January 12, 2013

Galaxy Camera hands on review

Today I had the possibility to try a Galaxy Camera, so I will tell you my opinion.
At first I thought it was just another Samsung piece of junk, but it turned out to be a really nice camera.
The first thing you notice is the dimension: it has pretty much the dimension of a Galaxy Note.
The display is simply beautiful and bright, allowing the user to appreciate his photos on the device itself.
It has an extraordinary 21x optical zoom that allows you to capture really nice details. The image is nicely stabilized so that you don't take those horrible faded photos.
The tap-to-focus feature is really useful too and works pretty damn well.
Obviously the worst part of this device is the Samsung Touchwiz UI that ruins everything about this device (well, you can still change the ROM).
The price is a bit high, but not too bad I think: about 390€.
Well, if I needed a good compact camera, I actually would buy this (and remove Samsung software...).

January 11, 2013

CidClock: analog clock widget with Cid face

And here we are with my first apk...
It is a clock, yes. And yes, there is the CyanogenMod mascotte, Cid.
It's just a clock, but many people seem to like it, so I decided not to sell it (moreover it is ridiculous, I didn't even made the apk, I just modded some files) and to publish it here, on my sweet blog!

Basically enable unknown sources in the system settings and install the apk. It should just work on android 4.0+ ROMS.

Here is the download link, I hope you enjoy it:

January 09, 2013

Android Navbar on almost every device running 4.0+


Disclamer
Remember to make a backup before flashing anything, this is really important.
Moreover remember that neither me or NemesisRE or xda-developers are responsable of what YOU do with YOUR device. If you install this mod you know that something could go wrong and completely mess up your device, but it is YOUR problem

:)


As I posted some days ago, now I have a GT-I9300 and I am pretty happy with it.
But some things about this device simply suck. One of these is that if you use it in landscape mode, you almost always accidentally press the soft buttons, messing everything up. I always thought that using a Navbar on this device would be really better, but my laziness discouraged me to look for a mod. Today I had some time to spend, so I made a backup and started looking for a good mod. Well well, I found a perfect one made by the xda member NemesisRE (mod thread on xda).
It is simply perfect since you have many choices to customize your experience:
  • NAV_Only: enables Navbar and disables Home- and Softkeys;
  • NAV_HomeWake: enables Navbar, maps the Homekey to wake the device (nothing else) and disables Softkeys;
  • NAV_HomeCamera: enables Navbar, maps Homekey as Camerakey (holding it long opens Camera app / while in Camera App it takes photos) and disable Softkkeys;
  • NAV_StockKeys: enables Navbar no other changes;
  • NAV_Remove: Removes the mod;
I made this post to share with my few readers this awesome tweak and to say thank you NemesisRE: you made me happy :)

January 08, 2013

I received an Ingress invitation code!

Finally! Today I received an email with an invitation code for Ingress closed beta!
Ingress is a new generation augmented reality game based on GPS position.
It is extremely cool and definitely amazing, I will make a video soon showing you the  game in action.

January 05, 2013

Goodbye S2, welcome S3!

Yes, I finally made it: I traded my S2 for an S3. Actually the trade was between me and my dad, but i still know I will never use my old phone again.
I obviously updated it from CM9 my dad was using to CM10.1 and I can say it works pretty well, even a bit better than on the S2 (except for a little camera bug that forces me to reboot the phone to make it work again).
I'm really happy to finally enjoy the glory of NFC and notification led, as well as the quad core CPU. The only problem is the inconvenient position of the buttons: difficult to press when you need them and always in the way when you don't. Now that I am using it I can totally agree with codeworkx: the S2 shape is really better. But in the S2 I miss a lot of sweet features. I wouldn't have bought it actually but, hey...

I probably won't make a video since, well, the phones are nearly the same and they now run the same ROM, so... enjoy the news!


January 04, 2013

Raspbmc: Debian+XBMC Frodo on Raspberry Pi

Here is the video I promised.
I received no suggestions from the few followers I have, so I just showed the main features of XBMC to give you a quick but useful (I hope) demonstration of what your Raspberry Pi can do.
I hope you enjoy it!

January 03, 2013

Raspberry Pi: trying Raspbmc

Right, I had enough of Xbian: bugs, occasional freezes and no way to setup my Wi-Fi adapter. I heard of this alternative distro, Raspbmc, that similarly to Xbian is mainly Debian with an optimized version of XBMC and some sweet extra tools.

Apparently the installation of Wi-Fi adapters is automatic, so I'm going to give it a try and maybe we will finally use it on the main TV.
I hope it works fine. Maybe I'll even make a demonstration video.
I want to ask you what exactly you want me to test: this way I could make a better and more useful video for all of you. Feel free to use the comments to give me suggestions!