Yesterday, Carly posted a response to Boy Genius Report’s thoughts on some deficiencies in the Android experience. In that post, she described how to select text to copy and paste on her Motorola Droid (or any Android device with a keyboard). But how do you do this on a device without a hardware keyboard, such as the Nexus One?
I just bought my Droid a few weeks ago, and I’ve been testing various programs and getting acquainted with Android 2.0. In the stock configuration, 2.0 only has 3 “home screens” for widgets and quick app access. A few quick scans around various Android forums, and I found out about one “home replacement” program that seemed to add a lot of functionality in addition to an extra home screen: DXTop.
(image courtesy of petitinvention) Welcome to the final State of the eBook for 2009! It has been a big year for eBooks, and I am going to do my best to cover a timeline of the high points, as well as a few things to look forward to in 2010. Rather than do a traditional timeline of events, I thought I’d break it down by the year in highlights per company/platform, and then a few predictions and news items to look forward to in 2010!
One of the first things that people install on their Android phones is some sort of application to kill background applications. In fact, as Carly noted today, Verizon employees suggested she install “Advanced Task Killer” to help stop applications running in the background. Why not use the functionality that’s already built-in to Android for this?
I was perusing Androidforums.com today for some software tips and stumbled on a few threads that maintained there was no reason to use a task killer with Android. These posters maintained that the OS was efficient enough to shut down programs that weren’t necessary and manage memory without a 3rd party intervention.
Sometimes it’s the simple apps that really make a difference. That is what Toshl for Android does. Toshl is a simple expense tracker. It doesn’t have a tone of options and it’s not really designed for putting a expense report together for a business. However, what it is good for is tracking personal expenses. There are basically only two tabs. First is the Timeline. This shows your expenses you have already entered in descending order. The most current expense is at the top. At the bottom you have a add expense button. Tapping that gets you into entry mode.
When out and about, sometimes you got a few minutes to kill. SPBTV for Android phones can help you use up a few of those minutes with a little mindless entertainment or a news update from overseas. SPB TV is an application that streams live TV from the Internet directly to your phone. It has a nice interface and some of the streams even have an on-screen guide to what is coming up next.
In talking with people that send text messages (SMS), one of the most frequent things I hear is that they wish they could save some of their SMS messages. Many of them have lost their messages forever if their phone is damaged/replaced/upgraded, or they run out of room and are forced to delete them. There is a very useful application for Android called SMS Backup that helps you save your SMS messages to Gmail so you can keep them forever.
Since I got my G1, I have been interested in viewing documents on my G1. However that was not possible, except for PDF files. I was able to quickly find a good PDF viewer in IcViewer. However, there have been times that I would like to create a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. Since there is no Open Office port for Android, I had to make do with some note apps, bringing the text into a document once I got back to my desk. Once that was done, I either had to print to a PDF file to view it…
Android has a built in IM client that is actually pretty good. It supports a lot of the instant messaging services, but does not support any of the new chats like Facebook chat or Skype. Nimbuzz has finally released a client for the Android operating system that supports Facebook and Skype as well as Live Messenger, Yahoo Instant Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, My Space, Study VZm SchuelerVZ, Gadu Gadu, Hyves,Jabber and Giovani. Most of these other services Nimbuzz supports I have never heard of.
I reviewed Sherpa yesterday. While it was very good, it was slow as molasses. Where GPS, or what most of my friends just call Where, is an app that does a lot of what Sherpa does and more. It does it very fast. At the core, Where utilities your phone’s GPS in almost every aspect of its operation. You can manually change to any location by entering in a Zip code, so you can use this for trip planning as well. When you first launch Where, it asks if you are still where you were the last time you ran…
One of the most touted apps on the new T-Mobile myTouch 3G is Sherpa. Sherpa gives you a unique way to discover things near your current location. Geodelic, the company behind Sherpa has put a lot of work into its interface, and it’s a very beautiful app for Android based phones. It is also now available on the Android Marketplace, so I installed it on my G1 and gave it a spin.
It’s been a month now since I posted my first impressions, and it’s time to fess up my thoughts on the HTC Magic. Truth be told, it has truly surprised me! User Interface The Android user interface is simple yet elegant, and was definitely designed with finger actions in mind. Unlike Windows Mobile, Android never makes you wish for a stylus. Icons are nicely sized, menus are large and the flicking motions to advance lists, web pages and menus become second nature as soon as you start using the phone. For some reason Android feels a lot nicer on the…
When outside or planning to go outside, checking the current weather conditions is usually the first thing I do. With WeatherBug for Android , it’s a simple swipe and a tap to find out what is going on outside. The WeatherBug app is a lot like the desktop counterpart. It has the current temperature in the notification area and it will optionally use the integrated GPS to change it’s location automatically. That is a fantastic idea and one I use a lot when traveling through the greater Columbus area.
There are a lot of free apps in the Android Marketplace. One app that I came across recently is the Handmark Express News.
So you’ve got your iPhone all up and running on 3.0, eh? Maybe it’s now time to finally “mobilize” your website or application, but you are not a programmer. Widget Press has you covered with a rapid application development tool called ModelBaker, which provides a drag-and-drop interface that will create an application for iPhones or Android devices without coding.
Google has launched a brand new Gmail mobile web engine for the iPhone and Android devices. The change incorporates HTML5 and Google Gears for Mobile, which will allow you to access your Gmail and other gear-enabled applications offline (not that anyone ever loses their 3G data connection…right?…right? *cough*).
It’s been over a year since I have looked at anything from SDG Systems, but it is time to do so again. SDG is now working with Koolu on the Openmoko Neo Freerunner. Not only are they working with the standard Openmoko firmware, but they are also working on getting Google’s Android Operating System working on the Freerunner. I will touch on both operating systems in this review, but first let’s look at the hardware.