Fixing a phone dropped in the toilet – basic tips

Dusan Belic — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:04:38 +0000

The chances are you know someone who has dropped his/her phone in the toilet. God forbid something like this happens to you, it’s good to know what can you do to fix a phone which suffered this fall.

8 steps to follow when a phone drops in the toilet are:

Get it out, fast
Turn the phone off
Take apart what you can
Wipe off as much water as you can
Dry it out
Leave it to dry
Resume your business
Test it out

Two things you should NOT do:

Use a hairdryer
Try to charge the phone before it has dried

Finally, you may consider getting one of water-proof devices, such as the HTC Butterfly, Sony Xperia Z, Motorola Defy Pro and Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2.

Check out these and few other useful information from the infographic below, prepared by the good folks of Better Bathrooms.

How to turn off Google Now on your iPhone

Dusan Belic — Fri, 03 May 2013 14:03:34 +0000

If you’re using Google’s search app on the iPhone, you’ve probably noticed Google Now, which presents you with local weather conditions, traffic and some other information. While this is handy, you may dislike the fact that location services are running constantly, draining your phone’s battery life along the way. Luckily you can turn them [location services] off, and keep using Google search.

In order to do so, fire-up Settings and simply turn-off Location Services from Google Search – you can turn-off this capability for every installed app. Now you won’t get Google Now information until you re-enable Location Services. It’s that easy.

Alternatively, you can get an external battery like Mophie’s Juice Pack or an extra charger to carry around, and keep using Google Now like it’s nobody’s business. While I like Google Now, I don’t need it on a daily basis so if I were concerned about the battery life, I would turn it off. Though it’s your call…

How To: Create Anime Adventures With GIF Boom and Otaku Camera

Ian Kersey — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:32:21 +0000

I’ll admit it, I’m a huge Manga nerd. Heck, I was even so obsessed with Anime and Manga as a teenager that I took three semesters of Japanese (most of which I have forgotten, Gomennasai!) While nerding out the other day, I figured out a way using two to star in my own Anime adventures using Android apps, Otaku Camera and Gif Boom. Here’s a simple how to that requires an Android device, a PC, and a little bit of creativity.

1. Download Otaku Camera

This is the app we will be using to capture and process our photos. Otaku Camera can be found in the Google Play Store, and is free to use. Otaku Camera is an app that provides a multitude of black and white manga frames that users can pick from to combine with an image. During processing, the chosen image and frame are stitched together. Color pictures may be used, as the app changes the picture from color to black and white during processing.

Download Otaku Camera

2. Download GIF Boom

GIF Boom is a powerful GIF making app, which we will be using to create our animated GIFs. The program is has social features similar to those of Instagram, allowing users to share GIFs immediately with other friends using the service, as well as providing a host of filters to choose from. This app can make GIFs by using the device’s camera, or by choosing pictures from the device’s gallery. In our case, we will be utilizing the latter.

Download GifBoom

3. Make a Storyboard

Cool! So, now you’ve got the tools and its time to figure out what exactly you want your GIF to be. Ultimately, the pictures should be in sequential order to make an animation effect with the GIF, so take a moment and sketch out what your adventure will look like. If you need inspiration, open up the Otaku Camera app and browse the frames to give you an idea of what your possibilities are. For my adventure, I chose the most challenging thing in the universe: waking up and putting on pants.

4. Use Otaku Camera to Capture Pictures

Now we’re ready to begin shooting! Open up the Otaku Camera app and either choose a photo from your library or capture one with the camera. After selecting the picture, choose the frame you wish to apply and select your picture. After processing, save the photo to your device and repeat the process for your next shots. GIFBoom allows for up to 20 shots to be transformed into a GIF, so once you feel like you’ve got enough shots, it’s time to move on to the next step.

5. Import Pictures to PC and Put in Order

This part is a little tricky folks, but not too bad. Now we have to take our pictures from Otaku Camera and put them in sequential order so that our GIF comes out like an animated short. First, connect your device via USB to your PC/laptop, enable disk drive mode and navigate to the DCIM/Camera folder on your device. Create a new folder on your PC to save your images to, and transfer them over.
After you have all of your images in a folder on your PC, it’s time to put them in numerical order. I found that naming them sequentially with three digits is the easiest. For instance, name your first image 001, the next 002 and so on and so forth. After you have your images in order, copy the folder from your PC back to your Android device. Now we’re ready to create that GIF!

6. Use GIFBoom to Create Anime GIF

Ok, now on to the good part! Now that you have your images in order and contained neatly in a folder on your Android device, it’s time to make them into a GIF. Open up GIFBoom, and touch the red camera button in the bottom of the screen. After landing on the camera screen, touch the picture icon to the left of the camera button. You will then be prompted with the options screen, which will ask where you would like to import your images from. Select Import From Gallery, and navigate to the folder where your images are. Select your images and tap the blue arrow button at the top of the screen. After choosing your photos, you have the option of applying filters and adding text if you’d like. And bam! You’re done.

Your masterpiece should look something like this!

Created with Gifboom

IntoMobile » How-To