700XXJH6.zip	Original firmware for Android 2.1.
i5700_LK2-08_PDA.tar	Patched Root Kernel which fixes VoIP.

The basic flashing procedure is:

Install USB Drivers and unzip firmware
Disconnect USB cable
Start phone in download mode (Vol Down + Camera + Power)
Connect USB cable
Start Odin as Administrator
Select spica_jc3.ops and original firmware package
Flash and test your phone
Flash the rooted kernel which includes recovery mode

Once the new kernel is installed, use Vol Down + Call + Power to enter recovery mode to install ROMs packaged as .zips.

Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 Battery Drain [SOLVED]

Roger Keays — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 04:05:38 +1000

This has to be the most egregious bug I've ever seen in a product on the market. For close to a year now I've been trying to figure out what the heck was causing my Samsung Galaxy Spica battery to drain in like 10 minutes. I didn't happen all the time, just on days I really needed my phone.

Eventually I stumbled across an obscure thread on samdroid.net which mentions a bug in the Spica camera. The bug causes the CPU to stay in top speed after the camera has been used and thus drain all the battery even when the phone is supposed to be asleep.

The solution is simple. Download and install the CoolS app from the Android market. It puts the phone back into power saving mode automatically when it goes to sleep.

Still can't believe how long this problem bugged me for. Samsung, shame on you.

Art

Roger Keays — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 10:02:38 +1000

Fast Notes, The Fastest Note Taking Application For Android

Roger Keays — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:31:21 +1000

Some time ago I wrote a little review of several of the most popular Android note-taking apps. I ended up have three different apps installed because I couldn't find one that did just what I wanted.

So I wrote Fast Notes.

Fast Notes lets you take notes with just a single button press.

Lauch Fast Notes by long-pressing the search button or by pressing the icon in your launcher. Enter your note and long-press on a tag to save and exit. Voila, finito. Have you ever taken notes so quickly? You can also use the back button to save and exit.


Long press the search button to launch.	Long press a tag or press back to save and exit.

I use Fast Notes to keep my todo lists, jot down ideas, collect phone numbers, organise my projects, record my expenses, make checklists, keep a diary, help remember people's names, learn new words, share tweets, write blogs, collect quotes and even to work on my book whenever I have a few spare moments.

Best Android Mod For Samsung Spica i5700

Roger Keays — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 14:00:04 +1000

The developers over at the Samdroid Forums have made some pretty cool stuff for us Samsung Spica i5700 owners. The only problem is there is just too much stuff over on that forum and a lot of the builds are old and the kitchens for making custom mods are broken. So to save you the time, I'm going to tell you now which is the best mod of the Samsung i5700:

... drum roll please ...

SpicagenMod

It's a fork of CyanogenMod being developed by a young German guy called Lars Moelleken (he uses the nick "voku"). So far the only thing missing from this mod for me is a patch for the broken VOIP audio channels on the Spica. Hopefully we can get that fixed.

After you install the ROM you need to select the Honey theme from the SpicagenMod settings menu otherwise you won't be able to see the clock.

More Travelers Browse With Safari

Roger Keays — Thu, 1 Dec 2011 05:23:21 +1000

Here are the visitor browser stats for the Travel Lifestyle website for November 2011. I was surprised to see that the most popular browser is Safari. I guess travelers like their Apple products.

Safari	37.1 %
Internet Explorer	27.3 %
Firefox	18.6 %
Mozilla	13.7 %
Opera	1.5 %

I have a sneaking suspicion that all those browsers that identify themselves as "Mozilla" aren't really the Mozilla Browser. I haven't seen anybody using Mozilla since... well, since it became Firefox.

Entering Latin Characters in Ubuntu With The Multi_Key

Roger Keays — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:57:33 +1000

Wow. You learn something everyday huh? Since I killed a bunch of the keys on my keyboard recently I've been stuck without being able to easily enter Latin characters. Today I found out about the Compose key, or in Ubuntu terminology - the Multi Key.

The Multi Key lets you enter special characters by typing a combination of two keys. For example:

Á is Multi A '
« is Multi < <
½ is Multi 1 2
¿ is Multi ? ?

Pretty neat huh? Except my keyboard doesn't have a Compose key. Apparently you can set up Shift and Alt to be the compose key under keyboard options somewhere, but I preferred to use xmodmap to onvert my Windows key to a Compose key:

$ xmodmap -e "keycode 133 = Multi_key"

Voila! Now I can put in any Latin characters without resorting to the Character Map.

Check this list of common compose sequences to find the characters you want to enter.

Android Note Taking Apps Review

Roger Keays — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:40:21 +1000

I think a lot. Probably too much. I also like writing and have discovered that my phone is actually my preferred medium for writing. It's portable and you can edit and organise content in a way that you can't with paper notepads.

Update: Since writing this article I have developed my own note taking application called "Fast Notes" which is better than all these note taking apps. Read more...

A good keyboard like Slide IT lets you write at an acceptable speed, but I had a hard time finding a notepad app that I really liked. Here is what is was looking for:

Quick add button. Essential. I only want to have to click once to get my ideas down. Any more than that and I've already lost patience or lost my train of thought.
Tags. ideas, contacts, articles, stories, poetry, memories etc etc. I want to be able to find old notes, view them coherently and see which ones need attention.
Share. A lot of the stuff I write on my phone ends up on the web or in something bigger I am working on. I need a way to get individual notes off my phone.
Export or Backup. I backup important stuff from phone to my laptop regularly and my notes are important.
View Note Widget. For frequently used or modified notes, such as my todo list, collection of new words, or my contact details for my new friends to copy.
Notes Without Subjects. Adding a subject is an extra click and in that time I'm prone to forgetting what I was thinking about. Also, if I do want a subject for a note, I won't normally know what it is until AFTER I have written it.

Here is my short list of good note taking apps, and their features.

Android White Triangle and Yellow Exclamation Mark

Roger Keays — Wed, 3 Aug 2011 03:58:01 +1000

I finally got fed up with my slow crappy Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 running Android 1.5 and decided to bite the bullet and flash the firmware to 2.1. In the process I bricked my phone so that it only booted to an white triangle with a yellow exclamation mark in the middle.

Hooray for me. It took me hours to figure out, and I tried half a dozen different ROMs with the same result but in the end I managed to get it working by selecting the following Debug options in Odin:

Clear Parameters
PDA Format
Bootloader Update

I only had to do this once. It's worked fine ever since, although Odin is still as flaky as ever.

Android 2.1 is a huge improvement over 1.5 in terms of performance and usability.

Technology

Roger Keays — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:09:51 +1000