In-Sight

My article, Soon to be featured on LittleGreenRobot.net

***If you haven’t heard of Google+, it is a new social networking site that allows you to share what you want with who you want. It features a whole slew of features (including some copied by Facebook) that make interacting with your friends much more interesting. As of today, G+ is out of private testing and open to the public, so grab your account!***
 
The Google+ app just received a major update; you can now group video chat using Google+ “Hangout.” Not only can you chat phone to phone, but computer to phone as well. This is a great way to video chat with someone that doesn’t have a front facing camera on their phone. Android 2.3 and up is required for video chat capabilities.  
 
Apart from video chatting, the Google+ app provides the user with comprehensive control over their account.  You can check your stream, update your status, manage your circles, check-in, message people, and of course post comments and pictures. The app feels fluid and works extremely well.  So go ahead, give Google+ a try!
 
Google+: Click Me!
 
**Nick’s Tips!

When you first open the Google+ app, be sure to activate Instant Upload.  Now, every time you take a picture on your phone the picture will be automatically uploaded to Google+.  No one will be able to see the pictures unless you explicitly share it.  Instant Upload provides you with an instantaneous backup of your pictures and also makes it easier to share them later.

Nicolas Gonzalez III, Contributor
“Bringing you Real, Phony News”

My article soon to be featured on LittleGreenRobot.net
 
Chrome to Phone is a useful Google app that allows you opens up links, maps, phone numbers, and text selections from your browser on your phone.  Let me illustrate:
 

• If you are looking at an interesting website, pressing ‘Chrome to Phone’ button on your browser will open up the web page on your phone within 5 seconds! 

• When looking at a map on your browser and clicking the ‘Chrome to Phone’ button, your phone’s Maps/Navigation App will open with the map you were looking at.

• Sending a Youtube video will open it your Youtube App.

• Highlighting a phone number on your browser and sending it to your phone will automatically open up the phone dialer with the number inserted. 

• Highlighting any text on the browser will paste itself onto your phones clipboard. 

Chrome to Phone is especially useful when you are looking at something interesting, but quickly have to leave your computer. A Chrome browser and Android Phone is required with the Chrome to Phone extension.  You can get the App and Extension for FREE! Give it a try!

Chrome Extension: Click Me!
Chrome to Phone App: Click Me!

**Nick’s Tips: If you have a long message to text someone, you can type it out on your web browser and then send to your phone by highlighting the text and clicking the ‘Chrome to Phone’ button.  Then simply long press the text field on your phone to paste the text!

Nicolas Gonzalez III, Contributor
“Bringing you Real, Phony News”

My article, featured on littlegreenrobot.net

Price: Free (15-day trial) | $5.16 (Full version)

PowerAMP by Max MP is to music players, what CyanogenMod is to Android; simply better. PowerAMP is a feature rich music player that greatly improves the listening experience. I could write my thesis on why PowerAMP, in my opinion, is the best music player. If you want better sound quality and more control of your music then read on. 

PowerAMP also allows for crossfading, gappless, music scrobbling, changing skins, updating album art, sleep timers and much more! The user interface of PowerAMP is extremely intuitive. The stock skin has a very cool, almost “tron” feel to it. As with many other music players, it allows you to swype across the screen to skip tracks, as well as shuffle either individual folders, albums, or the entire library. It also supports a large range of audio formats including .mp3, .wav, and .tta.

Nicolas Gonzalez III, Contributor
“Bringing you Real, Phony News”