Lucky Patcher removes Google ads from Android apps

Android has a hosts file just like Windows and Linux, so you can clean up your apps and web browsing by blocking the banner farms that compete for screen estate with the real content you're after. Since just about every advertiser out there tries to follow all your moves on the internet you have another good reason to take countermeasures.

But what if you want to clean up your apps without editing your hosts file?

Enter Lucky Patcher. This smart app strips the code that downloads Google ads out of your apps, so your screen and your privacy are a little less abused by AdMob, AdSense, and the other Google banner farms that don't just show ads but try to track your location as well (which hammers your GPS, which sucks your battery dry).

Lucky Patcher can also remove the license verification of paid apps. You could download a paid app, backup and patch the APK, return it within the 15 minute window for a refund, and continue to use it with the license check yanked out. But this is pure piracy. You have to draw the line somewhere, so don't go any further than ad removal.

• Lucky Patcher from chelpus

Get your football fix on Android with SopCast

SopCast uses BitTorrent-like technology to distribute user-generated tv channels. You can broadcast anything you like, but the main use of SopCast is watching live football games and other sports events that would otherwise cost you money or would not be available in your part of the world at all. When I'm travelling abroad SopCast keeps me in touch with my football team back home.

The Android version is still in beta testing stage and it shows all over. Especially the custom URL entry method (you have to open two menus for it) could use some polishing. But even with all its teething problems SopCast for Android is a fully functional way to watch streaming tv on your phone or tablet. And the latest beta version works on Ice Cream Sandwich too. Another nice touch: SopCast for Android launches automatically if you tap a link to a SopCast stream in your web browser.

Keep in mind that watching SopCast streams eats a boatload of data, so don't do this on a capped connection that makes you pay by the megabyte.

Missed the live airing and want the highlights? GoalTV Droid has a clunky interface, but it has the highlights of all major football competitions. Most of 'em come from Dailymotion. IMO GoalTV Droid works better than the GoalTV app from Frezya Mobile, but YMMV.

Update: GoalTV Droid is dead. GoalTV from Frezya Mobile is still alive and kicking.

The beta test version of SopCast is not on the Google Play store (yet), but GoalTV Droid is.

• SopCast (sopcast.com)
• SopCast on xda (for the latest beta versions)
• GoalTV Droid (Google Play)
• GoalTV HD for Tablets (Google Play)
• GoalTV app from Frezya Mobile
• voetbal.site666.info for your SopCast links and other ways to live games and highlights

MultiLing Keyboard for your special characters and nose jobs

When it comes to Android keyboards it's hard to beat Swype, but sometimes an alternative keyboard is useful too.

For example, highlighting and inserting with pinpoint precision is a lot easier with cursor buttons, and the Swype keyboard doesn't have 'em. On many phones the enter key turns into a smilie button when you fire up the stock SMS app, so switching keyboards is the way to put line breaks in your text messages.

Edit: Swype has cursor buttons, but they can be hard to find. Swype from the Swype key to the SYM key to make 'em show up.

GO Keyboard did a pretty good job, but I trashed it when I found MultiLing Keyboard.

MultiLing Keyboard does not ask for internet access, which is a very good thing for an app that can see any password you tap into your phone.

It comes with cursor buttons, of course. Its unique selling point is that it makes it really easy to enter special characters like ¿¡~°£ etcetera. You can even tell it which special characters to pop up when you long-press the period and comma keys. And it lets you decide for yourself if smilies should be noseless or not, as in :) vs. :-).

• MultiLing keyboard

Dolphin browser gesture doesn't get it right

Update: you can move the gesture button to the other corner again.

The unique selling point of Dolphin Browser HD is the way it lets you make and use custom gestures to switch tabs, move around your sites, and much more.

The latest update changes the way gestures work, and I don't like it at all.

The old Dolphin would let me choose if I wanted my gesture button on the bottom left or bottom right of my screen. That's how it should be, because there are left- and right handed people out there and they all have their personal favorite position for the gesture button.

The new Dolphin forgot all about ergonomics. It added a "go to page top" button which is not only useless for most (we already had gestures for that, right?), but it sits on the bottom right corner of your screen by default.

That means that the gesture button now sits on the bottom left, and there's no way to move it anywhere else.

Update: you can move the gesture button to the other corner again.

Not much of a problem in portrait mode, but tilt your phone to landscape mode and you'll probably find that the gesture button is out of reach if you're right handed. Say goodbye to single handed browsing unless you switch back to portrait position.

The new gestures share a screen with the Sonar feature. Sonar is Dolphins voice input. You're probably not using it, which is why Dolphin decided to push its Sonar in your face. It's now a tab on the gesture screen, and for some inexplicable reason you have to enable the Sonar button or else you will have no gesture button at all.

The transparency of the new gesture overlay is almost zero, so you can no longer see the page that you're drawing gestures on.

There's one tiny little ray of light. If Dolphin doesn't understand your scribbled gesture it shows a "did you mean..." set of suggestions so you don't need to draw again.

Another nice touch: the add-on sidebar now shows names in addition to icons. Too bad Dolphin found it necessary to clutter up the sidebar with some more placeholders for add-ons you'll probably never use, and there's no way to delete them. The add-on set needs a bit of a spring cleaning anyway. Really, is anyone gonna download the 2010 World Cup add-on now?

Let's hope Dolphin cleans things up in its next update.

• Dolphin HD