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Looking at switching from an IPhone to a Winmo device (Touch Pro 2 to be specific) but need to know if some of the applications i use everyday are available. and at what price (if not free)
Shazam:Music Identification. real simple.
Pandora:found a few Cabs around, but no mention of compatibility with WVGA screens.
Urban Spoon: basically a program that uses your current GPS position to locate nearby restaurants.
Fandango/I.TV: shows local theaters, play times. allows purchase of tickets through the program.
Units: quick and easy unit converter.
now, are all these available with a nice finger friendly interface?
thank's for taking your time to help me figure out what all is available.
crazy talk said:
Looking at switching from an IPhone to a Winmo device (Touch Pro 2 to be specific) but need to know if some of the applications i use everyday are available. and at what price (if not free)
Shazam:Music Identification. real simple.
Pandora:found a few Cabs around, but no mention of compatibility with WVGA screens.
Urban Spoon: basically a program that uses your current GPS position to locate nearby restaurants.
Fandango/I.TV: shows local theaters, play times. allows purchase of tickets through the program.
Units: quick and easy unit converter.
now, are all these available with a nice finger friendly interface?
thank's for taking your time to help me figure out what all is available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience with WinMO, simple apps that do only one thing are rare. The iPhone developers are more on that path. With WinMo, you are more likely to find full featured apps. For instance, instead of having an app that will just find the info for a song, you will more likely find a music player with that ability. I think Pocket Music Player (?) can do that. Think more like what kind of apps are out there for windows, you tend to get clones of those for the mobile platform. That is good and bad. For a power user, it is good.
I do know that a good unit converter exists. I for get the name. For a good list of apps, lookup the 2008/2009 smartphone magazine winners and runner-ups for WinMo apps (search google for "best pps apps") and you will find it. It lists a lot of good apps. Also, look up "ppc freeware" for some other good sites.
Shazam exists, do a Google for MusicID, i have a feeling it is only available preinstalled by the carrier but i may well be wrong.
Don't know about the rest.
2- if it is not compatible the graphical layout will be smaller (but in most case it's all right)
3/4- Google maps or the Web do it
5- to many app on the web
D'rath
Yup...
As it's been said, Shazam, and Pandora already exist. I have Shazam MusicID running on my Kaiser on T-Mobile, and it works just fine.
For the other two, why not just use Windows Live (or Bing). Same things all in one app.
http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile/index.html
if you're in love with the iphone UI, then that's one thing. But I'll be real... damn if I understand why one would want to install multiple apps that do simple tasks, when you can have one that does multiple tasks.
To each his own, I s'pose.
Sean D. said:
As it's been said, Shazam, and Pandora already exist. I have Shazam MusicID running on my Kaiser on T-Mobile, and it works just fine.
For the other two, why not just use Windows Live (or Bing). Same things all in one app.
http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile/index.html
if you're in love with the iphone UI, then that's one thing. But I'll be real... damn if I understand why one would want to install multiple apps that do simple tasks, when you can have one that does multiple tasks.
To each his own, I s'pose.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the Shazam Application is free? i believe i had heard somewhere it was pay per use.
i believe you underestimate the capabilities of both the Movie application and the "where to eat" application i am asking about. unless Bing can make totally random suggestions about restaurants wherever you are by taking your current GPS location and looking around.
i feel like i will get Smited here for posting this, but this is what i am talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTTIpM4L12s
also has reviews, menu, etc. i understand you can find places to eat with a simple google search. but that doesnt work when you have no idea where to start.
with the movie application you have the ability to read reviews, watch trailers, find show times at each theater, location and buy tickets. also has a normal TV guide. but i do not use that often. or can you easily do all this through the internet browser or other means?
i fear i may sound like a "Fanboy" for the IPhone, but i really am tired of the phones lackluster hardware and generally slow performance, and the less then appealing battery life.
but i do like these applications VERY much. they may only do one thing, but they do them extremely well. that's why i want to know if they are available on this platform because i am very interested in getting a Touch Pro2 when they become available.
As is typical with iphone vs WM, the iphone apps are going to look prettier. But the same things do, or can exist on WM.
I got Music ID here in the development & hacking section, for free. And it works fine on my Kaiser.
I *think* you can get movie reviews on Bing... I THINK! But I know you can find them, and get info about them, and where they're playing.
But it can get you random restaraunts from around you based on your gps, or cell tower location. You can find "restaurant" by typing, or speaking it.
for movie showtimes at nearby theateres, you can lookinto "flix" or "cinemo." flix is for the uk, franc, germany and soon to be for italy and spain too. Cinemo is for the US and Canada. They don't let you buy tickets, but they provide useful info. Both are hosted on this site, so look for it in the development and hacking forum.
orlandojumpoff said:
for movie showtimes at nearby theateres, you can lookinto "flix" or "cinemo." flix is for the uk, franc, germany and soon to be for italy and spain too. Cinemo is for the US and Canada. They don't let you buy tickets, but they provide useful info. Both are hosted on this site, so look for it in the development and hacking forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the info!
finger friendly is rare in winmo as of now...
one more question, when using google maps, (or TomTom, etc) can the program pull address information from contacts?
say im in google maps can i just start typing "current location" in the "start" and have it figure out i mean where i am now? and for the "End" can i just start typing my contacts name and have it automatically enter my contacts address?
and when viewing a contact, can i just click their address and have it automatically pull up Google maps (or any other navigation application) and show me that location?
crazy talk said:
one more question, when using google maps, (or TomTom, etc) can the program pull address information from contacts?
say im in google maps can i just start typing "current location" in the "start" and have it figure out i mean where i am now? and for the "End" can i just start typing my contacts name and have it automatically enter my contacts address?
and when viewing a contact, can i just click their address and have it automatically pull up Google maps (or any other navigation application) and show me that location?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do the former, though not quite as you describe. You click the menu, go to Options and choose "Look up Contact". It then lists your contacts that have address info and will pop up the map to them and give you several options.
The latter you can't do with the built in Windows contact manager, but their might be a 3rd party one that can interface with Google Maps, I don't know.
crazy talk said:
i believe you underestimate the capabilities of both the Movie application and the "where to eat" application i am asking about. unless Bing can make totally random suggestions about restaurants wherever you are by taking your current GPS location and looking around.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you're underestimating the Bing app. It's not just a web search. The Bing mobile app uses GPS or cell towers to locate you, and then offers local search for restaurants, gas prices, theatre / showtime listings, local businesses. It also gives local weather and traffic reports, AND has a GPS mapping app to give you directions to anywhere you find. And it can even do location-based web searches, pulling up wikipedia articles or news items about places you're near. And the whole thing is built with a finger-friendly interface (although it's still rough around some edges). Heck, it's even got voice-command -- click the "speak" button, say "sushi," and it'll list the nearest sushi places.
Bing might not have every last feature of Urban Spoon or the showtimes app you're talking about, but it certainly has a lot of power of its own.
FloatingFatMan said:
You can do the former, though not quite as you describe. You click the menu, go to Options and choose "Look up Contact". It then lists your contacts that have address info and will pop up the map to them and give you several options.
The latter you can't do with the built in Windows contact manager, but their might be a 3rd party one that can interface with Google Maps, I don't know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using the standard contacts app and have options for locating in Google maps, Bing (formerly live search), and Garmin XT. Garmin has a sub menu with locate and route to.
If you are running Google maps and you don't have 'locate in Google maps' in the menu for contacts let me know. I would like to find out what put it there.
By the way, as floatingfatman said, you can look up conacts in your mapping app. I can do this in Google maps, Bing, Garmin XT and Destinator.
Midomi is alot easier on the eyes than Musicid. As far as UrbanSpoon I wish there was an app for Winmo, but Bing is the next best thing. With emulators and all is there anyway to get it working on Winmo devices?
I have the touchpro2
midomi is a seems to be a really good app and it's free. it gives you the option to listen to a sample of the song, search youtube or buy the song. you could also hum or sing the song to start the search.
This is much more finger friendly than past versions of winmo. I'm sure it's still not up there with the iphone as far as that goes but it's getting a lot closer.
With the influx of US-TM HD2 owners coming up soon, one of the things I think they might ask for is a Yelp application. I'm guessing this because I wish I had one! It seems every other mobile OS besides Symbian has a native app, but we're stuck with using the mobile site! We don't want to be associated with those Nokia people do we?
If you aren't familiar with Yelp, it's a review site for pretty much any business you can think of - very popular for restaurants, bars, etc. I know people in the US use it a lot. Yelp has a UK/Canada presence as well, not sure how popular it is.
As mentioned, we can currently go to m.yelp.com and search, but it's not ideal since you have to type in your location, type in what you're looking for, and almost makes you not want to use it.
If you get the Yelp app for iPhone, webOS, Android, BB, etc., it'll use your phone's 'network triangulation' or GPS to automatically show you what's around you. Of course, once you have that, you can filter by category (restaurant, shopping, etc.), and sort by rating (and other various features.)
If you click on an item of interest, you can read the reviews, get details on the store (location, hours, etc.), and if the app is developed enough - write reviews, post pictures, and be a contributing member of the site.
Yelp has an API that seems pretty easy and robust, where requests are passed along like so
Code:
Sample Request:
[url]http://api.yelp.com/business_review_search?term=yelp&lat=37.788022&long=-122.399797&radius=10&limit=5&ywsid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX[/url]
And you get a crapload of data back, all nicely formatted and easy to handle.
More info here: http://www.yelp.com/developers
TBH, I would try and code it myself, but I'd only be able to create a backend, maybe (never coded for WM before.) The GUI is the most important part since a lot of the heavy lifting is done with the API (otherwise, we'd have to scrape and... ugh.)
I'm sure I'm not the only one that would be interested in such an app, and I'm willing to pay for it. I'll start a bounty of $20 for anyone interested in developing it! All I ask for release is a touch-friendly Yelp reader that transmits current location. Further yelp-contributing features can be developed later @devs discretion.
Maybe Aloqa could help?
Hi Mazzarin,
I am using Aloqa, by default it shows Cafes, Restaurants, "what's hot", Sights, Bars and Cubs, Movies, Wikipedia, Fashion and last.fm.
You can add other channels or create your own.
All the best,
Peter
Aloqa and Yelp
Aloqa has a Yelp channel as well... but...
I would LOVE to have Yelp... +1
I will also put in $10 bounty for this.
p_fr1968: Thanks for the heads up. I'm downloading it now veeerrry slowly. I looked up the app on Marketplace and it seems to have people that either love it or absolutely hate it so lets see!
taimoorhusain: I think I convinced a dev to do it, hopefully we'll see a release soon!
Only had a very quick look at this, shouldn't be too muh hassle writing an app for this, I'd have to dev it for windows then port it WM (as I'm new to the 3.5 cf so don't know what it can and more importantly can't do)
Tried aloqa... it works okay. Seems buggy, doesn't have kinetic scrolling, and only does GPS OR GSM location, not both. I'll write the devs with my thoughts and maybe they'll fix it up! But it DOES have Yelp!
djingonthenet - That would be cool if you could do it, but like I mentioned in the above post, a dev who already has a running app has stated he'll do it. More competition or something I guess?!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=619329
^Next2Me is the app.
mazzarin said:
Tried aloqa... it works okay. Seems buggy, doesn't have kinetic scrolling, and only does GPS OR GSM location, not both. I'll write the devs with my thoughts and maybe they'll fix it up! But it DOES have Yelp!
djingonthenet - That would be cool if you could do it, but like I mentioned in the above post, a dev who already has a running app has stated he'll do it. More competition or something I guess?!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=619329
^Next2Me is the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well I'll have a look anyway, maybe knock up a basic version then see how it goes from there. is the next2me app just for USA locs or does it work in the UK as well?
At the moment, next2me uses google local so... pretty much everywhere.
Re: Aloqa, got a response back really quick:
Aloqa Feedback said:
We are working on a full featured version of Aloqa for WinMo that should have all the features you mention and more, including those available today exclusively on Aloqa for Android. We hope to launch it in 6 - 8 weeks, so please stay tuned!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mazzarin said:
With the influx of US-TM HD2 owners coming up soon, one of the things I think they might ask for is a Yelp application. I'm guessing this because I wish I had one!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you ever find a Yelp one? I know you mentioned the developer of Next2Me incorporating it into that (nice) app; but it doesn't seem to have happened.
I find Aloqa's interface a bit scruffy. I noticed there's an app for Qype in the uk app store (Qype's like Yelp but better for Uk/Europe; bit sketchy for U.S.) but I still can't find anything for Yelp in the U.S. or otherwise
Does the Yelp iphone app let you leave your own reviews (like Qype does)? I had a quick look at the Yelp API but it looks like it's 'read-only'. I think that's half the fun being able to tell people when your restaurant food arrived cold!
James.
Never found one unfortunately. Not sure about the capabilities of the iPhone app, but I'd be happy to get read-only access still!
Yeah me too. Thanks for letting me know. Fingers crossed the big organisations start writing their apps for at least WP7.
I'll email the author of the winmo Qype app (Magic Guidebook) and see if he's willing to add in Yelp.
Awesome, let me know how it goes.
I have an argue with my friend who can't accept that multitasking is something which people need. He has an iPhone and I have a HTC TD2, I told him there are 100 reasons why multitasking is better and that iPhone is far behind because it can only run 1 process at the time.
Could you guys provide me with some reason WHY multitasking is good or better than just running 1 process at the time?
Enjoying music when navigating.
Push mail
Apps running in background open faster
online sync while playing games for example.
That sort of thing.
[ElCondor] said:
Enjoying music when navigating.
Push mail
Apps running in background open faster
online sync while playing games for example.
That sort of thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually took up most of these things and also the fact that you can talk to someone on the phone and go OUTSIDE the dialer and navigate to like email, messages and notes (very important for me) but what he says is this:
You can run music in background and use other programs at the same time.
Who the **** needs to go out of the dialer? Are you retarded? You can just say to the guy you're talking to that you will call him in 2 secs.
But that's exactly what you don't wanna do..
ArtieQ said:
I actually took up most of these things and also the fact that you can talk to someone on the phone and go OUTSIDE the dialer and navigate to like email, messages and notes (very important for me) but what he says is this:
You can run music in background and use other programs at the same time.
Who the **** needs to go out of the dialer? Are you retarded? You can just say to the guy you're talking to that you will call him in 2 secs.
But that's exactly what you don't wanna do..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
holy...
is that déjà-vu? exactly led this kind of kind of discussion with a collegue (quite bright otherwise) and listened to it between him and another of my colleagues
believe me, it's absolutely useless to discuss: any argument you lead will be smashed irrelevant of how reasonable it is
my personal opinion changed after that: it's got to be something like a general attitude in certain people who are at the same time (or for this reason?) mysteriously attracted to the iphone
spare your energy and leave them alone in their tiny little linear world, it's self inflicted imprisonment anyway; if they don't want to see the light, leave them in the dark
DrakenKorin said:
holy...
is that déjà-vu? exactly led this kind of kind of discussion with a collegue (quite bright otherwise) and listened to it between him and another of my colleagues
believe me, it's absolutely useless to discuss: any argument you lead will be smashed irrelevant of how reasonable it is
my personal opinion changed after that: it's got to be something like a general attitude in certain people who are at the same time (or for this reason?) mysteriously attracted to the iphone
spare your energy and leave them alone in their tiny little linear world, it's self inflicted imprisonment anyway; if they don't want to see the light, leave them in the dark
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, that's amazing But you're right, it's useless to argue because it could go on forever and they will never realise the truth.
Ask him to listen to Internet radio and surf the Internet at the same time.
Ask him to listen to the Internet and use a music identifier program to find out the name and singer if that nice song.
Ask him to download a movie then while waiting for it to complete listen to his iPod music.
BTW iPod can and does multitasking the stock programs. It also run the stock program in the background and one third party program in the foreground. It just does not allow third party program to run in the background. Unless he jailbreaks or use OS 4.0.
eaglesteve said:
Ask him to listen to Internet radio and surf the Internet at the same time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's not impossible with a lot of radio stations on the iPhone w/o jailbreaking - see section "1.2.1 Playing in the background" in my dedicated article at http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/e...need-know-about-listening-radio-iphone-part-i .
Note that both ooTunes and Pocket Tunes have received background playback capabilities in the meantime.
Tell him that multitasking is good because Steve Job's has added it to iPhone OS 4 (don't bother trying to explain the limits and conditions that come with it, you might give me a brain tumor).
That ought to change his world view real quick.
Menneisyys; said:
it's not impossible with a lot of radio stations on the iPhone w/o jailbreaking - see section "1.2.1 Playing in the background" in my dedicated article at http://www.iphonelife.com/blog/87/e...need-know-about-listening-radio-iphone-part-i .
Note that both ooTunes and Pocket Tunes have received background playback capabilities in the meantime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strictly speaking you're right. I was just saying that in general it is the case. My own Internet radio has this feature too without jailbreak, but most of them can't do it without jailbreak.
Great article you've written there.
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Instant Messenger Programs
some program just end the connections when switch to other apps, causing you to log off from the server.
chikoo said:
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say that the human brain can only really focus on one task at a time. We are terrible at multitasking despite protests to the contrary by some.
If I am reading a web page while listening to music, it is very unlikely that I am actually paying attention to the song or its lyrics. The same goes vice versa.
There is what we are currently focused on, and then there is background noise. If we try to split our attention, we usually end up doing both tasks less well.
Thus multitasking on computers is not usually about allowing us to do two things at once, it is about not shutting down or halting one task when we briefly switch our attention to another.
For many situations, simply suspending the operation of of a program until it regains focus is sufficient. But there are always, always exceptions where having the option of true multitasking will save a lot of headaches and frustrations. Usually this involves cases where the computer needs to maintain a persistent connection to a server such as for IM, SSH, etc.
The scenarios you mentioned all involve background apps interfering with the in-call speaker. This is easily solved by simply giving the phone "app" exclusive use of the external audio while a call is in session.
chikoo said:
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I'd find that very useful.
If I'm going for a long journey to somewhere new, I'll have my blackstone bluetoothed to my radio, giving directions from tomtom while either playing music from the storage card or internet radio. It's also recieving emails in the background. Reading out texts would be a boon as it would mean I'd not have to hit the home button, then read the text, then drop back to tomtom (which was merrily running in the background).
Similarly if I need to pull over and take a call, look up information in one of the notes and send an email after cutting and pasting that information, then drop back to tomtom without having to wait for it to find the gps signal again.
Today I had to phone the tax office, so switched from the dialer to notes to give them the reference number and take down any info they gave me. If I couldn't do that, I'd have to write the information on my hand or carry around a notebook and pen all the time.
chikoo; said:
The human brain can in general only focus on two tasks at a time.
Same would go for the device.
You do not want a phone that while you are talking to somebody
1. also plays music
2. and is also providing turn-by-turn voice navigation
3. is reading your incoming text messages
4. announcing your appointments
Multi tasking only makes sense when the task themselves make sense to be done together.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not disputing that at all. Users can't watch a video and use TomTom at the same time.
It makes sense that VOIP could continue to receive call in the background. Or download to continue in the background. Or GPS position tracking to continue if you havev to receive that call and when the call is finished your gps should be showing you at where you are without having to start it all over again. Or music, radio, podcast must be allowed to continue while reading an ebook or surf the net. These activities could go together for most users without distractions.
ArtieQ said:
I have an argue with my friend who can't accept that multitasking is something which people need. He has an iPhone and I have a HTC TD2, I told him there are 100 reasons why multitasking is better and that iPhone is far behind because it can only run 1 process at the time.
Could you guys provide me with some reason WHY multitasking is good or better than just running 1 process at the time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a good one, tell him to tell his boss that multitasking is bad...
Let the boss enlighten him... LoLz..
I have been talking to iphone users n have given up a loooooong time ago.. To them iphone is "God", so when u threaten or question their God... U know what happens next,haha...
After all the great things I've heard about iPhone's marketplace, I was going to get one until AT&T did their little data plan switch.
Then I got the EVO, hoping because Android was a developing market and there were thousands and thousands of apps, it would compare to iPhone's.
Not even close. I'm scrolling through, trying to find cool apps, and most of them seem to be utility apps or some such stuff. Most of the reviews on these things seem to indicate the apps are buggy or the developer has stopped support.
Where are all the cool apps like iPhone has? Are they in the paid section? Even those seem to be buggy from what I'm reading in the User Comments sections. How come iPhone gets great voice to text support (I know people who use this function a lot) and Android doesn't? Corporations are putting out iPhone apps left and right and Android has practically nothing. And the ones they ARE putting out, again, seem buggy.
Seems like a great waste to me.
Someone please clue me in and show me what I've been missing.
The AppStore has an 18 month head start on the Android Market, not to mention there are like 5 times the number of iPod/iPhones then Android devices right now. So it makes since that developers have up to this point been putting a majority of their time and resources into the AppStore. But, with 160k+ Android activations a day and growing Android WILL take over iPhones at some point in the future and we'll really begin to see a ton of developer support as the platform continues to quickly grow.
Ya what he ^ said. Android will eventually be big enough where developers cannot ignore the potential customers. As long as google doesn't fragment the market too much, you should see the big developers start dual releasing software (similar to xbox and ps3).
great voice to text supprt, you know thats google's software tht does that on the iphone
I got a apple fanboy at work and he is always saying my market sucks and I ask him to show me some of his life changing apps, and he has nothing cool
norkoastal said:
Ya what he ^ said. Android will eventually be big enough where developers cannot ignore the potential customers. As long as google doesn't fragment the market too much, you should see the big developers start dual releasing software (similar to xbox and ps3).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe is apple drops that part of EULA where an apple developer must be only dedicated to apple development or be dropped from the app store, much like our facebook app is far behind the apple one. the new team has to catch up
nbakid2000 said:
After all the great things I've heard about iPhone's marketplace, I was going to get one until AT&T did their little data plan switch.
Then I got the EVO, hoping because Android was a developing market and there were thousands and thousands of apps, it would compare to iPhone's.
Not even close. I'm scrolling through, trying to find cool apps, and most of them seem to be utility apps or some such stuff. Most of the reviews on these things seem to indicate the apps are buggy or the developer has stopped support.
Where are all the cool apps like iPhone has? Are they in the paid section? Even those seem to be buggy from what I'm reading in the User Comments sections. How come iPhone gets great voice to text support (I know people who use this function a lot) and Android doesn't? Corporations are putting out iPhone apps left and right and Android has practically nothing. And the ones they ARE putting out, again, seem buggy.
Seems like a great waste to me.
Someone please clue me in and show me what I've been missing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you looking for in the Market? What do you want an App to do for you? You cannot just get into to the Market to 'look for cool apps'. It will be very helpful if you narrow your search, that way you can get the help you want. The Android Market cannot be blamed for corporations that put out sub-par or buggy apps. Take your issues up with their developers.
If you depend solely on users comments to make your decision about an app, you might end up not trying any. Since Android phones have varied models and specifications there are bound to be different experiences from different users. Even for users with the same device, the App may appear a bit buggy because of the modifications they have made to their phones.
There are different communities of users that review Apps and offer feedback that may be useful. AppBrain is a good one to try. Good luck.
I try not to read too much into user comments because some of the people either dont know how to use the app or are trying to use a brand new app on an outdated android phone/os
BrianDigital; said:
I got a apple fanboy at work and he is always saying my market sucks and I ask him to show me some of his life changing apps, and he has nothing cool
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cause there is nothing that cool lol. I've been using AppStore for 2 years going now and still use it with my iPad. To me, the only thing the AppStore does better are the games. That's expected because they have been out longer. I have yet to try any android games so I could be wrong. Most of appstore apps are gimmicks and a waste of space. They do have a good selection of very good programs, as does the android store. Android store also has more free programs that are better I've noticed. Even the great programs that cost money are cheap. The biggest thing is that you can refund within 24 hours on the android store.
This is a personal preference. I like good useful programs where I wont delete it 5 mins later. Now I think about it, most of the apps I used on the iphone and iPad now are from Cydia.
what is a "cool app" for you? once you can define it as a boolean string you'll be all set.
until then its not unlike the iphone store...tens of thousands of apps. of that a huge number are redundant and or outdated. a good chunk are crap or useless. that leaves a bunch of needles in the haystack.
1) try a site like appbrain.com or apps.androidtapp.com (they may provide better search options)
2) do some google searches for "top EVO apps" or "Best Android apps" etc. that helped me quite a bit.
what is cool to one person is irrelevant crap to another.
DraginMagik said:
what is a "cool app" for you? once you can define it as a boolean string you'll be all set.
what is cool to one person is irrelevant crap to another.
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exactly. sounds like you just wanna **** around on your phone to me. I AM T-PAIN!!!!!!!!!
Well you can always check out the "cool app" thread in this same section that might help a little btw
brown14you said:
What are you looking for in the Market? What do you want an App to do for you? You cannot just get into to the Market to 'look for cool apps'. It will be very helpful if you narrow your search, that way you can get the help you want. The Android Market cannot be blamed for corporations that put out sub-par or buggy apps. Take your issues up with their developers.
If you depend solely on users comments to make your decision about an app, you might end up not trying any. Since Android phones have varied models and specifications there are bound to be different experiences from different users. Even for users with the same device, the App may appear a bit buggy because of the modifications they have made to their phones.
There are different communities of users that review Apps and offer feedback that may be useful. AppBrain is a good one to try. Good luck.
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I never blamed Android for the lack of apps situation. Where did I do that? I said I was disappointed with the Marketplace. At no time did I say, "I'm upset with Android and Google for not having any cool apps."
What do I want in apps? I dunno. I've never owned an iPhone so I'm not sure exactly what's out there....except I've heard that EVERYTHING is out there.
A couple of things missing off the top of my head:
Kevin's Smith app
Redbox
Blockbuster
The rest, I guess, is just cool stuff...whatever that may be. How about some nice apps for alcoholic beverages? The ones I've found (from the user reviews) don't seem that great. Again, I haven't tried them but if most people say an app isn't very good, I tend to believe it.
How about an app for cooking recipes? How about a great music player (which I haven't found yet, but MixZing seems to be pretty decent)? How about an app that compares prices?
Shazam (a music program) is supposed to be on Android. It's not. It looks like they pulled it, even though their web site advertises it.
The thing is, I don't know what app I need until I see it. I've never experienced it, so I don't know what I'm missing. *shrug* I just know I must be missing SOMEthing, based on everything I've ever heard or read about Apple's store.
On the subject of voice to text...what's a good app for that? Why can I not get something up to par with what iPhone has? Or can I?
There is a redbox app. Google shopper would be good for prices i think. Blockbuster is about to go out of business anyway lol. Shazam is definitely there because i just searched and it showed up. vlingo voice is a good voice to text even though android has that pretty much built in already. The music player that comes with the evo is good enough for me so idk about the others. Whats the kevin smith app?
I'd like to know where the free Redbox app came from. It wasn't there on my device a while ago. I just downloaded it.
Shazam is now showing up for me and I've done multiple searches over the past day for this thing. It's downloading as well.
The Kevin Smith app is found here: http://www.denvog.com/iphone/KevinSmith/index.html
nbakid2000 said:
I'd like to know where the free Redbox app came from. It wasn't there on my device a while ago. I just downloaded it.
Shazam is now showing up for me and I've done multiple searches over the past day for this thing. It's downloading as well.
The Kevin Smith app is found here: http://www.denvog.com/iphone/KevinSmith/index.html
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shazam has been there since last year or longer because i bought the hero when it came out last october and had shazam. just give it time. the "cool" apps will show up
Not sure what you mean by voice to text app
Maybe I am misunderstanding what you are asking. Voice to text is part of the android 2.1 operating system. When you hit the microphone it will put text into whatever you are using such as an e-mail or a text message. There is no need for an app for it as it is built into the operating system
Voice to text? Already supported out of the box.
However, you can get Vlingo from the marketplace. It costs quite a bit, but if you're a dedicated voice user, it can be good for you.
You have to look around. Google is your friend.
What do you want? Cool games?
Hungry Shark, Raging Thunder II, Exzeus Arcade, Slimeball Speedway, Tiki Towers, Caligo Chaser, and Gameboid are just some I can think of off the top of my head. Gameboid will multiply those games because of ROMS.
A PSx emulator is in the works by the same developer.
Google's apps themselves impressed a lot of people that I showed my phone to.
Google Sky Map, Google Goggles, Google Earth, Google Maps, etc.
Other free apps that are top knotch:
Pandora, Facebook, Twitter, Shazam, Barcode Scanner, LED Light, Handcent SMS, TV.com (awesome cbs shows right there!).
Ringdroid (make ringtones ON YOUR PHONE), QIK video chat, Fring (for skype).
There are also apps where you can download backgrounds and ringtones from a wide variety.
So... just look around. Google helps.
And lastly, a lot of developers are looking into developing for Android. With all the new Android phones and Android users, things are working out well for its marketplace. For example, with the release of the HTC Evo... former palm pre, blackberry, and winmo users came. Hardly any people moved from android to android in that case.
Pretty much all of those apps you listed I have installed on my Evo via the Market.
patelkedar91 started a great list but here's a list of my favorite apps
acv - comic viewing app if you have downloaded comics(reads cbr files!)
doubletwist - media app that plays music and video, also has a matching desktop client for syncing your android phone, much like itunes to the iphone
epicurious - recipe app
fxcamera - camera app that has some awesome built in effects
layar - augmented reality app that shows points of interest through the camera
urbanspoon - can't decide on where to eat? just set preferences and shake to get a restaurant
Photoshop.com Mobile - basic photo editing app
transdroid - app to control torrent clients from your phone, including adding torrents
zombie, run! - one of the funnest apps on my phone, uses gps location to simulate a zombie apocalypse. shows zombies as red dots and you have to avoid them and make it to a location you set, makes biking to school a lot more interesting
there's a lot more, keep looking and lurk these forums like crazy. good "cool" apps are recommended here a lot
I don't even understand the point of this post. You didn't have an iPhone, but just 'hear' that it had it lots of cool apps. Then come to Android just looking for random 'cool' apps but can't articulate what you are looking for. Sure, the iPhone had 65 different fart apps, so it has an advantage there.
I had the iPhone 3G, then 3GS, then went to the Droid and now the EVO. I don't have a ton of apps, but I use quite a few. When I moved to the Droid in November, there were only two apps that I had with the iPhone that weren't available on the Android Market; SlingPlayer and Alarm.com. Both of those have since been released on the Market too.
Shazam has been available the whole time except for some reason that it disappeared a week or so ago. Music player? Well, Android has one built in and the EVO has HTC's version. On the Market, there is Mixzing and DoubleTwist. Blockbuster? Who friggin cares. Blockbuster will be out of business before long and Netflix is better anyway. The Netflix app is coming soon to Android.
I will admit that the games were a bit better on the iPhone, but outside of that I don't miss anything about the iPhone or the App Store.
--
UPDATE: I've decided to discontinue my work on Catena, the project is too heavily reliant on community, and the time investment required to make it successful was several magnitudes higher than what I could offer. If anyone is interested in continuing this project let me know.
If you're interested in any of my other projects check out my site at: http://www.creepybit.co.uk
--
Catena is an anonymous and location based instant chat client. The main purpose of Catena is to give you an anonymous outlet for calling out to others in your local area and meeting new people, without the burden of identity. Catena lets you chat in a typical instant chat environment, but also lets you post semi-permanent messages on a shared map, for the whole world to see!
Catena is free, there are no user accounts or signing up. The instant you install Catena you are able to chat. For those who need an identity, either to maintain a conversation or single yourself out for others, there is a type of disposable user name that you can change as often as you want. There are also chatroom like tags you can use that make your messages private and only viewable to others with the same tag.
You can find Catena on the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Creepy+Bit
I also have a website up with more info at: http://creepybit.co.uk
I started development on this app when I couldn't find an anonymous alternative. I'm a single developer working in my spare time around work, but I'm currently still managing to push out almost daily updates. Catena is currently in Alpha stage, meaning I'm still adding and changing features, and I'm still modifying the server equipment.
I'd really appreciate it if you guys could give this app a go. Catena has been live for a week and I currently have around thirty users. The users I have thus far have given me really great feedback, and I think with some more hard work down the way I can make this a really great app that people will love.
I have similar idea for Android app. This is good idea, but when not enough people have this app, this is not good working. I wish you more and more downloads!
Sounds awesome. This sounds like the Love Section on Craigslist where people say, "Oh I saw this sexy woman at Walmart. Hope to see you again".
It would be great to leave messages up for like a day and be able to show your GPS route. That way, at the end of the day, you could retrace your day and see if anyone left you a note. Like, "To the hot guy sitting at the bar in the blue collared shirt. I think I love you".
I always wanted a personal area chat room.
It could also be used for marketing such as "Burgers tonight are top notch!". Perhaps if things take off, you could sell extended comments that last longer.
I haven't used it yet, but how would this program handle a single place with lots of chatter? Is it a single point on the map that links to a chat room style interface? 1 map point per comment would create clutter. In my mind, a single comment would just be a dot on the map which would open for dialogue. You'd also probably want to allow accessing ANY of those locations on the fly. So if I want to go get dinner at Red Lobster downtown, I can find the location on the map and read the comments left there. Perhaps someone says, "4 hour wait @ 7pm". Or actually having the ability to ask someone that is physically there to put your name on the list, haha.
I can see SO many possibilities for this.
So perhaps you can only START a chat based off your location but you can join ANY. Also it might be a good idea to be able to disable GPS in case someone is at their home and doesn't want anyone to know where they presently are (can't start a convo but can join one). You don't want to hear about how crazies are killing girls using your app. lol
[UPDATE]
I would do away with broadcast messages. Obviously they just annoying and childish. I would just show the dots to let you know there is a comment there, to open up the local chat for that dot. In the future, I would make the broadcasts a paid ad type thing. Like $20 a day... which is super cheap. Even right now, I could broadcast a business and 30 people would instantly see it.
As the app gets more popular, the map will get flooded with broadcasts and you'll be unable to even see the map. Icons should scale with the map. It's ok right now, but again, things may get crowded. You might also think about playing with the idea of making the icons semi-transparent so you can see the underlying map.
At this point I'm unsure how to even find other local chats; if it is even possible at all. All I see from the map are the broadcasts.
I just want to be able to create a chatroom at my GPS location and be able to have others leave comments. Right now, I see several broadcasts, but I can't chat with them. One was about a guy speeding. It would be fun to be able to go in that chat and leave a message like, "There is a guy going slow" or "That was me!"
player911 said:
Sounds awesome. This sounds like the Love Section on Craigslist where people say, "Oh I saw this sexy woman at Walmart. Hope to see you again".
It would be great to leave messages up for like a day and be able to show your GPS route. That way, at the end of the day, you could retrace your day and see if anyone left you a note. Like, "To the hot guy sitting at the bar in the blue collared shirt. I think I love you".
I always wanted a personal area chat room.
It could also be used for marketing such as "Burgers tonight are top notch!". Perhaps if things take off, you could sell extended comments that last longer.
I haven't used it yet, but how would this program handle a single place with lots of chatter? Is it a single point on the map that links to a chat room style interface? 1 map point per comment would create clutter. In my mind, a single comment would just be a dot on the map which would open for dialogue. You'd also probably want to allow accessing ANY of those locations on the fly. So if I want to go get dinner at Red Lobster downtown, I can find the location on the map and read the comments left there. Perhaps someone says, "4 hour wait @ 7pm". Or actually having the ability to ask someone that is physically there to put your name on the list, haha.
I can see SO many possibilities for this.
So perhaps you can only START a chat based off your location but you can join ANY. Also it might be a good idea to be able to disable GPS in case someone is at their home and doesn't want anyone to know where they presently are (can't start a convo but can join one). You don't want to hear about how crazies are killing girls using your app. lol
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Some nice ideas, I'll let you discover it but it's basically the world is just one huge chat room, but you filter the messages you receive by range. So it ends up being a digital "everyone shouts and you choose how far you listen" kind of thing.
If a small area gets really popular and you can't hold a conversation then there are things called Hash Tags. They're basically a short keyword you filter your messages by and it's sort of like joining a chat room. For example I could apply the hash tag "Crime" (like in the screenshot), and it basically means I only see messages from other people with "Crime" and they are the only ones that see my messages.
For the map I'm currently in the process of implementing an upvote system. Messages on the map (I call them Broadcasts) will expire after a certain period, that period is shorter depending on how busy the area is, you can extend the life of a broadcast by 'Bumping' it.
I'd love to add new stuff as I go along. But as it's been said, the key thing I'm lacking is users.
Ahhh I see about the "how far you listen" type range thing. Thats fun and all... but really hinders the usefulness.... well let me think, no I guess it wouldn't if you simply picked a restaurant and did a Spoof Location from that area. I would change that and label it as something like, "Chat from here" or something. Also need to intregrate the map better. Maybe have that as the initial screen that users see. It is a pretty map and looks fantastic. Opening the app to just see an empty chat is a let down. I would initially start zoomed out so you can see the surrounding areas and users online. Tap = popup "Chat from Here" button.
Also a slider for chat radius that displays as a blue circle around your location. Having to go into settings to set a number is kind of awkward.
Focus on the map and let users pop in and out of chat as will based on their location.
Broadcasts expiring based on how busy the area is, is a good idea. I had no idea about the bumping. "Bumping" a thread, I get it... but I when I bumped the broadcasts, it didn't do anything. Maybe just a simple vote system like "Was this helpful: -1 and +1". Because honestly most of those broadcasts are retarded. Peeing on the benches? Smelly Town? Sand Vaginas? The community needs to be able to down vote and get rid of those messages as badly as they need to up vote. Regardless of votes, Broadcasts should still naturally go away after a set time. Like broadcasts = 1 hour with 1 day max.
Also the hash tags, perhaps make it more user friendly... such as a button for "Create a Group" or "Join a Group".
player911 said:
Ahhh I see about the "how far you listen" type range thing. Thats fun and all... but really hinders the usefulness.... well let me think, no I guess it wouldn't if you simply picked a restaurant and did a Spoof Location from that area. I would change that and label it as something like, "Chat from here" or something. Also need to intregrate the map better. Maybe have that as the initial screen that users see. It is a pretty map and looks fantastic. Opening the app to just see an empty chat is a let down. I would initially start zoomed out so you can see the surrounding areas and users online. Tap = popup "Chat from Here" button.
Also a slider for chat radius that displays as a blue circle around your location. Having to go into settings to set a number is kind of awkward.
Focus on the map and let users pop in and out of chat as will based on their location.
Broadcasts expiring based on how busy the area is, is a good idea. I had no idea about the bumping. "Bumping" a thread, I get it... but I when I bumped the broadcasts, it didn't do anything. Maybe just a simple vote system like "Was this helpful: -1 and +1". Because honestly most of those broadcasts are retarded. Peeing on the benches? Smelly Town? Sand Vaginas? The community needs to be able to down vote and get rid of those messages as badly as they need to up vote. Regardless of votes, Broadcasts should still naturally go away after a set time. Like broadcasts = 1 hour with 1 day max.
Also the hash tags, perhaps make it more user friendly... such as a button for "Create a Group" or "Join a Group".
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This is good stuff, I'd love to implement most of this. I'm very close to starting the up vote system so I'm not sure how I'll be doing it yet but I definitely plan to have down voting. Or at least a report button! Thanks for the post!
Love the idea but u might wanna look into integrating facebook n g+ somehow.
Sent from my SK17i using xda app-developers app
I agree, you need users and you should use social network to get them automatically
How about adding video chat for the devices with front camera?
What kind of social network integration would you want? Something like when you post a broadcast you get to share it on your wall? I'd be tempted to do something like that down the line.
Video chat would be hard because my server bandwidth would struggle to keep up, but I could certainly try adding an easy way to connect to other users and enter some sort of skype room or something.
I just uploaded version 31, this has the new upvoting and downvoting system. I called it Bump and Report just to be edgy and different (you love it), but the basic functionality is there. By default a Broadcast needs 10 reports to disappear, but the more it's bumped the more reports it'll take.
I'll see how it goes, there's room for lots of changes but it'll be server-side so I can do it over time in small increments.
Also, Yesterday evening I cleared the Broadcast database, which wiped out the whole map of Broadcasts. Clean slate now but it's looking rather barebones.
This weekend I'm possibly upgrading my servers again. You shouldn't notice any downtime though.
This is great! This has so much potential!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
great
Omg this is so cool The location spoofing is a great idea. I hope that you are aware that your app is unique and there is a lot of potential in it
Keep up the great work
Thanks guys
My current plan is going to be to add private messaging and some changes to client-server communication to fight spam (in anticipation). Is there anything else you guys feel should be added before I start the Beta phase? Once we're in Beta I'm going to be much more conservative with adding new features so now is the time to make a case. I'll consider practically anything.
This looks like it could be interesting.
Will keep an eye on it.
Hey guys, today I found out I'd apparently taken out server time synchronization at some point in the past. That's fixed now so there shouldn't be any odd problems with message order anymore. You might find that your messages appear in odd places but that's because your clock is offset from the servers time (not blaming you obviously, but I can't really fix that).
Version 32 is up, it includes some new stuff:
- haptic feedback on message receipt
- you can now disable the lingering tray icon
- Cast Range now defaults at 100,000km, I'll keep it like this until we reach a release version
Nice I see you are working on this really hard. Thats not a bad thing I'm looking forward for the private messaging feature