How do you get pictures to look right as wallpapers, on an Android?

There's something about spring, don't you think? Everyone has their particular perception of the season, but spring makes me think sun and bright, long skirts and daisies. Of course that means it's time to update my Android's wallpaper, from the Dr. Seuss quotes page (Dr. Seuss' birthday was March 2nd) to fresh and beautiful daisies.

A few Androids allow you to set your wallpaper as locked, so that the image is repeated as you swipe between your homescreens; but most spread the image across all the screens, so you see just a portion on each, as demonstrated by my lovely daisies (Is there a more cheerful flower? I think daises are widely undervalued.). That means that the size of the photo you set as your wallpaper is important. You don't have to be precise, but you'll want the shape of your picture to be approximately right, because when you set it as the wallpaper it has to fit a fixed shape. You can determine the correct resolution yourself, by taking the display size of your screen (which can be found in any specs list), and doubling the second number. For example, the Nexus 4 screen size is 768 x 1280, so the wallpaper size is 1536 x 1280; the Samsung Galaxy S III screen size is 720 x 1280, making the wallpaper size 1440 x 1280. Googling "Nexus 4 wallpaper size" is also a viable option. While optimal images will be exactly that size, the issue is really just shape, so keep the ratio approximately right and your images should fit nicely.

If you are setting a picture already on your phone as the wallpaper, crop it to the approximately-correct shape, then either touch and hold or hit menu to bring up the Set picture as option. Choose Wallpaper, and then adjust the crop to your preference. Depending on the phone, you will see options like setting the picture as your lockscreen also, and scrolling or keeping the picture static. Hit OK and enjoy.

If you need to first get the picture from your computer to your phone, start by plugging your phone into your computer via micro USB. In the AutoPlay that comes up on your computer, click "Open device to view files." Right-click the folder DCIM, and create a new folder called Wallpapers. Next, locate the picture in your computer's Pictures folder (if it's not there yet, well then you'd best put it there), and then drag and drop it from its original location to the Wallpapers folder on your phone. Now proceed to set the picture as your wallpaper, from your phone.

If you found a picture in your phone's browser, or if perhaps the picture was sent to you in an email that you are viewing on your phone, you need to save it to your phone first. This will be done by either touching and holding, then hitting Save or Download, or else by opening the menu and hitting Save attachments. Now the picture will be in a Downloads folder, in your gallery, from which you can again set it as your wallpaper.

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 install/uninstall apps on an Android?

There are two ways to access apps (which is short for applications) for an Android phone.

The first way is from your phone itself. One of the apps that your phone had when you got it, that can't be uninstalled, is called Play Store (it may be called the Market, but the first time you open the Market you'll be prompted to upgrade it to the newer version, the Play Store). Touch this, and you'll have access to the 563,000 and counting Android apps. You can look through top free apps, top paid apps (if you feel you should; there are enough free apps that paying is rather a waste of money, for the most part), top recommended apps, etc... you can also search by keyword (like flashlight or memo) or by app name (like Angry Birds or Instogram). Once you locate an app you're interested in, touch it and you'll see its description, reviews, some screenshots, and the option to install it. Helpful hint: if an app isn't compatible with your phone, it's not going to show up in the Play Store on your phone.

The second way to get at apps is from your computer, by navigating to https://play.google.com/store. Here, like on your phone, you can look at top apps and you can search for apps. However, all apps will come up, compatible with your phone or not. Since you're signed into Google on your phone and your computer, the Play Store from your computer will do a quick check, after you open an app page on your computer, and will let you know if it is compatible with your device. You can click to install the app from your computer, and verify that Google is sending it to the right device. Within a few seconds, you should see something installing on your phone.

To uninstall an app using your phone, go to your phone's settings, then Manage Applications. Open the "Downloaded" tab, and find the app. Touch it, and from there uninstall. Your second option to uninstall apps, still using your phone, is to open the Play Store, then touch the menu, then "My Apps." Touch the app you're trying to uninstall, and you'll see that uninstall option. From your computer, open the play store website, and click the "My Android Apps" page. You can click to uninstall apps from here. A second option from your computer is to search for the app, which Google will recognize that you have installed, and give you the option to uninstall.

How do you move contacts from an old phone to an Android phone?

If you've had an Android phone before, then your contacts are all saved in Google, so just going through the set-up process with your new phone (see blog post Getting Started) will pull in your contacts.
However, if this is your first Android, then there are a couple different ways to avoid that hideous process of manually re-entering each number.

First, and most likely to work, on your old phone, export your contacts to your SD card. Open your contacts, then open the contacts menu, where you should find the option to export to SD card (you'll have to have an SD card installed in your phone at this point). Then take out the SD card and switch it to your new phone. Now open your contacts on the Android, touch menu, and import from SD card.

Second, sometimes you can't move your contacts to your SD card, but, if the phone is GSM (meaning uses a SIM card), you should still be able to move them onto your SIM card. Sometimes you'll have to move them to storage on the SIM card one entry at a time, but that's still a lot faster than manually entering the numbers. This, as when putting contacts on an SD card, will be in menu or settings, under contacts. Look for a way to move them all at once, but if you can't find that, then open one contact at a time, and then the menu button should reveal the option to switch it to SIM storage.

If your phone charges via micro USB, so you can plug it into your computer, then your last option is to plug it in, "Open device to view files," and see if you can locate a folder with contacts in it. If so, copy that folder onto your desktop. Then disconnect that phone, and plug your Android into your computer. See if you can locate a contacts folder there, and then copy the old contacts folder contents into the new contacts folder, on your Android.

If you try all of these and have no luck, comment to tell me what's going on. You can also let me know if you run into some confusion going through any of these steps. If there's a way to do it, I'll help you get it figured out!

How do you move pictures from an Android phone to a computer?

Most of us take pictures on our cell phones a lot more than on our digital cameras... so it's convenient that it really is very easy to get pictures over from a phone to a computer.

Method 1: Post the picture on Facebook from your phone, then retrieve it from Facebook on your computer. When you have the picture open on your phone, there should be a "Share" option, where Facebook will be a choice.

Method 2: Email the pictures to yourself, by starting an email on your phone, then attaching the photos. Open the email on a computer and download the attachments, to save the pictures to your computer.

Method 3: Don't let the length of this method's instructions intimidate you... this method is actually really easy, especially once you've done it a time or two, and definitely the best way to move a lot of pictures quickly. Most Androids charge via a Micro USB plug. The full-size USB side of a wire can be plugged into a computer, and the micro side into a phone. The first time you plug the phone into your computer, drivers for the phone should automatically be identified and installed. Don't worry about that... it's complicated, so we should just consider ourselves lucky that the computer and phone can work together to figure themselves out without our help. (If this doesn't start automatically, try changing the type of connection... an option that will show up on your phone) After a few seconds the phone is ready to use on the computer. At this point an Autoplay box should pop up on your computer asking what you want to do with the phone. Click "Open device to view files." If you store pictures both on your phone itself and on your phone's SD card, this is where you click which of those two you're trying to access. Now you'll see some very misleading folders, called "Pictures," "Media," and other things that ought to be where your pictures are. Actually, though, your pictures are in a folder called "DCIM." After you click that, you might need to click "Camera" or similar... then you'll see all pictures from your phone. Scroll down to the bottom to see the most recent. Also, adjust thumbnail size on the top right corner of that window in order to be able to see the pictures, not just their names, and identify the ones you're looking for. Now all you have to do is select the ones you want, and copy them to your computer's picture folder.

As always, let me know what's going on if you run into any trouble, and we'll get this figured out.

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.

How do you know how much phone storage is enough? (Buying Guide Part 1)

The amount of storage you need (which is generally measured in gigabytes [gb]... 1 gb = 1,000 megabytes [mb]) is determined by what you plan on storing. Almost all phones' storage capacity can be expanded with a microSD memory card, which is usually purchased separately, such as here, where you can find 8gb, 16gb, and 32gb MicroSD Card choices. That option to expand the phone's storage seems like it should eliminate the problem of low internal (the phone itself, not a memory card) storage, but a week or two of use will show why that is not true. The main issue is that a lot of apps can't transfer over to the card, so you'll quickly encounter  that irritating message, when trying to download an app, that you need to open up the low storage wizard and create more storage (by deleting items taking up room). 

So how much space do you need? Assuming you add a memory card (you should), let's talk about the options. 

If you want this phone to be a means of making telephone calls and maybe a text or two a week, without any intention of raiding the Google Play Store for apps, you will be happy with the lowest storage capacity options, from 512 mb to one or two gb. Since you're storing very little, a lack of storage will pose no problems for you.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you download all the latest games, store a lot of e-books in Kindle or Google Books, keep up with newsfeeds and Nasdaq, and Facebook/Google+ your heart out, don't try anything much under 4 gb. That should be plenty to cover everything you can't move over to your memory card.

The average user, in between those two options, uses Facebook and Angry Birds, probably moved a little music from the computer (mostly to set as ringtones), and takes and saves pictures pretty frequently. If this is you, then you'll be happy with around 2-4 gb. 

Now you know what to look for, but how do you look? If you are starting at square one, without any idea what phone you want, watch for the upcoming post with specific recommendations. If you know some phones you're considering, search on the word "specs" and the phone's name (Samsung Galaxy S3 [my current favorite], for example). You'll find a variety of pages giving all this information we're talking about, including an entry called "Memory." The "Memory" choices are divided into something like "Card Slot" and "Internal." "Card Slot" simply indicates how large a capacity memory card is supported. "Internal" is the part you're looking for. It will say 512 mb, 2 gb, 16gb... whatever it is -- the point is now you know what you want. 

UPCOMING POST: Part 2 of "Buying Guide" series -- Camera