Let’s be honest, notification toggles should have been built into Ice Cream Sandwich. Custom ROMs have had them for months, plus OEMs have even started building them into their skins. For whatever reason though, Google left them out and non-rooted users who own stock devices are stuck looking for options. One of those is Power Control Plus, an app that I was a huge fan of pre-ICS. This used to be a go-to app for customizing home screens as it gives you a ton of options for making the ultimate power widget. Once Honeycomb (Ice Cream Sandwich too) was released though, the app was given the ability to dock itself in the notification bar.

You don’t need root or a custom ROM – this can be installed with the tap of a couple of buttons. Colors, toggles and other goodies can be added thereafter.

Market Link ($1.99)

Cheers TheAndroid1!

One of our readers discovered yesterday that through a loophole in the Android Market and browser, you could install Google Wallet. After the community got a hold of this method, they quickly realized that this not only works for Wallet, but just about any app that a carrier has blocked from your phone. As you can see in the screenshot above, I was able to download and install both Google’s Car Home app and Wireless Tether.

There is a good chance that this will be patched before too long, so for now, feel free to load up just about any app that you would like. For the most part, this will get you into just about any tethering app you want, but there are bound to be other hidden options. In the comments, feel free to drop as many that you can think of to help out the rest of the community. 

Our instructions for installing Google Wallet to your Verizon Galaxy Nexus were giving people enough trouble earlier that one of our readers made a quick video to help everyone out. He went with the lengthy version that the majority of folks have had luck with. Hopefully this helps and gets you all on the official market version of Wallet.

Step-by-step written instructions here.

*Note – This method will apparently work on almost any app that Verizon has decided to have blocked from the market.

Huge cheers to Joey!

We just discovered that Google Wallet has been given the green light for the Galaxy Nexus as long as it has an AT&T SIM (sorry T-Mo users), but the reason we discovered that in the first place, was a tip from a reader who claimed to have installed it on his Verizon LTE G-Nex. After following his instructions, we also were able to install the app directly from the Android Market without flashing a zip or doing anything that a non-rooted phone could not do. How did we do it?  Instructions below.  

If there was one concern that rooted users continue to bring up whenever a new OTA update is on the horizon, it’s whether or not it will break root. Just so you know, almost all updates break root and this question has become sort of a running joke at this point. But for those that are still worried, we wanted to turn you on to an app called Voodoo OTA RootKeeper that we have yet to feature for some reason.

The app makes a “protected backup” of your phone’s root that can be restored after updating your phone. So the next time your phone prompts you to update, be sure to load up RootKeeper, create that root backup, then apply the update, and then restore root. 

Before you laugh at this tip, you have to understand that Motorola – for whatever reason – has made it increasingly more difficult with each new version of Blur to set custom ringtones. You used to be able to do it through the stock music app, but that option appears to have been removed. When I first setup my RAZR MAXX yesterday, the first thing I went to do was rid it of those awful DROID ringtones that they continue to include in each phone. While I’m the biggest “DROID” advocate around, the ringtones that Moto has associated with the brand will blow your ear drums in seconds while also making you the angriest person on the planet. But I digress.

So, back to this setting of the ringtones business. If you aren’t using a ringtone app and are weird or anal like me and create your own, this is how you get them to appear in the “Ringtones” and “Notifications” lists. Since simply dropping them on your SD card or internal storage doesn’t work, you will need to follow these simple steps.  

From day 1 with the Galaxy Nexus, many of you (including the DL crew) have been on the hunt for a Google-branded replacement battery cover. In fact, we tried swapping our GSM cover with the Verizon-branded cover the minute we got the device and came up empty. Something about having a “Nexus” without a Google logo on the back just drives some of us die-hards nuts.

Since then, we have searched the web for possible replacements. After all, accessory companies could probably make a pretty penny off of these skinny pieces of plastic should they make one that would actually fit. So far, none have worked including the one we have pictured up top that was purchased from Amazon. This post is really just a heads-up to not purchase it even though it says it will fit the SCH-I515 aka the LTE Nexus. As you can see from the picture, when you get it snapped into place, it doesn’t fit properly and bows a bit in the middle. Also, I took a knife to it a number of times to try and shave off pieces in order to get this sucker to fit and still ran into issues. At almost $20 a pop, proceed with caution.

If you stumble upon one that fits, be sure to let us know!