These are the apps on my Android - any suggestions for additions?

stst.31415's Android apps on AppBrain

Learning to program Android (part 0 of Googolplex)

Now I own a book and I already read it until the part where the fun kicks in. I managed to install all the SDK, ADsomethings and downloaded a copy of Eclipse (nice). I had a look at some examples and I think that I will really start learning tomorrow.

I will try to solve a problem for Aditya at http://www.radbox.me . No Android supported so far. Iphone only. But radbox offers the possibility to have your favourite videos in one place. Have a look.

Weather widgets try to make me crazy

Did you realize how many weather forecast widgets exist? On Android it is loads of these things. Some are better some make me shiver. Why? No, not because it is cold.

1. The metric system should always be supported. I could make a survey, but I think none of my coworkers could tell me if water starts boiling at x Fahrenheit. The answer always would be How many Fahrenheit are 100° Celsius?
2. The use of a weather widget would be to show the forecast, telling the temperature of today in order to give you a starting point. Is it getting colder or warmer.
3. Sometimes the font is not readable and the color of the font cannot be switched. So some widgets are useless on dark backgrounds (or on light ones).

I did not like the weather widget preinstalled to my HTC. So I searched the market. Two apps got into the finals: Snowstorm and weather forecast widget. I installed both and fell in love with weather forecast widget. Now I have the weather forecast for the next three days on my home screen.

If only the data in the weather forecast were always right. But this is another story.

Why Android is suitable for business

I often hear that Android is not suitable for business. If you take the time and get into an in-depth discussion, you will find out that people have strange prejudices on Android phones.

1. Android phones sync with Exchange! On my HTC there were two mail applications preinstalled. G-Mail and Mail. It is obvious, what G-Mail does but the HTC mail application can handle several accounts using activesync, POP3 and IMAP. Push is supported and it works perfect. It even has the strange effects, that mails arrive before they do in Outlook or the G-Mail web interface.
2. You can open all standard attachments (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). If you buy a full version of Documents to Go (yes, the one used on Blackberry) you can even edit powerpoint files and similar.
3. You can track your calls to a calendar using Call Track. I created a calendar where all incoming, missed and outgoing calls are mapped to. I even create calls to make there, so I have everything concerning phone in one place.
4. I already wrote about dropbox and how to keep your reading list in earlier posts.

Maybe there are thousand more reasons why Android phones are as suitable for business as other ones. One of the most important reasons is: They are flexible. You can arrange things in scenes. That means, that you can define screens for different surroundings (but still keeping the power to use all the functions). Weekend means fun, games, meeting friends and - in my case - also using c:geo and georg to find some nice geocaches.

Do you still want to be the slave to your Blackberry?

How to create a QR code business card

If you own a smart phone - or an even smarter phone you probably already know what an QR code is. If you don't know I a sure you will have seen this somewhere on the web or in a magazine.

A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode. A big part of it consists of error correcting code and it somehow looks funny. I was looking for a possibility to share my contact coordinates or even calendar entries for smart-phones when I stumled across http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/

With that webpage you can create these QR codes for your business card, for coordinates and for calendar events. When you try the calendar event, test the QR code before you use it. Daylight savings time is a real *****. When I tested it on my HTC Desire with Barcode Scanner I experienced a strange bug. Every calendar event I created lasted only for 1 hour. Even when it was supposed to be longer.

Anyone with Blackberry or Iphone experiencing the same behaviour?

Trying to learn how to program Android - it cannot be that hard, right?

So here I sit in front of the screen. Actually I wanted to write something about GMail's labels and how to use them on your Android in order to get things done and your GMail in order.
Then I needed a screenshot. Cannot be that hard, right?
So you search the net for the solution. If you do, you find a lot of root your phone first, 100 simple steps to quench a screenshot out of your Android and similar hits. There is no elegant and simple solution. Can you believe this?

What is the next step? The next step is to follow these instructions. So you install the SDK.
Stupid idea No. 1: Playing around
Stupid idea No. 2: Thinking about programming the Android
Stupid idea No. 3: Dropping the plan to write an article about Gmail.

And the brilliant outcome: What do I need in order to program Android? Any ideas? Where do I start? Did you write the best 101 or tutorial on the web? Then please write to me.

BTW: What I wanted to write about with the GMail labels was one solution to the following scenario: I often have some E-Mails where I wait for a reply or am supposed to act. So why not create an according label ACTION or HOLD? That was the easy part and basically it was low level GTD. Next you simply create a link on your Android pointing to these labels. Easy checking of the replies (and easy sending of reminders) and a good task list. Too fast? OK. I think I have to make some screenshots.

Are smart phones the end of "never change a running system"?

Some smart phone software is like bananas - ripening in the phone of the end user. Why is that so? I really appreciate that my Android phone has more and more "useful" apps. I have no idea how often I update them.
Really. Where is the point if the agile development is so agile that there is one update a week?
The first rule I learned on a computer was to never change the running system. On my Android it is: If in doubt change the running system! Is the running system a question how ripe the system as such is?
I will keep complaining about the updates, but I will keep installing them, because I love to see the little changes in the software. What do you do?

Froyo on HTC Desire

Finally the update arrived. Installation was easy and took 10 minutes only (without downloading the 90 MB). The features that struck me first were:

1. portable WLAN hotspot
2. Display can be turned 270° also
3. Applications can be installed to the SD-card

and finally

the language of the keyboard can be changed faster.

That is very important for me as I change from English to German and back. So far I could not make out any problems with applications. What about you?
If you wondered: I left out the flashlight application for a reason.

Update: Nearly everything that's changed http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=741491

Blogging with Android

At some point you want to try blogging from your Android phone. I tried out two apps on my HTC Desire. Of course there are many more. But I was also looking for a solution for blogspot.

Bloggerdroid
Bloggerdroid is a simple app, which is perfectly suited for taking a picture and write some lines.

No formatting, no help with links and you have to have a Google account. Works fine.



Blogaway
Is a sophisticated app, which supports also drafting and commenting. I really like this app, as you can store drafts on your phone.






You can find both on the Android market. Tell me what you think.

Smart Measuring with Android

I often discovered myself asking how tall is this and what are the measurements of this and that. The solution is often simple: I used my steps, my arms, my thumbs and even my GPS to estimate distances. I even sometimes guesstimated some distances.
Mostly I was right. Today I discovered these two nice applications by Androidboy.

Smart Measure
With Smart Measure you can estimate the height of objects using the phone's camera.








Smart Ruler
Simply lay objects to the screen and measure them by sliding a ruler with your finger.
If you check out these two tools, you will see: Even if you do not use them on a daily basis they are fun to use.