Category Archive:
Posted by Carlos S. on April 29, 2013 at 9:02 pm
One of the best features of Android is how easy it is to customize it to your needs. Being able to select how you want to launch your apps, or how the OS should look is a killer feature, and among all the possible customization options, replacing the keyboard is one of the simpler ones, but which can drastically change how you interact with your phone. The stock keyboard is pretty good, especially if you’re on Jellybean which supports native gesture typing, but why not try something new? Today, I’ll run down through some of my favorite keyboards, going through their features and letting you know if it may be right for you. So, without further ado, here we go:
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Posted by Matthew Serre on March 31, 2013 at 11:26 am
A while back, I wrote a guide to using different launchers on your Android device. From that post, the following is a brief refresher on launchers:
“A launcher is the desktop environment from which you launch applications or perform other basic actions, like opening the app drawer. By default, the launcher is an integrated part of the Android operating system. Stock Android has its own launcher, but original equipment manufacturers sometimes skin Android and in doing so modify the launcher and other aspects of the OS. HTC has Sense, Motorola has MotoBlur, Samsung has TouchWiz…Each skin uses its own variation of the stock launcher.”
In that post, I used Nova Launcher as an example throughout much of the guide. But in my post today, I want to bring attention to a launcher that draws inspiration from the well-established Ubuntu operating system for its design and implementation.
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Posted by Carlos S. on March 25, 2013 at 6:51 pm
This week saw the release of Google Keep, a Google-made note-taking service, and it comes with a very nice looking, powerful Android app that you can download right now and give it a whirl. Android has lacked a note-taking app since release, with users instead relying on external services like Colornote, Evernote, and so on. Google has finally made an official app, that integrates with Google Drive as well, and you can access it through this link, allowing you to make new notes, see the notes you’ve made through the Android app and organize your current notes.
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Posted by Carlos S. on March 3, 2013 at 9:53 am
I have tried a lot of web browsers on my Android devices over the years, the quality ranging from abysmal to just plain useful. The stock browser that comes with Android does a pretty fine job, and also manages to support Flash and not have any major compatibility problems, but the UI sucks (it gets better if you activate radial menus, but still) and it tends to be somewhat unstable and heavy on my devices. Google Chrome for Android is also a decent choice, but as of yet it seems to be too slow and memory hungry, and also borders on unresponsiveness a lot of the time, most noticeably on heavy pages. It has been getting better and it is regularly updated, but it still doesn’t qualify as my main browser.
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Posted by Carlos S. on February 24, 2013 at 11:22 am
AirDroid is one of those apps that I just can’t seem to go without these days. It’s incredibly useful, and everyone I show it to also seems to want to use it. In very broad terms, AirDroid basically acts like a interface between your Android device and your computer, all through a web browser. What this means is that you are able to remotely interact with your Android smartphone or tablet, as long as the Android device and the computer are connected to the same network. It sounds a bit complicated, but believe me, nothing could be simpler.
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Posted by Carlos S. on February 10, 2013 at 2:10 pm
If you’re like me, listening to podcasts is one of those things you just do regularly. I always like to have some background noise going on while I’m doing my work, exercising or browsing, and what better to listen to than a few podcasts featuring some of my favorite people? Rarely a day goes by where I don’t listen to a podcast episode, so much that even though I check them regularly, I still have a huge backlog to go through. It gets kind of hectic and insane, and that’s where a app can make your life easier, especially outside your computer.
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Posted by Matthew Serre on February 4, 2013 at 8:34 pm
My fellow Android enthusiasts: 2013 is a new year for us. It promises to deliver unto us a cache of new phones, new tablets, new versions and features, and new frontiers in terms of what Android can offer its users. At the heart of all of our collective love for Android, we yearn for experiences that will bring us the joy we associate with using our devices. We use our phones every day to call others, to send and receive text messages, and to check the time. But what is it that allows us to go beyond this basic functionality? What allows us to conduct business on or derive pleasure from our devices? What is the most important aspect of the Android experience? Answer?
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