Topic: Android

[LucaAltieri]

Any fellow android phone users?

Which apps have you found particularly sexy/good/useful?

[Lenny]

Apps I've downloaded that are really useful:

Footmob - Football scores updater, really good.
Aloqa - Tells you what's about in your area using GPS, really impressive.
Meebo IM - Allows you to sign into MSN, Facebook chat and other IM Services
Klaxon - An alarm, better than the default one.

Also, Google Maps is actually brilliant, the number of times I've wanted to know the number for a random place and 30 seconds later I'm calling them!

[GM]

I've still got my old Google G1, and I've been having a few hassles with it but just now I've got:

Scoreboard - live score updates for football, cricket, F1 etc etc etc
Astrid - very useful little task list that you can sync with a web-based list via Remember The Milk. Handy.
Facebook for Android - meh.
Google Goggles - visual search engine.

Have previously found Qype and ShopSavvy very useful too, and some others but since I had to return my G1 to the factory for repair TWICE in the past 6 months I've now given up on having fancy dan applications and just have the bare basics.

Not the most reliable phone (hardware wise anyway)...

[LucaAltieri]

I've still got my old Google G1, and I've been having a few hassles with it but just now I've got:

Scoreboard - live score updates for football, cricket, F1 etc etc etc
Astrid - very useful little task list that you can sync with a web-based list via Remember The Milk. Handy.
Facebook for Android - meh.
Google Goggles - visual search engine.

Have previously found Qype and ShopSavvy very useful too, and some others but since I had to return my G1 to the factory for repair TWICE in the past 6 months I've now given up on having fancy dan applications and just have the bare basics.

Not the most reliable phone (hardware wise anyway)...

Scoreboard looks pretty good.

Shame about the G1 being so flaky. I'm still masturbating furiously over my HTC Hero.

Anyone tried Fring?

[Adam^]

Main ones I use.

Astird - To do list sort of thing, very good.
Shopsavy - barcode scanner
sms popup - any text you get pops them up on the home screen.
ebuddy - for msn etc
pic say pro - class photo editing software, worth buying only cost few quid.

Also have a google you can find the newer google maps with the full TomTom style on screen directions, that someone has hacked to work in the UK, its pretty mint.

There are a few others like Compass, stopwatch, and some good games like Bonsai blast, craigs race etc.

[GM]

I'd give fring a miss mate...just use e- buddy.

[LucaAltieri]

It's the VOIP I was most interested in with Fring. It picks up your skype contacts (eventually) and you can make free skype to skype calls that way.

I've found it to be quite temperamental, though.

[MKSC]

I loved my G1. Sadly my chav-tastic niece let some of her 'friends' from Brixton into my house about 9 months ago and they stole it, along with a few comuter games and our holiday money. I wasn't best pleased.

The google maps were brilliant to have on you, like a free personal sat nav. I never used many of the other apps but I had that footmob one and a couple of others.

[Adam^]

Tbh I've found most of the things you use all the time (Calendar, messaging etc) are best with the standard google apps that come with the phone, espcially as they all sync with the google cloud.

[GM]

Tbh I've found most of the things you use all the time (Calendar, messaging etc) are best with the standard google apps that come with the phone, espcially as they all sync with the google cloud.

What is this Google cloud you speak of?

Sounds sinister.

[Adam^]

I mean if you put something in the calendar it will upload to the calendar linked to your gamil account so you can view it online.

[GM]

I mean if you put something in the calendar it will upload to the calendar linked to your gamil account so you can view it online.

Oh right, yeah. That bit is cool. Just never heard it referred to as a cloud before.

[Chrissy Bee]

I mean if you put something in the calendar it will upload to the calendar linked to your gamil account so you can view it online.

Oh right, yeah. That bit is cool. Just never heard it referred to as a cloud before.

The "cloud" is a very popular term nowadays. Refers to anything where your data is stored remotely yet easily accessed by you via a phone/PC - Google's new chrome operating system (for personal computers) operates almost entirely in the cloud. Things like Youtube, Spotify, Gmail, Calendar, Google Docs, FlickR are beginning to operate on these kinds of principles.

Anyway, my recommendations, in addition to some of the above.
Opera 5 - it's amazingly fast, only lacking pinch-zoom.
FeedR - probably the best RSS reader on Android. Simple and effective.
The Weather Channel - better than the default HTC Sense weather app, just a shame it's so ugly.
Movies - integrates with some movies facebook plug-in but it's great just using it on android - searches for nearby cinemas, you can look through listings for the next week or so, check reviews off rotten tomatoes, your facebook friends, etc. Also lets you open trailers, synopsis and so on.
Listen - Google have really improved their podcast downloader. Not perfect but very good if you're into all that.
³ - Vastly better music player than the default. Shows albums on a 3d box, easily lets you scroll through by moving round the box. Has a very effective album art finder, easily did almost all of my library in just a few minutes. Still in beta so looking forward to even more improvements. Very hard to find using the android market due to the stupid name, but here is a QR code to scan into barcode scanner.

[MidfieldGeneral]

I'm due an upgrade in 4 weeks and at the minute I'm torn between the SE Xperia X10 or an Iphone 3gs.
Is Android really that good, and has it or will it really take off, with 1000's of apps becoming available like what Apple currently have ?

[Adam^]

Android has loads of app, and google are less of market nazis compared to apple so more stuff is available, plus on android you can install stuff to your phone from an SD card, meaning any apps you can't"find" on the market but can elsewhere can be installed. I much prefer the Android home interface, compared to the apple no home page just look at your apps approach as well.

[adam]

having had a g1 and now an iphone i can safely say the android app market is f***ing woeful.

[SEMTEX]

Aye having played with my girlfriend's Droid Eris, I don't think I'd have trouble jumping to Android at all, but the App Store isn't nearly as good. *maybe* that will change in time, but due to the marketing and overall popularity of the iPhone, I imagine it'll always be a step ahead.

Other than that, there is really very little in it.

Oh, and as far as cloud stuff goes, I use gmail via an exchange server on my iPhone and it's pretty much the same afaik.

[Mugatu]

Been using an HTC Desire for a week now and loving it so far. Best phone I've ever used, this is after switching from an iPhone 3G.

[Adam^]

Itunes app store has more apps but how many people really use that many apps ? On my Magic I got some to start with but since then I've only used the same few, havent downloaded any new ones for about 3 months.

[SEMTEX]

Itunes app store has more apps but how many people really use that many apps ? On my Magic I got some to start with but since then I've only used the same few, havent downloaded any new ones for about 3 months.

Don't get me wrong, 95% of the apps are f***ing awful. It's more the fact that major developers are making apps for the iPhone, and whilst a lot of things make their way to Android, they tend to be on iPhone first.

The releases of Monkey Island/Broken Sword are fantastic.

[Skirge]

My phone is choka with apps, poor little Hero takes 10 mins to boot lol

task killer is a must

sms barrage is great one, send upto 100 texts in one go

instamaper

twitdropid Pro



oh man there's loads.

[Chrissy Bee]

I think at the moment Android phones (as a whole) are selling more than iPhones, mainly because there are so many different android phones at different price points and the motorola droid has been massive in the US. Of course it could also be because the 3GS has been around for a while now, the next iPhone must be due shortly, with an obvious surge in sales.

Tech websites are talking like Android is the upcoming thing, the only challenger to Apple in the smartphone network (windows mobile is dead until WM7 is out late this year, Palm are absolutely screwed, the blackberry smartphone isn't so hot, etc.) - the Android app market is certainly improving but there are still basically no games worth your time (unlike the iphone, which can function as a mobile gaming platform).

In my mind the biggest issue currently is the different versions of Android on different phones - there are some big differences in functionality and app availability between Android 1.5 (as on the G1 and Hero) and 2.1 on the newer phones (Desire, Legend, Nexus One, etc.). Google really need to find a way to fix this, though it's obviously a difficulty due to the open nature of the OS.

[macphisto]

Been using an HTC Desire for a week now and loving it so far. Best phone I've ever used, this is after switching from an iPhone 3G.

Got this phone coming sometime this week, got some great reviews and liked the feel of it when I had a look at it in the shop. I was going to go for the Xperia X10 but the Desire just felt a lot better.

[Cajun]

This thread inspired me to have a little look at the latest apps.

Found a quality one called body fitness, gives you s*** loads of workouts for every single muscle in your body with pictures and explanations. Cardio ideas, weight loss and training plans and diaries.

Pretty cool for a free app.

[mattynufc]

beebplayer is spot on, rarely do I get lag if connected to my wifi connection.

lastfm is also good - though I really need to find a decent internet package on Orange that doesnt rip me off!