TCC Blog

Google sends out pretty constant updates to their app and media store, and the latest went out just this morning, bringing the Google Play Store up to version 3.15.19. There’s no changelog and no noticeable change from previous versions, so we wouldn’t be in a hurry to force update your phone or tablet. Everyone in the US at the very least should be getting the update over the next couple of days, but if you must, you can download and install it here.

The biggest thing to hit the Google Play Store lately has been carrier billing for every major US carrier except Verizon, which was recently extended to books, movies and music.  (C’mon, Big Red!) That happened more or less automatically, and the new update doesn’t seem to affect it one way or the other. Unfortunately there’s still no way to get carrier billing on Verizon, no matter how much modding you do.

Updates to the Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market) are among the more mild mods one can do to his or her Android device – you don’t even need root. Just check the Applications section of your Settings menu and make sure you’ve got outside sources available.  I’ll be updating this post if we find anything significant.

Free Android app allows users to earn in-store credit by sharing the app and its exclusive deals via social media, participating in deals, and making in-store purchases

TCC, the largest Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer in the U.S., today introduces its new TCC Rewards app for Android. The TCC Rewards app not only offers customers exclusive deals, but allows them to earn in-store credit by simply sharing those deals—or the app itself—with their Facebook friends and Twitter followers. The app, which will be available for Android devices during the first week of May, can be found in the Google Play marketplace by searching “TCC Rewards.”

“We wanted to find a way to give back to our customers who have been so loyal,” said Erik Schlesselman, chief marketing officer of TCC. “The TCC Rewards app breaks away from the status quo offering new and unique ways for our customers to earn points and save money simply by sharing their experience and the TCC brand with their friends, family, and social media connections.”

The TCC Rewards app allows customers to easily accrue points that can be redeemed at any time to purchase products and accessories sold in TCC stores. Points can be earned in three ways:

1. Making in-store qualifying purchases which is nearly every product offered in the store.
2. Sharing exclusive deals with friends and family via Facebook or Twitter, or by sending an automated email to contacts saved in their phone
3.  Sharing the app with friends and family via Facebook or Twitter, or by sending an automated email to contacts saved in their phone

Examples of deals offered to rewards members include instant savings of $50 off any in stock MIFI and receiving a $50 Visa gift card when signing up for DISH Network.

 Other features of the app include a built-in store locator that displays the nearest TCC stores and their hours and services. There is also a tab for this blog, which offers readers the latest industry and company news to keep customers abreast of what is going on in the wireless world.

Android has several good options when it comes to productivity and office software on the go. Every option for Android rolls in word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations natively, all in the same app. Even so, we found that like its iOS counterpart, QuickOffice Pro offers the best combination of document editing features, support for the Microsoft Office documents you’ll inevitably want to view on your Android device, and cloud storage and sharing services to upload and share documents after you’ve worked on them.

QuickOffice Pro

Platform: Android
Price: $9.99/$14.99 forthe tablet version (Free Trial)
Download Page

Features

• Allows you to view, open natively, and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, including Office 2010 documents
• Can open documents from and sync to cloud storage and document management services like Google Docs, Box.net, Evernote, Catch, SugarSync, and iCloud, among others
• Offers a robust file manager so your documents don’t get lost
• Supports Office and non-Office documents in the file manager
• Allows you to manage your Android device’s storage through the file manager and delete, create, and rename files and folders
• Allows you to send and share files via SMS, Bluetooth file transfer, or post to Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, Sricbd, or other social services
• Allows you to display documents and presentations on an external display and control it from your Android phone
• Includes a PDF reader
• Allows you to browse ZIP archives as ordinary folders

Where it excels

QuickOffice Pro feels like an office suite, crammed into a tiny display, and that’s actually a good thing. Tools and options are where they feel like they should be for a productivity suite, even if you’re using them on a phone’s screen or a tablet display. Adding cloud services and synced accounts is easy, as is opening and editing documents. Full and native support for Microsoft Office documents without the need for conversion first is also a big plus, meaning you can open a document and get right to work without waiting around for the document to convert to a readable format. Document editing tools are easy to access, and as you make changes the app automatically saves your work. Plus, the document manager makes it easy to search for files on your device or on connected cloud services.

 Where it falls short

QuickOffice Pro for Android doesn’t seem to have the Wi-Fi uploading feature that its iOS counterpart has, which is a bit of a bummer, but the sheer number of supported cloud services takes the edge off a bit. Also, while the editing tools were more than enough for some on-the-go document editing during our tests, QuickOffice Pro is definitely no replacement for a full-fledged productivity suite on a desktop. Even the HD version for Honeycomb tablets has a great feature set, but advanced users may miss some benefits from a desktop suite. Speaking of the tablet version, it’s unfortunate that iOS users get a universal app for both iPhones and iPads, but Android users have to buy the app twice, once for their phones, and again for their tablets.

Google Drive, an almost mythological rumored web-based file storage tool, launched today.  Google describes it like this: “…a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. ”

How shall I describe it? Let’s see, it’s a little Dropbox, a dash of Google Docs, all with the amazing organization and search power you’ve come to expect from the people who created Gmail. Read on to find out what’s awaits you on Drive.

Dropbox-Like Desktop Syncing

Like Dropbox, Google Drive has an app for Windows and OS X that will sync all your documents, videos, and other files with the cloud. There’s also an Android app for mobile access. They  Each user gets 5GB for free, and can upgrade to 25GB for $2.49 a month, 100GB for $4.99 a month, or even 1TB for $49.99 a month. If you upgrade, it’ll also raise your Gmail storage to that level. For those of you keeping score, that’s a lot cheaper than Dropbox. Oh, Dropbox, how I have loved thee. However I fear our time together may be coming to an end.

A Powerful, Search-Oriented Webapp

Drive’s webapp, though, looks pretty different from Dropbox—in a good way. When you log into the web interface, you’ll see that it looks a lot like Google Docs. You can search through all of your Google Drive files quickly and easily, filtering by document type, owner, activity, and more. What’s really cools is that drive will automatically use optical character recognition (OCR) to read your scanned PDFs and other files, so that you can search for text within those files, even if they’re just scanned images. It’ll also use Google Images to scan your images, so that searching for, say, “Eiffel Tower”, will bring up your photo of the Eiffel Tower you took last summer. I feel the severing of my relationship with Dropbox coming on…

The webapp also has a built-in viewer for tons of file types, including videos, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files (!!!), anything that can be opened and edited in Google Docs, and more. Google Docs has been directly integrated, as well, so all of your collaborative projects will show up in your Drive just as they so in Docs. It also integrates with Google’s other products, like Google+, Gmail, and more. And, it has an API, so we should start seeing integration with third party apps very soon.

Sorry, Dropbox, Google wins.

Check out Google official blog for their release announcement: Introducing Google Drive… yes, really 

The deadline to file your taxes is just around the corner  (April 17th this year), so if you haven’t filed yet you need to get on it. If you’ve got simple forms to file and either an Android or iPhone, you can easily get filed in a few minutes using your phone. Both H&R Block and TurboTax offer apps to help you prepare and then efile your 1040EZ forms before the deadline. Before I get in to it, I will say that I reccommend H&R Block’s app over TurboTax. I like TurboTax’s interface better, but they are charging $25 to efile where H&R Block does it free.

• H&R Block at Home – This app makes it easy to file your federal and state taxes on the go. Snap a pic of your W2 and import it into your return, even get alerts when your return is accepted and on its way to your bank account. Plus, your information can be transferred over from your federal to your state return for easy completion. The upside to this app is that it’s free to prepare and free to e-file.

• TurboTax SnapTax – This simple three step process makes it easy to prepare and file both your federal and state taxes.  Much like H&R Block above, start by snapping a photo of your W2s. Then answer a few questions about yourself, select your refund option and how you’re going to file, and you’re done. I like that it calculates the refund as it goes, much like the full desktop versions. You can e-file both federal and state returns, but it’ll cost you $25.

   

So now you  have no excuses for missing that tax deadline next Tuesday. Go forth and prepare like a boss!

Android: Gmail’s attachment handling on Android is not so great—it can only view certain types of files, and it won’t let you save those attachments wherever you want. Gmail Attachment Download solves the second problem by asking you where you want to save each file you download.

Sadly, Gmail Attachment Download won’t help you download ZIP files and other files Gmail blocks, but it will make downloading, say, MP3s a bit easier. Instead of previewing the file and throwing it in the “downloads” folder with everything else, just choose “Gmail Attachment Download” as the program you want to open the file with. It’ll then ask you where you want to save the file on your SD card and ask you what you want to call it, saving you a lot of hassle with time consuming file managers later on.

Gmail Attachment Download is a free app for Android phones. It won’t show up in your app drawer, just in the menu you see when you go to download attachments from Gmail or other email apps, so don’t worry if you don’t see a shortcut for it.

Get it in the Play Store.

Source: Addictive Tips

Source: http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/download-email-attachments-of-any-format-in-gmail-for-android

The wildly popular photo-sharing platform, Instagram,  is finally getting close to making good on their long time promise to make their app available on Android devices.  In case you are unaware of all the photo-goodness that is Instagram, it is known for its retro filters,  and is a really fun way to share photos, especially if you’re not big into networks like Facebook or Google+.  It’s easy to snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram.  You can seamlessly share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it’s as easy as pie.  It’s photo sharing, reinvented. Pop on over to their Android site and sign up for the release.

The best part is that it’s free!

Filed under “you get what you pay for,” researchers at Microsoft tested the energy consumption of various apps on Android and Windows Phone (iOS restrictions kept them from testing the iPhone) and found that up to 75% of an app’s energy use goes to power the advertisements in free, ad-supported apps. The numbers may not have much of an impact without tying them to an app you actually use, so what about an extremely popular game like Angry Birds:

In the case of Angry Birds, research suggested that only 20% of the total energy consumption was used to actually play the game itself.

Of the rest, 45% is used finding out your location with which it can serve targeted advertising.

Free applications typically have built-in advertisements so developers can make money without having to charge for the initial app download.

The lesson: Next time you’re choosing the ad-supported version of an app over, say, its $1 counterpart, you may want to consider whether you’re willing to pay extra just to keep your battery going longer.

Source:  Free mobile apps ‘drain battery faster

Google announced yesterday that ‘Google Play’ is the permanent replacement for the Android Market. This single, unified distribution channel for movies, books, music and apps rolls up all of Google’s media marketplaces in to one location.

Perhaps most notably, Google Play will replace the Android Market as a discovery, sales and distribution channel for Android apps. The company says the combination of the different marketplaces will make it easier for Android users to access different types of content across their devices, through Google’s cloud-based service.

It’s pretty clear that Google’s strategy with this rebranding effort is to makes its content business a distinct entity, as opposed to a bloated limb of its mobile operating system. It makes sense. Apple is doing it. Microsoft is doing it. Our world is quickly getting appified - more and more we consume byte-size (pun very much intended and highly inaccurate) morsels of content, as opposed to grazing in all you can eat monthly fee buffets (admittedly, I still subscribe to Netflix streaming). We’re spawning the world’s first “$0.99 millionaires.”

Easy-to-use “1-click” (please don’t sue me, Amazon) payment solutions and high-speed broadband internet have turned us all into micro-impulse buyers. $0.99 here and there for an app, game, or that one song you just remembered and really want to listen to right now because you haven’t heard it in years. Maybe a few bucks for a movie rental a couple times a month at RedBox orAmazon Instant Video and, if you’re feeling splurgy, that new game that costs $5 but gets so many 5-star reviews you can’t help yourself any longer.

So, why limit that paradigm shift to digital content commerce to the mobile space, or more specifically, Android? Google wants you to make these itty-bitty purchases from your desktop computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, TV, and probably eventually your refrigerator. And they want you to be able to do it regardless of the fact that you own a Windows fridge or an iOS car. Google Play wants to be your one-stop, multi-platform content shop.

The Android Market name just didn’t allow for this kind of vision, and I think you can see why, now – Android is just one facet of Google’s larger world domination strategy (of smiles, of course).

If you’ve got an Android device and you occasionally find yourself bored off your rocker with a few minutes to kill, it’s likely you’ve browsed the Android Market for a fun, easy way to pass the time.

I’ve rounded up 5 excellent games for your consideration.  They’re all free with pay-to-upgrade options. Some are knockoffs of classics you’ll remember and some are delightfully original. Some will make you think, some will help you space out, but all are worth a look.

I  hope you enjoy, and please let me know your favorite casual game for Android in the comments!

1. What the Doodle Lite

Rating: 4.5
Price: FREE
Downloads: 50,000-250,000

This app won the Android Developer Challenge 2 in 2009 and it’s quickly becoming a favorite among Android owners.

What the Doodle is a real-time, multiplayer, Pictionary-like game with a range of game modes, social features and more. You take turns drawing images for keywords or guessing what words the other user’s drawing might represent. The lite version is restricted to the easiest game mode. The paid version of the app is available in the Android Market for about $4.50.

2. 2-Player Reactor

Rating: 4.5 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: >250,000

Two-Player Reactor is a small, quick, reaction game. It measures your reflexes through a series of different modes, including word-color matching, shapes, a mouse in a maze and others. Rather than play online with true multiplayer action, the game is meant to be played with a friend as you both share the same handset.

An expanded 4-player version is also available for $2.99.

3. Abduction!

Rating: 4.5 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: >250,000

Abduction’s premise is ridiculously charming. The herd is missing, aliens have abducted your fellow bovines and you have to follow the UFO that spirited them away.

The graphics are cute, the game play is challenging enough to be a time-killer, and the app makes good use of the vibrating and accelerometer features of your Android device. Beware, the addiction-level on this is alarmingly high.

4. Pocket Empires Online

Rating: 5
Price: FREE
Downloads: >250,000

For fans of massively multiplayer games, this casual title might be perfect. Pocket Empires allows you to “harvest, build [and] conquer,” according to its tagline.

The game features more than 10 unique structures to add to the city you’re building, more than 30 creatures to recruit or capture, and a full slate of nearly 100 enhancements for your individual stats. Its time-based system makes it easy to play in short spurts.

5. Bubble Blast 2

Rating: 4.5 stars
Price: FREE
Downloads: 500,000+

Bubble Blast 2 is a puzzle game that may look simple, with it’s bright colors and adorable googley-eyed bubbles, but it’s a surprisingly challenging and addictive game. The concept is simple:  clear the board of bubbles using a certain number of taps. The first few levels are pretty simple and give you a good feel for the game, but it gets much harder much faster. The game has a whopping 6000 levels, and they’re all free.

It’s got a pretty potent combination of simplicity and  challenging all rolled in to one with an absolute ridiculous amount of free content.

There are so many other games that I like playing on my phone, but these are the current favorites. Of course, last month’s favorites were completely different. What’s your favorite game?