How to: Install APKs without the market

Sometimes you need to install an apk file instead of using the Market, like when installing Swype. The process is quite easy.

1. Go to menu > settings > applications and check "install apps from unknown sources". It will give you a warning about being potentially dangerous but you have to have this checked if you want to install apk files.

2. Download astro file manager for free from the market

3. Download the apk file and put it on your sd card, either by plugging the phone into the computer and mounting or downloading it from your browser. I put all of my apk files into a folder called "apk" on the sd card just to keep the card from getting cluttered

4. Get to the file in astro file manager and open the file with the installer.

5. Enjoy!

Change the way you type

Personally, I am a huge fan of the physical keyboard. Even though I have big, fat thumbs, I can type close to. 50wpm with the Droid keyboard.

That being said, there are two really awesome alternatives to the soft keyboard. Developed by the same people that developed T9 years ago, these apps allow you to never lift your finger from the keyboard to type. The first, one that I prefer, is Shapewriter. I like it for two reasons: first, it is available on the market for free to end users and the developer is easy to contact. The second is it auto capitalizes your first words.

The second option is a little smarter with recognition but is only available with a leaked beta apk file that needs to be manually installed (see my next post to see how to install apk files). It's called Swype, and it's being developed only to sell to OEM companies like HTC to include on future phones, so that means no updates.

Here is a link to a review and download location of Swype:.

In either case you need to go into your menu > keyboard and language settings and enable the new keyboard.

Stay tuned with instructions on how to install apk files.

Touiteur update 1.08 on the Market

Just a heads up that a Touiteur update is available on the market that allows threaded views, etc. I think this is the best Twitter client by far as it is...

AppAware

This app is amazing! It allows you to Tweet what apps you have installed and uninstalled for your Droid and see others' app installs/uninstalls to give you app ideas!

How on Earth have I been missing out on this app for so long! Go check it out, it's free on the Market!

Discover New Android Applications With AppAware
By Frank McPherson on Feb 22, 2010 08:14 PM

One of the knocks against the Android Market is that it is difficult to discover new applications. The Market lists Featured Applications on the top page, but beyond that you have to start drilling down through a list of application categories to see a list of the top paid and top free applications. AppAware is a program that lists the Android applications that have been installed in the last several minutes, and shows the top applications installed in the last hour, day, and week.

After you start the program you see a list of applications that have been recently installed by AppAware users who are contributing to the stream of information. Application names are displayed in blue, green, and red. Blue applications have more installations than removals, red applications have more removals than installations, and green applications have about the same installations and removals. If you tap the application name, a screen displays showing the details behind the colors, and you also see a button that you can tap to open the application in the Android Market.

If you chose to, you can have AppAware post Twitter notifications about your application activities. You will need to configure AppAware to login to Twitter in order for this to happen, and the feature can be turned off. The application monitors all activity with the Android Market and will tweet those changes even if AppAware is not running, so be sure to turn off this feature if you don't want this activity broadcasted on Twitter. For an example of what is shown on Twitter run a Twitter search on #AppAware.

You should also be aware that your Market activity is also sent to AppAware, which is how it displays on the application's main screen. The information is published on the application's web site and published in an RSS feed. If you do not want to share your activity with AppAware, you can turn off your contributions in the program settings, but doing so means your activity will not count in AppAware's rankings.

On AppAware's home screen you can tap a button to list the Top Applications installed, updated, and removed in the last hour, day, and week. For example, by running the application I have learned that the top installed application this week is DroidBooster, which is a benchmarking application to test improvements of Java optimization by the developer. Not surprisingly, DroidBooster is also the most removed application since it is the type of application you try a few times and then remove.

Some people may not be comfortable with the social networking and information sharing features of AppAware, but fortunately the application provides easy ways for turning the features off. I have found the program provides an interesting way to discover new Android applications, so for now it will remain on my T-Mobile myTouch 3G. However, my Twitter followers will be happy to know that after a brief bit of experimentation I turned off the Twitter notification feature of the application

http://www.mediabistro.com/mobilecontenttoday/android/discover_new_android_applications_with_appaware_152853.asp?c=rss

Are you having problems opening PDF documents?

This thread is for people having this issue, which mainly occurs with PDF documents. I hope that if we direct everyone having this problem to this one thread, and it becomes more and more common, maybe we can get some answers on this instead of sporadic threads with only a few responses each.

This issue is NOT about the program used to open the PDF files, as this is definitely a problem with either the email client on the Android or the way the Android retrieves messages from the server. This is an issue no matter if you are using Documents to Go (full), Beam Reader, you name it.

Here is a description of the issue you may or may not be having:

You go to open a PDF document (sometimes other documents as well, not just PDF, but PDF is definitely the most prevalent) and the email client (purportedly a problem with both K9 and the stock email application) and it says "Fetching Document" followed (after a long time) by ""This attachment cannot be displayed."

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION:

Here is how you know if your issue is the one being discussed in the thread or something entirely different:

If you check the same email on your home computer, save the file to the desktop, and re-email it to yourself in a new email and it works, you have the issue. Otherwise, it might be something as simple as installing a different document reader.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:

The issue, as far as I have found in hours of trying to research this via Google and other Android websites, is that if a file is automatically generated (for me, I only notice this problem from my travel agency that auto generates my itinerary in PDF format), and/or has the file name contained within << *.pdf >>, this causes the problems. There could be more problems, or I could not be entirely understanding what is causing the problem, but thus far, this is what I have found.

SOLUTIONS:

The only solutions that I have found thus far are not really what I would call solutions to the problems, but rather, bandaids.

1) If you are getting this problem because it is a travel agency auto generating like in my case (probably rare, but worth mentioning)...downloading the program TripIt and forwarding your PDF flight itinerary to them works perfect.

2) It somewhat defeats the purpose of having a phone to check PDF documents, but if you save it to your computer and re-email it to yourself, you can 99% of the time now view the PDF document for some reason.

3) At least one user has reported that using K9 instead of the default application will solve the problem.

How to improve battery life...

One of the major "problems" we have with the Motorola Droid is, of course, the battery life. I put "problems" in quotes because the phone lasts a pretty good while if you use it like you would use a lot of other smart phones. But the problem lies within the fact that Droid Does. If that sounds like a stupid marketing line that I slickly inserted into this post...well, it probably is.

Anyhow, with all of the things that Droid truly does, we tend to use it more and more. When you think of bad battery life, think about this - what do you use your Droid for? Here is a typical day for me:

- Check POP eMail with K-9 app every 30 minutes
- GMail pushed to my account every time I get an email
- Play a few games of Homerun Battle 3D
- Post at least two blog posts from the phone browser
- Have a Twitter client running and checking feeds every 30 minutes
- Three RSS feed widgets (I use FeedR) bringing me Android news to pass on to my (few) loyal followers
- Weather and news Widget using GPS and updating every 30 minutes to check weather and custom news topics
- Some phone calls
- Hundreds of text messages
- Various other misc things

Now my previous phone was an LG enV3 that would last about 3 days on a full charge. I get maybe 10-12 hours out of my Droid on a daily basis. But this is what my list looked like with the LG enV3:

- Hundreds of text messages
- Some phone calls

See the difference?

So let's get to the point of the post: how do we squeeze what little juice we have to last most of the day? The first thing you need to do make a shortcut somewhere to the battery life so you can check it at the end of each day before you put the phone on the charger. Long press somewhere, hit shortcuts, system settings, and battery usage.

1. The biggest drain on battery life is almost ALWAYS the screen. So almost all power saving options are going to revolve around the screen/display. If you get to the end of the day and the number one cause of battery drain isn't the display there is probably something wrong. The problem with the display is we want to use the gorgeous screen to it's fullest...the Paris Hilton sex tape just doesn't look the same when you can barely see the screen.

The best way to save power over all is to hit the power button and lock the phone IMMEDIATELY after you finish using the phone. So if I get a text message, I reply then lock the phone to shut off the screen. I have my screen timeout set to one minute, but it never sees that one minute.

Another way to save battery is to adjust the brightness of the screen. You can do this quickly by long pressing the homescreen and going to widgets > power. The far right button cycles through the brightness settings, and you can keep it as low as you can tolerate during the day. Personally, I ignore my own advice here and keep mine set to autobright.

Yet another way to keep your screen usage down is if you are using a third part messaging application like Handcent or Chomp, to turn off the "screen on when pop up" option. If you miss the text message and it's in your pocket, that's 20 seconds or more at a time that your screen is lit up when you're not using it. If you are driving or working and you can't get it to the text immediately, that could be 5-10 minutes of full bright screen on that is unnecessary.

2. Another great way to save battery is to underclock your phone's processor (CPU) in certain situations. This particular option is a little more complicated than turning off the screen, because your phone must be rooted to do it. If you want to root your phone, please take a look at this well thought out and amazing guide (coincidentally I wrote it, surprise surprise) here. If you want to root and install custom roms and whatnot, just read the whole thread.

Once you install SetCPU (as described in the above thread) you can overclock and underclock your phone. There are more technical details described in that thread, but essentially what I do is underclock the phone to say 400MHz or less with a minimum of 250MHz (stock the phone is set to 550MHz) in certain situations. I underclock mine when the phone is sleeping, when the battery gets hot (usually about 39-40C), and when the battery is under 30%. You wouldn't believe how much battery this saves...why does the phone need to be working at max capacity when it's not even being used? Some people set the sleep profile to a min and max of 250MHz.

3. Turn off Bluetooth when you're not using it. Again if you have the standard power widget somewhere, you can turn Bluetooth on and off as needed. If I keep Bluetooth on all day but don't actually use it in a call or anything, it still amounts to about 5% of my total battery usage. If you figure 10 hours of battery life, 5% of your battery is approximately 30 minutes. It should be noted that turning off GPS and Sync is not recommended. The GPS never shows up in battery usage unless you are actively using it (like Google Maps, etc). If you turn off Sync you won't get your GMail etc.

4. Other people also swear by the app Screebl to save battery life. It uses the orientation of the phone to shut it off, etc. I personally don't use it because I always shut mine off.

5. Check your running services. How many widgets that automatically update every 30 minutes, for example, do you have running but never actually use?

6. Monitor your GPS usage. If your GPS icon is flashing when you aren't using a program it is really killing your battery quickly. Go back into that program or running services (via the menu > settings) and shut that program down. If your browser seems to keep the GPS on, don't use Google as your default home page. Make your home page about:blank and simply use the search hard button to do your searches.

7. Lastly, and it doesn't really help you save battery, but try to make sure you have extra chargers to plug in while driving or just sitting around. Personally I bought a second OEM battery for about 20 bucks from eBay and a slim wall charger (cordless) for another 20 bucks and keep one battery charging at almost all times. The batteries for the phone are pretty slim so I don't even notice an extra one in my pocket, and with the cordless wall charger you don't have to charge one battery at a time while it is in the phone. If you are a little shorter on cash you can forgo the wall charger I mentioned and get a cheap knockoff battery from eBay for 3-4 dollars. I actually have a cheap OEM knockoff battery, and it doesn't last as long as the actual Motorola one, but it gives me about 4-5 hours of charge which is easily enough to top off whatever my OEM battery came up short.

Want to improve call quality?

We all want the best call quality that we can possibly get. Usually Verizon does a pretty decent job of giving us that coverage we need to make 1-900 calls from just about anywhere...but how is the call quality when you actually connect?

Here are two tips for better call quality:

1. Go to menu > settings > call settings and turn off voice privacy. Quite often this causes an echo for someone else on the other line.



2. This next tip might not always work, depending where you live...so if your call quality gets worse after trying just change it back...go to the dialer and on the standard phone screen type ##PROGRAM and enter 000000 when it askd for the password. Then choose VOCODE. the default is EVRC. Try changing this to ERVC-B. This is a newer call standard that isn't completely in effect yet....also you can try 13k which is the oldest of the standards. Let me know how it works.

Earthquake! app in the market

For those of you living in an earthquake prone area or perhaps those just curious after the quakes in Haiti and Chile, Earthquake! on the market shows you earthquakes that have occured in the last 24 hours, and even plots them for you on Google maps...even with alerts. Reportedly the app uses a lot of battery power...but nonetheless, an interesting app to try.

Raging Thunder 2 to be released on the Market at "any time"

This is the sequel to the hot game for the iPhone and Droid from 2008 'Raging Thunder' (obviously). Here are some of the features from the game:

Raging Thunder 2 features:

* Six single player game modes: Career, Arcade, Single Race, Time Attack, Survival, Instant Race
* Online or local, cross-platform multiplayer with pre and post-race chat
* Choose from a fleet of tuner cars with the ability to upgrade wheels, body, wings, and engine
* Multiple upgrade options for each area with visual enhancements
* Ten beautiful, varied and animated track environments with tons of hidden shortcuts
* Stunning, console quality 3D graphics using OpenGL 2.0

Word is that it could show up on the Market at any time, but as of 930pm EST it isn't there yet. For those of you always saying that there aren't any games available for the Droid...bite your tongue! I'm not a racing genre fan but I'll definitely try this out when it comes out.

Fighting with 3G today

Verizon swears that there are no remaining service issues but since yesterday my phone internet has been pretty sketchy. Some web pages simply don't load past, say, 10%. Hoping to reprogram my phone and have that fix it. It is sort of a catch all problem fixer and rarely does much good but it's always worth a try...

Dial *228 and then when you hear the voice try picking option 2. Then I usually pull the battery out and reboot the phone.

Steve Jobs is an asshole

Well it wouldn't be a full day in the android community if yet another opinion on the patent lawsuit between HTC and Apple didn't pop up...so I'm going to chime in as well since it's a relatively slow news day otherwise.

If you're just crawling out from under your rock and didn't see the news over the last few days, I'm here to enlighten you: Steve Jobs is an asshole. All of the people most likely interested in what I have to say in my blog probably already knew this but I'm just repeating what we've all been thinking for years.

Essentially Apple is suing HTC for alleged patent infringement with some of Apple's inventions. Why are they suing HTC do you suppose? Because not only is Jobs an asshole, but he's a coward too. Most likely Apple is using some of Google's patents as well and so he'd rather tangle with HTC who has very little patents instead of tackling the giant, Google.

For years we have heard about what an evil monster Microsoft is, especially after the ridiculous anti-trust lawsuit with Netscape Navigator...yet Apple fan boys are quick to sing praises for Jobs even though he is 100 or more times worse than Gates ever was. He controls what software his users must install, what format, etc. Hell, iPhone and iTouch users can't even ever have Flash.

What is Apple seeking from this frivolous lawsuit? Unspecified damages and the cease in production f HTC devices that allegedly use these infringed patents.

The timing, however, is what makes this story interesting. The first Android device was the HTC G1 which debuted long before Android was a threat to Apple. But now that the Droid beat the iPhone on Engadget and Apple is watching its market share having to move over a bit for the Android, Jobs decides to launch a smear campaign.

Jobs is running scared, because like Congress, he is realizing that the general public prefers less control in their life as opposed to more. He realizes that his position near the top is in jeopardy now that the mobile public has gotten their first taste of freedom ala Android. Much like Congress can expect to be ousted in November for trying to shove taxes and healthcare down the throat of Americans after being told "no", Jobs can expect to have his position at the top ousted by Android now that the public knows what it's like to have freedom on their phones.


You can see a copy of the filing here.

Gesture Search Comes to the Android 2.0 and Above

Google has just released Gesture Search on the Market. No, this isn't an app that gives Steve Jobs the finger, this allows you to make a gesture, such as an "m" which will bring up contacts, music, apps, bookmarks, etc that start with the letter "m". Then you can continue to gesture to spell something out (one letter at a time though) to narrow your search. I see this being a great "contacts" replacement. Instead of scrolling through your contacts you use the gesture. Very intuitive. I downloaded and tried it, and even with my sloppy and careless writing it didn't make a single mistake. Another quality app from Google.

I ordered my wife some new slutty lingerie...

...and I used Mobile Package Tracker to track the package via UPS. This nifty little app allows you to input the tracking number and package carrier (FedEX, UPS, DHL, USPS, TNT - whatever T.F. that is). It's like 2 bucks on the Market and worth every penny. For awhile I was trying to re-input tracking numbers every time I anxiously awaited my next batch of adult material in the mail, and it got tedious. Now I get notifications every time the package status changes.

PS - I didn't really order her slutty clothes. Sorry to disappoint, it just sounded like a good title.

Hootsuite: Seriously, do we need another %$!#&ing Twitter client?

Apparently there is good money in Twitter apps because I saw my news feed alert me about yet another Twitter application for your Android phone. I think that there just might be more Twitter apps than there are -isms apps and fart soundboards...maybe even more than all the Euro metro stop apps.

This Just In: The Moto Devour Sucks

For those of you considering the Motorola Devour instead of the Droid on the Verizon network just to save a couple of bucks...allow me to sum up a bunch of articles for you so you don't have to do all the tedious research that I've already done for you:

It sucks.

That's the general consenus of just about every review and opinion of every owner I've talked to. The only bigger flop that I can think of in recent memory is Kris Angel's "Believe" at Luxor in Las Vegas. My wife and I were going to see that show but after talking to guests leaving the performance we decided to bail as quickly as possible. Here is a review from the New York Times, but keep in mind this review is the general rule, not the exception.


New York Times article.

MLB At Bat 2010

The MLB At Bat 2010 app has made its way to the Market for Android as of today. I'm not into baseball but this should be good news for fans of steroid users. :)

Watching the NHL trade deadline from my phone

Here's to hoping that next year I am doing it with Flash enabled so I can get the whole experience. Go Pens!!!

Not much news today for Droids other than the network outage unless you care that Apple is suing HTC for patent infringement or that VZW is selling N1 batteries

Verizon has nationwide data outages

From the Christian Science Monitor:

Verizon outage strikes nationwide

Users of phones such as the Droid and the BlackBerry are reporting a widespread Verizon outage. The company says it is working on the problem.

Verizon outage? You're not alone. Verizon says it is working on fixing widespread outages on its data network.

By Matthew Shaer / March 3, 2010

Hundreds of consumers are flocking to online discussion boards to report a Verizon outage across the carrier's network, a problem that Verizon says it is working to fix. Outage time appears to vary, but some Verizon users say they have been unable to access the Web or email for hours. Crucially, the issues center on faulty Internet and data connections – Verizon phone service appears to be unaffected.

."I haven't had Internet or email access all morning (4:30 am EST when I woke up). How sad that this could happen," a user in Cincinnati wrote today on a Droid forum. "How pathetic that Verizon doesn't post something up on their site." Judging by the message boards, the Midwest and South seem to have been hit harder by the outages than the coasts. "Mine started going haywire last night," an Indiana Droid fan posted this morning.

Tim Stevens at Engadget confirms that Verizon is aware of the outages, although the company has not said how soon the issues could be resolved. "We'd advise not calling and bothering the support folks about this – based on how long we were on hold we're guessing they have their hands full at the moment," Stevens counseled. Many forum participants seem to agree, although that hasn't stopped others from flooding switchboards with complaints.

The outage comes at a time when Verizon is jostling with AT&T for shares of the US market. AT&T, of course, has outage problems of its own: Heavy traffic from iPhone users has bogged down the AT&T data network. Meanwhile, there are widespread concerns that the forthcoming Apple iPad, which will utilize a 3G connection, could bring AT&T data speeds to a screeching halt.

Custom Tray Icons

Thanks to StanRC and mvezz over at Droidforums.net, we now have some very clean and nice looking tray icons available. They are a nice contrast to the boring stuff you usually see, and look great especially if you are using a smoked glass theme from a ROM (see the customization blog post from yesterday).

The original thread over there can be found here.

I changed mine if for no other real reason except to have a nice new GMail icon. If you use the stock messaging application instead of Handcent or ChompSMS, it really spruces up your notification icon for that as well.

The only kicker is, you have to be rooted and have MetaMorph (MM) installed from the Market as well as BusyBox. Several programs install BusyBox for you, and you can also install it using the ADB shell. There are a ton of guides for doing both over on Droidforums.net and Rootyourdroid.info.

The hardest part is getting Busy Box installed. Then you can just download the Metamorph program from the Market (I bought the donate version), put the zip file(s) from StanRC's thread into the AndroidThemes folder, and start the program. The rest is pretty easy.

Here is a guide to install Busybox:

How to install BusyBox.