Useful Apps for Android devices

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Jughead

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#61125 10-May-2010 12:30

I have been mucking about with an Android Phone for a few weeks now and thought I'd write a list of usefull apps I've found. Feel free to add your own. I found them ethier at the app store or at http://andappstore.com/AndroidApplications/apps/!index

Yammer
workplace social networking

Tweet Caster
mobile twitter, with facebook plugin also update status, you can have an update text box on your phone deskstop

Fast Food Finder
find fastfood joints near you. although royal oak is not really near the cbd...

Flash Light
turns the screen white, should be called 'ky finder'

Bar Code Scanner
scans barcodes

Mother TED
Download and watch very good talks by inspiring people, might want to watch you data useage with this one

Useless Facts
triva nerds unite

Flickr Droid
upload to your flickr account from your phone

WikiMobile
world wide knowladge base on your phone...

10001 Cocktails
great if you need a drink

Xkcd Viwer
best comic around now on your phone

Simpley Cyandie
worst tate comics around now on your phone

Peanuts
most classic comics around now on your phone

Dice
choose the number of dice you want and you can shake your phone or press a buttong to roll dice, will even give you total of all dice. very nice

Sudoku Free
free sodoku from east to extrem diffculty

Coin Flip
head or tails

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

Linuxluver

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#328708 10-May-2010 21:21

Interesting choice of apps. :-) I'll check a few of those out.

What sort of Android phone have you got?

My most-used apps are:

Seesmic (Twitter)
FeedR (RSS feeds / news)
Camera / Gallery
Handcent SMS

Dolphin Browser (and now the new "HD" version)
Skyfire browser (can play lots of the Flash videos from sites other than YouTube that you otherwise can't play)

AndroZIP - File Manager that also makes and unmakes various types of compressed archives

Estrongs File Manager - mainly for accessing Windows and Samba file shares on LANs

Meridian Pioneer - playing tunes, vids and whatever else.

S.M.A.R.T. SMS - for auto-respond to incoming txts when I can't read them right away.

ShootMe! - *excellent* screen capture apps (root required)

Beautiful Widgets - Love the Beautiful Home widget, in particular. Clock and weather info...with over 120 skins and some of them are out there. I especially like the "binary" binary with the clock in binary. Minimalist...and keeps my head up with calculating in binary.

JetFlicks! - best kept secret on Android. Streaming TV over wifi or 3G. Dozens of current and past TV series with multiple seasons instantly available to be played on your phone. Cost US$4.20-ish / month if you pay the single, annual sub. Fpr NZ$6 / month there is a huge array of on-demand content here.

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Jughead

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#328756 11-May-2010 08:00

I am using the LG Android, there is still a lot to be said for a slide out keyboard.

And item four should be "KEY finder" man thats embrassing...

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

stevenz

2800 posts

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#329237 12-May-2010 10:29

I've got a Nexus One, useful apps:

3G Watchdog = Keep an eye on your data usage *essential*
ACV = Android Comic Viewer
AdFree = Replacement ad-blocking hosts file, removes ads in apps & web-browser
Aldiko = epub book reader
Dolphin Browser HD = Much better than stock browser
eBuddy = Best multi-IM app on Android
ES File Explorer/Task Manager (Prefer this to Astro)
Evernote
GPS Test = Lots of GPS info, can be used as a speedometer
Lockbot = Alternate lockscreen so you can unlock with the trackball
LogMeIn = VPN over HTTP to your PC
Meridian = Superior media player
N1 Torch = The N1 LED is ridiculously bright, makes an outstanding torch.
Remote SMS = Web server that you can connect to from your PC to send SMS's from
Soundhound = Identify music that you can hear (formerly Midomi)
Twicca = IMHO the best Twitter client (Touiter is also very good)
WaveSecure = Shut your phone down & track it if it's lost/stolen
WiFi Analyzer = Very handy tool for setting up a WiFi network to identify frequencies
XBMC Remote = Control XBMC media player over WiFi, fantastic app!
Spare Parts = Tweak a few hidden settings & speed up the UI
SNESOid = Surprisingly good SNES emulator

Plenty there to keep you amused.

@KnightNZ

Jughead

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#329250 12-May-2010 11:02

i use xbmc on my media center how did i not see this app! thanks!

Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer Telecom NZ

stevenz

2800 posts

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#329257 12-May-2010 11:09

XBMC isn't on the appstore as it's still in beta, the current version is v0.70 which is fairly stable and you can get it from:

http://code.google.com/p/android-xbmcremote/

You'll need Astro or ES File manager to install it, (or install using apk) or you can can just browse to that URL on the phone and download it directly. Very cool app, still has a few "issues" but they're working on it.

Pity the Wireless is a bit flaky on Android, the iPod touch reconnects usually within 5-10 seconds, the N1 can take anywhere from 5-30 seconds and sometimes needs a manual scan to wake it up.

Another couple of handy apps;

Juice Defender - turns your APN and WiFi off when the phone is asleep to save lots of battery, turns it back on periodically to sync emails etc.

Handcent SMS - Superior SMS/MMS application to the default one

GMote - Remote control your Mac/PC with your phone (ala AirMouse for iPhone OS, but not as pretty)

AppBrain - Queue up apps to install from a WWW interface on your PC, find useful new stuff.

DropBox - Can be used in conjunction with LogMeIn to copy files to your phone.

@KnightNZ

NZtechfreak

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#329274 12-May-2010 11:35

SMSBackup is useful, automatically backs up your SMS to your GMail account.

CallTrack does some thing for call logs, but to your Google Calender.

For HTC Desire Beam Widget is great, simple widget for turning the camera flash on/off for use as a flashlight.

NewsRoom - great RSS reader.

Andoku Sudoku is the best Sudoku clone I've found so far.

GameBoid is awesome, full speed with sound emulator for GBA.

NY Times/Guardian apps for offline reading of those papers.

Droidkoban - excellent Sukoban clone (best available for Android).

Fring/Nimbuzz - IM aggregators

Google Sky Map

LastFM (if you don't know about lastfm Google it now and start enjoying life more!)

Tunewiki - media player with timed lyrics database

Jewels - great free Bejewelled clone.

gStrings/Mobile Metronome - tuner and metronome apps for the musically inclined (now I have a metronome, all I need is to scrape together the motivation to practice my scales!)

Shazam - free music ID program

Vignette - photo editor with lots of great effects (including some less known stuff like Tilt Shift photography, Google it, very cool)

GRemote Pro is nice, and as pretty as AirMouse.

Twitter: @nztechfreak
Blogs: HeadphoNZ.org

stevenz

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#329286 12-May-2010 11:58

How have I not managed to find GRemote before now despite lots of hunting for just such a beast?! Brilliant find, cheers.

Edit: Bother, no OS X client :(
Edit2: At least it's on their roadmap, can still use it to control the HTPC if not the Hackintosh in my room :)

@KnightNZ

Linuxluver

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#329349 12-May-2010 13:37

Jughead: I am using the LG Android, there is still a lot to be said for a slide out keyboard.

And item four should be "KEY finder" man thats embrassing...

I thought it might be shorthand for "kai finder"....for those midnight raids on the fridge. :-)

How do you find the LG other than the slide-out keyboard?

I used Android v1.5 on my HTC Magic for the first two months I owned it. It certainly got the job done.

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ald

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SimWorks

#329387 12-May-2010 14:50

Sorry to briefly hijack the thread, but since we're talking about the LG Android phone, my brothers been grumbling about Android 1.5 on his LG. Neither of us of rooted/moded an Android phone before. Anyone know if there is a rom available for this device that gets it up to 1.6/2/2.1 and instructions on how to do it? Had a quick look myself but got pretty confused pretty quickly!

Best regards,
Aaron Davidson.

SimWorks International Limited

www.simworks.com - New Zealands leading developer of mobile applications

Linuxluver

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#329435 12-May-2010 16:19

ald: Sorry to briefly hijack the thread, but since we're talking about the LG Android phone, my brothers been grumbling about Android 1.5 on his LG. Neither of us of rooted/moded an Android phone before. Anyone know if there is a rom available for this device that gets it up to 1.6/2/2.1 and instructions on how to do it? Had a quick look myself but got pretty confused pretty quickly!

I've had a quick scan of the information available on XDA and a couple of other web sites.

There appears to be an excellent rooting guide here.

It looks like the phone actually provides for enabling root access.

On the GW620 dial "3845#*620#" to get in to the secret menu

Tap "Module Test" then tap "Stability Test" then tap "Enable Root Permission"

That's nice. Makes it easy!

Background: Reading other comments, it looks like LG supply a program for your PC that lets you flash a new "official" ROM onto the phone. That's good. The Acer Liquid is like that. It makes sure the baseband and system are in sync. Then, once you've laid down that foundation (the radio baseband being the critical part), it's possible to wipe the system (leaving the radio - happens by default) and flash modded versions of a compatible system. Once the source code is out, devs can build new versions from scratch rather thahn stitching blobs together.

Two things to get your head around: Fastboot and adb (from the Android Dev Kit). Master those and you're half way there. You can practice these - using list commands only, of course - without damaging your phone.

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ald

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SimWorks

#329452 12-May-2010 16:41

You're a legend Steve! Will pass on and let you know how it goes.

Cheers,
Aaron.

Best regards,
Aaron Davidson.

SimWorks International Limited

www.simworks.com - New Zealands leading developer of mobile applications

lchiu7

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#330661 16-May-2010 17:03

stevenz: I've got a Nexus One, useful apps: ..
N1 Torch = The N1 LED is ridiculously bright, makes an outstanding torch.
..

Doesn't that require the phone be rooted?

I also have a stock N1 and use
Swype
Twitdroid
Camera Zoom (paid)
Gesture Search
Calendar Pad
CoPilot Live (paid)
Maps (hacked by Brut)
Keeper (saves all my logons and passwords)
Calculator (nice RPN implementation)
Navy Clock

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/rooms/32019730 Mention GZ to get a 10% discount

System One: PS3 SuperSlim, NPVR and Plex Server running on Intel NUC (C2D) (Windows 10 Pro), Sony BDP-S390 BD player, Pioneer AVR, Odroid C2 running Kodi and Plex, Panasonic 60" 3D plasma, Samsung Q80 Atmos soundbar. Google Chromecast, Google Chromecast TV

System Two: Oppo BDP-80 BluRay Player with hardware mode to be region free, Vivitek HD1080P 1080P DLP projector with 100" screen, Denon AVRS730H 7.2 Channel Dolby Atmos/DTS-X AV Receiver, Samsung 4K player, Google Chromecast, Odroid C2 running Kodi and Plex