TAX DAY WALLPAPER FOR YOUR DROID 2

What's more dreaded than that visit from your mother-in-law, or having to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles? Well, it's April 15th of course! That day where you have to hand over your hard earned money to the government so that they can fund studies on the mating rituals of the black speckled toe jam snails. So here is some wallpaper to protest with.

The biggest thief....

An explanation that is just barely easier to understand than the tax code

Finally, the Truth

What most of us have to resort to

Yep, that's what it feels like

BASEBALL WALLPAPER FOR DROID 2

It's that time of year again....You can go outside without your parka, flowers are starting to bloom, and major league baseball has begun! Here's a collection of baseball themed wallpaper for your Droid 2. Batter Up!

Last Years World Series Champions

A Classic

Another Classic

Baseball In Other Countries

Nice Scenery!

Oh Balls!

My Favorite Team

SPRING TIME WALLPAPER FOR DROID 2

Spring has officially started, so hopefully everyone is enjoying the warmer weather, blooming flowers, chirping birds, etc. If not, here are some wallpapers - that along with a good imagination (or good drugs) will help your surroundings feel a little more like Spring.

Magic Spring by Pavelericsson

Pink Flower Tree at WallpaperCenter

Vail Flowers at Droid-Wallpapers

Spring Colors at Zedge

Colorful Tulips at Zedge

NCAA MARCH MADNESS FINAL FOUR WALLPAPER

The men's NCAA basketball tournament definitely earned it's nickname of March Madness this year! The news media is reporting that only two people out of 5.9 million entries in the ESPN.com's bracket tournament picked all of the Final Four teams correctly. According to the ESPN.com bracket organizers, just 29.7 percent of the 5.9 million entries had at least one Final Four team correct, just 2.1 percent had two correct, and just 1,093 had three of the Final Four correct. So now's the time to quickly and discreetly change the wallpaper on your phone to one of the four remaining teams - Butler, Kentucky, UConn, or VCU, and pretend like you had a clue when picking your bracket.

WALLPAPER WEDNESDAY - ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Vader enjoys a Guinness

Clover

Line 'em up bartender

Irish Flag

THE BASICS - WALLPAPER FOR DROID 2 (PART 3)

BEST PLACES TO GET WALLPAPER FOR DROID 2

Wallpaper is everywhere. You can select the wallpaper for your computer, phone, blu-ray player, car display, etc. It's an extension of you, your style, your desires, your likes. It can show that you're a die-hard Phillies fan or let you escape to that Caribbean island where you want to retire. Besides, it's just plain fun! I've done some digging and have come up with the best places to get wallpaper for your Droid 2 - cause you surely don't want to be caught with the default wallpaper that came with the phone.

WALLPAPER APPS

Wallpaper apps are probably the easiest way to get wallpaper for your phone. Just go to the Android Market or AppBrain (my favorite place to get apps) and download one of the many wallpaper apps available. You can find apps that have all types of wallpaper available, separated by category, or you can find wallpaper related to just one theme, such as your favorite sports team. This is also one of the better ways to find live wallpapers.

Some of the best wallpaper apps are:

• Backgrounds 10,000 Wallpapers by Stylem Media
• Zedge Ringtones & Wallpapers by Zedge
• HD Wallpapers by srsdev

WALLPAPER FROM WEBSITES

Google the term "wallpaper" and you end up with over 262,000,000 results. Narrow it down a little by googling "wallpaper Droid 2" and that number drops to 4,960,000. Now throw in the word "gallery" and you still end up with an unsurmountable 323,000 results. Since I'm such a nice person with nothing better to do, I'm going to save you some time and share with you some of the best online sources for wallpaper I have found.

• DroidForums offers a small but nice collection that is categorized and already sized for the Droid 2.
• Mobile9 has over 2000 wallpapers. I like this site because it has a keyword search.
• Droid Wallpapers is sorted by categories and has ratings, but is hard to navigate.
• Deviantart has one of the most extensive wallpaper galleries.  However, most likely you will have to resize the background because most of the wallpaper here is for computers.
• Google Images has images pulled from across the internet. Just enter a term, select "exactly" from the list in the left column under "size", and input 960 for the width and 854 for the height.
  

Be sure to check out Wallpaper Wednesdays coming - you guessed it - next Wednesday. I'll post the cool Droid 2 wallpaper I've found for that week.

THE BASICS - WALLPAPER FOR DROID 2 (PART 2)

HOW TO CHANGE WALLPAPER ON THE DROID 2

So now you know the technical details about wallpaper which was covered in the Part 1 post. Today's post covers how to get rid of that default Droid wallpaper that Verizon gave you and add something with a little more pizzazz. 
There are a couple of different ways to change the wallpaper:

FROM ANY OF THE HOME SCREENS

1. Touch and hold any empty area of the screen where there aren't any widgets or icons.
2. When the "Add to Home Screen" menu appears, tap the "Wallpaper" option.
3. A "Select wallpaper from" menu appears. Your options will be "Live wallpapers", "Media gallery", "Wallpaper gallery", and "Wallpapers". Tap one of these options.

       a.) Live Wallpapers Option - This gives you access to all of your Live 
            Wallpapers.
            1.) Scroll through the list of Live Wallpapers available.
            2.) Tap the one you want and a new screen will open to let you 
                 preview your selection.
            3.) Tap "Set wallpaper" if you want to use it or tap the Back key to 
                 return to the list of available Live Wallpapers.


       b.) Media Gallery Option - This gives you access to all of photos you
            have taken and the images you have downloaded.
            1.) Folders with all of the pictures you have on your phone will be
                 shown.
            2.) Tap the folder with the picture you want to use. The folder will
                 open and display all the pictures in that folder.
            3.) Tap the picture you want to use.
            4.) A new screen will open that will let you preview the picture 
                 along with a cropping box that lets you select the portion 
                 of the picture you want to use.
            5.) Touch and drag any of the cropping boxes sides or to adjust
                 the portion of the picture to used.
            6.) Tap "Save" to set the picture as your wallpaper or tap "Discard"
                 to return to the list of pictures in the folder.


        c.) Wallpaper Gallery Option - This gives you access to the
            wallpapers that came with your launcher app.
            1.) Small depictions of the available wallpapers will appear at the
                 bottom of the screen with a larger preview version at the
                 top of the screen. As you scroll through the list, the preview
                 screen automatically updates itself.
            2.) Scroll through the list of Wallpapers available.
            3.) Tap "Set wallpaper" if you want to use it.

       d.) Wallpaper Option - This gives you access to default wallpapers 

            that came with your phone.

            1.) Small depictions of the available wallpapers will appear at the 

                 bottom of the screen with a larger preview version at the

                 top of the screen. As you scroll through the list, the preview

                 screen automatically updates itself.

            2.) Scroll through the list of Wallpapers available. 

            3.) Tap "Set wallpaper" if you want to use it.                 

FROM THE SETTINGS MENU

1. Tap the Menu button.
2. Tap the "Settings" option.
3. Tap the "Display" option.
4. Tap the "Wallpaper setting" option.
5. Continue from Step 3 of the "FROM ANY OF THE HOME SCREENS" section above.

AFTER TAKING A PHOTO

1. While the photo is still on the screen, tap the Menu button.
2. Tap the "More" option.
3. Tap the "Set as" option
4. Tap the "Wallpaper" option.

NEXT TIME:  BEST PLACES TO GET WALLPAPER FOR YOUR DROID 2

THE BASICS - WALLPAPER FOR DROID 2 (PART 1)

So what do you think of when someone mentions the word "wallpaper" to you? I immediately return to my childhood, and the memories of watching my Dad trying to wallpaper several rooms in our house. It was quite entertaining really. I would find a spot in a corner or behind a chair where I would be out of sight and watch his face turn multiple shades of red while he tried not to blow a gasket as he battled the wallpaper. He fought valiantly and seemed to win most of the times - at least until my Mom would come by and point out the places where the wallpaper pattern didn't match up. Needless to say, I've never had wallpaper in any of my homes as an adult.

THE TECHNICAL STUFF

Obviously, it's a lot different for your Droid 2 phone. Luckily, it's easier too. Wallpaper for your phone is very similar to the wallpaper on your computer. It's an image that serves as the background for your phone's display and gives you a chance to add a bit of your personality to your phone. 

Wallpaper for the Droid 2 comes in two flavors - images and live wallpaper. Images are pictures, graphics, etc, that must be in the jpg or png format. Live wallpaper is wallpaper that moves or is animated, a fish swimming around your screen for example. **BEWARE - Using live wallpaper drains your battery quicker.**

Wallpaper comes in different sizes, usually given in increments of pixels. The wallpaper size for the Droid 2 is 960 x 854 pixels. ALERT - Here comes the only tricky part....So if the wallpaper is 960 x 854 pixels, then the phone's display should be 960 x 854 pixels too, right? WRONG! 

Each screen on your phone is 480 x 854 pixels. Therefore, if you had your phone set up for only two screens, the first screen would show the left half of the image and the second screen would show the right half of the image. Let's do the math.....

1st screen at 480 pixels wide + 2nd screen at 480 pixels wide = wallpaper width of 960 pixels

But who has just two screens on their phone?! The Android operating system handles more than two screens by shifting the background slightly (less than 480 pixels) to the left or right depending on how many screens you have. This is why when you move between screens, part of the image that was on the previous screen still shows up in the new screen.

So what does this mean for you? Well, when you are trying to find images to use as wallpaper for your phone, if the image size is 960 x 854 pixels, you won't have to trim or shrink the image which will result in a better background.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IN A NUTSHELL

• The two types of wallpaper are images and live wallpaper.
• An image must be a jpg or png file.
• Droid 2 wallpaper size is 960 x 854 pixels.

NEXT TIME:  How To Change Your Wallpaper On The Droid 2

WALLPAPER FOR PRESIDENT'S DAY

In honor of next week's holiday - President's Day. I present a variety of somewhat appropriately themed wallpaper for the occasion. Cause everyone should show a little love for the people that bring most of us a paid day off.

George Crossing the Delaware to Atlantic City?

Presidents - Past and Present

The Joker's Wall of Presidents

Abe Lincoln - Andy Warhol Style

Show Me the Presidents

Mt. Rushmore

And Let's Not Forget the Backside of Mt. Rushmore

ANDROID APPS FOR A CLASSIC VALENTINE'S DAY

(graphic by CubanitaStylez)

There's something to be said about the simple elegance of the classics, especially in this day and age where everything seems to be in your face and over the top. Think of a classic martini - crisp, clean, and smooth. Now remember the last "modern" martini you had. It probably: a) was some bright color, b) had some decoration floating in it, and c) tasted like something from the Slurpee machine at 7-Eleven. Not very impressive, right?

So what are the classics for Valentine's Day? If you ever watched the game show Family Feud....."The survey says:"

1.)  A CARD....

NICKY GREETINGS VALENTINE by 1473labs (free)

Use this app to send a customized Valentine's Day card. Create your personal and colored messages with romantic backgrounds, fonts and nice icons. Then you can save or send them via MMS (MMS is the technical term for a multi-media text message). 

QR Code for Nicky Greetings Valentine

2.)  CHOCOLATE....

CANDY FARM by Candy Mobile (free)

This is an addictive and fun game for your phone. The premise is that for the first time in a century, the gates of the most incredible candy farm in the world are opening at last. Luckily you are one of the holders of the 5 golden tickets and are invited to a one day tour of Candy Farm. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I think I can hear the Oompa Loompa's singing in the background.)

How to play: To start with this game is pretty easy, and then the difficulty of the game would increase with the level completed. The goal of this game is to get each candy from the wrapper to its specified gift box which has the same color as the candy throughout your drawing ribbon. For instance, red to red, green to green. The whole game consists of many cities, different city means different level.

QR Code for Candy Farm

3.)  FLOWERS....

ALL FLOWERS AND GIFTS by Ackdev Inc (free)

Need an easy way to buy some flowers? Give this app a try. It searches numerous online florists and let's you compare prices.

Features:

• Save criteria for future searches
• Browse, filter products by price
• View product details with sale pricing
• Share products description and detail URL with friends
• Great performance, searches 1,000's of online sources quickly, usually <5 seconds
• Stores & categories added weekly

QR Code for All Flowers and Gifts

4.)  JEWELRY....

JEWELRY TELEVISION by JTV (free)

Ahhh, nothing says "I love you" or helps you with item number 6 on this list like a gift of jewelry. This app lets you connect to Jewelry Television - a cable tv shopping show that has been around since 1993. With this app you can:

• Watch JTV live
• Shop their online store
• See the current item up for sale
• Access a guide to gemstones that includes photos and videos
• Access various articles on jewelry in their learning library

QR Code for Jewelry Television

5.)  DINNER....

URBANSPOON byUrbanSpoon Team (free)

I like Urbanspoon over the popular app Yelp. With Urbanspoon, you can find restaurants by using the default slot machine interface. To use this app, give your phone a shake and the different wheels will spin for a few seconds before stopping on a random restaurant selection. You can lock down any of the three criteria if you're not feeling like much of a gambler. Also, there is a browse option in the settings where you can access  more selection criteria, such as romantic or outdoor dining. Reviews, menus, phone number, and a map are available for each restaurant. 

QR Code for Urbanspoon

6.)  SOME SWEET SWEET LOVIN'....

LOVE POSITION by EZI Studio (free)

Now for the fireworks portion of the evening. This app provides a list of different sexual positions from the Kama Sutra. Each position includes a description and a basic illustration (and I do mean basic, so all you teenage boys are better off looking at National Geographic Magazine or just watching cable tv). 

Wait a minute! Before you head for the comments section of this blog to point out that a collection of different sexual positions that includes the likes of the "monkey" is not classic. Let me just say that since these positions come from the Kama Sutra, a book from the 2nd Century AD, you can't get much more classic than that.

QR Code for Love Position