We recently reviewed Moborobo, which allows you to manage and sync your Android phone with your desktop, but I wanted to tell you about another one that I found called SnapPea. SnapPea has a clean and easy to use interface that is perfect for the Android beginner, but advanced users might want to check it out as well. It has some pretty cool features and you will most likely want to recommend it to your newbie friends and family since it’s a great application to backup and manage any Android phone or tablet.
SnapPea is easy to get up and running. For starters, you have to download the software for your Windows PC and install it. After that, grab the app from the Play Store (you can actually skip this step) and install it on your phone or tablet. Then it’s a matter of connecting your device to your PC and opening the software on your PC and starting the app on your device if you installed it. If the device was never connected to the PC before, SnapPea will download the appropriate drivers and connect to it. Not only that, it will also install the app on your device if you didn’t already install it. I know what you’re thinking, who wants to connect your phone or tablet to your PC? SnapPea has you covered because you can connect via WiFi, which is the method I recommend. All you have to do is start the software on your PC, start the app on your phone, click “connect to phone”, and click on “or connect via WiFi passcode” on the top right corner of the pop up. Just enter the code that is displayed on your phone and you will be connected. Best of all, you can set it to connect automatically so you don’t have to enter a code each time. Just start the software up and it will connect to your phone automatically assuming both your PC and phone are connected to the same WiFi. Don’t fret if there are multiple phones in the household that you want to link because you can add more phones.
The main screen will appear with all the options in a simple and easy to understand interface.
The display on the image of my DROID RAZR M is blank because I’m connect via WiFi. The one advantage for connecting via USB is the ability to mirror the screen and take screenshots, but that is becoming a non issue as more and more people receive Ice Cream Sandwich. On the top left of the screen you can quickly see your cell signal and battery life. You can also see your internal storage capacity and space used under the phone at the bottom. To the right of that you have options for backing up or restoring data as well as getting information about your SD card if you have one. You will find the main settings at the top right. There are two sections, System and Phone. I found that I didn’t have to tweak the settings at all, but they are helpful to look at, especially the Phone settings. You want to ensure that your backing up your data automatically and to find out or change the location for those backups. SnapPea will back up your contacts, text messages, and photos to your PC, which is one of the best features of the software.
The left pane is where you will spend the most time with the software. The contacts area is where you can look up your contacts and manage them. Now assuming all your contacts are in GMail, this is probably not a big deal, but I know there are a lot of users who like to save their contacts to only the phone. This is where SnapPea comes in handy.You can also use SnapPea to import contacts to your phone and you always have the ability to save any new contacts to only the phone or any of your Gmail accounts that are associated with your phone. You can also browse your contacts by GMail account, phone only, All contacts, or only contacts with phone numbers.
Next up is the text messaging screen. With SnapPea you can send and receive your text messages right from your desktop. This is not only more convenient, but it saves on your battery life. You can see all your text messages on the main screen, and whenever a new text message comes in, you will get a small pop up on your desktop. This means that you will always know when a text message comes in even if you’re working on an important spreadsheet. If you receive a text from someone new, you can add them to your contacts quickly and easily.
Next up is the Apps section, which will show you all the apps you have installed on your phone. You can easily uninstall any apps that you no longer want, and you can search for new apps to download directly to your device. When you search for and browse apps, the software is utilizing the web based version of the Play Store, so it will work the same way as if you went to the Play Store via your browser of choice.
The Music section shows you what music you have on your phone and makes it easy to move songs from your desktop PC to your phone. I personally don’t keep any music on my devices since I am all in with Google Music, so my list only includes some podcasts. I know a lot people aren’t in the cloud yet so SnapPea makes it easy to import their favorite music, especially from iTunes.
Pictures and Video works the same way as the Music section. You can see what you have on your device as well as easily select what you would like to import from your desktop. Since I keep most of my photos in Dropbox, only screen shots showed up for me.
The last area is the Download section, which includes Google Play, 1Mobile Apps, iTunesMovie, and Ted Talks. I already talked about Google Play in the apps section and I didn’t spend much time with 1Mobile Apps. What I found interesting was the iTunesMovie and Ted Talks sections. You can browse movie trailers and Ted Talks within the software, and more importantly, import any of the videos to your phone for later viewing. They will probably add more services soon.
As you can see, SnapPea is really simple and easy to use and gives you a lot of functionality. My favorite part about it is the ability to auto connect and back up data. Once it’s set up, you can forget about it and you will always have all your important stuff backed up if you ever lose your phone or it becomes inoperable. The added abilities to manage contacts, send/receive text messages, and everything else is what makes SnapPea one of the best all around management tools for Android phones and tablets. To close things out, here’s a quick 60 second video from the folks at SnapPea highlighting most of the great features I discussed. After you watch that, hit the links below to get started, and let me know what you think. For more information visit SnapPea.
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