Guide #7: How to share Google Calendars with family or co-workers?

We all know life can be hectic at times. Keeping track of your family’s dentist appointments, movie nights, organizing dinners, parties, etc. can be tiresome, especially if you don’t have an efficient and easy way of keeping track of it all. If you aren’t already aware of this simple solution, allow me to introduce you to Google Calendar.

Google’s calendar web/mobile application is a free time-management tool, and may even be the best available on the market. Users are obviously required to have a Google account to get started, but something tells me that shouldn’t be an issue for any of you. The UI on Google Calendar for everyday use should be relatively self-explanatory, however there are some features on Google Calendar that are a bit unclear to most users, including how to share calendars with others (including family members) and create entirely new calendars for separate use. Please note that the following instructions refer to the desktop browser version of Google Calendar.

To get started with sharing a calendar with another user, find the “My calendars” feature on the bottom left side of your screen while in Google Calendar (seen above). Click on the down-arrow next to the calendar you wish to share and a menu should appear that looks like the one above. This menu gives you the option to “Share this Calendar.” Click on that option and you will be brought to a “sharing dashboard” where you can see all of your sharing settings for Google Calendar. Here, you can enter specific people’s email addresses to share your calendar with remove people from sharing lists, and even assign permissions allowing users to edit your own calendar if you wish. Another feature lets you make your calendar public for all to see. (We don’t recommend using this feature unless your calendar is meant to be seen by anyone on the internet that wants to.)

If you wish to request permission to view a friend’s calendar instead of waiting for them to share it with you, you can do this as well. Simply click on the down-arrow next to “Other calendars” on the bottom left-hand side of your screen, and click “Add a friend’s calendar.” From here, a screen like the one seen above should come up, allowing you to manually enter any user’s Gmail account so that you can request access into their Google Calendar. Pretty neat, right?

All of these different settings and options will show up right on your Android’s Google Calendar application as well. When you press on “month” view, you’ll be able to see an entire overview of everyone’s scheduled events for the entire month. Swiping up and down allows you to view into the future or into the past. However, you cannot change sharing settings on the application. The only option you have is to add other Google accounts that you own, which will in turn add those calendars to your overview.

Let’s say that for example, your job requires you to have a separate calendar, and you want to keep it separate from your personal calendar, but you want to manage it from the same Google account. Fortunately, you can do that with Google Calendar! Click on the down-arrow on “My calendars” once again and select “Create new calendar.” This should bring you to a new screen where you can set up your entirely new calendar, with options to name the calendar, add a description, set a location, time zone, and set up sharing settings. There’s definitely enough functionality included in Google Calendar so that it’s pretty much useful to everyone— especially since it’s absolutely free!

If you find that you are getting mixed up between who’s calendars are who’s, because multiple people are sharing calendars with you, you can simply change the colors of other users’ calendar posts. This way, you’ll be able to tell the difference right away. To do this, find a user’s calendar under “Other calendars,” hover your mouse over the calendar name, and a drop-down arrow should appear to the right of the name. Click on it, and from there you will be able to select any color from the default palette, or even set up a custom color.

There are obviously many other alternatives out there to Google Calendar, but from my experience, Google Calendar has offered me the best options, especially because it’s synced right up to my Google account. It’s just so convenient to get alerts straight to my phone and have everything connected and working seamlessly. If Google Calendar isn’t for you though, here are a few other options:

Alternatives to Google Calendar: 1Calendar, Zoho Calendar, Cozi, CalendarFly, Scheduly, and Tungle.

Happy scheduling, folks!

source: talkandroid.com

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Guide #6: How to get SwiftKey-like personalization on your stock Android keyboard?

What makes SwiftKey one of the best keyboards is the personalization features such as learning your writing style and history from reading other apps on your phone such as GMail, SMS, etc. If for whatever reason, you want to use another keyboard such as the stock Android keyboard, you can still enjoy SwiftKey-like  personalizations. The first thing you need to do is grab User Dictionary Plus from the Play Store. It will read many apps on your device to learn more about your typing habits and add words to your Android user dictionary. So far it will read Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp (paid version), Gmail, SMS, and a backup text file. Google Plus is coming soon. You can even backup your new dictionary to a text file to transfer to another device. Head on past the break for instructions.

Just install the app (links below) and open it. You will be brought to the main screen that gives you the following options:

Now it’s time to choose the apps you want User Dictionary Plus to read. If you choose SMS, if will then read all your messages:

After the “learning” is completed, you will have the chance to select the words you want to import to your user dictionary. If you want to import all of them, just hit the three dot menu and tap “select all”. 

You can now do the same for other apps, but you will have to enter your account information and grant User Dictionary Plus access.

You will also notice the first option to import from a backup. This can be any text file as long as it is called Dictionary.txt and located in the sdcard/ directory. You can also scroll all the way down and choose “Backup on file”, which will create a backup of your complete user dictionary. It will also be called “Dictionary.txt”.

User Dictionary Plus will work with the stock Android keyboard and some manufacturer and third party keyboards. Unfortunately you won’t find too many third party keyboards that support the Android user dictionary. As to manufacturer keyboards, it will work with HTC, but for some reason the words won’t show up in the user dictionary. Unfortunately, the Samsung stock keyboard doesn’t support the Android user dictionary. If you want to use another third party keyboard, you need to make sure it is compatible with the Android user dictionary.

You will find both paid and free versions of User Dictionary Plus in the Play Store. The free version limits how far back it will read your apps and doesn’t include WhatsApp. The paid version is $1.03, which is pretty cheap when you consider the functionality it will give you.

Play Store Download Link – Free

Play Store Download Link – Paid

source: talkandroid.com

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Guide #5: How to send SMS or MMS text messages from your PC or tablet using your Android phone number?

Our little Android devices can do almost as much as some PCs, but it’s easy to forget that your smartphone is still a phone at heart. And with all the instant messaging services available for you to communicate, sometimes text messaging gets put in the backseat to the more robust features of something like Google Talk. Being able to keep up a conversation across multiple devices is incredibly handy, and it’s often much easier to type on a full computer keyboard as opposed to a smaller smartphone keyboard.

Using instant messaging isn’t without it’s flaws, however. If you have friends that all use different IM services, or friends without smartphones, it can be difficult to keep up with all of them in different programs and browser tabs on your desktop, and in the case of messaging someone without a smartphone, you’ll have to use your phone to send traditional text messages anyway. With this guide, we’re going to get into a few different apps that add many of those instant messaging features to your SMS text messaging, including being able to send texts from different devices and syncing conversations across devices.

DeskSMS

DeskSMS is an application developed by Koush, who’s also responsible for a handful of other extremely useful Android applications, like Carbon, which we’ve discussed as one of the best ways to backup your phone data. The premise of DeskSMS is simple; you link your phone to your Google account, and sign into a website (or browser extension) with your Google account, and you immediately have access to your SMS logs and can freely send and receive texts, all from the comfort of your full-sized keyboard.

DeskSMS is great for a number of reasons. First, it’s simple to set up, and simple to use. Sending texts is just like opening up an app on your phone, typing away, then hitting enter to send the text. The devices don’t need to be connected to the same WiFi network or through Bluetooth. As long as they’re tied to the same Google account, you’re in business.

Second, DeskSMS offers many ways to send text messages. Want a browser extension for Chrome or Firefox? No problem. Would you rather use a website? You can do that. Maybe you want your texts to link into your Google Talk account or Gmail account? You can do that, too. Possibly the coolest feature of DeskSMS is text forwarding to Google Talk (or any third party IM application that supports Talk), so you can essentially turn a text conversation into an instant messaging conversation without the other person doing anything differently. Koush also offers a TabletSMS app, which syncs and pushes your text messages to any tablet with the app installed. Of course, you may not even need to do that if you’re using the Google Talk or Gmail forwarding, but we’re never going to complain about having more options.

DeskSMS itself is free, but the service costs $4.99 per year. Of course, for the convenience of being able to send text messages from any internet enabled device, it’s definitely an app worth passing up on coffee one day for.

Play Store Download Link

MightyText

SMS Text Messaging ↔PC Texting from MightyText is similar to DeskSMS. It’s an easy to use, free app that syncs SMS from your phone onto your computer or tablet. It works very similarly to DeskSMS by syncing through your Google account, but it does also offer a handful of extra features, like the ability to see your phone’s battery level and see who is calling you on your phone before answering. It also lets you securely back up your SMS and even MMS messages to MightyText’s servers, which is handy for extra data backup. MightyText also offers tablet texting via an extra app just like DeskSMS. Plus, there’s no monthly or yearly service charge to pay for here.

MightyText is extremely functional, but it is a bit more bloated than DeskSMS. If you’re looking for all the extra features, you’ll definitely want to give this app a shot. Below is the main app to download, and the companion tablet app. You’ll only need the tablet app if you want to text message from your tablet.

Play Store Download Link

Play Store Download Link (Tablet App)

Tablet Talk

If you’re not much on communicating on your computer, and it’s more about the tablet for you, then Tablet Talk might be the way to go. It’s more lightweight than either of the first two options and doesn’t need to latch onto your Google account to make things work.

Essentially, Tablet Talk tethers your tablet and your phone together, either through a WiFi network or Bluetooth. Once connected, Tablet Talk becomes a fully functional SMS application for your tablet and automatically syncs up with your phone messages. It also adds in the ability to make phone calls through your tablet, which neither of the other options can do. While holding a tablet up to your face isn’t practical, if you use a Bluetooth headset and would prefer to do everything through your tablet, this is a great option.

Tablet Talk is very functional, and there’s only one app you need to install. It automatically detects if it’s installed on a phone or tablet and sets up accordingly. And if you’re into extreme customization, there’s plenty of themes for Tablet Talk in the Play Store.

Play Store Download Link

Verizon Messages

If you’re a Verizon customer, you have access to a solution for cross-device text messaging through your Verizon phone number. Their Verizon Messages application is a simple way to enable that functionality; install the app and link up your Verizon phone number and you’re good to go. You can use the app on your PC or tablet and see up to 90 days of saved messages, and freely send and receive SMS.

The Verizon app also has a few other unique features, like the ability to set up an auto-reply, report spam messages, full group messaging support, and even a widget with a badge counter for unread messages. It’s definitely a robust app, and if you’re already a Verizon customer, this one is definitely worth checking out.

Play Store Download Link

These are three extremely simple-to-use apps to enable text messaging across multiple devices to help SMS keep up with instant messaging. A few OEMs do offer this functionality through other services on their products, (Samsung’s KIES software comes to mind) but in many cases, it’s easier to pick your own software for compatibility and flexibility. Are there any apps you use that didn’t make the list?

source: talkandroid.com

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Guide #4: How to backup apps and app data Android phone or tablet?

We’ve all been in a situation before where we needed to either factory reset our phone, send it in for a warranty replacement, etc. Not a big deal by itself, but you’ve got 3 stars on 80% of Angry Birds levels, and who would want to lose that accomplishment? You want to be able to keep that data forever. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to do, and this guide will help you get started. You’ll even be able to start transferring some app data to new phones when you upgrade.

Carbon – No Root Method

Carbon is an application by popular developer, Koushik Dutta, who has also developed ClockworkMod Recovery, ROM Manager, and a recent Superuser application. Needless to say, he’s made some extremely useful applications that are very widely used. Carbon is no exception, and it allows any device running Android 4.0 or higher to back up their applications and data without root. All you’ll need is your device, a computer, and your USB cable. (It’s worth noting that according to its Play Store page, Motorola devices are not supported due to a bug on Motorola’s part.)

First off, you’re going to need the free companion desktop application to use the backup features (for non rooted users only).  There are versions for Windows, OS X, and a Linux shell script, so regardless of what kind of computer you’re using, you’ll be able to take advantage of Carbon. If you’re using Windows, you’re also going to need specific drivers for your phone. There’s a link on the download page (above) with a list of drivers for easy access and installation, and just about every major OEM is covered. OS X and Linux users don’t have to worry about the driver issues.

Once you have that all set up and running, start the Carbon desktop app, connect your device via USB to your computer, and start Carbon on your phone or tablet. Wait just a few seconds, and Carbon will be fully enabled so you can start backing up your apps. You can now disconnect your phone/tablet from your desktop and utilize the app itself. You won’t have to reconnect your phone/tablet again, but if you reboot your device you will have to connect it again to re-enable the app. It’s an inconvenience, but a minor one when you consider this is the only option for backing up app data for non rooted devices.

There’s a few cool features and tricks you’ll probably want to take advantage of while using Carbon, though, so poke around and look at some settings before you back up your massive stockpile of apps. Let’s say you really only want to back up your Angry Birds data, but you don’t mind re-downloading the app from the Play Store first. If you swipe up the bottom tab in Carbon, you’ll see a check box that gives you the option of backing up only the app data, and it does exactly that; your bigger apk will not be saved, but the data that goes along with it will be saved. You’ll have to download the app from the Play Store before you can restore that data, but if you want to save some storage space on your phone or SD card and don’t mind the extra step, that can be a pretty helpful option. There are also quick options to select and deselect all available apps in this window.

If you don’t mind going for the paid version of Carbon ($4.99), you’ll get a really cool feature; the ability to back up your data to cloud storage. Carbon supports Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive, and it can seamlessly get your data on your favorite cloud service. That’s extremely helpful if you’re switching over to a new phone without an SD card, or just to make a backup in case you were to ever lose your phone.

So let’s fast forward a bit and say you’ve got your warranty exchange, you’ve finished your factory reset, or you just brought your shiny new phone home after upgrading. Restoring those applications is quick and easy, and all you’ll have to do is download Carbon from the Play Store. After downloading, run Carbon, connect it to your computer again, and you’ll be able to restore all of your apps and data. That precious Angry Birds is still completely intact. You’ll never have to worry about losing data again.

You can also use Carbon as a rooted user  and you don’t need to bother with the desktop companion software. Everything else works the same, but I prefer the next option, Titanium Backup because it’s more feature rich, but Carbon is still a great app.

Play Store Download Link

Play Store Download Link (Premium)

Titanium Backup – Root Method

Carbon is useful, and if you can’t or don’t want to root your device, its backup capabilities are fantastic. If you are rooted, however, it’s hard to beat Titanium Backup’s extremely rich feature set. It essentially works the same as Carbon but with a bit more flexibility and automation. It also works on any device that can be rooted, regardless of manufacturer or OS version.

First off, with Titanium Backup, you must be rooted. There’s no way around it. If you need some help on that, we do have a guide to rooting to get you started and answer most of your questions. If you’re already rooted, just download and install the app and start it. It will prompt you for root permissions, which you will want to grant, of course, and you’re ready to start backing things up.

Titanium Backup has three tabs you’ll be looking at; an overview page, a backup/restore page, and a schedules page. For this guide, we want that middle tab to start backing up applications. You’ll see a long list of every single application that’s installed on your phone, including system applications and data. This is the biggest difference from Carbon, and it’s extremely important to remember. Backing up and restoring system applications and data can cause serious problems. As a general rule of thumb, it’s much safer to manually sign back into accounts and adjust settings instead of restoring a backup for those settings. In some cases, restoring system data will be fine, but more often than not it will cause problems. Restoring system data from one device to another will definitely cause problems.

Now that we’ve got that friendly disclaimer out of the way, tap the “Click to edit filters” button above your app list. For safety, we want to uncheck the boxes under “Filter by type” except for the User option. Only the User box should be checked, and the System and Uninstalled box should be blank. Tap your green checkmark at the top right of the screen to go back to your app list that’s been completely filtered to only user apps and no system apps. Here you can manually select which apps to backup and restore, so if you really only wanted to keep data for your games when moving to a new device, it’s easy to do so.

Now let’s say you want to run a full backup for your apps. That button on the top right of the screen, next to the magnifying glass, is your “batch” button in Titanium Backup, and that’s where the magic happens. Tap that and it will give you a long list of actions you can take. For this backup, we want to run the “Backup all user apps” action. This pulls up a list of your user apps where you can individually check each app you want to back up, or you can simply select all of your apps. After figuring out what you want backed up, tap the green checkmark at the top right and the batch action will run in the background.

Restoring your apps again is pretty much the same thing. When you go to your batch actions list, scroll down a bit until you find the action for “Restore all apps with data.” This list will show each app you’ve backed up so you can batch restore everything you need, data included. The free version of Titanium Backup will make you press a yes dialog box for each app you want to restore, so it’s not totally automated, but the paid, premium version does it all behind the scenes. And, like Carbon, you can set up schedules to back up at specific times and, if you opted for the paid Pro Key, sync your local backups to cloud storage. So if you’re in one of those situations we mentioned earlier, like moving to a phone without an SD card or just making backups in case your phone is lost or stolen, Titanium Backup supports the same three major cloud storage services for backing up your data.

Play Store Download Link

Play Store Download Link (Premium)

Like always, there’s plenty of Android apps available that do what Carbon and Titanium Backup can do, (although Carbon is the only app that can fully backup nonrooted devices) so if neither of these seem like your cup of tea, it’s easy to find an alternative. Both of these apps have relatively simple, easy to use designs that most users can figure out to do something that we’ve all needed to do once or twice with our phones.

source: talkandroid.com

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Guide #3: How to remove apps from the Google Play Store ‘My Apps’ list?

 

Is your Google Play Store “My Apps” section filled with too many spur of the moment apps that you will never download ever again? This can make it a royal pain finding those previously downloaded apps that you actually care about. Thankfully Google made it really easy to remove those unwanted apps which will make things a lot more manageable.

The process is pretty painless, but may take some time depending on how many apps you have in the list. I was able to get rid of 429 unused apps in about 15 minutes and my list of apps looks a heck of a lot cleaner now. So without hesitation hit the break below to check out our quick guide to cleaning up your previous Play Store acquisitions.

1 – Open up the Play Store.

2 – Be it on screen or physical button hit the Menu button and go to My apps.

3 – Swipe over to the right and go from INSTALLED to ALL.

4 – Here’s the kicker: Press and hold onto an app listed. It will highlight that app and you will see a checkmark at the top left along with “1 selected” and an “X” at the top right.

5 – Start tapping the apps that you want gone and number of selected apps will go up. Note: You won’t be able to select any apps that are currently installed.

6 – Once you have selected all the apps that you want deleted, hit the X in the top right corner, and tap OK to remove all of them.

You can also remove apps one by one by tapping the “X” that is to the right of every app listed (or circle with a line through it in older versions of the Play Store), but it’s not as efficient since you have to tap OK again for each app you want to remove.

While it may not be as simple as having a purchased apps tab, it will at least gives us a chance to clean those purchased and free apps up a bit. Maybe someday we’ll get that purchased tab back, but until then this may just be the next best thing.

source: talkandroid.com

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Guide #2: What is a QR Code?

First of all, I’d like to tell you that you made the right choice grabbing an Android device. So, let’s get down into just what your new Android smartphone can do for you. The best way to do that is to grab the apps that get you up and using the power of Android quickly, without causing too much reading. Let’s be honest here, you don’t want to read a novel on how to use your smartphone, you’d rather take the knowledge in doses so you can get back to the 108th level of Angry Birds. If you’ve had an Android device for some time, pass this information around to other Android newbies you know around you.

A question many people have when they look around in stores and websites now, is what the heck are those black and white squares for? Those are called ‘QR Codes‘ (quick response code), and your Android device has the ability to scan them and display information. Until the past year or so, QR codes didn’t really take off into mainstream advertising. Now, you see them everywhere from Real Estate, Starbucks, and the latest Best Buy flyers. They can do much more than just display websites and facebook pages though, with the right app, you can easily share your installed apps, contact information and clipboard to anyone with a QR code scanner too. (The other person will need an Android device to grab your shared application though).


There are lots of QR code and barcode scanning apps on the market, but I like to use Barcode Scanner from ZXing Team. It’s a simple to use, free app that works on all Android devices. Once you use it and want to try other apps out, by all means. For now though, grab it from the Android Market by clicking here.
Once it’s installed, you’ll be able to see Barcode Scanner in your list of apps. Press to open it up and you’ll see a one time note on the features of the app, just press “OK” or “Close” to continue. Now you’ll see a window from your rear camera with a red line blinking across the middle. That’s the scanner, and it’s waiting for you to scan a QR code.

Press the ‘Menu‘ or ‘Settings‘ button on your device while still in the app and you’ll see a ‘Share‘ function. Press that and you’ll be taken to a screen that asks you what you would like to share, like what you see below.

In the following picture, I chose to share an application with you. When you press ‘Application‘, it’ll give you a list of installed applications on your device to share and show the QR code for. The one I shared below is called Wind-Up Knight, and it’s my new favorite game. Go ahead, scan the QR code below if you like.

As you can see, it’s pretty easy to get information and apps shared in several ways. This is one of those apps that hardly anyone uses or knows about, but should given the popularity of QR codes in the media and advertising.
Let’s give it a try now. Back up or open Barcode Scanner again. Aim the viewfinder with the blinking red line at the QR below and wait for it to be in full view.

Once it finds it, you’ll see the same thing as the image below. All you need to do now is press “Open in browser” and it’ll take you to our TalkAndroid website within the ‘Guides‘ section. Now you can bookmark it and come back when you want to pick up a few more Android tips and news!

Android Market Link

 

source: talkandroid.com

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