Dec 102013
 

Anybody with an Android device (usually it doesn’t matter which OS and/or ROM you are running) has encountered the situation, when status bar icons (e.g. WIFI and/or GSM/UMTS) are either blue or gray/white. On a sidenote: whether it’s gray or white depends on the OS and the color settings, so from here on I will just write using the word “gray”.
Throughout the internet you can find various answers to the question why icons are either blue or gray. The short explanation is this:

  • BLUE: the device is “connected” to Google services
  • GRAY: the device is NOT connected to Google services

So what’s the long answer then, and what does it mean to be connected to Google services?

Continue reading »

Dec 162011
 

For the past few years I’ve been using a Virgin Mobile cell phone every time I spent time in the United States. Because this was happening only once a year (meaning the rest of the year I’d be outside of the US and any US signal) I would use a plan that was good for a month and then just stop topping up until I would get back into the country. Of course this meant that I would lose the phone number and get a new one every time I got back; but since this was a holiday phone (in different places of the country with different contacts) that was totally fine. Besides, I know people who change their phone numbers (and email addresses) almost every month – and yes, I am being a bit dramatic here btw.

This year’s trip to Miami shouldn’t be any different: (re-)activate phone (=get a new number), top-up, fire away (=get to know ppl and write lots of texts).
However, this time it turned out to be sort of a chore, which I’ll be trying to document here.

Continue reading »