Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Some of my favourite Android Apps



The easiest way to start downloading apps onto your Android device is to go to the Google Play Store (usually pre-installed on your device) and to choose from the compatible apps listed there.

You could also go to play.google.com on your computer (if you don't have a Google account you will need to sign up for one, don't worry it's free). The Google play store has thousands of apps which are free or free to try. Apps are split into categories (I used my own for the links below) making it easy to find stuff you need.

The variety of apps is very great, showing us that almost anything is possible with an Android device.


Category: Messaging

Category: Office
Category: Internet
Category: Multi Media

Category: Tools

A special mention to Tasker, which is an amazing app. Sadly, my photo does not have enough RAM or CPU power to use it.

At a later stage I will zoom in on a few apps, at the moment there is not enough time for me to do a writeup of each of them.

Feel free to mention your favourite apps in the comments.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

A little bit of Android in my life

Before buying my first Android phone in November last year, I used my Blackberry for everything. Today I got my Android back from the repair shop (software error they say) and I have to set everything up again, which is a good time to evaluate the apps that I use and those I can do without.

Because Android is related to Linux (in my opinion, I might be wrong) I thought that this would be suitable content for this blog.

I use a Samsung Galaxy Pocket, which by today's standards has modest specifications. It is amazing however how much one can do with this phone. You can find the full list of specs here.

Android is owned by Google, and I remember when the first Android phone came out (I was a Customer Sales Representative at MTN Jeffreys Bay at the time. The phone was huge, like a brick and because it was brand new there weren't many people who understood what it was or how it worked. I did not buy one of those phones.

Fast forward to the present, and I am tired of my Blackberry (a factory reset and full reinstall later it is still a slow phone prone to hanging) and I have my first Android phone :) Hooray!

Today we have moved past the point of phones being "just a phone", my old Nokia 5110 was just a phone. Today's phones are more like small computers built to look like phones. They have long since been equipped with cameras, touch screens and the ability to store more than 20 SMS messages and 100 contacts.   

But what do you do with an Android phone? You load apps onto it! An app is a small program that add functionality to the phone. One of the big differences between Blackberry and Android is the amount of apps that are available for the different platforms. Blackberry has considerably less apps than Android. 

Next time we will take a look at some of my favourite apps (and I hope you will mention yours in the comments!) till then, stay safe on the Interwebz!