10 Android Tips

Hey all,

I know some of you out there are sensible and didn't buy a phone that was obsolete the moment it was released (cough, iphone 4, cough, cough).

Here are some tips that I have for getting more out of your android device. Most of them are true for iphone as well though.

1. Cycle the battery. Makes a huge difference. Huge.

2. Buy an otterbox case. I have the commuter. Great protection without adding too much bulk but still maintaining some cool factor. The Otterbox impact skin is really well liked and is only 11 bucks on amazon.

3. Use a different UI. I'm using Dev Team Go Launcher. Its really great, smooth and easy to run. This interface has allowed me to cut down to three screens, instead of the standard 7. It is super customizable and it is easier to work with than the stock UI. My brother runs launcher pro and really likes it as well.

4. Go to Gelaskins.com and browse through their phone skins. If you find one you like, download the free wallpaper version of the skin and you can have that wallpaper on your phone. There are some really cool wallpapers there.

5. Use mint.com on your phone. If you don't use mint already, I suggest you check it out. It is really convenient to always know how much money you have across all accounts. Unless you have a massive student loan debt, in which case it may just be depressing.

6. Download the app, extended controls. It allows you to create customizable control widgets for managing things like connections (wifi, 4g, bluetooth, gps) and other phone settings (vibrate, silent, brightness, airplane mode, and many others). I hardly ever have to go into settings to manipulate settings any more.

7. For those that live in cities, I highly recommend the open table app. Opentable lets you make reservations, but the app also has menus and reviews built into it. When you use the app in map view, you can see restaurants around you, that have open tables, and you can review menu and reviews in one place. I use this way more than I use yelp, urban spoon, or any other social restaurant app.

8. Play pokemon. Seriously, this is the perfect game for a phone. Android lets you download a variety of nintendo emulators. I like the gameboy emulators because they have fewer buttons. Then you download an app called ROM buddy which lets you browse the games easily and quickly. I am playing pokemon red and it is great!! You have to pay for each emulator so you might want to buy rom buddy first, check out the games you might actually be interested in, then buy the emulator that matches the games. You can't do this on an iphone. insert sad face here.

9. Expand your messaging world. There are a lot of other messaging apps you can use with an android phone. Meebo for aim and gchat, kik for bbm style messaging, qik for video chat, google talk, and others. Its nice to be connected!

10. Widgets! Don't load up your home screens with apps. Leave them in the apps folder. Instead, use widgets! Microsoft claims their new os is great because it "gets you in and out quickly!" Thats because it is setup around widgets. You can do the same with an android phone. Many popular apps include widget interfaces. The nytimes app has a rss widget, springpad (which I only just got but so far really like for all note taking tasks) includes many widget options. Widgets make it so you interact with apps directly as opposed to having to navigate to the app, open it, then use it. Paired up with a different UI, like Go Launcher, my phone is super efficent now with widgets and the new UI