Ando's Android Thread.

[weemadando]

As I'm getting more and more into Android I'm going to start giving recommendations of what's worth looking at and what isn't.

Feel free to pitch in if you are a current Android user.

For reference, my current setup is a Nexus one running Gingerbread.

Widget Locker - It completely changed the way I used my phone. Being able to create custom sliders on a lock screen for basic features/quick access and allow notification access without unlocking. It's pretty handy. I'm still experimenting with layouts etc, but it's made it so much easier to use.

LauncherPro - Lets you customise the number of menu screens, what you default screens are, lots of "dock" menu customisation and the rest. Again, very handy. Also has some stunningly good widgets as part of it.

Beautiful Widgets - Because I like pretty things, and if you aren't using HTC firmware, then it gives you a great substitute. It's an aesthetic, rather than functional addition.

SwitchPro - Create your own switch panels with custom designs, functions etc. Very handy. I've used it in a variety of forms and if you are one for battery conservation and having lots of fine control over what's active and not, screen brightness etc without wanting to take up a lot of space or menu fiddling, go right to this.

Pulse News - I've just replaced Google Reader on PC and phone with this along with half of my website bookmarks. It's a solid design that takes a while to setup, but I love it now.

DoubleTwist - Fantastic "on the phone" app with great video, music and podcast options. And it's the only media app I've come across thus far that has lock screen controls. WHY THE FUCK DON'T THE DEFAULT APPS HAVE THIS? Sadly, the desktop app is a steaming pile of bullshit. And the AirSync (the paid add on) is at best a drain on battery and at worst a fucking nightmare that won't shut down and wastes your time with constant notification.

Aldiko - The best eBook reader on Android I've found. The new versions have exceptionally improved it too - sped up load times and minimised book loading and page turning times. Also ties into a pretty extensive series of online libraries and stories from within the app.

And a few games that I'll plug.

Game Dev Story - Game Development management game that is horribly addictive. No App2SD support though.

Fruit Ninja - Great game from Aussie studios "HalfBrick", very basic concept, but fun because of it.

Robotek - Strategy duelling slot machine game with lasers and nice art. I'm still getting into the swing of it, but it's good fun.

BattleHeart - Pretty good RPG combat game. Again, haven't put much time in, but it seems good.

Majesty - Run a Fantasy kingdom. Hands-off strategy, you say what to build and set incentives, but have no direct control. A cool adaption of a great PC series.

[Edward Yee]

I take it that app2sd is important if one is using one of the lower-end Android phones that has low internal storage ("internal SD card")? For example, the LG Optimus T.

Mind you, I'm planning to mainly use the internal SD card for certain files, with media storage and files going onto the "externald" microSD card...

[weemadando]

A lot of phones failed to have good internal storage, even the Nexus One has a crippled 512mb, which quickly fills up with BS.

Thankfully Gingerbread is a slimmer build of Android so there's more space available.

[Sarevok]

I second Fruit Ninja, one of the few mobile games with the potential to rival Angry Birds.

[NeoGoomba]

Robotek is a game that is both very fun and INSANELY frustrating when the computer decides "No wait, I'm the computer FUCK YOU!" and crushes you with a ton of free turns. But it is a great time sink for waiting rooms and what not.

[Sarevok]

The Quake 1,2 and 3 ports for android pretty amazing too. If you can get them working that is.

[Executor32]

I tired using DoubleTwist, but I really didn't care for it so I started using Winamp when it came out. Then PowerAMP came out like a week later and I've been using it ever since. Not only does it have lock screen controls, but it has several options to choose from, as well as several home screen widgets. It also has built-in tag and album art editing and can even automagically fetch album art from the Internet. It plays mp3, mp4/m4a (including alac), ogg, wma*, flac, wav, ape, wv, and tta files, and has a 10-band graphic equalizer, tone controls and too many configurable settings to list. Finally, it has the best aesthetics of any media player on Android, IMO.

Netflix is a must-have if you are in the US and have a Netflix account. Only a couple of phones are officially supported, and it'll only show up in the Market on these phones, but the app itself has no device check so it'll work on pretty much anything if you download the APK for it. Video quality is surprisingly good on mobile, with a Wi-Fi connection offering equal quality to watching it on your PC.

Speaking of Apps2SD, is there any functional way to force all apps to install to internal memory? I have eight goddamn gigabytes of it, so I'd really prefer not to waste space on my SD card. This wasn't a problem until Google let app developers set the install location for their apps. Now I have to periodically go in and move rogue apps to the internal memory. I tried setting the default install location through ADB, but some apps still insist on installing to the SD card.

[Edward Yee]

Whereas I'm going to have less than 200 MB of said internal memory.

[weemadando]

Get a bigger SD card Executor.

[Executor32]

I have a 16GB card, aka the second-goddamn-biggest you can get right now, but it's mostly full of music and pictures and shit. You know, all the non-app shit a person puts on their phone. On the other hand, as I said, I have 8GB of internal memory just for apps, so hopefully you understand why I'd prefer to keep all app installs exclusively to the internal memory.

[weemadando]

I just pull my photos and videos off my 16gb card regularly.

[Executor32]

That still doesn't address the fact that it makes no sense to install any apps to the SD card when I have so much internal memory available. Seriously, I have nearly 300 apps installed and I still have 5 GB of space left.

[weemadando]

I wish I could be in your situation.

I'm just happy that since moving to Gingerbread I don't constantly get the "low on internal memory" errors.

[Edward Yee]

What about 2.2/Froyo? (I chose the Optimus T over T-Mobile's other lineup specifically because it and the Comet have 2.2 by default, but the Comet... to be frank, is worse than the Optimus T to such an extent that I'd rather pay the difference.)

[weemadando]

What about 2.2/Froyo? (I chose the Optimus T over T-Mobile's other lineup specifically because it and the Comet have 2.2 by default, but the Comet... to be frank, is worse than the Optimus T to such an extent that I'd rather pay the difference.)

As long as they haven't totally borked it up with locked custom firmware/sim stuff then you should be able to rollback to an earlier "pure" Android release and update from there.

It's what I did after I left Vodafone and needed to get rid of their custom Android ROM.

[Terralthra]

Handcent SMS.

[weemadando]

I stopped using DoubleTwist in favour of using MoboPlayer for movies as it plays all formats without decoding, so you can just copy straight to a folder on the SD card, no conversion required and CloudSkipper for music, which is a goddamn beautiful bit of software, but the headset controls STILL never default to it properly.

[Lord Woodlouse]

MiniSquadron is an excellent little 2d dogfighting game.
UniWar is a fun hex-based turn based strategy game, well optimised for phones.
StupidZombies is sorta like AngryBirds, except you shoot zombies with bouncing bullets.
ProEvolutionSoccer2011, probably the best football game on Android at the moment.
ZombieVille is a fun side-scrolling zombie shooter. Gets a bit repetitive when the zombies are relentless and you have all the weapons though.
Space Squadron is a decent turn based space battle simulator.

[DarkSilver]

I prefer Go Launcher to Launcher Pro, but they pretty much all do the same thing.

the rest of your list is pretty spot on though Ando

[weemadando]

I'll add to the list Quicker.

It adds customisable setting screens to your notification drop down. Which is really great for when you want to quickly switch services on or off and don't want to waste screen real estate with a widget.