The Secret to Word Processing on Android

Being able to word process through android would be an excellent tool for anyone who owns an Android phone and who wants to increase their productivity. Being able to write on the go and being able to create essays and articles while on the train etc. would mean that you could upload more articles more often as a blogger and it would be highly useful for businesses too. And because our Android phones are always in our pockets, that really does seem like the ideal thing to use to do this.

But the question is, is the hardware sufficient for quick typing? And is the software out there to support real word processing on a phone? Here we will look at whether you really can write on the go yet or whether you will still be tied to a heavy laptop.

Hardware
First of all to answer the question in the introduction; no, the standard hardware is NOT sufficient for writing on the move and unfortunately typing on a screen just isn't quick enough. You can of course opt to use a faster keyboard than the default Android one (I recommend Writers' Touch Type Keyboard) but even then you are going to struggle to pump out the kinds of WPM that you can on a keyboard. And you can stop looking so smug Blackberry users - as those piddly keyboards are hardly enough for real typing either.

No, if you seriously want to write on your phone or tablet then you will need to get an external keyboard such as a bluetooth keyboard. I have one just small enough to fit in my jeans pockets and that allows me to leave home without a laptop and still be ready to role. It has a mouse too which is cool.

Software
So now you just need some word processing software and you would presume there'd be a good app out there for that by now. The sad news is that there currently isn't. At the moment your choices boil down to either 'Documents to Go' or 'QuickOffice Pro'. Now both of these pieces of software are pretty slow and ugly, and the on screen keyboard keeps popping up and it struggles to keep up with my writing speed. At the same time they both lack crucial features - word count for QuickOffice and spell check for DtG. This means that you can end up flitting between the two. Furthermore, saving is slow and useless because you have to choose the directory every time and use fiddly touch controls. They're both pretty costly too. Not cool.

DosBox to the Rescue
But that's when I had a brain storm and used one of my favourite apps on the market - DosBox. This is an MS Dos emulator that I installed for retro gaming, but it is still capable of running old .exe files and this includes both MS Word 5.5 and Word Perfect 5.1. I downloaded the .exe from a forum for Word somewhere and installed it through DosBox and now I sit here writing on it quickly and with keyboard shortcuts as well as word count and spell check. Epic.

Author: Michael is a busy blogger and often completes his work while he is traveling. He hosts his blog with an Orlando data center so that he can scale up his blog to handle traffic spikes.Read our guidelines to be a Guest Author at TechGau.Org

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Avast Android App Download - Free Antivirus for Android Phones

Good news for Android Phone owners as Avast! has come out with a new version of its free Antivirus software, only this time it for Android Phones.The Avast Android App is capable of protecting your android phone from all types of viruses (automatic virus definitions update).The Avast Android App will be the only application you need to protect your Android Phones from virus and malware.The Avast Android App boasts of Privacy reports, Call/SMS filtering, an Application Manager, and several remote options etc, these are some features that some antivirus software which cost you money to use do not have.You can see the list of feature comparison of Avast Android App with other Antivirus software-

The Avast Android App is compatible on all Android Versions above 2.0

You can download the Avast Android App here - Free Antivirus for Android

Here are some other Apps you may be interested in -
Free Android WiFi Apps
Free Android Apps To Find Your Lost Phone

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The Best Android WiFi Apps

Technology is a wonderful thing, but it can be addictive. Once you learn your way around wireless networks, you may find yourself searching for them everywhere you go. Whether you work on the Internet or just love being able to access it for fun, there are certain Android apps that will make finding a wireless connection fast and easy.

Locate WiFi

Sometimes you want to know if WiFi is available at a café or park before you sit down and get comfortable. Choose your spot based on signal strength by using the WiFi Monitor app. It will tell you how far you are from a hotspot, and it even notifies you with vibration alert when you return to an effective Wi-Fi spot at a later time. Another great app for this is the WiFi Analyzer. The handy gauge makes it easy to determine where the strongest signal is. Once you know who offers the best signal, you can decide where you will stop for lunch or a cup of coffee.

Portable Wi-Fi

You won’t have to rely on restaurants for Wi-Fi when you have WeFi Pro. It provides you with a free automatic Wi-Fi connection wherever you go. Easy to use, it seamlessly connects to the Internet through your phone. Log on at the park, the local pool, or even from a parking lot while you’re waiting for the kids to finish their activities.

Controlling the Connections

If you are constantly on the move and need WiFi in several different places, then the WiFi Manager is the right choice for you. It makes it easy to find, connect, and manage the different WiFi networks in your area. It even comes with a cool WiFi radar that makes it easy to see the channel you’re using and the status of other nearby networks.

Instant Connections

Take advantage of the Internet connection on your phone to create amazing portability. Using your own Internet connection on the phone, you can create a WiFi hotspot for your other devices. Hook up the tablet, turn on the laptop and prepare to enjoy the full experience of surfing, even if you aren’t near a public hotspot.

Spare the Battery

The downside of letting your phone search for hotspots is that it can drain the battery. Once you have established your favorite locations, then you can use the Y5-Battery Saver to save your phone’s charge. It will stop the phone from searching for networks, allowing you to use that battery power for something more entertaining. You don’t have to worry about remembering the turn the app back on, either. It will automatically start when you return to known locations where you like to use the Internet.
Android has an incredible range of amazing apps, including several that make it easy to find and manage WiFi locations. Find hotspots, determine signal strengths, or use your phone as a tether for the Internet. You will enjoy less time searching for a connection and more time surfing the Internet.

Author: Douglas Kopp is a tech-savvy content contributor for www.wirelessinternet.org, a website that can help you get connected with wireless internet.Read our guidelines to be a Guest Author at TechGau.Org

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5 Free Apps To Find Your Lost Android Phone

Android phones are not only used for making calls and sending messages, android phones are used for many purposes. We all save our personal data, contacts, images, files etc in our phones. But what will you do if you lost your android phone, I know it can be a big problem for you to get your phone as well as your data back. We are now much dependent on our android phone that we get panicked just from thinking about loosing our android phone. So in this post I will tell you about some android apps which you should have in your android phone so that you can find your lost android phone.

5 Apps To Find Your Android Phone Are :

1. Android Lost

Android lost is an app for getting your lost android phone back. This app will remotely control your Android phone by internet or by SMS. This is the best android app to locate your lost android phone.

Features :

• You can remotely track your phone from their official website : www.androidlost.com
• You can't uninstall this app from your phone without using this app's official website.
• It has SMS speakup command feature which means your android phone will speak up loudly whatever messsage you leave on it's website.

You can download this app from here Android Lost

2. Lookout Security and Antivirus :

This app gives some more features like free antivirus, hackers protection and backup app. This is an award winning app for security and antivirus. 

Features :

• Antivrus, which protect your device from malware, spyware and trojans.
• It scans your each and every download.
• You can locate your lost phone on Google Map.
• You can activate an alarm even if your tablet or smart phone is on silent.

You can download this app from here Lookout Security

3. Wheres My Droid :

Wheres My Droid is the first app which was launched to locate your lost android smart phone. It is too easy to locate your android phone with the help of this app. 

Features :

• You can make your phone's ringer up make your phone ring even if it is in silent mode. 
• You can tarck your phone's location with the help of GPS.
• You will get a Notification whenever any new SIM will be inserted in your phone. 

You can download this app from here Wheres My Droid

4. Plan B

Plan B is an another app for tracking your lost your android phone. You will get your phone's location by a mail to your email account.

 Features :

• It require your account on android market place and Google.
• It also track your phone's location by the help of GPS.
• It will send you an email to your email account which tell you about your phone's location. 

You can download this app from here Plan B

5. Prey Anti-Theft

Prey anti-theft is also an popular app in android market to locate your lost android mobile phone. It is an app developed by Prey anti-theft fork Ltd.

Features :

• GPS+Wi-fi for geo location.
• Loud alarm sound.
• Messages alert to user.

You can download this app from here Google Play

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Instagram adds Tilt-Shift Feature To Android Application

Instagram has added a critical feature to its Android version application, called Tilt-Shift.This tool adds depth in field of view of the image as well as creates a realistic blur, that can be used to emphasize certain parts of the picture while the other parts are blurred.

Instagram has come out with the Instagram Android 1.1.0 update, which you can get directly from your phone through the Google Play Store.The update makes the Android version of Instagram that much similar to the iOS version of it, much to the delight of Android users across the world.

Here are the three things that have been added in the update-

• Added Tilt-Shift effect for supported devices – gives your photos depth of field and realistic blur
• Look for the droplet icon when editing your photo
• Filter screen fix for GT-S5830C devices

Instagram, shared the following in a Blog Post-

Tilt-shift within mobile photography applications is often the process of selective focus in order to simulate a miniature scene, also known as miniature faking.Selective focus can also be used to give the appearance of a shallow depth of field (DoF), or placing the focus on a subject in the background while blurring out the foreground and vice versa.

 Instagram was recently bought by Facebook for 1 Billion Dollars and has been one of the all time favorite apps, now with added features on Android, surely the popularity and user base is only going to improve.

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Android Fixed Apple - Funny Tech Photo

While surfing the net for something entertaining regarding Android Software, I found this funny and creative photo, where the Android seems to have fixed the missing bite of the Apple, there are literally hundreds of photos of this ilk but I cannot show them all here, this photo, I felt was the best of all the Android - Apple funny pictures.

Stay tuned for more such Fun Technology.Recommended Read - Top 10 funniest Pics.

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All Android Version Names: 1.5 to 5.0

Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile devices such as smartphones, multitasking phones and tablet computers such as the Galaxy Tab. It is developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google.Google bought over the initial developer Android Inc in 2005, to gain total control of the Android Franchise, today it is worth several hundred times what it was bought for.The Android franchise has a total of 9 versions, the names of which have been illustrated below -

Android 1.5 Cup Cake

Android 1.6 Donut

Android 2.0/2.1 Eclair

Android 2.2 Froyo

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 5.0 Jelly Beans

So that was the list of all the Android Versions up to date, March 2012.The list includes All Android Version from 1.5 to 5.0.

The Idea for this Article was given by Nikhil Kothari.
Nikhil is an Engineering student from BMS College of Engineering.If you would like to submit your ideas or guest posts, please feel free to Write For Us.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Unveiled - Review Features and Price

Samsung just unveiled the Galaxy Note 10.1, the latest of the Galaxy Tablets, powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating software.The main attraction of the Galaxy Note 10.1 seems to be the S Pen Capacitive Stylus for the touch screen.Most of the features were still kept in the dark at the MWC 2012.The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 will come with pre-installed Adobe Photoshop Touch, also a large amount of apps will be available from the Android Store.

As of now, we only know for sure that the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 will have the following features -

• 1.4GHz dual-core processor
• 3G (Feeble Compared to the 4G rumors of the iPad 3)
• HSPA+ Connectivity
• Adobe Photoshop Touch
• S Pen Capacitive Stylus

The other attractive feature that will be on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is the multi-screen interface where you can take down notes while watching pictures or videos etc, something we saw on the Galaxy Note Smart Phone.

Samsung did not specify the actual release dates or did they give any idea about the price range of this new Tablet.

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Box For Android Offers 50GB Free Storage Till March 23rd

Box, an online Android Web Storage Application similar to Dropbox, now supports Android 1.6 to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and is also available in these new languages - French, German, Spanish and Italian.

As with any new company, Box brings a very attractive introductory offer of free 50GB cloud sharing for those who register before March 23rd 2012.Surely a company must be very confident of its customer retention capacity if they are offering such a good initial offer.The standard free storage is only 5GB.

Box is no new comer to this field, having experience with Google Apps, NetSuite, and Salesforce integration and over 8 Million users across all their fields.So you can conclude that it is a trust-able enterprise.

Here is what Matt Self had to say about the new launch -

Android matters to us because we bring Box to whatever devices are showing up in the enterprise. We're not tied to any particular platform.

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Google Holo Promise - Same UI all for Android 4.0 devices

Google recently posted on its Android Developers Blog about the Google Holo Promise, where in they want all Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Devices to have the Holo Theme pre-installed on all such devices to ensure a similar User Interface for all 4.0 Devices as well as make it easier for Android Application Developers.

Imagine different people use different UI on their Android Phones, this makes it a lot more difficult for the Android Application Developers to get a standard look for their application across all phones.If a person uses a custom UI, the application make look very much different to what the developer originally intended it to.Also some Applications do not work with certain custom UI as some of you Android users would know already.

Google will now require manufacturers of Android 4.0 devices to include in their distribution,the original Holo theme files for Android. The decision is left to the application developers to determine whether they are used or not. You, as a user of Android 4.0 can have a say whether you want your application to use whatever UI items are the default on the phone.But please remember than This does not mean that a certain look will be required on an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich device, even for access to the core Google apps and Market.

Make sure you read all Android Articles.

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