Category: Google

Adventures with Android Happiness <3

admin Google

It may or may not be shameful to say – but in Australia, since the iPhone 3G came out (2nd iPhone) – I have gotten a new iPhone every year – 3G, 3GS, 4.

I did need to change my contracts – so I have some excuse.. I would sell the phone and upgrade.. –_–;;;

Anyway – I won a competition with Google, and got a Nexus S from them ^__^

It is so good – but I guess many smartphones will be similar in many ways.. just details..

Here are some big things for me:

  • There is an app called ES File Explorer, which lets you see your phone’s file system, and also FTP, LAN and Bluetooth network file systems.
    O___________O
    This is so amazing !!! you’d never be able to do this on an iPhone!!
    So Android phones (that are not locked with carriers), are like computers ^__^..more and more…
    So pretty much – no more iTunes – I never need to plug my phone into a computer… transferring images from the web, Google Music Beta-Like sync with SugarSync (wireless syncing of music with shared folders, playing music with Winamp) and you can download files from FTP servers, backup files, download files from the Internet etc.
  • Home screen widgets ~ yayy~ 
    there is a list of all apps, but on the homescreens, you can have anything – 
    My favorite are the time/date/weather/etc. and settings widgets.
  • My desktop’s Ethernet plug died, so – no internet for a while – but Android saved the day – PDAnet – sharing WIFI with computer (like 3G tethering, but faster)
    again – would never happen with iPhone unless you had some dirty hack..
  • Real turn-by-turn audio GPS for free ^__^
  • You can set other 3rd party applications as default apps – 
    SMS Go pro (free) scheduling SMS, Firefox browser, WinAmp

CONS X__X I wish there were none… /ok, there are none/

  • Camera: no touch to focus yet? /fixed/ 
  • Was freezing up on homescreens – that would (almost) never hapen on an iPhone) /fixed/
  • No easy screenshot? /fixed/
  • No easy Japanese keyboard..? /fixed/
  • No Emoji system wide u_u,, /fixed/

Since the time of publishing, I have gotten a Nexus 4 which was the top of the line phone end of 2012 and half the price of an iPhone. It is shiny beautiful and runs wonderfully, many more features and apps. 

Google Play can’t find media

admin Google

If you ever have some songs unable to play on the Google Play app, try the following:

  • Go into settings -> apps -> all -> MediaStorage -> clear data (This doesn’t delete any of your files, just the cache database with a list of where all the media files are on your phone
  • Then reset your phone, so it will rebuild some of the cache again

I downloaded some songs to my phone, then uploaded them to Google Play. I then deleted the local files, and tried to play them with Google Play without success. The system was still trying to play the local versions which didn’t exist. When the cache was deleted, all worked fine instantly!

Pushka 4 Google, Valve, etc.

admin Google

What I’d really love is to build my own business or be an artist, rather than working as a tool in a giant corporation to be bashed until my soul is destroyed and my will yielded to their monolith income generating strategies…

However there is one company I would love to work for (well I have discovered more) After watching the Life at Google videos, I found that Google is an amazing company with a mission I love, and a work culture that is different from what you’d think a typical business would be…

Valve

This seems even more chaotic and creative than Google, with no boss, Valve runs on a completely flat management system and employees are free to create and innovate in all their ventures (also their desks have wheels, so there’s no getting stuck in a rut ~ always moving ~ )

 

Google IO 2011 – signing in from Australia

admin Google

I’m currently watching the bginning of Google IO Develoers conference from Australia ~

so exciting ~ it’s the 1st I’ve listened to ~

I’ll give live updates ~ (though on the Google IO 2011 website, there are also live streming, updates and announcements)

  • Update to Honeycomb, Ice-cream Sandwich (I mised this)
  • Android market + Movie rentals (like on YouTube)
  • Google Music Beta – online iTunes replacement in the cloud with auto sync
  • Open accessories – anyone can make any type of accessories that work with Android
  • Android at Home – Android can work with any item in your house, if inbuilt, or if you connect to a receiver

I can’t believe how smooth and amazing the Google IO live stream is ~ there must be thousands watching and it doesn’t skip a beat~

There were 2 main streams on the live streaming  ~ Android and Chrome – both of which I’m really interested in – wish I could watch it all ~ I think it will all be released soon~

And huge news for browsers and the killing of IE6

  • There is a plugin called Google Chrome Frame, which can be installed on machines without admin privaliges, that renders web pages through Chrome in IE if the webpage has opted in (with a meta tag) – so websites can use HTML 5, modern flash, 3d graphics etc. in IE6 with this plugin.

Also Google Open Fonts is exciting:

  • Rich fonts like what is used in print, Google hosts them, so there isn’t any down time, there is no licencing issues, because it’s open, and Google handles cross-browser quirks and browser updates etc., option for compression, optimisation, only download characters you need, caching.

Stylebot Chrome Browser Stylish

admin Google

Stylebot – I love this plugin.

It’s like stylish/ greasemonkey for FireFox, but simpler to make your own edits to websites.
You just go to a website you want to edit, and click areas of the page you want to change, or add your own CSS to add to that domain.

Maybe not that powerful, but It could get better ~

Here are my first ones, completely cleaning some websites:

SMSfun.com.au

This website can be so obnoxious, covered in bright colours and flashing images, but now theres:

body {
background-image: none;
background-color: #ccc;
}

#contentright, #tblrightcolumn, #sitebanner, #leftcolumn , #sitebanners, #featured, #regright, .features, #weeklypollbox, #joinnowbox, #welcomeblock {
display: none;
}

#sitenav {
margin-top: 97px;
}

 

Before:

2After

1

whois.domaintools.com – Removing the Sidebar

.main_right_content, #center-content-right, #main-left-content, #google-ads-container, iframe, #aswift_0_anchor, .whois-social-media float-row, .addthis_toolbox, .whois-social-media {
display: none;
}

.main_left_content, .float-row, .rounded-grey-tab, .tab-panel, .whoisTabs, .tab-panel-header, .unselectable, .tab-panel-header-plain, .tab-panel-body, .tab-panel-body-top , .tab-strip-wrap, #center-content-left {
width: 100%
;
}

.right {
float: left;
}

domaintools.com

#dt-nav-wrapper-banner, .right-column, .things-to-do, .float-row, .vert-pad-10
{
display:none;
}

YouTube

.homepage-side-block, .yt-alert-promo, .shmoovies-list-container, #ALL-content , .watch-sidebar-section, #watch-sidebar , .browse-content , #__ffYoutube3, #ad_creative_1, #homepage-side-content, .h2-links-black {
display: none;
}

FaceBook – remove the blue bar at the top (make it white)

.slim #blueBar {
border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;
}

#blueBar {
background-color: #fff;
}

#pageLogo a {
background-color: #fff;}

biblegateway.com

#home-picks , #votd-box, .section-box, #merch-bottom, #rotate-link, #social-media-links, #top-link, #gospel-com-results, .with-alert, .results-head, .passage-share-buttons , .share-buttons {
display: none;
}

#body {
min-height: 200px;
}

mobile.biblegateway.com

#merch-bottom, #home-picks, .with-alert, #sections-left-col, #welcome-box , #mobile_block , #social-media-links, #top-link {

display: none;
}

.max_width {
max-width: none;
margin: 1px 5px 0 ;
}

#main-col {
min-height: 10px ;
}

#sig p {
position: relative;
float: left;
padding-left: 30px;
}

 

Google Chrome Development – Themes

admin Google

I made some Chrome themes – however one of them, which had the Google logo as the background was flagged/ taken down – and actually all my themes had copyright images, so I deleted all of them…

The first I started adding themes to the Chrome web store was the 24th of April 2011 – All taken down 1st of September 2014. During the end period of time – weekly active users counted 15034 people.

Your Listings (1 – 6 of 6) Created Weekly users
Pushka Google logo light shadow 4/24/11 493
Orion Twilight Parasprite Nebula 5/30/13 1326
Pushka Google Original Logo Light 4/25/11 3716
Pushka Google Simple Black White 4/25/11 1555
Legend Zelda Majora’s Mask 2/24/13 6748
Aperture Science Old Time Dark Portal 3/15/13 1196
     
  Start Total Users
  24/04/2011 15034

Idea/ Request for Google+

admin Google

July 18, 2011

Yeah ~ can’t wait for more powerful options ~ ~

What I would really love is to be able to add one circle in another…
so when a person is added to one circle, that contact could propagate through the other ones, (and same if removed)

EG:

Work -> my work -> Boss

3 circles, where the one on the right is in the left one etc.

Work -> my work -> co-workers

etc.

you could do this, but you’d need to add people into more circles one by one..
and if you wanted to remove someone you’d need to do it everywhere…

inherited circles?

Google+ is a Photo Book win

admin Google

Just added 1,200 photos to Google+, done in 2 hours, what I did on FaceBook in 5 years ~

Photos in Google+ is amazing O__O
just drag and drop as many photos as you want, and can drag in more while the others are loading.. can also have multiple pages loading photos at once, even on an internet connection that cuts out 10 times in 2 hours !!! ~ ~

Also, on Google+ they claim to allow unlimited high resolution photos that are under 2,000 pixels ~

that means that my computer can now be empty, and just hold stuff that I’m working on at the moment ~ (hence the ChromeBook~ operating system that is just a browser.. lightning fast)

so Google, you can upload ALL your Microsoft Office documents (docs), Videos (YouTube), photos (G+) and have them all in the cloud, easy to share/ collaborate, access from anywhere, and backup forever for free. ^__^  taking over the internet and the world – hooray ~

win ~

The Web is what you make of it

admin Google

Google have had an interesting marketing scheme, using the phrase “the web is what you make of it”

Like most things in the world, the Internet can be used for huge destruction, harm and pain

But it can also be used for great good and positive impact.

It isn’t good or bad, it is simply a tool to be wielded by people.

What it does, is up to you and me.

I recently had a prayer meeting over Google+ video chat, it was awesome, a new experience, bringing us closer through the web like never before ~

I know there are more amazing things that can be discovered to help people and change the world. Anything is possible, as long as you can imagine it.

What are some things you have seen on the web that have touched you?
What will be the next big thing to make an impact?