Hackstacks » Android

Google Docs App on Android gets a Facelift

Renjith — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:08:31 +0000

Google Docs app for Android based devices gets improved features. It was meaningless using this app on Android based devices as it was like a shortcut created for the Docs website and the documents was not available to view/edit offline. With the new version the apps readability has increased and selective files can be made available for the offline access. After editing it offline it will automatically get synced when an active connection is available.

I would be happy if Google think about a single sign-on as well for this app. Otherwise its perfect now!

This is how you enable “Available offline” for individual file.

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Turn your Android Phone to Windows Phone 7 Style

Renjith — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:18:55 +0000

Are you bored with your existing Android Interface? You can change it to the Windows Phone 7 User interface with some special apps for Android. This app can transform your Android phone Interface to a clean and elegant Metro user interface of Windows Phone 7. Some people would have gone for Android phone because of some specific reason such as its operating system as it’s from Google and you will not find any end user license agreement as others.

You will find many apps in this category in Android Market but Launcher 7 is better among all those. It has the same green tiles like Windows phone 7 OS and simple touch sensitive screen. If you want to try similar apps Metro UI lite is an alternate also you can try WP7 Notifications is a service for displaying the notifications as same as any Windows Phone 7 UI.

Conclusion: Do not expect these apps to deliver the same smooth interactive UI like Windows Phone 7. These transform pack may have bugs as well. But it will be cool in your Android phones so give it a try and experience the simple Metro Interface.

Something BIG is coming from Samsung This September

Renjith — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:32:21 +0000

Recently we heard that Samsung is planning to release their latest Android OS called Ice cream sandwich before October. But Samsung has recently released a video on Youtube called Samsung Mobile Unpacked Teaser. The two videos released this week says something big is coming this September 1st. Samsung seems to be announcing it on the IFA Trade show going to take place in Berlin. If you watch the teaser video you will are going to get some clues but everything pictured on the video is really unclear and it will probably raise a few questions!

What would it be? What are they going to announce? So watch the video yourself and write to us what do you think?

Configure Wi-Fi Sleep Policy on Android to Save Energy

Renjith — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:59:02 +0000

We have recently shared a few tips for saving the battery energy on your Android tablets, but today I have a quick tip to share with you for saving some energy without turning off the Wi-Fi every time. It is indeed not so easy to turn off the Wi-Fi every time so by keeping this in mind Android developers has added a Wi-Fi Sleep policy in the latest Firmware updated released for Android Tablets.

You can go to Settings> and select Wireless and Networks> Wi-Fi Sleep Policy to configure the Wireless radio.

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The recommended setting is to keep the settings on “When Screen Turns off” This setting will turn off the Wireless radio on the tablet and help to save the energy.

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Android Ice Cream Sandwich may Release before October

Renjith — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:06:58 +0000

The much awaited Android 4.0 codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich may release before October. There was no released date announced as of now for the Ice Cream Sandwich but the Boy Genius report says that they have received the information from someone at the Android development team as it may release before October.

The reason for the early release can be the pre-order date of the iPhone 5 (September or October) Google would have a fear that if iPhone 5 releases before Ice Cream Sandwich they may lose a good number of customers from Droid!

With the new Ice Cream Sandwich Android tablet user can have every features they have seen on Android Smartphones. Ice Cream Sandwich is known to be a universal OS for every android device. Tablet users will be most benefited with the release of this version of Android because, they will get be getting every OS updates since it will become a common platform.

Still this fall in to a rumor so let’s wait and see!

Facebook Messenger App released for IOS and Android

Renjith — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:50:07 +0000

Facebook is coming up with more ideas to stay on first place in Social Network. As a part of that strategy they have created a dedicated application for messaging on Facebook. The Facebook social app released for the devices were not doing so good when it comes to messaging. But the Facebook dedicated messenger app released is able to fill that gap. The chatting app works on real time as you experience on the Gtalk.

The app has got a simple and clean design also it supports multiple user messaging and locations mapping etc. Hopefully we can expect a video calling feature on the Facebook messenger. Currently the Facebook Messenger app got support for all the IOS 4.0 above devices and Android devices.

Image Courtesy : Apple App Store

Bottom Line

The app loading time is good it works well. But this app lacks some kind of settings for customizing online/offline users display. I feel the app is missing some basic chat functionalities. For me the app looks like the chat side bar you see on your Facebook page!

Download your Facebook Messenger app for IOS and Android

Let us know your comments!

Battery Energy Saving tips for Android Tablets

Renjith — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:36:56 +0000

Battery energy on smarphones and tablets will get drained very easily since these are equipped with best integration with the Internet. So a common problem raised by most of the people would be about the battery backup of these devices. Best feature of an Android device is that it has a Battery usage information page which will show the percentage of battery energy gets distributed for each service in your Android device. So if you look at this page you will have an idea as where you should be looking at to save some energy.

So here I am sharing some tips which I found working for saving the energy on your Android Tablet.

1) A bright display is always good but it can drain your battery very easily too. Keeping the brightness lower will help you to save lot of energy. (If you have ever noticed a feature of Android device is, that whenever it reaches up to the recharging level it will automatically switch to a power saving mode by reducing the brightness level that is actually provides you more working time.)
Go to Settings>Applications>Battery Use to view the summary of the battery use.

2) Next thing would be killing unwanted applications from the memory. Most of the time if you don’t reboot your device for few days there are chances that you will find many applications running on the memory of your tablet. Using a task manager app or the built in application manager can help you to kill these running applications.(Running applications can always occupy more memory and processing power which will ultimately require more energy)
Go to Settings>Applications>Manage Applications>Select the “Running” Menu to see the applications currently running in the background. Tap on any application and then tap on Force Stop/Stop to end the running app.

3) Android tablets can give you a good standby time but if you try keeping the Wi-Fi turned on, probably you will see the energy getting drained pretty faster. Make sure you power down the Wi-Fi when it is not in use. You can easily do it by changing the flight mode on. (Turning on the flight mode will disable all the radio signals)
Tap on the Time displayed on the right side bottom of the screen. It will bring up the Flight Mode settings. Slide the button to turn on the Flight Mode.

I have tested these and found helpful in saving the energy, I hope it will be helpful for you as well.

I would like to add one extra tip- is always practice to charge your tablets after a full battery discharge. By following this battery recharging cycle process can get you more battery backup and more battery life.