Developer Tidbits

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 l...

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...

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.

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"