Shooting a full sphere panorama photos from your android

Photo: © androidpolice.com

You can shoot full sphere panorama photos (which Google calls photosphere) with your stock camera app. But you have to have JB 4.2 (Not 4.1.x). Here is how;

1. Go to the camera. Tap on the camera icon and pick the item that looks like a small globe with a panorama stretched over it. That's the Photo Sphere mode.
2. Take a picture as usual.
3. Keep your camera steady.
4. You should see a message to align your camera with the blue dot. Tilt your camera up, down, left, or right slowly to match the center of the screen with the blue dot for the next area. The picture will snap automatically when you get there.

Keep going for as long as you wish to take as many images as possible and make your complete Photo Sphere. keep your phone in the same spot, and rotate it. Don't rotate yourself, or otherwise move the phone from its starting position in space, or that'll mess it up. It's easier if you have something like a tripod you can use to ensure it stays in the same place.

Note: this may look a little weird if you try to take pictures of people, since they tend to move between shots. Landscapes and interior shots are your best bets.

Listen to music from earpiece

Sometimes we need to reroute audio (i.e. music) through the phone earpiece instead of the speaker. (for the sake of listening to a great song quietly without using a hands-free). To do this we must change which output the audio is played through.

You can simply use an app like Earpiece. It does what you want to do. You can pop Earpiece up on top of another application simply by holding down the SEARCH key. then check Audio through earpiece



On a side note, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Playing audio at high volumes, especially for a prolonged amount of time, can damage speakers and/or hearing.

This program is free and open source. The source code is available at http://code.google.com/p/earpiece

Since the free version (above link) has advertising feature you may have to purchase the paid version or use an ad-blocking program to block ads.

Insert a new line in android key board

Sometimes creating a newline on the current android keyboard (for example in a SMS) is troublesome. Some apps like Facebook and/or the site itself has designed to submit the data when you hit the Enter button. But if you want to add a new line to the same message, you cannot just hit enter.

You can do this by simply by hitting the Enter button while pressing the Shift (or the upside arrow) button. It is located at the right bottom corner of your keyboard. (This works for almost all the keyboards. Even for Windows PC's)

  

What if my device does not have the multi-touch ability?

If your device doesn't support multi-touch functionality, you can not achieve this method, as per the tests we performed. If you have a solution for that let us know by simply adding a comment.

Navigation with latest Google Maps

Many navigation users have been complaining about the removal of the Navigation app, with the latest update to Google Maps. This seemed to be very annoying for many users as they were addicted to the simplicity and user friendliness of the navigation app. Additionally, the substitute navigation apps are still way behind Google Navigation.

So how can we get the navigation app?

The latest Google Maps app has the navigation function in-built. The navigation "app" was always integrated into Maps. The blue icon was just a separate entry point into that maps.

If you select a destination, look at the bottom of the screen where it says navigate and you will recognize what comes up next.

How can I my current position?

First of all make sure you have turned your GPS (if available) and data connection turned on. This helps the device to get your precise location easily.

When using the app, make sure that you don't touch your devices screen by mistake. This often happens even without you knowing it and causes the map to tilt, losing the automatic center alignment of your current position.

Now open the app and press the following icon (top). Then the map will center to your current location. Then tap the location icon again. Now the location icon should move with you. Tap the location icon again and then it will look like the following icon (bottom).

Now you should get a more driver friendly view with your location icon moving smoothly. Happy driving!