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The 10 Best Android Hacks

Posted by samzenpus on from the hack-job dept.

Barence writes "The Android vs iPhone debate will continue until the apocalypse, but there's no doubt Android wins on customability. PC Pro has listed its ten favorite Android hacks, which include the ability to open your garage door with your smartphone, install Ubuntu on your handset, and overclock your phone's processor. There's also instructions on how to replace your dashboard satnav with Google's version."

7 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Customability? by msauve · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, if you make up words, I guess you get to define them to mean whatever you want. If "Android wins on customability," then iPhone wins on appleability.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Customability? by Lazareth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Congratulations, you're hereby declared inured to inspiration and in a state of linguistic stagnation. [flamebait]You would fit nicely in France.[/flamebait]
      A quick question, when you read this "non-word" did you have any speck of doubt regarding the meaning being carried by it? I didn't even blink at it before you started to nitpick over the word rather than the semantics of it.

      And now for a new challenge, present us with a word with the exact same meaning as this "non-word" that can be swapped with it without altering the grammar, meaning or flow of the sentence. Sure, it is most likely possible, but at least present us with the "proper" word before you begin criticizing.

  2. I have an Android phone .... by Jimpqfly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... but it could be nice to have anything usefull among those hacks, don't you think ?

  3. In this war by mhollis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In this war between Android and iPhone, the customer wins.

    The "Droid Does" (multitasking) ad campaign spurred Apple to develop iOS 4.x, which allows multitasking. The first Droid smartphones got Apple off the dime with cut and paste. Customers continue to win here, no matter which phone they purchase

    Personally I have an iPhone (4) and I like it. I had the original iPhone and retained it well past my contract with AT&T. I have a client who purchased a Droid Incredible and asked me to set up his email (from my server) on it. Took all of about a minute. I was very impressed by the phone and shall always retain that impression.

    I think the real losers here are RIM with the Blackberry and the Palm WebOS smartphones. While Palm has innovated, they have been passed by and are now in a niche. RIM is trying to play "catch up" and the only real difference they offer in their phones is complete integration with secure Exchange Servers. They have lost utterly in the easy app purchase field.

    Apple's biggest mistake so far in the United States has been the exclusivity contract with AT&T. Initially, it was a boon for Apple, but the Android smartphones are selling faster than the Apple smartphones because they are available on more networks. To the extent Apple stays with the phone company we all love to hate, they will lose market share versus the Android smartphones.

    --
    Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
  4. Re:My favourite android hack by Dog-Cow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Apple App Store has thousands of free apps. I really don't understand what you're trying to imply. Unless it's just your ignorance.

  5. This is stupid by rickb928 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ok, in order:

    1. Um, connect your Android video-out-capable phone to your in-car video. If the hack is replacing yoru in-car satnav system, you did that with the Android phone without the video. Now, hooking up YouTube to your in-car video, that's a hack. And illegal in many states.

    4. Playing classic games on your Andriod? That's an *app*, not a *hack*. The controller hack is nice tho.

    7. Installing root-only apps? How about "Getting root on your android"? After that, well, the apps come.

    8. Controlling your Media Centre? Um, My Palm III did that. And that was before I *had* a mnedia centre.

    10. "Get the latest Android versions, fast" What? If you're referrring to getting custom ROMs from those intrepid developers out there, fast is relative. Getting Froyo on my G1 took waiting for Froyo to be released into SDK, then waiting for it to be ported to the G1 (which required waiting for the DangerSPL), then waiting for a stable candidate, then finally the 2708 hack to make it useable long-term. Now, this is admittedly faster than waiting for the OPTA release, cause neither TMO, HTC, or Google will ever release any Android 2.x for the G1, but that's sort of like saying it was a clever hack to play DNF at PennyArcade before anyone else, since for all purposes DNF is a DNF, but the demo is not a release. Well, maybe not quite like that, but calling an alternative ROM release 'fast' is relative.

    Stupid list. Mostly apps, not hacks. Show me the RAM stack hack for the G1 and I'm nominating it for #1.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  6. Garage door by NetNed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I read the garage door opener and was excited to see how it worked. It involves hooking a Linux box up to your door opener that is connected to the internet. That is kind of lame , certainly in environments where it would be impossible to put a pc in essentially a outdoor setting and I would suspect it wouldn't be that hard to do on other smart phones.