I bought an X-Mini II Capsule Speaker for a friend several months ago, and he raved about it so much, I had to get one for myself and share it with you here!

We all know that electronics like laptops (and yes, Android phones) don’t have the greatest speakers. If you want to play music or listen to a podcast when it’s not feasible to wear headphones, like while you do housework or are in the bathtub, or if you want other people to be able to hear the music you’re playing, you need a portable speaker to plug into your phone’s headphone jack. The speaker needs to be small enough to take away from your desk, hold a charge as long as your phone does, sound good, and play music louder than your device can by itself. On all of these fronts, the X Mini II Capsule speaker performs well.

There is a wide variety of Portable Rechargeable Speakers available on Amazon.com and at other retailers online, but many of them are branded for iPod, and as an Android gal, I refused to buy an “iPod Speaker”, even though it would likely use the headphone jack and therefore would be compatible. When I was buying a speaker as a gift for my friend, I read the reviews carefully and thought he would like the highly-reviewed black X-Mini II for his Android phone. Little did I realize at the time that it would become his primary laptop speaker, too! He raved about how long the battery lasted on one charge, and he hasn’t had any problems with it after using it almost daily for several months. I heard it and was impressed with the sound, too.

So, I got myself the Red X-Mini II for my Droid (and laptop) and have been pleased with it so far! I wanted to tell you about it before the holidays because it would make a great gift. You could even hang it on the tree like an ornament!

If you’re a true audiophile, you probably won’t be impressed with the range and bass compared to larger speakers, but for a tiny portable speaker that doesn’t have to be plugged into a power source, you can’t get much better sound than you get from the X-Mini. It sounds a bit better than you’ll hear in the video below, because that’s a recording from a point-and-shoot camera which doesn’t have the best microphone and adds strange clicking sounds, plus the video had to be compressed for YouTube, but I think you can tell there is a marked difference.

The only negative I noticed was that the built-in cable is so short that it’s almost useless (I can’t use it on my laptop since the audio-out jack is on the front and the speaker would get in my way there), but it does keep the whole thing neat and compact – you could just throw it in your purse without worrying about wrapping up a cord – and it’s nice that you can’t lose the cord when on the go. As you’ll see in the video, the charging cable doubles as a longer audio cable, so you’re not limited by the short built-in one.

Check out this quick video demo to hear the speaker compared to my laptop and Droid speakers, and see how it looks up close!

The X Mini II Capsule speaker works well, would make a great gift, and is affordable. It’s currently about $20 shipped on Amazon (updated price and link in linked widget above). Get one for yourself or a friend!

Do you have an external speaker for your phone? Tell us about it in the comments!

One of my favorite relatively new Android functions is the ability to send web pages to your phone from your computer’s web browser. AppBrain added some new functionality yesterday that allows you to send links or wallpapers to your phone from their website (in addition to the ability to send apps, which they already had with their “Fast Web Installer”). However, if you don’t have an AppBrain account, there are two apps that were already sending web links to phones long ago, “Chrome to Phone” and “LinkPush”.

Why would you want to send a web page from your computer browser to your phone?

• Suppose you are browsing restaurants online and you choose the one you want to try. You can send the restaurant’s web page to your phone so you have the address at hand for navigation, and you can read the reviews to your friends on the way over.
• Imagine you are reading a long interesting news article in the morning and halfway through, you realize you’re going to be late for work if you don’t leave now. Push the link to your phone and finish reading the article on the metro on the way to work.
• Maybe you found a new blog to read and you want to bookmark it in your phone’s browser, but it has a long URL and you don’t feel like typing it in using your phone’s keyboard.

You get the idea! You’ll see in the demonstration below that using these apps makes the process much simpler than the alternative of copying, pasting, and emailing yourself the links! Both Chrome to Phone and LinkPush require browser add-ins and apps to function, and for my demonstration, I’ll be using Google Chrome browser for both. Chrome to Phone only works with Froyo/Android 2.2 devices, and LinkPush works in all versions of Android OS.

Let’s compare….

Setup Process

Chrome to Phone: Chrome to Phone is a Google product made specifically for the Chrome browser. First, you install the browser extension in Google Chrome, which can be found at this link. This will add a little icon to Chrome’s toolbar that looks like a cell phone. Next, you need to download and install the app on your phone. You can do that by searching the market, or by clicking below for the link or QR code. Lastly, sign into the same Google account for the extension and the app to connect them.

LinkPush: LinkPush can be used in either Chrome or Firefox, or other browsers that support bookmarklets. Links to download any browser extension can be found here on their web page. When you install it, you will see a little android icon with a chain link in your toolbar. The next step is to install the LinkPush app on your phone. Their website conveniently provides a QR code to scan, which is also provided below. LinkPush uses Google Account authentication, so just like for Chrome, you can click the LinkPush icon in your browser and log into your Google Account, then open the app on your phone and log in there to connect the two parts.

Using the apps

In order to compare usability of the two, I made a little video for you:

Summary

Google Chrome to Phone has the added functionalities you see in the video of being able to open map links in Google Maps and video links in YouTube directly. It also doesn’t require you to open an app, so to me, Chrome to Phone’s functionality is superior to LinkPush.

However, Chrome to Phone only works with Android 2.2 and Google Chrome browser, and those are limiting factors. If you don’t use the Chrome browser, or your phone doesn’t support Froyo, go with LinkPush. It’s almost as good and just requires a couple extra clicks to do the same thing.

Do you use either of these apps or the new AppBrain link-pushing function? Tell us in the comments!

As described on Android Central, Swype has opened up their Beta for a limited number of new users, so go here to sign up if you want a chance try out this early version of Swype.

I had heard Swype was a new method for entering text using the on-screen keyboard that involved swiping the screen (obviously), but I didn’t know much more than that. I was skeptical about how well it could work – I’m a physical hardware keyboard kind of gal, which is one of the reasons I chose the Motorola Droid over the Eris.

However, I tried out the beta this morning, and I must admit I’m thoroughly impressed. Swype’s method of text entry is something that you have to take a little time to adjust to, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll see it can drastically speed up your ability to ‘type’ on the phone. Swype makes the biggest difference when typing long words.

See Swype in action in my quick demo video below.

A few notes about installing it: When you sign up, Swype sends you an email which you can access on your phone to download the installer file. You will have to go into your application settings and enable your phone to install apps from “Unknown Sources” since Swype is not available through the Android Market yet. Also, once you install it, check out the tutorial link on the Swype options screen – it will step you through the different “moves” you have to make for certain types of text entry.

If you try it, let us know what you think in the comments below!

Evernote, the popular note-, image-, sound-, and idea-storing program, was recently released for Android. I have used Evernote on my computer for a while to clip interesting web pages, to store family addresses, and to store code snippets to use as a computer programming reference, so I was happy to hear I could now create and access notes on my phone!

There are lots of creative uses for Evernote. In fact, I’ve been using it to store ideas for articles to write for this blog, including this post (how “meta”)! You can see how I can access my idea log on my phone by searching for the tag I added to the note:

I can either read it on my phone, or on my computer. I usually only use the phone interface for short notes or photo notes, and create and read most longer notes in the desktop application (below) or web browser interface. It’s really simple to use and to integrate into your existing workflow.

Here’s a video I made to demonstrate one way you can use Evernote – to store receipts for future reference to track your personal finances or keep up with business expenditures or tax-deductable purchases..and obviously when I say “what Android is” in the video, I meant “what Evernote is”!

Here are some other creative uses for Evernote I’ve seen on the web:

• Keep track of your vehicle’s maintenance records
• Use it to help keep up with information about seeds you planted in your garden, planting dates, and germination and harvest stats
• Clip recipes for easy search & reference from your kitchen or the grocery store
• Use it as a GTD (Getting Things Done) system
• Store your software serial keys, room dimensions, your license plate, and the sizes of things that are hard to remember like unusual light bulbs and air filters so you can access them when you’re not at home
• You can get rid of that pile of old greeting cards in that box in the basement
• There’s even a service called Shoeboxed that will scan all of your receipts and documents into Evernote for you, and app-enabled scanners that can scan directly to Evernote, too!
• You can search the web for a lot more ideas, like these!

How do you use Evernote on your Android phone? Tell us in the comments!

As you can tell, this site is “under construction”. While we’re getting this blog all set up, enjoy these short videos I made the first day I got my Droid!

Twidroid

Voice Search

Barcode App

Twitpic from Camera