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Adding custom Fonts to your Android device

Adding custom Fonts to your Android device

When browsing online and checking out Android screenshots that people uploaded, you may often notice that their fonts are rather different. Some of them have cool curvy fonts, while others have futuristic and rigid ones. Some look cool while others look simply loony. Still, you wonder to yourself “how do they do this?” Well, worry no more because today, you will learn about adding some custom fonts to your Android device.

Custom OEM Skins
Some Android devices already have custom fonts preinstalled through the OS. One such example are Galaxy S smartphones. These smartphones usually have two or three custom fonts to choose from right from the start. These phones usually have custom OEM skins, since the stock Android experience doesn’t really offer such a font switching option by default.
For those that do have a built in font chooser, your task may...

Enrich your “Richer” Notification Shade with Widgets

Enrich your “Richer” Notification Shade with Widgets

Jelly Bean is now ranked as the number two most adopted Android version in the current market. While Gingerbread is still ranked first, many are convinced that these devices are mostly older devices or budget devices launched in more remote areas of the world. Hence, in the modern world where people root, customize and tinker with their Androids, Jelly Bean is king.

One of the most key features of Jelly Bean is the “Richer” Notification Shade. In case you don’t know what a “Notification Shade” is, it is what you pull down when you swipe down from the black or grey notification bar at the top of your display. The Notification shade lets you view your notifications in more detail, and with Jelly Bean, you can interact with that notification in more ways than just launching the app involved.
What you probably...

May 3, 2013 Apps No Comments

Things you can do when you have no expandable storage

It is becoming a very clear trend. More and more flagship devices are arriving with no micro SD support. It seems like it was just yesterday when Android users were laughing at iPhone users for having a fixed and non-expandable storage capacity. Now, both sides are in the same boat.

With more durable and slimmer design comes less space to add expandable storage. While companies like Samsung manages to keep their products slim but still hot-swap friendly, other OEMs like Sony and HTC opted to have none of the sort. Leading the charge is Google with their Nexus devices that are also famous for having a non-removable battery and a non-expandable storage space.
Why is it a big deal?
One word – multimedia. Multimedia content is slowly creeping up in size as well. As music, image, and video quality increases, so does the...

April 30, 2013 Tips n Tricks No Comments
The ins and outs of scary Android App Permissions

The ins and outs of scary Android App Permissions

As mentioned before in this blog, one of the key ways to avoid installing a malware application is to take a look at the permissions that it asks for. Most of us would often skip even reading a word of the permissions page before we download an app. That is entirely wrong and should be avoided if you want to be careful.

Of course, truth be told, Android permissions are not inherently bad. They are necessary for certain apps to be able to do their job properly. You see, this permission based installation is actually one of Android’s greatest protective features.
Why Android needs Permissions
Android is in essence, a Linux derivative. It is what most people refer to as a Linux Lite. It is based off the same code, as well as the same security premise. As such, Android is essentially just...

April 8, 2013 Apps 1 Comment
Dealing with Android Malware

Dealing with Android Malware

One of the greatest hurdles of the Android operating system is the battle against Android Malware. Just like the Windows operating system, Android is the most widely used operating system for mobile devices in the world. Thus, it is a prime target for malicious minds. While it may be a big negative factor to the OS, there are plenty of ways to deal with this issue without breaking away from your experience.

What is Malware?
Basically, malware is software that was meant to perform malicious behavior. This software can gather data about yourself, such as your credit card details, contact names, messages, passwords and any other personal information.
Malware can also elicit abnormal behavior, such as overheating, unwanted calls, and excessive data use. This can be detrimental to your life, which may include excessive bill charges as well as the destruction of the...

April 6, 2013 Apps No Comments

App Discovery Tips and Tricks

We remember the days back when discovering apps was a chore to begin with. The Android market back then was unintuitive and very unruly. Finding the best app is really difficult, and reviews were few and far in between. Everyone was simply testing the waters and trying to see which one works.

The Android Market quickly grew from just 50 usable apps to about 700,000 before it became the Play Store. Now, we are looking at around 800,000 apps and growing. The truth is, probably just about 20% or less of these apps are actually usable and worth people’s time. The rest of the apps are rubbish or simply not usable enough to hit mainstream acceptance. This is true even for the Apple App Store or the Windows App Store. Store App counts mean nothing in the face of the true...

April 3, 2013 Apps No Comments
How to quickly replace your Battery Icon

How to quickly replace your Battery Icon

Battery Icons are boring aren’t they? Most Android devices would have a default battery icon that shows a visual representation of what is your current battery level. For most people, that is not enough. They want to know exactly how much battery power you have left, not just some approximate battery level.

Android does have some built in measures to help you figure it out. You can go to the Android About page in your settings on older devices, while newer devices m ay come out with a dedicated battery setting which shows your current battery level and usage statistics.
Of course, that is a far cry from what people really want. Digging through your settings just to get the current battery level is not ideal. There are apps that try to solve this by either adding a battery widget on your...

March 27, 2013 Apps 1 Comment
Cool Play Store Search Techniques

Cool Play Store Search Techniques

Searching for apps in the Play Store is somewhat like trying to find a needle in a haystack. As more and more apps get submitted and approved, finding the thing you are looking for may need a ninja trick or two. Today, I’m going to show you a couple of search techniques that might help you in filtering out all the noise when searching for apps.

The Title Search
Sometimes, a lot of apps may have the same keyword or title that you are looking for. For the sake of the tutorial, let’s try making a search for Zombie Land, a theme after the movie of same title.
Let’s go to the Play Store and search using the string Zombie Land on the search bar. You will get a result list similar to this:

Notice that the app we are looking for doesn’t even...

March 22, 2013 Apps No Comments
Adding Custom Notification Sounds and Ringtones

Adding Custom Notification Sounds and Ringtones

One of the greatest advantages of Android is customization. Android is open in a sense that the code is open source but also in the sense that a lot of possibilities are open to you. Certain closed operating systems have very limited ways to modify settings, as well as the look and feel of the device.

Device notification tones are one of the key customization points in a smartphone. It is not new in any case with mobile phones since feature phones also allow you to add custom notifications to some extent.
On Android, you have the option to change the notification tone, ring tone and alarm tone to your own favorite or preferred tunes. In addition, you can use these tones to further customize in app notifications so that every app would sound different which helps you identify from a distance...

March 20, 2013 Tips n Tricks No Comments
Flashing Photosphere on a non Nexus Device

Flashing Photosphere on a non Nexus Device

Google’s Android operating system has come a long way. Their latest version, Jelly Bean is the most feature-packed version of Android yet. One of the most impressive features of Jelly Bean in 4.2.x is the new and improved camera and gallery.

In 4.2.x versions of Android, which is still only available to Nexus device at the moment, features the next step in taking panoramic photos. Rather than taking a flat panorama, your smartphone can now take a “Photosphere” or a single photo which is able to depict a 360 degree spherical view of your surroundings.
If you have ever used Google Map’s Street View function, then you should be familiar with the end product of a Photosphere. You can see the entire surrounding area from a single point in space. It used to take complicated machinery to make a photosphere, but now...

March 15, 2013 Apps 1 Comment
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