This is the thread for the discussion of interesting apps.

[ddrueding]

Shoot a video. Bring it up in the gallery. Start playing it. Choose the menu key (bottom left "hard" button) and choose "trim".

 

[MaxBurn]

Oh in the "video" player. I had gotten in the habit of using MX video player. Thank you.

 

[mubs]

It's difficult to justify and frankly other than games it's doubtful that there's any need. The expectation in the market is that tier-1 OEM devices may have anything from a single core 1GHz ARM to a 1.7GHz quad core, but any normal app needs to work just fine with the low end of that range. I've done file conversions on my tablets a couple times (.flac to .mp3, .png to .jpg) and my dual core Xoom is definitely faster for doing that than my single core Evo, but they both open and run regular apps at the same speed.

Right. So for a person who primarily uses it as a phone, for maps and looks things up on the Internet, a single core 1GHz ought to be plenty.

 

[MaxBurn]

Right. So for a person who primarily uses it as a phone, for maps and looks things up on the Internet, a single core 1GHz ought to be plenty.

Which is why there are plenty of low end phones right? All we ever focus on is the flagship models but there are a slew of other handsets out there.

 

[Howell]

Which is why there are plenty of low end phones right? All we ever focus on is the flagship models but there are a slew of other handsets out there.

Unfortunately you would still be stuck with Android OS in what ever is the flavor of the month.

 

[mubs]

Which is why there are plenty of low end phones right? All we ever focus on is the flagship models but there are a slew of other handsets out there.

Yeah, but they purposely lowball them with lousy screens, missing features, really old OS versions, etc., driving people to the higher end models that cost the consumer more and make more profit for the mfrs.

 

[timwhit]

My old HTC Evo 4G had a 1GHz single core and was terribly slow for everything.

 

[Mercutio]

I'd say that the Evo is adequate for everything. If you think an Evo is slow, try working with a BN Nook (800MHz) or one of those $80 generic tablets with half the RAM.

 

[MaxBurn]

Run android apps on your mac or pc. Seems interesting.

http://bluestacks.com/app-player.html

 

[timwhit]

Run android apps on your mac or pc. Seems interesting.

http://bluestacks.com/app-player.html

Looks interesting, thanks.

 

[Mercutio]

Unlock with Wifi is well worth $3.
Basically you can set your stuff up to use a lock screen only when you're someplace unfamiliar.

How cool is that?

 

[LunarMist]

There are many limitations. It won't work on my phone.

 

[Mercutio]

There's another tool called Tasker that can be used to program a lot of conditional actions including changing lock settings based on 802.11 connection, but it's quite a bit more expensive.

 

[ddrueding]

I have Tasker and was playing with it alongside some RFID tags. Of course, having the RFID reader active was a power drain and potential security vulnerability. Doing this stuff based on WiFi state is pretty clever.

 

[Mercutio]

Baldur's Gate, the undisputed classic RPG, has been made available on iOS and will soon be released for Android with new content added.

 

[ddrueding]

Baldur's Gate, the undisputed classic RPG, has been made available on iOS and will soon be released for Android with new content added.

Sweet. Really looking forward to that one.

 

[Mercutio]

Things I learned this morning:

Windows Marketplace does not do gifting. This is probably not surprising.

Google Play has no mechanism for gifting apps. They tell you to buy gift cards instead.

Amazon does, but it's not even remotely intuitive, and a vanishingly tiny portion of Android users have the Amazon App Store .apk installed. This would be hugely problematic for anyone but users advanced enough to know the difference between the stores and where their apps came from, or for Kindle owners.

Apple does support gifting but on my ipad I only see feedback that a purchase is successful perhaps one time in five. 4/5 purchase attempts resulted in a completely black window and an unresponsive App Store app (Home button to escape out of, 10 minutes of waiting did not change anything). I also note that there is no immediate feedback for gift purchases from itunes, on my Apple login or with from my credit card processor as to whether the purchase succeeded. Self-purchases at least provide immediate notification by email and on Apple's site, but I don't even see any for the gift purchase that I was told was successful. The person I purchased for did not receive any notification either.


I'm surprised how bad the gifting experience is across the mobile platforms. It works best on Amazon, in that I have a clear indication that it works at all, but finding the place to do it requires patience and, you know, Amazon's App store. Apple's deal might have worked but I can't even tell if that is the case, so that's not really worthwhile either.

 

[Mercutio]

Also today someone was actually incredulous that I did not "just have" Apple-appropriate data/charging cables because "every computer guy has an iphone, right?"

It would've been justifiable homicide.

The app I was using as a test case for gifting was a $1 game called "Color Sheep" and I forgot to mention that in my other post. It's charming and totally worth $1.

 

[Handruin]

Also today someone was actually incredulous that I did not "just have" Apple-appropriate data/charging cables because "every computer guy has an iphone, right?"

It would've been justifiable homicide.

The app I was using as a test case for gifting was a $1 game called "Color Sheep" and I forgot to mention that in my other post. It's charming and totally worth $1.

I know right? It's so justifiable because what kind of a geeky tech guy might have a very common $2 cable on him?

Another fun game you might be interested in checking out once they finish development for Android is Spaceteam. It's free.
http://www.sleepingbeastgames.com/blog/spaceteam-faq/

 

[Mercutio]

As far as I know the iphone is the only smartphone made in the last three years or so that does NOT use the same micro-USB connection as every other smartphone being manufactured. The problem isn't that it's a weird $2 cable, it's that the individual simply refused to believe that I didn't have dozens of them sitting around despite protestations to the contrary.

 

[timwhit]

I don't have one either.

 

[Howell]

Isn't it the same cable as on the iPad? I only have them where I'm going to be charging; not just with me.

 

[Mercutio]

The iphone5 cable only works with the mini and the newest ipad model.

 

[Howell]

The iphone5 cable only works with the mini and the newest ipad model.

Indeed. I don't have one either.

 

[Mercutio]

I was under the impression that EU regulation required smartphone vendors to standardize on a single data/charging connector. I'm not sure how Apple gets around that. Maybe they just pay the fines.

 

[Handruin]

As far as I know the iphone is the only smartphone made in the last three years or so that does NOT use the same micro-USB connection as every other smartphone being manufactured. The problem isn't that it's a weird $2 cable, it's that the individual simply refused to believe that I didn't have dozens of them sitting around despite protestations to the contrary.

I'm not sure why you're so surprised at this at this point in time.

 

[Mercutio]

It's not just that the Apple thing is different, it's that the individual could not accept that 1. Someone wouldn't be immediately be prepared to cater to her Apple-centric need or that 2. Someone might have something negative to say about Apple, even if it's something like "Hey, everyone who isn't Apple has figured out how awesome it is to have interchangeable charging cable."

Now for a rare positive statement about istuff: Airplay - being able to remotely display content from an ipad or presumably an iphone to an AppleTV - is pretty slick.
Supposedly there's a similar technology for Samsung TVs and mobile devices but I don't have a compatible TV to try with that.

 

[blakerwry]

Apple has always been an early connector adopter, usb, dp, dvi, mini dvi, and now lightning. No surprise there. When they pickup a new connector they usually drop the last generation one.

We don't hate other folks for phasing out ps2, d-sub vga, etc. the lightning connector used on the latest iPods, iPhones, etc really is very good. It's everything a good connector should be. Given the longevity of the 30 pin iDevice connector, I think we'll be using the lightning connector for a while - and I hope we see it on other (non apple) devices.

 

[Mercutio]

On the other hand, PS/2 and VGA are standard connectors and they always work on systems that are equipped to have them. That is not true of DVI (DVI-I vs. DVI-A vs. DVI-D etc) and may not even be true of USB for some poorly configured BIOSes or operating systems.

How many different video connectors has Apple had in the last 30 years?

 

[Mercutio]

Absolutely all of my feedback-less gift transactions went through on itunes. For future reference, if you buy a gift app using iOS itunes or the App store and the window turns completely black and the app freezes, that is the ithing telling you "Yes, I made a successful purchase that Apple will let you know was completed in two or three days, when it gets around to it", just like if you actually managed to get the window that actually says the transaction was completed successfully.

 

[LunarMist]

Absolutely all of my feedback-less gift transactions went through on itunes. For future reference, if you buy a gift app using iOS itunes or the App store and the window turns completely black and the app freezes, that is the ithing telling you "Yes, I made a successful purchase that Apple will let you know was completed in two or three days, when it gets around to it", just like if you actually managed to get the window that actually says the transaction was completed successfully.

Why would it wait 2-3 days? Have they already taken the money?

 

[Mercutio]

I have no idea. Apparently the gift purchases aren't processed until the next day at the earliest. On Amazon, I can buy an eGift or send a gift card and everything about the transactions occurs in real time. Givers even get feedback when the recipient acknowledges the gift, which for example is why I know my mom hasn't figured out how to get her mother's day present yet.

I guess Apple does its transaction processing for that stuff at midnight or something?

 

[Howell]

When I've bought an app a or music, sometimes I get the email same day and sometimes day after. But either way I can use it immediately. Gifts would need another kind of feedback obviously.

 

[Mercutio]

I was in the room with the people who were being gifted. They did not receive them immediately.

 

[Mercutio]

DOSbox Turbo really does work on Android. I copied over a few games from my retro-gaming machine and I've found them to be amazingly playable on my phone with a BT keyboard.
Apparently it's possible to get Windows 95 working on DOSbox. That might be an interesting project.

 

[Mercutio]

Pushbullet. Use Chrome on whatever to send a link to that thing on your Androids. No Firefox support as of yet but I can live with that for now.

 

[Mercutio]

Why do I see more weird rendering problems with mobile Chrome than any other browser? Any of you web people have insight?

A lot of stuff renders perfectly on "Internet", the stock Android browser, which I *think?* is also just a webkit derivation; mobile Firefox from time to time gets directed to a desktop site because a web designer thinks "mobile = webkit" or something, but it still renders things properly. But I seem to see a lot of sites that have odd glitches specifically with Mobile Chrome, like missing font changes or weirdly-sized textboxes or somesuch.

 

[Chewy509]

Actually, I've noticed Chrome on Android to crash a lot... Normally I can get it to fail when using Slashdot's mobile interface...

 

[Stereodude]

IM+ is pretty good for an instant messenger. It is available on about all mobile platforms and handles almost all IM services. I have had some minor run ins with their support for trivial things and they were helpful and it might be a coincidence but shortly after I saw app updates that mentioned the problem so I think they are doing good things.

In a crowded market I would say this is one of the best multiplatform IM solutions.

http://www.shapeservices.com/en/products/details.php?product=im&platform=none

After about 18 months is this still your preferred solution multiplatform IM solution? (presumably for Android)

 

[Stereodude]

Anyone using Firefox for Android? I'm giving it a spin right now. It's nice to have proper ad blocking on they tablet.