Non-game Android Apps Recommendations Catch-All

Well, recommending a good podcast app may have gotten a bit more complicated:

Google Play Music's podcast section will offer contextual recommendations for podcasts based on your activities or your interests, just like it does with music. It will also recommend playlists featuring key podcasts based on specific topics, like "Learning Something New" which will feature episodes from shows including Stuff You Should Know and How To Do Everything, and "Getting Lost in a Story" with Radiolab and Reply All.

If you want to try Google Play Music for podcasts, here's the direct link. I'm pretty happy with Pocketcasts, so I'll likely just keep using it, but if anyone else tries podcasts with Google Play Music, post it here - I'm curious!

As neat as that sounds, I dunno if I can give up Doggcatcher. That said they seem to be doing a push to get this moving. Mine and many other podcasts became available today after being pending for a while.

ilduce620 wrote:

If you want to try Google Play Music for podcasts, here's the direct link. I'm pretty happy with Pocketcasts, so I'll likely just keep using it, but if anyone else tries podcasts with Google Play Music, post it here - I'm curious!

FWIW, even with the direct link I don't get the updated version. Must be a slow rollout. Same for Play Games, too.

ccoates wrote:

There's a new RSS reader called Quote:

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

I still prefer Press (for now). But Press hasn't been updated for 2 years, and it stalls or crashes every now and then. Quote gives every indication of being regularly updated with vital (but not kitchen sink level) features.

I'm enjoying Quote for the most part, but for some reason, when I "unstar" an article from my tablet, the update is registered on Feedly's servers (as evidenced by looking at the web-based version of Feedly and seeing those articles disappear), but those article still show up as "starred" on my phone. I have to go in and manually "unstar" those, for some reason. Regular articles aren't affected and they come and go as they should, no matter which device I look at.

Thoughts, ccoates?

ilduce620 wrote:

I'm enjoying Quote for the most part, but for some reason, when I "unstar" an article from my tablet, the update is registered on Feedly's servers (as evidenced by looking at the web-based version of Feedly and seeing those articles disappear), but those article still show up as "starred" on my phone. I have to go in and manually "unstar" those, for some reason. Regular articles aren't affected and they come and go as they should, no matter which device I look at.

Thoughts, ccoates?

Looks like a bug to me! I didn't notice at first because I have an IFTTT to save all my starred articles to Instapaper. Which means I tend to delete them when I'm done from Instapaper, and don't bother unstarring them.

Time to dredge this thread back up!

I had a Moto X (2014) and loved the Moto Assist feature, but the main thing I liked about it was that it would automatically silence my phone based on my schedule in Google Calendar. It worked great and was perfect for my day as a college professor (where I want my phone to make a noise when I'm not in class).

As it was time to retire the Moto X, I got a shiny new Google Pixel and I can't seem to find an app that serves that same purpose. I've looked for various iterations of "Moto Assist Clone" and haven't been able to come up with a nice alternative. One that I have found is called Agent, but it has a $3.99 one-time purchase attached to it.

Any suggestions? I'm not opposed to dropping $4 on an app, but I was wondering if there are other alternatives that may work better? Agent was updated on November 20th, so I think it's still relatively current...

Thanks!

Trigger is free, I think geofencing is paid version only but time based triggers are in the base version. I use it to set silence mode and Wi-Fi toggling based on my location and Bluetooth connection for instance.

ARISE!

Just announce, this new app will take a video and turn it into a graphic novel panel
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...

Such as this video I took at Medievil Times

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/C8hyfOZ.png)

Wow! Totally trying that out as soon as my son is awake.

omni wrote:

Wow! Totally trying that out as soon as my son is awake.

It gives you a brazillion different variations too. Very cool.

Apologies if there is a good discussion about this earlier in the thread, but given the age of the thread, I suspect any advice from a year or more ago may no longer be relevant anyway...

What do you all use for email on Android? Right now I'm using Gmail for my personal email, and Outlook for my Exchange-based work email. I'd be interested to know if there are better options out there, particularly for getting notifications about emails from specific users. On iOS I was set up so that I got notifications if I got an email from my boss, my boss's boss, my wife, or my mom, with no other email notifications. At least so far with my Android email apps, I'm just seeing notifications for all emails in Gmail, and notification in Outlook for all in my "focused" inbox (basically emails that are to me rather than to a distribution list). Both of these apps are working well enough for me, but I'd be interested to hear any recommendations for better options.

I switched to Inbox and I love it. The ability to snooze emails until later has made my dealings with emails SO MUCH BETTER.

mrlogical wrote:

Apologies if there is a good discussion about this earlier in the thread, but given the age of the thread, I suspect any advice from a year or more ago may no longer be relevant anyway...

What do you all use for email on Android? Right now I'm using Gmail for my personal email, and Outlook for my Exchange-based work email. I'd be interested to know if there are better options out there, particularly for getting notifications about emails from specific users. On iOS I was set up so that I got notifications if I got an email from my boss, my boss's boss, my wife, or my mom, with no other email notifications. At least so far with my Android email apps, I'm just seeing notifications for all emails in Gmail, and notification in Outlook for all in my "focused" inbox (basically emails that are to me rather than to a distribution list). Both of these apps are working well enough for me, but I'd be interested to hear any recommendations for better options.

I use Touchdown HD for work email. its much better than the android outlook app. It supports email/calendar/tasks/notes/contacts syncing with a Microsoft exchange server. I require a complete division of work communication/scheduling from my personal email/contacts etc and this app allows me to do so. There is not much that I can do on my windows outlook exchange application that I can not accomplish with touch down HD on my phone. I believe it cost about $20 and it's worth every penny.

Thanks, Bosk. Is that this Touchdown HD? It seems like it's been discontinued? Or is there another version out there that I'm not finding?

I use BlueMail, but I only EVER put my personal email on my phone. Work email can go f- itself on my personal phone.

My point is I have no idea if it'll do what you want, but it's popular and customizable. Not sure if there's enough customization for what you want though.

It took me about a year, but after testing most Exchange Android apps, I name best and above all:

Aquamail.

It has just about every configurable feature you might think of.
I have two Exchange accounts and the battery is perfect.

Anybody with a Galaxy S8(+) have an update break your Always On Display?

Mine took an update, and now all that is "always on" is the little square home button on the bottom. No clock, app notifications, etc.

MannishBoy wrote:

Anybody with a Galaxy S8(+) have an update break your Always On Display?

Mine took an update, and now all that is "always on" is the little square home button on the bottom. No clock, app notifications, etc.

Solved. Somehow a setting got changed.

I'm a fan of SeriesGuide, but recently I tried Series Mate and Movie Mate, and in some ways I like how they're designed/organized more than SeriesGuide. I find the "Calendar" tab to be more confusing than how SeriesGuide breaks it into three separate tabs: History/Upcoming/Recently Watched.

Movie Mate is more fully realized than how movies are treated in SeriesGuide (although to be fair, it's called SeriesGuide).

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

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

Yay for another what's a good podcast app question, but with a twist!

I've been using PocketCast on Android and now iOs for years now, and am very happy with it. But now I've come across a specific episode of Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History that I would like to share with a few friends. Now I know they are not podcast listeners, so my question is: what's the easiest way for them to enjoy the podcast?

A free app that's easy to use? Just download the MP3 and listen to it that way? Some other way?

Thanks!

If they're basic users, I just recommend Google Play Music or Apple Podcasts. There's also Spotify and Tune-In.

I didn't think it would be important, but turns out it is... I'm in Belgium, and apparently Google Play Music only supports podcasts in the US and Canada.

So I was getting tired of mistyping on Gboard, so I began looking for alternatives. Imagine my surprise when someone suggested...the BlackBerry keyboard.

The weird thing is, you have to use this program to install it.

https://cobalt232.github.io/blackber...

But I gotta tell y'all, it's pretty damned great. Like, shockingly great. The predictive text is really neat, and it has some nice features like a slide-out numeric keypad. I'm kinda super surprised by the thing.

I remember bending over backwards to get the BB keyb to work on my android device only to get tired of it because it didn't work exactly like it did on the native BB OS devices. (that was one weird OS that had a few nuggets of greatness in a sea of chaos).
You've peaked my interest and I'm ready to give the keyboard another go.

I like the keyboard so much, I looked up actual Blackberry Android phones, only to be saddened that they're only on AT&T and T-Mobile (I'm on Sprint).

Thanks for the tip about Blackberry Keyboard, Veloxi. It is tons better than any other keyboard I have used.

tboon wrote:

Thanks for the tip about Blackberry Keyboard, Veloxi. It is tons better than any other keyboard I have used.

OMG right? I am so silly digging it. Glad you're enjoying it!

A coworker thanked me for telling him about the Just Watch app/website today, so I'm mentioning it here. It's another service like CanIStreamIt that tells you where a show or movie is streaming, but with a lot more features. Tell it what all services you have and it will let you browse them, for instance.

I'm thanking you too. Wow this is neat.

They've got an app, too.