6 Must have apps to switch from iPhone and iPad to Android

When you think about it, the reason millions love iPads and iPhones and Apple Macs is that, they are simple. Everything works, everything syncs and you don't really have to think much about it. 

On the other hand, many of us are getting tired of the same old iDevices and we are tempted to stray the newest latest and greatest. 

So we look at Nexus, and Notes, and Kindle Fires, and Galaxy S3 and 4 and Note Tablets and yes even Windows tablets and phones. 

Well there is life after iDevices, but if you don't want bruises form kicking yourself, here are a few apps that can make life easier. 

For Android - Syncing contacts, calendars, reminders and notes...

First of all if you are syncing your Mac ical, and contacts with Google you are half the way there. All Android devices are pretty strongly tied into Google services. 

Get Smooth Sync for contacts and SmoothSync for calendar. They work through iCloud and sync calendar, contacts and now reminders with your Android device. They are around 6.99 for each through the Google play store. 

Inotes is the answer for syncing your notes from Mac and iDevice to your Android. Also at the Google Play store for less than $10 and it works. 

For photos, the best answer I've found is Drop Box. The Drop box app will connect with your camera and upload photos from your device to the cloud and vice versa. Bottom line is all photos from all devices sync just like your Photostream. You can also sync files back and forth while you are at it. 

For Syncing big files like movies, a great program is called AirDroid. This is a FREE program to sync and manage files on your Android device. You can actually remote control your droid thing and other things as well.  It is particularly handy if your device doesn't have a SD card like on the Google Nexus devices and Kindles. I have also found that Android file transfer program has stopped working on Macs. At least those with the new Mavericks operating system.  Here is a little video taste of Airdoid.

 
Finally for music, I recommend Google Play Music and Music Manager. You can upload 20,000 songs from your PC or Mac and access them from your other devices. Free again! Go Figure. 
If you have some apps or ideas to move between platforms let me know or comment here. 

Dell Venue Pro 8 Hands on Review

After reading a great review of the new Dell Venue 8 Pro Windows tablet,  i bought a 32 GB version from Amazon for $279.00. I later learned that I should have bought the 64 GB version for another $40 because the OS uses up about 60% of the "32 GB" which actually only shows up as being 23 GB in Windows explorer. But I was very excited about the possibilities of the best of Windows and a tablet all in one.
Service was great and I had it in less than 24 hours.
I've had 3 iPads, a Samsung note 10 and 2 Nexus 7 tablets.
I thought it was time to give Windows a try.
I've used Windows for years and am in the technology field so I wasn't new to windows, though I'm not a big fan of microsoft's complexities.
I got the unit. It was well packaged, nice quality. Good looking screen although I did have to take off the auto brightness setting and then I could actually see how bright the screen was.
As I began to use the Venue, I realized how great the interfaces for iPad and Android are. They are designed for tablets. Tap and touch. You just click the Apps.
But Windows just isn't ready for tablets yet.
The Metro START screen looks like it should be easy, but many of the APPS / tiles just take you into the windows desktop. There you have to try to use a large finger to select files with tiny print. Try double clicking or right clicking on the middle item in a list.
More times than not I clicked the wrong item.
I actually tried a stylus and did a bit better. That's great as long as you always remember to bring your stylus.
I connected a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. That made it easier, but in reality I don't always want to have to use a keyboard and mouse. I have laptops for that.

My primary computers are Macs and I have been pleased with the ability to seamlessly sync the core items of life (contacts, calendars, reminders/tasks, and photos between devices.
I learned that windows no longer syncs that stuff with Google anymore. So the most common link is gone. Android has some nice apps called Smooth Sync for Contacts and Smooth Sync for Calendars as well as an app called shote which handles the notes. Drop box will take care of syncing files and pictures from the camera.

I was excited to read that the iCloud Control Panel would sync contacts, calendar, photos, bookmarks and tasks. But in actual practice I found that the syncing only happens with Outlook. NOT the calendar and contacts that are part of the Windows Tablet Start screen. So you have to have Outlook running. And that is not reflected on the main screen. When the sync begins it asks if you want all the photos to sync (which in my case was 13000 and so the choice is no. So forget your photos syncing. Oh and one other caveat. DO NOT CLICK MERGE BOOKMARKS. I did thinking that I didn't have many bookmarks in Windows so no big loss if they were added to my Mac bookmarks. What it should have said was how would yo unlike to wipe all you Mac bookmarks and replace them with a hodge lodge of windows "Favorites"? Thank God for backups.

I tried to set up my favorite apps and found that many are not available in the Windows store. For example, Yelp is a very handy restaurant review app available on both the Apple platform and android. It's not available on Windows tablet. Instead there is an app called Zalp, which allegedly combines Yelp and Zagatt. I gave it a try and picked 4 different commonly known restaurants. It said nothing found in either Yelp or Zagatt.
I liked the look and the size of the Venue, but Windows on an 8" tablet is not easy to use.

I liked the idea of "Full" windows on a tablet, but "really" try doing anything work on an 8"tablet. Right clicking? dragging and dropping, alt tabbing between screens? How to make yourself crazy in one easy lesson.
It's not close to the Android or apple interface. So no matter how many techie features Windows boasts, this thing is a pain in the neck. I was very happy to go back to my Nexus and iPad.
Good luck but this is not the user friendly choice of a tablet.
I returned it in less than 24 hours.

Oh and one I forgot... within an hour I picked up some malware. A program that allegedly tested my performance on my hour old Venue and found I need to sign up for their performance boosting utility. Really.

No more Windows for me thank you!!