Power Toggles - Praneeth

As the name indicates, Power Toggle brings advanced power control widgets to home screen and notification bar on your Android device. It is a free app (with no ads) on Google Play Store. You can choose among 40+ default toggles from various categories like Mobile Data, Network, Multimedia, Display, Hardware, App Commands, or Root. There are more than that to pick from but you get the idea. Once you choose the toggle, it can be added to the to your home screen as a widget or added to the notification bar.

Other features of Power Toggles include

• Creation of custom toggles like system activities, folders, direct dial, playlists, and folders.
• Customization of Toggle button colors, background style, background fill, and button dividers as per your preference.
• Mapping battery or date icon to notification bar widget. It can be set to be transparent too.
• Creating backups of your toggle setup and restoring them back.

Google Play Newsstand- Dave

My app pick of the week is Google Play Newsstand – an app most of you see in your app drawer and may just skim over it thinking it may be bloatware of some sort.  Newsstand is a recent joining of Google Currents and Google Play Magazines. So why is this app my app pick of the week? Because Android Fan Network can be found and subscribed to within the app, along with all kinds of great feeds and news.

Upon opening the app, search for AndroidFanNetwork.com, hit subscribe, and bang! You’re following AFN. Google Play Newsstand delivers magazine-like editions of your favorite feeds right to your tablet or phone. Once you subscribe, you’ll be able to stay caught up on what’s happening in a clean, easy to use interface. There’s a “Saved Stories” option for offline reading and a widget for one of your home screens that flicks through your favorite news and stories. Google Play Newsstand comes preloaded on almost all Android devices today and it’s definitely an app to dive in to and stay caught up with all of your favorite content served up in a magazine look and feel. If for whatever reason it’s not on your device it can be found on Google Play for free.

Trek Episode Guide – Sean

Now this is quite the nice little app for any Trekkie trying to sort through Gene Roddenberry’s vast creation and is almost an essential guide for us non-Trekkies. Trek Episode Guide does just what the name implies, giving you an episode and movie guide with full detailed descriptions all wrapped up in a familiar, Trekkie-friendly, LCARS interface.

You can search and filter through every episode going back to the original series, even up to the animated series, or any of the Star Trek movies including the newer Star Trek: Into Darkness, according to keyword, series,  TV airing date, Episode Star Date, or good old-fashioned alphabetical order.

The whole app is laid out in the same style as the LCARS computer system from Star Trek: The Next Generation series. I must say that it looks fantastic and true to the looks of what we all saw on the television. The interface is well done and adds to your second screen experience watching the crew boldly go where no man has gone before, with full descriptions and a LOT of extra content. Entry level novices to hardcore Cosplay Klingons alike will find Trek Episode guide a must have, so grab it at the link below.

Skitch for Evernote – Gavin

At one time or another we have all had to share an attachment, screenshot, email, or picture with sensitive data. If you have to share the picture but are mobile, there is an easy way to obscure your sensitive data. Skitch allows you to blur out anywhere you choose. Skitch goes way beyond simply hiding your data; it allows you to highlight an area you want changed, point out an area on a map, add captions, circle areas, or just point out something, all from your mobile device. You can also sync any of the data to your Evernote account if you want cloud storage. Hit the link below, and dive into the many options Skitch offers, all for free.

The post Android Fan Network’s Weekly App Picks – December 22 appeared first on Android Fan Network.

WakeLock Detector - Praneeth

A wake lock is a mechanism to indicate that your application needs to have the device resources like CPU and Screen awake. Applications needs to acquire a Wake lock on a resource and should release it when lock is not longer needed. In some situations applications might hold the CPU or screen for longer times even if not needed causing battery drains.

As the name indicates, Wakelock Detector is a free to install app that detects, and reports the wakelock usage statistics for all the applications since your last boot in the order of usage time.Wakelock Detector can even show resource wise wakelock usage. Based on these stats, You can easily find the problematic application, force close the app or take necessary action to save the battery.

You can even hibernate the problematic app by installing another app Greenify, so that it will not drain the battery by performing its functions when not required.

Unshorten – Kevin

Unshorten is a great utility from Tea and Toys that is as simple to use as the name implies. It takes short links like t.co, bit.ly, or goo.gl and resolves them so the actual link is passed directly to the default Android app. If you ever clicked a youtu.be short link to watch a video then you already know how frustrating it is to wait for the browser to open, resolve the actual link, have the page redirect to the YouTube website in your browser and then, finally, redirect to the YouTube app and open the video. Using Unshorten lets you skip the browser entirely and gets you right to watching the video in the default app.

After installing Unshorten, the setup is quite painless. Android’s default application dialog will pop up the first time you click a new short link and give you the option to send the link to the browser or Unshorten. Just choose Unshorten from the list and hit Always. The next time that type of short link is clicked, Unshorten takes care of it. From there, YouTube opens when you click YouTube links and Google Maps opens when you click on map links – the way it should be.

Unshorten handles a good number of short links already and the developer has been adding more based on user feedback. You can find a full list of short links that work in the Google Play store description and feel free to request ones that you would like to see added.

Motorola Migrate – Derek

Switching Android devices can be a huge hassle. In comes Motorola to make this process so much simpler. Motorola Migrate. Maybe you’re like me and purchased a new Moto X from Motorola when they had their holiday sales. I was switching from my Nexus 4, and yes, you can of course use any other backup utility to transfer the data around. Motorola Migrate makes it so much easier in my opinion. It will take your messages, call history, SIM contacts, any saved media, and some of your phone settings and send it wirelessly over any Wi-Fi network.

I wasn’t sure how well this would work seeing as how Android has never had a good, easy way to transfer any of the previously listed items. The transfer process was so extremely simple. All you had to do was download the apps on both devices, and then it will give you a QR code to scan to either transfer to the phone or from the phone. Once it does that, it searches the network you’re connected to and pairs both devices. You can see a progress bar on your screen as it goes through each step. All of this can be done in the background as well, so you can continue to set up your new phone. Overall, it took probably around 20 minutes to transfer everything completely as I had about 300 pictures and 5 videos to put on the Moto X. Of course, your mileage will vary depending on your files.

When your new Motorola phone comes in, be it the Moto X or the Moto G, I recommend downloading this on your previous phone to save you the hassle of losing all of your previous media. There is one major caveat of course that has yet to be solved, and that would be transferring your application data. Google has an implementation of it built into Android, but it is up to the developers to provide that service.

Shopkick – Gavin

Fact: Using a cellular phone means there is a high chance you are sharing your location with certain companies whether you want to or not. There are ways to limit some sharing, but your location and location history are valuable information to companies like Google. Once you accept that, you can start to capitalize on it.

I briefly touched on this app for Black Friday, but Shopkick rewards you for simply walking into stores. You already are going into stores, so why not earn points towards a gift card? It is simple, when entering a store, open the app and it gives you points, that is all. You can get additional points for scanning certain item’s bar codes or making purchases in certain stores. You can also get lots of points for getting friends to join via social media, but this is not required and they do not push it on you.

To give you an idea of the amount of points, you can get anywhere from 35 to several hundred just for walking into a specific store. A $5 gift cards will cost 1250 points. I have been using this app since June and have redeemed my points for walking into stores for $70 in Best Buy gift cards and $30 worth of iTunes gift cards. No purchases, no social spamming, just getting credit for stores I am already going into gave me $100 worth of gift cards in a little more than five months. Not bad for a free app.

The post Android Fan Network’s Weekly App Picks – December 15 appeared first on Android Fan Network.

Sheep Happens – Kevin

Sheep Happens by Kongregate is a left to right running game playing as our hero, Perseus. Trying to win cheat in a race, Perseus buys a pair of winged sandals from Hermes. Hermes turn out to be a bit of a trickster and the winged sandals end up keeping Perseus running well past the race’s finish line. It is up to you to help him catch Hermes and get even.

The level starts slow but speed up as you progress until Perseus is moving too fast (think Cananbalt) for you to avoid crashing into the myriad of sheep, runners or hurdles which is cause to get a trident stuck in his tuckus. As Perseus runs, you guide him to collect coins dropped by the fleeing Hermes, jump over (or on) other runners and obstacles, bounce off  trampolines made of sheep. Each round is pretty much the same but has you completing three missions for that stage like riding a sheep 500 meters or catching a ride on the flying bull. Sheep come tumbling down around you and there is general chaos as the level progresses. When you finally lose both your cape and help, the next crash results in a faceplant for which you may either buy a continue or opt for the trident and start over.

Sheep Happens is free to play but has the typical store for our hero (who wants to see what Hermes has under his toga?) to get new equipment, skills or power ups. You can pay using coins stashed up from previous missions or get additional coins with an in-app purchase. I did find the app had a hard time resuming from pause (if your phone rings for example) but once in a level and going it had no issues. As any Android game should, Sheep Happens include Google Play Games leaderboards and achievements.

Sonic Dash – Yasin

Sonic Dash, one of the games I spent my summer playing on my iPhone, finally came to Android. Sonic Dash is like a Temple run spin-off but is a lot more enjoyable and does not get boring as fast as Temple Run. In Sonic Dash, you play as Sonic the Hedgehog, a very popular character in Sega’s games.

You also jump though hoops, spin though loops, and best of all dash through those bad guys. Sonic Dash does have in app purchases to buy additional red stars but it is not required and you are able to enjoy the game without it.

aTorrent Pro – Kenny

Peer to Peer networking is a fast growing means of sharing files among people today. Despite the increasing rate of adoption among the tech elite, it has yet failed to catch on in the mobile sector. There are plenty of reasons why this is, such as limited data use on portable devices, small screen space limiting the information, and, most importantly, ease of operation, or rather the lack thereof.

aTorrent Pro solves the issue of operation by providing a simple to use, yet extremely powerful interface familiar to anyone living in the P2P digital world. At a glance, you can see tabs for different views, such as Active, Inactive, and Completed torrents. The settings screen has the ability to limit data use to WiFi only, charging only, or both, giving you more freedom in choosing when to grab your files without consuming all your allotted data plan for the month. It supports loading .torrent files downloaded from your browser of choice, and it also has support for directly opening magnet links from your browser. This is a powerful and simple to use app, and it’s on sale for $1 until Christmas, making it my top pick for the week.

The post Android Fan Network’s Weekly App Picks – December 8 appeared first on Android Fan Network.

Yesterday Google posted the latest Android platform distribution numbers. As per these statistics, Jelly Bean is now on 54.5% of total active devices running Android. 18.6% of devices are running Ice Cream Sandwich and 24.1% are running Gingerbread. KitKat, now a month after launch, has 1.1% share. This number should rise quickly as more Nexus and Google Edition devices started receiving Android 4.4 update and OEMs start updating their flagship Android devices.

These numbers are collected through the Google Play Store application and any device that visits the Play Store in the prior 7 days will be taken into consideration. When it comes to screen configuration, 34.2% of devices sport hdpi screen followed by mdpi, xhdpi, and xxhdpi at 22.9%, 22.3%, and 9.7% respectively.

Source : Android Dashboard

The post Latest Android Distribution Stats Released, JellyBean on 54.5 % of Devices appeared first on Android Fan Network.

It’s that time of year again where we all sit back and think about what we’re thankful for right before we wander out into the cold to kill each other over a $10 discount on a video game. Here at AFN, we feel like we’re a close little family of Android geeks, so we’re going to share some things that we are thankful for this year.

Kenny Guilfou – I’m thankful for my strong family who keeps me going through the tough times. I appreciate the motivation they give me to strive to be something greater in every aspect.

Derek Lockovich - I’m thankful for my loving wife who has been by my side through everything. She has helped me become the man I am today, and I can’t thank her enough.

Kevin Krueger - I am thankful that my wife and I can spend quality time with our children during the work week instead of seeing them just the morning or evenings.

Gavin Hall - I am thankful for my wonderful wife. No matter what she supports and stands behind me in everything I do. I am also thankful for my job; this may sound cheesy but there are still lots of unemployed people out there. I am blessed to have full time employment doing something I love.

Sean Winder - I’m thankful for my beautiful partner, Brianne, my lovely daughter Caileigh and our to be born next week son, Maxwell.

Yasin Alkowni - I am thankful for my family, and all of the people helping throughout my life.

Josh LaTorre - I am most thankful for all my family and friends in my life.

David Quillinan - I’m thankful for my family at home, my second family here at AFN and CTO (CATFON), our new team and ideas here at AFN,  my three daily drivers all have the OTA 4.4 KitKat (N5, N7, and Moto X), and, most of all, I’m still a handsome SOB at 37 years old.

The post Being Thankful at AFN appeared first on Android Fan Network.

Eric Schmidt’s guide on converting to Android from iPhone

Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has posted a guide on Google Plus for switching from iPhone to Android. He says latest Android smartphones like Galaxy S4, Droid Ultra and the Nexus 5 have better screen, are faster and have a much more intuitive interface and they make a great Christmas present to a current iPhone user.

Eric says people who moves to Android never switches back just like people who made the transition from PCs to Macs.

This guide drives on how to setup the Android phone with latest software, transferring the contacts,music,photos from iPhone or iPad to Android device and finally switching the SIM using nano to micro SIM adapter. He also suggests to use safer and better Chrome browser instead of Safari and two-factor authentication for your Gmail and Google accounts.

Here is the complete guide posted by Eric Schmidt on Google Plus.

Source : +Eric Schmidt

The post Eric Schmidt’s guide on converting to Android from iPhone appeared first on Android Fan Network.

Flickr - Gavin

I use my cell phone more as a camera than I actually use it to make calls. I hate carrying around a camera on vacation or short trips, so unless I am going to need a real camera for low light scenes, it does not come with me, less clutter and one less battery to charge. Needless to say that means I end up with lots of photos on my phone. And odds are, if you are reading this article, you have flashed a ROM or two before and know about having to back up all of your files before going down that road. If I have a few GB’s of photos, that gets old. I have auto uploading on for Google+, but I am limited to 15GB before I have to pay extra, and I am cheap so paying extra just is not going to happen.

Flickr to the rescue. Flickr gives all users one terabyte for free. Yes, one terabyte. Package that with the option to only upload while on Wi-Fi, to upload as private, and to upload full resolution and you have a winner!

Desktop Visualizer – Praneeth

Desktop Visualizer ( DVR ) is a free application on Google Play Store that allows you to map an icon or image to any application. It can also make shortcuts or widgets on your home screen on your Android device with the image of your choice or icon of any other application.

Any application or action can be mapped to any image and it can be added to home screen as a widget of any dimension. Say you just want to place a call just by tapping an image of your favorite contact, you can do that by mapping image to direct dialer action, choose a contact and add that widget to any of your home screens.  Other options include backup & restore of widgets, install custom icon packs and add-ons like Direct Phone call, Image Slicer, Image Crop, Size Config tool etc.

Quadropus Rampage – Sean

Quadropus Rampage is a game from Butterscotch Shenanigans that is absolutely bonkers and downright fun to play. The general jist of the game is that you are a psuedo squid type creature who needs to defeat some angry sea god named Pete. As you plummet deeper into the sea, obviously enemies increase in difficulty, but so do the weapons and power-ups too.

Those of you that have played Borderlands will appreciate the some of the game’s weapons such as Butterscotch Bat of Flatulence or Enlargened Goat of Salami. Yes, they are off the wall and yes, there are even crazier items you come across in the game, but I’ll let you find out on your own.

Ways of descending further can happen one of two ways. First, you can defeat all enemies in the level and use a portal that opens to safely travel to next depth, or you can just jump right off the edge of the level and skip it entirely to the next one. Doing the latter of the two will hurt you when you hit the next level so be careful.

The game itself is free, but there are in-game purchases that can be made for those that wish. There are two types of currency; in-game Doubloons which are coins that can be used for upgrades and the like. The other way for purchases is good old-fashioned cash.  you can pay to unlock all abilities,(I fell for this), or just play through and build up money on your own.

The game level design is vaguely reminiscent of Q-bert of old (those of us that remember the good old days) and the overall gameplay is quite hilarious and non stop. Quadropus Rampage is extremely addictive and highly recommended to lose yourself in for a little while.

Duolingo – Derek

I’ve never been one to want to learn a new language, but Duolingo has changed that. Duolingo is straightforward. It doesn’t hide that it’s a learning app, but at the same time, it feels as though you’re playing a game.

Last week, I started out with Italian. Since I’m mostly Italian, I figured it would be a good idea to learn the language of my people. Duolingo starts you off with basic lessons such as learning the words boy, man, and girl, and then it will give you a basic verb and conjugations of it. It then unlocks more and more categories for those looking to become more fluent. If you are already fluent in a language or at least know enough that you aren’t considered a beginner, you are able to unlock the more advanced categories by taking a shortcut. You earn points for the categories and lessons you finish which then levels you up. It can also be a friendly competition by adding friends, but as you can see in my screenshots, I’ve no friends. (*le sigh*)

It all sounds fantastic. Right? There is one limitation though as you can only practice 5 languages at the moment. The incredible news is that it is 100% free! There are no in-app purchases or any ads or trickery. I recommend you try this yourself, and get some friends involved, too!

Pages Manager – Dave

This week I was going to try to be witty and clever with my app pick, but had a quick change of heart when I realized how often I use Pages Manager for my Facebook Fan Pages on a daily basis. These days everyone has a Facebook Fan Page,  including us, and trying to get stats on your page posts, seeing comments, likes and also very important, how many views your post has gotten since you’ve posted your news without the Pages Manager app has to be done from a PC.

The Pages Manager app is an easy way to keep your Fan Page up and running while you’re on the go. You can post your daily thoughts or news if it should be for business or pleasure, checking stats on it is an absolute breeze being able to see how many people have seen, like, shared or commented on your post. There’s also a quick one click boost button that can be used to advertise and get that particular post seen by more people. The more you spend on boosting the post the more exposure it will get one way or another (boost is the only part that costs money, the rest of the app is absolutely free).

It’s all around a very useful app that I use multiple times a day. I own a restaurant and help run Android Fan Network and it makes it very convenient to pull my phone out of my pocket, click the app and get all of the information that is absolutely needed to keep the Fan Pages flowing and being seen.

If you’re a business owner with a Facebook Fan Page and are looking for an easy way to keep it up to date and keep track of all the stats, look no further. Pages Manager has got you covered.

The post Android Fan Network’s Weekly App Picks – November 24 appeared first on Android Fan Network.

This is hardly news that’s going to rock your foundation, but pretty cool news nonetheless. With the Chromecast’s wide availability now Verizon may not be the place you’ll necessarily get your Chromecast, but it’s nice that Verizon see’s how great of a device this little dongle is and now has it for sale online (online only at the moment). 

For those of you that have $35 laying around and want an absolutely handy little gadget that makes your TV and Android devices just that much more bad ass…  Go get a Chromecast. The Chromecast supported app list is starting to grow at a rapid pace. My wife and I use our Chromecast for music and movies almost daily. The $35 I spent on that dang fun dongle has been worth every penny.

Source: Verizon

The post Verizon selling the Chromecast online appeared first on Android Fan Network.

One of my favorite little gadgets in my house is getting better and better by the day. The Google Chromecast is an absolute pleasure to have hanging from the TVs in my house. Just a few weeks ago Pandora was added to the Chromecast list of streaming options and Now we have the HBO GO app getting some Chromecast streaming love. Of course you have to be an HBO customer, have the HBO GO app installed and have that nifty $35 Chromecast.

I was fortunate enough to get a Chromecast right around when it first came out (Thanks to CTO) and it’s been a lot of fun watching app by app get added to the list of supported for the Chromecast.

Gotta go!  Boardwalk Empire’s calling my name.

Google Play link for HBO GO

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I remember the days of being a noob with my OG HTC Evo 4G and installing different launchers (back then the two main launchers were Launcher Pro and ADW) and having so much fun with them until it was time to either get back to my stock Sense launcher or ADW (my favorite back then). There were a few steps that needed to be done and it was confusing and agrivating for me at times. Let’s fast forward to the Jellybean days, except now there’s hundreds of different launchers to install and play with (these days Apex and Nova are the big dogs), but it can still be a pain in the ass switching launchers by either installing a new launcher, uninstalling a launcher, clearing defaults in your settings etc to get to the launcher you want for that particular day. I like switching launchers…  I didn’t like the process.

The latest version of Android 4.4, KitKat, has made switching launchers an absolute breeze and fun. In your settings menu on your Android device running KitKat there is a tab labeled “home”. Inside the home tab is a list of launchers you have installed on to your device. If you should have Apex, Nova, Go Launcher and your stock GE launcher on the list, you simply click the launcher you’re in the mood for and it sets the launcher you clicked as your default launcher. It truly is one of the great additions by Google in the latest version of Android. Take a look at the above video for the full description and instructions.

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