So
you own an Android
handset and harp the level of customisation you can achieve with the
device among your iPhone owning friends. But, there is a catch.
Neither you are comfortable rooting your device or installing custom
ROMs, nor have the required expertise. No need to feel disappointed
though as there are tons of apps available on Android market, which
let you customise almost everything in your device. Custom diallers,
SMS clients, homescreen launchers, lock menu, you just name it and
it’s there in the market. Installation is pretty easy too. You just
need to download the app and customise it after automatic
installation and that’s it! However, today we are going to talk
about four best homescreen replacements you can get for your phone.
Here is our list of the best.
1.
GO Launcher EX
Price:
Free
Requirement:
Android v2.0 minimum
Developer:
GO Dev Team
GO
Launcher EX is a recently developed launcher by Go dev team and if
you go by the sheer number of customisation options available, it’s
the best we have seen so far. The GO dev team is already famous for
their Go dialler, Go keyboard and Go SMS client and addition of a
homescreen replacement actually completes the customisation scene.
The Go launcher nearly levels on extremes of customisation so
much that you can actually spend hours over it to get right mix of
everything according to your taste without getting bored. There are
so many preference selections available ranging from Display, Screen,
Dock, App Drawer, Operation, Advanced, Theme settings etc that the
developers have scored one fan in us already!
Download
Task
killer has been provided inbuilt with the launcher, available in some
5 sizes, you can use according to your screen real estate. Hence, no
need to drain your battery by keeping a taskmanager running all the
time when GO taskmanager can do the same with just one tap, any time.
2.
SPB Shell 3D
Price:
Rs. 768.47
Requirement:
Android v2.1 minimum
Developer:
SPB software
Download
If
you are a 3D FX fan, then you can also check out SPB Shell 3D
homescreen replacement. Touted as next gen UI, the application shell
relies on a 3D homescreen engine to generate amazing effects, along
with smart folders, 3D widgets and plethora of other customisation options.
The 3D engine runs like a charm and live screen animation
creates a truly wowing experience. However, this customization option
will set you back by Rs. 768 as this app is available in paid version
only.
3.
LauncherPro
Price:
Free (Rs. 179.39 for Plus version)
Requires:
Android v2.0 minimum
Developer:Federico
Carnales
With
more than 5 million downloads, this app easily counts among the most
downloaded from the Android Market. Boasting of a slick interface and
tons of features, the app is available in both paid as well as
slightly stripped down lite version.
Download
Launcher
Pro comes armed with features like screen panel management,
scrollable widgets with third party app support, transition effects
and so on. Scrolling between screens is a breeze, even with lots of
apps on screen panels. The app is tried and tested by millions of users now, who swore by its stability and ease of use. Still, as a
precaution, you can also backup all your settings to SD card if
something does awry.
The
LauncherPro is a free app but you'll have to shell out Rs. 179 if you
want to go for the Plus version.
4.
ADWLauncher
Price:
Free (Rs 149.80 for EX version)
Requires:
Android v2.0 minimum
Developer:
AnderWeb
If
LauncherPro doesn't excite you enough, you may check out ADW
launcher, which has established itself as a worthy alternative. ADW
launcher heavily stresses on the wow factor to attract the users who
are more into enjoying the aesthetics of UI.
Download
Hence,
if you want some UI which does your bidding with snap of a button,
then ADW launcher isn't for you. ADW comes across as somewhat more
customisable than LauncherPro but the biggest advantage of ADW
launcher is the huge amount of themes available for it. It's more
configurable than LauncherPro -- but having said that, most of the
preferences make no sense at all unless you first read the guide. ADW
also has gestures; as in you can swipe up or down on the home screen
to launch apps or make calls. You can't swipe icons like LauncherPro,
though.
The
ADW Launcher is available for free from Android Market for free.
There is an EX version available too, which goes for Rs 149.80 and
adds more transition effects and more app drawer styles.
No matter whether you are a leisure traveller or a daily commuter, just one wrong turn can make your day go awry, especially if you are on a really tight schedule. Carrying a GPS device for navigation is not always possible and in fact quite old-fashioned too when you have a latest Android device in your hands. Most of the smartphones come with GPS reciever inbuilt nowadays, so using one for navigation is a natural extension of one's functionality anyway. Though there are detractors too, who still view smartphone navigation apps with suspicion, still trusting their good old GPS device over smartphones. Searching Android market for navigational apps throws dozens of options at you. So, we tried to analyse some of the best navigation apps available for Android devices out there.
Google Maps Navigation (Free)
Google Maps is among the top free navigation apps available for Android today. Backed by terabytes of data Google maps have been generating for quite a few years now, Google navigation app is naturally become incredibly accurate. 3D navigation, the new buzzword among navigation apps which enables you to navigate though the maze of roads by generating a 3D map of the route was first implemented by Google Maps only. The application comes preinstalled on most of the Android devices as part of Google App suite. Top features include live traffic data, location bookmarks, satellite view, search along route and Google's killer Street View.
Navfree (Free)
Navfree is another free navigation app available on Android Market offering turn-by-turn directions, spoken and on-screen instructions, offline map use and address search and live search via Google and Microsoft Bing, among many other features.
Maps can be downloaded for free from Navfree storea and the data is stored in your device itself, making the app useful in areas with limited data connectivity. The app has a huge fanbase already with more than 4,00,000 downloads. Other features of Navfee include live map display, user friendly interface, fast routing engine and destination and PoI search.
Waze (Free)
Waze is a unique navigation app which gels social networking with navigation, making it a fun filled experience. The app lets you post the roadside events giving other Waze users heads up about waht to expect on the route real-time, saving you precious time and burns less fuel, with latter more important nowadays given rising fuel cost and rising global warming!
Waze is as interactive as you want it to be - by simply driving with the app open on your phone, you passively contribute traffic and other road data. For example, the app can calculate the vehicle speed and automatically detects traffic jams if the vehicle is moving very slowly for prolonged periods. You can also post your comment on Facebook and Twitter directly from the app interface.
Sygic: GPS navigation (paid)
Sygic is a premium navigation app available on Android Market to download for free (With 7 day trial). The app is around 6 MB download and after installing it, users must download the maps, which are stored on SD card for offline usage. The app comes with strong navigation features like 3D view, real-time traffic updates, dynamic lane guidance, speed limit display and audio warningand lets you save routes frequently used by you.
NDrive (paid)
NDrive is another paid navigation app for Android. The USP of NDrive is its lightning fast route calculation times and clean UI, which for slower phones. The app is powered by latest maps from NAVTEQ and NDrive, professionally enhanced routing algorithms makes route calculation and navigation a breeze. Other features include real time traffic, Facebook sharing and Foursquare check-in, streaming weather, and more.
Google has ended the year 2011, with a great achievement; It has crossed the 400,000 active apps milestone in theAndroid Market, according to Distimo, an organization providing valuable insight into the app store market for developers, carriers and device manufacturers. Market has almost 100,000 active publishers, contributing to that total. The application store has marked the 200K and 300K available apps milestones in April and August 2011, respectively. The percentage of free applications has grown consistently and now the proportion of free apps has reached about 2/3rd of the total apps.
On top of it, Google Android Market has almost reached a second milestone as well. It has approximately more than 100K publishers active, creating more and more apps for Android users. The average app count published by each developer is coming to about 4.1. It is interesting to note that Google is taking all efforts to maintain the cleanliness of the Market by removing many apps that infringe copyrights or malware that trigger various privacy issues to Android users.
So,
the entire wait was worthwhile at last it seems! Going by the
specifications, Android's
latest avatar, the Ice
Cream Sandwich
promises to be tasty. The latest revision also unites the best of
Gingerbread and Honeycomb and fulfills the vision or creating a
unified operating system for both the tablets as well as smartphones,
in addition to 29 other major improvements. Here, we have listed 12
major ones for you to see what to expect from Android v4 ICS.
New
virtual buttons instead of capacitive controls
The
first thing you are going to notice in handsets designed for Ice
Cream Sandwich is the absence of physical capacitive Back, Home, Menu
and Search buttons. These buttons have been replaced with a new
integrated system bar at the bottom of the screen with three
permanent virtual buttons – Back, Home and Recent Apps.
Enhanced
speed and performance
Speed
is what that matters in the age of HD games and high end
applications. Hence, to take full advantage of high end dual core
processors and complement it fully, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream
Sandwich comes optimized for multi-core processors.
Data
management tool
A
cool new addition, Android 4.0 also comes packed with a built-in app
that lets you keep a tab on your data consumption, allowing you to
set download limits to save you costly overcharges
Integrated
screenshot capture
Now
this was something which was sorely missed until now. But better late
than never! With Ice Cream Sandwich, you can capture screenshot of
your device with ease. Just press the power and volume down button to
capture screenshot of your phone’s screen. Easy eh?
Resizable
icons
This
addition comes with the merger of Android Honeycomb and Gingerbread
versions. Left with one single OS to run both tablets and
smartphones, it was imperative for Android to come up with such a
feature to optimise icon size according to the screen size. Sounds
good if you want to save some display real estate!
Better
voice integration
With
Siri becoming a rage and main driving force behind continued sales of
Apple’iPhone 4S,
Android was in threat of being left behind in this vital arena.
Hence, with ICS, Android has added real-time voice processing feature
called Instant Voice. Expect delays no more as all the chores of
sending voice data to cloud servers and displaying the processed
results done away with. Now you just need to press the button and
text starts flowing on your screen like magic! Things may get even
better with the launch of Google’s own Mejel
personal voice assistant for Android devices sometime early next
year.
Face
Unlock feature
Another
security addition after introduction of pattern lock, the face unlock
feature adds another convenient way of unlocking your device. After
all, there can’t be an easier way of unlocking you phone than
staring at it anyway! The lock can be set up by going to security tab
in settings menu.
New
web browser, no Flash
Web
browser has also been revamped significantly and now supports up to
16 browser tabs at once. You can also set up sync with your Google
Chrome browser to import your bookmarks on your Android device.
However, Flash is not supported until now but an update for the same
should be available soon. ICS is expected to be the last major
Android version to support Flash and developer websites are abuzz
with rumours that Android 5.0, called Jelly Bean for now would ship
without Flash and won’t be supporting it anyway.
Modern
Roboto font
With
ICS update, Google has also tried to silence critics who slam Android
for having unattractive and downright utilitarian interface by
introducing a new main font family called ‘Roboto’, designed for
better legibility on high resolution screens found in premium Android
devices like Samsung Galaxy Nexus etc.
Improved
multi-tasking
Multi-tasking
also gets a facelift in Android 4.0. The home icon on the control bar
takes the place of home key in Android 4.0. Long pressing the home
icon reveals a Honeycomb style list of running applications with
their small thumbnails. To remove, simply tap and hold on the
thumbnail and swipe it horizontally across the screen.
Improved
camera app
Though camera UI has largely been left untouched, it still comes loaded with
some badly needed updates. For starters, the shutter lag has been
eliminated to a huge extent, so no more lags with taking pictures.
Then there is the single motion Panorama mode, which lets you take
wide panorama shots by simply swivelling your phone from left to
right with the software doing the rest. Now that’s some really cool
stuff! Other improvements include an image editor, special effects
and some optimisation camera UI.
NFC
support
We
have seen NFC
on several devices now but Google has now come up with a stock app to
utilise the technology to full extent. The Android Beam feature lets
you transmit data to other phones running Android OS more securely
than Bluetooth, though the range is short. Android Beam enables you
to share anything, ranging from contacts and Web pages to apps and
YouTube videos and play video games too.
Spice is having a field day launching affordable Android smartphones in the Indian market. Following closely on the heels of Mi-350, it has now come up with Mi-350n variant of the device in India. With Android powered, dual-SIM handsets, Spice seems to be targeting those consumers who are using two connections on two different phones but don’t want to buy smartphones for both the numbers. Spice Mi-350n here appears as a natural choice for those looking for smartphones in entry level segment, but don’t want to compromise on performance either.
Spice Mi-350n features an all new design, visibly different from its predecessor. Major hardware specifications include dual GSM network support, Android Gingerbread (v2.3.4), 3.2MP camera with autofocus and DVD quality video recording @30fps, Mediatek MT6573 chipset with 650MHz ARM11 processor and 200MHz GPU for graphics acceleration.
A quick look at Mi-350n’s tech specs:
Pros
· Dual-band GSM and single band 3G support
· Dual GSM (2G+3G) network support; Dual standby
· 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, 5.76 Mbps HSUPA support
· 3.5" TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen
· 650MHz ARM 11 processor; Mediatek MT6530 chipset; 200MHz GPU
· Android OS v2.3.4 (Gingerbread)
· 3.2MP autofocus camera, front camera; face detection
· DVD quality videos@30fps video
· MicroSD slot (up to 32GB)
· Wi-Fi
· GPS with A-GPS
· MicroUSB port (charging)
· Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR
· Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
· FM radio
· File manager preinstalled
· SpiceGang and tons of other apps
· Accelerometer and proximity sensor
· Battery 1400 mAh Li-ion
Cons
· No flash for camera
· No support for Adobe Flash in web browser
Look n feel
Mi-350n is an entirely new design and virtually shares no similarities with its older sibling other than size of display screen. Build quality appears to have improved from the previous model. At 116 x 61 x 12.75 mm, Mi-350n is a bit smaller than Mi-350, but weights about the same. Major part of the device is made of plastic with side spines having rubbery finish to enhance grip. The regular plastic battery cover has been replaced with a metal one, in an attempt to add some oomph to the phone, but succeeds only partially while adding unnecessary weight to the device.
The front panel is dominated by a 3.5 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen. Below it are three hard keys for accessing options, home and back. Multimedia control keys have also been rejigged. The volume rocker has been moved to right side panel, while USB port can now be found on the left spine, under rubber flap. Thankfully, a dedicated camera button is still there, which makes operating camera a breeze. Front camera and proximity sensor have been moved to top right corner, above the display screen. Lock/power button has been placed on top, along with a 3.5mm audio jack.
Coming to the back, the 3.2MP camera comes without flash this time too, but autofocus has been added to cheer things up. The display screen is a fingerprint magnet but you can reduce that by using scratch guard screen protectors, which are common now.
The TFT LCD display has maximum resolution of 320x480 pixels. The images appear crisp with vibrant colors. Screen legibility in sunlight is good. Removing the battery cover reveals a 1400 mAh Li-Ion battery, promising good battery backup. The SIM card and microSD card slots are not hot-swappable.
OS and UI
Mi-350n comes loaded with Android Gingerbread v2.3.4. The UI has been extensively revamped and is more user friendly. The home screen comes with four control buttons – dialler, contact, messages and menu at the bottom.
Dragging down the notification panel reveals the power tools for controlling Wi-Fi, Data connectivity, Airplane mode, GPS and Bluetooth. However, you can also access detailed SIM management settings by going to the settings menu.
Long pressing the homescreen reveals menu to add shortcuts, widgets, and folders or change wallpapers. Live wallpapers are also supported and a few come preinstalled on the device too. More wallpapers can also be downloaded from Android Market if the default ones bore you.
Tapping on the menu key on the homescreen takes you to the menu. You can browse through the menu by swiping horizontally across the screen. The apps are listed alphabetically by default.
Overall, the new UI impressed us somewhat but we felt that same old 650MHz ARM 11 processor appeared to be overburdened at some junctures. Maybe it’s time for Spice to pump up its devices with more powerful hardware.
Voice and txt
SpiceMi-350n is a dual SIM phone and can support two GSM (one 2G and one 3G) networks. Though, only one SIM remains active during a call and the other one appears online. You can select the default SIM for calling, sending SMS and for data connectivity by going to the settings option in main menu or through notification bar. The phonebook uses main memory to save the contact details so you can store virtually unlimited numbers in your phonebook.
Pressing the dialler button at the bottom of the homescreen opens the call menu, which also bears an all new look. The dialpad opens by default, with contact list in the background. Dialling a number reveals further six options namely - mute, hold, speaker, contacts, conferencing and dialpad, for ease of access. You can go back to homescreen anytime during a call by pressing the back key. The active call menu can be retrieved again from the notifications bar. Proximity sensor automatically switches off the screen during a call, avoiding unwanted inputs and saving you some juice.
The SMS menu is a typical Android. SMS and MMS are listed as threads in the menu. To send a new SMS, you just need to tap the compose message button provided on the top of SMS menu. Clicking on an existing SMS will open the touch keypad for typing new SMS. You can also copy the text from an SMS and paste it on any other menu or application across the OS platform. Adding Multimedia content like pictures, videos or sound clips automatically turns SMS into an MMS.
Data connectivity and Internet browsing
The handset comes equipped with all options to keep you connected. The handset is 3G enabled and can be used as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot. HSDPA/HSUPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps/ 5.76Mbits are supported by the device. You can also hook on to Wi-Fi network and exchange files with other devices through Bluetooth, a feature which only become available with Android Gingerbread version. A microUSB port has also been provided for charging and USB tethering purposes.
The stock Android Web browser takes care of all your Internet browsing needs and loads pages with blazing fast speed. The browser UI is pretty simple and you just need to punch in the website’s address to get going. The continued lack of Flash support in the browser doesn't raise morale. This limitation forces users to watch streaming video content only on apps like YouTube and Vuclip.
Tabbed browsing is supported and the pages can be zoomed in/out tapping on the screen itself. Pinch and zoom feature is also supported though.
Coming to video calling, Skype video call is not supported yet so you'll have to make do with voice calling and hat only.
Apps and utility
Coming to applications, this one comes with loads of them preinstalled. Tons of apps, ranging from Google app suite to Yahoo messenger, BSE/NSE stock news, Facebook, Ibibo farms, Rail Yatra, Spice Gang etc come preloaded on the device. You can add further to the collection by going to Android Market. Removing stock apps is not possible, so love them or hate them; you'll have to keep them either way until of course you decide to root your handset someday. (Not advisable though as it voids warranty of your handset)
Being an Android device, you must log in with your Google account credentials to activate Google App Suite and download apps from Android Market. Facebook and Ibibo, Nimbuzz and Gtalk chat clients also come preloaded to take care of your SNS needs.
Utility apps include calendar, calculator, stopwatch, timer and voice recorder. You also have a fully functional file browser and app manager to tidy up the device and remove outdated applications.
Camera
Spice Mi-350n comes armed with a 3.2MP auto focus camera with maximum image resolution of 2048x1536 pixels and 3X zoom. The photo quality is good as you can see in sample pictures.
However, lack of flash limits the usability of camera in low light conditions. To make matters lighter though, some goodies like geotagging and face detection have been thrown in. You can access the camera either by going to main menu or directly by pressing the camera key on left spine.
The camera interface is pretty easy to understand. You can zoom in/out of the frame by tapping on the screen itself. We have seen many handsets with volume keys doubling up as zoom keys but Spice has still not taken any cue it seems.
You can jump to video recording mode by tapping on the switch provided on the camera menu. Videos are recorded in high quality DVD resolution (720x480 pixels) at 30fps. The samples shot during the review came out to be very nice, though slight pixilation was found while recording at maximum zoom.
Multimedia
On to the last leg of this review, The Mi-350n comes with all new music player, with new icon set and interface, adding some freshness to the device here. The songs get automatically segregated on the basis of artists, albums, songs and playlists once you plug in your SD card. Making custom playlists is also possible.
Sound quality is good both on the headphones as well as on the loudspeaker. You can further adjust the audio quality of handset by enabling equalizer settings and bass boost from the music player options menu.
The 3.5mm audio jack gives you freedom to use headsets of your choice with the device. The device also comes equipped with FM radio with plain-Jane interface. There is an automatic search option, which configures all available FM stations automatically for you. There is no internal antenna so you need to plug in your headset to start radio.
Verdict
We were expecting something really radical from the device in the course of our review but Spice Mi-350n came across as essentially a repacked version of the earlier model. Still, it inherits the same solid hardware specifications with some improvements in camera department, with a new UI of course. Continued lack of flash content support in browser and LED flash in camera is not appreciated, but with its price (There are very few decent Android powered handsets available in sub Rs 8,000 price range), Spice Mi-350n surely cuts a deal.
