This is a helpful Windows shortcut (Windows+M) I've been looking for on and off since starting to work with Ubuntu. I just couldn't take it any more.
Ironically I should just have looked at the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (System -> Preferences --> Keyboard Shortcuts). Listed under the Window Management category, the action Hide all normal windows and set focus to the desktop: Mod4+D. On my Dell D610 Mod4 is the Windows key.
Also by looking at Keyboard Shortcuts I've added several other shortcuts to my repertoire.
Here's the URL that finally tipped my off:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/about-the-show-desktop-button-in-gnome-447443/
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Git and Eclipse (Helios)
Note: I've upgraded to Eclipse Indigo release and these are still valid
Getting GIT to work with Eclipse Helios
This was a lot harder than getting Subversion to work. Thanks goes out to Muddyazian.
http://muddyazian.blogspot.com/2011/04/cdt-egit-git-and-eclipse-36-helios.html
I followed the same directions but used http://download.eclipse.org/egit/updates instead of the cgit stuff.
"HOME not set" warning
I was hoping the environment variable would be a git-specific variable, but it looks to be generic.
http://kcode.de/wordpress/1818-using-git-on-windows-commandline
Ignore
http://help.github.com/git-ignore/
Getting GIT to work with Eclipse Helios
This was a lot harder than getting Subversion to work. Thanks goes out to Muddyazian.
http://muddyazian.blogspot.com/2011/04/cdt-egit-git-and-eclipse-36-helios.html
I followed the same directions but used http://download.eclipse.org/egit/updates instead of the cgit stuff.
"HOME not set" warning
I was hoping the environment variable would be a git-specific variable, but it looks to be generic.
http://kcode.de/wordpress/1818-using-git-on-windows-commandline
Ignore
http://help.github.com/git-ignore/
Samsung Captivate repair/de-moisturizing
Well, it finally happened. I spilled tea all over my phone. The speaker sounded horrible and the signal from the headphone jack was very weak.
My cat-like reflexes appear to have staved off most of the damage: After taking the battery out and quickly towling off the phone I put it in a bag of rice. About two hours later I restarted the phone. Speaker sounded great, but the headphone jack wouldn't recognize when something was plugged into it. For example, if I plugged in a set of headphones the speaker continued playing and nothing came out of the headsets.
Thanks to this post I was able to dismantle the phone and found some moisture still up by the speaker and headphone jack. I felt certain I would bust either the screen or one or more of the plastic snaps that hold the phone together, but I got lucky.
I removed some moisture in the area of the speaker and put the unsheathed screen/motherboard piece back in the bag of rice. After another two hours the headset jack worked great!
I almost bought a replacement headphone jack on eBay, but I'm glad I didn't have to do an install -- looks like I'd have had to further dismantle components on the board.
My cat-like reflexes appear to have staved off most of the damage: After taking the battery out and quickly towling off the phone I put it in a bag of rice. About two hours later I restarted the phone. Speaker sounded great, but the headphone jack wouldn't recognize when something was plugged into it. For example, if I plugged in a set of headphones the speaker continued playing and nothing came out of the headsets.
Thanks to this post I was able to dismantle the phone and found some moisture still up by the speaker and headphone jack. I felt certain I would bust either the screen or one or more of the plastic snaps that hold the phone together, but I got lucky.
I removed some moisture in the area of the speaker and put the unsheathed screen/motherboard piece back in the bag of rice. After another two hours the headset jack worked great!
I almost bought a replacement headphone jack on eBay, but I'm glad I didn't have to do an install -- looks like I'd have had to further dismantle components on the board.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Overdrive for Android: Mobile Library
Mobile ebooks have been around for a while but are gaining popularity with the proliferation of tablets and smart devices. Depending on where you live, your local library may have different selections, options or may not use Overdrive at all.
For example, my library card works in two library systems: One system has many more titles than the other, and only one system offers audio books.
Installation
My library's website wasn't particularly clear on how to get ebooks on my Android device. Here's how I did it:
Finding media
You may find it easier to browse content on a desktop/laptop/netbook, especially if you use a mobile device. See your library's website for details.
For both of my libraries, the non-mobile web interface had a limited list of subject categories to search by default (e.g., no Technology or Science). I found more categories by clicking "Browse by Subject".
As a taxpayer for (and, hopefully, charitable contributor to) your local library system, feel free to contact a librarian for further assistance.
Kindle coming soon?
Currently the Kindle (hardware and apps) is not supported by OverDrive. Looks like this is changing this year.
For example, my library card works in two library systems: One system has many more titles than the other, and only one system offers audio books.
Installation
My library's website wasn't particularly clear on how to get ebooks on my Android device. Here's how I did it:
- Locate OverDrive Media Console in the Android marketplace and install it
- In OverDrive Media Console, tap the phone's menu button
- Tap the Get Books icon in OverDrive
- Tap Add a Website. Search for your library branch and tap the star next to it to add it to your favorites (the "Get Books" list in OverDrive parlance).
- Tap your location, login and browse!
Finding media
You may find it easier to browse content on a desktop/laptop/netbook, especially if you use a mobile device. See your library's website for details.
For both of my libraries, the non-mobile web interface had a limited list of subject categories to search by default (e.g., no Technology or Science). I found more categories by clicking "Browse by Subject".
As a taxpayer for (and, hopefully, charitable contributor to) your local library system, feel free to contact a librarian for further assistance.
Kindle coming soon?
Currently the Kindle (hardware and apps) is not supported by OverDrive. Looks like this is changing this year.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Using JMX to dynamically change application properties
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/jmx.html
I had an application that reads some non-standard debug settings from a properties file at startup -- when one wanted to change the settings the application server needed to be restarted. In a production environment, restarting the application server is not an option. I implemented JMX on the logging class so that JConsole can be used to modify the settings.
The class in question is a singleton so I created a helper class since the MBean interface methods cannot be static. The singleton instantiates the agent with its static load() method.
I had an application that reads some non-standard debug settings from a properties file at startup -- when one wanted to change the settings the application server needed to be restarted. In a production environment, restarting the application server is not an option. I implemented JMX on the logging class so that JConsole can be used to modify the settings.
The class in question is a singleton so I created a helper class since the MBean interface methods cannot be static. The singleton instantiates the agent with its static load() method.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Changing Mozilla profile location
My C:/ drive was running out of space so I wanted to relocate my local Thunderbird messages to D:/. Almost as simple as copy/paste:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Changing_Profile_Folder_Location
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Thunderbird_:_FAQs_:_Changing_Profile_Folder_Location
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Cygwin clear command: Ctrl+L
Since I keep forgetting it, I'm posting it: Ctrl+L replaces the clear command when you're using Cygwin.
http://hafizpariabi.blogspot.com/2008/02/no-clear-command-in-cygwin-default.html for more (including alternatives like installing ncurses).
http://hafizpariabi.blogspot.com/2008/02/no-clear-command-in-cygwin-default.html for more (including alternatives like installing ncurses).
Monday, March 7, 2011
Ruby in Practice: Regular expressions
Helpful Ruby regular expression cheat sheet
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ruby/ruby_regular_expressions.htm
Manipulating file contents with regular expressions in Ruby
http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/2595
I don't often need to work with regular expressions -- and when I do I usually use regex search and replace in Eclipse or Notepad++. Today, however, I had a requirement that was harder to address with search and replace. A great opportunity to try my new Ruby skills.
I needed to take something like this:
...
<outer>
<message-driven id="GreenPepper_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Habanero_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Avacado_sub_1" initialState="running" />
...
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ruby/ruby_regular_expressions.htm
Manipulating file contents with regular expressions in Ruby
http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/2595
I don't often need to work with regular expressions -- and when I do I usually use regex search and replace in Eclipse or Notepad++. Today, however, I had a requirement that was harder to address with search and replace. A great opportunity to try my new Ruby skills.
I needed to take something like this:
...
<outer>
<message-driven id="GreenPepper_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Habanero_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Avacado_sub_1" initialState="running" />
...
and replace it with this:
...
<outer>
<message-driven id="GreenPepper_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="GreenPepper_sub_2" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="GreenPepper_sub_3" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Habanero_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Habanero_sub_2" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Habanero_sub_3" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Avacado_sub_1" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Avacado_sub_2" initialState="running" />
<message-driven id="Avacado_sub_3" initialState="running" />
..
There were three other differently-formatted files which required a similar change -- in all several hundred lines making manual cut and paste an uninviting task (especially considering the number of typos I was likely to make with so many changes). Basically, take a line with "_sub_1" and add a few duplicate lines afterward replacing "_sub_<n>"with "_sub_<n>" where <n> is 2 or 3.
As with most one-off utility scripts I didn't want to spend two hours doing one hour's worth of work, so I didn't super-optimize the script, but it worked great. You can see that some of the files had lines with "channel 1" which required a similar change. This one script worked great for all files:
# script to add extra lines to rib-*-adapters-resources.properties
# and rib-*-adapters.xml
# for multi-channel
def replace_in_file(filename="D://rib//file4.txt", match="tafr_1")
File.open(filename, "r") {|f| lines = f.readlines
lines.each {|line|
puts line
if line =~ /#{match}/
replace line, match
end
}
}
end
def replace(line, match)
(2..3).each {|i|
tempLine = line.to_s.gsub(match, match[0..match.index("_1")]+"#{i}")
tempLine = tempLine.to_s.gsub("channel 1", "channel #{i}")
puts tempLine
}
end
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Windows XP won't recognize CD in drive
Windows fails to recognize a CD that has been placed in the drive. The drive spins for a bit, but nothing appears for the CD drive in Windows Explorer. Zune software will also not show that a CD is in the drive.
I run this to fix it:
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems/en-us
I run this to fix it:
http://support.microsoft.com/mats/cd_dvd_drive_problems/en-us
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Tether the Samsung Captivate running Gingerbread (2.3)
Using the Gingerbread Ultimate ROM I was able to get my phone to serve as a wireless access point for my Windows XP laptop and to provide connectivity via tethering.
I was impressed with the ease of use and pretty pleased with the speeds. I didn't have to do anything special to get this work. Just followed the instructions in the Android 2.3 manual for the Nexus S. One hiccup: I did have to restart my laptop after untethering before I could get the connection back. Note: I'm getting HSPA instead of 3G most of the time.
Here are the speedtest.net stats:
Captivate as Wireless AP (phone connected to network HSPA but not WiFi)
download: 2.06 mbps
upload: 0.58 mbps
ping: 346
Captivate on WiFi tethered to PC
I was impressed with the ease of use and pretty pleased with the speeds. I didn't have to do anything special to get this work. Just followed the instructions in the Android 2.3 manual for the Nexus S. One hiccup: I did have to restart my laptop after untethering before I could get the connection back. Note: I'm getting HSPA instead of 3G most of the time.
Here are the speedtest.net stats:
Captivate as Wireless AP (phone connected to network HSPA but not WiFi)
download: 2.06 mbps
upload: 0.58 mbps
ping: 346
Captivate on WiFi tethered to PC
download: 9.06 mbps
upload: 2.46 mbps
ping: 43
Captivate on HSPA tethered to PC
download: 3.16 mbps
upload: 1.20 mbps
ping: 159
Friday, January 28, 2011
Gingerbread (Android 2.3) on AT&T Captivate (Ultimate) -- Use at your own risk!
I decided to go with a 2.3 (Gingerbread) ROM called Ultimate after experiencing WiFi connectivity issues with 2.2 (Froyo) ROM Cappy Ginger Clone Final R5.
As with all of my posts, this information is provided solely for my own reference -- use at your own risk. I encourage you to do more research before taking any action.
The standard disclaimer about me not being responsible for bricking your phone or voiding your warranty is hereby given. It is my understanding that you void the warranty on your phone by taking any one of the steps described below -- even if you eventually flash back to your carrier's stock ROM and/or unroot.
This whole ROM process was more of a pain than I'd realized, especially since the instructions were spread out, and not necessarily up to date/applicable to my stock ROM. As this was my second time through (see my first effort here), loading Ultimate seemed easier.
Why mess with a good thing?
Coming from the iPhone 3G, I was generally pleased with my 2.1 Android phone. However, I didn't like the stock AT&T applications being forced upon me and I wanted access to more configuration options. Maybe the biggest peeve was that my Gmail contacts were imported regardless of the groupings I created in Gmail. I think that rooting and/or loading another ROM may have addressed those issues, but 2.3 offers enhanced voice tools and (possibly) better performance.
From what I've it seems as of the end of January 2011 that AT&T won't be providing a 2.2 upgrade anytime soon. And I like getting under the hood. So here goes...
Setting up accounts
For some of the downloads I wanted/needed, I had to register on two sites:
http://forum.xda-developers.com
http://forum.androidcentral.com
These were both pretty good sources of info as well. xda-developers is tops.
Backing up and rooting the phone
See this post for information on what to do before you give the new ROM a go.
Recovery Mode
This may have changed in more recent versions of the Captivate, but some of the instructions just said to hold both volume buttons and the power button. Most of them neglected to tell me to release the power button when the AT&T screen appears so I just kept rebooting.
Installing the new ROM
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=884364
Following the directions in the link above didn't work 100% for me, probably because of a change in Clockwork. (I already downloaded the Clockwork Recovery app, so I didn't need to do that again -- and now you can get it in the app store.) Starting with step four, do as follows:
Configuring the new device
Installing this ROM didn't wipe my applications! So not a lot to do except enjoy the Gingerbread launcher.
Removing the files I'd placed in the phone's root directory
Delete the ROM and root .zip files from the root directory on your phone. No harm if they remain, but you don't need them anymore.
As with all of my posts, this information is provided solely for my own reference -- use at your own risk. I encourage you to do more research before taking any action.
The standard disclaimer about me not being responsible for bricking your phone or voiding your warranty is hereby given. It is my understanding that you void the warranty on your phone by taking any one of the steps described below -- even if you eventually flash back to your carrier's stock ROM and/or unroot.
This whole ROM process was more of a pain than I'd realized, especially since the instructions were spread out, and not necessarily up to date/applicable to my stock ROM. As this was my second time through (see my first effort here), loading Ultimate seemed easier.
Why mess with a good thing?
Coming from the iPhone 3G, I was generally pleased with my 2.1 Android phone. However, I didn't like the stock AT&T applications being forced upon me and I wanted access to more configuration options. Maybe the biggest peeve was that my Gmail contacts were imported regardless of the groupings I created in Gmail. I think that rooting and/or loading another ROM may have addressed those issues, but 2.3 offers enhanced voice tools and (possibly) better performance.
From what I've it seems as of the end of January 2011 that AT&T won't be providing a 2.2 upgrade anytime soon. And I like getting under the hood. So here goes...
Setting up accounts
For some of the downloads I wanted/needed, I had to register on two sites:
http://forum.xda-developers.com
http://forum.androidcentral.com
These were both pretty good sources of info as well. xda-developers is tops.
Backing up and rooting the phone
See this post for information on what to do before you give the new ROM a go.
Recovery Mode
This may have changed in more recent versions of the Captivate, but some of the instructions just said to hold both volume buttons and the power button. Most of them neglected to tell me to release the power button when the AT&T screen appears so I just kept rebooting.
Installing the new ROM
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=884364
Following the directions in the link above didn't work 100% for me, probably because of a change in Clockwork. (I already downloaded the Clockwork Recovery app, so I didn't need to do that again -- and now you can get it in the app store.) Starting with step four, do as follows:
- To get the device into recovery mode, hold the up/down volume rocker and the power button
- As soon as the AT&T screen appears let go of the power button and continue to hold the volume rocker
- On the Android system recovery screen, use the volume rocker to highlight "reinstall packages"
- Click the power button
- Possibly after a reboot you'll be directed to Clockworld Recovery. Use the volume rocker to highlight "choose zip from sd card".
- Click the power button
- On the Apply update from .zip file on SD card screen select "choose zip from sdcard"
- Click the power button
- On the Choose a zip to apply screen select your ROM (Ultimate.zip for me)
- Click the power button
- On the Confirm install? screen, select "Yes - Install <your ROM file>"
- Click the power button and let the ROM installation run
- On the Apply update from .zip file on SD card screen, use the volume rocker to highlight "+++++Go Back+++++"
- Click the power button
- On the ClockworkMod Recovery screen highlight "reboot system now"
- Click the power button
- The first startup after a flash can take a while, and it usually makes me nervous since it takes some time. In this case, I hit the power button after waiting a minute and that seemed to move things along.
Configuring the new device
Installing this ROM didn't wipe my applications! So not a lot to do except enjoy the Gingerbread launcher.
Removing the files I'd placed in the phone's root directory
Delete the ROM and root .zip files from the root directory on your phone. No harm if they remain, but you don't need them anymore.
Samsung Captivate on AT&T: How to revert to stock 2.1 (Eclair)
As with all of my posts, this information is provided solely for my own reference -- use at your own risk. I encourage you to do more research before taking any action.
The standard disclaimer about me not being responsible for bricking your phone or voiding your warranty is hereby given. It is my understanding that you void the warranty on your phone by taking any one of the steps described below -- even if you eventually flash back to your carrier's stock ROM and/or unroot.
Reverting is relatively simple, but it may be time consuming depending on how much stuff you need to restore. And how cheap you are.
How to root
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/one-click-root-for-att-captivate/
This app now has one-click unroot as well -- I've not tried it though.
Note: you may have to connect to your PC in Samsung Kies mode initially to avoid an error around a missing SD card.
How to enable side-loading
http://briefmobile.com/enable-captivate-app-sideloading
Just note:
The standard disclaimer about me not being responsible for bricking your phone or voiding your warranty is hereby given. It is my understanding that you void the warranty on your phone by taking any one of the steps described below -- even if you eventually flash back to your carrier's stock ROM and/or unroot.
Reverting is relatively simple, but it may be time consuming depending on how much stuff you need to restore. And how cheap you are.
How to root
http://www.xda-developers.com/android/one-click-root-for-att-captivate/
This app now has one-click unroot as well -- I've not tried it though.
Note: you may have to connect to your PC in Samsung Kies mode initially to avoid an error around a missing SD card.
How to enable side-loading
http://briefmobile.com/enable-captivate-app-sideloading
Just note:
- When you want to use adb to access the SD card, turn off USB storage mode (not debug!) on the phone
- If you have issues where "cp" or "copy" are not found, you need to open BusyBox to complete the install on your phone
mv /sdcard/settings.db /dbdata/databases/com.android.providers.settings
failed with the message '/sdcard/settings.db' - Cross-device link
How to back up apps using titanium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryu8bFXLJQ
How to revert using odin1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtxnH4lFuk
How to restore apps using Titanium (same as back up, but about halfway through the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryu8bFXLJQ
It took several minutes for me to revert using , but all of my apps and data loaded. Mostly this is great for me because I don't need to re-log in to apps that access sites. It is especially nice since my corporate mail/calendar app setup is quite involved.
Thoughts on reverting
The only reason I reverted was due to issues my Froyo (2.2) ROM (Cappy_Ginger_Clone_Final_R5.zip) developed with WiFi. So I didn't really enjoy reverting, but I'm glad it worked so well.
In fact, reverting it seemed to solve the issue I was having where all my Gmail contacts showed -- not just the ones in the My Contacts group in Gmail. (In my 2.2 ROM this worked fine, probably because the AT&T app wasn't controlling my contacts.) Unfortunately I cannot assign contacts custom ringtones. And it's back to the bloatware.
Linpack is showing just over 6 mflops, where I was getting just over 8 with my ROM. But I just can't have WiFi flaking out. So I'll try another.
Reverting is relatively simple, but time consuming depending on how much stuff you need to restore, and how cheap you are (I think Titanium Pro allows you to skip confirmation for each individual app).
UPDATE: I had an issue (bricked phone) when I tried to get an OTA update after reverting to my carrier's stock ROM, so beware of doing the same...
How to back up apps using titanium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryu8bFXLJQ
How to revert using odin1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDtxnH4lFuk
How to restore apps using Titanium (same as back up, but about halfway through the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cryu8bFXLJQ
It took several minutes for me to revert using , but all of my apps and data loaded. Mostly this is great for me because I don't need to re-log in to apps that access sites. It is especially nice since my corporate mail/calendar app setup is quite involved.
Thoughts on reverting
The only reason I reverted was due to issues my Froyo (2.2) ROM (Cappy_Ginger_Clone_Final_R5.zip) developed with WiFi. So I didn't really enjoy reverting, but I'm glad it worked so well.
In fact, reverting it seemed to solve the issue I was having where all my Gmail contacts showed -- not just the ones in the My Contacts group in Gmail. (In my 2.2 ROM this worked fine, probably because the AT&T app wasn't controlling my contacts.) Unfortunately I cannot assign contacts custom ringtones. And it's back to the bloatware.
Linpack is showing just over 6 mflops, where I was getting just over 8 with my ROM. But I just can't have WiFi flaking out. So I'll try another.
Reverting is relatively simple, but time consuming depending on how much stuff you need to restore, and how cheap you are (I think Titanium Pro allows you to skip confirmation for each individual app).
UPDATE: I had an issue (bricked phone) when I tried to get an OTA update after reverting to my carrier's stock ROM, so beware of doing the same...
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Android
http://www.capfaq.com/w/FAQ has a lot of helpful information.
See this post to replicate the update of my phone to Gingerbread (2.3) -- it addresses most of the gripes I give below.
AT&T apps
I'd eventually like to get the AT&T apps uninstalled, but I'm going to wait and root the thing later. Looks like I'll have to manually kill these often until I just uninstall them. Or just install LauncherPro and hide them.
Launchers
LauncherPro (free)
While somewhat worried about all of the authorization I had to give the app, it allowed me to ignore a lot of the AT&T bloatware. Seems to allow me to do the extra customization I crave. Looks like I will have to pony up a small amount of money to be able to resize widgets, but I've not found the ones that are helpful to me (other than a calendar that is already properly sized for my needs) so this isn't a deal breaker.
Folders
I'm getting enough apps now that I want to consolidate using folders. Here's how to rename them - it was not intuitive for me.
Input methods
Text
I tried Swype for a while, but I'm backing out for now. Also, I want to use the voice entry option, so the Android keyboard is for me for now.
Voice
Looks like I'll have to wait for/root to 2.2 to get full voice capabilities, but there's still voice search.
Storage
I've not shelled out for a micro SD card yet, but I expect I will soon. In any case, if you want to listen to media (or, I suspect, do anything that uses the stock SD card) while you're charging, you'll need to make sure you've disabled mass storage mode. See this article for instructions on doing so. If you run into issues, make sure you've disabled this option in any apps that have it (Winamp, for example).
Tunes
Custom Ringtones: default
There appears to be much debate online about the best way to do it. There are free and pay apps, and some approaches that appear to require you to root. Here's how I did it without rooting or apps:
AllShare
AllShare is a way to control your media player server from the phone -- it is pre-installed on the Captivate.
I'll just say that AllShare is possibly the worst documented program I've ever come across. I found some stuff on Samsung's website, but it didn't come up on a Google search. Maybe Samsung is letting their site(s) be crawled or they're not adding appropriate tags.
In any case, I'm trying to figure out how to get AllShare to work. My Windows PC appears to be blocking the port/service that I need to get this to work.
MediaTomb on Ubuntu allowed me to connect just fine but I'm having issues playing mp3s.
Looks like there is no support for mp3s (!?) in AllShare: here are the supported file types (persisting here in case the Samsung post gets moved):
3GP
MPG
MP4
AVI
WMV
MKV
FLV
I know my phone supports the mp3 format since I can play those via Winamp, but whatever....
I can't believe that in 2011 there is still no very simple media solution that lets me store a bunch of songs on a junky server and play them from my phone from anywhere in the house. Couldn't the Google 411 or Translate team have kicked this out in a couple of days before starting on their more complicated respective projects? Windows has an ok way to do this between my Xbox and my PC, but I don't want to listen to songs on my TV. I don't know how long upnp has been around, but it seems like it hasn't really gone anywhere. Maybe it is a much more difficult problem to solve than I'm thinking.
Google Listen and Google Reader
Since I'm an avid podcast listener, the first thing I needed to do was to get some sort of syncable system going.
I was using Winamp to handle my podcasts, but I wasn't feeling it (see below). Google Listen gives me what I've been looking for -- a cloud-based tool that lets me handle all of my podcasts on all of my devices in one place (Google Reader).
Listen's search was missing a lot of my favorites, but I was able to subscribe via Reader using those podcasts' rss URLs. The only problem was that I had to drag subscriptions from the root directory to Listen Subscriptions manually after adding them through Reader.
Listen appears to be streaming instead of downloading until you put an episode in the queue (maybe?) or download it, so I may have to plan ahead and store podcasts when I'm going to be on a plane or otherwise out of wireless range (not sure how well streaming will do on 3G...). To download an episode, navigate to that episode and click the menu button (leftmost button on the phone, not on the screen) and select Download.
My main beef with Listen is that the button on my headphones skips to the next track instead of pause/resume. It will also kick off tunes (not podcasts) in the media player so sometimes I have two pieces of media playing at once. Listen will start playing when I unplug the headset as well.
Update March 3, 2011: I don't know if it was a Listen update or moving to Gingerbread, but my headphone button now pauses and resumes podcasts in Listen. Using the button no longer launches a music player or skips to the next podcast. Yay!
Winamp
I'm going to give Winamp a shot since I used to rely on Winamp back in the early 2000s. Wireless sync with Android devices is nice, although since it appears to be driven from the computer, I still need to run it through the computer. I'd prefer to pull syncing from the Captivate, otherwise I might as well connect it to the computer.
As expected, wireless sync is slow for songs, so I'm concentrating on doing it all via USB for now. Coming from an 8G iPhone, I'm quite impressed by the default storage on this thing.
Streaming media
I don't use Pandora much, but I put that on. No Public Radio streaming app yet, but it looks to be coming.
Social
Twitter
I'm surprised I can't use the (official) Twitter app to create a widget from a Twitter list -- by default the widget shows everything in my feed. Looks like there are third party apps to address this, which means I'll probably abandon the official Twitter app all together.
Neither Seesmic nor Twicca seemed to do what I want. So I'll just wait for a client that will default to a list when I open it. Also, LauncherPro won't allow me to resize the widget unless I upgrade. This is one case where the AT&T app kind of hits the spot (Daily Briefing).
Twicca did let me create a home screen link that lets me get to a list, but not not as a widget, which is what I'd prefer.
See this post to replicate the update of my phone to Gingerbread (2.3) -- it addresses most of the gripes I give below.
System
What's running?
Settings --> Applications --> Running services shows the what, footprint and how long applications.
WispService is part of the AT&T ware that I want to kill. It is related to the AT&T Hot Spots application. I also killed the default Music Player service.
As much as I like the live wallpaper concept, none of the choices really grab me, so I'm going to pick a pic of my own. And maybe save some battery life.
AT&T apps
I'd eventually like to get the AT&T apps uninstalled, but I'm going to wait and root the thing later. Looks like I'll have to manually kill these often until I just uninstall them. Or just install LauncherPro and hide them.
Launchers
LauncherPro (free)
While somewhat worried about all of the authorization I had to give the app, it allowed me to ignore a lot of the AT&T bloatware. Seems to allow me to do the extra customization I crave. Looks like I will have to pony up a small amount of money to be able to resize widgets, but I've not found the ones that are helpful to me (other than a calendar that is already properly sized for my needs) so this isn't a deal breaker.
Folders
I'm getting enough apps now that I want to consolidate using folders. Here's how to rename them - it was not intuitive for me.
Input methods
Text
I tried Swype for a while, but I'm backing out for now. Also, I want to use the voice entry option, so the Android keyboard is for me for now.
Voice
Looks like I'll have to wait for/root to 2.2 to get full voice capabilities, but there's still voice search.
Storage
I've not shelled out for a micro SD card yet, but I expect I will soon. In any case, if you want to listen to media (or, I suspect, do anything that uses the stock SD card) while you're charging, you'll need to make sure you've disabled mass storage mode. See this article for instructions on doing so. If you run into issues, make sure you've disabled this option in any apps that have it (Winamp, for example).
Tunes
Custom Ringtones: default
There appears to be much debate online about the best way to do it. There are free and pay apps, and some approaches that appear to require you to root. Here's how I did it without rooting or apps:
- Connect the phone to your computer in Mass Storage mode
- Create the following directories at the top level (root) of the drive: ringtones, notifications
- Drag files into the appropriate directory
- Disconnect the phone from the computer
- On the phone, open Settings --> Sound and display
- Modify notifications and ringtones by selecting Notification ringtone and Voice call ringtone, respectively
I did not need to limit the file size terribly -- one of the files is 498K. And I used mp3 and m4a files -- both seemed to work. For work I need to have a third party installed for contact management, so I cannot assign custom ringtones to my work or Gmail contacts (those two groups comprise all of my contacts). I did create a test contact on the phone and could assign a custom ringtone to it.
Still trying to figure out why some songs appear and some don't -- maybe filesize or some other attribute.
Still trying to figure out why some songs appear and some don't -- maybe filesize or some other attribute.
AllShare
AllShare is a way to control your media player server from the phone -- it is pre-installed on the Captivate.
I'll just say that AllShare is possibly the worst documented program I've ever come across. I found some stuff on Samsung's website, but it didn't come up on a Google search. Maybe Samsung is letting their site(s) be crawled or they're not adding appropriate tags.
In any case, I'm trying to figure out how to get AllShare to work. My Windows PC appears to be blocking the port/service that I need to get this to work.
MediaTomb on Ubuntu allowed me to connect just fine but I'm having issues playing mp3s.
Looks like there is no support for mp3s (!?) in AllShare: here are the supported file types (persisting here in case the Samsung post gets moved):
3GP
MPG
MP4
AVI
WMV
MKV
FLV
I know my phone supports the mp3 format since I can play those via Winamp, but whatever....
I can't believe that in 2011 there is still no very simple media solution that lets me store a bunch of songs on a junky server and play them from my phone from anywhere in the house. Couldn't the Google 411 or Translate team have kicked this out in a couple of days before starting on their more complicated respective projects? Windows has an ok way to do this between my Xbox and my PC, but I don't want to listen to songs on my TV. I don't know how long upnp has been around, but it seems like it hasn't really gone anywhere. Maybe it is a much more difficult problem to solve than I'm thinking.
Google Listen and Google Reader
Since I'm an avid podcast listener, the first thing I needed to do was to get some sort of syncable system going.
I was using Winamp to handle my podcasts, but I wasn't feeling it (see below). Google Listen gives me what I've been looking for -- a cloud-based tool that lets me handle all of my podcasts on all of my devices in one place (Google Reader).
Listen's search was missing a lot of my favorites, but I was able to subscribe via Reader using those podcasts' rss URLs. The only problem was that I had to drag subscriptions from the root directory to Listen Subscriptions manually after adding them through Reader.
Listen appears to be streaming instead of downloading until you put an episode in the queue (maybe?) or download it, so I may have to plan ahead and store podcasts when I'm going to be on a plane or otherwise out of wireless range (not sure how well streaming will do on 3G...). To download an episode, navigate to that episode and click the menu button (leftmost button on the phone, not on the screen) and select Download.
My main beef with Listen is that the button on my headphones skips to the next track instead of pause/resume. It will also kick off tunes (not podcasts) in the media player so sometimes I have two pieces of media playing at once. Listen will start playing when I unplug the headset as well.
Update March 3, 2011: I don't know if it was a Listen update or moving to Gingerbread, but my headphone button now pauses and resumes podcasts in Listen. Using the button no longer launches a music player or skips to the next podcast. Yay!
Winamp
I'm going to give Winamp a shot since I used to rely on Winamp back in the early 2000s. Wireless sync with Android devices is nice, although since it appears to be driven from the computer, I still need to run it through the computer. I'd prefer to pull syncing from the Captivate, otherwise I might as well connect it to the computer.
As expected, wireless sync is slow for songs, so I'm concentrating on doing it all via USB for now. Coming from an 8G iPhone, I'm quite impressed by the default storage on this thing.
Streaming media
I don't use Pandora much, but I put that on. No Public Radio streaming app yet, but it looks to be coming.
Social
I'm surprised I can't use the (official) Twitter app to create a widget from a Twitter list -- by default the widget shows everything in my feed. Looks like there are third party apps to address this, which means I'll probably abandon the official Twitter app all together.
Neither Seesmic nor Twicca seemed to do what I want. So I'll just wait for a client that will default to a list when I open it. Also, LauncherPro won't allow me to resize the widget unless I upgrade. This is one case where the AT&T app kind of hits the spot (Daily Briefing).
Twicca did let me create a home screen link that lets me get to a list, but not not as a widget, which is what I'd prefer.
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