A Blast From My Past – Samsung OMNIA HD (i8910)

So, nostalgia of the good old Symbian S60V3/5 got the best of me and I decided to get THE black sheep of those days back into my hands- Samsung Omnia HD. This was THE flagship handset of 09 with top-of-the-line specs and ran oddly on Symbian rather than the old Sammy proprietary OS. Furthermore, the software and app support was dropped officially and ended up in the community’s hands within a year if not less. Interesting, albeit poor notion on Samsung’s part, but such is life. Using Symbian 9.3/4 made up almost majority of my mobile days in the past, so owning one of those handsets once again feels very much at home. Omnia also feels very nice in hand due to its moderate bulk and pretty comfortable-to-hold design. My only gripe is that its coated in glossy and slightly slippery plastic.

8MP camera and that manufacturer-forgotten camera button feel very nice despite that its no longer anything new to me (E6 and SGS2 sporting 8s as well).

I will also do my best to re-gather all of the necessary files such as firmwares, custom FWs, flash tools, hacks, and others. If any of you still using one of these are in need of help, I’ll do my best to assist ya since most forums have been long-abandoned and resources are becoming more and more scarce.

Solavei – New GSM Cell Provider in the US

So for folks like me, who want to enjoy the latest and greatest phones (always GSM) without having to pay upwards of $100 of monthly fees just to have a little bit of mobile data, these guys seem to have the right idea going.

So their deal goes as follows- no contract, $50/month for unlimited calls, texts/mms, and mobile net with 4g speeds up to 4gb of data and 2g hence after until a new month hits. ANY GSM phone can be used, and this should appeal to all the iPhone lovers who overpay crazy amounts on other carriers simply due to brand. Before Sept. 10th, you’ll get free activation and 2 months worth for the cost of 1 month. Else its $50 for activation and $30 for a sim card if you want to use your own phone. They have both standard and micro sims.

Where this gets interesting- their compensation program. Get 3 people to sign up, get an instant cash bonus and $20/month hence after as long as you have at least 3 people under your name. It doesn’t end there though, so for every triplet that you refer and that stays with the company, you get $20 a month. Furthermore, if any one of your 1st tier referees gets a triplet under them, you also get $20 a month. If you sign up for their own social network, you get the perk of connecting with everyone on the network. Neat. Also, you can get their debit card to use your cash bonuses however you want.

So how do these guys plan to pull all of this off? No traditional advertizement. Sounds promising, so if you want to give it a shot, click my invite button on the left side of the page.

A Wifi Webcam You Say? (S60,Belle,Android)

Perhaps 4 years ago when Androids weren’t as abundant, Nokia still ruled the mobile world firmly. Looking to expand my, at the time E71’s capabilities, I found Mobiola Webcam app and PC client combo. It was quite the simple thing, but did really big things at the time- turned a relatively simple phone into a wifi webcam, which cost an arm and a leg at the time. Neat feature since you can move the “webcam” anywhere within your wifi network’s reach and get a pretty clear image (no sound support back in the day, but that’s quite alright).
Nowadays, S60 got replaced with Belle, so new apps had to be hunted down. Plus with Android in the mix, something for that as well.

In my search so far, I’ve found 2 apps that seem to work fairly well: DroidCam for Android and Kinoni EpoCam (Pro) for Belle.

Both work fairly well, especially given that our wifi has gone up to N-band speeds since the good old days. So, if you’re looking to turn your little device into another neat gadget for video calls, look no further than these 2 apps.

But What If They Find My Facebook?

The newer generations, those cultivated by MySpace and shortly after by Facebook, never cease to amaze me. This generation simply never learned the proper online etiquette and its beauty of anonymity, and the way they show it is the most hilarious thing.

How many times have you heard somebody say, “But what if when I apply for work, they find my Facebook and see what I really do?” Especially when you tried to tag them after some wild party of another crazy shenanigan. That statement alone often makes me roll on the floor laughing. While it is very true that most work places do in fact look their potential employees on Facebook, it would hardly be a problem had these kids followed the golden rule of previously underground society- the internet.

-Never put any real credentials anywhere completely public, such as the internet. Considering that some amateurs today often refer to internet as Facebook, then never put any real credentials Facebook.

I don’t know about any of you, but I use this huge social network to connect with friends and share all of my experiences. Not for work and definitely not for family. Work can have my number and work email and family, I know where you live.

Pro tip- use a different email from Facebook when you apply for a job.

“But what if people can’t find me on Facebook?”

What does that even mean? If you meet someone new, you typically exchange numbers, not Facebook accounts. Chances are, your new acquaintance won’t even remember your name long enough to even look you up on Facebook (nor would you remember theirs in all honesty). If you really want to connect with someone online that badly, you can always give them your profile’s alias or vice versa. I get so many random friend requests almost every week, and I don’t even know those people prior to contacting them hence after. They clearly have no problems whatsoever finding me without my real name.

Also on the real name vs alias note- I’m sure people you met in real life would remember your real name, regardless of what you have listed online. If they forget, they could always ask you for a reminder. There is absolutely no reason to have it up for the world to see.

Remember kids, back in the day things operated from online forums where aliases and privacy were automatic. Back then, everyone knew they could be hacked and potentially exploited if they gave out too much personal credentials to essentially the whole world out there. Nothing has changed since then except for newer generation’s carelessness with the world wide web.

Raspberry Pi – HOLY shit!

Read the details straight from the source.

Nokia – Symbian Belle – Impressions

All in all, I really like this update on my E6. Previously bugged vibrating alert is fully functional now and then the plethora of new features (that honestly Anna should’ve had in the first place).

Widgets and shortcuts are now completely individual like in Android devices and its possible to fully customize each home screen to your liking. There’s even a 3G toggle widget, which I know I’ll use quite frequently to save battery when I don’t need to interweb very quickly.

There is a top pull-down drawer with quick connectivity and silencing toggles. So now you can toggle mobile net and wifi “manually” despite the phone knowing when NOT to use these. Tad redundant, but I can see this coming in handy (if you don’t have a data plan, for instance.)

Scrolling around and through menus and apps is still silky smooth and fast.

Keypad lighting was fixed nicely as well.

Threaded message replies regained new message ability to be sent quickly via Call button vs touch screen or double clicking the select pad. There is also just a single messaging app; Conversations aka threaded view is now embedded into the base app.

GPS, now has distinctive ONLINE and OFFLINE modes. Offline locked in a few seconds in my basement. Very cool.

All in all, great and WAY overdue update, but better late than never right?

Good Bye Anna, Hello Belle! (Nokia Update)

Woohoo and about time. Can’t wait to see what’s gonna be new in my E6 after the updade.

http://europe.nokia.com/belle

OMFG – Nokia 808 – 41MP Camera Phone

I’m utterly speechless, read for yourselves:

http://www.gsmarena.com/d_dinning_interview_nokia_808-review-728.php

Via GSMArena

True Mobile Future, Is Actual Near! Android via Fujitsu

I’ll let the image I found speak for itself first,

GTFO kinda device, isn’t it? And thinking about it, I really don’t see why not. We already have hybrid tablets out there, and camera on most phones today easily rivals the lower-end standalone units. Battery life of such a chimera could also be ridiculously good given each little component will have a battery of its own as well. Lets wait and see where this goes, but if it happens, I’m definitely getting me one of thems.