Just for fun | mysms blog

March 29, 2013

DIY: How to Make Android Easter Eggs

Posted in Just for fun by sgeier

You think dyeing eggs is boring and for children and grandmothers only? You’re definitely wrong! Let me convince you of the contrary: There are far more possibilities rather than dyeing single-colored eggs. Our mysms team had great fun creating geeky Android eggs today 😀

Make your own Android Easter eggs

Would you also like to have such remarkable geeky eggs? Here’s how to do it!

Before you start make sure you have the right materials at hand:

Raw eggs and egg dyes or pre-dyed eggs (from the supermarkets or your grandma)
White self-adhesive labels
Colored paper or white paper and colorful pens
Double faced adhesive tape or glue
Scissors
Some time and patience

1. In case you have much time left, you can buy blank eggs and dye them with egg dyes. Rather than making it on your own, you’ve also got the choice to buy pre-dyed eggs. It’s not as cool as making it yourself, but timesaving and more convenient. 😉 Basically, the color of Androids is green, but we didn’t want to give the colorful Easter eggs a miss, that’s why we decided to go for these ones.

2. The eggs are ready, so now you need to prepare the additional material for the eyes, ears and body of the Android. Cut thin stripes and dots from the self-adhesive labels for the separation of head and body and for the eyes. Additionally, cut out and prepare the ears by using the colored paper or the white paper which you paint with colorful pens.

3. You’re nearly at the end: Glue the ears and stick the separation stripe and the eyes on the egg. Afterwards, put the eggs in a smooth nest and you are finished with your DIY geek Easter project!

Have fun trying to make your own Android eggs – Would be nice, if you send us some pics! Happy Easter everyone 🙂

September 27, 2012

Top 5 Smartphone Accessories

Posted in Just for fun, mobile news by Lisa Leitner

Nowadays our smartphones are all-rounders, they combine several gadgets in one and seem to master everything we need. However, every now and then even our omniscient personal assistants can use a little support themselves. There are several useful smartphone accessories on the market and I’d like to present you my personal top 5.

1) Camera Lenses for Smartphones

Although smartphone cameras are getting better, they just can’t replace DSLRs or bridgecams. With Onchee’s camera lenses you get at least a little professional feeling when pulling the tiny trigger on your mobile. You simply screw the lense into the opening over the camera and there you go. For the fun of it, there are several different kinds of lenses: fisheyes, wide angles and various telephoto lenses. They’re all tiny and easy to carry with you. I think I could acquire a taste for it and leave my bridgecam at home every now and then. What about you?

2) Smartphone Car Mount

Car mounts for smartphones have become a basic must-have accessory, and rightly so. They bring our mobiles into their perfect position to navigate us and keep us from talking and texting while driving. If you’ve got a Bluetooth connection to your car stereo or a hands-free car kit, you can easily take and make calls without holding your phone. This handy gadget should really be found in every car.

3) AirCurve Play Speaker

If you are an iPhone user, you might find this little smartphone accessory quite useful. This speaker works without wires or batteries. You just slip your iPhone into your AirCurve speaker and there you go. Due to its acoustic spiral the sound of your phone will be ten decibels louder. An innovative, green and geeky little gadget!

4) Gym running sport armband case

For all the sports(wo)men among us the gym running sport armband case is a must-have smartphone accessory. It just makes our exercise, gym and running hours so much more fun and convenient. Not only can I listen to my favorite tunes, but I can also use apps like runtastic while running. In combination with Nike’s tracking sport kit you can really enjoy a great sport 2.0 experience.

5) Bluetooth handset and base with Smartphone dock

This award-winning device is – in most cases – unnecessary, but very stylish and great fun. And to be honest, having a phone call with the MM03i (by Native Union) is quite convenient and cosy. It comes with an integrated charger and is said to reduce radiation exposure. Although its name is not as innovative as the device itself, it is an eye-catcher in every home or office.

These 5 devices are my personal 5 must have smartphone accessories. You might find some of them very helpful, others maybe just for fun. However, I’d like to know which accessory you couldn’t live without or which one you tried and found unnecessary. Let me know in the comments.

September 13, 2012

5 Alternative Ways to Charge Your Smartphone on the Go

Posted in Just for fun, mobile news by Lisa Leitner

Over the last decade we’ve seen impressive developments in mobile technology, with quad-core processors, 4G connection and high-resolution displays. However, it seems like battery development has been neglected. Nowadays our smartphones are superslim; there’s simply not enough space for as big a battery as our mini-computers would need. That’s why we have to find alternative ways to prolong battery lives of our mobiles. Some time ago I wrote about 5 eco-friendly ways to charge your smartphone, today I’d like to continue the discussion with 5 alternative ways to charge our smartphone on the go.

1) Vodafone’s Solar-charging Umbrella

Booster Brolly by Vodafone

First of all, I’d like to introduce you to Vodafone’s Booster Brolly. This umbrella is a great way to boost your signal and charge your smartphone when you live in a country where rain is a steady companion. If you ever come to Austria, I advise you to bring your Booster Brolly! Anyway, it works like this: Solar energy is gained through 12 solar cells and stored in a battery placed in the handle. You can then charge your phone via the USB port. It is said to charge a mobile within 3 hours. Sounds excellent to me!

2) ECOXPOWER Pedal-powered Smartphone Charger

ECOXPOWER pedal charger

If you are a dedicated cyclist and have a power-hungry mobile, this might be perfect for you – the ECOXPOWER charger for bicycles. It is a gadget that collects energy through your pedal power. With the gained energy it charges your phone as well as it lightens your way with a LED front headlight and taillight. A USB adapter cable that runs up to a water resistant phone case comes with it.

3) Eton iPhone Solar Cover

iPhone Solar Cover

The Eton Solar Cover captures power from the sun and diffuse light. Ideally you use it as a cover of your iPhone constantly, so – theoretically – you don’t have to charge your phone with a regular charger anymore. About 1 hour of solar charge with the Eton cover gives you 25 minutes of talk time or 20 minutes for internet use, 35 minutes of video playback or 145 minutes of audio playback.

4) Sony Hand-cranked Charger

Hand-cranked Charger

Sony’s hand-cranked charger works as you might already fear. You have to turn the crank in order to produce energy. Brilliant idea! It features a 4,000mAH battery, which is enough to fully charge your smartphone. Also, it’s got 2 USB ports, so you can charge multiple devices. Just to give you an idea of how exhausting this is going to be for you: three minutes of cranking will give you more or less one minute of talktime. But, we would do anything for our mobiles and mother nature, wouldn’t we?

5) PowerTrekk

PowerTrekk Charger

This little gadget might be helpful for you, if you’re a camping kind of guy/gal. The PowerTrekk is a smartphone charger that uses water to produce hydrogen gas. You simply pour water (can be water rainwater, river water, etc.) into the tray, the PowerTrekk mixes the water with sodium silicide to power the fuel cell. The fuel cell then provides power for about 10 hours of phone battery life.

We constantly stumble upon fascinating new ways to charge your smartphone. There are continuous developments and innovations worth trying and writing about. If you happen to know one, we haven’t already mentioned, please let us know in the comments. Meanwhile: Happy alternatively charging!

August 23, 2012

What Happened to Our Mobile Manners?

Posted in Just for fun by Lisa Leitner

Have you ever found yourself replying to a text message or an email during a business meeting or a dinner conversation? Let me tell you, Emily Post would not be amused with your behavior. Neither would she like to hear that 3 out of 4 adults text while driving nor that 63 % of Americans answer phone calls while going to the bathroom. However, this seems to be the inconvenient truth about our mobile manners of today.

A recent survey from Online College shows that our mobile manners are not quite as sophisticated as we might think they are. It starts with the young (9 in 10 students text while they are in class), but likewise affects the old (15 % of all polled adults said they will answer a call while they devote themselves to the most beautiful matter in the world). We seem to forget everything our parents taught us about etiquette when it comes to our beloved smartphone.

My personal favorite result is that 3 in 4 Americans use their cell phones while in the bathroom. For Emily Post’s sake please tell me you’re not reading this in the bathroom.

July 19, 2012

mysms Insights: Our New Office in Sunnyvale, CA

Posted in Just for fun, mysms news by afeiner

The last month has been an exciting and busy time for the mysms team. We launched our mysms Messenger for iPhone, we packed our things and moved into a new stylish office at our headquarters in Graz, Austria and we started a satellite office in the heart of Silicon Valley, precisely in Sunnyvale, CA.

Favorite place in the office - the sunny terrace

Favorite place in the office - Martin and me on the sunny terrace

This is the first of two blog posts where we want to share with you some insights and pictures of our two new offices.

Plug and Play Tech Center is a global accelerator located in Sunnyvale, CA.

Why Sunnyvale? Not (only) because it’s sunny!

Being part of the initiative “Go Silicon Valley” of the Austrian Economic Chamber, we were one of 14 lucky startups that got selected for the program. We are now sharing the space in our Pavilion with five other Austrian companies that currently work here.

mysms is one of six companies currently working at the Austrian Pavilion.

It’s only been two weeks now since we have opened the doors to office at Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale. But I can already say we love the sunny weather, the open-minded people and the energy and innovative spirit that’s in the air.

What has happened so far?

We successfully fought the jet lag, met tons of other entrepreneurs, and went to exiting events like MobileBeat. But our story here has just begun, we’ll keep you updated.

Some of the over 30 international companies that are located at PnP

Hope you enjoyed the journey and be prepared for our next blog post on our brand-new super-stylish office in Graz.

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