Top 10 Android Hacks and their applications

Top 10 Android Hacks and their applications

Android is now the most used mobile operating system in the world, with many commentators putting its market share at around 70%. With such growing presence, there are too many applications if we are able to hack Android and customize as we wish. Not to worry, crazy Android developers have already done this for us. People have successfully rooted Android and there are number of wild hacks with countless applications. Some are fun and some are very useful too.

1. Get Android updates before your handset manufacturer releases it

For most people using Android phones, they usually have to wait for Google to release updates for Android, and this may sometimes take months. However, the problem is that when the new updates are released, handset manufacturers have to readjust them in order to run on their handsets, and also add new software, before releasing the updates to their customers. However, the good news is that you do not have to wait this long for the latest updates. Since there are a great number of people working on releasing their own stable updates, you can root your Android phone so that you are able to release such updates as soon as the developer has released them.

2. Scale up your media center

One of the major reasons why people usually buy smartphones is so that they are able to play their favorite music and videos. However, this usually comes with some limitations, mainly with regard to storage space. For many people, most of their music and video files are usually stored in their PCs, while just a select number of files are stored in their smartphones. This thus means that they cannot access their music files, and they have to keep deleting some of the files in order to make room for new files. This is a great inconvenience; the good news is that someone saw this and decided to come up with a simple hack that enables one to stream their music from their PC to their smartphones by using Wi-Fi. There is an app calledGmote that makes accessing this future a breeze.

3. Change the appearance of Android user interface

One of the most common tasks that people usually perform on their mobile phones is changing the themes and wallpapers so that they can suit their fancy. If you have tried this before, then you will have realized that there are numerous limitations, thanks to the small number of wallpapers and themes that ship with your Android phone. The wallpapers and themes are also not that inspiring, since most of them are static. But you can change all this and bring your Android’s user interface into life. This is easily done through the use of tools, such as Beautiful Widgets, which will then give you access to tonnes of customized and animated wallpapers that you can use on your phone.

4. Play retro games on your Android phone

If you are an avid gamer, then you most definitely usually pull out your old game console ad play a few classic games so as to remind yourself of how it used to feel playing such games. Android, being open source, has stirred some interesting thoughts from some top tinkerers who also happen to love playing games. They have come up with simple hacks that can enable you to play classic games on your Android device. Gameboid and Ataroid are two such apps that allow you to play some classic games on your Android device. There is another hacker, who even went ahead and rooted his Android phone so that it is now able to use an NES controller by attaching it to the phone.

5. Install apps that are root-only

If you like tinkering with different aspects of your Android phone and would like to get as much flexibility as possible, then you should go ahead and root your phone by installing root-only apps. These apps will open up a whole new world of possibilities for you, as you will be able to undertake some tasks that are not usually support by the standard Android software that is usually shipped with phones. For example, you can install a root app that allows you to gain access to extra memory on your phone, making it run faster, especially when running apps that demand plenty of computing power.

6. Open your garage door

Now this is very interesting! With an imaginative Android hackers, there have been some simple yet highly effective hacks. For example, there is an app called OpenSeMe that makes it very easy to enable your Android phone to open your garage door; this is pretty cool. This app has some simple features that make it safe and easy to use. It uses a pin to verify authenticity of the owner before opening the door; it also only opens the garage door when within a radius of one block. In short, it acts as a garage door opener.

7. Overclock your Android phone

Are you tired of having your android phone hang up every time you use an app that is resource-intensive? If this is the case, then you should consider overclocking your phone. Overlocking is noting but rooting your Android mobile to such an extent that a user adds permission to OS settings and removing number of hardware limitations such as inernal memory, battery life etc., However, you have to take note of the fact that overclocking your phone has a number of side effects. You may wear out your phone’s processor since overclocking it creates intense heat, which may overwhelm the in-built cooling system. It may also shorten your phone’s lifestyle. However, by using well-designed overclocking apps, you will be able to also underclock your phone’s processors so that their lifespan is prolonged. You also need a new generation Android phone in order to run such apps. One great app that you can use for this function is called SetCPU, and it comes highly recommended.

8. Run Android on an old iPhone

If you love playing practical jokes as well as tinkering, then you may find this hack hilarious: install Android on your old iPhone. This is a cool way of finding out how Android would perform on an iPhone. If you have an old iPhone lying around, say iPhone 2G, then you can install Android on it. Doing this will also open up quite a number of apps that you can then use. In order to have some fun doing this, you can install apps that have been restricted by Apple. But in order to get this hack to work, you have to break into your iPhone; you can use software such as Redsn0w or PwnageTool to do this.

9. Take screenshots

One of the common complaints about Android is that it does not allow users to take screen shots. However, some clever developers have made this possible by creating some interesting apps that enable you to take amazing screenshots of your Android phone, albeit with some fancy effects. However, you need to first root your phone before trying these apps. You can use the ShootMe app that enables you to take screenshots of your phone, with a little shake. This is a simple yet very effective feature.

10. Block Ads on your phone

Advertisements are the price people usually pay for using free software, and this is not different on Android. Many free apps you will be using will be running ads, and one of the ways of getting rid of these apps is to use paid versions f the apps. However, after you have rooted your Android phone, you can install the Adfree app that essentially blocks ads from everywhere on your phone. This is quite handy if you usually use plenty of free apps.