Olografix Tech Blog

It seems the SGS (Samsung Galaxy S) Vibrant on Bell is running into Internal SD failures. It is a problem  reported by many and they have to send their phone in for repair (4-5 weeks they are told!!). I thought I was in the same boat (and maybe I am). After a call I received, I put the phone down and all of a sudden it started vibrating randomly. So I wake it and it keeps on vibrating. Then, I start seeing "Force Closed" messages for different apps. Can't open Facebook app, Twitter and even can't manage applications. I knew of the Internal SD problems so I figured I was doomed. I shutdown the phone, even then the phone was vibrating, odd. I restarted. No dice. I got pass the Samsung animation and the screen went black and more vibrations (is this why they call it the Vibrant?). I pull the battery and figure I'll try recovery mode. So I press Volume Up + Home + Power for about 10-15 seconds (past the Samsung intro screen) and am presented with the recovery op...

This was something else to setup. Not because of Android, but because of software developed by Samsung called Kies. Kies is a pretty sad piece of code, it takes ages to install, requires .NET framework, takes ages to open and provides features that you'll never use when you plug your phone to your computer. These features are possible from your phone anyhow, that's why you got a smartphone, right? I got the dreaded "MTP Application" error that could not install. It just kept looping and would not recognize my Galaxy S. Well the problem seems to reside in filenames with extension that contain more than 16 characters after the last period. That's right, as much as it seems ridiculous, it seems to be true! Someone wrote a program to find those Evil  files. And here  are the instructions I found to make this happen. If that download link does not work, Google " FileSearcherforKiesFix.zip " and you can find it easily. In the end, I still had to factory rese...

For those who don't know, Google has used desert-based code names for the different Android versions. The names went from Cupcake to Donut to Eclair to Froyo and the next iteration is to be called Honeycomb. So here I am, running 2.1 (Eclair) and waiting on Froyo to be released in the next few days (I hope!). The problem with Android is that it is taking the same path as Window Mobile. This is both good and bad. The fact that is open is good. The fact that carriers and phone makers can modify it is kind of bad. The customization becomes a problem when it causes delays in releases. If I could run a "vanilla-Froyo" (without rooting the phone), I'd probably have the new version running on my phone. The Nexus One has this pleasure because it was sold directly from Google and so OTA (over the air) updates were sent out very quickly. The rest of us have to live with customizations being tested out by all these people who are trying to create "the next best thing...