Publishing your Blog on Google Currents

The articles on iReport / Jasper get the most views from developers who stumble on this blog. I've setup a Google Currents edition which may search on your app or click here on your mobile device: http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAowzuQY/devbits Hopefully, this will force me to write more interesting stuff that I can read on Currents.

Anyway, for those who want to publish their blog on Google Currents, here are some tips:

• Edition settings: Make sure you have a logo ready. (Square between 64px and 128px, I know my logo looks amateur. I'll update it when I have time to play with Gimp.)
• All other sections are self explanatory.
• Distribute: This is the last step before your edition is ready. In Verify content ownership, you will be given several options. If your blog is hosted on Blogger, you will want to use verify using Google Analytics code. I had trouble with verifying mine even though I already had Google Analytics on my blog. It turned out I was using an old layout and the Google Analytics code snippet was an old version. All you need to do get a new snippet and paste it into your blog. If you are using the new Dynamic layouts, you should be good to go.

Don't wait for OTA, upgrade your Nexus S now

When @googlenexus tweeted that Nexus S GSM phones will be given the ICS upgrade, I immediately went to Settings -> About Phone -> System Updates and found the dreaded: "Your system is currently up to date." message.

Fortunately, Android Central posted a timely article on how to upgrade manually. The update file appeared to be coming from google's server and the comments didn't mention anybody bricking their phone so I proceeded to download the 130MB file and followed the instructions. So 10 minutes later, my Nexus S was running ICS. If you got your Nexus S from Globe Telecom Philippines (Nexus S i9023 GSM), then the manual upgrade procedure from Android Central should work seamlessly. All your apps and data will remain intact.

So, is the upgrade worth it? DEFINITELY! If you have a Nexus S, by all means, do the upgrade right now. With the new fonts and default apps, you'll feel like you have a new phone. The SMS and email apps really make composing and replying a pleasant experience.

POST INSTALL TIPS

One thing I noticed after the upgrade was that the battery was draining faster than usual. It turned out that the upgrade switched the mobile network settings to 3G (mine had been set to 2G to conserve battery). The email settings defaulted to sync the last 30 days. In Gingerbread, the email default sync was 4 days. After doing all the changes, battery life went back to normal (maybe a little bit worse).

In the People (Contacts) app, you may notice that new contacts are appearing there. Those are probably from your Google+ circles. To switch back to the Gingerbread default which shows only people from "My Contacts," go to Menu -> Contacts to Display -> Customize and check only the My Contacts option. Other tips: To take a screenshot from the phone, hold power and volume down button.

Unlocking Blackberry 8900

Blackberry 8900

I was about to go to Greenhills to have my Blackberry 8900 (which was locked to Globe Telecom) unlocked. I figured that I'll search for sites that provided codes online first and found www.blackberryfreedom.com to be one of the cheapest ($7.49 CAD) and available instantly without waiting. I paid using PayPal and got an email containing the MEP code. I followed the instructions and was able to successfully unlock the phone. It cost about P329 at the current exchange rate. When I inquired from one of the phone technicians at St. Francis Square, they quoted me P300. I guess that was the market rate.

Excel Formula to get Day of Week

Here's a handy Excel formula to get the day of week for a specific date.

=TEXT(WEEKDAY(F12),"ddd")

If cell F12 contains 7/15/2011, the formula will return "Fri"

New Google Groups

If you regularly use Google Reader like I do, the new Google Groups should look familiar. The Favorites feature allow you to drag and drop the groups that you most frequently use. This keeps the list clean unlike the previous version where all the groups are laid out like icons on a desktop.

The settings page remain the same as the previous version. If you need to moderate messages, go to the settings of the group and select management tasks. This redesign didn't get to the news like the Google eBooks, chrome web store, Nexus S and gingerbread. The look and feel of Google products are really starting to come together. If only they could do something with the only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb -- Orkut.

Getting the phone number of your SIM card

If you need to know the phone number of a Sun Cellular SIM card, dial *99# from your phone and it will respond with the phone number. Thanks to suncelltweets for replying. The phone number can be stored in the SIM card and some phones are able to display that. For Globe on a Blackberry, it displayed Unknown number when you press the green phone key. I also tried this on Smart but it did not work. This seems like an operator specific feature and Sun has been able to provide that.

Android 2.1 Eclair on HTC Magic

Finally. I made the leap from official Android 1.5 with HTC Sense to a rooted 2.1 Eclair. The rumors said HTC was going to release an update in March, then May, then June and now September. I had enough of the waiting. Apps (Twitter, NY Times) that run only in 2.0+ were being released and I felt left out. Now, which ROM should I choose? The net pointed to Cyanogen as the most respected Android developer.

I then started to read and reread the instructions on Cyanogen's wiki. You'll be asked to download a total of 9 files. I had done the Gold Card method before so I didn't need to do it again. The rooting and upgrade to 5.0.7 took a lot less time than expected. Everything went smoothly and I was able to boot into Eclair after about an hour of work.

Everything was faster and more responsive than before. The look and feel was actually very nice. There were some things I missed like the Sense Gallery, the built-in Facebook-Contacts integration, the Sense calendar widget, the Sense bookmarks widget and the Teeter game. The upgrade, on the other hand, gave me Gesture Search, multiple Gmail account integration, Twitter, a faster browser and Google Maps with buzz support.

A day later, Cyanogen released 5.0.8. The upgrade was a simple case of downloading 2 files, copying it to the SD card, rebooting into recovery mode and applying the zip updates. After the update, I rebooted to a 5.0.8 and the ADW.launcher was waiting for me. The upgrade was well worth it and would recommend it to anyone in the Philippines with an HTC Magic. A few weeks from now, Cyanogen would probably have Froyo ready for use.