How To Print From Your Android Phone

True, the world is moving away from paper printing, as we have more and more portable devices. And in many ways, your Android phone is a perfect replacement for a printer, as you can store and take your documents anywhere you want.

However, it may take another century or so to get rid of red tape completely, and from time to time, as much as we may despise the idea – we will have to print.

But enough with the drama. If you feel like printing from your Android phone, here’s how you do it.

First, you’ll need to get connected to Google Cloud Print, a service that allows you to print over the web from any device, be it your Android phone or tablet. To start with,  let’s tend to your printer. Connect it to your computer and activate Cloud Print support in Chrome – this way you will be syncing your printer with your Google account.

Next, move on to your phone and install Google Cloud Print app.

Now let’s go through the printing process step by step. Select a document you want to bring onto paper, tap the Share button and select Cloud Print app to share the document with. Then you should be able to see your printer and get down to the process. Do note that you will need to be using the same Google account on your phone and printer.

Using a cloud service for printing is quite convenient as you will be able to send documents to your home or office printer from anywhere and even share your printer with others, so that they can do the same – great way to save time (and spend fewer hours at the office).

But printing does not necessarily mean paper. I often us the print feature on my laptop to convert a document into PDF. However, and quite unfortunately, our phones do not have a Print button – and thus – no Print To PDF function.

But not all is lost. You can follow pretty much the same steps with a Share button, but you will need to pre-install an app that can convert your files to PDFs.
One way to do that (and if you want to quickly PDF a web page) is to use the ever-handy Cloud Print app that you have already installed. Another great feature of the app, is that once you enable it, your Google Chrome browser (if you do not have one on your phone, you will need to install it) will also have printing functions. So all you’ll have to do is open up a web page in the browser, select Print – and the page will be saved as PDF onto your phone’s Downloads folder, probably under the name “ChromeSnapshots”.

Another way to PDF things is to use the Share button. Share the document with Cloud Print app and save the file to Google Drive. It will then appear in your Google Drive storage as a PDF document – ready for you to access and use anytime you want.

If you are looking to convert more different formats into PDF, you can also look into downloading a specialized app, like Word To PDF for Android. The application handles .doc, .docx, .odt, .ott and .rtf and will do the job quickly with a simple click.

So here it is! Printing has never been so easy – no additional cable mess, driver installation or any fuss of that kind. But as easy as printing has become – do take a minute before tapping “Print” and think if you could just go digital and save a few trees.

Make Your Life Easier With The Best Android Widgets Of 2014

Among the many things we love about Android, its fun and functional widgets are somewhere at the top of the list. Changing the look of your phone, adding a few personalized features, upgrading your weather or time-telling – all that and so much more is within the small widget’s power. I have come to think about widgets as helpful fairytale elves, that can get all the tasks accomplished and you won’t even know they were there.

But let’s move back to the real world. With widgets being so dearly loved by Android users, it’s not surprising that we are now able to choose among a great variety of them. So which ones should make it onto your phone?

Below are a few must-have widgets of 2014 that we think would add style and functionality to your device.

Slider Widget – Volume

You may have had this problem. You turn down the volume on your phone by pressing the volume button on the side and think that from now on everything you do will be under the veil of silence. So you open that farm game you’ve been too ashamed to admit you are addicted to and hear it blaring the “Old Macdonald Had a Farm” all over the boardroom.

This is all because different applications and features on Android have different volume settings and you can’t control all of them at once by just pressing the volume button.

With Slider Widget you will know exactly what kind of volume you are adjusting and brings the helpful icons right onto your home screen for quick and easy access.

Shazam

You have probably heard about Shazam and heard good things too. In case you haven’t, the app allows you to know which song is playing or which TV show is on by just “listing” to it. So the next time you hear a nice song in the mall, you won’t have to try to remember the lyrics and then roam the Internet in search of the song. All you have to do is let Shazam “listen” to it and the app will tell you the name of the song and the artist, so that you can easily download it for your collection.

Cal

There are so many calendar apps to choose from these days that it’s getting harder and harder to pinpoint the one that would be at the top of everyone’s list. After all, we are all have our own set of criteria when it comes to organization. However, Cal seems to give its users the ultimate selection of calendar features without making it overwhelming and piling on too many functions. Cal does a great job of letting you know what’s on the agenda for today, while featuring a number of customization options to fit any theme.

Directions

Directions is a very useful app that will help you get to your favourite (or simply frequently visited) locations. It comes as part of Google Maps and may actually be already pre-installed on your phone. What does it do? It helps you make a list of places that you visit often, like, for example, “office”, “home”, “sandwich place”, which will then appear as icons on your home screen. Now, whenever you need toge to one of those locations, all you have to do is tap the necessary icon and specify whether you will be driving, walking, biking or taking public transport– and the app will quickly pull up the directions. Directions makes your daily navigation more convenient and simple.

Google Keep

Last, but by no means least, comes Google Keep – an application that combines note taking, reminders, lists with audio and image features. The application is a great way to quickly jot down reminders on the go and make sure you don’t forget to get that packet if milk. And when you have one of those million-dollar ideas you can simply record your thoughts to come back to them later.

Your smartphone is changing the way your fingers work

Your smartphone is changing more than just your habits — it’s changing the way your hands work, too. Swiss researchers have discovered that activity in the brain’s cortex associated with index fingers and thumbs is enhanced directly in proportion to how often you use your phone’s touchscreen. That area of your mind will light up if you message your friends all week, but it’ll fade the longer you spend away from your device. People with basic cellphones don’t see this, according to the scientists.

This suggests that repetitive smartphone use is altering your sensory processing, and that your brain is perceiving your digits in a different way. Whether or not that’s a good thing is still up in the air, but it shows that you don’t have to be in a profession driven by hand dexterity (such as music) to see a shift in how your brain and fingers work together

Image credit: Shutterstock / nenetus | via Engadget

Battery Saving Apps For Your Android Phone

What’s the point of having a great phone with all its wonderful functions if you find yourself scraping for the last bits of power at the end of a busy calling day? A few blogs back we talked about a few tricks on how to save your phone’s battery life (you get check out that blog here). One of the options we mentioned was using one of the many available battery saving applications for Android. True, it may not bring you life-changing results, but the following apps will help you get the most juice out of your trusted phone.

Battery Doctor

The healing powers of this app are what makes it so popular. Just like a regular doctor, the application will exam your Android, find out what’s wrong and get down to fixing it.

Battery Doctor comes with a built-in task killer that will monitor all the processes running in the background and nip any unnecessary ones that are eating away at your battery life.

Battery Doctor also comes with desktop widgets, making the speed saving process easy and convenient and, as a bonus, will up your device.

One of the most noted features of this particular application is its ability to predict the time when your battery will give out – which is a handy function and you be able to make a better estimation on whether you should be playing that zombie game right now.

GO Battery Saver &Power Widget

Go Battery Saver and Power Widget is most known for its one-click optimization feature, which allow you to switch between pre-defined modes with one single tap. So if you want to go from stand-by mode to making a call or playing an online game – you can let the application know which battery-saving mode it should use by simply tapping a button.

Apart from one click convenience, the application will offer you lots of other functions leading to the optimization of battery use and will also provide you with suggestions as to which apps are safe to open and which ones should be closed based on remaining battery.

Juice Defender

Juice Defender is an app that comes in three custom formats, depending on the level of control you are looking for: the free version, Plus ($1.99) and Ultimate ($4.99).

The free version features lots of functions: from controlling your communication data to offering a number of pre-set battery optimizing modes, just like the previous app.

If you want to go a step further – the $1.99 version will offer you a larger selection of custom and set modes, including night mode.

For ultimate control, $4.99 will buy you even more options, like the ability to switch between weekday and weekend modes, autosync and GPS management.

Tasker

Tasker is not your typical battery saving app and comes with numerous other functions. That’s what makes it a great choice if you are looking for a comprehensive approach to managing your device. The application will handle your phone calls, text messages, media and more – and basically after setting it up, you’ll be able to put the issue out of your head completely.

In the battery saving realm, the app will manage battery consumption depending on your activity and time of day.

But as you may already know, Tasker offers so much more than that. In simple terms, it allows you to set specific tasks for your device within specific timelines – like, say, setting the silent mode from 9 to 10AM for a regular work meeting. There are lots of possibilities and options to play around with and you haven’t tried the app yet – you should definitely give it a go.