Sadly, many modern "phones" have quite a short battery life.
You can't make your phone's battery perform better, but you can keep and eye on it and, if it's not satisfying, try and figure out why it's not performing as you'd like it to.
One tool I like for that is Gauge Battery Widget. It's a simple, clean little configurable widget that displays your battery level as a percentage and gauge of your choice. Clicking on it will let you reach the system's top battery consumers screen. This lets you quickly see those stats without having to dig through the system menus.
Normally, most phone should have "Display" as their top battery consumer. Powering up that nice screen does take juice. But if you're unlucky, your top battery consumer will be "Android OS", which is a generic name for a bunch of system processes.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
SSH (that's Secure Shell)
If you use Linux, or any Unix variant, you use SSH.
The most popular ssh client on Android is ConnectBot. It also offers telnet and local terminal functionality, which saves you the hassle of installing and maintaining a dedicated terminal. And it supports private keys, allowing you password-less logins; It's got everything an SSH client should have.
Looking at this the other way, SSHDroid lets you run an SSH server on your android device (which is a Linux system after all). It supports private keys to let you login without password from your trusted PCs.
You'll need a rooted device to listen on port 22, but then you'll probably have to purchase the Pro version since it'll detect that you're using AdFree or have found another way to free your device of annoying ads. SSHDroid is the only app I've seen that mind not being able to display it's revenue-producing visual pollution. Or more believably it's developer is the only one that thought about checking...
The SSH client is helpful, especially if you're on call and carry a bluetooth keyboard on your faraway trips instead of a much heavier laptop plus it's costly dedicated cellular modem; but the server can be a revelation as it lets you scp files back and forth in addition to giving you a full console interface (your PC) to work on, or hack, your device.
The most popular ssh client on Android is ConnectBot. It also offers telnet and local terminal functionality, which saves you the hassle of installing and maintaining a dedicated terminal. And it supports private keys, allowing you password-less logins; It's got everything an SSH client should have.
Looking at this the other way, SSHDroid lets you run an SSH server on your android device (which is a Linux system after all). It supports private keys to let you login without password from your trusted PCs.
You'll need a rooted device to listen on port 22, but then you'll probably have to purchase the Pro version since it'll detect that you're using AdFree or have found another way to free your device of annoying ads. SSHDroid is the only app I've seen that mind not being able to display it's revenue-producing visual pollution. Or more believably it's developer is the only one that thought about checking...
The SSH client is helpful, especially if you're on call and carry a bluetooth keyboard on your faraway trips instead of a much heavier laptop plus it's costly dedicated cellular modem; but the server can be a revelation as it lets you scp files back and forth in addition to giving you a full console interface (your PC) to work on, or hack, your device.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Scientific RPN Calculator
Do you use an RPN calculator? Or, to be more precise, do you have an HP48 calculator? If you do, don't waste time and install Droid48. It's the whole thing, free, on your phone. Without the famous tactile feedback, but much faster than the original :)
I have a 48SX. The brown one. I've had it forever. And it's the only calculator I'll use. Problem it, it's big and I never have it on me when I need it. But thanks to Droid48, I now have my calculator in my pocket all the time, one touch away.
Don't know what RPN means?
It stands for Reverse Polish Notation. It's stack-based, which means you don't type "2", "+", "2", "=" but rather "2", ENTER, "2", "+". It might be too late now to learn it and change the way you calculate, which is sad, because once used to it, it's vastly superior to the "simple" way.
I have a 48SX. The brown one. I've had it forever. And it's the only calculator I'll use. Problem it, it's big and I never have it on me when I need it. But thanks to Droid48, I now have my calculator in my pocket all the time, one touch away.
Don't know what RPN means?
It stands for Reverse Polish Notation. It's stack-based, which means you don't type "2", "+", "2", "=" but rather "2", ENTER, "2", "+". It might be too late now to learn it and change the way you calculate, which is sad, because once used to it, it's vastly superior to the "simple" way.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Cloud Storage, and why you should care
If you're not in the know, "the could" is a term used to refer to an anonymous mass of computers connected to the Internet. It usually also implies redundancy, meaning that what's on "the cloud" isn't on a single server somewhere (that's just "the Internet") but it's distributed across a bunch of them.
Your emails, for example, can be on your PC where they'll disappear when your hard disk crash, on an Internet server that probably better backups than you do, or on the cloud where they'll survive you.
There's a lot of services offered on the cloud, but what we're interested in now is storage. There's a lot of cloud storage providers. The more useful one is Dropbox. Why? First, because it works well on every computer and mobile platform. And because they give you two gigabytes of free storage. And let you share folders with other dropbox users. But more importantly, because many Android apps support backing up and syncing their data on it.
Let's take an example: Epistle. It's a dead simple notepad. Open note, write text, close note. But it supports backup to dropbox, and sync back on start. So you can access it's folder on your PC and edit files there. Type whatever's on your mind while you're on the PC, be it a poem, gift ideas, instructions or anything else, then read and edit them on the go from your android. Pocket does the same with an encrypted file containing your passwords and other personal info. Titanium Backup (Pro version) can send your apps and data backups to dropbox in case your phone's lost or destroyed.
Once you have created a dropbox account, install the official Dropbox app that'll let you access all the files you've stored on that service. And all the files and folders other users have shared with you.
Do consider though that while most service providers do their best to protect your data, things in or out of their control can happen. While what you store there is probably safer than what's on that PC in the living room running and old unpatched version of windows and connected to that misconfigured wireless router, it's not 100% secure either. Your basic approach should be to store private and confidential information there only if encrypted with strong cryptography. More on that another day
Your emails, for example, can be on your PC where they'll disappear when your hard disk crash, on an Internet server that probably better backups than you do, or on the cloud where they'll survive you.
There's a lot of services offered on the cloud, but what we're interested in now is storage. There's a lot of cloud storage providers. The more useful one is Dropbox. Why? First, because it works well on every computer and mobile platform. And because they give you two gigabytes of free storage. And let you share folders with other dropbox users. But more importantly, because many Android apps support backing up and syncing their data on it.
Let's take an example: Epistle. It's a dead simple notepad. Open note, write text, close note. But it supports backup to dropbox, and sync back on start. So you can access it's folder on your PC and edit files there. Type whatever's on your mind while you're on the PC, be it a poem, gift ideas, instructions or anything else, then read and edit them on the go from your android. Pocket does the same with an encrypted file containing your passwords and other personal info. Titanium Backup (Pro version) can send your apps and data backups to dropbox in case your phone's lost or destroyed.
Once you have created a dropbox account, install the official Dropbox app that'll let you access all the files you've stored on that service. And all the files and folders other users have shared with you.
Do consider though that while most service providers do their best to protect your data, things in or out of their control can happen. While what you store there is probably safer than what's on that PC in the living room running and old unpatched version of windows and connected to that misconfigured wireless router, it's not 100% secure either. Your basic approach should be to store private and confidential information there only if encrypted with strong cryptography. More on that another day
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Notifications spam... WTF?
I just got bit by this and suffered through many seconds of intense spiritual discomfort before finding a cure.
There's a new contender for the "Most annoying stuff" award, and it's called AirPush. There's a few implementations with different names, but that seem to be by what the idea's generally referred.
What this does is push random spam to your notification bar. That place where you keep an eye to detect missed email, battery status and other useful tidbits gets hijacked by irrelevant crap.
Good news is, there's solutions. The more obvious one is to figure out what application's guilty and remove it forever. If you're kind, also take a second to put a one star rating on the market to help other users avoid getting bit.
There's a small app, Airpush Detector, that'll pinpoint the culprit. It's free, small, and require no permission. The kind of app that can stay on your phone forever even if you never use it.
If you absolutely must keep the guilty app, there's other less elegant means to protect yourself. Those include Airblock and Airblocker (for rooted phones) that are supposed to filter the crap. Or you can try AirPush's Permanent Opt Out, either through their web site or the market app. But I fear you'll have to do something similar for every company that have it's own name and implementation.
There's a new contender for the "Most annoying stuff" award, and it's called AirPush. There's a few implementations with different names, but that seem to be by what the idea's generally referred.
What this does is push random spam to your notification bar. That place where you keep an eye to detect missed email, battery status and other useful tidbits gets hijacked by irrelevant crap.
Good news is, there's solutions. The more obvious one is to figure out what application's guilty and remove it forever. If you're kind, also take a second to put a one star rating on the market to help other users avoid getting bit.
There's a small app, Airpush Detector, that'll pinpoint the culprit. It's free, small, and require no permission. The kind of app that can stay on your phone forever even if you never use it.
If you absolutely must keep the guilty app, there's other less elegant means to protect yourself. Those include Airblock and Airblocker (for rooted phones) that are supposed to filter the crap. Or you can try AirPush's Permanent Opt Out, either through their web site or the market app. But I fear you'll have to do something similar for every company that have it's own name and implementation.
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