What are your favorite andoird apps and why?

mobusta1

2[H]4U
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May 1, 2008
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Since I'm new to android I though this would be a good topic for new and seasoned users of the android OS to share some good and productive apps.

Which ones are your favorite to use and what's so great about them?
 
My favorite is More Icons Widget. You can put a lot more icons on the page than normal.

Here some other apps that I like and short comments about them...

1. "Notes" Basically, I switched from iPhone and I missed the Notes app so this is a appropriate replacement

2. Shazam: It listens to song and recognizes them. Soundhound is another but it costs $5. Shazam is good enough.

3. Bank of America: Mobile banking. Very useful.

4. Easy Tether: Amazing free app that lets you connect the phone to your laptop or computer and surf the web for free essentially if you already have a unlimited data plan.

5. LED Desire Light: Is a flashlight app that also has a widget that you can control from the phone "desktop"

6. OffiViewer:Opens files and email attachments that Android can't by default. It can open PDF, Word (doc,docx), Excel (xls, xlsx), PowerPoint (ppt, pps, pptx), OpenDocument, RTF.

7. World DroidCup: Keeps track of the world cup and even has live updates during games. It's free and good if you are wanting to keep track of the World Cup.

8. Ringdroid: Take any MP3 on your phone or memory card and you can cut any part of the song out and use as a ringtone. Great program.
 
Slacker: Internet radio

ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL. I've discovered soooo many lovely bands I would have missed otherwise.
 
mspot - uploads your music to the "cloud" and you can play on your phone and other computers. 2gb worth of space is free.
 
My favorites:

Estrongs File Explorer - super handy and free. Love the SMB feature :) Also easy to use.
Google Goggles - Very neat. Doesn't work as well as I'd like but it's fun nonetheless.
Google Sky Map - Very interesting, I love this app. Now I'll know where the hell ____ planet is when they say it's in the sky!
LED Light - A flashlight app that uses the LED light rather than the display. Doesn't work on all phones.
Pandora - Self explanatory
Remote Desktop - Self explanatory
Sky Force - Very fun game
Wolfraroid - Uses Wolfram Alpha to search whatever you would search on that website. Useful!
 
if you do any texting than I'd highly recommend Handcent SMS. Other Android Apps that I use/like:
AK Notepad (it's the best notepad application that i could find that met my expections)
Wifi Buddy
SwifFTP (great way to transfer files if you don't have a micro-usb cable handy)
Documents to Go
OS Monitor (to check under the Android's hood to see how she's doing)
Google Voice
Estrongs File Explorer
 
SWYPE. If you are using an android handset without a physical keyboard, I think it's a must. I've been using it for ages now and am typing way faster and more accurately than I ever could with the original keyboard.

Rooting and installing Cyanogenmod incorporates the majority of the tweaks, modifications, and applications I like the most (things like wifi tethering, trackball alert, setcpu, etc. all become available or come pre-installed).

If you get interested in trying out new ROMs, Titanium Backup is an excellent backup program which allows you to batch backup and batch restore all your programs, system data, market links, etc. between completely different ROMs (i.e. if you install the desire sense UI rom, you can backup and switch seamlessly between that and a stock or other modded ROM retaining all your stuff).

Metamorph is great if you'd like to check out the jillions of themes out there. If you go rooted, check out this thread for more suggestions.
 
Astro File manager + Astro SMB Module

Great file explorer + great networking abilities :)
 
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Amdroid so I can play tunes off of my Ampache server over the internet. Access to my music collection from anywhere.
 
Bloody addictive , clocked the demo twice now still playing it to unlock more points and upgrades. :)
 
Robo Defense - Addictive game, first I installed back in Dec.
Wings of Steel demo - Awesome WWII (play as Japs though) aerial combat game, plays very well on the Droid.
Aura - Eve Online Skill Tracker, the best EveMon like App for Eve players there is and it is updated all the time with improvements.
Air Control - very addictive control tower land the plans type game.
Aldiko - ebook reader, tons of free books too and you can import your own.
Where - useful app for finding nearby stuff, also use Yellowbook and Urbanspoon for restaurants
Astro File Manager - create backups of your apps and more.
Airhorn - loud horns, fun to mess with people, nothing more. I tell people I have an app that lets me sound my hornblasters.com horns I have installed in my truck from my phone and then scare them with it.
Advanced Task Killer - necessity on an Android device
Antivirus - found a trojan in an app as soon as i installed it (un-installed the suspect app too) and has stopped another app from installing one as well.
Wave Secure - Track your phone and disable it if it is lost or stolen. I installed back when it was in beta so I have it for free for life. I have another app like this installed too but I can't remember what it is called since it hides itself so it can't be disabled by a thief.
Power Manager - Controll brightness more easily than the 25% increments the system lets you do. Can adjust settings for different battery levels too. I think the newest update broke it for a lot of people but I didn't upgrade. That is the first rule of upgrading, let others try it first and then read their comments. That and having backups with Astro so you can restore them if they do break or the developer puts in obnoxious ads to a once great ad-free app.

I have lots of other cool apps but these are my favorites and the ones I recommend to at least try.
 
A Online Radio - Shoutcast radio stations and other
DroidFit- App for keeping exercise logs, shows you different workouts, affected muscle groups, w/ animations
EasyTie- Shows you how to tie different types of ties, simple to advanced knots- learned some new ones :)
Song Storm- Search an artist or song, download the song right away onto your phone
Where's My Droid?- If you lose your phone, you can text it and the phone will ring even if in silent mode
Wifi Analyzer- Check the strength of your WiFi connection, very handy and simple to use.
Ringdroid- Trim your songs to make a custom ringer
Pdanet- Wired tethering
Note Everything- For fast note taking
LED Desire Light- Flashlight, can set different brightness levels, works great on HTC EVO
HourFace- kind of stupid, but renders how you will look when you're old...little kids love this one. Girls probably hate it lol.
Compass- self-explanatory

I've been playing around with Google My Tracks and it's really cool. Only drawback is having the phone on you while running. My Tracks is very accurate and shows the path you've traveled, speed, distance, etc.. It shows which way you are facing in real-time with pinpoint accuracy too.

Wave Secure - Track your phone and disable it if it is lost or stolen. I installed back when it was in beta so I have it for free for life. I have another app like this installed too but I can't remember what it is called since it hides itself so it can't be disabled by a thief.

I think you're talking about MOBILE DEFENSE. It's works great and it's free right now, but it's going to become a fee-based service later.
 
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Wave Secure - Track your phone and disable it if it is lost or stolen. I installed back when it was in beta so I have it for free for life. I have another app like this installed too but I can't remember what it is called since it hides itself so it can't be disabled by a thief.

I did a bit of googling on this and it looks like a sweet app. I also found that TalkAndroid is giving away 20 copies
http://www.talkandroid.com/5770-wavesecure-giveaway-contest/
 
Advanced Task Killer - necessity on an Android device

The only thing necessary about a task killer is that you uninstall it. They are bad for a bunch of reasons. At worst, they cause problems, break things, corrupt data, and slow down the phone. At best, they don't do anything at all. In generally, they help drain the battery and slightly slow down the phone.
 
The only thing necessary about a task killer is that you uninstall it. They are bad for a bunch of reasons. At worst, they cause problems, break things, corrupt data, and slow down the phone. At best, they don't do anything at all. In generally, they help drain the battery and slightly slow down the phone.

Um what? I'm on the Incredible and this app has single handley given me hours more battery use.
 
Robo Defense - Addictive game, first I installed back in Dec.
Wings of Steel demo - Awesome WWII (play as Japs though) aerial combat game, plays very well on the Droid.
Aura - Eve Online Skill Tracker, the best EveMon like App for Eve players there is and it is updated all the time with improvements.
Air Control - very addictive control tower land the plans type game.
Aldiko - ebook reader, tons of free books too and you can import your own.
Where - useful app for finding nearby stuff, also use Yellowbook and Urbanspoon for restaurants
Astro File Manager - create backups of your apps and more.
Airhorn - loud horns, fun to mess with people, nothing more. I tell people I have an app that lets me sound my hornblasters.com horns I have installed in my truck from my phone and then scare them with it.
Advanced Task Killer - necessity on an Android device
Antivirus - found a trojan in an app as soon as i installed it (un-installed the suspect app too) and has stopped another app from installing one as well.
Wave Secure - Track your phone and disable it if it is lost or stolen. I installed back when it was in beta so I have it for free for life. I have another app like this installed too but I can't remember what it is called since it hides itself so it can't be disabled by a thief.
Power Manager - Controll brightness more easily than the 25% increments the system lets you do. Can adjust settings for different battery levels too. I think the newest update broke it for a lot of people but I didn't upgrade. That is the first rule of upgrading, let others try it first and then read their comments. That and having backups with Astro so you can restore them if they do break or the developer puts in obnoxious ads to a once great ad-free app.

I have lots of other cool apps but these are my favorites and the ones I recommend to at least try.



How do you make the backups of your apps using the astro file manager?
 
Um what? I'm on the Incredible and this app has single handley given me hours more battery use.

While I agree with kllrnohj about not using a task killing program, it all depends on how you are setting up the program to end either all the tasks or just the program you recently had open. If you are killing all tasks on the phone, that will in turn hurt the phone and as kllrnohj said can corrupt data. The way Android is designed, is its suppose to have those apps run in the background. When you hit the home button that is basically putting the app in the background and pausing whatever it is doing. But if you would like to exit an app, you can hit the back button till you get to the home screen. But either way I believe the app will still be running(hardly using resources) in the background for a set amount of time and then Android will kill the app. I'm not sure how long that takes. But I'm assuming its about an hour or less. But it is your phone and you can install what you like. Take what I say how you will. I just know that using a task killer for a couple months with my droid and then finally uninstalling it, my phone just seemed to run a little better. Either way its Android and the better Mobile OS. Enjoy.
 
How do you make the backups of your apps using the astro file manager?

You can, but it's on an app by app basis. If you really want good backup, go for Titanium Backup. It allows for batch backup and restore of apps, their associated data, system data, app market links (so you'll get update notifications from the market), etc. It's really excellent.
 
You can, but it's on an app by app basis. If you really want good backup, go for Titanium Backup. It allows for batch backup and restore of apps, their associated data, system data, app market links (so you'll get update notifications from the market), etc. It's really excellent.

2.2 also adds an API to allow apps to backup their data to Google's servers, but apps must be coded to use it.

But either way I believe the app will still be running(hardly using resources) in the background for a set amount of time and then Android will kill the app. I'm not sure how long that takes. But I'm assuming its about an hour or less.

It isn't time dependent. "Using resources" doesn't mean "using battery". For example, an app sitting in RAM is using resources, but it isn't affecting the battery life at all. When you background an app, that is all it is doing (usually), using RAM. Applications don't control this, Android does. What then happens is if you relaunch that app before the RAM is needed for something else, that app will start much quicker. A perfect example is the home screen. The home screen is an application, if you kill it, it is no longer in RAM and hitting the home button will take much longer to get to the home screen because the app has to be reloaded, and then all the widgets must be reloaded. If you had simply let Android do what it was designed to do, you would have been back at your home screen much, much quicker and actually used *less* battery power in the process.

In short, Android knows how to manage its resources much better than you do, so let it.

Um what? I'm on the Incredible and this app has single handley given me hours more battery use.

Then the task killer is preventing programs from doing what you've told them to do, like update in the background. In which case, just tell those programs to not update in the background. Or it hasn't improved your battery life at all, and any gains you've seen are the result of changes in your phone usage (or it's all in your head).
 
In short, Android knows how to manage its resources much better than you do, so let it.



Then the task killer is preventing programs from doing what you've told them to do, like update in the background. In which case, just tell those programs to not update in the background. Or it hasn't improved your battery life at all, and any gains you've seen are the result of changes in your phone usage (or it's all in your head).

Couldn't have said it better kllrnohj.
 
RunKeeper is a great app, at least on iphone. I assume the android version is similar.

Really good online integration to keep track of your workouts, pace, routes, etc.
 
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I think you're talking about MOBILE DEFENSE. It's works great and it's free right now, but it's going to become a fee-based service later.

Yep, that's the one.


How do you make the backups of your apps using the astro file manager?

In Astro, bring up the Menu (button) and select Tools- Application manager/Backup. Just check all the ones you want to back up and press the Backup button. The ones that are already backed up will have light blue text.
 
Camera 360

HDR for Android

Here's a pic with light HDR enabled

C360_2010-07-09%2016-45-10.jpg


and here is one with the HDR set to heavy

C360_2010-07-09%2016-39-07.jpg
 
Swype' great keyboard app.

Astro' useful for file management

Shazam' helps me find songs i hear on the radio
 
Robo Defense-Fun game to kill time
Color Notes-great way to take notes
Google Vovice-Free visual voicemail
Dictionary.com App-Great free dictionary
 
Lit Keys - Paid app but can control the backlight on or off for those with a Qwerty Keyboard.
 
Couldn't have said it better kllrnohj.

My only point of contention is unless you have a mentally slow phone like the motorola milestone that has a BRUTALLY ANNOYING TENDANCY to START music as soon as you unplug the headphones if it's been paused/has been run on the phone EVER.

It will just randomly open the music app in the background, start playing, and NOT put a marker in the notification bar.

The only way to kill it is a task killer.

Which is why I have one.
 
Antivirus - found a trojan in an app as soon as i installed it (un-installed the suspect app too) and has stopped another app from installing one as well.

I have lots of other cool apps but these are my favorites and the ones I recommend to at least try.

Anti-virus? Seriously? For my phone? I'm about to get an EVO and didn't think I would need an anti-virus.
 
Anti-virus? Seriously? For my phone? I'm about to get an EVO and didn't think I would need an anti-virus.

I haven't heard of any issues on Android...never run into any "suspect apps" or anything like that.
 
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