How to wirelessly charge your Samsung Galaxy S3 

Charging the battery – and that too without a cable via induction – will be one of the most important features of the forthcoming generation of smartphones. In this tip, we show you how you can upgrade this function even today in your mobile phone. eBay is full of individual induction mats and also individual battery compartment lids for several different handsets. Since the technical details of the components are normally not very strong, we generally do not recommend these products. The reason: more, or less, voltage builds up depending on how many windings are present in the coils, in the mat and battery compartment lid. The result could be that the smartphone is not charged, or worse, is maltreated with over-voltage, which could again lead to the battery getting destroyed.

Well-suited: the induction test by Palm
You would be better off buying a set consisting of an induction mat (or in this case: block) and matching battery compartment lid. This is already available at online auction houses from Rs. 1800 onwards. We settled on a product by Palm, as the oblique, magnetic induction block is well suited to keep the mobile in view while charging. The set is actually an upgrade kit for the Palm Pre. As mentioned, there are other options in eBay.

Takes somewhat more time, but is convenient
You cannot expect induction charging to work wonders. But that has got nothing to do with self-built or bought; rather, it is technology-related. The efficiency of such an energy transmission lies between 60 and 70 percent. About one-third of the energy expended is lost. But that does not make it particularly expensive; since very little current generally flows over here, it is not so bad when one-third of very little is lost. The only thing is that it takes a bit longer till the battery is fully charged by induction.

For this particular DIY, we have selected the Samsung Galaxy SIII as the test device. This could also apply to other handsets as well. After we had received the Touchstone kit from Palm, we first tested to see if the transferred current was fundamentally sufficient to charge the device. We found it was validated, removed the secondary coil from the Palm-Pre lid after that and applied it in the battery compartment lid of Samsung Galaxy SIII. After that, only the contacts of the secondary coil have to be connected with the charging contacts of the Samsung handset – and that completes the induction charging handiwork. A special app, or even a driver, is not required, by the way. The Samsung system recognises that current lies at the internal contact, interprets it correctly as wireless charging and responds accordingly.

How it’s done

1 Preparation 
Get yourself an induction charging kit. It would be best to buy a battery compartment lid and mat (or block) in a bundle. Thus, you can be sure that one matches the other and that the current transmission is also functional. Also, get hold of a soldering rod, tin-lead solder, some stranded wire and a cutter knife.

2 Soldering the Palm Lid 
Before you really get going, you should test whether the whole thing actually functions and that the charging process actually starts. Therefore, solder two thin wires on the contacts of the secondary coil.

3 Connecting the Charging Pins to the Test 
Next, solder the free ends to the inner pins of the Galaxy SIII. If you have another mobile model, you should find out on the Internet how best to get hold of the correct pins for charging. Also, pay attention that the wire which is soldered in the Palm at the lower contact is soldered at the upper contact in SIII.

4 Executing Functional Test
Now check if a current is flowing by laying the Palm lid on the plinth (connected with the power supply). The SIII should now show >>Wireless charging.

5 Removing the Secondary Coil 
Disconnect the cable from the Palm lid and carefully remove the coil from the lid.

6 Inserting the Secondary Coil 
Stick it into the SIII lid. Remain in the centre as much as possible so that the lid fits later on.

7 Closing the Smartphone 
Trim the cable and solder the ends to the contacts of the secondary coil again. Finally, reassemble the device.

8 Wireless Charging 
Lay your smartphone on the charging block for testing – the charging process should now begin.




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Disclaimer
We've thought very carefully about the advice given above. And while we can state, categorically, that all effort has been made to ensure that it is reasonably sound advice, we cannot guarantee that your problem will be solved. Tech2 does not warrant or make any representations as to the accuracy, usefulness or completeness of the prices, data, recommendations, advice, and any other information.

Tech2portal disclaims all responsibility and all liability for all expenses, losses, damages, loss of face, costs, or anything worse that you might incur as a result of the information on this page, or any linked website.

Do not attempt to troubleshoot, repair, or modify any device without understanding and following all of the relevant safety guidelines! Do also please keep in mind that repairing a product on your own while it is under warranty, will automatically nullify the warranty provided by the company.

 

How To Simulate Firefox smartphone OS on your PC 

Firefox OS is a Linux-based operating system for smartphones and tablets and is being developed by Mozilla since a few years now. It is designed to allow HTML5 applications to integrate directly with the device’s hardware using JavaScript and it has been tested on Android-compatible smartphones and Raspberry Pi. Presently, you cannot install it on your phone, but the only way you can get a feel of it is by using a simulator on your desktop PC. The operating system is based on three major software layers within—Gonk (the Linux kernel), Gecko (the application runtime) and Gaia (the user interface). The operating system is still in its test phase until the launch date and the desktop build is code-named Boot2Gecko (B2G). It is available for testing on all platforms, namely, Windows, Mac and Linux. To cut short the encyclopedia about the OS and get to the simulator part, read on ahead.

What you need to get the Firefox OS running on your desktop PC is just the Firefox browser extension and, of course, the browser itself. The procedure is similar to all operating system platforms. Let’s get started.

Step 1: Download and install Mozilla Firefox if you don’t already have it on your PC. The present version is 19.0 for Windows and you can download it by clicking this link.

Step 2: Next, you will need the simulator extension. Click on this link and download the appropriate file for your operating system. The file is around 67 MB and will be downloaded with the extension name .XPI.

Step 3: Download the file and save it to your desktop. Start Firefox and click on "Tools" and then on "Add-ons". On the newly opened tab, click on the settings icon on the top right side located before the search bar. Next, click on "Install Add-on from File". Browse the desktop, select the .xpi file you just downloaded and click on "Open". In the next dialogue box, click on the "Install" button; the Extension will be added in a few seconds. You can install add-ons using the drag-n-drop method too. Simply open Firefox, drag the .xpi file into the browser window and Firefox will automatically install it. Restart Firefox if asked to.

Step 4: You are ready to check out the new smartphone operating system on the simulator from Firefox. Click on "Tools", then on "Web Developer" and finally on "Firefox OS Simulator". A new tab opens up indicating the simulator button on the left column and highlighting that it is stopped. Click on the icon to start it and a new floating window will pop up with the smartphone operating system.

Have fun checking out the new OS and see what is new. Check out the settings and install new apps by downloading them from the Market Place. The OS, as we mentioned, is still in development phase. It is an experimental prototype of the actual version and is a bit buggy.

 

Android users can now type in Hindi, courtesy the Google Hindi Input app 

Google recently released a Hindi Input app, which lets Android users type in Hindi. It works like a keyboard extension and once you install the app, you can choose to type in Hindi for just about everything. You can compose text messages, type email, or even create word documents in Hindi. Your phone should be able to read Hindi characters for the app to work, so check for that before you download it.

To get going, download the app from Google Play, go to your phone's ‘Settings’ menu and enable ‘Google Hindi Input’ in the ‘Language & input’ section. Once enabled, you can choose to type in Hindi. To compose a message in Hindi, click on the “a->” icon on the English keyboard—this will turn on/off the transliteration mode. Basically, you type Hindi words using English characters and the app transliterates the text into Hindi. Switch it off and you can resume typing in English.

But if you want to type using the Hindi keyboard, click on the ‘Globe’ symbol. The consonants are alphabetically ordered into two pages. Press the paging button “1/2” and “2/2” to navigate between pages. You can select from the various forms of words by long pressing on the character key.

Google's transliteration service is available online and it supports several Indian and international languages. The Google app is certainly a bonus for smartphone users. We found it to be extremely easy to use and the transliteration works quite well. Typing using the Hindi keyboard is quite easy, but having to switch between two pages to find the characters will take some getting used to. The word prediction is pretty useful, accurate and is something that will definitely help you save time when typing.

Apart from Google, there are several other tools that allow you to type in Indian languages. Some of the popular tools include Quillpad, Panini Keypad, Indic Typing Tool and the Devanagari Keyboard Tiger, amongst others.

 

Facebook tries single-column Timeline design with some users 

Moving on, you look at the top of the page, you will notice that the icons for message, friend requests and other notifications have been moved to the right-hand side of the blue strip, while the name of the user has been moved to the left.  

If you go and check out how your profile page looks currently, you'll notice that it has been divided vertically - with the space for status updates, and other posts to the left and the friends lists, photo albums and likes, among other things to the right. So in practice, if the new design is rolled out uniformly, the columns would have switched sides.

TNW managed to lay their hands on a second screenshot, too. This one shows off a new feature, wherein BuzzFeed links to an online article, but this time there is a new "Like Page" button.

We spoke of Facebook’s plans of introducing a single-column Timeline design in early November last year. At the time, it had been reported that in the new layout design that was being tested, all posts will be visible in a single column on the left, while all activity indicators will be moved to a column on the right. A single-column design is interesting, and if this design lives, users will be able to view all the posts in a single, vertical stream, instead of the current design that has users switching from right to left to view posts.

Timeline essentially allows users to view their lives as on Facebook in chronological order, dotted with pictures, posts, videos and all. All the events in the life of the user, and the content he or she has posted, right from the date of creating the profile, is neatly arranged in chronological order, as if telling a story.

When the Timeline was introduced, not all users liked the idea of adopting the Timeline and sure enough, this compulsory transition is bound to face stiff resistance. The Telegraph quoted one user as saying, "I’m sorry but this is rubbish. I’m surprised Facebook hasn’t included a compulsory DNA profile section (default to public obviously)."

Late in January last year, there were similar reports about Facebook giving users a week's time to make the scheduled switch from their old profiles to the one with the Timeline. At the time, we had cited an official blog post by Paul McDonald on The Facebook blog. In his post, he had said, "Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it."

In December last year, there were also reports about Facebook possibly tweaking its Timeline design some more. What started it all was that Facebook reportedly rolled out a new Timeline design for one of ABC News’ producers, leading them to believe that the social networking giant may have given them 'a peek at the future of Timeline'. Facebook even confirmed with ABC News that, “This is a new design Facebook is testing with a small percentage of people to make navigating timeline even easier."

 

Ever wondered how the Earth, or for that matter your city looked at night? You can stop imagining and check out this official blog post, where Google shares that users can now explore the popular "Black Marble" imagery from NASA/NOAA in Google Maps.

"Now you can explore this imagery in Google Maps - thanks NASA/NOAA for this data and amazing imagery!" Google reveals in its blog post. Users can begin by going here, and select the location they want to view either manually or by moving their cursor over the map and zooming in or out to view the world ‘at night’.

Nokia launches Asha 205 in India for Rs 3,499

The Nokia Asha 205 has been launched in India. The phone has a QWERTY keyboard, and introduces a new, dedicated Facebook button, with which Nokia is targeting those who want quick access to their Facebook profile. The phone also comes with support for popular email services like Gmail and with Twitter and eBuddy Chat pre-installed.
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