Tech Bytes

5 peculiar characters you will find in every office

Manas — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:12:08 +0000

Working in the corporate does not mean you will always find the finest and well-mannered people around you. Here are five peculiar characters whom you will find in every office.

The Musicians - People who like to keep all sorts of stupid songs and tunes (including regional ones) as their ringtones and then keep blaring them at full volume in the office. It freaks me out. Cell phones should be on low volume if not silent in office.
The Dancers - This one goes for both men and women who wear those expensive(not really!) shoes which keep on making tic-toc sounds for every step they take. Its downright irritating every time they pass by my cubicle.
The Oh-I-am-so-clean People - Have you ever been washing your hands at the wash basin and got angry at the person using the wash basin besides you for splashing water all over the place. There are numerous ways to do that – some take a mini-bath, some like to style their hair with water and some shake the water off their wet hands like a wet animal does.
The Vigorous Worker – These fellow use the keyboard like it’s key are made out of stones.
The Cubicle Snack– These people are just too lazy to go out to eat. They eat their lunch, snacks etc. in the cubicle with all the spoon sounds and then do a BURP as well.

No offense to anyone, but we deserve a better workplace. Don’t we?

Is Firefox losing the browser war against Google Chrome?

Manas — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:47:45 +0000

The recent Firefox 12 update that hit my PC few days back made me wonder what Firefox is up to. Yes I have seen Firefox update itself frequently for the past few months and it has been performing better but I see most of the things as a response to Google Chrome. Back in the good old days, Firefox was a browser which innovative but since Chrome’s launch it has been busy playing catch-up with Chrome.

Market Share

A quick look at the Statcounter browser stats (embedded below) shows Chrome is already ahead of Firefox in terms of market share and is consistently increasing.
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Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share

Major Features in new releases

Firefox 12 – Silent Updates
Firefox 11 – Support for migration from Google Chrome, Firefox Sync enhancements
Firefox 10 – Default add-on compatibility for new Firefox versions, Conditional visibility of Firefox button
Firefox 9 – Significant improvements in JS performance, Mac OS X Lion theme & integration improvements
Firefox 8 – Disable third-party add-ons by default
Firefox is aping the Chrome release system delivering faster updates and meaningless version numbers.

Sync or Sink?

Firefox Sync is a mess. Neatly tucked away in the Preferences menu is a Sync setting where you can create a new account and setup sync options.
Compare it to Chrome, on a fresh installation a tab opens asking the user to put in their Google account (Everyone uses one today). All put and done, it will start syncing. Who wants to create an additional account for Firefox sync?

Firefox Add-ons vs Chrome Extensions

Add-ons have always been an Achilles Heel for Firefox. Though Firefox allows much more functionality to be built into its add-ons, it is a known fact that majority of the performance slowdowns are caused by badly written add-ons. Mozilla has been trying to solve this by the use of JetPack which allows restart-less addon installation but still most of the add-ons available in the gallery require a restart. Compare this to the zero-restart fast extension installation in Chrome.

What do you think? Will Chrome rule the browser market for the time to come and Firefox will be relegated to the background?

Install CyanogenMod 9 / Android 4.0.4 ICS on LG Optimus One P500

Manas — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:52:41 +0000

While LG will most likely not be upgrading the low-end LG Optimus One P500 to Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0.4, we already have a port of CyanogenMod 9 for the P500. The development is currently in Beta stage with most of the things working.

What doesn’t work:

Wi-Fi tethering
USB tethering
Offline charging
FM Radio: not implemented in CM yet
Camcorder

HOW TO INSTALL

Download the ROM from here and GAPPS from here.
Boot into recovery.
Wipe data/factory reset, format /system, format /boot, Wipe Dalvik Cache.
Flash ROM.
Reboot
Go to recovery again, flash GAPPS and reboot.

There you have ICS 4.0.4 / CM 9 on your LG P500.

P.S. – You need to be using new baseband.

[How To] Upgrade to New Baseband on LG Optimus One P500

Manas — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:49:10 +0000

The newly released official CM7 builds for LG Optimus One use the new baseband which LG upgraded to when releasing the 2.3 GingerBread update for the Optimus One P500.

How to know which baseband you are on?

If you are on Froyo and have never upgraded to LG stock GingerBread you are on old baseband.
If you are on stock GingerBread from LG or have used it in the past then you are on the new baseband.

So if you are on the old baseband and want to flash CyanogenMod 7, then follow this excellent guide on XDA Developers to upgrade to the new baseband.

Note – Please follow the steps as described. Otherwise there is a chance of your phone getting bricked.

LG Optimus One P500 gets official CyanogenMod 7

Manas — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:58:31 +0000

After many months of unofficial CM7 ports, LG Optimus One has finally received official CyanogenMod support. The nightly builds of CM 7.2 for LG P500 are now available on CM mirrors.

At present the nightly builds are a bit buggy but they are improving with every build, almost 1 new build per day. Once the bugs are ironed out, a stable release will be made.

Download the nightly builds of CM7 for LG Optimus One P500 here.

How to Install CyanogenMod 7.2 on LG Optimus One P500

P.S. – The official CM7 builds are for the new baseband only.

How To Upgrade to New Baseband on LG Optimus One P500

Themes / Skins for Swype

Manas — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:29:02 +0000

Android is known for its ability to be customized. You can change every part of your phone – the launcher, dialer, messaging app and even the status bar. This is true with the keyboard as well. If you do not like the default keyboard that cones with your phone, you can install any of the alternate ones that are available. Two of the popular alternative keyboards for Android are SwiftKey X and Swype.

Of these SwiftKey X is the one preferred by many, because it can be themed/skinned. While Swype does not have any official themes/skins available, some developers/themers have modified the Swype APK to modify its resources and created themed Swype keyboards.

For installing any of these themes, you just need to uninstall the Swype installer & Swype from your phone and install the respective installer for the Swype theme you like. If you want to change the theme, just uninstall Swype again and install the new APK for the skin you like. XDA member djdarkknight has modded the latest Swype APK to create some awesome themes, you will definitely get a theme as per your liking. Hit the link below to find out more…

DA Swypes – DJDarkKnight

Imitate iPhone on your Android with Espier Launcher

Manas — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:19:06 +0000

One of the best things about using an Android smartphone is you can change your phone’s appearance and behavior to mimic any of the other platforms like Windows Phone 7 or iPhone very easily.

Espier Launcher tries to do just that. If you have ever used an iPhone you would know how the launcher functions in it. The main difference is that there is no app drawer in iPhone like Android has, instead all the installed applications are spread across the home screens. The other difference is that there are no widgets.

Espirer Launcher tries to imitate the iOS launcher on your phone. Just like the launcher on iPhone, there is no app drawer here. Instead all your applications are arranged across multiple home screens and you also have a Spotlight type of search on one homescreen.

Espier Launcher – Android Market

LG Optimus 2X, 3D & Black get the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update

Manas — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:59:52 +0000

Well this was pending for a long time. The three premium smartphones in the LG Optimus Series are finally getting the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update.

LG Mobile has updated the timeline for the 2.3 Gingerbread update for the LG Optimus 2X, LG Optimus 3D and LG Optimus Black in its Facebook Page.

From the LG Mobile Facebook page:

The three premium smartphones of the Optimus Series will be upgraded first, as outlined below, followed by a global rollout thereafter.

LG Optimus 2X: Now available (as of 1st November, 2011) for open models in Europe
LG Optimus 3D: Week commencing November 21st for open models in Europe
LG Optimus Black: Week commencing November 28th for open models in Europe

The exact timing of the upgrades in each market may vary because of the different requirements in each country with respect to domestic operators and models. Please contact local service representatives to check the specific upgrade schedule in your market.

Better late than never. Just in time after the announcement for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Source – LG Mobile

How to Install Adobe Flash Player 10.2 on LG Optimus One P500, Samsung Galaxy 3 and Samsung Galaxy Ace

Manas — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 17:57:07 +0000

…or for that matter on any Android phone using a ARMv6 processor. While the Android platform supports Adobe Flash natively, Flash for Android does not support phones using ARMv6 processors. Most of the budget Android phones like the LG Optimus One, Samsung Galaxy 3 and Galaxy Ace use these processors.

Some developers have modded the Adobe Flash Player to make it compatible for most ARMv6 and ARMv7 ( arm 11 family ) devices. And yes LG Optimus One P500 now has Adobe Flash working.

Follow the below instructions to get Adobe Flash on LG Optimus One P500.

Download Flash Player from here and copy to SD Card.
Make sure you have ‘Unknown Sources’ enabled in Settings –> Applications.
Use any File Manager to navigate to the file and install the APK.

Via – Android Campus

[How To] Move the Firefox 4 Menu button with Firefox UI Fixer

Manas — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:46:25 +0000

Mozilla Firefox 4 brought a lot of UI changes on Windows 7, one of them being the menu bar being replaced with a Firefox menu button on the top left side. Though it provides access to the functions used mostly, many don’t like the look of the button and the space it occupies on the tab bar.

The add-on Firefox UI Fixer fixes that annoyance in Firefox 4 by allowing you to move the Firefox app menu button anywhere in the Firefox UI like onto the Navigation toolbar.

After installing, go to Add-ons and open the Options dialog for this extension. Choose the ‘Make Firefox Menu button movable’ option and then move the button using ‘Customize Toolbar’ dialog.

Place it on the extreme right of the navigation bar to have a setup similar to Google Chrome.

Download Firefox UI Fixer