New Year's Apps

Are you ready?

New Year's 2013 is almost upon us. Here at AOAM headquarters it's T-minus less than 7 hours and counting. You can feel the excitement mounting as we say goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013.

Seeing as your cell phone and/or tablets have probably or already have becom your constant companions, don't you think it's time for you to have them decked out to celebrate the new year.

What's that? You haven't installed an app to help you bring in the new year. Well, you are in luck. Here are three different apps to help you do just that.

This first one is a countdown widget that measures 2 x 3 in size. A basic countdown clock with a nice little graphic.

Xmas and New Years Countdown

The next one is a live wall paper with a bit of twist. It alternates from telling you how many hours, then how many minutes, then how many seconds, then hours and minutes that are left.

New Year Sky Live Wallpaper

This last one is also a live wallpaper. It shows night time city setting with fireworks and a countdown clock as the default.

2013 New Year Countdown LWP

We hope you enjoy this app. Please take the time to share via Google+, Twitter, and/or Facebook. The option to do so it at the top left of the blog. And, if you are a Google+ member, please take the time to add  Android OS, Apps, and More to your circles so you don't miss any future posts from of us.

And from all of us at AOAM. Happy New Year!

App of the day: Doodle Cat

Here is a little game you might enjoy.

You start with a cat. When you touch the cat it will purr and mew creating speech bubbles for each.

Combine the Mew and Purr speech bubble to make a ball of yarn. From their combine the cat and the yarn and the cat will play with the yarn. From there you keep combining things to create no items and actions for the cat.

Here is a short video of some of the stuff you can create.

And here is the Google Play store link to download the app.

Doodle Cat App


I hope you enjoy this app. Please take the time to share via Google+, Twitter, and/or Facebook. The option to do so it at the top left of the blog. And, if you are a Google+ member, please take the time to add  Android OS, Apps, and More to your circles so you don't miss any future posts from of us.

Thanks.

Google Voice Free for 2013

This one goes in the More column as The Google Voice software is available for more than just android devices. I run it on my PC and it acts as my land line.

Online search titan Google announced Wednesday 12-26-2012 that Google Voice would continue to be offered for free through 2013.

For those of you who are unaware of Google Voice here is a short explanation.

If you have a Gmail account you may or may not be aware that a small plugin known as Google Talk. This little gem lets you make free phone calls via your PC to any phone numbers in the US and Canada using your Gmail account. It was great for people who were at home and didn't want to use up their minutes from their cell phones. Simple input the phone number you wanted to call and click the call button. When the other person answers you can talk to your hearts content. Or until the hang up on you. ;)

There was one issue though. You could make calls but not receive them. And you did not know what the number you would be calling from so the person on the other side might just ignore the call because they did not recognize the number. I made a test call to myself off my firefox browser to see where the call was being placed from. The lovely city of Escondido, CA was the origin point. Not sure if this number changes or not. If it doesn't then you could simply text a friend too add that number to their contact list. But, if they miss the call you are out of luck. Any attempt to return the phone call is greeted with a message "we cannot complete your call. Please try again."

It's still a nifty thing to have if you need to make a call when you expect the person on the other end will be answering (business phone calls, etc.) and/or you expect to be on hold for an extended period. So it does have it's uses.

What would really make it great would for people to be able to return calls if they missed them.

That is where Google Voice comes in. With a Gmail account and the Google Voice app you are able to have  a permanent phone number for people to call you back if they miss your call. Simply download the app, which conveniently adds a little icon to you chrome browser, and you are set.

Well, the process is a little more involved. Sign in into you Gmail account via the Chrome Browser. It may work for other browsers as well. Your Gmail account must be running for you to receive calls and you must have both the Google Talk and Google Voice software as well.

You will need to set up the Google Voice software as well. A pretty simple process. You select your phone number, set up a forwarding number, (usually either a cell phone or land line) and you are off to the races.

To be brief I did not go into the process in detail. But, it is rather simple.

Open a Gmail account if you don't already have one. Then use Google Search to find both the Google Talk and the Google Voice software for more detailed instructions.

Calls to the United States and Canada are free (data usage charges for cell phones are not included). International calls do cost as well. And there are only a limited number of countries where this is available too if I am not mistaken.

If this applies to you then enjoy. :)


I hope you enjoyed this article. Please take the time to share via Google+, Twitter, and/or Facebook. The option to do so it at the top left of the blog. And, if you are a Google+ member, please take the time to add  Android OS, Apps, and More to your circles so you don't miss any future posts from of us.

Thanks.

Here is a little app you can download and then throw away tomorrow. Well, unless you are running for your lives from the molten lava rivers and meteors. If so, I don't imagine you will have time to stop. Wonder if this will affect my cell signal?

End of the World Countdown

Verizon Set to Give an Early Christmas Gift to it's Samsung Galaxy S3 Owners

On December 13th of 2012 Verison will start pushing out Jellybean 4.1 Android OS to it's Samsung Galaxy S3 customers.

That means the buttery goodness of Jellybean will be now in the hands of one of the premier phones on the market. This includes a better and faster interface, improved facial recognition, improved voice searching, and Google Now. Google Now is a Siri competitor in the Voice Assistant arena. As well there will be several other features that have either been improved or added with the new OS.

With the S3 being such strong seller, it might be possible that Jellybean 4.1 - 4.2.1 will become the 3rd most prevalent Android OS of all time. Right now it is closely trailing Froyo in 4th place. With the addition of S3 phones it may pass it up quickly. It is likely poised to at least overtake Froyo before the release of the next version of Android possibly code name Key Lime Pie.

With the improved OS being pushed out on Friday for the S3, Samsung sales for that model will also likely see a nice boost.


I hope you enjoyed this article. Please take the time to share via Google+, Twitter, and/or Facebook. The option to do so it at the top left of the blog. And, if you are a Google+ member, please take the time to add  Android OS, Apps, and More to your circles so you don't miss any future posts from of us.

Thanks.

Thought I would toss out a nice wallpaper I found the other day to put on my Nexus 7. Forgot where I got it from though.

Quiet day here at AOAM.

For Google+ Caturday I post link and QR code to a Cat Wallpaper. Thought I would share it here too.
Cat Wallpaper

Thursday December 6, 2012:

Gingerbread turns 2 years old today.

No. Not the not the cookies you left in the freezer two years ago expecting to one day eat but that got hidden behind the Deer Meat your cousin gave you that is hidden behind the Rainbow Trout your uncle bob gave you a few months ago.

It is the birthday of Android OS 2.3 today.

Though 2.3.3 to 2.3.7 became the most widely used Android versions ever, it was 2.3 - 2.3.2 that was the beginning of the things. Between 2.3 to 2.3.7 50.8% of all android devices run Gingerbread. More than any other Code Name to date. Almost twice as many as Ice Cream Sandwich and a whopping 7+ more times than Jelly Bean. In fact, Gingerbread is running on more phones and tablets than all other Android Versions to date.

Those are pretty darn impressive numbers when you think about the fact that 3 other versions have come out since it was first introduced.

So, Happy Birthday Gingerbread. We wish you well and wonder how many devices will still be using you come next December the 6th.


I hope you enjoyed this article. Please take the time to share via Google+, Twitter, and/or Facebook. The option to do so it at the top left of the blog. And, if you are a Google+ member, please take the time to add  Android OS, Apps, and More to your circles so you don't miss any future posts from of us.

Thanks.

Tuesday December 4, 2012:

Hi,

Today I will be doing a product review for the app Water Your Body. 

This app was specifically made to help you keep track of your fluid intake through out the day. You start by inputting your weight. From there it gives you the amount of fluids you should be drinking. Example: A 145 lb person should be drinking 73 ounces of fluids a day. Weight/fluid amount can be set metric instead of standard. 

Next you are given the option of setting a start time and end time for you to get notifications. Say you get up at 7 am and go to bed at 11 pm. You could set the schedule for notifications during those hours. I would suggest that you set the end time a few hours of so before bed time so you don't have to worry about waking up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom. I set my end time for 6 PM. 

There are also settings for the type of notification you wish to receive (visual and/or audio and/or vibration). The notification sound can be customized as well.

Pros:

1. Nice Graphic Interface: Gives you a variety of containers to choose from (water bottles, coffee cups,  pint glasses, and water glasses). You can also adjust the amount in each container to suit your needs.       

2. Keeps history of how much you are drink via a table and a graph.

Cons:

1. Though it is very good about giving you multiple notifications during the day to remember to hydrate, the final notification usually leaves you with 20+ ounces left to drink at that time. I would like it to give a notification 1 hour before the end time and again right at the ending time. It would make sure that you don't have to drink a whole lot of fluid right at the end and would make the program run a bit more balanced. 

2. The app is a big memory hog. If you have a phone or tablet with only 1 gig of ram and run multiple apps in the back ground, this app will likely be one of the biggest ones. The most memory I have seen it use is 61 megs. 

Google Play Store Average Rating : 4.5

AOAM Rating                               : 3.75

Over all this is a fairly decent program. It has a nice graphical interface that makes it enjoyable to use. Multiple ways that it can be customized to suit the users needs. It is also free of charge. Though, giving a donation to the creator of a buck is suggested if you expect to use this long term. Not wild about the ending time leaving you with still quite a bit of fluid left to drink nor the large memory foot print it has. 

I do however suggest you give it a whirl and see if it suits your needs. 

Unless otherwise noted all my reviews are for apps and equipment I am not affiliated with. This way you can get as unbiased a review as I can provide.

I hope you enjoyed this review. Please take the time to share via Google+, Twitter, and/or Facebook. The option to do so it at the top left of the blog. And, if you are a Google+ member, please take the time to add  Android OS, Apps, and More to your circles so you don't miss any future posts from of us. 

Thanks.