Showing posts with label android secrets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label android secrets. Show all posts

Thursday, August 9, 2012

How to find the Android Easter Egg on a Samsung Galaxy S3

As we all know Google like to add a lot of secret little Easter eggs to what they do and Android has, so far, not been any different with a number of little secrets tucked away. One of those has been the Android Easter Eggs that we first noticed back when the Samsung Galaxy S2 came out with the Gimgerbread version of Android. Thankfully for Easter egg hunters they've kept the same type of secret in the Samsung Galaxy S3 (and presumably all Android phones running Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.3).

To find the Android Easter egg you need to start by opening up the Settings screen
(see the screenshot on the left) and then scrolling all the way to the bottom where an option entitled "About device" appears. If you click on "About device" you will be taken to a pretty boring looking screen with a lot of options greyed out (see the screen shot on the right). For technophiles the information on this screen this is probably very interesting, for the rest of us however it's rather boring and/or confusing so ignore it all except the "Android Version" part. Instead tap where the phone says "Android version" a few times in quick succession.

After pressing on the "Android version" option a few times you will see the Android Ice Cream Sandwich icon/mascot on what looks to be a lake. If you press on him a few times he will come "closer" to you, almost skipping to the foreground. After a few presses the screen then changes to show an army of the mascot's flying across the screen from left to right.

There appears to  be no real reason for this to have been put on to the phone though it's again a nice treat from Google who have slowly developed what was once a still picture Easter egg, into a very interesting little bonus.

Please note-This has only been tried on a Samsung Galaxy S3, it will presumably however work on all phones running Android 4.0.3.



Monday, August 15, 2011

The secret tricks of Android live wallpapers




 In the past we've looked at setting different wallpapers on the Samsung Galaxy S2, with one of the options being "Live Wallpapers". Whilst some of the Live wallpapers are a bit...boring or have a technical function (think of the weather wallpapers) others have secret little things to do.



The "Galaxy" wallpaper (see the screen shot on the left) is one of the more boxing live wallpapers. Whilst it's normal effect is quite good the only "trick" here is that you can "tilt" the galaxy image by dragging your finger to a corner.

 The "Nexus" wallpaper creates lines where ever you touch the screen. Whilst this is almost the android version of a windows style screensaver it is fun to see that you do have an effect when your press on the screen.
The best of the secrets on the Live Wallpapers is on the "Microbes" screen (see left) in which pressing on the screen places some white dots. These dots act as "food" for the microbes who will run over them and then multiply so you can end up with a screen full of microbes like in the screenshot.





Whilst these are pointless little secrets it still just adds something, in fact the Microbes screen sort of gives you a mini game if your incredibly bored.