This is Part 2 of the “Renee’s Homescreen Makeover” Series. Click here for Part 1, “LauncherPro”, if you missed it. So the 2nd thing I did to overhaul my Droid’s homescreen was to change the wallpaper. An app my friend developed helped me do more than simply change my wallpaper, though. Wallpaper Sync Beta allowed me to synchronize my phone’s homescreen wallpaper with my PC’s desktop background! You can use the Wallpaper Sync Beta to...

I’m a news junkie. I love staying informed about what’s going on in the world and discussing current events with my friends and family. Android has a lot of options for keeping up to date – including USA Today, The New York Times and NPR News – the three of the biggest news outlets in the US. With its clean interface and easy to navigate controls, USA Today is a good option for getting up to date with local, national and international news. You can also view sports...

Just because it’s summer doesn’t mean learning has to stop! Download the free Factbook from the Market and learn more about countries around the world in your down time or settle family bets without leaving the dinner table! Information is taken from the CIA World Fact Book and United Nations Data. This app just compiles the information in an easy to read format for Android. To view information, you’re given 3 choices – search by country, region or rankings. I like...

One of my favorite features of Android is the ability to change your wallpaper (backgrounds) to whatever your heart desires. Backgrounds makes this task easy, even if it is a little daunting to go through hundreds of photos to find that ONE perfect one! Backgrounds is broken down into dozens of categories, so you can narrow your search to things like trees, stars, buildings, technology, flowers, etc. Once you start searching through a category, you’ll see four (4) photos at a time. use...

doubleTwist is like iTunes for Android; browse the Market, search for podcasts, buy music and sync to your Android device and even sync playlists between iTunes and Android. My favorite feature includes being able to view photos from your device on your computer’s screen. It’s a lot more simple than searching the SD card for saved photos. Download doubleTwist desktop app from its website. This is one app that is not installed on your phone and can be used via an app on your...

I love movies. I try to go every Friday to see the latest release, whether it is a cartoon or suspense. Finding out what theaters have shows at the time I prefer (early morning) was a jumbled mess of a mobile website until I found Movies by Flixster. Each of the 5 tabs help you quickly find movies you want to see – and they even built in reviews from real people to help you decide if a movie is worth spending $10 to go see. The first tab, “Box Office” shows what is opening...

Pandora Radio is an online streaming music service that uses the “Music Genome Project” (like DNA for songs) to find new music you’ll like based on songs & artists you already know you like. You enter a song or artist, it finds music for you, then as it plays you can give each song a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” so the station gets more tuned to your preferences the more you listen. If you haven’t used it before, here’s an example of a...

I promise that even though I last posted about the TV Guide App, I don’t use my Droid primarily for television-watching purposes! I just wanted to write a quick post about the TV.com application I found recently because it is really neat. You can watch full episodes of some TV shows right on your Droid! A WiFi connection is necessary for some of the higher-def episodes, and I’ve found that the streaming was smooth and there were surprisingly few ads during the shows I watched. The...

Do you have a TV that won’t display the “info” as you flip through the channels? Or maybe you have a remote-hogging hubby that won’t let you browse to see what’s on? Or maybe you’re out and wondering whether to hit another store or head home to catch that show that you like but always forget what time it comes on? Enter: TV-Guide USA This app tells you what’s playing on all of the major channels right now, as well as displaying the next 2 shows on each...