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Apps for Android |OT|

H

Horseticuffs

Full werewolf off the buckle
Guys, is there something which allows uploads directly to photo-hosting sites, and will give you a copy of the URL? Something like picup for iOS.

I found one that SEEMED like it might do the trick but all the text was in some Asian language and I couldn't tell.
 
F

f0lken

Member
How can I make my Galaxy Note to receive videos and music on DLNA?? I can just fine share with other devices but cannot make it in reverse
 
I

i-Lo

Member
Question pertaining to Nexus 7 HW, is there a way go into a lock mode where if I accidentally touch one of the buttons on its side, it doesn't affect it?
 
B

BiggNife

Member
A friend of mine downloaded the smartglass apk to his nexus 7 and says it works perfectly. Dunno why you can't download it directly from the store with one.
 
T

tino

Banned
Probably has to do with stupid dpi setting on the dev's part. I can't buy Photoshop Touch on my Galaxy Note but if I download it from other places I can install it.
 
B

BladeoftheImmortal

Member
Is there an app to stop apps from running in the background? For a rooted device?

I have 4.1 on my LG but its RAM isn't that good, so most of the new Google apps fill up the ram quickly is there one that lets me pick an app to force close and not open. Some of my apps, even when i close them with task manager, reopen themselves. I'd like that to stop.
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
BladeoftheImmortal said:
Is there an app to stop apps from running in the background? For a rooted device?

I have 4.1 on my LG but its RAM isn't that good, so most of the new Google apps fill up the ram quickly is there one that lets me pick an app to force close and not open. Some of my apps, even when i close them with task manager, reopen themselves. I'd like that to stop.
Click to expand...

Titanium Backup, Rom Toolbox, or anything else that lets you freeze apps.
 
J

Jayayess1190

Member
SwipePad: Hyperspace Launcher

Open a shortcut to anything with a single swipe from within anything

SwipePad is a launcher panel overlay. With a single swipe action, you can launch anything from within any app.

It's extraordinarily simple and intuitive to use:
1. Touch down a pre-set edge of the screen;
2. Move your finger towards the center of the screen so the pad will emerge;
3. Release your finger on a specific slot to action.
Click to expand...

Video demo
 
G

Gaaraz

Member
Amazing how people react to Swype - I installed it on my girlfriends phone ages ago but turned it off because I thought she didn't like it... whilst doing a basic demo for my mum yesterday (was going to give her my old iPhone if she wanted iOS) she couldn't get on with either keyboard, at which point my girlfriend mentioned "a really good keyboard that I uninstalled from her phone" and bam, they both found it so much easier than the normal keyboards - same with people at work today after I've mentioned it, everyone is downloading (and loving) Swype!

Quite funny that something I'd have thought would appeal more to power users actually is far more useful to people who actually aren't that familiar with technology, typing etc
 
B

Blackhead

Redarse
voodooray said:
Nice, will be curious to check it out as I've been using Wave Launcher for a while. Even though Wave Launcher is a paid app, I'm thinking it will be a fair bit more efficient in the amount of travel your gestures will need compared to this one, especially for the larger screens.
Click to expand...

Wave Launcher is also brilliant for its widget support. It's great for quickly peeking at some information without switching screens.
 
K

kurtrussell

Banned
BladeoftheImmortal said:
Is there an app to stop apps from running in the background? For a rooted device?

I have 4.1 on my LG but its RAM isn't that good, so most of the new Google apps fill up the ram quickly is there one that lets me pick an app to force close and not open. Some of my apps, even when i close them with task manager, reopen themselves. I'd like that to stop.
Click to expand...

Killing apps with a taskkiller is generally a bad idea:

What people don’t seem to realize is that Android is designed to have a large number of tasks stored in memory at all times. Why? Well basically we are talking about a mobile device. On a mobile device things tend to be slower. The hardware isn’t as robust as say a desktop or a laptop, so in order to get that same “snappy” feeling, there have to be workarounds.

One of these is how android deals with memory. Android will load up your apps and then keep them running until they absolutely HAVE to kill them. This is because that way, if you want to re-open an app, the system already has it loaded and can then just resume it instead of reloading it. This provides a significant performance increase.

What a lot of people don’t realize as well is that android kernels have their own task manager. This means that:

It will be more efficient than any app-based task manager as it is run at the kernel level, and it should be left up to that task killer to decide when to free up memory

There is only one case where having a task killer is a good idea, and that is when you want to kill ONE SPECIFIC APP. Killing all apps is never a good idea. You don’t know what operations they are performing or if they are necessary.
Click to expand...

And this part is key:

This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you’ll free by killing it. As we’ve learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.

Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the “autokill” feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it’s actually possible that this will worsen your phone’s performance and battery life. Whether you’re manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you’re actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn’t —killing apps that aren’t doing anything in the first place.
Click to expand...

There's a bunch more information here: Android taskkillers and why you don't need one
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
Fireblend said:
The default browser works wonders for me on Android 4.0+. Much better than Chrome, IMO.
Click to expand...

Doopliss said:
The stock Jelly Bean browser. It's the smoothest scrolling and with Quick Controls it has the best UI.
Click to expand...

besiktas1 said:
I'm stuck on ics :( HTC one x has upgraded yet.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the stock JB browser is the one to beat these days. If you're on ICS, however, I'd suggest trying out ICS Browser+. It's the stock browser but with customizable quick controls and some other extra options.

Chrome for Android sucks my balls.
 
C

Choppasmith

Member
kurtrussell said:
Mapdroyd. Just this. It can download the entire planet in advance if you want. Completely gratis.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...sMSwxLDMsImNvbS5vc2EuYW5kcm9pZC5tYXBkcm95ZCJd
Click to expand...

Just have to say I'm in New Zealand and I tried this and it's not working for me. Oh I downloaded the map in advance at home, but it seems the GPS on my phone (HTC Evo V on Virgin Mobile) will absolutely REFUSE to work if there's no Phone signal (Wi-fi doesn't cut it) and because of that, there's no way to actually find my location. Mapdroyd just pulls up my last known vacation when I accessed my GPS in the States. And there's no way to jump to a saved location.

Kind of annoyed, but I just wanted to get that out there in case any other Android users need Mapdroyd for the same reason I did.

Also, thought I'd try Beautiful Widgets weather widget, it's nice. I really like HTC's default Weather/Clock widget with all the animations, but what's really baffling is that they both use Accuweather and yet in HTC's widget it doesn't list Greymouth, NZ (where I'm staying) but Beautiful Widgets does. WTF?
 
M

MNC

Member
Reading Android 4.2 Changelog, that looks fucking sweet; but it made me wonder, is there maybe already an app to stream your videos from pc to android, or android to pc?

I think it's time to jump up from my HTC Desire to something new, soon.
 
H

Horseticuffs

Full werewolf off the buckle
Just gave Dolphin a try and I'm really loving it.

Much better browsing experience. Thanks, guys.

I'm loving Android mostly and glad I made the switch.
 
Y

yogloo

Member
Greyface said:
Wave Launcher is also brilliant for its widget support. It's great for quickly peeking at some information without switching screens.
Click to expand...

Well, I have wave launcher since forever but I didn't know about the awesome widget support. This is pretty cool.

Any recommendation for good widgets for this purpose?
Currently I am finding torchlight widget and aix weather useful with this.
 
K

kurtrussell

Banned
Choppasmith said:
Just have to say I'm in New Zealand and I tried this and it's not working for me. Oh I downloaded the map in advance at home, but it seems the GPS on my phone (HTC Evo V on Virgin Mobile) will absolutely REFUSE to work if there's no Phone signal (Wi-fi doesn't cut it) and because of that, there's no way to actually find my location. Mapdroyd just pulls up my last known vacation when I accessed my GPS in the States. And there's no way to jump to a saved location.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that - it sounds really weird.

I go to the Primavera Festival in Barcelona every May and I always use Mapdroyd as a means of finding out where I am. I've used it on a Nexus 1 and an Xperia Play, both with data disabled and it has always worked brilliantly for me. You obviously don't get navigation features, but as a means of viewing where you are and what's around you, I've found it indispensable.

Do you have access to another Android phone you may be able to test this on? Have you tried contacting the Mapdroyd authors? It really sounds to me as if it's either a phone bug, or your operators have locked your phone down to stop you using GPS without data. Why they would do this, I have no clue...
 
G

Gaaraz

Member
I feel like I'm missing something here, but really not a fan of ICS Browser+ or Quick Browser... firstly they both seem almost identical to each other, but more importantly they're both completely devoid of any sort of help system to guide you through the features... even finding the address bar (in both apps!) is an absolute faff.

Nightmare.
 
J

jokkir

Member
Gaaraz said:
I feel like I'm missing something here, but really not a fan of ICS Browser+ or Quick Browser... firstly they both seem almost identical to each other, but more importantly they're both completely devoid of any sort of help system to guide you through the features... even finding the address bar (in both apps!) is an absolute faff.

Nightmare.
Click to expand...

Just enable quick controls and the URL bar should be easy to get to
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
Gaaraz said:
I feel like I'm missing something here, but really not a fan of ICS Browser+ or Quick Browser... firstly they both seem almost identical to each other, but more importantly they're both completely devoid of any sort of help system to guide you through the features... even finding the address bar (in both apps!) is an absolute faff.

Nightmare.
Click to expand...

Wow. A help system? Just look through the settings. Everything is self-explanatory.
 
G

Gaaraz

Member
jokkir said:
Just enable quick controls and the URL bar should be easy to get to
Click to expand...
Thanks, that was my problem with both I guess - quick controls aren't active by default, so AFAIK there is no other way to get to the address bar?

Also the icon for the address bar is used in many other apps and has an entirely different function across those apps. Guess it's just lacking in consistency, maybe that's something I'll get used to as I adjust more from iOS.

Still unsure what makes these browsers better than Chrome though? They have (very basic) gestures which is nice, but on iOS Chrome was amazing... 3 finger tap go to full screen, two finger gestures etc etc
 
M

mclem

Member
Way back on the first page Perfect Viewer was mentioned as a comic reading app. Is that still the app of choice, or has something superseded it?
 
M

mannerbot

Member
mclem said:
Way back on the first page Perfect Viewer was mentioned as a comic reading app. Is that still the app of choice, or has something superseded it?
Click to expand...

I like Perfect Viewer a lot. Only tried that and A Comic Viewer, but Perfect Viewer does everything I need it to.
 
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