Non-game Android Apps Recommendations Catch-All

ezPDF is quite nice and fast too. Bought it back when you had not alternative beside it and some other weird pdf reader that took ages to load a single page.

Somehow, I already own ezPDF reader, I guess I must have bought it during one of Google's crazy $0.25, $0.10 or 0.01 sales.

Will have to give it a try.

The sad thing about it is that they have only one huge option pallet and menu. You have to scroll through a lot of options in either of them before you find what you are looking for.
At least the menu is categorized ...

Picked up a Galaxy S3 this past weekend and I'm evaluating it deciding whether or not to keep it or go for an N4 instead.

That said, any recommendations on a good mail app? K9, MailDroid, and AquaMail seem to be the best alternatives to the stock Samsung app. I'd like something that integrates with an Exchange server, can pull together two accounts (Gmail and Exchange), and has a "conversation" view. Any thoughts? I didn't see anything upthread.

While we're at it, any good replacements for the calendar app?

I like Touchdown. Not sure about your desired features though.

Trashie wrote:

Picked up a Galaxy S3 this past weekend and I'm evaluating it deciding whether or not to keep it or go for an N4 instead.

That said, any recommendations on a good mail app? K9, MailDroid, and AquaMail seem to be the best alternatives to the stock Samsung app. I'd like something that integrates with an Exchange server, can pull together two accounts (Gmail and Exchange), and has a "conversation" view. Any thoughts? I didn't see anything upthread.

I used Enhanced Email for awhile. I've since switched back to the native Gmail + MS's Outlook for my MS account.

Trashie wrote:

While we're at it, any good replacements for the calendar app?

I've pretty much always used Jorte, but only because I like their agenda widget.

Social Messaging Apps:

Viber
Talk (Google)
Messenger (also Google)
WhatsApp
LINE (from Japan)
Messenger (Facebook)
WeChat (from China)
Skype
ChatON (Samsung's default social messenger)
Yahoo Messenger
GroupMe
LiveProfile
Kik
Tango (most of my US contacts use this)

I knew Xfinity allowed you to download episodes to watch when out of network range, but I had no idea that some shows on Showtime were available even if you didn't have a Showtime subscription. I just took some contract work in TX, so I'll be flying a good bit over the next three months. I might actually get to catch up on stuff like Dexter and find out what the Homeland hype is all about without having to get discs from Netflix.

I'm a bit disappointed now that they don't have an Xfinity app for Win 8, so that I could watch on a 13" screen vs my Nexus 7. I can still hook it up in the room to the TV to watch on a bigger screen, I just can't use a Windows app on the plane.

So if you're like me and like some Showtime stuff and have been watching them gradually on disc, you might want to look around their Android/iOS app. Not everything's there, but they let you have access to more than I would expect (full run of Dexter and Homeland for instance).

LiquidMantis wrote:

I like Touchdown. Not sure about your desired features though.

Agree with this. Been using Touchdown as my main work email app for well over a year. It's the most feature full exchange-integrating app I've found. The full version is not that pricey, either, for a 'business app'..

I also just got my Nexus 10 delivered today, so, looking forward to playing with it this evening!

omnipherous wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

I like Touchdown. Not sure about your desired features though.

Agree with this. Been using Touchdown as my main work email app for well over a year. It's the most feature full exchange-integrating app I've found. The full version is not that pricey, either, for a 'business app'..

I've used Touchdown since my OG Droid, which really couldn't do Exchange accounts. It's an awesome program.

BUT it does not really hit any of his desired functionality. It runs one account, and I don't think has a conversation style view.

My $.02, nothing beats Touchdown for Exchange mail (it's basically mobile Outlook), and nothing beats the native Gmail app, so I run them both.

Yeah, apologies, I wasn't really relating my post to his required functionality (which I guess renders my post kinda pointless!), I was just +1'ing Touchdown as an awesome app.

LilCodger wrote:
omnipherous wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

I like Touchdown. Not sure about your desired features though.

Agree with this. Been using Touchdown as my main work email app for well over a year. It's the most feature full exchange-integrating app I've found. The full version is not that pricey, either, for a 'business app'..

I've used Touchdown since my OG Droid, which really couldn't do Exchange accounts. It's an awesome program.

BUT it does not really hit any of his desired functionality. It runs one account, and I don't think has a conversation style view.

My $.02, nothing beats Touchdown for Exchange mail (it's basically mobile Outlook), and nothing beats the native Gmail app, so I run them both.

I could be okay with the lack of merged accounts but the conversation view is crucial. It makes long email chains that I've ignored that much easier to delete/file. However, I'll have to give this Touchdown a try.

Just did a quick Google, sounds like TD does have a Conversation View setting now.

LiquidMantis wrote:

Just did a quick Google, sounds like TD does have a Conversation View setting now.

Oh! It does. In the email settings is an option "Open email as conversation".

The regular view is pretty much normal Outlook, but if you turn this on it shows the email stream when you open one. Don't know if it will delete/archive/etc. as a conversation like GMail.

Still don't think it does anything other than ActiveSync accounts though.

LilCodger wrote:
LiquidMantis wrote:

Just did a quick Google, sounds like TD does have a Conversation View setting now.

Oh! It does. In the email settings is an option "Open email as conversation".

The regular view is pretty much normal Outlook, but if you turn this on it shows the email stream when you open one. Don't know if it will delete/archive/etc. as a conversation like GMail.

Still don't think it does anything other than ActiveSync accounts though.

I love it when a plans comes together.

Thanks all.

So my mother and I just got new Motorola Electrify M phones. For both of us, this is our first smartphone. We don't have texting enabled on our US Cellular service (never really had a need for it), but browsing the app store I keep seeing various "free text" apps like TextPlus and the like. Are any of these viable texting apps should we ever need to (for instance, my boss prefers people text her if they need to talk to her about something unless it's an emergency)?

dhelor wrote:

So my mother and I just got new Motorola Electrify M phones. For both of us, this is our first smartphone. We don't have texting enabled on our US Cellular service (never really had a need for it), but browsing the app store I keep seeing various "free text" apps like TextPlus and the like. Are any of these viable texting apps should we ever need to (for instance, my boss prefers people text her if they need to talk to her about something unless it's an emergency)?

You could even use Google Voice for text.

Viber is what my family uses, I'm guessing it's similar to TextPlus.

My Google Voice number is the only one I give out to people. You can't send MMS, and you can only receive MMS from Sprint users, but other than that it's pretty sweet.

What is a Social Messaging App?

A mobile social messaging app is designed to circumvent the need to use SMS text messaging by piggybacking a user’s data connection to offer an Instant Messenger-like experience. Along with a nice design/UX, apps offer features such as syncing with the phone’s address book, the ability to send images directly from the phone’s camera roll to any contact, location sharing, real-time feed back when a recipient is typing, and group messaging.

Viber
Talk (Google)
Messenger (also Google)
WhatsApp
LINE (from Japan)
Messenger (Facebook)
WeChat (from China)
Skype
ChatON (Samsung's default social messenger)
Yahoo Messenger
GroupMe
LiveProfile
Kik
Tango (most of my US contacts use this)

I've checked out TextPlus as well. Its chief advantage is allowing you to text out to contacts in the US or Canada for free even if they don't have the app installed. Useless for me, but probably useful for some of you American and Canadian folks. It's not as feature-rich, or as efficient as the others on this list, but it works well enough.

Looking for an app to use for recording bits of audio (poetry, short stories, maybe even bits of music). Suggestions?

Pocket Casts for Android has been updated. I'm pretty sure it's a complete rewrite, and Beautiful Pixels considers it the best looking podcatcher on any platform.

I've installed it, and while it seems to be lacking in some features that BeyondPod provides me, I need to poke around some more and I'll update once I do. One big feature is that it integrates variable speed playback, all other Android podcatchers require you to buy a $5 third-party plugin.

General Crespin wrote:

Pocket Casts for Android has been updated. I'm pretty sure it's a complete rewrite, and Beautiful Pixels considers it the best looking podcatcher on any platform.

I've installed it, and while it seems to be lacking in some features that BeyondPod provides me, I need to poke around some more and I'll update once I do. One big feature is that it integrates variable speed playback, all other Android podcatchers require you to buy a $5 third-party plugin.

Soooo happy that it finally has variable playback speeds...

General Crespin wrote:

Pocket Casts for Android has been updated. I'm pretty sure it's a complete rewrite, and Beautiful Pixels considers it the best looking podcatcher on any platform.

I've installed it, and while it seems to be lacking in some features that BeyondPod provides me, I need to poke around some more and I'll update once I do. One big feature is that it integrates variable speed playback, all other Android podcatchers require you to buy a $5 third-party plugin.

I updated to v4.0 last night and it's definitely pretty.

However, I just read the review over at The Verge and this part has me a bit annoyed...

Additionally, the older versions of Pocket Casts let you access previous episodes of a show, but the new version lacks that feature.

Granted, I don't do this all the time or anything, but it's kinda nice to have if you want to load up a bunch of episodes of something for an upcoming trip. Just an odd decision on their part. I also haven't been able to find a "Remove All" function like the old app had. I actually use my old iPod Nano for most of my Podcast listening, but Pocket Casts still updates, so I use the "Remove All" feature quite a bit when I've already downloaded it to my iPod. Removing them individually is kinda annoying, but perhaps I just missed the menu option to do that.

Still, definitely a pretty app!

Update: A big change for me was the loss of the Pocket Casts widget. As in, I installed the update, and it was gone. Can't add it back. In the grand scheme of things, it's something I can probably live with, but still...major difference...

Yeah, as soon as I read you can't access old episodes of a show, I decided not to try Pocket Casts. DoggCatcher still rules my world.

Downloading older episodes: returning in an update today (link)

Widget: coming soon(tm) (link)

jollyeskimo wrote:

Soooo happy that it finally has variable playback speeds...

It did have variable playback before. You just had to use it with Presto, just like Doggcatcher.

Guess I need to reinstall Pocket Cast and see if it's stable now. I really liked it before, but it was constantly crashing so I had to switch to Doggcatcher.

MannishBoy wrote:
jollyeskimo wrote:

Soooo happy that it finally has variable playback speeds...

It did have variable playback before. You just had to use it with Presto, just like Doggcatcher.

Guess I need to reinstall Pocket Cast and see if it's stable now. I really liked it before, but it was constantly crashing so I had to switch to Doggcatcher.

Native variable speed is what I meant I guess. I paid for Pocket Casts on iOS already and was slightly sad to see that I had to pay for a third party addon to get the same functionality on Android when I switched over (and paid for Pocket Casts a second time).

jollyeskimo wrote:

Downloading older episodes: returning in an update today (link)

Widget: coming soon(tm) (link)

Good things...but I got that update and I still can't figure out how to see old episodes.

Anyone else figure this out?