I’ve said it many times, I’ll say it again: one of the reasons Android enthusiasts are so enthusiastic about Android is because of the way they can radically customize their user experience. You can change your keyboard, your launcher, music app and in today’s case your Gallery app.
These past few weeks has been very kind to Transformer Prime owners and enthusiasts: ASUS released its bootloader-unlocking tool, the device was permanently rooted and, earlier today, received ClockworkMod Recovery. Now, we have come across the first ever custom ROM for the ASUS Transformer Prime. It’s called Virtuous Prime and it is basically a stock build of Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich with a bunch of tweaks that make the device feel faster and more “usable”. For folks interested in trying the ROM out, we’ve got an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide ready after the jump!
From the people that I speak to in the real world and also via Twitter, there seems to be a common misconception that everyone who owns a smartphone immediately becomes an expert in how to extensively use that device, including the ins and outs of app installation. I know first hand that this simply isn't the case and to a lot of people, a smartphone is just simply another mobile device and they are unable to make a distinction between a normal phone and a smartphone.
Legally unlocking your smartphone/tablet involves taking it to your wireless network operator/carrier, paying them a hefty fee (which can go in the hundreds of dollars) and then receiving a special code which you can input to your device to unlock it so you can use on other wireless networks.
With mobile snatchings on the rise, it is very important that people install a powerful anti-theft app on their smartphone/tablet so that they can wipe sensitive data, lock their device and, in the best case scenario, catch the damned thief.
The regularity in which malware manages to keep infiltrating Android devices is gradually becoming something of a spectator sport; that is, of course, unless you happen to use one yourself.
It was at the beginning of February that the Dropbox team took the "simplify your life" motto to new levels by introducing an experimental build for Android users which had a number of excellent feature enhancements. The beta build was known as the 'Experimental Android Forum Build 2.0.9' and brought additional features to the already impressive Dropbox service by introducing automatic background uploading of photographs and videos as well as support for increased upload sizes and the ability to resume an upload after an interruption.
One of the advantages that Android has over iOS is that users have more control over their user-experience. If they are dissatisfied with the stock keyboard, launcher, music app etc., they can just head out to Android Market and download something that fits their needs. This may be perceived as Android being an OS that “doesn’t work out of the box”, but it’s more about giving users more choice.
The debate over whether iOS or Android is the best home for smartphone app developers is one that has been raging for some time, and one that shows no sign of abating.
With multi-cores, multi-gigabyte RAMs, every increasing flash memory capacities and upcoming software like Ubuntu for Android, it is only a matter of time before the smartphone replaces the desktop. Yes, believe it or not, smartphones are becoming that powerful.
