My Wireless Provider

  Hello everyone. I hope it is sunshine and roses where you are! I am going to write a little about my wireless phone provider this week. My provider is US Cellular, and they have a very nice selection of Android powered smartphones from Samsung, Motorola and HTC. Before you ask, no they do not carry the iPhone! US Cellular is concentrating on expanding their 4G LTE data network, and in their infinite wisdom Apple did not include US Cellular's 4G LTE frequencies in there newest phone, so it would be pointless to carry a phone that will not work on the US Cellular network!
  But back to US Cellular! One of the perks of being a customer is the points they award to my account every month for just paying my bill on time! What other carrier does that? These points can be redeemed for early phone upgrades at 1300 points = one month early upgrade. Also I can get accessories for my phone with the points, or if I have enough points I can upgrade at no cost to me! Just use the points!
  If the points aren't enough US Cellular has also been awarded the JD Powers "Best in Customer Service" award for wireless providers!
  On top of that nights and weekends start at 7:00 PM and all incoming text and voice calls are free! If you are out and your battery is dead, stop into a US Cellular store and get a free battery replacement.
 
  So go to your nearest US Cellular store and see if they are right for you!

As always if you have questions about switching to US Cellular, Android in general or even apps, feel free to contact me through Google+ or in the comments.

 John USCC Customer Crew Member

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Multi-Tasking

  Hello again. Are you getting overwhelmed with work and life in this New Year? If so get yourself to your nearest US Cellular location and pick up an Android powered smartphone to help you multi-task to your hearts content!
  In this weeks edition I am going to show you some new apps I have found to help you with your multi-tasking needs.
  First is Floating Browser Flux!, this is a floating web browser which can be re-sized at will, reduced to just an address bar, and launched from the notification bar just to name a few! Here are a few other features;
1. Wide range support of Android platform from Android 1.5 ~ Android 4.0.3, the screen will be supported from 240x320 to 1920x1080.
2. Floating window, allowing users to change the size and location; it can support up to two ~ ten independent windows at same.(Professional Edition)
3. Tab pages, Each window has its own tab group.
4. Integrated system bookmarks.
5. Independent history feature. (Professional Edition)
6. Web page screenshot. (Professional Edition)
7. Quick search, start with the clipboard monitoring function.
  Next is Super Video Floating & Popup, this is a neat video player to watch your movies Etc. which is also fully re-sizable at will, below are a few other features of this video player;
Popup Video Player.
1 Simple Widget
2 Multi-Window Video Player.
3 Full Subtitle Support for Video Playback.
4 Friendly and Simply User Inferface with Grid, List and 3D Gallery.
5 100% NO AD, Made in Taiwan.
6 Support Vitamio Software Decoder to view the more format (like MPG, RM, RMVB, FLV, MKV ... etc) video file with floating player. (Android 2.3 later)
NOTE: This app does not support YouTube videos at this time.

  
  Next is Floating Notes, this like all of the others floats and is completely re-sizable. 
A few of the features are;
1 floating windows hover above any other app
2 resize, move and shrink windows
3 save, delete, rename, share, scramble notes
4 change the window's transparency

  Floating Notes also has a paid version which includes the following features;
1 open notes in another window
2 append notes
3 up to four windows instead of two
4 all settings enabled:
5 activate bulletpoints to make lists (press ENTER to add a new bulletpoint)!
6 persistent notification in your phone's statusbar to open a new note quickly
7 change font, textcolor and textsize!
8 stop windows from going beyond screenboundaries
9 hide the closebutton to prevent misclicks

 And now this just in! I am downloading this as I write this Floating YouTube Pop up Viewer! More to come on this at in a later blog. 

  So if you have the need to multi-task or just want cool apps. give these a try and let me know what you think!

  As always if you have questions about switching to US Cellular service, feel free to contact me via Google+ or through the comments. 

John USCC Customer Crew Member

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Game day!

  Hey everyone! Just a short post this week. I am getting ready for the BIG game on Sunday (as I am sure you are). As a part of my Superbowl preparations, this year I am going to be using Google+, Twitter, and Google Talk to keep in touch with friends and fans in other cities and states! Go Ravens!
  If you don't have these apps on your US Cellular smartphone go to the Google Play Store and get them fast, and join in on the game day fun!

  If you have questions or need assistance contact me through Google +, or the comments and I will be happy to help if I can.

John USCC Customer Crew Member

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Getting Busy

  Hello again! I hope everyone has had a productive week. While on the subject of productivity, do you use your US Cellular Android powered smartphone to help you stay productive? If you do what apps do you find help you the most? If you are like me you are so busy I forget things, so I use a "To Do List" app. Here are a few of the ones I have tried at different times.
  The first one is very good. It is called GTask: To Do List. GTasks is a simple and efficient android to do list app. It help you to organize your life in a simple and elegant way. It has both local mode and google account mode. You can sync with your google tasks perfectly. And you can share you list or your task item easily via gmail/note in reader/messaging /google docs and so on.
  And here are a few of the features in this app.
1. Rich gtask (google task) client, simple todo list, checklist, note/notes pad tool.
2. Synchronize with multiple google accounts automatically, also support local mode. customize sync mode: auto,manual or sync when open/exit,background sync
3. batch add notes
4. scroll horizontally to switch between task/tasklist.
5. order your todo/notes items by due date/name/create order
6. order your task list easily by dragging them
7. view your events on google calendar
8. Indent, unindent, share, move easily
9. repeat reminder enable, set reminder one-time/daily/weekly/monthly... and so on
10. quick add task by pressing the search key
11. search all task with autocomplete match
12. Widgets(scrolling in LauncherPro/ADWLauncher/GO Launcher)

  And the one I am currently using is Any do. Some of the key benefits are: Seamless cloud sync, Speech recognition, Alerts, Snooze tasks, Google Task Sync, Notes, Sub tasks, Amazing Widgets, Repeating / Recurring Tasks, Missed call, Auto complete, In app actions, Gesture support & much more!
  Here are a few of the features of this great app. 
 Just like real life - Swipe a task with your finger to mark it as complete.
 Shake it away - Shake your device to remove all completed tasks.
 Powerful widgets - Add a widget to your home screen to see all the things you need to do - just when you need them.
 Don't miss another call - Turn missed calls into reminders.
 Take actions - With Any.DO you can easily make calls, text, emails and even schedule meetings from within the app
 Make it personal - Choose your favorite app theme (white or black).
 Do it your own way - You can easily customize your folders, so you can organize your tasks to best suit your needs (for example: Work, Home, Errands). Plus, you can have as many folders as you wish.
 Your tasks, Your choice - You can switch between Date view (Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming & Someday) and Folder view, it's up to you.

  So now pick one of these or choose another from the Google Play Store and get organized! 

  If you have any questions about switching to US Cellular, any of the apps you see mentioned in this blog, or just Android in general contact me through Google +, or in the comments. 
  Thanks for reading!

John USCC Customer Crew Member

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Messaging apps

  Well another week has gone by in this new year, I hope you are having success with your resolutions! If one of your resolutions was to keep in touch with family and friends I hope you got a new device from US Cellular with free incoming text, voice, and picture messages! And if you are like me you don't like the stock messaging app that came with your Android powered smartphone from US Cellular (or any other carrier for that matter).
  I have tried several from Handcent to Go SMS Pro, to the stock AOSP based Android 4.1 JB Messaging SMS. But today I found my new favorite Sliding Messaging, and in as much as I like the vanilla (AOSP) this one fits perfectly as it is a minimialstic look and feel.


 Easily manage text messages in a new and up to date format compliant with the Android design guidelines and visually based on the stock messaging app from Google, with added features.

Features:
- Easily switch between conversations by dragging out the sliding menu on the left side of the screen.
- Start a new conversation by sliding out the menu on the right side of the screen
- Manage old messages with a single click
- Choose between light and dark themes
- Emoji support
- Adjust text size and control notifications and theme though settings
- Quick reply popup
- Multi-window support for Galaxy Note
- Light Flow support (will be active once Light Flow has been updated)

Please note: As of now, this is just a basic messaging app with a great layout and simple features. Currently, MMS is not supported, but it may be added in the future along with other feature requests, please sound off in the comments of what you would like to see in future versions!

If you are having problems receiving notifications, you may need to uninstall 3rd party messengers such as Go SMS.

When using this app, do not disable the stock messaging app as I use it to permanently save messages to the phone. You can however, disable notifications for it so that you don't receive 2 of them.

If you have any questions about this or any other messaging app, US Cellular service, or Android in general feel free to contact me through Google+, or in the comments of this blog. 

John USCC Customer Crew Member

PS Since I installed this app, I have gotten consistent updates. I penned this blog on Saturday afternoon, and have gotten3 updates since so the secs are every responsive. Just remember this messaging app does not support MMS at this time. John USCC Customer Crew.

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Best of the Best

  Hey everyone! This weeks post is going to be short and sweet.
  I recently posted a survey on Google+ asking what is the best phone? I got several interesting answers, but as it turned out the best was the Samsung Galaxy Note II.
  This phone is packing a 1.6 GHz. quad core processor, a 3400 MhA battery, and sports a 5.5 inch super AMLOED screen.
  Coming in second was the Samsung Galaxy S III which has a Snapdragon 1.5 GHz dual core processor, a 2100 MhA battery and a 4.8 inch screen.
  So the moral of this survey is get down to your local US Cellular store and try them both out and see which one is the best of the best for you!

As always if you have questions about US Cellular or Android in general feel free to contact me through Google Plus or through the comments section.

John USCC Customer Crew Member

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Note II Initial Review

  Hi! This week I am going to do a slightly different blog. I am going to give an initial review of a device. I know this is a very subjective issue but here we go!! I will be giving a short review of the Samsung Galaxy Note II from US Cellular.

  I was intrigued by this device at first, then went to a store and held one and played with it a bit. My first opinion was it was too big, and I could not use it one handed. I kept watching the YouTube reviews and listening to friends who had this device and decided to give it a try. After a few days I still am inclined to think the device is a bit to large, but have learned to compensate for most applications.

While the device is large, the screen is amazingly bright and vibrant while watching movies, gaming, or just normal applications and the Spen makes navigating the huge 5.5 inch screen a bit easier.
The 8 MP camera takes digital SLR quality photos and video. The burst mode is an excellent feature in my opinion and the ability to take still photos during video capture is great.
With the release of the latest update the multi-screen option is going to make multitasking at work much easier.
Overall this is one amazing device, but not for a first time smartphone buyer in my opinion, you would be overwhelmed at the things you can do with this device! But if you are upgrading from another smartphone I would recommend this one if you don't need to operate your device with one hand.

If you would like information or help switching from your current carrier to US Cellular or have questions about Android in general, feel free to contact me through Google+ or through the comments of this blog.

John USCC Customer Crew Member

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