Android Atlas

Android allows deep customization of the home screen.

(Credit: Tim Gonzales)

Though the open nature of Android has always allowed you to alter the G1's software, options for personalizing the exterior of the phone have been few. Fortunately, however, the upcoming T-Mobile MyTouch 3G offers customization choices both inside and out.

We can get a preview of what's in store for new MyTouch 3G users by looking at current Android modifications. By far, the most popular options are home-screen replacements. For a couple of bucks, users can purchase apps in the Android Market that completely replace the default home screen. Once installed, there are hundreds of free themes for changing the look of the phone and updating everything from the clock and search bar to the menu icons and display font.

In addition to applying new themes, the home screens can add a new level of functionality to the phone, such as capturing screen shots and adding a task manager. The most popular home replacements are Open Home, aHome, and dxTop, but Android users should also be on the lookout for Sweeter Home, which is nearing the release of Preview 2.

Better Keyboard is a paid application that allows you to replace the default virtual keyboard with new designs for QWERTY and compact QWERTY keyboards and a number pad. What's more, users can change the look of the keyboard with up to 20 skins that are available for free on the Android Market. The developer Better Android has released regular updates that continue to improve performance and add new features.

Widgets are another popular way to customize your desktop. More than 250 options are available on the Android Market that can display the current weather conditions, allow you to control your audio settings, show the latest updates from your favorite website, send tweets, and toggle phone settings. As the developer API for creating widgets was just released with Android 1.5 update, we are beginning to see more advanced creations hit the market. The new HTC Hero has demonstrated excellent widget design, which is now making its way to other Android devices.

Soon, Android users will be able to play with some of these modifications for free. T-Mobile is set to relaunch aHome under the new name Fresh Face and distribute it for free. With the release of the MyTouch 3G, customers will get a chance to personalize their phones and truly make it unique. To see what current users are doing with their phones, check out this Flickr gallery for a nice set of Android Home screens.

aTrackDog allows you view the most popular apps and games in real time.

(Credit: Taylor Wimberly)

Though the Android Market has been open for eight months, it lacks many important features present on Apple's iPhone App Store. Above all, you can't browse the full gallery of apps on your PC. What limited browsing features that are present on the official Android Market site only display selected applications.

But where Google has lagged, the community has stepped up. A number of clever Web sites now enables users to perform improved searches, view a complete listing of apps, and see historical rankings. You can use a combination of these sites to discover new apps and trends.

Cyrket acts as a Web client for the Android Market. It provides the same category listings that you'd expect to see on your phone, but you'll also see the description, details, rating, and reviews for each app. Other features in Cyrket include search, listing by popularity, and RSS feeds for the latest updates.

aTrackDog collects information about the apps you've installed and reports it to a central location. Advanced filter options enable you to find the most popular apps over different time periods, which makes it easy to find helpful information about the best selling games last month or the top free apps in the last week. Each listing also provides links to the developer's Web site and reviews from Android Tapp.

AndroidStats focuses on historical rankings. You can use its weekly movement charts to identify quality new apps and games and view graphs that display all-time ranking of each app. Another helpful feature tracks general pricing trends by showing the price change report from the previous day.

It would be great if the Android Market displayed such information, but I expect that a major update to the Market this year will play an important role in the next Android Developers Challenge, which enables users to review entries and vote for their favorite apps.

Contact Owner allows you to easily create a custom message on your lock screen.

(Credit: Taylor Wimberly)

The thought of losing your Android phone can be quite frightening, but a free app from the Android Market can give you some comfort. If your lose your handset, Contact Owner will display your contact information on its lock screen.

Setting up Contact Owner is easy and only needs to be performed once. Simply launch the application, select a contact, and choose which information to display. You can pull the information directly from your stored contacts list or type it in manually.

Once the message is saved, it will show automatically each time your phone's lock screen is engaged. On the downside, there's no option for activating it remotely and uninstalling the application is the only way to remove the message.

Contact Owner also offers the capability to add a custom message before and after the contact information. You can enter a greeting to anyone who finds your phone and you can include the phone number of a family member or friend in case you are unavailable when someone is trying to find you.

While the application doesn't offer the protection of Find my iPhone, it is a step in the right direction. The Android platform certainly has the flexibility for a competing app, and I expect that we will see a similar services in the future. Until then, visit the Android Market and install Contact Owner for free.

The Ion gives a taste of what to expect with the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)

T-Mobile has finally unveiled its second Android phone, but how does it stack up with the carrier's first release? If you purchased a G1 back in October, is it time to upgrade? How were the major concerns of the first phone addressed?

The MyTouch 3G won't launch in the United States until August, but the phone has been available in other parts of the world for months. The Google Ion, which made the rounds at the Google I/O conference last month, is a limited edition version of the HTC Magic, and shares the same hardware and many features with the MyTouch 3G.

Battery life
One of the biggest complaints of the G1 concerned its limited battery life. Users were forced to disable many features in order to prolong use. Indeed, on my G1, I routinely had to disable Wi-Fi, GPS, and other features that I wasn't using. Normally, my phone would normally survive the day, but it was near dead when I placed it on the charger at night.

Luckily, the battery life is no longer an issue on the second Android phone. The Ion's 1300mAh battery offers increased capacity over its predecessor. Though it's only 13 percent larger than the G1's 1150mAh battery, it feels as if it has twice the capacity. Even if I leave all features turned on, my phone is still going strong at night. There have even been a few nights where I skipped charging the Ion, which is something that I could never do with the G1.... Read more