If there’s one thing we really love about Android, it’s the ability to replace just about every part of Android. The stock apps for messaging, dialing, internet browsing, and playing music aren’t bad. They’re just not that great for the power user who wants more out of his phone. That’s the real beauty of Android. If you don’t like an app, replace it. That’s why we started our Beat the Stock series. It’s ...

Those of you who keep up with the most popular custom ROMs have no doubt heard of MIUI. It’s an extremely popular ROM from a group of Chinese Android enthusiasts known for its stunning good looks and iOS-inspired design. Personally speaking, we at TechNorms are huge fans of MIUI. As far as ROMs go, it’s stable, supported on a ton of devices, and did we mention that it looks good? Throw in an extensive selection of free ROM-wide themes ...

At this point, it’s hard to think of an Android fan who hasn’t heard of Crafty Apps’s magnum opus, Tasker. Android fanboys are notoriously fond of tinkering, hacking and generally getting their hands dirty to improve their phone. Tasker is an app that helps you do exactly that. The basic idea is that you can set up a series of triggers which automatically execute certain actions when tripped. That probably sounds boring, but it is very convenient in real use. For example, we have our copy of Tasker set up to automatically turn off the 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi connections when ...

Email is one of those things that form the backbone of the internet. No matter how old or outdated or cumbersome it may be to use in this age of instant communication over text message and Twitter, we still have email. It’s pretty much essential to have a virtual address in order to use web services like Facebook, Amazon, eBay, and even Android. Even if you don’t particularly like using email (and we at TechNorms do not), ...

Power Android users require quite a few tools in order to execute all the fun hacks that are possible these days. It’s not enough to have a file explorer, you need one that can access root and mount /system. It’s not enough to be rooted, you need a system to manage your custom recovery and ROMs. Managing a custom Android build can be a complex task at times that requires many different tools. Enter all-purpose utility ...

One of the nice parts about iOS is that file management is relatively easy. Just connect your iDevice to iTunes and manage away. Syncing content and moving material back and forth between a computer and an iDevice is easy. Unfortunately for Android fans, there’s no official equivalent for Google’s flagship mobile OS. Sure, doubleTwist can handle your media files, but it won’t do quite as much as iTunes will do with an iPhone. iTunes can do backups, restore the iPod, etc. ...

As much as we’re told these days that tablets are replacing the PC, there is a surprising trend in the opposite direction. As much as Steve Jobs wanted us to believe that we were in the “post-PC” world, the truth is that a lot of people still use PCs. Personally speaking, I spend more time on laptop than any other device. Developer Redfly has recognized that people still use computers and ...

The number of apps available in the Android market is exponentially increasing. The more apps you install on your Android device, the more difficult it becomes to switch between various applications. The Recent Apps screen is a good way to switch between applications, but it is not really the most efficient way. Not all apps are equally important and some applications need to be accessed more frequently than ...

Customization has always been one of the biggest plus point for Android. While there are a number of options to customize your Android handsets, there are but a few options to customize a screen that you perhaps see the most – The Lock Screen of your device! Lock screens are important from security point of view (assuming that you use some sort of screen lock, else it’s ...

Setting up and actively managing the ringer profiles can be quite a handful task. It is not pleasant when your phone suddenly rings loudly in a meeting or a classroom. As careful as we might be about keeping the right profile active, at times we do forget to do that. Llama makes your life easier by automatically switching profiles depending on ...