How do you play Pandora internet radio, on an Android?

I don't often listen to local radio; not because I don't enjoy it, but because those with whom I travel think it ludicrous to plow through a dozen songs I don't want to hear, then finally hear a song I love... and could have played in the first place. While this is a valid point, I have two objections: one, songs I own are more exciting when I hear them on the radio; and two, how will I discover my new favorite song if I never venture outside my library? I think we all know the solution: 

Such potential...

Pandora works by starting with a track or artist you select, and playing similar offerings. I once created a station around the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss album Raising Sand, and was horrified by the results; usually, though, I'm impressed with how smoothly diverse songs are correlated. The first song my Josh Garrels station played, for example, was The Train Song, by Feist + Ben Gibbard -- I would not have thought to associate those artists, but when Pandora introduced that song to me (several months before I'd heard Josh Garrels), I liked its sound so much I bought it. Well done, Pandora. Well done.

But Pandora has been an Android app since 2009; why bring it up now?  Well, because it's an integral part of how you Android, and because a charming excuse to talk about Pandora came along, in the form of a pretty significant update to the app. In the new version, the biggest change is lockscreen controls, for the newest versions of Android. Faster start-up and a song progress indicator wrap up the most noticeable changes.

Would you rather hear a commercial for hair conditioner (played several million decibels louder than your station), or a 30-second pause in you music? Install Pandora Ad Blocker from the Play Store, and follow the simple instructions to activate it, if you prefer the pause. And, of course, download or update Pandora Internet Radio from the Play Store.

I leave you with this thought: I have heard from some that multitasking while playing Pandora is either limited or unavailable, on an iPhone. Is it so or is it not -- I can't get a straight answer. I do know, though, that multitasking on an Android is so smooth that you forget it's happening.

How do you sync an Android phone with an Apple computer?

Mind you, I'm not condoning such behavior; however, it's a step in the right direction to recognize that owning a Mac does not force you into choosing an iPhone.

Google's official (and free) solution to the Apple/Android integration problem is the most likely to suit. It's called Android File Transfer, and must be installed on your Mac. After it's installed, connect your Android to your Mac, via USB cable, and double click to open Android File Transfer on the computer (after the first use, the program will open automatically). Your phone should be recognized automatically, but if you run into any trouble here, try enabling USB debugging on your Android (Settings > Developer Options > Enable USB Debugging). The Android File Transfer program is pretty self-explanatory... the amount of space available on your device is shown, and you can move files and folders around between your computer and your phone. 

To download Android File Transfer, click here. 

For Android File Transfer support, click here.

If you aren't concerned about syncing anything but music, between your Mac and your Android, you might want to try Google Play Music, another program directly from Google. Install the app on your Android, and navigate to http://play.google.com/music on your Mac. Click Upload Music in the top right corner, then click Download the Google Play Music Manager. Once the Google Play Music Manager is installed on your computer, personalize exactly what music is uploaded to Google Play Music (all of iTunes, including playlists, is an option). After the upload is complete, your music will be available in Google Play Music, on your Android. 

To download Google Play Music on your Android, click here.

To download Google Play Music Manager on your Mac, click here (then click Upload Music > Download the Google Play Music Manager.)

There are a lot more options for syncing an Android phone with an Apple computer, so if you don't like these methods, look around for others, such as Samsung Kies, HTC Sync, doubleTwist, Salling Media Sync, and SyncMate, to name a few.

How do you use the SIII wireless share technology on other Android phones?

I thought the Samsung Galaxy S III deja vu commercials were pretty spectacular. They started out looking rather Apple, with hipsters camping out in front of the store, waiting for the Next Big Thing. "The connector's all digital; what does that even mean?!" gushed one Apple enthusiast. "I hear the headphone jack is on the bottom," another claims, with an accompanying 'blown mind' audio/visual aid. Then a sweet old couple comes up to a young man in line and thank their son for holding the spot. (Wait... old people own iPhones?) "Have you ever had deja deja deja deja vu?" (Are we becoming pitiful, on this our 5th wait for the not-so-different new iPhone?) Sure, some laugh the commercial off ("Yes, insulting people is a great way to get them to buy your product."), but it was witty, it was talked about, and it worked. It's funny how we think we can't be influenced by get-inside-your-head tactics that subtly begin altering our point of view (I might be guilty, myself), but if you hear enough times that buying an iPhone is following the pack, you might think about Androids next time you're in the market.

Since that commercial shows two Galaxy S3 owners touching their phones to exchange a file, this is my segue (who else was certain that was pronounced say-GOO when they read it in intermediate piano books?) into discussion of Wi-Fi Direct sharing.

The really cool part is that you don't have to have an S3 to do this. The S Beam program (what it's called on the S3) is a combination of Near Field Communications (NFC) and Wi-Fi Direct. Let's say you just took a picture of yourself and your friend, and your friend would like the picture too. Go into your phone's settings, and touch More Settings, under the Wi-Fi section. Phones with compatible Android versions will have the option to turn on Wi-Fi Direct there. The owner of the transfer-to phone needs to turn Wi-Fi Direct on as well. Now go into your gallery, find the picture you want to send, touch menu, touch share or send, and select Wi-Fi Direct as your method. After a few seconds of scanning, phone number 2 should show up. Select the phone, touch Done, and after approving a connection with your phone, phone number 2 will receive the file. Of course any file can be sent this way. After you're finished with Wi-Fi Direct, it should be turned off for 2 reasons: 1, it's not secure to have your connection floating around; 2, your phone's Wi-Fi connection will be down until it's turned off. After a few minutes of no use, Wi-Fi Direct will be turned off automatically, but just doing it yourself right away would be a good idea. Since this is such a convenient and fast way of transferring files, you might want to think about saving time by putting a homepage widget to control whether Wi-Fi Direct is on or off.

How do you put music on an Android phone?

If you have a decent-sized MicroSD card in your phone, your Android can double as an iPod/Mp3 player. No, it can't sync with iTunes (the Android app called DoubleTwist does some finagling to get Apple-owned iTunes to cooperate with Google-owned Android), but it's still very easy to move your music over to your phone.

What you need:
- A phone with enough free space for your music (this can be internal storage or a MicroSD card)
- A computer with music on it
- A USB/Micro USB cable (probably what you use to charge it)

Step 1: Plug your phone into your computer. If your phone is the kind that asks which connection, select Media Transfer, USB Storage, Mass Storagae... something to that effect, meaning create a link to move files.

Step 2: Click "Open folder to view files" on the computer, when your phone's information pops up. If it doesn't pop up, find your phone in your "Computer" page, from the computer start menu. Find a folder called "Music" in your phone's information on the computer.

Step 3: If you do not use iTunes, skip to step 4 here. Open iTunes and select all the songs you want moved (Ctrl + A to select all and then Ctrl + Click to deselect ones you don't want might be fastest). Then copy and paste into your phone's music folder. If this worked, skip to step 6. If not, never fear... there is a second, more consistently successful method, continued in step 4.

Step 4: Open the location where your music is stored on the computer. This may be just by clicking "Music" in your start menu, or, if you use iTunes, try the file path Music>iTunes>iTunes Media>Music. That should take you to a list of artists in the folder.

Step 5: Select all the artists from your computer's music folder that you would like to move (or select the entire music folder, if your storage capacity is large enough), copy the selection, and then paste it into the phone's music folder. This will take anywhere from a  few minutes to a few hours, depending on how much music you move.

Step 6: Right click the USB icon in your taskbar and eject your phone. Unplug the phone and look for an app you already have on your phone, simply called "Music." Ta-da! Your music should be there, neatly organize by album or artist.

If you experience difficulty anywhere along the way, let me know in a comment what went wrong, and I'll see if I can help you resolve the problem.