Darla!

Category: android

  • Samsung Galaxy Ace 3

    All this time, I had always been a Sony girl. Even before the age of smartphones, I never had a Samsung phone. I had always chosen Sony (or Sony Ericsson back then) because I liked its UI and the screen was usually better than Samsung’s. But when I went to buy a new phone a few days ago, I didn’t find Sony Xperias that appealing anymore. I think they’re very overpriced and I don’t like the designs anymore. So I went for Lenovo, having seen that my dad’s Lenovo S820 was very impressive especially its front camera (2 megapixels for taking selfies!). However, Lenovo S820 was too expensive for me, so I decided to give Samsung a try. Then I chose this phone: Samsung Galaxy Ace 3.

    So far, what I like from this phone is the camera. The primary camera is only 5 megapixels but the autofocus is very good. It can produce beautiful pictures even in a room with dim light. The secondary camera is VGA but it is good in poor lit room too. What I don’t like from this phone are the battery life and the amount of useless apps that can’t be uninstalled. The battery only lasts for about six hours after fully charged (with the internet connected and light use of gaming, i.e. Candy Crush and QuizUp). This phone also comes with several pre-installed apps, like Chat On, Samsung Apps, S Voice, etc.–apps that I don’t actually need, let alone use. They can’t be uninstalled, unless you root the device. Man, this is so frustating. They use up too much RAM and battery. I don’t want to root my phone just yet, so I guess I have to just accept it and let it go as for now.

    But just look at the brighter side. Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 has quite a lot of accessories and cases available in stores. I’m going to order a custom case with my favourite football team logo on it 😉

    Also, look how cute they are together.

  • Cyanogenmod 10 (Jelly Bean 4.1.2)

    When I got my very first Android phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X8, it had Eclair on it (Android 2.1). Back then it was good enough as I only used it for tweeting and stalking people on Facebook. However, when Instagram announced that they were going to release an Android version, I was super excited. That was when I hadn’t known that it needed Gingerbread and up, and you should know that Sony Ericsson did not give Xperia X8 an update to Gingerbread. And then I found that it was actually possible to upgrade my phone to Gingerbread by using a custom ROM called GingerDX. Vicky taught me how to root my phone and then install the custom ROM on it. I was happy. I was glad.

    Then I got another Android phone, the Sony Xperia Miro with ICS. It is actually more than enough: nice camera, bigger screen, and with what I’ve learnt I can customised it all I want. I rooted it, installed Link2SD, etcetera. But then Instagram did it again: they released the video feature only available for Jelly Bean. You can call me crazy, but I really love Instagram so much that I took a big decision to once again upgrade my phone to a newer Android version using custom ROM. This time, it is Cyanogenmod 10.

    I’m using Nova Launcher for my home screen. The icons are from an icon pack called Tiny White Icon Pack. I don’t put any widget on the home screen just so my wallpaper can be seen clearly. Hehehe…

    Turns out my Instagram still can’t be used to upload videos because the app stops working everytime I get to the “Choose a Cover Frame” stage. I’m still yet to find how to fix this, but hey… at least I have an old-but-new phone now, right? And I’m also glad that I can use Unlockbootloader and Flashtool now. I’m not a real geek so that makes me think “How cool is that, huh?”

  • How to Make a Meme with Your Own Picture Using Your Android Phone

    As odd as it sounds, I really like making memes from my own pictures. (You can see examples in my Instagram account.) I usually use desktop programs like Photoscape or GIMP to create them, but it’s quite troublesome since the idea for a meme usually pops up when I’m in the middle of something where I can’t just grab my laptop and edit pictures. For that reason, I need a handy app for it. This early morning, when I woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, I found a way to create memes using an app in my Xperia Miro. It’s a simple photo editor app with the option to add text using user installed fonts. I don’t know if there’s actually a simple app to generate memes from your own picture, but for me this app is quite easy to use. Read along to find out how to use it 🙂

    Dexterous Dame Dara

    1. Install the Photo Editor app from Play Store.

    2. Internet memes usually use the Impact font. It can be easily found in any Windows computer. Copy the .ttf file to “mnt/sdcard/PhotoEditor/fonts”. (The location may be different in your device. Just locate where the app created its folder and then copy the .ttf file to the “fonts” subfolder.)

    3. Open the app and then open the image that you want to use for your meme. You can use the one available in your gallery, or take a new one.

    4. Internet memes usually have 4:3 ratio, so you might want to crop your picture in the same ratio. Tap on the “Crop” menu and choose “4:3”. You can zoom in by pinching the picture. If you have finished cropping, tap on the check icon on the top right corner.

    5. To add text to your picture, tap on the “Text/Image” menu.

    6. Tap on the “+” menu and choose “Add text”.

    7. When a window (?) pop up, make sure the “Top color” and the “Bottom color” are white (or #FFFFFFFF) and the “Outline top color” and “Outline bottom color” are black (or #FF000000). You can change them by tapping on the boxes.

    8. Write the caption for your meme in ALL CAPS.

    9. Go to the “Properties” tab. Change the “Outline width” to 25% or more and the “Align” to Center. Don’t forget to also change the font to Impact.

    10. Go to the “Etc” tab and then change the “Initial Potition” to Center – Top (or Center – Bottom for the bottom caption). Thick on the “Keep Aspect Ratio” and then tap on “Apply”.

    11. You’ve just created the top caption. Now you can repeat steps 6 through 10 to create the bottom caption. You can rearrange the position of the captions by dragging them around. If you’ve finished, tap on the green check symbol on the top right corner.

    12. Tap on the save button and then select “Gallery” to save it on your gallery.

    13. Wait for a second and it’s done 🙂

    Second World Hijabis Problem

    Have fun making your face (or your friends’) a meme! 😉

  • SongPop

    My manfriend is bad not so good at this game :p

    I have to admit that this game is kinda addicted. Besides, it’s available for Android devices too. So, yeah…

    Do you play this game? I’m darlaoct. Challenge me! 🙂

  • In which I got a new phone.

    Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to my new phone! It’s the newest one in the Sony Xperia series: Sony Xperia Miro. And because it’s still new, the only available colour is black. So far, it has everything I could ask for from a phone. It perfectly suits me in every single way (no exaggeration at all :p). I may or may not write a review about it soon, so just stick around, will ya? 😉

    I am so happy. Woohoo!