Related
I'm getting tired of my iPhone 3G, it's beginning to show its age with ios4 and I'm tired of running jailbreak just to get features I feel the device should have out of the box. This hurts both the stability of the device (jailbreak apps take up ram which in turn tends to cause other apps to crash since they can't allocate enough memory) and the overall system coherency (most mods and hacks don't work well with others and it becomes a chore to set everything up nice and clean).
So I'm thinking of switching to Android, I've done some research and I'm mostly torn between a few handsets (Desire Z, Galaxy S II, Desire S etc), but I think I'll decide after I visit the store and get a chance to play with them.
More to the point - I have some questions about the Android platform in general before I take the plunge.
1) I'm a heavy music listener, and I love how the iPod app does music. It's brilliant. How's the android keep up in this department? Making and syncing playlists on your computer? Dynamic playlists on the phone? Playback controls on the lockscreen? Last.fm sync? Switching tracks with volume buttons (CM7 can do that) Any other things I should be aware of?
2) Assuming I'll be setting up with my google account - how does android handle gmail contacts? I can tolerate google dumping anyone I email into my gmail contacts, but I don't want all that garbage on my phone. Any easy solutions?
2b) Pictures on contact list - sync?
2c) Aliases? I have other accounts set up in gmail (work, private, spam) and I need to send mail from all of them. Possible? Easy?
3) Any decent todo list applications? Apart from the usual rtm/evernote. I had a real trouble with this on the iphone. Good ones did not have lockinfo integration and the ones that had were either too expensive or did not suit my needs.
4) Upcoming events, birthdays, todo's on my lockscreen. This is a must. Possible?
5) I'm a bit of a social network whore. More and more often I tend to arrange meetings with friends using facebook/buzz/mailing groups. This means notifications and ease of replying to messages on various networks. I know for a fact that the notification system on the android is heavens above the crap apple delivers currently, and this will probably feel way better and more natural than on the iphone. Are there any particular issues in this area?
6) Battery life. Currently my 3G can go up to 3 days on a charge (usually 2), depending on usage. But I don't use the internet more than I have to since the device is a bit on the slow side since ios4... This will probably change How much does multitasking affect battery? Can you define apps that you want to close when you quit and apps that you want to go into the background (like chats or ims) Or is there some other clever way of easily managing the stuff that's sucking your juice? Any recommended handsets that have a particularly good battery life?
7) iTunes syncing backed up all applications and settings - any comparable solution on android?
8) Visual voicemail on the iphone was the best approach to voicemail I've seen. Any such on android?
9) How much fuss is upgrading the firmware? On the iphone you just press a button, sync and go grab a coffee. After it's finished you restore your jailbreak apps with another click and youre ready to roll. How does this work here? Assuming I'll root and get CM after a few weeks when I'm sure the handset won't need replacing
And finally - any other things I should know? Features I that a user coming from apple would find appealing?
Thanks
2) I honestly don't know. I have setup a seperate google account just for my phone.
You could be able to do all your e-mail dreams with an app. What about this?. Not sure about the buildin email app.
4) Anything is possible with "Widgetlocker" lockscreen.. well almost, but as long as you can get it as a widget you can place it on your "Widgetlocker" lockscreen.
6) Battery life is a problem for most phones, I have heard good things about LG Optimus 2X when it comes to battery. My HTC desire last about 2 days with moderate use. Its the mostly the screen and wireless network that drains the battery.
There is app-killers that can do all kinds of fancy things but often programs just "sleep" when put to the background and the android system automatically kills programs when need of resources.
9) In HTC phones you have to enable a check for firmware updates. When an update is published you will get a notice asked if you want to update. Don't know about other phones.
When dealing with rooted phones, you download a zip file containing the ROM to your SD card, reboot to recovery, do a "nand backup", flash ROM from zip file.. wait
1) I'm NOT a heavy music listener, but it seems nearly all you need is available on Androïd.
2) Pictures in contact list: yes. Aliases yes.
If you don't want to use google sync for your phone contacts, you can choose to store them only in the phone, and saving them in .vcf format (using Go Contact app for example).
I use K9 email client, with multipush abilities, as many mail accounts you want.
3) Don't know . See in Android Market site.
4) Yes. Specific widget.
5) Nope.
6) Battery is a complex problem. Depends on Android version, Baseband version, hardware, installed softwares (some launchers are draining more than others). My Optimus 2X is able to long 48h without being turned off, with a moderate usage, no games, some WiFi surfing.
7) Plenty: Titanium Backup, BackUP Everything etc....
8) Don't know what is visual voicemail. Lol. Never touched an Iphone.
9) Nearly as simple.
I was inspired for this by Fiqett, who created a Siri plugin that communicates with a PHP script that can start his car via his Viper SmartStart system. Much credit to him for the idea and the script.
This does something similar on Android (using Vlingo), along with some extra features (you can schedule the car to start based on the location of your phone and the current temperature).
What does it do?
You can start Vlingo and say “Start my car” and the car will start (you need a phone-capable Viper SmartStart system)
You can just tap the app and the car will start
You can schedule the car to start automatically at a certain time if the phone is at a defined location and if the temperature is below a defined setting
Please read this post completely before downloading. Some setup is required. Do not hesitate to ask if you are having trouble setting it up.
What does this require?
A phone-compatible Viper SmartStart system or module
An Android SmartPhone running Android 2.2 or later. I have tested this on a Galaxy Nexus and a Motorola Droid 1.
Fiquett's viper_control.php script (https://github.com/fiquett/Viper_SmartStart_Control)
A web server running PHP to run the control script (something like Xampp will work fine [http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html]). If there is enough interest in this, I can provide detailed instructions for configuring Xampp, but the configuration is straightforward.
My Android app (My Car, links below)
Vlingo (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vlingo.client)
AndroidIdeas's TaskBomb (https://market.android.com/details?id=org.androidideas.taskbomb&hl=en) (any scheduler that can launch an activity will work)
How do I set it up?
Download Fiquett's viper_control.php script (https://github.com/fiquett/Viper_SmartStart_Control). Edit lines 9 and 10 to include your Viper username and password. Because the username and password are hardcoded in the script, the credentials are never passed insecurely between the phone and the server. The control script logs into Viper's servers and performs the requested action over HTTPS, so it is secure.
Put viper_control.php on a web server that is running PHP. I have it on a website hosted on GoDaddy.com. It would be more secure to put it on your home network and only access it via WiFi. You could also forward ports on your router so it could be accessible from anywhere. Something like Xampp (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) would probably run the script fine on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Anyone with the knowledge that the script exists can start or unlock the car. Thus, the most secure way is to only access it via WiFi.
Once the script is set up, you should be able to go to your control URL in a browser (followed by ?action=remote) and the car should start (for example, http://192.168.0.100/viper_control.php?action=remote).
Install My Car (link is below).
Start the My Car Configuration app. Enter the URL for your viper_control.php script (do not put ?action=remote on the end). The other settings are optional and are for the Start My Car If app, which will start the car if the car is in the provided city and the temperature is under the provided value. Make sure you click Exit when you are done. Otherwise, Vlingo or TaskBomb might start the configuration instead of the car.
Run the My Car app. The car should start. If you run it again, the car should shut off.
Install Vlingo. I checked the Auto Listen box at the bottom so that it will start listening as soon as I start Vlingo (or you could use a Vlingo widget). You should be able to say “Start my car” to start the car.
Install TaskBomb for scheduling the car to start. Launch it, and go to Tasks. Add a new task, and name it “Start My Car.” Change the Action Type to MAIN. For Activity, select Start My Car If. Leave all other settings as they are. Go to Alarms. Add a new alarm, and select the task you just created. Set the schedule as desired. Mine runs Monday-Friday at 7:20am.
How do I get it?
Download the APK here:
http://www.ascci.net/mycar/MyCar.apk
Note: Google Chrome on ICS appears to rename this to a .zip file. Use a file manager to name it back or use the stock browser.
Plans for future versions:
App icons (I’m not very good at those, but I will take a stab at it if people use the app)
Display something to indicate if the car started or not
A way to start the car and immediately unlock it--for when you are in sight of it and want to start it just to be cool.
Any feedback, questions, or suggestions are welcome!
Lots of views... has anyone with a SmartStart system tried it? Any feedback?
Is there anything I could do to make the setup simpler (a video, providing Xampp setup instructions, etc.)?
is there a way to integrate it with BB10 Voice Control? :fingers-crossed:
hitchin999 said:
is there a way to integrate it with BB10 Voice Control? :fingers-crossed:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might take a little digging, but we could probably figure out a way to get something working.
It appears that BB10's voice control has an "open" or "launch" command that works for some side-loaded Android apps.
http://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-10-os-f269/voice-control-commands-772534/
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like "start" is a valid thing to say, so saying "Launch My Car" could work, but not as cool (that's why I was using Vlingo, because its key word to start apps is "start.") Although, since this is very new, maybe "start" is a valid thing to say to start an app.
The user on that post above states that this works for some side-loaded Android apps. We'd need to figure out what the criteria by which an Android app can be launched by BB10 via voice control is.
Would you be able to test it with some random Android app that runs on BB10, preferably one with a space in the name, to see if it works?
So for example, say "launch Angry Birds."
If it can do that, hopefully we can come up with something that will work. The scheduling part might be easier to do some other way (Viper's app has scheduling now, it didn't at the time of the OP).
Awesome! Nice work!
I have the paid version of Tasker and Assistant
I created a Tasker task that performs an HTTP GET of the viper_control.php?action= command. I then used Tasker's App Factory to create 4 different apps; lock, unlock, start, and stop.
The paid version of Assistant allows you to teach your assistant, for example; "When I say start my car open Start Car". Now I can say "Hey assistant, start my car" and my car starts.
Now to use Tasker to schedule my car to start and maybe even by temperature...
udz2002 said:
Awesome! Nice work!
I have the paid version of Tasker and Assistant
I created a Tasker task that performs an HTTP GET of the viper_control.php?action= command. I then used Tasker's App Factory to create 4 different apps; lock, unlock, start, and stop.
The paid version of Assistant allows you to teach your assistant, for example; "When I say start my car open Start Car". Now I can say "Hey assistant, start my car" and my car starts.
Now to use Tasker to schedule my car to start and maybe even by temperature...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you be willing to share those apps? I want to do the same exact thing but am having trouble.
Sent from my XT1056 using Tapatalk
gildan27 said:
I was inspired for this by Fiqett, who created a Siri plugin that communicates with a PHP script that can start his car via his Viper SmartStart system. Much credit to him for the idea and the script.
This does something similar on Android (using Vlingo), along with some extra features (you can schedule the car to start based on the location of your phone and the current temperature).
What does it do?
You can start Vlingo and say “Start my car” and the car will start (you need a phone-capable Viper SmartStart system)
You can just tap the app and the car will start
You can schedule the car to start automatically at a certain time if the phone is at a defined location and if the temperature is below a defined setting
Please read this post completely before downloading. Some setup is required. Do not hesitate to ask if you are having trouble setting it up.
What does this require?
A phone-compatible Viper SmartStart system or module
An Android SmartPhone running Android 2.2 or later. I have tested this on a Galaxy Nexus and a Motorola Droid 1.
Fiquett's viper_control.php script (https://github.com/fiquett/Viper_SmartStart_Control)
A web server running PHP to run the control script (something like Xampp will work fine [http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html]). If there is enough interest in this, I can provide detailed instructions for configuring Xampp, but the configuration is straightforward.
My Android app (My Car, links below)
Vlingo (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vlingo.client)
AndroidIdeas's TaskBomb (https://market.android.com/details?id=org.androidideas.taskbomb&hl=en) (any scheduler that can launch an activity will work)
How do I set it up?
Download Fiquett's viper_control.php script (https://github.com/fiquett/Viper_SmartStart_Control). Edit lines 9 and 10 to include your Viper username and password. Because the username and password are hardcoded in the script, the credentials are never passed insecurely between the phone and the server. The control script logs into Viper's servers and performs the requested action over HTTPS, so it is secure.
Put viper_control.php on a web server that is running PHP. I have it on a website hosted on GoDaddy.com. It would be more secure to put it on your home network and only access it via WiFi. You could also forward ports on your router so it could be accessible from anywhere. Something like Xampp (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) would probably run the script fine on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. Anyone with the knowledge that the script exists can start or unlock the car. Thus, the most secure way is to only access it via WiFi.
Once the script is set up, you should be able to go to your control URL in a browser (followed by ?action=remote) and the car should start (for example, http://192.168.0.100/viper_control.php?action=remote).
Install My Car (link is below).
Start the My Car Configuration app. Enter the URL for your viper_control.php script (do not put ?action=remote on the end). The other settings are optional and are for the Start My Car If app, which will start the car if the car is in the provided city and the temperature is under the provided value. Make sure you click Exit when you are done. Otherwise, Vlingo or TaskBomb might start the configuration instead of the car.
Run the My Car app. The car should start. If you run it again, the car should shut off.
Install Vlingo. I checked the Auto Listen box at the bottom so that it will start listening as soon as I start Vlingo (or you could use a Vlingo widget). You should be able to say “Start my car” to start the car.
Install TaskBomb for scheduling the car to start. Launch it, and go to Tasks. Add a new task, and name it “Start My Car.” Change the Action Type to MAIN. For Activity, select Start My Car If. Leave all other settings as they are. Go to Alarms. Add a new alarm, and select the task you just created. Set the schedule as desired. Mine runs Monday-Friday at 7:20am.
How do I get it?
Download the APK here:
http://www.ascci.net/mycar/MyCar.apk
Note: Google Chrome on ICS appears to rename this to a .zip file. Use a file manager to name it back or use the stock browser.
Plans for future versions:
App icons (I’m not very good at those, but I will take a stab at it if people use the app)
Display something to indicate if the car started or not
A way to start the car and immediately unlock it--for when you are in sight of it and want to start it just to be cool.
Any feedback, questions, or suggestions are welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am willing to pay you to help me set this up with tasker app factory. Private message me if you're interested.
Sent from my XT1056 using Tapatalk
udz2002 said:
Awesome! Nice work!
I have the paid version of Tasker and Assistant
I created a Tasker task that performs an HTTP GET of the viper_control.php?action= command. I then used Tasker's App Factory to create 4 different apps; lock, unlock, start, and stop.
The paid version of Assistant allows you to teach your assistant, for example; "When I say start my car open Start Car". Now I can say "Hey assistant, start my car" and my car starts.
Now to use Tasker to schedule my car to start and maybe even by temperature...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is it possible that you could show me how to make my assistant app start my car i will donate to you for the assistance
udz2002 said:
Awesome! Nice work!
I have the paid version of Tasker and Assistant
I created a Tasker task that performs an HTTP GET of the viper_control.php?action= command. I then used Tasker's App Factory to create 4 different apps; lock, unlock, start, and stop.
The paid version of Assistant allows you to teach your assistant, for example; "When I say start my car open Start Car". Now I can say "Hey assistant, start my car" and my car starts.
Now to use Tasker to schedule my car to start and maybe even by temperature...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found copies of your tasks elsewhere and am using in them with Tasker and Autovoice.
Do you know how to check status updates or get gps?
No I do not, sorry. I reactivated my SmartStart recently but it doesn't work right now.
if this post is still alive... I'd like to be able to send a request that unlocks the doors and then starts the car with one command, custom iPhone icon or web script. the reminder built into the app tries to start the car before disarm and alarm goes off every time. and of course, I'll pay.
Alexa, Start my Car
I finally stabilized a project that I have been working on for some time now. The project is to open my garage and start my jeep on demand using the Amazon Alexa voice assistant. Similar to the features on the Tesla. Using the Raspberry PI Zero and my existing home automation system, I can now command my Echos to “Warm up my Jeep” and be more confident that the task will run.
I first created this project by writing a program in the Android app Tasker where I used the Insteon APIs and the Viper SmartStart APIs to control both my garage and jeep. The program was to open the garage, wait for a confirmation that the garage was opened, and then start my jeep only if the garage was opened, all by a voice command. But the program was unreliable. It would work sometimes but most times it didn’t. I believe that the program was too process intensive for my Samsung S8 smartphone.
A few weeks ago, I decided to use another processing mechanism; the Raspberry PI. I found a python script on GetHub that uses the Viper Smartstart APIs to start my jeep. I installed it, tailored it to my needs, and wrapped a CGI script around it so that I can easily call it from my existing home automation system as an external network resource. I created a program that opens my garage, wait for a confirmation that my garage was opened, and then call the network resource that starts my jeep.
With my home automation system already integrated with the Amazon Alexa services, it was easy to have my Echos run my program to start my jeep. I basically set up my program in the Amazon Alexa app as a new device and created an Alexa Routine, for a customized command. I now say “Alexa, warm up my jeep” and the Alexa services open my garage and start up my jeep.
This project is awesomely convenient for me and secure as well. It easily fits within my already existing security model. Taking advantage of my Geo Fencing features, the program is designed to run only if I’m at home. And it is only accessible within my internal network. The alerts whenever my garage is opened and/or closed are still in place. And my security cameras and control panels still show me the garage whenever the garage door is opened and/or closed.
This was an exciting project and I’m still making enhancements to it, but for the most part it works as I intended, and it is much more reliable than using Tasker.
spoteat71 said:
Alexa, Start my Car
I finally stabilized a project that I have been working on for some time now. The project is to open my garage and start my jeep on demand using the Amazon Alexa voice assistant. Similar to the features on the Tesla. Using the Raspberry PI Zero and my existing home automation system, I can now command my Echos to “Warm up my Jeep” and be more confident that the task will run.
I first created this project by writing a program in the Android app Tasker where I used the Insteon APIs and the Viper SmartStart APIs to control both my garage and jeep. The program was to open the garage, wait for a confirmation that the garage was opened, and then start my jeep only if the garage was opened, all by a voice command. But the program was unreliable. It would work sometimes but most times it didn’t. I believe that the program was too process intensive for my Samsung S8 smartphone.
A few weeks ago, I decided to use another processing mechanism; the Raspberry PI. I found a python script on GetHub that uses the Viper Smartstart APIs to start my jeep. I installed it, tailored it to my needs, and wrapped a CGI script around it so that I can easily call it from my existing home automation system as an external network resource. I created a program that opens my garage, wait for a confirmation that my garage was opened, and then call the network resource that starts my jeep.
With my home automation system already integrated with the Amazon Alexa services, it was easy to have my Echos run my program to start my jeep. I basically set up my program in the Amazon Alexa app as a new device and created an Alexa Routine, for a customized command. I now say “Alexa, warm up my jeep” and the Alexa services open my garage and start up my jeep.
This project is awesomely convenient for me and secure as well. It easily fits within my already existing security model. Taking advantage of my Geo Fencing features, the program is designed to run only if I’m at home. And it is only accessible within my internal network. The alerts whenever my garage is opened and/or closed are still in place. And my security cameras and control panels still show me the garage whenever the garage door is opened and/or closed.
This was an exciting project and I’m still making enhancements to it, but for the most part it works as I intended, and it is much more reliable than using Tasker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it still working?
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
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
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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This thread is closed. Please use this thread for news and updates on Condi: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=46657479
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Condi (previously Mini Tasker) is a free android automation app for ICS or higher.
The app allows users to quickly set up fairly complex actions when certain conditions are met, without sacrificing battery life, and with the ability to easily share tasks between users. We never poll (everything comes from a broadcast), and we're pretty minimalistic so the memory footprint is reasonable. We use google play services to detect location using low power sensors and recognize activity like walking or driving.
This is a university project, and our first android app, we're very humbled by over 30k downloads, this is very unexpected and we're very grateful for the feedback and bug reports, you're awesome!
Me and my partner made this app this summer for academic credit so we give it out completely for free, without ads or tracking.
We decided to change the name to avoid any conflicts with the original Tasker (Pent is a nice person and you should buy his app), too bad there are so many reviews already out there using the old name.
This week we finally submitted the project (after some delays), which means we can start changing big stuff (the last 10 or so releases we're bug fixes only). We're gonna push our first beta version next sunday to the beta channel, please subscribe to this mailing list to get it: https://groups.google.com/d/forum/minitasker
Your feedback is appreciated, you can email us at [email protected] or reply here.
Thanks,
Anton and Michal
Download Condi (previously Mini Tasker) at Google Play
Changes:
v0.2.13
* volume control ui bug fixed
* activity detection delay setting more visible
* UTF-8 support for task sharing
v0.2.12
* new condition - on boot
* location editor auto focuses on current location, minimal radius enforcement of 75 meters as it's unlikely the low power sensors will ever give a higher accuracy than that.
* music player song picker now uses native dialog and native addresses - support for most players that can open mp3
* music player - play pause toggle buttons now use broadcasts instead of keyboard presses - no longer crashes youtube, get's stuck on total command etc.
* activity recognition (i.e. drive walk...) upped the confidence level, and now there's a programmable delay for the end task (see the settings window).
* fixed a crash on forwarding SMS from known numbers.
* wifi still wasn't included as it wasn't stable enough for the time.
v0.2.10
* wifi crash fixed, can't send sms during calls fix
* volume control now properly mutes in all cases
v0.2.9
* Inverse locations (start when leaving a location)
* Delete actions and conditions from the edit screen
* A lot of memory leak fixes
v0.2.4:
* I messed up with 0.2.3 a bit, sms forwarding and call silencing are not using the correct values of the message and origin.
* Fixed a rare crash on the settings dialog
* Fixed a calendar condition crash when no calendars / events exist.
* Apparently a lot of times our application was killed in the background for not responding, and this corrupted the states of events and made things not run as expected, so now there's a background service that should take care of that. Memory footprint is around 5mb which is still less then Tasker.
* Superuser actions sometime hanged the app, and made it crash for ANR. This should now be taken care of
Can Mini Tasker set the network mode? ie. WCDMA only, WCDMA Preferred, LTE/GSM/WCDMA etc.
Can it enable/disable usb tethering?
network mode should be easy enough, we already play with these settings on the "3g toggle", i just need to generalize it a bit.
i'll look into the tethering thing.
i'm adding both to the next major release. it might take 2 weeks or so for our work to be graded, then i'll push it to the public channel.
if you want you can join the alpha channel here and i'll try to get something together there sooner.
more things that will be added next are:
* better calendar support (currently doesn't support repeat events)
* wifi on/off condition
* wifi near ssid condition
suggestions are welcome
Not working on Galaxy S3 CM10.1 RC2. Try to open play list when connecting any headset. But after I connected, mini tasker disabled that profile ( I have poweramp, uninstalled Apollo).
phntm said:
network mode should be easy enough, we already play with these settings on the "3g toggle", i just need to generalize it a bit.
i'll look into the tethering thing.
i'm adding both to the next major release. it might take 2 weeks or so for our work to be graded, then i'll push it to the public channel.
if you want you can join the alpha channel here and i'll try to get something together there sooner.
more things that will be added next are:
* better calendar support (currently doesn't support repeat events)
* wifi on/off condition
* wifi near ssid condition
suggestions are welcome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for reply and info.
As far as further suggestions....I've seen "wifi near" used in several apps but never saw a "bluetooth near" option....I don't know if it's feasible but if you can specify a specific "id" it could quickly distinguish when I'm home or in the car and then enable the appropriate commands such as linking to my car/home cordless phones via bluetooth.
I'd like to try your app but I can't find it on the Play Store and when I access Play Store with a browser it says my device is not compatible. I have a nexus 7 running android 4.3
Afaik bluetooth near is not a broadcast.
It should be much cleaner to add bluetooth state changed to detect the car connecting.
The car dock condition and activity detection in the current stable are already quite cool.
My car detection is based on charger+dock. The dock is enable by another software when the bluetooth connects.
Anyway, added to the wishlist.
The app works very well on my Nexus 7 but I think I need to add a 10" screenshot to make the market consider it compatible. I'll try to arrange that now.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
I didn't test with poweramp yet, i did with Apollo.
Not all players support internal storage style urls, even Google Play music fails.
That means any app that doesn't work right now needs custom support with some sort of url hack, which makes sharing profiles almost impossible across different setups.
I'll try to tackle this issue on the next major.
For now, try adding a launch app action, and a play music button emulation action. I'll try to arrange better support for more apps soon.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
how about using incoming sms as a trigger to do the app launching etc?
oldsap said:
how about using incoming sms as a trigger to do the app launching etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's possible already but there's no ui to easily do this atm. right now you can add an action to the sms forward condition but i guess you'll want to match the text as well and also, not do the forwarding part.
added to the wishlist.
Support for tablets is now available.
Still no major changes or new features as our work is yet to be graded.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Wow, this is awesome!
No leaving location?
Tasker is missing this too, is it possible to have a "Not at Location" as an event? I'd like to be able to send a message to my wife when I'm leaving work, but there is no way to set an event for when leaving a location.
The real tasker has a concept of "end task", we do implicit end task (we automatically guess or restore to last state).
Location indeed is missing an inverse, i'll add it up on the next major release.
What you might want to do for now is 3 conditions:
Time based - evening
Location - work
Activity - driving
Conditions are combined with "and".
btw I just pushed an update to fix a regression on forwarding sms and silencing calls, also a couple of crashes reported today.
Update is avaliable now on google play.
Also you can now use the %%PHONE%% variable in the text of the send sms action when the condition is phone call silencing.
This might be useful to tell your other phone you just had a call.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Nice app. Tried it out this morning. One thing I would have liked to do, but could not find the option... Is there a way (or could it be added) to set it so bluetooth and wifi go on when I launch Google maps and navigation? I don't see an 'at launch' trigger.
I don't run them regularly for battery reasons (HTC One's big downfall is the middle of the road battery).
Sent from my rooted Speak and Spell running OS X Mountain Lion.
Hi everyone, first of all, wow, thanks for all the kind words, we really didn't expect to be noticed so quickly
A quick update: we did fix the application-not-responding crashes almost entirely, only now there's a new problem...
We've got a couple of crashes on 0.2.4, mostly from toasts launched from the background, and like always, these only started after we published the update.
We're gonna push a fix for these real soon, keep the crash reports flowing, they help a lot.
I setup a task that "When Driving" navigates me to my home address between 15:30 and 18:30 and it repeats every weekday.
The two problems that I ran into is that is uses Waze(which is installed) instead of Google Maps. I cannot choose what app I want to use if I have multiple installed.
The second problem is that I had to travel at over 50mph before the task kicked in. I cannot choose a speed for it to kick in.
Other than that it is a very solid app. :cyclops:
Really love this app do far. Thank you and good luck - I hope you get the grades you deserve.
One question... I hope you can help me please...
I want Mini Tasker to turn off my Mobile Data connection when I get home and turn on my WiFi... I think I've managed to sort that bit.
But how do I reverse it so when I leave home it turns off my WiFi and turns on my Data Connection?
I'm guessing I'm missing something glaringly obvious.
Thank you.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4
Fubie3 said:
I setup a task that "When Driving" navigates me to my home address between 15:30 and 18:30 and it repeats every weekday.
The two problems that I ran into is that is uses Waze(which is installed) instead of Google Maps. I cannot choose what app I want to use if I have multiple installed.
The second problem is that I had to travel at over 50mph before the task kicked in. I cannot choose a speed for it to kick in.
Other than that it is a very solid app. :cyclops:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something else I notice is that if I'm in stop and go traffic (I have Mini Tasker turn bluetooth on while driving and biking) the bluetooth will turn back off if I'm stopped. Technically the Mini Tasker command is only to turn on bluetooth, not to turn it off when not driving or biking.
Is this supposed to happen? If so could you separate the on and off and also put it in the description that it will do so? That would be very helpful. =]
Let me try
I recently discovered you can access Google Assistant - previously only available for the expensive Pixel phones - on just about any Android v6/7 phone if you temporarily change the language to US English. I've been playing with it, as well as Google Now, which is apparently is set to replace and I have a few questions that perhaps people who've been using/following these apps for longer might be able to answer:
1) is there a way of saying "read this page out loud"?
2) can i translate the current page to another language ("read this page in french")?
3) can i get it it to open the browser (Firefox, in my case) and go to a page ("open Slashdot in Firefox", "Firefox open Slashdot" etc)?
4) can i get it to acknowledge me when i say "ok google" other than the limp little vibrate it does. There's an option to have it unlock the phone with "ok google" but if i'm not looking at the screen, or holding it (so i can feel the quick vibrate) I have no idea if it's picked my voice out of the background noises (say when i'm driving). It would make sense to have it just reply "yes [your nickname]".
5) when is the nickname used, anyway? I've never heard it say it.
6) Is there really no way of typing, instead of speaking, to Google Assistant?
7) I can't get it to play a video from Netflix on my Chromecast enabled TV, despite following the instructions online. It doesn't help that you can't follow them 100% because the options they describe differ between the online help and the Home app. Has anyone got this working?
8) I've set a work address in Google Maps but it's coming up empty in Google Assistant. Home is ok in both locations. They are both ok in Google Now too. What's odd is that it doesn't accept my work address when I type it, despite it being acceptable to Google Maps. This means that although I can enter a "close enough" address for the purpose of navigation, it's never going to allow location based reminders work.
9) Location based reminders don't seem to work anyway. It works for my home address sometimes, but i've never managed to get one set at a shop or train station to fire.
10) The shopping list interface is awful. It takes you to a really basic web page (it reminds me of my first attempt to create a list of items in html!) with no save option, and i now have some checked items I cannot remove. Perhaps if there was a save option I could do so. I actually thought this was a sort of javascript-less fallback option when I first saw it but it's not changed since then so I guess this is it.
For each of the questions above I've tried various ways but come up short. I'm using the latest stock rom for the Sony Xperia Z3, in the uk (the rom is the US one though).