Useful apps and widgets. Home pages. Share yours

[burls]

Ever since i got my Captivate i keep finding new apps or widgets that are very helpful and are things that ive been looking for for a while now. So ill share some of them that I've found and maybe you can share some of yours too.Ill tried adding my screenshots but there was an error everytime. But anyways here they are.

Screen mode widget lite: you can change your screen to stay on, or choose to unlock without a lockscreen.

AutoRotate OnOff: a switch that can stop your phone from going into landscape mode, with a single tap

LockPattern OnOff: choose to use either a lock pattern to unlock or just the simple swipe to unlock screen in just one tap

Wifi Status: an extremely simple app, anytime your not connected to wifi but still have wifi on, a notification comes up in the status bar to let you know your not connected and that your wasting battery.

Mute Widget: Toggle all system volume on and off.

Multicon widget: Allows you to put more than one widget in a single box. VERY USEFUL.

Battery widget: I use this on my main screen. its a robot that shows the battery percentage.

Battery Status Bar: Puts the battery percentage in the status bar.

Autorun Killer: Kills apps that automatically start that arent needed.

Screenshot: (Must be rooted)

Volume Locker: Stops accidental volume changes.

Sleep Timer: Great for if you listen to music when you go to bed. It automatically stops your music player after a time that you set.

I also use LauncherPro Plus so i can resize widgets.

 

[odindra]

I like this post and will be happy to contribute. I will only include the ones I have downloaded, not including LP Plus and the LP Plus widgets, which by the way I would highly recommend. All of these are free unless noted otherwise.

Text+ will provide free texting from your phone. No signup needed. The recipients are still subject to their msg charges unless they have it as well.

Weatherbug- Not explaining this cuz it's pretty well known and self-explanatory. I will say I prefer this one over the Accuweather app but to each their own.

TuneWiki- I think this is by far the best internet music player on the market. It provides an extensive collection and also gives you the lyrics to many songs. Check it out as it's free

Vlingo- This app is convienent only when driving really as you can say voice commands to it including driving directions. Haven't really used it much other than that.

Andoll- Just something fun to have on the phone giving it some personality

Lookout- A free anti-virus check including scanning all your apps that you download and will do a scheduled check up also, missing device service, and also a backup for your data, however will not backup your contacts unless they are all in your gmail account. Definitely recommend this as well.

No Lock/Lockbot Free- I am including these two together b/c if you're looking for a different lock screen you have the option to pick a different one although all of the options are only available in the "pro version" also providing a crap load of addt'l themes for each lock style; i.e iphone, eclair, froyo, etc. The No Lock app just removes the phone's native lock screen so if you don't have it you'll have to unlock your phone twice if you only install Lockbot.

WF and Clock Widget- Looks like the time and weather widget on the HTC android phones I believe.

3g Watchdog- An app that just monitors your data usage.

Battery Minder- displays the % left of your battery in the notification bar and also has some nice options to play around with.

That pretty much covers the apps I use on my home screen and then some. I'm interested in what everyone else has since I've had this phone for about two months and am learning new stuff here and there, especially on this site

 

[sremick]

Lookout- A free anti-virus check including scanning all your apps that you download

Considering how many bogus (and secretly malicious) "antivirus" apps exist on other operating systems, I'd be very hesitant to casually install one on an OS that doesn't actually have a virus problem.

What Android "viruses" are actually out there and detected by Lookout?

 

[odindra]

Considering how many bogus (and secretly malicious) "antivirus" apps exist on other operating systems, I'd be very hesitant to casually install one on an OS that doesn't actually have a virus problem.

What Android "viruses" are actually out there and detected by Lookout?

None at the moment I know of. I'm just using it as a precaution kind of in the lines of better to have it when not needed then to need it and not have it sort of thing...After reading an article on Gizmodo's sister site Lifehacker I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least have it for awhile to try it out. How Can I Tell If an Android App Is Malware?

Are you saying that it poses more of a threat than as a safety precaution?

 

[Endoran]

None at the moment I know of. I'm just using it as a precaution kind of in the lines of better to have it when not needed then to need it and not have it sort of thing...After reading an article on Gizmodo's sister site Lifehacker I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to at least have it for awhile to try it out. How Can I Tell If an Android App Is Malware?

Are you saying that it poses more of a threat than as a safety precaution?

The thing about anti-virus software is that they are mainly reactive. If there's nothing out there yet, what is it doing?

 

[odindra]

The thing about anti-virus software is that they are mainly reactive. If there's nothing out there yet, what is it doing?

Scanning any incoming/existing apps downloaded and doing scheduled checkups.

So what your saying is that since no known viruses have been identified that having anti-virus downloaded is moot? I am not trying to appear snide with my questions, I just don't know a lot about the Android OS so any educated/courteous insight is appreciated.

 

[viny2cool]

beautiful widget, Battery Indicator Pro, All google apps, Google voice for Texting (works better than Text+), TuneIn Radio, Ebuddy, Tweet Deck, System Panel, Home switcher, ADW launcher, PowerAmp, Shazam Encore (paid version) Wifi File explorer...

On the discussion of anit virus, I was using Look out...It does scan all new installed apps, but I havent came accross any app which has virus in it. If I want to use any antivirus, i would want one which can tell if any app affect performance on my battery and cpu. Lookout failed to do that. I installed some app, which ruined my battery, I had to uninstalled all new apps I installed in last day.

So I agree here with Sremick, Anti virus are useless for Android.

 

[odindra]

Well I totally would use google voice as I like using it for voicemail and such but I don't seem to have the option to do so, for texting, and I remember reading that it's incompatible with 2.1. Dunno, maybe I made that up in a waking dream or something but I for sure cannot use that service for it.

Well, it appears that anti-virus is just about as useful as using a task killer so I'll be removing it from here and on.

viny, you like shazam the paid version better than soundhound? I tried shazam but it's been awhile since I last used it.

 

[dgshaffer]

Lookout for finding my cell if I loose it, compass, Google Earth, Dunkin Donuts finder, Flybys for tracking ISS fly overs, Movies for seeing whats playing in the theaters, No Lock, PdaNet, RingDroid, S2 Calendar, SMS Popup, SwiftKey keyboard.

Being new to smart phones in general I'm finding all kinds of fun stuff

 

[qwertyaas]

Google voice works fine on 2.1.

 

[jeremytanner]

Here's my home page and a widget page. The home page is using Desktop Visualizer in conjunction with folders of apps made with Folder Organizer. The Widgets page features widgets from Switchpro, PDANet, Pandora, Desktop Visualizer, Springpad, and the Reboot widget from Quick Boot.

 

[viny2cool]

Well I totally would use google voice as I like using it for voicemail and such but I don't seem to have the option to do so, for texting, and I remember reading that it's incompatible with 2.1. Dunno, maybe I made that up in a waking dream or something but I for sure cannot use that service for it.

Try using phone number given by Google. If you use your own numberm you wont get the option to text. run the setup again and choose assign me google number. Its really good for free texting and push notification...no battery drain

Well, it appears that anti-virus is just about as useful as using a task killer so I'll be removing it from here and on.

Both are pretty useless, but use task managers to monitor your cpu use and killing bad apps.

viny, you like shazam the paid version better than soundhound? I tried shazam but it's been awhile since I last used it

I just bought shazam thought i will use it, But I didnt get much chance to use it. I have both Shazam and soundhound. will surely compare and will tell u. But so I am liking shazam...I got paid to have unlimited tagging

 

[viny2cool]

Here's my home page and a widget page. The home page is using Desktop Visualizer in conjunction with folders of apps made with Folder Organizer. The Widgets page features widgets from Switchpro, PDANet, Pandora, Desktop Visualizer, Springpad, and the Reboot widget from Quick Boot.

I really like how you used folder organizer. I am buying it now, thanks...

 

[jeremytanner]

I really like how you used folder organizer. I am buying it now, thanks...

It can be a little slow, but it's great for organizing apps into types. I have more than a hundred apps installed, so instead of maxing out 7 screens with icons I just sort them into categories like that. Then Desktop Visualizer for the layout, if you want to make it graphical instead of icons.

Here's a link to the thread I got my Desktop Visualizer ideas from:

http://androidforums.com/android-themes/199936-android-phone-7-theme.html

I also have another page I did with DV that's just direct dial links for my favorite contacts, each block with their picture on it. It's really sweet, but for their privacy I'll refrain from posting it.

 

[odindra]

Try using phone number given by Google. If you use your own numberm you wont get the option to text. run the setup again and choose assign me google number. Its really good for free texting and push notification...no battery drain


Both are pretty useless, but use task managers to monitor your cpu use and killing bad apps.



I just bought shazam thought i will use it, But I didnt get much chance to use it. I have both Shazam and soundhound. will surely compare and will tell u. But so I am liking shazam...I got paid to have unlimited tagging

Nice, will give that a shot. Never really thought of that but then again I wasn't really estactic in using google voice for texting coming from an iphone and already having a free texting app on that phone so I guess was kind of use to it.

Yea I read the articles proposing how useless task killers are for their purpose of task killing as Android has it already built in, but now everyone is telling me how useless anti-virus is and am taking that off as well since gps is not too reliable for device location and backup is already done through another app so bleh.

I used shazam on my iphone but liked soundhoud a bit better but that was awhile ago. I really like the UI on soundhound though, how it does the lyrics in your currently library, can hum a song to id it, how it provides samples of other songs from the artist and more. I will be awaiting your 1000 word essay on why you think one is better than the other