Non-game Android Apps Recommendations Catch-All

The Zombie Live wallpaper is now back up on the market if you want to get it.

EDIT: how do drop a nuke?

karmajay wrote:

The Zombie Live wallpaper is now back up on the market if you want to get it.

EDIT: how do drop a nuke?

Drop an icon on your home screen.

karmajay wrote:

The Zombie Live wallpaper is now back up on the market if you want to get it.

EDIT: how do drop a nuke?

Drop an icon on your home screen.

Pretty cool but it was seriously eating up battery so I moved to anothre stock live wallpaper.

karmajay wrote:

Pretty cool but it was seriously eating up battery so I moved to anothre stock live wallpaper.

I like the concept of Live Wallpaper, but give up every single time due to the battery drain. Is there some Live Wallpaper that's better at this than others?

I like the concept of Live Wallpaper, but give up every single time due to the battery drain. Is there some Live Wallpaper that's better at this than others?

I have not had an issue with the galaxy, grass or water ones.

karmajay wrote:

I have not had an issue with the galaxy, grass or water ones.

Odd - I gave up on the grass wallpaper as well. Right now, I'm of the opinion that if all I'll see of the wallpaper is a few seconds everyday, it's not worth the battery hit.

Curious, Watchdog doesn't seem to think Grass at least is that much of a burden.

The "Metal Detector" app is pretty interesting, even if the first time a colleague showed it to me it thought I had a lot of metal in my wrist.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

The "Metal Detector" app is pretty interesting, even if the first time a colleague showed it to me it thought I had a lot of metal in my wrist.

Obviously Android is on to you, Wolverine.

Anyone play with third-party launchers? Right now I'm giving LauncherPro and Zeam a shot. Both of those promise a faster UI, dock customization, rotation, probably a few other things.

The only downside is you can't use Sense widgets, but that's not a big deal for me.

EDIT: Also came across Home++. I've heard it's a hog but I'll give it a shot in a day or two after I'm over setting LauncherPro up. :p

IMAGE(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=135x135&chl=market://details?id=com.fede.launcher)
LauncherPro Beta

IMAGE(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=135x135&chl=market://details?id=org.zeam)
Zeam

IMAGE(http://hpp.intuitit.mobi/_/rsrc/1259472054230/config/app/images/chart.png)
Home++

EDIT: Also came across Home++. I've heard it's a hog but I'll give it a shot in a day or two after I'm over setting LauncherPro up.

I used that until 2.1 came out and never had a problem.

I'm still using HelixLauncher myself.

Any good apps/services for remotely locking and tracking your phone if it's lost or stolen? A search turns up a few, but the reviews for all of them vary greatly, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with that sort of app.

deftly wrote:

Any good apps/services for remotely locking and tracking your phone if it's lost or stolen? A search turns up a few, but the reviews for all of them vary greatly, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with that sort of app.

You can enable Google Latitude on your phone.. there was a neat story about someone who did this and sent the GPS coordinates of the phone thieves to police in real time:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/general-chat/14876-true-story-about-how-chp-android-google-latititude-saved-day.html

deftly wrote:

Any good apps/services for remotely locking and tracking your phone if it's lost or stolen? A search turns up a few, but the reviews for all of them vary greatly, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with that sort of app.

I use Mobile Defense and it doesn't interfere with anything. I haven't had to "use" it yet, but it seems to be good.

deftly wrote:

Any good apps/services for remotely locking and tracking your phone if it's lost or stolen? A search turns up a few, but the reviews for all of them vary greatly, and I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with that sort of app.

How about WaveSecure? It was an ADC2 winner and seems to get decent reviews on the market.

Notes on launchers...

Home++ lets you take a screenshot of the current screen. It seems intended for phones with dedicated camera buttons but you can do it via the back button as well (through the options).

I'm still sticking with LauncherPro for now. I like that the apps drawer remembers where I was last. The developer is starting to release dock icons in the same theme as his default ones for popular apps so you can stick whatever you want in the dock and have it look the same as his stock icons.

Tanglebones wrote:

You can enable Google Latitude on your phone.. there was a neat story about someone who did this and sent the GPS coordinates of the phone thieves to police in real time:
http://forum.androidcentral.com/general-chat/14876-true-story-about-how-chp-android-google-latititude-saved-day.html

I have Latitude enabled, although I didn't realize I could track my phone from my browser.

avggeek wrote:

How about WaveSecure? It was an ADC2 winner and seems to get decent reviews on the market.

WaveSecure was my frontrunner based on reviews.

baggachipz wrote:

I use Mobile Defense and it doesn't interfere with anything. I haven't had to "use" it yet, but it seems to be good.

I think I'm going to give this a try, since it's free, and they make a point of preserving battery life while tracking your phone. My phone burns through battery life like crazy.

Gmote lets you use your Android phone as a remote for your computer, but what I'm using it's for, is the functionality it offers as a remote touchpad. So now the touchscreen of my Droid Incredible, is also a mouse and keyboard for whatever computer I install this on. Very convenient for when I'm browsing in bed and can't put the laptop at a place convenient for browsing. Sure it will be useful on my file server as well when we're watching movies. :p

IMAGE(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=135x135&chl=market://details?id=org.gmote.client.android)

Audible coming to Android:
http://lifehacker.com/5555075/audibl...

Tanglebones wrote:

Audible coming to Android:
http://lifehacker.com/5555075/audibl...

Now if the free Overdrive library download service would come up with some kind of solution...

I guess I'm probably still better off sticking to my Sansa Clip+ for podcasts and books to save the battery on my phone.

LauncherPro just came out with another update that removes the little bouncy effect when switching home screens. Also lets you change the speed at which the app drawer opens and closes. Nice little touches.

I'm assuming since MS showed a Netflix app for Win Mo 7 and Apple is now offering it that it will eventually show up on Android. Any news that I've missed?

I know there are some queue managers, I'm talking about official streaming of video.

MannishBoy wrote:

I'm assuming since MS showed a Netflix app for Win Mo 7 and Apple is now offering it that it will eventually show up on Android. Any news that I've missed?

I know there are some queue managers, I'm talking about official streaming of video.

Nothing official, but Netflix posted this job offer in April:
http://www.neowin.net/news/netflix-f...

Are there no roguelikes in the market?

duckilama wrote:

Are there no roguelikes in the market?

There's a port of Angband, but it claims to require a keyboard (which my Desire doesn't have). A couple of others came up in appbrain, but none appealed to me.

I am half thinking of writing one to have a go at building an Android application, but I wouldn't advise waiting for that to be finished.

IMAGE(http://images.joshuamills.net/gwj/postable4/dsi_miami.jpg)

duckilama wrote:

Are there no roguelikes in the market?

Nethack.

Tanglebones wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

I'm assuming since MS showed a Netflix app for Win Mo 7 and Apple is now offering it that it will eventually show up on Android. Any news that I've missed?

I know there are some queue managers, I'm talking about official streaming of video.

Nothing official, but Netflix posted this job offer in April:
http://www.neowin.net/news/netflix-f...

Edit: Answered my own question.

Apps Organizer: Lets you tag your applications with labels. You can then put a shortcut to a single label on the desktop, or have one single "All Apps" shortcut. Similar to holding down the home key, except all your apps are in nicely organized folder by label. Ever since I got this I have 3 widgets and the All Apps shortcut on the desktop, and that's it. Clutter-be-gone. Apps can even have multiple labels. I wish you could rename the "All Apps" shortcut/widget, but other than that, awesome.

Quick Battery Widget+Quick Settings: A simple battery life widget that gives a percentage. When paired with Quick Settings, tapping the widget launches Quick Settings, giving you access to a variety of settings like brightness, ringer, volume, and various signal related toggles like GPS and Wifi.

Startup Cleaner: Can prevent applications or services from launching after a restart. Also has a basic one-tap uninstall option for applications, but it has trouble refreshing the list after an application is uninstalled. The list remains the same, but the apps all move up one notch (if you uninstall Pandora, and then tap the Pandora icon that's still there, you'll actually be prompted to uninstall the app that was right below Pandora next, and so on.)

Task Manager: I like the interface of Task Manager compared to alternative task managers and application killers. You can toggle whether or not to show system services, and it's easy to add applications or services to the "Auto-Kill" or "Ignore" lists. The widget displays how much free memory is available, and tapping it can be set to launch the Task Manager program or to kill all running programs (except those on the Ignore list.) You can also set it to end the Auto-Kill tasks when the device goes idle, with the option of killing the items on the Ignore list as well. You can also toggle making system services visible on or off.

Screebl Lite: I didn't really get what Screebl was for at first, but it's great. Essentially, it detects certain thresholds for how the device is being held, and prevents the device from going into an idle state if its being held a certain way. You can adjust the sensitivity in a variety of ways. I have my idle set to 8 seconds, and basically if my device is completely flat (if I've set it in a desk drawer, for example) it'll go idle, but if I'm reading news with it tilted in my hand, it does not.

Airplane Toggle Widget+Airplane Mode Wifi: Since I have no phone service, the Airplane Toggle Widget turns airplane mode on or off, even after a restart, and the Airplane Mode Wifi turns wifi on when Airplane mode is activated.