Android Fully Loaded

Book Description

Get all the amazing power your Android smartphone has to offer!

The Motorola Droid has quickly become the fastest-selling smartphone, giving the iPhone a run for its money. This little book is packed with big tips for getting more into, and out of, an Andropid OS phone than ever thought possible. You’ll learn to take full advantage of features such as  the high-resolution digital camera, GPS, e-mail, Web browsing, location-based mapping, Google Calendar and Google Docs, hundreds of readily available apps, and tricks such as scanning a barcode to get product reviews or translating foreign signs.

• Motorola Droid sales are booming, fueled by the Android OS’s amazing versatility and open access to apps
• This book shows how to put anything on an Android phone: old movies, TV shows, music, spreadsheets, presentations, Word documents, and much more
• Covers all the basic features such as Web browsing, using Facebook and Twitter, taking photos, playing music, and using e-mail
• Offers dozens of high-level tips and tricks for maximizing turn-by-turn navigation, using an Android as a broadband modem, scanning a barcode to access product reviews and comparing prices, syncing with Google services, and photographing objects for Google to identify

Android Fully Loaded enables you to take maximum advantage of your Android OS smartphone.

Check Out Tips and Tricks from the Author

App: Turn Your Phone into a Powerful Flashlight

I don’t know about you, but I am not the type who always carries a flashlight with me. Like everyone else, though, I have had plenty of times when I wished I carried one. Now, I do, thanks to my phone.

You may have seen apps before that attempt to make a phone into a flashlight by filling the screen with a blank white box, but that provides faint light at best. Many newer phones, however, include a powerful light: the flash on the camera. Because you can also take videos on the camera, you can turn the flash on and keep it on, providing a very bright light. You can of course do this without an app: open the camera app, switch it to video mode, and then select the option to turn on the light. That is kind of a pain, though. So instead, search the Market for one of the many apps that turn on the light by themselves.

One great app is DroidLight, although as its name implies, it may only work on Droid phones such as the DroidX and Droid 2. The app is fantastically simple to use: open it, and it automatically turns on the flash; tap the lightbulb to turn it back off. Note that few things on your phone will drain your battery faster than leaving that light on. So, you should only plan to use this in short intervals. Still, it provides a great alternative to carrying some bulky flashlight with you.

Addictive Game: Air Control Lite

Angry Birds is without question the most addictive game out there, but I recently came across another that is great for killing time waiting in line: Air Control Lite. As with more addictive games, the concept is simple. You are an air traffic controller at an airport. A variety of aircraft, including helicopters, small personal planes, cargo planes and jets, fly in and it is your job to land them all safely. Each type has a specific place to land, and they all travel at different speeds, so you have to keep them out of each other’s way.

What is great about the game is that it is simple to play: you use your finger to draw a path from the airplane to the runway. Air Control Lite is free; a commercial version adds additional maps, including an aircraft carrier.

App: Turn Your Phone into a Level

Bubble is one of those apps that makes it hard believe you are still using your phone. Thanks to the phone’s accelerometer, Bubble turns your phone into a level. Simply turn the app on and you will see a bubble level, exactly as you would see on a real physical level from the hardware store.

You can either place the phone on its side or lay it down flat. Pressing the menu button on the phone and selecting Settings allows you to turn on extra features such as showing the angle and enabling a beep to let you know when you are level.

Find Apps with StumbleUpon
You may already be familiar with StumbleUpon, the Web-based service that allows you to discover cool new things on the Web by randomly directing you to Web sites based on preferences you set. StumbleUpon is now available on your Android phone, allowing you to randomly find pages on your phone just as you would on your computer.

The app, however, goes one step further, by also providing a way to randomly find apps. It begins by looking at the apps you already have on your phone, and then based on what types you have installed, it will show you random apps from the market. So far, it has worked very well for me: it is actually how I found out about Air Control Lite, mentioned above. Best of all, just like the Web site, the app is free.

中文：

书名：安卓系统已满载

让您的Android智能手机拥有所有令人惊叹的功能吧！

摩托罗拉Droid迅速成为销售速度最快的智能手机，与iPhone展开了激烈的竞争。这本小书里有很多大技巧，教你如何比想象中更深入地接触和使用Android OS手机。你将学会充分利用高分辨率数码相机、GPS、电子邮件、网络浏览、基于位置的地图、谷歌日历和谷歌文档、数百个随时可用的应用程序，以及扫描条形码获取产品评论或翻译外国标志等技巧。

• 摩托罗拉Droid的销售正在蓬勃发展，这得益于Android操作系统令人惊叹的多功能性和开放的应用程序访问
• 这本书展示了如何将任何东西放到Android手机上：老电影、电视节目、音乐、电子表格、演示文稿、Word文档等等
• 涵盖所有基本功能，如Web浏览、使用Facebook和Twitter、拍照、播放音乐和使用电子邮件
• 提供了数十个高级提示和技巧，用于最大化逐个转弯导航、使用Android作为宽带调制解调器、扫描条形码以访问产品评论和比较价格、与谷歌服务同步以及拍摄供谷歌识别的对象

安卓系统已满载 使您能够最大限度地利用您的Android OS智能手机。

查看作者的提示和技巧

APP：把你的手机变成强大的手电筒

我不知道你怎么样，但我不是那种总是随身带着手电筒的人。然而，像其他人一样，我也有很多次希望自己能带上一台。现在，我知道了，多亏了我的手机。

在此之前，你可能见过一些应用程序，试图通过在屏幕上填满一个空白的白框来将手机变成手电筒，但这最多只能提供微弱的光线。然而，许多较新的手机都带有一种强大的灯光：摄像头上的闪光灯。因为你也可以在相机上拍摄视频，所以你可以打开闪光灯并保持它的亮，提供了非常明亮的光线。你当然可以在没有应用程序的情况下做到这一点：打开相机应用程序，将其切换到视频模式，然后选择打开灯的选项。不过，这是一种痛苦。因此，你可以在Market上搜索一款可以自动打开电灯的应用程序。

DroidLight是一款很棒的应用，尽管顾名思义，它可能只能在DroidX和Droid 2等Droid手机上运行。这款应用使用起来极其简单：打开它，它就会自动打开闪光灯；点击灯泡就可以把它关掉。请注意，手机上没有什么东西会比开着灯更快地耗尽你的电量。因此，您应该只计划在短时间间隔内使用此功能。尽管如此，它提供了一个很好的选择，而不是随身携带一些笨重的手电筒。

令人上瘾的游戏：空中管制精简版

毫无疑问，《愤怒的小鸟》是最让人上瘾的游戏，但我最近遇到了另一款打发排队等待时间的游戏：空中管制Lite。与更容易上瘾的游戏一样，这个概念很简单。你是机场的空中交通管制员。各种各样的飞机，包括直升机、小型私人飞机、货机和喷气式飞机，都会飞进来，你的工作就是让它们安全着陆。每种型号都有一个特定的着陆地点，而且它们的飞行速度都不同，所以你必须让它们远离彼此的道路。

这个游戏的伟大之处在于它很容易玩：你用手指画出一条从飞机到跑道的路径。空中管制精简版是免费的；商业版本增加了额外的地图，包括一艘航空母舰。

App: Turn Your Phone into a Level

泡泡是一款让你很难相信自己还在使用手机的应用程序。多亏了手机的加速计，泡泡把你的手机变成了一个水平仪。只需打开应用程序，您就会看到一个气泡级别，与您在硬件商店的真实物理级别上看到的完全相同。

您可以将手机侧放，也可以将其平放。按下手机上的Menu按键并选择设置，您可以打开额外的功能，如显示角度和启用嘟嘟声，让您知道何时处于水平状态。

查找带有StumbleUpon的应用程序
您可能已经熟悉了StumbleUpon，这是一种基于Web的服务，允许您根据设置的首选项随机引导您访问Web站点，从而在Web上发现很酷的新事物。StumbleUpon现在可以在你的Android手机上使用，允许你在手机上随机查找页面，就像你在电脑上一样。

然而，这款应用程序更进一步，还提供了一种随机寻找应用程序的方法。它首先查看你手机上已经安装的应用程序，然后根据你安装的类型，它会随机显示市场上的应用程序。到目前为止，它对我来说工作得很好：这实际上是我发现空气控制精简版的方式，如上所述。最棒的是，就像这个网站一样，这款应用也是免费的。