torsdag den 31. maj 2012

Firefox - If your laptop/PC heats up

If it happens that your laptop or PC heats up when using FireFox(any version) - then try this:

Go to Options - Settings - Advanced

Turn off "Use Hardware Acceleration".

Try it for a while to see any difference, if it helped then FireFox were the cause, if not then you have another probleme and should seek proffesional help with your systeme!

JBJ

søndag den 22. april 2012

China Phones and a few things you might want to know

Here in the Philippines, there are many places where you can buy a "Knock off copy" of an Nokia or other brand of phone, and they are nice looking and cheap - if you bargain the price down - but be carefull!

Many of these phones are advertised as with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, some even with Android OS - but in real life, often the Wi-Fi is fake and the Bluetooth is only for headset(not working with filetransfer), Android is usually also fake and in real life a clone that does not have "Android market" installed, so it will be extremely dificult to install other software than the few applications that the model comes with pre-installed.

And for God sake, never drop your phone, often then screen is of such poor quality that it will go loose and not many here can repair it! Usually there are no parts for china phones.

If you have taken this into mind and still is set on buying one, then ask to get a demostration of the phone and look in the menu for JAVA. If you find JAVA in the menu, then there is a chance that the phone can get new games and a few applications - I said a chance, its not a certain fact, since the JAVA  might also be fake!

Also go to the build-in filemanager and check the phone memory if its only a few kilobytes(KB or just K), then forget it - the phone is a fake that cannot get new programs or games!

If its a so called "Android" phone, then look in the menu for "Android market" and try to browse and download/install and application - there are alot of free ones there. If it works then you have a cheap Android phone, but most often it will fail.

There phones that are made in China, but has better quality. Some mentioned are: MyPhone(assembled in Philippines), Cherry mobile, DTC and so on.

A few links:


http://dtcmobile.com.ph/  

http://cherrymobile.ph/

http://myphone.com.ph/index.php


These phones are nice, but again check if you can install JAVA games/applications or if the Android version  is at least 2.3 and that the phone support Adobe Flash Player 10 or above. Flash Player allows you to watch videos on youtube and other streaming sites.

Android

  • ARMv7 processor with vector FPU, minimum 550MHz, OpenGL ES 2.0, H.264 and AAC HW decoders
  • Android™ 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, and 4.0
  • 256MB of RAM 
  • Android web browser
Here is a link to Adobe Flash Player system requirements:

http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/tech-specs.html

Even if the phone has an processor(also called CPU) higher than 550Mhz, it has to be at least an ARMv7, and suggests on the net states that it should be 800Mhz and above, or videos might work but be "choppy".

Update: MyPhone is taking looooong time to answer the emails I have sent from the form on their own website, and the emails I have sent directly to the MyPhone customer service

So I'm not so sure they can be recommended. The phones are pretty good, but I can't say the same for the customer service. I hope they will fix that very soon, because what use is 1 year warranty if you can't get hold of the customer service to get help!!!!

Update: CS got back to me and suggested an FirmWare update, unfortunately/very strange the version they had were older than the one on the phone! Seriously????

Also they didn't bother to answer the rest of my list of questions:


Opera mini, Is there anyway to get the pre-installed Opera mini upgraded to the newer 6.5 version? As of now the pre-installed has too many bugs and no JAVA support.


Is there a way to remove the pre-installed games/apps? They take up precious memory.


On WLAN connection, the pre-installed Youtube application opens Mediaplayer when a video is chosen, but Mediaplayer does not buffer, comes with a "failed to buffer" message, and thereby rendering the youtube application useless. Any fix for this?


If using the pre-installed Opera mini to open a video, it closes with "insufficient memory" message. Any fix for this?


When looking through all settings and options on the phone I came by a strange thing: In JAVA settings the Heap size is 0(zero) that is not correct it should be something like the following values: 1 - 512 KB 2 - 768 KB 3 - 1024 KB 4 - 2048 KB (default) 5 - 4096 KB 6 - No limit Number 6 is unlimited(Heap size only limited to preinstalled memory). this could be the reason the Youtube app. and other apps crash with the "Isufficient memory" error. Do you have a fix for this? .


What is the CPU in this model and what kind og GPU does it have?


A couple of times the phone had trouble reading SMART Talk n' text Sim, didn't matter which Sim slot. This is not allways and the sim works fine in other phone, so I'm thinking maybe a SW glitch - any fix for this? .


How can this phone be software upgraded like other brands can?


What is the OS of this phone?


Is there a limitation on the size(kb/MB) of Java applications or games that can be installed?



These are pretty serious questions, that CS choose to ignore - they probably don't know!

So I stay on my opinion regarding recommendation.

With kind regards

JBJ



tirsdag den 20. marts 2012

A few things you should know about Globe Telecom!

As a foreigner in the Philippines its not always easy to figure out things here, though most of the business people speak english to you, they will speak Filipino among themselves - even if you are standing right in front of them. But then again its up to you to learn Filipino:)

This blog is about tech related troubles or something that I think you might want to know:)

In this case: My personal experience with Globe Telecom. They are the ones to provide the pre-paid Globe Tattoo Unlimited 3G internet service.

Unlimited is not really the right word to use. If you sign up for Supersurf50 then you download is limited with 800Mb per day, the same goes for Supersurf220, but here its 1GB per day. That's not unlimited!

Furthermore, should you reach these limits, then Globe will cut off your internet connection and resume it next day.

What you should know, is that next day starts at 12.01am, this means that eventhough your not using the internet, it is running!

And to add to this, you are not going to get the remaining hours from the cut off time to the re-connect time. The connection wil be cut off at excactly the same time you connected the day before.

For example:  If you connect at 1pm tuesday and get cut off at 10pm(due to limitation), then you will be reconnected next day(wednesday) at 12.01am and finally disconnected at 1pm.

Now for Globe that means 1 day of internet - But I'm asking where the 2 hours went? They were not added to the total internet time, and as far as I know 1 day is the same as 24 hours - not 22 hours! This is a probleme that Globe should fix immediately!



The above happened this morning (marts 24). Can someone explain me where my missing 5 hours and 14 minutes went(not counting the seconds)? Because its clear that I paid for 1 day (24 hours), but didn't get it! I got from marts 23 at 00:14:12am to marts 24 at 00:16:14am and then Globe disconnected me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another thing. Be aware of how much money is on your account or you might get a nasty surprise!

I will give you an example: If I load 100p to my Tattoo account, and then sign up for Supersurf50, then the next day when my connection ends, I might find my account empty - actually it has happened many times.

Globe says that in order to maintain my connection I need to leave 5p on the account, they do not say that they are going to collect the 5p or more - they are only allowed to collect the 50p.

Instead of fixing the probleme so that the net will be cut off and only 50p will be collected from your account, they will send you a txt to your Tattoo number saying that the service has now expired and that you will now be charged 5p per 15 min..
Unfortunately the 5p per 15 min. seems to be post-paid, so even though you don't use the 15 min., you are charged the full amount. Thats another probleme that I hope they will fix.

As it is now, it's up to you to disconnect to prevent that from happening.

The biggest probleme about this is just that its not always working, meaning you don't get any txt at all!

And if your not aware of what time you connected and what time you will be disconnected then you might find that your account is empty, and have no clue why.

If you then call Globe to complain, then they will justify it with the advisory - the one you didn't get!

Now, add this to the example above with the missing 2 hours. Meaning that Globe actually starts to charge your account 5p, 2 hours(in the example above) before they actually were allowed to charge you 5p per 15 min.!

In the example above it's 2 hours, but it might be less or more for that matter, depending of the cut off time!

I have tried many times to make Globe's customer service aware of these problems by calling the hotline and later emailing them, and I got numerous case numbers and emails to prove it!

So my advise is this: only load 55p to your Tattoo account. That way you only loose 5p, if you don't disconnect at the time you get the txt from Globe.



Below you will find an example of what I'm talking about, look at the highlighted red and blue area. Also se the entry from today, marts 22, I woke up to my account being empty - without any advisory from Globe.


UPDATE:

After numerous e-mails to Globe customer service I got this reply:

Supersurf promo has a maximum volume capacity of 800MB per account per day. If your usage reaches this volume capacity, you will be unable to browse temporarily until the end of the day but the service will be restored the following day. But once your subscription expires, the remaining hours will not be credited back to your account.


Thank you very much for your kind understanding.

In short, you will not get your unused hours from previous day! Thank you Globe!

With kind regards

JBJ

More to come later:)