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View Full Version : The Giant Android Thoughts Tips Thread!


Jon Westfall
10-04-2010, 06:00 PM
<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/adt/auto/1286209863.usr7.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>A few weeks ago, reader <em>Steve The Yaz</em> suggested that it might be a great idea (and useful) for our community to form a thread of tips, tricks, hacks, fun stuff, neato things, stuff to make your friends jealous, etc... about our Android phones. So without further delay, I'd like to kick off the Giant Android Thoughts Tips Thread! Help it grow to be GIANT by submitting your favorite tip - no matter how mundane (However supa-cool tips are highly encouraged as well). Let the party get started!</p>

Jon Westfall
10-04-2010, 06:06 PM
I'll get us started: My favorite tips, in no particular order:

1. the ability to Root, if you're comfortable, and use awesome Mods like Cyanogenmod might not be a tip, but it's a darn cool hack.

2. Grab the Amazon app and Barcode Scanner then hit the bookstore. I look for books I like, scan them, see how much cheaper they are on Amazon and buy later. Or even better, I now remember those books and I can look for Kindle editions at home!

3. StumbleUpon's app is great for finding cool pictures while mindless waiting somewhere. I throw on WiFi and stumble until the wait is over!

4. Layers in Google Maps (especially My Maps layers) are great for planning a day out in a new city - no need to tote maps or brochures just for the addresses.

5. LauncherPro lets you hide unused apps so your drawer isn't so cluttered. I hide Amazon MP3, Terminal Emulator, and apps I seldom use/configure but still want to keep around.

Karey Westfall
10-04-2010, 06:30 PM
My favorite tip of late (since I'm still waiting on my 2.2 update, T-mobile!) is how to manually check your phone for updates.

1. Open your system tray and tap on Settings.
2. Tap on About Phone.
3. Tap on System Updates. This should tell you whether your system is up to date or not.

Jason Lee
10-04-2010, 09:12 PM
Just two simple things that I use all the time.

1. Press and hold on the "Home" button from anywhere and you will get a popup window with your most recently launched programs. It is an excellent way to switch between programs quickly.

2. Get to your setting screen faster. From the home screen press the menu button and select settings. This is much faster for me than opening the app drawer and scrolling down until I find settings which always moves on me when I add or remove a program.

Craig Horlacher
10-05-2010, 10:05 PM
Tip:
Add a Facebook Phonebook folder! You should see this in your list of available folders if you have the Facebook App from the market installed. The great things about this is it lets you open a folder and shows all your facebook friends who have their phone numbers published on facebook. You can then call them, using their facebook published number, from that phonebook. The nice this about this is you're not syncing a billion people you don't really know into your personal contacts on your phone but still will have access to those numbers if you happen to need one for something.

Droid X (Blur) Specific Tips:
Blur isn't all bad! It gets almost all bad press but really, it's got some pluses to it. When there are updates, you can actually check for them. Most devices can't. Also, with blur, many of the built in widgets can be resized. Just tap and hold, then tap a corner and drag! It the tap and hold doesn't give you the special border with the do-hickes you can't drag it. This is very nice for the contact widgets. I have some larger for two phone numbers and some small for one phone. It will size all different ways though. I like the way they work much better than the scrooling ones that Sense gives you. Also, you know the jump bar that comes up on the bottom when you slide from home screen to home screen. You can drag along it to move, not just tap on one to go straight to that screen. This is helpful if you're not sure which one you need. Here, I like the Sense pinch maneuver better (I mean come on, that's just pure hotness) but I think Blur's method is a close runner up! I've grown to like Blur!

Some Favorite Apps:
Unified Remote - this uses wifi and lets you remote control your PC. It has specific profiles for tons of things like Web Browsing, Photo Viewing, Media playback, as well as a single-touch or multi-touch touchpad support. It works great! It's very smooth and I haven't had any issues with it. It needs your to install a server on your desktop/laptop. I use it with Hulu deskop when I hookup my laptop to the projector or TV to catchup on a Lie to Me we missed:)
HP iPrint Photo - this lets you print directly to a network attached HP printer. I was very happy with this! It found my printer right away (local wifi) and printed from my 4x6 photo tray as I wanted without any configuration. The photo looked just as good as if I would have printed it from my PC. I think Canon has a similar app and maybe Epson as well.
handyCalc - I wanted a free calculator that would show me the last few lines I typed in, like a graphics calculator. This one does that very nicely. It seems to be a nice scientific calc and has some graphing as well.
Finance - the Google Finance App isn't really any better than the mobile web site - which is awesome! But the kicker is that it has really nice widgets! If you want to watch a stock or two I haven't seen a more elegant way to do it. I think it's worth installing the app. Maybe they're not that special but I think they're cool.

I have a Droid X and I'm running the official OTA release of Froyo.

The Yaz
10-06-2010, 02:36 PM
Suggestion #1- For those Android users that do not want to root their phone to get off market apps loaded should go to Android Central and install their Sideload WOnder Machine.

Also, when you download apps from the internet many are recognized on a windows machine as .zip. An install package for Android is .apk. They are actually both compressed folders. To prep a zip file for installation, you simply need to rename the file *.apk. If you have problems making the change, you need to change your settings in windows to allow extention changes...

(Obviously, this was a sore point for me till I figured it out...)

Suggestion #2- If you are 'detoxing' from a Windows environment, you can still organize your apps on the home screen with folders. Just remember to go into settings and check "close folder upon application launch" so you can default back to the home screen when you leave your app.

Craig Horlacher
10-07-2010, 06:05 PM
Suggestion #2- If you are 'detoxing' from a Windows environment, you can still organize your apps on the home screen with folders. Just remember to go into settings and check "close folder upon application launch" so you can default back to the home screen when you leave your app.
First of all, I would argue there are a lot of reasons for using folders but that's besides the point.

Where is the setting to "close folder upon application launch"? Are you sure this is a standard option? I would like that option but I can't find it on my Droid X.

The Yaz
10-08-2010, 04:28 AM
I went to find the settings I noted in Suggestion #2. It's actually a setting in my launcher, ADW, and not the default home screen.

Under ADW settings, select UI Settings and the closing folder is the fourth option.

So if you are interested, install ADW and take it for a spin :o

Steve

Craig Horlacher
10-08-2010, 06:53 PM
I went to find the settings I noted in Suggestion #2. It's actually a setting in my launcher, ADW, and not the default home screen.

Under ADW settings, select UI Settings and the closing folder is the fourth option.

So if you are interested, install ADW and take it for a spin :o

Steve
Ahhh, ok! Thank you!