Be Excellent To Each Other

Every so often someone gets an Android phone, and they ask in the thread for recommendations, and a few people pop in and recommend a few things, but we don't really have any kind of definitive list. So I thought I'd make one. I'm promising nothing, but I'll try and keep the first post updated. I'll start with what I can dig out of the old thread...
Every so often I come across a big round up post that I did, most of them seem to be full of apps that I don't use anymore, so I'm assuming the same about apps that other people have mentioned, don't take it personally. I trawled through 57 pages of Android thread and basically copy & pasted my last app round up. If you've got anything to add, add it.

Apps:

Music
Audio Galaxy - Play your music from your pc on your phone - seems to work pretty well, start the app on your pc, pick some folders, log in on your phone and play. You can browse by album/artist/genre and create and save playlists.
Radio Time - stream radio stations from anywhere
G-Tunes is good for listening to music and stealing it too
BluePlayList - Can sync with your pc to play music from that, but also allows you to search for music from "anywhere" - still seems to be going, but I'm sure once a couple of record companies hear about it, there'll be a shitstorm
SoundHound - Tells you what music is. Like Shazam (which you can also get)

TV/Film/Video/Whatever
BBC iPlayer - iPlayer
Sky+ - If you've got Sky+/HD, then you can set this up to record programmes for you, even if you haven't it's the best tv guide I could find.
IMDb - IMDb
Orange Wednesday - If you can get Orange Wednesday codes (legitimately or otherwise), then you can store the details in this app and get the codes. It's also a pretty handy guide of what films are on where and when

Twitter
Plume - Twitter app. Like the iPhone version, the Twitter devs appear to be on some sort of self-destruct mission to alienate all their users, so the official Twitter client has been downgraded from "essential" to "shit". This is my client of choice at the moment, but it's not perfect and it depends what you want out of a Twitter client.




Android Agenda Widget - widget to display what's going on in your google calendars for the next couple of months
AK Notepad - A notepad
Amazon Kindle - A kindle app
Astro - File manager. You have to pay for the ad-free version, and to be honest, if you're going to pay, you're probably better off getting Root Explorer and if you're not, something like eStrongs
Chrome To Phone - send stuff from your browser to your phone. Requires plug-in for your browser (I think, does Chrome need a plug-in to do this?)
GO SMS (or Handcent) - Replacement messaging app - either is good

Kaloer Clock - A clock, if you want to use your phone as a clock. Clock.
Key Ring - Allows you to store multiple cards on your phone (like supermarket cards). I've only actually got a Tesco card on there, and I've never thought to use it any of the times I've found myself in Tesco without my clubcard.
LCD Density Changer - Requires Root (I think, at least to make the changes permanent) - Changes the pixel density of your screen to give the illusion of a higher res, so you can fit more stuff in - can break your phone,

OurGroceries - Shopping list app, can share across multiple devices with clients for Android (duh), iOS, Blackberry and web
Phone My PC - Like VNC, but not (I think there's a VNC app, but I haven't tried it)
Pkt Auction Ebay - eBay app, there is an official one, but I used this one first and can't see a reason to change
ScummVM - Uh oh, an emulator, how did that get on here? It's ScummVM, for your phone. Just go and download Secret of Monkey Island from somewhere and play it.
SGS Tools - Tools specifically for the Samsung Galaxy S. Probably needs root for some, if not all of them.
ShootMe - Screenshot app
Soccer Livescores - Live Scores. For "Football"
Tasker - Make your phone do certain things at certain times, or in certain places, or when certain other things happen, or... etc
Titanium Backup - Backup things. Requires root to get the best out of it, not sure if you can do anything useful without it.
Google Sky Maps - It's brilliant. Turn it on, point your phone at the night sky, and it tells you what star you're looking at. Tell it to search for something (like Sirius, or Venus) and it'll draw arrows until you're facing the right way.
Widget Locker - Replaces your lockscreen and allows you to add widgets, shortcuts and custom sliders
Simply Cyandie it's a daily Cyanide and happiness comic.
Flashlight - Flashlight app which is pretty good on my desire. It uses the phone camera light to shine.
Colour note - a good app for taking notes. can make text notes and checklists, I basically use it for shopping lists and also remembering things.
Advanced Task Killer - a fairly standard task killing app but it also has a widget for the home screen, one press and it kills everything. Which is handy if you're running anything slower than a Desire. - Disclaimer - People "in the know" reckon that task killers are a bad idea, but if they work, then they work.
NewsRob - decent Google Reader thing. There's a free (ad-supported) version and one for quid or something.
My Tracks - Google app for tracking walks/runs/rides
Listen - Google app for podcasts, best out there in my opinion
Velocycle - turns any smartphone into a bike computer that you'd otherwise pay a couple of hundred notes for.
SMS Backup & Restore - Backs up SMS. And restores them.
Dropbox - How did I ever live without dropbox?
Endomondo is a brilliant free app (with a pay for pro version) for gps distance tracking, calorie burning, speed for walkers etc.

Games:
Word Feud - Scrabble
Words With Friends - Scrabble, but shit
aGibbits which is a puzzle shooter shooting arrows at people hanging to save them.
Slice it - is another ok game. You've got to slice shapes into a certain number of shapes using only a certain number of slices.
Ninjump is an addictive little game involving getting a Ninja as far up a wall as you can.
180 Ultra - puzzle game where you need a lot of fingers.
Karoshi - Platform/puzzle game where you have to work out how to kill yourself on each level.
Mini Squadron - Shoot things with planes
PewPew & PewPew 2 - Geometry Wars
Traffic Control - guide cars to the right, er, bits.
X Construction - Make bridges! Listen to people fall to their death!
Drisk - an absolutely fantastic Risk game with multiple maps and up to six CPU AI players. Not free, but well worth the couple quid, I play it practically every subway journey.
Plants vs Zombies - It's Plants vs Zombies. But for Android. Oh, and you can't actually get it yet. And it has stupidly high system requirements.
Alien Overkill - Kill aliens
Apparatus - Construct things to get a ball in a hole
Battleheart - Japanese RPG battle thingy
Chalk Ball - Draw lines with chalk to keep a ball in play
Chuzzle - Stupidly addictive Popcap game
Dante Inferno - Top down puzzle solving thingy
Death Worm - Bit like rampage, but you're underground instead of climbing buildings
Diversion - Installed a fantastic 3D platformer called Diversion the other day. You only have to tap to jump at the right time and you are constantly running forward. Simple idea but well executed and very addictive with 100s of levels each progressively harder. Great stuff, I think it was free as well although if not it was very cheap.
Enviro Bear - Words cannot describe the genius. You're a bear, driving a car. Eat fish, then get back to your cave.
Geared - Place gears to connect a to b
Guerilla Bob - Twin stick shooter thingy
Homerun Battle 3D - Like the Baseball bit from Wii Sports, but you don't get to swing your phone round.
Hyperlight - Like Geometry Wars, but you fly into things to kill them
I Must Run! - Keep running over roof tops, jump every so often.
Last Stand - Kill Zombies
Link It - Arrange pearls to connect beams of light
Meganoid - Left, Right, Jump platformer
Pacific Navy Fighters - Makes me wish someone would bring Pilotwings out (I know there's a snes emulator, but I mean with tilty controls)
Refraction - Deflektor-ish type game, but without the fixed mirrors. Oh, and with prisms.
Super Drill Panic - Bit of a pointless fall-down-a-hole-sim
Symphony of Eternity - Final Fantasy-em-up
Turbo Fly 3D - Wipeout style racer.
What the Doodle - Should've mentioned this ages ago. Basically, it's Pictionary in a Word Feud style. Haven't played it in ages though and haven't tried playing it against someone that wasn't in the same room (or at least the same building).
Yoo Ninja - You control a ninja who keeps running from left to right. Tap to make him jump and run along the ceiling. Avoid stuff, don't fall out of the screen (top or bottom)
Zombie Fields - Kill Zombies

Note to self: tidy up first post.

Ha, I like the games.

I also have "Simply Cyandie" it's a daily Cyanide and happiness comic.
a game called aGibbits which is a puzzle shooter shooting arrows at people hanging to save them.
There's a flashlight app which is pretty good on my desire called Flashlight. It uses the phone camera light to shine.
Colour note - a good app for taking notes. can make text notes and checklists, I basically use it for shopping lists and also remembering things.
Slice it - is another ok game. You've got to slice shapes into a certain number of shapes using only a certain number of slices.

Ninjump is an addictive little game involving getting a Ninja as far up a wall as you can.

After skimming through all of the last thread I'd lost the will to live, so I just stuck word feud in and thought I'd better give WWF the sympathy vote.
I'll try and give some sort of structure to the first post later on.

Updated the first post a bit. I already regret this.

You're doing a great job Jones

Drisk - an absolutely fantastic Risk game with multiple maps and up to six CPU AI players. Not free, but well worth the couple quid, I play it practically every subway journey.

Advanced Task Killer - a fairly standard task killing app but it also has a widget for the home screen, one press and it kills everything. Which is handy if you're running anything slower than a Desire.

NewsRob - decent Google Reader thing. There's a free (ad-supported) version and one for quid or something.

Thank you people, keep them coming and I'll try and categorise the first post a bit more, I can see spoiler tags coming in handy as well.

G-Tunes is good for listening to music and stealing it too

I've started to try and tidy up the first post a bit, if anyone can suggest any categories, or anything else they'd like to see then that would be great. Although, I'm promising nothing.

Bold titles.

Personally, I think you should take WWF off, as it doesn't work very well.

I'm inclined to agree, but I think a few people still use it (including me). It looks like there's a new version out though...

Grim... Google Sky Maps?

It's brilliant. Turn it on, point your phone at the night sky, and it tells you what star you're looking at. Tell it to search for something (like Sirius, or Venus) and it'll draw arrows until you're facing the right way.

I concur that it is splendid. One day I'll be able to take it somewhere not drowned in light pollution and actually use it to pinpoint something interesting.

Yeah, I know it's awesome, just wondered why we had to ask Grim....

Because I don't use it and he keeps saying it's awesome. Now he's told us you don't have to ask him anymore.

Finally got round to using Audio Galaxy and it seems to work pretty well. I'm open to suggestions for music players though. I'm using Winamp at the moment and it looks like that does some sort of PC syncing as well (but is that syncing as opposed to streaming?)

PowerAMP is fucking fantastic, well worth the couple quid for the full version.

This does look pretty good.

Final music related question (for now), anyone tried anything to sync their pc-based music (ideally iTunes) with their phone? I've tried the following with mixed results:

DoubleTwist + AirSync - DoubleTwist is free and the wired sync appears to work fine, although I've no idea what it's done with the images it's supposed to have downloaded from my phone, they're in My Pictures, duh. I tried an 'evaluation' copy of AirSync and it just doesn't work at all, this seems to be a fairly common problem.

Winamp - Free and it works, but seems to be very flakey. Apparently you can use it wired, but I didn't try this. Using wireless, it only seemed to detect my device when the moons of Jupiter were correctly aligned, and in the end it only seemed to want to sync 1 track at a time.

TuneSync - This appears to work great, I can choose where to put the music (on my SD card, rather than clogging up my internal storage) and it just works. The lite version is limited to playlists with less than 20 tracks, so I'll be spending a few quid on the full version unless there's anything better out there?

It's never ideally iTunes.

I like it, so there. Although I have just sold 2 iPods, so I guess I'm open to alternatives. I do still have a shuffle though, and iTunes does what I need, so I'm not actively seeking an alternative.

Edit - To put things into perspective, before I had an iPod, I had a Sony mp3 player, and before that, a Sony mini disc player. This meant that I spent a lot of time using the software tragedy they called Sonic Stage. Before I got an iPod, I made sure that iTunes was at least functional, and compared to Sonic Stage it's one of the greatest pieces of software ever invented.

Good news, Plants vs Zombies is out.
Bad news, it's an Amazon Appstore (is Amazon the one with a space or not?) exclusive, so, er tough, I guess.

My Tracks - Google app for tracking walks/runs/rides
Listen - Google app for podcasts, best out there in my opinion

I've also discovered Velocycle over the weekend, which turns any smartphone into a bike computer that you'd otherwise pay a couple of hundred notes for.

Well, while we're here I've updated the first post a bit. I've got a ton of new games on my phone that I might try and go through and write something about later.

*takes deep breath*

Alien Overkill - Kill aliens
Apparatus - Construct things to get a ball in a hole
Battleheart - Japanese RPG battle thingy
Chalk Ball - Draw lines with chalk to keep a ball in play
Chuzzle - Stupidly addictive Popcap game
Dante Inferno - Top down puzzle solving thingy
Death Worm - Bit like rampage, but you're underground instead of climbing buildings
Enviro Bear - Words cannot describe the genius. You're a bear, driving a car. Eat fish, then get back to your cave.
Geared - Place gears to connect a to b
Guerilla Bob - Twin stick shooter thingy
Homerun Battle 3D - Like the Baseball bit from Wii Sports, but you don't get to swing your phone round.
Hyperlight - Like Geometry Wars, but you fly into things to kill them
I Must Run! - Keep running over roof tops, jump every so often.
Last Stand - Kill Zombies
Link It - Arrange pearls to connect beams of light
Meganoid - Left, Right, Jump platformer
Pacific Navy Fighters - Makes me wish someone would bring Pilotwings out (I know there's a snes emulator, but I mean with tilty controls)
Refraction - Deflektor-ish type game, but without the fixed mirrors. Oh, and with prisms.
Super Drill Panic - Bit of a pointless fall-down-a-hole-sim
Symphony of Eternity - Final Fantasy-em-up
Turbo Fly 3D - Wipeout style racer.
What the Doodle - Should've mentioned this ages ago. Basically, it's Pictionary in a Word Feud style. Haven't played it in ages though and haven't tried playing it against someone that wasn't in the same room (or at least the same building).
Yoo Ninja - You control a ninja who keeps running from left to right. Tap to make him jump and run along the ceiling. Avoid stuff, don't fall out of the screen (top or bottom)
Zombie Fields - Kill Zombies

Oh, and for anyone that hasn't tried the voodoo magic of Swift Key's predictive text, there's a Swift Key X beta available for free in the market

Endomondo is a brilliant free app (with a pay for pro version) for gps distance tracking, calorie burning, speed for walkers etc.
Just found out my lunchtime walk is 2.32 miles and burns off 224kcal.

Yoink.
For people bored of Game Dev Story, there's now Grand Prix Story (and also Hot Springs Story, but I haven't played that), unlike Game Dev Story, looks like they both have free versions in the market.

Oh hey, turns out I mentioned Grand Prix Story last week, but nobody bothers to read this thread. Anyway, Peggle has finally made it to Android (although again, it's an Amazon store exclusive), and weighs in at an eye-watering 70 meg (which happens to be 5 times the size of the PC setup file I've got lying around). Anyway, if someone could just start a thread about it in a couple of days that would be great.

I read this thread!

I should probably get around to putting more stuff in it.

No mention of email software in this thread - Do people just use the in-built email support? Personally, I use K9 mail and it does the job nicely.

I only really use GMail, so don't have any need for anything else. I did use the built in email app (which might be different depending on what phone you have) on my G1 for Hotmail, but it took up loads of precious storage space. Most people that use it, seem to speak very highly of K9.

I played the free version of GP Story. Fun. I'll get around to the full version at some point.

26 "years" in, I have stopped, having all the parts, winning all the races, 'won' all the sponsors and only missing one car.

It's pretty good, but it's a shame you can't name your cars like you could your games. It's also a shame that the 4x4 drivetrain was given to me by the very last sponsor!

Courtesy of Nemmie in the other Android thread (I thought I should dig this one up)



Had a quick go at this earlier, it is free, and reminded me of Playstation/Saturn platformer Pandemonium (although I never actually played that, so don't expect it to be anything like it).

Grim... have you tried Star Chart? It's supposed to be Google Sky Maps, but better (and £2 )

I'm ashamed I have had my HTC for nearly 12 months now but do not use it for anything else but phone calls, texting & using the camera.

I still carry my ipod touch around and use that for email, twitter, forums, browsing & of course gaming.

I'll give the 20 minute trial a go.

Struggling to find it on the shitty Android App store.

How did you struggle to find it? I just searched Diversion and it was the first result.

How strange.

It brings up all sorts of other shit. I don't get it at all. Never had this issue before when looking for an app.

Could a game/prog be blocked if it won't run on a particular device? Mine's only a Wildfire running 2.2.1

Yes, if it won't run, you shouldn't see it. If you go to Devilman's link, it should tell you if it's compatible with your phone or not.

Ok Plume users, I have a question.
For the last couple of days, when I open Plume from the widget, it takes me to a point way down my timeline (currently 15 hours ago, but it has been as long ago as 1 day, so it's not taking me to a particular tweet, but maybe it is taking me to x tweets ago). If I open from the app drawer, it's fine, but if I open from the widget, don't scroll to the top, then open from the app drawer, it opens at the bottom again. Basically, opening from the app drawer opens to my last read tweet, opening from the widget opens to a tweet from hours ago (and then sets that as my last red tweet so the app drawer also opens to that point). I see there was an update yesterday, so that might have something to do with it, but am I missing a crazy setting, or is it broken?

Edit - And what's happened to the reviews on the Market website, they used to have the most recent first, but now they're just in a random order.

It's ok, I didn't want to do any work today anyway.
It's Pocket League Story