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E
ID
W
GU
NE
100% unofficial
S
R
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YE
BU

App reviews Tips & advice

Hardware tested Hacking
ANDROID L POWER UP
CHROMECAST
GET IT NOW!
First look and top tips
DE-GOOGLE
YOUR DEVICE 35 apps to enhance your
streaming experience
for the new Android Remove bloatware to
free up memory

EXPERT BOOST YOUR

RUN A
DUAL OS
Run both Android
PHON BATTERY
Kill apps instantly to
conserve power

and Linux

Essential tricks to
make your phone
your own
ULTRA-FAST
DOWNLOADS
ANDROID ONE
ED R?

Supercharge your
IEW LE

Wi-Fi speeds Googles masterplan for the

EV IL

next billion users revealed

G E 3R K

TOP APPS TO ALSO INSIDE

LG ON

OnePlus One
AUTOMATE TASKS Galaxy Note 10.1
iPH

Set your phone to perform jobs instantly ISSUE 41 HTC Desire 610
 Welcome
ON To issue 41

REVIEW
Weve got the latest

Welcome
Android devices on test

LG G3
The ace in the
pack for the LG G3
is its screen
p82
Google whet our appetite with Androids
gorgeous new design, lockscreen notications,
4K video streaming and battery-saving features
MY HOME SCREEN
S
ome thought it would be
lollipop, others liquorice, a
On (and off) Jacks few even said limoncello. In
phone this month the days leading up to Google I/O,
One Plus One many Android fans sounded like kids
The phone is in a sweet shop as they debated
what confectionary would inspire
unquestionably targeted EverythingMe Yahoo Sport Android 5.0s name. However, come
at enthusiasts the event, Google whet our appetite
with Androids gorgeous new design, lockscreen
p86
APPS

APPS
OUT

notications, 4K video streaming and battery-saving

IN

features, but refused to refer to it as anything other than

Udacity Slingshot Android L. Worse still, Google said we could look but not
This month
touch ofcial rollout for this new OS wouldnt come until
Ive been using: the autumn. And we didnt think that was fair.
LG G3
The rst next-gen
True, those with a Nexus device and the technical
phone looks great, know-how can install the Android L Developer Preview and
and the 2K screen is
Leos Fortune out of this world Smash Hit enjoy these features straight away. But what about the
rest of us? This issue is packed with clever apps, tricks
and hacks to get Android L on your device right now. From
the colourful wallpapers to the voice-activated unlocking,
even the new-look notications and the phone-wiping
HTC Desire kill-switch, we take you through Android Ls key features
610 and tell you which ones you can get now and how.
For those that want to go deeper, try our Expert Hacks
ticks a lot of the
boxes for todays mid-
GET IN TOUCH guide for ten top upgrades to make to your rooted device.
Let us know what youd From supercharging your Wi-Fi for lightning-fast downloads
range customers like to see in next issue to creating your own app widgets, it offers step-by-step

p88 facebook /littlegreenrobot

tutorials to making your Android phone your own.
Enjoy the mag!
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your comments

email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Drop us an email and let us know what
youd like to see in the mag

twitter @lgrobot Jack Parsons

Follow us on Twitter and send us
your thoughts Deputy Editor
3
Contents www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Inside issue 40

CONTENTS
28 Exclusive subscription offer 54 Special offer for USA eaders

Launcher Previews,
news and
speculation
1 THE
from the
Android world
G W
06 Android One
Googles masterplan for the
next billion users revealed
NE D
09 Photo apps
Snap, store and edit your
images with these essential
photo apps

10 The pocket-sized NOW! x xx

o
x
k
xx
and top s
xx
xxxxxxxtip
projector First lor Android L
This Android-powered smart fo
projector is highly portable

TRANSFORM
YOUR PHONE BOOST YOUR
Get Androids new BATTERY LIFE
Material Design on Supercharge your
your device device with
Project Volta

UPGRADE LOGIN WITH

GOOGLE NOW ANDROID WEAR
Your virtual assistant New sensors will
12 10 things to do is better than replace your
with your old phone ever passwords
Instead of selling it, why not
hack it, give it to charity or even
use to make
you money

13 HTCs
Dot View 06 24 Upgrade your
Chromecast
is now Discover
smarter how
than ever Android
The Dot View One is
app adds new
features to the
going to
smart case take over
the world
14
Messages
We delve into our virtual mailbag
to hear the latest reader rants
on all things Android

4
 Visit the Android Magazine online shop at
Contents
Hacker for back issues and books
Inside issue 40

Zone 55
your Android phone
10 Expert
Explore the limits of 70 Phone Hacks
Hacking tips
and tricks
Apps
Your complete
guide to
Reviews
Cutting-edge tablets and
Tutorials
Essential guides to getting more
Google Play
72 App reviews
The latest apps on test
smartphones on test from your phone or tablet
80 Video-editing apps
82 Reviews 30 Automate your phone Editing suites go head-to-head
82 LG G3 Make your phone work as you want it to by
86 One Plus One automating tasks with apps instead of hacks 81 Game reviews
88 HTC Desire 610 The latest games reviewed

90 Accessories
Featuring the Spaced360
App review index
speaker and the Universal 34 Tutorials 72 Sunrise Calendar
Charging Station 34 Use external plug-ins in Sunrise 73 SwiftKey Keyboard
Calendar
36 Stream Dropbox to your TV 73 Copy Bubble
The denitive 82 37 Recalibrate your battery 73 Ready Contact List

94 list of the
best gadgets LG G3
without root
38 Create formulas in Google Sheets
40 Blacklist spam numbers
with Truecaller
73
74
74
Vibify
Endless TV
Parallels Access
45 Take notes during calls with 74 Owly
NOTEify 75 PhonoPaper
46 Use Hibernate to freeze
75 Gardens
background processes
48 Track your app usage with 75 Gardenate
Frequency 75 iScape Lite
49 Automatically store copied 75 Garden Manager: Plant Alarm
data with EverClip
76 Lumosity
76 Quip
50 Droid Support
Readers questions answered, plus 76 Instagram
troubleshooting tips and tricks 77 1Password
78 Selphee
78 The Guardian
78 Echo Lockscreen
79 Reddit ofine
79 Cluster
79 Snapkeys Zones
79 Cross DJ Mix your music
79 Audio Visualizer Live
79 Path
79 Hike messenger
79 BallTune
80 AndroVid Pro
80 VideoShow Pro
81 Angry Birds Epic
81 Soar

90 Headphones head-to-head 81
81
Hitman GO
Worms 3

Check our website daily

for even more news www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk 5
 All the latest from the world of Android devices
Android One:
Googles
masterplan
for the next
billion users
One platform to rule them all? How Google
plans to conquer the growing market
in Asia and beyond
big
THE STORY
G
oogle treated us to a ton of new
announcements at I/O this year, but one of
the most crucial initiatives for Googles
mobile future was easily missed, as it wasnt
directly aimed at the US and European markets.
Android One, a new hardware and software spec for
low-end smartphones in developing nations, is
intended to help Google expand the reach of its
mobile OS in countries like India, China and beyond.
What exactly is it, then? Google is using the term
Android One to refer to a set of hardware
standards for smartphone manufacturers,
standards which it hopes will speed up the process
of developing budget handsets in emerging
markets. Google is also providing the stock Android
6
Key features
Low cost: Google promises the phone can be
put together for less than $100
Dual SIM: Rare in the UK and the US but seen as
a standard feature in India
package the same one used on the Nexus and
Google Play Edition devices then working with
OEMs and carriers to give new customers the
handsets and data packages they need. Essentially,
Google gives manufacturers everything they need
except the raw materials to build the product.
You can think of it as a Nexus programme for the
developing world, with a lower set of hardware
specications, special features (such as dual SIM
capabilities) that are popular in these markets, and
more control from Google over how the overall
package is delivered.
In countries like India, where the Android One
scheme is starting, the mobile landscape looks a lot
FM radio: Another important feature users in
developing nations often rely on
Stock Android: Undiluted version of KitKat
together with Google Play access
Data Deals: Google is planning to partner with
carriers to provide discount data plans
different. Most users are still on budget feature
phones, connectivity is patchy, and handsets often
double as radios or document scanners in the
absence of other technology. Smartphone use is
expected to explode in India over the next year or
two, which is why Google is making its move now,
with Micromax, Karbonn and Spice as its rst
hardware partners.
On stage at Google I/O in San Francisco, Google
Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai showed off a
Micromax Android One device that costs less than
$100. Featuring the FM radio and removable SD
cards demanded by the Indian market, it will run
stock Android and have full access to the Google
 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
twitter @lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

The Android One

program will move
more phone
designs to KitKat
Wayne Lam, IHS

Play store, an attempt to stay on top of any potential

fragmentation. Im used to cutting-edge phones,
and Ive been using this phone for a while and it is
really good, Pichai told the audience.
At scale we can bring high-quality, affordable
smartphones [to the market], Pichai added. So we
can get the next billion people access to these
devices, and we cant wait to see the impact that
its going to have. If you look at all the OEMs in these
countries, each of them has to reinvent the wheel, Manufacturers can follow the framework laid down by Google to build phones more easily
and in the fast-paced mobile industry they have to
build a new smartphone within nine months. So we
want to pool resources and help everyone.
Google isnt the only company interested in
reaching this potentially lucrative market, and its
unlikely to have everything its own way it faces a
particularly tough ght in China, where OEMs
circumvent Google Play completely, developing their
own versions of Android and customised budget
hardware designs that can be produced at scale for
as little as $40.
Google has already signed up three hardware partners in India The rst phone to follow the Android One guidelines will be a
and is working with carriers too sub-$100 device from Micromax
The Chinese problem
Analysts believe its a move that Google had to OEMs continue to rely on 256MB versions running program, if adopted widely will move more phone
make, but one which isnt necessarily going to be Gingerbread and are able to reach new lows in designs to KitKat. However, that would mean a
successful. With Android One, [Indian OEMs] are price, said Lam. minimum set of hardware requirements that some
buying into a network of component suppliers and I see the Android One program as more a way to low-cost Chinese OEMs are unwilling to take.
manufacturers that have scale and scope to contain the hardware fragmentation within the We also got the thoughts of Rob Enderle, veteran
manufacture their latest designs at a shorter time, industry rather than offering something new in technology analyst at the Enderle Group. He sees
said Wayne Lam, Senior Telecom Electronics developing market smartphone design and this as a move from Google to become more
Analyst at IHS. It will be less appealing to Chinese manufacturing, added Lam when we spoke to him. Apple-like in controlling the hardware and software
OEMs, he told us, as these manufacturers dont The fragmentation issue is clear when still a ecosystem without taking on the risk of actually
make use of Google Play and already have low-cost signicant amount of Android devices still run three manufacturing devices itself. Since most of the
hardware reference points to rely on. Chinese or four year old versions of Android. The Android One prots for Android phones ow directly to Google

Android One vs the competition

Micromax Android One Nokia X2 Alcatel One Touch Fire Micromax Canvas Entice
technical specs *rumoured technical specs technical specs technical specs
Price..................... Under Price.....................$135/78 Price.....................$100/58 Price.....................$117/68
$100/58 Processor........1.2GHz Processor........1GHz Processor........1.2GHz
Processor........ 1.2GHz dual-core single-core quad-core
dual-core* Memory............1GB Memory............512GB Memory............512MB
Memory............ 512MB* Camera.............5-MP Camera.............3.2-MP Camera.............5-MP
Camera............. 5-MP* Battery...............1800mAh Battery...............1400mAh Battery...............1900mAh
Battery............... TBC Display size....4.3-inch Display size....3.5-inch Display size....Five-inch
Display size.... 4.5-inch Display resolution... Display resolution... Display resolution...
Display resolution ... 800 x 480 pixels 320 x 480 pixels 480 x 800 pixels
960 x 540 pixels*

VERDICT With competing handsets offering similar specs, software may be the key for Android One. Well have to wait and see which
smartphone offers the best user experience the winner takes all in the new, emerging markets

7

through advertising this is an attempt to get
most of the prots while passing most of the risks
to others, Enderle told us.
That might not be a scenario that the hardware
OEMs are particularly happy with, as they carry the
can if these phones op Google can simply
move on somewhere else.
I think the problem will be this split of
prots and risk, says Enderle. Not all of the
phones will be successful, and Google typically
doesnt do much marketing, putting even more
pressure on the hardware OEMs. Their existing
OEMs are already complaining about Google not
listening to them, and the fact that not even
Samsung is doing that well nancially at the
moment [shows] these low margin phones
could easily be massively unprotable. If that
occurs, this effort will force a number of
companies out of the segment and Google back
into phone manufacturing.
These low
margin phones
could easily be
massively
unprotable
Rob Enderle, Enderle Group
The competition
As you might expect, other companies besides
Google have their eyes on the relatively untapped
markets of Asia. Though Microsoft hae
discontinued their line of Android-powered Nokia X
phones, their CEO Satya Nadella has already
conrmed they will be reusing the same designs to
produce a new range of low-cost Lumia Windows
Phones, most likely targetting the emerging
markets. Also worth considering are the handsets
running Mozillas Firefox OS from the likes of
Alcatel and LG, though these are mostly sold in
South America at the moment.
Comparing Android One to Nokia X and Firefox
OS platforms, its clear that more exible platforms
Who is Micromax?
A quick look at the little-known
giants of Indian telecommunications
Googles rst Android
One partner is not a
company that
European and American users will be familiar
with, but Micromax is one of the major players
in Indian telecommunications. Across the
world, its the 10th largest supplier of mobile
handsets, and it has eyes on a European
expansion after running sales trial in Russia at
the end of 2013.
8
www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Visit us daily for news and more
Indias mobile explosion
Why Google is debuting Android
One in India
90
million
the number of
smartphones
users in India
as of the end of
2013
9%
percentage of
Indian mobile
users who
access social
media, Twitter
will likely achieve lower absolute cost of hardware,
Lam told us, though he did emphasise the superior
user experience and app ecosystem offered by
Android KitKat. Google can offer a more mature
and complete software package than either
Nokias brand of Android or the Firefox OS being
developed by Mozilla.
Nokia X is more similar to Apple, and Firefox is
more like Android used to be with fewer controls
and more design freedom, adds Rob Enderle. If
Android One fails, which it could given the nancial
pressures on the OEMs, then these two alternative
platforms would benet strongly from the failure.
This has been on Googles mind for some time
note the reduced hardware system requirements
for Android KitKat, for example and now its giving
OEMs even more guidance when it comes to
520
million
the estimated
number of
smartphone
users in India by
2050
Sources: Ericsson, The International Telecommunications
Union, Gartner, Pew, Portio Research.
69%
the expected
FreeVectorMaps.com
rise in mobile
Map of India by
broadband
subscribers in
India by 2020
putting together budget smartphones that can
allow KitKat to shine as well as getting millions
more users into the Google Play ecosystem. Its
important not to forget the stock Android and
automatic updates provided by the Android One
project, which are just as important as the
hardware framework. Google has said local carriers
will be able to install additional applications
relevant to their market.
Whether or not the vision set out by Sundar
Pichai is ever fully realised, the Asia-Pacic market
is going to be increasingly important for Apple,
Google, Microsoft and the hardware companies.
Google wants billions more users around the world
using smartphones; and it wants those
smartphones to be running stock versions of
Android. Welcome to the Android One project.
 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
twitter
@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

1 2 3

GALLERY OF...
STUNNING PHOTO APPS

4 5 6

1 Carousel 2 Pixlr Express 3 VSCO Cam 4 Camera 5 Instagram 6 Frontback

Dropbox has long Fine-tune your If you nd Zoom FX While Instagram Frontback works
been the cloud images in this Instagram lters
Premium is famous for its on a simple
service of choice for mobile alternative to are too heavy-handed, Camera Zoom FX offers photo lters, after three concept: take a photo
Android users because Photoshop. It has all the try VSCO Cam. It still voice-activated years these are starting with the front camera,
it will auto-upload your essential features plus relies on lters, but they shooting, time-lapse to feel a bit dated. another with the back
pictures the moment an automatic image are much more shooting and a burst Fortunately, Instagram and share them both in
you take them. correction that xes customisable, with a mode that captures 30 has recently been a single image. With the
Carousel is Dropboxs problems like red-eye. range of tools to adjust shots a second. If you upgraded with an option to take the two
new dedicated photo However, its real selling the effects strength. would like to try before editing suite to adjust photos separately, its a
app, providing a gallery point is its interface, Additional lter bundles you buy, there is also an brightness, contrast, great way of including
to view your images. which is highly intuitive. are available to buy. excellent Lite version. warmth and sharpness. the photographer.

Price: Free Price: Free Price: Free Price: 1.79/$2.99 Price: Free Price: Free

9
 Stay up to date
Catch up with the latest
twitter @lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
Android news and gossip the latest updates

NEW TECH PROJECTOR

ODIN Take advantage of portable

projection with ODIN
The USB connectors are used in
conjunction with your games consoles,
enabling you to stream your gameplay
onto any surface

T
he possibility of watching
movies on a cinema-style
screen is something were all
keen to do, but projectors tend to
be too expensive and difcult to
set up. ODIN looks to tear down
these barriers by providing the rst
truly portable projector that runs
Android. As a product, the 4.3-inch
ODIN connects with a variety of
different platforms and services via
Bluetooth and USB to act as a
At a glance
Product name ODIN
Available from www.dosowls.com
Price TBA/$845
ODIN is the rst Android smart
projector that enables users to
project their games, movies and les
onto any at surface.
streaming medium between the
two. It connects with the likes of
the Xbox 360, Netix and your
smartphone, takes content from

Get that
them and streams them onto any
surface ODIN is directed at. If youre
on the market for a new way to get
cinema-style your media les on a much larger
screen, then ODIN is certainly
experience in something thats worth checking
out to get that cinema-style
your home experience in your own home.

Only 4.3 inches long,

ODINs Bluetooth
functionality works well
with your Android
smartphone to not
only stream media les,
but also to do a spot of
web browsing on a
bigger screen
the ODIN projector is
highly portable
Your music can also
be streamed across
to the projector

Alex Yoo
CEO, Dos Owls ODIN
Where did the original idea for ODIN
come from?
About two years ago, I realised I wasnt
A using my TV or digital.TV was taking up a
lot of room and digital TV was costing money and
I wasnt utilising it. So, I decided to cancel my
digital subscription and got rid of my TV. I had a
typical apartment in NY, so it was super small.
One thing I missed was watching a movie on a
Friday night or weekend to unwind. So, I looked
online for a projector and couldnt nd a solution
that worked for me. In order to enjoy a movie, I
had to get a projector and connect it to a
speaker system and a computer. Three devices
Q&A
with three power sources and more wires. About a
year ago, I decided to start another company and
decided to pursue my Friday night movie problem,
which morphed into Dos Owls ODIN.
How long did it take to produce the rst
prototype of ODIN?
A little less than a year. It took me about six
A months of fruitless searching and I found the
right people last year. Once I found the people who
knew what they were doing, it went very fast.
Could the pocket size of the projector
impact the quality of projecting?
Obviously, it is better to have more lumens
A and higher resolution, but as a portable,
battery-powered device, ODIN surpasses 99 per
cent of peoples expectations. ODIN has the most
advanced and the most powerful optical engine
right now and the fact that it is powered by
Android makes it so much better. For movie
watching in the dark, it is fantastic and I think it is
a better experience than a large at panel since
ODINs screen size can get pretty big and the
sound is fantastic.
Do you see ODIN as a replacement for
your desktop computer monitor?
I dont think the current ODIN version is a
A replacement for anything, but its a good
option if youre looking for an alternative. I think
ODIN does a very good job of substituting for a
large screen TV and if you are getting the content
from online. For computer, it is mainly tailored for
web browsing and mobile application use such
as Dropbox, Google Docs etc.

10
 We dont keep
secrets

TM

Learn the truth about iPhone, iPad, Android, Photoshop and

more with the Tips & Tricks series expert advice and tutorials

BUY YOUR COPY TODAY

Print edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk
Digital edition available at www.greatdigitalmags.com
Available on the following platforms

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 www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Visit us daily for news and more

1Recycle it
With 130 million devices discarded each
year in the US alone, so-called e-waste is
2Sell it
If you own your phone outright, there is no
reason why you cant sell it on. Many networks will
3Hack it
Being able to root your phone is one of
Androids biggest selling points, but for
lling landll sites with toxic materials, knock money off new contracts for your old phone, beginners this can be a
such as lithium batteries. Services like while daunting task. Rather
Envirofone (www.envirofone.com) will online than experimenting
recycle damaged services on your premium
phones, will pay handset that is
extracting cold, hard still under
valuable cash for contract, practice
components your hacking on
so they can unwanted an unwanted,
be reused. device. last-gen device.

10Mine Bitcoin
Apps
like Easy
4Save the
rainforest
Donate your phone to
Miner make Rainforest Connection and
it easy to they turn it into a listening
generate device in the Amazon. It will
so-called alert rangers when it hears
crypto- illegal tree clearing. Visit
currencies on your device, https://rfcx.org for more info.
but the amount of power
required to run the necessary
algorithms will drain your
battery quickly, making this
an ideal task for an old phone
you can leave on charge.

9 Game on
Using Chromecast its
easy to use an old phone as
5Turn it into a
universal remote
Even the oldest Android
a remote control for playing device can be turned into a
Android games on your TV. remote for your entertainment
However, you system. If your device has an
can also run IR blaster, it likely has this
emulators,
like DraStic
things that you can do with... feature built-in, or you can
download Smart IR Remote.
DS Emulator,
on your old
phone to play
your favourite
old-school
your old phone
console games.

8Build a DIY smart car

To get your very own Android Auto on
the cheap, t your last-gen
7 Make it kid friendly
Over 50 per cent of children under eight are now
able to work their
6Donate it to science
Berkley Universitys free
BOINC app harnesses
phone to your dash with parents device, so your phones
a goo.ey skin, power why not turn your processing power as
it via the cigarette phone into a part of a powerful
lighter with an touchscreen toy? Add network of computers
adapter, and parental controls and studying diseases,
voil you a child-friendly predicting global warming
have a interface with Kids and discovering pulsars. Best of all,
built-in Place or Zoodles Kids BOINC only runs on a fully charged
satnav and Mode from the Google phone connected to Wi-Fi so wont
MP3 player. Play store. waste your battery or data.

12
 HTCs Dot View is now
smarter than ever
The companion app adds new features
to the innovative phone case

Missed call Youve got mail

Wallpapers
Express yourself and create
personalised backgrounds
Discover if you have a missed
call at a glance
Call list Get notication alerts for
texts and emails
Swipe up for a list of your last
three calls for faster redial

H With the option to

TC has updated its Dot View application for
the HTC One (M8) to add more features that
can be shown through the companys
innovative Dot View case.
Already able to show users the time, the weather
and display notications for texts, emails and calls
at a glance, the update adds exible settings and
the option for users to create their wallpapers via
the application.
The redial function is now activated with a
simple upwards swipe, allowing swift connection to
the three most recent calls, and left/right swipes
navigate smoothly through email, text, voicemail
and call notications. Settings can also be tailored
to individual preference, allowing you to decide
whether to display the last three calls or opt to skip
security completely for quick access. With 18
default themes and the option to select a photo
from your gallery or camera, you can create your
own Dot View wallpaper to reect your very own
personal style.
The Dot View case has a hard back to protect the
HTC One (M8) with a rubber ip front that is
select a photo from
your gallery or
camera, you can
create your own Dot
View wallpaper
semi-transparent due to hundreds of tiny
permeations. Using magnets built into the case, the
The Dot View app includes 18 default themes and you can
M8 is able to recognise when the case is attached also create your own based on photos in your gallery
and use its own screen to project light through the
holes, displaying both still and animated screen. Although it was around 35/$50 on launch,
notications. As well as offering a cool retro style, you can now buy the Dot View case in a number of
this innovative design is intended to save the user different colours for around 20/$35 from a range
time opening the case, but also conserve battery as of sellers, Amazon included. The Dot View
the M8s screen only lights up the individual dots application is available as a free download from
required for the notication rather than the whole the Google Play store.

13
 Messages
Inside Android Magazines virtual mailbag

Android & Chrome: Better together

T
he new L release is something that Android
has been needing for quite sometime. By

month
this I mean a uid consistent design
throughout the whole operating system and the
apps within it. The new Material Design looks
very modern the new splashes of colour
Letter of the
around the OS really make it pop, it feels more
grown up somehow and the fact that they are
making it consistent throughout Android and
Chrome devices just improves the whole
Google experience.
I like how Google are nally bringing everything
together between devices such as being able to
unlock my Chromebook if my phone is near, or
being able to use a smartwatch to control
Android TV. Its clear that Google Talk put some
thought into this next update.
Android TV looks great and in my opinion will
eventually replace games consoles such as the
Xbox One and the PlayStation 4, and with
features such as mirroring, the platform just
seems to be getting better and better. Android L has been
The most surprising thing to me about the impressing our readers
Android L update is that Google are going to
update the original Nexus line up, ie the Nexus 4, promised to get a minimum of ve years worth of We say: At the time of writing, only XDA
7, and the 10 as they are all out of the support updates. If this was the case with Android, I Developers has created al version of Android L for
period, but props to Google for keeping these would happily fork out 400-500 for a phone Nexus 4 and 7 (2012 Edition), but Google is
devices updated. Personally I would like to see with the highest specs possible if I knew it would expected to follow suit. Were very excited to see
Google make the same promise they have with be up to date with all the latest features for years Material Design rolling out across the ecosystem.
Chromebook devices with Android phones and to come. For writing the letter of the month, John has won
tablets. For those unaware, Chromebooks are John Crane a Pure Evoke Portable Internet Radio.

Elementary educational app from the award-

App Store
Do you think that the fantastic
Elements app on the iPad/iPhone,
with its gorgeous interactive 3D
images, will be coming to Android
anytime soon? Since changing to
Android from iOS, thats one of the
very few apps that I am really
missing. Im sure Im not the only
one. Any news for me?
Stephen Harris
We say: The Elements: A Visual
Exploration is a critically acclaimed
winning UK developers, Touch Press.
We put Stephens question to Tom
Williams, marketing producer for
Touch Press, who said: We currently
dont have any plans to develop our
apps on Android. However this is
something that we continually review
and it is not something we rule out in
the future. Its great to hear that
there are users who are keen for us
to develop for Android as it gives us a
sense of the potential audience.
Thank you for letting us know about
this enquiry. Ill certainly share it with
the team at Touch Press.
Infographic
accident
The graphics in issue 40 are certainly
educational. I had no idea that Britain
is in Britanny and Korea is in Mongolia
(page 19) and 0.5 is about the same
as 1/10 (page 23, lower right). Please
dont stop your effort to educate us
readers! Jochen Konietzko
We say: Well spotted, Jochen. Given
that the misleading map in question
was the opener for our The Future is
Android feature, we could claim it is a
vision for a sci- tomorrow where
Googles self-driving cars, Wi-Fi
satellites and other Moonshot
projects have brought about
dramatic changes to both the
metaphorical technological
landscape and physical, territorial
boundaries. Sadly, this was not the
case. It was a simple oversight
caused by adjusting the size of the
map, but not remembering to
reposition all of the other elements.
Apologies to all our readers and the
people of Great Britain, Brittany,
South Korea and Mongolia for this
error. It wont happen again!

14
Get in touch!
Send us your thoughts
on all things Android
The Bluetooth-enabled CommBadge
enables users to answer calls with a tap
One to
beam up
I read your 10 things you need to
know about... Non-watch wearables
in issue 40 and thought some of the
wearables looked really cool,
especially the Nod Bluetooth Ring
and Narrative Clip wearable camera.
However, one item, a clip-on camera
listed under the heading Beam me
up, Scotty, didnt have a name on it.
What was it called and wear can I
buy it?
Sarah Matthews
We say: The Star Trek-inspired
CommBadge is available for $89.99
from www.commbadge.net.
Addicted to
Project Ara
I was really excited by the idea of
Project Ara, featured as a news story
in issue 38, and assembling my own
smartphone. To my mind this would
help solve the problem of OS
CROWDSOURCE Opinion
from the
Twittersphere
@lgrobot
Whats your favourite
Chromecast app?
@timelliston love my
Chromecast. I watch mostly
Netix, but use AllCast to
stream local movies. We need
more apps.
email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
facebook twitter
/littlegreenrobot
Got questions or comments? Drop Like us on Facebook to
us an email and let us know send your comments
fragmentation as users with old
phones that cant upgrade to Android
L (or M,N,O etc) could simply upgrade
the relevant chips to make
themselves eligible. What are the
chances of Project Ara becoming a
reality and when will it go on sale? I
dont want to be waiting for it for
years to arrive like I have been with
the Google Glass!
Donald Hardy
I really enjoyed the Future is Android
feature in Android Magazine issue
40. The far-out there concepts like
self-driving cars, Google satellites,
and Project Ara were fun, but
products like the Moto 360,
Chromecast, Google Glass, and Nest
thermostat which are either
available now or will be soon really
show the difference between
Android and Apple. Apple is just
repeating itself making the same old
phone slightly better, Android is
pushing boundaries.
Aaron Francombe
We say: Im afraid Google has yet to
give a xed launch date for its Project
Ara modular phone. However, Google
has now made boards on which
A working prototype of Project Ara was demonstrated at Google I/O
@darrenbast love that the
missus can cast on lounge tv
and I can watch magic eye
sky+ on bedroom tv.
@PaulOBrien Plex all the way!
@d_jcurtis #Plex. Is there any
other choice?
@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter for
the latest updates
snap-on modules can be tested
out on available to developers,
with a dedicated Project Ara
conference taking place in
November.
Speaking of conferences,
Google did demonstrate a
semi-functional prototype at
Google I/O at the end of June. It
was left out of the Google I/O
keynote, but you can watch the
prototype in action at http://youtu.
be/0He3Jr-fZh0.
Meanwhile, the other modular
phone we covered in both issue
38 and 40, the Phoneblok, also
had something of a coup last
month: German microphone and
headphones manufacturer
Sennheiser has partnered with
the organisation. While the
Phoneblok is technically a
competitior to Project Ara, it is a
good-natured rivalry as Google is
also a partner in the so-called
Phoneblok Alliance. This means,
theoretically, Project Ara could
benet from snap-on Sennheiser
sound systems as well. All in all,
the idea of swapping out an old
speaker for a more powerful one
now seems slightly more realistic.
@halfords45 allcast works
every time great app!
@Pidgpie = Localcast
t wit ter
Follow us @lgrobot to
join in the conversation
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to ensure all information is correct at time of print, prices and
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If you submit material to Imagine Publishing via post, email, social
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Android is a trademark of Google Inc.
Imagine Publishing Ltd 2014
ISSN 2047-1580
15
Feature
Get Android L now!

G WTHE
NE ID

NOW! xx xx xx x
xxxxxand top tips
k
xxx
First loroAn dro id L
fo

TRANSFORM
YOUR PHONE BOOST YOUR
Get Androids new BATTERY LIFE
Material Design on Supercharge your
your device device with
Project Volta

UPGRADE LOGIN WITH

GOOGLE NOW ANDROID WEAR
Your virtual assistant New sensors will
is better than replace your
ever passwords

A
ndroid is consistently evolving as an
operating system. With each update its
continuing to get better and improve the
ways we can interact with our smartphones and
tablets. Google has recently unveiled its plans for
the next big step in Androids evolution, the
mysteriously named Android L. Although no one
knows for sure what the actual codename for
Android L stands for (although our bet is on
Lollipop),we know it represents a major change of
direction for the OS. The early developer preview
of Android L has shown a wide variety of changes,
with everything from a new look, to simple tweaks
and modications within the Settings menu. The
new update also tackles issues that typical users
face every day with their smartphones, such as
Project Volta, which looks to be a new benchmark
for measuring and prolonging battery life.
Android L will be released in full this autumn,
but theres no need to wait. If you've rooted your
Nexus 5 or 7, go straight to page 23 to nd out
how to set up the Android L Developers Preview
SDK. However, if you don't have a stock Android
device or just don't want to hack it, read on to
explore Android L's new features in-depth and
discover which of them are available through the
Google Play store already.

16
 Feature
Get Android L now!

STUNNING MATERIAL DESIGN NGOETWIT

!
G
oogle was heavily centred on its new
bit.ly/WA
mMRW
look when unveiling Android L.
Named Material Design, it's focused
on a sleek minimalist style with bold and
Focused on a
brash colours throughout. The underlying
theme is to bring a unied design across
sleek look with
smartphones, tablets and Chromebooks,
and from the looks of it, Material Design
bold colours
does exactly that. But looking past the
striking colours and shapes, Material Design
is also a concept relevant to many other
areas of how devices work and function.
Animations are being revamped to become
smoother than ever and theres the addition
of a new set of fonts to help make interacting
and reading on your device easier as well. All
rst-party apps will coincide with the new
Material Design guidelines, utilising both the
new colour schemes and smoother
animations to provide the most seamless
Android experience ever. Android's look is taking on a new unied design

UNIFIED WIDGETS
T hanks to Googles new
Material Design overhaul,
developers will also have
stringent rules to follow when it
comes to designing widgets.
New widgets will need to stick to
certain colour and pattern
outlines, while shaping will be
Android L improves once fairly uniform as well. First-party
again on the stock keyboard widgets developed by Google will
include the same look as their

BEST KEYBOARD EVER app counterparts, but the

animations linking the two will
drastically change.

T heres only so much you can do

with your traditional keyboard,
and although Android L hasnt
revolutionised the stock keyboard it
offers, it has rened and polished
existing features. Spaces between
letters and icons are clearer and the
whole design ts in well with the
Material Design image, offering
users a stripped back and sleek
looking keyboard. Swiping between
letters instead of typing has also
been improved, but it still takes a bit
Flexible
Widgets will remain as
customisable as ever in Android
of getting used to and manually L, great for those who like to
personalise their device
typing seems to still be the
preferred way of sending messages. Third-party Unied
Theres a wide range of emoticons Beautiful Widgets is currently The unied design means that
the best app available for those all the widgets will be designed
included to add some air to your wanting to get widgets in the in the same way, using bright
messages and improved voice Android L design colours and bold shapes
integration for speaking.

WHEN TO EXPECT THE FULL VERSION Will your phone be getting the Android L update?
Galaxy Galaxy Galaxy Galaxy S5 Galaxy Galaxy
S4 S5 S5 Mini Active Note 3 Tab
How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely?
High Very high Very high High High Less likely
ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q4 2014 ETA Q4 2014 ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q1 2015 ETA: N/A

17
Feature
Get Android L now!

MASTER YOUR SETTINGS

O
ne of the best things about the Android
operating system is just how
customisable it is. No matter if you're a
seasoned user or someone new to the OS, there
really is something for everyone to enjoy on their
device. Although this is partially due to the
expansive number of apps on the Google Play
store, its also down to the detailed Settings app
on your phone. 1 Quick Settings
One of the coolest additions to the library
2 Start a search
Press on the gear icon while in the Quick
Settings tend to be under appreciated by many
users, but with the Android L update, it's being of Android L features is being able to redesign the Settings menu. Now you can begin a search using
pioneered as one of the leading features in the layout of your Quick Settings menu. Users can now the magnifying glass icon at the top of the app.
new build. For one, users will now be able to use add whatever toggles they want and remove the From here you can search for any particular menu
the app in landscape to navigate between pages ones that come as standard. within the Settings app.
and theres also a great search feature for those
who want to save time from trawling through
endless pages of data and miscellaneous
settings. Theres even the added bonus of a
search history, which keeps tabs on your most
recently searched settings terms. If you start to
encounter too many items in your search history,
then users can delete them by going to the Clear
Cache option at the bottom of the Settings menu.
To the right of this you'll nd a really handy
four-step tutorial that will guide you through
3 New options
Select the correct result from the
4 Look inside
Another thing to pay close attention to is
the newly designed Settings menu in Android L. drop-down menu and take a look at the setting. how Android L now uses toggles. Where previous
It covers everything from understanding your Android L has included a wealth of new settings, versions of Android had toggles for Wi-Fi and
Quick Settings menu to commencing a search so you may nd what you were looking for has Bluetooth at the beginning of each menu, youll
through it with ease. been renamed, or in certain cases, removed. now nd them lurking within their respective tabs.

GET IT
Android Beam Do Not Adaptive NOW!
bit.ly/1sJ
In previous versions of Android, the Disturb mode brightness lkK0
sharing feature Beam had to be The inclusion of Do Not Disturb mode The Auto Brightness option has een
initiated by tapping devices together, in Android L is a great removed from the Settings menu and
with both users way to keep your has instead been
then tapping their phone silent from replaced with the
screen to share a phone calls and new Adaptive
le. The new messages within a brightness feature.
version of Android set period of time. It Although there isnt
Beam has been can also be used to a massive difference
altered so that it mute certain between the two,
now appears as an notications from Adaptive brightness
option in the Share unruly apps. looks to only adjust
menu for users to Access this from your screen
select and send the Sound tab brightness slightly to
les through. within Settings. help your battery.

WHEN CAN YOUR DEVICE UPDATE TO ANDROID L? Find out if your phone will get the
Galaxy HTC One HTC One HTC One HTC One HTC
Mega How likely? Max M8 Mini Desire 610
How likely? Very high How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely?
High ETA Q4 2014 High Very High Less likely Less likely
ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q4 2014 ETA N/A ETA N/A

18
 Feature
Get Android L now!
GET IT
NOW!
HEADS UP! NOTIFICATIONS bit.ly/1za
oWq3 Set up and
use the Heads
N Gapps
otications are brilliant things. They
enable users quick access to certain Most of the
Shortcuts Up! app
At the top of your
rst-party apps by
apps and offer a gateway to alarms, notications menu
Google work with
missed calls and unread messages. In is a range of quick
the oating
shortcuts that
previous versions of Android, notications notications feature
relate to some of
and also follow the
have been kept in a single bar at the top of Material Design
the most used
settings on your
your display where you can drag down the guidelines
Android device
bar to get more information. In Android L,
notications will become a more prominent Overview
feature on your homescreen, with updates When you want to Done
from apps and such now appearing as take a closer look at Getting rid of
the notications that notications you've

1 Whitelist
an interactive box on your screen. Users can have appeared, youll read or no longer
then choose to swipe away the notication,
or press on it to open it up and take a closer
see a brief overview of
some of your
need is easy. Simply
swipe to the right to apps
most-used settings at close them, or press Choose the Whitelist
look at what it has to say. the top of the screen on them to open
option from the app's
The Heads Up! notication app on the
main screen and select
Google Play store is available now for those
the apps you want Heads
who want to try out the feature for Your choice Set up Up! to work with.
themselves, without having to wait around Users can decide Users need to
which notications manually choose the
until their device gets the ofcial Android L they want to show on apps that have
update. Weve got a step-by-step to setting it their homescreen by access to your
nding the Display homescreen
up and getting it to work on the right notications when
section from within
hand-side of this page, which should help get the Settings menu setting the feature up
you started with the app.

LOCKSCREEN MODIFICATIONS
2 Test them
T
he other big change with notications
Overview
To make sure that
Security
Implement different in Android L is that it now supports out
your sensitive data security features on lockscreen notications. Instead of Back out of the app and
isnt leaked, youll to your lock screen showing the full notication, however, wait for notications to
only nd a brief to make sure your come through. When they
overview of topics in phone is safe and lockscreen notications will simply show you
emails that appear sound while not the app and number of notications you appear, press on them to
on your lockscreen using it
have waiting for you. Swiping down at the be taken to the app.
bottom of the stack of lockscreen
notications will then offer an extended view
Camera Testing of those missing from the list. If Google
If you want a quick
way to access your Some apps simply notices any sensitive data included in one of
device's camera while won't work with the
lockscreen
your notications, youll be prompted to
on the lockscreen,
simply scroll to the notications, but the unlock your phone before you can view it.
right corner of your best way to test them Google has also implemented other
display and you'll be out is through testing
each one of your changes on to lockscreens so that users
taken there
automatically installed apps have more options on it. Users can now
swipe up to be taken to their homescreen, 3 Explore
Ignore swipe left to the phone dialer and swipe right further
Access If you choose to to access their camera (the same as it was If you arent happy with
By pressing on any of ignore the
your lockscreen notications and in the KitKat update). If you also dive into the how the notications
notications, youll be instead swipe to Settings menu youll nd new security function, venture into the
taken to the app or unlock your phone,
feature that it features to utilise as well, which can be apps settings and change
youll have access to
specically them through the implemented onto your homescreen how notications appear.
represents notications menu alongside any notications.

Android L update and when can you expect it to land

Xperia Z1 Compact Xperia Xperia Z2 Tab Xperia Z Tab Xperia
Z1 How likely? Z2 How likely? High How likely? High M2
How likely? High How likely? ETA ETA How likely?
High ETA Very high Q4 2014 Q2 2015 Less likely
ETA Q1 2014 Q4 2015 ETA Q1 2014 ETA N/A

19
Feature
Get Android L now!

SUPERCHARGE WITH
PROJECT VOLTA
A NEW RANGE OF BATTERY-
BOOSTING FEATURES
Job Scheduler API
Battery Historian Another essential for developers is the
new JobScheduler API. This clever tool
With Battery Historian, developers can
enables developers to dene specic
now visualise exactly whats using your
background tasks for their apps when the
phones battery and to what extent its being
user or device meets certain conditions.
drained. It can pinpoint the exact areas that
Although it may not sound like much, this
need improving on and can help lead the
feature will enable developers to
development of streamlining battery
prevent your battery life being
consumption for both light and heavy
used excessively.
users. It's something we're
really excited about.

GET IT
NOW!
bit.ly/IUO
PVh

New Battery Battery Stats

Saver Mode The battery overview screen has
undergone a redesign to make it not only in
One new feature that most Android
line with the new Material Design concept,
smartphone users will want to check out is
but also to make it more accessible to
the inclusion of a Battery Saver mode. This
everyday Android users. Youll nd a
setting will look to lengthen the life of your
general battery usage screen where you
smartphones battery during a single
can pinpoint how your battery is
charge by reducing your phones
being used, as well as a detailed
overall performance to keep
history screen.
it going.

WHEN CAN YOUR DEVICE UPDATE TO ANDROID L? Find out if your phone will get the
LG G2 LG G3 LG G Pad LG G Flex Huawei Huawei G6
How likely? How likely? 8.3 How likely? P7 How likely?
High Very high How likely? High How likely? Less likely
ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q1 2014 Less likely ETA Q2 2015 Very high ETA N/A
ETA N/A ETA Q2 2015

20
 Feature
Get Android L now!
GET IT
NOW!
GOOGLE NOW JUST GOT SMARTER bit.ly/N3
Uuu9

O
ne of the key Android features Topics
that has undergone constant
Tickets
Topics will bring Google Now will
change since its debut a couple together all the automatically
best stories import your air
of years back is Google Now. As an relating to it at tickets into the
alternative to the standard search one time. Users app. All the
function, Google Now provides an can press on details will be
them to read stored up until
enriched and fuller search experience, more the day after
which also links in well with a plethora of your ight
rst and third-party apps. In Android L,
Google Now has been revamped to t in
with the new Material Design guidelines
and a few features have been eshed
out as well. Google Now will now collate
together your previous searches into one
handy menu, where users can nd
stories on a topic of particular interest
[Fig1]. Each story then contains an Sync
external link to the website it was
Variety If you're planning
If a certain topic on going on
published on. Also included this time isn't of interest, multiple
simply swipe it holidays, then
around is e-ticket integration for ights. you can import
away and Google
Google Now can be used as a secure Now will offer all the tickets for
you an several ights at
alternative one one time

Revamped to t
in with the new Fig1: Searched topics are saved in Google Now Fig2: Import and store ticket reservations

Material Design Voice Maps

You'll nd the

guidelines Press on the

microphone icon
to start a voice
Google Maps
integration to be
far more slick
search. It can than the app
area where you store your ight and take a few itself. You can
seconds for the get basic
ticket details, with the system also app to realise directions for
enabling users to get live updates on the what you're cars or public
status on their ight [Fig2]. saying transport
At the centre of Google Nows
redesign is the vastly improved voice
search function. Each search begins
with the user saying OK Google [Fig3]
and then saying other search terms.
What makes it different from previous
versions is that Google Now doesnt
need full sentences inputted into it to
provide results, and instead it will predict
what youre going to say. Its rather hit Navigate
and miss at times, but the general idea
Result The feature is a
The results will little basic, but
is good. Similarly, Google has been appear after a it's also possible
intent on providing deeper integration few seconds, to use the
with the most navigation tools
with many of its apps. All directions you useful results within the
search for will go through Google Maps appearing at the Google Now
top of the screen service
[Fig4] and Google Earth will provide you
with 3D images of holiday destinations. Fig3: Start every voice search with OK Google Fig4: There's deeper integration with Maps

Android L update and when can you expect it to land

Moto E Moto G Moto X Nexus 4 Nexus 5 Nexus 7
(2012)
How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely? How likely?
Less likely High Very high Likely Very high
Very high
ETA N/A ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q4 2014 ETA Launch of L ETA Launch of L ETA Q4 2014

21
Feature
Get Android L now!
GET IT
!
NOW 6Q8jA
bit.ly/J
THE DEATH OF PASSWORDS Activate the
Kill-Switch
P
asswords are vital in keeping any sensitive data safe need for a PIN, password or pattern to enter. Below you'll nd
and sound across all your devices, but with the details of the three best ways users can implement security
release of Android L, there are now several other ways onto their device, all of which are handy to use and essential Let's face it, security
users can create their own levels of security without the in different areas. on Android is one of the
problems many people
Unlock your Chromebook with your phone face when using their
smartphones and tablets.
Perhaps one of the coolest things unlock their Chromebook using their
To combat this, Google
announced for Android L is that Google will smartphone. It acts as a great solution if
has launched its very own
offer greater functionality between your youve forgotten your Chromebook
kill-switch across the
Android and Chrome devices, with the password, or simply want to show off to
Android operating
main aim to bring them together for one your friends! All thats needed is one
system. In essence, the
unifying experience. One example of this is unied Google account to access them
kill-switch will act as a
the new unlock system, where users can across both.
gateway to remotely
wiping your phone if its
Voice and location unlocking lost or you believe it to be
stolen. The kill-switch will
Sometimes having an extensive security access to their device, or the user can then factory reset itself
system can be a bit of a hindrance if youre choose to use their voice to unlock from scratch upon the
in your home or somewhere secure. instead. This makes it generally more users request or, if
Googles new location unlocking will manageable for users who want to keep a necessary, render the
enable users to designate safe areas secure phone, but dont necessarily want device unusable.
using their GPS, where their password can to be annoyed by it if it isnt needed when Obviously the latter is an
be deactivated and not needed to gain using it. extreme step, but could

Smartwatch and tness band integration

To help push Android Wear alongside the
launch of Android L, Google has also
introduced a unique smartwatch unlock
system. Named Personal Unlocking, users
will be able to use any of the current crop
of Android smartwatches and scan them
across the top of the device to unlock it.
For it to work, both the smartwatch and
smartphone will need to be linked by a
single Google account and youll also need
the feature enabled within your
smartphones settings too. To take it a
step further, many of the leading Android
tness bands will also work.

be very helpful if it turns

out the device has been
stolen. As a whole, the
Task Locker Admin control concept behind kill-switch
stems from the popularity
Task Locker is aimed at The second big inclusion for of the Android Device
enterprise devices owned by business users will be being Manager program, which
big businesses that want to able to implement admin is a great way of tracking
track how their employees are proles onto their employees down your phone, but
using the devices supplied to device. This will enable requires your devices
them. In essence, Task Locker businesses to gain control of Location Access toggle to
will allow a single app to take the device when necessary to remain on at all times.
control over the devices add enterprise apps or enable Google is believed to still
interface, which will prevent the user from certain settings. Any apps then downloaded by be in the early stages of
accessing notications or apps. the employee will be kept in a separate list. modifying the feature for
consumer use.

WHEN CAN YOUR DEVICE UPDATE TO ANDROID L? Find out if your phone will get the
Nexus 7 ZTE ZTE ZTE Oppo N1 OnePlus
(2013)
Grand X Grand S Grand S ll One
How likely? How likely? How likely?
How likely? How likely? How likely? High
Very high Very high
ETA Launch of L
High Less likely Very high ETA Q4 2014 ETA Q4 2014
ETA Q1 2015 ETA N/A ETA Q1 2015

22
 Feature
Get Android L now!

THE MOST POWERFUL UPDATE YET

THERE ARE SOME AMAZING UNDER-THE-HOOD CHANGES TAKING PLACE IN ANDROID L
Multiple network connections
The L Developer Preview also contains a range of new
OpenGL ES 3.1
multi-networking APIs. This will enable developers to We love gorgeous-looking games here at Android
program apps to automatically scan for networks and Magazine and the addition of OpenGL ES 3.1
connect to them, while the API will also provide the should bring in even more of them. OpenGL is a
tools for apps to know cross-platform API that helps improve and rene
the difference graphical capabilities of the games we play on both
between safe and smartphones and tablets. Version 3.1 provides
unstable networks. developers with extra tools to enhance textures,
This solution is great improve physics simulations and provide advanced
for apps that require a blending modes. Best of all, version 3.1 will provide
connection to a developers the tools to make their games
specialised network, backwards compatible for those with older
such as MMS or billing versions of OpenGL. Although theres nothing
network. The app will wrong with many of the older versions of the
then send information OpenGL code, 3.1 should provide enough power
about the network and graphical capabilities to give Android users the
back to the developer most authentic gaming experience ever.
to track progress.

Directory selection Bluetooth broadcasting Switching languages Native PDF rendering

Some apps require users to conrm
several times when an app requires
access to certain apps/documents
on your device. Directory Selection
will make this process easier.
Bluetooth has been an integral part
of the sharing options available to
Android users and Android L now
contains a novel feature where users
can link easier.
Switching between input languages
will now be represented by a globe
symbol, where users can then
scroll through the keyboards they
have available.
The new PdfRenderer API will nally
give Android a native PDF reader to
use. At the moment we rely on
third-party apps to provide this
function, but this app will stop that.

GET THE ANDROID SDK NOW! GET IT

HOW TO INSTALL THE ANDROID L DEVELOPER PREVIEW
NOW!
bit.ly/IK
eIqs

T
he preview of the ofcial
Android SDK is available now
to test drive, but it only works
on Nexus 5 or 7 devices. Intended
for developers to get to grips with
the OS, if this is the rst time youre
looking to use SDK les, then the
process of downloading and
installing them can be a highy
problematic experience.
1 Download
the les 2 Tools and
platform 3 Install
packages 4 Accept
install
and
Follow the steps to the right for Youll rst need to Open up the SDK Manager Using the sidebar of the Before installing the les, a
a quick and easy way to get the download both the SDK on your desktop computer SDK Manager, select Licensing Agreement will
Android L SDK up and running Manager and Android L and navigate to the Tools everything under the appear and youll need to
on your device hopefully Developer SDK from the section listed at the top of Android L Developer agree to it before pressing
without bricking it. XDA Forums. the program alphabetically. Preview section. the Install button.

Android L update and when can you expect it to land

Alcatel One Alcatel One Alcatel One Lenovo A10 laptop Nokia X EE
Touch Pop S7 Touch idol S Touch idol X How likely? How likely? Kestrel
How likely? How likely? How likely? Less likey Less likely How likely?
Less likely High Very high ETA N/A ETA N/A High
ETA N/A ETA Q2 2015 ETA Q1 2015 ETA Q2 2015

23
Feature
Upgrade your Chromecast

UPGRADE YOUR
CHROMECAST Explore what your Chromecast can really do
with these essential apps

T
heres a lot to love about the Chromecast.
Fundamentally its a great way of being able to stream
content from your smartphone, tablet, laptop or
Chromebook directly onto your TV, while also being
considerably cheaper than many of its competitors on the
market. Its small size also means it's fairly inconspicuous
when plugged into the back of any HDMI-compatible TV. The
popularity of the streaming stick is something thats been
noted by many and now developers are jumping onboard. But
apart from its basic streaming functions, what
else can Chromecast do? It can in fact run a
plethora of different apps, many of which you
wouldnt initially think would work on your TV.
Through a quick search in the Google Play store,
users can now nd hundreds of apps for
Chromecast ready to use. We've searched high
and low to nd the absolute best ones that every
Chromecast user needs to download.

GET YOUR NEWS AND PODCAST FIX WITH EASE Keep up to date by reading the
Post TV Pocket Dogg Umano: Player FM
Price Free Casts Catcher Listen to News Price Free
Read the latest headlines Price 2.49/$3.99 Price 1.83/$2.99 Price Free Instead of following individual
posted by the Washington Listen in to podcasts hosted DoggCatcher has a vast Umano brings the latest shows, Player FM gives users
Post and check out video and by some of the biggest news category system that headlines onto your TV and the choice to discover news
audio content the newspaper outlets locally and from enables users to track down reads the story out to you for podcasts based on certain
uploads too. around the world. new podcasts. your enjoyment. topics and interests.

24
 Feature
Upgrade your Chromecast

-
 ---/,
  8* ,

Get movies, music and more from your
phone on to the TV

Your little Chromecast

AllCast dongle opens up a
world of entertainment
Price 3.00/$4.99
Developer ClockworkMod
If you do a bit of research, youll nd that one
app that everyone recommends time and
BubbleUPnP LocalCast
time again for the Chromecast is AllCast. Price 3.04/$4.69 Price Free
Developer Bubblesoft Developer Stefan Pledl
The praise is duly deserved,
asthe apphas a BubbleUPnP is one of the more LocalCast may offer plenty of the
ton of features that make it an essential
app
stable streaming apps available for same features as BubbleUPnP, but
download. The app itself pulls together some
the Google Play store. It works well it's much better suited for those
of the biggest apps on the Google Play store,
with a variety of media formats. wanting to watch movies in HD.
including the likes of Google Drive andMuzei,
and makes them compatible with your
Chromecast. Users can then use the AllCast
app to choose what les to send across to their TV and control them Stevie for Web Video Caster
using their smartphone or tablet. Its quickness is something worth Chromecast Price Free
noting, as no matter the size or type of le you want to send across, Price Free Developer InstantBits
its remarkably quick to transfer them across and begin the stream. Developer Stevie TV LTD As its name suggests, Web Video
As an added bonus, theres also streaming support for les on your The Stevie app brings together your Caster enables users to stream live
devices SD card, something that many of its competitors simply Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds video on any webpage through your
dont offer as an option to their users. onto your television. Chromecast dongle.

latest headlines directly on your TV

Class6ix
News
Price Free
Class6ix is a personalised
newscaster that tracks
international and local news
that matters to you.
uPodPodcast NewsCaster BeyondPod Haystack TV
Player Price Free Price 4.16/$6.99 News
Price 2.21/$3.79 NewsCaster uses a search BeyondPod has a background Price Free
Users can scan uPodPodcast menu to nd news that download system so that you Haystack covers news
for shows based on their matters to you. Each news can stream your current outlets the world over and
interests, or through a keyword story is formatted to t your selection of podcasts picks the most trending
search system. TV perfectly. without being disrupted. stories at that time.

25
Feature
Upgrade your Chromecast

MOBILE GAMING
ON THE BIG SCREEN
Enjoy these simple, but addictive
gaming gems on your TV

Chromecast isn't
just for streaming
Grail Cast TV and movies
Price Free
Developer RTS AppDevelopment
Okay so it may not look like much, but Grail Cast is a
surprisingly addictive multiplayer game purposely built for
GamingCast Qcast
Price 0.85/$1.50 Price Free
Chromecast. You and up to four friends are tasked with Developer musicalbigfoot
Developer Eli Sherer
trying to gather as many ancient treasures hidden within a
If youre a fan of old school games, then Qcast supports up to ten players, making it
variety of labyrinths against the clock. You need an awful
GamingCast is certainly worth checking the biggest multiplayer game currently
amount of skill to avoid walking into walls and nding all the
out. The app contains some classic titles, available for Chromecast. It's all trivia-
treasures on certain levels, but some of the latter levels of
such as Breakout, Flapper and Xonix. based, so get your thinking cap on.
Grail Cast are unforgiving in their difculty.

Draw It Up Ghost Cast

Price Free
Developer Yusef Asjana
This is another multiplayer gem for the
Chromecast. Similar to Pictionary, you have
to guess words from other players'
drawings, which appear on the big screen.
Price 0.81/$0.99
Developer alx5962
Set in a spooky forest, Ghost Cast equips
you with just a ashlight as you set out to
capture ghosts to gather as many points
until your ashlights battery goes out.

TOP TOOLS FOR YOUR CHROMECAST
Display
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True to its name, Display
Tester uses a colouring
system to help detect faulty
pixels on your TV.
vGet
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vGet detects embedded
video content on websites
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device to stream.
Use these essential apps to uncover some
CameraCast Spilt Browser Zoomph Cast
Price Free Price 3.00/$3.99 Price Free
If you want to view pictures on Browsing the web on your TV is Zoomph is used to stream
your TV, then CameraCast is a great with Split Browser. You events or stories to large
superb option. Images taken can open up numerous tabs groups of people and turns
by your devices camera can and seamlessly switch your TV into a virtual
be streamed on your TV. between them. storytelling system.

26
 Feature
Upgrade your Chromecast
Create documents and
WORK FROM HOME manage files with ease

PPT Chromecast Polaris Ofce Copy

Price Free
Developer SunnyDev
As its name suggests, PPT Chromecast
provides users with a platform to
access their Microsoft PowerPoint
presentations on the big screen.
Put.io
Price Free
Developer Steven Schoen
In essence, Put.io is an online system
for keeping your les safe and sound,
but once connected to your TV, the app
gives you full access to them.
Price Free
Developer Infraware, Inc.
Whether its documents, presentations
or spreadsheets, Polaris Ofce is the
best choice for creating work projects
on your TV.
AutoCast
Price Free
Developer joaomgcd
AutoCast is an extension of the Tasker
app, enabling the user to automate
some of their TVs functions when the
Chromecast is in use.
Price Free
Developer
Barracuda Networks
The reason we added Copy to our list of
essential Chromecast upgrades is that it
provides one of the few cloud storage
solutions that has been fully opened up
to stream across to your TV. Its entire
suite of features are Chromecast
compatible and although some users
will take advantage of its media
streaming functions, where it really
shines is with how you can stream
your encrypted and personal les
across to it. Once across, you can then
begin editing them onscreen with either your smartphone or
Bluetooth keyboard. Depending on the type of le, things like the
orientation and layout can be changed and there are individual
settings to explore that are Chromecast-specic and can help bring
even more features to the stick.

Working from home is

easier with Chromecast

secret features of your Chromecast

VBChromecast
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As an extension to the Vbukit
Share app, VBChromecast is
a security management
system that can help protect
your Wi-Fi network.
Stocks
ChromeCast
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Stocks ChromeCast provides
those with an interest in
stocks and shares a look at
the state of the economy.
Cast Store for Tool for MyCast
Chromecast Picasa, Screen
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Google+ Photo Price 0.59/$0.99
Cast Store is the perfect Price Free MyCastScreen is an alternate
place to go if you're looking Tool for Picasa, Google+ homescreen for Chromecast
for new Chromecast apps to Photo merges two platforms that can be heavily
use on your TV. together to edit your pictures. customised to suit you.

27
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Tutorials
masterclass
Automate your
phone
T
heres no denying that our
smartphones can do amazing
things. We can play 3D games,
watch 1080p video and even connect
to the cloud, all on a single device. But
with so much going on, its imperative
to make sure your phone is handling
all these tasks correctly to maximise
the performance it gives you back. To
streamline how your phone completes
all of these tasks, youll need to
explore the array of automation apps
available on the Google Play store.
These apps take out all the work and
fuss required to do certain tasks on
your phone, and in essence complete
the process for you. They cover
everything from setting up videos to
watch, to managing the Bluetooth
connections stored on your device. In
this masterclass weve taken a look at
some of the best apps on the Google
Play store to help keep your device
automated. Youll nd tutorials
covering the likes of AutomateIt and
Its imperative to make
sure your phone is handling
all these tasks correctly to
maximise the performance
it gives you back
The best AutomateIt add-ons Use these add-ons to make AutomateIt a little better
Connect to
Facebook
The Facebook plug-in
for AutomateIt can be
used to automatically
post statuses and
posts to friends
proles. Its best use is
when you add a new
contact; you can
automatically download
their details without
manually doing it.
30
Make your phone
work as you want it to
by automating tasks
Atooma, the unheralded kings of
automating apps, as well as some
apps you probably havent heard
of. So keep on reading as we lead
you through the process of
making your phone work for
Heres ve great pointers to get
you started
Ask your own
question online at
littlegreenrobot.co.uk 1. Minimise battery impact
My phone Many of the tasks youll want to
doesnt cope automate will no doubt use the
well with media services on your
background smartphone. Remember these
apps. Can I use will soon drain your battery, so
automation counter it by creating additional
apps to put a tasks that preserve battery life.
stop to this?
To combat background
apps, download the 2. Core services
RFRSH app. This app Delve a little deeper into some
enables you to create
automated reboots of
of the apps were covering in
your phone that happen the following pages and youll
throughout the day nd ways you can automate
based on the times and
dates you input. some of the core services on
your smartphone, including
the likes of answering calls
and sending SMS messages.
3. Set timers
Although it isnt a feature
available in all automation
software, setting up timings for
each task is key. If you keep certain
tasks on all the time, they can
Utilise the power of
automation through your phone
considerably slow down the
performance of your smartphone. 4. Connect to wearables
Its still in its early stages, but some of
the newer automation apps are now
working with smartwatches. Users of
a smartwatch can program these apps
Use both of Access your to manage messages, emails and more
your cameras phones shell on their wearable device.
A great piece of For the more technically
automation through minded among us,
AutomateIt is to use check out the Shell 5. Prioritise
the camera plug-in to plug-in for AutomateIt. Putting created tasks in a sequential
control both your Explore this app to nd
devices front and and implement order lets you keep a close eye on the
rear-facing cameras. automated tasks that tasks currently working and when the
You can set your phone can use different
to take a picture from hacking options after
next ones will be activated. Again,
both sides at the same youve rooted your having too many activated at the same
time, for example. Android device. time will slow down your device.
 mAut ur ph
as om on
yo

ter ate e
cl as
s
Works with Android 2.3 and up

Send everything
Control how
and when Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth
min are used on
guide your device

to the cloud Streamline

Use Atooma to send all your les, videos, music and more
automatically to the cloud
Wi-Fi and
K
eeping backups of the various stored les on your device is important, but with cloud
integration playing a massive role in how we use our smartphones, why not transfer
all current and future les directly to the cloud? With the Atooma app, users can design
Bluetooth
tasks that bring all sorts of les together and puts them in a designated folder in the cloud. Why
this app is the best for this sort of thing is because Atooma can be connected with a plethora of
cloud storage apps, including the likes of Google Drive, Dropbox and SugarSync. Its also really
easy to use, and if youre new to the Android ecosystem, then its an easy way to get started
with the automation process.

Press the + button at the top of the app

1 to create a new task and on the
following screen, select the Connectivity and
Sensors option near the bottom of the list.

1 Select New Atooma

From the main page of Atooma, scroll right
to unlock the sidebar and select New Atooma from
the list of options provided. You can also check out
some of the premade Atooma tasks by selecting
the Featured option from the side menu.
2 Apps or les
Youll now be presented with a wheel of
options to select from, with each then opening up
a selection of further options. For the purpose of
this tutorial, youll want to select the les option
from the provided list.

Now choose Bluetooth or Wi-Fi from the

2 list provided. You can also apply strict
rules to your devices other sensors, including
the likes of NFC and GPS usage.

3 Connect to the cloud

Now select the Connect to Cloud option.
You can also designate if you want to upload
singular les or automate everything. Use the next
wheel to select the cloud account you want to
connect with and log in to it using your device.
4 Make it public
The nal screen will give you an overview of
the new task youve set up. Press on the pencil
icon to edit the task if some details are incorrect,
before pressing the power icon to make it public
and get your les to the cloud.
Select the times you want your Wi-Fi or
3 Bluetooth connection to be enabled, as
well as the days you want the rule to take
effect, before pressing Done at the bottom.

31
Tutorials
Works with Android 2.2 and up

Design triggers and

tasks with AutomateIt
Create intricate
A
mong the plethora of automation apps sits
AutomateIt, a truly amazing app for those
and automated who really want to explore the world of
tasks to save automation on their smartphone. The app itself is
split into several areas, with the main being used to
time while using create automated tasks and apply them to different
your device functions on their phones. These tasks are formed in
the style of different tasks, also known as triggers,
and the action that happens once that trigger has
been activated. Created tasks can vary over hundreds
of topics and apart from being quite a cool addition, it
can save a lot of time switching between different
apps and functions manually, especially when you
consider just how detailed and arduous certain tasks
can soon become. In this tutorial well be guiding you
through the AutomateIt app and the process of
creating a new task from scratch. Youll also nd
invaluable information on editing created tasks and
how you can link them with nearly all the third-party
apps installed on your device.

1 Start from scratch

From the main page of the AutomateIt app,
youll want to navigate to the My Rules option at
AutomateIt is the top of the page. Select the Add Rule option at
a brilliant
automation app the bottom-left of the tab, and follow the rst
for Android instructions on the next screen.
2 Add a trigger
Your rst task will be to add a trigger that
ultimately has an effect on some part of your
device. The app lists the most common triggers at
the top of the menu, but scroll down to view more
before selecting one.

Select desired action

3 Now
select when you want the trigger to
be activated. After selecting how you want it to be
activated, scroll down the list where you can then
select how often you want the new rule to work
through the various choices available.
4 Link to apps
A large portion of your created rules will
eventually activate an app at the end of it. Youll
nd most third-party apps can be used for this, but
you should clear the cache of any app that resists
you attaching it to a rule.
5 Activate new rules
After creating a series of rules, youll now
need to activate them. Navigate back to the main
page of the application and select the My Rules
tab once again. Find your created rule and use the
on\off toggle to activate.

32
 mAut ur ph
Message us! facebook twitter

as om on
Get in touch via Facebook /littlegreenrobot @lgrobot

yo

ter ate e
Get help from our Follow us to send your
and Twitter

cl
Facebook community questions and thoughts

as
s
Works with Varies with device

Automate A
utomating your phone is a concept thats been
around for a good few years, and one of the early
ways users could make things easier for themselves
was by using NFC tags. These tiny discs could be
programmed with different tasks and functions that work

with NFC tags

when theyre scanned by a smartphone with full NFC
compatibility, something thats a standard feature on todays
devices. NFC tags are now an integral part of the automating
process, and even more so when you consider the apps
available to program them on the Play store. In this instance,
There are extra tools to help make the weve used the Trigger app to help program our NFC tags and
automating process even easier make them automatically control different parts of our daily
routine by simply scanning them.

1 Find NFC option

Navigate to the + symbol at the top of the
app to create a new task from scratch. The
following screen will ask you to select a trigger that
will set off the task youre about to create. Select
the NFC option from the list.
2 Create your task
Now go through the various options
available to you through Trigger. Users can specify
times and dates for their new task to be
operational. Press on the Done button when
youve nished adding everything.
3 Scan a NFC tag
Now take your NFC tag and place it directly
onto your phones screen. A notication will appear
letting you know the new task has been added to
the tag. Now leave the app and scan the tag to
make sure its working correctly.

min Create location profiles

guide Use the Llama app to control location proles and edit their functions

Llama splits up your day into
1 several areas, and you can
apply different tasks to switch to the
next location prole (and time of
day) automatically. From the main
page, long press on the beginning
event and select Edit Event.
You can now change the time
2 you want this location prole
activated for, as well as rename it
and apply a different trigger. When
this trigger is activated, your phone
will switch to this location prole and
stay activated until you say so.
Now start inputting what you
3 want to associate with the
location prole. For example, early in
the morning you may want to mute
your phone, or have numerous
alarms go off at different times.
Press Conrm once completed.
Go through the remaining
4 times of the day and assign
the different tasks needed. Once
done, youll nd each location prole
set up and ready to use. Simply
toggle each of them on, and your
entire day will be automated for you.

33
Tutorials
Works with Android 4.0 and up
Use external plug
Sunrise
Calendar
Sunrise connects with some of
the best third-party apps on
the Play store
S
unrise Calendar is a new addition to the
Google Play store, but it already sits as one of
the premier calendar apps available to
Android users, second only to the fantastic Gmail.
The app offers a minimalist view of your calendar,
and although it offers all the standard calendar
features, where it stands out is with the wealth of
additional third-party apps it can be synced with.
The apps are turned into external plug-ins, of sorts,
and appear automatically in your calendar after
importing them.
Although theres a primary focus on social media
apps, Sunrise can also be synced with the likes of
TripIt, GitHub and Evernote. When you then add
something to one of these apps, your Sunrise feed
will automatically update with the new information
without you needing to do a thing. In this tutorial,
well guide you through the process of rstly
selecting and importing external plug-ins into
Sunrise Calendar. Well then take you through how
to view events in the calendar and how you can
interact with each imported app you selected.
1 AtWhat to sync?
the top of the app youll nd all the
calendars that can be imported into the app and
the available apps at the bottom. Scroll down the
list until you nd an app of interest and select it.
Its important to keep in mind that certain apps are
country specic.
34
Add new event
Use the + symbol at the top of the
app to add new events into your
calendar feed. You can make each
listing as detailed or as basic as
you see t, and also add alarms
and notications to remind you of it
over time
Maps integration
Some of the apps also include
Maps integration that can be
accessed when looking at an event
in more detail. Users will nd a
small cut out from Google Maps
that will pinpoint the exact location
of the event
Birthdays
Facebooks main connectivity in
Sunrise Calendar is in the form of
birthday reminders. Youll nd a
small icon representing one of your
friends, from which you can then go
directly to their prole by pressing
said icon
More information
Press on a reminder to get more
information about it. Youll nd
details regarding when the event
starts and nishes and also a
choice of notication sounds to
choose from if you want an alert to
the reminder
2 Account login
Youll now need to log in to the app in
3 Import options
If the app has several areas that can be
question. If you dont have an account with the imported, youll now be able to choose which
app, then use the sign up option provided. Any sections you want to import. Importing can take
data stored within the app will now be imported quite a while to complete, so be frugal with the
into Sunrise. Repeat this process for every app choices you make here. Press the Done button
that you want to import. once complete.
 Five of the best external plug-ins to use in Sunrise Calendar
1 TripIt 2 Evernote 3 GitHub 4 Asana 5 Songkick

tips
Plan various parts of your holiday Import various notes into your Track various news outlets and get This app enables teams of people Get details on the latest concerts
and keep track of ight times in Sunrise account and edit them the latest headlines appearing in to work and communicate on being performed by artists at
one handy place. within the calendar app. your calendar. projects together. locations near you.

Ask your own

question online at
littlegreenrobot.co.uk

Is it possible to get
my iCloud calendar
across to Sunrise?
One of the leading features in
Sunrise Calendar is the iCloud
auto-import option. When you
begin connecting to different
apps, scroll to the top of the list
4 Start to browse
Scroll through your calendar across a
5 Add more detail
Each listing will have a different amount of
where youll nd the iCloud
listing. Press on it and enter
few weeks to see if all the apps you imported are detail attached with it. If you arent happy with your details to import it across.
there and present. Each app will be represented whats been included, press on the pencil icon
by a different icon and contain a small note at the top of the app to edit the eld. You can Will my connected
describing what the listing is about. Press on one then add to or completely rewrite the description,
to take a closer look. which doesnt have a word limit. apps work with
the Sunrise
Calendar widget?
Yes and no. Although most apps
work with the widget fairly well,
on occasion you may nd that
some events are missing from
the widget feed. If you really
want a thorough widget, then
you may need to import the
apps once again to get an
updated version.

6 Split the day

If youve got multiple apps displaying for
the same day, press on the date in question to get
a closer view. Doing this will split up the day into
different parts Morning, Afternoon, etc so you
can pinpoint the timing of exact events. Press on
the date again to revert back to normal.
7 Start organising
After using the app for some time it may be
that youre nding some of the plug-ins to be a
hindrance. Go through the settings page of the
app to nd the remove app function. Here you
can remove the feeds from specic apps in just
a few seconds.

Need help?
Got a problem with your
Android phone or tablet?
Get in touch with us...
facebook /littlegreenrobot
Get help from our
Facebook community

8 App features
Some apps include extra details that users
9 Different view
If youve got a rather packed calendar, or
twitter @lgrobot
Follow us to send your
questions and thoughts
should be checking out. Songkick, for example, simply want to try out an alternate view, press on
not only has Google Maps integration letting you
know the whereabouts of upcoming concerts, it
also has a direct link to the apps webpage for you
the three line symbol at the top of the interface.
This will switch to a stripped-back calendar view,
when tends to be a lot easier on the eye and
email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Send your questions for our team of
to nd out more. easier to comprehend. experts to tackle

35
Tutorials
Works with Android 4.0 and up

Stream Dropbox
to your TV
Y
Use a Chromecast our Chromecast can do a lot of things and it photos on the
doesnt have to end with just streaming big screen. It
and the AllCast media. The Google Play store now has hundreds provides users
app to get your of compatible Chromecast apps, which expand the with a platform to
functionality of the streaming stick. One of the most read and perform m nor edits
photos, les highly regarded apps is AllCast a great app that on their les, before sha ing them
and more on enables users to not only stream their media content, through different platforms. This
but also several other apps you wouldnt normally tutorial will get you up and running with
your television expect. The app contains full Dropbox support, AllCast and well als
enabling users to have full access to their les and make using Dropbox on your TV a whole lot easier.

Find your Chromecast

1 When
you rst open up the AllCast app, itll
automatically try and nd a nearby Chromecast by
performing a scan on your Wi-Fi network. When
you nd yours listed, press on it to be taken to the
homescreen of the AllCast app.
2 Change bitrate
Before looking to stream Dropbox, youll
rst need to go into the Settings menu and alter
your bitrate. A higher bitrate is best suited for a
solid internet connection, while a lower bitrate is
better for those with average internet to avoid lag.
3 Open side menu
Back out of the Settings menu and open
up the side menu. All of the compatible apps that
work with AllCast are listed, and youll nd Dropbox
there. If youre an avid cloud user, be sure to check
out the Google Drive integration as well.

Allow access
4 Youll now be required to allow access to
your Dropbox account through the AllCast app. If
you have a full Dropbox account, it may take the
app a few minutes to compile all your folders and
les together and get them ready for streaming.
5 Navigate Dropbox
The beauty of this Dropbox integration is
that any number of your les can be streamed. Go
through each folder listed and see the various
documents and photos. A small X will appear in
the corner of a le if it isnt compatible.
6 Start to stream
Select a le and press the cast button on
the top-right of the app. After a few seconds, your
le will appear on your TV. Using your phone you
can move the le around, edit various parts of it
and share it to other devices as well.

36
Works with All versions of Android
Charge battery

Recalibrate
Your rst port of call is to fully charge the
battery with your smartphone turned on
and all apps and syncing processes closed
and off. Remove the charger from your
phone and then turn your smartphone off
after a few seconds

your batter
without roo
Get your battery working at its maximum
potential in just a few steps

P
oor battery life is something that
most Android users will
experience with their smartphone
at some point. Although many believe
that the way you use your phone is the
number one reason users can face
sub-par battery life, it may also be how
the battery is calibrated.
One of the easiest ways to identify if
your battery needs to be calibrated is if
your device refuses to charge, or the
battery life is draining at a much faster
rate than normal. Recalibrating may
seem like a daunting prospect, but it can
be performed with minimal fuss and
without the need for any third-party
application from the Google Play store,
which could do more bad than good for
your smartphone.
LED indication
With your device off youll want to
plug in your charger and wait for the
LED light to appear, notifying you
when its fully charged. Once this
happens remove the charger again
and turn on your phone
Drain to 0%
After being fully charged again,
unplug it and leave your phone
until it reaches 0 per cent battery
life and turns itself off. If you now
fully charge your phone while its
off, your phone should calibrate
itself and work at its optimal level

Make your battery go further

If you just want to give your battery life a boost,
then check out these apps for tinkering with your
batterys performance

Battery Doctor DU Battery Saver JuiceDefender

Battery Doctor quickly Where DU excels as an The JuiceDefender apps Set screen to
estimates how long your
battery will last on its
app is that it gives users
the choice to optimise
have long been at the
forefront of preserving
maximum Finishing up
Now go into your devices Settings Turn your phone back on and
current charge, as well as their phone batterys battery life. Theyre a page and look for the Display immediately take off the screen
providing an easy-to-use performance with a great choice for those section. Within here youll want to always on option you enabled
task killer that can single press. It also who simply want to keep nd the option that enables you to earlier. From this point on you
neutralise features that includes a choice of their battery at their peak permanently keep your screen should notice your battery life
are substantially draining pre-determined modes and have an easy way of turned on. Enable the option, draining slower, but if its still
it or stopping it from that can help save your seeing how the changes reconnect the charger and wait for draining too fast, then a
reaching optimal levels. battery draining too fast. affect their device. it to fully charge again replacement might be in order

37
Tutorials
Works with Android 4.0 and up

Create formulas Make quick

calculations

in Google Sheets
with Googles
alternative to
Microsoft Excel

L
ets face it spreadsheets will never be the most
exciting things in the world. However, if you can look
past the endless rows of cells, they act as a great way to
manage your expenses, keep things organised and partake
in other number-related tasks. Google Sheets has
recently been revamped to bring it closer
in line with Microsoft Excel, which
has long been at the pinnacle
of spreadsheet-based apps.
Although the fundamentals of the app havent changed, it
now includes a comprehensive suite of features, which are
especially useful if you tend to use these sorts of apps to
create simple formulas from scratch while away from your
desktop computer. In this tutorial were taking a look at
Google Sheets in more detail, and focusing in on how it
utilises the formulas feature. Well show you how to create
formulas from scratch, as well as the basic functions you
need to enter for them to work correctly.

1 Select cells for formulas

Begin by highlighting the cell you want to
start using formulas with. A blue outline will appear
around the cell and by pressing and dragging on
Need the power the corner of the outline you can begin to highlight
f a spreadsheet on
the move? Say hello
the cells around it. Select the rst cell in the
to Google Sheets top-left corner and add numbers.
2 Enter further data
Go through subsequent cells and enter
the rest of the data you require. Instead of
manually selecting each cell and adding data,
simply press enter to quickly interchange between
cells. With the keyboard now open, press on the
thin white bar that lies above it.

Basic formulas
3 The
white bar is your hub for all formulas
that you want to create in Google Sheets. The
start of all your basic formulas will begin with the
= symbol. You can then put an equation straight
after it, as long as you type the value of each cell
you want to put together.
4 Instant troubleshooting
If the nished number doesnt look right
after making the calculation, use the formatting
toolbar at the top to go to the Numbers tab. Here
you can see how numbers will be displayed in the
cell. Select one and then re-do the equation to
see the revised number.
5 Exploring other formulas
Multiplying the numbers in cells is also
another basic and common formula to use.
Instead of simply putting an X to symbolise
multiplying, youll need to use an asterisk
between the cell value before pressing the enter
key on the keyboard to process the formula.

38
 Get in touch
Were on Facebook and Twitter,
facebook twitter email
/littlegreenrobot @lgrobot qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Like us on Facebook and Follow us to send your Need help? Got a question? Drop us
or just drop us an email join our community comments and pics an email and let us know

Ask your own

question online at
littlegreenrobot.co.uk

Will my equations
go on to other
devices?
Yes. No matter where you
decide to access your
spreadsheet, or on what
device, youll nd the data for
your equations will
6 Learning to divide
Many users tend to be a bit confused
7 Alternate formula entry
If youre looking to total up a large number
automatically be there for you
to access and edit, if
when it comes to dividing cell values while in of cells at one given time, then a great piece of necessary. Very convenient.
Google Sheets, but without a designated divide equation to use is the =sum function before the
button, users will instead need to use a forward rest of the equation is entered. Over a long period
slash for division. Again, press the enter button of time, youll generally nd it quicker to use this
once your equation has been entered. function when handling multiple cells.

8 Formatting with colours

The top toolbar is where youll nd all the
formatting options available to you. To help
differentiate your nished equations to your
standard cells, its worth applying a colour to all of
them. Highlight a single cell and drag the outline to
cover the remaining cells and apply a colour.
9 Selecting cell styles
Formatting also links closely with the cell
styles that can be selected from within Google
Sheets. Scroll past the colours tab and youll nd
basic cell design styles to select from. Again,
these act as a great way of differentiating these
cells from the rest.
10 Advanced formula entry
After testing out the basic equation
formats, begin to experiment a little further by
adding multiple cells into them. You can also add
different functions into each equation, if you so
wish. For these more advanced formulas, make
sure to use the =sum function as well.

11 Diagnosing problems
You may encounter several problems when
putting formulas together, so its important you
take care when entering them. A common problem
is not putting a correct cell value in, or simply
putting a cell that doesnt actually contain any
data to calculate.
12 Allow others to help
All the formulas you create through
Google Sheets can be shared with anyone
you like. Find the Add People menu within the
Settings and designate people who can not
only look at the spreadsheet, but also change
and edit any formulas they see t.
13 Add general details
Save and rename your le before
closing it. If you now open up the spreadsheet
again, you should still see each nished
equation entered, and by pressing on the cell
in question, youll also see the formula used
to reach the nished formula.

39
Tutorials
Ensure you
never get disturbed
by a nuisance call again
1. Getting started
On rst-time use you will need to accept
the terms and conditions to continue. But,
before you do, have a quick look at the
Welcome presentation to see what it has
to offer. To set up the app, rst select a
country. Instead of scrolling through the
long list use the search option to get the
correct country.
Now you will be asked to enter your
phone number; this acts as your unique
identier on Truecaller. Once the number
has been entered, Truecaller will send a
three-digit code to that number. Note the
code and enter to continue.
40
Works with Android 2.3.3 and up
Blacklist spam
numbers with
Truecaller
Add unwanted callers and spammers to your global block list
T
here is nothing worse than when you look Truecaller is an application that helps get rid
down at your ringing phone and see the of such nuisance calls with a global and personal
CallerID ashing up an unknown number. block list. The app comes with a long list of
Is it a friend using a new phone or is it an wanted known spammers straight out of the box. The
call from a pushy salesperson? Almost invariably beauty of Truecaller is that you can add to
its a telephone call from someone trying to sell the list with a single tap to block unwanted
you something you dont want to buy. calls now and in the future.
[FIG 4] Unwanted
callers are denitely a Alternatively, Invite friends to join to get
nuisance. When you Premium points.
nd one it can be
added to your My block
list by selecting Block 4. Search
The Search option lets users search for
individuals, businesses or sales. Enter a
name or number and tap Search. From the
search results tap an option. This will
enable you to call the number or Block &
Report. Tap Block & Report followed by Yes
to add to your block list.
5. Global block
Tap the Truecaller icon to reveal the
slide-in menu, select Block to view the
Global Block options. Turn Spammers and
Unknown numbers to on. This offers the
[FIG 5] Blocked callers
will be added to the option to choose either calls or text or
My block list. The both with a toggle switch. Select option(s)
details of the blocked
and press OK.
caller can be viewed,
edited or removed by
tapping the three-dot
menu icon
2. All about you
The rst screen displays a headshot of you
along with your name. If an image is not
available tap the generic image to add and
Ask your own
complete your prole. To add an image question online at
there is the option to Take a photo, Select littlegreenrobot.co.uk
from the Gallery or Get from Facebook. Can I view a
Add additional details and tap the tick. full list of spam
and unknown
3. New messages callers?
As well as viewing your
Truecaller will include a number of list of blocked callers
messages on rst-time use. You can you can view the global
list. Tap the Truecaller
choose to add images to contacts or tell icon, select Block, tap
your friends that you are using Truecaller the three-dot icon and
hit View full list.
via text message, Google+ or email.
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as
Works with Android 3.0 and up
Take notes durin
phone calls with
NOTEify
W
ho hasnt been in the situation where
youve been scrambling around for a
pen and paper while on the phone? Not
many, thats for sure. NOTEify is an ingenious
little app that enables users to jot down quick
notes while taking a phone call, appearing
1. Import contacts
When you rst open the NOTEify app, youll
be required to sync your contacts to the
app. All synced contacts will then work
with the NOTEify feature when a call takes
place. Depending on the amount of
contacts stored on your phone, the
process can take a few minutes to fully
nish syncing. Once completed, youll be
taken directly to the main page of the
NOTEify app.
2. Change settings
Press on the menu icon within the NOTEify
app and select the Settings option from
the list provided. Scroll down the list and
enable the Activate Notes and Auto Save
Notes options. This means the notes
Never miss important
details by jotting down
info while on the phone
automatically when specied contacts make a
call to you. Its a brilliant solution if youre in the
middle of an important call, and best of all, the
notes you enter can be saved within the app for
later use, where they can be saved to the cloud
or simply shared with others.
[FIG 3] Try and use the select where to save the notes to and
swipe feature on your export it to other applications, if
Android keyboard,
which is noticeably necessary. Theres also a sharing option,
quicker than manually which is a great tool to use if you need to
typing out notes share your notes with friends and family.
5. Link your calendar
One of the best features of the NOTEify
app is that your notes can also be
exported into different third-party calendar
apps. While formatting the note, press on
the clock icon and select the calendar
you use from the list. You can now set a
time and date for the note and the
calendar will alert you to it when the time
comes closer.
[FIG 5] Import any
notes into the likes of
Sunrise Calendar to
set up reminders and
alerts for them later
down the line
function will automatically appear during
calls and that each note you take will
subsequently be saved to the cloud.
3. Taking notes
When a call is in progress, your keyboard
will appear. To make sure you dont
miss out on any details, try and use the
swipe feature that most keyboards now Ask your own
question online at
include. If you back out of the note-taking littlegreenrobot.co.uk
feature, youll be returned to the standard
How do I
phone screen.
delete notes?
While on the
4. Format notes formatting screen,
press on the bin icon
With the phone call now over, you can get on the far-left of
started formatting the notes to your the screen to scrap
specication. As well as the font and the note you are
currently editing.
colours being changed, users can also
45
Tutorials
Works with Android 2.2 and up

Use Hibernate to freeze

background processes
Improve the
E
ven though you may not be using a certain app,
chances are its still running in the background
speed and and unfortunately this means itll be using
overall some of your devices RAM. Having numerous apps
running in the background can lead to issues with
performance of your devices overall performance. Tasks can take
your device by longer to complete, while navigating between menus
and apps can be a bit of a chore. Thats not to say that
minimising all background processes are detrimental to your
RAM usage device, as the small number that are linked to your
devices core processes need to be running at all
times to keep your phone or tablet safe from
intermittent restarts and crashes.
The Google Play store has a plethora of utility apps
that can cut out background processes for you, and in
turn can generally speed up your device in certain
areas. In this tutorial were looking at the Hibernate
app, which temporarily freezes background processes
but leaves the user with complete control on what
they want to freeze at any time.

1 Import app details

When you rst open up Hibernate, you may
nd it needs some time to import your app details.
This isnt the case for every device and is usually
Keep an eye on determined by the number of installed apps on it.
background
processes to
Youll automatically be taken to the apps home
boost performance page upon completion.
2 What to freeze?
Scroll through the apps and tick the box
next to each one you want to freeze. As you scroll,
you may notice some apps listed in yellow. This
represents a core service on your device and
should generally be avoided when hibernating as it
could lead to problems on your device.

Freeze processes
3 Press
the Android symbol to freeze the
processes, which should then automatically
remove them from the list. Open up the Settings
and enable Run service for background before
selecting how often you want the app to check
your background processes below.
4 Is it working?
After making your initial selections, its
best to have a quick look to see if the effects are
working. Your device should feel nippier from the
start, but you can also venture into the battery
monitor screen to see if the changes have
increased the battery life on their device.
Careful selection
5 Venture
back into the app and explore
some of the other apps you can hibernate. Each
app listing will have a numerical value of how much
RAM its currently using by just running in the
background, so ideally these are the apps youll
want to prioritise when making the selection.

46
 Essential ways to improve the speed of your phone or tablet
1 Disable animations
tips
Cut additional animations on your
phone by going to the Developer
options menu in the settings.
6 Take a closer look
Instead of manually going through your
apps, simply long press on one of them to open up
an overview screen. In this menu you can select
the types of apps you want to highlight. Select the
Background option and back out of the menu to
see a newly formed list.
7 Explore the new list
After selecting the background list of apps,
youll nd the list of apps slightly different. Some
will no longer be able to be selected and only the
power-hungry background apps will have tick
boxes that work. Again, make sure not to freeze
any core services that could damage your device.
8 The nal checks
Theres a multitude of ways to check if your
background processes have been frozen. The best
way is to go to the Show cached processes
screen in the Settings app and any app youve
frozen shouldnt be listed. If its listed, simply go
back to Hibernate and de-list it again.
2 Stop syncing 3 Ditch the widgets
Make sure not to set your apps in Widgets consume a surprising
automatic sync mode as this can amount of RAM, so clearing them is
cause a massive slowdown. a great idea.
Track background
min processes Venture into your Settings menu to discover a quick way of
checking how your phone uses background processes
1 Apps that are running
Go into your devices Settings menu and
nd the Apps section near the bottom of the
list. Open it to get an overview of the apps
installed on your device. Scroll left until you get
to the Running tab, which will show every
application currently open in the foreground and
background on your device.
3 Stop or report?
Select an app to take a closer look at it.
As well as giving you a general insight into how
many background processes the app is
currently undertaking, theres also the Stop and
Report buttons. If youre worried about
particularly high RAM usage, use the Send
function to notify the developer.
4 Software updates 5 Factory reset
Many software updates help If your phone is continuously too
streamline the overall performance slow to use, then a factory reset will
of phones and tablets. restart it from scratch.
2 Monitor RAM usage
With the Running menu still open,
select the Show cached processes option
from the top-right of the app. This will now
show you the apps that are using the most
RAM through background processes, although
it isnt as thorough as the Hibernate app for
the most part.
4 A word of warning
Although using the Stop button might
seem like a good idea, it can lead to more
problems than good. You may nd the app
unusable, or certain features not responding, as
they would normally. Using Hibernate is a good
solution to freeze the app without potentially
damaging your device.
47
Tutorials
Works with Android 3.0 and up

Track your app Time-sensitive info

The time period combines with the app
usage option to create a list. Select Today
before using the device and only the
Frequency app will appear. Select Past Week

usage with
and this will display the last seven days
usage. Select All Time to view usage since
Frequency has been installed

Frequency
Discover and analyse how long you are
spending on your installed apps

A
pps are the lifeblood of any
device, but there are the regulars,
the occasionals and the whats
this? apps. It is almost guaranteed that
you will know your regulars, but out of
those 30 apps you have installed, which
ones do you actually use?
Frequency is an app that enables you
to monitor the usage of your apps over a
number of different time periods. Want to
know what apps were popular in the last
day or week? Want to know what apps
have been the least popular since you
installed Frequency? This lets you make
decisions on which apps to keep and
which to uninstall, which can be done
directly via Frequency to free up valuable
space and resources.
App watch
Apps are what make a device
and Frequency offers the option to
lter which apps are displayed in a
list. Used Apps displays apps that
have been used in a selected
period, while All Installed displays
all the apps installed on a device,
used or unused
Listed by time
Time is the key measurement in
the Frequency app. The listed apps
are displayed in order with the most
used app, by time, top of the list.
Each app in the list displays how
long each app has been used
during the selected time period

Get more from Frequency

The default version of Frequency is quick and simple
to use, but dig a little deeper and you will be able to
take better control and improve accuracy

No Show Go Pro App accuracy

Each app has options
including Add to No-Show
List. This option allows for
selected apps to be
excluded, or not shown,
in standard app listings,
eg Used Apps. However,
the tagged apps will
appear in the No-Show
List, when selected.
The free version does not Frequency monitors app
include a number of
options, such as Run at
usage every 30 seconds,
which sets the accuracy
More options Manual use
Each listed app has a selected set By default, the App usage tracking
Startup and App level at medium. To of options that can be accessed option, in Settings, is activated when
Accuracy. These options upgrade, head to Settings with a single tap. The pop-up the app is installed. However, the app
can only be accessed by >App usage accuracy. To window offers the option to Open must be started manually to start
upgrading to the Pro select an alternative, eg 5 the selected app, get App info and, tracking. The Run at startup option,
version. Head to Settings, Seconds (Very High), you if desired, Uninstall the app. There again in Settings, will automatically
select Run at startup and will need to upgrade to is also the option to add an app to start Frequency, but this is a Pro
tap Get Pro to upgrade. the Pro version. the No-Show list option that you will have to pay for

48
Works with Android 2.3 and up
Automatic
store all
copied dat
with EverCl
Instantly back up all the text and web
addresses you copy to the cloud
H
ow often have you
copied a vital detail,
such as a phone
number or web address, then
forgotten to paste it before
copying something else? The
EverClip app eliminates this
problem by automatically
backing up everything you
copy and making it easy to
store links, web clippings and
text to Evernote. In this tutorial
we take you through EverClips
essential features, including
setting up the automated
Save web clippings
Create a permanent snapshot of a webpage, known as a
web clipping, so text, images and links are preserved
1 Copy a URL
To create a
webclip, copy the URL of
the webpage that you
want to back up. Then
open EverClip, either by
opening the app or just
selecting the Clipboard
Monitor from your
drop-down. Now, tap on
the last link you copied.
Clipboard Monitor and making
use of its extra features. We
also guide you step-by-step
through creating web
clippings. There is already an
Evernote Web Clipping Chrome
extension that works on both
desktop and Android, but isnt
as intuitive on mobile as
EverClip. It also only works
with Chrome, so if you prefer
to use a different browser, the
ofcial extension is no good.
EverClip will also work with
other cloud services.
2 Select
area
an 3 Store in
the cloud
If you want to save a When nished, tap Save
whole webpage, move to Evernote to back up
onto step 3. If you want your webclips. EverClip
to select a specic area, Premium users can
tap the oating square qualify which Notebook
outline button at the to save it to and add tags.
bottom of the screen. If you use a different
From here, you can then cloud service, tap Share
select areas to backup. to see more options.
Clipboard
Monitor
Once youve downloaded
EverClip, any text copied to
clipboard will automatically
add to EverClip. It also
recognises URLs and
downloads the corresponding
data. Follow the steps in the
green box below to back up
URLs as web clippings for an
alternative to bookmarking
Organise notes
As well as URLs, any text you copy on
your handset whether from the
web, a message or an app will also
be stored in EverClip. Notes supports
Markdown syntax so you can add
formatting such as headers or
bullet points for added organisation
Search,
translate, share
When you copy anything, as
well as saving to EverClip,
green buttons will appear on
screen. These include options
to search for highlighted text
online, translate it, or share it
with others. Premium user
options also include calling
copied numbers, emailing text,
and opening links
Back up to
Evernote
As its name suggests,
EverClip is a third-party app
for Evernote. Open the link
or note you want to backup,
then tap Save to Evernote
to store it remotely. If you
use a different cloud store,
like Drive, press the Share
button instead and select
the relevant option
EverClip Premium
The free version of EverClip only supports ve
clipboard items at a time. You can either
regularly back them up to Evernote to ensure
you have space, or upgrade to EverClip
Premium for 2.49/$3.99. This includes
unlimited items, no advertising, and support
for Evernote notebooks and tags
49
DroidSupport
troubleshooting advice hints and tips
Gotemail an expert

Why is OK Google
an Android-related
problem that you need solving?
Let us know!
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Share your tips & tricks
Join us on Facebook and Twitter
to share and receive some
great tips and advice

facebook
/littlegreenrobot
Like us on Facebook and join
in our Android community
twitter
@lgrobot
Follow us on Twitter to send
your thoughts and questions
Did you know?
If you go to Settings>Language & Input>
Google Keyboard>Advanced Settings,
you can enable a full stop with a
double-space, change the colour
scheme and even change the delay
times for pop-ups and long key presses.
You have complete control over how
your Android keyboard works, and its all
done from your Settings app.
Now u
I love the idea of jus
saying OK Google Now
and for my Moto X to
respond, but I am
nding that it only
responds about half of
the time. It has never
been reliable for me.
Why is that happening?
Jamie Roach
Hi Jamie. The Moto X has your voice,
A been almost universally
praised for its ability to
something went
wrong and it has
understand what you are saying never covered,
in the most noisy of hence the lack
environments, but if you are of eliable
having problems there is
hopefully a very simple solution. would suggest to
Chances are that when you rst nd the quietest place
trained the system to recognise possible and to retrain
your input by going to Settings>
Touchless control>Train launch
phrase. You can say the phrase
again and will soon be able to
ascertain if things have
Retraining is a
improved. Another option which simple solution to
some say works is to drop the recognition problems
now and simply say OK Google.

You should expect near 100 per cent
recognition from OK Google Now
word can get mixed up with
many others, but that OK and
Google are unique enough to
pr ve to be more reliable.
However, in our tests we had
mixed results during the
retraining process and
sometimes the phone would fail
the now at the end. Our advice is
to say the wo ds as quietly as
y u can for it to be recognised
and this should translate to
successful recognitio more
often. You really shoul have no
problems because the feature
is very well built.

50
 facebook email

DroidSupport
Ask your questions
Got a problem with your Android phone or tablet? /littlegreenrobot qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Get help from our Send your questions for our team of
Send it to us and well nd the solution Facebook community experts to tackle

Keep the text messages

coming in
I recently moved from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy S4, but am
having problems receiving messages from some of my friends who
still own iPhones. I receive messages from some of them, but not
from all and seem to get texts ne from people with Android
phones. Help!
Claire Begot

Hi Claire. This problem come through if you did not Dont let your old phone ruin your new

A can seem perplexing

because it is so random,
deactivate the service. Your
iPhone-owning friends who do
smartphone experience

forced to use SMS to contact you.

but there is actually a logical
explanation and one which will
make sense once you know. If
your phone number was set up
to receive iMessages when
possible from other iPhones and
iPads, the texts that are sent will
immediately be converted to
iMessages. This means that if
some of your iPhone-owning
friends have the facility
activated, their messages to your
phone number will no longer
not use iMessage will still be
able to send texts to you as
normal and so will users of other
phones, but not the rst group of
people. You will need to put your
SIM back into the iPhone, if you
still own it, and disable
iMessages by going to Settings>
Messages and disabling the top
option. Wait for the process to
complete and anyone using
iMessage to send you a text in
the future will automatically be
If you do not have access to your
iPhone, go to supportprole.
apple.com/MySupportProle.do,
log in with your Apple ID and
Unregister your phone. This will
also solve the problem of Apple
effectively owning your number,
a situation that is currently being
investigated to nd a more
convenient x for those who
move mobile platforms. We hope
you can now enjoy keeping in You need to turn off iMessage
touch with all of your friends. before you move to a new phone

hints&tips Get more from your Android device with these handy tips
1 Gain control over Chrome
Open a new tab in Chrome and input
chrome://ags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area.
You will now be presented with a long list of
secret settings that you can tweak to make
your Android Chrome experience completely
personal to you.
2 Verify new apps
In the Security settings, ticking unknown
sources will let you install apps from
sources other than Google Play, which can be
useful, but we would also recommend ticking the
Verify apps option that will block apps that can
potentially do harm to your device.
3 Give your device a boost
Android Booster FREE, available from
Google Play, is a versatile tool that can
close running apps with one tap, monitor phone
trafc, rename and move les, and do so much
more in a simple and clean interface. It could
completely change how your device performs.

51

DroidSupport
Can I track
app usage?
Is there a way to see what apps I
have been using the most and
have you any tips on letting me
dig deep into the way I use my
phone without rooting? I am
trying to maximise the battery
and performance.
Malcolm Riddet
Hi Malcolm. There is a
A way to check everything
that has happened on
your Android device without
rooting, but you will need to
analyse the data yourself to see
what you can change in your
usage later. Go to the Developer
options in Settings, which are
not always available by default.
You may need to nd out how to
access them for your model, but
they should always be accessible.
Once there, open Process stats,
where you will see a list of apps.
Tapping any of these will display
the RAM usage, running time
and lots of other useful data. If
you tap the menu option at the
top, you can also show system
apps and choose which stat
types to see: backgr und,
foreground and cached. Its a
useful set of numbers to truly
analyse your device usage.
52
Did you know?
In the Google Play app, you can specify how often a password is
required for purchases by going to Settings>Require password
for purchases. If you have a lock screen set up, you could
potenti lly set it to Never to speed up purchases in the future.
Simply tap the
jigsaw piece
icon and then
select Reader, at
which point the
page will be
transformed
to a much
cleaner version
I need
clearer
webpages
Is it possible to set up the
browser on my device so that it Busy webpages can be cleaned up instantly
can offer a simpler reading view
like Safari Reader on an iPhone? Hi Mary. There are ways
So many pages are busy and
cluttered, and saving them to
A that you can set up
shortcuts to take
services like Pocket or advantage of the features from
Instapaper works, but are a bit of apps like Readability and
a ddle and not immediate. competing services, and some
ary ames can be used to offer immediate
views of webpages in a much
cleaner form. The problem with
these methods is that they
usually involve setting up what
are called bookmarklets and
then having to navigate to them
every time, but we have a better
option. There is an app called
Mercury Browser, available from
Google Play, which offers many
extra features including one
called Reader. When you come
across a webpage that feels too
busy on your screen, simply tap
the jigsaw piece icon and then
select Reader, at which point the
page will be transformed to a
much cleaner version that can be
read immediately. There are
other bonuses as well such
as automatic translation,
searching within pages and
private mode, but a long look
around will highlight everything
that is on offer. It will give you
the feature you desire and many
You can check
every aspect of more on top. A typically versatile
your phones usage Android solution.
sing your
hone as a
SB drive
I am about to receive a new
Android phone and will need to
use it to move les between my
Mac and my work Windows
laptop. I realise that I can use
cloud services, but prefer to do
so on local devices and
wondered how easy it is to
manage moving les between
all of these devices?
Mick Bromley
A
Hi Mick. It would be
useful to know which
Android device you are
about to receive so that we can
be more specic, but for your
particular question we should
still be able to help you. The
majority of the time, connecting
to a Windows PC, particularly a
new one running Windows 8
and above, should be easy, but it
is slightly trickier on a Mac. A
small amount of setup is
required, but once you have
done that, it should be quite easy
to use your Android device as a
hub to move photos, videos and
indeed any kind of le between
them. If your device has
expansion card support, this
makes the entire process much
easier, but there are ways
around this which we will
demonstrate for anyone else who
needs this type of functionality.
Files can easily coexist on both your
desktop PC and your Android device
 Share your tips facebook twitter email
Got a great tip, or found a cool
shortcut? Let us know!
1 Connect to Windows
To connect to a Windows PC, simply attach
your Android device to the USB cable and connect
it. You will see a box appear and you will need to
leave the initial setup to complete, which can take
some time. Be patient and the process will
eventually nish and you should be ready to start.
3 Time to move les
When you click the Android device drive in
File Explorer you will now be able to move les to
and from the device as you like. This is a manual
solution, but it is extremely versatile and also feels
more familiar than using any other method. Your
Android device is now working with Windows.
5 Bespoke software
It is likely that the manufacturer of your
Android device will also offer bespoke software to
help you manage les. Take some time to see how
well the solution works because often the simpler
options are more efcient and less resource
hungry than manufacturer solutions.
/littlegreenrobot @lgrobot
Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter to
join our online community send us your tips & tricks
2 Choose an option
You will now see some options appear on
the screen and it is wise to select the correct one
as this will be used in the future when you connect
your device. Select Open device to view les and
you should see it appear as a drive in File Explorer.
The sync option is useful for dealing with media.
4 Android File Transfer
Setting up an Android device as a drive in
Finder on a Mac can be difcult, but you do still
have options. One is Android File Transfer, which is
available from www.android.com/letransfer and
provides an elegant and simple solution for moving
les to and from expansion cards and main drives.
6 Wireless le sharing
Dont forget that there are many apps
available in Google Play that will enable you to
transfer les wirelessly to your desktop PCs. Apps
such as WiFi File Transfer are free and very easy to
set up. In the right hands it can make the process
of sharing les quicker than the USB solution.
Check our website daily
for even more tips & tricks www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
DroidSupport
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Discovered anything good about your
Android phone? Let us know!
quicktips
top tips for...
ROLONGING
ATTERY
Uninstalling apps will offer many benets to
device performance
1Delete apps
It is easy to download and install too
many apps over time, but a small amount of
time spent removing the ones you use
infrequently will increase battery life, add
more storage space and ultimately increase
device performance. Spring clean your
device when you can.
2Use what you need
It can be convenient to have Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth and NFC running all of the time,
but some manual intervention will make a
big difference to how long your battery lasts
and how quick your device is. Have some
handy shortcuts close by and turn the
networking features on and off only when
you need them.
3Limit home screens
The temptation to create multiple home
screens to locate apps and shortcuts is
great, but by using only one and minimising
your use of widgets, there will be some
performance benets. The advantages are
quite small, but they will add up over time.
4Check battery stats
Go to Settings>Battery and study the
list of battery usage by feature and app. The
screen, OS and system will rank high, but if
you see an app using too much battery, you
may want to replace it.
5Limit notications
In apps that include notications, try to
limit them if not absolutely necessary. Every
time a notication pops up, it will in effect
turn your device on and thus use more
battery life. It will also save you from
constant interruptions.
53
 EX
C

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 Explore the limits of your Android device

Hacker Zne
055 Expert phone hacks 70 Hacking tips and tricks

DE-GOOGLE SPEED UP
YOUR DEVICE YOUR PHONE BOOST YOUR
CONTROL APP Remove bloatware Limit apps for faster AUDIO
PERMISSIONS to free up
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launching Pump up the volume
Limit what data your with ViPER4Android
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EXPERT BOOST YOUR

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Run both Android
Kill apps instantly to
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ULTRA-FAST SET UP ONE-HANDED

DOWNLOADS Essential tricks to GESTURES
Supercharge your
Wi-Fi speeds
make your phone Make navigating
your own menus easy

H
acking is at the heart of Android. For
all its fragmented operating systems
and multitude of third-party forks and
skins, hacking ensures that if you dont like
something about your device, you can change
it. While this can be as simple as running a
launcher to change your homescreen, the real
fun is digging deep into the factory settings to
add or remove programs.
This issue weve included ten top tutorials to
transform your phone, from removing all of
the Google apps to gain extra memory to
speeding up how long it takes to download
apps by combining the power of Wi-Fi with 3G.
All of these hacks require your Android
phone to have been rooted, but they are all
sufciently complicated that if you dont know
how to unlock the superuser mode, its
probably for the best that you dont give them
a go anyway, as a hacking misstep can have
dire consequences for your device.
(Alternatively, beginners should try our
brilliant Hackers Toolkit in issue 39 to help
them get started).
However, for any Android experts that want
to give them a go, read on for sophisticated
step-by-steps to making your phone your own.

55
 Get tips, tricks, help & advice
Send us your comments, tips and questions
through email and social networks

Remove
Google DE-GOOGLE
YOUR

featuresO
Learn how to banish Googles
DEVICE

ne of the major advantages

of rooting your Android
smartphone or tablet is that
bloatware, including all GApps
and the Google Search bar
you can remove apps and features
that are otherwise read-only and
1 Replace
Hangouts
Google
therefore not possible to uninstall. If youre not a Hangouts fan, you can
Even though Android is classed as an use an alternative app for your SMS
open platform, most Android devices messaging, regardless of whether you
are tightly integrated with Googles have root. Download a new messaging
suite of services. Its not app from the Play store (try Handcent
uncommon to nd many SMS or Chomp SMS), then open your
read-only Google apps on your devices Settings, tap Default SMS
Android device, such as app and choose an alternative.
Gmail, Hangouts, Google+,
Galler and, of course, the
Play store. Then, theres Google
Now and the Google Search
bar, which automatically appear
on the ho escreen of many
Android devices.
While Googles apps and services
can come in handy, its unlikely
youll have a use for all the Google
products that come pre-installed on
ical Android device.
Removing the apps and services you
dont use can free up memory,
resources and mobile data usage on
your device, not to mention help
prevent your homescreen and app
drawer from becoming cluttered.
This tutorial covers the different
ways you can de-Google your
device, from deleting read-only apps,
to hiding the Google Search bar on
your homescreen, disabling Google
6 Replace stock
boot animation
Now, and even installing a new, Depending on your device, you may
Google-free boot animation. see the Google logo as a boot
As you might expect from a Hacker animation. You can replace this using
Zone tutorial, most of the methods a manager app, such as Boot
described here require a rooted Animations Root, which can be
device, but even if you dont have downloaded from Google Play. Open
root access, there are still a few the app, choose a new animation,
You can de-Google
your Android device
tricks you can use to loosen Googles select Install and then reboot.
with a few hacks hold on your device.
56
 TOP TIP

facebook twitter
/littlegreenrobot @lgrobot
Like us on Facebook to
join our online community
Hacker Zne
email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
GOOGLE
ALTERNATIVES
Comments or questions? If youve got questions or just want to There are lots available on the
Follow us on Twitter say hello, drop us an email Play store for free. A few worth
exploring include SolCalendar,
QuickPic, Timely Alarm and
Dolphin Browser.

2 Remove 3 Disable 4 System

Google Now
Even if you dont have root, you can
disable Google Now by opening the
service (either by swiping upwards,
or swiping to the left homescreen).
Scroll to the bottom of Google Now,
tap the three-dotted menu icon,
select Settings and then push the
slider to the Off position.
system apps
If uninstalling one of Googles
read-only apps sounds too
permanent, you can disable the app
instead, so you have the option of
re-enabling it at a later date. To
disable an app, open your devices
Settings, tap Apps, select the app in
question and then tap Disable.
Remover
App
To remove read-only apps,
download System App Remover
from Google Play. Launch the app
and open its menu by tapping the <
symbol. Choose System app to see
your read-only apps. Remover warns
against uninstalling certain ones,
but you can uninstall anything here.
5 Uninstall
system apps
In System App Remover, select the
app you want to remove, and then
tap Uninstall. To recover this app at
a later date, launch System App
Remover and tap its trash can icon,
which acts like your computers
recycle bin. Find the app you want to
restore, and then tap Restore.

7 Remove Google
Search bar
Nexus users get a permanent
Google Search bar on their
homescreen, which you cannot
delete. To remove this bar, you need
to download a new launcher. KitKat
Launcher+ (free on the Play store) is
almost identical, with the added
bonus of a removable Search bar.
8 Experiment
with launchers
Other launchers that are worth
exploring are Nova Launcher and
Apex Launcher, both of which can
be downloaded from the Play store.
Both the Nova and Apex launchers
enable you to remove the Google
Search bar, in addition to a whole
host of other customisations.
9 Flash a
custom ROM
One of the most dramatic, but
effective ways of de-Googling your
device, is to ash a custom ROM.
ROMs give your device a new look,
and usually avoid unnecessary
system apps. The best place to
check what ROMs are available for
you is the XDA Developers forum.
10 Remove
unwanted APKs
If your chosen ROM still contains
Google apps, you can remove these
before ashing the ROM. Download
and unzip the ROM on your
computer, open the system/app
folder and delete the unwanted
.apks. Then, rezip the le and youre
ready to ash it to your device.

57
 Get tips, tricks, help & advice
Send us your comments, tips and questions
through email and social networks

Supercharge your
download speeds GET ULTRA-FAST
DOWNLOADS

T
here was an old trick we used a few years ago
Make the most during the initial explosion of wireless
computing where wed link together our wired
use out of your and wireless connection for a little more data
dual radio throughput on the local network. When it worked we
were briey able to increase our internet speed thanks
connections to to next doors unsecured network. Today though
download faster things are a little different; home internet is fast
enough that its not a concern. Were not always on the
internet in the comfort of our own homes though, and
when were out and about on our phone we want as
much bandwidth as we can muster.
This is where the multiple inputs come into play.
Every day were using our smartphones to get data
from mobile networks and Wi-Fi, so why not at the
same time? Luckily we can combine the two

1 Get Super Download

On a rooted phone, download the Super
Download app from the Play store. Theres a
free version of the app as well but its limited to
50MB les this may be useful for those with
quite limited data plans and require a little more
control over its usage.
2 Set up the app
Turning on Super Download is all you
need to do to get it to start working. Make sure
notications are turned on so that you get the
best results from downloads. You can also copy
and paste URLs directly into the app using the
plus symbol on the main screen.
3 First download
To activate root permissions, youll need
to manually add a download URL to the
downloader. Any le will be large enough to get
it to work but something in the range of ten or
more megabytes will be enough to test the
process as well.

4 Get My Data Manager

Get back on the Google Play store and
look for the My Data Manager (MDM) app this
is what well be using to get a better idea of the
amount of data were using with Super
Download. Unlike our bridge app, it does not
require root access.
5 Set up your plan
On rst launch of MDM youll be asked to
create your plan this is information like
whether youre on a monthly contract, when
your data allowance resets and giving it a
number for the amount of data youve used so
far this month. Once done, hit the back button.
6 Create your alarms
MDM goes beyond typical Android data
features by letting you set two overall alarms
and a daily alarm. We suggest setting an initial
warning alarm to let you know youre half way
through your allowance and then a nal alarm
when you need to switch off the bridge.

58
 Hacker Zne
facebook twitter
/littlegreenrobot @lgrobot
email
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Like us on Facebook to Comments or questions? If youve got questions or just want to
join our online community Follow us on Twitter say hello, drop us an email

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mod for audiophiles

F
or many Android fans, their
smartphone or tablet is their
rst choice when they want to
listen to music or watch a movie.
However, the reality is that most
mobile devices are unlikely to deliver
the sound quality you crave, straight
out of the box.
If youre getting frustrated with
your devices audio output, then an
audio mod could be the answer and
1 Download
ViPER4Android 2 Choose Super
Audio Quality 3 Set as
your default
ViPER4Android is one of the most Visit forum.xda-developers.com/ Tap the correct le for your version Once your device has rebooted,
popular available. ViPER4Android showthread.php?t=2191223, of Android, followed by Install. open your app drawer and tap
has extensive options for tweaking and download ViPER4Android FX. When prompted, tap Open. The Settings, followed by Sounds.
Open your notications drawer app asks whether you want to Select Music Effects, and then
and tap the Download complete update your V4A driver. Select Yes. choose ViPER4Android FX in the
ViPER4Android panel, then select ES Zip Viewer
when prompted. Youll see two
Youll then be given three
preferences; for the best audio
pop-up that appears. Youre now
ready to launch the ViPER4Android
has extensive les: one for Android 2.3 and one
for the 4.0 series.
quality choose Super Audio
Quality. Reboot your device.
app and start perfecting your
devices audio output.
options for
tweaking and
tuning your
devices audio
and tuning every part of your
devices audio output, including
equalization, virtual surround
sound, reverberation and much more.
ViPER4Android is available in two
avours: FX, and XHiFi. This tutorial
uses ViPER4Android FX, since it has
Categories and
4 settings 5 Experiment
with sounds 6 Create
presets
custom
the most settings and is still under ViPER4Android is divided into Every change you make in ViPER4Android comes with various
active development. categories. Swipe to move ViPER4Android takes effect in real default equalizer presets, but if
ViPER4Android requires a rooted between the categories, and see time, so an easy way to perfect none of these meet your needs,
device, and relies on BusyBox, so what settings are available. If your audio output is to play some you can create your own. Open
before you start, make sure you youre unsure what a particular music in the background while you the category you want to create a
download BusyBox from the Play setting does, you can get more tweak and tune your settings. For custom preset for, tap its blue
store. Youll also need an app that info at: vipersaudio.com/blog/? the most accurate effect, use your graph and then drag the white
can decompress zip les, such as ES page_id=43, which also includes headphones while making these dots until you have an effect
File Explorer, which is also free to some recommendations. ne adjustments. youre happy with.
download from Google Play.

59
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Create your
own widget
Build a custom widget with UCCW
that displays the date, time, weather
forecast or even your remaining
battery life
CREATE YOUR
OWN WID ET 1 Create a
blank canvas
W
hen it comes to customising
your Android device, theres Install UCCW from the Google Play
no shortage of apps, themes, store, if you havent already done so.
widgets and launchers freely Its a free download. Launch the app
available on the Play store and the and tap New. Set the homescreen
wider internet. But, if you cant nd grid size to 4x4, and the widget size to
exactly what youre looking for or 4x2. Give your skin a memorable
just want the fun of creating name, and then tap New skin. Tap
ething from scratch then youll Add/remove objects.
want to take a look at UCCW, which is
free to download from the Play store.
This Ultimate Custom Clock Widget
software lets you create a custom
widget for your homescreen. It contains
cou tless options for adding different
objects and sha es to your widget,
t eaking every aspect of the
widgets appearance, and even
adding your own images. These
images can be photographs youve
ices camera,
images downloaded from the internet
or even y ur own icons and graphics.
Once youre satised with your widgets
appearance, y u can add hotspots that
perform various actions when tapped.
These ac ions can be general, such as
launching an app, or very specic, for
example, launching the dialer and
calling a specic contact in your
address book.
Creating your own widget may sound
6 Reposition
objects
your
complicated, but UCCW makes it as Select each object in turn, tap
simple as tapping your way through Position and then enter the following
different menus and dragging a few values. Hour 477, 406. Minute
sliders to get it right. 634, 406. hour/minute separator
This tutorial shows you how to create 595, 401. Day of the month 262,
a handy widget that displays the date 261. Month 248, 355. Week Bar
and time, the current weather forecast, 19, 72. Battery circle 394, 144. Icon
UCCW is the best app
for getting creative and the remaining battery life on your forecast 788, 504.
with widgets Android device.

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2 Add your objects
Select Hour, Minute, hour/
minute separator, Day of the month,
Month, Week Bar, Battery circle,
and Icon forecast day 1 (today).
Youll see a jumble of objects in the
apps upper-left corner, but dont
worry about this for now, as youll
be resizing and moving these
objects shortly.
7 Add a shape
Divide your widgets content
by adding a vertical line. Tap Add/
remove objects and select Shape 1.
Open the Edit objects menu, tap
Shape 1, select Style and choose
Line. Still in the same menu,
change Position to 0, 96, Angle to
0, Width to 1370 and nally Line
thickness to 5.
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3 Resize text
The rst objects to resize
are Hour, Minute and Separator,
which all require a size setting of
85. Tap Edit objects to see a list of
all objects within your widget. Tap
Hour, select Size and then change
this to 85. Press the Back button,
and repeat for the Minute and
Separator options.
8 Add background
Depending on your device, at
this point you may need to make
some tweaks to the size and
position of your objects. Once
youre happy with the results, show
off your objects by turning the
widgets background transparent.
Tap Edit objects, select Background,
tap Alpha and drag the slider to 0.
4 Resize
objects
your
Carefully work your way through the
rest of the objects in the Edit
objects menu, simply by tapping
each object in turn, selecting Size
and then entering a new value.
Change Day of the Month to 75,
Month to 80 and change Week
bar to 80.
9 Place widget
Tap UCCWs menu icon,
select Save>Save skin>Save. To
position the widget on your
homescreen, press on said
homescreen then select Widgets.
Swipe to the UCCW widgets, then
press down on UCCW 4x2 widget,
position the widget on your
homescreen and release.
Hacker Zne
5 Finish
objects
resizing
There are a few objects that dont
have a Size setting, but still require
resizing. Return to the Edit objects
menu, tap Battery circle and set
both its Width and Height to 450.
Hit the Back button on your device,
then select Icon forecast, tap Scale
and change this to 155.
10 Resize widget
Finally, in the UCCW widget
that appears, tap the widget you
want to add to your homescreen. To
resize this widget, press down on it
for a few seconds, then select
Resize and white handles will
appear around the widget. Drag
these handles to make the widget
larger or smaller.
61
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Use XPrivacy to
control your apps
CONTROL APP
PERMISSIONS

P
Pick and choose rivacy is a huge concern for many Android
users, as the openness that makes this such an
exactly what innovative platform, also leaves it vulnerable to
data your apps privacy exploits. XPrivacy can prevent apps from
accessing, and potentially leaking, your information
have access to by letting you restrict an apps access to various data
categories. XPrivacy restricts access while feeding the
app fake data so that it continues to function normally.
Once installed, youll need to let XPrivacy know if
theres any data your app should have access to. You
can enable and disable permissions for all the apps on
your device, from the XPrivacy browser.

1 Install XPrivacy
Before you start, made a full backup and
ensure your device is set up to allow apps from
unknown sources (by tapping Settings>Security
>Unknown Sources). Although you cant
download XPrivacy from the Play store, you can
download the XPrivacy Installer so do that.
2 Xposed Framework
Launch XPrivacy Installer, and tap Check
for root, followed by I have made a full backup
and Unknown sources. XPrivacy requires the
Xposed framework, so download it. Once
complete, pull down the notication drawer and
tap the downloaded le. Tap Install and reboot.
3 Install XPrivacy
Relaunch XPrivacy Installer, reselect
Check root, I have made. and Unknown
sources. Then, select I have enabled Xposed,
and tap Download/install XPrivacy. Once
complete, pull down the notication drawer, and
select the downloaded le. Tap Next and Install.

4 Restrict access
Relaunch Xposed Installer, tap Modules
and select XPrivacy. Reboot and launch XPrivacy.
XPrivacy lists all the apps installed on your
device. To prevent an app from accessing a
category, tap its icon and then select the
category you want to restrict access to.
5 Revoke all permissions
If you want to prevent an app from
accessing all data, return to the main XPrivacy
screen, locate the app in question and then tap
its corresponding checkbox. Note, after applying
certain restrictions, you may need to reboot
your device for these changes to take effect.
6 Get in-app advice
On the main XPrivacy screen, youll
notice a pink checkbox this controls
permissions that you can restrict, but which
may cause the app to function incorrectly. Youll
also notice various other symbols; if you want to
learn more tap the question mark in the toolbar.

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Create one-handed
gestures with GMD
Be inspired by the
Amazon Fire Phone
for easy functionality
B
ack at the start of Android,
Google championed single-
hand usage, perhaps rightly
asserting that you can only use one
hand while walking. When
multi-touch was nally implemented
and we all realised we were ne with
using two-hands when sitting down,
we quickly forgot about those words.
Recently though, Amazon announced
the Fire Phone with its own set of
intriguing one-handed gestures.
These open up specic functions of
each app by tilting to the left or right
or merely reveal hidden status bars.
You dont have an Android Fire
Phone though, at least not yet
anyway, so how can we get them on
Android? Using GMD we can create
custom, one-handed gestures to ape
some of these features.
Why be jealous of the Amazon phones gestures
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1 The right
version
Make sure you grab the full
version of GMD GestureControl
from the Play store, as the Lite
version wont let you use custom
gestures. This wont help us as
the default gestures all require
multiple ngers and therefore
both hands to work.
4 Create tap
gestures
Next to Record youll nd the Path
button press that to bring up a
different type of custom gesture
menu where you can program
gestures with swipes and taps.
Type T-T-T into the path: this
means tap-tap-tap, and well use it
to kill the current app.
2 Your rst
gesture
Open up GMD and grant it root
before swiping over to User
Gestures. Clicking on Record will
let you create your custom
gestures; were starting with one
to open menus but you can use
whatever gesture you want as long
as it doesnt clash with any app.
5 Tap to kill
Again click Action and
choose Action from the menu. Go
to Application Manager and nd
the Kill App option. You can also
add a Starting Zone for the
gesture while the one weve
chosen is hardly common, you can
put it in an obscure place so it
doesnt interfere.
Hacker Zne
SET UP
ONE-HANDED
GESTURES
3 Set function
Lets continue on with
making this a menu gesture. Click
Next once youre happy and then
select Action to choose its
function. Again choose Action
then Application Manager and nd
the Menu function within there.
Choose Save and it will be
automatically activated.
6 Create a
blacklist
After youve created your selection
of apps and tested them, you may
notice that they have undesired
effects in some apps such as
games. You can either tweak
gestures or blacklist these apps
where you wouldnt be bothered
about the gestures anyway.
63
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through email and social networks

Overclock your
phone on a OVERCLOCK

per-app basis YOUR

ANDROID

O
verclocking your Android
device is probably
something youve
thought about in the past.
Maybe it would help x the
choppy framerate in a certain
game or perhaps youre using
slightly older hardware and
sometimes needs a boost.
As al ays, Android users and
devs have you covered with a
overclock your phone at a touch
of a button. Overclocking can be
risky though and you dont want
to be doing it all the time.
This is where app-specic
clocking comes into effect; it
enables you to return a device to
its normal CPU speed once you
have nished overclocking it. It
also has an extra effect the
ability to underclock when
power is not need to save battery
run. Heres how to
master the rocess.
1 Overclockable
kernels 2 Back up
and ash
Even with a phone rooted, it more Kernels need to be ashed to your
than likely has a clock inhibited by device, so the rst thing you need
the kernel. Search Google and XDA to do is a Nandroid backup and any
for kernels for your device that other backups youd like. Then
allow for an overclock theyll have save the zip with the kernel to your
limits as well but more than the card, reboot into recovery and
stock kernel will allow. install it to your device.

Overclocking can be a
treacherous hack, so be wise
with where you make changes
6 Tweak clocks
Grant root access and you
can start setting maximum and
minimum clock speeds. The
minimum is usually not clocked so
low and we suggest you change
that for battery performance. You
can also overclock the standard
maximum clock speed.
7 Create a prole
Move over to the Prole tab
and check the Enable proles box
to grant root permissions for this.
Next, click the plus symbol to add a
new prole and youll be taken to
the conditions screen. Well just set
an application for now, lets say a
game like Bad Piggies

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Follow us on Twitter say hello, drop us an email

Top tips for

Grant root benchmarking
access and you your rooted
can start device
setting
maximum and
minimum clock You can speed up

speeds choppy games by

overclocking your device It can be dangerous
By overclocking youre pushing the
CPU beyond its recommended
limits. This can increase the heat
the chip experiences, shorten its
life and damage components
around it. Test increases in clock
speed gradually to nd the breaking
point and then go below that.

3 Restore
device
your
Before we start playing with clock
speeds, restore your device and
get all the apps you need as well
this is important to make sure we
can set up correctly for your ideal
setup and to deal with any little
issues that might have cropped up.
4 Get the
right app
Were using SetCPU for Root Users,
which can be used with a stock
kernel but wont allow for
overclocking without the custom
kernel you can still do some
basic underclocking if youre more
interested in your battery life.
5 First launch
Once installed, open up
SetCPU. It will ask you if you want
to use advanced settings unless
you plan to create your own
custom clock frequencies or have
a Tegra 2 device, click on Continue.
Tegra 2 chips have a special
setting under advanced.
Rules can be broken
The limits manufacturers set on
clock speeds are very conservative
so dont be afraid to do any
overclocking at all. A ten per cent
increase might not sound like much
but it can mean games load faster
and run that bit smoother without
causing any lasting damage.

Take your time

8 Set clock range
Set the maximum and
minimum ranges for the game. If
you want it to stay at maximum
speed, put both as the highest
clock rate. We suggest having a
little range and setting the governor
to performance so it stays at
maximum for as long as it needs.
9 Prioritise prole
Each prole can be set with
a specic priority. Higher priority
takes precedence, however if you
dont tick the exclusive box, lower
priority proles can override active
proles of a higher priority. For
overclocking something, wed
suggest low priority.
To benchmark youll need patience.
10 Create more
Create the rest of the
Test out clock speeds for up to ten
minutes before making a decision
proles you want, whether its
to use them. Keep an eye on the
more overclocking or adding
phones temperature, which youll
underclocking. Its important to use
be able to tell by touch, and also
the Stress Test function on the Info
whether or not you start getting
tab at the speeds you plan to use
crashes and graphical errors.
to make sure they wont do
anything funny to your device.

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Get Android Ls power-

saving features now Get Project Voltas best bits now using a variety of Android apps

L
earning the limits of a smartphones battery life
is a hard pill to swallow for a new user so it was
excellent to hear during the Android L news that
BOOST YOUR Google is hard at work creating new battery-saving
BATTERY features with its Project Volta. It comes with some
core functionality: better proling of battery usage,
compiling apps ahead of time rather than just in time,
more API functions for developers and a battery-saving
function to try and keep your phone going until you
reach a power point. Some of these features can be
applied to your Android device now using the right
combination of apps; namely the battery prole and
creating rules for changing phone functions during
specic discharge states. Having a rooted phone can
help you go further with some underclocking as well,
and well show you just how to make the most of this.

1 Get DU Battery Saver

The application were using for this
tutorial is the DU Battery Saver Pro app it will
cover just about all our needs for this tutorial.
Find it in the Play store and install it to your
device as you would any other app. Its a free
download too.
2 Initial setup
Go through the info screens to start
using the app. On the bottom of the user
interface youll nd a row of functions choose
Saver. Here youll nd the different proles you
can use to start limiting your phone straight
away if you need to.
3 Set battery discharge
Click on the pencil next to My mode to
begin creating a custom battery prole. Go over
to the Smart tab and activate the Schedule by
power feature. You can have this activate a
battery prole when the battery gets low. Set
this prole to be My mode for now.

4 Set up your prole

Click the pencil next to My mode to
begin the process of editing it. We suggest
turning off Bluetooth, vibrate and haptic
feedback when the battery starts to get low but
you can tweak the display brightness and Wi-Fi
activation as well.
5 Underclock your phone
Weve already covered how you can over
and underclock your phone on a per-app basis,
but you dont need a custom kernel to
underclock your device so you can use part of
the tutorial to create a prole that underclocks
your phone when your battery gets low.
6 Battery Monitor
The nal selection on the bottom bar is
the Monitor, which gives you a better idea of
whats draining your battery. It also lets you
know which hardware features are draining the
battery, which can help plug a leak if you didnt
realise the GPU or Wi-Fi were leaching power.

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SPEED UP

Limit your apps for

YOUR
PHONE

faster launching
Get a marked speed
boost by preventing
apps from starting
up automatically

A
s Android devices grow
increasingly powerful, they
can handle more tasks
simultaneously, often without any
noticeable drop in performance.
However, if you need to free up some
memory, are running a less powerful

1 Install XF 2 Install & Enable 3 Prevent apps

device or simply dream of a speedier
startup, then its worth taking a
closer look at which apps are
BootManager requires the BootManager from running
Xposed framework, so visit http:// Open the Play store and install The BootManager app displays a
launching automatically when you
repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv. BootManager. Once its nished list of all the apps that begin
boot up your device. Youll be
android.xposed.installer on your downloading, open the Xposed running when your device boots.
surprised by the number of apps that
device and tap Download. Open Installer app, tap Modules and To prevent an app from starting
take it upon themselves to start
your notication drawer, then tap ensure BootManager is selected. automatically, give it a tap so that
running as soon as you power up!
Download complete and select Reboot your device. Once your it turns red. If an app is missing
When you prevent apps from
Install. Tap Framework and select Android device is up and running from the list, it may help to tap the
launching on boot, not only will you
Install/Update to ensure youre again, open the app drawer and three-dotted menu icon and
notice a faster, smoother startup, but
running the latest version. Reboot. launch BootManager. select Reload.

TOP TIP
BLOCK NOTIFICATIONS
WITH RECEIVERSTOP
Some apps will automatically
launch when they receive certain
broadcasts. ReceiverStop is a
way of preventing apps
from receiving these
broadcasts.

your devices overall performance

should improve, as there wont be
any unwanted apps ticking away in
the background. There are
several tools that can control apps
like this, but we recommend free
download BootManager.
Your handset also needs to be set
up to allow apps to be downloaded
from unknown sources (so if you
havent already, tap Settings,
followed by Security and nally
Unknown sources).
4 Check its
working
If you want to double check that
BootManager is successfully
preventing your apps from running,
reboot your device, and then open
your app drawer and select
Settings, followed by Apps. Open
the Running section, to see
which apps have launched
automatically on boot.
5 Experiment
with others
Although BootManager is one
solution for controlling which apps
start on boot, there are other
options to explore. Startup
Manager is a free application
available from the Play store,
which enables you to control
which system processes start
when the system boots.
6 Block System
Processes
Download and launch Startup
Manager, and then tap the System
tab at the top of the app to see a
list of all the processes that start
when the system boots. To
disable a process, tap its - icon.
Tap the + symbol and this
process resumes as soon as you
reboot your device.

67
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Dual boot
Android RUN A
DUAL OS

with Ubun
Touch OS
Try out another phone operating system by installing
Canonicals experimental OS alongside Android
1 Create a live disc
Go to the Ubuntu website and
download the latest version of the
Ubuntu desktop operating system.
This comes in an ISO le, and can be
burned to a blank DVD or an empty
USB stick using a tool like UNetbootin
we suggest the USB stick as its a
nstalling and managing custom little faster and very useful beyond the
OMs is a great part of the Android scope this of this tutorial.
xperience, enabling you to get the
most out of your device and
operating system itself. One of the
methods thats rarely explored is the
ability to install other operating
systems entirely to your phone.
This comes with a drawback
though: if you install another OS to
your phone, what happens if you want
to go back to Android? Canonical has
perhaps been listening to these cries
s released a specic app to help
you dual boot your Android phone
with its Touch OS.
Its actually a hidden feature thats
been available in Touch since the
developer previews, but its been
made easier much more recently
thanks to its own custom app.
Well need to use the Linux
distribution Ubuntu to get this to
work, however you wont need to
install it. Make sure you have 3GB of
6 Reboot
the app
and open
space free on your device though as As the terminal will emphatically tell
it needs this much to actually you, ignore anything about losing root
download and run the OS. It works and just press the power button once
best on the Nexus line for the moment to reboot. Once youre back into
and you can easily use it for Android, open up the app menu and
Bored of developing software or contributing to look for the Ubuntu Dual Boot app that
Android? Heres Ubuntu Touch if you become we just installed. Open it up for the
your chance to
experiment particularly enamoured with it during next step.
with another OS the process.

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2 Boot into Ubuntu
Reboot your PC with the DVD
or USB drive attached and nd the
boot device selection screen as it
turns on its usually tied to F12 or a
key like that. Select the DVD drive or
USB stick and after selecting Try
Ubuntu it will boot into it for you
straight off the USB without
installing anything.
7 Download
the ISO
From within the app, press the
greyed out Choose which channel
to install to bring up the options.
Check bootstrap and scroll down to
utopic so you get the recommended
version of the OS. Press install and
wait as it installs the large, 3GB le.
Make sure youre on Wi-Fi!
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3 Get the les
Find Firefox on the left row of
icons and download the following
le to the Home folder in the le
system: http://bit.ly/19HnjRO. This
is basically like the My Documents
folder in Windows. Now click on the
Ubuntu logo, search for the terminal
and then type into it:
$ chmod +x dualboot.sh
8 Reboot into
Ubuntu Touch
During the installation youll have to
grant SU but after a little while youll
be done! All you need to do now is
press Reboot to Ubuntu (again
greyed out for some reason) and
your device will boot into Ubuntu
Touch OS. Ignore any Android
identiers while booting.
CURRENTLY UNDER
Ubuntu Touch works ne but its
not nished yet so dont think it
4 Install the
Android tools
We need the correct ADB and
downloading tools to get this to
work, and these are all handily
included in one piece of software.
Install them from the terminal by
using the following command and
type in y when prompted to do so:
$ sudo apt-get install phablet-tools.
9 Return
Android
to
Merely performing a hard reboot on
the device (using the power button
to turn it off and on again) will allow
you to always boot back into
Android, with the Reboot button on
the app used to get you back into
Ubuntu Touch. Your Android system
will not be wiped in the process.
TOP TIP
Hacker Zne
DEVELOPMENT
will fully replace Android
on your device. We
like what we
see though.
5 Install
boot app
the dual
Connect your Android device to your
PC and make sure USB debugging is
on. In the terminal from before, type
the following command to install the
app it will reboot the device a
couple of times before its done but
thats normal and nothing to be
concerned about: $ ./dualboot.sh.
10 Updating
removing
or
To update Ubuntu Touch on your
device you need to uninstall it and
reinstall it. Its a bit long winded but
it just requires you to hit the menu
button on the Ubuntu Dual Boot and
select the Uninstall option before
going back a few steps to install
again if you want to update it.
69
 Explore the limits of your Android device

status update
Hacker Zne Tips and tricks
Which devices are best for
the hacking scene?

LG G3
Root most Galaxy S5, the application which
can be downloaded free of charge

Rooted? Yes
Active Development:
Android from http://towelroot.com should
provide root access on all phones
QQQLow
Its still early days for
this new phone, so
devices with with a kernel date prior to June 3
2014. The kernel date can be found
while it has been
successfully rooted
were still waiting for
TowelRoot
GeoHot is a famous hacker in the
in the About page of the Settings
app. To use TowelRoot, simply
download and install the app (you
the ROMs to appear.
world of iPhones and now he has will likely be prompted with a
turned his attention to Android with security warning that the app is
Moto E the release of TowelRoot, a device- dangerous), hit the make it ra1n
Rooted? Yes
independent root tool packaged up button to gain root and then install
Active Development:
QQQMedium into APK form. Although originally the SuperSU app from the Play
The Moto E is easy to developed to root some particularly store. Its easy, quick and doesnt
root and cheap to buy,
making it an ideal troublesome US models of the even require a reboot! Although the
Unlock and relock at will with no data loss
handset for any newbie app is free, an optional donate link
to try and hack without is included on the download page to bootloader, the device is wiped for
fear of bricking it.
support future development. security reasons, which can be
rather annoying. The second is that
Samsung
Gear Live
Rooted? Yes
Lock and although you can relock from
fastboot, for warranty purposes its
Active Development:
QQQMedium relock your not clear if this is seen as a revert to
factory state or a re-lock. An
Be aware: this smart-
watch doesnt prompt
for conrmation when Nexus application by the name of
BootUnlocker can solve both these
unlocking bootloader
wiping all your data. bootloader problems. In order to use it, you
need root access, gained by an

Nexus 5
Rooted? Yes
with Boot exploit such as TowelRoot.
With the app, you can unlock and
Active Development:
QQQ QHigh
While there is no sign
Unlocker
One of the best things about owning
lock the bootloader to your hearts
content. Aside from the warranty
aspect, a locked bootloader is a
of a new Nexus on the
horizon, the current
a Nexus device is that the good idea to prevent malicious
model has an bootloader can be unlocked and access to your device if it is stolen
ever-growing number relocked very easily. There are a by an Android savvy thief!
of mods to try out.
couple of downsides though. The BootUnlocker can be downloaded
One click and youre rooted with TowelRoot rst is that when you unlock the free from the Google Play store.

q hacks
Simulate
Knock Code
Securing your device is a
necessity to stop private data
falling into the wrong hands, but
the process is tedious. LGs Knock
Code enables you to unlock with a
simple onscreen knock pattern,
and now its possible to replicate
this on your non-LG device
1 InInstall Xposed
order to use Knock Code on
your non-LG device, you need to be
rooted and have the Xposed
framework installed. To install,
download the latest APK from mdc.
gd/getxposed, install and run. Click
Framework>Install/Update to copy
to your system partition.
Download module
2 The Xposed app includes the
ability to search for modules. Click
Download and search for Knock
Code. After selecting the module
from the list, scroll right and press
Download. The module will
automatically install you should
then activate it from the notication.
3 ACon gure and test
new Knock Code app will
appear in the launcher. Use the
Change knock code option to
set your knock code, then use
the standard Security option in
Settings to congure a pattern
lock. Turn your screen off then
back on to test it out.

70

Share your tips
Discovered a great hack or
tweak? Let us know!
Use Pie
controls
without root
Pie controls are a feature that
originally debuted in the Paranoid
Android ROM, providing an arc-
shaped control area activated by
sweeping up. Up until now, access
to Pie has only been possible either
by installing a custom ROM or with a
mod requiring root access. DBPie
brings Pie controls to all devices
with a non-root app. DBPie uses the
accessibility features built in to
Android to replicate the access
normally granted via root. As the Pie
controls are designed to replicate
the onscreen navigation buttons,
the app works best on devices with
capacitive buttons. The app, which
can be downloaded free from mdc.
gd/amdbpie, is being frequently
updated with new options. The
colour and size of the PIE controls
can already be customised. A
forthcoming release will add the
ability to modify the gravity of the
controls adding the option to
sweep from the sides or top rather.
Pie controls appear from the bottom
Hacking the easy way
L your
navigation bar
Free
From: http://mdc.
gd/xplnav
Need root? Yes
This Xposed module
gives you the nav bar
as seen in the preview
release of Android L. It
includes 19 icons with
support for all
resolutions of devices.
facebook email
/littlegreenrobot
Like us on Facebook to
join our online community
qa@littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Is there anything youd like to see us
cover in the mag? Drop us a line!
Try out a kernel with
IntelliPlug support
While not everyone wants to run a
full custom ROM on their device,
custom kernels are very popular.
One of the leading custom kernel
developers is @faux123, who
offers custom kernels for a
number of devices including the
HTC One X/M8 GPe, Moto G/X and
the Nexus 4/5. Faux123 recently
released a number of new
updates for these devices adding
support for IntelliPlug. IntelliPlug
is an open source replacement
for Qualcomms proprietary
mpdecision hotplug governor.
Auto disable/
enable
locking near
Bluetooth
devices
The Moto X is a great phone with
one of the best builds of Android out
there. What makes it so good?
Mainly its the fact that its a
near-stock Android build but with
little additions that really add to the
core experience. One such feature
is Trusted Bluetooth devices the
ability to disable/enable PIN lock on
the phone based on which
Bluetooth devices are near. This is a
feature that is also coming in the
Android L update. If youre not
running a Moto or the new OS, you
can still get this functionality on your
device courtesy of Tasker from the
Play store. A recent update added a
Get great new features without getting your hands (too) dirty
Add drawings
to Hangouts
Free
From: Play Store
Need root? Yes
Stickers and Draw for
Hangouts adds new
options to the paper
clip menu, which let
you insert predened
animated stickers into
a Hangouts
conversation.
Check our website daily
for even more tips & tricks
This is the part of the kernel that
decides which CPU cores to
enable/disable based on the load
on the system. IntelliPlug has
been shown to improve battery
life, performance and reduce the
running temperature of devices in
testing, so its denitely worth
trying if you have a supported
device! The forum for your device
on XDA-Developers.com is a good
place to look for an IntelliPlug
compatible kernel. Version 3.7 is
the latest released to be
integrated into Faux123s kernels.
A tness tracker is perfect for auto-locking
new state called Bluetooth Near,
which activates when a specic
device name or Mac is nearby.
Use this with the Secure Settings
Tasker plug-in to enable or disable
the lock as required. Both pairable
devices (such as headsets) and
Bluetooth Smart devices (such as
a Fitbit or a smartwatch) can be
congured with ease.
Heads Up!
notications
Free
From: mdc.gd/
xphud
Need root? No
Android L will launch
with a new feature
called Heads Up!. With
this enabled,
notications pop up
over whichever app
youre using.
www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
Jargon
Hacker Zne
Buster
Get up to speed on all the
terms you need to know
when hacking your phone
OS
Short for operating system. Often the
Android ROM will be referred to as the
OS this just means the system les
on the Android device that make up
your user experience, similar to
Windows, Mac OS X or Ubuntu on a
desktop computer.
ROM
Stands for read-only memory. In the
context of Android, the ROM refers to
the les that make up the operating
system installed on your device.
Gaining root privileges allows for
replacement of the standard ROM
with a custom one.
Root
Rooting your phone gives apps access
to parts of the OS that are normally
hidden from consumers. This enables
you to run more powerful software and
install custom ROMs on your phone.
ROM Manager
An app available from the Android
Market that enables you to install
a whole new version of your OS with
a single click. It requires a rooted
phone to use and is ideal for those
new on the scene.
Titanium Backup
This app from the Market enables you
to back up everything on your phone
apps, data, settings and all. It means
that you can restore your phone to how
it was, even after youve updated or
changed the ROM.
Unrevoked
Available from www.unrevoked.com,
this is a one-click tool that can be
used for rooting many popular
HTC smartphones.
ADB
Stands for Android Debug Bridge. ADB
is mainly used for software
development, but it also has some
uses for hacking your phone. It can be
used to push les onto the system
folder, for instance.
Nandroid
You might come across the phrase
perform a Nandroid backup. This
means using a custom recovery tool
to make a back-up image of everything
currently on your phone: OS, apps,
data, etc. Its very useful should you
wish to restore your phone to its
previous state later.
Radio
Radio refers to the software on your
Android device that deals with making
phone calls and data connections.
Updating your radio version can bring
better battery life and signal strength
to your device. Some ROMs require the
latest radio.
Flash
The storage in your device comprises
ash memory, a type of solid-state
storage. The terms ash or ashing
mean installing new software onto your
devices storage.
71
Apps
Sunrise Calendar
Your digital life in calendar form
While the Play store
isnt exactly short of
third-party calendar
apps, including some
very stylish creations, none of them
offer that much extra functionality
over the default Google Calendar.
Created by two former Foursquare
designers, Sunrise Calendar takes a
more radical approach, aiming to
change the way we think about a
mobile calendar app, while also
syncing with a web app available via
the Chrome Web Store.
The key selling point is the way
Sunrise integrates with so many
external services, pulling in all sor s
of data so that its all available for
The key selling point is the
way Sunrise integrates with
so many external
services
72
you within the one app. As well as
bringing in standard calendar events
from Google Calendar and iCloud, it
will show Facebook events and
birthdays, Foursquare check-ins,
Evernote reminders and TripIt travel
itineraries (including tickets and
reservations). It can even add local
concerts by bands tracked in
Songkick and reveal the latest
tweets of event attendees. More
business-related functions include
LinkedIn photos and info, tasks from
Producteev and Asana, plus GitHub
milestones for software developers.
The one glaring omission is Exchange
support (as featured in the iOS app),
although this is in the pipeline.
The default view lists
events below the calendar,
complete with relevant icons
After signing in/up via Facebook,
Google or email, you can link it to the
accounts you want, set notication
options and select which calendars
to make visible. The look is clean but
functional, with the default view
showing dates for two weeks
(expandable to four by swiping) at
the top and a scrollable list of events
An events location is shown on a map and
directions can be accessed via Google Maps
The agenda view displays three days at a
time with colour-coded event blocks
like this?
try this!
CAL-CALENDAR GOOGLE/EXCHANGE A stylish, photo-heavy
calendar that syncs Any.do tasks and offers Exchange support.
15min wonder
Want your money back?
Youve got 15 mins to decide!
! 5
15 10
0-5 minutes
A long list of third-party
services can be synced
5-10 minutes
! 5
Its all very clean and
15 10
easy to navigate
! 5 10-15 minutes
It integrates well with the
15 10
Sunrise web app
keep refund
below. Nice touches include basic
weather info for the next three days,
plus an arrow icon to return you
instantly to today. Its a shame that it
lacks the web apps search function.
Swiping left (or tapping the lines
icon) brings up the agenda view
showing three days at a time, with
timed events as colour-coded blocks
while all-day ones are pinned to the
top. Long-pressing here lets you
quickly add a new event. We
particularly like the way Sunrise
automatically adds a suitable icon for
the event type, such as a speech
bubble for a meeting or a knife and
fork for a meal. Photos of attendees
are also shown, if available, and it
gives you the option of emailing them
a notication or not. The event
location is displayed on a map that
can be expanded to ll the screen,
although directions must be viewed
externally in Google Maps. Thats a
rare exception, however, since most
things can be done from within
Sunrise itself.
We did encounter a few teething
problems, including it crashing
whenever we tried to sync with
iCloud. Theres no tablet-optimised
version, although one is promised.
Other than that, however, this is a
good-looking and highly functional
all-in-one calendar for keeping up
with all aspects of your digital life.
specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone
Requires Android: 4.0
verdict
Performance
Design
Value
A one-stop shop for all your
business and social events
SwiftKey Keyboard
The popular swipe-type keyboard gets even smarter
With Googles own
default keyboard
offering a swipe-typing
option, you might think
that SwiftKey would be redundant.
Youd be wrong. For starters, its Flow
swipe-typing system is a cut above,
even enabling you to input multi-
world phrases without lifting your
nger, so long as you slide down to
the space bar between words.
SwiftKey is particularly good at
predicting what youre trying to type
and auto-correcting mistakes
since it learns from your previous
input, including within text
messages, so it improves over time.
If you use the SwiftKey Cloud option
like this? try this!
Minuum keyboard
Ideal for space saving, it lets you
shrink the keyboard down to a single row.
to link it to your Google and social
accounts, such as Facebook and
Twitter, it learns even faster. Your
personalised predictions are also
backed up to the cloud.
Another major plus point is the
phenomenal language support,
offering next-word prediction in over
60 tongues. Unlike most multilingual
keyboards, you dont even need to
switch manually between them:
simply type away and it works out
which of the (up to three) enabled
languages you want. We found this
particularly handy when using the
language-learning app Duolingo.
As well as choosing from a number
of free, colourful keyboard themes,
with extra ones available via the
in-app store, theres great scope for
customising the keyboard layout,
size and positioning (you can undock
and split it). An extended layout
squeezes in cursor keys, which we
EDITORS
found very useful for editing text. For Swipe to type and CHOICE
itll even sense
those who need to enter a lot of which language you
numbers, a numeric row can be want to use
added to the top, while a number
pad is available in the symbols view and can also be placed in the middle
of the landscape thumb layout.
So everyone should be able to nd
a layout to suit. Theres also a voice
input key (using Google Voice) and a
selection of over 800 emoji it even
offers emoji prediction!
specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone and tablet
Requires Android: 2.2
verdict
The best keyboard around
adds new features and its
now free
Choose from a selection of free themes, or
buy more from the store

Copy Bubble A oating clipboard

for multiple items Ready Vibify
While Link Bubble (reviewed in Android 38) enables you to store
Contact List Get a buzz when you pick
up your phone
tapped weblinks in a oating onscreen bubble, Copy Bubble does the
Get ready for a stylish Vibify is similar to the
same for copied text and images. It uses the standard Android new dialler Smart Alert feature
system to do the actual copying long-press on an image or text, then highlight In public beta at the time of available on some
a section of the latter but a major advantage is the ability to store more than writing, Ready is a stylish Samsung smartphones, but offers
one copied item at a time, as indicated alternative to the default more options. As soon as you pick up
by the number on the pretty orange Phone app. From the favourites your on-standby phone, itll vibrate if
bubble that adorns your screen. screen (with a search option), you there are any pending notications
Another plus is easy access from any can swipe left for a full list of from the apps youve enabled it to
screen: tap the bubble to see all the contacts actually a carousel of work with. It does its job and will
things youve copied, with options to their photos, with letter shortcuts only work if the phone has been
copy (to enable pasting), share and below. A nice touch is that when the static for a certain number of
delete. Copied images appear as phone rings, the callers recent seconds, so it wont keep vibrating
weblinks in the list but may still be history (such as in your pocket
pasted as an actual image, depending on latest emails and while walking.
the app youre using. Copy Bubble is a meetings) is You can also set
simple but brilliant idea that we think shown. Post-call quiet hours and
should nd a place as part of the ofcial shortcuts are how many times
operating system going forward. also offered for you want it to
common tasks: tell you about
Price Free call, email, meet the same
Designed for Phone and tablet
Requires Android 4.0 and text. notication.
Tap the bubble to see all copied items, to Price Free Price 0.80/$1.36
re-copy (for pasting), share and delete Designed for Phone Designed for Phone
Requires Android 1.6 Requires Android Varies
like this?
try this!
LINK BUBBLE This free download uses a similar oating bubble
system to store webpages when you tap links.

73
Apps
EndlessTV:
Videos,
TV and
Parallels Access
News
An alternative way to watch
TV on your Android device
Choose from a large range of channels
arranged into themed categories
Apart from a couple of live
streams, the app delivers
video clips sorted into
channels, based on a TV station or
show. This enables you to build a list
of favourites by browsing categories
for Popular, News, Food & Home,
Celeb, Sports, Tech, Fashion, Arts,
Life, Comedy and EDU (education).
While US-centric, the line-up includes
BBC channels for news, food, Radio 1
and Top Gear.
The process of adding channels is
laborious because youre returned to
the main menu each time and have
to navigate back to whatever
category you were browsing. Theres
no search function to help either.
After tapping a channel logo to
watch it in full-screen mode, you can
swipe left to move onto the next
video. However, unlike the iOS
application, you cant swipe up to
change channels. It also lacks that
versions ability to download videos
for ofine viewing. Also, despite the
apps claim to eliminate lag and
latency, we encountered a number
of delays during playback.
On the plus side, there are no
video advertisements to annoy
viewers (just static ones when
playback is paused). A useful
Chromecast function is currently in
beta, which we look forward to
getting our hands on.
Price Free
Designed for Phone and tablet
Requires Android 3.0
Replay the geo-tagged sound snippets
from each day
74
Get remote access of your desktop computer
with Parallels new app, built specically for Android
Gaining remote access
to your computer
sounds great in theory,
but in the past weve found it a
frustrating experience trying to
click on tiny icons and controls.
Parallels Access offers a unique
The app launcher is cool and you can
easily switch windows via the bottom bar
like this?
try this!
SPLASHTOP 2 REMOTE DESKTOP Not quite as easy to navigate,
but it offers free access on a home network.
solution by adapting everything to
suit your Android device and its
smaller display. Theres even an
Android-style launcher screen with a
grid of desktop application icons you
can tap to launch. They are then run
in full-screen windows, which you
can easily switch between via a bar
at the bottom of the screen.
Navigation is also good. Simply tap
with one nger to left-click, or two
ngers to right-click. You can swipe
to scroll around, while pinch-to-zoom
also works in many applications. For
extra precision, you can long-press
to magnify the view in a circle.
Continuing to long-press enables you
to drag and drop les or resize
spreadsheet cells and pictures, for
instance. Double-tapping text brings
Long-press to bring up the magnier and
up the standard Android selection then drag and drop les
markers and copy/paste tools. The
onscreen keyboard appears onscreen buttons) and choice of
automatically, or by tapping its icon, display resolution.
while extra command keys (Shift, It all goes to make remote access
Ctrl, cursors etc) can be added to the more useful and far less frustrating,
bottom of the screen. although its a shame the Android
Other options include a desktop app lacks the iOS versions special
mode, mouse pointer (with le browser function for even easier
navigation. About the only other
drawback we found was slightly jerky
Owly Relive your day
through audio snippets
Were used to logging our removed after a week, unless
life in photo form, but what favourited. Sadly, we experienced a
about audio? Activated at a few teething problems with audio
certain (and customisable) sound recording; rather than record each
volume threshold, Owly automatically sound snippet above the volume
records ten-second soundbites threshold, it only seems to trigger
known as fragments to give you an every so often, when it feels like it.
audio overview of your day laughing So a manual record option would be
with friends, listening to music etc. A a plus. Still, Owly has the potential to
map shows where each geo-tagged be a fun app.
fragment was recorded, while a
strong social aspect gives you the Price Free
option to share them with friends so
Designed for Phone
Requires Android 2.3
they can be liked and commented
upon. Recordings are automatically
like this?
try this!
SAGA AUTOMATIC LIFELOGGING Saga logs your location
throughout the day, to which you can add photos, notes etc.

like this? try this!
Microsoft Remote Access
This ofcial download allows you to
connect your phone to your Windows PC.
specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone and tablet
Requires Android: 4.0.3
verdict
Performance
Design
Value
So good, its almost like
using a touchscreen
computer. Impressive
Parallels Access offers a unique
solution by adapting everything to
suit your Android device and its
smaller display
video playback. Setup is easy too.
Just download the desktop client for
your Mac (OS X 10.7 or later) or PC
(Windows 7 or later) and then sign
in on the Android application via
PhonoPaper
Print sounds on a piece of
paper in wave form
Now heres an intriguing
idea. Upon recording a
ten-second audio clip
(voice of music) via the microphone,
PhonoPaper transforms it into a
pattern of waves that you can print
out on a piece of paper. Using the
app, you can then scan this pattern
with the camera to hear the
recorded sound. In free mode, you
can scan by hand at whatever rate
you like. Results vary depending on
the camera, angle and print quality,
but since its encoded in analogue
form youll always hear at least a
silhouette of the sound an eery
EDITORS
CHOICE
Double-tap text to bring
up the standard Android
markers and copy/paste tools
15min wonder
Want your money back?
Youve got 15 mins to decide!
0-5 minutes
! 5
15 10
Its easy enough to set
everything up
! 5
15 10
5-10 minutes
Cool app launcher and
Facebook (or sign up). After a free full-screen windows
two-week trial, youll need to
! 5 10-15 minutes
subscribe for 13.99/$19.99 per 15 10
Lots of options to improve
year, but this gives access to up to ease of use
ve computers. keep refund
Scan the printed pattern to play the audio encoded within it
experience as you hear a ghostly take off in a big way, but its fun to
voice emanating from it. According to play around with.
its Russian developer, PhonoPaper
has the potential to be used like QR
Price Free
Designed for Phone
codes on billboards, for example Requires Android 2.3
but to reveal hidden audio clips.
Were not sure whether itll really
Check our website daily
for even more app reviews www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
quickhits
top apps for...
ROWING
LANTS
Gardens Free
This interactive magazine
offers a fair amount of free
content text, photo and
video guides plus more via
in-app purchases. Theres also a built-in
notebook for your jottings.
Gardenate 0.99/$1.99
A comprehensive companion,
it shows you when to plant
and harvest various
vegetables and herbs. You
can also record your own plantings, make
detailed notes and add photos.
iScape Lite Free
Snap a photo of your garden,
then add in new plants, trees,
paths, fountains etc. Its a
good tool for DIY landscapers,
once youve paid (5.97/$9.99) to unlock.
Garden Plants Growing
Guide Free
This simple guide provides
info on how to grow and care
for 48 popular owers, 15
herbs and 12 vegetables. The design is
pretty basic, but the content is helpful.
Garden Manager: Plant
Alarm Free
Never forget to water your
plants again! The app lets you
set alarms for watering and
other garden tasks. You can also take
pics and notes, and log plant heights.
75
Apps
Lumosity Popular brain-training
program hits Android
Can brain-training really increase intelligence? The scientic jury is
still out on that, but over 60 million people worldwide are using
Lumosity to give their grey matter a daily workout. And the service has
nally arrived on Android. To personalise their training program, new users are
Instagram
More control over your photos
asked to select multiple goals in ve categories: memory, attention, speed,
exibility and problem solving. This determines the games playable for each Its pretty easy to spot an Instagram photo due to the limited
day. Those users that dont subscribe range of lter effects available to users. So its difcult to make
(which costs 7.95/$9.95 per month) get your picture stand out from the crowd. Fortunately, the latest app
only three per day from a limited update adds some new options that should help with that. While the range
selection. Another drawback is that you of 20 lter effects is unchanged, you can now adjust their strength using a
cant change your goals later on, so its slider and opt whether to add a frame or not. Nine editing tools are also
best to choose lots. available to ne-tune your photo: straighten, brightness, contrast, warmth,
The games range from simple reaction saturation, highlights, shadows, vignette, tilt shift (to alter depth of eld)
test to more taxing affairs to challenge and sharpen. Most of these feature a slider control and you can apply as
your mental agility, such as comparing many of them as you like. The enhanced options bring the Instagram app
the values of maths equations. Sadly, into line with third-party image editors, so you shouldnt need the latter,
most of them arent as fun as we might although youre still restricted to square-cropped shots. As before, you can
like. Scores can be shared on social also shoot and upload videos.
media and are auto-synced with the
Lumosity website.
specification like this? try this!
Price Free Flickr
Designed for Phone and tablet Price Free Shoot and share your pictures on this
Requires Android 4.0 Designed for: Phone social network for serious photographers.
In this simple game, you just have to swipe Requires Android: Varies
the direction of the middle bird
verdict Compare original
like this?
try this!
ELEVATE BRAIN TRAINING Fewer but more interesting games,
based mainly around reading and writing skills.
Performance As previously, you can long-press on the
photo to see the original unedited
version, which is very useful for
Design comparison purposes
Value
Quip: Documents + Messaging The ability to ne-tune
effects is a very Adjust lter
While the range of 20 lters is
Redesigned for even easier collaboration welcome addition unchanged, you can adjust their
strength. Tap the current one again to
Quip is a cross-platform word processor featuring an innovative chat bring up a slider control
thread view for talking to collaborators on a document, plus shared
folders for projects. The Android app has just had a complete
overhaul with a redesigned UI and some new features. These include the ability like this?
try this!
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP EXPRESS A similar range of lters and
editing tools without the mandatory square cropping.
to share documents with colleagues who dont yet have Quip installed, via a
private weblink. A new tabbed UI makes
it easier to switch between inbox, chats
and documents which can now be
Get to know
imported from Dropbox, Google Drive
Use Instagrams new editing tools and effect strength
and Evernote while adding a powerful
sliders to ne-tune the look of your picture
full-text search feature. Documents can
also be pinned to your desktop for easy
access. While you can edit documents
and insert tables and images, text
formatting options are very limited to
ve themes, plus a few headers and lists
so its just as well that documents can
now be exported to Microsoft Word.

Price Free Filter strength Tools menu Upload and share

Designed for Phone and tablet After selecting a lter, tap Tapping the spanner icon Upon proceeding to the
Requires Android 4.0.3 on it again to bring up this brings up a menu of nine upload screen, you can add
slider control. It starts off at editing tools swipe left for details, tag people and
The chat screen looks more appealing 100, but you can slide it left more. Most of them feature share to other networks. You
than before and offers extra options to slowly reduce the a slider control to adjust the can also send the picture
strength of the lter. strength of the effect. direct to a friend.
like this?
try this!
EVERNOTE The standard free service offers syncing and sharing
of notes, but has very limited collaboration in comparison to Quip.

76
Upload it
When youve nished editing the
picture, tap the top-right arrow to upload
it. You can also share it to a range of
popular social networks
1Password
Secure password vault with cloud sync
Its essential not to use
the same password
across multiple sites,
but trying to remember
lots of complex passwords is
daunting. The solution is to use a
vault to store them, secured by a
single master password. 1Password
is one option, which can also
generate strong passwords. Already
available on Windows, Mac and iOS,
it now has an Android app. As well as
logins, you can store sensitive data Store all your log-ins in one place; tap the
for credit cards and bank accounts. URL to visit it in the in-app browser
Secured items can be favourited
and organised into folders; theres Still, theres Dropbox support for
even a search facility. Once a login is automatic cross-platform sync, so
added, just tap it to visit the relevant every device has every login, plus a
site via the in-app browser, then tap locally stored Folder Sync alternative.
the key icon and select a login. To log An adjustable Autolock also protects
in using an external browser, or app, your data even if your device is lost or
however, youll need to copy and stolen. Note that access to
paste the password not convenient 1Passwords full feature set requires
nor very secure. a one-off in-app purchase (price TBA
but it wont come cheap).

As well as specification
Price Free
logins, you can Designed for: Phone and tablet
Requires Android: 4.0
store sensitive verdict
data for credit Handy cloud sync and good
security, if you stay in-app
cards and bank
accounts

Editing tools
Tap the spanner icon to bring up a menu
of nine new tools with which to ne-tune
the look of your picture
Tap the key icon and then choose from
multiple logins for different accounts
Like this?
try this!
PASSWORDBOX FREE PASSWORD SAFE It comes with its own
keyboard to enable one-tap login for other apps.

77
Apps
Selphee
Share a photo
that turns into
a video
People share lots of
photos and videos, so
why not combine the
two? Thats the idea behind
Selphee. You take a sele (or any
other photo, using either camera),
then shoot a short video. When
your friends view the photo, theyll
be surprised when it suddenly
plays video. Theres also an option
to use an existing photo from the
gallery, but ours kept coming up
blank. Some basic photo editing
options let you add funky frames
and speech bubbles. Then the
video section allows you to record
multiple clips, Vine-style, by
holding the button repeatedly. You
can then share your creation via a
weblink on Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter, Whatsapp or SMS. It
sounds innocuous enough, but
Hold down the red button to record clips
78
Playmarkers
can these QR codes for direct
inks to the Google Play Store
Jazz up your sele, or other photo, with
some funky frames
theres a worrying privacy angle
since it turns out that the videos
are actually uploaded to the
selpheeuploads YouTube channel
for anyone to see. Lack of
censorship is also a problem,
judging by one video we found. Itd
be far better if there was a private
weblink for each video with no
public access.
like this? try this!
Vine
Record short videos to share
including via private Vine Message.
specification
Price Free
Designed for: Phone
Requires Android: 4.0
verdict
Performance
Design
Value
A fun idea that takes
liberties with your privacy
The Guardian
Read all about the
fully rebuilt news app
Having undergone a radical redesign, The Guardian newspaper app is
now a far slicker affair. For starters, the old single-column main menu
has been replaced by different-sized cards to suit each storys
importance and type. To save scrolling down to them, other sections can be
accessed from the pull-out left menu.
This also has icons for settings,
bookmarks, search and download to
enable you to read articles ofine. To get
the most out of the app, youll want to
sign in (with your Guardian account,
Facebook or Google). This then allows
you to personalise the main menu by
adding favourite sections, topics and
contributors as many as you like, rather
than the previous limit of eight. You can
even follow contributors to receive alerts
whenever they publish a new article.
Guardian Witness is now integrated into
the app too, enabling readers to share
EDITORS
CHOICE photos, videos and stories.
Price Free
Designed for Phone and tablet
Requires Android Varies
A new card-based layout is just one of
many improvements
like this?
try this!
FLIPBOARD This magazine-style app lets you customise your
news by choosing favourite topics.
Echo Lockscreen
Gesture-based, prioritised notications system
If youre anything like us, your phone receives countless
notications. If only there were a way of sorting out the wheat from
the chaff to avoid notication overload. Echo could be the answer: it
learns from your behaviour to identify the notications that are important to you
and then only wakes the screen to show
a priority message. It also groups them
into categories such as work, social and
media. Particularly useful is the
Mailbox-style gesture system used to
manage individual notications on the
lockscreen: tap one to open it, swipe left
to dismiss, or right to set a reminder for
a certain time or place. Swiping fully to
the right lets you manually categorise the
message. A slight downside is that Echo
currently lacks music controls, plus
actionable items such as quick reply in
Gmail, but it still has good potential.
Price Free
Designed for Phone
Requires Android Varies
Swipe to dismiss a notication, set a
reminder or categorise it
like this?
try this!
SLIDELOCK LOCKER A similar gesture system for managing
lockscreen notications, plus auto-wake option.
 quickhits
Reddit Cluster Snapkeys Cross DJ Mix
offline Share short videos and
Zones (BETA) your music
photos with friends Load SoundCloud tunes
Read the front page of Get into the zone for typing onto your turntables
This photo-sharing app
the internet ofine focuses on private groups, This replacement keyboard Already the best DJing app
The clue is in the name: called spaces, enabling you features a standard on Android, Cross DJ now
this solid little app enables to share your pics with selected Qwerty layout divided into has support for
you to download selected friends and family. To this end, it tells zones. The idea is that you simply tap SoundCloud. So as well as mixing
subreddits to read later when you you exactly who you are sharing your anywhere in the zone containing the locally stored tunes, you can search
have no internet connection. Its photos with, along with who has letter you want and itll predict what the cloud service for tracks, from
rather basic interface comprises a viewed the ones posted. The app youre trying to type a bit like unofcial remixes to friends songs.
scrolling list of posts, but they also enables you to share short old-school predictive text. And just Logging in isnt obligatory, but
contain all the usual content, videos and post large text notes to a like that, its very hit and miss with its enables you to access your sets and
including comments and images. group. The UI has been optimised for predictions and you often need to favourites. Elsewhere its just as
Tapping the tablets, with separate columns for select an good as before with an impressive
drop-down menu spaces and photos in landscape. alternative. Also, if range of mixing options.
at the top lets you you hit the wrong
switch between zone, theres
selected no way it can
subreddits, correct it. It also
while the top-right caused a display
icon lets you glitch on our Moto
add more. G handset.
Price Free Price Free Price Free Price 5.99/$9.99
Designed for Phone Designed for Phone and tablet Designed for Phone Designed for Phone and tablet
Requires Android 2.2 Requires Android 4.0 Requires Android 4.0.3 Requires Android 4.1

Audio Path Hike BallTune

Visualizer Live Divided opinion on redesign messenger Check your balls bounce
Sound-sensitive live In the same vein as Cluster,
is in good working order
Chat snoopers can
wallpapers for Android Path is a social network now take a hike Before practising your footy
with a focus on privacy: you skills, its best to inate
If youre tired of static or get to control who sees each and India-based instant your ball correctly.
even standard live every post (text, photo, location or messaging app Hike has Amazingly, the BallTune app can
wallpapers, this app will music clip) you make. However, the added a hidden mode. This accurately discern a balls pressure
provide something new. It offers a somewhat arbitrary 150 friend limit protects access to your private chats (within 1 PSI) by analysing how it
choice of four music visualizer has now thankfully been removed. with a pattern passcode. Ironically, it bounces. Just drop it from a height
wallpapers that react to external Another change is that, like took us a while to nd it, by tapping and lm with the camera. Its a bit hit
sounds to create pretty patterns. Its Facebook, Path has farmed out its the Hike logo at the top-left. The app and miss getting it to work, but the
a bit weird seeing your homescreen instant messaging aspect to a new is now also more lightweight, to app then shows the height of each
background react in this way and Path Talk app featuring Snapchat- suit low-end devices. Other bounce and tells you whether its
could soon get a style self- interesting over- or under-
bit tiring on the destructing features include inated, or tuned
eyes when trying messages which colourful sticker perfectly for
to navigate. Also, will annoy some art, chat themes power, accuracy or
it doesnt respond users. Back in the that change for control. Only size 5
to music played main Path app, we both users, plus balls are currently
on headphones were also unable the ability to send supported, but 3
so is useless for to take or import messages to and 4 are
that purpose. any photos. ofine friends. promised soon.
Price Free Price Free Price Free Price Free
Designed for Phone Designed for Phone Designed for Phone Designed for Phone
Requires Android 4.0 Requires Android Varies Requires Android 2.2 Requires Android 4.0

79
 head tohead
to head
Which one of these apps is best
for editing your videos?

ANDROVID
vs
PRO
While every phone shoots video as
standard, there are a surprising lack of
video-editing apps available on Android.
However, both VideoShow and AndroVid
are popular choices for making home
movies on the Google Play
specification store, but which specification
Price 1.69/$1.99 one comes out Price 1.78/$2.99
Designed for: Phone Designed for: Phone
Requires Android: 2.3
on top in our Requires Android: 2.2
testing?
AndroVid Pro Video Editor VideoShow Pro
Choose between cutting You can only edit the
chunks of video for easy beginning and ends of video
editing, or zoom in on your to adjust the overall length,
video timeline to cut frame by EDITING TOOLS but you can also merge
frame. Videos can also be videos together and even
split into separate les. mix in still images.

Add fades to videos or While retro lters arent for

convert it to grayscale if you
want to get really art house.
You can also add subtitles,
but the audio options are a
bit too basic.
everyone, the options to dub it
with your own voice-over or
SPECIAL EFFECTS add subtitles are very useful.
The option to trim music is
superior to AndroVid.

Though its UI is bare bones, A lot more effort has been

AndroVid remained highly put into the design of
functional and a help button VideoShow, both in terms of
was never far away. An optional INTERFACE the look and the feel, with
horizontal mode made it easy features and les easier to
to edit landscape videos. nd as a result.

As well as exporting them as As well as supporting YouTube,

different le types, your
mobile movies can be
uploaded to all the usual
social networks. Video frames
can also be set as wallpaper.
Facebook and Twitter,
VideoShow has its own social
SHARING OPTIONS network. Its basic, but you
can like and share other users
videos in your feed.

Using a series of drop-down VideoShow only has two

menus, its easy to not only export options: Keep Video
select the quality and Quality and Compressed
resolution, but also convert it EXPORT OPTIONS Quality. The former
to different video formats, supports 1080p, but takes
including MP4, MPG, VOB. ages to export.

And the Although it ultimately depends what you are looking for in a video-
winner is... editing app, AndroVid Pro proved itself the superior app. VideoShow
Pro had the upper hand in terms of adding lters and audio, but it
ANDROVID PRO couldnt compete with AndroVids broader range of editing tools.
80
 Games
Angry Birds Epic
Angry Birds has become
Can the Angry Birds clan
tackle the RPG genre?
one of the staple game
series available from the
Google Play store. What weve seen
previously is a tried and tested
format, but Rovios latest adventure,
Angry Birds Epic, is something new
altogether. In essence, the game is a
fairly standard action RPG, but with
all the familiar characters youve
come to expect. Oh, and dont worry,
the pigs are still your enemies.
The game takes you to Piggy
Island, where you control a bunch of
feathered heroes as you try and
explore the mysteries of the island.
Along the way youll encounter
different landscapes, and as youd
expect with any Rovio game, each
one is beautifully animated.
Occasionally youll run into
enemies that you need to do battle
with. Battles are fairly simplistic, but
each one of your characters has a
range of skills they can utilise and its Foes come in all different shapes and sizes
up to you to gure which combination Theres lots of humour that will make the process a little faster. For a
works well against the enemy. make you snigger and the fast pace rst attempt in the RPG genre, Angry
As you beat enemies and explore of the game means its a perfect Birds Epic is certainly a laugh-out-
further, your characters level up and pick-up-and-play title. An increasing loud affair. Despite the rather basic
youll earn new weapons and trend were nding in these types of upgrading options, its a great
upgrades to use. The choice of games is the amount of in-app addition to the Google Play store.
upgrades isnt vast compared to purchases on offer. Although you can
many of the countless RPGs on the happily progress through this title
Price Free
Designed for Phone and tablet
Play store, but its ideal for those new without them, the grind of levelling Requires Android 2.3.3
to the genre. Above all else, Angry up your character can feel like a
Birds Epic is just simply fun. Upgrade weapons the more you ght chore, so people may choose to

what weve Soar What many of you will notice about

been playing
Hitman GO
2.99/$4.99
Were slowly getting through
the vast Hitman GO and really
enjoying the strategic elements used
throughout. If you havent already, make
sure you download this!
Worms 3
2.99/$4.99
Although the premise of
Worms hasnt changed, the
gameplay still feels new and fresh in this
version. There are plenty of levels to
explore and crazy gadgets to use.
Recommend a game
Take ight with the Phoenix
Theres a ne line between
making a game addictive
and too simple, but Soar
thankfully nds the medium
between the two. The app takes
inspiration from Temple Run and so
many other endless runner game,
but instead puts you in control of the
legendary Phoenix.
Users need to control the Phoenix
through the air, avoiding contact with
the mountains and collecting the re
power-ups to keep momentum as
they go. It sounds simple enough,
but the game is surprisingly difcult
from the get go.
Soar before anything else is the
amazing abstract graphics. It helps
add to the overall style of the game,
but it may not be to everyones
tastes. Its so different that its likely
to divide opinion.
Soar has managed to nd a good
twist on the innite runner, which is
already a packed genre on the
Google Play store. It denitely isnt a
must download title, but the polygon
graphics alone are worth checking
out. We think youll be surprised
by what you nd.
Price Free
Designed for Phone and tablet
Requires Android 4.0
Enjoy Soars lush abstract graphics

twitter @lgrobot
Check our website for
even more game reviews www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk 81
Reviews
LG G3 The LG G3 is big and packed with features,
with an astonishingly good screen the highlight
from the premium ends new ag bearer
Design
T
he new LG G3 is quite simply the most feature-rich
handset to be launched in the UK. It has a stunning array LG has put a lot of thought into the design of this handset and Infrared
Infrared is
of features that put it right at the head of the pack in worked hard to keep it as pocket-friendly as possible. The becoming quite a
terms of technical capabilities, and for the most part, we are 5.5-inch screen is just a few millimetres away from the long popular addition to
very impressed indeed. edges and very close to the short edges too, so that the overall tablets and
handsets, and LG
couples it with an
app that lets you
remotely control
your range of
IR-supporting TVs
and other
equipment

Lightly
skinned
LG has skinned
Android 4.4, but
with a reasonably
light touch. There
are a few added
apps and these
are useful rather
than simply bloat

Stunning
screen
The quad HD
resolution screen is
super-sharp, bright
and clear. It is as
good for watching
movies as it is for
Multi- reading ebooks, and
tasking its 5.5 inches is
packed into a
help surprisingly slim
The ability to run chassis
two apps
side-by-side, and
to pop up some
mini apps on top
of what you are
doing will be very
useful to anyone
who likes
multitasking

82

size of the phone is relatively small. Yes, it is still
difcult to reach across for one-handed use, but as
handsets with large screens go the overall size is
impressively svelte.
The Android buttons take up screen space
rather than being on the chassis, so that there is a
loss of screen area for apps, but a gain in terms of
keeping the chassis size small.
The power and volume buttons are on the back
of the chassis. We rst saw this arrangement in
the LG G2, and here the buttons seem better
designed. There is a sight indent on the volume
buttons and a slight raise to the power button that
sits between them, and this helps you nd all
three by touch alone. It does take a bit of getting
used to, but it is a neat idea that means the sides
of the phone can be largely clear. You can set the
volume up and down buttons to launch LGs
QuickMemo and Camera apps respectively when
the screen is off.
The LG G3 is available in black, gold and white
shades. It has to be said that for a agship
handset wed have liked a more premium quality
feel to the design. The backplate has a brushed
metal look but is made from plastic, and when
compared to the superbly built HTC One (M8), the
LG G3 seems second class. But then so does every
other handset.
Screen
The ace in the pack for the LG G3 is its screen. The
size we have already noted. It is sharp, bright and
clear, and immediately shines out at you as
something quite special. In fact it is a quad HD
screen that packs in 2560 x 1440 pixels. That gives
it a massive 534 pixels per inch, putting every other
handset currently available in the UK in the shade.
s
The ace in the
pack for the LG G3 is
its screen. It is
sharp, bright and
clear, and
immediately shines
out as something
quite special
We often say that pixel count alone is not enough
to make us enthuse about a handsets screen. An
we hold to that here.
The screen is certainly a cut above the
average, but we arent convinced that all those
extra pixels make a huge difference to the clarity
and quality of what you can see when compared to,
say, the 1920 x 1080 pixels of the 5.1-inch
Samsung Galaxy S5 and ve-inch HTC One (M8). As
this pixel count becomes more widespread we may
see apps that really take advantage, though. Well
hold judgement for a while.
Other plus points for the screen include its ver
good viewing angles and brightness levels, both o Big and little
which add to its appeal. Yes, it is very good and The LG G3 is not an easy phone to use one-handed, but the
5.5-inch screen has been squeezed into a very tight chassis
whether you are watching a movie or reading an
so that it is relatively small to drop into a pocket
ebook, playing a game or writing email, the
screens high resolution and general quality is
denitely a plus point thats not to be ignored. This Performance and battery
is just about as good as it gets. The processor behind the LG G3 is a top-of-the-
range 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, which
is supported by 2GB of RAM in our 16GB version of

Performance tests
Our Vellamo tests show just how
much difference youll notice if youre
upgrading to the LG G3
The LG G3s AnTuTu benchmark fails to
top HTCs One (M8), despite it being
the rst next-gen handset available
Benchmark tests are a great way of
breaking down the components of
your smartphone
the handset. If you can get hold of a 32GB G3 then
theres 3GB of RAM in support. Despite these
superb specs, some users have reported a slight
lag using the LG G3, but this was not our
experience. In fact, our 16GB review handset
turned in top performances against our
benchmarks, delivering an AnTuTu score of 35226,
just a shade below the HTC One (M8), and showing
off a blistering 23407 in the Quadrant benchmark.
The other specications are as high-end as you
would expect with NFC and 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac all in
the mix. The USB On The Go facility means we were
able to read data, including music and video, from a
USB stick. And, of course, this is a 4G phone.
A handset like this is probably going to have to do
a lot more work than your average phone, delivering
catch up TV, music, GPS-based navigation and
more in an average days work. It is driven by a
power-hungry processor and a greedy screen. It is
an unfortunate trade off that it takes more power
to run the LG G3s superb screen than it would a
smaller, lower quality one.
So there is inevitable effect on battery life. And
the brighter you have the screen, the more power it

83
Reviews
will need too. It does go very, very bright indeed, so
take care with the manual screen settings. Overall,
the 3000mAh battery was an average rather than
a stunning performer, and we often needed to give
it a power boost in the late afternoon or early
evening to survive.
Software
The LG G3 runs on Android 4.4 making it bang up to
date. Youd expect that from a agship phone. LG
has always been keen on skinning Android and that
remains the case here. The net result of all the
software additions is that the 16GB of installed
memory is reduced to 10.4GB.
While LG adds an awful lot to Android it feels
quite light. The skin design is pleasant to look at
and nothing feels over the top. There are plenty of
detail tweaks to be found through the settings
area. You can, for example, as weve seen before
from LG, ddle with the Android hotkeys so that
they are in your preferred order. And there are
facilities to change the position of the dialpad and
keyboard to make them hug the left or right of the
screen for easier one-handed use.
Gesture controls are plentiful with recognised
staples like answering an incoming call by lifting
the phone to your ear and turning the LG G3 face
down to silence incoming calls being accompanied
by using that same face-down motion to pause
video or stop an alarm.
There are several multitasking features. You can
open a number of apps from a QSlide menu so that
they sit in a window on top of what you are doing.
The range of apps supported includes a calculator,
internet browser, phone dialer and more. You get to
the QSlide menu from the notications area.
You can also split the screen and view two apps
at once. Not all apps are compatible, but the range
includes plenty that are useful such as maps,
YouTube, email and web browser. Looking at two
apps at once is a bit of a squeeze on the 5.5-inch
screen, but it might be useful at times.
And, of course, LG adds a few apps to the
Android standards. It is nice to see an FM radio
here as a basic addition. QuickMemo+ is the
note-taking app of choice and you can either type
or draw with a nger to make notes. Theres a
Plastic case
For a premium an set reta ing
at the cost it does, the G3 could,
in our eyes, e ui t wit
somet ing nicer t an p astic.
HTC has the right idea here
84
LG G3
information
Price 492
More information
www.lg.com
Supplied by
www.clove.co.uk
Battery life
The battery will
falter if you have
the screen on
maximum
brightness so
guard against that
technical specs
Operating system...............Android 4.4
Processor...................................2.5GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 801
Memory.......................................16GB storage
Button placement Dimensions..............................146.3 x 74.6 x 8.9mm
Following the same design as the
G2, the G3 places its buttons on Weight ..........................................149g
the back and we like it Display size...............................5.5-inch
Display resolution...............2560 x 1440 pixels
separate task manager called, erm, Tasks, which Expansion slot.......................micro SD
lets you set due dates and issue reminders. A le
manager is useful for keeping track of all your bits
and pieces, and an app called Quick Remote lets LG G3
you use the built-in infrared as a remote control for
your TV and other equipment. It is easy to set up Samsung HTC One
Galaxy S5 (M8)
multiple rooms and multiple devices.
issue 01
issue 038 issue 037
Camera better than worse than
The LG G3s cameras are both very competent.
The back-facing 13-megapixel camera benets
from laser autofocus. A laser is used to measure
the distance between lens and object, to allow for
Performance
much faster focusing. This can help with taking
Some stuttering, and wed like the battery
to be amazing rather than just good
shots in gloomy locations. The dual LED ash also
helps in low-light situations. Optical image Design
stabilisation helps improve the clarity. Its a real achievement getting the stunning
LG has taken a less is more approach to screen into such a small chassis
working with both cameras, with the screen left
pretty much clear to act as an unobstructed Features
viewnder. The Dual mode is one of the few Lots of features, yet the feeling of bloat has
camera options available, allowing you to take a been avoided, which is a very clever trick
photo with front and back cameras simultaneously.
Value for money
You can resize the smaller of the two images If you want top of the range, then the LG G3
which by default is that from the front camera is a good example
and invert the smaller image to be that from the
back camera by tapping the screen.
Verdict Verdict
The LG G3 is a lovely phone. Yes, it is expensive, The screen is outstanding
but it does have a very strong mix of features that and overall this is a very
come toget er in a ti y package. The screen,
obviously, is a highlight, but the well thought out
attractive handset. It sets a
and small set of software additions, good high benchmark for premium
overlay to Android, impressive cameras handsets to aim at
and hassle-free performance are all
endearing too. If only the
chassis quality were better.
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Reviews EDITORS
CHOICE

OnePlus One
Can the sub-300 OnePlus One live up to the
W
hat do you do if youre a small Chinese
company spun out of Oppo and you want
companys Never Settle mantra, or is it pure hype? to make the world sit up and take note of
your new smartphone, but you dont have a
Screen magic massive Samsung-esque marketing budget to do
The 5.5-inch 1080p screen (providing 401 it with? Heres how. The rst step is to tell your
pixels per inch) is excellent. The colour of the
display has been calibrated and tuned by potential customers that youre going to make the
renowned community member (now best device in town. With its Never Settle motto,
Cyanogen employee) @SuperCurio, and it
shows. Brightness is ample and outdoor
OnePlus made it clear from the start that the
visibility is excellent device was going to be a monster. Next, simply
announce that youre going to sell it insanely
cheap, undercutting not only everybody elses
Button agships but a bunch of mid-range devices too.
placement And so goes the story of the OnePlus One, the
The OnePlus One has 269.99 (in 64GB specication no less!)
capacitive buttons below
the screen, albeit in the super-phone that does indeed pack the very
rather retro menu, home, latest technology in almost all areas of the
back layout. The good
device. So what do you get for your money?
news is that you can
disable these and they The processor is a 2.5GHz quad-core
disappear, allowing you to Snapdragon 801, which is the best CPU you will
use the onscreen buttons
nd right now. This is backed up by 3GB of RAM
and that 64GB ROM (each equalling the best
weve seen in any device). The screen is a
5.5-inch 1080p unit with Gorilla Glass 3 for

Sharp shooter
A twin LED ash sits
below the 13-MP camera
with a six-element lens.
The sensor itself is a
Sony Exmor unit and
pictures in both bright
and low light are
surprisingly good. The
phone can record 4K
video too

Connectivity
Five LTE bands are supported on the
OnePlus One, but band 20 (800MHz) is
not. Three plan to use this band in the Wireless connectivity
future in its 4G rollout, although
currently only band 3 (1800MHz) is
used, which is supported
for... Every form of wireless connectivity you could
want for is supported.

86
 Review
OnePlus One
Noise cancelling
Dual speakers can be found on the bottom of the device.

information
While the overall volume and quality cant match the
BoomSound speakers on HTC devices, the placement
means less compromise on size. Three microphones are
included for noise cancellation
Price 269.99 (64GB)
protection. Every networking technology you More information
http://oneplus.net
could wish for is included, with the possible
exception of AptX Bluetooth audio, which isnt
Supplied by
OnePlus
included due to the stock Android nature of the
software build. Battery life
The phone is unquestionably targeted at The OnePlus Ones
enthusiasts and with that in mind, the darling 3100mAh battery offers
ROM of Android fans everywhere is preloaded fantastic stamina,
easily lasting through
CyanogenMod. Right out of the box you get the the most strenuous of
enhanced CyanogenMod 11S, support for working days
switching to regular CM nightly builds and an
unlockable bootloader. An Android nerds dream!
technical specs
Of course, all the lovely bits inside wouldnt
Operating system...............Android 4.4.2
mean anything if the device looked and felt
Processor...................................2.5GHz Qualcomm
Snapdragon 801 processor
horrible, but thankfully that isnt the case. The Memory.......................................3GB RAM
design is simple it looks a lot like a scaled up Dimensions..............................152.9 x 75.9 x 8.9mm
Oppo Find 5 but it works, in the same way that Weight ..........................................162g
Nexus devices just work. The device has a plain Display size...............................5.5-inch
black front with a silver trim and is available with Display resolution...............1920 x 1080 pixels
either a soft-touch textured Sandstone Black Expansion slot.......................No
back or in Silk White, which is a more
conventional smooth white nish. Build quality is
absolutely top notch, with no ex or creak at all.
So the specications are right, the build and Minimal design
design are up to scratch, what is it like to use? The design is simple to the extreme, almost Nexus like, but OnePlue One
Impressive. The screen is bright and sharp with what design features there are on the device are well
executed. A silver recessed trim around the screen might go
exceptional colour tuning, the sound is loud and Samsung N/A
unnoticed at rst, but its a neat detail Galaxy
clear and the device positively speeds along, as Note 3
youd expect given the internals. The tweaks to received attention is the Camera app. Its been
issue 031
CyanogenMod for the One are minimal so the enhanced to really make the most of the Ones
build feels very stock Android. One area that has excellent 13-megapixel camera and the equally better than worse than
impressive ve-megapixel front-facing shooter.

With its Never OnePlus Never Settle mantra slips only on a

couple of occasions. The rst is the fact that Performance
The fastest CPU available with a huge
Settle motto, there is no micro SD onboard, which many
enthusiasts are fond of. In reality, with a amount of RAM. Blisteringly fast

OnePlus made whopping 64GB available, it is a non-issue. The

other is the lack of a QHD (2K) screen. The LG
it clear from the G3 has shown that at this point in time, QHD
screens arent a noticeable step up in quality
Design
The design of the One is inoffensive, but
it does have a certain utilitarian style

start that the and certainly not worth the hit in battery life or
device performance.
Features
If the One hasnt got it, you probably
device was oi So, you want one?
Sadly, OnePlus simply
dont need it! No micro SD expansion
Value for money
to be a monster dont seem to be
able to make enough
devices, and as such
The amount of technology you get for
the price is almost scandalous
chasing is currently

Hacking
This phone is a hackers dream and
community support will be excellent.
If you
possible with a
hard-to-nd invite.
Pro uction should
Verdict
however scale up in the
can get one, and handle
near future. We hope. its 5.5-inch size, the One is an
Quick charging Movie watching
absolute must buy. Epic
Supports Qualcomms QuickCharge 2, The large, perfectly calibrated screen makes
although a compatible charger is not included. watching movies on the phone a joy.

87
Reviews
HTC Desire 610
Producing compelling devices at the low to mid-range is
I
t feels like every time we talk about a HTC device
nowadays we say that its vital to the future of
vital to HTCs business. Does the Desire 610 deliver? the company. This is as much about the gaps in
its product lineup as it is the less-than-ideal
nancial state of the company. While agship and
halo products are the devices that grab all the
headlines, its the low to mid-range phones that
sell by the millions that can really contribute to a

Connectivity
Unrivalled LTE connectivity is included
(with support for all bands
sound used by UK networks),
BoomSound is one of HTCs together with Wi-Fi (2.4GHz
signature experiences and b/g/n only), Bluetooth 4.0
it is present on the Desire and NFC. Signal strength is
610. This means volume very good on the Desire
and clarity of sound is 610, no doubt helped by
unmatched by devices from the devices alluring
other manufacturers, with plastic construction
dual front speakers and
dedicated ampliers
sending sound towards you
rather than away

Its just not HD

The Desire 610 has a
4.7-inch screen like last
years HTC One, but the
resolution is qHD (960 x
540) rather than 1080p.
Thats quite a downgrade
and its very noticeable. The
bezels around the screen New design
arent exactly thin either language
The Desire 610 follows
HTCs new design
language for the Desire
series and as such looks
exactly like a reduced
size Desire 816. It has a
Processing matte front and
matte sides, but the
power extremely glossy back is
The quad-core Snapdragon very susceptible
400 processor can be to ngerprints
found in the majority of
low to mid-range devices at
the moment. The Desire
600 uses the 1.2GHz
version. This is exactly the
same CPU used in the HTC
One Mini 2

High-denition fun
for... Can record 1080p video, even though the qHD
screen cant display HD content at full res!

88
 Review
HTC Desire 610
companys bottom line, and for HTC, that means
the Desire range.
Here we have the Desire 610 that looks to tick
a lot of the boxes for todays potential
customers. Its reasonably priced (the 225
SIM-free price is not as important as where
information
Price 225
operators pitch the phone on their contract and More information
http://www.htc.com/uk
prepay plans), it wears the Desire brand that still
carries a certain amount of gravitas among
Supplied by
HTC
consumers, it has a 4.7-inch screen to appeal to
those looking for bigger screens and it includes Battery life
4G LTE connectivity. Many of these features it The Desire 610 sips the
shares with the Desire 816, its 5.5-inch big 2040mAh battery when
idle, but it can drain
brother, but although the phablet form factor quickly when worked
does well in a lot of markets, the 610 is hard. A full day is no
expected to be more popular in the UK. problem though
Choosing a processor for this type of device
seems particularly easy nowadays. Qualcomm
technical specs
Snapdragon 400 quad-core. Job done. Thankfully,
Operating system...............Android 4.4.2 with HTC Sense 6
thats a great choice its a very capable
Processor...................................1.2GHz QualcommSnapdragon
400 quad-core
processor, clearly cheap and very power efcient, Memory.......................................1GB
particularly when idle. Devices such as this one Dimensions..............................143.1 x 70.5 x 9.6mm
are all about compromising in the right places. Weight ..........................................143.5g
The Desire 610 has 1GB RAM and 8GB storage, Display size...............................4.7-inch
expandable via micro SD. Connectivity is good Display resolution...............960 x 540 pixels
even though 5GHz Wi-Fi is omitted, NFC support Expansion slot.......................micro SD
in particular is a pleasant surprise. The main
camera is a reasonably solid eight-megapixel unit
and the front-facing camera has 1.3 megapixels
HTC Desire 610
rather than the ve megapixels we are more
used to seeing on HTC devices now (including HTC Motorola
the Desire 816). Desire 500 Moto G
So far so good then, but there is one issue 031 issue 033

compromise that might be a step too far and Ever-important skin

that is the inclusion of a qHD screen. The The Desire 610 runs Android 4.4.2 with Sense 6. Despite it
being a relatively low-end device, the Sense experience is better than worse than
resolution itself is not uncommon, but the recreated faithfully, including the useful BlinkFeed
problem is that the screen feels sub-par at homescreen. HTCs take on Android genuinely improves on
the stock experience
4.7-inch. Text can appear a little fuzzy, particularly Performance
when compared to competitor devices such as The 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400
the Moto G, which has a 720p 4.5-inch screen.
In fairness to the Desire 610, the similarly priced Thats a great choice is a well proven processor by now
Design
LG G2 Mini also has a 4.7-inch qHD screen.
Where the G2 Mini excels and the Desire 610 its a very capable HTC needed a mid-tier design language
and thats what it got
suffers is in overall dimensions. While the LG has
very slim bezels and an impressively compact processor, clearly Features
overall size, the Desire 610 is the polar opposite.
Wide bezels at the sides of the screen and a cheap and very All of the most important features are
present, but the qHD screen isnt great
very tall design overall thanks to the BoomSound
speakers means the phone feels large in the power efcient Value for money
hand at 9.6mm its not particularly thin either. Reasonably priced, but it cant touch the
The smooth back and curved sides do make the one benet of a lower resolution screen is that Moto G LTE for pure value for money
phone comfortable to hold and use, though the processor doesnt have to work as hard,
one-handed use is a stretch. Literally. The phone
is available in a number of colours, subtle in navy
blue or vibrant in white.
which has benets both in overall performance
and battery life. The Desire 610 wont disappoint
on either front.
Verdict
The Desire 610 wont be a
The Desire 610 runs HTCs respected Sense 6 The Desire 610 certainly isnt a game changer
atop Android 4.4.2, with a design language that among its peers but at the same time, as with
blockbuster device for HTC,
isnt too far removed from what well see later almost all mid-tier devices nowadays, it is a very but its a step in the right
this year in Android L. Performance is very good easy phone to live with. direction. On a cheap contract
Sturdy design Music Storage expansion its definitely worth a look
The plastic construction of the Desire 610 BoomSound speakers and Bluetooth 4.0 AptX The Desire 610 has 8GB of storage, but this is
makes it surprisingly robust support make it a good choice for music expandable via micro SD up to 128GB

89
 Accessories
Essent
Take your audio experience to new levels with these brilliant products
Nine Audio Vega
Price 59.95/$TBC
More information www.nineaudio.co.uk
The stylish colours of the Vega headphones give
them a nice aesthetic look, but the lack of
padding on the headband can lead to some
discomfort. Each of the 40mm drivers provide a
good, if not spectacular, sound experience, with
bass being a particular highlight. The hands-free
mic is a bit hit and miss and doesnt seem to
work with every device, but for the price you pay,
its a compromise many could make.
90
EDITORS
CHOICE
Shure SE535
Price 389.00/$499.00
More information www.shure.co.uk
Shures SE535 earphones are expensive, but you
certainly get what you pay for. Sound quality
comes from dual woofers that deliver
tremendous levels of bass, without creating
distortion in other areas. The SE535s ship with
different earbuds depending on your tastes and
the cable feels sturdy enough to last. And they
offer users a full 360-degree rotation of each
earphone to get them to your exact specication.
io
GROUP
TEST WINNER
Bose Quiet
Comfort 15
Price 259.95/$299.95
More information www.bose.co.uk
One of the rst things youll notice about the QC
15s is just how light they are, and how their
ergonomic design means they can be folded up
with the attractive travel case they come with.
As far as noise cancelling goes, the QC 15s are
far and away the best headphones weve tested,
offering a truly immersive experience. Thanks to
the advanced signal processing used, music is
an absolute joy to listen to especially acoustics.

Sennheiser
MOMENTUM
Price 169.99/$199.95
More information en-uk.sennheiser.com
Sennheisers colourful MOMENTUM series
certainly have everything we could have hoped
for in the looks department. Some may nd the
ear cups a bit too small, especially if you really
want an immersive audio experience. Sound
quality is nicely balanced, with no static or
distortion, but a real attention to detail. Looking
past the ear cup sizing, then the MOMENTUMs
are a fantastic addition to the headphone scene.
The materials used
just ooze that
premium feel Worth
every penny
EDITORS
CHOICE
Sony XBA-H3
Price 249.00/$349.99
More information www.sony.co.uk
Sony does a good job with the sound quality on
all its headphones, but the premium XBA-H3
earphones go a step further. The three drivers
used here help keep sound nice and balanced
and no matter what your tastes in music are,
youre well catered for here. Thankfully the
XBA-H3s are comfortable to wear, and the
materials used just ooze that premium feel. The
XBA-H3s are worth every penny of that price tag.
Accessories
Jabra Revo
Wireless
Price 199.99/$287.37
More information www.jabra.co.uk
Wireless headphones tend to be a mixed bag,
but the Revo Wireless headphones work without
a hitch. Connecting via Bluetooth is easy, but
there are no playback controls. The design is
rather bland and the ear cups, although suitably
padded, will be too small for most. Similarly, the
headband is uncomfortable and the soft texture
of it helps the headphones slip around when out
and about. Sound quality is impressive, however.
91
 Accessories
Spaced360
Price 250/$TBA More information www.spaced360.com EDITORS
The peculiar shape of the Spaced360 may initially put some people off, CHOICE
but it actually does a good job at maximising its sound output. Sound
quality is really good and theres a nice balance no matter what music
youre playing. Connecting to the Spaced360 takes a matter of seconds
to connect wirelessly via Bluetooth or NFC. After every charge you can
expect to get a great amount of life out of it, and the unit even goes into
sleep mode when not in use. Its a touch on the heavy side, which can
impact on its portability, but its far and away one of the best Bluetooth
speakers weve had the pleasure of testing.

92
 Universal Accessories
Charging Station
Price 60.00/$102.99 More information www.mobilefun.co.uk
Enabling users to charge numerous devices at the same time is the
dening feature of the Universal Charging Station, and it works a treat.
There are a variety of connectors on offer for Android and iOS devices
and enough space on the rubberised pad for up to four devices to sit.
Underneath youll nd a port to connect the station to the mains, which
is needed to keep each charger working in sync. Ten-inch tablets seem
to be a little unsteady when charging, but this is just a tiny issue in what
is a very useful product for any tech lover to own.

93
 BUYERS GUIDE
Discover the best smartphones, tablets and accessories
to buy in our top ten charts

94
 Buyers Guide
TOP 10 SUPER SMARTPHONES THE BEST FLAGSHIP AND MID-RANGE
ANDROID PHONES ON THE MARKET

1
HTC ONE (M8) 549.99
A combination of a completely chrome unibody and a big, bright screen make HTCs agship phone
the best-looking on the market. A pair of BoomSound speakers for crysta-clear audio, an FM radio,
infrared TV remote and quick media-casting options, make the HTC agship a powerful, portable Issue 37
entertainment system. The BlinkFeed UI is also one of the best stock Android alternatives.

LG G3 492
2 Piping Samsung, HTC and Sony to the post to launch the rst next-gen device, the LG G3 has won us
over with its pin-sharp QHD screen, laser-focused 13-MP camera, and lightning-fast processor.
However, its plastic casing and benchmark scores arent enough to top the HTC One (M8). See issue 41
NEW ENTRY

Samsung Galaxy S5 466.80 GOING DOWN

3 A relatively modest update on the Galaxy S4, the S5 is nonetheless an impressive handset. Its range
of tness features and thumbprint scanner give it a unique selling point, while its specs, though high,
are no different from HTC or Sonys agships. A rubber back and metal edging add a premium nish. See issue 38

Sony Xperia Z2 439 GOING DOWN

4 At 146.8mm x 73.3mm, the Xperia Z2 is a gigantic slab of a phone, but when you consider all the
features it has including a 5.2-inch screen, 20.7-MP camera, dual speakers and long-life battery
you forgive its size. Lightning-fast processing is a major selling point, while waterproong is a plus. See issue 38

Google Nexus 5 From 299

5
GOING DOWN
As a Google product, the Nexus 5 is a long-term investment as it is guaranteed to have rst pick of
future updates to the Android OS. However, though it still performs well, in terms of specs in
particular the processor, camera and battery life its less competitive than it used to be. See issue 32

One PlusOne From 269.99

6 This Chinese device offers agship specs for a budget price. This includes a 2.5GHz quad-core
processor and 3GB RAM so that it can run multiple apps without lagging, a 13-MP camera, and a large
screen. The lack of an expandable memory and the CynogenMod 11S OS will put some off though. See issue 41
NEW ENTRY

Motorola Moto X From 299.99

7 A compact handset, the Moto X is a bit basic, but runs a near stock Android with lots of clever gesture
controls. With the Moto Maker now available in Germany, the prospect of this customisation program
rolling out across Europe has pushed the Motorola back up the charts. See issue 36 GOING UP

HTC One mini 2 From 379.99

8 A cut-price version of the M8, the HTC One mini 2 retains the gunmetal nish, BoomSound speakers
and BlinkFeed interface, but the camera features and motion sensors have been sacriced. Still this
remains an attractive prospect, even if the price is higher than the average mid-range phone. See issue 39
NEW ENTRY

LG G2 340
9
GOING DOWN
While this is a last-generation phone, the LG G2 remains a low-cost alternative to the new breed of
agships. The specs may be slipping behind, but when youre using it in your hand youll still be struck
by how well it performs. The range of camera features are also a plus. See issue 32

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 From 448.99

10
GOING DOWN
With a 5.7-inch screen, stylish stylus, and break-neck benchmarking, there is a lot to love about the
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (see our phablet round-up below), however with the Note 4 expected
imminently, you should be aware that you are now buying a last-generation device. See issue 31

In case you missed itThe best phablets Read more in issue 36

Acer Liquid S1 Huawei Ascend Mate Sony Xperia Z1 WINNER
Price 239 Price 294 Price 306 Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Website www.acer.co.uk Website www.uaweidevice.com Website www.sony.com Price 448.99
A good basic phablet, but lacks the The Ascend Mate crams a 6.1-inch Though not strictly a phablet, the Website www.samsung.com
power or the overall nesse to display into its boxy frame, making it Xperia Z1 is virtually the same size as The current Note comes with the
compete with the very one of the largest the Note 3 and isnt unique S Pen stylus
best. However, the two phablets going. In comfortable to use with with support for
SIM slots makes it terms of software, the one hand. Its specs are drawing and writing
perfect for business UI skin offers a major cutting-edge, with a directly onto the
users wanting to break from the 20-MP camera a 5.7-inch screen. The
balance SIMs. traditional look. highlight of ours. screen is stunning.

95
Buyers Guide
TOP 10 BUDGET BUYS IF YOURE SHOPPING FOR A SMARTPHONE ON A SHOE-STRING,
CHECK OUT THESE LOW-COST MOBILE MUST-HAVES

Moto G

1 From 120
The Moto Xs budget cousin set new standards for the low-cost phone when it launched last year and
continues to dominate. While it is made of a cheap plastic and has limited memory, the Moto G has NEW ENTRY
not compromised on screen quality, which is 4.5 inches of sturdy Gorilla Glass 3 and offers 1280 x
720 pixels, perfect for most users. Running near stock Android, Motorola has conrmed Moto Gs next See issue 33
upgrade will be Android L, ensuring future proong for some time.

EE Kestrel 100
2 Only available from the EE network, its own-brand Kestrel phone is offering 4G data speeds at a very
reasonable price. Produced by Huawei, the handset has a curved design, which gives it a unique air.
Good battery life ensures it can handle its quad-core engine and 4Gs inevitable drain. See issue 40
NEW ENTRY

Moto E 99
3 Available for under 100, SIM free, and no contract, the Moto E is the ultimate no-strings attached
smartphone. A sturdy, splashproof case, 1980mAh battery that will go the distance and micro SD to
expand the tiny 1GB memory, the Moto E is an impressive build that wont break the bank. See issue 40
NEW ENTRY

Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 174 GOING DOWN

4 While Samsungs high-end handsets get a lot of attention, the company has a much broader range.
The Galaxy Ace 3 is now on its third incarnation, and at 174 it sits neatly in the budget to mid-range
category. This is a 4G handset with a distinctive Samsung look and features. See issue 34

HTC Desire 300 174

5
GOING DOWN
Made in the same mould as the HTC One M8, this phone has a similar design but is made of cheaper
hardware, with plastic chassis and lacking the BoomSound speakers. It does boast the much-lauded
BlinkFeed to view all your social networks, but poor specs leave us questioning the price tag. See issue 36

Acer Liquid Z5 95
6 A good-looking phone with tapered edges, the Acer Liquid Z5 offers a stylish alternative to most black
brick handsets. Its innovative Float Apps interface also makes it easy to multi-task apps. However,
humdrum specs, like a low-res screen, leave it ranking low in the competitive world of budget phones. See issue 39
NEW ENTRY

Nokia X 89
7
GOING DOWN
The announcement of a slimmer, faster Nokia X2 coming later this year has driven the Nokia X down,
but this original Microsoft-Android hybrid still deserves attention. A best-selling handset in India and
Pakistan, it has great build quality with a tough polycarbonate chassis available in a range of colours. See issue 38

Alcatel One Touch Idol Mini 79.99

8 The understated style and low-end specs make the Alcatel One Touch Idol Mini a great option for
rst-time or light users. SwiftKey as the default keyboard is a welcome addition, however its hard to
justify the excessive bloatware on a phone that only has 4GB storage. See Issue 39
NEW ENTRY

Huawei Ascend Y300 69.95 GOING DOWN

9 While only offering a dual-core processor is going to damn this Huawei in the eyes of many potential
buyers, it shouldnt be dismissed quickly. The well-reviewed Ascend Y530 is only a slight spec upgrade
on the Y300, but is around double the price. Ideal for young or cash-strapped users. See issue 28

ZTE Blade V 89.99

10
GOING DOWN
The cheapest quad-core phone on the market, the ZTE Blade V has enough power to blast through
most tasks, including graphically demanding games. But beyond its bargain price there is little to get
excited about here, with questionable build quality, not enough RAM and a third-rate camera. See issue 32

In case you missed it... portable chargers Read more in issue 33

HoneyDru MobileLite Wireless TYLT Syncable WINNER
Price 14.99/$19.99 Price 55.19/$59.99 Price 25/$29.99 Maxell Air Voltage Qi
Website www.salomshop.com Website www.kingston.com Website www.tylt.com Charging Mat
This in-car charger has a full USB port Despite the primary use of the The eye-catching at build of the Price 49.99/$TBA
at the top of its head for easy MobileLite being a superb SD and TYLT Syncable stops any Website www.maxell.eu
connection to your smartphone or USB reader, it also has a great tangles and tears Wireless charging is still a fairly new
tablet. Despite the charging function. Its more from happening, with concept, but the
novelty lightweight than the thin rubberised Maxell Charging Mat
appearance, the many other coating being makes the process
build quality portable tough and easy. Ideal for
is fantastic. chargers. durable. keeping topped up.

96
 Buyers Guide
TOP 10 BEST TABLETS WHETHER YOURE LOOKING FOR A SEVEN-INCH OR TEN-INCH DISPLAY,
THESE ARE THE TOP TABLETS AVAILABLE ON ANDROID

Google Nexus 7 (2013)

1 From 199
Sleek minimalist design coupled with the latest Android OS (and promises that it will be rst in line for
upgrades), the Nexus 7 both looks and acts the part of a agship device but for half the price you NEW ENTRY
would expect. This slab might be getting on a bit, but it still handles like a dream and will be robust
enough to keep up with the next generation of devices for a few years yet. Though the Nexus 7 offers See issue 29
16-32GB of storage, some will be disappointed that it lacks a micro SD port.

Sony Xperia Z2 Tablet From 394.99

2 Arguably one of the most portable ten-inch tablets available, the Xperia Z2 Tablet is waterproof and
can support a SIM card for 4G use. It is also surprisingly thin and light to carry and includes
power-saving modes to ensure longer battery life. Reasonably high-spec, it has a whopping 3GB RAM. See issue 39
NEW ENTRY

Google Nexus 10 From 319 GOING DOWN

3 Though it has never had the impact the Nexus 7 had, the larger Nexus 10 still offers a high-standard
for 10-inch Android tablets. A super high-resolution screen and powerful processor ensure that it
regularly sells out on the Google Play store, even if it does lack a 3G/4G option or expandable storage. See issue 20

LG G Pad 8.3 199

4 A well-rounded tablet, the LG G Pad 8.3 offers solid specs with a selection of impressive built-in apps.
This includes Polaris Ofce so you can write documents on the go and QPair, which shares your
smartphone notications to your tablet, so you never miss important updates. See issue 40
NEW ENTRY

Samsung Galaxy TabPRO 8.4 Wi 369

5
GOING DOWN
The smallest tablet in Samsungs collection, the TabPRO 8.4 proves that good things do come in small
packages. A stunning 359ppi screen puts the Nexus 7 to shame, though wed prefer higher quality
speakers. However, an eight-MP camera and intuitive interface are good compensation. See issue 38

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014) 475

6
GOING DOWN
While TouchWiz and the fake plastic stitching on the sides are disappointing, the new Note 10.1 does
a good job of updating the original 2012 model. First and foremost is the addition of the popular S Pen
stylus, with superb handwriting recognition and specialist features for drawing. See issue 35

Samsung Galaxy Note PRO 12.2 650

7
GOING DOWN
This titanic Samsung tab offers a gigantic 12.2-inch HD screen. The size and weight make it less
portable and add a lot to the price, but drawing with the S Pen stylus feels very natural on the large
canvas, while a blistering processor makes light work of running apps on the screen simultaneously. See issue 37

Advent Vega Tegra Note 7 179.99

8
GOING DOWN
Better late than never, three years after the original Advent Vega wowed Android users, the low-price
tablet is back in seven-inch form. While it falls behind the class leaders, a silky smooth processor,
expandable storage, and two front-facing speakers make it great for gaming. See issue 33

Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 199.99

9
GOING DOWN
The ultimate media-consumption device. Buy movies, music and books through Amazon, then view
them on the Fire HDXs bright, colourful display. The Amazon fork OS isnt as customisable as stock
Android, but for those looking for a no-fuss UX that just works, the Kindle is a great choice. See issue 35

Lenovo Yoga Tablet 8 169.99 GOING DOWN

10 Available in both eight and ten-inch models, Lenovo offers an alternative to the rectangular
slab-shaped tablet with the Yoga Tablet. Built with a tube down one side for better grip and using as a
stand for viewing videos, this also houses a large battery that will last longer than most. See issue 35

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BEST TV
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From Gabriel Grabany
Used Samsung Galaxy S3
STICKS
We put the Chromecast,
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W through their paces

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From Martin Birbeck From Russ Lewis ZONE
Used Sony Xperia Z1 Used Samsung Galaxy S3 Get the latest hacking tips
and tricks with our tutorials

THE BEST
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Issue 42
goes on sale:
04 September
 Minx is a trademark of Cambridge Audio. Other product and company names mentioned within this advert are trademarks of their respective owners. These are only used for reference purposes and are subject to the terms of their registration.
Portable Bluetooth speaker

STREAM MUSIC FROM

YOUR SMARTPHONE,
TABLET OR PC

The Minx Go is the ideal go-anywhere speaker. Using the

latest Bluetooth technology its easy to stream music from your
smartphone, tablet or computer for an epic 18 hours from a single
charge. Dont let its size fool you, the Gos ve-speaker array will ll
a room with beautiful, deep, crisp high quality sound.

Buy online or exclusively from

For more information visit www.cambridgeaudio.com/minx-go

Follow us for the latest news, offers and giveaways

Your music + our passion

 WIRELESS.
WATERPROOF.
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WORLD-BEATING BRV-X & BRV-1 SPEAKERS
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EXPERTS SPEAK!
PC MAGAZINE
The BRAVEN BRV-X is a fantastic
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ANDROID MAGAZINE
The BRAVEN BRV-X is a speaker you
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GEEKANOIDS
Very highly recommended BRAVEN
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BRV-X
Rugged, waterproof design
BRV-1
Rugged, waterproof design
20W of music power W of music power
12+ hours battery life 2 hours battery life
5200mAh powerbank charges 400mAh powerbank charges
external devices via USB xternal devices via USB
TrueWireless Technology Built-in internal speakerphone
allows stereo pairing of a
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second BRV-X
Comes with lanyard
Switch between indoor and
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Built-in internal speakerphone
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