Set Chrome as Default Browser in iOS

Chrome Browser for all the iOS devices is already out now and at the top of the app store. But using a 3rd party browser is not very helpful when you are using iOS. You cannot actually change that as it is set by Apple. But that ends today. If you have jailbroken your device already, there is an app for that ;)

You will have to download the free Cydia plugin BrowserChooser in your idevice and then choose your default browser as Chrome. Thats easy and simple. Nothing else to make it complicated. This tweak supports not only Chrome but also other popular third party browsers in the app store. So if you have other browsers in mind, you can try your luck.

Source

Galaxy Note vs LG Optimus Vu: The Battle of the Giant Phones Begins

This is a competition in a new arena of smartphones. This new battle can be termed as the battle of 5+ inches phones with stylus. This is the territory where no other companies have dared to step on. It was first Samsung who took the challenge of making the phablet phone factor popular. For some months, it did not have any competitor of its kind, but it looks like the good days are over for Galaxy Note. LG has announced the new LG Optimus Vu with a 5 inches display and guess what else, the support for stylus. So the Galaxy Note vs LG Optimus Vu battle is just the beginning of a new kind of battle.


Galaxy Note vs LG Optimus Vu

There is nothing new to tell about the Galaxy Note as Samsung has made a carpet bombing of advertisements on the Galaxy Note all over the world. It has a 5.3" high res display, slim body and stylus support. The present Android version of this phone is Gingerbread and Samsung is not very clear about the ICS update on Galaxy Note and LG is promising the ICS update after 3 months of the lunch. It could be an instant winner if it was released with Android 4.0 or ICS. LG Optimus Vu, the new kid on the block is a bit different in design. Unlike the traditional Android phones, it has a 5:4 aspect ratio. The display size of LG Optimus Vu is 5", which is .3 inches less than the Galaxy Note. The aspect ratio is a bit uncomfortable too. The battery of LG Optimus Vu is also a bit weaker than that of Galaxy note. On the processor side, the Galaxy Note is powered by a dual core 1.4 GHz Exynos processor and the Optimus Vu runs with a dual core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Optimus Vu has a resolution of 1024x768 pixels which is lower than its competitor, the Galaxy Note. With its iPad like resolution, it also features the iPad like display, the famous IPS display. The cameras and other specification of these two phones are quite similar and before the original release and testing, its better to hold on to any comments about these.

How to Do Video Calls on Android Gtalk

If you have an Android device you must have seen the pre-installed Gtalk app. It is titled only as Talk and quite faster than any other messenger on the device in any kind of slow or fast network. There are some cool things in the messenger like sweeping your fingers left and right to change chat window. Still this app has a great lacking. As expected, Android Gtalk video is not present in most of the Android phones, rather it is exclusive to very few Gingerbread phones. Same is applicable for Android Gtalk video. It is just missing.

But nothing to worry. You have an app for that! It is the Vtok, which is already famous for its iOS iteration. It is quite successful there and now it has come to reign in the Android Market too. Still, we can see many people giving it one star for different compatibility problems. It is understandable as there are just too many devices running Android and it is almost impossible to make an app ready for all. Still, it does a great job on most of the phones. Moreover, if you have any front camera on your Android phone, you might miss Android Gtalk video features, but you will still be able to take the advantage of Android Gtalk audio. Best of all, it’s totally free! So giving a try doesn’t hurt actually. Search in any Android Market or App store for Vtok to get your app.

The Best SIRI Alternatives for Android

You have already seen the 'magical' iPhone 4S with its new voice features

named SIRI. This has been greater than what it sounded like and people are making a lots of experiments and fun with it.

If you are an Android user, you might have looked for some SIRI alternatives. Voice is already built in Android for a while though for commands or conversations you will need third party apps which do the job quite good.

The most mentioned SIRI alternative for Android is of course Vlingo which has a good list of commands like texting, calling, setting alarms, google seaching and many other things. But if you are wondering whether you can have a SIRI alternative for Android that has the capability to reply to your commands and questions, you have two good options. One is Voice Commands which is a good one with faster results. I have used it with 2G networks and got almost instant answers. Besides it has some functions like google search, calling and texting.

There is a new app now which was made for fun in just 8 hours but now it is almost ready for serious business. Its IRIS, the opposite of SIRI. To prove that, it even claims itself to be a male. It has gone through 2 updates after coming to Android Market and the last update has included some functions similar to Voice Actions and a futuristic UI like the new Ice Cream Sandwich theme. It is available in the Android Market and you can try it for free. Besides, Vlingo and Voice Actions are also free apps.

P.S: IRIS is mainly based on internet searches. Therefore, do not expect it to understand everything. It will match your words with some album names or song titles most of the time. Still its a good thing to play with if you were missing the SIRI fun.

Link2SD for Gingerbread

Previously using Link2Sd for Gingerbread was a big troublesome thing. You had to run some scripts to activate it everytime and reset the phone again after one reset. There is an easy solution to Link2SD in Gingerbread. The latest version of Link2SD is ready for Gingerbread and you do not have to do much hassle to use it. So after updating your phone to Gingerbread just update the Link2SD app and you are good to go! It works same as the Link2SD in Froyo

Link2sd: The Way to move All Data to SD Card

In most of the Android phones the built in memory of the phones are not sufficient. As the apps are installed primarily in the built in memory the phone memory ends up at one level and you have install one by deleting another. There are some solutions for that available in the Android market like move 2 sd, app 2 sd and others. Moving apps to sd is built in from the 2.2 version on Android. But none of them is enough if you are using too many apps. However you move your apps the library remains in the phone memory and many apps can not be even moved. For that reason you might want to install link2sd which might set you back with it's setup process. But let's look step by step. Is it that hard?

1. You will need a memory card reader, phone USB cable won't do

2. Insert the card using card reader into your pc

3. There are many partition tools available for free online. Using one of them make two partitions in the sd card

4. One will be fat32 and the other will be ext2 or ext3. Depends on your cards capacity. But let's not take the risk and go for the safest ext2. Remember to make both the partitions primary. Fat32 will be your memory cards memory for media which will be recognized by your phone and ext2/3 will not be recognized now.

5. Install link2sd from the market. It's free. It will ask to reset your phone to recognize the additional memory.

6. Now you are ready to move all the apps+data to your card. Just select one by one and in the next menu click on Link

7. Then tick all the boxes and continue. Everything will move to that additional phone memory and work same as before


Also remember that you can not link your apps unless you have them wholly in the phone memory. So if they are in sd card in the Froyo way, move them back to phones memory at first and then link them to sd. I have installed around 90 apps including big games like Pro Evolution Soccer in my phone of 176MB phone memory. I hope it will help you too.

Cheap Gingerbread Phones

 

The market is now full of the new version of Android phones, Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Everyday new phones are joining the race though all of them are not Gingerbread. In fact there is a trait that the cheaper phones come with Froyo loaded in those and the more expensive phones come with Gingerbread loaded in them. Therefore if you want to buy a cheap Android phone and also have the taste of the Gingerbread version you will be quite out of luck. There is not much to look for in that particular search of cheap Gingerbread phones. But there are some phones with pre installed Gingerbread and some which can be updated to Gingerbread later on which might be cheaper than buying directly. Here are my choices of cheap Gingerbread phones

HTC Wildfire S:

Certainly the most famous phone in this category. Firstly it is from HTC and secondly its affordable which is a rare combination. This phone has a decent configuration and it runs the latest phone version of Android quite smoothly with its 600MHz processor. It comes with the famous Sense UI which is the best known among the Android customizations. Though the 3.2 inch display might be on of the smallest among the Gingerbread phones, it has all the features that it makes it a competitive smartphone in this price tag.

Samsung Galaxy Ace:

Another famous phone which comes with Android Froyo preloaded. But nothing to worry! Just update it OTA (Over The Air) after purchasing and congrats, you are a proud owner of a Gingerbread phone! Comparing with the Wildfire S it has better specs and more features. The screen size is 3.5 inches and TouchWiz has been used efficiently to improve your Android experience. It also has a better processor of 800MHz which makes it even better.

LG Optimus Pro C660

Yes there are much more famous but cheap Gingerbread phones out there but this is about a different form factor with a different brand. This is a BlackBerry like Gingerbread phone which is yet to be released. This phone features a 2.8 inches display with a physical QWERTY keyboard under it and a 800MHz processor. The camera is 3.15MP and there is no secondary camera. The other features and lackings are as expected to be on a phone of that price and OS.

And again, there cannot be any Budget Android phones review without the price. But the prices of these phones vary too much according to regions but the average price of these phones is around $200 without contracts and none of them exceeds the $300 barrier. If you are too choosy you can also do some more investigation and there are some more promising phones like HTC ChaCha, HTC Salsa, Samsung Galaxy 3 and 5 and many more. Moreover, if you are an owner of a popular Android phone there is always a chance that there is a Gingerbread custom rom for your phone like Cyanogenmod or Miui.