Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Redeye Teitoku

Honor 8

Redeye Teitoku — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 06:27:05 +0800

The main purpose of a smartphone is to keep its owner connected. However, this doesn’t just mean keeping the user connected over calls and messages. It also means that the device should be able to give the user multiple ways to store, access and share content and information to make his/her life easier. Many smartphones these days fails to do so and users have to find shortcuts or other ways to overcome said shortcomings on their device. The Honor 8 however, will delight every user with its abundance of connectivity options.

1.     Network Operations
Let us start with the network options. It has support for 4G LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800) LTE band 2(1900), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 12(700), 17(700) - AL00 (USA). For 3G it supports HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 - AL00 (USA) and GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900. The download & upload HSPA speed are 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat6 300/50 Mbps. This means that regardless of what operator you use, you will be able to get access to blazing fast 4G internet on your Honor 8.

2.     Dual-Band Wifi
It supports dual-band WiFi (5GHz and 2.5GHz) which allows you to choose between the more stable connections especially in areas where there is a lot of WiFi congestion. It also supports the latest 802.11 ac standard of WiFi for the fastest speeds possible and also has backwards compatibility with a/b/g/n standards as well. In case users want to share their data with their friends or on their laptop, they can use the wireless hotspot feature to create their own WiFi network that uses cellular data. There is GPS on board that will help you get the most accurate tracking of your location at any point of the day and at any location.

3.     NFC and Bluetooth 4.2
It has a 3.5mm audio jack for outputting audio to your earphones, headphones or external speaker. However, if going wireless is your choice, it has Bluetooth 4.2 which also supports LE (Low Energy) to facilitate high quality audio transmission while being power efficient). You also have NFC (Near Field Communication) for tension free pairing to the Bluetooth devices. NFC can also be used to pay at POS (Point of Sale) machines that support NFC payment. It can also be used to facilitate Huawei Beam which allows you to transfer files between your Honor 8 and another NFC enabled device by simply tapping them together and pressing the screen.

4.     Expandable Storage Option
While there is 32GB of internal memory, users might want more storage which is why there is a dedicated microSD slot on board which can take cards upto 128GB in capacity so users have more space to store their stuff and can also use the card to transfer data to and from the device.

5.     IR Blaster – One-stop Entertainment Solution
There is even an IR blaster at the top of the device which is a very rare feature on smartphones these days albeit a very useful one. Users can control their electronic appliances such as their Television with ease considering that their smartphone is almost always within their reach or in their hands.

6.     Huawei Quick Charge
Lastly, it has a USB Type-C port which is the latest standard of the USB port that supports not just fast data transfers but also fast charging and even allows users to plug in the port in any direction and thus becomes more hassle free.

Credit

EMUI Software Update

Redeye Teitoku — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 21:20:59 +0800

This information is obtained after doing some Google-ling to help other Huawei users like me (noobie) who wants to update their mobile phone software. Currently I’m using Mate 7. I will also include how to perform update in recovery mode in-case your mobile phone goes haywire ☺ There are 3 ways for you to update your mobile phone.

Online Upgrade
To start, there are a few things you need to do before updating. First & foremost:
1. It is recommended that you connect your phone to a Wi-Fi network.
2. Remaining battery power of higher than 30% throughout the update.
3. Please do not press the power button or perform any other operations during the update.

To start updating:
1. Touch Settings > Updater to check for new updates. Touch to download it, and then follow the onscreen instructions to update your phone.
2. When the update is complete, your phone will automatically restart.

Here is a screenshot of the steps. Just follow the guideline! As simple as that to update your mobile phone!

HiSuite update
Another way for you to update is thru HiSuite application. If you don’t have the application on your computer, you may download the latest Huawei HiSuite version from http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/HiSuite_en/index.html.

The remaining battery power of higher than 30% is needed throughout the update. Just make sure your phone has sufficient battery, or you can charge your phone before performing any update to ensure the device will not be brick.
And please do not disconnect the USB cable, power off or restart your phone, or remove or insert the micro SD card throughout the whole process.
Here is a screenshot example of the HiSuite application.

Usually, there will be two scenarios encountered by most users. Example:

Scenario 1: If your phone can be powered on properly, connect your phone to HiSuite and click Update on your computer. When the update is complete, your phone will automatically restart.

Scenario 2: If your phone can’t be powered on properly, you may use the system recovery feature. However, this only applies to P9 devices (EVA-L09&EVA-L29)
- Please back up your important data before the update because this update method will erase all user data on your phone.
- Connect your phone to your computer. When your phone is powered off, press and hold the volume down and power buttons for a few seconds to enter fastboot mode.
- Then, touch System Recovery > Resume > Recover System.
- After the recovery is complete (the system will recover to the specified version, you don't have to select it), your phone will automatically restart. Please wait until it is finished.
- If the recovery fails due to the phone restarting, re-perform the procedure.

eRecovery Update
I’m sure may of Huawei users never heard about this method of update hehe like me before. You may try this method if your device can’t boot into Home screen. Things you need to be aware of:

1. This update method will erase all user data. Please back up your important data before the update.
2. You need to have Wi-Fi connection. Only Wi-Fi connection using the following authentication modes are supported: WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, WEP, and open mode
3. Your phone has a remaining battery power of higher than 30% throughout the update.

Here are the list of supported models till this date. With new product launches, the list will be updated accordingly in Huawei website.

Steps to perform the eRecovery update:
- Power off your phone and connect it to a computer using a USB cable. Press and hold the volume up and power buttons for 15 seconds. Your phone will automatically restart and enter eRecovery mode.
- On the eRecovery home screen, touch Download new version and recovery.
- On the download screen, touch Download and recovery. Your phone will then automatically enable Wi-Fi and search for available hotspots.
- Choose an available Wi-Fi hotspot and enter the password to connect to it.
- Your phone will automatically obtain the installation package information and download the package. No other operations are required. This may take a while. Please wait for the download to finish.
- When the download is complete, your phone will automatically install the update. When the update is complete, your phone will start a countdown to restart.

Sorry for the long post!
This is from my Mate 7. The layout may differ from other devices. Now if there is any updates, you can try one of this methods. Let me know if you need to know more. I’m willing to help hehehe

Extra Protection For Your SD Card

Redeye Teitoku — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:27:00 +0800

Since smartphones has become a necessity now days,the way we carry & store our personal data on our smartphones are now more vulnerable than before.Ever wondered what will happen if we lost our phone with thousands of photos & information on the micro sd card? In the P9 Plus, it has a built in feature that supports microSD lock with a password to protect all the content in the micro sd.

In case somebody finds your lost android phone, they might not be able to access your cell phone’s content because of the security lock, that is if you have set up a security lock but they still can take out your external SD card and access its content on a PC. This is the main reason why you need to lock your SD card if you have important or private data on it.

Once locked, your music, photos, apps and account data can’t be read without first unjumbling the information using a unique passcode. This key is then required to lock and unlocked the micro sd card.

From a user’s viewpoint though, you just enter your passcode whenever you boot up to enter the micro sd card and all of your files will be accessible. This means that if your handset falls into the wrong hands, no-one else will be able to make sense of any of the data on your phone without knowing your password.

To set the password:
Insert the microSD card and go to Settings > Advanced Settings > Security > Set microSD card password. Just follow the on screen instructions.
Some settings you will find in the MicroSD card lock:
- microSD card lock (set password) and unlock
- Change or cancel password
- Clear microSD card password (this will erase all data on the microSD card)

Only the device you set up the micro sd lock can open & view the content of the micro sd card. If you take out & put the micro sd card in other devices, it will require the password & you will not be able to view the contents.

Good luck trying!

To “Guest”,or not to “Guest”? That is the question

Redeye Teitoku — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 10:21:13 +0800

Let say you are with your family or friends,hanging around chit chatting. Then suddenly your family or friend wants to borrow your P9 Plus because their battery died. Will you willingly give to him? With this additional function, you don't have to worry about someone snooping around your personal messages or private data's.

It allows your phone to be shared by multiple users, with independent use such that spaces can be set up for individual users.

Go to : P9 Plus's Settings >Users and you’ll have the option to create a new user profile or a generic guest profile for the phone. If there’s someone else in your family or friend that needs to use the phone from time to time, a standard user profile should be used. But we also recommend creating a Guest profile just in case someone asks to borrow your phone to make a phone call or check something on the web.

You can let other people use your phone as guests. In this way, they will not have access to all of information on the device. You can also modify settings for guests and users and check the storage space used by each person.

Each user can set up their own Google account or other accounts. They can customize the screen lock, home screen, and other settings. They can add, update, or delete apps, and retain their own personal data on apps.

As you can see from the below screen, when you entered guest mode, you will be prompt with this box :

When enabled,other guest won't be able to see the owner's data such as gallery,calendar,sms,accounts, contacts & phone logs.

Small feature but give big impact on your device.give it a try!

Control your phone by “speaking” at it

Redeye Teitoku — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 15:16:22 +0800

Some of us might get a little bit lazy on handling phone physically so this is a useful way of controlling a device such as the Huawei P9 Plus. If you switch the voice control feature on you can answer or reject calls by saying “answer call” or “reject call” and you can wake up your device with your voice. You can customize the wake-up command, which is fun, and you can train the voice recognition so it’s better at understanding you.

To enable voice wakeup:
Go to Settings > Smart assistant > Voice control and turn on Voice wakeup.

To use voice control to answer or end calls:
Go to Settings > Smart assistant > Voice control and enable Answer calls with voice control. To answer calls say "Answer call" and to end calls say "End call".

Use quick calling:
This option lets you to quickly initiate calls with just one simple click. To do this, when the screen is off, just press and hold the volume down button and after you hear an alert tone, say the name of the contact you want to call.

Sometimes, we tend to forget where we place our phones either in our bag, or maybe even in our room. But no worries as you can wake the phone up by just triggering the phone which by default is... "Okay, Emy." Once triggered, the phone wakes up and will talk out loud “I'm Here” along with music so you can determine the location of your device. This works up to 5 meter radius of the device.

Also when triggered, it awaits further voice instructions, like placing a call. Speech awareness is also customizable. You can record your voice to configure the record wakeup keyword as image below. The wake-up phrase can be changed, (okay emy) to a wakeup keyword of your choice. When you frequently use this feature, it will train the device to recognize your voice better.

Here are some tips to enhance your user experience :
1. When recording your wakeup keyword,make sure you're in a quiet environment and speak with clarity and certainty. This means you gotta make sure you dont startled or mumbling hehe. Speak like how you normally speak.
2. The device ability to respond depends on keyword choice. Don't choose a keyword that is difficult & long to understand.
3. If you are in a noisy environment or when you are playing music/videos,recording it won't work properly.

So here it is guys. Sharing is caring