Nautilus script with mencoder for convert mkv videos in android format with embedded srt subtitles


#!/bin/bash
for arg
do
mkvextract tracks "$arg" 3:"$arg.srt"
mencoder "$arg" -o "$arg".mp4 -vf scale=480:-10,harddup -lavfopts format=mp4 -faacopts mpeg=4:object=2:raw:br=128 -srate 16000 -oac faac -mc 0 -noskip -ovc x264 -sws 9 -x264encopts nocabac:level_idc=30:bframes=0:global_header:threads=auto:subq=1:turbo:frameref=6:partitions=all:trellis=1:chroma_me:me=umh:bitrate=1250 -sub "$arg".srt -ffactor 1 -fontconfig -font Arial -subfont-text-scale 4 -of lavf
done


This script copied in the .gnome2/nautilus-scripts folder can convert your mkv movies in a format suitable for the G1/G2 android device.
it extracts with mkvextract (you must install mkvtools in your system) the subtitles track .srt and then you can have the video .mp4 hardsubbed.
fps setted to 13 and audio rate 128:16000 (all for more speed conversion without loosing quality in a portable device!)
enjoy

Google ION rom, still the best (now on htc official site)

it’s on the official HTC support site now, with all the instruction on how to flash it on your magic or google ion.
http://www.htc.com/www/support/android/google-io-device.html
after i’ve tried several firmwares, this is still the best rom, in therms of speed, affability, simplicity.
the only bug, that isn’t fixed in any rom yet, is related to the bluetooth A2DP, and also the paring with the bluetooth headset.
this bug manifests as an incapability of connecting (in audio mode with A2DP) to the headset if those are turned on after the system bluetooth of the device.
but… more problematic is the cut off of the sound randomly during the music playing… in certain conditions this became very annoying and should be tagged as an urgent to fix bug.
i’ve tested that it doesn’t depend on the processor speed, even with an overclock of the cpu (527 Mhz via an android widget downloaded fron the market) the cut of the music persist sometimes.
i’ve noticed, at last, that, and for that reason i call it CUT, it is not a real STOP of the music, because when the music returns afer the lak of sound, it is not restored from the moment that it stopped (like when you push PAUSE and then again PLAY), but it’s more like when you low down totally the volume… the music in the background still continues.
this made me think of only a bluetooth problem… we will wait.. fug fixxxxxxxx!

Scripts and methods to backup and restore all your android applications

we suppose that you can have the superuser privileges in your phone, aka root.
the following commands are for linux but removing the “./” should work also in windows (ot: why do you still use windows?!?!?).
after connecting the phone to the pc via USB, this command will copy (if you are in the tools folder of your android SDK) all your paid applications to the folder app-private:

./adb pull /data/app-private app-private

this command will copy all the free applications in another folder, called app:

./adb pull /data/app app

after you have all the apps in your folders simply make two new files:
one for restoring your free applications (assuming that you are always in the tools directory):

sudo gedit restore_apps.sh

with inside:

#!/bin/sh
for i in app/*.apk
do
./adb install $i
done

and one for restoring your paid apps:

sudo gedit restore_paid_apps.sh

with inside:

#!/bin/sh
for i in app-private/*.apk
do
./adb install $i
done

after you have made those two files executable, you can invoke their names (with ./ before) to execute them and restore selectively your paid or free apps back.

The definitive ebook reader in pdf dovuments for android

EDIT: WTF! a lot of disappointment when i discovered that i cannot save the bookmarks of the pdf that i read! what if i erroneously click back to page no.1 in a book of 400 pages?!?!?!?
i desire to delete all the text below =(((
__________________________________________________________

Now that i’ve tested all the apps in the market for reading ebooks, i can
really say that this program is awesome. the name is RepliGo Reader by
cerience. It displays the pdf even in a format that is really usefull for an
handy device.. i reccomand this to all the people that are still in search
of a way to easy read their pdf … i found also a link in mediafire for
those who have already buyed the app and want to keep the installation apk
file as backup.. yzzym52yjye

not even a good txt reader in android to read a simple ebook

i’m very surprised that today, after on year of developing, there isn’t a good application to read books jet. eve txt format… i’ve tried a lot of notepad applications, like ak notepad for example, but none of them are able to handle large txt files (if you define ca. 400kb a large file LOL).
the only hope for now is in two different applications, that anyway, aren’t good enough to entertain a reader on the android platform.
the first is “My Reader” a simple and quite good only txt displayer, quite good because it lacks some indispensable features like bookmarking the page you’ve left, or displaying special caracters like “è, ì, ò, ù, …” …
the second is FBreaderJ… how to said… it’s growing… but too slow! it has potential, good ideas, support, but it’s spreaded in developing features that aren’t needed to a common e-book reader, instead of give us a quick support to (i don’t pretend PDF) but at least to txt or doc … and … what a ugly iconset!!
i’m wondering why peaole keep develop stupid applications like “fart something” or useless themes for aHome, open home ecc, instead of pretending to have an easy looking, minimalist, well working, but simple, very simple, txt (or whatever u like) app.

si sente la differenza di velocità tra la rom dell’ion e quella di vodafone

consiglio a tutti di installare http://andblogs.net/2009/05/ion-update-available/ , rom dei magic neri distribuiti ieri al google I/O 2009 a gratis (piu o meno)…
unico incoveniente è che non c’è la lingua italiana, quindi il tastierino t9 che ero così tronfio di avere trovato ed installato sulla rom vodafone, diventa inutile.
la velocità però è una componente che fa sentire i suoi benefici e mi fa preferire comunque questa release.
novità sono l’amazon mp3 (stile itunes store, per poter comprare mp3 o album e fare anche il preview)
e la feature piu sconvolgente, ovvero l’interazione vocale dell’utente… ora schacciando un tasto si puo interagire con il telefono e chiedergli di fare qualunque cosa: ad esempio CALL JOHN, DIAL 911, SEARCH visual key ON GOOGLE, EDIT CALENDAR, LISTEN anouk… e lui farà esattamente quello che gli dite… ;) sempre se avete un buon accento inglese…