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Essential Android Software


Guest Webreaper

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Guest chucky.egg

Hmm, yes, I removed it this morning.

It's a great idea, and works well most of the time, but...

Lying in bed reading the BBC News site this morning the Hero keep turning off every 15 seconds because I was holding it too vertically, and there's no Notification bar in the browser so you can't see the warning!

Posted on his forum, so maybe there's an answer, but I couldn't adjust it enough to stop it doing it.

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Guest Webreaper

So I was thinking about how good an idea Screebl is when I read about it. Until I realised a couple of days later it solves a problem which doesn't exist.

When I'm reading news on my Magic, it's impossible for me to have enough text on the screen to take longer than 20s to read it. And the act of scrolling to the next page resets the screen-off timer. Likewise, if I'm watching YouTube or BeebPlayer, it automatically keeps the screen turned on whilst the video is playing....

So I can't see when I'd actually need it!

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So I was thinking about how good an idea Screebl is when I read about it. Until I realised a couple of days later it solves a problem which doesn't exist.

When I'm reading news on my Magic, it's impossible for me to have enough text on the screen to take longer than 20s to read it. And the act of scrolling to the next page resets the screen-off timer. Likewise, if I'm watching YouTube or BeebPlayer, it automatically keeps the screen turned on whilst the video is playing....

So I can't see when I'd actually need it!

There are passive tasks that don't include normal activity indications like touching the screen. That's why I wrote this for myself in the first place! For example, looking at a photo, waiting for a slow web page to load (they often render as they load, and I want to watch them). Basically any activity that doesn't itself grab a wake lock,which is many in my experience. Try it out! I find it very unobtrusive, and a more natural indicator of activity than just touching the screen.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Dadical
Hmm, yes, I removed it this morning.

It's a great idea, and works well most of the time, but...

Lying in bed reading the BBC News site this morning the Hero keep turning off every 15 seconds because I was holding it too vertically, and there's no Notification bar in the browser so you can't see the warning!

Posted on his forum, so maybe there's an answer, but I couldn't adjust it enough to stop it doing it.

The 1.5.x version of Screebl includes support for "inverted positions" (e.g., laying on your back in bed). Can't do anything about the lack of an icon though, as other apps can choose to hide the notification bar. I suppose that I could do some kind of audible warning, but that seems like it might just get annoying...

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest dino_mk

Hi to all members.

This is my first post, so please can somebody send me, or tell me where I can download "AndroZip" aplication. It is free but is missing from the market, and I think is very essential software for any android phone.

Thanks

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Guest pillock

I've had my Hero for 6 weeks now and have tried loads of apps, uninstalled quite a few too :)

Here's my must-haves....

FireWallet: Excellent financial organiser - set up all your accounts, bill reminders, recurring bills and so on. Shows graphs of where your budget is going. Had a question for the developer and got a friendly response within 3 hours.

Spotify: OK, so it's not just an app, you need the paid membership too, but having access to millions of tracks on your handset is amazing. Select your favourites for offline use to avoid hammering your data plan, or set it up to only sync over wifi if you wish, but unlike the iPhone app it'll also sync over 3G if you wish, and play in the background :D

Linda File Manager: Free, does exactly what you need it to.

Google Sky Map: An app that has made my iPhone-owning friends utter the magic words - "I wish mine did that". Wait for a clear night and wave your phone around, naming all the stars you can see. Mesmerising.

Are we doing games too? If so - Gem Miner is brilliantly addictive and uses vibrate to good effect. There are suggestions that it's a battery hog though, but that's not enough to stop me playing :D

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I've found one new mast-have app named fring - that's Skype, SIP, ICQ, Google-Talk, Twitter, AIM, Yaho, MSN client with call over voip and charting. Good work with 3G/WiFi.

It's very useful for me on WM and IMHO nice work on Android.

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Guest gazosdeamigos

Hi All,

I discovered a good little app called the Decision Decider Lite that our lass uses because she can never make up her mind and the best thing is its free

ddqr.png

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Guest kristijan_mk
Hi to all members.

This is my first post, so please can somebody send me, or tell me where I can download "AndroZip" aplication. It is free but is missing from the market, and I think is very essential software for any android phone.

Thanks

Hi,

you can't download AndroZip from the market version where Macedonian users access (have no idea what version of market is that)

You can download UnZip app. Works fine for me

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Keramidas

Personally I love the free Titanium Backup app, because it can backup and restore all other apps and their data...

But it's unfair, as I am also its developer ;)

Edited by Keramidas
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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Spook Tooth

Wow, I found a whole new forum section I was not even aware of and it's a good one too!

I'll add some of the cool android apps I've found so far:

TaskPanel (2 taps and you can kill lots of background processes/tasks)

Task Switcher (which allows you to configure camera button as a dedicated task switcher akin to alt+tab on Windows)

Task Manager 1.11.1 (gives you direct access to all individual running processes/tasks & installed packages (allows you to uninstall)

Brightness Level (widget for controlling um, brightness level)

FlashLight (there are many torch type apps but this one is small and works very well - has adjustable brightness too)

Ring Toggle (quickly choose between Ring & Vibrate, Ring Only, Vibrate Only, Silent),

Battery Widget (rapid access to WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth on/off switches and Display settings all within a battery level indicator - helps keep installed widgets down, memory usage lower)

AudioManager (like Volume properties in Windows, it allows you to configure individual volume levels in one place - alarm, music, alerts, ringer, system & voicecall).

Retro Clock/Calendar (nice flip clock thing for the desktop)

Airplane Mode Wi-Fi (so you can disable all wireless/network devices except wifi)

Aldiko (e-book reader), Analog Compass, antivirus (do u really need this??)

Apps Installer (for installing apps directly from microSD cards)

Bubble Level (awesome graphical bubble level)

Chess (computer thrashes me easily & mercilessly, only 2D though)

CompassNav (GPS functionality, very swish)

Depth of Field Calculator (for photography geeks like me), DGT Compass (plain & simple)

Dice (if you're going to get a dice app get this one)

Elements (Periodic table)

Ethereal Dialpad (really nice to look at - touchscreen demo thing with sound)

FartDroid (with 27 different kinds to set on timer and amuse yourself with)

G-Tuner + Guitar Tuner

GPS Status (powerful satellite finder app - shows u position of all visible satellites and lots of other geeky stuff)

Hypnotic Spiral (like Jamie & His Magic Torch - if only you could jump on your phone and be transported to some weird cartoon world)

London Tube Status

MagicMarker (neon paint demo thing)

Meridian (Video/Photo/Music display app)

Mind Map Memo

MiniKeyboard (music keyboard)

National Railer (not so great but it's only one I could find for displaying train times)

Ringdroid/Tone Picker for choosing specific ringtones/notifications etc

RockOut (3 chord guitar toy thing)

Shutter Speed (technical photo app)

Steamy Window (use your finger to wipe away steam)

Strobe Light (for blinding people with)

Surveyor (should be able to use the camera to measure distances - eg, height of roof)

Synthesizer (cool sounds)

To Do List

Toggle Screen Timeout (prevent the phone's screen from turning off or easily switch back to originally set timeout period)

Ultrachron lite (talking stopwatch with lap function)

WaveSecure Beta (in case someone nicks your phone - allows you to remotely wipe it/lock it etc).

All these apps are free and have been chosen on the basis that they're economical with running memory and installation space requirements. Some of them are just toys for demonstrating handset features which will likely get taken off pretty quickly. They are good examples from what's out there though.

There used to be an application called UK National Rail Train Departure or somesuch which was really good but it's no longer visible in the Android App Marketplace thing. I was wondering if there was anything else that people used?

Also, which Sat Nav software was good? I'm thinking of going for Co-Pilot but would only use it on-foot (and offline/no data download). Cheers. ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Phil Brennan

1. I do not have an app killer on my phone. It's a total waste of time, as the memory allocation system on a Linux machine is totally different to that of a windows machine. Stop thinking Windows, people.

2. My list of essential apps:

Astro - alternative file manager that allows you to back up your applications to SD card as full programs in a special folder on your SD card.

Spare Parts - puts all the settings menu items that Huawei have left off the Pulse / U8220 into a nice utility.

SuperBoot / Quick Boot / RA-pulse-v1.5.2 - see stickied threads on this board for details.

Dolphin Browser - better than the bog standard browser and can just about handle Google Wave.

eBuddy - Simple multi-IM client.

dxTop: Home Alternative - best desktop alternative program I have found so far. I have added the Rusty Metal theme and the Steampunk icon set.

Barcode Scanner - For scanning items in shops and comparing prices. Also handles QR Codes for web sites and Android Market applications.

Listen - Podcast Aggregating in one neat application.

Aldiko - eReader app with quite a comprehensive library of titles to download, from free books (inc modern titles released under the CC license) to paid for titles.

GDocs Notepad - Note pad application that saves all your notes to a special folder on your Google Docs account.

Google Sky Map - nice live stellarium application with GPS location and the works. Unlike KStars for Linux / KDE, you cannot (yet) run a robot telescope off it.

QuickDic (DE) - German-English / English-German dictionary.

Beautiful Widgets - Nice set of widgets for your desktop, including clock/weather widgets, and all those little buttons to toggle on/off things like Blue Tooth, Wifi, etc.

aRing - Application that gives you more control over ringtones, notification tones, and the such like.

Colorful Life - Application to sync photos from your phone's camera / SD card to your PicasaWeb account at Google. Like GDocs it puts them in a specially made album.

ShootMe - Screenshot application that works in the background. Just shake and bake for a screenshot...

FreeDictionaryOrg - Free Dictionary. Does what it says on the tin...

Phil.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Barracuda81

Could anyone give a hint where to find an application for Recording a Calls? I've found couple in US Market, but cant buy it because I live in Russia and market doesn't accept my credit card info.

Edited by Barracuda81
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Guest InSearch

Just wanted to add another useful tool. In case you would like to sync you Android and Mac you can install SyncMate. The software is reliable and functional. The free edition allows to perform usually the most necessary operations, so you don't have to spend money. I was using SyncMate for Mac synchronization and now it appeared helpful with Android too.

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Guest Webreaper

I've been trying FoxyRing over the weekend - it monitors the ambient noise level and sets the ringtone volume accordingly. Seems to work very well so far.

All I need is a tool which enables/disables wifi based on location (I found one a while back, but can't seem to find it again) and I can remove Locale (which I refuse to upgrade to the paid version because it's far to highly-priced and also chews through the phone's resources - not to mention the annoying constant notification).

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Guest Keramidas
All I need is a tool which enables/disables wifi based on location (I found one a while back, but can't seem to find it again) and I can remove Locale (which I refuse to upgrade to the paid version because it's far to highly-priced and also chews through the phone's resources - not to mention the annoying constant notification).

Try Y5 Battery Saver, it's simple, works great and consumes no additional battery.

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Guest Webreaper
Try Y5 Battery Saver, it's simple, works great and consumes no additional battery.

Awesome. That's exactly the one I was looking for. Excellent, thanks.

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Guest gk141054

Hi guys, i'm looking for the best app to make free skype calls to other skype users over wi-fi or data...

In other words I don't want it to cost me a penny in either call charges or skype credit.

I have checked out Fring and Nimbuzz but the former doesn't seem to allow this and the latter seems a bit hit and miss from the reviews.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Thanks

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest Webreaper

Just found a new app called Setting Profiles which shows very good promise. It's a Locale-style app, which gives location-based profiles and settings, but also adds time-based, call-based and other device state conditions. Looks like it does everything I used to do with PhoneAlarm on my Windows mobile phone. It also makes a far better fist of this functionality than Locale does, but at around a third of the price.

I'm testing at the moment, but if it works it looks like I'll be able to ditch FoxyRing, Y5 and maybe even Power Manager.

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Guest Webreaper

Couple more useful ones:

APKatcher - allows you to install APKs that have been emailed to you. Normally the native Android Gmail client messes up the attachment, but APKatcher fixes this.

MortPlayer - good music player for people who (like me) prefer their music organised by folder rather than tag. I particularly like the fact that it ignores the .nomedia files, so I can still play my music, but my album art doesn't appear in the CoolIris Gallery. Always liked MortPlayer on Windows Mobile, and this looks to be an excellent Android version.

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