Android Social Media

With 2009 coming to an end I look back in amazement that only a little over a year ago the Android Craze began with the release of the G1 by T-Mobile. In 2009 we have seen everything from Cupcakes to Eclairs, and MT3G to Droids. Not to mention everything in between. It makes any Android lover look forward to 2010. So let’s take a moment to look back at some of the wonderful Android moments we have seen this year and some of Android rumors we look forward to seeing in 2010.

Android 2009

April- Cupcake (1.5) officially released
July- T-Mobile starts pre-order on MT3G
August- MT3G officially released
September- Donut (1.6) officially released
October- Eclair (2.0) officially released
Sprint releases HTC Hero
November- Verizon releases Droid
T-Mobile releases Cliq and Behold 2

Android 2010

January- “Google Phone” Nexus One release???
1st quarter- Xperia X10a release???
1st half of 2010- Adobe Flash for Android???
2010- Sprint to possible get LG Prada 3???
Motorola Sholes to be released???

So in the end we may look back at 2009 with a touch of sadness in our hearts, but we can look torwards 2010 with excitement in our eyes and dreams of more Android to come.

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

I have owned the Cliq, Motorola’s first T-Mobile Android phone, for a little over a month now. I was a little weary buying it but by the end of the first day I fell in love with it.

The Cliq does run on Android 1.5, with MotoBlur running on top. If you are not familiar with Motoblur it is Motorola’s own special blend. You create an account and with that account you sign in. The Moto Blur service is quite unique for many reasons.

1. First, if you need to do a reset on the phone it saves your settings, which in my opinion, is a very nifty idea.
2. Second, say your phone gets lost or stolen you are able to login to your Moto Blur account from another computer and wipe all your information from the phone and track it. You can also put the info back on the phone. Thankfully I have not had to do this.
3. Third, the Motoblur service syncs all you contacts and accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Gmail, and more. It is a little much at first but you are able to link the accounts together. Say your Mom has Twitter, Facebook, and Gmail you can link all three contacts together to make one. Also you can choose which account your contact’s pics come from.

Unlike the MT3G and G1 you have five screens instead of three. So there is plenty of room for widgets. The Happenings widget displays all updates for your accounts. Let’s say Mary updated her status on Facebook, it will show up right in the Happenings widget.
The Messaging widget displays any and all messages you receive such as Text, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook messages. So instead of having to sign in to multiple accounts you can do it all right from your screen. You can also add news widgets and stay up to date with all your RSS Feeds. All you have to do is click and scroll.

Now the phone itself I think is lovely. The overall design makes it really attractive. The screen is a little bit smaller than my MT3G, but like I said just a little. The phone is not heavy at all in my opinion it feels quite solid.
Oh and the keyboard is excellent, it is small and compact, the buttons are raised a little bit so you can actually feel them. The only draw back is no backlight inless you hit the alt button, which truthfully does not help that much at all inless you want to type with numbers and symbols.

The battery life on the phone is basically the same as all other smart phones. Depending on how much you are on the phone surfing the net,playing on Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter determines how long your battery will last. Let’s put it this way I am easily on my phone 12 hours a day, since I pretty much manage my life from my phone. So I usually go through, on average, three full charges a day. Like I said if you are going to own a smart phone expect poor battery life, it just comes with the package.

On to the camera/ video recorder. I like it, it takes decent pics nothing to get all crazy about. I do believe it would have been quite a bit better if it had flash.

Now the biggest debate concerning the Cliq is weather or not it will be updated. Truthfully, I do not know. However, I do believe it will be updated probably around the same time all other android phones get updated.

Overall, if you are big on social networking and staying connected to the world I would recommend the Motorola Cliq, it is an excellent phone with a lot of features to keep you connected.

Heaven DeHoff
http://heavendehoff.wordpress.com/

Have you ever been out and about and had need of a specific file on your home computer? The solution is here with the PhoneMyPC app now available in the Android Market. I admit I was skeptical that an app could truly deliver the remote desktop solution over 3G but I was stunned at how well this works

Skip to the DEMO Video

THE APPLICATION:

• Access to all the files: documents, pdfs, ppts, pics, etc that are on your desktop
• Full Monitoring of others including children while on your computer
• Utilize your full desktop browser for websites that otherwise don’t display correctly on your mobile browser.

FEATURES:

(Click any feature for additional info on Dev’s Site)

• Control Mouse+Keys
• Control Screen Resolution Manually or by setting presets for 3G or WiFi
• View Snapshot
• View Live
• Interact Live
• Full MULTI-TOUCH Zoom Control.
• Extremely Easy Setup (View Tutorial Video Below)
• Execute Actions
• Control Processes
• Control Windows
• Install and Access Multiple PCs

LIFESTYLE:

Keep in mind that everything we do here at Android Social Media is geared toward lifestyle. This app really fills all the gaps between what you can only do in your office and what you can do from your phone while on the go. It no longer will matter if you are on the beach in Cali when you need access to your desktop computer.

There are a few other applications out there that will allow you to remotely connect to your computer from your Android device but none have all the features that this supports and none are so easy to setup and maintain.

WARNING: My understanding in talking with the developer is that the app will only be available for $9.99 in the Android Market until the end of the year. As they finish some of the more refined features the app will no longer be in BETA mode and the price will go up. I highly encourage you to get this app right away.

Around this holiday season everyone is looking for a great deal. Follow the link below to download your copy of our Android Bargain Shopping Guide handout. We would love to hear your comments and stories about how you were able to save money utilizing the apps outlined in this guide.

Android Bargain Shopper’s Guide

I have been enjoying the benefits of a rooted G1 for months now. My Dad has recently become interested in the open-source project and in developing some android apps. Right now he has a Blackberry curve simply because it was free, but a guy he works with got the new Droid with Verizon, he had been wanting an iPhone but not At&t and finally settled on the droid because they are all software engineers and run linux (an open source operating system that android was built on) on their personal computers.  My dad saw the power of my rooted phone to run an app called aNet Share which turns your phone into a “secure” wireless router (it saved us 20 bucks a day paying for wifi in the hotel we were staying at) but wondered what the other advantages of rooting were…

I once heard that in a classroom of 30 people if one person asks a question, statistically 7 other people had the exact same question but didn’t know to ask it or were too afraid too. so assuming that there are 3 million android phones out there (random uneducated estimate) this is for the remaining 689,999 of you.

I found a great list at android-dls.com and wanted to include it and expound on some of those points to illustrate which ones i have used and have benefited me.

1. Full control over your system
2. Ability to alter system files. You can replace many parts of the “Android Core” with this including:
   • Themes (pictured below)
   • Ability to alter the number of home screens from 3 to 10 or anything in between.
   • Core apps (maps, calendar, clock etc. Google is fighting some of this. They don’t want anyone to tamper with their “Google Experience” applications. They are Google’s property so i guess they have the right to do that.)
   • Recovery image (apply updates, preform total phone backups, access console, partition your SD card to use less phone memory and actually run your apps and store data on SD card and have a ton of phone memory so that it runs fast.)
   • Bootloader
   • for the G1 there is a 10MB ram hack that makes your phone run faster. Helpful when your running so many apps and widgets on 7 screens.
   • Toolbox (linux binary that lets you execute simple linux commands like “ls”) can be replaced with Busybox (slightly better option)
   • Boot images
   • Add linux binaries
   • Overclock your phone. Manage power to CPU to fine tune speed and response time.
3. Run special apps that need more control over the system
   • SuperUser (lets you approve or deny the use of root access to any program)
   • Task Manager For Root (Lets you kill apps that you otherwise could not kill)
   • Tether apps (like like aNetShare that turns you phone into a mobile Wifi hotspot, Pictured below)
   • Take screenshots using the android SDK or thru downloaded apps (part of being a superuser)
4. Backup your system
   • You can make a folder on your sdcard and backup all of your .apk files to your sdcard (helps if an author decides to “upgrade” you to a version that requires you to pay to use the version you just had)
5. Relocate your (browser/maps/market) cache to your /sdcard
6. Relocate your installed applications to your /sdcard meaning your phone runs faster with way more apps on it.
7. Reboot your phone from the terminal emulator app easily (su <enter> reboot <enter>)

What Do I Lose Having Root

1. The ability to accept Over The Air updates (apps exist to do it simply though, and you get updates pre-OTA )
2. There is a small chance of turning your phone into a paper weight. But if you follow instructions and let the programs run their course then you should be ok. Even people who are not great with computers but enjoy figuring stuff out can easily root their phones. We have written instructions on how to root to the latest Cyanogen Mod and enjoy the full power of a rooted Device.

These are some screen shots that show what themes are, no they are not the annoying and ever popular apps that bog down your android market searching (try reading our article on My Market its an app that filters the crap out of the android market) no, they are like a whole new updated system that just looks cooler…

This is the standard C.M. version of 1.6 (Cyanogen Mod 4.2.7.1 as of the writing of this post) available to root users as a modded User Interface:

You can see the standard clock and everything… the blocky fonts, the original battery and 3G and service bar monitors. Oh, by the way, i want to reiterate, this is running cyanogen’s version of 1.6 when all my friends unrooted phones are still using 1.5 and waiting for the Over The Air update.

This is the “Enoch Dark” Theme it changes just some small details but i really like it. There are a ton available, at http://android-themes.net/ and if the developer has updated them then they work great on your phone.

There are a bunch of other themes that have also been available on that website, Enoch is most frequently updated to match the latest Cyanogen Mod versions. Meaning as of right now its the only one I know of that’s working properly.  Some of the other built themes are:

Sponge Bob Theme:

then some other ones “Dark” Themes:

It changes the font, the colors, a lot of the icons are changed. They create there own icons and pull down menus and home screens. Its just fun. Like I said it can also be a little bit finicky you have to make sure that if your updating thru Cyanogen that the themes you like and are using also support his latest versions otherwise you’ll be stuck in the boot screen and have to take out the battery, restart the phone in recovery mode and re-apply the previous OS.

This however (to me) is the biggest reason to root an android device, So that you can use it the same way you use a wireless router at home. I use an app called aNetShare. This is what it looks like when you open it up:

Then you click the “Start – WiFi AP” Button and it will tell you this message:

Now you can use your G1 or Mytouch (Right now we can only figure out how to root T-Mobile HTC devices, Motorola and Verizon, have put blocks against rooting the phone because Motorola is feeling overprotective and Verizon wants to charge you 15.00 a month starting in Feb 2010 for mobile tethering) as the internet connection for your computer! Data speeds depend on your data connection, 3G is super fast (considering its a mobile phone) Just use a speed tester on your computer to find out your up/download speeds.

Its also Secure! When people want to log on to your phone the bar will pop up and you can click the check mark to enable/disable their access!

The biggest downside is this app DRAINS your battery. So have it plugged in either to your computer to charge or the wall. But its not nessecaryto run the application, just my personal recommendation. Then when your done, Push the “Stop – WiFi AP” button and aNetShare will stop and you’ll be back to using your phone like normal!

aNetShare cannot be downloaded on the android market in the U.S. But can easily be found on the internet. just search “aNetShare.apk free download” in Google, download it and also download a “tether.tar” and use the instructions to apply it on the android developer forum. Install the app from your SD card using an App installer and your good to go! Comment at bottom with any questions and “may the Droid be with you!”

-ASM

Eat Your Heart Out iPhone Users!!!! Widgets are the Reason Your Kind Will Never Rule the Earth.

LEFT:

This first image shows the power widget that I beleive to be a part of Android 2.0. It could also just be native to Cyanogen’s most recent mod… I’m really not sure which. It gives you quick access to the most popular toggles including wifi, bluetooth, GPS, sync, and screen brightness.

The second widget is the Scoreboard application widget. Scoreboard is an official Google app in which you can select your favorite teams and be notified during games. The widget just allows you to scroll through each team to see the last game and the next game.

The last widget on this screen is my Facebook widget from the Official Facebook for Android application. You can quickly update your status or scroll through items in your news feed. It seems to update very well and move rather quickly.

RIGHT:

This first widget is called the Android Agenda Widget. It can be displayed in medium or large (medium shown here). It does a better job (in my opinion) of displaying your upcoming appointments. You can also pull data from multiple calendars, not just the native Android Calendar app.

Also displayed here is the Fox News Widget. I love this quick access to news. It has a small refresh button in the top right of the widget but otherwise you can set the auto-refresh to a variety of time options. When you touch the widget on the screen it opens a scrollable list of recent news stories with Headlines and short excerpts. You can filter specific genre’s of news stories if you choose.

LEFT:

This is my Social Media Screen.

The center of the screen displays my visits today for my four favorite websites. This data is pulled from my Google Analytics account. You can choose to view visits or pageviews for that day.

This widget is called the “Analytics Widget.” It doesn’t update very frequently and sadly there is no way to manually update or refresh. Just the same I think its cool.

RIGHT:

This screen has three widgets on it. The first in the top left is the Weather Widget. This comes from the popular Weather Channel application. You can choose from two different sizes of widgets and this is the small one. I have tried a variety of other widgets but this one is my favorite. It seems to update the best based on device location and when you touch it, it opens the weather channel application.

In the top right corner is the SMS Unread Count Widget. It just displays the messaging icon along with the number of unread SMS messages that you have in your inbox. They recently updated the widget to allow you to choose which messaging icon (new or old) you prefer to display.

On the bottom of the screen is my music widget. This is from the stock music application that comes with the phone. I really like the player and I like the widget. Quick access to play/pause or skip forward. Touching the widget opens the music application.

Other Cool Widgets I Like:

• Flight Stats
• Pandora
• Twidroid
• Android Guys
• TasKiller

Quick Video: Widgets are One of Many Reasons Why Android is the Best Smartphone On the Market

On Nov 23, Google announced that the Google Maps Navigation — that at first was only available to Android 2.0 users (Droid users) — is now available to devices running Android 1.6. Google Maps Navigation offers FREE turn-by-turn, (sexy) voice-guided directions between two points. Google Maps Navigation for Android 1.6 also offers support for more layers. The new application is available for free in the U.S! Download it now!