Bishop of Technology

We are here to help "ordinary" people understand, acquire, and utilize technology in their personal & business environments.

Android rules!

I bought my first Android device (T-Mobile G2 phone) last December (2010). Since then, I have gotten two more devices (Nook Color and Viewsonic G-Tablet). All three devices have been rooted and the CyanogenMod 7 custom ROM installed. To say that “I like Android” is too much of an understatement!

But, without applications (apps), the operating system means nothing. The primary source for applications is the Android Market. However, Amazon now has an Android App Store and each day they offer a normally paid app for free (up to about 50 apps then they cut you off).

I have a LOT of applications installed on my devices. On my GTab, I have 120 (downloaded) apps. On Viv’s Nook Color, we have 35. And, on the G2, I have 85 apps. Most of them are free. A few are paid. Most of the paid apps are less then $5 (many are about $1). Only one cost more than $10. The good part is that when you buy an app, you can use it on every Android device that is set up with that Google account. So, I share all the apps between my G2 and my GTab. Since I set Viv’s Nook Color with HER GMail account, it does NOT share apps – although I could if I wanted to set it up with my GMail account.

It is difficult to decide which are the “Best Apps” since I use most of them pretty frequently. So, I tried to divide all applications into 10 categories according to their functions. Within each category, I may have more than one app that I use so I will list my favorites. (Note: within a category, the apps are listed randomly.) All apps are linked to their market entry.

1. Communications: Google Voice; GrooVe IP; textPlus GOLD Free Text + Group Text; fring Group Video Calls, Chat; Tango Voice & Video Calls
2. Finance & Shopping: RedLaser Barcode Scanner; Google Shopper;
3. Games: Enjoy Sudoku; Pool Break Pro; TurboFly 3D; Angry Birds; Spider (Free); Freecell Solitaire;
4. Life Style, Health: SportsTracker Pro
5. Media & Entertainment: Netflix; TuneIn Radio; YouTube; Soundhound;
6. Personalization & Private: Fancy Widgets; Gmail; Pure Calendar widget (agenda);
7. Productivity & Reference: Bible; Evernote; GDocs; Quickoffice® Pro;
8. Social & News: Facebook for Android; my6sense: Smart Social & News; Pulse News; TweetCaster for Twitter
9. Tools & Utilities: Dolphin Browser™ HD; Anti-Virus Free; ES File Explorer; ROM Manager (Premium); Root Explorer (File Manager); Dolphin Speed Dial; Titanium Backup PRO Key ★ root; Voice Search; Wifi Analyzer; Speedtest.net Mobile; SwiftKey Keyboard; Root Explorer (File Manager); Amazon Appstore for Android
10. Transportation, GPS & Travel: Google Maps; Google Earth; Layar; Google Sky Map

This is my PERSONAL list. I could recommend any of the apps in the list. However, those that I “cannot do without,” I have set in bold font. My original objective was to present the “10 Best Apps for Android” but having failed to reduce the number of essential apps in several categories, I finally got my list of “Best Apps” down to 15 (the apps in bold font) and just changed the title of the post!

If you have a favorite “must have” application, why not share it in the comments?

15 Best Apps for Android

Bishop of Technology

We are here to help "ordinary" people understand, acquire, and utilize technology in their personal & business environments.

The Android Operating System (OS) allows the owner to easily manage the applications (apps) installed on his/her device. This article is intended to guide the new user in the use of this facility.

To begin, click Menu/Settings/Applications/Manage applications/ and then click on the app that you want to manage. Different versions of Android may present slightly different menu options but on 2.2 you are presented with a screen that offers the following options:

• Force Stop – If the app is running and you want to manually make it stop (to save memory, etc). It is also best (necessary?) to stop an app before you try to uninstall it.
• Uninstall – Removes the app from your device, clearing memory and storage space. Important: Applications that were preinstalled on your device (by carrier or manufacturer) may not allow themselves to be uninstalled.
• Clear Data – If the app has stored a password or other info to use in future sessions, this will clear that data from the device.
• Move to SD card – If this is allowed, it will save STORAGE space on your device by moving the program to the SD card. However, the app will still require/use the same amount of MEMORY when it is running.
• Clear cache – The cache is a temporary storage that may hold graphics or other items which have been retrieved and may be needed again. The cache generally provides quicker access than retrieving the item from the Internet, etc.
• Clear defaults – A default is the automatic choice made by the device when presented with known options. And example would be which browser to use if you have two different browsers installed. This button will clear the previous choice. The next time you click on the “Web” button, Android will present you with a dialog to chose which browser you wish to use.

Note: Some of these options may not be lighted up. That means that they are not available to you for this application or for your version of the OS.

There is even more good information available on this screen.

• Storage – The total size of the application (this is NOT the same as the MEMORY used). The amount of storage used by the app and the data that the app stores. All of this can be valuable if you want to move some of the larger apps to the SD card to save on storage space.
• Cache – The amount of space that the present app is using for caching frequently used data.
• Permissions – The list of permissions that this app has been granted. This can help you decide whether the use of this app warrants the use of resources or the the possible loss of privacy due to the app sending data over the Internet.

As always, your comments, suggestions, and corrections are invited. The COMMENTS section follows below.

Managing Apps on Android

Bishop of Technology

We are here to help "ordinary" people understand, acquire, and utilize technology in their personal & business environments.

For those with an Android phone:

The Android phones can multi-task. That is a two-edged sword. It allows you to run several apps at once but that functionality uses memory. When memory is low, even the primary app (in focus) can be slowed or crash.

So that we are all on the same sheet… The keys across the bottom (from left to right) are called, Home, Menu, Back, and Search.

When using an app, if you long-press the home key, the screen will display the icons for the last eight apps which ran. Most (or all) of those apps are still running. Just touch an icon to switch to any of those apps. Or, while you are using an app, short-press the home key to go to your home screen. From there, you can move around in your home screens, check data in any of your widgets, or run any installed app. To return to the previously viewed app, you can long-press the home key and select the app there or, just click on the app’s icon in any of your menus.

You can have MANY apps installed. However, some apps will run all of the time (or until you manually stop them). Unless you intentionally want to leave an app running, press the menu key & select EXIT to stop the app entirely. Otherwise, if you exit with the back key, the app may continue running.

So, how do you control this multi-tasking memory-eater?

1. If you find that you don’t need an app, uninstall it to assure that it does not run & use memory without your permission.
2. Best: Get “Advanced Task Killer” (or a similar app) to automatically stop unneeded apps.

We welcome your comments. Since I am a new Android user, if you find an error, you will be doing all of us a favor to provide the corrected info.

Android Multitasking

Bishop of Technology

We are here to help "ordinary" people understand, acquire, and utilize technology in their personal & business environments.

Recently, a friend asked me to recommend a computer solution for editing video. Here are my ideas. Do you agree? Add your comments at the bottom of the article.

The three elements to consider when purchasing a computer (either desktop or notebook):

1. Operating System (OS)
2. Software Applications (Apps)
3. Hardware to run the system.

OS:
I don’t do a lot of video editing but I use a small Dell with a 1.8ghz processor. But then I do it on Ubuntu Linux which is MUCH less demanding on the hardware.

If you are not familiar with Linux, it is very similar to Windows from the UI (User Interface) but it is much more secure and no viruses. The OS and practically all the apps you could ever need (same formats as their Win equivalents) are all free. That, along with the reduced hardware requirements could easily save you over a thousand dollars for the same processing power.

Apps:
You can easily drop several hundred bucks on the software if you go the Win7 or Mac route. The (nearly) equivalent software in Linux is free. Check out this link for info about some of the Linux video editing apps.

Check my review at http://raywaldo.com/2009/08/ubuntu-linux/ for some idea of what using Ubuntu Linux is like. BTW, the one app  that I needed but could not use in Linux (OnlineBible) now works in Ubuntu. There are a couple of emulators (free also) to allow you to run Win apps if you must have them.

Hardware:
Regardless of what computer you buy, there are three hardware elements that make the computer work well – especially for video editing.

1.  Processor: speed is everything in video. Most software today (Win, Mac or Linux) will not effectively use the “quad-processor” – If you have a choice between processor speed and the number of internal processors, select the highest processor speed that you can afford.

2. Hard Drive size: Video can eat up the storage space very quickly! A DVD is about 4 gigs and to produce it, you will need to splice together a lot more video than that. Add the original video size (likely will be 6-8 gigs) plus the 4 gigs output to the DVD and you will need about 10 gigs to each project that you want to keep on the hard drive. Again, the larger, the better. Also, (I don’t fully understand the technical reason here) but for some  reason, the LARGER the hard drive, the faster it generally operates.

3. Memory (RAM): For a given class of computers, the speed of the memory is generally the same. But save enough money to boost the memory to the full capacity of the hardware. There is a point where adding memory will not give as great a return on investment but you probably could not afford to buy that much <grin>. Realistically, for video editing, you will need a MINIMUM of 4 gigs of RAM.

Video Editing