Lets be honest, one of the main reasons to be on Jelly Bean is the awesome new Voice Search feature. The improved accuracy and response time makes Voice Search the new Siri killer. Now you can simply say stuff like "Will it rain tomorrow" and Voice Search will figure out the correct response.
If you try to download Voice Search on a non-Jelly bean system, it will simply say "Your device is not compatible" and rejects the installation. Fortunately, rooted ICS users can get the app on their devices too using the steps below.
Steps to enable Google Voice Search on ICS Devices
Requirement:
- Root
- ARMv7/ARMv6 devices only
-You must be on a deodexed ROM(most custom roms are)
Steps:
1) Download the zip file of the correct modded version of Google Now for your ARM device(see requirement - Links for ARMv6 and ARMv7)
2) Put the file in your SDcard.
3) Flash the zip in CWM. This will install Google Now into your app drawer
4) Install Google latitude installed set up the account for latitude
5) Open Google Now and go through the setup process. Click the "Yes, I'm in." option and your cards appear
6) Complete!
If you havn't heard by now, Google has decided to change some of the names of its apps - mostly by adding "Play" to the title.
Not sure what kind reasoning they had to do this, but I am pretty sure they know what they are doing (I hope!).
Apps that had a title change:
Google Android Market = Google Play Store
Google Music = Google Play Music
Google Books = Google Play Books
Google Movies = Google Play Movies
Google Play Store can be updated manually by copying and installing the Google Play Store apk below.
As you know, one of the major selling point of Android over iOS is the ability to play Flash content. While the Android OS handles Flash flawlessly using Adobe Flash Player, I find myself having trouble playing Flash games through the web browser.
Plugging in a bluetooth mouse would easily solve the problem, but in most cases, I am playing the Flash game on the go, with no mouse readily available. So using the touch screen to control the flash games is the only option.
The browser app was not designed for gaming purposes; it would commonly mistake the touch commands for the game as a scroll, zoom, or some other unwanted action. So the true problem was: how to play flash, or swf files, on Android outside of the browser?
Do you know which features your Android antivirus software actually needs? Aside from its ability to clean up and determine computer viruses, adware and spyware programs, it has to have an updated database of well-known virus threats and it has to be able to look for infections on important system files, as well.
Other than that, mobile application inspections for viruses and real-time scanning would be important features to watch out for along with anti-theft protection. The program shouldn't have a hard time finding the device in case it is stolen, either, and it should be able to keep the information on it safe and secure. Another feature you might want to take into consideration would be the ability to check for SMS service content.
Did you know that you can integrate C/C++ code into your Android app? Sure, Android runs on the Java platform, but with the Android NDK companion tool, you can build performance critical portions in native code.
For you C/C++ junkies, just think of it like coding Assembly inside C/C++ for that extra performance increase. The Android app that uses the NDK tool will still be packed into the .apk file and can run on any Android device or virtual machine.
Have you ever seen the little picture below? They seem to be everywhere these days. I’ve seen them on TV, ads, t-shirts, and even tattoos. So, what is a QR code? What’s the purpose of them? QR, or Quick Response, codes are complex 2d barcodes, similarly to the one you see on food labels. They provide quick access of information. Where the barcode can only provide serial numbers, QR code takes it a step farther by delivering complex text or strings.
Accessing the information is simple: download a QR code scanner app for Android/iOS and “scan” the QR code using the camera on the device. The app should decrypt the data automatically and then typically brings up the app/browser for the corresponding data type. Test it out by scanning the QR code below on your tablet or phone and you will see that it brings up the app market for the AndroidSim Mobile App.
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| AndroidSim Mobile App QR Code |
Ever since switching to Google Music and The Google Music app for the Android, I have yet to touch the Music Player Application on the Android. By reaching the 2,000+ uploaded songs treshold, I soon realized that this music software also suffers the same crtical flaw as iTunes: they can only organize the songs by Tag ID, typically using the Album/Artist/Genre Tags.
Why is this such a big deal? Well, if you own a large song collection, you probably realized that not all mp3s and other song formats have Tag IDs imprinted in them when you downloaded/rip the song onto your computer. Thus, when the songs are uploaded into a music software, all you have for organization is a HUGE list of file, making it a very diffcult to navigate through the songs just to find the one you want to listen to.
Changing the Tag ID of each songs one by one can be such a tedious task.
So my solution? Since I have songs organized in folders on my PC by either date of purchase or by album name, all I had to do was use the folder name as a tag.
Did you know that by going into "Settings" => "About Tablet" then on
"Android Version" => tap on "3.1" about 10 times as fast as possible you would see this screen?
This is something that we also saw in Gingerbread.
If you are a Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tablet user then you probably know that your device is getting the TouchWiz 3.1 update. If you don't have or want to create a Samsung account then you have the option to do the manual update by downloading the ROM posted by this xda user. Obviously, the knowledge on how to flash ROMs and the ClockWorkMod Recovery is required.
There are many new Samsung apps included in this update, but the most noteable is the increase in performance, resulting in much smoother frame transitions. Read below for more features.
Flash player 10.3 on the Android can do most things; play flash games, watch flash videos, show flash ads, and etc... but even so, it still fails to play the videos on Hulu.com, where a large majority of internet video streaming happens. Thankfully with BRDizzled modified Flash, you can now watch Hulu videos on Honeycomb 3.1+. If you don't have Honeycomb 3.1+, you should still give your versions a shot to see if it works.
One of the Android's selling point is its ability to give the user full power over customization. You don't have to be an expert or an Android developer to customize your Android to give the device a unique feel and personality, making it stand out from all the other phones. The Android can be complex and confusing, but is easy once you know where to start.
Here are the six easy customization anyone new to Android can do.
6 Easy Tweaks for Android
2. Change The Keyboard
The stock keyboard can be hard to use, thankfully the Android has other keyboard options, such as the popular Swype. Android Central has an extensive guide on each of the keyboard model and setup instructions.
Resource: Android Central
3. Add Widgets
Once a widget is downloaded, hold(press) the desktop on the homescreen to add the widget to the screen.
Resource: $2.99 Beautiful Widgets
4. Replace the LockScreen The Lock screen is the first thing anyone sees. Make it unique by adding special backgrounds and unlock animation. Resource: Free LockGo App
Changing the font may cause the text on the phone to get "unaligned" because of the resolution, so do this with caution.
6. Change The Home Launcher Home Launcher is an application that runs after the system boots up. The home launcherbasically gives the User Interface, it is similar to explorer.exe in windows. So everything from icons, fonts, to themes are different when using a different home launcher.
If you have root, Masqed Crusader will be able to help your Android browser to load up a little faster. What this application does is that it will cache the server name cache so that there is no reloading of the same website, if you have already visited the website before. Masqed Crusader will only work with the stock browser found on the device and must be activated on startup.
For non-rooted users & rooted users: It is well known that the stock browser is slower then many of the browser applications available on the market. Pcworld has done a great review on android browsers, to conclude that SkyFire is the fastest of them all.
Here are a some easy tricks you can user to better navigate through the internet with your browser.
- Long press trackball on image to bring up "save image/view image"
- Long press trackball over url to bring up "open/open in new window/bookmark link/save link/share link/copy link url"
- Press menu to bring up browser menu (go to url/search/bookmarks/...etc).
- Press and hold the image for 3 seconds, a selection will pop-up either to save image or view image. It may contain more selections if the image contains a link.
Phone Specific - Depends on your Android Device and its peripherals 1) To Copy All, press Menu and A or Highlight text, press and hold TRACKBALL, select Select all 2) To Cut, press Menu and X. 3) To Copy, press Menu and C. 4) To Paste, press Menu and V or Press and hold TRACKBALL, select Paste 5) Hold down ALT key and roll trackball for fast scrolling. 5) Press space bar for a fast scroll down. 7) Shift+Space goes up. 8) To activate the magnify glass on the browser click the trackball twice. 9) Click on the maginify glass to do a quick search. 10) Use one finger to hold any position on the screen, and use the other to drag across to change the view zoom. (requires Multi Touch)
Download ASTRO app to be able to download zip and other files directly to G1. Download Bookmark Backup & Restore to back up your bookmarks. Clear Cache for faster navigation and response time(Settings->Applications->Browser->Clear)
Here are 9 easy tricks that you can use to get the most juice out of your Android battery.
Increasing Battery Life - Under-clock your cpu(for root users only). Download->over clocking widget->set cpu speed to lowest value
- Turn off GPS
- Reduce the number of start up apps
- Restart phone
- Lower screen brightness
- Turn off Wi-fi when you are not around any wifi networks
- Turn off 3G Mobile Data Network - Settings--->Wireless Controls--->Mobile Networks and check the box that says "Use Only 2G Networks.
- Disable auto Data Sync
- Download and install "Power Manager"
- Disable back ground apps - [~JDBDogg]
- Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones. [~Chahk]
- Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games. [~AdamPI]
- Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved. [~AdamPI]
- Use headphones. [~AdamPI]
- Turn off Bluetooth. [~AdamPI]
- [~Yours goes here].
Keep the list growing guys.
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