New essential Android apps thread

Scottland · 20 Apr 2015 at 10:01

adaway

kona786 · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:16

+1 to Adaway.

Can anyone recommend a good screen recorder? also have root.

Belloni · 21 Apr 2015 at 19:55

Is anyone else having problems with twitter notifications? Past month or so, I don't get notification from my favourites people? Says "there was a problem updating notification".

kona786 · 21 Apr 2015 at 20:18

I've noticed this new animation on the Play Store...how the app icon transitions to the next page is :cool:

slipd · 23 Apr 2015 at 19:13

Hi guys,

Updated my Z1c to Lollipop last night and although it seemed to work at first it appears that the BBC Weather widgets have all disappeared - I'm guessing they're unsupported at the moment in Lollipop?

While I wait, any recommendations for a weather app/widget?

Thanks.

djjuk · 23 Apr 2015 at 19:33

slipd said:
Hi guys,

Updated my Z1c to Lollipop last night and although it seemed to work at first it appears that the BBC Weather widgets have all disappeared - I'm guessing they're unsupported at the moment in Lollipop?

While I wait, any recommendations for a weather app/widget?

Thanks.

BBC weather widgets working fine on my Z3 following lollipop upgrade for reference.

slipd · 23 Apr 2015 at 19:34

djjuk said:
BBC weather widgets working fine on my Z3 following lollipop upgrade for reference.

Really, they've totally vanished from mine... could it be because I moved the Weather app to my SD card? If so, is there any way of getting the widget back? The app still works fine btw.

DIABLO · 23 Apr 2015 at 21:38

slipd said:
Really, they've totally vanished from mine... could it be because I moved the Weather app to my SD card? If so, is there any way of getting the widget back? The app still works fine btw.

Restart the phone, i had the same when i last updated my Nexus 5

Rimsy · 23 Apr 2015 at 22:02

slipd said:
Really, they've totally vanished from mine... could it be because I moved the Weather app to my SD card? If so, is there any way of getting the widget back? The app still works fine btw.

yes its likely. apps with widgets and sdcards don't generally play nice (another reason why SD cards are pooh!)

Orcvader · 23 Apr 2015 at 23:33

Apps on SD cards will not show the widget option, they need to be on the main memory for their widgets to be avaliable. Been like that since the early days of Android.

Hamster · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:22

What's the quickest way of getting a camera picture from phone to pc, automatically and wirelessly? At the moment, I use Dropbox camera upload but it can take over a minute sometimes and isn't reliable enough for me.

joelk2 · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:30

Hamster said:
What's the quickest way of getting a camera picture from phone to pc, automatically and wirelessly? At the moment, I use Dropbox camera upload but it can take over a minute sometimes and isn't reliable enough for me.

File Manager HD (free) can browse network folders (if on same network as computer)

you can cut/copy and paste

dbmzk1 · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:32

Hamster said:
What's the quickest way of getting a camera picture from phone to pc, automatically and wirelessly? At the moment, I use Dropbox camera upload but it can take over a minute sometimes and isn't reliable enough for me.

Loads of apps can do it now. None are necessarily instant and may take a minute or two.

Google Drive
Dropbox
Amazon Photos
Plex
QuickPic
FolderSync

etc

Hamster · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:33

joelk2 said:
File Manager HD (free) can browse network folders (if on same network as computer)

you can cut/copy and paste

Thanks. I can do that manually but i was looking for something that works similar to dropbox camera upload, in that I don't have to do anything on the phone after taking the pic in order for the pics to be pushed to the pc.

dbmzk1 said:
Loads of apps can do it now. None are necessarily instant and may take a minute or two.

Google Drive
Dropbox
Amazon Photos
Plex
QuickPic
FolderSync

etc

Thanks. I shall experiment!! Which of those is the quickest, in your experience?

joelk2 · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:34

Hamster said:
Thanks. I can do that manually but i was looking for something that works similar to dropbox camera upload, in that I don't have to do anything on the phone after taking the pic in order for the pics to be pushed to the pc.

bit torrent sync is supposed to work like that, i tried it in its infancy but couldnt get it to work. (want my phone to automatically back up to my home server)

i ended up using plex sync (need to be a premium plex user) but still that's temperamental and it doesn't do video

i plan on giving bit torrent sync another go though as it appears to have come on a lot since when i tried it.

AndyCr15 · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:35

I would be surprised if Dropbox wasn't the fastest way of doing that.

When you say 'isn't reliable enough', what problems do you have? I've been using it years and I don't think I've ever had reliability issues.

Hamster · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:36

joelk2 said:
bit torrent sync

I'll add that to the list of things to look into. Thanks

AndyCr15 said:
I would be surprised if Dropbox wasn't the fastest way of doing that.

When you say 'isn't reliable enough', what problems do you have? I've been using it years and I don't think I've ever had reliability issues.

Occasionally the photos don't upload until I've opened up the dropbox camera upload folder on the pc. Also it can take anything from 20 seconds to well over a minute for a picture to appear in that folder.

joelk2 · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:37

AndyCr15 said:
I would be surprised if Dropbox wasn't the fastest way of doing that.

When you say 'isn't reliable enough', what problems do you have? I've been using it years and I don't think I've ever had reliability issues.

dropbox is pretty limited though due to online storage space.

Hamster · 27 Apr 2015 at 16:38

joelk2 said:
dropbox is pretty limited though due to online storage space.

That's not really an issue for me. Got 48GB with my Samsung phone for 2 years.

AndyCr15 · 27 Apr 2015 at 18:32

Hamster said:
Occasionally the photos don't upload until I've opened up the dropbox camera upload folder on the pc. Also it can take anything from 20 seconds to well over a minute for a picture to appear in that folder.

That sounds odd. Why/how would your phone even know if you've opened a folder on your PC???

I just took a picture and timed it 25 seconds to my PC folder. I think you'll struggle to find something quicker. It has to go from your phone, to the cloud, then back to your PC.

If you find something that goes direct, you probably wont have the reliability and automation of Dropbox.

Taking longer that a minute would indicate your phone has upload speed issues I would think.

joelk2 said:
dropbox is pretty limited though due to online storage space.

I don't have the Samsung 50gb any more and still have 28GB through free offers and such. Alternatively, use Copy which gives much more free space (I think I have about 170GB) and also has a photo backup service.