If you’re in Montreal or nearby this weekend… you must know:
And I won’t be the only one 🙂
All details can be found on the Quebec Team Ubuntu Global Jam page.
Where:
École de technologie supérieure (http://www.etsmtl.ca/)
1100 rue Notre-Dame Ouest
Salles/Rooms A-1300 & A-1238
When:
Friday Oct 2- Sunday Oct. 4 (check the Quebec Team Ubuntu Global Jam page for full schedule info)
See you there!
Every time there’s a new Ubuntu version coming up it’s interesting to test it using the Desktop edition live CD. This however requires burning a CD, rebooting from it, but doesn’t include the « full » test experience – your personal files and customization are not there.
Putting a full working Ubuntu install on a USB key and linking to an existing home directory may be the closest to an actual full-upgrade: it doesn’t touch your hard disk (so no need to reverse any changes). Well, mostly. For example if you use Firefox, a new version will upgrade extensions, etc.
One of my colleagues, Shang Wu, has put together a little script to automate this setup, and a basic document on how to install Ubuntu on a stick to test Karmic as I described, see: Testing Ubuntu Beta Releases off a USB stick. Please do read the code before executing it in one of your systems 🙂
If anyone has comments or suggestions for this script or if you have better recipes to let existing Ubuntu users test/try future releases, I’d like to hear about it.
If anyone’s using an Android phone in Canada and wanting to get some help or just share their experience, come by to this new group:
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| Android users in Canada |
| Visit this group |
I’ve found it surprisingly hard to find any information specific to the Canadian launch of Android phones by Rogers, other than Android in Canada, and most discussion elsewhere deals with the U.S. models or marketplace.
I just started the group so it’s mostly empty, but I’ll be sharing some of the trouble i am having, as well as some of the blog posts about new features, etc.
If you’re like me you want your phone with you all the time. HTC Dream phones and « smartphones » in general tend to be a bit bigger than regular cellphones, so most generic cases don’t fit. No biggie, this is Montreal, I should just be able to go to the next corner’s cell phone shop and get a proper case.
Not so fast!
I’ve had my phone for ~5 weeks now and during the first three weeks I couldn’t find a proper carrying case. Rogers doesn’t even carry any worth mentioning. And I mean none. Well, I’ve spotted some at the downtown store, but they were in hard plastic (go figure) or oversized and overpriced.
So every now and then, during lunch, when I spotted a cellphone accessories kiosk dowtown I would ask about a case for this phone. I went to La Source, Bell, La Cabine Téléphonique, etc. Hell, even the million-cases mini kiosks in underground Montreal couldn’t find anything for this phone!
Well guess what, Walmart near Décarie and Jean-Talon has it. I’ll spare you the details of why I ended up at Walmart, and I hate shopping there for a million reasons, but if the local shops can’t bother to carry something, I’ll gladly hand my money to WM. Although this applies to Montreal, this looks like a product at least a few stores carry online.
This Planet Wireless Smartphone Case (ref: PWSMT3BK) is made by Gentec International. Note the reference no., this one fits the HTC Dream perfectly. I can’t remember how much I paid for it, I think it was CDN$19.95. Not cheap, but not $40 like some cases at La Source!
Here, I thought I’d throw some pictures to illustrate this:
I’ve just added a detailed guide on how to take Android phone screenshots from Ubuntu Jaunty to the Ubuntu community documentation.
I kept following other guides and blogs without success until I came across this bug report about a missing udev rule for the Android devices. Ew!
I also noticed many guides indicate Eclipse + Android plugins (latest release, manually installed) are needed for this which is not the case! Dalvik Debug Monitor (ddms) works just fine without any other third-party, manually installed apps. This is what it should look like once it « sees » your phone:
It’s weird that taking screenshots isn’t easier, as this effectively prevents documenting and illustrating many interesting features. I hope the guide makes it easier for anyone to share their findings in using their Android devices. This should also help prepare training or support material, hint, hint 🙂
The above screenshot shows missed calls, USB connectivity status, Change Settings shortcut in notifications, TwitDroid pending dents (despite the name, it supports identi.ca which is what I use it for), Wifi connectivity status, Vibration mode, cell phone signal, battery status, alarm enabled and the current time, all in the status bar.
I also have a few widgets on the desktop (if that’s what it’s called…), otherwise I am using the default launcher and configuration.
Unless something specifically involves Ubuntu, I’ll mostly be posting only to Planet Android, which I recently joined. See you there (or here).