Database Info

Must-have apps for Android

Personal opinion, this is a list of Android apps that you should have on your Android device. Of course, there are hundreds of thousands of apps in Google Play, if you like any others and think they are "must-have apps", free to leave a comment below.
1. Dropbox
Everyone knows what Dropbox is and if you don’t you should get it. Cloud storage for all your devices so you can access files from anywhere, on any of your devices. An extremely helpful app that is free and uses someone Else’s storage space.
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"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
2. AirDroid
Transfer just about anything you can think back and forth between PC and your device over Wi-Fi with AirDroid. As well as that you can send messages, update contacts, change ringtones and control most things you would want to from your computer, all through a web-based interface.
3. SMS Backup and Restore
If you are an Android User who has a rooted device and tests out new Roms regularly, but wish to keep your SMS messages on your phone, or maybe if you are just a bit of a paranoid parrot, then SMS Backup and Restore is an app for you.
4. Moborobo
Don’t waste the seconds it takes to open up your browser and type in moborobo.com. Moborobo is a leading Android Smartphone Management Software that can be installed on your Windows PC. With Moborobo, the management of your Android Smartphone becomes fun and easy. Manage contact data: Sort, find, organize and backup your contact data, such as your contact list as well as your messages. You can create groups for your contacts and import/export them between your pc and your device.
5. Pocket
Pocket is an Android app that allows you to save web content to view later. Saving the content within the Pocket Android App, you can view it at your leisure at any time on your Android device, or even send the list to an email to be accessible from wherever you like.
6. Google Maps
Google Maps is one of the most useful apps available for Android. Plot courses, get guided towards your destination or just look for better paths. Google Maps is an excellent GPS navigation tool for Android users.
7. Wikipedia
Open up your browser and type in Wikipedia.com. Open the Android app and type in your search that is sure to deliver you with the best Wikipedia results for your search terms. Provides all Wikipedia function so get it now.
8. Angry Birds(multiple incarnations)
It seems like everyone in the world has or have had a go at Angry Birds. Don’t get left behind as someone who hasn’t experienced it. Plus, it’s a great time waster for those periods of utter boredom. A new version with new game mechanics is released every now and then, so the fun will never run out with Angry Birds.
9. Go Launcher EX
Go Launcher EX might not be as fancy looking as some of the launchers that specialize in animations and cool effects, but I dare say it's more functional than many of them. My own reason for using it has a lot to do with the widgets, both in terms of functionality and the ability to make them look the same.
Well, those are my own favour. Sure, not everyone will enjoy all of these apps.You can provide what you are interested in. Or if you like the list of apps, you can have a try!

It will be a bit Captain Obvious-ish but here goes:
* Titanium Backup
*AnTuTu Benchmark
*No-frills CPU / SetCPU
*System Tuner
*ES File Explorer
*Link2SD
*Google Googles
*AK Notepad (Straightforward Notepad App, very useful if you have a memory capacity like me - as much as a fish)
*(Optional, for campers, xtreme sports nuts etc.) US Army Survival Guide

Never heard of Air Droid. Definitely a fan of transfering things over wifi. Currently use SwifTP. Will try Air Droid. Thanks

.
Thread moved. Would advise you to read forum rules and post in correct section.
Failure to comply with forum rules will result in an infraction and/or ban depending on severity of rule break.

Thanks for the list. I've just discovered AirDroid because of it and must say I love it.

I've been using Quick Settings by halfbit since the G1 days. I like how you can add it to the notification bar. I would link to it, but I'm a new user.

copynijia said:
You can make a list of must have games .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that is a nice idea! But for I play games not very often, maybe I am not very similar with many games. However if anyone could help to do this, I will much thanks!

I used Kies air for transfer. It seems to do the job.

foxywoxy said:
Thanks for the list. I've just discovered AirDroid because of it and must say I love it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, AirDroid is absolutly wonderful and the interface is quite beautiful after connect through WiFi. But it does not have the backup and restore feature. I thought it a pity. So I sometimes use Moborobo to backup my data. I will use many similar apps at the same time so that I can manage my device better.

You guys forgot the most important apps of all, and the only reason for some of us to buy a smartphone.
google voice and grooveip = free phone service.
I've also been using advanced wifi lock, because my x10 mini w/cm-8 won't follow the wifi keepalive setting.

thats obvious! the dialer is the most essential app on my phone. next are contacts and calendar. the rest is optional

I think you can now add Flipboard to the list.
[APP] Flipboard for Android

droidwall to control the apps that can connect to internet (wifi or 3g)
titanium back up
es file explorer
adfree (to remove ads)
3g watchdog!
thats from me

Avast Anti-virus/protection.

someone3974 said:
Yeah, AirDroid is absolutly wonderful and the interface is quite beautiful after connect through WiFi. But it does not have the backup and restore feature. I thought it a pity. So I sometimes use Moborobo to backup my data. I will use many similar apps at the same time so that I can manage my device better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here I made a comparison, hope you can see more clearly!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25956331#post25956331

Flipboard
Google Drive
After Focus
Instagram
Play Music

[APP][2.0+] Anti Spy Mobile

Anti Spy Mobile is a an Android scanner that detects and removes spyware apps on your Android device.
The PRO version is now on sale with 50% discount until the end of 2012!
Features:
=================
- detects well-known spy apps (Spy Mobile, GravityMobile Spy, Highster Mobile, EasySpy, etc).
- analyzes the permissions and intent events of all installed apps
- app score base on the analysis warns for suspicious apps
- super fast scanner
A good FREE scanner if you suspect that your phone is spied or just want to check if there are any applications with spy-able permissions.
PRO version includes automatic background scanner, notifications in status bar, installed date, define a list of safe apps.
Requires: Android 2+
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"lightbox_download": "Download",
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Free version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antispycell.free
More info: http://www.antispycell.com

Very, very cool.

willverduzco said:
Very, very cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man ! All suggestions are appreciated
By the way I have something in mind - to add a "Report this app" button, which will send me the package name if anyone is unsure if one app is safe or not, or if someone finds a new spyware.

Nice one! Is there a way to find who has installed the Spyware on my phone?

does this has any option to restrict application permissions?
does this has any option to restrict application permissions?

Lacrimazz said:
Nice one! Is there a way to find who has installed the Spyware on my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The PRO version has an Install date in details applications list, so if you know where was you phone at that date, there's a very good chance to know who has installed it (the install date/time is in your local time)

coolgal302006 said:
does this has any option to restrict application permissions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No way from the app. I suppose that you need rooted phone and some kind of observer. Probably there's a solution in the custom ROMS for that ?

pandata000 said:
No way from the app. I suppose that you need rooted phone and some kind of observer. Probably there's a solution in the custom ROMS for that ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The MIUI ROM / Superuser app has ability to restrict permissions of reading phone state, SMS messages, CALLS, dial and answer calls. You can choose between Denied / Allow and Always Ask options - very nice

It reports
Catch
XBMC Remote
GO SMS Pro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As suspicious. What's funny? GO SMS Pro for using permissions for sending texts.

It really have fast scanner.
No spyware found. But give ne 2 warrnings...
XBMC remote
NoLed

Thank you for the feedback
First I want to thank you both for giving it a try, and providing the valuable feedback.
Catch (com.threebanana.notes) - Not sure if you are referring "Catch Notes Notepad", but it is reported as suspicious because of the boot on startup, record audio, internet access, getting a fine GPS location - which are enough to send your location, and phone calls to internet server. However the app seems stable and will be ignored in the next release.
XBMC Remote - (org.xbmc.android.remote) - Seems safe, listed in Warnings because of start on boot, read and receive of SMS messages. Will be marked as safe in the next release.
NoLed (com.led.notify) - reads GMAIL, reads & receives SMS, start on boot - apparently all permissions are needed for normal operations of the app as described. Will be marked safe in the next release.
GO SMS Pro (com.jb.gosms) - Full range of permissions - read, receive, SMS, MMS, etc., start on boot, record audio and network-based location.
The two that bothers me are record audio, and network-based location. With the abillity of sending and receiving SMS messages it can be used to return GPS location on received SMS to the sender of the SMS. I'm not sure if this is a feature ?

A new version that excludes the for apps above has been rolled on Google Play, and will be available for download in the next few hours.
Thanks once again for the feedback !

Yes. I was referring to the Catch Notes.
Here to consider google has permission on "record phone calls". Believe RECORD_AUDIO is actually needed to work with voice recognition. Seems a bit funky it is not separated into different permissions.
With XBMC I totally don't have problem marking as not spyware since sources are there.
With GO SMS Pro. Yeah, it is a feature for some. But pure GPS location is a bit useless unless filtered through location on a map or accompanied by nearby location.

Yes, you are right about RECORD_AUDIO. The 4 reported apps are already skipped from the scanner in the last version rolled on the market.
Here's the apk, because Google Play will roll it tomorrow I think

Nice app, reported Juice Defender, Desk Notifier and AVG Anti-Virus as suspicious. No biggie to me as I'm pretty sure they're safe lol
For anyone that cares:
PDroid offers an excellent solution to those questionable permissions for the rooted user.
xda-portal article: http://www.xda-developers.com/android/pdroid-the-better-privacy-protection/
thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1357056

Thanks ridethisbike !
Strange, but JuiceDefender has permissions to read sms, mms, starts on boot and also GPS and Network-based location ...
AVG Antivirus will be added in the ignore list at the next release of the app.
Cannot find Desk Notifier in the market. Is it there, or that's something custom ?
PDroid is great, just checked it out. I'm using MIUI, and the Superuser app has similar features

pandata000 said:
Thanks ridethisbike !
Strange, but JuiceDefender has permissions to read sms, mms, starts on boot and also GPS and Network-based location ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems that the JuiceDefender has this feature: "auto-toggle WiFi depending on your location" and that's why it needs GPS and Network-based location ...

A new version is rolled on the market skipping AVG and JuiceDefender.
Btw there's already a cracked fake version of the PRO version. Please note that installing the fake version can compromise your Android Device privacy. Also the fake version will not be updated, so you will miss SpyWare definition updates. If anyone needs a free version, just put the FREE one - it's an ad free app, and the new SpyWare definitions are rolled to it too.

Just gave this a little run and it came back with 3 suspicious apps.
HeyWire, SMS Backup and Restore and finally 1tap Cleaner Pro.
I have been using all 3 apps for a long time with no issues and I have never had any concern that they were suspect in any way.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium HD app

More than necessary and definitely a great idea
Great work

Privacy concerns about AOKP - Best alternative of Cyanogenmod, AOKP, Replica, etc?

I currently have AOKP (Maclaw) installed on my Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini, but as I was looking through the apps, there was one particular app that got me slightly concerned. It´s called Panda and when I click it, the only option I have is to "Enable Energy Save Mode", yet that utterly simple app has FULL access to the entire phone.
Firstly with Panda, you do not have the option to uninstall it the easy way, so a noob is forced to have it there.
If you try to forcibly stop Panda in the app manager, it will restart itself automatically.
Further more - Panda have the perrmissions to
- directly call phone numbers
read phone status and identity
- read your text messages (SMS or MMS)
send MMS messages
- take pictures and photos
- record audio
- approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
- modify your contacts
read your contacts
- read your own contact card
- modify or delete the contents of your SD card
- disable your screen lock
- set an alarm
- read Google service configuration
use accounts on the device
view configured accounts
- read terms you added to the dictionary
- change system display settings
modify secure system settings
retrieve system internal status
- change network connectivity
change WiMaX state
connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi
connect and disconnect from WiMaX
control Near-Field Communication
full network access
view network connections
view Wi-Fi connections
- access Bluetooth settings
pair with Bluetooth devices
- re-order running apps
retrieve running apps
run at startup
- draw over other apps
- control vibration
prevent phone from sleeping
- add words to user-defined dictionary
- change your audio settings
. read sync settings
read sync statistics
toggle sync on and off
- expand / collaps status bar
- modify system settings
read battery statistics
read Home settings and shortcuts
test access and protected storage
write Home settings and shortcuts
- full permissions to all device features and storage
- Set global theme
..meaning I guess that this Panda app has full administrator/root permissions.. - ..but why?
Why does a seemingly useless application like Panda have root permissions, which in turn also makes it fairly difficult to remove? What is the application Panda´s true purpose? Why is it there in the first place? What does it do, exactly?
My concerns with these alternative smartphone operating systems is that there might be an Ubuntu/Debian scenario, where Debian is a nice clean OS giving you the very basics and letting you choose whatever extra you want from there, whereas Ubuntu comes with a lot of extra stuff that you do not really need and / or should be given the ability to choose if you wanted to install or not, upon install.
So, I guess my question to the experienced, security- and privacy-oriented smartphone-OS user is:
What is the best alternative smartphone OS that gives you a simple OS without anything extra such as that suspicious Panda app?
In other words, which smartphone alternative out there today can be trusted the most to respect my privacy? I would of course look into Firefox OS if it was available.
Am I being overly paranoid about AOKP? Should I just keep that, or perhaps Cyanogenmod is the way to go? Or perhaps I am missing an even better solution?
Thanks.

You know you can easily disable those permissions with app ops, do you?
Sent from my GT-I8190 MaclawStudio CM 11 using Tapatalk

GXGOW said:
You know you can easily disable those permissions with app ops, do you?
Sent from my GT-I8190 MaclawStudio CM 11 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not with the Panda application you cant, and thats using the original App Ops with 4.3 support.
If you access App Ops to edit permissions for Panda, you arent given a single permission to alter.
The App Ops I am using works just fine with other applications, and I can easily alter permissions - but with Panda, not so--I cannot edit a single permission of Panda´ s, and yet that application has full access to my entire phone.
Panda is an application that seems to come by default with the MacLaw releases, at least on AOKP - I havent tested their Cyanogenmod release yet.
That Panda bear logo of this particular Panda app that I am talking about is the same Panda depicted on http://maclaw.pl - so it kinda begs to question - why is there an application like that with the AOKP MacLaw releases in the first place? Does that app gather information? Can it be accessed remotely? What exactly does it do?
The Panda "Teddy" logo:
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"lightbox_download": "Download",
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You could upload the app to VirusTotal and if nothing is picking it up then send it to a AV provider that you like as a suspicious file and they'll check it over.
Or upload it and post the link here and I'm sure someone who knows far more than I do) could look it over.

You could also just ask him yourself, but I don't think he'll be collecting your personal information. The only thing that app does, is turning off one CPU core and setting the governor to OnDemand. That's all I know.

PSA root apps, or mods to the system don't really need to declare permissions, they can obtain the same functionality other routes. Don't judge the safety of an app just based on it's permissions.

[APP] See what's hidden in your Whatsapp!

No memory storage in your phone? Take a look at your Whatsapp!
Most of us use Whatsapp on a daily basis. It is an important part of our social life and even everyday work. Just like everyone else I depend on Whatsapp to connect with my family and friends. Yet, one fact most people do not know is that Whatspp can actually take up so much storage space in your device. I did not realize it until one day I could not open any photo on Whatsapp because my phone kept saying my phone was out of memory space...
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"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
What happened? I’m not a selfie lover and I don’t have many games or apps installed. How come my phone was out of memory space?
Going through the storage information page in the system settings, I found that my Whatsapp took about 1.33G storage space!
I guess this is why my phone is running so slowly. It was so slow that sometimes letters appear a second or two after I type them. I’m sure you must have had similar problem before. You may well have noticed that after using Whatsapp or other social media apps for a long time, your phone typically starts to run slower.Don’t worry --it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with the apps or with your phone. It is just because your phone’s memory storage is getting low.
Usually apps like Whatsapp automatically save all the photo, video and audio messages in your chatting with friends. However, these apps also create cache on your phone as you use them on a daily basis. Overtime it eats up precious system resources while slowing everything down. When your phone is out of memory space, you will have problem opening any new photo or video message like I did.
So, how to speed up your Android phone and get Whatsapp running quickly again?
The traditional way
You can manually delete all the Whatsapp photos, videos and files that you want to get rid of in the Settings menu. You can also remove the cache on any individual app by visiting its property page in the Settings menu and tapping the clear cache button. However, with dozens of apps on most phones, this could take an eternity to complete manually. You also need to be very careful when identifying the junks to avoid accidental deleting.
The quick and user-friendly way
Clean cache with cleaning apps. Using cleaning apps is a much quicker and safer way to clean up app cache and junk files. These apps are very good at identifying and removing junks while keeping the important files intact. Clean master is a very popular app for cleaning up app cache and junk files. Unfortunately, the app itself is quite big and I was not able to install it in my storage-low phone.
Browsing the tool app list in Google Play, I downloaded a cache cleaning app named TC App Booster. It installed very quickly, and the app design is simple and straightforward. By tapping the green Boost button, it helped me release over 1G memory space under 20 seconds! WOW! (I was gonna take a screen shot but it jumped into listing app details right away.) App Booster quickly found all junk files on my phone, and it also listed out file details in every single app, such as Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram.
I think App Booster is a powerful app. One thing I like the most is that it takes only little space on your phone but can free up a lot more memory.:good: If you are interested in trying a professional and light cache cleaner app, check out TC App Booster! Let me know if you like it. If you are a heavy Whatsapp user like me, I suggest you to clean your phone regularly. It’s important to give it a confidence boost once a while to keep it sharp.
In case you are too lazy to look it up in Google Play, here is the link to download: http://bit.ly/197x2aF

wow~ try it.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing

misterwang said:
wow~ try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you like it!

RodrigoBelloso000 said:
Interesting. Thanks for sharing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. Great apps worth sharing! Enjoy it!

Using whatapp for long time no issue yet. But your tips will help me a lot to go forward.
---------- Post added at 12:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:15 PM ----------
Ianlostcontrol said:
I hope you like it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course I like it! Whatapp is now inseparable part of my life now.

CM12 Privacy Guard - WiFi Scan for Location always active?

As no one in the Q&A forum could give me an answer, maybe here someone knows what's going on "under the hood".
Privacy Guard tells me that location is constantly active using Wi-Fi scan with the settings app although I've Wi-Fi turned off:
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"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
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"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
That is annoying as first I do not want my location constantly monitored and second this maybe also is not "battery friendly".
Anyone knows what's going on here exactly? Is it true what privacy guard tells me?
On CM11 the settings app was not constantly monitoring the location using Wi-Fi when Wi-Fi was turned off.

First have you gone to main setting>wifi>setting button>advanced>scanning always available and make sure its disabled. This is one of those crappy things google.just cant help.itself.not slipping i the and tries to cover it with goog.intentions which are questionable. It purposely buries it way down in setting even those that want to be sure its off may have trouble finding. Also if you look at.the wording its supposedly there to help other apps have your location but also adds "and for other purposes". Which in legaleeze means wide open and to google means we are going to log all the info we can to use for our profit.
Anyways make sure that is off first and formost. After that I will include someother info below to consider and just some FYI stuff you may or maynot be interested in.
I dont know what apks.you have loaded but I know if you have gapps installed there is a number of call home features built into it and if anyone knows how to.bypass things in android its google dev team. It is for this reason i deal.with the inconvenience of not having gapps. Choosing instead to side load or use fdroid and other alternatives for googles various apps. I duckduckgo for searchs. Privacy apk if I wanted to tweet or FB. Email I use a paid service but there are a jumber of free that do not log. I also keep things local and sync it with my pc so nothing is left on servers. You can even setup cloud storage in a way where it acts as a virtual drive and everyrhi g is encrypted while on the cloud but decrypts locally on the device so its seemless.on the users end.
Secondly even without any of these sort.of apps installed google has built in a quasi call back function into the kernel. Its main use is to identify when a data network connection is behind a captive.portal. The setting not accessable from the UI is global captive portal. Its what is the cause of the ! you may sometimes see on the signal bar animaton. Android gives you an option to disable it thru a terminal windohus by changing captive_portal_enable setting from 1 to 0. But interestingly enough its been found that even when set to disabled the system will still use the global captive portal entry regardless. Its setting is to client3.google.com IIRC.
The other issue is that if you have disabled captive portal you will lose the ability to save the config in wireless networks for any network that does not broadcast its ssid or any that is a captive portal which are basically all the commerical wifi such as starbucks book stores libraries etc.. See goggle wants all that info so they can map the worlds wifi network aps (you can now see one way they have found to use this with their up coming release of cellular service where one of its main features is to auto offload both data and calls to any open wifis it has access as they come in range. Thus dumpings its costs and load to.those other companies offering free wifi to its customers and the community)
Interestingly it only does this to wifi not cellular data even though it scans and indicates both with the "!".
The way to stop this is either change the global captive portal to loopback i.e. 127.0.0.0 or you can host a basic webpage your device.
You can do the same for the ntp service as well as it too calls out automatically regardless of.settings in the UI.
The other possibility of the location leak could be from someother app you may not have disabled network or location from that has a call home feature.
You could put a network scanner and log what ip and then see based on its owner to figure out the program.
Another idea is to run a firewall and creat a script to stop all of this kind of leaks. I would recommend AF+Wall.