Tips & Tutorials - 6/21 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Aug

Geek Overload: Turn Your Computers On Automatically When Your Android Phone Connects To Wi-Fi

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News, Tips & Tutorials

Today's geek recipe is one of those nerdily awesomelicious things you can do with your Android phone that you probably never even thought you could - imagine coming home and having your computer turn on the moment your phone connects to the Wi-Fi network. My computer is on 24/7 in case I need to connect to it remotely, but for those who turn their PCs off in the morning and on after work, this tip could be right on the money.

There are 2 options you could go with - both use the WOL (wake-on-LAN) capabilities most modern computers should have baked in (though you may need to enable them in the BIOS and power management settings of your network card).

Aug

Verizon XOOM Android 3.2 Update Rolling Out Soon - SD Card Support Is Finally Here

Posted by David Ruddock in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Well, it's only taken about five months, but Verizon XOOM owners will finally be able to make use of that lovely microSD slot on the side of their tablet. Of course, the OTA update in question does a fair bit more than allow you to up your XOOM's already robust storage. Take a look at this list:

While Verizon (they're the ones publishing the update) doesn't explicitly state that the update, dubbed HTJ85 (has a nice ring to it, right?), brings Android 3.2 to the XOOM, it's clearly implied by the addition of "Screen Scaling Compatibility Mode" - a feature of Android 3.2 that we talked about a while ago.

Jul

Tip: How To Enable Writing To Read-Only Partitions (Remount R/W) In Total Commander For Android

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Tips & Tutorials

If you've visited Android Police over the past weekend, you've probably already seen my enthusiastic review of Total Commander for Android, which for me is replacing both ASTRO and Root Explorer going forward as the top Android file manager. Ad-free, $0, root support, dual panes, plugin support, and other advanced functions, which you can read about in the review, make Total Commander an easy choice for both novice and advanced users.

However, one task that is not immediately achievable (or so I thought) with Total Commander is something that sits right at the core of Root Explorer - writing to read-only partitions, such as /system.

Jul

PSA: Amazon Appstore Allowing Downloads Over 4G (WiMAX, At Least) For Wi-Fi Only Apps

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Apps/Games, News, Tips & Tutorials

The Amazon Appstore's 'Wi-Fi Only' tag on certain large apps (read: Plants Vs. Zombies) has been a frustration for those with consistent access to 4G while they're on the go. I mean, come on Amazon, if I really want to download that 75MB PopCap game, it's my data connection! I'm sure there's some reasoning for this (like reducing the active # of connections on the Appstore's servers), but when you're on 4G, it only makes sense that you should be able to do the things you would on Wi-Fi.

Over the last few days we've heard from a number of people claiming the Appstore now allows Wi-Fi Only downloads over 4G, and we tested it out, sure enough, it works:

Now, we've also heard it doesn't yet work on Verizon 4G LTE - but Sprint's WiMAX is a definite go.

Jul

Quick Tip: Want To Search Using The Android Market App? Save Precious Seconds And Press The Search Button Right Away

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, Tips & Tutorials

The title pretty much says it all, but I'll explain this quick tip in a bit more detail. All too often I want to jump into the Market on my phone and search for an app I already have in mind. However, before the search box even appears, I am forced to wait for the featured app screen to finish loading, which on slow connections can take ages.

So, rather than wait for it, just jump straight into action by pressing the hardware Search button. No more waiting, and precious time is saved. Little by little, this habit can turn minutes into days of saved time, folks (if you search the Market as often as I do)!

Jul

Toshiba Thrive Arrives Early - On Sale Now At Best Buy Stores, But Only 16GB and 32GB Versions

Posted by David Ruddock in News, Tablets, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Tips & Tutorials, Toshiba

It seems Best Buy just can't keep its stuff in the stockroom. Contrary to the earlier July 10th tip, we've gotten multiple confirmations that Best Buy stores have already started selling the Toshiba Thrive tablet - you can walk into your local store and pick one up right now.

We've personally confirmed that several stores have the Thrive (16 and 32GB versions only, unfortunately) in stock, but you should call ahead to your local store - just in case. Have the following SKUs handy when you call:

2768901 - 32GB version
2769576 - 16GB version

That means you'll be forking over $480 (at least) if you want a Thrive today.

Jul

[Deal Alert] Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi 16GB $450 (10% Off) On eBay

Posted by David Ruddock in Deals, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Samsung, Tablets, Tips & Tutorials

It seems retailers just can't get rid of the Tab 10.1 - and shrewd consumers are coming out ahead. You can pick up a Galaxy Tab 10.1 Wi-Fi with 16GB of internal storage for just $450 on eBay (free shipping) sold by DataVision.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is probably the best Android tablet you can spend you hard-earned dollars on at the moment, and at this price (10% off retail), it's certainly not a bad buy. And we definitely liked it. This is the smaller 16GB model, presumably the most popular choice among consumers - so it's a bit odd to see retailers are having to put up discounts to offload them already.

Jun

New App: Kaspersky Unveils Honeycomb-Compatible Tablet Security

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Applications, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Tips & Tutorials

One of the geek community's favored anti-virus solutions on Windows, Kaspersky has recently made its move to secure the world of all things Android. Next up the company's sleeve is Kaspersky Tablet Security (clever name, right?), which brings Kaspersky's virus protection to Honeycomb (3.0 and 3.1, plus non-Honeycomb 2.1+) tablets. And it also runs on your phone, which allowed me (I am tablet-less) to take these screenshots:

Basically, it's Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 spruced up for tablets, with all the theft protection, call blocking, SMS, and other phone-specific features removed. It is kind of handy to have those superfluous features axed (except theft protection?) for the purpose of navigating the menus, but it seems like this app doesn't add much functionality over its phone counterpart, aside from a streamlined (and admittedly much better) home screen.

Jun

New App: ObscuraCam Automatically Detects, Blurs Faces And Strips Metadata From Your Photos

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, News, Tips & Tutorials

OK, this is probably one of the cooler apps I've seen in a while. ObscuraCam is an open source photo anonymizer project made in concert with the folks over at Witness.org - a human rights violation watchdog. Why is a human rights organization helping you blur those photos you took that night you accidentally [insert potential human rights violation here] but still thought would be hilarious to upload to Facebook?

Well, Witness wants this app to be used by political dissidents in countries where things like facial identification and metadata scraping are major barriers to posting photos of political protests online.

Jun

Verizon Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE Pre-Order Up, Starts At $529.99 With New 2-Year Enslavement

Posted by David Ruddock in 4G, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless

I'm not sure how well this 4G-ified Tab 10.1 is going to do in terms of sales, but it's coming nonetheless. And in four flavors! And by that, I mean there's two storage options (16GB or 32GB) and two color options (grey or white):

These prices are, of course, subsidized with a new 2-year data contract. How subsidized? Try $100 off (yes, that's all). Sounds like Verizon is super confident about this thing, too. I think we can all agree, until carriers actually start giving these mobile data-enabled tablets meaningful contract discounts (or better data plans), there's next to no incentive for consumers to purchase them.