We Will be at CES 2011 Tomorrow!

I know that we're late to the show (literally), but we're still excited to get our geek on at CES 2011. We've only missed one show in the past 5 years, and we're hoping that this will be the best yet. If you see a couple of guys walking around ogling the booth babes and getting alarmingly aroused by all the new Android phones and tablets around, you've found us (and just about every other guy at CES).

So here are the top three things I'll be looking for at CES 2011:

1. The next generation of Android smartphones

It looks like there have been some very exciting phones announced so far at CES from all of your usual suspects. Motorola announced the Atrix 4G and my potential next phone, the Droid Bionic:

LG, HTC, and Samsung all look like they have some awesome phones in the pipeline for 2011. I'm especially intrigued by the LG Optimus, shown here (although it does resemble the iPhone a bit too much):

2. The first set of Honeycomb Android Tablets

I came close to pulling the trigger on buying one of the recently released Archos Android Tablets, but I decided to be patient to see what 2011 and Honeycomb would bring. I'm glad I did. It looks like there will be quite a few Android Tablets to choose from, including options from Samsung (the already released Galaxy Tab will come out in a Wifi only option), LG, Panasonic, Asus, NEC, Toshiba, Vizio, and of course, Motorola, which just announced the Xoom Tablet yesterday:

I'm still waiting to see the price on these, and I will probably go with the best tablet that comes in Wifi only flavor because I just don't want to pay for another data plan.

3. The new internet TV devices

Although we saw the Boxee Box last year:

We didn't see the new Google TV until it came out just in time for the holiday season last year, and I think we're going to see a lot more options for connecting your TV to the internet. I'm not buying into the whole 3D TV craze because I don't think it will become popular until they can figure out how to provide a 3D experience without the goofy glasses.

We'll try to post a lot of photos from our experience at CES of both the gadgets and the booth babes, so come back to check them out!

Top Twitter Feeds to Follow in 2011 for Android Users

So, you just signed up for Twitter and you're looking to find some cool Twitter feeds to follow for Android news. Well, fortunately for you, I've done my best to sort through the many Android-related Twitter feeds and I've found a few worth recommending. So here's the roundup:

Engadget Mobile (@engadgetmobile) - If you love mobile phone news, you're probably already following Engadget Mobile by now, but I had to include it in here because Engadget is one of the behemoths of the tech/gadget newsblog world. If there's important Android-related news out there, Engadget Mobile probably has a post on it.

Kevin Purdy (@kevinpurdy) - Kevin Purdy often contributes to Lifehacker, and many of the Android-related posts you find on Lifehacker were written by him. On of my favorite Lifehacker articles on Android is the Lifehacker Pack for Android: Our List of the Best Android Apps. It's a must-read for all new Android users. I like to go to the source of the information, which is why I follow Kevin Purdy.

Droid Life (@droid_life) -

P3Droid (@P3Droid) - If you are a Motorola device owner (Droid O.G., Droid X, or Droid 2), you will probably want to follow P3Droid. He is consistently the guy who is able to obtain leaked updates before anybody else. I believe he also runs the MyDroidWorld site (see below).

MyDroidWorld (@MyDroidWorld) -

Cyanogen (@cyanogen) - Cyanogen is the lead developer of what is probably the most popular ROM on rooted Android phones - CyanogenMod. Cyanogen has a team of developers who help him put together a very nice ROM with many functions you can't find in stock Android, which is the reason many of us rooted our phones in the first place, right?  Cyanogen is also very active on Twitter and replies to nearly every mention or DM you send him.

Peter Alfonso (@PeterAlfonso) - Peter Alfonso (aka Pete) is well known in the Droid developer community as the creator of the BuglessBeast ROMs. If you own a Droid and you are rooted, you definitely need to be following Pete.

(@clockworkmod)
A great and useful recovery for those rooted users.

Lifehacker (@Lifehacker) - Another site that doesn't tweet about Android very often, but when it does, the posts are often well written and very helpful.

Gizmodo (@Gizmodo) - This is a general technology blog, which you probably already know, but there are times when Gizmodo tweets Android-related news.

Boy Genius Report (@BGR) - Another general phone blog. Boy Genius Report is known for leaking photos and info on unreleased phones.

Android Central (@androidcentral)
A well established blog that frequently posts updates and tips on the Twitter feed.  A lot of it up to the minute.  You won't feel left out of the loop with this feed.

Android Guys (@AndroidGuys)

The Android Project (@Android_Project) - Of course I had to put in a shameless plug for our own Twitter feed! I have taken a vow not to overtweet.

Complete Guides (@icompleteme) - This is a handy feed where quick Android tips are published often.
@completeandroid

Google (@google) - This one is pretty self-explanatory. Google created Android = follow @google.

@AndroidTweets

If you have any other suggestions for Android-related Twitter feeds that you follow, let us know in the Comments!

This is why you need to be careful who you allow on Latitude...

Android Meet-up in Las Vegas for CES 2011!

Are you going to CES 2011 in Las Vegas?  Are you an Androidian?  Need an excuse to come to Vegas?  This post is for you!

So this is still in the planning stages right now, but since The Android Project attends CES every year, we thought it would be cool to plan a get-together with fellow Android enthusiasts. We don't have a  location or a date yet, except that it would happen sometime during (or immediately after) the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.  We know that many of you will already be attending to conferences that weekend, with the Adult Video Network Conference going on in Las Vegas the same time as CES, but you can find the time to hang out with your fellow Androidians, right?

Anyway, this post is just to see if we can get some interest in doing a meet-up.  There has already been some interest on Twitter! If we get enough people, we could even turn it into a yearly event--Could this be the beginning of AndroCon? (Remember, you heard it here first!) So leave us a comment to let us know if you're interested or hit us up on Twitter and if you have any suggestions for day, time, location, or anything else you can think of. Regardless, CES 2011 is going to be awesome!

Companies that should have Apps and don't--How to work around...

Even though Apple leads Android in shear number of devices, there have been a lot of pretty charts and graphs released lately that plot Android as the fastest growing mobile OS out there right now. With many developers jumping in the race to get their App recognized in the Android Market while it's still prepubescent. With the data clear, I am still surprised why many large companies are so late or missing the game completely in getting an app to market. That being said I have found a few obvious omissions of apps and the best 3rd-party work arounds. If I have missed any, blast 'em off in the comments or hit us up on Twitter.

LinkedIN
For being a large tech company which neighbors the Googleplex, but also strives to reach and network users, LinkedIn only has an iPhone app available for download. Android is also slowly climbing the corporate ladder, so this could be a useful app if it were released and integrated into the contacts in Android.

Work-Around:So, I have tried three of the most popular LinkedIn Apps on AppBrain that have been developed by 3rd parties. And to put it bluntly, no one is quite there yet. But, the best bet that I have found is ConnectIn. The reason why is because ConnectIn strives to integrate your LinkedIn contacts with your phone contacts like the Facebook or Twitter apps do. It's not quite polished though, as was witnessed many times by the profiles disappearing and then re-appearing after a lengthy contact sync in the app. I also paid $1.99 for this one which is in hopes of more updates coming out soon.

Your Bank
There are only a handful of banks that have apps and even fewer credit unions. By far the best one is the USAA mobile, of which I am not a member. However, a quick glance in the market shows that other banks are coming out with their own, just very slowly.

Work-Around:
Mint. When it comes to finances you have be careful whom you trust, especially when it comes to apps. So for now the best alternative besides a dedicated bank app for your finances is Mint, which we have reviewed.

NETFLIX

This is another great example of a company with the muscle to push out a decent Android app and hasn't. While claims are being made that an app is on the way, we are still left browsing the market for other solutions.

Work-Around
Luckily there are several and one that has caught our eye is PhoneFlicks-Netflix, which provides you with a pretty close version of what you can do on the real site, except of course streaming. This is a sad time when your Apple buddies have a leg up on you. One of the most popular apps on the market right now, Flixter, also has integrated Netflix support, so you can add recently released DVDs to your Netflix Queue within the app. Neither of these is an adequate replacement for a true Netflix app with streaming capabilities.

And while we are talking about movies, another company that could obviously use its own app is RedBox. Despite having an "optimized" web page, it still struggles. I have purchased the app Redboxer for $1.99, and I've been very impressed with it. If RedBox doesn't come out with its own app, it should just buy up Redboxer from the developer and improve upon it. Please feel free to share any other suggestions or ideas with us so that we can help eachother optimize our devices and experience.

That is all.

Latest Games for Android - Fruit Ninja, Field Goal, iBasket, and Kamikaze Race

It seems like the simplest games are usually the best suited for Android (or maybe it's the other way around). If you take a look at the most popular games in the Android Market, they are almost all strategy-based, or very simple action games. The last four games I have downloaded to my phone are no exception. Here's a preview of each of them:

Fruit Ninja - In this game, you basically use your finger as a sword to slash fruit that floats into the screen by swiping your finger across the screen. You have to slash as much fruit as possible before you either miss three fruits, or slash a bomb. You can unlock different swords or backgrounds by accomplishing different tasks. As I said above, it's fairly simple, and can get very addicting. This is also an OpenFeint game, which is basically a social gaming platform. It's only $0.99 on the Android Market. Check out Fruit Ninja at Appbrain.

Flick Kick Field Goal - This is another OpenFeint game with a simple premise. Basically you use your finger to kick a football through a set of goalposts by flicking your finger across the screen. The game makes you kick from different positions, with different wind speed and direction. Again, a very simple game that becomes very addictive. It's fun if you have a few moments to kill while waiting in line at the DMV. It's $0.99 on the Android Market. Check it out at Appbrain.

iBasket - I guess this game was fairly popular on the iPhone and the developers have decided to port it to Android. It's another simple game where you have to make as many baskets as possible within a 90 second time-frame by selecting the basketball with your finger and swiping it toward the basket. The only gripe I have with this game is that an advertisement sits at the bottom of the court, which can interfere with gameplay. I know that the developer is trying to get more click-throughs on his ads, but this isn't the way to do it. Developers, if you want a good example of advertisements that are well placed and don't interfere with gameplay, check out Fish Food. If you want to try out iBasket, download it for free from Appbrain.

Kamikaze Race - This is probably my favorite game out of the bunch. The title best describes the game - you drive your car at increasing speed with no brakes down a traffic-packed highway. You steer your car by tapping on the left or right side of the screen to try to avoid other cars (the game is currently in beta so there are some bugs - the virtual buttons at the bottom of the screen don't work, but you can tap the screen above them and it works fine). The longer you go without crashing, the higher your score. I can't stop playing this one. It's free and I highly recommend downloading it.

Let us know in the comments if you have any other game recommendations that we should give a try!

Beat the mechanic shops! Use your Android Phone as an OBDII tool

As noted on this blog and others, the Android development scene is blowing up.  While Apple has plenty of great apps, the power of Android is in the developers hands to fully harness the capabilities of the phone and it's hardware.  Here is an example of such app.  This App is called Torque and it requires you have a bluetooth dongle OBDII scanner.  Many of which can be found on Ebay.  I went with the cheap one and have had no problems.

For those who don't what ODB is, it stands for On Board Diagnostic.  It basically spits out all the data that any post-1996 vehicle has on it's computer.  This app is especially useful for when you don't tighten the gas cap completely and the check engine light goes on because a sensor tripped.  This app can allow you to clear those codes or look them up and fix the problem yourself, whether its an O2 sensor, etc.  When you take your car to the shop, the mechanic will charge you to run the diagnostics and then if they so choose can give you a run for your money and you'll believe them.  The capabilities of this kind of depend on what kind of on board PC your car has but the info is really handy.  Plus it's just a cool gadget to show off to any motor heads you may know. 

Here are some pics of my experience. 

Gotta Have it Factor: 5

Price: $2.99
Developer: Ian Hawkins 

Connecting via Bluetooth

Clearing the check engine light.




















System diagnostics

Gauges and Dials

Android Project Quick App: Air Painter

Not all of the apps we talk about on this site are business related. Sometimes you have to use your Android phone's capabilities for fun. One interesting app that I plan on trying out this week is called Air Painter. Apparently Air Painter uses your phone's camera and GPS (similar to "Layars") to allow you to leave notes or pictures in locations for other Air Painter users to discover. Here is the description from Appbrain:

Wherever you are, AirPainter allows you to leave or read hand-written messages on the air.
You can locate friends in a big stadium when you see "I am here!"
You even hide a treasure only you can find it from the riddle message!

Features:
* Leave written message on the air
* Read message from the air

The app should get more fun as more people start to use it. I'll update this once I give the app a run-through to let you know what I think. 

Archos Tablets up for Pre-Order: Why is Google so behind in the Tablet game?

I just saw today that the recently announced Archos Android Tablets are up for pre-order.  This raised some questions in my mind, with my birthday coming up in October: should I jump in and get me an Android tablet now, or should I wait?

The Archos Android Tablet 101 is just waiting for me to pull out the credit card:

If you are an Android addict like me, then you have probably been following the latest news about the Android tablets hitting the market in the next few months. First, you have the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which, impressively, will be sold by all four major networks here in the United States, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S phone. Unfortunately, it appears that Samsung's tablet will be somewhat expensive, unless it is purchased subsidized through a wireless carrier. If you don't have an endless budget for gadgets, then you probably don't want to sign up for another expensive data plan.  The problem is, we have no firm release date for the wifi only version of Samsung's tablet, which hopefully won't be more expensive than Apple's iPad, its only competitor at this point.

Another problem is that Google has come out and said that Android 2.2 (aka Froyo), is not optimized for Tablet use. Samsung is circumventing this inconvenience by only releasing a 7" tablet at this time, and essentially marketing it as a very large Android phone. That way, Samsung's Galaxy Tab has access to the Android Market.

There are two other Android tablets that have also caught my eye: the Toshiba Folio 100, and the Archos 101 (I guess Archos literally wanted to "one up" Toshiba). Archos is also releasing 4 other Android tablets in smaller sizes (the 7" tablet is also intriguing).  Both of these tablets come in 10" sizes, matching the iPad, and both are also running Android 2.2.  This is where the difficulty comes in with Google's position against Tablets running Froyo.  Neither of these tablets has access to the Android Market. So Archos and Toshiba have each created their own individual app markets so that users of their tablets will have access to applications.

The Toshiba Folio 100 looks pretty sexy:

One other question mark with the current crop of tablets is whether they will be updated to the next versions of Android (Gingerbread and Honeycomb), which will be optimized for tablet use.  From what I've read, it looks like the next crop of Android tablets that will be running Gingerbread won't be released until Q1 of 2011, one of them being Motorola's Android tablet. I think that's a dangerous tactic to wait until after the Christmas season to start releasing valid competitors to the iPad.

Now I don't want Google to release something half-baked, but the iPad was released back in April. Google has had 6 months to include tablet support into the Android OS, which is an eternity in this age where most gadgets only have a one year life-cycle.

So my question is, should I wait until early next year to buy me some Android Tablet sweetness? Or do I jump on the Archos 101 and enjoy it for the next six months?

A Business Case for Android

It seems like I am always selling Android to my friends and colleagues.  I am amazed at how many people don't know about it or even worse, think it's just a version of Apple's iOS!  So, as I go through my routine of explaining Android and all it's goodness, the question always comes up, "Well, can I get my work e-mail on it?", "What about security?"  For the sake of full disclosure, in it's infancy Android wasn't real strong in supporting Exchange or many business apps, but neither was the iPhone.  Blackberry and even WindowsMobile certainly had the stronghold for the business power user and still does in many ways, but this post will prove that Android is on it's way to the top.

CIO.com recently posted a lengthy article and interviews with 7 IT professionals who broke their crack-berry addiction for the sweet taste of freedom that Android offers.  I have picked out the Pro's and Con's from their experience and expertise and summarized below.  

1.  Rich user experience.

2.  Multi-tasking.
3.  Tight integration with Google Apps and Services.
4.  Variety of form factors and modern design.
5.  Openness.  Ability to hack and root.
6.  Sleek and customizable interface.
7.  It's more fun!
8.  Better hardware (on most devices).
9.  Growing app market and community.
10. Growing popularity among cloud based services.  


Now, some of these reasons can be negatives, like tight integration with Google.  Or what if you don't want to hack your phone or tinker with thousands of apps on the market.  But don't forget there are several alternatives to Google's services as well as many apps to help you complete your jobs.  


Here is a list of my favorite Business apps: 


1.  Portable wifi hotspot (more of a feature, but still)
2.  Scan2PDF
3.  Documents to Go
4.  E-mail (Exchange, POP and IMAP support)
5.  DropBox
6.  Evernote
7.  Finance
8.  Voice Recorder
9.  Google Voice
10. Insert reference apps here: (Formulas, MBA, Droid Law, Calculator, etc...)


For some people the Blackberry is a hard drug to just quit cold-turkey.  Besides, if you are reading this, then chances are I am preaching to the choir, but I hope this post serves as a link to direct your addict friends to.  Then finally, as a last resort to convince someone why Android can fill their business needs; ask them when was the last time they provided a van full of suits hotspot wifi access, held a 4 person conference call, edited an Excel worksheet and scanned and sent a document all at the same time using nothing but their phone?  

Android Project Quick App: DroidLaw - Legal Reference App for Android

As a lawyer, I've been waiting for an app to come out on Android that will actually be useful to me in my practice. I've found one that looks promising. The app is called DroidLaw and it provides access to several important sources of legal reference material. The reference material is somewhat sparse at this time, although it looks like the developer will be adding more soon. Here's what Appbrain.com says about DroidLaw:


DroidLaw - Your one stop shop for legal reference material. 

*Federal Rules of:
- Civil Procedure
- Evidence
- Appellate Procedure
- Criminal Procedure

*Long-Press/Menu to search, bookmark, copy, share, notes, and save material to SD.

*State Codes will be available soon

If you're a lawyer and you've been searching for a legal reference material app, get to the Android Market and check it out. The app is free, so you don't have anything to lose.

Android Project Tip: Get Rid of Your Task Killer!

When I first bought my Droid, I scoured the interwebs to find out which basic apps I should download first. One app that appeared on almost every blog I read was a Task Killer app (it doesn't matter which one).

Over time, many developers have realized the inconvenience and problems associated with killings apps that are running in your phone's memory. I have found two apps that resolve this issue and are much more convenient than using a task killer to play whack-a-mole with the apps that are using up your precious phone memory. One of these apps is called Auto Memory Manager. The one I use is called MinFreeManager, which can only be used on rooted phones. Auto Memory Manager can be used on non-rooted phones.

What you may not know is that Android comes with built-in code that will kill apps once your phone memory usage reaches a certain threshold. Unfortunately the pre-set threshold in Android is much too conservative, so apps can stay in your phone memory until your free memory is very low. MinFreeManager modifies Android's memory threshold settings to kill apps once your free phone memory reaches your defined settings. That way you can "set it and forget it" so you don't have to keep checking to see what apps are hogging your memory and causing lag.

Here is an example of what the stock settings are on my phone before setting MinFreeManager to my own settings:

As you can see, the Android OS in this case won't kill any apps until your phone memory reaches only 32mb. For what it's worth, I don't believe the OS can run smoothly on anything less than 40mb. I personally use the "Agressive" setting in MinFreeManager and have had no problems whatsoever:

These are MinFreeManager's "Aggressive" memory settings:

On these settings, your phone will start terminating apps according to priority at 96mb. My phone runs noticeably smoother with the aggressive memory settings. You can choose your own options depending on your risk tolerance.

MinFreeManager is free in the Android Market. I believe Auto Memory Manager has both free and paid versions. Remember to support the Android developers by purchasing your apps or consider donating.

*As always, remember that using these types of apps (including task killers) risks the possibility of damaging your phone. I'm not saying it will happen, but don't blame me if it does.

Home Screen Layout--How to optimize and maximize

If you are reading this, then you already know.  Android users have Android phones for a reason.  We love to customize and adjust settings in our devices that:
A) You can't do on an iPhone
B) Optimize the user experience for our usage habits
and
C) Because we can.

Furthermore, I think its pretty safe to say most Android users are constantly tinkering with their home screens to maximize the space, widgets and apps most used.  After giving it some thought, I wanted to propose a method to organizing your home screens and point out some things to keep in mind when laying it out.

First- download a launcher you are comfortable with.  For many this may be the stock launcher, but there are a host of other launchers that offer plenty of features and add ons.  I personally am using LauncherPro, but there is ADW that comes in CyanogenMod and  etc, etc, if you are curious.   Lifehacker did a great write up on launchers. The features in some of these launchers can help save space on the home screens and even double up on some functions.
Second- widgets.  We all love them.  They are the eye candy that never gets old in Android, but be warned that loading many widgets on the screens can eat into battery and affect performance, so just keep that in mind.

Okay, for the sake of this blog post I am assuming a 5 screen layout and I have customized my home screen to a 5x4 layout through LauncherPro as you will see.  The next step is to identify your usage habits and needs to organize similar apps on the certain pages.   To help with this, I have 'labeled' my 5 home screens under the following categories:

(from left to right)
1.  Reference and Games
2.  Media
3.  Dashboard (Home)
4.  Utility
5.  Special Purpose

1.  Reference and Games
This page is the farthest page left on my device, but proves to be very helpful.  I like to think of this page as my genius page.  You know those times when you are in a group and someone argues with you on how many ounces are in a cup?  or who is the lead actor in the next summer blockbuster?  This is the page to refer to.  I also keep my time wasters like games and some space for other reference style apps or widgets.

2.  Media
Whether it's social, right-wing, Hollywood, user created or streaming media the page-left is the catch all for information on friends, the world or my own pictures or music.  Android is embedded heavily on the media side, so it's good to keep this one close.  I have also created some contact shortcuts at the bottom on this page for frequently called or potentially useful contacts.

3.  The Dashboard
The dashboard or home screen is the center of the five and is really the most important one in determining how effectively you use your phone.   It's the first thing you will look at so having apps that regularly use and widgets you will want to see on the fly are ideal.  I have taken this page to be primarily my communication page as all main forms of messaging are on it as well as apps I check at least daily if not hourly.

4.  Utility
Android is all about function and productivity.  So I have used page-right as my utility page, which is full of settings, controls, folders or one-off apps that are handy/useful.  I could put all the power settings on one row in CM6 but have opted for larger buttons and spread it out over 2 rows.  This page is all about convenience and usefulness.

5.  Special Purpose
This page is kind of different and best dedicated to your lifestyle, job or hobby.  I travel a lot, so I decided to dedicate this screen for all things travel which comes in very handy when on the road.  As you will see I opted for the widget plotting out my upcoming flights as well as apps that will assist in direction or decision when in a new place.  I have also made a shortcut that plots out directions to my work, from where ever I may be, since I am new to the area and like having the directions on hand when I return from my adventures.  If you are in the medical field maybe this page has apps related to medicine and health news and apps like Epocrates, if you are into photography maybe you put photo apps and web shortcuts and photo related widgets here.

Only you know what works for you, but I hope these categories and uses can help you explore or identify ways to get the most of out Android and unlock all the features available to you.

(Updated) Android Project Quick Tip: How to Set Your Android Browser to View Full Web Sites (as opposed to mobile sites)

Update:  I just realized that phones running stock Android 2.2 or prior versions most likely don't have the same menu settings as those described below. I was running a custom ROM at the time I wrote this. However, thanks to Lifehacker, I have discovered a way for stock users to access the menu settings they need to change your Browser to view full websites as opposed to the mobile only. So here you go:


Open your browser, enter about:debug into the address bar, then hit the "Go" button on your keyboard—don't tap the search/URL suggestion that comes up. You'll notice that the browser now does, well, nothing. But hit your Menu key, choose the "More" option, then select Settings. Scroll down some, and you'll see a new collection of advanced options there, including a "UAString" option. Click that, then choose between Android, desktop, or iPhone user strings to change what browser web sites think you're visiting with.

If you are running CyanogenMod 6, here's a set of instructions for you:

We all know how nice it is when websites have a mobile version for those of us on mobile devices. Mobile sites are optimized for viewing on a device with a smaller screen and usually have less advertisements and pictures that slow down viewing and rendering of these sites on your phone.

However, there are often times when you want to see the full version of the website. Most websites are set up to recognize whether you are trying to view the site with a mobile browser. The website then automatically redirects you to the mobile site without asking.

The stock Android 2.2 browser has an option that will "trick" websites into thinking you are using a desktop browser, thereby avoiding the redirect to the mobile version of the website. I'm not aware of whether the stock Android browser had this feature before Android 2.2 (Froyo) was released, but it's there now. Since Android doesn't come with a user manual, we're here to help you out.

So here are the steps to force your browser to view full websites:

1. Open up the stock Android 2.2 browser;
2. Press the "Menu" button;
3. Select the "More" option;
4. Select the "Settings" option;
5. Select the "User Agent" option (shown below):

6. Select the "Desktop" button (shown below):

And that should do it. You can always change the setting back to "Android" if you want to go back to viewing mobile sites. There are also selections for "iPhone" and "Internet Explorer 6" but I haven't played around with those settings enough to figure out what they do. If anybody knows, leave us a tip in the comments!

The Android Project Reviews: Knocking Live Beta (Cross-Platform Video Chat App)

Category: Video Chat
Price:  Free
Gotta-Have-It Factor: 1

I need to preface this review by noting that Knocking Live is currently in Beta (hence the "Beta" in the title). This review may change once the final version is released.  That being said, Knocking Live is not ready for mainstream use, in my opinion.

The one advantage to Knocking Live is that it is a closs-platform video chat application. So those of you Android users out there who have friends with an iPhone (i.e. every Android user out there), can supposedly use Knocking Live to videochat with your iPhone friends (to give you a better view of their sense of superiority).

Unfortunately, after testing Knocking Live with one friend who owns an iPhone 4, and one friend with a Nexus One, I was unable to get Knocking Live to work (I own a Motorola Droid, if you were wondering).

The biggest problem we had was the force closes, which came frequently. We didn't get more than 5 seconds of video feed without the app force closing. Another problem was that we couldn't get the audio to work. So it ended up being a laggy, silent video feed. And the last problem is that only one video stream seemed to work at a time. If I could see my friend on my phone, he couldn't see me on my phone, and vice versa.

Another frustration I had with Knocking Live is that your friends have to be "Online" for you to be able to "knock" on their door. For me, this meant I had to have the application open and in the foreground. So in order to videochat with your friends, you'd have to contact them via other means first, tell them to open up Knocking Live, and then "knock" on their door. Hopefully they'll come up with a way to notify your friends that you want to chat with them, without always having Knocking Live open and running.

Fortunately, Knocking Live is free in the Android Market because I wouldn't recommend paying anything for this app. So I'll wait and see if Knocking Live improves at all with future updates. But for now, I'd search elsewhere if you're looking for a cross-platform video chat application. I give it a 1 on the gotta-have-it scale.

Android Project How-To: Manually Remove Pre-Loaded Apps

In the beginning of the Android invasion the carriers shipped their first phones without a lot of bloat/crapware mainly due to the small user base at the time. Now that Android is gaining an approximate 200,000 new followers a day, there is serious incentive for the carriers to load apps like Nascar, AmazonMP3, and a host of other apps that may very well be useless to the user. Even worse, is they bake these apps into the OS so standard un-installation is not possible. But, thanks to the Android Community out there, it is possible to Root nearly any device on the market and gain privileges you should have had in the first place--like being able to remove those apps that are of no interest to you and that are possibly using some behind the scenes CPU.

In this post I will show you how to remove these apps for free using a few simple lines of code via the Terminal Emulator. For the record I am on a Nexus One (AT&T version) running CM6 so naturally I didn't have much pre-loaded; AmazonMP3 was the only one. For the newer phones on other carriers there are likely more apps you may want removed.

Here are the steps:

1. Get Rooted. If you are not, then this post is not for you. If you want to be, try Google.

2. Download SuperUser from the market.

3. Download Teminal Emulator from the market.

4. Ensure SuperUser rights for Terminal Emulator in the SuperUser app.

5. Open Terminal Emulator.

6. You should see a # sign. If you don't type "su" and hit return.

7. You will need to remount your system folder on the phone with write permissions. To do this type "mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mtdblock3  /system" hit return.

(it won't say anything it will just go back to a # sign again).

8. Now type "cd  /system/app" hit return and then "ls"

You will now see a of all the apk files, which are the applications. For the most part the crapware apps aren't tied together or connected to the Android System. I wanted to remove AmazonMP3, which is pretty much a standalone.

9. Type "rm -r xxxxx.apk" (it's case sensitive) hit return.

example: rm -r com.amazon.mp3.apk

And as you can see my phone no longer has AmazonMP3 in its app drawer.

There are a number of steps, but trust me it is fairly simple and easy. After I did these, I restarted my App Launcher and found the AmazonMP3 app gone. It is also not self starting and running in the background.

As usual, there are risks with these types of activities, so please do a backup beforehand.

There are a number of apps that require Root that do great back-ups found in the market, like Titanium, MyBackUp Pro, etc.

Good luck!