Gingerbread Android Easter Egg

 When this site first started it was supposed to be a site talking about phone secrets and now we have a wonderful secret Easter egg hidden on phones running the Gingerbread version of the android operating system.


To start you need to open the settings menu on the phone which will look something like the image on left hand side of your screen. From here you need to scroll all the way down to the bottom until you come across an called "About phone". The icon alongside this option should look like an "information" symbol  as you can see in the image to the right.

After clicking on "About phone" you will see a host of options telling you about various facets of your phone and with a number of other sub menu's. From this menu you need to find the option for "Android version"...then press it...repeatedly. You need to press it around 5 or 6 times inside a second or two (so you may want to use two fingers at once as if they were legs).

If done correctly you will see a hidden image that shows the little Green Android
surrounded by zombies. This is (as the screenshot says) an art piece by Jack Larson called "Zombie Art".

Jack's artwork can be found at www.zombieart.blogspot.com and if your a fan of Zombie based artwork it is seriously worth checking out.

Alternatives to MMS

A few years ago MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) was going to be the thing to really make the most of Camera Phones, the quickest and easiest way of sharing your photos with a friend or a family member. Sadly it seems like the lifespan of the MMS is almost over, the high cost of the service and size limitations have effectively killed it before it became the success it was expected to be. When Camera Phones first hit the market around the turn of the century few expected phones to advance to the point where they became small and powerful mobile computers (as Smart Phones now are), it's been the move to Smart Phones that has effectively killed the MMS.

Rather than writing a long obitury of the MMS I've instead decided to look at some of the most useful alternatives to actually using MMS, something I quickly did in an old article looking at the pros and cons of using e-mail instead of MMS. Whilst it is true that E-mail is still the prefered way for some, such as myself, it's certainly not the only way, in fact their is so many different ways that I'm not even going to be able to cover them all, just the most straight forward ones.

The most widely used "third option" (behind MMS and E-mail) are the new messenger apps, things such as Whatspp? and Ebuddy XMS which allow you to send pictures, messages and other forms of media over the internet for free. This is a service much like sending images over MSN for example. For this you only need to make sure you and your friend are both using the same messenger service and both online at the same time. Whilst some people may like this method (and some genuinely do use it an awful lot of the time) I've not been sold over to it personally due to fact that I've simply found Emailing to be quicker, though this is likely to change over the coming years as these services continue to improve.

Facebook has been an internet super-power for the past few years and now you can use the massive social networking sites to send pictures directly from your phone to someone on your friends list. To do this you need to use the Facebook "Messenger" app and select it as a "Share via" option (with an Android, I'm not exactly sure with other phones) when you've selected a picture, then slect a friend. This is a bit of a middle line between e-mail and the above messaging apps as this can be recieved on a PC or a Phone (or anywhere else where the recipient can access their Facebook).

You could as a fifth option (and by far the least attractive for some pictures) share them publicly via Social Networking sites like Twitter, Picasa or Google+. If the picture is something you do want to share with a wider viewing public this is a much better option than E-mailing it to a number of people. However on the flip, if the picture is something that you would only like one particular person to see you'd be rather silly to use this option.

As said at the start of this post, modern phones do have a host of other options to share pictures, though I'd say these are the main 5 to look at if you wish to share the picture with someone further a field than the Bluetooth range on your handset. Of course if you are close enough to use Bluetooth I'd reccomend using that instead as it's quicker and much easier than using things like Ebuddy XMS or Facebook.

Where did I get all these extra pictures from?

If you are using a Samsung Galaxy S2 (and I presume any phone running Android 3.5) you may have recently noticed your Gallery has a number of new albums and a host of new pictures, as if they've appeared randomly. What you may have noticed about each of those new albums is they have a small white logo on them that looks oddly enough like the Picasa logo (feel free to visit http://picasa.google.com/ if you wish to check the logo). Now, although I'm not 100% certain, it does appear that the update to 3.5 now allows you to access your Picasa/Blogger/Google+ images directly from your phones "Gallery".

Although I've not done a huge amount of testing with this and it may require specific settings to do, it could well explain why so many people have suddenly seen the amount of images on their phone jump from a few hundred to thousands almost over night.

This shouldn't be a major issue for many people though it is worth noting that all your blogs pictures are now on your phone (which means I have over 600 from this blog!)

How to add an extra Gmail account to an Android phone

Whilst we all know you need to associate 1 Gmail account with an Android phone it's possible to add a number of other Gmail accounts, for example a work account and a personal account. This guide will show you how to add an extra Gmail accounts (or accounts associated with Gmail, such as our own @mobilephonetipsandtricks.com email addresses).

Firstly you will need to open the Gmail app and then press on the phones "Menu" button so you'll have a screen like the image on the left. From here you need to select where it says "Accounts". When you click on "accounts" your screen will change to
one like the screenshot on the right with a list of the current accounts connected with the phone, the emails in those inboxes and, at the bottom, the option to "Add account".

After clicking on "Add account" the phone will show you a screen that explains what you are actually doing and will give you a quick explanation of why you'd want to add another account. When you see that screen just click next and then you will see a screen showing you two options, you can either "Create" a new google account or you can "Sign in" if you already have one. The rest of this guide will be as if you ALREADY have one.

After you have clicked "Sign in" you will need to enter your email login and your password, the phone will then connect with the Google servers and you may be asked to input a security code just to prove you are
human.

After the phone has connected with the servers you will be asked what you would like to sync from the account.Remember that things like Contacts and Calendar appointments will show on your phone, so you may wish to just receive the e-mails (so synch Gmail only). When you've selected which options you wish to sync select "Finish". The phone will then show you a screen where it explains the synching procedure and the notification bar. If you've used the phone for a fair bit you will know everything from the screen anyway so just click "Finish setup".
 
After clicking on "Finish setup" you will see your new account added to your old accounts on the Gmail accounts screen (like the image on the right). For the first few minutes the emails in the account won't have synched so give it a while and then you will have your account set up and ready to use. You will now be able to send and receive emails for all the addresses associated with the phone.

How to play NES, SNES and Genesis games on your Android phone

Whilst playing games on your mobile phone may often seem as limited as playing Angry Birds or Fruit Slice you actually have a lot more freedom. If like me, you remember when video games were about having fun, jumping on robots heads and chasing Bowser through dungeons you'll love the fact that the Android phones have a huge number of emulators flying about online.

Whilst the legality of emulation is a somewhat grey and murky place (as a result I won't be directing you towards any ROMs) the actual practice is incredibly simple and in some cases is the only way to play specific games. To do this you need to start with an emulator, this is an app (or program if your old fashioned like myself) that needs to be found. Their is a huge number of these available on one...or another market that is used by Android (I'd advise looking on the SlideME market as well as the official Android Market). When you download one of these and then install it, you will then be able to play the ROMs of the game.

For some phones it is possible to use various wireless controls though for others you may find yourself using on screen buttons, both ways are have their pros and cons. Sadly unless you root a Samsung phone however you may be forced into using an onscreen control.

Some emulators that are recommended:
FPSE-A Playstation Emulator
The "oid" series (n64oid, GBCoid, Gensoid, SNesoid, Nesoid, Gearoid, GameBoid, Ataroid) for N64, Game Boy Colour, Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, NES, Game Gear/Master System, Game Boy Advance, Atari)

We also recommend using a controller like the PhoneJoy to play games for the emulators of the newer consoles.

How to solve the "The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected" error on a Samsung Galaxy S2

 Having recently updated both my version of KIES and my version of Android I've come across a number of  issue regarding file transfers from my Laptop to my Samsung Galaxy S2. The most notable of those was that when I was trying to place files onto the phone I was getting an error sayig "The device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected" despite the device still being connected and still visually looking like it was working.

Although I never solved the actual reason as to why I was getting this error I've concluded it was due to the update of either Android or the incredibly irritating "KIES" software. Instead of coming up with a solution that would make things as easy as they used to be I instead found a work around. The work around involves using the phones
in built menu's to use the phone as a USB storage device.

Firstly you will need to open the phones menu screen (see above) and then open the "Wireless and Network" settings where you'll be able to find the option for "USB utilities" (see the screen shot on the right). At this point make sure your USB cable is not already connected (or disconnect it if it is already linked to both the phone and the laptop/computer you are using).



After you have clicked on "USB utilities" you will be greeted by the screen on the left with just a single option. When you see this screen you need to press where the phone says "Connect storage to PC".

After  doing the above you will be prompted to connect the USB cable to use mass storage (see the image to the right). This is the first point where you should connect the USB cable if you are going to be using this "work around".


After connecting the cable you will see a screen like the one on the left with the green Android having a hand like a USB device. From here you need to open up the explorer in you computer or laptop and find a "Removable disk" with the right amount of memory (for the Galaxy S2 it should be 11.5GB). From the explorer you should be able to copy files onto or take files from the phone and generally use it as a USB memory card style device. This allows you to easily put music, ROM's, pictures and videos onto the phone.

How to save pictures from the internet on an iPhone 4S

A little while back I showed you how to take pictures from the internet and save them onto your Samsung Galaxy S2. The Galaxy S2 however isn't the only super phone that can take the images from the web and save them. If you are using the new Apple iPhone 4S you can very easily save pictures from the web to the photo roll.

Firstly you will need to use Safari and find the picture you want, and then hold your finger on the image you want to save. This will open up a new menu allowing you to "Save Image" or "Copy" (to add it to an e-mail or MMS message). If you choose to save the picture you will be able to easily and swiftly find it in your photo roll.