My Top Android Apps (2013 Edition)

I’ve done a few of these lists before, and it is interesting to see how my tastes and usages have changed depending on the device, and how some apps persist. Check out my previous lists: “My Top Apps for 2010” (T-Mobile G2 running Android 2.3.x [Gingerbread]) and “Android Apps - What I Use” (T-Mobile G1 running Android 1.6 [Donut]) or dive right into the (mostly) new apps below, in no particular order.

Note: I have been using a Samsung Galaxy SIII (on T-Mobile) running CyanogenMod 10, so your mileage may vary and some apps may not be compatible without rooting and/or installing a custom ROM. I'm also using a Nexus 7 tablet, I use most apps on both, but will indicate where differences occur.

Nova Launcher - Complete home screen replacement and loads of customization options. If you want a fast way to cover up some of the crap that Samsung/HTC/Motorola put in your device, this can help. It allows you to set the number of icons as well as number of home screens, options for folders, and custom icon themes. It also supports gestures, which let's me get rid of a few icons in favor of a swipe or double-tap on the home screen.

Nova Launcher, all customized to my liking.

Chrome for Android - Finally I have a device that supports Chrome for Android, it is almost everything I thought it would be. It is super fast, syncs up with my other Chrome instances (installed on basically every device I own), my bookmarks are there, automated sign on for google services. It is great, if you are running Android 4.0 or higher, you should ditch the “Browser” app and install Chrome now. My only complaint is no option for Full-Screen, location bar is always visible, though this feature is apparently in the works.

Simple - Super fast Foursquare check-ins. If you follow me at all you will know that I’m a self-proclaimed Foursquare junkie. I check-in everywhere and reap the benefits of awesome recommendations whenever I’m looking for something new, or something nearby. This app takes the slow out of checking in, once you have authenticated the app (a one-time process), launch the app, you see a map and a list of nearby venues (up to 20, I think), tap an item and boom, you’ve been checked in. There is a search feature as well, if the venue isn’t listed.

Google Now (Google Search) - This one is a little hard to explain a little hard to demonstrate, but is awesome once you use it. Google Now is an evolution of Google Search, you CAN do voice searches using the app, and it will return answer “cards” or a list of search results. The voice commands are also very useful for things while you are driving, such as “text Alisha on my way home from work”, that pops up a confirmation dialog, you hit send, done, or “call Mom” Android has been doing this for years. What is new however, is the ability of Google Now to surface information when you need it. What? How does it know? Basically Google has access to all of your Google stuff, so it can scan your email/calendar/etc to display useful info such as event reminders, package shipping confirmation, information about your stock portfolio. Google uses your phone’s GPS location to determine, and notify you, when you need to leave for an appointment, including delays such as traffic. This is my favorite feature personally. Google Now also learns what you do, for example, it regularly tells me how long it’ll take to get to/from work in the morning before I leave for work and in the afternoon before I leave from work. It knows that I usually leave work for/from at certain times and that I like to watch movies on the weekends. I have trained it (unintentionally, I might add) I search for movie showtimes on Friday/Saturdays and Google (Now) knows that. There are many other awesome things that it can do and that Google will continue to add to. This is THE reason to get the 4.1 Jelly Bean update (or new phone), which is currently the only way to get Google Now.

Rapido - Not to plug my own application, but I really do use it all the time, which is one of the reasons I built it. I WANT to use it. In a nutshell it allows me to post quickly to both Facebook and Twitter, fast.

SwiftKey - One of the biggest things that sets Android above the other phone OSs out there are the custom keyboards. Android has a plethora of virtual keyboards to choose from. The stock keyboards are pretty good, and get better with each version. As of late Swype has become the de facto keyboard for many an Android device. I decided to give SwiftKey a try after using the stock Jelly Bean keyboard, simply because it was an option, I didn’t hate the JB keyboard, but now I LOVE SwiftKey. I’ve been testing SwiftKey Flow Beta 4.x which adds in the ability to do swipe typing, yes, just like Swype, however it does it with the amazing predictive power of SwiftKey, which is its main selling point. I can hammer out messages and text in no time, and it is very good at deciphering and writing what I want. You can also give it access to your text messages, Facebook and Twitter, so that it can learn how you type and better help predict. It really is awesome and has changed they way I type for the better. In fact I wrote the last half of this post using SwiftKey.

TuneIn Radio - I've been late to the party here. A local station I've come to enjoy only comes in clearly when I'm downtown, as a result the broadcast is usually fuzzy, not so with this app, so long as you have Internet, it is crystal clear.

Feedly - Great for reading my RSS feeds, it syncs up with Google Reader so I don't have to maintain multiple lists.

Re:Me (phone only) - This is best described as a reminder service. When you receive a new SMS, it will notify you that you have not responded, even if you have already read the message. This is useful for me since, I often read a message and then get distracted or something, this reminds me to respond. You can of course dismiss reminders and ignore numbers if you don't care to be reminded.

aeGis (phone only) - This is the missing administrative tool for Android. The service operates on SMS triggers in order to locate, lock or erase your device. Updates have been coming very frequently, I've tested the app, but haven't needed to use it, luckily.

on{X} - I've written about this before, it is a great automation tool, that let's you take care of menial tasks without thought.

Other Awesome Apps: Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Evernote, Foursquare, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Facebook Messenger, Mint, Flipboard, Pocket, Snapseed and Chrome to Phone.

These are just the more common apps that I use, there are many many more installed on both my phone and tablet. I keep discovering new ones daily, and this doesn't even cover the games. What are some apps that you have found useful or interesting?

BitDroid 2.2 Released

After completely rewriting BitDroid, I was sure to take advantage of all the new features that Android 4+ devices have to offer. One of those features I hadn't used before was AsyncTask which helps to load data in the background without tying up the UI thread. Android 4+ devices force this behavior, in order to increase the speediness of applications, and prevent the user from wondering if the app is doing anything or not.

With this release I modified the original code to fetch user history to first pull the list and second pull the click counts for each item, and then add them to the list as they are loaded. This has significantly increased load speed as the user gets to see the most pertinent information first, the links, and then the link counts, shortly thereafter. As seen below the links are present, and the refresh animation (in the upper right) is still spinning, once they load the hyphens will turn to numbers.

I also took inspiration from Pocket, which checks the clipboard when you first load the app and asks if you want to save it to read later. I've added a fairly unobtrusive prompt that should get attention or be ignored depending on what the user wants to do.

BitDroid version 2.2 has been pushed to the play store, look for an update in the next few hours.

BitDroid Free: 

BitDroid Donate:

Rapido 1.2 Released

Rapido 1.2 now works with Android 4+ devices! I also added the option to send/share to Rapido to make posting messages, and especially ones with links even faster. For twitter posts, links are now counted as 20 characters if you go over the 140 char limit, since they are shortened by Twitter once sent to their servers.

Future Plans
Link shortening powered by bit.ly with account login
App.net posting*
Multiple Twitter accounts*
Facebook Pages*
Posting photos*
(*denotes wishful thinking)

Developer Notes
Shortly after releasing the first version of Rapido, I received a message from a friend informing me that the app didn't work on his new phone which ran Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich. My personal phone still runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread, so I was somewhat puzzled at this since my app wasn't doing anything crazy. Apparently I had failed to read up on the guidelines introduced in Android 3 Honeycomb, which prevents and stops execution of data gathering or other tasks that require the Internet from running in the foreground. What? This took me some time to properly correct, and diagnose since the error message wasn't exactly clear to me.

This seemed easy to solve, just move all of the token fetching and message sending stuff to the background. Done. Well it ended up being a laborious task that took quite a bit of trial and error on my part. Once I'd get one part working another thing would break in the process. I now pay much more attention to the little helps that eclipse drips when it turns some things red and lets me know that they are deprecated. They may continue to work on older versions of the software, but eventually they will break things. Some forums posts said "I just changed the target version to 2.3 and everything worked, again" I hope those people realized that they may have fixed an error message, but they didn't fix the problem.

These changes are obviously necessary due the nature of software. As things get more and more complex the need to revise things and update them arises and this often times means cutting away the legacy stuff that isn't useful or is taxing the whole system for a little convenience and familiarity. The first few times I tried writing an AsyncTask I misunderstood how they worked. I couldn't figure out how to get the background task to communicate with the foreground, this took some more reading and looking at other people's code, my favorite way to learn, to figure out that these Android developers knew what they were doing and this would in fact make my app faster. By the time I got the last few changes in this release I had the AsyncTasks down no problem.

I've been developing multiple apps for work and for fun (at home), it is always exciting to me when I learn something and then can immediately apply it to another project. This is one of the reasons I love programming so much, I am constantly learning and improving. If I get some requests I might write up a more technical post for those others out there that are struggling to make their apps future friendly with Android 4+.

Introducing Rapido!

Rapido or fast/rapid in Español was built, like many things, out of a frustration with existing software. I use both Facebook and Twitter frequently, but find it obnoxious to open up either, type a message, copy it, then open up the other app, paste it, and send it. I know you can setup both Facebook and Twitter to cross-post messages, but I don’t always want to send the same update to both, so that is a less than perfect solution. 

Enter Rapido.



Open a single app, type your message/update, then select either Twitter, Facebook or both, hit “Send” and you’re good to go. Fast, simple, easy. Try it out now!

 

Push Away

Push notifications have almost completely replaced text messaging and email notifications for me. I used to love text message reminders, but now I get annoyed that I cannot take action on those items. For example, I get a message from twitter, the most I can do is click a link. When I get a push notification from twitter I can read it, then dismiss, or I can touch it, get the full twitter app experience and find out more about that particular tweet, user, hashtags or people mentioned. This gives me a lot of power that a simple text message cannot.

Bank of America recently released an update to their Android app that allows replacing the standard email and text message notifications with push notifications. This is great news since I can change the frequency and/or conditions of the notification without having to load up their site in a full desktop browser. They’ve even introduced their new BankAmeriDeals (or whatever it is called) so that I can receive push notifications with opportunities to save money. This last feature may get obnoxious after a few days, so we’ll see how long I keep it on.

Alarm.com is another example of a company using the full-features of a smartphone to benefit their customers. I have an alarm system that allows me to arm/disarm and change the thermostat in my house while I am away from it. They recently introduced a feature that allows me to set a notification at a certain time at night to remind me to arm my house, this is great as I  often forget to arm the house (which completely defeats the purpose of the system). Another great feature is geofencing, I have the app setup to notify me when I get outside a certain radius from my house, to remind me to arm the house. This even works with 2 phones, you can set the trigger to only notify you if BOTH phones are a certain distance from the house, it won’t bother either if one of us is still home. This is one of the coolest features to me, using my phone’s built-in hardware to help make my life better, easier, safer, etc.

Slice can be setup to scan your email and pick out purchases. This allows the app to notify you when your packages are being shipped, in transit or when they have been delivered. I have been surprised by this app many times when I didn’t hear a delivery truck or see anything in my mailbox. The first time this happened, I had forgotten about ordering anything, I got a push notification that there was a package on my doorstep, I looked at the message with a puzzled look, walked to my door and there WAS a package waiting for me. Awesome!

Another great advantage to push over text messaging is that I am not limited to a single device. I carry 2 phones around one for work (iPhone 4), one personal (T-Mobile G2). As a result I have a lot of application overlap, this is on purpose, since if one phone is dead, or out of service, I can pick up the other and continue my conversation (Facebook/Google+ Messaging). I normally have notifications for personal things (Facebook/Twitter/etc) turned off on my work phone, so that I don’t get a crazy amount of buzzing in my pocket when both phones go off simultaneously, though it is incredibly cool to get notifications in realtime on both devices.

I wish the Mint.com app would implement push notifications, I despise getting their email notifications now that I have tasted the goodness that is push. One disadvantage to push messages/notifications, I can’t go back and search through them, such as with email notifications, granted, I usually delete most notifications anyway, this is a minor issue.

I am glad that application developers and the services world as a whole has noticed the advantage to push notifications. I do wish there was a backup method such as text, for those rare times when I am in an area of poor coverage and limited or no internet. At the same time, it’s okay to be off the grid for a while.

My Top Android Apps for 2010

As Android has grown in popularity and the range of devices has widened, many of my friends and family have been getting Android phones. This list is supposed be a starting point for those getting a new Android phone or really wanting to get the most out of the phone they already have.

TweetDeck [Free] - By far the quickest and easiest way to view and reply to Twitter/Facebook/Buzz updates on Android.  The columns can be customized to display all updates or only the updates from certain services or people.  They also have a Desktop and Chrome App version.

LauncherPro [Free] - While I appreciate the default homescreen, I can't be limited to just three icons that I can't change. LauncherPro does many things, I can switch the number of homescreens from an unwieldy 7 down to a manageable 3-5. It also gives me secondary actions for all 5 icons on the bottom of the screen, for example if I swipe up on my messaging icon it takes me to the Compose Message screen, saving me time and a few steps.  There are many other reasons, but these are the most prominent.

Angry Birds & Angy Birds Seasons [Free] - Best time waster ever.  Both are free, though they include some semi-obtrusive ads. I would pay good money to go ad free.

Dropbox [Free] - If you are familiar with Dropbox.com you will no doubt love the Android companion app.  Dropbox is a file syncing service that is accessible from pretty much anywhere you have an internet connection.  You add files on the web, phone or computer and within seconds they are accessible on all devices.  This is very useful for backing up files from your phone.  I use it to save pictures taken with my phone in case it gets lost or stolen.

AppBrain [Free] - While the Android Market client recently received a facelift, it still lacks a real web-based component for browsing market content.  Google showed off the web-based market earlier this year, so expect it some time next year.  In the meantime use AppBrain, which lets you browse apps on the web, then queue them up for install on your device. All links to apps on this page go to appbrain.com

Google Maps [Free] - I could not live without Google Maps in my pocket, I would have been lost many times over. The latest update added offline support, new vector-based maps (which take up less memory) and 3D maps for most Android 2.2 devices. Overview of features at Google Mobile Blog.

Movies (by Flixster) [Free] - Great for seeing what is playing at your local cinema, what is being released on DVD/Blu-Ray/Digital Download, and managing your Netflix queue.  You can even log in with your Facebook account and upload reviews of movies to shared with your friends.  Access to showtimes, release dates, trailers and Netflix make this a must-have for entertainment junkies.  Check out the IMDB app if you need info on TV shows.

Gmail [Free] - Yet another app that is being used all day long. I almost like it as much as the full desktop web version.  I use this to triage my mail when not at my computer, and as a scratch-pad note system since Gmail syncs drafts.  The latest update added a refreshed compose screen with support for multiple sender addresses and easier reply options.

CalWidget [Free] - Like Gmail, I have Google Calendar setup in a meticulous manner to help me remember things and make sure I'm not late paying my bills or wishing someone a happy birthday. The default Android calendar widget shows one event for the day, it looks pretty but isn't very useful. CalWidget lets me pick a size so I don't have to take up an entire homescreen, unless I want to. If you have an HTC, Samsung, or Motorola phone, you may already have a decent calendar widget, if not this one is well worth the download.

I probably missed a lot of great apps, this is just a small list that I use very often. Let me know in the comments of your top Android apps.

BitDroid v0.5 Has Been Released

My second first update has been released and is ready for immediate consumption/updating.  I've added a dashboard and an "action bar" after reading up on  Android's Evolving UI Patterns on the Android blog.  The dashboard and action bar will continue to evolve as it is developed.

Dashboard

I've also added the ability to shorten a URL, wow, what would a bit.ly app be without the ability to shorten a url...you can also expand bit.ly urls.

Shorten URL

Other changes include validation on the login screen with username and api key and some bug fixes.  Go grab it now and let me know what you think.

My First Android App - BitDroid

I did it, I got all the kinks worked out, made myself a fancy icon, and put menus all over the place.  My app has been published, look for it in the Android Market under "BitDroid" or "com.thunsaker" or scan this handy QR code:

The app isn't much right now, all it lets you do is enter a username, anyone will do, and it will show you the public list of urls that have been shortened by that user. Here's my list:

The application will be evolving over time, I still need to work in actual url shortening, and then verification of username with bit.ly api key.  More work, but for right now, I'm just happy to have something in the Android Marketplace.  Feedback is welcome, let me know if it crashes on you, I was only able to test on two devices: G1 and Droid Incredible.

My First Android App Preview

I was interested in android development before I bought my first Android device.  It wasn't until recently that I tried to do something more than the typical "Hello, World!" intro app.  

Switching gears from asp.net/C#  Web/Windows Mobile development to Java was quite difficult, as well as switching from the newly launched Visual Studio 2010 to Eclipse.  Its been a few years since my first Java class so I was a little rusty on the syntax, and the general practices of Java.  Thanks to numerous tutorials and open source projects I was able to find out what I needed to know to get my app to do what I want.  

I haven't gotten anything other than a custom ListView going.  The list is pulled from my bit.ly history in JSON format and placed into my custom list.  

BitDroid - Recent Links

Clicking the globe takes you to the web browser, the title is displayed at the top of each item and the full url scrolls under it.  Long press will give you options to share (though I haven't quite gotten that working yet.)

I'll be adding a login, settings and dashboard before this gets released to the Android Marketplace.

Android Apps - What I Use

I've been asked by a few people for recommendations of Android applications that I use.  I've made a few lists, but this one is the most comprehensive of those lists.  Most links below go to Androlib which have QR codes for you to scan with your phone.

• Advanced Task Manager (free) - Great for killing hanging processes and keeping yourself from needing to reset the phone.
• Astro File Manager (free) - because everyone needs a file manager
• BookmarkBR (free) - Backup utility for your browser bookmarks.
• CalWidget (free) - Quick at a glance widget for home screen.
• Documents To Go Full ($29.99 $14.99 for a limited time) - Kinda spendy, but great if you need to open/edit docs or spreadsheets or view pdfs on your phone.  I've done a few homework assignments in a pinch with this, very handy to have.
• Draw! (free) - Great drawing app to entertain kids with.
• Foursquare (free) - Great app for checking in and letting the world know where you are, much, much better than their mobile website.  You can view offers and other foursquare specific things within the app.
• FxCamera (free) - My wife loves this because she can make "polaroid" pictures with it.
• GDocs (free) - Great if you need offline access to your google docs. Allows editing of Google Docs and quick access to Google Spreadsheets.
• Google Voice (free) - Great app for checking your Google Voice messages.  Its also great that it can take over your phone and make calls as your Google Voice number.
• GPS Status (free) - Get better information from the GPS radio, compass included.
• Live Bookmarks (free) - A great desktop widget for quick access to all of your browser bookmarks.
• Reveal Reader (free) - A simple scripture reader for for those interested in the LDS Standard Works, and other church-related publications including hymns.  Support for bookmarking and in-app downloads, so you don't have to go hunting for the files yourself.
• Ringdroid (free) - customize mp3 on your phone and make them into ringtones 
• Seesmic (free) - Great for twittering, nice big compose screen, integration with the share menu and it doesn't have a huge footprint.  Twitter updates come in pretty reliably, yfrog/twitpic/etc image preview saves time.
• Shazam (free) - Good for identifying songs on the radio or elsewhere.
• Skydeck (free) - Great if you want to keep a backup of your messages and calls on the web, check out their check out their site.  Their app also has a caller id function that identifies calls from people not in your contacts.
• TextEdit (free) - Small little application lets you jot down notes, w/o internet access.
• Voice Recorder (free) - Record audio and email it.
• Yelp (free) - Great for finding a place to eat.

Other apps that I've had installed but deleted due to space limitations on the G1: Google Sky Map, Twidroid Pro, Google Goggles, Layar, Evernote, Brightkite, Steel, Locale, Pandora, and Last.fm.  Most were great, but I didn't use them often enough to warrant using the space to keep them.

Let me know in the comments if there are some alternate apps that I should take a look at.