One of my favorite mobile games right now is "Draw Something", a modern spin on the classic Pictionary. 

Recently, many people have started asking me how to save their favorite drawings in this game. The best way is to take screenshots on your phone. Here's how to do it: 

1) Download the app, "No Root Screenshot It" from Google Play. If your phone is rooted, get "Screenshot It" instead. If you don't know what rooted means, get the first app.

2) Once you install and setup the app, start the "No Root Screenshot It" app and then hit the "Overlay screenshot button". This will put a little Android icon on the screen of your phone

(download)

Click here to download:

save-your-your-draw-something-drawings-by-taking-screenshots-on-android-zAcxofsgvBHutuCEhxsF.zip (152 KB)

3) Start playing "Draw Something". When you see a drawing that you want to save, hit the Android button on your screen. A screenshot will be saved!

4) You can save your drawing to your gallery or share it via Email, Facebook, Twitter, and more!

It's really that simple to save your favorite memories in Draw Something. 

Here's a video of it in action: 

Many services push users to log in/register using their Facebook credentials so they can get additional demographic information about them. Only if you absolutly don't want to sign in using 3rd party credentials will these sites begrudgingly allow you to register using the traditional pick-a-user-name-and-password form.

StackOverflow has a particularly cunning way to get you to register using your Facebook credentials. 

StackOverflow's signup page starts out like many others -- they strongly encourage you to sign in using Facebook, but also put a link to their traditional sign up page

Generall a private person, I usually decline to sign in using my Facebook account, so I navigate myself to their traditional signup page. It looks like a standard signup form at first, but then I quickly realized their password requirements are just plain ridiculous. Your password on StackOverflow needs to: 

• Have at least 1 uppercase letter
• Have at least 1 number
• Have at least 8 unique characters

Really?! Have at least 8 unique characters?! Even my bank doesn't require this much complexity in a password. And we're talking about StackOverflow here -- a site that doesn't really store any valuable personal information like credit cards. 

Discouraged by having to invent a completely new password just for this site, I decided to
hit the "back" button on my browser and just sign in using my Facebook credentials. 

This seems like a brilliant tactic to get more users to sign in using 3rd party credentials. I wonder what percentage of SO users sign in using Facebook, and how this compares with others. 

EDIT: I was informed by someone at Stack Overflow that this in fact was not their intention at all. Futhermore, they don't use any of their user's Facebook profile data. I now realize it was a bit of a stretch to say that Stack Overflow engineered their UX in this manner.

Regardless, the strong password requirement DID convince me to sign in using my Facebook credentials, and I'm sure it will convince others as well. In conclusion, I think a very strong password could actually funnel users into signing in with 3rd party credentials.

I should also say that I'm not complaining about SO's strong password requirement. 

EDIT 2: I also didn't realize until now that Stack Exchange is an identty provider, in which case the strong password requirement completely makes sense. You shoud probabaly just disregard anything I said in this post, as I clearly didn't know what I'm talking about :)

Pretty soon, I'll be taking a vacation in South America. Unfortunately, neither my friends nor I know a lick of Spanish or Portuguese. 

Camera Translator is a new Android application I wrote that lets you translate text into any language, simply by taking a picture of it. It's really the easiest and most accurate way to translate text using your camera

Here's a video of it in action: 

Translate text using your camera by getting the app on the Android Maket

I love Android, but copying text is one feature I've always found lacking. With the removal of the track ball on most newer Android devices, selecting text to be copied has gotten even more frustrating. 

"Copy Text" is a new Android application that lets you copy text of ANYTHING on your phone. I can try to explain in words, but I think a video will do it more justice: 

As you can see from the video, you can literally copy anything into your clipboard. If the text is visible on your screen, its able to be copied into your clipboard. You can even copy images of text into your clipboard and "Copy Text" is smart enough to extract the text from the image. 

The best part about this? It does not require you to root your phone. There is a one-time setup process you need to go through that involves connecting your phone to your computer, but there are easy-to-follow instructions that come with the app to walk you through the process. Essentially, "Copy Text" is a non-root version of a similar app I released called "Copy Paste It". If you have a rooted phone, you should still get the "Copy Paste It" app, as it does not require you to go through the setup process that "Copy Text" does. 

Get the app on the Android Market

Here are just some of things you can do in Car Locator now: 

• Automatically send and sync your locations to Evernote.
• Send/sync your location notes and photos to Evernote.
• Import your geo-tagged Evernote locations into Car Locator so you can navigate to them using Car Locator.
• Tag your locations with your Evernote tags.
• See your locations anywhere you have access to Evernote, whether it be on the web, your phone, or tablet.

Get the app today on the Android Market

The phenomenal growth of Android has been a boon for most Android developers -- Android devices are everywhere, from phones to tablets to TVs, from many different manufacturers and carriers, and with many options for customization. But it’s also had the side-effect of making it more difficult to find out if your apps work on most, if not all these devices. There are more than 400 Android devices out there, each unique in their own way, and trying to get your hands on the actual device to test on is sometimes inconvenient. Many times, a user will report that the app doesn’t work on his/her phone, but the developer is helpless to fix it if he/she doesn’t have that phone readily available. I’ll be the first to admit walking into a Verizon store, telling the sales rep I just want to have a look around, when I’m really trying to debug my app on a display phone.

Today, I’m happy to announce something that will help make testing and debugging better for Android developers: HandsetCloud.com.

HandsetCloud.com lets you rent from an array of Android devices and access them right from your browser. The device’s screen is transmitted to your browser and any touch or keyboard events are transmitted to the device from your keyboard and mouse. You’ll get instant access to any available device without the hassle of buying and maintaining it. No software or plugins to download. No expensive monthly fees. Just use your browser and only pay for what you use. 

Now go fix all those device-specific bugs!

"No Root Screenshot It" is a new application just released on the Android market that allows you to take screenshots on your unrooted phone. You heard correctly, a no-root screenshot app for Android.

Before getting into the details, let's cover a little background on screenshots for Android. Taking screenshots on your Android phone has always been allowed on unrooted phones -- it's just been a bit of a pain to do. Once you install all the necessary software, including device drivers, adb, and eclipse, you used a tool called ddms to actually take the screenshots. Furthermore, your phone needs to be physically connected to your computer to take the screenshot.

"No Root Screenshot It" is an application that essentially does the same thing, but in a much simpler way. You simply install device drivers (for Mac users, this automatically happens when you plug your phone into your computer), and then install and run a desktop application called "Screenshot It Enabler". Once you do this, you can take screenshots on your phone whenever/wherever you want. There is one catch though -- each time you restart your phone, you need to re-run the desktop application, because your phone "forgets" its ability to take screenshots. 

The Pros: 

• Take screenshots on your phone without root!
• Take screenshots anywhere, even without being connected to a PC
• No system files are altered on your phone, so you won't run the risk of voiding your warranty by rooting

The Cons:

• Desktop application is required to enable screenshots on your phone. The good news is that this is only a one-time process, until you restart your phone
• Each time you restart your phone, it "forgets" its ability to take screenshots, so you have to run the desktop application again.

If your phone happens to be rooted, the normal "Screenshot It" application is still a much simpler way to go, as it doesn't require the desktop application. If however, your phone is not rooted and you absolutely need to take screenshots, this app is for you! Obviously, if you're one of those people who restart their phones frequently, this app might prove to be too inconvenient for you.

App can be found here: 

Here are the complete steps on how to take screenshots on your un-rooted phone using this app: 

1. Make sure you have the necessary device drivers installed on your computer. You can find device drivers for your phone here. If you have a Mac, you can skip this step.
2. Turn on "USB debugging on your phone" by going to "Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging" 
   
3. Plug your phone into your computer using a USB cable. If a message pops up on your phone asking to turn on "USB storage", do NOT do so.
4. Download and install "Screenshot It Enabler" onto your computer. You can find the installer files here.
5. Once installed, run the "Screenshot It Enabler" application and press the "Enable Screenshot" button
   
6. Disconnect your phone from your computer and start the "No Root Screenshot It" app on your phone. You can now take screenshots!
   (download)
   

   

   Click here to download:

   a-screenshot-app-for-android-that-doesn-t-require-root-sHAIJamByHBysrDdEhzl.zip (198 KB)
   

Don't like to read? Here's a video summary. 

Checkout the video tutorial I made for Screenshot It. 

Also, check back next week for an important Android revenue update!

"Screenshot It" has been updated to allow UNROOTED Atrix users to take screenshots!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.edwardkim.android.screenshotitfull

This year, Google I/O tickets sold out in less than an hour. For us developers who were unable to get a ticket in time, Google is currently holding a series of contests to give away 100 of the much-coveted tickets.

Yesterday was the first day of the competion, where 10 Google I/O tickets were being given out to developers able complete the following challenge: 

"Make an Android app to get developers jazzed for I/O by filling the screen with the bouncing-balls countdown clock on the front of the Google I/O 2011 site. It has to be an APK, and no fair using WebView. We'll give preference to smaller APKs over larger ones; show us how to do a lot with a little. Extra credit for bouncing bugdroids or other creative flourishes!"

I thought this was a fun challenge, as it reminded me of the good ol' days of CS classes in college where we had to be sure to complete the basic requirements, but were given the liberty to add little fourishes and embellishments for extra credit. 

I decided to have a little fun with it: In addition to a countdown clock that barfs balls each second, I incorporated the orientation sensor so that the user can tilt the phone to control where the balls bounce. Finally, I turned the app into a game where you get points for manuevering the bouncing balls into the mouth of BugDroid. 

If you'd like to check out my submission, download the APK here.

There are still 9 days of contests left, which means 90 tickets are still up for grabs! Learn more about the contest here: https://sites.google.com/site/lastcallforio2011/Home