Android App Thread: Pocket Casts, BeyondPod or Podcast Addict for podcasts.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Android App Thread: Pocket Casts, BeyondPod or Podcast Addict for podcasts.

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

I ditched Springpad for exactly that reason. At first it was nice, I was making OCD lists of my books with nice chunks of metadata because Springpad on Android also has a barcode scanner. But. First I discovered that not all of my books would pop up with neat chunks of metadata. So I had to manually enter info for a surprising number of them (if you can't find it on Amazon then it probably won't show up in Springpad). Then I realized that the magazines I wanted to save would also need manual entry and that was where the metadata would be the most useful for me, if it included anything useful like a table of contents that is.

The last straw came when I was trying to organize and compile my notes and lists from the web interface. Springpad is free (Evernote is free up to a 2GB upload limit a month) and attaches metadata to everything, metadata that is effectively advertisement and is often unnecessary when your note is just a reminder. In the end, Springpad was an overload of unnecessary information without a decent way of handling unstructured info like the above poster put it. I was using both for a while with the dim idea that I could have the best of both worlds and ended up ditching Springpad altogether in favor of the plainer but more functional Evernote.

I ended up with Gtasks for todos but you can emulate todo lists in Evernote by using check boxes. Evernote is searchable by unchecked box but I have no clue if the app itself supports that. As far as sharing goes Evernote is easy, although you may have to dedicate an entire notebook to sharing.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2011 16:20

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 00:41

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Long press in the empty space in the middle of the sliders.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2011 14:17

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

scarymonkey posted:

For iTunes podcasts you probably want doubleTwist:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer

DoubleTwist, in my own experience anyway, is pretty terrible. Maybe it's worked better for some but I had nothing but headache after headache when trying to use it.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2011 23:16

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

AlexDeGruven posted:

There's currently no way to do it automatically. There are a couple of different methods to make it work. It's a little kludgy, but it works great (co-worker is using his son's old Epic4G as a WiFi VOIP phone without issues).

I'm assuming that the GrooVe IP app is doing something similar.

Yes, and it integrates pretty well with your Google Voice number and native dialer.

GrooveIP will also work over your data plan, useful if you have more data than minutes.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2011 16:50

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

StickFigs posted:

How exactly do I do it with the kludgy methods? I'd like to try to get it to work before I drop any money on a VOIP app.

GrooveIP is the simplest and it works as long as it has data.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 06:05

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

StickFigs posted:

It sounds like there might be a way to do it with Google Voice and some finagling though, I'd rather try that first.

None that I'm aware of, other than getting a SIP number which has its own costs and headaches. I've looked into this myself and GrooveIP is pretty much the only solution. I guess we'll see what the other guy says.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 06:41

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Butt Soup Barnes posted:

I highly doubt they're not going to have filters in place. But hey, I've seen dumber stuff from other companies.

Edit: And the Fire as it is is not geared towards us or other techies, so I'm not sure why this is such a huge surprise. Does it suck? Yeah. But 95% of the people buying this a)will never know about it and b)wouldn't give a gently caress if they did.

Yeah, it's meant as an iPad killer so it's geared toward the more casual crowd. I have to give them props for officially supporting Netflix though, I would have figured they wouldn't want the competition with Amazon VOD.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2011 16:58

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

pbpancho posted:

I don't think there's a limit. I've got the following auth'd on my account right now.

motorola DROID X2 5/25/2011
motorola MB855 7/20/2011
HTC Evo 3/22/2011
motorola DROID RAZR 11/17/2011
Motorola Droid 2 8/26/2011
motorola DROID BIONIC 9/11/2011
Motorola Xoom 2 8/21/2011
Motorola Xoom 1 6/21/2011
motorola DROID X2 1 8/3/2011
Motorola Xoom 5/24/2011
Motorola Xoom 3 10/2/2011
motorola DROID3 7/14/2011
Motorola Droid 2 1 9/3/2011

And I add more every month or so. No issues so far.

I've had easily three times that many devices when I was flashing a new rom once every week or so (every rom shows up as a new device). It's also pretty easy to clear devices.

berzerkmonkey posted:

How does this work? Do you need an IR sensor, or do you run a concurrent app on the PC as well?

Concurrent app on the pc.

edit: It's worth noting they have mac and linux server apps as well.

# ¿ Nov 22, 2011 15:46

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

dissss posted:

Maybe it depends on your phone?

On my Nexus S
- Stock Launcher is perfectly smooth but having only phone and browser on the bottom bar annoys me
- Go Launcher is perfectly smooth but seems overly complex and not very Android-y (skins the menu for instance). I do like the horizontal app drawer though
- Launcher Pro is really smooth except for scrolling in the app drawer which is always janky enough to annoy me (3d on or off)
- ADW (free) is just all around slow which makes me not want to fork out for the paid version

I'm on Go for now with an Ice Cream Sandwich theme but it looks like I'll be rocking the stock launcher once the update arrives.

If you like the stock launcher and only want for dock customization, try Zeam. I'm running it on a Nexus S without issue. No fancy stuff like extra widgets or tons of customization, just a simple and lightweight launcher.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2011 00:22

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

On the topic of ICS on Nexus S, I'm really lovin' it. Not only do I feel like I have a new phone but it finally feels "polished." Pretty much everything, so far anyway, just works. I haven't even bothered to change from the stock launcher, although admittedly I wish I could reduce the number of screens (checked out Nova Launcher, didn't really give me anything I wanted over the stock launcher, at least in the current version).

Things I like:

Integrated Google Music. Touchscreen and notification controls, I was using Widget Locker so I could control my music more easily in the car, this is no longer necessary and I get the added bonus of album art. Also it has a back button!!! (The Google Music widget still, inexplicably, has no back button.)
Higher-def contact pics. It works across apps too, if I get an email in gmail that matches a contact it uses the nicer pic from my phone instead of whatever crappy profile pic the particular person may have. Purely aesthetic but nice.
Widget previews in the widget selector (Nova Launcher doesn't have this yet) although I guess not all widgets support it currently.
Stock folder support, you can even put a folder on the dock.
Stock resizable and scrollable widgets, don't remember if stock 2.3.x launchers did this though. Gmail and Google Voice widgets are actually usable instead of just acting as shortcuts to the app (although the Google Voice widget tends to go blank every once in a while).
Better Google Voice for calls. This is probably just my imagination but it seems to be more smoothly integrated. I use a Google Voice number as my primary number and couldn't care less about what my cell phone number is.
Noticeably better battery life.
Much smoother interface performance.
Drag and drop uninstall, once again I don't know if other stock launchers had this.
Homescreen grid when placing icons and widgets. Not really a huge deal but kinda nice to see exactly where a given item will drop and handy for resizing.

I've noticed that unless you have multiple messages the new email notification takes you right to the message instead of just to your inbox, not sure how I feel about that but not a big deal either way. The message preview for single messages is definitely nice. The stock notifications screen overall is pleasantly improved, iirc you had to go with custom roms to get any kind of transparency. The settings shortcut is interesting but not any less effort than using the menu shortcut, maybe it makes more sense on a Galaxy Nexus without the same capacitative buttons. It is handy if you ever want it while using a particular app. Someone mentioned not having power controls, I always ended up using a widget for that anyway so I can't comment.

It's worth mentioning that I wish I could get rid of the Google search widget at the top of every single screen, I've never understood that because the search button has exactly the same functionality but at least in ICS it's much less of an eyesore (you can remove it in Nova Launcher).

Overall this is the first time in Android I've felt comfortable with using stock everything.

landis fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Dec 22, 2011

# ¿ Dec 22, 2011 17:42

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Haeleus posted:

Any recommendations for a free IRC app?

I like yaaic (yet another android irc client).

# ¿ Dec 28, 2011 08:05

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

thegreatcodfish posted:

Is slideit any good, or should I just wait for swype to support the galaxy nexus? Its on the market for .99 right now.

Having used both I'm not really fond of SlideIT. I tried it for a while, it's skinnable and it works ok but it just doesn't really compare to Swype in my opinion. I ended up going back to Swype. As a stop gap it's probably ok if you're willing to spend a buck.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2012 00:29

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Mantle posted:

Did you have to download or run any bluetooth helper programs? What OS version are you running? I can get to pair but not connected and it's frustrating the hell out of me since the keyboard works fine pairing with my iPhone, iPad, and windows pc.

What is your tablet? Some phones/tablets have custom Bluetooth stacks that don't have the standard HID profiles, especially in 2.2.

My old Galaxy 1 was like that, I could pair Bluetooth audio devices but it didn't have any HID profiles so I couldn't pair Wiimotes, keyboards, etc. The only way around it, IIRC, was to flash CM7. Newer versions of Android have the HID profiles built in so I don't think this is a problem 3.0+ (and maybe even 2.3+ but it's been forever since I've had to mess with it). 2.2 is almost certainly out of luck if it wasn't provided by your manufacturer.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2012 19:25

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Shanakin posted:

Swype from the Swype key to the symbol Key. Be amazed. Also you can long press that symbol key twice.

Thanks for this! Also long-pressing once brings up the number pad! :aaaaa:

I really need to get in the habit of reading up on stuff like this more often.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2012 16:17

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

ChrisAsmadi posted:

I need a couple of App recommendations...

Glimm posted:

I haven't used QuickOffice and it might be very capable, but I've used Evernote...

I'm a big fan of Evernote. It's cloud-based which means your stuff is backed up and you can access it all from the web; and it's cross-platform so it has clients for most everything. It has plugins for browsers for clipping web pages and images and the desktop clients can take screenshots and clip from other applications (on Windows at least, dunno about OSX, and depending on the application). The Android client is increasingly robust and allows for things like bulleted lists and adding location metadata.

For a sketching app, how about Skitch?. I haven't used it personally but it's supposed to be friendly with Evernote (especially since Evernote bought them).

# ¿ Jan 22, 2012 04:53

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Yes. Also it's worth noting that you can change your sync settings (turn off automatic sync, sync only on wifi, etc).

If you're creating a note from the widget it may say something like "failed to upload note," but it will still exist on the device.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2012 05:42

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Napolean Bonerfarts posted:

What's the best IRC app? There's so many but I'm not sure which one to choose

I'm partial to yaaic myself.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2012 23:36

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

ManMythLegend posted:

ICS Browser+ handles them pretty well I think. Also I played around with the Awful App but didn't see anything that made it better the the stock browser.

When did you last try it? It's come a long way and is really robust now, far better than any browser.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2012 03:55

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

MentosMan posted:

Anyone know if a "GPS calibration" app? I don't even know if this would be the correct route of fixing this, but I bought a Samsung Galaxy I off eBay, and its fantastic, except the GPS can never pinpoint me within half a mile radius, and it has a real hard time following me if I'm moving in a car.

Really annoying.

I feel your pain, I used to have one of those. Your best bet is to load a rom that claims to fix it, I can't recommend one and this is definitely a case of ymmv so unfortunately you're doomed to experiment and/or read the xda forums. There are fixes there that don't require a custom rom that you can try as well. And by fixes, I mean tweaked settings and similar software-side workarounds that try to alleviate the issue, the root problem is that the hardware is flawed. There's only so much you can do.

It's not a terrible phone but honestly, in the end I sold it and got a Nexus S.

landis fucked around with this message at 11:22 on Feb 8, 2012

# ¿ Feb 8, 2012 11:19

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

rearadmiral.rowboat posted:

I can't seem to get the "see your desktop tabs on your phone" feature of Chrome Beta to work. Does it matter that I'm using Chromium? I'm supposed to "Sign In to Chrome" from the Chrome menu on my desktop, but there's no such feature in Chromium as far as I can see.

Chromium is the open source browser Chrome is based on and they are two separate entities. So no, it will not work with Chromium.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2012 21:16

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

rearadmiral.rowboat posted:

That's not really true at all. Chrome and Chrome for Android are both forks of Chromium, Almost everything that's true about Chrome is true about Chromium.

Turns out I'm still on Chromium 15, and Chromium 19 is already out. I guess I'll try updating!

I shouldn't have said separate (although in my defense Chromium itself used to say "based on"). I admit I assumed that not including the Google branding would mean not including some Google services like sync but that isn't true so I was wrong anyway.

In any case, it seems that it's supposed to be in the same place: Options->Personal Stuff->Sign in to Chromium, so hopefully updating fixes it for you.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2012 01:43

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Didn't they recently restructure leadership as well? I got the impression that they were really trying to minimize the ADD and focus on core products, including Android/GV/etc.

I'll have to track down the link but I seem to remember them ticking off those things specifically (in addition to the obvious stuff like search) as focus areas moving forward.

All that said, and maybe in ICS it's different, but I've had very little trouble with GV on my phone. Take that as you will because I'm not a heavy texter, I probably use the PC side more often, and tend go into conversations from the notification bar. My biggest gripe with it is the widget, sometimes it just goes completely blank, but I can't recall the last time it happened so maybe it's better with the latest update.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2012 18:45

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

spincube posted:

Nexus S (GB)

The Dark One posted:

when the Nexus S gets its official ICS update?

Why don't your Nexii S's have ICS? I have a Nexus S and it's been on ICS just about since it came out.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2012 03:53

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

IRQ posted:

Because only a few GSM Nexus Ss got it before Google stopped rolling it out and hasn't said poo poo since then.

I didn't believe you until I googled for myself.

Weird. I noticed slightly shorter battery life but I always chalked it up to running my screen at max brightness or, you know, extended PvZ sessions. When it's in standby it lasts plenty long enough, otherwise I just plug in when I go to bed like I always have.

Glad I lucked out though.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2012 04:14

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

ThermoPhysical posted:

You keep your NS at max brightness? On Gingerbread, how's that leave your battery life? How about on ICS?

I've been thinking about doing this to try it but I'm not sure...plus burn-in annoys me.

Don't recall well enough how it was under GB to say, I got the phone shortly before I got ICS. My impression of shorter battery life coming from GB to ICS was vague enough that I never thought ICS itself was to blame. Under ICS it easily lasts a day with normal use and plenty to spare, only on days where I'm playing a game or whatever for a while do I really notice. I've been running it this way since I've had it and there is zero burn-in or ghosting. From what I've read, folks that have experienced that have faulty displays, normally it would take hours of non-stop static image display (like a store model) to make a difference. Time will tell I suppose but I've had little reason to be worried.

For what it's worth and more on topic I've not had issues with the new Google Music or any of the Play updates either, although I'm not a heavy user of Books. Now I'm a little concerned :tinfoil:

# ¿ Mar 18, 2012 05:28

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

FERN GULLY FAN posted:

Anybody have any recommendation for good and fast music app? Hopefully on that does not split up albums in the artist view because the song has more than one artist. that last part is most important. The stock google play music is too slow and it's not grouping local music like it should.

edit: VV same problem as him.

So you mean it splits albums in album view and you incorrectly said artist view? I would think you'd want it to group stuff by artist regardless of which album it was in in artist view... right? In any case...VVV

A Pinball Wizard posted:

I hate the google nusic player. No sleep timer, no alarm, no ability to edit tags or album art, it takes over the notification widget music controls so I can't use them with Winamp, it sometimes randomly starts playing music for no discernable reason, and it keeps doing this poo poo:

Splitting ambums up even though it's all tagged with the same album and artist. About the only thing it does that I like is stream music. That API can't come out soon enough.

I'll give you the lack of features (I've never personally needed those but I see their value) but I have never had a problem with it randomly playing music for no discernible reason and I've never had it split my albums in album view, including albums with multiple artists. When I've been playing music recently it will automatically start whenever it connects to my car's bluetooth but that is desired behavior.

nickhimself posted:

This could just be a problem I'm having, but Google Music seems to love re-downloading my entire library to my phone every time I get on wifi. I've seen it hit 100% a couple of times...even though I'm not editing my library at all. It's cool to know that it just feels like using network whenever.

Never had this problem either.

# ¿ Mar 18, 2012 06:36

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

hooah posted:

I mean being able to look at all the items from one feed at a time, rather than everything all at once in chronological order. I tried Pulse on my tablet and didn't like... something about it. I don't really remember what it was anymore since it was a while ago. I'll try those ones.

What version of Google Reader doesn't let you do this? I have it on ICS and it works fine per feed.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2012 02:51

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Splizwarf posted:

Is there anything out there that's a comprehensive "Google Voice for Dummies", along with a list of tricks the cool kids are doing with it? Google's own documentation and help is dense and obtuse.

Google Voice is a separate number from your phone number. You either port your number over from your phone, which could result in contract termination and require a new contract depending on your service; or you get a new GV number. Your GV number works by forwarding calls to your phone(s). You can only make GV calls from Android handsets (or Gmail or the GV app on iOS), as Penguissimo said you use the GV app to grab calls made using your builtin dialer and forward them through GV via an intermediary number (the GV app handles all that). I'm on ICS which features deeper dialer integration with GV but I'm reasonably certain most recent versions of Android work pretty seamlessly as long as you have the app.

You can use the Google Voice website to manage which phones your GV number gets forwarded to. There's some trickery involved if you want to use your builtin text app/plan but if you use the GV app for texting it will use your data plan instead and will show the proper number at the receiving end (you can change this via the website).

You can have GV handle all your voicemails as long as you're not on T-Mobile Prepaid, you dial a code and it tells your service to use GV instead (the website walks you through this process). You can transfer GV calls between phones on the fly. You can enable/disable call screening for groups of numbers (I have call screening on for unknown numbers), you can kick a given number/number group straight to voicemail, and you can block calls entirely. You can enable a quiet mode where all calls get kicked to voicemail for a set period of time. Also, having a central number NOT tied to your phone is handy if you want to swap between the cheapest contracts/carriers/phones frequently. It doesn't matter what number your cell phone has so no more worries about porting and other related contract headaches.

Personally, I have a $30 T-Mobile Prepaid plan that gives me 5GB of data a month. The tradeoff is that I have only 100 minutes of talk time. Since I spend most of my time in front of a computer I make and receive calls through Gmail (which shows up as a forwarded phone on the GV website) and handle texts through the GV website. When I was employed I also forwarded my calls to my work phone. Most calls I get ONLY when I'm at my computer, only specific people can reach me directly on my cell phone. Everyone else can leave a voicemail which I get right away (assuming I have data) on my phone via the GV app and I can call them back if necessary, the app will even show a transcript of the voicemail message so most of the time it only requires a brief glance to get the gist of what they wanted. This way I never go over 100 minutes, and if I get close I just switch over to GrooveIP which uses my data plan.

As an aside, GV works surprisingly well on iPhone and is workable on dumb phones except I don't think you can make calls out through the GV number.

There are minor hiccups. While GV will store the forwarding magic it needs locally occasionally there may be problems if you have a weak/nonexistent data signal when dialing a number you've never dialed before. Sometimes texting can be slow if the data connection is slow/spotty. Enabling/disabling call forwarding via the GV website is superseded by individual contact settings (I think by default your cell phone gets automatically set for all your contacts) which can be a blessing or a curse, it's manageable but not immediately obvious. Despite all that I've been enormously pleased with it.

Getting setup with GV requires you to get a GV number, either you port your existing number (Google charges $20 to do this and as I said there may be carrier consequences depending on your service plan) or you can make a new one. Make sure you get it under the Google account you use primarily on your phone. You get to pick your number, it can be any US number you want including area codes (NOT 800/888/900/etc) -- handy for out-of-town job hunting! Then, download and install the GV app. It will walk you through the setup process including adding your cell as a forwarded phone and allow you to pick how you want your calls to work. For most stuff, that's all you need. You may be able to manage forwarding/call screening/whatever other preferences from the phone, I've never tried as using the GV website is easier.

tl;dr A Google Voice number is a separate number from your actual cell phone and Google has provided an app/website/sorcery for getting the two to work together in a usable manner. A GV number has a number of benefits but relies on your data plan which could cause some occasional issues.

landis fucked around with this message at 16:34 on Apr 20, 2012

# ¿ Apr 19, 2012 23:01

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Jewce posted:

I've been using GV for a couple years now and the one thing that bothers me is the fact that texts from GV cannot fully replace the stock messenger app.

Message notifications on the lock screen cannot be tied to GV without widgetlocker and stuff like that.

Pre-ICS? I've not had any issues, but ICS brought in a lot more of tying that stuff together.

FWIW, here's how you get it to work with normal SMS, like on a dumb phone. It's not pretty but seems to work. Of course, if you're comfortable with your setup there's probably not a compelling reason to change it up.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2012 17:03

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

Specifically, uncheck "Auto-add widgets".

edit: beaten by the asker

# ¿ Apr 20, 2012 17:23

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 00:41

landis: Jun 16, 2003; Until the end.

From what I've heard DoubleTwist now supports Google Music but I hate that app with the burning fire of a 1000 suns and am not about to try it.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2012 21:18

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Android App Thread: Pocket Casts, BeyondPod or Podcast Addict for podcasts.