So what are the best android apps?

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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Picked up an android phone, finally. Previously I"ve stuck with iOS and Windows Phone 8. But...Republic Wireless's service is just so enticing that I had to finally relent.

Anyways, the big things I'm looking for right now are a good offline GPS and a good music player. Offline GPS kind of important...now previously I've really loved Garmin GPS units, so if anything could resemble the performance of that, that would be awesome.



Stickied for a while since it's of general interest
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desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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seems alright, though a little slow to find music. Don't see a reason to use it over stock though.

Need a podcast player. Anyone? I don't like the top two results on the google play. Beyondpodcast and podcast kicker. One big problem is that if I sleep the screen, it shuts off the app!

Also, any word processing recommendations? I would really love it if we could find an app that could edit MS word files on MS skydrive...probably not.

For some reason, garmin GPS is not compatible with my device and cannot be installed.
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
14,612
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Need a podcast player. Anyone? I don't like the top two results on the google play. Beyondpodcast and podcast kicker. One big problem is that if I sleep the screen, it shuts off the app!

Pocket Casts is the winner there.

Also, any word processing recommendations? I would really love it if we could find an app that could edit MS word files on MS skydrive...probably not.

Use this to get on Skydrive:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.skydrive

Open the apps in one of the many office apps. I like OfficeSuite Pro best, but Google's Quickoffice might be the winner.

For some reason, garmin GPS is not compatible with my device and cannot be installed.

Welcome to Android, sometimes things don't work. A lot of people like this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...lt#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5zeWdpYy5hdXJhIl0.
 

Ravynmagi

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2007
3,102
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My apps...

Google Play Music. It's not a great music player, but I subscribe to Google's All Access music and it works well enough.

Player Pro is what I used before going to streaming music. I liked that I could use it to over ride the volume buttons to act as forward and backwards for playing music.

Mort Player is for my downloaded audio books.
Audible for the ones I get from Amazon.

Nova is my normal launcher, though right now I'm trying the stock 4.4 launcher.

ES Explorer is my file manager.

Skype for IM'ing with my friends.

Dropbox for could storage (never got into Google Drive).

Twitter is where I get most of my news from.

Elixir 2 to add quick toggles to my notification tray.

BeyondPod when I used to listen to podcasts on my phone, don't do that much now.


And these are my rooted apps...

AdAway for blocking ads (installed from FDroid)

Auto Hide Soft Keys for hiding the large navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, I just swipe up to bring that bar up when I need it.

StickMount for mounting USB storage like my Meenova reader.

Titanium Backup for backing up apps and data.
 
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desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
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and one more thing.

what is the best way to stream video locally over WLAN?
 

Tsaar

Guest
Apr 15, 2010
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seems alright, though a little slow to find music. Don't see a reason to use it over stock though.

You clearly didn't play with the equalizer. :biggrin:

It can really crank up the bass very clearly. I use a Note 2 as a reference. I have heard other devices don't necessarily have the same success.
 

FeuerFrei

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2005
9,152
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Can anyone recommend an Android app to browse/manage files shared on my pcs w/ my Nexus 7 tablet? I have three Windows pcs on my local network but don't know how to view the files they share.

I have Splashtop Remote installed but I'm not sure I want to install the streamer component on every pc, or create an account, for that matter, so I haven't set it up for use ATM.

I'm not the power user most of you are. I just recently got the tablet to print to a network printer. Fun!
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
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ES File Manager handles Windows shares pretty well.

You have Tapatalk already, I hope.

OfficeSuite Pro is the best for actual office work, though Google Drive works fine for simple tasks. QuickOffice seems largely a front-end for Drive.
 

FeuerFrei

Diamond Member
Mar 30, 2005
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ES File Manager handles Windows shares pretty well.

You have Tapatalk already, I hope.

OfficeSuite Pro is the best for actual office work, though Google Drive works fine for simple tasks. QuickOffice seems largely a front-end for Drive.

Thanks man, one step ahead of you. I just returned from spending a couple hours browsing Play store and just got done installing ES File Manager on the Nexus 7. Free and painless to operate. Now I'm browsing shared files just fine. :awe: Spreadsheets open in QuickOffice. QuickOffice tells me the file was "saved to the device." Does this mean every network-sourced file I open gets automatically saved to the tablet?? Makes sense for a mobile device, I guess. Hooray for duplicates.

I considered Tapatalk a couple weeks ago, but got bogged down in a complaint thread on the developer's forum and decided to pass on the app. I do spend a lot of tablet time on forums though.
 

CuriousMike

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2001
3,044
543
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Can we genericize this for more apps that you find essential?
I love these threads because I always discover something new?

Stuff I seem to always install on my phone/tablets:
HD Widgets
TeslaLED
Ruzzle
NewsHog
WiFi File Transfer Pro
Strava Cycling
Dropbox
Google Drive
Pixlr Express
NiLS ( for lock screen notifications )
Chrome
FlashFox
SwiftKey
Skype
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,853
1,048
126
Airdroid
Airstream.io is good for streaming vids from PC to the droid
Power Toggles
MX Player
Battery Doctor - I like that it can also set via schedule when wifi/4G, ringer, etc. turns on/off (ie. bedtime)
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
4,627
129
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google music.

the thing where you upload all of your music files onto google's cloud.

Pretty nifty, I must say.

Anything similar though?

Also, the audio geek in me knows that the transcoding will result in compression artifacts. Is there no way to tell google music to upload the original file? Or maybe send them the flac file and have them transcode that way? it apparently encodes the music in 320 kbs MP3.
 

Nec_V20

Senior member
May 7, 2013
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Nobody has mentioned VLC media player yet. It plays pretty much every video and audio format out there.
 

rbk123

Senior member
Aug 22, 2006
743
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I use Mobo Player for playing my vid files on my phone. Ironically I use VLC on my PC.
 
Dec 30, 2004
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App Quarantine. Drag drop the widget to use for Facebook, Drive, Dropbox, Google+, and any other apps that insist on running in the background data mining and syncing data.
 

lopri

Elite Member
Jul 27, 2002
13,209
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It is not exactly an app (can be .zip or .apk) but without SuperSU there was a high chance that I would not bother with Android at all.