North Korea installed Russian signal detectors to detect calls abroad

I read an article here that the North Koreans had bought and installed Russian radio devices to catch any North Koreans making calls abroad.

North Koreans who live in border areas where mobile reception from China is available use smuggled cell phones to talk to family members living in China or South Korea. Authorities use radio locators to determine the callers’ locations through the use of radio waves.

Residents are anxious about the new radio locators because they allow authorities to immediately detect and monitor call locations and conversations, sources said.

Those who get caught with these illegal devices are sentenced to hard labour in prison. But of course, if one is affluent enough in North Korea, bribes can be offered to tell people to turn the other way.

That being said, I also watched a BBC News programme about some brave people in North Korea who are sending back information about North Korea. These people should be commended for their bravery. I do not know how they send back their information but whatever they use, I do not want to speculate. The programme, found on YouTube, is posted below. God bless them

Vivo Y17s mobile phone

I bought this Vivo Y17s mobile phone to replace my Xiaomi Redmi 7A that has been giving me some issues. Some of the buttons on the 7A are getting very hard to press and the phone is slowing down. It happens to old phones like these and this Xiaomi 7A has been with me since 2019, which will make it 4 years old this year. So when it came to replacing this phone, I decided to give this Vivo Y17s a try.

This phone cost me about $190. That is a fair price to pay for this phone and it is pretty good…so far. The phone was ordered online and it arrived at my place about three days back. I wanted to try another brand after using Xiaomi for so long. This phone has been tagged by Vivo as being “the best selfie smartphone”. I am no lover of selfies so I did not buy it for that purpose. The chief purpose was like the Redmi 7A, it comes with a 5000 mAh battery. It has a fingerprint sensor on the side button and also, it comes with 128Gb of memory and 6Gb of RAM. I am thinking of expanding it’s storage with a 256Gb micro SD card. Also it has a 50MP camera and that should be great for taking pictures.

Overall, I am quite happy with it. I just need to get used to it. So what I have to do now is to get a flip-case for it online. Then I can start the transition from the old phone to the new phone.

No sight and no sound with Android One

Just the other day, I was trying to see if there were any new updates for my Xiaomi Mi A1 mobile phone that I bought in 2018, almost three years ago. I love this phone because it has proven to be a very good phone with minimum bells and whistles and it just works. However, it is still stuck on Android 9 and there has been no updates for quite a long time. I then happened to chance upon this article in Computer World and it looks there are quite a few others out there who are just as baffled as to what happened with the Android One program. It is a bit disappointing really. I hope that Google get their feet in motion and do something about the upgrade for the heaps of Android One mobile  phones out there.

Pakistan province to block phones of the unvaccinated

I read about this in the online news yesterday and I thought that it was a great idea to do. Just block the phones and see how they fare. Apparently, according to the article, it says that it comes after Sindh province said civil servants who refuse to be vaccinated will not be paid from July. That is the best way to get them vaccinated. I do not know what is the issue they have against getting vaccinated. I had two doses. While my second dose of Moderna gave me a fever the next day, I think that it is something worth putting up with in this fight against Covid-19. To those who refuse to go for the vaccination, think of the world now ravaged with Covid-19. That vaccination will help in some small way to make sure that you have some protection against Covid-19.

Huawei P30 Lite mobile phone

My wife needed a second mobile phone for a her business. I have another mobile phone that I use for my business too. Let us just say that in that way, you can keep your personal mobile phone number confidential and not use it for your business. So I chose a Huawei phone for her. She has een itching to get a Huawei for some time now but I talked her out of it. The reason I did so is because she is an avid Apple iPhone user and she is not used to an Android phone. But now that she has one, she will have to get used to it, whether she likes it or not!

I bought this phone for slightly less that $300 a couple of days back. This phone came with a screen protector already installed on it. They also threw in a casing! I remember that when I bought my Mum’s Samsung A30, they threw in a casing for that as well. These are the specs of this phone according to the Huawei website:

• Screen Size: 6.15 inches
• Screen Color: 16.7 million colors, color saturation (NTSC): 96% (typical value)
• Screen Type: TFT LCD (IPS)
• Anti-Fingerprint Film (Oleophobic Coating): Supported
• Screen Lamination Technology: Fully laminated
• Resolution: FHD 2312 x 1080 pixels
• Screen Pixel Density: 415 PPI
• Touch Screen: Multi-touch, supports a maximum of up to 10 contact points during touch
• Glass Material: Aluminosilicate glass
• Button Backlight: Not supported
• Screen-to-Body Ratio: 90.0%

Memory-wise, it has 6 GB RAM and 128 GB ROM so there is more than enough space for apps and photos. Speaking of photos, it sports a Tri-lens camera with a 24 MP (Wide Angle Lens, f/1.8 aperture) + 8 MP (Ultra Wide Angle Lens) + 2 MP (Bokeh Lens) which supports autofocus. It also supports two SIM cards but I think my wife will only be using one.

Well, I know my wife likes it and will be trying it out today taking pictures. She will get used to it pretty fast.

Xiaomi Redmi 7A

I bought this Xiaomi Redmi 7A to replace the old Redmi 2 that died on me. I bought this for quite a good price and I like it very much. This new phone of mine has a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 439 processor. That is pretty snappy processor compared to the old Redmi 2A. But what I like about it the most is the large 4000mAh battery. Apparently, I read on the Xiaomi website that this huge battery can give the phone up to 19 days of standby. I do not know how true that is but if it can, it will be fantastic! Another improvement over the old Redmi 2A is the 12MP AI rear camera. AI of course stands for Artificial Intelligence. I do not know if the AI really exists or was just put there for show. But whatever it is, it does take some stunning photos. Also, this Redmi 7A comes with a 5.45” HD+ Full Screen Display. Believe me when I say it…the images on this phone look clean and crisp.

I have been putting this unit through its paces after I bought it some 4 days ago. I have not got the casing for it yet but I will when it becomes available. Apparently, this phone is still new so no cases for it exist yet. But it comes with a 10W charger for a big boost in charging speed apparently. I have yet to try this feature out as I am using my old chargers but it is definitely welcome. Another unique feature of this phone is that it comes with a dual nano-SIM and dedicated microSD card slot. That is good because I can now use two SIM cards without having to sacrifice one for a microSD card. Also, this phone supports up to 256GB of expandable storage so that is pretty good. And last but I do not mean least, this phone comes with improved splash resistance, protected by splash-proof nano-coating (whatever that is). Apparently, according to Xiaomi, water runs off of the phone like a leaf, effectively reducing corrosion from sweat, oils, beverages or other commonly splattered liquids. I am not saying that we should use the phone underwater, or in the poring rain…but some kind of splash resistance is great.

All in all, it is a great phone and I am very happy with it. Just got to get myself a case for it and I am done!

Refurbishing an LG G6 mobilephone

Sometimes, all you need is a little elbow grease and some tools. Take a look at this video. The author restored this old LG G6 phone to brand-new condition. Try and save the planet and recycle as much as possible. Love this!

In view of Bintan in the distance from the Genting Dream

It was about this time last week that I was on the cruise. I took this picture on the deck where the life-rafts were moored, with a view of Bintan in the distance. I was trying to call my wife on my phone. I was hoping that the line of sight to the Bintan cell towers would allow me to communicate with my wife. I was not disappointed when I was able to make that call using the ICC card that was in my phone. To be honest, I rather enjoyed that trip. I might be making a similar trip in August and it will be similar to this.

Samsung Galaxy A30

I bought this Samsung Galaxy A30 for my mother to replace her old Samsung Galaxy J3 that I bought a couple of years back. The reason is that her phone is running out of memory and I have to do housekeeping every time I go see her. That is problem with bloody Android phones. So much junk gets stored in them and if you are not careful, the bloody thing fills up all the memory and pretty soon there will be no space. So after much research, I chose this Samsung Galaxy A30. The reason I chose it is because this thing, for a start, has 64Gb of memory and 4Gb of RAM. This will be perfect for her and she will have enough of a buffer for all her chats and I do not have to do housekeeping all the time.

According to the Samsung website, this phone has a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED “Infinity-U” display, 16MP + 5MP dual rear cameras and a 16MP selfie camera. It runs on a Samsung Exynos 7904 chipset with a 1.8GHz octa core CPU, 4GB of RAM and Android Pie operating system. There’s also a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, 4G LTE connectivity and 64GB of expandable storage. A 4000mAh battery powers the device with support for 15W fast charging technology. And I got it for a pretty good price. Looks like my mum is going to be very pleased with this!

My mum’s Samsung Galaxy J3

I bought this Samsung Galaxy J3 for my mother a couple of years back on her birthday. Just yesterday, I noticed that my mum was having issues saving media on her phone. I then noticed that her onboard memory is full. I kept clearing and clearing but with little luck. I then realised why…and it was something I should have realised when I bought her the damn phone. The on-board memory is only a paltry 8Gb. The operating system takes up some 3Gb and after that, all that is left is about 4.3Gb for everything else. I intend to buy her a phone with at least 64Gb of memory to tide her over. Looks like I am going to get her another Samsung phone as she is used to how it works. Hopefully that will last her for some time and I do not have to clean it up when I go over to her house on the weekends.