Interestingly enough, the voicemails have an associated database. The database is a standard SQL format, so you can use the Firefox SQL Explorer to open it up (if you don’t have a SQL browser already). You will probably have to add the extension .sql to the file.

Using the structure from the previous post, the database is located at C:\android\data\com.coremobility.app.vnotes\files\vnotes_db

The second little gem is in this backup you can view your SMS messages, as well. The SMS database contains the datestamp, sender, recipient, and the message body (among other things). Being a [bored] investigator, I spent some [probably too much] time exporting the database to MySQL so I could search the SMS via PHP. Turns out I really didn’t have anything worthwhile, but, if you do, here’s where the database in located in the extracted backup.

C:\android\data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases\mmssms

Recently, my man’s brother-in-law and I got to talking about his business. He didn’t have a website. My first thought jumped to a standard WordPress deployment with static pages and a nice little blog to keep the content fresh in search rankings. Hell, I even know a designer who is a whiz at WP templates, so let’s get this party started!

But I sat down and talked with him about what he wanted, and, really, he just wants another way people can find his business. His business is pretty straight-forward and definitely not conducive to a blog. He doesn’t need a storefront. Or a gallery. He doesn’t really need…anything, aside from a few pages detailing what he does. He wanted a domain name, and e-mail, and, yup. That’s about it.

Google Apps is the perfect solution here. In less than 4 hours, I

• Registered a domain name through GoDaddy
• Edited the zone file to route mail to Google, use the domain name for Google Sites, and authorize Analytics and Webmaster tools
• Enabled Google Voice in case he wants a business-specific phone number
• Listed an advertisement on Google Places for Businesses
• Deployed a small, yet functional, Google Site to outline the services offered
• Submitted the site-map to Webmaster Tools for indexing

Here’s the kicker: a lot of the time, when handling a fresh deployment for a client, I need to know something about their industry. In this case, because it’s simply a list of what the company does and a few photos (supplied by the client), I didn’t have to know a goddamn thing. Because Google Sites is so simple to work with, I can spare myself the hassle of going back and forth over content and let the client fill it in on their own.

Since everything in Apps is intertwined, half of the usual set-up nonsense – copy/paste, change, edit, integrate – vanished. In the future, should he want a blog, I can simply set-up a subdomain using Blogger. I can say with a decent amount of certainty that his business will never outgrow this solution.

So the next time you have a client say, “I really just want people to be able to find my business on the web” ask yourself a few questions.

• Does the client sell items/will they ever need an online catalog?
• Will the client need to maintain an online client database in the foreseeable future?
• Can all the elements on the page be off-loaded to free services (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc)?
• Does the client need the ability to make simple changes without waiting on me?

After you start asking these questions for every new-to-the-web client, you’ll be surprised how often you can spare them the expense (and hassle) of a self-hosted website. You’ll end up, ultimately, with a happier customer for reducing confusion and expense. In my case, the total cost for the year is $8.19 – the price of the domain through GoDaddy, after a coupon, of course.

While I’m cleaning up something, sobbing my eyes out, I notice my phone is prompting me to update. Whatever, phone, shut the fuck up. Do your thing.

The update was for Gingerbread. Unrooted Gingerbread. Rooted phone == brick.

I wanted my voicemail back. After crying to my dad, my aunt, my 2 year old son and bitching on Facebook, I decided to give the backup a shot.

Before you begin, make sure the microSD card in the phone has ~500 mb free. You may need more (or less) but if you’re anything like me, you probably have a spare/empty 2 gb card hanging around just in case. Use that.

1. Boot into Recovery Mode [Samsung Epic, at least] by pressing and holding Volume Down, Camera and Power. If it doesn’t work the first time, try again.
2. Mount the SD card. This will usually be fairly obvious, with a menu title similar to “Mounts and Storage” and an option to mount “/sdcard”.
3. Return to the main screen and find the “Backup and Recovery” sounding option. Run a full backup.
4. Without powering off your phone (if it’s quasi-bricked, you’re dealing with a delicate entity – don’t risk a reboot) remove the SD card.
5. Insert the SD card into your computer and navigate to [sdcardpath]\clockworkmod\backup\[datetime]\. The voicemail files are located in data.img

Now, if you’re a Linux user, you can handle it from here. If you’re a Windows user, here’s how to get those files.

1. Copy data.img to a root folder – I used c:\android\
2. Download unyaffs with cygwin.dll. See this thread on XDA Developers for a download link.
3. Extract the downloaded file to c:\android\. That folder should now have three files.
4. Open your Start Menu and type cmd in the Run box (and hit enter)
5. Type cd c:\android
6. Type unyaffs data.img
7. Type exit
8. Open a folder browser and navigate to C:\android\data\com.coremobility.app.vnotes\files\
9. Your voicemail files will be stored as .amr files which can be opened with VLC media player.

The files will have an alphanumeric name, giving you no indication whatsoever who they are from (booo) but you will have the audio files (yay!!).

Enjoy.

The answer to this dilemma is exceptionally simple. Go to a new, blank tab. Click on the little wrench next to the Google Talk app and uninstall it. Then, you just need to keep Gmail open all the time.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to do that, you can use an online chat program like Meebo.

My daughter reported that the sound has been working just fine for her. I shut down, restarted and logged into her account. Yes, sound works. So, step 1 is to see if the sound works on another account. If it does, continue. If it doesn’t, reflash via dev switch.

Log back into the account that isn’t working. Check if the other keys are working. Can you refresh, move forward/back and switch to full screen? If you can’t, you might need to reflash. If you can, continue.

Close all your windows and restart. Press the other keys first. Refresh the screen, etc. If those work, try the volume keys. It seemed on my Chromebook, the volume keys got “stuck” and needed a little kick in the ass to get moving again. It’s working fine now. Of course, if it still doesn’t work, reflash!

If you already have handed over your life to the Google cloud, all you need to do is add a “fun calendar.” If you haven’t, sign into Gmail, click on Contacts and start adding dates there. It’s a lot easier than doing it in Calendar.

Open up Google calendar. On the left hand side, below your calendars, you’ll see Other Calendars with an option beneath that to Add. Click on that. Select More Interesting Calendars. You’ll get a list of possible calendars.

Click on the More tab, then subscribe to Contacts’ Birthdays and Events. And now, like magic, you’ll see all the date-related swag from your Google contacts on your calendar.

Scroll right, click "Subscribe"

Bonus awesome. Now all these will show up on your phone. Your friends’ birthdays will follow you wherever you go. =)

Topic at hand, the laptop. It’s pretty nifty. The keyboard is strange. There is no button that says “home” or “end.” They’ve done away with Caps Lock (drats!), and the touch pad is one big clicker. I’m having a hard time getting used to the new keys, but it will come in time, I’m sure.

On the flip side, it’s disconcerting to NOT have a Start Menu or desktop. How will I find that app I installed…oh, right, new tab. Another issue is the chat. I’m used to opening up gMail and chatting that way. Chrome OS has a built-in chat overlay, so the chat boxes from that float over the gMail chat windows. I’ll obviously have to alter my chatting habits, but did send in a bug report just to annoy the developers.

Speaking of the built-in chat, that’s really really nice. It chills out at the bottom of my screen, and when I want to send someone a message I just hover over the bottom of the screen. Chat list pops up, I select a person and awesome happens. Yes, it’s the little things that make me happy.

However, the best part, there’s no branding on this bitch. It’s just a matte black netbook. And it’s light. And there’s no logos. For it’s size, it’s actually fairly study [feeling]. I think it might actually survive more than a few months with my kids. Because, of course, I never abuse my electronics.

Now I’m off to finishing melding into the Wired. Or install some more apps.

Listen is just a neat little podcast aggregator. Nothing more, nothing less. Search for them as you would feeds in Reader, listen to them, subscribe and download for later. Certainly beats the Pandora app that never worked quite right on my Moment.

And the boo: I DON’T WANT LATITUDE. Maps is great and all, but I did not want you to install a SECOND program that I will not use. While there may be a way to get rid of it, I don’t feel like putting in the effort to find out. give me an uninstall link in Market, please.

Latitude is, in a few words, a cyber-stalking program that queries where you are and shares your location with friends. Fun for LARPing maybe, or finding some place that’s out of the way, but otherwise it’s a battery draining novelty for friends to stalk each other. Or crazy exes to stalk you. Either way.

But, despite the many excellent finds, a Google Reader app had eluded me. They were either slow or unstable or just plain broken (or a combination of the above). Now, though, I have two fantastic readers to put head to head.

In one corner, we have NewsRob, a free app with a pro upgrade. NewsRob is quick, sexy and directly integrates with Reader. Even better, it has a “share link” option which utilizes any account linked with my Android. I can even drop it into a new WordPress post. Niiicccee…

In the other corner, there’s gReader. It’s a little slower on syncing, but otherwise approximately the same.

That’s not to say gReader isn’t good. I’d dare sat it’s better than NewsRob. Instead of hiding all the options in the menu like its competition, gReader brings all options to the front when you tap the screen. Share? Visit? Star? Next article? Mark as unread? You got it, right there.

gReader also has an easy unsubscribe feature. Press and hold the feed name from the list and you can easily unsubscribe. NewsRob does gReader one better and let’s you manage the feed or mark all items as read.

Two featurrs gReader has all its own are the “inverse” colors and the copy link option. If you prefer reading white-on-black (not me), a major plus. And if you blog on the go (me) the copy link option is invaluable.

So, give them both a shot. Just search for them in the Market and enjoy!

Mmmm...cake.

I admit it. I came fairly ill-prepared for the first edition of Techie Tuesday. It’s OK, though, because my nifty little Samsung Moment is a nearly endless supply of material. Let’s talk about Android apps.

Android apps are discussed all over the fucking place, so you may have seen some of these before. Or maybe you’re holding on to a virgin phone. In any case, on with the list!

1. Advanced Task Killer

I was extremely impressed by my last phone’s ability to run multiple (3) apps at once. The Android, the portable little computer is is, doesn’t have this limitation and will only stop when it runs out of memory. One thing my old phone did beat my Moment at is the ability to exit apps. When you start a process on Android, unless the developers were nice enough to give you an exit button, it just…keeps…running.

Enter Advanced Task Killer. It’s a lightweight app that runs in the background all the time. Once you add the widget to your home screen, just click a button and all those nasty processes are stopped, freeing up memory and letting you eat your lunch without the persistent ding of a new instant message.

2. Facebook

Keeping up with Facebook is a pain. Finding something to do while you’re standing in a mile long check out line is an even bigger one. The Facebook app merges the two by displaying a scrollable list of your news feed. Click on a post to see it on the website, where you can comment, see the persons whole profile or skip back to your own home screen.

3. Opera Mini 5

The built-in browsers on Androids are a huge improvement over the WAP browsers found on lesser phones. But, they don’t have the same level of support as a desktop browser. On my Moment, for example, I need to click menu, select “Windows” and pick from a tiny list of icons to switch to another website. While it’s better than the old standard, there’s room for improvement.

Opera Mini 5 bridges a lot of the gap by retaining many of the features that made its younger siblings so popular. Your home page is a list of 9 speed dial options, you can easily stop a page load or fresh right without opening a new menu, and you can switch between tabs with ease. Opera Mini 5 also featured Opera Link, so you can sync your bookmarks with your Opera account and download them to your computer.

4. Always Local

Known as Aloqa on your home screen, Always Local is a neat little app that uses your location to tell you what’s around. Whether you’re looking for food, sports, movies or beer, Always Local has a channel to keep you in the know. The interface is amazingly intuitive and gives you what you’re looking for. Clicking on coffee will bring up a list of national chains like Starbucks or local options through Yelp.

You can also find pizza, restaurants and great Dad locations. Best of all, it won’t leave you waiting for results that never come. If nothing’s nearby in a category, you can’t click on it.

5. Google Shopper

Google Shopper is a neat little app that helps you decide if you’re about to be ripped off. It’s come in handy several times at Borders while deciding whether or not to buy a book at full price.

You can either scan the cover art of a book or album or scan the barcode. Just hold your phone’s camera up to either one and let it do its thing. Once it’s recognized the item, you’ll get a list of prices from Froogle as well as links to buy. Google Shopper also further invades your privacy by saving your historical scans to provide more relevant ads in case you forget what you were looking at.

Note: All of these can be downloaded and installed through the Android Marketplace. Just search for their names and click install. If you have problems with one of them, let us all know about it in the comments below (be sure to leave your phone model).