One way a desktop Apple fan could make their Android feel more comfortable is adding a dock. Dock4Droid is also a great addition for anyone who wants quick access to recently used and frequently used applications.
Using the default Android dock
Once you install and start Dock4Droid, you will see a red bar to the right side of your screen. This is the default location for your new dock. To try it out, just touch the red glowing bar. You should see a few of your most recently used applications here.
Customize your Android dock
There are a lot of options to customize the settings of your Android dock. There are options to change the location, size of the icons, which applications are always in the dock, which applications you never want to see in your dock and even how long the red glowing minimized dock bar is.
Ways an Android dock can improve your productivity
We have talked about Android productivity in the past. When you can be more efficient with your Android device, you can get more done while using less Android battery.
Having your most used applications in the dock
When you have commonly used applications in your dock, you can save space on your main home page. Accessing these applications in your dock will save you the effort from scrolling through the endless list in your app drawer.. If you are anything like I am, you make a folder, add apps and forget what is in the folders. Having the apps in the dock is more visible and easier to remember what is in it.
Less clutter on your screen
There are a lot of really cool productive wallpapers for Android. If you have a cool Live Wallpaper with clickable items on it, you will want to free up a lot of the real estate on your home screens.
Touch to launch option
I will list this as a way to be more productive with your dock, but you may want to change this feature once you get used to using your Android dock. In the settings for Dock4Droid, there is a feature called Task launch mode. What this feature does is changes how you launch the application in the dock. Initially it is set to launch when you drag your finger to the app and let go of the app. When you are just starting out, you may activate the wrong application more often. To remedy this, you can change this feature to activate the application when you scroll to the application then either touch or double touch the app. Initially this worked better for me until I got used to how fast the application launched and how the dock scrolled.
Conclusion
Of the options I have tried, Dock4Droid seems to be the easiest to use and has a lot of ways to customize in the free version. There are some additions you can pay for if you want to add features like a contact dock or adding more than 4 of your favorite applications to the dock at all times. What other ways could you use an Android dock?
