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Custom Dialer apps

If you're not happy with your stock dialer, you can always grab an alternative one from the Play Store. Not all phones come with a smart dial (yes, even today) or you might just want to try a different look.

Here's a quick selection of third-party dialers that do a pretty solid job.

GO Contacts EX

The GO Dev Team is here again, delivering the GO Contacts EX - it has plenty of features and there are a lot of skins for it. It supports smart dial and speed dial along with support for backing up and restoring your contacts to/from the SD card.

Contacts EX features a Groups tab and you can send batch SMS or email messages to these groups. Batch deletion of contacts is also possible.

Go Contacts EX

Be warned though, GO Contacts EX can get buggy on some handsets.

Get GO Contacts EX (Free)

exDialer

exDialer is a free dialer replacement (no ads either) that's lightweight and quick. It supports both the dark and light Holo themes and offers smart dialing in a number of languages.

When you launch the app, it shows a list of recent calls grouped by contact and a color indicator for busy/missed/not answered calls. You can swipe items in this list to make a call or compose an SMS, similar to Samsung's stock dialer.

exDialer

exDialer supports plug-ins, though there aren't many at this point. The app has an annoying problem - it doesn't clear missed calls once you tap them from the notification area, but there's a patch to fix that (requires root) and a plug-in (plug-ins work only with the donation version of the app).

Get exDialer (Free)

TouchPal Contacts

TouchPal Contacts is another dialer replacement with good support for themes. It tries to shake things up a bit by supporting Gesture dialing - instead of using smart dial (which is available too, by the way), you can use gestures to call your favorite contacts. You just draw a symbol on the keypad and TouchPal Contacts will make the call.

TouchPal Contacts

The app also has blacklist/whitelist support built-in if you want to control who gets to call you.

If your friends are using TouchPal Contacts, you'll be able to see if they're in the middle of a call and have the app notify you when they are free. The app also has basic Facebook and Twitter integration.

Get TouchPal Contacts (Free)

Custom SMS apps

Texting is one of the most used features of a phone today, so an SMS app that's just right is very important. If the one that comes with your phone out of the box isn't what you're looking for, you can replace it just as easily as the dialer. By the way, these apps support both SMS and MMS.

GO SMS Pro

We already saw the GO Dev Team's work in the dialer department, now lets look at their texting app. GO SMS Pro is skinnable just like its dialer counterpart and you can install plug-ins too, like the Emoji emoticons.

One feature that seems quite popular is the pop-up notifications - they display the message you just received and have a field for composing a quick reply and a To-Do button if you can't reply now but want a reminder later.

GO SMS Pro

The GO SMS Pro app has more cool features. It can schedule messages to be sent automatically later, you can backup and restore SMS messages (locally on your phone or on Dropbox) and there's a widget that shows recent messages too.

We already mentioned the Emoji plug-in, but the FBChat Plug-in deserves attention too. As the name implies, you can use it to chat with your Facebook contacts straight from the GO SMS Pro app.

Get GO SMS Pro (Free)

Handcent SMS

Handcent SMS is similar to GO SMS Pro in that it comes with the pop-up quick reply feature out of the box and supports themes and plug-ins. You can even download custom font packs.

Handcent SMS

The Blacklist feature will come in handy if you receive a lot of spam over SMS. Scheduling messages lets you type a message and have it sent automatically later on (e.g. a "Happy birthday" message).

Get Handcent SMS (Free)

chomp SMS

Yet another alternative is chomp SMS. It has the quick reply pop-up feature and blacklisting and scheduling texts. There's a widget that shows recent messages too.

chomp SMS

Themes and plug-ins are supported too, including the Emoji plug-in.

Get chomp SMS (Free)

SMS Popup

If you like the idea of the SMS pop-up notification with a quick reply function, but don't want to replace your current SMS app, then SMS Popup is what you're looking for.

SMS Popup

The app will show a pop-up with the incoming SMS and if there are more than one, you can swipe between them. To send a reply, you hit the Reply button and type it in right in the pop-up. You can also use voice recognition to dictate the reply and text to speech to have SMS Popup read incoming text out loud.

There is a privacy mode that hides the message until you unlock the phone, a similar feature is available for the pop-ups of the other apps we described.

SMS Popup (Free)

Setting up Google Now /Phonebook / Ringtones

Google Now

Google Now is one of the most significant Google projects for Android, which could quite possibly make it to Chrome as well. We've talked about Google Now in many of our reviews, but in a nutshell, it is Google's version of a personal assistant, constantly offering information that is believes is relevant to you.

Available for Ice Cream Sandwich and up, Google Now is working without much configuration on the part of the user. All it asks is a permission to collect data from your searches, locations and other activities in order to display cool Google Now Cards for things like friends' birthdays, movie screenings, cool places around you as well as traffic info to frequently visited locations.

Google Now

Most of Google Now's features work best in the US, Canada and the UK, but the country support for the app is ever growing, as Google is continuously adding new cards and features. If your Android smartphone is running Jelly Bean, make sure to install its search app updates and get the most out of Google Now, it's worth it.

Get Google Now (Free)

Phonebook

Transferring your contacts from your old phone to Android could be quite tricky. One of the ways to do so is transfer your contacts to a regular micro SIM card. It can store up to 250 contacts and once inserted in your new Android smartphone can easily transfer your contacts back to the phone.

Another option is Bluetooth. HTC has developed a pretty cool app for transferring contacts from an old feature phone to Android called HTC Sync. It ships with all of the company's Android smartphones, and it gets the job done quite well.

Rainbow Contacts

But what if your phone isn't made by HTC? An app called Rainbow Contacts comes to save the day. It works in a similar fashion to HTC Sync, using Bluetooth to fetch the contacts from the source phone and transfer them to your new phone.

Transferring contacts is easy

It works with Android 2.1 and above and comes with additional features like contact sharing, local backups and recovery. The app is proven to work well with older iPhones, Nokia and Blackberry handsets.

Get Rainbow Contacts (Free)

Yet another way of doing contact transfers is searching for an option in your old device to export them as a .CSV or vCard files. Once you get hold of either of the two formats, just import them to your Gmail account and they'll be automatically synced to your Android phonebook.

Ringtones

Okay, now that you have all your contacts in the phonebook safe and synced, it's a good idea to set custom ringtones for the people calling you most frequently.

To start off, tap on a contact and go to Options - Set ringtone. Then, it's as simple as picking the desired sound file. If you want use a custom ringtone, rather than the ones your devices comes with or the tracks you have uploaded you might want to install one of the many specialized apps for this.

Ringtone Maker

Our favorite is the Ringtone Maker. It's free on the Play Store and does a wonderful job. Pick a file you'd like to make a ringtone from, trim it and save it. Then, assign it to a contact. Piece of cake.

Making your own ringtones

Get Ringtone Maker (Free)

Samsung has a really cool feature on some of their upmarket Android smartphones like the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II, allowing you to create a custom vibration patterns. Even if you're in a noisy environment, you'll be able to literally feel who's calling you and that's pretty cool.

User interface

Android is a vastly customizable mobile operating system at its core. You can tweak almost anything about it, from custom wallpaper and icons, through kernel and ROM flashing, all the way to fiddling with CPU voltage to squeeze every bit of horsepower.

We'll start by focusing on how to make the Android user interface your own and looking at the various newbie-friendly options available. Frankly, they should be more than enough for you to start your journey.

We've been over the Android user interface multiple times, so we're not going to focus on it that much. In fact, you should've already read a review of the smartphone you've got so this guide will have something to build on. We'll also assume that you already have a Google account and can find your way around the Play Store.

Custom launchers

Custom launchers change the behavior and looks of the Android homescreen. But some custom launchers will also affect the app drawer too.

Launchers are the easiest way to give Android a totally different look and feel. They don't require rooting or any other tiresome preparations, they are simple .apk files to download and install just like regular apps.

There are literally thousands of custom launchers out there. There are even ones that will put on a Windows Phone or an iPhone disguise; that's just how customizable Android could be. You are not limited to single one either - you can grab several different and exchange them as you see fit.

Here are just a few of our favorite custom launchers.

ADW Launcher

The ADW Launcher is one of the most popular custom launchers out there. So popular in fact, that it was the default launcher in the popular Cyanogen ROM prior to Ice Cream Sandwich. It has since received plenty of improvements and new features. Not to mention that it's probably the most compatible of them all, featuring support for Android 1.6 through 4.1.

Available in both free and paid versions, the ADW Launcher is the go-to place for tweaking every little aspect of your Android desktop. The settings for the homescreen animations alone are enough to make your head spin. The launcher offers you to set up different themes, which are also available in the Play Store.

ADW Launcher

One of the more interesting features in the ADW Launcher is its support for Gestures. They are user-configurable and can really speed up trivial tasks. You can configure an action for swipe up or down, two-finger swipe up or down and pinch zoom.

The differences to the paid version of the app are few, but substantial. Opening your wallet for the paid version will get you backup and restore features for your existing settings. This way you can switch between your favorite configurations quickly and painlessly.

You can also resize widgets, even if they don't support it, paginate the docked icons and so much more. To get a better idea of what ADW Launcher is all about, check out its promo video below.

Get ADW Launcher (Free) | Get ADW Launcher EX ($3.00)

Nova Launcher

Built to outperform the stock Ice Cream Sandwich launcher, the Nova Launcher has become a favorite homescreen replacement for many Android-heads out there. Unlike the ADW, the Nova Launcher only supports Android 4.0 and up. What that means is it's built with one thing in mind - speed.

Everything from the homescreen scrolling, to the app drawer opening and the overall feel of the app is blazing fast. That's not to say, however, that it is not feature-rich. It knows most of the tricks of the ADW launcher, but puts its own spin on them.

Nova Launcher

The Nova Launcher is developed to resemble the custom Android 4.0 launcher. So, if you want to get rid of Samung's TouchWiz or LG's Optimus UI in favor of a neat, simple and blazing-fast custom launcher, you should look no further.

Naturally, there's a paid version available with more bells and whistles. One of them is the ability to create app drawer groups and bring order to a multitude of apps. Other perks include count icons for missed calls, unread texts and emails, gestures and additional scroll effects among others.

Get Nova Launcher (Free) | Get Nova Launcher Prime ($4.00)

Go Launcher EX

Another impressive homescreen replacement app is the Go Launcher EX, developed by the highly acclaimed Go Launcher EX team, which has a lot of great Play Store apps to choose from.

This particular homescreen launcher looks the part and is totally free. The team of devs has also done a lot of custom widgets to go with the launcher (they are downloaded separately though) and we really like their minimalist approach.

Go Launcher

There's a very solid community behind the project as well. You can download numerous themes and icon sets from around the web to make your smartphone look exactly the way you want it.

Get Go Launcher EX (Free)

Windows Phone 7 launcher

Android is so customizable that you could easily transform it into something completely different. How different? How about an entirely different OS? Yes, you can make your Android smartphone look like a Windows Phone in a heartbeat.

There are a few custom launchers out there that can do the job, but our favorite has to be Launcher 7. It's lightweight and performs reasonably well considering the massive task of completely transforming the Android desktop experience.

Launcher 7

In true Windows Phone 7 fashion you can set up the tiles the way you want them; they are live, too, to perfectly mimic the WP experience.

On top of that, the launcher also reworks the app drawer so if you like the minimalist look and feel of Microsoft's mobile OS, the Launcher 7 app is the way to go.

Get Launcher 7 (Free)

Custom lockscreens

Like the rest of the user interface, the Android lockscreen can also be easily replaced by simply getting an alternative lockscreen app from the Play store.

WidgetLocker Lockscreen

A cool and easy to use app is the WidgetLocker lockscreen. It's an all-round lockscreen replacement that can virtually transform the lockscreen of your trusty droid to suit your needs better.

It's easy to set up a new lockscreen right within the app. You simply drag and drop the differently styled sliders, Android widgets and even app shortcuts onto the canvas and literally build your lockscreen from the ground up.

WidgetLocker lockscreen

Sliders, which date back to Android Gingerbread, can have different styles (Ice Cream Sandwich, HTC Sense, Motorola or even iPhone-like). The app works very well with the previously mentioned ADW Launcher as portions of the app are based on it.

Get WidgetLocker Lockscreen ($2.99)

Go Locker

From the developers of the GO Launcher EX comes this really sleek looking custom lockscreen. Just like its homescreen brethren, Go Locker comes with a cool array of features including wide theme support.

GoLocker

Naturally, the app works really well with the Go Launcher EX and just like it is very stable and is compatible with older versions of Android, 2.0 and up. You can setup up to 9 app shortcuts and make your lockscreen unrecognizable, as you can see in the screenshots above.

Get Go Locker (Free)

Notification weather

iOS users have been enjoying a weather forecast widget in their notification drawer, but Android user's don't need to feel jealous about it.

There's this app called Notification Weather, which does what it says on the box. It puts a weather notification in the notification drawer showing you either an expanded, 4-day forecast, or just today's forecast, which doesn't take as much space. You can set a custom default location, or have the app detect it automatically, as well as choose a service provider (currently only Yahoo Weather and Open Weather Map are supported).

Notification weather

It all sounds and looks pretty great, but there's one substantial drawback - the app runs only on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and up. So in case you're Android smartphone isn't among the handful of devices running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, you're out of luck.

Get Notification Weather (Free) | Get Notification Weather Pro ($0.99)

Notification area toggles

Samsung, LG, HTC and other smartphone manufacturers with their own home-brewed custom launchers have had toggles for core functions in the notification area for a while now. Switches for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS come in handy, as you don't have to go all the way to the settings menu just to switch on or off some of your smartphone's radios. Instead, you open the notification drawer and tap on a button. Simple as that.

However, those of you who have purchased a Nexus device, for example, running stock Android are out of luck. Granted, in the latest release of Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google introduced a quick settings menu, but it just acts like a plunge-board to the settings menu. Not ideal.

Here's where a great app called Power Toggles comes into play

Power Toggles

Running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and up, the app provides you with a set of actions that you can put on either as a widget on your homescreen or an additional bar in your notification area drawer.

Power Toggles

You can set up which actions you'd like to display, and there's a wide range to choose from (3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Screen brightness or even Flashlight). Power Toggles is a must-have for those of you who don't have notification area toggles out of the box.

Get Power Toggles (Free)

©

Android for beginners: Setting up your phone

GSMARENA TEAM, DECEMBER 2012.

Introduction

So you got an Android smartphone for Christmas? Congrats! Now, go ahead and do the robot dance. We'll pretend we're not watching. One thing you can be certain of, no one's gonna laugh at you. A new droid is worth celebrating - but if it's your first, you may as well want to make some noise.

Oh, and do take your time. You will soon give your new phone all the attention it deserves. After all, the more you take care of it, the better it'll serve you. Yes, it may seem scary at first, but it's not rocket science, we promise. Droids will do with occasional dusting and polishing, and regular oil changes.

A smartphone is a very powerful tool if used properly and getting the best out of it could seem like a daunting task at first. Hopefully, this article will help you find your way through the hundreds of settings and thousands of apps.

Android is an open source mobile operating system by Google. It's exactly the search giant who's doing all the development and there are some core Google apps for Android that should be taken care of before proceeding. Apps such as Search, Maps and Gmail are likely to have updated versions waiting for you on the Play Store.

Hopefully, the smartphone you just got the wraps off of is running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, or even Android 4.1/4.2 Jelly Bean, if you've been good all year. Oh, but even if that's not the case, you need not worry. Most of the apps we're about to cover are available for earlier Android builds too.

So without further ado, let's dive right in and show you what your new Android smartphone is capable of.

tundesto: We we you are welcome. I will soon join the group soon. Which [size=8pt][/size]one be Fox again ? I need somebody to educate me.

F〓Four 〓4
O〓Zero〓0
X〓Six. 〓6

Qed

Here comes a new LION FOX Owner. Please welcome me to the Family.

Thanks

After a very long search and scrutiny, my LION 406 has is here! LION Owners in the house, kindly welcome a new member!

Lagos To Abuja
About 470 miles (750km)
Route. Lagos-Ibadan-Akure-Okene- Lokoja -Abuja
About 10 hours In 2003 Honda Accord Coupe

Location pls and can 800k take fly this beauty?

@ Ikenna and Agboola
Thank you very much for taking your time out to help in this critical decision making process. I guess I have to wait cos most of the 406 I saw were converted from RHD to LHD.
Thank you all
Happy New Year once again!

It was a conversion from RHD to LHD. How reliable is a converted 406? I was made to understand that most 406 imported from Europe were converted from RHD to LHD except very few ones.
By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Called your number you didn't pick, have sent you an email. Interior pix will be appreciated and the location of the car
Thank you.

@ Ikenna
Waiting pleeeasssse before I make my decision
Thank you

Saw one yesterday, manual Transmission, love the car but can't afford to buy cos the price tag was 1.3m.

More pix, amount and location to worththanks@yahoo.com.
Very serious buyer will love to make payment today, I must drive this beauty to church this new year. Waiting......................

Pix and price to worththanks@yahoo.com

What is the price of the car? And send more engine and interior pix to worththanks@yahoo.com
thanks

@Ikenna
I was about to buy 1999 406 V6 engine but after test driving the car i was discouraged cos I thing the car has some issues
1. It doesnt move at all, jerks and misfires. The dealer said it is a nozzle issue that he will fix it as soon as he is sure of my commiment.
2. The car was converted
kindle advise on what to do cos i love this baby
thanks

My Android phone already has free voice and video chat thru yahoo messenger app since the day I bought it. Soooooo what the heck?

The General aka Baba Iyabo has spoken, who ever has ear let them listen. Not too long ago he said something about our dishonourable members......... Otedollar and farcrock rings a bell ?

This report does not put into consideration slim guys with POTBELLY ...lol

[quote author=x-razzy]GOOD.....BUT HOW WILL THIS COMPENSATE FOR THE FAKE DRONES SOLD TO NIGERIA?[/quote]I tire ooo.... Nairaland ah! ......... una no go kill person with laugh...

BTW the last time i checked, price of G A R R I is still the same

I was having same issue till yesterday that I uninstalled and downloaded a new opera mini, Right now I am browsing at the speed of light.

so much advert without price are you sure you want to sell this car?

My Honda Civic Hatchback is not a Head Turner but last month B4 I changed the Shaft, it was ...... something else. At every little turn, it goes ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka ka........... On several ocassion people at my junction took to their heels...... lol.. It was embarassing.... lol

[quote author=adesojiaderemi@]If you are still not convince that Romney is a potential failure then you must be the most stupid person in the world[/quote]Easy bro (or na sis) and read the comment again. It was meant to ridicle Romney.

Obama All The Way.

Obama: If we had taken your advice
about the auto industry, we'd be buying
cars from China

Mitt Romney just answered Bob
Schieffer's question by saying "Go on
our website, it's explained there" Is this
a joke?