Shake Uninstall Android App Review
Price : Free
What :
If your idea of having fun is browsing the market for new apps, downloading them, trying them out and then uninstalling the less tasteful ones, then this is a very useful app. If you share my agony of going to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications and then searching for the application you wish to uninstall, you will like this app. I know I do.
How :
If you are about to have a session of uninstalling apps, open this application to get this screen.
Walkie Talkie Push to Talk – Android App Review
Price : Free Lite Version
Paid Version : $4.99
What :
Walkie Talkie lets you have walkie-talkie style voice communication. We have found this app to be very useful.
Messages can be sent to a group of people. Received messages are automatically played. If program is running, incoming messages arrive as soon as 15 seconds. If program is not visible, it polls in the background every 1 minute (to save battery).
History log allows replay of messages and reply via a simple “Record & Reply” button. Replies are sent to all recipients.
How :
All that you have to do is select a person or a group of people that you want to send your message to and press the hold button and talk. That is it. When you release the button, it automatically sends your message to the recipient(s). Does the person you want to communicate to not have an Android phone? No problem. Set them up as your contact on this app and send a voice message to their mail accounts. As simple as that.
The best part is yet to come – it does not use your SMS or your talk time.
Features
- No monthly fees
- No SMS fees
- No use of talk time minutes
- Broadcast voice messages to a group
- Response sent to all recipients
- History allows replay and out of order response.
Newspapers – Android app review
Version : 3.0.11
Price : Free
What :
Ever miss those times when you would get up early in the morning and sift through the newspaper, looking for something that suits your taste and catches your eye? With the advent of the bits and bytes age, that has changed over to scouring over changing pixels in the screen. This app feeds the newspaper thirsty minds. This has a list of about 66 US, 11 UK and 19 CA papers all in one place. For the interested, the papers in this app are listed below. Think of this app more as a bookmark of the mobile sites of all the newspapers.
How:
It has an interface which lets you select the newspaper that you want to read and then displays the mobile version of the newspaper in the app.
Android App Review – City Caller ID
Version : 1.0.13: FC fix
Price : Free
What : Ever gotten a call from an unknown area code that made you go - ‘Huh, wonder where this number is from’. I have had these moments many times and thanks to this app, I don’t anymore.
How : This app displays the City and the State at which this phone was registered when you get an incoming call.
The fact that even with the same area code, it was able to differentiate between cities and display the right one, was notable.
The settings lets you change the font, the size of the display and also the location of the display on the screen. Install this app, enable it in the settings as shown, and you are all set.
Android App review – NASA Images
Version : 0.9
Price : Free
If the galactic plane gets you all excited and worked up, this app is for you.
What : See an archive of NASA 4000+ Images with full description on your phone. Set the language of the description to Russian/French/Italian/Spanish/German/Japanese/Chinese languages in menu (uses Google translate). Provides front-end for NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day Website. Set phone wallpaper to image you see.
How :
Here is a screenshot showing images ordered by timeline.
You can select a random image or browse into each folder to see the images from that year.
Comparison of Android phones in US
For people who want to buy an Android phone, but are not sure about the available choices, here is the breakdown by the mobile carrier in the US. If you are not particular about any carrier, right now the Nexus One is the best Android phone available. If you are a stickler for a particular carrier, check out the the phones below.
Here is a comparison of the phones available with the major US carriers.
Verizon :
Comparison Chart
Droid : Technical Specs
PhoneMyPC Android App Review
Version: 1.0.14
Price: 9.99
PhoneMyPC is an exciting new way to connect with up to three Window’s PC’s from your Android based phone. No network knowledge needed, no network configuration required, features work from anywhere in the world so long as you have an internet connection. PhoneMyPC has something for everybody. Flash isn’t yet support on Android phones, we were able to play flash on a PC and view that using this app.
What
Take a snapshot of what’s on your PC (check up on your teenager). Show your presentation on a big screen using your phone as a wireless mouse and keyboard. Provide remote support from anywhere. Work on your PC from your phone at the beach. All of this with a trivial setup. And these are the just the basic features.
How
I should say the setup was a breeze. It requires users to install a server app on their computer. Enter the same credentials for both the computer and the phone app and this is enough to make them start communicating with each other. This app and the Phone app can talk to each other either through the same Wi-Fi if they can be connected, or through a secure hosted server. Their website says that this communication will be SSL enabled soon. I will look forward to that.
Here is a list of all the features that this software provides.
Google’s strategy with Nexus One
With Google calling for a press conference on Jan 5th, there is still a lot of speculation on what it will offer.
Here are the Nexus One details that have emerged so far.
OS : Android 2.1
Processor : Snapdragon processor capable of clocking 1GHZ
Graphics API : OpenGL ES 2.0
Communications : 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, covers quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE with UMTS/HSUPA on 850/1,700/1,900 frequencies.
Screen Resolution : 3.7” (diagonal) widescreen at 720×480
Camera : 5 MP camera with LED flash
The Graphics on OpenGL ES 2.0 can make the gamers very happy. Unfortunately, the Android market on 3D games has a long way to go. The 1GHz processor is super fast and there is no phone that can compare with these specs.Still, we can’t help feeling that this is not enough to fuel a migration from Droid or iPhone to Nexus One. The vast majority of users who did not jump onto the iPhone bandwagon was because of the loyalty to their current wireless provider or disregard for the AT&T service. That being said, the NexusOne is not going to achieve what the iPhone did not in terms of changing network providers for the functionality of the phone.
Why should Google compete with its own partners? Verizon’s Droid campaign played a big role in making Android more popular than it was. What Google is trying to do with the Nexus One is identical to Microsoft coming up with a laptop and putting on a new version of Windows that has not been released to everyone else. Why Google would this, beats me.
India’s first Android based tablet PC
A hyderabad based company Notion Inc is releasing its first Android based tablet PC. Though the company has not officially released details yet, the news through the grapevine is that this tablet PC will use Nvidia’s Tegra processor and will run on Android OS. It will have a 10.1 inch touchscreen. It will also have Blue tooth, Wi-Fi, video recording, 3MP camera and a 32GB memory. It weights just 770 grams packed with all this goodness.
It’s Lithium Ion batteries would be able to power the device for almost 48 hours. This tablet PC named Adam is expected to cost less than $400 and could be in your hands by June 2010, if all goes as planned.
I can’t wait for this. June 2010 is a long time off. Will someone else beat Notion Inc to this?
Managing Gmail contacts on Android
Did you just get your Android phone and are you confused about the number of contacts showing up on your contacts list? It is confusing at first and gets easier when you understand how it all works.
There are 2 parts to how your contacts from your GMail accounts show up on your contacts list.
1. Setting up the sync options
2. Setting up the display options
Let’s look at each of these in detail.
Setting up the Sync option
Go to Menu -> Settings -> Accounts & Sync. Here you can add your account that you want to sync. If you have already added it, select it in this screen and then select ‘Sync Contacts’.
