40Tech » Android

5 Fresh Android Games Released in 2012

Bobby Travis — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:05:39 +0000

40Tech is pleased to present a guest post from Amelia Hunter!

If you own an Android phone and love playing games on it, you’ve most likely already played all versions of Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. Wanna try something new? Here are some fresh Android games released this year! They’re free, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy playing them.

1) Pocket Clothier

We’re all well aware of the type of management simulation games that Kairosoft produce and Pocket Clothier is the latest release. This game involves you running a clothing store, hiring employees, buying new stock and setting up displays. In fact, anything that is involved with running a clothing store is included here. Beware though; Pocket Clothier can take over your life.

2) Oscura

This game by MTV Networks in collaboration with The Chocolate Liberation Front is one of the slicks games in terms of visuals to appear on Android for some time. Evil creatures are taking over the strange land and it is your job to use your skills to restore the light – excellent 2D fun to be had for all.

3) Commander Pixman

Who doesn’t love a retro platform game? That’s right no one! Commander Pixman is as old-school as they come and involves the usual avoidance of traps and killing of enemies over a whopping 135 levels. One of many games recently released by Noodlcake Studios recently, but probably the best. You can play it on any phone of course, but for the best experience it would be great to try it on a new smartphone with high-end features.

4) Tapadoo

Brain exercise games are great fun for all the family and Tapadoo is one of these games. This puzzle games takes scribbles and turns them into puzzles that must be solved by you. These puzzles range from the very easy to the mind-boggling – a great game from Nevosoft.

5) Aqua Story

Fish can be great pets and they are even better when they are kept in a virtual tank on your smartphone. This game from Com2uS lets you raise different varieties of fish, playing with them and feeding them as you would in real-life. If you’re into your virtual pets, you will love this game. And the best thing is – it can run on almost any Android phone, even on those old ones.

Amelia Hunter is from Rightmobilephone.co.uk, which offers the best mobile phone deals in the UK. She’s interested in smartphones, tablets, apps and PC games, and she loves sports.

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Still Looking for a Truly Slick Task Manager? Any.DO Could Be It. [Android, iOS, Chrome]

Bobby Travis — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 03:29:04 +0000

I’ve found myself plenty busy lately. The new job, new baby, and newly four have been making it difficult to get sleep, let alone writing time. As a result, however, my obsession for to-do apps has flexed its brawn and muscled its way back to the forefront of my thoughts — especially after I accidentally discovered Any.DO.

Which is awesome!

Any.DO has been out on the Android platform for a while now, but came to my attention when it expanded its product line to include the iPhone. There’s a web app now, too, but it’s in closed beta at the moment. The Chrome extension works just fine though, and between it and my iOS devices, I’ve found myself some well-designed, beautiful, and oh-so-functional love.

Any.DO shines just about every which way. It’s got a clean, slick and very usable design (in white or black themes), it syncs tasks across devices via the cloud, it has the base functions every task manager needs (reminders, notes, folders/labels, filters), and it does such a good job of getting out of its own way that it is a joy to use.

That last bit there — the joy — is key. So many to-do apps end up never being used simply because they take too much effort to keep a good flow going. Any.DO makes it easy to get started by including Facebook registration and logon, and even has a cool video tutorial when you first open it up. Once you’re in, things like swiping tasks to complete or un-complete, drag and drop to organize, predictive text, and the ability to add tasks with your voice make you want to stick with it.

There are some other nice features as well, such as task sharing via email, Facebook, and Twitter, some contact list integration, and the ability to clear all completed tasks just by shaking your phone. There is also a calendar view when you turn your phone to landscape mode, and — for Android users, anyway — the ability to sync with Google Tasks. Google Tasks sync might come along for other versions, as well, and there has been some mention of adding sync for other services, as well, such as Remember the Milk, Springpad, Producteev, Outlook, etc., but no definitive word on when that might happen, if at all.

What Any.DO is missing, at the moment, are connections to Evernote and Google Calendar. Those two things could turn this little app into a powerhouse in its own right — though I have to say, it works pretty damned well all by its lonesome! And it doesn’t hurt that you get all of the awesome that you do get for the oh-so-sweet-and-convenient price of nada.

Give it a go. Try Any.DO on your Android device, in your Chrome browser, or on your iPhone (pay no attention to the reviews on the app store — I haven’t had any issue getting the app to work at all). If you like it, let us know — and don’t forget to sign up for the web app beta.

Any.DO

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Best Free Movie Apps

Guest Poster — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:58:47 +0000

40Tech is pleased to offer a guest post by Carlina Yepinski

Even though rising industry costs are pushing tickets prices higher and higher, movies are still one of the cheapest forms of entertainment in America. There are tons of free apps that provide any kind of movie information you seek.

Whether you want to know what movies your favorite star is likely to appear in next or get recommendations on your next DVD rental, there’s an app for that. Here are a few free ones that will provide you with an instant movie fix on Android or iPhone.

IMDB – The Internet Movie Database app offers all the search features of the full site, including names, shows, movies, and even TV schedules. The front page displays two or three of the latest news stories and allows you to keep up with things you want to see with “Watchlist.”
Hitfix – This entertainment news site’s app offers the latest in movies, TV, music and sports as well as feature articles. You can view by category or date posted and can even check out local stories.
Movies by Flickster, With Rotten Tomatoes – Find movies near your current location, check our trailers and read reviews courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes before heading to the theater all in one app. You can even rate titles you’ve seen.
Fandango – As long as your theater uses Fandango for online ticketing, you can find show times and order tickets directly from your phone. Don’t forget to double check the theater’s official site to verify show times.
Get Glue – This social network app lets you share all of your entertainment interests with your friends. Check in to TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, books, even video games. For movie fans, in particular, you can get recommendations for what to watch next based on your likes.
Redbox – The Redbox company, famous for its $1 DVD rentals, now has an app that does for rentals what Fandango does for theatrical releases. The app searches for kiosks near you and lets you browse each kiosk’s inventory. While you cannot watch trailers, you can view ratings, runtimes, genres, cast and plot. Reserve the title you want on your phone to make the checkout process even quicker at the machine.

Carlina Yepinski is the primary researcher and writer for networkmonitoring.org. Her most recent accomplishments includes graduating from Kentucky State with a degree in communications and computer science. Her current focus for the site involves server monitoring tools and application monitoring.

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Should This Android Lover Switch Back to iOS?

Evan Kline — Mon, 14 May 2012 01:00:00 +0000

17 months ago I abandoned my iPhone and embraced Android. At the time, iOS was a much different operating system than it is today, and I had grown increasingly frustrated with its limitations. Now, I might be ready to move back to an iPhone. Should I?

Why I Switched From iOS to Android

The primary reason that I made the switch from Android to iOS had to do with the limitations of iOS. Those limitations fell into two camps:

Apple-imposed App Limitations

First, I was very frustrated with Apple’s erratic behavior when it came to approving apps. I wanted an official Google Voice app on my iPhone, and, at the time, couldn’t get it because Apple had rejected it. I also wanted a good podcasting client, but the pickings were slim because Apple was rejecting apps that supposedly duplicated the functionality of apps that came with the iPhone.

When I switched to Android, I was happy to be able to install whatever apps I wanted on my phone. Carriers sometimes try to limit access to apps, by making them not appear in Google Play (formerly the Android Market). To get around that, all you need to do is remove your SIM card, and connect to Google Play via WiFi.

Apple’s tighter control over the App Store does give it one huge advantage over Android. Security isn’t as tight in Google Play as it is in the App Store, but most advanced users can live with that.

Sandboxing and Lack of a File System

The limited way that iOS apps can talk to each still makes me bash my head against the wall when using my iPhone. Apple introduced iCloud as a file system of sorts, and many app developers use Dropbox in the same way, but these are incomplete solutions.

I understand Apple’s reasons for not including a file system. It keeps iOS simple, which is what most users want. But for power users, being stuck on an island when using an app can be maddening. If an app doesn’t support Dropbox, good luck trying to work on a document in one app, and continue it in another. Yes, there are workarounds, but they’re just that – workarounds.

Working with files you want to bring into iOS is equaly maddening. Check out the article I’ve written concerning how to get video onto the iPad, if it isn’t named exactly the way that iOS wants it to be named, as well as the other ways to get video or photos onto the iPad.

Android makes it much easier to perform many tasks, thanks to the existence of a user-accessible file system, and thanks to the lack of strict sandboxing. That does bring with it more security concerns, but it is a price that most advanced users are willing to pay.

The most obvious example of Android’s superiority in this regard can be seen in the Share menu. Any app can tie into that. This means, for example, that you don’t have to wait for an app developer to tie its app into Evernote or Instapaper. Actions for Evernote and Instapaper are in the Share menu once those two apps are installed, meaning that other apps can readily access them.

Getting files into Android is easier, too. Plug your Android device into your computer, and drag the file to the desired location on your phone. I spent an entire Saturday morning trying to get certain video files to show up in my iPad Camera Roll, instead of in the video app. I had to do this because iMovie on the iPad can only access video files located in the Camera Roll. Yet another limitation brought about by the lack of a file system.

Why I Might Switch Back to iOS

If it sounds like I’m venting against iOS, you’re right. There are parts of it that still feel like a Fisher-Price toy. But I’m also not blinded by some strange allegiance to one platform or the other. I’ve never understood the rabid cheerleading for both iOS and Android, and the way that some writers seem blinded by their love of either a platform or a company. A phone is a tool. It’s not part of some holy war. Both Android and iOS have strengths and weaknesses. I just need to decide how the scale tips for me. Here are some reasons I am considering making the switch back, notwithstanding an iPhone’s many limitations.

Apple Ecosystem

I can hear some of you cringing already at the words “Apple ecosystem.” It does feel sort of like a deal with the devil, but Apple has made a compelling interplay between its devices. I have an iMac, MacBook Air, and iPad, so I’ve been able to see this interplay at work. My Android phone feels like the odd man out.

iCloud keeps certain documents in sync between iOS and OS X devices, and Photo Stream is a great way to have your photographs automatically sync to all of your devices, without any thought. Many apps also provide syncing of data and settings between iOS devices, such as TweetBot’s use of iCloud to sync your reading position in your Twitter stream (I’ve tried using the TweetMarker integration to sync to my Android phone, and it just doesn’t work reliabily).

More important than Apple’s contribution to the ecosystem, though, is the contribution of developers. It seems like many iOS developers develop companion apps only for the Mac. OmniFocus is a classic example. Although OmniFocus isn’t available on Windows (which I use at the office), it is such a great app that I use it as my main productivity tool. There’s an iOS app and a Mac app that can sync with one another, but no Windows or Android app.

I also use EyeTV, a television app, on my iMac. My EyeTV HD device hooks into my cable box, and gives me television on my iMac via the eyeTV program. I also can stream shows and recordings to the eyeTV app on my iPad, but not to my Android phone. There is no reliable eyeTV option on Android. If I had an iPhone, I’d always have television with me. (I did have a Slingbox at one time,but that died after a year, and research online showed that not to be an uncommon occurrence, so I was in no hurry to rush out and buy another).

If I still used Windows as my main platform, the ecosystem would be less of a concern. But iOS and its apps just work better with a Mac.

Apple’s Loosenign of Restrictions on App Store Apps

As discussed above, Apple had a habit of putting its own interests against the interests of its users in the early days of the App Store. Apple has loosened the reigns since then. There is now a Google Voice app in the App Store, and there are now some excellent podcasting apps on iOS (I do have an iPad, so I try out apps there). The situation isn’t nearly as open as Android, but it has improved.

Decisions, Decisions

I still have several months to decide between and iPhone or another Android phone, since my firm’s contract doesn’t expire in the immediate future. I still feel that in many cases the iPhone is for the majority of users who just want something simple, while Android is for the power user. I consider myself a power user, but it’s a close enough call that I’ll have a tough decision.

What would you do?

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Send and Receive Text Messages From Your Computer With DeskSMS [Android]

Evan Kline — Tue, 01 May 2012 01:00:00 +0000

I love Swype on my Android phone, but I still prefer typing on a full keyboard. For that reason, I’m not a big texter on my phone. If you’re like me, and prefer typing on your computer keyboard, then DeskSMS might interest you. DeskSMS is an Android app that lets you send and receive text messages from your computer.

To get up and running with DeskSMS, you install the app on your phone, and then install either a chat client or browser extension on your computer or tablet, or use Gmail or a web interface. When you install the app on your phone, you check boxes next to which services you want your text messages forwarded to.

Text messages then show up at that destination, and you can send messages from there as well. I just set it up with the Chrome extension, since I almost never use a chat client. The web client, shown below, can be opened right from the browser extension.

One word of warning – DeskSMS looks like it is free from the Android page, but that is actually just a free trial. When the trial expires, you have to pay a yearly $4.99 subscription fee. The listing in the Android Market doesn’t mention this, and I can’t find a developer website with any information on the trial or the subscription. I had to comb through user reviews on the Android Market to get that information. It’s a shame that the developer isn’t more up front about the cost, because in my trial of the app, it worked really well.

There are a few other apps that work similarly to DeskSMS. We previously covered AirDroid, which includes texting among several other features. If you have a favorite app for sending and receiving texts from your computer, let us know in the comments.

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Read It Later Gets a Facelift and a Brand New Name: Pocket (Web, iOS, Android, Kindle Fire)

Bobby Travis — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:16:52 +0000

Read It Later has been one of the most popular tools of its ilk for years now, starting way back in the dark ages of 2007. Along the way, it’s found itself up against some stiff competition with apps like Instapaper, Readability and, more recently, Evernote’s Clearly, but has remained a fan favourite with over 300 connected apps and services. It’s possible that the competition was getting a bit stiff, however, because Wednesday brought about a major change: a complete re-do of the look and feel of all apps, along with a total rebrand.

Meet Pocket, Read It Later fans.

There must be something in the air or water — or maybe it’s was Big Update Month or something. Facebook pushed all of its Pages over to the new timeline feature, confusing many a marketing guru and causing some frantic thinking as to how to force people to keep liking their pages; Google continued its Google+ focused design rollout, changing the design and navigation of their social network into something more icon-driven; and Springpad dropped a bomb of a new design on its (mostly) unsuspecting userbase.

The main difference with the new Read It Later is that, while the other services have been met with responses that vary from meh to ARRRRRRGH!!!!, from what I’ve read, Pocket has been received with almost universal positivity. This is not without reason, however, as everything about Pocket is an improvement.

Look and Feel

The new look and feel is easier to navigate, and visually appealing. It kind of reminds me of the new Springpad, in some ways — but don’t worry, new Springpad haters, the icon view isn’t too huge for the design, and the list view is still there, if you don’t like it. The colors are nice, the new branding is pretty and simple, and the icons in the mobile versions are pretty much self-explanatory. It also helps that, while some views are obviously going to be different depending on the device you’re on (no grid view for iPhone for example), the interface is consistent throughout. The end result is that it is a lot easier to find your way to and through the content you’ve saved, as well as to mange it (read, unread, tags, delete).

Functionality

Pocket did the smart thing and didn’t remove functionality it’s users we’re used to. Instead, they added features that make the service even more useful! Pocket gets that the web is more than just words and that you want to bookmark more than just articles for later viewing. Now you can bookmark and view images and videos from all over the web right in your Pocket apps. On your computer or iPad, you the video pops up in an overlay, and on the iPhone, they open in the native video player — and in all services, you can launch them right from the little play button that appears on thy our bookmark’s thumbnail.

Info: Videos need an active internet connection, but articles and images still download for offline viewing.

Note: If you had a favourite app, extension, or bookmarklet for Read It Later, they should all still work with Pocket. You can also send to Pocket by email, and they’ve redesigned the official Google Chrome extension to get things into your list with a single click.

Pocket has some quick filters to aid in navigation (All Items, Articles Videos, and Images), as well as Home, Favorites, and Archives in the main menu. You can also use the search functionality, or navigate by tags, if you like.

You can still toggle between the pretty read view and the native web view for an article, and it’s now a lot easier to change the look of an article. There are only two fonts to choose from (FF Yoga for serif, and Proxima Nova for sans serif), but getting to that change, as well as changing the font size, screen brightness, or from and to night reading mode now takes no more than the touch of an obvious button. No more double-tapping on your mobile screen or any other such nonsense. The menu bar is always on and doesn’t get in the way of the reading experience.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sharing content from Pocket is easier than ever, as well. Just hit the little share arrow-button that has become the universal app symbol to pass it on, and touch to share on Twitter, Facebook, or send to Evernote. Not enough? Hit the more button and you can copy the entire article in a single click, email the link or the entire article, open it in Safari, or send it to a multitude of services (Box.com, Buffer, Google Reader, Diigo, Delicious, Pinboard, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, and all of the major social networks). Still not enough? Scroll a bit lower on iOS and you can send it on to EchoFon,Twitter for iPhone, Twittelator Pro, and even Omnifocus and Things.

That last — Omnifocus and Things — as well as the email capability, can make the things you save into actionable tasks, which is handy. And, as a nice little add on, the share services that you used most recently are the ones that will show up before the More button the next time you open it.

Downsides?

No app is perfect, and Pocket still has a few things it needs to be the best Read It Later type app out there. For one, it needs Google+ sharing and +1 capability. That was a glaring omission from the share list — though it may not be entirely their fault, as the Google+ API is still being extended. It would also be great if Pocket had the time of day activated night mode that Instapaper has, as well Instapaper’s ability to dim images as well as text. Oh — and the ability to apply night mode to the entire app would be peachy, as well. It would save more than a few eyes when users switch from an article back to the interface when reading in the dark.

Finally, I wish Pocket had some sort of reminder feature that could be applied to articles. One of the reasons I stopped using the original Read It Later — even though I loved the idea — was that the things I saved in it would never get read. They would get clipped with the bookmarklet, apps, or the Chrome extension (the new one makes this even easier), and then I would never look at them again. I actually started using Springpad to clip my articles for exactly this reason. Yes, I can send an article to my task manager to take action on, later, but only after I’ve read it — and when you see a lot of shiny things on the web or in your reader apps, your reading list can get intimidating, fast. So, yeah… Pocket, do me a solid and add a reminder function, eh?

What do you guys think of Pocket as the new Read It Later? Success? Fail? Does it trump Instapaper for you?

Get Pocket

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How to Get Photos and Videos From Your Android Device to Your iPad With Apple’s Camera Connection Kit

Evan Kline — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Last week, we looked at how to get videos from your Android device to your iPad, without cables. That process can be time consuming and tedious if you’re moving more than just a handful of videos. A more efficient method is to use Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, which also lets you move photographs to your iPad. To get that method to work, though, you need a few tricks in your arsenal.

There are two keys in the process. First, you must connect a device that the iPad supports. If your Android device isn’t supported or doesn’t otherwise work, you may need to use an intermediate step. Second, the file name of the photo or video that you want to move must be in a particular format. Let’s look at each of these.

Use a Supported Device

When I connected my Samsung Captivate to my iPad via the Camera Connection Kit, I received a message on the iPad that my phone required too much power to work. That left me with two options. First, I tried popping the micro-SD card out of my phone, and sticking it into an SD adapter, which I then inserted into the Camera Connection Kit (the Kit doesn’t natively support micro-SD cards). That didn’t work, as the iPad didn’t recognize the card. I don’t know whether that was because my adapter was a dud, or for some other reason. If you have an adapter, you may want to give that a try.

My second choice ended up working, although it wasn’t ideal. I knew I needed to get the photos onto an SD card, so I hooked up both the phone and an SD card reader to my computer, and moved the photos and videos over. That worked, with my iPad able to import the photos and videos from the SD card via the Camera Connection Kit, once the photos and videos were named properly. More on that below.

Yes, entering a computer into the equation somewhat defeats the purpose, and shines a glaring light on the limitations of the iPad. Still, with a baby in the family, I rarely have time now to sit in front of the computer and edit video. So if I have to spend a few minutes moving items onto the iPad, in order to be able to edit them later at my leisure, it is worth it.

Name the Files Properly

The other key to getting the kit to work is to make sure that your photos and videos are named properly. For whatever reason, your photos and videos must be named in a manner similar to the following if you want the iPad to recognize them:

For video: MVI_0001.mov

In other words, the name must start with “MVI_” and end with four numeric digits, followed by a supported file extension, such as ”.mov”, “.m4v”, or “.mp4″.

For photos: IMG_0001.jpg

In other words, the name must start with “IMG_” and end with four numeric digits, followed by a supported file extension, such as “.jpg”. I haven’t tried other formats, such as .png, so I’m not sure if those other formats would work or not. I’ve also seen reports that some other variations on this naming convention will work, but I can’t vouch for them.

I just do the renaming directly on my Mac when I move the files onto the SD card. If the SD-adapter method works for you, you could also use an app like Ghost Commander and rename them directly on your Android device.

If you know of a better way to get your photos and videos onto your iPad, let us know in the comments.

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How to Get a Video From Your Android Device to Your iPhone or iPad, Without Cables

Evan Kline — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 01:00:00 +0000

I’ve caved, and bought the new iPad. I’ve found it to be quite capable as a rudimentary photo and video editing tool. Due to the lack of a file system in iOS, though, getting videos from other devices onto it can be a bit problematic. Since I have an Android phone, that was one of the first problems that I wanted to solve. Here’s the method that I use, that could work for you, too.

Before you can even think about moving a video onto the iPad, you need to make sure that you are recording in a file format that the iPad can understand. I’m running CyanogenMod on my Samsung Captivate, and it records .m4v files that work fine (file formats, containers, etc., are a story for some other day).

Apple’s Camera Connection Kit might be the easiest method for getting videos onto your iPad, but it isn’t foolproof. I ordered the kit, thinking that it would do the trick. Unfortunately, upon hooking it to the iPad and my phone, I was greeted with a message on the iPad that my phone required too much power for the kit to work.

I then started plowing around the web for solutions. I found a comment from user OSMac on the MacRumors forums that pointed me to a solution that has worked.

The solution requires an app on your Android device and an app on your iOS device, and also requires that you have your devices on the same WiFi network. The Android app is WiFi File Transfer. When you start this app on your phone, it will present you with an IP address to which you need to connect with your browser on your iPad.

Not just any browser will do, however. The browser you need on iOS is iCab Mobile. Take the IP address provided by WiFi File Transfer, and enter that in your iCab Mobile browser’s address bar. You’ll then be presented with a screen that shows your device’s file structure.

You’ll need to know where your videos are located (usually in a folder titled “DCIM” if you shot the video yourself). Browse in the file structure to the video you want, and click the “download” link. iCab Mobile will tell you that the video can’t be displayed, and will ask you if you want to download it. If you answer in the affirmative, you can monitor the download progress in the browser’s download manager.

When the download is finished, you can select it in the download manager, and you’ll be presented with a list of options, such as emailing it or saving it in the album. To get the video into your iPad’s Camera Roll, where apps such as iMovie can access it, choose “Save Video in Album.”

This isn’t the best method getting videos onto your iPad, as it is tedious and slow if you have more than a couple of videos to move. In an upcoming post I’ll explain my main method for getting video from my Android phone to the iPad. This method does the trick in a pinch, however.

WiFi File Transfer is free, but comes with a 4 MB file upload limit. Since most videos will easily exceed that, you’ll want WiFi File Transfer Pro ($1.40 on Google Play), which removes this limit. iCab Mobile is $1.99 in the iOS App Store, and works on both the iPhone and iPad.

Do you have a way to get video onto your iOS device? If so, let us know in the comments.

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Clipper Gives You Text Expansion (of Sorts) on Android [App of the Week]

Evan Kline — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

I hate responding to email from my phone. As much as Swype has made using the phone keyboard much easier, it still doesn’t compare to the speed of a computer keyboard. Normally, I wait until I’m back at my desk to answer email. Still, I find that there are some responses that I enter over and over on my phone. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a text expansion app on Android so that I could take care of those messages on the go? There aren’t text expansion apps for Android, at least in the same sense that are text expansion apps for the PC and Mac that allow you to type shortcuts to expand text. There are apps, however, that let you insert previously created snippets into documents. Clipper is one such app.

Clipper is billed as a clipboard manager for Android, and it does a good job of that. It resides in your notification bar and monitors your Android clipboard, allowing you to select from recently copied items, and insert them back into documents, email messages, and other text fields.

For me, though, it is Clipper’s snippet functionality that makes it worthwhile. You can set up snippets by giving a snippet a title, and then setting up the text to be used for that snippet. You then select Clipper from the notification bar whenever you want to insert that snippet. Clipper opens, you tap the snippet of choice, and Clipper then automatically adds that snippet to your clipboard and then closes. You’re automatically returned to where you left off. From there, you can long-press in your document, and paste the snippet from your clipboard.

The number of steps required means that you probably don’t want to use Clipper for short snippets. You could type those almost as fast. I use Clipper for longer canned responses. For example, we get a ton of requests about guest posts here at 40Tech. Most of the people making those requests haven’t read our guest post guidelines, and disappear when they learn that we don’t post articles that use SEO anchor links to try to game Google. I now have a standard email that I send out to people asking about goest posts, pointing them to our guidelines. Clipper is perfect for that type of email. I have the entire message set up in Clipper, and can fire off a quick response from my phone to those requests. No longer do I need to wait until I’m back at my machine.

I found that the easiest way to get snippets into Clipper is to use Dropbox. I put snippets into Dropbox as individual text files, and then open those text files on my phone using the Dropbox Android app. From there, all I do is copy and paste the snippet into Clipper, and save it.

Clipper is free in the Android Market, but comes with a five snippet limit. Clipper+ currently costs $1.99, and removes that limit. Clipper+ has some other features as well, such as allowing you to set dynamic values for date and time.

Do you use a clipboard manager or snippet app on your phone?

Clipper [Android Market]

Clipper+ [Android Market]

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App of the Week: Email Me Pro [Android]

Evan Kline — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

There are any number of reasons why you might want to send yourself an email message. You may want to email yourself a reminder, or send yourself a link from a website. Perhaps you frequently send items into Evernote via your Evernote email address, or maybe you send tasks into your task manager via a dedicated email address. If you want to streamline the process of sending messages to yourself, or to any frequent recipient, check out Email Me Pro, or its free version, Email Me.

With Email Me Pro, you start by setting up templates. You give each template a name and specify a recipient’s email address (such as your own, your spouse’s, or your Evernote account). You can also set up a subject and message content, or tell the app what to do for those fields, such as to use the subject of a shared item. If you want to get more geeky, you can set up a schedule for the app to send a message at a regular interval.

Once you’ve set up a template, then you can click on the Email Me Pro icon via Android’s Share menu, and you’ll be presented with a list of your templates. Choose one, and your message will be filled out for you. I use the app frequently to get information into my task manager. For example, if I see a Tweet that I want to write about on 40Tech, I’ll click the share option in my Twitter client, then click the Email Me Pro icon, and then select my task manager. A new email message is created with a link to the Tweet, and my task manager’s email address already filled in. All that I need to do is hit the send button. If you don’t mind not reviewing your message before sending it, you can even eliminate this step if you fill out your email server information in advance (I haven’t tried this feature yet, so I can’t comment on how it works).

You can also create widgets with the app. I keep a widget on my home screen for my task manager. If I think of an item that I need to dump into my task management system, I tap the widget, type out the task, and hit send. The widget saves me the step of opening my email client, tapping the “compose” button, and typing in a recipient address.

If you’re a Tasker fan, Email Me Pro is enabled as a Tasker plugin. This means that you can send emails automatically using the numerous triggers in Tasker.

If you’d like a free version, take Email Me for a test drive. This allows you to set up one pre-populated template for your messages, using one account.

Email Me Pro is currently $1.99 in the Android Market.

Email Me Pro [Android Market]