For all purposes, I’m a proud owner of an HTC Magic, obviously running Android. Out of the box, the Hero offers little: browser, email client (although Exchange support is included, thanks to HTC), and little more. Compared from my old Nokia E61e, it was a world appart: the browser really works! The internet is finally on the subway (private joke, sorry) and not exclusively limited to very basic less than ok mobile sites. This was already OK by me, but a brand new world appeared as soon as I got into Android Market, where there’s always an App that fits your needs. Well, not really all, but close enough…
After a few months, here’s my current list of favorite apps:
1. Google Listen – my far the most used app. It’s a fairly simple podcast fetcher and player, with a Google based podcast search engine. Although the search functionality is nothing worth of writing home about, the fetcher and player do work as expected. Plain and simple. On top of this, it also offers useful configuration possibilities as “only download when WiFi is connected” or “Update frequency”. No ads around which is nice.
2.WiFi Analyser -this app goes precisely for it’a name. It has 3 main functionalities: channel analysis, AP analysis and a spectrum graphic. It lets you f
ind out which is the less crowded 802.11 2.4Ghz channel, and which APs are interfering with any other. The following screen shots are self explanatory. The latest version has opt out
ads which is neither good nor bad…
3. WiFi switch – this is not an App, but a widget instead. It is as simple as effective. It shows the current connected SSID and connects or disconnects when pressed. No settings, no messing around, just works.
4. Call Meter NG and NetCounter – those are two separate apps, but their goal is closely related: showing usage statistics for voice calls and internet usage. Although both are far from perfect and ad supported, they are useful enough for me to use them fairly frequently.
5. Games! – you had to see it coming… there is at least a gazilion games available on Android Market, for every
possible taste and color. For me, I’m somewhat a GPL fan, so I recommend some classics:
Finally, after taking some weight, I needed something to keep track of the workouts. The solution: Cardio Trainer. This is a very complete app, specially taking into account it is mostly free, at least for 95% of all it’s usage: GPS tracking, calorie counter and historical recording of all workouts, including high resolution graphs. It’s an extremely well featured and well done app.
And for the time being, this is almost all. Apart from the last one: this post was totally written on the WordPress app. Only the formatting and pictures were done outside. Regardless, it’s quite an amazing feat, taking into account I’m talking id a cellphone. Remarkable.