HTC Desire S ICS update now available as RUU.

HTC has finally kept its August deadline and released the RUU (Rom Upgrade Utility) for the Desire S. However the August deadline was meant to be for an OTA upgrade and not an RUU. But this is indeed a blessing in disguise for the advanced users who were willing to root their phones, update to custom ROMs and then switch back to Stock ROM.

Anyway, users of the HTC Desire S, willing to taste the ice cream sandwich can visit htcdev and filter the results through device name to find the RUU update file of size 404.0 MB and download it. Yup its that big!

For those who are not sure how to upgrade their Desire S here are a few basic guidelines and tinsy-winsy warnings.

Guidelines:

1. RUU or a Rom Upgrade Utility is windows executable file (.exe). Meaning that it will need a Windows OS (XP, Vista or 7) to run it.
2. Backup the Messages, Contacts and Calendar entries. (Leave a comment if you need guidelines on how to backup)
3. Now, once done with the backup, to start the upgrade process the phone needs to be connected to the PC via USB.
4. Run the .exe RUU file and follow the on-screen instructions (They are really simple, don't worry.)
5. Oh and yes... keep the battery charged to atleast 30%.

Warnings:

1. RUU is not the same as an OTA (Over The Air) upgrade. OTA upgrades preserve your personal data, i.e. your Messages, Contacts, Calendar entries installed Apps to name a few. Whereas upgrading your phone through RUU is like resetting your phone. YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL BE ERASED, but it will leave the SD Card alone. So don't worry about the songs and camera photos stored on the SD Card.
2. Do not interrupt the phone by pressing any buttons or removing USB while it is in the process of update. The progress bar may stop in the process but have patience. In case the worse happens... like a power outage.. you should be able to recover your phone without much problem.
3. And lastly I shall not be held responsible in case things don't work out for you as intended. This is just a standard disclaimer, don't worry.

Hope you find this informative. If you need any help leave a comment. To share your thoughts on ICS for Desire S... for that too leave a comment.

ENJOY!!!

Once upon a time in the future

Kids in the school bus were returning home. A group of three kids were amusing themselves at what the teacher had told them that day in class.
One of the boys named Anand said, 'Hah! Can you believe people those days thought that the universe had no boundaries, stars were infinite and  if they were to reach the nearest one it would take years if they travelled at the speed of light. And that's not all they thought light was the fastest. Ha ha ha.'

Another boy added, 'My Mom once said that people used to consider 80 km/h speed 'reckless' and used to crash into each other at these speeds.'

Anand: 'Of course they had tiny roads back then, could move only sideways to avoid another vehicle and relied too much on their reflexes.'

A quiet boy named Mohan, who was dreamily gazing at the stars zooming by from his window said, 'Atleast they enjoyed a quiet, worry free life. Kids our age were not given assignments to build a working model of a frog, constructed cell by cell.'

Anand said in his usual air of a genius, 'Quit complaining, you know that you can just print out the frog from wikipedia, besides cellular paper are cheap now a days.'

Mohan retorted saying, 'Oh come on, then what is the point in doing the homework if you aren't going to do it on your own?'

Anand: 'We can make human bodies in a matter of minutes. What is the use making things on our own? This whole idea of education is cynical.'

Their bus landed at their neighbourhood planet and they got of the bus. They walked a little distance where they had parked their self driven pods. On their way as they reached their pods, they exchanged sources to complete their homework and initiated print jobs. As he sat in his pod Anand jumped his pod over Mohan's and disappeared from the view before the blink of an eye. Mohan's frog would be printed and ready at his desk when he reaches home... unless the frog decided no to stay.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Some fun Android Apps

I upgraded to my Android device HTC Desire S from my Symbian S60 running N73 and it changes the way you interact with the mobile. I am now making deliberate efforts to not let my phone become an inseparable obsession. 

Over the course of few months that I have had this device I have installed and deleted plenty of apps, many are productive and others are just fun. I am listing here some of my favourite apps with links to Google Play (formerly known as the Android Market)

So here it goes:

1.    BitTorrent Remote:

First of all you must have your computer running with BitTorrent to make use of this app. With this app you will not have to email the link of any torrent you had found on internet the internet. Simply get the link in this app and the download begins right away in your PC. Setting up the remote functionality is easy too.

Download BitTorrent Remote

2.    CamScanner: 

This is a life saver app. Take a photo and convert it to a pdf file. This app also auto-enhances the photo saturating the blacks and whites of the document making it appear more clear. There is also in-app function to upload the scanned files to DropBox.

       Download CamScanner

3.   DiceShaker 3D:

This is just for fun app that would be practically of no use unless you wish to play a Board Game and don't have dices to play it. This is the best Dice Rolling app on the market. The looks are pleasing and the soft sounds are soothing to the ears. Plus it can make use of the G-sensors to let the dices roll and fall with the gravity.

       Download DiceShaker 3D 


4.   GPS Status & Toolbox:

Know your GPS co-ordinates with the help of this app. It has a small number of important features besides just displaying co-ordinates which come in handy to keep records while travelling. Note that you will have to rely on some other app to keep the records since the above app tells and shares co-ordinates only.

       Download GPS Status & Toolbox 


5.   Instant Heart Rate:

Place your finger before the lens of your phone's camera and this app can calculate your heart rate. Besides it also displays a graph that moves to your heart beat. Now do remember that this is not a medical device and the score could be a little inaccurate. Still this is a fun app to impress your friends and family.

       Download Instant Heart Rate

6.   Shake-Screen Off:

This app has received poor ratings because users couldn't figure out how to uninstall it even though the app's description clearly mentions the procedure. Now this app can switch off your screen by just a shake of your hand. It also has option to set the sensitivity level to suit your needs. This app saves a button press to switch off the screen and also looks impressive. Word of Caution: This app has AirPush Notification ads. Still it is worth installing despite the spammy ads.

       Download Shake-Screen Off 

7.   Smart Measure:

A bit complex to set up but the measurements of height and distance this app can make are fairly accurate. Try this app and other cool apps from this developer.

       Download Smart Measure

8    Ulysse Gizmos: 

Many attractive gadgets including a compass and GPS co-ordinate display. Has a clean and attractive interface. However, I haven't been able to put this app into any productive use.

       Download Ulysse Gizmos

9    Ulysse Speedometer:

An Android device could scan documents, measure heartbeats, measure length and distance of objects, tell GPS co-ordinates & now it can also function as a Odometer. Ulysse Speedometer can measure your speed & distance covered while you are driving your car with the help of GPS. Select the HUD option and place the screen facing skywards to get the car odometer to reflect the display. 

       Download Ulysse Speedometer

10. Wordnet Dictionary:

A simple dictionary with offline access, which many dictionaries don't offer. If you are connected to the internet, this dictionary will offer a voice clip enunciating the word.

       Download Wordnet Dictionary

Well that's it folks! I hope you guys will enjoy these apps like I do and do leave your comments below.

The Grand Thakker, Rajkot

Including Google Maps link to the Hotel as respecting the number of hits from Google Searches: The Grand Thakker, Rajkot


The Grand Thakker is a newly constructed hotel near Jubilee Garden. The owners previously ran Thakker Lodge which was famous for the Gujarati Thali they offered. The newly opened Grand Thakker is lavishly furnished and completly modern compared to the Thakker Lodge and in every way The Grand Thakker is an attempt to lure the cream class of Rajkot.

Now, even though I write reviews on restaurants, I am not a foodie and I don't even frequently visit restaurants. So whenever I do visit, it would be usually on some occassion and likewise this visit was an occassion as well. My father takes the whole staff of our shop at some restaurant once in a year, usually to celebrate the anniverssary of our shop. However, the date on which the anniversary is celebrated variable and so my it was on occassion of the anniversary celebration that I visited the The Grand Thakker with my Dad and the staff, total of nine people, on a Saturday evening.

On reaching the hotel, we found the waiting area full of customers awaiting their turn. The waiting room was beautifully lit, large sofa seating with comfortable hand rests. Overall the waiting area's interior was beautiful, and so were the people seated inside.

I approached the person making the spot reservation and booked a table for us. I asked him how long will it take for our turn to come and he replied in an annoying fashion that it would take atleast an hour. The guy made no attempt to be polite during the brief conversaton which left me with the feeling that indeed the staff has been shifted from the good old Thakker Lodge. 

It took exactly one hour before our turn came. On entering the restaurant area of the hotel, we were finger pointed to the direction of our tables. A group of nine people would definitely need two tables joined. However, it took us some time to explain the waiters two join the two tables and get extra chairs. It took some five minutes before we were seated, and yes no exaggeration here. My father even went to the restaureter to direct the clumsy staff but received a curt reply instructing him to ask the captain, who could not be located at the moment.

The captain was a polite man and took our order. The ambience of the place was great. It was a high ceiling hall and the size of the restaurant was no small. However I did notice that the sounds echoed all over the hall and made the hall feel noisy. We merrily chatted till the food arrived and it arrived within some fifteen minutes time and was served hot and gave out mouth watering smell. We had ordered three saags, all punjabi.

The menu was not very pricey, if not cheap. The food quality was good. However, I would expect more from a place of this sort. One thing that left a negative impression on me was that we ordered for sweet khoya kaju and what we were served was spicy one(the good old Thakker Lodge). However, the captain came to our table, as per his duty, to ask if eveything was alright and we drew his attention to the mistake which he quickly corrected by serving us the sweet khoya kaju. However(once again a however) the Kaju (Cashew Nuts) used in the were roasted and they tasted different from the delicious gravy. But that is just a small mistake to me, the other two saags were delicious and flavoured nicely.

One more thing that left a negative impact was that the waiters were not very well trained. They moved around clumsily, their uniforms were not tidy. One of the waiters couldn't understand what we said to him, since he was a tibetian and must have newly arrived here. But there was noticeable commotion amongst the staff of the hotel again a sign that the good old Thakker Lodge rested in the heart of the The Grand Thakker. However, as any businessman would know, it is not easy to acquire new employees in Rajkot anymore and it is even more difficult in Hotel business.

In the end we left the hotel happy faced, happy for the food and happy since the bill didn't burn a hole in my dad's pocket as he had expected, judging by the hotel's interior. In short if you are planning to dine out with your family on a saturday night, you should consider visitng the The Grand Thakker next time. That said, I'll rate The Grand Thakker with 3.5 stars out of 5. 

Only Parathas, Rajkot

There must be very few places in Rajkot city where I'd love to visit again and again for its food, and Only Parathas is one such place.


As the name suggests, only parathas serves parathas mainly, if not 'only'. The menu card of the restaurant is considerably large and offers many combinations of paratha stuffing to its customers. To say, only parathas offers wide variety of stuffings filled in between the crusts of parathas. This stuffing consists of garlic, peas, spinach and what not... 


On my visit to this restaurant with my family, we ordered for Chaats, Tikki Tokri and Delhi Chaat to be specific. These chats were garnished in an edible bowl. Edible when I say was made up of eating ingredient. Then there was the chaat recipe and the bowl was covered with a layer of curd, it was a treat to the eye before it could be a treat to the taste-buds. Now all the ingredients used in the chaat were freshly cut and lip-smackingly delicious.


Now came the main course, the Parathas. Although I no longer remember our exact order, but our ordered parathas were aromatic and tasty to justify the flavour. In other restaurants no matter how much masalas are used to make the food tasty (or to overpower the rotten veggies) one would never be satisfied with the food. It would leave you with a feeling as if something is missing. However, here I was satisfied, and I bet anyone visiting this place would be. The taste of the food suggested the use of best quality of ingredients in the making. Moreover, the captain was a warm and efficient man on the job.


We ordered for three parathas, after devouring the chaat, to be shared amongst five of us, and I must say they were sufficiently sized to satisfy a famished person. 


To conclude this review, if I were to rate this restaurant on a scale of 5 stars, I would go with 4. A must visit place to satisfy your taste buds.


★★★★☆