Non-game Android Apps Recommendations Catch-All

pneuman wrote:
NSMike wrote:
MonoCheli wrote:

I just ordered a Nexus one. It is going to be my intro to Android so i'm tagging this thread to follow it. :)

Eh? You must've gotten one of the last. Google's nixed the Nexus One.

They're still on sale here (Australia), and in much of Europe, too. Not direct from Google, though -- Vodafone's selling them.

Yeah, but MonoCheli's location is "upstate New York."

So I tried out LauncherPro (free) last night. It's a replacement home page, and I love it on my Moto Droid. It gets rid of that search bar at the top and gives me my four full rows for icons. It also adds in a 5-shortcut bar at the very bottom of the screen, which stays on every page. Default there is call, contacts, app drawer, messaging, and browser, which is perfect. Cleared up all those buttons from my home screen. It has options for more rows and columns as well, but I kept the default for now.

It also adds up to 7 screens instead of the default 3. Although I haven't filled 3 yet, I figured this was still a worthy feature. Also alternate functions are available for 1 or 2 presses of the home screen. Can have it pull up a preview of all your screens so you can click which one to go to immediately. Could see that being helpful when I have more than 3.

Screen transitions, app drawer, and everything else seems to be running just as smoothly as it was before, if not better. Definitely no slowdowns or anything. Seems like a great home replacement so far, and free!

Don't forget, the dock at the bottom of LauncherPro, you have three sets of icons. Just swipe it left or right. You can set it to loop or not. Not sure if all of that is enabled by default.

I hope LauncherPro someday gives us the option of looping home screens so we can swipe straight through.

General Crespin wrote:

Don't forget, the dock at the bottom of LauncherPro, you have three sets of icons. Just swipe it left or right. You can set it to loop or not. Not sure if all of that is enabled by default.

Whoa.

Yeah it's enabled. I had just never swiped that low. More shortcuts, hooray!

General Crespin wrote:

Don't forget, the dock at the bottom of LauncherPro, you have three sets of icons. Just swipe it left or right. You can set it to loop or not. Not sure if all of that is enabled by default.

I hope LauncherPro someday gives us the option of looping home screens so we can swipe straight through.

Been using LauncherPro since I got my phone a month ago and I never saw this. Thanks, Crespin.

It's a good idea to check his website every time he updates it, he's pretty good about posting a changelog.

Did anybody post a good note-taking app and I just missed it? Something for a quick grocery list and/or voice memo thing?

I use 3banana Notes. Nice simple widget and app and it syncs with Snaptic.

A friend of mine uses Springpad and it seems nice but as of a few weeks ago it didn't have a widget yet. Once it gets that I might/probably will switch to it. It syncs with the Springpad website.

EDIT: OurGroceries is great for grocery lists on multiple phones (ie husband/wife). Syncs between them.

EDIT2: Astrid for tasks/to-do. Syncs with Remember the Milk. RTM has an Android client now but I haven't tried it, Astrid is great.

IMAGE(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=150x150&chl=market://search%3Fq%3Dpname:com.threebanana.notes)
3banana

IMAGE(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=150x150&chl=market://search%3Fq%3Dpname:com.springpad)
Springpad

IMAGE(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=150x150&chl=market://search%3Fq%3Dpname:com.headcode.ourgroceries)
OurGroceries

IMAGE(http://weloveastrid.com/wp-content/themes/astrid/images/qr.png)
Astrid

Do any of the above mentioned to do list apps discretely display a reminder just below the clock, or do they all take up most of the screen. I'm looking for something I can schedule my bills on that doesn't take up a lot of space;I tend to be a minimalist when it comes to screen real estate. The only example I can think of is the alarm on my X displays as 1 line just under the clock.

Guess I'll check them out. I grabbed springpad last night as it was pretty popular at appbrain. But I don't really want to sign up with another site and sync with something else. I just want to make a damn personal grocery list with plain text and take it with me. Not sure why I need all this other syncing up with websites and another place to register at. If I wanted to type a list on my PC I would just e-mail or text it to my phone. I'm just thinking throwaway stuff here, not something I want to log forever. Just something so I don't have to waste a post it note.

If you don't want to sync with the website you don't have to register there. They'll still work fine, just without syncing. If you want OurGroceries to sync with other Android phones you need to follow some simple email instructions and after that it syncs automagically.

Tigerbill, I'm not sure what you mean by "just below the clock". Astrid will display reminders in the notification area. I haven't looked into alarm/reminder functionality in the other apps.

unntrlaffinity wrote:

If you just need a simple application for taken short notes, or post-it like reminders, AK Notepad is lightweight and easy to use, and you don't have to register or sync with anything. Plus, it has a feature I like where you can sticky a note to your homescreen, so whenever you look at it you'll see a little post-it with an abbreviated version of your note, like "Pick up milk".

Thanks I'll check it out. And maybe that Astrid thing too, I think I saw it mentioned here or somewhere.

Also, RockPlayer (not all versions show up on appbrain) seems to handle my divx player needs so far. Just tried out the ARM7 version that is supposed to be for my droid, and played an episode of Castle with no problems. Watched the first few minutes, skipped ahead some, watched some, skipped ahead some more... no sync problems, good picture and sound. Much better than trying to convert any divx files to the ipod format, now I can just copy the file straight to the droid, and with 16gb, I should easily be able to handle plenty of shows or movies at a time. Yay portable media player!

Springpad is fantastic. It's extremely easy to make to-do lists, grocery lists, lookup recipes, scan barcodes for books and movies, the works. The syncing is actually pretty neat, because while there's no desktop client, there is a web interface and you can post notes to yourself from your desk.

Note taking applications like Springpad have made me love using the Google Voice Recognition. It's a lot easier to say "Pick up milk" or "Remember to sell futon on Craigslist" than it is to type it out.

It's still relatively new, so some obvious features are missing. You can add items to "Lists", but only if you create "Lists" on the web interface first, which is counterintuitive. Also "Lists" and "lists" are confusing, because you CAN make things like shopping lists or to-do lists from within the app very easily. But capital L "Lists" is for grouping together lower l "lists", or items such as movies, books, or whatever that aren't automatically categorized together (you can lookup all books or all movies you've added, for example, without having to make a separate "movie" List).

You can use it without syncing as a general note taking or list making app, and without internet access, but then you won't be able to use the lookup features for products or recipes obviously.

Springpad really pushes the social networking sharing and integration aspects of its service, but you can disable all that. Since it's on by default, login to your account on the website, click "settings" in the top right, then click "sharing options" and set everything to "never".

If you just need a simple application for taking short notes, or post-it like reminders, AK Notepad is lightweight and easy to use, and you don't have to register or sync with anything. Plus, it has a feature I like where you can sticky a note to your homescreen, so whenever you look at it you'll see a little post-it with an abbreviated version of your note, like "Pick up milk".

Edit: Tiger, you can set reminders in AK Notepad and they'll popup in the notification area of the taskbar, but I'm also not sure what you mean about being below the clock. Are you using HTC Sense widgets or something? My Samsung doesn't have stuff like that on the homescreen. But if you want a to-do type app, Astrid is more your game, while AK Notepad is a note taking app that also have notifications.

There's also Evernote, but I never really gave it a fair shake because Springpad already meets my notetaking and organization needs.

Stele wrote:
unntrlaffinity wrote:

If you just need a simple application for taken short notes, or post-it like reminders, AK Notepad is lightweight and easy to use, and you don't have to register or sync with anything. Plus, it has a feature I like where you can sticky a note to your homescreen, so whenever you look at it you'll see a little post-it with an abbreviated version of your note, like "Pick up milk".

Thanks I'll check it out. And maybe that Astrid thing too, I think I saw it mentioned here or somewhere.

Also, RockPlayer (not all versions show up on appbrain) seems to handle my divx player needs so far. Just tried out the ARM7 version that is supposed to be for my droid, and played an episode of Castle with no problems. Watched the first few minutes, skipped ahead some, watched some, skipped ahead some more... no sync problems, good picture and sound. Much better than trying to convert any divx files to the ipod format, now I can just copy the file straight to the droid, and with 16gb, I should easily be able to handle plenty of shows or movies at a time. Yay portable media player! :cool:

Crespin mentioned Astrid first, ha.

Rockplayer is excellent. However, the ratings are really low because people are idiots. You have to download the right version for your processor, and then you need to hit "back" when it launches, unless you want to pay to upgrade. Most people seem to click "activation" and then complain with 1 star ratings that the program doesn't work.

Honestly, you'd think even the most unimaginative person in existence would do a little trial and error, and click the other button just once and realize it works fine.

Sorry about the confusion, that was my bad. What I mean is just below the clock on the lock screen:
IMAGE(http://images.intomobile.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/droid-2.0.1-lock-screen.png)
Right where it says charged. I posted that from my desk at work and the X was not with me.

NSMike wrote:
MonoCheli wrote:

I just ordered a Nexus one. It is going to be my intro to Android so i'm tagging this thread to follow it. :)

Eh? You must've gotten one of the last. Google's nixed the Nexus One.

Yeah the day after I got it I read that they were sold out. Glad I got it when I did.

Touiteur 1.3 adds Geo-tagging support! - http://pastebin.com/yTEKsq76 .That was probably the only feature missing in Touiteur when compared to the other big-name android clients, so this makes me really happy.

Anybody else have an issue with launcher pro where folders stop responding until you restart it?

I don't use folders, sorry.

All moved in to our new apartment, but Comcast doesn't come until Tuesday. PdaNet/3G mobile hotspot hack = win.

Tried Wifi Tether but it has some issues with my NIC (Intel 5100 AGN) so I'll come back to that.

General Crespin wrote:

I don't use folders, sorry.

I know I have 7 screens... still it just seemed like a Games folder was a good idea to stick everything in. Now every so often, it just won't open. I use the "restart launcher pro" option in preferences and that fixes it every time, so I have to assume that's it.

You might check out FolderOrganizer. I use that and haven't tried actual folders. FolderOrganizer is the pay version of AppsOrganizer, but with both you create labels for grouping things.

LiquidMantis wrote:

You might check out FolderOrganizer. I use that and haven't tried actual folders. FolderOrganizer is the pay version of AppsOrganizer, but with both you create labels for grouping things.

I use AppsOrganizer, and it's great. I set several icons on my LauncherPro dock to be app folders created via AppsOrganizer labels. I have one for games, system tools, utilities, internet, etc.

It only works with apps, but with FolderOrganizer you can do Bookmarks and a lot of other things.

The latest update of LauncherPro, 0.7.2.0 I think, adds swipe gestures to dock icons. So I have a swipe on my camera icon in the dock set to open gallery, swipe on phone icon to open my contact list, swipe on maps to open places.. pretty nice. Just long touch a dock icon and change swipe action or something.

Taking a break from LauncherPro to try out the Froyo homescreen. Not bad so far. Only 3 shortcuts on the bottom so I lose my "messaging" button. But 5 homescreens and plenty of room, seems a lot better than old 2.1.

Anybody else got Chrome to Phone? Seems useful so far.

Also grabbed Gesture Search from google, will see how that goes.

I've used C2P a few times, it's nice to have, particularly when I need to go walk the dog or whatever, if I'm reading an article I can just pick it up on my phone. Anyone heard anything about a Firefox extension for it?

General Crespin wrote:

I've used C2P a few times, it's nice to have, particularly when I need to go walk the dog or whatever, if I'm reading an article I can just pick it up on my phone. Anyone heard anything about a Firefox extension for it?

There was something called link 2 phone I think that worked with Firefox. But I've pretty much given up and went to chrome anyway now. The separate tab processes just makes more sense. Firefox has had that "coming soon" for too long now and Ive moved on.

This is the second time I've made Chrome my default browser. I'll see how it does again...

Still on the hunt for the best media app for Android. Need it to work with music + videos and have the standard features (view all album songs while listening to now playing song), etc.

So far I've shot down Cubed, Zimly, Music Mod, as well as a few other ones...

Paying a few bucks for it is totally fine, I just don't want to have to code it.

The major thing for me has been that apparently most apps sort by track title rather than track number. That's how I ended up with Zimly. It is strange that you can't see a list of the current queue though.

Posted in the other thread that I use RockPlayer for divx files. It was the only free program I could find to play them, and works great.