Where's Google Play Store??

Interesting problem last night.  One of the Android tablets we own had its Play Store missing from the app drawer page, which was just baffling to me.  Noting that the Play Store is a preinstalled, you can't just uninstall and zap it to kingdom come.  After poking around and even going as far as downloading an apk for the Play Store (which didn't work), it turns out there's an easy fix for this.

Go to Settings > Apps and tap the menu button (3 vertical dots).  Then check Show Google Apps.  Why is this even an option?

Two Good VNC/RDP Android Apps

I had an earlier post talking about PocketCloud Remote RDP/VNC and how it was much better than androidVNC.  I have come with the realization that the free app version was restricted to only one connection.  That's not really a deal breaker, but I had an early quirk with the right click from the virtual pointer wasn't really working.  What I began to realize was that the connection was set to operate on Mac environment which meant I didn't have right click.  Switching to Windows environment for my connection setting worked wonders.

The next problem I had was that I had to remote to two machines and I needed another remote access configuration, something that the free PocketCloud app didn't allow.  I began to look for another app that could provide decent remote desktop functionality.  I found Jump Desktop Free which provides the keys I needed (tab, directional keys, etc).  The only usability quirk I had to learn was that right click was tap and hold on the virtual pointer.  To do the mouse drag, you double tap and then drag with your finger.

Damn! A proper VNC viewer on Android!

For a long time, I've endured androidVNC as my primary remote desktop viewer on my Acer tablet.  It's rudimentary but works and is free which was what I was looking for when I got my tablet.  There are a couple of things that really bothered me with this software though.  First was the propensity to crashes when doing multi-touch accidentally.  Second was the cumbersome keyboard support and the fact that half the time, I can't see what I'm actually typing.  Third was the lack of support for the very well developed Hacker's Keyboard.  While using it a few hours ago, I really started to think that there had to be a much better option that didn't cost a dime.  Google took me to another VNC that works so much better.  That's the PocketCloud Remote RDP/VNC.  Love how everything looks professional and the mouse circular menu really makes using the desktop much, much better.  Can't look back at my old VNC viewer after this one.

Android ICS Irritation: Application Not Responding

I started getting some slow downs with my last few days of Honeycomb.  Launching apps had gotten generally slower.  The stock browser paused damn too much.  Everything was becoming a painful experience for me.  With that, I looked up Elixir 2 and Lookup Ad Detection to figure out just what was happening.  No matter how much I inspected the 'top' command output, I couldn't see anything that was really causing a bottleneck.  I then looked up the ad network apps that were in my system.  It was there I realized that there's a chock full of these that come with your freebie games.  Without hesitation, I proceeded to zap away the multitude of freebie apps that were hooked up in these ads.  Truth be told, I don't know which one did it, to be honest, but I could definitely sense a good change in speed.  It wasn't enough though.

Acer A500 and Ice Cream Sandwich

Ever since the word got out that Android 4.0 (aka Ice Cream Sandwich or simply ICS) started going out, the wait for the update has been infuriating.  Every time I check my device for updates, it has always insisted it didn't have any.  I knew it was already out there though and its inability to find it was aggravating.  People had mentioned that the Iconia Tab Updater needed to be updated but as far as Google was concerned, it was which only made matters more irritating.

Finally I decided to go to Acer's local support website and looked for this apk and bit the bullet.  As soon as the app replaced the one installed by Google, it picked up 4.0.3 right away.  I knew ICS had problems but I was willing to bite the bullet.  After the update went through without a hitch, I've decided to write down my thoughts on this.