Barebones phone to Smart Phone

[karandpr]

After some time with my 551 ,I have managed to make it smarter than it was.



Launcher Upgrade: -The default launcher is good but I like to flaunt my desktop.
ADW Launcher and 91PandaHome were the better ones in my opinion.I had many themes to play with .

Explorer App:-I use ASTRO and ANDexplorer ,while ANDexplorer has apk download option on their site,astro looks better and is well known.Both do almost the same thing.Subject to user's choice.

Firewall:-DroidWall,Simple interface and it works.

Music/Video Player:-Rock Player,It plays almost any format you throw at it.I have tried AAC,RM,FLAC.(ad based apk is available on website)
Meridian is also a good music player.

Document Viewer:-Samsung bundled a office suite with galaxy 3.
However with a phone which could have used the software to it's maximum potential,Galaxy 551,they didn't bundle anything.
Documents at go is a free office viewing software (maybe the only one).I haven't tried Think free office lite.
For more productivity I would suggest going for a paid office suite at Rs 500 or so ,though I haven't used any.

DropBox:-DropBox is free file sharing platform.Couple with a document viewer and you have an office at go.Again good for backup and restore.Available for Windows/Linux/Mac/Android.

Ebook Reader:- Playing Angry Birds,Doodle Jump and Fruit Ninja is not feasible everytime considering the extra heat plus high battery usage.A nice way to pass time is reading books.FBReader is my preferred reader ,partly due to it's cross compatibility.Couple it with Project Gutenberg ,it is ideal battery saving passtime.

Thats the least I have achieved.I will add more to list in meantime.

 

[Madhusudhan.J]

After some time with my 551 ,I have managed to make it smarter than it was.
Free soft Apk > Free soft(ads) apk> Free soft >free soft (ads)>Trial apps
is how I make comparison.It's good to have apk

Launcher Upgrade: -The default launcher is good but I like to flaunt my desktop.
ADW Launcher and 91PandaHome were the better ones in my opinion.I had many themes to play with .

Explorer App:-I use ASTRO and ANDexplorer ,while ANDexplorer has apk download option on their site,astro looks better and is well known.Both do almost the same thing.Subject to user's choice.

Firewall:-DroidWall,Simple interface and it works.

Music/Video Player:-Rock Player,It plays almost any format you throw at it.I have tried AAC,RM,FLAC.(ad based apk is available on website)
Meridian is also a good music player.

Document Viewer:-Samsung bundled a office suite with galaxy 3.
However with a phone which could have used the software to it's maximum potential,Galaxy 551,they didn't bundle anything.
Documents at go is a free office viewing software (maybe the only one).I haven't tried Think free office lite.
For more productivity I would suggest going for a paid office suite at Rs 500 or so ,though I haven't used any.

DropBox:-DropBox is free file sharing platform.Couple with a document viewer and you have an office at go.Again good for backup and restore.Available for Windows/Linux/Mac/Android.

Ebook Reader:- Playing Angry Birds,Doodle Jump and Fruit Ninja is not feasible everytime considering the extra heat plus high battery usage.A nice way to pass time is reading books.FBReader is my preferred reader ,partly due to it's cross compatibility.Couple it with Project Gutenberg ,it is ideal battery saving passtime.

Thats the least I have achieved.I will add more to list in meantime.

by launcher you mean theme?
how to install that?

 

[karandpr]

Just search in market for Launchers .

 

[Soori]

i read that droidwall needs phone to be rooted. Is there an alternative for non rooted phones?

 

[mahni1390]

hi.
thanks for your sharing such experiences.
Is launchers like explorer in windows???
that can manage your menus and desktop???!

مهاجرت کانادا

 

[karandpr]

hi.
thanks for your sharing such experiences.
Is launchers like explorer in windows???
that can manage your menus and desktop???!

مهاجرت کانادا

Yes It's like a different menu .Icon arrangement ,themes ,dockbars and so on .
This is a very old thread when I was a newbie .By now I have almost tried more than 20 different launchers and 150+ themes.

@Soori
DroidWall is the best firewall .No other firewalls come near it .But you need root

 

[mansaw]

Karan,

That's the good thing you have done. But is it really possible for a lay-man to do all these things; spend time, efforts to make the phone more smarter?

Manish

After some time with my 551 ,I have managed to make it smarter than it was.



Launcher Upgrade: -The default launcher is good but I like to flaunt my desktop.
ADW Launcher and 91PandaHome were the better ones in my opinion.I had many themes to play with .

Explorer App:-I use ASTRO and ANDexplorer ,while ANDexplorer has apk download option on their site,astro looks better and is well known.Both do almost the same thing.Subject to user's choice.

Firewall:-DroidWall,Simple interface and it works.

Music/Video Player:-Rock Player,It plays almost any format you throw at it.I have tried AAC,RM,FLAC.(ad based apk is available on website)
Meridian is also a good music player.

Document Viewer:-Samsung bundled a office suite with galaxy 3.
However with a phone which could have used the software to it's maximum potential,Galaxy 551,they didn't bundle anything.
Documents at go is a free office viewing software (maybe the only one).I haven't tried Think free office lite.
For more productivity I would suggest going for a paid office suite at Rs 500 or so ,though I haven't used any.

DropBox:-DropBox is free file sharing platform.Couple with a document viewer and you have an office at go.Again good for backup and restore.Available for Windows/Linux/Mac/Android.

Ebook Reader:- Playing Angry Birds,Doodle Jump and Fruit Ninja is not feasible everytime considering the extra heat plus high battery usage.A nice way to pass time is reading books.FBReader is my preferred reader ,partly due to it's cross compatibility.Couple it with Project Gutenberg ,it is ideal battery saving passtime.

Thats the least I have achieved.I will add more to list in meantime.

 

[karandpr]

Karan,

That's the good thing you have done. But is it really possible for a lay-man to do all these things; spend time, efforts to make the phone more smarter?

Manish

Well Like I said I was a newbie at that time.can layman do it ? Well ,it's clicking two buttons per app . Can a layman do it .YES .
Why should you do it .To make your smart phone truley smart .
Dependence on my PC has reduced drastically with heavy customization .
You need to make your life easier for you need to take a little effort .
All this can be done in 1 hour by a layman (except firewall)

 

[mansaw]

That's great. I thought we need to spend much time and do "R & D" for it.

Well Like I said I was a newbie at that time.can layman do it ? Well ,it's clicking two buttons per app . Can a layman do it .YES .
Why should you do it .To make your smart phone truley smart .
Dependence on my PC has reduced drastically with heavy customization .
You need to make your life easier for you need to take a little effort .
All this can be done in 1 hour by a layman (except firewall)

 

[karandpr]

That's great. I thought we need to spend much time and do "R & D" for it.

I did the R&D
This is the result .Honestly this was a dead thread so I never updated it.

 

[mahni1390]

so Karan please introduce me some launcher....
and theme.
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