By The Rowdy One

The one thing I love about Android devices is the AndroidOpenSource. It allows you to customize your device to fit you and your lifestyle. If you want your phone to look like you have Android 4.0, but you’re running an earlier version of Android, and the apps are compatible, you can do that. If you want your device to look like a Blackberry, you can do that. The customization is endless when it comes to Android devices.

Before I purchased some of my Apple devices, I made my Android devices look like an Apple device. My tablet looked like an iPad and my phone looked like an iPhone.

Many people looked at it as blasphemy. “You can’t do that! Apple is Apple and Android is Android!” I looked at it as having fun and to this day, my Android devices have the same look as my iOS devices. It just makes things easier for me. Hell, they’re my devices, I can do whatever I want to do with my stuff.

So maybe you want to change the look of your Android device just for fun? Maybe you’re thinking about switching from Android to iOS when the iPhone 5 comes out this fall and you want to familiarize yourself with some of the iOS feature  Maybe you switched from iOS to Android and you’re feeling a little nostalgic? Well, as the saying goes, “There’s an app for that.”

This is part one of a two part piece on how you can turn your Android into an iPhone. Before we get started, let me give you the heads up, some of the apps I’m about to show you will cost some scratch. So if you’re a penny pincher, I will do my best to present as many free apps as I will the pay apps. So let’s begin, and the first place we need to start with is the look.

Now as many Android owners know, there are numerous launchers out there. There’s too many to name, so I’ll just give you the two that I feel are the best. The first is GOLauncher. GO Launcher has a bevy of iPhone themes. I’m not a big fan of their “docks” for the launcher, but they have the best variety of themes in my opinion. You will have to pay for some of the
really good themes, so keep that in the back of your head.

My second, and favorite choice is Espier. Espier has the feel of an iOS device. From the folders, to the spotlight search, everything about the Espier launcher puts iOS on your Android device.

Espier also has numerous preferences in the back end of the app that helps you make your Android look and feel like an iOS device. To me, it’s the best “iOS” launcher out for Android. By the way, you can make your iOS device look like an Android device, but that would require you to “jailbreak” your phone. Of course, that’s totally your decision.

Next, you’re going to want a keyboard that looks and feels like the stock keyboard for iOS. I recommend iTap Keyboard and A.I.type Keyboard Plus. I prefer A.I.type Keyboard Plus. The word prediction is great and although the letters on the keyboard aren’t always in “caps” like they are on an iPhone keyboard, the raised buttons during typing really helps in making sure the correct letter is being typed. They also have an “iPhone” skin to give you that iOS look.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, it’s time to add all of the extra fun stuff to your Android to really make it feel like an iOS device. In part two, we’ll look at the different Android messenger apps as well as some other apps that look and work like Apple’s iPhone apps.

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