Category: Gadgets

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Android Gadgets technical Useful Links

Loss of internet on HTC One X

I got a new phone a few months ago. I really like my HTC One X (with Orange) but I’ve had a major problem, and I wanted to share the solution. I started to lose internet connectivity via my service provider. The phone showed a good strong connection but no actual data could be downloaded.  I recreated a fresh APN but that only helped temporarily and not every time. The final solution was a factory reset of the phone. I did that and it solved the whole thing, at the cost of resetting most of the phone setup.

HTC One X in Grey
HTC One X in Grey

Then it happened again. I wasn’t prepared to keep resetting my phone so I went looking for an alternative.

After some googling around I found this post and so my instructions are based on the details there

To reactivate internet access via wireless

  1. Switch on airplane mode
  2. Hold the power switch for about 10 seconds until it resets (it should tell you that it will reset within 3,2,1 if you hold long enough)
  3. switch off airplane mode.
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Android Gadgets

Solution: Mail Sync failing on G1

Fail Road by Fireflythegreat
Fail Road by Fireflythegreat

I’ve had a problem with my G1 for the past week or two and today I found a solution.  My Gmail wouldn’t sync with the device in the same way that it had before.  It seemed to be stuck in the past and I couldn’t send or receive any new email using the Gmail app.  There was always a big button at the end of my inbox saying “No Conection” with a “Retry” button that didn’t seem to help.

Today I found the solution for the problem on the Google help pages, via the androidcommunity site, and it simply involves clearing the app’s storage.

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Android

Android Update: I rooted my G1

Tree Roots by Aaron Ecobar
Tree Roots by Aaron Ecobar

Having toyed with the idea for a while I was really excited to see the “one click root” that appeared this week.  Having installed the app from the Android Market (I’d like to see Apple allowing yellowSn0w onto the App store) I ran it, a few times before I worked out the whole system then updated to the CyanogenMod.

I don’t have any benchmarks but my perception is certainly that it’s faster and sleeker than the system I had before, and that’s very exciting.  Having also heard the rumours that the next version of the Android OS might not fit onto a G1 I’m delighted to have the freedom to upgrade past the point that others might see as necessary.

Lifehacker has a nice guide for those interested in following suit.  The only thing that caught me out was that the firmware was reset to the standard after a reboot – I had to re-run the hack software then reboot.

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Gadgets

Tech Thought: My New Phone

Image by Sean Dreilinger
Image by Sean Dreilinger

So having only recently acquired my G1 and having fallen fairly significantly for my iPod Touch, I now have about 16 months to think about what phone I’ll have next.  Had I not already bought my touch I’d probably have gone for an iPhone, but havnig had my G1 for a while I’m torn.

The iPod touch is very pretty, very functional and has some great apps available for it.  even though i’ve jailbroken it there is always the fear that an Apple update will break it or that something will stop working.  There have been several prominent examples of tech-minded people abandoning their iPhones in favour of Android based devices.  I have some sympathy with this.

I know that the g1 is not the most beloved piece of hardware on the planet but I’m really enjoying it.  A large part of that is down to the improvements  brought to me by the Cyanogen mod and the huge performance benefits which it brings.  There have been rumours that the G1 might not have enough built in memory to handle future Android updates so I’m glad to have the rooted handset to see me through. Android has a long way to go but it is only now starting to come out if its shell and have proper applications built for it.  The only way appears to be up.

I suppose it’s pointless to speculate which handset I’ll have.  The market has changed significantly in the last 18 months – I’m quite excited to see what happens next.

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Gadgets

Cool Sites: GDGT

As you hopefully know by now I’m a gadget fan.  I’ve been updating my profile (and list of gadgets I’ve owned) on the recently launched GDGT website.  There are still some of the older gadgets which I have had which aren’t in there yet but it’s hard for me to remember the product numbers so I’m waiting for that.

In the meantime, here’s my gadget list, and I’ll be keeping an updated one in the sidebar.

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Gadgets technical

Rockbox Rocks

Photo of an iAudio X5Having bricked my router trying to use unofficial firmware, i was nervous about trying it on my iAudio x5 (the sucessor to my fondly remembered but increasingly unstable Iriver h-140,)  however I decided to be brave, and I’m having a lot of fun.

There is a group who have developed a firmware called Rockbox, which runs on many popular MP3 Players including (shudder) iPods.  I was looking for a way to tweak some extra settings, maybe change the theme of the playerm but rockbox does so much more.  I’ve just been playing Doom (I’ve arrived – they’ve ported Doom to my mp3 player!) and sudoku (much more my style) as well as solitaire and looking at the various effects.

I like my music to be organised the way I like it, rather than using the database functions in iPods and other players.  I know what I want to have where.  However, the Rockbox will build an index of all of the files which I have on the drive and let me access that database, as an alternative to the folder system I have.  It may not be used often but I’m glad it’s there!

So far it’s won’t play back videos like the original firmware will, but I may not have installed the right plugins and i don’t really care about video on a screen that size.  If I want to watch video I’ll use my phone.

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Gadgets

New Phone

After two years with my Sony Ericsson Z600 I’ve finally upgraded.  My new phone is a T-Mobile MDA Vario, so I’ll have to merge my “phone stuff” and “pocket pc” threads to tell you of my experiences.  So far I’m loving it, and it’s not to embarassing to carry around with me and use as a phone – it’s tiny really, but a fully functional (so far) pocket PC.  Woohoo!

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Gadgets

What pictures do you have on your phone?

I’ve been thinking recently how much I nejoy having pictures on my phone, of friends and family. Anyone want to play this game:



















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Gadgets

Mobile Websites

I’m always on the lookout for sites I can visit using my PDA. I have an Ipaq 5550, and a wireless connection, and I don’t surf much with it, but I like being able to. Here are some of the best I’ve found so far:

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Gadgets

Mobile Blogging

I haven’t been great about updating this blog, but I’m going to make the effort to be more regular, so to speak. One of the things I’m hoping will help me is a free blogging tool for my Pocket PC. It’s called Pocket SharpMT and I’m actually using its big brother on my PC to write this post. The only thing it’s missing (and I suspect I may just be asking too much here) is that you have to manually post to the server, rather than doing it automatically when you synchronise. But it will let you write and store posts, and it’s free, so I can’t complain.