Pathik Shah » Magic

Connect PC to Internet using Android Phone’s GPRS connection

Pathik — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 05:44:23 +0000

This tutorial will show you How to connect your PC / Laptop to the internet using the GPRS / EDGE / 3G data connection on your Android phone (HTC Dream / G1); or in other words, to tether your PC to your Android Phone. In this tutorial, I will tether the Android phone to PC via USB.

To Enable Tethering on your Android phone:

1. Install the TetherBot application on your phone -

2. Install the Android SDK on your PC. Also install the device driver bundled with the SDK.

3. Now go to Menu > Settings > Applications > Development and enable USB Debugging on your phone.

4. Connect the phone to your PC; start the TetherBot application and press the Start Socks button.

5. On your PC, go to Command Prompt (Run > CMD) and navigate to the \androidsdk\tools directory.

6. Type this command and execute it
adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080

This starts a SOCKS proxy on Port 1080 using which you can connect to the internet.

You can now use this proxy to access the internet using any browser which allows you to set up a SOCKS proxy like Opera or Firefox.

For example, in Firefox, go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Network > Connection > Settings > Manual Proxy Configuration >

Type: SOCKS
Host: localhost
Port: 1080

India’s First Android Phone – HTC Magic

Pathik — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:36:30 +0000

Airtel has launched the HTC Magic / Google Ion / MyTouch in India. This is officially the first phone launched in India based on Google’s Android platform. The HTC Magic is powered by Android v1.5 and has much better specifications than the HTC Dream / G1. It sports a better camera, a virtual keyboard and is much slimmer and lighter.

HTC Magic Specifications:

Dimensions: 117.7 x 55 x 13.7 mm
Weight: 118.5 gms
Display: 3.2 inch TFT Display, 320 x 480 pixels, 65K colors
CPU: Qualcomm MSM 7201A 528 MHz
RAM: 192 MB RAM
ROM: 512 MB ROM
Connectivity: GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
Camera: 3.15 MP Camera with AF
OS: Android 1.5
Battery: Li-Ion 1340 mAh

Airtel is offering services like Portfolio Manager, Hello Tune Manager, Weather Channel, Mobshare, In Mobile Search, City Search etc with the HTC Magic. It is priced at Rs. 29,900 and will be available at all Airtel Centers and HTC resellers. Airtel will provide free data transfers of 100 MB per month for the first 6 months. It seems to be an unlocked version, will soon confirm this.

Great news, except for the price. I was really hoping to buy this when it came to India but 30K seems too expensive.

Meet the Android G2

Pathik — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:13:38 +0000

Of the many amazing and completely mind blowing launches at MWC 09, the one which almost gave me an orgasm was the official launch of the Android G2.
Officially christened the HTC Magic, the G2 is the refined and polished sibling of the HTC Dream a.k.a G1. The hardware specs are very similar to the Android G1 with some improvements. It comes with a more recent version of Android with Cupcake features rolled in and it doesn’t have a physical QWERTY keyboard. That, and it’s also cheaper. Rumored to be priced around $299.

Official HTC Magic Specs:

Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 Mhz
Memory: 192 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD HVGA 480×320
Connectivity: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS
OS: Android OS
Camera: 3.15 MP, No flash
Input: Trackball, Capacitive touchscreen
Dimensions:117.7 x 55 x 13.7 mm
Weight: 118.5 g

Isn’t it beautiful? I fail to see why anyone wouldn’t kill for it.

Note: Definitely my next phone. (Subject to change if anyone else comes up with an awesome-er phone based on Android, Symbian Foundation OS or Win Mo 6.5).

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