Haley Howell

Dock icons can provide handy shortcuts to your most used apps. Although the phone comes with four pre-selected shortcuts, it’s very easy on a Motorola device to change these out for something you use more frequently. I. Changing Icons 1. Hold your finger down on the app you want to change; you will feel a small vibration if you have haptic feedback enabled. 2. A menu will come up that says ‘Add to Dock’ at the top, and will have a list of app shortcuts. 3. Select the app you want in the dock and it will immediately change. 4. […]

Every Android device comes equipped with a news app that allows you to receive multiple news feeds in one location. By figuring out how to manage news feeds you will no longer have to download a hundred different news apps. I. Getting Subscriptions 1. The first way to access the News app is to add a widget to one of your screens. To do this hold your finger down on an empty spot on the screen and select Widgets. You will see a widget called News, click this to add it to the screen. 2. You will be asked to

Aside from typical widgets and shortcuts that can be added to Android screens, there is another hidden gem, shortcut actions. This allows you to add a very specific shortcut instead of just one to a general app. I. Enabling Shortcuts 1. Much the same way you add app shortcuts and widgets, hold your finger down on an empty area of the screen and select shortcuts. 2. You will see a list of apps you can add a shortcut for, but at the very top is a green arrow that says ‘App actions’ next to it. 3. After selecting app actions,

Widgets are like mini-apps that you can place on your screen instead of having the small shortcut icon. Some of the most useful ones are weather, email and calendar shortcuts. Although each Android device comes pre-loaded with some widgets, there are a lot of widgets available from the Google Play Store. I. Using Pre-Installed Widgets 1. Each widget is a different size, but you will have to make sure there is room on your screen for the widget, otherwise it won’t be placed. 2. Once you have determined you have the right amount of space, hold your finger on the

There are a number of third party app stores for Android phones, but it is difficult to know which ones to trust. Amazon has created its own third party store and made it available for all Android devices, ensuring security and quality. I. Getting the Appstore 1. The first thing you will need to do is go to settings -> applications and select ‘Unknown sources’ to allow your phone to install third party markets. 2. Next thing you’ll need to do is go to the Amazon App Store to install the APK for the appstore. 3. You’ll see a ‘Download now’

Google Play online lets you see what apps you have installed, and lets you install apps to a particular device. It can be helpful if you’ve switched devices, or decided to reinstall an app, but couldn’t remember what it was called. I. Accessing the Online Store 1. Go to https://play.google.com/store?hl=en&tab=w8. 2. Log in to your Google account. 3. Go to ‘My Android Apps’ on the right side. You will see a list of installed apps. II. Installing Apps 1. If you would like to reinstall an app click the ‘installed’ button next to the app. 2. One of the options is

Creating folders helps keep apps and documents together and makes navigation on a phone easier. On Android phones there is an easy way to create and manage folder to free up app clutter and keep important files together. I. Creating Folders 1. Choose which screen you want to place a folder on (you can always move the folder later). 2. Hold your finger down on the screen and choose ‘Folders’ from the menu. 3. A list of options pops up with a few pre-made folders that you can place on your screen. If you are looking to create a new

Sick of the same old look on your phone, but not interested in rooting? Luckily there is an easy, and free, way to change the appearance of your phone. It’s also easy to go back to the phone’s original launcher if you change your mind. I. What You Need 1. In the Google Play Store search for launcher. 2. You will be presented with a list of various launcher apps, and what these basically do is change the “desktop” of the phone and nothing more, they don’t in any way change the function of the phone. 3. Some of the

Newer Motorola phones have an awesome new tool, called MotoCast, which allows you to access files from your computer without the necessity of plugging in your phone or using an SD card. Some of the benefits include pulling files from your computer to your phone, streaming music from iTunes and moving pictures from your computer to your phone. I. Getting Started 1. Go to http://www.mymotocast.com/ on your computer. 2. Click download and install Motocast. 3. You can download the Windows, Mac or Android version (you need a compatible Motorola device for this to work). 4. Even if you have the Android app

The Universal Inbox allows you to view messages from different accounts all in one location. You can see emails, text messages and even Facebook messages. I. Setting Up Accounts 1. The easiest way to access Universal Inbox is to setup the widget on your phone. Hold your finger down on the screen and select widgets, then Universal Inbox. 2. Now that you have the widget you can click on it and go to add account. 3. Now you should see a screen that says set up accounts with different options. If you want to set up various email accounts just

Setting up profiles on an Android device can be essential if you are constantly changing your settings based on your location. Using the paid app, Profile Scheduler, you can set up different profiles based on where you are, and can set up timers so that they automatically switch. I. Before You Begin 1. Head to the Google Play app store and download Profile Scheduler. 2. The app will be available in your app menu. 3. When you open the app a pop up gives you helpful hints, you can press dismiss unless you want to read through them. 4. The

Data plans are not cheap, and going over your data limit can add up pretty quickly. There are little tips and tricks, however, that can save data to avoid any penalty fees at the end of the month. I. Recommendations 1. Put the data counter widget somewhere visible (like the homescreen) so that you have a visual of how much data you are using. Widgets can be accessed by holding your finger down on the screen. 2. Leave your WiFi toggle on. Furthermore, if you get a popup or notification saying WiFi is available check it out because a lot

When you add social networking contacts to your phonebook, or import contacts from a different phone, you may end up with multiple entries for one person. There’s an easy way to combine information to reduce phonebook clutter and make phonebook entries more complete. I. Combining Contacts 1. Find the contact that you want to combine. 2. Hold your finger down on the contact entry and select edit contact, or if that doesn’t work, select the contact and the press the menu key and edit contact should be there. 3. Once you are in edit contact mode, press the menu key

It’s nice to have a photo come up when someone is calling you, but unless you are getting the contacts from Facebook they won’t have a picture. Luckily it’s easy to add an image for your contact as long as you have it saved on your phone. I. Before You Begin 1. Make sure you have a picture you want to use saved on your phone. All of the photos on your phone can be found in your gallery app, even if you saved them from a text message or downloaded them from the Internet. II. Adding the Photo 1.

There are a lot of good reasons to put a password on your phone, but this is a feature you have to turn on by yourself. There are different types of passwords you can set up with Android depending on your style. I. Setting a Password 1. Go to settings. 2. Go to location and security settings. 3. Navigate to set up screen lock. 4. You will be presented with different options: pattern, pin and password. Pattern is a simple connect the dots, pin is a numeric passcode and password is exactly what it sounds like. 5. If you want