Our Biggest Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them http://lifehacker.com/5738881/our-biggest-android-annoyances-and-how-to...

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Our Biggest Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them http://lifehacker.com/5738881/our-biggest-android-annoyances-and-how-to...

Our Biggest Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them

Our Biggest Android Annoy ances and How to Fix Them We asked, and, boy , do our
readers hav e some issues
with their Android phones. Here's a f ew of the biggest sticking points, how to f ix them, and a f ew tiny -but-aggrav ating
issues our commenters f igured out on their own.

Phone Occasionally Lags or Freezes, Especially Heading Back to Home Screen

Our Biggest Android Annoy ances and How to Fix Them Our own Whitson Gordon has essentially written a nov ella
on the alternativ e home screen launchers av ailable to
aggrav ated Android owners. Right now, he's digging on Zeam, a f ast alternativ e launcher that also of f ers multi-f inger
gestures and a f ew customization tools. Otherwise, y ou can speed up y our sluggish Android with LauncherPro, which is
both highly customizable and f airly snappy .

Can't Remove Certain Apps (and They're Annoying, and Take Up Space)
We hear y ou—believ e me, as a Nexus One owner, I
v ery sy mpathetically hear y ou in terms of minimal install
space. There are a f ew options, both sanctioned and
slightly hack-y . We'v e run them down bef ore, but f or a
recap:

First up, if y ou're running Android 2.2 or later, head into

y our Settings, choose Applications, then pick the All
column. Press y our phone's Menu button, and click the
"Sort by size" option that pops up. Click on one of the
most space-hogging apps at the top. In the next screen,
y ou might see a button prov iding a "Mov e to SD Card"
option. Hit that button, and nothing inside y our app
changes, but its storage space (or at least most of it) mov es to y our phone's SD card. Obv iously , y ou can't operate
that app when y ou'v e got y our SD card mounted as a storage dev ice, but that's less annoy ing than hav ing to uninstall
certain apps to allow others.

Y ou can also check in that same application management page to see if an app is using an ov erly huge amount of
storage, and clear that storage space out. That is, at best, a temporary f ix, as the app will ev entually take back the
space, and y ou'll probably hav e to log in or reset y our pref erences. Still, if y ou just need a smidge more space to
install an app, it's a quick f ix.

Finally , if y ou're annoy ed to the point of breaking y our warranty , y ou can root y our phone and install a f irmware that
allows f or remov ing apps y ou can't otherwise remov e, such as the carrier-specif ic games and music/v ideo "stores" that
y ou'll nev er use. It's what commenter LARPkitten did, and they 're lov ing it.

Getting Access to the SD Card is Annoying

Agreed. On "stock" Android phones, the USB mounting
process is multi-step (plug, pull-down, click, click, wait,
wait more, go). On customized Droids and HTC phones,
y ou'v e either installed special Windows/Mac sof tware to
recognize y our phone, or it's the same kind of
annoy ance.

Y ou'v e got a f ew options if manually mounting and

un-mounting y our SD card, Linux-sty le, isn't how y ou'd
like to get at y our Android f iles:

doubleTwist, which of f ers continually improv ing

desktop sof tware f or Windows and Mac that sy ncs y our
music, v ideos, podcasts, and pictures back and f orth
f rom y our phone. There's ev en wireless sy ncing, which
y ou can make totally automated, so y ou might just throw that USB cable into storage.
For quickly dropping a f ew f iles onto y our phone, there is Awesome Drop, and it is, in f act, awesome. For
snagging a f ew f iles of f the card, we'v e prev iously enjoy ed WiFi File Explorer, but commenters on that post
hav e many , many alternativ e suggestions.
If y ou're regularly shuttling f iles back and f orth between y our sy stem, y ou might want to inv est in setting up
y our laptops, desktops, and phone with (wait f or it) Dropbox. The Android client can both download and upload
f iles to and f rom the SD card.
If y ou're good with an FTP setup, y ou, along with Bradley Shaner, might dig SwiFTP, a f ree app that turns y our
phone's SD card into an FTP serv er that works ov er y our local Wi-Fi connection, or across the internet.
To simply ease the process of hooking up y our phone f or USB access, try an app named Auto Mount Y our SD
Card that doesn't need much f urther explanation. Y ou can also click an option in the doubleTwist Android app's

By Kevin Purdy

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Our Biggest Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them http://lifehacker.com/5738881/our-biggest-android-annoyances-and-how-to...

settings to do the same auto-mounting on USB connection.

The Market
It can only be searched f rom the phone, and ev en then,
it's an unwieldy thing—f inding the of f icial Google Reader
app, ev en, requires quite a bit of thumb-scrolling.

Until recently , our f av orite solution was the AppBrain web

market, and its own Android apps that allowed f or some
neat direct-to-phone installation on Android 2.2. That
ability , sadly , has been knocked down by a recent
Market change pushed out to many phones. AppBrain is
still the better search tool, and of f ers manual sy nc-and-
install/uninstall, along with a pick-and-push wallpaper
browsing tool that still works. Of f icial Android ov er-the-air
installing is apparently on the way , but until then,
AppBrain and recommendations f rom f riends (and, er,
blogs) are our imperf ect curation tools.

Poor Battery Life

The solution to a battery that can't get y ou through the

day , we're af raid, is all about detailed tweaking of when
and how y our phone connects to the net, turns on its
screen, and runs its GPS and Bluetooth modules. If it's
any consolation, the answer is generally the same on an
iPhone.

The How-To Geek has a good, step-by -step, illustrated

guide to maximizing Android battery lif e, mov ing through
the settings y ou can change. Otherwise, there are apps
that automate y our phone's f unctions in way s that can
sav e y ou juice: JuiceDef ender, Locale, and Tasker, to
name a f ew.

How You Fixed Your Own Android

Annoyances
Our original call f or annoy ances and f ixes y ielded a
treasure trov e of aggrav ation and salv ation, of ten
through an app or tweak. Very of ten, too, the solution was an alternativ e launcher, or the rooting of a phone to install
custom f irmware, like Cy anogenMOD. We're f ans of both those solutions, but they 're not the only tool f or getting
things right on y our portable computer. Here's a f ew more:

ThomasSchoof:

No Reminders f or a missed SMS!

Fix: Download "Missed Reminder" f or it, but it's still missing something. I mean, running an extra app f or getting a
reminder f or y our missed sms?

MMT86:

HTC Incredible ...

2. GPS takes f orev er to get a lock. I mean sometimes 5-10 minutes.

We f ound, during a trip to Florida and subsequent inability to get a GPS f ix f or an hour af ter landing, that the GPS
Status & Toolkit app is a good, if desperate, f ix. It contains a f unction f or totally wiping y our GPS cache. Y our next
location f ix may take a bit more time than usual, but at least it will (usually ) work.

adamdavidcrawford:

How about the f act that alarms f or daily ev ents go of f at midnight by def ault?

Timerif ic sets my phone to silent ov ernight.

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Our Biggest Android Annoyances and How to Fix Them http://lifehacker.com/5738881/our-biggest-android-annoyances-and-how-to...

Dave Freeman:

1. Hav ing to change settings so of ten that I needed to put the Power Control widget on a homescreen.
FIX: Cy anogenMod 6.2, where I can add these buttons under the notif ication shade.

2. Putting my Droid in the car dock doesn't def ault calls to speakerphone.
FIX: installed Car Dock Speakerphone f rom the market (f ree).

3. Putting my Droid in the multimedia dock makes the sof t buttons too bright.
FIX: rooted and installed LEDs Hack, set to automatically disable all LEDs when docked, and reactiv ating them
when undocked.

4. Not a v ery customizable dock.

FIX: Launcher Pro, pick one dock (y ou can scroll up to three), set all f iv e places to launch two apps (including the
swipe action), giv ing me 10 apps in a v ery small space. Reset the Home sof tkey button to mov e to my Home
screen, then open/close the drawer, f reeing up ev en more space.

There are so many things Cy anogenMod helps with.

1. Hide apps in the Drawer. Now I don't put any thing on my screen since my drawer only shows the dozen or so
apps I want. Top ten most used apps are on the LP dock any way . (Ed. note: this is actually a LauncherPro feature)
2. Remov es most of the bloatware.
3. Phone is MUCH f aster!

What's y our biggest Android annoy ance not cov ered here, or any where? Tell us what still bugs y ou about y our
open-source phone in the comments.
Send an email to Kev in Purdy , the author of this post, at kev in@lif ehacker.com.

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