Android, Mobile 6 comments

Update on HTC Desire SD Card that loose write access – observation.

By on August 8th, 2010

As you know, my HTC Desire looses the ability to write to the SD Card from time to time.  For the past 3 days or so this has not happened (touch wood) and I was wondering what was different over the past couple of days than before.  Note that I have not upgraded to Android 2.2 yet, still running the stock standard HTC Sense Android 2.1update1. 

The one thing that was different was that my phone’s battery stayed fairly charged.  I think over the last couple of days the battery never dropped below 40% and I kept it plugged into my USB or power socket when I could.  Now this make me think that the loosing of write access has something to do with battery power.  The moment the battery drops below a certain point, then the phone looses write access.  I do not know that much about the amount of power that is needed to write to a SD Card but I would assume it is more than reading the card.  I will be testing this theory out over the next couple of days.  Will keep my phone charged up and see if the write access holds.  If so then I will let it drain down and see what happens.  Will keep you all posted.

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Android, Mobile 65 comments

Update on Froyo (Android 2.2) availability for HTC Desire in South Africa.

By on August 5th, 2010

Here is an update on my earlier post. Leaf, the distributors of HTC phones in South Africa has clarified the situation regarding Android updates in South Africa.  I quote from a article that appeared on MyBroadband:

To make zero-rated firmware OTA (FOTA) possible the operators need to agree to it and the required infrastructure needs to be put in place. Leigh explained that Leaf had already met with all the operators and that the system’s deployment is held up only by the zero-rating agreements and setup of local servers to host the updates.

“We’re a couple of months behind in South Africa, but it is coming,” Leigh said. He added that getting all the agreements and servers in place would be a 2-4 week process.

When asked about those people that did received the update, this was the answer:

There have been numerous reports from South African HTC Desire users receiving an update to Android 2.2 “Froyo” over the weekend and early this week.

Leigh said that this would only be possible for users who didn’t purchase their phones in South Africa. There are users that were able to update their phones that assert that they obtained their phones through operators such as Vodacom and MTN, however.

If these reports are accurate it could suggest that the FOTA systems were being tested during the times that the updates were available or that some devices sold by operators point at international update servers.

This all seems very feasible but I do not like that Leaf nake assumptions on my behalve.  What if I can update my phone via WIFI and have the bandwidth available?  Let me decide when and how I want to receive the OTA.  It is good that they try to get the update zero-rated but I should be given the option to do it now even if there is a cost involved and I am prepared to pay for it.

So it looks like us with network (MTN, Vodacom) supplied phones will still have to wait a while.

Yes, I know I can load an updated ROM like some has done.

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Google No comments yet

GMail multi-account usage – just love it.

By on August 4th, 2010

I have more than one @gmail.com account that I use on a daily basis.  Yesterday Google enabled to make it possible to log into more than one account at the same time.  There currently is a limit of 3 accounts you can be logged into at the same time.

Here you can see that I have 3 tabs open with 3 different @gmail.com accounts simultaneously.  

At the top where you normally see the account you currently logged into, there is a dropdown with all the accounts that you can log into or switched to if you already logged into that account.

If you want to know how to set this up the just visit this page – http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-multiple-sign-in-now-available.html

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Android, Mobile 60 comments

Froyo (Android 2.2) for HTC Desire but when in SA – also how to manually upgrade.

By on July 31st, 2010

Coming week HTC will start to roll out Froyo (Android 2.2) to some users in Europe. Just to give you an idea what is new in Froyo:

  • 720p video recording
  • iTunes syncing via HTC’s Sync software — this is for all you Windows guys/gals out there
  • The “AppShare” widget that came on the Wildfire
  • Smart CallerID

In South Africa HTC devices are distributed by Leaf so the question arises, when will us HTC Desire owners see the rollout of Froyo here in South Africa. I just had a look at the Leaf website and to be honest, what a waste of time.  Over the past week I tried to get some answers out of Leaf and that was even a bigger waste of time.

If one looks at the upgrade for HTC Hero (from Android 1.6 to Android 2.1) by Leaf then I am not very hopeful that we will see anything soon.

I know that HTC sometime make the update pack available on their site for manual download and upgrade. Here is a way to manually upgrade as soon as that pack becomes available. Unfortunately that download was pulled by HTC but I am sure it will become available again as soon as the OTA upgrade starts in Europe.  You do not need to root you’re phone to use this upgrade.  It is the official HTC update with Sense in it.

So lets see what the coming week bring’s and Roy, do not check your update every couple of minute – you going to workout that button 🙂

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Android, Mobile, Ubuntu No comments yet

Ubuntu, XBMC and Android — almost as good as .. well you know what :)

By on July 14th, 2010

I have a desktop running Ubuntu 10.4 and the latest version of XBMC as my Media Centre.  It is used for all my Media requirements whether it is to watch Movies or some Series, looking at photographs or listening to my music collection.  Up until today I had to control it either via a mouse or a keyboard.

Well not anymore.  Today XBMC for Android was released and although it is still in beta, it works perfectly.  I installed the app on my HTC Desire, configiure XBMS to be controlled via HTTP and setup the XBMC Android app to control the desktop XBMC.  Install/setup instructions here if you’re looking for it.

Now I have a remote in my hand to control all the parts of XBMC and I can sit wherever I want and watch to my hearts content.  This must be one of the greatest apps around.  So if you have an Android phone and XBMC (can be any XBMC, not necessary Ubuntu) then do yourself the favour and try it out.  You will never use the keyboard and mouse again to control XBMC.

Oh just in case you want to know.  XBMC for Android communicates to your XBMC instance via WiFi so no need for Bluetooth, Infrared and anything else.

Off to go watch some more ……

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Android, Linux, Mobile 8 comments

Update on HTC Desite SD Card that loose write access

By on July 11th, 2010

I have blogged about my problems with my HTC Desire SD Card here and here before.

I have managed to get another 4GB Sandisk SDHC card but the problem still persist.  I have tried the following:

  • Use the card as it was formatted when I received it .. just copied the data across from my old card to the new one.
  • Re-format the new card as FAT32 on a Linux workstation and copied the data across.
  • Re-format the new card as FAT on a Linux workstation and copied the data across.
  • Re-format the new card as EXT3 on a Linux workstation and copied the data across.  The strange thing here is that Android 2.1 does not even recognised the SD Card when it is formatted as EXT3.  This is weird since Android is Linux, all I can think is that support for EXT3 was not compiled into the Linux kernel that Android is using.
  • Re-format the card in the HTC Desire and the copied the data across.

None of the above made any difference.  After a while (this can be anything from 2-3 hours to 2 days) Android looses the ability to write to the SD Card.  Reading the SD Card is fine and otherwise the phone works perfectly.

I have read somewhere that the issue might be the use of HC (High Capacity) SD Card which is what both my cards are.  Some people claim that using a non-HC card solve the problem.  The main issues is that all non-HC cards is 2GB and smaller cards.  I will see if I can get my hands on a non-HC card. 

It is also claimed that the upgrade to Android 2.2 solves this problem.  There is a Android 2.2 ROM available for the HTC Desire but I think I will wait till the official one comes out from HTC.  I might change my mind should HTC take too long.  I do not know what Leaf (agent for HTC in South Africa) will do when it comes to upgrades.

The saga continues and will keep updates on this blog.

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cellphone, Mobile 3 comments

MTN Shop (Wollowbridge) customer service shocking – refuce to replace faulty HTC Desire SD Card #MTN #HTC

By on June 26th, 2010

I have a HTC Desire with a faulty SD Card.  This morning I went to the MTN Shop in Willowbridge, where I got the phone less than a month ago, to have the SD Card replaced.  I was amazed at the shocking service that I received. 

First they wanted me to buy a new SD Card to replace the faulty card that they supplied.  I just bluntly refuced since they supplied the phone to me with the faulty SD Card and it is a known HTC Desire problem – the cards that are supplied with the phone is inferior cards.  Then they claim that it is not their problem since they are only the middle man and I need to take it up with HTC.  I insisted that they supplied the phone to me and they need to ensure that it is in a 100% working condition. 

Then they said they can return the phone to HTC to get it fixed and that would take at least 10 days.  Remember, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the phone, it is only the SD Card that is faulty.  When I asked what they going to do for me since I will not have a phone when they send it back.  They just said that they not going to do anything.

These shops are quick to take one’s money and supply you with phones but after that there is absolute nothing they prepared to do if something is wrong and it is clearly their problem.  They have non-existing customer service.  Most of the time the people working behind the counters are rude and are just not interested in solving one’s problem.  It still amazes me that these shops make any money.

I know that there is maybe one or 2 shops that will go out of their way to keep their customers happy but the one in Willowbridge just does not care at all.  I suggest to whoever reads this to never do any business with that shop.     

So MTN and HTC (Leaf in South Africa), if you are reading here, what should I do to get my SD Card replaced?

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Mobile 3 comments

HTC Desire — SD Card saving/writing problems part 2.

By on June 21st, 2010

In a previous post I mentioned that my HTC Desire has intermittent problems writing to the SD Card.

From my Googling and reading I tried the following without any success. 

One suggestion was to switch off the Automatic Backup to SD Card which I did.  No luck.

Another suggestion seems to be that running Task Managers is a very bad idea. See this article. I was using Advanced Task Manager and I uninstalled this.  For a while it seems to do the trick since I had no problems yesterday writing to the SD Card.  Well, that was short lived since when I woke up this morning, the problem returned.

So back to the drawing board .. think next will be trying another SD Card to see if it is the actual SD Card rather than the device.

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Google, Open Source No comments yet

Twitter Location — Firefox more accurate than Google Chrome

By on June 20th, 2010

I notice this morning when I viewed Twitter via the browser interface it had an Add Location just under the Tweet/Update input box.  I added my location in both Firefox and Google Chrome and Firefox was more accurate about it.  I assume it is either using IP addresses or more likely my Wireless on my laptop to get my location.

This is what Firefox came up with:

and this is from Google Chrome:

I am actually staying in Bellville so Firefox was spot on.

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Mobile 15 comments

HTC Desire — problems writing to SD Card — #HTC

By on June 19th, 2010

As mentioned in a previous blog post I have ordered a HTC Desire and have received it a couple of weeks ago.

The HTC Desire is a great phone and I am very happy with it except for one minor issue I have with it.  There is a intermittent problem writing to the SD Card.  Here is the error message, for example when you want to take a picture or use the camcorder.

Unable to save file to SD card due to insuffucient file permissions.

Also when you send something to the phone via Bluethooth when the phone cannot write to the SD Card, nothing happens.  No error message that the file cannot be written to the SD Card.

Switching the phone off and the on again solve the problem for a while.  That while can be anything from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours. I have Googled and it seems that it is a known problem with the HTC Desire and also the new HTC Evo.  Most people have the view that it is due to inferior SD Cards that HTC uses.  Mine has a Sandisk SD Card in so do not know whether that is true.  I have also read that HTC is working on a patch for the Evo, not sure whether the Desire will get an update.

One suggestion is to reformat the SD Card which I will try sometime.  Since it is a normal FAT filesystem, I will just put the card in a Card Reader and use my Linux desktop, copy everything off the card as backup, reformat the card again as FAT and then copy everything back onto it.  Maybe what I should try first is to see if I can use a spare SD Card, format it and copy everything over to it and see if the spare have the same issue.

If anybody have some advice on what they think, please feel free to comment.

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