The Android App thread!

[Johnny Vinyl]

Since I'm now an Andriod user (Samsung Galaxy Note) I wanted to get some suggestions from people as to their favourite apps. I've never been a huge app guy, but damn these new phones are so nice that I'm now ready to explore and jump into the fray! I'd even be willing to try a game or two...as long as they are easy...LOL!


So for those with Andriod phones, what are some of the apps you like and would recommend?

 

[Keith_W]

John, here are a few of my favourites. Note that you can install these apps over the air, unlike iOS. Click on the links, sign in to your google account, then click on "Accept and Download" ... and your phone automagically downloads and installs the app. No need to find the app on your phone, or plug in to iTunes. The apps I have listed here are my "core" apps that I use on a daily basis.

- Beautiful Widgets. The best collection of widgets with the widest choice of skins. You can customize widget behaviour - e.g. the clock and weather widget. Touching the clock brings up the alarm, touching the date brings up the calendar and todo list, touching the weather brings up a five day forecast. Best of all, you can tell the widget to launch a third party app if you do not like the app that it natively uses.

- Tasker. This app really showcases the power and customisability of your android phone. Every iOS person I have demonstrated this app to wishes they had something like this. Basically, it does this: on event execute action. "Event" and "Action" can be ANY state your phone is capable of detecting or executing. For example: On event (1. connect to car bluetooth, 2. Time 1700-1800, 3. Location = GPS signal for office), execute (1. send wife SMS "Home in 15 minutes", 2. start MP3 player, 3. start GPS Navigation). You can of course tell Tasker to launch third party apps, or change the state of your phone, and so on. I have numerous Tasker profiles on my phone - e.g. one that turns off Wifi when I leave home to save battery, another that over-rides silent mode whenever my wife calls, another that keeps GPS turned off unless I launch an application which I explicitly allow GPS, etc. It really is amazing and is a must-have.

- Audio Guru. This app allows you to assign different profiles for all the sounds your phone makes. So you can tell it to automatically silence your phone after 10pm except the alarm, etc. You don't really need this app if you have Tasker, but if you are too lazy to program Tasker, then this app is the ticket.

- Titanium Backup * Root. You need root privileges to get the most out of this app, but it gives you total control of your phone. You can remove bloatware that your carrier installed. You can see which processes are running and "freeze" them so they do not automatically launch. Of course you can potentially break your phone if you don't know what you are doing, but there is an active community out there that tells you what is and is not safe to do.

If your Samsung Galaxy Note been upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich, get these apps:

- Google Chrome browser. Forget all the other browsers, this one is the best. It is fast, easy to navigate, and has very intelligent caching of webpages. If you do not have ICS, my next favourite browser is Dolphin. But it's not as good as Chrome.

- Apex launcher. This launcher is better than the Touchwiz launcher that came with your SGN. Again, fast, smooth, and can be as minimalistic as you want. It allows you to assign actions to button swipes and gestures, and has a scrollable app dock. Best of all, it can import skins designed for other launchers.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Thanks Keith for that most informative and helpful post! I checked them all out and have downloaded the AUDIO GURU one as its free. I really like the BEAUTIFUL WIDGETS app and will probably download it, but before I do I need to get better at using apps. Even though I've had a smartphone before (IPhone3G) I never really played with Apps, so this is basically virgin territory for me.

Maybe you can help me with this however. I am a bit confused between widgets and live wallpapers. Is the difference that widgets have an execute function? I hope I'm explaining this correctly.

 

[Steve Williams]

Typo corrected

 

[Keith_W]

Hi John, a widget is an app that runs in a pane, or a window that you can resize and move around. It's a bit like the gadgets on a Windows desktop. Widgets run constantly, can collect and update themselves with information, and provide a lot of useful extra functionality without having to actually launch an app. There are widgets that tell you the weather, time in different zones, update your Facebook and Twitter feeds, show breaking news, update stock quotes, to-do lists, shopping lists, calendars, public transport timetables, and even widgets for esoteric things like telling you which GPS satellites you are connected to. All this information is right there on your home screen and you do not have to launch an app to access the functionality.

A live wallpaper is simply a wallpaper with animation. It does nothing for the functionality of your phone except to look pretty. Having said that, there ARE live wallpapers which can automatically change depending on your phone state. e.g. some wallpapers have night modes where you get a different colour scheme or different image at night. Some wallpapers can change depending on the weather - if it starts raining, the image changes to clouds and falling rain. I guess it saves you from looking out the window Right now I am using a live wallpaper that shows a global map which updates day and night in real time. If it's night in the USA, the wallpaper shows glowing city lights.