If you are using QQ, the Chinese social media platform, on a PC and want multi-language capability, or at least a language other than Chinese, your days are numbered. The PC program was last updated in 2014 and has been slowly degrading in functionality. There is no foreseeable new version planned. The best you can do is to learn more Chinese and install the Chinese version, or use the Android international version on an Andriod smartphone.
It looks like Tencent’s QQ International version will be ceasing operations in Europe, effective 2018 May 20. I am unsure why. I also do not know if this affects WeChat. Perhaps this is about Europe’s new privacy laws, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)? I need to do more research. This is from a friend in China. it does look like Tencent’s QQ and Wechat will be pulled from the EU market.
We are sorry to announce that for operational needs from 20 May 2018 QQi will no longer be available in Europe.
Randomly reading the CBC, the subject again came up. This is a subject that has been in the news in the past, but talked about in hushed tones, sort of like the dark web. Androids, robots in human form, built for sex and possibly companionship, have been physically available for quite a number of years, and have been part of science fiction lore for much longer. If these are of benefit or detriment to humans, has yet to be discovered. I continue my interest in the social implications of technology on our daily lives.
The march of time stops for no one, rich or poor, for whomever. While humans may be able to mitigate their demise with a bit of compassion, there is none for old phones. Android phones grow old, older than 2 years old, slow down, and then get pitched into the back drawer, replaced by a new Android model, never to be turned on again.
Suspicious, we were, that Little Weed was burning through our internet bandwidth quota very quickly. Even with wifi off, how could this happen? Some Android apps have the ability to turn on wifi by themselves and communicate.
Little Weed noticed that one of his apps, Head Soccer, updated without his knowledge, so he asked to take the phone off our wifi network. This app, Head Soccer, has following permissions:
Damn, that was hard. Android Studio 2.1.2 is really a bitch to tame. I had not used AS for a while, so when I opened it I needed to upgrade, which I did. That is when the pain started. If you are using an older phone than Android v21 Lollipop then you will need add a lower version of gradle 2.10 to work.
The different versions of Android require different versions of gradle. Upgrade your android version and your gradle version will correspond. Upgrade Android Studio and you support and older version of Android spells trouble.
Buy a smartphone, you did, but do you really own it? You use your phone when new, but after a while the phone slows down. Is it the phone or are you just getting irritable and impatient with yourself. Relax and wait a bit, right? Maybe not, because your phone may actually be slowing down. It is at this point, around the 1.5 year mark, that you consider buying a new phone. Has your spanky new phone really degraded that much? Smartphones are at least a couple of hundred dollars, so buying a new one every 1.5 years can get very expensive. But do you really need a new one? Remove the bloatware from your phone first, then decide. Bloatware can account for 1/3d of all apps running on your phone, so removing them can make a significant positive difference to the smooth operation of your phone.
Old phone I do have. All extra cash goes into the kids, and I scrounge whatever is left for myself. While a new Android phone is ~$200CAD, a neighbour gave me a 3 year old LG P690B smartphone, 2011, 512mb, AKA LG Optimus Net P699, LG Optimus Link P690. It was new, and low powered. I rooted it, installed Clockwork Mod, installed the Cyanogenmod 7.2.0 rom, then reverted back to stock and started deleting off bloatware. Here are some hints and tips.
Many days, I did struggle with this problem. My old 2010 HTC Google Nexus One simply would not connect to Ubuntu 14.04. A couple of weeks ago I gave up. Today, I had the brilliant idea to try connecting the Nexus One to Windows 7, and by a fluke of connecting to Win7, Ubuntu 14.04 also detected it. Why did this happen, I do not know, but I am thankful for these lucky flukes of the universe. Praise Zena Princess Warrior, for her good luck and intervention.
Easy it will not be, for this path I know will be rocky. I tried installing Eclipse and the Android ADT on Windows 7 and got really stuck. Now that I’m on Ubuntu there is so much more help, but the problems are still many, varied and difficult to solve. I’ll chart the course here.
