TIPS & TRICK - CHECKING FIRMWARE

Wanna check your samsung android base smartphone ? Here is the easiest way to do it.
log in to

 http://www.samfirmware.com/

 and key in you firmware. It will show you how if you don't know where to find the firmware, and upon entering it will give you info on your product. Awesome

APP REVIEW - MALAYSIAN NEWS

On the first few days of using my tablet, i open up website for local news everyday. From The Star, to Berita Harian to Harian Metro. I love reading news and that would be one of the main reason i bought tablet in the first place.

Until i met Brother Imran Maxx, a good friend of mine who coincidently also bough a new SGT for himself recently. He show me some app that really magnetize me... I saw tittle to all Malaysian major newspaper. So i asked him, where the hell you get those...I didn't see that on "market" before. He said, "Be creative" and i was like "what ?" 

APP REVIEW - SPEED

APP REVIEW – SPEED

I was trying to catch up with Le Mans race over the weekend. The fact that it is 24 hours race, I couldn’t keep on watching TV and thus need an app to monitor. Too bad, there isn’t any Official Le Mans app for android (there is one for iPhone though) so I end up downloading SPEED from market. And I was amazed. It has coverage from any kind of motorsport imaginable. So instead of only Le Mans, I got to follow F1 as well…Awesome….

I also manage to catch video on Alan McNish horrible accident on Le Mans via video section in this app…Thus highly recommended for petrol head out there….Keep it burning.

SCORE	1 - 10
Usability	8
Function	9
Toll on juice	5
Toll on data	5
Awesomeness	8

TIPS & TRICK - TELCO SETTING (FOR MALAYSIAN ONLY)

Guys...another stealing from local forum. But it is open information and really important to share this with everybody. Hope they wouldn't mind


MAXIS

1) Home -> Menu -> Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks -> Access Points Name
2) Menu -> New APN

Name: Maxis 3G Internet

APN: unet
Proxy: 202.075.133.049
Port: 80
User Name: maxis
Password: *** (I don't know what is the password as it only shown *** on my SGT)
Server: Not Set
MMSC: http://172.16.74.100:10021/mmsc
MMS Proxy: 202.075.133.049
MMS Port: 80
MCC: 502
MNC: 12
Authentication type: PAP
APN type: internet + mms

TIPS AND TRICK – SAMSUNG SECRET CODE

Guys,

I got this info from one of the Forum in Lowyat. I hope they dont mind that i post it here. Anyhow, listed below would be some secret code from samsung to do some special task. However, be aware ...do this at your own risk. I havent tested it all.....Be carefull.

APP REVIEW - AUTOCADWS

Fancy going to the project site, and review the design of the project on your tablet...building your ego in front of all your colleague with your sophistication ? Hate those huge printed blueprint that people carry around...Love the idea of pinching your screen to zoom on specific part of your design whilst in the same time edit the drawing for minor modification while you are on site...with no desktop around......??? wow

APP REVIEW – LIVESCORE

Crazy about football ??? How about getting result of football games right to your device real time ? and how about getting the result of all football competition in the world...No i am not talking about EPL and La Liga only...i am talking about the rest of the world.

Download LiveScore and you will get just that. Available at the market, this app will scores even for a league in Estonia, Armenia and Georgia...?????seriously...Sadly, there is scores from Singapore , Thailand and Indonesian league, but there is none for Malaysia League......arghhhhhh.....

APP REVIEW - F1 NEWS (2011) & OFFICIAL F1 APP FROM Formula1.com

Big fan of the Formula1 race???, i would recommend two app to keep you updated with the F1 circus.

One is the F1 News 2011 , available at the Market. You can get News, headline, gossip, result and link to other f1 website. The beauty of it would be , it is not a web base app and thus, you would not be directed to open a web browser when reading the article. (Other app mostly would ask you to open browser for reading news which could slower down your tablet)

TABLET NEWS - Return of HP

HP set to go head on head collision with iPad and other tablet manufacturer with the introduction of wifi only HP TouchPad. However instead of Android as platform, they decided to give the market something different in the form of webOS from Palm. We don't know how will it perform but can anticipate the reluctant of user to get it for the worries of continuous support and development of app.However keep your eye on it, as sometime the underdog could turn the table. :) Boasting 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor however I am rather disappointed that they choose to only 513MB RAM.

I had experience with numbers of HP product back then when we called the smartphone as PDA phone. Even before that when PDA was not combine with handphone , i had one as well.Plus another two HP laptop i used to own. Base on the experience HP has the tendency to ignore small details in their product and i wonder whether nowadays it could be any different.???

TABLET NEWS - Taiwan Giant

Taiwan IT Giant launched a very innovative Padfone...a 10.1 inch tablet that come together with a smart phone. You can use the phone like any other smart phone, and when you need to do your thing on a tablet size screen, you can simply put back the phone inside a slot/dock at the back of the tablet. Guess the Taiwan has a lot in their sleeves to offer despite for know we aren't sure the practicality on it. On paper, it sounded like a dream machine. Running on Honeycomb 3.1 we do expect a lot from it

FUN FACT - iDominate

iPad from Apple accounted for 83.9% of total 17.6 Million tablet sold in 2010.

APP REVIEW - GOGGLE GOOGLE

Fancy playing tony stark with all his nice gadget...or envy those people at Avatar with all those juicy tablet that can do wonder....now , this is a bit of what the future would look like...

Imagine walking down the street, and saw something seem familiar but you cant recall what, or you come across with product with brand name you are not familiar with....the old school habit would make you quickly grab your mobile device and google it...but that is old school....Imagine if you could simply snap picture of your interest and immediately you get details about it....

You dont have to dream.....

APP REVIEW – CONVERTPAD

If you are one of those who need to work with numbers at work...or perhaps a student doing his homework, i would recommend for you to get this magnificent app known as CONVERTPAD. it work like magic with numbers converting from anything to something.

For example, if you are working with pressure. And say you insert 1 bar pressure in the app, it will automatically convert and tell your the equivalent in all kind of unit available for pressure.For pressure alone it will have more than 20 units for conversion available. On top it covers (possibly) the whole discipline in science imaginable...from pressure to magnetic flux..... It is also very user friendly. Highly recommended

SCORE	1 - 10
Usability	9
Function	9
Toll on juice	6
Toll on data	6
Awesomeness	9

Sorry

I would like to apologize...i am not very good with words...and even worst on Grammar....especially in writing. I dont have the habit to check my draft and like to post right away ...most of the time i dont realize mistake, or maybe dont even recognized mistake  ....but every now and then i will read through my older posting and will fix some of the error, or gibberish words i used in the posting....classic story of finger against the brain....hehehe

So sorry , i am not very in writing and may come up with annoying mistakes especially on grammar...will try to improve...(yea right...)

TIPS & TRICK – YOUR TABLET AS 3G MODEM

Did you know that you can get your PC connected to the internet via your phone. There is two way to do it. And most modern day device are able to do so. But my posting is specific for Samsung Galaxy Tab. Again there is two way to do it

 

Tethering – You can connect your PC to internet , by connecting you SGT to you PC via USB cable. However take note during the process your Bluetooth connection may not work. However phone function remain as it. This is how

TIPS & TRICK - GETTING CONNECTED

Just got your new android device ? but couldn’t get 3G connection established ? Well first and foremost check whether your device is locked or unlocked? Locked version would be device that should come together with specific network carrier. Normally you get this at bargain price. But the downside would be that you can’t get it work with other network operator. You have to unlock it first but that is not what I want to discuss in this posting.

If your device is not locked, but unable to get 3G connection. This is what you should do

GAMES REVIEW - LET'S GOLF HD

Very unfortunate, you don’t have much option for golf games in Android. I don’t know why. Symbian and OS has better option. Anyhow that doesn’t mean this game I am about the review is no fun. Instead it is really fun but I don’t fancy the cartoonish character. Prefer a real person character rather than this.

But the logic of the games work fine. The amount of details, the difficulties of each course, things you have to consider when you take a swing, well it is good. The best for android I believe.

GAMES REVIEW - ASPHALT 5

I am not here to give much review on the games itself. I am not an avid gamers myself but I do play games. I have the old PS2 and always download some games to my handheld device. But my interest on games mostly focus on Racing and Sports Games. Therefore, I don’t think I am qualified to say much about games.

Instead, I would like to share with you the right version of Asphalt 5 for you android phone. But before that, at the very least I should share a bit of my view on this games.

It is fast, it is fun. I been playing with asphalt even on my previous phone and I would say I enjoyed driving the car. And what I like most about this games as compared to the other great “Need For Speed Shift” would be the fact that the car is painted like a real car on this games where else NFS come with decals that make the car look like a proper race car. I enjoy real car looking, better.

SCORE	1 - 10
FUN	9
CONTROL	8
USABILITY	8
AWESOMENESS	9

Now, back to the issue....compatibility with your phone. Check out the following list . For great experience I do advice that you download the right version for your phone. I don’t provide link on where to download but you can email me if you need the link. Click on "read more" to ...well read more 

TIPS & TRICK – NOT IN FULL SCREEN

          
Did you tried the “Sparepart” but still unable to get full screen on your games like Let’s Gold and Asphalt 5. This is the thing. You are getting the wrong version that is not compatible with Tablet size.What you need to look at would to the get the right version. Uninstall what ever games that cant go in full screen from you Tablet and download a different version (The one available on market and bestandroiddownloads.com was meant for normal HD handphone. Not much for the tablet)

p/s – do email me at mnazri.tan@gmail.com if you couldn’t find the right version for you

TIPS & TRICK - WHEN SGT TASTE LIKE A BAD KIMCHI...HARD RESET

Sometime you will come across to a point of no return. God know what you have installed and uninstalled in your SGT. Things got really messy and you got really annoyed. So you have 3 options

Smack your SGT really hard. Channel your anger, and shattered the SGT to pieces.Fuhhhh…that is fun

APP REVIEW – FAST REBOOT

Earlier I did advice to go against killing your app. However in some instance, some app go crazy and you get stuck with it and semi freeze your phone. And what make it worst, you don’t know what actually taxing the RAM and that is super annoying. Try downloading "Fast ReBoot" app from market. It is a quick and clean soft reset on your phone 

I said soft because what it did was closing and restarting all core and user processes and free up your memory. It will make your phone perform better. And the beauty of it, it doesn’t really reboot your phone. So it is much faster than turning off and on again your phone. Also , rooting is not required. Awesome.

Pro (paid version) also available on the market with option like schedule to reboot your phone, and a few auto reboot option. Unless you don’t mind paying, I would recommend the free app work just fine.

SCORE	1 - 10
Usability	9
Function	9
Toll on juice	9
Toll on data	9
Awesomeness	9

TIPS AND TRICK – APP SCALING

After downloading app after app, games after games it is really frustrating when you launch your app/games and it is not in full 7 inch display. The scalling won’t work ? Yes it is a known issues, even Samsung admit that.

First do understand, most app /games available are not meant for tablet. Second do understand froyo was not meant for tablet as well. So a full blown 7 inches (or bigger) really is an issue. But worry not, I found a way to work around it. Bit complicated though….

TIPS AND TRICK – SYNC

Go to setting, and Account & sync option. Here you can decide what to sync and what not. For me there is no need for me to sync my fb and tweet contact with my phone. So I decided to turn it off .And for Google I only allow sync of email. Not calendar and contact. Depending on your need turning off some or all sync data with ease your juice flowing. In addition it free up some RAM as well. Wicked…

TIPS AND TRICK – DOWNLOADING APPS

SGT come preinstalled with Android market and Samsung market. Both is good for standard app and if you want to burn hole in your pocket (for all those paid apps). Honestly free apps work. I don’t see need for paid apps. And one of the best place to get your apps would be from www.bestandroiddownloads.com . You can either download from your SGT browser, or download on your pc and transfer it to your SGT later. Happy Downloading

APP REVIEW – DOLPHIN HD

Web browser preinstalled with SGT suck. Despite flash capabilities (what Steve???) it is sluggish. Hate it. I downloaded numbers of browser afterward. My previous experiences make me in love with Opera mini with its startup page. 

But in android, it always crash. Then tried a few others like Mozilla and Dolphin. End up Dolphin is the best. It is fast, it is pretty, it is neat, it support flash and it is great. Don’t bother trying others. Dolphin HD the best. (Also it comes in many colors)

SCORE	1 - 10
Usability	9
Function	9
Toll on juice	8
Toll on data	Duh it is a browser..What do u expect really???
Awesomeness	9

APP REVIEW – K-9 MAIL

Android email is not a push email system like one you find in BB and iPhone. Worry not, you have a few alternative. If you are working with Gmail you can download the Gmail app and it push flawlessly. But if you work with your company email that has its own domain, then try downloading K-9 email apps. That works beautifully. But you need to know your email configuration as well… Try to get imap configuration if that supported by your email system. Make sure your know the domain, SSP security, port number etc.

K9 don’t actually push email like BB instead it poll it every minute. Which make it faster than standard android email system that can pull every 5 minute. With polling, it actually works like push. Emails come almost at once.

TIPS & TRICK – KILLER APP ??

Coming from window mobile background, to OS to symbian, I end up so used to the idea of killing task to free your memory. Even handling my pc, I would ensure unnecessary program do not run at the background. So I have a software that prevents such happening.

TIPS & TRICK – SAVE YOUR BATTERY

By now, you should realize .Android drink your juice a lot. But that shouldn’t affect your experience with it. For me, first and foremost I think we should learn and understand how this android work. Similar to my PC, android has numbers of applications, task, and program that work at the background. With more application, it would need to work the processor harder. IN addition that will also resulting in sluggish performance due to sharing RAM.

So what do we do ?

TIPS & TRICK – WIDGET

Widget is fun, it gave you load of data. It also a big toll to your RAM and Battery. Constant data fetching will definitely affect your battery. So it is best, to choose only widget that you need. Some of those fancy graphic widget with lots of update may not be necessary. Instead put on shortcut and access it as and when needed. Minimize numbers of widget and you will improve your speed dramatically…ok I exaggerate that. No, it will slightly improve your performance. I kept only about 5 widget running as oppose to 25 a day after I get my SGT. Can’t stand the sluggish performance. 

APP REVIEW – TWEETDECK

If you are those social networking addict, then I would assume you would have facebook, twitter, foursquare and gods know what other social networking. The best thing about android, you could install those things with lovely widget that constantly feed you with the latest in your social network. Who eat what, who wear what and all those unbelievable info people share on this addictive thing.

The downside of having all those widgets, it will suck dry your juice. Having all those widgets at once will also slow down your SGT as it also eat up all those RAM. Like me to remind you 512 aint that much to share with.

So I would advice that you should install Tweetdeck platform on your SGT. From it , you can access your FB , Twitter, Buzz and Foursquare all at once. All data could be channel direct to your phone and you can also make a single update for all your accounts. Amazing huh…. I even have the same platform installed on my pc but nowadays I depend solely on my SGT (Yes I am the social networking whore…..arghh)

APP REVIEW – WHATSAPP

Envy those on BB chatting for free on their BBM. Worry not, download Whatsapp on the market and you can enjoy communicating with others on text for free. Better still, you can send picture, files, etc.

 

Whatsapp work on internet connection, however despite with internet connection only, even when you don’t have any internet connection, you can still open your application and send delayed massage.

 

TIPS & TRICK - CHARGING

Take note guys, unlike any other phone, SGT wont charge when you plug in your USB cable to your pc or other wall unit other than made by Samsung.  What happened here, Samsung decided to put a resistor on the Samsung made Wall charger. The resistor give different voltage of electricity passing through the cable (as opposed to when you connect to your PC). Without the resistor, your USB cable can only allow data and very low voltage to pass through hence you won’t be able to charge your SGT (able but painfully slow) (SGT has a system where it differentiate different voltage passing through the cable meant for different thing)

 

So what you should do would be to do some DIY yourself (if you know how and I won’t teach how) or get from eBay...an Adaptor to allow your USB cable charging your phone. It won’t cost you a bomb (unless you get it from some dodgy seller) and at eBay they sell the cheapest. Whilst you are at it, get yourself additional charger, car charger and additional USB cable which sells really cheap on eBay. Keep one at home, at office and in your car so you won’t be running out of juice in time of need.

TIPS & TRICK - MAKING A PHONE CALL

To use your SGT as primary telecommunication device, be it a normal phone calls or VOIP, you have to understand one thing. SGT do not come with normal handphone speaker instead it only come with loud speaker which work fantastically. Provided you don’t mind allowing the whole room hearing your conversation.

 

The other option would be to attach the handsfree via 3.5mm jackpot at the top of the SGT but nowadays who like having wires tangling around your phone….yikes…

 

So the best and bit costly option would be getting you a Bluetooth headset. Thus from my experience this is my advice

TIPS & TRICK - GET STARTED

As any other phone, the almost immediate thing I would do with it is to sync all the info from my PC to the phone. This ensure continuation of usage. All my contacts, calendar, document, picture etc are stored in my PC. Now as android user, what make it interesting would be that you would have three options. To depend on data on your pc (synchronization with outlook), or to depend on Google in which you can sync you data like contact and calendar exactly like outlook, but your data is stored online. So you can sync on air. Last but not least, you can depend on both

For me, I don’t like having both, as there would be possibilities that you would end up double data entry. Furthermore through KIES, you can’t sync your new data to outlook if the data stored in Google. So that is a hassle if you want to ensure that your pc kept same up to date data with your phone. Last but not least, I am old school. In some way or another I don’t trust security on the net. I am worried that someone could hack into Google system someday (which is very possible) and stole my data. So I decided that I refuse to sync any data to my Google account other than the email.

The Introduction : Why ?

I am new user of Android…new user of Tablet and definitely just got my Galaxy Tab about 2 weeks ago (this date 8^th June 2011). Considering the short life cycle of mobile device nowadays, and the ever fast launching of new updated product, perhaps I am lil bit late to join the tablet circus moreover with the launching of the Honeycomb Tablet at just around the corner (or in some places you can already get the Honeycomb Tablet) (FYI - the SGT was launched late last year)

Getting the SGT for the first time, I was enthralled by the concept of Tablet. Prior to that I am quite a heavy user and had within my life cycle quite a number of handphone / PDA / PDA Phone/ Smart Phone and now a Tablet. Like anyone else, we all started with Nokia. Don’t we?

My handphone history.....:)