Category: Life

I love my Samsung Galaxy S2 – it really is a terrific phone. I’m sure it will be even better once the unlocked version of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is released. Unfortunately, I may struggle installing it.

You see, Samsung users can’t update their phones OTA (over the air) but have to do it via PC program named Samsung Kies. Like many phones programs it allows you to connect your phone to your PC and share files, contacts, etc. Unfortunately, it has a few issues.

1. It’s extremely slow in use.
2. It seems to want to update itself every time I launch it – and it’s not a low update process either.

Unfortunately, it’s biggest problem is that it’s a hard task trying to get a phone to actual connect to it. Indeed, right now I’m unable to connect my phone at all. And because this is the only way Samsung will push updated out to the phone, I’m not sure how I’m ever going to receive ICS.

Let me put something straight – it does connect. The USB device is accepted and my phone appears in “My Computer” – I can view the drives, drag and drop files, etc. No, it’s Kies that won’t detect it. Kies does include a troubleshooting option but this seems to just re-install the driver. And that doesn’t work either. I’ve tried it on 2 laptops and a desktop and none of them will work.

But it’s not just me – Kies is pretty universally known for being quite rubbish and for not connecting. And its this kind of frustration that means that people re-consider their buying choices next time around. I’m already considering a Nokia Windows phone next year and this is making my decision easier!

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Kies for Mac

Kies for Mac has a built in limitation whereas it won’t install on any version other than a specific range. This range doesn’t include Mountain Lion (released 2 months ago), even though it’s possible to “hack” the installation and force it to just work. Another nice piece of coding from Samsung.

One advantage that iPhone owners have over their Android counterparts is the wide range of hardware available, particularly music docks. This is mainly because of the varying connectivity solutions that different Android phone manufacturers employ. Recently, they have at least all started using Micro USB, although different phones have them located in different places and different ways around!

Philips, last year, announced 3 different docks for Android phones that solves this problem. It has a Micro USB connection but it’s on a sliding and rotating hinge that should be able to hold any modern Android phone. The models start with the bedside AS11, the larger, portable AS351 and the large and not-so-portable AS851. All of them connect via Bluetooth and boast superb sound output.

Unsurprisingly, I was interested.

However, there was something that kept coming up in reviews that bothered me. You have to use a Philips Fidelio specific App to use the dock and people, generally, didn’t like it.

So, before spending quite a sum of money I installed the app from Google Play and gave it a try. And I’m glad I did.

First of all, the app is intrusive. It launches every time you dock the phone. And by “dock” I mean any USB connection including just charging it. Also, it insists you use its own choice of Apps for playback – in particular, Songbird for playing music.

Everybody has their own preferences, and I’m no different. The music player I currently use was chosen for a number of reasons but particularly the fact that I can specify which folders it should fetch music from. I have a Soundboard App which stores a lot of audio files in separate folders – most music apps will read these and add them to my lists of “albums”, something I don’t want. Songbird, is not different, and flooded my album and song lists with tracks that I don’t want on there. In addition it takes over my headset control, which I currently have set up for controlling my podcast playback.

So, I don’t want Songbird. And the Fidelio app doesn’t give me a choice.

Why Philips would do this I don’t know. It’s nice to have a dedicated dock menu where you can choose apps from but it would be nicer if it simple launched the apps that you, the user, wanted.

Sadly, the app is still on a very minor version so it looks as if Philips aren’t doing much with it.

But, if you’re a fan of Song Bird then I’d suggest trying out the Fidelio app beforehand and, if you can live with it, then the Fidelio speakers look great. Otherwise, I’d recommend looking at something such as the Creative

One final thing that’s worth noting is that Android currently doesn’t support music via USB but Philips have stated that, when they do, their dock can also, via a firmware update. Bluetooth sound is not fantastic, no matter how good the speakers themselves are so this ability will really benefit these devices – again, this is another advantage that the iPhone has.

Please note: The following only works on handsets before the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS) update. After that the audio menu option is disabled and cannot be accessed.

Are you finding the Samsung Galaxy S2 handset volume, even at maximum, too low? Or the same when connecting via the headset? Well, there’s a secret ServiceMod menu where you can set it.

On the phone keypad, type…

*#*#197328640#*#*

This enters the hidden ServiceMode screen. Be careful to not change anything in here unless you know what you’re doing. However, if you need to do a complete factory reset of the SG2, there is an option for that within here, so it’s worth knowing.

Anyway, once in ServiceMode select…

• [5] AUDIO
• [1] NB (VOICE CALL)
• Choose Handset, headset, Speaker (which ever you want higher volume)
• [1] VOLUME
• [1] SRC Speech RX Volume

You will now be presented with the current volumes for each of the 6 volume settings. To edit any of these select it and then press the menu key (to the left of the home button) and select “Key Input”. Type in the new settings and press Enter – it will save automatically. Don’t press your back key at any point or it will exit out of ServiceMode. Instead click the menu button and you will find a “back” option within that.

To give you an example, I’ve modified my headset volumes to the following…

[0]0_lvl : 72
[1]1_lvl : 76
[2]2_lvl : 80
[3]3_lvl : 84
[4]4_lvl : 87
[5]5_lvl : 92

Here’s something I can across recently based upon some recent research. It shows how the instant gratification of the internet is making us impatient.

The study was US based, hence it’s American reference – however, there’s nothing to suggest that’s not as bad in the UK or anywhere else in the first world.

What do you think? Has the internet made you a less patient person?

I am a less patient person, although maybe not to some of the extents highlighted in this. However, is it the internet or just the world generally that we live in now where everything is quicker, smaller, better than it was just months previous (yes, I’m looking at you mobile phone manufacturers!)? Is this evidence of a damaging effect by the Internet or society in general – the Internet is a product, after all, of that.

Created by: Online Graduate Programs