Sep 12 2012

Plantronics Voyager PRO HD – Personal Experience

Category: Android Devices,Home — Farhan Sabir @ 01:07

I bought Plantronics Voyager Pro HD from BestBuy Canada for $73 (Thanks to Price Match).

Reasons for buying based on previous reviews:

  1. Its noise cancelling technology
  2. Multi-point Connection (2 devices at a time)
  3. A2DP Of course

Well, No.1 is not as good as thought it would be; but its really good. The voice quality is really good (after firmware upgrade). No.2 was perfect for me as i can connect my laptop and the phone at the same time. Listen to music or calls on either of them – no problems. I love its auto connect function. and the sensor for phone calls (take it off your ear to activate handset, and put it back on to switch to bluetooth).  I am already in love with this thing 🙂

There is a Voyager PRO UC versions as well, but it has only an additional bluetooth dongle for computers. So if you dont have bluetooth, you can go for the other.

One more thing, the Vocalyst app from plantronics is nice. it reads you the text messages but you have to turn the “whisper” feature on, otherwise everyone can listen to your personal messages 🙂 Its free for one year from the date of purchase.

 

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Sep 01 2012

Samsung Galaxy Nexus ICS 4.1 upgrade

Category: Android Devices,Home — Farhan Sabir @ 05:01

I upgraded Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Fido) to ICS 4.1 and unlocked it on the way along with “rooted”. 4.1 is beautiful, its fast, save on battery ceven with GPS turn on, and a lot of improvements compared to 4.0.2, and gives you a great feeling. The process is a bit complicated and time consuming but is really worth it.

First you need to install the Nexus Tool Kit

http://www.wugfresh.com/dev/nexus-root-toolkit/

Then follow the instructions on:

http://webtrickz.com/easiest-way-to-change-galaxy-nexus-from-yakjuxw-non-yakju-to-android-4-0-4-yakjutakju/

[All credit goes to my friend Umar Q.]

Note that this process is switching your Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Samsung’s android (which has no updates) to Google’s android (which has current version of 4.1.1). The procedure actually updates the phone to Google Android 4.0.4. Once done, you can do the OTA (over the air) upgrade using your phone. This makes Galaxy Nexus upgraded to Adroid OS 4.1.1 also known as Jelly Beans. Not to mention, i don’t like Jelly Beans 🙂

Disclaimer: Please do it on your own risk. Writer of this post or anyone else for that purpose will not be held responsible if you brick or damage your phone during this process.

Good luck.

FarhanSabir.com - bad image of samsung galaxy nexus

FarhanSabir.com – bad image of samsung galaxy nexus

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Apr 07 2012

Samsung Galaxy Nexus – personal review

Category: Android Devices — Farhan Sabir @ 03:39

I got a new phone this march. Samsung Galaxy Nexus. I believe the only official phone from Google with Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) or Android 4.0.2. This phone is really amazing. I will not go into specs as they are available everywhere. Some of my observations are as below:

1. ICS 4 has a limit on number of screens you can get. That is 5 only. Although, i am sure with Launcher Pro and other software like that you can increase it, but its not needed.

2. Related to above, there is an add on. Each icon on desktop or status bar is actually a folder. So basically you can drag one icon on another and it becomes a shortcut to both. Which is very convenient. You can easily group similar apps together and name the folder whatever you like.

3. WiFi speed and Data speed have become extremely fast compared to my old HTC Magic keeping in mind Nexus is not LTE. On full WiFi signals (g), SpeedTest.net App returns: Ping=21ms, Download=15,038kbps, Upload=544kbps (my connection limit)

4. Using Skype Video calling, or playing games for about an hour makes the phone so hot, you start thinking something might go wrong if i don’t power it off NOW. The area that becomes hot is where the back camera is and obviously effects front-top as well.

5. Battery life is not so good. If i am playing games or doing video calling, it can survive may be 3-5 hours approximately. On normal usage i.e., just skype chat, FB messenger, GPS, and few calls … it normally lasts 8 hours approx. But comparing with others in this class, it is considered to have a better battery 🙂 I was just thinking what do others do 😉

6. Speaker volume is really low on this device. So you have to install or buy the utility Volume+ to increase the base volume. With that, everything seems to be okay.

Will further update it if i find more stuff that is mentionable.

 

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