Automation, or putting Smart back in smartphone

So... what's a "smart" phone?

Judging by what's available on the market, a smartphone is a portable computer that also acts as a phone.  Truth is, even though it's featureful, it's no smarter than a calculator.

Enters Tasker.

The sad thing is, you shouldn't have to purchase this app.  It should just be part of Android.  But until this happens, Tasker is the one app every power user should get.

What is Tasker?  To me, it's a way to access to the OS' full API without having to write java programs.  According to the developer, it's an app that performs tasks (actions) based on contexts (triggers).

Let's look at a few examples:

Tasker, please...
Disable screen timeout when I'm reading a book or using google maps
Change my wallpaper and ringtone when I'm in the office
Put the phone on vibration when I'm in a meeting
Disable email notifications at night
Remember where I park my car and help me find it if I forget
And much much more...

Actually, take a look here for sample profiles that you can download and customize to your liking.

OK, I know, there's a learning curve.  You'll have to spend an hour or two reading the doc and trying it out.  But hey, you've got an Android in your hand; not a beautiful but severely limited I-thing; not an I've got a keyboard but no real Internet access Berrything.  A fully customizable and hackable Android.  Do yourself a favor and not only customize our device, but make it "smart" enough to do the right thing, at the right time, all the time.

Find this helpful?  Have questions?  Comment below!

Live wallpapers

Name the 1st thing that separate Android phones from everything else.

To me, what comes to mind are widgets and live wallpapers.

Live wallpapers change your screen from some static windows-desktop-like image into an enjoyable dynamic show.  Makes it a pleasure to look at every time.

My first android wallpaper, and still my favorite, is Koi Live.  This top view of a beautiful pond filled with Koi fishes swimming around isn't only gorgeous, it also reacts to your input, sending ripples across the water when you touch the screen.

There's a whole lot of live wallpapers (LWPs) available, but those from Kittehface Software are especially good.  They include, in addition to Koi Live, the following:

Thunderstorm, a cloud-filled sky with frequent lightning strikes
Galactic Core, a nice spinning galaxy that also reacts to your input
Blue Skies, another one of my favorites, but it seems to cause launcher slowdowns and crashes on some devices
and Silhouette, a dynamic sunset view with a few surprises that I'll let you discover :)

- Correction Feb 04 -
The sunrise wallpaper that offer you morning surprises is Sun Rise by Teragon.  The background's similar to Silhouette but it's got it's own personal touch that you'll love.

All of those are offered in two versions; A free one, that's fully functional, ad-free and doesn't require any system permission, and a Donation one, that offers many customization options for 99 cents.

Whatever device you have, download a few of those and give them a try.  Chances are you'll love the life they bring to your screen :)

Let there be light!

Light.  One thing that's so useful when you need it but that you never carry around.

Many android devices are equipped with a pretty decent light to be used as your camera's flash.  But while it's not officially suggested you use it as a flashlight when you're stuck in a dark corner, many apps offer just that.

My favorite one is Tiny Flashlight.

First, because of it's nice customizable widget that let you control the light from one touch.  And because it's free and works great.  But you may also like it's other features, like turning the screen white, or any color of your choice, if your device dosen't have a camera flash, or it's other less obviously useful features like strobe and "police" light.

In any case, I wouldn't carry an android without it installed and readily available.

Alarm Clocks

I now totally depend on my Android to wake up in the morning.

The obvious reasons are that contrary to my bedside table's alarm clock, I can have any number of alarms, that rings on different days (and don't ring on weekends), using any sound or song I want.  But there's a few more advantages to alarm clock apps.

Interesting features include naps (ring in X minutes), speak on wake (use Text To Speech to say the time or weather), night clock mode (if you dock your phone), snooze and dismiss control (like requiring to solve a math question to turn off the alarm, to make sure you're really up) and, one of my favorite, "gentle" alarm.  This plays your selected sound at a slowly increasing volume to wake you up gently :)

There's many good alarm clock apps with similar features, but playing with the main ones got me to choose Alarm Clock Plus.  It offers all of the above features in a clean packages, and comes with a neat clock widget.

If you're using android's default alarm clock, or worst, still relying on that old beige thing beside your bed, head over to the market and download something that will wake you up in a more enjoyable way while letting you sleep later when you can.

Keyboards

Chances are you'll spend a bit of time and effort typing on your android device.  As the default keyboard is rather basic, it's definitely worth looking at the alternatives for something that will make the experience more efficient and enjoyable.

There's three main ways to type on Android, each with it's following.  There's standard typing; there's sliding across letters; and there's suggestion picking.

For the latter, SwiftKey X Keyboard is quite impressive.  It supports different languages, automatically switch to the one you're using, and the relevancy of the suggestions will blow your mind.  When I tried it, I could type whole sentences with just a few letters.  For example, typing "G" as a first letter will bring "Good" and a suggestion, and picking it will suggest "morning" for the second word.  The sentences just build themselves...

On the down side, there's a version for tablets and it's sold separately.   So if that's the right keyboard for you, you may have to pay for it twice to have the same experience across all of your portable devices.  Considering that the value of this keyboard resides in it's suggestion engine and not in the graphical layout, you're really purchasing the same thing twice :(


What if don't like hitting keys and prefer sliding across instead?  I never developed the technique, so I can't bring personal experience.  Many phones come with a swype keyboard to tempt you in, and the market offers SlikeIT Keyboard which have good reviews and comments.  Might be worth giving it a look...


And now for the last type, which I prefer.  Keyboard are meant for typing right?  My personal favorite is Thumb Keyboard.  The value of this keyboard comes from it's different layouts and customization options.  It offers different layouts for phones and tablets and different ones in portraits and landscape modes, all to make better use of the available screen real estate.

You can add or remove rows for arrow keys, special keys, completion words, resize the keys to your liking, change the skin to anything from boring clones of the competing mobile OS' gray keyboards to neon-lit keys over the background image of your choice.


Now for a bonus app...  Say you have a lot of typing to do.  Nothing beats a real, physical keyboard right?  There's many bluetooth keyboards available that will (almost) turn your phone into a portable PC.  Perfect for sysadmin support over the weekend anyway...

If you do purchase such a device, head over to the market and install Null Keyboard.  Null keyboard offers just what the name implies; no keyboard.  This way you'll prevent the on-screen keyboard from popping up and clogging the screen when it's not needed :)