Android is the most popular smartphones on the market today. Android is easily outselling the iPhone and is available on every major mobile carrier. Many Android user want to know some ways to maximize the benefit of their Android handset. Here are some applications, tips and tricks that I have found to really boost the usefulness of my Android phone.
Managing Your Battery Life
A criticism that I hear often is that Android phones have very poor battery life. That was certainly true with the earliest models, and it can still be true with the newer handsets. Fortunately, there are a number of tools for managing your battery life that will help you squeeze the most from your Android phone’s battery that you can download from Android Market.
Managing Tasks
Sometimes you want to know what tasks are running and have a way to stop a running task. This is especially true if you have an older Android phone with a slow processor. If you have ever used a Unix based operating system or Linux, System Panel Lite will remind you of the top application. It provides a list of actively running processes and inactive but cached processes. It also gives you some handy charts of the current CPU usage and memory usage. Clicking on a running application, you can see the individual application’s CPU and memory usage and you have the option of killing the process. By default, system processes are hidden from view but there is an option in settings to see the Android system processes as well.
Getting More from Messaging
When I first got my Android phone, I hated the default messaging application. I quickly discovered Handcent SMS, a free application that replaces the default messaging application. Handcent features a threaded interface to allow you to visually see the back and forth conversation you are having via SMS. It also allows sending pictures via MMS and saving MMS attachments. You can set Handcent as the default messaging application on Android. Handcent will also provide notifications for new SMS messages. The notification can be customized a bit, including what color your phone LED should flash when you have new messages. When you switch to Handcent, you will need to go into the default messaging application and turn off its notifications. Otherwise, you will get two notifications each time you receive a message.
Music!
Let’s face it – carrying a phone and a music player is a pain. Fortunately, you can easily replace your iPod with your Android phone. The default music player that ships with Android is agreeably nothing to write home about. The interface is very simple and frankly, quite boring. However, you can easily replace it with the Cubed Media Player from the Android market.
Cubed is a free media player with a somewhat unique user interface. Album artwork appears in a 3-dimensional cube. By rotating the cube up or down, you can browse through your album artwork in a fashion very similar to iPod’s cover flow. Rotating the cube to the left or right allows you to alphabetically flip through your collection. This is a great application for turning your Android phone into a fully featured media player.
Overall, Android is a very capable mobile platform, but it can be overwhelming to new users at first. A few simple applications can greatly improve how useful your Android phone is and allow you to get much more out of it. Have a favorite application or found a setting that allows you to get more out of your Android phone? Comment and tell us about it!
source :ezinearticle