Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Google+ what?

Now that I just spent all of that time talking about Facebook, Google announces their next big attempt at being social.  They call it Google+.  I think it is kind of a crappy name.  But, that's just my opinion.  Google hasn't exactly been the people that you look towards when you think about social interaction.  But, this endeavor might gain some traction.  First of all Android has become a huge platform on mobile phones and even starting a little bit with tablets.  So, if people are already carrying around a Google powered device, Google+ may just meld really well with their handset.  Google is just releasing this as a limited beta.  Just like they did with Google Music (which we can talk about in a later post).  There is a video and a website to check out to get a little glimpse of what they are thinking.

A couple of my favorite features are when you take a picture on your phone it is uploaded to your Google+ profile on the web.  Once there you can decide how you want to share it.  I think that this might be better than the Facebook process right now.  It takes away the process of going to Facebook, then to the photo tab, then choose upload photo, and then searching and picking what you want to upload.  With Google+, it's already there!

The other feature that looks really interesting is when you go into your friend feed you can change a setting so that you can just see the info of your friends that are in the same area as you.  I have wondered sometimes if I was ever within a block of someone that I knew and never realized it.  Now, people may be able to find their friends around lunch time and maybe have a bite together.

I am sure there are a ton more features that we just don't know about yet.  I can't see this replacing Facebook any time in the near future but, it may be something to throw on your phone and see what it adds to your life.  I have signed up to try this out when they are ready to move to the next phase of the release.  So, I will definitley try it out and write about it here.  How about you?  Is this something that you will try?  Are you looking for a Facebook replacement?  Could this be a big win for Google or another product that just doesn't quite make it?

Watch this video and let me know what you think.




Have fun and be social!
Brian

Monday, June 27, 2011

BookFace?

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Let's face it.  Facebook is the king of all social networks.  Now there are many choices out there for people to use to communicate, stay in touch, share ideas and experiences.  But, everyone has heard of Facebook and even if people don't use it, they still have an idea of what it is.  Facebook has their own branded app on almost every new mobile phone that comes out.  But, is it really the best way to interface with your Facebook account?  You could use their app or a web interface...or....maybe....someone else's app.  That's right!  There are other companies out there that have created their own front end experience for users to access all of the stuff that they want to do.

First of all there is the Facebook app.









The version of the this app that came installed on my Droid Incredible 2 is very plain.  It gets the job done but, it gets frustrating to try to get some very basic things done.  For instance, in the photo above, you can see that there are three people that "Like" this article.  There isn't a way to see who those three people are.  That doesn't seem very social to me.  Also, it is difficult to share any articles.  If I want to share this article I need to click on it first.  It then launches a browser where the original article resides.  Then, I can click on the share button that they put on the original site.  In my opinion that is not a very good way to share things.  Other than that the app is pretty solid.  It seems to be very responsive and stable.  And, there are no ads on this app.

Then I started using FriendCaster.

















I have really enjoyed using FriendCaster over the original Facebook app.  Everything that the Facebook app does, this one does just as well or better.  It addresses the issues that I missed with the other app.  When you see that people "Like" something, all you have to do is click the area where it says how many people Like it and a window pops up with the list of names in it.  How great is that?
When you want to share an article or post all you have to do is click on the article and it opens into its own window.  In the top right of the window is a dot with two arrows pointing up.  Click on that and you get a screen that shows up like the one in the photo above on the right.  It has a whole list of ways that you can share this one article.  You can use Blogger, Google Docs, Dropbox, Gmail, etc.  It is great to have that many options!  Sometimes you would like to share a photo one way and maybe a news article a different way.
In the last month or so, I have had the app lock up on me once or twice.  So, not bad at all but I didn't have the Facebook app lock up at all during that time.  FriendCaster is free to use but they do put a small banner ad at the bottom of the app that can be distracting sometimes.  There is also a paid version that gets rid of the ads and is supposed to add some more features.

The Incredible 2 also has Friend Stream that comes pre-installed on the phone.  I really didn't spend much time with it because of the way that it combines Facebook and Twitter into one place.  Some people might like that but I use Facebook for mainly communicating with friends and family.  I use Twitter more like a news feed.  I don't need those two getting all intertwined.

I know there are more Facebook apps out there but, these are the ones that I have the most experience with. If you use something that you think is superior to these I would love to hear about them.  Just post it here and I would like to try them out!

Have fun and customize!
Brian

Saturday, June 25, 2011

First thing's first.

When you first fire up your Android phone you will see a little bit of magic begin to happen.  Especially if you already have a Google account with Gmail and some contacts populated.  The phone will ask you to sign in with your Google username and password and you will see a lot of your stuff that you have been using on your computer populate your phone instantly!  Then when you start to add your Facebook and Twitter accounts, the phone really comes to life.  You have instant access to your social circle any time and anywhere.  Your phone can keep you connected to friends and family no matter what you are doing.  Sharing photos and videos is a breeze and people can comment in real time!  It's almost as if they were there with you sharing in the moment!

Once you are "connected" to all of your social sites it is time to start digging into the Android market and customize your phone to do all of the things that you want it to.  In my next posts I will start to go through some of my favorite apps that keep me connected.  I will go through some of the things that I like about each app and maybe get into some of their week points as well.  Feel free to share some of the tools that you use on your phone that connect you to your friends and family.  I can try them out too and we can discuss them together!

Welcome, participate and enjoy.

Welcome to The Power of Android blog.  I just purchased my first smart phone about a month ago.  The Droid Incredible 2 was the device of choice.  Since I got this little gem in my hands it's been really difficult to put down!  This phone is infinitely customizable right out of the box.  When you start to add in the almost endless amount of apps that are available the power of this phone is amazing!  My phone is still stock...no rooting attempts yet.

As you can see there are a lot of things to know about your Android powered phone.  I will be starting discussions on all of the stuff that comes pre-installed on the phone, apps that are fun and productive, and from time to time I will be writing about rooting your device and some possible advantages and disadvantages.

Once again, this is my first smart phone and I just want to share my experiences and get some feedback from anyone else that enjoys using Android phones as much as I do.  So, feel free to add comments to any of my posts and let's enjoy these incredibly powerful pocket computers!