Android Market Best of Apps you must have

April 27, 2009 — Damien

29 Sep 09:  This is the better post to read: http://damiensaunders.com/2009/08/11/10-best-android-apps-for-your-phone/

Ok I’ve been using an Android from HTC for a few days now and I’m loving it … I’m so hooked I could almost get myself kicked out of the house, or have my ‘beautiful & precious’ phone smashed :(

Here’s what you too should try

there are so many free Apps in the Android Market that you can’t get bored. Given how much I use a phone and my focus on the mobiles and music, heres a choice selection

LAST.FM – its more a radio station here than the super Vodafone Last.fm Scrobbler (which you know I love)

NewsRob – it works with Google Reader – but I’m still not sure why there isn’t a GReader app?

Android-VNC-Viewer – once I got it working I loved it, but its a tiny screen, don’t use it for trying to control WinAmp or something, but its funny if you know how to use it to turn off windose :)

Toggle Wifi – its dead simple, but it still dont help if you then have to have a username or password for the wifi account

Barcode Scanner and Book Scanner – i love it … except when it goes beep in the bookshop (hehehe)

So whats missing?

  • a basic screenshot app like the s60 Symbian app
  • a VLC player for any videos
  • a WinVista fix as today you still can’t plug your droid phone into your Vista machine
  • a music store client that I’m happy to use
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We are watching you and reading your texts and emails

April 27, 2009 — Damien

The UK for along time has been a country full of honours and award systems — the most CCTV cameras comes to mind and from today it seems that the UK Government believes that for your safety,  they will need to record details and the contents of every SMS, email, voicemails and phone calls.

How afraid are we all becoming?

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/apr/27/surveillance-data-protection

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Nokia S60 Symbian Best Apps you should have

April 25, 2009 — Damien

I’ve been using Nokia’s for a while now – N95, N95 8Gb and the E71

Here’s the top apps I put on any phone when I set it up

Vodafone Last.fm Scrobbler – gee I ‘made’ this .. but I love it so. Scrobble what you listen to while out n about, underground or overseas, check your charts and what your friends are up to. This s60 app is fuly symbian signed and tested on a number of Vodafone networks – and its the only scrobbler for the Nokia 5800 so far.

S60 Screen Shot – great for when you need that shot for the website, product reviews or whatever. Saves pictures as PNG, BMP or JPG and can also take them automatically every few seconds.

Google Search – works great once you install it you have a little Google Search box on your phone screen – its a killer ‘app’ or widget that will help drive mobile internet usage

Nokia Mail for Exchange – the E71 comes with a number of push e-mail apps, but this is the best so far. Really its only let down is that you can’t copy an email to a task or flag it for follow-up (but thats the same problem for Blackberry too).

Posted in Google, Mobile, Music, handsets, mobile internet. Tags: , , , , . 2 Comments »

Tips on Changing Settings for Virtualbox on a Mac Laptop

April 13, 2009 — Damien

This covers basic settings on a Mac Laptop Intel running osx … Running Virtualbox, the freeware virtualisation software on any computer can be easy – and there are a number of internet based support forums. Getting your head around the settings for Virtualbox can be a bit harder.

Virtualbox is configurable from its GUI interface and also has a larger set of command line options, which are all covered in the userguide on the Virtualbox download site

The Edit Settings GUI has 7 sections with 3 sub sections. For first time users, in Virtualbox 2.2.0 the 7 sections are

  1. General
  2. Storage
  3. Audio
  4. Network
  5. Ports
  6. Shared Folders
  7. Remote Display

You will be most interested in editing or changing the settings in Storage, Network and Shared Folders

Storage

How to mount the Guest Additions in MacOSX

The Guest Additions file is hidden inside the Application folder

Click Edit > Storage

Select CD/DVD-ROM and the options to Mount CD/DVD Drive and ISO Image File

Click the Yellow Folder icon

Now open the Applications folder in a Finder window

Right-click Virtualbox and choose Show Contents

Inside this folder click and drag the Guest Additions ISO to the Virtualbox Settings menu

Then in Virtualbox click once on the Guest Additions entry and choose Select

Now run the Virtualbox Guest and your Guest Additions disc will be mounted as your CD-Rom

Run the Virtualbox Guest Additions on the Mac so you have seamless integration of your mouse

Good Luck.

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How to install Virtualbox on Mac osx host & WinXp guest using TinyXP rev 09

April 10, 2009 — Damien

Virtualbox is a dream freeware solution for anyone – novice to geek – who wants to run different computers inside their computer … virtual so to speak. Today I’ve been tinkering with getting Virtualbox working on a Mac laptop running WinXP.

Virtualbox from Sun is a freeware, open source virtualisation application .. it comes in a number of flavours – I’ve previously used it to run WinXP guests inside WinXP hosts for testing and at work it was the only way to install things without having to go to the IT helpdesk.

So today I was trying to setup Mac OSx with a Windows XP guest … something new this time … I knew I needed some patience, a copy of WinXP, and Virtualbox

To speed up today’s install process I thought I’d give TinyXP rev 09 a go … hmmm … I do have my personal copy of WinXP, but I’m afraid Microsoft don’t like you using the same serial number more than 20? times.

For Newbs & Opening Comments

I’m making assumptions here that you have used Virtualbox or virtual software before on your Mac.

A comment on jargon …

Host – in this example is Mac OSX, ie you are hosting the virtual operating system on your mac

Guest -  WinXP or what ever the virtual operating system you are going to  install

Seamless windows – once you have installed the guest OS you want to be able to copy & paste between Host and Guest or maybe seamlessly move and use your mouse between Host and Guest … right?

TinyXP can be found all over the net … Google it to get the Torrent …

The TinyXP rev 09 will save on your Mac computer as TinyXP-rev09.iso – remember where this is saved too.

For Mac buffs an .ISO is almost the same as a .DMG and can be mounted the same way.

Revisions to this post

14 Apr 09 – For now, I’ll assume you have used Virtualbox before and I have made lots of shortcuts in these notes which I hope to correct in the future

02 Aug 09 – Virtualbox 3 is out and fixes a few issues like internet connectivity. See my other post on Windows 7 RC and Virtualbox if you’re interested.

Lets get going …

Virtualbox Main Screen

Virtualbox Main Screen

  1. Run Virtualbox, create a new Guest (winxp of course)
  2. Then click Settings in the toolbar
  3. Click on Storage then CD/DVD – Mount and then check the Radio button for ISO Image File
  4. Click the funny Folder Up Icon mount the disc image for TinyXP
  5. Open a new Mac Finder window and go to the saved location for the TinyXP.iso
  6. Click and drag the TinyXP.iso back into the Virtualbox Window
  7. Press Select and then OK

Press Start …if you mounted the TinyXP image, then the WinXP guest will boot the image file and run the TinyXP Win installer.

  • Please note: there is no seemless integration between Mac OSx, Virtualbox and the Winxp Guest window yet .. so that means you need to click on the guest window to bring control focus to the WinXP installer. BEFORE you can select the installation options

Choose the option with IE and OE … that’s with internet explorer and outlook express

and so in about 15mins I was logged into WinXP – thats about half the time it normally takes.

BUT .. TinyXP and Virtualbox don’t like each other as

  • TinyXP doesnt come with NIC drivers for the Virtualbox AMD network card so there was no network or no internet
  • TinyXP disables many services needed for Shared Folders

How to enable shared folders in Virtualbox with TinyXP

In the WinXP guest … go to Control Panel .. Admin Tools … Services

I just sorted the column for status (running, manual, disabled) … and enabled the ones I need -

Routing and Remote Access
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM

I got the list here

Reboot the Winxp guest

Now mount the discimage for the Guest Additions and run those

Reboot …

How to get Virtualbox and TinyXP network card working

Go here http://www.downloadatoz.com/driver/item_239216.html

… and download the VMWare Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter

I found out about this here

BTW … the file I needed was on Ubuntu Forums but they make you create an account before you can get the file … doh

Make sure you save the file to the Shared Folder you setup

Start up your WinXP guest

a … go to your VMWare shared folders and copy that file you just downloaded to your desktop and run the installer.

b … the longer part

Now go to Control Panel > System or right-click My Computer and choose Properties

Choose the Hardware Tab then Drivers

You’ll see a little Yellow Question mark next to the VMWare NIC Card

Right Click this and choose update Drivers

Select c:/winxp/drivers/inf

Woo hoo .. 99% done … 1 more reboot

Shutdown this time

c…

How to configure Virtualbox Network Settings to work with Mac osX Airport

Goto the Network settings section … change it from NAT .. to Bridged .. then click the funny yellow screwdriver …. and select en1: Airport

Leave it set as PCnet-FAST III

Save your settings … cross your fingers

Start the WinXP guest … once you logged in your Virtualbox Network STatus lights will start flashing .. now just open Internet Explorer

Oh you did choose to install TinyXP with IE & OE didn’t you ??

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