Monday, 9 July 2012

Huawei Ideos X5 U8800 Pro Gets Official Android 4.0 ICS Update

his month is certainly ending on a high note, first with Google Nexus 7 tablet been launched along side with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. And Samsung Galaxy S III takes the title of top end smart phone. Apart from that several of the existing smart phone from various manufacturers received the much awaited Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. First Samsung, Sony almost completed the update to their various devices, HTC and Motorola soon followed the upgrade procedure to existing smart phone which qualified for the upgrade.

Huawei now finally has announced the big update to Huawei Ideos X5 U8800 Pro smart phone featuring the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich pack. The Huawei Ideos X5 U8800 Pro was launched in 2011 and it’s along the few phones from Huawei which qualified for the ICS upgrade seeing its hardware. The Huawei Ideos X5 U8800 Pro is powered with 1 Ghz Qualcomm MSM 8255 processor.

These updates are available via the PC Companion and the file size is around 355.85MB and can be downloaded from the official Huawei Site.

Improvements & Enhancements

Interestingly Huawei has provided the list from the Improvements and enhancements included in the update included -

Introduces Smart dialing feature
Smart search for contacts
Calendar Adds Exchange synchronization
Power on Optimize the boot speed
5.GPS has been optimized for faster response speed
Wi Fi Support the WPS feature & Enhance the WIFI wireless performance
Huawei devices now supports DLNA Share
File manager Support file browse, more convenient for find files
GUI Improve the charge design when power off
Camera Support CAMERA UI style, continuous auto focus, touch focus, HDR feature, panorama feature
Alarm “Optimize the Power-off Alarm”
Multimedia now support animated GIF

Interestingly this year Huawei announced a lot of devices during the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress in Q1 this year but none of those devices has finally been launched as the launch got delayed.

How to Install Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on HTC One X – SDK Port

HTC One X smartphone users seems to be luckier than the Samsung Galaxy S3 users as all thanks to the leaks with which its now possible to install the latest Jellybean 4.1 firmware in your device. Please note that this is not an Official firmware released by HTC or Google Inc. and is being extracted from the SDK (Software Developer Kit). Please be informed that, to apply this firmware, you need to ensure that you have a network unlocked device with unlocked boot loader and should have the root access. You can download the “Root Checker” app from the Google PLAY Store to check whether the device is rooted or not. If your device is not rooted then you need to root the same. Since this firmware is a beta port, all the functionalities won’t be working. The below functionalities won’t be working as of now but in the future releases, the support will be added. HTC has confirmed that there will be an Official update of Jellybean 4.1 firmware but for which there is no ETA given by the same.

Wi-Fi
Audio
Camera

Disclaimer: We should not be held liable for any damage caused in the process of applying this rooting process in your device. It is very unlikely that your device will be damaged if you follow all the instructions to the point which are mentioned in procedure.

Lets head to the procedure section directly wherein we will be checking out on how you can easily apply this firmware update in your phone. Please note that you need to follow all the instructions mentioned below so as to facilitate smoother firmware upgrade process.

Procedure to Upgrade HTC One X with Jellybean 4.1 Firmware Update:

If your device is not Rooted, then you need to root the same with the help of instructions mentioned in the corresponding link.

Up next, install the Official HTC Sync in your computer which will ensure that all the device drivers will be installed in your computer which is a must before proceeding.

Download the Jellybean Firmware Package from here to your computer. once downloaded, connect your device with the computer and place the downloaded zip file in your device. Ensure that you are not placing the file deep into the device. Once the file is copied, you now need to download and extract the Flash Boot Zip file.

Now, open the “jellybean_endeavoru_tgascoigne.zip” which you got by unzipping the firmware zip file and unzip the boot.img file to get the boot.img file to the folder where you have extracted “Flash_Boot.img” file in the last step.

Disconnect the device and turn Off the device so that it can be then entered in the boot loader mode first. To enter the device in the boot loader mode, you now need to press Volume Down button and press the Power button and enter the device in the FASTBOOT Mode by selecting the option. In the boot loader mode, you need to select “recovery” so as to enter into the recovery mode. In recovery mode, select Wipe data/factory reset and also you need to select Wipe Cache partition.

Once its done, all you need to do is to just connect your device with the computer using the Original USB cable. Now, you will have to open the flash-boot-windows.bat file from the extracted folder which will flash the required kernel. Once the kernel is flashed, the device will be rebooting the device.

Now, press the Power button and select the boot loader option present and select the “Recovery” option to enter the device in the recovery mode. In clock work recovery mode, select install zip from sd card, then select choose zip from sd card. Scroll down to the jellybean_endeavoru_tgascoigne.zip file on the SD card and select the same. It will take around 4 – 5 minutes for applying this update. Once its done, the phone will be restarting or will enter into the recovery mode.

Note: At any point of time just in case if the process of firmware update gets stopped due to any reason, all you need to do is restart the process from the start by re inserting the battery.

Congratulations, you have now successfully applied the update of Jellybean 4.1 firmware package in your computer. Do share with us in the comments section just in case if you face any issues as we will try out level best to sort out the same.

Best Navigation Apps for Android with Turn by Turn Driving Directions

Turn by turn navigation using the pathfinder in your mobile phone has become essentially required. All users whether they have iOS, Java or Android based phones are in need of navigation apps on their phone. Android users have got benefited as operating system itself provides turn by turn navigation and users don’t have to struggle for anything else to get navigation usually in the form of Google Maps Navigation.

Many users will directly make use of the Google Maps service for navigation between point A to point B and we have found out that Waze is another alternative which provides better turn by navigating maps.

Waze GPS navigation is a social Android application which allows users to get driving directions on their mobile phone. It comes with complete voice guidance using the natural text to speech capabilities. If you are commuter then you would be always looking for the best way to get to your destination. Usually when you travel from A to B there are several routes to choose and you have the maps of those directions too. The only thing which you are missing is what’s happening on those roads which way you will choose to travel today.

Thanks to Google Live Traffic Maps which shows at which road there is traffic and this Waze application is never less as this application used by others users provides information on the route they traveling thereby letting us know their speed, they are strucked or not. This application is powered by social people who contribute to provide information to others so that users can choose optimized route to reach their destination.

The process by which this application shows traffic jam is full automated as if you are strucked in traffic, a red line will fall behind you on the maps which is visible to you and the others users using the Waze application which is not limited to just Android users but also to iOS users and other phone users. You can help you fellow users by providing accident information, construction stoppage and you can take the photo of what you see and make it alive to other users. Since routes are based on the update traffic and up to the minutes conditions, Waze will automatically reroute you in the most optimized path to get to your destination in the shorter way possible.

The advantages of using Waze maps for GPS are as follows –

You get the voice guided turn by turn navigation for driving
The route are recalculated depending on minute by minute conditions
Automatically recalculate routes when you make a wrong turn
Provides live traffic feed and road conditions
Provided alerts and photos uploaded by users when there is road in construction or a major accident
Switch between day and night maps for easy reading

Waze GPS Navigation Download

Waze GPS Navigation Android application can be downloaded from Android Apps Labs for free. To download it on your mobile phone, you need to open the Waze GPS Navigation page on the Android Apps Labs and then click on Install button to automatically proceed with the installation.

Turn OFF Status Bar Notifications of Incoming Mails on Android

You receive a lot of mail in your favorite Google Mail services, Isn’t it? The Android phone powered by Google, sends you notification in your top notification bar for each email that you receive. The notifications are instant and for each email that you receive on your Google mail account, you are notified for the same. In some cases its good because you get instant know of an important email but what if you receive a lot of spam mails.

I receive a lot of mails from Facebook about someone comment on my photo, story, liked, birthday reminders and all creates junk. You can bear with the junk mails in your Gmail but the notification on your phone for every mail is quite annoying thing.

Switch Off Notification of Incoming Mails

If you are strucked and wanted to get rid of those notifications mails in your Gmail Inbox then you can easily do it by following the below procedure –

From your Android phone open the Gmail application.

Once you are in your Gmail app, tap on Menu and then tap on More button.

This will quickly open few menu options for you, tap on Settings.

In the Settings you will find the Account Settings tap and then click on the Gmail account for which you want to stop the notifications.

Now the settings for that particular Gmail account will be available there and scroll down and you will find ‘email notification’. Uncheck it to receive the notification as the email arrives in your status bar.

That will do it for you.

Its so simple but at first sight you would be unaware until you know this and once you do it, you would be easily doing it the next time.

How to Turn Off Notifications for Apps in Android Jelly bean 4.1

The Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is here introduced along side with the launch of Google Nexus 7 tablet. Just like other firmware’s this comes, Android 4.1 Jelly Beam comes with introduction of some new features from the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. One of the interesting features included is the ability to disable app notification.

There is not one application I use on my phone, I have more than 50 installed on my device and each developer of individual application is back of coming out with new improved version and hence the app updates are available every week or respective month. Every day I have one or the other app with new updates available and its quite annoying to go ahead with this minor updates for each apps. Also many applications provides unpredictable ads which are annoying while using the applications. The big thing is these are seen on our device via notification and if you are tired of such notifications on your Android 4.1 Jelly Bean then you have option to disable this feature.

Open Menu and go to Settings.

In the Settings section choose Applications

From the list of the applications, you need to select the app for which you want block notifications. For example, xyz application is sending you annoying notifications, then tap on it. Tap on it to access

the information.

In the Application info page uncheck Show notifications and this option can be found right under the

Force Stop button.

Tap OK button to see the warning window.

Now notifications from that application will not appear in the top drop down notification.

Tutorial to Fix Wi-Fi Bug in Jellybean 4.1 Powered Verizon Galaxy Nexus

Verizon Galaxy Nexus smartphone users who have upgraded with the latest Jellybean 4.1 Custom ROM

firmware can now get rid of Wi Fi issues as there are some minor instability issues in Wi Fi. In the process of this tutorial, we will be checking out on how you can fix this Wi Fi issue, you will need to have boot loader unlocked. As per different forums and websites, it has been reported that there are issues like frequent disconnection, unable to latch on to the Wi Fi network despite adding the MAC address of the device in the trusted list of device access listing and also some users reported that internet couldn’t be accessed despite getting latched.

So, basically, in this article we will be checking out on how you can replace the Wi Fi drivers with that of the earlier firmware version which are of IMM76K. The Wi Fi drivers of IMM76K are highly stable and the same will be replaced once you follow the instructions. To apply this fix, you need to ensure that the device has to be rooted and is boot loader unlocked. Despite applying this Wi Fi fix, the firmware of your device will still remain as Jellybean 4.1 and not be changed to IMM76K build. Before proceeding, ensure that your Galaxy Nexus is on the latest Jellybean 4.1

Procedure to Fix Wi Fi Issue in Verizon powered Galaxy Nexus:

Before proceeding, you need to ensure that your device is boot loader unlocked, Rooted & installed with Clock Work Mod Recovery which we understand that it will be satisfied as Jellybean is not yet officially available as of now and those installed in devices are the pre-released / leaked version. Also, the ADB should be installed in your computer.

Download the WI Fi fix for VZW Galaxy Nexus Package in your computer. Once downloaded, you now need to connect the same with your computer. Place the downloaded Wi Fi zip package in your device and disconnect the phone from computer.

Up next you need to enable the USB Debugging in your phone from the path “Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging. Ensure that the USB Debugging option is ticked as shown in the below screen capture. Also, the minimum battery charge left should be 50% to make sure that it doesn’t get turned Off in the middle of firmware update.

Turn Off the phone so that it can be entered in the recovery mode. To enter into the recovery mode, you need to first enter the device in the boot loader mode. Boot loader mode can be entered by entering the below command,

adb reboot bootloader

Once the device is entered into the boot loader mode, you need to select the “recovery mode” to enter into the same.

In recovery mode, select “install zip from sd card” > “choose zip from sd card” and then choose the Wi Fi Fix Zip file which is placed in your Verizon Wireless Galaxy Nexus.

Once the device is updated with this firmware, select “++++ Go BACK ++++” and choose the option of “reboot system now”. Now, you can remove the connected USB cable to enjoy the seamless Wi Fi in your Galaxy nexus.

Note: At any point of time just in case if the process of firmware update gets stopped due to any reason, all you need to do is restart the process from the start by re inserting the battery.

Congrats, the bug now in your Galaxy nexus has been fixed. Do share with us in the comments section below just in case if you face any issues as we will try to fix the same.

Sunday, 8 July 2012

How to control a PC with your Android phone

There's something deeply liberating about being able to get one over on those huge, faceless and cold-hearted corporations, and nothing does that better than building your own recordable TV powerhouse in your living room - especially as companies like Virgin Media have announced package price hikes for those customers stuck in a contract.

Unfortunately, no matter how good you make your media PC - and modern systems are good, allowing you to watch, record and play back TV in perfect silence - there's often one weak point in DIY home media networking that will bring the rest of the house toppling down.You can achieve this snub by installing a media centre PC next to your big screen.

The weak link in question is the remote control.

Many of us use the standard keyboard and mouse, or some kind of cobbled-together version of the two to control a media PC from a distance. Neither option is particularly good. You can purchase a third, more expensive option in the form of a media centre remote, but we don't think this is the best method available.

So what are you left with? Well, there's a solution, and you probably already own it: a smartphone. Not just any smartphone though - the mobile of choice for this kind of work comes from the hands of the smiling green bug of Android, allied to a little application called Gmote that gives you complete control of your media PC.

If you've never used it before then you're in for a rare treat - Gmote is an eye-opener to the world of Android. When such a simple app can work so harmoniously with the devices it's connected to, you start to wonder what else your smartphone is capable of.

As well as being a great way of controlling the media on your PC for playback on a big screen TV, you can also use Gmote to stream media from your PC to your phone or tablet. Here's how to install the app on your device as well as the software needed on your computer to communicate with it.

Turn your phone into a remote control and access media files from your couch

Installing Gmote

1. Get the app

Gmote 2.0 is available on the Android Market, so download and install it. The first time you open the app, it will inform you that you need to install the Gmote server on your PC by downloading it from the website. You can get Gmote to email you the link, or alternatively just go towww.gmote.org/server and select the right installer for your PC.

2. Allow it access

Now that you've installed Gmote on your Android phone and PC, allow the program access to the internet. Create a password for connecting to the Gmote server through your Android phone, then select the location of the media files on your hard drive. Click on 'Add path', then simply choose the folder (or folders) that you want to share with the phone.

3. Never too late

If, at a later date, you change your mind and decide to create a more secure password for your smartphones access or wish to add more folders to share, or even remove those folders that you've linked to previously, all you need to do is right-click the Gmote icon in your Taskbar tray and select the appropriate link from the Settings menu.

4. Start Android

Once your PC is ready for action, it's time to get your Android device into gear. Go back to Gmote and tap the button on the screen to let the application know that you have Gmote installed on your machine now.

The name of your PC should show up on the screen, so just tap it. If not, press the option below it to enter your computer's IP address manually.

5. Enter the password

You'll now see the remote control layout on your Android device's screen, complete with media playback controls and more. Tap any of the buttons on the screen and it'll ask you to enter the password you used earlier when setting up Gmote on your PC. Once that's done it'll connect to your computer - you've just got yourself a remote Android control.

6. Explore the controls

Using the Gmote remote is pretty intuitive, so it's quite self-explanatory really. Even so, it's worth mentioning that when you first open the application, you'll be presented with an array of media controls that you can use to play, pause and alter the volume of any media files that you open, whether they are music or video.

7. Find some files

Once you're acquainted with the first screen, you can start browsing for media files on your PC's hard drive. Tap the 'Browse' button in the top left-hand side of the screen and you'll see a list of folders that you added earlier. Just tap on the folder where your media is located and tap a file to open it on your PC - this will be your default program for the file type.

8. Play on tablet

You can also beam media stored on your PC to your Android tablet or smartphone. Streaming this way is easy - just go back to the file browser on your Android device, and at the top where it says 'Play on', tap 'Phone (beta)'. You can now search for media files as you did before. It's worth noting, however, that because this feature is still in beta, not all file types are supported.

9. Finger tricks

One of the app's best features is the ability to transform itself into a mouse and keyboard at will. Press the menu button and click on 'Touchpad' to turn the screen into a mouse touchpad. The real beauty of this is that when you tap the screen it will register as a left click of the mouse, and if you hold your finger down it will bring up the Windows context menu.

10. Type away

Even better, you can type directly on screen by simply tapping the keyboard icon in the top-left corner. Input responses are immediate, so you could type entire documents on your phone. Gmote has another neat trick up its sleeve too - tap the menu button once more and select 'Web (beta)' and you can now search the internet.

Saturday, 7 July 2012

Samsung to debut Galaxy Note 2 at IFA in August, with Jelly Bean and 13MP camera on board

After being shrouded in mystery for so long, it seems we are nearing the official announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. Korean news agency MK has reported that Samsung is going to debut the Galaxy Note 2 at the upcoming IFA 2012 in Berlin, a consumer electronics show that will be held late next month.

A source close to the development team has confirmed that the sequel to the multi-million selling Galaxy Note will indeed come with a 5.5-inch display, as reported a while back. And we hope you’re sitting down, because there are more juicy details on the Galaxy Note 2 below.

The Galaxy Note 2 is likely to come with the same quad-core processor found on the Galaxy S3, the Exynos 4 Quad. Although the display size has been bumped up, the phablet will maintain a similar figure to the original. If the buttery-smooth Jelly Bean has won you over, you’ll be pleased to know that the Galaxy Note 2 will ship with the latest Android 4.1 OS. And as for theunbreakable plane display that the Galaxy Note 2 has been rumored to feature, it seems the technology will be saved for Samsung’s next flagship product. It wouldn’t be too surprising to see it end up on the successor to the Galaxy S3.

One aspect of the device that is still being discussed is the camera sensor. The insider said that, “There are also talks of improving the camera resolution to 12.0 or 13.0 megapixels, up from current 8.0 megapixels, but this may be changed depending on other factors.”

With a late August introduction, the Galaxy Note 2 is still on track for an October release. A lot can happen between now and October, so if you would like to see a kickstand on the Note 2 or any other thing on your wish list, better hit the comments once more and let your thoughts be known to Sammy.

The Best Ways to Tether with Android: Rooted and Unrooted Phones Covered!

We all would love to use our Android Phone as a wireless modem. The 3G or 4G connection boasted on the phone is a sweet way to get access to the wonderful internet. In this post we discover the various available methods of tethering your Android phone.

Earlier, we witnessed Google citing distribution agreements with Carriers as they removed Android apps that enable tethering from the Android Market.

A caveat: various carriers have been perceived unhappy to let you tether your Android phone. They, in some cases, would prefer to issue you a nominal fee or even string you if they discover you are doing it. Please, read the fine print of your carrier’s wireless usage agreement before proceeding.

We split the tethering process into two parts – 1) Using rooting 2) Without rooting. These may or may not involve money. Whilst some methods are heavy, some are easy going. We are covering both paid and unpaid methods for you.

Method 1: Let’s begin with the tough and risky one first – Rooting. This option is meant for geeks primarily. It can lead to bricking your phone. We here at Android Authority are not responsible for any kind of damage to your handset.

This is a two-step process – Installing android-wifi-tether after rooting your phone. Gaining root access to your Android involves installing an unofficial Android add-on.

This was it – Boast your phone as a MiFi now. The mobile Wi-Fi hotspot is enabled on your device. The best part about this method is it’s free. The hassles include sacrificing Over the Air(OTA) Updates. Extreme care needs to be engaged in this aforementioned method.

Method 2.1 – A proxy server is used for making internet requests by your computer. Now, we will tether Android with Proxoid – a free application on the Android Market that turns your device into a proxy server. You will need to use a command line for using this method. But, it’s not so bad.

First up please download the app aforementioned above. Next, you need to install device drivers aka Android SDK onto your computer. The pre-final step is pinching few settings. Now, the final step involves a small configuration of your browser whenever you want to use your Android phone as a Wifi Hotspot. Here are the installation instructions.

Whenever you wish to tether – just tap the start button on Proxoid. Simultaneously, you will need to run a batch file on Windows OS and enter a command in the terminal in Mac OS to start the tunnel.

But, for every tether you will repetitively need to set your web browser to use this proxy. This is a con of this method besides installing Android SDK which is also not highly recommended.

We feel this is then also a suitable method for tethering as it’s free and comparatively easy to all others.

Well, folks you may jump into the middle and get your hands dirty as we elucidated above. This may lead to falling flat on your face, or skipping facing the music and choosing to pay. So, you may need to spend some dollars for a fully-fun unrestricted internet access on your PC in the routine below.

Method 2.2 – We will now be dealing with tethering using another app – PDAnet. You will need to install some simple software on your machine as well so your computer and android device can properly communicate. This method is by far rated the quickest and easiest to use Android application. You will need minimal setup to get tethering working in a few minutes with your dear Android.

The minimal setup is adjusting a little setting on your Android phone. Please, tap over your phone’s menu key and navigate to Development passing through Applications and Settings. Next, check through the ‘USB debugging’ box and press OK on the appearance of confirmation box. What this does is allowing PDANet to stream data from your phone to your PC directly. As a precaution please turn this off when you are done with tethering.

If your computer boasts Bluetooth, you can connect to your wirelessly instead of the USB.

PDAnet is available for free access as well. But, this will unfortunately block the https ports. If you wish to gain unbridled access please pay $23.95 for single license. Whenever you need to access the internet via your phone tap two buttons – Start on PDAnet on the phone and Connect in the PDAnet software on your PC. That’s all that’s required by you.

As you scrolled through all the three methods we think you must be restless to choose one of the possibilities and start tethering. So, what are you waiting for? Apply one of the methods above and drop us a line on how it feels to tether through whatever you choose.

The World’s Most Powerful Android Smartphone? Samsung Galaxy S II Benchmarks Revealed

Oh yeah! Things are really starting to heat up in the Android Superphone Wars of 2011. The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S II , powered by a Samsung built 1.2GHz Exynos dual-core processor, breathlessly broke the 3,000 mark on Quadrant. While it should be known that these numbers are preliminary, and Quadrant scores themselves for dual-core devices are still a subject of debate, it is looking like the Galaxy S II has the hot hardware to beat the Atrix, G2x, EVO 3D, Optimus 3D, or virtually any other phone you can think of.

Samsung is not messing around, and reacted rather quickly (back in February) to the LG Optimus 3D’s excellent performance by raising the clock speed from 1Ghz to 1.2Ghz on the Galaxy S II. As a leader in semiconductors, Samsung has an excellent reputation for making some of the best mobile processors in the world.

Samsung’s Galaxy S held the performance crown for a long time, and it looks like Samsung isn’t willing to let it go without a serious fight. Either way, stay tuned for the latest details on everything that matters to the world of Android here at Android Authority!

Also, here’s a great breakdown of where the phones and other devices stand next to each other, in terms of performance. Keep in mind that the tablets featured here have a significant higher pixel count, and as such have a harder time with the benchmarks. Also, these benchmarks were created way back in February, and so the picture has only improved for the Samsung Galaxy S II. Either way, good to have an idea of whole picture!