Resources
Supplementary class materials
“There's an App for That!” (Android edition)
“Get Smart with Your Android Smartphone (or Tablet)!”
This web page provides additional information and resources for students of classes offered through the Arlington Adult Education program. This page gives you some starting points, but is not intended to provide exhaustive listings.
Tutorials and More Info
- New To Android? Make Your Smartphone Work For You, Not Against
- These Are The Droids You’re Looking For: An Android Guide
- How to Clean Your Dirty Smartphone (Without Breaking Something)
- A Beginner’s Guide To Setting Up An eBook Library On Your iPad (or other device)
- 5 Great Tips For Recording Audio With Any Smartphone Or Tablet
- How To Safely Clean Your Tablet or Smartphone’s Touchscreen
- How HDR helps your iPhone or Android camera 'go pro'
- How Can I Improve My Mobile Typing Skills?
- Does Your Android Phone Need an Antivirus?
- How to Avoid Android Malware and Other Android Security Threats
- Why Free, Ad-Supported Apps May Be More Expensive Than Paid Apps
- How to Set Up Your Android Launcher
- How Not To Fall For Fake & Dangerous Apps
- How to Get Music Onto Your Android Phone Without iTunes
- A Virtual Visit to Your Library with Overdrive Media Console (use your device to access electronic content from your public library)
- How to Find Your Lost Android Phone, Even if You Never Set Up a Tracking App
- Who Needs a Scanner? Scan a Document to PDF With Your Android Phone
- 70 things to try with Google's Android 4.1 Voice Search
- How to Use Android and iOS Together
- Phone camera uses you might not have thought of
- Does Your Smartphone Really Need a Screen Protector?
- Smartphone Viruses Are Real: How To Stay Protected
- Take Control of Your Smartphone’s Automatic Photo Uploads
- Ten Steps to Smartphone Security for Android
- Top free antivirus apps for Android
- Five Best Mobile Document Scanning Apps
- The best photo sync services for Android
- The best photo editors for Android
- Back up or restore data on your device
- How to get the most from your smartphone battery [video]
- Getting Started with Add-on Camera Lenses
- Take Control of Your Smartphone’s Automatic Photo Uploads
- The Best Weather Apps for Android
- The Complete Guide to Improving Android Battery Life
- Are You Using a Passowrd Manager Yet? written for iPhone, but largely applicable for Android
- The Best Password Managers You Can Download In 2017
- Awesome Apps for Bicyclists (written for iPhone, but largely applicable for Android too)
- Use These 7 Great Apps to Share Your Location with Friends and Family 5 Smart Travel Planning Apps for Easier Trip Itineraries
- Best Free Music Apps for Android and iPhone
- How to print from your Android phone or tablet
- How to Clean a Smartphone
- Build Better Smartphone Habits With 8 Home Screen Tweaks
- How to Save Webpages for Offline Viewing on Android
- Digital wellbeing
- Data detox: Five ways to reset your relationship with your phone
- How to turn an old Android phone into a security camera
- How to Protect and Restore Your Smartphone’s Oleophobic Coating
- 7 Ways Google Assistant Can Help You Plan Your Day
- 9 Apps to Improve Your Hiking Experience
- Why Is Your Phone Storage Always Full? 6 Ways to Make Space
- 10 Ways to Use Google Assistant to Make Your Life Easier
- How to Use Your Big Android Phone With Just One Hand
- 11 Cleaning Tricks to Make Your Phone Look Like New
- 6 Android settings for smarter notifications
- How to Stop Your Android Phone From Tracking You
- You’re charging wrong: 5 ways to make gadget batteries last longer
- How to Disable Precise Location Tracking on iPhone or Android
- The 7 Best Free Photo Editing Apps for Android
- Your Weather App Is Spying on You, Here’s What to Do — and find an app that doesn't spy!
- How to Improve Your Hearing Using an Android Phone
- 7 Ways to Free Up Storage Space on Google Photos
- The 10 Best Dialer Apps for Android
- Phone Storage Always Full? 6 Ways to Make Space
- The 11 Best Drawing and Painting Apps for Android
- 8 Tips for Typing Faster on Your Android Phone
- 6 Android Gallery Apps That Are Better Than Google Photos
- Don't Sell Your Old Phone or Laptop Without Doing These 10 Things First
- The 9 Best Compass Apps for Android
- 7 Android Apps to Write Notes Directly on the Home Screen
- How to Clean Your Dirty iPhone: A Step-by-Step Guide (most of this information is equally applicable to Android phones)
- Best Recipes Apps for Cooking on Android
- How to Find a Lost Android Phone
- How to Save a Phone or Tablet Dropped in Water
- The 10 Best Language Learning Apps That Really Work
- The 10 Best Android Weather Widget Apps
- The best note-taking apps for Android
- 20 Fast and Quick Mobile Games to Kill Time on Android and iPhone
- 16 handy hidden tricks for Google Maps on Android
- Waze vs. Google Maps: Which Navigation App Is Right for You?
- 7 Android Features That Helped Me Travel Without Anxiety
- I Use 8 Free Tricks to Get Higher Quality Audio Recordings On My iPhone (many of the tips apply to Android too)
- How to Make Your Android Phone Last Longer Than One Day
- How I Protect My Phone From Drops and Scratches
- Your smartphone may have tools to make your calls sound better
- 22 must-have Android widgets for busy professionals
Additional Information Sources
- Gizmo's Best Free Android Apps
- Best Free Antivirus App for Android
- Android Central software reviews
- Appstorm reviews
- 30+ Modern Android Launchers & Homescreen Replacements
- 32 essential Android tips and tricks
- 10 Tablet Optimized Apps for Students
Miscellaneous
- The app-driven life: How smartphone apps are changing our lives
- Easy Phone Tunes — Sync your iTunes music with Android devices
- How to Sync iTunes Music With Your Android Phone
- How to sync iTunes with Android
- Can I Sync iTunes With My Android? Three Sync Apps, Compared
- Stylus reviews — not everybody wants or needs a stylus, but this article can help you make an informed decision.
- On Touch Screens, Rest Your Finger by Using a Stylus
- Calibre — create your own e-books
- Hamster Free eBook Converter
- dotEPUB — creates an e-book from any web page
- New Yorker video — shows a New Yorker magazine cover being created with an iPhone
- "Take Me Out" — rock video created with iPhones!
- AppGratis — Free Mobile App of the Day
- Best Free Antivirus App for Android
- Five Apps to Spice Up Your Walks — provided by WalkArlington
- How to Turn Your Old Android Phone into a Home Monitoring System
Highlighted Apps
- This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but these are some of the apps which were mentioned in class. I haven't tried all of them, so do your own evaluation. There are frequently multiple choices offering similar functionality, so if you don't like my choice, try another! If your web browser is correctly configured, clicking a link should cause the app to open in the Google play store; otherwise, just do a search to find and download it. Unless indicated, apps listed are free. Many are "lite" versions to give you a chance to try them out, before buying "pro" versions that might have more features or no advertising. Many apps will work on both phones and tablets; read the descriptions to see what will meet your needs.
- AppGratis — Free Mobile App of the Day
- Weather: 1Weather, Rain Alarm (be notified of precipitation about to reach your location!), Storm, Accuweather, Weather Underground, Dark Sky - Hyperlocal Weather; Clean Air Partners Air Quality (DC local)
- Reading: PocketBook Reader, Nook, Kindle, FBReader, Moon+ Reader, Bible, Wash Post, NYTimes, Wikipedia, Currents (magazines), Zite (magazines), Zinio (magazines), Pocket (to mark things for reading things later)
- Listen/Watch: CBC Radio, NPR Radio, Pandora Radio, Flixster, Spotify, The Phillips Collection, EZ Folder Player Free, Folk Alley, Songza (mood-based listening); IMDb (movie info), Flixster (movie show times and reviews; Roku. Also look for your favorite radio station's app.
- Web browsing: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Dolphin. DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser
-
Travel:
MetrO
worldwide subway navigator,
TransitPal Free;
real-time local bus/subway information:
MetroHero,
DC Metro Transit,
ARTBus
(Arlington),
HopStop
(covers many cities),
iNextBus Realtime Bus Tracker;
Curb (Arlington Red Top Cab);
TripIt
itinerary tracking;
Triposo (country guides);
TripAdvisor hotels/restaurants;
Hotel Tonight,
Hotel Coupons;
DC Airports,
Beat the Traffic,
Waze,
VDOT 511;
66 Express Lanes;
ExpressLanes (I95-395-495);
RoadNinja (what's ahead on the Interstate?);
FlightTrack
Free (airline flight tracker);
WreckCheck (in case you wreck your car);
Pocket Parking Meter or
Carr Matey (where'd you leave your car?);
SpotHero (find and pay for parking places);
PackPoint (packing list).
National Park Service
National Mall.
Galileo Offline Maps, plus offline option in Google Maps.
Flush toilet finder;
KineStop Car sickness aid
Also look for country- and city-specific apps, as well as for specific airlines. See also Washington Post's D.C. transit apps roundup. - Photography: Pixlr Express, PuddingCamera, HDR Camera, FXCamera, PicSay, 360, Snapseed, beeCam light meter, BlackCam
- Calculators & Timers: Exchange Rates, Easy Calculator, Unit Converter, Tip Calculator, Splitwise (shared expenses), RealCalc, Recipe Calculator, Abacus, Max Counter, Tom's Multi Timer Free, Ovo, FuelLog (gas mileage calculator), Drivvo car management, Fillup gas mileage log
- Food: Yelp, Urbanspoon, Giant Food, Harris Teeter, ToMarket Lite (shopping list), Out of Milk, ZipList, Epicurious, Allrecipes, BigOven; Fooducate Healthy Weight Loss & Calorie Counter, Open Table, Tasting Table, Food Truck Follower, TruxMap, Locavore, Happy Cow (find vegetarian food), Seasonal Food Guide, USDA FoodKeeper. Also look for apps at your favorite food places, such as Elevation Burger, Panera, Chipotle, etc.
- Finance and Shopping: Key Ring (frequent shopper cards), ToMarket, BofA; KeePassDroid (password manager), Dashlane (password manager), Avira Password Manager; Square (accept credit card payments), Expensify, GasBuddy (find cheap gas nearby), AUTOsist (car maintenance log), RedLaser (scan barcodes for comparison shopping, read QR codes), QR Barcode Scanner, ShopSavvy, Coupon Sherpa. Look for apps for your bank or financial institution.
- Reference: Dictionary, Google Translate, Trucos Android Lite (Android tips), Google Lens
- Foreign language: Duolingo, Memrise, Mondly
- Productivity: Notion, Evernote, OneNote, Simplenote, Google Keep, Remember the Milk, Microsoft To Do, Project Schedule Free, My Work Clock, Timesheet, Dropbox (synchronize files across multiple systems), CamScanner (scan docs with your camera), Genius Scan - PDF Scanner, Floating Stickies, Papyrus natural note taking, Business Calendar
- Tools: Flashlight, Super Swiss Army Knife Free, Smart Ruler, Where's My Droid, Mirror, Magnifier, Compass Level, Levelly
- Music: Kalimba Lite, Tabla , Magic Zither (Chinese), Piano Perfect, Chord! Free, Metronome Beats, gStrings, Prelude Composer, Perfect Ear
- Art: Picasso, Paint Pro, Infinite Painter Free, Paper Artist, Tayasui Sketches
- Audio+Video: Easy Voice Recorder, Smart Voice Recorder, Recordoid, Google Recorder (with search); Magisto video editor, Splice video editor, Quik video editor, Adobe Premiere Clip; Skype, Google Duo, Zoom; Google Podcasts, iHeart: Radio, Music, Podcasts
- Games: OpenSudoku , Flow Free, GYRO , 250+ Solitaire Collection, Angry Birds, Temple Run, Tiny Tower, Burn the Rope, Trainyard Express, Mathdoku (Kakuro), Shortyz (newspaper crossword puzzles), Blendoku, Dumb Ways to Die, Orbit - Playing with Gravity , Calculator: The Game, Circuit Scramble
- For computer techs: AndFTP, IP Network Calculator, JuiceSSH, Port Detective, TeamViewer for Remote Control, LogMeIn Ignition ($30)
- For business users: LinkedIn, Quickoffice, Google Drive, Kingsoft Office, Polaris Office, Microsoft Office Mobile
- For school users: Blackboard, Assignment Planner, StudyDroid (flashcards), EasyBib (create bibliographic citations), Studious, Grade Book for Professors, Coursera
- Security: Avast
- Miscellaneous: Layar Augmented Reality Browser, Junaio AR, World Around Me Lite, Waterbot (plant watering), Google Sky Map (stargazing), Files Go by Google
- Customize: Apex Launcher (my favorite), Nova Launcher, Wiser (ultra-simple launcher), Clipper, Cloud Print, TaskSwitcher, Swapps app switcher, toastr (put reminders on lock screen), Zedge (download free wallpapers and ringtones); Shush! (temporarily silence your phone), Do Not Disturb or Timeriffic or Silence (silence phone according to a schedule), Muzei live wallpaper from art museums, Snapdragon BatteryGuru, GSam Battery Monitor, My Backup; NFC Tools, NFC Tasks (for programming and using NFC tags). For printing: Cloud Print, Print Hammermill, or look for an app from your printer manufacturer (HP, Canon, Epson, Brother, Samsung, etc.)
- Keyboards: Swype, GO Keyboard, TouchPal Keyboard, SwiftKey, Gboard
- Amazon Underground — free versions of many popular apps. (Follow their instructions to install.)