My friend Tom sent me a very interesting phone. Alcatel 3040D. At first glance, it looks just like any other Android phone. Even the touch keys under the display look familiar.
However, it started acting strangely after I turned it on. It showed the time and basic settings screen, and it looked... strange.
To be honest, I thought it was some kind of high school project. But some manufacturers often create their own onboarding screens, and I thought that perhaps they didn't have enough time to create a more polished one, so they released this work-in-progress.
And after setting the basics, it started a homescreen, which also looks like some old Android with "cool" launchers, so, i was still thinking about "Just another Android"...
However then i started to discover the system, and found out, that all menus and inputs are the same looking as the onboarding procedure. So, i discovered, that this is definitely not and android.
There used to be an app marketplace, as well as an icon for 'Games'. However, after clicking on 'Games', it tries to download something that hasn't existed for ages. The same ...
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I have two Nokias that look exactly the same. However, when you look closely at them, you will see that they are completely different.
In the photos below, the dark one on the right is the 6230 and the silver one is the 6230i.
The first thing you can see on them, is the different LCD screen. The older model (6230) is from 2003 has just 121ppi, and the newer (6230i) from 2005 has 192ppi. And it makes really big difference, even thought the sice of the screens is exactly the same.
The older model comes with internal memory, and the "i" model comes with 32MB. However both of them can be extended by MMC up to 512MB. Also the camera on the phone is better, however none of them you would use to take anything other than blur.
The rest of the hardware is almost identical. Bluetooth has been upgraded from version 1.1 to 1.2, and the battery has increased by 50 mAh, but neither of these changes will make any difference.
It is the screen that makes the difference. The older screen is significantly more ...
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As I mentioned, I'm working on an Arkanoid clone called Brickanoid for Android. I have almost finished the physics engine and am currently fixing any bugs that I find during testing. The bricks are being destroyed as they should be and are also dropping power-ups such as a sticky paddle, a laser paddle and a ball multiplier. All of these have been implemented. The trickiest part of the power-ups was splitting the ball into three and ensuring the trajectories were natural and not overly random. Now, the balls split into three, which vary slightly but keep a similar vector.
I am now working on sound effects and the soundtrack. For now, I have four melodies which vary randomly in the background and a level-intro fanfare. I am still looking for some good sound effects for collisions and other things. I already have some placeholders which work and aren't too bad, but I'd still like to find something better. I composed the sound with some help from AIs, but the effects will probably be CC0 assets from the internet. However, I'll see if I can compose or record something on my own.
The score and level system have also been implemented. The most ...
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After some time, I finally got what I really wanted. In exchange for an incomplete old notebook and some other items, I got two incomplete Nokia C6s to assemble into one working phone.
It worked really well, and I now have one device with an outstanding battery. It's a Symbian 5th edition device with a physical QWERTZ keyboard. As I really like all Symbian 5th devices, especially those with a hardware keyboard, this one is pure joy.
So, I managed to jailbreak it immediately. Or, as it used to be called in our country for Symbian phones, I did "the HACK".
The principles have been simplified over the years. I can remember the very complicated and non-intuitive way of doing things through HellOx, the easier way of doing things by flashing the antiviruses, and the simple way of doing things nowadays by restoring the antivirus quarantine. I found the manual, downloaded the necessary tools and installers, and followed the steps. It was really easy and took me about ten minutes.
However, I was shown to be an absolute BFU. I went through the steps, installed the antivirus and, to be really quick, obviously just clicked 'Yes' ...
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I learnt things that I thought were impossible. I have spent some hours playing on my new Xbox 360. I especially like playing GTA IV and Forza Horizon. I am also getting used to controlling with a gamepad.
I have already learned to steer more smoothly than by turning the wheel all the way to the left or right. I can also aim a little with the joycon, but this is still more random than skilful. However, what I really like is the smooth gas and brakes, which are controlled by the analogue buttons that detect pressure. Driving cars in this way is pure joy.
With these newly acquired skills, I might try the Max Payne game I have, but I need more training first. However, I am getting into it and I really like playing on the console because it starts up and shuts down in seconds. This gives me more freedom with my time because my problem with playing on a PC is that booting up and shutting down takes more time than playing.
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I got this from my colleague. And the best description for this device is, that it is Android iPod touch. I got it almost unused, as there is not so much use for that device on daily basis, but it is a nice piece to my collection, and it is really unusual one.
It comes with Android 8, but the manufacturer done it its best to make it as unusable for anything than music and videos, as possible. For example, there is not any store to install apps from. The device comes just with some preinstalled apps for multimedia, and a few social networks clients. And also Audible app. There is also File Manager included, but there is nothing much to do with it. The updating of provided outdated apps is being done by downloading .apks into phone and installing the updates manually. However ! The installation process is locked just to app identificators that are already installed. The system is modified in the way, that user is absolutely unable to install any new app, even by sideloading.
So, it's just a multimedia player and reader. Nothing more, nothing less. The device comes with a 1.9 ...
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This Redmi is the last piece of functional hardware I received in the phone's box. It is a fairly modern device and reminds me of my beloved Redmi 5, which I lent to a family member to replace their other broken phone, and which they subsequently destroyed. Yes, I would have expected that, and I would never lend him anything.
But let's get back to the topic. The phone runs on Android 7, and I was surprised to find that I can still run the Play Store and install all supported apps. This is really interesting, as I thought that Android 8 was no longer supported. So that's fine.
I also recently read an article saying that Sega is making some of their ported console games available for Android for free. This includes three Golden Axe games, Sonic CD and more.
I have therefore decided to dedicate this phone mainly to old-school games.
So I would start with these SEGA games. I have installed Sonic CD Classic and Sonic Episode 4. To be honest, Episode 4 is a bit too modern and 3D for my liking, but Sonic CD is great. I'm a bit confused by the concept of travelling to the past ...
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I have an almost unused UMAX VisionBook 12Wg TAB. It's not the most powerful device, but it's more than adequate for simple internet browsing, watching videos or basic web coding. It is also really compact, so it would be great for managing servers on the go.
It is really difficult to categorise the device. It is not a real notebook, as the keyboard is magnetically detachable. It is not a real tablet, as the tablets do not have dockable keyboard. And mainly, the tablets are usualy with Android or iOS and none of them is not really friendly with hardware keyboards.
Design-wise, it's probably most comparable to a tablet with a keyboard case.However, this is much more practical as it is x64 hardware running a PC operating system. In my case, it is Ubuntu.
It meets the theoretical conditions for running Windows 11, but who wants Windows? So I immediately installed my favourite Ubuntu, and almost everything worked straight away. Except the gyroscope, which was rotating the screen completely differently to how it was supposed to. It took me around four hours to get it working properly. However, I was finally able to use it properly.
Honestly, it would take 30 minutes to fix, ...
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This is my first gaming console ever. It's an Xbox 360 Slim with Kinect. And it was really cheap! I have installed it and tried it out, and it is awesome!
I also got a bunch of games for it.
At first, I tried Forza just to prove that the console worked. And yes, it is in perfect condition. Then I wanted to turn off the game and try a Kinect-controlled game.
The first problem arose immediately. It wasn't with the console, but with me. I had no idea how to turn the game off! After some research, I discovered that the Xbox logo on the gamepad is not just a decoration, but also a button. This brought up a control menu, but I was still unable to figure out how to shut down the game. After some more googling, I was finally able to return to the "Launcher" and change the DVD.
I tried out the Kinect Sports Collection. I immediately found out that my living room is too small for comfortable play. Even the calibration, which requires quietness, is a bit tricky when a small child is watching what is going on. However, after ...
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I played a couple of leagues in career mode on Real Racing 2, and the game is really good. It features many licensed cars from brands such as Volkswagen, Volvo, BMW, Lexus and Nissan. New tracks also appear as you progress through your career, which is great.
However, I also found out about one really annoying thing. The requirement for races. Each race has a requested performance rating window. This means you can only join a race with a car that has a suitable PR. I can understand why the developers added that. It is meant to keep the races challenging and prevent players from simply buying an overpowered car. However, the performance rating requirements do not just rise; they also vary up and down. This means that when you sell your old car to buy a new one, you may find that you cannot progress because your car is too powerful for the next race.
Even worse is when you have a car that was almost suitable a moment ago, but then you buy a small upgrade that increases your performance rating by one, and the next race requires a slightly lower performance rating than the ...
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