Posts Tagged ‘Software’

Top ten Android Apps I miss from my T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream)

Friday, September 11th, 2009

So here’s the story. My G1 has stopped working and being in the USA at the moment I have to return it to the UK to be replaced, in the mean time I’ve found myself missing both it and the applications on it. I’ve really grown to love Android and the apps on it. In fact it has become something of a mobile computer to me. With the easy WiFi connectivity and built in GPS (and the help of Locale) I’ve found using WiFi hotspots almost as easy as having a (cheap) 3G connection. Of course being on a UK contract I’d rather not incur the massive roaming charges for data in the USA.

In the last few days as I’ve started to miss it I decided to write a ‘Top Ten Roundup’ with a difference, the top ten that I miss. I’ve reverted to my Windows Mobile smart-phone so I still have a few luxuries. I expect that I’ll mention several things which made me prefer my G1 to the HTC Hermes I was on. Firstly though I’ll compare a few core components that I miss.

  • The email program. When I first used Android I wasn’t that excited about the email app; sure, it had starring which Windows Mobile didn’t, but that was about it for me. However I’ve come to really appreciate the way it synchronises and the way that I can apply labels and generally use it as I do the computer front end. Windows Mobile makes me synchronise manually or set a time, this is nice and I used to find it very useful but I really appreciate being able to use Locale with the Gmail application to trigger synchronising only in a WiFi hotspot.
  • The contacts application. There are some trade-offs here. Windows Mobile supports a birthday for a contact, unless I’m severely blind my G1 does not. Windows mobile however attacks my contacts list on Gmail adding Mr’s and Mrs’s which in turn adds extra contacts. This is fixable, the G1 lack of birthdays will surely be fixed in a future release. Incidentally the birthdays can be shown on the calendar with a small work around. Simply go to the calendars listing under settings, click browse interesting calenders and find your birthdays under ‘More’.
  • The browser. I really miss the Android browser and its speed and zoom features.
  • Marketplace. Do I even need to say anything here? The ease and simplicity is so nice.

Now for my top ten list of Android applications that I miss.

  1. Locale. I had rules set up to do everything I needed all based on where I was. It came into extra brilliance while abroad where I couldn’t use my normal data connection.
  2. ConnectBot. Having a well rounded SSH application is essential.
  3. Android IRC. Who can exist without IRC? I mean, what true techie can exist without IRC? Android IRC supports SSL, multiple servers and message notification, what’s more it doesn’t die if you leave it and open other applications.
  4. AndNav. This is my most memory heavy application, it uses tiles instead of vectors so pre-download is essential for any sensible routing. Also routes are calculated away from the client which causes network use. However, all this is well known to the developers and is being worked on. I would personally love to see (for example) POI search for off-line (maybe import gpx POI’s). I would be even more excited to see off-line routing, maybe data sets could be split further just to contain roads with no additional data? However all the Windows Mobile alternatives that I’ve found have not done what I needed or had some major problems.
  5. Quickipedia. Wikipedia has become the defatico source of information these days. Want cable layouts? Check Wikipedia. Want information about a penguin that flies? Check Wikipeida. Having a mobile client is like carrying it around as a book… just without ink or weight or that book smell or worrying about pages falling out.
  6. Movie Finder. It’s great to be able to quickly find out the times of a movie or check which ones are on locally. This isn’t a new concept I know but I found this the easiest to use, far easier than my previous experiences on Windows Mobile.
  7. Telegraph.co.uk news. Although this requires a connection and can’t horde its data off-line it’s still a great application. I’ve used other news applications and I’m open to suggestions but I found this to be the best. I do miss Viigo.
  8. Listen. I’d only just started using this but I’d become adicted pretty quickly. It’s a nice product from google themselves and it provides me with a stream of podcasts straight to my device. What’s more it can be run offline.
  9. FML. This would be one of two things that I use to entertain myself.
  10. Lolcats. This would be the other.

There are more I miss, there are more I used regularly and there are more I’d probably like to put on this list in the future. A couple in the running were:

  • My Tracks. A GPS tracking application that I’ve found to be absolutely excellent.
  • Beeb Player. BBC iPlayer application, not much use here as I have a US IP but it was great when I was in the UK.
  • Meridian Player (and now Meridian Evolve). A great player. Unfortunately I don’t watch much on my phone as my laptop has a better resolution for that.
  • Dizzler. A music on demand player, very useful for those moments where someone doesn’t know a song and you want to *show* them.
  • Barcode Scanner. Most sites about Android offer 2d encoded barcodes for content, I think this is a great way to move stuff from one device to another.
  • Better Keyboard. A great on screen keyboard. I certainly miss it.

That just about makes up my little Android tear story. Hopefully I should see a new G1 working perfectly within the next few weeks and I’ll be able to tell you which applications I’m adicted to right from the word go.

Kind regards, Robert.

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Adding Skype, 7zip and CamStudio to Chute Stick (USB Rescue Stick)

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick#The_Software

Just a quick blog to say that I’ve added a few things to Chute Stick. I’ll thin down the number of packages as soon as possible, but we’re still well within the 1GB memory stick so I can spend time doing that later.

I’ve added all versions of Skype. Skype provides a reasonably secure method of getting a message to someone; it also permeates firewalls better than most viruses. I added 7zip as it seems to be a good free alternative to WinZip, the 7zip compression itself is remarkable. In some of my experiments with it I’ve experienced almost 50% smaller files than standard zip (using `zip -9`). Because of this excellent compression I’ve included a copy of p7zip (the *nix port). CamStudio may seem like a strange choice, but it does offer a way for you to quickly record a video of how to do something, this could be essential if you’re unable to tutor someone face to face but need them to (for example) administer a box for you. I’ve debated if a Linux desktop recorder is needed, but if you have ssh you can probably do most administration through that.

Well, that’s all so far, I’m snowed under with work at the moment so I was just popping this through. Most of the additions have been related to things I’ve needed for work over the last few days. I will be blogging about some other things (mostly work related) soon, when I escape anyway!

Kind regards, Robert.

http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick#The_Software

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A quick update on Chute Stick (USB Emergency Disk).

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Just to mention that I’ve now released a list of the software I currently have on my pen drive.

 http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick#The_Software

I will provide more information on each item in the near future including versions and links. I expect a few of you are thinking of cloning my setup until I release a script.

Kind regards, Robert

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USB Rescue/Emergency Stick (Parachute on a stick)

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Some of you will already know about this little project that I’ve been working on. Basically I’m producing a USB memory stick with all the things which I think it needs. Quoting the wiki page:

http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick

If you’re in a situation where you only have one memory stick, what’d you want on it? If baggage handling lose all your bags and you just have the encrypted hard drive in your jacket pocket and the memory stick round your neck, what do you want on the stick?

You’re stranded on an island (or somewhere with a really poor internet connection) and you want to acquisition a computer for your own uses, what do you want on your stick? Someone else on the island wants you to fix their computer, what do you want on the stick?

In general, what do you want on a memory stick when you don’t trust or want to use your internet connection? This is what the Chute Stick project is meant to provide.

Although there are many different situations where this may be of use and some of them wont require most of the software provided this is meant to be an ‘in any event evacuation plan’. I know a lot of you have already contacted me about this and so there probably wont be that many comment; however, there are several things which I’d love to be posted here:

  • Situations where you might need a rescue stick.
  • Software suggestions/requests.
  • Things to stay away from.
  • Suggestions for replacement software, I know I may not have picked the right stuff all the time.
  • Suggestions about ways of packaging or unpacking software.
  • Ways to make things more accessible to more people.

Of course you could just tell me I’m doing something useful!

Which brings me to another point, what am I doing? Well I don’t intend to distribute too much software, I’d prefer to write a script which downloads and updates software to a memory stick for you. Much of the software I’m looking at is either not free/libre and so I don’t expect to be able to do more than provide a script to get the end user to download and use the software correctly. If anyone is familiar with the gentoo ebuild context they’ll understand more of what I mean, my script wouldn’t require pre-built packages but do it’s own work.

The wiki page is: http://www.robertsmall.org/wiki/index.php5?title=Chute_Stick

Kind regards, Robert.

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