Prakash Advani's Blog

Bill Gates announced this past weekend that he is using an Android phone, you could say that there’s been a slight tectonic shift, as though the plates below the surface of the planet are adjusting.

It’s no small surprise. Microsoft stopped emphasizing mobile operating systems some time ago, releasing Nokia (acquired in 2013, sold last year) to make smartphones and handsets running Android and then refocusing — as only a $73 billion company can do — on its multiple core businesses and total domination in areas like computing infrastructure, AI, desktop operating systems, and productivity software. It’s a blip, but for a company with 124,293 employees, it’s still notable because the most important figure in the history of operating systems is now using an OS designed by archenemy Google.

Read More: https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/25/bill-gates-now-uses-an-android-phone-has-no-interest-in-an-iphone/

When One Plus One was launched, it was the most talked about phone.  Now after successfully launching phones for a few years, One Plus has launched the One Plus 5. While they do create a lot of fanfare around launches, for this one people actually paid to attend the launch! of course One Plus threw in lots of freebies, but it’s still impressive. I think One Plus is now very serious about the Indian market, which is a good thing. Which means it’s no longer a phone that only a few people use but something which has a large sales volumes in India, so support should be available in many places.

Let’s look at what is good about the One Plus 5

• Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 – The fastest process around, so you won’t have to struggle with any lag.
• 6 or 8 GB RAM –  who would need more? Until very recently my laptop only had 4GB RAM. I think 4GB is more than what most people would ever need.
• 64-128GB USF 2.1 storage, 64GB should be good for most use-cases. The USF 2.1 is also faster.
• 20+16 Megapixel Dual Camera with 1.6x optical zoom. These days Dual camera are in fashion for providing better photographs.
• 16 Megapixel front-facing camera for the Selfie junkies.
• 3300 MaH battery with fast charger- they call it Dash charger and it is rated as the fastest charger in the market. However fast charging works only with the charger that’s bundled with the phone.
• 3.5mm jack, you may ask what’s the big deal? but with many flagship phones ditching the 3.mm jack for audio over USB type C, it’s a nice to have.
• USB Type C. This is quickly replacing the Micro USB as a charging port. Although not backward compatible, but definitely the future.

What we don’t like about it

• No expandable storage, if you choose the go with the 64GB or 128GB you can’t upgrade later as there is no microSD slot.
• Not water proof. Well, do you need it? People take their phone to the washroom these days (yikes), so nice to have 🙂

Overall good value for money. At half the price of Samsung S8, it’s definitely worth buying.

One Plus has always provided cutting edge phones at less than half the price of leading branding. Today they launched the One Plus 3 with some great specifications. The good thing is, you don’t need an invite anymore.

Here are some great specifications:

• Snapdragon 820 Quad Core processor
• 6GB RAM (more than my PC :))
• Dual Nano Sims
• Fast charging upto 60% within 30 Minutes
• 16MP camera with Optical image stabilisation
• Android 6.0.1
• All metallic body
• Finger print scanner
• Any many more

Buy OnePlus 3  on Amazon for  Rs. 27,999

There are a lot of ways to stream music at home. Dedicated Bluetooth speakers, like the Supertooth Disco or Jawbone Jambox work well, but because they are designed for portability they don’t sound all that great. At home, the Chromecast is cheap and easy if you already have a home A/V system to distribute the music, or you can splurge and pick up a Sonos for better sound and features like multi-room broadcasting. But, as we all know, a DIY junkie always has his or her eyes open for something better.

I’ve got an alternative that lets you not only stream music from your Android (or any portable device that supports Bluetooth 3.0 or higher with A2DP) or computer, but will sound as good as you want it to sound, determined on how much you want to spend on speakers. Realistically, you can spend $200 and have the very best audio possible while streaming over Bluetooth, or you can spend $100 and have something that sounds really good and the satisfaction that you did it yourself.

http://www.androidcentral.com/how-build-your-own-bluetooth-streaming-home-audio-system

You can also get a Bluetooth Amplifier and speakers from Griffin which combines bluetooth and amplifier functionality.

Google’s OnHub is a bit of a mystery. Google shipped us this box—well, this cylinder—but it won’t really talk about what’s in it or why it exists. Today, it’s a Wi-Fi router from Google; tomorrow it might be something totally different. But it’s also a funny glowing cylinder with way too much processing power for its own good, a boatload of antennas, and an ever-present cloud connection to a Google update server so that it can evolve at will. OnHub is a tiny bundle of potential and no one really knows what it will turn into.

Read More: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/08/google-onhub-review-googles-smart-home-trojan-horse-is-a-200-leap-of-faith/

A few days before Thanksgiving, George Hotz, a 26-year-old hacker, invites me to his house in San Francisco to check out a project he’s been working on. He says it’s a self-driving car that he had built in about a month. The claim seems absurd. But when I turn up that morning, in his garage there’s a white 2016 Acura ILX outfitted with a laser-based radar (lidar) system on the roof and a camera mounted near the rearview mirror. A tangle of electronics is attached to a wooden board where the glove compartment used to be, a joystick protrudes where you’d usually find a gearshift, and a 21.5-inch screen is attached to the center of the dash. “Tesla only has a 17-inch screen,” Hotz says.

Read More: http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-george-hotz-self-driving-car/

Lots of people have asked for the invite for the OnePlus 2 which I never had!

Looks like today have an open sale, no invite required..go for it 🙂

If you need a small computer to run as a media server, file server or even build an IoT solution, then the Raspberry Pi is a good start.

Amazon.in has an offer on the Raspberry Pi for just Rs. 1738

Grab it while it lasts.

Amazon.com has dropped the pricing for Nexus 6. The Nexus has had a good reputation of top notch hardware at a reasonable price. However this changed with the Nexus 6 launch. While it was great hardware, it wasn’t cheap this time.

Now Nexus 6 is finally had a price dropped and it now makes sense. A new Nexus is expected soon and hence the price drop but it still looks good.

For those who came in late, here is whats interesting about the Nexus 6:

• Water Resistant body
• 5.96″ screen – may be big for some
• 13 MP Camera with Optical image stabilization
• 2.7 GHz Qualcomm quad-core processor
• 3 GB RAM
• 3220 mAh battery
• Dual Band WiFi
• Wireless Charging

Last month, LinuxGizmos.com and the Linux Foundation’s Linux.com community website sponsored a 10-day SurveyMonkey survey that asked readers of both sites to choose their favorite three Linux- or Android-based open-spec single-board computers. This year, 1,721 respondents — more than twice the number from the 2014 survey — selected their favorites from a list of 53 SBCs, compared to last year’s 32.

Read More: http://linuxgizmos.com/raspberry-pi-stays-sky-high-in-2015-hacker-sbc-survey/

Since the onslaught of mobile phone with cameras, camera sales have been on the decline. The point-and-shoot camera are getting quickly replaced with mobile phones with decent camera functions. The other high-end are the DSLRs. If you need something more than a point-and-shoot but don’t like the big and bulky DSLRs, keep reading.

These high-end pocket cameras have a lot of technology borrowed from the DSLRs but are in a compact body, primarily large sensor (good pictures) and full manual controls. They are not exactly pocket friendly in price but most of them would fit in your pocket. They also support RAW format which is nice to have. Some of them are almost the price of an DSLR though, or even higher! Except for interchangeable lens, they have everything that you would want from a DSLR. If you still wasn’t interchangeable lens but smaller size, look for a mirrorless, but they are not as tiny as most of these.

Notes:

• The Canon G1XII is the heaviest and also the only one with 1.5″ Sensor
• Except for Canon G6 the rest of them have 1″/1.5″ Sensor
• The Canon G16 has an optical view finder, while Sony RX100’s have electronic view finder built-in
•  The Canon G16 and the Sony RX100’s have slow motion video, but they are missing touch screen
• The RX100 IV is the only one with 4K video

I had been thinking of my Touch Table project for a long time. My research on existing solutions was a bit disappointing: mostly insanely expensive, large, or platform locked, they did not fit my vision of a [Android or Linux-powered] ‘desktop’ that would allow me to fit it into my existing workflow, rather than hope that applications would support it (like the Microsoft Surface).

Read more at http://www.ikeahackers.net/2015/06/hemnes-multitouch-table.html

 

The best phone money can buy, one plus one is now available without an invitation.

If you are in the market for a new phone, here is your chance.

Here are three invites for One Plus One – India edition.

Grab them before they last 🙂

Click on the link below.

Use any of these 3 4 invite codes:

INFN-X2IG-EPM5-ZGRT

INBM-589Q-DPIM-WQYQ

INBV-E96S-OZS0-SMWH

INL1-ZVCC-ZAXY-NIXS

 

If you have been eyeing the OnePlus One, you have good news!

Buy the OnePlus One without an invite at Amazon India.

This deal is only Tomorrow Tuesday 10th Feb at 10AM.

Raspberry Pi 2 is here.

• A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU
• 1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM
• Compatible with Raspberry Pi 1
• $35

And now runs Snappy Ubuntu Core.

This Thanksgiving, Amazon Fire Phone is available at a special price of $199. For that price it looks like a great phone.

• Unlocked
• 2.2GHz quad-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• Bright 4.7″ HD display
• 13 MP camera with optical image stabilization, HDR, and LED flash
• 4 G LTE
• NFC support
• Free Headphones
• Free Amazon Prime for 1 year.

The only reasons why I wouldn’t buy this is..

• Tied to Amazon app store, no Google Play,
• 4.7″ Screen, if you are in the market for a bigger display
• No expandable memory slot
• GSM Only

My setup:

Laptop with Ubuntu 14.04LTS  and Nexus 4.

I also assume you are comfortable with the command prompt. You need to run some commands from terminal.

If you are already running Android 5.0, you can skip Step 1 and go directly to Step 2 to root your device. In my case, I didn’t wait for the OTA update, but if you prefer to play it safe, get the Android 5.0 update and then start.

Pre-Preparation.

Make sure your laptop is charged or plugged into the power and your phone is charged too.

Take a full system backup, because these steps wipes the Android clean.

And ensure your laptop doesn’t go into suspend mode while you do this.

Now install a few packages:

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb

sudo apt-get install fastboot

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install phablet-tools

Step 1: Installing Android 5.0

NOTE: This will wipe the system clean so if you haven’t backed up, go and back up first.

Download the correct file from the Google site:

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

For Nexus 4 it is called.

occam-lrx21t-factory-51cee750.tgz

Now extract the files, it will show you a directory

occam-lrx21t

Change to this directory occam-lrx21t

Now boot into the bootloader, remember this step as you will need to do it a few times.

adb reboot bootloader

If it’s not able to find the device,  you can boot manually.

For nexus 4, while holding the volume button down, press the power button.

Now unlock the device with the following command.

fastboot oem unlock

Now flash the Android 5.0 Image by running this command from the directory above.

./flash-all.sh

After a few minutes, On the phone you will see a new boot up logo for Android 5.0. this will take a few minutes to complete. Grab a coffee or your favourite beverage.

Once this is complete, wait you still have to root the device.

wait, don’t do much on your android, as the unlock process may wipe your data!

Step 2: Rooting Android.

Download the rooting script from chainfire: http://download.chainfire.eu/297/CF-Root/CF-Auto-Root/CF-Auto-Root-mako-occam-nexus4.zip

When you scroll down, you see the actual link to download.

This will download this file: CF-Auto-Root-mako-occam-nexus4.zip

Extract this directory, change to this directory.

Now boot into the boot loader with your preferred method. I used volume down button + power on.

Now type these commands.

chmod +x root-linux.sh 
./root-linux.sh

Step 3: Installing MultROM manager

Find the app in Google Play and Install.

Start the app. This will ask you to install 3 things, go ahead and install.

It will also boot into recovery mode.

Once its done, it will reboot and start android.

Now start the MultROM manager again.

You should see the option to install Ubuntu Touch.

Step 4: Installing Ubuntu Touch

If you want demo files, select the -demo

you can choose stable OR development version, you can also install both one by one.

This step took the longest amount of time for me. Go get a nap!

It will ask you to reboot once.

Once this is done, there is no intimation that it is completed.

When you reboot, it will give you an option to boot internal (Android) or Ubuntu Touch. Here you can select Ubuntu Touch and boot into it and setup.

Final Housekeeping. Boot into bootloader and lock the boot loader again:

fastboot oem lock

click on start to reboot your system.

Note: If you upgrade your Android, you will lose the dual-boot and have to start again from step 2 which may differ with your android version.

After the  iPhone 6 vs Android: Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC M8 and Xiaomi MI3,  I am now comparing the Phablets: iPhone 6 Plus, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and LG G3, Sony Xperia Z3 and Note 3 Neo. I picked the top Phablets and also the budget Note 3 Neo.

Still want an Apple ?

I was watching the iPhone 6 launch last night and was wonder what the fuss is all about? Well it’s from Apple and people may be drooling.

Lets find out how the iPhone 6 compares with the Leading Android phones. I am only comparing the specifications and features and not the actually quality which is very subjective.

Here is Apple iPhone vs Samsung Galaxy S5, HTC One M8 and Xiaomi MI3. Galaxy S5 and One M8 are the premium Android phones while the MI3 is the poor man’s option or the rich mans budget phone which ever way you look at it.

As you can see the Android variants are leading in almost all the specifications which does matter. This includes the inexpensive Xiaomi Rather than innovating, Apple seems to only playing catch-up. Apply skillfully hides the finer specifications. Its your choice to stand in the queue for iPhone 6 or go with an Android at a cheaper price.