25
Jun
2010
Mobile Phone Safety: Tips for Keeping Your Phone Safe
As impressive as technology has become in the recent years, it is also getting more and more expensive. And as such, mobile phones –especially smart phones, are prime targets of unscrupulous individuals and any opportunists who would not think twice about taking advantage of a handset that has been left unattended.
While it is also common for phone owners to actually break, drop, bend or smash their devices accidentally, there are also times when users accidentally leave their phones behind in a restaurant chair, on a café table, in a gym locker and other such locations. Here are a few tips on being able to keep track of your mobile phone.
First off, stick to good storage options. You might have a locked drawer in your office table or a secure pocket inside your bag; these are often great places to store an expensive device in without having to worry about the handset being taken while your attention lies elsewhere.
For those planning to spend a long busy night out partying, it is best to set a regular alarm on your mobile phone. Having a phone beep loudly every fifteen minutes will not be a bother to other people in a loud bar, and it will remind the owner that the device is still present even when the drinks start piling up. Of course, it would be a good idea to charge a device up prior to doing this because this would drain the battery heavily.
Avoid sticking the handset into the back pocket of pants and try not to make a habit of making the device something that you casually carry around in your hand. Having a phone in a back pocket could have it slip out or get crushed when you sit.
3
Jun
2010
Android Phone Fragmentation is the Pink Elephant in the Room
Fragmentation in the Android mobile phone platform has been officially deemed an urban myth. Dan Morrill, the Android team’s open source and program compatibility manager, released a written explanation as to why fragmentation is nothing more than a figment of your imagination. In his creative write up, he basically says that the very concept is nonexistent:
“Because it means everything, it actually means nothing, so the term is useless. Stories on ‘fragmentation’ are dramatic and they drive traffic to pundits’ blogs, but they have little to do with reality. ‘Fragmentation’ is a bogeyman, a red herring, a story you tell to frighten junior developers. Yawn.”
Because Android is an open sourced platform, many developers have their hand in making a mark in the little green robot’s market. This means that many different people have also tried to express their experiences with fragmentation in a variety of ways. Having six major versions of the Android platform has made its mark on the industry because basically, people have a hard time keeping up.
Developers have problems making their apps compatible with the platform, manufacturers get questioned about the quality of their devices and users get left out when an app is not compatible with their mobile phone.
Well, Google handles these concerns by restricting the use of the Android name. This is given only to apps which have passed a very stringent list of specs. These apps are deemed to be compatible even to future Android builds.
For those who do not pass the requirements, Google simply blocks or limits the release for compatibility with specific Android devices. From what Morrill said, it seems this fragmentation issue is no bigger than what Android users make it to be. It affects all of us and yet our precious Android devices will still work perfectly fine without full compatibility with every single ‘droid app out there.
3
Jun
2010
Twitting Astronaut is Coming Home
Soichi Noguchi is a Japanese astronaut, and he has become quite the internet phenomenon thanks to his totally out of this world Tweets during his NASA mission. The man has been acclaimed worldwide for the amazing images that he took from outer space, with images of famous cities, major landmarks and even the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been recently announced that Soichi has finished his mission and is on the way back to Earth by the end of the week –just in time to buy the newly launched iPad released last Friday.
Known on Twitter as “Astro_Soichi”, Noguchi has become well known for his amusing one-liners and very eye-catching photographs. Of course, the big bonus with Noguchi’s images is that the perspective and view from outer space provides an all new look at the once commonly seen vistas of Mount Fuji, the Red Sea and others.
The Japanese astronaut has been able to go online straight from outer space thanks to a new form of technology developed by NASA. Originally, astronauts had to send their messages to mission control where it would be posted on Twitter by NASA personnel. With the new technology, astronauts could now post content directly online without any need for a third party to help out.
The new technology is called Crew Support LAN and is probably the most impressive form of wireless internet technology. Basically, the internet access piggybacks on the existing lines of communication from the space station to mission control. While the technology is impressive, they still have limited access to the internet –videoconferencing is reported to be available for limited periods only.
Thanks to Twitter’s new file hosting service, many Twitter users are now able to upload images and post links straight from their Tweets. The service has been long demanded by many users –especially those who love to upload images straight from mobile phones. At the rate that users have been uploading, it has been estimated that Twitpic will soon overtake the volume of images hosted on sites such as Flickr and Photobucket.
Loading ...