Essential Android Apps

[Cuchulain]

I think I've finally got my phone as I want it, at least until 2.2

Weather Widgets never worked properly, it constantly told me I was in Lifford and the clock never seemed to update so I've gone back to Sense with the normal weather widget. I use aTAKEphONE as my dialer, ChompSMS for texting, Astro for a file manager, Navigon for GPS (I live very close to the border with Ireland and roaming data charges are expensive so despite preferring Google maps, I'm not using them), Skyfire for streaming video's, Smart Keyboard as a replacement er .. keyboard, Juice Defender (which I'm sure isn't working properly) to save battery life and Advanced Task Killer to dump all the background tasks left running when I'm not using the phone.

Just a few things left to get and I'll be finally satisfied, I want an LED torch app that'll use the "Flash" setting for more than 2 seconds and I want a decent Facebook app. as the Android one is absolutely crap.

 

[mrk]

The official Facebook app works well and there are a few torch apps out there BUT running the torch via LED for too long will destroy the LED flash due to overheating so do not use it for long periods at anything above the lowest brightness.

Btw the task killers won't save you any battery, background "apps" do not consume any resources unless they're tasking away (LastFM playing for example in the background).

Android is pretty efficient with memory and usage like Windows 7.

 

[Cuchulain]

The official Facebook app works well and there are a few torch apps out there BUT running the torch via LED for too long will destroy the LED flash due to overheating so do not use it for long periods at anything above the lowest brightness.

Btw the task killers won't save you any battery, background "apps" do not consume any resources unless they're tasking away (LastFM playing for example in the background).

Android is pretty efficient with memory and usage like Windows 7.

Good job I never paid for that task killer, turns out you're right, they're a waste of memory.

As for the facebook app, it's just not as polished as the iPhone app, most of my friends photo albums throw errors or don't appear yet they show fine on the iPhone.

 

[413x]

I may uninstall that torch un that case

 

[griffo_001]

The official Facebook app works well and there are a few torch apps out there BUT running the torch via LED for too long will destroy the LED flash due to overheating so do not use it for long periods at anything above the lowest brightness.

Btw the task killers won't save you any battery, background "apps" do not consume any resources unless they're tasking away (LastFM playing for example in the background).

Android is pretty efficient with memory and usage like Windows 7.

They do have their uses though, some badly written apps slow me down a lot, and some crash all together, but don't F/C; those are the only times you need one, and even then its only for specific apps

Task killers have been known to mess with the alarm and clock, as well as widgets, so killing all you tasks is best avoided (Unless you enjoy being late to work )

 

[Camalot]

Can someone post the link to get the nexus media viewer on desire please.

edit - found

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=653503

 

[mrk]

Can someone post the link to get the nexus media viewer on desire please.

http://cocaman.ch/wp/2010/05/cooliris-gallery3d-download-for-htc-desire/

 

[Camalot]

Is there any kind of app where you can touch water? Bit like the live wallpaper?

 

[V_R]

Launcher Pro's been updated, few new features and a few fixes.

 

[Psypher5]

that dev is a pro. Hats off to him


doesnt feel as smooth (bouncy) ? edit: something clicked, seems ok now. lol

 

[Danger Phoenix]

Launcher Pro's been updated, few new features and a few fixes.

Not all widgets work... otherwise good

 

[V_R]

What are you finding thats broke?

 

[Fegruson]

Are there any apps that allow you to are network devices and maybe shared files?

 

[mrk]

ES File Manager

Launcher Pri update is nice, landscape rotation ***!

 

[iMacMart]

Is there anyway to totally uninstall the facebook app and install it from scratch again, can only seem to get the updates off not the main install?

 

[413x]

Why do I get the low space warning when I have 14 mb left?
Also I opened es manager and it crashed my phone.. had to remove the battery! Is it just the same as astro or are there extra features?

 

[V_R]

Is there anyway to totally uninstall the facebook app and install it from scratch again, can only seem to get the updates off not the main install?

You can just delete the apk, and the file in data/data if you want, or use Root Manager (paid App)

Or you may be able to do it via Droid Explorer, but i've not tried it myself.

 

[V4NT0M]

Btw the task killers won't save you any battery, background "apps" do not consume any resources unless they're tasking away (LastFM playing for example in the background).

But how do you know that an app isn't "tasking away" in the background, just because it's not producing any sound or video doesn't mean it's not taking any resources.

If I don't task kill regularly my phone gets slow as apps like to stay running, whether it's memory or CPU cycles the impact is real on performance and though I haven't run android without a task killer for a long time I'm pretty sure my battery life was abysmal before using one.

 

[mrk]

That sounds more like a limitation on your device itself, RAM? Newer device owners don't have this kind of issue.

Android will just rerun tasked services (sync apps, widget polls and so on) - you can view these from the Running Services area in Manage Apps.

Unless there are badly coded apps there should be no such issue either way.

 

[V_R]

I use this to keep an eye on what goes on in the background. Its a paid app though.

http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.artfulbits.aiSystemWidget