We heard of the Facebook phone… that has never really appeared on shelves, and it seems Mozilla, the creators of Firefox, want in on the action. Mozilla recently showed off a phone running their Firefox OS at CES, though no one was sure what to make of it. Until now. They have revealed their developer preview phone that is never meant to go on shelves, but for developers to make apps for. This phone, which looks like an iPhone OS in a Nokia Lumia’s body, has some specs following it’s release. Check out the specs after the break.
Jan 23
Jan 20
Performing a hard reset on your Motorola Droid will erase all data from your device. There are two ways you can perform a hard reset. One option is hardware based where you use a button combination before the device boots into the Android OS. The other option allows you to use the software menus.
Note: We highly recommend backing up all of your data before performing a reset on your device. The hard reset will clear all data on the Droid like application data, recent call history and bookmarks. Data on the SD card is preserved unless you choose to format it.
Hardware hard reset your Motorola Droid
1. Turn the Droid off. If it won’t turn off, take the battery out then place it back in.
2. Open the keyboard and press the X key while pressing and holding Power. The device will power on. Keep holding the buttons down until a yellow triangle appears on the screen.
3. Press the Camera and Volume Up buttons at the same time to get to the menu. (I had to press them several times to get it to work).
4. Use the direction pad to the right of the keyboard to select the Format option.
Software hard reset your Motorola Droid
1. Open the Settings app from Home > Menu or tap the application slider and select the Settings icon.
2. Select Privacy.
3. Choose Factory data reset.
4. Select Reset phone.
The hard reset process will take a few minutes. When it’s complete, you can reboot the Droid and it will be reset to factory default settings, just like it was when you pulled it out of the box. The device is ready to be used again, sold to another user, or placed in storage. Data on the SD card like photos and music will still be present. Be sure to pull the SD card out of the device or format it if you don’t want it to get into the wrong hands.
Resources:
Download the Motorola Droid User Manual
Buy the Motorola Droid Verizon Phone in TheBlueDot store.
Sep 27
My name may say “androidman” but I appreciate all types of phones, especially when they contribute to some healthy competition. With that said, I asked around and came up with our top five iPhone camera apps. The iPhone has a pretty impressive camera and with so many apps out on the market it can be a bit overwhelming when choosing which one is right for you, or even worth your time.
1. Instagram
Don’t you miss those classic Polaroid pictures? The lightly faded look, slightly washed out colors and odd lighting gives it a great classic look. Instagram catches that, and more, with several photographic options to go through. After taking a picture, you have some filter options that can make your picture look like something out of the 70′s or any classic camera. It’s fun, simple, and makes any picture look great on your iPhone.
2. Hipstamatic
This app is a tribute to the original Hipstamatic 100 from the early 80′s. Much like Instagram it has several options to choose from. You can choose a lens, flash and film to give you almost endless combinations. You also have the ability to upload your pictures directly from your iPhone to Facebook or Flickr from within the program itself.
3. Photoshop.com Mobile (Free)
If you’re Photoshop.com user, this app is a must have. Not only does it offer you 2GB of data online for photos and videos, it also features some of the best photo processing options of any free program on the iPhone. Cropping, saturation, blurs and much much more. Considering this app is 100% free, there really is no reason this isn’t already on your phone.
4. ColorSplash
This app is both simple and fun. ColorSplash takes your photographs and converts them into black and white. From there you can choose which part of the picture is in color and which isn’t. Make a table full of fruits all black and white, but leave one lone apple a bright red to make it really pop. There are several brushes to choose from when bringing color back to your pictures giving you even more control over how your colors pop.
5. Darkroom (Free)
Ever have trouble getting a landscape picture with your iPhone just right, just to have something move and ruin a good photograph? This app takes that worry out of your hands. It waits until the conditions are just right before snapping a picture, lessening blur and flares. This app isn’t really for action shots or parties, but perfect for landscapes and portraits. This app is for those planned pictures you want to be just right.
If you don’t have an iPhone and are shopping around, check out thebluedot.net for some great deals on the iPhone 4G and much much more!
Sep 20
If you are anything like me, picture capability is one of the main concerns when it comes to buying a refurbished cell phone. Sending and receiving picture messages is the most fun part of owning a modern cell phone, so you want to make sure that you get what you are looking for as far as the camera of the phone you choose. The most important categories to look at when shopping for a cell phone to picture text with are the camera’s megapixels and features, the size of the cell phones display, and the amount of pixel resolution that the display can handle. Here is a breakdown of how the most popular refurbished cell phones’ cameras and displays compare. The models being compared are the Blackberry Curve, the Blackberry Pearl, the Palm Pre, the Palm Centro, the Palm 700, the Palm 650, the HTC Touch, the Sidekick LX, and the Sidekick Slide.
Taking and sending great pictures from a cell phone is all about the camera’s megapixels. When it comes to the megapixels of a cell phone’s camera, the Blackberry Curve stands high above the competition with a resolution of 3.2 megapixels. The Palm Pre comes in second with a 3.0 megapixel camera. Both of these cell phones have flashes for their cameras, but the Blackberry Curve also has image stabilization, auto focus, and a digital zoom. The HTC Touch comes in third at 2.0 mega pixels, and the Blackberry Pearl, the Palm Treo 700, the Sidekick LX, and the Sidekick Slide collectively take fourth with cameras of 1.3 megapixels. The Palm Treo 650 comes in last in this category with a 0.3 mega pixel camera.
It’s hard to view a great picture if your cell phone has a tiny screen. Screen sizes are measured diagonally. The Palm Pre takes the top spot of screen sizes with a screen of 3.1 inches, and the Sidekick LX is a close number two with a 3.0-inch screen. The HTC Touch and the Palm Treo 700 both have a 2.8 inch screen. Next is the Treo 650 with a 2.7 inch screen. The Sidekick Slide comes in next at 2.5 inches followed by the Blackberry Curve at 2.44 inches. The Blackberry Pearl comes in last in screen size at 2.2 inches.
The size of the screen isn’t everything, though. You need a screen with a high combined resolution if you want the picture to look good on your screen. Again, the Blackberry Curve comes in at the top spot with a combined resolution of 172,800 pixels. Second is a tie between the Palm Treo 650 and the Palm Pre, which both have 102,400 pixels. Next is the Sidekick LX at 96,000 pixels, followed by another tie between the HTC Touch and the Sidekick Slide at 76,800 pixels. The Blackberry Pearl has 62,400 pixels and the Palm Treo 700 has the least amount of pixels at 57,600.
All of these are important factors to consider when purchasing a refurbished cell phone if you are concerned with the quality of the pictures that it will take and how picture messages will look on the screen. Just to give you an idea of how these popular refurbished cell phones (at a fraction of the price) compare to arguably the two most popular new cell phones the iPhone and the Blackberry Storm, here are their specs:
The iPhone has a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus. It’s screen is 3.5 inches and has 153,600 pixels. The Blackberry Storm has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto flash and auto focus. Its display is 3.25 inches and contains 172,800 pixels.
