I Think I Found My Blackberry Replacement

I posted a couple of weeks back that I tried the Motorola Flipout as a replacement for my Blackberry Curve. It didn’t work out mainly because it didn’t read arabic text.

Thats not the case with the Samsung Galaxy Pro. Its the phone I was looking for. I didn’t expect it to be released in the middle east but thank god it did, as I didn’t want to own another Blackberry.

The device reads and writes arabic on it 2.8″ touch screen. It has a more than adequate 800Mhz processor, a 3MP rear camera, 512MB of ROM. All that for KD75.

I got the Galaxy Pro last night so I didn’t have enough time to fully check it out.

Android Market Paid Apps Coming To Kuwait

Google I/O  just concluded yesterday with a ton of announcement. The one that really caught my attention was that Google is expanding its Android Market to 99 countries. And after going through the list you can see Kuwait listed along with Bahrain and Qatar. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are still missing from the list.

Source

VIVA’s After Purchase Service

Picture from ZDistrict

A few days ago, Marzouq tweeted that VIVA introduced new caps on their data subscriptions. After checking their website there was a disclaimer stating that they are enforcing a “Fair Usage Policy” and that is 2GB per day and 60GB per month.

I have a VIVA line that is dedicated for data use. its installed on my Android device (used to be the Nexus One but switched to Samsung Galaxy SII 3 days ago)  acting as a hotspot while a number of devices connected to it. So the 2GB limit wont cut it.

And what about the people that signed up for a 2-year contract thinking they will get an unlimited service? will they still be expected to pay the termination fee if they don’t like the “new” terms of service?

The only reason I went with a VIVA line was the “unlimited” part. And now that’s gone.

Also, A few weeks ago. My line was disconnected and I had to use their online service to pay my bills. After paying the amount that was due. I browsed around and noticed that my monthly subscription was KD25. I paused a little bit and was a little confused, I could have sworn that I used to pay less. So I went back a few months and I was right, I used to pay KD22 up to last September and on October’s bill it was KD25. I never got a call or a message telling me that I will be charged more than what I signed up for, which was KD22 monthly.

Before:

After:

The were able to notify me 2 weeks before my bill was due, but not to tell me that they will charge me extra or that I’m not getting what I paid for.

It looks like I’ll be terminating my VIVA line before I get charged extra without being notified..

Enable Arabic Support in The Samsung Galaxy SII

What’s Needed:

Rooted SGSII. Follow Instructions [here]

Files

Following the above video should give you full Arabic support on your SGSII. I followed the previous method by the same user and it worked just fine but it needed a few tweaks. He summarized it in a single video.

All credit goes to Abdulrahman Al-Enzi of XQ55.net for the great work.

To stay up to date, follow this XDA developers thread. All credit goes to Madmack for his effortless work

UPDATE:

Latest Arabic support post can be found here

How To Root The Samsung Galaxy SII

This will be a step-by-step guide for rooting the SGSII.
Needed files:
Samsung Kies [here]
Odin3 and SuperOneClick [here]

Step One – Driver Installation:

• Download and install Samsung Kies. You must do this so that you can get the SGSII drivers on your PC.
• Connect your SGSII to your PC. You will see WIndows installing the drivers.
• Close Samsung Kies.
• Disconnect phone.

Step Two – Setting Up:

• Enter the recently named “Downloading Mode” by holding: Volume Down+Home Button+Power Button.
• Press Volume Up to continue.
• Start Odin3 (best start it as administrator)

• Make sure that only “Auto Reboot” and “F. Rest Time” are selected on the left.
• Click PDA and select “XWKDD_insecure.tar” in the unzipped Odin3 folder.
• Connect the Your SGSII.
• Press Start.
• After its done you should see “Pass” in green on the left.
• Disconnect your phone.

Step Three – Rooting:

• Make sure that you have “USB debugging” is enabled in Settings> Applications> Development
• Connect The SGSII. PC will reinstall some drivers.
• Run “SuperOneClick” as Administrator also.
• Choose the “Root” option from the top left.
• During the rooting procces, it will ask you if you would like to install “BusyBox”. Click on Yes.
• After installing the files and rooting the device it will ask you if you would like to run a test. Click “No”.

Step Four – Enjoy

Thats it.

The Samsung Galaxy SII – First Impression

If you follow me on twitter, you would already know that my Samsung Galaxy SII already cleared customs and was delivered yesterday. I was super excited to get it and immediately started to play around with it.

First off, the device is not that much bigger than the iphone/Nexus one. Even though it has a 4.3″ screen. And because its slightly larger it feels super thin. Its also really light you can definitely feel the deference as soon as you pick it up.

The device is very snappy with no lag whatsoever. And I’m not talking about a clean device here. As soon as I turned it on I filled it with apps and widgets from my Amazon and Market accounts and it still ran smoothly.

The screen is great also and its much easier to use the on-screen keyboard on a screen that size. Its also very much viewable in the sun but will test it out more when I do a proper review.

The battery is something I haven’t fully tried out yet because I just got the device and also the device must go through a few cycles before the battery reaches its full potential. So will wright about that more in the review.

The device doesn’t support arabic 100%, it shows broken arabic letters. I managed to root it and enable full arabic support across the whole device. will do a step by step in a later post.

Waiting For The Samsung Galaxy S II

I placed an order for the Samsung Galaxy S II last week and it shipped last Tuesday. It reached Kuwait last Thursday morning and its still held in customs.

So I guess one more day?

Dell Streak: Hands-On

The Dell Streak is an android device that got released last year, June of 2010 to be exact. A friend just got one and I managed to play around with it.

The device seems well built with a nice 480×800 5″ screen that I think is a bit too large for my taste.

The device is also pretty slim, as you can see in the photos compared to an iPhone 4.

But as for the internals there isn’t anything special, it might have been a year ago but now with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S II being released next week in the UK.

The Dell Streak is being sold in X-Cite for KD196.

Complete specs:

• A 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800×480) display.
• Fast 1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm.
• 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash.
• VGA front-facing camera.
• A user-removable (and replaceable) battery.
• Integrated 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1
• UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA.
• A user-accessible Micro SD slot expandable up to 32GB.

Apple Suing Samsung? Really?

Apple are suing Samsung for infringing on patent for the original iPhone design. Apple are claiming that Samsung’s Galaxy line is a straight copy from their work and the Galaxy S is just too similar the the iPhone/iPhone 3G/3GS.

The funny thing is that Steve Jobs in an interview done way back in 1994 (back when apple were the underdog) said that “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas”.

Also, LG also complained when the original iPhone was introduced that Apple is is trying to copy the LG Prada. A device that was first announced on December 12, 2006.

And I Thought Picking My Next Phone Will Be Easy

HTC revealed their next super phone today. The Sensation 4G will be released mid May in the UK and June for the rest of Europe. The Sensation 4G will have the new dual-core 1.2Ghz Snapdragon processor along with a beautiful  960 x 540 4.3” display and a 8MP camera camera in the back that is capable of taking 30fps 1080p video.

I was already fixated on Samsung’s upcoming monster, the successor to the Galaxy S. Cleverly named the Galaxy SII that should also be released either end of April or beginning of May with similar specs. Now I have to wait for some benchmarks or even play with the devices my self before purchasing. Darn.