Chronicles of Nikhil Baliga

Swami Gulagulaananda quoted: " Everything is difficult before it's easy " In Android applications, many times, you have a bunch of things that you want to show - that are shown one at a time, and you can slide your finger horizontally across for the existing pane to fly off and the new pane to fly in. To do this, you make use of Android's ViewPagers. However, in order to let a user know that the sliding is possible and also to indicate how many such slides are available, there are some symbols that you might have noticed. Like hollow circles and a filled circle, for example. To achieve this kind of effect, everyone over the Internet seems to suggest using a library called ViewPagerIndicator . And they are right. You can quickly set it up. But if you are a novice, you will go through one hell of a time trying to set it up. You can get a host of issues that you might not know how to resolve. I found that there are a large number of people in various forums,...

In this small tutorial, I will show you how to access the contents of your Android phone wirelessly. What I am using in this tutorial is a rooted Samsung Galaxy 3 running Froyo and a computer with Windows XP. Of course, there is Wi-Fi. If you want to know how to root a phone, you can read about it here . I then installed an app called SSHDroid. There is a free version as well as a paid version available. The free version is ad supported - so it won't work if you have ad blocker app active. If you do have one, then just disable ad blocker for some time. (Restart the phone after disabling ad blocker to ensure it works. It hadn't worked for me before) Turn on your Wi-Fi. Once you run SSHDroid, your phone is available to be accessed via Wi-Fi. Now you need to access it from your computer - There are various ways of doing this, including command line. I prefer to use WinSCP - The same tool that you use for iPods and iPhones after Jailbreaking. You can download WinSCP from here . I d...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " I did a very interesting experiment today - I love Android " I am no geek, but I really love seeing some fancy things happening. This is one of the things that I tried out and liked - maybe you guys might also like it. I downloaded an app called ConnectBot which is an SSH client for Android. You can see their page here , and find that on the Android market as well. After installing it, I found there are three options - SSH, Telnet and Local. Next what I did was, I went to my Linux (I use Ubuntu) and ran the SSH server. To do that, first ensure that you have it on your system. Just run the command sudo apt-get install openssh-server Then, I just went to the ConnectBot app and gave my username@IPaddress and said connect. It connected and asked for password - which I provided. Boom, I could browse through my computer through the command prompt - how cool is that? Geeks might not find this great - I was excited :-) There is also a Terminal Emulator pr...

Samsung Galaxy 3 + Froyo + Root + Swype = Awesome First of all, you can read a little about Samsung Galaxy 3 here in a review I had written earlier. Ok, so one of the main problems that I had with my Samsung Galaxy 3 was that it was running on Eclair (Android 2.1) and apparently apps can only be installed on the phone memory which is quite limited. So, I was desperate to move to Froyo (Android 2.2) Now, the advantages of moving to Froyo were several, and with Google rapidly upgrading Android, I found that it was not possible to upgrade your phone if your phone maker is not supporting the upgrade. Of course, it was possible with some hacks and modding, but that is different... Moreover, I didn't want to risk bricking my phone (I have done a whole lot of modding and even bricked and recovered my Motorola L9, so it is not like I am scared :P) but still... And then finally Samsung released Froyo for Samsung Galaxy 3 officially. So, all I had to do was download the latest versi...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " Some times things that seem perfect may not be really perfect... But there will be workarounds " I was happy with the great number of apps that Android has to offer and went on an installing spree ( Click here if you are looking for great Android apps ). And then, I got a warning saying that my phone was reaching the limit of its internal phone memory. Well, my phone Samsung Galaxy 3 ( Read review here ) is not a high end one, but is a great phone nonetheless. So, the internal memory is not huge - But I have an SD Card (memory card) and should have been able to utilise all that space. But unfortunately, there didn't seem any straightforward way of doing it. Also, unlike iPhone/iPod, where I can connect the device to my computer and move apps in and out, I didn't see such a feature in Android How to do it? Well, there are a couple of workarounds for it. Astro File Manager Astro File Manager is a great app that you can use ...

Swami Nikhilaananda said: " Chrome OS may not become a success, but Android will rule " If you own an Android phone, and are looking for some good apps, below are 15 apps that I use. I personally love them, and use them a lot - They are not arranged in any specific order. See if you like them too. If you feel there are some other apps that are great and are not on this list, leave a comment. Looking for a phone? If you are looking for a low cost Android phone with amazing features, click here to see a review of Samsung Galaxy 3 . Running out of space on your Android phone? After installing many apps, you may run out of space on your Android phone. Now what? Should you start uninstalling apps? Check a solution out . Looking for a great game on iPod? If you are looking for a great game for you iPod/iPhone, check out a review of one the games here. 15 Android Apps 1. Google Navigation One of the most useful tools, this may come pre-installed in your ph...