Essential Android Software

[Guest beersoft]

i like sms popup (being free) and launcherdock

not forgetting all the new control widgets that appeared via cupcake

later

Owen

[Guest Webreaper]

I've been looking for a TV Guide app so I can see what's on the telly in the evening. Unfortunately, most of the apps seem to be Sky-oriented, with the ability to use Sky's mobile function to record stuff remotely. I don't have Sky+ so that's not hugely useful.

However, Whats On has the main terrestrial channels and a few others that I get on Freeview, so it'll do the job for the moment until somebody writes something more generic.

[Guest Paul]

I have bought Record It, the Sky Remote Record version of WhatsOn and it's great.

Palringo has been updated btw - it now DOES maintain your connection!

P

[Guest Webreaper]

Force-closed first time I started and then sorted itself out and does indeed appear to maintain connection. I'll test tonight whether it actually stays connected the whole time or just fudges it.

[Guest Webreaper]

BTW, I've just updated it to remove Greed and replace it with NewsRob.

I was finding that Greed didn't sync very well if you were offline, meaning that I'd often end up with articles not being marked as read. I finally uninstalled when I had to mark the same article as read for the 5th time. NewsRob just works.

[Guest rav1patel]

thanks guys. installed quite a few of these. absolutely loving android. after 5 years of WM it's a breath of fresh air. will take a lot for me to switch back.

[Guest Webreaper]

I've updated the list in post #1 with a few improvements. Anyone got anything else good to add?

[Guest markvader]

I've updated the list in post #1 with a few improvements. Anyone got anything else good to add?

Heres a list of the apps I'm running on my magic at the minute (excluding some basic pre-installed stuff),

still havent flashed a new rom, still quite content with the 1.5 cupcake build + last weeks security fix, have started trying a few roms on the emulator but havent made up my mind what I want to run yet.

Utilities

3G Watchdog

Advanced Task Manager (paid) - essential functionality re: memory and cpu usage seems to have been lost at last update

Contact Owner

ES File Explorer - not sure why i have 2 file managers installed, sort of prefer the remote interface in ES compared to Linda

LcViewer - for viewing pdf's, not 100% reliable

Linda File Manager - alot more functionality than ES file explorer

SMS Speaker (paid) - using TTS libraries this app will speak out recieved text messages, handy while driving

Talking Caller ID - turn of the ringtone and have the phone speak the name of the person calling, much more dignified if your in a meeting.

TopVoiceControl - with the improvement in voice control hopefully coming in a not to distant android build, this seems to be a great start. long press call button then speak "call bob smith on mobile" "call voicemail" "open calendar" I am aware that this was present on soem G1's but wasnt on google branded magic.

TTS Service

Voice Search - voice search on google, suprising how great the recognition software is.

Wheres My Droid -

Scan2PDF Mobile Lite - scan using camera, then generate a pdf file from image. works quite well with A5 size documents. free version leave watermark on pdf

Facebook Sync - to sync contact photos with facebook

Fun

BeepPlayer - great quality when in 3g or wifi.

Draw - simple draw package

Labyrinth (paid) - 1000 levels in the paid version compared to 10 in free version

TuneWiki

Shazam - song recogniser

imeem Mobile

TorrentFu - search for torrent then send straight to torrent client, view a GUI for your torrent client, with the abilty to start/stop/delete files.

Productivity/Work

AndFTP

Twitroid

WikiMobile

Shop Savvy

Remote (paid) - for accessing windows computers and servers, ability to set up a number of machines with profiles works well.

Communication

ChompSMS

Express News - browse new headlines from a variety of sources

NewsRob - keeping my feeds in sync with google reader

Palringo

Skype

Opera Mini

Qik - compared to the first early build, they have improved app over the past few weeks.

Mapping/Sat Nav

Accelerometer - not sure why i have this on phone.

Compass, straightforward, billiant.

AndNav2 - lacks functionality, but works well with Text to speach libraries; being able to download all map tiles for anywhere in the world and storing them on your SD card greatly reduces need to download data

Google Maps Street view/Voice Search etc, just works as it should

My Tracks

GPS Tracker

Places Directory

Wikitude - Augmented Reality (AR) platform, very clever

Sky Map - cool if i could ever see stars living in a city, oh well i have sky map

Mark

[Guest Webreaper]

I found a couple more useful apps at the weekend:

Bookmark Manager - Simple tool to let you sort your most-used bookmarks up to the top of the list in the browser.

Note Everything - Useful notepad for jotting. I like the way you can put shortcuts to particular notes on the home page.

Handycards - Free app for storing barcode representations of your store loyalty cards, library cards, etc, so you can get rid of them from your wallet. :)

[Guest Webreaper]

By the way, for those who hadn't spotted it, Bloo and FBook are due to be superseded sometime this week when the Official Facebook app gets released....

[Guest Paul]

Yeah, looking forward to that!

I bought Bloo AND Babbler already tho, lol, both are just 'OK'...

P

[Guest Webreaper]

Yeah, looking forward to that!

I bought Bloo AND Babbler already tho, lol, both are just 'OK'...

Given that FBook is good enough (and the mobile site more than sufficient) I can't see why anyone would *pay* for Bloo. And by all accounts Babbler is awful!

[Guest Paul]

I don't want OK or good enough, I want GREAT dammit! :)

P

[Guest Webreaper]

This'll cheer you up Paul... according to this post Bloo is going to be available for download for free today and tomorrow...

Still no sign of the official FB client...

[Guest Paul]

Bah! :)

Still, at least it was only $1.49!

P

[Guest Webreaper]

Having tried it myself for free, I think even $0 is a bit of a rip-off. m.facebook.com (or x.facebook.com) is much better, faster and more functional.

Facebook really need to get their app out there quick!

[Guest Paul]

Agreed! It's still not even 'officially' been spoken of has it? The leaked screenshots look promising tho?

P

[Guest Webreaper]

Some good new apps out this week, with the ADC2 deadline forcing them to release. In particular there's ReaderScope which looks like an excellent alternative to NewsRob (IMO the best Google Reader client out there).

Also interesting is Screebl, which is an interesting concept. Can't see it available for download yet though.

[Guest Dadical]

Some good new apps out this week, with the ADC2 deadline forcing them to release. In particular there's ReaderScope which looks like an excellent alternative to NewsRob (IMO the best Google Reader client out there).

Also interesting is Screebl, which is an interesting concept. Can't see it available for download yet though.

Hey Webreaper. I'm the author of Screebl. Glad you like the concept! I haven't been able to release to the market yet, due to potential conflicts between the market application and the ADC2 app running simultaneously. Screebl runs as a background service, and interacts with the user via notifications. Obviously things could get confusing for judges if the app was installed twice on the same phone. This is a real bummer, as I want to get the app out there!

Anyway, if I can figure out a way to make a multiple installation scenario play nicely, I'll release to the market soon.

[Guest Webreaper]

Anyway, if I can figure out a way to make a multiple installation scenario play nicely, I'll release to the market soon.

Unless you're planning to charge for the app (which would be perfectly reasonable..) can you put a beta available for download on your site?

[Guest Webreaper]

For those who are interested, the official Facebook client is now available on the Android Market.

[Guest JamminJP]

For those who are interested, the official Facebook client is now available on the Android Market.

seems quite nice also, Bloo aint bad either.

[Guest dlzerocool]

For those who are interested, the official Facebook client is now available on the Android Market.

good app :) (with widget)

Edited September 9, 2009 by dlzerocool

[Guest Webreaper]

good app :) (with widget)

It's not a bad start. My initial thoughts after a few hours of fiddling with it:

1. If you open the app with no 'net connection available, you get an unfriendly comms exception error. Would be nice to see that caught and a better message displayed.

2. The app seriously needs offline support. Everything seems to load off the 'net connection every time, which makes it slower and more unwieldy than m.facebook.com. Background update is pointless unless the information is cached. So I should be able to open the app and see everything that's cached, so I can read stuff that's already on the device while any new statuses/updates are downloaded.

3. The Widget isn't that useful; the status left/right arrows seem circular, so it's impossible to know whether you're looking at the latest updates from friends or just cycling through old ones. Would be nice to make it more intuitive. Also, the 'click to enter' status box could be smaller or an icon (since you never actually type directly into it). Unless they can do it like the Google widget, don't bother. Oh, and when the popup opens to enter your status, the keyboard should open automatically on a Magic/Hero; it's annoying to have to tap it twice to get the keyboard to come up.

4. They need to add access to the inbox/email so I can manage facebook messages (and send/receive them).

5. When I click on a friend's status I have to click again to load the comments. It's pointless and a waste of time. They should load automatically. Update: They fixed this in the release 2 days later. :)

6. If people 'like' your statuses or other posts, you can see how many people like it but not who they are. Also, the whole 'like' button area is far too big and a waste of screen estate.

7. I've got notifications enabled but haven't seen any so far. The main notifications I want are to see when people comment on my status or things I've commented on previously. I still have to rely on email notifications for that.

8. I like the ability to be able to share links and upload/take photos directly from the device. It's a shame it redirects to the mobile site to view photos.

9. Could do with contacts integration, and ideally contact info/photo sync so that I can link a contact in FB to the one in my address book and periodically or automatically sync the photo and other salient info.

Overall I think it's a good first attempt, but given the maturity of the iPhone app I'd have liked to have seen a little more in the first release from a company with 250 million members. :)

Edited September 14, 2009 by Webreaper

[Guest Dadical]

Hey Webreaper. I'm the author of Screebl. Glad you like the concept! I haven't been able to release to the market yet, due to potential conflicts between the market application and the ADC2 app running simultaneously. Screebl runs as a background service, and interacts with the user via notifications. Obviously things could get confusing for judges if the app was installed twice on the same phone. This is a real bummer, as I want to get the app out there!

Anyway, if I can figure out a way to make a multiple installation scenario play nicely, I'll release to the market soon.

For those interested in trying Screebl, you can find it on the Market now as "Screebl Lite". It's fully-functional, with no time limits. I will be releasing a pay version down the road with more features. Looking forward to hearing feedback!