Idea for grocery list app - Android Apps and Games

Ok, I thought of this idea for a new grocery list app, but since I have zero programming experience (nor the desire to learn...I know enough to know it's not my cup of tea), I figured I would throw it out there and see if anyone who was capable would be interested in doing it.
Basically, it would be an app that included barcode scanning capabilities (or an interface with an existing barcode scanner app). When you open a new grocery list, you can scan barcodes directly into it to add new items to the list, or just manually enter new items, and adjust the amount. Also, a GPS integration that allows you to tag the stores you frequent, and then automatically pops up the list (along with some sort of audible alert) when you get to the store.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that not only frequently forgets to create shopping lists, but then tends to forget the list itself when I decide to go to the store (not to mention almost always forgetting at least one item).
I would definitely buy an app like this if it's ever released. Thoughts?

There at at LEAST half a dozen grocery apps on the Market which scan the barcodes and populate your list from that data.
Haven't seen any which tie to the GPS, but considering what they'd need to do in order to do that, I don't see that as a very useful function honestly. Besides, I drive by my grocery every time I leave the house, I wouldn't want my grocery list popping up on top of Waze every time, personally.

Well, not all of us drive on our grocery store sidewalks...but yeah, I see your point. If it would take too much effort to include just the additional GPS notification portion, it's not worth it. Like I said, zero programming experience, so I have no clue what would be involved in programming that sort of functionality.

khaytsus said:
Haven't seen any which tie to the GPS, but considering what they'd need to do in order to do that, I don't see that as a very useful function honestly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is one that uses location information, although I don't remember if it uses GPS or the rough-location. It takes your list and compares it to nearby stores to get the prices.
I think the name had "Savvy" in it, like "Savvy Shopper" or something.

I use dropbox, I place a txt file in dropbox folder on my pc and I can fill it in when I remember something and when shopping I can access latest list.
Also handy if my girlfriend remembers something when I have left, she can add it
can also access from work....

GroceryIQ does most of what you want, excepting the GPS function. I use Tasker to launch GroceryIQ when I pull into the parking lot of my frequent stores. Another benefit of GroceryIQ is that you can edit your list on the internet using any web browser, when you do so, your list is updated on your device also. Tracks history, so you can look at previous purchases to reference for list compliation.
And yes, it has a barcode scanner function. You must have Barcode Scanner app installed. It does not have a database for storebranded items, but you can add them manually.

GroceryIQ is what I currently use... even though it's slow as balls sometimes, it's the better one I've tried so far.
Mighty Grocery comes somewhat close, but its interface makes NO sense.. I suppose I just need to get used to it, but it's handy to scan items into Grocery IQ.

Related

is there an app for that?

i need an app that can remember barcodes. i want to make a database of products i need to avoid for my son (e-numbers etc) and thought it'd be really handy if i could scan the barcode of a product i need to avoid and store it so that in future i could scan the barcode and see if its stored and i need to avoid it rather than creating a long list of product names.
any thoughts? thanks
I believe ShopSavvy keeps a history of barcodes you've scanned.
Yeah, ShopSavvy remembers the barcodes you've scanned. However, I don't think it gives an easy way to compare a new scan against what it has in memory. I don't have a better suggestion though :/
I think I saw an app once called inventorydroid or something like that. Perhaps a Google search of it will give you what you are looking for.
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tytn2_user said:
i need an app that can remember barcodes. i want to make a database of products i need to avoid for my son (e-numbers etc) and thought it'd be really handy if i could scan the barcode of a product i need to avoid and store it so that in future i could scan the barcode and see if its stored and i need to avoid it rather than creating a long list of product names.
any thoughts? thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3Banana Notes keeps notes of barcodes you have scanned. Why not give it a try?
I know this is late but
My Collection Pro maybe its lets you keep an inventory of what you scan and though it is meant for a library type application i think you could use it here, it will let you input your own info to come up when the barcode is scanned again.
btw it says pro but its a free app.

Need barcode scanner with no price look up

I have ShopSavvy installed and it worked great when I was in the US. I'm in Brazil now and need a barcode scanner program that lets me create my own database. I want to catalog my Blu rays, books and many other things. Would also like to be able to create shopping lists and price comparisons to be able to track prices on certain items from week to week. Anyone have a recommendation?
Like this?
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/com.google.zxing.client.android/
You might try Memento. It's a little confusing at first but I used it to do basically what you describe and it worked well.
Does Barcode Scanner keep starting and running in the background like Shopsavvy? If so, I'll switch.
I use "My Collection" i got off the market, I have all my games, and movies in it. What it allows you to do is scan the UPC code from the back of your Game, Book, or Movie and pulls the box art, and other data and stores the information on your sd card. Amazing app. You also must have "Barcode Scanner" installed for this to work.
Thanks forHelp
Thanks for the suggestions.I already started scanning my Blu Rays.
uansari1 said:
Does Barcode Scanner keep starting and running in the background like Shopsavvy? If so, I'll switch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone able to help me out on this?
When I use Barcode Scanner with My Collection it does not stay open. When I use it alone it does stay open. I think for shopping Shop Savvy is better.
I was actually only looking for something to scan QR codes... I just learned that Goggles scans them... so I just uninstalled Shopsavvy. Thanks though...
com.ixellence.ixmat.android.community uses the same library but offers a resizeable preview window and scans even more barcode types.

Looking for a geocaching app

Because simply put, the $11 geocaching app is kinda crap. I'd like to have an overlay on the stock 'maps' app that'll show me the nearby ones, so I can do more than one at a time. Kind of a pain in the arse to do it their way.
www(DOT)geocaching(DOT)com/map/default(DOT)aspx?lat=47.12304&lng=-122.3156
They have a google map available, even. They're not opposed to google integration, they're just a little bastardly about everything.
Help?
c:geo is the answer, it's in the market.
NerfJihad said:
Because simply put, the $11 geocaching app is kinda crap. I'd like to have an overlay on the stock 'maps' app that'll show me the nearby ones, so I can do more than one at a time. Kind of a pain in the arse to do it their way.
www(DOT)geocaching(DOT)com/map/default(DOT)aspx?lat=47.12304&lng=-122.3156
They have a google map available, even. They're not opposed to google integration, they're just a little bastardly about everything.
Help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
c:geo has some uses, but IMO it's too slow to load data (online or GPX) and its main usefulness is if you're caching in an area which you don't already have a Pocket Query for, or for a brand new just published cache you don't have a PQ for.. So for those times I keep it on hand.
My actual caching program is GeOrg. It's $6 but it's well worth it. It's fast as lightning loading GPX, it doesn't slow down when you have 500 or even 1500 entries in a database, you can have many databases to separate out data, and it has great tools built into it, great Maps integration to navigate inside the client, compass is great, and it also has great integration with Google Maps to navigate using the old school 2d overview or using Google Navigator.
FYI for my usage, I tend to make a database per PQ because then I know which to load based on where I am and there's less to scroll through, but you could as easily load all of your PQs into the same DB. I went somewhere over a weekend and loaded up 2300 caches in one DB and there was no noticeable slowdown.
AND... If you load your PQs into bcaching, there is a connector there which you can use to access, so if you really want online on the fly without having GPX on the device you can do it that way OR if you can compile yourself, he provides a completely ready to compile project for a connector directly to geocaching.org to load data directly from their databases, but he won't provide it in binary/apk form to comply with their rules. Either way is still faster than c:geo
And you can of course log or create field notes in the app. There are also some useful solvers built in, you can create waypoints, do offsets (waypoint projection), store databases in internal storage or on SD card, etc.. He also has plans to support Bluetooth GPS directly in his app in the future, but I've found Bluetooth GPS Provider works great for that for increased accuracy and sensitivity vs the internal GPS in my Nexus One.
BTW, I use Tasker to get PQ's onto my phone, but you could do it any number of ways. You could save them from email or whatever works best for you. I've had a system for about 5 years where all of my PQ's arrive at my server and are digested and placed into one central zip file so I download that one file for my "local area" and that's what I typically import when I update the database when going out caching, and I have a larger zip file which contains all the other PQ's that I update when I go to one of those locations. GeOrg can update directly from the zip, or you can point it right at a gpx.
If you're at all serious about Geocaching, GeOrg is the way to go.
If you don't have a premium membership I'd also suggest to use "c:geo" - its free and not that slow as it sounds in khaytsus' post and it provides all the important features, but more userfriendly (my opinion) than "geOrg".
I use it mostly for paperless caching even with parallel use of my Oregon device for exact navigation. But i don't have a pm and the original gc-app is crap (just my opinion, too).
c:geo has an builtin compass as well and uses the google maps client/navigator for map and navigation. It can store caches including notes and waypoints offline, can calculate waypoints ("waypoint projection") and log founds online.
The most awesome feature is the "livemap": it shows the immediate environs around your position with all known caches - with their types and if they're deactivated or not. This map follows your movements, which is interesting for caching tours by car or bike...
The author of the app is providing fixes very fast, sometimes maybe too often, but everytime when it's necessary.
I've tried "Columbus" as well, but it didn't fit my needs and i've found it not as clear as c:geo. But it's worth to try it, too...
so... it has a localized map of geocaches in your surrounding area that'll respond to basic 'zoom' commands, so I can just wander around while bored and do some caches?
...Looking at it, yes. Yes it does. God I love you guys.
I don't have a premium account. Would that prevent the awesomeness that it is from working?
I ask because I'm a tool and I bought the $11 geocaching app thinking it'd add a layer on maps...
khaytsus said:
My actual caching program is GeOrg. It's $6 but it's well worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree. GeOrg is the best.
sorry man can't help u
mcfisch said:
If you don't have a premium membership I'd also suggest to use "c:geo" - its free and not that slow as it sounds in khaytsus' post and it provides all the important features, but more userfriendly (my opinion) than "geOrg".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's free, and in this scenario, so is Geocaching.org, since you don't have a premium membership. Way to leach.
mcfisch said:
c:geo has an builtin compass as well and uses the google maps client/navigator for map and navigation. It can store caches including notes and waypoints offline, can calculate waypoints ("waypoint projection") and log founds online.
The most awesome feature is the "livemap": it shows the immediate environs around your position with all known caches - with their types and if they're deactivated or not. This map follows your movements, which is interesting for caching tours by car or bike...
The author of the app is providing fixes very fast, sometimes maybe too often, but everytime when it's necessary.
I've tried "Columbus" as well, but it didn't fit my needs and i've found it not as clear as c:geo. But it's worth to try it, too...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All that applies to GeOrg, as I already said But it's much faster. You can not compare the speed at which GeOrg imports GPX vs c:geo importing GPX. Nor can you compare the speed at which GeOrg loads details vs the c:geo load details for nearby caches. Live map functionality is pretty similar, the only difference is that GeOrg doesn't directly provide a feed from geocaching.org since it violates their Terms of Service. They do directly provide a bcaching feed which is pretty much the same. Personally I am a Premium Member so I have GPX and can load up the local caches and go in seconds.
For people who also use GSAK there is a new free app: GDAK on the market.
GeoTag
I noticed that this is an old thread, but for people who are still interested:
I use GeoTag which I took off my SE X10i Mini, a bit of searching will lead you to it.
It looks like google maps with minature versions of your geotagged images overlayed and you can select them to view in gallery
Works good for me but each to thier own!!! )
khaytsus said:
It's free, and in this scenario, so is Geocaching.org, since you don't have a premium membership. Way to leach.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Perhaps people want to participate in this hobby without paying a membership. Why should one website have a monopoly on an international hobby?
You don't have to pay!
Just as a note, because it was not mentioned yet...
Did anyone try the combination c:geo and Locus? Perfect for offline caching!!!
Cheers
berkley said:
Just as a note, because it was not mentioned yet...
Did anyone try the combination c:geo and Locus? Perfect for offline caching!!!
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. Nothing beats C:GEO. The responsiveness of the dev is amazing. Best app on the market, hands down.
LexusBrian400 said:
Agreed. Nothing beats C:GEO. The responsiveness of the dev is amazing. Best app on the market, hands down.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He has to be responsive, he's scraping data and Geocaching.com breaks that every time they update...
Shame that loading GPX data into c:geo wasn't more responsive.
I'll stick with GeOrg, it's extremely fast, flexible, has a LOT more tools for hunting and placing caches built into it, and as I've already mentioned can do On The Fly caching just like c:Geo if you really want that.
GeOrg will also use Locus maps.
tdusen said:
GeOrg will also use Locus maps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that using precached tiles with the Custom Tiilepack map type? Yeah I forgot to mention that, although I use BackCountry Navigator.. Topo and OSM maps, I can't get the sat tiles to view properly, I suspect because they're 512 pixels rather than 256 but not sure.
I need to pester the GeOrg dev about that.

[Q] Using Pushpins in Maps

Have had HTC7Pro for a few days now and generally impressed.
However;
How exactly are the pushpins in Maps supposed to work?
This site from Microsofts Windows Phone area, http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-GB/howto/wp7/web/use-maps-to-find-a-place.aspx seems to be the only thing that I can find, here or out on the Web, that isn't related to Developers.
In Google Maps of old, I had around 100 pins stored locally (on the phone rather than up in the cloud or on the wider web) for places all over the UK.
I need this to hand as my work often finds me traveling from and to various repeated locations such as Building Sites, Suppliers and (especially) Guest Houses.
It appears that the only way to have a location stored "on the phone" is to pin it to the Start Screen as a link to Maps. As you can imagine, this is going to be very impractical with that many potential places to store.
Is this the case? I don't really want to have to resort to downloading address information for Hotels (which could be stored in Contacts, I know) and other places of Interest every time I want to get directions in Maps. Building Sites are not generally even available through the Internet due to there very nature. The address for them could be stored as a note in One Note I suppose.
Whatever, all these work arounds are just that. Long Winded and unintuitive. Hopefully I am doing something wrong with the Maps application and some one can point me right. If not, bugger!
Just wanted to say thanks. I didnt even know we had pins in bing maps.
Your welcome, Stillriza, even thoughthe pins are no where near as functional as I would like.
That page you linked is basically the extent of the functionality of Maps at the moment. I don't think there is much more.
I'm waiting for the day when it sync's pins to the cloud, so I can look up stuff online, and jump on my phone and have my saved pines or favorites show up on the map.
Otherwise at the moment, Maps is very basic.
That's what I figured prjkthack.
Basic, however is not an issue for me. I despise "turn by turn" sat nav totally. A 2D map is, in my opinion the way to go. I find that when I arrive at my destination I have some idea in my mind as to where I actually am. This is unlike using turn by turn which, find to be akin to driving down some anonymous "pipe", oblivious to my surroundings.
I do think that Maps looks and generally behaves far better than Google Maps on my Blackstone did, although I admit that this may be largely down to hardware limitations on the older handset.
I just wish the pins were more functional.
Ah well, maybe for the update.
Of possible interest to Orange customers in UK. Their "Orange Maps" app, free from Marketplace but subscription required on most tariffs, addresses the Push Pin issue.
It does have issues of it's own however, when compared to Bing Maps. Not least, as a third party app, it switches itself off when the phone "sleeps" or takes a call, or anything else, and has to go through the start up procedure again to relaunch it. It does offer to recall any ongoing routes however which at least means that you don't have to reset the route every time.
Also, it appears, so far, that it does not allow the phone to go to sleep when it is actually following a route. This is better than Bing maps can manage at the moment.

Recommend me some Apps, Please

I'm swapping from Android to Windows Phone, and was hoping if anyone is bored enough to read this they might suggest some Windows Phone Apps that might suit my needs.
In no way do I expect anyone that hops in to respond to each type, or google around for me, but I expect I'm not the first person to make the Android -> Windows phone swap, so maybe some of you will have a quick idea of ones to try out. You don't need to spend a lot of time explaining every app, if you're busy. Every platform is different though, so rather than spend 10 hours looking for something that everyone in the community already knows, I thought I would just toss out some quick questions.
1. RSS feeds. On Android I use gReader Pro. It's a pretty basic app that allows easy setup for RSS feeds and syncs them with your google reader account. Not very exciting, but it's easy to use because my feeds are already set up via google, so a decent app that can do the same would be nice.
2. Google Voice. I'd like to make and receive texts, as well as make calls on wifi (receiving calls isn't a big deal, but would be a plus). I downloaded GoVoice, which seems like it will be pretty decent, but am open to suggsetions.
3. Podcasts. I used Doggcatcher on Android, which allows you to stream, download + save, and sync podcasts. It has a decent search function to help you get started.
4. Tasker. This one is more difficult to explain, but essentially it allows you to program a set of tasks, like a macro function. Essentially I have it set up for "Off" (as in data/wifi/bluetooth/gps/gsm disabled), "Data" (same as off but wifi enabled), "Loud" (same as data but with notifications and media volumes all the way up), and "Car" (same as Loud but wifi off and speakerphone and GPS enabled). Basically I use this to change the state of the GPS, WIFI, and volumes, so that I can quickly switch a number of settings at once. Great app, if you have some patience and have an Android kicking around.
5. Astrid Tasks. A pretty basic reminder app. I'm sure there are plenty of these for Windows Phone, but any suggestion would great. If it can store backups to the computer, or sync with a cloud based system, that would be a plus.
6*. Something to show running applications quickly. I'm not sure if this is actually an issue for Windows Phone, but sometimes apps go "rogue" on Android, so being able to make sure that a particular app isn't a battery drain would be nice. I was using System Panel on Android. If this isn't needed, disregard the question.
7. A good alarm app. I was using Gentle Alarm on Android, which has a widget to show you the next alarm that will go off, and allows easy creation of various alarms, which can be set for audible, vibration, specific days of the week to repeat on, etc. You can also ensure that alarms will always be audible, regardless of if everything else is muted, which is nice for at night when you don't need an email waking you up, but need to make sure the alarm is at maximum volume in the morning.
8. Anything else you can think of that is a must have for daily use. I'm a student and don't really have a lot of time to play with the phone for games, but hey, we all have to pass the time every once in a while.
9. Onenote. I like how this app syncs easily, but I can't view my handwritten notes that I write on my tablet. Is there a workaround that allows you to see these?
------ I'm only using this Lumia 710 on WIFI, essentially as a PDA + GPS, so anything handy that can prevent battery drain is a plus, as I don't require GPS to constantly be on, and I certainly don't need phone/data(non-wifi) to constantly be on.
In short, I appreciate any input you might have, even if it's only for one of the things I have listed. The phone seems great in general, and had most of the important things already installed (the email, calendar, navigation, office, etc., is fantastic as is, which is a great bonus compared to Android, where I had to use 3rd party apps for most of the core aspects).
Regards,
--bb
Weave
Skype
Music and Video with Zune
Not possible
Ask Ziggy
not needed
Default alarm
Board Express Pro
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 PM ----------
Nokia Drive
Crackle
Nokia Creative Studio
Contract Killer
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Box
SkyDrive
MetroTube
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pvt_nemesis said:
Weave
Skype
Music and Video with Zune
Not possible
Ask Ziggy
not needed
Default alarm
Board Express Pro
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:14 PM ----------
Nokia Drive
Crackle
Nokia Creative Studio
Contract Killer
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
---------- Post added at 06:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:16 PM ----------
Box
SkyDrive
MetroTube
Sent from my HD7 using Board Express
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all of the suggestions. That should keep me busy for quite awhile. :good:
Try also fantasia painter for photo editor. Is awesome and free. The only app i am missing since switching from wp7 to android
Sent from my HTC Explorer A310e using xda app-developers app
Before I get into my list, I'm just going to run down how apps and multi tasking work on WP7 in case you don't already know.
#1: No app can truly run in the background. The only way to get an app to continue running is either to have it up and prevent the screen from turning off, or (if supported by the app) allow it to run under the lockscreen, which means when you press the power button, only the screen turns off, the phone does not enter a sleep state.
-----------------The exception to this rule is when an app is playing music. If the app dev has done it correctly, he should have handed the music playing off to the system, so once you set up the music source in app, you should be able to minimize it and use the next/previous/play/pause controls. In fact you can even go to grooveshark's beta html5 in internet explorer; HTML5 can plug in to this system media playback! I was very excited to learn that. But at least on grooveshark, next/previous controls don't work.
#2: HOWEVER each app can have a "daemon" which is essentially a set of tasks that are run periodically by the system (minimum of every half hour). So if you use google latitude, latitude apps will only be able to update your position every half hour (or at longer intervals, but no shorter). This system of background daemons is actually very very good as it encourages unique thinking from the developer side, and still gives the user the benefits of true multi tasking without the battery drainage. What a daemon can do isn't that limited, but it's the fact that no internet connection can remain active in the background that poses a lot of problems (for example, IRC clients cannot have multi tasking for this reason). Since things can only run every half hour, you don't have to worry about things like turning off your gps, since nothing is allowed to just turn on the GPS and keep it on.
#3 : Also there's still push, of course. Lemme break that down for you: push notifications can either be through the live tile (rather than having a background daemon update the tile, things are pushed to it immediately as they arrive), or push can be used through statusbar notifications. One unfortunate oversight in this system is that if you have an app that you do not pin to the start menu, and if it has a notification and you did not hear it... there is no list of missed notifications. This doesn't come into play that often; for me it only happens with eBay, where I don't want to bother having that on my start screen but I might miss some alerts.
#4: Battery Saver mode is YOUR FRIEND. You can get nearly another day out of your phone (or I can with my Titan) when battery saver kicks in. You can enable it so that it turns on when the battery is low (%20), or manually. However, it disables all background daemons and push notification in order to save battery.
#5: Multi tasking and switching between apps. Hold down the back button to see the list of the last several apps you used (or in the case of my unlocked ROM, all of the apps you have used since boot). When you minimize an app (press the start button), it gets "dehydrated" which means it's just suspended to RAM. It works like you'd expect; start typing something in one app, switch over to another to look something up and switch back to the first to resume typing. To remove an app from the list, or "exit" the app (since it isn't actually running the only thing this does is remove clutter or perhaps free up some slots), you "back" out of them. Press the back button until the app goes away.
One of the reasons, in my opinion, that windows 8 is getting a lot of negative flack is because people don't know that live tiles are good. It doesn't help that, last time I checked, there were no useful live tile apps in the 8 marketplace yet. So frustrating! People hate what they don't understand, because hating on the internet is the standard state of existence. I encourage you to think about what you do on the internet every time you sit down on your computer, and see if you can find an app with live tile to do it for you. For me, I had a routine of checking my email(s), going through a lot of webcomics, reading news feeds, etc. That was my daily routine. Now with WP7, I have each aspect of my routine as a live tile, so I can literally replace that entire process with just looking at the start screen.
The other thing about live tiles and metro that people fail to understand is that active push notifications, where unnecessary are BAD, for a few different reasons. Push notifications are "active" and live tiles are "passive". This is because live tiles do not make any noise or otherwise prompt you to look at them; they are simply there and deliver content when you pull out your phone. Let me put this in perspective: say I pull out my phone to look up something on wikipedia. I can see that I have 2 new emails, some new RSS articles and a facebook notification. Number 1: I don't feel the urge to go and clear the unread count of all of these things, as I would if they were all aggregated in the statusbar like on android (because you need that statusbar for things, and if it's cluttered and you don't keep up on it, it quickly fills up and becomes overwhelming). I can leave them alone for now and go to wikipedia. Now if this were an android/IOS device, I would have gotten an audible notification for each of those three things, and I would have taken time out of whatever I was doing IN LIFE to tend to my phone.
Some points about stressors here (and when I say stressors, I don't mean overwhelming stress you can feel, but stress in the clinical sense, which is objective): having your phone beep at you constantly stresses you; for most people it's difficult to put their phone out of their mind until they have seen what the notification was. This is not good.
Moreover, feeling the need to go and clear unread counts/managing your statusbar is also somewhat of a stressor; if it starts overflowing you'll either learn to not use things that create notifications (somewhat limiting your experience with a smartphone), give up all hope and never look at the statusbar again, or just clear it out and miss out on things you wouldn't have if the information was presented in an orderly fashion.
Live tiles, being passive, are also more efficient in terms of time spent on the phone and your phone's battery life. Notice how in my example, I observed the new content only when I was already pulling out my phone to do something else. With things aggregating in bulk, I can view them in bulk at points of the day where I was already on my phone. This is opposed to pulling out my phone every 15 minutes because something new happened... which wastes time pulling your phone out of your pocket many times a day, wastes battery when turning the screen on/off many times a day, and if you use wifi; wastes even more battery when the wifi radio is turned on/off sporadically many times a day.
So yes, live tiles are an objectively less stressful approach to mobile devices and less distracting from tasks at hand. The same concepts can be applied to windows 8; rather than having popup notifications for all your facebook, email, rss, etc bombard you while you're trying to write a paper... all of that information is silently aggregated for you in the background.
------------The List-------------------
For alarms,
627.AM
Built in Alarm app.
For task / project management
Tasks by telerik
Or just use the built in calendar app
Or use Onenote and Pin your task list to the start screen.
For RSS
Wonder Reader hands down, none of the other google reader clients are quite as fully functional and polished.
Fuse is pretty but I never got the hang of using it.
For Wifi Video calls
Tango. It's pretty limited in that the android and IOS client are updated with better features, and you can only call other people with tango... but the service itself is more efficient and more reliable than the skype app was last time I tried it. Moreover it supports push for accepting calls, something skype doesn't. Also I like the concept of not having "online / offline" states. You call someone, and they choose to answer it or not. Why would I need to log into a phone...
I used to take notes on a tablet at school, and ran into the same problem as you. Only solution I know of is to print your notes back into onenote. You'll have duplicates of everything unfortunately.
Podcast functionality is built in.
For random recommendations...
das Image (Better image search)
Image Map (Renders all of your pictures on a map based on GPS loc info)
Dynamic Background (Unlock) (Updates the lockscreen picture every half hour choosing randomly from a pool of selected images)
Battery Status (Unlock) (Live tile for current battery percent, also tracks battery usage and graphs it for you)
EnClock (there is no stopwatch built in to WP7, and you never know when you need one)
eBay
HandyScan (Helps you take good pictures of papers, backs up to skydrive. Better to keep documents in here than with regular pictures).
Keep Alive (by jaxbot, it prevents wifi from turning off)
Nokia Drive (Unlock unless you get a nokia device)
MetroPaper (Read it later / pocket)
Metrotube + Supertube (youtube apps. 1 is awesome, 2 lets you download videos and even create offline "music" playlists)
Photo2cloud (back up full res photos to skydrive independent of PC)
Supreme Shortcuts (Unlock) (Lets you pin any setting page to the start screen)
WeatherLive (There are plenty of other weather apps... but weatherlive works, it's incredibly thorough, updates live tile using GPS location, is pretty, etc)
Zite (Gives you news articles based on google reader feeds and who you follow in twitter, good for every time I go to the toilet )
If you use IRC or SSH
The SSH Client Pro
TinyIRC
And now that you are a part of the WP community, you should invest in AND pin the live tiles of each to your start screen:
WPCentral
WMPoweruser
Games! I Don't like to play serious games on my phone; I like something I can whip out at any time and turn off at any time, no consequence. That said, I make an exception for the Final Fantasy updated / rerelease for WP7
COLLAPSE (Probably my favorite mobile game. It's an easy puzzle game, but satisfying to plow through at ludicrous speed. There are some very hard rounds with special conditions though.. story mode is dumb but it has unique challenges and you need to play through it to unlock all the quick play modes).
Final Fantasy
Wordament
Fruit Ninja
Dodonpachi Maximum (Genre: Bullet Hell. If you don't know what that means then try it before you buy it. If you love bullet hell; buy this. It's by CAVE).
Wizard's Choice (A casual text adventure).
link68759 said:
Lots of good info
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the detailed response!
I've started using Onenote as a to-do list, but I made a recent post as to why that's causing me problems (or so it seems).
I seem to be syncing everything from onenote, and my device has basically filled up overnight as it downloaded my files. Microsoft told me to contact Nokia about it, and then disconnected?
It seemed like a good plan to me as well. I don't really need to see detailed graphs and notes on the phone, just a couple simple folders.
I may just reset the phone and give the other apps you suggested a shot, and not connect with my microsoft live ID at all. I went from plenty of space on the device to none, in a matter of days.
I'm not sure if podcasts were an issue as well, and how it saves and deletes them. I only stored what I would consider a small amount, maybe 200 megs or less.
Nokia drive works great. It takes up a lot of space, but I have it on my feature phone as well, and the GPS acquisition time on the Lumia 710 blows away my E5-00, and my Droid X. It's just incredibly fast at locking in.
I'll do a reset tomorrow and give the other apps a shot, and try to avoid anything that could be crushing my storage. All I really need for storage is email, nokia drive, and basic apps/news/podcasts, which on my android (nav aside) shouldn't really take more than 1 gig of space. A few small games to pass the time, and some apps for productivity, and I should be back in business.
Unfortunately I can't seem to find a way to determine what is using X amount of space, so I'll have to do a full wipe and install items slowly, to sort it out.
There isn't a proper app to view this kind of thing, is there?
Regards,
--bb
I'll reply to your other thread about one note.
You can't not connect with your live ID if you plan to download apps unfortunately.
For viewing used space, Zune does divide it up for you, I don't remember how specific it gets but it should be divided into space used by music, videos, podcasts, apps. I don't think it's possible for an app to view usage, because each app is sandboxed; that is they have their own folder on the device and they are not allowed to leave it.
Nokia Drive shouldn't need to take up a lot of space; you can just download the maps of where you live and where you might possibly go spontaneously, as opposed to your whole country XD. Yeah I've had good luck with my phones and GPS, WP7 in general does an excellent job with GPS.
Oh I forgot to mention in my first post; WPCentral and WMPoweruser are good because they do a lot of app/game reviews, usually the reviews are on new apps in the market. This is pretty much the only way I discover new apps
link68759 said:
I'll reply to your other thread about one note.
You can't not connect with your live ID if you plan to download apps unfortunately.
For viewing used space, Zune does divide it up for you, I don't remember how specific it gets but it should be divided into space used by music, videos, podcasts, apps. I don't think it's possible for an app to view usage, because each app is sandboxed; that is they have their own folder on the device and they are not allowed to leave it.
Nokia Drive shouldn't need to take up a lot of space; you can just download the maps of where you live and where you might possibly go spontaneously, as opposed to your whole country XD. Yeah I've had good luck with my phones and GPS, WP7 in general does an excellent job with GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gotcha!
I will look into setting up a new windows live account for OneNote to-do type lists. I know Office sometimes used to have issues with multiple live accounts on the same computer, in Windows 7, but I think that's mostly fixed now. I use google calendar anyways (to sync), so realistically it's not the end of the world for me to keep the accounts disconnected from my school Onenote live account.
I guess I synced all of Nokia North America at once (1.9 or so gigs of a download). I certainly don't need more than 20% of it. In fact, my whole state, now that I look at it, is only 36 megs.
Now that you've given some ideas of how to approach it, I'm liking this more than any of my other previous phones (iPhone, BB Bold, Droid X, etc). It needs some time to grow as an operating system, and Nokia really needs to put an LED notification light on future models [shakes tiny fist], but I think they're back in the game!
Thank you very much for all of your help.
//Edit: I read your other post responding to mine. I think you're right. I could probably do a wipe, use the same account, but move the basic to-do lists to a separate folder, pin them, and make sure to never ever open the school folder itself in Office on the phone. That sounds like it would work ok as well, as I must have opened a school folder that overwhelmed it and just started syncing massive amounts of pdf's, inking, and so on, along with the simple things.
I just wanted to also mention that all that you typed out would make for a great sticky. That's a ton of great info.
Thank you again for all of the feedback.
You made some excellent points about how smartphones add lots of unnecessary stresses when they're constantly distracting us with notifications, as well as how live tiles really help ease you into information you need, and information you might not, but are willing to take a brief glance at. I'm a big Windows 8 fan, and have used RP, RTM Pro (currently), and RTM enterprise. I think Live Tiles are fantastic, whether it's on my phone, my convertible laptop, or my desktop. I think you're absolutely correct about how people just don't quite understand how handy it will be yet.
//BTW: I bookmarked your post as a sort of "zen" explanation I can refer back to, or link to a friend, so they understand the unity and purposes in the next stage in Windows products.
///Afterthought: I still would like a notification LED on the phone, as long as it's customizable. On Android and Blackberry I would always disable the light for all of the nonsense things, but keep it enabled for things like a missed call (because that could be my son needing a ride, or something else that's important), or for a severe weather alert. Random emails would just have to wait until I turned on the screen.
Sorry to bump my own thread again, but I have a question about three of the apps that link68759 mentioned.
"Supreme Shortcuts (Unlock) (Lets you pin any setting page to the start screen)"
"Battery Status (Unlock) (Live tile for current battery percent, also tracks battery usage and graphs it for you)"
"Keep Alive (by jaxbot, it prevents wifi from turning off)"
By "unlock" I'm assuming he meant an unlocked bootloader, and not locked to a cellular carrier? I did the basic test today, and mine appears to be locked, which is a shame because both of those functions would be great.
As far as "Keep Alive" goes, I can't seem to find that specific app/dev combo in the market. I don't use 3g/4g data on this phone, or any phone anymore, so is that an app that is better than keeping the scanning on, or is it a battery drain? I'm just not sure I follow the concept, because I can't find a description of it.
Regards,
--bb
bladebarrier said:
Sorry to bump my own thread again, but I have a question about three of the apps that link68759 mentioned.
"Supreme Shortcuts (Unlock) (Lets you pin any setting page to the start screen)"
"Battery Status (Unlock) (Live tile for current battery percent, also tracks battery usage and graphs it for you)"
"Keep Alive (by jaxbot, it prevents wifi from turning off)"
By "unlock" I'm assuming he meant an unlocked bootloader, and not locked to a cellular carrier? I did the basic test today, and mine appears to be locked, which is a shame because both of those functions would be great.
As far as "Keep Alive" goes, I can't seem to find that specific app/dev combo in the market. I don't use 3g/4g data on this phone, or any phone anymore, so is that an app that is better than keeping the scanning on, or is it a battery drain? I'm just not sure I follow the concept, because I can't find a description of it.
Regards,
--bb
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need to flash a custom ROM, which you can luckily do on your 710.
The a wifi radio turning on/off takes more power than one that is idly connected. So if you use the phone frequently, it's better to stay connected. If you aren't going to touch it for many hours at a time, better to let it disconnect and turn off.
But if you aren't using cellular then you'll need wifi to update information in the background.
Some more here
Dialpad7
Handyscan
Photogram
Skype
Sleep Bug
Tango
UC Browser
whatspp= messenger
Yelp = to find nearby things

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