Mostly about my experiences with an Android phone
Too busy to read LJ, twitter or Facebook ‘cept sporadically, so I’ve missed pretty much everything.
Haven’t posted about the bachelor party (which was excellent), or about the big move so far (might have two people to help Saturday morning, which is huge), but I am in progress on these things.
As some have noticed, I broke my blackberry storm at the bachelor party (that’s how you know it was good!), and since Lucy and I had been thinking of changing providers anyway, we talked to T-Mobile… and ultimately came out with two Motorola Cliqs. Between the Early Termination fees for our two phones, the discounts they gave us and the hefty price drop in plans, it evens out in the first year and we’re saving a few hundred dollars each year after, so, good deal.
Also, on the plan front, we can tether to wi-fi, have access to SIM cards like decent modern technologists, don’t pay extra for GPS access, and otherwise feel like our cell provider isn’t trying to nickel-and-dime us to death. I LOVE THAT. F*** you, Verizon, for making every single encounter over the past eight years feel like suffering an abusive relationship you can’t seem to leave.
MEANWHILE, I wanted to record what apps I’m currently trying out, and which apps my twitterfolk have recommended I look into.
Current
aTrackDog – Curse for apps – easily uninstall apps, version tracking, even version tracking of apps you’ve uninstalled (in case a later patch fixes).
Advanced Task Killer Free – save battery power and speed by killing applications you aren’t using
Armored – a very beta but fun WoW armory app
Barcode Scanner – awesome scanner that lets you scan both regular barcodes on products and look them up online and “QR” barcodes, those square things that look like static, which is a really quick way to give info. Some people use them for business cards, like Matt Arnold, but they’re most often used to give web links for cells so you don’t have to type it in. Keeps a history, good for bargain shopping.
c:geo – the unofficial “name” in geocaching software, it looks incredibly useful.
Dropbox – this is a pretty awesome piece of software that lets you share files in between computers, your cellphone, and even the public, depending on where you put things. If you use this, let me send you an email, we’ll both get an extra 250MB (for 1.25 GB of space). Free! Easy way to transfer music, too, if you don’t want to pull out the cable.
Foursquare – I haven’t started it, and I don’t plan on hooking it up to my twitter, but I wanted to see what it was all about. We’ll see, I don’t travel hugely these days. If it has a non-twitter place to keep track of stuff, I might use it – if it requires another social media to work, no.
GPS Test – a more basic GPS tool, gives you your coordinates and basic satellite info.
Handcent SMS – makes your SMS better, prettier, easier to work with. Note: have to disable notification on the regular messaging or you’ll get two notifications per. Not entirely sold on it yet.
Layar – Augmented reality for the win! I’ll have to show you this, it’s supposed to be really fun/interesting. ANd it’s the fuuuutuuuuuure. Haven’t been in public to try it yet.
Pandora – duh:)
Qik – for possible streaming live video feed for others to watch. Haven’t used it yet.
Twidroid – the main twitter app for android. Seems really good, but I’m not getting the behavior I want yet between it and the “Happenings” area. I almost never look there because between it and facebook, it has too much “happening”. heh.
WiFinder – Awesome self-explanatory wifi strength meter. The one that comes with the Cliq is pretty cool, but this seems better.
Yaaic – an IRC client for android. Haven’t used yet.
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Recommended:
3banana notes, dolphin browser, astrid, sleep now, photoshop mobile, repligo reader, documents2go, “I like Gentle Alarm, among other reasons because it has ‘flip to snooze'”, XiiaLive, Yelp, Meebo, and Google Listen, RingDroid, ShopShavvy, SugarSync, Time Tracker, Torrent-fu, TuneWiki, TwonkyServer, Ustream, Google Voice, Glympse, Google Translate, gsDroid, Kayak, KeePassDroid, Key Ring, Linda Manager, mobiletag, NetHack, PdaNet, Phoneflicks, Advanced Task Manager, Andrometer, AndroZip, BIC Concert Lighter, Fring (for Skype calls),Google apps! Latitude, Googles, Tracks, Shopper.
If you have any experience with these or any Android apps, good or bad, leave your reviews here pls and thx!
woot! I love my android as well. My main problem with android is that my fingers are so used to typing “io” that I often spell it andriod.
How do you do the wifi tethering? Is that built in?
Re your list:
ATKF: have this. seems like a good idea.
Barcode: This didn’t work so well for my phone/camera (samsung moment). I got a program called ixMAT Scanner instead and it works fine. I’ve scanned real world codes and codes on a computer monitor. All worked fine.
Dropbox: not using this yet. Send me an email! ariock, gmail, etc.
GPS Test: will have to check this out…
Layar: DEFINITELY have to check this out.
Qik: I tried to get this to work at a live event last week. It didn’t seem to stream. It posted videos to it’s site. Here’s one I did: http://qik.com/video/6430022 . I’m not impressed.
Twitter: I’m using Tuoiteur. For some reason, if I want to attach a photo and take it while I’m in the program, the photo ends up being dinky.
IRC: I got a program called DaraIRC, which was a bit opaque to try and get to work, but once I figured it out, it works well.
Other Apps:
Whiteboard: A sketching app. without a stylus, the drawing quality isn’t great, but being a visual person, it’s helpful.
Technical Programs: RealCalc, Unit Converter. A helpful scientific calculator and a unit converter with a massive database of units.
Stopwatch: I occasionally need some way of timing something. This does that. Has standard stopwatch tools.
Toys: Android Lightsaber, BIC(r) Concert Lighter, Bubble. Bubble is a Bubble level that uses the phone’s accelerometers. I wouldn’t trust it for critical applications, but it’s fun.
Hah, dropbox says you’re already using it!
I just downloaded dolphin to try, photoshop mobile, and ringdroid. My old phone was using google voicemail, so I’m probably going to switch this one as well.
I find Ustream works better than Qik for me, but have no idea why.
I’ve never been able to get Layar to do much – maybe I don’t live in enough of an urban area with a critical mass of people creating stuff for it?
For twitter I’m on Twidroid too – I like it a lot, but it does take a ton of setting tweaks to make it fit into my workflow.
My other random faves:
Google Listen is a great podcast listener/manager.
StreamFurious lets me listen to the m3u radio stations I love.
Bloo is (in some ways) better than the official Facebook app. Especially when looking at images.
Aldiko is an amazing ebook reader, with epub files at least.
Drop7 – I had this addictive game on my ipod touch and I’m way too excited that it showed up on android recently. It’s about the only game I play on the device.
Astro – File manager/browser.
Quick Settings – does what it says :)
And of course, Google Voice is amazing. i haven’t outsourced my whole call system to it, but I have let it take over my voicemail.
2 cents
I noticed that Google Goggles was nowhere to be seen here. It is one of my fav apps.
I tried Layer when it first came out but it seemed to kill my battery life, I’ll give it another shot.
I’d recommend BatteryLite as well. The guy at the Verizon store recommended it– gives estimated charge remaining, as well as time estimates based on standby, talk, web, and video usage.
Seconding Advanced Task Killer.
SparkPeople has an app to track food and fitness. XkcdViewer! Woohoo!
Where for the merging of searches for food, things to do, etc.
Mint.com’s app if you have a Mint account.
ActionComplete I just downloaded but haven’t used yet. It was recommended by PCWorld.
Send me info on the Dropbox stuff… I’m still a bit leery of placing things on public servers, but I can learn more about it.