class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/intro1.jpg" alt="mobile phone reviews" />As development of mobile platforms and apps soars, it’s hard enough to keep track of Android news and iOS apps, but at least we’ve got you covered with our list of class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-android-websites-you-should-check-out/">best Android-related websites and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-websites-you-should-go-to-for-iphone-apps-reviews/">iPhone app review sites. As these new updates always get released in newer smartphones and tablets, all of which seem to promise to out-do even the more recent models, it’s also hard to keep track of all these portable devices.

There are a few mobile phone review sites which not only help you keep track of the latest news and devices, but also do a very thorough job of examining the pros and cons of each device so you know what to expect when you’ll acquire your new mobile phone. You may already know class="vt-p" href="http://news.cnet.com/crave">CNET and class="vt-p" href="http://www.engadget.com">Engadget as gadget review providers, so in this list, we’ll see other, perhaps lesser-known but very complete sites that cover a great deal of mobile phones and tablets.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/mobiletechreview">Mobile Tech Review

This YouTube channel offers more than 200 video reviews mostly of smartphones, but occasionally also laptops and tablets. Most reviews are about 10 minutes long or less, some running more than 20 minutes, such as this review on the class="vt-p" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RLsQGlIlGk">Motorola Atrix 4G mobile phone.

Lisa, the host of the videos does a really good job at explaining features and going over hardware, design and software in a very soothing voice that makes the reviews more professional sounding and easy to enjoy these videos for the viewers as well.

Here is the latest smartphone review as of this writing, which covers the the new Nokia E7, a QWERTY keyboard version of the N8. You can also check out class="vt-p" href="http://www.mobiletechreview.com/">the website for text-based reviews.

width="580" height="430"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QcMrxnFWJes?fs=1&hl=en_US" /> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QcMrxnFWJes?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

class="vt-p" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDigitalDigest">The Digital Digest

The Digital Digest offers about 38 reviews as of this writing, and mainly covers tablets, but also has video reviews on cell phones, such as this demonstration of the Motorola Droid X.

width="580" height="430"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/l822YX2YwN0?fs=1&hl=en_US" /> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/l822YX2YwN0?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

The video reviews are fast-paced but also very thorough as most videos run close to 10 minutes long. Not only does Ed, the host of the videos explain features thoroughly, he also does it very eloquently, barely pausing because he does go through all pros and cons of the devices.

Since he mostly focuses on tablets, there are many reviews of devices from a variety of prices that he showcases so if you’re not interested in the iPad or are looking for smaller alternatives, you should definitely check out this channel.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/phonedog">PhoneDog

A favorite channel of mine, PhoneDog has a variety of tablet, mobile phone, and unboxing videos (try 1,100+ videos) but what makes it stand out is the addition of reviews covering feature or messaging phones (for anyone that just wants a working phone without the extra data fees), as well as 101-type videos explaining what 4G is, and comparisons of similar phones, which they call “dogfights”.

width="580" height="430"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s_8akjL14V8?fs=1&hl=en_US" /> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s_8akjL14V8?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

What’s also cool is that the class="vt-p" href="http://www.phonedog.com/">website contains mobile-related news and updates on the latest and upcoming phones, and it also constantly offers sweepstakes, where the prizes may be iPod Shuffles, smartphones or tablets.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/phonearena">PhoneArena

With over 1,300 videos, PhoneArena has reviews of mostly smartphones and tablets, usually over 5 minutes long, but it has also many video reviews of phone accessories, as well as sample videos shot with the smartphones so viewers can appreciate the quality of the phones’ video-recording capabilities.

width="580" height="430"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mfi4dVNxa_w?fs=1&hl=en_US" /> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mfi4dVNxa_w?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

The website is also a blog with the latest mobile news but a distinguishing feature is the excellent class="vt-p" href="http://www.phonearena.com/phones">phone finder tool, which has lots of very specific search fields, perhaps the most thorough ones I’ve seen.

Honorary mentions go to class="vt-p" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/phonescoop">PhoneScoop, which offers short video tours on the latest and upcoming phones. All of these channels definitely give you detailed mobile phone reviews so you actually learn lots. Which sites are your favorite?

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/superuser2.jpg" alt="how to root your android phone" />Since I first bought my Motorola Droid over a year ago, I’ve done everything with it. I’ve gone on GPS-based href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/summer-fun-geocaching/">geo-caching adventures, I’ve transformed my phone into a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/android-media-center-remote-control/">media center remote control, and I’ve installed some of the coolest surveillance apps available. However, the one single thing that I could not let myself do is root my Android phone.

The fear of “bricking” my expensive mobile device was too much, even for a guy that prides himself on his moderate hacking abilities. What convinced me to take the plunge and learn how to root my Android phone? Well, the first thing was seeing how easily my iPhone-toting MUO colleagues could href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/jailbreak-iphone-slide/">jailbreak their phones. The second thing that convinced me was my need to take screenshots on the go, not only when I’m attached to my PC via a USB cable. The final thing was seeing how many cool apps on the Android Market require root.

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Root Options Available To Android Users

In the early days of Android ownership, the process of “rooting” your brand-spanking-new and expensive Android device involved a fairly complicated 10 to 15 step process that involved the very real and present danger of “bricking” your Android phone and making it a worthless block of metal and glass.

If you’re in the same boat and you’ve been fearfully avoiding the complicated rooting process like the plague, I’ve got some good news for you. There are now a fair number of one-click applications out there that will root your phone for you. These apps work on the large majority of Android devices. Don’t get me wrong – the danger of “bricking” is always there, but if you check to see that the app has been tested with your phone and version of Android, you should be safe enough.

Just to give you some options to look at, some of the top one-click root apps for Android include href="http://androidspin.com/2010/08/10/universal-1-click-root-app-for-android-devices/">Universal Androot, the href="http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2009/08/16/android-rooting-in-1-click-in-progress/">Recovery Flasher,  href="http://www.androidtapp.com/one-click-android-root-with-easy-root/">Easy Root, href="http://phandroid.com/2010/09/07/unrevoked-3-2-provides-1-click-root-for-2-2-sense-devices/">Unrevoked, and last but certainly not least – href="http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=803682">Super One-Click from XDA Developers. SuperOneClick is the app that I went with, and I believe it’s the app that will work for the majority of people reading this. But before you get started, don’t forget to enable USB debugging on your phone by going to Settings->Applications->Development and enabling “USB Debugging”.

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Also, SDK is required. Just follow my instructions in the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-capture-screenshots-with-your-android-mobile-phone/">taking Screenshots article that I wrote a while back to install the SDK developers kit. Nothing else below will work until this is done. Take the time to do it, because it’ll also open up a lot of cool features like high-resolution screenshots, file exploring and easy file transfers. Once you’ve set it up, you’re ready to roll.

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Download Super One Click, make sure you have the Android debugger (SDK developer kit) running, expand the Super One Click zip file and click the SuperOneClick icon to run it. When SuperOneClick launches, you’ll see several large buttons at the top of the screen. Make sure your phone is connected to the computer via USB and that the debugger can “see” it (activity will start logging). Make sure your SD card is not mounted, and go ahead and click “Root” in SuperOneClick.

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You’ll see the scrolling activity as SuperOneClick does it’s job, with “OK” appearing after each task. You may see warnings, but so long as it doesn’t “hang” on waiting for device, things should keep scrolling until it finally returns the “Success!” message.

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At this point, check out the installed apps on your phone and you should see a “Superuser” icon that looks like a Droid skull and crossbones. If you see it, you’re rooted. If you don’t see it, reboot the Droid. In fact, I’d suggest rebooting even if you do see it, as I had some issues getting rooted apps to work until I actually rebooted my own device.

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When you open up SuperUser, you’ll see that you can configure notifications so that no app can actually run with root access unless you give it permission. Also, according to the folks at Nexus One Forum, SuperOneClick doesn’t actually unlock the Bootloader, so you still retain your warranty. I haven’t confirmed if that’s true or not, but if true it’s a pretty good plus to using SuperOneClick with the SDK approach.

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Whenever you run an app that requires root (superuser), you’ll see a notification requesting permission. I like this because it also means that if an app gets installed and tries to utilize superuser access without your knowledge, it can’t.

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If you check off “Remember”, the program gets added to the list of “approved” apps with superuser access. You can see the ones on your list when you click on the “Apps” tab.

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As you can see, once you have SDK installed and connected to your phone, the process is as simple as installing and running SuperOneClick. The program takes care of rooting your phone from the PC. Finally, you can enjoy a rooted Android phone, and all of the fun and excitement that offers!

Did you give any of the one-click Android root apps a try? How was your experience? Share your rooting adventures in the comments section below. />
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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Act-1-Player-200.jpg" alt="" />Android has quite a few mobile video players available, so as users, it can be difficult to choose the best without trying them all one by one. There are so many things to be considered – and you can’t always rely on ratings alone.

To help narrow down the choices for you, we’ve collected a list of Android’s top mobile video players, so you can just get on with the fun of watching your videos.

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1. VPlayer

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=me.abitno.vplayer ">VPlayer is my personal favourite simply because it’s so versatile and can be kept on the SD card, which is handy since it’s over 3MB. It plays all the major video formats, plus it can handle a variety of streaming video types. The free trial is fully featured, and the paid version is only a few dollars if you choose to upgrade.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/VPlayer2.jpg" alt="" />

2. RealPlayer

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.real.RealPlayer ">RealPlayer is an audio player as well as a video player. It has a handy interface to navigate between media types easily and can even display your photos. Sadly, it’s 3MB and can’t be moved to a SD card, so it’s only useful for users without space issues on their phone. It doesn’t say exactly which files it will play, but it couldn’t play my MP4′s. It played my home videos beautifully though.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/RealPlayer.jpg" alt="" />

3. Act 1 Video Player

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hyperaware.videoplayertrial ">Act 1 Video Player is designed to play iPhone formats like 3gp, h263, and h264 baseline profile. It also claims to play some baseline MP4 files, but not all (it had no problem with mine). Other files will need converting, but the href="http://www.hyperaware.com/android/video-player/market.html ">developer page does point you in the direction of some href="http://www.hyperaware.com/android/video-player/encoding-howto.html ">free software that will do the job nicely. Act 1 is not only a tiny 500KB, but it can also be moved to your SD card.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Act-1-Video-Player.jpg" alt="" />

4. Arc Media

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=sns.arcMedia.playerInterface.arm6 ">Arc Media player can support a wide variety of video formats, including AVI, DIVX, MKV, MOV, MP4, RMVB, WMV, VOB and XVID. It’s still in beta, but is widely appreciated by testers so far.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Arc-Media.jpg" alt="" />

5. Meridian

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=org.iii.romulus.meridian ">Meridian is a huge 2.5MB, but can easily be moved to the SD card. It asks where your media is kept and quickly finds all of it. Gestures for navigating are intuitive and quick to use.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Meridian.jpg" alt="" />

6. mVideoPlayer

The href="https://market.android.com/details?id=afzkl.development.mVideoPlayer ">mVideoPlayer app comes with rave reviews in the Android market. However, this app will only play whichever formats are already supported by your phone. Its 2.6MB install can be moved to the SD card, which is good news. The first search for video files will take a while, but it should load quicker in the future.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/mVideoPlayer.jpg" alt="" />

7. RockPlayer Lite

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.redirectin.rockplayer.android.unified.lite ">RockPlayer is an ad-supported media player which at a massive 13MB fails to live up to the light impression. Thankfully, it can be moved to the SD card. Plays video smoothly and well.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/RockPlayer.jpg" alt="" />

8. VitalPlayer

href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dgo.VitalPlayer ">VitalPlayer’s 5MB install can be automatically installed to your SD card. Sorry, VitalPlayer isn’t yet supported on Gingerbread.

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More Android Apps

For more neat Android apps, read these articles:

• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/post-wordpress-wptogo-android/">Post To WordPress From Your Android Phone with WpToGo
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/write-google-android-application/">How To Write Your First Google Android Application
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/introducing-highlyanticipated-makeuseof-android-app/">Introducing The (Highly-Anticipated) MakeUseOf Android App
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-android-websites-you-should-check-out/">6 Android Websites You Should Check Out
• href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-best-addicting-free-multiplayer-android-games/">5 Best Addictive Free Multiplayer Android Games

If you’ve had a go using some of these media players, let us know what you thought and which ones you think are best!

 

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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/0-cloud-print-intro.png" alt="print from your cell phone" width="210" height="210" />Have you ever had a situation where you needed to print something and you couldn’t find a way to get it done? Printing can be hard sometimes, especially if your printer is broken, out of ink/paper, or just giving you fits. Or sometimes, you just run out of time, like when you’re running late for work in the morning. It would be nice to have a quick, easy way to print from, say, your phone while on the way to your office.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google/">Google has just made this possible with Gmail for Mobile and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/google-cloud-print-print-from-anywhere/">Google Cloud Print. It allows printing from any device, OS, or browser without the need to install drivers, and it’s a life saver. In this article, I’ll show you how to set this up so you can take advantage of this easy-to-use print service.

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What Is Google Cloud Print?

Google Cloud Print makes printing more intuitive, accessible and useful, by allowing you to print to your printers from Google Cloud Print enabled apps on any computer or smart phone.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2304.png" alt="print from your cell phone" width="285" height="416" />

By ‘enabled apps’, they mean Google Chrome. In order to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print, you will need to install the class="vt-p" href="http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/p/cloudprint.html">latest beta version of Google Chrome on a computer that’s connected to a printer. If you’re already using a version of Google Chrome and you’re not sure if it’s the right one, don’t worry. Just proceed with the next steps and if you run into a problem you’ll know you need to update.

How Can I Start Using This Print Service?

To get started, the first thing you need to do is connect your printer to Google Cloud Print. Right now this step requires that you have a Windows PC (XP, Vista, or 7), but Linux and Mac support are supposedly coming soon.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2304_001.png" alt="print from your phone" width="394" height="280" />

To connect your local printers with Google Cloud Print, you need to enable the connector in Chrome. In order to do this, open up your Chrome browser, click on the wrench icon in the upper right-hand corner, and select Options.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2304_002.png" alt="print from your phone" width="506" height="496" />

Next, visit the Under the Hood tab and scroll to the bottom where it says ‘Google Cloud Print’. Click Sign in to Google Cloud Print and a dialog will appear asking you to sign in to your Google Account. Once you sign in, Google Cloud Print will be enabled.

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After signing in, you will see a confirmation page which asks you to print a test page (if you like) or click OK to continue.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2305_001.png" alt="print from your cell phone" width="508" height="553" />

Your options pane in the Under the Hood tab should now have two new options, Disable Google Cloud Print and Manage Print Settings…

Now that you’re all set up, you can print from your cell phone. Just head to Gmail on your iPhone or Android browser, select the email you want to print, and choose Print from the drop-down menu in the top right corner to use it. You can print email attachments, like PDF’s or Doc’s, by clicking the Print link that appears next to them.

Conclusion

Google only recently announced that they were rolling out this feature in US English, so if you don’t see it right away they advise you to check back. There is also a class="vt-p" href="http://www.google.com/support/cloudprint/?hl=en">Google Cloud Print help center that you can check out if you’re curious as to what exactly Google Cloud Print is or how you can connect to it. The page offers many resources, including help articles, basic information, and troubleshooting techniques in case you run into any number of various problems you may encounter while trying to print, or set up printing, on multiple printers.

I think this is a really useful workaround for trying to print something on the fly. If you enable this on a printer at your office or at home, you can effectively print something important from your phone and have it waiting for you when you get there. If you’re in a rush for time, this should certainly help.

What do you think of Google Cloud Print? Will you be printing from your phone? />
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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/0-cloud-print-intro.png" alt="print from your cell phone" width="210" height="210" />Have you ever had a situation where you needed to print something and you couldn’t find a way to get it done? Printing can be hard sometimes, especially if your printer is broken, out of ink/paper, or just giving you fits. Or sometimes, you just run out of time, like when you’re running late for work in the morning. It would be nice to have a quick, easy way to print from, say, your phone while on the way to your office.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google/">Google has just made this possible with Gmail for Mobile and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/google-cloud-print-print-from-anywhere/">Google Cloud Print. It allows printing from any device, OS, or browser without the need to install drivers, and it’s a life saver. In this article, I’ll show you how to set this up so you can take advantage of this easy-to-use print service.

id="more-64350">

What Is Google Cloud Print?

Google Cloud Print makes printing more intuitive, accessible and useful, by allowing you to print to your printers from Google Cloud Print enabled apps on any computer or smart phone.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2304.png" alt="print from your cell phone" width="285" height="416" />

By ‘enabled apps’, they mean Google Chrome. In order to connect your printer to Google Cloud Print, you will need to install the class="vt-p" href="http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/p/cloudprint.html">latest beta version of Google Chrome on a computer that’s connected to a printer. If you’re already using a version of Google Chrome and you’re not sure if it’s the right one, don’t worry. Just proceed with the next steps and if you run into a problem you’ll know you need to update.

How Can I Start Using This Print Service?

To get started, the first thing you need to do is connect your printer to Google Cloud Print. Right now this step requires that you have a Windows PC (XP, Vista, or 7), but Linux and Mac support are supposedly coming soon.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2304_001.png" alt="print from your phone" width="394" height="280" />

To connect your local printers with Google Cloud Print, you need to enable the connector in Chrome. In order to do this, open up your Chrome browser, click on the wrench icon in the upper right-hand corner, and select Options.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2304_002.png" alt="print from your phone" width="506" height="496" />

Next, visit the Under the Hood tab and scroll to the bottom where it says ‘Google Cloud Print’. Click Sign in to Google Cloud Print and a dialog will appear asking you to sign in to your Google Account. Once you sign in, Google Cloud Print will be enabled.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2305.png" alt="print from your phone" width="379" height="345" />

After signing in, you will see a confirmation page which asks you to print a test page (if you like) or click OK to continue.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/2011-01-26_2305_001.png" alt="print from your cell phone" width="508" height="553" />

Your options pane in the Under the Hood tab should now have two new options, Disable Google Cloud Print and Manage Print Settings…

Now that you’re all set up, you can print from your cell phone. Just head to Gmail on your iPhone or Android browser, select the email you want to print, and choose Print from the drop-down menu in the top right corner to use it. You can print email attachments, like PDF’s or Doc’s, by clicking the Print link that appears next to them.

Conclusion

Google only recently announced that they were rolling out this feature in US English, so if you don’t see it right away they advise you to check back. There is also a class="vt-p" href="http://www.google.com/support/cloudprint/?hl=en">Google Cloud Print help center that you can check out if you’re curious as to what exactly Google Cloud Print is or how you can connect to it. The page offers many resources, including help articles, basic information, and troubleshooting techniques in case you run into any number of various problems you may encounter while trying to print, or set up printing, on multiple printers.

I think this is a really useful workaround for trying to print something on the fly. If you enable this on a printer at your office or at home, you can effectively print something important from your phone and have it waiting for you when you get there. If you’re in a rush for time, this should certainly help.

What do you think of Google Cloud Print? Will you be printing from your phone? />
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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/0-heytell-intro.png" alt="free push to talk phone service" width="240" height="240" />It’s no secret that apps are the thing of the future. In many cases, they give our phones enhanced functionality that you wouldn’t otherwise get from them, depending on the phone you have of course. Last month, for instance, I gave you class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-fun-simple-phone-apps-change-text-message/">3 Fun & Simple Phone Apps That Will Change The Way You Text Message. Those apps took a universal thing – text messaging – and transformed how we do that with our phones.

This month I’m giving your phone free push-to-talk phone service with class="vt-p" href="http://www.heytell.com/">HeyTell. Push-to-talk, or PTT, is a way of communicating via a 2-way radio of sorts, and it provides a form of instant communication between yourself and the person you’re calling. In this article, I’ll explain the concept of PPT further, as well as show you what you can do with HeyTell.

id="more-61663">

What Is HeyTell?

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/1-heytell.jpg" alt="free push to talk phone service" width="319" height="457" />

HeyTell takes the dialing out of making a phone call. It’s an app that let’s you send and receive voice messages with other HeyTell users by pressing a single button on your phone. They have a great video demonstration on their class="vt-p" href="http://www.heytell.com/">website, as well as this statement describing HeyTell:

HeyTell is a cross-platform voice messenger that allows you to instantly talk with and locate friends and family. No account needed – just start the app, choose a contact, and push the button to start talking!

Voice messages are said to be quicker than SMS and have very low data usage (no more than sending an email). As stated, the app is free to use and you can use it on 3G, EDGE, and WiFi connections.

More HeyTell Features

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/2-heytell.jpg" alt="push to talk software for cell phone" width="322" height="463" />

HeyTell is very easy to use. You just fire up the app, select the person you want to leave a message for from your contacts, and press the Hold and Speak button to begin recording your message. While you’re doing this, you’ll be able to see the person’s location using the GPS function.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/3-heytell.jpg" alt="push to talk software for cell phone" width="322" height="459" />

Messages can be listened to from your inbox at any time. Push notifications are enabled to alert you whenever a voice message is received. If you ever get an “Inbox Full” message, this just means your friend has to listen or reply to the messages you’ve already sent before you can continue to send them more.

At 16 kHz, HeyTell delivers messages with twice the frequency range of a cell phone call. It supports earpiece and speakerphone functionality, as well as microphone for the iPhone/iTouch. With the app, you can also favorite and export messages you like to email or Facebook.

Privacy

Whenever I write a story about communication apps I get questions regarding privacy. With HeyTell, you can choose from three different privacy levels to control how users can contact you. To connect with other users without invites, use Low privacy. Medium and High require you to accept an invite before connecting with others. Contacts can be quickly blocked, also.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/5-heytell.jpg" alt="push to talk software for cell phone" width="311" height="459" />

If you elect to, you can share your location with selected contacts while you talk. In order to do this, you must have the Maps page open when sending a HeyTell message. To protect your privacy, your location will not be sent out unless you approve and have that page open.

You don’t need to share personal information to connect with HeyTell contacts either, so you can connect without sharing phone numbers or email addresses.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/4-heytell.png" alt="push to talk" width="320" height="461" />

Enough privacy for you? You can also save conversations and replay them offline, or delete them on-demand (there’s a Delete button when you swipe the conversation left or right). Furthermore, all data and audio you transmit through HeyTell to your friends is encrypted in transit.

Where Can I Get HeyTell?

If you own an iOS device, HeyTell is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch (2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation), and iPad. It requires iOS 3.0 or later, though. You can get a hold of this app on class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/heytell/id352791835?mt=8#">iTunes.

If you’re an Android user, you can find the app on class="vt-p" href="http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/social/heytell_khag.html">Android Zoom, or just use a bar scanning app to scan the image below.

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/6-heytell.png" alt="free push to talk phone service" width="143" height="141" />

Conclusion

There you have it, push-to-talk for your iPhone or Android device. Finally my phone has the capabilities of those old school Sprint phones, which admittedly I always wanted but never went for, because the push-to-talk was the only attractive feature. You won’t have to worry about that with today’s smartphones.

HeyTell can be used as a walkie talkie, intercom, or instant voice messaging system to send quick messages to friends and family with iPhones, iPods, or Droids. There’s definitely a lot of functionality to be had using this application.

What’s your favorite phone app that enhances the functionality of your device? />
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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Cinch-Logo.png" alt="podcast production" />Have you thought about podcasting, but given up because it all seemed too hard? Maybe you couldn’t choose a good podcasting host, couldn’t get decent audio equipment together or perhaps you just couldn’t think of anything much to say. Well, class="vt-p" href="http://www.cinchcast.com/">Cinch is here to make it easy for you.

Basically, Cinch lives up to its name by making podcasting a cinch. Users can upload audio from a smartphone application, by dialling a number from their mobile phone or by uploading via the website using their computer. It just makes podcasting so easy!

id="more-60891"> /> Cinch is powered by class="vt-p" href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">BlogTalkRadio, which is yet another interesting web application you might like. It hosts podcasts created by facilitatating phone interviews.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/BlogTalkRadio.png" alt="podcast production" />

Why Use Cinch?

You might be wondering if you really need to record audio at all. However, many people feel that audio gives your post a personal touch. So if you want to build rapport with your followers, it might well be worth a try.

And why Cinch, exactly? Well, because it’s easy and there’s no pressure to create something polished and lengthy. Also, you’re posting almost in real time since only a few minutes pass between recording and publishing. Imagine yourself bumping into someone you’d love to interview at a conference — your interview could go live in no time!

Sign Up

Sign up by creating an account or using a Facebook or Twitter login. It’s really that simple.

Get Sociable

You can quickly use Facebook and Twitter to search for your friends on Cinch.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Build-Network.png" alt="how to podcast" />

You may also follow anyone else you think looks interesting when you are browsing the website. If you want to reply to another user’s Cinch post, you can simply hit reply and respond with an audio or text message.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Follow.png" alt="" />

Make A Post

Cinch is class="vt-p" href="http://www.cinchcast.com/toolbox.aspx">available for class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cinch/id325945506?mt=8">iPhone [iTunes link] and class="vt-p" href="http://www.appbrain.com/app/cinch/com.cinch.activities">Android, or you can record very easily via the website. You can even register your phone number and use a regular New York phone number to dial in updates if you wish.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Cinch-Uploader.png" alt="how to podcast" />

The beauty of using Cinch on your phone is that if you’re out and about with your phone it’s far easier to record some audio than it is to type text on your phone. Plus, you can record phone conversations, such as interviews, very easily this way. Just make sure you get permission first, though!

Customising

Cinch lets you separate your audio into albums, so for example you could have a family album, a professional album and a candid update album. Cinch also lets you set public or private permissions for these albums, giving you control over your updates.

Podcast Promotion

With every Cinch audio post you make, you can push an update to Facebook, Twitter or use RSS to get it to a lifestream. Since you can get your Cinch posts to your friends easily, it really doesn’t matter if they use Cinch or not themselves.

Cinch offers customisable class="vt-p" href="http://www.cinchcast.com/widgets.aspx">widgets and a number of neat class="vt-p" href="http://www.cinchcast.com/badges.aspx">badges so you can promote your Cinch podcast on your website.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Cinch-Toolbox.png" alt="how to podcast" />

You can also embed individual audio files into a regular blog post. All you do is click on the Cinch you want to use and it will offer an embed link.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Scoble-Cinch.png" alt="podcast" />

class="vt-p" href="http://CinchCast.com/">CinchCast.com will promote your Cinch updates to the rest of the Cinch community for you.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Everyone1.png" alt="podcast production" />

Limits

There isn’t a hard limit to the length or size of your podcasts, however they do encourage the short and sweet post. As Twitter and Facebook have shown, more people feel it’s worth updating if short posts are the norm. There’s no pressure to have a full-length show prepared — you can simply record a short segment.

More On Podcasting

If you’re mad keen on podcasts, here’s some more articles you’ll love.

• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-create-broadcast-a-podcast-with-garageband/">How to Create & Broadcast a Podcast with Garageband [Mac]
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/youtubepodcaster-turn-youtube-search-results-podcast-feeds/">YouTubePodcaster: Convert YouTube Results to MP4 Podcast Feeds
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/podcast-free/">How To Make Your Own Podcast For Free
• class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-set-up-a-podcast-on-talkshoe-the-forgotten-guide/">How To Set Up A Podcast On TalkShoe – The Forgotten Guide

If you’ve joined Cinch, tell us how you use it. Do you keep private albums? Is it all business? Let us know! />
/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

/>

 

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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/radio.jpg" alt="live police scanner" width="240" height="234" />Are you always the last person to hear about the latest news? Many people buy police and emergency scanner radios just so that they can be the first ones to hear about an accident, a fire, a fight or any other event in their city or town. In certain areas of the world, the radio traffic on police and emergency scanners can be more entertaining than prime time television.

I’ve always wanted a scanner at home, but I never got around to actually buying one. So, you can imagine my excitement when I learned that the Android Market has a very popular live police scanner application offered for free called class="vt-p" href="http://www.androlib.com/android.developer.gordon-edwards-qDjD.aspx">Scanner Radio by Gordon Edwards.

id="more-60363"> /> People use a lot of tools to find out what’s happening locally, whether it’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/fwix-local-news-aggregator/">local news sites, local class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-websites-find-national-local-newspapers-published-world/">newspaper resources as Saikat described, or sites for discovering class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-interesting-websites-explore-city/">local events like Steven mentioned.  But if you really want to be in the loop and on top of breaking local news events, Scanner Radio provides live streaming audio from police, emergency and weather base stations all around the world.

You can search by the most popular scanners, or locate the ones nearest you. The streaming audio for each area is provided by gracious volunteers that stream their scanner audio via computer to class="vt-p" href="http://www.radioreference.com">RadioReference.com, class="vt-p" href="http://www.wunderground.com">Wunderground.com or class="vt-p" href="http://www.livefirefeeds.com">LiveFireFeeds.com. Any feeds uploaded to those sites will show up in the thousands of Scanner Radio listings.

Looking For Interesting Live Police Scanners

I have to warn you, this is one of the most addictive apps on the Android market. The cool thing about this app is that no matter where in the world you live, you can listen to local scanner radio traffic of any region where a kind volunteer is streaming the audio to the Internet. If you own a scanner in your part of the world, consider contributing to the cause!

Once you install the app, the main page lets you look for interesting scanners by region, “genre” (rail, marine, weather), or focused on one of the source websites listed above.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan1.jpg" alt="live police scanner" width="253" height="450" />

The other nice feature is that you can add an alert for any scanner you find. An alert is a setting where once the listener count reaches a certain limit, your phone will alert you. Usually when there’s a significant event going on, the listener count for that scanner spikes.

If you just want to listen, click on one of the scanners you find and the player will open up in its own window. Even if you close the app at this point, the player will still run in the background, so you’ll hear radio updates out of your phone speaker whenever they occur.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan2.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

If you really want to listen to some major drama, more exciting than just about any reality show you’ll find on TV, check out the “Top 50 Scanners” option from the main menu. This list displays the scanners with the highest volume of listeners, which typically means the highest radio traffic as well.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan3.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

When I clicked on the NYPD scanner, I was completely mesmerized for over an hour as police pulled over a drunk driver, broke up a serious gang fight, and investigated a domestic assault incident.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan4.jpg" alt="" width="281" height="500" />

When I switched to the Chicago PD scanner, it was even more enthralling – gang fights, explosions and assorted criminals getting arrested. You can’t find this level of action anywhere else, and it’s all live!

If you click on the “Details” button at the bottom of a scanner, if the volunteer included any information on the scanner, you’ll find it there. For example, the NYPD details included the precincts covered by the scanner and a few of the most popular police 10 codes you’ll hear over the radio.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan5.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

Download Radio Scanner with this code:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/scannercode.png" alt="" width="135" height="135" />

Supplement Your Scanner With Signals

Now that you’ve transformed your Android into a personal live police scanner, you’re going to start hearing a whole lot of conversations littered with strange codes. If you want to make it a lot easier to understand what’s going on, make sure to download class="vt-p" href="http://www.androlib.com/android.application.com-apklabs-android-signals-ijCp.aspx">Signals.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan6.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

Signals is an insanely comprehensive list of symbols, signals and codes for things like marine, police, sign language, braille and even computer symbols! The police codes are pretty detailed – and the section that will help the most when you’re listening to your scanner is the Police Penal Codes page.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan7.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

Beyond radio communications codes, Signals even helps you out with understanding electronic communications, like Text Messaging shorthand. If you think you know all of them, you won’t believe the crazy shorthand acronyms listed in this section.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan8.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

Another entertaining reference is the Emoticons page – which features every emoticon under the sun.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/dscan9.jpg" alt="" width="253" height="450" />

So now, when you hear about an amazing breaking news event on your Android radio scanner, you can quickly fire off an appropriately brisk text message to a friend letting them know about the news, finished off with an intrigued emoticon.

You can download Signals here:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/signals.png" alt="live police scanner" width="135" height="135" />

Are you a radio scanner listener? Do you listen to local radio traffic, or do you prefer live police scanners for other parts of the world? What resources do you use to listen to live police scanners on the web? Share your insight in the comments section below. />
/>Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to target="_blank" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-share-share-spread-word/">share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. />
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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/iphotoicon1.png" border="0" alt="iphoto book" width="190" height="193" />The portability of cell phone cameras makes it easy for all of us to take lots of photos nearly anywhere we like. Just because these cameras are small with less features than traditional point-and-shoot and professional digital SLR cameras doesn’t mean you can’t class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/take-better-digitalpictures-cellphones-camera/">take great photos.

But what if you want to print small cell camera photos? If you’re shooting with say a 2 megapixel low-res iPhone camera, you won’t be able to print quality 4×6 prints. But if size is a not factor, you can still print these low-res photos using iPhoto.

This article explains how to create an iPhoto book of just low-res photos, and a similar book with both high and low-res images.

id="more-52876">

Creating A Low-Res Photo Album

Step 1: Select Photos

In iPhoto, select 20-25 low-res photos in your iPhoto library that you want to put into your photo album.

To determine the resolution size of an image, select it and then click the Info button at the bottom-left of iPhoto. A low-res image, taken with, for example, an iPhone 3G will be 1600 x 1200 or smaller in size. The file size itself my be less than 600KB.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/lowresinfo.png" border="0" alt="iphoto book" width="488" height="215" />

Step 2: Select Book Type

Now select your album/folder of low-res images, and then select the Keepsakes>Book button in iPhoto‘s tools bar.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/keepsakesbook.png" border="0" alt="how to use iphoto book" width="263" height="179" />

In the drop-down palette, select one of the Book Types (Picture Book, for example), and select the 3½ x 2⅝ size book. The size of this book can accept low-resolution photos. You will get a warning sign if a photo for some reason is still too small for printing. More about that later.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/smallalbum.png" border="0" alt="how to use iphoto book" width="569" height="380" />

When the layout editor opens, select an image for the front cover, and then customize the title (click in the title area to change it.)

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/dropphotos.jpg" border="0" alt="how to use iphoto book" width="580" height="496" />

Step 3: Layout Pages

Next, start adding photos to your pages. By default, the layout of the pages may be all set to either portrait or landscape. But you can change that by selecting the Layout button in the tools bar. With the small album, you’re only allowed to use up to two photos per page. If you want two photos on a page, select Layout button>Two.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/changeorientation.png" border="0" alt="apple iphoto book" width="568" height="455" />

If you like, you can have iPhoto auto-fill your pages by selecting the arrow button and then Auto Fill in the toolbar.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/autoflow.png" border="0" alt="apple iphoto book" width="248" height="100" />

After your album is laid out, click the Buy Book button to initiate the printing process of your album. If you have your own photo paper, you can print your layout on your own printer.

Create A Larger Size Book

If you want to create a larger size book, you will need to include both low and high resolution photos. After making your selections, follow the steps above, and choose a larger size type book.

iPhoto will stamp each photo that is too small in resolution for the page layout.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/low-reswarnings1.jpg" alt="apple iphoto book" width="580" height="413" />

To address the low-res limitations, choose a layout that will allow for a combination of your low and high resolution photos.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/differentlayout1.png" border="0" alt="iphoto book" width="348" height="437" />

If you try this, let us know how it turned out for you. And if you’re interested in other iPhoto book making ideas, check out this MUO class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-specia-birthday-presents-easily-iphoto-mac/">article. />
/>Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof">MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already! />
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Each new language has a learning curve – it’s a process of learning the commands, functions and structure of the language, practicing and then building applications. Here at MUO, we’ve covered some great apps for learning programming skills, like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/alice-teaches-object-oriented-computer-programming-to-kids/">Alice and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/kids-can-learn-programming-from-scratch/">Scratch.

id="more-50902"> /> For programmers who own an Android phone, it is especially tempting to experiment, because anyone is allowed to write an application that runs on the Android OS.  These days there are a few fantastic apps for programmers and I’m going to share 4 of them with you today.

Go Mad With Frink

Frink is a programming language named after the quirky scientist, John Frink, from The Simpsons. The language was created by Alan Eliasen to serve as an advanced method to perform calculations, including dealing with measurements and dimensions of various shapes. Alan now offers a href="http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/android.html">Frink programming environment for the Android.

Visit his website for some of the Android specific functions you can use within this app.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/droid1.jpg" alt="" width="281" height="500" />

The first page you’ll see is the editing environment where you can write up the Frink script you’d like to test. Thankfully, he has included a number of example scripts so that if you’re new to Frink, you can see how the language is structured. Click “Run” and a pop-up opens with the output of your program.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/droid2.jpg" alt="" width="281" height="500" />

Frink is fun to play around with to create scripts for calculations and functions, and Alan does include some Android specific functions, but you aren’t going to be able to perform any advanced display features using Frink. However, if your goal is to learn the Frink programming language in your spare time, this is the app for you.

Create Your First Android App With iProgram

One of my favorite programming applications on the Android is iProgram. Once you href="https://androidscript.appspot.com">sign up for an online account, you can get started creating highly functional scripts that actually work just like any other app on your Android. There are great examples provided that can make creating your first app a piece of cake.

Here, I’ve used examples to create an application that displays my phone’s Wi-Fi status and also creates a two-button menu.

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When you install the iPhone app on your Android phone, you can sync all of your online scripts with your phone. From the phone, you can view your scripts and run them on your Android.

Here is my first app written on iProgram.

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This application took barely 15 minutes to put together. Some of the other examples show some pretty cool things you can do – all you have to do is tweak and combine the various functions within the code to suit your needs. Why search for the perfect app when you can write your own?

Learn Programming Concepts With AndroMaze

The next couple of apps I’d like to cover are more for younger programming students. The first, called href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/andmaz/">AndroMaze is a blast to play, especially if you like the idea of programming robots using a sequence of functions and then letting the robot run through those commands. With AndroMaze, everything is customizable, including the maze itself, as you can see here.

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Each “level” in the game consists of open space, walls and blocks, or “goals” that your little Droid-bot is supposed to collect. The goal of the game is to program the robot to work through the maze and collect each goal. Commands are go straight, turn left, or turn right.

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While the concept is simple, it’s actually an excellent game to teach younger programming students about the concept of sequential logic and subroutines. The program is entered by dragging symbols into the “Prog” field, and the clicking on the “run” button.

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style="text-align: left;">Watch as your little robot follows your every command. You can even create subroutines that the robot can repeat – what better way to teach young programmers about smart programming techniques!

Practice Programming In Logo With Android Logo

Another great programming app for anyone learning about programming concepts is called Android Logo on the Android Market. Logo was a 1967 programming language as an educational tool, but for anyone familiar with Turtle Graphics, this programming app is a fantastic way to learn how to create some very cool graphics using scripting.

If you aren’t familiar with Logo or Turtle Graphics, just check out the page on href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_%28programming_language%29">Wikipedia for a few examples and references.

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Just enter your Logo code in the box at the bottom of the main screen, and when you click “Run” you’ll see the active program running in the “Drawing panel.”

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This little app is very addictive – you’ll find yourself looking for ways to create more intricate and interesting patterns and designs. It’s actually quite Zen after a while.

Have you ever played around with any cool programming apps on the Android? Share some of your favorites, or offer feedback on these Android apps in the comments section below.

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Now why you’d want to do this is entirely your own business, but listen up. HelloOx2 is Symbian hack app that will install a root certificate to your Symbian mobile phone and enable the installation of unsigned software. It’s a bit like jailbreaking the iPhone. You probably know what I’m going to say next.

I’m not condoning anything that may violate copyright or terms of usage, but these include regular apps, manufacturer-locked apps and third-party modified software. The installation also includes another Symbian hack app called RomPatcher+ which is used to patch-in your phone’s new features, allowing you to install applications that were never intended for your phone and tinker with system files. If you’re sick of being limited by Nokia’s flagship OS, then HelloOx2 is probably the hack for you.

What Does It Do?

The application first maps a virtual drive and unpacks the hacking files required. Once the file system has been activated, the drive is unmapped and a root certificate is installed. This is the all-important bit will allow you to install what you want. Lastly RomPatcher+ is installed, and your phone is hacked.

The hack is completely reversible by running the application a further time, meaning if you’re concerned you can hack, install your software and unhack your phone to its original state. The software you installed whilst your phone was hacked will continue to function, even after the root certificate has been removed.

HelloOx2 installs a version of RomPatcher+ with two patches ready to go. Running these will temporarily patch your phone, although you will need to re-patch once you reboot. The software contains an auto-patch mode, which will apply patches for you when you boot up if you choose. Handy!

As with all hacking adventures, the software is provided with no guarantees. This means if it all goes wrong (and it really shouldn’t, this is very different to flashing/debranding) it’s your problem, and not the manufacturers. If you were to send your phone back for repair, there’s a good chance you’ll be told to hop, skip and jump.

So How Do I Hack?

Head over to the HelloOx2 website and first check if your phone is supported. There’s a gargantuan list of S60 3rd and 5th generation phones that will hack, including some of the newest on the shelf today. Once you’ve found your phone, check to see if your current firmware is supported.  Once you’ve got those two green lights, you’re pretty much ready to go.

Now for the ironic bit. In order to install the root certificate to an unhacked phone, the HelloOx2 application must be signed first. I know, right? You have two options – you can make a small donation to the application manufacturer and receive your HelloOx2 via email, or you can download an unsigned version and sign it yourself.

The already-signed version comes with email support (albeit in broken English, bless) and costs as little as US$5. It’ll be with you in less than a day, so if you don’t mind paying enter all required details here before making your donation on this page. I can vouch for the site, as I used this method on my Sony Ericsson Satio.

If you’re unwilling to pay (and I can see why, given what you’re doing) then the unsigned version can be downloaded completely free here. You’ll then need to use a signing service such as Symbian Signed or OPDA to use the application.

Once you’ve got a signed version ready to go, simply transfer the file to your phone and install. HelloOx2 will install like any other application, and once complete all you need to do is run it. All steps are automatic, and once the process is complete you’re done with HelloOx2. If you wish to reapply or remove the hack, then leaving the application on your phone is recommended.

You’ll now be able to patch your phone with RomPatcher+. You’re nearly done, but you’ll want to enable Installservice_FP2 in order to install unsigned applications and Open4All_RP+ if you want to gain access to your phone’s full system files with a third party file browser. In order to auto-patch your phone, highlight the selected patch(es) and hit Options and then Add to Auto.

Congratulations, enjoy your hacked phone. You are now free to install what you want, when you want and with a third party file browser you’ll be able to access your phone’s deepest recesses. Good luck, and don’t break anything!

Have you tried this hack? Would you recommend it to anyone else? Spread the word in the comments below.

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Back in May, MakeUseOf published 10 Tips to Take Better Digital Pictures With Your Phone’s Camera.

In this article, I will address some particular common cell phone problems that users run into when taking photos with a cell phone camera; and we all know, there are plenty.

The problems addressed in these article will apply to most any cell phone camera, though I use the iPhone 3G camera for illustration.

Blurry Images

The easiest and probably most common cell phone problem with cell phone photos is they end up blurry. This occurs for a couple of reasons.

• Cell phone cameras need to be properly held. You always want to hold the camera steady with both hands. The tricky part is clicking the shutter button after holding and composing a shot. So one thing to remember is that typically the shutter of the camera does not activate until the button is released. That means you can first push and hold down the button, frame your shot, and then release the button to release the shutter. Avoid trying to frame the shot while you push down the button.

  

  Also try to rest part of your phone on one of your fingers or in the palm of your hand to get a firm grip.

• You might also try bracing your camera against a wall or on a table to help you steady a shot. Even setting up a tripod for your cell phone camera is a useful idea for portrait and group shots.
• The less ambient light you’re shooting in, the more likely you’re going to get blurry photos. Because you can’t increase the shutter speed or open the aperture wider on a cell phone camera, you need to shoot in the brightest area possible, or use a flash if your camera has one.
• If the shot is not blurry but still not as sharp as it needs to be, you can try using an image editor to sharpen the images — but this is less than ideal.

Shooting Moving Subjects

Because cell phone cameras have slow shutter speeds, it’s nearly impossible to capture moving subjects. To address this problem, you might try using an iPhone camera application that delivers multiple shots (or what is called burst mode) after the shutter is pressed. Check out this article for a couple of great iPhone photography apps: The Best Free Alternatives To Top Commercial iPhone Photography Apps

Furthermore, to shoot moving subjects like children you definitely want to shoot in the brightest possible light to compensate for the slower shutter speed. The photo below is an example of the type of moving subjects that are nearly impossible to freeze capture using a cell phone camera.

Photos Lack Contrast

As with most digital photography, photos typically lack good contrast especially when shot in low light settings. The best solution for this is using an image editor and processing photos after they are taken.

Image editors such as the free iPhone app, Photoshop Mobile, have automatic brightness/contrast tools that can make the colors in your photos pop.

Subject Looks Too Small

There’s an easy solution to this one. Shoot close. You need to zoom in with your feet, even if you camera has a digital zoom. Fill the frame with the subject of the image. This is something that you do no matter what you’re using. In an image editor, you can also crop your images to make the subjects closer; however, because cell phone cameras have lower resolution than many point-and-shoot cameras, cropping too much may result in increased pixilation, especially when photos are printed. So zoom with your feet, instead of the lens, to get the best close-up you can. Experiment with shooting from different angles to get a better shot.

Images Are Dark

The obvious problem with dark photos is that there was not enough light when you took the shot. If your camera does not have a flash and you’re shooting in a low light area without a flash, there’s really nothing you can do to address this problem except get more light on the subject. Indoor lights at night are typically not enough light for cell phone cameras. You will need a flash.

Backlight

Also, watch for what is called backlighting. That is, when there’s more light in the back of the subject than there is facing the subject. So make sure the light is coming from behind you and is facing the subject.

In my experience, camera apps like the free and pro version of Camera Plus for the iPhone address some the problems described above. While cell phone cameras may never be a good replacement for point-and-shoot cameras, the portability of mobile cameras make learning how to use them more effectively worth the effort.

Let us know how you fix particular common cell phone camera problems. Have you found an application or two that is helpful for your camera photography?

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The Symbian operating system is the most widely used smart-phone platform on the planet. Despite not being the prettiest thing to look at compared to recent offerings from rivals such as Apple, HTC and Blackberry, the recently liberated Symbian operating system continues to ship on not only Nokia mobiles but Sony Ericsson and Samsung have started to use it too.

But you won’t care, as you’ve probably already got one. Good start, as you really can’t live without these five on your Symbian device.

Jbak Taskman

This freeware task manager is definitely the most boring, yet most useful app on this list. Replacing the clunky, limited and sometimes slow to respond in-built Symbian task manager is one of the best gifts you can give your phone.

Jbak’s offering provides a slick and minimal interface from which you can list processes, threads and memory information with ease.

Killing programs is a doddle – even if they’re unresponsive and busy. There’s a handy autorun feature allowing you to automatically launch programs when your phone starts up, and you can even view and manage the phone’s hidden processes.

This should be the first application you install on your Symbian mobile phone.

Snaptu

The developers promise “a world full of free apps on any phone” and they’re not wrong. This app functions as a one-stop portal to your social networking, news and information desires. There’s full Facebook and Twitter support at lightning speed – you will not find a faster means of accessing your social networks.

The in-built news reader allows you to add as many RSS feeds as you like, and the weather and sports apps keep you in the loop, on the go.

At last count there were 33 applications within this one single app that can be added to the home screen. Snaptu provides a simple and fast interface from which to access some very often used websites and services, and best of all it’s completely free (with the odd banner advert here and there, but who’s complaining?) and available from Snaptu.com. Get the full low-down right here.

Opera Mobile

For a truly mobile web experience you’ll want the highly acclaimed Opera Mobile. This bite-size browser packs enough punch to be able to bring full webpages to the confines of your mobile phone, allowing you to browse the “real” internet on the go.

The recently updated interface makes touch screen browsing easier than ever, and the in-built Opera on-screen keyboard looks and feels great.  Use of the same SpeedDial quick-start interface as its bigger brother means your favourite websites are a greasy thumbprint away once the application launches.

The Opera Mobile browser also comes with Opera Turbo support, a service designed to cut down on the amount of bandwidth a website would typically use – although I’d recommend switching to Wi-Fi if you’re planning on doing any serious browsing. Grab it for free from the Opera website.

Skype

The popular VoIP platform seems like an even better idea on your mobile phone, don’t you think? Free phone calls, instant text chat and reduced rates to phone numbers are all good reasons to have this useful little program with you on the move.

You’ll soon bin that USB Skype phone once you realise your Wi-Fi-enabled mobile can do the job, and stay in your pocket the whole time. As well as the standard voice and text features, Skype mobile allows you to update your profile and picture, add new contacts on the go and send or receive files from your contacts.

The client’s free, but if you absolutely love it you’ll probably want to invest in some Skype credit to allow you to call and SMS all your friends to tell them the good news. Download it from the Skype mobile homepage.

Skyfire

Introducing the only mobile browser with decent Flash support, Skyfire is by no means perfect but provides a great way to stream video to your phone. YouTube support within the browser is excellent, although you’ll probably get some “Your browser’s not up to it” messages from YouTube’s end. Soldier on however, and you’ll be able to use the full YouTube website on your mobile phone.

It’s no replacement for Opera, but it gets the job done. There’s no in-built keyboard, and a simple SpeedDial feature would be nice, but if Flash is your thing then Skyfire will excel where other mobile browsers call it a day.

Download it from Skyfire.com or read what the fuss is about right here.

Have you got any favourite apps not featured here? Trouble with an app on a particular device? Tell us about it in the comments.

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bit.ly Instantly Turn your Cell Phone into a Super TV Now you can watch worldwide channels on your Mobile Device – Sports, News, Movies, Music, Weather, Kids Channels, Educational, Shopping, Digital Radio Stations and much, much more! You can also watch the Big Games LIVE without any additional fee or subscription! No Hardware to Install! Works anywhere in the world. Features: Easy-to-use interface High-quality streaming video Unlimited viewing of World Wide TV stations Live, local news coverage from your local stations No subscriptions, no pay-per-view, no recurring fees Big Bonus: Includes access to over 200 World Wide Stations!Set-up is easy. BENEFITS: WORKS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD: US, UK, Canada, Japan, India, Russia, etc. Connect To A Whole New World Of Entertainment. NO EXTRA HARDWARE REQUIRED: There is no need to buy extra hardware equipment because the TV channels are streamed through your internet connection. You just need an internet connection (the faster your internet speed the better picture you will get). NO SUBSCRIPTIONS NEEDED & NO RECURRING CHARGES… EVER! Get all the entertainment you need for a one time payment of only $97! NO SPYWARE! NO ADWARE! THERE ARE NO CATCHES AND THERE IS NOTHING EXTRA TO PAY… EVER! INSTALL ON UP TO TWO MOBILE DEVICES OF YOUR CHOICE! MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: The software works with ALL Windows Mobile and Pocket PC Devices Take Action! & Learn more here: bit.ly

One thing that Google likes to be known for is speed. In fact, their Android phones have taken off so fast that they have yet to release a full-featured app store to the public. While their current Android Market serves its purpose, it’s hardly iTunes. The organization and efficiency with which Apple runs its app store is one of the reasons the iPhone is the most popular phone on the market year in and year out.

I don’t imagine it will take Google very long to catch up (I did say they were fast), but until then, it would be nice to have some alternatives to finding killer apps for your Android phone.

In this article, I am going to share the top websites for finding the best Android applications. These sites should hold you over until Google releases their app store to the public.

[Note]: If you aren’t impressed by any of the apps you find in the Android Market, why don’t you try writing your own? Who knows, your app could end up on these websites in the near future.

Android Market

The current Android Market is a good place to start. As you’ll see, there isn’t too much organization here, but the site does display all of the top ranked applications and games. You can click on the Top Free tab, which allows you to view all of the top free apps by their respective categories.

Clicking on an app will display screenshots of it off to the right, as well as a small description of the application and the name of its developer(s). I’d assume that this would be the location of the future Google app store, but it’s hard to assume anything like that with Google.

AndroidZoom

Android Zoom is an even better alternative to the current Android Market in my opinion. Paul covered AndroidZoom in his 6 Android Websites You Should Check Out article back in January. (Also see AndroLib)

With AndroidZoom, you can view all of the latest Android applications and sort them by the newest, most popular, and highest rated. You can also separate them by free and paid, along with selecting from the different categories on the left-hand side of the page.

Click on an app and you are taken to a screen where you can view a short description, see related apps, and download. When you click Download, you are taken to a page that gives you three options.

You can use a QR code scanner and take a picture of the image (with your phone) to download the app, follow directions to manually install from the Android Market, or receive a direct download link on your phone’s email.

Cyrket

Cyrket provides application statistics for all of the apps in the Android Market. The default sort method is alphabetical, so don’t let it scare you when you visit the page and only see Chinese symbols. You can sort the listings by most expensive, least expensive, popularity, and highest rating. You can also opt to see only the free apps.

When you click on an app, you are taken to a screen with the app’s description, screenshots, and a long thread of users’ comments that you can use to get feedback.

101 Best Android Apps

101 Best Android Apps is another great place to get information and ratings on a lot of Android applications. Apps are sorted by many different categories (e.g. Business, Education) and topics (e.g. Music, News) and you can choose to see the best rated apps by day, week, month, or all time.

The site allows you to rate apps and it provides very nice, large screenshots. If you click more info, you can view a few more screen shots, a description, and comments.

AppBrain

AppBrain has lists and lists of Android apps. You can view all the hottest apps, the latest ones, or pick your favorite categories. Reviews and download information accompany the apps and you can utilize the search feature to find what you’re looking for.

If you create an account on AppBrain (links your Google account), you can enjoy added benefits. With an account, you can easily install and manage your apps directly from the web browser, sync your apps easily with their native Android app, and share the apps installed on your phone with your friends.

What do you think of the sites listed? Did I forget any? Will you be utilizing any of these resources for your Android application needs? Leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below!

Image Credit: lwallenstein

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Click Here for More Info: Need to wipe your G1 because the phone is corrupted or frozen, eg, your G1 keeps rebooting over and over again without getting to the desktop/home page? Are you a non-geek/newbie and not sure how your phone got messed up? Ready to sell your soul to Satan to get out of your predicament and able to use your G1, again? Have your friends asked “Why are you carrying that brick?” or “What are you pounding on the table and why are you swearing at it?” Is your G1 so clogged up that it’s time to soak it in Liquid Drano? Well help has arrived. Here is how you do a factory wipe or hard reset. (Note: this procedure assumes you can’t get to the G1′s reset “button” located in the Android OS settings menu and you DO NOT know what the terms “jailbreak” or “root” mean.) Update: This tutorial is for non-rooted phones. The hard reset (or wipe) will put your phone back to the way it was when you first opened the box. Inside Information: THIS IS THE “SECRET” PROCEDURE T-MOBILE TECH SUPPORT HAS NON-GEEK CONSUMERS GO THROUGH AS A LAST RESORT WHEN THE G1 CANNOT RECOVER FROM A CRASH. (This is done before the CSR says to send the phone back for a replacement.) Sidenote: Don’t feel bad, these phones do a lot nowadays, they crash often and need to be reset. And sometimes the phone will freeze and refuse to reboot. This procedure should save your butt. My video covers both hard and soft resets. WARNING: The hard reset procedure erases all third party applications you …