Is a smartphone the next milestone for social media giant Facebook?

The big question is whether Facebook, the king of social media, will unveil a smartphone during an April 4 shindig? Will it also be powered by Android, the king of mobile operating systems.

The invitations have been sent out and all eyes are on Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., where attendees will find 1 Hacker Way and get inside by 10 a.m. PST to see Facebook's "New Home on Android" announcement.

From the day Facebook was founded in 2004, they have reached one milestone after another, such as adding photo uploading in 2005, launching music listening applications in 2011 and taking the big, big step of going public in the fall of 2012.

A lot of fans must have been thrilled with their growth, as Facebook reached one billion users in September. That a lot of updates, photos albums, music apps, messages, likes and just overall spending a bunch of time on Facebook.

If a Facebook-branded smartphone does come true, I wonder how Facebook will make it unique from all the other iPhones, Androids, Windows 8 and BlackBerry devices.

I imagine the smartphone market is pretty saturated now, because everyone I know already has a mobile phone of some flavor, whether smartphone or feature phone. Then we have those contract things that make us pretty loyal to one particular carrier for a couple of years.

But who is to say there is not room in the market for a Facebook device, or to speculate further, a HTC device running Android that been tweaked by the Facebook team.

So I say bring it on. We'll be checking our Facebook pages for new friends and updates while watching to see if the social media giant can deliver something really special, whether it's a phone or something else.

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Small tip on XAudio2 for Windows Phone

     While debugging one of my Windows Phone applications on the device I've noticed that after the debug session the battery of the device drained faster than usual (so I always restarted the device after using it for debugging). Initially I thought it was the Bluetooth driver but I saw that if I stop the XAudio2 engine when my application gets suspended and re-enable it when the application resumes my battery drains "normally". This should be a best practice as your application doesn't really need the engine when it gets suspended. So:

• When your app is suspended, call IXAudio2::StopEngine.
• When your app is resumed, call IXAudio2::StartEngine.

NAMASTE

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Virtual SD card on Android

Since Android Honeycomb, Google changed the way to manage internal memory on Android devices. Before Honeycomb, every user had one separate partition on his device called userdata (/data), where he could install applications and where all user settings were stored (home screens, applications data, contacts, and all the rest you loose after doing so called "full wipe" on your device). Apart of userdata partition, all Android devices had microSD card slot to save pictures, movies, backups etc.. Now it looks completely different, but let's start from the beginning. There are several approaches to this subject, I'll present here all those I am aware of.

• userdata partition + microSD card

This is the mentioned above pre-Honeycomb approach. There is userdata partition, where you can install all your applications and you also have a possibility to insert microSD card. Nothing more to explain. Only devices running Android Gingerbread and older versions have such configuration, so it's getting less and less popular.

• userdata partition + virtual SD card on userdata partition

This is the new approach presented for the first time in Honeycomb. Instead of having /data partition together with expandable microSD card slot of any capacity, Google decided for something different. Instead, /data partition became very large (16/32/64 GB) and inside you can find /data/media folder that contains all the files you can see as your SD card content. How does it work? Without too much technical explanations, there is so called fuse tool which emulates media folder inside userdata partition as a separate storage device. As a result, after connecting smartphone to the PC you can browse the content of /data/media location, so if it was a microSD card. The biggest downside of such approach is a high risk of loosing all your virtual SD card content in case of any serious /data partition failure. Also, such partition can't be formatted with mkfs.ext4 without loosing content of virtual SD card, because you can't format device partition just partially. You can use e2fsck tool to check for potential errors, but sometimes partition format is the only way out. How does "full wipe" work then? Well, it's a little bit complicated. First of all, you can't format mounted (in use) partition. You need to unmount it first. Once unmounted userdata partition, you can't flash any ZIP file from inside recovery, because ZIPs files are stored on virtual SD card (/data/media) and remember that userdata partition is currently unmounted, because we want to format it. There is a workaround for it - you can run mkfs.ext4 from inside /cache partition or you can use command prompt. Now, what if you need to remove the whole content of your userdata partition, but you want to keep virtual SD card content at the same time? There is a workaround for this as well, but instead of formatting entire partition, you need to remove all files excluding /data/media location. Example:

#!/tmp/bash
# Remove content of /data partition excluding data/media files
cd /data
FILES=(*)
for i in *; do
if [ "$i" != "media" ]
then rm -R "$i"
fi
done

This way you can sort of wipe userdata, but it doesn't format the partition, so you can't fix broken file-system with it.  Why this point is the longest one? Because it took me quite a few words to explain the relation between virtual SD card and media folder on userdata partition (/data/media). So basically, what you read here applies to every configuration with virtual SD card emulated on userdata partition.

• userdata partition + virtual SD card on a separate partition

This approach is not very popular, and it's a shame because it seems to be much more practical rather than the previous one. Instead of emulating SD card from userdata partition, there is a separate, large partition with vFAT file-system. That means you can format your userdata partition anytime you want without loosing content of your virtual SD card, or from inside custom ROM, because userdata can be freely unmounted. The only device I've seen so far with this approach was HTC One X.

• userdata partition + virtual SD card on userdata partition + microSD card

This seems to be the most desirable solution for many Android users. It works similar to approach described in the second point, so everything I wrote about /data/media is valid here as well. However, every user have the ability to insert extra microSD card inside his device, so he can easily backup virtual SD card to microSD card or format userdata partition without loosing all pictures etc. (if previously stored on microSD card). This is the most common configuration for Samsung devices. But having removable microSD card is not only an advantage. First of all, any kind of microSD card (even SDHC) will be always slower than internal eMMC memory. It depends on many factors like card speed (class 2, 4, 6, 8 or even 10), on-board controller, I/O scheduler and more. Secondly, microSD card damage risk is higher then damage risk of internal eMMC memory. Out of question is the benefit to expand the memory with 64 GB microSD card, but it's definitely the minority of power users, who are buying large capacity cards. For the vast majority of users, internal memory with 32 GB capacity is more then enough to store their favorite music or pictures.

• userdata partition + virtual SD card on a separate partition + microSD card

This approach is theoretically possible, but personally I've never seen device with such combination. For me, this is the best combination. You have possibility to use external microSD card and virtual SD card is not a part of userdata partition, but it has it's own, separate vFat partition. Such configuration gives you control over all your data and possibility to manage it however you want.

Do you have any questions or want to share some opinion? Please leave a comment below! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) down this post!

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Verizon Wireless rolls out integrated messaging on multiple devices

If you're like me, you dig in your pocket for your smartphone numerous times each day to check your text messages. Or maybe it's on your desk while you're working on the PC and you reach for it each time your hear a beep.

This little routine is getting easier with Verizon Wireless's new messaging service announced on Thursday that'll allow messages to appear simultaneously on your Android smartphone, an Android or iOS tablet and the PC.

The messages on mobile devices will use an app available in the Google Play and Apple App Store, while the messages routed to the PC can be accessed through the Web browser after logging into a "My Verizon" account. Verizon will use their cloud storage to keep messages for 90 days.

A video explains how the whole humdinger of technology works. Our digital lives just got simpler and more efficient.

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How to add songs to the emulator's MediaLibrary

    One of the new features of the Windows Phone 8 SDK is the ability to save(add) songs to the phone's MediaLibrary. This is a really nice when you add songs to the MediaLibrary any other music application that you have installed on your phone can play the songs that your application has saved.. The SaveSong method is found in the MediaLibraryExtensions class. Here are the parameters of this method:

[ExtensionAttribute]

public static Song SaveSong (
         MediaLibrary library,
         Uri filename,
         SongMetadata songMetadata,
         SaveSongOperation operation
)

    The method requires the ID_CAP_MEDIALIB_AUDIO capability and will return a reference to the newly saved song. One of the things that the documentation forgot to mention is that the filename Uri has to be an Uri to a file on the IsolatedStorage. You cannot give a direct Uri to an asset file (this I think because using the SaveSongParameter you can choose if you want to copy or move the file to the MediaLibrary) as you will get InvalidOperationException. If you want to add a song deployed as an asset you will first have to copy the file to the IsolatedStorage and then save it to the MediaLibrary.

    To copy the file to the IsolatedStorage you can use the:

 var resource = Application.GetResourceStream(new Uri(@"Assets/Songs/"+fileName, UriKind.Relative));  
 resource.Stream.CopyTo(fileStream, 4096);  

or you can use the WinRT Api to read the asset file:

  songUri=new Uri("ms-appx:///Assets/Songs/"+fileName,UriKind.Absolute);  
  var file=await Windows.Storage.StorageFile.GetFileFromApplicationUriAsync(songUri);  

 
    One interesting parameter is the SongMetadata. This enables you to "mess" with the metadata that will be saved to the MediaLibrary. If this parameter is null then the function will automatically import the file's metadata. If you still want to verify/import just some of the files metadata you can use the PCL ID3.NET and read the metadata of the file you have on the Isolated Storage. The portble dll is Id3.dll. You just have to pass the Stream to the Mp3Stream method:

 Id3.Mp3Stream mp3 = new Id3.Mp3Stream(resource.Stream);  
 if (mp3.HasTags)  
 {  
 }  

NAMASTE

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Removable battery - do we really need it?

With every release of a new smartphone the same question is asked - will it have removable battery? If you believe that removable batteries are a "must have" nowadays, please keep reading. I hope you'll change your mind!

First of all - there is a solution. Battery banks seems to be a great alternative for removable batteries. You can check my review of HTC Battery Bank here. It works with every device equipped with micro-USB port. Now let's compare both solutions.

Capacity

Samsung Galaxy S3 has a removable battery with capacity of 2100mAh. Typical battery bank has a capacity of 6000mAh. This means, that Galaxy S3 can be charged almost 3 times with such battery bank! If you are going to use your smartphone heavily the whole day, only one backup battery might be not enough for you. With battery bank you can start your day with more then 8000mAh on board (battery inside device + battery bank).

Conclusion: 2300mAh vs. 6000mAh

Winner: battery bank

Size

Typical smartphone battery dimensions are around 6,3 x 5,0 x 0,5. Battery bank I was tested is of course bigger - 9,7 x 4,2 x 2,2. Is it really a disadvantage? I don't think so. It's small enough to be inserted into a pocket of your jeans or jacket. I think there are even smaller battery banks available on the market, so the size shouldn't be a problem here. Also, removable batteries are indeed smaller, but keep in mind their capacity is twice/triply lower.

Conclusion: 6,3 x 5,0 x 0,5 vs 9,7 x 4,2 x 2,2

Winner: removable battery

Charging

Battery bank can be charged regardless of device battery. It has its own USB cable and charging port, so you can charge both devices -  smartphone and battery bank at the same time. What about removable batteries? Well, if you don't have a removable battery charger (which costs extra money of course!) you will have to charge battery inside your device first, then switch batteries and charge the backup battery. The risk of braking battery cover latches is quite big, especially when it comes to plastic, which has its own lifetime and bending abilities. It seems that battery bank in this case is much more convenient and comfortable.

Conclusion: charging inside the device vs. independent charging

Winner: battery bank

Price

Original backup battery price is about $30. Yes, I know you can find non-original replacements for $10 as well, but let's compare only original parts. Typical battery bank costs is around $40 - $80 ($75 for HTC Battery Bank). However these prices vary from place to place and may be slightly different in your country, keep that in mind. Comparing 1:1 it's easy to see that external batteries are indeed cheaper. But to make the comparison fair, we need to establish the price/capacity relationship. 1mAh from 2300mAh backup battery ($30) is a cost of about $0,0130, while 1mAh from 6000mAh battery bank ($75) costs about $0,0125.

Conclusion: $0,0130 vs. $0,0125

Winner: battery bank

Design

When speaking about the design I mostly think about device design. However, battery banks looks definitely better and more aesthetic than regular removable batteries. Having a removable battery back cover doesn't allow uni-body construction, like HTC One has. Design is a matter of taste, but personally I prefer uni-body construction over having a plastic back cover. But again - it's a matter of taste, so no winner here.

Conclusion: plastic back cover vs. uni-body construction

Winner: draw

Usability

Practical approach is also important. Driving a car or sitting in a crowded bus might be a situation when your device is out of power. Now imagine you need to: 1) take out your battery backup, 2) turn off the device, 3) remove the back cover, 4) replace the battery, 5) close the back cover, 6) turn on the device, 7) hide your primary battery. So... 7 steps including the inevitability of turning off the device. With battery bank you just need to take it out and plug into the device. That's it. No need to turn on/off or disassemble your device. Keep in mind that battery bank doesn't work only as external battery, it is mainly a battery charger, so after some time you can hide it back.

Conclusion: 7 steps to change battery vs. take out and plug in

Winner: battery bank

Compatibility

External batteries are not compatible between devices. You can't use Samsung Galaxy Note II battery in Samsung Galaxy S3. You can't use HTC Sensation battery in HTC One S. If you buy backup battery for your particular device, you'll probably sell it together with the device or give it as free bonus one day. Battery bank is compatible with every device equipped with micro-USB port and can be your life-companion for years. However, you should be aware that battery bank might not be able to charge your tablet.

Conclusion: lack of compatibility with other devices vs. compatibility with all micro-USB smartphones

Winner: battery bank

Device lifetime (added 23-03-2013)
Due to many comments under this article I decided to agree with one point that was very often mentioned by users preferring removable battery. However, I think it needs some bigger explanation. It is a fact, that having non removable battery results in lack of possibility to exchange it for new one, once the old battery can't give your device enough power anymore. But is it really a problem? I took the warranty statements from my HTC One X+ and I found nothing about limited warranty for battery (like Samsung have - only 6 months). This means, that once battery is non removable, it doesn't have shorter warranty. So in my case battery is under 24-months warranty service. I think that is a positive aspect for the consumer, right? In some cases it might be also 12-months, but it depends on particular law regulations in each country.

Conclusion: removable battery with 6-months warranty vs. non-removable battery with 12/24-months warranty - both solutions have some advantages
Winner: draw

Possibility to reset the device (added 25-03-2013)
One more category added. Very often I hear that possibility to remove the battery is the only way to reset the device once it's not reacting anymore and system just hanged. This is not true. Every device have ability to reset the system using hardware keys. In most cases it's a combination of 3 buttons: power + volume up + volume down. You need to hold these buttons for about 5-20 seconds, depends on the device. Even if your device has a removable battery, it is better to use above combination to avoid breaking the plastic back cover latches.

Conclusion: you can reset your device no matter if it has removable battery or not

Winner: draw

So what's the score? Battery bank won in 5 comparisons, external battery in 1 comparison and there were also 3 draws. For me, personally, battery banks are better replacement for external batteries. It gives you bigger capacity for the same prize, extended usability and it looks better.

Do you have a different point of view or some experience with one of the approaches presented above? Please leave a comment below! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) down this post!

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C Spire's new 4G LTE mobile hotspot packing power, speed

The mobile hotspot devices just keep getting better and better. It was only in November that I wrote about a wireless USB modem and said it was good and very handy to have around. Earlier in May, another review of a mobile hotspot also left me with a favorable impression of reliable Wi-Fi signals from these small devices.

This latest 4G LTE, or Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution, Mobile Hotspot from C Spire Wireless is even better. The design has changed from a flip-like device that plugged into an electrical outlet via a USB port to a digital device that can be placed on a desk or simply stays in your pocket or purse.

This new hotspot, manufactured by Franklin Wireless, looks like a smartphone without a keypad, with a round LCD digital display that shows your signal strength, battery status, the number of connections, any alerts or messages, and most important of all in my mind, whether or not you're connected to a 4G LTE or 3G network. Another indicator shows when you are roaming.

During my time with the device, the 4G LTE blue status light was always showing, backed up by four bars of network connectivity and a signal strength of excellent.

There are three buttons on the side for power, messages and data usage. A removable 1800 mAh battery is rated at five hours of continuous use and 18 hours of standby time. When it's time for charge, just connect the included USB cable to the travel charger and to a mini USB port on the hotspot device.

At only 3.6 ounces, this mobile hotspot does not weigh down your shirt pocket. It's well-designed, user friendly and ready for on-the-go wireless broadband connections.

The maximum number of connections to the hotspot has been bumped up from five to 10, for devices such as laptops, tablets, smartphones and even desktops not using a wired connection. As a matter of fact, it went way beyond the number of devices I have available and I could envisioned the C Spire 4G hotspot being used in a work-group or club-meeting environment. It would be a snap to set up a Wi-Fi security password in the Web user interface that could be shared with others.

This device joins C Spire's other 4G LTE-capable devices that have been available since a mobile broadband network upgrade in September.

I'm thumbs up on this one and it's worth a look at $29.99 under contract in all C Spire retail stores and more information is available on their website. After choosing a data plan, your mobile broadband needs will be in good hands at home, in the office or on the go.

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How to debug Windows Phone HTML5 Apps

  Debugging HTML applications is never an easy task and until today I did not know how to approach this for Windows Phone HTML5. The technique I will describe in this post can be applied also for Windows Phone 7.1 applications using Phonegap or Android/iOS applications.

   The "secret" tool for debugging the html content inside our applications is called WEINRE which comes from WEb INspector REmote. Weinre is a debugger for web pages, like FireBug (for FireFox) and Web Inspector (for WebKit-based browsers), except it's designed to work remotely, and in particular, to allow you debug web pages on a mobile device such as a phone. 

    In order to install Winre you will need to download and install NodeJS

    Once you have installed NodeJS restart your machine this way you will be able to run the NodeJS commands from the command prompt. After restart open a command prompt window and run this command:

 npm install weinre -g  

This will install the Weinre package globally. This is what you should see in the Command Prompt window:

    When the installer has finished its work you are ready to run the Weinre server on your PC. Execute this command from the Command Prompt:

 weinre --boundHost -all- --debug -true  

    With these parameters Weinre should also open the firewall port. For more parameters have a look at this page. You can verify if the server started by opening a browser page and loading 127.0.01:8080 (8080 is the default port for Weinre). If you are seeing this page then the server is running:

   Now click on the Debug Client User Interface link where you will be able to see if any client is connected and debug the connected clients.

    Let's create the Windows Phone HTML5 application. Use the SDK template to create a new project, open the page index.html inside the folder Html and add this line to the head section:

 <script src="http://[the server ip]:8080/target/target-script-min.js#anonymous"></script>  

replace [the server ip] with the IP of the PC running the Winre server and run the application. If everything went as we expected in the Debug Client user Interface on the Server we should see one Target connected:

    Once the target Windows Phone page is connected you can inspect and change the DOM in real-time, execute javascripts:

 

 
    In this particular case I've only changed the background of the page but you can do whatever you want. Here you can find further details on how to use the Server User Interface.
    Using the Console panel you can execute arbitrary JavaScript expressions/statements. It also shows the output from various console methods, like console.log().

 

    This is pretty much everything. Simple and veryyyyyy useful if you need to debug your HTML5 windows phone applications.
    As usual don't hesitate to contact me if you have further questions.

NAMASTE

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HTC One - GSM or LTE?

HTC One is a new flagship device from HTC for 2013. With no doubts it is a great device with top hardware and innovating software. I will make a review of One soon, so expect a lot of pictures and in-depth comparison of HTC Sense 4+ and brand new HTC Sense 5.

For now some of you might be wondering about possible variants of this device. I made some research and I think I know how would this work. It is not officially confirmed, however I believe it is quite reliable and trustworthy.

Apart of all carriers branded models (also U.S. AT&T, U.S. Verizon and U.S. Sprint), there will be GSM  and GSM + LTE variants available for most countries. Respectively M7_U for GSM and M7_UL for LTE. Now the question is - when new update will come for U, will it come for UL the same day, or maybe week later? I can't answer that, but I hope both variants will be updated at the same time.

First off all, looking at HTC One software, it's easy to spot that both U and UL variants have the same code-name "m7". Model ID (MID) will be probably slightly different. LTE variant has PN0710000, while GSM should have something like PN0711000 or PN0710001. The beginning of the code will be the same for all One variants - PN07.

Now, let's assume we speak about European version (to avoid confusion with different CIDs or MIDs). It is said that Snapdragon 600 (HTC One SoC) has LTE modem already integrated (just like S4 and S4 Pro). So logically, there shouldn't be 2 different variants of S600 (with or without LTE). And so I believe that. This means that GSM variant of HTC One will have LTE modem as well, but most probably it will be disabled. Is it possible to disable LTE modem? Sure. The fact that specific SoC has LTE modem doesn't mean it's activated.

Will it be possible to activate LTE radio in GSM model? I'm not sure yet, but I think it would. How? You'll need S-OFF device, that's obvious. Since both GSM and LTE models will have the same hardware, having S-OFF you should be able to flash M7_UL software (RUU.exe). Of course you'll have to modify your Model ID (MID) in fastboot before (fastboot oem writemid PN0710000). Is there a risk to totally brick your device? Yes! So don't try it before it is confirmed to be working.

To find any official confirmation of my research I visited Qualcomm site and went to the specification page of new Snapdragons 200, 400, 600 and 800 chipsets. Here is the picture of S600 features:

As you can see, LTE modem is indeed integrated, and so will be present in GSM models as well. Here I repeat again - it will be disabled on GSM units and it won't be possible to switch it on/off in settings just like that. Enabling LTE on such units will be either not possible at all, or it will be possible by flashing M7_UL RUU to S-OFF device. Why this does not apply to HTC One X and its LTE brother, HTC One XL? Because One X is based on quad-core nVidia Tegra 3, while One XL is powered by dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4. Yes, both are running different SoCs, because Tegra 3 doesn't have LTE modem integrated.

How to recognize if HTC One is GSM or LTE version? Looking back at some HTC devices like HTC One SV (C525u) you could noticed "4G LTE" text on the back cover. I wouldn't expect similar text this time, because the back case is not removable.

Do you already own LTE version of HTC One? Consider flashing my custom ROM from this site.

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

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HTC Mazaa OS 7.10.8862.144 - live tiles fix

   This is a small update to my previous post on how to update your HTC Mazaa to the latest build of Windows Phone 7.x  http://sviluppomobile.blogspot.it/2013/02/update-htc-mazaa-to-windows-phone-78.html . You can now update to version 7.10.8862.144 of the OS that seems to fix the live tiles issues.

The steps you will have to add:

Step 1:
7.10.8858.136 - 7.10.8860.142

Step2:
7.10.8860.142 - 7.10.8862.144

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Samsung unveils the Galaxy S IV in a show-like performance

Update: The Samsung Galaxy S IV is coming to AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and possibly Verizon Wireless soon. T-Mobile is offering an early-bird "sign up now" option to be notified for updates about the Galaxy S IV.

The long-awaited Samsung Galaxy S IV finally took the stage tonight at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

While the BlackBerry 10 platform had the spotlight for a while, The S IV will now bask in the limelight with a long list of innovative features. It did not disappoint us.

Right off the bat at the Radio City Music Hall event, Samsung President of Mobile Communications J.K. Shin took the stage and pitched the innovative feature of automatic scrolling and Smart Scroll/Pause using eye tracking, a unique feature among smartphones currently on the market. For example, a video you're watching will pause when you look away.

According to Shin, the Galaxy S IV is slim at 0.31 inches, or 7.9mm, and he refers to it as a "life companion." But it's still not quite as slim as the iPhone 5's 0.30-inch depth. It missed being among the thinnest smartphones by a hair.

But with a five-inch display and weighing in at around 4.6 ounces, 2.7 inches wide and 5.4 inches long, the Galaxy S IV joins other big-screen smartphones, such as the Motorola Droid DNA and the Sony Xperia Z. Only the Samsung Galaxy Note devices have larger displays at well over five inches. It has a 13 megapixel main camera and a 2 megapixel camera on the front. Both cameras can shoot video simultaneously, which might be an industry first and unique to the Galaxy S IV. Under the hood, you'll find a 2600 mAh removable battery that powers Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, running alongside two gigabytes of RAM and 16 GB of storage that can be expanded by adding a micro-SD card for up to 64 GB.

A unique photo-mortising feature will allow anyone taking a picture with the rear 13 MP camera to also insert themselves in the picture, which would be taken with the 2 MP front camera. Along the same lines, if someone walks through the background of your photo, they can be erased.

An S Translator feature on the Galaxy S IV will convert languages for travelers or anyone unfamiliar with a foreign language. The Galaxy S IV understands nine languages and supports text-to-speech to speech-to-text. It has translations for French, German, Italian, Chinese and other languages. Over 3,000 common and "useful" sentences also are included in the translation database that are not depended on a wireless connection if you're out in the boondocks.

Just like the BlackBerry 10 platform, the Galaxy S IV has a work space and personal space known as Samsung Knox that will separate business information from personal files.

This new device has a big bag of goodies and tricks. A Group Play music feature allows music sharing among eight devices. Air Gesture lets you navigate the phone without touching the screen. Air Call Accept allows a call to be answered by waving your hand. Adapt Display will adjust screen brightness based on what you're viewing. The build-in Near Field Communication, or NFC, works with HomeSync for cloud storage of all your stuff. Just a tap will keep the Galaxy S IV in sync with all the content.

The Galaxy S IV will come in Black Mist and White Mist colors and is expected to be available this spring on most of the major carriers.

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Video: The debut of the Samsung Galaxy S IV smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy S IV was unveiled tonight at Radio City Hall in New York City. Watch how the live events unfolded.

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Negative effects of unlocked bootloader

Those who are expecting a little bit more from their HTC devices are familiar with HTC online tool to unlock the bootloader - htcdev.com. Once generated and flashed token via fastboot gives you possibility to change some of the partitions on HTC device. It sounds great, but there are some serious disadvantages of it. Some people may say this will result in limited warranty, which it is not true, and I explained that issue here. So, what else to expect with unlocked bootloader?

First of all, not all the partitions will be unlocked. Forget about flashing hboot.img, rcdata.img or tp.img. Permission to fastboot flash will be denied. The only method to flash those images is to reboot device in RUU mode (fastboot oem rebootRUU) and flash originally signed firmware.zip (from OTA update) using fastboot flash zip firmware.zip command.

So what can be flashed in fastboot mode? Basically just 3 images - boot.img, recovery.img and system.img. Is it enough to flash custom ROM? Yes. With custom recovery you can flash zips or make nandroid backup. Is it enough to be happy? No. The problematic part is flashing boot.img in custom recovery. It's not possible on S-ON devices, unless your device is supported by 4EXT Recovery with SmartFlash feature. So the only method to have complete custom ROM working, is to flash ROM in recovery and then reboot the device, enter fastboot mode and flash boot.img using fastboot flash boot boot.img command.

The second problem of unlocked bootlader is even more serious, but so far it affects only 2 devices: HTC One X+ and HTC One. Those who used htcdev.com before probably noticed, that unlocking bootloader wipes user data, including content of virtual SD card (because virtual SD card = /data/media).

This is no surprise, because every user is warned about it and have a chance to step back. As long as all applications coming with stock ROM are stored on /system partition, there are no side effects. But for some very strange reason in HTC One X+ and HTC One, some of the stock applications like Flashlight, Calculator, Ringtone-trimmer, PDF Viewer, Teeter, Sound Recorder and more, are stored on /data partition instead. Result? After unlocking bootloader with official HTC tool you end up without having some of the basic HTC applications like Calculator or Flashlight, because /data partition (as mentioned above) has been wiped. System partition on HTC One is almost 2 GB big. Not enough to include few more .apk files?

What is more, missing stock applications on /data partition makes your device not capable to receive any OTA updates from HTC. Why? Because every OTA update checks MD5 checksum of every file that originally came with your device. So even if you didn't flash any custom ROM and your /system partition is unmodified, you won't be able to install OTA update.


This is an example of updater-script part from OTA:

assert(apply_patch_check("/data/preload/Calculator.apk","85aa7b00ec97ffe7179739c8815bf102c4f8666e","7055f0376e6b56be6414fdf8495b82db7fd38564")||apply_patch_check("/data/preload/Calculator.apk.uninstall","85aa7b00ec97ffe7179739c8815bf102c4f8666e","7055f0376e6b56be6414fdf8495b82db7fd38564"));

Once assert will fail, OTA update will cancel the installation process. I think every user should be warned, that unlocking bootloader results in no longer OTA updates support.

To summarize:

1. Unlocked HTC devices via htcdev.com can't have boot.img flashed via custom recovery.
2. Unlocked HTC One X+ and HTC One via htcdev.com will loose some basic HTC applications like Flashlight or Calculator.
3. Unlocked HTC One X+ and HTC One via htcdev.com will loose possibility to receive OTA updates unless user will flash original RUU.exe, which are not officially available for customers.

Conclusion: Is it worth to buy HTC One? Yes! It is currently the best device on the market. If you are not planning to flash any custom ROM - don't unlock your bootloader. And if you want to flash custom ROM, it will probably contain missing applications anyway. This is far too great device and I believe HTCdev team will sort out above issues soon!

Got some questions or comments? Please feel free to leave them above! Also, if you like this article, please use media sharing buttons (Twitter, G+, Facebook) down this post!

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Share localization files between Windows Phone and Windows 8

    As I wrote in my previous post I am getting back with a post on how to share the localization files between Windows Phone and Windows 8. This should be a simple task, but in the current version of the Windows Phone SDK and Windows 8 it cannot be easily done. The target is to have only one of the two projects (Windows Phone or Windows 8) that manages the localized (in this sample I am only taking in consideration localized strings but the concept can be easily extended) and use it in the other project. Also I wanted to use the Multilingual App Toolkit to easily manage the translations inside the project.

    First let's see what we have:

• Windows Phone + Multilingual App Toolkit
1. The main resource file is called AppResources.resx and is inside the Resources folder 
2. The AppResources.resx automatically generates the AppResources class
3. The files generated by the Multilingual App Toolkit for the Windows Phone project are also inside the "\Resources" folder and the name look like AppResources.[culture].xlf
4. We have a class called LocalizedStrings.cs that helps us with the binding inside xaml files

• Windows 8 + Multilingual App Toolkit
•  The main resource file is called Resources.resw and it is inside the \strings\[Default language] folder
• The Resources.resw doesn't have .cs class in code behind generated (it uses the ResourceLoader class to load the localized values). We can also have values with "." like MainButton.Text to directly use inside xaml with the x:Uid.
• The files generated by the Multilingual App Toolkit for Windows 8 are inside the "\MultilingualResources" folder and the names are [AppName]_[culture].xlf

    So we cannot directly use the files from one project to another.  There are a lot of differences but the couples (AppResources.resx, Resources.resw) and all the (AppResources.[culture].xlf, [AppName]_[culture].xlf) have different names but share very similar structure (they share most of the structure). 

     My approach and idea is to automatically generate the set of localized files needed by one solution directly from the set of files of the other project at compilation time. As source I have chosen the Windows Phone resource files (the other way around is more difficult as we could have resources not supported by Windows Phone). In order to automatically generate the resource files I have created a console application that would be run as a Post-build event on the Windows Phone project and write the necessary files to the Windows 8 project. the Windows 8 project build will be set to depend on the Windows Phone project this way we will always have updated resources when we run it. The console application needs three parameters/inputs: the folder of the Windows Phone project (source), the folder of the Windows 8 project (destination), and the name of the Windows 8 project as we will need it when we generate the [AppName]_[culture].xlf files for the Windows 8 project. The console application also automatically generates the AppResources.cs class inside the Windows 8 projects which is a class similar to the one used by Windows Phone. The source code for the Console Application is also included in case you need to do some changes and also the full sample.

     So let's see what would be the steps you will have to make if you want to use the solution.

1. Create a Windows Phone application (in the attached sample the project WindowsPhoneApp). Using the Tools menu enable the Multilingual App Toolkit and using right-click on the project name select "Add translation languages..." to support more languages (in the sample is italian)
2. Create the Windows 8 projects (in the attached sample the project called WindowsStoreApp). Create the the folder structure \strings\en and add the file Resources.resw to it. Inside the Package.appxmanifest set the default language as en. Now use the Tools menu and enable the Multilingual App Toolkit on the Windows 8 project and add the same languages that you have added to the Windows Phone Project. 

    If later you want to add another language support remember to add it to both Windows 8 and Windows Phone projects.

This is how our solution looks :

two different projects each of one with its localization part. Now we will set that the Windows 8 project build depends on the Windows Phone project and set the post-build action of the Windows Phone project to be:

$(SolutionDir)ConvertAppResources\$(OutDir)ConvertAppResources.exe "$(SolutionDir)WindowsPhoneApp" "$(SolutionDir)WindowsStoreApp" WindowsStoreApp

where ConvertAppResources is the project that converts the resources. We pass 3 parameters to the console application:

1. the folder of the Windows Phone application which is the source - "$(SolutionDir)WindowsPhoneApp"
2. the folder of the Windows 8 app which is the destination - "$(SolutionDir)WindowsStoreApp"
3. the name of the Windows 8 app- WindowsStoreApp

In our case the console application will generate and overwrite Resources.resw, WindowsStoreApp_it.xlf and WindowsStoreApp_qps-ploc.xlf. It will also generate the file AppResources.cs in the Windows 8 application folder which you will have to include in the project after the first compilation of the Windows Phone application.

To keep things even more similar to Windows Phone method I have added the class:

 using Localization;  
 namespace WindowsStoreApp  
 {  
   /// <summary>  
   /// Provides access to string resources.  
   /// </summary>  
   public class LocalizedStrings  
   {  
     private static AppResources _localizedResources = new AppResources();  
     public AppResources LocalizedResources { get { return _localizedResources; } }  
   }  
 }  

and inside App.xaml added the resource:

 <Application.Resources>  
     <ResourceDictionary>  
       <local:LocalizedStrings x:Key="LocalizedStrings"/>  
       <ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>  
         <!--   
           Styles that define common aspects of the platform look and feel  
           Required by Visual Studio project and item templates  
          -->  
         <ResourceDictionary Source="Common/StandardStyles.xaml"/>  
       </ResourceDictionary.MergedDictionaries>  
     </ResourceDictionary>  
   </Application.Resources>  

This way you could easily bind in Windows Phone style and even reuse xaml and cs that you already have from your Windows Phone project:
Xaml Binding

  <Button Content="{Binding Path=LocalizedResources.ButtonText, Source={StaticResource LocalizedStrings}}" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Margin="517,302,0,0" Height="100" Width="283" Click="Button_Click"/>  

and/or code-behind:

 MessageDialog md = new MessageDialog(AppResources.ButtonMessage);  

If you want to know more on how the conversion works look inside Program.cs. The steps I do is save the Resx to Resw and generate the class AppResources.cs. After that for every .xlf file in the Windows Phone Resources folder  I generate and write the corresponding Windows 8 .xlf file (there are some conversions involved). If you want you don't have to add the project ConvertAppResources to your solution but only add the output .exe file to one of the projects and be very careful when you write the post-build action command.

Once everything is setup-ed you will only have to modify the Windows Phone resource strings and the Windows 8 ones will get updated. If you want to use specific Windows 8 resources you can add more resource files and use the ResourceLoader to load them - for example if you've added the file Errors.resw to the \strings\en folder of the Windows 8 project you will access it like this:

                var resourceLoader = new ResourceLoader("Errors");
                this.Scenario5TextBlock.Text = resourceLoader.GetString("InvalidOperation");


Be careful:

• before adding the post-build action verify that the localization of both Windows Phone and Windows 8 project work (independent from each other) 
• if the post-build command is not right the Windows 8 application will not get the updated resources when you compile the windows phone project
• the Window 8 project has to depend on the Windows Phone project this way you will be sure that Windows 8 gets the updated resources
• modify ONLY the Windows Phone .resx and .xlf files

Some limitations of the Multilingaul App Toolkit:

• If you modify the Resx file and add a new resource you will have compile the project before you will see the new string in the .xlf files
• If you are modifying the Resx file for a resource that you have already localized when you compile you will loose the localization and you will have to modify the .xlf files again.  

Let me know if you have problems understanding or making it work (I don't think that I was really good at explaining the process but the hack works).


SOURCE CODE

NAMASTE

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HTC One X+ give-away winner is...

I'm happy to announce, that the winner of HTC One X+ give-away contest is...

The winner should send me a private message via Twitter within 7 days with his e-mail address. After 7 days of no contact from the winner, I'll randomly pick another winner.

Congratulations Barry!

This was the first, but not the last contest. Next time you'll probably have a chance to win brand new HTC flagship device - One. Good luck!

PS. Since some users have issues with their tweeter accounts, next give-away will be based on different rules to encourage even more people!

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Easily localize your Windows Phone applications using the Multilingual App Toolkit

  Great news for Windows Phone developers. Today Microsoft released an updated version of its Multilingual App Toolkit for Visual Studio 2012 that supports also Windows Phone projects (the previous version only supported Windows Store projects). You can download the Visual Studio Extension from HERE. The extension itself is multilingual:

   So why is this extension so great in my opinion? As you probably know Windows Phone projects in Visual Studio already support multilingual localization for the applications based on .resw files. The Multilingual App Toolkit adds support for localization industry-standard XLIFF file format and also connects with the Microsoft Translator for quick translation suggestions.

  Lets have a quick looks on how it works. After you have installed the extension you will find a new menu entry inside the Visual Studio 2012 Tools menu with which you can enable or disable the Multilingual App Toolkit for your Windows Phone project.

 Once you have enabled the Multilingual App Toolkit Visual Studio added the XLIFF support and also generates the AppResources.qps-ploc.xlf which is the pseudo-language engine that helps identify translation issues during development. 

   From this moment you will USE ONLY the AppResources.resx file to add new resource strings and the extension (at compilation) will add the missing strings to the corresponding .xlf file. 

    To add new languages to your application you will only have to select the desired language as supported in the project Properties inside the Application section. Once a language is selected the extension automatically generates the corresponding Xlf file.

    You can then double click on the xlf file and Visual Studio will open the Multilingual Editor that enablesyou to edit the translation. If you add new strings to your AppResources.resx file remember to compile the project before opening the .xlf file or you will not see the newly added strings.

  Now with these 3-4 easy simple steps we have localized our application. You can use the the Microsoft Translator in order to have some suggestions but you should always double-check the translation in order to avoid strange translations and situations ("My Application" in italian is translated as "La mia domanda" which actually means My question).

  If you are building a test application remember to add the binding to the resource strings inside your .xaml and .cs files ({Binding Path=LocalizedResources.ApplicationTitle, Source={StaticResource LocalizedStrings}}" Style="{StaticResource PhoneTextNormalStyle} for Xaml or AppResources.value for .cs  )
 Some words about the AppResources.qps-ploc.xlf pseudo language file. Pseudo Language is an artificial modification of the software product intended to simulate real language localization. The pseudo language can be used to detect potential localizability issues or bugs early in the project cycle, before the actual localization starts. For more details about localizability testing with Pseudo Language see Localizability Testing. Inside Visual Studio if you right click on the Pseudo Language file you can select the Generate pseudo translations. 

In order to test it you will have to set the qps-ploc culture for the Application UI. Just add these 3 lines to your Application constructor (but remember to take them out when you don't need them anymore):

  public App()  
     {  
       var ci = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("qps-ploc");  
       Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = ci;  
       Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = ci;  

 More details on how to use the Multilingual App Toolkit can be found HERE.

 It is really great that Microsoft is migrating the localization of the apps to an open standard. I will get back to this subject with a post on how to share the same xlf files between windows phone and windows 8 projects)

NAMASTE

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Unlocking bootloader or flashing custom ROM doesn't void your warranty!

Since HTC started htcdev.com with the possibility to unlock bootloader on HTC devices, I noticed that false information and beliefs are spreading around the world and more and more people think (and tell!) other users, that their warranty will be voided after unlocking particular device. This is not true!

In the past I wrote a short article on xda-developers about warranties and why, against common believes, flashing custom ROMs does not void your warranty. You can find this thread here.

Here's some information worth pointing out:

1. Warranty is a contract. In every country there are laws and regulations about warranties, however these vary from place to place and may be slightly different in your country, keep that in mind.
2. If it's a contract, then both sides have some obligations and rights. Both - rights and obligations - needs to be written in the warranty, otherwise they doesn't exist. Warranty statements must be consistent with generally applicable law.
3. As a contract, warranty can be created as the parties want, as long as it's consistent with generally applicable law.
4. To know exactly what's written in your warranty don't try to Google it - take it out of the box and READ IT. Don't trust what others say - their warranty might be different to your own.

Now, the question is - why unlocking the bootloader doesn't void the warranty? The answer is very simple. Because HTC's warranty contract doesn't state it. The only information about warranty on htcdev.com you can find is this:

So, once again:

"It is our responsibility to caution you that not all claims resulting or caused by or from the unlocking of the bootloader may be covered under warranty."

Is there any information, that unlocking bootloader voids warranty? Nope. So basically, what does it mean? Only this - if you brick your device as a result of e.g. flashing custom ROM (unlocked bootloader allows you doing that), you may have no warranty claim for that particular incident.

Two more important things to conclude:

1. If "not all claims may be covered under warranty", then (logic conversion) some claims may still be covered under warranty.
2. Even if you can't claim something under warranty because it was caused by or from the unlocking of the bootloader, that doesn't mean you have lost your warranty. You still have your warranty and you still can claim under warranty, but this warranty won't cover those particular claims caused by or from the unlocking of the bootloader.

So basically, HTC warns you, that some of the actions you might take after unlocking the bootloader may lead to a situation, when particular issue can't be covered under warranty.

Also, this information on htcdev.com doesn't expand or restrict your warranty terms. It doesn't change it at all. If warranty is given in the paper form, then as a contract the only way to change it, is a paper form too (if not stated otherwise in the warranty itself). HTC just kindly reminds you some sort of information you can conclude from the warranty itself.

Once again, if you are interested why flashing custom ROMs doesn't void warranty as well, please read this thread.

PS. I'm also wondering why Samsung users are so crazy about so called flash counter and "Triangle Away" application. They don't need it to have a valid warranty, even with a yellow triangle.

Disclaimer:

This text is just for education purpose. It's not a law itself so you can't base your claims versus a company on this. I may be wrong in many parts - feel free to write a comment under this post and I will make any necessary corrections. I don't know the laws in every country so there may be some slight differences.

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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