productivity - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

[Meta] New At AndroidPolice.com - Post Navigation With Keyboard Shortcuts [Updated: New Functionality]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Tips & Tutorials

Last Updated: March 8th, 2013

Being a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts (I have most of Gmail's keys memorized and use them exclusively for maximum productivity every day), I jumped at the opportunity to add similar functionality to AndroidPolice.com itself.

On various pages of the site that contain multiple posts, like the homepage, category, author, and tag pages, you can now:

press "j" to jump to the next article in the list
press "k" to jump to the previous article in the list
press "o" or "Enter" to go to the article that's closest to the top of the visible browser area
(new) press "O" to do the same as above, except in a new browser tab/window
(new) press "c" or "C" on a post page to zoom to the comments box

Furthermore, if you're at the end of a list, pressing "j" will advance to the next page.

Sep

Google Drive Update For Android Brings Improved Presentation Viewing, Basic Table Support In Docs, And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Google, News

Before I get your hopes up, no they haven't improved spreadsheets yet. However, that is on the way. What is arriving now, though, is the ability to add comments to your documents, view tables, and improved Google presentations viewing support. You'll even get speaker notes and the ability to swipe between slides.

There are more features on their way. Here at Android Police HQ, we've been eagerly awaiting proper spreadsheet editing (which is currently horrible to an unusable degree), and Google has seen fit to name check that very feature in its "More to come..." section. Hopefully it won't be too much longer, and we'll finally be able to see the results of that Quickoffice purchase.

Sep

OfficeSuite Pro Update v6.5 Brings The Ability To Print Via Google Cloud, Spell-Check, Convert-To-PDF And More

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

OfficeSuite Pro is one of the more powerful collections of productivity software for Android (and Cameron's personal favorite). Today it's getting just a bit better by adding several new features, including the ability to print via Google Cloud Print, convert text documents to PDF files, spell-check, and compatibility with SkyDrive.

Here's a complete list of what's new:

6.5 New Features:

Print - print documents with Google Cloud Print or previously installed third party printer

Convert to PDF - convert your text documents to PDF files

Spell-check (based on Google ICS spell-check)

New supported formats - opening of XLSM, PPTM, PPSM and DOCM formats

Thumbnail preview in Slideshow mode

Animated Slideshow -support for animated slideshows

Embedded images & charts (in Excel module)

Now compatible with Microsoft SkyDrive

WiFi Direct support

Although, some of the new additions may be having some problems.

Jun

[Counterpoint] Android Tablets Are Powerfully Versatile Machines, And Don't Try To Tell Me Otherwise

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Editorials, Tablets

A few days ago, my colleague David Ruddock shared his feelings on Android tablets, why they "suck," and a few suggestions on how they can be improved. At the start of that editorial, he asked the question "how often do you instinctively reach for [your Android tablet], as opposed to your phone or laptop?" Today, I'm going to answer that question from my own personal standpoint, and I'm going to explain why I think Android tablets are actually underrated.

Before I get started, I want to make one thing clear: this isn't about blindly defending Android tablets. It's also not about ignoring their weaknesses, either; I will be the first to admit that the Android tablet app ecosystem is extremely lacking.

Jun

TouchType Launches SwiftKey 3 Update (On Sale For $1.99), Introduces SwiftKey Healthcare Tailored For Medical Professionals

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Applications, News, Tablets

TouchType Ltd., the creators of what is arguably the best predictive keyboard available for Android, have just announced SwiftKey 3, along with a separate solution made specifically for medical professionals – SwiftKey Healthcare.

SwiftKey 3, which has – as of tonight – finally come out of beta, is on sale in celebration of its launch, available from the Play Store for just $1.99 today. SwiftKey Healthcare, for those wondering, is a new keyboard, pre-loaded with tons of medical terminology and tools to enhance medical note taking in the healthcare industry. We'll take a quick look at both of the keyboards below.

Jun

ClamBook Is A Lapdock For Your Android Phone That's Better Than (And Is Compatible With) Webtop

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Motorola introduces a novel idea with its Atrix phone: a lapdock. The idea was simple. All these Android app can be extremely productive, so why limit them to a single, small screen? Plug your phone into the lapdock, use its frankly-over-powered processor to run a larger screen with a keyboard and trackpad. Well, that's exactly what the ClamBook does. Only it does it way better.

As you can see in the renders above, when most phones are plugged in, you're presented with a tablet-styled UI. The device doesn't appear to be touchscreen, but Android has had support for mouse functionality since Android 3.1, so you won't be stuck.

Jun

Tagy Replaces Rows Of App Icons On Your Home Screen With A Tag Cloud, Lets You Know What You Don't Use

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

One of the nicest things about Android that gets taken for granted is the ability to customize your user interface. While most folks tend to stick to app icons for launching their apps, Tagy offers an alternative approach: a tag cloud. Tagy is actually a set of widgets that let you specify a list of apps, contacts, or bookmarks to appear in a single widget. Then, as you use the widget, the items you use more often will get bigger.

Users can customize the color of their tags to fit into whatever theme they're already using. Additionally, because the items you use get larger the more you use them, you can isolate the less-used apps, which you can then either remove from the list or uninstall altogether.

Jun

[Breaking] Google Acquires Quickoffice - Let The Productivity Wars Begin

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

So, Google just acquired Quickoffice, one of the leading distributors of productivity and office software for Android. The company, best known for being better than Docs or Microsoft Office on Android, has now been purchased by the search giant. Google says that the company will be working to bring Quickoffice's "record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats" among other "powerful technology" to its Apps product suite.

This is exciting news for Google ~~Docs~~ Drive. The company's interest in its office software has been growing lately, with a revamp of its Docs service, and the addition of the Dropbox-like Drive software.

May

BGR Says Microsoft Is Working On Office For Android Tablets Due Out In November, We Hope It's True

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Rumors

You know that guy "sources"? BGR does. The tech blog has heard from Sources that Microsoft is working on a tablet-optimized version of the Office suite, which is expected to land in November of this year. According to BGR, their source actually saw the app working on an iPad, and insisted it looked nearly identical to a leaked shot that Microsoft has since disavowed.

To be clear, Microsoft has said that the above image is fake. Of course, while more often than not, companies simply decline to comment on rumors, it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility that Microsoft has denied the authenticity of the image solely to throw the media off the scent.

May

[New App] Hojoki Combines Your Favorite Cloud Productivity Services Into One Handy News Feed

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, News

The world of the future has some pretty great products to keep productive. Things like Google Calendar, Dropbox, Evernote, and a myriad of other services all aim to make our lives easier and more cloud-centric. Trouble is that these services are all separate. When a group you're working with adds a new event to a Google Calendar, adds some relevant files to Dropbox, and scribbles some notes in Evernote, that's three different sites you need to track. Hojoki aims to alleviate this problem by creating a news feed of all your cloud-based services.