Other GPS units allow for downloading full maps without constantly needing an internet connection. That’s one of their only real advantages (ok, I’m sure they’ve got other bells and whistles too). Finally, FINALLY, Google has come up with the idea to include offline mapping in the Navigation app. Why it hasn’t been there before now, you got me.

This new feature has only just been announced and a date for the upgrade isn’t even leaked yet. Hopefully soon. We’ll do our best to keep you updated. Meanwhile, check out Android.Appstorm’s article on Google’s latest Navigation announcements.

Obviously you have the option of giving it up with the trade. I know some of the telcos offer discounts if you turn in your old phone during the upgrade. You can also donate the phone or even recycle it for that matter. However, there is always the option of keeping the old phone around and using it. Just because it is not on a plan doesn’t mean it’s useless! Here are  6 cool uses for your old Android when you’ve upgraded to a newer one:

1. Multimedia player

Just because you’ve got a brand new, and we’re sure a whole lot better, Android phone on your wireless plan, does not mean you can’t use your old Android as a multimedia center. You can still watch Hulu and Netflix on your portable little device, as well as stream Internet radio hooked up to your living room sound system. Your old phone can now find a permanent place on your mantel or hooked to your stereo system.

2. Alarm clock

Ever since owning my first cell phone, my old-fashioned alarm clock has pretty much bit the proverbial dust. You old Android most assuredly has many more options than the run-of-the-mill alarm clock. You can set different wake-up times for different days of the week. You can have whatever sound you want to wake you up. And since it’s an old phone no longer on contract, you can choose to leave it on your bed stand and have that special digital alarm clock never move or get lost.

3. Video/security/web cam

Don’t just throw away a perfectly good video camera! Chances are, your Android can be used as a versatile little piece of video camera equipment! What I mean by that is that it is pretty easy to use that phone as a webcam or security camera (with the IP Webcam app), and of course a pocket camera (with options to sharing to all kinds of social networking sites when you are on WiFi).

4. Backup phone

One thing that I’ve learned since the advent of cell phones, let alone Android phones, is that just about anything can happen. Phones drop in toilets. Phones get broken when dropped or sat on. Phones get lost or stolen when left to themselves. If you’ve got an extra phone laying around not being used, many carriers will allow you to activate it in the place of a broken or lost phone.

5. Free text messaging

Even if you don’t activate that old Android on your cell plan, you can still send and receive text messages for free over WiFi. This can get you out of a pinch and you’ll at least have some sort of communication, albeit only when you’ve got WiFi. There are many instant messaging apps in the Play Market but if you must do SMS, Google Voice will have to be a good choice.

6. App testing

Most apps that can run using WiFi and don’t need a phone network connection will still be usable. If you’re anything like me, then you enjoy testing out all sorts of new Android apps. If you’re poking around with apps not yet used a lot or haven’t been out for a long time, you may be testing apps that haven’t got all the glitches worked out. Having a good second Android handset sitting around collecting dust could be very handy for testing some of those untested apps.

As you can see, there are many uses for old Androids off mobile plans. In fact, I am certain there are more handy uses not mentioned in this article. If you’ve got ideas, please share them in the comments below.

Introduction to the Go SMS Pro app

Since finding the Go Dev Team, I’d have to say I’m impressed. The most recent app I came across by them is the Go SMS Pro messaging app. I think it’s polished, good to look at, and it works great. There are several features that have really caught my attention though.

1. Popup message notifications

Here on AndroidTipGuys we’ve covered an app that brings new SMS messages to your attention via a popup window (SMS Popup). The app works wonderfully and does exactly what it’s supposed to. After a little testing of the Go SMS Pro app, I realized that it had that feature built right in. This means that there is no need for a separate app.

From the popup message, you can choose to close it, reply to it, delete it, or even add it to a to-do list.

2. Themes

Although I’m pretty plain and I’m happy to stick with the original look, Go SMS Pro actually offers the ability to apply themes. You can find many free and premium themes in the Play Market.

Once downloaded, just go to menu->theme and choose the “Installed” tab.

3. Conversation styles

Go SMS Pro gives the choice to either view conversations in a list view or a bubble view. After two years of no adventure and refusing to change from the plain old list view, I finally decided to try out bubbles for a bit. Corny, eh?

4. Backup and restore

You can also choose to backup all of your settings should you accidentally uninstall the app. You can set up automatic backups to your SD card or your mailbox.

Conclusion

I have totally decided to replace my homescreen shortcut to the default messaging app to the Go SMS Pro app, at least for now. The app works and looks great and right now fills all my SMS needs.

There are apps, free apps, that make it so simple to get your phone to make noise so you can find it easily. Most of these apps offer more tools for finding your phone as well so choose one that best suits your needs. Either way, they can get you out of a pinch if you ever lose your phone. Check out these apps for making your phone make noise so you can find your misplaced phone.

Where’s My Droid (Google Play link)

It has claimed the spot as the “Original ‘Find Your Phone’ App on Android” and it’s still doing its job in a wonderful way. For our purposes, Where’s My Droid has two ways in which you can make your phone ring (or sound an alarm) even when the sound is off. First, you can set up an “attention word” that when texted to your phone, either the ringer or an alarm will sound. You can also go to the Wheresmydroid.com website and activate the ringer via the “Commander.”

Other features of Where’s My Droid include finding your phone via GPS, more control options from the Commander, passcode protection, notification of changed phone number or SIM card, and white/black list controlling who can control the app through text.

Lost Phone (Google Play link)

Lost Phone is a simple app that functions almost exclusively via text messages. If you want to find a phone with its ringer turned off, it doesn’t necessarily make it sound an alarm. What it does do is turn the ringer back to max so that you can go ahead and call it using another phone.

Other features of Lost Phone you can activate via text messages are as follows: lock lost phone, locate phone (a message is returned to the sending phone containing a link to Google Maps locating the phone), and lock phone and sends messages to contacts should the SIM card be changed.

Warning: The app, although through testing appears to be working properly, has not been updated since October 2010, and even the website included in the Play Store listing has been abandoned.

Android Lost (Google Play link)

Android Lost is another app that gives much control over a lost phone via remote control using their website. One of the options is to activate an alarm along with making the phone flash. There also happens to be the obligatory SMS features one of which being activating an alarm.

There are many more features included in Android Lost, most of which is accessed via the website. Many of these features are common security features such as locking and wiping the phone, erase SD card and and locate via GPS or network. There are many more features such as start and stop GPS and WiFi, get call list, take pictures via front and rear cameras, and make your phone speak with text-to-speech.

Lookout Security and Antivirus (Google Play link)

Even though Lookout is actually a full-fledged security app, it has the function of activating an alarm should you need to find your phone. Lookout allows for managing your phone over the Internet, including stuff like backup and security management.

I’m sure many security apps in the Play Store also offer features that could help should your phone be misplaced. It happens to be a standard security feature.

Conclusion

There you have 4 Android apps that can have your phone make noise even when the ringer is off, just so you can find it should you misplace it. I’m sure there are many more apps that can help you do the same thing. If you have a favorite, whether or not it is listed here, please do share in the comments section.

banner image via: lisa nguyen

If you haven’t heard of Cozi yet, let me tell you a bit about it. Cozi is an all-around tool for keeping your family on the same page. It’s a web app (which is what the wife uses) but it’s also an Android app (which is what I use the most). It’s actually several tools in one: A calendar, A to-do list, A shopping list, and a family journal.

By themselves, these tools may be a dime a dozen but together, the synergy is amazing. These tools not only work closely together in tandem, but they also make it possible to easily collaborate with all of the members of your family. Seriously, all these tools in one helpful app AND the ability to collaborate with almost no effort.

Check out the full review I wrote for Android.Appstorm.net:

Keep Your Life and Family Organized With Cozi

Try Cozi out for yourself and tell us what you think!

Of course, Android has security measures built right in that you can make use of that allow you to lock it down. Go to settings>Location & security>set up screen lock. Here you can set a pattern, PIN or password. That’s the built in way. The Google Play Store on the other hand has many good options to choose from. Here is a list of 4 awesome screen locking apps you can try and see which you would prefer:

1. APP Lock

If you’re looking for an all-around good screen locking app, APP Lock is certainly an awesome option. Several of the most notable features are the ability to use a password or pattern and the ability to use it to lock down virtually any app you’ve got installed.

Another awesome tweak you can do with APP Lock is called “allow short exit” which lets you set a specific amount of time that the app stays unlocked even when closed so you don’t have to repeatedly re-enter the password or pattern.

2. iLockit for Android ($0.99)

iLockit allows several different types of actions you can use in order to unlock your phone. The built in pattern lock screen is simple: you trace a previously set pattern to get into the phone. iLockit lets you use an image of your choice and gives you several actions you can perform using the image as a reference:

• tap – tap a specified area of the image
• hold – press and hold a specified area for a specified amount of time
• trip – set two areas, with an imaginary line connecting them, and swipe through the line, effectively “tripping” it (not tracing it)
• multi – press two different specifies places simultaneously.

You can use one or several of those actions in a row in order to lock down your device. This does away with a snoop’s ability to use finger smudges on the screen to trace out your pattern.

NOTE: Photo Lock Screen is a somewhat similar app that happens to be free.

3. Mirage

Mirage takes pattern unlocking to a whole new level. With it you can do several very cool things. Imagine being able to set a different unlock pattern to specific apps you want locked down. With mirage, you can do that with up to 5 different apps. Also, you can set a specific unlock pattern to open a drawer full of many specified apps. For instance, you can set up patterns for your own categories of apps. Finally, you can set patterns to open to specific launchers.

The other awesome part about using Mirage is that the lockscreen contains a shortcut to a contact number in the case you lose your phone and someone honest finds it. There’s even a shortcut to an emergency number and 911 so there’s no rigmarole to go through in the case of an emergency. Add to that themes and you’ve got one awesome choice!

4. Visidon AppLock for Android

Although Visidon, as far as I can tell, doesn’t actually lock users out of the whole phone but only specified apps, it still makes this list for the pure amount of coolness in embodies. With Visidon, your face becomes the secret pass key which locks down your apps. Yes, now your phone can recognize your face to verify that you’re authorized to use it!

If something funky happens and your face just isn’t cutting the mustard for some reason, don’t worry because you also provide a pass code to bypass the facial recognition if the lock app farts.

Is it possible that the Plus version of the app includes an actual lockscreen?

Conclusion

This list is only of 4 really cool locking apps you can use to help lock people out of your Android phone. I’m sure you have your own favorite so please, do share!

What brings us to such a question?

Example one: Facebook

The reason I came to this question is because in the case of Facebook, the newly designed Android app looked really cool, but it ran very slow, at least on my phone. It takes forever for the main screen to load and photos are almost as annoying to load. After feeling my frustration level increasing for the several stinking moments it takes to do anything, I eventually would check out Facebook.com in my phone’s browser, usually ending up with a MUCH better load time and an incredibly similar design layout.

Does this mean I never use the Facebook Android app anymore? No. They are working on improving the performance (although, IMO not quickly enough) and I do see some benefits but I just find myself going back and forth.

Example two: Twitter

Another tool I use all the time on my phone is Twitter. I’d been using the Hootsuite Android app for quite some time and I love it. I was running into a few issues, one of which Hootsuite was occasionally taking its time sending tweets or not sending them at all. It was getting frustrating having to kill the app and reopen it just for the message to go out. I eventually found myself going to Twitter’s own mobile website (they’ve done a good job with it recently).

I do still use Hootsuite while on my laptop because I love how it handles my many social networking accounts.

These are two examples of tools that have me questioning: Which is better? The Android app or the mobile website? I know there are benefits to using an Android app, such as offline use for some, but the question still remains whether it’s always the better choice.

What do you think?

The question’s in your court: Do you ever find yourself preferring a mobile website over an Android app option?

When you bring your first Android device home it is no exception. There is so much about Android that you can learn that it’s hard to fit into a manual that’ll fit in the packaging. That’s why it’s oh so helpful to read guides that help you through the nitty-gritty details of making the most of your shiny new device.

MakeUseOf.com is a blog that does a great job of making complicated tech easier to digest by the every day masses. They’ve released an Android manual that should make owning your first Android device a whole lot easier. It introduces you to the world of Android and covers many topics that you’re sure to want to know about.

The manual is called “An Android Guide: These Are The Droids You’re Looking For” and here’s a quick rundown of the table of contents so you know what you’re looking at:

1. Introduction (history of Android, Android versions explained, manufacturer skins)
2. Home screen interface
3. Multimedia enjoyment and management
4. The Android marketplace (now called Google Play Market)
5. Tweaking your Android
6. Security
7. Conclusion (further reading)

Obviously you’ll also want to follow AndroidTipGuys for ongoing tips and tricks (newsletter, Facebook, Twitter) but this manual is a great introduction! Signup to receive this Android manual for free!

What does Pocket do?

I used to email myself articles for later reading but that can become cumbersome and the “reminder” emails can get lost in the sea of other emails. Pocket is a simple app that has this one simple function. Perhaps the former name, “Read It Later”, better describes its purpose.

How does it work?

The app is simple to install and even simpler to use. When you’re at a webpage you want to read later, simply “share” it using the Pocket app, which is simple since it shows up on the app list. When you’re ready to find the articles later, simply open the Pocket app and you’ll find the list of articles and pages you’ve saved.

From there you can add tags, mark them as read, star them, delete them, share them, and yes, even read them. Pocket actually offers you a stripped down version of the article or page for simpler reading but you can also view it in all its glory if that’s your choice.

When looking for saved articles, you can filter them by title, url, or tags so articles don’t get lost in the shuffle. You can even view your list of saved articles in any desktop browser as well, where you can read them easier, better organize them, and access them from anyplace (getpocket.com).

Conclusion

Pocket is useful because of the simplicity it does it’s one chore. It makes setting aside reading for later very easy and fun. And yes, it is a whole lot better than emailing yourself.

via: appstorm

The article I wrote was about a wonderful Android (and other mobile OSs) app called Lemon. Lemon allows the user to capture pictures of receipts and have them automatically scanned and organized, helping to keep track of expenses. After testing the app I fell in love with it’s simplicity and usefulness.

Check out the blog post for yourself! Oh, and tell Genna I said hi!