Use of Messaging Apps Eating Into Carrier Revenues

One third of cell phone carriers are reporting that the use of third party apps for text messaging is eating into their profits.  

Why Nexus One Can't Run 4.0

I ran into this article this morning which does a great job of explaining why the Nexus One cannot run Android 4.0, the upcoming newest version of Android commonly known as Ice Cream Sandwich.  Even though the Nexus One was considered state of the art a little over two years ago when it was released, it is now considered a relic.  It's 1 ghz Snapdragon processor is an outdated version and its lack of internal memory are serious limitations for today's resource intensive apps and operating systems.  While I can't complain about its processor I can, and often do, complain about its lack of internal memory.  I frequently find myself complaining that I have to delete apps to free up memory.  This is the only serious flaw I see with this device.

Anyway, here's the article:

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/102149-why-the-nexus-one-cant-run-ice-cream-sandwich

End of the Road for Nexus One

A Google representative has revealed the dreaded news that the venerable Nexus One will not be receiving the upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich, or Android 4.0.  The Nexus One was released a little less than 2 years ago.  It set the stage for the future models of the Android line and helped propel Android past the iPhone in popularity.  Google had previously claimed that Ice Cream Sandwich will be made available on all phones capable of running Gingerbread but revealed yesterday that it won't be making its way to the Nexus One.  While the Nexus One certainly has the processor and RAM to run Ice Cream Sandwich, it is believed that it's lack of a graphics processor is the main reason for it not receiving the upgrade.  Google did reveal that the Nexus S will be receiving the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the coming weeks.

This announcement means that the Nexus One will end at Gingerbread.  It's been a glorious ride!

Nexus Prime to be Unveiled?

Samsung has announced that they will be hosting a special event at the upcoming CTIA Enterprise and Applications Conference in San Diego.  The event is called "Samsung Unpacked, Google Episode."  Speculation is rampant that Samsung will unveil the rumored Nexus Prime, the next version of the pure Google phone.  The first phone was the Nexus One and the second was the Nexus S.  The Nexus One was manufactured by HTC while the Nexus S and the upcoming Nexus Prime are manufactured by Samsung.  The line of Nexus phone features the pure Android experience, without any add-ons or changes to the Android operating system.  The Nexus Prime is rumored to have some top of the line features including a 4.6 inch display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1080p video recording, 720p hi-def screen, 1GB of RAM, 5MP primary camera and 2MP front facing camera, and the first Android device to run the new Android Ice Cream Sandwich version of the OS.  

The San Diego event is scheduled for October 11, seven days after Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 5.

Nexus One Updated to 2.3.6

The venerable Nexus One is still receiving updates directly from Google.  While we are not sure what this updated version of Gingerbread does for the Nexus One, Google does say that it has "important bug fixes and security patches."  I can report that immediately after I manually updated my phone I did notice something on my N1 that I had never seen before.  When I turned on my Bluetooth device, the BlueAnt T1, I noticed a notification on my taskbar informing me that my Bluetooth was requesting permission to connect with my phone.  I noticed that my Bluetooth was not connecting so a pulled down the notification, clicked it, and it asked me for permission to accept the connection.  I turned off my Bluetooth and turned it back on and I did not get this notification and my Bluetooth connected to my phone normally.  I will update you on any new features or issues that I may notice with this new version of Gingerbread.

The Build Number is GRK39F.  If you do a Google search for this Build Number you will find many download locations.  Just download the zip file, rename it update or update.zip, install it to your SD card and reboot the phone just like with past manual updates.  If you want detailed instructions on how to manually update let me know and I will email you step-by-step instructions.  If you don't want to go through the process of manually updating your phone, just wait and you should be getting an OTA update directly from Google in the coming weeks.

There's only 2 phones that have the most up to date version of Gingerbread, the Nexus S and the Nexus One.  Long live the Nexus One!

Pale Moon 6 a Necessity for Firefox Users

I find myself using the Google Chrome Browser more and more.  I used to use the Firefox browser but Chrome seems to have gotten to the point where its faster and less bloated.  I still find myself going back to Firefox every so often.  This is especially necessary when I use my Google Apps business account.  I need to print a copy of my calendar and Chrome does not print the schedule properly.  In order for me to print the schedule properly I have to use another browser and that's Firefox.  I just discovered a very good alternative to Firefox, Pale Moon 6.0.  Firefox is designed to work on every computer out there.  This includes modern, up to date new computers, to older computers with Pentium chips, Windows 7 systems to Windows XP systems.  This puts users with modern Windows 7 systems to a disadvantage when Using Firefox because its not designed to take specific advantage of the features available in modern systems and with Windows 7.   Pale Moon is designed to take advantage of Windows 7 and dual -core processors to make Firefox work faster.  Only users with newer, modern Windows computers should download Pale Moon 6.0.  The developers of Pale Moon have tweaked Firefox to make it run much faster by disabling features unnecessary in newer Windows computers and eliminating features that only slow down Firefox on these newer systems.  I have been using Pale Moon 6.0 for a few days and report that it works flawlessly.  I find myself using Pale Moon much more often than Firefox.  There is a noticeable increase in speed which brings it up to par with Chrome. Also, Pale Moon is able to open up some websites that the newest version of Firefox was unable to open up.  

When you first download Pale Moon it asks you if you want to import your bookmarks from Internet Explorer or Opera.  It does not give you an option to import your bookmarks from Firefox or Chrome.  I chose not to import anything.  After the browser installed I was able to import my Firefox bookmarks by using Firefox Sync.  The developers also have a migration tool which preserves your profiles and bookmarks.  We have not used this migration tool but you can download it here.

To download Pale Moon 6, click here. Give it a test drive and let us know what you think.

How To Restore Messed Up Icons

I have discovered simple step-by-step directions that allow you to install icons that have been damaged.  I recently lost my icon for Mozilla Firefox and when I took the following steps, the icon was restored.  You have to follow these steps exactly as set forth below:

1.  Close all folder windows that are currently open.

2.  Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.

3.  In the Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.

4.  Click the End Process button when asked for confirmation.

5.  From the File menu of Task Manager select New Task (Run . . .)

6.  Tape CMD.EXE and click OK.

7.  In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one, exactly as set forth below and press ENTER after each command:

CD /d%userprofile%\AppData\Local

DEL IconCache.db /a

EXIT

8.  In Task Manager, click FIle, select New Task (Run . . .)

9.  Type EXPLORER.EXE and click OK.

That should do the trick and your icons should all be restored.  Hope this helps.