Solving the Orange UK Android hotspot internet connection problem

UPDATE 07/11/11: I can now confirm that this solution definitely works with both the HTC Desire (original) and the new HTC Sensation on the Orange UK network.

One of the things I was most looking forward to with the Android 2.2 update was the ability to create a wi-fi hotspot using your phone, or tethering as it’s more commonly known. Extremely handy when travelling on trains in the UK as very few of them have broadband facilities available. So it was one of the first features that I tried out after my phone upgraded itself, but was immediately disappointed to find that although my laptop connected to the hotspot easily, there was no internet connection available.

I searched long and hard for a solution to this and it soon became immediately apparent that this is an issue specifically for HTC phones on the UK Orange network.

Luckily the solution is easy, but don’t be surprised if you have to repeat the following steps after each Orange update – annoyingly it does occasionally reset to the default settings. This should get you up and running though…(in theory!)…

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Flash on the Beach 2011: pre-conference

So every year I like to double my excitement for Flash on the Beach by preparing my lecture schedule in advance. It’s also really useful to use as reference at the conference itself – to remind me which of the three tracks I preferred when I actually had the time to sit down and read the overviews, and also if you need to find me you’ll know where I’m most likely to be.

So here’s my preferred schedule so far – there’s still a couple of unknowns but it’s looking pretty well rounded already…

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So. It’s about bloody time I wrote another blog post don’t you think?

It’s been far too long I know – and for that I apologise. It’s almost exactly a year to the day since I started working full-time for ThinkJam, an agency almost completely dedicated to the movie industry…and it’s been quite a ride already.

Within the first three months I was strolling down a premiere red carpet next to Bruce Willis, which was both thoroughly exciting and completely surreal. And now after 12 months I’m working on some of the most exciting Flash projects I’ve ever worked on. All in all, it’s been one hell of a year.

Even though I haven’t been posting to my blog recently, I’ve been storing away ideas for blog posts in the hope to get back to it soon. So you’re likely to see an influx of new posts very soon, including help with Android Wi-fi hotspots, Facebook application tips and a whole bunch of useful new AS3 classes – watch this space.

Also, before I go I think it’s probably worth mentioning that I’ll be attending the wonderful Flash on the Beach conference again this September. Hopefully I’ll get to see some of you there – drop me a line if you fancy a pint.

Cheers! TBOH

Google Chrome, Flash Debugger and Tracing in the browser

Yesterday I was trying to test a fullscreen button on a video player and realised that I couldn’t unless it was inside a browser window. Unfortunately this meant that I would have no way to view traced results, so I installed Vizzy, a browser app that allows you to view flash traces whilst viewing your flash in a browser.

I’ve known about Vizzy for a while, but I’ve previously had no real need for it and when I’ve tried to install it in the past it didn’t seem to work with Chrome (my current browser of choice) so it was uninstalled pretty quickly. But this time I had no choice but to get it working – and as it turns out, the solution was pretty simple… Read the rest of this post >

Replacing white space in a string

A handy little tip, if all you need to do is rip out spaces in a string don’t bother with using slice(), use regex instead. Copy the following line of code and replace ‘-’ with whatever you need to replace the space with…

yourString = yourString.replace(/\s+/g, '-');

So for example, if yourString=”blah blah blah”, it will now become “blah-blah-blah”. This is especially useful for amending URLs.

Happy new year!