Brian O'Toole

Having learnt his writing techniques reading e-Books of Sherlock Holmes, Brian now spends his time /kicking, lurking, SSHing and encoding.

Nov

MoDaCo's Paul O'Brien Releases Patch For Galaxy Nexus Softkeys With Menu And/Or Search Key Reinstatement

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy Nexus / Nexus Prime, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Mods, News

One of the most prominent new features on the Galaxy Nexus, and Ice Cream Sandwich, is that the soft-keys are displayed right on the screen. While the notion is a sound one, there will always be those who miss some of the legacy features left behind. In this case, those would be the Menu and Search keys, stalwarts of Android's interface paradigm since its release with the G1. What was once four buttons - Home, Menu, Back, Search* - has been whittled down to just Home and Back, along with the introduction of the new multitasking-purposed App Switcher button. This combination was seen previously in Android 3.0 Honeycomb, but is about to encounter widespread use on upcoming phones**.

Nov

[Updated] Galaxy Nexus Owners Experiencing Strange Volume/Muting Bug

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy Nexus / Nexus Prime, News

Update: Things have gone from "Looks like a weird software bug" to "Damn, this could well be a serious hardware issue". As some users had been suggesting, the problem does indeed link to use of 2G. However, it turns out that the issue can be replicated by the use of 2G even on another, proximate phone. As you can see in the video demonstration by kongzs7 below, the volume rocker keys' sensors are set off even when the phone is only at the bootloader.

This absolves Android 4.0 from blame, and suggests either an issue with the internal hardware, or possibly the firmware of the device, both significantly more problematic to sort out.

Nov

Nook Tablet Rooted, Looks To Continue Where Its Predecessor Left Off

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Barnes & Noble, News, Nook Tablet

A new device being rooted may raise few eyebrows nowadays, but for those of you looking for a nice cheap little tablet, the Nook Tablet has taken the first step to becoming yet another hobbyist's favorite. Given the enormous popularity of the Nook Color before it, this bodes well for the future of the Nook Tablet. However, with the release of the $200 Amazon Kindle Fire, no longer is the $250 Nook Tablet alone in American cheap-tablet market, so this development may well help to convince would-be buyers. Over at XDA-Developers, poster Indirect has tested the proven zergRush method on their own Nook Tablet, as well as created a batch file for Windows users to help automate the process.

Oct

New FCC Filing Hints At Samsung Galaxy S II LTE HD Coming To The USA

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy S II LTE HD, News, Samsung

A phone with model name SHV-E120L recently passed through the FCC. Despite our initial excitement that it could be the Galaxy Nexus (née Prime), it turned out to be none other than the Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE, king of lengthy titles.

We originally saw this phone announced last month in Korea, where Samsung wowed with a spacious 4.65" screen, 1280 x 720 resolution, and disappointingly restricted geographical range. Still, if you're itching for a phone with specs to compete with the upcoming Nexus, plus TouchWiz on Gingerbread, this filing could be the good news you were hoping for.

Oct

DIY Fix For Intermittent Audio From HTC Sensation Headphone Jack

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Mods, News, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid)

It looks like the touchscreen isn't the only piece of hardware on the Sensation that works when it wants to. Posted today on XDA-Developers, Sensation owner zmfl recounted his experience with the audio signal coming and going on his phone, and having received confirmation of the issue from other members there, enterprisingly figured out the cause of the problem and its solution.

Put simply, the paint around the Sensation's 3.5 mm headphone jack tends to wear away or chip with use. This brings the pins of the cable plug into contact with the bare case metal and results in the audio cutting out or sending errant control signals to your media player.

Oct

HTC Security OTA Appearing On European Sensations [Update: And Now The GSM EVO 3D, Too]

Posted by Brian O'Toole in HTC, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid)

Originally Posted October 12th.

It's been eleven days since Android Police published this story detailing the discovery by Trevor Eckhart of some serious security issues within HTC's more recent software. Three days after that HTC responded, and now, a further week or so later, we are seeing reports of an "important security update" being pushed to HTC Sensations throughout Europe.

Screencap by FG1234 of Android-Hilfe.de

While HTC does not specify exactly what the ~9 MB update addresses, the timing seems right to relate to the preceding story. Besides alluding to some positive-sounding "performance improvements and new features", the update description does not mention any further details, and HTC certainly doesn't dwell on the nature of the security update itself.

Aug

[Update: EVO 3D Too] Tip: Android 2.3.4 Update For HTC Sensations In Europe Enables Screenshot Shortcut

Posted by Brian O'Toole in News, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid), Tips, Tutorials

Earlier this week, the OTA update to Android 2.3.4 finally began rolling out to HTC Sensations around Europe. Our unit received the update yesterday, and quite by accident we discovered that - besides being able to make voice/video calls in GTalk - we also had a new ability to take screenshots untethered from a computer.

Those of you familiar with the standard method of taking screenshots through the Android SDK know how convoluted the process can be: hunting for drivers, enabling debugging, living down those notification-bar icons ... all a fairly time consuming process. Not to mention you have to be at a computer.

Jul

Samsung Galaxy S II Review: Modern And Powerful, But Will Samsung Keep It That Way?

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Galaxy S II, Phone Reviews, Reviews, Samsung

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

Samsung's original Galaxy S was undoubtedly a great success for the company. One could say it was their first serious smartphone, and its core was widely dispersed around the globe, appearing as the i9000 in Europe and Asia, and - perhaps more familiarly - the AT&T Captivate, Sprint Epic 4G, T-Mobile Vibrant, and Verizon Fascinate in the USA. While we have yet to see firm plans for a repeat of this four-pronged attack with the successor to the Galaxy S, the Galaxy S II i9100 (aka the Samsung "It's Over 9000!") is already widely available throughout the rest of the world and is making waves while at it.

Jun

Is Your HTC Sensation Having Touchscreen Problems?

Posted by Brian O'Toole in Devices By Manufacturer, News, Sensation / Sensation 4G (Pyramid), Tips, Videos

Last Updated: July 31st, 2011

Having had the HTC Sensation in-hand for about a week, our unit has developed some troubling issues with its touchscreen. Namely, the panel often misses first presses, and also struggles with fast brushing movements.

The first issue results in great frustration when typing, as auto-correction of words does not work without the first letter. It also means you often have to tap several times on icons on the homescreen to launch an application.

With the second problem, the malfunctioning results in very choppy scrolling, in the app drawer or in Twitter applications such as TweetDeck. Frequently the touchscreen will register a brushing touch as a press, and will select whatever your finger happened to be passing over at the time.

Jun

[Review] Sonos Controller For Android And Sonos S5 Wireless Speaker System: So-So Performance In A Svelte Package

Posted by Brian O'Toole in App Reviews, Applications, Devices By Manufacturer, Other Reviews, Reviews

Last Updated: July 24th, 2011

Introduction

Sonos is a company well-known in the tech industry for their line of wireless speaker systems, designed to let you sling music around your house without the hassle of complex setup processes or routing wires through ceilings and walls. To mark the launch of their Sonos Controller for Android application, Sonos generously loaned me a full multi-room system consisting of two Sonos S5 speaker units and a wireless ZoneBridge router. Given the buzz surrounding Sonos's products, it seemed best to review the system as a whole, viewing the application and hardware as a complete set. Read on to see how it all stacked up.