A fresh off the press photo leak of possibly one of HTC newest devices dubbed the “HTC Rider” has just surfaced on the net, unfortunately the leaker decided to take the picture using an ancient digital camera and the picture leaves much to the imagination.
What do you think this device is?
Source: [911Sniper via AndroidCentral]
Can you still recall the time when T-Mobile unveiled the first ever Android smartphone way back in 2008? It was also during that time when Google’s app library was in high demand. Since then, Android apps have increased in number substantially over the years. The latest cutting-edge smartphones from HTC, Motorola, Samsung and LG have made Android apps even more popular. At this present moment, Android has reached over 250,000 apps and that will continue to grow for as long as Android exists. Google’s Android Market offers so many apps for just about anything and it makes it confusing for users to decide which apps are the best.
So, without further adieu, here are some of today’s best Android apps under several categories to help you choose the best, must-have apps for your Android phone.
Gas Buddy FreeWith gas prices still consistently rising, the quest for the cheapest nearby gas can be a frustrating and pointless task, especially if you are driving around wasting precious fuel to find a better price just for the heck of saying you did. Gas Buddy uses your location to quickly locate nearby gas stations and immediately give you the best price around. The app gives you a list and a helpful map of all of your options. Never again will you fill up only to drive by a less expensive station five blocks later.
Get it here: Gas Buddy
Weather Channel FreeThis is the weather app you’ll find yourself checking before you even crack the blinds in the morning. Besides offering accurate current conditions with extreme detail down to wind speed, humidity and UV index, the Weather Channel’s app offers hourly and 10-day forecasts for planning ahead, plus advanced features like animated weather radar.
Get it here: Weather Channel
Google Voice FreeWith Google Voice, you get a free number for receiving calls, sending texts, and even receive access to your voicemail and text messages over the Web. With the Android app, you can even keep your true mobile number private by making outgoing calls using your Google Voice number instead. Another handy feature is voicemail transcription, which automatically transcribes your voicemails to text so you can read them like e-mail. Unfortunately, this particular service is only available to US Android users currently.
Get it here: Google Voice
Yahoo has compiled a very good list here.Grab these apps now, what are you waiting for?
It is similar to what you see in Microsoft Windows 7 where the folder shows a preview of the pictures contained in it.
Open your terminal and enter the following set of commands :
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flozz/flozz$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install cover-thumbnailerIf you are using another Linux distribution, you can download the source code from the Cover Thumbnailer website, compile it, and install it on your machine.
Cover Thumbnailer program will store a cache of cropped images of albums in a hidden folder named .thumbnails/ in your home directory. The .thumbnails/ directory is a cache directory created by GNOME when you browse through your folders in Nautilus. It contains thumbnail pictures of images you have previously viewed.And when you visit a particular music folder, the thumbnail of the respective album is shown on top of the folder.
You can access the Cover Thumbnailer preferences via GNOME Menu > System > Preferences > Cover Thumbnailer. Here you can specify more folders that can avail of Cover Thumbnailer's services and set many other options such as clearing the thumbnail cache and more.
Cover Thumbnailer in action in Nautilus
And this is what the people who implemented this awesome feat have to say about this exercise (and I quote).
Many people see a demo like this and assume there are ’smoke and mirrors’ or that we’ve implemented a suspend to disk solution. This is genuinely a cold boot including UBoot (2009-01), Linux kernel (2.6.31-rc7) and Qt Embedded Open Source 4.6.2. We’ve not applied any specific intellectual property but instead spent time analysing where boot delays are coming from and simply optimising them away. The majority of the modifications we make usually fall into the category of ‘removing things that aren’t required’, ‘optimising things that are required’, or ‘taking a new approach to solving problems’ and are tailored very precisely to the needs of the ‘product’.If you want to dig a bit more into the process of achieving the 1 second boot, do check out these slides from the same author.
The basic premise behind this announcement is that it is the quality and usability of the application (to be included) that is important; the choice of toolkit should be irrelevant.
Ubuntu till date have shown a bias towards applications built on Gtk toolkit. Currently, almost all applications that are shipped with Ubuntu are GNOME centric. And if a user needs a Qt based application the recourse is to manually install it from the Ubuntu repository.
However, this is going to change in the future.
Mark Shuttleworth further suggests a procedure (see flowchart below) to decide what applications will go into a default Ubuntu install.
[Source : Mark Shuttleworth]
Switching to Linux is easy for most of us. You just have to download and burn a Linux distribution and boot your computer with it. If the Linux distribution you have chosen is a modern one, then you can finish installing it on your machine in 6 steps or less. However, if you rely on your computer for a living, then you need to do some preparations prior to making the switch. Kim Cascone, an experienced and gifted musician and composer had been using an Apple PowerBook to compose music. When his PowerBook G4 exhibited signs of age, he did a quick fact check and found that he could save as much as $3000 (which includes the machine and the software costs) if he switched to Linux.
While his switch to Linux has not been without glitches, he did overcome them and more importantly, has provided detailed documentation on how he made the switch, and the problems he encountered.
Read Kim Cascone's tale of Switching to Linux - Linux Music Workflow.
