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iPhone / iPad / BlackBerry / Android Application Reviews

Discussion in 'Technical Board' started by Nettdata, Dec 1, 2009.

  1. john_b

    john_b
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    Re: iPhone / BlackBerry / Android Application Reviews

    [​IMG]

    Platform: Droid

    App: Droidlight by Motorola

    Cost: Free

    If you ever use your phone's screen as a flashlight, try this app instead. It turns on the camera flash led so that you can use it as a flashlight. It's come in handy several times. The LED is brighter than the screen.
     
  2. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    Re: iPhone / BlackBerry / Android Application Reviews

    Well, just finished a Scotland trip, and I had my iPad with me.

    Bought a sim card with a 1gb pay-as-you-go data plan for 10£

    Between google maps and a killer app called Wikihood it was fucking awesome.

    Gps location figures out where you are and then figures out the stuff near you and combines maps and wikipedia to let you be your own tour guide.

    Was phenomenal with all the historical info and sites at your fingertips.

    If you're trying for a somewhat informative trip, I highly recommend it.
     
  3. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    AirVideo

    Let's me stream just about any video from my desktop Mac/PC to my iPad. Converts the video on the fly.

    Amazing and totally worth the $3

    Dinner outside, in the courtyard, smoking a cigar? Ipad is there streaming whatever I want to watch.

    Way easier than lugging the laptop around.

    Also works with the iPhone but I haven't tried it, and really don't feel the need to since the iPad is so better suited to it.
     
  4. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    Oh. And those iPad detractors can blow me. I consider myself a power user, and have found it to be one of the most convenient and useful gadgets I've ever owned.
     
  5. Arms Akimbo

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    I'm looking for an app for my Android phone. Basically, I want something that gives me more control over when my phone goes off. For instance, for the alarm clock to work, I need the sound turned up, but that also means text messages will wake me up. I'd like to be able to have like a late-night setting where every other sound works (calls and alarm) but not text messages.
     
  6. john_b

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    I just tried this on my Droid with Android 2.2 and you can go to Settings-->Volume and turn the notification volume down to nothing (muting texts) and the alarm clock will still make noise.
     
  7. john_b

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    I was drunk when I did this. I was just looking now (because I was turning notifications off) and in my volume settings there's actually one for Alarm and one for Notifications. Duh on my part.
     
  8. Binary

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    Platform: iOS & Android

    App: iBird

    Cost: Varies depending on version and platform. iBird Explorer Pro (reviewed here) is $30 in the App Store and $20 as an introductory price in the Android market.

    Review:

    Okay, so I'm a nerd. I get it. But even non-nerds should recognize the absolutely astounding amount of information that has been packed into this series of apps.

    The iBird Explorer Pro is what I paid for because to purchase the equivalent bird books would be hundreds of dollars and you wouldn't get half of the rich media associated with this app. Basically, this app is a well designed, locally hosted, super convenient dump of <a class="postlink" href="http://www.whatbird.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">www.whatbird.com</a>. There are 924 species of birds in North America and this app has them all. It has illustrations of most genders/stages of the birds, along with photos to help in identification. There are text descriptions of the birds, their nesting habits, where they are likely to be found, how and what they eat, and so on. There are range maps. The songs of most of the birds have been recorded and can be played back. Ecology is listed, similar birds are listed, and there are links to profiles on birdpedia.com and to perform a quick search on flickr.

    You can search by about a billion different things, including size, shape, colors, where they were located (region as well as things like "in the backyard" vs. "in the woods"), song pattern, time of the year, etc. There are also places to tag notes regarding the birds, or to star them as a favorite, or whatever.

    It's really an astounding amount of information packed into one place, and it's all offline (except for the birdpedia and flickr searches) so it's fast and requires no cell coverage.

    While this is really an app targeted at hardcore birders, I find $20-30 to be a pretty paltry amount of money to have this high quality of an application for even the casual person who just wants to identify what's perched on their picnic table when camping, or to find out what frequents your backyard.

    There are a few flavors of the app, the "backyard" version identifies most common feeder species, and there are regional versions available in the App Store. While $30 is an expensive app, the equivalent books are far more, have no rich media (the songs alone are worth the cost), and require you to look like a dork lugging a bird book. You may be a dork, but there's no need to advertise.
     
  9. Nettdata

    Nettdata
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    Mr. Toast

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    Camera+ <a class="postlink" href="http://campl.us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://campl.us</a>

    The latest has been released, and it is SO worth the $1.

    If you take any pics with your iPhone, you owe it to yourself to spend the buck.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. Fernanthonies

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    Location:
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    Platform: Android

    App: Tasker

    Cost: Currently $6.30 on AppBrain.

    Home page

    Tasker on AppBrain

    Tasker is a pretty amazing app. It basically gives you the ability to write little scripts to automate your phone in almost any way you want. Here are some of the things you can do:

    • Pop up a list of music apps when you plug in your headphones.
    • Turn your phone to silent when the screen is oriented downwards (when you lay it face down on a table/desk etc.)
    • Make your ringer silent or loud based on the time of day. (Or turn wifi on/off, etc.)
    • Turn GPS tracking on when you open Google Maps, and then turn GPS off again when you close maps.
    • A whole lot more.

    Do a Google search for "Android Tasker" or something along those lines and you will find a whole ton of stuff you can do with this app. $6+ seems expensive for an app, but this one is totally worth it.
     
  11. dubyu tee eff

    dubyu tee eff
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    Thinks he has a chance with Christina Hendricks...

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    I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this, but does anyone have any experience rooting an android? I keep hearing very polarized opinions on it. Some people say android is pointless without rooting and that root apps are far superior to regular apps. Others say it really isn't that important and more than anything, just a badge of honor for android nerds. I looked through some of the available apps and nothing struck me as something I really wanted (especially not in the face of the cost of voiding the warranty). However, people claim the speed boost alone is worth it. Any thoughts?
     
  12. Binary

    Binary
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    So, first I should clarify:

    Rooting does not do anything to your phone. This seems to be a pretty big misconception. Everyone worried about "will my phone break if I root it?" or "can I get updates if I'm rooted?" or whatever.

    Rooting only provides access to superuser privileges on your phone. Nothing changes except when you want to go into a restricted area of your phone, you can now get there. You can root your phone and never modify a thing.

    What you can do with rooting, is a whole other ball game. You can't generalize it one way or another, just like you can't say, "modifying cars is only a badge of honor for car geeks" or "modifying cars makes them faster." Some modifications will make your phone faster. Some won't. It depends on the phone and what you want to do with it.

    My Droid X is rooted, slightly overclocked and I have a custom ROM on it (bad nomenclature, but that's what people call it - it's a custom OS). It's a lot faster than stock and removes a lot of what I didn't like about Motorola's customizations to the OS, not to mention taking all the ugly white/grey parts out and theming it black. I also have Titanium Backup, which lets me back up all of my apps, and a wireless tether application that lets me use the phone as a wifi hotspot for free.

    So... it's worth it if you're interested in that kind of thing. Apps are easy, but if you want to modify the OS or theme your phone, you have to do some reading, be cautious with what you change, and know what to do if you break something.
     
  13. cargasm66

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    Any recommendations on a exercise journal app? I need something easy to track weights/sets/reps, and I prefer free, although I'm willing to shell out a couple bucks if it's worth it. Also, if there's a better nutrition tracker than the LoseIt app, I'd like to hear those, too!
     
  14. scootah

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    I can't sell Tasker strongly enough. Being on call - I can do things like set up my phone to ring or not ring based on who's calling me and what time of day it is, set up my volume settings to change when alarms are about to go off. Set GPS boundaries so that my phone doesn't ring while I'm in the gym. The list goes on and on. Any event that your phone is aware of can trigger pretty much any condition your phone can reasonably implement. This app alone is enough to sell me on Android over Apple regardless of any other consideration.
     
  15. cargasm66

    cargasm66
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    I'm looking for a to-do/Task list iPhone app where other people can add tasks to my list (pref from Android/Web). I tried one called "Remember the Milk" but sending tasks isn't supported within the iPhone app. Any recommendations?
     
  16. scootah

    scootah
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    Android users - I'm looking for something like Snapbucket or Magic Hour (camera app with filters and sync to social media/photo storage service) that includes the ability to crop a photo.

    Any app developers know why it's so hard to find a photo editor with an option to crop photos?
     
  17. Malignity

    Malignity
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    I've spent a while trying to find an app for android that allows me to forward an email as a text message (SMS).

    Can anyone recommend one?
     
  18. joule_thief

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    Edit: sorry, had the order backwards.

    This might be helpful:
    <a class="postlink" href="http://lifehacker.com/5458083/back-up-your-sms-messages-to-a-gmail-label-on-android" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://lifehacker.com/5458083/back-up-y ... on-android</a>
     
  19. Celos

    Celos
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    Location:
    Estonia
    Platform: Android

    App: Gmote

    Cost: FREE

    Basically turns your phone into a remote for your PC. Allows you to control your mouse and keyboard, browse the web and play media files. Windows, Linux and Mac are all supported.

    This app has immensely increased my procrastinating powers. No more getting up to queue up the next episode of The Daily Show.
     
  20. Diablo

    Diablo
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    Location:
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    Platform: Android

    App: Gtunes Music

    Price: FREE!!

    It's basically Limewire for your phone. Search for music, download it, keep it. It's that easy. No signups or anything. Not sure how it's legal, but it's still around.