Great Android Apps

[SnowMan]

Try out Handcent. Great texting app that fixes some of those odd things.

[SnDvls]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

the Verizon guy set mine up so I never got asked the question....I'll uninstall and re-install and see then let everyone else here know what happened.

did as terpkristin stated on my Droid X

uninstalled Facebook and reinstalled it and it did not re-merge my contacts into my phone book.

Thanks again

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

did as terpkristin stated on my Droid X

uninstalled Facebook and reinstalled it and it did not re-merge my contacts into my phone book.

Thanks again

Check one more time to make sure, it takes a couple minutes for it to populate from what I have seen...

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Check one more time to make sure, it takes a couple minutes for it to populate from what I have seen...

Ditto. It doesn't do it immediately, but probably within the first 5 minutes or so (based on my limited experience). So as long as you switch off the auto-sync setting before then, you should be golden.

/tk

[SnDvls]

nope no repopulation of facebook contacts.

I actually have only one contact list....my Phone Contacts that I've been putting in/updating

[molson]

I fired up the XM/Sirius android app and it's working very well. I've had so many problems with the physical radios - I'm ready to dump them all and just keep the online subscription.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by SnDvls

nope no repopulation of facebook contacts.

I actually have only one contact list....my Phone Contacts that I've been putting in/updating

That's what I had, too. It drove me nuts that it pulled in all my GMail contacts into my "phone" book as well as my Twitter and Facebook contacts and put them all into my phone book. Drove me more bonkers than usual.

/tk

[Coffee Warlord]

Got me a shiny new Incredible today. It's charging.

I wanna play with it.

[AnalBumCover]

Words With Friends has now come to the Android universe and will also cross platform with iOS.

[Eaglesfan27]

What is words with friends?

[samifan24]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

What is words with friends?

It's a free, ad supported version of online Scrabble. I'll warn you now: you can kiss your productivity goodbye once you install the game.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by samifan24

It's a free, ad supported version of online Scrabble. I'll warn you now: you can kiss your productivity goodbye once you install the game.

Awesome. Will be a lot of fun on my ride up to NJ.

[AnalBumCover]

I had been jealous of my iOS-using buddies playing scrabble against one another over the network. Then I found WordFeud for Android. Wasn't the same only because I couldn't play against my iOS buddies.

Now with Words with Friends, I can!

[gstelmack]

Any good apps for synching my Outlook calendar / contacts WITHOUT hitting the Google cloud? I'm willing to pay if necessary, especially if it means avoiding ad-supported (shudder).

[DanGarion]

I'm DanGarion on WwF if you want to play!

[Ramzavail]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Any good apps for synching my Outlook calendar / contacts WITHOUT hitting the Google cloud? I'm willing to pay if necessary, especially if it means avoiding ad-supported (shudder).

I use touchdown on my Droid Pro, 19.95, works really well.

[Ramzavail]

Anybody use any podcast programs for the droid?

also, i can't wait until they allows us to make purchases and it will be charged to the bill.

[cougarfreak]

Originally Posted by molson

I fired up the XM/Sirius android app and it's working very well. I've had so many problems with the physical radios - I'm ready to dump them all and just keep the online subscription.

I did that too, and added online for $2.99 a month. And what's awesome is with this HTC Inspire, if I'm on a wireless net, I don't use any of my data.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Ramzavail

Anybody use any podcast programs for the droid?

also, i can't wait until they allows us to make purchases and it will be charged to the bill.

I listen to podcasts through Google Listen. Works well.

[gstelmack]

Any good weather apps that don't require me to sign over my first-born to get forecasts, etc? I took a look at the permissions required for The Weather Channel app and also Weatherbug (an infamous hog on PCs that I won't let near anything I own...) and was astounded at what they want access to. I'm willing to pay for a good one.

[Scoobz0202]

I actually use the WeatherBug Elite app. I haven't checked the others lately, but a year ago when I sampled a few I found the WeatherBug to be the best of the bunch. I liked the widgets the best, and it was the best looking to top it off.

[flounder]

I use WeatherBug Elite as well. I can't say that I've made an exhaustive comparison though. I just used the Weather Channel app until an update broke it. I switched to WeatherBug and it works fine for me.

[gstelmack]

So when I look at Weatherbug Elite I see:

• Hardware controls change your audio settings
  Allows application to modify global audio settings such as volume and routing.
• Your location coarse (network-based) location
  Access coarse location sources such as the cellular network database to determine an approximate device location, where available. Malicious applications can use this to determine approximately where you are.
  fine (GPS) location
  Access fine location sources such as the Global Positioning System on the device, where available. Malicious applications can use this to determine where you are, and may consume additional battery power.
• Network communication full Internet access
  Allows an application to create network sockets.
• Your personal information read sensitive log data
  Allows an application to read from the system's various log files. This allows it to discover general information about what you are doing with the device, potentially including personal or private information.
• Phone calls read phone state and identity
  Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.
• Storage modify/delete USB storage contents modify/delete SD card contents
  Allows an application to write to the USB storage. Allows an application to write to the SD card.
• System tools prevent device from sleeping
  Allows an application to prevent the device from going to sleep.

I understand wanting my location, writing to the SD card, preventing the phone from sleeping, but why does it need to read sensitive log data, and why does it need access to my phone calls?

Stuff like that scares me and what I was afraid of getting on Android with everybody wanting to snoop what I'm doing. How much of this should I actually be worried about? What are the legitimate reasons apps want access to that stuff, if any?

Heck, NFL Mobile wanted some of that stuff as well, so I went ahead and uninstaleld it.

[Passacaglia]

How do you find out that kind of info? I'm about to start getting apps on my Charm soon.

[Scoobz0202]

When you go to download an application it will give you that info, Pass.


I'm not educated in that stuff, gstelmack. I'm sure there are things out there I should be worried about, but a lot of those permissions are extremely vague. Certain, minor actions that an app does that requires a certain permission might fall under one of those vague titles.

Should I be concerned? Maybe. But in the year and a half I've had my phone, rooted it, downloaded 100+ apps, I've never had anything happen that is a cause for concern. Never been spammed. One of those things, if you don't feel comfortable then don't, but I've never been paranoid about these things.

[Ramzavail]

Google Listen is great.

Kongregate app is great - but they definitely need some more games.

[rjolley]

Game Dev Story, the great game for iOS is out for Android from KairoSoft. There's a free Lite version that gives 2 years of gameplay.

I can see why the iOS guys are hooked on it. It's a lot of fun.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

How do you find out that kind of info? I'm about to start getting apps on my Charm soon.

Check the "Permissions" tab on the marketplace page for an app.

[molson]

If the folks at the NFL want to listen into me try to cancel Showtime with DirecTV or re-schedule a dentist appointment, that's cool.

[Ryan S]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Phone calls read phone state and identity
Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.

Some apps need this permission so that the app can mute or save progress when you receive a call. Other apps need this permission so they can see the serial number of the phone. According to one app maker, this is often used for registration/activation purposes.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Ryan S

Some apps need this permission so that the app can mute or save progress when you receive a call. Other apps need this permission so they can see the serial number of the phone. According to one app maker, this is often used for registration/activation purposes.

That makes sense. From my point of view then I'd love to see Google separate these, and maybe make a standard way to get just that bit. Those purposes are benign, just no easy way to tell the good from the bad.

[Logan]

Just got my Droid X up and running, liking it a lot so far now that I'm learning a bit. Planning on giving this thread a read from the top but if anyone has any beginner tips that haven't been covered already, or if you've found some good apps recently, please share. Thanks.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

That makes sense. From my point of view then I'd love to see Google separate these, and maybe make a standard way to get just that bit. Those purposes are benign, just no easy way to tell the good from the bad.

Just a warning especially for folks that enjoy free android apps, google confirmed they recently removed a decent sized list of apps from their download store when an independent study found that they contained harmful code that in some cases cost users alot of money. If you download and install free apps, you might want to double check to make sure they haven't been pulled due to this.

Android Marketplace hit by virus-laden apps; Google slow to respond - Broadband Genie

[flounder]

How can I live without my Screaming Sexy Japanese Girls app?

[MJ4H]

A friend has his andriod phone right here and I want to install Words with Friends so we can play against each other. However, I got to the market on his phone and no matter what we do we cannot find the app. What are we doing wrong? I can find it easily on the internet, but not on his phone.

[molson]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

A friend has his andriod phone right here and I want to install Words with Friends so we can play against each other. However, I got to the market on his phone and no matter what we do we cannot find the app. What are we doing wrong? I can find it easily on the internet, but not on his phone.

Are you looking under games and not apps? On my Droid X market, words with friends free shows up second under the games section, under "top free".

[Suburban Rhythm]

Same here, 2nd after Angry Birds

[MJ4H]

It's not showing up there or anywhere else for me. WTF?

[Suburban Rhythm]

The creator is Zynga, maybe try searching by that?

[MJ4H]

Tried that too.

[molson]

Weird. I get it when I search for the title, or the creator.

If everything else seems to be available (angry birds, paper toss, solitaire, etc), he must have that one blocked for some reason. No idea why.

[MJ4H]

How would he have that blocked? Everything else seems available. It is really strange.

[heybrad]

What version of the OS are you using? I found that on my piece of shit Motorola Backflip that I was missing a lot of apps in the marketplace. When I upgraded it to the latest version of (I believe) EClair, I had an entirely new Market experience and everything was there.

Any by the way... did I mention that my phone was a piece of shit? And that I hate AT&T?

[MJ4H]

I dunno, but I will tell him to upgrade the OS. It's a new phone for him, what's the easiest way to explain to him how to do it?

[heybrad]

Search for it on the android forums. Whether it's available or not is based on the type of phone he has. The fact that it was available for my God awful phone should mean it's available for most.

[MJ4H]

OK, for the record it's a Motorola Citrus.

[MJ4H]

oic apparently it is randomly incompatible with that phone.

sigh

[heybrad]

I'm learning that when I hear Motorola it usually means bad things.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Any good weather apps that don't require me to sign over my first-born to get forecasts, etc? I took a look at the permissions required for The Weather Channel app and also Weatherbug (an infamous hog on PCs that I won't let near anything I own...) and was astounded at what they want access to. I'm willing to pay for a good one.

I'm trying out MyCast Weather. Only $4, has the basics I want (radar, forecast), and only wants my location info (reasonable since it wants to give me local data) and internet access (to download the data). None of the other permissions that are clearly for marketing folks that think I should hand over all my Constitutional rights for the privilege of running their software (sorry JiMGA, but I've worked with too many marketing folks that thought this way). I'll see how well it works over the next little bit, but for tonight at least it did the basics I wanted just fine.

[gstelmack]

Now that the weather is warming up, I'm riding my bike again. Anyone know of a good GPS tracker that will show me the route I rode, what the total distance was, and how long it tooke me to ride it? I'm willing to pay if it's good.