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Showing posts with label productivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label productivity. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Swiss Army Android

I am always trying to find new ways to increase the usefulness of my Android. I know that it is basically a digital Swiss Army Knife already, but it could always be more useful. In light of this, I spend an awful lot of time searching the Internet and the the Android Market for new applications to help me with my mission. Here are some of my new favorites!

CallTrack

I hate scrolling through my call list to find someone that has called me the week before, or to try to figure out how long I talked on the phone during a particular day. This simple application solves all of those problems for me. What it does is sync all of your phone calls with you Google Calender, and you will then be able to see who called you on what day, and how long that you spoke to them. The only possible negative is that, if you share your calender with someone, as I do with my wife, they will also see your call log. This is not a problem for me, but you may want to consider it before you download the application.


FX Camera

How many of you use the camera on your Android? The most that I can say about the system camera is that it works. The sharing functions are there, and they are very nice, but sometimes you want a picture that has a little bit of character to it, and is a little more fun than just a standard picture. The FX camera has several fun modes to shoot in such as the Warhol, or the Toy Camera, and has the color filters that you can apply to a normal shot.

DoubleTwist

DoubleTwist is not an application for your Android, but is instead available to be downloaded to your computer. What is does is sync music, playlists, and other media to your Android device. The desktop also has a podcast search function, and is integrated with the Amazon music store so that you can buy music there if you would like. I find it to be extremely useful for downloading my Car Talk podcasts, and getting my music on my phone. Check it out! Also, please note that DoubleTwist supports hundreds of devices, including all sorts of phones and the PSP.

Bump

How many of you meet new people fairly often? Do you have to contact them later? If so, then you may find this application to be useful. Bump is a way to trade your contact information with someone. All you have to do is open up the application, select what information you would like to transfer, and then, while the other person has Bump open and ready as well, bump your hands together. The great thing about this app is that it works across platforms, and so you will be able to transfer contacts with iPhone owners as well as Android owners.

If you get a chance, try all of these applications out. I think that you will find that they are all great choices for increasing the usefulness of your Android. Please let me know what you think about them.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Keep Your Droid Fast

I love my Samsung Moment, but I would be lying if I were to say that there have not been things that have caused me problems while owning it. One of the problems that I noticed after using the phone for a while was that it was losing some of the zippiness and responsiveness that I had gotten used to. I would attempt to open up my drawer of applications, and the drawer would slowly pull up from the bottom of the screen, seemingly mocking me with it's sluggishness. As you can probably guess, this drove me a little crazy, but, after doing a little searching around in the Android Market, I was able to find an app that solved this problem for me.

The issue was, you see, the use by some of developers of their ability to run applications in the background on the Android OS. The Android OS has true multi-tasking, and can run many programs at once, but, since each phone has a limited amount of processing power, many apps running automatically in the background can cause your phone to run slowly, and even eat away at the life of your battery.

You probably want to avoid this at all costs.

If you have version 2.1 of Android, then you have system tools that work fine for controlling your applications, but, if, like me, you are running 1.5 or 1.6, then you don't really have the tools necessary to control this aspect of your phone. Do not despair though, because there is a remedy!

The remedy can be found be going into the Android market and typing in TasKiller. There are two versions of Taskiller on the market, the free version that runs ads and has some reduced functionality, and the full version. But, in either of these versions, Taskiller is an application that lets you close out any applications that are running in the background that you may not want to run. All you will have to do is select the Taskiller from your list of applications, and it will bring up a list of all of your open applications. From there you can either pick the apps that you want to close manually, or you can choose to close all applications. Please be aware that closing all applications also closes the system applications that control your connections, and will clear out all of your notifications. The system should start your connections back up automatically, but it would probably be best if you checked your notifications before killing all applications. TasKiller full also comes with widgets that you can install on your home screens so that you can see how much memory you have left, what applications are running, and so that you can kill apps without opening TasKiller.

TasKiller is a good application that, properly used, can help to keep your system fast, and increase your enjoyment of your Android device. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Note Everything - Be Productive

How many people love their Android? That being said, how many of you want to know what you can use your Android for? The simple fact of the matter is that, if you plan on using your Android handset for anything other than listening to music and playing games, you are going to need some sort of productivity tool. You will need to prepare notes, jot down ideas, draw sketches, and record your ideas when you can't seem to find time to actually type them in.

Note Everything is a Notebook application, created by SoftXperience, and available for free on the Android Marketplace, that will be able to accomplish all of these tasks, and do it well. Note Everything is not flashy, but it is well made, and will do the job that it needs to do. The free version is able to create text notes, voice notes, and paint notes. It is also able to create shortcuts to notes on the main screen. The paid version also has checklists, durable checklists, the ability to stick notes in the notification bar, notifications, gallery notes, and a few more functions as well.

I personally use Note Everything Pro constantly, and consider it to be the best app purchase I have made on my Moment. I will break down the functions of the app, and tell you what I personally use them for, and hopefully it will be of some use to you. If there is an * beside the title, that function is only available on the paid version.


Textnote

This is the most basic of note functions, although the people at SoftXperience have added a few extras into it that make it much more useful. To create a text note, you simply have to press your menu key while inside of the app, and select Textnote. You can define your title, and enter text into the body of the note. If you do not define the title, the app will automatically generate one based on the body of the note.

If you select menu while in Textnote, you can chose to delete the note, discard your most recent changes, or to send the note. In addition to the share function that is common on Android, you can convert the note to a Barcode. You can also create a shortcut on your homescreen, just in case you need to access that particular note more often.

I use the text note when i need to jot down a few notes during service, or while riding in the car. I also generally create large SMS and email drafts in the text function, and just send them when I'm ready to do so.

Paintnote

Paintnote is a simple drawing tool in which your finger is the stylus. In addition to the sharing functions, you can adjust the width and color of the pen, clear the drawing, and pull up an eraser in order to clear a specific part of your drawing.

I normally create paint notes when I'm texting my friends. I just enjoy sending little had written notes, or drawing a picture of my brother with a Mohawk. :)

Voicenote

Voicenote is a voice recording function. To create a new Voice note you can chose Voicenote from the menu, or, if your phone has a built in camera button, simply push the camera button while in the Note Everything app. You will just have to touch the record button to record, although, if you accessed it through the camera function, the app will automatically start recording.

Once you have recorded what you need to record touch the stop button, and you will be asked if you want to use the recording or discard. If you use the recording, you will be taken to a screen where you can listen to your recording, add text notes to it, and share the recording via Gmail.

This is very useful for when you have an idea while driving, or if you want to record what a speaker is saying. While there is no direct voice to text function built in, you can listen to your voice note while typing text in the note area, and then convert the text that you written into text.

Photonote*

You can access this function through the menu like all of the other note creations. When you select Photonote, it will start your camera, after which you can snap a picture of whatever it is you were wishing to record. Once you have taken the photograph you can chose to either attach the photo or discard it. After you select the attach function, you can add text to the note, send the note, or even rotate the picture to a more appropriate view.

My most common usage for this is when I see an object that stirs my curiosity, and I want to remember to check it out.

Checklist*

This creates a list of items, which you can check off once completed. To start a checklist, simply access it from the menu. To add items to the checklist, simply type in what you are looking for and press enter. The menu allows you to cleanup your list, which removes already checked items from the list, and also convert to a text note or durable checklist.

I use this constantly! I use the stick note function to keep this in my notifications, and I add all of the things that I need to get done for the day to it. It allows me to keep track of what I have left to do, and keeps me from having that "what did I do today?" syndrome. I simply pull it down at the end of the day, and review everything that I've done...It is certainly useful for me!

Durable Checklist*

The durable checklist is different from the checklist in that you create a list that is meant to be used over and over again. You have three tabs: All, Need, and Done. You enter items the same way that you do on the checklist, and they show up on your All and Need tabs. Once you have acquired the item that you need, you touch the check, and it will move from the Need tab to the Done tab, but will remain on the All tab with a green check. Once you have completed your list, you can bring up the menu to clean up the Done tab, or you can do so manually from the done tab. When you clean items out of the Done tab, the show only on the All tab, and are grayed out. If you tap the gray block next to the item, it will appear back in the Need tab.

This is an incredibly useful note! It's great for grocery lists, job lists, or recipes. Some of you would probably put your whole grocery list on there, and select the items you need when you need them, but saving recipes is also a great idea. i personally use this for maintenance jobs. I have a list of all of my tools, and when I need to get the tools together I select the tools that I will need for that job. It works very well for those of us who are absent-minded.

Gallerynote*

The gallery note function acts very much like the Photo Note, except that it takes you into your gallery, and from there you select a picture that you have already taken, and then add notes. Your able to share the Gallery notes just as you can most of the other notes.

This particular note is useful for the same things that the photo note, but is time designed for those times when you just had to take the picture and keep going, but have time later to muse.

Note from Barcode

This function requires that you have a bar code scanner application installed on your phone, but, if you do, you can scan a bar code and add notes about it in text below. You are also able to share just as you can with most of the other notes.

Note from Google Docs

This Note function requires that you download NE GDocs from the marketplace, and that you have a Google Docs account, but it allows you to share text notes and the like with Google Docs.

Extras*

If you purchase Note Everything Pro you will receive several additional functions that really make this app shine. My personal favorite is the ability to Stick any of the notes that you have created in your notifications. This is enormously useful for the checklist or durable checklist, and still very useful for all of the other things that you may need to remember. You will also gain the ability to backup your notes to your SD card, the ability to add notifications, and an encryption function.

Overview

I personally own this app, and I feel that it was a great purchase, but if you don't feel like investing the $4-$5 to access these functions, the free version is still very useful in it's own right. Please take the time to check it out, and let me know what you think!