android photography

I've been playing around on my S2 quite a lot, but today I wanted to see if I could access my PC's shared folder over my wireless network. It turns out the default android file browser cannot do it, so I turned to my old friend, Google.

A very quick search led me to an app called ES File Explorer, which turned out to be an amazing file manager replacement for the Android platform.

In less than almost no time, I was listening to some mp3 files that were shared on my PC. I even tried watching a movie file, and the built in movie player handled it with no problems at all.

Anyway, ES File Manager has got to be very high on the list of apps that you absolutely MUST get on your android phone.

Till next time!

Yup, I just installed the free blogger app on my phone. In fact, I'm making this very post with it! Also took a quick photo of Einstein, our one dog.

Will mention all the worthwhile apps I install as I go along...

I must admit, I'm having lots of fun with my phone so far, which is probably the main reason the battery isn't lasting ;-)

Till next time!

• Released April 2011 (we only got it in July in South Africa - whoop!)
• 2G - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• 3G - HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
• Size - 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5mm (8.5mm is really thin)
• Weight - 116g (really light as well!)
• Display - Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, with 16 million colours (same as pc's), resolution is 480x800 pixels, and the screen size is 4.3 inches.
• 3.5mm jack, so you can plug any headphones in the device
• On board memory, either 16 or 32GB (I got the South African version, which will always be the smaller one, the 16GB)
• It has a micro-SD card slot, and according to GSM-Arena it comes with an 8GIG micro-SD card, but not in sunny South Africa, I got a measly 1GB card. I think I must give Vodacom a call about this...
• 8MP camera with an LED flash, and a 2MP front facing camera
• A very VERY fast dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, and a Mali-400MP GPU
• Mine was loaded with Android Gingerbread, version 2.3.3
• 3G speeds - on HSDPA, up to 21Mbps, and HSUPA up to 5.76Mbps
• Bluetooth V3.0
• WLAN
• GPS
• Also, I believe this phone is capable of phoning and sms'ing as well, will test and let everyone know! :)

• When you use the battery first time, you should fully charge and discharge (condition cycle) for first three cycles.
• Keep the battery contact terminal clean always. This helps maintain a good connection between the battery and your laptop.
• If the battery will not be in use for a month or longer, it is recommended that it be removed from the device and stored in a cool, dry, clean place.
• Use the AC (alternative current) adapter always you can. There is no any overcharging happen. When the battery completely charged, in every laptop there is mechanism to disconnect the battery from the AC current. Then the laptop will work from the AC power.

• Condition the battery for every 2 or 3 months. Don’t  charge the battery so that the memory effect happens. This bullet point is not applicable to Li-ion batteries. Li-ion batteries don’t want to condition frequently and those are not affected to Memory effect.

• Use power management plans available in your system. Turn down the LCD brightness. Set screen saver blank to small time limit as much as.

• Use suitable RAM size to your laptop. If you have a RAM which is large enough to store your all frequent data, it will save large amount of power. Using hard drive to fetch data always is power exhaustive process.
• Close all unused software and processes.  
• Don’t open short-circuit the battery terminals. It will damage the battery permanently.
• Don’t open the battery cover as the cell contents expose and don’t modify the battery casing. 

Creating a service:

public class DemoService extends Service {

 @Override
 public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  return null;
 }

}

<service android:name="DemoService"></service>

• onCreate(): called when the service is created.
• onStart(): Called when the service starts by a call to startService(Intent intent).
• onDestroy(): Called as the service is terminates.

Calling a service:

1. By calling startService(Intent intent).
2. By binding to the service through an Binder object.

calling startService(Intent intent):

Intent intent=new Intent(this,DemoService.class);
startService(intent);

public class DemoService extends Service {

 @Override
 public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
  // TODO Auto-generated method stub
  return null;
 }

 @Override
 public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
  super.onStart(intent, startId);
  doSomething();
 }

 public void doSomething(){
  // do some work
 }

}

@Override
 public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
  super.onStart(intent, startId);
  doSomething();
  stopSelf();
 }

Binding to a service through an Binder object:

public class DemoService extends Service {

 private final IBinder binder = new LocalBinder();
 @Override
 public IBinder onBind(Intent arg0) {
  return binder;
 }

 public class LocalBinder extends Binder {
  DemoService getService() {
            return DemoService.this;
        }
    }

 @Override
 public void onStart(Intent intent, int startId) {
  super.onStart(intent, startId);
  doSomething();
  stopSelf();
 }

 public void doSomething(){
  // do something
 }

}

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

 DemoService mService;
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
    }

    ServiceConnection serviceConn=new ServiceConnection() {

                /**
                * service unbound, release from memory
                **/
  @Override
  public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName name) {
   mService=null;
  }

                /**
                * service is bound, start it's work
                **/
  @Override
  public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName name, IBinder service) {
   mService=((LocalBinder)service).getService();
   mService.doSomething();

  }
 };

    @Override
    protected void onResume() {
     super.onResume();
        // bind to the service by an intent
     Intent intent=new Intent(this,DemoService.class);
        // AUTO CREATE: creates the service and gives it an importance so that it won't be killed
        // unless any process bound to it (our activity in this case) is killed to
     bindService(intent, serviceConn, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onDestroy() {
     super.onDestroy();
        / unbind the service whena ctivity is destroyed
     unbindService(serviceConn);
    }
}