android tips, tricks, must have apps

Perris Calderon

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going to start a new thread, hopefully we can get some users to come here with their fav settings, tricks and apps

so far my fav setting for android is in the native gps

set a destination, go to settings, layers and click satalite, you get actual road pics taken from satalite imaging so no cartoon route, this is my fav android setting to date

how to increase font size in the android gmail app;

great tweak, impossible to find, even with the huge screen I now have on my galaxy the font size is way too small in gmail and you can't increase font size with the pinch method (I wonder why that is?)

also, increasing system font does nothing for the gamil app either (I wonder why that is?)...btw, I changed system font to choco and increased system font size and I LOVE it, try that too

anyway, although it's hard to figure the gmail font increase out it's simple to do so here it is;


open gmail, hit menu, hit more, then settings, then hit your account, that's where you;ll find the text size setting


next, once you get that going on your gps you're going to have to set some destination favorites

go to a new screen that should be empty except for these if you have a bunch, long press, shortcuts, directions and navigation, set your address, name it and bing, you have a list of gps address shortcuts


another gps, you really have to change the text to speech engine, I payed for the pico classic and it was worth every penny, really natural, there is a free program that does a pretty good job too, I think that one is called ivona, not quite as good but free

another absolutely favorite paid for program for me it will be for you too if you're a car performance buff

get "torque", this is a real time obd2 display and you're gonna be able to monitor real time information that's invaluable for a performance car

I paid 500 bucks for the "dash daq" before this android program, the android program is better by far and only a few bucks, they have a free version too so check that out, incredible value for the pro version

I think everyone knows about pandora, the most used app I have on the phone, you can't go wrong with either the free or the paid version, get that pronto

I have to admit, adroid interface still has issues but for the most part can be resolved with an app

for instance, I need immediate toggle for screen brightness so I can get best use from my battery at various levels, to that end there are quite a few free brightness apps on the market, go get one of those and set it up, pretty handy

talking about brightness, another must have is one of the flashlight apps, take your pick they are all pretty good

here's something very useful that seems undocumented till you find out it's there;

I thought I had to stop speaking and insert punctuation manually, this is not true, you can speak the punctuation and google cloud will insert it right there

for instance, if you speak into voice recognition;

"I wanted to know coma did you go to the flea market question mark" google cloud will type;

"I wanted to know, did you go to the flea market?"

kewl stuff there
 
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I'd be partial to making a list in the OP. It's hard to have threads like these spread out on so many posts. Links to the apps in the play store might also help :)
 
just switched my galaxy s2 from gingerbread to a rooted ice cream

not worth the trouble so far, the only reason I did it was because ice cream supports a usb obd2 driver and gingerbread does not

I can't stand setting up my phone the way I like it and since I had no issues with gingerbread at all, as I said, not worth the trouble of the upgrade except for the driver
 
so I went from gingerbread to ice cream on my samsung s2, this was a big mistake, more bugs then gingerbread without much new.

now I switched to jelly bean and this is fast and smooth

one problem, adobe doesn't support flash after ice cream so you will have to install the player after market if you do the upgrade
 
This is my current installation on my android phone. Running 4.0.1 at the moment. Most of these I use, some not so much. All of them are pretty awesome.

Phone: HTC One S
183 total, 163 free (89%), 20 paid (10%), 2388MB total size, $51.98 total price


View this Android app list on AppBrain
 
Yea it changes, but I normally have on my phone and tablet between 100 to 300 apps.
 
Here are some of the android apps I use. Note that I only use the essentials as the more apps you have installed and are running, the less CPU and memory resources are available. I also keep the number of widgets and apps on my homescreen as well as the number of homescreens to a minimum and don't use bells and whistles such as live wallpapers and animations.

- Android Assistant
- LauncherPro
- Kingsoft Office
- Fast Notepad
- Accuweather
- Quick Bible
- Avast Antivirus
- Beach Buggy Blitz
- Temple Run 2
- Subway Surfers
- Opera Mini
- Wifi Transfer

More details here.
 
Just picked up firefox for android and it immediately became my browser of choice
 

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