DashClock is one of the more popular Android extensions out there, and for good reason. It makes lock screen notifications look cool. Instead of pulling down the notification bar like some plebeian, you can see what you missed laid out right there below the clock. There is even a huge amount of support for it. DashClock has extensions for SMS, Reddit, K9 Mail, and Facebook. However, it doesn't have an extension for quite everything yet. Until then, we can make do with a temporary solution based on Tasker. Everyone’s favorite task-managing app thankfully does have ...

Phone theft is an unfortunate reality that many face these days. New York police believe that NYC’s recent increase in crime is due to opportunistic theft of Apple products and smartphones. Criminals rightly recognize that smartphones make a great prize. They’re small, easily carried, and highly valuable. A used device can be resold for hundreds of dollars. That’s a hell of a payday. Security apps are a good way to fight this. They won’t stop a truly ...

Android is a fun OS, but it’s always had a nagging problem. Lag. It’s like a constant thorn in our side, perpetually taunting us with unresponsiveness and slow apps. Jelly Bean and Project Butter went a long way toward solving this issue, but what about all the other devices that aren’t on an official copy of Jelly Bean? That’s where the Jar Power Tools comes in. It’s another creative hack from the guy who made the V6 SuperCharger, ...

Android is a generally secure OS, although it occasionally falls victim to being open-source. That’s the problem with giving people the keys to the kingdom. Sometimes they do things that they don’t like. This is one of those things. One of the good folks on XDA has figured out a way to break through a pattern lock via some creative hacking. Before we get into this, we must ask that you use this information responsibly. This is only for ...

Creating Android apps is easy enough for developers. For the rest of us, not so much. Making your own app requires a quick hand in Java, XML, and a properly set up IDE for development and testing. Well, technically you could work without the IDE, but nobody does that. They’d have to be crazy. But we digress. The real point is making your own Android apps takes work. Ultimate Custom Clock Widget (UCCW) aims to solve that ...

Saving nandroid backups is something which just about every Android rooter does. You’d have to be crazy not to save nandroids. That backup can be the difference between a bricked phone and a working device. We’ve written about nandroids before and how to save them. As a general rule of thumb, make a backup before doing any sort of serious system-wide modifications. However, saving backups can be a chore. It requires rebooting into recovery and puts your phone ...

In our bid to cover the best Android apps for our readers, we often go exploring the infinite depths of Google Play Store and emerge with the most sparkling gems. There are still a lot of unexplored areas and one of them is the Education category. Here we have so much fun blogging that we did not really venture into the serious (I mean studious) category of apps for Android. So, when a friend of mine urgently needed a scientific calculator just a couple of days ...

Android’s greatest strength has always been its open-source nature. There’s nothing quite like having a whole operating system open for modification and hacking. It makes for some pretty great additions that you can add onto your phone. For example, you can change your phone’s multitasking settings with the V6 SuperCharger or set it up to run Linux. One of the coolest ...

If you're like me who is fond of stalking friends all the time, you probably have several social networking apps installed on your Android smartphone. Yes, I have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and several other social networking apps running all at the same time. And I check them one by one whenever I have the time. While this may work for most of us, checking these social networking services one by one can become quiet a daunting tasks. Enter the new Android app Jolicloud. Once installed on ...

Alright, there's nothing wrong with the stock Ice Cream Sandwich launcher, especially when in tandem with the Samsung Touch UI. There's nothing to hate about this set up on my Samsung Galaxy S3. But then, the stock ICS launcher is not a perfect either. Hence, you'll probably end up using third-party replacement launcher. One of these alternative launcher happens to be one of the most popular as well. It's called Nova Launcher of which you may have already heard of before. Given the ...