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recommended android apps?

nutriciousnutricious 118 Posts
edited August 2010 in Strut Central
just got myself a samsung phone with android... any recommendations for good/useful/fun apps - music related or not?

their app store is not really designed for finding things easily...

thanks!
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  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    Aside from the essentials like Sportstap, Pandora and auto task killer I really like Androzip (extract .zip, .rar and a few other file types), Dropbox (similar to Apple's iDisk but free), DoubleTwist media player, and FxCamera. There's a bunch of games I play but those are pretty easy to browse for. The only app I've paid for is Electrum Drum II which I've found real cool and worth $4.
  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    Oh and any of those game console emulators. I only have Snesoid but I play a decent amount of Super Mario and Zelda with it. They've got most Nintendo and Sega system versions but you have to download separate files to get games. These are what got me started with Androzip. I've been without a computer for a while so being able to download mixtapes and other stuff and actually extracting it and using it all on my phone has been key.

    Also, Pdanet is a must if you're not within wifi distance all day.

    Good to see someone else using Android on here.
  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    I recently got one of them Galaxy S jernts. I am lovin it.

    Not really tied to any apps yet, but here are things I am using right now.

    Electrum and xpiano.
    I have a bunch of news readers, but have been using "world news" a lot, it combines most papers into one interface.
    Air Horn is essential...
    B-Rhymes so I can add a verse or two while tracking my mcs...
    Android VNC so I can hook in to any of my pcs anywhere.
    Mint will be cool when it supports cash
    MyRemote so i can control my media center
    Smart training for measuring and cataloging those long walks along the beach
    TreKing so I know what the CTA is doing and where my bus is at.
    Homerun Battle 3d is addicting as hell.
    Hip Hop Music Trivia to keep my mind sharp

    As far as music players go, I am still looking for one. I have been using MixZing and Astroplayer, but I really need something with a over sized interface for the car, with large track names and buttons.
  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    psdroid emulator is a must

    edit: don't use the taskiller

    http://thedroidguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/task-killers-helping-or-hurting.html
  • DescryDescry 229 Posts
    tasker is awesome.

    you can program and totally automate any function you want for the phone. http://lifehacker.com/5599116/how-to-turn-your-android-phone-into-a-fully+automated-superphone
  • AlmondAlmond 1,427 Posts
    I have an HTC Droid Eris on Verizon.

    1) Advanced Task Killer is a must
    2) Uninstaller to yet rid of all the stupid apps
    3) Pkt Auctions eBay (comes with a barcode scanner)
    4) Movies app to get showtimes, better than the Fandango app.
    5) FML (F My Life) when you're bored and want to read something funny.
    6) Shazam to ID songs I am listening to. Even recognizes some international music.
    7) MyDays menstrual calendar is great.

    MY DROID'S ALARM CLOCK HAS BEEN FAILING ALL WEEK THOUGH IT'S TURNED ON AND I HAVEN'T CHANGED ANY SETTINGS. NEED TO BUY A CLOCK RADIO NOW.
  • nutriciousnutricious 118 Posts
    z_illa said:
    I recently got one of them Galaxy S jernts. I am lovin it.

    Not really tied to any apps yet, but here are things I am using right now.

    Electrum and xpiano.

    thanks for all the input everybody!

    i was definitely gonna get electrum drum computer too, but then i realised, that even some of the most basic pianos have crazy latency on my phone (galaxy leo/apollo, the smaller/cheaper version of the galaxy s). is that just my weak hardware or a general android problem as one synth developer indicated: "because there still is no native audio support in the NDK, there are latency issues." ?

    thanks again...
  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    Grandfather said:
    psdroid emulator is a must

    Oh shit! I didn't know they had a playstation emulator. I'm gonna have to consider that investment......
  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    its a bit of a hassle to set up, good article here
    http://androidandme.com/2010/08/games/a-new-generation-of-emulators-comes-to-android-android-and-me-reviews-psx4droid/
  • boner softening styleboner softening style 36 Posts
    minneap said:
    Also, Pdanet is a must if you're not within wifi distance all day.

    so droid phones have no problems with tethering? no need to pay extra $$/month like with iphones?
  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    boner softening style said:
    minneap said:
    Also, Pdanet is a must if you're not within wifi distance all day.

    so droid phones have no problems with tethering? no need to pay extra $$/month like with iphones?

    Exactly. That was a huge selling point for me. Tethering works great with Pdanet but I didn't get a chance to try wireless tethering before my laptop shit out on me. Word is that OS 2.2 will have wired and wireless tethering included, no extra apps necessary.
  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    nutricious said:
    z_illa said:
    I recently got one of them Galaxy S jernts. I am lovin it.

    Not really tied to any apps yet, but here are things I am using right now.

    Electrum and xpiano.

    thanks for all the input everybody!

    i was definitely gonna get electrum drum computer too, but then i realized, that even some of the most basic pianos have crazy latency on my phone (galaxy leo/apollo, the smaller/cheaper version of the galaxy s). is that just my weak hardware or a general android problem as one synth developer indicated: "because there still is no native audio support in the NDK, there are latency issues." ?

    thanks again...

    I did a lot of digging around when the NDK first came out (betas and 1.0) and yeah there was virtually no audio support. From what I hear they took a few small steps with 2.1 (what we run) and 2.2 is supposed to have finally given programmers real options. I think 2.1 only supports up to 6 sounds being played at the same time and 2.2 is supposed to be much better.

    But no programs that I know of have utilized what's included in 2.2 yet, so it is a bit of a waiting game now.

    Electrum supports 6 sounds and plays pretty smoothly on my phone. All of the pianos are jokes though, don't use them as the judge. Personally I'm not trying to tap out patterns, programming them is all I need so I am cool with a small amount of latency.
  • DescryDescry 229 Posts
    Almond said:
    MY DROID'S ALARM CLOCK HAS BEEN FAILING ALL WEEK THOUGH IT'S TURNED ON AND I HAVEN'T CHANGED ANY SETTINGS. NEED TO BUY A CLOCK RADIO NOW.

    your alarm clock is failing because of advanced task killer...it sucks.
  • mateomateo 163 Posts

    your alarm clock is failing because of advanced task killer...it sucks.
    motherfuckin ditto....
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    So upgrading in about a week's time and, despite my reservations, have considered getting an iphone. However the Samsung Galaxy S has come along at just the right time to offer a route back from the darkside. It's option of additional memory plus drag and drop functionality is perfect but can't seem to find any details of whether the sound playback is up to scratch. Considering I'll probably be using it as much for that as anything else does anyone fancy allaying my fears?
  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    Junior said:
    So upgrading in about a week's time and, despite my reservations, have considered getting an iphone. However the Samsung Galaxy S has come along at just the right time to offer a route back from the darkside. It's option of additional memory plus drag and drop functionality is perfect but can't seem to find any details of whether the sound playback is up to scratch. Considering I'll probably be using it as much for that as anything else does anyone fancy allaying my fears?

    If you are an idiot, get the Iphone. If you can tie your shoes and don't run to your mother when they come untied, get the Galaxy. I have a Captivate (at&ts; rebranding of the galaxy s). Apparently there is some type of default equalizer on the headphone output that makes it sound not so hot, but being an Android phone it didn't take long for a fix that's easy to do. After applying the fix I'm not hearing any differences between it and my ipod. I do a lot of listening with it.

    If you use Itunes a lot (God save your soul) you will probably hate anything android. Good.
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    z_illa said:
    Junior said:
    So upgrading in about a week's time and, despite my reservations, have considered getting an iphone. However the Samsung Galaxy S has come along at just the right time to offer a route back from the darkside. It's option of additional memory plus drag and drop functionality is perfect but can't seem to find any details of whether the sound playback is up to scratch. Considering I'll probably be using it as much for that as anything else does anyone fancy allaying my fears?

    If you are an idiot, get the Iphone. If you can tie your shoes and don't run to your mother when they come untied, get the Galaxy. I have a Captivate (at&ts; rebranding of the galaxy s). Apparently there is some type of default equalizer on the headphone output that makes it sound not so hot, but being an Android phone it didn't take long for a fix that's easy to do. After applying the fix I'm not hearing any differences between it and my ipod. I do a lot of listening with it.

    If you use Itunes a lot (God save your soul) you will probably hate anything android. Good.

    Ok thanks that's all I needed to hear. The thought of having to go through Itunes for anything filled me full of dread with a touch of nausea so if there's an actual decent alternative I'm all for it.
  • GrandfatherGrandfather 2,303 Posts
    doubletwist is a desktop application that helps sync android phones.
    Its pretty sweet.
  • BeatnicholasBeatnicholas 1,005 Posts
    so i really should buy a galaxy s not an iphone 4? what about resale value, surely the galaxy s will be worthless after a few months.

    its mostly the thought of retro game emulators that has me now convinced tbh
  • BeatnicholasBeatnicholas 1,005 Posts
    so i really should buy a galaxy s not an iphone 4? what about resale value, surely the galaxy s will be worthless after a few months.

    its mostly the thought of retro game emulators that has me now convinced tbh
  • BeatnicholasBeatnicholas 1,005 Posts
    so i really should buy a galaxy s not an iphone 4? what about resale value, surely the galaxy s will be worthless after a few months.

    its mostly the thought of retro game emulators that has me now convinced tbh
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    Well I've been looking into this for some time so as to offset the pain that I experience on a daily basis from plumping for the Nokia 5800 last time round. It was partly the pain of picking up this at the time supposed iphone challenger that had me thinking about just getting an iphone and being done with it this time.

    However I can't stand the thought of having to use itunes to upload music and not being able to drag and drop media. Add to that the reported issues with the new iphone, its comparatively extortionate price and that you can stick up to a 32gb MicroSD card in the Samsung to go along with its basic 8gb and I'm sold.
  • z_illaz_illa 867 Posts
    Ulysses31nicholas said:
    so i really should buy a galaxy s not an iphone 4? what about resale value, surely the galaxy s will be worthless after a few months.

    its mostly the thought of retro game emulators that has me now convinced tbh

    Do you control machines or do machines control you?

    Scenario 1: Your email stops working because like humans, computers make mistakes. Do you:

    a: expect the phone to fix it itself
    b: fix the phone

    The galaxy s has better hardware and software so I'm not so sure why you are concerned with resale value. Yeah there are a lot of suckers out there who will buy the iphone from you. You should feel sorry for them, not continue the cycle of profiting off of the uninformed.
  • JuniorJunior 4,853 Posts
    I'd better clarify that in now way do I think buying a phone created by Samsung and Google is in anyway sticking it to The Man. But I'm definitely liking the more freedom that an Android phone seems to offer plus, it has to be said, the emulators are calling out to me.
  • nutriciousnutricious 118 Posts
    Junior said:
    the emulators are calling out to me.

    ...and if instead of touchscreen fumbling you could run your psx emulator on this:



    that could be fun...

    (although i'm sure you can count on sony to spoil that type of fun in as many ways as they can...)
  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    Semi bump. I got 2.2 on my Incredible about a week ago and it is the shit. The 3G wireless tethering is nice. Apps run faster is nice. Fastest browser is nice. Full flash capability is craze. Watching youtubes and vimeos in the browser is next level. The fact that I can download and unzip .zips without a computer continues to be one of my favorite features.

    For those having issues with the alarm clock, are you unselecting the clock app in auto task killer? The one I use lets you choose which apps you want killed or left alone.
  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,179 Posts
    bump. i just got my first fancy phone (galaxy 2) and it's android.

    any great recent apps?

    what music player do people use? i use winamp on my pc. i noticed there's a winamp app for android, but what else do people like?

    i avoid apple because of itunes - do i HAVE to use this Kies interface thing to get my music on my phone? any way to configure it as a simple external drive to drag and drop files onto it, etc?

    thank you!
  • mickalphabetmickalphabet deep inna majestic segue 374 Posts
    citybikes, see how many bikes in your nearest stall (euroman public bikes related)
    wordfeud - online scrabble for playing with your mates ( username 't-woc' if anone wants a challenge)
    winamp - still best music player
    google chat
    skyfire is dope browser
    andftp - ftp files from your phone, who would have thought it
    robo defense still one of my favourite games
  • On_the_Red_ClayOn_the_Red_Clay 1,728 Posts
    ketan said:


    what music player do people use? i use winamp on my pc. i noticed there's a winamp app for android, but what else do people like?

    i avoid apple because of itunes - do i HAVE to use this Kies interface thing to get my music on my phone? any way to configure it as a simple external drive to drag and drop files onto it, etc?


    Winamp, and no: whenever i connect my android to a pc i have it set to be auto-detected as an external HD. Just drag and drop music into the dedicated folder... done.
  • FlomotionFlomotion 2,391 Posts
    Almond said:
    I have an HTC Droid Eris on Verizon.

    1) Advanced Task Killer is a must
    2) Uninstaller to yet rid of all the stupid apps
    3) Pkt Auctions eBay (comes with a barcode scanner)
    4) Movies app to get showtimes, better than the Fandango app.
    5) FML (F My Life) when you're bored and want to read something funny.
    6) Shazam to ID songs I am listening to. Even recognizes some international music.
    7) MyDays menstrual calendar is great.

    MY DROID'S ALARM CLOCK HAS BEEN FAILING ALL WEEK THOUGH IT'S TURNED ON AND I HAVEN'T CHANGED ANY SETTINGS. NEED TO BUY A CLOCK RADIO NOW.

    You shouldn't really need a task killer - one selling point of Android is that apps don't use resources when you are away from them unless it's something which needs be on and update in real time like ebay. A battery monitor is pretty useful, though, and Tubemate is great for downloading YT vids. Astro file manager also makes it easier to find stuff on your device. Google Goggles is a must...Google Sky Map is pretty cool, and I use the WiFi Analyser a lot to find the best wi-fi signals and Discogs is pretty cool for Android.

    I think the HTCs have the edge over the Samsung models at the moment but it's pretty close.
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