How do you customize your lockscreen on an Android phone?

Why do we prefer Android over iOS? Because Android is customizable, we often say; widgets are another of our favorite features to tout. Your lockscreen is a pretty sweet forum for combining these features into one very awesome customization that will make your iPhone-toating friends drool. Here are three actual lockscreen customizations that users have created, from limitless options.

 

There are a couple things you need, but customizing your lockscreen is actually easy -- you'll look like an advanced Android user, disproportionate to the amount of time and effort actually spent. First, you need an app like WidgetLocker Lockscreen, SmartShift Lockscreen, Apex Launcher, or Nova Launcher (may have an easier time with Nova Launcher Prime). They all work in slightly different ways, so really it's a matter of trying yourself, to see what you like best. Customizing a step further will require an app like Ultimate custom widget (UCCW). From here, it's quite self-explanatory. Specify what exactly you want to show on your lockscreen, in the customization sections of the lockscreen or launcher apps. They will allow you to place widgets, icons, photos, etc. Then, when you have fiddled with that for a while and are ready to step it up a level, design your own widgets, in UCCW, and get to the point of making your lockscreen precisely what you find convenient and cool.

I may post some of my creations at some point soon, and would love to add yours to my gallery. Let me know, in a comment or email, if you have a customized lockscreen you'd like displayed.

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 track Starbucks cards and rewards on an Android?

I don't know why we pay $6 for a cup of coffee, but we do. If someone would just organize us all so Starbucks doesn't make a single sale for a week, that might encourage them to bring their prices down near the price of coffee in the rest of the country. I would, but I'm busy that day.

Since I can't help by organizing a boycott, instead I'll help by making it easier to spend money at Starbucks. If you can't beat 'em...

There is, of course, a Starbucks app in the Google Play Store. Download the app here, and sign into your account to see all cards on your account, review your stars, see if you have any rewards ready, locate nearby Starbucks locations, pay and even reload your cards, etc. I find it convenient to walk into Starbucks carrying just my phone, and to skip digging my wallet out of my purse, which slid under the back seat, in the drive thru.

Best of all, the Starbucks app has a super-convenient widget (but of course not for sad, in-the-box iPhone users... for your own sakes, my friends, be free!). The widget sits happily on my second homescreen, showing me my card balance, number of stars, and the option to find a nearby location. Unfortunately my balance is rather lacking at the moment...but actually that's a good thing, because it reminded me of a piece of Starbucks advice that might help you forgive my lack of motivation in the boycott department: rather than buying a "peppermint mocha", try a dark roast coffee with a shot or two of peppermint and a shot or two of mocha, and add some cream and sugar. I think it's better, because I prefer coffee a tad less sweet than most of Starbucks' holiday offerings, and it's about half the price. There you go... that's my frugal advice. And this is what the widget looks like (See how my cup is gold? That's because I'm a gold member. With all the rights and privileges... and you expected me to boycott?):

How do you add widgets to your home screen?

An Android widget is like a regular icon for an app, in that when touched it opens that app. The difference between a simple icon for an app and a widget for an app,  though, is that a widget has a smaller or simplified version of the app right there on your homepage, as well as linking to the full app. This is a screenshot of my current home page, with the top three items widgets (unfortunately my Starbucks widget doesn't fit on this page, and is pushed out to screen 2):

Let's take The Weather Channel app and widget as an example. You download the Weather Channel app from the Google Play Store, and you set the icon on your homepage. Now when you touch that icon, you get to the weather page, where you can see the forecast for your location. The widget for the Weather Channel app, however, will show you what location's weather is currently showing, the current temperature, and the high/low for today and tomorrow... all constantly visible on your home page (or whichever page you put the widget on). If you touch the widget, you'll be brought to the full weather.com app, where you can see the 10-day forecast, hourly forecast, change locations, etc.

If you touch and hold a blank spot on your home screen, you will see the option for widgets. Touch that and you'll be brought to a list of all widgets available for your currently-installed apps. A widget will not show up in this menu if you don't have the app installed... part of installing the app will be adding its widget to the list, if it has that capability.

This feature is a really special aspect of Android, that iPhone users envy. The ability to actually see a bit of info or do a little something without opening the app is a very useful feature that you should start to take advantage of, if you don't already.