Make Tech Easier» Mobile

Complete Guide to Newsstands For iOS

Emmanuel Banks — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:58:51 +0000

I never was an individual who enjoyed subscriptions. The main reason behind this is because when I did carry a subscription to a popular magazine, half of the issues I received weren’t of great interest to me. However, due to the fact I paid a whole year’s subscription in advance, I at least skimmed through. I always wondered what would be a great alternative to having physical, paper subscriptions that ended up half the time in the recycling bin. I found this alternative with Newsstands for iOS. This is the native Apple application that takes magazine and newspaper subscriptions into the digital realm. How does it stack up? Let’s take a look and find out.

Interface

There really isn’t an interface for Newsstands. The “application” is simply a shelf that displays all of the subscriptions that you are subscribed to. Once the application is selected, the shelf appears. Next to the “Newsstand” label, there is a selection for “Store”. This is the section that allows you to download subscriptions.

How Does It Work?

So, how exactly do you download a subscription. It’s very easy. Once you select “Store”, you will then be presented with Apple’s modest but quality subscription selection. From Bloomberg Businessweek to The Daily, the pickings include some very popular names. When you choose a subscription you are interested in, you will be presented with a page that is quite identical to that of when you purchase an application. You can gather more information, view a couple screenshots, and more. When you finally made the decision to download, all you have to do is click the “Free” button.

Don’t be fooled by the “FREE” button though. The app might be free, but the subscription isn’t. The subscription’s page gives you a read out on costs in the “Top In-App Purchases” section. Depending on the subscription, you can renew billing per day, month, or yearly.

Subscriptions Available on Newsstand

At this moment, Newsstands for iOS doesn’t have a lot of choices in terms of subscriptions. Users looking for a cumulative news application will enjoy subscriptions from The Daily or NY Times. If technology is your piece of cake, you have choices from Mac Life to .net, and even How It Works publishing on Newsstand. The more athletic and health conscious will enjoy the subscription to Clean Eating, Health & Fitness, and much more.

In-Subscription Features

Once you have downloaded your subscription, you can set to have them come in automatically. If you do so, Newsstand will give you a notification when a new issue is available. This is recommended and a great way to make use of your subscription. The features and interface is different per subscription dealer. For example, The Daily focuses more on the news, for a lack of a better word, that day. Whereas Mac Life, a more monthly and special issue publication, allows you to check out the news per magazine with some from even November 2011 available at a cost. When you select an issue to view with Mac Life, it slides and navigates just like an eBook. If you want to navigate from, say page 7 to page 77, this is made easier with the “drawer” icon, allowing you to get a better view of each page. See an issue that you like? The “printer” icon allows you to make use of AirPrint.

How To Get Rid of Newsstand

There’s just a big possibility that subscriptions just aren’t for you with an iPhone. The small screen may make it an un-enjoyable experience, or maybe you just can’t afford to support a subscription. Whatever the reason, you can’t remove the Newsstand app just like any other app, but you can hid it from your iPhone. To do this, it’s easier said than done. You must create a folder by dragging one application over another. As the new folder is created, you must quickly drag the Newsstand application in. It’s difficult and takes more than one time to do. If you are too lazy to do this, simply make a special page just for the hidden icon (or just embrace the icon).

Complete Guide to Newsstands For iOS originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Tinychat For Web Allows You to Chat, Listen to Music And Draw Simultaneously

Laura Tucker — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:58:43 +0000

While everyone knows about Skyping and Facebook Chat, TinyChat is much lesser known. Just like the other forms of chatting, TinyChat is available across multiple platforms. It’s available both on the web as well as on mobile devices. However, unlike the others, you can do more than chat. You can also listen to music or watch YouTube videos together, and even draw together.

My son and a friend were chatting via their computers. They both had Tinychat going on their computers, and were chatting, watching, listening, and drawing away. I had to find out about this. They graciously let me in on their chat, and it was like a whole world of possibilities that opened up. It would be great for business as well as personal use.

Because I’m an Apple and iOS person through and through, it means the first thing I did was look for an app. I found an app available for both my iPhone and iPad. Opening that, I was presented with a choice of browsing existing chats, starting my own chat, or joining a chat. To join the chat with my son and his friend, I could either type in the room name or accept an invite from Facebook or other similar social networks. The problem with trying to connect through the Facebook notification was that it sent me through the Internet instead of through the app. Safari can’t handle the TinyChat website because it’s most likely Flash. Because I was trying to go through the iOS app, I had to manually type in the name of the room.

It turns out because it’s a flash-enabled website, that much of the functions on TinyChat that make it so great to use weren’t available on the website. The only function that was available here was just the video chat. There was no texting, drawing, YouTube, or sound files I could view or listen to here. While I could have switched to a flash-enabled browser (I like Photon) and enjoyed all the functions, I decided to switch to my Mac to make it easier for review purposes.

I rejoined the chat this time from the web on my Mac. This time I had all the functions available to me, as I would have using a flash-enabled iOS browser. Opening it on the web, I could see the same three videos before of everyone talking, but I could also “see” if they were typing in text. It also notifies you when someone joins or leaves the room, just like other chat rooms.

One very unique feature of TinyChat is the Whiteboard. This is a board that anyone in the chat can draw on, even simultaneously. You can jot down notes for a job you’re discussing or just have a lot of fun on it with your friends. It has all the standard drawing tools on it – lines, text, pencil, eraser, etc. It opened up in a separate window, so instead of flipping back and forth, I moved the window out to a separate pane so that I could see it and my video chat at the same time.

Ever watch a YouTube that you just can’t wait to show your friends? Now instead of emailing or sharing it on Facebook or Twitter, you can watch it together on TinyChat. Search for a video from directly within Tinychat, and when it opens up, it does so so that everyone on the chat can see it. Laugh together! Songs can be opened up the same way to also be enjoyed together. Additional options are going full screen and taking a snapshot of the people in the chat.

There are just so many possibilities available with TinyChat. I can see using this during chats, especially with a larger group of people. It just isn’t the most iOS friendly because of the Flash video use, but it can still be used, with the right browser, or with limited function in the app.

Tinychat

Tinychat For Web Allows You to Chat, Listen to Music And Draw Simultaneously originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Android Q&As: Create Screenshots For Websites, Connect Two Android Phones Together And Many More… (Week 8)

Trevor Dobrygoski — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:30:17 +0000

I’m happy to see there is still a steady stream of questions coming into us. Are you shy about asking your question because you don’t want it published? Send it anyways and ask for it not to be published word for word. If you know of a friend who is new to the Android OS, please pass along the email address so they can ask us any questions they may have.

The Q&As

NOTE: Some of the questions will be rephrased and will not appear exactly as they were written in MTE’s inbox, for the sake of simplifying the question and giving as much space as possible to the answer. If you believe your answer was not adequately answered, go ahead and leave a comment at the bottom. We’ll get to you ASAP.

Q:How can I create screenshot from my Android while I visit websites?

A: While most of the screen capture programs are for rooted devices, there is a paid application that works very well on non-rooted devices. The application I use is Screenshot It. You will pay $4.99 USD for it but I have had no issues with it and use it all the time on my tablet and several phones.

There is a shake to take a screenshot, a delay, you can edit the images and choose how they save. If you have a rooted device there are a lot of other choices. All of the screenshot apps will take some action on your part for each capture.

Alternatively, get a phone that is running Android 4.0 as it comes with a native screen capture feature.

Q: I installed Skype and checked SET AS DEFAULT. Now all of the calls are going through Skype. How can I deselect this?

A: You should be able to eliminate Skype being the default application for calling by following this “Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> Skype -> Clear Defaults”. What this should do is remove Skype as the default application for calls or anything else.

Q: How to I connect two Android devices together?

A: Because there are differences in the Android OS on an HTC vs a LG or any other 2 manufacturers, there isn’t a direct way to connect them. Your best bet for keeping files synced is to use Dropbox. When you use Dropbox and DropSpace, your files will be the most current no matter where you edit them.

Q: How do I change the look of a bookmark icon on my home screen?

A: You have a couple of options to change your browser bookmark icons. The first way is to add the bookmark as a shortcut. Many times this will do what you are asking. To add a bookmark as a shortcut on your homescreen, you will want to press and hold an empty spot on your screen or press the menu button and click Add. You should see an option for Shortcut somewhere in this menu. Find Bookmark and choose the site you’d like quick access to.

The other easy way is to use GO Launcher EX. Any icon from any application can be changed to whatever picture you’d like. Press and hold the icon once you have the shortcut created following the steps listed above. There is an option to change Replace. When you choose Custom Icon, you can add any picture you’d like.

Why Wasn’t My Question Answered?

If you asked a question and it wasn’t answered here, it could be one of three reasons:

Relevance: Your question needs to be totally relevant to the Android operating system.
Detail: Try to include as much detail as you can, such as the Android device and version of the Android OS you’re using.
Other Reasons: For some unfortunate reason, we couldn’t include your question in this edition. We’ll try our best effort to include the question in the next edition.

What’s your Android question?

If you have questions you think might fit well with MTE’s next edition of “Ask an Android Expert,” send us an email at android-help [at] maketecheasier.com. Leave comments only to discuss the questions presented here. If you want to ask a question, use the aforementioned email address.

Android Q&As: Create Screenshots For Websites, Connect Two Android Phones Together And Many More… (Week 8) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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A Comprehensive Guide to iTunes U [iOS]

Emmanuel Banks — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:58:45 +0000

Learning at a prestigious college is an opportunity possible for very few. From Harvard to Stanford, the admission criteria for most of those colleges prevented many from attending. However, would you ever believe that you could learn from the professors of many of these colleges straight from your Mac and iOS device, as if you were in person? It’s possible with iTunes U. Despite iTunes U being available, not everyone takes advantage of this educational gift from Apple. Today, we will take a tour of iTunes U, showing you who’s teaching, and how to make the most of your learning experience.

What is iTunes U?

iTunes U is one of the many components that Apple added to their education initiative last fall. iTunes U allows you to not only watch lectures from acclaimed universities worldwide, you can also follow along by being provided the course’s syllabus, assignments, and more. That means, the only difference between you and the students learning is person is that they are actually physically there to ask questions directly to the professor. It depends on the university how detailed the materials are, however, Stanford’s lectures are quite detailed and identical to the courses in person. This, in the end, allows anyone from the curious high school student senior, to senior citizens to learn more about subjects they are interested in.

Necessary Materials

Technically, you only need an iOS device and Mac to take full advantage of iTunes U. However, to get the full college experience, there are a couple of other materials you should take advantage of. First, like any student, you should have a set notebook and writing utensil. This will make the classes feel more established for you, instead of just self-study by watching a couple of videos. This will allow you to keep track of what you are learning, have materials to look back on when studying, and more. Additionally, some courses, especially the more technological ones, may require additional software to download. Stanford’s Programming Methodology, an introduction to Computer Science, for example requires you to download their programming software Eclipse. This should be something to consider when you sign up. Additionally, some may also recommend you to purchase books, because they may be repeatedly referred to in the lessons. If you are serious about your studies on iTunes U, you may want to look into purchasing these books or checking them out at your local library. Amazon’s used marketplace also has very inexpensive books on sale as well.

Who’s Teaching?

iTunes U features close to 200 well known schools from across the world. However, only a few are very well known and distinguished. Some of the best colleges featured on iTunes U are the ones that have made an effort for including iTunes U in with the class. Stanford, the university I used during my review of iTunes U, had some professors that acknowledged the distant learners when recording the lectures, knowing that they have special circumstances that may prevent them from seeking a course teacher etc. This made them feel more included. Along with Stanford’s well planning for iTunes U, many other universities including Massachusetts Institute for Technology, University of California at Berkeley, and even Yale. It is essential to check out each of the courses that these universities offer because you’d be surprised what you can learn, from Autism Theory and Technology to a course on Death.

Finding and Preparing For Courses

Finding the courses you want to learn is easy to do. The best way to do this is by searching on an iOS device. iTunes U for iOS has a more organized UI that makes searching easier to do. To search for courses on your iOS device, click Browse to search by school. If you want to search according to subject, click Featured, then Categories. To search on Mac, activate the iTunes for Mac application, then go to iTunes Store, and click iTunes U. Once you find the course you want to learn, you can begin learning right away by clicking “Subscribe Free”. From there, You can click on a video to begin a lecture, check out documents to get a background on what is ahead of you, and check out the assignments after your first lecture.

Applying iTunes U To Your Real Life

So how can iTunes U help in your real life? After all, you can’t earn a degree for learning on iTunes U. This means that your learning on iTunes U is a personal experience, where you must find the courage within yourself to keep learning. You must also choose interesting subjects that you will want to go back to again and again. Additionally, iTunes U can be beneficial for many individuals, from a range of topics. From personal experience, I know of one high school student who checked out a Calculus course on iTunes U before having to learn it their junior year in school. iTunes U allowed him to know the basics and to accelerate in their classes that year. What can you take away from iTunes U? Let us know in the comments below!

A Comprehensive Guide to iTunes U [iOS] originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Coco: Voice Messaging For iOS And Android

Laura Tucker — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:58:57 +0000

A few months back I reviewed the Voxer app. It was an app that worked both on Android as well as iOS mobile devices to message with text, voice, and pictures. It didn’t appear to be an app that was created for iOS, but adapted for it. Yet, it seemed it was the only horse in town that could handle all your messaging needs. No longer.

The Coco Voice app seems more built for iOS, but still handles Android as well. Yet it just has a more natural fit on your iPad or iPhone. You can message virtually anyone you want, can send voice messages to Facebook and Twitter, and can even do a group chat.

Like many apps, Coco Voice gives you the choice of either signing up with your own account, or just signing in using Facebook. After signing in, you can set up your profile as you see fit. My numerical username was just automated when I signed up, but I could change it to something more memorable if I choose. The settings can be changed here as well, as far as Notifications and if new messages should be auto-played, previewed, or both.

The Inbox not only holds your incoming messages, but is also the place to send audio messages to your Facebook or Twitter. Initiating one of them asks you to sign in to your preferred social network, then it’s just a matter of recording your message. This is one thing Voxer doesn’t do. The Inbox is also where you verify your phone. You supply the phone number, and Coco sends you a code by text. After doing this, the app shows you which of your phone contacts are signed up with Coco.

Signing up with Facebook and/or Twitter places a status message on your page mentioning the benefits of Coco Voice, and also how your friends can contact you at Coco. I also sent a separate Facebook message which added an audio file and allowed me to add whatever text I wanted to.

Coco Voice also includes a Social page to both find friends and spread the word. You can connect with your “mobile friends,” meaning your friends you already talk and text with on your phone, tablet, and iPod. There is also an option to finds new friends that are local to your area, but personally I find that a little frightening. Down at the bottom are options to advertise the app on Facebook, Twitter, and/or email. You can let everyone know how they can contact you.

Aside from the Social Networks messaging, you can also use Coco Voice to message with the people you would normally text with. While you can send text messages and pictures, you can also send voice messages. By having the AutoPlay setting turned off, the message will just sit in your inbox waiting for you to listen to it. This plays out exactly the way it does on Voxer, yet this has a much more iOS-like look to it.

Coco Voice also manages to fix the one thing I wished Voxer would do, or at least it does on the larger screen of the iPad. It allows me to use the app in landscape mode. However, the iPhone version only allows for it to be used it portrait mode. If I’m on my phone, I really don’t care whether it’s landscape or portrait; it’s mostly just when I’m on my iPad since I use it on a keyboard stand. Because of these extras with Coco Voice, I prefer it over Voxer.

Coco Voice

Coco: Voice Messaging For iOS And Android originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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6 Little Known iPad Secrets

Laura Tucker — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:58:29 +0000

There’s nothing more rewarding than finding out new tips or secrets on your favorite device. I’m on my second iPad since last summer, and I’m still finding new tips or tricks. Each time I find one it brings out a raised eyebrow and makes me realize how easy things would be had I known about that before.

Mostly everyone that uses an iPad knows all the basic tricks, like using the multitasking bar at the bottom, grouping apps into folders, taking a screencap, etc. But there are still some new tricks I’ve learned that make using an iPad even easier than it already is.

1. Status Bar – tap to go to top

This first tip I can’t believe I never knew until recently. There’s a shortcut to move back to the top of a page or list, no matter what app you’re using. If you click on the black status bar at the top, the one that has the WiFi signal, time, battery left, etc., it will automatically scroll back to the top. If you’re using an app like Pages or Safari, it will carry you back to the top of the page. If you’re using an app like Mail, clicking on the side above the listing of emails will take you to the top of your list, and if you click on the side above the text of the email, it will take you to the top of the text.

2. Add more apps to dock

I’ve known about this trick for some time as I use it on my iPhone as well as my iPad. A friend who also had an iPhone showed me this one a long time ago. You don’t have to keep the same apps in your dock that Apple sets there. Additionally, you can add even more apps into the dock than just the four it comes shipped with. You can have up to six. I’ve added and re-organized to use the apps that I want that easy access to.

3. Force quit an app

Everyone knows how to do a force quit on their desktop or laptop computer, but it was unclear for quite awhile how to do that on an iPad. When an app freezes up, the only action that was known to do was to do a complete restart on the iPad by holding down the Restart and Home Buttons. But there’s a way to quit just the offending app without doing that complete restart. Hold down just the restart button until you see the slider asking you to shut off your iPad. Let up on the buttons and press the Home button alone this time. This takes you back to the Home screen and quits the app that was frozen, allowing you to restart to try to get back to where you were.

4. Search on page

On a desktop browser, you can search for blocks of text on a page. On the iPad, when you click on the Google search in the top of Safari, it actually opens a smaller box on the bottom to “Find on Page.” You don’t have to retype it here though. There’s also an option in the list it opens up. Searching for my name, it came up with a list of Lauras I could be searching for on Google, as well as “On This Page,” where it is already showing me two places my name is mentioned.

5. Not so simple passcode

The iPad presents with an option to use a four-digit passcode, but you can also change it to use a longer passcode of your choosing that would be much harder for strangers or sneaky children to guess. If you open the “Settings -> General -> Passcode Lock”, you can choose to turn off “Simple Passcode.” This allows you to create your own longer passcode using both letters and numbers.

6. Attaching photos in emails

This tip might seem simple, but it’s involved enough to where it’s just not something you think of as an option. Emailing photos is easy – you simply find the photo you want and hit the Sharing button. What about attaching a photo on a composed email? There is no “Attach” option like there is on a computer. Here is what you need to do: go to the Photos app and select the photos that you want to attach. Tap the “Copy” button, then go back to your Reply Email and paste in the pictures.

I bet that there are still plenty of tips/tricks that I have not discovered in the iPad. I will definitely share them when I found them. Meanwhile, what is your little “unknown” tips/tricks with your iPad?

Image credit: By Pedro Eugenio Antunes

6 Little Known iPad Secrets originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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5 Excellent Ways Make Free Video Calls On Android

Trevor Dobrygoski — Sun, 13 May 2012 14:58:21 +0000

When you know people all over the world, it is nice to hear their voice and see them from time to time. The problem is international calling rates are pretty pricey; so is a plane ticket. To solve this, we are going to talk about Android apps to make calls and video chat anywhere in the world for free.

Wi-Fi is usually ideal for audio and video chats. Your cellular network speed can vary a lot depending on where you are, time of day and how many people are trying to use the tower. You may also see choppy audio and video if you have a phone with a slower processor or a lot of applications running at the same time as the chat.

Skype

Skype is probably the most common application to chat with someone on your Android or computer. You have 3 free choices with Skype chats: text chat, audio chat and video chat. To use the video chat option, you will need to have a front facing camera. The other 2 options will work on pretty much any Android device.

Many business and web workers have adopted Skype for its cost effective calling to any phone number as well as the awesome video chatting.

Google Talk

Google Talk is Google’s own instant message service. If you are on your computer, you can chat with people through text or audio/video conversations. On your PC you will need the stand alone Google Talk application with an extension.

When you are on your Android device, again you will need a front facing camera to use the video chat. Many of the newer phones and tablets are coming with some sort of front camera now. There is not an option to chat with audio only, it is either video with audio or text.

Google+ Hangout

Google+ lets you connect to a small group of people and all chat with each other. Google calls this a Hangout. From your Android, you need to start a normal text conversation. You can then click the video camera icon to change to a video chat.

A Google Hangout is similar to the chatting with someone on Google Talk, however you can converse with more than one person at a time. You can also stream conversations so others can see or join.

Tango

Tango is an Android application we previously mentioned here on MTE. Tango lets you make free audio and video calls anyone else using Tango on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and PCs. There are little add-ons for Tango video chats. These add-ons are like emoticons for video chat. It’s something a little different to add to your video chat.

ooVoo

ooVoo is an application similar to Tango in the way you can audio and video chat for free with other ooVoo users. You can group up to 6 people in a conversation making ooVoo great for small collaboration meetings. You have the option of text chats too.

Conclusion

As you can see there are several video chat applications for Android that will also work on other platforms. Having the flexibility to talk on your PC to someone while they are mobile is great. Not to mention, you won’t need to talk your friends or people at your company into changing from iPhones to Android just so you can video chat.

Image credit: image

5 Excellent Ways Make Free Video Calls On Android originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Android Q&As: Make Skype Video Call, Mass Convert Contacts, Disable WiFi Shut Down On Screen Lock And Many More…

Trevor Dobrygoski — Fri, 11 May 2012 21:30:10 +0000

In this week’s round of Android questions, we talk about why you sometimes get force close errors, how to video chat on Skype, managing contacts and Wi-Fi issues. Recently we have some questions about Android application coding, I’m sorry, but this is not something that we will be covering in this weekly column.

The Q&A

Q:Why do I get force close errors?

A:There are a couple of typical reasons you will get a Force Close Error on and Android. The first is the application is not compatible with your device or OS. While it may download and start, there may be something about your Android device the application doesn’t like.

The other option might be you have too many things running on your Android. If your phone needs the resources, it will close applications hogging memory. Many apps take a good chunk of computing power to open. A lot of new phones have a built in task manager which you could use to close down some running applications and see if the problem persists.

Q:When my screen blacks out, my Wi-Fi shuts off. How can I keep the Wi-Fi connected?

A:Some devices have what is known as a Wi-Fi sleep policy. I ran into this myself on the Motorola I use now. The setting is buried in the settings. Try to follow this path and see if yours has a similar setting: Menu -> Settings -> Wireless and networks -> Wi-Fi settings -> Menu -> Advanced -> Wi-Fi sleep policy. Change this setting to Never and that should cure your problem.

Q:How do I mass-convert all of my contacts to “phone-only”?

A:There really isn’t an easy way. If perhaps you are trying out a lot of different ROMs and don’t want to get your contacts intermingled with other apps, you could use a generic Gmail account to initially log in when you change the ROM. Then you can turn off the syncing right away when you add your normal Gmail address later.

Q:How do I make a video call through Skype?

A:The first thing you will need is a device with a front facing camera. Beyond that, there is an option to turn on the video chat option in the settings. The check box is near the bottom of the settings page. When you check or uncheck the box, you may need to restart Skype to have the change take effect.

Why Wasn’t My Question Answered?

If you asked a question and it wasn’t answered here, it could be one of three reasons:

Relevance: Your question needs to be totally relevant to the Android operating system.
Detail: Try to include as much detail as you can, such as the Android device and version of the Android OS you’re using.
Other Reasons: For some unfortunate reason, we couldn’t include your question in this edition. We’ll try our best effort to include the question in the next edition.

What’s your Android question?

Android Q&As: Make Skype Video Call, Mass Convert Contacts, Disable WiFi Shut Down On Screen Lock And Many More… originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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5 Alternatives To Android’s Calendar

Trevor Dobrygoski — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:30:31 +0000

Calendars are a necessary evil these days. They can be hard to manage, but you will surely forget half of what you need to get done if you don’t use one. Using the calendar on your Android device will make it a lot easier to keep track of what you need to do and where you need to be.

The more proactive you are with your calendar, the better you will be. Also know you are not limited to the not always great calendar that comes with your Android. Here are a few Android calendar alternatives to check out.

1. Lockscreen Calendar

One of the reasons Androids and other devices with large touch screens have poor battery life is the screen is on a lot. Sometimes it is just to check to see if you have a new email, or in this case, what is your next appointment.

Lockscreen Calendar displays your next several appointments on your lockscreen so you don’t need to unlock your phone, click on the all and look at the date. Being able to see your next appointment from the lock screen will make you more productive and save battery.

2. Touch Calendar

Touch acts almost like a web page. You can zoom in and out on it with the pinch to zoom feature. As you tap on the day or event, you will see a pretty standard view of the event. The default view is the month view and didn’t look like you could change it. If you like the month view, this is a great simple calendar to use. The upgrade to the paid version will give you access to the widgets and other handy features.

3. Deadline Calendar

Having a calendar for your deadlines is a great idea. Normally you would need to add in all day appointments or tasks into your normal calendar making it look really really full. Having a calendar with a field for completion time is very handy for the person who has a lot of projects to manage. The paid version allows syncing with Google Calendar.

4. Fliq Calendar

Fliq Calendar is a free stand-alone calendar (does not sync with Google Calendar) that competes well with some popular paid calendars like Business Calendar and Calengoo for looks and ease of use. Fliq Calendar is made by Mark/Space, the people who bring you the apps to sync just about any phone to any computer. Because of this, if you have the need to sync with Outlook or iCal, Fliq Calendar is an Android calendar you may want to take a look at.

5. Quick Calendar

Quick Calendar is an add-on allowing you to see current or future appointments in your notification bar. Having your future appointment right in your notification bar will save you the space on the screen you’d normally use for a calendar widget.

Conclusion

Calendars are super useful when you keep them tamed. When you are using a calendar fitting for your needs as well as easy to use, you are more likely to use your calendar regularly.

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5 Alternatives To Android’s Calendar originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Help For Using Gmail in iOS

Laura Tucker — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:58:50 +0000

Apple doesn’t always play well with others, and when it comes to the mobile operating system iOS, it can be even worse. Their relationship, or lack thereof, with Adobe and their flash video is well documented. Another entity that doesn’t get along with the system is GMail. It works, but it’s hindered in some ways by using the Mail app.

The most noticeable way in which GMail doesn’t work well in the iOS system is with the Trash. There is no “Trash” visible in the mail app like there is with other email domains. Something as simple as deleting an email suddenly gets more complicated. The good news is there is help for this issue. There are a few different ways to go about deleting your email, and and there’s a way to set up your Gmail in iOS through Google Sync, if your Gmail is set up through Google Apps.

While the screencap I used here is for my email with the maketecheasier.com domain, it’s still based off of the Gmail system and works in all the same ways Gmail does. It’s set up through Google Apps. There isn’t the familiar “Trashcan” in the options on the top right, when viewing an individual email, and when you select one or more emails to edit, it only gives you options to Archive, Move, or Mark. Delete isn’t one of the options. It just seems frustrating to not have such a basic function available.

I actually had a similar problem with my email hosted on a separate domain. While I had a Delete option and a Trashcan, it would give me an error message afterward and would stay on the server. It had an easy fix. I went into the Settings app and selected “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” then clicked on the email domain I wanted to change. After clicking on the Account name, then “Advanced” at the bottom of the resulting screen, I then clicked on “Deleted Mailbox” which allowed me to change the folder I wanted the deleted emails to go into. By default it was set on “Trash” on my iPad, but once I changed it to “Trash” on the server, it resulted in the emails being deleted correctly. However, making this change to the Gmail settings didn’t solve the issue there.

The easiest way to solve the Trash problem for Gmail is to to just move the desired files into the Trash folder. If you click on edit in the email list pane, check off the emails you want deleted, then hit “Move.” This brings up a list of the folders on the server, including the Trash folder. There is also a Google app for iOS. It includes all the Google apps within it, such as Calendar, Docs, Google+, and Gmail. Using the mail here emulates the way it works online, including being able to delete unwanted email. You can also keep multiple Gmail accounts “open” at once. There’s also always the option, of course, to just keep up with the Gmail via whatever browser you are using by signing into your account there.

If you’re using Gmail that is set up for you through an organization or business that uses Google Apps, the administrator can choose to have Google Sync enabled for the email. If this is done, when you set your Gmail account in settings, instead of setting it up as a Gmail account, set it up as Microsoft Exchange. This will not only Sync folders, such as Trash, but will also sync your Google Calendars.

I still use the iOS Mail app, but that’s only because I like to have all my mail in one spot, and my Gmail accounts are more my secondary accounts. It’s only a minor irritation to have to move my deleted emails to the Trash. Hence the reason I don’t bother to delete them often. What iOS needs is more options for using Mail on the system. While there are multiple different browsers other than Safari, there’s only one Mail app, with no third party apps available, and this is what causes users to have to come up with alternate solutions such as these.

Help For Using Gmail in iOS originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Dolphin Browser For iOS Allows You To Use Your Own Gestures

Laura Tucker — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:58:15 +0000

No matter how many times Apple update the mobile Safari and the Mail app, they’re still boring. There aren’t too many choices for Mail, but there are many alternative browsers to Safari. They all have their one or two extra functions that separate them from one another, but Dolphin Browser seems to have a lot going for it, making it a very worthwhile free download.

I fall in love with a new browser, be it for iOS or OS X, at least once a year. Sometimes I use other browsers because they’re functional, but sometimes it’s a complete love affair. I get bored with the functioning Safari in iOS. It’s not fun, just functional. The Dolphin Browser is the first browser I’ve found in awhile that is just flat out fun. And it’s free. There aren’t many things in life that are both fun and free.

The default page for the Dolphin Browser includes a “speed dial” and “webzine.” A browser like Safari is built for browsing Google. That’s what it’s really good at. But we’re way past looking at the Internet just as a tool for gathering information. We spend our lives on a browser. Dolphin recognizes that. While the Speed Dial to the left of the default page includes favorite links, the most favorite of your favorites, it also includes a “Webzine.” It takes Facebook, Twitter, and newsy sites such as USA Today and Mac Rumors and places the most recent stories in capsules in your webzine so that you can quickly browse the latest news of the things that interest you the most. You can edit the webzine to include only the sites you want to keep up with.

Opening a Webzine capsule presents the articles in an easy-to-read format that can be flipped through. Clicking on a story brings it up in a text only format. Sometimes the text doesn’t completely come forward here, but that’s okay, as a link is included to read the rest, and you can also hit an arrow above the story to call up the story that way as well. Dolphin certainly isn’t the first browser to offer text only versions of articles, even Safari does this, but it’s the first browser I have found to place it in such an easy-to-use format that encompasses all the news you would want to read.

Dolphin syncs favorites as well, like many other browsers. I loaded it on my iPhone as well as my iPad so that I could keep my favorites synced throughout. I do wish it would also sync the Webzine and Speed Dial, though. Even better would be syncing the history.

The Dolphin Browser also makes full use of gestures. Instead of seeming like something that was added in as an afterthought, the browser is built around using gestures. Starting Dolphin for the first time, it shows you gestures that you can use right away, such as sliding from the left edge gives you your list of favorites, favorites that go beyond Speed Dial, and sliding from the left gives you an easy view of all your open tabs.

But the gestures go way beyond that. There’s a gesture button in the menu at the top. Clicking this gives you more than just the standard simple universal gestures. A V-shape takes you to the bottom of the page. An upside-down V-shape takes you to the top of the page. A G takes you to Google. A 2 takes you to Amazon. You don’t have to rely on pre-programmed gestures. You can create your own in settings. I did this for my most-used favorites. I used an M for Make Tech Easier. I used an F without the middle “bar” for Facebook, and used an R for my Reality Shack site. You can create your own gestures for actions, as well as sites. The possibilities are infinite.

It seems the Dolphin Browser is made for a large aspect of the iOS. It’s meant for a touchscreen with its use of gestures and the browsing aspect of the webzine. The only thing that isn’t well-represented is pictures. This is a word browser. It features pictures just as well as Safari, but it doesn’t go out of its way to make the best of them like an iPad should. However, it’s still the go-to for me to replace Safari, that is until Safari makes adequate changes to convince me to switch back again.

Dolphin Browser For iOS Allows You To Use Your Own Gestures originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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7 Useful Apps and Services For College Freshmen [iOS]

Emmanuel Banks — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:58:18 +0000

Many high school students are in the height of the spring school year. With Advanced Placement, SAT, and finals over, the next focus is to get ready for a new lifestyle in university. While high school has prepared students for the college workload, high school can only help so much with getting accustomed to a college lifestyle. Today, we will look at apps that can help make the transition easier. Many are free or affordable.

1. Awesome Note (+Todo)

Awesome Note is pretty much an idea tank for iPhone. With Awesome Note, you have the ability to take down everything from very detailed notes to brief shopping lists and to-do tasks. Awesome Note (+Todo) allows your notes to be so detailed, that you can attach multimedia, drawings, and more. All of your notes can also be pushed to your calendar without any added effort. Your notes stay protected with password lock, as well as backup support. All of these features may be amazing, but they only scratch the surface of what Awesome Note (+Todo) can do. Check it out for $3.99 today.

2. Flashcards Deluxe

Flashcards Deluxe is the best flashcards application on the market today. Flashcards Deluxe allows you to not only create cards, but also helps in making them an important study tool. You can create tests for yourself, hear the flashcards read to you, categorize them, and more. All flashcards come with several design templates to choose from, making your next study session a bit more unique from the last. Don’t worry about them getting lost, all of your flashcards made on Flashcards Deluxe are backed up and with the ability to be saved on Dropbox and Google Docs. Check out Flashcards Deluxe today for $3.99.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox is an essential service for any student of any age or grade level. Dropbox, if you don’t already know, allows you to save any content to your Dropbox folder and access it from everywhere. Dropbox is free if you don’t require additional storage, and with referrals, you can gain free upgrade to your storage space of up to 18GB. Your content not only can be saved, but also shared online. You can assign your stuff with a link for easy viewing, or you can invite only certain individuals if you want to keep the information private. Dropbox for iPhone is free to download, so check it out today.

4. iStudiez Pro

iStudiez Pro has been repeatedly awarded as one of the best educational applications on the market. iStudiez Pro has a scheduling system to takes into consideration many of the varying schedules that various students across the nation/world have. iStudiez Pro allows you to keep track of your classes, the room numbers, and professor contacts. You can also keep track of your homework, project, and class work assignments all in one application, with support of alarms and push notifications. You can import your grades and make sure that you stay above water with your GPA. All of this is backed up and protected, insuring that you make your freshmen year in college your best. iStudiez Pro comes at a cost of $2.99 and is available today on the App Store.

5. Epicurious Recipes

College is a time when many individuals pack on the pounds due to the unlimited options presented to them both on and off campus in terms of food. In other situations, there may not be a lot of tasty options available. This results in having to focus on cooking for yourself to have a balanced diet or to even have the foods you enjoyed back home. Epicurious, the website and now application hosting thousands of recipes, comes as a handy tool in making great meals for yourself. You can search by food, cooking times, and more. You can save the recipes you want to cook, and even create a shopping list when you’re ready to prepare the meal. The recipes range from gourmet meals to fast and easy meals. Epicurious is free to download from the App Store today.

6. Beanhunter

In college, the local coffee shop can be a pivotal place to go. Not only can you do the obvious, pick up a cup of Joe, but you can also have the local coffee shop as a great place to hang out and meet new people, a quiet place to study, and also a place where you can make yourself a regular and build relationships with the staff. However, it can be hard to find the right one when big chain shops seem to get all of the attention. Beanhunter is there to put the focus back on the smaller hangouts that sometimes go unnoticed. I like to call it the Urbanspoon for coffee lovers. You can get reviews or see photos. Plus, it’s free to download, so get to it now and find your next hangout spot.

7. Groupon

Without a doubt, the cost of expense in the university is high. For those without scholarships or a bit of help from the parents, scraping and saving is the way to go. Groupon allows you to experience your new college town on a budget. You can check out and redeem the latest deals and purchase your Groupon from the application. From half off on meals to 70 or even 80% off on entertainment, Groupon makes having a blast affordable. Groupon is free to download and is available on the App Store today.

What other apps do you use to manage your university life?

Image credit: Girl Writing by Big Stock Photo.

7 Useful Apps and Services For College Freshmen [iOS] originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Android Q&As: Auto-sync Emails, Add ICE Contact, Removed Preinstalled Apps, And Many More… (Week 6)

Trevor Dobrygoski — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:30:03 +0000

The questions this week cover some workarounds and email troubleshooting. The questions about the phones and applications troubleshooting are great; keep sending them! We have got a few questions about building applications. While this is Android related, it isn’t part of what we cover in these articles.

The Q&A

NOTE: Some of the questions will be rephrased and will not appear exactly as they were written in MTE’s inbox, for the sake of simplifying the question and giving as much space as possible to the answer. If you believe your answer was not adequately answered, go ahead and leave a comment at the bottom. We’ll get to you ASAP.

Q:My emails stopped automatically syncing with my phone. I can manually retrieve them, but how do I get them to sync automatically like they did before?

A: It could be something as simple as your data sync got turned off. A lot of time there is a setting in the Wireless and Networks–> Mobile network tab. You may also want to look at the Accounts tab in your phone settings to see if there is a generic sync option. Using a widget like GO Switch or the built in Power Control widget to toggle the syncing on and off.

Usually each application allows for the syncing to be toggled off independently from the other apps on the phone. You could look in the settings for the email application you are using to see if the sync was set to manual or something longer than you are accustomed to.

Q: How can I add an ICE contact to my phone and use a pattern lock?

A: This can be very useful if you want to secure your phone and still feel comfortable knowing your emergency contact will be able to be reached in case something happens to you. For starters, you will need to download an application. There are a lot of them in the Google Play Store. ICE (In Case of Emergency) is the application I used here.

Another solid option is to use a Lock Screen application. What this will do for you is add the option to have shortcuts to applications right on your lock screen. You can use this as a bypass for the security. If you try to back out of your ICE app or hit the home button to access other stuff on the phone, you will be asked to enter the PIN or pattern.

There is one paid application ICE application that says it will let you use it in conjunction with the pattern lock or a PIN.

Q: How can I remove the preinstalled applications on the phone?

A: On most phones, you cannot remove the preinstalled android applications unless you root your device. On some of the newer devices like the Motorola I use, there are some 3rd party applications installed on there that can be removed (i.e. Zappos, Amazon, Amazon Cloud Player, etc.)

If you do root your phone, I would recommend making a backup with something like Titanium Backup first, just in case you need one of them back or something disastrous happens when changing ROMs later on.

Q:How do I see a list of everything I’ve purchased in the Google Play Store?

On your computer, go to the Google Play Store. Once you login to your Google Account, in the top right corner of your screen, click on the gear icon. You should see “My Orders & devices”. In here, you will see the list of things you have purchased and downloaded. This includes the free applications and songs too.

Why Wasn’t My Question Answered?

If you asked a question and it wasn’t answered here, it could be one of three reasons:

Relevance: Your question needs to be totally relevant to the Android operating system.
Detail: Try to include as much detail as you can, such as the Android device and version of the Android OS you’re using.
Other Reasons: For some unfortunate reason, we couldn’t include your question in this edition. We’ll try our best effort to include the question in the next edition.

What’s your Android question?

Android Q&As: Auto-sync Emails, Add ICE Contact, Removed Preinstalled Apps, And Many More… (Week 6) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Save to Read Later on All Your Devices With Pocket

Laura Tucker — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:58:59 +0000

There are many different ways to save web pages in a list to read later. Most browsers, including the ones on iOS devices, include an option for saving articles to read later, Instapaper is an app available on almost any device that does many things aside from saving articles to read later, but it costs $4.99. The app Pocket works on the same devices and saves articles in much the same way, yet misses out on the extras.

I was inspired to download Pocket after seeing it advertised all over. The name has recently changed from “Read It Later” to “Pocket,” and a big push it out there for everyone to download. After seeing it pop up numerous times, I decided to download it to my iPad to see what all the fuss is about and if it was any better than the Reading List function on Safari.

After downloading Pocket and signing in, it gives you a quick tutorial with options for getting it set up the best way possible for the ways you intend to use it. One of those options is to add Pocket to your address book so that you can email links to your reading list. It’s so easy to set up, that it only requires you to hit the button, and it adds the appropriate button and does all the work for you of adding it to your address book.

Setting up your Safari in iOS to work along with Pocket is quite easy. In the instructions, they tell you that the way the apps are created through Apple, they aren’t allowed to do any of this work for you. Nevertheless, they make it quite easy to get it set up. It just requires you to go to a certain link in your browser, add it to your list of favorites, edit the link, and it’s done. It allows you then to test it, and if you have done it correctly, it gives you the message telling you so.

With Pocket set up in Safari, and a handy link residing in your Bookmarks Bar, saving a link to read later in Pocket is simply a matter of clicking on the link. It then gives you a message confirming that it has been saved to your reading list.

To view the items you have saved in your reading list, open the Pocket app. This presents you with different choices for the list, such as all the links, just the articles, just the images, or just the videos. Although I saved it to my iPad reading list, it’s now available on my iPhone reading list as well.

Once again, Pocket helps you do as much of the work as they possibly can. When I installed the app to my iPad, it gave me the option to have the instructions for installing on my computer emailed to me. I did that, expecting a list of instructions, and instead just had a link I needed to click. Opening the link in Firefox opened up the extension, showing me the benefits of adding it to Firefox. It gives you a simple link to click again to install it.

In Firefox, the Pocket extension shows up in the right hand side, to the side of the Google search box. It gives me the same options as I had in iOS, to view by article, image, or video, as well as viewing it by newest, oldest, title, and site. It has all the articles I saved on my iPad listed here. It makes it not only a good way to “read it later,” but also a good way to transfer URLs from device to device.

The main advantage to using Pocket over the Safari Read Later function on iOS devices is that it doesn’t just work with Safari. It works with over three-hundred other apps, as well as Android devices, Windows, Mac, and even Kindle Fire. The other advantage is that it also works offline. To check this, I put my iPad in Airplane mode, and while I couldn’t read anything saved with Read Later in Safari, I could read all the articles I saved to Pocket. Options are available including changing the text size, marking it as read, and saving it as a favorite.

Pocket isn’t only a very convenient app for saving articles to read later, but it’s also a great way to share links back and forth between devices, even cross-platform devices. And the best part of all is that it costs nothing to download, unlike Instapaper. If you need all the bells and whistles, Instapaper is probably the way to go. But if you don’t need them, save the $4.99 and get Pocket.

Pocket Homepage
Pocket (iTunes link)

Save to Read Later on All Your Devices With Pocket originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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How to Watch P2P Media Streaming On Your Android Tablet [Sopcast]

Damien — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:30:19 +0000

SopCast is a great software for you to watch TV online. It used to work only for Windows, but we have shown you how to get it working in Linux. The good thing is that the developers of SopCast has not been slacking and an Android version is now available for you to download. With this SopCast app, you can now watch P2P TV on your tablet.

Unlike the Linux version where you need to do plenty of configurations, the SopCast for Android is very easy to use.

1. Download and install the SopCast Android app from the SopCast website. You will need to enable the “Allow installation of non-market apps” option before you can install the apk.

2. Once installed, open the SopCast app. The first screen will prompt you to sign in. If you have a device ID or a user account, you can sign in with your username and password. If not, just select the option “Sign in as anonymous”.

3. Choose the “Default Server”.

4. That’s it. You have the full list of TV channels to choose from.

Simply tap on your favorite channel to watch the streaming. The streaming speed will depend on your Internet connection and the number of peers streaming.

Other than watching online TV, you can also use it as a media player to watch the video that you stored locally. In addition, if you have the URL to the streaming server, you can also add custom URL to the app.

Lastly, sit back and enjoy!

How to Watch P2P Media Streaming On Your Android Tablet [Sopcast] originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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4 Awesome Camera Applications That Are More Powerful Than Instagram [Android]

Trevor Dobrygoski — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:58:26 +0000

Instagram for Android is a HUGE hit. With something like 5 million downloads in the first week, it’s like people forgot there are other camera applications out there. LIke anything out there, the most popular option isn’t always the best option.

Other Android camera applications offer some really cool features and effects to make your images really stand out on Facebook or wherever you share them. Vintage looking pictures seem to be the thing lately. I have always preferred black and white, it seems classy to me.

1. Camera ZOOM FX

A popular paid camera is Camera ZOOM FX. While we normally do not talk about paid applications here, this is one worth the money. Camera ZOOM FX has features Instagram doesn’t have like access to the front facing camera and multiple shooting modes.

A feature of Camera ZOOM FX not offered directly by Instagram is adding more effects. This is where your pictures will really be a step apart from the crowd. Here are some of the cool effects for Camera ZOOM FX:

Holiday packs
Textures
Picture Frames
Props packs

2. Retro Camera

A really popular effect for pictures is adding a retro look. Retro Camera gives you nothing but retro looking pictures. Choosing between the 5 different camera options gives you a different look and feel to the instantly vintage picture. Effects like film scratching are part of the nuance of certain cameras. You can see which cameras add which effects by tapping on the About this camera tab below each camera on the selection screen.

3. Pudding Camera

Pudding Camera adds effects others on the list do not come close to. Like Retro Camera, you have your choice of cameras. The difference is there are 9+ cameras and 9 different film settings for each camera.

Pudding Camera can be used with your front facing camera if your Android device is equipped with one. Real cameras have knobs and buttons so Pudding Camera gives you an classic lighting adjustment knob too for that real camera feel.

4. Camera360 Ultimate

I added Camera360 to the list because of 1 effect that caught my eye. Have you ever seen one of those commercials with everything black and white except one thing like a red rose or a blue pair of jeans? You can add that effect using Camera360; it’s called Magic Colors.

A professional looking effect called Tilt Shift is included in Camera360. This is the look where the picture is focused on one thing in the foreground and everything else is kind of blurry. For Android phones with a 5MP or 8mp cameras, this could take some really artistic photos.

Conclusion

About the only thing you are missing out on when you use Android camera apps that aren’t Instagram is the community wall. If you are just starting out with adding cool effects to pictures taken on Android devices, that’s not a big deal. You are more than likely going to share them on Facebook or Google+ anyway.

What is the most important feature you look for in an Android camera app?

image credit

4 Awesome Camera Applications That Are More Powerful Than Instagram [Android] originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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5 Ways To Make Earth Day Year-Round

Emmanuel Banks — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 14:58:47 +0000

Earth Day was on April 22^nd this year. For many individuals, it may involve doing earth friendly activities outdoors. For others, it could be a day of acknowledgement for the earth friendly things they may do all year. From recycling to composting, earth friendly activities are become apart of our daily lives. This is even being seen in technology. From earth friendly packaging to the popularity and economical choice of purchasing refurbished. Today, we will look over a couple of tips on how to celebrate Earth Day 365 days a year.

1. Refurbish and Recycle

Purchasing refurbished products is one of my favorite ways to be earth friendly year round. It’s like a little secret only us super savers seem to know about. It’s ridiculous that many people dismissed refurbished product as their purchase option. When purchased from a reputable source (for example, your Mac directly from Apple’s refurbished program), you can be sure that it is in a good working condition, comes with warranty, and at a much lower price than a brand new product.

The second way to be an earth friendly techie is to recycle your old devices. You’d be surprised how many devices you have in your home that you have no use for. This spring, when I started spring-cleaning the house, I was able to recycle an old Blackberry and Microsoft Zune I found in my gadget drawer. In some instances, recycling devices can even be a bit lucrative. Many websites allows you to trade your devices in for some cash. Websites like Best Buy and Gazelle specialize in trading used devices. Help save the planet and make some money, isn’t that cool?

2. Observe a Time Off

One thing that many individuals forget about is that excessive use of electricity can heavily affect the planet in the long run. Excessive use of electricity adds to your environmental footprint. Electricity is generated using various fossil fuels, fuels that take years to develop and aren’t as renewable. In a nutshell, limiting your current use will help reduce your footprint and help make the environment a bit better.

It is very easy and rewarding to limit your electrical use. I personally give myself a plug off day, from Friday evening until Saturday evening, I cut off from work I have to do online and shut the computer down for 24 hours. This can be difficult for many individuals, and those who find it difficult can take just an hour or two out of their day to cut the plug. When you do so, you can use the time to go out for a run, take care of some errands, and more.

3. Use Earth-Friendly Apps

In case you are running out of means to be earth-friendly, Apple has a ton of applications available out there that will make being earth friendly year-round a bit easier.

iRecycle

For most individuals, recycling isn’t necessarily a difficult process. They are just lazy at finding out where the nearest recycle center is. iRecycle allows you to know where to throw away everything from paint to hazardous materials and everyday items like glass and plastics. This allows you to make recycling an everyday part of your earth friendly routine.

Good Guide

This application is one that helps out while at the grocery store. GoodGuide is your guide to finding not only healthy foods, but also those that are environmentally friendly and humane. GoodGuide allows you to find foods that are friendly to animals and even foods that are more energy efficient. You can find out this based on a score given to each product, based on their averaged out score from health, environment, and societal factors. You can set your own score, and if they meet your expectations, they get a green “pass” check. If not, then they fail and you should at least rethink purchasing it. If an item does in fact fail, GoodGuide gives you better alternatives.

4. Make Things More Digital

We each use about 700 pounds of paper each year. While we aren’t carrying this with us everywhere we go, we encounter it through our mail, notes to ourselves, cards we purchase and send, and much more. A majority of the paper that gets in out contact is essentially wasted, thrown away and never recycled.

If recycling seems a bit too difficult for you, you can still save the earth by reducing your use of paper. You can reduce your paper consumption by sending e-cards or even cards made from recycled paper. This last holiday season, I sent some environmentally friendly holiday cards. While they cost a couple of cents more than regular paper cards, they were well worth it. This is a perfect option if e-cards are too impersonal in your opinion. Even the cards made from Apple with the Cards app is environmentally friendly, making use of more durable cotton paper than that from wood.

We all know that we don’t send cards every day. For that reason, there are things in our daily life that we should implement to make a larger difference. Do you get the New York Times sent to your home each morning? No need to cancel the newspaper, the New York Times subscription is heavily intertwined with the iOS application, allowing you to still keep up with the same news as the newspaper but in digital form. The costs are less as well.

5. Purchase Earth Friendly Gadgets

Yes, you recycled your devices, even purchased refurbished, but you still aren’t sure if that’s enough. No worries, you can even go a step further by purchasing earth friendly gadgets. No, we don’t mean gadgets that run on water or by sunlight. There are various gadgets and companies out there that are earth conscious by using environmentally friendly packaging or materials.

For Apple, their gadgets are smaller for a reason. Yes, thinner equals more modern, however the thin iPads and Macbook Airs also use less aluminum and other materials. Gadgets require less transportation because Apple makes them with a majority of Apple products. They are sent to Apple stores or approved retailers, not random tech stores on the edges of the earth. Apple runs its own recycling program, and all devices you use are Energy Star approved, everything from iPods to Macs.

Conclusion

Making Earth Day a regular part of your year is seamless, however making it apart of your daily life is where the real benefits can be found. It is important to make sure to be environmentally conscious all year-round. As you can see from today, you don’t have to be a tree hugger to do this. From iPhone applications to purchasing energy efficient gadgets, being environmentally conscious can be hip and easy. What are some ways that you are being earth conscious inside and outside of technology? Let us know in the comments below!

Image credit: Baby And Earth by BigStockPhoto

5 Ways To Make Earth Day Year-Round originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Android Q&As: Applications For Missed Notifications, Unable to Download Apps From Play Store, Connect to Ad-hoc Connection And More… (Week 5)

Trevor Dobrygoski — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:30:11 +0000

Thank you everyone who has been emailing in questions over the past month, they have been great questions. Keep them coming! As a reminder, please include the make, model and version of the OS when sending in a question. Let us know if you have your device rooted and the ROM you have installed if you have a different one installed.

The Q&A

Note: Some of the questions will be rephrased and will not appear exactly as they were written in MTE’s inbox, for the sake of simplifying the question and giving as much space as possible to the answer. If you believe your answer was not adequately answered, go ahead and leave a comment at the bottom. We’ll get to you ASAP.

Q: How can I enable or manually connect to an ad-hoc connection without rooting device?

A: You cannot connect without rooting your device. There are many many tutorials out there once it the device is rooted. Many of the replacement ROMs have this feature enabled, but not the stock ROMs.

Q: Why can’t I download apps from the Google Play Store?

A: There could be a couple potential problems. If you are in an area of the world that may have a block on certain application or even certain wireless carriers block downloads so you need to purchase apps from them.

If your device is rooted, you may have a glitch in the aftermarket ROM used. In the past I have personally ran into a problem with this. You can try and reload the ROM and that may fix the issue.

A 3rd possible fix could be you are using a Google Apps email address (an email address powered by Google) and not one ending in Gmail.com. While this doesn’t always cause a problem, you surely won’t be able to buy any apps because Google Wallet isn’t part of Google Apps.

Lastly, it could be possible your device doesn’t come with Google Play installed (for example, Amazon’s Kindle Fire), so you can’t download apps to your device.

Q: **Reply to previous answer: In my pc the SD cards are working OK. I can write to it easily and read the files back as if it was an ordinary hard drive. I checked another 8Gb micro SD card and it also mounts read-only. These same SD cards mount read/write on my other Android devices running Android 2.3.5. I checked these cards for errors, but none were found.

A: Try this method. It seems to work for rooted devices:
1. Using a root-enabled file manager, navigate to /system/etc/permissions and make sure you have mounted the filesystem r/w.
2. Edit platform.xml and find the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission.
3. Add an additional group definition for this permission…
4. Save the changes to the file.
5. Restart and test

Q: What is a good application for missed notifications? My phone does not have an LED light that flashes either.

A: The best application I have found is NoLED. The way it works is instead of flashing an LED like other devices can do, a single colored pixel moves around the screen like a screen saver. Alternatively, you can have icons for different apps like Gmail or a voicemail or SMS show up on the screen.

Why Wasn’t My Question Answered?

If you asked a question and it wasn’t answered here, it could be one of three reasons:

Relevance: Your question needs to be totally relevant to the Android operating system.
Detail: Try to include as much detail as you can, such as the Android device and version of the Android OS you’re using.
Other Reasons: For some unfortunate reason, we couldn’t include your question in this edition. We’ll try our best effort to include the question in the next edition.

What’s your Android question?

Android Q&As: Applications For Missed Notifications, Unable to Download Apps From Play Store, Connect to Ad-hoc Connection And More… (Week 5) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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How to View WMV Files On iOS Devices

Laura Tucker — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:58:57 +0000

It can take some time of owning an iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad, to realize the small nuances that you may be missing out on. They can do so many things, that it’s easy to get caught up in the honeymoon of all of that in the beginning stages of owning one of these devices. However, there are a few things they don’t do natively, or don’t do well at any rate, and it can take a certain amount of searching to find the right way or the right app to accomplish the task.

One of those things iOS devices don’t do natively is playback .wmv files. The reason for this is quite simple. WMV videos and audio are Microsoft creations. Microsoft isn’t going to do anything to make it easier for people to use Apple products. I’ve been using Apple products since 1989, and it’s never been something Microsoft has been interested in, and the more success Apple has with its iOS devices, I just don’t see Microsoft bending on this. This means it’s up to third party apps to come up with a solution.

Sometimes we hit upon WMV and .WMA files via a browser, but usually we run into them in emails. The problem is that when you click on them while viewing an email on an iPad or iPhone, it looks like it’s going to play, but doesn’t. It just keeps you waiting endlessly. If you interrupt it and start over, it just happens again. After a few times of this, you come to the realization it might be something your device isn’t capable of.

After installing one of the two apps discussed below, instead of simply clicking on the file in your email, do a long click, which brings up a menu of other apps that could handle the file. This doesn’t mean all these apps will play the file; it’s simply just recognizing the file. However, there are a few apps out there that won’t just recognize the file, but will allow you to view it as well.

The WMV Player app does exactly what it says it does. It plays WMV files. Doing a long click on the file sitting in your email and calling up this app plays the video. It’s as simple as that. It plays it as easily as iOS devices play YouTube videos. The downside is that the video isn’t the best quality.

Other than just playing the WMV file, this app also has a few extra options. One is that you can download the file and save it within the app for easier recall later on. Additionally, you can view files straight from a built-in browser. Normally, the .wmv files you come across will be in your email, but occasionally you might come across them in the browser as well. This app will handle those as well. Additionally, you can play videos directly out of Dropbox and can use iTunes to transfer videos to your device from your laptop or desktop computer.

The best part of the YXPlayer2 Lite app is the quality of the video. While not perfect, it’s much more defined than it is in the WMV Player app. Additionally, videos can be streamed via AirPlay and an Apple TV to your television. It’s not only .wmv and .wma files that it handles, though. It also handles MPEG, MP3, AAC, and network-streamed videos, as well as other file formats. However, it has its drawbacks as well. It too, has options to save the files or play them through other means, but they aren’t offered here within this free app. You have to pay the $4.99 to to get those options. While having free and paid apps is understandable and appreciated, those features shouldn’t be advertised as being in both versions.

Which app you end up using is up to you. It all depends on whether a clearer video, AirPlay, and more file choices is more important to you, or the possibility of saving, viewing through a browser, and transferring from your computer is more important. The important news here is that it is possible and is available to you for free.

How to View WMV Files On iOS Devices originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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Solving the WiFi Problem on the New iPad

Laura Tucker — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:58:06 +0000

No matter how great the technology being developed, they can never be bug-free. There’s always something unexpected that goes wrong, causing the manufacturer to have to quickly problem-solve to keep their customers happy. Apple seems to have their share of these types of problems, whether they just have many problems, or whether theirs just become highlighted more because of the success of the products. As is expected, there are already a few major complaints with the new iPad. The one that seems to be the most problematic is the Wifi issue.

This issue only pops up on the WiFi-only iPad, and not the WiFi + 4G models. People seem to have a varying degree of difficulty with this WiFi issue. Some have problems getting WiFi at all on their new iPad, some only have problems with certain networks, and some have their WiFi intermittently going out. There are rumors that Apple will replace your iPad if you’re having trouble with the WiFi, and there is also a rumor that they are currently working on a software fix for the problem. Previously I wrote on how to fix general WiFi issues with iOS devices. If you’ve tried those and are still having difficulty, here are more suggestions to get that WiFi to work while you wait for a software upgrade or for Apple to replace your new iPad.

Bu using the Settings app, click on WiFi, followed by the settings for the individual network that is giving you trouble. At the top of the screen, clicking on “Forget This Network” will remove it from the memory on your new iPad. Make sure, though, that you take note of the password for this network, as that will be erased when the network is removed from the memory. Signing in again with the network can sometimes result in a better connection.

Other than checking your settings with your router, you can also try turning it off and on. If this doesn’t work, you can turn off the Wireless Security. If you’re using an AirPort, you can do this with the AirPort Admin Utility, and if you’re using a different router, you can change this via the browser. Find the router address by going to the settings for that particular network. If the WiFi isn’t working at all on the iPad, you’ll have to do this on a separate computer or cell phone, wherever else you can access the WiFi.

Another setting that can be changed is “Ask to Join Networks.” In the Settings app, go to the WiFi settings, and underneath all the available networks is a slider for “Ask to Join Networks.” Slide that to off. The thought is that with that set to on, the iPad will constantly be searching for networks, possibly interfering with the network you’re already connected to and trying to use.

Another setting that has helped many other users is the Brightness setting. It doesn’t seem like it would help, but many have reported that it does. Using the Settings app again, click on “Brightness & Wallpaper” and make it brighter. Wait a few minutes and try checking your network again. For many, this improves the signal strength. Also in the Settings app, go to the General settings and change the option for Bluetooth to off. Sometimes not staying connected through Bluetooth can improve your signal strength.

While I don’t have WiFi issues with my new iPad, I suspect that I have seen it with others. While vacationing with my sister and brother-in-law recently, we stayed in a complex that advertised free WiFi. While the WiFi signal did go out intermittently for me, I was chalking it up to the router being in the main building. My sister consistently got a worse signal than me. We next stayed in a hotel that admittedly had a very odd WiFi setup, yet I had better and more options for WiFi than my sister had, and my brother-in-law didn’t have any of the options the two of us had. It didn’t make sense at all, but this WiFi issue with the new iPad could be behind it.

Solving the WiFi Problem on the New iPad originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
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