Widgets on the homescreen

Android does a pretty good job of letting you use your homescreen real estate in whatever way is most useful to you. You can opt for the straight-up grid of applications, of course, but you can also get all sorts of information at a glance from that space. By default, Android lets you put up a big analog or digital clock, weather info (updated based on your location), a Google search bar, a quick overview of your calendar, and all kinds of other information. And a lot of the apps that you download (like Dropbox, which we'll dive into in just a moment) will give you other widget options. Just select the "widgets" tab from the list of applications and drag whatever you like onto your home screens. If you're running Ice Cream Sandwich, you can even resize these widgets at will.