Help Incredible on order, a few questions

[Tucker5937]

I am new here, and have been reading lots of great posts by you all. I am eagerly waiting for my Incredible (6-14). This will be my first smart phone, and I feel I made a great choice. Can any of you tell me what must have apps I should download when I get it? I think Task app killer, and beautiful widgets are 2 of them to start with. I read a post here I think that gave the phone number to call to get a hard copy of the user manual. I can't find it again. Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[dgwood12]

Go to appbrain.com you can start creating a list of apps to download when you get the phone and browse for cool apps. When you get your phone you can get the appbrain app and it will pull up the market with the list of apps you selected to download. Its what i'm doing until my incredible comes (6/16).

 

[syntrix]

appbrain FTW!

I'd be wary of anything that "kills apps", you might want to do some research on how android keeps the state of those listed apps, you might be shockingly surprised.

 

[Tucker5937]

Maybe I am confused, but I have read alot about a program you put on that will shut down apps, so they don't drain your battery when not in use.

 

[Liz0311]

You have read correctly...however, having a program auto-kill your apps can also cause issues, especially for ones that constantly update while they run in background (e.g., weather / phone / location-based apps).

Also, as you continue reading on this forum, you'll see quite a few people also note that the DInc does a pretty good job of managing apps all by itself...so unless you have a tendency to open 37 apps & forget to back out of them, you likely won't need anything that auto-kills. You might want to get a program capable of task kill in the event that you choose to do it...

 

[syntrix]

You have read correctly...however, having a program auto-kill your apps can also cause issues, especially for ones that constantly update while they run in background (e.g., weather / phone / location-based apps).

Usually killing a service does more harm than good.

If there's an app that constantly updates, just configure it properly for your usage. You might kill the wrong service and have greater problems.

If an app truly goes "idle", it's dead, it doesn't consume any more resources. This is very hard for new Android people to accept.

 

[jryan727]

Maybe I am confused, but I have read alot about a program you put on that will shut down apps, so they don't drain your battery when not in use.

AFAIK when you "switch" applications, the state of the app is stored. When the OS requires more resources, it removes the least previously used application from memory. This is all transparent to you, because either the app is already in memory and it's simply displayed when you return to it, or it has already been removed from memory and it's relaunched, restoring its previous state. The only processes that constantly run in the background are referred to as "services", and any app may register them with the system. It's been a while since I've done development on Android, but that's how it works to the best of my knowledge. I'm sure if you google it you can find a better explanation.

That said, I'm not entirely sure what task killers do. I suppose they could remove apps that are currently running, which haven't been removed by the OS yet.

 

[Tucker5937]

Thanks for the advice. I guess I will get used to the INC. first, before I start adding apps. Need to see whats out there.

Advanced Task Killer is the one I have read about. It seems alot of people feel Android should have this installed from the get go. Just learning and asking questions I guess. Thanks

 

[Outatime]

Yes, please do NOT install an app killer. System Panel does everything you need it to do. Terminate an app if it's stuck/hung/draining battery. Beyond that, leave it alone. I wish I still had the link and I can't find it now. It was a blog written by one of the Android developers flat out stating that automatic app killers do more harm than good.

That being said...

I've stayed away from battery widgets. I use Battery Graph (the one by Morgan H) and it rocks. I've tried all of the weather apps and Weather Bug Elite is hands down the best. Speed Test is great to find out how fast your connection is. Real Signal will give you a break down of CDMA and 3G signal strength. Very cool. My favorite game so far is Blow Up. All of the Google apps pretty much rock. Maps and Navigate come on the phone. My Tracks is great for anything off road (I use it when taking my Jeep back in the trails). Sky and Earth is amazing. Goggles and Shopper just dumbfound me. The amount of power we have in our hands when we pick up this phone is just staggering.

Compass. OruxMaps is sick... it will cache maps for use when you're so far off the trail you don't have signal. I have a top of the line dedicated vehicle GPS and Orux made it obsolete. You can even do USGS topo maps or VFR aviation maps... but the screen is a bit small for use in a plane.

Then there's the typical ones. iHeartRadio. Shazam. DocstoGo.

That should get you started!!! Visit AppBrain.com frequently!!!