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Ask NerdGirl: Text to Email, Play All Your Videos, Slideshow Wallpaper, Send Mail As, and We Have Another Convert!

Posted Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 9:18 am by n3rdg1rl 3 Comments

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So yesterday I went to the Indians vs. Mets game here in Cleveland. It was a good game. Kinda shocked to see that there were more Mets fans than Indians fans, but I’m from the New York area so I was torn anyway. I was surprised and happy to see that my beloved Android phone was helpful at the game. I was receiving instant replay videos on my phone straight from MLB just a few seconds after a play. It was awesome to be able to tell the ump really was blind right from my phone. I love my Android!

I would like to forward texts to my email account to archive them there. With my Treo it was easy. With my Motorola Droid I have to forward the texts individually and the text address window won’t auto populate for emails, only for mobile phone numbers. I called Verizon to no avail.

Is there an app or a trick I can use to make this a quick and easy task?

Thank you!

You should try an app called Save2Email. This $1.99 app allows you to export contacts, call logs, SMS messages, MMS messages, MMS attachments, and phone settings using one .ZIP file. You then can send your exported zip file to your email in one neat bundle. Just to let you know, this app is only for Android 2.1 so hopefully this is what you have.

Hi,

Do you know of any work that’s being done to support more video files on Android like the AVI container or MPEG?

This would make a massive difference to me as these are the format all my videos are in and I don’t want to convert everything so I have two copies of the same thing.

Well the Android already supports MPEG-4 natively. For everything else, you can try an app called RockPlayerBase.  I don’t believe that it’s available on the market place, but you can download the .apk file from here. To install .apk files on your phone, you can go to my past article and follow the easy instructions on there.

I cannot believe how hard it has been to find an app or software to make a slideshow screensaver for my phone (Samsung Moment). It surprises me that the feature isn’t already built-in. My crappy LG Rumor had it! Every time I do a search, I am made to believe that the link will have the information that I’m looking for. But once I click it, the information is unrelated to my search or it’s for how to make slideshows for your computer, when I clearly stated that my device is a smartphone.

I have been doing this search off and on all week and I’m really disgusted that I can’t find anything. It’s not like this is a new concept or something. Less worthy phones, built years ago, have the capability built-in. So I am asking for someone…..anyone…… to please tell me what apps there are available or software that will allow me to create a slideshow screensaver for my phone. Free would be great, but I would spend a few bucks for something that is easy to use and works well…..not one of those $29.95 shareware jobbers. I’m not trying to make a business out of this. I just want to have a nice and functional slideshow screensaver on my phone. It also, should not be a static image screensaver. Where’s the fun in that? It has to scroll from one side to the other. If it has other features like fade-in or page flip, then those would be bonuses. It’s the sideways scrolling that I’m really looking for.

For the pics that I want to use, I need fluid movement. Not that Wallpaper Rotator app that I tried. Ugh! I should be able to set the photos to scroll at close intervals (within seconds of each other, instead of several minutes apart or even days). Plus the pics need to take up the whole screen with no spaces in between them, so that the slideshow is seamless, because the photos are a continuation of what’s in front of it and what’s behind it, making an endless loop.

Ok. I think that covers it. Someone must be able to help me. If you don’t know, perhaps a friend of yours does.

Many thanks

Well, hopefully your phone is running Android 2.1 and is capable of having a live wallpaper. If it is then I think I found your answer. Wallpaper Slideshow Paid is an inexpensive live wallpaper that will act as a photo slideshow. I currently can’t run live wallpapers on my Eris so I didn’t have the chance to try it out and see what the settings were exactly, but I am hoping this will work for you. There is a free version but it will only work for 2 pictures. You might want to grab that first just to see what the settings are and see if it’s what you’re looking for.

I have used Gmail as a unified inbox for some time now. I would love to be able to use the “send mail as” feature from the desktop Gmail page on my droid Incredible’s Gmail app, so that replies to my work email go out with my work address. Is this possible?

Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to go about doing this. I’m not sure why this hasn’t been implemented, especially since you can add more than one email account at this point. There are two partial work-arounds that I found.

First, you can go to the Gmail account you’re using for your phone and go to Settings >> Accounts and Import and look for the “Send Mail As” box. Add email addresses if you need to. Once they’re set up you can pick the option to “Reply from the same address the message was sent to.” I’ve heard that this isn’t always consistent, but it’s worth a shot.

The second option would be to download another email client and have that one configured for your work email. This option isn’t the best because then you’re working with multiple apps for one task. Unfortunately, until Google decides to fix this, these seem to be the only ways around it.

Good Morning,

I was writing you to hopefully get a general overview on how to best use my new Evo. I recently left AT&T and the iPhone behind due to poor service, coverage, high bills and not wanting to be a slave to Apple/iTunes… over all dissatisfaction basically. My friends urged me to make the switch to the Evo as it is supposed to be the best phone coming to market. Being a new Droid user, I’ve found the organization of the phone menus, apps etc. to be a lot different and basically I don’t know where to start to get a good feel for my phone. I’m not the most tech savvy person I’ll admit, but I get by just fine in this day and age. What is most important me with my new phone is:

1) Organization
2) Memory utilization (cleaning out all the clutter and unnecessary stuff)
3) Music organization and storage

I’m sure you get thousands of emails a day and I’m not sure if you’re responses are general due to that, but if you could take a little extra time to help a brotha out and make his transition to Droid as painless as possible I’d be eternally grateful.

Please get back to me as soon as your schedule allows.

NICK

The fact that you’re not scared to jump into new technology is a great sign and we welcome you to the Android family!  I’m sure by now you’ve explored the Market and found that just like with the iPhone’s App Store there are more apps doing more things then you will ever need. To start pointing you in the right direction, you can take a look at this article that I wrote covering my 10 favorite apps.

I am an organization freak! You wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at my home but my work environment is almost to the point of OCD. I know where everything is and what needs to be done by whom and when. Here are some organization apps you might want to take a look at:

• Apps Organizer (free) – This allows you to create custom labels for your apps and then group them into one icon on your home screen.
• TripIt – Travel Organizer (free) – If you’re a frequent traveler, this app allows you to put all of your itineraries into one little app so you know exactly where you’re supposed to be without having to carry around a folder just for your travel information.
• Jorte (free) – A personal organizer that not only manages your Google calendar but allows you to create To-Do lists as well.
• FolderOrganizer (about $1.22) – This app allows you to create not only labels for apps, but everything on your phone so you can access them using one folder on your home screen.  There is a free ad supported version.
• PackRat (free) – This a great home media collection app.  PackRat allows you to scan the barcodes on your DVDs, CDs, games, Blu-Rays, etc. and keep them all organized right on your phone.

For memory utilization, I use Advanced Task Killer. You should be careful with task killers and I have written this answer in response to a question about it. I also recently wrote about a few apps that should always be running.

As far as music organization, that has a lot to do with how well it is organized on your computer. Most of that type of information transfers over to the phone when you import your songs and playlists. I use the default music app but there are many great replacements you can find on the market if the default app doesn’t work for you.

~n3rdg1rl

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