Pokémon GO 0.39: Unable to authenticate - damn!

I was trying to update Pokémon GO to 0.39, the latest version, but a message stops me from doing it.

Using an older device with Pokémon GO can sometimes be a burden. The game itself freezes or stops more often.

Also having an unofficial Android 5 version installed means that you have to do every update manually, because Google Play Store doesn't allow a download for your device.

So you get your apk package mirror from other sources, but so far it wasn't a problem for me to install the latest software version. It was a working 'workaround'.

But my attempt to install version 0.39 didn't turn out to work. I also have to admit that I haven't started the app for a few days. So I did the update manually and the message 'Unable to authenticate. Please try again.' appeared. 

I deleted the app, cleared cache & data and also made a reboot before trying to install the app again. No chance. Same error.

While finding a solution I found a video where someone mentioned that he could make it work trying to start the game with flight mode and no Internet connection. Didn't work out in my case.

So.. Is my account maybe banned for some reason? I filled out an ban appeal to find out if something's wrong with my account. Maybe they'll unlock it and if they keep it locked I may decide to use another email address.

Cyanogenmod, S3 mini and Dropbox

The Dropbox camera upload is something truly convenient, but only if it works...

After installing the Cyanogenmod on my Samsung Galaxy S3 mini everything went well until I figured out that the file names from the automatic Dropbox upload were.... different. 

The names were actually like this:
1969-12-31 16.00.00-487
1969-12-31 16.00.00-488
1969-12-31 19.00.00
1969-12-31 19.00.00-1
1969-12-31 19.00.00-2
1969-12-31 19.00.00-3
1970-01-01 01.00.00
1970-01-01 01.00.00-1

Yeah, definitely not the current date. So I was hoping to find a fix as I found several other people in different forums having the same problem, but it didn't seem like there was any solution. It was even mentioned that there's no solution expected. Obviously there's an issue with the camera driver.

The thing also is that Dropbox changes the file name after the upload to the date taken from the EXIF information. And this EXIF data is wrong for some reason. Even if there's the correct date set within the file.

That's why some people had the idea to find a solution removing the Dropbox feature to change the file name for the upload, but that doesn't even seem possible.

My personal workaround solution

But despite the issue you have to live with it or find a way to make it simple. Of course you can sent everything via Bluetooth or connect the USB cable to copy the picture to your PC or cloud folder.

You can also use a script to change the names of the uploaded pictures in Dropbox afterwards. Or even find another cloud to upload your photos.

I kept it simple: MANUALLY! I made an extra Dropbox folder and I'm sending the photos manually from time to time to the Dropbox.

And if my phone gets lost, I still have the wrong named photos in my camera uploads. So, could be worse!

Sony Vegas: Rendering in portrait format

Many videos from mobile phones are recorded in portrait format. If you edit such a clip the basic settings for rendering are offering you the video in landscape format - but what if you don't want it?

Like if you want to share such an edited video on WhatsApp. Rendering from a video in portrait format to landscape is pretty impractical for a phone.

In my case it was a video in portrait format where I added some subtitles in order to resent it.

Luckily in Sony Vegas (my description is about Sony Vegas 13) there's a way to solve that problem in order to render a video in the correct aspect ratio.

So what to do?

• Edit your video in portrait format
• Go to 'File', 'Render as'.
• Click 'More filter options' and select 'Match project video aspect ratio'
• Now you can chose between 720p, 480p and 360p
• Click 'Render' and the process will finish your video in portrait format

So that's all. Have fun sending edited videos to your friends. And take advantage of WhatsApp Web.

WiFi but no Internet, what now?

You often meet people believing having WiFi also means having Internet connection. I'd like to tell a little story about a case where a client of a hotel couldn't get Internet despite having WiFi connected.

It was in a hotel in the Netherlands and myself also on holiday sitting outside. At the reception there was a woman complaining that she doesn't get Internet connection. As I noticed the situation I went there to find out what's going on.

After telling about my qualification I could take a look at that laptop. It was in French, a language where I'm just familiar with the basics and the user also didn't have admin permissions.

So I checked if the WiFi connection was actually working and also used ipconfig to look for the current IP address.

And it was an address from the 192.168 area. For that hotel it seemed quite unusual to me so I checked the IP address from my phone and it had an address from the 172.16. range. So my conclusion was: The IP address was manually changed on the laptop, but unfortunately I couldn't see it due to not having the needed permissions to see and change the network settings.

I asked for the asked password, but apparently she misunderstood. Language barrier. Finally she logged off and logged in with the admin account and she had the password! Now it was easy: I went to the network settings and I really saw that the network settings where manually changed to a 192.168 IP address.

I made a screenshot of the settings and changed the them to DHCP. The Windows laptop got a new IP address and Internet was working. The woman and the people at the reception were happy.

Obviously her husband made this change because their local network environment made it necessary: Like the laptop had trouble getting an IP address, their DHCP server isn't working or he just wanted to make sure that nobody else gets an IP address except the ones he would chose manually.

Anyway, it was probably too easy and not worth to mention, but these are such cases where basic users don't have any idea at all. It's better to help out if you can instead of people throwing their stuff unnecessarily away.

TheSuperAdmins #004: Catch them all!

Pokémon GO is still unavoidable, even for TheSuperAdmins. Just be aware which Pokémon you approach...

See in big: #4 Catch them all!

See all comics

Read also about Pokémon GO:
- Why Pokémon GO was the best for Pokémon
- Galaxy S3 mini and Pokémon GO

Poll: Your thoughts on the free Windows 10 upgrade

Before the offer for a free upgrade to Windows 10 ended on 28th July 2016 I asked in a poll what people are thinking about. Here's the result:

Windows 10 is free to upgrade until next July - your thoughts?

I already use Windows 10 25% I will upgrade to Windows 10 until then 0% I won't upgrade, will still use Windows 8(.1) 0% I won't upgrade, will still use Windows 7 50% I can't upgrade, I will still use Windows Vista 0% I can't upgrade, I will still use Windows XP 0% I don't care. I don't use Windows 25%

It could have been a better result with more votes, but it still gives the impression that there were people not willing to use the free upgrade. Windows 7 is still a stable system and still ok for a usual user? Why changing a running system.

That's why we still have a 47% market share of Windows 7 systems. At least Windows 10 could jump to 21% in July - most likely due to the free upgrade possibilty...

How to download your pictures from Google Photos

Google Photos is an easy way to put taken pictures from your phone into the cloud - especially because Google offers a bit more basic space than others. But how can you download your pictures again?

While using Google Photos you can select single pictures to download or also from a single day, but there's no option like 'Select all'.

Luckily there's another way you can apply in order to download all your Google Photos.

Use Google Takeout, a tool to download all your data from your Google profile - including Photos. So select Google Photos, the file type you want (like *.zip) and decide where you want your data to have delivered. Options are OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or even as an email link.

Once you've made you decision, an archive of your pictures will be created...

PS: Do you know from which city the pictures above were taken from?