Old article left for reference

As you might know, WhatsApp Web works only on Google Chrome... or that what they want us to believe! I don't know if they put such a limitation after some "money incentive" from Google, or just because they don't have enough funds to do testing on Firefox (I can understand this, they were valued just 20 billion dollars).

The truth is that on Firefox it will work very well, this is how to enable it:

First of all, download UAControl.

Install it and restart Firefox. Then search "chrome user agent" on Google and click on the first result. Copy the user agent (which is a browser identifying string). Then go to UAControl and add Chrome user agent for the address "web.whatsapp.com"

Voilà! Magically, now WhatsApp Web works also on Firefox!

After pairing:

Notifications are working also:

What's weird is that if I go to see on my BlackBerry Z10, WhatsApp says that's connected to Firefox!!!

Waze is a free GPS navigator that uses users contributions to update maps and give information about traffic and speed traps. It's the most popular free alternative to Google Maps.

If the acquisition won't be forbidden by regulators, in a few months it will be disabled, as it happened for Sparrow, Meebo, BumpTop, Wavii...

What a pity...

On the left there is the battery stats from Battery Eta. If you don't count Sunday ("Domenica" - I went to the beach and I left the phone charging the whole day), the average duration is disappointing... 12 hours. It means that if during lunch break I forget to charge my phone, after dinner the phone is dead.

It's the battery? No, it always behaved like that. Tthis phone (T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide), when is not in a good reception area (see the screenshot, I only have one bar), increases the transmission power to a ludicrous level, eating battery like hot cakes.

In optimal conditions it lasts about 48 hours, but I would have to move in a new house, so it's not a good solution.

I could disable the Gmail push mail, but at that point I could carry a cheap dumbphone with infinite battery.

How long does the battery last to you? I'm curious to know if I'm just an isolated case or it's normal that nowadays a phone have to last just half day.

For promoting it, they placed on the official website this image (already replaced):

I don't know what you think about it, but I find it very hilarious!

Have you ever seen a company that places their own phone with competitors phones, keeping it in a corner, half hidden, maybe too shy for a direct match, with the competitor names written in a BIG WHITE font, and their "Windows Phone 7" in grey, much smaller, as a remind to its lesser success??

Of course, after that someone let them know the problem, they switched the image with an inverted one, but it's still a big gaffe.

I'll continue to criticize: when the Nokia Lumia 900 was launched, there were rumours about the upgrade path to Windows Phone 8. Current devices won't be upgradable, the rumor said.

Of course if it was true, the sales of the Nokia Lumia would have been hurted a lot, so, Microsoft promptly denied the rumour, promising the upgrade.

What happened last week? Windows Phone 8 was announced and the upgrade won't be available.

A great way to thank faithful customers, right?

Ok, but this data is only about apps that use Flurry.

If an app doesn't spy the user behaviour with it, does not count!

And then, it's possible to directly use Google Analytics in Android apps, why I should use Flurry?

Moral: beware of stats published by an Apple fanboy, the data has been analyzed with closed eyes.

Fast, has a nice skin and menus are organized in an intuitive way.

As usual, I judged the book from the cover, and I did not really like it... I tried the desktop version in a chinese internet point, and it was just an Internet Explorer 6 wrapper... wow...

So I thought, maybe Maxthon is popular in China, because it's written by chinese and it satisfies local needings.

Then, recently I tried it and I saw that it's really the best Android browser. (unless that your phone is powerful enough for Chrome, in that case there is no game)

Maxthon for Android has many skins (but just two of them are nice, the others are unusable), and the gestures are easier compared to Dolphin Browser.

It's free, try it.

Meanwhile I ported it to Android and published on the Android Market Google Play. It's an easy game, but it's lightweight and I think that in a few minutes you will know the most common Japanese Colors.

Ps: did I mention that it's free?

They changed the name in order to sell music, movies and books (of course those three are not available in my country). I don't like the new name, I preferred Android Market...

But, to sell more units, manufacturers are making low-end devices for a cheaper price, maybe too chep to have a decent experience. What to take in account to choose a device that won't disappoint us? Here is my experience:

T-Mobile G1

• Release date: October 2008 - the first Android-based mobile
• CPU: 528 Mhz - just the minimum, not fast, not too slow.
• RAM: 192 MB - it's impossible to have more than two apps opened at the same time. Open the browser and the home will close. Close the browser and you have to wait 5 seconds to load the home. Open contacts and wait other 5 seconds. Extremely frustrating. With cyanogenmod it's possible to add some cache, but it does not make a miracle...
• Internal memory: 256 MB - but just 50MB can be used. The browser takes 15 MB, Google Maps takes 10, Gmail 5, just install THREE apps from the Market and you've got full memory!
• User experience: awful - slow and unresponsive, a little better with cyanogenmod and various hacks

T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide

• Release date: June 2010
• CPU: 600 Mhz - Whoa, much better than the G1! This is next-gen, with integrated GPU. You can really feel the difference!
• RAM: 512 MB - Yay!!! You can open dozens of apps, and you'll never run out of memory! Just a few minutes and my G1 is forgotten in a drawer.
• Internal memory: 512 MB - but just 150MB can be used... you have to hack the system and repartition if you want to install more than 20 apps.
• User experience: much better! Maybe a little slow in some cases, but it's ok.

HP Touchpad

• Release date: June 2011 - the first webOS-based tablet (+ Android 4 in dual boot)
• CPU: Dual core 1.2 Ghz - wow!!! Extremely fast!!!
• RAM: 1 GB - If with 512 MB was impossible to run out of memory, think what you can do with the double!
• Internal memory: 3 GB! You can install hundreds of apps!
• User experience: Awesome!

So, from my experience, those are the minimum requirements to have a decent experience:

• CPU: 600 Mhz - does not matter THAT much, it's better to have more RAM - once the app it's loaded, it's fast
• RAM: at least 320 MB
• Internal memory: at least 256 MB accessible to the user

If one of this requirement is not met, I can guarantee you that you will be disappointed from your Android mobile. (unless you use the phone just to make calls and send text - but you can just use a dumbphone for that)

Just go to the AVD Manager (the program that manages the emulator virtual images), select the Android 4 image, then add the property "Hardware Back/Home keys" and set it to "no"

And this is the final result:

The writer gives too much for granted, many examples do not work as written if you copy them with a simple copy&paste. To permit a simplified view of the code, the header is omitted and the overall vision of how methods and classes are placed is not very clear.

You might end up with errors as:

array cannot be resolved or is not a field

or

The method setOnItemClickListener(AdapterView.OnItemClickListener) in the type AdapterView<ListAdapter> is not applicable for the arguments (new OnItemClickListener(){})

etcetera.

So, I created a public Bitbucket repository where beginners can go and compare the code.

I must say that, compared to the previous versions, despite the new fancy graphics, it seems much more responsive, whereas the emulator is much slower compared to a mobile phone.

Defects? I found several, here's a summary:

1. Until now you could put in silent mode from the lockscreen. Now that function has been replaced with a button to take a picture, just like in iOS 5. I understand that if Apple did it, it's probably a good idea to copy, but silent mode is much more useful than taking a picture. And that "take picture" button that is available in almost all cell phones has a reason to be, right?
2. "Add Widgets" screen in the drawer. Well, this was definitely "inspired" by GO Launcher, but it is quite useless! There is already an add widget menu by holding down the finger on the desktop, why replicate this function? They could replace it with a list of running programs
3. Applications in drawer will no longer flow in "Android style", but have an "iPhone style" with a black background as seen on iPhone OS 3. Why return to the past by copying from the competitor?
4. The background does not scroll between screens with that parallax effect typical of Android, but it is a simple static background as with the iPhone. How nice...
5. In all screens there is a search bar with Google as if the search button that they put on all the phones is useless. The bar is as wide as the entire screen. Why just don't put, a small icon in the corner for start a new search?
6. The interface is very dark. Probably with a Super AMOLED screen is awesome, but with a normal screen like mine, it will be unreadable in the sun.

Of course there are also other advantages:

1. 3G data counter is well integrated with the system. Farewell 3G Watchdog 
2. Settings are more intuitive and accessible from the notification bar
3. The wireless networks menu is nicer
4. Better management of photos (although in 70% of cases, the manufacturer provides a different program to manage your photos, because the default one is too rough)
5. You can disable apps. Once an app is disabled, it will be made invisible and will not be executed. Hurray! Finally, I can turn off some ass-programmed apps like Facebook and Skype, which are executed even if I do not use them!

This program acts as a filter to all applications, a window will appear to ask you whether or not to authorize the action.

The actions to be filtered are: phone calls, send SMS, access to contacts, network access, send your serial number or mobile number, send the GPS position.

It seems almost unnecessary, but helps a lot to find malicious applications!

Take, for example, Blob Blast, a malware that I found by chance.

First of all, let's explain how I found it: by clicking on a paid advertising into another unrelated application.

Why its programmer should spend money to advertise a free application that does not show even banner ads inside?

When we click on a banner advertisement, we must always consider the fact that for every click, are spent on average 30 cents. If 1000 people clicks the advertising, are being paid 300 euros. It means that the programmer expects to earn much, much more than 300 euro. But how he could make money if the application is free and does not show even banner ads?

With malware.

Let's see the permissions required when installing Blob Blast:

• Services that cost you money:
  send SMS messages
  Allows application to send SMS messages. Malicious applications may cost you money by sending messages without your confirmation.
• Network communication:
  full Internet access
• Your personal information:
  read contact data
• Allows an application to read all of the contact (address) data stored on your device.Malicious applications can use this to send your data to other people.
• Phone calls:
  read phone state and identity
  Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
• Storage:
  editing / deleting the contents of the SD card
• Your Accounts:
  discover known accounts
  Allows an application to get the list of accounts known by the device.

Why a simple game like this, has permission to send SMS, read all the numbers and email contacts, go online and delete files on the sd card, when it should have no need to do that??

The answer comes to us with LBE Privacy Guard: When we open the game, we get told that the first thing the game does it to access the phonebook.

We want proof? If we disable the access to Internet, does not attempt to send the phonebook! It means that the game tries to access the Internet, and, only if it succeeds, tries to send the entire address book!

They probably want to sell user data to spammers, or, if the phone is in a particular country, send sms to premium numbers. For example, an application could subscribe you to some useless ringtone service with high weekly fee!

And so are all applications from Wee Cat Games! Forgotten Blocks, Tracy Says, Color Crash, are all malware! (Their contact details are also fake)

Here is an example of their ad:

 

I have already reported the problem to Google, hoping for a quick solution. Meanwhile, root your phone, install LBE Privacy Guard, it's free, and be more careful when you install an app

If you try to install the Android SDK on Windows FLP, you will get an error like "can't find a suitable Java JDK, or can't find Java SDK in your path, even if you installed it, making it impossible to download vital files.

At the first check, the one during the setup, just press "back" and then "next" again, and you can pass the check, but at the second one, there is not an evident workaround... let's find it!

The second check runs the content of C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\tools\lib\find_java.bat , so, if you open it, you can see which command will cause an error:

%java_exe% -version 2>nul

In this command the output is redirected on the null device, that means: if the command does not give an error, it is not shown to the user.

The problem is that on Windows FLP the null device is not implemented, so the command returns an error, letting the batch fil misinterpretate the detection.

So, if you delete 2>nul, the Android SDK will work great!

Now, if I could manage to let Titanium Studio recognize the SDK...

Actually, it's not like that. People have various reasons for pirating an app, for example trying them just for fun.

In fact, in most cases, a very few people will do a very long search on the net to get a $1 application for free.

In my opinion, if an app has an high piracy/sales ratio, it means that for "honest" customers, the product does not offer the right appeal, and for pirates it's just a trial, that means, they still won't buy your $1 app - it's not a lost sale.

The perfect example it's Walk and Text for Android, an app for texting while walking: it just displays the camera on the screen while walking; nothing exceptional here. To be honest, I won't get such kind of useless app even if it's for free. So, "honest" people won't buy the app because they feel the uselessness; while compulsive pirates will download it just for showing to friends "hey, I can text and walk". If you watch it in another way, the pirate will spread the voice between friends. Every "heavy pirate" that I know, loves to show off the fact their hundreds of useless apps.

This means that, sometimes, piracy sometimes can lead to a sale.

But, if you act recklessly like the developer of Walk and Text for Android, that acts like a virus if cracking it's detected, you generate a lot of bad advertisement: "hey, that app will bill me $$$ if detects a crack, better avoid it like a skunk!

In this case, piracy really means a lost sale.

dumbphone

Unfortunately, my operator requires that the device is locked on the HSDPA/UMTS band, otherwise will connect on the roaming network, making a trouble for my wallet.  On my Windows Mobile device this wasn’t a problem, there is an option to select which band use, but on Android apparently the user has only the choice to do:

1. Disable data communication while roaming
2. Disable the UMTS radio

The third option, “Disable the GSM radio” is missing? No, it’s just hidden! To find it, we need Any Cut, an application that can create on the dashboard a shortcut to almost anything. So, after installing it, let’s create a shortcut to “Phone Status”, and then open it. Scrolling down we will see an option “WCDMA preferred”, (that means “If there is UMTS signal I’ll use it, otherwise I’ll go GSM”). By switching it in “WCDMA Only”, we will completely disable the GSM radio.

Even if I tried this only with my HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1), it should work on any other Android device such as the HTC Magic, Hero, and the upcoming Motorola Milestone and Acer Liquid. Of course it won't work with CDMA-only devices as the Verizon Droid or the Droid Eris