Moto G 2014 2nd Gen: a quick review

For the price (£130 or so at Tescos) a brilliant phone. While the camera's just 8 mp, the rest of the specs are great, and for the first time ever I'm able to get through a day and still have battery left for the next! Despite the beautiful large screen the phone isn't 'big' and cumbersome.

Given it's close association with Google, it's no surprise the phone has the closest integration I've seen with the Android operating system. There's very little bloatware, and Google Now is built right into the home screen. The phone runs KitKat (Android 4.4) but an OTA upgrade to Lolliop is rumoured to be due in February 2015.

60 great wallpapers for your Android

Once in a while I like to change my phone's wallpaper. Just came across this site, which has some stunning photos that would grace any phone!

http://android.appstorm.net/roundups/60-beautiful-wallpapers-for-your-android-phone/

Android Market problems

I had a strange problem crop-up when using the Market - updates or downloads would begin but never finish, just show a 'Starting download...' message. Furthermore, when I tried to uninstall, a similar thing would happen: the 'Uninstalling...' message would show but never complete. Googling gives many possible solutions, but the one I found to work was to upgrade to the latest Play app.

Organising your music collection

Cataloguing you CD collection may be old fashioned, but there's something so easy about doing it using your Android phone that it makes you want to. Perhaps its the bar code scanner that can pull in a wealth of detail about your music.

But it took me a while to find the best for my needs. Here's a summary of apps to consider (or to reject outright).

PackRat: Really wanted to like this app - it looked good, but it totally failed to find several items, and force closed when I tried to go into preferences.

Memento: found it to be useless: scanned a code but then didn't pull the details in.

ScanPet: Oh so pretty, and oh so confusing. Scanning creates an Excel file, and seemingly nothing more.

Shelves: Now this one I could get to like, with a clean interface and accurate scanning. Only the detail view of an item is simply a review - and while there is more to see if I edit an item, it still doesn't include a track listing.

Collectionista: I liked this app because it does pull-in the track listing. I did think it left a little to be desired - mainly because it went straight into a full edit if you click on the image. But it looks good.

And the Winner: Inventory. Almost too simple, but I loved the scan accuracy (it even offers suggestions if there a close matches when scanning). You can view an item, then choose to edit. And of course having the track listings in the details is great. On the other hand, there are details in the listing that can't be edited. It does have a focus on ownership (allowing you to specify who you've lent an item to), but is quite customisable.

QR codes and Apps

You've created your first app, so how can you drive traffic to it? Using a QR code is one way.

Your App 'ID' in Play (formerly known as The Market) is actually the package name, so it would be something like this: com.delphis.DestiDom.

So the URL to the website would be:

http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=<com.delphis.DestiDom>

and a link directly to the Market would be:

market://details?id=<com.delphis.DestiDom>

Using a QR code creating service like http://delivr.com/QR-Code-Generator
we'd then come up with our QR code!

App Development Tips & Tricks

Here's a few tips and tricks in developing Android apps using Eclipse.

1. Don't try to run a project while you've got an XML file open and active - Eclipse will create an *.out.xml file and fail to run. Delete the out.xml, close (or make inactive) the XML file you had open, then run the project again.

2. Eclipse usually rebuilds a project when you edit any aspect of it. but it will only recreate the apk file when you run it in the emulator (or on an attached device). If you want the recreate the apk without having to run (as I do sometimes when I've made minor changes and I just want to update the apk) there's an option in Eclipse for that: in Eclipse --> Preference, search for Build. You'll see Android-->Build, and uncheck the Skip Pacakging... option.

3. If you don't use a version/source control system, you can revert to a previous version of code by using the Local History option. Right-click a file within a project and choose Replace With --> Local History and browse for the file. Otherwise install something like Subversion.

Top 10 or so Android Apps

I was asked for my recommendations on the top apps a new Android user should install. So here they are (in no particular order)!

1. FreePower Widget (free). Home screen widget that lets you toggle on/off key settings like Wi-fi, GPS etc. Nicely customisable. Every phone needs this on the home screen.

2.1 QuickPic (free). I've never been satisfied with the stock photo galleries. QuickPic is a great little galley app with a host of options.

2.2 Photo Days (free). Another gallery, but what I love about this one is that it groups your photos by date. A godsend when looking for specific photos for a particular month.

3. RemindMe (free). A very simple reminder app. Nothing fancy, just does a good job of reminding you!

4. WhatsApp (free for a year). Multi-platform messaging app.

5. QuickSettings (free). Quickly turn on/off important settings.

6 Dolphin Browser Mini (free). A nice, simple, tabbed browser.

Getting more technical now:


7 Tasker. This task manager lets you automate the process you'd otherwise have to manually do. For example, I've set it to dim my screen around 6pm, turn on Airplane Mode at 11pm, turn the volume to vibrate at 8pm, and send an SMS to my bank every morning. Though it is a paid app, it's worth every penny.


8 Go Launcher Ex (free). This home screen replacement lets you discard the often limited or staid home screen functionality for something far more productive.

9 Ed's Backup Utility (free). Lets you backup your phone's SD card to your PC. An absolutely brilliant app that lets you schedule the copying of (new) photos over to your PC when you're connected to a particular wi-fi network. A little tricky to set up (since you'll need to know local and remote folder paths) but well worth the effort if you value your photos.

And finally, a couple of essential apps for a rooted phone:

10 AdAway (free). A very effective ad blocker.

11 ClockSync (free). I don't know why my provider's clock is always a couple of minutes off, but this fixes it by querying atomic time.

Reason To Be Rooted, Parts I, II and III

1: You can then install an ad-blocker like AdAway.
2: You can use a clock syncing app like ClockSync
3: You can uninstall pre-installed 'bloatware' apps

Speeding up a sluggish phone

Here's a good article on what you can do to speed up a sluggish, overloaded phone.