Favorite Android Apps (1 Viewer)

[Hanson]

Totally digging on Miren browser. I had been using Dolphin HD, but some time after the froyo update, it became very slow and clicking on links was a challenging affair unless the page fully loaded. It was just too twitchy and laggy for every day browsing, forcing me to turn to Opera Mini for daily use, especially for forums, where Dolphin HD forced me to completely reload the page when I went back. However, Opera Mini had its own host of issues -- what I gained in speed I lost in functionality. No Flash, no desktop experience, and weird issues with certain websites. HTF would crash frequently, and I was unable to post in most forums. Miren browser is the best of both worlds -- I can hit back and forward without having to reload pages. I can click on links before the page has fully loaded and I can stop a new page from loading if I select the wrong link. In Dolphin, stopping the page from loading required you to go back and reload since it already dumped the page from memory. Opera and Dolphin were both quite twitchy about selecting links where Miren is much more accurate with regard to selecting links. Mostly, I have my speed back, and while Opera Mini is still a bit faster, it's not worth the cut down mobile experience. Miren handles Flash like a champ, and I've moved both the Galaxy Tab and the Evo to Miren for every day browsing. And yes, it's free from the Market.

 

[Hanson]

I've been using Miren browser all day, and the thing I'm most impressed about is the accuracy of the links. I can press the tiniest of links and Miren handles it without a hitch -- this alone is saving me tons of time compared to the less responsive Opera Mini and the flat out wonky Dolphin HD.

 

[Hanson]

A bit late to the party with this one, but I installed Pulse news reader on the Galaxy Tab on Monday, and it has quickly become my most used app for the past two days. It's a RSS reader, but it's quite a stylish one. And the style has function -- instead of having to drill down to each RSS feed like a normal RSS reader, you can see illustrated tiles from multiple feeds at a glance. Tap on a tile and it loads the RSS page of the article in a browser window. You can jump to the actual article from there, especially if there are videos or whatnot you want to see. Once you're finished, a tap of the screen brings up a ribbon of tiles on the bottom that allows you to scroll through the rest of the articles. Or tap at top to jump back to the main screen.

I'm not gonna lie -- a lot of its appeal come from the fact that it's kind of Star Trekky and cool to use. But I've never used RSS readers because they didn't do anything for me that I couldn't do by browsing to the website. But Pulse concentrates the web experience for me and saves me time by not having to go back to the mainpage to click on a new link. And setup is a breeze.

I liked it so much it's also on my Evo, and it pretty much works just as well as on my SGT. And like its iApple counterpart, it's free.

 

[Hanson]

Adobe Flash 10.1 for mobile has the Market, and if you do like watching Flash on your Android device, this is a must have. I've tested with a few sites, and while it doesn't seem to enhance playback in and of itself (sites with out of sync audio were still out of sync), 10.1 offloads the video processing to the GPU. The upshot is that scrolling and pinch and zoom on the video windows is much more responsive as are the screen controls. As a result, it is much easier to get a video going in full screen or zoomed to fit the window if that option isn't available. Big thumbs up for this update.

 

[Sam Posten]

Plants Vs. Zombies is free today only:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=809152&t=2931903

If, like me, you do not own an android device but want to lock in the savings for when you do in the future, you can fake Amazon out by installing the Android SDK, creating a virtual phone, installing the Amazon store on it, and then you can tie this and future android app purchases to your Amazon account. A step by step instruction list can be found here:
http://samuelyi.com/buy-amazon-app-store-apps-without-an-android

I intend to try this tonight.

 

[DaveF]

Is that an Android thing or an Amazon thing, being unable to download apps without owning a device? (I was downloading apps for months before I got my iPhone.)

 

[Sam Posten]

Android. You can store PC and mac games in your amazon locker just fine. PSN games too.

 

[DaveF]

What a strange design decision.

 

[Sam Posten]

It's google and the carriers fault, not Amazon's.

I bet they'll figure out a way to make it work.

Even if they have to launch their own tablet and phone to crush everyone else to get there. =)

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Thanks, Sam.

I haven't gotten around to rooting my (wife's) NC just yet, so I'll try the SDK route for now as well.

BTW, anyone know if I need separate accounts and downloads for multiple devices? OR can one account (and its downloads) be shared across multiple devices?

_Man_

 

[Sam Posten]

Not sure.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

That SDK took forever to download and install over my humble, economy-class DSL service. Missed the deadline for that particular free app as a result. If I had known how long it'd take, I might not have bothered last night (or would've at least tried slimming down the download/installation rather than take the whole thing by default).

Ah well, at least I do have it installed now, except the emulator takes forever to start up on the duo-core 2.2Ghz laptop I used. I actually gave up after waiting like 15min(?!) just for it to get to the nice looking, embossed Android logo during the OS boot process.

RE: the account thing, think I'll just try doing it once each w/ 2 or 3 accounts since the apps are free anyway...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Tried running the emulator again the past week or so, and seems to work fine enough now -- generally takes ~2min to boot up on my duo-core 2.2Ghz laptop and runs well enough for my purposes.

Managed to get a few free apps from Amazon this way -- only actually downloaded one or two so far (using the emulator).

Thanks for the heads up on that, Sam.

_Man_

 

[Hanson]

Amazon is offering OfficeSuite Pro for FREE today. It's normally $15. You can view and edit Word and Excel files and it will open Powerpoint.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Bummers. I missed that OfficeSuite Pro offer. Haven't been checking their free app offer as regularly of late.

_Man_

 

[Hanson]

For those who missed OfficeSuite Pro for free, Amazon is offering QuickOffice Pro today as their free app.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Thanks for the heads-up.

Is there any real diff between them?

Hmmm... They also have the "HD" version (for Honeycomb and/or tablets?) separately for free.

It's free, but the reviews are not so hot. Actually, my wife has the B&N sanctioned version (v4.0.x) for the Nook Color, but hasn't done anything w/ it -- seemed relatively inexpensive in B&N's app store (though not free).

_Man_

 

[Hanson]

It looks like QuickOffice doesn't have Office 2010 compatibility. The reviews for OfficeSuite Pro are more positive.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

There are people out there actually using Office 2010 (and not saving w/ backward compatible version formats?

_Man_

 

[Hanson]

Don't pass up on this one:

10 Apps for $.10

It lasts for 10 days, so Man will still be able to grab some of these when he reads this post tomorrow.