Cloud storage update

While AeroFS is good, I think that in the coming months I will be switching all my data sync over to BitTorrent Sync. I am currently using it to sync one folder between my laptop and a server in another country and see that it matured to the point that sync is reliable. Moreover, it offers some serious advantage over AeroFS (which is going to focus on enterprise), and it is that it works on Windows, Linux and Android/iOS. I now spend more time in Linux, but my shares are on NTFS volume, and AeroFS refuses to work with fuse-mounted volumes, while BT Sync just keeps going. And Android/iOS apps perform real syncing, which is a pure win.

One month with iPad Mini Retina

One month with an ipad mini retina wifi 64gb. Before purchase, iOS looked to me like a steaming mix of shitake and Steve Jobs' charisma. But I thought, maybe I miss something, maybe iOS users know something, millions of people cannot be SO WRONG, after all.  Now, I must admit, that iOS is in a direst hole than I could imagine. This isn't just a walled garden, this is a walled asylum.

Welcome to 90-ies, memory leaks accumulate to the point, that when you switch between 2 tabs in Safari, both of them keep reloading every time. Programs quit here and there, iOS performs harakiri on itself unexpectedly, but even this doesn't help, you need to reboot it manually once in 2-3 days to keep ipad in sane working mode.

App ecosystems advantage is a myth. There are more nice games for toddlers, but no seriously useful apps over android. Moreover, android apps scaled from phone to tablet look better than iphone apps scaled to ipad. And of all apps, foursquare only has iphone version. WTF?

Lack of app intents (ala android) and file system is plain stupid. Paid games, even after being bought for 3-5 EUR, keep peddling in-app purchases to my kid, driving me mad.

Build quality? Good, but not better than LG G Pad 8.3 or Nexus 7 costing 30-50% less.

The only "plus" about iPad mini retina is about its battery life. Its seriously delivering on 10 hours of reading time (whether in web or pdf books). With 100% brightness it would work for about 8 hours. Outdoors its still ok to read books, but no longer good enough to watch movies on a sunny day.

TLDR - I will keep this thingy until android 8-incher comes around with good battery life. Then I will pass iPad to my daughter. This thingy is good for reading and games but not much else.

Bootable ext4 Micro SDHC card reported as “Damaged SD card” by Android phone

TL/DR – if you have ext3/4 partition on your Micro SDHC card (e.g. you boot some Linux from it) and then try to put this card into Android phone, it will complain about “Damaged SD card” until you erase (zero out) bootloader from ext3/ext4 partition.

 

Android phone complains about damaged sdcard after bootloader installation. But not just any bootloader. It actively dislikes any bootloader on ext3/4 partions. It complains and refuses to mount sdcard. If you force mount in terminal/ADB - it will mount, but bootloader will be corrupted (do not know exactly why, but has to do something with security and signing of Android system bootloader). My card is multi-partition, and while I mount PRT1 (FAT32), Android corrupts Partition Boot Record (PBR) on PRT4 (EXT4). To avoid this problem I zeroed out PBR on PRT4 (where Linux resides) and Android immediately stopped compaining about the card. Mounts it, scans it, uses for camera/gallery storage, etc.

NOTICE AGAIN: ZERO OUT EXT3/4 PARTITION BOOTSECTOR to allow mounting of FAT32 partition in Android. Strange, I know. I think Android is crazy cautious about EXT3/4 bootloaders, to prevent booting unsigned ROMs from any EXT3/4 filesystem, no matter if it is on internal or external sdcard.

I couldn’t google up anything on this topic, and spent couple of days understanding and then solving this issue. Here goes more detailed explanation. Hopefully it saves time to other people trying to read bootable FAT32/EXT4 card in Android (keywords: USB multi-boot, Micro SDHC, Android, SD Card is Damaged, bootloader, grub, mbr)

I use Sandisk Ultra Micro SDHC (UHS-1) 64 GB card in my phone (LG Optimus 3D, ICS 4.0.4) and in compact Lexar USB3.0 card reader on a keychain.

On Android, I use excellent app DriveDroid to expose bootable IMGs to PC via USB cable (mostly Windows Defender Offline x32/x64, and Windows 8 Install/Recovery). But I also use USB 3.0/MicroSDHC reader with  multiple ISOs, Porteus Linux and a real installation of Linux Mint on EXT4. It is fast enough. Boots in a minute. Speed is OK, feels like a slow laptop HDD of 2010.

Card is partitioned into:
MBR  with BOOTMGR (here and in other cases, installed with BOOTICE (free Windows app) 
PRT1: FAT32 -50GB with BOOTMGR (NT6) - Largest partition for data - compatibile with most devices
PRT2: NTFS - 1GB NTLOADER*
PRT3: NTFS - 1GB NTLOADER*
PRT4: EXT4 - 12GB - used to be GRUB2, now empty boot sector

*PARTITIONS 2 and 3 are small stubs between FAT32 (max space) and EXT4 (limited space at the end of  card). I figured that one day I might want to reduce FAT32 and experiment with another or two partitions, without having to move EXT4. I guess PRT2 and PRT3 are not relevant further to this topic.

I played quite a lot with the PRT1, it boots Windows 8 BootMgr, and from there I have added syslinux and grub4dos and can go between them, chainloading each other in circles.  What is interesting, is that I can put any bootloader on FAT32 (PRT1) and it will not affect my card when I put it into Android phone.

THE PROBLEM BEGAN AFTER INSTALLATION OF LINUX ON PRT4(EXT4). Android refuses to mount the card. I forced it through terminal with
su
mount -t vfat /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/sdcard/_ExternalSD

File explorers then can see the card but message about Damaged SD Card still hangs there in notifications. When I unmount the card and try booting Linux, it freezes silently. Turns out bootloader of GRUB2 in PRT4 is corrupted.

In order to solve this problem, I booted Mint's vmlinuz/initrd directly from GRUB4DOS on PRT1 and reinstalled GRUB2 on PRT4, then used BOOTICE to copy PBR from EXT4 partition (512 bytes) and save it into file on FAT32. Now I can boot it from BOOTMGR directly into GRUB2.mbr file and use Linux. Then, I used BOOTICE's sector editor functionality, to fill first sector (512 bytes) of PRT4 with zeroes. After doing, this, Android stopped compaining about the card and happily mounts FAT32 partition.

Enjoy, and share in the comments your weird and geeky setup. I am really interested in miniscule and versatile computers and what you use them for.

Enable LAN access (browsing Windows network shares) via Connectify Lite

Situation: Vacations. Internet access through busy WiFi hotspot at the hotel. You have some movies/cartoons on the laptop. You want to make those accessible to the kids on the Android tablet. In principle, you can access Windows network shares through common AP (Access Point), but speed is horrible, AP coughs and freezes. It is too far and too many people use it simultaneously.

Problem: You install Connectify.me Lite. Follow all usual steps to share WiFi to your mobile gadgets via laptop. However, Lite version doesn’t allow you to connect to laptop’s shares.

Solution.

1. Go to Network and Sharing Center

2. Click on the connection properties. In this case, Local Area Connection*12

3. Then click Properties

4. Then disable Connectify LightWeight Filter

5. and press Ok.

Now you should be able to access your network shares on the laptop through Connectify.me WiFi LAN. I use excellent and free ES File Explorer to browse network shares on Android tablet. BS Player also has LAN mode that fulfills the same function.

!!! THIS MIGHT DISABLE INTERNET ACCESS THROOUGH CONNECTIFY, hopefully this is not a deal breaker, as you can always switch back to the original hotel WiFi network to get online.

Motorola XT720 photo quality vs Samsung i8910

I use both phones in parallel during the trip to Crimea, Ukraine, and even took some comparative shots.

Only XT720 photos

Notice in the left side of the photos below, this is my finger. Happens to often with XT720, due to placement of the camera on the very edge of the phone, too close to the point, where you naturally keep your fingers.

Using flash in the poorly lit museum, during daytime. No nighttime pics yet.

Motorola XT720 on the left, Samsung Omnia i8910 on the right

My overall verdict stays the same, photo quality of XT720 is quite average, hopefully this will change in the next firmwares.

Just bought Motorola XT720 from Expansys

Just received by DHL. Bought at Expansys.lv (Latvian version of expansys.co.uk). Phone was delivered from warehouse in Marseille, France.

Some notes – very nice build quality, rubberised metal on the backside, nice display, TFT with mirror underneath, so it looks ok in the direct sunlight. Strange, you cannot work with this phone without SIM, only emergency calls allowed. Another negative, about body construction – the blue border around lense (2nd picture here) is very razor sharp and collects particles of my pocket cloth. Finally, a nice touch, 8GB SD card is included.

I did not check processor speed, but it is slower than Samsung Galaxy S that I used previously, so maybe it really is 550MHz, but Motorola promised to up that to 720MHz in the new firmware and to upgrade OS to Android 2.2.

re: last photo here – in the top right corner you can see indicator of filming mode (camera in this case). I expected that it is sensitive button, but, alas, I cannot make it switch modes by touching any of those indicators. You need to go to on-screen menu to change modes.