Foobnix (a music player) for Android is Released!

If you haven't heard then Foobnix is an excellent, cross-platform music player that can be used on GNU/Linux, MS Windows and Mac OSX in the past. But the latest news is that now the developer has released it for Android too!.

So if you're using Android and would like to have a powerful local and online music player (it's famous for that) that has a simple GUI and loads fast... then you should check out the Foobnix in this Android market page.

Although it has been like 2/3 weeks since its official Android release, but it's a bit new thus there could be bugs but from the user ratings... I think it's already a "hit"! nonetheless.

Main features...

*. It's completely free and not free like with filled with Ads ... no ads... nothing, nada, free as in freedom :D.

*. Last.fm and VK integration, so you can easily share and listen to music all day long.

*. Playlist support with play similar songs, search for files (+ including tags), etc or find songs using online source by genre, artists, name...

*. Fetch album art/covers from Last.fm.

*. Create and delete music folders.

*. Separate download manager.

*. Lyrics support.

*. Super fast updates (bug fixes and new features).

As said it's totally free of charge and requires you to have A Android version of 1.6 or higher to use it. You can learn more about recent updates and news from this official Foobnix android page as well.

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Ubuntu One Files - The Official Android App for Ubuntu Cloud!

Some actually kinda like the idea of cloud computing but every time I heard about it... it makes me feel a bit scared :/. I really don't like the idea of storing my personal files in someone else's server. It doesn't matter anymore whether the cloud computing or the storage, etc strategies are risky ... many people have accepted that thus the rest is give a very little chance resist or to go with the flow which is a bit sad.

But, if you happened to be quite fond of the idea of computer Cloud and use both Android OS and Ubuntu ... then you'll be glad to hear that Canonical has just released their first ever Ubuntu one App for Android OS called "Ubuntu One Files!". 


Main features...

*. It's completely free to begin with :D.

*. Now you can send any file in your Android device to the Ubuntu One account with ease.

*. Upload/download/delete or rename files within the Ubuntu One cloud.

*. Create folders from the app. 

*. Share the URL of your chosen files.

*. You can set-up this application to automatically send the pictures once taken directly from the Android phone to the Ubuntu One account!.

*. Easy sharing you files with Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Picasa, and in your blog if you have one.

*. You need to have Android 2.1 or higher (Honeycomb is supported :D). 

We really have to appreciate the attempts by Ubuntu concerning the future. Because unlike many other Linux distributions (well as said... they have their reasons which I find to be quite reasonable) Ubuntu is doing their best to integrate their Operating system with the "future".

Although the original idea which came from the hackers of the "GNU/Linux" philosophy will eventually be "lost" from Ubuntu since the person that's leading them is not actually a hacker. Anyhow, other than few (including me), the majority does not care about the "philosophy" because a computer is merely a computer for them rather than an identity.

Anyway, well done Ubuntu. You can get the app from this Android market page. If you're a developer then you can obtain the source code from this Launchpad page but it's not available, yet.

Note: (although I highly doubt it but Mr. Mark, if you happen to read this post, it wasn't a judgment, I do respect you for who you are, your believes included... :)).

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Battery Calibration - An App for Android Mobile Phones

I've talked about battery calibration in general terms before. But as an introductions I'll give a brief description nonetheless. There are many types of batteries are in use in various electronic devices nowadays but the most dominating type is called Li-ion. They can be seen in computers such as laptops, tablet PCs, netbooks to mobile phones and other popular devices.

But as the time goes on because of various reasons (explained in the previous article) they can lose the ability to store electronic charge. But interestingly, some types of batteries such as Li-ion can still be quite capable of storing 100% of the original capacity yet if you haven't taken care of them as you should (doing things like drying it to the lowest possible charge and then doing a full recharge now and then, etc)... then the battery will simply lose its ability to "remember" its actual capacity.

In most cases this can be fixed since the battery haven't lost the ability in physical terms (if it has, then it's un-fixable) but only "confused" because of the software installed inside the battery. The "recovery" method is called battery calibration. The process is quite simple and you can even do this without the help of any software most of the time as well.

All you have to do is fully charge the battery and then remove the power and let whatever the electronic device you use to run directly powered by the battery until it almost loses its charge. Then charge the battery 100% before switching it on.

Although it might sound simple, well it is, but with a battery of a mobile phone, usually you're better off with a dedicated application since drying the battery charge can take significant time (normally) otherwise. In that case, if you have an Android powered mobile phone type electronic unit and noticing "wrong" battery status... then it's about time that you do a battery calibration.

There is a dedicated application for that exact purpose which is free of charge and comes with highly recommended by the users as well. And unlike with many other OS... according to experts, it is recommended to do a battery calibration anyway after doing a ROM update/flashing in mobile operating systems in general.

In Android powered devices there is an application called "batterystatus.bin", inside the battery (".bin" is an executable extension like ".exe" in MS Windows) which has to be deleted and replaced to properly display your batteries real capacity. That's what this app does.

Main feature...

*. Since it's recommended that you charge it 100% and when done, the application (once installed) will give you a "beep" notifying that the battery is fully charged.

*. Displays the voltage information.

*. Requires Android 2.1 or higher.

*. Very small app - about 4.7k in size.

Well, that's about it. Now all you have to do is remove the power and let your Android device run using the battery (until it dries out completely) and the application will display information such as the remaining battery status, etc on your screen as well. You can get it from this Andorid market page. Good luck.

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Thumb Keyboard 4.0 Beta is Out!, An Enhanced On Screen Keyboard App for Android Devices!

Android comes with an excellent onscreen keyboard of its own. But if you want a more powerful, fully featured onscreen keyboard for your Android Phone or any android device ... then Thumb Keyboard is an excellent app.

Although the recently released version 4.0 is still in beta stage but when considering it's features and user feedback it has received so for for the beta version, it's sees as good as any released app.

Thumb Keyboard fully support Android Gingerbread (2.3) and higher, including the separate honeycomb version which is aimed at tablet PCs as well.

Main features...

*. Easily switch between various keyboard layouts.

*. Multi-touch gesture support.

*. Better shortcut support - Say that you have frequent words/symbols, etc then you can set-up a shortcut for speeding the process while typing.

*. Resize keyboard buttons easily. If you have somewhat big fingers and found out that even though your screen still has a bit of a room but still the default keyboard app won't let you change the size, etc... but with TK4.0, changing a button size (both height/width, etc) is a breeze!.

*. With this new version, you can easily access the frequently used keys too.

*. Better predicting algorithms - Meaning that, while you type the app will be able to "guess" your words, again resulting a faster typing speeds.  

These are just a few of its main features to mention. Anyhow, if you want to give it a try then please get it from here. One more thing, if you're using the current market version of Thumb Keyboard, then please make sure to uninstall it first.

As mentioned there could still be bugs, so be aware of it. While I was reading this official release thread on XDA forum, for few "bugs" that were reported, the developer suggested that after installing, if you reboot your Android device, those "bugs" would be automatically resolved. Good luck.

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