Just Want To Say Thanks

I just want to say thanks to everyone that has helped make the last three months of working on this blog worth the time. With the traffic I have seen grow pretty stably over the past 3 months I do not have any plans on stopping this blog now. Hopefully I well manage to keep the content coming sadly I started getting a little picky with the Android news topics. I would like to do more app reviews though if anyone has an app out there that has not been reviewed yet let me know. My old side project EverythingAnnoying.com is starting to come together now with the Android app from App Inventor helping people get a little more use out of the website. I should have a review for App Inventor coming this week and if you have not you should sign up for the beta for App Inventor its worth taking a look at. I may or may not make an app for this site as well when I get some time. The idea for the app at the moment is "TekHawk's Android News Reporter" hopefully letting some of my Android followers turn use it to help report the latest news as they discover to so that I can research and get you all the facts about the story.

Well heres to the next three months.

Tweet Deck Android Beta Update 5 - 0.9.5

The Android TweetDeck Beta has been updated to v0.9.5 and can be downloaded from: http://www.tweetdeck.com/go/android

The 0.9.5 beta contains the following changes and additions:

• 
  
  
  Full compatibility with all phones running 1.6 and above
• 
  
  
  Added option to remove Facebook, Buzz, or Foursquare accounts
• 
  
  
  Added option to delete tweets sent by you
• 
  
  
  Improved handling and refined UI for Facebook and Google Buzz attachments
• 
  
  
  Fixed bug preventing successful updates containing multiple photos 
• 
  
  
  Added multi-Twitter account compose
• 
  
  
  New "More" button on all Twitter user profiles and updates allowing
  • 
    
    
    Reply All
  • 
    
    
    Sharing
  • 
    
    
    Translation
  • 
    
    
    Copy update text
  • 
    
    
    Copy update URL
• 
  
  
  Tapping the column header now refreshes the column

Download Now

Inhibition

Inhibition
Inhibition my restriction
This life my prison
What moral holds me
Binds my tongue
Holds my lips
And brings me to this state of decision
To be one of society
Or to lash out at those who oppress me
Inhibition what keeps me from becoming the monster
The Beast within me
The Demon I hide so deep inside
To release all inhibition would be
To become more then just a machine
Conform no more but be released
Released by society
Released from life it self
Because without inhibition
I'm no longer fit to live amongst the rest

Sanity Insanity Crazy And Distorted

Sanity Insanity Crazy And Distorted
Sanity, insanity, crazy and distorted
What are these things
What is this state of mind
Sanity by definition is
The soundness of mind
Insanity, crazy & distorted
Are all of key together
One cannot be one with out tasting of the other
Crazy by definition is
Knowing that true sanity is
A figment of the educated mind

Tweet Deck Android 0.9.4 Notification Settings Finally

 Yes at long last "only a week in" we have notification settings the thing I wonder still how it was not in the first beta release. Over all the way it is done in the UI leaves a lot of wondering if it was the best way to do it or not and might leave a lot of users confused at first. But it does work and it works fine so far for me any comments on success of this feature for you are welcome.

The Android TweetDeck Beta app has been updated to v0.9.4 and can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/deckondroid904

This latest beta release contains the following changes:

• Updated column notifications & refresh rate settings UI
• Added Light, Sounds & Vibrate notification options
• Fixed bug which stopped Facebook updates from appearing
• Can now "Share" an image from the Android Gallery App to TweetDeck
• Can now "Share" a link from the Android browser to TweetDeck
• "Shared" links are auto-shortened using bit.ly

Direct Download

Google Video And Voice Chat For Linux

Can you say FINALLY! This must be a sign that Chrome OS is not that far away and that they finally got this dialed down on it and wanted to share it with the rest of us Linux users.

If you’ve been wanting to use voice and video chat on Linux (our top video chat request), then we have good news for you: it’s now available! Visit gmail.com/videochat to download the plugin and get started. Voice and video chat for Linux supports Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions, and RPM support will be coming soon.

Source

Everything Annoying Blog

Well I think I will start putting more effort into keeping content flowing on that blog and could really use some community support for annoying content if anyone is interested in submitting post feel free to leave them as comments here or as comments on any post on that site. Or you can simply e-mail them to everythingannoying@gmail.com we will be taking most user submissions and posting them directly to the page.

http://www.everythingannoying.com

Trillian For Android Open Beta

Well I'm sure a lot of people have been waiting to hear about this or Pidgin for Android but Trillian beat them to it. I have not had much time on the app yet as I wanted to get this blog up fast it does seem to be the best UI so far of any IM client I have used on Android so far. Looks very good no connection issues so far and support for a good range of services including both Facebook and Myspace which seems to be rare to have a client support both lately.

Issues:
Cannot set Avatar without it FCing


Direct Download From My Mirror
Trillian Android Page

Le Monde Mécanique Notre, Modus Operandi

Le Monde Mécanique Notre, Modus Operandi:

The world of clockwork and gears
Spinning cranks and broken leavers
A world of chaos within order
The whole greater then the one
But what clock can tell the time
Without the gear
What hand can move
Without the bone
How can our mechanical world maintain
It's method of operating
When the whole is no greater then the one
And the one is no greater then time
Our eternal decay
Our broken system
The instructions to our destruction
Le Monde Mécanique Notre
Modus Operandi

Songza A Truly User Controlled Free Internet Radio

Well I started off looking into a service I used to really enjoy called AmieStreet.com wondering if they had plans to enter into the mobile market anytime soon. Sadly it looks like that will not be happening at this time but the other service their company is evolved with Songza.com that is hoping to release both iPhone & Android apps but could not say much about firm plans on that topic. Having been using the service now for a few hours I'm rather impressed with the service and I for one will be waiting for the mobile app and hoping to see the Android one release first or along side the iPhone app. The service unlike most internet radio stations only plays songs you select for it to play not a random music selection basically giving you a streaming playlist. Sadly right now the stations are only in public form but they said that they are adding private stations soon enabling you to have playlist that are locked just to you and who ever you want to help add to it.

Correct. It only plays the songs that you have added to the list, making it the most user controlled free internet radio station currently online. Right now all stations are public so anyone can add a song to any station. We are about to add multiple features that will give you the ability to manage your station, who can add songs, deleting songs, and whether it is public or private. Right now, if you make a station and share it with friends, say the Caleb rocks station, it is unlikely that a lot of people will search for that exact station and start adding songs to it, so in that sense it's private.

I will be looking forward to those features as well as the mobile app but if the team working on this does this right this could be the best streaming service out there. And the community feature seems like a great idea and I for one could see this being a very useful tool for say a church service background music before and after service, and for other group and club meeting or just in the office. Hoping that there will be some way to enable scrobbling on the service something a lot of streaming service either over look or avoid as a possible competing service.

And just for fun people here is a station that I had users send me sujections for a Android Radio Station its a public station so feel free to help add tracks to it that make you think Android lets see what we can get going.

TekHawk Android Beats Station

Their Press Release:

"Look Mom, No Algorithms!”

Songza Launches Shared Radio:

Create a station, build it with friends, listen together

August 3, 2010 (Long Island City, NY) – Songza.com released today the simplest way for people to create their own radio stations, for free.

The new Songza.com gives users the ability to collaborate with friends, family, co-workers or even strangers to create the perfect shared station for any occasion, with a library of over 8,000,000 songs to choose from.

“Much of the joy we get from music comes from how it connects us to the people around us,” said Elias Roman, CEO of Songza. “Songza is unique in making it easy for people to connect using shared, collaborative radio stations. We believe this makes for a far more social and relevant experience than radio based on 'experts' or algorithms analyzing tone and timbre.”

Creating your own radio station on Songza is quick, free, and easy, and so is getting your friends and colleagues to add songs and help you improve it. Songza gives communities of any size and type—from classmates to co-workers to party-goers—a free and legal way to create the most relevant radio stations.

After serving more than 225,000,000 song streams in just over two years, the release marks an exciting new chapter in the company's history. The new Songza.com consolidates three streaming services (Songza Sets, Songza Radio, and the original Songza.com), incorporating many of their features and members as it moves forward pioneering social radio.

The new Songza is currently in beta with many features yet to be released, including mobile applications. The non-interactive radio service is DMCA compliant and ad-supported.

Songza on Wiki

Tweet Deck Android Beta Update 3

I wonder if that refresh rate will tie into when you get notifications and I wonder if this update will get my notifications to be more reliable or not. Let me know what you think bugs ect in the comments if you have a chance.

Android TweetDeck Beta Update 3 now available: includes improved data usage, adjustable column refresh rate

Direct Download

My Mirror

Google Gmail Task With Android Goodness gTask

Well I do not know how many of my readers use Gmail on the desktop still but I know most of you have Android phones. If you have noticed in the last set of updates to the Gmail desktop website you might have noticed something that you never noticed before. Task, even though it has been in Gmail for some time it was never really in the spot light till the last update. If you have not given them a shot you should its a very simple feature that can go a long way if you are into check list or tracking stuff even a reusable list like my World of Warcraft Raid check list for what I'm saved to. What makes this all so useful though is a free app on the Android Market called gTask that syncs the list to your phone and has the option to display it in one of the cleanest widgets I have ever seen. Hope you all give this a shot I will try to get screen shots up as soon as possible.

Tweet Deck Android Managing Columns

Funny enough I found out how to do this stuff yesterday and was planning on writing a blog about it but looks like Tweet Deck did a video of it so oh well saves me some typing!



This is really one of the best part of this app if you take full advantage of it.

Fast Mfer #FollowFriday Made Easy On Android

Wonderful new app by Enatefox to make your #FollowFriday #FF posting easier on your Android powered phones. Its a very simple App at the moment with a timeline view and Tweet feature with more features already planned. The main feature that started this Apps devlopment was the ablity to mass post your #FF messages for you from a list you save to your phones SD card. I have not had a chance to test this out full yet as well its not Friday yet but I will be this Friday the App so far runs very smooth and is also now on the Android Market. Another thing to note that I missed earlier that is honestly one of the nicer parts of this app over some other Twitter using Apps is that Enatefox took the time to use the OAuth system so your information is validated by Twitter and not the App keeping it safe and secure. Hope you all give the App a shot this Friday with me and see how it goes.

Android Flash Player 10.1 Final Apk

Well here it is for all the people that cannot see it on market still the final release version of Flash 10.1 just pulled it off my system through Astro. It has been tested and works fine it might not work on some lower res phones though even with 2.2 because none of them officially support 2.2 so I don't think Adobe made this compatible with them.

Direct Download From My Server

Cyanogen Mod 6 RC3

Just ran the update off of Rom Manager my self and I do not see to many changes yet I think the new sound control eq has its own icon now in your app drawer and the new power control widget is amazingly useful. It now enables you to customize the widget adding feature to it that do no come stock and removing features from it you do not need as well as make it transparent or round/unround the corners. Still poking around seeing what else I can find so far no soft reboot so thats already better then the nightly I was running from the 8th I think. I can get a download link up here if anyone needs one just let me know in the comments.

Tweet Deck Android Beta Update 2

Just got the Tweet from the TweetDeck account here is beta update round two with a better font size and some other remapping. Will add to this as I have time to play with it more. Not really noticing any other changes other then the font size slider which I think was a really good way to make this change to the app giving people a lot of freedom.

Direct Download

To Cut or Not to Cut That is the Question

Okay so here is a full post as I cannot really fit it all onto Twitter but poll time since I need a push to do it. The question is should I get my hair cut or just keep it long which is the way I prefer it but people seem to not agree with me. So I ask you all short or not? Here are some example pics of what it used to look like and what not just @tekhawk short @tekhawk long to cast your vote on Twitter more votes I get faster the more likely I will be to cut it today or this weekend.

Went ahead and added a Google Docs form to this post to make this easier to track lol... and once it hits 100 votes I will cut it not time restraint this time.






So yea cast your votes and RT/Share this see if it can hit the goal if not the hair stays :P

Short:

Long:

Yea did not really have a better picture of long hair laying around.

Droid X Bootloader Starting To Fall

Well pictures say a thousand words right?

@Koush Source

For those asking: Droid X bootloader is still locked, but it's possible to hijack the Android or the boot process to start a recovery.

So the good news is yes custom roms are a possibility the bad news no custom kernels but with the speed of the newer phones I do not see this as such a bad thing personally. And I would think this means a Ninja Blur / Moto Blur free phone would be possible being maybe the best news about this. 

Clockwork Recovery Coming to a DroidX Near You!

New Release From Elevated State Of Mind

New shirt coming out from my favorite clothing line Elevated State of Mind should be for sale on their site here in a week or so been waiting for this one for a while now.

Official Google Chrome to Phone Release

Well at last it will not be a pain to install Chrome to Phone for Android as it has officially been release Google has been busy today. The app it self is on the Android Market now as a free download just search for "Chrome to Phone" a link to the new extensions page is below. A friend just pointed out to me that you can select text on a webpage and send it to your phone clipboard! Now if only I could figure out why my Chrome to Phone is not working.

Chrome to Phone Download

Google Enhances Android Voice Commands

Google really did go all out on improving the voice features of Android 2.2 got to try some of this stuff out today.

Speak any of these commands to perform a Voice Action on your phone:
send text to [contact] [message]
listen to [artist/song/album]
call [business]
call [contact]
send email to [contact] [message]
go to [website]
note to self [note]
navigate to [location/business name]
directions to [location/business name]
map of [location]



Small update for everyone you have to download this from market just search for "Voice Search".

TweetDeck Android Official Beta Information

To all those that have been wondering such as my self we can all go thank @conradoldcorn for sharing this little bit of information that was I'm guessing not exactly in the first place most of us where looking either that or I'm a blind bat. Link below with the information on getting the official beta release of TweetDeck for Android

Beta Sign Up Form
Direct Download Link

Google Gesture Search Double Flip

How to take the most used app on my phone and make me love it even more simple make it open with a gesture. The last update to the Google Gesture Search is simply brilliant it lets you with a quick flip motion of your wrist "turning the phone face down then face up" open your Google Gesture Search. One less icon on my screen in my slide bars and hidden bars for my ADWLauncher and Launcher Pro. I do not know who at Google came up with this idea but they need a really big cookie for it.

Offcial Twitter, Google Buzz & Twitter Buttons Modified For Blogger

Here is the version of the official Twitter, Google Buzz & new Twitter button modified to work with the Blogger markups for the post url to save some of you some time.

<div>
<div style='float:left; width:100px;'>
<script>var tweet = {url : &quot;<data:post.url/>&quot;, count: &quot;horizontal&quot;, via: &quot;tekhawk&quot;, text: &quot;<data:post.title/>&quot; }</script><script src='http://xmlgadgets.com/ig/tweet.js'/>
</div>
<div style='float:left; width:100px;'>
<a class='google-buzz-button' data-button-style='small-count' expr:data-url='data:post.url' href='http://www.google.com/buzz/post' title='Post to Google Buzz'/>
<script src='http://www.google.com/buzz/api/button.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
<div style='float:left; width:100px;'>
<a expr:share_url='data:post.url' href='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php' name='fb_share' type='button_count'>Share</a><script src='http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share' type='text/javascript'/>
</div>
</div>


Select edit html for your Blogger then select "Expand Widget Templates" and paste the above code after "<data:post.body/>" hope this works well for everyone.

Announcing Spellbook – D&D 3.5

From the blog of my friend Jens Zalzala comes the announcement of his first publicly released and very useful Android App if you are into D&D this might be more useful for you then the dice rolling apps.

Announcing the release of my first Android App:

Spellbook – D&D 3.5 serves as a quick way to look up spell descriptions during a d&d gaming session. It includes all spells from the srd 3.5, and lets you store your spells in a custom list for even faster access.

My reason for building it is obvious if you know me. I love Andrdoid, and I’m an avid rpg gamer. One of the things that always slows down gaming sessions is looking things up, which unfortunately we have to do all the time. A common thing to look up is spell descriptions… what’s the range on that spell? How long does this spell last? How many targets can my Magic Missiles hit at 5th level?

Thus the Spellbook app was born. It is very fast, and lets you browse through all spells that are in the 3.5 SRD, which should be all the spells in the Players Handbook.

I hope you find the app useful, and can already promise a few enhancements in the coming weeks.

Happy gaming!

Source

Tweet Deck Android Beta Leak - Review

Well here is hoping that the bugs will be ironed out in the newer version that Tweet Deck is releasing tomorrow as this version is clearly flawed. But I will say this the app is amazing none the less with the Google Buzz, Facebook & Tweeter support all in one app. The UI is not bad on the eyes and the speed of the app is within reason. My biggest issue that I think they might overlook in tomorrows release is lack of options for notification settings.

Tweet Deck Android Beta Leak

Well here is a link for the Tweet Deck Android Beta that was leaked this download is off my servers and is not a media fire or other host that is being spammed by people reposting the link so hopefully people will have a little more luck getting the file from here. Let me know what you all think in the comments I should have a review coming as soon as I have some time to play with the app.

Download Here

Universal One Click Rooting App

Universal one click rooting app here is hoping for Samsung Galaxy S support and Cyanogen support for the Galaxy S series.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=747598

Devices currently supported:

• Google Nexus One (2.2)
• HTC Hero (2.1)
• HTC Magic (1.5)
• Dell Streak (2.1)
• Motorola Milestone (2.1)
• Motorola XT701
• Motorola XT800 (2.1)
• Motorola ME511
• Sony Ericsson X10 (1.6)
• Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro (1.6)
• Acer Liquid (2.1)
• Vibo A688 (1.6)

Devices not yet supported:

• Samsung i9000 (Galaxy S)
• Samsung i6500U
• HuaWei U8220
• HTC Desire / Legend / Wildfire

Hotmail Users Microsoft Says Use Chrome!

I cannot tell you how much this made me smile today it might have just made my week even. Microsoft telling people to use Chrome to get around a bug in the html/javascript coding used in their own web based e-mail service? Ah the sweet sweet irony of it all although it seems IE works as well Firefox and Safari are having issues with the page I could be wrong though as I do not use Hotmail I cannot confirm that IE does not have issues as well.


http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/08/10/microsoft-defines-irony-recommends-chrome-to-fix-hotmail-issues/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheNextWeb+(The+Next+Web+Top+Stories)

iPhone 3G Go Boom?

Okay folks my boss is going to give me his old iPhone 3G "or 3GS not sure which one it is" when he replaces his wife's with a iPhone 4. What shall we do to it? It is to be demolished in some way shape or form and the video posted here. I just need ideas of what to put this thing through! So start posting.

Android And Subscription Based Music

After a long review of both Rdio and Rhapsody I have found neither service is their yet Rhapsody give you more on the control you should have in the Android App. But at the same time the UI is very slow and its current lock of not having the offline mode done yet cripples it with its very high skip/drop rate while streaming. Rdio on the other had has some serious flaws in play back options as well as control that are not in the Android App but only on the website. Rdio though has about 50X faster UI then Rhapsody does it also has the offline play back working already. Both services are $9.99 a month a fair enough price I would rather see $6.99 or a mobile only package for $4.99 as they both offer web online for $4.99. For me if I choice to use one it will be Rdio unless Rhapsody releases offline play back soon back to the hunt for a better on demand music service.

Update:
After reviewing MOG it seems to have its act together as far as having a bloody shuffle all songs button <3 sadly I keep getting logged out of the service this could be because of text messages not 100% sure. I feel like you might have to force it to download the HQ tracks though the LQ ones are pretty low at least for the metal music that I'm listening to at the moment. Same price as the other services but not seeing a way to scrobble to last.fm which again is a deal breaker for me personally.

Update 2:
After reviewing Thumbplay I think I'm sold the only issue I have so far is if you use the shuffle all offline tracks option it will try to play songs that are not downloaded yet as well and fail. Same price as the others the UI is a little slow though not as bad as Rhapsody it has offline play back as well as track to playlist options which are missing in MOG and Rdio. It also has the playlist managment in the app something that Rdio is missing though I just realized in writing this.... no scobble oh why does Rdio and Rhapsody have to be the only two with this key feature.

So anyone else know a service like these that I have not reviewed yet?

Beer & Bratwurst

So this will be one of my first food post on the blog hope to do more if anyone has any ideas. I'm looking mostly to post about German dishes if you want to post one in comments I will research how to cook it then perfect it before telling you how I did it.

What you will need is 4-5 average size sweet onions, 5 Bratwurst, some olive oil & at least 1 12oz St. Pauli Girl imported German lager.

Brown the Bratwurst on both sides in a 14" skillet/frying pan with some olive oil use tongs to flip them you do not want to break the skin. remove then once they are browned do not worry about cooking them through this is mostly to help flavor the onions. Throw the Onions which need to be precut into rings into the pan with the grease and oil you will most likely want to add some more oil at this point stir them every few minutes till they are all golden but not browned. Add the Bratwurst back to the pan pushing the Onions around them so they are touching the button. Add the full 12oz bottle of St. Pauli Girl to the pan and cover cook till the beer is almost all cooked out and rotate the Onions and the Bratwurst every 3-6 minutes. This was all done with a gas stove set to 7 out of 10 the lager should cook down within 30 or so minutes. Wal-Mart sells some larger hot dog buns in the bakery called all natural hot dog rolls which work amazing with these.

All items needed for this can be found at Wal-Mart main reason St Pauli Girl was used.

The final product

Biggest challenge is smelling it cook and not taking it off to eat until the beer as cooked down properly but it is well worth the wait.

Rdio on Android

Mixed reviews on this one the app is better then Rhapsody in most cases but has some flaws to me. No way to edit playlist on the phone, no way to bulk add to play list on the website. And worst of all no way to tell it just shuffle everything I got because I have no clue what one CD I want to listen to... The app is snappy the selection is not bad it is very well built app and I hope that they listen to customers more then Rhapsody has been. This app could take the crown as the best subscription based music service on Android and iPhone if they play their cards right.

Sadly

Sadly the news on new Android related stuff is slowing down again nothing really news worthy to me has been coming out lately. Looking forward to the new stuff this holiday season though cannot wait to see what everyone is cooking up.

Eclipse

Eclipse:
Standing on the edge I look upon the sun
As falling circle blocketh out the light
Spinning death falling at my feet
As I release my self and take flight
If only I knew then that life handed me
A double sided coin

Tomb Me Here Within

Tomb Me Here Within:
I fall up I fall down
I fall upon this blasted ground
One more time it's hitting me
One more time it's breaking me
Is it the blow
Or the landing that's crushing me
One more time
One more hope for a brighter day
Why do we choose the easy way
The way life leads us
Even though what we want
Is down a harder path
That life teases
And mocks us with
Upon this ground I lay today
A broken battered soul
The Desert blows it's hot coals
Of burning sand over me
I give in I give up
And let the sands bury me
Tomb me deep with in
And burn my soul bitter sweet
How could I let this world
This time this place
Get the better of me