Filipinos were the trailblazers in maximizing the SMS or Short Message Service feature rolled out for public consumption around the year 2000. SMS technology had been conceptualized way back in 1984. Then on December 3, 1992, the first SMS was sent over Vodaphone UK, from a computer to an Orbitel 901 handset. But it was only in the year 2000 when Philippine mobile phone users figured out the communications potential of the technology. Ironically, it took a few years later for SMS to catch on in first-world countries like the US.
Today, SMS is being prophesied as a technology that may be on its way out, as social networking services like Twitter, Facebook and their ilk serve to connect people in more affordable ways.
Enter Viber. This app unites the Android and the iOS ecosystem and makes these two competing smartphone platforms hold hands. Not only is this one more reason to forget about the Symbian OS, but this is also one more reason why the statement that SMS is a doomed technology may very well come true.
Viber is like Skype for mobile. It lets you call, send messages and even photos, to your contacts. It is actually more of an Instant Messaging service rather than a true-blue SMS service, but since it's on mobile, and it uses a user's mobile number as the account username, it looks and feels 99% like an SMS service.
And since it also lets a user make calls, Viber then, could very well be a mobile service substitute.
However, Viber is an app that uses VoIP technology, thus, it needs a connection to 3G or WiFi in order for it to work.
The bad part: If you're not subscribed to a data plan or will be traveling to places that don't have WiFi, you won't be able to use the service.
The good part: Savings, if you're in a place where WiFi is readily available, or if you're subscribed to a data plan.
The great part: On the other hand, even mere iPod Touch owners can use the app. It's a great way to turn your iPod Touch into an iPhone without needing to spend for a contraption to convert it.
Texting and calling on Viber really feels more like being on Skype for Mobile, without the resource and bandwidth overload. Viber feels like a faster version of SMS, and like a twin brother of IM. It sends photos in an instant, surpassing MMS technology. It also lets you see as your contact types his messages, and keeps these in a threaded archive. Everything you want from IM and SMS, with very few limitations.
We discuss how to save on prepaid credits through Viber in a future post. Watch out for that!
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Personal Finance is at an all-time high in popularity in the western countries today. Especially in the US, people are getting concerned that their money should be made use of in the best way possible. A good number of Americans have gotten themselves into a deep ditch thanks to not being mindful of their finances, that's why the need for wisdom in personal finance management has become a need. In fact, the niche is such a hot topic nowadays that enterprising individuals and companies have created businesses around personal finance.
Even in the Philippine setting, money and budgeting are hot topics nowadays. People are feeling the economic crunch and are looking for ways to become more financially savvy. This is why a good number of smartphone users, Droid users included, are on the lookout for awesome budgeting apps they can use.
Most personal finance apps have concentrated on the iOS environment, however. Since software development is really US-centric for now, and since Americans are avid fans of Apple products, it seemed to make more sense to develop apps for the iOS. So if you're on the Android and have been trying your best to find Android budgeting and personal finance apps, we've made the search easier for you.
Moneywise for Android is one awesome find.
Moneywise has a rating of almost 5 stars on the Android Market; and with good reason.
The app is very useful in creating a budget and tracking how much you've spent. You can create different accounts, for whatever purpose: monthly budgets, travel expenses, petty cash/work expenditures, and even weekend getaways, pet expenses, or what-have-you. As sub-categories, you may create budgets under these accounts.
The main page the app will open to is the "Register," where you can enter your expenses piece by piece. There are pre-set categories which you can choose from, and you may even create tags to differentiate certain expenses so you can group them in fields you can set yourself.
The next tab is the List view, where you can find the entries you've created via the Register. These are arranged in order of the date you entered the items. From there, you can filter the items by tags, categories, expenses, income, or whether they've been cleared or are still in pending status.
Then there is the Graph view, where you can see a graphical representation of how you spend, the Budget view, where you can see your different budgets under your accounts, then the Balance view where you can see the balances of your different accounts.
The Graph view is useful if you want to understand exactly how you've been spending. This would help if you are out to change your personal spending habits. The Budget and Balance views display how much more of your budget is left, without needing for you to manually account for the expenses.
Even on the list view, the budgets are already automatically balanced; no need to manually calculate anything! Then if you wanted to know how much you spent on, say, groceries, eating out, etc., you can filter these by categories. Make sure you have tagged your entries with the appropriate categories or tags, even as you enter them via the Register view.
One great way to use tags is when you're out on a trip or a dinner date, and you're sharing expenses with friends. You can tag your entries with your name and your friends' names, that way, you can filter your expenses per person. You can then view the individual expenses and see how much each person owes. Nifty, huh?
All in all, it's easy to see why this app gained rave reviews and top ratings on the Android Market. It's absolutely useful and a must-have for budget-conscious Android users.
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Photo Credits: Moneywise Android Market Page
If you're looking for a good browser for your brand spanking new Android Phone, you'll find that you have quite a few choices. But let's narrow it down to the best we've used so far:
Opera Mini. Opera Mini must be the best mobile phone browser in the market. It's lightweight, compact, and simple to use. It's also very stable. One great feature of the Opera Mini is the Speed Dial, which you can set your most-visited websites on a grid of thumbnails which open every time you open a new, blank Tab. This way, all your favorite websites will be accessible with one single click.
Opera Link is also one feature that sets this browser apart. This feature is exclusive to Opera, and allows Opera users to synchronize their browser data across the devices they use. So if you're using an Opera browser on your Desktop, you can sync your bookmarks and Speed Dial from there to your Android, thanks to your Opera Link account. The setup is a matter of signing up (just like signing up for email) and then with a few clicks to sync, your Opera bookmarks are now merged across the devices you use. This is why it's awesome.
Dolphin Browser HD is highly recommended by the Android community because of its gesture-based shortcuts. You can set gestures to open certain websites or to perform certain actions like going to a subdomain or an inner page of a website. If you're the type who loves shortcuts, Dolphin Browser is something that you may adore.
We like Dolphin Browser because it tends to have better flash support and better video support than Opera Mini. While some websites may require Opera Mini to install Adobe's latest version over and over, Dolphin Browser just goes right on ahead and loads the website. For those who subscribe to video websites like Vimeo, Metacafe, Dailymotion or Revver, or if you watch video from CNN, ABC, Yahoo or even Beyonce's official website, this may be the answer to your mobile video-viewing needs.
Skyfire also comes highly recommended, especially by Tech Crunch. One great feature is how it has a dedicated pop-up section for Facebook and Twitter, which lets you post, share and tweet while you're in the middle of, say, reading through Huffington Post or New York Times.
Skyfire also lets you watch video from most sources, just like Dolphin Browser. However, the free version only gives you three days of free use for the video function. After that, you'd have to pay $2.99 to keep watching videos via Skyfire. There are other functions that are still free even after the first three days. You can Like and share pages directly from the Skyfire menu, without shifting to another tab for Facebook or Twitter. You don't even have to open the Facebook for Android app. There's also a nifty function, the Fireplace, which lets you view links from your Facebook and Twitter accounts all in one page. These innovations are the things that make Skyfire unique.
These are the top three browsers of the Android Market. In giving you their strengths and weaknesses, we hope to have helped you decide which to download and keep for your Android. Have fun!
Photo Credits: Electric Info
In an earlier post, we discussed how one of the first things an Android user must do is to root his or her unit, for full control of the system. However, we also note that not everyone is a power user. Most phone users are Blackberry, iPhone, even Nokia migrants who may be trying the Android for the first time. If you’re one of those who don’t want to risk bricking their phones, then here are some simple tips on how you could still make the most out of your Android phone, even without needing to “get under its hood.”
Install Advanced Task Manager by Infolife LLC. This is one of the many Application/Task Killer apps in the Marketplace. We prefer this one because of its intuitive interface and because you can install a widget on one of your homepages which can kill all active apps, including the Advanced Task Manager itself.
Modify your home screens. There are a number of ways to modify your home screens. You can use the native functions of your Android and organize your home screens natively (without the use of third-party applications), or you can use the app suggested by Lifehacker, LauncherPro. We find that the Android’s native organizing functions can suffice; all you really need to do is to be patient in dragging, dropping and adding widgets and shortcuts.
Add other browsers to your Android. Most of the time, the native browser isn’t mature enough to handle the needs of some road warriors. Also, Opera Mini on Android has multi-touch gestures similar to the iPhone, the UC Browser just works better with social media, and the Dolphin Browser comes highly recommended among the Android users.
Configure a secure lock gesture. Somewhere in your settings, you may be able to change the way you unlock your phone, depending on whether your phone’s manufacturer added that functionality to your Android. If you can (try Settings and look for Location And Security), change the standard way of unlocking the phone by sliding to open. Set a unique touch gesture that you can memorize so that only you and the people you teach the pattern to can unlock your phone. Adds a measure of security, and is fun to figure out as well.
Now that we've shared our post-unboxing tips and tricks for the Android, it's our turn to ask:
When you unboxed your Android, what things did you discover about it that you feel a newbie should make a point to apply to their machine?
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