This is my first Android phone so can you all please recommend some 'must have' apps I should download.
So far only got Locale & NetCounter, but I guess there are more useful apps out there I've not seen yet.
Astro which is a file manager I use on a daily basis to access sdcard.
Copilot gps but costs £25.99.
This is also my first android phone, but I have found the Metal Detector app to be fairly fun.
Also, you'll need the barcode scanner.
Loads more recommendations in the Applications Forum here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=542784
I recommend G-Backup - backs up SMS and MMS and Call log to folders in your Gmail (archived to the label SMS or MMS etc) so you can delete from fone but still keep track of them if you need to retrace stuff.
Daisy xx
Thanks, will check out that thread.
locale (lets you set "situations" and have an "action" performed if the situation is triggered, so you can have it auto set to vibrate when you get to work, or dim the backlight at night, or change the ringtone when you get home, etc...)
shazam (lets you find the title & artist of a song just by holding your phone up to the speaker and "tagging" it, VERY cool)
scoreboardlets you set your favorite sports teams in your google acct., this is a official google app i believe, also lets you set up a widget that updates your fav. teams scores.
spare parts (lets you modify some settings that you cant normally, part of the development tree, not included with any OEM builds, but available as a free app on the marketplace)
*there are SO many i cant honestly add em all, do some playing and you'll Def. find some you like*
After almost 3 weeks of using X10 I came up with a list of question that I hope some of you may be able to help me find solutions.
1. Regarding making/receiving calls through car speakerss when there is an auxiliary cable plugged into the phone, I can hear the person who I call/who calls me, but they cannot hear me through the phone. Is this true with everyone's phone? Listening to music and then having someone call me while it is plugged in is very annoying as I have to unplug the cable and wait a few seconds for the mic to start working.
2. Is there a way to make a shortcut on desktop for MMS & Data so I don't have to go to menu, settings, wireless controls, mobile networks to switch off 3G (to save on battery..) or any other solution ?
3. Does anyone know if there's a website where you can watch latest nhl highlights, since the phone doesn't support flash.
4. I would like to find an app similar to yellow pages, which will find whatever I need based on my current location using gps and not on the location that I input in the phone for the reasons such as most of the time I won't know my exact adress.
5. Does anyone know if Wisepilot is worth upgrading after a 30 day trial or is maps.brut should be enough for GPS.
6. Does anyone know how much data app like internet radio uses approx. ?
7. There's a function in mediascape for music called playlist, but I don't seem to be able to create my own playlist. The only one that is listed is recently played. Anyone know how to create your own ?
Thanks for your help.
1- yes it is a commone problem people talked about around here
5- i guess google is doing good with updating the maps so its the same stick to maps(till garmin or something like that gets out )
6- this depends on the staion ur listing from what quality of music is it brodcasting, time of use and so on
7- u can add playlist by using media go, u creat a playlist on windows midea player or any other program or by media go, then u refresh media go to find ur playllist and right click there is transfer, then u find it in ur mediascape playlist that is the only way i guess. its fine with me
PS: u can search the other questions im sure u will find the answers coz lots of people have asked the same questions....
1. You need an inline microphone such as http://store.shure.com/store/shure/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.105498400 (I am sure you can find a much cheaper option if you shop around).
2. Yes just long press on the homescreen then choose shortcut and the path that you need.
3. pass
4. If you allow Google to use your location it should do some of what you require otherwise try something like Superpagesmobile http://www.superpages.com/mobile/android
5. As Google maps now has navigation why pay for an application ?
6. It will depend on the bit rate of the station, but roughly 50Mb per hour for a 128k station
7. You can add playlists by using the built in music player app use the App AnyCut to add a shortcut to your homescreen (choose Activity then Music).
My phone came with Wisepilot installed, but I prefer the new Google maps navigation.
Google Nav is only available in the U.S. and the U.K. right now so you might need a third party GPS solution.
There are plenty of widgets available for turning off/on 3G.
instigator008 said:
Google Nav is only available in the U.S. and the U.K. right now so you might need a third party GPS solution.
There are plenty of widgets available for turning off/on 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search XDA for maps.brut
So im finally there, i have to switch to Android. I was using a windows mobile device before, so i probably expect a lot of functionality wich Android might not offer. But there are a lot of questions left i hope some of you can answer me:
General usage:
- is it possible to remove that "slide to unlock" thingy, i dont see its use, the phone has one button to toggle it that wont get pushed in my pocket
- battery symbol, i see a lot of people having an additional battery symbol with the exact percentage of the remaining power, i think thats bull****, i dont need 2 battery symbols, just one thats working the right way, is it hard to change the battery symbol in the noticication bar?
- can i bind the hardware keys, for example long press of a button starts the recording for voice control, short press opens a taskmanager
- is the copy and paste working 100% and is avaiable in all programs?
- can i have the device in USB mass storage as standard setting (not asking everytime i connect it)?
- can i have a shortcut that would check all my registred mail accounts when i click it (no automatic checking, i decide when the device connects to the internet)?
- can i create shortcuts to html, doc or excel files?
- can i use java programs in android?
- is there a program that would display a symbol for calls, sms and emails that would change their apperance when i have a missed call, new message or mail?
- is it possible to active bluethooth or wlan by shortcut or voice command?
- are there USB host drivers so i could connect USB mass storage devices?
Applications needed:
- i would like a simple task and program manager, to switch between them and close them if i want to, i thing it would be best suited in the drop down bar (since its there..why not use it)?
- SMS, call time and data counter for incoming and outgoing, is there something like that? I suppose i could put it as widget on one of the homescreens
- backup software for settings, SMS messages, emails and installed programs and their settings, is there something like that, are there backup programs that work after updating to a newer Android version?
- my device will have a Snapdragon CPU, what about a CPU speed manger that underclocks when in standby and has profiles for programs so i could run it at half speed in general but for some specific programs get the full CPU power?
- TMC data for navigation: i think there is no such thing yet, right?
- a decent file explorer with all features expected from a good explorer (it should be able to create shortcuts for html, word or any other file that the phones software can handle)
- a program that insertes local holidays into my calender, with support for birthdays wich are not in my contacts
- a good serious photoeditor: with serious i mean i dont need any effects bull**** wich comes with most camera applications, i need the ability to open large files, crop them, maybe even display tifs with layers, something like a pocket version of Photoshop
- videoplayer is there something like VLC is for windows PCs and CorePlayer is for windowsmobile? A player thats is capable of playing everything
applications i allready found and will probably use:
- as office solution i suppose i can use the programs from Softmaker, dont know if there are android drivers for my BT Freedom Keyboard
- multimessenger with MSN, ICQ, Jabber, Facebook: maybe palringo, at least it was good on windows mobile
- navigation: i think there is TomTom and Igo
- calendar that can display a whole month with visible icons for appointments: should work with pocket informant, because it does on windows
Dumb questions?
General usage:
- is it possible to remove that "slide to unlock" thingy, i dont see its use, the phone has one button to toggle it that wont get pushed in my pocket
I believe this is only possible if you have root
- battery symbol, i see a lot of people having an additional battery symbol with the exact percentage of the remaining power, i think thats bull****, i dont need 2 battery symbols, just one thats working the right way, is it hard to change the battery symbol in the noticication bar?
again, I believe you need root
- can i bind the hardware keys, for example long press of a button starts the recording for voice control, short press opens a taskmanager
pretty sure you can do things like this with root
- is the copy and paste working 100% and is avaiable in all programs?
it's always seemed fine to me.. just try it out for yourself.
- can i have the device in USB mass storage as standard setting (not asking everytime i connect it)?
I don't know of any way to do this.
- can i have a shortcut that would check all my registred mail accounts when i click it (no automatic checking, i decide when the device connects to the internet)?
go to settings-> accounts & sync. then click on the account and disable "sync gmail". Then, when you open up gmail, you can manually refresh.
- can i create shortcuts to html, doc or excel files?
I don't think so.
- can i use java programs in android?
I believe htc sense phones can but it is not included in AOSP
- is there a program that would display a symbol for calls, sms and emails that would change their apperance when i have a missed call, new message or mail?
there's lots on the market. Personally, I use launcher pro (homescreen replacement) that includes this by default. I highly recommend it.
- is it possible to active bluethooth or wlan by shortcut or voice command?
have you tried the power control widget?
- are there USB host drivers so i could connect USB mass storage devices?
It's certainly possible but it might require a custom kernel or something. I'm not sure. It depends on your hardware as well though. Many/most android phones cannot output power through their usb port, which makes this impossible. USB drives need power.
Applications needed:
- i would like a simple task and program manager, to switch between them and close them if i want to, i thing it would be best suited in the drop down bar (since its there..why not use it)?
task managers really shouldn't be necessary. android can handle it just fine itself. I do have one just in case. I like "Advanced Task Manager". As for switching between apps, just long press the home button. if it's not there, just open it from the app drawer again.
- SMS, call time and data counter for incoming and outgoing, is there something like that? I suppose i could put it as widget on one of the homescreens
phonalyzer does what you're asking for, I think.
- backup software for settings, SMS messages, emails and installed programs and their settings, is there something like that, are there backup programs that work after updating to a newer Android version?
I really like mybackup pro. However, it's impossible to backup app settings without root access. You can backup apps but not their data (progress in games for example).
- my device will have a Snapdragon CPU, what about a CPU speed manger that underclocks when in standby and has profiles for programs so i could run it at half speed in general but for some specific programs get the full CPU power?
setcpu is great. requires root.
- TMC data for navigation: i think there is no such thing yet, right?
no idea. google navigation has traffic updates of some sort.
- a decent file explorer with all features expected from a good explorer (it should be able to create shortcuts for html, word or any other file that the phones software can handle)
I use astro file manager. I don't think it can create shortcuts though. I have no idea why you would ever want this..
- a program that insertes local holidays into my calender, with support for birthdays wich are not in my contacts
google calendar can do this by default. I have no idea what you're talking about with birthdays though. Just add them to your calendar...
- a good serious photoeditor: with serious i mean i dont need any effects bull**** wich comes with most camera applications, i need the ability to open large files, crop them, maybe even display tifs with layers, something like a pocket version of Photoshop
never had an urge to do this. "Adobe Photoshop Express" might be a good place to start though.
- videoplayer is there something like VLC is for windows PCs and CorePlayer is for windowsmobile? A player thats is capable of playing everything
I don't really watch videos on my phone so I don't know.
applications i allready found and will probably use:
- as office solution i suppose i can use the programs from Softmaker, dont know if there are android drivers for my BT Freedom Keyboard
never even heard of softmaker. documents to go is supposed to be good
- multimessenger with MSN, ICQ, Jabber, Facebook: maybe palringo, at least it was good on windows mobile
I like meebo, personally.
- navigation: i think there is TomTom and Igo
I don't know why you would pay for these when you can just use google navigation for free..
- calendar that can display a whole month with visible icons for appointments: should work with pocket informant, because it does on windows
what's wrong with google calendar?
smaskell said:
General usage:
I believe this is only possible if you have root
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont care what it takes as long as its possible.
smaskell said:
- can i have the device in USB mass storage as standard setting (not asking everytime i connect it)?
I don't know of any way to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it seriously asking everytime?
smaskell said:
- can i have a shortcut that would check all my registred mail accounts when i click it (no automatic checking, i decide when the device connects to the internet)?
go to settings-> accounts & sync. then click on the account and disable "sync gmail". Then, when you open up gmail, you can manually refresh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only gmail? I would like to check severy pop3 accounts.
Didnt know there is a taskswitcher included, alawys thought id had to go the long way via homescreen.
I will check phonalyzer out thanks.
Will also check out mybackup, even though apps come from the market and a re probably newer version than in the backup, saving settings would seem more logical.
SetCPU, thanks again.
smaskell said:
- a decent file explorer with all features expected from a good explorer (it should be able to create shortcuts for html, word or any other file that the phones software can handle)
I use astro file manager. I don't think it can create shortcuts though. I have no idea why you would ever want this..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because there are some excel and word files i often use and of course in want them fast. So shortcuts on Homescreen or where the other applications are. Speaking of that list. Is there some way to organzize it? Change the order, put some in subfolder? The way they are now it sucks.
For the birthdays i need to remember some birthdays of people that dont have phone, mail or anything. So creating a contact would be pointless. But i want to see their birthday everyyear with the info how old they get.
Will look at Adobe Photoshop Express.
smaskell said:
- TMC data for navigation: i think there is no such thing yet, right?
no idea. google navigation has traffic updates of some sort.
- navigation: i think there is TomTom and Igo
I don't know why you would pay for these when you can just use google navigation for free..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because online navigation sucks if i am out of my country and have to really pay for datatranfers.
smaskell said:
- calendar that can display a whole month with visible icons for appointments: should work with pocket informant, because it does on windows
what's wrong with google calendar?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It just doenst show me what i want to see.
As far as i understand google voice command (even if it would understand anything else than english allready) decodes the spoken commands online. So when i tell it to open my excel file i would first have to wait till my phone connects to the internet. Is there any voice command software that works on the device and not in the cloud. Like voice command for windows mobile did?
i recommend the app Trapster.
I switched from WM to android not that long ago, so I kanda know where you're coming from. You do have to unmount your storage from your phone every time you want to transfer things, I usually just send things over the air and avoid plugging in. WM loved to be attached to your computer, but android would rather be connected to the internet. I think if you're running sense you can transfer stuff with HTCsync without unmounting every time, not 100% though as I flashed sense onto my N1 a couple times but never downloaded HTCsync.
I think you'll want a rom with sense on it. Sense has the 'sync all' button that you can put on your home screen to sync all of your accounts on demand. They also have a partnership with TomTom for offline navigation. There's also a nice calendar widget, and unread counts for your messages, etc. If you were using touch flo on WM, HTC have kept a lot of the nice features in sense on android.
Android isn't as friendly for key mapping as WM was. You can get onscreen toggles for most things, though. there was one rom I had on my N1 for a while, I think it was CM6, where there were toggles on the drop down menu. This made it possible to switch settings in-app, which I missed from WM. For app-switching, just long-press home to bring up your MRU list. One of the other things I miss from WM is having the battery bar that runs all the way across the top of the screen, just on the top few pixels. Only 1 rom I tried, the MIUI rom, was able to do this. It was a lot easier to mess with in WM.
Programs:
file manager - Astro
IM - IM+, nimbuzz, fring, etc. there are lots of them. im+ does skype
backup - I used SMS backup&restore for SMS, Titanium takes care of everything else.
Calendar - google calendar lets you set a repeating event for birthdays, automatically adds the holidays you tell it to.
Also, USB host is possible, but you need to use a powered USB hub to power the device you're plugging in. Doesn't seem to be another way to get power to the port. If USB host is really important, a hacked kernel and a powered port should get the job done.
I hope this helps, and don't worry. Once you've used android for a while, you'll see that it's really user-friendly. I'm sure you'll grow to love it.
Try Jorte calendar if your don't like the Goggle one.
If you get a phone that's rootable, try Root Explorer for file explorer.
________________________________
http://ron-droid.blogspot.com
Jorte isnt bad for displaying texts each day in monthview, but symbols would be better.
Never cared much for Sense, to much graphics to little information.
IM+ sounds good, all in one +Skype would be great.
What me really bothers is that USB thingy, cant it unmount in backgroud without bothering me, even winmobile was able to do that.
Another question: Would trying out a lot of apps polute my OS like it happens with windows (leftover files and registry settings after uninstalling). Or ist Anrdois perfect in this matter.
If not i guess i would have to test a lot of apps till i find the ones i like, then hard rest and make a clean install, or wont this be nessesary in Android?
From what I can tell, if you uninstall an app, everything is cleaned up with the exception of maybe a folder on your sdcsrd. And this generally only happens if the app has an optional setting that allows you to specify that the sdcard be used for backups or downloads, etc.
________________________________
http://ron-droid.blogspot.com
rigman said:
From what I can tell, if you uninstall an app, everything is cleaned up with the exception of maybe a folder on your sdcsrd. And this generally only happens if the app has an optional setting that allows you to specify that the sdcard be used for backups or downloads, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty much true.
the sd card thing is really frustrating. sometimes apps add stuff to seemingly random folders on your sd card so you don't know if you can delete it or not. Apps should be forced to only create folders with the same name as the app. Also, I think you should be able to implement an "onUninstall" method or something in your app, with which you could delete all of the files that you created.
Not everyone has data...
smaskell said:
- navigation: i think there is TomTom and Igo
I don't know why you would pay for these when you can just use google navigation for free..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My wife has a sirrius account and listens to howard stern. She would also like to be able to go on the internet and look at facebook an other stuff at the same time. Everytime she is listening to the siruis radio and opens a new tab the radio stops. Any way to do both at the same time ?
Great question - I to have had the issue of listening to music and having it stop when I navigate elsewhere. It would be nice if there was a way to get the audio, no matter where it's coming from, to remain persistent throughout the OS.
TuneIn Radio does. It places an instance in the notification bar and when you leave the player it continues to play in the background so you can listen to it and still surf, read etc...
Are you listening through the app or via the website?
jerkules said:
Are you listening through the app or via the website?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The website
If they would make all tabs 'active' like this and you would have a couple of website with flash or javascript or whatever running your tablet would become very very slow I believe.
So probably not possible (maybe with another browser?). Better use apps for background tasks.
So the Fire is going to an older gentleman who really knows very little about techie crap. He can find his way around a computer OK, but he's not big on the technical details. We chose KF for a single major reason: The icons are huge, so they'll be easy for him to find and jab.
Here's what I expect he'll do:
1. Watch videos while he's out at car shows
2. Maybe listen to some music
3. Possibly read car magazine subscriptions
So I'd like to leave the software as stock as possible, but I'd also like to know:
1. What's the easiest software package to get ripped video onto the fire?
2. Does the Fire have its own sync software or is there something else I should put on his PC to use?
3. OK, I lied, there is no 3, but if you have a suggestion, I'll take it here
Thanks!!
I do this quite often for people on their desktops and laptops..
I create folders (Using GO launcher) appropriate for what they are using: folders called 'video', 'music', 'magazines', etc and dump their programs in each..
As for the others:
1. Dunno, I just use a stock file manager, its pretty simple cut and paste stuff.
2. I have not the slightest clue, sorry.
3. Personally, I like GO Launcher over the standard carousel but with the carousel he can still add favorites.
Best,
Chris
You might want to look a buying DoubleTwist with AirSync. Makes media syncing very easy.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SE9HXU