Android :: Review Applications In The Same Way?
May 18, 2010
We are looking for a few people to post one or two or however many they want application reviews. Basically all we ask is that you review an application in the same way that we do and in return you can place a link to your blog, website, forum etc (as long as its appropriate or linked to a competing application reviewing site). You can review any application as long as your not bias and own the application. We get thousands of visitors and so it is good exposure for you and your website.
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Mar 11, 2010
We know Google Android phone is best phone where we can use different application without paying anything and here again I come with 4 quality application review for you.
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Jul 21, 2010
I thought it might be useful to create a thread to suggest apps in. The nature of the forums will determine if this is a good idea or not by whether it gets stickied or buried. I'm new to Android and we're all new to the Captivate (sans Galaxy S owners). I suggest that we keep to 4 simple posting guidelines to make this thread as useful as possible. You can add material, but give us these as a minimum guideline. If you can, update your post if your experience changes after you post. 1. 1 app per post. The idea is to give a single post that gives at least a basic review of a given app. Not a 10 thread "discussion". just a single post. Please dont repeat app reviews. We can start a thread for individual apps. 2. Please only review apps you have personally installed and used a bit. Not "some guy you know", not "this friend of mine", not even "I knew this alien once who...". Personal experience, with the app, on this phone only. 3. Please avoid commenting on other posts. By definition, this isnt a "right or wrong" thread and if the posting rules are followed, at least 1 person had those actual, literal results. 4. If you can give a very brief description of what type of user you are (heavy, lite, etc) and what kind of environment you're in most of the time (Inside office, driving, etc), this will help others adjust your experiences based on their environment and usage.
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Jul 10, 2010
When I had my iPhone I always went to a site like ilounge.com, what is the most popular site for the Droid that reviews apps / accessories?
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Nov 4, 2009
Phandroid's Extensive Droid Review with Video Review
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Apr 20, 2010
I've seen a lot of people mentioning some sites in passing, but to be frank they are underwhelming and/or not content rich. I'm looking for a much more comprehensive app review website.
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Feb 21, 2010
I know you can get to the android market via the app on your phone and search through them all. There has to be an easier way to review the apps on the web I have looked at adrolib.com and I know of android.com/market where you can see the most popular. What I am wondering, is there a web site that lists all of them that are on the android market on your phone to look at? It would be faster to look at the apps on my computer than using the slower speed of my phone.
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Sep 29, 2010
Info on the review procedure followed by Google to publish an App in Android Market.
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Sep 17, 2010
I am developing an Android application for a customer. I want to be able to provide them (no one else) incremental updates but I am not clear what the procedure should be.I don't want them to have to install development tools or root their phone. These are non technical folks who would have no idea how to accomplish root a phone or use a command line interface.When I develop iPhone applications for them this was easy. They just give me the device UDID and I send them a binary that can be drag and dropped into iTunes.How is this done on Android. I have tried loading the application from a web server but the devices says it is not allowed to be loaded because of security reasons. In setting->Applications there is no menu option to "Allow Unknown sources".
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Aug 12, 2010
I was wondering what app or widget Bonnie Cha used on the CNET review of htc evo to show a tabbed menu at the bottom that lets you filter messages based on status, attachment, meetings, invite, etc. Another one app or widget shows a nice display of google services. I wonder if it was part of the phone apps or third party apps.
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Oct 8, 2010
I was surfing for this apps and I found twitter feed where Firefox and Adobe AIR review was their! I am very happy with Firefox on my Computer and would love to see it on Android Phone. I found information here:2 Recently Released Cool Android Apps You Have To Check Out I am looking for experts view on it! Is it ok with Beta use or we shall need to wait for further development as 3.0 OS is also coming soon for us.
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May 30, 2010
Application Review of DocumentsToGo + Full Version Key.
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Dec 20, 2009
I just switched to Android (Motorola Droid) after several years of using uBook on the Win Mobile platform. That powerful e-reader can view virtually any format you throw at it, is full-featured, and highly configurable. But it's anything but pretty.
So with that experience in mind, I tried to find an Android e-book reader which had similar features. The three which seemed most widely-used are:
FB Reader 0.5.27 (FBReader: FBReader for Google Android)
Aldiko 1.2.5 (Aldiko - eBook Reader Application for Android)
Books WordPlayer 11.0.1 (WordPlayer:Reading Released)
Each of them open epub files, but only FB Reader would open any other formats (oeb and fb2). However, thanks to the genuis of calibre (calibre - E-book management) a free e-book management and conversion application which can convert between almost any format invented, having a reader which can read a specific format is less important - simply use calibre to convert it to epub.
Each of the readers has the following features:
-- Configurable fonts (color/style/size)
-- One button toggle for day/night mode
-- Bookmarks
None of them has annotations/highlighting, which is the feature I miss the most from uBook (Word-Player apparently does, per its home page, but per the devs, that feature is not working in Droid).
FB Reader
This is the oldest of the ebook readers, with versions available for multiple platforms. It is also butt-ugly, with an interface that makes my trusty uBook seem spiffy by comparison. (e.g. you have to select books from a list, not icons). And the cover displays in only 1/3 of the screen, in the top left corner (presumably FB Reader is not yet designed for the hi-resolution Droid).
FB Reader was also the buggiest of the three readers. It crashed frequently when trying to change font size, only curable by rebooting the phone, and froze up randomly. Also the Table of Contents was faulty - it would only show one chapter. Another quirk - the menu system appears to be in flux - the font settings was buried in a menu called "Settings (Old)".
Two pluses - (1) the FB Reader's bookmarks feature was the easiest to use of three. Selecting "Bookmarks" brought up one screen at which you could both see a list of recent bookmarks, and add one with one-touch. But the ease of use comes with the loss of flexibility - the bookmark is named after the first few lines of the page, w/o the ability to override it, and (2) it has the option to show/hide the status bar while reading.
WordPlayer
This one seemed promising at first, if only because it interfaced with calibre directly. It was also the only ereader to have text-to-speech, but with a voice that not even a mother could love that also read formatting, it was too distracting to use. One other plus - you could point it to any folder on your SD card to find an book, and it would import it.
This reader was the slowest of the three - chapters took forever to load, and switching between day/night modes was just as painfully slow, as if the entire chapter had to be reloaded.
A couple of other quirks/bugs - a single italiziced letter would often not display, and it added several white blank pages to the end of each chapter.
Aldiko
This is certainly the prettiest of the three ebook readers. It also has agreements with various download sites to enable downloading of something like 10,000 ebooks, but the selection was poor, seeming to consist primarily of sex stories (or erotica). However, since I simply use the reader to view my own epubs, this feature didn't matter to me. And it also was easy to download epubs from the web - clicking on an epub file would import it into Aldiko.
This was my favorite of the ebook readers - the devs put a lot of thought into the interface and usability, and I found no bugs. Chapters loaded quickly, it was the only reader which supported css (though not the @font-face attribute), has fully-configurable gestures, and even an option to brighten/dim the screen by swiping the screen w/o leaving the page you're on.
The bookshelf has to be seen to be believed - beautiful icons, intuitive, and the ability to sort by author, tag. Finally, you can share books via facebook, twitter, e-mail, or even SMS(?).
This would be the ideal ebook reader, and a great replacement for uBook if only it had annotations & highlighting (dev says "we will definitely add in the near future", though there have been two updates in the month since then, and still no dice). And I miss the customized status bar that uBook has, with page number / total pages, and the time.
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Feb 21, 2010
Software Reviewed: Titanium Backup
Version: 2.7.2
Date of review: 22/FEB/2010
I was looking for an application that would allow me to:
1)Migrate to another phone easily.
2)Backup my applications (with ease)
3)Backup my DATA (with ease)
After some playing around with the market of available applications to backup applications/data, I found some very interesting applications which allowed scheduled backups (which I believe is a must have..) well thats my opinion anyway but out of all the applications I tried, titanium was the only application which after restoring the applications, also restored the links into the marketplace under downloads which allowed me to then receive further updates in the future..! Most backup applications will restore the application, no problem, but what about future updates? You WONT get them.!
Just recently, the developer of Titanium released the market doctor feature (only for donate users) which will attempt to fix any applications that dont show up in the marketplace after a restore (before this feature you had to restore, sometimes twice before it would show up) GREAT WORK !
I am abit (personally) disappointed with the GUI of titanium I believe that it should have an option (wizard) when you first startup the application which asks you, are you an advanced user or beginner, and if youre a beginner it shouldnt show you all the advanced information (that half the people wont understand anyway)
What Id like to see added?
1)beginner / advanced view of home page
2)shortcut options (or widget to run defined backup)
3)Scheduled backups
4)Backup of (SMS, call logs, bookmarks, system settings?)
5)Option to move most recent backup to remote location (i.e. network share over wifi, ftp over data etc)
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May 26, 2010
A few small bubbles, 'prolly my fault. No biggie, can't really see them when the screen is on.
Although the standard Verizon screen protectors don't cover the whole face,I seemed to be able able to squeegee them all out. Also, the feel of the screen wasn't as slick as with the VZ protectors, it was more sticky/resistant when sliding.
I'll hope protection will be what sells me on the Steinheil
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Sep 11, 2010
App review: Finger Race (Android) -- Engadget
just downloaded, havent played yet, but if its like the Iphone one, very simple amusing game.
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May 20, 2010
Sprint 4G Phone Hits New Speeds, but Battery Disappoints - WSJ.com
What an horrendous piece of work. Apparently the article is not intended as a review of the EVO 4G but rather Sprints 4G network. The actual phone itself is barely touched upon except to say that "a full day use on 4G drains the battery" being alarmingly fast (obviously not compared to any other smartphone on a full day use, especially the iphone 3GS and it's poor battery life). What a joke, somebody please tell me as a layperson knowing nothing about the EVO and happening upon this article, what opinion do you have of the EVO 4G now? What features did you learn about? How about the Android OS and any new updates to it?
Nope, instead you would think "Oh a big, heavy phone with bad battery life".
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Nov 15, 2010
First if you had problems flashing over this ROM such as being in the sprint 4g boot loop, heres the fix. Take the battery out and boot into recovery . Wipe cache and Dalvik Cache then wipe data. Yes its painfull but this a very nice ROM. Anyway back to the review.
This is a pretty basic rom and not much is changed. Its basically a ROM that removes Bloatware and adds some nice Root apps such as wifi tether. This ROM is on a stock kernel. The one big thing I noticed is the good battery life. I unplug my phone at 7 am and goto school, at school I send 30-40 text messages and check my phone frequently.
By the end of school, 3:15,I was at 80% Now my bus ride is 45 mins long, so to the pass the time I normally play a game or am on phone texting and what not, now before root and rom , by the time I got home i would be around 20-30% but after playing a game for 30 mins (Angry Birds) and texting for the rest. I was at 67% which is MUCH better than the previous Stock ROM i was on. If your looking for a non changing ROM with good battery life and Bloatware removed, I reccomend OMJ 2.2 Froyo ROM
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Jul 1, 2010
I'm a developer for a live wallpaper named aCircuitBoard. I came here for my apps whether it's working fine in evo or not. I've tested it on only nexus one. so can somebody help let me know any bugs on evo?
only one thing I've worried is, it's not free apps. so if u have a time, just buy it. check it working fine or not, give me reviews, and cancel buying it.
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May 19, 2010
another review:
Sprint 4G Phone Hits New Speeds, but Battery Disappoints - WSJ.com
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May 23, 2010
I have had my EVO for a day and thought I would share my opinion. My my last three phones were as follows. Palm Pre, iPhone 3gs, and HTC Hero, in case I do any comparisons. By the way, I am posting this from my EVO.
The screen size of the EVO is amazing. It is the perfect size for portable videos, gaming, and web surfing. This was the very first thing that I noticed. Now I know some of you are worried that the phone may be too big, it isn't. It has a great feel in the hand and the curves make it feel natural.
The build quality is second to none. I mean this whole heartedly. The only thing I could see being better is the battery door, but you only notice how thin it is when its off. When it is in one piece though this phone is as solid as they come. Again this is the best built phone I have ever owned. The kick stand is great and yes there is a magnet to keep it closed.
The phone is fast and the OS is smooth. Every previous android user will appreciate the keyboard, like I said I am typing all this on the EVO. iPhone users will find the speed and accuracy similar. Web browsing is awesome, this is the fastest I have ever experienceed on a phone. Multi touch is great and on par with the iPhone.
The camera is the best I have seen on a phone. Pictures are clear and vibrant. The video is good, but not anything that stands out and certainly ain't gonna replace your camcorder.
The mobile hot spot is easy to setup and works flawlessly. I even used it to stream netflix on my ps3.
Battery life. I don't know how. But it is better than the Hero. I did learn to keep 4G off unless in use though.
Now my only negative with the phone. It should have been left as just a 3G phone. I live in an area with seasoned 4G and can not keep a signal while moving or when I go into a building. Also, the speeds are not as advertised, not even close. I averaged around 2.1 megs, that's it and the funny thing is it would go as low as 450 klbs and then up to 2.4 megs even when tested back to back. Clear wire needs to get there stuff together and Sprint should drop the $10 fee. It is not worth it and people will be dissatisfied.
Overall, this is the best phone I have ever owned and I am glad Sprint has for once set the bar.
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Apr 17, 2010
For those looking to see what Android 2.1 brings to the Hero, I just spent about 6 hours compiling this with full details: Detailed Mega Review Of Android 2.1 On Our HTC Hero Discover All The New Features (With Lots Of Screenshots)
My favorite new feature is probably the speed-to-text but the absence of lag is a close 2nd.
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Jun 15, 2010
Exclusive: Motorola Droid X preview -- Engadget
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Mar 29, 2010
Had the phone a couple of days and had a fair old play, so thought I would share my first impressions.
I have had various smartphones over the years, but my last was an iPhone 3G, so some of the comments may make comparison to that. This isn't intended as a direct comparison or comment on the respective platforms, but simply early observations.
Hardware
In the box
Quite a small box, contains the phone, some documentation, Mini-USB cable, plug adapter, headphones (havent even opened these yet, instead electing to use my good quality seinheiser in ear buds), battery and that is it. Only a quick start guide included, the manual is on PDF on the phones SD card.
Looks
In my opinion it looks really classy. I know many people are saying it lacks the style of the Legend, but without having seen the Legend in person, I think that the Desire stacks up pretty well.
Size/Weight
It is almost identical in size to an iPhone 3G with similar weight. Subjectively it probably weighs slightly more, but feels really good in the hand. The screen fills the device nicely with probably an ideal amount of space round it to allow you to grip and hit the buttons without accidentally hitting the screen.
Finish
A combination of metal round the screen/top section of the phone and a sort of rubberised finish on the back, with a glass screen. Again, feels really good in the hand. The back surface means it is easy to hold and gives a good grip.
Buttons/Controls
There is a power button on the top, click to lock/unlock, hold for power and profile options. This sits on the slope of the top and always seems to come to hand really nicely. Volume buttons on the side are standard fare. Click all the way down for silent and then down again from vibrate on the home screen. Home, menu, search and back keys are well placed at the bottom and a lot more responsive than the iPhone dimple. There is also an optical trackball which you can click to select (used in camera app amongst others). You can use it to swipe between homescreens without having to touch the screen which is useful. I haven�t really used it that much, but is nice to have the option.
Connections
3.5mm jack at the top, slightly angled so a bit of a strange fit for normal headphones, but nor real problems, seems to fit standard headphones with no issues. Mini-USB connector at the bottom which sit out slightly from the curved back. The mini-USB cable supplied has a nice rubberised feel to match the back of the phone. J
Rear
Rubberised finish with embossed logo and camera, flash and speaker placed at top. Camera extrudes slightly, but not significantly Has metal surround and glass cover. LED flash sits next to the camera and there is a speaker grille next to that.
Screen
I will come back to the quality etc. of the screen, but in physical terms it is big (obviously), bigger borders than say an HD2, but smaller than the iPhone. It is nice to use, I have seen some comments saying it is slightly sticky, but I haven�t really noticed this. Does collect fingerprints, but I wouldn�t say it is that bad, no worse than the iPhone 3G or any other glossy screen.
Final points
My only other point or reservation is that there is a slight join between the screen and the metal facing and between the metal facing and rubberised back/main body section which does seem to collect dust. Think I may get a
protector soonas I wouldn�t want anything getting in-grained. The little finishing touches like the slight chrome surround on the front speaker, embossed HTC logo on the rear and discrete HTC branding are pretty classy.
Getting Started
Turning on for the first time, it takes a minute or so to boot up seems pretty quick from a standing start. There is an intro /tutorial to run through with guides for setting language, using the keyboard, network type, Google location, sign in to Google account/other mail accounts, sign-in for Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, but no Picasa (there is the option to upload to Picasa, but no obvious way to download), finally date and time.
Signing in to Google downloaded all my contact and filled all the relevant fields (first time I have had a phone I haven�t had to add all my contacts again) J. Also pulls in all your Facebook pals, you can then quickly link in a Facebook profile to a Google/phone contact. Not sure if it updates back to your Google account if you add contacts/make changes, havent checked this yet. Minor irritation, is if you link to Facebook, it appears to overwrite the contacts picture with their Facebook profile pic. Also imports calendar and automatically signs you in to all the relevant Google sites.
I wont discuss the out the box set-up as Android is so configurable it isn�t really relevant. Suffice to say, there are a good range of apps/widgets/wallpapers etc to get started.
First Impressions
Screen
First things first, the screen is gorgeous. I havent been able to test it in bright or direct sunlight (as I live in Scotland and we don�t get that here). But in general conditions so far, no problems with readability. Viewing angle seems excellent compared to LCD, brightness is great and colours are fantastic. Back to back comparison with the same photo on the iPhone 3G and the Desire, both in the default gallery apps, the Desire is much brighter, much better contrast and a lot more colourful. Some colours may be artificially bright, but in general it just looks super crisp and clear. Blacks are dark and the contrast is excellent.
General and first time Android user
I will start out by saying that this is the first time I have really used Android or Sense in depth. First impressions are it is really nice. Basic operations, phone messaging etc are intuitive and easy, everything is very slick, fast and responsive. As previously mentioned, all my contacts were already imported, so I simply linked them up to their Facebook compatriots and that was that. Got some texts in from the network, so got to see first-hand the notification system which is excellent, just so much better than the disappearing vague icons in iPhone OS. Zipping about the homescreens is super fast and scrolling through menus equally slick. There is the occasional judder, I have noticed this in the notifications tray and others at times, but nothing significant. Opening and switching apps is also super quick.
There is an obvious learning experience here too, probably a good deal more so than with the iPhone. I can�t immediately put my finger on what it is, but it just isn�t quite as obvious as some other Oss. I started to think of the Desire more as a mini-PC rather than a more dedicated OS and things became clearer.
Screen responsiveness is excellent, no real problems and nothing obvious like the infamous Nexus One screen videos (this may well still be present, not checked, but not once has the screen done anything I wouldnt expect). Overall everything is super slick, the basics are pretty slick and intuitive and the screen and OS in general are gorgeous.
I have had a few forced closes, not sure if this is to do with something I have installed or something more general. But it appears to recover pretty quickly and I have only had one occasion when I have had to do a re-set when one of the games I downloaded wouldnt close even though it didnt appear in running tasks, but still continued playing the music.
Battery Life
I have been trying to get a few charge cycles through the battery, but so far it has been reasonable. Even with really heavy use with just about everything on, it lasted most of a day on its first full charge. 5 hours into my second day and having fiddled a fair amount and still with everything on, it is just over 60%. Certainly comparable or better than my admittedly slightly tired iPhone 3G. Will see how this pans out.
Included Apps
Picture Gallery
As I mentioned earlier, couldn�t see any way to (easily) pull photos off my Picasa. Copied across several folders full of photos to the default images folder. Imported into the gallery with no problems, though did put all the photos in a single folder in the gallery app despite the fact they were in named sub-folders on the drive. Scrolls through the photos no problem. Amazingly quick considering I have over 600 decent sized photos in the gallery. Thumbnails appear almost immediately. There is a trick to quickly scroll to a given date, if you start a scroll then �grab� the scroll bar at the right, you can then browse by date and quickly move through the gallery. Again, photos appear almost immediately. You can view by grid or a sort of filmstrip view. Overall the default gallery is decent, but I think the Nexus gallery looks neater.
Also no way of filtering, for example to see all videos etc. only options are Facebook and Flickr tabs. Would be nice to have tabs for videos etc. Finally seems to pick up all photos on the SD card, with no real options to set where it looks, for example picked up the Jpegs for some comics I copied across into a separate Comics folder.
Movie Playback
Videos seem to sit in the photo gallery for some reason and not a separate video gallery as discussed above. Playback is pretty basic, doesn�t seem to be any options for subtitles chapters etc. Basic scroll selector to move through the video which is really quick, option to stretch to screen and that is about it. Doesnt auto rotate, always defaults to full screen landscape view. I will look at alternative video players in due course. Drag and drop works without any problems. Quality wise, I have only been able to test with a iPhone encoded movie at 480*208 H.264, but even this looked pretty good. Problems with Handbrake means I have been unable to encode a DVD at a higher resolution, so I will comment further when I have had a chance to play with this. Would have been nice if they had included a high quality sample video to show off the
AMOLED display.
Music Playback
Built in music app is pretty good. Cover flow style album selector and the usual options (shuffle, repeat etc.) Havent had a chance to see if there are any more in depth settings for quality, enhancements etc. but there is nothing obvious. People have mentioned a Dolby Mobile enhancer, but havent been able to find this in the T-Mobile OS.
Email
Had to manually set up my Google push account to work with the mail app, but now set-up appears to work well. Usual views and filters, only issue so far is not being able to select multiple emails for example to mark read/un-read.
Messaging
Works exactly as expected, you can email from contacts, reply to groups etc. all the usual options. No pop-up preview, just notification, unless you install another messaging app e.g. Handcent, but I am undecided which to go for at the moment.
Widgets
Good range here, like the clock with nice little animated weather animations. Power options etc are useful and things like the news feeds all seem to work well. These are all so configurable that it is hard to make any real comment. Only minor problem is that if I change one of the default scenes e.g. Work, it does not let me save over it, so you either take what you are given or have a whole heap of different scenes.
Live Wallpapers
Really funky, love maps with Google Maps 4, like the HTC sense bubbles as well and the snakes like Nexus one is there too.
Keyboard
Keyboard is excellent, love the slight vibrate on keypress. Even in portrait I haven�t had any real issues with typing. Auto complete/suggestions works really well and intuitively. No text to speech though which is disappointing! L Hopefully this will be resolved in due course as I had been looking forward to this.
MarketPlace
Looks pretty comprehensive, a lot more on here than I was expecting. J Confusing that some prices are in dollars and some in pounds. Not sure if you are charged a fee if you buy an app in dollars from a normal bank account.
Like the list of apps I have downloaded, search is pretty good, though I would like to have seen suggestions as I type. Not sure how updates work, do I have to manually update or will I receive notification when a new version becomes available.
Conclusions So Far
Overall I am super impressed. The hardware is fantastic, the OS is really nice and there is so much potential for tinkering and improvements. The Desire is simply the best and most complete Smart Phone I have ever owned. My only reservations are minor, I hope that T-Mobile or HTC release the full retail OS as some of the missing features are a little frustrating, but overall no complaints whatsoever. Awesome phone, would recommend it to anyone with a little bit of tech savvy.
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Nov 1, 2009
Had my hero one week and loving using it all the time! Finding the keyboard fiddley and hard!
My question is, when I do a review on an app on market I get my name = Adrian, but I would like to put a nickname on, any advice on doin this change?
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Aug 10, 2010
Does anybody know how to review what permissions you have granted to an app installed from the marketplace without uninstalling and reinstalling it?
I am careful with what I install but I still want to be able to go through my apps and double check that I haven't got something installed which might have some kind of trojan or spyware built in.
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Oct 9, 2012
how to retrieve review from website (www example com) then show in android application
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Sep 24, 2010
It didn't take much time for me to fork over the $2.99 to buy the full version of LauncherPro (avaliable free, however some features are locked). This home menu is incredible. You can literally customize everything. LauncherPro is extremely responsive. I haven't experienced any lag using LauncherPro. My phone is rooted, and I use OneClickLagFix (free on market). I have not tried LauncherPro without the lag fix.
Before, I was using Home++, and was unhappy with the amount of lag I was experiencing. Even with OneClickLagFix, Home++ was laggy. I've tried numerous different home menus, and thought Home++ was the best I was going to get. I'm glad I found LauncherPro.
The feature I liked the most is the dock on the bottom. As you look at the pictures I've provided, you'll notice the dock changes on each photo. You have the option to set the number of docks you want, up to 3. The dock floats, and you can slide through the docks on any screen. I like this because I dont like having all my applications scattered across my home screen. LauncherPro comes with the option to use their custom icons for applications, rather than the default icons. I used LauncherPro icons for my main dock, and default icons for the other 2 docks. You have the option to display the number of unread messages or unread emails. You can see below, I have 2 unread emails.
On my default home screen (screeenshot1.jpg), I've got the Google search widget, Clock widget (free on market), Weather (weatherchannel app free on market), Battery Watcher (free on market) and Signal Strenght widget (free on market). You'll notice I have no applications on my home screen (as mentioned before). All the applications are on my dock. You'll notice that the google search bar doesn't take up a whole row like it normally does. LauncherPro allows you to resize your widgets. Just long click the widget you want to resize, and a resize box will appear. Resize is another one of my favorite features.
I have 3 home screens on my Vibrant, however you can have up to 7. On the screen above, I used the LauncherPro Messages widget. This widget posts all my text messages so I can read and reply to them. To reply, just click on the message you want to reply to. I also have the Power Control widget on the bottom.
On the screen above, I used the LauncherPro Facebook Widget. I find this widget a lot more easy to navigate than the default facebook widget. I resized the widget, because the default takes up the whole screen. I added the Pandora widget to the bottom. Pandora is free on the market.
Finally, the above picture is my application drawer. You'll notice towards the bottom, the applications look like they're folding into space. This is a beta option on LauncherPro, may not work so smooth on some phones. It works great with my Vibrant. It reminds me of the Star Wars introduction. You also have a home key option.
The screenshots and descriptions are some of the major features of LauncherPro. Download LauncherPro on the market, and play around with it yourself. It's easy to navigate. You wont be disappointed.
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Jun 16, 2010
Coming over from a Touch Pro 2, the only thing I actually miss is Nav N Go IGO 8. It was honestly the most amazing GPS I think I have ever used. It had so many little features Like the ability to customize the 3 little info spots with any dynamic value(like Current Speed, ETA, Miles Left, ect), and the little little "Next maneuver after the current upcoming maneuver" display. All of these things made that GPS wonderful. I've been spending days looking for a New GPS software to use on the Evo, but haven't found the perfect one yet. I wanted to review the GPS's that I have tried, to give you all an idea of what you can expect from some of the popular GPS's. I'm a Network Engineer who works alot in the Field, so I use GPS's every day. I've been able to log about 50 miles which each GPS so far.
Destinator 9:
This was a GPS that I found highly rated on the Market... Only issue is, it doesn't recognize the maps on the Evo, making it useless. Shame.
Google Navigation:
I've read so much Hype on this.. But I honestly don't see where it's coming from. Google Navigation is Available in many Countries. It's good with routing, but the interface isn't the best looking interface, and the HUD lacks alot of the extra information that other GPS's show. Google Navigation does do traffic, but doesn't auto reroute (Atleast, I dont think it does). One cool feature is the ability to add layers to the map. You can have a satellite overlay, as well as have an overlay for food, gas, reststops, ect. Otherwise, nothing else really makes this stand out from any of the other GPS's. Oh... and one last thing... The voice in this GPS makes me want to kick babies into tree stump grinders.
Sprint Navigation(Aka TeleNav):
SPrint Navigation is actually an OK GPS. Unless your on the Everything Plan with Sprint though, you arn't getting this GPS for free. It runs $10 a month. Sprint Navigation is only available in the USA, but it's Big Sister; Telenav is available outside the USA as well. The interface is OK. It shows all of the needed information in a News ticker type of display. The ticker is on a Yellow background which makes it harder to see sometimes. Routing and Address finding in this GPS is the best out of any GPS i've used.. Including IGO 8. The Traffic feature isn't too good. I'm not sure where it's traffic source comes from, but I've only rarely been alerted to traffic with this program. And when the time comes to click on that magic re-route button, the magic for some odd reason doesn't seem to happen. It reroutes me right back into the traffic. Since I'm on the Everything Plan, I currently use this in conjunction with the next two GPS's.
Waze:
Waze is a great little community Driven(Har har, no pun intended) GPS, with an amazingly responsive development team behind it. It's available in most country's. What sets Waze off from the rest of the GPS's is it's Community aspect... When you use Waze, your linked up to Hundreds of other Waze Users in your area and around the world. This provides real time traffic monitoring from other users, as well as user submitted accident reports, and speed trap reports. You can also view and post "Chit Chat" comments on the route/map as well so you can talk to user Waze Users. Why you would want to do this while driving? Well lets say your stuck in a horrible traffic Jam caused by an accident with a few other Wazers.. Wouldn't it be cool to have a little conversation going with them all while you wait in stand still traffic? You can also see other Waze users near you on the map as well, which is pretty cool. Waze tries to make driving into a game too. Since the Map is generated mostly by user driving around and sending this information from their app to the waze server, Waze automatically puts "cookies" near unexplored area's. If you drive near these area's you get points. With the traffic being user submitted and automatically monitored based on users speed, ect, the traffic reports are really good. Although it's suppose to automatically reroute around traffic, it doesn't work too well, although their are small workarounds posted in the waze forums, that seem to help users. The interface is ok... It's not the best. It could use a 3D map mode instead of the older 2D almost overhead style of map. There are also times where it won't find a certain address. The Map might also be a little incomplete in certain area's... But this might be just because I haven't zoomed in far enough or it's outside my route, but I also suspect it might be because not enough waze users have driven those area's yet. One limitation as well, is the 200 mile routing limit. You can only route a trip thats less then 200 miles, although this might be increased at a later date. Since it's the waze servers that do the processing, I suspect the limit is in place to keep the load on the servers down. A work around to that limit is to just rout to a city thats less then 200 miles away between you and the destination, and then once you get there, route to the next place thats less then 200 miles, and so on. This is a GREAT free gps to use if your just commuting to work and home, and want traffic alerts, but can also work as a stand alone GPS to use on longer trips (Less then 200 miles though).
NDrive:
NDrive is another Paid GPS program very similar to TomTom and IGO 8. I use this as my Offline GPS (It stores maps on the SD card and doesn't use Data). It's the closest to IGO 8 as I could find. It has all offline maps, and can do Predictive Address Typing, which is nice if you don't quite know the spelling of the place your going, or need to find a cross street. The interface is pretty, but I wish there was a way to control the zoom level. Living in NJ, right outside NYC, it's hard merging onto the correct highway when NDrive decides to zoom out when you get near a junction with an entrance to 4 difference highways. This GPS show's alot of information. There is an information pane in the lower left that you can configure to show different values, like ETA, Arrival Time, Miles Left, Speed, ect. The routing on isn't the best. Infact I think it's the worse out of any of the others i've reviewed. I've ran into experiences were it would route me an extra long way to get somewhere (Ever hear the term, 3 rights make a left? Well NDrive has!), and I've also run into issues with Address's being anywhere from a block, to 2 miles off on the road where they are suppose to be. If it wasn't for the routing issues, this GPS would of been my Number 1, and a very very possible replacement for IGO. It's available in most countries. Although the application on the Market is Free, the Maps are not. You get a 7 day free trial with any map though, and you don't need a PC to download the maps. It'll download right over 3g slowly, or if your lucky and have 4g, it'll download over that, or even wifi.
I'm still on the lookout for the perfect Offline GPS Igo Replacement. Anyone know any other GPS programs I should add to this?
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Jun 21, 2010
I got my SGS on Saturday, this is my 4th smart phone in 6 years and my first android phone.
Android BTW is very good, and in general i will not review the software side here, I will give each aspect of the phone a rating of 5 stars, where 3 represent Average .
Packaging (4/5): Good and relatively small box, it's include the phone it self, Battery, short USB to micro-usb cable (you should buy longer one), UK charger, in-ear Headset and guides.
Back cover (3.5/5): I didn't find any issue removing and putting back the back cover , just carefully slide your fingernail in the small opening in the bottom and left the cover, you can then align the cover back and press down with small slide downward.
Look and feel (4/5): it's lite , very lite ... it's look good on the front, i didn't like the back cover, but it's still got decent look. needless to say that the phone is finger print magnet, but i found it very easy to clean with small cloth. oh .. and it's look like the iPhone .
Booting (5/5): impressive and fast , no annoying start-up wizard or guide in the first boot, it's boot directly to the lock screen (5 stars to Samsung for that).
Display (4.5/5): Excellent, big and very bright (color pop-out nicely), very Good constrict ratio (Black is Black), however my only issue is the resolution , although WVGA is relatively high for a mobile phone, it's 4" display that translate to 233 PPI only (compare to 326 PPI in iPhone 4), any yes if i hold the phone 30cm (12") away or closer to my eye; i can see the pixels.
i wish it was something like 1024x576.
PS: it's the PenTile sub-pixel arrangement, i still didn't see any issue with it although the text is less sharp than the milestone.
Touch (4/5): Good , responsive and multi-touch , it don't have the cross touch issue like the Nexus one,however it don't seem to be Amtel touch sensor as rumored before as i can't use stylus with it.
Wifi and APN (4.5/5): Wifi setup was super easy (less than 15 seconds) and it's was up and running, Wifi signal strength is good compare to my other phones and i can get poor signal in my room which is 10 meter and 2 wall away from my router, APN Data however was not auto detected since the mobile is unlocked it didn't include my carrier setting, so i searched this info from the internet and enter it manually in the phone APN setting, it would have be nice if the phone can automatically download carriers info from the internet.
Speaker (4.5/5): it's loud and have good sound quality relatively, one of the loudest speakers i owned in a mobile phone. combine this with the excellent 4" AMOLED display and it's the best video experiences i got in a mobile phone.
Phone (4.5/5): very good reception, clear and loud voice. I am very happy with the phone as a phone .
Gaming (4/5): i played Asphalt5 which is an intensive 3D game that come with the phone (under Samsung Apps) , it's very good but i feel sometimes that the accelerometer is not collaborated correctly.
Camera (3.5/5): i was able to take good photos with it indoors (in well lit room) and outdoors also, it's not the best 5MP camera but it's good, HD vedio is also good although there no stabilization and no auto-focus
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