Gadget गुरू's Mouthpiece: 2013

Get rid of annoying Facebook Notifications....

Many a times you might have encountered a situation where you have commented on a Post or a Status Update of your friend on Facebook and you keep on getting notified every time somebody else comments on the same post. If you think that after you have commented you no more wish to be notified you can do 2 things -

1. To stop notifications for Posts - Just visit the Post once again and on the extreme right hand side of the Post you will find a small down arrow, which when clicked gives you an option "Unfollow Post".

2. To stop notifications for Status Updates - Just visit the Notifications section of your Facebook page, go to the Status Update notification which you need to unfollow and mover your mouse pointer over the small cross "X" and select "Unfollow...".

I know you never realised that it was that simple to get rid of the annoying Facebook notifications which you are no more interested in getting notified to. Happy FB'ing " :-)

Apps to Backup before upgrading your Android Phones' ROM

I recently upgraded the ROM on my HTC OneX from ViperX 4.0.3 to ViperX 4.0.6. Being in the IT Infrastructure field from past 12 years, I always value the process of taking backups. Though HTC provides its own Backup App, I still thought of not taking a risk by just trusting HTC. This paid off in a great way.

I initially installed the Online Nandroid Backup App from Google Play and took a Nandroid Backup (This process takes a snapshot of your existing Phone settings along with the Phone Software, so that you can restore your phone to the current state in case of a ROM upgrade failure). I then used Titanium Backup App and took backups of all Apps which had user profile data, viz. WhatsApp Messenger, Viber, Truecaller, etc. I then upgraded the ROM and the HTC Backup App ensured that all Apps and Phone System settings (including the App groupings in App drawer, Desktop icons, etc.) were restored.

Though all the Apps were restored what wasn't restored were the user profile configs. So if I tried to launch WhatsApp Messenger again, the App would treat this as a new install and go through the entire activation process. At this point of time I fired up Titanium Backup again, went to the Restore mode and selected the Apps which I had backed up and restored ONLY the Data and NOT the App. Now when I launched WhatsApp Messenger or say Viber, I would get to see it pre-configured, just like it was before the ROM upgrade.

Another great help which happened taking a backup was restoring my Exchange ActiveSync account along with the Exchange Security Policy. When the HTC Backup App finished restoring System settings and Apps, I started the Stock Mail application which instantly prompted me that Exchange Security Policies need to be applied on the Phone. On selecting Yes the Phone screen kept on blinking and went onto an infinite loop. That is when the Restoration of the Data for the Stock Mail App helped.

But please remember that this process is only for full upgrades which need to perform full wipe. If they are incremental upgrades, don't go through this process.

So next time before you do a full ROM upgrade, do not forget to backup specific Apps on your Phone....

Controlling your Internet Bandwidth usage while downloading through Torrents

Staying in India I am still confined to Bandwidth limitations on my Internet connection. I have a 2 Mbps Unlimited connection with a capping at 12 GB. Which means the download speed decreases to 512 Kbps if I exceed 12 GB of data transfer limit. This essentially means that both my downloads and uploads account to this limit.

While using uTorrent I realized that until and unless you change the default settings uTorrent uses the maximum Bandwidth available. If you disable uploading then your download speed also gets restricted. The best way to circumvent this problem is to to reduce the upload speed.

To change this go to Options -> Preferences in uTorrent

Change the default value of "Maximum upload rate". The value '0' is unrestricted. Change it '1' which is the lowest value available. This means you restrict your upload speed to 1 Kbps. Even such a small change will have a significant impact on your Bandwidth usage.

Installing Region-restricted Android Apps on your Android Smartphone - androiddrawer.com

I finally returned to India from UK after spending few years there and was already into the Android train since Jan'13 when I bought the HTC One X. Reading my previous post you would realize that I rooted my Phone and installed a custom ROM. Since I did not take backup, it meant that I had to reinstall all my favorite Apps once again.

Since I had updated my address from UK to India in my Google account, this meant that I would not more have access to few region-restricted Apps like Zedge and BBC iPlayer and these Apps will not show in search results on the Play Store. The best alternative to circumvent such a problem is to allow your phone to install Apps from Untrusted Sources (this can be found under Security settings on your Android Phone). You can then download the .APK (Android App installer) from a very nice website like androiddrawer.com , transfer it to your Phone and then install it.

Try it next time when you find that your favorite App no more show in the Play Store search results......

Amazing Battery Life with new ROM on HTC One X

Referring to me previous post on using the ViperX ROM on my HTC One X, I can now comment that with the new ROM, the Phone's Battery life has increased significantly. Here is the screenshot. Please note that this Battery life is with normal use of Phone with average calling, Internet access and the image has not been manipulated -

It's really worth appreciating that one of the top end Android Phones with such good Battery life.

Is your Android Smartphone truly unlocked from the Operator???

After my just concluded experience I had to surely write this post so that the wider audience is aware of a common technical problem.

Problem Statement -

I purchased a HTC One X UNLOCKED handset around 6 months back while I was in UK. I was quite excited to have my first high end Android Phone which worked perfectly when I was in UK. The Vodafone Boot logo while powering on the phone made it clear that it was unlocked fro Vodafone UK network.

The problem started after I returned back to India. After inserting my Vodafone India micro-SIM (I cut out my old SIM with a micro-SIM cutter) everything seemed to work fine - Voice Call, Wi-Fi, Basic GPRS ('G' sign), etc. But I suddenly discovered that though we get EDGE ('E' sign) on the 2G Network, I was continuously getting only Basic GPRS ('G') speed. When I went to the Vodafone Store the representative told me to get a new factory made micro-SIM since he suspected that cut-out micro-SIM's cause such issues. Even after using the new miro-SIM the GPRS speed issue continued. Googled a lot to find if there was another user with a similar issue - unfotunately no :-(

Troubleshooting -

Found that executing the USSD command *3*#4636#*#* from the Phone Dialer would return some statistics of the Phone. Executed the command and checked on the "Phone Information" section. All other data in the section looked normal from my technical experience, except the section which showed Network Type: Unexpected . With my Vodafone UK SIM it showed either Network Type: WCDMA or Network Type: HSPA . Trying lot of things found on the web did not solve my problem.

Solution -

I finally decided to Unlock the Bootloader and Flash a Custom ROM . Though I wasn't sure that this was a problem, but my gut feeling was that though the Phone was unlocked, the operator might have locked something in the Firmware relating to the GSM Frequency Bands.

Found that ViperX ROM was one of the many popular ROM's and was also reported as quite stable.

Steps -

1. Unlock Bootloader - http://www.guidingtech.com/10761/htc-one-x-rooting-guide-1-unlock-bootloader/

http://www.android.gs/unlock-htc-one-x-bootloader/

2. Install CWM Recovery and Root Phone - http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobile-phones/how-to-root-the-htc-one-x-50010022/

3. Check whether your Phone's CID is supported -

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1957376

4. Flash Boot Image using FASTBOOT and Flash ROM using CWM Recovery -

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2087443

I haven't gone too much into detail as all information on Bootloader Unlock, Rooting, CWM Recovery Installation and ROM Flashing are available on various sites.

After having the custom ROM installed I can finally get EDGE speeds and the Phone Information now shows Network Type: EDGE.

So when you plan on getting an Unlocked Smartphone from outside India (which is not factory Unlocked) be ready for surprises and also be ready for ROM Flashing.

A Big Thanks to Team Venom for providing this ROM. I really like the ROM!

Increasing your HTC One X's Battery Stamina

After having the HTC One X for more than a month now I am finally little happy with it's Battery. Went through few forums on the net and here is the answer -

1. Do not trust on highly rated apps like "Juice Defender", etc.

2. Minimize use of background apps and uninstall any non-critical running background app.

3. Turn Off the Phone.

4. With Phone turned off press Power, Volume Up and Volume Down buttons simultaneously and continuously press it for 2 mins. You will see some statistical ROM information on the screen for the same time. This process resets the Battery Stats. This process should not be done frequently.

5. Exactly after 2 mins release all buttons. Your Phone should Power On now.

6. Use a Wi-Fi timer app which optimizes the Wi-Fi usage as this turns out to be the major Battery hogger.

7. Charge your Phone completely until the indicator shows green. Unplug the charger when fully charged, then connect your charger back after 5 secs. If your indicator turns Green within 4-5 secs then your Battery is fully alright.

Here is the latest pic of my Battery status after the above process. Believe me there has been no editing done on this pic -