This is a fantastic development, when I got my Android phone I missed that kind of application and there was some hacks that could be used but nothing that worked this good.

It does not require a root:ed phone, it just works. The software will soon cost a few bucks but it is well worth it if you want to be able to use your phone as a gateway to the internet.

It also uses the phones built-in firewalling capabilities protecting your laptop from attacks from the outside by filtering various protocols. You might even filter UDP ports (except DNS requests) if you like.

(links are coming)

My favourite Swedish software is described in Swedish at the bottom of this article.

Internationally useful favourites

AccuWeather

This little weather application is great. You can run several instances as widgets on your home screen for different locations and you can use the phone’s ability to position itself using wifi, cell towers or GPS in order to find the weather forecast for the location you are at presently.

Not to mention that the forecasts produced are for the Stockholm area much more accurate than the native SMHI forecasts. I wonder why this is but from what I observe that seems to be a fact most of the time.

Barcode Scanner

This niftly little application lets you scan a barcode using your Android phone camera. Several other applications plugs into this one such as price runner and so on that will allow you to easily find a product on the web, it’s price, retailers and many more things.

Not to mention that it will produce QR-Codes for you that another Android user with the Barcode Scanner application can read, this way you can transfer text, notes, memos, phone book entries, and many other things. That’s just cool.

Buddy Runner

For me the best runner’s application out there. Automatically measures your distance, pace, time and posts the resutl to a really good web site where all the stats from your runs are collected so you can easily see how you perform and improve and also share with other people.

The application runs nicely together with your favourite music application and it is really easy to use to pep yourself into running those extra yards when you are out there. The accuracy is pretty good if you let your phone see the skies and I love the automatic upload feature and that the site is integrated with Facebook and other social networking sites.

Listen

The best podradio application out there. It is also developed by Google themselves so the quality is really good even though it is one of those softwares that will be in Google Beta for some time yet.

Let it manage your podcasts and you will never be without something nice to listen to. I regularly download and listen to my favourite radio shows and also some amateur podcasts out there that I like listening to.

It can be configured to download only when a charger is connected, this way it will minimize your drain in the batteries when using 3G downloading whilst listening to a podcast.

NewsRob

An RSS aggregator/reader that uses Goole Reader in order to collect web items, snippets, blog posts and what else you can find with an RSS/Atom feed connected to it. Kepp all your news with you all the time. Lovely piece of software.

Newsrob is extremely intuitive and easy to use. Start by arranging a Google Reader account and then install NewsRob and log on from there.

Remember the Milk

Wonderful to-do-list application that plugs straight in to the famous site Remember The Milk on the web. You need however to pay a subscription fee to use this. If you do not want to pay, then I suggest that you use the freeware Astrid instead which is similar and better in some ways…

Maverick

Maverick is a handhelt map/compass application with emphasis on outdoor activities such as hiking, trekking, running, biking and so on. It shows you detailed maps both in the city and in the terrain where you are at the moment. A cone shows where you are looking at the moment so it is easy to find your bearings.

Works best away from the electical fields in the city and may need calibration of the compass before it works perfectly. How to calibrate the compass you can read in an older article here.

Svenska favoriter

Här är de bästa svenska androidapplikationerna:

SMS-Biljetter

Köp biljetter för lokaltrafiken i flera stora trafikområden. Applikationen fungera jättebra och stöder följande trafikområden i Sverige: Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), Östgötatrafiken, Länstrafiken Sörmland, Uppsala Lokaltrafik, Västtrafik, Länstrafiken Örebro, Västmanlands Lokaltrafik.

Jag gissar att fler kommer allteftersom de olika länen bygger ut möjligheterna att köpa biljetter på sin telefon. Det smidigaste med applikationen är att du inte behöver komma ihåg hur det kodas med olika zoner osv, det är bara att trycka i på skärmen och sedan köpa en biljett som levereras som SMS några sekunder senare.

SR Player

Sveriges radios spelare. Den här applikationen har en liten bit kvar men är ändå en bra sak att ha i sin Android. Nackdelarna med den är att den verkar strula om man inte har en HSDPA-uppkoppling, den stannar nästan omedelbart om man har “bara” 3G och varför det blir så vet jag inte, men det verkar inte vara relaterat till bandbredd.

Vi hoppas att de får ordning på den i en uppdatering snart men i övrigt är den suverän. Alla SR-kanalerna finns representerade så lyssna var du vill över WiFi eller 3G-nätet.

Spotify

Underbar applikation — all världens musik med dig vart du än går. Om du skall flyga eller fara utomlands kan du göra dina spellistor tillgängliga off-line först så att de inte måste laddas över nätet när de spelas. Off line-musiken ligger på minneskortet i telefonen och tar ungefär lika stor plats som vanliga 192 kbit/s MP3.

Spotifyapplikationen kräver dock att du har ett Spotify premium-konto, det kostar just nu 99:- i månaden och är en prenumeration som tas från ett av dig angivet kreditkort. Fungerar ypperligt och är värt varenda spänn!

Spotify fungerar perfekt med blåtandsheadset och andra hörlurar och det pausar som det skall när t.ex. ett samtal kommer in på telefonen.

STHLM Traveling

Den bästa reseappen för att åka med Storstockholms Lokaltrafik. Utan tvekan mycket fint genomarbetad applikation som tar reseplaneraren till din Android. Dessutom kan du kontrollera från valfri station när nästa tåg eller buss går och åt vilket håll den går. Mycket användbart.

Det enda jag egentligen saknar är realtidsinformationen och störningshanteraren men de kommer säkert en vacker dag!

Zaps Hitta!

Applikationen som när någon okänd ringer upp automatiskt söker rätt på deras namn och andra uppgifter och lägger till dem i din adressbok/telefonkatalog i din android. Fantastisk liten applikation som jag verkligen gillar!

The iPhone version apparently stops playing in the background something Apple demanded it should do, but on the Android background playing works GREAT so now I can strem music while I jog and can set up the playlist on my computer at home or pretty much everywhere and then just sync it with my phone.

So now the phone not only tracks my workout times and distance using the GPS, it also plays the music to my mood and this is something I have been waiting for some time now.

Time to become a premium member, the ad-financed version of spotify does not cover the mobile version but I don’t care. 99 SEK for a month is nothing compared to the joy it is bringing…

These softwares are CardioTrainer and BuddyRunner, two wonderful applications to help you run well when doing exercise. Both offer similar features and are mainly aimed at runners that want to keep statistics on their exercise and perhaps also their competitions.

The Cardio Trainer Android application

But what do they do? To make a long story short they are both personal trainers and logging instruments that can upload your running data to a web site where you can review what you have done and compare runs over time.

They are using the GPS in the phone to log your position periodically and thus can calculate your speed. They also measure the time and therefore knows at all times your speed and pace, the distance you have ran so far and in what time you did it.  If you are using earphones and listening to music on your Android mobile as you run they will muffle the music or silence it completely and announce the running data periodically.

Feature-wise they are very similar, CT offers more settings to smooth out GPS positions during a run which can be good if you get bad measurements occasionally but won’t really help much in the long run, so to speak, but after testing the two producs side-by-side I can only conclude they are very similar in the distance they measure when running. The distance on both of them is perhaps a bit on the conservative side compared to distance measured on map or with a really good outdoor GPS (Magellan eXplorist XL) which shows a slightly longer track most of the time. Not certain why this is but they seem to be on the conservative side. My 2 km track registers as 1 850 meters roughly and that is 7.5% on the conservative side.

CT has a huge disadvantage for us Europeans, the tracks it records are shown in metric units on the handheld if you set it up to do so, but on the website everything is by imperial measurements which is really sad because it is otherwise a very good application. I have written them and they are looking into developing it. In fact there’s been two new versions of CardioTrainer released recently both with some small improvements.

The Buddy Runner

BuddyRunner however has a really wonderful web site where you can see the run on a Google Maps interface, statistics on your run such as pace for each part of the run, and elevation. It is interesting to see the elevation go up and the pace time per km increase at the same time. You can compare several runs (up to three) download your running track and it keeps tracks of your records, longest, fastest and so on. Over all it is a much more developed web site than CardioTrainer has. However the application on the handheld is less sophisticated, it does not have the same filters and settings as CardioTrainer does and when it speaks to you it always abruptly pauses the music, the CardioTrainer can lower the volume but keep the music running which is better if you are trying to keep your pace to the music.

In the phone however both applications are very similar however and the settings screen also offers settings to change the announcer frequency and the contents of the announcing messages. BuddyRunner performs well int he background but CardioTrainer wants to run in the foreground, otherwise it pauses. CardioTrainer can also automatically play a certain playlist of music for you while BuddyRunner just leaves the music player alone.

Example of the website for Buddy Runner, click to check it out in reality.

Sharing your things with others is easy on the BuddyRunner, the application and webside can write RSS feeds to your Facebook, Twitter or Friendfeed site and so on, you may show your dashboard to anyone you like, they can’t manipulate it unless you log in but they can leave a comment on your run if they want to.

CardioTrainer has a secret passcode to the webside, you can not display it without this code and when you enter the code you may also remove runs and modify the content, so you would not want to post that publicly. There is also right now no integration with Facebook, Twitter and similar sites, no RSS feeds and the tracks can not be downloaded from the site.

In the end the factor that is the most deciding one for me is the website. BuddyRunner has a much better web site and I love the feature that you can download your runs in GPX format to have them displayed on Google Earth or some similar mapping software if you like. Great stuff!

1. It does not matter if you are running any special software or not but I recommend you put the phone in the desktop home state.
2. Make sure you are standing in an open space, preferably out doors, away from power lines, rail roads, large magnetic objects.
3. Hold it flat with the display facing the sky. Hold it steady and make sure you do not drop it in the next moment!
4. move it in front of you in large figure-8 patterns in five complete rounds.
5. Hold the phone upright with the display facing your belly.
6. Repeat the figure-8 movement again for five complete rounds.

The calibration of the compass and accelerometers should now be pretty good.

If at any time you feel the compass is not showing you the right direction or seems “stuck” even if you are turning, then repeat this calibration and it will come alive again. Certain applications such as the metal detector application may also screw the calibration and you might need to repeat this after using such software. Om du som jag har använt dig av HTC Magics inbyggda kompass ett tag så har du kanske märkt att den inte alltid visar så rätt. Här nedan följer en procedur hur man kan få den kalibrerad enkelt och visa rätt igen:

1. Det spelar ingen roll om du kör någon sorts mjukvara eller inte men jag rekommenderar att du stänger av program och låter den vara på den vanliga desktopen.
2. Se till att du står bra i ett öppet område, helst utomhus och inte i närheten av kraftiga magnetiska fält eller objekt.
3. Håll telefonen platt i handen med displayen rakt upp mot himlen. Tappa den inte i nästa moment!
4. För telefonen i stora åttor framför dig i åtminstone fem hela varv.
5. Håll telefånen nu med högtalaren rakt upp och displayen mot din mage.
6. För telefonen återigen i åttor framför dig.

Accelerometrarna i telefonen skall nu ha hittat sin jämvikt och kompassen bör stämma relativt väl. Du behöver göra om denna kalibrering ca 1 gång om dagen i normalfallet. ]]> http://www.ichimusai.org/2009/06/20/how-to-calibrate-the-htc-magic-compass/feed/ 7 http://www.ichimusai.org/2009/06/18/htc-magic/ http://www.ichimusai.org/2009/06/18/htc-magic/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:20:36 +0000 Ichimusai http://www.ichimusai.org/?p=2587 What I have used before…

So this is my new friend and toy. I have previously been an Ericsson fan until they released the ridiculous K600i telephone and then I switched to Nokia N95 for a short while and I detested the Symbian OS completely. So then I tried a Windows Mobile based HTC the Dual Touch model and my current work provides me with a HTC S740 which is also a windows mobile but with some nice features like GPS and so on. Last thursday however I went and bought myself the first big Android phone released in Sweden, the HTC Magic through the operator 3.

Just WOW!

I can honestly tell you that this mobile has become one of the best gadgets and most useful tools I have ever possessed and in a very nice package. The mobile looks a little bit like an iPhone, slightly smaller display area and with a few more buttons on the front side. However when it is started it is obvious that it har borrowed even more from the iPhone in terms of the interface but also it is far from the special locked down feeling that I get from all Apple’s stuff.

The great Google Mobile! Picture shows a Vodaphone mobile, mine is without that logotype but otherwise the same.

Connector

First of all the multiconnector contact on the phone is a slightly modified USB connector. The modification is only there so that you won’t insert audio connectors into a normal USB but they will fit your phone. However normal USB cables will fit the phone so you can connect it to any laptop or desktop PC or mac just like that with any normal USB connector.

The phone charges over USB and syncs really well. This has been the standard for HTC phones for quite some time now and I hope that other makers of phones will abandon their special connector solutions and just use a normal USB plug or a lightly modified one like HTC does.

Battery time

The battery is depleted quickly if you are surfing a lot, streaming music running the GPS and so on but if you are using it in stand-by mode it will keep you happy for a couple of days at normal use. In the beginning you will probably – like me – need to charge it nighly because it is just so fun to try all the features and bring up the GPS assisted maps, stream YouTube when you are bored and so on. Of course using heavy applications and lots of 3G and HSPA data networks will definitely use up the battery quickly.

But I have no complaints really, if you are conservative with you will probably not have to charge it more than every second or third day. It also recharges pretty quickly if you use the wall plug charger. Charging over USB from a computer that can only deliver 500 mA maximum takes of course much longer.

Software

The software for syncing and backing up is included on the phone. Connect it to your computer using the USB cable, then mount the SD card that comes with it and the sync application, manual et cetera is showing up on a removable disk volume. Just install the software straight from the phone and you are ready. Or look something up in the manual.

Adding your MP3 music is just as easy, just drag them to the music folder on your phone, allow the copy to finish and then you are done. The copying is pretty fast as well, seems to be USB2 which is so much faster than my older HTC mobiles that was taking forever to store music.

Oh, and the mobile can be used like normal whilst connected to the PC with the USB.

Android OS and Interface

The Android OS is developed by Google and this is obvious from start when setting up the phone since it asks for your Google online username and password. Once given to the phone it syncs the calendar and mail account with the online GMail and Google Calendar and many other services you might be using such as GTalk and so on. Lovely stuff if you like the G approach to online life then this phone is definitely for you! It also have mail applications that can handle Exchange mail and normal POP/IMAP accounts as well of course though I have not had much use with these yet and gmail is doing the job rather nicely for me.

The interface is smart, sleek and very fast. I have not been able to make the phone slow down yet with the applications I have been running. The menus just slides out and back again really smooth and nice. The settings in the phone is very logically arranged and it just takes seconds to find something you don’t have to hunt around in an obscure menu system and most of the things just works out of the box.

The on-screen keyboards

There are several of on-screen keyboard to chose from and whenever you touch something to type the phone gives a tactile response by a very short vibration. This is really great because most touch keys are difficult to see if you hit or not because even if the key gives a visual response the finger usually blocks the view! Great thinking here.

Swedish keys are located on one of the keyboards directly and in the others you will have to press the A button or O button down to bring up a row of accented characters and then slide your finger off to the Å, Ä or Ö characers as desired.

Sky map

The mobile features a GPS receiver, a magnetic compass and accelerometric sensors that can tell how you are holding the phone. And of course google has released a real killer app to go with that, the google stars. Go out on a starry night, give the GPS a few seconds to locate your position (or use the cell towers to triangulate your position down to a few hundred yards accuracy) and then start the Google Stars app and hold the mobile up to the part of the sky you are viewing. Instantly the mobile will show you the stars and their names, constellations, where the polar star is and show you the positions of the planets and so on. I can’t really tell you how fun this is – you just got to try this out yourself. Incredible!

Navigation for car and by foot

Oh I already mentioned the GPS. It loads information over the network where the satellites are so it aquires a position within seconds when outdoor. If it can not find a GPS fix it will still give you pretty accurate position based on information from the cell towers if your operator supports this. The magnetic compass shows where you are heading and the GPS plots your current position on Google Maps. Now just find where you want to go and it will take you there. Really good for finding addresses, stores, shops, people… searching on the map ties in to many other databases on the Internet and usually gives you really accurate information. I am a jogger as you might have come to know by now.

One of the more esoteric application is a metal detector that detects ferro-magnetic materials. It’s quite funny and uses the compass of course to do this but it is great fun. It may even be useful to locate  stuff in walls…

Geocaching

The phone with GPS and magnetic compass also have applications for Geocaching through the Application Market (where most apps are free) and I have tried out the GeoBeagle application which is a really great app. Press a key and it will take you to the Geocaching online site listing the closest caches for you that you have not already found. Select one of them and then press view as a google map and GeoBeagle snatches it up, shows you a directional compass where to go, distance, accuracy of your position and you are ready to go.

When you find it you just press a key to log your find (or DNF, did not find, as it may be) and you have logged another cache. So simple

Cardio Trainer application

Yesterday I found another killer app that you can use that plots your running on a google map, keeps track on your progress in tempo (minutes per km or mile) and distance and time in km or miles and minutes. The application can also be set to regularly announce the tempo you are currently keeping and how many kilometers you have been doing so far and on what time. So, with the built in MP3-player and this application I sat off. One minute later the mp3 music fades slightly, then a voice announces that I am doing 6:30 minutes per km. Later on when I reach my first km running the voice tells me that I have now done 1 km in 6 minutes and 52 seconds and so on. Makes you really aware on how fast you are going, if you are keeping a good tempo or slacking off or if you are pushing harder than you wanted. When finished you can upload your track to the web to have more information about it there, share with people or just compare several runs with each other.

I really really like this!

I find this really interesting and I think it will be a good thing for the customers pricewise in the end since competition will start on several fronts at the same time. The differences between one operator and another will probably become more and more blurry as these cooperations proceeds.

2.6GHz Spectrum Sweden

Duplex distance for FDD bands are 120 MHz. Uplink covers UARFCN 12500-12850 and downlink is 13100-13450 and the TDD band is 12850-13100.

The 50 MHz TDD band in the middle between UL/DL portions of the FDD band is thought to be used for Wimax in the future. Intel Capital Corporation will probably work together with some operator to provide WiMax coverage in this band.