Database Info

Best Android Apps - sans Twitter

It seems that whenever I do a search for apps that others find useful, Twitter and Facebook are all the rage.
Seriously, there are "Top Ten Apps" lists out there that will have two or three different Twitter apps listed on them. It drives me insane because I don't care about Twitter and I don't find it productive in the least (just a personal preference matter, no offense to you tweet-aholics out there).
I would like to know social networks and twitter aside, which apps do you find most useful or productive?

Advanced Task killer (name says all)
Astro (explorer that allows you to browse SD card and install apps)
aTrackDog (allows to check new app versions)
Call logs backup & restore/SMS Backup & restore/APN Backup & restore (names says all)
CoPilot Live (payed GPS)
Meridian (Media player with subtitle support)
Shazam (app that "listens" the song and identify it)
Uninstaller (app to uninstall apps)
Zedge (to search for nice wallpapers)
Doubletwist (media player with PC version that allows to sync libraries)
GPS test (to check for satellites in view)
AppBrain App Market and Fast web installer (market alternative that allows to install straight from the webpage)
Games:
Angry birds
Frozen bubble
Jewls
These are my must have every time i try a new rom.

DeuXGod said:
Advanced Task killer (name says all)
Astro (explorer that allows you to browse SD card and install apps)
aTrackDog (allows to check new app versions)
Call logs backup & restore/SMS Backup & restore/APN Backup & restore (names says all)
CoPilot Live (payed GPS)
Meridian (Media player with subtitle support)
Shazam (app that "listens" the song and identify it)
Uninstaller (app to uninstall apps)
Zedge (to search for nice wallpapers)
Doubletwist (media player with PC version that allows to sync libraries)
GPS test (to check for satellites in view)
AppBrain App Market and Fast web installer (market alternative that allows to install straight from the webpage)
Games:
Angry birds
Frozen bubble
Jewls
These are my must have every time i try a new rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, there are a few on here I will have to check out. Thanks for not mentioning Twitter or Facebook apps!

My list includes:
- Maps BRUT (Turns maps / naviation into a full car GPS unit)
- Missed Reminders (Does what it says)
- MeContacts (nicer app for placing favourite 'instant dial' widget')
- Double Twist (Mentioned above)
- Pocket Auctions Ebay
- Slideit Soft Keyboard / Swype
- Time Clock Time Traking by Spotlight 6 (Used for tracking work time for clients)
- Dolphin Browser
- Shazam (Mentioned before)
- Robo Defense (Fun game)
- Executive Assistant. (Summary of sms's, emails, missed calls, etc as a widget)
- Flashlight (Name says it all)
- Weatherbug
- Springpad. (Online notes that sync with phone and vise versa)
- Starfield Active Wallpaper (coz I'm a geek ;-)
- The Weather Channel

Here's my current list - 113 market apps, not a single "social" one among them.
http://www.appbrain.com/user/nawoa
Note the absence of a task killer, since I wasn't dropped on my head as a child.
All those, plus the standard Cyanogenmod and Google Apps stuff and a couple that aren't available through the market, like Swype. Thank goodness for DT-A2SD!

Thank you. I bought my phone today & I'm downloading some apps from your link.

Glad to be of service! What kind of phone did you get?
More than anything else, make sure to install Juice Defender. It does simple, completely transparent background power management that should've been built into the OS from the beginning, imho.
Example, if your screen's off, what are the chances you need your power-hungry data connection going? Why not shut it off for 14 minutes out of every 15, and then keep it running until it's no longer being used? Instantly your battery life is greatly extended during times when your phone's in standby.
Or, how about doing the same thing, only keeping it off most of the time a certain application, like a video player, is in the foreground?
Makes sense, right?
No, I'm not affiliated with its developer
-----
HTC Desire (SLCD) S-OFF / Cyanogenmod

nawoa said:
Glad to be of service! What kind of phone did you get?
More than anything else, make sure to install Juice Defender. It does simple, completely transparent background power management that should've been built into the OS from the beginning, imho.
Example, if your screen's off, what are the chances you need your power-hungry data connection going? Why not shut it off for 14 minutes out of every 15, and then keep it running until it's no longer being used? Instantly your battery life is greatly extended during times when your phone's in standby.
Or, how about doing the same thing, only keeping it off most of the time a certain application, like a video player, is in the foreground?
Makes sense, right?
No, I'm not affiliated with its developer
-----
HTC Desire (SLCD) S-OFF / Cyanogenmod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a SE Xperia X8. By the way, do ypu mange roms ? Can you take a look at my post about the Xperia X8 ?
( forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=816819 )

[Q] Battery Life

Hello guys. I own an Inspire running CM7. I have noticed that I have only been getting about 4 hours of battery life, which is terrible. I was wondering if someone could provide suggestions to fix this. Here is my info:
ROM: CM7 RC4
Kernel: Stock CM7 Kernel
Clock Speed: 1017MHz
Apps: Ninja Rush Deluxe
imo beta (IM client)
Photoshop Express
Astro File Manager
screenshot (the free one, by gik soft)
deciBel (sound meter)
SpeedTest (official app)
FML (official app)
Watchdog Lite
Urban Dictionary
Imgur Uploader (extension to gallery "share" feature)
Google Translate
AndroIRC
Dropbox
Wallet (password manager)
Quadrant Standard
FOX News
Bluetooth File Transfer
Andchat (free version)
X Construction
Root Explorer (File Manager)
Paypal (official app)
IMDb
Dictionary (official app from dictionary.com)
Unrar Free
Uninstaller )(the one from Rhythm Software)
Adobe Reader
XDA
Flash Player 10.2
eBay (official)
tTorrent (full)
FallDown3D
InkPad Notepad
Ninja Rush
DroID3Tagger (for editing music name, artist, album, etc.)
Better Keyboard 8
Shazam
VEVO
Seek Droid (I had terrible battery life before installing this)
Titanium Backup Pro
Twitter (official)
Chrome to Phone
Facebook (official)
SetCPU
Amazon Appstore
Doodle Jump
Paper Toss
Connect4
Rom Manager
Amazon MP3
Caller ID Faker
Fruit Ninja
WeatherBug Elite (background updates are off)
Are any of these apps on the bad list? (the bad list meaning apps that stay active and continue to eat CPU in the background)
Also, no I don't use a task manager, they're bad for android.
Here is a pastie of my currentwidget logs, the higher values are with the screen on, at the homescreen, the lower values are with the screen off, so this indicates there is deep sleep happening. http://pastie.org/1746213
EDIT: Recalibrated battery, virtually no improvent. Any ideas guys? Spare Parts doesn't show anything is eating the battery, so I do not know why it is draining so quickly.

Take current readings during idle time for an hour with the current widget, then post results. Then use system panel to track which process is using the most CPU.

RogerPodacter said:
Take current readings during idle time for an hour with the current widget, then post results. Then use system panel to track which process is using the most CPU.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where/What is the system panel?

[APP] Greenify

Recently I was contacted by njstein about an app called Greenify. He wanted to know what my personal opinion was and if it worked as it claims. I had honestly never heard of it, so I did a little bit of reading on it.
My first thought was was just another app killer claiming to save battery when in-fact it did more harm than good. But as I read, I found that it "claims" to not "kill" apps, rather put them in a hibernating state. I immediately thought of Titanium Back-Up Pro's app freezing feature. It basically allows you to "freeze" an app, preventing it from running in the background. Unfortunately, with TBUP freezing an app, is like uninstalling it. Then, when you need or want to run the app, you have to un-freeze it. With Greenify however, it basically puts the app in a deep sleep state, then when you need/want to use it, you just select it as normal, and it resumes running until you close it. I thought, seeing is believing on this one. It may, or may not, do as it says. So, I took it for a spin today.
Below are some screenshots of when I first installed it, to nearly 13 hours later (check the times in the status bar, not the actually battery time). I used my phone as normal, and began testing. This is my baseline with Greenify installed. I am now uninstalling it, so I can get a baseline without Greenify. Around the same time, I will take another screenshot and about 13 hours later, I will take another. I know, I'm doing this a bit backwards, but that's ok... The ending result will show whether or not this app does what it claims to do.
My variables are:
Device: Skyrocket
ROM: ParanoidAndroid 2.99+ (jellybean)
Kernel: Lightning Zap! (of course)
Usage: Medium (play solitaire and golf solitaire a few times throughout the day, a few phone calls, lots of texting, and some surfing of XDA and the internet)
Apps Frozen:
I stayed away from freezing system apps. Just user apps. I would strongly suggest you take caution when freezing system apps.
DropBox
eBay
Fruit Ninja
Google Play Services (I know this is system apps, but I wanted to test it out too...lol)
myAT&T
PayPal
Rom Manager
ROM Toolbox
Titanium Backup Pro
USAA (banking app)
Initial Results:
I have an average battery drain of about 4.5% an hour
Voice Calls and screen are the biggest battery drainers (as usual)
My games that I play and messaging are not even showing as using any battery.

Awesome! Thanks for testing so rigorously!
Sent from a Dirty Unicorn set aBlaze by Lightning

Initial Conclusion
So, I ran a test without the Greenify app installed. Before uninstalling, I un-hibernated all teh apps I had selected for hibernation, cleared data, uninstalled the app, then manually removed any left over data on sdcard and in /app/data/data. I tried to keep my usage at about the same, but since that proved to be a little difficult, I let it run for a little while longer before coming to my initial conclusion. Here's what I think:
As you can see in the attached images, Greenify seems to acts just like all the other app killers and app managers. I causes more harm than good.
Greenify also claims:
Never should your phone or tablet become slower and battery hungrier after lots of apps installed. With Greenify, your device can run almost as smoothly and lastingly as it did the first day you had it!Featured as Lifehacker's Top 1 Utility in 2013 Best Android Apps (http://goo.gl/1VMwnE), Android Authority's Top 3 Best Root Apps (http://goo.gl/g0L0qZ).
Greenify help you identify and put the misbehaving apps into hibernation when you are not using them, to stop them from lagging your device and leeching the battery, in an unique way! They can do nothing without explicit launch by you or other apps, while still preserving full functionality when running in foreground, similar to iOS apps!
However, as for my phone running "smoothly" as it did the first day I got it, I didn't see ANY difference. Maybe it's the Lightning Zap! kernel that I installed on it minutes after opening the box.
Now my variables only changed in the fact that I only had voice calls totaling for 1 hour as opposed to the 1.25 hours I had with the previous test, and the fact that I let the test run a 15 hours as oppose to 13.
I started with a 97% charge, and after 15 hours, was at a 43% charge. Which mean I used about 54% of my charge during the 15 hours. That's an average of 3.6% battery drain an hour. That's .9% when compared to with Greenify. Not a huge difference, but a difference none-the-less
So, my initial overall synopsis:
Just another app killer. I am not saying this is a bad app. The developers have a really great concept, but it seems to cause more harm than good. I would also like to say, do not judge this app with my results. I only tested it for a day, and I think to get a more thorough and accurate test, you should try the app out for a few days, maybe even a week to let it settle in. I for one, because I think the concept of Greenify is a good one, will be continuing further testing for a more complete and accurate comparison.

List of apps I froze after root

A few people have asked what apps you can freeze without causing ill effects after root. Below is a list of apps I successfully froze using Titanium Backup. I have not seen any ill effects from these and all have been frozen since WeakSauce was released. I will not say that everyone will have the same experience as I have had so please, make your own decision on what you want to freeze.
Obviously, you may use some of the applications listed below and freezing them removes them from your app drawer. There may be others not listed here that I use. I included build numbers for some apps as there may be multiple apps with the same/similar name.
Accessories 10
Amazon App Suite
Amazon Kindle
Amazon MP3
Audible
Calendar 6.0.744640
Calender widget 6.0.728348
Caller Name ID
Cloud
Facebook for HTC Sense 6.0
FM RadioService
Games
HTC Get Started
HTC Sync Manager
HTC Sync Manager Package Installer
Icon glossary
Instagram
Every Keyboard except English US
Key VPN
KeyVPNService
Kid Mode
Messages 6.0.748900
My Infozone
NFL Mobile
Play Games
Polaris Office
Setup Wizard 1.3
Setup Wizard 6.0.752284
Slacker Radio
Tips & Help 6.0.736140
Update HTC Blinkfeed 1.0.742926
Updater 6.0.74111
Verizon Location Agent
Verizon Login
Verizon Mesages
Verizon Support & Protection
Verizon Tones
Visual VM
VMware Ready
VZ Navigator
ZOE
Font 1.0 (Looks like Chinese/Japanese font)

Basically what I have done without any root, just using the app manager included stock. Does this not do the same thing? Disable I think it is? I basically disabled all Verizon, Amazon, NFL, apps that came bloatware.
Have you noticed any difdrence in battery performance since doing this from before? I did this from day one so can't really compare a difference myself. I can say battery is amazing g in which I can take it off the charger at 5:30am and around 3pm still have around 60% battery after being on 4g LTE, Bluetooth connected, texts, emails, calls, lots of tapatalk, some dead trigger 2. My last device under same work load would have 0% battery in same time frame.

Sweet, 83 apps of bloatware removed.
Thank you!!!

This is great. Thanks for compiling the list!

Get the most out of your battery when the phone is idle!!

Hi Everyone,
I have been using Atrix 2 for past 2 years and never ever got such battery backup in last two years, so I thought of starting this thread so that others can get better battery life.
I have tried lots of tricks, apps, tweaks for better battery life but the following settings helped me to get more than 30 hours of backup on daily basis.
As I am writing this thread, my phone is on battery since 1 day 14 hours with 4 hours 6 mins screen on time, voice calls 1 hour 49 mins, wifi on 8 hours:laugh:!!!
I have noticed that Google Play services and Play store are the culprits behind the wakelocks that cause battery drain even when your phone is idle! So I decided to freeze them as per my convenience I unfreeze them and its been so easy thanks to Titanium Backups widget.
Just follow the below mentioned steps:
1.You must have a rooted phone.
2.Install Titanium Backup and Greenify (Greenify is used for hibernating the apps which stops them from running in background. Greenify the apps as per your need))
3. Convert Google play services to user app using TB.
4.Place a TB widget (Action widget) and select the action "Freeze/Defrost/Launch an app", select Google play services and you are done. Repeat the same process for Play store.(Note that you will not get any Gmail/FB notifications while freezed).
Now you can use the Google play services/ play store when needed, you have to just tap on the widget to freeze/unfreeze, and take my word you will be more than happy with battery backup you will get after doing these small tricks.
Enjoy!!!

Atrix2dBeast said:
Hi Everyone,
I have been using Atrix 2 for past 2 years and never ever got such battery backup in last two years, so I thought of starting this thread so that others can get better battery life.
I have lots of tricks, apps, tweaks for better battery life but the following settings helped me to get more than 30 hours of backup on daily basis.
As I am writing this thread, my phone is on battery since 1 day 14 hours with 4 hours 6 mins screen on time, voice calls 1 hour 49 mins, wifi on 8 hours:laugh:!!!
I have noticed that Google Play services and Play store are the culprits behind the wakelocks that cause battery drain even when your phone is idle! So I decided to freeze them as per my convenience I unfreeze them and its been so easy thanks to Titanium Backups widget.
Just follow the below mentioned steps:
1.You must have a rooted phone.
2.Install Titanium Backup and Greenify (Greenify is used for hibernating the apps which stops them from running in background. Greenify the apps as per your need))
3. Convert Google play services to user app using TB.
4.Place a TB widget (Action widget) and select the action "Freeze/Defrost/Launch an app", select Google play services and you are done. Repeat the same process for Play store.(Note that you will not get any Gmail/FB notifications while freezed).
Now you can use the Google play services/ play store when needed, you have to just tap on the widget to freeze/unfreeze, and take my word you will be more than happy with battery backup you will get after doing these small tricks.
Enjoy!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running a custom ROM or stock? Thanks for the tips!

Its stock...JB leak 3!
But I have tried this on Slimkat too.
Sent from my MB865 using XDA Free mobile app

I don't use gapps at all, I have noticed it is draining battery a very long time ago. Actually, any background app which uses the internet connection is a source of a trouble. WhatsApp is also eating battery like a hog. Ideally, there should be no background apps at all, except the system ones.
I use Greenify to freeze WhatsApp. So new messages are coming only when I open WhatsApp, like emails. This gives me extra 2-3 hours of battery time.

timjosten said:
I don't use gapps at all, I have noticed it is draining battery a very long time ago. Actually, any background app which uses the internet connection is a source of a trouble. WhatsApp is also eating battery like a hog. Ideally, there should be no background apps at all, except the system ones.
I use Greenify to freeze WhatsApp. So new messages are coming only when I open WhatsApp, like emails. This gives me extra 2-3 hours of battery time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried this?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2357417