Top 10 Android Tips you should know about

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Android is a very advanced OS and it has a lot of features but maybe you missed some of them.

Here a list of the top 10 most useful Android tips you maybe don’t know about.

1) Move apps to SD card

Most of our Android devices has SD Card support and it’s a good idea to move our apps to it and keep Internal Storage free.

You need to consider that some apps like widgets can’t be moved to SD Card for technical reasons.

You can move an app to SD Card by going to Settings => Applications then select the app and click on Move to SD Card button.

2) Clear default apps

How often do you set a new app as default for a particular action?

If we want to choose a new app to take the role of the old one, we need to follow a simple procedure.

You need to go do Settings => Applications then select the app and click on Clear defaults.

3) Reboot Android in safe mode (Jelly Bean only)

This is a new feature available in Android that will let you run the OS without all the 3rd party apps.

You can use this mode to uninstall apps that give you instability problems to your Android device.

You need to Long press Power button and when the menu will show you Long tap on Reboot or Power Off menu.

It will confirm to reboot into safe mode.

4) Customize Unlock screen

You can customize how you unlock your screen. There are different way to unlock your screen.

You can unlock using Slide, Pattern, Face Unlock (Jelly Bean only), PIN and Password.

To configure it you just need to go to Settings => Security => Screen lock and choose the method you like.

5) One tap direct dial

You can setup a shortcut on your home screen to call directly a contact with a single tap.

Android 4.0 or later : Tap on app drawer and select Widgets tab. Search for Direct Dial widget and long tap on it. It will let you move that widget where you want on the Home screen. After you position it you’ll select the contact from the contact list.
Previous Android versions : you need to long tapping on an empty space of your Home Screen, select Shortcuts then Direct Dial. It will prompt contact list and you’ll select the contact you like.

6) Take a screenshot

Android from version 4.0 provide built in feature to take a screenshot of the screen.

The most common buttons combinations are:

Power button + Home button.
Power button + Volume down button.

If you are on a previous version of Android you can try this app (For some smartphones it requires root permissions):

7) Offline voice recognition (Jelly Bean only)

Android from version 4.1 provide speech voice recognition available offline.

To setup it you need to go to Settings => Language & input =>Voice Search and tap on Download offline speech recognition

8) Control your data usage

If your Android version is 4.0 or above you can control the data usage for mobile data or WiFi. It will display total data usage and specific data usage for each application.

You can even set a limit of the data usage for mobile data.

To do that you need to go to Settings => Data usage and enable Mobile data and Set mobile data limit.

9) Find your smartphone IMEI

You can easily find your smartphone IMEI tapping the following code on your keypad *#06#

10) Freeze/Hibernate apps to improve speed, free memory and battery life

If you have slow downs on your Android device after you install some apps you maybe should try Greenify (it requires root permissions).

Greenify is an app that will hibernate the selected apps in order to avoid wasting CPU, memory and battery life.

Check out my post about it here:

http://techcookies.net/greenify-improve-speed-and-battery-life-of-your-android-device/

I hope these tips will improve your knowledge of this wonderful OS.

Android, Games, Review

Audionaut : Play a game with your music

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Would you like to play a game using your own music? Here’s a nice running game where the level is music generated : Audionaut

Audionaut is an interstellar rhythm runner where you play to the beat of your favourite songs.

The main screen let you choose to start playing the game, choose few options, see credits of the authors or exit.

Here’s a couple of options : Rail light-up is an hint during the game it show you a line where the notes are and Note sound effect is a nice sound when you get a note.

If you choose to play you have to choose the level. There are 3 songs built-in. I tried the easy one and I like it a lot!

You can anyway choose My Music and use any song you like. I tried with Get Lucky – Daft Punk and it’s not really easy!

After you choose the song the game will start. You are an astronaut and you need to collect notes and avoid obstacles.

You can move to left and right by tapping on left or right area of the screen.

At the top left side of the screen you can see your life. You loose a bit of it if you touch an obstacle.

On the top right of the screen you can see how much of the level you completed.

The level depends on the song you choose as the longer is the song, longer will be the level.

While you’re playing, you’ll see a ramp where you’ll jump to get notes at the top.

It’s a really nice game because it mix listening to your favorite music with a challenging game.

Let’s keep the rhythm!

Android, Games, Review

eGraffiti Global Graffiti Wall : Draw on a big wall simultaneously with other people

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Have you ever wished to draw a graffiti on a wall? What about drawing it simultaneously with other people? Here’s the Android app will let you do it : eGraffiti Global Graffiti Wall.

eGraffiti Global Graffiti Wall is based on a really nice idea. Share a big wall with the other people and let you draw simultaneously with them.

It’s really nice to see people over the world coming from different cultures be able to share so easily something.

Drawing is a universal language and it’ll let you feel part of a community.

The main screen give you the possibility to decide if you want to draw on your own wall or you want to share your drawing skill with all the other players.

When you’ll decide to draw on the global wall you’ll see the current drawing and every change is going to be visible to everyone.

You can draw together with other people and create a community masterpiece!

The app let you choose different tools to draw like line, circle, rectangle and spray.

Here’s some nice examples of the app in action:

Here’s a demonstration

When you finish your masterpiece you’ll be able to save it and share it with your friends.

Let’s try it. It’s really fun!

Android, Tips and Tricks

How to fake Android to think you have a different device

February 19, 2022 No Comments

How many times do you want to install a nice app or game, but when you go to Google Play you discover that is not compatible with your device? Here’s few quick tips to install it anyway.

Easy way

We know that sometimes developers on Google Play restrict compatibility to some devices because they are not perfectly optimized for that device.

In other cases developers restrict installation of the app only from a specific country.

We now have the way to fake Google Play to think you have different device and even let it think we are from a different country with a different operator.

The app is called Market Helper and it requires root permission to work.

The first thing you have to do is to setup your phone to install from apk package because Market Helper is not available on Google Play.

You can just follow this short video:

Now that you can install an app from an apk file we need to download Market Helper apk from the following link: http://codekiem.com/2013/02/13/market-helper/

Look for the link to download and install it. After you run you’ll see the following screen:

You can setup one of the phones/tablet from the list and a country/operator and tap on Activate. It will ask you for root permission.

After few seconds it will show something like this:

You now need to go to the Google Dashboard to update the change you did. You just tap on the link and it will open Google Dashboard.

It may be required 1-5 minutes to detect the new device.

You can now go to Google Play website and choose Settings from the icon on the right side of the screen:

As you can see my Galaxy Nexus is now a Galaxy S3 and my carrier is now Sprint.

If you want to restore your previous settings you just need to select Restore to everything and tap Activate. You always need to go to Google Dashboard to update your change.

Advanced way

While this app is easy and nice it does work only to fake Google Play to think you have a different device.

If you want to fake apps and games and you are brave enough I’ll show you an advanced way to do so.

We are going to change a system file called Build.prop. We need to be very carefully because it can create serious problem to your Android device.

You need first to install a file explorer. I’m going to use ES File Explorer File Manager:

You now need to give root permission. Open ES File Explorer File Manager and tap on the top left side of the screen.

Now tap on Tools

and turn On the Root Explorer option.

To be able to edit files under /system folder you have make it writable. You can do that by tapping on Root Explorer and choosing Mount R/W, then change /system to be RW:

You can now navigate to /system and you’ll see the file build.prop.

I suggest to make a backup by long pressing on it, then Copy, then navigate into your sdcard folder and tap Paste.

We can now edit it by tapping on build.prop under /system folder and choosing ES Note Editor when the system will ask which app to use.

As you can see the file has a lot of information about your device. This info are used by Android to detect informations on the current device.

When an app request to Android information about the device, Android will pick that information from this file.

You need to change the following parameters:

ro.product.model (The name of the device model)
ro.product.manufacturer (The name of the manufacturer)

I’ll change it to fake Nexus 4:

We now have to reboot the device and go to Google Dashboard to let Google Play detect your new device:

Here’s a screenshot of Google Play detecting my device as a Nexus 4!

Any apps and games will detect your device as the one you configured, but this doesn’t mean every app will work.

Some apps are specifically implemented for some devices and maybe your device can’t run them.

Anyway you can always try and see if it works!

Android, Applications, Review

Keep Screen ON LITE : A smarter way to keep your screen on

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Are you fed up of your smartphone’s screen turning off? Here’s the app that will solve your problem : Keep Screen ON LITE.

Most of the current Android devices have additional sensors to turn off the screen when it’s not in use, but sometimes this doesn’t work so well.

This app use a completely different way to detect when to turn off the screen, in fact this app is using the accelerometer to check if the device is on the table or in your hands.

The main screen if very simple with just a ON and OFF button.

The TEST section holds an icon that is green when the app detect that the screen should stay on and grey when it should turn off.

The BASIC section will let you decide if you want to start the app on boot and if you want to hide the icon in the notifications bar:

The RANGE is a very important setting to decide which range of angles will keep the screen on:

The ACCURACY give you the possibility to decide how much precise the sensor need to be.

Let’s try it and let us know what do you think!

Android, Applications, Review

Fake iPhone 5 : Trick your friends into thinking you have the new iPhone 5.

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Here’s a launcher that will make your Android smartphone looks like an iPhone 5 : Fake iPhone 5.

Did you ever want to trick your friends into thinking you have the new iPhone 5? Would you like to surprise them to see iOS 6 on an Android phone? This is the app for you!

This app is not just a screenshot like many of the other apps on Google Play. This app is a proper launcher!

The icons are very similar to the ones on iPhone 5 and when you tap on them the launcher will automatically open the equivalent app on Android.

After you installed you need to press the Home button and from the popup window select iPhone 5 then Always:

This will make Fake iPhone 5 your default launcher.

The launcher will show all the installed apps split into multiple screens and you can swipe to left/right to change screen.

The Menu button will open the Settings. This will allow you to change wallpaper, reset to the default wallpaper or explore advanced settings available for the app.

The Advanced menu will let you:

Refresh App List : if you installed new apps and you can’t see them.
Switch Launcher : if you want to go back to your previous launcher.
Use 5 Rows (iPhone 5) / Use 4 Rows (iPhone 4S) : let you decide how many icons will be displayed for each screen.
Send Feedback : if you want to send suggestions to the author.
Send Debug Report : if you want to submit a bug report. This will also help to get more of the default app icons working on your device.
About : Will open Google Play for Fake iPhone 5

Let’s try it and surprise your friends!

Android, Applications, Review

Transform your Android smartphone to look like a Windows Phone 8

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Do you like Windows Phone 8’s tiles user interface?

Why don’t you try something that look like that on our Android devices?

Here’s the app that let you do it: Launcher 8

Launcher 8 is a very nice launcher that will change completely your main screen with something very different from the standard Android launcher.

Windows Phone 8 has a very intuitive user interface liked by many users.

It’s different from anything you’ve used already in your Android smartphone and it’s nice to try something new, even if I still prefer the standard Android launcher!

After you install the launcher you have to press Home button and the system will ask you to choose the default launcher. We will choose Launcher8 and then Always.

At this point our default launcher will be the one that looks like the default Windows Phone 8 interface.

Every tile will open an Android app and it’s even possible to customize it so that it will looks exactly like you prefer. The customizations you can do are really advanced.

Here’s some screenshots from the application:

So what are you waiting for? Let’s try it and let us know what do you think!

Android, Applications, Review

Micro CPU Monitor : Keep an eye on CPU usage

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Do you want to quickly check your CPU usage? Do you have an app or a game running and you want to see how much CPU is using? Here’s the app that will let you do that very easily : Micro CPU Monitor

Micro CPU Monitor is a very smart utility that will let you easily check the CPU usage without changing app while being unobtrusive.

In fact it’s just a single pixel line (one for each core) that will be displayed on the top right side of the screen (this can be customized).

The main screen will let you configure all the settings:

Start and Stop to enable the cpu monitor
Foreground, Background, Invert Colors and Transparent Background to customize the colors of the lines
Screen edge to position the lines
Orientation to give the direction of the lines
Width and Height (Only Pro version) to decide the size of the lines
Display above status bar
Update speed is how much often the line will be updated (Only Pro version)
Start on boot
Display all CPU cores will display a different line for each core.

This app is very simple, but at the same time is very useful to check our CPU status!

Sports and Games

Tiny Hope : Play an amazing adventure with a drop of water

February 19, 2022 No Comments

Do you ever thought of playing with a drop of water? Here’s a nice arcade game : Tiny Hope

I’m not sure if the name of this game is the best one, but when you’ll play it I’m sure you’ll enjoy it like other best nft games.

The main screen let you choose if you want music and sound effects, how to control the drop or start to play.

You can choose if you want to move the drop of water using touch (default) or accelerometer.

There are 36 levels in free version and 36 additional levels in the full one.

If you choose the touch to control the drop of water, touch the left area of the screen will move the drop to left and the right one will move it to the right.

In the game you have to help a drop of water to reach a portal. In the following level (10) you have to reach the portal at bottom right side of the screen.

You have to activate it by pushing the green button at the bottom left side of the screen. The nice idea of this game is that you can control temperature of the drop of water.

By default the temperature is in the middle and you are just a drop of water.

If you want to fly you have to increase temperature to the maximum to became steam.

If you want to be solid and be able to push objects you have to decrease temperature to the minimum and became ice. (Also please mind that along with gaming Tiny Hope be conscious about health especially in ongoing COVID pandemic, , a rapid antigen test is now readily available in Australia and allows people to test themselves at home.)

In this level we have first to activate a mechanism by tapping simultaneously left and right side of the screen when we are on top of the board with 2 arrows.

After we have to push the brown bar and after push the wood cube over the green button.

Last part will be to deactivate the mechanism by tapping again simultaneously the left and right side of the screen when we are at the top of the board with 2 arrows.

We can now move on the portal and complete the level. I think this game is really amazing and I really enjoy playing it.