Micromax A116 Canvas with 5-inch IPS HD display, 4-core processor, 1 GB RAM and Android 4.1 at 15K INR

Seems like Micromax is going to launch another flagship A116, mobile most probably a successor of A110.

Following is the specs based on various sites.

  • 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS 16.7 million color display
  • 1.2 GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor
  • 1GB RAM, 4GB internal memory, 32GB expandable memory with MicroSD
  • Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
  • 8MP rear camera with LED Flash, VGA front-facing camera
  • 3.5mm audio jack
  • 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS/A-GPS
  • 2100 mAh battery

 

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The phone might cost Rs. 15,000/-

Source: FoneArena, EYF Times & iGyaan

How I use my mobile

Mobile devices context have now changed a lot. Being from simple communication device to full blow Personal Information Manager.

Here in the organization I work for, usage of personal mobiles for official communications are not allowed. Primary reason being data security.

So I use my mobile for staying in touch with my friends, keep track of news and events, manage my personal and official task list etc.

I am going to start of a series of post reviewing the apps I use in mobile and how I use them.

Starting off … My Mobile Desktop

Home Screen

I keep tab at 2 things here.

  1. My team’s time across 3 time zones. This is the default dual clock widget which comes with SGSII.
  2. My messenger status. I use IM+ Pro for messenger and stay connected in Microsoft Live, GTalk, Yahoo & Skype.
  3. Dual Battery Widget helps me keep tab on battery level. Till this date this is one of the best looking battery widgets.
  4. Traffic Counter help to monitor the data usage.

Weather & Entertainment Screen

  1. Keeping updated on weather sometime helps to plan on commuting. I use Accuweather widget which comes with SGSII.
  2. Audio FX widget. Helps to change the audio quality with apps like DI FM. But this one doesn’t work with FM Radio App which comes with SGSII.
  3. PowerAMP 4×2 widget.

Birthday Calendar

Agenda Widget coupled with Gmail Calendar which is synced with FaceBook’s Birthday Events iCal URL.

To Do

I keep track of my to do list with the help of Producteev free account service. Till now one of the best online task management service which has apps for all the platforms.

Switches

Finally the switches screen where I utilize Tasker app’s widget to control various tasks.

 

Mostly I try to keep my widgets as low as possible and try to use dark wallpapers to conserve CPU usage, screen brightness and in turn save battery. On a whole the combination of screens help me keep tabs on information.

The most useful are the Producteev and IM+ Widgets.

Producteev helps to have glance at non completed items and those due today & IM+ Pro helps me keep the count of non responded messages and online status.

In addition to above you can see 2 non-standard SGSII icons on status bar related to following apps.

  1. MyPhoneExplorer status.
  2. Smart App Protector.

More about all these apps in upcoming posts !

Links to applications mentioned in the post

Agenda Widget for Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.roflharrison.agenda

Audio Fx Widget
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.namakerorin.audiofxwidget

Dual Battery Widget
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.flexlabs.widgets.dualbattery

Facebook for Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.katana

IM+
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.shapeservices.impluslite#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDIxMiwiZGUuc2hhcGVzZXJ2aWNlcy5pbXBsdXNsaXRlIl0.

MyPhoneExplorer Client
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fjsoft.myphoneexplorer.client

Poweramp Standard Widget Pack
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.maxmpz.audioplayer.widgetpack1

Producteev
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.producteev.android.alpha22

Smart App Protector(app lock)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sp.protector.free

Traffic Counter Extended
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carl.trafficcounter

Twitter
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.twitter.android

The Best Android Apps

One of the best ways to locate android apps other than Android Market ‘featured’ section or appolicious is sites like gizmodo with sections like AndroidApps.

Check out the following link and you may find interesting apps. I found out 2 today.

http://gizmodo.com/5739420/the-best-android-apps

Sucessfully Running Market in Android 2.3 Emulator

I have been trying to run market in Android 2.1 & 2.2 emulator and every time I ended up failing.

This time I came across instructions in 2 different website and was able to successfully run market in Android 2.3 emulator.

As some people have said after multiple tries only I was able to add google account.
Once google account was added market was running but some intermittent crashes happened.
But I am running market successfully.

The following links might help to run market in emulator successfully.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=821742&page=3
http://blog.varunkumar.me/2010/11/how-to-install-android-market-in-google.html

PS: Some times Varun’s blog doesn’t load but the instructions are similar to the one in XDA-Dev site.
I followed XDA-Dev instructions and it worked fine.