Today while at work I read that the google maps that can be downloiaded for android (and this update has been available since before I got my phone) now comes with navigation.

So I thought I would test it out.

But before I get onto that, a couple of other things. I think google is spying on me...

In the maps app, for "from" I accidentally hit the letter "i" and the very first suggestion that popped up was "Islamgarh, Mirpur, Azad Kashmir" or something close.

Secondly, google mail has built in chat and the phone has a gtalk app. Today, freakily it suddenly started talking to me. Well, not it but someone who I have emailed (revival related) who needed to get some things done. I had thought if the app was shut, I would be unavailable.

How do we know which direction we should face when we pray?

There are ways of calculating this - you need to know your current location, the location of the qiblah and also some way to determine direction.

Most android phones have built in GPS (and most/others can also use other means to determine a good approximate of the location), and a built in compass. This should be enough for some app to combine the data and let you know which direction to face.

I am not the first with that realisation - there are a few apps on the Angroid Marketplace which say they can locate the qiblah/direction to face when praying. I tested the free options.

I wasw going to write a blog full of innuendo and stuff, but I cannot remember what most of it was :/

And then I briefly considered taking a picture of the phone to accompany this blog, but again that would be weird since the photo would be taken with my old phone...

Ok... so... the phone.

Its got a nice and large screen (am I compensating for something by buying a phoen with such a huge screen?) and it looks nice enough.

It is an "Android" phone, meaning it has the android Smartphone OS on there - version 1.6 at the moment, which is sort of ancient, but I decided to accept the information that they will update it to the lastest version something in the near future.

ok, we have all heard the mantra. Its almost religious now, reaching feven pitch. You will even read it in The Revival Magazine, since our editor seems to be big on the idea. The mantra I am speaking of is one of integration - "Muslims, you gotta integrate, get with the times. "If you're not a part of the solution, your a part of the problem." seems to be the idea.

But what this ignores is the other side of the argument - does Britain at large want to integrate with us, or is it simply a hollow chant allowing extremist views to be propagated into the mainstream?

Image taken from Wikimedia commons and is available in the Public Domain.

Adria Classica 513 UP travel trailer taken from Wikimedia Commons - picture taken by Norbert Schnitzler and made available under the GNU FDL licence along with a number of Creative Commons Attribution SHare alike licences as mentioned on the original link.

A while ago on the forums I was linked to a Channel 4 Production titled "My Big Gypsy Wedding" - a look at the gypsy community, its challenges and its customs.

It was quite an eye opener for me and I think we should envy some of the things they have accomplished and others they have managed to keep. Ideas that many Muslims are rebelling against, they have managed to keep. Using words written by Rawrrs to describe a few of the things I am talking about:

The parents don't want kids to drink, smoke, do drugs, or go out on their own/without their permission.

No 'relations' before marriage

Apparently London Muslim is not happy that when the mother in law of a London bomber spoke to the media, it was about the effect on her family and not an apology to the victims.

Here is news for you - she did not blow anybody up. She has nothing to apologise for.

Be as fiery as you like but the fact is she did not kill anyone, nor is there any suggestion that she promoted such activity.

Enough is enough. We should stop forcing people to apologise for things they did not do.

Her offering an apology for the London Bombings is like me apologising for the slave trade.

The other side of the rainbow. Do you think there is a pot of gold hidden there?

From the bridge near Oldham College that has like half the windows smashed.

The rainbow was one of the brightest that another passer by had seen and you could see the full arc clearly - too bit though to get captured in a photo.