Non-game Android Apps Recommendations Catch-All

MonoCheli wrote:
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.

Fingers-crossed I haven't had any trouble with it yet on stock Jelly Bean. I am looking forward to a nice ICS-style GUI refresh, though -- here's hoping that arrives sooner rather than later.

How long did Pocket Weather AU take? They didn't sound like it would be any time soon when we were talking about it on Twitter.

General Crespin wrote:

How long did Pocket Weather AU take? They didn't sound like it would be any time soon when we were talking about it on Twitter. :?

It did take a while (more than a year, I think), but that whole app had a massive overhaul -- it's basically unrecognisable compared to the previous version.

A YEAR?!

I don't know if I can wait that long for them to fix PC when I'm using it every day and slowly annoyed by all the little things. :p I understand they're a small team and I don't begrudge them their time, it's just tough for a crackflasher like me.

I need a good media player for my Asus Infinity Tablet. The "Play Music" app that is nataive is garbage. Since I'll be using it exclusivley for audio books off an SD card, bookmarks are of big importance. I don't need streaming, syncing, or tweaking; I just need it to play audio files and remeber where I stopped them to continue later.

Edit: I use Audible and Overdrive Media player for most of this type of stuff. These are books I have"downloaded" previously on my laptop.

Bill check out Mortplayer Audio Books, I like it quite a bit.

Anyone know of a good Navigation app that stores maps offline?

The Wife and I are heading up into the mountains this weekend and I thought it'd be fun to use the Nexus 7 as a GPS unit.

Not sure how it handles audio books, but I love Poweramp.

Lester_King wrote:

Anyone know of a good Navigation app that stores maps offline?

The Wife and I are heading up into the mountains this weekend and I thought it'd be fun to use the Nexus 7 as a GPS unit.

Doesn't Google Maps have that already?

Edit: Nvm, I see it has its share of issues. Looks like this is popular: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

MonoCheli wrote:

Bill check out Mortplayer Audio Books, I like it quite a bit.

I ran across this after posting; will give it try.

garion333 wrote:
Lester_King wrote:

Anyone know of a good Navigation app that stores maps offline?

The Wife and I are heading up into the mountains this weekend and I thought it'd be fun to use the Nexus 7 as a GPS unit.

Doesn't Google Maps have that already?

Edit: Nvm, I see it has its share of issues. Looks like this is popular: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

I tried that one out, but it doesn't have a map of the US.

Lester_King wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Lester_King wrote:

Anyone know of a good Navigation app that stores maps offline?

The Wife and I are heading up into the mountains this weekend and I thought it'd be fun to use the Nexus 7 as a GPS unit.

Doesn't Google Maps have that already?

Edit: Nvm, I see it has its share of issues. Looks like this is popular: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

I tried that one out, but it doesn't have a map of the US.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Has anyone found a way to buy Polaris Office? Seems there's a recent 4.0 release. I've been a long time fan and would love to have a copy for my N7.

Do you guys have any experience with IR Blaster apps? The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 I'm getting in a couple of weeks has a IR Blaster, and I look forward to toying around with it.

I found this one from TouchSquid, but that's rather expensive. If it's really good I'm willing to hand out the dough, but maybe you have other recommendations?

Big Google Play store going on. $0.25 apps and games. I haven't seen a "hub" at Google Play, but here's a rolling list from Android Central.

As of right now, the list includes:

Angry Birds Space Premium
Asphalt 7: Heat
Draw Something
Granny Smith
Let's Create! Pottery
London Bus Checker
NFL Kicker 13
Ocean HD
OfficeSuite Pro 6+
Tasks

Any of you guys use doubletwist? How is it with podcasts? And thanks for the heads up on the $.25 games and apps. I still haven't spent all my $25 yet.

Thanks for the $0.25 app list! Can't wait to see what else pops up there.

As for podcasts, I use Doggcatcher, love it so. Never tried Doubletwist, honestly.

I just picked up Angry Birds Space, The Cat In The Hat, the office suite, Granny Smith and some JRPG for £1.25. Good time to buy my first android device!

I've played Angry Birds Space on my Kindle Fire and thought it was really well done. They did a good job "freshening" up the overall formula. It's amazing what a difference a silly thing like "gravity" makes.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Any of you guys use doubletwist? How is it with podcasts? And thanks for the heads up on the $.25 games and apps. I still haven't spent all my $25 yet.

I've never tried it, 'cause last I heard, it required streaming rather than downloading. And as I wanted to be able to download podcasts, I use Pocket Casts, which is wonderful.

Angry Birds Space is tempting to get rid of the ads but then there's that note that save progress doesn't transfer. Not sure I want to play every level over again.

ilduce620 wrote:

I've played Angry Birds Space on my Kindle Fire and thought it was really well done. They did a good job "freshening" up the overall formula. It's amazing what a difference a silly thing like "gravity" makes.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Any of you guys use doubletwist? How is it with podcasts? And thanks for the heads up on the $.25 games and apps. I still haven't spent all my $25 yet.

I've never tried it, 'cause last I heard, it required streaming rather than downloading. And as I wanted to be able to download podcasts, I use Pocket Casts, which is wonderful. :-)

I use Google Listen because of the integration with the Google RSS Reader.

I think both Pocket Casts and Doggcatcher can now import from Google Reader. Don't think they necessarily stay synched with it, though.

MannishBoy wrote:

I think both Pocket Casts and Doggcatcher can now import from Google Reader. Don't think they necessarily stay synched with it, though.

Yep, Pocket Casts can import, but it doesn't stay synched. I actually found the integration in Listen to be a hindrance rather than a help -- if I was reading stories in Reader I'd inadvertently end up scrolling past those podcasts and marking them as read, which marks them as listened in Listen, which in turn prevents Listen from downloading them if it hasn't already.

I was never a huge fan of Listen -- "mostly sufficient" is about the highest praise I could give it. Once it was officially EOLd I bought Pocket Casts and imported my Listen feeds from Reader in to it, and I haven't looked back.

BeyondPod also can both import OPML files, and sync with Reader if so desired.

pneuman wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

I think both Pocket Casts and Doggcatcher can now import from Google Reader. Don't think they necessarily stay synched with it, though.

Yep, Pocket Casts can import, but it doesn't stay synched. I actually found the integration in Listen to be a hindrance rather than a help -- if I was reading stories in Reader I'd inadvertently end up scrolling past those podcasts and marking them as read, which marks them as listened in Listen, which in turn prevents Listen from downloading them if it hasn't already.

I was never a huge fan of Listen -- "mostly sufficient" is about the highest praise I could give it. Once it was officially EOLd I bought Pocket Casts and imported my Listen feeds from Reader in to it, and I haven't looked back.

Same here. I had to switch from Pocket Casts to Doggcatcher due to instability issues on my phone. Finally just gave up, but I really prefer Pocket Cast's interface to Doggcatcher's muddled mess of complexity. But at least it doesn't constantly crash on me.

MannishBoy wrote:
pneuman wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

I think both Pocket Casts and Doggcatcher can now import from Google Reader. Don't think they necessarily stay synched with it, though.

Yep, Pocket Casts can import, but it doesn't stay synched. I actually found the integration in Listen to be a hindrance rather than a help -- if I was reading stories in Reader I'd inadvertently end up scrolling past those podcasts and marking them as read, which marks them as listened in Listen, which in turn prevents Listen from downloading them if it hasn't already.

I was never a huge fan of Listen -- "mostly sufficient" is about the highest praise I could give it. Once it was officially EOLd I bought Pocket Casts and imported my Listen feeds from Reader in to it, and I haven't looked back.

Same here. I had to switch from Pocket Casts to Doggcatcher due to instability issues on my phone. Finally just gave up, but I really prefer Pocket Cast's interface to Doggcatcher's muddled mess of complexity. But at least it doesn't constantly crash on me.

I agree with everything here. PocketCasts is SO nice, but not stable enough. Doggcatcher is stable but a cluster to interact with.

I use BeyondPod. It is serviceable. I liked PocketCasts but it just crashed all the damn time.

I've no idea what you guys are talking about, honestly. Doggcatcher has always seemed damned simple to me.

Veloxi wrote:

I've no idea what you guys are talking about, honestly. Doggcatcher has always seemed damned simple to me.

Likewise. The only issue I have with it is that it gets crashy when combined with Presto for listening at high speed.