Non-game Android Apps Recommendations Catch-All

Staked wrote:

What are you guys using as an RSS reader? I've been using gReader for years, but it's looking a little long in the tooth and its podcast support is somewhat lacking. Any recommendations for a replacement?

I still just use Google Reader on my phone. As I can't do that (easily) on my Kindle Fire, I use JustReader.

JustReader isn't ideal, but it is one of the few solutions on the Kindle that's marginally aesthetically pleasing. If anyone has a better solution from the Amazon Appstore, I'm all ears...

JustReader is relatively new entry into the market, and it's good.
Before that, I used FReader, but its pre-caching features weren't as robust. Now they are catching up.

Anyone know of an app that can track what other apps are using your data connection? I see something polling the data connection pretty often and I can't think of anything I'm using that needs to... I want to track it down and stop it.

Are you using the Steam app?

duckilama wrote:

Are you using the Steam app?

Shoot, yes I am.

Staked wrote:

What are you guys using as an RSS reader? I've been using gReader for years, but it's looking a little long in the tooth and its podcast support is somewhat lacking. Any recommendations for a replacement?

I use D7 pro. Fantastically easy to use and support for Pocket built in, which I use ALL the time.

NSMike wrote:

Anyone know of an app that can track what other apps are using your data connection? I see something polling the data connection pretty often and I can't think of anything I'm using that needs to... I want to track it down and stop it.

Unless I misunderstand your question, isn't this what you want?

I don't use it, but if you still do, Google Listen has been discontinued.

Official Google Blog wrote:

We launched Google Listen through Google Labs in August 2009, to give people a way to discover and listen to podcasts. However, with Google Play, people now have access to a wider variety of podcast apps, so we’ve discontinued Listen. People who have already installed the app can still use it, but after November 1, podcast search won’t function. You can access your podcast subscriptions in Google Reader in the “Listen Subscriptions” folder and download them from the Import/Export tab.

Yup, I just got Pocket Casts to replace it -- I haven't actually used it much yet, but it looks good so far, and it took no time at all to import my Listen subscriptions from my Google Reader.

I gave up on Listen a long time ago. Went to Pocket Casts and really liked it until I started having some crash issues on my phone, so have been using Doggcatcher. Really prefer Pocket Cast's UI. Since I reloaded the ROM, I should try switching back. Doggcatcher is a horribly unintuitive user interface to me after using Pocket Casts for months.

My problems might have been how Pocket Casts interfaced with Presto, the tempo plugin I use to speed things up. But Doggcatcher seems to work with it much better, at least on my old ROM.

But there are some good options out there now for sure.

A recent experience slightly soured my opinion of Pocket Casts, and while I gave BeyondPod another spin, I'll reserve final judgement for the time being. Hopefully they add in some expanded notification support for JB soon.

One new feature I did see in BeyondPod that I really liked is it will sort and download podcasts from oldest to newest, and download them in that order as you listen to them (really useful for Podiobooks and other podcasts that I prefer to listen to in order), which isn't something Pocket Casts really does.

General Crespin wrote:

A recent experience slightly soured my opinion of Pocket Casts, and while I gave BeyondPod another spin, I'll reserve final judgement for the time being. Hopefully they add in some expanded notification support for JB soon.

One new feature I did see in BeyondPod that I really liked is it will sort and download podcasts from oldest to newest, and download them in that order as you listen to them (really useful for Podiobooks and other podcasts that I prefer to listen to in order), which isn't something Pocket Casts really does.

Your comment about not adding manually via URL isn't true. You just type the URL into the field under "Import".

General Crespin wrote:

A recent experience slightly soured my opinion of Pocket Casts, and while I gave BeyondPod another spin, I'll reserve final judgement for the time being. Hopefully they add in some expanded notification support for JB soon.

One new feature I did see in BeyondPod that I really liked is it will sort and download podcasts from oldest to newest, and download them in that order as you listen to them (really useful for Podiobooks and other podcasts that I prefer to listen to in order), which isn't something Pocket Casts really does.

I can't speak to DoggCatcher, but the main reason I use PocketCasts (and used to use Listen) is so I could download podcasts to my phone, rather than having to stream them (i.e. Stitcher). I stopped using Listen, though, because the UI was atrocious.

I hear good things about DoggCatcher, but PocketCasts has always been great for me.

ilduce620 wrote:

I hear good things about DoggCatcher, but PocketCasts has always been great for me.

If Pocket Casts works great for you, I'd stick with it. I bought DoggCatcher on a sale for cheap just to try. To me it's very convoluted.

It does seem to be very active in development, though. It just seems like they try do so much stuff that it's a confusing UI mess.

PocketCasts is great. Unfortunately, too buggy for me to continue to use. DoggCatcher works, but I feel like I'm going through hoops to get it to work.

MannishBoy wrote:
General Crespin wrote:

A recent experience slightly soured my opinion of Pocket Casts, and while I gave BeyondPod another spin, I'll reserve final judgement for the time being. Hopefully they add in some expanded notification support for JB soon.

One new feature I did see in BeyondPod that I really liked is it will sort and download podcasts from oldest to newest, and download them in that order as you listen to them (really useful for Podiobooks and other podcasts that I prefer to listen to in order), which isn't something Pocket Casts really does.

Your comment about not adding manually via URL isn't true. You just type the URL into the field under "Import".

Once you do that, it tries to send the URL to their server to add to their database. There's no way to keep it all local. Importing via URL doesn't work when their server is down, as it was when I tried.

Anyone having difficulties with AndChat? I can't get it to connect to quakenet, doesn't seem ISP-specific. I can still get it to connect to the webchat, but that's horrible for mobile.

NSMike wrote:

Anyone having difficulties with AndChat? I can't get it to connect to quakenet, doesn't seem ISP-specific. I can still get it to connect to the webchat, but that's horrible for mobile.

It's been a long time, but I had it working on wifi. It doesn't work over Verizon because of their IRC blocking, but I believe the trick was to use an EU server.

LiquidMantis wrote:
NSMike wrote:

Anyone having difficulties with AndChat? I can't get it to connect to quakenet, doesn't seem ISP-specific. I can still get it to connect to the webchat, but that's horrible for mobile.

It's been a long time, but I had it working on wifi. It doesn't work over Verizon because of their IRC blocking, but I believe the trick was to use an EU server.

I've had it working over Verizon. It actually doesn't work even on my home wifi. Considering the web chat and Pidgin both work, I have to assume something is up with the app. Maybe I'll try deleting my saved options and start over.

Anyone have any recommendations for a Facebook app replacement?

I've got an HTC Inspire 4G and it has never really "liked" (see what I did there?) the official Facebook app. Every release either gets a little better or a little worse, but recently, it seems like it fully crashes my phone more often than it used to. As in, I open the app, it tries to load information for long enough that the screen dims (over AT&T's HSPA+ network), and then the phone goes completely unresponsive for a few minutes. Sometimes it wakes up, sometimes the phone re-sets.

I used to use TweetDeck, but after Twitter bought them, development and connectivity with Facebook went awry. Seesmic and HootSuite are "functional" at best, but they either don't show you who has "liked" posts (it gives you a number, but not who did the "liking"), or won't display full-screen images: only thumbnails.

Suggestions? I don't necessarily need it to aggregate social networks, but I want to be able to open pictures to full-screen and get complete interactivity with posts (i.e. likes, comments, shares, etc.)

Edit: I just re-tried Seesmic and it looks like they've updated it since I last tried. It appears to open up images full-screen now. I'll probably pick up the pro version to get rid of the ads, though.

NSMike wrote:

PocketCasts is great. Unfortunately, too buggy for me to continue to use. DoggCatcher works, but I feel like I'm going through hoops to get it to work.

I have only been using PocketCasts for a few weeks. So far I have been quite happy with it and have not experienced the bugginess.

I find the crashyness of PocketCast on the Galaxy Nexus to be very annoying.

MonoCheli wrote:

I find the crashyness of PocketCast on the Galaxy Nexus to be very annoying.

That's why I switched. Gritting my teeth all the way. Doggcatcher is at least stable for me.

Are you experiencing crashes on JB or ICS? VZW GNex CM10 and, for all my annoyance at other things :), no crashes.

General Crespin wrote:

Are you experiencing crashes on JB or ICS? VZW GNex CM10 and, for all my annoyance at other things :), no crashes.

Gingerbread CM7. I have an EVO 4G that doesn't really have stable JB or ICS with all functionality.

Here's a list from Android Central of podcast apps, for those that want it.

They've got descriptions, but here's the basic list:
PocketCast
PodKast
BeyondPod
Podkicker
Doggcatcher

I use the Google Listen app and am very happy with it. There's no option to speed up playback like doggcatcher. But it's solid and integrates with Google Reader for feeds.

Mixolyde wrote:

I use the Google Listen app and am very happy with it. There's no option to speed up playback like doggcatcher. But it's solid and integrates with Google Reader for feeds.

And Google's killing off support as of last week. But if you like what's there, it's passable.

General Crespin wrote:

Are you experiencing crashes on JB or ICS? VZW GNex CM10 and, for all my annoyance at other things :), no crashes.

I'm on JB but had problems when I was on stock ICS too.

Is there any way to install a tweak that translates screen swipe into the "back" command? Or less specifically, program certain inputs (swipes, shakes, button press combos) to perform different actions like with Activator on iOS?

EDIT: Found it, Tasker for $5.99. Quite complex and feature-rich, it looks like.

I recently switched over from an iPhone, and while Android seems to be more open in general, it doesn't seem to have quite as many tweaks/interface mods that jailbroken iOS has.