A better file manager

I've been playing around on my S2 quite a lot, but today I wanted to see if I could access my PC's shared folder over my wireless network. It turns out the default android file browser cannot do it, so I turned to my old friend, Google.

A very quick search led me to an app called ES File Explorer, which turned out to be an amazing file manager replacement for the Android platform.

In less than almost no time, I was listening to some mp3 files that were shared on my PC. I even tried watching a movie file, and the built in movie player handled it with no problems at all.

Anyway, ES File Manager has got to be very high on the list of apps that you absolutely MUST get on your android phone.

Till next time!

Blogger Android app

Yup, I just installed the free blogger app on my phone. In fact, I'm making this very post with it! Also took a quick photo of Einstein, our one dog.

Will mention all the worthwhile apps I install as I go along...

I must admit, I'm having lots of fun with my phone so far, which is probably the main reason the battery isn't lasting ;-)

Till next time!

EDIT: Mmm, as you can see the auto re-sizing the Blogger app for Android doesn't do a great job, it introduces some weird square shapes in the image, almost like old scanners used to do when you scan magazines.

Anyway, will keep a look out for updates and let you guys know if they fix this small issue...

My Samsung Galaxy S2 specs

Yesterday I got my first Android based cellphone, the Samsung Galaxy S2 - Samsung's flagship smartphone. Here is a list of all the specs for this phone: (thanks GSM Arena for helping out)

• Released April 2011 (we only got it in July in South Africa - whoop!)
• 2G - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• 3G - HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
• Size - 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5mm (8.5mm is really thin)
• Weight - 116g (really light as well!)
• Display - Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, with 16 million colours (same as pc's), resolution is 480x800 pixels, and the screen size is 4.3 inches.
• 3.5mm jack, so you can plug any headphones in the device
• On board memory, either 16 or 32GB (I got the South African version, which will always be the smaller one, the 16GB)
• It has a micro-SD card slot, and according to GSM-Arena it comes with an 8GIG micro-SD card, but not in sunny South Africa, I got a measly 1GB card. I think I must give Vodacom a call about this...
• 8MP camera with an LED flash, and a 2MP front facing camera
• A very VERY fast dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, and a Mali-400MP GPU
• Mine was loaded with Android Gingerbread, version 2.3.3
• 3G speeds - on HSDPA, up to 21Mbps, and HSUPA up to 5.76Mbps
• Bluetooth V3.0
• WLAN
• GPS
• Also, I believe this phone is capable of phoning and sms'ing as well, will test and let everyone know! :)

That's just the bare specs (which as you can see, are VERY impressive!), as I go on with this blog, I will mention the rest of the stuff too...

Till next time!

A short intro

Hi, my name is Rudi and I live in South Africa. The second part of my country's name is "Africa", and that should give you a clear indication that we don't always get the latest and coolest gadgets as quick as the rest of the world.

Also, we don't get said gadgets for nearly as cheap as the rest of the world (thank you big corporate South African companies).

Luckily, believe it or not, we do have "cellphones" in South Africa, but the contracts we get are hellishly expensive, and most of the time the service sucks as well.

Anyway, enough complaining! I have always been a big nerd, and a sucker for the coolest gadgets. Here is a list of all the cellphones I've had over the years:

Nokia 5110

Nokia 3310

Nokia 3410

Nokia 3510i (this one had an amazing 4096 colours screen!!! WOW!!!)

Sony Ericsson S700i (my first phone with a camera, and a great, full colour screen - no 3G and stuff like that though...)

Sony Ericsson W880i (a very thin, and CRAP, phone, I didn't like this thing at all. It was bloody useless, lucky my mother-in-law got a new HTC for herself, and I got passed down her old iMate - and hence I started with my first "smartphone")

Samsung Omnia (don't even get me started, when I did the research for this one, I was convinced that it was a great phone, nice 5mp camera, 8gigs of on-board memory, 8gig mini-SD card, Garmin GPS software - the works! - but after about 4 months, I started hating this phone with a passion! Will do some more on that later)

And now, yesterday, I finally switched over to an Android based phone, and decided to do it with the flagship device, the Samsung Galaxy S2. It's expensive, but I just don't care at this stage, ANYTHING will be better than my crappy Omnia...

I have decided to document everything I do and experience with my Galaxy S2 on this blog. If you have one, or are thinking of getting one, you'll find some great articles in the next few months about the Galaxy S2, which will help you decide if it's the phone for you.

Anyway, STAY TUNED!!