Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Change the Volume Key Function in Camera App in Android 4.3

In Android 4.3, Camera app is one of the app that has new features. One of which is the new camera mode called Sound and Shot which will allow you record the background sound up to 5 or 9 seconds before capturing the picture.

See also: How to Take Picture Using Sound and Shot Mode in Samsung Galaxy S3 With the Android 4.3

In this recent update, the users also has the ability to set the Volume

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Make a Music File Can't be Played by the Music Player App

An insider named Laurie has leave her comment here and asked me about the step to keep certain song from not playing without having to delete them. She said that she has a Christmas song and don't want it to be played back when she listen to the music through the Music Player app because the Christmas is over. Fortunately, in Android-based smartphone including with the Samsung Galaxy SIII, the

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Share Internet Connection Using Bluetooth

An insider has leave his comment here to ask why he can't share the internet connection using Bluetooth, though he was able to transfer file with the paired device. For those of you who didn't already know, aside for transfer files you can also use this to share the internet connection with another Bluetooth-enabled devices. This methods commonly referred as Bluetooth tethering. To make the steps

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Keep Wi-Fi On or Off During Sleep

One way that you can do to get internet connection on the Samsung Galaxy SIII is using Wi-Fi to connect to Wi-Fi network.

See also: How to Connect to Wi-Fi Network on Samsung Galaxy S3

Here you can also keep your phone's Wi-Fi on during it is asleep. But, you should note that when you turn this option on then you must pay it with more battery consumption.


How to turn on keep Wi-Fi on during

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Use Sound and Shot Mode

In the recent update Android 4.3, the camera app gets a new feature which will allow the user to take picture with the Volume up key or the Volume down key. Previously, some insiders has leave their comment here to ask how to take picture with the physical button, either with the Power key or the Volume key. Sadly, in the previous version this feature is not yet available. But in the Android 4.3,

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Take Picture Using Volume Key on Android 4.3

The recent update Android 4.3 brings some new options to improve the user experience of using this phone. Though, in some cases, the new option brought by this operating system alleged by some user as the "problem" due to the user yet not familiar with it, such as the flash notification option which will make the camera flashes when receiving new email or calls or when the alarm goes off. This

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Keyboard Always Replace the Typed Word After Update to Android 4.3

An insider has leave his comment here and ask why after he did update his phone to the Android 4.3, the auto correct on his phone tend to rein in what should be typed which will not letting him to type anything anymore without having to correct whatever he really wants to type. Seems the auto correct in this recent update is the stubborn auto-correct and in some cases it's really annoying the

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Clear Cache of All Applications on Android 4.3

Clear cache is one of the most common solution done by the users when they're experiencing some problems with certain app. For instance, when you feels the Browser app on your phone become more slower and heavier than before, then clearing its cache might will be one of the solution you have to try to fix this problem.

See also: How to Clear Cache and Delete Internet Browsing History on Samsung

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Android Revolution HD Team would like to wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2014.

May love and happiness be a part of your everyday life. 

Forget about the problems and enjoy the moment. Smile, laugh and share the love.

Of course, we also wish you quick Android updates and a lot of flashing.

Android Revolution HD

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Stop the Phone Keeps Scanning Wi-Fi on Android 4.3

Though lot of users alleges that turned on Wi-Fi all the times will poor the battery life, in certain case a user might be want to keep this option always on. As has been said by an insider named Nicola who wants to keep the Wi-Fi on all the time to keep the Viber on his phone always connected as it's the only way for a couple of peoples to contact him in an emergency.

See also: How to Fix Wi-Fi

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Verizon's Ellipsis 7 is a good deal in the small tablet arena

When the Ellipsis 7 tablet from Verizon Wireless arrived in my hands, I had a feeling that it could be a keeper. This is Verizon’s home-bred, in-house, call-it-their-own device and I could hardly wait to take it for a spin.

The first thing I did was to see if it would fit the inside pocket of my business jacket. Bingo, it did. So finally I had found a tablet that I could carry around without having to hold it my hands or place in a brief case. Just tuck it in my inside coat pocket and go.

The Ellipsis 7 is a 4G Android device running the 4.2.2 operating system, also known as Jelly Bean. It has a seven-inch display and front-facing speakers along the bottom that sound really good. Along the top of the device you'll find the headset port, which is where I think all headset ports should be located – hint, hint to the iPhone 5 designers.

Along the bottom is the USB mini port for charging, while the right side holds a MicroSD card slot, microphone, power and volume keys, along with the SIM card slot.

On the back is a 3.2 megapixel camera, which is probably the weakest link of the Ellipsis 7 features. But who takes serious photos with a tablet, so I didn't mind having a lesser-quality camera than some of the competing tablets. Having only 8 megabytes of memory could be also be looked at as a weak link, compared with other tablets in this category that are sporting an average of 16MB and tops out at 128MB for some tablets, such as the iPad Mini.

Setting up most email accounts only required a username and password, with the tablet doing most the behind-the-scenes setup. My Google and Hotmail email accounts were up and running in a matter of minutes. Setting up a corporate Exchange account was equally as easy, you’ll just need to pay close attention to your Domain and Server settings. I had Exchange mail arriving in under five minutes.

Although I have access to a Mac desktop, laptop, iPad and iPhone, I found myself using the Ellipsis 7 often to check multiple email accounts, conduct google searches and monitor my social media accounts. The speed of Verizon’s 4G network and the 7-inch size made this tablet quite handy. I especially like the front-facing speakers and the quality of the sound, which was great for YouTube videos.

During my time with the Ellipsis 7, I download several apps from the Google Play store without a hitch. Again, the fast network was the key for a smooth download process. This device also comes with several desirable apps installed, such as iHeartRadio, Flipboard, Amazon Kindle reader, and Redbox Instant for movies. The included Navigation app is also pretty handy.

The other tablets in the 7-inch display category have similar or better features, such as the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX, Google Nexus 7 and the Samsung Galaxy 3. Although they also might have more memory options or a faster processor, the Ellipsis has them all beat on price. At the current time the Ellipsis 7 can be a great holiday gift until Dec. 31 for $49 with a two-year contract, or for $249 if you don’t want to sign a contract.

When you think about a starting price of $329 for the iPad Mini with Retina display that can quickly rocket to over $800 loaded, or around $400 for a fully loaded Kindle Fire HDX, the Ellipsis 7 looks good for the budget and will satisfy most digital needs.

If you need more display area, the iPad Mini’s 7.9-inch display is very generous for a small tablet, but you’ll need to open your wallet a little wider. Or you can move up the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX for a few more bucks.

But if the budget is tight, the Ellipsis 7 will take you anywhere you want to be in the digital world and perform like a champ for less cost. I’m call it a good deal.

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Can't Open Multi Window Panel Using Back Button After Update to the Android 4.3

Lot of Samsung Galaxy S3 users out there starts reporting that they're encountering multiple issues once they did update their phone to the Android 4.3. Some of issues occurs because when the user wants to enable or disable certain option, they need to do some extra things to make it works, such as when the user wants to get rid camera flashes when receiving new email or call, the user must turn

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Make Adobe Reader XI show scroll bars in Windows 8

If you have Windows 8 laptop with touch screen then you might run into an issue with your Adobe Reader XI like I did. Your Adobe Reader is configured (by default) to detect if you are using a touch screen and if you are then it will not show the scroll bars.

To show the scroll bars by default go to "Edit > Preferences". There select the "General" category and for "Touch Mode" select the option of "Never".

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Can't Change Bluetooth Name on Android 4.3

One more, an insider named Maureen has dropped her question to me through the email to ask why her phone shows the device name as SGH-I747 instead of a different name as she had configured before she did update the phone to the Android 4.3 when she use the phone to transfer contact files with her friend using the Bluetooth connection. As we all know that Bluetooth is one of the most used mode of

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Missing Applications After Update to the Android 4.3

Seems these days you would have to read lot of posts about problem occurs in the Samsung Galaxy SIII with the Android 4.3, as if I could say that this update brings more problems compared with all of the previous updates. One of the most common problem experienced by the user once they updated their phone to this new operating system is that they start receive recurring old download in their

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View all the event receivers for a SharePoint list from Windows PowerShell ISE

Trying out event receivers in SharePoint I wanted to see which event receivers I have attached to my list. From here and here I was finally able to get a small script which when run in Windows PowerShell ISE would give you just that.

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.Sharepoint.Powershell

$site = Get-SPSite -Identity "http://My_SharePoint_Site/"
$web = $site.RootWeb
$list = $web.Lists["<MY LIST>"]
$list.EventReceivers | Select assembly, name, type

The Add-PSSnapin command adds the SharePoint snap-in to current session so that you can use the commands like Get-SPSite. If you don't add that then you would end up with the error "The term 'Get-SPSite' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function…". Also once you run the command of Add-PSSnapin then you need not run it again and again for current session.

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Freezes or Auto Reboot When Accessing Clipboard After Update to the Android 4.3

It's turned out that the update to the Android 4.3 brings some problems to the Samsung Galaxy SIII users, though actually some of them are not the real problem because they were triggered by the new option in this new operating system or that was because one app is linked with another one which is not turned on and resulting the app crashes whenever the user use it. As has been said by one of the

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Gallery App Crashes When Using the Share Menu After Update to the Android 4.3

Apparently, updating the Samsung Galaxy SIII to the Android 4.3 brings some problems to the users. One of the most frequently asked problem by the insider through the emails or comments is about camera flashes when the alarm goes off or when receiving new email or calls. In fact, this issue is triggered by the new option in Android 4.3 called Flash notification. Basically, this option was

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How to: Use "adb sideload" on your Android device

Probably every Android power-user at least once in his life used ADB - Android Debug Bridge. It is a versatile command line tool that lets you communicate with an emulator instance or connected Android-powered device. Using ADB shell commands gives you additional control over your device and sometimes it can save your device from being bricked (example: How to: copy ROM zip file to the freshly wiped device). You can find some more basic information about ADB here.

Since Android Jelly Bean there has been a new ADB mode available in the AOSP recovery, incorporated by the Android developer community into custom recoveries too. It is called "ADB sideload" and most of you probably have heard about it already. This is an alternate method to the one I wrote about here - How to: copy ROM zip file to the freshly wiped device. The main difference is that ADB sideload works only with recoveries based on Jelly Bean source or newer. I believe that ADB sideload was created to simplify the process of flashing/restoring Android update.zip packages.

Keep in mind that while using ADB sideload, the regular ADB shell won't work. To be able to use SIDELOAD mode make sure you're running latest ADB drivers from the Android SDK (Platform-tools). Here are the simple steps you need to follow to flash update.zip package using adb sideload mode (based on stock Android recovery):

1. Place the ZIP package you want to install in the same location where you keep ADB drivers - adb.exe, AdbWinApi.dll and AdbWinUsbApi.dll (usually it's SDK\platform-tools)
2. Make sure you have USB debugging enabled in Settings > Development on your device
3. Make sure your phone drivers are installed on the PC you're going to use
4. Boot your device in recovery mode (Android logo with a exclamation mark) and connect your device to PC
5. Hold down "power" button first, followed quickly by "volume up" button. You should now see the recovery menu
6. Use the volume up/down keys to select "apply update from ADB," then press power to select it
7. Open a command prompt on the PC (cmd.exe), type and confirm with ENTER:
8. cd /d <adb.exe location> (for example: cd /d c:\SDK\platform-tools) or you can open your SDK/platform-tools folder, then press SHIFT button and the right-click mouse button and choose “Open command prompt here”
9. adb sideload <filename>.zip (for example: adb sideload update.zip)
10. The zip package will begin installing. When it's done, select "reboot system now."

How is that different from the alternative method? You don't have to manually create the proper folders structure, push the file and later install if from inside the recovery menu. The result is basically the same, because ADB sideload is also transferring the zip file into the device internal memory and later it automatically begins the installation procedure. However, it works only with recoveries based on Android Jelly Bean source.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Camera Flashes When Alarm Goes Off After Update to the Android 4.3

An insider named Heather has sent me an email to ask why her phone give her a camera flashes when the alarm on her phone goes off. She said that the flash light is so bright and disturbs her. This issue begin occurs once she update the phone to the Android 4.3.

See also: How to Fix Recurring Old Download Notifications in Android 4.3 in Samsung Galaxy S3

Apparently, some of users who already

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Recurring Old Download Notifications

One of the insider has leave her comment here to ask why the notification list in her phone repeatedly shows old downloads and can't be cleared. She realized that this issue occurs once she updated the phone to the Android 4.3. She said that she already done removed all the files in the Download folders through the My files app, but that's not works.

See also: How to Use Notification Bar on

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Select Multiple Email Messages in Gmail App

One of the feature available on Gmail app is the sender image which is display the sender's picture if available or the first letter of the sender's name in the left side of each email message. This feature will help you more easier and faster to know the email sender without having to read the sender's name first. By default, this option is enabled. But, if you don't want to use this feature,

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Enable or Disable Sender Image in Gmail App

All of the Android-based smartphone users, including with the Samsung Galaxy SIII users of course have at least a single Google account in the phone. This account can be used to access Google Play store to allow the user to download contents from there or to access another Google services available in the device, such as Gmail app which can be used by the user to send or receive email messages.

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Get Back the Delete Button in Gmail App

In the Gmail app, you can find the mark as unread button as one of the icons available in the toolbar when you're opening an email message. You can use this button to mark an email message as unread so you can easily find it later by using the search function. For some peoples this will be very helpful to avoid the certain email message to lost among many other email messages, especially if they

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Switch Between Email Accounts

The ability to manage multiple email accounts owned by the Samsung Galaxy SIII is one of the reasons why lot of peoples decide to choose this Android-based smartphone as their devices. Moreover, this phone also provide the stock Email app to facilitate users to receive or send email through it. By using this app you can easily add a POP3 e-mail accounts, Microsoft Exchange email accounts, etc.

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to View Only Unread Messages in the Gmail App

Mark as unread is one of the option available in the Gmail app. This option will allow you to mark the selected email message as unread, so you will be much more easier when you want to do something with them later, such as replying or forwarding an email message. This is certainly will useful to avoid the email message lost in hundred of your email messages, especially if you're the one who

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Mark an Email Message as Unread on Gmail App

Gmail is one of Google's services and is one of the stock app available in the Samsung Galaxy SIII, which means you can directly use this app once you activated your Google account on the phone. Such the other email apps, Gmail app also allows you to send and receive email messages.

See also: How to Compose and Send Email Message Using Gmail App on Samsung Galaxy S3

When you read an incoming

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Fight crime, earn rewards with the sic-Shot crowd-sourcing app

The technology of crowd-sourcing is gaining more widespread use, as more applications are put into play. One of the latest efforts of this technology is a community-based tool to share public safety concerns via a new app named sic-Shot.

By using the sic-Shot app, individuals can provide confidential information through photos and videos to law enforcement officials that need information to help solve crimes.

The idea behind sic-Shot is to encourage anyone with a desire to support public safety to be on the lookout for acts of violence, unusual conduct or suspicious behavior. When a sci-Shot user witnesses a criminal act or notices suspicious behavior, a photo or video is recorded and posted to their sic-Shot account. These images can be browsed by law enforcement subscribers to help identify suspects and solves crimes.

The reports by sic-Shot users can be rewarded $1 or more for a photo or video purchased by subscribers. As more photos and videos are taken, the sic-Shot user earns badges to receives the  highest level of reward dollars, which will be redeemed through gift cards from leading online vendors. But a minimum balance of $25 must be earned before any reward money is paid.

If the information is considered essential in solving a crime, the sic-Shot user can be rewarded up to $50 per photo or video.

According to the developers, the sci-Shot app will be available in December for Android users and is listed as "coming soon" for iPhone fans. Users are encouraged to sign up to participate in the limited app release.

With this idea of a community-based social network and the sharing of public-safety information with law enforcement subscribers, the traditional Neighborhood Watch program is going hi-tech and mobile.  

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Save Email Message

Sending messages via email is one way that you can use to communicate with others, either for personal or business purposes. To meet that need, the Samsung Galaxy SIII have included the stock Email app inside it so you can directly use this app without having to install it first by yourself. With this app you can either send or receive email messages.

See also: How to Read Email on Samsung

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How to: Manually install an OTA update on your HTC device

Sometimes it turns out that your device for some reason can't find the most recent OTA (Over The Air) update. However, there is a solution to apply OTA update manually, without being forced to wait for the update being downloaded and installed by your device.

Facts you need to know before continuing:

1. This method has nothing to do with the "adb sideload" feature available on Android devices since Jelly Bean. It should work on every Android HTC device.
2. Read about different software versions for the HTC devices here. Keep in mind that the OTA update must match the software version on your device. Each original OTA update.zip package has 2 different software versions in its name - the version of the software that must be currently installed on your device and the version of the software that your device will run after the update. For example:

OTA_M7_UL_JB43_SENSE55_MR_HTC_Europe_3.62.401.1-2.24.401.8_release_338160gxmo5sd9337kadux.zip

As you can see, 2.24.401.8 is the software version you must currently have installed to be able to run the OTA and 3.62.401.1 is the version of the software expected after the update. You can't flash an OTA update on a different software version to that expected by the OTA update for two main reasons:

1. Formal reason - the OTA update.zip package checks if your system is running the expected software version before it starts to install the update:

   assert(file_getprop("/system/build.prop", "ro.build.fingerprint") == "htc/htc_europe/m7:4.2.2/JDQ39/235216.8:user/release-keys");

   This must match the following build fingerprint from the build.prop. If the versions don't match, the installation of the OTA package will be cancelled.
   

   ro.build.fingerprint=htc/htc_europe/m7:4.2.2/JDQ39/235216.8:user/release-keys

2. Technical reason - OTA update.zip packages usually contain patches for the target files. This way OTA update doesn't have to be 1GB size, even if it is supposed to update the whole OS to the newer version. Patch files have an *.apk.p extension (f.g. Camera.apk.p) and each patch file must match the target file (f.g. Camera.apk). To make it possible, OTA update.zip package checks the MD5 checksum of each file on the system partition on your device:

   assert(apply_patch_check("/system/app/Camera.apk",

   "b3b79e40bad0b1bec5fb949ac5f8662f91bee714",

   "5a5bf63e3d7c9de52a7d8d7a292e158263783844"));

   And finally, if the MD5 is correct it applies the patch. All these commands are stored in META-INF\com\google\android\updater-script of each OTA update.zip package. If the MD5 is incorrect, or at least one file is missing, the installation of the OTA package will be cancelled.
   

   assert(apply_patch("/system/app/Camera.apk", "-",
   b3b79e40bad0b1bec5fb949ac5f8662f91bee714, 4229394, 
   5a5bf63e3d7c9de52a7d8d7a292e158263783844,
   package_extract_file("patch/system/app/Camera.apk.p")));

Now you are ready to manually apply the OTA update on your device. The method you'll use is based on Android stock recovery.

1. Make sure you have the stock (original) recovery flashed on your device
2. Make sure you're running a completely unmodified operating system. Additional files like Superuser.apk or su binary are allowed, you just can't have any system files changed or removed (due to the MD5 check)
3. Make sure you have a reasonable amount of battery charge remaining
4. Make sure the OTA update you're about to install matches the software version on your device
5. Copy the OTA update.zip package to your device (internal storage preferred)
6. Turn OFF the device (make sure fastboot mode is disabled in settings)
7. Hold your volume down and power keys until the bootloader starts up
8. Using the volume keys, navigate down to RECOVERY and press power
9. You are now in stock recovery mode. You should see nothing more than a (sometimes spinning) Android with the red exclamation mark above it (an empty black screen is also possible). Wait for a few seconds
10. First hold volume up, then (with volume up held down) press power button to enter the main recovery menu. This keys combination may vary from device to device. Try different keys combination if the above one doesn't work (might be all three keys all together too)
11. Navigate down to "apply from phone storage" text and press power to confirm
12. Navigate to the location where you copied the OTA update.zip package and press power to confirm
13. Wait (sometimes you might need to follow further instructions on the screen) until the update process is finished
14. Once system is booted you should see a confirmation about the successfully flashed update.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Send Contact Using Android Beam

Well, you may have asked by your friend to share him a contact from your Samsung Galaxy SIII to his phone for any reason. To do so, you can use some available methods, one of which is by sending the contact using messaging. See also: How to Share Contact via Messaging on the Samsung Galaxy S3Another method, if your friend's phone has NFC feature inside, then you can send the desired contact

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HTC ROM Update Utility (RUU) variants explanation

Owners of HTC devices might be a little confused when it comes to understanding the current method of numbering used by HTC to mark their software updates. Here you can find a short explanation of this matter.

First of all, we all know that HTC sells their devices all over the world. Every carrier and region of the world has some more or less different "local settings". By "local settings" I mean things like: emergency call numbers, languages, time-zone settings, network settings, carriers branding, GPS settings and more. Because of that each software for even the same device must be different.

Secondly, even the same device might use different hardware related to the region of the world. For example, HTC One is available in at least 6 different hardware configurations. One of the main difference is modem version. GSM version of the HTC One uses MDM8215 chip and LTE variant has MDM9215. Verizon (US) is known to have MDM9615. So that's already 3 different versions of the same device.

Every HTC update has the following numbering structure:

a.bb.ccc.d

a - the first number of the software. Normally it doesn't increase very often, but when it does, it usually means newer Android version.

bb - this number is also a software number. Increasing bb number means some more or less major update based on the same Android version, but sometimes it might even bring newer version of the HTC Sense.

ccc (also cc or cccc) - this is the number of the region/carrier. It has nothing to do with the software itself being newer or older. More details below.

d (sometimes dd) - the third part of the software version (the fourth one in the RUU name). Usually indicates some minor update with some hot fixes.

Example: 3.20.401.3

So basically, when you are interested in the software version, you should look at a.bb.d (3.20.ccc.3) because ccc (401) means only the region/carrier variant of the software.

Here is the list I was able to gather of possible RUU variants:

a.bb.61.d - Orange UK (United Kingdom)

a.bb.65.d - Orange CH (Switzerland)

a.bb.69.d - Orange PL (Poland)

a.bb.73.d - Orange FR (France)

a.bb.75.d - Orange ES (Spain)

a.bb.110.d - T-Mobile UK (United Kingdom)

a.bb.111.d - T-Mobile DE (Germany)

a.bb.112.d - T-Mobile AT (Austria)

a.bb.113.d - T-Mobile CZ (Czech Republic)

a.bb.118.d - T-Mobile PL (Poland)

a.bb.161.d - Vodafone UK (United Kingdom)

a.bb.163.d - Vodafone FR (France)

a.bb.165.d - Vodafone IT (Italy)

a.bb.166.d - Vodafone CH-DE (Switzerland - Germany)

a.bb.168.d - Vodafone GR (Greece)

a.bb.169.d - Vodafone AT (Austria)

a.bb.206.d - O2 UK (United Kingdom)

a.bb.207.d - O2 DE (Germany)

a.bb.401.d - World Wide English (WWE)

a.bb.415.d - Arabic (UAE/Middle East)

a.bb.468.d - Turkey

a.bb.497.d - Morocco

a.bb.498.d - WWE Brightpoint US (United States)

a.bb.502.d - Cingular US (United States)

a.bb.531.d - T-Mobile US (United States)

a.bb.631.d - Rogers Canada (WWE)

a.bb.651.d - Sprint US (United States)

a.bb.661.d - Telus WWE (Canada)

a.bb.666.d - Bell Canada

a.bb.707.d - Asia (WWE)

a.bb.708.d - Asia HK (Hong Kong)

a.bb.709.d - Asia TW (Taiwan)

a.bb.720.d - Asia (India)

a.bb.728.d - Virgin AU (Australia)

a.bb.751.d - Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan)

a.bb.771.d - Hutchison 3G UK (United Kingdom)

a.bb.777.d - ?

a.bb.841.d - Telsra WWE (World Wide English)

a.bb.862.d - Voda-Hutch AU (Australia)

a.bb.901.d - TIM IT (Italy)

a.bb.911.d - SK Telecom (South Korea)

a.bb.980.d - Optus AU (Australia)

a.bb.999.d - HTC Test RUU

a.bb.1400.d - China

a.bb.1401.d - ?

a.bb.1403.d - HTC China CMCC (China Mobile Communications Corporation)

a.bb.1540.d - HTC One U.S. Developer Edition

a.bb.1600.d - ?

a.bb.1700.d - HTC One Google Edition

The list is quite long, and I'm sure there are still some some missing. If you know more variants, please let me know in the comments section.

The 401 and the 707 devices are usually the first ones that HTC prepare updates for. Carrier branded software is usually months after the WWE updates.

Finally, keep in mind that each software version is connected with the CID (Carrier ID) and MID (Model ID) of your device. That means you can't use whichever version you want, unless you have S-OFF on your device. Each ROM Update Utility.exe package will check your device details (bootloader version, MID and CID) before starting the update process.

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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How to: Copy ROM zip file to the freshly wiped device

Have you ever been in a situation where you mistakenly (or not) wiped the content of the internal storage (including system partition and virtual SD card) on your phone or tablet and unfortunately it doesn't support external storage? Now you can't flash desired custom ROM because you removed it and the device can't be booted due to wiped system partition. Don't worry - it's very easy to fix!

Here are the steps you need to follow to copy the correct rom.zip package to your internal storage:

1. Download this mini-sdk package and extract it to c:\mini-sdk
2. Rename the custom ROM package you want to flash to "rom.zip" and copy it to c:\mini-sdk
3. Connect your device to the PC
4. Boot your device in recovery mode
5. Open a command prompt on the PC (cmd.exe), type and confirm each command with ENTER:
6. cd /d c:\mini-sdk
7. adb shell
8. mount /data (error might mean that /data partition is already mounted)
9. on Android 4.2 and above: mkdir -p /data/media/0
10. on Android 4.1.2 and below: mkdir -p /data/media
11. exit
12. on Android 4.2 and above: adb push rom.zip /data/media/0
13. on Android 4.1.2 and below: adb push rom.zip /data/media
14. Wait for a few minutes until the file is copied. It will looks like command shell is not responding, but that means it's still copying. Wait patiently until you'll see blinking cursor again.
15. Depends on your custom recovery, use the navigation keys to flash the custom rom.zip package in a typical way you used to flash custom ROMs. It should be on your internal storage now. Done!

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Create and Send Scheduled Text Message using Handcent SMS App

We all know that the stock Messaging app has no option to allow you to create scheduled text message. That's why you need to use another app to do this thing. Fortunately, there some apps in Google Play Store which will let you do so, one of which is Schemes - Scheduled Networking app. By using this app you can easily create scheduled text message to the contact you want.

See also: How to Send

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Customize Facebook Photo Sync Settings

By enabling photo sync in the Facebook app on your Samsung Galaxy SIII, you'll be able to auto upload your photos in the Gallery app to your Facebook account. All synced photos will be saved in a new private album on your Facebook account and all of them will remain private until you make them public through the Facebook website.See also: How to Auto Upload Photos to Facebook on the

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Auto Upload Photos to Facebook

Facebook is one of the most popular social media available today. You can use it to update status, chat, upload photos and else. You can also set your phone to display the Facebook photo gallery in your Gallery app so you can see them without having to launch the Facebook app.

See also: How to Display My Facebook Albums and Photos in Gallery on Samsung Galaxy S3

As the opposite, you can also

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Reduce Data Usage on Chrome Beta App

When you browse the web using the stock browser app in the Samsung Galaxy SIII, you might be found an option which will allow you to set the browser to load images in the web or not. This option of course will help you to save more data, but this will also decrease your quality of experience while browsing the web caused by the image not loaded.

See also: How to Enable or Disable Web Pages

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Send Scheduled Text Message

Communicating via text messaging is one way to stay keep in touch with your friends, families or anyone else. To meet this need, Samsung Galaxy SIII has included the stock Messaging app inside it that will allow the users to send text messages.

See also: How to Send Text Message on Samsung Galaxy S3

You can also use text message to says happy birthday to your friends or says happy mother day to

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Can't Turn On Ripple Effect

An insider has leave her comment here to ask about why she can't turn on ripple effect on her Samsung Galaxy Grand, though her phone had the option to do so. She said that the option is grayed out resulting she can't change the option, in this case she can't turn on the ripple effect as she wants. Well, due to this blog usually discusses about Samsung Galaxy SIII, then here I'll share about how

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Waze app provides real-time traffic alerts from community drivers

As I got into my car for my daily commute to work, my latest iPhone app tells me there are 25 other drivers nearby ready to assist me with real-time traffic reports and commuting information.

The commuting information is from Waze, a traffic and navigation app that I have been testing over the past few weeks. I can truly say that it works and also has very impressive GPS capabilities.

The technology behind the Waze app is based on a community of other drivers with the Waze app, or "Wazers" as they like to call themselves. The beauty of the concept is that these drivers are local to your area and drive some of the same routes that you would take every day.

Once in your car, just fire up the Waze app, type in your destination and leave the app open. You'll notice right away that your location is accurately displayed and a little icon tracks your route on a three-dimensional map, or 2D if you prefer. As you drive along, you might notice alerts on traffic jams or simply slow traffic, accidents, road hazards and other information – all in real time. These alerts are coming from other "Wazers" traveling the same route and have submitted alerts along the way.

On my particular route to work, I was alerted of a "car on the shoulder" a few miles down the road. Sure enough, a few minutes later I came upon a stalled vehicle on the right shoulder of the interstate. Amazing.

If you see a need to report the location of an accident or other road hazard alert to share with other drivers, just tap the "report" icon and choose from several options, such as a Traffic Jam, Police, Accident, Hazard or Closure. After choosing which side of the street or interstate, you'll simply choose "submit" and the apps marks the location of where the report button was first pressed. For a traffic jam report, there are "Moderate, Heavy and Standstill" options. A photo can be taken to share with the report.

During another four-hour trip on a major interstate, I came upon slow traffic and knew something was wrong ahead. I fired up the Waze app to discover an accident had been reported a few mile ahead by a fellow Wazer.

The GPS features of the Waze app is amazingly accurate, with the location of my vehicle dead-on in relation to the map on the display. The icon for my vehicle passed through intersections on the map display as I did in real time. When stopped at a red light a few vehicles back from the intersection, that's where my location was on the Waze map. The GPS technology of the Waze app is very impressive, with functions similar to a genuine GPS unit, complete with day and night modes for the display.

As you drive along with Waze, the map automatically zooms in and out, based on the detail being shown on your smartphone display. All gas stations and public landmarks are displayed, such as parks, rivers, lakes and dreams.

Some of the additional features of the Waze app include adding your home and work addresses, as well as Facebook integration to interact and coordinate your trips with your Facebook friends. A tap of the "Gas" icon displays a list of gas stations and fuel prices nearby.

According to the company, Waze is being used by around 50 million people and I would imagine this is growing, as each time I log in, the number of Wazers nearby seemed to have grown. A team of seven developers from Silicon Valley, Israel, the United Kingdom and other locations are responsible for this innovative use of crowd-sourcing with traffic reports and other commuting information.

Waze is free at this time and is available for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone devices, with the latest version being 3.7.6, which added a voice-based search for finding addresses and places. Maybe a version for the BlackBerry platform is on the drawing board.

In the latest twist of Waze marketing, Comedian Kevin Hart is lending his voice for turn-by-turn navigation in the app.

I'm sold on the technology of the Waze app and its community-based traffic reporting. I won't leave home without it.

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Wi-Fi Always Turn Off When the Phone is Sleep

An insider named Nicola has sent me an email and ask me why the Wi-Fi on his Samsung Galaxy SIII is always turn off whenever the phone is sleep. The Wi-Fi will on again whenever he wake up the phone and put in password. Well, if you're also experience the same problem or if you want to keep the Wi-Fi always on while the phone is sleep for any reason, then below are some things you need to do in

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HTC One with KitKat and HTC Sense 5.5 is finally out!

Android 4.4 KitKat with HTC Sense 5.5 is now available for the HTC One. This is a must-have update for all HTC One owners.

Sounds great? Well, you might not be happy after all. So far the update is available only for the owners of the Developer Edition of the HTC One. But there is a good news too - you can have KitKat update on your "regular" HTC One too, without waiting for the official update (which might take few more weeks).

To make it possible, Android Revolution HD has been updated to 40.x series, based on the official Android 4.4 KitKat & HTC Sense 5.5 update (4.06.1540.2). 

Why KitKat update is that important? It has several very important changes:

1. Vastly improved security
2. Smarter "Location" settings
3. Better performance
4. Improved battery consumption
5. Faster multitasking
6. Better Google Hangouts integration
7. ...and much more!

Here are some screenshots. You can see the new Location settings panel.

Users feedback so far leaves no doubts - this update brings significant performance improvements. Some users are even reporting, that Android 4.4 with HTC Sense 5.5 gives better performance experience than pure KitKat update for the HTC One Google Edition which we wrote about here. I think this is enough said. Don't stay on your old 4.3 OS and grab newest 4.4 update as soon as possible!

Link to the original XDA-developer thread
Link to the download page

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Can't Delete an Additional Home Screen

An insider named Matthew has sent me an email to ask why his phone always crashing when he tried to delete additional home screen once he updated his phone to the Jelly Bean. As we all know that Samsung Galaxy SIII allows the user to add additional home screen up to seven home screen. Well, aside to make the Home screen more neat, deleting an unused home screen is one way that the user can do to

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Enable or Disable Face and Voice Unlock Features

When you're in the lock screen menu, you will see the Face and voice as one of the methods that you can use to unlock your Samsung Galaxy SIII. This method utilizes the front-facing camera to recognize your face and utilize microphones to recognize your voice command, if a face and a voice recognisable then your phone will be unlocked.


How to enable Face and voice unlock method?
Below are the

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Organize Application in the App Menu

Lot of choices of applications available in the Google Play Store or other sources that you can install into your Samsung Galaxy SIII sometimes makes you end up with installing lot of apps to your phone. With so many apps installed, arrange the apps using the best view according to your need is one way that you can do to make you more easier when you want to access them.

See also: How to Sort

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Do Manual Pause Dialing

Maybe you've had to call someone through his office number, and you must enter the extension number after dial the regular number to speak directly with him. Well, if you often experience this situation, you might have to consider to add pauses to the contact, so you don't need to enter the additional number whenever you call him again.

See also: How to Add Pauses to an Existing Contact Numbers

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Add Pauses to an Existing Contact Numbers

In the Samsung Galaxy SIII, there are several ways that you can do to make a call more faster and easier by utilizing the existing features owned by this phone. For example, you can use the easy call feature that will allow you to make calls simply by swiping the contact from left to right, or you can use the speed dial that will allow you to assign a shortcut number to an existing contact number

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KitKat for HTC One Google Edition is out. Sense version coming soon!

Android "four point four" (aka KitKat) is what most HTC One users are still eagerly waiting for. The "senseless" version is already available to download via Over The Air (OTA) update on the HTC One Google Play Edition.

If you haven't received the update yet, or you don't have a Google Play Edition variant of the HTC One, you can still have a taste of the fresh Google goody. Just navigate to my HTC One Google Play Edition thread on the xda-developers forum and download Android Revolution HD based on Android 4.4 KitKat for the HTC One.

What we've already learned so far is that you'll probably need an S-OFF device in order to properly boot KitKat custom ROM. It's a weird issue we still investigate and we hope to come up with some more convenient solution soon!

Also some good news for HTC Sense fans - Android 4.4 with HTC Sense 5.5 on board will be available very soon! Don't be upset it's still Sense 5.5 instead of Sense 6.0. New update will bring a lot of bugs fixes and all the goodies Android 4.4 comes with. Stay tuned!

Have any questions or comments? Feel free to share! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) below this post!

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Google Play Store Stop Working Issue

Google Play Store is the official market for all of Android phone, including Samsung Galaxy SIII. Here you can download lot of apps or game then install them to your phone. To make you be able accessing Google Play Store, make sure you have activated your Google account on your phone.

See also: How to Access Google Play Store on Samsung Galaxy S3

As same as another apps, some problem sometimes

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Quickly Accessing Your Favourite Website

Nowadays we can easily get the information we want through the Internet. That's why no wonder if the easiness to do that makes Internet users growth rapidly from time to time. The growth of Internet users has also resulted in a growing number of websites present which offers a variety of information to the visitor.

As the users of the Samsung Galaxy SIII, you can utilize the stock Browser app

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Beware of spam surveys for PayPal

Today I got an email from a very legitimate looking email ID survey@paypal.com which asked me to fill up a survey and in return I would get paid for it. I have a PayPal account and greed almost took me over until I noticed something odd. Below is the mail that was sent to me (emphasis mine).

Dear ABC XYZ,

In a continuing effort to provide our customers with the best possible payment experience, we randomly select customers like you to participate in surveys. Your feedback will help us to enhance your PayPal experience.

To complete the survey, simply click on the web address shown below (or copy the address into your browser). If you complete the survey, we will send you a check in the amount of $930 INR as a token of our appreciation for taking the time to share your opinions.

<URL>

Sincerely,

PayPal

If you look closely at the amount it says $930 INR. That's what prompted me to call up PayPal customer support and they confirmed this is a spoof mail and I (and you too) should not be responding to this mail.

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Set Home Page on Chrome Browser App

Nowadays the Internet has become a daily need for almost everyone. Due to this fact, that's why no wonder if almost all of smartphone available today has present the stock browser app inside to be able to meet the needs of their users, including the Samsung Galaxy SIII with its stock Browser app. You can use this app to browse the web, download the files, etc.

See also: How to Use the Browser

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Issue with Indic keyboard and SwiftKey on HTC One X

I recently updated my HTC One X with OTA Android 4.2.2 and HTC Sense 5. This new version comes with Indic (for Indian languages) and Vietnamese (don't know why was this added) keyboard. I prefer to use SwiftKey and have it installed on my phone. One issue that I found was that whenever my phone is rebooted ‒  either by me or some random crash ‒  my keyboard used to get changed from SwiftKey to Indic keyboard.

To let you know Indic keyboard is not the same as HTC Sense Input. Here's how it looks like.

Indic keyboard

Continue reading »

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Creating Web Part Page in SharePoint 2013

Creating a Web Part Page required you to follow just two simple steps in SharePoint 2010.

1. Go to Sites actions > More Options.

2. Select Web Part Page.

That’s it you are done. But SharePoint 2013 complicates this a little. So here’s what need to do if want to create a Web Part Page in SharePoint 2013.

Continue reading »

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Lock and Unlock Memo in S Memo App

In certain condition, you might have to write down something important for further use, for instance when you're discussing something with your friends and want to summarize the conclusion or else. Well, aside from using the paper and pen, you can also utilize S Memo app inside your Samsung Galaxy SIII to do so.

See also: How to Create New Text Memo Using S Memo on Samsung Galaxy S3

The

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Get Rid the Flashing Red Border Around the Screen

One of the insider asked me why her Samsung Galaxy SIII screen displaying a grid line that follow her move. After some further investigation, it turned out that she was accidentally activate the option named show pointer location under the developer option menu.

See also : How to Show or Hide Pointer Location on Samsung Galaxy S3

Yap, the developer menu option is actually intended for the

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Remove Picasa Album from Gallery App

Aside from retrieving pictures from the photo files you saved in your device, you can also set your Samsung Galaxy SIII to retrieve pictures from another source outside the phone, for instance you can display your Facebook pictures gallery in the Gallery app. But, if you don't want the Facebook album show up there, you can set the Gallery not to display them or you can stop the device not to sync

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Add/Remove Music and Video folders from Windows 8.1 Store Applications

    This is a functionality so buried inside the MSDN documentation that I had to "look" at another application that uses it and only after I was able to find the documentation for it. For the moment (guess because it was not given enough visibility yet) I think there is only one store application that uses it and it is, of course, built by Microsoft (not even Nokia Music application uses it). 

    So what is this all about? If you develop a store application that uses the MusicLibrary capability, you can access to the audio files inside the Music library folders. The problem, until now, was that there was no way to add/remove folders to/from the Music library inside a store application so, in case the user did not had any folder added to the Music library the developers had to find a way to explain how to manually add folders to the Music library (a mess believe me).

    The missing functionality is implemented by the NEW StorageLibrary class available for Windows 8.1 store applications. The class is actually a diamond in the rough:

    The usage is basic but it is exactly what I needed. You need to use the GetLibraryAsync method to retrieve the StorageLibrary you need. Once you have it you can retrieve the StorageFolders currently added to the library and for the Music and Videos libraries, you can add or remove folders from this library. If removing a folder from the library the user will be prompted if he agrees with the removal. For adding a folder using the async method the user will be prompted with a folder picker and returns the newly added StorageFolder, otherwise null.

    As usually I really hope that, if you need it, this blog post will spare you the hours I've spent in finding out how it is done.

Update: There is also a code sample available on msdn Library management sample

NAMASTE

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Save a Draft Text Message in Messaging App

If you're the one who frequently send text messages to many peoples with a similar format, then create a text message template would be very helpful for you. Fortunately, the Messaging app in the Samsung Galaxy SIII allows you to do so. Other times, you can use a text template that you created as your message and then send it to the contacts you wish to send the message with. If necessary, you

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Remove Facebook Photos on Gallery App

By default, the Gallery app will show you all the photo and video files that you save on your device, either in the phone memory or the SD card. In addition, you can also display pictures from another source outside the phone, for example you can display your Facebook gallery pictures, simply by syncing your phone with your Facebook gallery. For some users this will help them because they can see

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What Windows Phone Start screen should learn/inherit from Windows 8.1

    Last week I did a session on live tiles and it got me thinking on how Microsoft and the Windows Phone team could actually improve the Start screen experience and also the application list that, in my opinion, lacks design and more important it is not very practical to use. Please consider that i am not a designer and i did not have time to invest in doing the screenshots (did cut and paste using Paint.Net). I am doing this post just to illustrate my ideas.

    Let me start with the start screen. The live tiles are an awesome feature and really differentiate Windows and Windows Phone from their competitors.  I think that, for certain functionality,the Windows 8.1/8 start screen is better than the Windows Phone one. First of all (and the most important) the Scroll Direction. The windows phone have the start screen in vertical compared to Windows 8 which is horizontal. Horizontal scrolling would be better and here are some reasons why I think this:

• the main reason why you scroll is because you did not find what you were looking for so you would like to reach the part you are interested as fast as possible. All Windows Phone have the height > width in Pixels so scrolling horizontally you actually scroll MORE information than scrolling vertically 
• If scrolling would be horizontal it would be possible to implement grouping just like Windows 8 and enable a functionality similar to semantic zoom or jump list to easily reach the tile/tiles you need
• It would be also more familiar to people coming from other platforms (like Android or iOs) where the scrolling is horizontal
• Different from Windows 8 or tablet UI I think that this scroll should be Paged and not continuous similar to what you have on iOS e Android. This is because the user would be faster to search what he needs (if it is not on the page I see now better scroll a whole page and not a part of it). This won't minimize in any way the live tiles functionality but would give better speed in seeing all I am interested in. 
• If the user gives titles to the various pages then in the JumpList/SemanticZoom he would see those names otherwise he sees the number of pages and he can easily reach any page (even the last one) without scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.

• The last page of the start screen that is not full would have the arrow orientated down just to give the hint to the user that the Application full list is "under" the start screen just like in Windows 8.1

Other aspect where Windows 8.1 start screen is better is the tile templates. Windows 8.1, in comparison with windows Phone, has much more templates that fit better the needs of the developers. In Windows Phone you can actually build your own images with everything on it but it would be better to have more standard templates. The current templates when used "as is" are pretty limited:

• The flip template is "slow" to change from one side to the other and this way not everything you need to see is right in front of you. You should actually put secondary informations on the back and expect that 70% of the time the user would not wait for the tile to flip
• The iconic template in small and medium sizes have the same informations so it is a "waste" of space to keep the iconic tiles in medium size when you could have them little 
• The cyclic template is more decorative then functional. Even if you build the images I am curious how many people will actually wait for the images to finish a cycle instead of launching the application. For something like photos app it is ok if the user just want to add decorative items to your start screen

If the Start Screen would be horizontal in this case the application list should be accessed by scrolling vertically just like in the Windows 8.1. The current design of the application list is not optimal it doesn't take advantage of the space it has and because of that you would have to scroll a lot. Even with the Jumplist it is a lot of scrolling. It would be actually better (in my opinion) a paged grid + Jumplist/semantic zoom to easily jump the pages+ Search to easily find an app. Grid design it would even scale better on higher resolutions as it could have more columns. Here is a small comparison (I repeat I am not a designer). Again paged scrolling would give you better speed than continuous scrolling.

Near the search there could actually be a button that enables the user to change the grouping  (alphabetical, most used, recently downloaded,...).

If you read this post and have observations (maybe I am missing something) or ideas please let me know. There is always room to improve the user experience and my only wish is that Windows Phone get better and better each year.

UPDATE: And the most important when implementing horizontal scrolling, new templates apart from better functionality is better transition and familiarity (don't really find the right word) between desktop and phone

NAMASTE

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Get Out from Incognito Mode

Incognito mode is one of feature available inside Browser app in Samsung Galaxy SIII. When you browse the web under the incognito mode, then the page won't appear in the browser history, the download files won't appear in the download history and the cookies will wiped out once you closed the page. Browse the page under this mode of course will help you if you want to access something important

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Use the Incognito Feature in the Browser App

As one of pre-installed app in Samsung Galaxy SIII, You can directly use the Browser app without having to install it first. You can use this app to browse the web, read online magazine, etc. By default, the app will record all of your browsing activities to help you more easier to track what you have searched before. But, if you don't want to keep them, you can easily remove them from there. As

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Samsung Galaxy S3: How to Fix Wrong Display in the Messaging App Icon in the Home Screen

Messaging app is one of pre-installed apps on the Samsung Galaxy SIII which is presented to meet the user needs to send a message, either text or multimedia messages. Usually, when you get a new message you will get a notification in the status bar, and if you see the Messaging app icon in the Home screen, it will be marked with a certain number that indicates the number of unread messages. In

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Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile rolls out Isis Mobile Wallet

The mobile payments technology just took a big leap forward with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile announcing Isis Mobile Wallet. This "tap to pay" technology can turn many of your credit cards and loyalty cards into virtual versions that will only require a tap at Isis-compatible merchants.

To get started, you'll need one of the 15 Isis-ready smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S4 and several Droid devices, with Near Field Communication, or NFC, and an enhanced SIM card. You'll also need the free Isis Android app from the Google Play Store and have an idea of which cards are participating in the new technology, such as American Express and Chase. You'll also have the option of adding money to your Mobile Wallet by linking a bank account or debit card.

The NFC technology on your smartphone will allow an Isis Mobile Wallet short-range wireless communication feature, known as "SmartTap," between the Isis app and the Isis terminal at the merchant. When out and about, you'll simply look for the Isis SmartTap symbol on payment terminals at retailers such as Toys 'R' Us, Jamba Juice, Coca-Cola vending machines. According to Verizon, there are more than 200,000 retail locations that are equipped with tap-to-pay terminals.

For security, your Isis Mobile Wallet account will be protected by a four-digit PIN, and according to Verizon, a Secure Element chip on your phone will store your payment credentials in an area that's separate from your phone's main operating system and hardware.If your device is lost or stolen, the mobile wallet account can be locked by the carrier.

As for privacy concerns, Verizon says on their website that what you buy is between you and the merchants you patronize; neither Isis nor Verizon Wireless keeps track of your purchases.

The online payment sector will get increasingly crowded going forward, as key players implement mobile banking and entice consumers to pay for merchandise and services with their smartphones. Google has Google Wallet, Mastercard has PayPass Wallet and Visa is pushing their V.me digital wallet service.

Apple Inc. has their Passbook app, which will organize gift cards, coupons, passes, tickets and more, with the idea of making your wallet a lot thinner and lighter, but stops short of actually processing a mobile payment. Apple has also stayed away from the NFC technology, while can be found on just about all the iPhone competitors, but was not included in the recent iPhones 5S and 5C.

As an alternative to NFC, Apple has opted for a fingerprint sensor on the iPhone 5S with Touch ID features. Apple also has iBeacon on the drawing board, which uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to transmit wireless data between devices. This technology will also allow iOS 7 devices to pinpoint their location. Some believe this will become Apple's answer for NFC and will offer retailer new ways to reach potential customers beyond mobile payments.

PayPal took a different approach in the mobile payments arena with their "PayPal Here" solution, which launched over a year ago. This concept allows small business to accept almost any form of payment by using a free app and a small credit card reader for the iPhone and Android devices.

According to PayPal, they have been experiencing some success with mobile payments in the offline retailers and small business sector.

As the mobile payments continues to evolve, technology companies will be banking on savvy customers embracing a new way to shop and and pay in the years ahead.

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