Five Android apps that fix something about Android

Simple Calendar Widget is one of those Android apps with tons of options, nit-picky details, and programmable variables. At its core, though, it’s a transparent calendar widget that fits a lot more data, with color-coded signifiers, onto your home screen. From the “Skins” options, choose “SiMi Clock (Multiple Events),” and be sure to enable the options for colored calendars, and set the font sizes to something you can live with.

Make your Android stop acting like it can’t handle certain Gmail attachments

Your Android phone is, at its core, a computer. So it’s kind of sad when a file (like, say, a Keynote presentation) is attached to an email message, and your phone acts like it’s a children’s calculator. As featured in a post on Gmail helper apps, there’s a solution to files that your phone doesn’t recognize: Gmail Attachment Download.

Gmail Attachment Download (GAD) installs itself as an app that tells Android it can take almost any kind of file. When you tap a file attached to a Gmail message, GAD pops up as an option for handling the file. And then GAD simply asks you where you want to save that file, like a computer would do. That’s all it does, and it’s a big help.

Set up an alarm clock that works for your waking habits

The built-in alarm on Android is decent for reminding me to move my car before the meter runs out. For actual awakening from slumber, it could use some help. I’ve tried many, many Android alarm apps, and my favorite so far is AlarmDroid. It can wake you up just about any way you can imagine waking up (well—ahem—almost).

AlarmDroid does music tracks or playlists, sound files, system sounds, or internet radio streams as your wake-up sound, and it can slowly ascend them as it turns on. You can turn it off by shaking the phone, flipping it onto its face, or by forcing yourself to solve logic or mathematical problems of your chosen difficulty. My favorite thing about AlarmDroid, though, is the spoken alarm. It reads out whatever text you give it, and you can insert variables. That means you get to create your own Tony-Stark-in-Iron-Man-style wake-up moment:

Good morning, Amy. It is [Time], and currently [Temperature] outside. Today’s high temperature will be [Max], with [Weather_Conditions].