Greetings Blue Dots! Has your mom sold your PlayStation at a yard sale? Well no worries, if you bought one of our refurbished newer Android phones, you won’t need it anymore! Your friend and guru of all things Android is going to teach you how to take all your old game discs and jam them into you phone’s micro SD card. Time may be of the essence though, as the realm of video game emulation seems to be a gray area for developers in the Android Market.
Mar 07
Feb 01
Better late than never right? I have been meaning to pick up Amazon’s Kindle Fire for months and have finally got around to placing an order. I got it much quicker than I expected and turned it on immediately. I actually got a much different interface than I expected. I knew Amazon put their own interface on top of the Android OS, but I didn’t expect it to be this different. I found the front page to be a large waste of space with huge icons taking up the middle of the screen. Those icons are what you used recently, which is a nice idea, but I would’ve preferred a different layout.
Jan 20
Mini USB (left) and Micro USB (right)
One of the most frequent issues that we deal with in the world of refurbished cell phones is confusion about Mini USB chargers verses Micro USB chargers. Most cellular manufacturers are moving towards using a common charging/data port, and Mini USB and Micro USB ports are definitely the two most common choices at this time.
Mini USB
Mini USB – The Mini USB port has been the standard charging/data port for most phones produced over the past five years, especially for Blackberrys, HTC phones, and Motorola phones.
Micro USB
Micro USB – The Micro USB port is newer technology towards which many manufacturers seem to be moving. Micro USB ports can be found on the newest Blackberrys, Motorolas, Nokias, and Samsungs.
Adding to the Micro USB/ Mini USB confusion is HTC. Virtually all HTC phones use a mini-usb charger; however, the chargers that HTC provide are shaped slightly different than a standard mini-usb charger so that you cannot use an HTC charger with a different, say Blackberry, phone. Customers purchasing a replacement charger for an HTC phone should not be alarmed when they receive a Mini USB charger that does not look exactly like their original HTC charger.
Dec 28
Recent reports show that Ford will be offering a Wifi option in a select number of their 2010 models. These models will have Wifi built in and will have a USB port so that device’s can be plugged into the modem. This seems to be geared more towards using laptops in the car as opposed to your new or refurbished cell phone but if you’re disappointed with, say, your 3G coverage on your iPhone, having the option to plug into your car’s high speed Wifi will be pretty nice.
Ford hasn’t yet confirmed which models will offer Wifi, but they have assured consumers that the vehicle’s internal modem will automatically update itself to remain compatible with as many devices as possible as technology advances.
Although companies like Verizon are offering products like Mifi that give you hotspot access anywhere, Ford’s $29 per month service fee is definitely on the more affordable side of the spectrum.
Oct 07
Here at The Blue Dot, we often have customers contact us for assistance because they are getting a “JVM 102 Error” on their Blackberry cell phone. First of all, it is important to note that all cell phones, like all electronics, are prone to malfunctions so if you have important data on your device, you should be sure to frequently back it up on your computer. That being said, the JVM error means that a .code file on your phone is corrupt, so your device will not load the file. You can do a hard reset on the device, which will totally wipe the phone clean so that you can start over but if you do not want to lose everything on your device, you can follow the instructions below (I am pretty sure you can only do this on a PC).
- Download the JL Cmder
- Connect your device to your PC via USB cable
- Run JL_Cmder and select option 2, which is the event log
- Go to the bottom of the log and look for “JVM Error 102.” The line before it will tell you exactly what file is causing the error. Here is an example of what it will look like. The text in pink shows the corrupted file. Save the file name because it will be needed later but do not include the numbers in parenthesis.
- Go to Start > Run, and type “cmd” then press Enter
- Change directory to the JL_Cmder installation folder. EXAMPLE: type: cd “C:\Program Files\JL_Cmder\” and press enter
- Type the following command to remove the offending file:
javaloader.exe -u erase -f FILENAME
(FILENAME is the name of the .cod file. NOTE – do not include the numbers in parenthesis after the file name)
- Disconnect your phone from your PC and restart it.
