Android Honeycomb 3.2 + mtpfs

In protest against Google censorship of Blogger blogs in some countries, this post has been moved to Wordpress.

Questo post è stato spostato su Wordpress in protesta contro la censura applicata da Google su richiesta dei governi di alcuni paesi.

Installing Android SDK on Eclipse (Fedora 15)

In protest against Google censorship of Blogger blogs in some countries, this post has been moved to Wordpress.

Questo post è stato spostato su Wordpress in protesta contro la censura applicata da Google su richiesta dei governi di alcuni paesi.

Mount an Android Honeycomb device under Linux

So, Android Honeycomb only uses the MTP protocol for the USB connection. Linux has decent support with mtpfs, and the instructions are quite easy to follow (this article is based on that one).

First of all, after installing mtpfs, create a new directory (I'm using transformer since I own an Asus Transformer, feel free to use whatever you want):

$ sudo mkdir /media/transformer
$ sudo chmod 755 /media/transformer
$ sudo chown your_username:root /media/transformer

Then edit /etc/fstab

$ sudo vim /etc/fstab

And add:

mtpfs  /media/transformer  fuse  noauto,users,umask=033,allow_other  0 0

Save, exit, then mount

$ sudo mount /media/transformer 

Important: umount the device before unplugging, or you risk corrupting the filesystem.

Android, day one (and an half)

So, I finally got my Android smartphone AND tablet. I've been toying with them for about a day now and I wanted to share some toughts and some thing I learned.

• Don't plug Asus Transformer USB charger on your UPS, it didn't play well for me (bad smell, I tought it burned but it works fine on a wall plug)
• Android doesn't connect to wifi network if the SSID contains spaces
• Most Android devices doesn't work out-of-the-box on wifi channel 13 (this sucks)
• Android is marketed as "open", but most "apps" on the market are closed source and the App Market model isnt open at all. Also, the "app" model isn't open.
• Many web sites recognize mobile browsers. Sadly, most fail to check the screen resolution: what's the point in providing a mobile version on a 1280x800 pixel screen (tablet)?
• Flash runs smooth. Better than on my desktop. Adobe, you fail badly.
• Skype sucks also on mobile.
• Problem is: GTalk sucks too. Maybe in ten years we all will be using GNU Free Call. But I want it now.

Updates will follow.