Google's CEO, Larry Page, has announced that Google has officially acquired Motorola Mobility. The process started last August but the deal is now done. Google hasn't made a statement about what exactly they plan on doing with this acquisition, but he does introduce Motorola Mobility's new CEO, Google employee Dennis Woodside. You can read Larry Page's post over on the Official Google Blog. [Official Google Blog]
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Looking for a decent Android phone? Sure, we know the market will be completely different within a few months (or even weeks) but we wanted to know which Android devices you thought were the best right now, and the masses have spoken. Last week, we asked you to nominate the Android device you thought was the best on the market right now. Then we featured the top five Android phones, based on those nominations. Now we're back to highlight the overall winner.
The "Google Phone" itself, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, took the top spot with just over 39% of the vote. Behind it in second place with 23% of the vote is the Samsung Galaxy S Series, with many of you anticipating the announcement of the Galaxy S III as soon as this week. Hot on its heels in third place is the HTC One Series with 18% of the votes cast. In fourth place is the Samsung Galaxy Note, with 10% of the overall vote, and bringing up the rear is the venerable Droid by Motorola line of Android phones, with 9% of the votes cast.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
Photo by TAKA@P.P.R.S.
There are dozens—possibly hundreds—of Android phones on the market right now, and while plenty of sites will tell you which ones are the best based on checklists of high-end specs, battery life, and overall experience, but this week we want to know which Android phones you think are the best in class. It doesn't have to be the phone you carry, or even a phone you've owned, or even a new phone—just the one you think is the best.
We've asked you which Android phone you use and shown you the results of that poll, so we're not asking for the device you use—just the one you think is the best. We're willing to bet there will be some similarities among you—even if you don't own that dream Android phone, we still want to know which one you think is ahead of the curve. The only condition: it has to be available and on the market now. Leave your vote in the comments below.
The call for contenders is closed! To see which of your nominees made the top five, check out the five best Android phones and vote for the all-out champion!
Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: BEST ANDROID PHONE. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don't follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.
About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's five best linux distributions.
The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com!
Photo by Steve Wright Jr..
Congratulations: you just got a brand new Android phone! If you're lucky, you got a great deal and a huge upgrade from your old Android device. Even so, your old handset has been with you for years and it's set up exactly how you like it—with all of your apps, contacts, and settings just so. Here's how to move all of that precious data to your new phone.
For some people, setting up a new phone is fun, but if you just want to get started with your new Android phone and donate the old one or put it in a drawer as a backup, here are some ways to get everything from the old phone to the new one.
We've broken this guide into two categories: The first section is for rooted phones, for users who know their way around under the hood of their Android device; the second section is for stock devices, for users who don't want to go through the hassle of rooting their old phone, or who have a new phone that hasn't been rooted yet.
If your old and your new phone are both rooted already, the process is straight-forward. If you haven't rooted your device, especially the old one that you're leaving behind, now is a great time to do it. Check out our always up to date guide to rooting any Android device to learn how to root your phone.
Once your phone is rooted, the tools you need will depend on whether you're moving to a new Android phone that's the same model or if you're moving to a new device entirely:
If your new phone is the same as your old phone: Replacement devices are easy. You could pop out the SD card and put it in the new phone, but you'll find your new phone missing data that lived on your old device's internal storage.
An easier way is to just take a entire backup of your phone, ROM and data and all, and save it to the SD card or Dropbox, put it on the replacement device, and then flash the new phone with the image from the old device. Here's how to do it.
Head to the Android Market on your old and your new phone and install ROM Manager.It's worth pointing out that this process essentially images your old phone and then images the new one, assuming the same configuration. If there are significant differences between the old phone and the new phone, or if you're having problems with the old phone at all, you're moving them to the replacement device. You should only do this if you're wiping temporarily, or you're moving to a replacement phone of the same model due to a hardware issue.
If you're upgrading or moving to a new device: If both your old and new phone are rooted, the app you need to install is Titanium Backup. We love Titanium Backup, and have discussed how it's areally powerful tool for automated, hassle-free backups of your Android device.
Shell out $6 USD for the Pro version, and you get additional features like the ability to verify your backups, save your backups to Dropbox, and a no-click batch restore. You don't need the pro version to back up your old Android phone and restore to a new one, but having it will make the process much easier and less time consuming-we recommend it.
Once both devices are rooted, here's what you'll need to do:
When the app loads, tap the menu button and select "Batch."
Choose "Restore all missing apps + system data." This way you'll restore only the apps that aren't already on your phone, and the data for them. If you have the pro version, the process will take place automatically. If you don't, you'll be prompted to authorize each install, one at a time.This method works really well if you're moving between ROMs, or if you're moving from one phone that you have set up nicely to another with a number of apps that are already installed that you don't want to mess with (or that has some newer or different versions of the same apps you had, and you don't want to disturb them.)
If you picked up your new phone on day one and it hasn't been rooted yet, or if you just don't care to root your device at all, you have options too. The tool for the job for you will be Rerware's MyBackup Pro, available in the Android App Store for $4 USD. You could pick up the free version of MyBackup, but it's a 30-day trial for the Pro version, and you can take backups but you won't be able to restore them. MyBackup Root is also available if you ever choose to root your device, but it's not necessary for what we're doing. Here's how to get started:
Tap "Backup" from the welcome screen. You'll be prompted to back up "Applications and Media" and "Data." Start with "Applications and Media."
When your backup jobs are complete, it's time to move them to your new phone. Again, you can transfer the data by swapping SD cards, copying them from one phone to another over USB, or by manually uploading them to Dropbox from your old phone and downloading them on the new phone. However you go about it, make sure they're in the right folder on your new phone's SD card (probably in the /rerware/MyBackup folder.)MyBackup Pro is also a great backup application for non-rooted phones. While it doesn't have the power that Titanium Backup has for rooted devices, it can still back up your apps, data, photos, and other media to your SD card and to the cloud on a regular basis. If you're leery of rooting your device or your device isn't supported by any of the one-click root tools (and you're similarly wary of getting under the hood yourself and rooting it manually) MyBackup Pro is your best bet for a backup app aside from Titanium Backup.
By the time you finish each of these steps, your old device should be intact, and your new device should have all of your apps that you had on your old phone, along with all of the data you've saved in those apps. Your text messages, photos, even your call log and history should be populated on the new device, the same way it was on the old phone. Photo by Clive Darr.
If everything goes smoothly, you're finished, and you can happily use your new phone the way you used to use your old phone. However, keep in mind that the backup and restore processes may take a long time depending on how many photos, videos, music files, or other data you want to back up and copy. Make sure your SD card or Dropbox account (in the case of Titanium Backup) has the space required to hold your phone's backups before starting, and make sure your phone is plugged in before you start a backup or restore operation.
If something happens on your new phone during a restore, you're in pretty good shape: you can always revert the phone to its factory settings and try again. If something happens to your phone during the backup process, it's usually because you ran out of space on the SD card and the app will quit or stop in the middle of the backup. You may have to attach your phone via USB or open your favorite File Management app (we like our App Directory pick, ES File Explorer, and many of you also suggest File Expert) to free up some space.
All of the apps mentioned above have pretty solid compression when they back up your data, so unless your SD card is crammed full already, you shouldn't have a problem. I tried all of them on an old OG Droid with the stock 8GB SD card inside and had enough space for all three apps to back up all of the apps and data.
Once you have a good, solid backup of your phone, it's worth stashing that away somewhere just in case you have problems and need to do the restore again. Even better, if your new phone is rooted, grab ROM Manager and do an nandroid backup of your phone when it's in it's brand new, perfectly-configured state the way we outline above.
This way, if you ever have serious problems with your phone, do something to it so it doesn't boot properly, or need to restore it to a known-good state, you can use the ROM you created after your phone was set up the way you like, complete with your photos and media, instead of restoring it to factory settings.
Of course, you don't have to use an app to migrate your data from one phone to another. System data, like your call log, dialer history, and SMS messages, are stored locally on your phone's internal storage. All of the apps mentioned above will do it for you piecemeal if that's what you prefer. The same applies for photos, videos, music, and other files you may have on your phone's removable SD card. You can always take it out and move it to your new phone, or just copy that data piecemeal using one of the apps or methods above.
Similarly, a lot of information is stored in your Google Account, including your wallpaper and many of the apps you have installed. If you log in to that account on a new phone, you can go to the Market and push all of the apps associated with your Google Account to your new device. Still, this guide is designed for someone who wants to spend less time setting up their new Android device and start using it as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Do you have a preferred application to get the job done? Perhaps you just prefer to install your apps and set up your new phone by hand? Share your tips and suggestions in the comments below.
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