2

Vacuum Now Available! Be lazy, make money playing games!

| Monday, March 22, 2010
Well fortunately the developer Door-6 knows what a bunch of lazy dorks we all are, and decided to capitalize on this by creating a game that will allow you to win CASH prizes, starting April 1st and ending at the end of May. So for the time being you're going to have to put down your Homerun Battle 3D, and pick up Vacuum, now available on the Market for $1.99. I blogged about this sometime ago, but now we are actually seeing this come to life for real.

Here's what the developer has to say:

“Navigate through a perilous, asteroid-filled obstacle course, and compete for the top score and cash prizes! The first contest runs April 1 to May 31 and features prizes of $500, $250, and $100 (USD) for the top three competitors!
“We appreciate your feedback and hope you enjoy Vacuum: The Global Competition!”
Below we have a video of the game, which reminds me of a rudimentary Starfox for SNES type graphics engine. I'm not sure what the Vegas odds are for money return, but to me it's worth a shot for the cost of a Starbucks coffee...well maybe a soda or something...Droid owners don't wear Birkenstocks, go to Starbucks, or drive Toyota Priuses - that's for iPhone users. Anyhow:

3

Writing for AllDroid

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That's right, you heard it here first. My first big break as an amazing blogger was being asked by the owner of AllDroid.org to write for their news section.

Have no fear, I will still be running this blog concurrently with my posts on AllDroid for all seven of my followers.
1

Thick Buttons (new software keyboard) Released on the Market

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2

Time for another app suggestion post

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Here are all the apps I am currently running on my phone, courtesy of the WONDERFUL app "AppBrain". If you click on the app it will take you to a description. Hopefully this will give you some nifty ideas.


3

Attention NHL Penguins Fans! Penguins Droid App Released!

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What an amazing day for Penguins fans/Droid owners!


I checked my Twitter just now and noticed a Tweet from the Penguins telling me that they have recently released an app for the Droid called "Pittsburgh Penguins Mobile". Basically this application gives you news stories, stats, standings, scores, videoslive updates (also has access to Penguins' Tweets within the program)...and best yet (well not for me since I don't live in Pittsburgh anymore due to being active duty Army) it allows you to watch replays when you are in the Arena!!!

Even if you are missing out on that amazing feature, this is still a great app. Talking with your friends and want to let them know some key Penguins stats or NHL standings? No problem. Want to see some video that was played on the Jumbotron recently? No problem.

The only thing I think it's missing is a link to the live radio like they have on their website. But have no fear, you can get that feed from iheartradio for free since 105.9 the X is a Clearchannel station!
15

Zillow for the Droid

| Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thanks to the guys at DroidLife.com we a video review which makes my job here at Droid-Does astonishingly easy. Zillow is a website that gives you estimates on how much houses are worth, how much recent houses have sold for, etc...to give you an idea of how much money you have lost since the economy took a crap.

Like a fellow Droider mentioned on Droidforums.net, "I don't like to use this app because it keeps telling me I'm losing money".

But if you're in the market for a new home, this might just be the app for you.

5

Over 1750 Free Custom Icons For Download

| Saturday, March 20, 2010
Sick and tired of getting custom icons only to have to "settle" for some icon that doesn't really match what you were looking for but that's all that's available? No longer! Simply post the app you need and I will include it in my icon packs. Now you will never have to settle for the wrong icon ever again! I can also come up with new backgrounds/styles, just give me your suggestions! All icons are labeled by their program as well. So no more cryptic, unorganized icons. Looking for an icon for a phone, for example? Guess what? It's called "phone", not "a342907". If you see a /2/3 it means you have several options for that particular icon.

As usual, all I ask is that you check out my blog or link people to my blog (trying to build up traffic there): http://Droid-Does.Blogspot.Com

Here are some examples (the smoked glass icons do not have a white background, this was added to make it easier to see):


Carbon - Carbon/Gold - Blue - Black - Black/Gold - Red - Orange - Pink - Gold - Smoked

To install:

1. Unzip icons into a folder called "Icons" on your SD card.
2. Download Bettercut for 2.99 on the Market.
3. Open Bettercut, choose "Edit Shortcut"
4. Pick the shortcut you want to choose
5. Click "Change Icon"
6. Choose PICK PICTURE (not icon pack)
7. Find the photo, select it then hit create

Version History:

v1.0 - Advanced Task Killer, Advanced Task Manager, Alarm, Aloqa, Amazon, Apps, Astro File Manager, Barcode Scanner, Bluetooth, Browser/2/3, BT File Xfer, Calculator, Calendar/2, Camera, ChompSMS, Clock/2, Drocap2, eBay, Email, Entertainment, Facebook, FeedR, Flight Director, FML, GMail/2, Google Maps, Google Sky Maps, Google Talk/2, Google Voice/2, Handcent, Homerun Battle 3D, iHeartRadio, K-9 Email, Locale, Mabilo, Market/2, Metamorph, Music/2, Myspace, Pandora, Phone/2, PhoneMyPC, Photoshop Mobile, PicSayPro, Profiles, Quickdial, Quicksettings, Remote Desktop, Robo Defense, Root Explorer, SetCPU, Settings/2, Shazam, Shop Savvy, Solitaire, Tapatalk, Terminal Emulator, Titanium Backup, Touiteur, Voice Dialer, Where!, WiFi, Wireless Tether, Youtube ... color in Red, Blue, Black

v1.1 - Bank of America, Ringo Pro, Contacts, Sports Tap, xScope, Epocrates, Bloo, Touchdown (will upload soon) ... added color Carbon.

v1.2 - Tweetcast, TripIt, Tag Reader, Shopper, Uninstaller, Key Ring, Gem Miner, Email/2/3, News, Weather Channel, Weather (generic), Movies, BatteryLeft, Bettercut, Colorix, Dock Runner, Google Goggles, Meridian Media Player, TempMonitor, Pure Calendar, Visual Voicemail, Tower Raiders, Zedge, Contacts/2/3, Tip Calculator, NPR News, Yelp, Google Earth, Layar, Opera Mini, Gallery/2/3, Calendar/3, Sega Genesis, Nintendo, Aim, Music (folder), Movies (folder), Pictures (folder), Tools, Multimedia, eBuddy, YouMail, NRU by Zagat

v1.3 - Smoked Glass icons

v1.4 - Droid Light, Astrid, Google Finance, LED Hack, Places Directory, Quick Boot, Quick Pedia, Quick System Info, BBC News, Brightness, Yellow Pages, Wiki Mobile, SpeedX3d, Slacker, Jewel Lust, Shoot U, Live Scores, Golf Channel, Gigbox, Phone/3/4/5/6, News Room, Evernote, USA Today

v1.5 - Blank template, Urban Spoon, Geodelic, Cardio Trainer, Tv.com, My Verizon, Minesweeper, Yahtzee, CopyCat, USB, Battery

v1.6 - Gameboid, Xbox/2, Penn State, FriendRing, MLB, NBA

v2.0 - Pink/Orange/Gold/Gold w/Carbon/Gold w/Black icons


Download link for ALL icons v2.0 is here. Always check the version before you download to make sure I am not in the process of editing the first post I had to make it one file because I can only attach five files at a time and the max file size is like 10mb and the file size is around 12mb total. Each color has all 177 icons.
2

100 Android Games in One Video!

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Before we had a video with just 50 games. Now as the Droid gains such an incredible market share, we now have doubled this is such a short period of time. I bring to you (courtesy of AndroidTapp) 100 video games (for those that complain that the iPhone has better games):

0

And so probably you're wondering if I fell off the planet...

| Wednesday, March 17, 2010
But I have been a little tied up with this new beautiful piece of machinery:

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71654
0

Custom Launcher/App Tray for your Droid

| Sunday, March 14, 2010
Instructions:

NOTES:

- Changing out your launcher will remove all the widgets from your home screen, you'll have to re-add them.
- You will need to be rooted to follow my instructions. If you don't know what rooting is or need a guide to root, go here.

1. Download the Launcher.zip file attachment from here.

2. Rename the Launcher.zip to Launcher.apk (DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EXTRACT THE .ZIP FILE, that extension is simply so that the forums where I have the file hosted will recognize it, it's not actually a zip file!!!)

3. Download Root Explorer from the Market (yes you could do this via ADB but Root Explorer is ten times more simple)

4. Open up Root Explorer, navigate to /system/app and find Launcher.apk. Long press and copy. Back out to / (the root of your phone) and navigate to /sdcard. Paste the original Launcher.apk to a folder on your SD card (I usually use a folder called APK to make it easy to find). Long press and rename to Launcher.bak. This backs up your original Launcher just in case you don't like mine.

5. Place the new Launcher.apk that you downloaded from this thread on your SD card (again I use a folder called APK). You should now have Launcher.bak (your old Launcher) and Launcher.apk (the new one).

6. Open up Root Explorer and navigate to your SD card, find the new Launcher.apk file you just put there. Long press and copy.

7. Navigate to /system/app. In the upper right corner it will say MOUNT R/W. Hit that button. Paste using the button on the lower left. It will ask you if you want to overwrite, hit yes. It will take a few seconds to copy and then leave you where you were.

8. Find the new Launcher.apk that you just pasted into /system/app and long press. Choose permissions. Change the permissions to the following (where X is checked and O is not) and hit ok:

XXO
XOO
XOO

9. Reboot your phone.

10. Enjoy!


It should be noted in the second screenshot I am dragging the tray and the third I am just touching it. If you take your finger off of the tray it will revert back to the first screenshot.

If you like the icons I am using, feel free to check them out here.

If you want to make suggestions for updates to this app drawer, go here.
4

TripIt Travel Organizer and Flight Track Pro

| Saturday, March 13, 2010
I saw over on AndroidTapp that they were reviewing TripIt, and it made me wonder why the hell I have been using this program for about two months and never said a single word about it.

I travel almost incessantly for work, sometimes for five weeks at a time, but usually 10-14 days. This app is well worth it and almost invaluable to me when I travel, especially combined with Flight Track Pro.

Here is the description from AndroidTapp.com:

Features:

TripIt Android App is an extension of the popular travel organization website TripIt.com. If you’re not familiar with TripIt, it’s a great website for travelers that conveniently organizes travel itineraries why adding a social aspect to it sharing recent travels with friends. They offer a premium service that allows you to receive alerts if your flight may be canceled or departure gate changed at the last minute.

The app however is fairly limited yet very useful for how it organizes travel itineraries in an easy to read fashion with icons versus a huge block of ugly text you typically get from your itinerary confirmation emails. Each line item can be drilled down into further detailed to give you a booking details, directions to/from your airport or hotel via Google Maps, estimated hotel check-in/check-out times, and more.

If you have friends using TripIt, you can see their shared travels as well as you can share your travels or not. The shared data consists of sharers’ name, to & from destinations and the miles racked up.


TripIt also offers a subscription service which keeps track of your flight changes, status, gate changes, etc. However, you can get Flight Track Pro for just a few dollars and it automatically will pull your itineraries from TripIt and place them in Flight Track just like the more expensive subscription service. Flight Track also has a widget, and the ability to notify you in the notification message bar when flights change, get delayed, when the gate changes, etc.

Before I was rushing to the sign on my connections that tells you what gate the flight has moved to or not, wasting valuable minutes when you are talking about major airports like O'Hare, DFW, Atlanta, etc. Now I just pull up my Flight Track which pulls from my TripIt and I don't have to sweat it.

The best part about the TripIt/Flight Track combo? It's literally too easy to set up. You sign up for an account with TripIt and sign in. It will ask you to authorize the app in your browser (like when you have to authenticate Flickr or Facebook).

Once you get an account set up, you simply send your travel plans to plans@tripit.com. Within (usually) about 10 seconds, your travel plans are populated into the TripIt and Flight Track programs (provided you have them running).

From there, everything else is automatic. You don't have to change anything...

Now, I work for the government and we use SATO travel. I thought for sure that they wouldn't recognize the PDF document attachment that they send me (auto generated) but sure enough, they do.

Here is a list of travel plans that Trip It supports.

If you travel a lot, there is literally no reason you shouldn't be using these programs. For the cost of a Starbucks coffee or two you could be saving yourself countless minutes at the airport, and having to drag around less paperwork.
0

Another Icon Update

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For updated post see here.

(this page is kept intact for Google search purposes)
0

Sorry for no posts yesterday!

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I sold my CTS-V and bought a 2010 Camaro SS in Victory Red! So I was tied up all day yesterday selling my old car to someone and buying my new car :)
1

Top 10 reasons to root your Droid

| Thursday, March 11, 2010
A friend from the Droidforums has posted his top ten reasons for rooting your Droid, and so he let me steal his work to make my blogging day a little easier (long day today editing icons, I apologize for the lack of news :( ):

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I've been working really hard on my Droid to get it just where I want it. I'm going to be shooting a video very soon on the top 10 reasons why you should root your Droid. It's going to have a lot of great stuff, so keep checking back!



Disclaimer: If you Root your Droid it will void your warranty with Motorola. I, nor the Calebnance team are held responsible for you wanting to make your Droid awesome by Rooting it, only to have it bricked. Enjoy!



Update:

I've had time to compose my thoughts, and figure out exactly what I want to say. I do plan on doing a video soon, but I figured I would give you a taste of what's coming soon. Here are my top 10 reasons to root your Droid, based on my personal experience.
10. Cachemate

This is a great app for clearing up that unwanted cache on your phone. Having the ability to clear your cache can help some apps or even your phone run faster and smoother. The newest version will allow you to clear you market seach history. This was the best thing for me. I just have a pet peeve when I can see everything that I have searched for, that I will never need again.
9. Terminal Emulator

With this app you can push, move, or do basically anything from a command prompt form. As long as you know what you are doing, you can really see how this app comes in handy. (You can use this app without root, but it's basically like having the keys to a Porsche that you don't have)
8. AdFree

Seeing ads while you are browsing is never fun, especially when you are on your beloved Droid. With the AdFree app you no longer have to worry about that. Not only does it take away all those pesky adds, but it does help to load your pages faster, which is always a plus in my book.
7. Boot Animation/Gscript

I love having the ability to have a phone that is fully mine from start to finish, literally. Now, you can change your boot animation without root, but believe me is a PAIN to do. Having root, along with Gscript or a file explorer, will cut off some of the work load you have to do. With Gscript you can simply type in the correct command, and then just launch it.
6. Root Explorer

This is another app for rooted phones only. This app will allow you fully explore your phone without the use of a computer. You can do anything from backing up your apps, to changing fille names for certain hacks or mods. This great app will allow you to keep modding your phone even on the go.
5. Wireless Tether

Every been out with your computer, but didn't have a WiFi around to check us out? This free app will solve that problem in a second. You can use your phone as a mobile hotspot to get online on the go. It may not be the fastest connection, but when you are in a pinch I don't think it really matters. Now before you get worried that someone else might mistake your wireless broadcast as an open network, don't! This app allows you to make a secure connection, setting up your own password, so you get the best speeds possible.

Time for the top 4 reasons to root your Droid everyone!
4. Metamorph

When the guys over at Google were designing the look of the UI for the Droid I know they were all thinking of us, and how we wanted it to look right? Wrong! Don't get me wrong, I think it looks great as it is, but I always like to have things look they way I want them too. Metamorph allows you to do this completly. It can be anything from changing the notification panel, to making your browser icon look like Firefox. Metamorph is very simple to use as well, just download the theme you want to use, move to your SD Card, and select it within the app.
3. Overclock

We all know the Droid is snappy out of the box, but then again we all like to speed things up just a bit. With root access you can do that. The Droid is 550 Mhz stock, but with the ability to overclock it can easily go up to 1.2 Ghz! Speeding up your phone may cause some heat issues, but when you are flying through apps, who cares right?
2. Nandroid (sprecovery/clockwork)

Ever made a mistake on your computer only to be breathing a sigh of relief when you find out you had a system restore point created not too long ago? Sprecovery gives you that same sigh of relief with your Droid with the ability to create nandroid backups. You can use these to restore after a new hack didn't go quite as planned. I've been stuck in a boot loop before, but thanks to sprecovery I was out of it in no time. It will also allow you to apply updates to roms, kernels (for overclocking), and simple patches.

Now time for the number 1 reason to root your Droid... Drum roll please.... I said Drum Roll PLEASE.... Screw it... here we go
1. ROM Use

Roms will basically take everything I have stated above and roll it into one big goodie bag. ROMs can combine a number of things such as: pinch to zoom browsers/gallerys, themes, overclocking, ported apps, and many more. ROMs change the way your whole phone operates, and it's always for the better! I know we all were bummed when 2.1 didn't come in January like we had all hoped, but thanks to some devs like Chevy and Pete, we now have a very official (and stable) build. Roms will even give you those live wallpapers, and 5 screens you have seen around, but could never quite figure out how to do. Right now I am running Bugless Beast V0.6 ESE53 Build, this is the most official, stable build I have used, but there are a few others out that may work for you better. The ability to use a ROM was the main reason I rooted. I no longer had to do all the work to get the live wallpapers, or figuring out how to overclock my Droid, and I think you would all agree when you think about it.

Well, there is my list, and I'm sticking to it. Follow me on twitter here and tell me what made you root your Droid.


The original article link can be found here.

I just wanted to to add my .02 to it though (why else post about it, huh?)...the ability to EASILY take screenshots. A simple program called Drocap2 from the Market allows you to easily take screenshots of just about anything, but you have to be rooted to do so. Also, the ability to use Root Explorer to do things like move Bootanimations and whatnot instead of using ADB to push them to your phone saves countless minutes of my day that I would rather be surfing porn or something else.

If you want more information on rooting your Droid, hacking, installing icons, you name it...check out this article I wrote awhile back: click here
1

Updated Custom Icons Available for Download

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For updated post see here.

(this page is kept intact for Google search purposes)
0

New Free Custom Icons for the Droid!

| Wednesday, March 10, 2010
For updated post see here.

(this page is kept intact for Google search purposes)
3

Droid Battery/Charger reviews

| Tuesday, March 9, 2010
I have tried so many different batteries and chargers for the Droid that I thought I should share with everyone what I have found to be worthwhile or not. Sometimes it's really tempting to go the cheap route, and sometimes that pays off, and sometimes it doesn't.

One thing to understand about the Droid charger is, it is 850mA and 5v. You can pretty much use any charger to charge your Droid but anything less than 850mah is going to charge slower and 1000mA (1 amp) is going to charge faster. Going to 1000 is not going to fry the phone, because the phone only draws as much power as it needs.

Where you run into some issues is some chargers are poorly made and so the charge jumps around. I haven't found this to damage my phone in the least bit, but it might make it difficult to type or something while having it plugged in.

1. Non-OEM battery. Example from eBay

I bought a battery like this, not really expecting much for 4 bucks. And I pretty much got what I paid for. It isn't that it doesn't work at all, but it only lasts maybe 4 or 5 hours with moderate use.

You can tell a non-OEM/OEM battery from an OEM battery because the OEM battery has Motorola written across the top of it. See picture below:

image

In addition I bought an OEM battery for 20 dollars shipped on eBay, with no issues. Both of the batteries you see above are from eBay, and the OEM one works just as well as the one that came with the phone.


2. Cheap car/home charger. Example from eBay

I got these from eBay and they work perfect. Like I said above, 1000mA isn't going to fry your phone per se, only the quality of the actual charger. And I haven't had any issues with these. Great replacement chargers and only cost a few bucks. Since it's 1000mA instead of 850, it charges quicker than the stock as well.

3. Slim wall charger. Example eBay auction

This thing is a life saver for me. Toss the battery in, plug it into the wall (it's pretty small and easy to travel with), and bam you can charge a battery without having to have your phone plugged in. So as soon as a battery is done you can swap it out. Before I was charging a battery to full in the phone then charging a second battery to full in the phone. Way too much time plugged into a charger!

This charger is only going to be as good as the cable you use to charge it. I use a 1 amp (1000mA) charger from the review above. See picture below:

image
0

Mypace is the most popular social app for Android

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Uh, what? People still use MySpace? I thought everyone (myself included) has switched to Facebook? Perhaps users are sick and tired of the lack of truly awesome Facebook apps (surprising) or perhaps users are going back to MySpace because Facebook refuses to stay simple and now they have that God-awful center strip notification area...or maybe it's because some of the navigation is not very intuitive (and I consider myself pretty computer illiterate...err...literate).

Either way, here's the article (so you know I'm not just pulling this out of my ass):

By Chris Crum

MySpace announced today that it has the most popular social app in the Android Market, and the third most popular app on Android altogether.

"Our deep integration with the Android platform is one of the reasons why we’ve seen a surge in usage," says MySpace's Scott Goldberg. "Unique to this app, we have three home screen widgets. One of them allows voice-enabled status updates. We also allow users to set MySpace photos as background wallpaper on their phone's home screen. Close integration with the native Android camera contributes to the customized experience and makes it easy for MySpace users to take, upload and share pictures of their friends out having fun."
MySpace Mobile on Android is the most popular app in the Android Market's social category

"Even beyond Android, MySpace Mobile has also proven to be a very engaging experience across all platforms with 70% of MySpace Mobile users checking in three or more times per day," adds Goldberg. "As a nod to our popularity on the mobile web, MySpace was the fourth most popular mobile web destination according to Morgan Stanley’s report on The Mobile Internet in Dec. 2009. We have also found that the average MySpace Mobile user translates into a more engaged online user, dedicating more than an hour of additional time on the site per month."

Currently, looking at the Android Market's social category, MySpace Mobile is followed by Facebook for Android, Tweetcaster, AIM, and Truth or Dare. The top two most popular apps overall are Pandora and the Weather Channel.

One of the best parts about having the most popular slot in any category in the market is the visibility that comes along with that. Any user who gets a new Android device, and goes to look for apps, will see MySpace Mobile right at the top of the list, and that could could drive continued growth.

Mobile should play a key role in the continued success of MySpace. Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter are seeing big mobile gains themselves.

Are you surprised that MySpace has the most popular social app on Android?
0

HTC Incredible rumored to be replacing HTC Droid Eris on Verizon

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Those of you interested in the Eris, or still within your 30 day return window might want to consider this:

HTC Incredible rumored to soon be replacing HTC Droid Eris on Verizon
Phil Nickinson on Android Central
published from 8 minutes and 51 seconds

If you're in the market for an HTC Droid Eris on Verizon, you might want to hold off for a few weeks. BerryScoop has it on good authority that the HTC Incredible is going to replace the Droid Eris, the end-of-life date is April 1, and that we may see the Incredible about the same time.

Also, BerryScoop's source says that the Nexus One won't actually be sold in Verizon stores, which is what we've been saying, too. ...
2

gTasks now available for free on the Market

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A new ToDo list that syncs with Google, allowing you to easily sync the things your wife makes you do before you can come home from work with your phone/Google account.

From AndroidTapp.com:

Price: Free

AndroidTapp.com Android App Review:

Pros & Cons:

Pros

* Easily sync tasks with Gmail/Google Apps tasks
* No account/credentials sign in… just works!
* Features Android Widget to quick launch the app
* Create tasks offline and sync later

Cons

* Would be cool to have Android notifications with Tasks

Features:

gTasks Android App conveniently allows you to sync your task/to do lists from your Android phone to your Google Tasks from either Gmail or Google Apps email accounts. gTasks offers a solution to an issue surprisingly not solved by Google in their Gmail client. More beautiful, you don’t have to login nor grant permission to the app as it just works with your Gmail/Google Apps account(s). For Android 2+ devices, you can sync tasks with all accounts created. Features an Android Widget to quickly launch the full app. Create tasks locally offline and choose when to sync or set it to do so automatically.