A Dreamwidth Android Community - intro, nexus one, useful apps

Time:	05:48 pm
Subject:	intro, nexus one, useful apps

Howdy! I am a new-ish Android user; I bought the Nexus One after years and years and years putting up with Windows Mobile (from the days when it was branded PocketPC up through the T-Mobile MDA and Wing). I'd played around with the Droid and the iPhone, and thought the formfactor of the Nexus One was more what I was looking for.

I really like the hardware. It's small, slick, easy to find and use the buttons, and the trackball has its uses (although I have to admit, I don't use it that much). The virtual keyboards (portrait and landscape) have been good enough for me. The camera, of all things, is really good, and the fact that it is good has been getting me to take more pictures.

My biggest complaint about it is that all the ringtones are very, very quiet -- even turned up all the way, it's hard to hear the thing. Fortunately, the vibration is strong enough to feel whether it's in my pocket or my purse.

As for apps, I have the following things in the "useful" category:

* Tea Timer (countdown timer)
* DroidDice (hey, you never know when you'll need to roll for initiative)
* Seesmic (the best Twitter client I've found -- slick interface and multiple account support)
* Text Edit/Papyrus (TextEdit has better "get file to other devices" options, but Papyrus has better "input text" functionality)
* Chess Clock For Android (what it says on the tin)
* BatteryTime Lite (both for the widget, which tells me the actual percentage of my battery left, and the app itself, which estimates how much time I have left on my remaining charge)
* Listen by Google Labs (podcatcher/podcast listening app better than anything else I've ever used, which admittedly is only Juice and iTunes)
* OpenTable (restaurant reservation system that hooks up with the website of the same name)

And the following things in the "games" category:

* CopyCat ("Simon")
* Coloroid
* Abduction! World Attack (so cute!)
* Milky Milky, by the same creator (ditto!)
* Bubble Defense (standard tower defense game)

My only fear is that my new house isn't going to have good enough signal to use the phone as an actual phone, but frankly, I loathe making phone calls and would love an excuse not to have to make them. :P I'm sure VoIP options will come along eventually, too.

As for rooting and development, I am interested in doing both, but they have to make it to the top of the hobby queue first, past the knitting and reading and video games. ^_^ I'd be very interested in hearing what people are interested in developing or interested in seeing developed, though. Would a dedicated Dreamwidth client be useful, or just redundant (since you can already post from the website)?

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syntheid

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Time:	2010-03-02 04:42 pm (UTC)

Well, my first response to the idea of a dedicated Dreamwidth client was "Do want!" but on the other hand, I realized I'm not sure if I would use it frequently for posting. I suppose it would depend on what it did? I think I'd find a DWcircle-reader/commenter more useful than an entry-posting thing, because if I want to make a post, I tend to want to write more than a couple lines, and more than a couple lines on the phone keyboard tends to end up with me writing a shorter email to myself about what I should write about later, when I have a real keyboard. But I do sometimes read from my phone, and wish it was easier to comment from it. I don't know how feasible or not feasible that would be or if anyone besides me would find that useful.

March 1st, 2010

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