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Monday, March 4, 2013
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Jumping Ship from iPhone to Android: A Switcher's Guide
March 4th, 2013Top StoryJumping Ship from iPhone to Android: A Switcher's GuideBy Adam Dachis
The original version of this guide was written a couple of years back, in the days of Android 2.3. Since then, things have changed dramatically. Apple had their Maps debacle, Android Jelly Bean brought an incredibly smooth user interface, and much more. While both operating systems offer distinct advantages, iOS often frustrates those who want control over how they use their phones (rather than the other way around). After five years of iPhones, I found myself in that camp and made the switch to a Nexus 4. Switching was easier than I thought, but still brought about a number of challenges. Just because you ultimately choose Android doesn't mean you don't want a lot of what iOS has to offer. In this post, we'll look at how to adjust to Android's differences and bring in the comforts of iOS you may miss. If you want to check out a specific section, you can use this table of contents:
Find Your Way Around AndroidAs a former iPhone user, you'll likely find that the biggest adjustment to using Android is navigating your way through the operating system. In iOS, pretty much everything happens with the home button. In Android, you don't have a physical home button but rather a series of three or four touch buttons at the bottom of your screen. They generally go in this order:
Home Screens
How to Add and Organize Apps and Widgets
Alternatively, there is a second way to add shortcuts to your home screen. While on the home screen, you can tap any empty space and hold for a moment. This will bring up a menu asking you want you want to add. Just choose the app you want and it'll appear on the home screen. Tap and hold to move it around. If you want to remove an app shortcut (which will not uninstall the app), just drag it to the letter X at the top of the screen and let go. Widgets work in the exact same ways. If you tap an empty space on your home screen, choose the Widgets option to add a widget instead. You can also add widgets from your app drawer by scrolling past all your apps and into the widget section. Tapping and holding will allow you to place them on your home screen. In the latest version of Android, you can also change their size by dragging along the edges. How to Change Your Launcher
Default Apps
All you have to do to change a default app is to download a new one and open it. Next time an app is required for a specific function, such as opening an image, you'll be asked which app you want to use for the job. Simply selecting the new one and tapping the "Always" button to let Android know you want it to be the default for the indefinite future will make the change. If you ever want to undo this change, you can clear the defaults pretty easily. All you have to do is open your app drawer, find the current default app you want to clear, and tap and hold down on its icon like you're going to add a shortcut to your home screen. Instead of adding that shortcut, however, drag the app to the top of the screen where you'll see the text "App Info." Let go and a screen will appear with a bunch of settings for that app. You can do all sorts of things like force close it and clear its cache, but under the Defaults section you'll find a "Clear Defaults" button. Tap it and you're all set. Notifications
Android offers a number of additional features in its notification drawer that you won't find in iOS. You still drag down from the top of the screen to bring it up, but dismissing notifications is a little easier. You can swipe any individual ones from left to right to get rid of them, or you can dismiss them all by tapping an icon up top that looks like three horizontal bars. Android's notification drawer also has a handy settings menu that you can view by tapping the little human icon in the upper-righthand corner. This makes it easy to check battery status, toggle airplane mode, change screen brightness, and much more. By default, Android doesn't offer much in the way of Lock Screen notifications like iOS. That said, you can get those back by simply installing an app called LockerPro. It not only provides a similar experience to iOS, but offers quick app launching shortcuts and (in my opinion) a better design. Overall, you'll like how notifications work on Android. You can add any lacking functionality you liked about iOS through third-party apps and get a few bonus' the operating system adds by default. Maps and Navigation
You'll also find yourself a little confused, as Google splits its Maps and Navigation apps into separate entities. While this seems a little strange, and really doesn't make a ton of sense, it's not really a problem once you realize what's going on. When you want to find a place or get directions, you'll use Maps. Maps will provide you with directions. It works very similarly to the way iOS's Maps app worked prior to iOS 6. If you want turn-by-turn navigation, you just tap the navigation button after getting directions and the Maps app will launch the Navigation app to handle your request. Again, this feels a little unnecessary and you'll find you're tapping through more menus and buttons than you would on iOS—strangely, even with Google's official Maps app for iOS—but it's a small price to pay for great navigation that's fully-integrated with the operating system. Voice Command and Virtual Assistance
In the past, we've offered many Siri-alternative suggestions for Android and chose Vlingo as our favorite. While Vlingo and many of the others are decent options, you'll have to get used to different methods of activation (e.g. shake to start) and communicating. For example, when you send a text message you'll often have to do it in a single step. With Siri, you might say "Text Whitson Gordon mobile" and then specify your message when prompted. On Android you'd say, "Text Whitson Gordon mobile 'What time is the movie again?'" You'll get used to these changes as you experience them. Operating System Updates
Battery Life
Turn Off Radios You Aren't UsingBluetooth and GPS radios will drain your battery more quickly but don't need to remain active for the majority of your day. One of the first things you should do when you're setting up your home screens is add the settings widget included with Android. Pictured to the right, you'll see it has five settings toggles: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sync, and Brightness. Just toggle off Bluetooth and GPS when they're not in use and toggle them on when they are. This will improve your phone's standby time significantly. Make Charging EasyBecause most Android devices use micro-USB to charge, you probably already have a cable that'll work. In fact, your friends likely do as well. Whenever you're leaving your phone around at a friend's house, don't hesitate to ask to charge it. If you want to ensure you always have a compatible cable, AViiQ makes pocketable USB cables with clips that you can take with you easily. The goal is to make it easy to charge your device whenever you need to. Keep a charger in your car, in your bag, at work, and a couple around the house. Chargers don't cost much, and micro-USB cables can always be repurposed for many other devices. It doesn't hurt to have a handful of them, and it can really help you ensure your phone has plenty of charge. Alternatively, check if your phone offers an extended battery that doesn't fatten up the phone too much. All of this may seem like a lot of effort and, as a result, promote the idea that Android phones have terrible battery life. While some may, my Nexus 4 manages 11-12 hours most days without issue and it isn't the most power-efficient Android device on the market. Keeping many chargers around is simply a way to stay prepared and make sure you're ready in the event you do find your battery running low. Rooting and Flashing ROMs
Rooting your Android also leads to another, somewhat riskier proposition: flashing ROMs. By default, your phone comes with a specific version of Android created by the phone's manufacturer (or that's just plain stock Android if you're using a Nexus device). This version of Android is your phone's default ROM, which you can often change to another that provides additional features, speed enhancements, and more. Not all ROMs work on all phones and you can definitely brick your phone by failing to flash a ROM correctly. If you want to give it a shot, check out our guide to choosing a ROM (or our ROM guide for Nexus phones) and then follow that ROM's installation instructions for your phone. If you need assistance, the XDA Developers Forum is a good place to start. Find Great Alternatives to Your Favorite iOS Apps and Services
This list just offers a few apps that helped me with the transition, but is by no means comprehensive. Be sure to visit our Android App Directory and our Lifehacker App Pack for Android for more suggestions. Discover the Other Benefits of Android
This is just the beginning. As you explore Android, you'll likely find tons of new features that you love as well as apps and methods that help you through the transition. Title imagesw by nmedia (Shutterstock) and Spasiblo (Shutterstock).  |
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So Tired: A Girls Recap
March 4th, 2013Top StorySo Tired: A Girls RecapBy A.J. Daulerio
It's called "Christie": (A minor- G-F-G if you'd like to play this tune at home) Christie was a girl I knew in school, we went out in Junior High pre-chorus: Now that she's gone foreve-r, CHRISTIE! CHRISTIE! (CAN YOU HEAR ME....) She never came back. No wonder. XO, AJ. Sometimes there are losses in life that come along unexpectedly, especially when it comes to misguided romances; in this week's Girls episode, "It's Back," we have three of our main character's relationships excavated. The two relationships currently on the disabled list (Hannah/Adam; Marnie/Charlie) have the best chance of survival, oddly enough. Yes, Shoshannah and Ray, although technically together, are super-close to implosion. But their doom awaits. For now, let's sift through the ashes of the others. The theme of missed opportunity and regret is strong throughout, most prominently on display when Hannah, whose maddening OCD has returned with a vengeance due to her breakup with Adam, the pressure of publishing her e-book and her inabilty to embrace YOLO. She's confronted with it during a Judy Collins concert at a dinner theater with her visiting parents. She's lost in the lyrics from the wise lady strumming the guitar on the tiny stage: Sometimes I remember the old days Hannah averts her eyes from the stage, drowning in memories of Adam being weird, pounding wood, pounding her, so she runs to the bathroom because her OCD is suffocating her body like a plastic bag over her head. She sprints to the bathroom to make herself feel right again. Meanwhile Marnie finds out that Charlie — spineless, rudderless, Charlie— has secured funding for an app he created called Forbid, and is now a budding mogul with an office in Chelsea and 11 employees. This is not how it's supposed to happen for Marnie, as we later find out she thinks. "I had him pegged for six years of being broken." SHE, on the other hand, had her shit together, yet is still promenading around in a goony outfit as a hostess in the city, rolling her eyes enough for someone to notice. Ray, resident sage of lost dreams and inertia, intervenes: " What do you really wanna do with your life?" She wants to sing. Ray goes eyes-wide-mouth-closed because she can't be serious. She's serious. She croons some Norah Jones for him because she's stupid. It's an adequate rendition, all electronic cigarette dreamy, but she's still stupid. Back to sensibility. Adam woke up in the morning and drank a glass of rotten milk next to his dirty bed because he's still so twisted by the loss of Hannah. He's consumed by her and her many contradictions. Something has to move forward in a positive way so he heads back to an AA meeting and avoids the sinkhole. The meeting is about to close but before it does he stands up to change the things he can before they rearrange the chairs: "I had this girlfriend who at first I didn't like very much or I guess I didn't take her serious very much. She just seemed like, uhhmm, a piece of ass. But she was perrr-sistent man and she just hung around and hung around and showed up at my place and gradually it started to feel better when she was there. It wasn't love the way I imagined it. I just felt weird...I didn't know what she was up to or whatever. I liked knowing that she was just going to be there and warm and staying the night. And she acted like I was teaching her everything! About...fuckin history. About sex. She didn't know what street Central Park started on. Or how to use soap. And showed her! And I wanted that chance to show someone everything. But she changed her mind and it was (snaps) that fast." Chews lip chews lip chews lip. "I was so exhausted." Thanks for sharing, Adam. At the meeting, an older, pushy, possibly-wacko woman (Carol Kane) is touched by this soliloquy and wants to introduce him to her daughter. This is a set-up for disaster but Adam goes along with meeting her anyway. Turns out the goofy mom created an angel just for Adam and their eyes predict enchantment even before they sit down at the table. The dinner conversation is effortless and Adam smiles like a human throughout while the girl's wings grow and expand after every sentence uttered. He's on his way. But Hannah, poor Hannah, continues to disintegrate so her parents make a pit-stop at a shrink to keep her OCD in check. Hannah placates the therapist with her history of OCD. It's been going on since high school but she freed herself from it after some medication. She stopped the medication. "Why?" the therapist asks. "It made me tired," Hannah says. "How tired?" "Very tired." So now what?  |
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