computer and mobile tricks

l’m sure the huge success of the first Iron Man movie surprised even its creators, so they immediately started making its sequel. And I’m sure Robert Downey Jr will rock the white screen once again.
A few months after the announcement of the sequel, it was confirmed that Tony Stark (the Iron Man character) will also have a part in the upcoming The Avengers, scheduled for 2012. Well, there is a lot of time until we see any of these movies, but here’s the first official Iron Man 2 poster. The release date of 7 May 2010 seems so distant.

While you are waiting for the official high quality trailer (which should be released this month), you can enjoy the leaked 5 minutes teaser from the Comic Con last summer.

A few days ago Google updated their official Android website and the speculations have gone wild. The most viable rumor claims the reason of the site update is the upcoming release of Android OS 2.1.

But no mater they announce it this month or not, the XDA Devs already have a working firmware ROM for HTC Hero owners. That’s right – Android 2.1 running on HTC Hero. Now that’s something.

Just by this very fact you can already tell the official release shouldn’t be too far. Rumors (again) suggest it might happen on 10 December, when the new Terms and conditions will come into effect on the Android Market. The new market agreement will allow paying for the apps directly through your carrier, without the need of a credit card. Rumors even go as afar as suggesting a desktop Android Marketplace client might be in the works.
While the Android community still waits the 2.0 to become officially available on more devices, HTC have obviously not wasted their time on ver. 2.0 and are hard at work on porting their Sense UI to 2.1. A leaked build is already available for the HTC Hero (GSM only). You can download it, read how to install and try it (at your own risk, of course) from the XDA-Developers forum.

Nokia Conversations recently had a poll asking readers for their favorite Nokia X6 feature. The winning feature by far was the 3.2” capacitive touchscreen – Nokia’s first. One in three voted “capacitive” but how the rest of the votes are spread out is pretty interesting too.

The overall message of the poll is clear. To put it in Internet-speak “more capacitive touchscreenz plz”. Nokia is no longer a newcomer to the touchscreen field – the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic came out long ago in gadget years. Anyway, Nokia has been in the business for years and years and I’m sure that they have predicted this outcome and there already have more new phones with capacitive screens in the works.
Moving down the ladder, the 32GB built-in memory comes in at a distant second with 16%. That seems odd – the Nokia X6 lacks a microSD card slot but I can’t imagine anyone needing more than 32GB anyway. But 32GB microSD cards are not that far away, so this isn’t like when the first phones with microdrives came out and seemed to posses unimaginable storage.
Anyway, “Its looks” is what 15% of people consider to be the best quality of the Nokia X6. People still think that Nokia has designer chops. The Comes With Music service and its 6 million tracks got a vote of confidence from 11% of people – quite a lot, considering the service doesn’t seem very popular.

The rearranged homescreen and the 5-megapixel camera got an honorable mention but that’s about it. Symbian S60 5th edition even slightly tweaked still can’t win the hearts and minds of people and the camera on the Nokia X6 can’t either.
It’s also interesting to see what’s missing – 8% of people voted “Nothing”. Some of those are undoubtedly people who are unhappy with the X6 but others chose this option to mean “Nothing’s wrong”. The WH-500 headphones that come in the box with the Nokia X6 weren’t even in the poll, but considering only 3% voted “Other”, the headphones are not a very popular feature it seems. It’s interesting however that we have some readers complaining that they’ve received their X6 without the headphones in question.
Check out the poll at Nokia Conversations to get a better feel of why people voted the way they did.

Have an iPhone and miss the reassuring clicks and feedback of a REAL keyboard? Regardless of its generation, the iPhone has always been a great messaging (read: mailing) device but even after the added landscape software keyboard there is still no hardware one. Up until now. Thanks to 4iThumbs.


And what is 4iThumbs all about? Believe it or not, it’s actually a screen protector with some invisible bumps which are positioned right above the letters of the portrait (OR landscape) keyboard. So, with the 4iThumbs on your iPhone, you’ll feel like typing on a real hardware QWERTY keyboard equipped device… sort of.
Honestly, I liked the idea very much. At first. Then I realized that in fact you have to keep the iPhone with that thing on all the time, no matter if you’re texting at the moment or not. So, you’ll feel those bumps under your fingers even if you decide to play a game or listen to some music. Nope, not really an option.
There’s also an option to keep the thing on the back of the device until you need it – but that’s hardly what anyone would want. But we guess heavy texters might appreciate it after all.
You can choose between a portrait oriented 4iThumbs keyboard and a landscape one, however, you’ll have to swap them depending on your needs. Imagine peeling one off then sticking the other one on. That must be some pretty desperate texter.

All the waiting has paid off, we have it our hands. The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 or as its friends call it, Rachael, is in our office. It only just arrived, but we already have quite a bit to show you. Or more like tease you. We’re working on a preview but we just started so chew slowly.


We’re still exploring the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10, so I can’t really give you any spoilers for the preview, you’ll have to wait till tomorrow for that. Anyway, here are a few quick photos of the phone. Not that you don’t know how it looks, we’re just bragging.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 pays a visit to our office
I said no spoilers, but I can give you a hint. No, make that camera samples. Both still photos and a video sample. Oh, and the camera interface is… oops, I almost let it slip. While I’m at it, Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father. That’s all you’re getting out of me, for the rest you’ll have to wait for the preview, where we reveal that Leia is Luke’s sister. Oops yet again.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 camera samples
And before I go, here’s the promised video sample and a download link to avoid the YouTube compression.

Ah, a scorned fan. We’ve all been there, but this one decided to keep a cool head and sat down to write a report on the problem at hand. Instead of, you know, venting in an Internet forum and calling people (and companies) names. And what a report it is.

The report is authored by Panashe Michael Ngwerume and is titled “Samsung i8910 OmniaHD Report – Problems and suggested solutions for the Samsung i8910/Omnia HD from the users”. At first sight it’s very impressive, seeming almost professionally made.
Seriously, this thing starts with an abstract and everything. Then the report proceeds with a lengthy table of contents despite the report being only 25 pages long. Uh, 25 (!) pages… From the table of contents it becomes clear that the report covers everything from the current problems of the Samsung i8910 OmniaHD to proposed solutions and new features.
http://commobitrick.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/next-up-for-review-its-blackberry-bold.html
When someone writes a report, you know they mean business
But when you read through it, you can sense the feelings of a disappointed fan seep through. There are quite a few “it would be awesome if…” paragraphs and even some mistakes – like stating the “Nokia is dropping Symbian rumor”, which has been denied.
Still, the list of problems is quite comprehensive and it’s not just tilting at windmills – for some of the problems the author mentions the efforts of hackers, which have managed to improve things like tweaking the settings to get better still images, showing that it’s possible.
The report is a good read, despite the small amounts of fanboyism and (at times naive) wishful thinking that show through at times. And at least it should let Samsung i8910 OmniaHD owners know they’re not alone in their disappointment with some of the downfalls of the handset.

This is hardly really tech news but it’s so hilarious that we couldn’t help ourselves but share it with you. Apparently the eternal my lens-is-brighter-than-your-lens war is now taking over the music stage. The rap video below tells the story of the contemporary Romeo and Juliet who cannot be together due to the differences in their photography gear tastes.

The video probably won’t bring any Grammy awards to its creators but we bet it can bring a smile on your face. Check it out after the break.