Hijinks Inc.

Tag: Android

  • Juice Up Your Battery Life!

    If there’s a consistent complaint among most Android phones, it’s the battery life. Especially as the screens get larger and higher-resolution, the battery life continues to shrink (I’m looking at you, Droid Incredible!). While there are some options for higher capacity batteries on the market, I’m going to go over some ways you can extend the life of the battery you’ve got.

    To discover where your battery issues lie, the first thing you need to do is see what’s eating up your battery. I recommend checking this after you’ve run your battery down most of the way on a normal day of use. To check your battery use, go to your Android Settings -> About Phone -> Battery Use. You should see a screen that looks something like mine. This screen will tell you how long your phone has been unplugged and what applications are using the most battery. Depending on how you use your phone, you can expect to see things like the Display and Phone calls toward the top of the list. If you have any installed applications using much more than 2-3% of your battery (depending on your usage), you might want to see if they have any settings that might reduce their impact. (more…)

  • Android App Review: WidgetLocker Lockscreen

    Publisher: TeslaCoil Software
    Platform: Android 2.1 or higher
    Cost: $0.99 (Introductory Sale)
    [AppBrain Link]
    Release Date: June 17, 2010
    Version Reviewed: 1.1.2

    As most of you know, one of the best things about Android is the customization ability of the operating system.  Even without rooting, you can do many things to personalize your device and make it fit your style.  Besides the home screen, probably the most seen screens in Android is the lock screen.  The lock screen is the boring old slide to unlock screen with a clock, and that’s about it.  Wouldn’t it be nice to customize the lock screen with some widgets to make it more useful? Enter WidgetLocker Lockscreen.  WidgetLocker allows you to completely customize your lock screen with widgets, and even application shortcuts. (more…)

  • To Root, or not to Root?

    SuperUserOne of the biggest questions that Android power users must face is whether or not to root their device.  The majority of Android devices have been rooted, and those that haven’t will probably be rooted soon.  Rooting your device can be risky, but there are several benefits to doing so.  These include themes, screenshots, backups, wireless tethering,  overclocking, and custom ROMs.  Read on past the break for more details.

    Disclaimer: Rooting your device is risky.  It may void the manufacturer’s warranty, and may ruin your device – even if done properly.  Hijinks, Inc. and myself take no responsibility for any damages that may occur by doing so. (more…)

  • What You Need to Know About FroYo

    Android 2.2The talk in the Android world right now is about Android 2.2, codenamed FroYo.  FroYo will build on the improvements made in the last major release, Éclair by increasing speed and adding some great new features.  More on that in a bit.

    Google has been releasing builds to Nexus One owners already, but as for the rest of us, we’re still waiting for phone manufacturers to build their versions and release the official builds for our phones.  The source code was released a few weeks ago, so we should start seeing releases by the end of the month.  There are rumors that the release for the Motorola Droid will be coming as soon as mid-July.  The Droid should be one of the first phones to receive the update as it doesn’t require any major changes to the interface.  In contrast, HTC has said that they will have FroYo released to all of their latest phones by Christmas, so you Sense users have some waiting to do. [Phandroid] (more…)

  • Android Users – Ditch Your Stock Launcher!

    Hi! I’m Ryan – the new guy here! First, I want to say thanks to Aaron for bringing me on board here to write about Android. I’m looking forward to sharing tips, tricks, and great apps to a great new reader base!

    For my first article, I’d like to start by talking about the most used application on just about every Android phone – the home screen (or launcher). Everything starts from here, so why not make it the best app on your phone? Those of you with the Sense UI on your phones (most HTC phones) have it pretty good. You get seven pages, and switching between them is very smooth. For the rest of us, especially Motorola Droid users, the home screen experience isn’t nearly as good. The stock Droid launcher only has 3 pages, and scrolling can be choppy, especially if you have several widgets active.

    The good news is that there are options. Android allows other applications to become the default launcher. There are currently two great options for launcher replacements, and both are FREE on the Android Market – LauncherPro and ADW.Launcher by AnderWeb.
    (more…)