MLAIS Note Pro - Octa core Android Phablet

I've just purchased this Phablet MLAIS Note Pro to replace my two years old Samsung Galaxy Y Duos. It's working fine but I wanted to get a bigger screen so the same phone can be used as a 'mini tablet' during travel. Without much 'talk' will jump in to the experience.

1. Screen: It comes with 5.5" screen, 720P display, and 320ppi. Screen looks pretty neat and sensitive too. Compared to iPhone, the screen is more bright, and colours are more saturated. No qualms and I am quite happy with it. Positive marks here
2. Performance: No complaints, memory is 2GB and processor is octa core mediatek clocked at 1.7Ghz. For my usage, this is more than sufficient. Positive marks here
3. Call Quality/microphone: Yes, this is a drawback. Often the other party hear my voice coming from a well. It improves a bit with headset but overall this area can be improved. So I'll go with Neutral
4. Battery: When I use the phone for zero calls, zero texts but as a hotspot, the battery gives me a full day. i.e. approx 8 hours. This is great but the moment I start making some calls or reading something on the screen, the battery goes like the taxi meter in Sydney. It drains almost a pointer every minute. The phone comes with 3200mah but must be some thing wrong with the software or processes. I've dimmed the display to bare minimum but still I can run the phone only for 4 hours of reading or watching video. This is a big negative to me
5. Connectivity: No LTE. But UMTS(3G) is good enough for me with download speeds of ~ 3 Mbps. In Sydney I managed to get 11Mbps on Optus network, while in Singapore the throughput dropped to 3Mbps in City area. Upload is not bad either. There are other features like NFC, which I am still trying to find how that is useful to me or what purpose they achieve. Acceptable
6. Camera: Not a great fan/doesn't really take too many snaps. I've tried to take few snaps using the front camera, and I am surprised with the quality. They are a bit grainy, but good quality pic. Acceptable
7. Others: Looks are great and the phone build quality is great. It doesn't feel like a budget phone at all. The phone came with a screen protector on top of a gorilla glass, a sub-par eatpiece, cables etc. Good thing is I purchased a cover/case together from China, so I am not going to spend a fortune on accessories. There are some minor issues (bloat ware, software update etc) but as the name says, they are minor. Acceptable

Overall, I am happy with the phone and considering the US 200 price I paid for phone+case with NFC+addl battery, I must say this is a great value for money. 

Some tips/comments:

• Get a good headset/ear piece. 
• 1st SIM slot is Micro SIM and supports 3G. 2nd SIM is regular SIM. So keep a SIM adapter can be handy to change the slots when you travel. 
• Custom ROM is not available at XDA and drivers are not available from MLais site. Note that the website is in Chinese. Limited support options

The folks at XDA are quite keen to get hold of this phone and overall there is a tremendous interest in the phone. So I am sure, we can see custom ROMs cooked very soon. Hopefully that can solve the battery issues.

High Risk Apps - Verizon Wireless publishes high risk Android apps

Source: Verizon

Occasionally we learn about apps in the Google Play™ Store that might have serious negative effects on your device. Examples of these effects could be:

• Loss of functionality (e.g., loss of data connection)
• Unexpected high data usage
• Battery draining 2 or 3 times faster than normal
• Security or privacy exposure

This page lists apps that may be especially risky for you to use at this time. We work regularly with app developers to help them fix problems with their apps, and apps are removed from this list as soon as the issues are fixed.

One App I used and I concur with VZW finding is "Hill Climb Racing". With Mydatamanager, I found that it used close to 100MB in an hour. Not very sure why but it's a battery killer & bw hungry. Ofcourse addictive too ;)

It's certainly an interesting article from VZW and certainly useful for the end user. Wish SingTel can do something similar in local market. Or may be with iPhone too.

Heimdall package for Samsung Galaxy Anycall S [SHW-m110s] - Korean handset firmware/android upgrade

Ok guys. If you are one of those folks who purchased a Korean Anycall due to any reason and stuck with its old Android version then this post is for you.

First refer to this post from XDA

If your phone is not detected by ODIN or if you 'bricked' your phone then Heimdall is for you. You can find more info from XDA post here about Heimdall. A word of caution,

DO NOT TRY TO USE ANY OF I9000 FIRMWARE ON M110S.

M110S is not i9000 and if you try then you've a 'semi bricked' phone. You'll end up with a phone that doesnt start or recognize the SIM card.

To recover you can use this package for M110S. I've installed on my Anycall a week ago and it's working fine. Here goes the mediafire links.

http://www.mediafire.com/?dkb1v53q6g54b58
http://www.mediafire.com/?208p10tkbki6w40

Download both files and merge with HJSPLIT.

User Privacy - iToday app from Singapore

I've joined the bandwagon on Android recently and while trying to download few apps I realized some strange thing in "permissions".
Below is a screen shot of iToday - the app from Todayonline, a popular newspaper/tabloid in Singapore. 

I've put the text in the rectangle box. Basically the app & today wants to read the user phone number, serial number of the phone & whether a call is active, the number of call that is connected & the like


Not sure what is included in "& the like" but even without that it is very disturbing to see that they Today wants to know the phone number & call history/logs.

Why a newspaper wants to know the mobile phone number & call status? All they need is the internet access and nothing else. I can only conclude one thing which is "advertisements" or "selling the phone numbers".

I am not very comfortable with sharing my phone number without knowing how this would end up. So opted for "SG News" which simply needs "internet access".

This shows again the level of awareness & respect is given to "privacy" in singapore.

Why Samsung Galaxy S is not getting Froyo (Android 2.2) update..(US)

Source: XDA-Developers 

In summary Samsung wants to charge US carriers for the 2.2 update which Operators not willing to pay. I doubt the authenticity & accuracy of the news as Samsung sold few million pieces of Galaxy S worldwide and updates are available.
Officially Samsung didn't announced the availability but when you connect to Kies it prompts to upgrade to 2.2. Also I heard that Samsung service center does the upgrade if Kies is not working or can't use due to whatever reason.

I see only one good reason to update which is Skype. Skype only runs on 2.2 on Galaxy and I need skype so I've updated myself in late November 2010. So far so good with some minor hickups but overall don't see any big improvement or change.

SMC IP CAM (SMCWIPCAM-PZ) - Using Android Phone to watch remotely

I've a SMC IP CAM at home just for the sake of monitoring our home during my extended trips out of home. At first I've tried the Android market for any suitable apps but couldnt find a good app. I wish soon the phone browsers can support full browser spec so we don't have to worry about the apps.

I've found "ip cam viewer lite" in the market but the supported manufacturer list doesnt have SMC Networks. So I've tried "no brand" and with multiple combinations but end up with "Camera couldn't be connected". The solution is to select "Trendnet". As SMC & Trendnet both OEM from the same manufacture the spec and functionality is almost the same. So

* Select Trendnet for the manufacturer
* Select TV-IP422W for the model.

It works :)


Update for iPhone


For iPhone, the free option is "iPuxCam". Though not as good as Android app, it works :)

Google Maps 5 for Android

One more reason to love android. Google released their Maps 5 for Android. Main features/new updates are,

* 3D Maps. (Watch here)
* Compass mode
* Offline (no need to worry about internet when roaming. Just download before touring out)
* Offline re routing
Great job guys. Finally the Offline mode which is the best feature to have.