Mageia 3: Review

Hands on: CyanogenMod 11 Official M Release

Pear OS 8 Review

Pear OS is a Ubuntu based operating system that aims to look like Mac OS. Not that bad, but not that good either.
Pear OS website

Tutorial: Install Android 4.4 KitKat on Nexus 4 & Nexus 7 WiFi

Hands on: Android 4.4 KitKat running on Nexus 4

"Tech Pills: Discuss!", Ep. 2

CyanogenMod Inc.: Oppo N1 coolness and commercialization downsides.
Steam OS: nothing special itself, will bring a lot of proprietary software to linux.
Paranoid Android: New KitKat based version will be completely rewritten, improvements ahead?

"Tech Pills: Discuss!": A new web series featuring me, talking about stuff

Hello everyone! I'm back with some cool stuff! Sorry for the long absence, but in the last months I didn't have the possibility to make videos, or blogging things... But now I am back!
I have just started a series called "Tech Pills: Discuss!" where I talk about technology news and comment them, giving you my personal opinions.
Here you are the first episode, enjoy, and remember to check back next Sunday for the episode 2!

[FIRST OWN APP] KLP Analog Clock Widget

Here you are, my first really mine android app (not a mod from another app).

Android 5.0, the "K release", probably called Key Lime Pie, will surely have some interesting UI changes.
Many designers imagined how the new interface will be.
This beautiful yet simple and minimal widget is just what I'd like the new analog clock widget to be. I didn't ideate this beautiful design, but i re-created it and packaged it into a simple app, for you to freely use it.
The widget supports the new lockscreen widgets feature of Android 4.2

Switched to Nexus 4

It's done, I've sold the S3 and bought a new LG Nexus 4!

I'm really happy already of this switch, and I'm going to make a series of vlogs about my progressive switch to my new awesome Google Phone.

Stay tuned!

Hands on: Ubuntu Touch on Galaxy S3 GT-I9300

I finally made it: a full nandroid backup and I flashed Ubuntu Touch on my i9300 and recorded a video to show you how it's working.
First of all this ROM is not ment to be used as every day ROM, since... almost nothing works... I mean, the Wi-Fi works, you can use the browser, but the telephony part (phone, messages, 3g connection...) aren't working, moreover the OS itself is not complete yet, it is just a preview.
But it was nice to see something that just FEELS different... Now enjoy the video! :D

Ubuntu Touch ROM XDA thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2315397

New Google camera with improved photosphere

It had already leaked on a Nexus 4, a strange new version of the camera featuring new controls. Now it is out, the new camera is featured in the new Google edition devices (Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One) running pure Google Android 4.2.2.

This new camera version seems to make kind of better photos, and photoshpere has been improved: now it works really smoothly on my Samsung Galaxy S3 running CyanogenMod 10.1.
Click the image below to see the two photospheres I made:



To enable the new camera, you must be running Android 4.2.2, and flash this .zip with a modified recovery like ClockworkMod Recovery, here you are the .zip file:

If you want to install the new Sun Beam live wallpaper (the one you have seen in the video) put the following .apk into /system/app/ and change its permissions to -rw-r--r-- :

Android 4.2.2 for Hyundai T7S

Yes, it's finally out: Android 4.2.2 for the Hyundai T7S tablet. You probably already know it (if you don't click >>HERE<<), this tablet is really great and incredibly cheap, but the only thing it missed was an up to date ROM.
But there is a little problem: this is an unstable firmware, it has been officially released, that's right, but in the website it's told that it has some bugs and that they will be fixed in a new release coming this week.
The bugs affecting this release are:
- Random reboots (some experience frequent reboots, I experienced 2-3 since yesterday, and while doing awkward stuff)
- Random freezes (I experienced 2)
- Exynos Abuse exploit fixed (actually a feature, but makes rooting a little bit problematic).
- Lockscreen Widgets seem to be unavailable (COULD be a feature)
- GPS not working
- Some derps with Google Now
- Quick Settings not working sometimes
- Many gapps not included (Play Store is still there, don't worry)
- Quite higher battery drain (pegasusq governor seems to be missing)
- Bad performance, will probably be fixed
- Problems with bluetooth devices like keyboards (maybe mouses and joypads too?)

While the improvements I discovered are:
- Better camera quality
- Better color quality
- New Phablet UI (Nexus 7 interface, no more old 4.0 navbar)
- New Phablet UI launcher (Nexus 7/Smartphone like)
- 4.2.2 apps now compatible (some interesting CM10.1 apps like cLock, calculator and keyboard)
- New "Software Update" option into settings (will it work?)
- Multiple users support

Here is the firmware download from an unofficial source (http://hyundai-digital.cn is only accessible from China or using a proper proxy):
Download
Mirror 1
Mirror 2

Installation instructions:
0. Before you start, you need an EXTERNAL sd card and make sure the tablet is at least 60% charge. Also remember that the content of the tablet internal memory will be DELETED and that I'm not responsable for any data loss or anything bad happening to your tablet
1. Extract the .rar file onto an EXTERNAL sd card (make sure the tablet can read it first)
2. Power off the tablet
3. Once it's off, hold the power button and the volume down button at the same time since you see some strange writings on the screen.
4. The installation started, when it's completed the tablet will turn off
5. Turn the tablet on and enjoy Jelly Bean!

Now, has I said, Exynos Abuse no more works with this firmware, so here is a guide on how to root the tablet:
0. Download this package (you need a Windows PC to perform this, mono and wine do not work)
1. Turn on USB Debugging on the tablet
2. Insert the tablet into the PC and let it install the drivers
3. Run PdaNet executable to install some needed drivers on the tablet
4. Follow the instructions until the installation finishes.
5. Open root.exe
6. Again, make sure the tablet is connected to the PC and that it is NOT turned off
7. Follow the instructions on your screen, you should be ok now, but the root manager is chineese and you don't want a chineese application to manage the root access, right?
8. Install your favourite root manager from Play Store or other sources (I suggest you Superuser by ClockworkMod)
9. Open the new downloaded root manager, it will probably ask you to update the su binary, do it
10. An awkward window will pop-up on your screen, tap the button on the left, that should be some kind of "allow"
11. (Optional but suggested) Delete the chineese root manager (it has a blue icon with an "R" on it) using Titanium Backup.

Here is a video presenting the new version, enjoy!


That's it! If there is anything else you want to know, just ask in the comments!
Special thanks to Slatedroid Forums!

Improve your productivity with Overlays for Android

Have you ever wanted to have your notes app/widget always on the screen? Or have you ever needed a calculator to use along with another app? Or even just a persistent shortcut to a specific contact?
Well, now you can do it with Overlays: this little yet powerful app allows you to have every widget/shortcut/app icon you want, just floating on the screen, for you to use it.
A better, faster way to multitask and make your life even easier.
Thanks to the creators of Overlays!


LINKS
Overlays on the Play Store
Overlays Pro on the Play Store

Hands on: Hyundai T7S tablet

Let me introduce the Hyundai T7S Tablet: a great tablet equipped with an Exynos 4 quad SoC, a 2GB RAM and more interesting features! I immediatly rooted it with Chainfire's Exynos Abuse, and it is actually really easy to restore it.

[Exynos Abuse]

Hands on: Floating Notifications, a chat heads like service for all apps

Chat heads is a great feature, Paranoid Android team took inspiration from it to make their own chat heads for all apps, with a nice pop-up window showing the complete app. In one word, "Halo".
Quite in the same time, Floating Notification project started: the goal is to have something similar to Halo and chat heads, but for every ROM, without needing root permissions.
This app is really nice and promising, congrats to the developers, they have a bright future in front of them.

Links
[XDA] Floating Notifications
[XDA] Floating Notifications themes
Paranoid Android website

Many thanks to BBQScreen developer xplodwild ( xplod.fr ) to have made such a great application!

Kingsoft Office Alpha 10 for linux quick demo

As I promised, here you have a NEW video! Two videos in (almost) one day! Remember to give me suggestions, I really enjoy making these videos and I appreciate every single comment you write, remember.
Video description:
Quick overview of Kingsoft Office (a.k.a. WPS Office), really nice and promising Office suite available for free. It includes Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheet to manage your documents. It should offer a good support for Microsoft Office documents.
Kingsoft Office Alpha download page (yes, the latest version is the alpha, the beta is old and doesn't include english):
http://community.wps.cn/download/#alpha
For Arch users, this is available on AUR. For everyone else, there are both .deb and .rpm files

[Video Tutorial] Integrate every Chrome web app with the system

Hello again! It's been quite a long since my last video, but now I'm back with a nice tutorial, and there is more to come!
The title is self explainatory: an easy, painless way to integrate web apps with system apps. Now GMail Offline makes sense to me.

Google+: disable the new two column interface

Many of you could have noticed that Google+ has a new two columns interface, similar to the tablet app. But many people seem not to like this new look, so here it is a tutorial on how to have a one column interface.
First of all go over the house button in the top left corner with your mouse

Now click on the settings buttion

Scrool down to Accessibility (it could have a different name, I translated it from the italian "Accessibilità") and check the only option present under that section.

Ta dah! Here you have your boring one column interface! Enjoy!

P.S.: As you could have noticed, I like the new interface, just to say...

IFER: Install From External Repository

Introducing IFER, a new command line tool to speed up some common apt operations.
Are you tired of the boring process of installing packages from external repositories manually?
These are the commands you would normally need under a Debian environment to install lollitude-wtf from ppa:lollitudesoft:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lollitudesoft
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lollitude-wtf

Well, with IFER this is no more a problem! You would just have to run:
sudo ifer -i lollitude-wtf ppa:lollitudesoft

And that's it! No more problems!
Now imagine that you wanted to install the new ipear-music-player from ppa:ipear-os, the official system ipear-os repository, but installing that repository would require some "system updates" that change your already existing packages to the one from ipear-os. That would probably brake your installation! So you would have to remove the repository manually after the package installation.
With IFER this is just easier, all you have to do is running:
sudo ifer -iR ipear-music-player ppa:ipear-os

And here you are! The new music player is installed and your system is OK!

And how much would you pay for it?
200$?
50$?
A penny?

NO: IT'S FREE SOFTWARE!
You can download it from here:
[LINK]

Have fun!

pakman: use pacman commands, make apt do the job

Today I said to a friend of mine wich is an Arch Linux user: "Can you install apt on Arch?". After googling it, we found out that... yes, he can!
Then I wondered: "What if I install pacman on Ubuntu then?".
Well, I can't do it, too much work and I don't have the capabilities, but... actually I can write bash scripts...
And that's what I did: I wrote a bash script that receives pacman commands, interpretates them and execute an apt or dkpg command.
I found out that pacman is actually an existing package in my repos, so, to avoid conflicts of any kind, I called it pakman.
The suggested process for the installation is the following:
1) rename the file gabmus_pacman.sh.txt to gabmus_pacman.sh
2) move the file to /opt
3) execute the following command: sudo ln -s /opt/gabmus_pacman.sh /usr/bin/pakman

And that's it! Just run pakman with the classic pacman options and the name of the packages into your debian repos.
Here is the link to the file on Google Drive:
[LINK]
Have fun!

Jimu: develop android apps with blocks

Guys, now I want to ask you something important: would you want to have an app, a tool that makes you rapidly create advanced apps with just simple building blocks? This project is pretty similar to the MIT app inventor project, but kinda better. These guys need you! Help them on kickstarter, and remember that every single dollar is important for them. If you don't want to donate, just share this post or the link below, this WILL make the difference. Thank you.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1846050961/jimu-building-blocks-for-your-android-app

Ubuntu: disable annoying tap-to-click delay

I really love Ubuntu, but sometimes it just acts strangely. There was something weird about the touchpad, but I couldn't get what it was...
Today I found out that when i tap to click, there is a delay of about an half second from the actual tap to  the OS response. The phisical buttons work well, so I started googling about this problem. Well I found out that there is a synclient (the software that manages the touchpad) option called FastTaps.
By default its value is set to 0, so what if we set it to 1?
Well, well, well... that's what I did. AND IT FREAKIN WORKS! Now my touchpad works greatly! I don't know why they disabled it... anyway, to enable it you just have to open your terminal and type:


synclient FastTaps=1

You should be fine now. To revert this change, you just have to run the same command, replacing 1 with 0.
Hope you enjoyed and stay tuned!

EDIT: Apparently this option is disabled after every reboot, so I suggest you to set the command as a startup application.

WhatsApp: official beta with new holo interface!

Yes! Finally the WhatsApp developers made their app holo themed! I personally think that WhatsApp existence is stupid since Google Talk is completely free and PC compatible, but most people is dumb, so I have to use it... At least now it looks nice and gives the feeling of a real Android application.
As you can see from the screenshots they made a nice job with the holo light interface, using an original green toolbar. I'm happy to see that developers are finally focusing on respecting the android design guidelines Google established. Here is the [LINK] to download the beta apk, hope you like it!

AnTuTu Benchmark: LG Nexus 4

More benchmarks! Thanks to my friend Gianmaria Generoso (a.k.a. Kronos) I had the possibility to run a benchmark on the LG Nexus 4, the actual Google flagship phone.
At first you can think that it is not that impressing if you compare it to the S3 but you will have a surprise.
The total benchmark score is 16724, a nice score and not that far from my 15346.

But you will probably be shocked by the 2D and 3D graphics score.

It is an amazing 7267, obtained thanks to the dedicated  Adreno 320 GPU, that out-matches the Mali-400 MP with a score of just 4429.

AnTuTu Benchmark: Galaxy S2 GT-I9100

This benchmatk think is interesting...
I tested my old Galaxy S2 and the result was... disappointing. It is a lot slower than the S3! The score is just 9977, I'm happy I switched.

Tegra 3 VS Exynos 4 Quad

Today is a testing day. I decided to figure out how good is my Galaxy S3 equipped with an Exynos 4 Quad and downloaded AnTuTu Benchmark to make some tests.
My phone received a strangely high 15346, four stars and an half.

A couple of minutes later I wanted to compare my result with the Tegra 3 on my mom's Nexus 7 tilapia (Wi-Fi + 3G).
The Tegra 3 received "just" 12446.

At last I was like "WTF nVidia, you liar!".
Yes, this result freaked me out, I couldn't imagine how powerful my phone is (with unofficial CyanogenMod drivers).
Don't trust companies and what they say, always look at benchmarks first!

P.S.: On both devices I have installed CyanogenMod 10.1 at the latest version

Adobe Photoshop CS2 on linux (Kubuntu 12.04)

Really quick video to show an awesome possibility.
You could ask why since I have a Mac... well, that's what happened: I formatted my HD and installed just linux this time. I don't want to use mac os anymore, it is way too dumb. Now I'm a proud pure linux user.

Chinese S3 screen protection film

Today I bought for just € 1.20 a new screen protection film for my Galaxy S3.
I already used one on the "old" S2 and my satisfaction have been confirmed again with this film.
If you think about it almost every accessory is "Made in China" so there is no difference between a € 10 brand protector and a € 1.20 cheap one.

After buying it, the problem was to apply it. The problem is that you MUST remove every dust particle one by one, otherwise there will be an ugly enormous bobble for each particle on the screen. Quite a big deal... if you consider that when you apply the film you can't remove it and reuse it. Another big problem is the position: you can think that the edge you are working on is exactly where it is supposed to be, but than you realize how much you suck when you completely apply it. Everything has to be perfect or you just wasted time and money. At last i won, and this is the result:

I feel like I won the last wave of Mann VS Machine.

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...).

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:

[link]

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 :)

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.

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!

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!

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!