Android!

[Ozzu]

I really dig the feel of WebOS and if this guy brings some of that to Android? Nice.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/27/palms-matias-duarte-has-joined-google-as-user-experience-direct/

[Quinton]

I worked with Matias at Danger for 4.5 fun years -- he did the Hiptop OS and Apps UI/UX design -- and I'm happy that he's joining us on Android.  I fear I may need to work on hardware acceleration for roundrects though...

[bhodi]

Adding these two apps to my "must have" list.

[Quinton]

Wow that is awesome...



ALL GLORY TO HYPNOTOAD.  RATE FIVE STARS.

[MahrinSkel]

[eldaec]

I'm seeing a bunch of sites reporting HTC promising 2.2 on Desire by the end of June.

/dance

[TripleDES]

I hope that music player demoed on Google IO hits Froyo via the market way before Gingerbread, because srsly!

It's probably functionally almost the same as the stock player, but you know form over function... and looking at the stock player makes me go 

[Lantien]

My Nexus One finally showed up on Friday.  Since the sim card is showing up later (long story), I'm just testing out the wifi capabilities right now.  Took me probably about an hour or so to get decent with the keyboard, so far not too shabby. Can't wait for 2.2 to OTA over when the time's right...

Showed the phone off to a friend of mine who's a huge fan of the Iphone/Apple products who's also big on UI.  There was a lot of compare and contrast between the Iphone and Nexus One, including discussions about fragmentation, and the issue with Sense UI potentially impacting release dates for OSes.

So, are there any apps that are must haves? I think there was some discussion earlier in the thread, but that was months ago.  Mostly interested in the social networking side of things, picked up Twitter, etc.

[rattran]

Google Sky Maps, Google Goggles, and Key Ring.

Sky Maps is just a neat toy, Goggles is fucking brilliant, and key ring is just convenient, though the screen protector on my droid makes it not scan well.

[Quinton]

Some stuff I have installed:

Nesoid - nice NES emulator
Abduction! - silly, addictive bouncing cows game
Andronos - sonos controller (not useful unless you have sonos hardware)
StopWatch (sportstracklive.com) - just a decent stopwatch/timer
Digital Rain - Live Wallpaper - nice, configurable, matrixy live wallpaper
RealCalc Scientific Calculator - solid little RPN calculator
Droid48 - HP48GX emulator (over the top)
Adobe Reader - for reading pdf files
OI File Manager - for mucking with stuff on the sd card
Hypnotoad To Go - ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

[bhodi]

Key Ring.

This thing sucked. I couldn't get it to scan anywhere even without a screen protector, and then later, I was trying to figure out why my battery life was so shit, I look on the 'what's using the battery' page and I find out it's running in the background checking in and doing god knows what, eating up 55% of my battery life. UNINSTALL.

[KallDrexx]

I'm horribly addicted to uni-war (even though it's not Android only). 

It's like turn-based multiplayer starcraft.  I have spent way too much time with it this weekend.

[Segoris]

So, are there any apps that are must haves? I think there was some discussion earlier in the thread, but that was months ago.  Mostly interested in the social networking side of things, picked up Twitter, etc.

For yahoo/aim/irc I use Hi Yahoo, Hi Aim, and AndChat.

Some of the must haves I never remove:
TasKiller - easiest way to kill apps
The Weather Channel weather app
Bartender - good for trying new drinks
Droidlight - uses the camera flash as a flash light with simple touch on - touch off
Mabilo Wallpaper (good for basic wallpapers, quick app, only a must have until I find something better) 
ProjectInf - shooter game with some levels that has proven to be decent fun from time to time
Wikimobile - obvious
Nesoid - nes emulator
Snesoid - snes emulator
MountUSB - one touch USB mounting that I prefer
Adobe Reader
Dolphin Browser & Bookmarks to SD

I'm taking suggestions on other wallpaper apps. Also, I'm taking suggestions on a good music app. The default one is getting annoying switching between shuffle and party shuffle on its own instead of just staying in "shuffle all" mode.

Digital Rain - Live Wallpaper - nice, configurable, matrixy live wallpaper

Does this go by another name? Looking up Digital Rain in the market brings up 2 books. The first being a 1920's male gay love book set in Ireland, the other being some book about a soldier returning home to Hawaii and returning to normal life until there is some local conflict (or that's what I get from the summary).

[Quinton]

Digital Rain - Live Wallpaper - nice, configurable, matrixy live wallpaper

Does this go by another name? Looking up Digital Rain in the market brings up 2 books. The first being a 1920's male gay love book set in Ireland, the other being some book about a soldier returning home to Hawaii and returning to normal life until there is some local conflict (or that's what I get from the summary).

Just searching for "digital rain" works for me on NexusOne.

Maybe try:

[Draegan]

NESoid...  Ooooh didn't see that one.  Lets see if my G1 can handle it.

(I hate being behind in the tech curve.  I want my incredible.  :(  3-4 more months.

Edit: bleh I need an SD card, which I don't have.

[Ingmar]

For some reason Quinton's links lately are just showing up in my browser as a JPG of one of those square barcode things.

[Segoris]

Just searching for "digital rain" works for me on NexusOne.

I'm on a Droid, which really shouldn't make a difference for searching the market, or so I thought. I've tried searching for the following with/without proper caps and quotations: digital rain, digital rain live, digital rain wallpaper, and KittehFace (as a google search showed me that is the developer). I've tried going through a link from some site that linked straight to the app in the store (which resulted in a 404 message, same thing when searching with firefox on a desktop since I thought I could download and transfer over to the phone). None of those produced a downloadable app, which is sad since I saw on their website that they had a couple of very cool live wallpapers (the galactic core app looks like it could be amazing). Though I just tried searching "live wallpaper" in the app store I eventually ran into two items by KittehFace Software that I wasn't able to find earlier from both searching for their developer in the market search function or following a link from their blog site.

I haven't tried the qr code as I don't know how to use that. On my phone I can save that image itself (as well as another one I found on a website reviewing Digital Rain), but nothing else with it. I've never used a qr code, any tips on using that code you linked to find the app? That will be my last attempt with this app I believe, as I've put in enough effort to try it out in my search for a good wallpaper app.

This does act as a reminder of why I don't like the Android market's organization/search process, though luckily, it is my only complaint remaining after 2.2 comes out from what I've read. Now, being open source, has anyone seen a good market query app or website that has a better search tool (things like search by developer, trusted developer list saved on phone if it's an app, tab for free/paid/either, etc)? Or does Froyo have updates to the market improving the search function? I've only heard about the comments and info being in a tab like form with Froyo.

[eldaec]

I've never used a qr code, any tips on using that code you linked to find the app?

Download barcocde scanner to phone (do this anyway)
Start barcode scanner app
Point camera at qr code
PROFIT!

[Ingmar]

I actually pondered doing that before I was distracted by a shiny object.

[eldaec]

I just tried downloading the wallpaper to check there is no catch and it is as simple as the method above - but I have to say that is probably the worst attempt at a matrix style green-falling-symbols effect I have ever seen in my life.

EDIT: But the Hypnotoad makes up for it.

[Segoris]

Download barcocde scanner to phone (do this anyway)
Start barcode scanner app
Point camera at qr code
PROFIT!

Thanks, that worked and it brought up the market page. Very weird that nothing else worked before that, and still doesn't work.

Also, thanks Quinton for the mention and the qr code. After the QR pulled up the market page, I saw that there ended up being reviews of this wallpaper slowing down droids, but it runs just fine on mine. Very nice app indeed.

[NiX]

My Hero stopped detecting wireless networks I've connected to previously. This is so weird and I can't seem to find a google hit that matches what is happening. Yay for no data plan.

[Viin]

Happened on my iPhone and I just had to reset the network settings (and reconnect to all the networks once again) but then it started to remember them again.

[Arnold]

Anyone get the EVO 4G?  I'm hoping to get my hands on one soon.

[KallDrexx]

Erm.  So the Android Gallery app (2.1 and 2.2 both) is visually cool, but it seems that there's no way to organize your photos.  Is it really impossible to organize photos without going into a file manager app and move the pictures to different folders?

I hope I'm just being retarded cause that would be ridiculous.

[ffc]

The way I organize pics is to "share" them in different Picasa albums which are sync'd to my Gallery.  I guess no other default way to organize pics encourages Picasa adoption.  I do wish there was better Picasa integration, like being able to delete uploaded pics.  Can't even do it through the mobile site.

That just reminded me of my wish to be able to share docs through the Google Docs mobile site.

[NiX]

I can't send/receive MMS without having a data plan. Fuck Telus.

[KallDrexx]

I can't send/receive MMS without having a data plan. Fuck Telus.

That's the case for every US carrier as well.

The way I organize pics is to "share" them in different Picasa albums which are sync'd to my Gallery.  I guess no other default way to organize pics encourages Picasa adoption.  I do wish there was better Picasa integration, like being able to delete uploaded pics.  Can't even do it through the mobile site.

That just reminded me of my wish to be able to share docs through the Google Docs mobile site.

Dear god Picasa is bad.  Their web interface is bad (I can't even figure out how to create a new album), the integration with the phone is minimal, and like you said, once you upload it it shows up in your phone and you can't do much with them.

All I want to do is take my wallpapers and put them in a wallpaper album so they aren't mixed in with all the other image downloads.  ugh.

[Salamok]

on the moto droid is there an easy way to switch between calls?  The only way I know how is to flip down the notices screen and select the call but it usually takes me 3-4 tries to get that because the proximity detector fires off when I try and target that area of the screen with my finger (I guess it thinks it is my ear). 

Here is my usual scenario,
step 1 - I call the wife.
step 2 - 7 out of 10 times she doesn't answer in time because her phoneis always at the bottom of her purse.
step 3 - She finds the phone just as I am hitting her voice mail and calls me back.
step 4 - The new call notification screen takes over my phone and I can't hang up on her voicemail because it takes me at least a minute of fiddling around to get back to that call session.

[TripleDES]

Android really needs an autoresponder. Sometimes, like when I'm on a mountain bike ride, I don't want to answer most calls, but still pack my phone for GPS logging and respond to urgent calls only (appropriate people have different ringtones). Some jerks continue to try to reach me, so I'd like a system that sends them a SMS telling them what I'm doing or plain out to shut the fuck up. I've filed a feature request, I hope it won't get shot down.

[JWIV]

Android really needs an autoresponder. Sometimes, like when I'm on a mountain bike ride, I don't want to answer most calls, but still pack my phone for GPS logging and respond to urgent calls only (appropriate people have different ringtones). Some jerks continue to try to reach me, so I'd like a system that sends them a SMS telling them what I'm doing or plain out to shut the fuck up. I've filed a feature request, I hope it won't get shot down.

This would be awesome.   I do the same thing on my runs.

[Draegan]

With my contract with Tmobile running out in October, are there any decent phones coming out from now until then that arn't the EVO or Incredible that I should wait for instead of breaking my contract a tad early?

I've heard things about a Moto Shadow but I couldn't find out much about it with a quick look.

[Trippy]

There are rumors of a Droid 2 by the end of the year with a 2 GHz (!) CPU.

Edit: well it's more than just a rumor but details are still vague.

[Draegan]

There are rumors of a Droid 2 by the end of the year with a 2 GHz (!) CPU.

Edit: well it's more than just a rumor but details are still vague.

Hmm.

From what I see the Incredible is still the way to go for the foreseeable future.

[MahrinSkel]

Unless you want a real keyboard.  I've been trying to decide if I want to hold out for the second generation Droid, looks like I do.

--Dave