Four days without an unwanted reboot

I put apps back on the 32 GB Sandisk sdcard on 21st December and its now after lunch on Christmas Day. Merry Christmas to any one reading this.

There have been no reboots, so its looking pretty clear that formatting the card on the device has fixed the fairly frequent reboots earlier.

Google+ moved back to phone

I found the Google+ widget was missing when the app was on the Sdcard, so I moved it back..

Returned 32 GB card to GS2

After moving all apps back to the phone, I swapped out the 16 GB and went back to the original 32GB. Didn't reformat yet, or move any apps to the card. Will give the reboot problem a chance to reappear first.

Edit: Same evening, I have now moved the ten largest apps across to SDcard, most of which are games my Grandchildren play :)

Soon time to replace the 32 GB Sandisk card

The 16 GB Sandisk SDHC card has been working perfectly for 4 days now, so the next step I plan is to replace the rebooting 32 GB card, & see if the reboots return. IF they do I'll reformat the card and try again..

Android and iOS Cloud Print problem solved!

Was going wild when Google Help said I could Cloud Print from Google Docs, but no Print tag showed up on any of the EXISTING documents on my iPhone 4 or Galaxy S2!

Eventually, I created a new test document and damn me the Print feature appeared, and Cloud Print worked.

I also discovered existing documents needed to be Upgraded within Google Docs, after which more of those appeared OK.

Next stage of the reboot biz

Received 2x 16 GB Sandisk SDcards today, and have now replaced the 8 GB Kingston card, which has worked without rebooting since the 9th December, with one of these.
Ran Mybackup Pro to it, and will monitor further.

Further notes on the GS2 reboot biz

On 9th December I installed the old Kingston 8 GB SDcard from my Nexus One in the GS2, formatted it, and ran a MyBackup Pro backup to it. Since then it has been working fine, no reboots, tho' it is still early days.

I'm expecting a pair of 16 GB Class 6 SanDisks to arrive from Dustin in the next day or so. I'll replace the Kingston with one of these and continue the test for up to a week before replacing the original 32 GB Class 4 SanDisk, reformatting it, and seeing if I have more reboots with the latter.

GS2 Reboot fixed?

Haven't had a reboot since 1st December, i.e. after removing the 32 GB Sandisk card.

I don't think its a problem with the card, but rather Android's handling of the card.. I'll give it another day or so before posting an update to the XDA thread.

The battery is giving between 1.5 - 1.8% per hour use, which I think is fine :)

Yet another reboot today

This is the first time the reboot occurred as I was trying to use the device.
I had picked it up, hit the home button and was unable to flip up the screen to access the home screen. Then it rebooted..
Edit: moved all apps back to the phone from the Sandisk 32 GB, and removed it!

The Reboot Saga Continues

Just before 11AM the GS2 rebooted :(
I have tried various things and am considering removal of the SD card next.. thank heavens it is a rare event!

Another reboot while GS2 idle

Not much to say, other than nothing I've done so far has helped... one thing I did notice was a Gmail sync at that time, but there's no way to know if it was the cause, or came immediately after the reboot.
NB Removed Gmail Sync and Auto Sync

Yet another GS2 reboot

Same as last time, ie while the phone was unused. There were no obvious  symptoms, so I followed the advice of a forum post, cleared the system cache, and restarted. Will post further events..

Galaxy S2 rebooting

The Galaxy S2 reboot problem has shown up again. This looks like being an interesting one to solve.
A number of people have reported it, and many tied it to the Dolphin browser, but I don't use that. In my case it happens when the device is unused!
Will get back with more info as it appears ..

My first computer

See http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_DEUCE

Rather a long time ago ;)

New problem with the GS2

I don't seem to be the only one reporting occasional reboots. A long thread on Android forums was pretty convinced Dolphin was their problem, but I don't have that. Samsung Galaxy Forums threads made me think everyone has this now and then, so I'll see if it gets worse, start a mindmap, and try to track it down.

Fun ;)

May have found the battery culprit

The battery remained at around 85% throughout the night, which is what I expect with wi-fi off and no notifications expected.

The culprit might well have been the Eye-Fi app which I had seen taking an enormous amount of CPU, and it wouldn't stay force-closed, so I logged out of it totally, and then killed it.

Will be following the battery biz up anon..

Not 100% happy with GS2 battery consumption

I have no problem with it lasting through the day, but it runs down too fast during the night, and I haven't found what's causing it, though I have some good tools to monitor things (CPU%).

Photo taken with HDR Camera+

I heard Steve Litchfield warn of jitter danger when taking HDR snaps on Phones Show Chat today, and was lucky enough on my daily walk to find one of the few remaining colour opportunities around here. I swear I jittered a bit, but HDR Camera+ seems to do some smart computing, as to me this snap seems pretty sharp. It was taken with a Galaxy S2 v. 2.3.5. Comments welcomed :)

Galaxy S2 Updated

While the phone was on charge today I checked for system Updates, and found there was one.. it was ca. 26MB and after quick download installation took surprisingly long from 50%. After it rebooted fully, I was surprised by another 5.5MB update which also took quite a while to install, but in the end the phone was at 2.3.5 build I9100XXKI4 - great!

This removes a degree of concern about Samsung updates being slow :)

Here's the winner

Remember, it was a pretty dull day..

Galaxy S2 Camera apps

It wasn't the best weather for a test of the standard Camera app with a paid app called HDR Camera+, but I came across some colourful leaves on a few twigs close to home and took a snap with both apps. The result was clearly in favour of the HDR app.

The Galaxy S2 arrived

Have spent several hours sorting things out so far, and I'm pretty happy :)

Why are we waiting, why are we waiting..

Pixmania were fast at shipping my Galaxy S2, but I had forgotten how long their distribution takes.. coming from France I guess.

The Galaxy S2 is on it's way!

Pixmania Norway certainly got things moving fast on my new Samsung phone. So, in preparation, I have ordered a Case Mate cover, a spare Samsung battery, and just a few minutes ago, a SanDisk MicroSDHC 32GB card, which brings the total up to 48GB, enough for some HD video work..

Should be back with my first impressions next week :)

YES! Pixmania came through..

I received confirmation that my Nexus One had been credited in full, and was able to order a Samsung Galaxy S2 for just NOK 550 more. I would have liked the Galaxy Nexus, but it will be a while before that becomes available in Norway I feel. So, I look forward to receiving the 4.3" device in a few days time, and seeing how it compares with the iPhone 4.

Close to a Pixmania solution for my Nexus One

I had to chase Pixmania again as their promise of a reply after 21 days had overrun by almost two weeks. This has resulted today in my receiving an email from them saying that refunding of the full purchase price is currently under consideration, and I will soon hear their decision by email.


Good so far.. 

Official iPhone 4S prices announced

A couple of days ago just a couple of sites were offering iPhone 4S for ca. NOK 7000 !

Today the Apple Store listed prices for unlocked units which were much more affordable - e.g. NOK 4890 for the 16GB model..

I do not need one, my iPhone 4 is perfectly OK for my needs, BUT who isn't tempted by the improved camera, and by Siri's dulcet tones ;)

So, I'm going to think about it over the weekend..

iOS 5 and OS X updates

I found the iOS 5 updates early on the 13th Oct. and although the downloads took a while, everything went remarkably smoothly.. well done Apple!

I lived with the New iMac updates first, and after a while updated the MB AIR OK..

The Old iMac was taken a day or two later, and went just as well.

Nice to have the Notifications on iPhone 4, and iCloud seems to be working well, tho' I have Eye-Fi which updloads to their Server if I want it.

Like others I think the Photo Stream must allow deletion ASAP!

A quiet month..?

I was just about to write about how fast the month is going, and that I should be getting some feedback from Pixmania shortly about the Nexus One, when I remembered this was the month Steve Jobs passed away.

This was something I had been expecting for quite a while, so it wasn't a shock, but like many who had no first hand knowledge of him, one felt a certain natural sadness. There has been so much raking up of one's own memories on the various Mac podcasts that I gave up listening to many of them. Suffice it to say, that my first Mac was one of those weird little grey portables, the Classic I believe, next was the 2SE I used when starting my own business. That still exists down in my storeroom. It works, but I loaned the keyboard to my daughter, Susan, and its somewhere amongst their pile of belongings.

A number of years passed in my DIY PC overclocking phase, when I really wasted so much time with Gentoo with ID: Cintra. I learned a lot about Linux, which must have helped my brain develop some neurons, but it has pretty much faded away now. (use it or lose it!)

When Susan started her own design business using one of the 20" iMacs I was attracted by the style, and the fabulous screen resolution. I bought my own and just fell into the Mac way again so easily. :)

A while later I bought the first MB AIR and a year or two later a new 21.5" iMac, a really fast machine. It has been updated and backed up regularly since then, and is now at the latest LION version, as are all three Macs.

My network consists of an Airport Extreme with two Expresses used mainly with Airplay/Airfoil connected to the Sony stereo unit in the 'stue'.

Thats enough of my Mac history, other than to say that the urge to buy a new iMac, iPad, or iPhone 4S has to be constantly supressed ;)

72 + hours without internet

This might partly have been my own fault, as I called Telenor when I first noticed the problem on Wednesday lunchtime, asked them if this was a general problem in my area, to which I was given the answer yes, so I didn't 'log' a call! They should automatically log one in my opinion, because I ended up falling through the cracks, until I called and logged a problem when it was still down after a day and a half.. it still took another day and a half. It returned after pulling the power for 10 minutes or so, and powering up again. Big surprise when the Airport Extreme light turned green :)

My Nexus One saga continues

A couple of days ago I received confirmation from Pixmania both in France and Norway in response to my query to them. My defect Nexus One had been registered as received in France and was being forwarded to the 'Producer's Workshop'. I would hear from them again within 21-days.

This would clearly make future purchase of a mobile phone from Pixmania Norway an unwise decision..

Google+ at last

Yesterday evening I was surprised to find 'You+' in my Google tab line, so I quickly added the tech people I follow on Twitter to a 'Following' circle, added a Photography circle and started that by adding Trey Ratcliff and Peter to it.

This morning I cleaned up my Picasa Web a bit, and added a few more Pros to my Photo circle

This should be interesting.. :)

My tweet about Vaclav Smil

cinval cinval 

Via Chandran Nair's book 'Consumptionomics' I have discovered a previously unknown (to me) name Vaclav Smil. See an interview @ http://goo.gl/IUtiI

See also The man who's tutoring Bill Gates at http://goo.gl/OoIFF

Lumix LX5 Updated

This was the first time I had updated the LX5..

Instructions on the Lumix site were excellent, so it was simply a matter of reading them carefully, downloading the Mac version of the zip/bin file, copying the bin file to the root of a spare SDHC card, put the LX5 into 'p' mode, switch ON and press the blue > button, select Yes and away it went for no more than 30 seconds. 

The final instruction was to Format the card containing the bin file. This being a Spare, I had no problem with doing that.

Now the proud owner of a Version 2.0 LX5. All that remains to be done, is go through the update features one by one.

YES! At last on iOS

Read that Blogger was available for the iPhone just. Couldn't find it when searching for Blogger alone, but when I searched for Google it showed up in the list :)

Expect more entries from now on, as I find using the iPhone to be a pleasure together with the Apple Keyboard, left over from my llast iMac purchase..

My good old HTC Magic has been restored to service following return of the Nexus One to France because of the Lock Button defect :(

Its a great little war horse, which is perfect for trips to the local store and my shopping lists.

Opened to Everyone

After removal of one private post relating to the extended family in Australia, I decided there was no reason not to open the blog to everyone. Will see how it goes for a while ref. Comments and Spam..

The Nexus didn't last long!

I had a week or two's warning that things were not OK with the Lock button on the Nexus One, and a search on the web proved the worst.. going back a year or so, this was a known product defect. What surprised me was how soon I experienced it. Its not as though I was using the Nexus full time. The iPhone 4 was getting it's fair share of use!

So, at least one night's sleep was ruined by the mental alertness I tend to go through, thinking of the answers to the problem, ref. Pixmania's T's & C's and the numerous commentaries about difficulties people had had when trying to get repairs agreed to.

It took ages to find my way to the direct email route, but I did get a fairly swift response. Confusing to follow all of the papers and procedures which were necessary to ship the thing back to France for Control, possible repair, possible replacement with a new one, or refunding of the amount as a credit to be used on Pixmania!

One thing is for sure, that is the end of pricey purchases via Pixmania.

This also got me thinking about the Mobile phone serviceability issue in more general terms.

Mobile phone podcasters are only interested in the latest technical goodies a phone may have, not with the manufacturer's history of product quality...

I have made three Twitter updates about my problem and will follow up this case to see how long things take.

The only one left..

Had a look through the old stuff on my first blog and decided there was no point in keeping it, so it has been deleted..

This one should last a little longer :)

Couldn't wait..

I have been waiting 6 months, impatiently, for the promised update of Nexus One to Gingerbread. Then I heard Julie on PSC had a Nexus One so I twitted her to hear if she had received an OTA in the UK. She informed me that Vodafone was blocking the update, so I ran vodaphone UK nexus One gingerbread - Google Search and came across http://ossadmin.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/goodbye-vodafone-uk-nexus-one-rom Goodbye Vodafone, and there were clear instructions on which files to download from where and a long page of comments talking of success! So, I decided to go for it, and to cut a long story short, the passimg.zip installed OK and the 1st update.zip, but when the 2nd update.zip errored I decided to reboot, setup wifi connection, and immediately the OTA to 2.3.4 started.

So, now I have the US version and will get any future updates at once.

Went back to Julie and let her know. Haven't heard from her yet, but I'm sure she will say how it went if she does it.

"..but I still like pencil and paper"

Ref. the subtitle of this blog, its time to note that my regular journal entries have almost exclusively switched to use of 'Momento', an iPhone app, together with a spare bluetooth keyboard which was part of the New iMac purchase.

The latter allows easy updating of the journal, and has a simple tagging system, which makes finding some cyclic event's history in a blink, such as tablet use.

So its goodbye to pencil and paper, which is just as well, because reading old pencil journals from 1998 when I had the first heart symptoms, was very difficult for me, letalone other interested parties, e.g. the girls.

Other 'cameras'

Besides the LX5 I have been using the iPhone 4's camera, and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the various snaps. I have accumulated a bunch of 'apps', but the one I use exclusively outdoors is Quickpix, as this is the only app which, with a touch on the almost invisible icon, will take a shot a second later and store the result in the Camera Roll.. couldn't be easier.

The Nexus One has a similar app, Qikcam, which also takes remarkably good shots, almost as good as the iPhone's, but nowhere need the LX5's superior quality!

Photography blog or not..

My finally decided upon Panasonic DMC-LX5 camera arrived a few days ago, and besides reading up on the most relevant sections in order to get the tiny beast working, I have been wondering whether to start a new 'open' blog about my experiences with taking up photography again in my 79th year. Haven't decide yet, so in the mean time I'll put my entries here.

I have had a few old snaps taken with unknown cameras up in the woods some years ago, recently added some iPhone 4 snaps, all for family viewing only, and have now started a couple of 'sets', joined a few 'groups' - all this on Flickr.

The LX5 takes remarkably good photos and has a host of advanced features like Auto Bracket, which enable HDR pictures to be 'developed' with the aid of a great piece of software called Photomatix that runs on the iMac in my case.

Setting Auto Bracket to +/-2 EV automatically takes 3 shots with different exposures at the push of a button. These are then merged by Photomatix and tone mapped to produced the results one wishes. In my case a picture of the stue table area taken near the top of the stairs produced a really psychedelic wide angle work of art!

See http://www.flickr.com/photos/cintra2/5767057795/in/set-72157626823316018

I'll leave it here for now, and add new experiences as they occur.

Google IO week!

Tuesday the 10th May was Android Keynote day. 

Lots of interesting stuff for developers and how they can continue to make Android the platform of the future. Honeycomb 3.1 is due out any day now, and Icecream Sandwich will be out later on in the fall. It should bring tablets and phones together on a common version. There was also an agreed movement to reduce fragmentation caused by the current Mfg and Carrier skinning... lets hope that works out, or that at least there will always be a Nexus version.

Yesterday, Wednesday was the Chrome Keynote day. Both browser (with Angry Birds) and Chrome OS. Chromebooks were announced to be available in US and 6 other countries around the world in June. I might well see if I can get one via Pixmania in late June/July :)

Otherwise, although I am tempted by aspects of both the iPad and Android tablets, particularly the Eee Transformer, I think I'll hold off a bit longer. 

Fwd: WhatsApp video

Get WhatsApp for your iPhone, Android, Nokia or BlackBerry today: http://www.whatsapp.com/download/

Mobile wonderings

I have the iPhone 4 and the Nexus One, both comparatively recent acquisitions. I like them both OK, and have gradually added apps which are really necessary to be able to share between my various Mac and other systems, e.g. Dropbox, Evernote, RTM, to name a few. I am a Google user, so most of my notes exist 'in the cloud'. I do backup things frequently tho' not in a scheduled way.

I have been checking on to the Nexus often to see if the promised Gingerbread update has arrived or not, so far 'not'! :(

I find myself using the iPhone 4 more often; there is something lighter and more attractive in some way, tho' I have apps which will do 90+ % of the same things on the Nexus.

But, more often recently I have been asking myself why I and others more than me are so keyed up by the latest and greatest new phones, when we use them so little in fact.

Is this another (tho' milder) form of the Gentoo obsession, when I spent a year or more waiting for new kernel versions to be incorporated onto my systems, spending days upgrading various components just to be 'on the (leading) edge'. If so, perhaps its time to take stock and get a life.

The lucky thing is that I am not hooked, like so many younger people, by Facebook, and/or Games!

Twitter is something I follow a limited number of people, and I only tweet occasionally. Buzz I belong to, but there are even fewer followers in either direction.

So, its time for another mindmap exercise to decide the future of my mobile interest, investments, etc.

Gingerbread manual update

Spent hours with update zip to no avail: ( Like several others I was getting a file check error even though the MD5 checksum proved to be correct. This is a painfully slow way to enter text so I'll add more latter. .

5 tips for using Blogger on your Android phone

5 tips for using Blogger on your Android phone: "Earlier this month, we announced the first version of the Blogger app for Android on the Blogger Buzz blog. Today, we’d like to share some tips on how you can use the Blogger app to quickly publish posts when you’re on the go.

1. Attach photos as you compose

Take photos using your phone’s camera and instantly add them to your post while you draft. You can also insert photos from your phone’s gallery, all within the Blogger app.

2. Include your current location
With your phone’s GPS, you can let your readers know where you’re blogging from by selecting your current location, no additional typing needed.

3. Share to Blogger
Share videos, products, photos, links and other interesting things you would like to include in your blog via the share button that’s available in many apps, including Google Maps for mobile, YouTube, and your web browser. After you share an item to your Blogger, it will be inserted into new post that’s automatically created for you so that start can composing right away.

4. Switch across multiple Blogger accounts
If you’re an author of more than one blog, you can easily switch between your different accounts by tapping on the orange arrow next to the title of your blog. That way, you can publish articles for each of your blogs to keep your all of your readers up to date.

5. Keep track of published posts and saved drafts
See what you’ve composed in an easy to read list by tapping the list icon located on the top right-hand corner.

We hope that you enjoyed these blogging tips. If you haven’t done so already, you can download the free Blogger app for Android 2.1+ devices from Android Market or scan the QR code below. As always, we would love to hear what you think so please feel free to share your thoughts with us through our feedback form.

Happy blogging!

Posted by Shaun Seo, Product Manager, Blogger

"

Nokia/Microsoft working relationship

This was rumored for a week or more, but I like many, probably, hoped Nokia would choose anone but MS... they both believe that MS Windows Phone software will complement Nokia's quality hardware. However, I think its going to take a long time before that starts to produce any results.

They should have started working on a high-end Android series instead of or as well as Meego, which anyone who tried it - I did -  could see what a dog it was, and its not improved in a year of Intel and Nokia working on it...

Right now, MWC Barcelona is in progress, and Android is absolutely EVERYWHERE.

HTC have just anounced their Flyer tablet, and it looks damn nice, as do a myriad of others.

Apple media are trying to reduce the Android glow by rumors of iPad 3 and Nano iPhones, but this is clearly Apple leaked... bastards!

Nokia and Microsoft Join Forces :(

Have just read the news of Nokia and Microsoft joining forces :( I
guess they know what they are doing, BUT... my simple view is that
Nokia could have very quickly produced a super quality Android phone
acceptable to all as their top of line models, while continuing with
Symbian^x. This they could do ultrafast vs anything Nokia and MS/WP7
will be able to do... we'll see how it goes. At least I can drop the
AAS podcast now. I wonder what they will do..?

Blueinput input on Nexus

This is working pretty well. I bought the full package yesterday, and have the Nexus sitting on my lap on top of the US keyboard layout :) It helped make the last smiley..

What else happened today? I spent a lot of time in front of the iMac - doing what? Sorting out the layout for a start. Sleeping on the sofa for another. Exercise, showering and late breakfast for the 3rd thing.

Sent an email answer to Hege, and made a chicken curry. Delish!

Input from Nexus using BT

BT is of course Bluetooth. I have paid for Blueinput, an Android driver that enables my Apple Wifi Keyboard to be used as an Input device. Only snag is that I have to avoid special keys as the driver is for US keyboards.

Not a bad first effort with the BlueinputAndroid driver. One (corrected) d in place of an s :)

Trying Bluetooth

Have BlueInput driver from Teksoft on the Nexus, using the Apple wifi *BT( keyboard as I do on the iPhone 4 Momento journal keeping.. The only snag is that I need to stick with US characters.. the demo is sticking characters in the post too. Cant buy it as it is now!

Here we are again

This time from my new Nexus One's Blogger app. It's a bit slow from the mobile keyboard but the Dansk Gingerbread kbd helps :)

More anon from the iMac...

New Mobile order

Have recently bought Nexus One to replace the HTC Magic.. this is a pain to type on the latter so I will keep it short

New Journal solution

I bought an iPhone 4 a while ago before Christmas, and quickly found a Journal app - Momento - which I use regularly, typing data in via the short Bluetooth keyboard which came with the new iMac.. another reason for fewer entries here.

Susan has been using an iPhone 4 loaner from Jarek, and she came across WhatsApp - a Messaging app, which is easy to use, and saves on expensive SMS's...

Cintweet blog

Started new blog after reading how to email Twitter using Blogger and Twitterfeed, but it was a long involved business, which I deleted after finding a quick and easy solution - TweetyMail!

Another year - 2011 already

It is a while since I updated this blog, even though I have invested in an Apple iPhone 4, much to my own surprise, yes.. but I have not been on top form for a lot of the year - sinus problems, leading to sleep difficulties. Nough said!

I'll see how it goes in the next month or so, and if I don't add more interesting stuff, we'll lay it to rest.