Category Archives: samsung

Android, Apple, iOS, RAD Delphi, samsung

Podcasts RSS: Aggregating Video/Audio/Podcasts

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I thought for a couple of days what to write about, due to the fact that nothing much kept me busy… Though, I came to a conclusion that I’ll write about what did keep me going on all these days.

For the past dozen years, I’ve been hearing many different daily Podcasts…

So what is a Podcast?

A Podcast, is basically a media file (can be audio or video) which is being attached to a RSS (Really Simple Syndication). The RSS with the combination of the media file, makes it a very power full technology. That because different Feeds are being updated daily or weekly.

The programs that manage the different feeds (Podcasts Apps; such as Apple Podcasts app [on iOS] or Samsung KiesCast app [on android]), you listen to — know 🙂 but their definition whether it is a new item, or an old one… Thus notify you for the new ones.

History of RSS…

The RSS first was invented for Text news… News Feeds, were common, yet, attaching a video/audio file to it was a latter invention.

More about Audio Podcasts:

There are some more features which were added to the Feed,. and can be supply attached to the RSS Feed it self, or to the media file which attached to it.

Meta Tags:

Take for example the Meta Tags.

When adding an item for a feed, it includes a text which describe the current item (of course these additions should be supplied in such a way that the miscellaneous Podcasts apps aggregators would know where to look for that data).  Due to the fact the the RSS was derived from XML (Extensible Markup Language) files — which is a structured text file, with different variables with in it — It can contain many different Meta Tags.

In addition misc meta tags can be attached to the media file itself. For example a .mp3/.m4a audio files contain a structure that define the file meta tags. And their meta tags can include many different known, or user defined tags. Such as; Track Name, Year Published, Author, Lyrics, Picture Thumbnail — Icon of the track, and so on.

Different Sources of RSS Podcasts:

Today any news organization which respect itself got a team that compile a hourly/daily/weekly podcast. After all, all you need to create a podcast — it the knowledge how to construct the basic feed, and some hardware such as microphone and a recording application… And of course some content to talk about whether it’ll be global news/ Tech news/ Expert news/ Art news/ or any area which interest you.

My personal daily news:

I’ve been listening, as I mentioned, for the past dozen years to news via different podcasts apps, and being fed news from different sources. This of course is a routine change from the past — instead of  gazing on a TV screen — I am now free, to hear news — what ever — when even — and where ever — I like.

What Ever; Pick from the billion of podcasts sources online.

Where ever; I can hear news while doing the daily arrangements around the house — when doing the dishes, or any other tasks.

When Ever; Feeds by different sources are usually kept at least for a week and on many cases for years back on different sources. So even if I missed something, or if I would like to listen to new content to me — I can search it years back on the source WebSite.

Or for short the podcasts WWW 🙂

samsung

Samsung – AllShare – Mobile Media Casting

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I checked the option to connect and share media on (in my case) a samsung smart tv. Code named, by samsung, AllShare.

Basically there are two options:

  1. Option A – Send the data itself (Media files: Video/Audio/Pictures) to the Samsung smart TV: Using Samsung SmartShare.
  2. Option B – Project the screen from a mobile device to the samsung tv (or any other HDMI enabled device), using a MicroUSB to HDMI connector. Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL).

When talking about option A, I found that the following options:

  1. the samsung android system – got an update of samsung link (as they call it), it enables when viewing a video/listening to audio/viewing pictures — from the specific app — you can use the smart share option, discover the smasung v on your local LAN and send the media to the SmartTV to be presented
  2. Another option which, in my case use the same technology, is the flipps previously named iMediaShare mobile application. This application got all the smartshare options in the application. And you use the sharing from the application itself. In addition they added option to share facebook, or channels that they maintain.
  3. There were more apps that are smartshare enabled apps, yet, these weren’t covered here.

The option B requires that you’ll purchase a MicroUSB to HDMI connector. Using the MHL technology (Mobile High-Definition Link), And:

  1. Connect the device to the power using the original powersupply and microusb cable that came with the mobile device.
  2. Connect the device to the SmartTV with the HDMI input connector
  3. Connect the device to the mobile device

Now you’ll need to goto the android settings/More Settings/AllShare Cast – and enable the option (after detecting the connected TV). This option just project the display content, no matter what is presented, and display it on SmartTV.

Android, google, Mobile OS Market, samsung

Samsung Android basic techie managment

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I started, as probably many techies, to learn some information about the samsung android mobile basic procedures. I won’t get into the eternal mambo-jumbo about what is better iOS or Android…. Yet, I will write some details about what was my learning curve in the android EcoSystem.

How deep can it goes?

Well, although I am a programmer, and rad some code on both iOS/Android. These systems are composed of many seperate parts — which each got its own purpose. The type of handling I am doing is better linked with system administrators, when talking about linux systems. Yet, programmers, that program for this environment probably know all the twiks and issues with the environment as well.

My android crashing bug:

It seems that although I bought my device from a store after updating my device via samsung KIES. It caused the device too boot, load the samsung logo, and get stuck on it.

When this took place on the first time, I just sent it to the store and they fixed it: Yet, I wasn’t about to do that after the second time it appeared… Again same symptom. I decided that this time, I will fix the problem by my own, no matter what! It would save time and effort * connecting the mobile distributor for fixing it, and * I would learn some tech geeky thingies on the way.

I do not know whether all mobile phones got the same bootloader, yet, Samsung, in their phones, introduced the following (mostly) text based menus:

  1. An Android Recovery mode In this mode, you can run some
            • wipes of the user data & Cache directories [Although I did run this, it didn’t make any of the matter better, it just got stuck again as I described]
            • run an OTA (On The Air) update [which didn’t work for me].
            • load an image from external/internal SD Card.
  2. A Download mode this mode, was made to load images using ODIN (a loader application that runs both on the mobile, and on the computer it is connected to)

ROM/Firmware:

So Initially there is a way to load a new image. Now I need to learn about the ROM/Firmware images.The android devices are virtually an open based linux system. And a ROM/Firmware is the basic files required to run properly an android OS.

The rom includes stuff like:

  • Kernel
  • GUI
  • Core functions
  • etc

Described in details on the following URL.

There are sites that explain what composes a ROM name (things like the date it was built, the CSC – the country code that it is assigned to, and more), yet, no matter what search I made, I didn’t find the proper ROM/Firmware.

There are basically two types of ROM/Firmware:

  1. A stock ROM – the ROM as it was released from the mobile manufacture, without any modifications to it.
  2. A custom ROM – The name sais it all, a custom made ROM. It can be that the kernel functions got modified or more visually details were modified — as launch Icons, Widgets, etc.

I found a proper Stock ROM of Android Jelly Bean version for my device. The only problem is that it wasn’t the same CSC, which means that I wouldn’t be able to be updated from the Local Samsung Services / or using KIES Firmware Update, with new versions of the Firmware (this is as far as I’ve gathered).