Taking pictures with the Samsung GT- I5700

The Samsung new Galaxy GT- I5700, also known as the Spica and as the Galaxy Portal here in the UK has a 3.2 megapixel camera - nothing to shout about when we have so many 5 mp camera phones around. A lot of reviews have rubbished the camera on this great phone, especially the fact that it does not have a flash. What were the Samsung people thinking about? Definitely not a phone for those who like to take pictures of themselves making silly poses indoors in poor lighting.

The fact that it also does not have a camera cover does irritate me a bit because my benchmark was my old Sony-Ericsson 770i and every phone that does not have a camera cover seems outdated.I mean a cover simply makes sense when you a carrying your phone around all the time. I hate oily lenses though it sometimes does have the unintentional effect of creating images similar to those taken by a Lomo.

Having said that, the quality of the images taken in bright sunlight is not bad. I was actually surprised because the quality of close up pictures are quite good - even better than some higher meagapixel cameraphones.





Same cannot be said for objects in the distance though I guess again, they are quite acceptable for a mobile.



You also have the option of adding the GPS location to the images. Another option I really like is the ability to shut off the irritating camera sounds. Great for taking spy and candid shots and also during ceremonies where people tend to get irritated by flashes and the sound of clicks.

5 Great Reasons To Choose VPS Hosting

Anyone who runs a website has to make a crucial decision, namely, what kind of web hosting is right for me and my site? Unfortunately, that answer isn't always as straightforward as we'd like. Some sites can exist very well on a shared hosting plan, while others will outgrow it pretty quickly and need to move out of a shared environment. There's an option between shared and dedicated hosting, though – it's called VPS web hosting (which stands for Virtual Private Server), and for some sites, it's the perfect fit.

Here are five reasons you might want to check out VPS Hosting:

1. Need SSH/Root Access – This is one of the more common reasons to move out of a shared environment, and could fall under the umbrella term “server-level customization.” No hosting company is going to let you tinker with the server – there are too many sites that could be affected by that. On a VPS, however, you're separated from other sites, and therefore free to customize your server with any software that you want and need.
2. Scalability – When you started off online, a shared hosting plan was probably perfect for you – the right amount of resources and the managed support you needed. But if your site is growing, or if you want to add more domains, that shared environment won't be able to hold you. Growth, whether it's an e-commerce site or a blog, is a major reason to look into a VPS.
3. High traffic/Traffic Spikes (the Digg Effect) – It's funny how the dream of most bloggers can turn into a nightmare without the right hosting plan. Getting popular on Digg can take down a shared server in short order, but a VPS stands a better chance because many have “burstable memory,” which is essentially a pool of memory to call on during a traffic spike.
4. E-Commerce Site – If your website is your livelihood, then the last thing you want is your site's performance being affected by another site. That can happen in a shared environment, but is much less likely on a VPS, since your site is separated from others on the same machine.
5. Cost – Lastly, a major reason to look into a VPS is that it costs much less than the other robust hosting option; that is, a dedicated server. Before virtualization software made a VPS possible, shared and dedicated were the only options; now that VPS is out there, you can get many of the best features of dedicated hosting at a fraction of the cost with a VPS.

This was a guest post by my friend Blue.

The Nokia N900 unpacked

Take a look at my latest toy.

It's been quite sometime since I first blogged about the Nokia N900 - said to be THE Geek's phone. Finally got my hands on it, thanks to WOM World/ Nokia. Will be testing it out for a whole month.

There are some strange looking accessories that came with the mobile and I can't wait to try it out.

Good Halal Food project

Listening and talking to my Muslim friends about places serving Halal food in Coventry gave me a great idea to start a small project - Good Halal Food, to list down all the places serving Halal food in Coventry along with reviews. I started it off in the end of May this year and the list has now grown to 15 places all over UK. I hope to include restaurants and other food outlets in other countries in Europe and the US as well.

As I mentioned in my last post "Create your own Ovi app for Free", I created the Good Halal Food Ovi app which is available for download (for FREE) to Nokia phone users on the Nokia Ovi store.

This is an ongoing project and it was more of a free information service for my friends and family members. That's why I was so amazed when I found out that in the last month, the app has been downloaded 980 times. This made me realise that there is a huge gap in the market that has not been fulfilled and I am definitely going to dedicate more time to the project.



I have plans to create similar apps for the iPhone and Android phones but at the moment I am too busy with my PhD thesis writing to work on these.

You can help me by emailing me your own reviews of places serving halal food (preferably along with their address). Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions.

Create your own Ovi app for Free

If you use a Nokia phone, you are probably aware of the Ovi store. In case you are not a Nokia user, Ovi is the brand name for Nokia's own Internet services. The Ovi store was launched May last year and replaces Widsets, Download! and MOSH.

I have always wanted to create apps but lacked the technical know how or the time to learn how to come up with one. Well, Nokia has made it amazingly easy for any publisher with RSS-enabled content to come up with their own Ovi app using the Ovi App Wizard.

I should not probably be telling you guys this but they also have a competition where they are “Calling all innovators” to come up with their own apps and the chance to win a new Nokia device and up to US$5,000.

It took me just a couple of minutes to come up with the Adamok.net Ovi app. It's already on the Nokia Ovi store and is totally free. Download it to receive my latest gadget reviews, tech news, online marketing tips as well as my latest Twitter updates.



My second app (also free) is up as well. It called the Good Halal Food app and is an ongoing project. More about it later.

Do inform me when you have your own apps up.