A launcher is essentially a “home screen app”. It is the first thing you see when you unlock your phone. It displays your apps, widgets, backgrounds, etc. The Android OS allows you to change your launcher as you see fit. (Unfortunately Apple is not so open with it’s iOS, sorry iPhone users.) Pretty much any new Android device you buy will have it’s own launcher pre-installed. Samsung has a launcher called “TouchWiz”, HTC’s is called “Sense”, and so on and so forth. The only exclusions are Google’s Nexus line, which is just stock Android. Think of a launcher as an extra layer over the base Android OS.
Category: android
Talkback Notification Issue with Galaxy S3
Whenever I run into an issue with some form of technology I do my best to solve it. Most of that solving comes from lots of Google searches, but this time I wasn’t able to find anything helpful. I was able to resolve the issue, which is why I’m sharing this now, in case someone else comes across the issue and finds this page. Hopefully it can help.
The Situation:
I have a Galaxy S3 from Verizon (SCH-I535). I recently downloaded a bunch of apps that I was trying out, most of which were augmented reality apps. One of them was IOnRoad, which is a pretty cool concept to assist in safe driving. IOnRoad uses the TalkBack Accessibility function. The TalkBack feature is a service to help the blind and otherwise impaired, it essentially reads and describes everything going on on the screen. It can also be used to read aloud other things.
The Problem:
Whenever I booted up my phone the Talkback notification, a little hand icon, would be displayed in the notification bar. When pulled down, Talkback would be listed as an Ongoing service. Upon checking the status of Talkback in the accessibility options of the phone, it was displayed as off. To remove the notification temporarily, I had to turn it on then off again. The notification would be gone until the next time I rebooted.
Now, I probably reboot my phone more than other people do, probably once every few days. I just like a fresh device, and the GS3 has enough battery problems for me to want to make sure no unnecessary apps/services are running the background taking up valuable battery life. Every time I would reboot, the TalkBack notification would be there again.
The Solution:
Now I did a bunch of things and I’m not quite sure which one worked. They are listed below.
- Uninstalled IOnRoad. This is probably the one. After uninstalling I rebooted. However, I also did some other things:
- Force stopped the app. This can be achieved by opening up the Application manager under System Settings, swiping left to show the right-most column “All”, scrolling to and selecting “TalkBack” and clicking “Force stop”.
- Disabling & re-enabling the TalkBack service. This option is right next to “Force stop”, as described above.
When I talked to Samsung support about this, they simply told me to wipe the partition cache. When that didn’t work, they told me it was all they could do and a hardware specialist would have to look at it. Meh. Anyway, that solved the problem! I hope it helps someone else!
Marketing: Recycling Bins in London now Stalk You
A company called Renew installed “smart” recycling bins in London just prior to the 2012 Olympics. These bins recognize and track the MAC addresses for each person walking by. A MAC address [wiki] is a set of characters that is unique to each WiFi enabled device, including smartphones. As long as your device has the WiFi setting left on, it is sending a signal pinging other devices nearby. These bins simply pic that up and track your MAC address.
Potential privacy issue? Absolutely.
People are not entirely comfortable with this kind of tracking. Privacy is still highly valued by many and rightly so. New technologies can be hard for some to understand and what we don’t understand can be unsettling. Right now throughout developed countries, governments are playing catch-up when it comes to regulation of new technologies. But take into account a few things:
- London is already one of the most surveilled cities in the world. The US and many other countries are not far behind.
- Every day people give more of the information to social networks and share public status updates about their everyday life.
- These devices simply track MAC addresses of phones, no personal information is stored.
But this could be huge
By tracking people’s movements throughout the day, these bins provide advertisers with incredibly useful data. It could give Company A a huge advantage over Company B. In an example given by the original article, one coffee shop could better understand its customers’ loyalty. Are they getting their coffee in different places on a regular basis? If so, ads could be changed in certain locations to let that customer know of any specials or new flavors.
Bars could use the technology to track gender, dwell time, kind of purchase, and much more. This kind of information is super useful.
In just one day, 12 London bins tracked over 100,000 people, noting their presence almost 1 million times.
[Source]
IKEA to launch augmented reality app allowing you to see products in your house prior to purchase
Cost: Free
Release: Aug 25
Available for: iOS and Android
Now this is cool. I’ve tested augmented reality apps before but so far I haven’t been super impressed. This article quickly summarizes most of the AR apps I’ve tried and enjoyed so far. Especially Goggles, Skymap, and Wikitude.
The use of this technology for such products is very smart. As per this article, measurements will not be necessary and the catalog app has access to over 90 different products. Apparently it will be a new app released August 25, however the functionality is already in the catalog app linked at the very bottom of this post.
To actually place the furniture in your home, it’s recommended that you have the catalog. This is because the app apparently needs to scan the catalog to get “a more accurate scale of the model, so you won’t have to resize it yourself. The IKEA catalogue becoems the scale reference used by the app to calculate a more accurate scale.” If you don’t have a physical catalog you can download/email it and print out a specific page to scan or just use the “without IKEA catalogue” mode and scale the model yourself with finger gestures.
But that’s easier said than done. I’ve just tested the app and it is a processor hog. It crashed twice on my S3 while trying to place a desk chair in my bathroom. For this to work effectively you’ll need 1) a fast internet connection, 2) a top of the line phone, and 3) some patience.
IKEA isn’t exactly pioneering anything here either. Another app called Furnish (previously known as ‘Ikea Now’) has been doing the same thing for quite some time. (Furnish on: iOS | Android) However, the fact that a large company like IKEA is adopting this concept is pretty neat. I don’t doubt that we’ll be seeing more augmented reality as the technology continues to improve. Imagine this kind of app on Google Glass?
Below are links to the current iOS and Android apps. If I remember, I’ll check back in a few weeks when the update gets pushed/app gets released to notify you of any changes.
Hilarious or Dumb? App challenges users to throw their phone as high as possible.
It’s called “Send Me to Heaven” and it challenges users to throw their phone as high in the air as they can. Naturally it was rejected by the fascist pigs at Apple, but Google has kindly accepted it to the Play Store for Android.
Owners of more heavy duty phones like the G’zOne Commando might get more use out of this kind of app. Either way I think it’s hilarious.
App Recommendation: Gyft
Store your gift cards, get free ones, buy new ones, gift them to friends.
This is a great app, especially if you just like getting free stuff. Not only do I store many of my gift cards in this app (simply input the card numbers into the app, plus any security codes), but I also regularly receive free gift cards to spend online. Some of them I don’t care about, but I just find friends on social networks who are interested and give them away!
It makes your wallet lighter. Once your gift cards are stored in the app there is no reason to carry them with you. The app generates a barcode that can be scanned at retail stores.
TL;DR Store your gift cards & get free ones. Free.
Links: Android | iOS
App Recommendation: Unified Remote
Update: Clarified that this app runs over a wifi network.
The only way I’ll be able to maintain a blog is if I make my posts short and concise. So that’s the new plan.
This is a great remote app I’ve been using a lot for a few months now. I really only use it for two things – controlling movies in VLC and turning off the computer because I’m too lazy to get out of bed after the movie is over. But it can do a lot more.
It’s got basic mouse/keyboard input, a remote file system manager, a general media remote (works with iTunes), task manager, and Spotify controls. And that’s just the free version.
To get it working simply download and install the Remote server and run it over your WiFi network. Available for Windows for now, Mac and Linux coming soon. The app itself is available for Android and Windows Phone. Sorry iOS users.
TL;DR This is a great remote app. I highly recommend it.
Links: Official Site | Android | Windows Phone
App Recommendation: Rando [Free]
I’ve been using this app for some time now and have really enjoyed it. The concept is really simple: take a random photo and get a random photo, from anywhere in the world. After you’ve done it a few times it’s interesting to scroll through all your photos and see the different places they came from. I’ve noticed that the app is very popular in South Korea, as well as the UK and Brazil. Best of all, out of the 100+ photos I’ve received, not a single one has been NSFW.
TL;DR: Simple & fun – take a pic, get a pic
Price: Free
Links: Android | iOS
Android: Tasker and NFC
It wasn’t until this past October when I finally got a smartphone. I chose the Samsung Galaxy S3. Since that purchase I’ve barely spent any money on actual apps. In fact, I’ve only bought two. The first was Swiftkey ($3.99 Play Store), the awesome keyboard app that knows how I speak better than I do, and the second was Tasker ($2.99 Play Store). I immediately started using Swiftkey but Tasker sat in the background for a while, until I had time to really work with it.
This weekend I had the time. And I have to say, this app is amazing. There are so many possibilities with this app. When I show off my phone and all of its features, this is my go-to app. I’m amazed by it every time I discover something new. I think to myself “this is the future”.
I found Tasker after explaining Near Field Communication (NFC) to one of my friends thinking of purchasing the new Galaxy S4. I was doing some research and came across the app in a few articles. It peaked my interest and I looked into it a bit more. I found a ton of stuff about it on reddit. People were doing awesome things with it.
One post really interested me. This guy had automated his phone to levels I had never known possible. He’s a motorcyclist that doesn’t like to be bothered on his rides, so he created a series of tasks to help him out. First, he used an NFC tag on his bike as a switch to enable and disable these functions.
NFC tags are essentially tiny chips that can store little bits of data that trigger certain functions on your phone.
The tags can be used in a variety of ways, including sharing apps between phones and purchasing products in stores. It’s much like RFID, only it has a shorter range of 4 inches, so it’s more difficult to eavesdrop on.
After he scans his NFC tag his phone goes silent so he is not bothered on rides. It then prompts him to choose whether he wants to listen to music or an audiobook during the ride, via customized on-screen menu. If a person from his “Favorites” contacts him, they receive an automatic SMS informing them he’s on his motorcycle. If they send him 911, his phone will literally speak to him, notifying him there is an emergency. If one of these favorites texts him “Where are you?” his phone will use GPS to locate him, determine his speed, and relay that information to them. When his ride ends, he simply scans the NFC tag again and all his settings return to their defaults.
This reddit user was kind enough to share how he did all this so I tried it myself and got it working. I’m loving it and it barely even touches on all the functions this app can do.
I found some other functions of this app and NFC on reddit:
- EvoBrah explains how to use NFC to force yourself out of the bed in the morning with alarms that require an NFC tag to deactivate.
- Samsung used it in a marketing campaign to promote the S3. They gave away a free song every week!
- User Bodieh wants to keep an NFC tag in his wallet that will trigger a fake phone call, so that he can escape conversations (this is very easy to do).
- Reddit user Terswin would place multiple tags around the house with each set to play a different playlist on the phone (also very easy!).
- TheRealBigLou has an amazing home theater setup that is completely automated by NFC. This is just mind-boggling.
- It can also be used to notify you of your bank account balance.
- GmoneyKricket is using Tasker to accomplish a variety of different things.
This post is beginning to look like one big ad for Android and Tasker. But I really just wanted to share the capabilities of these systems. I get excited about this kind of stuff and I hope it interests you as well. If it does and you’d like to know more about how to get NFC tags, how to use them, or what else I’m using them for post a comment and let me know!
Bill Solecki 