How do you get Facebook Home, for Android?

I've never been that excited about launchers, but there's a new one coming that's rather different. This one, you see, has a purpose. Facebook Home, which can be installed only on Android, is a film through which your phone is viewed. Facebook becomes central to your smartphone experience, starting with the homescreen and lockscreen, which are replaced with "Cover Feed"... streaming of posts and pictures, which you can actually like, comment on, etc, natively; no need to open the Facebook app. Chat Heads is the second big feature; this combines Facebook messages with texts, and allows multitasking so you can work in another app and then come back to the chat, without interruption. Lastly, Facebook Home includes an App Launcher. It... ehm... launches apps. I'm not so very excited about this particular aspect of Facebook Home.

In summary, Facebook Home makes Facebook more than just easily-accessible... rather, it's already active, no matter what else is open on your phone. View the official website, for more information. The first phone to include Facebook Home natively is the HTC First, already available for pre-order here. You don't have to buy the HTC First, though... the family of apps will be available for download from the Google Play Store on April 12. Currently, the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the Samsung Galaxy S III, and the HTC One series are supported, but I'm confident Facebook Home will be available across-the-board, quickly. If you have an Android, that is. If you have an iPhone, well, to quote Doug Gross, CNN contributor, "Your wait might be quite a bit longer. Or, you know, forever." Can anyone tell me why that might be? It's because Android is an open source operating system, permitting such overhauls as Facebook Home. That is why we love it.

That's also why Android is winning the smartphone war. In the first quarter of 2013, Android accounted for 51.2 percent of smartphone sales, compared with Apple's 43.5 percent, according to The Economic Times. It is interesting to note that new smartphone subscribers in that same time period leaned drastically toward Apple, over Android. When you view that in light of the total picture, in which Android dominates, the conclusion is that the novice buys an iPhone... later realizing iPhone doesn't cut it and switching to Android, for the complete smartphone experience.

How do you automate tasks on an Android phone?

You walk out to your car, and your Android begins playing Pandora radio and switches to car mode. You walk into the office, and Pandora exits, as your phone  moves into standby mode where pictures from your gallery float around the screen. As the meeting in your schedule approaches, your Android reminds you and then opens the camera in front-facing mode, for a quick appearance-check before you go impress the boss.

All of this can be automated, using an app like Tasker. It's a fascinating system of prompts... if this, then that scenarios, rather like an Excel formula. For example, as you leave your house, you can't pick up home's Wi-Fi, which becomes a prompt to open Pandora and switch to car mode. Picking up the office network could be the prompt as you arrive. A couple other simple prompts would be an incoming notification, or opening an app.

Location or activity-based automations aren't the only option with Tasker; you can also set up shortcuts, in which one touch will go through a whole process. For example, you can write a command that will put an icon on your screen which, when touched, will take a picture and email it to a specific email address in your Gmail account. If your phone can do it, Tasker can automate it. The potential with this sort of program is limitless, helping you to keep up with life, never forget important events, and do everything you currently do with your phone, without all the steps in between that seem to take up most of the time we spend with our eyes on our Android screens.

Get the app from the Google Play Store here.
Get the free trial here.

How do you use Android Jelly Bean version 4.2?

Last month, Google released Android version 4.2... an upgrade on the July-released Jelly Bean. It's pretty sweet.

You know how you dismiss the upgrade iTunes reminders dozens of times before eventually upgrading, and more often than not you don't see a change? (Ok, to be fair iTunes is a solid program, which I do use.) Well, not so with Android upgrades. Upgrades always seem zippier, smoother, and just cool feature-filled. The camera in 4.2, in addition to changes in the notifications bar capabilities are probably the biggest changes. Feature-by-feature, this is what's new in Android Jelly Bean, version 4.2:

• Any HDMI-enabled TV can display what's on your Android, wirelessly. All you need is a wireless display adapter, and your phone can beam to the TV.
• A feature that I thought pretty whatever until I thought about it more is the phone's screensaver mode. Like a computer, instead of just going black, your screen can default to a screensaver-style display. This could be slideshows of your gallery pics, your news feeds, etc. It's pretty neat. Think about it.
• Before Jelly Bean, notifications were simply info and a port to open the app where you take action; now you can actually choose some options from notifications. For example, if you have a reminder pop up, you could choose to email the participants or dismiss the reminder right from the drag-down notifications bar.
• Battery life is improved in this Android version, through a brilliant feature in which your fingers on the screen increase CPU usage, which goes semi-standby when not in use. Touchscreen and speed improvements are noticeable... zippy is my word of choice.
• Now we've all seen the spectacular Samsung Galaxy S3 commercials, in which device owners share content just by touching the phones. Did you know the S3 isn't the only phone that can do this? Android Beam is a new program that uses a tap to wirelessly beam just about anything on the screen between two phones with the program.
• Widgets (my number one reason to prefer Android over iPhone) have taken a big step in this version. Now when you drop a widget on your screen, instead of that irritating message that it doesn't fit, which causes you to lose the widget you were holding and have to dig it up again, now other widgets will resize to make room for the new one. That's very friendly of them, don't you think? 
• Google Now makes your phone into even more of a personal assistant. You get weather every morning, location-based info such as train schedules, etc. Google searching has also improved, as well as capability to browse the web with your voice.
• The Photo Sphere camera is a huge improvement in Jelly Bean 4.2. Basically, the camera shoots in all directions, and joins the photos together, rather like a very intelligent, vertical and horizontal panorama software.
• Last, and probably least, Google is now excited about gesture typing. But I already knew about gesture typing, and I already like Swype (see this article about the Swype keyboard) muchly, so I'm not excited about this. Sorry, Google.

This Android 4.2 upgrade of Jelly Bean is pretty impressive. I love software developers that understand the importance of upgrades upgrading something.

How do you get rid of the voicemail notification on an Android?

Quite a few times, I have listened to a voicemail (that's the notification shown in the far left of the bar above), pressed 7 to delete it, and exited, only to discover the voicemail notification was still peering up at me from my notifications bar. I find this insignificant problem maddening. And it took me quite a few tries of redialing my voicemail inbox, knowing I didn't actually have an unheard voicemail, but attempting again to remove that icon, before I discovered the solution.

One time, early in my smartphone experience, the ridiculous malfunction my brilliant Android displayed had me irate. I held my number 1 key and mashed in my password, with the intention of letting the message play the whole way through, to see if that would fix it. I was engaging in un-American sentiment, holding my phone guilty until proven innocent; I did in fact have an unheard message. That is why I caution you to verify your phone's guilt before attempting my solution.

Now the solution: if your phone displays a new voicemail notification, but you are confident you do not have a new voicemail, simply call your Android from another phone, and leave a voicemail. Now when you dial into your inbox from your Android, your phone should return to normal function, which would be to remove the (now accurate) notification that you have a new voicemail, once you have listened and deleted it.