Free and useful Android apps

lucylucky

bubblesmoney wrote: »

You dont need an app for that! Dont waste the internal memory when google maps can do that for free and a lot more too.

On your phone, if you have google maps installed, just open the places icon (better still install the shortcut to the app on one of ytour home screens), after opening that app, you get icons for many thiungs like - restaurants, coffee, pubs, hotels, attractions, ATMs, etc. You can create more icons like petrol stations, Bus Stop, Tube Station, Train Station, Hospital, GP, Dentist, Taxi etc etc. Clik anything and the app will use your location (wifi or gps or approx location using mobile signal masts) and give a list of services requested based on your distance from them. it will give tabs for phone, map, directions, address etc. just one clik will navigate you there, or call them etc. This will be useful anywhere in the world (if you have a data connection that is and keep in mind the roaming data charges). You dont have to ask anyone for directions or taxi number etc anywhere.

For example the Bus Stop tab will give a list of nearest bus stops and give walking directions and distance to that bus stop and a link for all bus numbers that operate from that bus stop with accurate times (updated by the minute!). saves you typing your location as that is pre-entered on the travel website, you just need to enter your destination or choose the bus numbers already populated on your screen with next bus time for that particular bus stop.

make sure you teach your family how to use this google maps / places feature as it will be very useful while travelling especially if you land late at night at a isolated train station with no taxi rank. In such a situation just open the app and hit the taxi button and it brings up the local taxi numbers based on the distance their office is located from the station. very useful feature that i have used. same applies for hotels etc.

You can configure that feature for anything, airports etc. dont waste memory on apps duplicating what google maps does in a much better manner and free too.

I rolled back my version of google maps to remove the "places" icon.

A complete an utter waste of space. Wholly inaccurate and unreliable.

(sadly)

Rusty!

Which means you're now missing out on the excellent Maps v5.1. Well worth it for the vector based maps.

bubblesmoney

try the various free flashcard apps. the free ones are great. havent yet bothered with the paid ones yet.

some free ones do voice to text, text to voice, images, translation etc. not all of them can do voice or images etc.

apart from the kids flashcard apps by 5pumkins mentioned in my previous post. try the following apps for students and anyone insterested in using flash cards as a learning aid. millions of free flash cards on various subjects available on many websites and many of these apps synch for free with some of these websites or you can make your own flash cards for studying.

try out the following flash card apps .... (in no particular preference order)
androcards free
ankidroid
anymemo
iFlashcardsFree
Kaka Flashcards
Pop Quiz
Quizard Lite
StudyDroid
Word Free

please update if you find any better ones, especially the ones that do voice and images and audio files along with flash cards. I think such free flash cards will be useful for students of any age if they like the flash card technique or are preparing for viva or OSCE type of exams in any field.

people learning languages will like the apps that use flashcards that use automatic translation and voice etc as a teaching aid.

bubblesmoney

lucylucky wrote: »

I rolled back my version of google maps to remove the "places" icon.

A complete an utter waste of space. Wholly inaccurate and unreliable.

(sadly)

mine is very accurate. maybe the phone you are using has a faulty gps unit. i think some samsung glalxy s phones had faulty gps units. i dont know what phone you have but my htc desire is spot on. i have used it in london, manchester, birmigham, leeds and many other places too. it is very accurate even on wifi or just mobile signal approximation, but most accurate if gps is on as well. sometime triangulation with just mobile signal masts may be off by 500 yards or so depending on your location.

mine is accurate within a few yards and more accurate than my tomtom760T with updated maps from a year ago! it is quicker than my tomtom, i can call the shop i search for directly with a single clik or navigate to them or see reviews etc. or see all the bus times from the nearest bus stop (or any bus stop i choose) updated by the minute, no need for any time table atleast in the uk. i dont know about other countries.

i would say if you have just one app then have this google places icon on your phone. i say icon because google maps i assume is preloaded on most phones. if you dont have it then download the most recent version. i have a satnav preinstalled on my car and also a tomtom but i never use them now and use my phone instead for navigation and also just for finding places but commonly for taxi numbers, takeaways, plumbers, shops etc

lucylucky

I have an HTC Desire no problems with the GPS at all.

Places App however is useless and I could not recommend it to anyone.

There are 5 banks, all with ATMs, within 1 mile of my house.

"Places" suggests the nearest is over 6 miles away.
(just checked 6.4 miles to be exact)

The "Yell" app seems more accurate.

EDIT - out of curiosity I did a search on google maps on my pc for banks.
It was almost as bad, although I see that it says at the bottom of the page that the search is powered by thomson local. I tried that App the other day and it was dire (now un-installed)

Must be to do with the lack of local input which is giving these results (I imagine)

lucylucky

How do you see the bus times?

tightrs

bubblesmoney wrote: »

on the htc desire you dont need an app for that or to connect to computer like others have said. read the htc desire manual and you can do it. or see various useful posts on how to use the htc desire on this website where various tutorials are shown http://myhtcdesire.com/ including one for the ringtones.

well i did not read all the manual and was just sharing what i did,it was a quick fix and oh so easy on my htc desire.
took no time at all in fact less time than to read through the manual or watch a tutorial on a website :whistle:

daindian

lucylucky wrote: »

How do you see the bus times?

you have to download catch that bus, which i use got it off some site, but its a couple of quid but really useful but really good!

lucylucky

daindian wrote: »

you have to download catch that bus, which i use got it off some site, but its a couple of quid but really useful but really good!

Thanks

I thought it was part of the "Places" app

bubblesmoney

lucylucky wrote: »

Thanks

I thought it was part of the "Places" app

yes it is free on the places app, like everything else on the places icon on google maps.

when you open the places icon, if you have not added any icons, then select the add button, then on the search bar type 'bus stop', then when ever you clik that new icon you will get a list of nearest bus stops with distances and choices for directions, bus stop number etc. clik the bus stop you need and it will bring up a list of all the bus numbers going through that stop (via a travelline link) and the next bus time for each of those routes, when i try on my phone it shows me the next bus times for the next few minutes and the bus stop numbers and routes and times are accurate for where i live.

lucylucky wrote: »

I have an HTC Desire no problems with the GPS at all.

Places App however is useless and I could not recommend it to anyone.

There are 5 banks, all with ATMs, within 1 mile of my house.

"Places" suggests the nearest is over 6 miles away.
(just checked 6.4 miles to be exact)

The "Yell" app seems more accurate.

EDIT - out of curiosity I did a search on google maps on my pc for banks.
It was almost as bad, although I see that it says at the bottom of the page that the search is powered by thomson local. I tried that App the other day and it was dire (now un-installed)

Must be to do with the lack of local input which is giving these results (I imagine)

i havent tried the atm machine option, so dont know how accurate that is. but i have tried the options for dentists, hospitals, tesco, petrol station, taxi, rail station, bus stop, hotel, parking area etc on many occassions and found the app reliable.

I used to have the yelp app and deleted it as i found i hardly used it in comparison to the places app which i have put on my home screen next to the navigation app, so that i can bring it up quickly when travelling. in fact taxi drivers and shop keepers etc have asked how i found their number and i told them google places app and they were surprised and pleased that they were getting business for free without advertising on google. I just use it because it is quick and easy and accurate and i dont need to keep a list of taxi numbers at destination when travelling. i have used it various cities where i would be lost without the app. i dont even need to know the address etc, i can just type the name of the shop and i have a good chance of getting the correct shop on the app even in a city i dont know and can call or navigate with the clik of a button.

i deleted the RAC app as well as i find this and the navigation app (both google) suits my needs.

for airline ticket pricing overf many airlines the best i found was ... "OnTheFly" by ITA software. it gives a good choice of air prices on various routes, even when other travel apps like tripit, and other similar apps didnt bring up anything. but even this is of no use if you want a multidestination or open jaw type of ticket as this app only gives one way or return option. BA app is ok only if travelling via BA. Tripit is useful for other info like airline contact details etc which would be useful for rebooking journey in a hurry if your flight gets cancelled.

HotUKDeals app is pretty nice like others have already mentioned.

other useful apps are ...
- silentboot (especially useful is you want to permanently shut up the boot up music on your phone if you have small kids and dont want the boot up sound the wake them up etc)
- chrome to phone
- freedi downloader / freedi youtube downloader / youtube downloader
- mini file manager for managing files and generally cleaning up crap that accumulates on your phone. i found this much more useful that other file managers like astro or estrongs file explorer which i have used before and deleted them now as i prefer mini file manager which has a small footprint and does the job. estrongs file explorer is ok for wirelessly exploring and moving files from phone to computer or vice versa.
- multicon app. for having 4 icons in the place of 1 icon on your home screen if you want smaller icons
- sd move / sd watch / apps2sd
- SDrescan is very useful after copying files from computer etc and no need to reboot for the phone to find the files easily.
- Tax Calculator
- traintimesuk, i have the old free version.