[Paul B]

I've just received my HTC Wildfire and I'm truly amazed by what it can do and the benefits of being able to access the internet/emails almost anyway. BUT like firefox it seems like there's endless room for customisation of how you want things to work.

Can anyone flag any must have (preferably free) Android apps/widgets much like the firefox thread (or the hold "100 add ons for power users")?

Best way to integrate Gmail, blogs, twitter, music etc would be great! Also, has anyone carried out either the Wildpuzzlerom update or Cynaogenmod (sp?)? The former seems to allow overclocking which (apart from voiding the warranty) doesn't seem such a bad thing?

Can the bouldering POI's be used in conjunction with googlemaps and hence the GPS?

[slackline]

In vague order (fucking login bug just logged me out when going to post this, grrr)

Social Media

Plume (ex Touitouer)
Posterous (for longer blogging posts to Posterous)
Last.fm (for scrobbling music listened to)

General Phone

Tasker (by Crafty Apps, one of the few apps I've bought, allows you to set profiles for your phone, actions based on time/events, very very handy, takes some time to learn how to use though).
3gWatchdog (monitor 3g data uasge)
Android Terminal Emulator (get to the command prompt on your phone)
Bluetooth File Transfer (by Medieval Software)
File Manager (by Adao Team)
PhoneUsage (monitor all phone usage)
WiFi Analyzer (by farproc, great, helps suggest alternative channels for best wifi)
Network Discovery / ConnectBot (two apps that together allow ssh'ing to computers on network your connected to)
Dropbox
Skype

Google Shit
Shazam (never ask what a tune is again, brilliant)
Google Shopper (scan bar-code/take a picture it goes and finds online prices)
Google Voice Search (pretty damn good if background noise isn't too great)
Google Maps (install from market place for beta version with navigation)
GDocs (unofficial Google Documents client, there is no official app/client for Android which is a bit of a short-coming)
Places Directory

Games
Othello Reversi (by spwebgames.com)
Frozen Bubble
Jewels

Misc
FBReader (read free books from Guttenberg and more)
BBC News (by Jim Blacker, nice quick & easy news interface)
MPDroid (control and playback music on computer/server that is being played with Music Payer Daemon, no need to for Squeezebox shit, this does it all instead  )

[Jim]

I've just received my HTC Wildfire and I'm truly amazed by what it can do and the benefits of being able to access the internet/emails almost anyway.

Welcome to 2011 

[Jaspersharpe]

Handcent for text messaging.

[slackline]

Forgot a couple of other important apps...

Climbing

Bowderstone topo
Minus Ten topo

[Paul B]

Welcome to 2011 

Shouldn't that be welcome to 2010, I'm sure by now I'm already well behind.

Do you just use the standard mail widget for your gmail and not the app?

Have you enabled that tracking thing in case its lost/stolen?

[Zods Beard]

Myplayer is pretty good, basically iplayer for the mobile, watch your download limit tho. Advanced Task Killer free is good for saving battery life. And Google Sky Maps is a pretty good toy too.

[slackline]

Myplayer is pretty good, basically iplayer for the mobile, watch your download limit tho.

iPlayer support should be native under 2.2 (if thats whats on your Wildfire)

Advanced Task Killer free is good for saving battery life.

Its a misconception that you need to kill tasks all the time (and one I had until I realised that actually under the hood Android is still Linux).

\begin{long boring geeky explanation}
The one time you need to do it is if a program has gone awry and is using all of the CPU, you do not have to worry about killing programs just to free up RAM in the hope of saving energy/extending battery life.

Android is running a Linux kernel and the way Linux handles memory is to allow a program to have its memory space whilst its running, when the program ends it still sits in memory using up the space it used, so it may appear that you have no memory left and you think you'll improve performance by killing some of those programs that are sitting in RAM using it up but not being used by you.  But Linux has been designed to do this on purpose, if you restart a program, e.g. a web-browser, its already in memory and starts up quicker.  But what about when a new program is started and there isn't enough free RAM I hear you ask, well thats not a problem, because at that point the kernel glances at whats in RAM, checks to see whats actually being used and kicks out that program which is sat there and not being used, freeing up enough RAM for the new program.

Thus you don't actually need to waste your time actively killing programs you've exited just to free up RAM, because it won't make any difference to performance as the kernel is very good at managing RAM.

My Linux systems (one with 6Gb and one with 8Gb RAM) regularly have close to 0% of RAM free, but I never experience any delay/lag in opening up new programs or with general usability.

And to get to the crux, stuff sat in memory doesn't use any power, stuff using the CPU will do.  If you've apps running that you don't want stop them from starting up in the first place, otherwise you'll be forever trying to kill them. (See under Settings somewhere, kind of depends on which app, some have settings within the app, I found ShopSavvy always started up on its own and sat there, never use it so deleted it).
\end{long boring geeky explanation}

You can read an article on this specifically about Android task managers here.

[Stubbs]

Not sure how it works on the other handsets, but on the Desire you can just go settings>applications>manage applications and force close anything that's going wrong there, so you don't even need to install an ap to do it for you.

[Paul B]

On a tip-off from Dobbin I looked into:

Swype - which is in closed beta although they seem to be still giving trial beta packages out? Anyway this seems to be beyond my phones res (hopefully QVGA won't be totally ignored for the next year or so!).

Instead I found:

SlideIT - identical apart from being a bit less slick to look at. Allows you to input text without taking your finger off and as Dobalob points out "the world text message record is from an android phone using swype!"
Where's my droid? - in case you lose it or its stolen, send a txt to turn it off silent and ring or alternatively to turn GPS on and send you back the location and a google maps link


"ain't technology brilliant?"

[Jaspersharpe]

More importantly have you got Angry Birds working yet?

[Paul B]

More importantly have you got Angry Birds working yet?

yes, lock and then unlock on the screen that freezes. Its a bit laggy still.

[slackline]

Thats reminded me of another app feature I use all the time, the screen lock and set to require a pattern to unlock.

Tried any of the other suggested apps?  Get on with them/found any of them useful?

[tomtom]

Is this thread just for Android apps or would I get slated (in the usual - you've got an Ifern way) for putting on some Ifern ones? 

[Paul B]

yes:
Barcode
Shazam
obviously my suggestions are on there - note modifications to Android 2.2 has stopped apps being able to directly change system settings as some were doing "naughty things" as google put it. That means that where's my droid etc. won't be able to turn GPS on via a text in the new/current version. Shame.
Stuck with SlideIT demo as my keyboard for now, swype haven't got anything out for QVGA and they didn't seem to have anything new to suggest as of last night.

I'm currently trying to work out the bestway to use the thing as a satnav?

On the tomtom I have, it has the UKB POI's and also the speed camera database, preferably I'd like both. There seems to be:

EZCAM - paid for
CamerAlert - closed beta by pocketgpsworld... Jim to the rescue?

Also, has anyone got anything revolutionary for forum browsing?

[tomtom]

In that case to you all. I'm going to go off in a huff and have a pint with Sloper....

[slackline]

I'm currently trying to work out the bestway to use the thing as a satnav?

On the tomtom I have, it has the UKB POI's and also the speed camera database, preferably I'd like both. There seems to be:

I think you need to install Google Maps from Market place to Google Navigate as its still in Beta stage.

With regards to POI's you'd likely need to start with converting to Google Maps KML format, whether the Android app recognises these I've no idea.

[Jim]

get sygic mobile maps 10 for android available form the usual places, seems to work ok. not sure if it supports custom poi's

[Paul B]

I think you need to install Google Maps from Market place to Google Navigate as its still in Beta stage.

Pre-installed on my ROM 

Jim - does that support speed camera's and poi's? Do you use it?

[slackline]

Why if people want something for free don't they use what is available for free instead of taking software for which the vendors are expecting remuneration and not paying?  EDIT : £20 for GPS navigation on your phone sounds like a bargain to me, especially as you can try before you buy!

If something isn't available for free that suggests a hole in the market so time to get coding!

Or you could hire someone to do it for you.

And no, I don't d/l films or albums (just mixes from themixingbowl.org)

[Paul B]

lets leave that can of worms sealed 

Getting pretty p*ssed off with Swype. It required you to download an installer apk and then that would install the keyboard. I did the former and then get the error re: screen res so uninstalled. Now annoyingly the phone keeps re-downing the installer app, does anyone have a clue how/why or more importantly how I  it from doing so.

[Jim]

not familiar with android tbh, have you tried restarting the phone/taking the battery out etc..?
I presume you have. try going into some sort of program/app managment thing and try to remove/delete this swype

[Paul B]

Thats the thing, I used the app manager to get rid of it. I've rebooted and hassled the developers so we'll see.

[Paul B]

No new installers as of yet 

More to add:

Doubletwist (Free)- Desktop client that syncs with itunes library automatically on opening so you don't have to use it all of the time, this pairs with an itunes like app and widget for android with all of the usual ipod functionality (bar genius).
AirSync (Not Free) - goes hand in hand with the above and allows wireless sync'ing of your library albeit not rocketship quick. You don't get the large widget until you buy this.

I tried to install an Orb client for the ReadyNAS duo so I could stream all of my media wherever I was but unfortunately it doesn't like my model (Duo). Now I know that the NAS has DLNA and uPnP capability but I'm damned if I know what that actually translates to.

Streaming media anywhere should still be possible somehow? I really do like the idea of being able to watch for instance - west coast gimps, streaming in a completely inappropriate environment (i.e. somewhere public).

[Jaspersharpe]

Bloody hell. Swype is awesome!