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Facebook for Android Updates to 1.8.2

Tom Gray — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:26:31 +0000

Facebook for Android updated their app today to 1.8.2 and is now available on the Android Market. As usale, they were very unclear about what was fixed and patch, let’s hope they don’t create more problems than they fix which is also what usually happens. One of the more notable enhancements is the “Better memory management” and apparently fixes Photo uploading that had been broken for a bunch of users.

Many reports are floating around that this latest causes the Facebook app to preform much slower than previous builds. Normally there are mixed results and unhappy among happy users, so you be the judge.

If you haven’t found you way over to Google+ yet, you can find Facebook here at the Android Market.

Facebook for Android Updates to 1.8.2 is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

New Google Docs Now in Black!

Tom Gray — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:00:48 +0000

My friend and partner Ryan Moore posted yesterday about the new updated Google Docs. You can find that article here.

Since then, Rujelus22 has updated and released an inverted black edition of the updated Google Docs. You’ll still get the new following features:

Make any file available offline for view access while not connected.
Manage offline contest, including seeing what’s out of date.
Automatic syncing of offline content while on wifi.
Star and rename files while offline.
Improved reading experience of Google documents while on a tablet.

but all in black and a blue trim. What could be more beautiful?

Best of all, there is no rooting required to use this black version of Google Docs.

You can find this inverted Google Docs, as well as many other ‘inverted’ Google apps by Rujelus22 found here.

Note: This particular apps doesn’t require root access, but some of the other ones do. If you decide to try the flashable files, you will do so at your own risk.

New Google Docs Now in Black! is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Franco Kernel for Galaxy Nexus

Tom Gray — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:00:15 +0000

Not to long ago I posted about my favorite rom for the Galaxy nexus by the developer named Bigxie. Since then, that particular rom has been given the name ‘Apex’. If you missed that article, you can find it here.

Today I’m going to talk about my favorite kernel to flash along side my favorite rom.

A developer by the name of Franciscofranco has produced an outstanding kernel called the Franco Kernel. This kernel is by far the most popular kernel for the Galaxy Nexus on the XDA forums today.

Franciscofranco has been hard at work for nearly two months, trying to provide maximum performance and battery savings. Allowing the user to control the voltage and CPU clock speeds on their favorite 4.0.3 custom roms.

With his latest release, he has also created two new CPU governors.

30th January – nightly #15
* Two new governors added – francoTurtle and francoGazelle. They are both based on Conservative and they have different purposes. francoTurtle is for battery hungry users. By default it will be set with 700min and 1000max and it will take a lot more cpu load to increase his frequency. In my testing 700mhz is used around 95% of the time. francoGazelle is mainly for performance users. While it maintains some battery saving that its inherited from Conservative, it will ramp up aggressively to the max frequency and far more often than francoTurtle.
* francoTurtle governor is set by default
* CFQ I/O scheduler is now the default. While this decision looks pretty idiotic since CFQ is made for rotational devices, after I’ve read some IBM articles I’ve seen that it can be tuned to work as well for flash devices, so after I did that I was…overwhelmed with the performance that it produces compared to deadline or FIOPS.
* CIFS is now included inside the kernel instead of a module
* CM9 compatibility added – Gamma control isn’t present here yet because ColorControl does the same thing
* Block rq_affinity is now working aggressively – means that the IO tasks are not bound to the cpu that it was being destined, so if cpu0 is overwhelmed with tasks it will be migrated to cpu1 which is always nice
* CFQ scheduler updated to 3.1 kernel code
* Ezekeels Voltage Control added and removed coolbho’s implementation
* Stock GPU clock – I’ll give you two options: first, if you cry about this search the thread and you’ll find an email that Colin Cross (Google Android team) sent me explaining why stock GPU clock is better. Second option, if you keep crying and asking for “UMFG GAVE ME 512GHZ CLOCKZ” after you’ve read what Colin said I’ll send you a link to listen Cry me a river song from Justin Timberlake
* Some minor optimizations and tweaks – visit my repo for more information

Francisco listens to his commenters very well, and makes changes based on his own research and feedback left by his loyal followers. With Franciscofranco’s strive for perfection, he is very reliable and releases updates every couple days. When a problem arises, he normally spots it and patches it within the same day.

If you’re looking for that perfect kernel to complete your Galaxy Nexus 4.0.3 experience, I highly recommend the franko kernel for your use and pleasure.

You can find out more about the Franco Kernel and Franciscofranco on his XDA page found here.

You can also find the Franco Kernel Updater on the Android Market here.

If you like the franco kernel, please consider donating a little to support him. It’s our donations and support that keep him working hard for our pleasure.

Franco Kernel for Galaxy Nexus is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Touch ClockWorkMod Recovery for Galaxy Nexus & Nexus S (Download)

Tom Gray — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:32:21 +0000

After Koush showed users the first official touch-based ClockworkMod Recovery interface two days ago, CWM has been popping up all around Google+ and posted download links for the official beta, making CWM Touch Recovery available to Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S users.

It’s currently in beta stages right now, but available for the Nexus S’ GSM variant, and for both CDMA and GSM versions of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus.

Download: Galaxy Nexus
Download: Nexus S

Keep in mind that this recovery is meant to be flashed through Fastboot.

If you have to ask how to flash this file, I suggest leaving it alone and moving on.

Flash at your own risk.

If you have used this touch based recovery, let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

- Thanks goes to Mark Lastiwka for pointing this out to me.

Touch ClockWorkMod Recovery for Galaxy Nexus & Nexus S (Download) is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Mobilicity Launching the Galaxy Nexus February 6th!

Tom Gray — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:25:19 +0000

The Galaxy Nexus has been grabbing a lot of people attention recently, mainly due to the fact that it has finally released to all major carriers.

The latest and greatest news just recently announced, is Mobilicity setting the official Galaxy Nexus release date for February 6th. Wind Mobile’s release date is still labeled as ‘Coming Soon’, but a few people are assuming it will drop side by side with Mobilicity.

This is great news, but also comes as a bit of a shame. If you remember a couple days ago, I posted about Mobilicity’s $40 ‘Super Savings Plan’. The Galaxy Nexus is set to releases one day after this limited time plan expires. That aside, This is still great news for those who have been waiting for this, watching everyone else bask in the Nexus’ glory.

If you missed it, you can find the link to Mobilicity’s $40 limited time deal here

Mobilicity Launching the Galaxy Nexus February 6th! is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

My Favorite Galaxy Nexus Rom

Tom Gray — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:00:36 +0000

I covered Galaxy Nexus roms a little while ago, but things have updated with many great features. With all these features in mind, I just couldn’t help posting about again with all the new updates.

I did a really small post about it on Google+ a couple days ago, I figured I would go in to much greater detail for those who are looking for that perfect rom to flash.

I stumbled across Bigxie and his AOSP Rom 4.0.3. What’s so great about Bigxie, is he leaves the rom mostly stock with a lot of under the hood enhancements and customizations, so you still get that pure Google experience. Of course, these under the hood enhancements make the Galaxy Nexus experience more snappy, smooth and in general more enjoyable to work with.

Along with Bigxie’s rom, there is also a black theme for his rom. I have mentioned black Google apps before, Bigxie has included an optional black theme flashable pack that includes all the black Google apps, taking all the work out of trying to make everything black one app at a time. I took a bunch of snapshots to give you a general feel of the black theme.

Click to enlarge

Obviously you need a rooted Galaxy Nexus to flash these roms. If you need a little help doing that, I posted a very easy root guide found here.

If this is something you’re interested in trying out, you can find Bigxie’s Rom here.

You can find the Black Theme for Bigxie’s rom as well as a few other here.

If you have used this rom before, please share your thoughts with our community.

My Favorite Galaxy Nexus Rom is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Sync Your Android to iTunes with Salling Media

Tom Gray — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:15:16 +0000

Syncing your Android Phone to iTunes is something that has been asked for repeatedly on the internet, and there are many programs and apps to help you out with that. I wanted to point out one of my personal favorites that I use all the time to manage my massive 3,000+ song collection.

A few people have called me a “Music Monster” on Google+, due to the fact of how much music I listen to. When you have that much music, organization is key. You want to be able to find that album or song without having to scroll all around or flipping through disorganized albums with incorrect art work. There is always the search button, but having the albums right at your finger tips right where they should be is something any real music lover should be able to agree on.

Salling Media.

This is my favorite program of all time for syncing my Android to my iTunes. This program has a free and piad version, obviously the paid version offering more features. I’ve\ only used the free version and it has never failed me. Best of all, this program allows you to sync playlists or only checked songs rather than the entire library. It also transfers over album art.

The reason I keep coming back to Salling Media over all others, is the fact that there is no modifying or apps required to be downloaded on to your Android.

Salling Media has compatibility for many phones, so the chances of your Android being support is great.

For more information on Salling Media, you can hit up their website here.

To skip all that and get right to the action, you can download Salling Media here:

For Mac
For Windows

Sync Your Android to iTunes with Salling Media is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Black Google Apps for Android (Revisited)

Tom Gray — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:00:42 +0000

A while ago I posted about some black Google Apps. Since then, things have obviously been updated quite a bit, so I decided to touch base on it once again. If you want to find my old article on the black Google Apps, you can find it here.

Click to enlarge pictures.

Black apps are great modifications for many reasons. They often look better, they are battery saving for AMOLED screens, and they are easier on the eyes during night time operation.

A few things you should note before attempting to install these black apps. Many of them can be installed without issues, but others require root access. Basically non-system apps can be installed on any Android device without any complications, where system apps will require you to remove the system app before installing the modified one which requires root.

Apps That Require Root Access:

Gmail
Google Talk
Google+ (only on Galaxy Nexus and other ICS phones)

Everything else should install without Root just fine.

What I used in the pictures above, (with links below)

Google+, Google Music, Docs, Reader, Translator and G Talk. modified by Rujelus22
Widget Locker for Lockscreen
Go SMS pro + ICS Theme for my Messaging app
Gmail by TeamBamf.net

Rujelus22 offers nearly every Google App in black, you can find his link here.

Rujelus22 also offers a black Gmail, but I find it has issues with black on black making some emails unreadable. For those reasons I use TeamBamf.net’s Gmail instead.

TeamBamf.net offers many different variations on black Gmail. They offer all different sorts of colors, as well as transparent versions for your picking. You can find TeamBamf’s post on black Gmail here

!Notes and Warnings!

you will notice I didn’t mention the dark themed Android Market Rujelus22 offers, due to the fact it screws up your phone. Installing this market looks and works fine, but once you go to purchase paid apps, you either Force Close or fail to authorize the purchase payment. For those reasons, I highly recommend not fiddling with the Android Market.
Making backups before installing the “Root Required Apps” is very important. They all worked for me without issues, but I cannot guarantee you will have the same success as I did.

That’s all I have to give you in terms of Black Google Apps for now, I will keep you guys updated as things change. If you know of more black apps you would like to share with our community, feel free to share their names within the comments below.

If you’ve tried this out, come back and let us know what you think.

Black Google Apps for Android (Revisited) is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Rogers to Release Visual Voicemail for Android

Tom Gray — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:26:10 +0000

Visual Voicemail is a pretty fantastic way of managing your voicemail. No longer do you have do dial your voicemail number, enter your password and dial keys to access options and recordings.

Visual Voicemail makes it plain and simple for any users to just click and listen to a message. You are then able to delete you voicemail or save them right on to your device, all without dealing with automated recording to ‘help’ navigate you around.

As of today, visual voicemail is only available on the iphone, but Rogers has plans to release it for select Android phones. The service dubbed Visual Voicemail Plus will have one feature that Visual Voicemail for iPhone does not, the capability to save a voicemail message indefinitely.

The “select” Android phones supported are Sony Ericsson X10 and Samsung Galaxy Q, with more support for additional phones shortly after the initial launch.

It is unknown at this time how much Rogers will charge for this service, but knowing Rogers I would expect a $3 to $5 dollar add-0n.

[Source: Technapedia]

Rogers to Release Visual Voicemail for Android is a post from: Android in Canada Blog

Galaxy Nexus Review VS. Galaxy S II LTE

Tom Gray — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 02:50:33 +0000

Happy Friday ya’ll!

Now that I have had my Galaxy Nexus for a full week, it’s time I write my review based on my finding and experience. When writing my reviews, I also compare it to my previous phone. My previous phone, in this case is the Samsung Galaxy S II LTE from Rogers. If you missed my review on the Galaxy S II LTE, you can find it here

Physical Design:

The physical design of this phone is what a common Galaxy user would expect. Upon first impression, it feels a little light and flimsy. For those who follow me on Google+, you will know that I actually dropped my Galaxy Nexus the first day I got it. The damage was minor; a small scuff on the corner and minor scratches near the front camera. Luckily nothing too serious happened, but was good knowledge for writing this review. Having dropped my phone, I can honestly say it’s built strong.

The back of the phone is pretty much what you would expect. It has it’s camera in the center of the backside, slightly recessed to prevent damage while laying down. The speaker is in the center of the bulge at the bottom of the phone. On previous Galaxy phones, you would traditionally see this speaker off to the side. This decision to move it to the center is an interesting way to design it, but I find it a little troublesome. I somehow end up accidentally covering it with my hands while holding it, thus blocking the sound that should be coming out.

The face of the phone is absolutely beautiful. It is clear of all branding and logos, so all you see is the solid black screen. There are no physical, or touch sensitive buttons on the face of the Galaxy Nexus. Cutting out these buttons allows the screen to extend a little farther down the chin than we are use to seeing. Naturally, the speaker, light sensor and proximity sensor are at the top of the phone. A great addition returns to the Google flagship phone as well; a LED light on it’s chin. There is a Micro USB port at the bottom of the phone, with pogo pins on the right side. Currently there are no available docks to make use of the pogo pins on the market (to my knowledge) but surely we will see some very soon.

Performance:

The Galaxy Nexus brings some impressive hardware to the table. 1.2Ghz dual core processor, 1GB of ram, 16-32GB of internal space. With specs like that, it’s no surprise this phone is pretty fast. Not only is the hardware pretty quick, it is also accompanied with the new edition of Ice Cream Sandwich. This adds so many more features to navigate users where they want to go in a hurry.

Scrolling through menus on ICS is a real treat. Not only is it a pleasure to look at, it is backed by the Galaxy Nexus’ hardware. There is no hesitation at all.

Comparing Galaxy Nexus to the Galaxy S II LTE in the performance department is pretty simple. Both phones perform with very quick and snappy menus and UI. Obviously the Galaxy Nexus comes with Ice Cream Sandwich(4.0.1), where the Galaxy S II LTE come with Gingerbread (2.3.5). Because the Galaxy Nexus comes with Ice Cream Sandich, I have to give it the edge. Ice Cream Sandwich just makes the overall experience and functionality, while still keeping its snappy UI that we all know and love.

Sound and Media:

The Galaxy Nexus’ speaker on the back of the phone delivers a decent quality sound, but sounds a little tinny at times. The volume was never as high as I really wanted it to be. This actually caused some of my notifications to go unheard in a low to moderate noise environment. Watching something like Netflix outside or common area is very hard to hear. The Galaxy S II LTE on the other hand, has a very high maximum volume and a much fuller sound. Turning the volume up to 100% caused the phone to vibrate slightly due to the loud speaker.

The Galaxy Nexus makes up for its lack of volume with an agressive vibration mechanism. This aggressive vibration was my saving grace for when I couldn’t hear my phone while in my pocket.

The Galaxy Nexus only comes with 16GB internal storage for Canadians. The 32GB version is only available in the LTE version of the phone, which will not be coming to Canada. Though 16GB might be enough for the average user, some of the more heavier users may find themselves at a loss. After you take out the portion for apps and a little for the partition, only 13GB is accessible to the user. The Galaxy Nexus does not support expandable storage via MicroSD chips, so what you got is what you get.

In sound and media, I have to give the edge to the Galaxy S II LTE. The sound is more rounded out, with less of a tinny sound. As well as being able to provide a very loud maximum volume. The Galaxy S II LTE is also able to expand its its storage with a MicroSD chip, up to 32GB.

Battery Life:

I have read reports of other blogs and websites praising the battery life of the Galaxy Nexus. I strongly have to disagree. I am a moderate to heavy user most of the time. My average day consists of 8 hours of bluetooth streamed music, 40+ texts, 20+ short emails, checking Google+ 10 +/- times a day and 30-60 minutes of web surfing. All with using about 2-3 hours of screen time. The Galaxy Nexus was the first of many phones to not meet my personal requirements. If my phone dies before the end of my work day, I cannot speak highly of it.

After my 8 hours of bluetooth streamed music, I got home after work with about 40-50% battery life. This gave me slightly less than half a battery to get me from 3PM to bed time. During that time, I do my small amount of browsing, text, email, etcetera. My phone would die out around 7PM on moderate use. The battery seemed to drain very easily even during minor tasks, also during sleep.

One thing that really caught my attention was the amount of RAM occupied when nothing was running. On average the Galaxy Nexus would have 300MB+ of used RAM, with about 300-350MB free. This seemed very high to me, as all my previous phones would run around 150MB used and 550MB free. This makes me wonder if the high RAM occupation is the result of some of the higher than usual battery drain on the Galaxy Nexus.

When it comes to battery life, I have to give the edge to the Galaxy S II LTE. Even with its LTE radio in action, I still get a much longer lasting battery than the Galaxy Nexus. Galaxy S II LTE has never fallen short, even during some of my more excessive days.

Optional Rooting:

Both Galaxy Nexus, and Galaxy S II LTE are both able to be rooted. I rooted the Galaxy S II LTE to cut out bloatware, but I did not root the Galaxy Nexus, as I felt it was unnecessary. Ice Cream Sandwich, which is found on the Galaxy Nexus, already has the ability to cut out bloatware all on its own.

Currently there are no 100% stable custom roms for either phone.

Network:

Both Galaxy S II LTE and Galaxy Nexus are capable of speeds up to 21mbps as advertised, but obviously only the Galaxy S II LTE supports the LTE network in Canada. The LTE version of Galaxy Nexus will not work in Canada, as we use a different band. For those reasons, I give the edge to the Galaxy S II LTE

Camera Quality:

The camera on the Galaxy Nexus is nothing short of amazing. While testing, I was able to snap about 3 pictures per second. One thing it suffers from, is your own shaking hands. Because of it’s ‘zero shutter lag’ any movement during the time you touch that button will result in a blurry picture. That aside, pictures come out clear and crisp, but a steady hand goes a long way. Recording videos is crisp and offers video stabilization for front and rear camera. The overall quality is superb.

Galaxy S II LTE Camera has a wide screen option which I really liked, but of course your not going to be able to snap pictures in an instant. I found the overall picture quality on the Galaxy S II LTE to be slightly better than the Galaxy Nexus. Video recording was fairly equal on both phones.

I have to give the edge to the Galaxy Nexus at the end of the day though. Despite the odd blurry picture due to shaking hands, if your snapping 3 pictures a second, you’re bound to get one you really like. Not to mention, you will never miss that action shot, due to it’s instant snapshots.

Screen Quality:

Galaxy Nexus screen quality is amazing to say the least, with a 720 x 1280 – 4.65 inch display. Everything is crisp, super smooth and just stunning to look at. Sadly it’s slightly tarnished by the Galaxy Nexus’ faded lacklustre colors the screen can produce. With the “Auto Brightness” on, the screen has a very low natural brightness, which we also saw on the previous Nexus S. During this very low light is when you experience the dull colors and unappealing display. However, turning the brightness up high releases the sheer brilliance hiding within. In a nutshell, The screen is amazing in high brightness, but suffers in a lower brightness setting.

The Galaxy S II LTE only has a 4.5 inch screen at 480 x 800. It has a very bright vibrent screen with a great display of colors, but suffers from having such a large display with smaller screen resolution. Things still look very clean and smooth, but not as smooth as the Galaxy Nexus. Galaxy S II LTE comes with Super AMOLED+ screen where the Galaxy Nexus only has normal Super AMOLED with the Pentile screen. This may not mean a whole lot to the common user, but this a contributing factor to the lacklustre color on the Galaxy Nexus.

I give the edge to the Galaxy S II LTE. Yes, the Galaxy Nexus Screen is bigger and more clean with a higher resolution, but the buttons take up a fair amount of space. Which theoretically makes the screen on Galaxy S II LTE slightly larger on a side by side comparison. Galaxy Nexus’ lack of brightness and dull colors are what lead me to my decision.

Other Stuff:

During my testing, I ran into a bunch of issues with the Galaxy Nexus. Most of which can and most likely will be fixed in future updates.

Poor battery
Music Duplicates itself when playing through bluetooth and music controls would start to lag when switching tracks during this issue. Stopping music playback was fine, but when pressing play, the phone didn’t know which music to start and would lag, then start a song in either the wrong spot, or the wrong song all together. Force closing the music apps did not solve the issue, nor did restarting or factory resetting the phone.
Uploading pictures to google+ would result in a very small, almost thumbnail size with terrible quality. 320 pixels, 12kb. Resetting, factory resetting, updating or downgrading Google+ did not clear this issue.
Network would drop signal about once a day, had to reboot to get it back.
Low maximum volume.

As stated previously, these are just the current issues I faced during my week of use. Not saying this phone is bad, just saying there are minor bugs to be worked out. Working out minor glitches is something to be expected for new phones fresh off the boat. Just something for early adopters to watch out for.

[Final Thoughts]

I really enjoyed my use of the Galaxy Nexus, but at the end of the week I was really starting to miss my LTE speeds and my large 44GB storage due to the microSD support of my Galaxy S II LTE. I ended up popping my SIM card back into my Galaxy S II LTE and sorry to say… I had much more enjoyment with it than I did the Galaxy Nexus.

Both phones are great, and top players in their fields. In the end it all comes down to the user and what they are looking for in a phone. As for me, my Galaxy S II LTE will be the one that remains in my pocket, for now anyway…

Keep in mind that this review is based of my own personal experiences and opinions. Others may feel differently, or even disagree with some of the information I have provided. If that is the case, feel free to post your own mini review, or post your own experiences as another word of mouth.

Don’t forget to follow me on Google+ to get more information, as I’m always posting updates and pictures of my current activities an answering questions in real time about recent news.

Galaxy Nexus Review VS. Galaxy S II LTE is a post from: Android in Canada Blog