Pirate's Cove

I had a friend email me asking what applications I use on my Android, since she just switched over from iPhone to Droid. This is a modified version of what I sent her, figured might as well not waste a long email, eh? Plus, something different.

I have two Droid’s, phone is an HTC One S running 4.1.1. I also have an Elocity tablet I bought a few years ago running 2.something. I don’t need the tablet to do super wild stuff, does what I need. Here’s what I have on my phone (no links, you can hit the Android market for all of them), and every one of them is free. I’m cheap like that. Some apps I link together in folders, some I have stand alone, depends on usage

Anything in bold is a highly recommend/gotta have

Weather: I have a bunch. Can you believe I had 12 on my old iPhone, not including local news apps?

• Best radar: My-Cast Lite. I really love the way the radar works, versus the horrible type on WeatherBug, Weather Channel, and others
• 1Weather has my favorite widget, and tends to be closer to WRAL temps, official for Raleigh.
• Intellicast has some very detailed info, including historical trends
• Weather Bug can link into very local stations
• If you love storms, weather TAP zoom provides awesome t-storm radar and data, showing direction, station data, hail, etc.
• HurricaneSoftware, for tracking hurricanes

News: CBS, Fox, News and Observer, NewsHog, NY Times, Politico, WRAL, Washington Post, Daily Caller, NJ.com, USA Today, News Republic (just added), and the Hill. I have those and more on my tablet.

Cool stuff:

• IMDb is great for TV and movie info for previous shows/flics
• Flixster has the best info for current and coming soon movies and DVDs, plus links in to Vudu/Ultra Violet. Not that I ever use it, but, hey, I get those digital copies when I buy DVDs, dagnabit!
• Photobucket
• Photo Editor. I’ll link this one, since so many have the same name. Excellent, easy to use, fully powered photo editor
• Twitchy
• The Chive
• Youtube
• Key Ring – good for all those discount savings cards
• feedly

Music

• double Twist -mostly used for playing movies (I have Predators on my memory card)
• Rocket Player – this one I really like. I’ve been through many different players, and this one has shuffle (I love shuffling all my music) and an equalizer. Really recommend.
• Play Music, but that came with, never use
• Cover Art Downloader – self explanatory
• iHeart Radio
• Radio.com (good genres, plus I can get 660 The Fan out of NYC to listen to my NJ Devils)
• Slacker
• There are others that came with

For email I use K-9 Mail, haven’t found a better program. I have 3 accounts I use, easy to see, can delete from server. One awesome feature is quiet time. I set it so incoming mail makes no sound between 11pm and 8am.

Sports: Score Mobile (favorite), CBS sports, Hockey Center, Yahoo Sports, NHL Gamecenter, a couple of fantasy sports programs

Obviously have the Kindle app, wear it out. Also, Moon+ Reader for non-kindle books.

Nature Sound is a nice sound soother, use it when traveling. Also, Relax and Sleep, interesting sounds, but the loops are not seamless like with Nature Sound.

WordPress, of course.

Tools:

• Inkpad is a nice simple notepad, which syncs up to my tablet
• Evernote is a great note taking platform for more detailed info, which also syncs across to my tablet
• ALYac: anti-virus and spyware/malware. Must have this or some other
• 3D Compass+
• Magnifying glass: good for these getting old eyes. I can see fine close up without glasses or contacts, I have distance problems. But with them in, eyes won’t focus. This really helps
• Master Lock Vault – great for storing sensitive documents and passwords. Syncs across, plus can access on computer.
• Dropbox – good for storing docs and photos, makes it easy to access across Droids and PCs
• Drive – connects to Google Drive – I have some different types of docs, mostly work related and not sensitive, on this
• Current Caller ID – here’s one you really should have, accesses the White Pages (no, that’s not raaaaacist) for when you get called, will usually tell you who if they aren’t in your phonebook. Also, can tell you things like news, weather, Facebook activity if you want
• Callist is a new app, which is a simple program for accessing favorites, much easier than the built in dialer, plus you can set reminders to call someone.
• Android System Clean
• Clean Master (set to automatically clean)
• ES File Explorer – no rooting necessary
• Easy App Backup
• Go TaskManager
• Oi Shopping List

Road Bike for … biking! Swing by Swing for playing golf.

Browsers: Boat Browser, Miren Browser, and Firefox. BB uses less power, FF is synced with my laptop. Dolphin is also good, but I don’t used it, had it for a specific purpose, when Disqus 2 came out. Other browsers now work with them.

Obviously some games, and some other things that no one else will care about.

Travel

• INRIX traffic is a must, for tracking traffic
• Google Maps, which comes with
• Yelp for food and stuff
• Carrr Matey is good for finding your car
• Waze is a good open source navigation program
• Also have Scout

If you have a DLNA enable TV or DVD player, you should get a DLNA app. This is home networking. You can do this with your PC, most likely. It uses WiFi to connect. You can send pictures, vids, and music to the TV/DVD. In my case, the BluRay player. I have aVia and DLNA Player Free on my phone, different ones on my tablet (2player, BubbleUPnP, and MediaHouse). Partly because that’s what works best on the devices, partly to separate their streams as they show up on BR player. What I really wanted to do was be able to play music on my phone in shuffle mode, with the ability to switch it easily from the phone, and have it play through BR to TV/stereo. Alas, no. Won’t mirror. But cool to send photos to TV.

PS: Youtube has automatic built in DLNA, if your BR or TV has the Youtube app.

Finally, something cool, which is big customization of way phone acts. I use Go Launcher EX which gives a totally different experience. Really, really can change the way things look and act, and Go has lots of ad ons. You know the bottom bar (app drawer) which has things like phone and text? Customizable. Looks cool when you access screen with all the apps. You really have to see it in the app store. You can use different themes, which change the way the apps themselves look. I use the Baltica theme. Transitions from screen to screen, their own widgets…sheesh, so much stuff hard to know it all. It also helps reduce redraw on the screen, which was a big prob with my Samsung Galaxy S. Also, really makes my tablet pop, because it was kind of a pain with the basic.

I have some other stuff on my tablet, like Crackle (Sony free movies), Dictionary, but mostly mirrors the phone, at least in terms of stuff I would use. Do not need table to have all the same. I’ve also tried lots of apps that either didn’t work for me, found better, or just didn’t really need.

Anything cool you’d recommend?