BangBits

Well today the much anticipated speedy Firefox 3.5 arrived. Ubuntu probably won't push this one out as an update and I am not sure when Firefox's own auto-update would provide this upgrade, so if you're impatient as I, this is how to install it manually. Do read the whole thing through before deciding whether to do this, as there are some potential plugin issues involved! Installation procedure First you need to download and extract in an appropriate place. I'm extracting to /opt/firefox-3.5 such as to avoid collisions later when an official Ubuntu version is available: casper@workstation/$ cd /opt/ casper@workstation/opt/$ sudo wget http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.5/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-3.5.tar.bz2 casper@workstation/opt/$ sudo tar -xjf firefox-3.5.tar.bz2 casper@workstation/opt/$ sudo mv firefox firefox-3.5 casper@workstation/opt/$ sudo rm firefox-3.5.tar.bz2 -f Perhaps you notice that the download is a i686/32bit Linux release, this

To perform general debugging and install alternative ROM's on the HTC Magic in Ubuntu 9.04, you will need a little more footwork than the documentation mentions. First, I assume you have installed the SDK and added it to path so that you can perform ADB commands from everywhere. Then, you need to have USB debugging enabled on the phone, do this by going under Settings > Applications > Development and check the "USB Debugging" item. Now, add a udev rule for your device: gksudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/51.android.rules Add the following to the file and save it: SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bb4", MODE="0666" Reload USB devices by issuing the command: sudo /etc/init.d/udev reload Unplug and plug the device. Check if you can see the device: casper@workstation:~$ adb devices * daemon not running. starting it now * * daemon started successfully * List of devices attached HT95PKF00221 device There, now you can browse your phone with the

So I started playing with Android development, just received "Unlocking Android" and "Android Application Development" from Amazon. However before getting to do any real development, I got sidetracked in trying to create a skin for the Android Emulator that matches my new fancy HTC Magic. There actually exists one , but it's branded Vodafone, looks silvery and has the buttons all wrong so I decided this would be a good way to brush up on some Gimp skills. And here it is, I am no graphics artist so I am moderately pleased. You may use images and skin as you please, under the creative commons license. You can download the skin by clicking here . To install, simply extract the files to {android_install_dir}/platforms/android-1.5/skins/HTCMagic/. If you can not select the skin in Eclipse, you may have to edit the config.ini file of your virtual android device setting manually (under ~/.android/avd/), simply set the skin.path property to point to HTCMagic. You can al

So I finally got an Android device, in the form of the second generation hardware from HTC known as the Magic, G2, Ion and Saphire. Since the original HTC Dream (G1) this phone received a major visual overhaul and now boosts a soft keyboard rather than a physical one making it a loss less clunky. And let me admit right away, I fell in love at once and have hardly put it down since. It is not my intention here to write any kind of throughough or balanced review, but merely to showcase Android and the applications to others contemplating getting one of these phones as well. Initial impression The phone looks and feels sturdy and quality, thankfully not branded like appears to be the case in the US. The 3.2" touch screen is glass just like the iPhone and the body is thick scratch-proof plastic. It has what amounts to 11 buttons (incl. a joypad) below the screen such as well as volume buttons on the side. Having played with an iPhone a few times, my impression is that the Magic is ver