I have a Samsung Galaxy S2. I went on a 130 km long cycling trip this new year and use Google MyTracks app on the android to record my path. When I was writing about the trip I wanted to share screenshots, but when I searched for an app, I found that most apps work only on rooted phones and other apps that claimed no rooted didn’t work for me.

Rooting was not an option. Other options called in for too much work so I dropped the idea of screenshots.

Last week I came to know that on an iPhone, screenshots come as an inbuilt feature (yeah, too late to know that) and pressing the home button + the power button would take a screenshot. That’s neat.

Screenshot on Android Gingerbred (2.3)

Today morning, I tried the same combination on my S2 and to my surprise it worked! Here is what I took (from the Google Sky Map Application:

On Samsung Galaxy S2 (running Android 2.3.3), to take a screenshot: Press the Home Button + the Power button together. Note that my phone is NOT rooted. The screenshot was saved in a separate folder and can be accessed through the gallery.

This came as a huge surprize to me, because no one ever mentioned anywhere about this inbuilt feature. I found this video today that says its possible and he is using a Samsung Galaxy Ace. And he is using the home button + the back button to get this.

Now, I am wondering if this is a feature that is available only on Samsung Phones. Someone check it on your Android and share? The key combination would be different depending on your phone, so please try some other combos.

Screenshot on Android Icecream Sandwich (4.0)

Screenshot comes as a bundled (and I think a stated) feature on the latest version. The key combo is going to be different for each phone I assume. Holding the home button + volume down should work on most phones.

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SMS portals that allow you to send Free SMS via GPRS or via internet are very popular. 160by2 was one of the first such portals in India. The mobile portal of 160by2 is fast loading and clean and it was my favorite Free SMS portal via GPRS. You can even send an Email as SMS using this Free SMS service.

I had written a review of 160by2 some time back; read more about 160by2 and learn how to send Free SMS via internet or GPRS. That’s not the focus of this post. 160by2 has something more in store!

Free Advertisement from 160by2

If you have a product or if you are into affiliate marketing, then now you have more reasons to love this Free SMS service. 160by2 offers free advertising to its users worth Rs 5000 (over $100). This service is actually an ad-supported free service. As the name says, its 160/2 = 80 each for the user and the advertiser. The user can use the first 80 characters to actually send the SMS, the remaining 80 characters of the SMS is ad-space. This is where your ad is going to appear!

Once you have successfully registered with 160by2 using your mobile number (and logged in, of course!) go to the My Ads Tab. Everything else is self explanatory, you just have to key in the content of the ad. You can also decide the budget for the ad, so you don’t have to finish up the whole 5000 bucks on a single ad. You can have multiple ad campaigns.

You got more mobile connections? Each connection is a multiplier, so if you have 3 mobile connections, you get 3 X 5000. Wow! That’s Free Advertising worth Rs 15,000. You have to create three separate 160by2 accounts and each account gets ad budget worth Rs 5000. Now you can advertise for Rs 15,000.

All ads are manually verified and edited if necessary, so it’s impossible to sell those illegal software copies or you-know-what-xxx stuffs with 160by2.

Create your free ad now, and reach out to over 3 million 160by2 users from every corner of India! Sending Free SMS is a great idea

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There are many ways of subscribing to a blog. RSS and Email are the traditional ones. Users are not satisfied with these Subscription Services alone. Now, you can subscribe via twitter, Yahoo Messenger or Skype using the unique Subscription options of Feedblitz. If you are not satisfied with any of these, you may try adding a SMS Subscription Service using the Google SMS Channels. The set-up procedure follows.

Setting Up SMS Subscription Service

Step 1: Go to Google SMS Channels Homepage. You will be asked to login. Login with your Google Account. If you don’t have a Google Account yet, make one at the Google Homepage.

Step 2: You will be taken to the SMS Channel Directory where you can search for and subscribe to various channels. On the right sidebar there is a Section ‘Create your own channel’. Click the ‘Try Now’ Link.

Step 3: If you have not registered a mobile with Google yet, you will be asked to do so. Just give your mobile number. You will be sent a verification code to your mobile phone, enter the code and verify your mobile phone. Now click the ‘Try Now’ link again.

Step 4: Give the name of the channel, Description, Category, and Location.

Step 5: Now provide the source as RSS/Atom Feed, and give your feed address there. If you publish on Blogger, you can choose to give your blogspot blog address (in the first option) instead of giving the feed address. Check the ‘Title’ and ‘Body’ boxes, if you wish to send both the post title and post body.

Step 6: Select ‘Allow Publishing By’ as ‘Only Me’ and ‘Who can subscribe’ as ‘Any User’.

Step 7: Press ‘Create Channel’. Your SMS Channel is ready. Place the link to your channel on your blog and you are done. You will get the subscription link in ‘Manage channels’ under the ‘My Channels’ Tab in the Directory index

Now every time your feed is updated, an SMS would be sent to your subscribers containing the title and/or body of your post.

You can also send other messages to your readers. Just visit your channel and enter the text in the text box. You can use this facility to notify your readers of important updates.

Currently, this service is available in India only ( ). By the time Google SMS Channels would graduate from Google Labs, we can hope that it would be available globally.

Join the SMS Channel of Million Clues! and Receive SMS updates on your mobile.

After you setup your channel, do come back and tell me about it. Leave a subscription link too. I love reading SMS

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Nokia N78. It’s a 3G phone; it looks cool; its feature rich and it’s a Nokia. Google for it and you will get a million pages, all in praise of the all new Nokia N78. I read those pages and got the phone. Now I know what its like. So if you are thinking of getting one, listen to this. (Nokia guys are going to be very cross with me )

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Nokia N78

Poor Keypad Ergonomics – The keypad looks cool. But is really tough to type in ‘long SMS’s’ because all the keys are really close. Moreover the keys are tiny (and cute). So if you got thick fingers, you need to do a real test-drive before you get on N78. Another issue with the keypad is the answer key. A set of 5 keys is placed on a single plate. It’s a bit difficult to handle the keys on that plate, especially the answer button. You will have to press the answer button too hard to say “hello” (another security feature..?)

Outdated Software – Nokia purchased the Symbian recently, but the software department is still old-school. For a phone from the N-series family, we cannot expect to have duplicate contacts or inappropriate options. You can create any number of copies of the same contact. Then the phone does not show who is calling (when a call from that contact comes) since the phone is confused between the copies of the available contacts.

Disappearing Memory Card – A 2 GB Memory card comes bundled with the set. At times, the memory card simply disappeared from the phone. A simple restart will bring it back online. Does that show that N 78 can’t handle 2 GB…?

Bluetooth Issue – The phone couldn’t find my Nokia 7610 kept just near to it. Initially I thought is with the 7610, so I restarted that phone. Results were negative. I restarted N78 and the problem was solved. This is not what is expected out of a premium phone.

Camera is topless – The 3.2 Mega pixel camera does not have a cover. Okay, that’s not Nokia’s problem, but I am getting scratches on the glass cover of the lens.  It should have had a neat lens cover as in Nokia N73.

Cannot Stand on its own – The phone switches to the landscape mode while watching videos. But, out of the body design, the phone cannot stand on a surface without support. This is a serious issue if you are someone who watch whole length movies on your phone (which is not unheard these days). You will hurt your hand before the movie is complete.

Money Matters – Nokia N-series phones are not cheap, then why should you say this..? N78 has lots of things, like GPS, Maps, Transmitter and more stuff that you need. What is the use of having a gold coin in your wallet which you are never gonna use? Before you make the choice of this phone, make sure that you are paying for what you actually need.

Now don’t start saying that my phone is not real. It has got a Nokia original warranty and all such stuff. Maybe I need some software upgrade when one is available.

If you have not stopped thinking of getting N78, go ahead. Get one for yourself and do let me know your experience.

For the Nokia guys: When we shell out hard cash, we need some real quality both in hardware and software. Your hardware is good, work on the other half.

Update: A new issue has arrived. The Camera is going crazy. It is now storing the photos in random places. The only good thing is that, I am not missing any photos. Each photo is somewhere there in the memory; just its location cannot be predicted. Also the gallery displays random images instead of displaying the last taken images. Something is seriously wrong.

Update 2: Another issue is here. The left speaker is dead. I googled this issue and there are many out there with the same problem. Now that is something serious. A hardware failure cannot be compromised.

My dad just rated the phone as: I just liked the way it look, everything else is bull shit.

Update 3: Now, the whole sound system of the phone is down. It’s permanently muted and it’s going into the service station soon.

Hey, I did not drop the phone in water, it has been handled well and still this is the case. Don’t get this phone, it sucks

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