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 recently decided to overhaul my Droid’s main desktop interface, and briefly tried out various homescreen-replacement apps, such as Home++. Out of the apps I tried, the one that felt most natural for me to switch to was Launcher Pro Beta, which allows me to add additional homescreens, has a homescreen preview feature, and provides a convenient (and expandable) app launcher strip at the bottom of the screen. More about these features below. In addition to replacing my homescreen, I added...

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...

Summer is a big time for vacations. Make getting ready for your weekend on the beach or week away with Travel Organizer. This free app helps you make lists of what to do and what to pack to make prepping for a trip easy! The app is very straight forward – choose from “To do” or “To pack” and “Summer” or “Winter” and let the list be pre-populated; you can delete items from the list by long pressing on it and choosing delete, but you can also...

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...

Shopping for a family is tough work, especially when everyone has different schedules and the same person doesn’t always do the shopping for the household. OurGroceries solves this problem by syncing your grocery list to your Android, Blackberry or iPhone – and web, too. Then, whomever is going grocery shopping will have the most up to date list in his or her hand without having to trek back home and look for a paper list. The standout features are: Tap the “Add an item” line...

I commute over an hour to work each day – so finding something to do while I zoom along underground is very important. WordUp! solves the boredom issue by challenging me to find words in a grid of lettered dice. Simple premise, but challenging game, trust me! I’ve had to dig deep in the recesses of my mind for words I forgot I even learned to solve this word puzzle game. The game is easily customizable – you can change the cube style, minimum word length, play time, size of...

Note: This post was written on my Motorola Droid, using the newest Swype beta release for Android as the input method and the WordPress app. The only addition is this header and the picture. Enjoy! Swype has updated their existing beta release effective today, June 16th. If you are an existing beta user/tester, you will need to log in to the beta site to obtain the updated version – your current version WILL expire soon. New users accepted into the beta should receive an invite starting...

You can read our Q&A with Diana Luckevich, the developer of TextDooDad, here! TextDooDad makes it easy to evaluate trends with SMS messages and phone calls on your Android device. This app is pretty lightweight and it is also easy to use once you poke around with the settings and click around in the app. Maybe you’ll be smarter than me and figure it all out without watching the video, but if not, TextDooDad’s website offers a handy YouTube video of the features and how to make...

Diana Luckevich is the developer of “TextDooDad“, an Android app that provides data and analysis of your text messages and some additional capabilities. Don’t miss Ellie’s unbiased review of TextDooDad here. I sent Diana some questions, and she was nice enough to tell us all about her experience with programming and releasing an Android app, which you can read below. This is our first in what I hope will become a long series of profiles of female Android developers. If...