Smartphone Apps

[bvibert]

Well, I upgraded to a Motorola Backflip yesterday for a whopping zero dollars. Pretty cool. I finally got all my Email accounts working and Corporate Sync works well with Exchange. At first I didn't like Motoblur, but it's actually a nice way to manage all Email, texts. Once I figured out how to get rid of everyone's Facebook updates clogging the home screen...

I'm in search of the absolute best radar app there is. I'm a big fan of Intellicast's pan and zoom on desktop computers so I'd like something similar. Suggestions?

I've been using Weather Bug for weather. The map seems pretty good to me, they use Google maps with a weather overlay. You can pan and zoom (I can see your house with it). Plus it will mark your current location on the map (or an approximation if you don't the GPS on). In addition to the map it has the ability to send weather alert notifications for whatever area you're in. Of course it will give you the forecast for where you are, or whatever location you want. It also streams local weather cameras and apparently has a national weather video that you can play.

I'm not as into following the weather as some, but I like this app. Plus you can't beat the price.

 

[WJenness]

I've been using Weather Bug for weather. The map seems pretty good to me, they use Google maps with a weather overlay. You can pan and zoom (I can see your house with it). Plus it will mark your current location on the map (or an approximation if you don't the GPS on). In addition to the map it has the ability to send weather alert notifications for whatever area you're in. Of course it will give you the forecast for where you are, or whatever location you want. It also streams local weather cameras and apparently has a national weather video that you can play.

I'm not as into following the weather as some, but I like this app. Plus you can't beat the price.

I put weatherbug on my phone a couple of times.

It seemed to keep the phone from sleeping, resulting in my battery dying very quickly... so I've banished it from my phone until they resolve it.

Radar Now! is a decent radar app, but I'm on the hunt for something better.

-w

 

[bvibert]

I put weatherbug on my phone a couple of times.

It seemed to keep the phone from sleeping, resulting in my battery dying very quickly... so I've banished it from my phone until they resolve it.

Radar Now is a decent radar app, but I'm on the hunt for something better.

-w

Really? Doesn't seem to affect my phone. I get great battery life, most days it's not down past 70-80% at the end of the day. Only slightly more when I use a GPS tracking app (I normally keep the GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi off unless I need to use them).

 

[WJenness]

Really? Doesn't seem to affect my phone. I get great battery life, most days it's not down past 70-80% at the end of the day. Only slightly more when I use a GPS tracking app (I normally keep the GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi off unless I need to use them).

Yeah... it seemed to be isolated to the droid X from what I can tell... don't know though.

Maybe I should give it another shot now that I've upgraded my OS to froyo.

-w

 

[bvibert]

Yeah... it seemed to be isolated to the droid X from what I can tell... don't know though.

Maybe I should give it another shot now that I've upgraded my OS to froyo.

-w

Still waiting to see if my phone will get upgraded to froyo... :-?

 

[o3jeff]

Still waiting to see if my phone will get upgraded to froyo... :-?

Get with the times!, Mine upgraded to it last month.

 

[bvibert]

In addition to the map it has the ability to send weather alert notifications for whatever area you're in.

Case in point; my phone just alerted me that there is a Tornado watch in effect for my area..

 

[bvibert]

Get with the times!, Mine upgraded to it last month.

If I could upgrade without hacking my phone I would. Stoopid Verizon...

 

[Greg]

Has anyone else noticed that the built-in Android Email app, doesn't have great IMAP support? Specifically, if you delete a message on the phone, it doesn't really get deleted from the IMAP mail server. That's a major PIA for me. I think it's because you can't specify a root folder path. I'm trying K-9 as a work around.

 

[o3jeff]

Has anyone else noticed that the built-in Android Email app, doesn't have great IMAP support? Specifically, if you delete a message on the phone, it doesn't really get deleted from the IMAP mail server. That's a major PIA for me. I think it's because you can't specify a root folder path. I'm trying K-9 as a work around.

Is that all fancy talk about when you delete an email on the phone you want it to delete on the server too? If so on my HTC phone under the email setting I have an option that allows me to do that.

 

[bvibert]

I don't use the default email app since most of my personal email is through Gmail, which unsurprisingly works really well. I also have a Yahoo/ATT account, which there's a separate app for, but it sucks since it rarely tells me if I have new email (which isn't too often anyway). My phone doesn't meet the security requirements for work (ie; it's not a blackberry) so I'm not allowed to connect to the exchange server. Which isn't that big of a deal since I don't need (or want) to be connected to the office anyway. I can still access work email through the web interface if needed (which times out and requires re-login on a somewhat frequent basis to cover the security requirements I guess..).

K9 looks to have some good reviews. Let us know how it works out for you!

 

[Greg]

Got K-9 all configured. Pretty nice, lots of features, although sometime I prefer simple. But at the end of the day, I got it working the way I want.

Re: Radar - I think I'm going to have to stick with Weatherbug for now. I didn't like Radar Now at all.

 

[Glenn]

WetherBug has worked out well on my Berry. The only thing I wish it had was a radar loop. But I only have the free version; maybe you get that if you upgrade. I also noticed the radar info is just a bit behind what's actualy happening. I saw that a few times this summer with small local thunderstorm cells. It's free though...can't complain.

 

[roark]

WetherBug has worked out well on my Berry. The only thing I wish it had was a radar loop.

This is exactly why I stuck with the Weather Channel app.

 

[bvibert]

WetherBug has worked out well on my Berry. The only thing I wish it had was a radar loop. But I only have the free version; maybe you get that if you upgrade. I also noticed the radar info is just a bit behind what's actualy happening. I saw that a few times this summer with small local thunderstorm cells. It's free though...can't complain.

This is exactly why I stuck with the Weather Channel app.

WeatherBug for Android has a radar loop now, it was added in the last update a couple months back. Maybe check to see if there's updates to the BB version?

WeatherBug kicks the Weather Channel app's ass IMHO.

 

[dmc]

WeatherBug for Android has a radar loop now, it was added in the last update a couple months back. Maybe check to see if there's updates to the BB version?

WeatherBug kicks the Weather Channel app's ass IMHO.

It does on Iphone/IPad too...

 

[Greg]

Weather Channel app radar was rough. Weatherbug is much better. Advanced Task Killer is a must have. I like how you can select certain apps NOTto be killed, currently K-9 and Weatherbug for me.

 

[WJenness]

Advanced Task Killer is a must have.

If you have it set to auto-kill anything, I highly suggest reading this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

Task Killers are a bit of snake oil... Though they have their uses.

-w

 

[Greg]

If you have it set to auto-kill anything, I highly suggest reading this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

Task Killers are a bit of snake oil... Though they have their uses.

-w

Interesting. My main use of the task killer is to preserve battery, more than better performance. Read through the comments on that article. A lot of debate. Perhaps the best point, was someone that suggested to try running for a week without a task killer. I suspect I'm going to have major battery drain (Pandora and Google Maps user). So far performance isn't an issue so until it is, I'll probably continue whacking tasks.

 

[dmc]

Interesting. My main use of the task killer is to preserve battery, more than better performance. Read through the comments on that article. A lot of debate. Perhaps the best point, was someone that suggested to try running for a week without a task killer. I suspect I'm going to have major battery drain (Pandora and Google Maps user). So far performance isn't an issue so until it is, I'll probably continue whacking tasks.

Doesn't Droid come with an app to kill/shutdown co-resident apps?