Wish my Android smartphone could
Recently made the switch from 3-year old mobile technology (Apple iPhone 3g) to an Android-based mobile device, htc inspire 4g, on the same carrier (at&t). Didn’t impact my calling plan. Didn’t have to pay for the hardware. Did have to extend my contract for 2 (long) years. The switch has been a tad on the side of underwhelming. Not quite as fast as I’d hoped, though much faster than what I had. And these open questions are bordering annoying.
Sure there’s tons of info out there about different Android phones and millions of apps and lots of features and options. After hours of scouring, finding the easy one-click answer has been more than elusive. And I don’t want to “root” the phone (kinda an Android’s version of jailbreaking an iOS iPhone). I’ve heard there are more Android users out there than iPhone users. Help a brother out. What’s the quick answer to these, in no particular order:
- screen capture
- headset button that’d pickup and hangup on a phone call
- switch back to current phone call
- which apps work on my Android (2.2) and which don’t
- photo on lockscreen that’s different than desktop wallpaper
- I have other questions but I don’t remember them right now – and I don’t want to write (type) them out
screen capture: shootme
re: headset button that’d pickup and hangup on a phone call – i’m surprised the headset that came with your phone didn’t have this feature. UE 500vi are great. tho mp3 control is still lacking as the headphone isn’t natively setup to work with android but they sound great.
you can switch back to current phone call (assuming you had to use another app concurrently) just by swiping down the notification bar and selecting the call.
@Drew – thank you!
@theresa – those UE 500vi headphones look great, will put that on my short list, when I lose my current on (Zagg earbuds). The headset button’s function very much depends on the phone, it seems…
Lock screen image different than home screen – Widgetlocker. http://teslacoilsw.com/widgetlocker If i only paid for one app it would be this one. allows unlock directly into any app on phone.
Screen capture is a bummer…I haven’t bothered to root and you need to in order to use one of the screen shot apps
my kicker’s button hangs up and works with voice activation just fine. screen capture apps vary from device to device with each update but pic me and shoot me both work with varying success on unrooted devices. I thought the newest version of sense had the lock screen change out native, if not Screen Suite is pretty full featured…
Though I still say you just root that beast and install cyanogenmod7. With that devices power you could run the world from handheld.
@Dan, ah, swiping down the notification bar, sounds like a secret easter egg. 🙂
@Vince, super, thanks for the tip!
@Scott, good to know. Didn’t realize all these different devices running the same Android OS could be so different. Sigh. Of course the ones with different buttons would do different things. Wouldn’t have thunk the features I mentioned above would be so elusive.
Just got done chatting with DJ and sounds like I have won him over into rooting. He is going research it. No screenshots (on your phone) without root. You could do it with the SDK, but that is kind of a pain.
Vince’s suggestions of Widgetlocker is the app I was thinking of, but couldn’t remember
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.teslacoilsw.widgetlocker
Re: Headset woes – I found this https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kober.headsetbutton
It looks to fix the problems.
Re: 2.2 compatible apps – I noticed on https://market.android.com/ on the right side of an app page it does say “Requires Android: 2.0 and up”, but not in the actual Market app on the phone which could get frustrating.
Call switchback has been covered. (pull down notification bar)
@Sumyunguy, thanks again for the online #tweetup to talk Android. You had me on rooting when you said _more_ battery life! That alone is worth the extra hoop-jumping efforts, especially on htc inspire.
Rooting plus installing a ROM (CyanogenMod7) will provide better battery life. There are other ROMs, but I am not familiar with them.
I guess you could root and delete some apps, but I am not exactly sure which ones are OK to get rid of and which ones are not. I also don’t know that that would give better battery life.
Once rooted you need to back up the stuff you want to keep BEFORE you install a ROM or delete anything.
Backup your existing system Via Clockwork Recovery (it gets installed as part of the rooting process)
Titanium Backup will backup all your apps and their respective data to SD card. https://market.android.com/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup
SMS Backup and restore will do just that https://market.android.com/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore
Call Logs Backup if you need those https://market.android.com/details?id=com.riteshsahu.CallLogBackupRestore
Backup your Contacts http://www.androidcentral.com/saving-your-contacts-google
Backup any emails only on the phone.
Once you are rooted, these are the instructions for CyanogenMod7 Install http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=HTC_Ace:_Recovery,_Radio_and_CyanogenMod
This is the proper Radio file you should use with the instructions for Cyanogen
http://android.d3xt3r01.tk/cyanogen/ace/radios/26.06.04.06/PD98IMG.zip
It is important to check that this file is not corrupted by matching the MD5 Hash.
The md5 hash result should match this: dea534848a9b71fc54878c0111ceed76
You can check MD5 with this if you downloaded it to PC
http://download.cnet.com/MD5-Checker/3000-2092_4-10410639.html
Or you can use this https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hobbyone.HashDroid
to check if the file is downloaded on your phone.
I like the new look on your website! I redesigned mine as well.
Hmm let me see if I can help with a few of your questions.
-screen capture – there’s an app for that. Search android marketplace
-headset button that’d pickup and hangup on a phone call – depends on ur bluetooth device. My truck has a pickup button but i still have to hangup from the handset. Big minus
– switch back to current phone call – blackberry has the best interface for it.
– which apps work on my Android (2.2) and which don’t – angry birds! Gmail! That’s all I really used.
– photo on lockscreen that’s different than desktop wallpaper – carrier dependent maybe. Might need to jailbreak b4 u can do that.
Good luck! My Droid2 started to lag, and it would crash randomly. I downgraded back to my Blackberry Tour 9630 and haven’t looked back since! Btw, are you free for a consultation about starting a God-centered transportation business?
Thank you,
Kevin Y.
Hi Kevin, thanks for the reply – great hearing from you. Redesign happened months ago, I forget how far back. This Suffusion theme on WordPress is super configurable!
As for consulting, I am available, though depending on what is involved, fees would need be negotiated 🙂