Darwin's Theories - android tag

Android Apps

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 22:32:00 GMT

A friend who just got an Android phone asked me what Apps I use. Here's an edited version of what I wrote back.

The phone comes with an adequate set of apps to start, but you'll want to download many more using the built-in Market app. Of the built in apps, unsurprisingly I use phone, contacts and text the most followed by Camera+Gallery. Oh, and the Alarm Clock (get to it from any sensible Clock app).; it wakes me up even when there's a power failure, which happens a few times a year out where I live.
The built-in Google Maps is your basic GPS. OSMAnd from the Market is the same idea but using Open StreetMap data. The built-in GMAIL app, or the slightly better K9 mailer, to read mail on the go.
Angry Birds is a high-end time sink, er, game. "Memory" is simpler time sink. Tons of other games, about 15 or 20 Sudoku variants.
All of the eBook readers have Android versions: Kobo for one has tons of books from Project Gutenberg for free download (something useful to do on those interminable subway rides).
Aloqa finds restaurants, coffee, shops, etc. near you, using the GPS or Phone Tower nav.
Androidify lets you make your own silly Android avatar.
Barcode Scanner (the one from zxing) lets you scan the QR codes that you see everywhere; they mostly contain URLs that open in the browser. It will also scan the barcode from eg., a can of soup and find that for you on the web.
Google Googles will take pictures of everyday things and (try to) identify them.
Everybody's got a News app these days; take your pick of CBC News, BBC News, CNN, Fox News, etc. news apps.
CamCard will scan somebody's business card and load it into your Contacts. You give them back the card and say "Thank you, I have it memorized". Get the $3 or $5 version, it's better than the free version.
CIA Fact Book has a quaint GUI but still useful. WikiDroid is a front end to WikiPedia (connected, doesn't pre-load the whole DB though it could be made to fit now that they support apps on the SDCard.
OI Safe keeps track of your passwords, encrypted. OI File Manager (and others) let you explore the device; works like a File Manager ("Explorer") on a desktop.
SL4A (Scripting Layer for Android) lets you write python, shell, and other scripts that deal with your phone (dial out, etc.).
WeatherEye for weather forecasts.
Xabber for SMPP chat, if you use that. There might be a version of Pidgin now, for all I know.
Connectbot is a decent SSH client.
There are literally tens of thousands of other apps; these are the main add-on ones that I have found time to look at and use. Language learning. Games. Spreadsheets. All this you find in the Market app; just hit the Search icon once in Market and type what you want. Have fun. Use lots of data.

It's Official: O'Reilly Android Cookbook

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:14:00 GMT

We've officially opened the site for Android developers to help build the world's best Android how-to site, If you've written any Android apps, please share what you've learned with your fellow developers, at androidcookbook.oreilly.com Sorry for the long name; if you're typing it longhand use androidcookbook.net or androidcookbook.com, whichever strikes your fancy. If you haven't written anything for Android yet but you know Java, or are any kind of developer, head on over, read some recipes, and submit comments to improve or clarify them!

Android on newer devices

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:08:00 GMT

The Freerunner is OK for its age, but it lacks a keyboard, a camera, 3G, and support from the official Android Market. Plus, it runs Android 1.6, whereas all the current phones run 2.0.1 or 2.1. So with considerable trepidation at the move to somewhat less-open open source, I broke down and bought the Motorola Milestone now that Telus has it available for sale in Canada with North American 3G frequencies. In fact, I bought the first one at one of the Toronto Telus stores, so maybe I bought the first one in Toronto. Anyway: So far so good; I hope to do a detailed writeup one of these days.

Android on FreeRunner

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:26:00 GMT

Android or FreeRunner, that is the question for those who want a mostly-open-source cell phone. At least it used to be. Now that Openmoko have all but discontinued development on the Freerunner hardware, the future looks more and more like Android. And while I had hoped someday to be able to run OpenBSD on the Freerunner, it looks like that won't happen. Fortunately, there is a good implementation of Android for the FreeRunner, available for free download from this Android on Freerunner site at GoogleCode. I've been using this for a few weeks and, while it's not 100% rock solid, it is very close. I think I've had to do the battery-out-to-reset two or three times in three weeks (not counting the time I used the Android as an alarm clock and woke up from such a slumber that I couldn't remember how to shut it off).