Cool Droid Apps?

[Bill_C]

Hi all,

I've had my droid for a month now and I am still periodically discovering new/cool apps. Wanted to start a thread to see what apps eveyone had that they want to rave about (especially car related).

Ones i discovered that are free and car realted:

-Speed HUD
-aDyno
-Garage Buddy
-Kelley Blue Book
-MyCars
-Torque (will need OBD2 Bluetooth reader)
-Motor Trend
-Automobile


Other non-car related apps are:

-Barcode Scanner
-Bubble (level)
-Bubble Ball
-DroidLight
-Scanner Radio

Regards,
Bill

 

[SaleenS7Rs]

I always thought the barcode scan was soooo cool. The iphone and maybe this phone does it also if you scan a barcode it will show you the price of the item and also show you where you can get it cheaper.

 

[ALSWEL]

CamScanner. Great for expense reports. Take pic, converts to .pdf file. Email for approval.

 

[nimdivino]

My favorite apps:

*phonemypc - control your PC from your mobile phone

*thaidialpad plus - T9 phone dialer. I hate going through my contact books so I open up this dialer and start typing the name on the number keypads. Unless ofcourse you have an HTC phone with Sense UI then you don't need this.

* 3G Watch Dog - its a widget that tracks your 3G usage in realtime on your home screen. Automatically turns-off when you're on Wifi. A must for those unlimited AT&T customers such as myself.

*AppBrain - because 1 android market place is just not enough. lol.

* EasyTube - Download video and audio from youtube. I don't download the video, I download songs that I can't get anywhere in MP3 format.

*Astro - SD card folder browsing and management. Think of it as your windows explorer.

* Mortplayer Music - plays MP3s on folders and sub-folders. I hate itunes and most players to death because it uses MP3 tags. I like organizing my MP3s in folders and sub-folders, this music player lets me play all the songer per folder.

I am currently looking for a better calendar/agenda widget where I can scroll the widget on home screen. So if you know of one, share it please.. =)

Android rules!!

 

[jond]

- swype -- It's free and already installed assuming you have the newest update(at least on EVOs), you just have to turn it on. No more typing FTW...
- AppBrain -- It's nice to see what the hot apps today are. You can also sort by popularity, etc.
- Beautiful Widgets -- Cool custom clocks
- Gauge Battery Widget -- See how much battery you have left in number(percent) form in task bar. Much better...
- Verizon FIOS DVR Manager
- Verizon FIOS Remote control. This rocks. My DVR box is behind my TV. This app uses wifi, so I don't have to fight RF getting to it.
- aCircuit Board Live Wallpaper -- Geekish, but awesome wallpaper.
- TweetCaster -- Better twitter client
- Dolphin Brower HD -- Best internet brower BY FAR.
- Stock Tracker -- See candles on your stocks
- X Construction Lite -- Fun bridge building game
- SilentMode OnOff(by CurveFish) -- Button to put phone silent
- Brightness Level(by CurveFish) -- Quickly adjust brightness level
- AutoSync OnOff(by CurveFish) -- Quickly turn off autosync(save battery)
- Pandora
- Calorie Counter -- Best app for tracking what you eat
- WinAmp -- My fav MP3 player
- Weatherbug
- oogle Maps Navigation -- Save your google maps GPS destinations
- Fun Videos(By Break.com) -- Funny stuff
- JuicePlotter -- Monitor your battery usage over time in a graph
- Network Discovery -- Scan who's around you(careful not to get in trouble)
- Exchange for Android(by NitroDesk) -- Keep your corporate email encrypted!

Note: Biggest single battery improvement BY FAR(and I've tryed everything), is to make a new widget, and point it to:
'settings' -> 'Mobile Network'.
Turning this off when not in use, you phone still works for calls, SMS still works, but the separate 3G radio is turned off. Huge battery savings when not surfing the web or checking email.

 

[pgilliam1]

You should download a "Task Manager" app (free ones are available) to reduce battery consumption. It stops apps from running in the background.

 

[jond]

You should download a "Task Manager" app (free ones are available) to reduce battery consumption. It stops apps from running in the background.

I've tried them, and I do use one to kill things initially after boot, but from my testing leaving them in automatic mode where they run in the background hurts battery.
What have you noticed? Do you run them in auto mode?

 

[curtsr]

- Oldie but goodie, PDA Net
- Tropic Thunder, Full Metal Jacket and Clayton Bigsby soundboards
- Where's My Droid - text a code to your phone and it will turn the ringer on and ring until you find it. Can also track via GPS if GPS is enabled on your phone. Used to be able to turn on GPS remotely if it was not enabled on the phone but I guess some stalker screwed that up for the rest of us
- GPS Speedo
- Home Run Baseball

 

[s14_tat]

You should download a "Task Manager" app (free ones are available) to reduce battery consumption. It stops apps from running in the background.

Task manager set in auto mode kills batterys while the apps usually stays idling not taking up any resources in the back ground, or certain apps are needed to run when the phone is on. When the task manager kills those apps, those apps gotta reboot again. This is like a dog chasing its own tail. Task manager is a no no

I also notice the battery getting better when I run Launcher Pro after I deleted on my widgets and apps and reduce the home screen # down to 1 on the default launcher.

 

[pgilliam1]

I've tried them, and I do use one to kill things initially after boot, but from my testing leaving them in automatic mode where they run in the background hurts battery.
What have you noticed? Do you run them in auto mode?

I don't run the manager in auto mode. I was told by the salespeople of the phone that task manager helped battery life (it's free so they had no motive). Do apps running in the background use energy? Seems like every time I select the manager there are several apps running. Maybe the question should be put to a phone developer for clarification? It may just be my perception, but using the manager and killing the apps seemed to help prolong my battery life.

 

[NSXinNC]

I unlocked my phone (EVO) and got rid of all the excess crap programs. Runs light speed faster and freed up a ton of memory. Used:

* Andexplorer
* Titanium Backup
* z4root

I also use:

* Meebo - for all my IM programs in one app
* MusicJunk - By far the BEST app out there for downloading free music
* RockPlayer - to watch movies and videos
* Advanced Task Killer
* Bible
* Movies
* Google Nav
* USA Today - love the news and weather features
* Backgrounds - Some ass kicking backgrounds !

 

[Ko-nsx]

http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138860&highlight=droid+apps

 

[jond]

I don't run the manager in auto mode. I was told by the salespeople of the phone that task manager helped battery life (it's free so they had no motive). Do apps running in the background use energy? Seems like every time I select the manager there are several apps running. Maybe the question should be put to a phone developer for clarification? It may just be my perception, but using the manager and killing the apps seemed to help prolong my battery life.

It's easy to test yourself. Just load that battery graphing software above and do a test. Run your phone 2-3 days using a task killer, look at your burn rate, then another 2-3 days w/o the task killers.

Just FYI, sales people are idiots. They know slightly more than how to turn the phones on.
The REAL guys are here: http://forum.xda-developers.com
They're the guys making their own custom operating systems for the phones.

Apps running in the background don't really use any battery(neither does live wallpapers). Unless they have a flaw that keeps the phone from sleeping which is rare. Battery usage while idle comes from apps accessing data. Turning off 3G data(when not using it) eliminate this and makes battery life go up 100000x.

 

[Ko-nsx]

I unlocked my phone (EVO) and got rid of all the excess crap programs. Runs light speed faster and freed up a ton of memory. Used:

* Andexplorer
* Titanium Backup
* z4root

I also use:

* Meebo - for all my IM programs in one app
* MusicJunk - By far the BEST app out there for downloading free music
* RockPlayer - to watch movies and videos
* Advanced Task Killer
* Bible
* Movies
* Google Nav
* USA Today - love the news and weather features
* Backgrounds - Some ass kicking backgrounds !

Is it really faster? Does it perform better with other functions on, like google nav and 4g and? I've been thinking of doing mine, i don't want to screw it up though!:smile:

 

[NSXinNC]

Is it really faster? Does it perform better with other functions on, like google nav and 4g and? I've been thinking of doing mine, i don't want to screw it up though!:smile:

Everything runs faster. And worse case you do a hard reset and it is back to factory.

 

[KSXNSX]

Running a Droid X on Verizon with a custom rom (Apex 1.3.1), revolution theme and several mods (GB themed dialer, TBH tethering hack, etc.)

As far as the main stable of apps go, you want:

1. Launcher Pro (Plus) (a new rewrite is coming out and it is supposed to be completely re-written from the ground up with dramatic improvements in speed and eye candy)

2. widget locker

3. Switch pro or power control plus (the latter lets you put the controls in the drop-down menu)

4. adfree (only for root users)

5. z4root (one-touch rooting)

6. no lock (get rid of the stock laggy lock screen and use widgetlocker [no lag])

7. wireless tether (only for root)

8. google voice

9. root explorer (essential if you plan to mod)

10. screen filter (for night viewing)

11. 3d gallery (not in market but search google)

12. droidx bootstrap (for modding)

everything else like yelp, etc. depends on the user. but i will probably always have the above apps installed on no matter what platform i am on.

if you are on the DroidX, do yourself a favor and get Apex

oh and stop using task killers. they should only be used to kill apps that aren't responsive, not run all the time. I quit a long time ago and things have been much better.

Autokiller is a different story.