First Impressions- PhoneJoy

With our review of the PhoneJoy planned for early next week we thought we'd write about out early impressions of the device which are mixed so far. Whilst we have had some difficulty connecting the device at times (we can't put our finger on why it can sometimes connect first time and yet at other times take 3 or 4 tries) and we've not really viewed it as being incredibly portable we've also really found that it is very easy to use, feels solid and sits in the hands well.

Also we've found (rather surprisingly) that the little stand that came with the device is nothing short of brilliant, it's not only made the PhoneJoy more usable but it's actually improved the phone's ability to do things like watching movies or live sport on the phone as it holds the phone incredibly well.

Perhaps most amazingly is just how easy it's been to map the buttons to the keys on the applications we've been using. For example using the right analogue stick as the "C buttons" on N64oid. Whilst they keys aren't necessarily "perfect" for us to map to certain consoles that's not stopping us from finding good layouts when we need them due to the huge versatility of the control.

Our next mention of the PhoneJoy will be a review which will be followed with a number of useful guides for people that have decided to be buy one.

How to activate driving mode on a Samsung Galaxy S2

One of the useful in built features of the Samsung Galaxy S2 are the voice commands and driving mode options. To access these you need to press the "Home" button twice in quick succession and this should bring up a screen like the one on the land hand side.

From this you can easily give the phone a number of vocal commands, for example you can make a call or "write" a text by telling your phone what to do. You can also make the phone "talk" to you by turning on "Driving mode".

When "Driving mode" has been turned on you will see a green light underneath the car (like in the picture on the right of this page). After pressing on "Driving mode" you will notified by a computerised female voice of things like texts and phones calls.

To turn these vocalised alerts off you merely need to open the "Voice talk" screen (the one in the screen captures) and turn off driving mode by pressing the icon again. Obviously we advise using the "Driving mode" option if you're driving rather than physically looking at your phone (which we do not advocate) though of course if the phone is just sat in your pocket you really won't need driving mode to be activated.

What is a "PhoneJoy"?

 Over the next week or so we will be putting up a number of guides and even a review of the "PhoneJoy", but what is the "PhoneJoy"?

The "PhoneJoy" is one of a number of bluetooth gaming controllers which is aimed at the phone market, specifically in this case the Android operating system (and phones running versions 2.2 or above). The control has taken more than just a bit of inspiration from the very popular "Dual Shock" Playstation controller (as you can see in the picture to the left) which straight away gives it  familiar look and feel though it actually serves a second purpose, it's perfect for emulators (especially things like FPSE which is built on being a PS1 emulator).

Whilst on the face of it it looks like a PS2 controller you will notice a number of difference, mainly on the top of the control which features a switch, two lights and the charging slot for the inbuilt batteries. Despite everything, including an internal battery the control is remarkably light and easy to hold.

Whilst the control has a growing number of rivals this has the classic look that we all know and love. Whilst it perhaps isn't the most mobile of the controls on the market it does have very good build quality and a very good team behind it who are easy to contact.

Whilst we will be reviewing the product next week, we do advise that you check out the "PhoneJoy" website at http://www.phonejoy.net/ which features many more images, instructions and the ability to buy the control.

So you lot can check that out and I'll get on with playing games and testing it for the review!

The best way to "Desktop" browse the internet on a Samsung Galaxy S2

A long while back Scott explained a way in which he was able to browse the internet with his Samsung Galaxy S2 with a desktop display with the phones stock browser. Sadly though it seemed as if he'd been lucky as many people left comments explaining that they couldn't find the options that he had available and had shown how to use. As a result he advised people to try different browsers namely "Skyfire" and "Boat Browser", and we've come to the conclusion that using "Boat Browser" is probably the best option (we'll explain why at the end of this guide).

Of course before you read any further you will need to pop off to the market and quickly download "Boat Browser" (don't worry, it is free!) When you've downloaded  the browser you will notice that it's not, by default, showing pages in "Desktop" mode. Firstly you will need to press on the symbol in the bottom right hand of the screen (the icon with the 2 arrows). This will open up a 

a menu (like the image at the top of this guide) with an option saying "Set UA", this is the way in which you select "User Agent" and is the option you need to select.

After clicking on "Set UA" you will see a list of user agents popping up (like this list here) and you will see that "Android" is ticked, from this list you need to select "Desktop" instead. After clicking on "Desktop select "Done" from the bottom of the screen and refresh the page your on to see the "Desktop" version of the site.

After refreshing the page you should notice that the regular "Desktop" version of the website appears (as shown by this screen capture of the BBC homepage). After setting "Desktop" you should never have a mobile version of the site loading on you again as the phone tells the website you are browsing from a desktop browser.

So we do we prefer Boat Browser over Skyfire?

We think that the huge (and I do mean HUGE) amount of options available to users on Boat Browser is simply amazing though what we especially like is the easy in which it copes with a number of impressive tasks (like running youtube in the browser!). Personally I find it to run smoother than the other options (such as Dolphin, Skyfire and even the Stock browser) and the ease of use is something special.

You should also note that some of the other user agents can be used as Desktop browsers as well if you wish to try them out.

How to use the "Folders" in the music player of a Samsung Galaxy S2

Yesterday I showed you how to sort the songs on your Samsung Galaxy S2 into things like "Genre" or "Year" and quickly mentioned the method of sorting the songs by "Folder". Now using the "Folder" option is a bit different to using the other options as the other options take are list from the tags the songs have however the "Folder" is dependent on the actual "Folder" the songs are kept in.

To explain this in a simple way you need to go onto your PC or Laptop and look at your music folders. In my case I have folders for specific artists mainly though I also have specific folders for things like "Podcasts" and "Comedy music". Originally these were made to keep my computer slightly tidier than it would have been to have 100's of Podcasts lying around the place though when put onto the phone they serve a second purpose of grouping things together.

If you look at the screen shot to the left that we have here (from Scott's phone which is genuinely a mess) you'll see most of the folders just correspond to albums such as "Healthy in Paranoid Times" by Our Lady Peace and "Hot Fuss" by The Killers. Though you can also see that he has a folder called "Kaiser Chiefs", this folder just keep all the tracks by the Kaiser Chiefs in one place so that they are easy to play together (and many of the lack the correct "Artist" tag).

What you need to do on your computer to create these "Folders" is create a folder on your computer as you normally would then place all the tracks you want into the same folder. Then copy the tracks into your phones music folder.
Alternatively you could use an explorer or the "My Files" app on your phone to create new "Folders" in your main music folder on your phone to create these pseudo playlists.

How to hide your lock pattern on your Samsung Galaxy S2

Last summer we did a guide on setting up the pattern lock screen on a Samsung Galaxy S2 and since then we've learned something new about the pattern lock screen, how to "hide" your entry. Firstly you will need to set a pattern lock screen on your phone (guide to doing that can be read here) and then you need to go back to the "Location and security" settings screen (where you found the lock screen options).

When you are back in the "Location and security" menu you will notice some new options in a sub menu called "Screen unlock settings". Amongst these options is the "Use visible pattern", if you untick this check box and then lock your phone and go back to the pattern screen you will notice that the lights don't light up if you slide your finger across them.

Whilst this may seem like an unnecessary extra step it does stop people from seeing you entering your pattern and as a result it does make your phone more secure in the case of someone else getting a hold of it.

If you wish to get the lock pattern made visible again just tick the box and the visible lines will return next time you go to your lock screen.

What is the white line on my Samsung Galaxy S2 pattern lock screen?

If you look carefully at this screen shot you will be able to see a faint white line on the screen between today's date (Monday, 30 January) and the alarm (Tue 7:30) and charging icons (4%). A lot of people have been talking about this on forums recently and  have been worrying about some sort of possible screen error.

If you are worried about this single white line you need worry no more as it isn't just normal but actually serves a function as it breaks up the screen to show you things that
you may wish to know about. If you look at this second screen shot you'll see that the line is still there though the screen has the "Connect your charger" warning again breaking up today's date from the message.

If you are still worried about the line you can just check any other screen on your phone and you will notice it disappears. It really is normal and not something to worry about.

So the big question is why is it being spoken about on forums now a days? Well I'm not actually sure as the line has been on the screen since we first covered the pattern lock screen back in Summer last year.