I recently got the opportunity to go through the all-famous Samsung Galaxy phone that is running the Android platform. Firstly, it looked a lot like the iPhone. Secondly, the resolution and quality was much better than what I experience with the iPhone.
Personally I believe its not possible to say which is better simply because it depends on the user. For me the iPhone is better, but for another the Samsung! Honestly it’s a waste of time. So lets just look at what the Android platform can offer that makes the Samsung Galaxy a handy phone.
LogMeIn Ignition
This nifty little app lets you take remote control of your PC or Mac via your Android phone. You’ll need to have some form of LogMeIn software running on the PC or Mac; LogMeIn has both the free and paid options. Free version has certain limitations but certainly usable, so I would suggest that you go for that. Paid version costs around $70, which I wouldn’t recommend unless you become an ardent fan of it!
Because your phone’s screen is small, you’ll have to do a little configuring to get LogMeIn Ignition to display the screen of your PC or Mac properly.
You’ll have to fiddle with resolution and zoom levels--and turning your phone sideways may help, depending on the resolution. Once you get things set up, and get comfortable with using the remote mouse, you’ll find the app surprisingly useful. Even though your phone’s screen is small, you can get a surprising amount of work done remotely, such as checking e-mail on your e-mail client.
PdaNet
PdaNet lets you use your Android phone as a mobile modem for your PC or Mac by connecting the phone to your PC via a USB cable or via Bluetooth. Not all Andriod phones have this feature, so you should look for phones with Android 2.2 and above. Also, if you want to use PdaNet on your iPhone, you’ll have to jailbreak the phone.
Wifi Analyser
Android has a very limited set of features for Wi-Fi--essentially, just enough to let you connect to Wi-Fi networks. If you don’t connect to many different Wi-Fi networks, and you don’t need to do any kind of troubleshooting, that’s enough.
But if you want more, you’ll like the free Wifi Analyzer. Not only does it show you every Wi-Fi network in range, but it also charts their strength, so that you can connect to the one with the most powerful signal (if you like). At home, if your Wi-Fi network acts flaky, you can use Wifi Analyzer to see whether any nearby Wi-Fi network is interfering with it by using the same channel. There’s a lot more here as well, especially for Wi-Fi tech-heads. Very handy indeed!
Kindle
Here’s some good news for Android owners who enjoy Amazon e-books: You don’t need to invest in a Kindle to read them. Instead, you can read them right on your Android phone. First create an Amazon account (if you don’t already have one).
Then download e-books and start reading. You can read titles that you’ve bought for the Kindle as along with any free ones that Amazon has made available. With the Kindle for Android you can create bookmarks, jump to specific pages, and do some other nifty Kindle magic. It’s great for people who want to their Android to phone do double-duty as an e-book reader, especially if they already have a Kindle and have purchased books for it. There’s an iPhone version, too. |
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