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32 essential Android tips and tricks

Several weeks ago, we highlighted 40 useful iPhone tricks everyone should know. We got such good feedback from that feature that we wanted to share the love with Android users – who, after all, make up the largest proportion of the smart phone community.

13. Google Sky Map

Google Sky Map can help you identify the stars and planets above you. Or, you can point it toward the ground to see constellations only visible in the opposite hemisphere!

  • By Jeff Ward-Bailey

This is undoubtedly one of the coolest free apps you can download. Just launch Sky Map, and point your phone to the heavens (or any direction at all, really). For the most mind-blowing results, you'll want to be outside at night, but it'll work during the day, too. You'll see a map of the constellations, planets, and Messier objects that currently occupy the portion of space at which your phone is currently pointing. The app will even point out meteor showers while they're happening.

(Did we mention it's Android-only? iOS has a few less interesting and more expensive options.)

Oh, and it does time-travel, too. Star Maps can show you what the sky will look like in the future, or what it looked like in the past, as far back as 1900. Ever wonder what the sky looked like the night of the Apollo 11 moon landing? Now you can find out, in more detail than you probably wanted to know.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

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