Related
So Yahoo Go! seems to have come out today for devices running Windows Mobile. I downloaded and installed it immediately.
The first time I ran it I noticed it was VERY slow, and eventually crashed during initialization. I had to reset my 8525 to get it to run again. The second time around it ran (again, very slow). It deos require you to log in to your Yahoo account.
The UI is different and bit interesting. The front screen looks like it's intended to replace your home screen with today's date and links to calendar and contacts, as well as a box for searching. A mac-like dock down at the bottom rotates between the different features with a little animation.
There are sections for photos (flickr?) where you can upload your own and share your photos - weather, something called watchlists (I'm guessing RSS or something), stock reports, sports reports, news, and maps & directions. Each item gives you a preview before you actually run it.
I tried uploading a photo and the program crashed while changing the description. The interface looked pretty nice though - I'm assuming the photos end up on your flickr page. This may be a good reason to start photoblogging!
The maps function is pretty cool - probably a bit better than the google maps application for windows mobile. It also includes sat view, traffic, find nearby whatever, etc. It also gives you the option of connecting a GPS, but I don't have one handy although I'd love to see the directions function work with it.
The whole UI is an improvement on usual Windows Mobile standards, and once loaded the software runs reasonably fast and without hiccup. I think it is intended to be run all the time.
I'd like to hear everyone else's impressions.
i tried it but don't really like it.
The biggest disappointment for me is that ver 2.0 no longer syncs calendar info.
If you want to view your calendar, you now have to log onto yahoo before you can view it.
If you use yahoo for everything (email, calendar, etc.), this is a pretty nice thing to have. I'd call it essential in this case.
Otherwise, I think Livesearch is much more useful for looking up businesses in your area and getting driving directions and/or phone numbers to them.
Live search is pretty much useless unless you are in a major city.
I am really disappointed in it. Has good intentions and functionality, but the software seems extremely buggy and slow. I had to soft reset my phone a majority of the times trying the software out. Google Maps and Live Search seems much smoother. Hopefully they fix out all the bugs.
..........
It was suggested that we start a thread specifically for the apps that run well on the Android port to the HTC Touch/Vogue. I personally own an (Sprint=CDMA) HTC Touch Diamond, but upon seeing the maturity level of Android running on the Touch, I immediately went to eBay and picked up the Touch handset...and I am glad I did. The only reason I boot back to winmo is for work calendar (Lotus), Skype (iSkoot kinda sucks), and Podcasts (hopefully we getting DoggCatcher soon).I've found that battery life with Togga on to be about 8-10 hours which I can live with it, but it's a pain to keep toggling if you really need to conserve (but it could be worse )I plan on posting more battery data soon, but need a few more days of collection. Hopefully we can find a more permanent way of managing the data connection with balance for battery life.
You can find many apps on http://slideme.org/, AndAppStore (both have phone clients - very market-like) and by searching ".apk" on 4shared.com
The apps I have found to run well on my CDMA with dzo/f00bar's (much respect) latest files:
-Scoreboard - I'm not that big of a sports fan, but this app is slick!
-aLastFM - Just got permission to post the link from the developer. Thanks Oleg!!
-Stocker - Simple but effective stock app, but no graphs. If someone could find a better one...
-Weather - Simple, but effective. Multiple Cities, current and forecast, with menu link to detailed outlook including radar from Undergroud Weather.
-AnyCut -Great for making shortcuts to just about any screen in the OS, especially useful for Battery and Sounds&Display
-TextEasy - for sending a text to multiple contacts, until someone can get a hold of ChomperSMS or K9SMS (K9Mail I have not gotten to work either, we need a better mail app, the native client doesn't even recognize URLS, wtf?!)
-OIFileManager - It's the only one I've tried, so can't comment on the others, but there are several out there. UPDATE: I tried out Astro and Glance. I liked Astro, but after a day it stopped working for me and gives me a force quit. I prefer Glance over OI FileManager, it's on 4shared I believe.
-OIFlashlight - amazing how handy this comes in
-OINewsReader - No frills RSS aggregator
-ShopSavvy - Did you say "We'll match any price"?...but be fast with your fingers, camera is not fine enough to capture the barcode
UPDATE:
I wanted to add SMS PopUp as another great app. You can find it along with a bunch of other APKs here. One of the G1 owners that grabbed all of the apps and is hosting them for download.
WANTED:
-DoggCatcher - for my daily podcast fix
-A true Skype client
-HEADPHONE SUPPORT!!
Please post replies with your own favorite apps that run well on this port (with links, please!)
Cheers!
Wow, no replies?!
I'm looking for SMS PopUp if anyone can post a link.
Cheers!
The Meebo app is well worth a look - look for it on 4shared.com. Lets you IM on just about any IM network (Yahoo, MSN, AIM etc). IMs appear in the notification bar while you are in any other program. Great stuff.
I believe im the only person hosting the meebo.apk at the moment.
Meebo Instant Messenger:
http://jonsingh.com/android/files/meebo.apk
I did recieve the "ok" from the meebo!
thanks
Jon
steve98 said:
The Meebo app is well worth a look - look for it on 4shared.com. Lets you IM on just about any IM network (Yahoo, MSN, AIM etc). IMs appear in the notification bar while you are in any other program. Great stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i installed and signed into my MSN account, however, just a white screen shows up. No list of contacts, etc. No menu options other than to add another account or sign off. Not exactly useful (at least this version). Is anyone using this successfully?
EDIT: I received a chat, and that gave me a buddy online, maybe no one on my list was signed on at the time I first checked.
Also, it doesnt remember your username and password, which is annoying because it randomly closed on me after tapping the notification in the bar during a chat session today. I'll keep looking for a better app or updated version.
Ideal2545 said:
I believe im the only person hosting the meebo.apk at the moment.
Meebo Instant Messenger:
http://jonsingh.com/android/files/meebo.apk
I did recieve the "ok" from the meebo!
thanks
Jon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you might be the only one who got the 'ok' from meebo but as i said, it can be found on 4shared.com also.
What about an updated version of Shopsavvy. Mine keeps saying there is a new version, but of course we can't update off the marketplace.
I'm looking for the Locale application. Even though we don't have GPS running, Locale still alows profile switching based on time and days of the week, which would be useful for office vs. non-office settings. If someone could post this I would appreciate it!
how do i install apps i have them saved to the storage card i just dont know how to load them up, sorry if this is a dumb question
thoughtlesskyle said:
how do i install apps i have them saved to the storage card i just dont know how to load them up, sorry if this is a dumb question
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If they are in the AndroidApps folder then they should be installed already. I found that sometimes icons don't show up to launch the program, however. This is where AnyCut comes in handy. Use AnyCut to search in "Activities" to find your app. If you are not seeing it in this list then you may have to "manually" install the app. Open a file browser such as OI File Manager or Glance and navigate to your AndroidApps folder. Click on the .apk file and it should launch teh app installer.
Hope this helps.
Any word on aLastFM?
etx said:
Any word on aLastFM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the update first post.
Scoreboard.apk
I am very interested in the Scoreboard app, I got it running fine, but the other day the game I added to my favorite never really gave me updates until the game was over by a few hours.
Isnt this application able to provide real-time results?
I am having more success simply by going to www.nhl.com :-S
Thanks for aLastFM!
I was looking around and found another 4shared user with a bunch of APK's!
http://www.4shared.com/dir/11234070/20e0c1f0/sharing.html
Someone in the main topic said something about an ebay app. What is it and is it any good? Is it secure? It'd be nice to have for me.
There's been a couple apps I liked that didn't fit our screen plus having to reinstall android files often I lose all my saved info so it doesn't work out for me. Sprint needs to hurry up with an HTC Android phone.
Maybe a stupid question, not sure... Why can't someone extract the android market application from the G1 to be used on other phones? Seems a bit odd of Google to limit the market to only a specific phone.
There is a discussion about the marketplace on the big long forum. The marketplace is not open source. They're talking about the commands and encryption and such for it. I'd think it's not open because they plan on having pay for apps but I could be wrong
G1 Central
This is a must have for any one with a Grand Central account- G1 Central
http://evancharlton.com/projects/g1central
Allows you to place calls and check voicemail for your GrandCentral account. Pretty much allows for unlimited free calling. Works great on my friends G1.
Still missing a few features.. like the ability to call contacts that are only in your GC account, but still very good.
Heres the problem.. it crashes when trying to dial out on the Vogue!!! Ahhh!
So close to beating the telecoms... If anyone knows anything about error codes or how to get this working, I might have a GrandCentral account invite...
megalewis said:
I am very interested in the Scoreboard app, I got it running fine, but the other day the game I added to my favorite never really gave me updates until the game was over by a few hours.
Isnt this application able to provide real-time results?
I am having more success simply by going to www.nhl.com :-S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed this also. i resolved by changing my time zone in settings. Only problem is that this then modifies your "synced" time with your carrier, it adjusts + or - according to your time zone, so you have to comensate...each time you boot. Not by any means an elegant solution, but if you need realtime scores this is the answer. Probably better off sticking with NHL.com
aven_soulgazer said:
Someone in the main topic said something about an ebay app. What is it and is it any good? Is it secure? It'd be nice to have for me.
There's been a couple apps I liked that didn't fit our screen plus having to reinstall android files often I lose all my saved info so it doesn't work out for me. Sprint needs to hurry up with an HTC Android phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the "Ebay.apk" from 4Shared, but it doesn't display properly. The tabs extend all the way to the bottom of the other screen which is a common problem for us vogue port users.
So I bought my first non-WM smartphone. Below is documentation of my quest to replace, and surpass, the experience I was used to with my Touch Diamond 2 running Windows Mobile 6.5. I am what you would probably call a windows mobile 'power user'. I've been averaging about one new WM phone every 6 months since 2005, most of them HTC. But I always keep up on what the other platforms are doing. This is just the first time I've taken the leap, and I quickly became aware of what new doors Android opened for me in just the first few hours of using the Nexus One. The OS is nice, but like most people, it really comes down to the apps for me.
I was initially thinking I'd do a big blog review, but I've run out of motivation. There's plenty of info on the Nexus One hardware and Android out there, so I don't need to rehash that stuff. What I haven't seen a lot of, though, is detailed accounts of people switching and what exactly they found.
There remains a couple major things missing from Android. The lack of an OCS client is probably the biggest one for me professionally, but since it's a Microsoft product, I don't see that changing any time soon. That and the lack of xvid playback will keep me carrying around my TD2 as backup for the foreseeable future. But other than that, I'm extremely happy and will definitely be sticking with the Nexus for a while. The next post will be a comprehensive list of (practically) every app I've installed, what they do for me, and how they compare to their WM counterparts (if there are any).
On to the apps...
Android Apps I've installed and believe I will continue to use.
This is a bit of a brain dump, so I apologize for not editing more thoroughly. Hopefully it will be useful to some, and feel free to suggest other apps you think I should try.
Advanced Task Killer - List of running apps that allows you to easily kill unwanted tasks. Nice to have for an OS that allows background apps, but I don't actually notice it slowing down, it seems to manage memory and close apps as needed.
Aldiko (replacing mobiReader, much better) - eReader with nice UI and quick access to several libraries of free books. Found Doctorow's books right away.
Amazon store - really just easier than using the web browser, but it also does barcode scanning and some other useful stuff.
BeamReader (replacing Adobe's wm reader) - rarely needed, but have to be able to see pdfs on the go sometimes
Beelicious - direct (cached) access to my delicious bookmarks. UI could be better and it's a bit of a pain to wade through them all, but it's useful.
BeyondPod (replacing YomoMedia, HUGE improvement) - It took me years to find a podcast downloader for WM that worked at all, but beyondpod is amazing. The UI is superb and inuitive. The customization is great. I have it setup to download only at night while charging. It remembers my place in podcasts and creates 'smart playlists' to make it easier to start listening. It also integrates with google reader, which is hugely useful because I can add new podcasts I'd like to listen to anywhere from google reader and then import then very quickly into beyondpod later. Also worth noting is the homescreen widget, which gives me access to basic controls and status from my home screen, no need to always navigate back into the app.
Browser (replacing Opera mobile) - Really there's not much difference here. Neither android nor WM have flash or silverlight support yet (although you can sort of get it on WM through skyfire, but that's not performant enough to be an everyday thing). Usability is about the same, but since multitouch zoom isn't enabled on nexus yet (though the hardware can technically support it), you have to use the zoom in/out buttons. This isn't as nice as zooming on the TD2 (zoom bar) or the HD2 (multitouch). Android does links to outside applications better though. It recognizes when you are browsing to a youtube video or RSS feed and will prompt correctly.
Cab4me - Nice little app for finding nearby cab companies making it very easy to see which is rated best, has cars available, and place the call. Not a must-have, but it's one of the little things.
Camera - very fast, 5mp (same as on hd2 and td2 wm phones), the LED flash is certainly better than nothing. Geotagging is default.
Car Home - this is Google's navigation 'car mode'. I think is this very cool, but honestly I won't end up using it much because I have navigation built into my car.
Carr Matey - dedicated app for recording car location so you can find it again. Another little nice thing I didn't have before. Android is just so much better at doing location-aware apps right now.
Documents to Go (replacing ms office mobile) - I'm using the lite version, which does not allow editing, but I have just never had the need to edit office docs on my phone. Sometimes I get one in an email and want to read it though, and this looks to do that fine. I'm happy.
Evernote (replacing Evernote) - I'm using this more and more as a dumping ground for everything that's not in email but I want to remember. This is what I use anytime I want to take a quick note (audio or text), or take a picture of a wine bottle or business card for later reference. It syncs with the cloud immediately and I can search that from anywhere.
Flashlight - not a big deal, but nice to have.
flickr droid (replacing shozu) - i like to have an easy way to upload a picture to flickr, this gives me that. I really like how android allows it to integrate with the normal gallery app. So after I take a picture I just have to view it, select 'share', and then select flickr droid (or other things like email, twitter, etc). It's more centralized than WM.
Flip2Silent and Vibrate During Meeting (replacing WM + HTC ringer management) - The ringer management on android is lacking as compared to WM. I used to be able to have my phone automatically go to vibrate during meetings, and silence the ringer after I pick up the phone (so it doesn't continue to be loud and annoying while I'm deciding whether to answer), AND there was a pocket mode to switch to vibrate and louder ring when the phone detected it was in a pocket. Vibrate During Meeting gives me back the meeting function, but it only works with the google calendar, not the exchange touchdown calendar in which all my actual meetings are stored. My work-around is to sync my exchange calendar with google via desktop outlook, but this doesn't keep it updated unless I have a desktop logged in. The good news is that the developer of this app says he'll look into touchdown. Flip2Silent gives me the option to just lay the phone screen-side-down to mute the ringer/vibrate functions. This will work while a call is coming in and I want to ignore it.
Foursquare - App for checking into various locations. It's treated like a game, you get points, but also get to see where your friends are and if they happen to be near you. Plus people leave tips for places.
g-backup and mybackup (replacing myphone on wm) - MS's myphone app on wm will automatically backup all user data (sms, mms, pictures, video, docs, etc) to the cloud every night. It can also restore these for when you get a new phone or hard-reset your current phone. I got used to having this. All my email and contacts are in exchange or the cloud anyway, but I don't want to lose these other things. MyPhone is also nice because all that data is accessible via the web. g-backup is cool because it will upload all this stuff to gmail, so you have it there, but it can't restore anything. MyBackup will backup and restore most things, but not pictures/video. So I'm using them both, but I'd like a more comprehensive solution.
Gallery (replacing HTC photo gallery) - The nexus gallery is implemented in 3d and is pretty cool, but ultimately it works about as well as the HTC version (which is also flashy). They need to add multi-touch zooming.
GCDroid (replacing gcz) - This is my geocaching app, but only until the official geocaching.com android app comes out (which is soon and it will be cool if their iphone app is any indication). Even though there isn't an official app for wm, the community created apps were pretty good. GCDroid is barely usable, but overall this category will be an upgrade over wm soon.
Glympse (replacing Glympse) - Something I'll rarely use, but it's cool when it applies. You can send a link to anyone that will allow them to track you via a webbrowser for x-minutes. So if you say you're on your way, they can actually see how far along you are.
Gmail (replacing hotmail) - both MS and Google have their email services integrated tightly with their mobile os. I used to forward all my gmail to hotmail so I could easily get it on my phone, so now I just flipped it. I like gmail well enough, and there are certainly features that are ahead of hotmail. I'm just happy to happy to have my personal email pushed to my phone.
Google maps (replacing google maps and bing) - This is definitely better than on WM, but ultimately it does the same stuff. It's smoother and a little easier to navigate (except, again, zooming is more difficult).
Meebo IM - nice to have an app that can log into ICQ, MSN, and GTalk all at once. Likely will rarely use it.
Messaging (replacing txt message HTC app) - this seems to be just what you'd expect. But at least it's very fast and predictable, unlike the HTC app which is sometimes laggy as hell.
Flixter Movies (replacing bing) - MS's bing app was good for finding local theaters and showtimes, this one does it with a bit more flash and some awesome additional features that i just found. It shows the rottentomatoes rating along with every movies. Plus, it has netflix integration, so it checks whether any movie is in my queue and lets me add it while browsing. It also has a list of recent dvd releases, which is great with the netflix thing. It also essentially serves as a mobile imdb. Very impressive.
Mother TED - dedicated app for watching TED talks. It seems ok but not great.
Music (replacing HTC media player) - Nothing special here. I don't know that I'll even use it much since i mostly listen to pandora or podcasts.
OpenTable - for the rare occasions when I make reservations (especially last minute) this will make it easy to find a place with an opening.
Pandora (NOT ON WM) - this is almost a reason to switch by itself. I hate that this isn't on wm yet. Very nicely implemented on android because it has a homescreen widget. I get all the basic controls without even having to go into the app, and I can use other apps while it plays in the background. Sound quality is great too.
Dialer - The android dialer is pretty basic, but it seems to get the job done. At least you can add a pause (with a comma) so that dialing conference numbers is somewhat doable (but still WAY harder than it should be, they don't do any smart parsing in meeting invites). This is still hard on WM though too.
PhoneFlicks (replacing official netflix wm app) - This is barely a replacement. Netflix's own app was better, this one is slower and harder to use, but at least I can do basic queue management from my phone, which is really nice sometimes.
SeattleBusBot - This is SO cool, and something I've wanted but couldn't find on wm. Seattle has the gps info of its buses available publicly, but their website is basically unusable on a phone (even on a desktop). This app will tell you exactly when a given bus is going to arrive, not just when it's scheduled.
Seesmic (replacing m.twitter.com on wm) - really good mobile twitter app. There are plenty of wm twitter apps, and HTC even builds one into the os now, but they tended to be slower. I think the HD2 is probably just as good as seesmic.
ShopSavvy - barcode scanning that tells you the closest places to get the given product and for how much. Haven't had a chance to see if this turns out to actually be useful, but I like the concept and test scans in the house have been accurate (which kinda surprises me because I had heard that phone barcode scanning doesn't work, but maybe the 5mp camera and snapdragon is making it more pratical).
TorrentFu (replacing starting torrents via Live mesh mobile) - This is a major upgrade (and rejected from itunes if I remember correctly). I finally switched to uTorrent on my server so I could use this. It uses the utorrent webui to connect, but exposes all the functionality like a local app. You can see progress, search for and start new torrents, and pause/resume. Very cool.
TripIt (replacing tripcase kinda) - I've only started experimenting with these two services, and i don't travel as much as I used to, but they are pretty good at what they do. Just forward your reservation emails and they build up a comprehensive itinerary and keep you updated. having a native app makes using these that much easier. Tripcase is on wm, tripit (which seems to be the better service) is on android.
tv.com - streaming tv from cbs, showtime, and some others. Haven't used this much, but always nice to have some free content.
Google Voice - At first I was skeptical about this because I don't have a real need to create a central phone number that rings all my phones, which was what i thought this service was for. Turns out you don't have to use that feature, and they also provide visual voicemail on android plus they send you transcriptions of the messages to your phone. so you can see who left messages and what they said (approximately) without even listening. So I'm definitely appreciating this feature.
Wapedia - native version of wikipedia. Nice and quick. why not?
y5 - Battery - This app is genius in its simplicity and value. It simply keeps track of where you are when you enable wifi, and remembers that going forward so it can automatically re-enable it when you come back to the same place. The rest of the time, it disables wifi to save battery. The end result here is that I never have to remember to turn wifi on or off when i come home or leave the house.
youtube (replacing youtube) - works well. nothing special to report except google's browser seems to be better at realizing when it should forward you to the youtube player.
yxflash (failing to replace coreplayer) - The only android app that claims to do xvid/divx decoding. I tried it on an xvid torrent that wm's coreplayer had no trouble with and it choked pretty hard. It played, but with extremely jittery video and slow sound. Not usable yet, but at least i know I might get something soon.
Touchdown (replacing exchange activesync on wm) - Saved the most important (and expensive @$22) for last. Without this app I wouldn't be able to sync my exchange data (contacts, email, calendar, tasks) with my phone because Android doesn't support all the required security features by default. (our company, like many these days, will not sync data with a platform that doesn't allow them to force the use of encryption, pin lock, and remote wipe) Beyond that, without the recently added feature of allowing me to flag emails for followup, I would not be able to switch to android because this workflow is too important to my everyday life.
Explanation: I check email on my phone often, and if I can respond then and there, I do, but if I can’t and need to follow up for any reason, I flag it. This creates a task in outlook which I will see the next time at my desk, so i KNOW i won't forget about it.
But there is an additional, more subtle, benefit at play here. And honestly, it's a little unfair to count it, but it makes such a huge difference in my enjoyment of my phone that I can't ignore it. I'm speaking about how the previously mentioned pin lock for exchange only applies (on android) to the touchdown app. I am not required to set a pin to unlock the phone itself. Ever since they turned on that requirement I've been punching in a 4 digit pin every damn time I wanted to glance at my phone, check the time, or even change the stupid volume! Now I'm finally free of that because google didn't bother to properly build in exchange support at the OS level. NICE! seriously though, this saves me so much annoyance it was almost worth the $530 by itself.
For a true windows power-user, it's worth shelling out the <$10 for Remote RDP. It works incredibly well, even when connecting to my Windows 7 PC from 3G across town (or presumably, the world).
The ability to USE MY HOME PC from ANYWHERE WITH NET ACCESS...
Absolutely incredible for a phone..
EDIT: my home net speed is pretty quick, which owes to fast remote access. Wifi will always be fast, though, and that's what this app is really designed for.
Good recommendation. Just downloaded the Remote RDP demo. Seems to work well.
Thank you for the run down... I just made the switch myself and a number of the apps you mentioned helped me fill some of my void from WM. I'm still a little pissed about the exchange issues but the real truth is any company I work for issues me a blackberry and doesn't allow other devices to connect to thier servers. I worked for one midsized company once that let me and that was the only time I was completely in love with my WM device. Since my personal email is through gmail the nexus one is really amazing as my personal phone.
Good Stuff! I'm in the same boat WM to Android and no turning back I'll check out some of the apps u listed...
One thing I'm looking for is a widget with power/memory/storage/sd gauges.
Always had this on the wm home for reference & cool stats!
If you geocache then GeoBeagle is the other main geocaching app. I don't cache much any more, but I have tried GeoBeagle and liked it, though I can't compare it to GCDroid...
Wanted to say thanks for the excellent app list. Touchdown is awesome. A way for me to connect to work without merging my exchange contacts with the rest of my phone. Now thats a win!
@Seraph321 - want to add my thanks for your app info. i'll be getting an N1 soon and knowing there are options to some of my "must haves" apps/features/functionality (e.g., Exchange) will help shorten my learning curve. i'm not going to abandon WM because it will continue to serve as my work phone. the N1 will be my after work/personal phone until i'm comfortable tweaking Android. that's my plan, but once i have the N1 my plan may change!
Great write up, and welcome to Android
A few suggestions
Text Messaging
The two heavyweights are Chomp SMS and Handcent SMS. Both are considerably better than the default SMS app, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
Browser
Dolphin Browser is hands down the best browser on Android right now. Multi-touch zooming, delicious integration, tabs, themes, and much more.
Flashlight
Do a market search for Nexus One Torch. It utilizes the LED from the camera flash to use as a flashlight. Very bright.
Ringer Management
Locale manages your phone based off time and location. Never used it myself, but heard good things, and I believe it was and Android Developers Challenge winner or something.
Backup
I'm simple and only need to backup text messages (most everything else is stored via SD card or synced with Google anyway). I use SMS Backup to backup my texts to Gmail, and it works fantastic. Uploads directly to my mail account, archives the texts, puts them in threads according to contact, tags them, and marks them as read. I can then easily search my text conversations from my phone or desktop browser via Gmail, and don't have to worry about deleting conversations from my phone and losing something. I've never used g-backup, so it may have this function already.
Twitter
I've tried a couple Twitter apps (not Seismic, though I'll be trying that next) and have landed on Swift, which currently is the fastest, and the best looking Twitter app I've used. I'm not a giant twitter user, so I don't know if it supports all the features any other apps might, but it works great for me, and would recommend it.
That's all for now. I don't have my phone next to me or I'd give it a quick run through and suggest something you might be missing, but I'll have to do that another time.
As for getting multi-touch support in google maps, the browser, and gallery... just wait, it's been hacked in for the G1/MT3G, it will certainly be hacked in for the Nexus One.
I'm still up in the air between ASTRO File Manager and Linda File Manager, but a file manager is an important addition to your tools, if you plan on keeping a lot of documents/files on board. Additionally, I know at least Linda has the DownloadCrutch functionality, associating itself with every filetype so that the browser will allow you to download such. To me, this last bit is essential.
Great stuff, I think a lot of people will be going from WM to Nexus because MS have failed to deliver for so long & there is now a great alternative with an OS that can be modded and a really cool handset.
So far I am happy to leave the N1 standard (not rooted) and play with apps - it is a real joy to have so many available & a single source for them.
Never going back !
+1 for Dolphin Browser... definitely a big step up over the default browser IMHO
SpyderMS said:
Great write up, and welcome to Android
A few suggestions
Text Messaging
The two heavyweights are Chomp SMS and Handcent SMS. Both are considerably better than the default SMS app, it mostly comes down to personal preference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
bofslime said:
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend to agree though why doesnt the icon to the app on my home screen tell me how many unread SMS there are?
The Jones said:
I tend to agree though why doesnt the icon to the app on my home screen tell me how many unread SMS there are?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SMS Count
ok, at work with nothing to do, so I browsed through my phone, and here's a couple Apps you may be interested in. Some of these are useful, some are just kind of cool
AudioManager Widget
Nice little app that lets you adjust all your volume levels easily and quickly.
AppControl - Full Version
Best app manager I've used. Really fast, nice interface, and lots of options.
Barcode Scanner
Barcode scanning from the phone is fantastic. It's very pronounced in the Android community as well. You'll see barcodes not only on these forums, but on App websites like AndroLib.com, which let you scan the barcode, and instantly be linked to a website or Android Market page. It's not only useful on the Nexus One's 5mp camera and 1GHz processor either. Worked great on my G1.
Google Goggles
Take a picture of just about anything, and Google will search for relevant results.
Google Sky Map
Virtual Planetarium on your phone.
Layar Reality Browser 3.0
Augmented Reality browser. Displays information about objects in front of you overlayed on the camera display.
Pkt Auctions for eBay
If you use eBay at all, this is a great companion tool.
Shazam
Lets you identify music being played around you by letting your phone listen to and analyze it.
Personally, I find the text bubbles childish and cheesy. I much prefer the stock sms app with sms popup.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
handcent settings -> conversation style.
handcent has a ton of settings options, including different settings for individual contacts (conversation style, font, notification tone, etc)
Thanks for all the suggestions. I've already spent too much work time today finding and installing the ones I like.
I don't actually do THAT much texting, so I'm sticking with the stock sms app for now, but I did install sms popup and set my girlfriend to popup. That's convenient.
Someone mentioned SMS backup, and yes, g-backup does the same thing only for more data, but they both need a scheduling option.
I see the nexus one torch app requires rooted access. I'm no stranger to hacking my gadgets, but this app (plus tethering, and maybe installing to the sd card) are the only things I've seen so far that have me interested in doing it. Can anyone provide some examples of why they consider rooting a must?
You mentioned Wi-Fi tethering already, but that reason alone is a pretty big reason. You may also want to theme your phone. Any kind of advancements that developers like Cyanogen come out with will require root as well. Cyanogen is known for pushing the envelope, helping to increase speed, and overall functionality of the G1, and other devices; not to mention you will get features from new versions of Android faster than those without root. I'm sure there are other reasons to, these are just off the top of my head. A lot of people are waiting until someone finds out how to reverse the bootloader unlocking process before they root, in order to preserve their warranty, and that's certainly a good idea if you don't have a lot of use for root at the moment. I did it, like most people that did, just because I can.
I'll make sure to watch the Cyanogen stuff closely. I never followed the G1 enhancements, so I guess I don't know what to expect. Sounds like it's likely I'll do it at some point though.
Is it easy to get all your apps, especially the ones that you paid for, back on your phone after rooting? Does the marketplace just remember it all and let you re-download?
I should just search for these answers.
So, after playing for 1,5 days with the DHD, I have gathered a list of issues and questions which I post altogether here instead of starting separate theads.
First of all, my phone doesn't seem to have any of the issues discussed earlier (speaker is ok, maybe not very loud but I don't have any problem with it. Battery was reasonably drained within a day but I used it continuously for the whole day)
1) I try to check for system updates but it says that there is no new update available. Is that reasonable for a new phone? I've heard of people running updates and fixing issues so why doesn't mine detect any updates? Maybe they incorporated all fixes in new phones?
2) Display switches off sometimes in google maps. I guess in such applications the screen should be on all the time but it was switching off after a few minutes. I had to unlock the screen and it returned to maps
3) I tried to look for Greek language pack but there is one for all languages except Greek. Anyone knows if there is one which I can't find?
4) Greek video/mp3 titles cannot be displayed correctly
5) Don't subtitles work? I added (srt) subtitles to movies in the same way you do it on a PC but it doesn't work.
6) Quickoffice cannot open my word documents. It can open excel and powerpoint only. Any reasons?
7) No sync for Outlook notes and tasks?
Finally,
I seacrhed the market for some applications that are very essential for me but didn't find anything
8) application similar to eWallet that will hold your credit card info, passwords, etc. Preferably with a respective windows application whih will be synced between phone and windows
9) Application or hack for calendar that will display the appointment when a day in month view is clicked instead of opening the day view. In other words, I don't want to leave month view when I click on a day with an appointment. I just want a brief view of the appointment in the same view.
And I stop here in order to be polite
MOD Edit:
Continue to be polite and click on the link provided by your fellow member on the post below....
Regards,
M_T_M
andreasy said:
So, after playing for 1,5 days with the DHD, I have gathered a list of issues and questions which I post altogether here instead of starting separate theads.
First of all, my phone doesn't seem to have any of the issues discussed earlier (speaker is ok, maybe not very loud but I don't have any problem with it. Battery was reasonably drained within a day but I used it continuously for the whole day)
1) I try to check for system updates but it says that there is no new update available. Is that reasonable for a new phone? I've heard of people running updates and fixing issues so why doesn't mine detect any updates? Maybe they incorporated all fixes in new phones? Yes, that is very likely, the last update OTA was 1.32.405.6. Yours likely will have that update already (check via settings->about the phone->Software-information-> Build. The issues others are looking at are the issues that we see when flashing other roms
2) Display switches off sometimes in google maps. I guess in such applications the screen should be on all the time but it was switching off after a few minutes. I had to unlock the screen and it returned to maps or change the settings for screen off after x minutes....
3) I tried to look for Greek language pack but there is one for all languages except Greek. Anyone knows if there is one which I can't find? dunno
4) Greek video/mp3 titles cannot be displayed correctly don't speak / read Greek, so no problem for me
5) Don't subtitles work? I added (srt) subtitles to movies in the same way you do it on a PC but it doesn't work. I use rockplayer to watch movies, subtitles work fine there
6) Quickoffice cannot open my word documents. It can open excel and powerpoint only. Any reasons? Maybe incompatible word version? I have opened word 2003 files without problem
7) No sync for Outlook notes and tasks? Did not need to have it, so do not know
Finally,
I seacrhed the market for some applications that are very essential for me but didn't find anything
8) application similar to eWallet that will hold your credit card info, passwords, etc. Preferably with a respective windows application whih will be synced between phone and windows
9) Application or hack for calendar that will display the appointment when a day in month view is clicked instead of opening the day view. In other words, I don't want to leave month view when I click on a day with an appointment. I just want a brief view of the appointment in the same view. some of the calendars let you view the up and coming appointments...there are numerous calendar widgets as well....you can toggle between current apointment and month view on the launcherpro calendar widget easily
And I stop here in order to be polite
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you look in http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=821973 as well ?
Hi all, I love the XDA forum, have been browsing it for years, but this is the first time I thought I could add something and wanted to post!
This may not be perfect and I'm certain some of it is replicating, however
I thought maybe a post that covered everything in one place would help someone like me out there making their first foray into Android. And please no haters, I have taken a significant chunk out my night to share my travels with you.
I have spent the last three days trying to ratify my decision on replacing the iPhone with the SG2. The first night was filled with lot's of appreciative 'oohhs', as I explored everything from the beautiful screen to the plentiful configuration options which was exactly what I was hoping Android would be about.
I then spent the next few days (until now) trying to do things that would have just taken an hour or so to do on my iPhone. Namely syncing contacts, calendar, music, photos and videos. This post is aimed at Mac OS users who are taking one small step at a time to Android / Windows 7 .
Firstly, connectivity: two options. You can either go into Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging which is used by some synch programs, or more useful Settings->Wireless and Networks->USB Utilities->USB mass storage. You'll need to unplug any cable already in, click on the above, and then plug in your cable. Then click on the button that says 'turn on USB storage'. You should then see the internal storage mounted as a drive on your Macs Finder where you can look through folders etc.
Note that if you have an SD card, this will also get mounted, but as a separate drive. I found it useful to use my Finder to rename both drives so I could always be sure which I was looking at.
Business stuff:
Email: Easy if you have a consumer service such as gmail, yahoo etc. For small business owners like myself, unless you run an Exchange server, first thing you should know is that only IMAP mail will give you 'push' to your phone. POP3 will work but requires manual synch and not the best use of your battery. I use Zen Internet to host my domains in the UK, and they list their IMAP settings which you'll need. Works great, even SSL for secure email. And full push email, for iPhone users, this is the direct replacement for using MobileMe for your work email.
This was the first and consequently easiest thing I did after purchasing that lead me into a somewhat false sense of security at the purchase
Calendar: You'll need to share your iCal with Google. Easy enough, just do a search on Googles help for CalDev and iCal, I can't post the link as a new user
Contacts: If you have a newer Mac OS, you can go straight into Address Book and under preferences, share the book with your Google account. This will also transfer photos for your contacts if you use them which is nice. Note, you need to press the 'Sync now' option in the top right on your Mac screen where the two arrows in a circle are for the sync to happen. If you don't have this icon or it is greyed out, set up iSync in your System Preferences under the Apple logo top left.
If like me, this function didn't work great (seems that ppl have better results importing from Google rather than exporting to Google with this method) you can either download vCards from your existing contact system and import them into your device (after connecting), or import them into Google via a browser connection. They will then sync with you SG2. Note you will NOT get photos from vCards, they are just text. However, the SG2 has a nice facility for adding photos from your photo collection once that is synced.. see below.
Personal Stuff:
Quick preamble, there are LOADS of different syncing softwares out there, most tend to do one thing OK, but no replacement for iTunes and iPhone users will be dissapointed. I downloaded countless types. Doubletwist (DT) as recommended by many on this forum was the way to go for me, although of significant note was the iTunemywalkman app which you have got to love for its simple and effective coding, especially the fast on the fly re-encoding of your music if it is DRM (EDIT: not DRM! see below!) or lossless, or you just want mp3 rather than AAC. You can even set the bit rate, top notch bit of software. It is however focused on music.
However, with a little usage help, DoubleTwist does photos, video and music.
Photos: thought you might like to hear how I deal with this. For those who haven't used DT, it is a one-way sync only of photos e.g. it will put all your iPhoto pics onto your SG2, but won't take photos from it.. - don't worry easy to work around.
On my GS2 I have the 16GB internal and 16GB SD card. I use DT to do my photo sync to get the library onto SGS, then once I have mounted the phone storage and can see it in Finder (as per above), I open iPhoto and import the photos I've taken into my library straight in iPhoto just like any other regular import such as from an email or downloaded jpg. File->Import to Library. Then navigate to your internal storage, and go into the DCIM folder to find your photos.
I then delete all photos from my internal storage on GS2 through Finder. As the DT software will download my library onto my external SD card, I still have all my photos to look at on the phone, but it keeps it on separate storage areas and easy to manage. For me it feels similar to when I would 'delete camera roll' after syncing my iPhone and it is really not a hassle.
Videos you just do the same thing.
Music: Ahhh, music...the biggest pain in the butt. Easy to drag and drop music files and playlists onto your SG2, but for me and many other would result in Unknown Artist, multiple entries for collection CDs and almost worst was complete lack of playlist, despite it being in the storage!!
This is where itunemywalkman comes into its own BTW, as you can send music through grouped by Album, Artist or Playlist (where in the SG2, playlists were listed as albums, partly solved it).
Anywhooo, to ensure you get the best results, I first recommend you go into Settings->Applications->Manage Applications->All and then go to Media Storage. Select 'clear data', this will not delete any existing music (although I recommend you do, except for music purchased on the phone which I would then import into iTunes and then delete from phone). This just deletes the index, which can cause problems in getting the rest to work if you don't.
Then you go into your DT software, and sync your music. Make sure you sync to the right Samsung device listed, again one will be your internal storage and one your external.
It will also re-encode some music for you, but not DRM which you can sort out with paid for apps, or I think burn a CD and then rip mp3. Other threads will explain... pain in the arse considering you 'own' the music. One of the reasons I moved from Apple... Another issue to resolve is the multiple entries per album, this is to do with your iTunes setting, go into all the tracks listed on the album and tick the 'part of a compilation' box and if necessary paste the album name into each track. This will ensure the SG2 will see it as one album despite lots of different artists.
Once you have all the music on the SG2, unmount the storage from Finder by pressing the eject button, and the you can do the same on the phone. It will take a little while for the Media Storage scan to do its thing as it is rebuilding its index.
Then go into the Market, and download a free app called 'MediaFix'. The guy who developed this should be given a Google Knighthood for doing what they seemingly couldn't. It will repair all the missing meta data, such as artist name and album etc... Most importantly for me though, the playlists require the correct meta data and after running this app (it took about 20 seconds to do my whole 8GB catalogue), suddenly all my playlists showed up! Hurrah!!!
One last thing, download from Market 'Cover Art Downloader' to get all your album art back, or at least a fair bit of it. DT has their own version for £2.99 which you'll need if you have lots of covers like me... Cover Art Downloader seems to crash after about 430 new albums discovered!
I should note I use the DT player on my phone too, for some reason the Samsung player still doesn't see my playlists although it does have the track meta-data now.
All with correct info, and the most crucial thing my SG2 needed to do well for me...
DT will keep this sync'd for you, just quickly wipe your Media Storage file before sync and then run MediaFix after. A little painful, but I have noticed in my case anyway that if you don't do this every time your playlists can get a little messed up again missing artist info (even though the songs and albums still have it...)
With this for photos, DT for audio and Google sync for iCal / Address Book I have now got an iPhone replacement. MediaFix from market is essential to get it working properly though (or convert everything into MP3 before syncing, like you need to do for DRM)... this is because music loses meta data with the Android media index, this will also resolve playlists not showing up, which rely on the meta data.
Hope this helps someone.. I have spent days trying to get my (amazing!!) SG2 working. Quite a contrast to when I updated my 2G iPhone to 3G and after a 20 minute synch was basically left with the same phone as before with more memory and slightly faster. A little underwhelming an experience for a new phone (but I can hardly moan at Apple for getting sync so right), the SG2 has been far more exciting and a steep learning curve. . talk about them being at opposite ends of the spectrum.
The SG2 is better hardware, but it takes more effort to get running the synch as well, but nothing good in life comes easy.... I'm quite technical and didn't lose faith, but I have been left far from satisfied with the experience which is such as shame as the hardware is so great. Google will NEVER challenge the iPhone until they sort this. I have to admit, if the iPhone 5 came out looking as amazing as the SG2, I would probably somewhat reluctantly strip off my shame and get back into bed with it - purely because of syncing..
It's hard to believe that the hardware is just so far ahead of the needed unified desktop software written by Google for Android with all Android hardware providers submitting an API into their 'bloatware' (I actually quite like the Samsung TouchWiz).
Sorry for the long post, please let me know if this has helped, it will make the lost 2.5hrs of my Saturday night seem worthwhile..
Peter
MediaMonkey
Hi!
First of all thank you for the post
I just wanted to say that mediamonkey (at least the 4.0.0.1393 build that I'm using on a x64 windows 7 vaio) synchronises your music and playlists to the phone or to the SD card with almost no setup required and I had no problems with the id3 tags or album art until know. I use the stock music player and tunewiki on the phone. I have never tried but it also has options to automatically convert incompatible files, including video...
The only hassle I had was with the genius mixes and I solved it by creating proper playlists using itunes DJ by choosing the genius mixes as sources and importing them to mediamonkey.
By the way I have an unbranded SGS2 with the KE2 stock rom
This seems like a lot of trouble. Do you find it annoying and tedious? I use a MacBook Pro, and am trying to decide between getting the Galaxy S2 this summer and waiting for an iPhone 5. I'm just concerned with how much trouble it will cause me to do simple things (lack of compatibility?) using an android phone with a mac.
Maybe it would be easier if I just ran Windows 7 (already have a license) on bootcamp or say, parallels, when I want to deal with Galaxy S2 things?
All that stuff works fine, but I am all apple and I found two Mac programs to take care of everything I needed.
I used BusyCal for iCal syncing, it works with the new Mobile Me Cloud, so no problem there.
Second I'm using The Missing Sync, this program sync's iTunes music and movies, as well as iPhoto to and from the GS2.
Both these programs cost money but a small price to pay to have them work as well as they do.
Why not use Kies for Mac?
nice posting thompps!
it will for sure help ppl when switching from ios to android.
but is'nt it obvious that syncing between devices of the same manufacturer is more simple then between varous systems?
apple will allways put hurdles in the way when it comes to syncing with other devices, thats the way they keep their customers dependent... (i must confess its not only apples procedure, but they are master in this discipline)
anyway thumbs up for your effort and wish ya fun with your phone!
Yes thanks good post even though Apple is not a product i have ever used .
Should be a sticky for ex IPhone users .
jje
sadly DT on my mac doesn't read my iPhoto library. Missing Sync and FoneSync doesn't see external SD... how can I fix this?
i must say, although i don't have a mac or an iphone, i thank you for your post, i really appreciate when junior members decide to give something back to the community and your guide is well thought out and structured. good work.
thompps said:
Hi all, I love the XDA forum, have been browsing it for years, but this is the first time I thought I could add something and wanted to post!
This may not be perfect and I'm certain some of it is replicating, however
I thought maybe a post that covered everything in one place would help someone like me out there making their first foray into Android. And please no haters, I have taken a significant chunk out my night to share my travels with you.
I have spent the last three days trying to ratify my decision on replacing the iPhone with the SG2. The first night was filled with lot's of appreciative 'oohhs', as I explored everything from the beautiful screen to the plentiful configuration options which was exactly what I was hoping Android would be about.
I then spent the next few days (until now) trying to do things that would have just taken an hour or so to do on my iPhone. Namely syncing contacts, calendar, music, photos and videos. This post is aimed at Mac OS users who are taking one small step at a time to Android / Windows 7 .
Firstly, connectivity: two options. You can either go into Settings->Applications->Development->USB debugging which is used by some synch programs, or more useful Settings->Wireless and Networks->USB Utilities->USB mass storage. You'll need to unplug any cable already in, click on the above, and then plug in your cable. Then click on the button that says 'turn on USB storage'. You should then see the internal storage mounted as a drive on your Macs Finder where you can look through folders etc.
Note that if you have an SD card, this will also get mounted, but as a separate drive. I found it useful to use my Finder to rename both drives so I could always be sure which I was looking at.
Business stuff:
Email: Easy if you have a consumer service such as gmail, yahoo etc. For small business owners like myself, unless you run an Exchange server, first thing you should know is that only IMAP mail will give you 'push' to your phone. POP3 will work but requires manual synch and not the best use of your battery. I use Zen Internet to host my domains in the UK, and they list their IMAP settings which you'll need. Works great, even SSL for secure email. And full push email, for iPhone users, this is the direct replacement for using MobileMe for your work email.
This was the first and consequently easiest thing I did after purchasing that lead me into a somewhat false sense of security at the purchase
Calendar: You'll need to share your iCal with Google. Easy enough, just do a search on Googles help for CalDev and iCal, I can't post the link as a new user
Contacts: If you have a newer Mac OS, you can go straight into Address Book and under preferences, share the book with your Google account. This will also transfer photos for your contacts if you use them which is nice. Note, you need to press the 'Sync now' option in the top right on your Mac screen where the two arrows in a circle are for the sync to happen. If you don't have this icon or it is greyed out, set up iSync in your System Preferences under the Apple logo top left.
If like me, this function didn't work great (seems that ppl have better results importing from Google rather than exporting to Google with this method) you can either download vCards from your existing contact system and import them into your device (after connecting), or import them into Google via a browser connection. They will then sync with you SG2. Note you will NOT get photos from vCards, they are just text. However, the SG2 has a nice facility for adding photos from your photo collection once that is synced.. see below.
Personal Stuff:
Quick preamble, there are LOADS of different syncing softwares out there, most tend to do one thing OK, but no replacement for iTunes and iPhone users will be dissapointed. I downloaded countless types. Doubletwist (DT) as recommended by many on this forum was the way to go for me, although of significant note was the iTunemywalkman app which you have got to love for its simple and effective coding, especially the fast on the fly re-encoding of your music if it is DRM (EDIT: not DRM! see below!) or lossless, or you just want mp3 rather than AAC. You can even set the bit rate, top notch bit of software. It is however focused on music.
However, with a little usage help, DoubleTwist does photos, video and music.
Photos: thought you might like to hear how I deal with this. For those who haven't used DT, it is a one-way sync only of photos e.g. it will put all your iPhoto pics onto your SG2, but won't take photos from it.. - don't worry easy to work around.
On my GS2 I have the 16GB internal and 16GB SD card. I use DT to do my photo sync to get the library onto SGS, then once I have mounted the phone storage and can see it in Finder (as per above), I open iPhoto and import the photos I've taken into my library straight in iPhoto just like any other regular import such as from an email or downloaded jpg. File->Import to Library. Then navigate to your internal storage, and go into the DCIM folder to find your photos.
I then delete all photos from my internal storage on GS2 through Finder. As the DT software will download my library onto my external SD card, I still have all my photos to look at on the phone, but it keeps it on separate storage areas and easy to manage. For me it feels similar to when I would 'delete camera roll' after syncing my iPhone and it is really not a hassle.
Videos you just do the same thing.
Music: Ahhh, music...the biggest pain in the butt. Easy to drag and drop music files and playlists onto your SG2, but for me and many other would result in Unknown Artist, multiple entries for collection CDs and almost worst was complete lack of playlist, despite it being in the storage!!
This is where itunemywalkman comes into its own BTW, as you can send music through grouped by Album, Artist or Playlist (where in the SG2, playlists were listed as albums, partly solved it).
Anywhooo, to ensure you get the best results, I first recommend you go into Settings->Applications->Manage Applications->All and then go to Media Storage. Select 'clear data', this will not delete any existing music (although I recommend you do, except for music purchased on the phone which I would then import into iTunes and then delete from phone). This just deletes the index, which can cause problems in getting the rest to work if you don't.
Then you go into your DT software, and sync your music. Make sure you sync to the right Samsung device listed, again one will be your internal storage and one your external.
It will also re-encode some music for you, but not DRM which you can sort out with paid for apps, or I think burn a CD and then rip mp3. Other threads will explain... pain in the arse considering you 'own' the music. One of the reasons I moved from Apple... Another issue to resolve is the multiple entries per album, this is to do with your iTunes setting, go into all the tracks listed on the album and tick the 'part of a compilation' box and if necessary paste the album name into each track. This will ensure the SG2 will see it as one album despite lots of different artists.
Once you have all the music on the SG2, unmount the storage from Finder by pressing the eject button, and the you can do the same on the phone. It will take a little while for the Media Storage scan to do its thing as it is rebuilding its index.
Then go into the Market, and download a free app called 'MediaFix'. The guy who developed this should be given a Google Knighthood for doing what they seemingly couldn't. It will repair all the missing meta data, such as artist name and album etc... Most importantly for me though, the playlists require the correct meta data and after running this app (it took about 20 seconds to do my whole 8GB catalogue), suddenly all my playlists showed up! Hurrah!!!
One last thing, download from Market 'Cover Art Downloader' to get all your album art back, or at least a fair bit of it. DT has their own version for £2.99 which you'll need if you have lots of covers like me... Cover Art Downloader seems to crash after about 430 new albums discovered!
I should note I use the DT player on my phone too, for some reason the Samsung player still doesn't see my playlists although it does have the track meta-data now.
All with correct info, and the most crucial thing my SG2 needed to do well for me...
DT will keep this sync'd for you, just quickly wipe your Media Storage file before sync and then run MediaFix after. A little painful, but I have noticed in my case anyway that if you don't do this every time your playlists can get a little messed up again missing artist info (even though the songs and albums still have it...)
With this for photos, DT for audio and Google sync for iCal / Address Book I have now got an iPhone replacement. MediaFix from market is essential to get it working properly though (or convert everything into MP3 before syncing, like you need to do for DRM)... this is because music loses meta data with the Android media index, this will also resolve playlists not showing up, which rely on the meta data.
Hope this helps someone.. I have spent days trying to get my (amazing!!) SG2 working. Quite a contrast to when I updated my 2G iPhone to 3G and after a 20 minute synch was basically left with the same phone as before with more memory and slightly faster. A little underwhelming an experience for a new phone (but I can hardly moan at Apple for getting sync so right), the SG2 has been far more exciting and a steep learning curve. . talk about them being at opposite ends of the spectrum.
The SG2 is better hardware, but it takes more effort to get running the synch as well, but nothing good in life comes easy.... I'm quite technical and didn't lose faith, but I have been left far from satisfied with the experience which is such as shame as the hardware is so great. Google will NEVER challenge the iPhone until they sort this. I have to admit, if the iPhone 5 came out looking as amazing as the SG2, I would probably somewhat reluctantly strip off my shame and get back into bed with it - purely because of syncing..
It's hard to believe that the hardware is just so far ahead of the needed unified desktop software written by Google for Android with all Android hardware providers submitting an API into their 'bloatware' (I actually quite like the Samsung TouchWiz).
Sorry for the long post, please let me know if this has helped, it will make the lost 2.5hrs of my Saturday night seem worthwhile..
Peter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi, thanks for the post peter. i have registered on xda today, just so that i could reply to the post. so your saturday night 2.5hrs sacrifice is appreciated!
in south africa contract upgrades are only 24 monthly. i was actually the biggest symbian fan and was very reluctant to move to the iphone 3GS. i was sold. but then i found all the nice apps were paid (something which i am against) and it was either jailbreak the iphone 4 or sg2. obviously if i am posting here, i have gone for the sg2.
i have not fully used the syncing properties on the iphone...and was mislead when the usual "connecting to itunes" states "step 2 of 3 backing up" - i upgraded my software after the pdf loophole was discovered - started with blank apps, lost all my photos etc. the contacts somehow remained.
so here is my question. i dont have an imac, i ahve an ordinary dell laptop. i also use my mobile device (either with cable or bluetooth) as a modem to connect to the internet. (this was one of the features that sold me on iphone - swith internet tethering "on" and you surfing in seconds).
having said that: i mainly need all my contacts to be synced.
the rest i can sacrifice, but pics, texts etc will be nice.
so now that you using the sg2, how is the touch screen sensitivity? messages also in chat form? i didnt understand the part of the blog if it allows for push email notifications? i use gmail.
thanks for post once again and thanks for helping me out on my journey to android...
regards
rava
Thanks for the Herculean effort! Have just made the move myself (Samsung Note) and, being less techie, remain daunted. Any experience with Mark Space syncing tools?