How to make your Android home screen useful (iphone -> android transition 4)

Common preamble: I'm looking to break my Apple iDevice addiction so I can get off the expensive hardware treadmill. So I'm transitioning to Android. I have a MacBookPro running 10.8.x as my main device. I'm currently on an iPhone 3GS after I sadly lost a pristine iPhone 5 in the woods, and my wonderful mother donated her used Samsung Galaxy S3 when she upgraded, so here we go.

One thing Apple does well is allow you to unlock the phone and get into the app you need with 2 taps maximum, when configured well. You've got your most used apps on the bottom available on all screens, then you can make folders to collect most-used apps of a similar type on your main screen, and you're just about guaranteed to be 2 taps from getting something done.

Android by default appeared to me to be a big pretty wasteland when I first turned it on. You can't fit too much on any screen and things are spread all over the place. You have to tap a ton to do anything. What gives? Apparently this is another part of the "just works" vs "you can configure everything" iphone vs android philosophy. And I don't mind that, I guess I'm just surprised that the defaults are so awful so much of the time, and this is an area I think the iphone gets right.

So how to fix it so you're back to 1-tap mostly, and 2-tap max for your apps? You need a "Launcher".

I read a bunch of reviews and settled on NovaLauncher. It does exactly what I need and isn't too difficult to configure.

I went hog-wild at first and configured something like 7 virtual screens etc, before I realized I was having to think a lot about where things were, at which point I went the other way and have just two screens now - one that is as efficient and dense as I can make it, and the other for "everything else".

I configured it for a grid of 5x8 icons (I'm on a relatively roomy galaxy S3 remember) along with a dock. I have dragged my most used single apps to the dock (mail, go sms pro, etc) so they are all there, then for the other icon spots I've added any of the apps I use to the launcher, then dragged them into 4-icon groupings by plopping them on to each other. I added a 1-row google search widget at the top so I can find anything quickly in a pinch, then a 2-row weather widget (which is pretty ridiculously inefficient but I like weather), and I still have access to 104 different apps with 2-taps maximum, and I can see all the icons so I don't have to think about it.

Not bad.

I know my app usage patterns change over time so I put apps I'm trying out, or infrequently use, or that are being kicked out in favor of new apps on the other "everything else" screen, and keep the main screen efficient. That's worked for me on the iphone for a few years so I can't see why it wouldn't work here.

You guys have better ways of organizing a screen for maximum getting-things-done-ness and I'm missing the boat on something? Clue me in if so. Cheers!

Android Mail - using email on Android can be awesome (iphone -> android transition 3)

Common preamble: I'm looking to break my Apple iDevice addiction so I can get off the expensive hardware treadmill. So I'm transitioning to Android. I have a MacBookPro running 10.8.x as my main device. I'm currently on an iPhone 3GS after I sadly lost a pristine iPhone 5 in the woods, and my wonderful mother donated her used Samsung Galaxy S3 when she upgraded, so here we go.

As mentioned in passing in the second post in this series I have a lot of email accounts, and over time they've all ended up hosted by google.

You'd think the default Android email app would be great then, or the gmail app would be good on Android, but for a couple reasons I believe they suck. The main reason is that they don't provide a unified inbox for all your accounts on a single screen. I had no idea this was a thing, having gotten used to the built-in iphone mail app, but apparently it is. And the default clients just don't get it. I'm not going to get one new mail in each of 5 clients and spend a lot of time thumbing into and out of the various inboxes - that's my main use case and it's horribly inefficient. Unified inbox is non-negotiable.

Search around the internets and you see lots of reference to K-9, but apparently that app has gone rogue with offshoots from old forks, a new "Kaiten" version, and updates to the K-9 app itself which apparently suck. So I stayed clear, but it may work for you.

The one I finally went with was MailDroid. Configured it up pretty easily (or as easily as it can be when you have all 5 of your google accounts configured for 2-factor authentication and you have to generate application-specific passwords, which you do so your account isn't easily attacked, right?), et voila, pretty configurable control over how each account works (using server folders where desired, how many mails to load etc) and a unified inbox.

MailDroid gets bonus points for allowing me to shrink fonts for real to get more info on the screen, for allowing me to indulge my college-days hacker self with a reverse video theme, and for allowing me to easily set a global signature and global connection settings.

Have you discovered a client better than MailDroid? Any tips or tricks if you are using MailDroid?

Android Contacts - importing them from iCloud (iphone -> android transition 2)

Common preamble: I'm looking to break my Apple iDevice addiction so I can get off the expensive hardware treadmill. So I'm transitioning to Android. I have a MacBookPro running 10.8.x as my main device. I'm currently on an iPhone 3GS after I sadly lost a pristine iPhone 5 in the woods, and my wonderful mother donated her used Samsung Galaxy S3 when she upgraded, so here we go.

Once I figured out the most basic thing outlined in the first android transition post, namely how to make it so I plug the phone in and it doesn't suck, then how to transfer files, I'm ready to get my data on there. Let's start with contacts

I'm going to assume you have about 4 different google apps accounts set up, because you're a smooth operator too, so you're fine with google storing your contacts. But right now they're all in icloud, because when you have a mac and an iphone, that's just what you do, right?

What you need to do is figure out a way to get the Contacts app on your mac to have a connection to both your google contacts storage area, and the icloud.

That's not an obvious thing to do, but you can add a "CardDAV" provider to Contacts, pointing at your google account following these instructions here: http://android.appstorm.net/how-to/synchronization/keep-android-and-ios-in-sync-part1-data-email-contacts-and-calendar/

Then by selecting all the cards in your "All iCloud" area and dropping them on to the "All Google" area, you'll force Contacts to essentially freak out, work super hard, but transmit them all to google successfully whereupon they will slowly trickle over on to your android phone in a background sync.

This worked with me with 960 cards (each one of them a dear friend).

Anyone know any better ways, or does this work for ya'll too?

Android File Transfer Fun (iphone -> android transition 1)

Common preamble: I'm looking to break my Apple iDevice addiction so I can get off the expensive hardware treadmill. So I'm transitioning to Android. I have a MacBookPro running 10.8.x as my main device. I'm currently on an iPhone 3GS after I sadly lost a pristine iPhone 5 in the woods, and my wonderful mother donated her used Samsung Galaxy S3 when she upgraded, so here we go.

First issue: Connecting the phone to your computer sucks out of the box.

Android File Transfer is all sorts of bouncing in the doc and annoying. The phone itself is pretty adamant that you need to download some sort of "Kies" syncing program.

For both of these, my take is, don't do it.

Android File Transfer is pretty annoying but useful in a pinch. So you can use it when needed but have it STFU when not needed by following these lovely instructions from Nicole Reid - https://cooltrainer.org/2012/12/21/taming-android-file-transfer-on-mac-os-x/

Kies appears to just all around suck and I should have known that because it was what the manufacturer wants you to use, and those always suck don't they? Uninstalling it is a pain apparently but the internet comes to the rescue again. I used the instructions for the Terminal at the bottom of the page, just like you will, naturally.

AirDroid seems to be a reasonable app going forward (and also satisfies the "Find My iPhone" use case) but what other things do you guys use for Android file transfer / backup to get your files on and off the machine?

And is there anything like CameraSync from iOS-land exist for Android so my priceless data (photos, videos) are backed up reliably by default, but not just too google?