Android must-have apps... and other stuff
 

I got my HTC Magic a few days ago and it's great. To all who use Android handsets, my question is: What apps do you use the most? What are the apps that you can't live without?

So far I've got:
Taskiller (very useful)
a bunch of toggle switch widgets for wi-fi, bluetooth, and silent/vibrate mode (Why didn't Android have these to begin with?)
tunewiki (nicer widget than the stock Music player widget but I need a media player with an equalizer and a good widget)
Retro Clock (nice clock and date widget for my home screen which I like to keep simple)
ASTRO file manager (very useful)
NetCounter (helps keep my data usage within my 500mb plan)
SnapPhoto (just trying it out)
XGalaga (entertaining, but I'd like an official Galaga port)
Any Cut (shortcuts to anything I need to do!)
Ringdroid (make my own ringtones on the fly)

Also, I can't wait to get the official Sense UI update from HTC. I know there's already the Hero roms from XDA but I'm too lazy to root my phone and try out the different roms to find out the one I want most...

With the Hero rom update, do you just get the Sense UI, or do you get the Flash support as well?

I don't know the specific details about the rom update. HTC has only confirmed it for Taiwanese Magic handsets so far, but what I've heard is that it won't be coming to phones that are branded "with Google" (MyTouch 3g and Vodafone HTC Magic "with Google").

No word on Flash support but I'd like to assume yes.

i have
Flixster (movie/showtimes)
Barcode scanner (useful for finding apps on http://www.cyrket.com/ and just can the arcode to download...can also scan contacts to save into your address book)
Share by QR Code (used for creating URLs, contacts, etc. into barcodes for others to scan)
Shazam (same as iPhone app that IDs songs using the mic)
Toggle Settings (all the toggles in one app)
ASTRO
Ringdroid


PS: If you haven't already done so, Rogers released an updated ROM to fix the SMS timestamp issue.

I think I'll go download Barcode Scanner and Share by QR Code, thanks :D

The SMS timestamp bug's been bothering me but Rogers' update installs a Perfected SPL which I think makes it harder to root, so I'm holding off on the update.

edit: does the update make your phone run any faster?

no..the update doesn't make it faster. If you find your phone is slowing down, check the apps you have installed. Unfortunately one of the drawbacks to an open source platform is the abundance of poorly coded apps out there that either break things, drain the battery or leak memory.

and also note that every widget you have on your homescreen is loaded in to memory...so I like keeping things simple. (i.e. i don't have a clock, since there already is one on the notification bar)

Damn, no point in getting the update for me yet. I want more "pages" for the home screen, three isn't enough :( I've already got one page full of shortcuts and the other page full of widgets and toggle buttons, and I like to keep the middle screen empty. But then again, throwing more poorly-coded widgets up there would eat up memory like you said.

ChompSMS for iphone style bubble text conversation

So I have 500MB of data on my plan and according to NetCounter I've only used around 172MB of data in 16 days... I doubt I'll get over 400MB at this rate. I thought I was consuming plenty of data... what kinda stuff do people do on their phones that gets them over 1GB of data? (Outside of tethering of course).

In other news, here's an idea: why don't we review some apps? Here goes.

___________________________

eBuddy (MSN/AIM/ICQ/Gtalk/Yahoo/Facebook/Myspace chat client)
=D - Works well with MSN, with full support for status/personal message/display pictures/smileys/contact categories/nudges all work (haven't tested with other chat systems), chat interface is nice in portrait mode, handles multiple accounts

=/ - Open conversations are handled in a list, switching between chats requires two actions

>=( - Requires eBuddy account signup to use, landscape mode is crap (although it's really due to the Android landscape virtual qwerty that takes up way too much space)

___________________________

Facebook for Android (Official Facebook app for Android)
=D - Native Facebook app! Shake to refresh news feed, Like/Comment on any news feed item, Status Update at the app's home screen, photo uploads possible within app, Live Phonebook Folder widget is very useful.

=/ - News feed auto-updates at set time intervals, no option for data-intensive, battery-draining instant updating.

>=( - No support for Chat or Inbox yet, some actions open Browser instead of being opened within the app, some actions cause the app to crash, Facebook widget is useless.

Primary use of my data is:
1) Emails (work and gmail)
2) Google Talk (barely uses any data)
3) RSS feeds (this probably uses up quite a bit of data, as I set it to update every 4 hrs, and have it download for offline viewing)
4) Streaming music (when i forget to bring my iPod to work, I use IMEEN for music in my office)

PS: The Pandora app came out for Android, but it's not in the market for Rogers...not sure if that's coming later?
http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.pandora.android

"Pandora is only licensed to provide music to users in the United States" -Wikipedia

I read something similar on Pandora's site a year or so ago. Doubt Pandora would release the app elsewhere until they had proper licensing.

RSS feeds eh... I should get an RSS reader on my phone. Any recommendations?

I use "NewsRob", but it's only useful if you use google reader (http://www.cyrket.com/package/com.newsrob)
reader.google.com

and if you don't use google reader, i suggest you try it...I never used it before either, but it's all I use now...
it's nice to have all your RSS feeds centralized in one place, so you know what you've read, no matter what device you used to read it. (2-way sync)

Just sign in with your google account and setup the RSS feeds you wish to subscribe to.

Question: when you have a Roger's branded software HTC Magic, will you still be able to use the Internet after you change the Rom to HERO rom, or the up and coming Sense-UI.

I have to sign a data plan to get a HTC Magic. So I dont want to risk anything.

Also how likely is it for someone to Brick their phone in the process of change ROM. Can it be fixed if something goes wrong..

Lastly, what do you mean by " Rooted"/ " I have just rooted my magic"...etc

@ wasabisashimi: You just need to put in the proper APN settings for Rogers once you load the rom, if it doesn't already have it. Internet should work fine after that. And I'm not 100% sure but I think the data consumed when accessing the internet on your Magic with a new rom will still count under your 500MB/1GB/2GB/whatever in your plan. (500MB data package does not count tethering, though.)

If you do your research, it's very unlikely for you to brick your phone. The process is well-documented, just make sure you follow the right procedures for the Rogers HTC Magic (you'll find on XDA-developers there's roms and tutorials for 32A and 32B versions of the HTC Magic, Rogers has the 32A so keep that in mind).

Rooting means to allow access to the root user/account, aka superuser. Basically it gives you absolute power to the system, allowing you to modify it in any way desired.

@Eclypz: Thanks, Google Reader and NewsRob are great :)

yes, you'll still have data access after switching roms.

If you're familiar with the iPhone..."rooting" is the equivalent of "jailbreaking" an iPhone.
Benefits are:
- enables tethering
- capability to install Apps to the SD card
- move cache to SD card
- ability to delete unwanted "stock applications" i.e. all the rogers apps
there's more..but that's all i can think of right now

here's how easy it is to root:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyz7SZmt6dM

Android 1.6 (Donut) SDK has been released.
Should be seeing it popping up on devices in October.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRFkLKRwFw

http://android-developers.blogspot.c...k-is-here.html

Sweet, diggin the new Marketplace interface. Hopefully Rogers will allow access to paid apps by default soon, lol.

I highly recommend Rooting and dropping in the latest CyanogenMod 4.2.12.2 and getting a class 6 microSD and setting up apps2SD.

i didn't setup Apps2SD before after my initial cyanogenmod which was 4.2.7.1 and at that time I would say I was ready to restore original rogers crap onto the phone and sell it.

but after the recent update and setting up Apps2SD on a 8gb class 6 micro SD
7.5gb for music movies whatever downloaded crap
512mb for apps
96mb for swap

I can say everything has sped up 400% even with multiple apps open going from one to another is nice and quick.

Now to test if the bluetooth stereo headset pairing has improved.

I use Handscent SMS for this.

Sportstap is a great sports app.

HTC Hero SenseUI has the wireless toggle widgets built in.

Facebook for Andriod is pretty bad. I don't like how it links to the Mobile site. I like the FB Touch site much more.

I use Meebo for Android for IM.

does the mytouch 3g work with canadian 3g bands?

Anyone have any new apps to add to this list? Just got a GS3 and I've found a few myself:

doubletwist: music player that makes switching form itunes easy
Swiftkey: essential keyboard, much better than stock

Imdb, Flixster, Shazam, skype, viber...all amazing.

What have you guys found?

I use these apps everyday. In no particular order.

Touchdown by nitrodesk: exchange email for work. Has a boatload of options, but the best part is peak hours. This allows me to turn my work email off automatically during non work hours. Getting emails from the East at 6am is not cool!

Poweramp: music player that consumes the least amount of memory/battery of all the ones I tried. Plus the lock screen is awesome.

Taptu: news reader that let's you put in custom streams (like vancouver sun and rss feeds). Used to use pulse but then they uglified it and have since moved on.

Handcent sms: tried chomp sms, but chomp wouldn't clear my notifications automatically in the notification bar so I switched. Way nicer looking than stock GB.

Appy geek: tech geek news feed from basically all the online tech news sites

Juice defender: increased my battery life by close to 40%. Without it, my battery didn't last the day, now I'm plugging in with 50% left. And this is with music playing for 8 hrs straight.

Quick agenda: nice looking calendar widget that pulls all my calendars together

Fancy widgets: use this one to show the clock and current weather. Tapping the widget also allows me to change my alarm clock quickly.

Widgetsiod switcher: a widget with quick shortcut keys that let me lock the screen, turn wifi on/off, turn on the flashlight, reboot, etc. You can pretty much set it up to toggle anything on the phone.

Dolphin browser: tabbed browsing with the ability to switch user agents (from mobile browsing to full).

GroceryIQ: cross platform shopping list. Use it to sync between my gf and I (she's got an iphone)

Titanium backup: backup app. Don't use this everyday, but heavily when I was uninstalling all the bloatware.

If your Rooted, don't have an HTC phone and want Beats Audio? There is a Beats Audio installer that you can get which if it works can dramatically improve the sound quality. Use at your own Risk.

The beats audio added to custom roms and kernels isn't the same as the one HTC uses in their firmware. It might still be good I dunno, but it's not the same thing.

are there any battery life extender apps that work well with jellybean? Most of the ones I've tried make it worse or blocks out my whstsapp messages which is fail!
Posted via RS Mobile