The brand new issue of Android Magazine has gone on sale. This month we’re showing you how you can get started with hacking and tweaking your Android phone or tablet, with an amazing collection of hacks that anyone can try.

We also a look at the best futuristic apps, put some BlackBerry-style Android phones head to head, and show you how you can get fit for the new year with help from your phone.

30 amazing hacks and tweaks every user must try The complete beginner’s guide to hacking Android.

The Motorola Xoom got a mixed bunch of reviews when it first hit our shelves. Users weren’t too happy with some of the feature on-board, and it did feel quite behind against other tablets that were around at the same time. Motorola are aiming to make amends for this by rolling out two new Xoom’s before the end of the year; the Motorola Xoom 2, and the Xoom 2 Media Edition. For the purpose of this post, we’re going to focus on the Motorola Xoom 2 and give you the lowdown of what to expect from in the next throw of the dice from Motorola.

Size, design and display

The original Xoom was a bulky device, weighing in at a flabby 708g. It seems Motorola have taken note of this and the Xoom 2 will weigh in at a trimmed 599g. It still isn’t as light as we would’ve liked, but it is a definite improvement over the original. In terms of dimensions, you’ll be looking at 253.9 x 173.6 x 8.8 mm, which makes it slightly thinner than the original Xoom, but will be similar in most other areas. The classic black bezel will make an appearance, as well as some curved edges, which should make it comfortable to hold. Not much has changed, in terms of the display, with the same 10.1″ display being used, as it was in the original Xoom 2. When we first looked at the Xoom, we were pretty impressed, so there wasn’t any reason to change something that wasn’t broken, right?

The Android Market is awash with photo-editing apps to give a few laughs here and there. One that has been getting an amazing stream of downloads recently is Photo Warp.

The app allows you to import photos in to the app to start editing, or has a function allowing you to take a photo through the app.

When you’ve chosen and loaded the photo you want to mess around with, the fun can really begin. On the bottom of the screen, there are two tabs that open up to give you a series of tools for you to customise your photo. There is a zoom in tool that makes aspects of the photos smaller, and a zoom out tool that makes things bigger. You can also drag your finger on certain body parts to distort them. When you’re done, you can save them to your phone or SD card to share with others.

Battery life remains the achilles heel of Android. In spite of the improvements we’ve witnessed over the last year or two, which have seen both the operating system and the firmware installed on devices even more optimised, the increasing power demands of the latest hardware tends to cancel out any improvements. As a result we’re still left with nightly charges to keep our devices ticking over.

There are lots of things you can do to improve the performance of your phone’s battery, including adjusting the screen brightness, preventing too many apps from syncing too often, and turning off power-sapping features when you’re not using them. But only if you turn to hacking will you be able to make potentially considerable gains.

‘Undervolting’ isn’t for the faint hearted. If the thought of merely rooting your phone brings you out in a cold sweat then move on now. The process required involved flashing an undervolted kernel to your phone. This, as its name suggests, literally reduces the voltage that the phone uses, and that reduced voltage should offer significant battery savings. The idea is that the default voltage setting is set by the hardware manufacturers to be on the high side to ensure reliable performance, and that it can therefore be safely reduced to a lower level on a device-by-device basis. You can do this by first flashing a new kernal – the part of a system that manages the communications between the hardware and the software – that supports undervolting, then installing an app to adjust your settings. Undervolting is often supported in overclocking apps such as SetCPU and Voltage Control.

Do you feel the that the default internet browser with your Android smartphone is lacking in features? The maybe it’s about time to consider downloading the Dolphin Browser app and using it instead. If you’re looking for the ultimate web-browsing experience, you should look no further than Dolphin Broswer HD. There are a ton of cool features to explore as we walk you through this awesome app, starting with the installation of the Dolphin Browser.

1. Download Dolphin

Firstly, you will need to download and install the Dolphin Browser HD app. So head to the Android Market. You can find the Dolphin app by searching for the top downloaded free apps, or by its name. Once you’re ready, start downloading the app to your Android device.

Does your Android phone ever act sluggish or lag? Then a task killer app might just be what you need! A task killer’s goal is to improve the performance of your phone by closing unnecessary apps; it’s more of a housekeeping app. With over 300,000 apps out there, there’s a boatload of apps to download that may be fun but can hinder the performance on your Android phone. The idea with the task killer is that by closing as many programs as possible, your phone will work quicker and save battery life. There are many task killer apps available – let’s take a look at one of the more popular ones, the Advanced Task Killer

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1. Download the app