Rings Extended

Rings Extended

Without Rings Extended we wouldn’t be able to use all the awesome sounds that are available for everything from ring-tones to alerts. Once installed, Rings Extended may be one of the least used yet must-have applications for any Android user. Rings Extended is only used when selecting non-system audio files for system functions but how boring Android would be without this application. Blending so well into the background, Rings Extended doesn’t even appear in the Applications Menu.

Locale

One of my most favorite applications, yet one I often forget, is there taking care of business. Locale does its job without fanfare or interaction. It does its thing without bothering me and if not for the occasional update from the developer, I might forget I have it installed. To call Locale a profile manager is almost a disservice to this application because Locale more closely resembles a condition manager. You can monitor conditions such a battery level, location, dates or appointments. Once conditions are set Locale goes to work doing a thankless job of controlling Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, changing ring-tones and wallpapers, sending SMS and Tweets, and controlling volumes to help avoid embarrassing calls at the wrong moment yet ensuring the important calls get noticed.

G-Backup Full

G-backup

Some applications backup just messages.  Others do systems files, but G-backup Full backups all messages, call logs and pictures straight to your Gmail. Thanks to G-backup all your communications are logged right along with your email. Backing up pictures to Gmail saves you the trouble of copying them over to your PC later.  This further enables life in the clouds. Unless set to manual, G-backup needs no user intervention to work. You might even forget it’s running on your device until searching Gmail for those important messages.

MyBackup Pro

G-backup makes your communications and pictures readily available, but what about the rest of your files and settings? That’s where MyBackup Pro comes to the rescue. MyBackup can backup all your device settings to the memory card.  But what happens if the memory card becomes corrupt or worse your device is lost or stolen? MyBackup can also store up to 30 backups online for easy restoration. MyBackup can backup all your applications to the memory card enabling quick reinstallation of all your applications.  This way you don’t forget to install any of Android’s Most Forgettable Applications. Also like G-Backup Pro, MyBackup Pro doesn’t need user intervention if setup on a schedule. Thanks to scheduling my device is backed up more regularly than even my laptop.

No Signal

No Signal

This is one of the newest editions to the most forgettable applications for Android. No Signal alerts users whenever the connection to the mobile network is lost. It doesn’t alert for loss of a data link – just the GSM signal for voice, which includes SMS. No longer will you be caught off guard by those dead spots. I use SIM lock on my device, which means if my device reboots I need to enter a PIN before it will load completely. SIM lock is a useful extra security measure but can be inconvenient if a random reboot happens when the device is in my pocket or otherwise out of sight. No Signal runs as a service and alerts me in this instance once background services load. Being without a signal isn’t a common occurrence for me, making No Signal a forgettable application until I hear the unique alert I’ve selected and use solely for this purpose.

There are many other applications that run behind the scenes and some I hope you never have to use.  This includes remote locking and wiping of a device if it lost or stolen to protect private information and data. Other apps can update your friends on your whereabouts at all times. There are so many possibilities for Android it’s easy for some mundane tasks to be forgotten.  That is until, they no longer being done.

You might forget these apps are installed, but they sure come in handy.

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Pkt Auctions

Pkt Auctions

OK, granted this is the only eBay applications but it is still worth a look if you spend any time at all on eBay. I’m not spending nearly as much time on eBay as I once did but I much prefer this application to eBay’s mobile site. The interface is straightforward and breaks up the listing in such a way that makes browsing even a large number of listings a breeze. If you want to see the original list, Pkt Auctions will display it as well.

Any Clip

This application works in concert with an iGoogle widget of their own web site. When first using Any Clip it gives you a special code to input on the Any Clip site and the iGoogle widget. This code links the web and mobile applications together. What is so special about this application is it simply pushes notes to the mobile device. Those notes can be anything. A few ideas that come to mind are URLs, email addresses, phone numbers, shopping lists, to-dos, Wi-Fi Keys and more.

Contacts Cleanup

Contacts Clean-Up

Perhaps I’m a little OCD about my contacts but I like having uniform format across all of my contacts. There aren’t many tools to help me in that endeavor for Google Contacts but this one at least cleans up the phone numbers. You can format the numbers four different ways, preview the changes and then apply and re-run as needed for new contacts. The whole process is very quick, less than a minute for nearly 400 contacts. Contacts Clean-Up hasn’t messed with any of the International numbers I have for some contacts, so you need not worry about those. I’d venture to say this app may only work for +1 (US/Canada/Caribbean) formatted numbers.

PingDroid

PingDroid is a Ping.fm client for Android. Ping.fm allows for easy updating to an ever growing number of social networks and other services, including posting to blogs. I’ve had the chance to get a sneak peak at the next release which will include support for bit.ly and tr.im in addition to Ping.fm’s own URL shortener service. One additional new feature will be the ability to select PingDroid from the browser through the menu and Share this page. I’ve been playing with these new features and I really like them a lot. PingDroid loads faster than Ping.fm’s own mobile site with a simple GUI negating the need to remember any special formatted commands to use via IM.

Night Clock

Night Clock

Night Clock is a real no nonsense alarm clock that does what it does without all the fancy bells and whistles. When launched Night Clock uses the entire screen in landscape mode. Long press the speaker icon to set the alarm clock. I love how the alarm is programmed; simply drag your finger left or right to adjust the alarm time. Use your own audio files for your alarm sound. To turn off the alarm just exit the application. I do wish the font of the clock took up more real estate on the screen. I like this app because it has been dependable and while it may not have as many options or settings it just works. It also serves well as a night time bedside clock.

AutoLock

I like having the added security of screen lock enabled but it annoys me when it enables every time the screen goes dark. AutoLock solves the problem by allowing you to set the time frame before the screen lock becomes active. For quick screen locking enable the Home screen Lock option in settings. A Lock icon will appear on the home screen, select the icon and press the End key to lock the screen immediately.

Pixel Pipe

PixelPipe

I’m the first to admit the G1’s camera isn’t what I’d expect from a mobile device released in 2008, nevertheless for the pictures I do take I want a way to send them out somewhere. PixelPipe supports sending images to a number of sites such a Twitpic, Flickr, blogs and more. Better still, PixelPipe works on a number of different platforms including S60, Windows Mobile, and even via email for the platform agnostic among us. PixelPipe’s delivery of images is speedy and very reliable.

Weather

Weather is a small, a mere 265kb, weather application. Weather supports multiple cities with a simple slide to either the left or right to scroll through your cities. Weather’s configuration is straight forward without a lot of flare giving the highs and lows along with a small graphic for several days. For more in-depth detail Weather takes you to Weather Underground’s mobile site. So many weather applications are loaded down with graphics  and try to bring every detail of the weather to your handset.  What you usually need to know can be covered with high’s, low’s and a small graphic depicting the day’s outlook. Similar to Night Clock, the less is more approach works well for this application.

SMS Backup

SMS Backup

Who among us hasn’t wanted to save SMS from time to time? Thanks to SMS Backup not only can you save some of your SMS, you can save them all. By enabling IMAP for your Gmail account, SMS Backup will upload your SMS to Gmail to read, forward and search as if it were any other email sent or received. I love being able to find messages when I need them. No longer do I need to keep a large volume of messages on my device when I can view them anytime right along with my email. Google Apps users: SMS Backup works for your email accounts too.

Locale

Locale has a lot of options to change everything from Display to Wireless settings. There are several applications that allow easy profile settings but most are a manual process. Locale takes profile settings further and enables profiles based on location. It uses either GPS or Wireless GPS to determine the device’s location and then changes profiles accordingly. With Locale I have profiles for home, work and other locations and almost never open Locale. Locale has a couple plug-ins with an API in the works to allow others to create their own plug-ins. Locale has released two plug-ins thus far: Twitter and SMS. Both send messages to either Twitter or via SMS. I’ve used a lot of different profile managers over the years on a number of different platforms and I can easily say Locale is among the best.

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Palringo IM Services List

If Palringo can work out the bugs in this first Android release, it will be an obvious and popular choice among Android users looking for a superior IM application.

With the addition of advanced features, such a picture sharing and Push-to-Talk (PTT), Palringo is a force to be reckoned with.  Picture sharing has long been a missing feature among mobile instant messaging client.  To accomplish picture sharing Palringo uploads selected images to their server and delivers the image if they also using Palringo.  Non-Palringo users will instead receive a link to Palringo’s web site where the image is stored.  Unfortunately, non-Palringo users are not presently able to send images back.  If non-Palringo users send Palringo users a picture, the image transfer fails.  I have seen the service work, quite well in fact, but when I tested it this time around from the G1 to a non-Palringo user, the link sent came back as invalid.

Another of Palringo’s features some may find interesting, or at the very least quite unique, is Push-to-Talk.  PTT has been a popular feature among Nextel users for years, so much so other carriers have introduced their own PTT services.  I’ve used this service on S60 and it’s easy to use.  The sender selects a contact and selects the chat bubble icon.  When activated the application prompts the user to record a voice message which is then sent as a message to fellow Palringo users.  Non-Palringo users will receive a link to hear the audio message in the same way they were linked to the shared image.  The audio service isn’t exactly what I would call PTT as we have come to know it today, nevertheless it can be a fun feature to have.

Palringo Allows You To View Close Contacts

I can without a doubt recommend Palringo for any S60 user.  But without the advanced options, Palringo is almost lost among the other IM applications.  For that reason I say download and install Palringo if the advance features don’t appeal to you.  Palringo does offer IM for a wide selection of IM platforms, including Facebook(something few PC or mobile applications offer).  According to my source at Palringo, they are having some issues with audio on Android and anticipate PTT to be available  in June.  If PTT and image sharing can be perfected as they are on S60, Palringo will be an excellent addition to my handset.

Below is a short demonstration from Palringo demonstrating several of the different features.

[Palringo Video via YouTube]

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First let’s look at what Loquacious does right. The interface is clean and visually appealing with no annoying colors or icons. There is no excess fluff just an interface that reacts smoothly and is intuitive. Friends icons are downloaded and displayed along with their tweets, as most Twitter apps have done. Tweets are easy to read on the white font over grey/black background. Loquacious looks and works well in both portrait and landscape modes. I’ve seen so many applications that don’t handle both views as well as they should.

Filter Sources and Users

Filters – Finally a Twitter application to incorporate filters. Tweetdeck users will especially appreciate this functionality. Filters work two ways: first filtering based on twitter client used to post to twitter. For example if you don’t want to see tweets sent using Twitterfeeds or Blip.fm simply uncheck them and they aren’t displayed. Second filter option is filtering by friends. Scroll through the list and uncheck anyone you don’t want to see in your Twitter stream and its done.

Loquacious is a mixed bag in other areas. Loquacious claims to support multiple Twitter accounts, what that means is it caches tweets from each login since the last login. The application doesn’t store the passwords for each twitter account, furthermore you have to type in at least the first few letters of the Twitter accounts used to select it from a dynamic drop down. On one hand none of the other Android Twitter clients even offer this much functionality for multiple Twitter accounts but at the same time why not store and allow for easy switching between Twitter accounts without retyping the username and password each time.

Twitter Commands – Some may find this a plus, others a minus, I’m indifferent. Unless you long press a contact there are no Twitter command options. The Tweet window depends on the basic Twitter commands used for text messaging and what Tweetdeck inserts for you. I’ve been using Twitter long enough to know all the commands but less experienced Twitterers may find the lack of Twitter command icons more difficult. A simple solution without adding additional code could be a list of the basics under the tweet message field.

@replies & DMs – Replied tweets may pop up on the screen when received but what if I’m not looking at Loquacious or not even connected at the time? There is no way to view all @replies or DMs. This is one of obvious features lacking from Loquacious.

Twitter names vs. Real names – Most Twitter clients display Twitter names but Loquacious goes against the trend to display Twitterers’ entered name. Being used to seeing Twitter names, seeing real names may be difficult for some, it is for me.

Recent Tweets

Settings – There are none beyond your log-in, no option to auto-refresh, keep updating/running in the background, set number of tweets to store. Without an user configurable settings Loquacious has a love or leave it feel to it. You either like manual refreshing your Twitter stream or you don’t and therefore don’t use Loquacious.

Not a negative just something that struck me as odd. Do the developers expect a lot of complaints or feedback from users? Years of working in IT has taught me people will voice their opinion when things aren’t working but you will hear little to nothing when everything is working as designed. The contact icon on the small menu bar is fine but I’d rather have some additional options and use the contact developer option in Android Market.

The bottom line Loquacious is a good Twitter application but with several others I’d be just as happy using that are free I’m not inclined to keep this $2.99 application. The developers obviously put some work into Loquacious and they deserve some return for their efforts but it isn’t enough to convert me from Twitli.

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The developer, Better Android, already has a number of themes available and is being assisted by users over on xda-developer forum. Better Android is offering a free copy of the full application to the original artists of any available themes. The wording in the theme descriptions seem to imply he may have modified them from themes intended for another purpose and without the artist’s permission. I hope that isn’t the case, as it would be a copyright violation. Several of the themes are quite nice, a few don’t suit my taste nevertheless, are nicely done.

Soft Keyboard on Home Screen

What makes Open Home standout at the moment is the newly Open Home – Cupcake Full edition giving users a peak at the infamous Cupcake update, expected in April in the U.S. The demo features Live Folders and touch screen keyboard (search only) , screen rotation and something called Rename Work Space. Cupcake has additional upgrades beyond what Open Home can emulate at the moment most of which are beyond what Better Android could develop with the current API release.

To demo Live Folders install the Live Folders demo. This demo offers two previews, Contacts With Numbers and All Contacts. When added to the Home screen and launched each Live Folder displays contacts with a translucent background that appears like a “windowed” application. I didn’t have any trouble with All Contacts but Contacts With Phone Numbers displayed contacts multiple times and when a contact was selected displayed the wrong one, proof this is in fact a demo.

Additional features shown is an application dock which appears on the right side of the screen as a white star. The white star is difficult to see on the default skin, so be sure to look for it. In portrait mode a small magnifying glass appears on the left side when activated switches to whichever screen has the search window and shows the on-screen keyboard. The keyboard is responsive enough, certainly as responsive as the iPhone or Storm’s on-screen keyboards. I’m not a fan of on-screen typing but is handy for a quick one or two word search without opening the keyboard.

Application Dock

The last feature worth noting is the auto-rotating screen giving Android the much sought after ability of the iPhone and S60 devices for quite some time. Auto-rotate works reasonably well although could use a sliding sensitivity setting for better sensitivity if desired. Auto-rotate will be handy for those few apps the don’t fit on the screen in landscape or portrait however, without a landscape on-screen keyboard its functionality is less useful.

All of these options can be enabled or disabled from Open Home’s settings. There is an option for Renaming Work Space. I’m not sure what is defined as Work Space. I didn’t find any area that could be renames, as such appears to be a useless option at the moment.

Better Android is offering this application for $2.99 until more features are available, persumably when Cupcake is released. Better Android says this update is nearly the same as the Lite edition but also states the Cupcake edition may or may not go up in price with Cupcakes release. For this reason I don’t know I would recommend purchasing this app just yet. I might just stick with the lite version at least until Cupcake is released.

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